Discovering Revelation Part 19
Revelation Part 19
The Book of Revelation as we have been going through it is really a very logical book in fact it is divided in a very simple manner for us to understand! Amen?
• We must allow John to tell us where we are as we are going along!
• We are in the Great Tribulation!
• Remember where we are during this period? Amen? Where?
• Our mission is concluded and we are taken to forever be with the Lord Jesus Christ!
• It’s very clear in Scripture here that is where we are. It’s also clear in other scriptures as well!
• This is book number 66 but God really wants us to deal with all the other 65 books with equal zeal and curiosity!
• In other words don’t ever get stuck in one book!
• To get the entire blessing of who we are and who God is we must entertain in our walk the entirety of Gods scripture!
• The Bible really is an amazing book of antiquity just as relevant as the day is long in our little lives!
• We must read it, heed it, and breed it into the lives of others!
• Of all books worldwide it is the most popular but also the most penetrating.
• It’s a living Book bringing our living soul into Union with a living all powerful Creator!
• John is going into great detail here concerning the Great Tribulation!
• The only other place we see this is in Matthew 24-25!
• This is where all the extra information is on His Olivet Discourse!
• Everything said here is what Jesus had to say!
Chapter 6 of Revelation from last week!
• What we see is like a movie trailer in this chapter for the rest of the book of Revelation!
• Chapter 6 essentially is a summary of all that will follow from here on out in our study of Revelation!
• The First Seal—Rider on White Horse
• The Second Seal—Rider on a Red Horse, War!
• The Third Seal—Rider on a Black Horse, Famine!5.
• The Fourth Seal, Rider on a Pale Green Horse! Death and Hades or Hell followed him!
• The Fifth Seal—Martyrs from within the Tribulation period!
• The Sixth Seal—Terror, There is an overwhelming fear with the sixth seal!
• God acting independently of humans here!
• By the time this seal is opened we are past the midpoint of the Tribulation period!
• And we are now into the Great Tribulation Matthew 24:21
• So John introduces to us in series of Sevens!
• There’s a format followed to the breaking of the seals!
• To the Trumpets to the 7 Bowls! It’s important for us to see!
• There is an interlude or pause taken in between the 6th and 7th of each set of sevens!
• Chapter 7 will do this for us today after the seals have been broken!
• John follows this principle throughout the reading of our study in Revelation! Let’s deal with an elephant in the room!
Question: What about people turning to God and getting Saved during the Tribulation?
2nd Question: 2nd Thessalonians 2:7 makes it clear that the Holy Spirit, the restrainer, is removed from the earth!
• He has taken the Church to present it to Christ!
• So with the Holy Spirit gone will anyone get Saved?
• Listen, the Holy Spirit will be present on the earth!
• The restrainer of evil will be removed!
• Remember the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Book of Acts!
• The Spirit came to perform a specific ministry to the world!
• To call out a specific Body of Believers you and I out of the world!
• Called the church! Amen?
• Because we are caught up to be with Jesus that Holy Spirit that helps us to see the light of the Gospel specifically for each of us will remain!
• It’s the specific Ministry of the Holy Spirit that will be different!
• One of His ministries was to restrain the evil one!
• We need the Spirit to penetrate the hearts of all the lost
• We needed Him to restrain that evil one from us here so that the Word of God could go forward and save souls from Satan’s control and from Satan blinding people in the world!
• How can the Word go out unless the Spirit of God held back the evil one?
Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
• Listen you and I are no match for the evil one! We need the Spirit of the living God to fight our battles with the enemy!
• The enemy is busy in all of our lives! Amen?
• If the restrainer the Holy Spirit had not been here we would have all been removed already! Gone!
So, how are people going to get Saved during the Tribulation if the Holy Spirit is not restraining evil?
• The devil will have freedom to do as he pleases in the world.
• Why? The restrainer of evil is gone the Holy Spirit with all the church in Heaven with Jesus. Satan has freedom to turn up the evil that’s been restrained.
• It just means the function of the Holy Spirits Ministry has changed now that the church is gone!
• The Holy Spirit will be in the world just the way He was prior to Pentecost!
• In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit worked in the lives of men and women in times past!
• There will be more people Saved in this period of time than perhaps any 7 year period of time in our past!
• Chapter 7 will tell us how this will happen! Amen?
• His ministry which has always been one of taking Gods creation and making it brand new! The renovation of our minds!
Genesis 1:2
The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
• There is going to be a different function for the Holy Spirit and John will tell us how this is going to happen! Amen?
Revelation 7
An Interlude. First three verses will give reason for the interlude here!
1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.
• “after this” talking about the judgement from the previous chapter!
• Remember 6 being a summary of overview so to speak!
• Now the details will be given to us!
• “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth”
• I hope I have no flat earthers here today that think the world is flat!
• The four corners are what church? North, South, East, and West!
• “holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.”
• These would be holding back the winds of judgement for a short period of time!
Psalms 148:8
Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
• These winds of judgement are now being held back!
• Nothing allowed to move till God accomplishes His purpose!
• What’s that purpose that all people would have an opportunity to be Saved!
• There would be no reason to keep the world running if no one could get Saved! Just shutter down now!
• You see that’s Gods purpose for us if no one is interested in coming to Him He might as well shut it all down! Amen?
• So, this will be a period where many will turn to Him!
• A great number will be Saved! That’s what these judgments will accomplish a purpose for God!
• Listen, it will cause a multitude to turn to Him and will cause another multitude to turn away from Him!
• When trouble comes there are one of two directions you and I will turn to! Amen? God or rebel against God!
• Sometimes God allows sickness to draw us to Him! Amen?
• Are you Grateful the church is delivered?
John 5:24
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
• The Tribulation is judgment!
• The church is not coming into it!
Revelation 3:10
Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
• We must allow the Scripture to speak for itself!
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea,
3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”
• “And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun” here is a 5th Angel!
• Probably a higher rank then the others holding the winds back since this Angel ordered them to hold on!
• This Angel appears from the East! From Johns perspective on the isle of Patmos the homeland Israel was east of his location! Gods promise of salvation comes from!
• “having the seal of the living God” refers to a signet ring. Kings and officials utilized for stamping important documents! Affirming authenticity, guaranteeing security!
• This seal belonged to the Living God! Distinguished from dead idols Worshipped by unbelievers! Amen?
• The greatest of false deities none other than the Antichrist himself during the Tribulation. He will seal his followers also!
• The Living God will seal His also Revelation 14:1. Name written on their foreheads
• “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.” This judgment will be unleashed when the restraint is lifted from the four Angels!
• The judgment had to wait until the angels sealed all the bond-servants the already redeemed!
• This protection required to keep them freed up to be that Gospel witness to the world!
• Once the sealing completed the judgments can begin!
• These will be the most effective missionaries the world has ever known!
• They will be instruments in reaching Israel as well as the other nations of the world!
Now here is an interesting note!
• When God deals with Israel notice that He always deals with dates and with numbers!
• When God deals with the church, He does not deal either with dates or numbers!
• Think, Paul never turned in a report as to how many were saved!
• Even when we get to the great company of Gentiles to be saved during the Great Tribulation period! The number is not given you will see!
• When God deals with Israel however He deals with numbers and with dates!
• We must ensure we never add too or take away anything the scriptures tells us!
• The Bible tells us what is what and when! When it don’t leave it alone you will get in trouble.
• The 144,000
4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
• 144,000 is the number sealed from the nation of Israel!
• But, we will see out of the earth there will be a multitude of Gentiles saved to numerous to count! See?
• There were so many they couldn’t count them!
• So in the Tribulation there will be a great many who will be Saved!
• They are going to be sealed!
• The Holy Spirit is going to be here! Not only to regenerate them, but will,have a special sealing in this period.
• This seal guarantees they will be delivered! Amen?
• Delivered from the Great Tribulation! Not sealed won’t make it!
• Hey if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit nine of us would make it!
• Listen our nature is rebellion to Holy God that is who we are! Amen
• The spirit is willing but this ole flesh is weak!
• These 144,000 do not belong to any cult of today! Amen
• These 144,000 are going to be called out of every tribe of the children of Israel!
• Listen if you say you belong to the 144,000 you not only say you belong to Israel, but you had better know your tribe because they alone will be identified!
• God has a remnant to be Saved! This is not really that big a number!
• There are 14.8 million Jews in the world today!
• This number is but a remnant!
• There is also not a very large remnant of gentiles either! When you think about it!
• I would say the great minority group will be the true blue through and through believers!
• During the Great Tribulation there will be a remnant of Israel, that number is 144,000!
• They will be a witness of the Gospel to the world during the Tribulation!
Matthew 24:14
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
• Some might say the Gospel of the Kingdom is a different Gospel! Nope one and the same!
• God only has one way to save all sinners and it’s through the death ,burial, and resurrection of Jesus!
Illustration: If you were to ask Abel when he brought that little lamb to God, “Abel, do you think that little lamb will save you? He would have said no! Why? This little lamb is representing the One my mother said was coming from a woman to be the Savior of the world!
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
• The Gospel of the Kingdom is the Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
• The nation of Israel will see Jesus is the Savior and Messiah of Israel!
• They will preach this Gospel and then they will say something we can’t!
• “and then the end will come.” Amen?
• It won’t be long till He will be back! We don’t know when that day is but they will know.
• Let’s look at Verse 5-8
5 from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, 6
from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, 7
from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, 8
from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.
• 12,000 are sealed out of every tribe! 144,000 divided by 12! All Israel!
• God promised to come and establish His Kingdom.
• We will see is first a thousand year kingdom, a time of testing,
• And then moves right into eternity!
• God certainly had something in mind when He chose the twelve tribes!
There are certain peculiarities in this list of family names! No big details here but just so you know!
• Notice that Judah heads the list!
The tribe of Reuben should first! For he was the oldest!
• But Rueben with gross immorality disqualified himself from being first!
• You see Rueben was the oldest!
• But he was still I included!
• When a Christian sins does he lose his salvation? No but he will lose his reward in heaven!
• Many Christian’s will lose reward for indulging in sin as a believer!
• Rueben a good example of what I’m talking about here!
• This principle is how God deals with sin! Rueben lost the place of honor for the oldest! Sin!
• But Rueben did not lose out altogether” he is mentioned here but he is number two!
• Judah was the tribe given honor and first place!
Genesis 49:8-11
8 “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. 9 “Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up?
10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. 11 “ He ties his foal to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; He washes his garments in wine, And his robes in the blood of grapes.
• This is the tribe from that which the Lord Jesus came!
• The tribes of Dan and Ephraim both omitted from the tribe
• Both fell into idolatry! Serious stuff folks!
• Dan is given top priority in the Millennium See Ezekiel 48: Gods Grace Amen?
• Ephraim lost out too due to idolatry!
Hosea 4:17
Ephraim is joined to idols; Let him alone.
• We’re talking the entire Northern kingdom of Israel!
• So Joseph takes the place of Ephraim in the 144,000 who will be sealed!
• Also, to take the place of Dan, Levi was the priestly tribe!
• They will witness in the Great Tribulation!
• God continues to turn and turn again to the nation of Israel has not given up in them!
• He does not give up on Ephraim! He can’t do it!
• They will make it through the Great Tribulation!
• They will lose out as witnesses for God during this period!
• The Old Testament is filled with Prophecies over and over on God sparing His Chosen nation Israel forever and forever! Amen!
• God says what He means and means what He says! Amen?
• Let’s pray!