Well, good evening. We are going to be in Revelation chapter seven. We're gonna cover the whole chapter. Chapter seven, verses one through 17. I wanna open this up in a word of prayer, but the title of the message is Sealed by God, Sealed by God. Father, we thank you for this day and thank you for this time that we have together to look into your word. Lord, we just ask that as we look into this this evening, that you give us grace, that you give us understanding, and that you, Lord, that you just help us to see the picture that you're showing us in this chapter, in this text, and these visions that John has, and that you just help us to Help us to understand, help us to draw near to you, help us to be encouraged by your word. Lord, we thank you for these things in Jesus' name, amen. So before I get into this, this is gonna be kind of a little bit of a controversial lesson this evening. There's a lot of different A lot of different views of some of the material that I'm gonna, well, there's really just one big controversy in there, and that is who is 144,000? And there are a lot of different groups that think a lot of different things about that. And if y'all remember, a lot of you were here, but a few months ago, I did a few lessons on introduction to eschatology, which eschatology is the study of the last things. And in that study, I brought out that there are actually four eschatological views that are very much commonly accepted as orthodox views. And I don't believe the same thing. And there's some very godly, I'll give you two examples. Dr. MacArthur and Dr. Stroll, both of them very godly Christian men, and both of them entirely different positions when it comes to eschatology. They approached eschatology with a different hermeneutic, from a different perspective, and there are different ways of approaching. A lot of preachers do a disservice to their congregations because they only teach their eschatology. They don't teach you that, well, there's actually three other mainstream views that are broadly accepted as orthodox Christian views. And most of them just teach the popular eschatology of the day, which the most popular of today is dispensational premillennial, which is actually the youngest. It's only been around about 250 years. And it only really became popular and mainstream after World War I. Actually, most of America was post-millennial leading up to World War I because the Puritans were very post-millennial in their outlook. They thought they were building the city on the hill there in America with their democratic form of government and the mainstream religion being Christianity. And so, and most of the mainstream evangelical Christianity in, in, the United States of America leading up to World War I was dispensational premilinear. And basically what happened was with World War I being just so devastating to what people thought was, they thought the world was getting better and things were improving and There was a perfect storm, because by the time you had World War I, you also had the Schofield Study Bible come out with dispensational study notes, and it became very popular in the US. So very quickly, that kind of switched, and in a generation, dispensational premillennialism kind of took center stage. And I'm not going to go into all the different viewpoints, but my viewpoint, I'll just tell you right up front, Amillennial, and amillennial means that I believe that we're in, I believe that the millennium is not a literal thousand years. It is the time period from whenever Jesus came into the world the first time to when he comes back the second time. The word that is translated as a thousand years in Revelation chapter 20 could mean a thousand, but it can also just mean a really long time. And so that's what I believe that it means. And nothing else, none of the other numbers are meant to be translated precisely and literally in Revelation. But that one is for some reason. That's not the, just another little caveat from my viewpoint. Although it's not the mainstream view today, it is the mainstream view over the last 2,000 years. The biggest part of the church for the last 2,000 years has had an omnilineal approach to eschatology. Also, my approach to revelation is not futurist. Dispensational premillennialists will approach it from a futurist perspective that pretty much everything in here is happening in the future, and we're just looking for it coming. And it's always almost here. We're looking for, it's fixing to happen. We're in the last, every generation thinks they're in the last days, and they are. It's been the last, Paul said he was in the last days. Paul said these things, the scriptures were written to us upon whom the ends of the ages have come. He said that 2,000 years ago. So it hasn't got any, you know, it's still the same. The last days were upon us then, and they're still upon us now. But one generation has not got any better handle on it than another. But that's the way people see it, and the futurist view is always looking that these things are coming. Well, the perspective that I approach revelation from is a, it's an idealist perspective, and mine is, it's mostly idealist, but what mine is called, or at least one professor that I give a lecture on it called it is an eclectic. view, which is that, I believe, primarily the idealist view, which just says that revelation is a pattern. It is a pattern for human history, and it's showing how human history works, and these things are going on in human history constantly, from the beginning, as we approached it last time with the four horsemen, the last two weeks. That's something that started at the beginning of creation, when the Lord opened that first seal of history. That was at the beginning. And these temporal judgments, this curse that is on mankind because of sin, that has been from the very beginning. And it's ongoing. And it's not something that we're looking forward to. It's already here. As a history major, that bears out in the study of history. That was what I studied. Human history is a case study in the depravity of mankind and tribulation. And so anyway, I could probably give the whole lecture just getting into it, and I'm not going to do that. But I'm just letting you all know that that's the perspective that I'm approaching it from, is that this is a pattern. There are historical things. There's things that have happened in the past. There are things that are happening now. There's things that will happen in the future. So it's a little bit of all of it. But it's not just a strictly future perspective that we're looking at. We're looking at an ongoing unfolding of history as we look at Revelation. So I'm gonna kind of get into it. And I may repeat myself because I just kind of did that off the cuff. But over the last couple of weeks, we've been looking at this vision that John was given in this vision was of the lamb who had received the scroll containing God's purpose for history from the right hand of the father. And he was breaking the seals on the scroll. As each seal was broken, we could see a different aspect of God's purpose playing out. And we didn't have to wait till the end, till all the seals were broken, because it's not a physical scroll. It's not a literal physical scroll. It is that the lamb is the one who's executing God's purpose in history, and that's what the scroll is a picture of. So we see it as he breaks each seal. Of course, the first thing that we see is that God's purpose for the history of the world is tribulation, as I said. The first four seals that are broken are referred to as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And they represent the tribulation that has afflicted mankind since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you want confirmation of that truth, just enroll in McNeese and major in history. After a few courses, I guarantee you will agree with me on that. You will soon see that the entire history of mankind is a study of conquest, the first horseman, conflict, war, that's the second horseman, scarcity, struggle to survive, the third horseman, and pestilence, disease, and death, the fourth horseman. That's the history of the world. It's almost like this world is under a curse. It is. Well, last week we saw the fifth and the sixth seals broken. When the fifth seal was broken, we saw the souls of people under the altar. The altar is a place of sacrifice, a place where atonement is made. In Exodus, when the Lord was delivering his people out of bondage in Egypt, a lamb was sacrificed. And the lamb's blood was spread on the doorpost to the homes of God's people. All of those who were under the blood of the lamb were spared when the death angel came and executed God's judgment on everyone living in Egypt. Well, the only blood that's been offered on the altar in heaven is the blood of the lamb. Jesus, our Lord. So the fifth seal shows us that God is redeeming and has redeemed a people for himself out of the Egypt of this world. And he's placed their souls, their lives under the atoning blood of his son. That's the vision, that's the picture. And many of them, many of these souls have physically died because of their testimony of Christ. But all of them, either have or will die in the Lord, holding fast to their testimony of salvation in Him. Their souls cry out from under the altar and ask the question that everybody wants to know, that number one question of eschatology, when? When? Well, the answer that they receive is that they're given white robes which represent the righteousness of Christ. They're given the righteousness of Christ, and they're told to rest right where they're at, which is under the altar, or in him, under his atonement. And they're to rest there until their number is completed. Well, then we saw the sixth seal open, and surprise, surprise, the order of the seals is not chronological. When the sixth seal was opened, we skipped all the way to the last day, and we saw a great final shaking of the created order as God removes the curse and everything corrupted by it. All of humanity that is not under that altar is exposed to this shaking. All of humanity that's not in Christ, under his blood, is exposed to that judgment and that shaking. They're exposed to the judgment of God and the Lamb, and they're looking desperately for a hiding place. But there is none to be found. So they cry out to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come. And then they end with a question, and who is able to stand? On chapter seven, the Holy Spirit shows us the answer to their question. So I'm gonna read it and pray and we'll get started. 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. 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, saying, do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. From the tribe of Judah, 12,000 were sealed. From the tribe of Reuben, 12,000. From the tribe of Gad, 12,000. From the tribe of Asher, 12,000. From the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000. From the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000. From the tribe of Simeon, 12,000. From the tribe of Levi, 12,000. from the tribe of Issachar, 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 were sealed. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, amen, blessing, glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might. be to our God forever and ever, amen. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, these who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from? I said to him, my Lord, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat. For the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Father, We just thank you so much for the encouragement of this word and what we have to look forward to in you. From your gospel that you will be our shepherd and you will. Bring us to be with you forever and you will cover us and you will. Care for us. And Lord, we just ask that you. Help us to really enter into this this evening as we look into this word in Jesus name. Well, so the answer to the question, let's look at verses one through three of chapter seven. Well, I'm gonna read, the question is, who is able to stand? The great day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb has come, and who is able to stand? 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. 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, saying, do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until We have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads. So the short answer is those who have been sealed as bondservants of God on their foreheads. That's the answer, so we can just all go home. But actually, those are the ones who are able to stand, those who are sealed, but there's a big question there. Who are those who are sealed? as bondservants of God. So maybe we ought to go a little deeper than that. So right here, immediately, this question that is brought up at the end of chapter six is answered by the Holy Spirit through a double vision. John is gonna receive a double vision. He sees this vision that he describes as 144,000 And then he sees another vision that he describes as a multitude that no one can number. And the vision is of the sealed and protected and triumphant followers of Christ. So the seals are being opened. The four horsemen are riding forth and judgments are going out in the earth. And then we see that God is saving a people for himself. That's the fifth seal. And then the sixth seal, and we see that the final judgment is coming, and this universe is gonna be dissolved, and everything that's corrupted by sin is gonna be done away and shaken out so that all that remains is that which is unshakable, Christ's kingdom. And then there's an interlude. There's a stop. It's an intermission. between the breaking of the sixth and the seventh seals. And this intermission serves two purposes. First, the visions that take place during this intermission assure the church that these temporal judgments of the four horsemen, these things that are going on in the world, the wars and rumors of wars and diseases and poverty and everything that we see in the world, We don't see nearly as much of it in America as they do in other places, although the news media feeds us a steady diet of it now, so maybe we're getting closer to reality, but it's a part of this world, and all these things are a part of everyday life. And so, all of these things that are going on, in spite of that, this vision, these visions that occur, assure the church that all this stuff will not hinder Christ from redeeming and protecting his people. That's the first purpose. The second purpose that this interlude or this intermission accomplishes, these visions, is that they dramatize and it highlights the delay of final judgment. We talked about that last time. Yeah, whenever the martyrs, They ask the Lord, how long? How long until you set things right? And the answer, of course, is until all of the sheep are brought into the fold, until the number's complete. And this is a repeat of it. These visions are a repeat of that, or a fleshing out of that idea. So remember, as we're talking about this, that most people in the churches, receive these letters. And we've talked about how that happens. These letters were specifically addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor, in what is Turkey today. Now, they weren't just sent to those seven churches. They were sent to all. This revelation, it's actually seven messages in one letter that was sent to those seven churches, but then it's sent to all the churches. all the letters that Paul wrote, the gospels. As these things were written, they were sent out to all the churches and they would copy them and they would send them out again. And messengers would take them to the churches. Most of the people couldn't read. And they didn't have enough copies for everybody to have one. They didn't have copy machines. They didn't have publishers like we have today. They had scribes who would copy these things. So this letter would go to the church And there would be somebody designated, somebody educated would get up and read the letter. So it's meant to be heard. It was written to people who were going to be listening to it. So the hearers would have experienced the excitement of hearing this story that John's telling. And he's painting this picture and he's describing the vision to you and it's playing out as the seals are being opened and it's one thing after another and it's building up. And then suddenly it just stops. And there's the suspense of stopping from the breaking of the seals to highlight the salvation and victory of the church before moving on to the last day. So in the first vision that John has here, he sees four angels, and they're standing at the four corners of the earth. And the language and the imagery for what is taking place comes from Isaiah chapter 11. It comes from Isaiah chapter 11, and verses 10 through 12. I'm gonna read it to you. I'm gonna read several different things this evening, and you don't have to turn to all of them if you don't want, You might wanna write down the references for later. But Isaiah 11, 10 through 12 is where the language came for this. Then in that day, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse. It happens to be the root of David. It happens to be Jesus, who will stand as a signal, a sign for the peoples. and his resting place will be glorious. Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Pathos, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea, and he will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. And think about that in light of the purpose of this pause, is to highlight that God is not going to bring the last day until he's gathered all of his people from the four corners of the earth. There's a reason why that language is used. So the four angels that John sees, they're restraining the winds from Wrecking complete destruction the winds just mean these judgments all of these judgments of the four horsemen the four winds The angels are holding it back and they're restraining it from God's full Judgment being poured out upon this universe and making everything right doing away with sin doing away with the curse, but At the same time doing away with everything is corrupted by the curse including people And these angels are restraining this. And they're gonna restrain it until all the bondservants of God are marked with this seal on their foreheads. This vision takes us back to a time prior to that sixth seal being broken and the universe being dissolved by earthquake and the stars falling out of the sky and heaven and earth fleeing away and everything that happens in that on the last day. The seal that is placed on the foreheads of the faithful is the name of Christ. This is made clear in Revelation 14, 1. Revelation 14, 1, John says, Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. The 144,000 in this first vision represents the victors whom Jesus made a promise to back in Revelation 3.12. What promise did Jesus make in Revelation 3.12? In Revelation 3.12, he said, he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he will not go out from it anymore, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God and my new name." God's people are marked and sealed on their foreheads. Now, later on, we'll see that just like everything else, Satan counterfeits God's marking of his people by having the beast compel his people to be marked as well. That's in Revelation 13. Actually, I'm just gonna go ahead and read it. Revelation 13, 15 through 17, so we'll have it in our minds. And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed and he causes all the small and the great and the rich and the poor and the free men and the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. And he provides that no one will be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. So, Satan counterfeits what God has done. God marks his people. Satan is counterfeiting that marking. Well, where does this imagery come from? Well, I'm glad you asked, because we talked about it in Sunday school, actually, last Sunday, because we referenced Deuteronomy chapter six. And this language and this imagery comes from Deuteronomy chapter six. I'm gonna go back there and I'm gonna read to you what God commanded his people to do. I'm gonna start reading in verse four. And just listen to it and think about what is going on. In verse four, the Lord says, Hear, O Israel, speaking through Moses, through the prophet, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you. great and splendid cities which you did not build, houses full of goods which you did not fill, and huge cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You shall fear only the Lord your God, and you shall worship him and swear by his name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you. For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God. Otherwise, the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and he will wipe you off the face of the earth. And it goes on down through the end of the chapter, fleshing out what the Lord has done for them, bringing them out of Egypt, delivering them from bondage. And he's telling them that this being marked as the people of God, is what their covenant is contingent on. They need to take this word of God and it needs to be incorporated into everything that they believe, marked on their foreheads, and everything that they do, marked on their hands. There's not a literal writing on their forehead. There's not a literal writing on their hand, a physical. Although they did take it that far. The Pharisees later, some of the religious Jews later did start hanging scriptures up here on their foreheads and putting little scrolls on their hands to signify how holy they were. And Jesus called them out on it. He said, you make these things big and you wear them so everybody can see, but they don't mean a thing because you're not changed by the word that's in them. You don't really believe it. You're just wearing it as a show. So it's not meant to be outward. It's meant to be inward. And so this is what they were to do. They were to incorporate the word, the knowledge of God into every part of their lives. It was to be on their foreheads. Everything that they thought and believed was to be governed by the knowledge of God, the word of God. And it was to be on their hands. Everything that they did is to be governed by the word and knowledge of God. And here's the thing. It says it in that chapter. God is gonna wipe them off the face of the earth if they don't do that. And they didn't do it. And he followed through on his promise. The thing is, their status as the covenant people of God and inheriting the promised land was contingent upon them bearing those marks. Not outward marks, but real belief and real obedience. True circumcision is not external or physical. Paul tells us that in Romans 2. In Romans 2, 28 and 29, Paul says, If you want to know what a Jew is, he's talking to some Jews who think they're very righteous and very religious because they have a law. And they wear those scriptures on their forehead and on their hand. And they make sacrifices and they're outwardly observe their religion. And Paul tells them, he says, for he's not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he's a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. And his praise is not from men, but from God. Well, circumcision, true circumcision is not external or physical, and neither is the seal that the Holy Spirit places on those who belong to Christ. It's not an external mark, it's not external writing, but it is a mark, and it is a seal. In Ephesians 1, this is what takes place. When the Holy Spirit seals, I'll get there in a minute, God's people, Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. In Him, Christ, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, or by the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. The seal is the name of Christ. That doesn't just mean the word Jesus. You know, I've heard people try to use the name Jesus like a mantra. I've heard people say they're gonna, you know, I'm claiming this in Jesus' name, so it's gotta happen. It's like a magic, like abracadabra, you know? And that's not what it means. The name of Jesus that we're sealed with is talking about all of who he is. the whole essence of Christ. Christians believe and trust in Jesus. That's what it means to trust in his name. Doesn't just mean to say, I know this name, Jesus, and so I'm gonna, I'm gonna, and I've heard that if I pray and say Jesus' name, then he's gonna save me. No, it's knowing Jesus. It's knowing who he is and trusting who he is and believing that he is able to save you. Like the author of Hebrews. In order to please God, you have to believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him. And that's what it means to be sealed with the name of Jesus. You believe in him and you trust him. And Christians are sealed and protected from being deceived by the beast because the Holy Spirit in us shows us Christ. We see him and we believe in him, we trust in him. John said it back in John chapter six when some religious people who were unbelievers, they were telling him, they told him, well, he told them not to work for bread that perishes. Don't worry about physical things, but work for the true bread, the bread of eternal life. And they said, well, tell us what to do that we may work the works of God. He said, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. You believe in me? That's it. Well, the children of Israel, back to them, they were supposed to be marked on their hands and on their foreheads, meaning that everything they did and believed was supposed to distinguish them as belonging to Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord, to being his covenant people. Everything they said and everything they believed and everything that they did was supposed to mark them. Their remaining in the covenant that they received, that they were given, was contingent upon them bearing those marks. The children of the beast are marked on their hands and on their foreheads. because the things that they do and the things that they believe also distinguish them as belonging to the beast. The children of God, however, are only marked on their foreheads. That was an epiphany to me when I realized that because I looked and I looked. The Jews were to be marked on their hands and on their foreheads. The children of the beast are marked on their hands and on their foreheads. The children of God are just marked on their foreheads. Why is that? Well, the marks that signify doing in our covenant, we're in a new and better covenant. The marks that signify doing in our covenant, they're not on our hands, they're on Jesus' hands. We have an eternal covenant with God because of what Jesus did for us and what he's now doing in us. We're only marked on our foreheads because that's the only part we play. We believe this is the work of God that you believe, that you believe in Jesus and trust in him. So let's look at verses four through eight now. We're gonna get into the fun part. And I heard the number of those who were sealed. 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. From the tribe of Judah, 12,000 were sealed. From the tribe of Reuben, 12,000. And I'm not gonna read back through that list. We've already read it. So, I said earlier there are a lot of people who believe a lot of different things about that. Jehovah Witnesses, believe that that 144,000 is all the people that's gonna make it, that are gonna earn their way to heaven by witnessing. That's really the fundamental, they're not saved by Jesus, they're saved by telling people what God's name is, which they believe is Jehovah. And so they believe that there are, actually, I think most of them now believe that 144,000's already reached, and so they're just waiting on God to pull the trigger. and shut everything down because they believe that all those slots are filled and have been filled for a long time. So that's what they believe, that it's 144,000 people that were gonna make it to heaven and then they'll be helping the Lord judge the people of earth. Everybody will be resurrected and everybody will get another chance to believe and they'll help administer that. We don't believe that, that's false doctrine. But there are a lot of Christian people, a lot of Orthodox people that have differing viewpoints on this. Who are the 144,000 who receive God's seal in this first vision that John has? Because they're described as belonging to the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel. They're described as being 12,000 from each tribe. And because of that, the mainstream dispensation with premillennial view is that this group represents a remnant of the physical nation of Israel that will be converted to Jesus when they see the church raptured out prior to the tribulation. Now, the reason why they believe that is the hermeneutic that a person has to hold to to take a dispensational or a premillennial view of revelation, the hermeneutic that you have to hold to is a extremely wooden, literal hermeneutic. In other words, it has to be exactly 1,000 years, not a minute more, a minute less, and it has to be exactly 12,000 from all 12 tribes, and everything has to be interpreted and understood being exactly physical and literal and not spiritual. Now they have a lot of things that they interpret as spiritual, but there are certain things that if you interpret them spiritually, it just completely blows their eschatological view away because their view is contingent on certain things not being interpreted spiritually, not being interpreted as being about the church. So that's the reason why it's interpreted that way. Well, we need to keep in mind that John is seeing a vision. He's not seeing a literal physical photograph. He's not seeing photographs. And what he is seeing is a visual representation of spiritual things. And even many of the scholars that would hold to the modern, the popular eschatological view today that this is a representative of the remnant that will be saved at the end, right after the rapture, even those, they still understand that this is a representative vision that John sees and not an exact replica. So understanding that, this is where your position that you hold to eschatology will become important to your understanding. And this is also where hermeneutic becomes really important. I'm going to look at this material from the vantage point of the position that I was describing to you guys earlier. It is what I believe is the most biblical. And I'm gonna describe it to you. I'm gonna teach it from that position. You can study the scriptures with me and then come to your own conclusions. So there are a lot of problems. with the view that this group is meant to be seen as a literal 144,000 Jewish male virgins. There are a lot of problems with that. We're gonna look at four of them this evening. And then you can decide for yourself what you think is the biblical view. But this is not an issue that requires us to all believe the same thing. So I'm just telling you what I believe the scriptures teach. and you can work that out for yourself. Like I said earlier, there are a lot of very godly pastors and teachers and theologians who disagree on these issues, but we're gonna look at the problems with it. Number one, and this is the reason why I've got this slide up here. The first issue that we see here is that This list that we read of the 12 tribes here in Revelation 7, it doesn't correspond to any of the ways that the tribes of Israel were listed in the Old Testament. It doesn't line up with any of them. It's not the literal 12 sons because Manasseh, who is Jacob's grandson, one of Joseph's sons, is listed And Dan, who was Jacob's son, is not. I'll see if I can use this pointer. So see, Manasseh, this is the list from Revelation 7. Manasseh is there. This is the original list from Genesis 35 of the 12 sons of Jacob in the order that they were listed. So in the list in Revelation 7, Manasseh is in there and Dan is not. It's also not a listing of the 12 tribes who inherited the promised land because Joseph, Manasseh, and Levi are listed, and Ephraim is not. In the tribes that inherited the land, Levi didn't receive an inheritance in Canaan because God was Levi's inheritance. The Levites, the tribe of Levi, their job was to take care of the temple and all of the religious observance, and they were to be supported from doing their job. They were to be the ministers and the teachers, and they were to be supported by What God had commanded the people to bring in is for the sacrifices and for the support of the temple. Well, Levi didn't receive an inheritance in the land because of that, but Levi's in this list. And so what happened was in the inheritance, Joseph's tribe was divided between his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. One of those received Joseph's share of the land and the other received Levi's in order to keep the number of land-holding tribes at 12. So no matter how you define the Old Testament nation of Israel, whether by the original sons or by the division of the land, it does not match this list that John gives here in Revelation that he sees. The second problem with this being meant to be taken as a literal, physical, exact number is that the ceiling of this group of people, you probably already noticed it as we were reading the scriptures, but the ceiling of this group of people is identical to the promise that Jesus made to all overcomers in Revelation 3.12. So there in verse three of chapter seven, the judgment against the earth is held back until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads. In Revelation three, verse 12, he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. He will not go out from it anymore. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven and my new name. So, the seal is the same. Then the third thing, in Revelation chapter 14, verses 3 and 4, I'm going to go ahead and go there. Revelation 14, 3 and 4, the 144,000 are identified the same way that all of the redeemed are identified in Revelation 5 and 9. from 14 first, and then I'll go back to chapter five. So in 14, three and four, it says, and they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb Wherever he goes, these have been purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. In Revelation 5-9, it says, and they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And I told you when we were covering that, that that man is a, it's a generic term. It just means like mankind. It means people. Jesus died to purchase his people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. They're identified the same way. They are those who Jesus shed his blood to purchase. And then the fourth problem, the fourth issue is this. Back in Revelation 14, verses 1 through 4, the 144,000 are pictured as a holy army of celibate virgin men. This is symbolic of the church's spiritual purity and devotion to Christ. It's not implying that only single, celibate, genetically Jewish males are sealed by God. It's not implying that those are the only people that get the seal of God. It's saying that those who are sealed by God are spiritually pure. They're faithful to Christ. That's what it's talking about. It's talking about spiritual purity. One of the commentaries that I read argues that the picture that's painted in this vision is actually an argument for the equal joining of ethnic Jews and Gentiles in the covenant people of God under the headship of Christ. So I'm gonna tell you their argument, I'm gonna work through it. The argument that the commentary made. If we work from the original list of Jacob's sons that's up there on the slide from Genesis 35, if we work from that original list, first thing that happened is Reuben lost his firstborn leadership and inheritance privilege. Reuben was the first one. And you see him up there. Reuben is top of the list from Liam. Over here, he's not first anymore. And the reason why he's not first is because he lost that privilege because of his impurity. He was impure. He slept with Jacob's concubine. The leader of the kingdom of God must be pure, so it has to be the lamb without spot or blemish that God brought into the world through the tribe of Judah. So when Reuben lost his position, it wasn't Simeon who took his place, but it was Judah who moved all the way up from forth because that was the tribe that the Lord was going to bring the Messiah through. So Judah moves up from fourth to first. The sons of the concubines, technically the concubines, were slaves of Rachel and Leah. And in the original list in Genesis 35, they're not the youngest. Joseph and Benjamin are the youngest. But these guys in the list in Genesis 35, because they're kind of second-class citizens, They're down here at the bottom. But in the list that we're given in Revelation 7, they're moving up to the top of the list. They're moving from the bottom of the list to positions three through six, ahead of six of the legitimate sons of the real wives. So the elevation of these descendants of women who were outsiders, they were outsiders from the covenant family, but their sons were moved up. It signifies the inclusion of the Gentiles among the bond servants of God. Dan, however, the one that's left out, he's replaced by Joseph's son Manasseh, because the tribe of Dan was notorious for leading the northern kingdom of Israel into idolatry. And that is highlighted in Judges chapter 18. In Judges chapter 18. And I'm not gonna read all of it, but in verses 14 through 31, It lays this out. And what's going on, I'm gonna read a few verses and then I'll kind of skip down to the end. Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Leah said to their kinsmen, that you know that there are in these houses an ephod, and household idols, and a graven image, and a molten image. Now therefore, consider what you should do. They turned aside there, and they came to the house of the young man, the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare. The 600 men, armed with their weapons of war, who were the sons of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. Now the five men who went to spy at the land went up and entered there, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the household idols, and the molten image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the 600 men armed with weapons of war. Now, most of the rest of that is confrontation with the people that actually owned those idols, but when you get down toward the end of the chapter, they set up their own city. They went and conquered this city to be the home of the tribe of Dan. And it says, they called the name of their city Dan after the name of Dan, their father, who was born in Israel. However, the name of the city formerly was Laish. The sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image, and Jonathan, the son of Gershim, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up for themselves Micah's graven image, which he had made all the time that the house of God was shallow. So the point is, Dan is left off because Dan didn't worship the Lord. They worshiped other gods. They didn't look to the Lord for leadership and deliverance. And that's why Dan is left off the list. And also, in intertestamental Jewish literature. I didn't look these up and read it. I did look at the footnotes in the commentary, but there was literature written, there were books written during the time period between Malachi and Matthew. I mean, there's 400 years of silence between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. During that time, there were books and there was intertestamental literature written And in some of the intertestamental literature, Dan is associated with Antichrist. That's another interesting factor. Antichrist was a pre-Christ idea. The idea of Antichrist was already here when Jesus came into the world. He was already opposed before he got here. And Dan was associated with Antichrist, which was, that's what he was doing. with the tribe of Dan is worshiping idols, engraving images, instead of trusting in the Lord, that's as antichrist as you can get. And so that's what was going on. And so Dan was left out. So, the order of the tribes here in Revelation 7 symbolizes the rule of Jesus, Judas first. So that's the rule of Jesus as the spotless lamb from the tribe of Judah. Then the incorporation of outsiders as fellow heirs. Those are the sons, well, my list went away, but those are the sons of the concubines. They weren't of the genetic lineage. And then the exclusion of idolaters, those who don't come to God through faith in his Christ. And that's the reason for the order of the trifles. This explanation makes sense, and I'm going way long, aren't I? This explanation makes sense in the immediate context, and it also fits in the overall way that the narrative is being presented from a literary perspective. In Revelation 5, the question was asked, who is worthy to open the book and break its seals? Well, the first answer given is the lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. However, when John looks, what does he see? He doesn't see a lion. He sees a surprising vision of a lamb slain and yet standing. Well, here we have a question Who is able to stand? And the first answer is the list of Israel's 12 tribes. But then it's followed by a vision of those who have emerged victorious from the great tribulation. So let's look at the next set of verses here. After these things, behold, I looked in a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation, and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might Be to our God forever and ever, amen. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, these who are clothed in the white robes, who are they? And where have they come from? I said to him, my Lord, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Judah's lying. back there in Revelation 5, displays his true power by appearing as a lamb and offering himself up in weakness. In the same way, the flock that he protects sounds like a precisely numbered, which it is. None of them will be missing, Jeremiah says. It is a precisely numbered flock, but it appears as a precisely numbered, exclusively Israelite male virgin army ready for battle. But then in the next vision, it appears as an uncountable international and mixed multitude celebrating a victory that the Lamb alone has already won on their behalf. See, the lamb has already won the victory. Those two visions are the same vision. It's the same group of people. Just like the lion is the lamb slain. And they're in white robes. The text says they're in white robes. The whiteness of the victor's robes comes from, we sang about it this evening, it comes from being washed in the blood of the lamb. Their purity, their spiritually pure, Their purity doesn't come from their own celibacy. They're not pure because they're chaste. They're not pure because they're righteous. Their purity is purely the righteousness of Christ. It's reckoned to them because of their belief in him, that seal on their foreheads. And the white robes also identify them with the souls that John saw under the altar back in chapter six, verse nine, that we just talked about last week. Those lamenting martyrs who are waiting on God to make things right. And then these celebrating victors praising the God who saves here in 17, they're the same group of people viewed from different perspectives from different vantage points. And Revelation does that a lot. It shows us the same picture from different vantage points. So these two visions here in Revelation 7 allow us to see the church from two different vantage points. And the difference between the groups is not ethnic. It's not genetic. The difference is location. The sealed and numbered army of Israel pictures the church of God on earth. We are protected from being deceived and falling away by our union with Christ, his spirit living in us, that seal that we have. True Christians are spiritually pure, not because of our faithfulness, not because of our own purity, but because the Spirit shows us Christ, and we come to God through faith in Him alone. We're not adulteresses. We're not adulterers. We are devoted to Christ. He is our hope. Every Christian will tell you that. Christ is my hope. You can talk to people who are, you can talk to people who are in very, very unsound theological denominations or persuasions. And I firmly believe that even the worst ones have Christians in them, because I've talked to some of them, and bottom line, they'll tell you the reason why they're saved is because Jesus Christ died for their sins. Now, they may have a lot of things wrong. Their theology may be upside down, but Christ is their hope. They've got the right thing right. And see, the Spirit shows Christians Christ and we come to God through faith in him alone. That's spiritual purity. This international multitude that no man can number shows the victorious church in heaven having been saved out of the great tribulation. Not by a painless rapture, but through a faithful death, holding fast to Christ. Listen to Revelation 12, 11. They overcame because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life, even when faced with death. See, the 144,000, the multitude that no man can number, the ones that the promise is made to in Revelation 3, 12, they all overcome, and they all overcome for the same reason. Because of the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and they, did not love their life even to death. This group has experienced all of the tribulation brought about by the four horsemen, but they will be hidden and protected from the final judgment that is coming. They'll be under the altar. Let's read the rest of our chapter, 15 through 17. For this reason, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat, for the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes. This language and imagery comes from Isaiah 49, 10. And I'm gonna finish this up by just going there to Isaiah 49. And the imagery here that John is using comes from verse 10, but we're gonna read a few verses before and after that so that we can see what is being said right here, what is being shown to us. We want to have a clear picture of who the Lord is talking about here. So, I'm gonna start reading in Isaiah 49, six, and I'm gonna read through 13. He says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant. So, Isaiah the prophet is speaking, but the he is the father. This is God the father. And the you here, is God the Son, it's Jesus. So the Father says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also make you, Jesus, a light of the nations, so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, to the despised one, to the one abhorred by the nation, To the servant of rulers, kings will see and arise. Princes will also bow down because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. Thus says the Lord, in a favorable time I have answered you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. And I will keep you and give you for a covenant of the people to restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages. Saying to those who are bound, go forth. To those who are in darkness, show yourselves. Along the roads they will feed, and their pasture will be on all bare heights. They will not hunger or thirst, nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down. For he who has compassion on them will lead them and will guide them to springs of water. I will make all my mountains a road. and my highways will be raised up. Behold, these will come from afar, and lo, these will come from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim. Shout for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth. Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. See, in the, Visions of Revelation 7, the Holy Spirit makes it clear to John and to us that God is going to redeem all of his people, and he's going to hold back his judgment until all of his bond servants are sealed, and he's able to seal them. He's able to preserve them, and he's able to keep them until the last day. And they are numbered. But the number is more than we could ever count. It's more than we could count. But our infinite God is ultimately, intimately acquainted with every hair on their heads. He knows all of their names and he has sealed all of them with his. And that's Revelation 7. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for your goodness and grace. And oh Lord, I just pray that you take these words and you take the concepts and the ideas The scriptures that I have read this evening and you clarify all of it. And help us to all see clearly your glory and your grace and your mercy given to us in Christ through your word. Lord, we thank you for these things in Jesus name.