This chapter is what's known as a parenthetical or pause chapter
between the opening of the 6th and the 7th seals of the scroll.
Remember the scroll Chapter 5. God the Father holds the scroll
out in his right hand. Who is worthy?
Taped scroll. No one is no one in the universe
anywhere. John begins to weep.
Hey, John, stop weeping. Look over there.
There's a land that as as it has been slain, as it has been
butchered, as it has been slaughtered.
The word slain means Jesus steps forward, grabs the scroll.
He is now going to redeem the world back that Adam lost to
Satan when he disobeyed God and obeyed Satan.
And as he begins to break the, the scroll, the seals on the
scroll, it's it, it opens and, and the events and the
redemption of our nation and the judgement of God upon a fallen
wicked world begins. And so we got now up to Chapter
7. And here we have this, this
pause in Chapter 7. You could say it's the the eye
of the storm in Chapter 8 when the 7th seal is broken.
And then we begin the seven trumpets and they're they're
massive. I think it's the first four deal
with the world's climate. And so if you're a climate
activist, bad things are happening.
It doesn't matter what you do, how much arbitrary things are
going to change and the world's going to be just whacked and the
oceans and everything. And then the last three of the
seven trumpets, they deal with humanity.
So the judgments that fall upon the people left after the
rapture. And so things really begin to go
down South after the breaking of the 7th seal, and the judgments
of God really turn up during this time.
In Chapter 7 of the massive fallout, the period of
judgments, the cataclysmic happenings, they're going to
occur. Who's going to be able to stand
for God during that period, during the Tribulation period?
We'll see two groups of people in our study tonight who will
stand for Christ during the Tribulation period.
It says in verse one, and after these things, I saw 4 angels
standing at the four corners of the earth, holding by their
power the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not
blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.
A dead stop, silence. 4 angels powerful hold the four winds NE
South and West, and a stillness, eeriness that the world has
never experienced totally settles eerily.
As I said, on the planet Earth, it's always the calm before the
storm. When that happens, you go, oh,
what's what's going on here? Then a fifth Angel steps on the
heavenly stage. There's two, John said.
I saw another Angel ascending from the east.
He has in his hand having the seal of the living God.
And he cried with a loud voice. So he's a powerful Angel to the
four angels. So there's a there's a a rank
and a power and a command. And he says to the four angels
who are holding back with their power the winds of the four
corners of the earth. He says to the four angels whom
have been granted to harm the earth and the sea.
He says do not harm the earth, the sea or the trees till we
have sealed. And he's going to be the one who
seals the servants Duoi bond servant bond slave of our God on
their foreheads. It's interesting that the
Antichrist is going to copy. Remember he's, he's going to
copy everything God does. And so these who are about to be
sealed during the tribulation period period will have a seal
of God upon them. 4 angels told what to do by the 5th Angel.
And when there's no wind upon planet earth, there's a problem.
We kind of don't think about it, but as much as we live in one of
the windiest cities in the coast in the world, I mean, how often
are you complaining about you go to the beach in summer, It's
beautiful. And next minute sea breeze comes
in and everyone says we're all going home and the beach is
everyone decamps the beach when the wind is stopped and there's
this calm. All the world's pop pollution.
Remember, think of Beijing, China, Los Angeles.
It just stays in Los Angeles. When we've been to Los Angeles,
when the wind comes, it comes from the ocean and blows up over
the mountains. And you think, oh, the clouds
coming. No, it's, it's the pollution
coming up from the mountains to blow over the ocean, over the
mountains. Particularly when we've been in
San Bernardino in China, we see it and they pray for the wind to
blow the the pollution away. Well, the pollution's not going
to move. It's just going to sit there.
Think of Mumbai. The world chokes on it.
Without the wind, what else is there?
There's no rain. There's no rain because it's the
the Lord who causes the evaporation over the ocean,
which I I'm still astounded how he does that.
News, millions of leaders, billions of litres of water up
there. I'll put it over there, drop it.
No man can do that. God does that.
And so there's going to be no rain because as the the Ocean's
evaporating and it goes up, the clouds ain't going to move.
They're just staying there. No rain coming up on the land.
So therefore what's going to happen during this period is
there There's going to be a worldwide drought because you
need rain to grow anything. And a great famine will result
just on this and without the water.
What else do you need? You need to drink, so there's
going to be a a lack of good drink drinkable potable water.
So God basically, when he holds the winds with these 4 angels
has turned the engine off that runs the world's weather
pattern. As you look at the world and you
look at weather and you study weather and I think it's
fascinating. It just shows the hand and of
God, the creator of God in charge of the world and how he
moves the winds and how they work and how the ocean currents
all move with this and that. When that all stops, basically
God's just gone. No pause and we're in danger.
It says in verse 4 John and I heard the number of those who
were sealed. So now the Angel, the 5th Angel,
he's gone. Now the judgments haven't come
from the other angels as yet, which going to happen in the
seven trumpets. He's gone and he sealed this
group because he's been sent the Smith Angel to seal servants.
And I heard the number of those who were sealed 144,000 and
we're told great detail who they are of all the tribes of the
children of Israel was sealed. And you can read into that
whatever you like and a lot of people have.
But if you just read it, it pretty much tells you who they
are. But even to go into more detail,
so we're aware who they are, of the tribe of Judah, 12,000 was
sealed. Of the tribe of Reuben, 12,000
was sealed. The tribe of Gad 12,000 Asha
Neftali, the tribe of Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Isaca, Zebulun,
Joseph, the tribe of Benjamin, so 12,000 So we brought to the
most spoken about group of all the cults in the world, 144,000
Seventh Day Adventists go, that's us.
The Jehovah Witnesses go, no, that's us.
This pause by God, you could say, was a moment in time of
God's mercy. Why?
Because God is about to use this group during a very particular
time for a great reason. For God sends his Angel, the 5th
Angel, to seal his 144,000 Jewish believers for a special
service that they will have during the Tribulation period.
Their tribes and the numbers from each tribe is clearly
detailed so no one can confuse who they are.
The only way you confuse at how they are is to go no black is
white, white is black and to take it out of context and to
call it something else that it isn't.
Revelation 7 three says do not harm the earth the seal the
trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their
foreheads. Again, that word servants is the
Greek word du loy where we get our bondservant.
It means they are already believers.
They were not saved. However, let me clarify this
prior to the rapture of the church.
Otherwise, they would have gone up with the church during the
rapture, correct? Instead, they came to faith in
the early part of the tribulation and are now sealed
by God by the Lord for this special service whereby He will
use them during the tribulation period 15 times.
We're told that they are His servants.
From verse 3 to verse 8, you go this group, how will the Lord,
you ask, protect this group of 144,000 during this time of
tribulation and all the wide world judgements are happening
and you know this is going on and this is going in.
When you read through the Book of Revelation, you'll see the
judgements are very pointed because it's not there, not
there, only them, not them. It happens now we also we have
previous example examples detailed in God's Word where God
has done this very thing and protected people during
judgement. Noah at the time of the great
flood, Noah found grace in the size in the eyes of God.
One lot. We can't pour judgement out upon
Sodom and Gomorrah until we get lot out of the city.
Remember, Abraham prayed if there'd be 50, but yeah, 4030
ten and down on it wasn't 10. And so the Angel said like you
got to come with us. We can't do the judgement here
until you're out of it. Rahab, the children of Israel
circle Jericho. She was told what to do, put a
sign outside the wall where her house was built into the walls
as where she lived, and that that sign showed that she could
stand under the judgement of God.
When the walls fell down upon Jericho.
She was saved and her family, the Israelites themselves in
Egypt at the time of the 10 plagues sent by God.
You can do it here, here, here, but not them.
These 144,000 are Jews. They are not the Jehovah
Witnesses who have long claimed that this is them.
When the membership of the Jehovah Witness cult surpassed
the 144,000 mark, they were forced to revise, as did the
Mormons when they said we can no longer isolate black people from
becoming Mormons. If you go back and just study
their history, you'll find out. And so they revised because
prior you, you couldn't be a black person and be a Mormon.
So the Jehovah Witnesses, so they revised the theology.
That's a man made theology. You can't, you can't go.
Well, you know what, we need to change it.
Anyone who barracks for the West Coast Eagles has got to come out
of here and we tear it. We change the word of God.
You can't do that. Man doesn't pick and choose.
So when the membership of the Jehovah Witnesses surpassed the
144,000 mark, they were forced to revise this theology.
So they said the 144,000, which has been filled for quite a
while now, were elite members who'd go to heaven and the rest
who come around knocking on doors selling you the Awake
would live in bliss on the earth.
So there's this and this, sad. No, they, as the Bible states
extra clearly, the 144,000 are Jews and they are not the
church. They're not spiritual.
This is This Is Us. No, they're Jews.
Tells you in detail. Now importantly, only God knows
from which tribe each Jew is descended.
How's that? Because when the temple was
destroyed in 70 AD under the Roman general Titus and every
stone, remember Jesus said not a stone's going to be left, which
just pulled down all the records, which was a very big
deal in Israel. In Judaism all the records and
who's who's who's what tribe you're from and everything were
destroyed, burnt because God Now he's the only one who knows the
genealogical records. But also question who would want
to be one of the 144,000 really. If you do, you are plainly
stating that now you're not a Christian because every genuine
believer, the Bible tells us, Jesus tells us John chapter 14.
Paul tells us in One Thessalonians chapter 4 and then
in One Corinthians 15 every genuine believer will be
raptured to meet the Lord and remain with Him during the seven
year tribulation period in heaven as we saw with John as
the type in chapter 4. Then we see us in chapter 5
worshipping and praising God only as believers could do.
So to be part of 144,000, you would have to be an unsaved Jew.
You would have to miss the rapture.
Therefore, you don't know Christ until during the tribulation
period. You would come to faith in the
tribulation period and be chosen by God for this special service.
Now God is providing Israel. And remember the tribulation
period, when you take a step back, it's not about the church.
The church is taken out. One Thessalonians chapter 2 and
we see the restraining forces gone and we're out.
We're out of the out of what our our mission is because we were
the the unnatural branch grafted in.
And now the clock, the 60, the 70th year of the of of Daniel
clicks in that last seven year period and Israel, which is now
on the world focus comes into being who they are, what they
should be God's chosen people. So God during the tribulation
period is providing Israel in this period of time to be what
he intended them to be all along when they fell down to be what
Gods missionaries. That's why they were chosen to
be his salt and his light in a fallen world before Christ
returns in Revelation chapter 19 and sets up his rule and reign
in Jerusalem for 1000 years. So what will their service be
you ask? Well, verse 9, after these
things, I looked and behold, a great multitude which no one
could number. So here's a different group of
all nations, tribes, people's tongues standing before the
throne. So they're not the Jews and
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches
in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying,
salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the
Lamb. All the angels stood round the
throne, and the elders and the four living creatures fell on
their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying Amen,
blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving, honour and power,
and might be to our God forever and ever.
Verse 13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, who are
these? Who's this group?
Not 144,000 Who's this other group we're looking at in the
white robes, palm branches, praising the Lord?
Who are these arrayed in white robes?
Where do they come from? And I said to them, Sir, you
know, he said to me, these are the ones who came out of notice
the great Tribulation. So they get saved during the
Great Tribulation, but they die for their faith during the Great
Tribulation because they won't take the mark of the beast,
won't worship the Antichrist, and they'll die for their faith
and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
lamb. So the second group, not the
144,000, but this other group, and I spoke about them in length
at length on Sunday is we see in this chapter we covered these
again are the tribulation martyrs.
You know, we read so often and and it is a a very stark book,
the prophecy, the the Book of Revelation, the things that's
going to happen upon the earth. And the question is who's going
to get saved during the tribulation period?
Who will stand for Christ in this period of tribulation?
Because there will be those who will stand for Christ, who will
reject the Antichrist, reject the mark of the beast.
Who realised, man, I have been a fool.
I remember I was told the events, I missed the rapture,
but now I'm not taking the mark of the beast because that I
don't want to lose salvation. So who's able to stand two
groups, 144,000 sealed by God and this multitude of martyrs?
The second group is so large in number, so vast that John can't
calculate how many there are. He says in verse 9, a great
multitude which no one could number.
That tells us that during the tribulation period, though, all
these horrific things are happening and the judgement of
God is falling, that there are literally millions going to come
to Christ, which is a good thing for us because we know people
that we share the gospel with. We tell them about the rapture
and they go, you're an idiot. Don't believe that.
Praise the Lord for God's grace, for God's wonderful salvation,
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. That salvation will be found
even during the Tribulation period by so many.
The greatest number of converts in the history of the planet
will occur at this time. And Billy Graham preached in
South Korea to an audience of 1.1 million people at a crusade
in in in one city, not just over a number of days, but at one
time. Saw the film of it.
It's just like mind blowing. And they're able to actually
number the people that were there because being a very
organised society, you went into a an area that was squared off
and only a certain number went into each square.
So they knew exactly how many people came out to see Billy
Graham. And so the 144,000 Jews are
often referred to as God's elite evangelist during this time.
Why? Because of the number of
converts that come to Christ, because of their witness,
they're sealed by God, they love God, they serve God, they
proclaim the gospel, God protects him during this period.
And many, many people remember we read all tribes, different
tongues, different countries come to Christ because of the
witnessing of the 144,000 of these Jews in Matthew 2414.
Jesus said this was happen, He said, and this gospel of the
Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all
the nations and then the end will come.
So this great multitude unable to be numbered, the martyrs who
will die for their faith, come to Christ, die for their faith.
During the Tribulation period. They wear white robes.
What's that symbolic of symbolising the righteousness of
God? Palm branch is in their hands.
What does that symbolise victory.
And remember Palm Sunday, just go back there.
Celebration and celebration of the palm branch waved was a
celebration symbol of victory. Which reminds us again on Palm
Sunday when Jesus wrote into Jerusalem, What did they cry
out? Hosanna, save now son of David.
Hosanna, this group in verse 10 in Chapter 7 here singing out,
What do they cry out? Salvation belongs to our God,
same as Hosanna. We the Church join them in
heaven in verses 11 and 12, praising the Lord together.
Verse 15. Therefore they are before the
throne of God. Serve him day and night in His
temple. He who sits on the throne will
dwell among them. That's a beautiful thing.
God will be with these who have come out of the Tribulation
period. But notice the 16 Because these
are the things that this martyred group who died for
their faith have experienced during the tribulation period
and the judgements that fall upon the world.
They shall neither hunger anymore.
Why? Because did they hunger?
Because they couldn't buy or sell?
Because they refused take the mark of the beast on their right
hand or upon their forehead. The sun shall not strike them.
There's a period there where the sun is going to beat down upon
the planet earth and cook everyone basically.
Nor any heat. For the Lamb who was in the
midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to
living fountains of waters. Isn't that Psalm 23?
The Lord is my shepherd shall want, he shall lead me when he's
going to lead these but notice and then says and God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes. I cannot imagine I'm not going
to because I'm not going to be there, but the tears that will
have been shed by those who died for their faith during the
tribulation period difficult time.
And it says and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
And so the choir grows. Notice in verse 13, the elder
makes the point that this group is completely different from
those already in heaven. Chapter 5 and 4, the church, who
are they? These are they that came out of
the tribulation period. Therefore, they are before the
throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.
How will we be serving God? It's an interesting thing we're
not told in detail here. I've thought about that, you
know. How will we be serving God?
If you've been serving the Lord here and now, you'll know the
joy and wonder that we will experience to be able to do this
in the very presence of God Himself.
There's something unique that when you're serving God and I
spoke to many of you about that that serve here at Calvary and
you go, I love doing this. This is how I I, I worship the
Lord. This is the way that I, I find
this joy by teaching the Sunday school or I make the copies or
I, I help the elderly ones or I'm, I, I, I look after the
little ones in the crash and oh, it's a blessing to do that.
Or I play in part of the worship team or I, I vacuum my sweep or
something. I do that or it's something, we
have a spring cleaning here once a year and you know, massive,
you turn up and we, we do the whole place and clean it right
up. And there's, there's not a sad
person serving. There's something about serving
the Lord. Well, just amp that up again
that we will be serving the Lord.
You know, you're just pleased to do that.
We're going to be doing that in heaven.
Whilst the words are directly related to the martyrs who have
suffered during the tribulation period about what they've
suffered and their tears being wiped away, for each and every
one of us here tonight, you too and those watching, we've all
suffered some degree as a result of our own sins.
You know this thing, Oh man, why did I do that?
I just, you know, and we suffer because of our sinfulness would
cause grief, sorrow to others and to ourselves.
Well, when we get to heaven, no more suffering, no more going.
Oh man, you know I met you. But every now and then I think
what an idiot I was when I was growing up, how I said those
things and how I did. I just can't believe myself.
Sometimes I'm embarrassed as I look back on my old self.
Well that all that's all going to be gone.
No more tears, no more suffering.
In verse 17 it says Christ our Good Shepherd will continue to
love and guide us. My favourite chapter I think in
the Bible is John chapter 10. And there it talks about many of
you would know it, the Good Shepherd, Jesus being the Good
Shepherd and how he calls us by name, how he gave his life for
us, how he holds us in his hands, how no one will be able
to take us out of his hands. How he loves us, cares for us.
We he's gets the sheep, he calls a man and he puts him in a safe
place and then he he sleeps across and protects us from
anything evil and bad. That's our shepherd.
That's Jesus. Well, when we get to heaven,
we'll experience the Lord being our shepherd personally in a far
greater way. You and I are living in the last
days when the Christian faith is being debated.
Less and less churches actually open Bibles.
Less and less people gather for prayer.
Churches are closing, falling down, and if they're not closing
or falling down, they become diluted and preaching everything
else but Jesus Christ. Anything goes no matter what.
We're living in that time. Penny Wong and our Prime
Minister came out today in support of 27 other nations.
They get back to parliament and they just slammed Israel, just
slam them. And they things that they said
were not factual about what has happened with the food supplies
and everything you've had. We've had young Eve here from
Israel. You know, Israel supplied all
the utilities to Gaza, water, the electricity, the power, all
the Gazans when they came across, they would come in and
they would work. They had all good jobs in
Israel. We just go to Bethlehem.
And I remember the person in Bethlehem coming to me because
all the Christians, we were going to visit Bethlehem on the
side of the the shepherd's field and also the place where Christ
was born in The Cave, Bethlehem there.
And he said to me, and he was an Arab and he was a Muslim.
He said, this is despicable. He says, I've sent my kids away.
We can't live in Bethlehem. I can't survive.
No Christians come here anymore. That's how we lived.
And he said Hamas dictate to us what we can do, what we how we
live. He said I have to get out of
here myself and I'm a Muslim. You see the facts aren't getting
out. The media and our government are
using the figures from the UN and Hamas on their public
expressions. It's wrong.
You and I, we're believers in Christ and we can become
discouraged. I do.
When I read such things and I see our government acting in
such a way, you know, there's still hostages kept it, it, it
would be resolved in a, in an instant.
Release the hostages, remove Hamas, let the Gazans live how
they want to live, be done in an instant.
But no, now what's happening is, as the number of hostages are
dying and they still haven't released them.
Now what's happening with the IDF, the IDF put out, Hamas are
now trying to every time a soldier comes into the air, they
don't want to kill them, they want to capture them.
I want to get some more soldiers.
They need leverage. They need leverage.
We can become discouraged when we read these things, but the
greatest outpouring of salvation is going to come upon the earth
after we're gone, after the rapture of the church.
The wonderful blessing of heaven lays and awaits for us, and it
will bring us joy unspeakable, Peter said, And we should be
encouraged as we look and listen.
Jesus said, watch and pray in these days.
What for? For the trumpet call.
And that's why the Book of Revelation finishes with that
word Maranatha. God is coming short.