Turn with me in your Bibles to
Revelation chapter 7. Revelation chapter 7. Immediately after the opening
of the sixth seal, remember what we're talking about here is the
seven sealed book of God's purpose God's plan for the creation throughout
the whole new covenant age, the gospel age from the first coming
of Christ to the second coming. Immediately after opening the
sixth seal, we're told in Revelation 7 and verse 1, listen to this,
and after these things, I saw four angels standing on the corners
of the earth. Here's another vision that's
given to the Apostle John. And these angels are holding,
or holding back, the four winds of the earth, that the wind should
not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor any tree. Now this wind, these winds, Four
winds, and of course you know four is the number symbolizing
the earth. North, south, east, west, the
elements, four elements, all of that we can, I've gone into
that, I won't go into it today. But these winds represent the
wrath of God upon this sinful, cursed world. And this is the
final wrath. These angels are agents of God's
wrath. And how do we understand God's
wrath? Well, God's wrath, now understand
this, God's wrath is not simply that, well, God's having a temper
tantrum. No. God's wrath is his justice
enacted against sin and against all sinners to whom sin is charged,
to whom sin is imputed. That's why it's so important
for us to understand and know that we want to be among that
number of whom it is said, blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven,
Blessed is he to whom sin is not imputed, to whom God imputeth
not iniquity. Blessed are those to whom God
imputes righteousness without works. That's where we want to
be. Because if we come before God at judgment having sin charged
to us, we won't stand. Back over in verse 17 of chapter
6, it says in verse 17, For the great day of His wrath is come,
and who shall be able to stand? Who shall be able to stand in
the great day of His wrath? Will I be able to stand? Will
you? While our only hope of standing,
that is being spared, passing the test, you might say, is to
be found before God under His grace, under the blood of Christ,
washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness. And what
is it about me that gives me any confidence that I'm one of
those who will stand? Well, the Bible says those who
stand are His chosen people, given to Christ before the foundation
of the world, Justified in Christ, Brother Jim preached on that.
Forgiven of all my sins, not by my works, not by my sorrow,
but by the blood of Christ. Clothed in His righteousness
and born again by His Spirit. How do I know I've been born
again by His Spirit? Because we've been given the
gift of faith in Christ. Christ is my hope and I have
no other. When I preached up in Lexington
on the assurance of faith that comes by looking to Christ, I
gave an example in the Old Testament of that kind of assurance. King
David on his deathbed who said, although my house be not so with
God, he hath made a covenant with me that is ordered in all
things and sure. It's ordered in all things because
God ordered it. God's the one who set it in order.
If you had anything to do with it or I had anything to do with
it, it'd be out of order. It'd be a mess. But God set it
in order in the everlasting covenant of grace made before time between
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And it's in all things
sure. How can it be sure? It couldn't
be sure if it was based upon my efforts or my works. If it were conditioned on me,
it wouldn't be sure. It'd be sure to fail. But it's sure because Christ
is the surety of it. And in Him, all the promises
of God in Him are yea, that is sure and amen and certain. All
spiritual blessings in Christ. And here's what David said. He
said, this is all my hope. This is all my desire. Now, did you hear that? In other
words, my hope is not in myself. All my hope, all my assurance
of salvation is in that covenant that God made with me that's
ordered in all things that He ordered and that is made sure
in Christ. Now when you take inventory of
yourself, can you say that's all your hope or do you hope
somewhere else? Do you have some hope in yourself? No, this is, Christ is all my
hope. He's all my forgiveness. He's
all my righteousness. He's all my sanctification. He's
all my redemption. I live my life running the race
of grace, striving to be like Christ, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of my faith. And the New Testament example
I gave them was in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 12 where the Apostle
Paul said, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that
what? He is able to do what? To keep, preserve, That which
I've committed unto Him in that day, the day of judgment. Now
here's what I ask myself when I read a passage like it. What
have I committed to Christ? Am I like the old country song,
me and Jesus got a good thing going? Part Him, part me. 99% Him, 1%
me. No. I have committed all my salvation,
every bit of it, the beginning of it, the continuing of it,
the finality of it, I've committed it all to Christ. Who's going to stand in that
day? Sinners saved by the grace of God. Again, washed in His
blood and clothed in His righteousness. Well, the wrath of God has been
shown on earth in many ways, in many forms. God's judgment
against sin comes in different ways. Wars, rumors of wars, sicknesses,
pain, all these things, disasters. But you know, there's only been
three times that it can be said in the Bible that we can look
at and say, well, that's when the full wrath of God has been
displayed or will be displayed. Two of them are past. One of
them is the flood during Noah's day when God destroyed the whole
earth with water and saved eight souls in the ark. And what was
that but a picture of Christ who is our ark? Noah and his
family were put in that ark and God shut the door and the wrath
fell upon the ark. Noah and his family were safe
inside, but the rest of the world was destroyed. Peter mentioned that in the passage
that Brother David read. The wrath of God. The second
time that the full wrath of God was meted out in full measure
was on our Savior on the cross of Calvary. Having our sins,
the sins of His people, imputed to Him, He went to the cross
and He literally drank damnation dry for His people. Aren't you glad of that? Oh,
that's what He was under. He was made a curse for us. He
was made sin for us. And he suffered the full measure,
the cup, let this cup pass from me, he said, in the weakness,
a sinless weakness of his sinless humanity. Suffering unto death,
the wages of sin is death. And he suffered the full measure
of the wrath of God for his people. Not for everybody without exception.
If he'd done it for everybody without exception, these four
winds here would not be coming later. But here in these four winds
is coming in the future the full measure of the wrath of God upon
this earth. And the Apostle Peter was inspired
by the Spirit of God to describe it in that passage that you read,
Brother Dave. The earth being burned up. We
look for a new heavens and a new earth. And so he says in verse
one, and after these things, in this vision, we're shown the complete security,
protection, and salvation of God's people in Christ. In this
chapter, chapter seven, the Lord gives more reasons for the church
to take heart. Be confident. Rejoice despite
all of God's judgments poured out upon this earth because of
sin. We have reason to. Things look bad, and they are.
You know why things look bad? Because they are bad. Now you can go along with the
power of the positive thinkers. I always think about, y'all remember
that movie called Good Morning Vietnam? You remember that? at
the Robin Williams. And I remember when he was playing
that song, What a Wonderful World. I see trees of green, red roses
too, everything's peachy. And in the background, there
was bombs going off, people being killed. Now, you can sing What
a Wonderful World it is. I mean, I like positive attitudes,
but I don't like to be stupid. I don't like to fool myself.
Things are bad because they are bad. They look bad because they
are bad. But we who know Christ, we have
reason to rejoice. We're blessed of all people.
And that's not bragging. It's bragging on Christ. God's
going to save His people. And He preserves this earth until
judgment. for that very reason, and that's
what you read in 2 Peter 3, 9. Why is this world carrying on?
Why hasn't God already destroyed this earth? Read it again. After these things, I saw four
angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four
winds of the earth, holding them back. holding back the full measure
of the wrath of God, which will come in the end. There's going
to come a time, it's already been appointed. I don't know
when it is, but God's going to say, let her go. Let her go. And unbelievers scoffers that
Peter wrote about. They don't believe that. They
say, well, look, this world's been going on all this time.
Nothing's changed. Well, they're lying. God destroyed
it with a flood. These angels are holding it back.
What does that represent? It's God's agents of judgment
holding back the full measure of God's wrath. The sinful world
is headed for complete destruction. It's not destroyed yet. And the
Bible calls that the forbearance of God. One preacher said, well, God
is waiting. Well, what is he waiting on? Well, false preachers
say He's waiting for man to do what they should do, for people
to accept Him. No. You know what God's waiting
on? The time that God Himself has
already appointed. That time. He's already appointed
it. This seven-sealed book. The Lamb
is opening it. God's already appointed the time.
He just hasn't told us when that is. Somebody said, do you believe
it's getting closer? Well, heck yeah, it's getting
closer. It's not getting farther away as we go along in time. The forbearance of God, and when
it comes, it's gonna hit the earth, it's gonna hit the sea,
it's gonna hit the trees. All creation, that's what that
means, is going to be destroyed. God's gonna burn this world up.
This judgment will come upon all people because all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. All people to whom sin is
charged, all people who are without Christ, all people who are alive
then in unbelief. He that believeth is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already. He that believeth
not, those who believe not shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abides upon them. But there's another reason God's
holding back the wrath. And why is that? And it's a good reason. It's
an encouraging reason. It's because He still has some
sheep out there who are lost in their sins, who have yet to
be brought into the fold of the kingdom of God. Look at verse
2. He says, I saw another angel
ascending from the east, Who is this coming from the East?
It's the Son, S-U-N, of righteousness. This is Christ. Having the seal
of the living God, the stamp, the identification, the authority,
the ownership. That's what that seal is. And
He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was
given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth,
neither the sea nor the trees, and look at it, Underscore this
in your Bible. Till we have sealed the servants
of our God in their foreheads. Now what does that mean? What
is the forehead a symbol of in the Old Testament? It's the symbol
of the mind. And understand now that the Hebrews
didn't make a distinction like we do in our hallmark society. We make a distinction between
the head and the heart. They didn't make that distinction.
The mind, what is the heart in the Bible? It's the mind, it's
the affections, it's the will, it's the inner person. And if
you look back at that passage that I read at the opening, Ephesians
chapter one, Listen to what it says there. He's talking about
those who trusted in Christ. And in verse 13 of Ephesians
1, he says, in whom you also trusted, after that you heard
the word of truth, that's with the spiritual ear, the regenerated
ear, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." That seal
is the seal of God's authority. It's the seal of ownership. It's the seal of divine power,
identification. And he says, this seal is the
earnest of our inheritance. It's the down payment. of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession,
that's final glory, unto the praise of His glory. And what is the Lord Jesus Christ,
this angel descending from the East, saying? He's telling these
four angels who are holding back the wind, the wrath of God, hold
it back, don't destroy this world until the last one of God's elect
is brought into the fold. And that's what Brother David
read in 2 Peter 3, 9. God is not slack concerning His
promise, as some men count slackness, but He's longsuffering to usward,
the elect of God, not willing that any of them should perish. But that all should what? Come
to repentance. When God brings a sinner to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works, that servant, that sinner
is sealed. by the Holy Spirit. And what
does that seal say? That seal says, you belong to
God. You're one of Christ's sheep.
You're one of the elect. And God's not gonna destroy this
world until the last one is brought in. Who is the last one? I don't
know. Might be our grandchildren, our
great-grandchildren, we don't know. It might be a day from
now, it might be a hundred days, a hundred years, I don't know.
But I know that that's why he's holding back the four winds. And so in verse three, he says,
hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed
the servants of our God in their foreheads, in their minds, in
their hearts. When He says they're foreheads,
He's not saying this is just a mental thing. It's a heart
issue. It's a conviction. As I always
say, you cannot ignore it, you cannot deny it, you cannot leave
it. You're convinced because God has convinced you. You know
where your hope is now. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but holy W-H-O-L-L-Y, wholly, completely, completely
dwell in Him. Now look at verse four. Now this is a verse that some
people have a heyday with, going wrong. I heard the number of them which
were sealed, and there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of
the children of Israel, 144,000. Well, who are these 144,000?
Is that a literal 144,000 individuals? The answer is no. There's a lot of people who believe
that this refers to a literal 144,000 converted Jews. who will witness to the world
and the whole world will be converted and Christ will come down and
reign from Jerusalem for a thousand. That's not what this is teaching
at all. What is this 144,000? Well, this is a multiple of 12,
12 representing the complete number of God's church, God's
elect, multiplied by a thousand, which is an a specified number
that only God knows. And they're described here in
symbolism by 12 tribes of Israel. And we know from the New Testament
that he's speaking of spiritual Israel, not literal national
Israel. If you look at these tribes,
For example, and you can read about this in other passages
of Scripture, Revelation 14, Revelation 22. But when this is applied to God's
elect, it signifies His possession and knowledge of them, as well
as His love for His people. It signifies their mind and attitude
towards the Lord. We see a great contrast. In those
who later on we're going to talk about, they worship the beast.
And they're sealed in their foreheads by the 666. It doesn't mean a
literal tattoo on their forehead of three sixes. It's talking
about their false doctrine, their minds are corrupt. And it's always
less than a seven, the perfect finished work of Christ. But this describes God's people
who are brought by the Holy Spirit in the new birth to know Christ
savingly. They come to Him in faith and
serve Him as willing, loving bond-servers. They're sealed,
as Ephesians 1 said. And so this 144,000 is a number
that is symbolic, describing all the entire body of the redeemed
of the Lord. 12 times 12 times 1,000, a complete
number. There'll be no vacancies in the
kingdom of heaven. These are the ones who've been
sealed by God, spiritual Israel, both Jew and Gentile. What did
Paul write in Romans 2, 28? He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision
is that of the heart, not of the flesh, whose praise is of
God and not of man. They are not all Israel, which
are of Israel. Romans chapter nine and verses
six, I believe it's through eight. But the children of the promise,
that's the seed of Abraham. Who are the children of the promise?
Do you believe in Christ? Do you believe the gospel? You're
one of the children of promise. And he lists the tribes here.
Listen to this. I'll just read this. Verse 5
he says, Of the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000. Notice the
tribe of Judah is first. Normally when you see a listing
of the tribes, Reuben is first because he's the eldest. But here's a different order.
There's no order of the 12 tribes like this. And there are two
tribes that are left out. Daniel and Ephraim. Why were
they left out? We don't know. Some commentators
speculate because of the great idolatry that existed in those
two tribes. But why does it begin with the
tribe of Judah? Well, what do you know about
the tribe of Judah? That's the tribe through whom the humanity
of Christ, the King, came. The tribe of David. He was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh. So what's being
shown here? I believe that it's showing that
everything that the people who are sealed in their minds in
the kingdom of God, that it all comes through Christ. It all
comes through His blood, His righteousness, His obedience
unto death, His resurrection, His intercession, Judah. And there's 12,000, sealed. Then Reuben, the firstborn, Christ.
You know, all these names have meanings. I don't have time to
go over all these. We've done this before. But they
all relate to Christ and His kingdom. Reuben means behold a son. Christ
is the Son of God, the Son of Man, the firstborn among many
brethren of the tribe of Gad. Gad means a troop, a troop cometh. Well, who is that troop? That's
God's elect. And they were sealed 12,000.
Verse six, the tribe of Aser or Asher. Asher means blessed. We who are in Christ are blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. In Christ
Jesus sealed 12,000 of the tribe of Nephilim. Nephilim means struggle. Wrestling is one. Commentator
says, remember when Jacob wrestled with the angel, I won't let you
go till you bless me. That's not Jacob overcoming the
Lord. It's simply a sinner being brought
to Christ and holding on for dear life. They were sealed 12,000 of the
tribe of Manassas. Manassa means forgetting. I believe
Joseph, that's one of the children of Joseph. I believe Joseph named
him that because he was forgetting what his brothers had done to
him. Well, doesn't God say of us in Christ, I will remember
your sins no more? What does that mean? It means
he won't impute them to us. Blessed are those to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. Christ
that died. Verse seven, the tribe of Simeon.
Simeon means to hear. Have you heard what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are forgiven and you're set free. They're all taken away. Have you heard it? Have you heard
the gospel with the spiritual ear? Is it your life? Has the Spirit given us ears
to hear? Does it mean something to us?
Something more than just a religious part of my life that I show up
on Sunday and listen to? It's our whole life. Then he
goes to the tribe of Levi. That was the priestly tribe.
Levi means joined, united. By God's grace, we're joined
to Christ, united to Christ, and joined together as brethren
in the faith. Issachar, verse seven, Issachar
means wages, means hired, it means reward. Well, what is Issachar
showing us? Does that mean we work for our
hire, we work for our reward? No, Christ did it. He who is
from the tribe of Judah in his humanity, he worked for it. He promised to do what was required
and he is our reward. Verse eight, the tribe of Zebulon.
Zebulon means to dwell in honor. Well, my friend, we have no honor
before God except as we dwell in Christ. Isn't that right?
What are we without Christ? Sin, dishonor. Oh, but in Christ, what an honor
that is. Then he mentions Joseph. Joseph
means to add. Well, God's going to add to His
church as many as He ordained, chose, and gave to His Son. And then Benjamin's the last
one. Son of my right hand. Son of righteousness. That's
what Benjamin is. Well, what is the Lord Jesus
Christ to us? He's the Lord our righteousness. Isn't that a myth? That's the
only reason when God lets loose the four winds, that we will
not be under His wrath and subject to His judgment. Because we stand
in Christ, declared righteous by a holy God, pleading His merits,
Not standing before God like those in Matthew 7 saying, well,
haven't we done this? Haven't we done that? Lord, haven't
we been good? Haven't we done a lot of things
in your name? No. We have one plea. Christ died for me. Well, as
you know, Thanksgiving is coming up Thursday, and I hope and pray
that you all have a blessed one. But you also know that every
day is Thanksgiving Day for us. So let's conclude by singing
hymn number 221. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Hymn number 221.