Now, as I said last week, this
chapter 7 is sort of like an interlude as he is opening the
seals. We're coming to the 7th seal
later on. And as God reveals in these seals
His judgments upon the earth, and I've tried to make clear
that as we see God's judgments on this earth, His judgments
upon the wicked, that we also see the spiritual aspects of
blessings upon the people of Christ. Because all of this,
you need to understand, Revelation is not a science fiction book.
It's not a book just fraught with colorful characters to draw
our attention. like on a movie screen or something
like that. Revelation is the revelation
of Jesus Christ given to the people of God for our comfort
and for our encouragement to let us know that throughout all
these judgments, as bad as the world is getting and will get,
that we're safe and secure in Christ, that we still have a
righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice,
and that'll never change. We are secure in him. And so
our hope is in Christ. We have a sure hope that never
changes no matter what goes on here on earth. Economically,
politically, geographically, whether it's a famine, whether
it's a war, Satan will attack. We're gonna get into that later
on in Revelation. We're gonna talk about Satan
attacking the church. You see, Satan doesn't let up
and he's loosed. You know, he's on a leash. That's
the way it's portrayed in the scripture. And then he's sort
of loosed to work havoc upon the earth and to deceive multitudes
of people. But we who are in Christ, who
look to Christ, who rest in Christ, washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness, we're safe. And we're secure. And that's
the mainstay of this interlude here in chapter seven. Remember,
he talked about the four winds of the earth, God's judgments
coming down. And he told the four angels,
he said, hold back, hurt not the earth, verse three, neither
the sea nor the trees until we have sealed the servants of our
God in their foreheads. The forehead there symbolizing
the mind, the heart, We have the mind of Christ. That's how
we're sealed in our foreheads, that when the Holy Spirit in
the new birth brings the power of God unto salvation in the
preaching of the gospel and seals it in our hearts, our minds,
affections, and will, and we're convinced of sin, convinced of
righteousness, convinced of judgment, that Holy Spirit conviction.
and the sealing of the spirit. We looked at several passages
like that. Now he says in verse four, I heard the number of them
which were sealed. Now how many were sealed? That's
the key to, I believe this is the key to understanding what
he's going to be saying. I heard the number of them which
are sealed. Now that's talking about all
who are sealed. And as you know, in the original Greek manuscripts
of the New Testament, there were no punctuation marks. These were
added by the translators. And I have to admit to you, sometimes
I disagree with their punctuation. But that's neither here nor there
for this lesson. Here I agree with it. That colon, in other
words, he says, here's the number that were sealed. Now I'm going
to tell you what I'm talking about. That's what he means.
I'm going to explain what I just said. So what we have following
is the explanation of the number of them that were sealed. And
he says in verse four, and there were sealed 140 and 4,000 of
all the tribes of the children of Israel. Now let's just read
through it first. He says of the tribe of Judah
were sealed 12,000, of the tribe of Reuben there were sealed 12,000. Of
the tribe of Gad were sealed 12,000. Of the tribe of Aser
or Asher, you might see that in other places, were sealed
12,000. Of the tribe of Naphtalum, sometimes
he's called Naphtali, were sealed 12,000. Of the tribe of Manasses
or Manasseh were sealed 12,000. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed
12,000. Of the tribe of Levi, were sealed
12,000. Of the tribe of Issachar were
sealed 12,000. The tribe of Zebulun, 12,000. Of the tribe of Joseph, normally
Joseph is not listed as a tribe. His two sons, we already saw
one of Manasseh and Ephraim. Ephraim's left out of here. I'll
tell you why I think he's left out, and we'll talk about that
in a minute. Okay, we're 12,000. And of the tribe of Benjamin
were sealed 12,000. and then after this I beheld
and lo a great multitude now these are he's continue explaining
the number of them that were sealed all right which no man
could number of all the nations and kindreds and people and tongues
languages stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with
white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud
voice, saying, Salvation to our God, withsitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb." Well, all right. What is all this talking
about? Well, there's several explanations
that may differ in some nuance, but do not deny the gospel. You
know, a lot of times you might find a verse of scripture that
even gospel commentators will differ on as to their interpretation.
Sometimes interpretations go awry so as to deny the gospel. And here's what I know about
what this passage means. I know that no explanation or
interpretation of what you see as the 144,000, the tribes, and
whatever, no explanation is true that denies the gospel of God's
grace in Christ. So set that down in your mind
to start with. Whatever explanation, whatever
interpretation you see in these passages, if it denies the gospel
of God's grace or even challenges or confuses it, that's not the
answer. I know that. Alright. A lot of times you'll see the
tribes of Israel listed in the scriptures. When you see lists, for example,
when Joshua and Caleb took the Hebrew children over into the
promised land, you see a listing of the tribes where he was allocating
the land out. And that allocation of land was
kind of like a mishmash. It was kind of like there was
no order to it. Some tribes received more because
they had more people. Some tribes received less. There
were two tribes that were on the eastern side of the Jordan
where they shouldn't even have been. But there was that allocation
of land that was given to them. Then you see another allocation
of land to the tribes in the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter
1, because that's about the census, taking the census. And it's a
little different. And then you see another one
in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 47 and 48. And there the allocation
of land is perfectly equal with everybody receiving the same
equal portion of land. And it's a little different.
And then you see it here, and it's a little different here.
Some tribes are left out, some tribes are not. Sometimes, it's
very rarely you'll see Joseph listed as a tribe. You'll usually
see Manasseh and Ephraim, his two sons, but it's still considered
12 tribes because they're really considered one even though they
were separate and of course you know where that comes from back
over in Genesis 49 when you have a listing of the sons of Jacob.
Remember when Jacob on his deathbed was allocating the blessings
to his sons And before that, you remember, he had Joseph bring
Manasseh and Ephraim to him. Remember how he switched his
hands? I don't have time to go into
all that now. But that was a picture of God's sovereign choice of
his people and how God does things. God is sovereign in all things.
He's certainly sovereign in the salvation of sinners. Now, verse
4, he says, I heard the number of them which were sealed. What
are they sealed to? They're sealed in the gospel.
They're sealed in Christ. So here's what I know about this
144,000. Here's what I know about this multitude which no man can
number out of every tribe and nation. They're believers. It's not just an ethnic group
of people or a national group of people brought together in
some economic political way. These are believers. These are
sinners saved by the grace of God. How do you know that? They're
sealed in their foreheads. What is that? That's the new
birth. That's a sinner being brought to faith in Christ by
the power of the Holy Spirit. So who are they? They're the
ones whom God chose before the foundation of the world. They're
the ones whom Christ redeemed by His blood on the cross. They
are those who stand before God justified based on the imputed
righteousness of Christ. We can go back in the Old Testament,
and again, I don't have time to do this this morning, but
you could go back through the Old Testament, and anytime when
you see a prophecy that is of Israel being brought back in
what they call the millennial age or the millennial kingdom,
which I believe is what we're in, but wherever you think about
that, you may say, well, that's later on, all right? Here's the
key, though. Whenever you see a prophecy of
the nation Israel being brought back in as a nation in these
tribes, it's always under the headship of Christ. They'll have
one head. Hosea said that. But you could
go to other prophecies. So whoever he's talking about,
it's not just Jews. And certainly not unbelieving
Jews. He's talking about believers here. They're sealed in their
foreheads. They're believers. They look to Christ for salvation,
for forgiveness, for righteousness, for eternal life and glory, just
like we do. All right? Now, why 144,000? Well, there are people who believe,
even some gospel commentators, they believe that in that millennial
age, which they see as future, even in our day, that God's going
to raise up the exact number of 144,000 believers out of the
nation Israel to be witnesses for Him. Well, I'll be honest with you,
if God did that and there were 144,000 believers in Israel today
witnessing the gospel, boy, I'd rejoice. How about you? I personally do not believe that's
what it's talking about, but if that happened, I'm with you. I'd like to see 144,000 raised
up in Albany. How about you? Or in the United
States? Witnessing for Christ? Well,
sure. That'd be a great and glorious thing. It sends chills down my
spine just thinking about it. Because I pray for the people
of Israel that God would raise up witnesses. All right, well,
what I believe this listing of the tribes, and I believe it
includes what he says here in verse nine, the great multitude,
which no man can number, refers to the church, spiritual Israel. And the number 144,000 is a symbol
of the complete number of God's people in the last days. Why
do I believe that? Well, I've told you, and I think
I mentioned this before, people, whenever they go to the book
of Revelation, and even those who claim to be literalists,
I don't like that term because I think something means what
it literally means when you find out what it means. Does that
make any sense? In other words, they say, well,
because I believe that 144,000 is a symbolic number, they say,
well, you're not taking it literally. I believe I am taking it literally.
I believe it literally symbolizes. That's what I'm saying, the literal
meaning of that. But that's the splitting hairs.
I don't want to get into semantics, all right? The problem that they
have, those who say that this is the exact mathematical equivalent
of 144,000 people, is that when they go to the book of Revelation,
they always see some numbers in Revelation as being symbolic.
Even they will admit there are some numbers in Revelation that
are symbolic. So what they do is they say,
well, now these numbers are symbolic, but these numbers over here are
literal. The way they put it. My question
to them is this. What rule of scriptural interpretation
do you use to figure out which is literal and which is symbolic?
They don't have any. They just, well I just believe
that one's literal. This one's symbolic. I believe
they're all symbolic. I really do. This is a vision.
You understand that. John's not sitting in a seat
somewhere watching this all unfold physically. This is a vision
that God gave him. And he'd already established
that the number 12, for example, is a symbolic number. The 12
patriarchs, the 12 elders seated, the 12 apostles. What does the
number 12 symbolize? It symbolizes the complete government
of God. This is the kingdom of God in
its completeness. These are the citizens of the
kingdom of God. And 12 symbolizes that. What
is 144,000? It's 12 times 12 times 1,000. What does 1,000
in the Bible symbolize? Read 2 Peter 3, for example.
A day in the mind of God is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years as
a... 1,000 is what we call a Hebrew
idiom which symbolizes a number that man cannot know but only
God knows. And that's why he says here,
verse 9, after this I beheld and lo a great multitude which
no man can number. We can't number it. But having
said all that, now that's what I believe it is. This is spiritual
Israel made up of both Jew and Gentile. You could say that the
first set here, the tribes of Israel, represents God's elect
among the Jews and then verse 9 represents God's elect among
the Gentiles. I don't see the separation here
because I still think it's simply just giving us the description
of the elect of God under the headship of Christ, redeemed
by the blood of Christ. That's what I'm, but if you want
to think of it that way, that's okay, because the scripture says
God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
Jew and Gentile. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to the Jew first and to the Greek Gentile also.
But every Jew and every Gentile who is a child of God, what do
they believe? For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. From faith to faith, as it is
written, the justified. Who are the justified? They are
those who stand before God not guilty. Whether they're a Jew or a Gentile,
whether they're from the tribe of Reuben or the tribe of Asher.
They're sinners saved by grace, not guilty because Christ took
their guilt. He was made sin for them. And every Gentile who's included
here, in this number, whatever number it is, he's not guilty. They're righteous in God's sight.
That's right. Because Christ redeemed them
by his blood. So that's the key now. Now you
can get boggled down in the details if you want, but now let me just
say a word about the 12 tribes here. As I said, as you go through,
and I didn't put everything here on this, but Notice that the
first tribe mentioned is the tribe of Judah. Now Judah, normally
if you list the sons of Jacob, the sons of Israel, you list
them in the order they were born. And who appears first? Reuben.
But here Judah appears first. I've been studying, finishing
out the book of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 47, 13, and 14 there, He begins in Ezekiel's vision
with an allocation of the land. Remember, I told you how that
allocation was perfectly parallel and perfectly equal. Every tribe
received the equal share. Nobody got anything bigger. And
of course, what that's a picture of is that we all who are in
Christ, we're saved by grace, we're equally blessed, equally
righteous, equally forgiven based on his blood and righteousness
alone. In other words, you don't have more than I do. And I don't
have more than you do, because I'm up here preaching. I like the way one preacher put
it years ago, and I can't remember who it was. In the kingdom of
heaven, and here's what men by nature don't want to hear. In
the kingdom of heaven, the thief on the cross is just as saved
and secure and blessed as the Apostle Paul. Why? Because it's all by grace. Paul didn't earn it or deserve
it, neither did the thief. You see, there's no hierarchy
in heaven other than here's God in Christ and everybody else
is below him. I guess if you call that a hierarchy. But no
hierarchy of men and women. And that's what that in Ezekiel
is showing out in Ezekiel's vision of the kingdom of the land. Well,
when he begins to list the tribes in his vision, you know who appears
first in Ezekiel's vision, in Ezekiel 47, 13, 14? Joseph appears
first. And he says Joseph will have
the double portion. Well, what does that mean? Well,
you know, Joseph having the double portion, historically that refers
back to the choice of Manasseh and Ephraim, the two boys. and how God blessed them. Remember
he said bring them to him and he blessed them. And you know
what, these names mean something, you understand that don't you?
They describe the character of the people of God. Now when you
look at these names, you have to forget the character of these
particular men. Because they were sinners. But
their name means something. Of course Joseph, you know what
the name Joseph means, that means added to. In other words, everything
that was taken away from us in Adam is added to us plus more
in Christ. Joseph was a type of Christ.
Joseph being listed first in Ezekiel's vision brings Christ
to the forefront of the whole thing. Because Joseph was a type
of Christ. And you can read his story and
you know that. You remember how he was sold into slavery just
like Christ took our sins. And he was in bondage to our
sins as they were imputed to him. And how he went down into
Egypt, went down into bondage and sin, not sin in any way in
him, but it was all sin imputed to him. And how he was brought
out of that prison and elevated to the high position, just like
Christ. And when he died for the sins of his sheep, then he
was exalted in his resurrection and his ascension. And then those
two boys, Manasseh, you know what Manasseh means? That means
forgetting. In other words, everything that
was behind us, we forget. God doesn't remember our sins
anymore, which means he doesn't hold them against us. And what
does Ephraim mean? That means fruitful. Everything
that we have in Christ, the fruit of his grace, the fruit of his
power, the fruit of his will. So back there. Well, here it's
different. It starts off with Judah. And
what does Judah mean? Judah means praise. And what
else do we know about Judah? Who came from the tribe of Judah?
Our Savior. So what's happening here? Well,
Christ is brought to the forefront here and it begins with worship,
praising Him. That's what that means. And then
it says that Reuben, you know, what does Reuben mean? Reuben
was the firstborn. His name means behold a son. We behold Christ. We run the
race, we are saved by looking to Christ, we run the race of
grace by looking to Christ. And there's the tribe of Gad
in verse five. What's Gad mean? That means a
troop, an army, a company. God has a, it's kind of like
the army of Christ. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but we have the gospel. We have the sword of the gospel,
the sword of the spirit. and we preach the gospel. And
then you have the tribe of Asher or Aser. Asher means happy or
blessed. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in Jesus Christ. And then you have the tribe of
Nephalem or Naphtali. Naphtali means wrestling or striving. And it has the connotation there
of those who struggle with sin. You can look, well, and another
connotation could be, remember when Jacob wrestled with the
angel. And that's a picture of a sinner convinced of sin who
will not let go of Christ. That's what it is when God saves
us. We won't let go of him. We remain in Him because we've
got no, just like Peter said, to whom shall we go? You have
the words of eternal life. And then you have the tribe of
Manasseh. Remember what I talked about?
That's forgetting, leaving behind. Everything that was taken away
from us in our fall in Adam. All right, we leave all that
behind. We repent of dead works and idolatry. We're repentant
people. And then you have the tribe of
Simeon. Simeon means hearing and obeying. Well, when God the Holy Spirit
gives us life, what do we do? We hear and we obey. We believe
in Christ. We repent of dead works. We follow
Him. Then the tribe of Levi. Incidentally,
the tribe of Levi is normally left out of the other list. Now, why is that? Because the
other list are allocations of land. which Levi being the priestly
tribe a picture of Christ and his church didn't have any they
were the center of the nation and they depended upon the other
tribes to support them so they didn't own land that's why Levi
was always left out of the allocation of land they always had the central
position in Ezekiel's vision they have the central position
of what they call the oblation or the holy consecration So they're
special. And what it is is they're special
in that they, the tribe of Levi, especially the descendants of
Aaron, there's the high priest, there's the other priest, that's
Christ and his church. But here Levi is listed with
the other tribes. Now why do you suppose that is?
Well, the name Levi means, let me think, I don't wanna tell
you wrong. It means joining, clinging to. And of course, picture
of clinging to Christ there, joining with him, we're one with
Christ in the eyes of God's law and justice. We have his righteousness
to plead our cause before God. But the reason Levi, I believe,
is listed here is because it's a testimony that that old covenant
priesthood is over now and it's been fulfilled in Christ. I think
that's the significance of it. Verse 7, the tribe of Issachar. Issachar means reward Boy, don't
we have the reward, the inheritance of grace. And understand now,
that's not rewards, plural, that we earn. That's the reward of
grace. If it's of, listen, if we earn
it, it's not of grace, it's of debt. But this is the reward
of grace. Tribe of Zebulun. Zebulun means
home, means dwelling place. We live and move and have our
being in him. He is our home, isn't he? And
we're members of his household. The tribe of Joseph, as I said,
Joseph means added to. And so what we have by way of
Christ and then Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin, Benjamin means
son of the right hand, son of the right hand. So there you
have those tribes. Now Ephraim's left out and you know, there
are two tribes left out is Dan and Ephraim. And we really don't
have an explanation here as to why those are left out, but we
know historically and from biblical testimony that Dan, the tribe
of Dan, Dan means to judge, the judges. And of course, whenever
you talk about judgment in the kingdom of God, what are you
talking about? You're talking about the gospel. I will send judgment
to the Gentiles. Isaiah, what is that, 42? I can't
remember. But anyway, he's gonna send the
gospel. And you know, these people go
around saying, well, we don't judge. Let me tell you something.
We judge every time we preach the gospel. He that believeth
not shall be damned. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. The preaching of the cross is
foolishness to them that are perishing, but it's the power
of God, the wisdom of God to them who are being saved. That's
a judgment. And that's what Dan means. But
the tribe of Dan was infamously an idolatrous people. And so
they're left out of some of these lists, the idolatry of Dan. Well,
Ephraim's left out. Remember what Ephraim means. Ephraim means fruitful. And as
far as a type, a picture, we're fruitful in Christ. You know,
we have the fruit of grace. Well, Ephraim was a very prideful
people. And like I said, I don't have
time to go into all that, but that's maybe why they're left
out. But look at verse eight or verse nine again. He says,
after this, I beheld and lo a great multitude, which no man can number
of all nations, all kindreds, all people in all languages,
all tongues. And they stood before the throne
and before the lamb. a lamb that was slain, clothed
with white robes, washed in the blood of Christ, and clothed
in his righteousness imputed." There it is. Now again, remember, whoever
he's talking about They're justified based on the imputed righteousness
of Christ. They're regenerated by the Holy
Spirit. They've been sealed in their
minds and they're standing before the throne, the throne of God's
glory, the throne of God's grace. And they got palms in their hands.
What do the palms represent? Remember Hosanna? That's worship. They're worshiping God. And here's
what they say. They cried with a loud voice
saying salvation to our God. Our salvation is of the Lord. All of grace, it's not of me,
it's not of you. We don't have a thing to brag
about in ourselves. Our glory is Christ. God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross. Salvation to our God,
which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, unto Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory, the Lamb of God, slain for our sins,
in whose righteousness we stand. All right.