Revelation's 8

Mark Finley: The seal of God is a settling into the truth. It's the ability by the grace of God and through the power of God to face any test that the devil throws at us and to be faithful.
Guest (Female): This is HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message: Revelation 8. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with HopeLives365 and Pastor Mark by going to HopeLives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: Before we enter into an exposition of this chapter, let me remind you of a couple of things. The book of Revelation is more than mystic symbols, more than cryptic images, more than odd, strange beasts. The very foundation of the book of Revelation is that it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do you remember how the book of Revelation starts in Revelation 1:1? It says, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John." Now, we pause right there. Whose revelation is this? Jesus. Where did He get it? From God. What did God do with it when He gave it to Jesus, and what did Jesus do with it? Jesus then gave it to the angel, and the angel gave it to John. And what does the scripture say John did? Verse 2: "Who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, and to all things that he saw." So, the book of Revelation is a witness of the word of God. It comes directly from the heart of God. And the book of Revelation is a testimony of Jesus Christ. To understand Revelation, you have to take all of the various symbolic language and let the word of God explain it because the book of Revelation is a witness to the word of God. Also, to understand Revelation, it must be a Christ-centered explanation. Jesus is the beginning and the end of Revelation. In Revelation, He is the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus is the very foundation of the book of Revelation. So, all the prophecies of Revelation are anchored in Jesus. Revelation chapter 7, for many people, is one of the most confusing chapters in the book of Revelation. It's only confusing if you approach it through your own eyes of private interpretation. But if you approach it through the eyes of Bible symbolism, it becomes a very rich chapter in scripture. So, if you're following along at home, I invite you to take your Bible and turn to Revelation 7. If you're driving in the car, keep your eyes on the road, my friend, and just listen. The title of this chapter that I would title it would be Understanding God's Seal and the 144,000. Revelation 7:1, we begin: "After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree." Now, let's look at the symbols that we have here. We have, after these things, four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the winds would not blow on the earth, the sea, or the tree. What do you notice is repeated again and again? Four. Numbers in Revelation are important. When you read about three in Revelation, for example, you read about the Godhead: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, in the book of Revelation, you have the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet—the counterfeit trinity. Whatever God has, there's a counterfeit. Three is the number of the Godhead. That's why you have a triple blessing in Revelation. You remember that in Revelation chapter 1: "Blessed is he who hears, blessed is he who reads, and blessed are those that keep." That's the blessing of God that comes upon you when you read the book of Revelation, when you listen to the book of Revelation, and when you keep the things that are therein—when you let these prophecies change your life. That's why in Revelation 22 also, you take three. Three times Jesus says, "I come quickly." It's the blessing of the Godhead. The Father says, "I'm coming quickly." The Son says, "I'm coming quickly." And the Holy Spirit says, "I'm coming quickly." You have the counterfeit dragon, beast, and false prophet in the counterfeit Godhead. The number three is always the number of divinity, the Godhead. Now, you take number seven, for example. It always represents completeness—the complete redeemed or perfection. You have seven churches: God's plan in church history. Seven seals: the perfect revelation of God of what takes place in every age with His church—the pure church, the persecuted church, the compromising church, the dead church. Then you have, of course, in the book of Revelation, the seven spirits: the perfect ministry of the Holy Spirit around the throne of God. You have the seven lamps of fire: the perfect revelation of God through His word to humanity. Seven is always perfection. Three is always divinity. Four—what's four in the book of Revelation? Four is always universality in the book of Revelation. When you read about four, it's always talking about something universal, something worldwide, something international in scope. So, John says, "I saw four angels." In other words, I saw a universal ring of angels around the world. It's not simply that there are only four angels, but there's a universal ring of angels that are encircling the world. It's exciting for me to know that God has a universal ring of angels. Occasionally, some of the gusts of wind may blow through their fingers. There may be some destruction or chaos, a calamity that God allows as His judgments come upon the earth. But He does not allow the full force of satanic fury to come. Now, when you look at winds, let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 49. Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 49, verse 36 and onward. It says, "Against Elam I will bring four winds." Did we read about four winds in Revelation 7? We did. "From the four corners of the earth." What does four represent? Four corners, universality, from every direction. "And scatter them toward the four winds. There will be no nation where the outcasts of Elam will not go. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them... and I will set my throne in Elam and I will destroy from there the king and the princes," says the Lord. That's verse 38. "And it shall come to pass in the latter days... I will bring back the captives of Elam." So, here God is saying the winds represent destruction. Just like a hurricane, tornado, destruction, cyclone, destruction. So, four angels are holding back universal destruction from coming upon the earth. And what about these four corners? Well, they're north, south, east, west. They're directions of the compass. The angels hold back the four winds of the earth, the sea, and any tree so that it doesn't totally destroy the earth. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, the Bible says, having the seal of the living God. And he cries 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 and the sea or the trees till we have sealed the servants of God in the foreheads." Now, what about this seal of God in the foreheads? Do you read about anything else in the book of Revelation that's in the forehead? You do. In Revelation 13, it says they receive the mark of the beast in their forehead or in their hand. Why is the seal of God only received in the forehead and the mark of the beast in the forehead or the hand? The forehead is a symbol of the mind, the forebrain, and God only presents His truth to us and allows us to choose to receive it. Some people receive the mark of the beast in their forehead—that is, they obey because they have been deceived by what the Bible calls the wine of Babylon. The word Babylon in the book of Revelation represents confusion. You remember it was at the Tower of Babel that God confused the languages. So, confused religion is mentioned in the book of Revelation as Babylon. In fact, the first four letters, B-A-B-Y—why do you call a baby a baby? Because a baby babbles. It's confusion. And so religious confusion, wine impacts the forebrain. It impacts conscience, reason, judgment—that is, literal wine. So, false doctrine, the wine of Babylon, false doctrine of error, confuses people so they think error is truth and truth is error. So, there are some who are deceived. The mark of the beast comes in their forehead. The seal of God, God's truth, comes in the forehead as well. What about the mark of the beast in the forehead or in the hand? The hand is a symbol of coercion. The hand is a symbol of power. And so, the mark of the beast can be enforced either in the hand or the forehead. People are either intellectually convinced of the deceptions of the beast power, or they are forced, they are coerced through persecution, through imprisonment. The beast power will force or coerce them. God never forces or coerces. So, He only woos, wins, entices by love and truth. So, He speaks the truth in love, according to Ephesians chapter 4. And so, as the result of that, the seal of God is only in the mind because He only wants us to freely respond to Him. He'll never use the hand of force to inflict us with the pressure to serve Him, and He'll never force His will upon us. He'll never coerce us. He says to those angels, "Don't allow the great time of tribulation to come with the winds blowing of destruction, devastation, disaster everywhere until my people have had a chance in their mind to settle in in the truth and to accept the foundation of truth and to wave my flag or banner in these last days." Now, here let's review the symbols. Revelation chapter 7, the four corners of the earth are four points of the compass. You find that throughout the Bible. Daniel 8, verse 8. The four winds represent calamity, destruction, strife, war from every direction. You can read about that too in Daniel 7, verse 2, or Jeremiah 49. A seal always attests the authority of a document. It says this document has legal authority. A legal seal is placed upon legal documents. A seal in the Bible identifies God's people. A seal is also called a sign or a mark. You might read God's sign, God's mark, God's seal. All those three things: God's sign, God's mark, God's seal. And that's what identifies God's people as a people.
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Mark Finley: Let's turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 19, to discover a little bit more about this seal of the living God. And we read here in 2 Timothy chapter 2, scripture says, "Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity." So, the seal attests to who is God's. The seal in the forehead is not a literal seal, but it's rather a settling into the truth of God's word, the truth about Jesus, so deeply, both spiritually and intellectually, so you cannot be moved. That's why it says, "Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal." So, the seal identifies who are the Lord's. God will have a seal in the last days, a sign of His creator authority that distinguishes His people in an age of evolution. And this sign will identify them as His. Now, He says in Revelation 14, don't allow the great time of tribulation to come until every one of my people have had a chance to accept my grace, respond to my love, and are identified by my sign. Now, isn't that the response of a loving God? You can find this concept in other places in scripture. For example, in the great sermon on the second coming of Christ, where Jesus talks about wars, rumors of wars, He talks about famines, earthquakes, rising crime and violence, the erosion of the family unit. In Matthew 24, verse 12, Jesus says, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, then the end shall come." In Revelation chapter 14, verse 6, John says, "I saw another angel flying in the middle of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." So, before the coming of Jesus, Habakkuk 2, verse 14 says, "And the glory of the Lord, the knowledge of the Lord, shall cover the earth as waters cover the sea." So, before the coming of Jesus, the truth of God's word will go out to the ends of the earth. Men and women and boys and girls who have honest hearts will respond to that truth, and tens of thousands will come to Christ in these last days. But here, the mercy of God is revealed in Revelation chapter 7, the goodness of God is revealed in Revelation 7, and the love of God. Because the four angels hold back the winds of strife, the winds of destruction and disaster that are going to blow upon this world until God's people have had a reasonable opportunity to make an eternal decision for His kingdom. Now, he says in Revelation 14 that He won't allow the great time of tribulation to come until every one of my people have had a chance to accept my grace. Revelation 7 talks about the 144,000. Now, I know this subject is controversial. I know it's misunderstood by many in evangelical Christianity. But let's look at it from the perspective of Jesus Christ. Let's look at the 144,000 and identify them based on the characteristics that the Bible gives them. Who are they? Is this 144,000 a literal number? If it is, it's rather strange that out of a planet of over seven billion people, eight billion people, that only 144,000 will be saved. It says they're Israelites, they're Jews. Some people believe that these 144,000 are 144,000 Jews that after the tribulation go out and preach the gospel. Well, let's read the Bible for what it says, rather than a book about what the Bible is supposed to say. You know, if you read books about the Bible or what the Bible's supposed to say, you might get the author's opinion rather than what God's word says. There are a number of identifying characteristics of these 144,000. We'll just read them, and later you can study them, but we'll read them and then we'll try to explain it. So, whoever these 144,000 are, they stand through the final crisis. We know that the Bible tells us that in Revelation chapter 6, verse 17, and Revelation 7, verse 1. They have the seal of God, Revelation 7, verse 4. They're identified as God's people in the last crisis, Revelation 14:1. They are with the Lamb—that is, they're anchored in Jesus. They have the Father's name in their forehead—that is, the Father's character. The name represents character. The forehead represents the inner recesses of the mind. They stand for God. They sing a new song. It's rather interesting in one place it says, in Revelation 15, that they sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. When was the song of Moses sung? Before the plagues were poured out on Egypt or after? Before they went through the Red Sea or after? The children of Israel experienced the plagues being poured out on Egypt. They were present when they were poured out. The Egyptians persecuted the Israelites. God poured out the plagues upon the Egyptians to show the falsity and lack of power of all the Egyptian gods and to break the back of the Egyptian's yoke and to allow Israel to go free. Israel was protected through the plagues because the blood of Christ, the sign of His authority, was on the doorposts. They were protected through the plagues, and at the end of the plagues, they sang the song of Moses when they went through the Red Sea because they were miraculously delivered. In the last days of earth's history, God's people will have His sign, His seal of protection. The Holy Spirit will fill their hearts and lives and strengthen them. They'll live through the period of plagues and they will be protected. They'll be God's honor convoy; they'll not be touched by these plagues. At the end of the plagues, in their deliverance, they'll sing like Moses and the children of Israel a mighty song, and it's a new song. Nobody else can sing it except those who've hung on by faith and have confidence in their Lord in the darkest time of earth's history during this period of the plagues. They will be praising God for their deliverance. So, who are the 144,000? They stand through the final crisis. They have the seal of God. They have the sign or flag of God, the sign that they were created by Him. They worship the Lamb and not the beast. They're with the Lamb and not with the beast. They renounce the dragon. They have the Father's name in their foreheads. They reflect the Father's character and accept His love and grace. They sing a new song, the song of victory. They've gone through the plagues and triumphed. They're virgins. What does that mean, virgins? Remember we studied in our last study that a woman in New Testament represents what? If she's a pure woman, the bride of Christ. A harlot woman in the New Testament represents a church that is drifted away from Christ. These are virgins; they have pure, true doctrines, and they're part of God's true people. They've not gone harloting after the world, but they are part of God's faithful band. They are redeemed from among men. They are the living redeemed when Jesus comes. This is what we've learned about the 144,000. The 144,000 are a group of people who are alive when Jesus comes, who've stood with Christ and for Christ through this last period of tribulation. Then we raise the question about this number, 144,000. And there's something else we're concerned about. The Bible says they're Jews. We need to look momentarily, look at Revelation 7, verse 4. "And I heard the number of those who were sealed of all the tribes of Israel were sealed." So, who are these 144,000? Are they Jews? What do you know about Revelation? Revelation is written in what kind of language? Symbolic, that's right. "I saw another beast rise up out of the sea." Is it a literal beast? No. The beast has seven heads and ten horns. Did you ever see a beast with seven heads, ten horns? No. We talk about the winds blowing. We talk about the four corners of the earth. Why does the Bible say that the 144,000 are children of Israel? Who did Jesus say are the true Israelites? Let's take a few moments to explore this. Let's look at John 1, verse 47. Who is a true Israelite, and when did the nation of Israel stop being the exclusive chosen people of God? So, Jesus sees Nathanael and He says to Nathanael, "Behold, an Israelite indeed." Nathanael was an Israelite, but Jesus said, "An Israelite indeed." That's rather fascinating. You are a true Israelite. Why? Because he had an honest heart toward God. Look at Galatians 3, verse 29. Who are the true Israelites of God? "If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." After the death of Jesus, when the veil in the temple was split in two, Israel were no longer God's exclusive chosen people. Now, the church or God's people became true Israelites. You're not an Israelite if you have a blood lineage to Abraham, but you are an Israelite if you have the blood of Christ cleansing you from your sins. We today are spiritual Israelites according to the New Testament. Look at Romans 9, verse 6. Spiritual Israel is the people of God in the last days. Listen to what it says: "But it is not the word of God has taken no effect. They are not all of Israel who are Israel." Not all Israelites are Israelites, and not all those who are not Israelites are not Israelites. Did you get that? Not all Israelites are Israelites in the New Testament—that is, not every Jew is a spiritual Israelite believer, and not every believer is not an Israelite. When you come to Christ, you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You are a spiritual Israelite. Behold, you're an Israelite indeed. Matthew 23:37 and 38 says this: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I've wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate." When Jesus was rejected by the Jewish leaders, the temple was left desolate. Israel then was not God's exclusive people. After the crucifixion of Jesus, the nation of Israel was no longer exclusively God's people. In the New Testament, all who accept Christ, both Jew and Gentile, become His disciples and they're spiritual Israelites. So, who are the 144,000? The 144,000 are spiritual Israelites. They're believers who live through the final tribulation at the end time and are redeemed from the earth.
Guest (Female): You've been listening to HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at HopeLives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to HopeLives365.com/donate. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: In the Old Testament, 12 patriarchs represented all of God's faithful people. See, there were 12 patriarchs in the Old Testament. What did they represent? The entire Old Testament believers. In the New Testament, there were 12 disciples. They represented all of God's faithful people. 12 always signifies completeness. If you get 12,000 times 12,000, what do you get? 144,000. It's symbolic representation of the complete number of the redeemed that live through the final tribulation and see Jesus come. Here are people who are totally committed to Jesus Christ in the final end time of church history. Revelation 7 is a call to you and to me to be faithful to Christ. It's a call to be a spiritual Israelite. It's a call to us in our hearts that there is no guile found in our life, no compromise found in us. It's a call in the last days to be a part of this complete number of the redeemed in these end times of earth's history.