I took off my coat, if anybody else is warm, please feel free to take off your jacket as well, and if you're warm open the window, it looks like most summer open. I had a real treat this week. One of my seminary professors, one of my old testament professors, Dr. Richard Pratt came to Highland Town and spent the day with me and we just spent our time together walking through the neighborhood and visiting with one another and catching up on old times telling old stories and laughing together and just was a wonderful day and it was a real blessing for me. I was a little down after last Sunday and he asked me, well, what are you preaching on right now? And I said, well, I'm preaching through the book of Revelation. He said, are you crazy? He said that for a couple of reasons. Number one for probably all the reasons you would assume, just the difficult nature of the book, but also he said, I'm ashamed of you for not preaching through the old testament. You need to be doing old testament, great, but Richard was real an encouragement to me. And he helped me sort of step back and think again about what I wanted to do when I began this study of the book of Revelation. One of the things I did this week was go back to my very first sermon on Revelation and read to it. I'm going to touch on some of those points in just a minute. But I want to begin by giving you an encouragement and a challenge, if you will, before we even start. Last week I began to really try to get into some exposition of the text and deal with some of the in-depth interpretations of some of the images. And I tell you, I had more response to that than almost anything else I've done so far. And some of you came up to me immediately after the service said, wait a minute Pastor, it says right here in my Bible that the writer on the white horse is the antichrist. See, it says it right there in the Bible. It's the antichrist. Well, let me tell you something. In my office on my shelf, I have about 12 different Bible. A lot of different translations and also a lot of study Bible. And they can be tremendously helpful tools as we seek after God's truth of God's word. They can be very helpful, but they can also be a hindrance to it. The headings and the titles that are often inserted above the text can be very misleading and distracting. One of the reasons that I have emphasized so much to you the value of Alan's book, the end. A reader's guide to the book of Revelation is the main thing I think that Alan is attempting to do is to help her look at how we can approach Scripture. Different methods for interpreting principles that guide us in our understanding of God's word. And his is not so much of an attempt to put forth a particular interpretation of the book as it is to help you look at the book itself and the guiding principles of Scripture. I think he does a wonderful job. Now, I disagree with him on some points. You know, I've already talked about that. And we're going to continue to disagree. One thing that I wrote down this week, and it was interesting. I wrote this down earlier in the week. And then later on, I went back and looked at my first sermon. And I had actually quoted this in my first sermon, but I wanted to quote it again this week. It's from the Westminster Confession of Faith, the first chapter in the seventh paragraph. It says, not all things in Scripture are equally plain in themselves or equally clear to all. All right, there's our own confession of faith. Start this off in good standing. Not everything in the Scripture is going to be plain and easy to understand. But it goes on to say, yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly stated and explained in one place or another in Scripture, that not only the educated, but also the uneducated, may gain a sufficient understanding of them by proper use of the ordinary meaning. I read that again to say, as I have been going out of this week and studying, and I have to tell you, I've gone back and re-studied. I've been going back and trying to wrestle with the text and really working through it. I keep coming to places where I scratch my head. And I looked back at my first sermon, and one of the things I said in my first sermon is, your pastor is not going to have all the answers. One of the things I felt even after last week, I gave you three main interpretations of the white horse. And one of them was right, I think. One of them is probably right. And afterwards I said to Julius, I said, I don't think I really said this one had to be right or this one wrong. He said, oh yeah, you said the third one was the right one. And a certain sense, I don't misunderstand when I said this, a certain sense, all three of them could possibly be right. I was pretty adamant that the second one wasn't right. Yes, I was. But you know what, even if it is the right, even if the second was right, it doesn't change what I was trying to get at. And what, again, what was so wonderful for me this week was to go back to the beginning and think about why I wanted to study the Book of Revelation. And what I desired for us in studying the Book of Revelation was to see the triumphant Christ. To see the victorious Lamb of God who was slain. And I believe that was the purpose of the Book when Christ revealed it to the Apostle John. And when he wrote it down, that for believers in that day, the members of the seven churches in Asia, to all those who would read the Book of Revelation to all of us today, that there was a powerful relevance for us in our lives, for those who read it then and those who have read it throughout history, that though there is evil in the world, and there is suffering and struggles and persecution Christ is triumphant. And we can go back to what we talked about last week, and we can say it's Christ, any Christ, conquest, and the same is true. That the Lamb of God is triumphant, and that though there is evil in the world and though there is suffering, Christ is triumphant. All the songs that we've been singing this morning, before the throne of God, you are faithful. Jesus, I love you, all of them smoked at the fat. That no matter what happens in our lives, no matter how Satan may accuse us, no matter what circumstances in our lives may tempt us to believe otherwise, Jesus has one. We have victory in Christ. Now I want to say one more thing about study Bible. If you have a scope field Bible or a diary study Bible, if you will come and give it to me, I will buy you a new Bible. Anyone who has a scope field, I'm being serious. If you have a scope field or a diary study Bible, bring it to me and give it to me and I will buy you a new Bible. Again, I think study Bibles are helpful in some ways, but they can also be very misleading and unhelpful. There's my offer. Or you can come sit in my office and read one of the 12 study Bibles that I have on my shelf and compare them with each other. Anyway, all that said is background to get us started back into the text this morning and jump back in to chapter 6. Really particularly today, I want to focus on chapter 7. Last week we looked at the beginning of the unceiling of the seals on the scroll that we first saw in Revelation chapter 5. The scroll that was written within and without on both sides, symbolizing the completeness of the work there. Also, we talked about earlier how that scroll was the unfolding history of God at work in the world. The judgments of God throughout time that point to and lead up to the consummation of all things in the coming again of Christ. We talked about the first four seals in particular when I'm going to get back into the first seal. Christ, Antichrist, Conquest, we talked about the second seal being war, the third seal being famine, the fourth seal being death. We see these dangers coming upon the earth. They continue on as we come to the fifth one, verse 9 of chapter 6. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God. And the testimony they had maintained. They called out and allowed voice. How long sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? Then each of them was given a white robe and they were told to wait a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. When we think about four seals, we see in them sort of a universal application in that the dangers that come with the first four seals come to everyone on the face of the earth equally. Conquest, war, famine, problems, dangers, death come to believers and unbelievers alike. We come to the fifth seal now and I think what is happening here is very clearly and very specifically it's saying that believers are not going to escape these things. Just because you're a follower of Christ does not mean that you're promised a bed of roses, that you will escape persecution in this world. Matter of fact, as I thought back over all the things that I've preached to you since I've been here, over and over again, we've talked about how those who are godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. We've talked about the trials and the struggles that come to those of us who believe and here in the fifth seal we're seeing very specifically that persecution, suffering and trials afflict the people of God, that we are not immune and that we will not escape those trials, that we will not be in any way exempt from suffering. Problems will come our way, struggles, even death. Now we come to the sixth seal, we read in verse 12, I watched as he opened the sixth seal that was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sack cloth and made of goat hair. The whole moon turned blood red and the stars in the sky fell to earth as late fig drops, as late figs drop from the fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll rolling up and every mountain in island was removed from its place. In the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty and every slave and every free man hidden caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called them in the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the land. For the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand. Since I mentioned earlier, I haven't counted my stacks of commentaries on my desk, but almost every single image or vision or symbol that we find there is a great deal of discrepancy and how to understand that and interpret it. As you go through, you hear conflicting opinions and commentary on those things. As you come to the sixth seal, there is a lot of divergence and how that is actually going to work itself out. But in the sixth seal, there is great agreement. There is great unanimity in the fact that this sixth seal is in the extreme language represented there, the final judgment. The consummation of all things that Christ will come again and bring about the final judgment. All of these other five seals have been leading up to this climactic final judgment that we see here. Now, you can get into a lot of different interpretations with how literal that is going to be. I think if you look at this carefully and you examine again the way that the different terms are used in revelation and the different type of literature that we're looking at, this is just the use of extreme language. I don't believe the sky is literally going to be rolled up. Things aren't necessarily going to literally turn blood red and black as goats hair and all of these things, but they're a picture to us. The use of this type of language in a very extreme fashion to point us to the climactic consummation that is taking place here in the opening of the sixth scroll. The final judgment will take place. Everything else has been leading up to at this point. Chapter six ends with a powerful question. Chapter six ends with a question. Who can stand? As the drama and the utter terror as it were of the six seal unfolds before us, the logical question is asked who can stand and in some sense it seems to be a rhetorical question. One that doesn't even need an answer because when we look at all that is being said there and the picture that unfolds for us, the answer should seem obvious that no one can stand. How could anyone, any human being undergo the horrific images that are there in the sixth seal? How could anyone stand all that is played out in the sixth seal? But we come to chapter seven and we find an answer. Look with me if you will at chapter seven of the book of Revelation. After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel coming up from the east having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea. Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God. That's very important for us to begin right there. The question has been asked, who can stand? Who can stand? Well, before any of this action unfolds, before any of these dangers take place, before it can be unleashed. Angel says, wait. Wait before any of this happens until the seal of God is placed on who? I want you to look carefully there at what it says. Until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of God. He tells us very specifically in the text in verse three, who those are who are sealed, the servants of God. Now what happens is we continue on in the chapter and we get into some material that has caused tremendous confusion, wild interpretations and all sorts of misunderstanding throughout time. Verse four begins, then I heard the number of those who were sealed. Remember those who were sealed, the servants of God. The number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel, from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Ruben, 12,000, from the tribe of Gad, 12,000, from the tribe of Asher, 12,000, from the tribe of Napoli, 12,000. From the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000, from the tribe of Levi, 12,000, and from the tribe of Issaqar, 12,000. From the tribe of Zebulin, 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000. Now some of you would say, your Bible will probably tell you to say, written in the margin or in the footnotes or in the paragraph headings. Well this is very obviously the national people of Israel, says so, the people of Israel. But again what we have to remember is John's perspective on the vision that is taking place in the fact that he is combining things that he is hearing and things that he is seeing. And here we see very clearly that John hears. John hears, says in verse 4, I heard the number of those who were sealed. He is hearing the number from God's perspective. This is God's perspective on those who were sealed. We have already been told who they were. Verse 3 makes it clear that they are the servants of God, and from God's perspective his servants and his people are Israel. And the number 144,000 is not a statistic. It is not a specific number. If we begin to look at the book of Revelation and try to interpret every number that we come across as a specific statistic, we are going to get so lost and utterly confused that we will never be able to make sense of the book. And also it is just not the way that the scriptures as a whole use numbers. They are not always given as statistics. There are times that they are, but again we look at the context and a number like 144,000 very clearly represents a number of incredible majesty, a number of total completeness. The fact that God, as he looks down on his people, on his servants, sees the complete unity of his own. The complete unity throughout all time, those who have been his, those who he has chosen, those who Christ has saved. 144,000 is 12 times 12 times a thousand squared. It is not a specific number. It is not a statistic. It is a symbol which represents the completeness of all God's people. And as John hears that number, as he hears it, from God's perspective, the totality of his people. Now what happens next in verse 9? It says, John, after this I looked in there before me, was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and in front of the land. Has heard the number that God can count. Certainly God can count it. The scripture tells us God can count the hairs on our heads. God can count the hairs on all of our heads. He certainly can count all of those who belong to him. And God gives to John the symbolic number that represents the totality and the completeness of his people, his servants. And now John turns and he sees with his eyes. And what does he see? He sees a multitude that is so great no one can count it. It is a multitude beyond number. And not only is it made up of ethnic Jews, it is made up of people from every tribe, nation, and tongue.
Of God's people, throughout time, who have been claimed by Christ, who have been called and chosen according to God's perfect. Now I know this is hard for some of you. I know you don't like it. Let me go back and, you know, we could spend weeks on this one thing, but I want to read this one passage of scripture for you. It is from Paul's letter to the church of Galatians. No, excuse me, Galatians chapter 3. And I am going to begin at verse 26. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, listen to this. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. Who are you? Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. I could go on and on throughout the scriptures over and over again. They pile up one upon top of the other. The places in scripture where the people of God, the church of Jesus Christ is given the distinction of the Old Testament people of God. This is God's church. His people that he has claimed that he has chosen that he has saved through his son. These are the people of God. This is the 144,000 that God numbered himself and that John sees a multitude beyond counting from every nation people in language standing before the throne and in front of the land. And they are sealed. What does it mean to be sealed? A seal throughout time has been like a guarantee. And it's interesting the word that John uses there is in the perfect tense which means they are absolutely sealed for all time. These aren't people who have been sealed and can somehow be unsealed. They are sealed. They are Christ. They belong to Him and they are His forever. No one can snatch them out of His hand. They belong to God. They have been sealed and they have been guaranteed. Now it's interesting we see a lot of different uses of seals throughout history and even in the scriptures. The Romans put a seal on Christ's tomb, the guarantee that He would stay in that tomb. That seal didn't carry much weight. God triumphs over that seal. We read throughout the Old Testament different instances of the King's seal being used. I think particularly I just read to my children the story of Jezebel and how she would use Ahab seal to do her own will. And how often it came to know because God is the one with power and God is the only one who can guarantee and seal something forever. Listen to these passages of Scripture which speak to us of the sealing that takes place on these individuals. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at verse 13, Paul says this. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory. Then again Paul writes to the church in Corinth and the second letter in chapter 1, beginning at verse 21, He says this. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. When we think about these servants of God, these people of God, they have been sealed, they have been promised that God is going to carry them through to the end. And it is so important for us to understand that in the context of Revelation 6 and 7. We are seeing the breaking of these seals and the unleashing of these dangers and the horrible persecutions and the judgment that is to come and the question is asked who can stand. We talked last week about the evil in the world and when we encounter evil it causes us to stop and say what in the world is going on here? It causes us to be full of frustration and fear when we look at those circumstances, but here in Revelation 7 everything stops. He says, let me tell you something, though there is evil all around and though these dangers are coming and though these persecutions will happen, you are sealed. Guarantee, it is going to save my people, I am going to protect them, I am going to carry them through all of this evil that is being unleashed throughout history. And again we get caught up in things a lot of times and we look at this and we say well this is a specific 7-year period of tribulation that is going to take place at some time. What comfort does that offer to the folks that were in John's original audience who heard these words, who would not encounter those 7 years? They went through some of the worst persecution and tribulation we can imagine and as we look at the history of God's people throughout time they have always undergone suffering and persecution. They have always encountered danger and these words are to all of us, no matter what the circumstances or type of persecution we might be encountering, we go through tribulations in our lives. And the word of God to us through Christ is you have been sealed, you will conquer and that is immediately what we see as we continue on in the passage. We see that we have been sealed and protected and been given assurance, the next thing we read in the second part of verse 9 is they were wearing white robe and were holding palm branches in their hands. Again we talked about white as a symbol of purity, it is also a symbol of victory and the palm branches in their hands are certainly a picture to us of triumph and a victory that is ours in Christ. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, all the angels standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God saying amen, praise and glory, wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever am in. Then one of the elders asked me these in the white robes who are they and where do they come from? I answer you know, you said these are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger, never again will they thirst. The sun will not feed upon them nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from there. What a great promise of God for us as his people. What a great promise and expectation we have of God's protection. It's a promise that he's given to his people throughout time. It's an echo of what we read in Psalm 91. Listen to the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 91. He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge in my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with the feathers and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night nor the arrow that flies by day nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness nor the plague that destroys it midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. Now what is it saying there that none of these things will happen? What's the message of revelation that those who are sealed will in some way not undergo any of these persecutions and trials and dangers that are revealed in the six seals that have been opened? No, the message of these chapters I believe. I think the profound message for us today, the profound message for John's original audience, the message for everyone who reads these words is that though there is evil in the world, though there is wickedness, those there is sickness and death, amin and persecution, Christ is triumph and He is secured for you throughout eternity, your redemption, your life and your hope. And although these things may surround you and although they may bow on you in every way, you are protected. You are sealed for all time by the guarantee of Christ. I've got to read a Spurgeon quote to you. You know how I love Charles Spurgeon. His treasury of David commentary on the Psalms. He said this about Psalm 91 and what it had to say in verses 9 and 10 particularly but I think it in many ways captures what the message of revelation, 6 and 7 is. Spurgeon said this. It is impossible that any ill should happen to the man who was beloved of the Lord ill to him is no ill but only good in mysterious form. Laws enriches him. Sickness is his medicine, reproach is his honor and death is his game. The Satan may tend us, the trials may come. This great thought give us assurance that Christ has regarded our helpless estate and has given his blood for us. We have been guaranteed. We have been sealed for redemption by Christ himself. The triumphant Lamb of God, we are God's people and he will accomplish our salvation. He guarantees it. He makes it certain. Not of us as of him and that is our hope and that is our glory. Let's pray to the Lord. Heavenly Father we confess that we oftentimes are confused and we oftentimes find ourselves scratching our heads and wondering what these different images, symbols and signs mean. But through it all we see very clearly the Lamb of God who has been slain. We see him triumphant. We see the victory that is ours because of him and we rejoice in that. As we struggle in this world with the trials, with the suffering, with sickness, with death, with poverty, with relational problems, all of these things, Lord, we see as just one of the ways that you work in our lives, one of the ways that you perfect us. Even as we are told in Romans 8 that all things certainly work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. We thank you that we can read a book like Revelation and in the midst of what is sometimes confusing to us, see very clearly that indeed you have triumphed. And that indeed we too will triumph because of Christ. Father when we are prone to fear, when we are prone to doubt, even when we are ready to despair and feel hopeless. Capture us again with a vision of the slain Lamb of God, the triumphant king of kings and Lord of Lord. Let us bask in that vision and have great hope through Him. But we celebrate now as we come to this table. Even as we come now to the Lord's table, we ask Heavenly Father that you would even in this meal, seal to us the promises of redemption that we have spoken of this morning, the promised victory of Christ that is ours because of his broken body. And his poured out blood. Bless us as we come to this table. We pray in Jesus' name.