Revelation 7 // The 144,000

alright Revelation chapter 7 is where we're at and we got into it a bit last time around let's go through and let's pray before we get started but let's go through and read it Revelation chapter 7 I'm gonna pray first Jesus again we love you we thank you for your word we thank you that you tell us the end from the beginning that you you show us things to come and Lord as we're going through and talking about this chapter it can be controversial on a number of levels as we're going through and talking about this chapter we pray that you would be speaking to our hearts that you'd help me to be clear and that we'd be able to discern truth from error as far as teaching on this goes and we just give you the time and ask that you bless it in the name of Jesus amen okay Revelation chapter 7 it says 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 then I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the Living God and he cried 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 the sea or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads and I heard the number of those who were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed of the tribe of Judah - a thousand were sealed of the tribe of Reuben 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of GAD 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Asher 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Naphtali 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Manasseh 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Simeon 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Levi 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Issachar 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Joseph 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Benjamin 12,000 were sealed those are the 144,000 now a couple things here number one is some of the timing that's involved here and I think we talked about this last time in verse one there is this stopping the holding of the four winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth on the sea or on any tree and the The effect of that would be no rain the the way that we get rain on the land is that there are winds that blow blow water vapor off of the ocean the the oceans evaporate you have clouds forming over the oceans those clouds are blown over the land when they hit a mountain range you have grain fall on one side less rain fall on the other side that's why we're in a desert area and Seattle looks like it looks right and that's how you get the land watered in the hydrological cycle that we have going on right now if you stop the wind that all stops there is no rain and one of the things I want to remind you of because most of you have probably read the book of Revelation is that when the two witnesses come along they have the power to stop the rain in verse six of Revelation chapter 11 it says these two guys have the power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy and they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire and so those are these are two men that are going to show up during the Tribulation Period opposing the Antichrist and going before the coming of Jesus Christ when warning about is coming and the point that I'm making here is that when you look at the book of Revelation a lot of times guys will go through and teach it chronologically and there are actually it's more than hints but there are there are passages and especially as we're going through chapter seven that indicate that the things that you're seeing in Chapter seven are things that are connected with chapter 11 are things that are can did with chapter 8 are things that are connected with chapter 16 for example and and some of the plagues that you see in different places in the book of Revelation our plagues that are affecting people that are mentioned in Revelation chapter 7 and so again when I look at the book of Revelation I I see it as the same story being told over and over again with different detail in different places so when you know we talked about the the six seals and those six seals look like it's an overview of the whole Tribulation Period starting with the appearance of the Antichrist and ending with the with the appearance of Jesus Christ at the second coming and we talked about that last time and so there's a there's a pattern as you go through the book of Revelation there will be six judgments there will be a parenthesis in which good things are happening and then there will be a seventh judgment and usually the seventh judgment or in this case it's the sixth usually the seventh judgment is talking about the second coming of Christ and so you have that you have these guys sealed and we talked about sealing last time seal you know when when God seals you it it's it's not the idea that he takes you in he puts you in a room someplace and puts it puts a lock on the door so that you can't get out and a lot of times when people are having the debate over whether or not a person can walk away from Jesus they'll reference verses that say well I've been sealed by the Holy Spirit and so what that means is I can't get away so like I've been sealed in a room or something that is one not what the term seal means whether you're talking in the book of Revelation or you're talking about other places the word that's used for seal is a word that means a mark of ownership and so this isn't the only place where people are sealed we talked last time about the one hundred forty and forty-four thousand and that these guys were young Jewish men when you get to chapter 14 it identifies these guys as people who've been redeemed that they're virgin men that they're followers of Jesus and that they have no deceit and it looks like they make it all the way through the Tribulation Period so there's protection with these guys and in in fact you'll will will see that in Revelation chapter 9 verse 4 in fact turn over there revelation 9 verse 4 the these are the trumpet judgments chapter 8 and 9 and in verse 4 it says they were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads and so the seal is a mark of ownership it's it's also a mark of protection for these guys and so what it looks like is that they get sealed sometime during the Tribulation Period and they make it all the way through and again they're Jewish men who are redeemed if they're redeemed that means they have a right relationship with Christ and so these are young Jewish believers men who are following the Lord and I don't think that they're the only ones who are necessarily sealed they are a group of guys that are picked out as being being able to make it through the tribulation and being people who are honest witnesses and I think in some way they're connected with the rest of the people who get saved in this passage we'll talk about that in a minute you know when you're when you're talking about sealing in the Bible this is not the only place where it takes place in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 22 it talks about the fact that we have been that God has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee in Ephesians 1:13 it says in whom you altar also trusted after you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise in chapter 4 in verse 30 of the Ephesians that says do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption in Galatia well in in all those passages it talks about the fact of sealing and the mark of ownership that God puts on you and me is the Holy Spirit the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in my heart and also the fact that the Holy Spirit empowers me it's the mark of ownership the Bible calls the power of the Holy Spirit a downpayment until you get to purchase possession in other words we're looking forward to something that we're going to be getting in heaven and when God gives you the Holy Spirit it's basically a little bit of heaven it's like a little bit of heaven on earth until we get there so downpayment 10% right depending on if you're if you're buying residential if you're buying commercial 20 percent and so you're getting you're getting 10 percent of what God's got for you when you have the Holy Spirit come upon you and this is why I'm saying that there have been times when I've been praying and have asked God to fill me with his power I do that all the time but there have been times when I've just been in worship and prayer and God just overwhelms me just overwhelms me just you know whenever I talk about this stuff I call them hugs God just gives me hugs and it's it's this whole thing where where all of a sudden I have these chills going up and down my my whole body and some sometimes it'll start at my head and go all the way down to my toes but there have been times where I've been praying and God has just overwhelmed me in that way and I've had to ask him to stop you need to stop I can't take it anymore and just overwhelming feelings of I don't know how to describe it other than bliss and overwhelming joy and that kind of thing and it's just a down payment and those are those are things that we need to be looking forward to these guys that are sealed in this passage are Israel and that's in Contra distinction to the people who are sealed during this time because the people who are sealed during this time is basically everybody Galatians 3:27 28 it says for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus and the point that I'm making here is that in this chapter what God does is he divvies up the Jews from the Gentiles and so the Jews have a specific plan that God is operating from in verses 4 through 8 and then the Gentiles have another plan that God's operating from in verses 9 through 11 basically and they're divvied up they're separated from each other that doesn't happen in the New Testament until you get to the book of Revelation in the New Testament when when you're talking about the church it starts off being a Jewish Church but then the Gentiles are let in and we all become one and everybody's one in Christ but when you get to the book of Revelation all of a sudden all these distinctions are made between Jew and Gentile and it starts again in Revelation chapter 7 talked about the tribes so 144,000 from each and we already talked about some of that stuff these guys are redeemed virgin man followers of the Lamb and they're honest witnesses and one of the things that you will run into if if you are witnessing to people is the fact that they claim to be part of the hundred and forty four thousand and so the Jehovah's Witnesses are famous for this one hundred forty four thousands of Java's witnesses and actually it's 144,000 of the Jehovah's Witnesses from the early 20th century from the early 1900's and so those are the 144,000 if you talk to somebody who's a Seventh day Adventist they're the hundred and forty four thousand if you talk to somebody who's from the Worldwide Church of God they're the hundred and forty four thousand if you talk to the Catholics they're the hundred and forty four thousand and so everybody claims to be the hundred and forty four thousand and what God says in the passage is that there's twelve thousand from the tribe of Judah Reuben GAD Asher Naphtali Manasseh Simeon Levi Issachar Zebulun and so on there's a reason I went through and read every word in that passage because God is a great communicator and when he wants to tell you something he can make it clear and so if he wants to tell you this is a spiritual number and the these are allegorical statements in the book of Revelation God does exactly that he tells you when it's allegorical he tells you when it's spiritual he tells you when it's a sign and then on the other hand he tells you in this situation each each one of these guys from these tribes or from that and we and we talked about that before I've talked to Mormons before and you know my history with Mormons I used to work for some and work with them and they told me that there are the hundred and forty-four thousand and I said what tribe are you from without without missing a beat they told me they're from the tribe of Ephraim and it's just something that Joseph Smith came up with and in that kind of thing we talked about that I go are you are you are you virgin you know the guy who's talking to me are you a virgin and he goes what's that got to do with it just answer the question dude are you a virgin and he goes well no I'm married and I go then you're not one of the hundred and forty-four thousand I took him over to Revelation chapter 14 these are again young virgin men the that whole idea actually there's there's some other stuff that goes along with this have you guys heard of Anglo Israel ISM Anglo is realism is the idea that basically the the northern european peoples specifically England are actually the ten tribes the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and so not just England but there there are other northern European peoples that are the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel where that comes from is back back in the Old Testament Israel had a civil war basically they split between North and South and they both had a checkered history the South Judah the the kingdom of Judah followed the Lord for the most part they had some bad Kings they had some good kings the northern tribes of Israel those are the northern ten tribes they never followed the Lord and so they they ended up every single one of the kings of Israel was a bad king and so from the time of Solomon it's it's right around 1000 BC to 722 BC was the history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and they ended up being taken into captivity by the Assyrians and you guys know about that the Assyrians the people back in those days if they conquered you they wanted to keep you keep you unbalanced so you couldn't rebel against the conquering nation and so it would be like if the Russians conquered the United States they wouldn't just conquer us and come in and put governors over us they would conquer us and they would take all the all the artisans all the people who who had a trade and all the intellectual people and all the ruling elite they would take all of those people out of the land and they would transport them to another country that they've already conquered and so that group of people had to work at developing a new society and they didn't have time to rebel at the same time they take another group of people and if it was the Russians in the United States the Russians would take you know say people from Canada they take Americans and put them up in Canada and have them freeze and then they take the Canadians and bring them down to America and have them fry and you know and and you know try to set up a society again and it kept people off balance and that's what happened with the Northern Kingdom of Israel happened with Judah later on too but the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken off into captivity and never came back and so people talk about the last ten tribes of Israel and so Anglo Israel ism is the idea that nobody knows where the lost ten tribes went but we do and the way that we found out is by looking at the terms that are used for the people in northern Europe and so for example the Danes they're called the Danish right and usually when I think of Danish I think of nice pastries that taste good but that's a that's a group of people the Danes and so they are called the Danish well you know what that word for man is in Hebrew ish that's the that's the word for men and so what they did was they went well it's the Danish Dan da n is H Dan ish man from Dan and that was the big clue to where the Danes came from because Dan was one of the twelve truck or the ten tribes of Israel that were cast out and so we have the Dan ish up in Northern Europe and then you have the English and and you know and you go on with all this stuff and all it is is fool ish you know when when the separation between the tribes took place under Raya Boehm the people of Israel voted with their feet if you turn back to second chronicles chapter 11 won't you turn there real quick this is worth knowing because you're gonna you're gonna run into this stuff all the time with people second chronicles chapter 11 verses 14 through 17 and this is this is after the rebellion the division of the kingdom in Chapter ten guy named Jeroboam takes the northern 10 tribes off and it says in verse 14 well let's start in verse 13 it says from all their territories the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel took their stand with him talking about Reya boehm and for the Levites left their common lands and their possessions and came to Judah in Jerusalem for Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving his priests to the Lord then he appointed for himself priests for the high places for the demons and the calf idols which he had made and after the Levites left those from all the tribes of Israel such as set their heart to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers so they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made ray of balm the son of Solomon strong for three years because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years and so when the Northern Kingdom went off all the real believers in the Lord ended up leaving the Northern Kingdom and coming down to the southern kingdom and you have this again later on in second chronicles 15 9 in fact you could just turn there second chronicles 15 9 this is under ASA it says in verse 9 then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim Manasseh and Simeon those are northern tribes for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him and so you have it in in that passage in second chronicles chapter 30 verses 5 through 6 it says so they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel from Beersheba to Dan that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem since they had not done it for a long time in the prescribed manner then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the king and his leaders and spoke according to the command of the king children of Israel returned to the Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel then he will return to the remnant of you who've escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria and so this is after they've already gone into the Assyrian captivity and they're a remnant of people that are left up there and the kings of Judah are calling to them and saying come down and be a part of our kingdom and so you have that in in that passage Josiah 80 years after Hezekiah makes the same call and Manasseh Ephraim and all the remnant of Israel respond in chapter 34 in verse 9 it says when they came to Hill kaya the high priest they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and again those are tribes from the north from all the remnant of Israel from all Judah and Benjamin which they had brought back to Jerusalem and the point that I'm making here is that well the the ten tribes aren't lost number one God knows exactly where they are and number two the ones that were actually following the Lord ended up relocating from the northern kingdom down to the southern kingdom later on in the Bible you have the fact that the Jews are going to be regathered as one in fact turn over to the Book of Ezekiel turn right and go past Isiah and go to Ezekiel and you you have this in Ezekiel 36 in and 37 I'm not going to read the whole thing it'd be worth going through and looking at it yourself but there are promises made to the nation of Israel that God's gonna take away their stoning heart and give them a heart of flesh and he's going as poor as spirit out on them and then when you get to Ezekiel chapter 37 you have this vision of the valley of dry bones and the the point of the basically the vision is there's this valley with a bunch of dry bones in it and God shows this to Ezekiel and says to Ezekiel can these bones live and Ezekiel says I don't know but you do and so God has Ezekiel prophesy to the bones and there is flesh that comes on them and then he prophesized and the breath of life comes in them and so you have basically a resurrection picture in this valley of dry bones but it's not about the resurrection it's about the the restoration of the nation of Israel if you look down in verse 11 it says then he said to me son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel they indeed say our bones are dry our hope is lost when we ourselves are cut off therefore prophesy and say to them thus says the Lord God behold o my people I will open your graves cause you to come up from your graves these guys have been saying that it's like we're dead and in graves I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel then you shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves all my people and brought you up from your grace I will pour my spirit put my spirit in you and you shall live and I will place you in your own land then you shall know that I the LORD have spoken it and performed it and then he has the sign of the two sticks in the rest of the chapter it says and again the word of the Lord came to me as for you son of man take a stick for yourself and write on it for Judah and for the children of Israel his companions then take another stick and write on it for Joseph the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions and what that is is the two nations so Jew day and his companions as are the southern nation and Joseph and his camp and Joseph and Ephraim and his companions are the northern nation so Ezekiel writes on these sticks for Ephraim for Joseph for Judah for all Israel as companions to sticks and he's told to take the sticks verse 17 join them one to another for yourself into one stick and maybe we'll become one in your hand and when the children of your people speak to you saying will you not show us what you mean by these say to them thus says the Lord God surely I will take the stick of Joseph which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel his companions and I will join them with it with the stick of Judah and make them one stick and they will be one in my hand and the sticks on what you write will be in your hand before their eyes then say to them thus says the Lord God surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations wherever they have gone and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land and I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel and one King shall be king over them all they shall no longer be two nations nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again they shall not defile themselves any more with their idols nor what their detestable things nor with any of their transgressions but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and will cleanse them then they shall then they shall be my people and I will be their God and he goes on with the passage that's been fulfilled so Israel has been gathered out of the nations it's not completely fulfilled but Israel has been gathered out of the nations they're been there in the Land of Israel and it's one nation just like the Bible said it was going to be in the last days and that's what's being spoken about they're the Mormons by the way would take this passage and they say that the two sticks one of them for Judah and for the children of Israel his companions one of the sticks is the Bible and the other stick he says is for Joseph and this is where Joseph Smith said that his name was in the Bible that God was talking about Joseph Smith here for Joseph and for Ephraim and the children of Israel their companions and that's the Book of Mormon so when you talk to Mormons they have the King James Version Bible and the Book of Mormon all in one big book and it's from this passage and so they try to use this passage as a prophecy of their little you know of their little book thing and so when whenever I talked to a Mormon and we get on this stuff he'll go to this passage and say see there are these two sticks one stick is the is the Bible the other stick is the Book of Mormon they're joined in your hands and look I've got the fulfillment of that and then I go let's keep reading and when you keep reading you find out that the sticks are the northern tribes of Israel and the southern tribe of Judah and God's bringing the nation back together and that's what was being prophesied in this passage not the Book of Mormon or Mormonism or Joseph Smith or anything like that right okay so here's the point God again knows where all the Jews are he knows where everybody from every tribe is and so even if I don't know God knows and even if the Jews don't know God knows actually the only the only tribe that the Jews really know that they have nailed down as to who is from what tribe or another is the tribe of Levi basically and specifically the priestly tribe the priestly part of the tribe of Levi there there is a genetic marker in the Jewish genome that marks the priests and so normally speaking if you're talking to somebody with the last name Cohen well the word Cohen in Hebrew means priests and so somebody with a last name Cohen is most likely from the priestly tribe if you're talking to somebody named leva levy or Levi or Levitt that comes from the tribe of Levi and most likely they're Jewish people from the tribe of Levi and so that's kind of a cool thing so the Jews do have an idea who the who the priestly tribe was but as far as the rest of them they're not really sure and so you have this regather of the nation that was prophesied and is being fulfilled in our day remember when Jesus was born and there there were a couple of people that prophesied over Jesus in the temple it's in the Book of Luke and one of them was Anna and she was a prophetess and she came up to Mary and began prophesying over Jesus you know what tribe she was from it says in the text what tribe she was from tribe of Asher and it's one of the tribes from the northern kingdom that supposedly went off and were lost and so again what I'm telling you is even in the Bible the the the the people from these tribes were still around at the time of Jesus and so you can't say that there's a lost ten tribes and you know the Mormons think that they came over you know came over to the United States and became the American Indians and you know the the Anglo Israelis think that they became the English and conquered the world and you know and that kind of stuff and you can't you can't get that from Scripture in the book of Nehemiah 11:10 here's a here's another thing that people do they try to make a distinction between Jews and Israel and you're gonna run into this too if you're witnessing that people they'll they'll try to say that the Jews are from the tribe of Judah and Israel is talking about the northern ten tribes and the problem with that is that the terms Jew and Israel are used interchangeably so in the book of Nehemiah this is after the the tribe of Judah went off to Babylon and came back Nehemiah is rebuilding the city of Jerusalem rebuilding the walls and Nia in the book of Nehemiah he calls these people who came back Jews 11 times and Israel 22 times and so the terms are interchangeable and when you look at Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 47 it talks about the fact that all the Jews or all of Israel is back in the land it says in the days of is a rubber Bell and in the days of Nehemiah all Israel gave the portions for the singers and the gatekeepers and the passage goes on so interchangeable in the Old Testament Jews and Israel are interchangeable and people make a big deal out of that when you get to the New Testament Paul called himself a Jew and an Israelite he's from the tribe of Benjamin so he's not even from the tribe of juda and he's calling himself a Jew and he's calling calling himself an Israelite and that's in again Romans 11:1 it says I say then God has God cast away as people certainly not for I also AM an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin and so again you have that and so when you get to the New Testament the term Jew is used 174 times and the term Israel has used 75 times and again they're used interchangeably and so again I know that that's a lot of stuff that you think that you're never going to use but you're going to because somebody's going to come up and they're gonna start saying that my church is the hundred and forty four thousand and I am spiritual Israel and there's a difference between Israel and the Jews and they're gonna do all that kind of stuff and you just cannot support that from Scripture and so again back to the point when God in Revelation chapter 7 is talking about 144,000 Jews from each one of the tribes including the the the tribes of Israel the northern kingdom I kind of think he means 144,000 Jews from each one of the tribes some of those being the northern tribes the king from the kingdom is Israel he knows who these guys are and so one of the things that that people run into you can go back to Revelation chapter 7 if you left there I want you to notice the names it's Judah Reuben by the way the names are out of order you know who the first born son of Israel was of Jacob was Reuben so they're out of order Judah gets put in the first place and some people have said that the reason Judah gets put in the first place is because it was the kingly Kingdom or the kingly tribe that's where the that's where the Kings came from that it was the tribe that lasted you know while the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken Jude taken down Judah stayed but most like it most likely it's because it's the tribe that Jesus came from and so Judas mentioned first then Reuben than gab ben asher then Naphtali then Manasseh that's interesting because Manasseh is a half tribe okay so this this brings up another thing and you know again I know this is kind of intricate but you need to know this too when you when you do divvying up the twelve tribes of Israel in the Old Testament the tribes get named differently depending on what you're talking about and so normally when you're going through and you're and you're just doing the twelve tribes the twelve sons of Israel who were his two youngest sons they came from his favorite wife yes no Joseph and Benjamin right exactly Joseph and Benjamin and then all the other guys Rubin and Gavin Natalie and Asher and and Simeon and all those guys were from the other wives that Jacob had okay and so when you're talking about the twelve sons of Israel Joseph is always mentioned but when and so when you're talking about the nation of Israel as a whole all the sons of Jacob you know Jacob had his name changed to Israel that's where we get the term and so when you're talking about the nation of Israel as a whole you're naming all the sons of Jacob and Joseph is always mentioned okay but when you're doing stuff like you are going to divvy up the land you'll see these passages where God is going to take the land to give it to the to the nation of Israel you still have 12 tribes but Levi gets taken out and in Levi's place the two sons of Joseph Manasseh and Ephraim replace Joseph and they replace Levi and so in either case you you you can have Levi taken out and the two sons of Joseph are put in and they replace Levi and they replace Joseph and you still have 12 tribes and so when the land was divvied up that's how its divvied up because the Levites didn't get their own counties basically everybody else had a County they had a they had a tribal area but not the Levites the Levites were dispersed throughout the nation of Israel and so you have this thing in this passage where Manasseh gets mentioned well Manasseh is one of the sons of Joseph and Ephraim is the other son of Joseph so normally you would have manna if you have Manasseh mentioned you're not going to have Joseph mentioned but as we go on it says Simeon Levi Levi gets mentioned when Manassas mentioned that's not normal and then Issachar Zebulun and then Joseph well Manasseh comes from Joseph and so why is Manasseh mentioned and Joseph is mentioned and there are two other tribes that aren't mentioned and the two tribes that aren't mentioned this passage are Dan and Ephraim and so when you're talking to people about the fact that God has chosen these different guys and sealed them they'll will they'll say well Dan and Ephraim Mark mentioned therefore therefore this is a spiritual passage it's allegorical and you can't really be talking about these tribes really so that's that's where we go with that so Dan and Ephraim aren't mentioned there for everything that God said does it really mean what he said he actually means something else and again God's a better communicated that it better communicator than you are and he's a better communicator than I am and if he wanted to say that he could just say that that's a real simple thing there are reasons that Dan and Ephraim aren't mentioned and most most likely the reasons that they're not mentioned is because there are the first tribes that go into idolatry specifically those two tribes and so if you have the tribe of Joseph there you are actually including the tribe of Ephraim it's just backhanded you're not actually mentioning their name because you take Manasseh out of Joseph all you got left is Ephraim you guys get that okay so Joseph had two sons and Joseph got the double portion and so each one of his sons got a full portion along with the other eleven sons or the other ten sons of Israel and so they get status as a full tribe depending on what you're talking about but again they're half tribes from Joseph and so if I mentioning Manasseh I'm mentioning a son of Joseph and if I'm mentioning Joseph then I have to be talking about the rest of them which will be for him right so even though Ephraim's not mentioned in the passage Ephraim is in the passage but Dan is the is the real sticker in this passage because Dan has never mentioned and there are all kinds of ideas behind that and lovely let me give you one there there is indication that when the Antichrist comes he's going to be coming from Judaism is going to be coming from the nation of the Jews Antichrist in passages is called a false Christ a pseudo Christ when you get to revelant when we get to Revelation chapter 13 he's pictured as being part of a Trinity you have the one who he empowers him who is the dragon who's Satan you have the Antichrist himself and then you have the false prophet who promotes him well in in real Christianity in in the real deal that God's got going you've got the father who empowers the son when he was on the earth and you had the Holy Spirit who is his go-to guy as far as promoting Jesus the Holy Spirit is the one who speaks to us of Jesus and speaks of his power and speaks of the judgment to come and points us to Christ and so when you get to Revelation 13 you have Satan in the Antichrist doing a copy of the Trinity there's an unholy trinity and that's taking place there there's indications in the Old Testament in the Book of Daniel also in the New Testament that when the Antichrist comes that Israel begins to follow him all the world wonders after the beast and Israel is not a not excluded and so when one of the things that we talk about when we're talking about last days stuff is the fact that the Jews are not looking for biblical fulfillment of the of the passages that speak about the Messiah they missed that with Jesus Jesus tried to show him that he was show them that he was fulfilling prophecy what they are looking for is a man who will help them rebuild their temple and what the Bible indicates that the next guy who comes on the scene who helps the Jews rebuild their temple is not a man who comes from God it's a man who comes from Satan that it's the Antichrist who actually does that and so they get fooled into following the Antichrist into at least believing that he may be the fulfillment of the second coming because or the fulfillment of the first coming of the Messiah because they don't believe that Jesus was Messiah he's a false Christ and no Jew is gonna follow a Gentile as a messiah so there are some passages in the Bible that kind of indicate that something weird is happening with the tribe of Dan so turn with me back to Genesis Genesis chapter 49 Genesis chapter 49 and this is a real famous passage where Israel for where Jacob is prophesying over his twelve sons actually not only the 12 but Joseph's sons also Genesis chapter 49 you'll notice in verse 3 he talks about Reuben in verse 5 he talks about Simeon and Levi in verse 8 he talks about Judah cool things in the prophecy about Judah in verse 13 he talks about Zebulon verse 14 misuk are in verse 16 Dan and so you have all these different prophecies about these guys and Dan is the name Dan literally means judge okay and so he says Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel you know a famous judge who came from the tribe of Dan it's the judge that everybody knows it's Samson yeah Samson king came from the tribe of Dan okay so Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel then look at verse 17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way a Viper by the path that bites the horses heels so that it's riders shall fall backward that's just a weird prophecy so Dan is compared to a serpent sneaking up on people and bitin them right causing people to fall off their horses basically and so it might be an indication dan was in the far north of Israel that's where they ended up and it might be an indication that they are people who are like guerrilla warriors because most of the of the invasions that came into Israel came from the far north when they came from Assyria and Babylon and that kind of stuff so it might be an indication of that but when you get to verse 18 Jacob says this I have waited for your salvation O Lord and so it goes through let's just read it as one dan shall judges people is one of the tribes of Israel Dan shall be a serpent by the way a viper by the path that bites the horses heels so that its riders shall fall backward I have waited for your salvation O Lord okay here's another thing that you have in Hebrew you know what Jesus's name is in Hebrew it's just schewe you know what Yeshua means the Lord is salvation he literally says in that passage I have waited for you schewe and he's talking about Jesus so why when he prophesies over Dan and starts talking about serpents and biting and all this stuff does he erupt into Lord I'm looking for you in that situation and there are people who think and you know I am obviously not dogmatic on this but there are people who think that the reason is because the Antichrist comes from the tribe of Dan and it may be besides the fact that Dan was the first tribe that went into idolatry it may be the reason that Dan is not mentioned in that list in in the book of Revelation turn over to Jeremiah actually you don't need to turn there I'll just read it to you Jeremiah 8:16 says this the snorting of his horses was heard from Dan and it's talking about this leader that comes in and goes after Israel the snorting of his horses was heard from Dan the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones for they have come and devour the land and all that is in it the city and those who dwell in it and so that's one of those those passages that may speak of something coming out of the tribe of Dan it can be talking about just an invasion from the north that's a good possibility or it can be talking about Dan in particular and the reason that I bring that up is because again Dan is missing in the hundreds of 44,000 so there's something weird going on with Dan there's another passage in Jeremiah 4:15 that says a voice declares from Dan and proclaims affliction from mount ephraim and again you have the same thing god made a statement in the book of deuteronomy talking about departure from the lord that's that's pretty telling this is out of Deuteronomy chapter 18 or chapter 29 verses 18 through 21 it says this so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these nations and that there may not be among you a root a root bearing bitterness or wormwood and so it may not happen when he hears the words of this curse that he blesses himself in his heart saying I shall have peace even though I follow the dictates of my heart as though the drunkard could be included with the sober the Lord would not spare him for then the anger of the Lord his jealousy would burn against that man and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven and the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in this book of the law and so he's talking about people who ditched the Lord people in Israel who ditched the Lord and go after the pagan idols and Dan was the first tribe that did that wholeheartedly kind of whole cloth Dan was the first tribe and then Ephraim later on did things that were similar not to the extent that damn did but Ephraim and Dan were the first tribes in Israel that went into idolatry and caused the judgment of God to come down on the people of Israel so all that to say the reason that ephraim isn't mentioned he's in there but the reason that he ephraim isn't mentioned is because God talks about blotting out names and the reason that Dan isn't mentioned is most likely because of the idolatry possibly because there may be some connection with the Antichrist and again so you have that whole thing the Bible talks about these guys being redeemed and so back over in Revelation in Revelation chapter 14 it talks about the the fact again that these guys stand before the Lord and that they were redeemed from among men being first fruits to God and to the lamb here's one of the here's one of the things that people ask me about you know we remember when we were going through 2nd Thessalonians 2 and it talks about the the fact that the restrainer is taken away before the Antichrist can come restrainer being the holy spirit so one of the things I talked to you about was the fact that the Holy Spirit it looks like the Holy Spirit leads in the same way that he came in Acts chapter 2 so it's not that the Holy Spirit wasn't here before Acts chapter 2 but in Acts chapter 2 the Holy Spirit comes out front and he becomes the mayor major player in the church and so all the way through the book of Acts you see the Holy Spirit said the Holy Spirit let the Holy Spirit did this the Holy Spirit did that still pointing to Christ but the Holy Spirit is OUTFRONT in that instance and so we're living in the age of the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit's at work in us pointing us to Jesus leading us into all truth all of those things but that started in Acts chapter 2 you didn't have the same relationship before that point and so Jesus talked about the fact that this the baptism of the Spirit was coming all of those things right and that the Spirit was going to end well the church so you got something going with you that David never had you have something going with you that John the Baptist never had that Elijah never had that Moses never had God dwelling in you and empowering you in the way that he does in all of the church okay that it looks like it's taken away that's that's what came in Acts chapter two it looks like that's what's leaving that that empowering that that whole relationship stops in when when Jesus comes back to take the church out so you don't have the Holy Spirit working in the same way but he's still working because in the old testament before the time of John the Baptist's before the time you know Jesus coming and all that stuff before the time of the Gospels the Holy Spirit was working in the hearts of men and so you see him mentioned over and over but not in the same way that he is with the church so he's still around the Holy Spirit was the one who saved people in the Old Testament just like he does in the New Testament it's just slightly different and so I think that what happens when you get through the book of Revelation is we go back to Old Testament Old Testament economy so the Holy Spirit still at work but not the same way that he works with us different stuff that's going on and so these guys are saved they're redeemed even though the restrainer has been taken out of the way the just shall live by faith you know where that's from it's from the minor prophets right it's not it's not from the New Testament it's in the New Testament but it's a quote from the minor prophets and so that's in the Old Testament and so faith it's still the standard okay so that's the hundred and forty-four thousand and I just looked at the clock one of the cool things real real quick I just want to do this with you look at verse nine it says after these things talking about the hundred forty-four thousand I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number of all nations tribes peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb and all the Angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom thanks honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever then one of the elders answered saying to me who are these arrayed in white robes and where did they come from and he says sir you know and we'll talk about this next time but immediately after the mentioning of these 144,000 young men from all the tribes of Israel you have this multitude of Gentiles when it says from all the nations the word for nations in Greek is the term that's used for Gentiles and so these are all the peoples from all the tri from all the tribes and nations on the earth other than the Jewish nation and they're standing before God and there's a number that nobody no man can number standing before the Lord and because they're in such close proximity to the hundred and forty-four thousand in this passage it looks like there may be some connection there so you got 144,000 Jews who are fully on fire for God for for for the Lord and they are guys who serve in and worship the Lamb have you ever met a Jew that came into a relationship with Jesus they are fiery people they they are people who go for it they're really excited about about the fact that they found the Messiah and they won't keep their mouths shut they go around doing things that put a lot of Gentiles to shame because they've been talking about the Messiah all their lives and they finally found out that Jesus is the fulfillment of that these guys go for it looks like that may be what's going on with these guys it talks about the fact that they have a good witness back over in Revelation 14 so when I look at the hundred forty-four thousand I think that they're 144,000 Jewish Billy Graham's going around and all the earth you know dragon Gentiles out of the pit basically and bringing them into a relationship with Christ and it looks like again that there's a connection their whole point being that it's not just all gloom and doom during the tribulation period there are a lot of people getting saved more people than you can number more people that I can number are getting saved during that period of time and so it's not like the work of God has ceased and it's nothing but judge and that's an encouraging thing as we go through it we'll pick it up next week and talk some more about the Gentile nations that come in there's some very cool stuff in there so good let's pray yeah thanks Lord again for your word thanks for your faithfulness God we thank you that even though the world deserves judgment and it's pretty clear that the world deserves judgment even though we have literally the vast majority of humanity that has rejected you and turned away from you you're not done with them yet you still love these people you still want them you still provide a means of escape you still provide a means of salvation you you make it known to them that you are the true God that you are real and that you are somebody that can be trusted the Lord we thank you that even during times of judgment you're reaching out in grace to people who don't know you and that's that's one of the cool things about reading the book of Revelation a lot of times we get caught up in all the judgments that are going on and I get caught up in all the science behind those things and and that kind of stuff talked a lot about judgment but there is mercy and grace and just the goodness of God being poured out all during this time as well as God as you Lord saying that that's enough and stopping all the nonsense that we do Lord we're looking forward to the time when we're gonna see you face to face when we're gonna stand before you in robes of righteousness clothed in white clean and pure and it's gonna it's going to be an awesome day Lord we pray that you'd help us to keep our eyes on that bless these guys and go with them and just ask that you'd have your hand on them this week using this week Lord in the lives of their friends and their family we ask this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 18,041

Rating: 4.7966104 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: Om8FxQc2tCw

Length: 55min 59sec (3359 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 05 2019