Revelation 7 // What Happens To Believers

all right we are in Revelation chapter 7 let's pray before we get into revelation 7 and Jesus we love you thank you Lord for your work in our lives God thinks I just want to thank you for all the people who got saved this morning I didn't see them all because they were camouflaged but I was told that there's about 10 people that got it and that came to you this morning that's that's a pretty cool thing and again Lord we just want to want you to have your hand on them and and just be working in their hearts thank you for that Lord God we thank you for your word thank you for what you've written down in the book of Revelation thank you for the insight that's there and Lord we just thank you for the fact that you are in our lives and you are somebody who protects and watches over us and we're going to be talking about that this evening and Lord we just pray that you bless the study of your word we ask it in your name Amen okay we're in Revelation chapter 7 and basically this is this is one of the things that's a it's like a structural thing that you have in the book of Revelation there are judgments and if you guys are familiar with the book of Revelation there are the seal judgments then there are the trumpet judgments then there there are the seven thunders did you know that one there are the seven thunder judgments and then there are the seven bowl judgments the seven thunder judgments if you don't know that one it's because there's just one line in Revelation chapter 11 verse 4 where it says that there's an angel who either uttered seven thunders and I was about to write those things down and God told me John speaking not to write them down to seal them up and and not write those things down so we're not even given the whole picture of what's going to be going on during the tribulation period and so God's left some surprises for the people who are gonna be going through it apparently you know the problem they'll probably the ones who are believers will be going you know okay we're going through the sealed judgments and we're going through the bowl judgments and oh there's seven thunder judgments that are coming and we don't even know what they are oh there is number one you know the ocean ocean basins cracked open I don't know whatever they whatever it could be if it's the other judgments are bad enough so you got you got a series of seven judgments over and over throughout the book of Revelation that's not the only place that it's there there's some in there's some judgments in Chapter eleven and also in chapter fourteen that have the same kind of structure there's seven of them in each one of those passages but basically the structure goes like this you have six seals and then there is chapter 7 and chapter 7 is all about what happens to the Jews and what happens to the Gentiles and then you have the seventh seal in chapter 8 and you look in verse 1 in Chapter 8 it says when you open the Seventh Seal There was silence in heaven for about a half an hour and so that's the opening of the seventh seal and so basically you've got six seals all speaking about judgments then you have a parenthesis we're actually good things are taking place because all the other stuff is just bad stuff but you have parentheses where there are good things taking place and then you haven't have the Seventh Seal so six seals parentheses seventh seal turn over to chapter eight and you go through chapter eight and if you have the if you have markings and you're in your Bible you have the first trumpet and verse six and when you get to chapter nine you have the sixth trumpet in verses 13 through 21 and then you have chapter 10 and chapter 11 and in those passages it's talking about some of the things that God's doing specifically with the two witnesses and God's work through these guys on the earth some of the some of the other things that he's doing through his prophets and stuff and then in verse 15 of chapter 11 you have the seventh trumpet and so again you have that you have that structure there six judgments a parenthesis about good things basically that are taking place and in the seventh judgment the seventh trumpet and then if you look over in chapter sixteen of Revelation you have exactly the same structure a little bit different looks a little bit different than the previous ones chapter 16 and verse 1 you have the first bowl it goes all the way down to the sixth Bowl you get to verse 14 and the the sixth Bowl has to do with the opening up the river Euphrates so that the kings of the east can come in and then you have this verse that's inserted and verse 15 and it's all in red if you got a red letter edition of your Bible and it's what Jesus is saying basically to the reader that is reading the book of Revelation and it's an encouragement again to the reader and then you go into the seventh judgment so six judgments a parenthesis that's an encouragement and then the seventh judgment and it's that structure all the way through and so when you're looking at chapter seven basically it's all about what happens to believers during the Tribulation Period we've had some of that a little bit of that with the fifth seal and the fact that you have people who've been slain and they're under the altar saying how long O Lord until you judge basically those who avenged our blood and that kind of stuff and so chapter 7 is again what happens to believers and again it is a parenthesis and so let's go through and start reading it says verse 1 after these things and it's the six seals 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 does the earth have four corners actually yes it does even though it's a globe the the earth is structured in such a way that there are four corners actually and so but they're not you know it's it's not something that most people know about it's just talking about an idiom it's an idiom it's basically what's being spoken about so when you talk about the four corners of the earth what you're talking about is the four directions north south east and west and that's all that's happening here the marine does this you know Marine Corps goes out to the four corners of the earth well you know I'm a Marine Corps brat I understand that Marines can you know kind of be have their ways but they don't actually believe that the earth is flat and has four corners right and so that's just that's just an idiom that's all that's that's being spoken about there and so you're allowed to do that God's allowed to have idioms and so we have an idiom the sunrise that's an idiom it is not a description of actual events unless you want to get into ya know it's it's just not for simplicity's sake actually relativity everything that you see in the universe is based on your position of observation and so if you want to say that everything revolves around the earth you guys look like like seriously relativity allows it when we when we shoot off probes to the moon for example we're using the earth as the center and we're using the rest of well we're using the earth-moon system as the moon revolving around the earth and there's a center you don't even enter in to the situation where the earth is going around the Sun or anything of that sort when you are shooting a probe to Mars again it's the Earth and Mars and they have motion relative to each other you don't have to bring in the motions of the Moon or of the Sun or a Venus or anything else it's just the earth as the center and Mars is moving in a certain direction as far as the earth is concerned and how that all works out you know with the with the Sun and stuff but you're allowed to do that okay so whenever I talk to somebody about what the Bible has to say about the the Sun rising and the Sun going through the heavens and and that kind of thing and they go that's it just bunch of nonsense and those people back then didn't even know what they were talking about I go well do you think Einstein didn't know what he was talking about because Einstein said exactly the same thing and so that's that's what relativity is all about and what he's talking about is you are measuring things you are you are observing the universe from a relative position in the universe so for example we are in a we are in a solar system where the Earth is going around the Sun right and so there's a motion of the earth at the same time if I if I want to take this exact spot on the earth this exact spot on the earth is moving at approximately let's see we're almost a quarter way or almost halfway from the equator up to actually we're over that and so let's see it's about a thousand miles an hour I'm moving at 500 miles an hour in relation to the center of the earth right now okay so I'm traveling around the globe at 500 miles an hour and then I'm traveling around the Sun so you got this whole circular thing going on around the globe and at the same time you got that circle going and you're going around the Sun and at the very same time the Sun is going around the center of the galaxy and at the very same time that gap the galaxy is revolving around a group of galaxies and that group of galaxies is revolving around a gravitational center that's even further out and so we got lots of motion going on and so again when you're when you're talking about any kind of motion in the universe it's all relative and so you can actually from a relative perspective say that the Sun actually rises and we know why the Sun rises it's because the Earth revolves and so that's what I do with people when they start getting picky about the Bible because usually they don't know what they're talking about as far as relative motion in the cosmos okay but frankly most of this stuff is just idiom so we use sunrise we use sunset we use the four corners of the earth we use the four you know the compass points and and all that kind of stuff and that's all the the Lord's doing here too but there are four bumps on the earth like literally four bumps on the earth so just for your edification in any case he says after these things I software and you'll start attending 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 and so the wind stops you know what happens when wind stops rain stops because the only the only way that you get rain is you have to have nuclei of condensation that is in the upper atmosphere when you when you have clouds well we're a good example of this when you have clouds going over our heads usually it doesn't dump a bunch of rain right here wait till you get over to the mountains and the reason for that is because there has to be a buildup of moisture and that moisture has to has to condense around something and that's something that it condenses around is nuclei of condensation and so when you get a bunch of clouds and they pack up against a mountain what you're doing is you're Tet you're taking a lot of water or you're packing it in a small space and that water has to go someplace and so there's leaves little dust particles in the air and the water condenses around that like it condenses on a glass on a summer day it condenses around those particles when it gets heavy enough it drops out as rain okay the only way that you get particles up in the atmosphere is you have wind so if there is no wind there is no rain okay that's important later on because there's two guys coming up the two witnesses and they're able to stop the rain any time that they want to right and so it looks like this may have something to do with this so the wind didn't doesn't blow on the earth on the sea or on any tree and so what you would effectively have at that point is you would have you would have the air coming or the evaporation of the water coming up above the sea and the only place you would have clouds is on the sea at that point and it would just they would just stay there basically that's kind of interesting 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 God on their foreheads and the reason that they're saying that is because when get when we get into the next chapter that's what's going to be happening the Earth's going to be harmed the sea is going to be harmed the trees are going to be harmed and what has to happen is there has to be a sealing of the servants of 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 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Reuben 12,000 of the tribe of GAD 12,000 of the tribe of Asher 12,000 tribe of Naphtali 12,000 tribe of Manasseh 12,000 of the tribe of Simeon 12,000 of the tribe of Levi 12,000 of the tribe of Issachar 12,000 of the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 of the tribe of Joseph 12,000 and of the tribe of Benjamin 12,000 were sealed okay so you think God's trying to say something passage and he's getting really specific about each one of these tribes so you have a hundred and forty-four thousand Jews who are sealed during this period of time and that sealing that takes place like we were talking about earlier the the word for sealed there is to put a mark on it's a mark of ownership and these guys are sealed on their foreheads right you see that down in verse four I heard the number of those or a verse three do not harm the earth until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads and so you have these hundred and forty four thousand Jewish believers who have the mark of God on their foreheads so when we get to chapter 13 in the mark of the beast where's the mark of the beast at yeah it's on their forehead or on their right hand so it's on their forehead so you know a lot of times when we're when we're talking about the mark we're talking about what happens in Revelation chapter 13 in that one you know that that one world system that one world government with a cashless society and all that kind of stuff but all that is is a copy of what God does with his people and it's not just the people in the book of Revelation we'll talk about that in just in just a minute but you have this sealing that goes on throughout the Bible whether you're talking about the Old Testament or the New Testament God put some mark on those that are his and that's what he's doing in this situation also these guys are Jews and I'm gonna get a little bit more into that in just a minute they're not anybody else and I think that the reason that God goes through and he makes the point of naming each one of these tribes and specifically saying that there's 12,000 from each one of these tribes is to get the point across and the reason that I'm talking to you about that is because you have people who have come along and decided that they're the hundred and forty-four thousand so the most famous group of people is the Jehovah's Witnesses so Jehovah's Witnesses believe that their first hundred and forty-four thousand basically of the Jehovah's Witnesses the first ones that became witnesses are the 144,000 in the book of Revelation okay and so that's Jehovah's Witnesses I have family that is seventh-day Adventist that seventh-day Adventist believe that they are the hundred and forty-four thousand and so I've got Jehovah's Witnesses that I know that believe they're part of 144,000 or at least somebody in their in their group is part of one hundred forty-four thousand seven the Adventist think that they're 144,000 guess who else thinks that they're the hundred and forty four thousand the Mormons the Mormons think that they're the hundred and forty four thousand and guess who else Worldwide Church of God thinks at third hundred 144,000 and I could probably come up with some other names but you got all kinds of people who were going to this who saying yeah that's us we're the hundred and forty four thousand and we're the special ones right and I think that again the reason that God went through and he got so specific with this group of people is so that we would know that they're not the special ones so when I talked to anybody actually did talk to Joe of his witness who told me that he was one of the hundred and forty four thousand and what I said to him was what tribe are you from and it stopped him short and he didn't know what to say of course then I talked to a Mormon my Mormon buddies and I said which tribe were you're from and without missing a beat they said tribe of Ephraim and it's because of some tweaked stuff in Mormonism anyway I think that what God's doing is actually taking a hundred and forty four thousand Jewish believers and marking these people if you turn over to Revelation chapter 14 when you turn over there real quick you see these guys again in Revelation 14 starting in verse 1 and I know it says 3 through 5 up on the screen but it says then I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion okay who's the lamb that's Jesus where is Mount Zion that's in Israel it's a certain part of the city of Jerusalem it's in Israel I saw a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 having his father's name written on their foreheads so when is Jesus going to be standing on Mount Zion yeah it's at the second coming he comes any touches down on the Mount of Olives he relieves Jerusalem of the armies that are surrounding Jerusalem and invading the city he wipes the armies out and apparently he goes to Mount Zion which is a place that I can picture in my head right now it's a you know it's in it's in a certain part of the city of Jerusalem he's gonna go to Mount Zion and there with him at Mount Zion could be Mount Zion is also associated with a Temple Mount but there's a specific place called Mount Zion and he's going to be meeting up with a hundred and forty-four thousand which lets you know that the hundred and forty-four thousand are there at the end of the Tribulation Period and so at the second coming these guys are still going to be there so that's that's a cool thing he says I heard a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the voice of loud thunder and I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps and so heaven is rejoicing over these guys they sang as it were a new song before the throne before the Lord four living creatures and the elders and no wood can learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth these are the ones who were not defiled with women for they are virgins and so you know right there that these are young virgin men so the hundred and forty-four thousand don't women in this instance and it says these are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes they were redeemed from among men being first fruits to God and to the lamb and in their mouth was found no to see for their without fault before the throne of God and so now we know that the hundred and forty-four thousand are 144,000 young Jewish men specifically and they're not the only ones that God is working with but they are they are specific in this passage is being marked by God and having the name of the of the father on their heads if you look at verse nine it says after these things I looked and behold a great number 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 all the Angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom Thanksgiving an honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever amen and so you have another group so you have this group 144,000 Jews and then you have a another group that's called a great multitude that no one can number of all nations our nations there it's ethnos in greek it's the term that was used for Gentiles and so you have this division between Jews and specifically the twelve tribes actually twelve tribes in this passage not the the twelve tribes I'm going to talk to you about that in a minute but you have the you have these Jewish believers who are sealed and they're there specifically people the men who are followers of Jesus that's what we find out in chapter fourteen and then you have a multitude of Gentiles and here's the point that I'm making there is a differentiation between Jews and Gentiles there's a differentiation and so you have Jews are being sealed and Gentiles that are being saved Jews that are protected through the Tribulation Period and Gentiles who end up in heaven there in heaven and it's clear in this passage they've died but there's a great multitude of them and that's something that's different you have Jews and Gentiles mentioned throughout the New Testament you even have it in the book of Acts but when you're talking about the church the church is not a mixture of Jews and Gentiles as far as Scripture is concerned when you become a Christian if you're Jewish you don't cease being Jewish but that is not something that separates you from the rest of the body of Christ and when you become a Gentile now or when you become a Christian you're a Gentile you don't cease being a Gentile but that's not what differentiates you from the rest of the body of Christ in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 28 it talks about there's neither bond nor free male nor female Jew nor Greek and he's talking about Gentiles there's neither Jew nor Gentile and so all those distinctions go away when we become believers in Jesus and we're all part of the church so when you're talking about the church in the New Testament you don't have these kinds of differentiations when you're in the Old Testament though you do have them when you're in when you're in the Gospels you have these differentiations and so whether you're talking about the Old Testament and you have you have Old Testament believers who are Jews and so you can you can go through and you can look at all the the different tribes that came from Jacob the tribes of Israel they're obviously all they're called Jews they're called Israel it's interchangeable in the Old Testament but then you have believers who come from outside so Rahab for example and then you have Ruth as another example both of them in the line of Christ both of them in the in the line of David and they are Gentiles who who join up with the Jewish nation okay and so you have that going on you have naman the syrian who's healed from leprosy and so you have a number of people in the Old Testament who gets saved they actually follow the Lord but they're not Jews if you go before the time of Abraham Noah and his family ever everybody in Noah's family is outside of the Jewish nation everybody is because you don't have Jews you don't have Hebrews until you come up to Abraham and you'd call it Hebrew means the one from across the river and that's who Abraham was so that's where you get the term Hebrew in the Bible and so you have this differentiation in the Old Testament between Jews and Gentiles and Gentiles can come into a relationship with God through the Jewish nation but you have to become Jewish basically to do that when you get to the Gospels you have exactly the same situation Jesus is talking to the Jews and whenever he deals with a Gentile he'll deal with them he'll talk to them but a lot of times it's at that point that you'll see Jesus saying things like I wasn't sent to anybody but to the lost children and the you know of it the lost children of Israel and one lady that I'm thinking of in particular says well you know and Jesus says it's not good for you to take the food and give it to the little puppies and she goes well even the little puppies get crumbs from the table and he goes woman great is your faith and then he give her gives her what she wants but she was a syrophoenician she was a Gentile and so Jesus makes a distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles that goes away after Acts chapter 2 and that was actually something that was an issue that blew away the early church when you get to Acts chapter 10 and Peter is dealing with the fact that God has sent him a bunch of Gentiles to go witness to God has to do this whole vision thing with them with the you know bringing down a sheet with all kinds of unclean animals on it rise kill and eat arise kill and eat arise kill and eat God does it within three times and then he presents some Gentiles to them and basically tells them you need to get out there and go witness through these guys Peter goes bunch of Gentiles get saved Peter turns around to his buddies who came with him and goes well what up you know it's like all these guys got the same Holy Spirit that we did they start speaking in tongues and prophesying and he goes all these guys got the same Holy Spirit that we got before they even got baptized so what's preventing them from being baptized just like we are and it was a big deal in the early church because the early church was nothing but juice and when when the Gentiles start coming in they had to deal with some issues one of the issues that they had to deal with was do these guys have to become Jewish to become Christian that's what Acts chapter 15 is all about and they came up with the right answer no they don't need to become Jewish to become Christian because we're not in Judaism we got a new thing going on which is the church jesus said upon this rock talking about himself I will build my church the church did not exist in the Old Testament it didn't exist in Matthew 16 when Jesus made that statement it didn't start existing until you get to the book of Acts and then it was a brand new thing and that's the church before that point before the time of the church it was always Gentiles and Jews Gentiles can come in but they had they had to come in right and when the church is gone when you know during the time of the church what happens is Jews and Gentiles coming to the church and so they're both equal at that point when you get to the book of Revelation though all of a sudden it's distinct again Gentiles and Jews I know I switch the switch those things around in any case that's that's one of the things that that's going on in this passage and so there's a differentiation one of the things that has been a real problem with last days interpretation specifically interpretation of the Bible in general and interpretation of the book of Revelation has to do with what's called replacement theology replacement theology you have this usually in Reformed churches you also have it in the Roman Catholic tradition you also have it in the Greek Orthodox tradition this is something that basically came from Augustine back in the early you know let's see when to argue Augustine live in the 400s in the 400s in AD an Augustine taught that the church replaces Israel and that Israel no longer exists that God has cursed Israel and that his curse remains on them and it's that whole teaching got solidified in the Roman Catholic Church and also the Greek Orthodox Church and it was the cause of persecution of the Jews all down through the ages now one of the things that I always do when I talk about this whole thing we know that that's not right we know that you know you're not supposed to be persecuting Jews or God's people God said if you know those who bless you I will bless those who curse you well I will curse and it's actually been something that's been absolutely true down through the ages when you when you go through and you look at the the countries that attacked Israel Egypt used to be top nation on this planet and it's nothing but a place with a bunch of ruins now a bunch of people were running around over there and they do all kinds of crazy things right and I know that I'm painting with a broad brush but I've been in those areas and you look at babylon babylon is a rock you guys and again it's a place that's got some ruins it's got some oil now but it's nothing but a ruined and it's a bunch of people fighting and bickering amongst each other all kinds of tribalism that's going on there that kind of stuff when you're talking about persia these are all these are all major empires in the old testament they're all empires that attacked Israel and when you talk about Persia Persia is Iran and Iran's on the ascendancy now but that's something that was prophesied in Scripture but again you know it's like you know we worry about Iran and what they're going to do and that kind of stuff and you you guys do understand that we could make them a parking lot yeah it's not it's not like Iran's going to take over the United States or something that's not ever going to happen not if you have somebody who you know is willing to fight them because we we have enough power to do that and so again you've got a situation over Iran where you've got a small group of people who are ruling over a large group of people and most of those people don't want them ruling over them and there's a bunch of tribalism that's going on there too and so again these are these are all in and I don't want to be mean about it but they're all half-baked nations now and they were major world empires you go you go down through the rest of the Gentile history Spain was a major world empire Spain in 1492 sent Columbus across the ocean blue and he discovered America for the second time actually for the third time right and so he he discovers America it was the same year that the Spanish threw the Jews out of Spain and so there was a persecution at the same time when that when that took place there was there were fights between Spain and Britain Spain ended up losing they had a they had a they had an empire that was awesome and they end up losing you know why they lost because of a storm because of a storm and so Spain goes down the tube so you have the you have the same thing with Great Britain Great Britain made some promises they were the world Empire the you know the the Sun never sets sets on the British Empire that was a saying that was made about Great Britain and it's not like that anymore and it's because of dealings I believe that they had with the Jews they made promises to the Jews in the early 1800s Early 1900s that they were going to give them Palestine and that they were going to help them resettle and they ended up a reneging on those promises and all the way up into world war ii and throughout world war ii to the end of world war ii there were real problems between the between the brits and the jews as far as palestine was concerned and now you know when you talk about great britain they're nothing like they were in the 19th century 20th century was the end of Great Britain the $0.20 20th century was the beginning of the nation of Israel and so you have this whole thing in the Bible where if you curse God's people the Jews even though they're not believers you curse them and God comes after you and it happens with individuals and it happens with nations and it's been happening for thousands of years and so again again you have that but again what you have here is a situation where people have this tendency to turn against them and it includes the church now here's the thing that I was going to tell you that you need to know about church history from the time that that Jerusalem was destroyed before the time that Jerusalem was destroyed the the Jews would persecute Christians but they persecute it wasn't all that bad you know you had you have Roman government officials who were doing awful things and so James was killed and and you had some situation with the Jewish leadership where they went after Christians so Stephen was killed and you said have those kinds of situations that went on but for the most part the Jewish nation considered the Christians to be just kind of an offshoot of Judaism and you know those are almost Jews that believe that Jesus is Messiah it would be that kind of thing up until the time of the destruction of the of the the city of Jerusalem and what happened in that destruction is the Christians had been told when you see armies surrounding Jerusalem you need to leave because Jerusalem is going to be devastated until the time until the the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled and that's in Luke chapter 21 and so when the Romans came in there was a Jewish revolt the the Jews wanted the Christians to fight with them in Jerusalem when they saw the Romans begin surrounding the city of Jerusalem the Christians got out of Dodge and they went across the Jordan River to an area called pariah and when that took place that went that's when the major split between Christianity and Judaism took place Christians were no longer allowed in the synagogue's and the Jews went after the Christians with a vengeance after it all calmed down between the Romans and the Jews the Jews were the people who most often were turning Christians into the Romans to get them killed the Jewish religion was something that the Romans allowed otherwise if you were going to be Roman citizen you - you had to worship the Emperor as God there was a there was a situation where the Romans would come in when they were taking a census or when they were collecting taxes and they would come in and they would set up a table and a lot of times they would have one of the busts of a dead Caesar sitting there and they would they would have everybody come up and they would take a pinch of incense and put it on a little incense burner and they would have to swear fealty they would have to say Caesar is Lord they would have to say Caesar is Lord and they would have to worship what was called the genius of Rome and everybody had to do that and if they didn't do that they were considered to be somebody that was to be watched because they were not a loyal Roman citizen and the Jews were the only ones who had an exception from that they got a legal legal right not to do that and before the you had the split at the destruction of Jerusalem the Christians were included in that group but after that point the Jews went after the Christians and said they're not part of us they don't have anything to do with us and so that made Christianity and an illegal religion and so you have Christians being persecuted in the first century the second century the 3rd century and into the Fortin the first part of the 4th century up until the coming of Constantine have you guys heard of the of the of the Nicene Council Council of Nicaea a lot of people get get bad information about that that was all that was a council that was put together by a guy named Constantine he was a Roman Emperor who said that he had converted to Christianity his mother was a Christian and he said that he converted to Christianity and he made Christianity the state religion well he set up the Council of Nicaea to settle a theological argument that was taking place as to whether or not when you know what kind of God was Jesus it wasn't whether or not Jesus was God it's wonder what kind of God is Jesus is he is he little God and God the father's a big God or is he one what the father what's the deal with Jesus and so that's what the Council of Nicaea was about and that's all that it was about and at the Council of Nicaea there were guys who had their limbs cut off there were guys who had burn marks on their bodies there were guys who had their eyes put out and all of this had happened under the persecution of Diocletian who came right before Constantine and the Jews were implicit in that and so basically when Christianity became the state religion of Rome you have a bunch of people who are in leadership in Christianity who have lost their wives lost their sons lost their daughters lost their lost their homes lost everything that they had and many times the person on the earth that they could point to that caused the loss was a Jew because the Jews were coming after the Christians well the Jews are unbelievers right and so it's an awful thing but again the Bible is the Bible and so when you're dealing with an unbeliever who's persecuting you what are you supposed to do and what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to if they're hungry give them something to eat if they're thirsty give them something to drink you're supposed to be praying for your enemies you're supposed to love your enemies back that kind of thing that's what that's what people are supposed to do but when the trade church becomes a state religion all of a sudden church gets teeth and so now it's not a bunch of persecuted people running around you know trying to glorify Jesus in the midst of all this awful stuff that's going on now it's the state religion and you can see how people you know if I'd lost my mom and my dad to the the Romans taking them and throwing them in arena wrapping them in a net and letting animals go on after them until they ate them alive and I knew that there were people that were involved in that whole thing I'd be a little torqued about the whole thing right and so you had you have some back and forth that goes on there and it was in the fourth century that the church starts getting power and it's at that point that you start seeing a persecution of the Jews from the church specifically it's at that point actually a little bit earlier that that the that the church starts teaching that the Jews have nothing to do with God and it's the reason that they did it so you have guys like Origen and and some other church fathers who did not believe that the Jewish nation could have anything to do with God did not believe that these guys had any part of the work of God and it was specifically because of what they were doing to Christians and you can understand where the theology comes from it's just not biblical it's an emotional reaction to awful things that awful people were doing to people who follow Jesus that's what it was and so when Augustine comes along this stuff gets cemented in theology and now you've got this teaching that the Jews have no part with Jesus anymore they have no part with God they're totally given over and God's gotten rid of them that's called replacement theology and with most of the denominations of Christianity when you're talking about old school denominations that come out of the Reformation they did not change the theology so when you're talking about John Piper John Piper is a replacement theologian he believes exactly the same things that Augustine believed he believes the same things that the Catholic Church believes he believes the same things that the Greek Orthodox Church believes about the nation of Israel that God has cursed them and that they're no longer part of God had it no longer has a specific plan for the nation of Israel and with that statement you wipe out most of the Old Testament most of it because most of the Old Testament is about God's plan for the nation of Israel and that's again replacement theology the when the Reformation came along Reformation was a great thing but all it ever dealt with was the fact that we need to be going back to the Bible and not be you know glomming on to church tradition and that was a good thing but this is a church tradition replacement theology is a church tradition that they didn't deal with so basically replacement theology is the idea that Israel rejected the Messiah and so the church should be replacing Israel and they become spiritual Israel but the problem with that is when you go through the Old Testament the promises that were made to Israel were unconditional God never put a condition on those things they couldn't forfeit the right to the blessings of God and this is what I'm talking about so it's the different covenants that you have in the Old Testament so one of the first covenants that you see is the Adamic covenant God made a covenant with Adam you do certain things these will things these things will happen you do other things bad things are going to happen don't eat from that tree that's a covenant right then you have the noahic covenant no one gets off the boat God goes never gonna flood the earth again you can eat meat anybody kill somebody they're to be put to death and God at that point establishes government and then you have what's called the Abrahamic covenant and what God did with Abraham was he made an unconditional covenant with him that his descendants were going to inherit a certain piece of land and it was the nation of Israel what Israel has right now actually they don't have all of it but it was a certain piece of land God said I'm giving this to you and your children forever I'm making a covenant with you and when God made the covenant with him Abraham wasn't involved in it so you remember that story in the book of Genesis in chapter 15 where Abraham wants to make a covenant with God God goes okay we're gonna do it you know meet me at the since such a place low they meet at the place Abraham was waiting on God God's late Abraham thanks and Abraham falls asleep and it's from God and when he wakes up he sees God passing through the pieces of a sacrifice it's what a blood covenant was about and he sees a burning torch passing through the pieces of the sacrifice while God proclaims this covenant to Abraham and what you have there is a situation where God's basing the Covenant not on Abraham's works or on his descendants works but on what God has said so Abraham's not involved in the Abrahamic covenant except that it was given to him and when you get to the book of Exodus when you get to Moses you have another comment called the Mosaic Covenant and in that covenant God goes I'm gonna be your God you're gonna be my people I got these rules you keep them good things will happen if you don't keep them you're going you know it's it's like there's judgment coming if you rebel against them then I'm going to get rid of you so it's a blood covenant again you know blood covenant and you did a blood covenant basically what you were saying is whatever happened to these animals that we just slaughtered should happen to me if I break this treaty that I have with you that's what a blood covenant must that's what Abraham did with God but Abraham wasn't in on it it was just God so God said basically what God's saying in that covenant is if I break this covenant with you then what should happen is I should be treated like these animals were treated and Abraham's not in it when you get to the Mosaic Covenant the blood was sprinkled on the law and the blood was also sprinkled on the people law representing God the people representing the people and so that's a blood covenant that has specific consequences if I break it and in the very next chapter well actually a few chapters later on he explained some more stuff about the covenant but about 12 chapters later on they break the covenant and that's when they did the whole calf worship thing you guys remember that and so God speaking to Moses says you know what I'm gonna kill all these people Moses and I'm gonna start over with you and the reason he said that isn't because God was just flying off the handle what he's doing is he's keeping the rules of the Covenant they just made this covenant that said if we don't obey you then our lives would be forfeit and God goes okay you didn't obey now your lives are forfeit and so I'm going to break I'm going to wipe these people out and I'm gonna start over with you why is he starting over with Moses because Moses didn't break the Covenant neither did Joshua by the way but he specifically talks about Moses and Moses says to God God if you do this it's going to defame your name the Egyptians are going to believe that you just brought these people out in the wilderness to wipe them out and by the way what about that whole Abrahamic covenant thing what about the promise that you made to the father's to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob what about that covenant and God goes okay I won't do it based on that so the reason that the Jews survived for more than a month after they'd made the Mosaic Covenant was because of the covenant with Abraham they flat out broke the Mosaic Covenant and so it was because of the covenant with Abraham and so that continues and that's the same covenant that's active with the Jewish people to this day God has never gotten rid of these people God has always watched over them they still exist after thousands of years and just like the Bible says they're back in the land of Israel and it's all based on the Abrahamic covenant and we got a whole system of theology in Christianity that says that none of that's valid and none of that stuff exists despite the fact that all these things are happening in front of their eyes is just a crazy thing and so those promises were unconditional and you couldn't forfeit them and you have you have these again these different different covenants that go on I've got up there the Abrahamic covenant that's the that's the original one that was made then you have the Palestinian covenant that's another covenant that was made off the Abrahamic covenant has to do with the fact that the Jews got the land of Palestine and they were always going to get it and that's why they're there right now because God made that covenant with them and then you have what's called the Davidic covenant and the Davidic covenant is that the Messiah is going to come through the line of David and it's the Messiah who's going to bless all the nations of the earth and that's the Davidic covenant and then you have the New Covenant and usually when we think of the New Covenant we think of us because we're under the new covenant that's where the term New Testament comes from and actually a new covenant comes from a couple of passages in the Book of Jeremiah and also in the Book of Ezekiel Ezekiel chapter 36 is totally worth reading because it goes through and it talks about the fact that God's gonna take these people the Jews he's gonna take away their heart of stone give them a heart of flesh he's gonna wash them with his spirit but clean and he's going to give them a new life and so the promises that were made to the church in the new covenant were originally given to the people of Israel they just haven't gotten those things yet and that's the new covenant and it all has to do with the Abrahamic covenant when you're talking about Abraham's covenant and the Palestinian covenant and the Davidic covenant and the New Covenant those three covenants David Davidic Palestinian and the New Covenant are aspects of the Abrahamic covenant and they're all unconditional based on what God did with Abraham it's a very cool thing when you get to the New Testament God sets forth his plan for Israel real quick once you turn over to Romans chapter 11 Romans chapter 11 let's read through here basically when you get to get in the book of Romans it's all about how people get saved and when you get to Romans chapter 9 Romans chapter 9 is well what happened to the Jews Romans chapter 10 is they got a chance and they rejected it Romans chapter 11 is but God's going to turn them around and that's that's the outline of that passage Romans 11 verses 1 through 11 it says this I say then has God cast away his people certainly not for I also AM an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah how he pleads with God against Israel saying Lord they've killed your prophets torn down your altars and I alone am left and they seek my life but what does the divine response say to him I've reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to bail he's talking about a issue in the Old Testament with Elijah where Elijah the Prophet literally thought he was the last guy and God goes no you're not you're not all that special you are special but you're not all that special I still got 7,000 other guys and so I got some reserves here Bucky and then it goes on and says verse 5 even so then at this present time there's a remnant according the election of grace and if by grace then it's no longer of works otherwise grace is no longer grace but if it is of works it's no longer grace otherwise work is no long work what then Israel has not obtained what it seeks but the elective obtained it and the rest were blinded just as it is written God has given them a spirit of stupor eyes that they should not see ears that they should not hear to this very day and David says let their table become a snare and a trap a stumbling block and a recompense to them let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and bow down their back always I say then have they stumbled that they should fall certainly not but through their fall to provoke them to jealousy salvation has come to the Gentiles and so the Jews did turn away from Christ they did do all kinds of awful things like David says let their table become a snare and a trap stumbling block and a recompense to them eyes darkened bow down their backs always that's out of the Old Testament but God says in the passage they haven't stumbled so that they should fall but what God's done is he's blinded them judicially to bring the Gentiles in and Gentiles make Jews jealous because they see the work that God does in them in verse five it says even so then at this present time there's a remnant according to the election of grace and so blindness to the Jews is not something that's total even right now even right now there are some Jews who will come to Christ and at this point that come into the church he goes on and talks about the fact that it's not final verse 12 he says if their fall is riches for the world and their failure richer's for the Gentiles how much more their fullness for I speak to you Gentiles and as much as I'm an apostle of the Gentiles I magnify my ministry if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them for if they're being cast away is the reconciling of the world what will their acceptance be but life from the dead for the first fruits holy the lump is also holy and if the root is holy so are the branches and if some of the branches were broken off and you being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree do not boast against the branches but if you do boast remember that you do not support the root but the root supports you you will say then branches were broken off that I might be grafted in well said because of unbelief they were broken off you stand by faith do not be haughty but fear for if God did not spare the natural branches you not spare you either therefore consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell severity but toward you goodness if you continue in his goodness otherwise you also will be cut off and what you have in church history is a total ignoring of that passage right there when when Paul is talking about this root and the branches the branches are Israel the root is the is the kingdom of God the branches are Brik being broken off because of disobedience and then we're grafted in the Gentiles are grafted in that the church is grafted in as a wild olive branch he's talking about the way that you do all of trees we're grafted in as a while we're foreign to the works of God and were grafted in and and it's cool and it's an awesome thing and like he said people will say well I was grad you know the branches were broken off so I could be grafted in well said but they were broken off because of unbelief and you're standing in faith and you need to fear and not be haughty about the whole thing because you could be broken off just as easily as as they were and he's not talking about individuals necessarily he's talking about the church as a whole individuals too and he goes on and he says verse 23 they also if they do not continue in unbelief will be grafted in for God is able to graft them in again for if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree how much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own tree for I do not desire brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved that is read as it is written the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn ungodliness away Jakub for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins and so God still got plans for the nation of Israel so everything you have in the Old Testament where God says he's going to give them a land and that they're gonna be top nation on the planet and that he's gonna rule from Jerusalem almost all those things are things that God made a promise to the people of Israel not to the church and those things have to be fulfilled Jesus was told actually Mary was told that Jesus was going to sit on the throne of Israel and he never has so if Jesus is going to sit on the throne of Israel you have to have an Israel you have to have a throne we know where the thrones gonna be it's gonna be in the city of Jerusalem so you gotta have in Israel you got to have a throne he's got to be ruling over over a group of people called Israel and we're not Israel you know I'm I'm German and Dutch and French and English and I'm a Mike you know I'm not Israel and and so again you have that whole thing anyway you can go through the through the rest of the of the chapter but verses 11 through 31 are all verses that talk about the the fact that the blindness is not final and so we're in the book of Revelation book of Revelation is all about the 70th week of Daniel we talked about that when we were in Revelation chapter 6 it's the last seven years of Israel's history with God and it was prophesied in the Book of Daniel the first 49 weeks or the first 483 years were fulfilled to the letter to the day there was stuff that was going to take place after those 483 years which included the destruction of Jerusalem the death of the Messiah and the dispersion of the Jewish nation and those came to pass in exactly the way that the Bible says and those things in in in in that prophecy and the last seven years have not taken place the last seven years are chronicled in the book of Revelation those seven years haven't been fulfilled and again Jesus is going to be standing or sitting on his throne in the city of so um as it says in Luke 1 verse 32 through 33 in fact in Matthew chapter 25 it says that when Jesus comes back he sits on his throne he gathers all the nations before him in Jerusalem and then he judges the nation's just like the Bible says in the Old Testament just like Gabriel said to Mary it's going to happen just like the Bible says and so Israel is not some but a group of people that have been set aside and when we're in Revelation chapter 7 you have the first indication of God beginning to work with the people of Israel specifically with 144,000 done let's get you out of here well we'll come back and I'll do some more on that next week and I know I opened up the huge can of worms like probably four or five and I'll try to make it a little bit more clear next week so in any case short version God's not done he's still working with these people I like it that God's not done God gives you first chances second chances third chances fourth chances I'm going through Israel's history right now yeah I could just go I'm thinking of things in kings and chronicles and that kind of stuff you give some chance after chance after chance after chance and he gives him he even give some chances after Messiah comes there's gonna come a time when they're gonna be looking at Jesus and going and saying where did you get these wounds in your hands and he's gonna say in the house of my friends and there's going to be a reconciliation between the Jewish nation in it and in Jesus so very cool stuff let's break get you outta here thanks Lord again for your word thank you for second and third and fourth and fifth chances thank you thank you Lord that you are absolutely gracious to us and Lord we just pray that I don't know it does just like Paul was saying in that passage in Romans 11 there can be some haughtiness that takes place with believers and it needs to not be there Lord we pray that you would help us to walk humbly before you and bow to your will whatever it may be and lord bless these people go with them and thank you for their hearts for you and for your word asks us all in Jesus name Amen yeah bless him

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 14,992

Rating: 4.7014923 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: NgBvpHNfZzc

Length: 60min 5sec (3605 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 05 2019