Mesa Hills Bible Church

Pastor Tim Dane: They're amazing, huh? Children can go to children's church. Good morning everybody. We're in Revelation chapter 7, if you'll open your Bibles with me. Well, obviously we were not here last week. We went to Las Vegas for my brother-in-law's funeral. That's my stepsister Annie. My dad married her mom back when I was in high school. Kyle was only 63, that was too soon. So that was sad for us, but it was great.

I went with Karen, Shelby, my sister, Dennis, Aaron, and Josh. So we were able to go to Kyle's funeral. Then we actually did a service for my dad, who died a year and a half ago, but we took his ashes out there. Annie still had his parents' ashes, my grandma and grandpa. So we went out and had a memorial service out at Indian Springs, which is about 45 miles north of Vegas. That's where my great-grandfather came from Ireland 100 years ago and started this community. So we went up on top of a mountain and looked down over the valley. Indian Springs, Creech Air Force Base, Area 51 is a little further out there, but out that direction.

We had a little service for my dad and my grandma and grandpa. Anyhow, we were out there in 115-degree weather climbing a mountain, a 1,000-foot climb up this mountain. Now, the very interesting news is that you know Las Vegas, which is my hometown, has slot machines everywhere, including the airport. We're sitting right next to the gate and there was a slot machine right next to our gate. A $1.3 million jackpot.

Guest (Male): Was he there?

Pastor Tim Dane: We didn't hit it. It was the other guy, unfortunately. I was going to buy the church a new building if we had. Yeah, it was kind of a curious thing. That's a big jackpot, $1.3 million. I went and put my arm around the guy and said, "Can I be your friend?"

Revelation 7. Now, when we were in Revelation 6 a couple of weeks ago, it introduced us to the beginning of God's end-time judgments that are going to come in what we call the Day of the Lord. That period of seven years is going to come crashing down upon this world after the rapture of the church.

Now, when you look for teaching on the rapture, we don't look in the Old Testament because the church did not even exist in the Old Testament. You don't even look for teachings about the rapture in the Gospels because the church didn't exist until the Day of Pentecost. When we look at Paul's two Thessalonian epistles, this is where we find some distinct and explicit teaching about the rapture. Now, you also see it in 1st Corinthians, but in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, I believe that we do see direct explicit exegetical evidence that the rapture takes place before the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period.

The rapture precedes the Day of the Lord, that seven-year time period that's going to come crashing down upon the earth. It is a seven-year time period. We know this because Daniel chapter 9, verse 27 tells us that there's going to be the culmination of a great prophecy back from Daniel 9. It's going to start the culmination of it when the Antichrist makes a seven-year covenant involving the nation of Israel.

Now, what Thessalonians tells us is that the Antichrist cannot come on the scene until after the rapture of the church. So until you have the rapture, you don't have the Antichrist. Until you have the Antichrist, you don't have that seven-year covenant that starts the tribulation period, the Day of the Lord. So it is a pre-tribulation rapture. But as soon as the rapture happens, this is where you begin seeing the judgments pouring out during those first three and a half years of the tribulation period. This is what we looked at in Revelation chapter 6.

Now, as you compare Revelation chapter 6 with the teachings of Christ in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24, what we see is that the seal judgments of Revelation chapter 6 are parallel to the teachings of Christ in Matthew 24, verses 4 through 14. It talks about false Christs and wars and nations rising up against nations, famines and earthquakes, and intense persecutions against Christians. All of these things are in the first three and a half years. Jesus described these things and said, "These are just the beginnings of birth pangs."

Now, many of you ladies have gone through childbirth. I have been through it vicariously six-plus times and I've been there for the birth of some of our grandkids too, not as close as their husbands were. But childbirth is a tough thing, isn't it, sweetheart? Yeah, don't even try to joke like that, right?

Jesus said that those first three and a half years of the tribulation period are terrible. When you look at Revelation chapter 6, in the first seal, it says there's a false and temporary peace. And then you see in the second seal that warfare begins to overtake the earth. This is exactly what Jesus said. There's going to be wars, rumors of wars, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. In the third seal judgment, we see that there's going to be huge consequences of the warfare. There's going to be famines and starvation. In the fourth seal judgment, it says that one-fourth of the earth's population is going to die. In today's terms, that would be two billion people.

Then there's going to be intense persecution of Christians. John describes this in the fifth seal, where they're crying out for vengeance. The world is coming apart at the seams and this is not a Hollywood movie that is portraying these things. This is real life. This is going to happen. All of this, Jesus said, is just the beginning of the birth pangs. It gets so bad, if you look at Revelation chapter 6, notice what happens in verse 15. The kings of the earth and the great men and their commanders, in other words, all of these warriors from all of these nations, rich, strong, slave, free, they hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks.

They said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath, God, the great day of their wrath has come and who's able to stand?" So all of these hotshot, mighty warriors that think that they're so big and tough and bad are hiding and saying, "This is the wrath of God. We would rather die from an avalanche than have to face God." All of this is still in the first half of the tribulation period.

Well, the question becomes, who is able to stand? If you notice there at the end of chapter 6, verse 17, they ask the question, "Who is able to stand?" The answer to that comes here in Revelation chapter 7, where God sets apart two groups of his people and says, "These, my people, they will stand in that day, the Day of the Lord."

There are two groups of people that are mentioned. Chapter 7, verses 1 through 8, a group of God's servants that are here on earth. Then chapter 9, verses 9 through 17 talk about another group of God's servants, those that are in heaven. Both of these groups are going to be successful and victorious.

We're going to look this morning at chapter 7, verses 1 through 8, as we come to this first group of saints, the ones that are on earth. Now, one of the things to note is that the sixth seal opens in Revelation chapter 6. The seventh seal, if you look at chapter 8, verse 1, he breaks the seventh seal. So you've got this scroll that has these seals on it and every time a seal is broken, the scroll opens up a little bit more. All of it is showing the unfolding of God's judgment on a Christ-hating world. We live in a world filled with unsaved people that hate Jesus Christ. They don't want anything to do with him. God basically says, "Okay, enough. The time has come when I'm going to give you what you want. You want your sin and you don't want me? I'm going to give you your sin and the consequences."

The six seals come in Revelation chapter 6. The seventh seal, that contains the trumpet judgments and then the seven bowl judgments, doesn't begin until chapter 8. So in between, this is where God sets apart his servants before you have the intensifying of these judgments that come in the trumpet judgments.

The second half of the tribulation period that really begins in Revelation chapter 8, the last three and a half years are going to be even worse than the first three and a half years. Jesus said in Matthew 24 that there will be a great tribulation such as never occurred since the beginning of the world and unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. It's going to be even worse than the first three and a half years.

But before those trumpet judgments start pouring down, God sets apart his slaves. In our study this morning, we're going to look at three facts about these servants of God here on earth. Revelation 7, verses 1 to 8, his servants on earth. What we're going to see is three facts that remind us that no matter what life may bring for you and me, we can trust him.

We all face problems. It might be relationship problems, it might be health problems, whatever. We all face problems in this world. But I have to remind myself as I study the Bible, I take what I tell people here and I say, "Okay, this applies to you too." You get anxious about life. You get worried about life. "Oh, what's going to happen?"

You can trust God. No matter what happens, trust God. We have to do our part by trying to be faithful in serving God according to his commandments. But no matter what happens, you can trust God. Why? Because he's sovereign. He's powerful. He has a plan. He has a purpose. He's working his plan and purpose and he's faithful. If he promises you something in his Word, you know it's true and you can trust it. So we're going to look at three facts about these servants that remind us about the faithfulness of God and why we can keep trusting him.

Let's read these first eight verses together. Verse 1: "After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out 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 or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.' And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, from the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed."

We thank you, oh God, for your Word, Lord, that your Spirit has spoken by your apostle. That you have given us a message that shows us who you are and what your plan is and why we can trust you no matter what this world may bring. Pray that you would use these things to draw us to yourself, to help us know you and trust you like we should. We lift it to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

The first fact of three that we're going to see here about these servants is the protection that God gives to them. The Bible shows us that the wrath of God is going to ramp up and intensify during those last three and a half years. It's already been horrible. You've already had the death of one-fourth of the earth's population. We looked at things like the tsunami that hit in Indonesia some years ago and 230,000, almost 300,000 people died in this tsunami. That's unthinkable.

Here you're talking about one-fourth of the earth's population. But it's going to get worse. What God does right here is that he's going to set apart a special group of people for serving him and we see this right here in verse 1. He's withholding the greater judgments until these people have gotten saved and they belong to Jesus Christ. He's holding back until they get saved.

It says here that there are four angels holding back the four winds, four angels from the four corners of the earth holding back four winds. Now, the reason why it says this is because it's a flat earth, right? No, it's not a flat earth. This is simply language from the ancient world that talks about every direction. Whether you're looking north, south, east, or west. There are four angels that are holding back these judgments. This is not talking about a flat earth, but it's global judgments that are going to come forth. God is holding back judgment until he saves his people.

In verse 2, this angel ascending, a second angel comes up from the rising of the sun and he has the seal of the living God. He cries with a loud voice to those four angels that are holding back that they should not harm the earth or the sea or anything in it, trees, until they have sealed the bond-servants. Now, who are these bond-servants? The word "bond-servant" is a Greek word, *doulos*, simply means slave. So, slave, servant. Slavery is basically as old as sin. It's been everywhere throughout human history. People make a big deal out of slavery today and I'm not minimizing slavery. I don't think it's a good thing.

I heard, I think it was Thomas Sowell talking the other day. It was somebody, a black politician or a black commentator and he said the fact is that it's been everywhere throughout human history as long as we know. That doesn't mean it's good or what happened in America is good, but it's everywhere. As you look at slavery throughout human history, it was not always a horrible thing. It was simply the socio-economic systems that have been a part of man's existence for a long, long time. Many times people would actually be in slavery and it was a good thing because they could be involved with a wealthy family and it's a way to raise yourself up from being really, really poor. Again, I'm not commending slavery and saying that it's a good thing, but it's not always something as it's portrayed as you look at history.

This term "slave" or *doulos* here is used, as a matter of fact, in the Old Testament in a very positive way. Moses was called the servant of God in the Old Testament. God's prophet, he says Moses is my servant, he is my *eved*, my servant, my slave. To be a slave of God, that's an honorable thing, that's a great thing. You can see this word used in the Book of Revelation several times to talk about believers in a general sense, but other times it's used in a more specific sense as a particular group of his people. That's what you see right here in Revelation 7, he's talking about a special group of his own saints, a special group of his own believers.

God says, "I'm going to seal." Now, what does it mean to seal these servants? In the ancient world, a seal sometimes signified authority that was granted, like if you gave somebody your seal, your signet ring, like in Genesis chapter 41 when Pharaoh took Joseph and placed him over all Egypt, he gave him his seal. That was his signet ring.

In the New Testament, we see this word "seal" used to talk about the way that God brings people into a personal relationship. So in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14, it says when you heard the Gospel and believed, God sealed you with the Holy Spirit of promise. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, he says, "Don't grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed until the day of redemption." So a seal, the broad idea behind sealing something shows ownership and protection in the New Testament.

If you're a Christian, the Bible says that God has sealed you with his Holy Spirit. In other words, it's like God took his stamp and he said, "You are mine," and God put his stamp of ownership upon you. Paul says that we've been sealed until the day of redemption. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you have God's seal. You belong to him and he keeps you safe.

So no matter what happens in this life, you might get sick and die. I didn't get a chance to see my brother-in-law over these past few months. He was starting to recover from being sick and then all of a sudden it went south again. He got a pneumonia and he died. You don't know what life is going to bring upon you. We don't know what kind of calamity could come crashing down upon us. It might be upon us, it might be upon a family member. We don't know what life is going to bring, but if you belong to Jesus Christ, I can tell you this: you don't need to be afraid of the future. You may not like the future. You may not like what's happening. Bad things do happen. But God's protection is upon you. You belong to Jesus Christ, you don't have to fear the future.

Here in Revelation chapter 7, we see this seal is being placed upon these 144,000. Now, look with me for just a second at Revelation chapter 14. Revelation 14 brings the 144,000 into this picture again. Revelation chapter 14 is a scene that comes at the end of the seven years. So now you're at the end of that seven-year time period and John said, "I looked and behold the Lamb, Christ, was standing on Mount Zion." Mount Zion is Jerusalem. Always has been, always will be. Mount Zion is the Temple Mount, Jerusalem. "I saw Christ standing in Jerusalem on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 having his name, the name of the Lamb and the name of his Father written on their foreheads." Again, God says, "You belong to me." His name is on these 144,000. They belong to God and because they belong to God, God has promised them protection from the ravages of that great tribulation period.

Now, you know that a huge portion of Revelation depends upon imagery and language and the theological concepts that we find in the Old Testament. One writer has estimated that out of the 404 verses in the Book of Revelation, at least 278 of them contain allusions depending upon the Old Testament. So when we look at the Book of Revelation, frequently one of the principles that can help us understand what's going on is if we understand the Old Testament background that stands behind it. Keep your place right here in Revelation, go back with me to Ezekiel chapter 9 for just a moment.

What's happening in Ezekiel chapter 9 is that God is going to bring a severe judgment upon Israel and the Babylonians are going to completely destroy Jerusalem and they're going to destroy the Temple of Jerusalem. Solomon's Temple has been standing for 400 years and God has had it with the sin of Israel at this point. God is going to bring the judgments of the Mosaic Covenant upon Israel and it's going to be a complete destruction of Jerusalem, destruction of the Temple.

But God says, "Not quite yet." So if you notice right here in chapter 9, verse 1, this angel cries out in Ezekiel's hearing with a loud voice saying, "Draw near, oh executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand." And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with his shattering weapon in his hand. Among them was a certain man clothed in linen with a writing case at his loins and they went in and they stood beside the bronze altar.

Then the glory of God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been to the threshold of the temple and he called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case. The Lord said to him, "Go through the midst of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations are being committed in its midst." In other words, go find all the believers that hate the evil that is being carried out by my people, says God. They're not saved, but they are Jews. Go find all the people who hate the evil, they sigh and they groan over all the evil. Put a mark on them, put a mark on their foreheads.

This is not a physical mark. This is an angel going out to bring salvation to all of the remnant of those elect Jews in Jerusalem. But to the others, verse 5 says, he said in my hearing, "Go through the city after him and strike and do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark."

This is exactly what's happening in the Book of Revelation. God says, "I have my people and I'm going to save my people. I'm going to put my seal upon them, my mark upon them, and then the judgment is going to flow forth." God is going to keep alive these groups of servants and they're going to live and they're going to survive this tribulation period and they're going to carry out his purpose.

Now, in verses 4 to 8, we come to the second fact about these servants. In verses 4 to 8, we come to see what their identity is. So go back with me to Revelation 7. Look at verses 4 to 8. We see who these 144,000 are and we've already read it. So we know who it is. Verse 4 says the 144,000 were from every tribe of the sons of Israel.

You know, I think it's a curious thing. I think it's really curious, that's a good word to describe it here. I think it's really curious how some people will go to such length to deny what the Bible plainly says because it doesn't fit with their theological system. And there are people in the Christian world, some good faithful Christians who are saved, but they don't believe that this is talking about 144,000 Jews. They'll come up with all kinds of ideas to try to explain it away. It just blows me away that people will read something that is very explicit and clear, but their theology won't allow them to do that.

We're talking about people in the reformed world that say God is done with Israel. He's not going to restore the nation of Israel. That happens often in the broader reformed world. Now, you know, I personally believe in what I would call a reformed doctrine of salvation, that salvation is a work of God's grace, it's his Holy Spirit, election is biblical. But you can look at a reformed view of salvation, but not have to take the entire package of the reformed world. But in that larger reformed world, they don't believe that God is going to restore the nation of Israel. But then you have to do hermeneutical hopscotch around the whole Bible because the Bible repeatedly tells us that God is going to restore Israel.

I just think that is so interesting, the way that this works. You know, when God gave us his Word, he did it for the purpose of communicating. We use language all the time, right? You go to your bank, your ATM, and you push a button. You just put $1,000 in an hour ago and then you push the button and it says you don't have any money in your account. You go, "Wait a minute, what's going on here?" We use language all the time. Ravi Zacharias said one time, "When you're flying at 40,000 feet, there are no postmodernists. Language has meaning when you're flying at 40,000 feet."

When the Bible speaks, it is meant to be understood. Now we admit, we understand that there are passages of scripture that are difficult, okay? Peter even said that when he was talking about Paul's books. He goes, "Man, some of the things that Paul says are hard to understand." But God gave his Word to be understood.

Here's what the Bible shows us: at the end of the age when Christ returns to bring his kingdom and this process of God's work is at work, at the end of the age God is going to save a huge remnant from the nation of Israel. He's going to restore the nation in a redeemed, regenerate relationship with himself. These 144,000 are part of that remnant. It's not the entire remnant, it is part of that remnant.

Now, what he does is he breaks these 144,000 down into four different groups of three tribes each. By the way, when we look at the listings of the 12 tribes of Israel as you go throughout the Old Testament, there's 18 to 20 times when you see the 12 tribes of Israel listed. The lists vary. They don't always get presented the same way in the Old Testament. This listing right here has its own way of bringing together the 12 tribes, but you've got to think about this, okay?

Jacob was the one that God changed his name to Israel. Jacob had 12 sons. So you look at these 12 sons and that's where we get the idea, 12 tribes of Israel, the entire corporate family of Israel the Prophet and these 12 sons grew into 12 huge families and that's what we call the 12 tribes. Now, you know that one of those tribes was not given a land inheritance. Who was that? Levi. The Levites didn't have a land inheritance. God gave them 48 cities called Levitical cities and God said, "I'm your inheritance. You will get the tithe from the whole nation." So you're going to have the tithes from all the other 11 tribes. So Levi didn't have a land inheritance.

So now you only have 11. Well, how is it that we have 12 land inheritances? Well, when we go to the Book of Genesis, we find out that when Jacob was dying, he came to Joseph, his favorite son. He said, "Joseph, I'm going to give a full inheritance to each of your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh." So now, in a certain sense, you have 13 tribes because the two sons of Joseph were each getting a full land inheritance. But remember Levi didn't get a land inheritance, so you could leave Levi out of it and you have still the 12 tribes getting 12 land inheritances.

But you would say, well, there's a 13th tribe. Well, but Ephraim and Manasseh weren't exactly full tribes, Joseph the father was the tribe, two sons came out of it. So you kind of have 13 to work with and that's why when you go through the Old Testament, you can see variations where sometimes one individual is included and somebody else may not be. This is what happens right here. But you still have the 12 that are broken down.

So look at Revelation chapter 7, verse 5. We come to the first group and we're not going to make a bunch of comments on all the details, but we are going to make some comments. Verse 5 says here, from the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from Reuben 12,000, from Gad 12,000. Now, Reuben was not listed first, which doesn't exactly surprise us because if you go back to the Book of Genesis, you'll remember that there was a situation that happened where Reuben ended up sleeping with one of his dad's wives, Bilhah. And when Jacob found out about it, he was furious. So Reuben kind of lost his preeminence as being the first son. He's not listed first. Judah is listed first right here.

Now, what is special about Judah? Go back to chapter 5. Look with me at Revelation chapter 5, verse 5. When John sees Christ in heaven, notice what the angel says: "Stop weeping, behold, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome to open the book, the scroll and its seven seals." Jesus right here is called the Lion from the tribe of Judah.

Where does that come from? Well, we go back to Genesis and we look at all of this historical, theological background. Judah was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. Now, when we read in the Book of Genesis, chapters 37 through 50 are all basically revolving around Joseph and how God used Joseph to save the family from starvation. So Genesis 37 tells us how Joseph was hated by his brothers. By the way, whose idea was it to sell Joseph as a slave? Judah.

Now, what happens at the end of Genesis 37, verse 36, it says Joseph had been sold as a slave and became a slave of Potiphar in Egypt, Potiphar the captain of Pharaoh's army bodyguard. So Joseph is now a slave in Egypt. Then we come to chapter 38 and it starts telling a story about Judah. It says that Judah walked away from the family and went and lived among the Canaanites. Now, the reason why he walked away might have been because of his guilt for having sold Joseph and he watched his dad every day, just inconsolable. Jacob was broken over the loss of Joseph, who he thought was dead.

Judah goes and lives with some Canaanites and he marries a lady, a Canaanite lady by the name of Bathshua, not David's Bathsheba, but a different Bathshua, means daughter of the covenant. So he marries Bathshua and he has three sons. Those three sons were named Er, Onan, and Shelah. Now, Er, Judah's oldest son, married a Canaanite girl. What was her name? Tamar. But it says in Genesis 38 that Er was a really wicked guy. God took his life.

Now, according to the custom of the ancient world, the next brother would marry the widow and give her children. So Onan married Tamar, but he knew that if she got pregnant and had a baby, that that first baby was going to carry the name of his dead brother. So he would not let her get pregnant. God saw the wickedness of Onan and he took his life.

So then Tamar has been widowed twice and comes to Judah and says, "Hey, let me marry Shelah," who at that time was probably only about 15 or 16 years old. "Hey, let me marry Shelah." Judah says, "You've already buried two of my sons. Let me think about it for a little bit." So what happens is that when Tamar realizes that Judah, the father-in-law, is not going to let her, the daughter-in-law, marry the third son, she's desperate because to be widowed and have no children is a desperate, desperate situation.

So what happens is she dresses up as a harlot. One night when Judah and his friend are walking to the next village, she seduces her own father-in-law. He doesn't know it's his daughter-in-law, but she seduces her own father-in-law. He spends the night with her and he says, "Well, I don't have any money right now." She says, "Well, you can just let me have your signet ring and your staff and your cord and then you can come pay me tomorrow with a sheep."

So he spends the night with his daughter-in-law, comes back the next day, the friend comes back and, "Hey, where's that prostitute that was here?" And they said, "We haven't seen any prostitutes around here." So Judah says, "Oh, this is really strange." Well, about three months goes by and here's what happens. Tamar now looks like she's eaten a burrito grande. So somebody comes to Judah and says, "Hey, your daughter-in-law is pregnant. She has been a bad girl." Judah brings her in and says, "Well, we are going to burn you to death according to Canaanite custom." That's when she pulls out her signet ring, his signet ring, and says, "Do you recognize this?" And Judah says, "Oh my goodness, I'm busted. You are more righteous than I am because I did you wrong by not letting you marry my youngest son, Shelah." So you're going to live, we're not going to kill you. You're going to live in your own tent. He never slept with her again, but Tamar lived and had her son.

But lo and behold, when she gave birth to a son, it was twin boys. The first one they named Zerah, the second one they named Perez, which means to burst out. So they called him Burst. And that takes you to the end of the story as far as Judah is concerned.

Now, when we come to the time of Jacob's death, and by the way, all those things that just happened that I just described happened, as we put it together, probably in about 1876 BC, which is the same year when Jacob and his whole family found out that Joseph was alive and they migrated down to live in Egypt. All those things happened in that earlier that year.

Well, if you go about another 17 years after they moved into Egypt, this is when Jacob is an old man and Jacob is dying. He brings his sons together to give them a prophetic blessing. In Genesis chapter 49, at the time of Jacob's death, he puts his blessing upon Judah. He says, "The scepter," as in like the king's ruling scepter, "the scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes and to him will be the obedience of all the peoples plural." This word "Shiloh," it's a Hebrew contraction. It means "the one to whom it belongs." The kingship is going to stay in the tribe of Judah until the Messiah comes, the one to whom it belongs and then to him the whole world will give submission and obedience. And then Jacob dies and that's the end of the Book of Genesis. Israel spends the next 400 years living in Egypt, eventually being turned into slaves. But we don't know anything more about this promise of a Savior except that he's going to come from the family of Judah.

Now, you go through 400 years of captivity in Egypt. What happens next? God raises up Moses. Moses brings plagues upon Egypt and crushes Pharaoh and Pharaoh says, "Go, get out of here." God releases the Jews from Egypt. God parts the Red Sea, takes them out into the promised land, brings them to the edge and then the 12 spies come to the edge and say, "Well, you know, we think this is too big of a job, we can't do it." God says, "Oh, you really have made me upset by doing this. I'm going to let you guys wander in the desert for 40 years and then I'll bring in the next generation and I'll let them have the promised land." God has Joshua lead the children of Israel into the promised land 40 years later. They go in, they conquer the promised land. God gives them the land that he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Then comes this time period of about 200 and some years that we call the times of the Judges. Things are going really, really bad. Israel is turning away from God, disobeying God. But it's in the time period of the Judges when there's this little tiny book. What is it called? The Book of Ruth. Four little chapters about this poor Jewish woman, Naomi, and her husband Elimelech. Oh, hard times, really, really terrible times. Naomi has to leave her family home and the whole family has to go to Moab. They have to go to Moab, a pagan land. Why? Because there's a famine because God is judging Israel for its rebellion during the days of the Judges.

So Naomi and Elimelech and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, have to travel to Moab. You're leaving what has been the family farm for over 200 years. Oh, this is terrible. This is terrible stuff. And then you get to Moab and guess what? Your husband dies. Now you're widowed. And then your two sons marry two Moabitish girls. Oh, this is terrible. They married pagan girls. And then each of your two sons are married for 10 years and neither of them gets their wife pregnant. No children for Naomi, no grandchildren. Something is really, really, really wrong here.

When the famine comes to an end, Naomi says to her two daughters-in-law, "I have no more sons. Go, go back to your people and your land. I'm going to go back to Bethlehem." She comes walking up to Bethlehem and they say, "Look, it's Naomi," whose name means pleasant. She says, "Don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, which means bitterness, because the hand of the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me." Oh, it's been a really, really hard life.

Well, we know that Ruth comes back with Naomi. Ruth goes out in the field and starts to gather grain so they can survive and they can eat. Then Ruth ends up meeting the owner of the field, Boaz. Boaz says, "You know, you're a really, really good girl. You stayed faithful to your mother-in-law even though you had nothing to get out of this. You're a good girl. Here, take a bunch of food home, take a bunch of grain." Ruth gets back to the house and Naomi says, "Where did you get all this food?" She says, "Well, you know, it was out there and there was this guy named Boaz." Now, put a New York Jewish accent on this. Boaz! He's my closest relative, which means that he can marry you and give you children. He's also the one that can mortgage out my property and save us from ruin. So quick, put on a nice pretty dress, take a shower, put on some Chanel No. 5, and then go out to the field in the middle of the night and just go to sleep by his feet. Because they're out in the harvest time. And when he wakes up, just tell him, "I want you to marry me."

She says, "Okay, I'll do it." Wow, you talk about that. How many of you would do that, ladies? That's a tough one. But she does it. She goes out, Boaz wakes up in the middle of the night, says, "Who are you?" She says, "I'm Ruth, marry me." He says, "Okay, I'll do that." But there's another guy that's a closer relative, he has the first right of refusal. So in the morning I'll go talk to him. Boaz goes out there, middle of the city, puts the offer to the other guy, says, "Hey, do you want Naomi's farm and property?" Guy says, "Absolutely, that's a killer deal." Boaz says, "It's a package deal. You have to marry Ruth the Moabitess." He goes, "Nah, you can keep the whole thing." And they get married and they have a child.

What is the name of the child? Obed. Now, when you read in Ruth chapter 4, verses 18 to 22, it gives a genealogy and it says, "These are the generations of Perez. Perez begot Hezron, Hezron Ram, Ram Amminadab, Amminadab Nahshon, Nahshon Salmon, Salmon Boaz, Boaz Obed, Obed Jesse, Jesse David."

Now, these events are taking place about 1200 BC. When were the events of Genesis 38 with Judah and Tamar? That was way back in 1876 BC. Over 600 years later in the Book of Ruth, the genealogy comes out and makes the connection, Perez, to Judah's son Perez in Genesis 38. This child came from an incestuous relationship between Judah and his daughter-in-law. Now you find out that he's the ancestor of King David of Israel and Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

You can trust God. When Paul says, "We know that all things work for good for those who love God," this is not just wishful thinking. When Paul says we know that God is working a good and perfect plan, the scripture shows us what he's doing. We just need to know his Word, right? You can trust God.

So as you look at Judah right here, Judah in this genealogy, this is massively important stuff. You can trust God. Look at verse 6, we come to the next tribes here. From the tribe of Asher 12,000, Naphtali 12,000, Manasseh 12,000. Again, not a whole lot to say here. We see the mixing of the tribes. We don't see Dan included here, but again, Ephraim is not mentioned either. It doesn't matter, the 12 tribes are listed, looking at corporate Israel, a restoration. So it's not a problem that we see one name, they're not all included in any list in the Old Testament. If you look at all these tribes, you know we can't say, "Well Dan was really bad because Dan fell into idolatry." They all fell into idolatry. But God is going to restore them. By the way, in the Messianic kingdom, when Christ brings the kingdom, all these tribes are going to have their land inheritance. And the Levites are going to be restored, it says in Jeremiah 33, verses 14 to 26, the Levites are going to have restoration to serve God in his restored Temple.

God said, "I swear, if you can stop the sun and the moon and the created order, then you could break my promise that I've made to David to have a king ruling and the Levites to have priests ministering." Same breath, he says, "David is going to have his king on the throne and the Levites are going to be ministering." God said so. That's why we know it's going to happen.

Verse 7, we see the next three tribes. Simeon, Levi, and Issachar 12,000. And by the way, just notice this: 12,000 from this tribe, 12,000 from this tribe. It names the tribe, it names 12,000. There is no way in the world that we can hopscotch around this and say, "Well that doesn't really mean Israel." No, it's exactly what it means.

Verse 8, the last tribes here. From the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000. Once again, I'll point out to you that Joseph is mentioned, but one of his sons is also mentioned. That's why we have the mixture of these tribes. It's all coming out to be the 12 tribes of Israel. Bottom line, God is going to restore Israel and to say that this 144,000 simply is allegorical and represents the church, can't do it. That's twisting the Bible. That's denying what the Holy Spirit has spoken. Can't do it.

The numbers in Revelation always have literal meaning. Israel is Israel, the church is the church. In early Christianity, the church was never called Israel. That's an idea that came up later, to call the church Israel. Jesus said in Matthew 19:28 to the 12 apostles, he said, "You are going to sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel." God's going to restore them. No big deal. He said he's going to do it, he's going to do it. And the New Testament always makes that distinction between Israel and the church.

God said he's going to do it. Voestfanning in his commentary says a strong case is made that John says, according to ancient Jewish expectation, there's going to be a regathering and a restoration of Israel. These 144,000 are part of that restoration.

Now, what is the purpose of these 144,000? Most commonly people believe that they are going to be evangelizing during that tribulation period and I think that's probably exactly what's going to happen. By the way, when it says that these 144,000, it doesn't tell us where they come from. They may be from the land of Israel itself, but it's also possible that they are from other parts of the world. Do you know that half of the Jews in the world today, basically about half of them live in America still? New York City, back East Coast, a lot of Jews. Now, they're going to end up in Israel. We know from Revelation 14 that at the end of the tribulation period, they're going to be standing with Christ in Jerusalem on Mount Zion. But it tells us, and we're going to look at this, that God is going to regather his scattered Jews from all over the world. In Ezekiel 39, verse 29, it says, "I'm not going to leave one of them there any longer, scattered in other parts of the world. I'm not going to leave one of them there anywhere. I'm going to bring them all back, but only the saved remnant."

So these 144,000, hypothetically we don't know, but these might be Jews that are living in a place like New York City right now and Jews for Jesus and Friends of Israel and Chosen People Ministries are taking the Gospel to them. And then God brings them to saving faith in that tribulation period. In any case, God has a plan for them.

That brings us to a third and closing point. What is this plan? Now, I've already mentioned it right here. God is going to use this 144,000 part of his remnant to bring the Gospel into the world. There are six promises that I'm just going to hit in a really, really short bullet point fashion right now because we don't have time to keep going into this at the moment. Unless I came and dealt with this next week. Let me tell you what these are. You know what, I want to bring this in next week.

Here's six promises that God makes about the nation of Israel and we're going to look at these more detail next week.

Number one, God is going to regather the nation from being scattered all across the world.

Number two, God is going to bring regeneration, saving faith to that remnant that he's going to restore and regather.

Promise number three, he's going to remove all of the enemy nations from Israel that are trying to destroy Israel. Can we say that that's true right now? There's only one thing that's keeping Israel from being attacked and annihilated, maybe two. One of them is that the United States stands behind them. Number two, they have nukes. And nobody is going to go and mess with them. Now, you've got all these little skirmishes. But God says, "I'm going to take away all their enemies."

Number four, a fourth promise. God is going to bring blessings upon the nation of Israel that surpass anything that happened in history.

Number five, God is going to put a King on the throne of David ruling from Jerusalem and he's going to restore a Temple and he's going to restore the Levitical priesthood. It says this explicitly in numerous passages, like Jeremiah 33:14-26.

Here's a sixth one I mentioned this a moment ago. He says the 12 apostles are going to be ruling over Israel, judging Israel on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. None of these things have happened yet. But they are going to happen. How do I know they're going to happen? God said so in his Word. Not just once, not even twice, but he said so repeatedly, "I am going to do these things."

And brothers and sisters, if we can't believe what the Holy Spirit said in God's Word, why are we wasting our time to be here this morning, you know? Why are we here if we say that we believe one part of it but not something else? God said he's going to do it. So in closing here, and we're going to pick that up, you know, we're going to take that and we're going to make that into, you know, an expanded because that deserves more attention.

In summary, God's promises are there. What you and I need to do, we need to believe him. God's restoration of this whole world is a promise. He says that one day he's going to destroy this material universe. Revelation chapters 21 and 22 says he's going to bring in a new heavens and a new earth. He's going to recreate the universe. Is God really able to do that? Of course he is. He brought it into existence by the speaking of his Word. He's going to recreate it. So why should I be surprised if he says, "I'm going to restore my nation that I chose, Israel"? No big deal for God. Might be a big deal for us, but not for God.

Here's what else he says: he's going to restore the world, he's going to restore Israel, but he also says, "I'll restore you and bring you into a personal relationship if you will simply trust my Son." That's the question, are you willing to trust God's Son? Amen?

Father, we thank you for your free grace that you have given in Christ to bring in a new creation and you tell us that if we belong to him, we become part of that new creation. We thank you, oh God, that you promised us that your Spirit seals us for the day of redemption. That your Spirit, oh God, keeps us safe until that day when you're going to redeem our bodies and bring us into resurrection at the rapture. And your promise that nothing will ever separate us from your love in Christ Jesus.

Lord, I know that, I know for sure that probably every single one of us in here has worries and anxieties and fears about life, money, health, relationships, all kinds of things. Please, oh God, I pray that you would help us to just let go of these things like Paul said and that if we will give you our burdens that your Spirit will comfort us and your peace will guard our hearts. Help us to take these things and really apply them to our own life. I need to do that and I know that every one of us does. We thank you for your promises and your grace and we pray it in Christ's name. Amen.