Simple Faith

Bill Henry: People say that they hate Israel, and they will say this as Christians. They hate Israel because they crucified Jesus. You are deceived. Do you know what the Bible says and what Jesus himself said? "No man takes my life from me. I lay it down freely." If you want to get mad at somebody for killing Jesus, go look in a mirror because we killed Jesus. It was your sin and it was my sin that held Jesus Christ upon the cross.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us for another edition of Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, coming to you from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Now, if you are a sports fan, you know that when things are going badly for a team, the one thing that the coach is likely to do is call a timeout to regroup.

As we move into chapter 7 in our verse-by-verse study through Revelation, that is exactly what we are going to see today: a timeout. In chapter 6, we have seen the vision of coming death and destruction, and in chapter 8, another wave of judgment begins. But in chapter 7, we have a break. Here is Pastor Bill Henry to share it with us.

Bill Henry: Revelation chapter 7, starting in verse 1: "After these things, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel descending from the east, 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, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.'"

"And I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. The tribe of Judah, 12,000 were sealed. The tribe of Reuben, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Gad, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Asher, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of William, 12,000..."

Anybody catch that? Just making sure you are still with me. "Of the tribe of Levi, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Issachar, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 were sealed." That is a lot of 12,000s sealed.

So, as we come to chapter 7, we need to remember that back in chapter 6, six of the seals have been opened by Jesus. As we studied last week, a lot of the wrath of God has been poured out upon a world that has rejected God and rejected the cross of Jesus Christ. Now, what is interesting at the end of the last chapter, there was a question that was asked by those who were fleeing from the wrath of God. If you will notice, if you look back with me at verse 17 of chapter 6, at the end there it says, "And who is able to stand?"

Who is able to stand in the time of God's wrath? Well, in chapter 7, we come and we see two groups of people who are able to stand in the midst of the wrath of God. They are standing in different ways, and we are going to see one of those groups this morning. So again, as we see here in verse 1, we need to remember that the sixth seal, the wrath that comes along with the sixth seal, is still coming. This is a continuance.

Notice in verse 1, it says, "After these things." After what things? Look back at verse 12 of Revelation 6. It says there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

The kings of the earth, the great men and the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" Now, here in verse 1 of chapter 7, this continues. This is still part of the sixth seal. Notice, "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 or on the sea or on any tree."

It is interesting, first of all, we must note that there are four angels that he sees. And he uses the idiom "four corners of the earth." This doesn't mean that the Bible is declaring that the earth is flat, if we have any flat earthers here today. It is basically just an idiom, a saying that is used. I know many that still say it today. The four corners of the earth: north, south, east, west. But there are these four angels that are to stand around the world and withhold the wind. And so this is part of the wrath of God.

I will be honest with you, when you first read this, it doesn't sound too bad. Withholding the wind doesn't sound like too big of a deal, especially after the things that we have seen happen already. But when you stop to think about it, no wind would mean no rain clouds would be blown around and rain would not be dispersed. There would be no seeds being blown about to spread in the wind. It would affect even the waves of the ocean and the upper currents.

There would be no cooling breeze to help cool down where you are. There would be no more wind power for a time. No jet stream, which the scientists still don't understand how all of these things affect the earth. So it is an interesting thing. I went to National Geographic on their website, and I just wanted to see how wind impacts the world. Here are just a few examples.

Wind is a major factor in determining weather and climate. Wind carries heat, moisture, pollutants, and pollen to new areas. Many daily weather patterns depend on wind. A coastal region, for instance, undergoes changes in wind direction daily. The sun heats the land more quickly than the water. Warm air above the land rises, and the cool air above the water moves in over the land, creating an inland breeze.

Wind affects the climate of mountain areas differently. Wind also helps to drive ocean surface currents around the world. However devastating to the economy, wind is an important way for plants to disperse seeds. Imagine if you will. We used to get those days that were so smoggy, and we would be thankful for the Santa Anas to come and blow it inland. Sorry to the inland folks, they get all our smog. This would all stop. So the stilling of the winds... what is interesting here is we are not told how long they are going to do it. Is it for a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, even a few months, maybe even a year? Imagine the devastation.

So again, this is the next thing that is coming. But as the four angels are about to do as God has commanded them to do, notice we have an interruption. Look at verse 2. "Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, 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, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.'"

There are a few things to note here. First of all, if you will notice at the end of verse 2 and the end of verse 3, this halting of the winds will harm the earth and the sea. So this is something that will bring some sort of harm even though we may not fully understand that yet. But we also notice it says that this angel, another angel, was ascending from the east. It is interesting to me, all of a sudden we have these geographical things happening as well.

That is another reason we take the word of God literally here. We don't spiritualize it all the way and say it is from the east, so that must mean these people come from the east. No, this is literally an angel flying from the east, and he is crying out to the other angels saying, "Hey, hold on there. Don't do that yet." What is interesting as well that is happening here, your commentators call this a parenthesis.

Here in chapter 7, as we come to this, it is like all of a sudden we are talking about all the wrath of God that is happening, but then we take this break. It is kind of away from it, and now we are talking about some other things here. It is going to happen a total of three times here in the Book of Revelation: here in chapter 7, it happens again in chapter 10, and then again in chapter 12. These parentheses where we kind of take a break to see other things that are happening other than the wrath of God coming upon the earth.

Now, what is this angel bringing? Look at verse 2 again. They saw this angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he also says, "Wait until," verse 3, "until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." So it is interesting, now he is coming to seal the servants of God, these 144,000 that we see here. What does this mean, to seal them on their foreheads?

If you remember back in chapter 5 when we looked at Jesus who alone is worthy to open the seals, we looked at what seals were and the scroll. Basically, the thought can be a little bit of a different application. You can have a scroll that is rolled up, and then you put seals on it to make sure that nobody opens it. The seals would break, so you know somebody opened it. It would have usually some kind of signet ring or something that they would put into the wax of the seal or maybe on a parchment.

They sealed the tomb of Jesus as well. They put a seal on there so if it is broken, they would know that somebody came in. And so this is what the seals were. You would also use a seal as a symbol of ownership. You could put it on a contract. This is my seal. This is mine now. This has been purchased. The deal is done. And so we see here that he is going to do this with these 144,000 men. They are going to be sealed with God's seal upon their foreheads.

If you just flip over with me to Revelation chapter 14, we will see what actually is going to be on their foreheads. What is this seal? I read some commentators and they guess it might be a cross or different things going back to the Hebrew. Well, we are actually told in Revelation 14 verse 1 what it is: "Then I looked and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000, having His Father's name written on their heads."

So what are they sealed with? It is the name of God the Father written upon their foreheads. Now, let me ask you this. How many here have heard of the mark of the beast? If you don't mind raising your hand real quick. Most everybody here. And especially today with all the technology. But how many have heard of the mark of the Father? Most of us haven't heard of the mark of the Father. And again, because we like the fantastical sometimes.

But you see, what we need to understand is what we are seeing here as the angel is coming with the mark of the Father to mark on their foreheads His name. This is the original mark. The one that we read later that Satan gives out, the mark of the beast to buy and sell, signifying that you are worshipping the beast as well, that is a copy of what God is doing here. Most people don't realize that. Satan doesn't come up with anything original. He is always ripping off God.

So again, turn with me to Revelation 13. This is what most of us are familiar with. Revelation 13 verse 16: "He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name." So notice here he expands it a little bit. Not just on their foreheads, they can have it either on their foreheads or on their right hand. And so again, we have to understand that they are ripping God off. It is an interesting thing.

Now notice here verse 4. It says, "And I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000." Now if I could remind us all today, if you are a Christian, if you have repented of your sins, believed in Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of your lives, if you believe on Him and have been born again of the spirit of God, one of the things that happens to you is you are now sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. So while they are receiving this seal upon their foreheads, we have received the seal. We have been sealed in God. Nobody can take you now. You are His.

And so we need to understand this, that this is a continuing thing. And so now we see the number of those who were sealed: 144,000. And it says of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. Now, it is interesting. These 144,000 were not the best Jehovah's Witnesses out there. Jehovah's Witnesses used to teach that if you were good enough, you would make it into the 144,000 and you alone would go to heaven.

There have been many other cults that are just like this. They'll say, "If you come to Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we're part of the real Christianity and only up to 144,000, so come quickly. The number's filling up." And any of that kind of stuff is wickedness. You see, there are also those who continue to spiritualize these numbers in the scriptures. They say these are just representatives of Christianity, that the church has replaced Israel.

There are so many different things wrong with that statement. I will just hit a few of them. You have to really labor to come up with a place that God has replaced the nation of Israel. There are so many different things that you look at this scripture—notice it says there at the end of verse 4: "144,000 of who? All the tribes of the children of Israel." Of the children of Israel. Do we not think that God could have written here "of Christianity"?

And so then when he goes on to list all these different tribes and 12,000 were taken from all these different tribes, again, that would be a mistake. John didn't really know then that God was going to actually replace all those with Christians. Do you see how silly that sounds? Either this is the word of God and it means what it says, or we try to spiritualize it away and say it really represents 12,000 from America, 12,000 from Africa, then 12,000 from Russia, 12,000 from China.

It is like crazy. But then another guy says it represents this, or it represents that. It represents what it says! There will be 144,000, 12,000 from each of these tribes. It is done. We don't need to monkey around with the word of God, because then it turns us into monkeys. Not only are we told that they are children of Israel, but we are also told what specific tribes they come from. So if God wanted to replace Israel with the church, He would have done so plainly.

Our God doesn't hide these things, especially when we read in Ephesians that the great mystery has been revealed: that the gospel would go to the Gentiles. That was the great mystery, that we would be grafted in to the Jewish people in the faith. So again, this whole thing with replacement theology is such a silly thing I hate to even address it, but do you know that still most of the Christian churches in the world still embrace replacement theology?

I can't understand it. I grew up in a church where that is what they taught: replacement theology, that the church has replaced Israel all throughout the Bible now because He's rejected Israel. It is simply, honestly crazy. It is dishonest, and I will be real frank with you. People who say they hate Israel and they will say this as Christians. "I hate Israel because they crucified Jesus." And that is why I just hate them.

And I say you are deceived. Do you know what the Bible says and what Jesus himself said? "No man takes my life from me. I lay it down freely." If you want to get mad at somebody for killing Jesus, go look in a mirror. Because we killed Jesus. It was your sin and it was my sin that held Jesus Christ upon the cross. But it was the grace of God that brought Him up from the grave and made us all able to enter into His death and His resurrection.

But here is the thing. Israel has not been replaced. As we are reading through these things and we come and we see the exact numbers: 144,000. There was a fellow I read some of his commentary, and he is from back in the 1800s, and he believed in replacement theology. One of his arguments was that this is too exact a number. It is 12,000 from every tribe, 144,000, like God is going to do an exact number thing.

It is like, what is wrong with you? Like that is too hard for God? And then he also said, "And besides, we don't even know because the records are all gone who's really a Rubenite or who's really a Levite, and so this couldn't possibly happen." Do you know who God is? Is it too hard for God? We don't think that God knows every Hebrew that has ever lived and still is alive today, those who have died over the centuries and millennia?

Dude, who is your God? If I meet you today, I will forget your name in two minutes. I am sorry, I am trying to get better. God doesn't forget anything. He knows the numbers on the hairs of our head. God knows. And He knows this. So when He is saying this, guess what? It is true. God has not replaced the nation of Israel. I could kind of understand that to a point, maybe before Israel became a nation.

There was no nation of Israel and they were all dispersed around the world. But wait a minute, as I read through my Bible, that is what God said He was going to do: disperse them. But He also said He is going to bring them back from the four corners of the earth over and over again. So May 14th, 1948, happens. Israel becomes a nation again. The Bible says, "Should a nation become a nation in a day?" Isaiah wrote about it. And guess what? That is what happened.

Never happened in the history of recorded history that a country was away from its mainland for almost 2,000 years and then it comes back. Anybody want to see a miracle today? Just open up your atlas and look. There is Israel. It is there. There is a miracle for you right now, right before our eyes today. And you still have hundreds and thousands every week returning to the land. I've had people again that believe in replacement theology and they are so firm in it.

They don't want to believe what the Bible clearly teaches. I'll say, "Well look, Israel became a nation again. How are you even talking against that?" "Oh well, that's not really Israel. That's the worldly Israel, that's not the real spiritual Israel." I'm like, first of all, show me where this spiritual Israel is. You're twisting scripture again. But I said, "So you mean this Israel returned all in their unbelief?" And they're like, "Yes, they returned in unbelief."

I say just like the Bible says that they're going to return in unbelief. Do you understand that it says that over and over throughout the Old Testament, especially that God is going to bring them back? They are going to come back in unbelief, and then He's going to do a work. He's not done bringing them back yet. He is not done yet. God has not replaced the nation of Israel.

Because even here again, look at this. Verse 5: these are from all the tribes, all these children of Israel. Verse 5: the tribe of Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. All these had 12,000 taken from them and they are sealed by God with the name of God the Father across their heads. Now, can I take just a side note for just a moment?

I think that once these all are sealed, because that is what it says here, we can then assume that the other four angels went about their business. And in the future, there will come a time when all the winds will stop. This will be part of the sixth seal. We don't know how long it is going to last, but this will happen according to what we see here.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today, we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It is our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it is available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

We have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived and you can find them all at simplefaith.org. Just click the media tab. We also stream Simple Faith at oneplace.com. And if you'd like to contact us, just click the "Contact Us" tab on our website, and there's a tab at the top of our homepage where you can also send in a prayer request. You can also call us at 833-BY-GRACE. That is 833-294-7223.

And if you'd prefer the US mail, our mailing address is PO Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, 98604. And when you support this radio outreach with a donation of any amount, we're going to send you a copy of a classic book from legendary Christian preacher and apologist D.L. Moody. It's called "The Overcoming Life." It is absolutely a must-read for any Christian and it has been read and enjoyed by millions of believers.

To get a copy of this wonderful resource for a donation of any amount, go to simplefaith.org and click the give tab. Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have three services on Sunday morning at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30, and a great time of study in God's Word on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org and you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for joining us today and be sure to join us next time as our series in Revelation continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.