Simple Faith

Guest (Male): God's promises are 100% reliable from Genesis chapter 1 through Revelation chapter 22. Here's Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: God is still faithful. He is still faithful here even in the last book of Revelation. Even at the very end and a new Jerusalem is coming down. God is still faithful to the promises He has made. What difference does it make? It makes all the difference in the world or it should to us here today.

Because guess what? The rest of the promises that God has made you and me throughout the entire word of God, they are true. They are true and God does not go back on His promises. All the promises of God are what? Yes and amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, the senior pastor at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. We're making our way through the book of Revelation right now and today we continue in chapter seven.

Now this chapter's been widely described as one of the most controversial chapters in the Bible. There are some well-known cults and false religions that focus on this chapter as a way of legitimizing their point of view on the end times. Obviously, there is truth and there is falsehood when it comes to chapter seven of Revelation. So let's get to the truth with Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: If God wanted to replace Israel with the church, He would have done so plainly. Our God doesn't—He doesn't hide these things especially when we read in Ephesians that the great mystery has been revealed that the gospel basically would go to the Gentiles. That was the great mystery, right? That we would be grafted into the Jewish people in the faith.

So again, this whole thing with replacement theology. It's 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 a replacement theology? I can't understand it. I grew up in a church that that's what they taught, replacement theology, that the church has replaced Israel all throughout the Bible now because He's rejected Israel and this and that.

It's simply, honestly, it's crazy, it's dishonest, and I'll be real frank with you. People who say that well I just hate Israel and they'll say this as Christians. I hate Israel because they crucified Jesus and that's why I just hate them. They crucified Jesus and I say to you, you're deceived.

Do you know what the Bible says, 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, 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's the thing, Israel has not been replaced.

As we're 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's from back in the 1800s and he believed in replacement theology and one of his arguments was this is too exact a number. It's 12,000 from every tribe, 144,000, like God's going to do an exact number thing.

Dude, what's wrong with you? Like that's 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 Reubenite or who's really a Levite and so this couldn't possibly happen. Do you know who God is, fellow? Is it too hard for God? We don't think that God knows every Hebrew that's ever lived and still is alive today, those who have died over the centuries and millennia?

Dude, who's your God? I forget if I met you today, I'll forget your name in two minutes. I'm sorry, I'm trying to get better. God doesn't forget anything. He knows the numbers on the hairs of our head. How many numbers you got, Bill? I don't know, three billion, four trillion, 332 billion million, I don't know. God knows and He knows this. So when He's 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 it's like well, they're gone now, they're all dispersed around the world. But wait a minute, as I read through my Bible, that's what God said He was going to do, disperse them, but He also said I'm 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's what happened. Never happened in the history of recorded history that a country was away from its mainland for almost 2,000 years, then it comes back.

Anybody want to see a miracle today? We have miracle services. Just open up your atlas and look, there's Israel. It's there. There's 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're so firm in it.

It's so weird they don't want to believe what the Bible clearly teaches. They're so firm in their replacement theology. I'll say well look, Israel became a nation again. How are you even talking against that? Oh well, that's not really Israel. What do you mean? They'll say this, literally they'll say oh well that's the worldly Israel, that's not the real spiritual Israel.

First of all, show me where this spiritual Israel is, you're twisting scripture again. But I said, so you mean this Israel is they returned all in their unbelief? And they're like, yes, they returned in unbelief, they're not the real Israel. I say, just like the Bible says that they are going to return in unbelief?

Do you understand that it says it over and over throughout the Old Testament especially that God's going to bring them back, they're going to come back in unbelief, and then He's going to do a work? He's not done bringing them back yet, guys and gals. He's not done yet.

God has not replaced the nation of Israel. Because even here again, look at this, verse five. These are from all the tribes, all these children of Israel. Verse five: 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 foreheads.

Now can I take just a side note for just a moment? I think that once these all are sealed, because that's what it says here, that 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's going to last but this will happen according to what we see here.

Now let's look at these tribes, let's look at these 144,000 for a few minutes. So did you first notice that there was a tribe missing from the list? Anybody notice that? Do you know what tribe it was? Dan. The tribe of Dan is missing from this list. If you notice, Manasseh, who is Joseph's son, has been added and the tribe of Dan has been taken out.

Now we can guess and we can try to, why is this? Most of your Bible scholars will say it's because the tribe of Dan back in the book of Judges was the first tribe to go off into worshiping false idols and idolatry. We don't know for sure though, but again what's interesting is I love what Charles Ryrie, the commentator, said about Dan here, why aren't they there.

Let me read it to you because it's so good. He said this: "Whatever the reason for Dan's omission from the list of tribes from which the 144,000 elect will come, this is not the end of God's dealing with that tribe. The Danites will receive a portion of the land during the millennial kingdom. In Ezekiel chapter 48, verse one, Dan heads the list of the tribes as the inheritance to be divided amongst them."

That's in Ezekiel 48:1, it also says it again in Ezekiel 48 verse 32. He goes on to say this: "So the exclusion here is not permanent, for the gifts and calling of God with regard to His people including Dan are without repentance." Why does this matter to us today? Who cares? Who cares if all these tribes are going to be there? Who cares if the nation of Israel's been replaced?

Here's the thing. You see, if Israel's been replaced, then you and I can be replaced. If Israel can lose their special status with God, so too can we. But you see, Israel's thing isn't simply dependent upon them. Now more so with us. You see, when we see that God is still faithful, He is still faithful here even in the last book of Revelation, even at the very end and a new Jerusalem is coming down.

God is still faithful to the promises He has made. What difference does it make? It makes all the difference in the world or it should to us here today. Because guess what? The rest of the promises that God has made you and me throughout the entire word of God, they are true. They are true and God does not go back on His promises. All the promises of God are what? Yes and amen.

So when God says that He will help you overcome sin, guess what? He helps you to overcome sin. When God says that we can live and be holy as He who has called us is holy, guess what? We can be holy as He who has called us. When we can love our enemies, He commands love your enemies, bless those who curse you.

How do we do that? We can do that in the power of the spirit of God. We can do that because God has promised us. Heaven is coming, heaven is real, the rapture is coming, the rapture is real. How do we know that? Because the rest of the word of God. I heard somebody the other day, a pastor and he was saying oh we can't really tell if the Bible's true, you can't say that like compared to other writings that they're any different and I'm like, bro, look at prophecy.

Jesus said in the Gospel of John, he said look, I tell you these things so that when they do happen you will believe. Believe what? Believe all the rest that he has told us. We have prophecy for a reason. So many prophecies about so many things, but the two main things the prophecies are about were the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus.

Guess what? Jesus is coming. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? Does it change your life? Do you believe it that much? At all, do you start holding on to things a little bit looser? I don't care about this anymore because again even if Jesus doesn't come back tomorrow, a truck could hit me and take me home to Jesus right there.

To be absent from the body is present with the Lord. Guess what? None of the stuff you like is coming with you. None of your video games are going, none of your clothes, none of your jewelry, none of your cars, none of your golf clubs, your rifles or your whatever else. I like guitars, no guitars are—I can't take any of them with me.

You ever really think about that? Everything we're working so hard for, that nice house or it's not coming with you. Jesus is preparing a house for you. All the gold that you have hidden in your backyard, they're going to dig that up and use it for asphalt in the new kingdom. I'll be the one in heaven going I gotta dig up this asphalt, it's gold bro, gold. No bro, it's asphalt, relax.

Look, when we're looking here, this is such a special thing that we need to know. God right comes back to the Jewish people again. This is here at the end of the word of God. This is here in the last days that we're looking at and God comes back to the Jewish people again. Remember the church is gone. The entity of the church has already been raptured at this point.

Now there are new believers, we read about that back in the fifth seal that are already being martyred and killed. But the church is gone. And even this 144,000, these are those some Jews that have come to faith. 144,000. And it's interesting that the Lord now again is dealing with the people of Israel.

Remember the book of Revelation. It's not about as some believe in their Bible it'll even say the revelation of the apocalypse or the revelation of John. It is literally, it means the revelation of Jesus Christ. How do we know that? Read verse one. The revelation of Jesus Christ. There you go, it's done.

So that's what mainly the book of Revelation is, but it's also about other things. It's about God pouring out His wrath on a world that has rejected Him and has rejected the cross. But it's also a time where God is dealing with the nation of Israel again because God always honors His word. And again thank God He does because you and I have a place being prepared for us even now.

We know this how? Because the word of God. God will never leave us nor forsake us. How do we know that? Because of the word of God. How do we find peace? God tells us how to find peace. How do we find joy? He tells us how to find joy. How do we forgive? God tells us.

Isn't it beautiful? All these promises. And as He's coming back here to the nation of Israel, remember as we're looking at the seven-year tribulation, remember that this is the 70th week of Daniel. This goes back to the prophet Daniel talking again mainly about the people of Israel. This is the time of Jacob's trouble.

And now we have though—here's the crazy thing to me. You want to know about God's crazy love? You want to know about God's crazy grace? It is that in the midst of Him pouring out His wrath upon a world that hates Him, that rejects Him and man we're going to see more and more as we continue on, guess what God decides to do?

You know in the middle of this, I'm going to send out 144,000 witnesses to go bring the gospel to all these people. So that even in the midst of the wrath they're still having to go through the wrath, man I want a lot of people to come to Christ. And guess what? I'll give you a little hint in who the next group is, we're going to see a lot of the fruit from what these guys do next week: countless number.

You want to talk about people coming to Christ, the most people to Christ that we can see in the entire history of the church will happen after the church is gone and during the tribulation because of the grace of God even in the midst of His wrath. This is such a beautiful picture. This is our God.

And so again as we see this, as God is still dealing with Israel, remember Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10. Familiar to most of us here. Zechariah 12:10 it says this: "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn."

This is coming. God even as He's choosing these 144,000 and as the middle point of the tribulation comes as we read in Daniel, as we read in the words of Jesus, as we read here in the book of Revelation, there's going to come a time when the antichrist because most of Israel is going to be happy, most of your Jews are going to be happy because they now have rebuilt the temple.

They've rebuilt the temple and they're installing worship again, animal sacrifices. They're so excited but at the three-and-a-half-year mark we're told by Daniel and again by Jesus here in Revelation, there comes where the antichrist comes in and he defiles the temple and he demands that people worship him. He demands the Jews to worship him.

He claims to be the messiah, he claims to be God. And the whole world and the Jews are like dude, we've been fooled. And it's time—Jesus said, dude, run for the hills. And it is a crazy time, but God is working in all of this so that one day when Jesus does return at the end of the tribulation that they will look upon him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him.

Oh that was the messiah. We went through 2,000 plus years, we went through this tribulation all and it was he was the messiah the whole time. You ever wonder what would happen if they would have received him as the messiah at the beginning? Wasn't going to happen but just interesting to think about.

So we notice again, coming back to our text, this 144,000, if you look back at verse three, it says these are the servants of our God. So most people think most of your commentators say well because they're servants of God, what's the main thing that a servant of God of Jesus Christ is told to do? We're told to go and spread the gospel and make disciples of all men and women.

We're to go to call people to repentance. Jesus said at the end of Luke, we're to go and make disciples, be those who are spreading the gospel. Now that's what the work is they're probably doing since they're servants of God, they're going to go forth sharing the gospel. Can I ask you this real quick? Anybody here a servant of God?

I hope we're all consider ourselves that. But if you're a servant of God, are you serving God? Are you going out and bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to a world that is lost? That's to me when I read this stuff it's like dude, we're not the 144,000 but we too have been sealed by the spirit of God. We too have been commissioned to go out and do the work of the Lord.

No Bill, that's your job, you're the pastor. Pastor J, that's your job too. No, no, no. If we're a Christian, that's all of our jobs. To go out and plant seeds, water, and sometimes we get to partake as people come to Christ, but to be those who are going out making disciples of all men, all women across the world. And as we read this, I know, and then you look around and see what's happening in the world, it should like get us to go even more so.

So these 144,000 as we're coming to a close, look, they're now protected by the seal of God himself. Now most of your commentators say that they're going to be protected from persecution throughout the rest of the tribulation, some say they'll come a time when they'll die too. We don't know for sure.

But it's interesting to read and it also implies because this is done they said hey, stop before you do any more damage to the earth and let's have these 144,000 sealed and then you continue basically that they're also going to be protected somehow from some of this damage that's going to come. We don't know for sure.

But again by the grace of God we see Him sending out 144,000 witnesses. But that's not all He does. Turn with me to Revelation 11, please. He sends out these 144,000 witnesses, people to go to serve Him to go around the world. Now look at Revelation 11:3, because He also sends two witnesses.

Revelation 11:3: "And I will give power to my two witnesses and they will prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth." So the whole world will see as we have communication now, they're going to see these two fellows and they're going to be calling down all kinds of things. The world's going to hate them and finally God will give the antichrist, the beast power to overtake them and to kill them.

The whole world's going to be so excited when these two guys are dead that they're actually going to be sending people gifts to one another like we do on Christmas. But then after three-and-a-half days guess what happens? God raises them from the dead and before everybody—everybody sees it and it just go ascend into heaven.

And so but God in the—again in the midst of His grace He sends them out and then turn to Revelation 14. So we have the 144,000, we have the two witnesses and then here in chapter 14, if there's anybody left who hasn't heard the gospel, look at verse Revelation 14 verses six and seven.

"Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

Now it's interesting, we have the 144,000, we have the two witnesses, then we have the angel that flies all around the earth pronouncing the gospel to all humankind, every nation, tribe, tongue and people to finally fulfill what Jesus says in Matthew 24:7. He said this: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come."

Because remember even at this point of the gospel when the angel is going about here in Revelation 14, the end hasn't come yet. So there are those who say today that until we need to go and spread the gospel because until every nation has heard the gospel Jesus can't come. That's not true.

You see, that would make His return basically contingent upon us doing something. That's not how God works. None of His things are contingent upon us guys and gals. He's on His own time clock. The first coming of God was like that, the first coming of Jesus, the second coming. Now this doesn't mean that we're not to go out and be missionaries and have a heart and go do those things.

But we're doing it because of the command that Jesus gave us to go forth and make disciples of all men. We don't do it to—for something because there's coming a time when God himself is going to do this. He's going to fulfill this.

So again the 144,000 is the first group who can stand during the time of God's wrath. There's a second group. Now next week, Lord willing and we're all here, we're going to take a look at the second group but let's take a sneak peek at it in verse nine.

Verse nine it says: "After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes with palm branches in their hands."

Guest (Male): I hope you were blessed by today's message from Pastor Bill Henry. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington and today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's new series in the book of Revelation.

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For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org and also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks so much for joining us today. 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.