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Revelation chapter 7 the 144000 sealed · The TakeAway

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, and welcome to the Takeaway, where we teach through the Bible, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, to help you understand God's Word so that you can have a more intimate relationship with Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to the takeaway.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Pastor Harry Barrens, and on today's episode, we'll be looking at Revelation chapter 7, the 144,000.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, question today is who are these 144,000 and what is our takeaway from this?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So join me as we walk through this verse by verse, go through this chapter, I'll explain some things, and at the end, um hopefully these questions will be answered.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh let's get started.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, verse one through four, let's read.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I heard the number of the sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if we read scripture and take it for what it says and just hold on, it will usually answer our questions for us.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, as we can see right here, and we will continue to see as we go through the next verses that the hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we know that they're Jews, and we know that they're from the nation of Israel because scripture says so.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some people will say that these 144,000 represent the church, and they have to do some scriptural magic um to get to that place, because nowhere in scripture does it does it say that um it's clearly um Jewish people, these are the nation of Israel.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if we if you remember in my past episodes and what I've talked about and covered, is that Revelation, we're in the 70th week of Daniel, and this is strictly dealing with the nation of Israel.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there are worldwide events taking place, yes, there is judgment coming upon the world.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: However, this particular time period is dealing with the nation of Israel and God's game plan for them.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So this is him setting apart this 144,000 for his purpose.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So then the next question is what is that purpose?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're going to continue to read and see if those answers are there.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it as a reminder, also, in the previous um chapters, we saw the first six seals of uh the scroll opened that Jesus opened.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And in those scrolls, if you remember me saying, we can see that this isn't God doing, right?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is just God revealing.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what he's doing it when the church was removed before the first seal was opened, before the antichrist came on the scene, the Holy Spirit, the restrainer that is on this earth, was removed or taken back.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was so that the antichrist could be revealed.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what we have um in in those time periods was man's destruction on the earth.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have man uh just doing what he does without the presence of God in this world, and now what we see is a quick pause, right?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just uh between the sixth and seventh seal, where the seven seals open, we enter into God's wrath and God's judgment on the earth, and God is preparing his people, he's preparing the the uh his people and his plan to take place because God will never ever judge the righteous with the wicked, he always protects them, and that's his character and the consistency throughout scripture is that he either seals or protects the righteous or he removes them from judgment completely, and they are never a part of God's wrath, which is about to take place.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's what we have.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so coming up, also, we'll see here in the next few verses um the twelve tribes of Israel.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what it is when people think that the 144,000 is the church, right?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's called replacement theology.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh a couple of verses that indicate that this is not the church, and that um I don't know how people can really get there because they're just trying to reinterpret scripture for something else versus just taking it for what it says.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 13, 15, For all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Samuel 7, 24, and you establish for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you, O Lord, became their God.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you're starting to see a theme here.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in his letter to Romans, the Apostle Paul asked, I say then, has God cast away his people, talking about the Jews, um, Romans 11 1, he quickly answered his own question, certainly not.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Greek expression implies the idea is so unthinkable and absurd, it shouldn't even be entered into the mind.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't even come into your thought process.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about Israel.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you remember, and again, as a quick recap, in Daniel 9 24, talking about the 70 weeks and what is their purpose, right?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: 70 weeks or seven sevens are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's God's game plan, people.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, He is so good to reveal to us exactly what it is that He's doing and how He's gonna do it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, even so that we He gives us the signs of the time that we know when these things are gonna start to take place and when to start looking up.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we're in that time.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing the foreshadowing of a lot of things starting to take place.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the interesting thing, one of the arguments that people will use is we see in verses um five through eight here, talks about the 12,000 from the tribe of Judah, the 12,000 for Reuben and Gad and Asher, and it goes through all the different tribes, is that there's no way to identify the different tribes, that there's no way for us to know who's in which tribe, um, and all that information has been lost, and blah, blah, blah, and goes on and on and on.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, but with God, all things are possible.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: God knows who.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not man who is identifying and marking these individuals, right?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is God who is marking them.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus who is sealing them up.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he, you know, and he's setting them aside for himself.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So he knows who these individuals are.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's set them aside and he's prepared them, or is currently preparing them for this time.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't have to worry about that.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not our job to discern.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: We just have to trust who is the God that we serve.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do we trust an all-knowing, all-powerful God who is capable of all things, or do we not?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I choose to believe that we do, and I don't concern myself with the details of just because I can't figure it out or you can't figure it out, doesn't mean it's not possible.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: With God, all things are possible.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there is some information here that I think is important though, um, for those of you who don't know.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I took a little um, stole this from David Jeremiah, and it's just a little uh thing off of one of his blogs or websites that I had found.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's just something I want to read to you real quick.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the Jews who are dedicated to serving God, the witness will um the witnesses will be Jews who receive a special calling from the Lord, Revelation 7, indicates there will be 12,000 witnesses from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, and he goes on to name those tribes.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is worth noting that Joseph's name stands out in place of the tribe of Dan.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Dan is strongly associated with idolatry, and some scholars have even speculated that the Antichrist would come from this tribe.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot be sure.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to understand that we cannot be sure.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's possible that Joseph's name is mentioned here to show that all tribes will be reunited.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: What we do know is that in the millennial kingdom, all thirteen tribes will receive a distribution of land, Ezekiel 48, 1 through 29.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: So just a little tidbit, just so you have that information.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let's move on through verses 9 through 12.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been following us, this might seem like a little bit of deja vu.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Seems familiar, right?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if we look back to chapters four and five, it seems like an identical event, but there is a difference, right?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if we look four and five, we see essentially what looks to be the same exact thing happening.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So is it the same thing?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's a question to ask, or is it different?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Again, scripture answers itself.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: If we just read a little bit further, in verse 13, it says, Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's interesting about that right there, back in chapters four and five, you don't see the elders saying, Who are all these people around us?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't see that.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: They know who they are, they know where they come from.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is the church, they know this is the church.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: But now we see one of the elders, and not that he doesn't know, he knows.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's addressing John, and the idea is to get an answer from John, or to get John to take notice and to get the reader to take notice of, like, hey, these individuals are different than the individuals we just saw.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, Sir, you know, and he said to me, These are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So this is clearly not the same people group as in the previous chapters.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: The elders said clearly, Who are these?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't, uh it's not that, again, he didn't know.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: He knew, and he was just trying to get us to pay attention to these.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: What's really interesting, though, and again, thinking about the perspective that John is seeing this take place in, and these people, these aren't the ones that came out of the Great Tribulation.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: These are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, what you have is the events happening in chapters four and five, and then later on, here, people are being added to that people group.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: The church is in heaven.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the question is, is like, where are these individuals coming from?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the church was here.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, these individuals are the ones who are accepting Jesus during the tribulation.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're being martyred, they're being killed, um, either through what we saw in the first six seals, right?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: We saw war, we saw plagues, we saw famine, um, all this stuff that was taking place.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's where these people are coming from.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they've put their faith in Jesus during this time, and now they're showing up.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure throughout the seven-year period, that's what they're gonna see.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's more and more people showing up, but there is a difference.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: There is a difference, and they notice that there's a difference.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: The difference is that the church, right, saved by grace, right, and that's why we weren't a part of God's wrath, we end up in heaven.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: These individuals, not so much so, it's more of an old testament type saving.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: They come to believe and trust in the Lord Jesus, and they're saved by faith, right?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like Abraham, they had faith, but they didn't have the sealing of the Holy Spirit, therefore, they were still a part of God's wrath.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like that, they weren't protected from that.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: There was nothing sealing them away from that, other than these 144,000, specifically set aside by the Lord.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, as we saw in chapter six with the martyrs under the altar, God had told them to wait a little while longer till the number of their fellow servants had been killed.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now we are seeing that come to pass, right?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is what's taking place.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: These are the extra individuals that are continuing to come into the kingdom of God.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so moving on to the last few verses, 15 to 17, therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: They shall hunger no more, which we saw hunger in one of the seals, neither thirst any more.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the sun scorching them, indicating that they're being burnt or that it's it's harming them, not helping them, like when we go out on a nice sunny day and it's not talking about sunburn.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're actually going to see more of that as we read into the judgments in God's wrath coming up in the next few chapters here.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So now, um, what again is the takeaway, right?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So now we know these sealed individuals are Jewish individuals.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: What is their purpose?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, their purpose is to spread the gospel during the tribulation period, and I think that's where you're gonna have these individuals who are not Christians and not believers pre-Trib, otherwise they would have been raptured.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're being saved because of the gospel being shared, particularly by these 144,000.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be many, many, many people coming to faith, other than just the nation of Israel.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see a lot of Jews coming to faith, but you're gonna see a lot of people around the world coming to faith during this time.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the big takeaway here is that here in the period of grace, us in the church age that we're in, we are sealed by God.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Currently, we are sealed.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you've been sealed by the Holy Spirit.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: He indwells within you and you are protected.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your days, um, your life, your life expectancy when you die, only God is in like He is in complete control of that.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And nothing in this world can harm you outside of God's say so.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there's a a quote I want to read, I can't remember where I heard it from, but it was if uh we are a man or a woman of God living in the will of God, we can't be touched.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I'm not saying that exactly as I heard it, but that's the point, right?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is if you are a believer in Christ and you're living in the will of God, you have nothing to worry about.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like God has a purpose and plan for you, live it out faithfully and don't worry about anything else.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: So um the big question here is are you a person of God living in the will of God?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to ask yourself, and my challenge to you today would be evaluate yourself and correct course as needed.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: There are many, many believers, um, uh all of us.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm guilty of it, many of us, we're all guilty of it, where we get off course and we get outside the will of God, we start getting lured by temptation, we start getting lured by the things of this world, and we find ourselves down a road that God did not desire for us to be down.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: But we have a good and gracious God who allows us to repent and correct course.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I challenge you to do that on a daily basis.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Evaluate your life, look at what you did the day before, look at your plans for today, look at your plans for tomorrow, and say, are these glorifying God?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Are these pleasing to God?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do they bring pleasure to him?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do they bring joy to him?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if the answer is no, I would tell you to avoid them.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, seek only those things that bring and that you know bring pleasure to God, and that will be your best bet for being in the will of God.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: The second is the word of God, stay in it, read it daily.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, read it as a devotional, read it out of love.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't read it to study it um as a devotional, just read it because you love it, because it's God's word and you want to hear what he has to say, even if you don't understand it.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: The second part of that is do study it when you have time, but make it two separate things.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the first thing is love God first with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and just engulf yourself into the word of God and just read it and allow it to work in you the way that the living word works in us.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And outside of that, if you're called to be a teacher, if you want to be a student of God, of God's word, um, and really know God's will, the more you know his word, the more you'll know his will, and the more you'll know the purpose of your life to live it out for him.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in case you haven't called on to it, the purpose of your life is to glorify and please our Father in heaven.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's the purpose.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we were created for, right?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: We are we are created to worship God.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we tend to find ourselves worshiping many other things.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Repent of those things.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if it's something that has your eyes off of God, turn from it, repent, tell God you're sorry, get your eyes focused back on Him, and only do things that glorify and please Him.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: So don't worry about your life.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: You are sealed, and continue to correct course.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you so much for today.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your word and the truth and the things that you teach us.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to correct course, help us to identify the things that are wrong in our lives, help us to repent and to know clearly what it is that we need to turn from and show us clearly, God, as we read your word, to know what we need to turn towards and how to do it and how to live it out.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it is our desire, Father, that we please you, that we glorify you in all that we say and do.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: So give us the strength and the anointing to do that.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your precious name, Jesus.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I look forward uh to next week as we move into chapter eight, as we start to see the seventh seal open and we move into the trumpet judgments, which is the beginning of God's wrath and the great tribulation.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we'll explain more as we move forward.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you again and God bless.