Did You Know That Angels are Assigned to Nations?

If you have been following this study, we learned that Chapter 7 in the Book of Revelation is a pause in the story to provide us with some relevant information that we need to know to understand the remainder of the book. It's called a parenthetical pause. The one thing we need to understand when we read our Bible is understanding the validity of the nation of Israel, where most people would like to simply wipe them off the face of the earth, or say that because Israel rejected Jesus the remainders of the promises of the Bible no longer relate to Israel or the Jewish people, but the church age believers. That is just not true.

God promises that in the last days He will gather together the nation of Israel, not any other nation! All of the ancient prophecies that are foretold by the prophets said that before God establishes His kingdom, or the Messiah returns back to earth, He will again bring Israel back into her promised land. We are living in a time where this has begun, first with the Zionist movement where Israel as a nation was created in a day for the second time on May 14, 1948, we still see Jews emigrating back to their homeland which they have never been to before, no other nation in the history of the world has had a second birth, and for the first time, the church and Israel exist on the same timeline. What does that mean? That means that Jesus, for us, can come back at any moment. We don't have salvation, unless God keeps His promises to the nation of Israel! He told them His covenant with them was everlasting, if He breaks that promise, than we have no hope of eternal life. The same Jesus that died for our sins, died for us all, the Gentiles and the Jews!

Remember if you are not Jewish, you are a Gentile. I am a Gentile. We know that God has a certain number of Gentiles that need to come to believe before Jesus returns for His church and only He knows when that number will be complete as we learned from Romans 11:25 yesterday. Each time someone gets saved, the number increases and moves us ever closer to the end.

Isaiah 43:1-6 ~ "But now, this is what the LORD says - he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, "Give them up!" and to the sound, "Do not hold them back." Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth - "

In fact the Bible promises that there will be a great revival of Jews who come to know Jesus as Savior during the Tribulation period.

Ezekiel 37:12-14 ~ "Therefore prophesy and say to them: "This is what the Sovereign LORD says:"O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it declares the LORD."

I believe when that happens, the church will have a bird's eye view from heaven. We already see a great movement happening as millions of people continue to move there from all over the world, in record numbers never before seen in the history of man.

Revelation 7:1-3 ~ "Revelation 7:1-12 ~ "After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angels coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."

We learned that the words "After this" means directly after the final verse of chapter 6. There shouldn't be a period in our Bibles, but a comma or a pause in the story as we have been reading it by God, to inject some important information we need to know before continuing in the Book of Revelation.


Chapter 7, verses 1-8, let's refer that as Phase 1. Chapter 7, verses 9-17, we will refer that as Phase 2. Phase 1 is a division after these things or "After this." These are the things that John saw on earth before the Second Coming of Christ happens. That is verses 1-8. It is clearly Jewish, this is where Jehovah's Witnesses are deceived. They are not of the 144,000 that this chapter refers to. This also does not refer to the 7th Day Adventists. They are not these people. They think they are. They believe that if the Lord raptures the church on a Saturday and the 7th Day Adventist who is keeping Saturday holy, they are the ones that get to be raptured. Anyone who has slacked off that day or the rest of us, don't get to go. I got news for them, it won't be them. None of the 144,000 get raptured.

They are all Jews from the tribes of Israel. So the next time some one knocks on your door, ask them what tribe they are from. When we get to Chapter 14, we will learn that they are all virgin men, who speak Hebrew and have the gift of Evangelism. Chapter 7, from verses 9-17, are what is called Phase 2, that will be discussing in the future, this is what John saw on earth, after the Second Coming of Christ. Verses 9-17 are clearly Gentile in context and it relates to earthly worship. Verses 1-8 clearly Jewish in context and it relates to the ministry during the Tribulation of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists.

In Revelation 7:1, we see the angelic ministry relating to the powers of nature. These angels are given  powers to hold back certain elements that have to deal with the natural course of nature. Notice the grand authority given to these angels. It says that these angels are given the power to hold back the wind. God grants them that authority. There are angels of varying degrees of ministry, if you didn't know that. There are certain angels who have assignments to specific nations. Imagine there is an angel assigned to the nation of the United States. We know from the Book of Daniel that there is an angel assigned to the nation of Iran. There is an angel assigned to the region of Babylon. There is a specific angel you should know by name that is assigned to the region of Israel, do you know his name? He is known for getting into a fight every time there is a battle? Michael! Gabriel is assigned to make announcements. He must have a great voice! Every time Michael shows up in the Bible, he has gloves on!

There are angels assigned to judgments, remember the angels assigned to Sodom and Gomorrah? There are specific angels who levy judgments against those who sin against the Lord. Remember Balaam when he was riding his donkey? Balaam is not obeying God, and God dispatches an angel to kill him, but then God calls him off. Then there was 186,000 Assyrian soldiers and in one night an angel sent by God kills them all in a moment. That's power!!! You can't do that with any smart bomb. There are certain angels assigned to announcements as we have mention, certain angels assigned to spiritual warfare, and there are certain angels assigned to God's people, both Jews and Gentiles. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 1:14 ~ "Are not angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?"

Angels for us. That is a very powerful thing. So many people have written books about the verse in Revelation 7:1 about the four angels that hold back the winds in the four corners and with that they attempt to prove the Bible is wrong. They use this verse and claim on scientific terms, meaning that people have accused God for more than a 1000 years of being limited in His scientific understanding because according to Revelation 7:1, God, they think, is declaring the world is flat, because it has four corners. Isn't that stupid?

If you have any understanding of maps, topography, astronomy, and if you want to study the heavens, you have to lay it out on a single page. The problem is that the page is flat. You have to unwind it. Don't get lost in that. If you ever go online to some place like NASA, and lets say you want to track the progression of the shuttle, do they present a globe on the website and you have to keep clicking on the globe so it turns around so you can watch it as it goes over Africa? No! What do you do? You click on NASA, and you see what is called a surface map, because it's the only way you can see a circle, or the globe in one moment. You have to unwind it and lay it out on a flat page, so you can see it all in one moment.

The words in Greek "gonia," which means quadrants, angles, sections, or divisions,  and Hebrew "kanaf" which means to the extremity of, or to the very ends of the earth", are used here and its fantastic because God is so smart that it takes a while for us to catch up. God has determined that when you lay it all out flat, there are four corners. That is why the US Marines have boasted that they can respond to any crisis anywhere in the world because they come from the four corners of the earth. They're not stupid. They understand that if you want to monitor the world, you lay it out on a flat page. God is saying, "I'm watching it all!"

You can't even think about having a North, South, East and West unless you apply God's law of Him viewing the earth laid out with four corners. There is no such thing as an East, West, North and South without God.

Isaiah 40:22 ~ "He sits enthroned about the circle of the earth." 

What is amazing and scientifically accurate is the fact that our earth and its weather patterns are totally dependent on complete interaction, meaning that what is happening in China weatherwise will impact California in about 2 weeks, plus or minus 3 days. What happens today in Africa weather wise will impact the entire eastern seaboard in about two weeks, plus or minus 3 days! The creation will be effected by the impending judgment of God to soon come.

Now lets look at the angelic ministry relating to the Jewish remnant.

Revelation 7:2a ~ " Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God." 

John sees this angel and they have a very specific ministry assigned to them, and he has the seal of the living God. No one knows what this seal is, the only thing that is the popular view is that when God saves someone the Bible says in Ephesians 1 and 4, that He seals you with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption. It means we are put on lay away now until He comes back! The word in Ephesians 1 and 4 is that that seal can never be broken! For those of you that want to struggle with your eternal security, go ahead. I, for one, am saved! I know it. It has nothing to do with what I have done, in fact it is in spite of what I have done. But I know this, the Holy Spirit is in my life. I've never heard of Him audibly, but I know He is with me.

It says here that He will apply that seal upon those 144,000 preachers, and they will (1) be immune from the judgments that will come upon the earth. They will be divinely protected. (2) They will be protected against the antics of the Antichrist. He will have no power over them until God grants him power. Many scholars believe that when the Holy Spirit raptures the church out of here, He will resume back to His Old Testament type of ministry once the church is gone. Meaning that He came upon people like David, and others, and when the church is taken out of the earth, He will once again come upon people like He did back in the Old Testament economy. There will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we will talk about next week, of such power that will come upon the Jewish remnant, 144,000, and God will make them His great servants during that period of time.

Revelation 7:2-3 ~"  Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." 

God is telling them not to harm the land or the sea or the trees during the Tribulation period, until I have sealed the servants of God upon their foreheads.This is a divine sealing that will take place upon them and that is a very important thing. God knows those who serve Him and He places a seal upon them in that period of time. We are NOT living in these days that we are studying today, but that time is coming. But God knows you who are Christians! He knows who is real and who is playing games. He knows those that are His. Paul said in the Book of Romans, "that we are justified by faith in God."

James comes along and accents, doesn't contradict. By the way, the Book of Romans is written to believers and non believers alike to anyone who will listen. The Book of James, is written to believers, exposing nonbelievers. The Bible says, "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." James reminds us that if we have faith, we will have Christian service in our life. You're going to be ministers if you are saved. You're going to be servants if you are saved. That's the fact of Christianity. It's a verb. Don't mistake it for a noun. Christianity does.

 

Are You Willing to Gamble With Your Eternity?

What exactly is a Tribulation Saint? As you read your Bible, this might help you to avoid confusion. There are three types of saints in the Bible. (1) Old Testament Saints - they died believing in the coming of the Messiah, (2) the Church Age Saints or us, we live and die here or await the rapture that is coming for us, as members of the church, the brides of Christ, the church here, (3) the Tribulation Saints are to die for Jesus. There is no rapture promise for them because it has already taken place. They must die.

We must live for Christ as living sacrifices like Romans 12 tells us, but the Tribulation Saints must die for Jesus Revelation 13, tells us their mode of death. It tells us that they will be beheaded for their faith in Christ. It's happening now everyday but it's going to happen during the Tribulation period against the Tribulation saints who are called to die for Jesus. Those are the saints who must die for the testimony of Christ. If you want to know more about that, read Daniel 7 beginning in verse 18 but specifically verse 21, Daniel chapter 7 will tell you all about the Tribulation Saints who must lay down their lives for the testimony of Christ. Makes you wonder why some people would put off that decision to accept Jesus into their life. They might miss out on the rapture and have this to look forward to for waiting to make that choice.

A life worth living for is a life that lives beyond death. Believers will be justified in eternity. That is great news!

Revelation 6:10 ~ " They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"

This is a time when God's wrath will be given over the the judgment of the earth. We already know how many times we look around at the stuff going on in our lives or in the lives of the world and wonder how much longer before God comes to judge the wrong that seems to go on without any judgment. The time is coming. The Bible says that God will judge the earth in righteousness. That is why He is the Savior. We have to be saved from something in order to have a Savior!

These here that are sacrificed at the hands of an unbelieving world, are none other than the Tribulation saints. The Bible says that there will be a group so big that gets saved during that time, that no man can number them, and you might wonder how that happens if the church is removed during the rapture? How will the gospel be preached? The Lord has His ways.

(1) The testimony of the witnesses. This will play on the minds of people that these people were willing to die for Jesus. (2) The preaching of the two prophets that will come out of Jerusalem, that we will study later, (3) the witnessing of the 144,000. If you are a Jehovah's witness and are reading this today, you have been lied to. They believe that the first believers of the Jehovah witnesses movement were the 144.000 that get to go to heaven. If you are the 144,001, you don't get to go, you go to annihilation land and cease to exist. That is no where in the Bible. But here is the bigger problem, the Bible says that out of each of the 12 tribes of Israel, will produce 12,000 from each tribe. They are Jews. If you are a Jehovah witness today, and you're one of the 144,000, what tribe are you from? And don't forget to have to be Jewish. The Bible says in future studies into the book of Revelation, you have to be a man. A male who is a man. I have to make that distinction now a days with the way things are going, especially in California. You have to speak Hebrew, according to the Bible, and you have never been with a woman. You are a virgin! There has to be 12,000 from each tribe, so that totals 144,000, you got to a man, you got to be a virgin, you have to be Jewish and you have to speak Hebrew. You've been lied to by Charles Russel. That is called a cult.

God will get the word out through the 144,000. I've got another theory. When we get raptured, do you realize how many Bibles will be left behind? Do you have a Bible at your house? You get raptured and your Bible is sitting there at home wide open! Bibles will be found. Think of all the Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms everywhere! I believe more people will be reading the Bible during the Tribulation period than they do now. People are going to wonder what happened. Read the book. All the answers are in the Book!

In looking back at verse 10, in Revelation, we also learn that the believer will never die. Jesus says if a man believes in Him, he shall never die. For those of us that believe, Christians, that is why we have this title because we follow Christ, and by the way, if you are not following Christ, you are NOT a Christian. If you don't adhere to His teachings, you are not a Christian. If you adhere to them, you are labeled as a Christian. The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Some people believe that if you are dying by some long drawn out process like cancer or persecution, we are bound by death. As a Christian, the moment your body stops existing in this life, in an instant you are in the presence of the Lord. Which means as the Scriptures say, that we pass from death to life. Which means if you get hit by a truck today, choke on a burger, or die of cancer, the moment that it happens, you are in God's presence! Do you understand that? We will not be held by the grave!

Our soul will immediately go to be with the Lord, and these bodies or space suits designed for earth will go into the ground, awaiting the Resurrection when the rapture happens! Think about that, if you die today as a believer, you will not be bound, locked up in some dark room, the grave will not hold us. As the room begins to darken around you as you're saying goodbye to your friends and loved ones, you won't have to worry what happens next or where you will be going. The Bible says, "to be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord." In an instant, our last breath here is our first breath in heaven! That is the most wonderful news to any believer! Why are you NOT believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? The Bible says, "these things have been written so that you might know you have eternal life!" Our eternal life begins the moment we breathe our last breath here.

Do you have a seat reserved in heaven just for you? There is a way to get that reserved and that is to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Lord and Savior. The believer will never die the death. Our body stops breathing and we go into the presence of the Lord. A life worth dying for is a life that continues on with others forever. A life with Jesus Christ is guaranteed! Notice what was given and what was said to those Tribulation saints - believers during those seven years.

Revelation 6:11 ~ "Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed."

Take notice of the words "white robes" it is different from what the church wears. The church does not simply have white robes, the church the Bible says, is given fine, white linen, marital gowns or a wedding dress. The Tribulation saints are given white robes, notice the difference. Life with Jesus is guaranteed. The white robe, is a declaration given to the believer of their purity. The Bible says "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." So then how can we be made pure? The Bible says "that we are washed by the water of the Word of God."

Notice that the robes are given to them. Do you read that anyone could buy a robe? You can't buy them. Those of you that have given your lives to Jesus, you know that you are dressed for eternity when it comes to forgiveness regarding sin. You know it. You sense it. I am not stressing feelings, but you know that you have been accepted. What a great feeling to know that you are accepted by God. Based only on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The Bible tells us that we will be in heaven with our brothers and sisters forever. Jesus Christ and this life He offers is guaranteed.

The verse goes on to say that they were told to "rest a little while longer." These means that they didn't have time to rest on earth, but rest has now been given to them. They are told to wait. Why? Because there is still time left in the Tribulation period, and other believers must die at that time. I am a firm believer that the church will be spared all of this and be raptured according to 1 Thessalonians 4, as promised by God. Life with Jesus makes perfect sense.

Revelation 6:11 ~ "Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed."

These means that God knows exactly how many believers will die during the Tribulation period and when that last person is in heaven, that will be the conclusion of it. The word "completed" is a very powerful word. We know that the Bible says that the blindness of the nation of Israel from the gospel until the fullness of the Gentiles is completed and then God will deal with Israel again. There is an exact number of believers in the church age that God knows and when that last person comes to Him, that is it, then the rapture of the church will happen. Don't you want to know who that last person is so you could go witness to him.

Jesus has come to give us hope. A hope that makes perfect sense. That is why Jesus Christ came, to take us to heaven. To show us back to God. He taught us that we can't make it on our own. Jesus came to show us that we can't do anything to get to heaven. We can't live a perfect life. We were never made to do that. We are simply made to trust in Him and what He did for us. He lived a perfect life and met the requirements of God's law, so we would never have to be held back in the grave.

The Bible says that hell was created for Satan. The sensation of those who live there are alone, falling forever, flames of heat that never kill, worms that gnaw on you forever, but realize that this was never created for man. Those who wind up in hell will be those who choose to not accept Jesus.

Those who accept Jesus spend an eternity in heaven. Those who deny Him will make that choice to spend an eternity on their own terms, and will wind up in hell. Those who accept Jesus will spend their eternity in heaven forever with Jesus based solely not on what we do, but what He did to restore that right relationship between us and God. To remove sin from our lives through forgiveness by the blood of Jesus that washes us clean. We can't do anything to earn this right. Not living a great righteous life, doing kind deeds but only by accepting the free gift of having putting their faith in Jesus is the ONLY way. Not through faith in Mohammad, Buddha, or any other false god that the world offers you. Only faith in Jesus Christ and what He did is the ONLY WAY!

Why would anyone want to gamble with their eternity? Are you going to wait it out and see how it goes? You're gambling. You can be sure of eternal life, not guess. Don't you want to know that if you were die today where you would wind up? Jesus didn't die for you to guess where that will be.