No Waiting for Believers!

Every day we have trouble on this earth. Someday all that we are doing and living for will no longer be important at all. Our time here on the earth will have been completed. Man's attempt has always been to create some type of Utopian culture and society, from Marxism, Mao, Saddam Hussein to even Hitler had dreams of creating a perfect place yet they have all attempted it without the help of our Creator. There is no heaven, no Utopia without the very Creator of the Universe being involved in it. No matter how valiant man's efforts are, there will never be that Utopia until Jesus Christ returns at the end of the Tribulation called His Second Coming.

The one thing we can never know with absolute certainty is who will be in heaven of those who have gone before us. We can never know what their heart condition was like and if they called out to Jesus in their final moments, like the thief on the cross did. Only God does. There will also be those who inherit Hell. Jesus said that there are a lot more going to hell than going to heaven. The bizarre thing is that is not by His design. Everyone who winds up in Hell goes there by their own choice. There are people going to Hell because they don't want anything to do with God or heaven. Everyone gets a least one prayer answered in life, either choosing to accept Jesus and have Him as part of your life, however brief that is, or to have nothing to do with Jesus. We are now in the concluding verses of our study into Revelation 7, known as a parenthetical pause.

Revelation 7:13-17 ~ "Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes - who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 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 spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, not any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

It seems hard to fathom that the world one day might all come together to create a unified government, a unified church and a unified economy, yet that is just what the Bible says will happen during the Great Tribulation Period that will last for 7 years. That the nations of the world would destroy their borders and usher in peace and prosperity so we could all become one family. The concept is beautiful but the means to obtain that is different than what God has decreed. Once Eden was lost, man attempted to recreate that kind of Utopia here on earth. That was the whole inspiration behind the driving force of Nimrod and the creation of Babylon. That God could be brought down and man could create a Utopia on earth. It is the very doctrine behind the New Age movement. That somehow Utopia could be created by man. But as long as man attempts to govern himself, there will be a separation of nations, and of races, and of powers. There will be those that have, and those that have not. It will be that way until Christ comes and establishes His kingdom. That is the answer.

If you ever take the time to read the Communist Manifesto, what Stalin, Marx and Lennon preached in concept, was great! If you look at it very carefully, it sounds almost biblical. That you would be loving with one another, sharing with one another, yet in the deviousness of man's heart is someone who creates such a thing that is skimming off the top. We know that a man will come, we know him as the Son of Perdition or the Antichrist, who will have an idea to create a one-world government, a cashless society where man does business with numbers globally, and that this man will establish this Utopia under his rule and his reign. All things will be going along well, except for the preaching and presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have been learning how 144,000 Jewish men that will come to know Jesus as Messiah, and these guys will be spiritual tornadoes throughout all the earth. There will be a vast amount of people brought to the knowledge of Christ through their efforts, and salvation will be happening on such a grand scale during this time than during any other crusade in the history of the world. Whenever the gospel is preached, decisions are made. Some people will say yes to Jesus and others unfortunately will say no. When this happens during the Tribulation Period, it will make every crusade up to this point look like an attempt compared to what God is going to do during that time.

Revelation 7:3 speaks of the assignment and sealing of the 144,000, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. Revelation 7:9 speaks of their successes as a multitude were saved that went beyond anyone's ability to number them. We will get a sneak peek at the efforts of those 144,000 that those that are saved during the Tribulation period who die during that time will go into the everlasting arms of God, the Father in heaven.

The Bible says" to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" in 2 Corinthians 5:8! No where in Scripture is there a waiting period or a place of holding. No where is Scripture is that a biblical truth. There is no doctrine of purgatory, it doesn't exist. It was created after the year 600, it doesn't exist. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, is a wonderful promise to anyone who believes in Jesus, especially if you are called to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. That is our assured hope and our guarantee!

When those that suffer and die for their testimony during the Tribulation, they go immediately into the presence of God. There is no waiting zone, place of purgatory, no, they go immediately into the presence of God and that is exciting.

Jesus says that heaven rejoices when people come to their faith in Him.

Luke 15:4-7, 10 ~ "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent."

Repent simply means to change your mind. When it says that the shepherd places the sheep upon his shoulders, shows that this sheep was wayward. It's prone to wander. When a lamb goes astray he will be paying for a little disobedience. In the days, shepherds would break the leg of a lamb that continued to go astray. It teaches the little lamb that it must be dependent upon the shepherd if it's going to survive in this evil world. Jesus reminds us how much He loves us despite how much we have wandered away from Him. Maybe God is trying to get your attention today to bring you back to Him. What circumstance are you going through right now, that has you here today? It is the work of the Lord. It is God's desire that our minds need to be changed. That we need to look to Jesus Christ for adoration and worship! We want to look toward Him as our shepherd.

We are taking a sneak peek at what believers of the future shall see. The church remember has already been long removed from the earth during the rapture. Heaven will be well attended.

Revelation 7:13-14 ~  "Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes - who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said,"

Where is John right now? He is in the Spirit in heaven seeing these heavenly revelations. John is a member of the church. Remember in Chapter 4 in Revelation, the church has already been caught up into heaven. John is watching this future event and one of the 24 elders, that represent the church, asks John a question. John doesn't know who these people are and where they came from because they are not part of the church.

We as Christians, live in a doctrine of immanency that Jesus could return at any time, the Bible says, without any warning. This is something that we, as a church, await! We live every day of our lives in anticipation of that. Heaven will be well attended by those who have suffered for Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about those who are suffering right now. It is alarming to see how many people are suffering right now in the world for Jesus Christ. There are statistics all over the world that there are people that today will die for their faith in Jesus from North Africa, to China to areas in the deep South Pacific, that if you are a Christian, you will die for Christ! I am not talking about those that are dying for Jesus today .

There will come a time, where the bulk of those who are Christians at that time, must die for Christ. You and I are called to live for Christ in this age. There will come a time during the reign of the Antichrist, where all those who pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ will suffer persecution and the bulk of them will die for their faith in Christ. They will suffer for their identification with Jesus Christ. This group is not the church though the church suffers at this hour. There will be a time when the rapture will take place, the gospel will be preached,  by 144,000, skipping ahead to Chapter 14, Jewish men who are virgins, we speak Hebrew and all kinds of languages, 12,000 from each tribe of Israel.

The people dying for Christ today are different from those that will die for their faith during the Tribulation period. Don't confuse the two groups. Voices of the Martyrs, VOM.org, there are a number of Christians today being persecuted for their faith to death more than any other time in recorded history. Globally, 100's of thousands are dying for their faith annually now. In the past 21 generations, there has always been a percentage of people who have died for their faith, they're martyred and we are seeing an increase in that today globally.

Those we are studying about in the Book of Revelation in Chapter 7 are not church age saints. These are not Old Testament saints. These are Tribulation saints, these are those that come to faith that are not part of the church , the church is in heaven. These are Tribulation saints, the ones who in future studies, Revelation 13 for example, they will not bow to the demands of the global leader, that we refer to as the Antichrist, they would not receive the mark of the beast. They would not pledge allegiance to his regime. They chose to give their faith to Jesus and honor the Lord. These are the Tribulation saints that will die for their faith, in that period of time. You don't have to be a Tribulation saint. You need Jesus right now and skip all of that. No one is guaranteed tomorrow. You don't know when your day is. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and the only way you are getting out of here alive.

Now There is A Parenthetical Pause in the Book of Revelation!

We have just finished up the first six chapters of the Book of Revelation and we come to what is called a parenthetical insert or pause as we begin Chapter 7 today, it's God's way of pressing pause as it were, and provides us with some background information. Despite what you may hear that is going on around the world with regards to the Jews and Israel, that somehow God has abandoned them, here you will see what God's plan is for them, and how He enumerates 144,000 Hebrew Jewish believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, to present the gospel to the world. There are 12,000 from each tribe, they are Hebrew speaking, Jewish virgin men that are called by God for this special evangelistic event ministry as salvation is brought in the midst of trouble.

This is going to take us about 6 separate sessions to get through the magnitude of what is going on here as we come to a portion of Scripture that is very technical, not so much for its content but where it is placed in the Book of Revelation. Up to point, we have been walking through the book in a chronological order, and as the chronology goes on, the Lord in revealing to the apostle John futuristic events, puts a comma at the ending verse of chapter 6. In your Bible, there is a period there, but it should be a comma. God takes John's face at this point and turns him to two very specific events, phase one and phase two. things that will happen in a sense that are an overview with chapter 8 commencing the last three and a half years of the seven-year Tribulation Period. It explains some things before Chapter 8 begins. There are the first 3 1/2 years, a pause, God shows John some things which he tells us in chapter 7 and when he is finished speaking with us, then it picks back up again and it goes.

This chapter is very important in understanding the rest of this book. If you miss this chapter, you will never understand the rest of this book, and you will always be misunderstanding eschatology or the prophetic study of God's Word. We will look at the entire proximity of the first twelve verses and then begin an indepth study of just the first few today.

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 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." Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000, from the tribe of Gad, 12,000, from the tribe of Asher, 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000. After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. AMEN!"

The word AMEN in Hebrew, Greek and English simply means "Let it be so, or let it be true." From the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, keep this in mind, God spoke in times past. He said, "Thus sayeth the Lord, we have heard a voice of trembling, of great fear and not of peace. Ask me now and see whether a man has ever labored in pains to give birth as a woman does. So then why do I see every man holding his hands over his lions like a woman who suffers in labor? And all their faces shall turn pale from the pain. Alas for is this great and terrible day, it has come and there is none like it. For it is the time of Jacob's trouble, but Jacob shall be delivered out of it." Jeremiah 30:5-7. 

This portion of scripture from Revelation 7, introduces us in verses 1-8, to a dynamic group of people. And it lists them to give us no doubt as to who they are. There is an introduction of 144,000 people whom God will call out from their place in this world. They will be ordained. They will be summoned. They will be called and there will be 12,000 of them coming from the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. Chapter 7 prepares for Chapter 8, that final 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation Period. It's going to be tough.

Remember the first 3 1/2 years has been the advent of the Antichrist, he will deceive the world through prosperity and demonic peace, he will deceive the world through a restoration or implementation of the environment, and he will be a tremendous politician. The Bible tells us that in the Old Testament, there is no doubt where he will arise, and will come out of what was, the Ancient Roman Empire, was has been affectionately labeled as the revised Roman Empire? The nations of ancient Rome, at the time of Christ and before, will come together in the last days and in that conglomeration of those nations there will arise 10 predominate leaders almost like what we have in the world today, you know like the G-7? Are you familiar with that?

They are the seven global economic powers of the world of which the United States, at least at this time is number 1, and they include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. Russia is not included in this list because of the amount of debt it owes everybody. But there is more than 7 nations in all the earth isn't there? Yet these are the 7 that manipulate the world through money, and they meet every year to discuss how things are going to go. It's a very powerful group of people right now but there is a time coming, which I don't think is very far away, where we are already seeing the revised Roman Empire which is called the U.S.E. or the United States of Europe or the EU, the European Union. They will have their own dollar, now it's called the Euro, they will have their own economic base, their own leaders, and the Bible says that out of 10 predominate nations like G7 types, but it will be 10 types and will arise and broker the powers of the world that be. This will happen under the power and control of the Antichrist. Then all the events that we read about in Chapter 6 will happen and all within the first 3 1/2 years of the 7-year Tribulation Period.

Now we come to the pause in Chapter 7, where we see the focus of God on the nation of Israel. Most people who oppose what I am about to say next and it's called heresy, and they are so called Christians, and its damnable heresy to say that it is antisemitic and demonic and there are those that have lived from generation to generation that believe this: that God is done with the Jewish nation. That whatever God promised to the nation of Israel was lifted when Christ was crucified, and is now placed not only on the church but some people have been so arrogant as to believe that those promises have been lifted from the nation of Israel and have been given to the English speaking peoples of the world. That is called British-Israelism. It is a demonic doctrine.

God is not done with the nation of Israel and is in fact preparing the nation of Israel not only for its existence, but it has some horrifically tough times ahead in the Tribulation period before its glorious days that God intended for it to enjoy comes. This is very important. If you don't understand it, you better take some time to study this in the Bible. Don't buy a book on it, just read the Bible and you'll be fine. God has not given up on His people and He prophesied in the Book of Jeremiah in Chapter 30 where they will have to undergo a very tremendous and horrific time. Yet God said He would deliver Jacob out of his trouble, a time known as Jacob's trouble. What was the other name God gave to Jacob after He changed his heart? Israel! When you read about Jacob in the Bible, you are reading about Israel. Yet when God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah about this terrible time that is forthcoming, it is called the time of Jacob's Trouble or Israel's Trouble. Yet Israel shall be delivered out of it.

Psalm 94:13-14 ~ "you grant him relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked. For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance."

This is not a promise given to you and I. That is a promise given to Israel. We know however, that God will not forsake us either, but God will not forsake Israel either. This is something you need to keep in mind when you vote too! The first thing we should consider when contemplating any politician running for office is how do they feel about Israel. Why? Because I want America blessed. If you want America to be blessed, vote for someone who will support Israel! You want to see America come apart at the seams? Vote for someone who is not pro-Israel. We don't have to agree with everything Israel does, but God didn't ask us to agree with them with they do foolish things, God simply says I will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you. You might not like that. It might upset you. Get your heart right with God and understand that it is God that says they, Israel, are His chosen people. God says He is not done with them.

Romans 11:1-5 ~ "I ask then: Did Gog reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah - how he appealed to God against Israel: "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me?" And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace."

God's not done with Israel. For the last 2000 years the Lord has placed aside the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, but He has not neglected them. What God is doing at this time is drawing out of the world at this time, a host called the church. A bride of Christ says the Bible. Made up of Gentile believers, but when the church is raptured up out of the earth, and the 7-year Tribulation Period begins, at some point after that, it will be God dealing with Israel again. Did you know that Jesus is espoused or engaged to the church which is a Gentile but God the Father has already married her and her name is called Israel! It's very important to keep that in mind.

But God will turn the nation of Israel during the Tribulation period they will cry out to the Lord and they will find out that not only did they have a Jewish prophet they did not listen to for the last 2000 years who goes by His Greek name Jesus, but He is also their Messiah! We are going to be reading about that in Revelation 7.

Luke 19:41-44 ~ "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

Jesus is saying all these things are going to come upon you because you didn't recognize me as your Messiah! Has not that been true for the last 2000 years? They have suffered for their rejection of Him.

Romans 11:25 ~ "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in."

Just think that every time someone accepts Christ, we get one more closer to that number being fulfilled. Only God knows this but there is a number of Gentiles, that during the church age period which we are living in today, that when that number is reached, the fullness of the Gentiles will be complete. When that happens the focus of God shifts to the nation of Israel, to fulfill so much of the Old Testament prophecies. So when that number of believers is reached, the Gentile nations of believers and also those that won't believe, will be complete, God will rapture the church and then take the reins to deal with the nation of Israel and the remainder of those on the earth.

The challenge today is do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? If you don't, now is the time to meet Him and accept that Jesus Christ, died on the cross for your sins and mine, and He rose again from the dead. He is the God of the Bible, read it and you will fall in love with your Creator!