Weekly Readers!
I am very thankful for your prayers!
We had a most blessed trip to Africa, where we were able to have so many
Gospel services, both to the believers and to the unbelievers as well! God is
good!
Please find the below article! It is no longer
November 1st, but I trust you will still enjoy it! This is an article that deals with deeper
subjects, but yet based on the Bible, so it is good to learn!
MayDear God Bless your week! John R.
A SCENE IN GLORY - REV. 7:9-17
November 1 is "All-Saints
Day." It is a celebration that the
Church has largely forgotten, at least here in America. Anyone who has been engrafted into Christ
through the power of the Gospel is both a sinner and a saint. We do not become "saints" by
anything we do. We are called saints
because of God's gift of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ imparted to
us by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ who has been "made unto
us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1
Cor. 1:30).
What the Apostle John saw was "a
great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes, and palms in their hands" who were crying out with a loud
voice saying: "Salvation to our
God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."
Finally, the numberless throng from all nations,
tribes, peoples, and tongues stand before the throne and before the Lamb. Finally, all the angels who have been busy
ministering to the saints throughout the world also stand around the throne
and the elders and the four living creatures. Finally,
those who have come out of the great tribulation, whose robes are washed and
made white in the blood of the Lamb, are before the throne of God. Finally, He who sits on the throne will dwell
among them. Finally, we shall neither
hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike us, nor any heat; For the Lamb which is in the midst of
the throne shall feed [us], and shall lead [us] unto living
fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from [our]
eyes."
Throughout the
annals of human history tremendous celebrations have been held when wars have
ceased, kings have been crowned, and presidents have been inaugurated, but
nothing ever has been or ever will compare to the celebration that is described
here. Prior to this celebration, we see the opening of the sixth seal (Rev.
6:12-17) that describes a judgment for the ungodly.
God is a God
of love. And his love is so infinite,
majestic, powerful, and eternal--that he gave all that he could. He couldn’t
give any more. Because God is love, He
delays judgment (Rev. 7:1-3) so
that the saints may be sealed. This
sealing is accomplished when the gospel is being preached and sins are forgiven
and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within a person and a man’s name is written in the Lamb’s book of life until the whole number comes in. This day of judgment will be a day of terror
and horror and fear for the ungodly, but
for the saints it will be a day of deliverance, a day of praise. We are sealed with the Spirit. So we no
longer walk in our own ways. We no
longer walk with a darkened mind of unbelief.
We no longer function according to our own will. But we follow in humble submission to our
Lord and our Savior, the King of kings.
The number
indicates all of God’s people. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are the new
Israel. Therefore, the sealing of every
tribe is significant because first of all there were equal numbers of every
tribe. When you read the Old Testament,
some of the tracks in the sand made by some of these tribes were anything but
beautiful. They left a lot of ugly marks
in their life. Their history was filled
with a lot of ugly behavior.
Nonetheless,
every single tribe has the same number of sealed saints. What is God saying? He is saying there are no favorites with
him. There are no particular people that
are privileged. Every single man, woman,
and child in this world has the same opportunity to be sealed by the Spirit of
God. No matter what our sin, our
heritage, what we’ve been doing in
life, it can all be washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. The same grace that was offered to the tribes
of Judah and the Levites is the same grace that is offered to all the other
tribes. In other words, every one of us
is a recipient of God’s marvelous
grace. No one has to feel or think that
you’ve committed too great of a sin, your thoughts are too
dirty, your life is too messed up. The
blood of Jesus washes all of our sins away.
There is not a one of them that cannot be cleansed away in the blood of
the Lamb.
This number is
12 squared times 10 cubed signifying the Old and New Testament saints together.
Thinking of a cube, we can visualize the length, and breadth, and depth of
something. This portrays all the people
of every generation, of every tribe, the length and breadth of human history.
Verses 9 - 17, are a fulfillment of 11:15 describing that great multitude no
one could count. It is world-wide and
numberless. Hence: “The
kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and
he will reign for ever and ever.”
Praise God, we can reign with him!
