Laodicea is Sealed – Part 10

“I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”
Revelation 7: 1-3

Today we will shift our attention away from Christ’s specific message to Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3 to other passages in Revelation that have implications for Laodicea. Keep in mind that although Christ appeals to each of the other six churches to overcome, He appeals to Laodicea to overcome as He overcame.

Since Laodicea represents the last generation of Christians, it must include those who will face the final showdown in the great controversy between Christ and Satan. Revelation identifies this final crisis as Armageddon.

“I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” (Revelation 16: 13-16)

These three unclean spirits might be said to be the counterparts to the three angel messengers of Revelation chapter 14. The three angels bring God’s messages and prepare a people for the end of time. In contrast, the three unclean spirits are agents of Satan to prepare the world for the time of trouble and for the final conflict between good and evil.

Please note that Armageddon is described as “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (verse 14). Verse 15 indicates that this battle will take place just before Jesus returns.

This verse is also a clear link with Christ’s message to Laodicea. Jesus offers Laodicea “white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear” (Revelation 3:18).

Revelation 16:15 says, “Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments (Christ’s righteousness), lest he walk naked, and they see his shame”. We are to hold on to the righteousness of Christ by faith right up to the very end.
From the Christian’s viewpoint, Armageddon is the “great tribulation” in which God’s people will be tested in a way that no previous generation has experienced. Two Old Testament passages describe this great tribulation – one in Daniel and one in Jeremiah. Daniel says that when the ministry of Christ is finished in the heavenly sanctuary, “At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” (Daniel 12:1)

Jeremiah’s description is similar:
“Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” (Jeremiah 30:7)

What will the real issue be in this time of trouble? What is it that we Laodiceans need to overcome in order to successfully meet this great final conflict?

I believe that in this great tribulation God’s people will have to reproduce Jesus’ victory on the cross. Three times, Satan tempted Jesus to come down from the cross and save Himself – once through the Roman soldiers, once through the Jewish priests, and once through the thief at His left side (see Luke 23: 35-39). Using His divine power, independently of the Father, Christ could have left the cross and saved Himself. But He didn’t; He hung on the cross and faced this last terrible temptation. Here is how Ellen White describes it:

“Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe, In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father’s acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father, He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father’s favour was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor.” (The Desire of Ages, 756).

Notice that it was by faith, not feeling, that Christ overcame. His feelings told Him that the Father had forsaken Him, but by faith He believed God would never do so. By faith, Jesus was victorious. In the same way, during the time of trouble our faith will be tested to the limit. We will feel abandoned by God Himself. We will feel that we are without hope. But by faith we will cling to God’s promises and overcome. Those whose faith endures are known in Revelation as the 144,000. These are those in Laodicea who overcome even as Christ overcame.

Isaiah gives us insight into the issues in this time of trouble. God says through Isaiah, “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee, In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:7,8). We will feel apparently forsaken by God during the great tribulation.

In this final showdown, God will say, “Here are My people, who have the faith of Jesus Christ.”

Will there be a people whose faith, like that of Jesus on the cross, will endure to the very end? (see Luke 18:8). That is the question. And the good news is that the answer is, Yes. They are called the 144,000 and are pictured in only two passages in the entire New Testament – Revelation, chapters 7 and 14.

Revelation 7 is answering the question asked in the last verse of chapter 6:
“The great day of his (the Lamb’s) wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Verse 17). In context, this question is especially pertinent. Chapter 6 has pictured the great second coming of Jesus with cataclysmic upheavals in nature and wholesale panic seemingly by everyone on earth – the rich, the poor, the free, the slaves, kings, and mighty men. They are all crying for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the Lamb on His throne (see verses 12-16). No one, it seems, is able to stand the second coming of Christ. So verse 17 asks the question, “Who is able to stand? Is anyone able?”

Will God be able to produce a people who have reproduced in their lives Christ’s victory on the cross?

The answer is found in Revelation, chapter 7, and the answer is, Yes!

God will have such a people. Verse 1 pictures four angels holding back the four winds that are about to blow on the earth and the sea and the trees. Winds, of course, symbolize strife and war.

God says, “I will protect My people and hold back the strife, the great tribulation. I will hold it until we have sealed them.”

What does the sealing mean?
In Romans, chapter 4, Paul gives us an example of its meaning. He argues with the Jewish Christians in Rome that circumcision does not contribute in the least to salvation. But he anticipates a question that the Jews in Rome will ask him, “If circumcision has no significance for our salvation, why did God give it to Abraham and to his descendants?”

And Paul’s reply is that Abraham “received the sign of circumcision, a seal of righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised”(verse 11).

Abraham had righteousness by faith long before he was circumcised. Circumcision didn’t contribute anything to his righteousness; it did something else, Paul says. It sealed what Abraham already had. It confirmed, or authenticated the righteousness he already possessed.

So the sealing of God’s people in the last days simply means that their faith in the Lord of the Sabbath has become unshakable. They have settled into the truth of Jesus Christ our righteousness. They have purchased the white raiment from Christ and have made that their only hope. There is no turning back to self. They have come to understand God’s character, His love and His mercy, and His finished work of redemption so clearly that their faith is unchangeably resting in Him.

God’s people are sealed in their foreheads, indicating that they have the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is an attitude that is totally emptied of self. When God’s people are sealed, there will be no wavering. It is in this context that Christ will say, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still” (revelation 22:11). Those in both camps – God’s people and Satan’s followers – have made up their minds irrevocably and therefore have been sealed.

Jesus was in Gethsemane. It was there that He made up his mind beyond any changing. He struggled there in the garden until He could say, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” Like Him, we will be in the great time of trouble. That tribulation will test whether our faith is unshakable, and we will overcome even as He overcame.

The Bible pictures those who are sealed as the 144,000. Is this a literal number? Will God’s people who are sealed actually number 144,000?

Revelation, chapter 7 says “I heard the number of them which were sealed and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (verse 4).

In his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul argues that “Israel” does not mean only those who are physically descended from Abraham, but all those who have accepted Christ – whether or not they are Abraham’s physical descendants. “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Romans 9:6-8).

Paul is saying that just as Isaac was Abraham’s son as the result of a divine promise and a divine miracle, so all those who have accepted the divine promise and miracle of the new birth are Abraham’s children – not just those who are physically Israel.

The Jews, or Israelites, looked to three great ancestors – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham’s outstanding characteristic was his faith; he stands for faith. Isaac, because of the miracle of his birth, represents the new-birth experience. Jacob was the one who endured to the end. That is why the time of trouble is also called the time of Jacob’s trouble – because Jacob persevered to the end and prevailed. All those who, like Abraham, have an unshakable faith; all those who, like Isaac, experience the new birth; all those who, like Jacob, endure to the end – these belong to Christ and therefore “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).

Before God allows Satan to initiate the great war of Armageddon, God’s people must be sealed.

“After this I beheld, and, lo, 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 in white robes, and palms in their hands (Revelation 7:9).

The context of Revelation, chapter 7:4-8 is dealing only with the 144,000 – those who are able to stand during the great time of trouble and when Jesus comes.

According to Revelation 19:7,8, the white robes represent the imparted righteousness of Christ – something this last generation of Christians will experience to the full.

Revelation 7:14 indicates that the 144,000 are those who have come “out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. They have experienced total victory; they have overcome as Christ overcame. This can refer only to the 144,000.

Reflecting Christ’s promise to Laodicea that those who overcome as He has overcome will sit with Him in His throne, John goes on to say, “Therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (verses 15-17). They will never go through the great tribulation again.

The time of trouble will be terrible. Our imaginations cannot begin to conjure up how terrible it will be. Normally, our imagination magnifies potential problems, and reality is much less severe. But in this case, that will not be so. The only indication we have of the severity of the trials that we will face then is the tribulation Christ experienced on the cross. Like Christ, we will feel forsaken of God. The devil will take advantage of these feelings to whisper, “Do you know why God has forsaken you? Because you are lost. He has abandoned you because there is no hope of salvation for you.”

And your feelings will confirm what Satan is saying. Your feelings will tell you that there is no hope for you. Yet your faith will say, “I believe Jesus. He has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ My righteousness is not in me but in Jesus Christ. I will trust Him though the heavens fall.”

The real issue during the time of Jacob’s trouble will be righteousness by faith.

Because you are sealed, you will survive this great tribulation. The devil will do his best to unsettle your faith, and when he fails, then he will pass a death decree against God’s people. As He did with Job, God has told Satan that he cannot kill His faithful people. Then the end will come; a great earthquake will take place, and God’s people will come out of their hiding places as they see their Saviour descending from heaven with thousands and thousands of His holy angels. “Look!” we will shout, “It is Jesus, whom we have been waiting for!”

Those who have been threatening us and trying to kill us will run into the vacated caves and cry out to the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the consuming glory of Jesus. They can’t bear the sight; they would prefer their lives be crushed out in the great earthquake!

Yes, God will have a faithful people who will overcome just as the Saviour has overcome – by faith. We need to overcome unbelief. That is Laodicea’s greatest need. We need to buy the white clothing, the pure gold, the eye salve. We need to stop looking at self for assurance. We need to rest in Christ and His righteousness. Our part, from beginning to end, is faith. Maintaining faith is our greatest struggle because by nature we are self-dependent.

A time of trouble is coming, but God will give us victory. May Christ make our faith so strong that we will have not only faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith of Jesus Christ.
In vision, John saw the seal of the living God (Revelation 7:2) affixed in their foreheads (Revelation 7:3). An angel ascending from the east with the seal calls upon the four angels, standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth saying… Hurt not the earth till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads (Revelation 7: 1-5).

The 144,000 have the Father’s name written in their foreheads, and are the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb (Revelation 7:15, Revelation 14:3-4). Both place the 144,000 before the throne of God in the former, they serve Him day and night in His temple, and in the latter they “Follow the Lamb withersoever he goeth.”

The 144,000 have remained loyal to God through an experience referred to as the great tribulation (Revelation 7:14-15).

They sing a new song before the throne, one that only those who have experienced “great tribulation” can learn (Revelation 14:3).

Passing through this experience with “characters unblemished” they stand without fault before the throne of God (Revelation 14:4-5).

This sealing process (Revelation 7:1-2) takes place not long before Jesus’ second coming.

The Bible speaks of the 144,000 in Revelation 14:13-17 in which the death decree is proclaimed against those who refuse to worship the image of the beast (Sunday worship), who receive His mark in their foreheads implies the great tribulation (Revelation 7:14) and the crisis of Revelation 13:13-17. These all refer to the same experience through which the 144,000 remain loyal to God, in the face of death: The “seal” is affixed to them before the crisis as a certificate of God’s approval, God trusts them, and they, the 144,000, trust Him.

References:
EW 38, 43-44, 48, 50,67,71,89,279
Ex: 31: 13-18; Ez 20: 12 & 20

Amen,

Anonymous