Truth Matters 99 (Sep 13-17)

For centuries, Christians have been waiting for the return of Jesus. Today on Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, she teaches that the rapture of the church could be closer than we know. Here is Dr. Cheryl Davis. The end is near.

Hello, I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis, and thank you for listening to Truth Matters. We are continuing our journey through the book of Revelation, and today we are beginning in chapter 7. Really, for the past few weeks, we have covered the six seals opened during the tribulation. Six seals have been opened, but there is a pause in the action between the sixth seal and the seventh seal. Just like there is a pause between the sixth and seventh seals, there is also a pause between the sixth and seventh judgments by the trumpet and the sixth and seventh bowl judgments. These are periods of grace, even in the midst of God's judgment. Moving on to verses 9 through 17, we discussed the 144,000, and one of the two visions that John saw in chapter 7 was the 144,000. If you remember in chapter 7, there is a pause between the sixth seal and the seventh seal.

This is the period of grace. This is the first vision is the 144,000, the sealing to go out and redeem a great harvest of souls. The second vision is that great harvest of the 144,000, but the time frame really is at the end of the great tribulation. So, you remember this is a vision, but these are the results of the great tribulation, but we are just reading this in chapter 7.

Let's read verses 9 through 17. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. All the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne, and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever.

Amen. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, Who are these arrayed and white robes, and where did they come from? And I said to him, Sir, you know. He said to me, These are the ones who came out of the great tribulation and 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 deal among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore.

The sun shall not strike them nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Really we see a multitude in heaven.

And as we mentioned before, the 144,000 is the first vision. This is the second vision of a multitude in heaven. But who is this multitude? It's the group in verse nine who no one can number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne. I believe they are a group of predominantly Gentile believers who have been saved during the tribulation as a result primarily of the witness of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists back in verses one through eight of chapter seven.

The majority of the saints in the tribulation period will die as martyrs as a result of the persecution of believers by the Antichrist. But if you look at where they are, you know, their location, they are standing before the throne in heaven. They are standing as opposed to the church which is seated around the throne in chapter four.

Standing is a position of prominence and power and honor before the throne of God Almighty. The salvation of the multitude in heaven is what I would like to look at next. In verses nine, 13, and 14, we learn that the multitude clothes and white robes have been made white by the blood of the Lamb. In chapter six, verse 11, we saw a group who had been martyred and are told to wait for the rest of their brothers who were killed as well. What do their white robes mean? It means that they've been saved and clothed in the righteousness of Christ. As believers, they have clothed themselves in the works of righteousness as faithful followers of Christ. We looked at the status of the multitude in heaven. We looked at the salvation of the multitude in heaven. Let's look at the safety of the multitude in heaven. Two things really indicate their safety in heaven. First is the palm branches that are in their hand, and also God is in their midst. Whenever we think about palm branches, we always go back to the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem. It reminds us in chapter 12 of John when the pictures of the multitude who went out to meet Jesus as he approached Jerusalem. They were waving palm branches.

They cried out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. And we'll move on to chapter 8 next time. Thank you. This has been Truth Matters. Please join us again for our next episode in the Revelation series as Dr. Davis takes our study into the eighth chapter of the book of Revelation, The Seventh Seal and the Golden Sensor. This is Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Please visit us online at projecttruthmatters.com.