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Hohenwald SDA Church

Norman McNulty

The Time of Sealing

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath day that we can worship you and I pray for the outpouring of your Spirit as this message is given.

May the words spoken be just what each 1 of us needs.

And I pray that according to your will that this message can be used to shake us out of our complacency as well I pray in Jesus' name.

The title for the message this morning is the time of sealing.

And I'll just say this up front, this is a Seventh-day Adventist message that I will be giving today.

We are in a Seventh-day Adventist church and I make no apologies that what you hear today will be a message that Seventh-day Adventists need to hear.

And just as we were going through this week, you know, we passed through the 18th anniversary of 9-11, and it's kind of hard to believe that 18 years have gone by.

I still remember I was a medical student at Loma Linda in my second year the morning that that happened and I was convinced that day that Jesus would be here within a few years.

I never would have dreamed that another 18 years would have gone by and we would still be here in the year 2019.

Now I'm definitely not into setting dates or times for the coming of Jesus, but what I can say is that something is holding up the return of Jesus based on what we're going to see here in the Bible today, that it was never the Lord's will for time to go on this long, and certainly for me, I was I think 24 when 9-11 happened, and here I am 18 years later, nearly having lived a second half of my life since that time.

And I never would have dreamed that time could have gone on so long since then.

I want you to look and reflect on Revelation 7.1.

And the setting for Revelation 7 is an interlude between the 6th and the 7th seal.

And in the seals of Revelation 6, 7 and 8, verse 1, we see a history of the persecution of the church.

And when we get to Revelation 6, and the beginning of the 6th seal, beginning in verse 12, we see some significant prophetic events that Jesus foretold in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, but Revelation 6 gives us the chronology of history to understand when these events took place.

And so we have this great earthquake and the sun becoming black and the moon becoming as blood and then the stars falling from heaven.

These are clearly defined historical events that took place in history.

The Great Lisbon Earthquake of May 1, 1755, the Dark Day of May 19, 1780, and then the falling of the stars of November 13, 1833.

And immediately after that we see what it will be like when Jesus returns in the clouds where the wicked are calling for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and they say for the great day of the wrath of the Lamb has come and who shall be able to stand?

Now I know that a lot of people paint Jesus in a way that makes him sound as if he will never deal with wickedness, but a time is coming when the day of the wrath of the Lamb is coming.

And yes, God is love, yes Jesus is merciful, yes He is extending time for us to be saved, but God will eventually deal with the wickedness of this earth.

So the question is, When you look at Revelation 6 and we come to the end of the seals, we see that the last clearly portrayed prophetic event that we can place a time on is the falling of the stars in 1833.

Now, if you study the rest of Daniel and Revelation, you'll understand about the beginning of the judgment in 1844 from Daniel 7 and 8 and so forth.

So basically shortly after 1833 and the beginning of the judgment in 1844, the next big event that's going to take place is the coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven.

And here we are in 2019, 175 years after 1844 and we're 186 years after 1833.

And the reality is that we are living in the time of the sealing.

Now, sometimes I wonder When I go around and speak at various churches and I come to this church and I go to churches around here and I go all over the place, how many of us as Seventh-day Adventists reflect on the reality on a daily basis that we are living in the time of the sealing when God is trying to place the seal of the living God on our foreheads.

How many of you have thought about that this last week, for example?

Or are we so steeped in this Laodicean mentality that all is well when we're not really living as if Jesus could be coming soon, are we really prepared to receive the seal of the living God?

Revelation 7, verse 1, and after these things, I saw 4 angels standing on the 4 corners of the earth, holding the 4 winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on 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 4 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." So, here's what we see in these first 3 verses.

There are 4 angels standing on the 4 corners of the earth.

Now, if you look in Scripture, especially if you go to Isaiah 11, verse 12, this idea of the 4 corners of the earth portrays an idea of a worldwide dominion or universality with respect to the earth.

So the 4 corners of the earth describe the entire earth and you have 4 angels holding back the 4 winds that are going to affect the entire earth.

When the 4 winds are released, the entire earth is going to feel the effect.

And the 4 angels, therefore, may not necessarily be 4 in number, they may represent a group of angels that are having an effect on the entire earth.

Maybe they are 4 literal angels, but what we can say is that the 4 corners of the earth describes the entire earth that will be affected by the wind that is released.

Now, when you look in the book of Daniel, for example, chapter 7, verse 2, 4 winds are used to describe these beasts that come up out of the sea and the winds strove upon the sea, and we understand that to describe how the 4 major empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, came up from populated areas of the earth amidst political strife to gain world conquest.

But at the end of time, God is going to release wind or strife upon the earth that will affect everybody who is alive.

And it says that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on the trees.

Now if you study Revelation, for example, you have a beast that comes up out of the sea in Revelation 13 that describes the populated area of the old world.

And you have a second beast that comes up out of the earth that describes the relatively unpopulated area of the New World around 1798.

And trees can be represented as the righteous, for example, in Psalms chapter 1.

And so what God is saying here, it doesn't matter whether you live in the old world or the new world, if you are righteous or you are wicked, when the 4 winds are released, you will feel the effect upon this earth.

I want to read a few statements that remind us of what is coming upon the earth.

You know, it's like when 9-11 happened, even our brothers and sisters in the other churches that go to church on Sunday, everybody was in church the Sunday after 9-11.

In Adventist we're all talking about how Jesus is coming soon and how everything, the end is nigh and at hand, and here we are 18 years since that time and many of us are just back to the way we were living as if nothing has ever changed.

I want to read you a statement from manuscript 233, 1902.

The wrath of God will come upon all cities, upon dwellings, upon large buildings, so suddenly that they who have the slightest intimation have no safety in dallying at all.

We are living amid the perils of the last days.

The wrath of God is preparing to come upon all the cities, not all at once, but 1 after another.

And if the terrible punishment in 1 city does not cause the inhabitants of other cities to be afraid and seek repentance, their time will come.

The destruction will begin in certain places, and the destruction of life will be sudden, but few will escape.

Do you really have any conception of what's coming upon this earth?

Do you think about it or are we just kind of floating along, living the American dream while we take the name Seventh-day Adventist and come to church once a week, patting ourselves on the back that at least we know the right day to worship while we're participating in the spirit of the world that God says will be destroyed.

You know Ellen White has this fascinating statement, it's found in Christian Experience and Teachings page 157 where she says, I saw many traveling in this broad road who had the words written upon them, dead to the world, the end of all things is at hand, be ye also ready.

They looked just like all the vain ones around them, except a shade of sadness, which I noticed upon their countenances.

Their conversation was just like that of the gay or happy thoughtless ones around them, but they would occasionally point with great satisfaction to the letters on their garments, calling for the others to have the same upon theirs.

They were in the broad way, yet they professed to be of the number who were traveling the narrow way.

Those around them would say, there is no distinction between us, we are alike, we dress and talk and act alike.

You know, if you wonder why your soul winning efforts don't have much of an effect upon the world.

Let me tell you something, creating a church with a disco club and lights and a rock band and whatever is not going to win the world to the straight and narrow way in preparation for the coming of Jesus.

Dressing like you're a Hollywood movie star is not going to win people to the meekness and simplicity and the humility of Jesus.

Having a name that says that we are alive when we're really dead, the world can see right through that hypocrisy.

Just a few other statements before we get more into Revelation 7 here.

This is from last day events page 111, When God's restraining hand is removed, the destroyer begins his work.

Then in our cities the greatest calamities will come.

The next paragraph, The Lord gives warning to the inhabitants of the earth as in the Chicago fire and the fires in Melbourne, London, and the city of New York.

The end is near and every city is to be turned upside down every way.

There will be confusion in every city, everything that can be shaken is to be shaken, and we do not know what will come next.

The judgments will be according to the wickedness of the people and the light of truth that they had had.

Oh, that God's people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry.

The time is near when large cities will be swept away and all should be warned of these coming judgments." And yet, sometimes I look at us as a people and what are we doing to warn the cities and the world of these coming judgments that are coming upon us?

And the problem that I see many times is that many of us like the lifestyle that comes out of the cities, so there's a lack of desire to warn the city of what is coming, because what the cities have is what we like.

And we say that we're preparing for the coming of Jesus, and yet we're participating in the movies that come out of the cities, and the sports that come out of the cities and the entertainment and the fashion and why would we want that to end?

Because, man, playoff season is coming up and I hope Jesus doesn't come before my team has a chance to win!

Are we serious about receiving the seal of the living God?

Revelation 7 verse 2, After we see that these 4 winds are about to be released, verse 2 says, I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the 4 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." So in other words, Scripture is very clear, the world is not going to be destroyed and turned upside down until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.

And it becomes very clear in verse 4 that the servants of God are the 144, 000.

Now just by way of study of the book of Revelation, we are at the end of the seals here.

When you come to the end of the churches, so you have the churches, the seals and the trumpets, 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, you come to the end of the 7 churches and the church is described as Laodicean.

And yet God is saying, from my last day Laodicean church that's so bad that if they don't change or repent, I'm going to vomit them out of my mouth, I'm going to find a people from that Laodicean church that will receive the seal of the living God.

They're the servants of God, the 144, 000 who will overcome as Christ overcame and allow Christ to come in.

These are the ones who will receive the seal of the living God, the 144, 000.

And what this passage of Scripture is saying is that the reason why the 4 winds have not yet been released upon this earth is that the 144, 000 have yet to be sealed.

God is still waiting for a people from the Laodicean church who will open the door of their heart to say, I will allow Christ to come in and place His seal in my life.

Now when we look at this angel ascending from the east, it's interesting this angel that ascends from the east in Revelation 16, verse 12, we see when the 7 last plagues are poured out, specifically in the sixth plague, it talks about the way of the kings of the east is being prepared, which is describing the second coming.

So an angel ascends from the east to describe a sealing message that is to prepare the people for Jesus who is coming from the east.

It's also interesting in Daniel 11, 44 that the sealing message is described as tidings that come out of the east and out of the north.

So, this sealing message comes from the east.

Now, this seal is placed in the foreheads of the servants of God, the 144, 000.

This is a parallel to Revelation 14 verse 1, where the 144, 000 have the name of the Lamb's father in their forehead, they have the name of God in their forehead.

So the name of God and the seal of God are synonymous.

And Isaiah 57, 15 tells us that the name of God is holy.

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The Time of Sealing

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