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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

The Sealing

Tim Rumsey

The Sealing Part 2

Website that our ministry has been developing called SabbathRest.com.

And we understand that the Sabbath and Sunday issue is going to be the big thing at the end of time.

And so we've been developing this website to try to attract the attention of people that are concerned either about social issues or about environmental issues.

And at least at this point in our journey through Bible prophecy it seems like those are 2 of the big ways that the Sunday issue is going to come in.

These are just the size of glow tracks, but it explains the Seventh-day Sabbath, and then on the back it directs people to SabbathRest.com.

So if you'd like to take a few of those, we'll break apart these packs and you can grab a handful of those as well.

I got wiped out last night at the Romanian church where we were speaking, So I only have 1 stack left, but it says, is earth demanding a Sabbath rest?

And on the back it directs people to the same website, sabbathrest.com.

So if you'd like to grab a couple of those, we'll break this 1 apart as well.

And then finally, if you'd like to get on our mailing list, either email or physical mail, you can grab 1 of these cards.

You can fill out your information on the back and just leave that up here.

Or you can go to our website at pathwaytoperadise.org and just join the mailing list there.

I'm going to continue and finish our study on the seal of God, the sealing message, and we're going to take a journey through the book of Daniel, which I'm sure many of you have spent much time studying yourself, but we're going to kind of juice the entire book of Daniel, so to speak, and condense it down to a core message that hopefully we can take home with us.

But before we start, I'm going to kneel, I invite you to bow your heads where you're at, and let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, once again we thank you for the freedom that we have to gather together, to open your word, and to read and study.

We realize that through much of history and even today in many parts of the world, this simply would not be possible.

So we are grateful and we ask again for your Holy Spirit to guide and direct us as we open your word.

Now even though we're going to study the book of Daniel, let's start in the book of Revelation, chapter 6.

There are several places in the book of Revelation where the second coming is described.

1 of those is at the end of Revelation chapter 6.

And I will start reading from verse number 12, Revelation chapter 6 beginning in verse 12.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, And the moon became as blood.

And the stars of heaven fell onto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains." Verse 16 says, and they said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb." Now we're gonna stop right there for just a moment.

How many of you have ever seen a lamb in person, right?

You go to the petting zoo and you see the goats, then you go to the next place you see the calves, and then you go and you see the chickens over here, and then you turn the corner and there's a lamb, and you stop in terror, right?

And then you run and you find a rock to hide under.

But we are told in the Bible that people will be running from the lamb at the second coming.

Now Jesus goes by several names in the book of Revelation.

1 of course is the lamb, but the other 1 is the lion of the tribe of Judah.

You're walking through the forest or the savanna and all of a sudden there's a lion in front of you.

I'd be the first 1, hopefully a few feet in front of you as we run away.

But it doesn't say they are running from the wrath of the lion, does it?

They are running from the wrath of the lamb.

Because if I run from Jesus when he returns, or if you are running from Jesus at the second coming, there's nobody else to blame except me or you.

Now verse 17, what do they say as they are running from the Lamb?

For the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to what?

Stand." Important question, can you stand?

Will you be prepared to stand when Jesus comes back?

The Bible tells us that we should make sure we can stand lest we what?

But we want to make sure that we can stand.

Now the question actually is answered in the very next verses as we move into chapter 7.

Who is it that will be able to stand and that will not run from the Lamb?

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 whom?" There's only a certain group of people that receives the seal of God, right?

And so if you're going to stand when the Lamb appears, you must first be a servant of God and then have received the seal of God.

If you have received the seal of God, if you are a servant of God, then you will be prepared to stand when Jesus comes back.

Now we're not going to study the seal from the book of Revelation, which is often where we study the seal from.

And we'll be here for the rest of our time.

We are told that the books of Daniel and Revelation should be studied together, aren't we?

Now what I want you to notice first about the book of Daniel, we're just going to flip through it quickly and look at some of the many times that we find the word stand, or at least the concept of standing in the book of Daniel.

So in Daniel chapter 1, we have the story of Daniel and his friends when they are first brought to Babylon, right?

And they are selected by King Nebuchadnezzar for a certain reason.

So let's look Daniel chapter 1 verse 3, the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes.

Probably the most intelligent is what he's looking for, those that are in good physical shape, those that are good looking, right?

They were well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and understanding science and such as had ability in them to what?

So Nebuchadnezzar picks Daniel and his friends because he thinks that they will be able to stand before whom?

Verse 5 says, the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them 3 years that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

Verse 19, after they've passed this health test, verse 19 says, the king communed with them and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

There is this theme throughout the book of Daniel of standing or of falling.

So let's just keep looking through a few more chapters.

Daniel chapter 2, we touched on this this morning.

The wise men and Chaldeans cannot stand before King Nebuchadnezzar, right?

But Daniel and we, you know, maybe his friends were with him as he's explaining the dream, they stand in front of the king.

Now it's interesting, you look at the dream itself, right?

The metal image, head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron.

What happens to that image at the end of the dream?

Verse 44, and in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall what?

It will stand forever." So the image falls and God's kingdom lasts forever.

Now, you know the story in Daniel chapter 3, right?

The Sealing Part 1

Person in this room, but I'm also not the youngest person in this room.

And I can very honestly tell you the world is very different now than it was a few decades ago.

And if Jesus doesn't come soon, there won't be much of a world left.

I invite you to bow your heads where you're at and please join me in prayer.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the many gifts and blessings that you have given to us every day including this morning as we open your word together we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit we ask that you would help us to understand the information because that's important but most importantly father we ask that you would give us transformation through your Holy Spirit.

So on our way out here this week, we kind of turned this into a spring break.

I brought my wife and my 4 kids with me and so we hit a number of national parks on the way out here, including Death Valley.

Did you know there's water sitting in Death Valley right now?

And 1 of my sons had his heart set on seeing those salt crystals as they crack and form those different shapes.

And those are all gone because it's all underwater right now.

How many of you were here last year when the hurricane came through?

There's a picture, I think this was, was it Isabel?

Anyways, the hurricane that came through here last spring.

Every hurricane has a very unique shape to it, and I know you know this, but at the middle of the storm, there is something called the eye of the storm.

And if you're in the middle of the eye, this is what it looks like.

You know, people actually fly planes into the eyes of hurricanes so that they can get the measurements and so forth and tell us where it's going and how strong it is.

Well, if you were in the eye of a hurricane, this is what it would look like.

They call these stadium clouds and you can see why.

They just kind of build up like the steps of a stadium, not unlike what we have in our seating here today.

But there's something unique about the eye of a hurricane.

And if you look straight up, you can often see sunny sky.

And if you didn't know better, you would think the storm was gone and that the danger was past.

Now, the tragic part about this is that there have been people who have successfully hidden themselves in the first half of a hurricane.

Then the eye passes over, the weather clears up and they think the danger has passed and so they come out from their hiding place only to be caught unawares and some people have actually died when the back side of the storm comes.

Want to use this eye of a hurricane as an illustration for us this morning.

We're not going to be talking about climatology this morning, but we are going to be talking about where we are in the flow of prophetic events leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

And I would suggest to you this morning that we are in the eye of the storm.

And I can't predict any more than you can when the next wave of trouble comes but we know it's coming and we need to be prepared.

Now we are told in Spirit of Prophecy that the Jewish nation is before us as an example of the termination of God's long forbearance.

In the destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of the world is typified.

So if we want to better understand what happens between now and the return of Jesus, 1 way we can understand more about that is to simply look at the destruction of Jerusalem.

Now the name Jerusalem suggests a city of peace doesn't it?

But there's probably no city on earth that has seen less peace over its history than Jerusalem.

It's been at least partially destroyed over 40 times in places the rubble is 60 feet deep.

You can just dig anywhere and you'll find something.

It's been besieged or attacked over 100 times throughout its history.

Jerusalem in the Bible is completely destroyed 2 times.

Once in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament.

So let's start this morning by just briefly reviewing the destruction of Jerusalem both in the Old Testament and New Testament because we just saw that if we better understand that we will better understand what happens at the end.

So let's start with Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem in the Old Testament.

In 609 BC, Pharaoh Necho of Egypt captures Jehoahaz, that was the king of Judah.

He put Judah under tribute and he installed Jehoiakim as the next king.

There are 4 attacks against Jerusalem before it finally is completely destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's army.

So here's the first 1 and it's really relatively mild.

There's actually no armed conflict, there's no bloodshed.

Judah falls under the control of Egypt and they have to start paying taxes to the king of Egypt and yes the king is exchanged for another 1 that Pharaoh preferred but other than that life didn't seem to change too much.

Now the next wave happened a few years later when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon comes for the first time.

Jehoiakim serves him for 3 years and then he rebels.

And so this brings the third attack in 605 BC.

Jehoiakim surrenders and many captives and temple treasures are taken to Babylon.

This is when Daniel and his friends are carted off to Babylon along with many others.

Nebuchadnezzar makes Mattaniah king of Judah and then changes his name to Zedekiah.

You'll notice that in each of the 4 attacks it gets more severe, right?

You start by just paying some tribute or taxes to the king of Egypt and now here we are taking treasures out of the temple, people are being taken captive, the temple is being desecrated.

The final and last attack came in 586 BC when Zedekiah breaks his promise to the king of Babylon.

He rebels against Nebuchadnezzar and then Nebuchadnezzar and his armies come and they besiege Jerusalem for 2 years and then completely destroy everything.

When we look at the New Testament destruction of Jerusalem, how many times did the Romans come?

In 66 AD, Cestius Gallus besieged Jerusalem with nearly 50, 000 Roman soldiers and then he suddenly withdrew very unexpectedly and The Jewish army followed after them and inflicted heavy casualties.

Josephus tells us up to 5, 000 Roman soldiers were killed by the Jewish army.

And we'll come back to that point a little bit later here.

Well, this didn't sit too well with Rome, as you can imagine.

So a couple years later, Titus returns now as the head of the army and he lays siege to Jerusalem and as you know, this is the last time.

Jerusalem and the temple are completely destroyed in 70 AD.

Now take your Bible please, let's turn to 2 Thessalonians 2.

By the way, as you're turning there, Jesus had warned his disciples, hadn't he, about the coming destruction by the Romans.

And he had warned them, when you see these things take place, when you see the first siege, take note.

Because when the opportunity comes, you need to what?

And we're told in the book Great Controversy that not a single Christian perished when Jerusalem was destroyed.

Because they heard what Jesus said, they believed what Jesus said, and most importantly they acted on what Jesus said.

It's important to read the Bible, it's important to listen to it, others teaching about it, It's important to study it ourselves, but if none of that actually translates into action in my life, a change of behavior in my life, changed attitudes in my life, then what good is it?

We need to take action on the Word of God.

Now 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, I want us to look at how this might apply to where we are today.

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul is writing to the early Christians and this is a pretty well-known passage for Seventh-day Adventists.

We go here a lot as we look at some of the events that take place before Jesus returns.

Let's start reading together 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3.

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Series

The Sealing

The Sealing Part 1

Transcript

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