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We're in Revelation chapter 6, moving into chapter 7.

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And who can tell me what we just got done covering the past few weeks?

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The Seals.

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Alright, so we've been in the six seals and we said that the sixth seal marks the what?

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Yes.

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So the sixth of anything, whether it's a seal, a trumpet, or a bowl, it marks the end of human

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history.

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There we go.

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Just how to make sure I was on.

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Alright, so the sixth seal, it marks the end.

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And if you just go back to that last section there, specifically chapter 6, looking at

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verse 15 onward, notice when it says that the kings of the earth and the great ones,

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and the generals, and the rich, and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, they hid themselves

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in the caves.

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And among the rocks of the mountain, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and

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hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,

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for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand.

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Alright, so we read that section and we talked about how when the end comes, you see this

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sevenfold depiction of humanity, meaning God's judgment is all-encompassing, there is no

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escaping it.

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It is going to fall on the entire world and you see these people who realize the wrath

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of God has come and what do they do?

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They hide themselves, yeah, right, they hide themselves, they call to the mountains, they

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say, fall on us, remember we were saying that they are more terrified of the wrath of God

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than they are of death itself.

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And so you're reading this section and it seems like every single person on earth without

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exception is going to suffer the wrath of God, they're going to have to endure the judgment

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of God, that's exactly how it seems, right?

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It seems like no one's going to escape it, but then there's this little bracket here

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as you start chapter seven in verses one through three, this is what we read.

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After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back

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the four winds of the earth that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.

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Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, so ascending from the rising

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of the sun, where is that?

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The east, right?

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Anything significant about east in the Bible?

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It depends on which direction you're going, right?

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So remember we've talked about this ton in here and on the podcast as well.

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Yeah, so if you go all the way back to Genesis, anytime people are moving to the east, they're

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moving away from God, away from His presence, away from His blessing.

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Remember when He put a cherubim in the garden after He kicked out of him an evel, the entrance

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was to the east, right?

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And then you see when Lot is choosing His land in Genesis, He moves to the east, to

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Sodom and Gomorrah.

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And then you track all that all throughout the Bible and people are just constantly

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moving to the east, away from God, away from His presence, and then that's fulfilled.

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Anybody remember how it's fulfilled?

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This really cool hot pays off.

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So the whole Bible, the Old Testament starts with people going to the east, away from the

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presence of God.

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How does the New Testament start?

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Yeah, you have wise men coming from the east to the presence of God, where they are going

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to be there for the birth of Jesus.

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And then when Jesus, in his last week on earth, is entering into Jerusalem, he enters from

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which direction?

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From the east.

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Yeah, so bringing that full circle.

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He's bringing people back to God.

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So east is very significant in the Bible.

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Right, so you see this angel ascending from the rising of the sun from the east with the

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seal of the living God.

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And he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the

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earth and sea, saying, do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed

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the servants of our God on their foreheads.

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All right, so you have here a picture of God's judgment being poured out in these seals, right?

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The winds are a picture of His wrath and His judgment.

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And here we see four angels who are holding back the four winds of judgment temporarily.

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And so you see that this angel says, hey, don't don't harm the earth.

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Don't do anything until we have done something.

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What needs to happen?

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Yeah, seal his people.

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Right, so in the midst of the sixth seal and in the midst of the seven seals in general,

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you have another sealing that needs to be done.

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None of this judgment, none of this wrath can be poured out upon the earth until God has

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sealed his people.

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So notice this, the events that we're reading about here, specifically when you begin to

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look at the seven seals all throughout chapter six, again, people like to read these chronologically.

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But notice how as you start chapter seven is saying, hold on, before any of that happens,

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something else has to happen.

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So again, this is why you can't just read Revelation chronologically and act like it

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moves in a nice, neat little timeline, because that's not what happens.

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The Bible is saying here, all right, here are the six seals that need to happen before

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the final judgment.

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And then you get to chapter seven and it's saying, oh, and by the way, before the six

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seals can even be opened and all this stuff take place, we have to seal the people of

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God.

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Before judgments poured out, God sends his angel to intervene and place his seal upon

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his people.

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All right, so we need to be sealed and you have an angel who comes down who's going to

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seal.

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Another question, what does that mean?

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What does that mean?

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What does it mean for God to seal his people?

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Okay, protect.

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So all of God's people, they will receive the seal, yes?

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This is an easy, easy question, yeah.

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Okay, sealed is finished, but let's answer the easy question first.

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All of God's people will be sealed, yes?

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Yes, yeah, obviously, right, yeah, good.

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So all of God's people will be sealed.

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Will people who are not God's people, will unbelievers, will they be sealed?

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Brian, be a legend of the night, my man.

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All right.

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Yeah, so anyone who's not a believer, they aren't sealed with the seal of God, but they

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receive a mark.

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What is that?

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Yeah, mark of the beast, right?

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What is that?

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Yeah, okay, yeah, that's right.

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They actually do stand in contrast to each other, right?

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So it's not like it's a coincidence that you have all of God's people being sealed and

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then everyone else being sealed or marked in another way.

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The two are supposed to stand in contrast to each other.

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And it's interesting, where are both of these things, the seal and the mark, where are they

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placed?

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Yeah, right on the forehead.

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Now here's my question, Brian, let's see if you can really take home that title, The

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Elogen of the Night.

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Why the forehead?

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Visible.

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Visible, okay, interesting.

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Okay, let's do this, two questions.

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Number one, is this literal?

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Will there literally be a mark on the forehead or a seal of some sort on the forehead that

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is visible to everybody?

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So number one, is it literal?

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Okay, Brian says yes.

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I like a man who puts his foot down.

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There we go, I like it.

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Confidence.

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Anybody want to go against our resident theologian?

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Well, hey, there's a first for everything, brother, it's bound to happen.

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Joseph's not here, he can't get it every Wednesday.

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We have one yes, it is literal.

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Anybody want to say no, it's not literal.

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Maybe it's metaphorical, maybe it's symbolic.

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Everybody's going to agree with Brian?

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We'll get to this, hold on a second, let's just, okay.

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Stop reading my notes and let's just go through this, all right.

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All right, so let me ask you a question.

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Maybe it's literal, maybe it's visible.

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If it's not, though, what's the significance of the forehead?

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Plain sight, okay.

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Anybody else know anything about ancient days, things like that?

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Okay, yeah.

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So one of the places where they would anoint people with oil would be on the forehead.

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Interesting thing about during this time period, first century and a little bit onward and

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even before then is that in those days, slave owners, when they had a slave, they would mark

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their slave, brand them, and they would typically do it on the forehead.

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I thought you'd get that, I thought he was joking at first because he, yeah.

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Yeah, yeah, so it was, yeah, definitely that's one of the things they did, but yeah, but

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also one of the main places that they would brand them so that everybody would know what

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who they belong to, right.

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Yeah, there we go, now it's starting to make sense, right?

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So maybe it's not literal, but it's metaphorical that all of God's people are going to be known

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and people are going to know to whom they belong, God.

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And everyone who's not part of God's people, all the unbelievers, they too will be known

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and it will be evident to all in the world to whom they belong.

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So the mark or the seal on the forehead is just another way of saying it's going to be

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evident to whom these people belong.

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They have a master and their master is either going to be Jesus or it's going to be the

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beast.

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And so any idea what the seal is, let's go with Michael now, we're going to take the

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title, pass the bell over to Michael, Mr. Read My Notes before, hey, let's go Michael,

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go ahead.

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Okay, believers, Michael says the seal that's being referred to here, Holy Spirit.

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We care to agree or disagree.

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Is it true that believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit?

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Yes.

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Is that what this is referring to?

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Yeah, I think so.

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All right, yeah, that's right.

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So Ephesians 1.13, the Bible says, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth,

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the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with a promised Holy Spirit.

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And 2 Corinthians 1.21-22 says, and it is God who establishes us with you in Christ

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and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our

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hearts as a guarantee.

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And so the Holy Spirit being the seal makes sense here, right?

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If you're going to seal believers, the only seal that we hear about in the New Testament

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is the Holy Spirit, which actually says a lot about baptism and New Covenant and the

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sign of the Covenant, things like that.

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We're not going to get into tonight.

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We could.

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We could have a baptism debate, but we're not going to do that.

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Okay?

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We're not going to do that.

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So if the seal shows ownership and we belong to the Holy Spirit, the seal shows ownership

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and who we belong to, the Holy Spirit makes the most sense of the seal because who is

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it who produces fruit in our lives?

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The Holy Spirit.

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You read in the Bible and you read about the fruit of the what?

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The fruit of the Spirit.

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And when people see these fruit in our lives, what do they know about us?

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We're Christians and we belong to God.

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And so this is the Bible's way of saying it is going to be evident to everyone who my

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people are because they will have my seal upon them.

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The seal is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is the one who produces fruit and makes it

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evident.

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So this is what this seal is and it's the most definitive way to know someone's truly

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a Christian, isn't it?

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Because I mean what are other ways people try to stake their claim on their faith?

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Or what are some things that people look to for assurance that, yes, I'm a Christian?

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For many people it's their baptism, right?

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They look back on the baptism and made a decision, built out a card.

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For many people it's their church attendance, hey, I was here on a Sunday morning and a

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Wednesday, came on a Sunday evening.

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You know, I did all these things.

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For some people it's their knowledge of Scripture and how many Bible verses they can quote and

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all these type of things.

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But in the Bible, the clearest evidence that you are a Christian is that you have been

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indwelt by the Holy Spirit, that God has placed his seal upon you.

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And so that's what's happening here.

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God is literally delaying his judgment upon the earth and delaying pouring out the judgment

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on the earth.

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He's delaying opening the seals until he has actually sealed his people.

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And the Holy Spirit is going to serve as a protector and a shield of God's people.

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So when you read about the events in the sixth seal that's opened and you see this hellfire

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and brimstone and you see the sun is dark and stars are falling and people are running

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and they're scared of the wrath of the Lamb, God's people don't have to be afraid in that

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time.

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That if that sixth seal was opened today and all of those events started happening, you

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walk outside and you see that the sun has been darkened and you see stars are falling

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and if it's literal and you see all this chaos and destruction and you see mountains start

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crumbling and people are running and shouting and it's a terrifying scene but the comfort

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for God's people is you don't have to be terrified because you've been sealed by God

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himself.

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You have a protector, a shield and because you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit,

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you're never going to experience God's wrath.

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And that's comforting, is it not?

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Because when you read the Bible and you see that God is literally storing up his wrath

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for the day of judgment and you read in Romans chapter 2 where it talks about how when God

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is even kind to people and he shows forbearance with people and he shows patience with people

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who are living in sin, they take his kindness for granted and Paul literally says to them,

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do you not know that you're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of judgment?

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So think about your life right now, think about every time you sin and how that's just

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adding another block of judgment into God's sack that he's eventually just going to pour

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out on the whole world and you're thinking if that's true and I really am storing up

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judgment for myself and wrath for myself, that's terrifying.

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The best news you can hear is that all the wrath that you deserve has already been poured

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out on Christ in your place.

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If you are a believer in Jesus, you will never, ever experience the wrath of God.

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And for anyone who's a great sinner like I've been, that's good news.

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Amen.

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I mean, that is good news.

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When you know that no matter how bad I've been, no matter how sinful I've been, no

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matter how many times I've messed up, if I have truly put all of my hope and trust in

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Jesus, I'll never experience that wrath because he experienced it for me.

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So literally this is the confidence and the hope that believers can have even if the whole

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world is disintegrating.

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Even if the whole world is literally coming apart at the seams and falling apart, the

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believer can just walk through that chaos with confidence knowing God's going to protect

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his people.

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That if this is happening, it means the Lamb is about to return and he is going to call

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us up to meet him in the sky and we're going to get to escort him back to earth and he

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is going to come back as a king re-entering his kingdom and it's going to be beautiful.

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That's all because we've been sealed by the Holy Spirit.

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Now that doesn't mean, as you know, it doesn't mean that Christians are never going to experience

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hardship or persecution, right?

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This is saying that we're safe from God's wrath.

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It is not saying that we are safe from persecution in this world.

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It is not saying that God is going to make sure you have a nice, happy, easy life.

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Read the Bible.

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That doesn't happen for a lot of Christians.

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Every church history, that doesn't happen for a lot of Christians.

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This is not saying God is going to protect you because you know that's what some people

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do with these verses, right?

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The prosperity preachers, they love to get up here and they say, okay, God's people

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have been sealed by the Holy Spirit so therefore God's never going to let anything happen to

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you.

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The reason you're sick, the reason I'm sick right now, I just don't have enough faith.

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I need to just have more faith and pray it out.

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I need to give a donation to a church and then God's going to multiply that blessing because

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I sowed that seed of faith because God has sealed his people and he doesn't want anything

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bad to happen to you.

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That is garbage.

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That's heretical garbage.

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You mean to tell me that as Peter was walking to a cross where he was going to be crucified,

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that Paul could have come up beside him and said, brother, if only you had more faith.

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You know God wouldn't let this happen to you if you had more faith?

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As Paul was about to be beheaded by Nero, you think any one of the other Christians would

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have just been standing on the sidelines saying, Paul, why don't you have more faith?

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Don't you know this wouldn't be happening if you had more faith?

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I mean, think about who was literally writing these words.

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It was John.

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They boiled him alive.

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He still didn't die, but they boiled him alive.

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Do you think he was thinking himself in that moment, man?

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I know God sealed me with his spirit, but if only I had more faith, this wouldn't be happening.

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No, it's obviously not true.

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Yeah, all of them except for John died a martyr's death.

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He didn't end pretty for any of the disciples and literally pretty much any other major

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Christian throughout all of church history.

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The whole point is this.

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The comfort that God has given us here is that we will never have to endure his wrath.

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We will never have to endure hell.

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We will never have to endure that eternal death and that separation from the presence

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of God's blessing and his love, but it's not saying that your life is going to be easy

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if you're a Christian.

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It's not saying that God's going to keep all the bad stuff from happening.

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I mean, if that were true, both my grandparents wouldn't be slowly dying of cancer right now.

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Okay?

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We live in a fallen world.

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Bad stuff's going to happen.

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This world is riddled with sin and what we need is for Jesus to return and make all things

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right, which is why the whole book of Revelation literally ends.

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Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

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That is the prayer of the Christian God.

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We see how messed up this world is.

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We see how sin is destroying humanity and morals and everything else.

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Come fix it.

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Bring it to a right place and do it quickly.

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And so yes, as a Christian, you're going to end your hardships.

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You're going to end your persecution.

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It could be like me and get sick every other week, which is super fun.

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I didn't sign up for that.

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I don't remember being this sick before I was a Christian.

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Bad stuff is going to happen, but the good news is when that day comes and we do have

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to stand at the judgment throne because, listen, I'm saying that you're safe from the wrath

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of God.

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That doesn't mean you're not going to have to stand before the judgment of God.

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Every person who's ever lived and will ever live will have to do that.

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But it means the great hope that you have is that as you walk to that judgment, you have

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confidence.

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You have assurance.

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Other people, they'll walk up to the throne of God, they'll be shaking, so scared they

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can't even move probably.

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I mean, angels might have to drag them there.

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Terrified, because they know that they didn't believe the gospel.

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They rejected Jesus.

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They realized that God actually is real.

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They know what's coming next and they're terrified.

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But as the Christian approaches the throne of God, the Bible tells us in Hebrews that

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we can do so boldly and with confidence.

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It's not because as we're walking, we're thinking, man, I'm glad that I lived a good

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life.

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I'm glad that I didn't do that sin stuff that all these other people struggle with.

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I'm glad that I made sure to go to church and do this.

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I'm glad that I cleaned up my behavior and I only listened to his radio.

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The only thing we're going to be thinking about in that moment as we walk to the throne

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of God is thank you, Lord, that I know Jesus.

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Thank you, God, that I trusted that when Jesus died in my place, His sacrifice was sufficient

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to pay the penalty for my sins.

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So I know there's no more wrath there.

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I know there's nothing waiting for me there, but God's love and approval and acceptance,

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again, not because I've lived a great life, but because Jesus died for me and I have

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trusted in Him.

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So that's the hope that we have here.

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God will protect His people.

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So even when you read the end of Revelation 6 and you see all this world falling apart

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and it's terrifying and it's a brutal scene and it looks like no one's going to escape,

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it reminds us as we go into chapter 7 and see just those first three verses, it reminds

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us that Christians have hope and Christians have confidence because we have been sealed

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with God's own Holy Spirit.

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So that's as far as we're going to get tonight.

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And in two weeks, we're going to get to one of my favorite sections in all of Revelation,

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the seven seals.

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Y'all know I have a big thing about lists in the Bible and genealogies and things like

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that and things that we just read over, right?

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Don't lie to me, you're open up to Revelation 7.

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Now look at that list.

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You look at that, if you're reading the Bible, what do you do, folks?

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You just skip right over.

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You're like a bunch of numbers, bunch of names, right?

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This list is amazing, okay?

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We are literally the next time I'm here in two weeks, we are going to spend the entire

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time just looking at that list and I want to show you how amazing it is and why you

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shouldn't skip over it.

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So I know you might be thinking, oh, I don't want to hear a bunch of names and numbers,

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but come anyways, okay?

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Because it's really awesome.

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I promise you that, all right?

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Michael.