📖 Sermon 176 — Revelation 7:1–3
Date: 12-30-51
Text: Revelation 7:1–3
Preacher: G. S. Kok
INTRO
The chapter following the opening of the sixth seal explains why the world does not yet collapse in the final destruction of the wicked. God holds back the winds until His servants are sealed.
A. The four angels standing on the four corners of the earth
1. Representing God’s agents who execute His judgments.
2. Corners meaning the whole earth — north, south, east, west.
3. They hold the four winds: destructive powers of wrath and judgment.
B. The winds are restrained
1. Not allowed to blow on the earth, sea, or trees.
2. Symbol of God's mercy delaying judgment.
3. The world is preserved only because God withholds His wrath.
A. He rises from the sunrising
1. Symbol of hope and newness.
2. Christ Himself or His representative — bringing mercy before judgment.
B. He has the seal of the living God
1. Object of highest authority — belonging to the living God.
2. Indicates ownership, protection, and divine approval.
C. He cries with a loud voice
To whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea.
He commands them not to harm until God’s command is fulfilled.
A. Till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads
1. Sealing represents God’s ownership.
2. Marks them as His, to be spared from judgment.
3. The seal is spiritual — known to God.
B. God’s people must be gathered first
1. Judgments cannot fall until the number of the elect is complete.
2. Similar to the days of Noah and Lot — destruction delayed until God’s own are safely delivered.
C. This sealing provides comfort
1. God knows His people personally.
2. He guards them in all tribulation.
3. No wrath may touch them.
CONCLUSION
The world stands only because God restrains the winds of destruction.
Nothing — war, judgment, disaster — can fall until the last of God’s children is sealed.
Let us be sure that we are among the sealed, living in obedience and faith.
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