Pentecost and Events After

Happenings on the Sea of Glass

Fred R. Coulter—June 15, 2019

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Greetings, brethren! Welcome to Sabbath services! There's so much to talk about concerning Pentecost that I'm going to continue on: What do we do on the Sea of Glass?

First let's do a little review. Major events in God's plan and prophecy happen on Pentecost. The first one is the giving the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel on Mt. Sinai.

When God spoke the Ten Commandments, that's the first time that that many people heard God speak and He was in His glorified form on top of Mt. Sinai. So powerful is His existence that there was smoke from melting rock, the wind was blowing, the trumpet was sounding, and it was quite a thing!

After that, God gave some of the statutes, judgments and ordinances in Exo, 21-23. Now we come to:

Exodus 24:1: "And He said to Moses, 'Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near. Neither shall the people go up with him.' And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD…" (vs 1-3)—and so forth! Then they setup the things for the covenant.

Remember, whenever there is a covenant there must be a sacrifice. So, they had these animals for the sacrifice. They sprinkled half of the blood on the things that Moses wrote down, and half of the blood they sprinkled on the people.

"And all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the LORD has said, we will do'" (v 3).

Then Moses went back up, v 9: "And Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel."

Here we're going to learn a principle in the Bible; the first part of it said the same thing: Many times the Bible introduces what it's going to bring first, then follows along afterward! So, this is the case. Let's see what happened here, and this was a profound event for all of them!

Verse 10: "And they saw the God of Israel…." Obviously not in His glorified form, because no one can look on God in His glorified form and live! Just like with Adam and Eve, He appeared to them much like in a human form.

"…And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone…" (v 10)—a sea of glass, but this is not where the Throne of God was. This was special for the very purpose on Pentecost so that would be a witness. Every covenant must have a witness! Here it is: They all saw God and they could tell the people exactly what went on.

"…And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the heavens in clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay his hands. Also they saw God, and ate and drank" (vs 10-11). This was a type of the future marriage supper of the Lamb!

We know that Acts 2 was profound day. What happened on that day? For the first time the Holy Spirit of God—which we now know consists of two parts:

• of the Father for begettal
• from Christ for the mind of Christ

—came and it was given to men! It stated out with all the apostles and the 120 that were there.

Then for the first time, we have the message, after Peter explained to them abut the crucifixion of Christ and they said, 'What do we do.' Peter said, 'Repent and be baptized.' That becomes a very important thing, baptism. I just covered that on Church at Home. 'Be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'; that started the Church!

• it started Israel as a community under God at Mt. Sinai
• it started the Church with the power of God's Holy Spirit given to people

Then we find something else very interesting as we go along. There's something else that's going to occur on Pentecost. We're going to see that there is an introduction telling us what's going to follow. Lots of times that causes confusion in the minds of some people. We read along and most everything follows along in chronological order. However, in every book there is a preface and an introduction to tell you what's in the book. God does this at this particular point.

Matthew 24:29: "But immediately after the tribulation of those days…"

• How long is the Tribulation? A total of three and a half years!
• What is the Tribulation against Israel? Two years! (Hosea 5-6).

They would be afflicted for two days, a day in prophecy is a year. And in the third day they would be raised up.

"…the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken" (v 29).

We're going to see that had to occur right about Pentecost. We'll see it in Revelation in just a bit. Verse 30 is very important, because this is something that has never happened before, and will never happen again:

Verse 30: "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven…" That's going to be a phenomenal event! We will see in the book of Revelation how that's going to come about.

"…and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (v 30).

These are events in sequence related to this, not necessarily chronologically following in time. You have to put other Scriptures together with it, and we'll do that in a bit.

Verse 31: "And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet… [What trumpet is that? The last trumpet, the seventh trumpet!] …and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

What perspective is this? This is up in the air looking down at the earth! Not from the earth looking up. That's  why it says, "…from one end of heaven to the other." As you look down from a heavenly perspective or from up in the air, then it's from the ends of heaven as it were. Here is the sign of the Son of man coming in great power!

Here's how Christ is going to return, v 27: "For as the light of day… [What gives us light in the day time? The sun!] …which comes forth from the east and shines as far as the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be."

A lot of people think that Christ is going to come and immediately they're going to be the resurrection. NO! Let's see when this takes place, because the sign of the Son of man that we read about here is the appearance of what looks like a second sun. That's what He says, "…as far as the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be."

Rev. 6 gives us the understanding of this. We have to picture it this way: Immediately after the Tribulation of those days, which Hosea says that the first two ears is against Israel. We'll see why in just a minute. We have all the seals here in Rev. 6. The sixth seal coincides with the beginning of the third year of the three and a half years.

If this is the beginning of it, how much time is left out of three and a half years? A year and a half, 18 months! God is doing this to show His power, to give opportunity of repentance—God always gives opportunity of repentance—and to show what's happening with God's plan.

Revelation 6:12: "And when He opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake…" There are a lot of earthquakes!

We'll just project forward a little bit. When we come back to the earth, what is the condition of the world? Total chaos and destruction! Have you ever seen on the History Channel or American Heroes Channel the days after Hitler's demise. Germany was absolutely pummeled and bombed into oblivion!

Well, magnify that a thousand times or more for the whole world, but especially around the area of the Holy Land. Why is God doing it this way? We will see that's to help fulfill all the rest of the prophecies in the book of Revelation.

"…and the sun became black as the hair of sackcloth, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its untimely figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind" (vs 12-13). Think about the awesomeness of this taking place!

Verse 14: "Then the heaven departed like a scroll that is being rolled up…" Think about that! This is an astonishing event that has never ever happened before, nor will it happen again. The heavens roll back and all of a sudden what are they going to see? The sign of the Son of man (Matt. 24)!

Right at first, a lot of them are going to believe that this is Christ. But Satan is still there and he's going to convince them that this is not Christ, but that these are aliens from outer space.

What do you see and hear on television all the time. Go on the History Channel and they have constantly Ancient Aliens! So, the whole world is going to be deceived into thinking that this is the beginning of the alien attack on earth. But first, we'll see that they have to 'settle some scores.'

"…and every mountain and island was moved out of its place" (v 14). That's quite an interesting part, isn't it?

I imagine that there are a lot of people thinking that they're going to get away from civilization and all the problems and get an island somewhere out in some ocean and be away from everybody else. Guess what's going to happen? They can't get away from it!

Verse 15: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the powerful men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of His wrath has come, and who has the power to stand?'" (vs 15-17).

After that comes a phenomenal thing. The whole world is shaken up and all of a sudden there is a fantastic and great calm. What is that?

Revelation 7:1: "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that the wind might not blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree."

Time out! God has work to do! Go back and look at the seven churches (Rev. 2 & 3), and how many weeks there are to Pentecost: seven weeks! That's the type of the harvest of the seven weeks. But there's one more day left, the 50th day! So, this has to be on or shortly after Pentecost, what happens in Rev. 7.

Verse 2: "Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God…"

Think about this: there's no one to baptize them and give them the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands! So, how does God do it? He sends an angel to do it!

"…and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to damage the earth and the sea, saying, 'Do not damage the earth, or the sea, or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.' And I heard the number of those who were sealed: one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel" (vs 2-4). Very profound!

Amos 4:12: "…prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"

Another prophecy fulfilled in Revelation 7:5: "From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed…" (see Zech. 12).

Then it goes through all the 12 tribes. Since God is no respecter of persons, and He also has called many Gentiles, look at what happens next:

Verse 9: "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one was able to number, out of every nation and tribe and people and language, was standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and holding palms in their hands."

Again, this is projecting forward to the future time when they will actually be before the Throne of God. How do we know this? Nothing comes before the seventh trump!

This gets a little confusing because people can read this and say, 'See, they're in heaven..' What did Paul write in 1-Cor. 15? Christ the Firstfruit, and afterward those who are Christ's at His coming! The first resurrection doesn't take place until the last part of His coming. The resurrection begins with the seventh trump. How do we know?

Verse 13: "And one of the elders answered and said to me, 'These who are clothed with white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?' Then I said to him, 'Sir, you know.' And he said to me, 'They are the ones who have come out of the Great Tribulation; and they have washed their robes, and have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple; and the One Who sits on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall not hunger any more, nor shall they thirst any more; neither shall the sun nor the heat fall upon them, because the Lamb Who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them, and will lead them to fountains of living waters; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes'" (vs 13-17).

That's when they're resurrected! Can you think of a parable that tells us who the 144,000 and great innumerable multitude are? Matt. 20! He went out and found men standing the first part of the day and he said, 'Go work in my vineyard. I'll give you what's right.' He came back again and there were still men standing. He said the same thing, 'Go work in my vineyard.' Then he came late in the day and there were still men standing, and he said, 'Go work in my vineyard.'

Then he came right at the last part, the last hour and there were still men standing, and he said, 'Go work in my vineyard and I'll give you what is right.'

What happened? They all worked! He told his servants that they could pay them a silver coin each, and begin with the last! So, he gave them a silver coin and all those who went after said, 'Oh boy, we're going to make more money.' No, they all got one silver coin!

The silver coin represented eternal life! These are the ones who are of the harvest of the 11th hour. That's how the Bible is put together.

If this is the beginning of the third year we have 18 months left. Look at what happens now, because that second sun hasn't moved. It's out there, and they see it every day. What happens when people see things that it becomes natural and accustomed to it, they think they're safe.

So, we have all the trumpet plagues, but we won't go through those, that's for the Feast of Trumpets (Rev. 8-10).

Now we come to where the two witnesses are killed.

• How long is their ministry? 1,260 days!
• When does their ministry end? Just before the resurrection!

Revelation 11:10: "'And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, and will make merry, and will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets had tormented those who dwell on the earth.' Then after the three and a half days, the spirit of life from God entered into them and they stood on their feet…" (vs 10-11).

Think about what an astonishing thing that's going to be! Just when they think they have the victory!

"…and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. And they heard a great voice from heaven, say, 'Come up here!'…." (vs 11-12).

• What prophecy does that also fulfill? The last shall be first!
• What happens then?

"…And they ascended into heaven in a cloud; and their enemies saw them rise. 13: And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; and seven thousand men were killed in the earthquake. And the rest were filled with fear, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming immediately. Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet…" (vs 12-15).

Only in the book of Revelation do you have a sequence of trumpets. You have the first trumpet, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and then the seventh, which is the last. Isn't that what Paul wrote in 1-Cor. 15, at the last trumpet: 'the trumpet shall sound and we will be raised from the dead.' Here it is right here.

Notice that it's describing the resurrection, v 15: "Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign into the ages of eternity.' And the twenty-four elders, who sit before God on their thrones, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, 'We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come; for You have taken to Yourself Your great power, and have reigned….'" (vs 15-18)—the beginning of the reign of Christ, right here! But that's just the beginning. What else has to happen?

"'…For the nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and to give reward to Your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to all those who fear Your name… [the 144,000 and the great innumerable multitude] …the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth.' And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the Ark of His Covenant was seen in His temple; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake and great hail" (vs 18-19).

Does the Throne of God come down close to the earth? Most people think of the third heaven as way far out. Maybe it's a whole lot closer than we have suspected. The earth is God footstool. It can't be trillions of miles out in space then. It has to be close. Also a lot of the Psalms talk about how God looks down. Not only the seven eyes of God and so forth. God is greater, bigger in His plan than we have ever thought, and fantastic things are going to happen.

Again, this is like we explained at the first; this is description of what is going to follow. This is the summary first. But it doesn't happen in immediate sequence.

Revelation 14:14: "And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and one like the Son of man sitting on the cloud, having a golden crown on His head; and in His hand was a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him Who was sitting on the cloud, 'Thrust in your sickle and reap, because the time has come for You to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.' And He Who was sitting on the cloud thrust forth His sickle upon the earth, and the earth was reaped" (vs 14-16). That is the first resurrection!

We'll see in the Rev. 15 what happens from the time of the first resurrection to the end, which is another harvest.

Verse 17: "Then another angel, who also had a sharp sickle, came out of the temple that is in heaven. And out from the altar came another angel, who had authority over fire; and he called with a loud cry to the one who had the sharp sickle, saying, 'Thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the earth, because her grapes are fully ripe.'…. [a prophecy of the coming last battle, but the events in Rev. 15-16 happen before that occurs] …And the angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast its fruit into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood spewed out from the winepress as high as the horses' bridles, to the distance of a thousand six hundred furlongs" (vs 17-20). That's a distance of about 200 miles! That works just about right in that part of the world.

Once we're resurrected and the angels carry us, where are we going to be? There's one verse that answers that! Also it shows that the Throne of God is very close to us, and we're to meet Christ in the air, in the clouds. This is a mammoth event that is taking place.

The resurrection a year later from the 144,000 on the last Pentecost. That's what we read in Rev. 14; the harvest is ripe! The first ones raised are the two witnesses. The rest after that. So, let's read where we're going to go:

Revelation 15:1: "Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and awesome: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is filled up."

Remember that the last part of Rev. 6 says, 'Save us from the wrath of the Lamb.' When does that take place? Not until the last seven plagues!

Verse 2: "And I saw a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who had gotten the victory over the beast…"

Where does the beast first show his head? Satan in the Garden of Eden!

"…and over his image… [that's idolatry all down through history] …and over his mark… [including the mark of the beast] …and over the number of his name, standing on the Sea of Glass, having the lyres of God" (vs 2-3). Lyres are a ten-string instrument; harps has many more strings!

"…And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God… [all of those from the Old Covenant] …and the song of the Lamb, saying, 'Great and awesome are Your works, Lord God Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the saints. Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You only are Holy; and all the nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been revealed'" (vs 3-4).

Verse 4 is talking about the Millennium! They're not going to come and worship before Him until that last battle is over. So, this Sea of Glass is a special Sea of Glass! This is not necessarily the Sea of Glass that you would see when you read Rev. 4 & 5; that's where God's throne is. Of course it's on a Sea of Glass. This is a special one constructed by God.

So, how is that going to come about, and what's going to cause all the nations to really be absolutely frightened when that occurs.

(go to the next track)

Let's have a clarification of the Sea of Glass. How does this Sea of Glass come about? Let's go back to the Son of man shinning from the east to the west. So, this second sun becomes an everyday occurrence, and they don't think anything is going to happen.

Then all the wars start (Rev. 8-10) and there's the fighting back and forth. Then we come to the seventh trumpet being blown and just before that the two witnesses are raised.

What happens to bring the Sea of Glass? (speculation) I suppose it comes this way: the two witnesses are raised up and that second sun all of a sudden starts streaking to the earth, and comes close right over the Holy Land, and just spreads out into a mammoth sea of glass.

Why? The resurrection is a phenomenal event! How many people will there be? From Rev. 7 we know there will be 144,000 and a great innumerable multitude! Where are you going to put them? So, that Sea of Glass is not the one that is generally under the Throne of God. But the Throne of God does come down right close to it, because this is the greatest event in the history of the world since creation.

That sun immediately streaks to the earth and BANG!here's a sea of glass! Will the earth sea it? I suppose they will! Did the 70 elders of Israel and Nadab and Abihu see it when it is on Mt. Sinai? Yes, they did! Now what is the world going to think when they see this Sea of Glass. All the saints are resurrected and put there.

• How long is the resurrection going to take? Well, the trumpet blows!
• Where does it start? We don't know!

But could it be that a certain point as the earth is turning that those who are going to be resurrected will be resurrected in waves. I don't know, but it's very possible.

• Would God want the people on the earth to see the resurrection? Of course!
• What's the earth going to think? There will be two things that they will think:
  • there may be some people who repent and they will kind of be the first ones into the Millennium
  • there will be those who will not be repenting, and they will be thinking that the aliens are 'body-snatching'

How many will be in the first resurrection? We can know this for sure, we don't know! There are some people who are so ignorant of the Bible that they say, 'There's only going to be 144,in the first resurrection.' Nonsense! Rev.7 alone tells that's not true!

How many down through history. If we've been reading everything of the church, there were thousand and thousands in the Piedmonts. Peter Waldo did not start the Waldensians, that's Catholic history. The Waldensians were the Valdese, which went clear back to the 300s-400sA.D.

They had thousands and thousands of people down through that time. How many are going to be from wherever in the world, we don't know. We live in this age, and we don't have a clear history of what happened in past ages. Only God does! What a witness that's going to be, the first resurrection. You come all around the earth at the set time.

• How many hours are there in a day? 24!
• How many elders are around the Throne of God? 24!
• Will they be in charge of the angels in a certain district of the world to raise the dead?
• How is God going to raise the dead that died in the ocean eaten up by sharks? God knows! I don't know!
• There are million who have died in the sea? Not millions of Christians, but over the history of the world there are millions who have died in the sea!

Here we have a startling event! This sun has been out there shinning for a year, the second sun, and it streaks right down close to the earth. The whole earth is going to be startled! Here's the resurrection taking place all around the world. The world can see this Sea of Glass! I'm sure immediately they start bringing their armies, ammunitions and rockets trying to shoot it down.

Let's look at what it's going to be like to be raised. It's interesting that in the book of Psalms there are a number of references to eternal life. This is how God has hidden His plan in the Bible and it's hard for people to understand.

• they don't know God
• they don't keep the Sabbath
• they don't keep the Holy Days

God doesn't give revelation—understanding of His plan—all a once. We learn it bit by bit. How much have we learned through the years by just staying faithful to the Holy Days and Sabbath? An awful lot!

Revelation 6:16: "And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.'"

They may have at first thought that this is of God. But since the sun stays out thee and Satan is still active, and they have wars to fight and to settle (Rev. 8-10) even if they thought it was Christ, their minds can change. Satan will convince them that these are aliens.

The sign of the Son of man is as the sun that shines from the east to the west. So, it will appear as a second sun, but it's not going to have the same heat. It appears, it doesn't have to be an exact replication of our sun, because everything on earth would vaporize. It is like the sun that shines from east to west.

Why would the sign of the Son of man shine bright, but not have the intensity of the sun as the sun is the sun? A parallel analogy between an incandescent bulb, which is very hot and the LED light that we have, which are bright but not hot. It could be that way.

Why will they think that these are aliens if the two witnesses are saying this is God? Well, they kill the two witnesses because they don't believe it's God!

Satan will be there and say that you've got it all wrong; 'you listen to the wrong people. Look we killed these two witnesses, these are aliens.' Then three and half days later the people are startled because the two witnesses are raised up. 'Look! The aliens are body-snatching,' and then the resurrection takes place around the world. This is going to be a startling thing!

God is going to leave a witness that is going to be so fantastic it sill be amazing!

Back to the Sea of Glass: When God came down and spoke the Ten commandments, He came down in His glory! The mountain was on fire and it smoked, there was a great earthquake, wind and tempest and all of this sort of thing.

After speaking the Ten Commandments, everything calmed down. Moses went up to God and God gave him things to write. Obviously, Moses didn't get to be in the presence of God when God was in His glory. So, God turned it down, because He can shine like the sun, and He can walk like a man, both, at different times.

So, when the resurrection takes place, I think that God wants the whole world to know what's happening. Satan is going to be saying that these are aliens. It's going to be quite a thing indeed!

After the resurrection of Christ there was the physical resurrection of those who had died recently and they went back into Jerusalem as a witness of the resurrection. So, it's very likely that the whole world will see the resurrection taking place, and there will be a lot of controversy about it. People are going to say,

Look, we killed the two witnesses and they were snatched up, so look what's happening here. What's going to happen? The world is going to be overtaken by aliens! We've got to save the world!

Psa. 8 goes back to Gen. 1: Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. That's a prophetic declaration of God's plan for mankind.

Psalm 8:3: "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man… [every human being] …that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? For You have made him a little lower than God and have crowned him with glory and honor" (vs 3-5)—then gave him the earth!

What we are doing is looking at the purpose of man, and some of the Scriptures that the apostles had to use in talking about the resurrection. Not only did they see the resurrected Christ, but now they go back and preach:

Psalm 17:15: "As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Your likeness."

• prophecy of Christ
• prophecy of the resurrection

The apostles would go back to these various Psalms, because that's where they preached the Gospel from.

Psalm 36:7: "How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! Therefore, the children of men take refuge under the shadow of Your wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the richness of Your house; and You shall make them drink of the river of Your pleasures… [that has to be the resurrection] …for with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we shall see light" (vs 7-9).

We will see that what is written in 1-John 3 is very similar to the Psalms that we have just read. Think about all of God's plan, His love for us, His love for the world. It says in the Gospel of John that 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.' So, here it is for the Church.

1-John 3:1: "Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God! For this very reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God… [not yet born again] …and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; but we know… [this much they knew] …that when He is manifested, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him exactly as He is" (vs 1-2)—I shall be satisfied when I awaken with Your likeness! Wake up from what? The sleep of death!

Paul was doing the same thing, getting these from the Old Testament and incorporating it into the writings of the New Testament.

Philippians 3:20: "But for us, the commonwealth of God exists in the heavens… [the Kingdom of God hasn't come, yet, but it's coming] …from where also we are waiting for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will transform our vile bodies…" (vs 20-21).

Think about it for a minute. Everything that's going on in our bodies, if all of a sudden that it burst open, it would be vile, smelly, awful and unbelievable. But that's all covered up to give us life in the flesh, so we can grow in grace and knowledge.

"…that they may be conformed to His glorious body…" (v 21). What did we read on Pentecost? His face shined as the sun!

All of this is going to happen on the Sea of Glass! We've got to learn how to use these spirit bodies, whether we are down to a non-glorious type or glorious.

"…according to the inner working of His own power, whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself?" (v 21).

That's going to be something! Every pain, ache, sickness, disease, everything pertaining to the flesh, all of your horrible thoughts that you still have in your mind, everything that you have had come into your mind while you've been a human being is all going to be transformed and removed!

I imagine the apostles came to Daniel quite often. Dan. 12:1 is a prophecy of the book of Revelation, and a prophecy of the 144,000 and the great innumerable multitude.

Daniel 12:1: "And at that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble… [Great Tribulation] …such as never was since there was a nation even until that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered… [Rev. 7] …everyone who shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life… [first resurrection] …and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (vs 1-2)—the Lake of Fire!

Notice that you have 1100 years difference between those to sentences in fulfillment, but you don't know that by reading it here. You couldn't understand that unless you had the book of Revelation; Millennium plus 100 years.

Verse 3: "And they who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament…" What did Paul write in 1-Cor. 15? There are various glories: the sun, moon, stars and so forth. There's a glory of one and a glory of another, but the glory is different.

"…and they who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever" (v 3).

That's in the Old Testament, and that's an amazing thing when you put that all together. This is how you put things together, and then there is a chronology that can develop out of it.

Matt. 13:43 comes from the Old Testament, the very words of Jesus that He inspired to be written (Dan. 12)

Matthew 13:43: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father…." What are you going to do with that? The very words of Jesus! So, we're going to be able to shine as the sun, but not all the time!

This tells us who is going to be on God's Holy mountain; Psalm 15:1: "LORD, who shall dwell in Your tabernacle? Who shall dwell upon Your Holy hill?"

What's going to happen when Christ and all the saints return to the earth? They're going to come back to the earth all at once (Zech. 14)! When His foot comes onto the Mt. of Olives, it's going to raise and split apart! You talk about fantastic events happening! It says that the Lord will come with all of His saints! So, we're with Him! It gets all exciting when you get into these things!

Verse 2: "He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the Truth in his heart."

Psa. 82 is one that Jesus quoted to the authorities when they said, 'Why do You make Yourself the Son of God; that makes You equal with God?' What did Jesus say? Have you never read?

Psalm 82:1: "God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods."

Verse 5: "They do not know, neither do they understand; they walk on in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken out of course." Sound like Revelation?

Verse 6: "I have said, 'You are gods; and all of you are sons of the Most High." This tells us that the Father and the Most High are the same!

The earth is going to be suffering greatly. There is Psa. 149 where God says that He 'gives vengeance to all the saints.' We're going to see the vengeance of God, and when we come back to the earth—we'll cover that for Trumpets—because we're going to be up on the Sea of Glass. Next we'll cover all the things that will take place while we're on the Sea of Glass.

Hebrews 2:12—helps fulfill Psa. 82: "Saying, 'I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the Church I will sing praise to You.'"

• When is that going to happen?
• Is Christ going to sing these praises to the Father?

He's obviously going to come down close to the Sea of Glass. We'll see that in Rev. 16.

• Presentation to the Father

Verse 13: "And again, 'I will be trusting in Him.' And again, 'Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.'"

So, the first thing that's going to happen is we're going to be presented to God the Father. God the Father has to come down close to the Sea of Glass for this to take place. The Sea of Glass doesn't go way up somewhere to the third heaven. But God comes down, because this is a fantastic event.

• Receive a New Name (Rev. 17)

What's the first thing to happen when children are born? You consider names! With a boy, they gave the name after the day of circumcision. What will that name be? I don't know! But whatever it will be, it will be!

• Given Rewards

What will be the rewards? Parable of the Talents and Parable of the Pounds!

• Assignments as Kings and Priests

• you rule here
• you rule there
• you're going to be a priest
• you're going to be an administrator
• you're going to be over so many cities

Whatever it's going to be!

All of that is going to consume the four and a half months that we're on the Sea of Glass. Why are we going to be up there that long? Because to take over the whole world is the biggest operation in the history of the world! That's going to be quite a thing!

• Marriage Supper of the Lamb & His Bride

I know that this is a little controversial, but let's come to Rev. 14. We know that Rev. 19 says, 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' It doesn't say blessed are those who are called to be the Bride.

There was a time when I had a wedding and it turned out to be a big wedding. You have the bride and the groom. I performed the ceremony and everything was fine and then we had a big reception. What's the first thing to happen when the music begins? The bride and groom dance! Not everyone is going to be of the bride! Cannot be!

This is a different 144,000 than Rev. 7, which happens at the beginning of the last year from Pentecost to Pentecost. Notice the difference here:

Revelation 14:1: "And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb standing on Mount Sion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads. Then I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of great thunder; and I heard the sound of lyre players playing their lyres. And they were singing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one was able to learn the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth" (vs 1-3).

Not out of the 12 tribes of Israel, but of the earth!

Verse 4: "These are the ones who were not defiled with women…" What is a woman? Babylon the Great is the woman!

"…for they are virgins; they are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were purchased from among men… [no timeframe] …as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, and no guile wasfound in their mouths; for they are blameless before the throne of God" (vs 4-5).

(speculation): Is this 144,000 those that constitute the Bride?

Look at the seven churches in Revelation, five of them were told to repent because of sin, problems and getting involved with the religions of this world. If they do that, is that not spiritual fornication? That means they'll be saved, but they're not virgins!So, these 144,000 is down through time, and God alone has selected them based upon the description here. They will be married to the Lamb! Not everyone is going to be part of the Bride.

Revelation 19:1: "And after these things I heard the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven…" The first heaven where the Sea of Glass is, where the resurrected saints are, where Christ is!

"…saying, 'Hallelujah! The salvation and the glory and the honor and the power belong to the Lord our God. For true and righteous are His judgments; for He hasjudged the great whore… [Rev. 17 & 18] …who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He has avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.' And they said a second time, 'Hallelujah! And her smoke shall ascend upward into the ages of eternity.'" (vs 1-2).

That's a hard one to understand until you think about some of the satellites that were sent out into space. They had one satellite that they sent out to go past some of the planets, and they gave it a two-year life. It lasted 17 years! It went clear out to the outer reaches of the solar system.

If smoke gets up out of the atmosphere will keep going forever into the universe! That's what it's talking about here.

Verse 4: "And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, Who sits on the throne, saying, 'Amen. Hallelujah!' And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, 'Praise our God, all His servants, and all who fear Him, both small and great'" (vs 4-5).

Let's see what takes place just before that time. As I have said before, 'Vengeance belongs to the saints.' They are going to see the vengeance of God! Remember, it's going to be four and a half months where it's going to be visible, from Pentecost to Trumpets. We don't come back to the earth until Trumpets.

Revelation 15:5: "And after these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. And the seven angels who had the seven last plagues came out of the temple; they were clothed in linen, pure and bright, and girded about the chest with golden breastplates. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden vials, full of the wrath of God, Who lives into the ages of eternity. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no one was able to enter inside the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled" (vs 5-8).

This we're all going to see. This constitutes the last great battle. Here again we see how God uses the same weapons that He used when He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. His weapons of war are fantastic, and no man can stop them! That's the seven last plagues:

Revelation 16:1: "Then I heard a loud voice from the temple say to the seven angels, 'Go and pour out the vials of the wrath of God onto the earth.' And the first angel went and poured out his vial onto the earth; and an evil and grievous sore fell upon the men who had the mark of the beast, and upon those who were worshiping his image. And the second angel went and poured out his vial into the sea; and it became blood…" (vs 1-3).

Worldwide events! Think of what the earth is going to be like when we come back with Christ!

"…like that of a dead man; and every living soul in the sea died" (v 3). Physical life is a soul!. Did you know that if you eat fish you are eating a soul? Never thought of that! If you're eating beef, you're eating part of a soul.

Verse 4: "And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers, and into the fountains of waters; and they became blood. Then I heard the angel of the waters say…" (vs 4-5).

When men read this—not knowing all about God, or understanding the evil of the world or Babylon the Great—they would think that God is horrible and terrible and unloving and unkind. But look at what the angel says:

"…'You are righteous, O Lord, Who are, and Who was, even the Holy One, in that You have executed this judgment. For they have poured out the blood of saints and of prophets, and You have given them blood to drink; for they are worthy'" (vs 5-6).

Just because God doesn't do something right away, don't think He's forgotten. He's storing it up for His final judgment!

Verse 7: "And I heard another voice from the altar say, 'Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.' And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given to it to scorch men with fire" (vs 7-8).

It says in one of the prophecies that the sun becomes seven times hotter!

Verse 9: "Then men were scorched with great heat; and they blasphemed the name of God, Who has authority over these plagues, and did not repent to give Him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the throne of the beast; and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain" (vs 9-10). A darkness that was so heavy that it caused pain!

This is why the desperate battle, because they think: 'look at the aliens coming, what are we going to do to save the earth? We have to save the earth!'

Verse 12: "And the sixth angel poured out his vial into the great river Euphrates; and its waters were dried up, so that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared."

Russia and all of the Asia nations—except China—and all of the Muslim nations, and all the nations of the world that come to this battle are going to get their final judgment!
China has the army of 200-million—armies—which I will bring out during the Feast of Tabernacles concerning Ezekiel 38-39. God final judgment of China will not happen until seven years into the Millennium! How desperate are they? Satan knows that 'the jig is up'!

Verse 13: "Then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon… [Satan the devil] …and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet; for they are spirits of demons working miracles, going forth to the kings of the earth, even of the whole world, to gather them together to the battle of that great day of the Almighty God" (vs 13-14). This is the Battle of Armageddon! It's never happened!

They're going to be doing all they can their armies there. Who knows what weapons will have been developed by that time, that they will think that if they can just destroy this Sea of Glass everything will come crashing down and it will be over. Well, it won't work that way!

Verse 16: "And he gathered them together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Then the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, 'IT IS FINISHED.' And there were voices and thunders and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were on the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great" (vs 16-18).

Then Babylon fell and that sets the stage for the rest of Rev. 19. We'll pick that up when we come to the Feast of Trumpets! There's a lot that goes on. We're not told much; we're just given some guidelines. Again, if I haven't been exactly correct, I've rung my cowbell and it's rung because if it's not dogmatic in the Bible, it's subject to change!

Just think how the world is going to be, and think about what the world is going to be like. I don't know how long any of us are going to live, but however long it will be… I don't know if we're going to live to see these things start it unfold before we pass, but some of us will.

It's important that you stay faithful, stay close to God and do the things that are right!

Scriptural References:

• Exodus 24:1-3, 9-11
• Matthew 24:29-31, 27
• Revelation 6:12-17
• Revelation 7:1-4
• Amos 4:12
• Revelation 7:5, 9, 13-17
• Revelation 11:10-19
• Revelation 14:14-20
• Revelation 15:1-4
• Revelation 6:11
• Psalm 8:3-5
• Psalm 17:15
• Psalm 36:7-9
• 1 John 3:1-2
• Philippians 3:20-21
• Daniel 12:1-3
• Matthew 13:43
• Psalm 15:1-2
• Psalm 82:1, 5-6
• Hebrews 2:12
• Revelation 14:1-5
• Revelation 19:1-5
• Revelation 15:5-8
• Revelation 16:1-10, 12-14, 16-18

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Exodus 21-23
• Acts 2
• Hosea 5; 6
• Revelation 2; 3
• Zechariah 12
• 1 Corinthians 15
• Matthew 20
• Revelation 8-10; 4-5
• Genesis 1
• Zechariah 14
• Psalm 149
• Revelation 17
• Ezekiel 38-39

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 6/23/19

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