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Revelation Series #19
Fred R. Coulter—June 11, 2000
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Let's understand something very important and very profound of the 144,000 (Rev. 7), that cannot be anyone who is in the Church today. That's why the Jehovah Witnesses are completely wrong on their interpretation and understanding of the 144,000. Why is it that I say that the 144,000 of Rev. 7 cannot be any of us? Let's answer the question by Scripture.
Let's see that we are now sealed with the Holy Spirit of God. Whenever you receive the Holy Spirit you have been sealed! Let's see that and let's understand that the 144,000 were not sealed with the Holy Spirit until this particular time down into the Tribulation. We'll see that very clearly.
2-Corinthians 1:20: "For whateverpromises of God there are, in Him is the yes, and in Him the Amen, with glory to God by us." That's one thing we can do, brethren, we can claim the promises of God! Not because we're anything. Not because we're something that we have done of ourselves and we now deserve it. No! We claim the promises of God:
- for the sake of Christ
- for the sake of His Word
- for the sake of His Truth
- for His righteousness
It's always yes, because He won't deny the promise; He will fulfill it!
Verse 21: "But He Who establishes us with you in Christ, and Who has anointed us… [with His Holy Spirit] …is God, Who has also sealed us and has given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (vs 21-22). The earnest of the Spirit is the down payment; we are just like the unleavened bread now. When we are leavened in our spiritual form then we will have the fullness of the Spirit, and that's why leaven is pictured in good cause at that particular time. We only have the earnest of it now.
Let's see how he explained, to those at Ephesus, concerning the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:12: "That we might be… [those who are in the first resurrection] …to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in the Christ; in Whom you also trusted after hearing the Word of the Truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in Whom also, after believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory" (vs 12-14). If you have the Holy Spirit of God now, you have been sealed! So, you cannot be any of the 144,000 of Rev. 7.
Let's see who the 144,000 are, and this will show how true God's Word is, Revelation 7:3: "Saying, 'Do not damage the earth, or the sea, or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.'" We've already been sealed so these are those who are now called and converted by God's supernatural act.
Let's review the things in Rev. 6; how that all of those things that the prophet Joel said concerning the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earthquake, and the pouring out of the Spirit of God; how even Peter prophesied that that would be before the great and notable Day of the Lord. This is showing it right here. That's what happened. Here is the fulfillment of the Pentecost harvest or the 50th-day harvest by God. This is a separate harvest; separate from the Church. This is God's Divine intervention to fulfill and complete His Word and call those especially whom He is determined to call.
Now let's see who the 144,000 are, Revelation 7:4: "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. From the tribe of Judah…" (vs 4-5). Isn't it interesting that in the book of Zechariah, God says that 'the tents of Judah will be saved first'? So, here is Judah first.
"…twelve thousand were sealed; from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand were sealed…" (v 5)—Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph and Benjamin.
Dan is left out; the reason Dan is left out is because the book of Genesis says of the prophecy of Dan that he 'would wait for his salvation.' Of course, Dan is the tribe of Israel that is so involved in idol worship and Catholicism. So, God is going to save them later; they're not included in this 144,000. This is a special category that God has saved for Himself!
Now let's understand when in the timeframe does this take place in the Tribulation. We know that the overall Tribulation is 3-1/2 years. So, this is an event which takes place before the 3-1/2 years has expired. Let's see that this gives us a prophetic timeframe as to when this took place. God says concerning Israel:
Hosea 5:15: "I will go; I will return to My place until they confess their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will seek Me earnestly."
The prophecies are true; Israel is going into captivity. There are some people out there who say that 'Israel is not going into captivity today.' That is a lie and that is a false prophet. He is teaching things that are not according to the Scriptures. Oh, that it would be that Israel could be in such a condition before God that they wouldn't have to go into tribulation. But you read all of the prophecies concerning where Israel is when Christ returns and all of them show that they are in captivity. Here are the children of Israel in captivity and—out of those who are in captivity—144,000 are brought to repentance and are sealed. When during the tribulation[transcriber's correction] does this take place?
Here it is speaking of Israel during this time of repentance, Hosea 6:1: "Come and let us return to the LORD, for He has torn, and He will heal us; He has smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; in the third day He will raise us up…" (vs 1-2). In prophecy, how long is a day? In prophecy a day is a year! So, this is after two full years. That's when the sign of the Son of man is going to appear in heaven and God will then begin to raise them up.
"…He will raise us up…" (v 2)—beginning in the third year of the Tribulation, which means there's a whole year—the third year—left, and there is another six months making a total of a year and a half. The whole Tribulation is 3-1/2 years altogether, broken down into the first two years, coming down through the opening of the seals until the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven. Then we come down to the time now of Rev. 7 where we have the 144,000 of Israel sealed just like it says right here in Hos. 6.
"…in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight…. [notice the prophecy]: …Then we shall understand, if we follow on to know the LORD. His going out is prepared as the morning; and He shall come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain to the earth" (vs 2-3). This is what we have in Rev. 7—God intervening to save them.
Now then, what does it say concerning the preaching of the Gospel? 'To the Jews first,' which includes all Israel. Then whom does it go to after that? To the Greek or the Gentile! God is going to reach down and supernaturally seal, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, through this angel who is commissioned to do so.
Let's understand something: All of these will receive the Holy Spirit first, then they will be baptized just like it was with Cornelius' household; they received the Holy Spirit first, then they were baptized. Can God do that? Yes, He can! God chooses to do that whenever it is His choice to do, like He did with Cornelius. But do they still have to be baptized? Yes, they do! What will happen then? There will be great baptismal ceremonies taking place with the 144,000. Now then, since it goes to the Gentile also, the same thing is going to occur.
Revelation 7:9: "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one was able to number…" This shows, contrary to the preaching of some, that God is not just restricting those that He is calling from the time of Christ until His return to 144,000. Such a thing could never be, because if even on the very first day, as we saw with Pentecost, 3,000 were converted and thousands were added. Another place it says 5,000 souls were added. Great multitudes in Jerusalem believed. We saw where James told Paul, when Paul came up to visit James (Acts 22), 'behold the thousands that believe in Christ and are zealous for the law!' So. anybody who says that God is only calling 144,000 in this age just doesn't know what he's talking about and he's twisting and turning the Scriptures to his own destruction.
"…a great multitude, which no one was able to number… [Where did they come from?] …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" (v 9).
Just like we saw 'white robes'; they're called to the wedding. These are some of the guests who are called at the very last minute out of the highways and out of the byways, and out of the places that God is doing it at the last minute. Since this is prophesied in Acts 2 to happen with all the signs preceding it, and it happened on the Day of Pentecost there, this has to happen on the next to the last Pentecost before Christ puts His feet on the earth, or the Pentecost before the resurrection.
So, we have these people who, in these circumstances, will be converted for one year. These people—the 144,000 and the great innumerable multitude—then are reckoned as the laborers who are put into work and hire at the eleventh hour. There's only one hour left, and in this case that pictures one year left. Is God able to do that? Yes, He is, no doubt about it! So, they're going to receive salvation.
Verse 10: "And they were calling out with a loud voice to Him Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, saying, 'The salvation of our God has come.'…. [because that's what they're going to receive] …Then all the angels stood around the throne, and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, 'Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power and strength be to our God into the ages of eternity. Amen.' 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. 10-17).
This projects forward to the time that we know in Rev. 21 shows the finality of God's plan. What this is doing is showing what God is going to do with the 144,000 and great innumerable multitude? First of all, He's showing that they're going to be resurrected. Of course, they're not going to be resurrected until the first resurrection takes place, but it also shows that they are not going to enter into the Millennium as physical human beings. They're going to be spirit beings. Now we have a good setting to go on and understand what we're talking about with some of the other Scriptures concerning the Day of Pentecost and the resurrection.
I'm just going to summarize Rev. 8 & 9, but each of them are the seven trumpet plagues. The seventh seal is opened and then the first angel goes out. Isn't it interesting that it talks about the first angel going out and blows his trumpet. Then the second angel, third angel, fourth angel, fifth angel and the sixth angel.
Now let's see when the seventh angel sounds, and the seventh angel is the last trump; that's what we need to understand. The saints are resurrected at the last trump, not trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets is a day of war, a memorial of blowing of trumpets; so, here we have a sequence of seven trumpets. {see Outline of Revelation I & II, and the chart that goes with it} It shows that the first trumpet is blown shortly after the Pentecost where the 144,000 are sealed and the great innumerable multitude. That comes down through the time sequence to when we come to the seventh trump, which then has to be on the Day of Pentecost, or about right there.
Concerning the two witnesses, because this leads up until the resurrection. God allowed the two witnesses to be killed, Revelation 11:8: "And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified."
- Sodom tells us the morals of the peoples
- Egypt tells us the religion of the people
The coming one world religion is going back to the whole thing of Egyptian religious worship. That's why it's defined here. "…where also our Lord was crucified." That is typified by Jerusalem because Jerusalem—even though it was city that God chose to place His name there when the temple was built—it has never been faithful, with the exception of a few of the kings, as we find recorded in a history recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles.
When the two witnesses die, v 9: "Then those of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations shall see their bodies three and a half days, for they will not allow their bodies to be put into tombs. 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" (vs 9-10). The last two enemies now to be killed, so the world thinks.
Verse 11: "Then after the three and a half days, the spirit of life from God entered into them and they stood on their feet… [Can you imagine how everyone is going to view that and take that?] …and great fear fell upon those who were watching them."
Then here is an example, a perfect example in the Scripture concerning 'the first shall be last and the last shall be first.' The two witnesses were the very last two who were martyred for Christ's sake. They are the very first two who are resurrected.
After they stood on their feet, v 12: "And they heard a great voice from heaven, say, 'Come up here!' And they ascended into heaven in a cloud; and their enemies saw them rise. 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…." (vs 12-14). The second woe was introduced with the sixth trumpet.
"…Behold, the third woe is coming immediately. 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. 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 small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth'" (vs 15-18). That is the resurrection—is it not? The resurrection occurs at the seventh trump, the last trump, just as Paul said.
Let's see where, as we saw in Matt. 24, the angels will pick us up as we are resurrected and will bring us up to the Sea of Glass, because there is going to be the meeting with the saints. And then we will see what has to happen here.
1-Thessalonians 4:14: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in exactly the same way also, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede those who have fallen asleep, because the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive…" (vs 14-17). Who are those who are alive?
- those who are of the Church in the place of safety
- the 144,000 and the great innumerable multitude (Rev. 7)
After all the dead in Christ have been raised, v 17: "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds for the meeting with the Lord in the air; and so shall we always be with the Lord."
Let's see when that will take place. I want you to understand that there are a lot of things that have to take place after the resurrection before we come back to the earth. It is true that the Feast of Trumpets pictures the day when Christ and the saints put their feet on the earth on the Mount of Olives. But the coming of Christ began with the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and He kept coming closer and closer to the earth. Let's see the harvest of the firstfruits. Then we'll go back and we'll examine the 144,000 again of Rev. 7 and the 144,000 of Rev. 14. But first let's get us all resurrected first; let's have that all taken care of.
Revelation 14:12: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." That means having Jesus' very own faith.
Verse 13: "And I heard a voice from heaven say to me, 'Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from this time forward. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors; and their works follow them.' 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" (vs 13-14). What do you cut grain with? A sickle!
Verse 15: "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.'" Jesus said the harvest is the end of the age. The age ended with the seventh trump. This then is the resurrection of the seventh trump. So, as the age is ending the sickle is put to the grain and all are resurrected.
Verse 16: "And He Who was sitting on the cloud thrust forth His sickle upon the earth, and the earth was reaped." There is the first resurrection; that occurs on Pentecost. Then it jumps forward to another harvest. And this is the harvest of the destruction of the wicked through the seven last plagues.
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'" (vs 17-18). These are the true grapes of wrath.
Now notice, the One Who did the first harvesting was like unto the Son of man, that's Christ. Now we have an angel with a sickle.
Verse 19: "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 19-20). This is the judgment in the Valley of Judgment.
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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. And I saw a sea of glass mingled with fire" (vs 1-2).
Remember how we saw that the Sea of Glass was there when Christ came down on the mountain. He had Moses and the 70 elders and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu came up. They all saw Him because it was pavement under His feet. If we're going to meet Christ in the air, what are we going to do? How are we going to be suspended? Well, there is a sea of glass, which we can walk on; that's where the angels take us.
"…A sea of glass mingled with fire… [because of its brilliance] …and those who had gotten the victory over the beast…" (v 2). When did the beast first appear? In the person of Satan the devil in the Garden of Eden! Have all of those who enter into the first resurrection, have they had to get victory over the beast? Yes!
"…and over his image…" (v 2). Has there not been a female goddess-worship in the image to the beast going clear back when? Yes! At least we know that it came after the Flood. We know that they just reconstructed what they had after the Flood from what they did before the Flood. There's the image of the beast.
"…and over his mark…" (v 2). At the end-time we're going to have the mark of the beast. It's called the Digital Angel, which is inserted in the forehand or in the forehead either one.
"…and over the number of his name, standing on the Sea of Glass, having the lyres of God" (v 2)
Notice that this includes the Old Testament, those who have been resurrected and qualified from the time of Abel on down to the time of Christ.
Notice what they do, v 3: "And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God…" These are those of the Old Testament, the loaf of the Old Testament.
"…and the song of the Lamb… [New Testament] …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). There's a prophecy of what's going to happen on down into the Millennium.
144,000 of Revelation 7
Verse 4: "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." These are from the children of Israel only, 12,000 from each tribe. Why are they sealed at this particular time? They are in captivity because they were unfaithful to God even in the letter of the law! We'll see that's very important.
We also find the great innumerable multitude. There are no other distinguishing characteristics of these other than the fact that they are sealed at the beginning of the third year during the Tribulation of 3-1/2 years. They then qualify for the first resurrection. These are the laborers of the 11th hour (Luke 11).
144,000 of Revelation 14
We are going to see that these 144,000 are a different group—the distinguishing and qualifying things
Verse 1: "And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb standing on Mount Sion…" We have come unto Mt. Sion, the Church of the Firstborn (Heb. 12)
"…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).
This is a separate song from the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb. This is a third song that only this 144,000 could sing. No one else could sing it. All the rest were able to sing, the one concerning Moses for the Old Covenant, the one concerning the Lamb for the New Covenant, and now we have a third category here of the 144,000 with their song.
Verse 4: "These are the ones who were not defiled with women…" (v 4). What does it mean to be defiled with women? You go right back to Rev. 17, that we have 'Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth,' and she is called the 'great whore.'
This means that once they were converted they did not defile themselves with any of the 'religions' or the religious practices' of this world. We're going to see that's very important when we go back and look at the seven churches (Rev. 2 & 3).
"…for they are virgins… [Christ would only marry a virgin] …they are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb" (v 4). We have Christ Who was the First of the firstfruits, and then we have these who are apparently the first group of the firstfruits. All the rest being the firstfruits in general.
Verse 5: "And no guile wasfound in their mouths; for they are blameless before the throne of God."
Analysis of Rev. 14 and what separates these even further from the 144,000 in Rev. 7:
- They have the name of the Father written in their foreheads
It doesn't say that about the 144,000 in Rev. 7. All of these are distinguished from the 144,000 in Rev. 7. The first thing that we need to understand is, as we go along here, because it says that they were not of the children of Israel, but they were redeemed from the earth.
- No one was able to learn the song except the 144,000
- They were redeemed from the earth
Showing that these 144,000 were redeemed from the earth probably over a period of time.
- These are they who are not defiled with women
They remained virgins; they remained totally faithful to God in everything that they did in their conversion and were never defiled by women.
- They are virgins
Remember the warning that the Apostle Paul gave to the Corinthians in 2-Corinthians 11:2: "For I am jealous over you with the jealousy of God because I have espoused you to one husband, so that I may present youas a chaste virgin to Christ."
But they became non-virgins because they committed spiritual fornication. Maybe they were able to repent of it, just like any woman who loses her virginity through sin, she can repent of it but she's no longer a virgin. So likewise, if it is those who have received the Holy Spirit, if they give up their virginity by being enticed by Satan the devil and getting involved in other religious practices, or other religious doctrines within the Church then they lose their virginity.
- These follow the Lamb wherever He goes
Meaning that they're always following Him regardless of where their spiritual life takes them.
- These were redeemed from among men
Redeemed from the earth, redeemed from among men.
- Firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb
- In their mouth was no guile
- For they are without fault before the throne of God
Review of the Seven Churches of Revelation 2 & 3:
We will see that out of the seven churches only two of the seven remained virgins:
Ephesus:
They lost their first love and Christ told them, 'Except you repent, I'm going to remove your candlestick.' Loosing your first love, that is loosing your virginity.
Pergamos:
They ate things sacrificed to idols, committed fornication, had the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing God says He hates. He would fight against them with the sword of His mouth. Those at Pergamos, even though they repented because they were told to repent, they lost their virginity! They can be put back in right standing with God, but once you lose your virginity you have lost it! That doesn't mean you can't recoup. You can to be in the first resurrection.
But the question is: Will you still be part of the bride of Christ? When describing the 144,000 in Rev. 14 they are the ones who are the bride of Christ because they remain virgins!
Thyatira
- they had the woman Jezebel
- they committed fornication
- they ate things sacrificed to idols
- they also had those who knew the deep things of Satan
In other words those who infiltrated into that church were bringing in the doctrines of Satan-worship under the guise that you're worshiping Christ. Obviously, they lost their virginity.
Sardis
Sardis was dead! They had a name that they lived but they are dead. With having dead practices they surely were not virgins before God. Because they somehow defiled themselves, and remember what Christ said to them. 'Repent!'
Laodicea
The Laodiceans became lukewarm, had need of nothing, and God was spewing them out of His mouth. God told them to repent. So we have Ephesus, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea. Five of the seven churches were commanded to repent of their sins. So, they lost their virginity!
Now the two churches left were:
Smyrna
No command to repent. The Smyrnites were the ones who were martyred, and they were faithful unto death. They held their virginity unto death!
Philadelphia
Philadelphians resisted everything concerning the synagogue of Satan, and they patiently kept the Word of God. They were the ones who were faithful, the most faithful of all. There is no call to repentance, and to the Church at Philadelphia Christ said, 'To him that overcomes will I write upon him the name of My Father, and the name of the city, New Jerusalem, and I will write upon him My new name.'
To the Philadelphians:
- if you have the name of the Father
- if you have the name of Jerusalem
- if you have the name of Christ upon you
you belong to part of the bride of Christ!
Not all of those in the first resurrection are going to be part of the bride of Christ. Does this tell us here in Rev. 14—because of all of these conditions—that this 144,000 represents those who have been called down through time—
- who have been faithful unto God
- who were virgins
- never deviated from it
—once they were baptized and received the Holy Spirit they never got involved in any of the religions of this world, or any of the doctrines of this world. I hope you understand why it is so important that we remain faithful.
Now those who have not remained faithful, we pray that they will repent and not lose their reward. This is really important for us to understand. Let's see that they can repent, but they have been building wooden shacks and straw huts and their works are burned up because they were not virgins. The only ones who are virgins in this case are those who build on the virginity, keep it, and build the gold, silver, precious stone, and not the wood, hay, and stubble.
1-Corinthians 3:11: "For no one is able to lay any other foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble, the work of each one shall be manifested; for the day of trial will declare it…" (vs 11-13). The day of the resurrection is going to be the final day of declaration.
"…because it shall be revealed by fire… [these are the fiery trials that we go through in our life of overcoming] …and the fire shall prove what kind of work each one's is. If the work that anyone has built endures, he shall receive a reward. If the work of anyone is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet, as through fire" (vs 13-15).
Is this describing the difference between the 144,000 of Rev. 14 who become part of the bride of Christ, because they remain faithful, as differentiated from those who started out but ended up sinning, ended up repenting and coming back much like the prodigal son, and they lost their virginity? They lost some of the inheritance that they would have had otherwise. So, this is really a tremendous thing for us to understand.
I don't have time to go through the seven last plagues except that the seven last plagues represent the harvest of the wicked, as depicted in the last part of Rev. 14. All of these plagues will be poured out in the presence of the saints. These are righteous judgments, and these are true judgments. For any who say that the God of the Old Testament was an angry and a harsh God, but the one of the New Testament is loving and kind and sweet, please understand that this is the wrath of the Lamb that is being poured out on all those sinners.
Let's also understand this, too: God knows, for the resurrection—based upon the works and the faithfulness of the individuals—that He is going to select those who will be in the 144,000 of Rev. 14. And if those are the ones who consist of the bride of Christ, God the Father is the One Who chooses them! We don't have to worry about it. We don't have to look around and accuse people, or suspect them, because it says, 'Blessed are those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb.' Those who are called to the supper will participate in the first resurrection in power, and in glory just like the rest. But only the bride of Christ will be with Christ wherever He is.
Revelation 19:1: "And after these things I heard the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying…"—because that's all of those who were resurrected standing on the Sea of Glass. And it's in the first heaven where the clouds are.
"…'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, 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 1-3).
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.' And I heard a voice like that of a great multitude, and like the sound of many waters, and the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord God Almighty has reigned. Let us be glad and shout with joy; and let us give glory to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.'
8: And it was granted to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, pure and bright; for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he said to me, 'Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are the true words of God'" (vs 4-9).
So we have a tremendous blessing, brethren, if we have been called to be part of the bride of Christ, which I hope whoever you are that that is true. We can't judge for ourselves how it's going to be. God is going to make that judgment. But also realize this: There is a great and a fantastic and eternal blessing to be called to the first resurrection and to be one of the guests at the wedding of the Lamb and His bride.
All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter
Scriptural References:
- 2 Corinthians 1:20-22
- Ephesians 1:12-14
- Revelation 7:3-5
- Hosea 5:15
- Hosea 6:1-3
- Revelation 7:9-17
- Revelation 11:8-18
- 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17
- Revelation 14:12-20
- Revelation 15:1-4
- Revelation 7:4
- Revelation 14:1-5
- 2 Corinthians 11:2
- 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
- Revelation 19:1-9
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Revelation 6
- Acts 22; 2
- Revelation 21, 8, 9
- Matthew 24
- Luke 11
- Hebrews 12
- Revelation 17; 2; 3
Also referenced: Sermons:
Outline of Revelation I & II (#s 5 & 6 this series)
FRC:cis
Transcribed: 07/06/2000
Reformatted: bo—3/2014
