Bible Study - July 29, 2020

Well, let me, um, you know, I guess, I guess we will talk. I, you know, I should have said also, if anyone has any questions about, you know, we talked with Sabbath last week about the deeds of the Nicolaitans and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, and I don't want us to lose sight of that, and I don't want to, you know, spend time, but I do want to encourage everyone to, you know, be thinking about what we talked about, and to be, you know, running those things through your mind and asking God, you know, could I be doing any of these things?

Is this, could I be doing this, could I be guilty of the things that you hate? Because it is important for us to be seeking God's will and sacrificing our own will and allowing God to work with us in these ways, and as we go through these things, not to forget them, not to talk about them one week and then put them on the back burner and forget about them, but to keep them in the forefront of our minds as we work toward the end of this age.

However long that may be before God descends to send Jesus Christ back to earth. So, anyway, I'll leave that at that, but if anyone has any questions, I hope you'll be more, you know, feel free to call anytime, share any thoughts that you have, and, and, you know, these are good things to discuss as we learn and as we grow.

Last week, last week we talked about the Church of Thyatira, and we ended up spending the entire Bible study on the Church of Thyatira. I didn't intend to spend the entire Bible study on that, but there was enough in that the message of that Church to pertain to all of us. I thought it was important that we take that time and, and look at that so we have the opportunity to kind of review ourselves and see where we are, and we were going to look at one Church every week, but after we spent the entire time last week on Thyatira, I thought we might wait until next week to look at the Church at Sardis.

You know, Sardis is an interesting Church, a message to the Church, and they kind of go hand in hand with Philadelphia when you look at Sardis, and I want to just kind of put one thing in your mind about Sardis, and then next, next Wednesday we'll talk about Sardis in Philadelphia together, I think, because in one message, you know, God tells the Sardis, the people with the Sardis attitude, or the, you know, that era of the Church, if you will, you have a name that you're alive, but you are dead, and He's, He doesn't have much good to say about that Sardis, but you know, there are, there are those who have, you know, the name, but are dead, and we, you know, we pray for those people, and God wants them to repent.

God wants them to come. He wants everyone to have life, but you come out of a dead era, if you will, and we'll learn some of the things, you know, in history that kind of showed exactly how that happened. That churches of God had a name, but then they abandoned God, and they went off in some other direction and lost that name. We don't want that to be any of us, but right on the heels of the Sardis era, you have this very dynamic and zealous Philadelphian era. It's almost like we're in one, you know, or the pendulum is on one side, and then swings to the other, and then it swings to the Lydia to see an era.

So next week we'll talk about Sardis in Philadelphia. You may read ahead on those eras as we look forward to talking about those, but tonight I thought we would go back to Revelation 6 and the opening of the seals. A couple weeks ago, you know, we began Revelation 6, got through the first four seals talking about them, and then we never got to it last week. But tonight I'd like us to, you know, switch back over into that. We'll get through chapter 6, certainly, and well into chapter 7, and I think you'll find a lot of things in these chapters that are really invigorating, invigorating and exciting as we look at them, because God gives us a picture, a pretty good picture, of how events are going to transpire between now and the return of Jesus Christ.

I mean, you know, in chapter 6 and, you know, the first four seals we talked about, we have, you know, the white horse that came down, and of course, I guess they should even kind of remind you of the dramatic scene in the Bible that was painted for us as the seals are opened one by one.

As the Apostle John is in God's throne, he's looking at God's throne, and he sees all these angelic beings, he sees the 24 elders and the four living creatures, and he sees this scroll, and he weeps because there's no one, no one that is qualified, no one worthy to open that scroll except Jesus Christ.

All the elders and the living creatures and the angels that are up there, only Jesus Christ is worthy to open that seal. And then in dramatic fashion, one by one, those seals are taken off as we go through the seven seals, and last time we got through the first four. The first seal comes off, and we have the white horse that we talked about it.

The one riding it was out there to conquer, and this white horse happens to be false religion that has been there, you know, extant from the time that Jesus Christ started his church. There has been false religion pop up. People even claiming to know Jesus Christ, but not doing any of the things that he says to do.

So we have that that's been riding across the course of history, and of course it'll be more pronounced as the time goes on before the return of Jesus Christ, that Christ says that even what'll be happening with the false prophets will be so dramatic that even the elect, if they're not adequately prepared and not close to God, would be deceived by them, by this false prophet.

We have the red horse of war. We know there's been a war that's marked mankind. As time draws near, those wars will intensify. There will be wars and rumors of wars between nations and tribes, and and you know as we look at the country around us, even within nations, you know, among people, as we see the as we see the factions and the divisions just continue to increase in the animosity between, you know, different factions even within our nation. You know, we had the black horse of famine and talked about in the verses there on how money is not going to really mean anything to anyone once. If you can't find anything to eat, you're willing to give up whatever amount of money just to have something to eat and food will be so scarce at that time that people will be willing to do that. And then we talked about the fourth seal, that sickly horse, that pale green horse, that death rides on him. And you know, we've talked about the beasts of the earth and they don't have to be these great gigantic lions and all these other huge animals. The beasts there in Revelation 6a is any dangerous animal. We know from recent history that something as small as a bat and even smaller than that can wreak a lot of havoc on the world, as we've seen around us in these days. So, you know, we got through those first four seals and dramatically at the end of the fourth seal, you know, it says, and versus his power was given over to them, the pale horse, the black horse, and the red horse, over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, hunger, and death, and by the beasts of the earth. And so we left it there and we were going to pick up on the fifth seal. But before we go into that, are there any questions, comments, anything that anyone would like to talk about before we move into the fifth seal here?

Okay, then let's pick it up here in Revelation 6 and verse 9. You know, John, of course, is doing this as he sees the vision. He's recording what he sees. It says, when he, Christ, opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who have been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. So in his vision, however, God depicted this for John. What he sees is all these people who have died for the word of God over the course of human history.

You know, that could be several, well, obviously several thousand. If you look at the 144,000, you look at the people in Hebrews 11 that are written there, the ladies, the men. We know, as we've gone through some of the church history saying, where the true church of God was martyred in so many cases as during, you know, through the Middle Ages, as God, as Satan would hold back and quell the word of God and the Catholic Church and, you know, we named it, would just, would just wreak havoc on the people of God. And that's what Satan does. He has always been an adversary of God, always been an adversary of God's people, and will be until the very end, until Christ returns and binds him in the bottomless pit as we read in Revelation 20.

But John's, but yeah, John sees all these things, and, you know, he says that they've been, they've lost their lives. They've been slain for the word of God because they believed God, because they upheld His word, you know, and God's word is not popular. We know that, and in today's world, while we have been relatively unscathed, you know, and preaching what we preach, certainly as time goes on, it's going to become, we're going to become more and more of a lightning rod with the things that we say, because it is totally going to be totally in contrast to what the world wants to believe, what they'll be promoting. And we'll see that increasing through the time. But in time's past, people face that, and they gave up their word. And it says here that, you know, they, for their testimony, for what they witnessed, for the way they lived their lives, they kept the word of God, and for the way they lived their lives, their testimony, what they were witnessing on earth, they, you know, they lost their lives. You know, we see this word testimony show up throughout Revelation. Let's just kind of look at it a few times, because it is a mark of God's people. You know, we look over Revelation 12. We talked about this, you know, last week.

Revelation 12, it talks about the woman, you know, the Old Testament, playing into the wilderness, and we talked about 1260 years in the first eight verses there. And then in the last eight verses, or nine verses there, we have the New Testament woman, the New Testament church. And God says He's going to take her to a place and nourish her for a time, times, and a half a time from the presence of the serpent. But if we go down to verse 17, not everyone who's a member of the church at the end time is going to be in that group that is nourished for a time, times, and a half a time. There will be some who for one reason or another, by choices they've made and the lack of attention they may pay to God, will find themselves not in that place, whatever that place may be, however God defines that place, but they're going to find themselves in the world and facing a very dramatic and a very angry Satan in verse 17 says, the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They are people who have the 10 commandments. They are people who have the testimony of Jesus Christ. For some reason, they didn't do it before and they will then be giving their testimony during a time that Satan is loose and going to make war with the remnant of the seed who doesn't go to wherever it is that God protects his people for that time, and half the time. It's a dramatic verse, but the people of God keep the commandments of God and they have the testimony of Christ. And when we have the testimony of Christ, it's not just a matter of saying we believe in Jesus Christ, we believe his Savior. There's millions, if not billions of people who believe Jesus Christ is the Savior who will tell you he's the Messiah.

You know, people who will tell you he died for my sins and I accept his sacrifice. But you have the testimony of Jesus Christ when you live his life, when you live what he says, and when you do the things he says. The words alone mean nothing. You know, Jesus Christ himself said, don't call, you know, you call I do call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things I say. The testimony of Jesus is you believe what he said, you do the things he said, you follow his example, and you keep the commandments of God as well. So the testimony shows up there, it shows up also back here in Revelation 11, one chapter back, you know, in talking about the two witnesses. And you know, certainly at the end time, the world is going to understand or they're going to hear the word of God. They're going to, there's going to be a loud testimony going out to the whole world as these two witnesses thunder out the message that God gives them to you. And in verse 7, you know, there in chapter 11, it says, when they, these two witnesses, when they finish their testimony, when they finish their witness, when they finish what they're talking about, and they will be living and people will be watching these men. And you, you know, we'll get to Revelation 11 here in a couple weeks when we go through it, and we'll talk about the two witnesses, but the testimony, the entire way they conduct themselves, how they live and the way that they stand tall against the beast power of the world. And God's there with them because it isn't until God determines that they'll die that they die, and then, and then they are resurrected and descend into heaven. You know, in Revelation 19, you know, at the time that the marriage supper of the Lamb, you know, is in Revelation 19, 7 to 9.

And there we say, you know, after that in verse 10, it says, John writes, he says, I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, see that you don't do that. I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. He teaches us how to live. He brings light into our lives. He teaches us truth, and he teaches us prophecy. And as we go through the book of Revelation, you know, we learn to look at the words. God, through his Holy Spirit, opens our minds to understand what he wants us to understand now. Jesus Christ encompasses it all. And when we have the testimony of Jesus Christ, we follow him implicitly. We don't add to, we don't take away the law, the commandments, his example, or even the prophecy, you know, as we are going through this book of Revelation and the other prophecies that we look at in conjunction with it. So I'll pause there. I'll pause there for a second if anyone, you know, has an observation or question. For Shami. Yes. Those saints who were persecuted were not brought to her place of safety. Could they not be also a mix of people who are also spiritually strong, as well as people who may have been slacking off?

We know another prophecy in Daniel says some will be refined, so that's a necessity. But also, Christ says in Luke 21 verse 12 that some of you will be presented before judges and governors and some of you may be treated by your own family members. I know that goes through a time, but at the end, you know, it will also happen. It could, you know, it could be. We don't know exactly what God has in mind. It may well be that some get left behind as a witness, as an example, to the people who are left behind to help encourage them. What God has in mind, you know, we're just going to have to wait and see. But yeah, it could be not just those who didn't do what they should have done during the time they have now, but it could be others as well. Yes. Only God knows that answer.

Yes.

This is James.

Yeah, James.

Yeah, could you clarify verse 12 of Revelation 11?

Is that saying they're in the heaven in the clouds, or are they actually going to God's throne? I don't quite understand that verse.

Yeah, okay. Now, good question, you know, we're just going to take it exactly the way the Bible says it here. As you read through, again, you know, you see the witnesses, they do what they're supposed to do. They're killed. It says that their body lays in the in the streets there, and the world is celebrating their death. They conquered, you know, and Satan would be very happy that these men are dead. And verse 11, it says, after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

Now, you can imagine, right, they're very happy that these men have been killed, and then all of a sudden they're resurrected. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, come up here, and they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.

Right. I, you know, I think we take the Bible literally. I think God is saying exactly what's going to happen. When they're resurrected, there will be the voice, and they will be resurrected, and they will be taken up to heaven in a cloud, much just the same vision that we have of Jesus Christ when he ascended to heaven. Yes, yes, okay. Thank you. And then, by the way, doesn't it also jumps right to verse 15? Because, you know, they're resurrected, but it doesn't say that they're changed. They may have been changed, but then the seventh trumpet is blown in verse 15, that shows that the first resurrection is going to take place at that specific time. Yep. You know, we talked about that, yeah, and if you look at verse 14, you know, remember the three woes that the angels speak of, that is the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets, right? So the fifth trumpet is the first row, the sixth trumpet is the second low, and see in verse 14, this happens as the second low is passed. So the seventh trumpet has yet to sound when these two witnesses have completed their mission, right? So they've been a witness of God for, you know, three and a half years, and yet the seventh angel isn't going to sound until after they're resurrected. So right at the beginning of the, right at the beginning of the end of the sixth angels, the sixth trumpet, you know, these men are resurrected. You know, we, and this would be speculation. Afternoon, we talked a little bit about, you know, could that be the same time as it is at the same time that the rest of the saints are resurrected at the beginning of the seventh trump? Could be, could be. Is God going to call just those two men up there, or will that be the resurrection and they're part of that resurrection? The timing is all at that point. You know, we don't know. All we know is what it says there in verse 12. They are called up to heaven, and it wouldn't be, you know, it sure would appear that it's a resurrection to eternal life, you know, spirit-born resurrection, because God doesn't call, you know, a human physical man up to heaven. No man is ascended into heaven except Jesus Christ, and even then, once he was resurrected, and his spirit formed. So, we follow up with that.

Because the way I always look at that was in Revelation 11 verse 11, it says, the breath of life from God entered them. So, it's not that they were changed to spirit, and it says, great fear fell on those who saw them, because to me, it's like if they were changing the spirit, then their enemies wouldn't be able to see them. And I was thinking it was maybe similar to the way Elijah was taken up into the heavens, meaning maybe the first heaven. Okay. Could be, could be. I don't know. Yeah, we can look at that. We'll see when God does it. I don't know. So, it says they ascended to heaven in a cloud, so, and their enemies saw them. So, it could be. It could be like Elijah. I think we're just going to have to wait and see what God has in mind there, but it will be supernatural. They will be brought back to life, whether that's physical life or spirit life. You know, I, we'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Yes. Going back to regulations chapter 6, in verse 9, we're talking about the testimony that, you know, those that are swaying hell. I like, one of the things I like to do is find Bible definitions of words. In Exodus 31, yeah, and in verse 18, and he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communion with him on Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony.

The testimony of Jesus Christ looks like it could be the Ten Commandments. Yeah.

It also talks about that in Exodus 40 verse 20. Yeah. We talk about the testimony, and when you look at testimony, testimony is the testimony of eyewitnesses.

So we got two tables, two eyewitnesses about us, you know, the world not keeping the commandments.

So, somehow or another, I've kind of tangled those together.

Okay. No, that's very good. I was going to go back to Exodus and say, look, we've got even the testimony of the Old Testament. In fact, exactly that verse that you have there, and there's a few in Exodus 25 as well, where God, you can see the symmetry between the Old Testament and the New Testament. God had this plan in mind before the foundation of the earth, and he called that, you know, puts it in the ark, you know, this mercy seat that he has constructed there, that only the high priest could go into once a year, and the Ten Commandments are put there. And in that ark, other things are put there as well. Aaron's rod that butted, and man, I believe, was in there. And, you know, those are the things that witness of God, God's intervention in Israel's life, and Jesus Christ certainly an impact our life. Yes, very, very good. So that word testimony is key.

It is key in Revelation and key in, you know, key in the Bible. And, you know, we keep the commandments of God, and we have the testimony of Jesus. We have the Old Testament and the New Testament together, and Christ's example that leads us. So.

Okay, very good. Any other comments on that or questions?

This Sharon. Yes, Sharon. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you, yes.

Talking about eyewitnesses, because John says in Revelation 1.9, that's why he was sent to Patmos, the word of God, and the testimony, and he was an eyewitness. There you go. Revelation 1.9, there it is. I'm just looking at it. Yes, right there. He was an eyewitness. Exactly. Very good.

Yeah, you also want to run Isaiah chapter 8 verse 17, where God says...

16. 16, yeah.

16. Mine are the testaments.

16.

...and then there's another verse that says to the law of the testimony. If they don't speak according to that, then there's more light in them. So, you know...

Yep. Testimony, when we see that word, it ties a lot together, so...

Okay, well, let's go on then in as the fifth seal. The fifth seal, you know, we'll see...

it's the Great Tribulation. In Matthew 24, you remember Christ talked about war, false prophets. He talked about wars. He talked about families. He talked about pestilences. And then he talked about the Great Tribulation, a time that'll be unlike any other on earth and never will be like it again. And here we see, as John is seeing this vision we have in seeing these people who have been... who have lost their lives, who have given their lives for the Word of God. And in verse 11, it says... or verse 10, I'm sorry.

And they cry with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. You know, it's like... and so John sees this symbolically. It's like, okay, we've been... you know, we've given our lives to you. We've...

we've lost everything. And we trusted in you, and we wait for your return, but how much longer will it be? And you know, I... as I read that, it reminds me just a couple books back in 2 Peter 3 and verse 9.

Where, you know, it says the Lord isn't slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but He's long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You know, we know that, and as John sees this, and he hears the, you know, the symbolic voices of how much longer. You can hear God saying, but I'm patient. I want all mankind to repent. I want everyone to receive eternal life. I want all of them to come to the knowledge of that. And...

and God is very patient with mankind and loves mankind, and so it'll be yet a while longer. And as they ask, you know, that would be His response. Just wait. Just wait. It'll happen. I'm not willing that any should perish. And then it says in verse 11, a white robe was given to each of them. And so, you know, we see white robes throughout Revelation as well, symbolizing the righteousness of the saints and the people who overcome self and world and the lust of the flesh eyes and pride of life.

A white robe was given to each of them, and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. So what God is saying is here, you know, there are still more to be added to your number. There's still more people who will die. There's still more martyrs that are out there that will die, you know, that have the... keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They will die because of the word and their testimony. And the world and their governments and the people around them will put them to death because they believe what we believe.

So the number isn't completed yet, you know, and as you know, as we read through chapter 6, you know, we're building toward chapter 7, which we'll introduce the 7th. There's a little pause there in chapter 7 before we get into the 7 trumpets, and you can kind of see the crescendo building, you know, as God comes to a dramatic conclusion as the 7 trumpets at the time of His wrap on the earth comes about. And you see that as these people are crying how much longer, and God says there's still more. There's still more. And we have to remember that, you know, God knows exactly what He wants. He knows exactly what's going on in the world, and He knows exactly the numbers that He wants. You know, we were going to read in chapter 7 about 144,000. The number everyone knows that reads the Bible and understands the book of Revelation. And God knows that that number is going to complete. Be complete. He will have that 144,000 together. There's a parable I'm not going to go back to. You can look it up. I think it's in Matthew. I don't know exactly where it is. It's in Matthew I know about the wedding supper. And remember, God will, He sends people out to bring people to the wedding supper. And people will have excuses. You know, one says, I just got married.

I have to attend my wife. I don't have time for this wedding right now. Another one says, I just bought some land. I need to go out and look at the land. I need to take care of that concern. I don't have time for this wedding supper right now. One by one, people make excuses. And you remember what God says? He tells his servants, go out and just keep adding to it. We will fill up that wedding supper table. If people have excuses and if people don't want to do it, and they don't, people don't want to be there, I'm not going to make them be there. But I will have a complete set of people at my wedding supper. And so God, you know, He's going to do that. It will be filled up. If it's not us, He'll replace us, right? If we choose to have something else in the world that's more important to us and what God's will is and overcoming and becoming who He wants, you know what? He very much wants us to be here. But if we choose to leave, there will be an invitation to someone else. But God will complete it. And He says there, you know, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were, was completed. So God in verse 11 is telling them, you know, you've made it. You're there. You're going to be resurrected.

You're part of the saints. You're part of the first resurrection. But just wait. You know, just wait a while. Don't, you know, don't worry about it, he might say. Just wait. And we're told over and over in the Bible, you know, to wait for Him. Let's go back and look at a couple verses in the Old Testament because, again, this concept of waiting, you know, God waits for us. We know that.

We need to wait for God. And all too often, we're just too eager to have things done our way and our time. And, you know, we have to recognize it's God's plan. It's God's time. It's God's, you know, way of doing things. Even in healing, right? We all would like to ask God to heal us, be anointed, and immediately be healed of whatever problem that we have. But it doesn't work that way, you know? We, there's a process to healing. And we have to wait for God and be patient with Him. And as we wait for Him and never losing our faith, never running off and taking matters into our own hands, but continuing to look to Him, we learn. Wait for Him. He'll do it. Through that time, we build faith. We build trust. We build a reliance on Him that He wants us to have.

Back here in Isaiah 30, and let's look at first, let's begin in verse 15 in Isaiah 30.

You know, we're going to see tonight some things in Isaiah that mirror what we're going to be reading here in Revelation. Isaiah 30, 15, it says, For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.

In returning to Me and in rest, you know, you just rest, you just wait, you'll be saved.

In quietness and confidence, not panicking like the, you know, the Israelites at the Red Sea.

In quietness and confidence in God, quiet assurance in Him shall be your strength.

But He tells Israel, but you wouldn't. And you said, No, we'll flee on horses, therefore you shall flee.

And no, we'll ride on swift horses, therefore those who pursue you shall be swept. You're not going to wait for Me, go out and do your things. You know what? You're going to pay the price for not having waited and taking matters into your own hands. Verse 17, A thousand shall flee at the threat of one.

At the threat of five, you shall flee till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill. You're going to be cornered in. You will learn the lesson that I want you to learn.

You'll either listen to me as I say it or you'll have to learn it the hard way by experience.

In verse 18, it wraps it up. It says, therefore the Lord will wait that He may be gracious to you.

You know, you want to do all these things. You run on it, want to run off and do it your way. Fine.

I'll teach you that that way doesn't work. The only confidence and the only rest you're going to have is resting in me and developing confidence in me. And I'll wait for you. And He's gracious to us in the fact that He waits for us and just doesn't cut us off and say, forget them. You know, He's not impatient. Okay, I'll wait for Him. They'll learn the lesson because I want them to learn it and learn it for eternity that He may be gracious to you. And therefore He will be exalted that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

You know, just exactly what He told us in Revelation. Just rest and wait for Him. It will come in time. His will will be done. He hasn't forgotten. He hasn't isn't twiddling his thumbs up there and hasn't, you know, letting time slide by. There's a purpose to everything God does.

Just wait for Him. You know, over in Daniel, over in Daniel we see, there's so many chapters and verses we could talk about and waiting and we've read so many of them over the years in services, but over in Daniel 12 we see this word waiting again at the end time. In Daniel 12, you know, we've read from Daniel 12 here in the last week when we talk about, you know, the first resurrection of those who will be shining like the brightness of the permanent. And then, of course, Daniel in Daniel 12, or the angel in Daniel 12 says there's going to be a time of great tribulation that's going to last for three and a half years. And down in verse 8, you know, Daniel says, although I heard, I didn't understand that I said, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

How does it all end? And the angel replies to Him, go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. And Daniel had to be okay with that. You know what? It's not until the time of the end, you know, time that we live in now, God begins to unveil some of these prophecies to us and we begin to see how things will fit together. But we don't understand it all yet. But over the course of time, God will reveal to us, you know, what is what is going on, and we just take it and and the things we don't understand, like Daniel, it's okay. God's in control. He will let us know what we need to know as time goes on. In verse 10, then, He says, many will be purified, many will be made white and refined, but the wicked will do wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand, but the wise shall understand. They'll be close to God and they'll accept what God has. They'll wait for Him. They're not going to lose faith. They're not going to run up and run off and fill all the blanks in themselves and whatever. And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.

And that apparently is 1,290 days until the return of Jesus Christ. 30 days more than the 1,260 days that we talk about, often the three and a half years. And so, apparently, whatever this happens, 30 days before that 1,260 days. But in verse 12, He says this, blessed is He who waits and comes to the 1,335 days. We're not getting into speculation because we don't know what happens at the 1,335 days. I don't know that we'll know when the 1,335 days comes.

But what God is saying is, you know, be waiting. Have your confidence be built in Him. Have your faith in Him no matter how bad things look. Keep your faith in Him no matter how good things look.

Keep your eyes on God and understand Him and stay close to Him and wait for Him because something happens at 1,335 days that are for those who wait. And the inference might be that if those who haven't waited patiently the way God says to wait, there may be something that happens at that time that takes them into a different place in history than that they may want to be.

So I know we could spend the rest of the Bible study talking about that.

And it's very interesting to speculate on what that is. But, you know, God has things in mind, and there's things we don't know yet. But the consistent message is, stay close to Him, wait for Him, don't lose hope, don't look to the world, and be learning the things that God is teaching us. And that's what He says here in Revelation as this fifth seal, the great tribulation and people losing their lives, and the time of Jacob's trouble that we talked about, and the time that is talked about there in Daniel 12 of the great tribulation. As that is going on, patiently wait through that. Don't give up. Don't lose hope. Keep looking to God. Don't take matters into your own hands. People take matters into their own hands at that time. What do they do?

They'll cave to the beast power. They'll cave to the great tribulation of people that are persecuting them because that's been their history. They didn't learn to wait for God.

They just did things and took it into their own hands and did it themselves rather than waiting for God. It'll be those who learn how to wait for God that will be able to endure to the end as Christ says. So let me pause there and invite any comments or anything on that.

So, Mr. Shaby. Yes. I have a question on the duration of the great tribulation.

I've heard for a long time that it's three and a half years. But in Matthew 24, Christ talks about in 21, he talks about the great tribulation.

Except in 22, except those days be shortened, no flesh will be saved alive. So I've always looked at it that the sixth seal cut short the tribulation. So it's not three and a half years. Is that the way you look at it? The way I've heard it, the church explain it, and someone can correct me, is if we get down to verse 17 of Revelation 6, we see the great day of his wrath has come. That's the seventh trumpet, and that is a year. Day for a year principle.

So the great tribulation, I've heard it said, is two and a half years, and then that last year, the three and a half years before Christ returns, is that year. So I don't know. I don't know.

That's what I've heard, but the Bible doesn't say exactly. It does say that the Beast Power is going to be dominant on earth for three and a half years. That could be the time of the great tribulation, plus the time of the seven trumpets, because the Beast Power is still during that time. I don't know if anyone's heard anything else, but I haven't seen anything different in our literature.

The Greek helps us, Brother Shady and Brother Hughes. The word is not shortened, unless that time had been limited. So God has set a limit on the time way back whenever Him and Christ planned everything. Just like there was an appointed time where God said Christ would come in the flesh. At the appointed time, the Son of God came, did this and that. But any time has been limited to a specific amount of time. That's what the Greek means, limited, not shortened.

Not shortened. Okay. Good point. Now we learn a lot, but we don't learn a lot by looking at those Greek words and seeing what they mean, and it kind of gives us an initial understanding. Very good.

So I don't know, Frank. I think we're just going to have to kind of wait and see what God has in mind on that. It's sure, you know, the 1,290 days and the 1,260 days, you know, and Daniel indicate the time until Christ returns. We know that the Day of the Lord is part of that time. So, yes.

And of course, the sixth seal is part of that time, too. So.

Okay. Well, let's go back to Revelation 6, then.

And actually, we've completed the fifth seal. Verses 10 and 11 talk about the fifth seal, this time of tribulation that's on earth. I'm looking at my notes here to see if I've forgotten anything here.

Okay. But in, let's go on to verse 12, then. Look at the sixth seal. You know, the sixth seal kind of stops the Great Tribulation. All of a sudden, you know, heavenly signs occur that can't be explained by man at all. You know, Jesus Christ talks about those heavenly signs in Matthew 24 and verse 29, as he talks about the Great Tribulation and the Great Deception of the False Prophet. And then he says, you know, basically verbatim, almost, what we're going to read here in verses 12 and 13.

Verse 12, it says, I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake.

And you know, God often, God often accompanies things, notable times in history and prophecy with an earthquake, right? We, later on in Revelation 11, I believe it is, we have an earthquake. Certainly at the time of Christ's crucifixion, we had an earthquake. I'll give you Amos, you know, back in Amos 1, verse 1, that talks about Amos and his prophecy for Israel. And it says, he came to prophesy before the great earthquake. God gets our attention. God gets our attention by, you know, rocking terra firma, if you will. This thing that we count on as, you know, the things that we've stood on all our lives. And all of a sudden, when the earth shakes, it's like, all of a sudden, we feel very small. We feel very unsure. We don't know what's going on.

Now, we really do pray that God is in control. And we learn, you know, we learn that it is Jesus Christ who can, in Him, all things consist and are held together, as it tells us in Colossians 1.

But it says here, verse 12, I mean, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sakth cloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. We know there's a few years ago, you'll remember there were blood moons. And there were a couple years in a row where these blood moons, these eclipses that occurred, and people thought, although that's when the moon became like blood. But you know, the thing is, people could predict that. They knew 100 years ago what the dates were. They may have not tightened the holy days or anything like that. And I'm not saying they had no significance whatsoever, but, you know, people could predict those. The things that are going to happen in the sixth seal are totally unpredictable. Mankind has no explanation. They didn't see it coming. It's like the whole world is falling around us. The sun became black as sakth cloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by a mighty wind. So we see these dramatic things that have never happened before in the history of the earth that, you know, as we're going to read here a little bit, mankind is just absolutely humbled. They're just brought low. Everything is falling around them. They have no answers to what's going on, and they know who is bringing this on them.

Well, let's go back to Isaiah because, again, Isaiah has verbiage very much like Revelation 6.

Back in Isaiah 34 and verse 4, we read really the same thing that we're reading here that we're reading here in Revelation 6 verses 12 and 13. Isaiah 34 verse 4 says, all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved.

All the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, whatever that means.

And the heaven shall be rolled up like a scroll. You know, we'll read that here a bit in Revelation 6.14. All their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falls from the vine and as fruit falling from a fig tree. And then we see, you know, God's vengeance on earth. As the sixth seal ends, we're going to have the seventh seal that is unfolded. And we do indeed have that as we get into, well, chapter 7 is the prelude to chapter 8 where the seventh seal begins. So we have in Isaiah 34, again, God showing us these prophecies that are in the Old Testament. They are coming about.

Remember, Revelation was the last one of the things that will happen in the last days and it ties a lot of what the Old Testament prophecies are together here. And here we have, you know, the same verbiage showing up. Now God says here, the stars of heaven fell to the earth. Now, you know, are those the stars of heaven? The stars that you and I look up and see each night when we look up there, are those stars something else that it says in Isaiah 34? I don't have the answer to it. I don't have the answer to it. All I know is that it's going to be dramatic and it's going to be exciting and it certainly is going to get people's attention when it happens. The stars of heaven fell to the earth.

There's a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by a mighty wind. And so we see God shaking up the earth. He's beginning. He's letting them know He is in control. There is a God. They have spent their time against God, even in our nation, you know, wishing that God wasn't. We read in Romans, you know, one about people who just don't want to retain God and their thoughts at all.

And God's going to show mankind as it goes through the misery that mankind is going to put us all through here between now and the time of the sixth seal. That really God is there. He is real.

And when we get into verse 14, you know, a dramatic event that it's hard to even picture what it's going to be, how God will do it. But He is the command. He has command of the physical universe. The sky receded as a scroll. You know, John saw that scroll, right? He saw the scroll with the seven seals on it. You've seen the scrolls that rolled up paper and little bows around them as people put things like that together. And there it is. The sky kind of rolls up like a scroll. And every mountain and island was moved out of its place. Dramatic things that when you think about the things that are going to occur, it's just amazing to even think about and try to picture. Our minds can't even see but what all this will be like. And for the people of God, when it happens, we'll be in awe, we'll be shaken, we'll be humbled, we'll be even more in awe of God than we should already be by this time. You know, that if we're letting God mold us into who He wants us to be. But by the time we get there, we will even be in awe at His power. And just like Job was, you know, how do we even stand before this God of the universe? Why does He even pay attention to us? And then in verse 15, it says, the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and into the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and 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 know.

They know what is going on. They know it's God. And these verses we see, they acknowledge this is God.

There is no explanation. There is a power there. And they want to run. They want to run and hide from His face. And I have no doubt to believe, you know, that as God writes these things, they have that recognition. This is the God. This is the God of heaven who has power over earth and sea in the heavens and who created us. And look what He is doing. And they feel His wrath and they want to just hide. They want to hide from Him. We'll get into chapter 7. I'm going to get there in a minute, but in chapter 7, it's like things kind of take a pause, you know. God, as we look at chapter 1 and chapter 7, it's like all these things happen. And He says, you know, hold that wind. You know, the four angels that are there to gather the elect from the east to the west, just take a break. Don't let the wind blow anymore. Halt everything. So God is allowing people to take in everything that's happened. You know, sometimes, even through these Bible studies, I try to pause because there's so much that's in these verses that we're reading that sometimes we just need to take a few seconds just to absorb it in our minds. And there's a danger in just running through things so fast and losing some of it. So, you know, we want to take it and we want to drink it in because God is showing us this is what's going to happen. And it's exciting to read these things and to see what God has planned and how, you know, the seven trumpets will be introduced.

What's going to happen on earth? As we see it unfold, we'll be doing those aha moments. Aha!

That's what God meant. Aha! That's exactly what He said. This is exactly how it happened.

But you notice in those verses you don't have men shaking their fists at God. You don't have men saying, you know, we don't want you in our lives, God. You know, later on in chapter nine, after the trumpets are blown, you do have men saying, you know, it's us saying they're not going to repent.

You know, no matter what God throws at them, we're not going to repent of our thefts. We're not going to repent of our idolatry. We're not going to repent of our sorceries. We're not going to repent of everything. They steal their hearts. They hardened their hearts against God. But we don't see that at the sixth seal. That comes later. In the sixth seal, as we see the kings of the earth, we we see we see them afraid as mankind should be. God is humbling them.

You know, let's go back to Isaiah again. This time Isaiah 2.

Isaiah 2.

Now verse 10. And again, we see, we kind of see here in Isaiah what we just read in Revelation 6 here. Isaiah 2 verse 10. Enter into the rock, hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man will be humbled. The haughtiness of man shall be bowed down. Now God says, even in Obadiah, you know that little one chapter prophecy, I will bring you down from your heights. There will not be no pride. There will be no pride in God's kingdom. And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Verse 12. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, everything lifted up, and it shall be brought low, upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Beshin, upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall, upon all the ships of Tarshish, upon all the beautiful sloops.

The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low.

The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols, or but the idols, he shall utterly abolish. So even back in Isaiah, you know, as God is inspiring him, exactly what he tells us is going to happen in this time of the sixth seal, the results of man, you know, we see it happening.

Again, God foretold these things before the foundation of the earth. The prophecies of the Old Testament are reflected and confirmed here in Revelation. It's as long as we're back in Isaiah.

Let's go back to Psalm 2. You know, we read about the kings of the earth and the mighty men of the earth, and they all see these things, and they want to run. They want to run, or they want to hide from God because they recognize his power, and they realize how weak and meaningless, you know, they are. In Psalm 2, we have this this Psalm here that kind of echoes that same, that same sentiment that we read here in the latter part of Revelation 6. Psalm 2 verse 1, it says, Why do the nations rage and the people plot of anything? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.

Okay, that will happen. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The eternal shall hold them in derision, and he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure.

Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled little, little, lest it are those who put their trust in him. So, you know, we have these these Psalms that are prophetic, and they're meaning prophetic as well as we go through these verses, and we think about the things as we read in Revelation 6, and we see how God, and when the seventh trumpet comes, and God takes out his wrath on mankind, how thoroughly humbled by the time of Jesus Christ's return, and him conquering the kings and the powers that are there assembled in Armageddon to fight against him, that he just he just lays them to waste. And all of mankind then is just humbled before God, and kind of in a kind of in a state of just I don't know, I don't even know what you what you're like after you go through something like the world is going to go through. So we see in Revelation 6 as these heavenly signs occur, and we look at the at the people and what they're like, and see, you know, God is preparing them. He's showing his power before the seven trumpets begin to sound.

Let me before I break, let me go back to verse 15, because you know there's one thing in there that you know God talks about the kings of the earth, the great men, rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, and then he says every slave and every free man. You know, when God, I mentioned often, when God says all, he means all. He doesn't mean 90 percent, he means all. And he says none, he means none, not only 10 percent, right? When he says every man, every slave, and every free man hid themselves in the caves and the rocks of the mountains. Why would that be in there? Because isn't everyone on earth either a slave or free? What might God be talking about? Is there something that maybe we could look at that maybe is what he's talking about there? Certainly he's talking about slave, but he didn't have to use the word ever. He could have said the mighty men, slaves, free men hid themselves in the caves and the rocks of the mountains.

Well, you know, let me just refer to you. I just think it's interesting because there is a verse here in 1 Peter that mentions slaves and free. Here's 1 Peter 2. And we're going to verse 15.

It's actually verse 16 I'm going to be looking at. 1 Peter 2 and 16, it says, This is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

And he's talking about us, right? As free because we know that we live in the law of liberty and God sets us free from the ways of the world, etc., etc. As free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. We've talked about bondservants, that's doulos, that's slaves.

As free, but not using the liberty as a cloak for vice, but as slaves of God. So maybe, maybe, you know, slave and free, when he uses that conjunction there, maybe he's talking about, you know, his people. We are slaves to him, and yet we are set free because we will be seeing these things just like the rest of the world sees us or sees it at that time as well.

Can I interrupt you for a minute? You may, absolutely, yes. Just kind of following on what you said, it made me think of, this is what I was originally going to say, but it made me think of the plagues in Egypt. Israel did have to endure at least a few of them at the start.

I don't know if there's a deliberate tie in there or not, but as some of these signs start to manifest, it could be that just to get our attention, just maybe because we as God's people have to be corrected as well, that we have to get, you know, that we're not going to go through the these things unscathed, for lack of a better way to put it.

I also wondered if maybe it was just, that verse was just a way of saying, you know, emphasizing the fact that there is no partiality with God, that, you know, it doesn't matter a person's status, the world's not going to escape what's coming. You know, you're not going to be able to buy your way out of it, so to speak. Yep, I think those are good thoughts. Yeah, I, you know, God doesn't show partiality, and yes, we're going to be part of this, you know what? We're gonna, we're gonna find our hearts a little, stop skipping a beat too through these things as we see the power of God and what He does, so very good. Another shape, there's a verse in, I think, 1 Timothy 4. The difference between the saints, even those who may shamefully been slacking, but will by the grace of God repent. At that point, even though we'll go, some people go through persecution, we'll rejoice to see, because verse 12, the sixth seal is the sign of the Son of Man, because he says right after the tribulation in Matthew 24, 29, that boom, the sign of the Son of Man will come, the heavens will tear like a scroll. Right. But in 1 Timothy 4, it says, those who love is appearing, even though we will probably be in awe too, but we'll have a different spiritual excitement than the rest of the world. Yeah. Look up, our salvation is, I'm not remembering the quote properly, is near. Yep. Yeah, I think we'll be in awe, absolutely, but yes, we'll be looking at it differently, because we're going to know what's God and the here we're seeing, we're here, we're seeing what we know. Yeah, I think it's going to be an exciting time, just like, and as exciting as we read it, and see how these things are going to be and how God, you know, what God is going to work on the world and how we will work with man, mankind. So.

Okay, anything else? Let's then, let's, let's move in, you know, in verse 17, then it says, okay, we have the six seals, six of them are open, there's one seal left to happen. It happens to be a very trying seal on the earth. Verse 17 tells us it's the day of His wrath, right? So, I'm not going to turn you, you, you know, the scriptures, but let me give them to you. If you don't, you know, you'll often hear us talk about there's at some point, days mean years and other days mean a thousand years, right? We already read 2 Peter 3 where a day is a thousand years to God, but a couple verses where God takes a day as a year. Numbers 14 33, you remember when the slaves went into the prom, not the slaves, the Israelites went into the scouts, went into the promised land, and they were there for 40 days, but they came back with the bad reports, right? They didn't trust God, they didn't count Him, that He was capable to have them delivered. They were over, they were overwhelmed by the size of the walls and the size of the people and everything else there.

And God said, because of your disbelief, you know, you will wander in the wilderness, 40 years, one day, one year for each day. And you can also mark down there Ezekiel 4 verses 4 through 6 where Ezekiel, you know, he had to lay on his side for 390 days, right? 360 days for Israel, 30 days for Judah. And God said, one day for each year, one day for each year of this prophecy. So, you know, as we go into the great day of His wrath, you know, the day of the Lord, as it talks about in the Bible, you know, it's a year period of time that the seventh seal takes to be completed.

We won't get to that. Mr. Shavey? Yes, yes, sir. Is that Paul?

When you're talking about the spies going into the Promised Land, it was 10 out of 12 bad reports, not all 12. Yes, right. You're right. 10 out of 12. Joshua and Caleb came back with a good correction. So, okay. Mr. Rick? Yes. Is that Sherry? Yes. Hi, Sherry.

Speaking of the year, in chapter 34, Isaiah chapter 34 verse 8, it explains that the day is a year.

Okay, well, let me see. We're in 34 verse 4. Let's see what verse says.

It is the day of the Lord's vengeance. Ah, yeah, very good. Perfect right in the context of what we're talking about. Is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of repopance for the cause of Zion? There you go. So, it probably is a year. Yeah, yep. That's a good verse. I'm going to add that to my notes. So, Isaiah 34.8 is the best one, best verse to go along with Revelation 17 or 16 or whatever that is. 617. Okay, there we go. Also, I misled everyone by saying first Timothy, second Timothy 4 of her speech. Second Timothy 4 of her speech. Okay, very good.

Okay, so we're back in chapter 6 verse 17. This is God's wrath on humanity that's always turned against him, right? Before this, we've had man doing things to himself. We've had Satan's wrath through the great tribulations with the beast power that's on earth, the time of the gentiles that it speaks of there, and the havoc they wreak on the world, and now God is going to take his vengeance out on the world before the return of Jesus Christ. So, we go into chapter 7, and as I mentioned, you know, it's like this is an inset chapter. You know, God could, we could have gone right into chapter 8, and it would talk about those four seals where God is, you know, harming the trees, and harming the grass, and harming the water. But invert, and he just kind of takes, as I pause here in chapter 7 to kind of take in what's gone before that, because, you know, there's an awfully lot there, and then he says, you know, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. You know, the earth has just been shaken by a mighty wind.

You know, in Jesus Christ, you don't need to turn back to Matthew 24, but, you know, Savior mentioned verse 29, and in verse 31 of Matthew 24, it says, and he will send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. And so we have this pause as we enter into chapter 7, as as God has completed, the six seals have been completed, but now here's his wrath on mankind.

And then in verse 2, you know, John writes, I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, don't harm the earth, don't harm the sea, don't harm the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And so, you know, we looked ahead, we would see in Revelation 8, the first four seals are exactly what he says here, but you have the angel saying, you know, pull back, pull back until this happens. And God says, I'm going to seal this, we're going to seal the servants of our God on their foreheads.

Now, you know, let's talk a little bit about the sealing of the servants of our gods. I know someone could give us some verses to look at where other places where it talks about God sealing his servants on their foreheads. What would some of those verses be? I know. If I hadn't prepared ahead of time, I wouldn't remember what they are. But let's go back to 2 Corinthians 1.

And see where I wrote that on those verses. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 22. Now we get in verse 21, where the sentence begins. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and is anointed us is God.

Right? We're all part of the family. God has called us, who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Now, when, you know, so God seals us. We are called by God. We repent.

Truly repent. We're baptized. And then he gives us his spirit, it says, in our hearts as a guarantee.

Anyone? What does that mean when it says God gives us that as a guarantee? You know, the world might say, once that's happened, we're good for eternity. We can't, you know, we can't ever lose him. What is God saying there when he says gives us a guarantee? I think it means when God gives us his spirit, he basically gives us a down payment of eternal life. It doesn't mean that, you know, once saved, always saved, because we have our part to do. But he does grant us the gift of his Holy Spirit so that we can begin to grow in holy righteous character, learn to bear good fruit, learn to become like him in Jesus Christ. So I think when I think a guarantee, it's like the down payment of eternal life of knowing we will, if we continue in his way and continue overcoming and growing, that we will be able to be in his kingdom. Yep, yeah, go ahead. He guarantees to hold up his end of the bargain, if we put it that way, yes. Yeah, he sees us, he sees us. Go ahead.

Yeah, I was just going to mention, I always think of Romans 2, or yeah, Romans 3, I guess. We talk about it during Passover sometimes, where essentially Christ was sent to redeem us, and his blood was put down. Basically, it says that he might be the justifier. So in other words, he's kind of taken it out of our hands so that we can't fail by putting down that sacrifice, giving it a guarantee. So that like Paul was just saying, if we do our part, then there's no way we can fail, because he's put that down. He's guaranteed it by the sacrifice of Christ.

And all we've got to do is just do our part, and we're there. Yep, very good. God says it's there.

It's yours. It's up to you whether you receive eternal life or not. It is in our hands. God has done that for us, but we have to live the life. Very good. Second Corinthians 5, verse 5, you know, he uses the same term, the sealing of those who he falls now. It's the same kind of sealing that he's going to be doing for these people, I guess, in Revelation 6. But in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 5, it says, Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. And there, actually, in verse 5, it actually talks about, you know, guarantee is a down payment as Dave was explaining to us, or earnest payment. Yes, God's, you know, like when we buy a house, we put down the down payment, we say, our intent is that we're going to complete this. We're going to complete this purchase. God says, I intend that you will have eternal life, you will live for eternity, you will be part of the first fruits, you will be the bride of Christ. But we have to complete the transaction, right?

Just because we put down earnest money when we're buying a house, we have to complete the transaction. The way we complete the transaction is what we do with the rest of our lives, and how we live, and that God sees that we're growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and becoming more and more like Him. You know, the Bible calls that having our robes washed white, and we become, we become pure, we become virgins, you know, no longer, no longer tainted by the thoughts of this world and the religions of the world, and all that stuff that might have crept in with us little by little over the course of life we leave this aspect of our former religion behind, the world's religion behind, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, all these things get left behind us as God purifies us and gets us ready, as we read in in Daniel 12 for the return of Christ. And so, you know, so we see what He's doing here in Revelation 7, and Christ says, you know, let's just, okay, we've got, we've gone through six seals here. Let's, let's now seal the servants of our God on their foreheads. You know, God puts our, His spirit, you know, in our hearts. I mean, we have a new heart when we, when we receive God's Spirit, and we follow that Spirit, and we bury the old self, and keep that self buried, and continue burying it through the rest of our lives. And we also have a new mind, right? When God gives us a spirit, we have the mind of Christ. But we have to cultivate that, and we have to use it, and we have to ask God to increase that spirit in us. So, on their foreheads, you know, as we talked this afternoon, it's our minds, right? Our minds change, and the way we think, the way we behave, the way we feel, you know, and our hearts are different, and our minds are different as a result of having received God's Holy Spirit. But he's saying, you know, he's saying this, and he's saying this in chapter 3, or verse 3 here of chapter 7, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And then he gives the number, right? In verse 4 of chapter 7, he says, I heard the number of those who were sealed. 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.

And then he goes through, and he mentions, you know, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12,000 from each of these 12 tribes. We're not going to get into today, but this afternoon in the Bible study I gave them, I have an assignment. Next week, you know, as you go through those 12 tribes of Israel, you'll see that the tribe of Dan is not mentioned in that list. You'll see that the tribe of Ephraim isn't mentioned in that list. Manasseh is and Joseph is, but Ephraim and Dan are specifically not mentioned in that list. So for next week, you know, we'll talk about Sardis and Philadelphia, but we'll talk a little bit about that, too. And I'll leave that to you to see what, you know, why is Dan and why might Dan and Ephraim not even be mentioned here in this group of the 12 tribes?

And there are some verses that we can turn to you that might indicate what those times are, but we'll leave that, you know, for next week. But we have these 12 tribes of Israel, and 12,000 out of each one of them, you know, is mentioned. Now, as I mentioned that, let's turn over to Revelation 14, because there's 144,000 that are mentioned in Revelation 14 as well.

You know, here in verse 4 of chapter 7, it says, I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. And of course, on their foreheads, as it says in verse 3. And in verse 14, it says, chapter 14, verse 1, I looked, and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads. Now, here's people that are now here's people that, you know, have God's name written on their foreheads. In Revelation 7, they're sealed on their foreheads. But we have, you know, we have these people in 14, you know, are called firstfruits in verse 4. And they're redeemed from all of the tribe, from every nation, tribe, and tongue. These are the ones who were redeemed from the earth.

And so in Revelation 7, we have perhaps the same group of 144,000. They are sealed in their foreheads as well. But in chapter 7, you know, it mentions 12 physical tribes of Israel.

And I'm gonna, I'm gonna leave that one alone. I'm gonna leave that one alone. I'm gonna leave that one alone for a while. Something we can, we can think about and contemplate and whatever.

But if someone's got some thoughts on that, I will, you know, be happy to hear them. So.

My thought on that is the 12,000 from each tribe would be the basically after Jesus Christ returns and he establishes Israel, again, he bring, he has to have some of those people back.

Some of, he needs some of those people, keeps some of those people alive so he can have the 12 tribes because remember he promised the, when he promised the apostles that they would be over the 12 tribes of Israel. And so I believe after Christ returns, he's gonna have those people there back in the land of Israel and the apostles, you know, over them.

Yeah, it's interesting to look at that and the differences between Revelation 7 and 14.

And, you know, see where there are. And as you as you look at those chapters and you look at these groups of people, you see some things that are are different. But here, you know, we'll leave it alone.

We'll leave that alone. We'll leave that alone for now. We'll get to Revelation 14 here in a few weeks and we can talk about some of those things. And, you know, we can be asking God to help us see what he wants us to see now in some of these things because we see his plan, you know, for the future unfolding in this book of Revelation. Let's wrap down to verse 9 of Revelation 7. You know, we have this group of 144,000 that are sealed, you know, by God. And in verse 9 it says, After these things I looked, and behold a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. So here's another group of people, not this not this tribe of a not this group of 144,000 but another one that no one from every, not just Israel, but every tribe and nation and all over the world. And they have white robes. So there's those white robes that symbolize again, you know, they've become the people of God. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

And the angels stood around the throne and the elders of the four living creatures here we have, you know, the court of God, you know, there again. And we have these people that's these beings, not people, these beings that surround God's throne. And they fell on their faces before the throne, and they worshiped God saying, amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. The stage is being set for the trumpets to be blown, for the return of Jesus Christ, for the resurrection of the dead, for the kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of of Jesus Christ, and He will be Lord of Lord and King of Kings. And so, you know, we have this dramatic, these dramatic things that are leading up to that time and the return of Christ. In verse 13, one of the elders answered saying to me, who are these Iranian white Romans and where did they come from? You know, and John very appropriately answers, he says, sir, you know. You know, I mentioned this afternoon and I had the chuckle because as I was reading through some commentaries and whatever, and you know, it's kind of just fun to look at some of these verses and see what commentators have. Most of the commentators don't have a clue what's going on in Revelation, but and to see how they put things together is kind of, well, interesting and funny in a way, and sad that they don't know, you know, what God has opened our minds to know and what this represents. But I thought one of the comments was very good. He goes, when he talks about, sir, you know, that the man said, you know, that's the approach that we should have. Well, we don't know. And someone asked us a question and say, sir, you know. So God, you know, and leave it at that. And that's exactly what John said. I have no idea, sir, you know. So the angel said to me, these are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So we have this group of people that come out of the Great Tribulation.

You know, you know, some of them were the Church of God who wasn't nourished in that place for a time, times, and a half a time, who weren't ready, who hadn't done what God wanted them to do during this lifetime. And so they had to wash their robes in the White Tribulation and prove to God and show Him by their actions and their choices in a most difficult time. I choose you. You know, we have the time now to show by our actions and choices and what we're willing to give up, I choose you, God, and I choose to have me buried and let you make me into who you want me to be. But some of those people are the Church of God. You know, last week we talked about the Church of Thyatira, and you'll remember, you know, that God talks about, you know, that woman Jezebel, you know, the Catholic Church that we talked about and the tremendous influence it had on the world, you know, down through the age. It still has a tremendous influence today on the world and into religions. And, you know, even with the children of the Catholic Church, the Protestants, they still keep Christmas and Sunday and Easter and all these holidays that are associated with it. You know, and God says, you know, I caution you to repent. And He goes, if you don't repent, remember, I think it's in verse 22 or Revelation 2. Can I get my verses right here? Yeah, Revelation, you know, 2 verse 22, Nathiah Tyra says, you know, the second part of that, he says, and those who commit adultery with her, those who are looking at these outside religions who don't leave them alone, who don't cling to the truth, when they find the truth, they don't cut everything out, and they cling to it.

And those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation. That's, you know, that's people who play with the religions of the world and who don't recognize, I found the truth, I'm sticking to it, and I'm going to follow what 2 John says. And John says, I'm not going to look at the world and do any compromise. I'm not going to do, I'm not going to abide by the doctrine of Balaam. I'm not going to die by the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. I'm not doing that stuff. I'm cutting it all off. I'm going to live the pure Word of God and nothing else will enter my mind. I will sell all that I have for that. And he says, those who commit adultery, I'll cast into great tribulation. So we know who some of those people are, but then we have two witnesses who are preaching a powerful message for 1260 days.

And there will be people who are called during that time and who recognize, you know, it's God versus Satan, and they'll choose God and they'll go through the great tribulation and they'll have their robes washed white during that time as well. So we have this great multitude that no man can number. That's a great multitude, right? Because he's numbered 144,000 here, so in all likelihood it's greater than that. And so, you know, he says this, and then I'll finish up a few verses here and then we'll have a time for a few questions, comments, or whatever. Verse 15, you know, he kind of starts talking about what this group will do, what their responsibilities are before God.

Verse 15, it says, therefore, there before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in the temple.

They serve him day and night in the temple. There before the throne of God, they're up there, they're spirit beings, they're going to be serving God, and they serve him day and night in his temple.

That could be the physical temple that we read about at the end of the last eight chapters of Ezekiel.

And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. Well, that can fast forward us all the way to the end of the book of Revelation when we read about the new heaven and new earth and God dwelling with men. They won't hunger or thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any hate, for the lamb is in the midst of the throne. The lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Again, very similar words that we read in Revelation 21 and 22. But it's interesting when you look at what are the responsibility of this group of people, right? They're not the 144,000 that were sealed. They're not the 144,000 of Revelation 14. If indeed those are two separate 144,000, because the 144,000 of Revelation 14, we know they are first fruits. We know they are bound for the wedding supper. We know they're the bride of Christ. Their future is different.

Blessed to see who is in the first resurrection, these people have a different set of responsibilities with God. Still very good to be part of the kingdom of God, but it's interesting to compare in between maybe now and next week. You know, you can kind of take some time and compare those and you know have some of these verses come alive too. As God gives us a vision, you know, of groups of people that will be there and what we'll be doing. If we follow Him, what others will be doing, and whatever. Certainly not the detail, but He does give us a vision. He does give us a vision if we look for it. So let me pause there. The next time we will come back to some of these and fill in some of the blanks here in Revelation 7, but I wanted to get through a lot of that and have you you know look at Dan and Ephraim and we'll talk about that a little bit next week after we talk about Sardis in Philadelphia. Let me end there and I will open it up for anyone.

Mr. Shady. Mr. Shady. Yes.

I've had a thought for a while on $144,000. Pentecost.