By Their Numbers

Jesus Christ on the Sermon on the Mount said His incredible words that you all know. He says, By their fruits you shall know them. Who's He talking about? Those? You can talk. Hmm? By their fruits you shall know them. There? Fruits? That should be His followers. Who will know you? Hmm? Yeah, other people, right? Because they're gonna see those fruits that hopefully you'll talk about or spend some time there tomorrow in. I will be in Fort Lauderdale talking about those fruits. But God also sees your fruits, but He knows you by something else. By their numbers. By your numbers. Because there are numbers you keep. There's numbers you know. So if I could use the phrase, By their numbers, God knows them. That's talking about us. There are numbers. And not by chance. God uses numbers in here to fit His plan. His ideas, His timing. And as 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16 says that all scripture is given by the inspiration of God. It actually means God breathed. So numbers in this book are put there by God. They were designed by God. They were made by God. And those are our numbers. It's not the world's numbers. In case you didn't know it. Those are our numbers. We're known by those numbers. So I want to ask you on this 49th day, as Bill talked about, let's talk about some numbers. Do you know certain numbers? How about the number 7? Number completion? Sabbath? Perfection? Okay. We have how many holy days? Seven. Seven trumpets? Seven candlesticks? Seven churches? Right? So we know those. We know seven. What about 12?

Apostle? Tribes? We know those. We know about them. Let me ask you another one. 666? Are you known by it? Probably not. Frank, is that your number at 666? I remember a TV show many years back. And those were about people selling real estate, and they were greedy, if you can believe that. And they took this person to this home. Two real estate people met, and then the buyer was going to come over and meet them. And when one woman said, I know her. She's very religious. And looked up on the front of the house, and there the house number was 666. And the woman goes, she's never going to buy this house. And the other real estate, let me go back. She went back to her vehicle, got something, came around, and turned to six and made it a nine. And she said, by the time the contract signs, she'll find out. But we know what 666, they did it too as a part of the show. But what about the 144,000? Where's it at? It's only two places in the Bible, isn't it? Yes. And it's kind of a blessing to be part of the 144,000. Right? How about 40? Yes. How long did Moses?

Yes. How long did Moses? Twice. How about Christ? Yes. To see you know. How about three days and three nights? The only sign of the Messiah. Right? Three woes? Very good. Yes. So you've got numbers down pat. You're known by your numbers. Not by the world as much as by God, because those are His numbers. He knows them. He put them in there. But not so much in the world. But we're not judged by the world, aren't we? Thankfully, we're not. And then finally, last but not least, is the number 50. 50. Ah. Jubilee. Pentecost. Aha. Well, do you know that 50 is used 157 times in Scripture? 151 of those times is in the Old Testament. Only six of those times is used in the New Testament. And as you know, the New Testament, Pentecost. It's one of those that means 50. Or count 50. 50.

There are 50 chapters in the book of Genesis. But before you go, wait a minute, God didn't put 50 chapters. He didn't divide those into chapters, did He? Man did that. Man put the verses. Man put the chapters. So very good. You do know that. But one of those 151 talks about Noah.

Remember Noah's 50? Anybody? Probably not, but it's interesting that he used that because 50, if you see that arc he built, God told him 50 cubits wide. 50 cubits wide. And as I was showing my wife this week as I pulled out a measuring tape, somebody had a measuring tape here earlier. I was showing her about cubits. She measured my fingertip to the bottom of my elbow. And it was 18 inches. She said, that's amazing because I said it's 18 inches. I measured hers, it was 17 and a quarter. Of course, she's a little smaller, especially these days.

But that's how wide they made things. So that arc, because this is 18 inches, so it's about 75 foot wide, approximately. But God put down 50 cubits. Haman's gallows. 50 cubits high, which would be how many feet high? 75 feet high. In case you look, they didn't really hang people then, even though it's called gallows, what else to call it. Well, they did hang them. They stuck them up there on that, impaled them. So you can imagine you would see someone impaled at the top of that 75 foot tall from quite a ways. Another 50. How about those men who were asked to serve as priests? They could serve up to what age? 50. That's it! When you're 50, you're retired. They retired you.

When Jesus Christ said 5,000 men, as it says in Luke 9, that 5,000, he said, divide them into groups of what? 50. Another one of the six times in there. And then David paid silver for the threshing floor where the temple was to be built. How many pieces of silver did he? That's right. 50. 50. So as somebody said earlier, join me in Leviticus 25.

Leviticus 25.

I'll go up to 8 and then we'll look at 9 and 10. And it says, in you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, which means what? 49. And the time of the seven Sabbaths of the year shall be to you 49 years. Then, after those 49 years, then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the 10th day of the seventh month on the day of atonement. You shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land, and you shall consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants, and it shall be called a Jubilee for you. And each of you shall return to his possessions, and each of you shall return to his own family. And may I say, your own lands. How they had it designed there. So 50 symbolized deliverance, symbolized freedom from debt and bondage. The indebted slaves were able to go free on the 50th year, no matter what time, no matter how many years they were slaves. They were released, the land released back to its owners. So in reality, 50 to them symbolized new life. And you can imagine when you've gotten a debt paid off, maybe it's a credit card. Doesn't that feel so good? Well, how about the car? You just pray the car still runs, usually, after you get it paid off. But then there's your house. I remember my wife and I worked really hard. First got married, got paid off in seven years, I believe. Oh, it felt so good. Man, it just felt like there was a big burden because no matter what happens, we stab our house. So I want to continue this story of 50, being we're almost there. Tomorrow you're going to be there.

And why it's so important to God, why we should be known by it. And sometimes we've just taken it for granted. Oh yeah, that's Pentecost. But God designed it. It was designed, as the Scripture says, Christ was slain from the foundations of the world, and the 50 number comes from when? The day after the Sabbath during the spring Holy Days, after he was killed. It was a gout. 50. So this has been in plans all this time. It's all the Holy Days, but this is special because it tells you something that it doesn't tell the world. And we are going to dive a little bit into that today because I think that it's interesting to know numbers. Matter of fact, in the New Testament, there's a Greek word, macarios, macarios, and that word is used exactly 50 times in the New Testament. Not 51, not 49, 50 times. Exactly. You don't find many words that are just exactly.

The word means blessed. Blessed. Happy. Fortunate. Well off. Kind of should be one of our numbers. Do you feel blessed? Are you happy? You feel fortunate? It's a good time of the year to reflect upon that. I want to look shortly at one of the places. Let's look at a chapter. Because macarios is used 50 times in the New Testament, and yet 10 of those times are used in the same chapter. 20% of this powerful word, times is used, is used in just one chapter of the Bible. Anybody care to guess? Matthew 5, Bill? Absolutely. Do you know what that says? Blessed. And then he goes through the Beatitudes. Bless to those who mourn. All right. Blessed are the meek. Bless, bless, bless. And you read the entire chapter 10 times, does he say that? 50 times in the New Testament. Is that one of our numbers? It is if you feel blessed. It is if you feel fortunate. As a matter of fact, in the Old English, it was not blessed are the meek. Happy is the meek. That's what the Old English was. It meant happy. Are we happy? We follow God, and are we happy? If not, maybe it's not your number. Are you known by that number? One other word that's used in the New Testament, in the Greek, 50 times, is a word you will understand about tomorrow. And the word is glasa. Glasa. G-L-O-S-S-A. Glasa. Anybody know what glasa means? Don't speak Greek. I figured if you didn't know it, Sharon might know it.

Ah, very good! Tongue. Glasa means tongue. Tongue or tongues? Use 50 times. Now, there are people who speak in tongues. Ampe. You speak Spanish, and you speak English. Anybody else speak? You speak patois? You speak patois? No? Yes, you do? Okay. That's a different language. Does anybody else speak any other language? Just English.

When you see the word tongues, it means different languages. Glasa. And so it has a tie for us tomorrow as we celebrate the miracles that happen on Pentecost. And one of those has to do with what? Tongues of fire. And people speaking different languages. I could be, if I was there, I could be like Ampe. I could just be rattling off Spanish, not even knowing what I was saying. And I could look at somebody else, and all these, about 120 in that room, they were speaking different languages, and people outside were hearing their languages. They came from all over the world to keep that. Pentecost. And they got to hear. What a miracle that was!

Can you imagine being in that room, looking over and seeing people that you knew, even your relatives, talking in some other language? It was a miracle! And people outside were hearing. As a matter of fact, they even said, well, we know most of these people are Galileans. How are they? How are they saying this? How is it we're hearing this? Because Galileans were farm people, considered backward. In Tennessee, they might call them rednecks. And rednecks came from farming, because you'd be out there farming. And uneducated, as the disciples were questioned later about how they, wow, where did they get this learning? Thought they were dumb people, backward people, uneducated people, yet they're teaching God's word. So by their numbers, there's another number this year, and I mentioned that this morning's title of my sermon, 1993. We don't have anybody born in 1993, do we? No. It was what, 31 years ago? Remember where you were 31 years ago? I was about 20 pounds lighter. It's about the only thing I could say.

But this is the 1993rd anniversary tomorrow of the Church of God keeping Pentecost, because this is when the church started. Our church started 1,993 years ago. Think about that. This is an anniversary that how many other churches can go back to that.

Look it up. Google it how old different churches are. Hmm?

This is a turning point for us. It's a third of seven holy days.

And we got that number by seven weeks, right? Seven times seven. Each week has seven days. It's 49. And then plus one, just like we heard. Then is Pentecost.

This is called tomorrow the Feast of First Fruits.

Are you? Are you a first fruit? According to Scripture, you are.

These people were all given the Holy Spirit on that day, weren't they? That is when the church started when the Holy Spirit was given. And they came together, as I'll talk about in just a few minutes. But why was it a feast? How many people grew up on a farm? There's one. A new norm bid. Anybody else? No? Okay. You urbanites. How many people grew up raising a garden? Okay, now that's half, better than half, of people here. Those raised on a farm, or we raised a garden? No. We didn't raise a garden when I was growing up so that we could watch the plants grow. We didn't have a garden because it was fun.

We planted and harvested a garden so that we could eat. And my mother canned. You remember those old pressure cookers? Anybody still have one? No. And then we had, yes, uh-huh. And then we would freeze our stuff because we were going through the winter. And we didn't have a lot of money. I remember one year picking blackberries on our mountain, our hill, back away from our house and spent three weeks picking blackberries. Picked like 60 gallons of blackberries. And my mother put them in the old bin. It was so good because nobody had ever picked these blackberries. They were that big. They were just huge. I just always kept my dog there with me to chase away the snakes. But I picked blackberries for like three weeks if we didn't use gloves. My fingers were color blackberries four weeks after that. But we put those in the freezer. And also we had a creek that ran through our property and it had little perch. Biggest one was like 10 inches. Most of them were like 6 inches. And I got like 70 or 80 of those. And I caught them when I was like 12 or 13 and I scaled them and we put those in the freezer. Because it carried us through the winter.

And if we had rainy weather in the spring and we couldn't get our gardens out the next spring, and we had to wait because it rained all during February. It was too wet and we couldn't get our early gardens out until maybe the end of March. And so there wasn't peas in these things that came in early. So there was nothing. So what happened then? We would go to our freezer and hope there was still stuff in there.

Because we were waiting to eat the fresh food. Is there anything better than going out to your garden and picking fresh stuff out of it and cooking? I can't do it. All those little potatoes you would dig up out of the ground. Dig them in and wash them and throw them off. Just so much stuff that we look forward to. That when it all started coming in, we had been eating so much of whatever was frozen.

That when the first fruits came in, it was something to celebrate. It tasted so good and it just kept coming. Because once you start planting, just as they did back in biblical times, they didn't plant all their barley at one time. They scattered it out in two-week periods so that if there was dry spout and didn't catch up, if there was a hail storm, it didn't ruin it all.

But then they would have it because this is what they needed. This is what we look forward to on the farm. That's what Pentecost pictured. They were an agrarian society. Everybody had farms and they looked forward to this and they knew these are the first fruits. And by the time, because you remember we talked about Jesus Christ was a wave-sheaf, like they couldn't harvest any crops until God had blessed that. They put it before Him, the very first cuttings, and they brought it forward just like Jesus Christ came before us.

And He was presented to God and accepted. The first fruits came up and they were accepted. And that so hits me because this is the same way it's going to be in the Kingdom of God. It's going to be a large agrarian society.

That's why He spent so much time saying, you know, the sower and the harvester, they're going to run over each other because there's just so much stuff. And these seasons, these harvests, we're going to be teaching them. And they're going to be having crops, they're going to be having food, they're going to see this and see just how wonderful it is. So you can see that finally at the end of the 50 days, most of the early harvest was harvested.

They planned it that way. And so when they came there after the seven times, seven weeks, when they came to this harvest, everybody had food, didn't they? Everybody was feeling good. This was the feast of firstfruits. So when they got together to celebrate this holy day, they had a double holy day, just like we are here. We have the Sabbath holy time.

Then we have Pentecost holy time. They got together, they ate, they enjoyed. And all of a sudden, there's this pressure that is off of you when you get your first crops back. Because then you got the rest of the year to have the other harvest, which is pictured then by the Feast of Tabernacles when everybody's done. By September, October, our corn's all in. Everything's pretty much dying in the garden by that time. There's very little, and we've harvested, but it feels good when you've got your freezer full, when you have your canning done, when you have had all this wonderful abundance that God gives us with food.

So can you see how the Feast of Pentecost was to this Feast of People? This Feast of First Fruits, how it pictures us. When that great harvest comes, we will have already been harvested. We're the first fruits. And it's so such a beautiful picture that God creates in His Holy Days and at the end when all of humanity, the mass of humanity, will be given their chance to become fruits of God.

They just won't be first fruits. It's a different harvest, a different time. I wanted to bring that out because I'd like you to go with me. I don't know if I gave you this, David. I think it just popped in my head. I think so. Maybe I get... Did I give you something on Ecclesiastes? Nope, I didn't.

Okay, then it did pop in my head. Let's go back to Ecclesiastes. Because this also speaks to us. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. You know, chapter 3 is the one where the favorite song, number one song from the Bible by the birds many years ago. Turn, turn, turn. Yes, about the season. Everybody knows that from the three. But I want to move down from that point to Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 12. This is so poignant for this time. And it will be in the future. And it was to them. That's why I bring this out.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives. And also, see, God inspired us. And also what? And also that every man and woman should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is a gift of God. Eating, yes. Ask people from Haiti that eat one meal a day if they can scrape it together.

Yet tomorrow they have money. We sent money for them to get food. We go, so they're going to have all kinds of food. Rice, beans, and probably a little chicken. Hardly ever eat. And they'll be able to eat plenty of it.

We, as a nation, we are so blessed. Just travel to third world countries. Travel to Africa. Travel to Haiti. Travel, as we will next week, to Guyana. I mean, they are just now. They have a rainy season, which is right now, which means it rains every day. A lot, a lot. They look forward to it, but I've been there when it wasn't rainy season and they're dry. It's just stuff they plant in the ground. I mean, they're just having to take a little water and put it just trying to get it to stay alive till rain comes. And they just so look forward to it. We're going to have a feast a week from today in Guyana, because I'm going to make sure they have plenty of food so they know what a feast is. Because this is symbolic of what God has given to us. He's given us His Spirit. He's given us His Word. Man should not live by bread alone, but by what? Every word proceeds from the mouth of God. How do we appreciate and know those words? It's by the Holy Spirit. That's what's so beautiful about this feast tomorrow. It was a perfect combination of bringing the spring harvest to full fruition. And then on top of that, all the food they would have, He gifted them with something so much greater, His very essence. It's such a beautiful, beautiful. So can you imagine at that time the agrarian society, the farmers, people in their gardens, saying, hallelujah, yes! We're going to travel up as they had to do at that time. One of the three seasons that they taught, the three journeys that they would make, this was one of them. And they journeyed, but can you imagine how exciting this was? Because earlier when they made the early spring Passover in Days of Unleavened Land, they didn't have a lot. Most of them didn't because they didn't have freezers. They just sat so they would have gone to that feast and just gotten by and had the lamb and had various things. But now this was a feast. They would all travel up to Jerusalem and have their carts full and be able to just, wow, we can eat. We can share. And what does God say He's going to do on that day? I'm going to share my essence. I'm going to share part of me. Is that not enough for us to get excited about? That He handed out a part of Him to all of us because He wanted us to be like His Son. And this beautiful day that is tomorrow. That's why I hope you have a feast. Because it's a church tradition. 1993 years in the making. We're continuing that tradition. We're going to hear His Word expounded. We're going to give God an offering.

But we're also going to feast because it should be the perfect feast for physical and spiritual essence to come together and enjoy it. The first of the first fruits, that's us. We are known by our numbers to God, but also because of the giving of the Holy Spirit.

Christ even said, by their fruits you shall know them. People see us, and they may see us tomorrow. And they're going, oh, I didn't know they started going to church on Sunday. Because we will dress up. We will come before God. We will show our respect, but we will keep that day.

Because God's going to be here. Are you?

That's why it's so very important. It's interesting that in Scripture, I have to look at my wife, oh, this got a new 358. I got 352, and I've got 352, so I'll go by 352. Got that seven minutes, seven, six, seven minutes to finish. Wrap this up. At least you don't have it blinking. Like, okay, it's two-minute warning, and it's blinking, so it's like speed it up. That's what Mary does to me if she was sitting out there, and I'm going long on a subject. Have you ever looked over, and she thinks I'm going too long in the story? She does this. Yes, not that I'm this, it's more of this. Speed it up. She only does this at home, so. But she's out there watching today. So. But this was, this was such a, it's such a beautiful time tomorrow, because at that time, 1993 years ago, was the first time that the Holy Spirit was given in mass, was given to this group of people that made them God's church, because He took a very essence of Himself, and He gave it to all these people. About 120. And so Paul's having to tell people later, the Gentiles, just how special that was. He wasn't there, but He knew it. Let's go and look at the last couple of scriptures. He had to tell this Gentile church, they were struggling. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16. There were issues, there were problems. But we have issues and problems too, but it didn't seem as bad as what this church was. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. I think that's pretty clear. But it wasn't. 1 Corinthians 6. Let's go there. Verse 19. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Who is whom is in you? Whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Given on Pentecost. I looked up temple, just to look up the word in various dictionaries. And there were two that actually said the definition of a temple.

And it was just three words. Where God dwells. Where God dwells. Doesn't that almost send a chill down you? God dwells in you. He dwells in me. That's why they say anything good comes out. It's Him. And anything not very good is Chuck.

How beautiful that is. Where God dwells. A bunch of temples coming in here tomorrow.

You see why God wants to be here? We're two or more gathered together in His name. Imagine we're two or more together that has His very essence.

Where God is in you. He wants to be there. It's another family reunion for Him. His children. His children have His quote unquote DNA in them. They're all going to be there celebrating tomorrow. Various places. But He's going to be there. 50th day is a holy day. The first of the Church of God service was held. It was called in Hebrew. Kadesh Mikra. Kadesh Mikra. Except they even put a little. Kadesh Mikra. Do you know what Kadesh Mikra means? Kadesh means holy. Mikra means assembly. We know it and it's translated as holy convocation. You know when He asks to have a holy convocation? He's asking us tomorrow to have this holy convocation. Kadesh Mikra. How powerful is that? As assembly of His people. 1993 years ago, about 120 people met. Met. Who were they? The who's who. The who's who of Christ's time. Weren't they? Just think about who was there. You know who's going to be here tomorrow? God's who's who at this time in this era of the Church. Someday in the continuing book of Acts, your name may be there. Our name may be there. Because we have continued, as we will tomorrow, for almost 2,000 years to keep the anniversary of the first meeting, first holy day in the Church of God. Tomorrow you will be known by your number. It's 50. It's 50. It's His number. It's your number. Because you have the Spirit of God. And you will obey that Spirit. You will follow that Spirit. You will love that Spirit. Because it's from God.

Talks about us loving one another. Talks about us loving one another.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one to another. We all know that. Christ said it the last night on earth. How much more? How much greater is it? How much more respect we get from God? Because by this, His numbers, and by our love of God, we're known by the world. Because it doesn't matter what's going on tomorrow. God's people will come before Him.