And if you remember, we were talking about a lot of symbolism in last week's study. We talked about the symbolic nature of being sealed. Remember that? Talking about us carrying the seal of God. We mentioned, I think it was maybe Sister Nadine, someone mentioned what is the mark of the beast. 666 everybody says okay, and then you know you have the thought that you know if you receive the mark You won't be able to do what? without the mark buy and sell so you got to receive the mark in order to buy and sell and there in lies the Great Tribulation and you know you're going to be in this tribulation and if you don't take the mark if you just hold out to the end and Suffer and endure then you'll be counted, you know amongst the Saints you'll be saved but everybody that takes the mark is evident that they're against Christ or one of my challenges with that or one of my problems with that is you're really in Essence you're you're you're removing the the hand of God the sovereignty of God in salvation and at that point because what you're doing is you're placing the emphasis on what you go through in life and the trials that you have to endure and the struggles that you endure if, get there, and this is a big if, if you make the right decisions, if you do the right things, then you'll make it to the end and you'll be one of those that are saved as opposed to, you know, how many countless of people, you know, had there been prior to this tribulation who God saved out of drastic circumstances, who didn't really do anything at all. I mean, I'm, I think, a walking testimony of I was not seeking God when God saved me. It happened in an instant, in a moment where I was under no consideration. I wasn't in church. I wasn't doing anything. So it's very hard to reconcile that for me to say, well, if you're under great distress and duress, and if you just make all the right moves, if you play the chess game right, then at the end, you'll win. That completely voids out God's hand and God's sovereignty in salvation. So I have huge issues with that. So we also talked about, we have this you know, accepting the sign or the mark of the beast. But what did the scriptures tell us about, you know, the people of God as it pertains to, you know, a seal or being, you know, having a sign or being sealed? I guess a better way to put it. Yeah, so in the text remember we talked about you know, the angels they're holding back the four corners the four winds to you know that Look like judgment and destruction upon the earth But then another angel rises from the east and what is what is that angel carrying? You can look at the text in Revelation 7 and The seal of God right and we talked about you know, is that is that like a big rubber stamp? I mean it what is this a you know, is this some kind of big, you know stamp that this angel is going to come forth and What is that? What does that angel do with this seal? Do what Seals all the tribes, seals the people of God, right? And so, are we gonna, and everybody says, well, if you take the mark of the beast, you know that, I mean, modern day analogies, well, it's a microchip, well, it's this, there's some physical thing, right? So what's the seal of God? If you're gonna take literally the mark or the seal of the beast, then don't you also have to take literally the mark or the seal of God in order to be consistent? So what's the mark or the seal of God? What would be the physical thing? You're probably struggling to understand that as much as I am. Because on this side, how many of you have heard the Mark of the Beast is a microchip? Or it's a tattoo? Or it's some physical thing that indicates you've accepted this and that? Do what? Yeah, tattoo, it's a microchip. There's been all these things. But how many of you have ever heard someone say, But the mark of God is this. Never heard it, right? Exactly, that's my point. It says in the text that they are physically marked, but no one ever talks about that. Now, why do you think that they talk about the one, but they don't talk about the other? We talked about this when we began the study of Revelation. remember sensationalism sales Right, it's it's sensationalizing for someone to talk about Demons and being marked by the beast and that creates a stir in someone's imagination But to say that you're marked by God And I don't mean this negatively but the reality is most people would say well, well, that's that's That's not something all just kind of way out there that puts a shiver on your spine. So it just kind of gets washed up. Nobody considers it. Nobody talks about it because that's not considered sensationalized. It just is what it is. But then when it comes to the evil side of the house, people want to glamorize that or sensationalize that because that stuff sells books. Right? So think about it. Think of it from this perspective with church. If we say, look, we're just going to sit down and study the Word of God every Sunday, how many people want to come to that church? If you sit down and say, hey, we're going to have this ministry and that ministry. We're going to have a concert every Sunday morning. We're going to have lights and glamour. Jenny just recently ran into this of having the lights set at a certain point at a certain time when the music's at a certain volume. And everything has to be just right because you can create the atmosphere. A lot of people, they'll call. Hey, what are you doing? What do you have to offer? If you don't have all that, but I told Christy last week, we were with Josie at a big church in Tuscaloosa. And it was quite obvious what the whole thing was built on, the whole premise was built on. And everything nowadays, it's transitioned and it does change. Now it's all about these servant ministries, service ministries. You know, hey, we're going out and we're cutting people's grass. Hey, we're going out and we're handing out water on a hot day. Hey, we're going out and we're working in this old lady's yard. Oh, we're going out and we're helping this disabled organization. Oh, we're going out and we're going to serve food in the community here. Do what? There you go. Yeah, and it says so-and-so church. And it's like, hey, is that a bad thing? that you're helping other people, it's absolutely not a bad thing. But that becomes the main thing. Because those people you could stop and say, hey, you're handing out biscuits. Oh, yeah. Why are you doing that? Because we love you in the name of Jesus. Well, tell me about Jesus. Well, he loves you. But why does he love you? Well, because God is love. You see what I'm saying? They create this facade, and it sounds negative because when you're a pastor or a minister in a small church, everybody says, you're just hatin' on the big churches because you ain't got it. I'm like, well... Have you ever been to a church that's like a church visit? My mother was going to a national church. It was a big national church. There were a whole bunch of pastors and they all built NASCARs around themselves. They raced around the church to see who would win. It was a circus. The Southern Baptist Church that I know of just several years back, that when they do their baptisms, especially if they have children, getting baptized. They have the sanctuary gets dressed basically decorated like you know like a fire station and they have these red lights that go off and sirens that go off because it's just you know cataclysmic event in the life of this individual and they want everybody to take notice and I mean how many children are sitting out there going I'm going to do that because I want to see this go off. But that's what they do. And then they say, well, this is the gospel. We're ministering. We're reaching people. And people can't, they theologically can't argue their way out of a wet paper sack. And then you have pastors that say, well, we're not theologians. We're Christians. Nobody needs to do all this deep study. And it's like, what are you talking about? Yeah. So but those are the things that we see and in faith. So when I talk When I make the analogy of the the seals you see Sensationalizing the one thing and then just not really talking at all about the other and in the same way the modern church if you can Sensationalize it then everybody wants to be a part of it But if you don't talk about it, if it's just hey, it's just a dull old boring word of God I mean who wants to be sealed by God? I mean, don't you want this glamour? Don't you want this big stuff? I And you're like, isn't the being sealed by God the big stuff? Isn't that the big thing? Shouldn't we focus on that? But nobody does. This, to me, is one of the proof positives of the reality and truthfulness of Christianity. It's the same way when you talk about who in the world is persecuted, especially in the United States in modern day. You know, the white guy is the oppressor. Everybody else is good and the oppressed, but the white guy is evil. I can tell you right now, look at that from a global perspective, and the only person who is oppressed globally is the Christian. I don't care what color you are or where you come from. The Christian community at large is the oppressed community, right? It's the Christians who are martyred. It's the Christians who are killed. It's the Christians who can't get a job. It's the Christians who get made fun of. It's the, you know... Yeah, that's my point. You know, look at the mockery that takes place of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether it's artistic renditions of mocking the crucifixion, You know even Netflix. I canceled my Netflix subscription because of this They they're coming out now two different series or movies they're coming out that called Messiah that make a mockery of Christ one that Jesus was gay and had this whole gay thing going it's just an absolute mock can you imagine if Netflix put out a documentary that Muhammad was was gay and Or that, you know, Muhammad was, you know, this murderous tyrant that started this false religion on the planet. No! That never happens. But it always happens against a Christian. And that, to me, is proof positive that that's the truth. Because the wicked hate the truth, and they work to suppress the truth in any way that they can. So, when we talk about this sealing and sensationalizing things, These are things that I consider as I'm reading this and I say well, you know, man We put all this emphasis on the mark of the beast But everybody in this room agrees not hardly one time. Have you ever heard of the mark of God? And what is that? And when we do see what that is this ceiling we talked about it What is the seal of God on his people? We read the scriptures last week the Holy Spirit You're given the Holy Spirit that you are sealed you are sealed by the Spirit sealed by the Spirit sealed by God by the Spirit We saw this over and over we saw it in the Old Testament We see it in the New Testament and then Revelation 7 we see this symbolic ceiling just as we we mentioned in Ezekiel 9 The messenger in Ezekiel 9 did not place a physical mark on the foreheads of God's elect. It was a spiritual marking It was something that God could see and That no other man could see right almost like this invisible mark. Well god is Yes Yes, we're going to get to we're going to get to 14 but 7 and 14 go hand in hand the two go together so remember Remember when we first started Revelation, and I told you there's a couple of different ways to approach this book, and the way that I approach it is that we see these same things happening kind of repetitively in the book. So Revelation 7, we're given this picture in elaboration of 144,000. Then again in Revelation 14, we're given this picture 144,000 and the great multitude and we see that there and the similarities are there now the elect here as sister Becky mentioned in Revelation 14 They have the mark of God the seal right of God and where is the seal written? On their foreheads, right so we have to ask her quite the question. Okay, is there coming a point where everybody's you're going to get a stamp physically on your forehead and That's the name of God, right? Well, what is the name of God? We call him Jehovah, but does God say, my name is Jehovah? I am, right? So even the Jews historically, God's name is, is, is, is unintelligible. And they define that by Yahweh, right? Yahweh, technically, is an unpronounceable term. It'd be like us saying, somebody create a word real quick in English. Create me a word without vowels. That's the way Hebrew works. Hebrew doesn't use vowels. They're there, but they're not. They're not written, no. But the whole point of YWHW is a representation of that which is unpronounceable. It's incomprehensible. Out of fear yeah, not not get it wrong That's part of it Yeah, miss using the name in what way because the reality is God never says my name is other than he says I am when they say what is your name who sent me I am That's what you get. So it's not like my name Steve. My name's he his name and if you go through the Old Testament and you look at all of the references of my name or the name the name there there are many names, you know, he's Yahweh Jehovah The God of Abraham, I am. I mean, there is a limit. His name is described oftentimes or God is represented by not just his name, but his glory. You know, the Shekinah glory, the power of God, the love of God. I mean, all of these things are representative of who he is in his essence. And I think to Pastor Bruce's point is that when you look at it from an Old Testament perspective, the Hebrews, didn't want to get it wrong. Not only did they didn't want to get it wrong, because if you ascribe a name, that name now defines the person. But there is so much to God that is undefinable that you almost, by giving him some proper noun as a name, you put him in a box. And now that becomes who God is. Of course, that's the whole concept behind his identification with Moses, that, you know, who should I say in century? He could have said Gapwe century, because Gapwe is how he revealed himself. We really don't even know why, I don't know when, because actually, the name Gapwe is actually used in the opening chapter of Genesis. Before we have an introduction to the name, They're already using that name. So it's been traditionally, and I'm not sure I fully understand this, but traditionally it's been considered the covenantal name. The name Yahweh is one that is used in regards to these covenantal people. So it denotes the covenantal relationship. Right, which again, It's a denotation of who he is, not a proper noun, not like Bruce, or John, or Jody. To say Yahweh is a... Well, that's true of all names, though. If you go back to the original understanding of names, names are descriptive of the one... Of the individual. Yeah, that's why, particularly in the Old Testament, someone might be named, you know, Simon Bar-Jonah. Because, yeah, you know, Simeon, son of Jonah, son of John. So you understood by name, that was the pronunciation of their character, of who they are, or what family they come from. Right? We don't really do that in our court. We just, well, we like that name. It sounds cool. So that's what I'm naming my child. That is completely different from a historical, earthly historical lineage of names, right? Names were always affiliated or associated from where you came from. So that way you knew if you had this name, they knew you're from this family. You're from this tribe. You're from this group. And even for us today, we even take it to the next level, like take my name. If I tell somebody what's your name, Jody, and they write it down, what do they write? How do they spell my name? Jody why Jody ie Jody I if you're a girl Nobody ever does it he was so I don't know what in the world my parents were thinking to say, you know We're gonna make you so individualistic. We're gonna make it II so that nobody in the world knows how to spell your name Right, and then they do that with Michaela. I mean, there's 20 different ways people spell Michaela and Christy is it with a K is it with a CH is it I mean is We take being unique to the next level compared to most places in the world. Yeah, because you're not seen in most places in the world. You're not seen as an individual, but part of a group. Your entity is not individual, it's corporate. It's biblical. Yes, I want to take that thought and move on in the text because that's the point. When we talk about the name of God, We're talking about something that defines his nature, something that defines his character. And so when we read in the scriptures that we're sealed by God, we have the name of God on our foreheads, we're seeing a representation of we are part of the family of God, right? We're sealed, we're marked. And by the way, who did the dispatching to do the sealing? God did. Did the angel come about? And then they say, hey, you know what? If you want to be on God's side, get in this line, and we'll mark you. If you want to be on the evil side, get in this line, and we'll mark you. Can I make one more comment? Yes. Because this is a fundamental stumbling block for the traditionalists or for the, you know, whatever brand of polytheist, not polytheist, Synergist Looking at that's the fundamental Stumbling block for them because to accept Mono the monolithic Margin, yeah, okay to accept that you have to fundamentally understand yourself to be Let me go to the text on that thought right there I Somebody read Revelation 7 Verses 2 & 3 And I saw another angel ascended to me from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he carried out with a loud voice, he cried out with a loud voice to the poor angel, Okay, right there look closer at verse 3 What does it say About the ceiling this this angel who's coming from the eastern sky with the rising of the Sun, right? That's the the visual concept that's given here, but this angel coming with the seal of God Who's doing the ceiling? What does it say in the text? Do not harm the earth or the sea of the trees until what until we have sealed Right does it say until the until each of these men have sealed themselves? It does not. This marking of God, to Bruce's point, this marking of God is, in fact, at the sole discretion and decree of God. And that is consistent throughout all of Scripture. And even if you go back to the Old Testament and go back to the name concept, go back to Ezekiel, and God says, Yeah, one second. God says for my name's sake I am going to do these things right when it when he talks about the new covenant in Jeremiah for my name's sake I am going to do I am going to join Individuals to my name. I am going to mark them. I am going to do this says the Lord our God It's not this, you know Hey, well, you need to sit down and really think about this and figure out whose side do you want to be on here? That's not what we see, but that's often what's declared and preached in modern day is, hey, today you need to make a decision. Whose side do you want to be on? Right? Well, to the same point, it's even the way the ones that are sealed are described gives you a clue to that same issue or to the same point in that they are bonds owners. In other words, there's ownership denoted there. So God is sealing his own, as opposed to people making themselves, attaching themselves to God some way, then God saying, okay, I'll accept you since you've attached to me. It's exactly the other way around. He actually seals those whom he already owns. Yeah, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. I mean, that's that's exactly right. And that's what we see that's consistent throughout all of Scripture Yeah, yeah You can't Jesus Jesus is explicit and who is it that comes to the father all those who are given to the son by the father no one comes to me and That's the father grants it So, the only way you come to Jesus is that the Father granted it and the Father brought you to the Son. And no one knows the Father except through the Son. And the only way you know the Son is because you've been granted by the Father, right? There's no way around that, right? There's no way out of it. But man does their best to try to find a way out of it in modern day. So, let's see. Go back. So, that's on the sealing aspect. And there's absolutely no way I'm finishing this today. So the wording Now I think it's critical because I think you need to understand These these basic principles if you don't understand these basic principles then you're going to have a hard time making sense of of what the text says and what the scriptures say and So if we look at verse four, for example, the wording in verse four indicates the number that are what? Sealed. So somebody read verse four. Sister Becky, are you there? Do you want to read it? I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000. Sealed from 35 up to 70. Right? So I heard the number of the sealed. From who? From where? From where did they come from? Every tribe of the sons of Israel. God's doing the sealing, and it's happening to those who are sealed are coming from every tribe of the sons of Israel. So God has already determined this exact number, 144,000. But did John see 144,000 or did he hear 144,000? He what? He heard. How does he receive the number? What's it say in the text? And I heard the number, 144. So this number was perfect. He didn't look out and see 144,000. So it wasn't something that you could look upon, gaze upon, and count 144,000. He heard this metric. He heard this number. So as a side note, when we talk about the mark, we've talked about this seal, I think, enough. If the mark of God is his name or his seal upon his elect, then why would the mark of the beast be anything other than a mark of sin and rebellion. People want to, it's a microchip, it's a tattoo, it's this, it's this, it's this. But the mark of God is his name. And I would submit to you that the mark of the beast is sin and rebellion against God. And so we see the symbolism of apocalyptic literature and revelation coming into play here. So, you know when somebody says are you gonna get the microchip you're gonna get the tattoo Okay, are you literally gonna have the name of God written on your forehead? And if so What is the name of God? What will be written across the forehead of believers and Why can't you see it now because God says that we have the Holy Spirit. We're sealed were marked So we have the mark of God So there's coming a point in time in history when you'll physically have something written, just like they'll physically have this mark of rebellion. I don't think that's the intent. I think the intent is there are those who are marked by God, and there are those who are marked by the beast, and it is evident by sin and rebellion. And those who are marked by God are evident because they're sealed with the mark of God, with the seal of God, with the Holy Spirit of God. His name is upon them. When we talk about humanity and we talk about the head, the head is a representation of the whole. The head is where the brain is, the head is where the mind is, the head is where conceptually the soul of man. Not physically, the soul dwells in your head, but this is where your thinking takes place, this is where your contemplation takes place. So to mark the head is to mark the whole, to mark the whole being. The 144,000, John hears the number of the sealed. He didn't physically see a numeric value. He didn't see, like, oh, there's people, there's a group of 144,000 individuals that you can count, this value being representative of symbolic numbers in the Bible. When we talk about, you know, 144,000, it's easily divisible by the number 12, right? And we get how many tribes of Israel are there? Twelve. How many apostles are there? Right? So we have this consistent use of twelve, you know, in the scriptures. The number twelve is often a reference to the completeness of the church or even governmental perfection. You know, the twelve tribes of Israel in the Old Testament forms the foundation or a basis by which the household of God would be built upon. Right? The twelve apostles in the New Testament the foundation upon which the Gentiles would hear the gospel, and according to Revelation 7, would be grafted in, you know, to Israel, quote-unquote Israel. So, you know, that whole concept of, you know, Old Testament being represented by 12, New Testament being represented by 12, and then note the use of 12 in the description of the bride of the Lamb. Someone turn over to Revelation Actually, let's all turn to Revelation 21 And I'm going to read the passage there it's fairly lengthy Revelation 21 so this would be the chapter before the last chapter right towards the end and verses 9 through the end of the chapter And does anyone have a header? for this particular section The New Jerusalem right so we're looking at the the final state right of things Then came one of the seven angels Who had the seven bowls full of the seven plagues and spoke to me saying come I will show you what? the bride Who's the bride? What does it say in the text? The wife of the Lamb, right? We all know this is the church. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance, like a most rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. Now, so in verse 10 and 11, We're getting this description of what? Look at verse 10. What is he showing him? He's showing him the holy city of Jerusalem. Now, where is this city coming down from? Out of heaven. Now, in verse 9, what does he say he's going to show him? Bride Where is the bride for all those that are in Christ Jesus? What we've been seeing in the beginnings of Revelation, where are all of the Saints who have passed? They're in heaven You know in this scene of the outer areas of the throne room, right? We have this great multitude that no one can number every nation every tongue every tribe, right? I So now we have this descriptor having the glory of God in verse 11. It's radiance like a most rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a high wall with 12 gates, right? 12 gates. And at the gates, 12 angels. And on the gates, the names of the 12 tribes of the son of Israel were inscribed. And the east, three gates. The north, three gates. The south, three gates. The west, three gates. Three times four, right? Four different gates. Three on each side, right? And so the north, three gates, three gates, three gates, three gates. Three times four is what? Twelve, right? And the wall of the city had how many foundations? And on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. So now we see Old Testament, New Testament being represented together, consistent with 12, and the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and its walls. The city lies four square. Its length's the same as its width. Now we're saying that the city, we're being told the descriptors of the New Jerusalem that's coming down out of heaven is a perfect square, right? It is square by square by square. It's perfect. The city lies four square. Its length the same as the width, and it measured the city with its rod, 12,000 stadia. So again, 12. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall. 144. Divisible by 12. Square root of 12, in fact. So by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall built of jasper. The city was pure gold. Clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city adorned. With every kind of jewel, 1st was Jasper, 2nd Sapphire, 3rd Agate, 4th Emerald, 5th Onyx, 6th Carnelian, 7th Chrysalite, 8th Beryl, 9th Topaz, 10th Chrysoprase, 11th Jacint, 12th Amethyst. Stones 12, you know crystals that are that are represented there Different kinds of jewels the 12 gates, right? You want to know when everybody says when I get to what kind of gates? The pearly gate. This is this is the this is the only text and this is where it comes from and the 12 gates So this is funny because everybody says when I get to what? The pearly gates. Well, how many gates are there? Well, which one do you go in? There's 12 gates, or 12 pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl. So it's one pearl per gate, and there's 12 gates. And the streets of the city, streets of what? Gold. But this is not gold. This gold is transparent as glass. And I saw what? No temple. This Jerusalem has no temple in the city. For its temple is what? Is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb. Because this earthly system that was set up in Jerusalem, the physical city on earth There's a representation of what was to come. You know, Pastor Bruce talked about this going through Hebrews. I've preached on this in Hebrews, you know, the culmination. We're looking forward to a city not built with human hands, right? A city made by God. But my submission to you is that what we're seeing here in Revelation 21, 9 through 27, if you look at it for what it is, Don't know necessarily that we're getting a physical descriptor of what this physical city is going to look like Other than we're given what verse 9 says Come I will show you the bride the wife of the lamb and The bride comes down from heaven and now the bride is fully adorned. She is beautiful. She is anointed and She has everything in her preparation for this marriage. She has the jewels. She's as the crystal sea. She's pure, right? She's been washed. She has value gold, right? All of these things because he starts off in verse 9 come I'm going to show you the bride and then we get this description of Jerusalem and And the city has no need of a sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is the light, and its lamp is the lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut. By day there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it. Nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life Right, and so we have this this place That's you know, he says come I'll show you the bride you will see the bride I'll show you the bride we're given as a Demonstration of the bride. We're given a picture of what? The New Jerusalem is going to look like then the place where God's people are going to live right and again I do believe there will be a new place. There'll be a physical place in which we all dwell. But does that mean that it's actually physically going to be streets of gold? Does that mean that there's going to be gates of pearl? Or are these, again, in apocalyptic literature, symbolic of something else? And then when we look at this and we see the adorning of the bride and the greatness of the bride and we see all these coming these things coming into play the use of 12 representation and the bride of a lamb in Revelation 21 You know where the 12 tribes are mentioned the 12 apostles were mentioned right in this text 12 times 12 144 we had 144 mentioned right so again this number 144,000 is often symbolically represented in different ways, in different passages in scripture. So 12 is not only a symbolic number, 10 is a symbolic number as well. What are things that you think of when you hear 10 in the Bible? The 10 virgins. That's actually one. The 10 virgins. What else? 10 commandments. So when we see 10 commandments, why not 11? It's a representation of perfection. Does it mean it's literally That's all there is? No. But it is a representation that that covers everything. It is a perfect number. It is a perfect completion. The ten virgins. Why ten virgins? Because that brought fullness. That brought completeness. Right? It's that whole concept of completeness. There were ten generations from Adam to Noah. Right? Completeness. Up until God establishes this covenant. Right? A period of completeness. How many plagues upon Egypt? 10, completeness, right? So we see this over and over. 10 is a number that can be a representation of a greater value, right? If we look at how many laws were there, there was like over 600. But that was culminated in 10, right? In a perfection state, a completeness state. If we see that completed state, 10 times 10 times 10, and perfection, you know, Three also means perfection with the Trinity, with the Godhead. So we have 10 times 10 times 10 is 1,000. The 12 tribes and the 12 apostles, 144 times 1,000, 144,000. So now we've got Old Testament, New Testament, Old Saints, New Saints, All Saints represented to perfection. That's- I don't know why they didn't say anything about 12. Yes, yeah completeness Yeah, and you know in essence, you know, if we look at 12, we have the number 12 referencing completeness As it pertains to the Old Testament with the 12 tribes or as it pertains to the New Testament Church and the Saints with the 12 apostles so we have that representation of completeness with Individuals right with the 12 and the 12 if you look at 10 10 oftentimes represents the thought of God with the commandments, with the covenant, with the time periods, right? You do the math, and I'm not a numerologist, right? I don't think we should be taking numbers and coming up with schemes. I don't believe that at all. But what I do believe is that God uses numbers in Scripture oftentimes to give us representation. Ten commandments. That's all you need, right? That's a demonstration of completeness. Twelve apostles was all you need because God chose that, and that's the representation of the whole, right? So we see that there. So note that immediately following the list of the twelve tribes, if we go back to Revelation 7, the twelve tribes are listed out, right? We have 12,000 from this tribe, 12,000 from this tribe, 12,000 from this tribe, right? Twelve in that list. John indicates right after that John says well go to the text. Let me show you this Revelation 7 Right so right after that in verse 9 What is verse 9 say Jenny? He lists out the 12,000 and 12,000 12,000 12,000 so he gets the the multiplier 144 and then in verse 9 he says this Right so immediately following the 12 the 12,000 from the 12 tribes He said he heard this number, right? He heard the number, 144,000. But now, after hearing this, he looks and he sees. Right? Now he's seeing. But what is it that he sees after hearing this representation of a number? A great multitude that no one can number from every nation, all tribes, peoples, languages standing before the throne. I don't think anyone would argue that this is not believers, right? This great multitude that no one can number from every nation, every tongue, every tribe. I think every one of us would agree that when we say every nation, every tongue, every tribe, we're talking about believers, right? As a whole being before, yes, they're before the throne. Evil doesn't make it there exactly, right so Immediately following the list of the twelve tribes John now sees a great multitude that no one can number they are from every nation They are from all tribes all peoples all languages and they're standing before the throne and the lamb This is obviously a heavenly picture that Jehovah's Witnesses have difficulty with right because They claim that the 144,000 will be the only ones to enter heaven. But John says he looks and he sees a great multitude that you can't number. He's already said he heard a number, but now he's seeing before the throne and the Lamb and the glories of heaven a number that can't be numbered, a great multitude that's beyond comprehension. So the Jehovah's Witnesses' whole argument falls apart right here. right here, it just crumbles. They have no response or answer for this. Well, when I spoke to the ones that visited me, to them, they just kept kind of working around, well, you know, you have to realize, you know, well, this is symbolic of something else, and I'm like, well, wait a minute, if we're symbolic, then why are we literal on the 144? And that's the problem that they encounter. We're out of time. I still didn't get anywhere close to digging into where I wanted to get to. So here's next week, Lord willing, I'll get three more sentences out of my notes complete. I hope so. Yeah. If the Lord doesn't take me. Yeah, closer to God. That's exactly right. So to kind of give you an idea of where we're going to go, this is my futile attempt at a map of geographical Israel. The Sea of Galilee at the top. What is the... Lake Tiberias. For those that see Galilee, Lake Tiberias, what's this? The Jordan River, and it feeds the Dead Sea down here. It is dying. It's drying up. Every year, it's a little smaller and a little smaller and a little smaller. It's evaporating. There's not as much feeding the Dead Sea water sources. They've done a lot of stuff with the Jordan, you know, damming it up, using it for water sources and irrigation, but not as much makes it down here. But there's no life in there? There is this microbial life, but it's not a fish. So this is an interesting discussion for another day, but there is an Old Testament prophecy that talks about the Dead Sea once again becoming fresh and supporting life. and basically this concept of fish and things coming out of there. If you go to the Dead Sea today, and you stand up on Masada, for example, which is down here in the desert. From Masada, you can see the Dead Sea, and you can actually see, because of the evaporation and the minerals, there's actually a land bridge that is being naturally built within it, that's dividing it. One concept, you know, behind the fulfillment of this prophecy, perhaps, is that, you know, because it says in the text that a portion will remain for salt and a portion will support life and will be fresh. Well, if there's this bridge that occurs and divides this thing, then you could have, you know, a portion of it for salt and a portion of it. So, anyway, but Representative Israel, does anybody remember S.J. Bemezan, manager? Does anybody remember me talking about this? and years past. That's the 12 tribes. This was the acronym that I learned to memorize the 12 tribes. S.J., Bemazan, Manager. Simeon, Judah, and they're in order. That's why it's this way. Simeon in the south, then Judah. Does anybody know the B? Not the birth order. The land Yeah, the land order on how the land was distributed. That's what this represents. So if you're looking at a map, you could start here, and you could fill in every tribe's land. So Simeon, Judah, Dan. Actually, I have a map with this listed on there. I printed it at home, and I walked off and forgot it. So I'll bring it to you next week. And it has all of this information on there. There you go. So Simeon, Judah, who's the B? Benjamin, E. Ephraim, M. Manasseh, I. Issachar, Z. Zebulun, A. Asher, N. Naftali, D, Dan, M. Manasseh again. Yeah, from a land division perspective. Yeah, Manasseh, it gets divided, it gets split. And we're so this is why I wanted to explain this to you And this is why I wanted to get started this morning because we're gonna well actually I knew I was not going to be able to do this, but I was really hopeful in my gut that I could do it But if you don't understand Yeah, if you don't understand the 12 tribes Understanding revelation 7 and 14 and 144,000 is a little bit difficult, because it directly references the 12 tribes. So you've got to deal with this somehow. So we have Manasseh. It gets divided. So there's two Manassehs. Then G, Gad, and R? Reuben. Reuben, right? So SJ Bimbisamana. This is how the land gets divided up. Now, we know that this was divided into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom, right? Does anybody know? Which tribes represented? So I started here. So which tribe? Israel's north, right? That's, you know, who was in the south? Simeon and Judah, right? Simeon and Judah, that's the two of the seven. Basically, in all of these, when we get into latter parts of the Old Testament, when we just reference Israel and Judah, That's Northern Kingdom Southern Kingdom Judah basically absorbed Simeon right and then the ten tribes just became Israel So there was no distinction, you know, but but this is how the land was divided Yeah, see this is how many do we have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 if you look at the land divisions and we have 13, but we're missing one of the 12 tribes, which is Now we got 14 And that's the stuff that I want us to go into next week. We're going to look at the 12 tribes. I'm going to give you an understanding of the divisions Why do we have more of a number than we think we should? Because we got more than 12. So where's the 12 and what happened to give us more? So we'll break all that down. We'll talk about that so that when we talk about Revelation and the 12 tribes, we can really understand what we're talking about right here. So that's where we're gonna go next week. We'll talk about the 12 tribes and then that'll probably take us a whole hour. We'll do the 12 tribes and then we'll come back And we'll talk about the completeness of the 144,000 and hopefully finish it up with a little bit of legitimacy and everybody understanding, hopefully, where I feel like this passage is talking about. Again, I'm not dogmatic about this. I'm giving you this from my perspective, especially as a teaching pastor. My studies, where I fall on this, There are very prominent men who disagree with me. And I'm not saying they're wrong. And the good thing is, is they can't say I'm wrong either. If they do, I can challenge them with the text. And they're going to have problems, just like I'm going to have problems trying to prove some of the stuff that they say. But irregardless, I think I can make a pretty good argument biblically on why this is symbolic, what it represents. Long story short, The 144,000 represents all believers in its entirety. That's my position. And I'll work through the 12 tribes, or work through the great multitude, distinguish the 144,000 from the great multitude, and how those things are... How do we reconcile that? Right. Well, I'm going to work to reconcile that. Yep. All right. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the day. Thank you for the time. I pray that you'd bless your people in Jesus name. Amen.