Verse 13, if you got your place there, please say amen. That sounds good. Follow along with me. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? So this is one of the elders that is around God's throne, and he's asking John. Verse 14, I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. He said, I don't know, what are you asking me for? And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Father, we thank you for your word. We ask now you open our hearts and minds to your truth. In Christ's name, amen. All right, so remember, this is right before the seventh seal. We'll see that not next week, or the next week, or the next week. We'll see it when we get back into Revelation. Understand that the worldwide earthquake has taken place, they got the crustal pole shift that's happened, all of those different things have happened, and so right after that sixth seal, you know, God's poured out his spirit, he's sealed the 144,000 witnesses, they went forth preaching the word, and now, All of a sudden, you begin to see this huge crowd. And we notice in our studies, when you go all the way back down to verse 9, you see that huge crowd that we've been talking about. And I've been telling you, as we've been working our way through this, that this crowd that John's seeing in heaven is not the same as the 144,000. That's on the earth. But in heaven, he sees this huge crowd. And we have noted that, again, the scripture said they're of all nations and tribes and languages and tongues. So, obviously, these are Gentile. And now we get a little bit more descriptive understanding about who and what they are. So, the elder pops up here. Now, we're not going to spend a lot of time about the elder. Obviously, this is one of the 24. We don't know if this is the same one here mentioned in verse 13 as it was back in chapter 5, verse 5. We don't know that, but we do know that this is one of the 24 elders. We know that. And so he began to ask him, he said, who are these people? He said, I don't know. You tell me who they are. And then he says, these are those that have come out of great tribulation. Now please note, it does not say the great tribulation, it says they come out of great tribulation. So tribulation is testing, is suffering, is anguish, is turmoil. So if he was speaking about these are they that have come out of the great tribulation, then he would be talking about the last three and a half years of the seven-year tribulation. But the fact that he says these have come out of great tribulation, what he's saying there, guys, is that these have come out of great suffering. Not the Great Tribulation. But we note where it's at. It is sandwiched between seal six and seal seven. So this is obviously still in the first three and a half year period time frame. So these people that are standing there, they have come out of some type of great suffering. Notice what they've done. Why were they persecuted? Why did they go through all this suffering? is the fact that these people were saved, because you notice here, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Now, let's understand something that he said back in chapter 6, verse 11. And white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. So remember brethren denotes kinship. So I think guys what this is showing you is those martyrs that were under the altar in heaven Back in the fifth seal, God gave them white robes and said, rest, wait a little while until the rest of your brethren come alongside you. I don't believe he's talking about Jews here, but I believe he's talking about brethren in the sense of martyrs. The people that are going to be martyred. So, when we look at this thing, guys, we understand that there's going to be a huge movement of people getting saved inside of the tribulation. But the key point is that they cannot have heard the gospel before the rapture took place. That understanding comes out of 2 Thessalonians. Because what we see there is that once the Holy Ghost is removed with the church, then there will be a strong delusion that will be sent forth over all the world. and they will believe a lie. So the thing is, guys, is that right now we live under the age of grace. In other words, we do wrong, God gives us grace. He gives us what we don't deserve, another chance, another chance, another chance. But when it reverts back over to the tribulation, when it reverts to the tribulation, what we understand is that the time is going to revert back to the way it was during the first century when the gospel was going to the Jew first and then to the Greek. And what that meant was, is that under that understanding, that if the Jew heard the gospel and he rejected it, then that was no more chances for salvation for them at that time. That's where they would harden their heart. And God said later, I believe it was inside of Hebrew, that they would be counted as guilty of trampling underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ. And this is where some people have come up with that false doctrine about being able to lose their salvation. Because they say, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. Again, it's a misunderstanding about terminology used back inside of the Old Testament. Because under the Old Testament, under the Mosaic Law, if you deliberately committed a sin, there was no more sacrifice. You couldn't go up to the priest and say, okay, I did such and such, okay, here's my lamb for an offering. But the priest would say, well, did you do that intentionally? Did you know what you were doing was a sin? Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, you can't be forgiven of that. You have to wait until the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. And then that lamb, that goat, will basically cover up your sin. So it's kind of like you're, depending on the sin, you're kind of hoping you can hurry up and get to the Day of Atonement, because God might require your life and you'd rather the goat, remember, the scapegoat die than you die. So, that's why Jesus' sacrifice is a whole lot better because He covers sins that are sins of omission, which is oops, and sins of commission. Yeah, I know exactly what I'm doing, I'll do it anyway. That's why He said, remember, Hebrews is showing the Jews Jesus is a whole lot better in everything. Jesus's priesthood is better than the Mosaic priesthood. Jesus's sacrifices is better than the Mosaic sacrifices. All of that. And that's why he's saying, he's saying under the law there's no more sacrifice for sin. if you did it knowingly. But here under Jesus, if you reject His sacrifice, then there is no more sacrifice for sin. If you throw Him away and His blood, where else are you going to go? Are you going to go back to the lambs and all of that? His is the supreme, His is the sacrifice, the one and only sacrifice. So that's what he's illustrating, he's not showing, oh, if you sin after you're saved, well, there remains no more sacrifice. Oop, tough luck, you're out of luck, bye-bye, enjoy hell. He's not showing that. It just blows my mind how people can twist that and try to make it say that. Context, context, context, that's it. So these are they that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Our robes are as filthy rags. But when we take our robes to Jesus, He dips them in His blood, and out they come perfect, new, white robes. You know, they're completely clean. Remember what Jesus said to Peter. He said in John 13, verse 8, If I watch thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all. He's talking about spiritual cleansing there, not physical washing with water or anything like that. And that's linked back to the Holy Ghost. Inside of my notes, I outline all of that inside of the notes, but please note the wording. Have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Does that mean that they were saved by their works? Absolutely not. It's not the work that they did. It is the fact that they had their ears spiritually attuned to what the Word said. So, we now have the spiritual ear, remember? Revelation 2, 29. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. At the time of the rapture, the Holy Ghost will be taken out of the world, remember? And thus, that effective ministry that he does will not operate as it does now. Because he's gonna be gone out of the world. That's what Jesus tells us over in John 16, verses 7 through 14. So rather, during the Tribulation, what's going to happen is God's going to do like He did back in the Old Testament. The principle or the doctrine of enduement. That's a fancy way of saying God's going to loan the Holy Ghost for people that need to do something for Him. So these that are saved during the Tribulation, they will have to actively resist the lies of the evil one. See 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 3-12. Once the gospel, powered by the Holy Ghost, on loan to those Jewish evangelists is preached to them, they will have full understanding of that gospel, and once they accept, they will have to be done the same way it was back in the Old Testament without the personal aid and conviction of the Holy Ghost. That's one reason why, guys, it is so simple for a person to get saved during the church age. It is all due to, thankfully, due to the ministry and power of the Holy Ghost of God. It's not on us. The fact that people are getting saved during the tribulation is amazing. But what happens is this, is that when they get saved, they're going to be persecuted. And even inside of the first half of the tribulation. And many of these, once they're saved, once they're out with God, they're going to be persecuted so much that they will, some of them, lose their life. Now during the last part of the tribulation, that's when the guillotine or the swords come out. That's when people start getting beheaded. That's when the mark of the beast is going to come out, but we haven't got there to that yet. So all of these, so what's God going to do? God's going to give these a big, big blessing. That's why, notice he says, moving on, that they stand before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. Now, I don't know what it means that they're going to serve him day and night, but if you're serving God, It's got to be good. Think about it. You're not going to get tired. You're not going to give out. You ain't going to want to take a break. You ain't going to want to eat and ain't going to want to sleep and all that. So you got it. You got it made. You're going to have the special privilege of waiting on God doing something. Whatever it is, praise the Lord for that. And it says, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. That's amazing, guys, to stop and think about this. Another benefit here. Get that deep down inside of your ears, guys. Think about it. It's happening before the seventh seal is broken. Now, many Bible commentators say that everything we're reading about, it matches so much of Revelation 21 and 22, and that John is speaking of things to come, but no, that is being described Right then, in Revelation 21, 3, he says, and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. John mentions that God shall dwell among them at that time. Now, I'd like to point out that in this respect of God dwelling among them is a promise, because these are all serving God day and night, so the promise Here, it's the same as in Revelation 21, 3. God shall future-tent one of their future benefit. He shall dwell with them when the day come. They shall hunger no more. What a blessing! They shall thirst no more. Neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat. Now, I want to show you something here. This verse, 16. In many theologians' haste to get to chapter 8, I think they missed something rather important. I think that since these promises are given at this point before God's throne, I think this is showing us how these martyrs died. They were starved to death, they were malnourished. They thirsted to death, they were dehydrated. They die out of exposure given the fact that the word nor is there connecting the principles of sunlight and heat. I think this furthermore shows where this crowd died. Since the Antichrist will have moved the world headquarter and thus the capital to, as we shall see, to a newly rebuilt Babylon, these Christians weren't guillotined. They were not paraded in front of national TV. It looked to me like a prison stockade where there was so much overcrowding that they were without food, without water, without shelter, and most likely tortured to death in an unknown desert place, Babylon. That's what I think. Because remember, where the two witnesses are preaching, they're preaching right in Jerusalem. Where is that at? It's inside of the Middle East. And so what we found there is that the 144,000 are going to go out, they're going to begin to evangelize, they're going to begin, after all these events happen, and then these people are going to respond, and they're going to get excited about Jesus, and the one world government is going to want everybody on the same page. And if you're a Christian, you're on the other page. You're not on their page. They're going to round them up, They're going to do just like all the dictators, all of the totalitarian regime. Think about Hitler and his concentration camp. That's how they started. Round them up, people that are against us and our ideology, and put them in one spot so we can keep an eye on them, and then we can figure out what to do with them. I mean, guys, that's what we did to many people of Japanese descent in World War II after Pearl Harbor. We rounded up a lot of Japanese and put them inside of the western area of the United States to keep them under lock and key so we could keep an eye on them. Look at what we did to the Indian. We rounded them up, took not their land, took the land. Normally, most Indians did not view themselves as owning the land. They were stewards of the land. I don't want to throw that out there. Now the history professor's coming out. Anyway, so we took the land and put them on reservation so we could keep an eye on them. So that's the way the world tries to control people. Put them where we can keep an eye on them. And isn't it interesting? Every one of these things has tracking devices on them. And 99% of the time, most people, they don't leave their phone. And isn't it also interesting that you can look up something and then all of a sudden you're hit with different ads? Oh yeah, there's algorithms and things like that. Big Brother's listening. And I say all of that for this because all of these technological things, all of these devices, how all the world is shrinking and getting smaller, it's all leading to one event, the end. Everything's falling into place. And if somebody can't see that, I pray God would open their eyes before it's too late. before they get stuck back here. All right, so, the lambs in the midst of the throne, he shall feed them, and shall lead them into fountains, unto living fountains of water. Please note, that means moving. Living fountains, it means this water is moving about, and it's a constant moving. In other words, it's not gonna be stagnant. It's not gonna be dirty water, it's gonna be amazing. The water of life. There's a bunch of notes on that inside of what I wrote down. It says, while Christ has said here not to take them to the river of life, rather they are going to the head fountain. And guys, symbolically that deals with the gospel, deals with the word of God and respect unto God. That's the fountains he's guiding them to, but then that last point he said, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Again, future tense, God shall wipe away. That's another promise echoing down the corridors in Revelation 21-4. Now, when we get to that point, to me, when God does that, He's also going to be removing memories. Because where that happens, we generally hear it at funerals and stuff like that. But when you get to Revelation 21-4, when God wipes away all tears from our eyes, that's coming on the heels of the Great White Throne Judgment. That's where hell has delivered up the dead, and we're all going to see this. And what is mind-blowing to me in a sad way is you're going to have dads see their sons, moms see their daughters, husbands see their wives, See our coworkers, our neighbors, people that we know and love and we've lived around. And we're gonna see them be judged according to their works and cast into the lake of fire. And then hell's gonna be thrown in after them. And we're gonna see all that. And there could be some interaction. I don't know that for 100%, but we're gonna be in a safe place And we're gonna see these people that we know. And here's another thing. Everybody's gonna know everybody. Everyone. The rich man knew Abraham, even though he was not right with God. Remember, in Luke 16, the rich man was burning in hell. He looked up and he recognized Lazarus, who was saved. You know, they were neighbors, kinda. And then he saw Abraham and he recognized him. So that's a further principle showing that in the afterlife, everybody's gonna know everybody, including people in hell, evidently. So Adolf Hitler, he's gonna know you. He's gonna see you, even though he's never seen you. Genghis Khan, he's gonna recognize you. Caesar, he's gonna know you. Judas Iscariot, he might even call you by name. But the thing is, the mind-blowing thing is, is that everybody that has ever existed is gonna know everybody. Like on a first-name basis. And so what's going to even be more mind-blowing is that there's people that are going to be fixing the throne into the lake of fire. They've been burning in hell. Now they're standing naked before God's throne, and there's no excuse for them They done rejected salvation, so why? Why are they there? They're there because God's giving them their day in court. Basically, he's asking them, why should I let you in heaven? Well, I've done this, I've done that, I've done this, I've done that. And so that's where all of their works is gonna be thrown inside the fire, and it's all gonna burn up. Sorry, your sin still outweighs, and the only currency we accept is the blood of Christ. And you didn't accept it. So there you go, but no, no, no. And they're gonna be thrown. And if they see us, they may scream back at us, why didn't you tell me? You were a preacher, you were a deacon, you were a Sunday school teacher, you were a Christian, you used to work beside me. And yet all you talked about with TV and game and this and that and all these other things, and yet you never told me about Jesus. And they'll be dragging and kicking and screaming. People saying, I love the song, don't get me wrong, no tears in heaven. No, no, there's going to be all kinds of tears in heaven. There's going to be tears of joy that were there. There's going to be tears of sadness. There's going to be tears of shame. When Jesus analyzes our whole life, why did you waste all of your life? And look what you could have done. I firmly, truly believe that Jesus is going to show us the road not traveled. That if we have done more of what he said, he said, this could have been your reward, but no, you wanted this junk. And you talk about feeling that small, yeah, we're all gonna feel that way, God, just hang on. You say, but preacher, I don't want to. Then get busy doing something for God, rather than living for self. I'm saying that to me too. So, we're going to see all this happen. We won't want to see this happen. Like I'm saying, we're going to have family members there, loved ones there, friends, best friends. So if I watched and saw my children, my son, thrown alive in the lake of fire, and that image is seared in my mind for all eternity, how can I enjoy heaven? I can't. That's why when he wipes away that tear, he wipes away the memory. And it will be as if they never existed in our minds and our hearts. Why? Because he said the former thing You will not remember them. So if you want to remember them, we better tell them about Jesus. And that goes back to Pascal's equation. David, if you'll come. The weighing it out. Only an idiot would say, no, I'm not going to believe in God. Pascal weighed it out from a rational, intellectual viewpoint. It's there, the offhand chance that everything is right, you'd be a fool to reject Christ. Because he flipped it and he said, but if we're wrong, then you go be worm food and you've lived a decent life. I honestly don't believe that we're wrong. Let me rephrase that. I don't believe the Bible's wrong. We can be wrong, but the Bible's right. But anyway, I hope y'all got something out of it. Now, when we get back to Revelation, it's gonna seem like forever, but I promise you, it'll be there. Now hey, Lord might just go ahead and call us home by the rapture. That won't be no skin off my nose. But when we get back to Revelation chapter eight, we're gonna find out, believe it or not, there's gonna be silence in heaven for about 30 minutes. I had a preacher friend that said, I know why. I said, why? He said, because there weren't any women up there yet. I said, you didn't tell that to your church, did you? He said, yeah. I said, I bet your wife hit you and punched you all the way home. Yeah, I got to meet Fido a lot better that week. I said, uh-huh, I bet you did. But no, it ain't that. It ain't that. But there's a reason why. And I want to show you that, and we'll find out what that is. Because if they're always praising God, holy, holy, holy, why in the world are they going to all clam up for about 30 minutes? On Earth time. Remember, there's no time in heaven. This is just our frame of reference. Johnny Boy, remember? He's trying to tell us. So we'll find out. But, for now, let's bow our heads or close our eyes.