(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you can find your seats, we'll get started. Starting off in song number 424, O Come All Ye Faithful. Song number 424, O Come All Ye Faithful. Song 424. O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee. Sing, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee. O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee. Sing, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee. O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee, O come, let us adore thee. Great singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this evening. Thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church, for Pastor Shelley and his family and everyone gathered here. Lord, we ask that you bless this service, Lord, fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit so we can edify all of us, Lord. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Next up, we have song number 422. Should be just one page over. Thou didst leave thy throne. Song 422. Thou didst leave thy throne. 422. On the first. Jesus, there is room by mine for thee. Jesus, there is room by mine for thee. Jesus, there is room by mine for thee. Jesus, there is room by mine for thee. Jesus, there is room by mine for thee. My heart shall rejoice for Jesus, when the Father is to come, just for me. And then the regional soul winning. Make sure if you want to participate in our soul winning event at the end of the month, there is a sign up sheet and you can sign up. It's going to be the 30th. We're going to Midlothian and it's just probably maybe 30 minutes or so south of here. It's definitely a great opportunity to get some extra soul winning in. So if you'd like to come with us, please do sign up. Even if you just want to do the morning or the afternoon, that's fine. Just please sign up so that way we can have an idea of how many people to expect. We have our church stats. Make sure to submit that to your soul winning captains on the right. We have a list of several expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them. We also have our prayer list. We've been praying for Brother Hall for his leg to continue to heal. We've been praying for Brother Wallach and actually an update. He had emailed us. His niece Hattie is now cancer free, which is great. I believe that they're still going to be doing some more treatments just to try and make sure that she doesn't go back into. I don't know exactly what the terminology is, but just going backwards. Also, I just continue to pray for her. We have Miss Cooley's stepdad. We've been continuing to pray for his cancer. We've been praying for Brother Oz, his brother. We've been praying for the name's grandmother. We've also been praying for Brother Rich. We've been praying for the Spurgeon's grandfather for healing. Miss Morrow is asking for prayer for healing as well. And then we're also praying for Brother Stewart. I guess his brother John passed away. Sorry to hear that. We'll be praying for him as well. That's pretty much all I have as far as in the bulletin. We'll just go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for Steadfast Baptist Church and this opportunity to be here. Thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting. I pray that you just be with them, that you would help them during their pregnancies and help their baby's development. I pray that you would also help our church family that's struggling with health issues, with sickness. I pray that you would please give them favor. Please give them a full recovery. Please give them wisdom. Please also just give them comfort during this time of tribulation. I pray that you would also help our church family that needs favor. And I pray that you would also help us to have boldness to reach out to our family members and friends and those who need to hear the gospel this Christmas season that we could remind them of the free gift that was given to us through your son. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On the back, note about the upcoming cookie bake-off. It's going to be this Sunday and we're actually just going to move up our evening service to 4.30. So we're just moving up one hour early in place of the Spanish service. That way we can get some cookies and still kind of get out of here at a reasonable time. So if you are planning on participating, just bring your cookies to the evening service and immediately following the evening service we'll have cookies, we'll have some milk. So for all of you milk fans, I'm a milk fan. Okay, who's a milk fan? Alright, God bless a lot of saved people here tonight, alright? And so that's great. And then the end of the year we'll have a New Year's Eve party if you want to participate in that. That's pretty much all I have in regards to announcements. We're going to go ahead and sing our third song. It's going to be Psalm 150. You can use your special handouts or you could just even turn in your Bible. Psalm 150. Alright everybody, Psalm 150. Praise be to God, praise be to God, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord. Praise be to God, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord. Praise be to God, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord, praise be to the Lord. Alright, as the opportunity starts to pass around, please turn your Bibles in Revelation chapter 7. Revelation 7, the Bible reads, And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And 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 given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed one hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Assar were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Manasseh were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. After this I beheld and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. 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 anymore, 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. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for Revelation Chapter seven. I pray that you bless tonight's Bible study and enable Pastor Shelley to explain the scriptures to us to the very best of his ability. And, Lord, help us to pay close attention to the sermon tonight and open up your word to us so that we may apply valuable lessons to our lives. We love you. And in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Let's look at verse one. The Bible says, And after these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. Now, in Chapter seven, it says an after these things. So, again, we're getting a chronological timeline. And that's why I kind of created this chart to show a sequence of events so that we'd have some semblance of how the events unfold. And we're in chapter number seven. It's not really a long period of time. It's actually a very short period of time. But a lot of events happen. Therefore, when you look at the chart that I've created, you can't necessarily look at it from a timeline perspective of, like, how much time is passing. It's really more of a sequence of events. And so in some gaps, it's a very short space. In some gaps, it's a very long space. And so, you know, if I were to make the chart on a very specific timeline, then you'd have all these events just, like, almost at the exact same time. And so it's spaced out a little bit easier so you can read. And in chapter six, we had just finished with the Lord Jesus Christ appearing in the sky, and we see all of the men of the earth crying for the rocks to fall on them and to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the Lamb, and that their wrath is come. Notice what it said in verse seventeen of chapter six. For the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? Notice that in chapter six, verse seventeen, it's saying that the wrath is come, meaning it's present tense. So that makes it clear that everything that happened before that was not His wrath. And that's why, you know, we'll often describe our end times or eschatological views as being pre-, I'm sorry, yeah, pre-, post-trib, pre-wrath. I kept, I wanted to say that wrong for a second. Post-trib, pre-wrath, meaning that there is, of course, tribulation that we have to endure, and even a great tribulation. So Christ is going to come after that great tribulation, which is where we get the idea of post-tribulation, but then pre-wrath, meaning that we're going to be raptured before Jesus Christ pours out His wrath. Now we see it being described here, His wrath is come. Before the wrath is actually technically poured out, chapter seven kind of just gives us a little bit of an idea of what happened right before this, and just kind of like this precursor to the wrath actually being unleashed. And one of these things is that four angels are sent onto the four corners of the earth. Now that's kind of an interesting thought. Some people would kind of even maybe scoff at this and say, well the earth, how does the earth have corners? Or perhaps you have an even weirder idea that the earth is flat or something, and that somehow the earth has corners like you would think like a corner of a room. But I would submit to you that a corner, albeit while we understand a corner as being the edge of a room, there's other ways to understand what a corner could potentially be described as. And that, in fact, it's still a spherical object that we're talking about having four corners. Now I want to explain to you what I believe this is saying, but I also want to prove to you that the Bible uses the word corner when we talk about other spherical type objects or similar type structures in the Bible. Keep your finger here and go to Leviticus chapter 19. Go to Leviticus chapter 19. Now of course the word corner is a very complex word. It has a lot of different meanings, definitions, context in which it could be used. When we talk about the gospel going forth, it's said that this thing was not done in the corner. When we talk about the Lord Jesus Christ being killed, being crucified, dying, and being risen again, they're saying this thing hasn't been done in the corner of the world. Like everybody's heard about Jesus. Everybody's heard about the gospel. Everybody's heard about these things. And we talk about that. That's kind of just a metaphorical usage of the word corner. Many times when we talk about corner in the Bible, we're talking about the altar, and we're talking about the very specific edges of the particular altar, and we would say that's the corner of the altar. It talks about rings being on the corner. But I want to show you another mention of the word corner in the Old Testament. Leviticus chapter 19, look at verse 27. The Bible says, Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. So notice what it's saying is that you have a corner of your head. Now, unless you have a block head, okay, this pretty much very clearly proves that you can still have a corner when we're talking about a more spherical type shape of an object, right? Now, exactly what does this scripture refer to? It's obviously trying to give the idea of some kind of a strange haircut where somebody is specifically cutting their hair in a weird way. I've seen one picture of this, and it's kind of like the idea of like an old saint, but they'll take like almost an extreme chili bowl style haircut where basically they cut everything, just like everything that's like perfect circle around their head, and then everything else is just completely shaven off. So they just kind of have this weird, it looks like the Three Stooges. Ever seen the Three Stooges and like one of them has kind of what looks like a wig on almost because it's just like this weird mop head? It's like that's a strange way to cut your hair. And it's similar if you think about what this verse is saying, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. You know, the Bible is also kind of indicating that you shouldn't just take off random sections of your beard and the way that you groom or manicure yourself as to have some kind of a strange haircut, strange beard. And so those are kind of the context. But the point is this, that you can have a corner of your head. Now, when we talk about the four corners of the earth, what could this possibly look like? Well, I'm kind of a visual person, so I just wanted to draw a simple picture for you. But obviously when we draw the earth in a two-dimensional world, you know, this is just a circle, right? But we can visualize this as being a sphere. And, you know, for sake of argument, I'm not going to draw this perfectly, but our planet is tilted slightly. So there is an axis upon which it's tilted. And when we talk about the North Pole, technically it wouldn't be like up here. It's again, there's a little bit of an axis tilt, okay? But just for sake of argument, I'm just going to draw it where it's just straight at the top. So if we just looked at this as the North Pole, okay, this is just due north of the earth. I'll be our planet slightly tilted, okay? So just someone's going to be like, ah, the planet's tilted. You know, get over yourself for a second, okay? If you understand what a corner is, a corner, according to the dictionary, is the point where converging lines, edges, and sides meet. So it's just basically where lines and everything are intersecting. Of course, you know, I'm not going to be able to draw this perfectly, but if you were to kind of draw a sphere in a two-dimensional plane, you kind of like draw lines like this to kind of show you how the earth, and again, I'm not drawing a pumpkin. I'm just drawing you a little bit of some lines to give you some kind of a visual representation of a sphere. But if we were looking at where all these lines kind of intersect, they're kind of all intersecting at this one specific point, which would be the North Pole. So you could argue that one of those angels is here. You know, if you kind of look at this, all these lines are coming to kind of a head, and you have the North Pole. Then you would have what? The South Pole. Then, of course, what would be logical is that you would have one here at due east and one at due west. And so basically it's just saying there's an angel located at these four corners of the earth, and they are responsible for keeping the wind from blowing on any section of the earth. This verse in no way proves that the earth is flat. That's silly. And honestly, if it was just a circle, just a flat-planed circle, there's really no idea what is a corner at that point. And if you've ever looked at these weird, bizarre flat earth maps or something like that, typically their flat earth maps, they have the North Pole in the dead center. Who's seen that? Who can confirm that? Yeah, hands all over the building. Their North Pole is somewhere located here. And it's almost like the South Pole doesn't even exist on their particular map. And then if you're going to put four corners, literally every single point is equidistant, so there's really no idea of what would even be a corner. Whereas with the sphere of the globe, and we understand having a North and South Pole, of course, east and west, you could argue somewhat arbitrary, but obviously if you put someone at east and then exactly the exact opposite, that would be west, however that's determined, then you would see how God kind of is describing here the four corners of the earth. Your flat earth model just really, I don't even know where to plot these four corners for you because it just doesn't even make any sense. So for flat tards, you know, sorry you lost this conversation again, all right? There is still a sphere, okay? Now why is it holding the winds and everything from blowing on the earth or on the sea or on any tree? You know, I don't know the exact reason, but it's certainly dramatic, right? And really what's understood is that there's a lot of drama unfolding here with Christ having returned, and it's kind of like setting the stage, clearing everything, and it also kind of just shows who's in control. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is in control and everything that's going to happen from now on is basically at Jesus Christ's command, even the wind itself. You have a lot of examples of this, which it's interesting. I'm not going to necessarily explain to you this evening why the wind stopped because I don't know exactly, but do you remember when Jesus Christ is traveling on a boat and that the wind and the sea is crazy and everything like that, and his disciples are scared and nervous? You also have an example where he's walking on the sea and there on this boat, and then all of a sudden they just go to the other side and the wind and everything stops. Again, those are pictures of the end times, and again it's just showing that there's peace and safety in those contexts. So perhaps it's just, again, it's just modeling the fact that we get raptured, there's no wind for I don't know exactly how long, but at this point in time he's controlling everything. It's a peaceful ascension. We're raptured. We're taken up with the Lord, and it's basically setting the stage for doom for the rest. But I would say that this parallels with those parables that we see foreshadowed in the Gospels where Jesus Christ is kind of showing there's this tribulation period of the wind and the sea and everything's crashing, and then when they get to a certain point, all of a sudden they're just on the other side, safety, there's no wind. He stopped the storm. It's kind of a foreshadowing of how the end times are going to be as well where there's this great buildup of tribulation, and then we get rescued, and the wind stops just like it does here in chapter 7, verse 1. Look at verse 2. I would say verse 2 confirms what I showed you in Drew, because think about it this way. I saw another angel. So he's differentiating from potentially the angel that he's seeing here in the east to another angel coming from the east, and this particular angel having the seal of the living God, and he's crying with a loud voice, notice, to the four angels. So this angel that's coming is talking to the other four angels that are in the corners of the earth saying that essentially, what, verse 3, So kind of like how the disciples are traveling in the boat, and it's crashing in the waters, and I'm not going to read all these verses for the sake of time, but it's crashing, and then all of a sudden Jesus calms the storm and saves them. It's kind of the picture here of just everything's calm, everything's peaceful, the Lord is saving and sealing, before then he's going to unleash the wrath of God, and the wrath of God is going to be poured out on the entire earth, and they're not even allowed to hurt the earth, sea, or trees until certain servants have been sealed. Now, this is where we get the 144,000 that are pretty notorious. Verse 4, Now, of course, there's cults out there, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, that will lie and tell people that only the 144,000 are saved or are going to be resurrected, and the lie really is, it's confusing to me why it would appeal to any women, okay, or any married men, because neither of you are qualified to ever be the 144,000, and then if we go another step further, it's of the tribes of Israel. That's none of us either, so it's like, how does this cult even exist when literally no one qualifies to meet the definition of what the 144,000 are, because notice it said, all the tribes of the children of Israel. Now, when we talk about this Israel, it's talking about the physical nation of Israel from the Old Testament, as evidenced by the next few verses. Look at what it says in verse 5, And that's basically the 12 tribes. 12 times 12,000 is where we get the 144,000. Notice that math is always proven in the Bible, all right, and so you can even learn math from the Scriptures. Now, we have these 12 tribes. They're mentioned, they're very clearly Old Testament children of Israel groups, physical geographic groups that we're not a part of. If you keep it finger, go to Revelation 14 for just a moment. It gives us a little bit more information about the 144,000. Revelation chapter 14, look at verse 4. These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb, and in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God. Now, this gives us a little bit of an insight as to who we're talking about, what kind of qualifications these people meet. These people are considered virgins, they're obviously men, they're obviously from these specific tribes, and the Bible is even saying that there was in their mouth found no guile. Now, who are these people? First of all, I think any time the Bible gives us the opportunity to believe a literal interpretation, that's always the best way to interpret the Bible. And if it gives you a clear metaphor, then it's always a clear metaphor. And so, when we talk about the 144,000, the Bible never indicates that this is some kind of an analogy or a metaphor. It doesn't say, now these 144,000 are 144,000 dogs or 144,000 stars. It doesn't say later or in any section that this means something else or is something else. Plus, it gives a very descriptive context here, talking about them being from these tribes, being virgins, having all these different specific details about them. So, I believe that it's literally 12,000 men from each one of these tribes. Now, I don't know for sure how this works. How do you have 12,000 men that are virgins? Obviously, the new I Be Single guys could tell us all about that, but you know. I'm just joking, but seriously, okay. Now, here's one theory that I've thought of, and I don't know if I'm wrong on this, but I've just wondered if these are actually just babies that died or something. Like, maybe they were just young, because of the fact that it talks about they have a no guile in their mouth, right? So, maybe this was children that died very young or at an early age. That's one particular option. It also would make sense that they get a special opportunity to go and preach the gospel. Since they died so young, they never really got that opportunity. They never really got to live that experience, and so perhaps God's giving them that opportunity. Or perhaps they were just dedicated young people that truly loved the Lord and didn't really do much wrong. Or, I mean, that seems very unlikely to me, just because we're all so sinful. Another option is just they have no sin, because we're just talking about the fact that they have the blood of Jesus Christ and they have His imputed righteousness. That's another explanation as to why they're described as having no guile. But I don't know if that's true. Obviously, when Jesus runs into one of the early disciples, He said, indeed, whom is an Israelite whom has no guile? So, when we talk about Peter's brother. So, okay, there is options, but he's like a rarity. You know, you have to find 12,000 from every single tribe. It seems like a theory is maybe they died young. I don't know. I would argue, though, that they all are from those tribes, for sure. They were from those specific tribes. Now, when you look at the 12 tribes mentioned, there's actually one missing from the 12 sons of Jacob. And what's kind of different in this list is you have a couple different names that are just a little bit different. On the 144,000 side, you have Manassas. I believe that's how it's spelled in the New Testament. Let's just make sure someone's going to get mad at me for that, too. Yep, Manassas. And then you also have Joseph mentioned. And then in the original 12 tribes, basically you have Dan and Joseph, okay? Now, when we talked about the Old Testament, Joseph ends up getting two portions in the inheritance, and they're divided as Ephraim and Manasseh. So, you have basically Joseph in Revelations is likely just referring to Ephraim, or the Ephraimites, and Manasseh is obviously related to Manasseh. Dan gets left out. Now, why does he get left out, or what is the significance? I think you could have a lot of theories. I'll just give you my personal opinion. I can't prove this, but my personal opinion is if you understand the tribe of Dan, the tribe of Dan was pretty small, and I'm not going to draw a map of Israel, essentially kind of in the middle portion. You had a large section that was Manasseh, and then Dan was this little small section, and then later a lot of them migrated up north, and so you also had another section of Manasseh because Manasseh was divided. Manasseh was on one side of the river and on the other. They had the half tribe on both sides. They had half over here, half over here, and then all the way up north you had Dan kind of in this small spot. Sometimes you'll hear in the Bible, like, from Dan to Beersheba, because Dan, when they migrated and went to that northern portion, was the most northern tip of Israel, and Beersheba is, like, the most southern, so it's like a way to say from, like, the top to the bottom, from Dan to Beersheba, but Dan is arguably one of the smaller tribes in the history of the children of Israel. Additionally, considering the fact that Dan is geographically close to Manasseh, it almost could be two options. Here's one theory is that Dan's kind of swallowed up in Manasseh, so maybe some portion of Dan is just included in Manasseh and it's just recorded as Manasseh, or a second theory is just since you need 12,000 that Dan just didn't have 12,000 to offer. They just didn't have a big enough tribe, a big enough history, a big enough timeline to end up having that portion of people to even be able to redeem in the first place, so therefore they're excluded just from the sheer fact that they literally can't meet the requirement. They don't have 12,000 to be called into action, and that just also goes to show the importance of being godly and serving the Lord and doing right because of the privileges that you get from living that godly, righteous life, that your inheritance isn't an always necessarily follow all the way through. It could be taken from you or stripped from you as a result of your actions, as a result of your behavior, and how Dan literally gets replaced by Manasseh, and Manasseh ends up taking that over. Maybe there's some kind of a small foreshadowing of replacement theology. I don't know because you could argue, you know, Ephraim and Manasseh, their mother is not of the children of Israel. She's Egyptian. She was actually a daughter of a priest of On, I believe, a priest of the Egyptian gods, and so Ephraim and Manasseh are in some ways not necessarily purebreds, and Dan is a purebred, but he ends up getting replaced by Manasseh here in the end time. So maybe there's some kind of a foreshadowing there. It's a stretch. But I want to go back to Revelation, chapter number 7, and notice that everything is kind of stopped. We had 144,000 sealed, and then it says this in verse 9 after this. So notice again it's giving us this chronology, right? Christ comes in the clouds, and we're gathered together with Him. If you compare Scripture to Scripture, you look at Matthew 24 and other places, 1 Thessalonians 4, we're gathered together with Him. And what happens immediately after that? 144,000 are sealed. You have the angels there. The earth is calm. You have 144,000 sealed. And then it says after this, verse 9, I beheld and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. This is a giant verse, because there's really a lot of doctrine that can be understood out of verse 9. It also destroys the pre-Trib rapture when you start reading this section of Scripture, because you notice in chapter 5, there's a distinction between this group and the group mentioned in chapter number 5. Go back to chapter number 5 for just a second. I'm sorry, chapter 6, I mean, I'm saying chapter 5, this fifth seal. Look at chapter 6, verse 9. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 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 they should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. So in the fifth seal, we already have a group of people that are crying and asking the Lord, How long you going to take to judge and avenge? What happens? They get white robes. Then we have the sixth seal. And then in the sixth seal, later we have this great multitude. In the previous chapter, it had talked about, in previous chapters, it had talked about how many people were there. Look at chapter 5, and look what it says in verse number 11. And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands and thousands. So we talked about this being a minimum of 101 or 102 million individuals when we talk about angels and beasts and those that are present at that time. And yet, when we look at chapter 7, verse 9 is bringing up a great multitude which no man could number. So now, all of a sudden, we're talking about a much bigger group that can't even be numbered, whereas it was numbered previously, meaning that this is a bigger harvest or a bigger number of people than we had previously. I would submit that it's likely that the first group mentioned is all the people that were saved or the saints from times past. It's basically just everyone that's died and saved and is in heaven from times past and then this next group is going to be the group that's caught up in the rapture. This is going to be a great multitude. And of course, there's eight billion people on the planet. That's a lot of people, and that's just an approximate number. I don't know how many legals are there. Okay, I'm just kidding. But there's eight billion people approximately on the planet, and I don't know like what percentage of those people are saved, but let's just say for argument's sake five percent were saved, right? If we have eight billion people on the planet and we have five percent that's saved, okay, how many people would that be? Well, you know, when I struggle with these kind of math, I try to make them simple. So I'll tell you how I do math in my head, all right? I go to an easy number like ten. Like what would ten percent be? And it's like, okay, well, when you just do ten percent, it's eight hundred million, right? That's a little bit easier. And then when you know it's five percent, it's just half of that. So it would be half. That would be four hundred million people, okay? So four hundred million, that's if the rapture happened today and about five percent of the world was saved. I'm just throwing numbers out there, okay, because I don't know what the answer is. But you could argue, I mean, four hundred million, that's a lot more than the hundred million potentially that we have described in this particular passage. And as we get into these bigger numbers, it's just, it could even get higher, right? What if the Lord tarries for a while? What if we reach ten billion? What if it's ten billion? What if ten percent of the world gets saved? That would literally be a billion people that would potentially be mentioned in this particular group. That's possible, you know? I don't know exactly what the numbers are. I don't know what's accurate. I'm just throwing out numbers and just kind of giving you some kind of an idea. But it already looks like we have a number potentially on the earth that's saved that's bigger than the hundred million that was mentioned in this passage. And who knows? It could even be greater than that in the future. So that's just kind of an idea. But also it says that it's from all nations and kindreds and people and tongues. That just destroys any kind of racist idea you could ever have. You know, it doesn't matter if we go and we knock on doors of the black Hebrew Israelites or some other groups. There is a lot of racist groups out there. I remember Brother Oz, he like called one of these black Hebrew Israelite groups one time and asked if he could join their church. And he let them know that he was white, and they said no. So, you know, people always think that you have to be white to be racist. That is not true, okay? Meet Asian people, all right? They're racist against themselves, you know? Like, they don't even like each other. North Korea, South Korea, you've got China versus Japan, you've got China versus Taiwan, which is a country. Yes, Taiwan's a country, okay? It doesn't matter, they don't like each other. Then you talk about, I heard today someone was talking about how Australians, they really don't like Asian people either because they have a lot of Asian people like migrating into Australia. Look, racism is everywhere. It's always going to be a reality, but at the end of the day, God is not racist because God's not a respecter of persons and he doesn't really care about nations. He dislikes them all equally, okay? All of the governments are wicked in his sight, okay? God's not looking down from heaven and thinking like, oh, America's government is amazing. I mean, you really think, because God doesn't look through our eyes, God looks through his eyes and he knows everything that's going on in the world, you really think that God thinks that the American government's so much better than other governments in this world? I guarantee there's plenty of nations where their government is more righteous than ours. I guarantee there's plenty of places in the Caribbean and Africa. I mean, the president of Uganda believes that sodomites should be imprisoned and in many cases put to death, way better than what Biden and America's doing having literal sodomy in the Senate building. Lots of our government officials are involved in trafficking and all kinds of the worst evils imaginable, okay? So it's not like God looks down from heaven and just thinks like, oh, you're an American? You're better than other people. Or you're from this other country? You're better than other people. God doesn't care about that. God doesn't care about nations. He is not a respecter of persons in that way. He judges people based on their righteousness. And when your righteousness doesn't meet up, he's mad at you. Now, the only way you can escape his anger is to be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and have his imputed righteousness. It's not, well, but I'm Israel. I'm a Jew. Okay, well, he doesn't like you either. God doesn't like the Jews for being Jews. God only likes people that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who he likes. That's who he doesn't want to pour his wrath out. And, you know, he's an equal distributor of wrath when we talk about the end times. Everyone's gonna get their fair share. No one's left out. The only people that don't get wrath are those who've been raptured or sealed and sent back, okay? But it doesn't say, like, hey, make sure to also not hurt the Jews. Make sure to not hurt those that are in the Middle East. Did you read that? No, it's saying, hey, make sure it's the people that have the seal, okay? Now, arguably, all the people that have the seal in that 144,000, they're, quote, Jewish, or not really Jewish, because they're not all from the tribe of Judah, but they're all of that physical nation of Israel. But you know what? They all believed in Jesus Christ. And the people in the Middle East today are not those individuals, and you know what? They are gonna be hurt. They are gonna be hurt from the wrath of God. It's gonna be poured out on them. They're gonna be the people on the rocks crying for them to fall on them and to hide them from the Lamb. That's how much they hate Jesus. They still don't want to look at them, right? There's this idea out there that whenever a bunch of unsaved Jews are gonna see Jesus coming in the sky, they're gonna all get saved. Wrong. That's not how it works. Salvation's never been by sight anyways. The first time they saw him, they didn't get saved. Why would it change? Why would it magically change that now all of a sudden they see, oh, now I believe? You know, I've never believed before, but now I see, and I'm gonna believe. It doesn't change anything, okay? They're gonna still be, you know, trusting in their works, trusting in their false religion, and most of them, if not all of them, are gonna be unsaved and go to hell. Here's another thing that's interesting that I find kind of probably the most important part of this chapter, because for a lot of us, you know, whether you understood chapter 7 or not, you're gonna partake. You know, the cool thing about the rapture is you don't even have to understand it, and you're still getting raptured. Like, people that believed in pre-trib are still gonna get raptured in the post-trib if they make it, okay? All of us make it to this event whether you like it or not. Even if you die today, you still make the event. You're just coming from the other direction, all right? You're coming from heaven down. We're coming from earth, and we're meeting you in the air, and then we're gonna be with the Lord. And then, of course, what does the Bible say? We're gonna all be in heaven, and we're gonna be standing with palms in our hands. We're gonna be clothed white robes. I like this because the people in the seal 5 in chapter 6, they got the white robes, but it's not just them. We get them too, right? We also get that robe. We also are gonna now have palms in our hands, and basically, it's kind of the reception of Jesus. Because what was that first reception of Jesus? It was going into Jerusalem, Palm Sunday. They're announcing the Lamb, and it's kind of this triumphant entry right before the Gospel, okay? And so it kind of revisited here where we have those palm trees again, and we're rejoicing and celebrating the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about it this way. This is the first time ever that every single saved person is worshiping Jesus at the same time. Like, there's never been an event where every single person is simultaneously with the Lord Jesus Christ and celebrating him. This is the first time that we'll ever have had every single saved person all worshiping Jesus all at the same time. Now, it's not every saved person for all of eternity because I do believe people will still get saved in the future, but just in that present moment, everyone that was saved got raptured. Everyone that is saved came with, and so you basically just have the entire church, the entire saved body. We're all gathered together in one event of worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ and giving him honor and glory, and it's gonna be a great event. It's gonna be really exciting for us to all cry and sing. And of course, what are we gonna say in that great event? Well, it says in verse 10, in quite a loud voice, saying, So notice, what is the one thing that we're all focused on, that we're all excited about, that we all recognize it's salvation? Salvation is the great event. Salvation is the culmination of our life. It's the most important thing that anybody will ever do is getting saved. It's the most important decision. It's the greatest event. It's the first thing that we celebrate. You know, when we talk about the first works of the church, it makes sense that it continually culminates as the first, right? What's the first thing we're gonna do when we're all gathered together and worshiping Jesus? We're gonna thank him for salvation, right? I mean, that's the primary thing that we're talking about. Of course, Jesus benefits us in a lot of ways, right? Not only do we get saved, we can then clean up our lives, and we can live holy, and we can have blessings and everything like that, but we're not praising him for the rewards that we get. We're not praising him that we lived a little bit cleaner life in this life. What we're praising him for was salvation. It was the free gift of salvation, and he's the one that saved us. No one saved themselves. All the people that think that salvation's by works are not here. There's not a single person here that has the wrong doctrine on salvation. Because those people are either in hell or on earth awaiting the wrath of God, okay? All those that are trusting in their works, they're about to see where their works are gonna take them. All of us that were trusting in Jesus were celebrating and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 11. And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing, excuse me, saying Amen, saying Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be under our God forever and ever. Amen. So we see that we're giving glory unto who? God. We're giving wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto God. So, of course, we're worshiping God forever and ever. Now, again, because of this chapter being something that we're all locked in and it's just gonna happen, I think what's important to reflect on and kind of a practical application for us today is the identification of these individuals, okay? Now, it gives us a little bit more identification of who they are. It says in verse 13, One of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? Now, notice this is kind of an interesting dynamic. John's in heaven. He's witnessing all this. And then some random elder comes up to him and he's like, hey, where did these guys come from? You know, he's like thinking, like, I don't work here. You know, have you ever been in a store and someone thinks that you work there? You're like, I don't work here. Sorry, I can't help you. And I said to him, sir, thou knowest. Right? He's saying, like, imagine you're at the store and then the worker comes and he's like, hey, do you know if we have this on the shelves? It's like, you know. He's like, you're the one that works here, right? Thou knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation. Hey, here's something for every pre-tribber to do is highlight this phrase right here. They came out of great tribulation. They came out of great tribulation. They came out of great tribulation. And you know, they'll say, oh, no, no, you don't understand. We're going to get raptured and then God just deals with the Jews. It's just all about the Jews after that. But wait a minute. Let's go back a few verses again. In verse 9, Is that Jews? No, it's not talking about Jews. It's talking about everyone. And it's saying that everyone came out of what? Great tribulation. This also signifies what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24 when he talks about how there's going to be the greatest tribulation that's ever been or ever will be in all of history Notice who's getting afflicted. All people in all nations in all languages in all tongues. So when you think, hey, in the end times I'm going to go and flee to this nation. Sorry. Well, I'm going to escape persecution by going here. Where? And I've even thought this. I'm thinking, like, where am I going to flee to? It's like, there's nowhere to flee. I tried to look at countries that don't have extradition to the United States. It's rough, okay? It's like Russia. I think there was an African country. I can't remember off the top of my head. Maybe it was Uganda. I can't remember. Or Nigeria. One of those two. And then it's like a few other, like, basically it's just like Islam, Russia, maybe one or two African countries and a few other places. And I was thinking, like, man, this is rough. I really don't know that I'm going to be able to flee anywhere. But that's the reality. So you know what? Just embrace Texas, okay? Just go ahead and say, like, I'm going to be here for the rapture or I'm going to die. You know, right? Because according to the Bible, does it say, like, all nations but this one because they didn't have any tribulation? No, it's saying they all came out of the great tribulation and it was everybody from every single nation, every single area. Why? Because the Antichrist is going to be a worldwide dictator. And he's going to say, he's going to say, he's going to say, no man can buy or sell save they receive the mark of the beast. Now, what kind of a worthless statement would that be if then everybody can still buy and sell because they're in this other country or they're the other's place or, you know, nothing? It would be meaningless platitude. But what happens when all of our currency becomes digital, when they eliminate cash everywhere, everything's just a card, everything's just a chip, and Weinstein's got the button for you. And whenever you push it, he can just turn you off whenever he wants. You know, there's coming a day when they can literally just press a button and you literally can't buy or sell anything ever again. Honestly, in some ways it could even be you can't even drive your car. Most cars already have a kill switch on them. They are, I mean, you're like, I love the fact that I can just press a button my car turns on. Other people can press that button too, okay? And it could be coming, there could be coming a day when literally they can turn your life off like this, like that, just with a flip of a switch. And that's going to be great tribulation when all of a sudden a guy says, you can't buy or sell anything, bam! And now all of a sudden you just look at your phone and it just says, no. Uh-uh, uh-uh. He didn't say the special word. I mean, that's a reality, okay? And I honestly, that's another reason why I kind of think that the end times is probably not tomorrow or next year is because if someone stood in Israel right now and said, you can't buy or sell unless you get this mark, it would have like no impact on me for a long time. Because think about how many businesses they still take cash. Think about how many businesses they are running a really old computer system. That's not updated on any kind of software. There's lots of places that you can probably still do business with in America no matter what some weirdo said in the Middle East tomorrow. But give it another 20, 30, 40, 50 years, oh boy. It could literally be there. Cash doesn't even exist anyways. It's just been eliminated from society. Everything has to go through certain payment processors. They've all been gobbled up. There's only certain ways for currency to be translated. And all nations are on this program, every country, and they can just turn on and off whoever they want whenever they want. That's the picture that's painted by the Bible. And so I'm just trying to help you realize this. You have no way of escaping this physically. You know what you should do? Trust the Lord spiritually. Elijah was fed by ravens. Now somebody out there is going to be like, I'm going to try and figure out how to train ravens to bring me food. It's not going to work. Any normal person would be like, that's obviously just a miracle. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, God fed them with manna from heaven. Let me explain something to you. It was a miracle. When there was famines in the land, God was feeding the prophet by miracles. The old lady, her crews of oil didn't waste, and she could just keep making cakes. And you know what it was? A miracle. I'm just hoping that my freezer never runs out of filet or something. It's like a miracle, right? You just keep opening. You're like, wow, I wonder where all this food came from. That to me is more realistic than trusting in your plan of physical salvation. Stop worrying so much about how you're going to physically outsmart the Antichrist because you know what? He's going to be smarter than you. And they already got it figured out. Your only chance is miracles from God. But that makes me become what? More spiritual, care more about the spiritual things than building my castle somewhere with a moat of alligators and having my sheep farm or whatever. They'll find you. They'll come after you. They'll figure out a way to destroy all that. I don't believe that God is going to only rapture the handfuls of Christians that went and hid somewhere in a bunker or hid on some farm or hid on some farm somewhere. No, you're not going to be the one that escapes. You go hide in some bunker somewhere and God may just cause some scorpion or spider or snake to come out of the woodwork and bite you and you'll just die. You'll just die that kind of a death. You can't run from God. Oh, I'll just go hide on a ship to Tarshish. Nope, God will just throw you in the water and have a whale swallow you. Don't run from God. God puts you on this earth to be a spiritual Christian and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? In the end times, we should go out with a bang preaching the gospel, not trying to hide and cower because you're already at the end of the game. I mean, imagine if you ran a 26-mile marathon and you can literally see. You can see the end of that. You have one option. Sprint to the end or lay down and do nothing. Why in the world would you have run that far to then just be like, well, I can see it over there. No, no, I'm going to sprint to that finish line. I'm not going to beg for someone to carry me across and then get dequeued. No, no, no, I'm going to finish my faith, right? Keep preaching the gospel, keep and hoping that God will somehow use miracles to preserve me, otherwise, you know, get my head chopped off or something. But some people are going to get their head chopped off, right? But that's not even that bad of a way to go. There's a lot of ways to die that are horrible. How about starving to death? Please chop my head off before I starve to death. I mean, that is so much better of an option. And, you know, they're going to cut the people's heads off the most vocal, so it's a win-win. Just be vocal, just preach the gospel, just be faithful, and you know what? Some people are even going to make it through. Who are the people that make it through? The ones that are found worthy. But notice that they're coming out of great tribulation. They did not come out of a bunker. They didn't come out of hiding somewhere. They didn't come from Mars, okay? They didn't go hide on Mars with Elon Musk or something like that. He might be the false prophet, who knows? But I think it's really clear here that you can't escape this, okay? Good luck trying to escape it. Keep your finger here and go to Matthew 24 for just one second. I just want to compare spiritual to spiritual because I've also heard some independent Baptists who've changed their position, and now they're like partial preterists, and they'll say, well, the Bible never brings up this term great tribulation. And I'm thinking, like, what do you mean it doesn't bring up this term great tribulation? Who just read great tribulation in their Bible? Okay, I read it, okay. They're like, I don't know where they're coming up with this terminology like the great tribulation. That's not something found in the Bible. Yeah, it is. We just read it. They came out of great tribulation. Now, look at Matthew 24. Look at verse 21. For then. Now, when you see the Bible say for then, you know it's being denoted a point in time, for then. So it's denoting before this was not that. It's now then, meaning that this is talking about a different scope of time. For then, meaning at this current time that we're talking about, shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. Meaning if Christ didn't rapture people, you would die. You cannot escape the antichrist. It's basically a sinking sand. You're in sinking sand. The only way is for Jesus to pull you out before you die. But you're headed to death. Everyone's just headed to death. Everyone's gonna be killed. There's no way to outsmart, outscape the antichrist. And so the only thing to do is just to preach until Jesus pulls you out. Is to just be faithless, or be faithful unto death, okay? And not be faithless and unbelieving. Go back to Revelation chapter 7. It's super clear that this great group is coming out of tribulation. And notice, hey, you're gonna wash your robe, you're gonna have a white robe, you're gonna be singing praises unto God, singing about salvation, and you're never gonna have to suffer ever again. It sounds great. Look what it says in verse 15. 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. You know what's incredible? Is that God not only feeds us now, He's gonna feed us in the future too. And if you believe that Jesus Christ is gonna feed you in heaven, you're not gonna take any food with you into heaven. Why are you so worried about food right now? I mean, you can't take any food into heaven. All the storeable food you have, all the food in the freezer, it's not coming with you into heaven. Are you worried? Are you thinking, like, what about snacks? Like, how am I gonna make, you know, what's gonna go on? Jesus is gonna take care of it, right? And if Jesus can take care of me then, why can't He take care of me now? Why can't He give me the food now? You know, I literally do almost nothing, virtually nothing, to make sure that I'm gonna have food tomorrow. And what I mean by that is I'm not growing any wheat. I'm not raising any cattle. I'm doing almost nothing. Almost nothing. If everyone was me, we would all starve tomorrow because I've done literally no food prep. Like, I'm not growing anything. I'm not making sure any animals are gonna be ready and butchered or survive. I do zero. And I would even argue almost every person is doing almost nothing to make sure that there's food in the supermarket. I buy it, right? I make money. But I literally do almost nothing. I have gardened a few times in the past. Most of what I garden, I killed, okay? And the only parts that survive are the parts where my dad went and watered for me, okay? This was back when I lived closer to him. So I've almost done virtually nothing. Why in the world would I then now start worrying about it? Because I've never been able to make food. I wouldn't even know how to raise crops. I mean, I'm sure I could try. I'm sure I could take seeds and plant them and hopefully that would work. Think about it this way. There's no guarantee that just putting seeds in a ground will grow except for God lets them grow. God causes them to grow. God's the one that's constantly producing all of that food. God could cause all the cattle to die tomorrow. God could cause every... I mean, we don't even realize how fragile our existence is, and the food that we have is so fragile, yet people are just so worried about it all the time, aren't they? So consumed with this. You know, stop worrying about that. God can feed us. I think it's interesting in verse 16, it says that the sun shall not light on them nor any heat. So obviously we're not in Phoenix, okay? Now, the word light is an interesting word, especially in the way it's used here. But there's another way that light... We commonly use this. And if you were to say, I lit into Brother Dylan, what does that mean? That's like I tore him up, right? I tacked him or I said, you know, I was really like saying something against him or whatever. And so that's like a form of light, is I lit into someone or he was lighting into him, and it's kind of a context of striking or attacking or assaulting. And albeit it could be verbally, not even necessarily physical. It can be both, right? I mean, you could say that there was two boxers and the one boxer really lit into the other one. What are you saying? I mean, he really tore that other guy up. He was really attacking him. So when the Bible's saying that the sun is not going to light on us, it's basically saying it's not going to be striking us and causing us, you know, the pain that can be associated with sunburn and that heat. And, you know, when you've got a soul winning and it's hot and there's no shade, it's brutal. It can be really brutal. And it can really tear you up. If you're really white like Dylan, it really lights into you. Okay, man. Turns him red, okay? It's saying that that's never going to happen again. Like, never again. No more sunburns, okay? And that's important for some people. Some of you darker skinned people, you don't really care that much. But for Brother Dylan, this is an important birth, okay? He never has to get sunburned ever again. And I want to go to one more place. Go to 1 Timothy, chapter four. I think that, you know, I was trying to think about this chapter a little bit. I was thinking, like, what's a practical application for us? But did you notice in this chapter how the personal characteristics of the individuals described still exist? Like, when they go to heaven, they're not like this radically different person. In fact, everything about them is still a personal identity. Because when we talk about the 144,000, they're still male, right? They're still men. Not only are they men, they're from a specific genealogy and a specific lineage. They are of a specific tribe. That tribe association didn't dissipate when they went into heaven. No, they're still of Judah, or they're still of Levi, or they're still of a particular heritage. They're still of a particular association. When we look at the 144,000, they're of, you know, the children of Israel physically. But then when we look at the great multitude, they're of all nations. And notice they didn't lose their identity either. It's not like they all became Jewish. We didn't all become physical Israel. Notice they're from all nations, all kindreds, all tongues. Notice also their language, the language that they associate with, the language that's native to them. They feel most comfortable. Their mother tongue is still associated with that person. Their status in life is the same. You know when you fill out an application and it's saying, like, are you married, unmarried, all those kind of things? Think about this. The status of virgin is still associated with the person in heaven. Think about that. Isn't that interesting? Now, again, the Bible's clear that, like, our sins aren't going to necessarily be mentioned before, but it's not like somehow that isn't recognized because how could you recognize someone's a virgin and someone's not if we can't even recognize these facts, right? So there's going to be certain identifiable facts of who we are that still carry forward with us into eternity, okay? And that's very interesting to me. We have a lot of other things that are, you know, important. We think about the fact that we're going to be eating, we're going to be drinking. The Bible talks about no more tears. So a lot of this is talking about human emotion, the human experience. You know, it sounds like we need food, you know, because I guess that's just the reality. Now, we're not going to be hungry anymore, but notice it didn't say just because... You're not going to have hunger anymore because food's no longer a thing. It says because the lamb's going to feed you. That's why. You're not going to be hungry because there's going to be food, but apparently there's still the association of food. And, you know, from the human experience, it would be kind of maybe disappointing. I don't know if that's the right word, but, like, if you thought about, like, you never get to eat again, just because, like, I love eating. Who loves eating? All right, all right. I see that hand. You're a Baptist, okay? It's okay. Baptists like food. You know why? Because we're saved and we're going to eat in heaven too, okay? The people that don't like eating and these weird false religions, you know, they're not going to be eating in hell, so I guess they're just getting used to it, right? They're also not going to be drinking, okay? And yet we're going to be eating, drinking, feasting, worshipping the Lord, doing all kinds, serving the Lord, you know, inheriting the earth, enjoying the earth, like, all of these different things. And it made me think of a verse. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4. Look at verse number 8. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. Did you notice that it's saying, look, building muscle and building mass and being physically strong has some benefit. That's what it says. Bodily exercise profiteth, but it profiteth little. But you know what's more profitable, according to the scripture, is being godly. And it says not because you're only going to be benefited in this life, it's saying somehow the godliness that you have in this life is going to directly carry forward and have a huge impact also in your eternity. So it's important how you live your life right now, because right now, it's also going to carry forward into all eternity. Who you are, what you do, how you spent your life, the decisions that you make, hey, even the languages you speak. You know, I joked with Pastor Anderson the other day. I said, at this rate, you're going to be able to talk to everybody in heaven. He knows a lot of languages. I mean, he's been learning all kinds of languages. The guy, he has a personal goal to get where Lancelot Andrews was, and he spoke 21 languages fluently, okay? Now, I don't know if that'll happen. God willing, it would, right? Why not? But apparently, there's language still in heaven. There's some benefit. Now, I don't know what it's going to be like. I don't know if when we get to heaven, we all get kind of an upgrade ship, and we all learn, like, a whole bunch more instantly, kind of like Matrix, or they're just, like, programming. It's like, I know kung fu all of a sudden, right? I don't know if that happens. I don't know if because you're in heaven, you're on a fast track, and we just learn a whole bunch really quick. I don't know if you stay at a similar rate to what you know now, and then it goes forward. I don't know. Obviously, the Holy Spirit was able for people to communicate between languages in the day of Pentecost. Maybe that's a permanent thing when you're in heaven. Maybe we still get to communicate, and he's our Google Translate, right? I don't know. I don't know any of that. But this is what I do know, and this is a promise from God, that having godliness is not only profitable now, it's also profitable in life to come. And when I see the descriptions of people in heaven, and I see what it's like, I notice that their personal characteristics and their personal lives are still very similar. I mean, whenever Saul is inquiring of a witch, she brings up Samuel, and they recognize it as Samuel. It's not like this random person that they've never seen before. It's Samuel. So whenever the rich man looks up in heaven, he recognizes Abraham and Lazarus. That gives us a little bit of indication. Number one, he recognizes Lazarus, so he recognizes certain people in his personal life. I would argue he got some special knowledge because how does he know Abraham from anybody? How in the world could you look up into heaven and see Abraham and know that that was Abraham? I mean, do you really think if we just took any random person from the Old Testament and just showed you a picture, you'd be able to tell the difference between Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and David? Or I'm saying I wouldn't. I don't know. But maybe once we get into heaven, it's just instantly recognizable. I don't know. Maybe when he saw that, Lazarus was like, hey, Abraham, and then he kind of was like, oh, wow, that's Abraham? But the Bible also says this, that the Jews, they're going to see all these people coming from the east and the west and everything down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they're going to be disappointed that they're not. So to me, that almost makes it seem like they'll know that that was Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, albeit at the time of Christ, no one had ever met Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They'd never seen them. They wouldn't know what they looked like from Adam. We would all think that Adam and all these people are the same. We wouldn't necessarily recognize those distinctions. But at the same time, there could be some gap between certain people's knowledges, certain people's, obviously, statuses are going to be different. Maybe their language knowledge is even different. So to me, it makes sense to learn as much as you can now. Be a learner now. Be a reader now. Read the Bible now. You know, the Bible talks about people singing certain songs in the Book of Revelation that other people don't know or haven't learned or it's giving indication that people are learning in heaven. The Bible's still even blessing the Lord Jesus Christ with wisdom. So I don't even understand how those things work or how they make sense, but I'm telling you this. There is a benefit to learning. There is a benefit to wisdom. There's a benefit to being righteous now. There's a benefit to being godly now. You know, all of us here are saved, God willing, except for a Judas somewhere. I don't know who you are, but you're somewhere out there. All of us that are saved, we don't just live for nothing here. Oh, I've read the Bible ten times, so I'm done. No, read it again. Read it an eleventh time. Well, I've done soul-winning for a while. No, keep going soul-winning. Keep living righteous. Get more people saved. Have more children. Do everything that's right because it's going to literally benefit you in the next life. Everything that you do. And Jesus Christ is going to literally judge all the works that we do. And your status in this life is important. You know, some people say, Oh, I screwed up and did this thing bad. Okay, well, don't do it again. Don't keep going down that road. Change. Repent. Get godly because that godliness is going to impact the future. And I don't want to be the lowest status in heaven. I don't want to be the guy that's called the least in the kingdom of heaven. There is going to be someone in heaven that is literally the least. There's going to be the worst person in heaven. You know what? He's way better off than the best person in hell. And that place may have already been taken. Lot may have already taken that place. We don't know. Maybe Lot's way better than we realize. I have no idea. I, for some reason, don't think Lot's going to be the highest up in the pecking order. It's a personal opinion. But at the same time, I don't think the thief on the cross is probably going to be the highest in the pecking order. But someone's going to be the least. And you know, us in this church, we're going to be somewhere on the spectrum between the greatest and the least. You say, how do I get there? Be godly now. Be godly now. You know, it really does not seem like your status changes post-death. It only changes right now. This is your one opportunity. Imagine if I said, hey, I know an investment, and tomorrow you're going to get a million times whatever you invest. But this is the only time you ever get to invest. Wouldn't you want to invest all your money? I mean, you would want to put it all in right now. Hey, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Whatever you invest now, you're going to reap a hundredfold. Okay, how much are you going to invest? You know what? You get one life right now, and everything you invest now, you reap a hundredfold. And what you keep back, you lose all of it. You know, let us live lives where we invest all of it in Christ. Because one day we're going to all be singing salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're going to spend all of eternity with Him. And you know what? Don't get mad at me that you didn't invest. Don't get mad, because I told you. Don't tell me I didn't warn you. Don't tell me I didn't preach about it often. I'm trying to remind us. You know, a lot of people in our church don't come to Wednesday Night Church. A lot of people in our church don't go to Sunday Night Church. A lot of people in our church don't even go soloing that regularly. A lot of people in our church don't even read the Bible. Okay? Well, you know what? I'm not striving for the least position in heaven. I'm striving for the greatest position in heaven. And you know what? I love church, because guess what? After this, it's just going to be church forever. I'm just getting used to it, okay? I'm trying to warm up to it. I'm not trying to cool down. No, I'm excited about it, and of course we should be excited about it. This is a great chapter for those who are saved. The calm before the storm, and then we're going to get into the gnarly, all right? But that's another reason to save salvation under the Lord Jesus Christ. But let us motivate other people, too, to serve Christ, not just for ourselves. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us this great chapter and this great hope that even in great tribulation, your Son will still come and redeem those who are found worthy to be raptured. And I thank you so much that whether we're raptured on this side of heaven, we'll still meet the Lord in the air, that we'll always be with you. I pray that we're motivated to serve you and our lives, that we would take the responsibilities we have now seriously, that we would choose to be godly now. And I thank you that you actually give our lives purpose. There really is a reason to serve you. And I pray that we'd have a giant faith, that we'd live our lives in spiritual ways and not just trying to gather up straw for today, but rather we'd look for the spiritual blessings of the future. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. For our last song, we're going to do 432, Angels from the Realms of Glory. Song 432, Angels from the Realms of Glory. O claim Messiah's birth, God in worship, God in worship, Worship Christ the newborn King, Shepherds in the field of light, Watching for your foster light, God in plan is now residing, Yonder shines the infant light, God in worship, God in worship, Worship Christ the newborn King, Sages leave your consolation, Riders, missions, people form, Seek the great desire of nations, He hath seen His natal stars, God in worship, God in worship, Worship Christ the newborn King, Sages leave your consolation, Watching long in hope and fear, Suddenly the Lord descending, In His temple shall appear, God in worship, God in worship, Worship Christ the newborn King. Great singing everybody. You are dismissed. . .