7 and we're only gonna get through like half the chapter here tonight. There's a
lot of information to cover and what we're going to talk about is the 144
thousand and if you remember at the end of chapter 6 it said for the great
day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand and so he's
basically about to pour out his wrath at the end of Revelation chapter 6 but
he does not start doing that until Revelation chapter 8 because in
Revelation chapter 7 is going to be the rapture which we're not going to
cover tonight because even before the rapture there's something else is going
to take place and tonight's sermon is about the 144,000 and so notice what it
says in Revelation 7 verse 1 and let's start with this what is the purpose of
the 144,000 what is the purpose why are there 144,000 notice what it says in
verse 1 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 in the sea nor on any tree and so what it
says here is that these four angels they're basically about to hurt the
earth basically God's wrath is about to be poured out but it says you
know not to do that quite yet okay and the reason why they're not going
to hurt the earth yet is because they're going to seal the 144,000 which are
going to be there during God's wrath or during after the rapture during
God's wrath because they're going to be there the 144,000 to go
soul-winding which is the purpose of the 144,000 now turn to 2nd Corinthians
5 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 I mean it was so specific in Revelation 7 verse
1 where it said basically don't even let the wind blow on the earth so
nothing is going to take place until the 144,000 are sealed and basically
they're going to be protected through the wrath of God because if all
believers are raptured from the earth there's nobody left to preach the
gospel so there has to be someone there to preach the gospel and that is
the purpose of the 144,000 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18 2nd
Corinthians 5 verse 18 and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to
himself by Jesus Christ and have given to us the ministry of
reconciliation okay reconciling souls to the Savior basically preaching the
gospel and he's given it to us that are humans that's not being written to
angels okay that's being written to humans there in 2nd Corinthians 5
verse 18 so the ministry of reconciliation the ministry of
soul-winning it's our job as saved people look God is not going to come
down from earth and or from heaven and preach the gospel to anyone on
earth the angels are not going to come down from heaven and preach the
gospel to unsaved people that is our job and it's always going to be our
from the very beginning it has always been people preaching the gospel and
people get saved from faith to faith somebody who's saved lead somebody else
to the Lord I'm saved today because when I was 18 years old somebody came
and gave me the gospel okay you're saved in this room because somebody
gave you the gospel and then you asked Jesus to save you when you
believed it in your heart okay everybody gets saved because they hear
the gospel from someone and this ministry of reconciliation is given to
us and so the number one job for a church is always going to be soul
winning and look the whole purpose of the end times is about soul winning
so the gospel goes out to the end of the world I mean that's the whole
purpose of this otherwise he would just cast all these unbelievers into hell
instead of pouring out his wrath but the gospel is going to be preached to
all the world okay that's the whole purpose for it and he's given to us the
ministry of reconciliation verse 19 to wit that God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses onto them and have
committed unto us the word of reconciliation once again it's our job
we go with the Word of God the word of reconciliation and we explain the
soul winning verses and people are able to believe and get saved notice what
it says in verse 20 now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God
did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's dead be reconciled to God what
is an ambassador an ambassador is basically a representative of a country
okay it's considered a very high level position someone who is very well
known not necessarily a godly person because most ambassadors in this world
are pretty ungodly evil people but basically someone who's well respected
someone who has a lot of money someone who's gonna dress really sharp
really nice have really nice clothes and they're a representative of that country
okay I want you to understand the Bible says that we are ambassadors for
Christ we are God's representation here on earth us as saved people we are
God's representation so the way we live our lives the things we watch the
things that we hear the things we listen to the things we do everything
we are God's representation on earth we're ambassadors for Christ and look being
a big responsibility okay it's not a small responsibility you know and God
has left that with us we are Christ's ambassadors here on earth what are we
doing we're trying to reconcile people to the Savior by preaching the
Word of God preaching the gospel it is our main ministry now he's given us
an organized system of churches and one person running the church and
preaching the sermons and how to start church plants but the whole
purpose behind all of that is so the Word of God gets out there and people
get saved that is the whole purpose and that is why we are here as a church
is to win souls to the Lord go back to Revelation 7 Revelation 7 so when we
talk about the purpose of the 144,000 well I mean the purpose is to preach
the gospel and get people saved and that's pretty much always the answer
okay to get people saved and so let us see in Revelation chapter 7
Revelation chapter 7 verse 2 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 so what he's saying is
you are going to hurt the earth you're going to hurt the sea but you got to
wait one second because first we must seal the 144,000 because the 144,000
are going to be here during God's wrath during the chaos but they're not going
to die they're going to be protected through God's wrath and you know it
makes you think of the story of the Passover in Exodus 12 basically God
would pass over the houses that had blood which it was in the shape of a
cross when you read that story if there's blood on the door God would
pass over that house and the firstborn wouldn't be killed and so
basically here in Revelation there's going to be a seal and so when the
angels see that seal they're like I'm not pouring out my wrath on that person
that's a believer that's someone here who's the ambassador for Christ to
preach the gospel and so the purpose is for them to preach the gospel
they're going to be protected through God's wrath verse 4 and I heard the
number of them which were sealed and they were sealed in 144,000 of all the
tribes of the children of Israel now go to Ezekiel chapter 9 in your Old
Testament Ezekiel chapter 9 and in a second we're going to get back to who
are these 144,000 but you know in the Old Testament this is not the only
time God puts a mark on people okay it's important for us to understand
all the Bible because you know most Christians they're not aware of a lot
of passages in the Bible and it's not really surprising how the devil is
going to deceive people because when you think about getting a mark what do
you think of the mark of the beast right I mean pastor men has just
preached a sermon on the mark of the beast immediately think oh man I don't
want to take a mark I don't want the mark of the beast but actually the
devil always counterfeits what God does and so there's a mark in the Old
Testament that's mentioned in Ezekiel chapter 9 and as believers we need to
be aware of everything the Bible says now Ezekiel chapter 9 is something
that did happen but this is also a picture of what will happen in the end
times notice what it says in Ezekiel 9 verse 4 and the Lord said on to him
go through the midst of the city through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark
upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and a cry for all the abominations
that be done in the midst thereof so basically says you know put a mark on
those that are godly people those that basically you know want to live
for God and they're saddened by all the wickedness putting mark on them
and the reason why is because his wrath is going to be poured out verse 5
and to the others he said mine hearing go ye after him through the city
and smite let not your eyes spare neither have ye pity slay utterly old and
young both maids and little children and women but come not near any man
upon whom is the mark and begin at my sanctuary then they began at the
ancient ancient men which were before the house and so God's wrath is
coming upon them and he's going to kill everyone young and old men and
women children unless they have their mark on themselves and so look you know
we people often think of God as being you know just love love love well I mean
you haven't read the entire Bible then because the balanced picture of God is a
God of love and a God of judgment a God who created heaven and a God who
created hell right I mean a loving God who loves his children and for us in
this room that our parents we know the love we have for our children we
have to discipline them sometimes sometimes they do wrong we're trying to teach
them right and wrong but we love them and we would never throw them into a
burning oven or a burning lake just like God would never do that to his
children but at the same time that's only part of who God is those
that are not God's children those that don't believe they'll be thrown
into hell forever and look God's judgment sometimes comes upon this
world okay it's not just going to be during the end times but sometimes
God's wrath has to be poured out due to sin and wickedness that's taking
place and that is what's happening in Ezekiel chapter 9 okay now go back to
Revelation 7 Revelation 7 so these 144,000 a marks going to be put upon
them so basically when God's wrath is being poured out all of the
judgments are going basically they will be spared they will be protected okay
so the purpose of these 144,000 is to preach the gospel during the end
times and they will be protected from God's wrath okay but then the next
question is this who are the 144,000 who are the 144,000 well notice what it
says in verse 4 verse 4 Revelation chapter 7 verse 4 and I heard the
number of them which were sealed and these are the ones that are getting the
mark on the mark on themselves to prevent them from being killed and
they were sealed in 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel okay
says of all the tribes of the children of Israel what we'll see in a
little bit is there's 12 tribes in 12,000 in 12 times 12 144,000 is what
you have okay so it says 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of
Israel now that is the simple answer to who are the 144,000 but we're gonna
spend 45 minutes on this point okay so we're gonna go very very in-depth about
this 144,000 because it's very important that it says of all the
tribes of the children of Israel you say okay so it's 144,000 Jews no it's
144,000 of all the tribes of Israel that is not the same thing as a Jew
okay it's not the same thing as an Old Testament Jew and we're gonna go
back and prove that and go very in-depth but the tribes of the
children of Israel that is not the same thing as being a Jew okay now go to
2nd Samuel chapter 2 2nd Samuel chapter 2 in our modern-day lingo people
will use that interchangeably they'll say well you know a Jew the 12 tribes
it's not the same thing though okay and I'm going to show you that very
clearly in the Bible but we aren't if we're gonna understand what it's talking
about we need to understand what is the Bible's definition what are the
tribes of the children of Israel how is that different than a Jew and if you
go back to 2nd Samuel chapter 2 we're gonna look in the reign of David okay
now if you remember at the end of 1st Samuel and this is a bit of a Bible
study so I'm not gonna try to fly through the points it could be a long
sermon we'll see I want to make sure everyone has time to write stuff down
and learn I'm gonna try to keep this as simple as possible so we can
gather this info but at the end of 1st Samuel remember Saul was trying to
kill David and David had been anointed to be the next king right man look at
not only man look at on the outward appearance but the Lord look at on the
heart and God had chosen David even though he was small stature and he was
just keeping the sheep he wasn't trying to promote himself okay so
David had been selected but Saul was still kind of in that position and so
Saul is envious and he tries to kill David so David's on the run for a
while and eventually the last thing Saul ever does is he takes a sword and he
kills himself and we know that he went to heaven the Bible says okay because he
had eternal life eternal life was in the Old Testament as well okay and so
Saul dies but what takes place is that David should become the king of
all the 12 tribes of Israel that's not what takes place though because some
of the tribes decide we don't want to go under David and instead they
looked at it as kind of like a monarchy right basically Saul's sons
will just go to him and they looked at the lineage of Saul and said we're
gonna stick to Saul so when basically when David takes over there's this
battle between the 12 tribes of Israel and some chose David's side some chose
the house of Saul I'll show you this 2nd Samuel chapter 2 verse 4 and the
men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the house of
Judah so the men of Judah anoint David king Judah was one of the 12 sons of
Israel okay the the son of Leah the fourth son I believe Ruben Ruben Simeon
Levi Judah the fourth son of Leah and Jacob or Leah in Israel okay and so it
says the house of Judah anoints David and they told David saying that
the men of Jabesh Gilead were they that buried Saul okay go down to
verse number 8 verse number 8 so we saw that the tribe of Judah they
choose to follow David okay that's one of the 12 tribes verse 8 but Abner
the son of Ner captain of Saul's host took Ishmael the son of Saul and
brought him over to Mahanim and made him king over Gilead and over the
Asherites and over Jezreel and over Ephraim and over Benjamin and over all
Israel see notice Judah follows David but then the rest basically follows
Ishmael which pretty much Abner's kind of the king who basically is
more powerful in Ishmael but basically they follow the the house of
Saul so Judah follows David but in verse 9 it said they made him king
over Gilead and over the Asherites and over Jezreel and over Ephraim
which was one of the two sons of Joseph Manasseh and Ephraim and
Benjamin which was the brother of Joseph and over all Israel which is
saying over all the 12 tribes of Israel except save the house of Judah
so basically 11 tribes follow the house of Saul and one tribe follows David okay
all of Israel whether it's Benjamin whether it's Ephraim whether it's you
know any of them they follow the house of Saul they don't follow David at
first okay verse 10 Ishmael's son was 40 years old when he began to reign
over Israel and reign two years but the house of Judah followed David so
notice there's the house of Israel and the house of Judah and what you're
gonna see throughout first second Samuel first Kings second Kings first
Chronicles second Chronicles you're gonna see the house of Israel and the
house of Judah are basically having war for almost the entire time they're
going at it and the house of Judah the tribe of Judah the kingdom of Judah
was in the southern part the kingdom of Israel was in the northern part and
what you're seeing here is they already separated and the side of Judah is
going with David and in the northern kingdom of Israel they side with the
house of Saul okay now I don't have time to go into all these chapters but
the battle is going to keep going and eventually though David's side wins
out and basically the house of Israel and the house of Judah reunite
and David's the king over all 12 tribes okay but then his son becomes
the king Solomon okay we know Solomon Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes he wrote
the Song of Solomon he wrote Proverbs he was a very wise man and then he
married like a thousand women okay and so he was a very godly person and then
he became very ungodly and here's the thing God lifts people up to
prominence that are humble and God brings people down that are arrogant
God lifts people up that are godly God brings people down that are
ungodly so Solomon was basically the wisest man in the world and the most
powerful pretty much or right up there and guess what when he became ungodly
his kingdom was taken away okay first Kings chapter 11 first Kings 11 first
Kings chapter 11 you say well why does it say the the house of Israel and the
house of Judah because Judah was part of Israel well because the vast
majority of the kingdom of Israel most of the tribes were with it so it
still retains the name Israel okay but it no longer has all 12 tribes now
under David he ends up basically taking control and it's all 12 tribes but then
eventually what's going to happen is once again Judah and Israel are going
to separate from one another okay the kingdoms obviously you know Judah died
a long time before this you know he's in the book of Genesis but
basically the lineage okay and basically if you remember the 12 tribes
had their lots they got to inherit so they have various locations are
supposed to be first Kings 11 verse 28 and this is after Solomon's already
become wicked but Solomon is the king and the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor and
Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious he made him ruler over all the
charge of the house of Joseph and so basically Solomon sees that Jeroboam is one of his best
guys you know he's a great worker and he basically puts Jeroboam in charge of the
house of Joseph which is going to be Ephraim and Manasseh okay those lineages okay
now Jeroboam was not that godly of a person though okay and so Solomon puts him in
charge because he's good at his job he's a hard worker whatever but he's not a very godly person
notice what it says in verse 29 and it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out
of Jerusalem that a prophet Ahijah the Shiloh knight found him in the way and he clad
himself with a new garment and they too were alone in the field so Jeroboam which was
just promoted by Solomon he ends up running into the prophet Ahijah which is a good
prophet okay alone in the field and Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him and
rent it in 12 pieces and so what it says is he basically takes the garment and rents it in
12 pieces this is going to be a picture of what he's trying to describe the 12 pieces of
the garment of the clothing represent the 12 tribes the children of Israel so he rips it
into 12 pieces okay verse 31 and he said to Jeroboam take the 10 pieces so Jeroboam gets
10 pieces okay for thus saith the Lord the God of Israel behold I will rend the kingdom out
of the hand of Solomon and will give 10 tribes to thee so basically Ahijah is telling
Jeroboam you're going to become the king of 10 tribes not all 12 of 10 tribes okay verse
32 but he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake the city
which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel so basically 10 tribes go to Jeroboam and
then there's left one tribe you say brother Saki I'm not a math person but 10 plus 1 does
not equal 12 okay well here's the reason why it's 11 instead of 12 because the kingdom
of Judah Judah is the most significant one but what we're going to see is Benjamin goes
along with the kingdom of Judah so it's listed as the kingdom of Judah although it's Judah plus
Benjamin because Benjamin's not as big and not as godly as Judah so it's known as the kingdom
of Judah and it's located within where Judah was given their lot their inheritance but it's
Judah plus Benjamin when we say the kingdom of Judah okay so the kingdom of Judah is going
to be Judah plus Benjamin and then the kingdom of Israel are the 10 tribes that are not Judah
Benjamin okay the 10 tribes gonna be the kingdom of Israel so Jeroboam is going to reign over the
10 over the kingdom of Israel so basically what's going to happen at the end of this
chapter is Solomon is going to try to basically kill Jeroboam okay go to first Kings 12 first
Kings 12 and so basically Jeroboam ends up being on the run from Solomon but in first Kings
12 because Solomon wants to kill him because once Solomon finds out about this and first Kings
12 verse 1 and Rehoboam went to Shechem for all Israel will come to Shechem to make him king
you say Rehoboam, Jeroboam these are different people okay Rehoboam is the son of Solomon okay
so basically with a monarchy when you have a kingly system once the king dies his son takes
over you know King Henry the eighth with his first wife Catherine of Aragon you know he was
basically looking for a male heir and the reason why King Henry the eighth married so many women
and had some put to death and things like that and was seeking a divorce from his first wife
is because she was not able to have a male child a male heir and so Kings especially they
want to have a male child who can end up taking over the throne so King Henry the eighth
was obsessed with that and basically you know she wasn't able to so he just said well
I'm gonna divorce you then now here's what's funny about this as we know later on because
they were able to have you know children although back then you know oftentimes children
would die during pregnancy but they were able to have a female child which ends up being bloody
Mary okay which is known in history who murdered all the non-catholics pretty much she
eventually becomes a queen at one point what's funny is nowadays we know that the lineage
of whether or not you have a boy or girls determined by the male not the woman okay
so it's kind of funny King Henry the eighth was so mad at his wife I said well it's
your fault King Henry the eighth it's like you know so anyways though but basically when
you have a monarchy system you want to have a son to take over to become the next King
and so Solomon's son is Rehoboam okay so Rehoboam is going to Shesham he's gonna
become the new king for all Israel were come to Shesham to make him king so all
12 tribes are gonna follow Rehoboam that's the plan okay but remember Ahijah said
10 tribes are gonna go with Jeroboam remember Jeroboam's on the run from Solomon or he
was verse 2 and it came to pass when Jeroboam the son of Nebat who was yet in Egypt heard
of it for he was fled from the presence of King Solomon and Jeroboam dwell in Egypt so
Jeroboam runs away from Solomon and is hiding once Solomon dies Jeroboam returns okay verse
3 that they sent and called him and Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and
spake unto Rehoboam saying thy father made our yoke grievous now therefore make
thou the grievous service of thy father and his heavy yoke which he hath put upon us
lighter and we will serve thee basically what they're saying is your dad made it very
difficult there's too much work to do it was too hard if you make our life very easy we're
gonna serve you okay now I believe that many of those people meant that from their
hearts I don't believe Jeroboam meant that from his heart because Jeroboam was not a
godly person and Jeroboam already knew he was gonna become the king but what I believe is
Jeroboam was a very smart person and he knew what was gonna take place so Jeroboam comes
to Rehoboam and acts like you know hey you know I'll serve you okay in reality I believe
he's a liar who's taking control of those other people now here's the thing he was an
ungodly person but this was of God that he was going to take over the ten tribes okay
so I believe he knew what was going to take place so basically they say you know make
it easy for us and we're going to serve you okay go down to verse number 12 so
Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day and basically what happens
is Rehoboam gets counsel he gets counsel with old people and with young people the
old people say make it easy for him the young people say make it really hard make it where
it's like you know scorpions on them really difficult and this is this is interesting because
this is kind of the difference between young people and as they get older when somebody's
young they're just ready to go to war with every false prophet like let's just protest
that church right over there let's have some guts and boldness blah blah blah and then once
you get a little bit older you realize okay that's a little bit stupid that's a little bit
crazy but you know young people that's the advice now look I'll be honest with you if
I was seeking advice on something important I wouldn't seek advice from people that are
really young in general I'd probably seek advice from people that are husbands that have kids
that have some experience or people that are a little bit older and they've lived
through some things because they could probably give better advice okay and so but basically
Rehoboam he gets advice from two different sides the problem with this when you get
advice from two different people you're gonna take the advice from the one that you like better
the one that you think sounds better he should have just gone to those that are godly with
experience that love the Lord that were soul winners and he would have gotten better
advice verse 12 so Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day as the
king had appointed saying come to me again the third day and the king answered the people
roughly and forsook the old men's council that they gave him and spake to them after
the council of the young men saying my father made your yoke heavy and I will add to your yoke
my father also chastise you with whips but I will chastise you with scorpions and so basically
you know Rehoboam gets advice from the young people he says you know what you're complaining
because it's too hard I'm gonna make it like you know you're being chastised with scorpions
look that is a really stupid thing to say if you want to get the people to follow you
right the first day you take over you're like your life's gonna be terrible it's gonna
be so difficult now that's what he's basically saying it's like this is a young guy who just
doesn't have much experience and quite honestly that's just really foolish okay if you're a boss
and you have employees and you're just obnoxious and a jerk and really rude to them and you
just make it really difficult look the reality is you know what they're probably not gonna be
that great of employees okay now absolutely sometimes there's discipline necessary or like
if you coach a sports team cuz I've coached several soccer teams and quite honestly you
can't make it too easy where they're just gonna goof off but you can't just be like a jerk to
them either okay there's a balance that you got to find and Rehoboam does not find this
balance so these people said well we're gonna serve you if you make it easy and then he
says I'm gonna make it harder verse 15 wherefore the king harken not unto the people
for the cause was from the Lord so this was God's choice this was gonna happen
Ahijah said it that he might perform a saying which the Lord spake by Ahijah the
Sheila night on to Jeroboam the son of Nebat so when all Israel saw that the king harken not
unto them the people answer the king saying what portion have we in David neither have
we inheritance in the son of Jesse to your tents O Israel now see to thine own house David
so Israel departed onto their tents verse 17 but as for the children of Israel which dwelt
in the cities of Judah Rehoboam reigned over them so here's the separation from here on
out you have a separation from the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel remember the
kingdom of Judah was Judah and Benjamin also if you remember the Levites they were given
their inheritance in different places so there are some Levites and here's the thing anyone
would have been freely able to go from one country to the next and join the people and
become like them because the kingdom of Judah is much godlier than the kingdom of Israel
for almost the entire time in the Bible and if somebody wants to live for the Lord look
people at our church have moved from other locations to come to this church they want to
come here to serve God or whatever and they could have done that back then as well but
basically you have Judah and Benjamin with the kingdom of Judah and then you have the other
ten tribes with the kingdom of Israel from pretty much the rest of the Bible this is what
you see you never see them United again as one after this now first Kings 12 verse 21
first Kings 12 verse 21 let me prove this to you with that with the tribe of Benjamin
first Kings 12 verse 21 and when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem he assembled all the house of
Judah with the tribe of Benjamin so do you see how there were 10 tribes and this is the
one tribe Judah plus Benjamin there's your 12 10 plus Jude and Benjamin okay but this is
known as the kingdom of Judah throughout the Bible okay verse 22 verse 22 but the word of God
came on to Shemaiah the man of God saying speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon king of Judah
and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the remnant of the people saying so once
again it says Judah then it says Judah and Benjamin okay now look this this makes sense
because if you if you even look at our modern day if you talk about the Soviet Union before
they basically broke apart sometimes people would call the Soviet Union Russia they say
oh rush but Russia is not the Soviet Union Russia was one of the countries within the Soviet
Union there's Belarus there's Georgia there's Ukraine there's Kazakhstan but you would say
well Russia because they were by far the biggest of all of those countries so when
you think of the Soviet Union you think of Russia but the Soviet Union was many
countries okay but the most prominent was Russia okay with Judah and Benjamin the most
prominent is Judah so it's just known as the kingdom of Judah okay turn to second Kings
16 second Kings 16 you say brother second we're all over the place tonight all right this
this is tying together just wait 30 more minutes and we'll be there okay second Kings
chapter 16 now what's interesting about this is that as we've gone through this entire time
as we talked about the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah did you know that the
the term Jew has not been mentioned a single time in the Bible now this is interesting
because Israel has been around since the book of Genesis and yet we're all the way
in second Kings 16 and the term Jew or Jews has been mentioned zero times in the entire
Bible remember when it said the 144,000 of all the tribes the children of Israel that's
talking about the 12 different tribes okay the term Jew has not even been mentioned and
we're in second Kings 16 why because a Jew is not the same thing as the 12 tribes of Israel
okay and I'll show this to you second Kings 16 we're gonna look at the first time it's
mentioned in the Bible second Kings 16 verse 1 and the 17th year of Pekah the son
of Ramaliah a has the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign now remember when it
says king of Judah that's Judah and Benjamin okay so we see a has the son of Jotham is the
king of Judah now then it says this 20 years old was a has when he began to reign and reigns
16 years in Jerusalem and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord is God like
David his father but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel so notice how it says
this king of Judah did not do what was right but he walked like the kings of Israel because
Judah and Israel are separated okay he walked in the way of the kings of Israel yay and made
his son to pass through the fire according to the abominations of the heat in whom the
Lord cast out from before the children of Israel so basically his son's like a burnt
offering he makes to pass through the fire a wicked custom verse 4 and he sacrificed
and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree then
resin king of Syria and Pekah son of Rameliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war
and they besieged a has but could not overcome him so the king of Assyria joins with the king
of Israel which are the ten tribes and they go to war with a has king of Judah verse
six at that time resin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria and drave the Jews from
Elath and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there on at this day this is the first time you
see the term Jew in the Bible what you're seeing is the king of Syria he drives the
Jews away remember Syria and Israel are on the same team and they're dry they're fighting
the kingdom of Judah and the king of Syria Syria with the king of Israel they drive the
king of Judah way they drive the Jews away what is a Jew a Jew comes from the word
Judah I mean you can see how they're pretty similar a Jew is someone who lived in the tribe
or the kingdom of Judah okay so a Jew is representative of the tribe of Judah plus
anyone who lived there I mean you could be from the tribe of Simeon or Reuben or Levi
if you lived with the kingdom of Judah you'd be known as a Jew okay now it's mainly
the tribe of Judah but Benjamin as well and anybody else who would join okay so a Jew is
not all 12 tribes of the children of Israel it's those that would end up being with the
kingdom of Judah okay that's what a Jew is this is the first time you see Jew in the Bible
what you can see is the Jews part of Judah are being driven away by the king of Syria and
the king of Israel so a Jew is someone who lived in the kingdom of Judah okay now I want
you to understand something else as we're talking about this and we're going to get back
to Revelation here in a second but from a geographical standpoint what I mentioned was
the tribe of Judah was in the southern part the southern kingdom of Judah then you have
the northern kingdom of Israel so if somebody lived in the northern kingdom of Israel someone
who's from the tribe of Reuben and says you know what because usually the kings of Israel
were wicked Israel was wicked pretty much throughout the entire Bible now Judah the kingdom of
Judah was good bad good bad good bad Israel was bad bad bad worse worse worse worse worse
it was always bad but the kingdom of Judah from time to time was good time to time was bad
so look if I lived during that time period and I had the capacity to move if it was such
an ungodly kingdom in Israel I probably would have said I want to become a Jew as well
and join the kingdom of Judah as you know everyone in this room would as well because you
don't want to live in a country this is a really wicked terrible country and you know
I think back then you'd have certain countries I mean Judah pretty much the only one that would
have some semblance of godliness where you could serve God in today's world everybody's pretty
much wicked okay but I want you to realize that basically a Jew is someone who was in the
kingdom of Judah in the southern kingdom of Judah okay now go in your Bible to Revelation
chapter 7 Revelation chapter 7 now what's interesting when you're reading your Bible
is it will mention you know where someone's from in the Old Testament but as you get to
the New Testament you don't really say see them saying well he's from the tribe of Reuben or
the tribe of you know Simeon or wherever and we're gonna look at a verse here later on
but in James 1 1 it talks about the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad and what took
place was God gave these 12 tribes a certain land and area to live in and he says if you're
godly okay that was the prerequisite if you're godly this is your land if you're ungodly
basically it's going to be taken away were they godly in the Old Testament no they were
ungodly so what took place well they lost their land you say what about the land of
Israel today no they lost their land in the Old Testament okay they're not getting it
back because God said if you're godly here is your area but if you're ungodly basically
they would be invaded by Babylon for example they basically became you know underneath their
rule and they were scattered all throughout the world so here's the thing they knew
that they were the tribe of Simeon because they were living in that area for a while
but what happens when you get scattered all over the world you no longer know where
you came from I can't go back 500 years in my past and tell you well this is
what my ancestors were doing they were living in this part of the world I have no idea you
can't really trace your genealogy back that far the reason why they knew in the Old Testament
is because they were living in the land God gave them and if you remember God said I want
you to marry within your tribe not that God's a racist I mean obviously you know you can
marry anyone godly but they were also given a set area because he wanted them to have
that area it belonged to them so he wanted them to marry within that tribe so people
know what their lineage was here's the thing though they became ungodly they get scattered
all over the world and now all of a sudden nobody knows what their genealogy nobody
knows what their tribe is okay that's what took place so when you get to the New Testament
I mean if you were to ask people today someone who says they're Jewish ask them what
tribe are you from they don't know they don't know what their genealogy is and the
Bible says genealogies don't matter because they don't okay it doesn't matter where you
come from it matters whether you're serving God but I want you to realize basically they
were scattered all over and they intermarry I mean they married the heathen throughout
the Bible and things like that nobody knows anymore where their genealogy was thousands
of years ago and they didn't even know it in the New Testament because they were scattered
everywhere okay revelation 7 verse 4 and I heard the number of them which were sealed
and they were sealed in 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel once again
this is not the Jews because that would just be the tribe of Judah and Benjamin okay
no 144,000 of all the tribes okay so basically the 12 different tribes before they separated
okay 12 different tribes of the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000 of the tribe of Reuben were
sealed 12,000 of the tribe of Gad were sealed 12,000 of the tribe of Asher were sealed 12,000
of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed 12,000 of the tribe of Manasseh were sealed 12,000
of the tribe of Simeon were sealed 12,000 of the tribe of Levi were sealed 12,000
of the tribe of Issachar were sealed 12,000 of the tribe of Zabulun were sealed 12,000
of the tribe of Joseph were sealed 12,000 of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed 12,000
and so basically you have these 12 different tribes now I do want to mention to you one thing
if you're going to notice in verse 6 the last tribe mentioned is Manasseh which is
Manasseh is how it's spelled in the Old Testament M-A-N-A-S-S-E-H I believe
Manasseh was one of the two sons of Joseph Joseph was one of the 12 sons of Israel okay
so that'd be one of the 12 tribes but you notice it mentions not just Joseph but his son
Manasseh now notice in verse 8 the second tribe mentioned is of the tribe of Joseph so
there's 12 tribes listed but Joseph is listed along with one of his sons okay so basically they
this one tribe takes two of the tribes okay you have Joseph and Manasseh you say why does
it say Joseph and Manasseh well Joseph had Ephraim and Manasseh and if you remember Ephraim
was the younger son but Ephraim was the one that became bigger and greater you know the
term the Ephraimites in the Bible okay they're very big they're very prominent and so when
you think of Joseph you think of Ephraim but also Manasseh is mentioned as well so here's
the thing if you add one tribe what do you have to do you have to remove a tribe right
I mean if you have 12 tribes 12,000 and we just added a 13th tribe but we only counted
12 so there's one tribe that's missing and the tribe that's missing is Dan okay we're
gonna see why now go to Revelation chapter 14 Revelation chapter 14 so Joseph gets a new
tribe and Dan gets removed okay now as we mentioned before the first 11 chapters in
Revelation go through the story and then it's going to recycle back toward the beginning and
then go through it again and highlight different things okay Revelation 7 and Revelation 14 are
kind of your parallel chapters they speak of the same things they speak of the 144,000 they
speak of the rapture okay now in Revelation 7 at the beginning of the chapter we saw the
144,000 we haven't preached on the rapture yet have we we preached on the tribulation we preached
on beginning of sorrows the Great Tribulation we haven't preached in the rapture yet because
that happens later in Revelation 7 first the 144,000 gets sealed revelation 7 is
chronological right I mean the 144,000 gets sealed and then before God's wrath is poured
out but then there's the rapture and then God's wrath is going to be poured out in
Revelation 8 well same thing in Revelation 14 we're gonna see the 144,000 are gonna be
sealed and then later on in Revelation 14 is the rapture so who are these 144,000 okay
they're of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel with Dan removed and then Manasseh's
added but notice this in Revelation 14 verse 1 and I looked and lo a lamb stood on the Mount
Zion and with him in 144,000 having his father's name written in their foreheads now
Revelation 14 is going to be chronological it will go in order notice that it says on
the Mount Zion in verse 1 where is Mount Zion it's up in heaven Mount Zion is in heaven it's
not on earth okay it's very important because these are parallel chapters 7 and 14 at the
beginning of 14 before they're sealed what do we see it mentions Mount Zion which is up
in heaven now go go to Hebrews chapter 12 real quickly let me prove this to you Hebrews 12
Hebrews 12 I warned you this was going to be an in-depth sermon I warned you there's
going to be notes it's gonna be a lot of information there's a lot to cover and we're
not even finishing all of Revelation 7 tonight we're just talking about the 144,000 144,000
and so in Hebrews 12 Hebrews 12 remember we were talking about Mount Zion Mount Zion
Hebrews 12 verse 22 but year come on to Mount Zion and on to the city of the living
God the heavenly Jerusalem and do an innumerable company of angels so when we talk about Mount
Zion is this the earthly Jerusalem or the heavenly it's referring to up in heaven right
Mount Zion the heavenly Jerusalem we're referring to up in heaven not on earth in Hebrews 12
verse 22 that's what Mount Zion is so if you go back to Revelation chapter 14 when
it mentions Mount Zion we need to realize this is happening up in heaven not on earth
because in Revelation chapter 7 the 144,000 will be sealed before the earth is hurt and
you might think this is happening on earth it's not happening on earth though the ceiling
this is how the ceiling is happening up in heaven okay we're gonna see this
Revelation 14 verse 15 let me show you later on in the chapter so you realize the
rapture is not taking place yet Revelation 14 verse 15 and another angel came out of the
temple crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud thrust in my sickle and
reap for the time has come for thee to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe verse
15 is the rapture mentioned in verse 15 where it says thrust in thy sickle and reap
that's what it's talking about so the rapture in Revelation 14 is not taking place yet it's
later on okay in this when it in chapters 12 through 22 as it recycles the story
the rapture will take place in verse 15 go back to verse 2 so when we're dealing with
these 144,000 we need to realize this is in heaven not on earth
Revelation 14 verse 2 and I heard a voice from heaven once again it mentions heaven as the voice
of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder and I heard the voice of harpers harping
with their harps and they sung as it were a new song before the throne before the throne
of God this is obviously up in heaven right and before the four beasts and the elders
which throughout the Bible the four beasts and the elders were they on earth or heaven they're
in heaven right the four beasts and the elders and no man could learn that song
but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth okay so mentions these 144,000 and this
is up in heaven but then it says redeemed from the earth okay now I want you to remember
when it mentioned the 12 tribes in the Old Testament they started fighting with one
and they get scattered to countries all over the world that's what you see throughout the
Bible and when you get to the New Testament you're not seeing the tribe of Reuben the tribe
of Simeon the tribe of Levi they don't have they don't know what their lineage is
anymore okay they're scattered all over the place and they're no longer in their territories
it's territories what it said in James was the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad
okay so notice what it says in verse 4 about these 144,000 okay it says
these are they which now here's here's why it's important to understand the rapture is not taking
place yet because when it says redeemed from the earth in verse 3 you might think oh they
just got raptured the rapture hasn't taken place yet they were redeemed from the earth
but the rapture didn't take place you say was it a second rapture we're not free
trippers that just come up with all these crazy doctrine no the rapture takes place in
verse 15 they were redeemed from the earth in the Old Testament back when they had
I'll show this to you Revelation 14 verse 4 these are they we're talking about who are these
144,000 these are they which were not defiled with women for they were virgins for they are
virgins so they never were with another woman they're never with any woman these are they
which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these were redeemed from among men being
the first fruits onto God into the Lamb these 144,000 were 12,000 from all the different
tribes and they were male virgins all of them men all of them virgins okay the 12
tribes don't exist during this time period I mean they don't exist now much less during
the time of Revelation so this is not at the rapture there's these 144,000 Jews that
are out there that are going to be the 12,000 no that's not what's taking place the tribes
existed in the Old Testament so these 144,000 they were redeemed from the earth they died
they went to be with heaven and God is bringing them back you say that sounds crazy to me well
I mean there's going to be two witnesses during the end times Moses and Elijah and guess
what with Moses and Elijah where are they right now they're up in heaven they're gonna
be brought back and they're gonna be brought here and the difference between Moses and
Elijah and the 144,000 and we'll talk about Moses and Elijah here in several weeks but the
difference is that Moses and Elijah have a very public ministry to the point where basically
the Antichrist singles them out and tries to kill them and eventually overcomes them
and he kills them then three and a half days later their bodies come back to life they have
a very public ministry and their message is getting out all over the world they are the
online ministry during the end times okay the two witnesses okay the 144,000 are just
kind of going so winning more kind of under the radar they don't really have to hide
because they're not gonna be killed but they're not known and hated like the two
witnesses I mean the two witnesses it says people are rejoicing when they're dead they
don't even bury their bodies they're so happy they're dead I mean when a body dies you bury
it I believe in burial but people would burn it or whatever because the body's gonna start
to stink but they just let the body sit out there for three and a half days and they're
just rejoicing yeah we won and then all of a sudden they come back to life and it's
like oh man I'm on the losing side but in Revelation 14 and verse 4 when it
says these 144,000 these are male virgins and since the 12 tribes no longer even exist
today and these were redeemed from earth which means the and the rapture is not taking place
yet it makes sense that these are people that have already died as believers and they
went up to heaven okay they went up in the Old Testament when the tribes were still
around these 144,000 12,000 out of each tribe these are godly people okay 12,000
from each tribe and see that brings you back to this other thing because we talked about
basically the purpose of the 144,000 we talked about who they are male virgins 144,000
Old Testament saints that died as believers 12,000 from the 12 tribes not just 144,000
people no 12,000 of each tribe back when the tribes existed but you know there's a
requirement to be that 144,000 and part of it was to be basically a male virgin but basically
these are godly people and this is why Dan is gone okay why because Dan was the most
wicked of the 12 tribes and I don't believe that they could find 12,000 male virgins okay
now here's the thing obviously you can get married and there's nothing wrong with that I'm
married and obviously if you get married you know you're not going to fit the category of being one
of these 144,000 because you had a family but I do want you to realize when we're talking about
the 144,000 some godly people don't get married and also as they became tributaries they were
basically put in other countries think of someone like Daniel and no he didn't get married okay
but he was a godly person and basically oftentimes when a kingdom would conquer sometimes
they would basically make men eunuchs or sometimes they wouldn't allow you legally to get
married and so if you're a godly person who lived during that time period and Babylon takes
over and they don't let you get married and you're a godly person then as a guy yeah you
could be one of those 12,000 from whatever tribe you were from okay and so when it comes
to these 144,000 these are 144,000 godly people males that are virgins but Dan was always
wicked turn to Genesis 49 I'll show this to you so the requirement to be 144,000 got to
be a godly person and look I don't believe if they weren't so winning thousands of years
ago they're gonna be brought back to be a soul winner okay I just don't think that
makes a whole lot of sense I believe these are 12,000 you know from each tribe that were
soul winners back when they lived they're male virgins and they're brought back to go
soul winning okay Genesis 49 Genesis 49 is the chapter that goes through basically the
the sons of Jacob or the sons of Israel and in Genesis 49 verse 16 a lot of these sons
had godly things mentioned about them but notice Dan Dan shall judges people as one of the tribes
of Israel Dan shall be a serpent by the way an adder in the path that bite at the horse
heels so that his riders shall fall backward and so Dan is described as a serpent is that
a godly description in the Bible I mean the devil was the first serpent in the Bible
I mean Genesis chapter 3 right right at the very beginning when when basically God
remembers him and he says basically a serpent and his lineage this is not just this specific
Dan because it's basically showing their lineage but basically says Dan I'm gonna describe
you as a serpent Dan was always very wicked okay Dan was very wicked but I want you to
understand go to judges 18 judges 18 not only do you see Dan being very wicked but Dan the
tribe of Dan because remember they were given their lot of inheritance but Dan basically says
we don't want what you got for us God and they get geographically separated that you've got the
southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel and then you got Dan with
their inheritance which is supposed to be roughly near the southern kingdom of Judah
and they just disobey what God says and they're just scattered all over the world
because they just say I don't want what you have God yes you gave us this lot we don't
want it and I'll show this to you in judges 18 verse 1 judges 18 verse 1 in those
days there was no king in Israel and in those days the tribe of the Danites this is the tribe
of Dan the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in for onto that day all
their inheritance had not fallen on to them among the tribes of Israel so wait a minute all
the tribes of Israel have their inheritance but Dan didn't get theirs why they rejected
it and now they find themselves as wonders they're like vagabonds they're nomads there's
wandering around without a home it's like why didn't you just take what God gave you and
now they don't have their inheritance anymore because they didn't want it okay so Dan rejected
they were ungodly and now they're separated everywhere because they didn't get their
inheritance they were given a set location and if they're scattered all over the world
they're going to intermarry obviously they're not going to follow what God said of marrying
within your tribe and then there is going to be no more tribe of Dan so in today's world we
don't have to try any of the tribes anymore at the beginning of the New Testament there's
very little resemblance of tribes at that point but look Dan quit resembling being in a tribe way
in the Old Testament because they got scattered all over because they were ungodly they were
wicked they were separated from everyone they don't have an inheritance go down to verse 29
verse 29 so Dan gets geographically separated judges 18 verse 29 and they called the name
the city Dan after the name of Dan their father who was born onto Israel how be it the name
the city was Laish at the first so Dan finally finds a place okay they named the city Dan and
the children of Dan set up the graven image so basically these were Catholics in the Old
Testament okay they got their graven image they got their idolatry there obviously not
very godly and Jonathan the son of Gershom the son of Manasseh he and his sons were
priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land and they set them
up Micah's graven image which he made all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh
and so notice they have a graven image okay so these are not godly people now were there
some godly people within the tribe of Dan I'm sure but I don't think they found 12,000
I think the reason why they lost this was they didn't meet the requirements God is like I
can't find 12,000 Danites that were godly people soul winners that were male virgins I don't
think he found it because they quit being a tribe they were scattered all over the place
and they were ungodly so that's why he's got to pass it on to Joseph's two sons
Manasseh and Ephraim because he could find 12,000 of them go to 1st Kings 1
1st Kings 12 1st Kings chapter 12 we'll look at a few other places 1st Kings 12
1st Kings chapter 12 and so we saw the purpose of the 144,000 to be soul winners we saw
who they are 12,000 of the 12 tribes minus Dan added the other son of Joseph but there's a
requirement to be male virgins and to be godly people soul winners from the Old Testament and
you know quite frankly Dan just didn't meet that they weren't soul winners they weren't godly
people 1st Kings 12 and if you remember this is basically right with the story of
Jeroboam and Rehoboam where there's the battle between the southern kingdom of Judah
which is following Rehoboam and the northern kingdom following Jeroboam
verse 26 and Jeroboam said in his heart now so the kingdom return to the house of David
so Jeroboam is worried that the ten tribes that are with him are going to return to the
house of David which means Solomon's son Rehoboam he's afraid Rehoboam is going to
have all 12 tribes so he does something here in verse 27 if this people go up to do
sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem and Jerusalem was part of the the
southern kingdom of Judah then shall the heart of this people turn again onto their Lord even
on to Rehoboam king of Judah and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah
so Jeroboam was worried that some of his men were going to go to basically the kingdom
of Judah to worship and then say you know what the kingdom of Judah is better than the
kingdom of Israel we're going to leave Jeroboam and go to Rehoboam we're going to
follow the house of David so he's worried about that so since he's worried they're
going to go to Judah and worship and reject him notice what it says in verse 28 where upon
the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said unto them it is too much
for you to go up to Jerusalem so he's saying you know what don't go there I've
got gods for you to worship behold thy gods are Israel which brought thee up out
of the land of Egypt now I want you to understand something obviously God's against
idolatry so a godly person is going to see right through this but this is
what Jeroboam's plan is I'm going to make calves of gold which that's what took
place during the days of Moses and Aaron right I mean there's people that had no
problem worshipping a god they said oh it just represents God it's like no
that's wicked that's idolatry okay but two calves of gold are made and
he's going to put them in two different locations and he set up the
one in Bethel okay now Bethel means house of God and so he puts
this gold calf in the the area known as the house of God and I
believe the reason why he did that is he's worried people are going to go to
the southern kingdom of Judah to worship and then leave he said well I've got
something for you in the house of God and so people are going to think it's
godly it's just like these religions today that will mix in you know godly
preaching with all this worldliness they bring in all this Christian rock
and all this garbage and then they try to say well there's no change it's
like no there's a big change change the music you change the preaching but
then you put Baptist on your name and act like you're Baptist and you
don't preach hard you don't go soul winning you don't preach on
separation you don't read the Bible you don't memorize the Bible it's just
like you know you're saying you're Baptist because you're trying to trick
people that want to live for God that's exactly what Jeroboam and look this is
just a rabbit show but this is what Baptist churches do they act like
they're godly and said oh we're different than the Catholics and
victory no you're not different than victory or CCI you're the same you
have the same music you have the same standards you have the same
everything as those churches but they pretend to be godly that's what
Jeroboam is doing so the one is set up in Bethel and the other put he
and Dan so he puts one in the house of God and the other one he puts in
Dan why because the tribe of Dan will have no problem worshipping a golden
calf because they've been ungodly from the beginning even back in the days of
Jeroboam it was very obvious to Jeroboam oh the tribe of Dan that's
the one I can count on for being ungodly and that's the area where
they're having all these kids out of wedlock that's the area where
they're listening to the rock music that's the area where they're never
reading the scriptures that's the area that's ungodly so he puts one of the
calves in Dan so what you see throughout the entire Bible is Dan is wicked
okay throughout the entire Bible Dan is wicked so I don't believe they found
12,000 male virgins I don't think they've had 12,000 soul winners in
that entire area one last place go to Amos chapter 8 Amos chapter 8
Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Amos you get past the major prophets then
you got Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Amos chapter 8 we're gonna look at one
last place Amos chapter 8 I'll give you a minute to get there Amos chapter 8
we're gonna look at just one last place here so what we've talked about
here tonight is there's 144,000 first what's the purpose the the very
clear purpose the whole point of the 144,000 the whole reason why God would
bring 144,000 people from because look when I go to heaven I don't want to
return so I don't want to come back but you know God has these 144,000 and
he's like you know what I got a mission for you so he takes these
144,000 that are already in heaven and basically they're gonna come back to
be the soul winners here because if all believers are raptured from the
earth okay how are people gonna get saved I mean here's the thing there's
gonna be the two witnesses during the end times and the two witnesses start
before the 144,000 and we'll talk about that in later sermon but which I
believe are Moses and Elijah and they have a very public ministry but people
with a very public ministry as great as that is that doesn't really reach the
souls around the world okay look our pastor in Sacramento who's still the
authority of this church you know I'm running this church underneath his
authority he has a very public ministry people know who pastor Roger
Jimenez is he's very well known he's been in documentaries especially in
the u.s. he's very well known many of you have listened to lots of
sermons of his he has a very public ministry and he has plenty of
people that watch his videos and listen to his sermons but I want you to
realize as great as it is and as it's reached people here it really doesn't
get a whole lot of people saved in the Philippines what it does is it inspires
soul winners to go so winning and to get people saved we will get far more
people saved here in the Philippines and pastor men as well why because
we're the boots on the ground to do the work see the public ministry is
great but that doesn't reach the whole world with the gospel what reaches
the world with the gospel is people actually doing the work people with a
public ministry pastor minutes pastor Anderson that is great and it inspires
people around the world but the most people that get saved are from just
one-on-one soul-winning that's the reality and so the 144,000 they are
the boots on the ground because two men with an online presence that are
well known that are in the media that's not going to get people saved
around the world people get saved from a gospel presentation one-on-one
that's how they get saved and even with the the documentaries that our
church has been a part of and things such as that and there's a soul-winning
plan at the very end like there's a ten minute gospel presentation can people
get saved from that absolutely amen for everyone who's gotten saved from it
but the vast minority of people get saved from that I remember going
soul-winning with someone who's a member of Mountain Baptist Church and
you know we were at the same school in Bridgeport and I saw we had we're
both friends with Pastor Anderson on Facebook so I sent him a message on a
Saturday night and I just for whatever reason I was looking at my hometown of
Bridgeport and you know I saw one person was friends with Pastor Anderson
so I sent him a message and invited him to church I said you know hey you know
we got a group of people that are online listeners we go soul-winning
and he's like I'll be there tomorrow and he drove up 45 minutes and came
to church the next day well I went soul-winning with him and you know
it was great it was awesome he still goes to Mountain Baptist he's a great
guy and you know what's interesting is he told me a couple years later he's
like brother Stuckey I just wanted to let you know that when we went
soul-winning on that Sunday when I first came to church he's like you know
I didn't realize it at first but he's like I actually wasn't saved when I went
soul-winning with you I've been listening to Pastor Anderson for a long
time but when I heard you preach the gospel and get somebody saved I
actually asked Jesus to save me myself and he's like I know that's the moment I
got saved I wasn't saved before that that's what he told me now look do
people get saved from the online ministry absolutely but you know how many
more people are out there like that that they hear great preaching and here's
the thing people that are unsaved can want to live for God Cornelius was one of
those people many people probably in this room you listen to online
preaching and maybe you weren't saved when you were listening to it and maybe
eventually you did get saved from all the preaching you know maybe not
though okay and there's a lot of people out there they want to live a
godly life they want the hard preaching they want to serve God it
doesn't even necessarily mean they're saved yet though and the best way to
get those people saved is just a one-on-one gospel presentation if people
visit our church that say oh I've listened to pastor men is online I don't
guarantee that person saved because I've seen so many people that visited very
Baptist Church they were listening to the sermons online you ask him
afterwards do you know for sure you're going to heaven I'm not sure
why because they love good preaching that doesn't mean that they're saved
though okay and so the 144,000 they are the boots on the ground to preach
the gospel okay now look in this room you say brother stocky I don't want
to ever be a pastor or church leader that's not my goal where I'm a woman
here and I hope if you're a woman that's not your goal to be a pastor
okay but you say brother say I don't want to be a pastor I don't want to run a
church you know what can I do look you're the boots on the ground though
to get people saved and even if you never have a public ministry and nobody
knows who you are hey you're unknown yet well known see God knows who you
are in heaven you're the boots on the ground and every single one of us
matters and we're all put in different roles as part of this church okay I'm
not good at everything I believe there's everybody's given some gifts and I
believe I have a gift to preach and to teach the Word of God but look I'm not
good at everything there's different gifts listed and all of us have
different gifts and we don't know who's gonna get the most rewards in heaven
we're just all working on this together and that 144,000 the end times
that really matters because they're the ones getting people saved and look
it's great that pastor men is a pastor Anderson a very public ministries but
we're the ones that are gonna get people saved in the Philippines not them
that's the reality okay the purpose of the 144,000 is to preach the
gospel who are the 144,000 well they're 12,000 out of the 12 tribes minus Dan
plus basically Joseph's other son Ephraim and Manasseh okay male virgins
godly soul winners Old Testament Saints back when the tribes were really
there but there's also a requirement of 144,000 to be godly people as we
mentioned so the last place I want to show you here is an Amos 8 and this
is going back to the reference of Dan remember what we saw in first Kings
12 was there's two calves of gold one in Bethel and one in Dan and I believe
this is referenced in the book of Amos chapter 8 in that day the fair
virgins and young men faint for thirst they that swear by the sin of
Samaria you say what is Samaria well that became the capital city of
the kingdom of Israel okay Samaria became the capital of the kingdom of
Israel the location okay so we have Jerusalem for Judah we have Samaria
for Israel for most of the time so the sin of Samaria and say by God Oh Dan
liveth and the manner of Beersheba liveth even they shall fall and never
rise up again what is the sin of Samaria or the sin of the kingdom of
Israel the sin it says thy God Oh Dan it's referring to that idol because
the idol was put in Dan it's referring to those calves of gold the
sin of Samaria idolatry that's what it's referencing in Amos and it mentions
so look is there anything in the Bible that shows Dan as being godly I mean
is there anything that you see or anything we've seen tonight no you're
not going to find anything and so they could not find 12,000 from the
tribe of Dan okay so he goes to Joseph's other son so look just as a
takeaway from this guy no we looked at a lot of information is a bit of a
Bible study but I just want to I just want to leave with that thought on
that rabbit chair I went to that we are the ones here in the Philippines
that are gonna get people saved it's not gonna be pastor Jimenez it's not
gonna be pastor Anderson it's not gonna be pastor Shelley or pastor burzins or
any godly pastors that we love even if people here listen to their sermons
quite honestly they're much more likely to be saved if we preach the
gospel to them and the people are gonna get saved here in the Philippines by
one-on-one soul winning that doesn't have to be someone who's running a
church it can be anybody let's close in word prayer dear heavenly father
thank you for allowing us to be here today and help us to apply the sermon
to our lives I know pretty deep topic here God but help us to know and
understand our Bibles God help us to understand every chapter really dig
into the Bible and sometimes there's some deep things in the Bible God help
us to learn those things and not just pass over and say it's no big deal you
know all the Word of God is precious God and help us apply the sermon to
our lives and we ask you to continue to bless our church and we ask you
also during this time of this lockdown and everything going on God ask you
to help our church through this give us wisdom on how to run things and also
with our government as well God we just ask for guidance in these areas in
Jesus name we pray amen