So, the meaning here is not that marriage is somehow. Bad? or not belittling it at all. But he is saying that they have their orders. And if they break with those orders, They have defiled themselves.
By going against what they were assigned to do. And that's true of anybody, any Christian. When God says don't do that, Or let's put it in the pot if he says do this and you don't. And it's a command. There's a defilement that's taking place.
This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Ricky is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now hears Pastor Rick as he continues teaching through the 14th chapter of the book of Revelation.
So since This song is about redemption. It is about the victory of Christ, which is shared. with those who want to follow him. And only those already in heaven and the redeemed are allowed to learn this song at this point before the four living creatures and the elders Well, we've identified these in chapter 4. The elders are Old Testament, New Testament believers, representation of them.
Because John represents the New Testament believers. And it's only symbolic because he would have said, hey, there's me. I'm one of the 12 apostles that make up the 24, the 12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles. But that's not the point. The point is.
What is it saying? What is God saying to us? Because this is not for those in heaven already. This is for us who haven't gotten there yet. These living creatures are the heavenly beings.
We find them in Isaiah and Ezekiel, and also in the Revelation.
So we know who they are. A special order of created beings stationed. At the throne of God. and delightfully so. And no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty four thousand.
The saved only Again, a reminder, they were used to convert people to Christ.
Well those Seven years, mainly the three last three and a half, especially the last three and a half, when he gets real ugly. And if I've lost you, that's the Holy Spirit taking opportunity to say, You got a lot of homework. Oh man, I'm glad I'm not you. You got a lot of homework. You gotta catch up on these things, and it will be a joy.
I can remember when I first started reading the Bible, I can remember when I couldn't read the Bible. It was all gibberish, like what are they saying? And God just opened my eyes. And now it's such a joy. But every now and then I've got a reference.
I don't know what that means any more. I gotta go look at my notes, oh that's right. I knew it just testing myself. Anyway.
So again, this flash to the future. Symbolic, symbolically telling us what's going on. But just because it's symbolic doesn't mean it's not real, it is every bit real. Like the guy in The blue shirt drowning I mean, the vision, that part's just telling what's happening, but when you get there and you see him drowning, Now the Uh it's real. The point is the meaning.
And we know that because If I wrote you a note and said I owe you a million dollars, You'd know the point. Is he he spelled million wrong? You'd get it. And uh this is a part of Bible study, the vox and the verba by the brainiacs, they make up Latin names for everything. Then they forget the English names.
And if you learn them, you can show off and be obnoxious. What's your eschatological view of converse sneakers?
Well, coming back to this, who are redeemed from the earth?
Well again, the survivors Seen seeing. Verse 4: These are the ones who were not defiled with a woman. Ooh, we gotta get into that one. for they are virgins They are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men.
being first fruits of God and to the Lamb.
Well, John is not hitting this point hard. God is hitting the point hard. He's not making any of this up. He's writing down what he is seeing. And some of the things he's seeing and hearing, he's told, no, don't publish that.
But this is to be published.
So it shifts back to the 144,000. after Christ's return, They were converts, they were abstainers, and they were followers. And you understand as you read verse 14, three times we hear these, these, these, it's talking about them. Singling them out. No believer.
in their right mind. At knowing, knowing what the great tribulation is about. would have children. Nobody would say, listen, this is going to be the worst. Jesus said, these seven years are going to be such as the world has never seen.
Let's have a baby. There's precedence for that. And that's found in Jeremiah. 16, 'cause I knew you'd ask. Jeremiah went through the same thing.
In microcosm, I guess, compared to what's coming, but his is centered in Jerusalem. Jeremiah's role was to turn the nation back to God that they became a nation of apostates.
Well, they said, well, you know, the temple of the Lord were Yahweh's people, and they lived with idols and mocked God with the way they lived. And so God raised up the prophets, one of them Jeremiah. who they hounded, Anyway, he writes, The word of Yahweh also came to me, saying, You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place. And concerning their mothers, who bore them, and their fathers who begot them in this land.
They shall die gruesome deaths. They shall not be lamented. And he just goes on to pour out the horrors that are coming to Jerusalem.
Well, God didn't cause the horrors, he's telling you they're gonna happen. But they're self-inflicted. Don't blame me, God says. You did this to yourselves. when you mocked me You open the door?
For your own carnality, your own you open the door for Satan. And they came in. But I warned you. I would protect you from this. But no.
You are smarter than God.
So now you reap what you sow.
Well, we come back to this chapter in Revelation 14. And we say these men are virgins, because they knew who they were Because the Bible has in advance When they get saved, they're going to see themselves. This is me, and it's going to, I'm sure. I don't know if it's going to be A radical realization, or slow, or a combination, but either way, they're going to find out.
So the threefold meaning which is literal and symbolic. This will help identify them as prophesied. If someone in the Great Tribulation period Has a suspicion is coming to Christ and has a suspicion that the person leading them to Christ is one of these people. If they say You married? Yeah.
Well then you're not one. This happened with John the Baptist. God said, these are the things through the prophets long before John the Baptist was born. He's going to be the forerunner of Christ. He will announce my coming.
And when he came, people began to say, hmm, we think you're the forerunner of Christ. They were a little confused at first, but it got straightened out until Jesus finally said, Yep, he's the one. He's one that Malachi said would come.
Well, it's going to be like that for these guys too.
So we have Precedence. We don't have to have it, but we have it. Yeah.
This will not be the time to marry and have children, and they will know it. Metaphorically, This speaks of their spiritual faithfulness as a chaste virgin belonging to the Lord.
Now we'll I'll come back to that, but the defiled part, what do you mean defiled? Because Hebrews says this. This is what the Bible says about marriage. marriage is honourable among all, and the bed undefiled.
So the meaning here is not that marriage is somehow Bad. or not belittling it at all. But he is saying that they have their orders. And if they break with those orders, they have defiled themselves. By going against what they were assigned to do.
And that's true of anybody, any Christian. Yeah.
Or, let's put it in the pot, if he says do this and you don't. And it's a command. There's a defilement that's taking place. Well, there's another link to the Old Testament. When the Old Testament Jews were to go to war, according to Deuteronomy 23.
Again, I'm giving you the verses so you know I'm just making it up, not just making it up. Deuteronomy 23, 9 and 10. The troops were not to have relationships with women because they would be ceremonially defiled. And that's not how God wanted them to go to war. This comes out a little bit in the story of Uriah and David, for those of you familiar with the story.
David was trying to get Uriah to go home to be with his wife. Uriah said, I'm not doing that.
Well, anyway, there's an Old Testament link to these men and their character and their calling. But as back back to the Bride of Christ's metaphor, which this is saying I am saving myself for Christ. the idea of their life, not sexually, but completely. Second Corinthians chapter eleven, Paul says to the Corinthians and therefore to the church. For I am jealous for you.
with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ.
Well, they are fulfilling that metaphor with their lives. They are the chaste version. They have no allegiance to anyone but Christ. They have no spiritual intimacy with no one else but Christ, unlike those who are fought over anti-Christ. and his false prophet.
This all highlights the seriousness of salvation. God's wrath can be avoided, and that's something to sing about. And if you choose not, if you opt out of salvation, Don't even think that blaming God will We'll get you anywhere. It won't. Today is the day of salvation, and not to harden your heart, don't play with your future.
Psalm twenty-four He who has clean hands and a pure heart. who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully That psalm is talking about approaching God. And you know David hated idols. King David, I mean. He liked women, but he hated idols.
And I only put that in there because the fact is he had his struggles. And for him that's what it was. Be careful. You can don't vilify David. And God holds that man.
up very high as people go. Anyway, again, David writes in Psalm 36: I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust Yahweh. What is an idol?
Well, if you're a student... of scripture teaching them to observe all things. That's what we're supposed to do. Learn the difference between the flesh and the spirit, things like that. The difference between grace and law.
We're supposed to learn what these things mean. Again, if I think that I can earn my salvation, I know nothing about Christ. I have wrong information.
Well, what is an idol? It's something you make up about God. He can't stand that. I don't like people making up things about me. I mean, if someone said, well, he's ugly, I would be like, you know, that's a lie.
That's a lie. Anyway, we don't like things to be, even if it's a nice thing, we don't like it if it's fake. At least I think most decent people would prefer not.
Well, imagine God having people make up, you know, he's got wings and he's got feet like an alligator, you know. Th these are idols. And God hates that, and so did David.
So we've covered, I think, the symbolism here. That the 144,000 Jews left through the Great Tribulation period. They have a ministry. It is the ministry of war spiritually. They are converting men and women.
They are all male. They are celibate, and they are devoted to God's work. It would have been A defilement for them. due to their assignment. to deviate and to put their lives to split their allegiances.
Or I'll come back to that with a couple of verses. Because their passion is evangelism. And it is sad to say that there are many people who go to church and they have no passion for the lost. And when I say the lost, I mean lost strangers. Not just well, I hope my Uncle Vinnie gets saved.
Well, so does God. But there's more than that. And what if he doesn't? Are you stuck now or you can't go any further? Because he you've made him your project and you just.
There's more to saving souls than just people you know and like. And maybe you're not saving souls. Maybe you'll use. To break up the fallow ground. Maybe you're just the one that's going to sow the seed.
or maybe the one that waters the seed. But God causes the growth. The question is. Have you ever had, as a Christian, a passion for lost souls? Because if you have not, I won't go so far to say you're not saved.
I cannot say that. But I can say You're not filled with the Spirit. Because the Spirit of God is about saving souls.
So we come back to the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 7, verse 29. Paul says this. And these guys lived it out. Time is short.
So that from now on, even those who have wives should be as though they have none.
Now, let's clean that up. Because only a fool would say that justifies me abandoning my marriage for Christ. No, what that justifies Is that you make a partnership with your wife to serve him together, as did. Aquila and Priscilla. They were never rebuked for being married, but they threw themselves into ministry.
And they were with Paul to the end. They risked their lives for Paul. That's what that verse means. If you're going to live like you're not married, put Christ first together. And the two shall be one flesh.
and one is to help me. and the other has the leading role. And this is done all the time. Or not? Again in Corinthians he continues, He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord.
He who uh how he may please the Lord.
So these are super Nazarites he's talking about, you can say, undistracted lives. He's unmarried. serves hard. Because he doesn't have to care about the home, also. Not that it's wrong, he's just making the point.
And I can tell you as a pastor, Singles tend to run circles. around those who are married when it comes to serving in the house of the Lord. They don't have to oh, I gotta get home. They don't have to get home. In fact, we confiscate their home.
So they don't have that. Anyway, he continues Paul does. And I'm only saying that to say. Don't go thinking that just because you're married and have a family, that those without a family somehow aren't on your level. That would be a lie.
Continuing to this, but he who is married cares about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. Paul was not married, at least not now. And he's observing these things. And he writes them down. And no one in Corinth can say back to him, Where'd you get that?
They knew when he said it. that you know there's this truth there. On the other side, Jesus said, you can't fake it. If if you're not formed by him to be celibate. Don't try it.
It's something that's given. If you try to do that on your own, it's going to make a mess of things. And we see that. We see that in an organization that demands their pastors remain celibate. And the disasters that brings.
You cannot legislate that. It is either a gift or it is not. And if it is not a gift, then marry. Unless you burn in your passions.
Well, anyway, that's all stuff from Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes, 144,000, after Christ comes back. They're inseparable because of their loyalty. And they're at Christ's beck and call.
Now, let's go military on this just for a moment. 144,000. That makes up about 14. Divisions. of troops.
That would be infantry, artillery, tanks. Fourteen divisions by today's standards. There's a lot of troops.
Now, I don't know if that has anything to do. Christ won't need it. He doesn't need protection, he doesn't need bodyguards, he doesn't need lawyers. But uh It's just an interesting point when I look at that.
So 144, what would that be in military terms? That would be 14 divisions. That's pretty big. Anyway.
Uh these were I'm still in verse 4. And we're almost done. I'll breeze through verse five. Watch and see. These were redeemed from among men, being first fruits to God and to the Lamb.
So God is honoring these guys. He's like, you know, they went through. Again, hell on earth. These are the first ones to come to saving knowledge in the Great Tribulation period. Because, okay, how do we get to the Great Tribulation?
Well, right now where we are. We are right before the Great Tribulation period. What has to happen to bring this seven-year period of time to earth? The true believers will miraculously be removed.
Now, if you say I got a problem with miracles, then you got a problem. Because, how come the sun doesn't gobble us up? Who keeps the moon from crashing into us? There's miracles every day. You just have to be honest with yourself.
So, I have no problem with God extracting his own people from earth miraculously. We call it the rapture. And the word rapture from the In Latin, raptus. Means to You could say violently snatch away. When I say violently, not in the sense of maliciousness, but radically snatch away.
And that's how it's used even in the Greek.
So once that happens, that kicks off. The seven year period of time where there Believers are not allowed to assemble in churches. The church is gone. The false church can stay. And the way you'll know they're the false church, because they'll worship anything.
And then that will be the seven-year period. At the end, that's where we are. The end of that seven-year period right here in verse And we'll actually in all of this paragraph, verses one through five in Rev 14.
So they're the first ones to come to knowledge during this period of Christ. They're used by God throughout this period of time. They will be saving Jews and Gentiles alike through their preaching. Each year in the Jewish world, according to the Scripture, The farmer went into his field once a year and he cut a sheaf of his crop. and he brought it to the temple of God and he offered it to God.
It was an acknowledgement. God's not going to say, Woo, I was hungry. I'm glad you brought that. It's it was an acknowledgment that Lord Anything I have. is from you.
You send the rains, you created the crops. This is all yours. There's nothing you can offer to God that is not already His. Maybe I'll say that again. I will.
There's nothing you can offer to God that is not already His. Is that biblical? Uh Deuteronomy 8. You shall remember Yahweh your God. for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.
God is sovereign.
So, the feast of first fruits, that's what we're talking about. That's what he just said here. were redeemed from among Men being first fruits to God, The Feast of First Fruits took place The first Sunday After the Passover Saturday.
So Jesus died on a Thursday. And then that Saturday came. The Sunday after that Saturday. That Jewish Sabbath Day is the feast of first fruits, which Christ is the first fruits. And so this is all tied in together.
Their family now. They belong to the biblical language which exposes the plan of God. Verse 5, and in their mouth. Was found no deceit. For they are without fault before God.
So, the first fruits, Resurrection Sunday, these are stone-cold believers or. I don't know if that sounds appealing or not. It does if it's ice cream. Honest converts, not charlatans. Not swindlers.
As are often found in churches. I'll demonstrate that. Let's pass the offering plate. Ten times. Do we get the amount of money we need?
That would be swindling. The Flock. They had nothing to lie about. Everything they preached was true. Every accusation against them was false.
John's Gospel, he's, I know, we got to finish this, but I like this. John's Gospel, this is Jesus when he. when he saw Nathanael coming to him the first time Nathanael met Christ. And Jesus said, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit. Jesus is saying, Here's a man that is a straight shooter.
He's not going to lie to you. He might ha he's got other problems. Maybe he's got dandruff. I don't know. But he's not a deceitful person.
And this is the hundred and forty four thousand. For they are Without fault before the throne of God. That does not mean there are faultless people, sinless people. It just means that before, in the presence of God, He has dealt with their sin. That's salvation.
That's all of us who. Know the Lord. And they transition into the millennial kingdom. Physically And spiritually Like everybody else. When Left on earth when he comes.
So we close with this verse. Because this applies to them. And this applies to the believer.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling. And to present you faultless, faultless before the presence of his glory with. Exceeding joy. which is the ballad of the Redeemer. We've got something to sing about now, and we'll be singing it about singing it.
in heaven. Uh Nobody This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreference radio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings.
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