The Lamb and the 144,000 - Revelation 14:1-5 - Part 2

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible.

Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. Well, we continue this week looking at the Lamb and the 144,000. The 144,000 is a topic that has received a lot of attention, a lot of discussion, a lot of debate throughout history as to the origin and the identity of these individuals that are yet to come in the future. But we concluded last week that we think the Bible very clearly tells us that this group that we see in Revelation chapter 14 is the same 144,000 Jews that God seals with a special protection in Revelation chapter 7. And so what we found last week is that there's this scene and they are on Mount Zion and they are rejoicing, they are celebrating victoriously with our Lord Jesus Christ. They've been given a special song that only they will know as special recognition for their faithfulness to our Lord's ministry. And so as we come this week to verse four, we find a very interesting description concerning this 144,000. We find a very interesting characteristic about them because it says in Revelation chapter 14, verse four, These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

These were redeemed from among men being firstfruits to God into the Lamb. And then verse five says, And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. Heavenly Father, what an honor, Lord, what a privilege it is that you have provided this word for us. Lord, we ask that you would open our hearts and our minds to hear what it is that you are speaking to us through this passage of scripture. And Lord, it is my prayer that all things that are spoken, that it be nothing but sound doctrine. And may you be honored and glorified in all things in your name, Jesus.

Amen. These are not defiled with women, for they are virgins. A very, very interesting text. It suggests that only unmarried men would qualify to be a part of this 144,000.

But I want to present some options to you today. There are those who think that this passage indicates that only those who have remained single for the sake of Christ may be in this group. There are people today that God has called to a life of singleness, has called to a life of celibacy. And I caution people who put pressure on individuals who are single to really make a spectacle of them by asking them and pressuring them. Why haven't they gotten married?

When are they going to to find somebody in and even accusing them of being too picky when it comes to selecting someone? Because not everyone has been called to marriage. But I do think that is a small percentage of of our society. But it could be very well that.

This group. Has remained single for the sake of Christ. Based on scripture, it is not certain whether the apostle Paul and John were ever married, although most theologians think that Paul was married at some point, because prior to coming to know Jesus Christ, he was a member of the Sanhedrin.

And to be a member of the Sanhedrin, a requirement was to be married. But the Bible says nothing about his wife. We don't know if he was married. Maybe she she died. Some have the theory of maybe she decided to leave him for becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.

We simply don't know. But if he were married, the Bible does not make mention of her. One thing we have to remember is that God told man be fruitful and multiply in Genesis, chapter one, verse 28. So when we look at this passage.

Is God contradicting himself? Is he in the beginning saying to be fruitful and multiply, but then is he coming back later here in Revelation and say, well, to have sexual relations with a woman is defiling? Well, let me be clear that women are not dirty. Women are not filthy. Women are not unclean. This does not mean that sexual relations within marriage defile a person. So when we look at this text, it likely means that these men either only had sex within marriage or they were men who never had sex at all.

The Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse two, the text tells us, for I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. But I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Israel is frequently called the virgin daughter of Zion in scripture. God places a lot of importance on virginity. God places a lot of emphasis on sexual morality. Because as we look throughout scripture, the symbolism of fornication is used to represent the following of false gods, whereas relations within marriage represent oneness. It represents faithfulness to the true God. So said another way, when we look at sexual immorality, folks, there are only two sides.

Either it's the side of God or it's the side of Satan. And so when you choose to be sexually engaged outside of marriage. What you were symbolizing is satanic worship, oneness agreement with Satan. And I know there are people out there who who have committed sexual immorality and you're saying, no, I'm not a follower of Satan. But what I'm explaining is that is what it symbolizes, because, again, in scripture.

Sexual relations within marriage symbolizes oneness symbolizes being in union and faithfulness to the true God. We see it in Hosea chapter four, verse 12. My people ask counsel from their wooden idols and their staff informs them for the spirit of harlotry. Harlotry has caused them to stray. And they have played the harlot against their God.

Hosea 16. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There is harlotry of Ephraim.

Israel is defiled. So we see God places a lot of emphasis on sexual morality when the nation of Israel would turn to these idols. God would relate it. He will correlate it to harlotry, which is promiscuity. And so I want to warn you folks today that for people that are living sexually immoral lives and you are professing to be a Christian, you have to understand that what you are doing is symbolizing rejection of Jesus Christ and acceptance of Satan in his dark kingdom. And there are people who are out fornicating on Saturday night and then they're singing in the choir on Sunday morning.

And you think that everything is going to be just fine. But I want to warn you that it's not OK with God. And I want to warn you that there is a price to pay because there are many people who are much older and later in life who also committed the sins of sexual immorality. And if they're honest with you, they will tell you that there are consequences that are going to come. There are consequences for doing things outside of God's order.

And so I encourage people today. Don't miss out on God's best because studies have shown that for couples who wait until marriage to have sex, the divorce rate is only two percent. And also through studies, they have found that for couples who waited until marriage to have sex have the most fulfilling sex life. But the world influenced by Satan says, no, go out and have your fun. There are many people who live through the 1960s and 70s, the whole free love movement, the the whole sexual revolution. And and I've heard so many say that it was not worth it.

I was listening to a radio show the other day and a lady called in who went through that time period. And she thought that she was being liberated. She thought she had freedom. And she thought that she was able to do what she deemed as having. Liberal license to have sex with whoever she wanted. And she did just that. But now later in life, she's reaping the consequences.

A failed marriages of not being able to have children of sexually transmitted diseases. And so people, God's way works. God's way works. And so I'm encouraging you today to flee from sexual immorality. But as we look at this one hundred and forty four thousand, it is likely this scripture indicates that these men have always been spiritual virgins by having always followed Christ. It says they follow the lamb wherever he goes. And this does not mean physically following him, but it means they are obedient to him. So are you being obedient to the lamb or you'll be are you being obedient to Jesus Christ? And it says they were redeemed from among men. Redemption by faith in Christ is a qualification for being in this group. And even though the rapture of the church ends, God's dealings with the church as such on earth, people during the tribulation will get saved, just as we do today through a personal faith in Jesus Christ unto salvation. And so have you given your life to him today? Have you received him as Lord and savior?

I encourage you to do so while you still have breath in your body. And the text tells us they are first fruits to God and to the lamb. This one hundred and forty four thousand are the beginnings of the great harvest of Israel that will come out of the tribulation. Revelation seven nine speaks of a great multitude that will be saved out of the tribulation. After these things, I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. It's going to be a great harvest that is going to come out of the tribulation with God's chosen people. And then as we continue with verse five, it says, And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.

These will be honest men. And this contrasts greatly to the characteristics of those who follow Satan, who is the father of all lies. You know, as we look at the news media today, you have to you have to look at it with wisdom and discernment, folks.

Because. If you haven't noticed, I want you to pay attention to something, if you remember in two thousand and twenty last year when the covid 19 pandemic came about. Every time you turn to the news, what did you see? You saw a ticker on the screen that was showing the number of cases and the number of deaths from covid 19.

They made sure they kept that in the forefront at all times. They wanted you to see how bad things were. Well, now we fast forward to 2021. And you flip over to your news stations and what do you see? There is no ticker.

The ticker has disappeared all of a sudden. And the interesting thing is that when you look at the same time frame between 2021 and 2020, more people have died from covid 19 in 2021. Then in 2020, through the same time period.

So why the difference? Well. 2020, we had a president who the media hated. 2020, we had a president who the media did not want. And so they wanted to keep it in your mind of how bad things were and to put the blame on the nation's leader.

But when we come to 2021 and the one who's there in which they love, the one who they adore, the one who who they wanted, then you no longer see the ticker on the screen. See, folks, we have to understand that there are agendas out there. They are narratives. And this is all about being.

The characteristics of Satan, which, again, the Bible says he's the father of all lies. There is agendas that you have to be wise. You have to be discerning to pay attention to. And that is why we have politicians that make false accusations of people being a racist when there is no proof of it. That's why you hear accusations of someone being a white supremacist when there is no proof of it.

That is why you can have someone like like Kyle Rittenhouse, who is a white man, and he's not allowed to defend himself because in doing so, he gets accused of being a racist and a white supremacist. You see, the media has narratives. They're trying to deceive people. They're trying to cause division.

And they're doing so because there are a lot of people that are following the ways of Satan, which the Bible says, again, he's the father of all lies. And so, folks, we must be discerning. We must understand the tricks of the devil. We must transcend them and understand that we must be wise and discerning and look to the ways of our great and wonderful Lord. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God First. For more of Brian's teachings, please visit Godfirst.org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles, and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage, and the significance of Lesson Israel, just to name a few.

You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and visit our Web store. So please visit us at Godfirst.org. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's message. We are living in a time of great division. We are living in a time of great deception. We are living in a time of propaganda. And so we must be wise to the ways of the enemy. It says they are without fault.

It does not mean that they will be perfect men. They too will need to be redeemed as Jesus Christ was the only perfect human being that that has ever lived. In First Thessalonians 2 10, it says you are witnesses and God also how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believed. And then Galatians chapter two, verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. This is a very beautiful and powerful passage because you understand that when we come to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, a great exchange takes place because the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And what that means is that there has to be a payment for seeing there has to be death for seeing.

And so either you're going to. Have your sin paid for by Jesus Christ, who already went to Calvary and sacrifice his life. He came out of a perfect heaven and came to this earth and died so that we might have eternal life. He came being born in a lowly manger among filthy animals, the king, the creator of all things, so that we might have eternal life. And all we have to do is accept him as Lord and Savior. And in doing so, what happens is he takes on our sin debt, a debt that we cannot pay. And he took that debt and then he in exchange gives us eternal life.

He in exchange gives us his righteousness and therefore we receive eternal life. Imagine that I were to tell you, if you go down to the local bank tomorrow morning, I'm going to. Give you a check for five million dollars. And then in exchange. I will take all of your debt. And so you walk away with five million dollars in your bank.

And no debt. I think everybody would be willing to to take that deal with Jesus Christ is something even better, because guess what, folks, five million dollars will run out eventually. But Jesus Christ gives eternal life, which is forever. Eternal means forever. And so you will never die when you have Jesus Christ. That is, you will die in this life physically, but you will be raised unto eternal life. And so I urge you to give your life to Jesus Christ, because when you do so, when Jesus Christ comes into your life, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us. And when the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, that is why the passage tells us it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. What a glorious thing that is that when God the father looks at me, he doesn't see me the old wretched sinner. He doesn't see me the old fallen man, the one who is disobedient, the one who is who is not following his ways, and his commands.

But instead, when he looks at me, he sees Jesus Christ. And therefore I can be found worthy to live in the presence of our almighty Lord for all of eternity. So that is why we give glory to our Lord. That is why we give honor to our Lord. That is why we give praise to him, for he came about so that that great exchange could take place. Again, he takes our sin debt. And then he gives us his righteousness. He poured it out all on himself.

He did it willingly. And there's no greater love, folks. There's no greater mercy.

There's no greater compassion. No greater love that can be found anywhere than that of our Lord Jesus Christ in coming to take the weight of sin of everyone who's ever lived upon himself. And all you have to do is ask him to come into your heart to receive him. If you want true peace, if you want true joy, if you want true happiness in your life, it's only going to be found through Jesus Christ. But for those who choose to reject him, for those who do not accept his free gift, as I said, the payment, the wages of sin is death.

You have to make the payment yourself. And that means eternal damnation. That means going away to be separated from God to to be in the lake of fire for all of eternity. And I know some hear this and you think. Well, this sounds like a fairy tale, but but folks, God is not a liar.

He said it in his word. It is Satan is the one who is the father of all lies, and he's the one that is trying to get you to not believe this. But I rebuke Satan in the name of Jesus.

And I declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. And I ask today, soften your heart for those who have not yet come to know him and receive him as your Lord and savior. Don't listen to the deception of Satan, who says you've done too much and and God will never receive you. He'll he will never accept you.

He will never love you because God said it is not his will that any should perish, but that it is his will that all should have eternal life. Come to Jesus Christ today. So as we wrap up this series on the lamb and the one hundred and forty four thousand. When we come to this time of year, I know there are many of you who are feeling emotional pain due to loss.

Loss of a loved one, maybe through death, maybe through the just the severance of a relationship. But many are feeling pain, especially at this time of year as we're in this holiday season. But I want to remind you that just like this one hundred and forty four thousand that we see in this chapter, they are seen celebrating with Jesus.

You too will celebrate with him if you don't quit. Because I understand that you've been through storms. You've been through rain. You've experienced hurts and you've experienced tremendous pain. But Jesus has always been there, no matter what you've been going through, no matter what the trial, no matter how bad it's been. Jesus has always been there.

And guess what? If he brought you this far, he will take you all the way. Just like when we look at this one hundred and forty four thousand who were faithful to our Lord in going through the tribulation and in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just like he's going to take them all the way and they're going to be victorious, celebrating with our Lord on Mount Zion. You too will be victorious. You too will come through this. You too will have that peace, that joy that surpasses all understanding if you don't quit.

Because our Lord said he will never leave you nor forsake you. And so during this season of Thanksgiving, this season of Christmas and New Year. There are a lot of people that just want to get it over with.

There are a lot of people that say the time is depressing. The the memories of that loved one, because you won't have that son. Well, that daughter or that husband or that wife or that mother or father or grandmother or grandfather, they won't be there to open their presence with you and to to say Merry Christmas. And your heart is broken because you remember little Johnny, how he would be so excited opening his gifts. You you remember little Susie, how she would be filled with so much anticipation and joy opening her presence. And you cherish those memories.

And and now they're no longer there. And your heart aches for it. And you just want to get this season over with because there's so much pain. But again, I want to encourage you. He brought you this far. Don't give up. Don't quit.

He's going to take you all the way. And we don't understand everything that our Lord is doing. There are things that we scratch our heads about. We say we prayed and and we asked, we poured our hearts out. We fasted.

We did all the things that we thought we were supposed to do. And yet God still took them away. But we have to trust him. Because his ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts, but we have to trust our Lord because guess what? That loved one that has gone away, they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. They are just like this one hundred and forty four thousand.

They are celebrating right now, victoriously with our Lord because they are in eternity now with Jesus Christ. And that is what we have to remind ourselves that we were created to be eternal beings. This life is just a vapor compared to eternity. We are just getting started. And so don't quit.

Don't give up. Jesus Christ is with you even in the midnight hour when you are crying and you're all alone and you feel the weight of the pain. He said, I'll never leave you, nor will I forsake you.

I'll be with you all the way to the end. Great is our Lord. Great and worthy is his name. He is worthy of all the glory. He's worthy of all the honor.

He is worthy of all the praise, for he's the one who died for our sins so that we can have eternal life. So I want to encourage you today. Don't quit. And as I spoke earlier about sexual immorality. Yes, there are consequences to pay for being disobedient to our Lord. But remember, we serve a God who is all about redemption and just like he's going to redeem this earth that we will spend eternity on. He's going to redeem it to the point that it will appear as though sin never existed. He too can redeem you and your situation and he will put it in the sea of forgetfulness. And that's what you have to do.

You have to forgive yourself and let it go. Put it in the sea of forgetfulness and know that you have been redeemed through the shed blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time together. We thank you, Lord Jesus, as we are in this season to celebrate your birth. It is all about you, Jesus.

You are the reason for the season. And so we come, Lord, to celebrate just like the angels did in the scriptures. And we come to declare that you are Lord, you are King. And we celebrate this time of you, Emmanuel, God with us. And that you came from a perfect heaven.

You came to this earth. You died so that we can have eternal life. And Lord, I am forever grateful for it, Lord. I look forward to the day when I can put my arms around you and I can say thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying for my sins. Great you are, Lord, and worthy you are to be praised. As we depart, we remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel, and to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher, Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our website, GodFirst.org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel, and seek first the kingdom of God.