Truth Matters 12 25 21: Discussions on the 144,000

Welcome to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis.

Heard daily on this station at 820 AM and 520 PM. Truth Matters is a ministry of the Truth Project whose mission is to empower men and women in the Christian faith to teach Biblical truth in the culture and marketplace of ideas using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth in sharing the message of Jesus. Learn more about the ministry of the Truth Project at www.projecttruthmatters.com. Coming up, discussions on the 144,000, their specific purpose, the visions of John, Babylon and more.

Let's join Dr. Cheryl Davis for this week's extended edition of Truth Matters. I learned this from Dr. David Jeremiah years ago and he made this statement and it has stuck with me for a long time. When you are God's person doing God's will, you are immortal until God is finished with you. This means that you are under God's protection and His control until your job is finished. So I want to say to those of you out there, even listening to this radio program and understanding what goes on in the tribulation, to know that God often works in remnants and He has preserved a remnant of the 144,000 through the tribulation to accomplish His will and to evangelize the nations.

He still operates like that today. So when we are ordained by God to do a certain purpose, the Bible says that God be for us who can be against us. So whatever comes your way, if you're in the will of God, you are immortal until God is finished. So that purpose is accomplished. God is the author of the narrative. He writes the story.

He also controls the timetable. So if we are in Him, we are His and our destiny is determined in Him, not in our own efforts. All we have to do is have faith and believe and be faithful.

And God will take care of us much like He preserved the 144,000. So they are preserved in their ministry was the first characteristic of them. Also, they are peerless in their ministry.

And what I mean by peerless, they are alone. It is redeemed except them. The song which the 144,000 sang was not known by anyone else in heaven, not the four living creatures or the 24 elders. They have their own special anointing. They have their own special purpose.

No one can sing to the Lord what they can because no one has been sealed and preserved by God as they have been. This is another evidence of their uniqueness. All of us are unique and are calling to God. But collectively, the 144,000 have a specific purpose for a certain time. In this day and time, the church is more in competition with each other rather than synergistic partnerships.

But I think there is enough work to go around where all of us have a specific purpose in God and it is unique according to our giftings, which we should not be used for competition rather than we should be in partnerships. The next characteristic of the 144,000 is they were pure in their ministry. So I just want to read verse 4 again to reemphasize their pureness. These are the ones 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 and to the Lamb. The text says that they had not defiled themselves with women. It makes it sound like they are men. But then it says they are virgins which it makes it sound like they are women. This statement, some believe it is about sexual purity when really it is about spiritual purity. The verse has the same meaning as 2 Corinthians 11 chapter 11 verse 2.

I'm going to turn there to read chapter 11 verse 2. Paul is telling the church to be spiritual virgins, devoting themselves to remain free from the pollution and corruption of sin and spiritual idolatry. God calls us to live unspotted by the world. We are to be in the world, not of the world. We are not to be corrupted. As you know this was the Israelites problem is that they prostituted themselves to other gods.

That is what led them to captivity. But the greatest preparation we can make for ministry is a preparation of our hearts and minds to be singularly devoted to God. James 1 27 talks about this. So we must not be of the world.

We must remain pure just like the 144,000 did. And the next characteristic is that they are peculiar in their ministry. We often heard that word used.

Titus chapter 2 verse 14. Peculiar means to be set apart, to be uniquely God's own people. And here in Revelation 14 verse 5 it says In their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. They are peculiar. They are different. Obviously they have a different mark than those that have the mark of the beast.

Their behavior is different. They are not of the world. But I'd like to go to the book of Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 13. Zephaniah actually prophesied about a remnant in verse 13.

Remember I talked about remnants before. The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth. For they shall feed their flocks and lie down and no one shall make them afraid. This is very similar to verse 5 in which I read before. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.

So the 144,000 are in the Old Testament as well and we find that here in Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 13. So just to summarize the characteristics of the 144,000 in the people of the vision is that they were pure. They were preserved. They were peerless in that they have their own song.

They are peculiar and they will be special. But the key fact is that they will be preserved to accomplish the will of God even during the tribulation. The next aspect of the vision is that there is praise in the vision. Even though the song is not about to be sung by anyone else in heaven, we find the words in Revelation chapter 7 verse 10. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Again this is reinforcing the vindication of the Lamb in chapter 14.

I don't know about you but this is exciting. Giving all the things that we have seen in Revelation up to this point. That we see the vindication of the Lamb and we see the encouragement that is offered to the church as well as to the 144,000 that are preserved through the tribulation. This shows the faithfulness of God to the church as well as to those that are in the tribulation. The best way for us to prepare for such a scene is to praise God by living a committed Christian life. That is how we prepare for the judgment seat of Christ and our life in eternity.

Again we are still in the prelude. We are still in the pause before the bold judgments which happened in chapter 16. So we are going to finish chapter 14 and move on to verses 6-20. If you remember I said earlier that chapter 14 has five visions that John records.

They are not necessarily in chronological order. They are a series of announcements by angels of dramatic events which are about to take place during the tribulation. We have angels appearing in verses 6, 8, 9, 15, 17, and 18 of chapter 14. Each of these angels announce a coming event in prophetic history that will affect the lives of the people of God who are on earth during the tribulation days. Again we covered the 144,000 in verses 1-5 but let's begin with the next vision in verses 6-7. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of the water. There are key words in these verses. The key words in verse 6 are everlasting gospel and in verse 7, From God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

The main message of this angel is to fear God and to worship him. The emphasis of God is the creator of heaven and earth and the sea and the springs of water. Really it mentions nothing of the blood of Christ, forgiveness, or repentance.

Dr. Henry Morris calls out our attention to this fact. It says, If Christ is not the creator, he can hardly be the savior or the coming king. And this is interesting as this has a different vantage point than how we minister in the gospel today. The men of the last days, which those that are living in the last days that need to be converted or that need to be saved, they must be called back to believe in a true creation and therefore a real creator, God, before they can be constrained to come to him as a savior.

When you talk to the intellectuals of modern day evolution is the predominant belief, undercutting the evidence of God. But verse 6 is the only place in scripture where the gospel is called the everlasting gospel. This is the original gospel from God.

The original gospel is to worship and fear God. Let's move on to the next vision. The next vision is in Revelation chapter 4 verse 8. And another angel followed saying, Babylon is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. For the first time Babylon is mentioned in Revelation. Babylon is covered mostly in chapter 17 and 18.

But this is a preliminary announcement of the final overthrow of the false city and the world system. The ancient city Babylon is first mentioned in Genesis 10 through 11, but we learned a lot about it in the book of Daniel. But when Babylon is mentioned in the Bible it can refer to either the actual city or the pagan humanistic world system that characterized the city. But in this case Babylon is God's name for the world system the antichrist will institute during the tribulation, a system which he will destroy. Some believe that the actual ancient city of Babylon will be rebuilt and be the center of operations for the beast and the false prophet. The next vision is in Revelation chapter 14 verses 9 through 11 and I'll read those. It is pretty clear that those who worship the beast will be doomed by God.

But the opposite is also true that if you worship God you'll be condemned by the beast. This reminds me of the verse in Joshua where it says, choose you this day whom you are going to serve as for me and my house we're going to serve the Lord. And when this decision is made in the tribulation the consequences of that will be dire as far as death. Let's move on to the next vision as this is the death of the saints, the promise to those who endure the days of the tribulation on earth and are granted rest from their labors. We're going to read that in verses 12 through 13. Here are those who keep the patience of the saints.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. The word rest is often used in the New Testament to refer to those who have died in the Lord or who are asleep in the Lord such as Lazarus in John chapter 11 verse 11. Having read this a number of times I think it is very important to bring out in 13 where it says, Yes, the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them.

Their works follow them. I think most of us in church and just in teaching about works know that salvation does not come by works, but I think we under emphasize the importance of works after we get saved. The Bible clearly says that our works follow us into heaven and when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, those works that survive the fire of judgment at the judgment seat of Christ will be our reward in heaven. So some of us get saved and sit on the seat of do nothing and when we get to the judgment seat of Christ we will not have any works that follow us.

I don't want that to be you because that will be a day of sadness for you when the day of the judgment seat of Christ should be one of joy and commendation. So think about what you're doing for God. Look at your works on this side of salvation. You want something following you into heaven, whether it be souls, whether it be evangelism, whether it be giving, whatever it be, let there be faithfulness to God that follows you into heaven. Here we look at the division of people and this is the fifth vision that we look at and this is where we reap the earth's harvest. So let's just read verses 14 through 16. The message of the angel concerns the end of the tribulation period when true Christians are separated from non-Christians.

This separation will be easy to make since everyone will be marked with the mark of the beast or with the mark of God. You've been listening to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project, a North Carolina-based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church. If you'd like to listen to these messages on demand, go to ProjectTruthMatters.com and click on the podcast link. Dr. Davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function. She can be reached by email at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com. Or if you'd like to send a letter, the address is Project Truth Matters, Post Office Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina, 28384. You can hear Truth Matters devotionals on weekdays at 8 20 a.m. and 5 20 p.m. Until next time, let's all work together to teach a biblical truth, to assist, equip, edify, and encourage one another, and bring the gospel to the world. Because truth matters.