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Now let’s come right on to Revelation 15 here, verse 1.  “Then I was another sign in heaven—great and awesome—seven angels having the seven last plagues, because in them the wrath of God is filled up.  And I saw a sea of glass mingled with fire…”  Now remember yesterday how we saw the sea of glass was there when Christ came down on the mountain.  And then He had Moses and the seventy elders and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu come up.  And they all saw Him because it was pavement under His feet.  So here we have, if we’re going to meet Christ in the air, what are we going to do?  How are we going to be suspended?  Well, there is a sea of glass which we can walk on.  That’s where the angels take us.  “…A sea of glass mingled with fire…”  That is because of it’s brilliance there. 

“…And those who had gotten the victory over the beast…”  Question?  When did the beast first appear?  Well in the person of Satan the devil in the Garden of Eden.  Have all of those who enter in to the first resurrection, have they had to get victory over the beast?  Yes.  Then He continues here, “…over his image…”  Has there not been a female goddess worship in the image to the beast from going clear back when?  Yes, at least we know that it came after the flood.  So we know that they just reconstructed what they had after the flood from what they did before the flood.  So there’s the image of the beast.  “…And over his mark…”  Now at the end time we’re going to have the mark of the beast.  It’s called the Digital Angel, which is inserted in the fore hand or in the forehead either one.  “…And over the number of his name, standing upon the sea of glass, having the harps of God” (vs. 2, A.T.) 

Now notice this includes the Old Testament, those who have been resurrected and qualified from the time of Abel on down to the time of Christ.  And notice what they do, verse 3.  “And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God…” So this is those of the Old Testament.  The loaf of the Old Testament.  “…And the song of the Lamb…”, which then is the New Testament.  “…Saying, “Great and awesome are Your works, O Lord God Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the saints.  Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify Your name?  For You only are holy; for all the nations shall come and worship before You; for Your judgments are revealed.”  Now there’s a prophecy of what’s going to happen on down into the millenium.

Now before we get into the seven last plagues let’s go back and let’s look at the 144,000 of Revelation 7, then we’ll come back and look a the 144,000 of Revelation 14.  Now in Revelation 7 we find this, verse 4.  “And I heard the number of those who were sealed: one hundred forty-four thousand, who were sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel;”  So these are from the children of Israel only.  Twelve thousand from each tribe.  Why are they sealed at this particular time?  Number one because they are in captivity because they were unfaithful to God even in the letter of the law.  We’ll see that’s very important.  Now we also find the great innumerable multitude.  Now there are no other distinguishing characteristics of these other than the fact that they are sealed at the beginning of the third year during the tribulation of 3 ½ years.  And they then qualify for the first resurrection.  These are the laborers of the 11^th hour, as we find in the Gospel of Luke 11.       

Now let’s come here to Revelation 14:1 and let’s look at the 144,000 of Revelation 14, and we are going to see that these 144,000 are a different group.  And we are going to see the distinguishing and qualifying things for this 144,000.  Now let’s begin, verse 1.  “And I looked, and behold the Lamb standing upon Mount Sion…”  Now we read that yesterday, didn’t we, in Hebrews 12?  That we have come unto Mt. Zion, the Church of the Firstborn.  “…And with Him one hundred and forty four thousand, having His Father’s name written upon their foreheads.  Then I heard a voice from out of heaven, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of great thunder: and I heard the sound of harpers, harping with their harps.  And they sing as it were a new song before the throne, and before the living creatures and the elders.  And no one was able to learn the song except the hundred and forty four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth” (Rev. 14:1-3, A.T.).  Now this is a separate song from the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb.  This is a third song that only this 144,000 could sing.  No one else could sing it.  All the rest were able to sing, the one concerning Moses for the Old Covenant, the one concerning the Lamb for the New Covenant, and now we have a third category here of the 144,000 with their song. 

Now notice carefully.  “These are the ones who were not defiled with women…”  Now what does it mean to be defiled with women?  You go right back to Revelation 17, that we have mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, and she is called the great whore.  So this means that once they were converted they did not defile themselves with any of the religions or the religious practices of this world.  Now we’re going to see that’s very important when we go back and look at the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3.  “…They are virgins…”  And of course Christ would only marry a virgin, correct?  “…These are the ones who follow the Lamb wheresoever He may go.  These were purchased from among men as firstfruits…”  Now that’s the correct translation.  Not “these were purchased from among men, the firstfruits”, because in the Greek there is no definite article.  You can even drop off the “as”.  “These were purchased from among men - - firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.” (vs. 4, A.T.).  This then, we have Christ Who was the first of the firstfruits, and then we have these who are apparently the first group of the firstfruits.  All the rest being the firstfruits in general.  Now notice verse 5.  “And there was no guile found in their mouths; for they are blameless before the throne of God.”  

Now let’s go back and let’s analyze all of this and let’s see what separates these even further from the 144,000 in Revelation 7.  All right, let’s list them out.

#1.  They have the name of the Father written in their foreheads. 

That doesn’t say that about the 144,000 in Revelation 7.  All of these are distinguished from the 144,000 in Revelation 7.  Plus the first thing that we need to understand is as we go along here because it says that they were not of the children of Israel, but they were redeemed from the earth. 

#2.  No one was able to learn the song except the 144,000.

#3.  They were redeemed from the earth.

Showing that these 144,000 were redeemed from the earth probably over a period of time. 

#4.  These are they which are not defiled with women.

That is they remained virgins, or they remained totally faithful to God in everything that they did in their conversion and were never defiled by women. 

#5.  They are virgins. 

Now remember that the warning that the apostle Paul gave to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11, where he said, “For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2, KJV).  But they became non-virgins because they committed spiritual fornication.  Now maybe they were able to repent of it, just like any woman who looses her virginity through sin, she can repent of it but she’s no longer a virgin.  So likewise, if it is those who have received the Holy Spirit, if they give up their virginity by being enticed by Satan the devil and getting involved in other religious practices, or other religious doctrines within the Church then they lose their virginity.

#6.  These follow the Lamb wherever He goes. 

Meaning, that they’re always following Him regardless of where they’re spiritual life takes them. 

#7.  These were redeemed from among men. 

Redeemed from the earth, redeemed from among men.

#8.  Firstfruits unto God, and to the Lamb. 

#9.  In their mouth was no guile.

#10.  For they are without fault before the throne of God.

Now let’s go back and just quickly review the seven churches, and we will see that out of the seven churches only two of the seven remained virgins.  Let’s read it.  Ephesus, remember we already covered that.  They lost their first love and Christ told them, “Except you repent, I’m going to remove your candlestick.”  Loosing your first love, that is loosing your virginity. 

Now then we come to the one at Pergamos where we saw.  And they ate things sacrificed to idols and committed fornication.  And had the doctrine of Balaam, and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing God says He hates and He would fight against them with the sword of His mouth.  So those at Pergamos, even though they repented because they were told to repent, even those at Pergamos who repented they lost their virginity.  They can be put back in right standing with God but once you lose your virginity you have lost it.  That doesn’t mean you can’t recoup it.  You can, to be in the first resurrection.  But the question is will you still be part of the bride of Christ?  Because the question is when describing the 144,000 here in Revelation 14, are they not the ones who are the bride of Christ because they remain virgins?

Ok, let’s continue on with the church at Thyatyra.  They had the woman Jezebel, they committed fornication, they ate things sacrificed to idols, and they also had those who knew the deep things of Satan.  In other words those who infiltrated into that church were bringing in the doctrines of Satan worship under the guise that you’re worshiping Christ.  Obviously they lost their virginity. 

Then you have Sardis.  Now what do you have in Sardis?  Sardis was dead.  They had a name that they lived but they are dead.  With having dead practices they surely were not virgins before God.  Because they somehow defiled themselves, and remember what Christ said to them.  “Repent.” 

Same way with the Laodiceans.  The Laodiceans became lukewarm, had need of nothing, and God was spewing them out of His mouth.  And God told them to repent.  So we have Ephesus, Pergamos, Thyatyra, Sardis, and Laodicea.  Five of the seven churches were commanded to repent of their sins.  So they lost their virginity. 

Now the two churches left were Smyrna.  No command to repent.  Now the Smyrnaites were the ones who were then martyred, and they were faithful unto death, which they were.  And they held their virginity unto death.  We have the Philadelphians who resisted everything concerning the synagogue of Satan, and they patiently kept the word of God.  They were the ones who were faithful, the most faithful of all.  The true Philadelphians, and there is no call to repentance there.  And to the church at Philadelphia Christ said, “To him that overcomes will I write upon him the name of My Father, and the name of the city, New Jerusalem, and I will write upon him My new name.”  So to the Philadelphians, if you have the name of the Father, and if you have the name of Jerusalem, and you have the name of Christ upon you, you belong to part of the bride of Christ. 

Now just like we learned yesterday, not all of those in the first resurrection are going to be part of the bride of Christ.  So does this tell us here in Revelation 14, because of all of these conditions that this 144,000 represents those who have been called down through time, who have been faithful unto God, who were virgins, never deviated from it.  Once they were baptized and received the Holy Spirit they never got involved in any of the religions of this world, or any of the doctrines of this world.  And brethren now I hope you understand why it is so important that we remain faithful. 

Now those who have not remained faithful, we pray that they will repent and not lose their reward.  So this is really important for us to understand.  Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 3 and let’s see.  They can repent, but they have been building wooden shacks and straw huts and their works are burned up because they were not virgins.  The only ones who are virgins in this case, in 1 Corinthians 3 as we will see, are those who build on the virginity, keep it, and build the gold, silver, precious stone, and not the wood, hay, and stubble. 

Now let’s read it here in 1 Corinthians 3:11.  “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it [and the day of the resurrection is going to be the final day of declaration], because it shall be revealed by fire [now these are the fiery trials that we go through in our life of overcoming]; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Cor. 3:11-15).  Now is this describing the difference between the 144,000 of Revelation 14 who become part of the bride of Christ because they remain faithful, as differentiated from those who started out but ended up sinning, ended up repenting and coming back much like the prodigal son, and they lost their virginity.  So they lost some of the inheritance that they would have had otherwise.  So this is really a tremendous thing for us to understand brethren. 

Now let’s come back to Revelation 15 again.  Now I don’t have time to go through the seven last plagues except that the seven last plagues represent the harvest of the wicked, as depicted in the last part of Revelation 14.  And all of these plagues will be poured out in the presence of the saints.  And these are righteous judgments.  And these are true judgments.  And for any who say that the God of the Old Testament was an angry and a harsh God, but the one of the New Testament is loving and kind and sweet, please understand that this is the wrath of the Lamb which is being poured out on all those sinners. 

Now let’s end up where we ended up last time.  Let’s come to Revelation 19:1 again.  Before we begin let’s also understand this too.  God knows for the resurrection, based upon the works and the faithfulness of the individuals that He is going to select those who will be in the 144,000 of Revelation 14.  And if those are the ones who consist of the bride of Christ, God the Father is the One Who chooses them.  So we don’t have to worry about it.  We don’t have to look around and accuse people, or suspect them, because it says, “Blessed are those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb.”  Those who are called to the supper will participate in the first resurrection in power, and in glory just like the rest.  But only the bride of Christ will be with Christ in where He is. 

Now let’s pick it up in verse 1. “And after these things I heard the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,…”, because that’s all of those who were resurrected standing on the sea of glass.  And it’s in the first heaven where the clouds are.  “…Saying, “Hallelujah! The salvation and the glory and the honor and the power to the Lord our God: For true and righteous are His judgments; for He has judged the great whore, who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He did avenge the blood of His servants at her hand.”  Then they said a second time, “Hallelujah!”  And her smoke ascends up into the ages of eternity.  And the twenty four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, Who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen, Hallelujah!” (Rev. 19:1-5, A.T.).

“And a voice came out of the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all His servants, and all who fear Him, both small and great.”  And I heard a voice as of a great multitude, even as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Hallelujah, for the Lord God Almighty has reigned.  Let us be glad and shout with joy; and let us give glory to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”  And it was granted to her that she should be clothed in fine linen - - pure and bright; for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.  And he said to me, “Write!”  Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (vs. 6-9, A.T.).

So we have a tremendous blessing brethren, whether we have been called to be part of the bride of Christ, which I hope whoever you are that that is true.  We can’t judge for ourselves how it’s going to be.  God is going to make that judgment.  But also realize this.  There is a great and a fantastic and eternal blessing to be called to the first resurrection and to be one of the guests at the wedding of the Lamb and His bride.  So that is the full meaning of the day of Pentecost.  Brethren, I hope it’s been a wonderful day for you.