Ok, now that we have that taken care of, and therefore I won’t have to repeat it on Pentecost.  I’ll do it ahead of time.  There are too many things to bring out on Pentecost so I’m doing some of this ahead of time.  Let’s go to Hebrews 12 and let’s see the comparison between Hebrews 12 and Exodus 19 and 20.  Hebrews 12, let’s go there first.  And this is also a very important chapter which also shows us why the first resurrection is on Pentecost and not on the Feast of Trumpets.  There will be other things, which I will show to prove that.  But I never will forget the first Pentecost that we kept.  At that time I was still, we were still living in Pasadena and I was pastoring Torrance and Santa Monica and we had combined Torrance and Santa Monica services down at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and Gerald Waterhouse was the speaker.  Well, I led the songs and everything.  I think someone else brought the Sermonette, but I led the songs and took the announcements and I had to announce to everyone, “Well brethren, here we are the first time keeping Pentecost on the right day.”  And trying to help them understand a little bit about it, you know, not getting into scripture or anything.  But I mentioned just off-handedly, and I said, “Who knows?  Maybe we will find out that the first resurrection is really on Pentecost.”  And Gerald Waterhouse is sitting out there, and I’m thankful that it just sailed over his head, because I’m sure I would have been lambasted up one side and down the other for having said such a presumptuous thing.  But later it’s turned out to be true.  Let’s see some of the reasons for it today.  Not all of them, we’ll cover some of those on Pentecost, but we need to get some of this out before Pentecost.

So let’s pick it up here in verse 18.  Hebrews 12:18, “For ye are not come unto the mount [now that’s referring to the one back in Exodus 19, Mt. Sinai] that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet…” I want to emphasize “a trumpet”.  We’re going to see that’s important.  Now the reason I’m emphasizing it is because “trumpets” is plural,  “trumpet” is singular.  We also need to understand this.  On every holy day, you’ll read this in Numbers 10, the trumpet was to be blown.  So trumpet was blown on the first day of Unleavened Bread, the seventh day of Unleavened Bread, the day of Pentecost.  And then on the Feast of Trumpets, now they had a different day, it was a memorial or a blowing of trumpets all the day long.  Of which I think the Buddhists perversion is where they have these big long horns you know.  And they all get up there on whatever day they have, they go whhhhh, these big old horns going.  And they’re all decked up and all these demonic costumes and running around firing off firecrackers and jumping in the air and doing all sorts of silly things to drive the demons away.

Question?  Is God going to stop blowing trumpets on the Feast of Trumpets because the pagans do this?  Because they have a counterfeit of it?  No.  Just because pagans have a counterfeit of anything that we do does not mean that we stop doing it because they have something that they have done.

Now, let’s continue here.  “And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart [now a dart means an arrow]: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, ‘I exceedingly fear and quake’:)” Now we’re going to see so did all the people.  Now he’s making a comparison here.  And the comparison has to do with the Feast of Pentecost, because that’s when the Ten Commandments were given.  “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn…and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” (vs. 19-23).  Now the Hebrew has it here “to the general assembly”.  The general assembly here means “to the festal gathering of the church of the firstborn”.  Now when is the festal gathering of the church of the firstborn going to take place?  Well, let’s see.  “…which are written in heaven…” and so forth.

Now, let’s come back here to Exodus 19, let’s look at some parallels.  Let’s pick it up here in verse 16, which then is the day of Pentecost and I’ve got a chart showing that, and that’s in the second care package too.  All right.  “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet…”  Now we have “a trumpet”, now we have “the trumpet”.  It wasn’t many trumpets.  “…exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.  And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount [that is up close to the base of the mountain].  And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.  And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.  And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up” (Ex. 19:16-20).  And I imagine all the people…[sound of sucking breath in].  Boy, that must have been a sight with him going up.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Go down,’…”  So he climbed and down this mountain.  Boy, Moses really was a mountain climber here.  “Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.  And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.’  And Moses said unto the LORD, ‘The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for Thou chargedst us, saying, ‘Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.’  And the LORD said unto him, ‘Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not he priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest He break forth upon them.’  So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them” (vs. 21-24).  And then God gave the Ten Commandments.

And of course the people couldn’t stand it.  Now this must have been some awesome display.  Here Exodus 20:18, “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.”  No chance of them running up the hill.  “And they said unto Moses, [You] speak with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (vs. 19).  So this must have been such a loud noise and so much happening that the vibrations of the noise and the thunder and the lightning was just going through their system so much that it affected them to the point that they felt they were going to die.  Have you ever had any loud noise affect you that way?  Well that’s how it affected them.  Ok.

Now, let’s look at a scripture here which is important for us to understand.  Hold your place cause we’re coming right back here.  Let’s go to Jeremiah 2, because we’re going to see that with the giving of the Ten Commandments and the events that took place right after that, the day after Pentecost, that that ties right in with the Church and the marriage of the Lamb and so forth.  Let’s come in here with Jeremiah 2. Let’s pick it up in verse 1.

“Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.  Israel was holiness unto the LORD’…”  Now, when did they become holiness unto the LORD?  We’ll see.  “…and the firstfruits of His increase:…”  When did they become the firstfruits?  See because they were literally harvested out of Egypt, were they not?  And had a seven week journey coming up to Mt. Sinai.  So they became firstfruits and became holiness to the LORD on Pentecost and then the sealing of it on the day after Pentecost when the covenant was sealed and the marriage took place.  “…firstfruits of His increase: all that devour Him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.  Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel…” (Jeremiah 2:1-4).  And then He asked, “What happened to you?  I brought you out of Egypt, why did you reject Me?  If I were sent even unto other nations, why they would have rejected their gods and accepted Me and would have kept Me, but you’ve forsaken Me.”

Now let’s come to Isaiah 54 just a few pages back.  Isaiah 54:5, “For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel…”  Now when did the LORD become the husband to Israel?  Now you see there are going to be parallels with Christ and the Church with this.  Parallels with Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion.  Parallels with the festal gathering at the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and the festal gathering which will take place at the resurrection, which we will see, and the marriage of the Church and the Lamb.

Now let’s come back to Exodus 20 again.  Let’s continue on.  The rest of Exodus 20, 21, 22, and 23 are all the basic statutes and judgments based upon the Ten Commandments.  Now we come to chapter 24.  This becomes important because this finishes off the day of Pentecost.  And the day after Pentecost then is when the marriage took place.  And the marriage took place when they accepted the covenant because this was a covenant ceremony.

Exodus 24:1, “And He said unto Moses, ‘Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.  And Moses alone shall come near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him’” (vs. 1-2).  So Moses came, then he came down.  So he went up, came down…Moses doing a lot of walking here.  “…And told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, ‘All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.’”  Now what do we have in a marriage ceremony?  Do you accept this woman as your lawful wedded wife?  I do.  Do you accept this man as your lawful wedded husband?  I do.  This is what Israel and the LORD did here.  And it’s always a written contract.  God never enters into a covenant without some kind of written contract.  God is the author of law, so God is legal.  So He makes sure that it’s done legally and technically correct.

Verse 4, “And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning [so then this is after Pentecost], and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars. according to the twelve tribes of Israel.  And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offering, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.  And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.  And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people…” These are the words of the marriage covenant between Israel and God, which took place the day after Pentecost.  Years ago I thought it was done on Pentecost but it’s obvious and in the morning so that’s the next day.  “…Read it in the audience of the people: and they said, ‘All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.’  And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant…” Now when you understand covenant relationships and you understand that a covenant is cut.  It is binding until death.  That’s why when Christ came to be human, one of the functions He served in dying, was the husband to physical Israel died to loose that marriage.  Now either He had to die or all of Israel had to die.  So God died.  That loosed the Old Covenant.  No longer binding.  That has nothing to do with the laws and commandments because all covenants have laws and commandments and if you don’t understand that write for the series on “The Covenants of God”.  We have 15 tapes which go through all the covenants, ok.  “…Blood of the covenant [this is serious business], which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.” (Exodus 24:1-8).  So we have the marriage of Israel to God.

When the Church is resurrected there will be the marriage of Christ and the Church and there will be a new covenant at that time.  It will be a marriage covenant for all eternity.  I don’t think many people really understand that.  The covenant we are under now is renewed every year by us with the bread and wine and foot washing.  Christ doesn’t have to renew it because He gave His life.  That’s why He said He would not eat of the bread or drink of the wine, especially of the wine.  Of course He’s not going to eat of bread because there’s no…well He ate bread later but that wasn’t in the covenant ceremony of the Passover.  He ate bread and fish there we find in John 21.  But He’s not going to drink of the fruit of the vine until it’s in the Kingdom.  And when it’s going to be when He drinks it, it will be the wine of the marriage ceremony when the Church is married to Christ.

Now let’s look at where and when and how this is going to happen.  But first of all let’s answer a question here and let’s get into the situation concerning what is called the sea of glass, which we pick up right here beginning in verse 9.  “Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness” (vs. 9-10).  There is a sea of glass, or a pavement of what you would call glass.  Now why did He come down to there?  So that they could see Him but not look upon Him.  They saw the outline of Him but they couldn’t see it clearly.  So Moses had to go up and to be up there on this pavement with God.

Now notice what they did.  “And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.”  So they had a special ceremony there, didn’t they, commemorating the marriage of Israel and God.  “And the LORD said unto Moses, ‘Come up to Me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; and thou mayest teach them.’  And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.  And he said unto the elders, ‘Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.  And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.  And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.  And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.  And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights” (vs. 11-18).

Well, you know what happened there.  The children of Israel couldn’t stand it.  They thought, “I wonder what’s happening.  I wonder what happened to that Moses, he’s still up there.  You know, this has been like unto three weeks and where is this guy?  I bet he’s fallen into the volcanic explosions up there and he’s been all devoured.  Yeah, well we better go to Aaron here.  He said go to Aaron, so let’s go to Aaron.”  And they came to Aaron and said, “You know Aaron, look we don’t know where he is, we don’t have a God, now what you do, you just make us gods.”  And Aaron said, “Ok, bring all your gold and all of this…” And I love the excuse when Moses came down and said, “Aaron why did you do this?”  He said, “We just threw the gold in the fire and out jumped these calves.”  You know.  But just as an aside, what happened?  The children of Israel didn’t want God’s pure way, they wanted a religion.  Remember that, I’ll talk about that later on.

Ok, let’s go on.  Let’s look at the presence of God and the sea of glass.  Here we find the sea of glass.  Now there’s some people very angry at me because I say that when we’re resurrected we’re going to be on the sea of glass.  Well, we’ll get to that verse in a minute.  Then what you need to do is also be very angry at God because God only talks of the prophet twice by name.  And is the false prophet going to do a lot of damage?  Yes indeed.  So please understand something about scripture, which is this: once is sufficient.

Now let’s come to Psalm 11.  Let’s talk about God’s throne because that also has to do with the sea of glass.  Psalm 11:4, “The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men.”  So God is in heaven.  How close is the heaven of God’s throne to the earth?  I can’t tell you but I don’t think it’s in the far, far, far north, because we’re going to see that it’s probably a whole lot closer to the earth but men cannot see it at the present time.

Ok, let’s come to Psalm 45, it talks about the throne of God.  Psalm 45:6, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre.  Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows” (Psalm 45:6-7).  That’s a direct prophecy that Christ would be, or was, and is God.  Right there.  His throne is forever and ever.

Psalm 47:8, “God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness.  The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham [now that could have an allusion to the resurrection]: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: He is greatly exalted” (Psalm 47:8-9).

Now, let’s come to Ezekiel 1.  We have something here in Ezekiel 1 that is very unusual, and I don’t think that anyone can properly explain about the Cherubim, exactly how they look like.  I know people have tried to draw pictures of them.  When I read it I think of something of a jet plane and the things that look…the way that they look, I don’t know how to explain it other than just it’s in there.  What he wrote he wrote and for us to try and decide what it is is very difficult for us to do indeed.  But let’s just clarify something here that is important.  Everything in this room is made of the dust of the earth, including us.  Even though we are composed of the dust of the earth and are flesh we have life, whereas this microphone doesn’t nor the stand doesn’t nor the rug, and so forth.  We have things which bring us light which are called lights and have electricity in them, but those are still made of physical fleshly things.  There are things in heaven which are made of spiritual things which are not living beings.  For example, New Jerusalem is going to be made out of spiritual material but it is not a living being.  So likewise here with this, whatever these Cherubim are, it is God’s chariot.

So let’s pick it up here in verse 20.  “Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.  When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them [Now that seems to me kind of like the wheels were folded up in just like an airplane today.  That’s what it seems like to me.  I don’t know]: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.”  Now the “spirit”, that could be just the power of the living creatures.  “And the likeness [now here’s what I want to get to] of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible [or that is awesome] crystal…”, so beautiful to behold.  So there we have something now in kind of like a rainbow over them like crystal. Not a sea of glass, but just to show you that there things composed of spirit.

And verse 23, “And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: everyone had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.”  So it’s just like, you know, the closest I can come to that is like propellers.  And when the plane lands you turn off the propellers they stop.  The propellers are kind of like wings.  That’s the best I can do.

Verse 25, “And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.  And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne [So this was to carry a portable throne of God], as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.  And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of His loins even upward, and from the appearance of His loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.”  So here he’s seeing just a glorified spirit being who’s obviously God.  “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain [so there was a rainbow round about this whole Cherubim], so was the appearance of the brightness round about.  This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.  And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake” (Ezek. 1:20-28). “And He said unto me (Ezek. 2:1), ‘Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.’”  So here God came right down to Ezekiel.  Boy, that’s quite a thing, you see.  Stood him on his feet, gave him His message and everything.  “And the spirit entered into me when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard Him that spake unto me” (vs. 1-3).  And then He gives him his commission that he is to do.  So that’s quite a thing.

Now let’s come to Ezekiel 3:12.  “Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, ‘Blessed be the glory of the LORD from His place.’ I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures [so apparently he got a ride on this Cherubim] that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.  So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.  Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar…” (vs. 12-15).  So apparently Ezekiel had a ride on a Cherubim.

Now this is probably very similar as to what happened to Enoch when he was carried away, and Elisha when he was carried away.  They were carried away to a separate place and the chariot of the LORD took them away, ok.  The reason I’m bringing that out is because I want you to see that there are things made of spirit which must then be manifest to the human eyes that you can’t see otherwise and God uses those things.  Ok.

Let’s come to Isaiah 6 and let’s see where Isaiah was also before the throne of God.  As we’re turning to Isaiah 6 let’s understand something.  Maybe this will convince some people who want to profess themselves to be prophets, to maybe not be prophets any longer because maybe the Cherubim is going to come and correct you rather than give you a ride.  God may come and correct you with some pretty severe things.  That’s why no one wants to set himself up as a prophet.  Look at how Ezekiel was set up.  Look at how Jeremiah was set up.  Look how Isaiah was set up here.  God did it directly.  Let’s read it here beginning in verse 1.

“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.”  So he saw the throne and the temple.  “Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.  And one cried unto another, and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts [Now we’ll see in Revelation 4 this is pretty similar to what we have back there]: the whole earth is full of His glory.’  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.  Then said I, ‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.’”  Actually saw God.  “Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, ‘Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.’”  So God has more than one way of forgiving sin doesn’t He?  This was to show Isaiah that God was going to use him.  “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’  Then said I, ‘Here am I; send me.’  And He said, ‘Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed’” (Isa. 6:1-10).  Now how many times was that quoted in Matthew and by the apostles, yes, and even by Christ Himself.

Ok, let’s continue on this with the throne of God.  Let’s come to Acts 7.  Now this is when Stephen was martyred.  Let’s just pick it up here in verse 51.  You talk about a witness.  And this was one of the last profound witnesses to the leaders of Judaism.  And with this, with this, this sealed the doom of Jerusalem and the temple and everything.  “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy [Spirit]: as your fathers did, so do ye.  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.”  And here they thought they were the most righteous people in the world.  “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart [not unto repentance], and they gnashed [against] him…”  Not on him but against him.  They were sitting there gnashing their teeth.  “But he, being full of the Holy [Spirit], looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God…” (vs. 51-56).  So again, how close is the throne of God to the earth?  We don’t know.  But Stephen looked up and saw it, and Christ standing at the right hand.

Now let’s understand something about being at the right hand.  When someone is at the right hand, that is a sign of equality.  That is a sign of equality.  Standing at the right hand of God.  Notice He wasn’t sitting there.  You come to Revelation the last verse and it says “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” (Rev. 3:21).  So this time He was standing.  He was standing there looking as to what was going on, not just sitting viewing.  So He wasn’t a passive participant in this, but active.

And Stephen said, “…Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.’  And they cried out with a loud voice [They couldn’t stand this, couldn’t stand this.  The one whom they killed and crucified, rejected], and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him…” (Acts 7:57-58).  Comes a point some people just won’t listen to the truth at all and there’s no repentance available.

Now let’s continue on with this concerning the throne of God.  Let’s come to Revelation 4.  Let’s begin in verse 1.  I’m so out of time I don’t have time to finish this.  There’s too many important things that I need to cover about the sea of glass…