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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

So take your Bible and turn to the book of Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14. The whole book of Revelation deals with one main subject, the wrath of God. The cross 2,000 years ago, then we have the church age in this period of time, this is where we are. We are right now according to God’s timetable living right here at the end of this church age. The next thing to happen according to God’s timetable is the rapture where we’ll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

That’s the rapture. The revelation is when Christ is revealed in power and great glory and comes back to the earth in glory revealed. Every I see Him. Now in between these two coming where He comes for us and where He comes with us is called a seven-year tribulation period upon the earth. And during that period of time, it’s going to be the worst period of time that the world has ever known. Now last week, we just talked about the 13th chapter.

The 13th chapter dealt with the two beasts, one coming up out of the sea, political, one coming up out of the land, religious. And the second beast tries to get everybody to worship the first beast. the words, it’s going to be a union of religion and politics coming together to control the world. And neither one of them likes the other, but the beast, the second beast, wants to get everybody to worship the first beast. Now, God tells us in His word what’s going to take place.

Chapter 13 ends with the mark of the beast, the domination, the control that He will have over the nations of the earth. It looks pretty dark, pretty bleak. And then you have chapter 14. So turn in your Bible to the 14th chapter of the book of Revelation. You and I know that in the book of Matthew, when he says, go into all the world and preach the gospel. It also makes the statement of Mark chapter 16 verse 15. It says, going to all the way and preach the gospel to every creature.

So that command has been given. That is what was to be done during this church age, to every person in the whole world. So So then during this 14th chapter, to me it looks like a reprieve, a chance for to catch your breath after reading how bad everything’s going to be. And then try to take people on a journey into the future to see how it all comes out. And there’s several things mentioned here. starts off with that he says, and we’re talking about the great apostle John, who God used to write this book on the Alapatmas.

And the Bible says that he was caught up and he saw these things and God told him what to write. And as he writes, he says, and I looked upon Mount Zion and I saw a lamb. A lamb. And he had there 144,000. These are Jewish evangelists. So we start off in the chapter with the Jews. God using 12,000 from 12 tribes to preach to the world. Because see, if the rapture takes place, all the believers are gone. So who is God going to use?

Well, I believe he’s going to use these Jewish evangelists. And he says here in verse 1, and I look and lo a lamb Stood upon Mount Zion and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand Having his father’s name written in their forehead. Now the question comes up is this Where is this Mount Zion? Is it on the earth or is it in heaven? Well, there’s a possibility that both could be true, but it’s almost like he’s now looking all the way through this terrible, terrible time and looking out here into the kingdom.

And he says, look, I can see the lamb. I can see the 144,000. And he says also, he says, I can see the 24 elders that he talks about in the first part of the book of Revelation. And then he talks about seeing multitudes of people. Now when he refers to the Jewish evangelist, it says they were virgins. Now in most people’s mind they think of a virgin as a woman. Well this isn’t talking about the sex of the individual, but it’s talking about the purity of the individuals.

These men were virgins in that they were pure and the Bible says there that they had not known women. They hadn’t been with women. See they’re in verse 4. These are they which were not defined with women. They are virgins and they follow the lamb with us so ever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, been the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. Now there’s several things to look at here concerning this. The 144,000 as it says there in verse three says they were redeemed from the earth and then there in verse four it says they were redeemed from among men.

So whether or not concerning during this tribulation period upon the earth God had taken to himself 144,000 that were redeemed and if If they’re redeemed, it means they had to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. And if they trusted Christ as their Savior, they were redeemed among men. But did they die during this period of time and they’re seen in heaven around the throne of God? Or is it seen into the future? I’ll let you study it on your own.

But I believe it is a good possibility that it’s looking into the future, into the thousand reign upon the earth. And what he sees is the combination of all this that’s going to be taken place. See, this is the wrath of God. When you read in the Bible, Romans chapter 9, it makes this statement that God uses those that are vessels of wrath in order to bestow his wrath upon. And God takes vessels of mercy in order to bestow his mercy upon.

But you and I are the one that decide whether or not what kind of a vessel we will be. Will I be a vessel of wrath or a vessel of mercy? So we want to be able to see these two things as God deals with them. So the book of Revelation, God is pouring out his wrath upon those that are vessels of wrath. They refuse to accept Jesus Christ of their Savior, so there’s judgment to fall upon them. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn all the way over there to the book of Matthew in chapter 25.

Matthew and chapter 25. At the end of the tribulation period, the Bible says that when Jesus Christ comes back, He is going to have what we call judgment of the nations. The nations refers to the Gentiles and those that are saved are called sheep, those that are lost are called goats. So be careful in calling your husband an old goat. He may be saved, call him an old sheep. But notice where he says in verse 31, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he set upon the throne of his glory.

Look up here. When the Son of Man comes back here. And he’s revealed and comes back in his glory. This is at the end of the tribulation period. When he comes back, there is going to be this judgment of the nations, of the Gentiles. And look what he says in verse 32. And before him shall he gather or be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. So we believe that the sheep are the believers and the goats are the unbelievers.

He’s already dealt and is dealing with the nation of Israel. Beside the 144,000 Jewish believers, there is a remnant of the nation of Israel that will be hiding, I believe, in a place called Petra, which is in Jordan. also what we call Moab. And so Jordan probably will escape some of the trouble that’s going to come on this one world government. But now notice, then he makes a statement in verse 33, and he shall set the sheep on the right hand, that’s the Republicans, but they, no, no, that’s not too answer.

But the goats on the left, see the Bible even talks about the right and the left, So you got to be on the right side. Somebody says, are you a right winger? Yes, I am. See, you got to be right. Because if you’re not right, you’re wrong. Right? As we’re moving right along. So he says in verse 34, then shall the king say unto them. Now you notice it’s not talking about the head of the church. It’s talking about the king of the nation of Israel.

Because when we leave this, we go into this. This, this is the Davidic Millennial Kingdom. This is 1,000 years long, and it’s going to be just like the Garden of Eden. Have you ever wanted to live in the Garden of Eden? Don’t you feel kind of jipped because you missed out on all of that? Lay around here and eat strawberries all day? Of course, you’ve got to have your wife go pick them for you. You don’t want to have to do too much work.

Sit around and fish all day. Well, we’re gonna have a thousand year reign up on the earth. That’s called the kingdom and the kingdom is gonna have its king. So the king is going to come back and power and great glory. And he says here in verse 34, “‘Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom, “‘the kingdom, prepare for you from the foundation the world. God has told about setting up this kingdom all the way from back in the beginning, when he was talking about the king, when King Saul became their first king, and then the promises are made to King David, and so on.

And especially to Solomon. God made some mighty good promises that he would have set upon the throne, a king that would reign forever. So this is what’s going to take place. Now the sheep on the right, he says, enter out into the kingdom and the goats on the left, up here in verse 41, then shall he say unto them on the left him, depart from me, he cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angel. This is the judgment of the nations that takes place when Christ comes back to the earth.

This is the judgment that takes place on those who come out of this period of time. So there is this judgment and the believers will go into the kingdom and the others that do not will be cast into the lake of fire. So you don’t want to reject Christ as your Savior. You want to believe that He is who He claims to be, that He did die on the cross and pay for the sins of the world and you do want to trust Him as your Savior.

Now go back back there to the book of Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14. You’ll notice there in verse 4 where it says, these were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. Now we know that during this period of time when Christ came back from the dead. It says, He is the first fruits among them that slip. 1 Corinthians 15. And then it talks about there’s going to be this harvest. Well, if the Lord came back right now for us, if He came back here for us, there is going to be a harvest of souls.

So it’s like we’re being harvested and we’re taken to heaven. But He was the first… And then there’s been a few little along the years, but there’s going to be a harvest. And they made the statement in John chapter 4, he says, think not that there are yet four months and then comeeth harvest. He says, behold, I see and you lift up your eyes, behold, he says, it is already, it is here, it is now. We are supposed to be winning souls now and realizing that we can have a lot of people We can be reaping a harvest as we go, but there’s going to be one main harvest during here So that takes care of the people in the church age But what about the people during the tribulation period?

We know that a multitude of people are going to be killed and it says they are in heaven asking the Lord how long before you judge them because they shed our blood upon the earth. So there’s two things to realize here in the 14th chapter. One where he makes the statement, they were the first fruits unto God into the Lamb. Now whether or not it means that they died and were taken to heaven, I don’t know, could be, or that they were just redeemed from among men and these are the first fruits during this period of time.

So there’s a good possibility that they will be doing the first part of the tribulation period. Now I want you to take and look there in Revelation chapter 14 and go down to verse 14. Chapter 14 and verse 14. Now Schofel has this as a header visions of Armageddon. But as I read this and I study this, I saw two things and it appears that He only sees one thing. So let me explain to you what I see. I saw two angels and two harvest, two reepees.

In verse 14, and I look and behold a white cloud. And upon the cloud one set light unto the Son of man. I wonder who that is. ever Christ comes back. He’s coming back in clouds of glory, and it is the Son of Man. He’s coming back to the earth right after the tribulation period. So we know that we’re talking right here during the last part of this tribulation period, and this is what He said. He’s a heaven on His head, a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, the rust in thy sickle and reap, for the time has come, for they to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So he’s gonna do a little reaping here on the earth. Well, it says there that it’s time to reap the harvest.

In verse 16, and he that sat on the cloud, thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Well, reaped is past tense. like the job is done. It’s over with. And then lo and behold, you have it happening again.” In verse 17, and another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven. He also had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire and cried with a loud voice to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the year for her grapes are fully right.

Well, man, how can you do it twice? He just told him to do it in verse 15. Now he’s doing it again. But remember on the second one it talks about fire and it talks about grace. Well there is a little difference here. I believe in the first part of verse 14 and 15 and 16 is talking about where he gathers the believers and then the The second one is the unbelievers. See, at the end of the tribulation period, there is going to be this judgment of the nations where the sheep on one side and the goats on the other side.

So there’s two things here. You’ll notice that the second one says, and the angel thrust in his sickle in verse 19 and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. So the believers are separated from the others. And the other ones are going to be put in this winepress and they’re killed. And the blood. It’s going to flow. It didn’t say, great Jesus is going to flow. I believe it’s, and the last he’s going to pull all these people into this place and God’s going to fulfill his will.

And to see a little bit of that, while you’re right there in chapter 14, if you look across the page to chapter 16, and look there in verse 13, 14, and 15, and you’ll see something that’s good because it leads right up to verse 16 where there’s an uninteresting word. Verse 13, and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

So there is the devil, the beast, the antichrist, and the false prophet, the unholy trinity, and their ministry will go about three and a half years. Kind of mocking somebody else that went into the place in Jerusalem and claimed that he was God. when Jesus did it, He was rejected and crucified when this nut does it. All of the world is yay! They’re all excited. They are glad to deceived and they all fall for it. But notice what He says in verse 14, and they are the spirit of devils, working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

This is what you see with the naked eye upon the earth, but what people can’t see behind the scenes is that the Lord is allowing all this activity in the angelic world to accomplish His will. And the Bible says in the book of Revelation in chapter 17, for God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His will. So God is working, the devil is working. And he says in verse 15, Behold, I come as a thief. When he says here is I come as a thief.

Remember we talk about the thief in the night. A lot of time people put it over here. This is the thief in the night. No, no, no, no. Thief in the nights over here. It’s not talking about the rapture, But anyway, he says, blessed did he that watch it and keep his garment lest he walk naked and they see ashamed. And he gathered them together in a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. Now this is what they place called Megiddo.

And there’s a big plane up there and it goes for miles. I was standing on the heel because of the tail. And I saw the ground open up and a plane go shooting up out of the ground. And it’s hard to believe that they’ve got defense all over the place. And Israel doesn’t have much time to respond to the enemy because it’s such a narrow country. And like we said the other night, you could take about seven of them and put them in the state of Florida.

So that’s, they’re not a very big country. And it’s so narrow that you can fly over the whole country in just a matter of a couple minutes. But this is what’s going to take place. Now, go back there to chapter 14. So here he’s talking about in verse 15, the harvest. There’s the first root, the Jewish. And the harvest, the Gentiles. And so this is I believe is a reference to it at that period of time, the judgment of the nations.

And this will follow right in line according to the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew when Jesus was here and according to what he had promised was going to take place. So the book of Revelation is laid out very well. And sometimes it’s hard to understand the book of Revelation. Yeah, there’s a few little places in a hiccan gag you There’s no doubt about that and no I haven’t got it all figured out But I love studying it and looking at it now the other thing I wanted you to see was this it means that if there’s going to be this harvest of Jewish evangelists there has to be a soul winner and if they’re going to be a harvest of these Gentiles and In chapter 7 it talks about that very well in all the nations of the earth that multitudes are going to believe on the

Lord. I used to always wondered, well, if I was God, I just used an angel. Let angels do it. What would you do if you went outside tomorrow? You looked up in the sky and there’s this big old beautiful angel. And he’s preaching, not just about anything, but he’s preaching the gospel. If he was to preach the gospel, it would probably be the everlasting gospel. And if it was the everlasting gospel, it would probably be good news. And if it was good news, I mean, it would probably be salvation by grace.

And if it’s salvation by grace, do you think it’d be clear? Maybe God will let Hank come back and be that angel. I mean, we want somebody who really knows what they’re doing to really be super clear. So look what he says here in Revelation in chapter 14. Look in verse 6, And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people, to everybody.

Now, there wouldn’t be any use in preaching the gospel to everybody if everybody can’t be saved. So I believe that everybody can be saved. And yet you run into some problems, especially toward the end of the book of Revelation. So there’s a good possibility that a lot of this preaching by this thing could be the first part of the tribulation period, where a lot of people will hear and understand and trust Christ as their Savior. Maybe that’s where the 144,000 come from.

I don’t know. Good possibility. Maybe that’s where multitudes of these Gentiles and all these nations upon the earth and all these various languages, everything. You read the seventh chapter in Taddian with the 14th chapter and it’s talking about the same thing. And it says, where did these come from? He says, sir, thou knoweth, he says, these came out of the great tribulation and have washed and made their garments white in the blood of the lamb. So they said that there were multitudes of every nation that believe in the Lord.

So God is going to have his witness here and there’s going to be testimonies given and people are going to respond. And so there’s going to be a region of the Jewish evangelist and then the multitudes of the Gentiles. So here in this one little chapter stuck in here between the midst of all of this stuff is like a triumphant chapter that lets you see a little bit about how it’s going to play out at the end. We are eventually, we’re going to be out here in this kingdom in this wonderful, wonderful place.

And as he looks out a little bit into the future, he says, and I saw Lamb stand upon Mount Zion, And I saw all of this, and I saw the 144,000, and they were all singing. And then all they should that are going to be redeemed, and they’re going to be there because it says when the judgment of the nations takes place, those that are on the right hand are the sheep. He says, enter thou into the kingdom upon the earth.

this is how God is going to deal with those people during this period of time. There’s going to be Jews and Gentiles that will be saved. They’re not part of the church. They will go into the millennial reign upon this earth. Now we know when the Bible says, going all the world and preached the gospel to every creature. That’s what they’re going to do. You’ve been listening to To Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr.

Ralph Arnold, we pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Our two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, CalvaryofTampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and everyday, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.