The Great Meaning in Pentecost

Ron Weinland

June 3, 2017

So for this year's sermon I was going to go into the meaning of the wave sheaf and tie those things in as they do to Pentecost, but since we're going through a particular series right now that's entitled, The Real Truth About Christ's Death, and we're getting very close to going into that portion anyway of what Christ actually fulfilled in his life, today we're going to move ahead a little ways and talk about some other things, because there is so much meaning in this particular day. This sermon is entitled, The Great Meaning in Pentecost.

Again, there has been so much given to us over the past several years, more and more and more, even in the meaning of some of the things connected to this particular day and it's very easy for us, if we're not careful, to begin taking some things for granted and not to understand how blessed we are to see and to know the things that we have because when a truth comes along and we're given that then the following year, or two years later, it's old hat and it can be as though we've always known it, when we haven't.

So we're going to review a little of this in the sense of those things that we've been given over a period of time and build upon that because new people who come along, it's good for them to hear some of the things that are very basic in many ways and yet we can build upon that ourselves as well. So for all those in the future who are going to be new and watching some of these videos that are on the YouTube and elsewhere, it's good to first understand some basic things about Pentecost. It's an annual Sabbath, a yearly Sabbath and there is so much misunderstanding in things like this because people don't know, they don't understand.

Again, for all those in the future there are basic things that people need to understand. As we've been going through the series that we have there are things that people read in scripture they have no idea what on earth it's talking about. They have no idea of things about Passover. They maybe have heard about it, but they have no idea there's an annual Holy Day that follows the day of Passover, the very first of the Holy Days and those things are so incredibly important to understand the truth about those things that Jesus Christ went through in his life, to understand truth in the first place, of what God says we should live and how we should live, and what we should observe. So we're given so much and so many things are indeed very basic and they're very clear as far as God's word is concerned, but people who are new, when you were new, if you were at some particular time (if you didn't grow up in God's church), when you began to learn truth, you know, after a while it was old hat and you knew it, but in the beginning it took a little while. It took a little while to understand some of the basics that God gives.

Let's turn over to Leviticus 23 again because in Leviticus 23 it talks about these things, and again, a reminder here of some very basic things. One of the most basic of things here is about Passover, the beginning of annual observances that God gives. In Leviticus 23 it goes through and outlines the days that God gave to man to observe. First of all, when you start going through Leviticus 23, in the first few verses it talks about a weekly Sabbath. A weekly Sabbath, the seventh day that God commanded His people to observe. It was given as an appointed time. A word that's used there that we've gone through many of times (the meaning of it), not translated well into English by those who did so long ago, but again, appointed times that God has given man to come before Him. Mankind. It starts with Passover. It's so beautiful. Passover is not an annual Holy Day. It's not a High Day, in that respect. It's not a Sabbath. It's not a yearly Sabbath, but God's plan begins with Passover.

And that, to me, is so beautiful when you think about the things that God has set out for us. It begins with Jesus Christ because a person can't go forward in life to live God's way of life, a person can't begin to change, a person can't begin to live right in any fashion or form until they come to a point in time where they begin to focus upon our Passover. First of all for the blessing of being able to be forgiven of sin, but people first have to understand that they have sin, that there are sins. What is sin? The Bible makes it very clear sin is the transgression of God's law – in the New Testament, not the Old Testament! So God's law exists and it's important that we be able to be forgiven of those things that we do wrong because we as human beings are selfish by nature and we do things wrong in life and we need to be forgiven, especially when we're first drawn to God's way of life. There are so many things throughout our life that need to be forgiven, to be cleansed so that we can begin living right. Then God blesses us with that.

So once we're able to be forgiven of our sins then God has a purpose for Him to live, for Jesus Christ and God the Father to dwell in human flesh. People are able to be baptized, forgiven of sin. They're given the impregnation of God's holy spirit in the mind. That's an awesome thing to understand that there is a spirit essence that God has given to human beings that gives us the ability to think and reason, to be different from the animal kingdom. He has a different purpose for us, and some of those things we're going to go into in this particular sermon, but it's also very beautiful, it really is.

So that first Holy Day, that first High Day, let's just read some of these things again and be reminded of them because it's good that people have these basic things in their mind because if they don't have this there is no purpose to even go forward and discuss other things because it all begins here, first of all with Passover.

So in Leviticus 23:5 it says, In the fourteenth day of the first month. Now, we've been talking about that in this particular series, but we don't know when people will come on and see various things on YouTube, and if they come to Pentecost first, again, it's important that they understand basic things. This is very basic. So God gave mankind a way to count time, a way to tell time just as He did with the seven day week. It starts out in the very beginning God telling what He did in six days, and on the seventh day He rested. He set that day apart for mankind to be able to come before Him every seventh day for the rest of time, as long as there is a human being on this earth. Awesome! They are to come before God on the seventh day, the weekly Sabbath.

So God goes on then to give other periods of time that we're to come before Him and in this particular one here, In the fourteenth day of the first month… So God gave a calendar, not just the seven day week, but He gave months throughout a year to observe, to be able to count and to know when various Holy Days would come along. This is the first observance that God gave. Again, not a Sabbath but the first observance.

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even… Again, we take these things for granted! We know that as soon as the sun goes down in God's counting of time, in a relationship that we're to have with Him, this is how we're to count time as well. If we observe a particular time, like the weekly Sabbath, when the sixth day of the week (which is Friday for us), comes to a point when the sun goes down in the west a new day begins, the seventh day. That's when a day begins. Every day began at a point of sundown. So the day begins at night time, very much like it does today, except it’s 12 o'clock midnight, and man has changed everything in that regard. But for so long, thousands of years basically, it was just a matter of a period of time was told from sundown to sundown, and especially with God's people through time.

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even… So this is in the springtime and there is an awesome word that is used here that means "between the evenings." It's not a word that means just "in the evening at sundown." It's "between the evenings." So there are two evenings involved here in a particular day, in the fourteenth. When the thirteenth is over, when the sun goes down, the fourteenth begins. It goes through the night time portion, all through the day time portion of the following day, and then at sundown on that day another evening, the fourteenth ends and the fifteenth begins. So He says, In the fourteenth day between two evenings.

In Leviticus 23 God speaks of another High Day in a similar manner and it has to do with the Day of Atonement. I love the way it states it here because it makes it very clear here, it spells things out. You know, you can't just go to one place in scripture and learn the things you need to learn. There is a little here and a little there and then when God blesses you to put it all together it's a beautiful picture.

But here is an example then in verse 27 of Leviticus 23. It's talking about the fifth annual Sabbath of a year, which is in the fall. It's the Day of Atonement. It says, Also, the tenth day of the seventh month… So here we're talking about the seventh month in the fall. Generally, it falls around late September, early October, somewhere in through there, mid-September through October. The tenth day of the seventh month shall be the day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal. This term "to afflict your souls" means that we fast. You don't drink water and you don't eat food for a full day. That blows some people's minds because they have different ideas of what a fast is, but a fast in scripture means exactly what it says; you do afflict your soul. It's not easy. It's not simple. As soon as you start you start thinking about food or water and you realize for the next 24-hours, basically, you're not going to be able to have anything because you are seeking to obey God and observe an annual Sabbath the way He says to do it. So that's the tenth day of the month, "in the tenth day of the month."

Now, I want to drop on down here just a little bit more. I don't want to go into the meaning of the Day of Atonement, but it's talking about the Day of Atonement and when you get down to verse 32 it says, It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest. It's an annual Sabbath. …and you shall afflict your souls. Again, this matter of fasting. On the ninth day of the month at evening… Now, it just said "on the tenth day," but this spells it out. Beautiful! On the ninth day of the seventh month at evening… When the sun goes down on the ninth day the tenth begins. So God makes it very clear that every day is from evening to evening, or sunset to sunset, if you will and that's why that which is written here about Passover is so important, when it says "between the evenings." It's talking about the two evenings, one that starts the day and one that ends the day. So, On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening… We understand that from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. We understand that. It's a full day. It's a Sabbath day, and so it is. God spells things out, but it's amazing how many people trip up with things like this and read other things into it. It blows my mind sometimes how people can twist and distort things that God has said.

And so again, Leviticus 23: 5, In the fourteenth day of the first month between the evenings, is what the Hebrew word means here, is the Eternal's Passover. It's God's Passover that He has given to mankind. It's the beginning of salvation, of God's plan to create His Family. You know, just saying that, I think, what an awesome thing! People don't know why they exist! They talk about at death maybe going off to heaven or going down to hell – and there are a lot of people that like to send people to hell. Anyway, it's incredible what goes on with religions. You know, "If you're not a part of my religion and you believe a different way, you're going to hell. You're going to burn in hell fire for all eternity!" It's like they get some kind of pleasure in it. You think, what kind of a God would want to see people tormented for all time? That's not a merciful God! It'd be a fiendish, distorted, sick, perverted God! Yet that's what they choose to believe in. Amazing! It really is.

Anyway, going on in the verses here. Verse 6—And on the fifteenth day of the same month… So as soon as the sun goes down on the fourteenth a High Day begins, the fifteenth day of the month. It's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Again, things that we can begin to take for granted if we're not careful. There have been a lot of people who've been called to understand these things that no longer believe them. It's incredible how people can lose what they have been given by God and their mind go back to something. That's hard to grasp how a mind can lose all that that they used to believe, that they used to live, yet people can.

So again …is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Eternal. So it's unto God. It's something we're to observe unto the Eternal. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. It’s beautiful symbolism here. Unleavened bread is given as an example here of something we can learn from, that leaven is like sin. It puffs up, it's pride—different things that God gives us as examples—and to get rid of that we need to become unleavened in our lives, without sin, not to be puffed up and filled with pride in how we want to live before God like people do when they want to hold on to Easter and Christmas, when they even learn that they're not true and they're not right and they're not in the Bible anywhere. But its pride, being puffed up: "Oh, that's okay. God understands. Its okay that we give presents to our children. That's not a big thing." Well, that's being puffed up and prideful against God because it's disobeying what God says. It's going against what God says. So they won't observe what He says to do, but they want to hold on to their own ways of doing things. It's astounding what human beings will do.

The first day to you shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no servile work, or labor, regular work or labor. Again, people get confused with some of these things here, but again, there are certain things that you don't do. You don't go about your normal job. You don't go to work. You don't do those kinds of things, those things that bring in income and the like. You don't go out and work around the house, do the laundry, do the ironing. You don't do those things on the Sabbath day. You don't go out, and you know, you don't have a thorough cleaning of the house just because you have a couple days you're off work and one happens to be the Sabbath so you're going to clean the entire house. No, you don't do those things on God's Sabbath. You do them the next day, but you don't do them on God's Sabbath. You don't go out and paint the house. You don't go out and do a lot of things on God's Sabbath day. You can eat. You can work at eating and preparing meals and people get confused about some of these things.

Whenever I say this I think of a couple down in Houston, Texas, when we were there, when we were first called, and the man wanted to have his eggs in the morning, his fried eggs, or his eggs over easy and they would cook them on Friday and put them in the fridge there and then take them out and eat them some time during the day. That's not my idea of eggs over easy, but anyway, because they didn't think that they could "kindle a fire," that they could have a fire. Again, there are things that people don't understand and don't comprehend sometimes that are very basic.

But you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Eternal seven days. And in the seventh day is a holy convocation. So the first day on the fifteenth is a holy annual Sabbath. On the twenty-first, seven days later, is the second annual Sabbath, the last day of the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Verse 9—And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and tell them, When you've come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits… This is beautiful here what it's talking about, when they were going to go out and begin a harvest. I'll tell you what, you may be able to see these things clearly, but the Jews don't understand this at all. They don't understand what this is about. They don't understand what's being said here. The Church in times past, as a whole, doesn't understand what this was about. It has never been understood, as a whole, for a long, long time, but God has given us understanding in a greater way and we can begin to take it for granted. It's good that you remember these things as you get ready to go into some hard times ahead, that you know and you know that you know God's Church and where it is and how God works, because He's given you these things to prove to yourself, to know yourself, by living them, by doing them, by knowing them.

So it says here, "at the beginning of this harvest." So when they came into the land there's a lot of confusion as to the timing and what took place there. It's not confusing if you understand what God said in Leviticus 23. He told them when you come into the land there are certain things that are going to happen. I’m not going to go into all this at this point in time. We'll have it in maybe another sermon at another time, but when they came into the land it talks about they ate of the fruit of the land, and so forth, and things that they did. So people get confused. Well, when is Passover? When is Pentecost? When was the timing of these things involved? What was taking place? They become incredibly confused and people have determined and decided in many cases what they're going to do and how they're going to live, what group they're going to be with and what group they're not going to be with as far as God's truth is concerned.

Basically, what was taking place here, God says when you come in and you start your harvest you’re to take a sheaf of the first bit of grain, because the harvest starts very early on. Some people think that there were certain things you couldn't do until this point in time. You couldn't start your harvest. You couldn't start reaping anything of the land. You couldn't start cutting the grain and so forth in your harvest until this particular day. That's not what its saying. You can start the harvest weeks beforehand. What it's telling you is when the grain is ripe there is a ceremony that the Israelites were to have and they were to go out and with the first bit of grain they would take a sheaf, they would take that and keep it. They would keep it to a particular day. Now they could continue on in their harvest. Now, they couldn't eat of that harvest yet until this particular day, but they could go out and begin their harvest because it comes much earlier than this particular day that we're talking about here. One of the first things that any farmer will do is when the grain is ripe you want to get it cut and you want to get the grain out of it and you want to get it inside. That's what they did. They began their harvest early on.

There are lessons to be learned from that as well, that God's harvest began from the very beginning with Abel. It wasn't for a long time until the wave sheaf was offered up before God. So there are things here that sometimes can help people in understanding God's plan in a greater way and understand some of the things that are taking place. But a wave sheaf is just simply a bundle of the grain on the stock, the heads on the top drying out, having dried out, and they save it to a particular day.

God's giving them instruction here and He says, again here, Speak to the children of Israel and tell them, When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits, and that word there means just "the beginning." That's what the word really means. …a sheaf of the beginning of your harvest. It's not the word for "first fruits" at all. It's amazing how mankind has read things into God's word because they don't understand God's plan and purpose.

So it says to bring a sheaf of the beginning of your harvest unto the priest. So it's the very beginning. It's the first thing they did. They cut that sheaf. They saved it. They bound it together and the high priest or the priest kept it. …and he shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal to be accepted for you. On the morrow, or in other words, the day after the Sabbath that the priest shall wave it. Now, this is talking about a specific period of time here. It's talking about during the days of Unleavened Bread, and it's talking about this particular period of time, a specific day in which the priest was to wave the sheaf before God, as it says here, to be accepted for you. It's about Jesus Christ, the wave sheaf offering, the first of all first fruits of God. It’s a beautiful picture when you understand God's purpose and what God is doing and God's plan for a family. You’re not to go off to heaven when you die, but there is a time when people can actually become a part of the God Family. Incredible! It’s not to be human beings for 70 years or 700 years as they were in the beginning, 800, 900 in some cases until the flood, and then after that basically a period of time, three score and ten, seventy years that man had to live, as a whole, some longer, obviously, and some less.

Again, he shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal to be accepted for you, on the day after the Sabbath.

So again, there was a particular day, it says here, you shall wave it. It says, On that day when you wave the sheaf…shall offer up a male lamb, again, without blemish, it's about Jesus Christ again, he had no sin, no blemish in his life, no sin in his life, and of the first year, in other words that young of a lamb, for a burnt offering unto the Eternal.

Now, let's notice some very specific instruction that God gave as to how we're to know when Pentecost is to be observed because Pentecost is unlike the other High Days. God gives a specific day and a specific month when you observe the High Days and the only one that He doesn't give a specific date, because it doesn't have a specific date, is Pentecost. You have to count for that one. You have to follow God's instruction and do exactly as He said and then there's a process here you can follow. So if we understand, again here, during the days of Unleavened Bread there is a weekly Sabbath. The very next day in the morning the priest would wave the sheaf before God, but it had to be inside the days of Unleavened Bread. Again, it’s very simple, very basic.

It says [verse 15] And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, or the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. So when do they bring the sheaf of the wave offering? They brought it on Sunday morning to be waved before God to be accepted for us, Jesus Christ to be accepted for us. …from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, in other words, from that Sunday, it says, seven Sabbaths shall be complete. So you start counting forward. That Sunday of the wave sheaf you start counting forward. Seven days later is what? It's a Sabbath. Another seven days, the next Sabbath. So you keep counting these Sabbaths. Seven have to be complete. Again, incredible meaning in those things as well – completeness, God's plan, those things that are complete as far as what God gives to us. He follows those things. He has an order for how He does things and why He does things. That's why I marvel at the things we've had since the time of the Apostasy and things that fit into place in a way that is absolutely incredible: numbers, counting, dates. God is very organized, very methodical in what He does in life and there are so many examples of those throughout scripture.

So it says here, From the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, from that Sunday, in other words, seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the morrow, or the day after the seventh Sabbath, so not only are you to count seven Sabbaths, but unto the next day as well. That next day is the fiftieth day. After seven weeks, seven Sabbaths, you have forty-nine days, and it says count one more day. That's the fiftieth day. Awesome! You shall number fifty days, and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Eternal. Again here, this sometimes goes by different meanings or different things that it's called, but in the New Testament when people come to a point in time as soon as Jesus Christ was resurrected and he was with the disciples for a period of time, the 40 days that followed, and then finally we come to the day of Pentecost, 31 A.D., and that was fifty days after the wave sheaf, 50 days afterwards. And fifty here, the word that's used for Pentecost, it's simply a particular word that has very specific meaning, "count fifty." In the Greek language "pente” is fifty and "cost” is count. So that's how it got its name, Pentecost, "count fifty."

So it's the only High Day, the only annual day that you know when it is by counting forward from the time of the wave sheaf offering. God purposed it this way, that we should count it, not to have a specific date to observe it, not like the fourteenth being Passover in the first month, or the fifteenth and the twenty-first being the first two High Days then of the year during the days of Unleavened Bread. This one here is unique, unique in all of its meaning, unique in all of its fulfillment.

So again, even the simple counting of these things, from the time of the wave sheaf to Pentecost has incredible meaning contained in it in things that God has given.

So there are so many things we can zero in on the day of Pentecost, again, things that people need to remember, need to know. Pentecost is the day that God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments. Now, I hope when you hear things like this, or you recall things like this and you think back about them that you get excited, that you're inspired by how God has laid everything out as He has so beautiful, so meticulous, with so much meaning. What incredible meaning! God gave His law, the 10 Commandments, on the day of Pentecost. Awesome! Then a long, long, long time later on the day of Pentecost He poured out His holy spirit to mankind, to a group of people, not just working with individuals. For 4,000 years God just worked with a few here and there through time. Most of the people who are going to be a part of what we're going to go into in a moment, they've been a part of the last 2,000 years, but God worked with people from the time of righteous Abel all the way through time until the time of Jesus Christ, nearly 4,000 years. Awesome! It’s a beautiful picture in what God gave to us and it has so much meaning.

The Israelites, their whole history was that they couldn't keep God's law. They couldn't keep the 10 Commandments. Even the Jews, concerning the Sabbath, there are certain things they couldn't do. They added to it. They made it hard on people. By the time Jesus Christ came along he condemned them for what they were doing. He talked about their self-righteousness. He talked about their hypocrisy. He talked about how hard they were on others and the strictness of some of the things that they tried to get other people to do and live by. I think of even to this day sirens go off in Jerusalem an hour before the Sabbath and they don't go off again until an hour after the Sabbath because they want to be so right that you're past the Sabbath. You think, super self-righteous, you know, going above and beyond what God gave and said we should do, and being puffed up by that, lifted up by that as a matter of pride. It’s not a matter of obedience to God and striving to live by something in spirit and in truth. Instead it's a matter of what we can do.

Sometimes people make that mistake: "It's what I can do." No, you should work with all of your being to obey God, but you need help. That's why we cry out to God for His holy spirit to live in us, to strengthen us, because you can't live this way of life, you can't have a right mind and right thinking, you can't correct the things in your mind and your life that need to be corrected without God's help. So we have to cry out to God, "Help me with those things that I battle with. Help me to see the things that I cannot even see and help me to change those things to be more in unity and oneness with You." So what a beautiful picture, that God gave His law, the whole history of Israel being you can't keep it without God's help. Then on the day of Pentecost God began to pour out His holy spirit.

So again, very few were worked with in the first 4,000 years and sometimes people have struggled with that. Well, how could they have been worked with and received God's holy spirit if the Passover hadn't come yet? How is it that this all worked? How is it when Jesus Christ didn't even come until nearly 2,000 years ago now? But in that period of time in that 4,000 years, the ones with whom God worked – you talk about Moses, Abraham, and Sarah, different ones that God had a close relationship with, in that respect, as He worked with them, and led and guided and directed them — it says in Hebrews "they looked for a city whose builder and maker was God." They were given enough to understand certain truths and certain things in life and about a certain relationship with God, things about the Sabbath and so forth. Did they know about Pentecost? It wasn't given until it was given by God in Leviticus 23 to the Israelites. There were certain things concerning the Holy Days they didn't know and they didn't understand. It's been progressive through time. What they were given to understand and know was sufficient for God to work with them. God worked with different ones and revealed more and more as time went along, even up to the time of Moses, and then after that because more was given.

By the time Moses was given what he was he didn't know of the holy days. When he served God and brought the children of Israel out of Egypt he didn't know anything about any of these Holy Days! He didn't know about the Day of Atonement. He didn't know about the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths, if you will. He learned and he began to learn with Passover, the first Passover ever observed by mankind. There was no observance of Passover before that. That was the first. God used it in a very powerful way to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. Sometimes we think, "Oh, they all knew all those things about the Holy Days." They understood God's law. They understood certain things about a relationship with God and how to have that. They understood certain things they were to do and not to do in life and right relationships with people, in basics; they understood those things. They didn't have it codified like the 10 Commandments. They didn't refer to it as the 10 Commandments. Noah didn't teach his children, he didn't say, "Now, remember the 10 Commandments." They hadn't been given to them like that. They hadn't been codified like that yet.

So we take for granted so many things and we think that things were a certain way for a long period of time. One thing they all knew and lived by faith in – not only that God had a great purpose for a Kingdom and they looked for that City that God told them about — but they believed in a Messiah. Every one of them believed in a Messiah. God revealed that to them about a Christ, a Messiah that would come in time, and about a city, or different ways that God explained to them at different points in time throughout the history of that 4,000 years.

So again, God judges people by what they have at any moment in time, by what they've been given. Even within the Church for 2,000 years people have had different things to know that others didn't know, but you're judged by what you're given to know. Awesome! It’s awesome to understand that, incredible to understand that.

So there was this period of time then where they were to count fifty and it goes on to say here then, “In the first day you shall have a holy convocation and you shall not do any servile work," and so forth, and it talks about this period of time.

Again here, verse 10, "Speak to the children of Israel when you come into the land," again, the sheaf, the first fruits, or the beginning. That's not even the word "first fruit." Then we came on down here to this point here, "and you shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal to be accepted for you, on the morrow after the Sabbath." So there's this period of counting this particular time.

Then verses 15 and 16 go on and talk about this entire period, how to count the fifty. Again, jumping on down a little bit farther. Let's go on here again and pick this up. I want to pick it up in verse 16 here where we left off earlier. I was talking about some of the things that have to do with all the meaning of Pentecost and we'll get to these things as we go along, but the two great things in the beginning here is to understand that God gave the 10 Commandments on the day of Pentecost, and then He gave the ability to live His way of life, to obey those things in spirit and truth when He gave His spirit on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D.

[Verse 16] So even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering to the Eternal.

Now, verse 17—You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths of a measurement. They shall be of fine flour and they shall be baked with leaven. Again, awesome, beautiful meaning in these things, two wave loaves! And so here are two loaves and He said make sure these have leavening in them. Why? Because it's about human beings. It's about those who have sin in their life. It pictures a unique group of people as God reveals, as we continue on. You shall have these two wave loaves. So here is going to be another wave offering before God, but this time it's not going to be with a wave sheaf, which is the beginning of the harvest, it's going to be with wave loaves out of the grain from these harvests, in the beginning of the harvest, of the early harvest.

He says here, two wave loaves of two-tenths measurement, baked with leaven. They are the first fruits unto the Eternal, the first fruits. Again, something that those who know and have known for a long time can begin to take for granted, to understand that for 6,000 years God has been working in an early harvest to teach, to lead, to guide, to direct, to train, to prepare a people to be a part of His Kingdom, to be a part of His Family, the first to come into His Family.

Can you see how sick this idea of going to heaven is because if everyone whose ever died is either in heaven or down in hell, or wherever it's supposed to be, it just so takes away from what God says is true, that for 6,000 years God has been working with a group that's referred to as the first fruits, of those who are the first fruits as a part of His Family, or are going to be a part and partake of His Family? Incredible! And yet if millions are already up in heaven this has no meaning to it, it has no great significance to it. It takes away from it. It steals from it. So there is this group that's called the first fruits of God.

Then dropping on down to verse 20— And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the Eternal with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Eternal for the priests. So, awesome here! Counting from the time of the wave sheaf to the wave loaves ties it all together, ties all this meaning together about first fruits and what it means, just like our wave sheaf makes it possible for these, for the others who are the first fruits to be accepted by God.

Let's turn over to Revelation 7. So I think of people when they're first called and you start talking about first fruits and these wave loaves and what it means to offer them up before God, that these are the first fruits to God Almighty and it has no meaning. It's a weird, strange thing because they've never heard such things. They don't know that God has a plan and a purpose for a family and that God has a purpose for a kingdom. A kingdom! So even in the Old Testament there are things understood about the Kingdom of God, that there's a kingdom coming, that there's a government coming, that the whole teaching about a Messiah is one who’s going to be the individual who’s going to be the King in God's Kingdom, the one who will rule in God's Kingdom that will come from mankind! So they looked for that Messiah for a long, long time. That's why I love to read about those verses there when it talks about Jesus Christ coming into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt and people were so excited and praising God, the Son of David who was coming into Jerusalem, the Messiah! That's what they were saying, "The Messiah!" They honestly felt that they weren't going to be under the Roman rule any longer, that he was going to rise up and lead them and get rid of this harsh government that was over them, and it wasn't for that time.

So for a long time the Jewish people, and others throughout periods of time there, have known that God had a plan and a purpose for a kingdom, a kingdom that would rule on the earth, that there would be a Messiah, a City, if you will, whose builder and maker is God, a kingdom whose builder and maker is God.

Revelation begins to talk about who these first fruits are. It is very specific in number, very specific in timing, two wave loaves made from two different separate parts of time, if you will. One leading up to the time of Jesus Christ and one that followed the time of Jesus Christ. They were judged by different things. They were judged by, again, by the things they knew, and they lived by faith for the things that God had given to them. They believed God. It's good to go back through and read some of those things in Hebrews, of what it says about those who came earlier before the time of Christ. Again, it’s all a part of God's Kingdom and what He's preparing. People haven't heard about these things.

Revelation 7:1—And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that the wind would not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Do not hurt the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. God has a purpose of those things that have to be finished, that have to be completed within specific individuals through time and here at the end of the end-time before Jesus Christ returns to this earth a story that we know well but others have never heard of.

And I heard the number of those who were sealed; and there were sealed a hundred and forty-four thousand. So back in the Old Testament it speaks about certain things that were given. They understood there would be tens of thousands who would be a part of God's Kingdom, but they didn't know about 144,000 yet. They didn't know the very specific number until it was written about here in Revelation by John, when God revealed it. They just knew there would be tens of thousands of those who would be a part of that government with Jesus Christ. And there were sealed a hundred and forty-four thousand. So here God is very specific. People have had all kinds of ideas about what this might be and others just fully ignore it because it just doesn't make a bit of sense. It doesn't fit into their ideas about going to heaven and going to hell. It says, of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Then verses 5 through 8 mention the names of each of the groups of 12,000 named by a tribe of Israel. A lot of people have read this through time and felt like, well, that means they're called out of those particular tribes. Well, there are a lot of individuals that are going to be a part of this who were never Israel. Israel didn't exist yet and they're going to be a part of this 144,000! It's not about the names of the tribes and that people have to be called out of a specific tribe like out of Judah, or out of Ephraim, or out of Manasseh, or whatever it might be. It's not about that at all. It's about names that they're given, just as the whole meaning of the entire group; they're all called "Israel." It’s not a physical nation but a spiritual one. So God uses names. They have meaning and purpose and each one is going to be a part by a specific name that they've been prepared for as a matter of order and a matter of God's government, a matter of God's Kingdom. They are going to bear the names of twelve tribes, not literally from physical tribes because it's not about physical tribes! It's not about a physical people, in that respect. It's about a spiritual one and how God has ordered it.

At this point here, I believe that all were dead except John. John went to prison on the Isle of Patmos; all the rest had been killed, murdered, tortured, all the things they went through in their lives, including the apostle Paul and some of the things he had to go through. Here we come to this point in time by the time this is written now God's revealing something to the Church. There are going to be 144,000 and they're going to bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 12,000 in each order. It's a matter of government. It's a matter of structure. To me this is an awesome thing to think how God prepared a family, a government, a kingdom over 6,000 years and prepared people to be in specific areas.

I don't know how many people remember Mr. Waterhouse, but he would come around and he would talk about some of these tribes and different ones, or different individuals and what their job might be in God's Kingdom and he talked about Moses, he talked about Abraham, and he didn't talk about Sarah like he should have, but he didn't know where to put her, and some of the ideas that people didn't know. They didn't understand various things, but God had various ones through time that He worked with personally in a very unique way. He works with us personally, too, but we're worked with more as a body. That was unique. God molded and fashioned individuals. Awesome! Moses' life. Abraham's life. Sarah's life. Noah's life. The things they went through and the things that God has done. We really don't know and they didn't know then, but there was speculation about different things and maybe some were right and there was a lot probably not. But the point being in all that is that God has a very specific form of government.

I think of the chaos and confusion they go through in a country when they try to put people into various places of government, different places and they try to get approval. It's a tough job. God's been at work with this for 6,000 years nearly now preparing people for very specific places in a structure in His government and they're referred to as the first fruits of a harvest, a spring harvest. God has a plan, we understand, of a fall harvest. There is far, far greater, far more meaning in that in what is to come later on. But early on, for the government of God, a spring harvest. Beautiful! So God worked with individuals to prepare them for places in His government, a structure. I marvel at that!

Just like the universe that's out here, we don't understand what it's all about. A few people were talking the other night about some of that and we can't, you can't comprehend it. We can't comprehend the numbers. We can't comprehend the distance. We can't comprehend the magnitude of it all by any measure! We can just be in awe of it, and by doing that being in awe of the Great God. What He has done for 6,000 years is far, far greater in what He's been preparing – far greater! To mold and fashion a human mind, to work with individuals to plug them into very specific places to serve Him? Because that's what He's been doing! It's just like any government you look at, there is a structure. There is a structure that works, whether it be a president or whatever it might be all the way through a system. That's what God is doing, from Himself, His Son Jesus Christ, and all those that are going to fill an entire government, 144,000. Awesome!

He gives a specific number here and tribes and they're divided up into these various areas of 12,000 and 12,000 and 12,000, of structure that exists there and God is plugging them in to various places, preparing them.

After this I beheld, and, behold, a great multitude (verse 9) which no man could number, of all nations; it's the same group of people. It's just a moment in time here he's coming back to it. He's talking about it again after these different groups are mentioned. Then it says, I beheld a great multitude, because if you look out over such a span of people you can't count 144,000. We'd have trouble counting 5,000. You'd have to run them through a line and have them go through and click them off as they go through. But to look out over a vast group of people, to know how many they are? Incredible. All one could do is maybe estimate, guesstimate, if you will.

So he saw a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and families, and people, because it goes through time, those who existed and God worked with long before Israel became a nation, and on past that then through time for the time of Christ and the past 2,000 years.

…families and people and languages stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes. Beautiful picture again. God is giving something here to show that which is white; that's associated with that which is righteous, cleansed, purified. Human beings aren't. The only way we're purified is when God forgives us of sin and we are cleansed through that process, but we're not there yet because tomorrow you sin. Well, maybe this evening. It doesn't take long we get in a wrong attitude, we think the wrong thing toward someone else and we get offended by something and whatever it might be and we sin. Our minds and how we think. But here's a period of time of something where people don't sin any longer because they're not human beings any longer. That's the only way you can't sin, is to no longer be a human being. As long as you're in human flesh you will sin. Incredible!

…clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. So all these things symbolic and having meaning. It doesn't mean they all have a palm in their hand. This is a vision of something that John is seeing and he's describing this. All these things have meaning and purpose in why they're written the way they are. And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell down before the throne on their faces worshipping God. So some think, well, this has to be in heaven then before God's throne. No, it doesn't. I pray before God's throne every day! Every one of us is to do that. We have the ability on a spiritual plane to go before the throne of God, to go before the Holiest of Holies, don't we? That's what it talks about in the book of Hebrews, that the way now has been made manifest, that we have the ability to go before God in the Holiest of Holies, that that curtain was ripped, and that through Jesus Christ now we can enter. That's how we do it. It's in prayer though. It's in how we worship God. It's not about a specific location. He's in a specific place. We're in a specific place, but we can read things into scripture and think that we understand something.

It goes on to say here, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God, saying, Amen. Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. "So be it." They're all agreeing.

[Verse 13]—And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, Who are these who are arrayed in white robes? And from where did they come? Now, I marvel at a world that calls itself Christian and it doesn't read things like this. What's the purpose? It doesn't fit into what they believe. So why bother giving sermons about any of this? Why give a talk about any of this to a congregation? It doesn't have any meaning. Who are these who are arrayed in white robes? And from where did they come? And I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they who came out of great tribulation… Now, it's easy to read, again, things into scripture, isn't it? We've learned this as a body, as a group, in Worldwide, that it was believed that all 144,000 have to come out of the, what we called the great tribulation at the end of an age and that's not the case. Other scriptures make it very clear that everyone with whom God works, everyone who is called in the age of that 6,000 years, has to come out of great tribulation, go through great tribulation in their life. This way of life is not easy. This change, this transformation of the mind is not easy.

We're cut off from everything in the world. That word sometimes that people look at that talks about "beheaded." You know it doesn't mean beheaded there in Revelation. It means to be cut off from the world because we're ostracized because, you know, people don't understand, so you're weird. "You're part of a cult. I can deal with this, you're a cult!" That's how they have to deal with it. If they don't understand it, it's foreign to them, it sounds a little strange, you know, so it's a cult. "You're just weird people." Sad. Because they don't understand these things and so that's the only way they can deal with it.

So, yeah, we're cut off and we have to go through hard times like things on your job. You want the Sabbath off. You want Holy Days off. You go through hard things sometimes. It goes with the territory. You know what? As you go through those things and face them in your life you learn and you can grow and you can become stronger and you can become stronger in faith as you rely on God to go through those things. No matter what they do, no matter whether you lose a job, that's not the point! The point is what's happening in the mind, what's happening to you as you take your stand and you stand firm for God's way of life and you do what is right because it's right! That's what's important! And you know what happens? A new creation is taking place up here. Things are being changed in your mind. You're learning to stand and put God first. Everybody has to go through this as a whole. It's not a cake walk. It wasn't meant to be! We learn by standing up. We learn by being there for God first. God comes first! Awesome! Beautiful! And you know what? The more you do it the easier it becomes and the stronger you are, the stronger in faith you become. It's a beautiful thing that takes place.

Anybody that messes around with that and has difficulty with that and fudges with the Sabbath day and Holy Day perhaps, or whatever it might be, or is embarrassed by asking for the time off – you should never be embarrassed to ask for the Sabbath off! You should never be embarrassed! "Oh, because I'm afraid of what they're going to think of me." What's important? What God thinks of us or what people in the world around us think of us? That's what it comes down to.

So people who listen to this later on, they're going to go through some hard things because there's going to be a part of this world that hates this way of life, that hates the truth of what's coming. There are going to be a lot of hard times to go through ahead of us, but there's going to be a large group of people come out of all that who are going to be together and the more they'll stand up for what is true and what is right and unite together, the stronger they will be as well, and the more that God will intervene for you. He is your rock. He is your strength. He is your power. He is your protector. God will bring us through those things that are ahead.

So who are they? He said, You know, Sir. These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes… It’s symbolic. I don't wear a robe. You don't wear a robe. I don't know anybody in Worldwide who wore robes. It's symbolic. Like the palms it all has meaning. It has something that it pictures on a spiritual plane. It's not about some physical picture in your mind. See, so we tend to do that a lot if we're not careful.

…washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It’s all symbolic. It's about what you wear, how you wear your life, live your life before God, and seeking to be cleansed before God and your life being turned to that which is righteous from unrighteousness and then through time because of fighting this for a long period of time this is the result, "have made their robes white." Finally, they have achieved what they needed to achieve. They've come through it. They've made the changes in their life that needed to be changed.

Therefore, "therefore," because they have done all this, because they have yielded to the process, they have fought the battle. They have fought against sin in their own life. You have to fight against your mind. Beautiful, awesome what's being pictured here! Therefore, they are before the throne of God. They've gone through, they've fought the battles, they've fought the fight, they've made the changes in their life, and they are in God's Kingdom. Beautiful! They've been changed from mortal to immortal, from physical to spiritual, resurrected from the dead. Some who have been dead for 5,800 years; 5,500 years; 4, 000; 4,003; on and on it goes through time, over 6,000 years, different ones resurrected, those with whom God worked.

Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. They make up the temple. Awesome! It's spiritual. "And serve God day and night," because there is no more sleep. Now, that one I can't comprehend yet, because I am accustomed to sleeping 7-8 hours, 6, whatever it might be that's normal for us as human beings. To me that's so foreign to think that you're going to be up 24 hours, 7 days a week, from then on no more sleep. You don't need sleep. I honestly can't comprehend that. It's like, "What am I going to do with all that time?" It says "they serve God day and night." There's going to be work to do. It never stops. Incredible!

…and He who sits on the throne shall dwell among them. Beautiful. God Almighty among them, in them, through them always, always, always, not like we are as human beings and we cut off the flow of God's spirit or we begin to quench God's spirit because of sin or whatever it might be and that process that goes on and the battle we experience, but at that point, from then on, always dwelling in God and God in them. It's a beautiful picture. That hasn't been known very many years in God's Church. Again, we can take it for granted. What do we know? What do we believe? What do we see? Because it's so vast. It’s not because of how great we are. It's because of who we are in time. God's Church just before Jesus Christ returns, preparing for the Kingdom of God. God is preparing a people for a very specific moment in time – those who'll become a part of God's Kingdom at that moment and those who will live on in the Millennium and continue to grow. He's preparing them for Christ's return, a beautiful thing to understand.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them… No sense in going in the tanning salon. It’s not a matter of worrying about tans, being outside, because you are what you are and you can manifest yourself physically but you are a spirit being, spirit composition. Awesome! Just as Jesus Christ was after he was resurrected. He appeared in front of the disciples all at once. They thought it was a ghost. They didn't know what was going on. He disappeared in like manner – standing right there and gone. Now, to me that sounds like a lot of fun! Just to be there for a few friends later on and surprise them!

Verse 18—They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them. So there are things we don't grasp and comprehend like the power of God's spirit that is able to be received into a spirit life in a way we cannot yet comprehend, of the kind of mind that God is going to give of spirit essence and the mind that's going to be in them, the word that's going to be in them, God's mind and being living and dwelling. It's a powerful, beautiful, awesome thing that we will not fully grasp nor comprehend till we're living it. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Again here, all symbolic. It's not a physical thing. It's what we begin to experience, what we're experiencing now on a spiritual plane magnified so many times over because it never stops, it never weakens, it's always strong. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. You're no longer a physical human being and you have the mind of God and you see God's purpose.

I’ll just be candid with you. I think of some things that I have learned over the past few years that I see in a greater way concerning the Hundred-year period, how beautiful it is, and the concept, the idea that human beings have of whether it be young or old who die. What they're going to receive at that time because of God's plan, death isn't a bad thing. It's an enemy because it separates friends and so forth and people who are normally together; and in that respect, yes, because it separates people in time, but as far as the beauty of what God has planned for them, it's night and day. It's night and day. So I think of people who suffer and die when they're young, and they're blessed. They're blessed in ways that we don't tend to think as human beings. God has a purpose and a plan, that a young child who perhaps has suffered from malnutrition died because they're in famine – it happens all the time, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands a year who die – but they don't have to grow up in this sick, perverted world, those through time who haven’t had to grow up in this sick, perverted world and have their minds so distorted with garbage, see?

I've had less to conquer and overcome from the Protestant world because I was never really a part of it. I didn't go on a weekly basis. It never filled my mind, in that respect. I knew about certain things, but I didn't go to church. I went with some friends on occasion now and then. It didn't mean diddly-squat to me. I didn't care. Most people don't care and they do it because of friendships or because of family or whatever it might be in the world. But to sit and have certain things in your mind because that's what you're taught week after week after week or whatever it might be? I didn't have to conquer and overcome all those things. Sometimes that's a tough battle for people, it really is, to get rid of that out of the mind. False concepts. False ideas. Protestantism. It tends to be a human trait.

So it goes on to say, And I looked… Yeah, it goes on to say, but its seven chapters more. Revelation 14:1, let's jump ahead there because it goes on with some of the story here about this group of people, 144,000. Now, there are some in the world who do teach some things about 144,000, but it’s pretty messed up. But anyway, as a whole, Protestant churches, the Catholic Church, you don't hear the Pope referring to 144,000. I don't think any Pope has ever written about the 144,000 that I know of because they have no idea what it's about and they don't care because it doesn't fit into their theology.

Revelation 14:1—And I looked, and, behold, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion. Beautiful! Mount Zion, its spiritual, the City whose builder and maker is God. Sometimes it’s referred to as Mount Zion. Sometimes it’s referred to as Jerusalem, New Jerusalem because it's not about a physical city. It's about something that's spiritual that God's creating. So God used, in that respect, or has used something physical to teach us something, to teach mankind about something that's far, far greater that He's building and creating on a spiritual plane. It's just like the physical Israel. It's not about the physical Israelites, although the history of certain things is interesting and so forth. But what does it mean when it's all said and done? It's about a spiritual Israel, all mankind, as it talks about this 144,000 that has come out of all languages and nations and families and tribes and peoples through time. Awesome!

So, the Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. Again, what does Traditional Christianity have when it comes to this? Nothing. Jesus Christ coming to this earth? There are some who believe about a second coming, but they don’t know the truth.

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sang as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four creatures, and the elders. And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth. So it shows here that there were those, that number, a very specific number who have been redeemed from the earth. Well, what about all the millions who went to heaven? Well, they didn't go, did they? They're waiting for a resurrection. Only 144,000 to this point in time have been redeemed from the earth and they're referred to as the first fruits of God; they're referred to as the wave loaves, as those who make up the wave loaves who are waved before God, who are connected to the wave sheaf 50 days prior, count 50, because he is the first of the first fruits.

It might be good to just notice that, some of the language it uses in the New Testament. I want to turn over there. 1 Corinthians 15. I'll just read that quickly here. Again, things that people don't think about, don't know, don't understand, have never learned, have never been told. They maybe read their Bible, read through something like this in the Bible and they don't understand what this is talking about.

1 Corinthians 15:20. It says, But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, "of those who are dead." He's the first one, and because of these false teachings about having an immortal soul and people up or down, heaven or hell, these things have no meaning. People have been robbed of the truth, of things that are true that we can take for granted if we're not careful and not to understand the world doesn't see. What a beautiful thing when you're able to begin to see these things. What was it like in your life when you first began to see these kinds of things? …and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. It just tells a story here. He is the very first of the first fruits of God. The very first from among human beings to be resurrected, to become a part of the God Family. He was the first, the first of the first fruits, if you will.

It goes on down here in verse 23 and it says, But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; in other words the first of the first fruits. That's what it's talking about in essence here, in context. He's the very first one that lived a human life – born of the virgin, Mary, whose father was God Almighty, but he lived a human life. It tells the story then, he is the one who is the first of all. He is that wave sheaf that was waved before God on the Sunday during the days of Unleavened Bread. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward those who are Christ's at his coming, the rest of the first fruits. Beautiful! "At his coming." I'm so thankful the world doesn't have to wait much longer, to dwell in ignorance, to not understand that Jesus Christ, indeed, is going to return with incredible power. The first time he came as a Passover of mankind, the second time as the Lion of God with great power. Not as a meek Lamb this time, but this time to take control of the earth with power, as it talks about with a rod of iron. He's going to have incredible power. He's going to work at and doing exactly what those who are going to be with him are going to do as well and be a part of, to destroy those who are destroying the earth. Those are the things that are going to be taking place because that's going to last for a little while. It doesn't quit when he returns. There are going to be some things that are going to continue on for a while. It doesn't just all end on one day. There's going to be such incredible fear though that this world is going to begin changing quite rapidly in its response to God Almighty.

James 1:18; I'll just read that one as well. Again, things that are here that people read right over and they don't understand what they're about. They've not been told. They have to be told. James 1:18—Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creation. The word is "creation,” “the first fruits of His creation." Beautiful! Things that are used there and showing those whom God has worked with and those who have been a part of the Church way back at this point of time here when James was talking to them were a kind of first fruits. That's what we are, speaking to the Church.

Well, going back here to Revelation 14. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: (verse 5) for they are without fault before the throne of God. No sin. By the time when they're changed, they're different. They're no longer physical human beings. They're no longer in that sense controlled by, in large part, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," because that's the battle. They're no longer a part of that. They're free from all that. They now have spirit life.

Revelation 19, jumping on ahead. Again, talking about this same group of people, the first fruits of God, the wave loaves that are waved up before God that come out of a period of 6,000 years of mankind on this earth. Verse 7—Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him, to God, it’s talking about. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, white robes. It's talking about the same group of people. …clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Again, when I read through things like this I just cringe sometimes inside, this idea of "saints" and what the Catholic Church has done. Satan has done a number on this world. All these different kinds of "saints" and they're praying to "saints" who are up in heaven. There is nobody in heaven, but they do this. They take away from what a saint is all about, what it really means. It's just talking about those with whom God has worked, those through time that God has dwelt in to lead, guide, and direct, to change and to help create a new creation within them, if you will, those who have yielded to the process.

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he said to me, Write, Blessed are they who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God. Sometimes people read so much into these things, like there's going to be this great big wedding like we're used to weddings, and everybody is going to sit down at this great big meal and there are going to be some long tables to put down 144,000 people, and the great banquet and all the serving of food. That's not what it's about. It's not about this great, big, physical type of ceremony that we might have if we have a physical wedding and invite people to it, and so forth. This is a spiritual thing, not a physical one. It's good that we get some of these things out of our mind because there are still some people in the scattered groups who talk about this great wedding and the wedding they're looking forward to. They miss the mark and they don't understand these things are all spiritual, in essence. They have meaning, great meaning! Just like the white robes, and so forth.

So it says here in Revelation 19, again, jumping ahead here, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God. Yet how often do people in the world hear about it? The Catholic Church? The Seventh Day Adventists? The Baptist Church? The Church of Christ? The Presbyterian? On and on it goes. How many of them hear about things like this, about what consists of the true sayings of God? And especially something like this. Surely, they should speak about this often.

Verse 11—And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war, talking about Jesus Christ, talking about his second coming, not as a Passover Lamb, again, but as the Lion of God, and it talks about war, literal, in that respect, of things that he will be engaged in and those who are with him and what they're going to be doing.

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, talking again about government because he is the King of kings. He is over all the government of the earth and so it's symbolic. It's not some head wearing thousands of crowns on top of it. It's a spiritual thing in what it has to mean here. And he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, his blood. It's what it's talking about symbolically here again. It's all picturing something. He is the Passover Lamb. He is the one who gave himself so that all the rest who are coming with him could be a part of this family, of this government, of the Kingdom of God. …a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God, as it talks about back in John, the Word that was made flesh, the mind, the being of God Almighty that He put into the womb of Mary that grew, born as a child and grew, a mind that you and I cannot comprehend because no one has ever had that mind as a physical human being, but he did; but he was physical. He had choices in life to make, but that mind being so strong, that knowing being so strong in him, and being so determined to fulfill his purpose as the Passover, even though on that night, on that last night he said, "Father, if there is any other way take this cup from me. All things are possible by You. If there is any other way…" and he knew it wasn't God's will. He knew it wasn't God's will, but that's what he was crying out inside and that's what he was praying to his Father.

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God. And armies in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Again, this 144,000 who return with Jesus Christ, a government of God taken out of 6,000 years among mankind.

And out of his mouth went a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. And he shall rule them… So he's going to strike the nations. This isn't a picnic. This isn't, "Oh, if you just listen to me now." Well, people better listen well in advance if they want to be a part of this and they want to start making some changes in their life, but at this point here the talking's over. And out of his mouth went a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. God is not going to allow any other government to exist, to rise up during that period of time. Anyone that tries, there's no messing around with them because they'll still be seeking to destroy the earth. This is God's time. This is God's government that's coming to this earth. It's no longer man's government and God's not going to tolerate and allow any other government to exist. Awesome! Beautiful to understand the peace and the freedom, true freedom that mankind will be given as a result of this.

And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and he treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. Now, you can do some studying in the Old Testament and other places in scripture when it talks about what's taking place here. When it talks about "treading the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God," it talks about a time of judgment, and it uses a winepress as an example. You know, when people stand in there and they jump up and down on it and out of the grapes and then the wine comes out of the bottom and it's the separating of it. This is about something with human beings, but it's about blood that's going to be spilled out upon the earth. It's just the way it is because man's time is over, and if man wants to fight against God he's not going to win. There will be no more war. There will be no more fighting. It's just brought to an end. Death can do that quickly.

And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Chapter 20, let's notice. Then I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, that's called the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. I can guarantee you on a Sunday all these Christian type telecasts and so forth that are on TV, they don't go here and talk about this, that Satan, that the Devil is going to be cast into a prison for a thousand years. That just takes away from everything they believe. It takes away from everything they believe. …and cast him into a bottomless pit. It's just a place of restraint. That's all it means in the Greek language, talking about a place of restraint. …and shut him up, and set a seal upon him. It's like closing a door and putting a lock on it. He can't get out. …and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more, not able to broadcast any longer to human beings, no longer to broadcast distorted, sick things to human beings like is happening today. I don't know if you recognize or know what's going on, but these things are intensifying and getting worse and worse. They are stirred up something fierce. I am amazed at the minds that are yielding to it. You're seeing some incredible things take place in the news. You really are. Sick, perverted, sick thinking of human beings. It's just getting worse. Talk about needing God's Kingdom to come. I’m so thankful we're so close.

…and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he shouldn't deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years are fulfilled. And after that he must be released (loosed) a little season.

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. So again, more thrones. You know, it's talking about Jesus Christ has all these crowns, and ruler of all nations, in essence, is what it's talking about, and then all these places of government, thrones, and those who sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the lives of those who had been, the word that I talked about earlier, cut off… It's not about being beheaded, but being cut off from the world because of what you believe. You're rejected by the world. You're no longer a part of it. Rejected by families. Rejected, rejected, rejected. You're not a part of it anymore because if you're a part of it you've got a big problem. If you're part of the world, if you're rubbing shoulders with the world and you're a part with the world, well, another story.

And I saw the lives of those who are cut off for the witness of Jesus, because to live this way of life, which is what it's talking about, "a witness of Jesus" means you're living a certain way. It's not a matter of talking about him. It's not a matter of going out and telling a story about him, that you have to proselyte and all that kind of thing at all. It's about what you're living. Your life is a testimony to what you believe, a witness to what you believe, what you live as far as the life of Christ and being a part of the Body of Christ. It’s what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ, the Church of God, and that our lives reflect that in how we live and how we talk to others and one another and to the people in the Church and outside the Church, how we live our lives.

And so again here …and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands. So they didn't fall for all the garbage that the world has and have come out of those things and God has pulled them away from those things and changed them. …and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. What an awesome thing! 144,000, the first fruits of God who are going to reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. Now, we know it's longer than that, but it’s talking about as far as fulfilling the first 7,000 years of the proliferation of mankind because it stops there. There will be no more human birth after that, no more productivity after that 7,000 years. People will be resurrected and have an opportunity in the hundred-years that follows that but there will be no more birth of human beings any longer. Awesome! God stops it after 7,000 years. No more. Those who can become a part of His family, it’s enough. For what He's purposed and what He's planning, it's enough. Awesome! He has it all planned out. Awesome! …and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. So these who came back, who followed Jesus Christ as he was returning to this earth, this 144,000 as it's talked about earlier, the first fruits of God, they lived and reigned with Jesus Christ for a thousand years.

I'm sorry, but when I keep going through these things and I think of people who listen to these things in the future and they're not taught this in the Baptist Church. They're not taught this in the Church of Christ. They're not taught this in any Protestant churches nor in the Catholic Church nor anywhere, of those who are going to live and reign, rule with Jesus Christ for a thousand years because they think everybody's up in heaven fishing, or whatever it is, you know, whatever they love to do. "Joe loved to bowl! You hear that?" Anyway, I'm sorry. It's like the thunder. People talk about the thunder and it's somebody bowling in heaven.

Verse 5—But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand… And yes, I'm making fun of it because it's stupid. It's stupid! It's foolish! It's foolish for human beings. They don't even think about what they're saying! They don't even think of the stupidity and how goofy that sounds, that somebody, they're surely up in heaven and they're looking down. I heard that during Memorial Day weekend. "Oh, they're up there looking down on you and they're so happy with you right now with what you're doing and they're watching over you and guarding you." Well, yeah, then why did so many of them die? If somebody was guarding and protecting them all that period of time then why did they, so many of them die in the military like they did? Somebody wasn't doing a very good job! I'm sorry, but it's sad what human beings can believe. It's sad that human beings can believe the things they do, but it all starts with stupid things like rabbits running around laying eggs, or whatever it is, and a big, fat man who can come down a chimney. Give me a break! And people teach their children this kind of crap, you know? Truly, that's what it is! Then they grow up to become adults, and how do they live? How do they think? They’ve got to have these nice, fuzzy feelings about God and about Jesus. "If you'll only accept Jesus Christ…" It makes you want to barf! It's a sick world, it really is. Satan has done a number on mankind. It's evil! People don't realize that's evil, it's sick. It takes away from the beauty of that which God has planned and purposed for us that makes life rich and exciting. Satan, starting with Satan, and those who have taught his ways have done a number on mankind.

Verse 5—But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. And people have no idea: "What's that talking about?" "The rest of the dead didn't live again." Everyone who's lived through time and who are dead, they're not going to have life. Only 144,000 out of 6,000 years are going to have life. The rest of the dead are still dead. They're not in heaven. They're not in hell, thankfully. They're just waiting a resurrection after the thousand years. Beautiful!

So it goes back and talks about this first resurrection, the 144,000 that come with Jesus Christ. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power. I marvel at this. Do you marvel at this? "The second death has no power." Who teaches this? By what it teaches, it demands that there's a second physical life. Unless people are thinking about those who get zapped in the chest like I did and it brought them back. That's not what it's talking about. It's something different, far different, a second death. People can die twice. But who teaches it? They can't because they don't know, because they haven't been blessed to know yet. They're in prison. They're in captivity and they don't even know it. It is foolish. It is stupid the beliefs, the ideas that are there, but they can't help it. Just like you couldn't. Just like I couldn't. I'd still be out there, ignorant, without knowledge, and I wouldn't be going to church either anywhere. I can tell you that because I wasn't then and I wouldn't have later. I rejected it all.

"But the second death has no power." Beautiful! There are some who don't have to die twice. Just a few in time who don't have to die twice. …but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. When I read this there are a lot of emotion that goes with it because that people are in captivity and because they can't see the beauty of this and they can't grasp and understand something that is so clear here to us that someone, a large number, are going to reign with Christ for 1,000 years. What does all this mean if people go to heaven and go to hell? What does this mean? That's why they don't teach it. That's why they don't bother going here because it has no meaning.

How blessed are you to know the meaning of Pentecost? How blessed are you to consider, to consider two years from now what this world may be like? I hope and pray that it is. I believe that it is. I hope there isn't more to learn. I hope there isn't something else that God will do. If He does, so be it because I'm not going to tell God what He can and can't do, but I know what is true. I know what God has given to us. I know who the Great God of the universe is. I know with all my being that He is a Self-Existing God and He's the only one God who has lived, existed ever, and there is no other! There is no other Eternal Self-Existing God but God Almighty!

And how many in the world believe those kinds of things? Some believe there is one God, and that's good. You know where they got it? From Abraham. From Abraham. From Abraham! Because he believed in the One Eternal Self-Existing God, and the influence he had on his family, to two sides who went out, who became tribes on the earth, 12 and 12, 24 altogether, tribes of the earth. Do you know that? Because there are tribes on the earth to this day. Some are Muslim, from Islam, a part of Islam, and others are the scattered tribes of Israel. They’re all from Abraham. Now, all who came from Abraham don't believe in just one God. The Protestant world doesn't because of what the Catholic Church did. The lying Catholic church. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to imitate anyone there, but anyway. That sounded almost akin to what's taking place now, the fake news and so forth, the Catholic Church who has lied from the beginning. Incredible. Sick, sick, sick world.

So how blessed are you to know the truths that you do? What do they mean to you in your life?

Because, brethren, this has nothing to do with what's being recorded on here, but I hate to think that over a period of time that remains – whatever it is – if it's as short as two years, or whatever it is (which I believe with all my being, by the way) that there'll be those who don't come through this. There'll be those who don't live this to the end, those who live on the edge. Someone else is being disfellowshipped this next week. It goes on and on and on. When will it end? I know when it'll end. When Jesus Christ returns.

Are you determined to fight to the end? Because two years, what are you willing to put into it? What are you willing to put into the fight, into the battle? To stand for God's way of life? To stand for the things that you have? No one has any excuse. We have been blessed with knowledge and insight and understanding of things far beyond any age of mankind, far beyond the time of Christ, far beyond the time of the apostle John, far, far beyond the time of Mr. Armstrong as well, things that God continues to give and give and give. We are richly blessed. How many are no longer with us, who no longer walk to God's Church side by side and counsel blending sweet? They’re no longer in fellowship because they don't keep up the fight.

I hurt inside when I think of people who continue to go by the wayside. This battle isn't over, and very likely is getting ready to be stirred up a whole lot more. You have to be close to God.

So, the day of Pentecost, one of the important things that we mentioned in the beginning, on the day of Pentecost God poured out His holy spirit to a body of people, the Church, the Church of God, the Body of Christ, the makings of the New Jerusalem, the makings of Mount Zion. God's desire is for us to be a part of that whether it be soon or whether it be in the future at the end of a thousand years when those who go on into the Millennium will have opportunity to be resurrected at that time. Fight for this way of life. Fight for it! Ask God to stir up His holy spirit in you. You've been blessed above all human beings on this earth to have the impregnation of God's spirit, for it's been given to so very few through time. There are all those who are in captivity out here who can't know and understand what you do. Love God! Love the power of His spirit that can live and dwell within you. Love your High Priest, your Passover and soon coming King, Jesus Christ.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1