The Firstfruits on Mount Zion

And Lord, I thank you for the many deliverances that we've experienced. And I pray, Lord, for each household represented here, Lord, that you will move and bring peace and reconciliation and safety and health, Lord, to each family. Hear the prayers of the people that are here, Lord.

I ask you in the name of the Lord. Jesus, as we go on together, I pray, Lord, that exactly what you want will be said. You see whatever needs there are here, and I pray that the Lord, through your Holy Spirit, Lord, will add Jesus to each person that is here.

She has me. And I ask you and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right, let's turn to Revelation 14. I started last Tuesday night on the army of the Lord and didn't get past Revelation 19. But Revelation 14.

Oh, thanks, Katie. I appreciate that. Revelation 14.

Revelation 14. Now, this is a very unusual passage. Very unusual.

You stop to think about it. Who in the world these people are? Just exactly who are they? Well, people said 144,000 must go back to those who were sealed, and they must all be Jews. Nothing to do with Jews.

Nothing to do with Jews. There are Jews in this group, I'm sure, but this isn't oriented toward the race of Jewish people. Because these people are very close to the Lord.

So they're first fruits. And there's nothing closer to the Lord than His church. Nothing closer to the Lord than His church.

The church is the wife of the Lamb. There's no group in between Christ and the wife of the Lamb. So the number 144,000, which is a multiple of 12, no doubt is significant.

It's just, why the Lord has that number there, I don't know, but it's obviously symbolic. But it's a very interesting group, and I think today that the Lord is going to His churches, every denomination you can think of that's Christian, and He's bringing out people who will be special. Special.

And I remember when I was in Bible school, I heard that idea, and boy, I'll tell you, my heart just jumped within me. I thought, that's what I want. I want, there's got to be more than I'm seeing here.

There's got to be something. And there is. Now, I've noticed in watching Christian people through the years, and in churches, that there are not many people who are genuine Christians.

There are not many people, and I say, what do you mean by a genuine Christian? I mean someone who really has done what the Lord said without reservation. Who really has taken up His cross, has denied Himself, and is following the Lord. Now, there's a lot of good people in the churches, make no mistake.

There's a lot of good, honest, decent people in the churches. But, as far as I can see, the real stuff, the people who will be in the army of the Lord, who will appear with Christ, are very definitely a minority. And I remember something that just struck me when C.T. Studd, who was a missionary to Africa and then to China, wrote back to his mission board, and there were thousands that were converted under his ministry.

He was a famous English cricket player, as God called him to the mission field. And he wrote back, and he said, there's only about 5% of these people that are really Christians. And, the mission board did not care for that.

Because they want the numbers, they want the numbers, you know, it's peoples. But, as far as the real stuff is concerned, there are not many. And, sometimes, of course, Audrey and I are long past this, but I'm sure that when many people are starting out, and they have kind of stars in their eyes as far as the church is concerned, at some point along the way, they're very disillusioned.

Because they find out what people are doing and saying in church. And what they are actually doing at home is shockingly different. And the kids see this two-sided thing going on.

I'm not going to call it hypocrisy. It isn't anything deliberate. What it is, it is the fact that the church, for moral people, for decent people, the church is an attractive institution.

It's an attractive institution. And, so they join the church. And they hear what the standards of that church are.

And at first, maybe the first couple of years, they're very sincere. And then after that, they begin to measure themselves by other people, and they soon learn that nobody expects you to do what is taught. No one really expects that.

It's kind of an accepted kind of, I don't want to say game, because that sounds like I'm being critical or downing people. It isn't so much a game as it is a social custom or a social way that you have. And people come to accept this.

And so after two or three years, they don't hear anymore of what is being preached. Unless it passes really into social action of some kind, as far as the strictness of the Lord, or the idea of presenting your body a living sacrifice, this kind of thing, they can't hear that anymore. I guess they're hardened to it in some way.

And the kids learn about this, and I think that's why we had a whole generation of hippies, is because those youngsters recognized that the generation above them was not that sincere. They talked a good talk, but actually when it got down to cases, they were pretty selfish. They were into money.

So there's a double game being played there, and it's still being played. We have a friend recently who became very disillusioned with her Christian friends, because she expected so much more out of them when she had a need. And she was very disillusioned.

Well, that's the state of the church. And I thought what Stan said Sunday was very heartening, that there's a move among the young people. Now, young people tend to be idealistic.

And before they get to be 30 and learn the moves, they are candidates to hear the Lord and really have a passion for righteousness and holiness that is very sincere. And how long it will last, because revivals come and go, is to be seen. But unless the preaching changes, it will just be like Pentecost, the revival in the 20s and the 30s, where healing was going on, miracles, people were brought to the Lord and they really were living a holy life, really trying to serve God.

But now, the four square churches, I mean, they're as good as any, as good as assemblies or other evangelical churches, but there's a double standard. There's politics in all the church organizations. And in some of them, I can remember many years ago, there was a young fellow that was in Bible school with us, he was a bit older than we were, and he was beginning to take his papers out in the denomination and was on his way to becoming a pastor, and he went to his first pastor's meeting.

And he came away so shocked. And an older minister said to him, if you can't stand it, just keep out of there, because that's the way it is. You know, I mean, the crassness of it.

Pull an offering, did you pull an offering? Well, put a plant in the church, who will stand up at the right time and say, I'll give a thousand dollars. And this goes on all the time. And yet, these are not evil people.

They're not some monsters, they're just people that God has called to serve Him, and they get into the organization, and they learn the politics, and the main thing about it is, and this is the really surprising thing, and Andrew, you're going to run into this, because you are idealistic, and you'll see that people will be in church for 30 or 40 years, and they have never changed. They're just exactly like the world, only they have the Christian veneer on them. They still have the same jealousy, the same backbiting, the same gossip, the same challenges they had 30 years ago.

They have never overcome them. And I think part of it is due, probably a large part of it is due, to dispensational teaching, which is really the evangelical philosophy, is that works are not that important, we're saved by a sovereign grace that operates, and that is, I would guess from my experience, probably 90% of evangelical churches, including Pentecostal, all their pastors were taught in seminaries that were dispensational, and dispensationalism arose in the last part of the last century, and you could not imagine a philosophy more destructive of the Christian life. So, these various forces, plus humanism, plus the fact that the Christian church, by and large, has never really understood the demands of the Lord, except for very outstanding individuals.

But this was true also of Israel. You know, we read about Ezekiel, but here the elders of Israel came before Ezekiel, and he said, they're hearing you, and they're not hearing what you're saying. He says, there's a serpence.

It was true of Jeremiah. It was true of Isaiah. Most of Israel was like the Christian church of today.

They were not serving God, but there would come up someone, an Isaiah, or a Jeremiah, or an Ezra, or a Nehemiah, and this is what the Bible is written about. But almost always during that time, and in fact, one place, God said, I went through Jerusalem looking for a man that was sincere. In other words, He said, I didn't find one.

Not one person. And you could say the same in the evangelical churches. You could go through a large church and not find one person that really was an out-and-out Christian to the core.

There was no duplicity whatever. They're scarce. They're scarce, people.

And unless the preaching changes, good will come out of the youth movement, the Columbine and the other things. Good will come from it. But unless somehow there's a move of God, or we have violent persecution or something, it will last ten years.

And it will be back to the double standard. You live one way in church, and you live another way out. I don't know how many people God has, through the years, has gotten who are genuine Christians.

I wouldn't even want to guess. I know during the time when the King of England was forcing on everybody in his domain that he was the head of the church, and the Scots resisted him. Many young people gave their lives.

Many of them were hung for refusing to say the King of England was the head of the church. Maybe that's why Scotland has survived as well as it has, is because of those Presbyterian young people. It's not that common.

But in every age there's been someone like John Knox calling the people to repentance. And so today, the Lord is moving forward. He loves these people.

I'm convinced of it. I mean, we've got these big movements that have come up recently. The Calvary Chapel, and then the one where they had so much worship.

The leader is dead now, he died. Binyard. Binyard, and these other movements.

And God loves all these people. He loves all these people. I mean, this is his church.

But I think what he does, you know, the Calvary Chapel really sprang up by a miracle. I mean, it was birth-like overnight. And it was nothing anybody did.

The leader just determined he was going to sit on a stool and teach the Bible, and he did. And all of a sudden there was traffic jams. I mean, God just moved sovereignly.

And I think God does this to get big groups in which he can then move and bring out individuals for this group here in Revelation 14. I think this is exactly what's going on. But just look at it and consider it.

This has got to be a part of the church. It's not the whole church. But this is a part of it.

And it's not some group other than the church because the church is the body of Christ. There's nothing closer to the head than the body. This has got to be the church, irrespective of racial origin.

Then I looked, and before me was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion. Now, that's very significant. That is extremely significant.

First of all, it's the Lamb. Now, it wasn't the Lion of Judah. It wasn't Christ.

It wasn't the Redeemer. It's the Lamb. And that's very significant because the Bride is the Bride of the Lamb.

She's never called anything except the Bride of the Lamb. A Lamb standing on Zion. Now, not in heaven, not standing in heaven, but standing on Zion.

Now, Zion in the Bible represents the militant, the militant part of the church. And it dates back to 2 Samuel 5.7. 2 Samuel 5.7 is the first mention of Zion in the Bible. 2 Samuel 5.7. And what it was, it was when the Jebusites inhabited Jerusalem, the mountain there.

And David and Joab attacked it to overcome it because it was in the land of promise. It was very well fortified. But they went up through the water through an aqueduct.

Joab went up through an aqueduct and took it. And that's why David made him commander was for that action. And David built that up.

It was called the Molo. It was a terraced up. And he made that his fortress.

You see, that was not all of Jerusalem by any means. And when you see throughout Psalms Zion, Zion, Zion. It is because Zion it kind of came to mean all of Jerusalem in a way, and yet it was very close to David and since David wrote a good part of the Psalms you keep seeing that.

This is the city of David. And David was a man of war. David was characterized by war.

Solomon reigned over a great area. The greatest amount of geography ever ruled by any king of Israel was ruled by Solomon. It went all the way from the Euphrates all the way to the Edomites and everything in between.

But it was all captured by David. And so David, his association with Zion speaks of war. And when the lamb stands on Zion that's the significance of it.

Now, what happened and it was of total significance and you all know that but there's some of you that are new enough that you don't is that the Ark now when I say the Ark can you picture the tabernacle like a big barn and in the Holy of Holies was a chest with the covering cherubim over it called the Ark. Well, the priest only went into the Ark one day of the year. That was on the day when God dealt with sin as far as Israel was concerned to forgive it and then to remove it.

And by the way, that feast comes after Pentecost. We are in the time now when the Lord is ready to He's already forgiven the sin but to remove the sin the sin was forgiven on the cross it's never been removed. It's never been removed.

Now, it has to be removed by war. And that is why Zion and war and the Ark are all tied together. Now, the Ark was in the Holy of Holies until the days of Samuel and then the Ark was carried off to battle by the two wicked sons of Eli and the Philistines captured it.

So, it was gone out of the tabernacle. It was gone out of the tabernacle. So, you couldn't celebrate you could not celebrate the Day of Atonement anymore you had no more deliverance from sin.

So, tradition tells us they stuck the altar of incense in there so there'd be something in there so there was praise in there but there was no way that there could be deliverance from sin. The Day of Atonement cannot be celebrated when there's no Ark because the ceremony involves sprinkling blood upon and in front of the Ark. And after that's done then the priest can go out confess the sins of Israel put them on the scapegoat and he's led away which tells us that the Christian redemption consists not only of forgiveness but of removal.

Now, the Church has never been there yet but we've been at Pentecost and the big feast that comes after Pentecost is the Day of Atonement. Does that make sense to you? So that means after we're at Pentecost we're facing the trumpets of war and then the Day of Atonement. And this represents probably the greatest change in the Christian Church since Calvary.

Because at Calvary God forgave the sins of the world according to 1 John 2 who died not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world But the main purpose of the New Covenant and the thing that makes it different from the Old Covenant is removal. Under the Old Covenant your sins could be forgiven according to Leviticus by the shed blood of an animal. Many times it says in there in the first seven chapters of Leviticus and his sins shall be forgiven.

And I'm stressing that because evangelical teaching is they never really were forgiven. Their teaching being that now they're really forgiven. Well that's a botchment in two areas.

First of all the Bible says they were forgiven. Never mind reasoning about it. The Bible says it shall be forgiven him.

And you'll see that several times in the first few chapters of Leviticus. It shall be forgiven him. And that's the word.

And Jesus said it'll never pass away. It shall be forgiven. But when you study Hebrews you'll find out that when they're talking about the fact that the first covenant was inferior they say it was inferior because the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin.

That's why it was inferior. And why the priest had to stay every year repeating the sacrifice to keep the people in a state of forgiveness was because it couldn't take away sin. And the idea is that Christ has the power to take away sin so there's no longer because your conscience is purged there's no longer the need to keep on with the sacrifices.

Do you see that? Now when so the Philistines had the ark and God made them sick because they didn't want it there so it came back into Israel but it stayed in the house of the Jewish family. So when David became king he had such an instinct for God the first thing he did was let us bring the ark back to Jerusalem let's get the ark. David sensed that that was his presence.

The ark and his presence. And he was not satisfied with a tabernacle with no ark in it. Well, in the midst of the confusion the tabernacle itself was moved out of Jerusalem and put some ten miles north of Jerusalem in a place called Gibeah not Gibeon there was a Gibeon that also was north of Jerusalem but it was in Gibeah in Gibeah and there it was on a place of where they were on a high place where they were accustomed to worshipping demons it was brought to the high place and there it was set up there and you could go up to the tabernacle and to the bronze altar and the laver and the table of shelled bread and the lampstand and the altar of incense and the whole ranch and David set priests up there he took the priesthood and cut it in half and put half of them up there at the high place and good priests too he didn't get the second raiders he took some of the top priests and put them up there and the singers to worship and praise the Lord at the high place of Gibeon well, that is a tremendous type it's probably one of the greatest types of the Bible without any discussion about it because what David did was he sent for the ark which was in the home of the Jewish family and after a mistake that they made they brought it back to Zion to the suburb to David's city of Zion a suburb of the big city of Jerusalem where David where Joab had gone up through the aqueduct and captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites they didn't drive them all out because you remember when David went up there on the threshing floor of Ornan Ornan was a Jebusite so there were some remaining there but the Jews took control of the hill of Jerusalem and a suburb of that was David's city that he had built up called Zion and so David speaks of this so much in Psalms God shines out of Zion when the Lord builds up Zion then His glory shall appear in His glory Zion, Zion, Zion not Jerusalem Zion Jerusalem also appears in there but you'll notice the accent on Zion now, what David did what he should have done should, in quotes and what Solomon did was to bring the tabernacle back from Gibeah set it up in Jerusalem put the ark in there as it was supposed to be so every year they could celebrate the most important ceremony of the Jewish year not the favorite, by the way they just polled the Jewish people in Israel about their favorite festivity could you guess what it is?

Passover, Passover but the most solemn day of the Jewish year is Yom Kippur the day of the tomb that is the day you miss the others but you don't miss Yom Kippur because that's when God deals with sin now, the Jews can't shed blood you know, bulls and goats because they have no temple but they have different ways they can twirl a rooster around their head the idea is that that is the time when you repent and that is the time when God judges the world is the ten days between Rosh Hashanah which is trumpets and ten days later Yom Kippur the days of awe that is the time when God judges the world I got it right, Miriam? alright now what David did he brought the ark back and he made a tent for it in Zion built an altar there was an altar in there and he established worshippers there so David

had his private church all the Jews were going up to the tabernacle and what David had was the Ark of the Covenant all by his little self he had the Ark of the Covenant in Zion now you see the things that David did were prophetic when David numbered the people and God sent the curse on the Jews David the Lord directed David to go up to the threshing floor of Orn in the Jebusite and make an offering to the Lord which he did and God accepted it and that was where the temple was built see David just had that instant to know God's mind because otherwise he would have never kept the Ark separate from the tabernacle because the first thing Solomon did one of the first things he did was bring the tabernacle down to the threshing floor of Orn bring up the Ark from Zion and put them together once

again because Solomon knew that was the way it was supposed to be but during the reign of David during that time of war the Ark the symbol of the Day of Atonement the removal of sin remained in Zion now what that is telling us is that God is going to make a temporary division of his church and one part will be characterized by the Ark and by war and by the removal of sin and the greater part of it will have all the other aspects of the Christian redemption see right out see they had everything they had the bronze altar representing Calvary they had the laver representing the word and the washing of water by the word they had the table of showbread representing the born again experience the substance of Christ they had the lamp stand the Holy Spirit and all the gifts and they had the altar

of incense which is being broken before the Lord in prayer they had everything except the removal of sin that was down in Zion and it stayed that way all the time that David was fighting the wars of God and establishing the rule of God in that area which was dedicated to the Jews in Joshua first chapter, the fourth verse the region of the Jews the land of promise does not go from Jordan to the Mediterranean which it doesn't even now at all the Arabs have taken the whole West Bank so that squeezes the Jews into practically nothing they've got the Mediterranean in their back and then they've got the Palestinians on their side on the West side of Jordan so they don't even have the natural military defense of the river not anything anymore they're really vulnerable and their best strategic

location is the Golan and now they're in Illinois with the Golan so the Golan goes so the West Bank goes everything you see the Palestinians know what they're doing you've got a little you've got a little bit of room there but if you read the part that God said every place that's on your foot you'll tread on in Joshua 1, 4 it not only goes to Jordan it goes all the way across the Arabian desert to the Euphrates to the great river so see they've lost almost all of their land but David fought until he brought it from the Euphrates all the way down south to Edom to the Edomites he set up garrisons in Edom he had the whole thing that God had promised and he did it by war and when Solomon came in he ruled over that great territory and then finally in the end he began to fool around with

foreign gods because he multiplied wives to himself which is against the law for a king that's one of the biblical laws concerning a king he does not multiply horses or wives to himself and Solomon did both and he got old and you know kind of weak minded and his wives he had Egyptian wives he had Amorite wives he had Hittite wives he had every kind of wife you could imagine who were all worshippers of Molech and Astarte and all the rest of them and they persuaded this old guy to burn incense and so God raised up Jeroboam and he raised up other and from that point Israel began to lose what David had won now that's why you'll never see Jesus called the son of Solomon he's always the son of David David has a special place in God's heart he had the key of the kingdom Isaiah said David had the

key of the kingdom alright now and Jesus mentioned in Revelation I give you the key of David or he has the key of David or something like that so now you've got this what we're coming up to now is God is calling to his church today to bring out this first fruits to stand on Zion people who will bring back as it were the ark of war who are not content with all the other things they want freedom from sin they've got a heart to want to make the covenant of the removal of sin work and that's what the new covenant is it's not primarily a covenant of forgiveness it's primarily a covenant of removal the removal of sin and the writing of God's law in our heart and our mind it's not primarily forgiveness it's primarily the abolition of sin from God's people but the type shows us that it will only

be a part of the church that will be you know, whoever will but people won't because see, people will go away go along getting saved and getting the baptism and praying and doing all these things but the day of atonement goes past that and gets down to what you are and it gets down to the deepest part of your person and it begins to demand the surrender of your will and your right to be and how many people how many Christians want to go that deep with God they want to preserve something for themselves as long as you do that you can't get the removal of sin because Satan's got a lock on you you're not doing what the New Testament says the New Testament says deny yourself take up your cross and follow me and not many Christians are willing to do that they may talk about it at times but it's

like somebody out there or something they did in the first century somewhere, but don't expect me to do that oh well, anyway but I want you to notice something funny all that place in 14 and I think this is really remarkable at the end of Revelation 11 and at the end of Revelation 11 you have the coming of the Lord you have this great witness then you have the rule of Antichrist and then you have the coming of the Lord in Revelation 11 you notice in Revelation 11.15 the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ that's the beginning of the thousand year kingdom age Revelation 11.15 that we call the millennium I don't call it that, I call it the kingdom age because millennium has come to mean a time of peace and the kingdom age is an age of the rod of iron

it's a Davidic reign that thousand year kingdom age is a Davidic reign in which Christ and His army take the earth and then the new heaven and earth reign is a Solomonic reign so the new heaven and earth reign that follows the thousand year period is typified by Solomon it's a golden age of peace, yes and that's the beginning of the week Revelation 21 where the new earth comes down new heaven comes down to earth the new city of God comes down to earth is the beginning of eternity that's the beginning of life as God means it to be lived life as God means it to be lived doesn't begin until Revelation 21.1 and that's why God says I make all things new everything is made new and everything is made new in Christ and every person that is saved into that world will have a portion of Christ

because God is going to be all in all and there will be no more C there will be no more group of people that are just tossed here and there every person is a manifestation of Christ's resurrection and that's why He says behold I make all things new so in Genesis 1.1 you have the first heaven and earth that's the Adamic creation then in Genesis 21.1 it says and I saw a new heaven and a new earth that's the beginning of life God never meant life to be what this 6000 years of insanity has been that's not life that's a dark womb out of which there's a travail that's why it says it's in travail when you see the travail lift up your heads for your redemption because that travail that we're coming close to now and God is travailing the whole creation is in travail to bring forth life as it's

supposed to be and that begins at Revelation 21.1 so if you accomplish anything at this time you're doing well if it's rugged and out of this rugged thing God is going to call His heroes yes you're automatically when you say Christ you're talking about the Messiah head and body it's probably referring to God God is called Lord in the Psalms remember the Lord so God is the Lord God the Father when the Jew says hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one it's talking about the Father there's one God but God has made Jesus Lord and Christ that's what Peter said on the day of Pentecost God has made Jesus whom you crucified Lord and Christ but the Shema of Israel hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one it's talking about the Father that's why Jews have such a one of the reasons they

have such a problem is because Evangelical teaching confuses Jesus and the Father Evangelical teaching is really oneness teaching and the Jews say it's polytheism polytheism you've got three Gods we don't have three Gods we have one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and we are his servants through Jesus Christ and God has made Jesus Christ our head and Lord so if you use the word anointed instead of Christ which is really a fair translation of the Greek then you see in that verse 11-15 the Lord and his anointed now if you go a little bit further in that same chapter to 19 you see something very significant then God's temple in heaven was opened and within his temple was seen the Ark and that Ark has not been seen since around 500 B.C. when it was taken away by the Babylonians and it

does not appear until the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord, of God and of his anointed yes no the Ark has always been that's its name but then the new covenant meaning on the Ark that's right that's right it wouldn't be the Ark with the tables of stone in it it's the new covenant you are exactly right in that but it's still the Ark and it's still that which has the power to remove sin in the day of atonement the day of reconciliation to God we are reconciled to God by forgiveness and then we are reconciled to God by actual moral transformation and the first holds steady for us while we are being transformed morally but if we are not being transformed morally, then we have received the grace of God in vain ok, so here we have this marks now there are several places in

Revelation where you come to this point in time Revelation is not a chronological path that moves along serially like that, it's not that way it's like, if you picture it like a diamond, it keeps turning around you see this face, and then another face and then another face, it's not chronological so this happening here is the same as you would see in Revelation 20 and as you would see I think at the end of chapter 6, also says they call out for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them, so don't look at Revelation that 12 comes after 11 it doesn't, in fact 12 and 11 run concurrently so, but this in the end of Revelation chapter 11 is on a par with Revelation 20, which is the time when Christ appears ok, any questions so far? yes, so what Andrew said and what you confirmed now whether

the actual box is going to appear the chest I cannot tell you, because Revelation is symbolic you have to be careful of Revelation because, you know, it'll say angels are blowing a trumpet and it could be a poor old backwoods preacher in a storefront mission, you have to be very careful of Revelation like that so, my thought would be that the original gold covered chest no longer has meaning, because the ark that God is interested in is the human heart that's where you have the table of the covenant, that's where it's been moved from the granite into the heart what I'm pointing out is the symbolic significance that at the beginning of a thousand year period what you see God is saying, I'm restoring the ark which means Zion we're ready now for the thousand year rule and where I'm going

with this, is that when Christ appears, the only ones who will appear with him, will be his warriors the majority of the church will not appear with him and this is shown by several types for example, in Gideon which is a strong type of the coming of the Lord, you've only got a remnant who fight the battle and David's partial rule over Israel, seven and a half years over Hebron and then the remaining part of it is 40 years over all Israel so you have these types but the type of the separation of the ark from the tabernacle throughout the rule of David, that would be approximately 33 years, no it would have been more than that, he reigned 40 years he reigned from the age of 30 to the age of 70 and he brought that he brought the ark back at the beginning of his reign so it was separated

probably about 39 years it was a long time as a generation the ark was separate from the tabernacle now if you're a student of the tabernacle and you thought much about it as you've read about it in Exodus you realize what a shocking thing this is I mean this is, you couldn't I mean David eating the show bread was nothing compared with keeping the ark out of the holy of holies of the tabernacle, nothing compared with that I mean it's a wonder the Jews they picked up on, well no they didn't pick up on it Jesus reminded them that David ate the show bread that's right, but of all the things if you really want to get into a violation of Jewish law it is building a tent on your own for the ark of the covenant, maybe that's what Peter was saying, let's build here three tabernacles he's going to

come after David maybe but don't do that when you really study the tabernacle for any period of time you get a feeling for its utter holiness and then realize here comes a breach of the thing and David did that and then God blessed David and blessed him with victory after victory after victory after victory victory victory he never lost a battle that I can remember, Joshua did yes? do you know the song we sing before we come? would that be considered beginning there of chapter 11? yes, see as the young people are beginning to be moved in music you'll see what they're talking about is Zion of the Kingdom because that's what the Holy Spirit is talking about today but remember you'll see these revivals happening, you've got thousands of people all praising the Lord, remember that's talking

about the lampstand and all that is, that's not talking about the ark the ark is solemn it's a time of solemnity in Israel, it's a fast day in Israel, it's a fast day the Yom Kippur is a fast day it's a solemn day they have days of rejoicing for example, the greatest day of rejoicing of the Jewish year is the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, now that's when the Jews really cut out, in fact years ago it got out of hand, it really got to be a solemn, it was wild but it isn't that wild now, that's the eighth day Simchat Torah, it's called rejoicing over the law, but not the Day of Atonement, the Day of Atonement is a time of judgment and see the church is coming to that, we've been at Pentecost, now we're moving that way, Trumpets, war the Lord coming as war, the Lord of Hosts coming

as war, to do what? to declare war against His enemies to do what? to overcome sin and cast it out of the earth, beginning with His church and beginning with the first fruits of His church that's where we are people that's where we are so there will be celebration and everything but where God is moving is solemn, and people meet God one at a time, when God begins to deal with them, are you willing to give up your worldliness are you willing to give up the lust of your flesh are you willing to give up your right to be yourself and let me rule in your life and boy that is easier held than felt boy that is crucifixion that's crucifixion and you hang there and they ate nothing left and out of that, salvation comes alright now I want to show you another place holding your thumb there in

Revelation 14 let's take a look at now here's one you have a hard time finding it's Obadiah Obadiah, believe it or not it's in the Bible Obadiah, the last verse of Obadiah Obadiah Jonah, so turn to Jonah and back up one verse go to Jonah 1 1 and back up one verse did you ever hear of Obadiah we haven't found him yet there he goes that's the last verse of the book of Obadiah do you see what it says deliverers so this Revelation 14 the first fruit standing on Mount Zion are people of war that follow the Lord like David's mighty men followed him to govern the mountains of Esau that is of the flesh, Esau represents the flesh and the kingdom will be the Lord's let's look at another one Romans 11 verse 26 now this is a very important passage I've had two people recently write to me on the

internet and ask me what this means they say what does it mean all Israel will be saved what does it mean the fullness of the Gentiles God's making that real to people today so they write and ask me these easy questions what does it mean all Israel will be saved did you ever wonder about that the fullness of the Gentiles but notice before I'll touch on that for your pleasure but in verse 26 and so all Israel will be saved as it is written the deliverer will come from Zion not from Jerusalem from Zion from the place of the ark from the place of war now that deliverer is that group in Revelation 14 that's the deliverer in Obadiah 21 you notice deliverer was plural and the King James of Savior is plural, saviors will stand on Mount Zion, judge the Mount of Esau but deliverer is probably

better because we think of our Savior on the cross so deliverers and here they come, now this is a quotation from the 59th chapter of Isaiah the last three verses and in there it's worded differently it says the deliverer will come to Zion to those who turn from ungodliness and we say what? it's different and that's not the same thing, to and from are two different prepositions right now I'm in Romans 11 verse 26 but I said it's a quotation from Isaiah 59 now in Isaiah 59 it's different it's the same thing but it says that the deliverer will come to Zion to those who repent and turn away from sin so that's what happens first he comes to Zion and we get ourselves straightened up, then the deliverer will come from Zion to the Jews you find the same thing in Micah when he who travails has

brought forth, then the remnant of his brothers shall return to the children of Israel, so we're being here's Israel bound in sin, Hagar bondage with their children and everything, but according to Paul in Romans 11 God has not forgotten the Jews, he has not forgotten them, now today they are scamps, they're just like anybody else, there's good Jews and bad Jews, there's good Americans and bad Americans, they're just like they certainly are not holy and you go over there, you'll find out you go to one of the beaches there, you'll find out that holiness is in short supply, but God has not forgotten them God has not forgotten them so he's going to prepare a remnant a remnant remember one of the last verses in Joel 2 in Zion in Mount Zion should be deliverance this is in Joel 2, and in the

remnant whom the Lord shall call that's Joel 2, verse 27 in Mount Zion should be deliverance and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call the Lord is calling out, I told you it's a remnant if you're acquainted with material, cloth, you know a remnant is not the whole roll of silk, you know, it's just a remnant of it, or a remnant of carpet it's just a small piece of what originally was a giant roll well, there's going to be a remnant of Jews and Gentiles that God is going to, that will turn from ungodliness, and the redeemer will come to them, and deliver them and when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, God has in mind the exact Gentiles that he's going to bring into the olive tree he has the exact number in mind it's not as, you know it's not a democratic thing now it is true, and

the Bible says in 2 Peter that God is willing that all come to repentance, that is exactly true God isn't preventing anybody from being saved but when you're talking about the olive tree you're talking about people that have been predestined from the foundation of the world that's very clear in Romans 8.29 we're not predestined to be saved, we're predestined to be the brothers of Christ all together different because God's elect is one thing, and the people of the world are the other, and God's going to save a lot of people out of the world but his elect are just that they're specified and that's the remnant, Paul says even at this time there's a remnant of Jews and Gentiles, blindness is on the rest of them but he said they're beloved for the Father's sake, and God's going to turn them

again so he has specific Gentiles and you remember when the apostles went out in the book of Acts, God would say I have people in this city and those who are ordained to eternal life believed, and don't go into this city and all that, you know we act just like that, it isn't even in the Bible but it's very clear that in the book of Acts they were led by the Spirit and those who God had ordained well now, when God gets in every Gentile that he has ordained to be in the olive tree it doesn't say then the Gentiles can't be saved anymore because after this you have the sheep nations, which are all Gentiles are brought into the kingdom, what happens here is that the deliverer has been completed when the deliverer has been completed then the deliverer goes to the Jews after the flesh, because

Paul is obviously talking about physical Israel and it will be a sovereign act of God like God did in Wales, something like God did in Wales, where he just went through Wales and closed down the dance halls and the gambling parlors and the mines were filled with people singing anthems to God it was just a sovereign move and God can do that anytime he pleases he can just go through and he's going to do that but it's not going to be like a revival coming from heaven, it's going to come out under the control of the deliverer the deliverer is going to return this is Micah 5 as I told you, it's not the only verse in the Bible it's going to return to Israel and then all Israel will be saved what does it mean, all Israel it means all the olive tree who's in the olive tree? the children of the

promise and so when this time comes, the people in Israel will be those whom God has chosen to save that the scripture may be fulfilled and that way all Israel, meaning everyone who's been grafted into the olive tree will be saved at that time with a tremendous deliverance in the Lord that's what's ahead of us but you see the condition is that the remnant who are called, cooperate with the Holy Spirit so you can lose your crown you can lose your crown by being led astray by something in the world or by somebody who for whatever reason manages to tamper with that blazing fire that must be in you if you're going to meet the God of Israel because the God of Israel is a furnace the furnace of Israel he is a fire and we're dust and so if you're going to be a member of this first fruits on

Mount Zion you can't be like the average church member they don't have the foggiest of what we're talking about they understand, as I said, they're good people they love God, they love one another within their capacity but they're endemic we're talking about people that have been transmuted from one kind of humanity to another it's still humanity, but it's a humanity born not only of men but of God also that's why being born again has to do with the kingdom not with heaven, with the kingdom so we have an awful time letting Jesus be king of our lives, we have an awful time with that because it gets right down to your right to do what you want to Pentecost doesn't do that and hardly touch that well, that all makes sense to you, let's look at this marvelous group, boy, if I ever want

anything out of my life, I want to be in Revelation 14 I mean, you only get this chance once in eternity you only get this chance once in eternity I've got two Audreys together, Audrey Thompson and Audrey Shelby that's a winner if there ever was alright, now, then I looked and there before me was the Lamb and whenever Christ appears as a Lamb, it's always significant and it's usually in times of war because God likes to make war with the Lamb because the Lamb is the last thing in the world that will make war and that way you don't get human in it you don't get self in it the Lamb wages war think of a war like a Lamb standing on Mount Zion and with the place of war and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads you see the two different people,

Christ and His Father two different people and so they have the name of God meaning they're totally obedient to God and the name of the Lamb meaning they're totally obedient to the Lamb and married to the Lamb in their mind, up here one of the hardest things there is is to get the control of your mind in the hands of the Lord because your mind will fight, fight, fight, fight, fight when the Lord gets the victory up here in the skull and you've got the mind of Christ you're doing real well see that's where any Christ wants He wants His mark in your head and His mark in your hand the way of the world, the way of money the way of self will but to get the conversion, that's why it says present your body a living sacrifice and be transformed by the renewing of your mind yes alright well we

know it's true however from Revelation 2.12 remember the name there the name of God the name of the city of God and the new name of Christ so it appears in Revelation 2.12 in any case notice the characteristics of these people I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a long appeal of thunder they're never quiet up there one time a man took me to one of the major waterfalls of Iceland and he said this is where something gets its name you're back from it maybe 50 yards and the noise the cataract just the thunder of sound that's the sound of the voice of Christ and like a loud appeal of thunder the sound I heard was like that of harpists playing with their harps so it was very loud music reminds me of the 1812 overture of Tchaikovsky where they shoot off the

cannons alright and they sang a new song before the throne and so you see this in Revelation it's the making new see that's what God wants to do with us He wants to make us new creations creations in which all things are new and all things are of God and that's not easy because we're pretty used to ourselves and have everything made new whoa!

I don't get one teensy weensy bit not if you're saying everything God is so involved with us that He wants Christ in every molecule of our being He doesn't want one thing left of Adam He wants Christ that means Adam keeps going, Christ keeps coming in Adam keeps going, Christ keeps coming in well isn't there anything left for me? well we get like Paul whatever's gained to me, that's lost for Christ and I count it all lost for Christ garbage! now that's true of every genuine overcomer, that's in his heart and mind I want no compromise I want nothing left that is not Jesus alright no one could learn that song I'd like to learn that song when you stand except the 144,000 I think Stan already learned it has been playing it who had been redeemed from the earth these are not angels that came

down from heaven these are those who did not defile themselves with women now this has caused a consternation and that's why you have to know your bible it's easy to get out of this that these people were celibate but see, to say that then you run into a verse in Hebrews that says marriage is honorable and all that have been undefiled so you don't have the bible saying that it's undefiled in one place and defiled in another so what what it's talking about here is the things which we marry you can be married to something beside a woman you can be married to your job you can be married to your bank account you can be married to a talent many a musician is married to his talent God had to break that in me it ceases to be healthy it becomes a marriage, you're married to it anything that you

have to bring before God is a defilement God wants you to be able to come to Him with nothing nothing you can't bring son or daughter you can't bring husband or wife you can't bring boyfriend or girlfriend you can't bring your talent you can't bring your job you can't bring your education when God calls for you, you have to stand before God just as you are with no cosmetics no ornaments nothing that you're trying to do to please Him or anything else, just you there's a time when God calls for you and if you're not married to stuff it isn't all that difficult but if you say, oh I've got to bring this child or I've got to bring this, that or the other you know me Lord, I've got to bring this to you or I won't play you're married to it and these are people who are pressed through till they

are not defiled with anything God sees that as a defilement the world may say I remember one time when I left I was teaching classroom music and it wasn't the call of God or anything but I just felt that I wanted to teach children and not music so I left the number one silk stocking school in Rochester and went over to a school that was just half out of the slums so I could teach children instead of music and I had been successful at the silk stocking school I was on Hillside in Rochester, New York almost all Jewish people brilliant children and brilliant musical children and we really did have a blast for the year that I was there and when I left there I was going over to school 15 in Rochester which was one of these neighborhoods that had been old Rochester but now was becoming

semi-urban and there were a lot of people moving in, displaced people there were Latvian families, there were Chinese families there were Puerto Rican families and then there were some of the older Rochester people so it was really a potpourri of people there and but I had children I wasn't music anymore but what the people said to me in school number one was oh, you can't leave your music you can't leave all this and that's the way so don't expect people to understand they won't understand how can you do that? well, that's what I want to do it was no big cross or anything it was just something I wanted to do but there did come a time when I had to quit playing the piano and it lasted quite a while it lasted for the rest of my time in the Marine Corps through my whole first year in Bible

school before the Lord permitted me to go back to the piano and if I never played again, by that time if I never played again, and I feel that way now if I never, we don't even have a piano in our house we've got a Hammond organ but we don't have a piano and it's just not married to it but at one time, boy, it was deep in my soul so you can get loose if you want to and that's what I think this means because otherwise you would be into the doctrines of demons forbidding to marry and disdain for meets and so on as it says in Timothy so people that have derived I remember when the latter rain first fell in 1948 this is one of the errors that came in the sons of God are all eunuchs that's doctrines of demons and it causes problems in our day when there's so much media attention as per witness

of the poor Catholic priests that have fallen by the way they should let them marry they wouldn't get into these things but that's their business, not mine they kept themselves pure and you have to keep yourself you have to make sure there's nothing in your life that is between you and God nothing because God's got to be first, last, foremost it's got to be God, God, God all the way I remember when I first heard that it was a testimony of Smith Wigglesworth and I was in Bible school and I read it and he said it's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus I want nothing but Jesus and I knew I wasn't there but I knew that's what I wanted I can say that now, I couldn't say that then but I can say that now but that's the real stuff alright now, they follow the lamb wherever he goes compare that with today where

we're trying to do big things for God and we're trying to get God to do this and we're asking God to do that next thing, they just follow the lamb wherever the lamb goes, that's where they go no religious ambitions they can pastor a million people they can pastor five doesn't matter, just follow the lamb or if you're going lamb, ok, that's where I'm going no problem that's real neat too because the bride is the wife of the lamb and he doesn't want to argue with her they don't want two ideas going no, in human marriage that doesn't work out so cool because usually we marry about the same age which makes the woman automatically older because they mature sooner and here we are some young man at the age of 22 who's still completely occupied with himself and everything, he marries some woman

and she's expecting him to love her and take care of her and everything, which he's not going to be able to do for 50 years anyway before he gets his mind off himself and so naturally you have conflict because he doesn't understand why he's not a prince charming and he figures, well I married you I thought I'd have something beautiful here and now what is all this you're expecting from me, I can't provide that and so on and on it goes but when it comes to the lamb and his wife he is so totally superior in the first place he's older than we are by about several eons so this you don't have two people approximately with the same experience and the same maturity trying to get to some kind of a union the man can say, you're going to follow me or I'll know the reason why well you know he's

given him space all the while, the woman knows better she knows he's on the wrong path she's trying to be obedient make the thing go the man's rushing around like a bull doesn't know what he's doing all I'm here to say is from so many mistakes it is pitiful one of the bright things in my life was I learned to listen to my wife and I say that with no problem and I think there's times when my wife listens to me but she doesn't govern the house and wouldn't try to she knows God better than that, that's my job but I sure be given my limitations I would sure be a first class dumbbell not to listen to her no wouldn't I? she's stupid so I listen to her, because she makes a lot of good moves but I'm still ahead of the house that's what it's supposed to be okay I knew that would make you all happy

I know Tony, it's not cultural I understand oh listen to your wife usually God will speak to you through your wife that doesn't mean she's ahead of the home it means you're wise but we can follow the Lamb there's no contest a musician and everything he talked about how when George Gershwin played the dilettantes used to gather together and George Gershwin would be there and play the piano and he said you were completely relieved of all competition because he was so much better than everybody else you couldn't even get jealous George Gershwin came in sat down and played and the other musician said that's right, that's George you couldn't even be competitive and that's the way it is with us and Jesus when we get it through our head that he's always right without exception then we follow the

Lamb very docilely and he likes that because he doesn't want to be standing around while we're saying what do you mean by that and how come you did this and are you sure that's right he doesn't need that that's a waste of time what he does is the father looks down and says well son she isn't ready yet so the Lord says when she's ready bring her around and I'm telling you that's the way it works because he doesn't want his son having to argue with anybody so don't have to think about that for a while they were purchased from among men and offered as first roots to God the Son and the Lamb no lie was found in their mouth they are blameless that's the first roots that's the Zion company that's the ones who will return with the Lord to the children of Israel as we see in Zechariah 14 the Lord

my God come with all the saints with thee when Jerusalem is at her darkest hour under the reign of Antichrist there's a great earthquake hear the armies of the Lord those are the kings coming from the east traveling in the dried up bed of the Euphrates cutting off Antichrist on the north and on the east and then Christ and his officers going through the great valley that runs east and west as the mountains split north and south cutting off Antichrist on the south and at his back is the Mediterranean turned to blood Antichrist is finished but these are officers these are disciplined people this is Joel's army God's calling for that today many that are last shall be first we've got all these base camps God says now you go for it I want you with no lie in your mouth I want you with no

defilement I want you blameless follow my Son and the Lamb is going to war hallelujah shall we stand oh Father kingdom of our God and of his anointed oh hallelujah Lord hallelujah hallelujah Jesus Lord your call is on us we hear it we understand it Lord you're saying come on I want you to follow me wherever I go I want you with me I want you singing that song as we go back to Jerusalem back to my people and they shall weep as one weeps for his first born and then will I be glorified then will I be justified then will they look on him whom they pierced and realize that they sold their Joseph down into Egypt and now Joseph is returning with his Gentile bride to save all Israel oh hallelujah great are your ways and your wisdom oh God passes understanding oh hallelujah Lord hallelujah oh

Father we just dedicate ourselves to you tonight Lord you're all we want there's nothing there you're what we want and we want to be with you Lord as Astonach was with Joseph when he was reconciled to his brothers and he became Lord over all Egypt oh hallelujah Lord you know what you're doing and Jacob yet shall rejoice for his day shall come hallelujah and God and his wisdom shall bring out of the Gentiles a chosen people and give them a name better than sons and daughters and let them stand in their place with the princess of Judah and eat at your table oh Jesus what a day for you Lord when your enemies are made your footstool what a day when Israel recognizes their Messiah and weep and weep and weep for him that they crucified and cast out oh Lord you know what you're doing help us

Lord you called us now help us to respond perfectly ask in Jesus name keep us Lord and bless everyone that came give us a good night's sleep and wake us in the morning Lord to do your will like we've never done it before in Jesus name Amen