The 144,000 & The 2 Witnesses

Moore's Corner Church

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Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

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Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

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D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

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If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

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Revelation chapter 7 is what we would call a parenthetical chapter, meaning that it stands outside of the overall timeline.

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There's some question about this, but I am of the belief that the book of Revelation is generally speaking in chronological order.

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So, the events of Revelation are exactly how they're laid out. But there are chapters where John basically is maybe even going back and filling in the story.

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So, there are these parenthetical passages. And here's the nice thing about it because it's destruction, it's judgment, it's one bad thing after another.

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And then you get to a parenthetical passage and it tells of the great things that God is doing.

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And God, in the midst of all of it, is doing some wonderful things.

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So, Revelation chapter 7, we don't have time to address everything, but it covers the subject or this group known as the 144 ,000.

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How many of you are familiar with this group known as the 144 ,000? Okay, good.

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Most of you. Look at Revelation chapter 7, verses 1 through 4. There's a lot of discussion, a lot of debate as to the identity of this group.

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Who are they? What is their purpose? Revelation 7, 1 through 4. John writes,

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After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.

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Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living

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God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying,

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Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our

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God in their foreheads. And you can almost see like the parallel between the mark of the beast in the forehead and then the seal of God in their forehead.

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So, there's that parallel. Verse 4, And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144 ,000 of who?

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Of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.

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And then it goes on to list 12 ,000 were sealed from this tribe, and this tribe, and this tribe.

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So, 12 ,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel are sealed.

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And again, I've said there are many people who talk and debate and argue about the identity of the 144 ,000.

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Most of you are probably familiar with this organization called the Watchtower Organization.

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They have a teaching about who the 144 ,000 are. They say that the 144 ,000 are an elite group of Jehovah's Witnesses, that they get to go to Heaven and nobody else.

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So, that's the teaching of the Watchtower Organization. Our Reformed friends, on the other hand, they will say, well, this is basically symbolic for the church.

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So, this is the church, and they claim that the church is the new

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Israel. We reject both viewpoints, just to be clear.

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So, who, okay, you reject that. Who are they then? Who are the 144 ,000?

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Well, it's pretty simple if you take the Bible literally. God tells us who they are.

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It says basically they're a chosen group of men from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

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They are exactly who the Bible says they are. See how easy the Bible is to understand?

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Oh, the book of Revelation is too hard and all the symbolism. It's not that hard, okay.

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Now, let's flip over to chapter 14. The Bible is not a hard book to understand.

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It is, for some, though, a hard book to believe. But if God the

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Holy Spirit is within you, He will illuminate His word. He will illuminate

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His truth. So, to go back to what we mentioned last week, instead of taking an allegorical view of the

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Bible, reading things into the text that aren't there, we simply, on the other hand, we read the

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Bible and take it at face value. The Bible says what it means. It means what it says.

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If there's something in the Bible that is symbolic, there's going to be some clear way to identify that.

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And this is the problem with some Bible teachers, I think. They want to allegorize just kind of the whole thing.

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Anytime there's something that doesn't fit or something that seems incredible, they want to allegorize the whole scripture.

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We'll read from Revelation 14 in a moment, but I think this is an important point. They want to allegorize the 144 ,000.

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Why? Well, we don't even know who the Reubenites are. How can you have 12 ,000 men from the tribe of Asher?

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Where are you going to find them? They have no idea. In Israel and Jerusalem, they have no idea who's from what tribe.

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How are you going to find 12 ,000 from each tribe? I have no idea how they're going to do that.

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But that's not an issue. God knows how. It doesn't matter if we can figure it out.

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The question is, do we believe the Bible? So they want to allegorize the 144 ,000 that that's symbolic.

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Usually the same groups want to allegorize the millennium, thousand -year reign of Christ on the earth.

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They don't really think that's going to happen. They even allegorize the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, and they say that already happened in 70

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A .D. Here's the thing. Where does it stop? If Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven is just an allegory, maybe his resurrection from the dead is an allegory.

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I believe this is a road that oftentimes leads to theological liberalism.

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And if you go down that road too far where the resurrection is an allegory, there's a word for that.

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It is called unbelief. Okay, back to the subject at hand.

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Who are the 144 ,000? They're Israelites. That's what the scripture says.

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So here's the key. Here's the key, okay? What's happening in the book of Revelation? Since the church has already been taken to heaven,

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God has now gone back to working with his people

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Israel. For the last 2 ,000 years, up until this moment, God has set

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Israel on the shelf. God is now primarily working through the church.

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That's why we call it the church age. But once the church is taken to heaven, God now goes back to dealing with Israel as a people.

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We talked about the church last time in chapters 2 and 3, remember? Church is mentioned in Revelation 2,

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Revelation 3. Starting in chapter 4, church is not mentioned again.

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Church is not mentioned as being on earth again. So what happens now during the tribulation, we don't have time to get into it, but Daniel's 70th week, the time clock of prophecy that stopped when

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Israel crucified Jesus, God is pressing play. He's pressing the button, and that clock of prophecy is once again ticking.

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There's seven years left. So God goes back to deal with his chosen nation,

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Israel. One of the objections, say, well, but most Jews don't believe in Jesus.

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So how is he going to go back and work with them if they don't believe in Jesus? You remember what

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Romans 11 teaches? Paul said, yeah, they have been cut off. But he seems to indicate they're going to be what?

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Grafted back in. So Israel is going to be grafted back in,

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Romans chapter 11, for they can fully inherit the promises during the millennial kingdom.

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Okay, I said Revelation 14. Now let's look at it. Revelation 14, starting in verse 1, still talking about the 144 ,000.

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John writes, Then I looked, and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144 ,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads.

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And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder.

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And I heard the sound of a harpist playing their harps. And they sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders.

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And no one could learn that song except the 144 ,000, who were redeemed from the earth.

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These are the ones who are not defiled with women, for they are virgins.

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These are the ones who followed the lamb wherever he goes.

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These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the lamb.

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These appear to be men who have set aside getting married, having a family. They're like missionaries, fully committed 100 % to the service of God.

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And the tribulation isn't exactly the best time to be starting a family anyways. But what does it say?

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They are what? Firstfruits. Firstfruits. So the redeemed

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Israelites, the 144 ,000, they are redeemed Israelites. They're called firstfruits.

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And they will be, once God saves them and gathers them, they will be the ones responsible for leading a revival among the children of Israel.

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They will take the children of Jacob and bring them back to faith in God through the

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Lord Jesus Christ. God is going to use the 144 ,000 to do that.

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Paul writes in Romans 11, 28 and 29, concerning the gospel, speaking about Israel, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake.

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They rejected Jesus, therefore the gospel went out to the Gentiles. And we were saved as the result of that.

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So for our sake, you could say they're enemies, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

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For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. So God is not done with Israel.

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Amen? A lot of people think that God is done with Israel. He's not. During the tribulation,

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He's going back and He will graft them back in.

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There will be a time, Paul says in Revelations chapter 11, this is why Christians do pay attention to events in the

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Middle East. Anytime there's something going on in the news in the Middle East, there's always someone who says, well, this is a fulfillment of prophecy.

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Well, I don't know if it's a fulfillment of prophecy, but it is, I believe, laying the groundwork. Paul says in Romans 11, 26, there will be a time when all

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Israel will be saved. That's not right now, but that time is coming.

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God is going to use the 144 ,000 to bring this about. And not just them,

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He will use His two witnesses. Let's turn to Revelation chapter 11.

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And as I said, we're not going to have time to cover the whole tribulation period, so we'll have to end with this subject.

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We'll pick this up again next time. So the 144 ,000, we have learned, are

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Israelites. They are the first fruits who lead many children of Israel back to faith in God during the tribulation.

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And they work along with the two witnesses who very much resemble

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Moses and Elijah. Look at Revelation 11, starting in verse 1. We're almost done. Revelation 11, starting in verse 1.

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Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod and the angel stood saying, rise and measure the temple of God, the altar and those who worship there.

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Believe out the court, which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it has been given to the

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Gentiles and they will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. Another thing we tend to look at in the

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Middle East, we believe that the Jerusalem temple will be rebuilt. Okay, so you say, well, is this event significant in the news or this event in Israel, is this significant?

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Well, when you hear that they're making plans to rebuild the temple or that site has been cleared and they're ready to rebuild, that would be a pretty good indicator, but of course we haven't seen that yet.

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Look at verse 3 and the Lord says, I will give power to my two witnesses.

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And they will prophesy 1 ,260 days clothed in sackcloth and ashes.

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These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.

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John MacArthur says about that statement. He says, this symbolizes the light of spiritual revival.

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Thanks for listening. I'm pastor Michael Grant from Morris Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website,

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MorrisCornerChurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.