1. CHAPTER 14 PART I

2. Revelation 12 flows into Chapter 13 and Chapter 14 IT IS A CONTINUAL FLOWING SCENE Revelation 12 shows … The eternal battle between Satan and God’s People – especially Israel (national and spiritual and the church) Revelation 13 shows… Exactly how all of this hatred will culminate in the final 7 years of man’s history – with an “antichrist” - Satan will fill an “empire”, a man and a religious system represented by a man to deceive the world and influence world affairs. This deception will culminate in an all out attack on the the TWO WITNESSES – Israel and the Church. This “unholy alliance” – Satan and two men – make up a “false Trinity”. All represented by man’s number 666 (God’s number – 777) Revelation 14 shows… The ultimate and complete triumph, of those who are faithful to Jesus Christ, over the world and the attacks of the antichrist. READ REVELATION 14:1-5

3. NOTE the juxtapositions of Chapter 14 with Chapter 13. Chapter 13 ends with an “apparently victorious” ANTICHRIST. Chapter 14 begins with an OBVIOUSLY victorious “People of God”! Chapter 14 continues and ends with a complete victory for God’s people and a complete loss for the unbelieving world! (Next week!)

4. SOME “UNDERSTANDING” of CHAPTER 14:1-5 “The Key elements of interpretation” The Lamb standing on Mount Zion – Jesus Mount Zion - Heaven (Jerusalem) The 144,000 – the “first fruits” - Second time we have seen them (Chapter 7) Both instances describe the SAME event. (These are two different “vignettes”.) 12 x 12 x 1000 - 12 = number of disciples (all Jews) and number of Tribes of Israel – 1000 equals a large, unspecific number – ( A day with the Lord is like a thousand years…) THE PROMISED REMNANT OF ISRAEL – Jews who are believers in Jesus Christ as Messiah and Lord! V.2 and V.3 – The sound from heaven like a “roar of rushing water”…THEY sang a new song…” - This NOW is the CHURCH – Jew and Gentile bought by the blood (this lines up perfectly with Chapter 7) THE 144,000 and the “roar of the multitudes” they are “one in the same now” These are the “Two Witnesses” in Heaven raptured shortly after the antichrist requires all to take his mark!

5. * His Name and His Father’s Name - written on their Foreheads “sealed” (Ephesians 1:13), they did not take the “mark of the beast”! Eph 1:13-14 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-- to the praise of his glory. * Without blame – as opposed to the antichrist and his followers – the people of the “world” * Without a “lie” in them – as opposed to the total system of lies presented by the antichrist and accepted by the unbelieving world. Rev. 13 and II Thess. 2 MORE - juxtapositions:

6. *Did not defile themselves with “women” 1. Sexual impurity - generally speaking – ( Eph 5:3-7, Galatians 5:19-21, I Corinthians 6: 9-20, Rev 21:8) 2. Biblical purity – religiously speaking (as opposed to submitting to the “Great Harlot” of Chapter 17) MORE - juxtapositions:

7. Rev 7:1-17 1After this (After the 6 th seal – which corresponds to the time of the rapture!) I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3"Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. 9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" 13Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes-- who are they, and where did they come from?" 14I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

8. REVELATION 14:3 AND THEY SANG A NEW SONG VERSE 3 WHICH NO ONE (KJV – “no man”) (“no unbeliever”) could learn: A song of praise, a song of redemption – To appreciate fully the songs of Zion; to understand the language of praise; one must himself have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! One must have known what it is to be a sinner under the condemnation of a holy God; he must have known what it is to be in danger of eternal Hell; he must have experienced the bliss of forgiveness, and a new beginning with His creator… or he can never understand, in its deepest sense, the songs sung by the redeemed. HOW IS YOUR WORSHIP? In SPIRIT AND TRUTH? W.I.S.A.T.!