Do you want to be part of the 144,000? If so, wouldn’t it be nice if there were some clear directions on how to be among that number? Good news—the manual has been found! Listen to learn more.

<p>Do you want to be part of the 144,000? If so, wouldn’t it be nice if there were some clear directions on how to be among that number? Good news—the manual has been found! Listen to learn more.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Ouachita Hills College

Scott Burgess

Jacob’s Manual for the 144,000

Well, good evening and happy Sabbath, everyone.

Before we begin, I'm going to ask the Lord to bless and we'll write into our message.

Father in Heaven, we thank You for these Sabbath hours, and as was mentioned, we thank You that we finally had a nice sunny day today.

I pray that right now You will focus our hearts.

You've already been working with us through beautiful music.

I pray that now we will be able to hear a few words that will direct our attention to You and we'll have sweet things to think about as we go to bed this evening.

All right, well, I'm gonna go ahead and take a look here.

And let me pop up on the screen here the title for tonight's talk.

Give it just a second to show up on your screens right there.

Yeah, let's see if it's going to come up there.

Well, I have entitled this Jacob's manual.

Have you ever thought of Jacob having a manual?

Probably haven't even seen the word and the scriptures there, but yes, that's what it is.

But, and I do wish this would come up on the screen here.

It's not just Jacob's manual, but if Jacob has a manual, what are manuals good for?

They're only good if you open them and read the contents right there.

Well, at any rate, it's going to be Jacob's manual for the 144, 000, and as they're trying to sort this out, I invite you open your Bibles there to Revelation chapter 14.

Revelation 14, And we're going to go to a well-known passage to us, but that's good.

It's always good to revisit fundamentals.

Revelation 14, and let's begin it in verse 1, shall we?

So Revelation 14 verse 1 it says, I looked and lo and lamb stood on Mount Zion and with him who?

144, 000 having his father's name written in their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the 4 beasts and the elders.

And no man could learn that song but the hundred forty-four thousand which were redeemed from the earth.

Then it tells us something about these people.

These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.

These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.

These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God." Okay, so just reading that right there, it doesn't say a whole lot.

I mean, it's only 5 verses, but Just reviewing that right there.

Who here would like to be amongst that group?

I know that it's gonna, along with it, it's going to be a lot of persecution and everything, but we know it'll be worth it.

So I would love to be part of that group right there.

And so, if you just look for the number 144, 000 in the Bible, you don't find a whole lot of places.

Here and in chapter 7, and that's all you're going to find.

And so you might think, boy, is there anything else in the Bible that might give us something definitive on how to be part of the group.

And it turns out that yes, there is a manual for the 144, 000 and I was rather pleased to find that so I thought I would share with you what I have found myself.

So let's go ahead to set things up right here, turn over just a few pages prior, go to James chapter 1 and let's take a look here.

James chapter 1 and just verse 1, that's part of the greeting there.

It says right there, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

You might look at that and think, okay, that's a nice verse, but what in the world does that have to do with what we just read?

Well, the first thing I'd like to share with you is this.

Now if you just listen to that, does that sound like anything else?

And if you're not sure, just look for Jacob in the New Testament, check your Strongs, and you'll see that the Strongs number is identical to James here.

There is nobody in the Bible named James.

And also it says that he addressed his letter to whom?

Well now hopefully our ears are perking up.

In Revelation 7 in describing the 144, 000 it enumerates them as belonging to 12 tribes.

Now I am not saying that when James wrote this letter, I am not saying that he necessarily had in mind the 144, 000.

However, there is a Bible principle, and I think that you're familiar with these verses.

You may recognize Romans 15, 4, which says that whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, upon whom the ends of the world, or actually I'm blending 2 verses there, sorry, were written a fore time for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

And then again in 1 Corinthians 10, Verse 11, after detailing an Old Testament story, it says, Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

And so what I'm suggesting here is that James, though yes, he was writing to 12 tribes that were scattered abroad in his day, nevertheless primarily everything in scripture is written for our learning.

And so therefore we at the end of the world, because I think we would all agree, we don't know the day of Jesus coming, but it's pretty near, I'd say.

I don't know how much worse the world could get, but I guess we could always be stunned by the next day's news, but it's pretty bad.

Nevertheless, when I read this, and I read that it's to the 12 tribes, and I long to be part of the 12 tribes, I think maybe there's something there.

As we explore, you'll see if this is a good way of looking at scripture.

And of course, now I'm just putting on here for you, Revelation 7, 4 says, "'They were sealed, 144, 000 of all the tribes "'of the children of...' But wait a minute, Israel is the new name of?

Now again, I'm not being fanciful here, I know that this is not the Jacob of the Old Testament, but you could think of it, it's as though It's a letter from Jacob to his sons.

We were together last week And we were looking at 1 Peter, we had the fantastic fire, the fiery trials that we go through here.

There's so many parallels in their letters, I think they must have been talking together and just wrote similar thoughts.

But you'll notice right here in verses 2 through 4 it says, My brethren, count it all what?

Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.

Again, we asked last week, It's not the natural thing to count it joy, but he says count it that way.

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting or lacking nothing.

Now again, let's just try to be super accurate right here.

That word temptations right there, if you look that up you'll see that properly speaking it's a trial.

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Jacob’s Manual for the 144,000

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