Sermon: Firstfruits to God

What Makes the 144,000 Firstfruits
#1768-PM
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 16-Jun-24; 80 minutes 2024-06-16

If you would all please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 23. We have already been here this weekend, but it is good to repeat it just to see the words again, get ourselves thinking about them once more.

Exodus 23:14-16 "Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field."

We do not need to go any farther there. We hit what is known today as the Day of Pentecost so we will move on to Leviticus 23. We will read verses 15 through 17.

Leviticus 23:15-17 "And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord."

Then on to Numbers the 28th chapter. We are going to pick up just one verse, verse 26.

Numbers 28:26 "Also on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work."

Each of these passages that we have just read include instructions concerning the Feast of Weeks, which we observe today under the Greek name of Pentecost, which, as we have found out, means "count fifty." We keep holy the 50th day or the day after the seventh Sabbath or seventh week, which is why it is called the Feast of Weeks or the count of 50—Pentecost. So we have seven weeks of seven days that gives us 49. We go to the next day. That is another day and then it all comes out to 50 days. So whether you call it weeks or count 50, you come out on the same day. Always a Sunday because it is counted from a Sabbath; 49 days plus one gives you 50.

Now, one of the consistent ideas that is associated with the Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost) is firstfruits. In each one of those passages that I went to that was one of the things that was brought out. The word describes exactly what is meant by it. The firstfruits or products of the grain plant, primarily referring to wheat since Pentecost occurs during the wheat harvest in the land of Israel.

The barley harvest has already been passed. That was what was started at the beginning of the 50-day count because the first day of the count to Pentecost is the first day of the barley harvest. So that barley harvest occurs during or just after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And then it is a whole harvest time until you get to the end of the count and that is the wheat harvest.

So firstfruits refers to the first ripe grains of wheat, the primary grain from which humanity makes bread, which it calls the staff of life. It is kind of interesting just to think of this. Jesus calls Himself the "bread of life" and His people whom He calls and instructs and gives all that they need to become good products of what He does, well, they are firstfruits of wheat and wheat is what makes bread. And He is the bread of life. It kind of just all goes around in a circle. But He is making us of the same substance that He is.

The word firstfruits itself, just the English term firstfruits, contains two elements. The first element of course is chronological or we could call it ordinal. It shows a series, and that is the word "first." So that gives us an indication of time or order. In the span of the harvest, the whole harvest, the firstfruits obviously ripen and are harvested first, just like the word says. It is early in the harvest if it is before any other grain is harvested.

The second element of the word firstfruits is fruit obviously. This word means in its more technical definition, the ripened reproductive body of a seed plant, like an apple or an orange or a tomato or a grain. There are many kinds of fruit because there are many kinds of seed plants and all the seed plants produce something edible. Usually it is edible to us unless it is poisonous. But obviously, that is what it produces in order to reproduce itself. And so it is the ripened reproductive body of a seed plant. It enables life to go on. It enables that particular species of plant to continue, go down through the ages, if you will.

And we see from this definition that fruit has an older definition or connotation and that is offspring. A fruit is an offspring of the plant that produced it. Of course, we have the phrase the "fruit of the womb" and that just means a child. A child is the fruit of the womb. It is saying the same type of thing, that it is the offspring of its parent.

Now, fruit can also denote an unusually large amount of a product. So the fruit of the harvest is all of those things that are harvested and in this definition, its synonyms are crop, the word harvest (which I have used several times), produce, or yield. God is going to have a great yield of billions of sons and daughters ultimately. They are the fruit of His works, the fruit of His purpose, and the fruit of His plan.

Finally, fruit can connote a consequence of some effort or action. (David spoke about this yesterday quite a bit.) A fruit can be an effect of a cause—cause and effect. The fruit is the effect. We use this in our writing. Here is a couple of examples. "His early graduation was the fruit of his near constant study." So the cause was that this kid, whoever it was, studied all the time and he was able to graduate from high school, college, whatever, early.

Here is another one. "He lived long enough to enjoy the fruit of his diligent investments." So this man made good investments and in his older years, he was able to have a very nice life. Again, the cause was diligent investing and the effect was the very nice life he lived as an old man.

We tend to talk about firstfruits a great deal and that is because we have this annual holy day that makes us think about it every year. Sermons, many throughout the year, use this word and they urge us to strive to be one of the firstfruits. Of course, we have here in James 1:18 this idea that we can be firstfruits.

James 1:18 Of His own will [that is, God's will] He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

So here we have a verse that tells us that people are firstfruits. And of course, we understand that ultimately, the firstfruits are a particular group of people. That is what firstfruits means. It means a separate part of a harvest, whether in terms of time, which we saw, or order.

Now for us, in the span of 6,000 years there have been various ones called out and they have become the firstfruits of God or will be shown to be firstfruits of God at the resurrection from the dead. They have done their time. They have made their lives available to God and God has used them and God has seen them and seen their maturity and He has them slated for the first resurrection. We do not know all of them, but we are told that there are going to be 144,000 in that number and they are the firstfruits of God. So that is something to strive for.

For us in these end times, we can also become part of that number even though we are here at the end of humanity's time on this earth. And so, even though we are last in terms of chronology, we can be first in terms of order at the resurrection. Even though we are not like Abraham, but if we develop the faith of Abraham, we will be with Abraham in that first order of the fruits of God. So that is why I mentioned early on that there is a chronological idea in firstfruits as well as an ordinal idea, That it does not matter when in history we have lived, we can go to the top of the class, if you will.

So we have here in James 1:18 that His people are a kind of firstfruits to God. But what does it mean to be a firstfruit? That is our question for today. Is it just God's choice? That He said, "I want you, and you, and you, and you're going to be firstfruits." How does God Himself describe the firstfruits? Have you ever thought about that? I mean, obviously the Word of God, here, describes them and we have gone through probably all of them this weekend. (It seems like that is all we have talked about this weekend and I was afraid everybody would take all my scriptures but they are free for everybody. So I should not have been afraid.)

But really, how does God describe them? I know we have our own ideas about what the firstfruits are like. But you know, if you were to talk to God, how would He describe them, those firstfruits? I guess I am asking, when all is said and done what will distinguish a firstfruit from any others who will ultimately be redeemed? What makes them different? What makes them special? And these are the kind of questions we are going to look at today. But for the remainder of this sermon, we are going to be in Revelation 14 and you might want to stick a bookmark or something in there. (Don't give up a finger, just something to get back here quickly.)

Because what we have in the 144,000 is a very detailed description of what God considers firstfruits to be. So let us read this. We will read the whole passage down through verse 5.

Revelation 14:1-5 Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty0-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God.

Five verses and a lot packed in them, a lot of descriptors. And these 144,000 people whom God calls redeemed from among men, firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. Now, when I thought about doing this, I considered this and I thought, you know what? This is a look at the firstfruits from an entirely different perspective. And what I mean by that is, we often consider the firstfruits from the vantage point of one growing toward firstfruit status. That we are in the midst of our conversion and we are trying to figure out how one becomes a firstfruit, how one reaches this level of the order of God's children.

Revelation 14 however, is from the vantage point of the first resurrection. It is there, things are done already. It is not like we are trying to be this. This is looking back at this is what they did to be there. If you understand the way I am looking at it. It is from the vantage point of it being completed and this is what God decided. You know, these are the things that He wanted as qualities of the firstfruits that He included in the first resurrection.

So Revelation 14:1-5 shows what qualified these people in God's eyes as His firstfruits. Another way to put it, these are the qualities God was looking for in those who became His firstfruits.

Now, I count at least six descriptors of spiritual qualities in these five verses. There are probably more that I probably could have dug out that would have taken maybe a little bit more explanation. But I think from these six descriptors, we can get a good idea what we need to be doing to ensure we are part of that 144000 firstfruits in the first resurrection.

You ready? We are going to get going on these six descriptors.

The first one is that they have the Father's name written on their foreheads.

Let us go back to Revelation 7, verse 3. On each of these I am going to give a little bit of a background so that we understand some of the concepts. This is the sealed of Israel, another 144,000. But it says here, specifically saying,

Revelation 7:3 "Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads."

So in this particular verse, it is showing a sealing in the forehead.

Let us go to same book, chapter 22, verse 4. It is talking about the people that are there in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Revelation 22:4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

Three times in the book of Revelation, we have this idea of a seal or a name being on the forehead.

And when you go through the commentaries on these things, it is amazing to see how varied their interpretations of such things are. I mean, it is symbolism, it is open to interpretation. But a lot of times they are just looking at cross references and saying, well, if it meant this here, it probably means this here, and you know this and that and the other thing. So they come up with all kinds of different ways of looking at it. Commentator William Barkley, among many other meanings, said that in the ancient world such marks or signs could signify ownership or loyalty or security of some sort, like being sealed for protection. Dependence, that one is dependent on the one whose name is on the forehead. And safety, very similar to the security one.

Many conclude, after going through all these things, that this "Father's name on their forehead" is that it is the seal of God, which is a godly counterpart or the godly counter to the mark of the beast. So you have the mark of the beast on one hand and you have the sealing of God in the forehead. That God claims the firstfruits as His and He seals them to salvation. Seems like what happens there in Revelation 7 is certainly this: that He is protecting them and sealing them to the end, saying "These are My people who I'm going to redeem or to save into the time of the resurrection." And in this case, if that is the way it is, it is a unilateral act of God. It is something He does and we do not have a whole lot to do with it. He chooses those ones who He is going to seal.

Another way of looking at this is to break it down like we did firstfruits. Again, we have two elements, forehead. Well, I should do the first one first. First, you have the name, the Father's name, and then you have "that is written in the forehead." Those are the two elements; the name and put on the forehead. A name identifies and sets apart, making the named person very distinctive. So it would be a way of sanctification, setting apart, setting them apart as holy. This was done a great deal in the Old Testament with utensils and other things. God's name was put on it, it was considered to be holy, and only useful for the particular act or whatever that it was supposed to perform, let us say, in the Tabernacle or Temple service.

The forehead, the other element, universally symbolizes the mind, the intellect, thoughts, and motivations of a person. It is right there. You know, they say if you have a high forehead, you are supposed to be highly intelligent. I do not believe that. But you know, they say the forehead is the place where intelligence is supposedly seen. If you have a low brow. . . well, you understand the meaning there.

But if you take these two things, you take the idea of a name and that is inscribed in the forehead, and you put these meanings together, the most natural meaning would be that these firstfruits are identified as having the mind of God. In this case, then, the sign displays something like a seal of approval or a seal of quality that sets apart and saying, this one thinks like Me, this one thinks like the Father, this one is has come along the way in such a good spiritual effort, if you will, has made such strides that I can confidently claim that he has the mind of God, or has developed it as much as he can as a human being. So in this way, the writing of the Father's name on the forehead is symbolic of being recognized by God to be in union with Him, that is, faithful, committed, and righteous.

Commentator James Burton Kaufman writes on this verse, Revelation 14:1, "Having the names of God and Christ written upon the forehead symbolizes thoughts and dispositions conformable to the will of God." So these people are marked, if you will, as being godly in mind and disposition.

Let us move on to the next one.

Number two, this actually comes in verse 3, "They sang it as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; no one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth."

They sing a new song only they could learn. We go back to Revelation 5, verse 9, we will see a another new song here in this book. This is the 24 elders.

Revelation 5:9-10 And they sang a new song, saying" "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth."

Here, the 24 elders sing a new song that praises God, glorifies God, specifically Jesus Christ here, because He was worthy to open the seals and because He did the work that God had given Him to do, and because He had done the work and redeemed the people of God by His blood, these people from all over the earth. They now can be kings and priests or a royal priesthood to our God and reign on the earth. The things that Jesus did were done to bring about these specific things and so the 24 elders are singing a song that extols what Jesus did and what makes Him so worthy to be able to open these seals.

Let us go back into the Psalms. The idea of a new song is frequently in the Psalms. We are going to go to Psalm 96.

Psalm 96:1-4 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. [And it goes on.]

But there are noticeable similarities between this new song in Psalm 96 with the new song that the 24 elders sing back in Revelation 5. It is for similar things here. Specifically, it is the good news of salvation that they are singing about and all that God does to bring people these good things.

Let us go to Psalm 98, just across the page.

Psalm 98:1-3 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For he has done marvelous things; His right hand and his holy arm have gained him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

What we have here is a very similar thing. It is not word for word, but it talks about the same things—salvation, His people all over the world. It is very similar to what we have seen in chapter 96 and in Revelation 5.

Let us go to Psalm 144.

Psalm 144:9-10 I will sing a new song to You, O God; on a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You. The one who gives salvation to kings, who delivers David His servant from the deadly sword.

Again, we have a psalm talking about a new song, and deliverance or salvation is part of the new song. And David goes through here and talks about the things that God rescued him from.

So just in this short survey, we have seen that new songs in Scripture are about deliverance and praise to God for the things that He has done sovereignly to make sure that His people are saved, are delivered. Some people believe that the new song that is sung by the 144,000 in Revelation 14 is an anthem of Christ's victory and that could be. Christ's victory was He brought salvation to so many. And He has certainly made everything happen so that they could be kings and priests in the Kingdom of God. So, these are good possibilities of what the new song is.

However, what this particular idea does not have within it is the idea that it is a song that only the firstfruits can learn. There is something distinctive about the new song that they sing that is different from what others sing. At least that is the way I look at it. When the Bible tells me that they sing a new song that no one else can learn, I think, well, this is a special song. This is something different that others of the redeemed cannot sing, cannot learn.

Now, you might say, why could they not learn it, you know, could they not take the notes, the lyrics, and learn it themselves? It does not work that way. They cannot sing the song because they did not do the things that made them able to sing the song. You will see what I mean in a minute.

Now, most commentators, when they talk about this, they say essentially that this is a song all the redeemed sing, not just the 144,000. Those who cannot learn it are the unredeemed in this world. But it does not say that in Revelation 14. It says only these 144,000 can learn this song. So it cannot be that. And it avoids the heart of the detail about this group's uniqueness. There is something special about this group. They are so special they get their own song. So what makes them unique?

Well, we talked about order before, that is first, second, third, that sort of order. The redeemed here, the firstfruits, are the firstfruits. I call them the top of their class. They are the ones that get the greatest rewards. They are the ones that are honored the most of all the redeemed. They are the top tier. In fact, they are the very Bride of Christ, those who are set apart as companions of Christ for all eternity. We saw later in the same passage, they go wherever He goes. They are going to be the ones that are closest to God and Christ forever.

Remember in Malachi 3? God called His people His special treasure. They are the ones He keeps close to His heart, if you will. The ones He values the highest. I believe it is I Peter 2 that these same people are called His peculiar people in the King James. It just means special. They are different people of a higher quality. His first; His first children.

Let us go to I John 3 and try to figure out a little bit more about what makes these particular people, those who are called firstfruits, so special and why they get a song just for themselves.

I John 3:1-3 [we all know this very well] Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. [Stick that in the back of your mind.] Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him [stick that in the back of your head too], for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Lots of good hints here about what makes these particular people so special.

"We shall be like Him for we see Him as He is." The firstfruits to God and to the Lamb have a unique perspective of Christ that no one else has. They have a unique zeal for God that makes them purify themselves to be like Him. We can say that they understand Him better than the rest of the redeemed and it is good for a bride to understand her husband better than anyone else.

Let us go to II Peter 1, just over a couple of pages.

II Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which we have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

It is that last clause or so. "Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Martin was talking about this this morning. We are a special people because we have to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust now. Not that others will not have to do this, but we have to do this now.

What it is telling us here as is that if we endure to the end, we are going to be enduring in a way that will make us a lot more like Christ than anybody else in time. It is because we are doing this now and He did it now. You understand, we are overcoming the things of this world in a time when it is hardest to do so in all of time. So these people overcome, that is us, the firstfruits, overcome more intense temptation and sin in the same manner that Jesus Christ did. That is why they know Him better than anybody else. They have shared experiences with Him more than anybody else.

First Peter 4, just over another page here. Verses 1 and 2. Peter writes,

I Peter 4:1-2 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourself also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

Peter is talking about identifying with Christ through suffering, that there is a great deal of suffering for the firstfruits to go through making them more and more like Jesus Christ. In another place it says that we partake of His sufferings. And so these people, these firstfruits, have a greater affinity for Christ than others will ever in the course of God's plan because they are made to walk His path.

Let us go to Luke 14. This is something we talk to newly baptized people about so that they understand; or about to be baptized people, baptismal candidates, let us say, but we want to make sure that they understand what they are getting themselves into because when you get baptized, you are committing yourself to a life that is going to parallel Jesus Christ's life. And that is not just the big reward at the end. It means all the sufferings along the way we are going to have to, in some way, go through ourselves, especially if we want to be a firstfruit.

Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple."

Because those sorts of things are going to be required. We are going to have to make some choices between people we love and Christ. And we are going to have to learn, we are going to have to make sure that we pick Christ every time, no matter what the consequences. We are going to be His Bride, we have to choose Him always, not anybody else. That comes up actually later in one of the descriptors. We will get to that.

Luke 14:27 "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."

So we are going to have to carry around with us the instrument of our death, as it were. We are going to have to be willing to go through the depths of hell, as it were, that Jesus Christ did so that we could follow Him, be His disciple.

So, what I think this new song is that they sing, these 144,000, they sing because of the unique circumstances of their calling, their conversion, and their salvation. They have experiences to tell, to sing about to glorify God because He intervened so often to give them deliverance and to make them into the people that they are coming out in the first resurrection as His firstfruits. They extol their Husband Jesus Christ for being with them every step of the way through all the terrible temptations of Satan the Devil and the distractions of this world. And they sing this song because they know that it is only by the grace of God that they are there, that He did all the work, or most of it. And they are so glad and want to glorify Him for their deliverance through all the sufferings of life in this world.

Other people will not be able to make such claims. Others of the redeemed will not be able to say that they went through the depths that they had to go through, that the firstfruits had to go through.

So the firstfruits have a unique song to sing that no other of the redeemed can match. They know Christ the best because they walked a similar path and thus they are judged worthy to be part of the bride. That is, the husband and the bride come from the same neighborhood. They had to go through the same things to get to where they are now. And so they are given a unique song to sing in praise of God who made it all possible.

Number three, the one I just mentioned here in verse 4, "they were not defiled with women." That is the next descriptor.

Believe it or not, this descriptor is the most controversial in the commentaries on this passage. And that is because everybody is a sex addict. I am not kidding. They always hone in on actual physical sex rather than the symbol of what it is. Many think that this descriptor here, "not defiled with women" glorifies the virtue of chastity. Catholics see a recommendation of celibacy in it. Some of them say, well, if we take this literally, what does it mean about the women not being defiled with women? I mean, it is really weird when you start thinking about it totally physically.

Some of some people say, getting a little bit more spiritual, that what is said here in Revelation 14:4 is an echo of what Paul says in I Corinthians 7:25-40 about not having the distraction of a spouse. Remember he said, I wish you were all like me, able to focus on God during these difficult times. Others say, well, the 144,000 must be those who were faithful to their spouses, no adultery. They are all perceiving this carnally.

The book of Revelation is a spiritual book with a lot of symbols in it and they should come at it from that point of view, that there is probably spiritual symbolism here somewhere.

Let us go to II Corinthians 11, verse 2.

II Corinthians 11:2 [Paul says] For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Now we are getting somewhere. Paul talks about spirituality and being faithful to God as virginity in a spiritual sense.

Let's go to another one. Revelation 17, same book. But in this place it is used in the negative Let us read verse 1 because it is continuation there.

Revelation 17:1-2 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Fornication and adultery, on the other hand, in the spiritual symbolism, is idolatry or some form of being connected to having intercourse, if you will, with the world and with politics and that sort of thing. So even though this is the most controversial of the descriptors in Revelation 14:1-5, actually it is the easiest to understand if you have a spiritual mindset.

We know from the book of Hosea and all through the Old Testament, that God considers idolatry to be spiritual adultery or harlotry. That is not hard to understand. It is all through the Old Testament. I just gave you a few New Testament scriptures where that theme is brought forward. So this descriptor indicates spiritual faithfulness and purity, that we take our religion seriously, and that we have understood and are grateful for the calling of God. And we do not deviate from our worship. We are spiritually faithful and pure before God.

So the firstfruits, once they were called, did their best to get rid of all idolatry in their life and they did, then, not worship any other gods, any other things that would defile them. The firstfruits are those who are thoroughly devoted to the true God and are thus worthy to be the Bride of Christ. I mean, look at what the Bride of Christ here in Revelation 19 has said about her.

Revelation 19:7-9 "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, "Write: '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."

So the the spiritual quality of the Bride is the highest among all those who are redeemed because they were faithful. They did not serve any other gods. They were not led astray, they stayed faithful throughout their conversion. So the firstfruits keep the first and second commandments and they also keep the first Great Commandment and all of those in all of their ramifications. They are wholly devoted to God. They have no other gods.

Let us go on to number four. The firstfruits "follow the Lamb wherever He goes."

Let us go back to the book of Mark in chapter 8 and start in verse 34.

Mark 8:34-38 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

Let us move forward to John the 10th chapter and we will read verses 4 and 27. This is the true Shepherd here and His relationship with the sheep.

John 10:4 "And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice."

John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

Among the most common things that Jesus said within His ministry is "follow Me." He says it time and again. He starts early in the book of Matthew, I think it is chapter 4 where He first says that. He is calling His disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and He says, "Follow Me, I'm going to make you fishers of men." And He says it a few times after that to other disciples that they are calling it is mentioned in here. And what we see is that that command stands for every kind of following of Jesus: following in His footsteps, imitating Him, speaking His words, and all those ways in which we follow the pattern of what He did.

Let us check out I John 2, verses 3 through 6.

I John 2:3-6 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

So it should get to the point where somebody could point to us and say say, "That's how Jesus did it," because the person who is doing those things has followed Jesus Christ in everything—in thought, in word, in action, in behavior.

Back into the gospel of John in chapter 21. Now this is not like, you know, following-all-the-lemmings-over-the cliff -type of following. This is an individual thing where God leads us in His way, individually. Notice what He says here to the apostle Peter about the apostle John. They both followed Him. They were both apostles, but they had different paths, if you will, different works to do. In this case, John had a lot more time to do his than Peter did.

John 21:20 Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following. . .

That is what he did. John was following Jesus all the time. If you notice as you go through the the gospel of John, you will see John following all the time. It is kind of just his thing.

John 21:20-22 . . . whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrayed You?" [That is what he said several days before.] Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?" [What is his path like?] Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? [What I was really going for is the next three words.] You follow Me."

It does not matter what anybody else is doing, it does not matter what your task is compared to somebody else's task. We are all to be following Jesus Christ no matter what the task is. And His attitudes, words, thoughts, behaviors, we are to always act like Christ no matter what the situation is. If this person is predestined to be martyred and this other person is predestined to live a natural life, but do a great work, let us say preaching or writing or whatever it is, who cares? That is what Jesus told Peter. What does it matter to you what he is doing versus what he is doing? Just follow Me. That is all it takes. Differences between brethren about what they do should not worry us. God has all these things worked out. Just do your job. Follow Me.

Now, you know, one of Jesus' titles is the Archegos, which means among other things, a leader; more specifically a trailblazer. He is the One that goes before everybody else and cuts the trail so that those who are behind us can follow. It is like Mike Ford used this in an article and sermonette years ago. I think it was Daniel Boone. You know, he went into Kentucky and he forged a trail for people to go there to colonize the area. Well, that is what Jesus did. Jesus went before us in life and showed us the way and we are all supposed to be following right behind Him, on his coat tails, so that we can get to the same place He got to, which is the throne of God. And our job has to be to follow Him.

And that is what the firstfruits do. They follow Christ, not another man, not an idea out of this world, not consensus. They follow Christ. What is it to you what this other person is going through or where his life will take you or take him? You follow Me.

God is big enough to work with us and keep us safe and work with the other people and keep them safe on the road to the Kingdom of God.

And so we have the life of Jesus Christ in four accounts and commentary through the rest of the New Testament. We have His work in the Old Testament that we could go back to. All of those are examples of Jesus Christ living in this world, functioning in this world, and we can take those things and follow Him.

That is what He wants us to do. And the firstfruits are the ones who do this best among all the redeemed. They study Jesus' example and model their lives after His. They go where He leads and then comport themselves as He did in whatever situation they find themselves in. They stick to Him like glue and do not deviate from His righteousness. They suffer if they must—and they probably will. They conform to His will as in Romans 12:1-2 and learn what the will of the Lord is through their life experiences, as well as the revelation that they have been given. And they are in this habit so deeply it is ingrained in them all the way to the bone and beyond, that they will follow Him for all eternity. They will never stop following Christ.

Number five there in Revelation 14:5 "and in their mouth was found no guile." I have got number five as "no deceit is in their mouths."

Let us go back to the gospel of John chapter 14.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him [talking to Thomas here after his question. I just want this answer, the first part of it.], "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Notice He calls himself "the truth."

Let us go to Numbers 23.

Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent [or regret]. Has he has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"

Of course He will. God is God. God is the God of truth. God does not lie.

Finally, Hebrews 6, verse 18.

Hebrews 6:18 [it says here] That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

He is saying here that He made this oath to confirm everything for us and this is based on the fact that God cannot lie. It is actually impossible for God to lie. He will never let an untruth cross His lips.

One of the things we saw coming through those verses, especially in Numbers 23 where it says "God is not a man, that he should lie," what that tells us is that deceit, any kind of lying and falsehood, is a demonic and human trait. It is a carnal thing for us. God gives people over to the lie when they show that they will not listen to the truth. It says that in Romans 1:25. Telling an untruth is not a divine thing, not in the least. Lying comes so easy to us. And when we are not outright lying, we are shading the truth to make us look better. We use deceit, lies, in various ways to puff ourselves up. God never stoops to that level. He just flat-out tells the truth.

Now some people say, well, He deceived this group and that group. Well, He withheld information. He is God. He is able to withhold information. He does not have to reveal everything. But that is not lying. He is working out His purpose. So He may not say everything that He could say about it, but He never lies, never tries to deceive. And it is this fact that it is impossible for Him to lie that allows us to have faith in Him and His promises. If God says something, He is going to do it. Isaiah 55—He sends His word out, it always comes back to Him accomplished, because that is how He is. He says He is going to do something and it gets done.

Look at Zephaniah 3, verse 13. It says.

Zephaniah 3:13 "The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed their flocks and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid."

He is speaking about the faithful remnant, the remnant of God, and one of their distinctive qualities is they do not lie. They speak the truth, they do not abide falsehood. And that is what the firstfruits do. The firstfruits love the truth. They love honesty, they love integrity. I mean, look at the Savior that they follow.

I Peter 2:22 "Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth."

We are finding as we go through these descriptors that the firstfruits are described in Christ-like terms, that the firstfruits hold to the righteousness of Christ so closely that they could be described in the same way as their Savior. Here we have, "There is no guile found" in the mouth of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 14:5, it says the firstfruits have no guile in their mouths either.

We all need to work on this if we want to be the firstfruits of God. Lying is a horrible sin among us, among all God's people, among everybody on the earth. It is something we are almost hardwired to do because of our flesh. We are always giving ourselves an out. We are always trying to trick somebody to give ourselves the advantage and we bring those evils with us into the church in our human nature and we lie so glibly it is something we really need to work on. I need to work on.

One of the things that we could do right now is to shun gossip. Gossip is horrible. It is part of the "speaking deceit" with your mouth. Quit talking to people and passing on news. Also, if you do not have permission from the people involved in a situation, do not speak about it. Otherwise you are whispering and backbiting. It is not good! Do not think that you have to know what is going on in every situation! You knowing is probably keeping those situations going when they could have been resolved. Never assume that you are free to say something about others in their situation.

Gossip has done more to destroy relationships in the church than anything I can think of. So, if I can be so blunt, shut up. Do not pass on gossip. It is a horrible habit and it ruins things. Why do you think the Bible talks about it? Speaking the truth with outgoing concern is high-level righteousness—which every one of us should strive to exemplify. I want all of us to be firstfruits in the Kingdom of God. And what we see in Revelation 14:5 is that we are failing in verse 5 because we are not telling the truth. We are speaking things out of turn, we are not showing the love of God in our tongue.

So if you desire to be part of the firstfruits of God, guard your tongue, I will do the same. And let us all be there because we have this attribute.

Number six, kind of a summation. It says in Revelation 14:5, "for they are without fault before the throne of God."

Let us go back to I Peter 1.

I Peter 1:19 [that we were redeemed] with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Let us go to Hebrews 9.

Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Now, scholars are consistent in mentioning that the Greek word for "without fault" in Revelation 14:5 is the word amomos, Strong's number 299, means unblemished and refers to the quality of the Old Testament sacrifices and especially to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was faultless, it was without blemish, it was blameless. The Twentieth Century New Testament translates the phrase here in Revelation 14:5, "for they are beyond the reach of blame." We might use the term perfect. You shall be perfect as your Father in heaven as is perfect or without flaw.

In secular Greek, the word amomos connotes ethically blameless or free of guilt. Let us go back to Genesis 17. We are going to catch these as quickly as possible. This is in the Abrahamic Covenant where God says to Abraham,

Genesis 17:1-2 When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. [This is the the Hebrew term that is parallel to the Greek term.] And I will make my covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."

Let us go to Deuteronomy 18 to get a similar verse.

Deuteronomy 18:13 "You shall be blameless before the Lord your God [without fault]."

The Abrahamic Covenant upon which the New Covenant is based has blamelessly walking before God as a central tenet. It is a central principle of the covenant that we are supposed to be blameless. Noah is blameless in Genesis 6:9. Job is said to be blameless in Job 1:1. And there it is coupled with the words upright, feared God, and shunned evil. These all basically are talking about the same sort of thing. The Old Testament word, which is tam, is Strong's Hebrew #8535 suggests spiritual maturity and integrity of the inner being. That is, these firstfruits, if you want to boil it down to one very easily recognizable phrase, these firstfruits have high moral character. Such people have honed their character so like their Savior, they do not sin. They do not transgress the law and the covenant. But because they are human, they do on occasion do that—and never deliberately. They rarely, if ever, succumb to weakness but always conform to the will of God.

We have a long way to go, do we not? That was my conclusion when I went through all of these.

Let us go back to Ephesians 5. Notice what God is doing, what Christ is doing here. You might want to write down Colossians 1:21-23 because it says essentially the same thing.

Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

That is what Jesus Christ is doing to make His Bride for Himself, to fashion His Bride in His own image, if you will. The firstfruits, then, by the end of their lives, have finished this course of spiritual maturity. They have been transformed in mind and heart to think and speak and act like Christ, having put off as much of the old man as possible.

And now, at this point, once we get to the first resurrection, they are above all reproach, as close to the perfection of Christ as is possible for a physical human being to have come. They have passed under the rod of the Shepherd, their Judge, and been found of the highest, finest spiritual quality.

Let us finish in Romans 13, verses 11 through 14. Notice what Paul has to urge the Romans here to do—and us. It has been preserved for us to take to heart.

Romans 13:11-14 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, and not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lust.

So I ask, candidates for firstfruits of God and the Lamb. How are we doing? Do we fit the criteria of a firstfruit to God and to the Lamb? And I will let you be the judge.

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