The Sin Against the Spirit (2); The Spirit's Future Ministry

We are, I think I said this last week, or something similar to it, but we are nearing the end of our study on the Holy Spirit. We've been in that study for a few months, and I anticipate finishing up this study tonight on the sin against the Holy Spirit of the unpartable sin, and getting into tonight some of what the Holy Spirit, the Bible tells us, will do in the future in what we think of as prophecy, and in Lord willing we will finish that up next week, so we will finish our study on the Spirit next week. And, of course, we get into a bunch of heresy that we have to kind of clean up along the way, and I hope that won't happen, but we'll try to get finished with this next week, and then we'll start into a study of the doctrine of angels, or what the Bible teaches about angels, which includes not only good angels, but also Satan and demons, so it's quite a fascinating study, really, as to what the Bible teaches about those areas. Let me just quickly remind you of what we looked at last week, as we looked at the sin against the Holy Spirit. We were in Matthew chapter 12, where that is described in the most detail in the gospels. As we began looking at it last week, we saw that the sin against the Holy Spirit, which is often just referred to as the unpartable sin, and we'll see why, when we get to the end of the passage this evening, last week we saw the situation that kind of presented itself, that brings this into focus. The situation was a man who was demon-possessed in Matthew 12 verse 22, also blind and mute Jesus, healed him, so that he could both talk and see, and that generated quite a response from the crowd. The crowd is literally astonished, actually literally outside themselves. We would say, beside themselves, with wonder and amazement, and they're torn between two conclusions. They are ready to conclude, this must be the Messiah, that has been promised in the Old Testament, but they're torn the other direction too, because they're religious leaders, whom they've been taught from childhood to respect, tell them that this is not a good man, and he is not the Messiah, and so they're being torn, but the evidence is overwhelming. They are teetering on the edge ready to go the direction of believing that Jesus is the Messiah. Well, the charge of the Pharisees in verse 24, they recognize that they're about to lose the crowd, and so they say this about Jesus, it is only by bells above the Prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons. They can't deny the fact that he's doing great miracles, that's obvious, but they say if we can't deny what's happening, we can deny what power motivates it or where it comes from, and so they say rather than this being by the power of the Holy Spirit, what he's doing is by the power of Satan. So they basically are ascribing what is truly God's power to Satan's power. In essence, they are saying Jesus, the one who is God incarnate, God in human flesh, really they're saying is Satan in human flesh. He is being motivated by the power of the Prince of demons, and so that's quite a serious charge, and Jesus, of course, knows how serious it is, and knows that with the crowd kind of teetering between the two opinions, how easy they could be slayed by that kind of forceful argument. So Jesus, uncharacteristically, directly and quite thoroughly responds to that charge, and so the response of Jesus, as we saw last time, is threefold. So Jesus says, first of all, your charge is absurd. Are you telling me Satan is going to oppose Satan? And tear down his own kingdom? That's absurd. To say that I would cast out demons by the power of demons, that's absurd. And then he says not only is it absurd, he said that charge is inconsistent. He says, Jews in the past, and even in Jesus' day, who cast out demons, and you honor them, respect them, but you accuse me of doing it by Satan's power. So your charge is inconsistent. And then he says in verse 29, your charge is contradictory. And he gives an illustration. If someone goes into the house of a strong man to steal his possessions, he's got to first of all bind up the strong man, which means he's got to be stronger than the man into whose house he's going to rob his treasures. Well, Jesus is saying, I'm taking away Satan's stuff, his demons out of someone. And so I have to be stronger than Satan. I have to have more power than Satan. And you're telling me, Satan is giving me that power? More power than he has himself? That's contradictory. That cannot be. It's not even logical what you're saying. So Jesus kind of ties them in knots with his responses to their arguments. And in verse 30, the challenge of Jesus as we saw last week, basically he comes down to this. He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me, scatters. It is Jesus who gathers, who heals, who brings things together, back to God's order. It is Satan who scatters and disrupts and destroys human lives. And so he's saying, if you're not on my side, then you're actually on the side of the one who scatters and destroys you are the ones who are siding with Satan. So he basically turns the whole argument back against them. Now we come to verses 31 and 32 where we left off last week. And Jesus now will after issuing this challenge show how serious their charge really is. And so he describes the unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin described in verses 31 and 32. And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven anyone who speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven. But anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come. Now the reason why we spent so much time with the story and the incident that led up to this explanation of this unpardonable sin was because it's all tied together. When Jesus talks about speaking against the Holy Spirit, he's referring back to verse 28 and what he said in verse 28, if I drive out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And so it's not just kind of a random speaking against the Holy Spirit that's the unpardonable sin. That's not the point. The point in the context is these people are ascribing the power that Jesus is using to cast out demons not to the Holy Spirit, but to demons themselves. And so the work that Jesus is doing in the power of the spirit, they're describing to the power of Satan. That's how serious the charge is. Specifically, then the unpardonable sin is charging Christ with doing his miracles through Satan's power, not the spirit's power. That's the unpardonable sin and that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Now why is that so serious and why is that unforgivable? Verse 32 tells us why anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come. So he says you can still be forgiven if you just speak against Christ, but if you speak against the Holy Spirit, in other words, if you deny my miracles being done in the power of the spirit, that's the last straw. And here's the reason why. Remember in John chapter 6, I'm sure you remember this from probably about a year ago when we were in John 6 on Sunday morning, so I'm sure you remember this. Jesus said, said there, I have several things that testified me. John the Baptist testified of me, the father testified of me, I testified myself, but if you deny all of those, at least believe the testimony of the signs, the miracles, because that is directly from the Old Testament. The miracles, the signs that Jesus did were exactly foretold in the Old Testament. This is exactly what the Messiah will do. You can read, you can read down the list of the miracles in Messiah will do in Isaiah 35. The Prophet told exactly what the Messiah will do. These are the miracles he will do. He will heal the lame, the blind, and so forth. This was a whole list up there. Jesus was doing all of those. So Jesus is saying, I'm doing those in fulfillment of Old Testament scripture by the power of the spirit. If you deny every other testimony about me, including what I say about myself, verse 32, speak a word against the Son of Man, you can still be forgiven. But the last confirming testimony to be denied is the voice of the Spirit of God through the miracles. And if you deny that, then there's nothing left. There's nothing left. There is no other witness. There is no other line of argument. That is the final concluding proof of who Jesus is. Once you deny that one, you've thrown everything down the drain. And there is nothing left for you, but judgment. So that's why it's so serious. That's why it's unpardonable, unforgettable, because it's like saying no for the last time. And God says, okay, there's no other witness. I'll give you. There's no other testimony. I'll give you. This is it. There's nothing left for you, but judgment. That's why this sin is so absolutely serious. Now, that leads us to the question that everybody asks about the unpardonable sin. Can the unpardonable sin be committed today? Well, a lot of people feel like they have or some people do. Some people feel like they've either sinned so grievously in their lives that they can't be forgiven. Or some people pick out specific sins that they say are unpardonable, and the one that is most commonly used is suicide. And it kind of stands to reason. People would think that because if you commit suicide, obviously you die. And there's no opportunity to be forgiven of that sin. I've preached several funerals of folks who have committed suicide. And when I know that that is the question in the family's minds and hearts because they have posed it to me and they're struggling with it, then I'll just deal with it honestly in the funeral service. I've done that several times. I'll always do that, but when I know that's the issue, people need to be cleared up in that issue. Then I'll deal with it. Suicide is not the unpardonable sin. Obviously you can't be forgiven of that sin, but let's think theologically now. All of us will probably die with some sin that we've not confessed. Some sin that you've forgotten a long time ago or some sin you committed when you were 20 and you'd lived another 10 years, never confessed it to the Lord, you've forgotten all about it. We will probably all die with some sin, unconfessed. In that sense, theologically, it's no different than suicide. The reason people think suicide is the unpardonable sin is because you can't confess it. Well, there are probably all of us will die with some unconfessed sin. So that's not the issue. Obviously, if a believer commits suicide, then they've got a stain, a spot of sin on their record that will damage their rewards in heaven. But again, that's probably true for all of us to some extent. So that's not the unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin, specifically, technically, could only be committed when Jesus was on the earth. Why? Because specifically, the unpardonable sin was committed by the nation of Israel, its religious leaders, as they are visibly witnessing the miracles of Christ, which are the testimony of the Spirit, as to who he is, and when they rejected that testimony, they committed the unpardonable sin. We can't commit that anymore because, first of all, we're an optimization of Israel who is investigating their Messiah, and we are not living during the life of Jesus when He's doing His miracles in the power of the Spirit. So, technically, no. This sin cannot be committed today. It was specifically localized to that time period, that set of circumstances. However, there is a similar sin that many people today call the unpardonable sin. And although I probably wouldn't call it that, I can understand again the reasoning why some people would. There's one sin that is similar, and it would be the sin of unbelief. The sin of unbelief. Why? Because it's the only sin that keeps you from being forgiven. As long as you remain in unbelief, you'll never be forgiven, right? You'll never be saved. So, when you think about it logically, that way, okay, that is an unforgivable sin because you can never be saved if you continue in unbelief. But a person, when they do, turn from unbelief and trust Christ, automatically they're forgiven. So, it's not unforgivable ultimately, finally, unless that person dies without ever having trusted Christ as Savior, then obviously they would spend eternity in the lake of fire. So, in one sense, I guess that's similar, but it's still not what Jesus was talking about, okay? An unpardonable sin, then, I would conclude could have only been committed when Jesus was on the earth, presenting Himself as the Messiah to the nation of Israel and His miracles as the credentials for who He was. To deny that testimony of the Spirit is the blasphemy against the Spirit, the sin against the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin. Okay, I haven't slowed down enough to give anybody a chance to ask a question or say anything. Well, or you're talking about if they committed suicide. Well, I guess I would counter this way and I'm not sure it's right. You can only ask forgiveness for something that has been done. Otherwise, you're basically, for lack of a better comparison, kind of like the Catholics who say, just kind of forgive me of everything, but I'm going to go do it anyway, or I'm going to go commit sin this week anyway. To ask forgiveness and then commit the sin renders the asking forgiveness, no, and void because you have gone ahead and done the sin that you were going to ask forgiveness for. Does that make sense? You know, as I'm saying it doesn't make a lot of sense to me either, but I still think it's right. You don't ask for forgiveness and then go commit the sin. It really basically indicates you weren't serious about asking forgiveness. The Bible teaches that asking forgiveness is not just saying the words, asking forgiveness basically means you turn from that sin. Proverbs 28.13. Now I'm thinking a little bit more clearly. Proverbs 28.13. He who confesseth and forsakeeth his sin, Shofi and mercy. He that covered his sin will be judged, but he that confesseth and forsakeeth his sin, Shofi and mercy. So involved in the very act of confession is not just saying words that you don't mean because you're going to go ahead and sin anyway. Confession means that you are deeply troubled over that sin and you turn from it. So I would say confessing something that you're planning to do after you confess it makes the confession more invoitteous, not genuine. Judiciary. Yes, our sins are covered by the righteousness of Christ. So no matter what a believer does, it's not going to take their salvation away. No. So even if a believer commits suicide, it doesn't take their salvation away because all of our sins are covered by the blood of Christ, the moment we got saved. So judicially as far as our standing before God, suicide is no different than any other sin. It cannot take away our salvation. The reason some people think it's the unpardonable sin is because you don't have a chance to confess it. And as we've already pointed out, all of us will die with some unconfessed sin of doubt. Right. Right. As a believer, confession of sin is not to restore salvation, it's to restore fellowship. It's to restore the family fellowship. Yeah. Okay. The other questions is that clear for everybody then? Okay. Are we done with the unpardonable sin? Vibliically, theologically? Yes, we're done with it because it can be committed today. All right. So we're done. Yes. Another good affirmation. Any verse that talks about eternal security is approved that nobody can lose their salvation because of any sin they do. That's a good one. He that comes with the meowel and no wise cast out. John chapter 6 verse 40. Good verse. Okay. All right. Let's move on to what the Holy Spirit will do in prophecy. I'm not talking there about the Holy Spirit giving us prophecy or giving us the word of God which tells us prophecy. I'm talking about what the Holy Spirit's role will be in the future. Let me introduce this topic, the spiritual ministry by talking again a little bit about the neglect of this area. This area, the Holy Spirit role in the future is given practically no attention in writings, theology books, books on the Holy Spirit. I'm going to show you a prophetic chart in just a little bit not quite yet, but I'll explain these terms if you're not familiar with them. Post millennialists and omelennialists don't really care much about the role the Holy Spirit in the future anyway because they don't see future things as we who are pre-millennialists would. So if you read Ovalennialists which are more common today, post millennius, a couple of generations ago, they don't give much attention to prophetic themes at all. Much less the Holy Spirit's role in prophecy. I mean, their prophetic scheme is so simple that can be dealt with in just a few sentences and really don't just kind of wash away a lot of what the Old Testament teaches. But even pre-millennialists, like we are, and again I'll explain those terms in a moment, even most pre-millennialists don't spend hard at any time talking about the Holy Spirit's role in the future. The one who does a good job of that is John Wahlberg who was for many years the president of Dallas Theological Seminary in his excellent book on the Holy Spirit. He has a couple of whole chapters, a whole section of the book on the Holy Spirit's role in the Old Testament. He's about the only one that really deals very extensively with that. Now having said that, there is such a neglect in this area, let me give you before we jump into what the Holy Spirit will be doing in the future. Let me give you a framework for the future. This is our prophetic chart which all of us who are dispensationalists and pre-millennialists we love, prophetic charts. And so we're going to show you this cool little chart of what we believe about the future. Now let me explain the terms first. Pre-millennial, pre-tribulational prophetic timetable. Pre-millennial means that we believe Jesus will return to earth pre or before He sets up His kingdom, the millennium. We're going to see it right here, Christ's return to the earth before He sets up the millennium. So we believe Jesus returns before the millennium to set up His kingdom. I mentioned earlier post-millennialism. Post-millennialism is not as popular now as it used to be, although there is still a wing of that that's popular called Reconstructionism. Rousseau's Russian Boone and some others like him had really tried to repopularize that movement. But post-millennialism was basically popular in the first half of the 1900s. And basically what it taught was that the church is bringing in kingdom conditions on this earth. So the church is really building the kingdom. And Christ will return after we have brought in kingdom conditions to rule so the coming of Christ is post-after the millennium. So we have a lot of carry over that in our terminology a lot of times when we talk about doing kingdom work and building the kingdom and spreading the kingdom and so forth. And I understand what we mean by that, theologically it's not the most precise way to speak of what we do. But that's post-millennialism. Ominousism is basically those who say there is no literal thousand year kingdom on this earth. So the preface armies know no millennium. Now what omelinialists do believe is that the church is living under a heavenly kingdom and we inherit all the promises that the Old Testament made to Israel about their kingdom on this earth. All of that is taken figuratively and shifted over to the church by omelinialists. They do not believe that there is a literal future kingdom set up on this earth for a thousand years. So we believe here at Johnson Chapel and we believe the scriptures would bear this out that pre-millennial Jesus will return to the earth before the kingdom starts or at least the literal earthly form of the kingdom. There has always been a form of God's kingdom because God's kingdom is simply his rule over his universe at least in general terms. So the man who founded Grace theological Seminary where I attended, Alan McLean wrote probably the greatest book on the kingdom called the Greatness of the Kingdom. He describes this way the mediatorial kingdom and that is throughout the Old Testament God mediated his rule through people here on earth. Part of that was through Israel and the Old Testament and today he mediates his rule through the church. But someday he will come back and literally set up a kingdom, a literal earthly kingdom on this earth called the millennium and that is what we believe. So that is what pre-millennial means. Now pre-tribulational means that we believe Jesus is going to rescue the church before the tribulation takes place. So we believe in a rapture that Jesus will come back and take the church away from planet earth before the tribulation. So we are pre-tribulation rapturists. There are some people who believe the church will go through the tribulation and when Jesus returns to the earth we will be caught up and then come right back down with him. Those are post-tribulation rapture. They believe we will go through the tribulation time. But here at Johnson Chapel our official doctrinal statement is that we believe Jesus will come back at the rapture before the tribulation. So here is the way we looked at the future. This is a framework for understanding prophecy or understanding the future. Here is the cross. Jesus ascends back to heaven. The Holy Spirit comes down on the Epinocost and ushers in the church age and that is where we are right now. We are living in the church age right now. The next thing, actually the first thing on God's prophetic timetable is the rapture where the church is caught up. Jesus returns. We are caught up to meet him in the air. Go back to heaven with him. Now that ushers in a seven year period of time on the earth called the tribulation or the last half of it called the Great Tribulation where God pours out his judgment on the earth, according to the book of Revelation in a series of 21 judgments, seals, bowls and trumpets. While that's going on we are in heaven with Christ at the judgment seat of Christ being judged for our works. The marriage supper of the land takes place when we come back with Christ to set up his kingdom. So Jesus comes back after the tribulation time. He returns to the earth, sets up his kingdom for a thousand years. That's described specifically even following this very timetable in Revelation chapters 19 and 20. After describing the tribulation in Revelation 6 through 18, the second coming of Christ is described in Revelation 19 and the first six verses of chapter 20 in Revelation described the thousand year rule of Christ on the earth. During that time Satan will be bound and not be able to roam the earth and do all the mess he's doing today. He will be released for a short insurrection following this thousand year reign. But at the end of the millennium will be the great white throne judgment of all unsaved people before New Heaven and New Earth are created and those who are judged at the great white throne judgment are cast into Lake of Fire. And that begins the eternal state that begins what we typically think of as eternity where we as believers will be in the presence of God in heaven and unbelievers will be in the Lake of Fire forever. That's what we believe the Bible teaches about prophecy about the future, kind of in a nutshell and one little table there for your chart. So when we talk about what the Holy Spirit role is going to be we're going to talk about what little Holy Spirit do in two basic time periods, the tribulation and the millennium. What will the Holy Spirit do in those two time periods? That's what we're going to talk about with the Holy Spirit role in prophecy. All right, any comments or questions before we jump into the Holy Spirit role? What? What's the Christian? What time period Christians will be doing what during the millennium? Christians, believers, the Bible does not really say the Bible describes the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20 verses 11 through 15 and it just describes the unsaved dead appearing before God's throne and judgment. It doesn't really say where we're going to be but we will be we will be with the Lord we will be in heaven. Whether or not we will be observing that or you know I don't know but we'll be in heaven. Yeah. Okay. Other questions? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Verse 5, beginning of the paragraph, he says, don't you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things and he's talking about in verses 1 through 4, what must happen before the Antichrist is introduced? Antichrist is revealed, right here, oh, we forgot the charts a lot of very many more. The very beginning of the tribulation, the Antichrist is revealed. So let's see what he says in verse 6. And now you know what is holding him back, holding the Antichrist back so that he may be revealed at the proper time for the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who holds it back. Okay, there is one spoken of in personal terms, a person in individual that holds back this power of lawlessness that the Antichrist will operate by, but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. Now this one who holds back this secret power of lawlessness or some translation, like King James says, restrains that this restrainer is probably the Holy Spirit. Now there are different views as to who it is or what it is that holds back this flood of lawlessness, this unchecked spread of sin, but it's clear that Paul is saying something and someone restrains that holds it back until he's taken out of the way. Now I believe that is the Holy Spirit who restrains the spread of corruption evil and he will be taken out of the way, but it does not mean that the work of the Holy Spirit comes to an end. What I believe this is saying is that one particular ministry of the Spirit ceases at the rapture. It is the rapture that kicks all this off, where the Antichrist is revealed and the lawlessness just is unleashed and the sense in which the Holy Spirit's ministry is taken away is because of the removal of the church. The church is raptured right before the tribulation starts and the Holy Spirit's holding back the tide of evil because of the presence of the church in this world, the presence of believers in this world, that is what is removed in the rapture. It doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit ceases to function and does no more work after the rapture because as we'll see, he does and the Scriptures are clear on that. But this one particular ministry of the Spirit is taken out of the way and that is the restraint on evil by the presence of the church in this world. When the church is raptured, that particular evidence manifestation of the ministry of the Spirit is removed. And so the flood of evil just rushes in to take up the vacuum and that's when the Antichrist has his day. But the Holy Spirit will continue to work. In other ways, in the tribulation time, he's just not present in the church because the church is raptured, taken out of the way. But the Holy Spirit will continue to work. In fact, he will be very active in the tribulation. And we're going to see two ways that he will be active. First of all, his ministry to unbelievers and then a little bit later we'll see his ministry to believers. I don't think we're going to get that far tonight. But let's begin with his ministry to unbelievers. The Holy Spirit very clearly will continue to minister to unbelievers in the tribulation time. Now, in order to understand that, again, we have to think theologically. We have to put together pieces of truth to come to this conclusion. And the first piece of truth that we need to recognize, and the reason why I want to emphasize this is because some people stumble over this, the first piece of truth we have to recognize that leads us to the conclusion the Holy Spirit will still be active, is that people will be saved in the tribulation time. It's not like people will not be saved. There will be multiplicities that people saved during the tribulation time. Let's look at a couple of instances of it in the book of Revelation chapter 7 and verse 4. Revelation 7 verse 4. Then I heard the number of those who were sealed 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. So there are 144,000 Jews, 12,000 of them from each of the 12 tribes, and they're listed here by tribe, by number, 144,000 Jews are sealed. Now, skip over to chapter 14, which tells us a little bit more about this. Checked 14 verses 1 through 4. Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion within 144,000, who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. Obviously, they are believers. Then I heard a sound from heaven like the Royal Wreshing Waters, like a loud peel of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists, play their harps, and they sang a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures in the elders. No one could learn the song except 144,000 who had been redeemed, redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They followed the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as first fruits to God and the Lamb. Obviously, descriptions of salvation. So, to make a long story short, these 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes, are redeemed. They are saved during the tribulation time, and they are sealed in such a way that they cannot be killed by the Antichrist. They are protected by the Lord to be evangelists all throughout the world, and they will take the message of Christ and His redemption and His coming kingdom all over the world. They will be flaming evangelists, and when they are described as people who have not defiled themselves with women and so forth, the idea is not that being married is simple. That's not the idea. The idea is that they, knowing the time is short, devote themselves wholly to the work of God, and they don't entangle themselves at all in the affairs of normal life. They give themselves completely, like the Apostle Paul did for Shrink in 7, they do the same thing, giving themselves wholly to the work of God to spread the gospel in the short time they have on planet earth. Now, notice the result of their ministry in chapter 7, verses 9 through 14, because 144,000 Jews are not the only ones that will be saved in the tribulation time. After he introduces these 144,000, chapter 7, verse 9, he says, after 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, and they cried out and allowed voice, salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Many mentions the angels and living creatures worshipping in the same way, and I look at verse 13, then one of the elders asked me, though these in white robes, who are they? And where did they come from? I 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. So here's this great multitude of people who are saved out of the tribulation time, and they get saved, I believe, because of the context here, introducing 144,000 who are sealed to take the gospel all the world. They're saved through their ministry, and they're such a great multitude of them, you can't number them. So there are going to be lots of people saved. In fact, those evangelists, 144,000 evangelists will be so committed to their work. They will do what the church has not been able to do in 2000 years, and that is get the gospel to every tribe, every language, every people group, because people from every people group will get saved out of the tribulation time. That's what this is saying. So here's my point in times up. A lot of people are going to get saved during the tribulation time. People don't get saved without, first of all, the conviction of the spirit and the regeneration of the spirit. We've seen already, theologically, that's impossible. You can't get saved on your own. It is a work of God that is done through the spirit of God, convicting you of your sin. That's what he's sent to do. John 16, he convicts us of our sin, righteousness of judgment. And then he births us into God's family. He regenerates us. These people are not going to get saved by their works. They get saved by the blood of the Lamb just like we do. So the Holy Spirit in order for them to be regenerated has to be doing the same thing as doing now, convicting those sin, regenerating them. So if people are going to get saved in the tribulation time and they will buy the millions, then the Holy Spirit has to be very active in convicting of sin and regenerating. You say, when a, how do you know that the Holy Spirit is really doing that? And here for I wish we had 10 more minutes. We'll have to do this next week. There is a whole group of people that are specifically identified as being saved through the work of the Holy Spirit at the end of the tribulation time. And it's the whole Jewish nation. We'll look at it next week. Romans 11, Zachariah 12 and Zachariah 13, very clearly talks about the role of the Holy Spirit in turning the nation of Israel to their Messiah when they see him coming at the second coming. So there's a whole bunch of people right there at the end of the tribulation that are clearly spoken of as being given a spirit of supplication of grace to call out to the Lord. So we'll see that next week. Okay. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and the beauty of your word. Thank you, Father, that it is such a joy to study and to learn more about what you have in store. Or do we thank you that even though the spirit will be removed in his restraining influence when we are taken to heaven, he will still be working in many other ways through the tribulation time and on through the millennium. Thank you that as God, he is, he himself is not restrained. And we thank you that even with us now we have his power, his help every day. Thank you for the great gift of your spirit in Jesus' name, Amen.