Chapter says, after this I beheld, and
lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations,
kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne. And
before the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their
hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, salvation to our
God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the
angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders
and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces,
and worshiped God, saying, amen, blessings and glory, and wisdom,
and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might. be unto
our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes,
and whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of the great tribulation. and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night
in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto
living waters, living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we do thank
you in your providence that you've brought us here once again to
sit set down under the sound of your gospel, your word, Father,
which reveals who you are, who Christ is, and how you save a
sinner. Lord, we thank you so much that
you reveal to us who you are. You brought us out of this darkness
that we're in all of our lives. You brought us out of that darkness
into the light of of your dear Son, you revealed Him to us. And Christ said, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Father. We thank you, Father, for all
these blessings of grace that you've bestowed upon us, even
from everlasting. Father, we thank you for not
charging us with our sin, but charging our sins to your dear
Son. made him my substitute, made
him my surety for that debt that we owed but couldn't pay. Sent
him in time as our surety to pay the debt, and he paid that
debt in full as he hung on the cross, shed his precious blood
in our place, redeeming us bringing us back to you, Father, bringing
us into the foal, that sheep foal. We thank you, Father, for
those that are here this morning. We pray also for those that might
be watching us through live stream. We pray that you would be with
each one of them also. Father, we pray now that you
would be with our pastors. He preaches Preaches the word
to us once again, we pray that you'd kind of clear our minds from
all the distractions, distractions of this world, cause us to listen
intently in order to once again grow in grace and knowledge because
of being here this morning. Christ's name we pray, amen. We'll pick right up there where
Brother Jim read in Revelation chapter 7, beginning at verse
9. And the topic, the title of the
message today is God's Great Multitude. As he says here in
verse 9, John in this vision, as the vision continues, As the
lamb is opening and revealing the contents of the seven-sealed
book, he reveals to John, it says in verse nine, I beheld,
I saw. And really the idea there is
I'm amazed. What I'm beholding amazes me,
he says. And lo, a great multitude which
no man can number, no man could number, numberless. of all nations,
all kindreds, all people, all tongues, that's languages, all
languages, stood before the throne, the throne of God, and before
the Lamb, that's Christ, who sits upon the throne, the King
of kings, representing the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, on that
throne, the Lamb slain, He is our access to the throne. We
have no access to God's throne of grace but through Christ.
On the basis of His blood, His righteousness, those who seek
to come before that throne by their works or on any other ground
are turned away. And He says here that they were
clothed with white robes white robes, that garment of salvation,
that pure white garment, incorruptible, cannot be contaminated. That's
the righteousness of the saints, which is the righteousness that
Christ, by Himself, in the glory of His person and the power of
His finished work, worked out for us on the cross. That's where
He did it. On the cross. drinking damnation
dry, suffering under the wrath of God, completing that work
of redemption. And it's that robe, that righteousness
that's imputed, charged, accounted to us, that's what it is. It's
nothing that we worked, nothing that we did, you understand. And then, that's our justification
before God. Jim preached on that two messages.
My sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ. Can you get hold of that? Because
I know you need it. I know I need it. My sins are
forgiven by the blood of Christ. False preachers will tell you
your sins are forgiven because you've repented or because you've
cried or because you've sorrowed because you've atoned or because
you've turned over a new leaf. That's not true. That's not true
at all. It's the blood of Jesus Christ
that cleanses us from sin. And to think that a sinner like
you and a sinner like me can stand before a holy God and be
declared legally and really, factually righteous in His sight. We get a hold of that now. That's who this great multitude
which no man can number is. And he says, "...and palms in
their hands." Verse 10, "...crying with a loud voice, saying, Salvation
to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb."
What are the palms? You remember when Christ entered
into Jerusalem on the donkey, they waved palm branches. What
that is, it's worship. Not only are we legally justified
and righteous in God's sight, but He's given us spiritual life
and a heart, a mind, a motive, a desire to worship Him, to give
Him praise and glory. And our praise is to the God
of all grace. We're not praising ourselves.
We're not bragging on ourselves. We're not singing our own song
and praises. We're singing worthy is the lamb.
We're waving the palm branch. That's what we're doing now.
We don't literally have palm branches here and waving, but
we're doing it in our hearts if we're true worshipers. Worshiping in spirit and in truth.
What a sight this is. Think about that. This is real. Now there's symbolic language
here, obviously. But the truth behind the symbols
is real for us. Sinners say by grace. Well, here's a question that
comes from this. You know, back up in the first
few verses of this vision in Revelation 7, it spoke of 144,000.
You remember that? Look at verse 4 of Revelation
7. I heard the number of them which
were... Remember, He's holding back the four winds of God's
wrath. Four meaning that God's wrath
is going to descend on this earth in every direction, complete
destruction. We read about it last week in
2 Peter chapter 3. Christ the Lamb is holding back
the four winds of God's wrath until something happens and that
is until, it says until the people of God have that seal of God
in their foreheads. What that means is that until
the people of God are brought by God through the Holy Spirit
and the preaching of the gospel to know and believe in and trust
Christ. Because God is not willing that
any of them should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And it says in verse four, and I heard the number of them which
were sealed, and there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of
the children of Israel. He's speaking of spiritual Israel
here. And we read that list of the
tribes of Israel. The tribes of Israel are not
listed in this way in any other book of the Bible. And even though
the ones he lists here are children of Jacob, Israel, but it's a
different list that begins with Judah, not with Reuben, the eldest. But why does it begin with Judah?
Because that's the tribe from which Christ came, and he's the
firstborn among many brethren, the firstborn from the dead,
the firstfruits of them that sleep. You see, it's all about
Christ. That's the key here. It's to
give Him praise and glory, and to bring sinners in these hard
times that we live in, and as we approach the nearer coming
of Christ, and the world's going to hell in a ham basket, what
are we to do? Where's our comfort? Where's
our hope? Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. There's where it's at. Get your mind off of all this
junk. and get your mind on Christ.
What a scene. Now that 144,000 is a symbolic
number. 12 times 12 times 1,000. And it's a symbolic number, and
here's what the question is. The 144,000, symbolic of the
entirety of God's elect, Christ's church, His sheep, on earth at
any given generation, standing firm, spreading the gospel all
over the world, and it's called the church militant. You understand? Militant meaning that it's the
church at war. Why do you think he says put
on the whole armor of God that you may withstand the wiles of
the devil, the breastplate of righteousness? The sword of spirit,
having your feet shod with the gospel. You can read about that
in Ephesians chapter six, the whole armor of God. Paul said,
I fought a good fight. We're in a war. And the 144,000
is symbolic of the entirety of the true church, the elect of
God, the sheep of Christ that dwell on earth in any given generation
fighting the good fight of faith. by the power of God, the church
militant. But then he says here in verse
nine, he says, now I see a great multitude. Here's another vision.
A great multitude which no man can number. Well, what is that? Well, that's the entirety of
God's elect over all generations of the world. from Genesis to
Revelation, God's elect, in glory from creation to the end of all
things, and that's the church triumphant, the church at rest. The fight's over. The war's over. The outcome of
the war has always been sure because of the lamb. You remember
Christ said in John 16, told his disciples, in the world you
will have tribulation. Not just seven years of it. You'll
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Christ has already won the victory.
But why are we fighting the world, the flesh and the devil here
on earth? Because God has a purpose to glorify himself in bringing
his sheep into the fold. And he's not willing that any
of them should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But there's coming a time, and that's what this vision here
beginning in verse nine. He says, and then after this,
after that vision of the 144,000 who were to be sealed in their
foreheads, coming to believe the gospel by the power of the
spirit, coming to be submitted to the righteousness of Christ
and stop trying to establish one of their own. After this,
here's what I behold now, a great multitude that no man can number.
That's the church glorified, the church at rest, the church
triumphant. And it's made up, he says, of
all nations. You remember he told Abraham,
he said, in you all nations shall be, all families of the earth
shall be blessed. How? Because it was through the lineage
of Abraham that the Messiah would come to save his people, spiritual
Israel out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation, Jew and Gentile,
the whole election of grace. And therefore the great covenant
promise that God made to Abraham, through you all peoples of the
earth will be blessed. It's gloriously fulfilled here.
No vacancies in heaven. And not only does this tell us
that God has his elect among all people, it demonstrates that
the number of the elect is not really small. Now that's hard
for us to believe. You know, in each generation,
There have been times when there have been more believers on earth
than others. You remember the prophet Elijah,
he said, Lord, am I the only one? God said, I've reserved
7,000. The question has always been
asked, are there gonna be more in heaven than in hell? Well,
the Bible indicates in many ways that there'll be fewer in heaven
than in hell. And we could go over all this scripture, I don't
have time to do all that, but think about passages like this
where the Lord said, wide is the gate, broad is the way that
leads to destruction, many be therein that find it, straight
is the gate, narrow is the way, few there be that find it. Passages
like many are called, but few are chosen. One of the disciples
asked in the book of Luke one time, Lord, are there few that
be saved? And it seems to indicate, as
Christ reveals things about the end times, as we get closer to
the second coming, that there'll be fewer and fewer of God's true people, that 144,000
on earth. That the number of those who
are deceived, Satan let loose to deceive the whole world. and
there'll be fewer and fewer who hear and believe the truth. The Bible certainly seems to
indicate that and tell us that. But here's what it's saying.
When we are glorified in heaven with Christ, we will be amazed
that over all the generations of the world, that there'll be
a great multitude that no man can number. And you know what that tells
us? Stop trying to number them. Because we don't know. But we'll
be amazed. You know, I often think about
Peter at Pentecost. Could you imagine being in a
service where the true gospel is preached and 3,000 people
converted? And then later on, I think there
were 5,000. Well, you'd think, man, there are gonna be more
than I can number. But that's what he's talking
about here. This is the church triumphant, the church at rest. Over all generations from the
fall of Adam to the second coming of Christ, it'll be a great multitude
of God. But this multitude, here's the
key, it's not how many. It's who they are. And He makes
it clear. Oh, they stand before the Lamb.
They're clothed in white robes. That's who they are. That's how
they're identified. They're waving palm branches
and they're crying salvation to our God. They're not gonna
say salvation's conditioned on me or they're not gonna say,
Lord, look what I've done or what you've enabled me to do.
It's all of God. Salvation is of the Lord in its
origination, in its continuation, in its application, and in its
glorification. It's all of grace. That's what
they're gonna be crying. And look here in verse 11, he
says, and all the angels stood round about the throne and about
the elders and the four beasts, those four living creatures,
preachers who point sinners to Christ, and fell before the throne
on their faces, and they worshiped God. They're not worshiping men. They're
not worshiping saints. They're not worshiping the apostles.
They're not worshiping Mary. They're worshiping God. And the
only way you can worship God is through Christ. Paul wrote
in Philippians chapter 3, we are the circumcision, which means
born again. That's a symbol of the new birth. We are the ones who have a new
heart. We are the ones who have faith in Christ, which worship
God in the Spirit. glory in Christ Jesus, boast
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. And
it says, here they are, they fell before the throne on their
faces and worshiped God. That's what we're supposed to
be doing here. Worshiping the Lord God. And they said, Amen. What does Amen mean? It means,
so be it. Amen, when the gospel is preached
or when the scripture is read, amen means this, I'm in complete
agreement with what God says. And listen to what he says, all
these things, not being objects of, these things about the angels,
for example, in verse 11. You know, the angels, the elect
angels, are kept in store by the power of God, but not by
redemption, but they worship God as they see the redemption
of God's people, not being objects of redemption, they worship God
as they are spectators viewing the glory of God as revealed
in the salvation of his people. by the glorious person and finished
work of Christ. Remember Peter talked about that
in 1 Peter 1, 12. These are things, these things
of redemption, these things of salvation by God's grace. God's
saving a sinner, justifying the ungodly, forgiving their sins,
declaring them righteous. These are things that angels
desire to look into. And why do they desire? Because
there's the fullness of the glory of God right there. How God can
be just and justify the ungodly. Do you realize that if you understand
that and believe it and love it, you have been made wise unto
salvation. And if it doesn't mean anything
to you, then I feel sorry for you and I pray that God will
reveal himself to you. And here they are and they worship.
They're in complete agreement with the sovereign mercy and
grace of God. And here's what they say, look at it in verse
12. Blessing. What is a blessing? That's the goodness of God to
his people through Christ. Ephesians 1.3 says, we are blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Now what does that mean? That
means that the blessings that I enjoy, of salvation and of
the goodness of God, that means this, that means I did not deserve
it and I did not earn it. Well, doesn't the Bible say that
we receive blessings like, for example, through obedience and
prayers? Yes, but not because we've earned
it, not because we deserved it, just simply because that's the
way God gives it. He ordained the blessing, He
ordained the means. We're blessed in worship today,
but you didn't come here to earn it, did you? If you know Christ.
You didn't come here because you deserve it. How do you know
that? Because in your heart and in
your mind, you're falling on your faces. Saying, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. Isn't that right? Glory, He says. Oh, the glory
of God in Christ. That's why I read that passage
in Galatians 6, verse 14. God forbid that I should glory
except in the cross of Christ. First Corinthians 1, verse 31
I believe says, let he that glorieth glory in the Lord. What is the
glory of God? That's His honor, that's His
majesty, that's the revelation of who He is and what He did. Think about it as I say it. And
here in verse 12 it says, and wisdom, the wisdom of God. Think about that. That's what
the gospel is. The gospel is the very wisdom
of God in Christ, Christ. Here is the second person of
the triune Godhead. who comes to this earth and unites
with sinless humanity, a sinless human nature created for him
in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, walking this
earth made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law, and it's through that transaction that God is
glorified in the salvation of sinners like us. And I want to
tell you something. You go look at all religions
and even false Christianity, they don't even touch that issue
of how God can be just and justify sinners like us. The question's
not even raised. You know, Job talked about it.
One of his friends talked about how can a man be just with God?
How can a sinner be made right with God? What does false religion
tell you? Oh, you can be made right by
your works. You can be made right by your decisions. You can be
made right by your confession. You can be made right by your
reformation. None of those things are true.
Those things are against God's word. How can a man, a sinner,
a woman, sinner, be right with God? The Bible tells us plainly
that as sin hath reigned unto death, so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, he was made sin. When I was
going up to Lexington to preach several weeks ago, the pastor
there, Pastor Sonny Hernandez, told me, said that a lady called
him, thinking about coming to hear the messages. And I don't
know who the lady was. He didn't give me her name and
I didn't care, but he said the lady told him this. He said,
she said, now you're all not going to get on this Christ made
sin issue. She said, because I'm tired of hearing that. And
I thought, my goodness. First of all, Years ago, when this subject
come up, none of you here made the Christ made sin issue an
issue at all. It was a given. You knew exactly
what that meant in 2 Corinthians 5, 21. God hath made him to be
sin. He'd been preached here for 18
and a half years. And then some people went astray
on that and made it an issue. And here's what I was thinking.
Do you realize that when you say, well, I'm tired of hearing
about that, you might as well say, I'm tired of hearing about
the glory of God. I'm tired of hearing about the gospel, the
ground of salvation. My friend, that's the wisdom
of God. God imputing our sins to Christ, sending him under
the wrath of God. to die for our sins justly and
righteously, whereby He drank damnation dry and made us righteous
in God's sight. God who imputed that righteousness
to us. Oh my, I'm not tired of hearing
about it, are you? I wanna hear about it. I'll tell
you what, you're gonna hear about it at judgment. Because God's gonna
judge the world in righteousness. by that man whom he hath ordained,
and he hath given assurance unto all men, and they have raised
him from the dead. And then after that comes Thanksgiving.
We just celebrated Thanksgiving, but you know what? We didn't
stop, did we? Aren't we still celebrating Thanksgiving?
Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thanksgiving, along with
love, you know, that's the motivation for all worship and service to
God. Thank you, Lord. Honor, he says here in verse
12. The goal of all worship and service
is to bring honor to God and not to ourselves, for our honor
is the honor of Christ. And then he says power and might. Power is God's ability. Might is what God does within
the realm of his ability, which is sovereign, omnipotent, all-powerful. What does He do? He saves us
by His grace. He preserves us by His grace. He blesses us by His grace. And all unto His honor and glory. And not our own. And then He concludes it in verse
12. Be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. It'll never change.
It won't change. It's always honor and glory to
God. Verse 13, he says, and one of the elders answered, saying
unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes, and
whence came they? Now that may sound like it's
strange because it says one of the elders answered unto me,
and then he asked two questions. And when you ask a question,
you're not answering, are you? Well, yes, you are, if it's a
rhetorical question. Well, what's a rhetorical question?
It's a question that is asked, not in order to gain information,
but a question that is asked to reveal a declaration to make
a point. What are these which are arrayed
in white robes? From where did they come? Verse 14, and I said unto him,
Sir, thou knowest. That shows you it's a rhetorical
question. You know? You already know the
answer to your question. Why ask it? Because it's important
that we make this point. And he said to me, they are they
which came out of great tribulation. Now this great multitude, which
no man can number, comes out of great tribulation. Not just
a certain number of God's elect through a seven year period of
time. They all come out of great tribulation. Why? What do you mean, preacher? Living
on this earth is great tribulation. Now it's greater for some than
others. I think about the early church, the New Testament, and
how they were arrested and tortured and killed. All of that. This is trouble. They came out
of great tribulation. But look at it. But they've washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. What's
that talking about? We don't save ourselves. We don't wash our own robes in
the sense of establishing righteousness. Christ does that. Salvation to
our God. But what do we do? By God-given
faith, we look unto the Lamb. We plead His blood. We plead
His righteousness. We plead His power. We plead
His glory. And that's what it means when
it says we wash our robes. I continually see, and you do
too if you know Christ, that if God were to mark iniquities,
none of us would stand. Isn't that right? If God were to take note at judgment
of my sins, what would happen to me? Well, I'd be damned forever. So what do we do? We look unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Our robes, the
robe we wear before a holy God has been washed in the blood
of the lamb. We're clothed in his righteousness.
And he says in verse 15, therefore, are they before the throne of
God and serve him day and night? Think about that. Continual,
uninterrupted worship. In his temple, that's it, with
the confines of the church of the living God, the true church.
And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them, and they
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. We have Christ
the bread of life, we have Christ the water of life. Neither shall
sunlight on them, there'll be no heat, bother us, nor any heat. And he says, for the Lamb which
is in the midst of the throne, the center of all the tension
now, shall feed them, feed us with the truth of God, shall
lead them unto the living fountain of waters, Christ the water of
life, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Have
you done any crying lately? Well, you say it comes and goes.
It does, doesn't it? But there's coming a time when
they'll never shed another tear of sorrow. Somebody said one
time, said, well, we'll shed tears of joy. Well, that's okay
with me. I like those tears of joy, don't
you? But no tears of sorrow. No sickness. No death. It's all gone. For God's great
multitude in Christ. Okay. Let's get our hymnals and
turn to hymn number 294, Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. Let's
stand. We'll sing a couple of verses. Savior, like a shepherd, lead
us, much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed
us, for our use thy folks prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. Sing the last verse. Early
let us