Well, turn with me to Revelation
chapter 14, and we're going to look at the first five verses
primarily this morning. But let me remind you what I
just said just before. In Revelation 12 and verse 12, Therefore rejoice ye heavens. Just to put it in context, we've
read that the child of the woman who is Christ had come down and
had accomplished his purpose, and the dragon, the devil, which
fought with Michael and his angels about whether the Old Testament
saints were justified to be in heaven because they were sinners,
he's defeated. Why? because the fact that the
child had come and accomplished his purpose of redeeming grace
meant that they were justified. So the devil was cast out into
the earth, and salvation is come, and strength, and the kingdom
of God, and the power of Christ, and the accuser of our brethren.
The devil is cast down, which accused them before our God day
and night, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,
and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives
to death. Therefore, Rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell
in them. Rejoice, heavens, it's accomplished, victory's certain.
Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the
devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he
knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw
that he was cast into the earth, He persecuted the woman which
brought forth the man-child. He persecuted the Church of God
which brought forth the Christ of God. This world, this creation,
is a scene of spiritual warfare, and has been ever since the fall.
Spiritual warfare between God and Satan, the forces of good
and the forces of evil. It's a theme in literature even,
it's so graven into the very fabric of this creation. Spiritual
warfare between God and Satan, and that warfare has an impact
on God's people in this world. Be in no doubt, the people of
God suffer. The people of God have been martyred. The people of God have been persecuted. They've been prevented from trading.
All sorts of things have happened to them. I cannot hide that fact. It's a fact of history. It's
a fact of Scripture. It's absolutely clear. It's what
God had said. It's what Scripture calls, what
Paul just called when we read it before, light affliction,
which is just for a moment. It's physical suffering, it's
persecution, it's ostracization, martyrdom also, as I've said
at times in history and in different places of the world. But at the
same time, the people of God remain through all of that, patiently
confident, absolutely certain of final bliss. Have you noticed
as we've been going through the book of Revelation, how it presents
contrasts to us? I've mentioned this before, but
it's worth mentioning again. In chapter 6, there were the
first six seals of the seven-sealed book opened. This is God's plan
of recovery of his kingdom from Satan, who had usurped it when
he When he came and deceived Eve, and Adam fell and cast the
whole of humanity into that state of sin and separation from God.
And that was his plan, because he couldn't stand the idea that
man would be elevated in the Kingdom of God, to be joint heirs
with Christ, reigning with Him. Satan said, no, that's my place,
I want to be up there. And so he fermented the fall,
and then God's plan is shown to us, six seals, which are all
for the purpose of frustrating Satan's kingdom. And Those seals
affect believers. They affect believers. The white
horse, the red horse, the black horse, the grey horse. We're
all subject to death. We're all subject to huge ranges
of economic well-being and poverty. All of that applies to believers
as well as to the world of Satan in general. And it's a gloomy
scene. But it's contrasted with chapter
7. Chapter 6 contrasts with chapter
7, where we immediately see the people of God, the symbolical
144,000, sealed by God. The judgment can't fall until
every last one of them is sealed with what? With the ownership
of God. You are not your own, you're
bought with a price, until they're all sealed with that ownership
of God. Contrasts. In chapter 9, there
are some dreadful things seen. It's the 5th and the 6th trumpets,
isn't it? And they're called woes. They're
the first two of the woes. The plague of demonic locusts,
and the terrible things coming on the earth when the angels
in the river Euphrates are freed in chapter 9. Oh, dreadful scene. Enough to make you despair. Ah,
but hold on. Just read into chapter 10, contrast, there is the mighty
angel who is undoubtedly Christ. There's nobody else can be described
as that angel is described that isn't Christ. Christ there with
his little book in his hand, one foot in the sea, one foot
on the land. What does that say? He's sovereign.
Don't be afraid. Fear not, little flock. He is
sovereign over all. Though these things will come
and will impact upon God's people in this world, God is sovereign. In chapter 11, even, the two
witnesses, symbolical of the church, its ministers and its
people, they're killed and they lie dead in the streets. And
not only that, but the people of the world rejoice over the
fact that they've killed them and their bodies are lying dead
in the streets. But don't despair. for they're raised to heaven.
The Spirit of God comes upon them and breathes life into them
and they're raised to their feet and they're called, summoned
up to heaven and we see them go safe to heaven. light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a more exceeding weight
of eternal glory. They're taken to heaven. Chapter
13, as we've been seeing, the dreadful kingdom of Antichrist,
that beast of worldwide globalism, rising out of the sea of Tempestuous
humanity. That kingdom of Antichrist and
the false prophet, the second beast from the earth, that produces
all of the signs and the wizardry and the lies to persuade people
to worship that beast. What a dreadful scene. What a
despairing scene. If you're a child of God, there
is no hope in chapter 13 until you get right down to the very
end of it. But then, if God gives you wisdom, And if God gives
you understanding and the mind of Christ to understand the limit
of that kingdom and the triumph of His, and then to see that
even in that kingdom from an earthly perspective, in chapter
14 and verse 1, there's a picture of the victorious kingdom of
Christ and right the way through chapter 14 that's again from
that reporter's perspective as all these visions are the different
perspectives as it were of different reporters on how this history
and this triumph of the kingdom of God will unfold Chapter 14
is this amazing contrast with chapter 13, because it's the
victorious kingdom of Christ. Christ is victorious. Chapter
11, verse 15 said that. The seventh angel sounded and
there were great voices in heaven saying, what were they saying?
I'm going to amend what is in the King James because I'm going
to take the plural out because I believe it should be singular.
The kingdom of this world. Satan's aim is one kingdom. It's
a globalist kingdom. The kingdom of this world is
become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall
reign forever and ever. Chapter 13 Verses chapter 14
is a dark vision of the devil's kingdom, the dragon's kingdom,
set against the bright vision of the Lamb and his people, victorious. Chapter 13 is from the perspective
of the triumph of Antichrist, as so it seems. And chapter 14,
set against it, is the triumphant perspective of Christ. Believers, as believers, even
as believers, we more clearly, because we're creatures of flesh
and in this flesh, we more clearly seem to see by fleshly sight
the reality of Satan's kingdom. When in truth, what we read right
at the start is the case. We look not for things which
are seen with physical eyes, but at things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen with physical eyes are temporal,
they are just of this time state. But the things which are not
seen, which the Spirit of God reveals to the soul of His people,
They are eternal. They're the things that are really
abiding and remaining, all that God would give us, that soul
sight, that faith to see eternal unseen things. Soul sight is
faith, faith, the wings of that great eagle that we were reading
about in chapter 12, that God would give us. It's His gift
to give, to give faith, the wings of a great eagle, to fly into
that separation from this kingdom of Antichrist. Now God is sovereign. God is omnipotent. If you have
any other thoughts of God that, you know, He's not able to fight
against this, that, or the other, your thoughts of God are altogether
too human. They're too small. God is sovereign. God is omnipotent. When we think about how God orders
all things, according to the counsel of his own will. He causes
all things to work together for good to those that love God,
to those who are called according to his purpose. Our puny, feeble,
fleshly minds start to think, how can that possibly be? I can
barely think of one or two things at once, never mind the billions
of things simultaneously that must be involved in causing all
things to work together for the good of his people. But that's
because your view of God, my view of God, is altogether too
small, altogether too human. God is sovereign. God is omnipotent,
means he's all-powerful. There's no power can resist his
power. What he wills, is certain. And what is the will of God the
Father? Let's remind ourselves, what
is the will of God the Father? The Lord's Prayer says, Thy will
be done. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom, thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. What is the will of our Father
in heaven? It's that Christ should be given
the kingdom, the kingdom that was usurped by Satan at the fall,
that Christ should be given the kingdom. that the whole of creation
should be subject to His rule, that all rebellion would be put
down and defeated, that the people of His choice, sin as though
they be, would be purified from sin and made the righteousness
of God in Him, and thereby qualified to be in that heaven. where Satan
can no longer accuse them of being sinners and not qualified.
And how are they purified from sin? They're redeemed by precious
blood. This is what we remember in Communion
with the bread and the wine, broken body and shed blood. It's
the life of Christ that paid the sin debt for his people.
This is the will of my Father, said Jesus in John chapter 6,
that of those he has given me, the people of God, the multitude
that no man can number, from before the foundation of the
world, chosen in Christ, as Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 says, that
of all of those people, he should lose none, none, absolutely none. He said, in order to accomplish
it, as a man, here we see the true human nature of the Lord
Jesus Christ, as he was preparing to go to the cross, Father, if
it be possible, let this cup of the wrath of God for the sins
of his people, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless. not My
will, but Thine be done. This is the will of the Father,
that Christ should come and accomplish redemption, that His kingdom
of peace and eternal righteousness might be triumphant over Satan's
rebellion. And that's a complete contrast
to the will of Satan, The will of Satan is that his kingdom
of lies and godlessness should succeed. That his kingdom of
sin should have it all swept away and paid no attention to. His kingdom of self and hatred
and cruelty and falsehood. That kingdom without any, above
all, without any blood redemption to qualify people, people, human
beings, for God's heaven. This is Satan's aim. That must
be stopped. We cannot have that. We cannot
have people qualified to be those who reign with Christ as joint
heirs with Christ in his kingdom. That was Satan's, that was the
thing that caused him such hatred for the things of God. Now do
you believe this? Do I believe it? Do you see that
there are only two camps in this world? There's only the camp
of the people of God, and the camp of the people of Satan,
all the rest. One is a tiny little flock, another
is a multitude on the broad way that leads to destruction. And
you cannot sit on the fence. You are either holy in one, or
you're wholly in the other. You're not partially in one and
partially in the other. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. Either the true God, or the gods of the peoples all
around you. But as for me and my house, said Joshua, we will
serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. So we
see two perspectives. Two perspectives. I don't want
to be too long this morning. I'll try, I know I often fail
at this. But two perspectives. Chapter 13 shows us the perspective
of Antichrist. The worldwide supremacy of the
kingdom of darkness. and the willing submission and
support that the majority pays to that kingdom of darkness and
satanic evil. They don't think so, they think
they're basically good people. But by disbelieving God, by calling
God a liar, by doubting God, that's the major, major sin of
the human race. And set against that is the isolation
of God's people who do not have the beast's mark. You know, it
was a mark in their forehead or on their hand. The hand speaks
of the works that they do. The works that the people in
this world do testify of the kingdom to which they belong.
And the mark on their head speaks of the thoughts that they have.
They think like the devil. They think the way the devil
thinks. They don't think like the Christ of God thinks. And
the days are so bad that they're shortened, said Jesus, for the
sake of the elect, because we have to live through it. Some
of God's people always are in this world, I believe it's 144,000,
symbolically, in this world at any one time, and they're living
through these days, because Jesus said, I pray not that you take
them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil. So the church, as we saw in chapter
11, the witnesses, the two witnesses, that's the church of Christ in
chapter 11, they lie dead in the streets. This is the world
in which we live. Why do we not have a big magnificent
building and a great big congregation and lots of people flocking into
us at the moment? Because Revelation chapter 11
is happening in our experience here in this country in these
days. The church is lying dead in the
streets to all intents and purposes. It looks dreadful, it looks hopeless. But don't lose heart. I'll tell
you why not to lose heart. The Scriptures, the Word of God,
always has something to teach us about everything in time of
need. Turn with me to 2 Kings chapter
6. You say, why are we going all
the way back there? you'll see in a moment, just
hold on. 2nd Kings chapter 6, and 2nd Kings is the days of
Elisha, not Elijah, Elisha, the prophet, and read those early
chapters of 2nd Kings and you'll see that the Spirit of God was
on Elisha. He prayed that the mantle of
Elijah might fall on him, that he might pick up that Spirit
of God that was in Elijah, and that he might take it up, and
he did. And again, throughout all of this time, the people
of God are pictured in Israel, of course they themselves, they
are not all Israel which are of Israel, but the true people
of God are amongst them, and they're surrounded by enemies
who constantly try to subsume them into the world. And Elisha's
in the northern part of Israel, Samaria, in that area that was
constantly in conflict with the Syrians and the Assyrians. And
so, they're coming, the Syrians are coming because they believe
that militarily the king of Israel in the north in Samaria keeps
having military success because they've got a prophet who is
constantly on their side and so the Syrians say well let's
go and capture Elijah sorry Elisha and we'll put him out of business
and then that will blunt their ability to do us harm so Pick
it up in verse 13. Go and spy where Elisha is, that
I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying,
this is told the king of Syria, he's in Dothan. Therefore sent
he thither horses and chariots with a great host, and they came
by night and compassed the city of Dothan about. And when the
servant of Elisha, the man of God, was risen early and gone
forth, behold, a host. encompassed the city, both with
horses and chariots. And he knew what they'd come
for. They'd come for his master, Elisha. And his servant said
to him, to Elisha, Alas, my master, how shall we do? And he answered,
Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them. But I can only see they that
be with them. I can only see Assyrians, sorry, Syrians and
their horses and chariots. I can only see that. No, says
Elisha, fear not. They that be with us that you
can't currently see are more than they that be with them.
And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that
he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And
I'll cut the long story short. Of course, they were saved. They
overcame the Syrians. They were not taken. It was with
spiritual sight that the young servant was enabled to see those
things which are eternal, those things which are of the kingdom
of God. So with that in mind, come to
chapter 14. As we despair in our flesh at
the situation for believers in chapter 13 in this world in which
we live, Lord, open our eyes that we might see eternal reality. Show us that those who are for
us the hosts of the kingdom of God are more than those who are
against us. And so he's still on earth, because
you know in chapter 13 when he saw the two beasts, that was
from an earthly perspective, and nothing has said that he's
now gone up to heaven, he's still on the earth, this is still an
earthly perspective, and I looked, and I looked, and lo, a lamb
stood on the Mount Zion, and with him 144,000. What does Psalm
2 verse 6 say? I have set my king on my holy
hill of Zion. He set His anointed on His holy
hill of Zion. And with Him, His people in this
world. With Him, His 144,000, having
His Father's name written in their foreheads. They're not
marked in their foreheads with the mark of the beast. They're
marked with the stamp of ownership of the God of heaven. I looked,
now with the eyes of faith, given spiritual sight by God. in a
scene which is contemporary with chapter 13. It's not sequential,
it's contemporary with it. This world in which we live.
Look, if God will give you sight, the sight of the soul, you will
see that you and me and all others of that 144,000, if we're truly
His, we're on Mount Zion with the Lamb of God. were there,
a lamb on Mount Sion, the seal of Revelation chapter 7 and verse
4. You know, there's that terrible
chapter 6 of all those seals being unloosed to frustrate the
kingdom of Satan. And then chapter 7, and there's
angels of judgment ready to pour out the judgments of God. And
it was given to them to hurt the earth. But verse 3, he said,
hurt not the earth. Christ said, This is the angel
ascending from the east. Hurt not the earth, neither the
sea, nor the trees, Why not? Doesn't it deserve to be hurt?
Yes, of course it does. It's sinful. It deserves to be
hurt. But don't do it till we have sealed the servants of our
God in their foreheads. How many of them? 144,000. The
servants of God in this world. There they are. Sealed. The true
believers on earth at any one time. Mount Zion is where Jehovah
dwells amongst his people. It's not a physical place anymore.
The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, you Jews say that in Jerusalem
is the place where you should worship. Well, yes, it was at
one time. Jerusalem was the place that God had ordained where he
would be worshipped and where a temple would be erected to
the honor and forerunning of the coming of
Christ. It was pictured in Jerusalem
in the Old Testament. It was pictured as God's stronghold
of power. But now, Jesus said to that woman,
no, it's not in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but God requires
that those that worship Him should worship Him in spirit and in
truth. And all around, all around this
Mount Zion, where we are now, anybody, those that are Christ's,
meeting together, two or three in His name, meeting together,
you out there joining with us, Where we are, all around us,
the kingdom of Satan, this global kingdom of Satan, the nations
which comprise it, they rage. Why do the heathen rage and imagine
a vain thing against the Lord and against His anointed? That's
Psalm 2, again. They're determined to cast off
the restraint of God, the restraint of His righteousness and of His
justice. But God's response is He laughs. He laughs at their puny efforts.
He laughs at the futility of their schemings. He shall have
them in derision. He's put His Christ on Mount
Zion. His people are secure. Satan
will be defeated. Whatever the world, the kingdom
of Antichrist, tries to do to the kingdom of Christ and its
people, making war, overcoming them, they're all still there.
The whole people of God are still there. Not one is lost nor ever
shall be. They might be physically hurt,
but they will not be spiritually lost. Every single one of them
will be there. The picture of the temple, with
stones cut from the quarry. They weren't made on site, they
were cut from the quarry exactly the right size to fit together
into that temple in Jerusalem. It's a picture of God's church
with living stones. The picture is shown in Ephesians
and 1 Peter, that we're a temple, you are the temple of the living
God, his people, his church in these days. Living stones, living
stones, with Christ himself, the chief cornerstone. And then
there's the picture in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 37, of the army, the
dry bones coming to life, the Spirit of God breathing on them,
and they stood on their feet, a mighty army. And you know what
armies look like? Ranks and ranks of soldiers.
And the most obvious thing in ranks of soldiers is one missing,
but there are none. missing, and there will be none
missing from the Kingdom of God. Every single one chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world, loved with an everlasting
love, every one of them will be there. Not one will be lost.
It is the will of my Father that he should lose nothing of that
which he's given me. In this evil world, in this kingdom
of Antichrist, the little flock of God is kept by God from the
evil. Why? Because Christ prayed it.
Christ the man prayed it before he went to the cross. Our God
manifest in Christ. Our God, we cannot know Him,
no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known, He has manifested
Him. Our God who is manifest in Christ
walks among the seven candlesticks in this dark world, which is
His church, it's a picture of His church. He walks amongst
his people in this world, where two or three are gathered in
my name, there am I in the midst. So that however bad this world
seems to appear to the sight of the flesh, even though it
looks like, as believers, if you're separate from this world,
you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, as Psalm
23 puts it, I will fear no evil. Why not? for thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Satan is on a chain, and
it is God that holds that chain and determines the length of
that chain. I will fear no evil in this world. Believer, do not
despair. Take courage. However bad it
looks like it might get, Great tribulation. These are they which
have come through great tribulation. We might have great tribulation
to go through before we leave this life. That might be what
is ordained of God for us. But whatever is ordained of God
for us, He will keep us. He will keep us in perfect peace. Those whose mind is stayed on
Him, He will keep in perfect peace. in the kingdom of Satan
and of Antichrist, the 144,000 suffered in chapter 13 because
they refused to worship the beast's image. They wouldn't worship
it. Remember, it's said in verse 8 of chapter 13, everybody worshipped
the beast and his image, but not those whose names are written
in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of
the world. These are those, and those alone,
who are redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, sometimes
a hymn that we used to sing comes rattling through my brain. I
always seem to have music in my head somewhere or other, and
sometimes it's a hymn from the past. And even in hymn books
that we thought were Calvinistically correct, there is universalism
throughout. Because you see, Jesus didn't
die for all without exception. Jesus died for his elect. He
died for those whose names are written in the Book of Life of
the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. And he did not
die to redeem. None of the sacrifice of Christ
went to waste. Every last bit of it, double
for all their sins. The people of God, say unto them
that you have received double for your sins, a perfect reflection,
a perfect punishment, a perfect payment, perfectly balanced.
He paid for the sins of his people. That's whose sins he paid for. And they refuse to worship the
beast's image, these people of God. And they refuse to take
His marks in their hands and in their head, in their works
and in their thoughts, because their names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. So how do we know their names
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Because they've heard the
Gospel and they've believed it. They've heard the true Gospel
and they've believed the true Gospel. And they've not tested
the gospel they've heard against the power of their own human
rationality. No. They've believed God. They've believed him. They've
not seen physically, but they've believed Him. They've trusted
Him. And so, as people who've sought
not to conform in any way to the kingdom of Satan, and who've
sought to keep themselves in wilderness isolation from the
thinking and the deeds, the evil deeds of it, They suffer persecution,
as Romans 8.36 Paul says there, for thy sake we are killed all
the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. It
isn't an easy life as a believer. If you think that you're going
to join the majority and have a wonderful time of peace and
happiness and all your friends around you, not in these days,
it's extremely unlikely. But they alone have spiritual
life. They're sealed with God's mark
of ownership. You're not your own, says 1 Corinthians
6, 19 and 20. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. What's the price that was paid
to own you if you're a believer? If you know that you've believed
the living God, and you've professed faith in the living God, what
was it that paid that price? It was the precious blood of
the Lamb. It was the precious blood of Christ. That's why we
remember in communion, you know, baptism is personal identification. with going down into the waters
of baptism, I identify with, I was with Christ, I am dead
with Christ. When He died, I died, and when
He rose, I rose from the dead. When His body was broken, and
when His blood was shed, it was for me, it was my life, because
my life was tied in, unified with His, from before the beginning
of time, bought with a price. Redeemed, this is the redeemed
of the Lord. Redeemed, look at verses two
and three. I heard a voice, this is chapter 14 of Revelation.
I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and
as the voice of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps. It still doesn't say that he's
in heaven, he's heard a voice from heaven. And they sung as
it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts
and the elders. This is the song of salvation.
This is the song of redemption. And look, there's only some that
can learn it. No man could learn that song,
except, listen, the 144,000. Every one of the Lord's people,
which were redeemed from the earth. What were they redeemed
with? not with silver and gold and corruptible things, but with
precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
This is what they sing in Revelation 5 and verse 9. on the earth. That's the salvation
that God has accomplished. He's redeemed his people from
the earth. He's bought them out of servitude,
the servitude of Satan, the servitude of sin, the bondage of sin. How? You see, Galatians reminds us
of the Old Testament that cursed is everyone that continues not
in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. But then, Galatians 3.13, but Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law. How? By He Himself being made
a curse for us. And if He was made that curse
for us, there is no sin to answer for on the part of the people
of God. Because as it says in 2 Corinthians
5.21, He that knew no sin, which is Christ, the Lamb of God, was
made sin. He was made the sin of His people. It was loaded onto Him. He was
made guilty of that sin. He was justly punished for that
sin. And so now the law and justice of God has nothing more to require
of those for whom Christ died in the place of. He who knew
no sin was made sin that we, His people for whom He died,
might be made the righteousness of God in Him and thereby qualified
for heaven. given spiritual life, given discernment,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they're foolishness to him, neither can he know them. Why?
They're spiritually discerned, misunderstood by the world, ostracized,
sidelined, snubbed, persecuted, killed, but possessing the life
of God. In verses 4 and 5, These are they which are not
defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And
in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before
the throne of God. This, of course, is not speaking
literally. It's symbolical. of spiritual
adultery, of spiritual fornication, of impurity. Old Testament Israel
was often pictured as an adulterous woman, an adulterous wife, for
their idolatry and their going after false religion. These people
of God, these ones who are virgins, have steadfastly, despite the
pressure, refused to be compromised with religious fornication. They've
been kept pure by the Holy Spirit. They've been given the mind of
Christ. As Psalm 119 verse 99 says, I
have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies
I am my meditation. They follow the Lamb, hearing
His voice. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me. They follow the Lamb of God.
They're not just hearers of the Word, but they're doers of what
the Word says. Not just hearers, but doers also.
They're made the righteousness of God in Christ by the redemption
that He purchased. In verse 5, look, in their mouth
was found no guile, and they are without fault before the
throne of God. Made the righteousness of God in Him. While Antichrist
seems to grow ever worse, and seemingly with impunity, and
painful though it can be to God's 144,000 at any one time on earth,
look at the Lamb's perspective. He is triumphant. God is serenely
ruling all things. He laughs at their doomed aspirations
to dominate, to destroy his kingdom. Remember Psalm 73. Remember Psalm
73. I often refer to it, but if I
can keep reminding you of it, it might keep coming to your
minds. In verse 12 of Psalm 73, this was a man who was upset at all of his efforts to try
to be a servant of God, and yet the world seemed to be prospering,
and he didn't like it. But he said, verse 12, these
are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.
Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in
innocency. I've tried to serve you, but
look at them, they're getting away with it all. For all the
day long I've been plagued and chastened every morning. If I
say I will speak thus, Behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children. Hold on, he's a child of God.
He can't say that, because he'll offend his brothers and sisters
in Christ. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me. What did he do? Until I went
into the sanctuary of God, Then understood I the end of those
who rebel against God. He was envious at the wicked,
but the gospel revelation in the sanctuary... What was the
sanctuary? In the temple, it was symbolical
of the gospel, of the redemption that Christ was coming to accomplish,
and that opened his eyes, that gave him faith to see from the
temporal appearance of how things were to the eternal reality. Remember what we read right at
the start from 2 Corinthians chapter 4? The things that are
seen are just temporary, the unseen things are eternal. So
what does that mean for you and me? Come regularly, come often
into the sanctuary of gospel truth. Listen to sermons online,
read your Bibles. How many professing Christians
hardly ever read their Bibles with any depth of study? And
you know, don't worry, guilty as charged here too. Let's come
aside from worldly distractions, aside from all the glitter and
thrill, into the peace of gospel truth. of fellowship with the
Lamb, of eternal confidence and certain hope. I'll finish with
this. Luke 12, 32, as I've said many
times before recently, Fear not, little flock, about what you
see, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Amen.