Good morning. I invite your attention to the
revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 14. The 14th chapter of the last
book in the Holy Scriptures. My text will be found in verse
number 13. My message is titled, Dead but
Blessed. And I looked, and lo, a Lamb,
that would be Jesus Christ, stood on the Mount Zion, and with Him
an hundred forty and four thousand having his Father's name written
in their foreheads. You either have God's name written
on your forehead or you have the mark of the beast. We're
all divided into those groups. We who have the Father's mark
and they who have the beast's mark. You cannot have both. You will have one. And I heard
a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice
of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps. And they sung, as it were, a
new song before the throne and before the four beasts, that
would be the cherubs or the seraphs, around God's throne, four of
them, and the elders. The 24 elders, they occupy thrones
around God's throne. They ruled and reigned with Christ
for a thousand years. And no man could learn that song
but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth. These are they
which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. He made
them to be so. 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 new guile, for they are without fault before
the throne of God. And I saw another rain gel. fly
in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred
and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him. For the hour of his judgment
is come, and worship him that made heaven and earth and the
sea, and the fountains of waters. Observe, it is an angel, not
a man, an angel who preaches this gospel. But it's too late to believe
it. This is the end. An angel has now come declaring,
you're going to worship God, but It's too late. It's too late for your salvation.
And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is
fallen, that great city because she made all nations drink of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel
followed them, saying with a loud voice, Any man worship the beast
in his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the
presence of the Lamb. and the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever. And they have no rest day nor
night who worship the beast in his image and whosoever receiveth
the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus. Now my text, verse 13. And I
heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow
them. My subject, as I said, is dead
but blessed. Death. What is death? Death is the consequence
of sin. The soul who sins shall die.
Death is the separation of our soul from our body and it will
happen to all of us. Death is the terminator of our
earthly existence. Death is the enemy that conquers
all and is conquered by none. Death is the final separator
from friends and loved ones. Death is that thing that is most
dreaded by most people. Death. Death usually comes from
a tragic event, or a debilitating disease, or a painful infirmity. Now as you can see from what
I have just said, everything about death is negative and bitter. Nothing about death is positive
and sweet. Therefore, it is strange, is
it not, that we should read in our present text, blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Now that's strange. Blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord from now on." What a glorious beatitude or a statement
of blessedness of this. That word blessed means happy.
Happy are they who die in the Lord. Yeah. Happier than they have ever been
in their lives. More blessed than they have ever
been in their lives. Indeed, none are as happy. None are as blessed. as they
who die in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, how do we
know this to be true? Well, observe the first words
in our text. I heard a voice from heaven saying
these words. This is either God speaking or
one of His angels commissioned to speak for Him. Whichever the
case, It is God who says, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Henceforth, blessed are the dead
who die in the Lord. I want us to consider four points
this morning. First, the recipients of this blessedness. Second, the commencement of their
blessedness. the destruction of their blessedness
and forth the confirmation of their blessedness. Blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Who are the recipients
of this blessedness? They are the dead who die in
the Lord. Now, folks, we're all going to
die. You know that. We all are going to die. Only
they who die in the Lord will be blessed. They die in the Lord. They die in the Lord in many
ways. Briefly, I'll give you seven
ways in which we die in the Lord. They die in the faith of the
Lord. They are in the faith which is
in Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 3.13. They therefore have done two
things in their faith. First, They renounced any hope of salvation
in anything that is in and of themselves. They have no faith
in anything that is of their hands, of their virtues, and
of their merits. No faith at all in that. And
second, every bit of their faith is put into the Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. They did that at their conversion.
They were in the faith of Jesus from the moment they first trusted
in Him. They lived their entire lives
in the faith of Jesus and here they die still in the faith of
Jesus. Second, they die in the love
of the Lord. They obeyed the exhortation to
keep yourselves in the love of God. Now they will do so if they
obey Jesus's exhortation to abide in my love. We do not come to
visit Jesus. No, no, no. We come to stay. Abide in my love. How do we know
we abide in his love? We keep his commandments. What
are his commandments? Three. First, You shall love
Jehovah your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Second, you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. And third, this is the new commandment. This is how you know you're in
Jesus. Love one another as I have loved
you. Oh, that's the tough one. Love
one another. as I have loved you." Well, these
loved Him in their conversion. They loved Him throughout their
lives. And here, in their final hour on this earth, they still
are in that same love of Jesus. They die in the love of the Lord.
Third, they die in the righteousness of the Lord. They are in Christ,
who became for us Righteousness from God. They die in the righteousness
of the Lord. Ask them, do you have any righteousness?
Not of my own. Not of my own. I have never performed
a righteous deed, never uttered a righteous word, never imagined
a righteous thought. Everything I've done and said
and thought was sin. God gave me a righteousness,
and it's Jesus Christ. I desire to be found in Him,
not having my own righteousness, but that which is the faith of
Christ. I know Him as Jehovah, my righteousness. Fourth, they die in the holiness
of the Lord. In Christ, they were separated
from the world and consecrated to God, and they lived their
whole lives in that manner. They were different. You could
spot them. What is the difference in them? Well, they are separated
from the world, and they are consecrated to God. They were
that way from the day they believed in Jesus, and they died in that
same holiness. They were consistent throughout.
Fifth, they die in the service of the Lord. They remembered
that Jesus said, no one, having put his hand on the plow and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9, 62. Now
observe what Jesus says. You need to serve me, he says.
Leave the world and put your hand on the plow. Well, it took
two hands. Put your hands on the plow. and
start. This is the day before tractors,
folks. This is the day before John Deere.
There's none of that. You put your hand on the plow.
You look off at your destination, way into the field, and you start,
and you keep your eyes on it all the way back. Hmm, I wonder
how straight my path is. When you look back, your hands
move. When your hands move, the plow
moves. You can tell a man who is looking
back with his hands on the plow because his furrow looks like
this. Jesus said, do not look back. If you do, you're not fit for
my kingdom. You can spot those who faithfully
serve Jesus. Their furrow is straight and
narrow. They never looked back. Once
they left the world, nothing back there to go to. Don't even
want to look at it. Put the hand on the plow, my
eye on the destination, and a furrow straight and long. They die in
the communion of the Lord. That's number six. They obeyed
the exhortation to seek those things which are above where
Christ is. Set your mind on things above, for you died and your life is
hidden with Christ and God. in communion with Him. From the
day they trusted in Jesus Christ, they were in communion with Him.
Throughout their lives, they are in communion with Him. On
the day they die, it's still the same communion. They die
in the communion of the Lord. And number seven, they die in
their obedience to the Lord. They obeyed the command to be
faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. And
they did. Now, do you see what it is to
die in the Lord? Not many people do it. Not everybody
who claims to do it is really doing it. They die in the faith
of the Lord, in the love of the Lord, in the righteousness of
the Lord, in the holiness of the Lord, in the service of the
Lord, in the communion of the Lord, and they die in their obedience
to the Lord. That's what it is to die in the
Lord. Let me ask you, when you die,
and should you die right now, would you die in the Lord? Are
these the marks that characterize whom and what you are? Point
number two, the commencement of their blessedness. When does
it begin? When does the happiness of those
who die in the Lord begin? Immediately, from henceforth,
from now on, from the moment of their death, because their
death does not dissolve their union with Christ. They lived
in the Lord. They die in the Lord. If they
die in the Lord, their happiness has just begun. Just begun. At my son's funeral, many people
asked me, Moose, how are you doing? You know my general response. I say better than I deserve.
But on that occasion, when I was asked, how are you doing, I would
say, I'm doing well, but not as well as my son. He was doing
a whole lot better than I was from the moment that he died.
From that moment, having died in the Lord, his happiness actually
began. Unadulterated happiness. Unmixed
happiness. Complete happiness, pure happiness. Folks, it is a happiness that
you and I have never experienced. If we die in the Lord, we will
from that moment on and for all eternity. Third point, the description
of their happiness. Well, it is not here given. Other than the two statements
by the Holy Spirit, we're not told much about their happiness,
but we are told about it in the parallel account. Now, we are
now in Revelation chapter 14. I'm going to take you back in
just a moment to chapter 7. I want you to observe who is
here standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Did you notice in
the first verse, they are with the Lamb standing. Who are they? Those who died in the Lord. Who
are they? They're the 144,000. Well, who
are the 144,000? It would be good for you to realize that this last book in the Bible The revelation of Jesus Christ
was written, as it were, in code so that certain people would
not understand it. It is the only book in the Bible
that has, in its beginning, a promise like this, Blessed is he who
reads and understands the words of this prophecy. It's the only
book in the Bible that has that. Many people say, I just don't
understand the book of the Revelation. Well, perhaps you were not intended
to. How do you understand it? Quite
simply this, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is not the
revelation of the beast. It is not the revelation of the
Babylon. It is not the revelation of this
and that. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. This is a locked book. He is the key, the revelation
of Jesus Christ. If you understand Christ, if
you look for Christ, He will reveal all the things that are
in this book. Well, it actually is really quite
simple, 144,000. We're not told how the number
was derived. But it appears to be, just by
simple arithmetic, taking the numerals 3 and 4. Remember, this
is a book of symbols. Take the numerals 3 and 4. What does the numeral 3 represent?
God. Three persons in one God. An
indivisible God, but three distinct persons in the one Godhead. What
does that numeral 4 represent? Well, just look in the book.
When you find the numeral 4, what does it represent? The four
corners of the earth, the four winds of the earth, north, south,
east, west. Alright, so we take 3 and 4,
multiply it. Multiply the numeral representing
God and the numeral representing the earth, you have 12. What
does that represent? God in His creation, sovereign
over it, ruling over it, in control of everything that happens in
it. That's what the numeral 12 represents, God in His creation. The numeral 12 also represents
completeness. The 12 apostles of the Lamb represent
the complete number of the apostles. There are no more, there were
only 12. Not 11, not 13, 12. The complete number of the apostles
is 12. The 12 tribes of Israel represent
the complete nation of Israel. So, 12 on the one hand represents
God and His creation. The number 12 represents also
completeness multiplied. 144. What is 144? complete completion of God and
His creation. Now take the numeral 1,000. What
does it represent in the book of the Revelation? Remember,
we interpret the book by the book. What does 1,000 represent? The reign of Jesus Christ for
1,000 years on this earth. Not 1,000 literal physical years,
But it began 2,000 years ago. It's still going on. 1,000 represents the reign of
Jesus Christ. So now we have God and His creation
in the complete completion of it all. And we have Jesus Christ
ruling and reigning over the earth and calling out His people. And who are they? They are the
144,000. They are the 144,000. And blessed are they when they die
because they die in the Lord. All right. I have digressed. I'm coming back. Go to Revelation
chapter 7. Revelation chapter 7 is a parallel
account somewhat to what we just read in chapter 14. Revelation chapter 7. Now I'll just bring to your attention
verse number 1. After these things I saw four
angels, I told you, look at the numeral four, standing on the
four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth.
You see that numeral four? Interpret the book by the book.
All right. In Revelation chapter 7, I want you to come with me to verse number 9. After this I
beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number. Remember,
in chapter 14, they were 144,000. That is not a literal fixed number. It is a figurative symbolic number. Here is the same group. They are a multitude which no
man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues
stood before the throne and before the Lamb. Remember, they were
before the Lamb in chapter 14. Here they are again before the
Lamb. There in chapter 14, 144,000.
Here it is, a multitude that no man could number. Same group. Same group. clothed with white
robes and palms in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne
and under the Lamb. And all the angels stood around
the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell
before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God. saying, Amen,
blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and
power and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. Note the numerology in this book.
Sometimes it'll take you by surprise. Look back at that verse number
12 again. How many things were given unto
God? Let's see. Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might. Seven. That's another numeral
of completion. 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, John, said unto him, Sir,
thou knowest. I do not know, but you do. And
he said to me, these are they which came out of the great tribulation. Folks, it is not future. It is
present and has been present for, oh, a few millennia. And they have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, now,
remember this is a parallel passage as it were with chapter 14. In
chapter 14 we're told they are blessed if they die in the Lord,
but we were not told the blessings. Here the blessings are enumerated
and there are seven of them. What are they? Therefore, are they before the throne of
God. They are before the throne of
God. Do you realize what that means? No one ever stood before the
throne of a king without the king's permission. Even Esther
understood that. And yet, here, they are before
the throne of God. You know what that means? It
means that they are in His presence, having direct access to Him,
having no need of an intercessor, they go straight to the throne.
Straight to the throne. No need of an intercessor. They
do not need Christ interceding before them at the throne. They
go to the throne themselves. They are before the throne of
God. They commune with Him, just like Adam and Eve did in the
Garden of Eden, when God would come down in the cool of the
day, and He'd walk and talk with them, and they'd commune, and
that's what we're going to do. We are before the throne of God.
We come up to the very throne of God and God says, come on,
let's go take a walk. OK. And he walks and we are in
direct communion with him. Second. They serve God day and night
in this temple. They serve him day and night
in this temple. There's going to be service to
do when you get to heaven. It's not like taking a vacation
and having nothing to do except lie down in the sand and watch
the waves. No, there's something to do.
What will we do in heaven? We're going to have the most
delightful service you ever knew. We're going to praise for the whole rest of eternity.
That's our service. We're going to be like the cherubs
and the seraphs around his throne, which incessantly say, holy,
holy, holy Lord God Almighty. The earth is full of your glory.
That's what we're going to do. An old Puritan on his deathbed,
among his final words, said this. And he had faithfully served
the Lord for many years, but he said, I'm about to die. I shall now become a Christian. He's been a Christian for all
these many years. When I get to heaven, I shall
finally be a Christian. I will do what a Christian should
do. What should a Christian do? worship
Christ, exalt Christ, serve Him with my praise and adoration.
That's what we're going to do. That's what we're going to do.
Number three, he who sits on the throne shall dwell among
them. Now, our English text does not
bring this out very well. The Greek text means he who sits
on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. What is a tabernacle? It's a
tent. In heaven, God's going to put
a tent over us, a tabernacle. What did God do when he told
Moses to build him a tabernacle in the wilderness? Moses spread
a tabernacle there, and God said, I need to dwell among my people.
Moses had the tabernacle built, and whoosh! Here it came. That's
a kind of glory. Went right into the tabernacle
and dwelt in the Holy of Holies. That's what God's going to do.
He's going to spread His tabernacle over us and then live there with
us. Furthermore, They shall neither
hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. In heaven, no famine, no drought,
no pestilence, none of those things, neither
physical nor spiritual. We have fed on Christ in this
life, we're going to feed on him even better there than we
do here. We have tasted Christ. We're
going to taste Him better there than we do here because He's
going to lead us to living fountains of water. Think about it, folks. No hunger,
no thirst in heaven. Fifth, the sun shall not strike
them nor any heat. What is that? What is it to be
struck by the heat, by the sun? That's the persecutions of the
world and Satan's fiery darts and they're gone. We no longer
need the shield of faith in heaven because Satan's darts cannot
reach that far. For the Lamb who is in the midst
of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains
of water. The Lamb will do it. The Lamb
who is in the throne. He is the enthroned God of heaven. He is also the good shepherd
of heaven. And here he comes off his throne
and says, come, we're going to take a walk. Where we're going,
Lord? I'm going to show you living
waters. Living waters. He shall lead
them to living fountains of waters and sustain their lives forever.
And seventh, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Oh, this life. What a veil of
sorrows it is. It's grief. tears, sorrow. We probably die with tears on
our cheeks, leaving our loved ones, perhaps
in pain, perhaps in agony. We die with tears on our cheeks. We wake up in heaven God says,
uh-uh-uh, we cannot have any of that here. Come here, child.
And God himself wipes our tears. We will have none of that here.
This is heaven. No tears here and nothing that
causes them. Think about that, folks. No tears
in heaven. Nothing to cause them. I told you they're happy. I told
you they're blessed. And then the fourth point, the
confirmation of their blessedness. Now we're back to chapter 14.
Now we're back to chapter 14, second part of our text. Yea,
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their
works do follow them. They may rest from their labors. Now this Spirit is the Holy Spirit,
He is the Spirit of Truth. Jesus said He will guide you
into all truth, therefore He speaks the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth. No lie, no misrepresentation
of the truth. God has here pronounced The blessedness
of they who die on the Lord and the Holy Spirit says, yes, and
I have something to say about that as well. Yay. Two facts need to be brought
out. First, they rest from their labors.
They rest from their labors. Remember the work of the creation
of the heavens and the earth? We speak of it as the creation
week. For six days, God created the
heavens and the earth. On the seventh day, he rested. He entered into a Sabbath. It
was a perpetual Sabbath for him because he never went back to
work with regard to the creation. God created the heavens and the
earth, and then he stopped creating and never created again. Oh,
he watches over the earth, but the work of creation was done! Well, you and I are going to
spend six days, as it were, whatever days they are, on this creation. working and laboring and toiling. You shall eat your bread by the
sweat of your brow. Yeah, we know what that means. But we dine the Lord and as God
entered into a perpetual rest and never created anything else,
so it is with us. Our labor's are over. We enter
into a perpetual Sabbath in heaven's glory. And then second, their
works follow them. Now watch the phrase, their works
follow them. The text does not say their works
precede them. As though we have done these
works here on the earth and our works say we need to ascertain
that His mansion is big enough and He is rewarded amply for
what He's done. So our works go before us to
heaven and to ascertain that our reward is satisfactory to
what we've done. No, no, no. It does not say that.
It does not say their works precede them to heaven. Nor does it say
their works accompany them to heaven, as though we get to heaven
and whoever's at the gates, you know, we knock. What right do
you have to enter this place? I'm glad you asked. I've got
my works with me. Here they are. No, no, no. Our works do not accompany us.
They do not precede us. to ascertain that our reward
is good enough, they do not accompany us in order to serve as credentials
so we can get there. Rather, they follow us. We get there before they do.
They follow us. Why? Because God is not unjust to forget your
work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name. And God will reward you for your
works, that they're going to follow you to heaven. And that's part of the happiness.
That is part of the happiness. God is not forgetful. regarding
the works we've done in his name. And that, my friend, is what
it is to be blessed to die in the Lord. Blessed from now on and eternally
to die in the Lord. Well, that is almost all my message. But I would be remiss in my duty
as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ if I did not give
a word of warning to they who die outside the Lord. What is it to die outside the
Lord? It is to have lived upon this
earth, enjoyed the providence of God, His common blessings,
the sunshine, the rain, the seasons. God has blessed you, but you
never trusted in His Son, you never believed in His gospel,
you were never in Christ, and you died in that state. I hope there's no one here who
does so. You will not be dead, but blessed,
but rather dead and cursed. And whatever happiness you ever
enjoyed on this earth is all the happiness you will ever have.
No more. No more. Blessed are they who
die in the Lord and cursed are they who die outside the Lord. Jesus says, they go to hell into the fire
that shall never be quenched where their worm does not die
and the fire is not quenched. Look at that phrase, their worm
does not die. Are there worms in hell? Yep. Every man and every woman there
has one. What is this worm in hell that
never dies? It is the gnawing worm of a remorseful conscience. It gnaws and gnaws. It is the
memory the memory of what it is to have
lived on this earth and never trusted Jesus Christ.
In the story of Lazarus the beggar and the rich man, we read, the
beggar died in the Lord and was carried by the angels to Abraham's
bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried and then sank all the way down into Hades. And he looked up. He was blessed
to do so. He looked up, and there is Lazarus. And Abraham has embraced him. And the rich man in Hades says,
Father Abraham. Yeah, he finally called him father.
Would not believe in Abraham's God, but yeah, he's going to
try to curry favor with the patriarch. Father Abraham. Send Lazarus, let him, let him
dip his finger in the water and just touch my tongue. That's all I want. I am tormented
in this flame. Let the beggar just touch my
tongue with the minuscule water that would be on his finger.
I am tormented in this flame. And Abraham says, Son, remember,
remember, aha, here comes the worm. Here comes that gnawing
worm. Remember that you in your lifetime
had good things and Lazarus had evil, but now he is comforted
and you are tormented. And besides all this, there is
a great gulf fixed. He cannot come to you, even if
he wanted to. And you cannot come here as much
as you would like to. The gnawing conscience, their
worm does not die. For the rest of eternity, there
is that gnawing worm of a remorseful conscience. I remember the sins
I did. Oh, I remember the sins I committed. And they sent me to this place.
And I remember the times I heard the gospel and never believed. I hope there is no one who is
going to say that I heard Moose Parks preach the
gospel on the 16th of July, 2023. I heard him preach it. I heard him tell what it was
going to be if I died outside of Christ, and sure enough, I
did. I pray there is no one who's going to have the gnawing worm
of that conscience. Where the worm does not die,
the fire is not quenched. The only remedy, the only way
to kill that worm is to do it now. Right now! If you have never
done before. Believe this gospel I preach
to you. Trust in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul. Die in the Lord and you will
be blessed from that moment on and for all eternity with the
happiness that I may be able to enumerate to you, but it goes
beyond anything that I have said. And I pray that This will be
true of each of us. Oh God, our Father, thank you that although in this
life we have misery and sorrow, yet if we die in Christ, our
happiness has begun. Bless, I pray this word to your
glory in Jesus' name.