Verse one of chapter 14, I looked
and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Sion and with him and 144,000
having his father's name written in their foreheads. Now I know
before I even begin tonight, as I often do, as I should always
be aware of, I suppose, but especially at certain times, I know that
we won't get anything out of this
lesson unless the Lord meets with us. If he comes and you
know what he's able to do. If you're a believer, you know
how he's shown you things in the scriptures that you can't
just get from reading it. You can't just get from somebody
preaching it. Of course we read it and somebody
preaches it, that's what he tells us to do, but the Lord has to
come and give us a glimpse of what's happening, a glimpse of
who it is we're looking at. If he doesn't do that, we're
just not gonna get it. I can't, I just feel helpless to say this right, so I'm praying
the Lord will say it to our hearts. Chapter 13, you'll remember,
was mostly about the two beasts that appeared to John. We saw how that they represented
a lot of the things we understand in the book of Revelation. We
understand by the description that's there,
of course, but also just sort of a process of elimination. God doesn't have that many enemies.
There's a whole bunch of them, if you know what I mean. There's
people there's Satan There's religion that's people and Satan
So we know who this is. That's what I'm saying. We know
who this these two beasts are and it seemed to be that the
reason that there was two of them was because of the different
aspects of the evil nature of man's secular and religious The
secular evil nature of man is more outwardly
evil. I mean, they just don't even
hide it, do they? They dance in the streets with
it. But religion is better at camouflaging the evil that they
are. And so we saw those two beasts,
and even in that chapter, we saw how that the beast has no
power over those whose names are written the book of life
of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world so it wasn't all
about base it was the gospel wasn't it it always is it always
is every every chapter of this book but now we see the lamb
himself and you understand my In chapter 13, one of the beasts
presented himself as a lamb. Of course, the religious nature,
evil nature is no less evil than the secular evil nature of man. And there's no, there's not two
natures. You know what I'm saying? We're
just seeing two different aspects of the evil of mankind. They
have the words of the beast and blaspheme the name of God with
every breath. Whether you do that, in a pub
or right from behind a pulpit, there's not much difference. So here we see the lamb himself,
and this one that presented himself as a lamb wasn't a lamb. He just
had two horns like a lamb. But we see the true lamb of God
here. And all of the language changes. It's so beautiful. In chapter
13, we heard about and saw deception and blasphemy and the murder
of those who wouldn't worship the beast and worship the image
of the beast. But here in chapter 14, the lamb
appears and you read about singing and harps and innocence and redemption. And this is because of Christ
Jesus. It's because of who it is we're
looking at Everywhere he goes, there's rejoicing and righteousness. He is pictured here as the lamb. And the significance of all lambs
in the scripture, you understand there wasn't a big lamb, the
actual image, this is spiritual imagery. He is the lamb, but
he doesn't look like the lamb that's walking around in the
field. But the significance of all lambs throughout scripture
is sacrifice for sin. You won't find a lamb that I'm
aware of really except where it talks about the lion laying
down with the lamb and things like that. But that's what lambs
are for in the word of God. They're for killing. They're
for sacrifice. They're for atonement with God. All through the word of God,
they're slain. They are burnt offerings unto God for sin. That's
what they are. But all of the other slain lambs
of scripture, and you can imagine how many multiplied millions
of lambs were slain by the Israelites in the Old Testament and throughout
history. They all just picture the Lamb
of God. They're all pointing. They're
pointing forward to the lamb of God that actually takes away
sin. You remember Paul in the book
of Hebrews said, these animal sacrifices can never take away
sin. That's not what they were for.
They were to set forth and picture and exalt the lamb of God, which
does take away sin. Like John said, there's the lamb
that takes away sin. You couldn't point to any other
lamb and say that. But there's God's lamb that takes
sin away. And there's no heaven. We're
getting a glimpse into heaven. There's no heaven without a lamb.
There's no heaven without a slain lamb. Not for us anyway. The lamb was slain to redeem
the people of God with his precious blood. There had to be a price
paid that was high enough. That was enough. to pay for the sins of all of
God's people, to satisfy God for our sin. And he redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. And
that's what John's seeing, that's what we're seeing in this image
tonight. And as you see, he's indescribable. The riches of his grace are unsearchable
in giving himself for us. I've learned over the year, I
haven't learned a whole lot, but I'll tell you this. And this
is something you'd think I would have learned on day one, but
it takes me a while. But when I wanna try to convey
to you how glorious he is, the word of God does that a lot better
than I do. Just read scripture, just read
the word, read what God said about him. And we'll do some
of that Lord willing here. He was slain to redeem. For a specific purpose he was
slain. He wasn't slain as an offer to
men, but as an offering unto God for the sins of his people. The simplest and most glorious
of all truths. And that's saying something in
it. The most simple truth of God is the most glorious. And
it's also the most despised thing in this world. And that is the
simple, clear, plain, glorious truth that Christ Jesus, God's
lamb, redeemed everyone for whom he shed his precious blood. It's
that simple. It's that wonderful. I'm uncondemnable before God
because it's Christ that died. It's because of the who. It's
not because of what I know. It's not because of anything
I am or ever have done or ever will do. It's because it is Christ
that shed his blood. It is enough that he died and
that he died for me. This is the lamb pictured by
Abel's more excellent sacrifice. He's always been the lamb. He's
the eternal lamb of God. In the beginning, he was the
lamb. Tonight, he's God's lamb that takes away sin. Abel offered
the more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And Abel and his offering
were accepted of the Lord while Cain and his offering were rejected. This is that one lamb that takes
away sin. This is the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world that we saw in this same context in
chapter 13. Because his precious blood is
eternal. Of course, he was slain from
the foundation of the world. Christ is eternal in his everlasting
blood, has spoken for us throughout all eternity. Before we ever
sinned, he put it away. That's who he is. You know, I
love the word low in this verse, a two-letter word, low. That's
a beautiful word, especially in this verse, low. lamb Well, that sounds like a good
title for a sermon doesn't it low a lamb You know when John saw the two
beasts in the previous chapter he didn't say low he just said
I saw a beast But when John lays eyes on the
Savior He says low Behold We can't picture what he saw
we can't picture what the Lord looked like he appeared in his
redemptive character. I know that And John knew who he was It's interesting to see how this
little word is used in scripture listen to Matthew 3 16 and Jesus
when he was baptized Went up straightway out of the water
and lo the heavens were opened unto him And he saw the spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him and low,
a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I'm
well pleased. In Revelation 5, 6, it says,
I beheld and low in the midst of the throne and of the four
beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb. as it had
been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the
seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. Christ, it says here in our text,
stands on Mount Zion. Well, it doesn't surprise us
to see that. The significance, again, scripture,
I can't describe it to you like God can. I know that the Lord
speaks from our voices too and our descriptions of things when
he gives them to us. But listen to this, Psalm 2.1. Why do the heathen rage? Do people
imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. saying, let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heaven
shall laugh and the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall
he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. And here's what he says to them,
yet, in spite of all your opposition, in spite of all your hatred,
in spite of all your smarty, inventions that defy God and
blaspheme his name, yet I have set my king upon my holy hill
of Zion. Zion is the church, it's his
people, it's the city of God, which includes us. The city of
David, David our savior, Listen to Psalm 48, one. Great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. Now this
is not stone and architecture. This is God's church. This is
his people, it's his kingdom. And in the mountain of his holiness,
greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain
of his holiness, beautiful for situation. I think about that
verse a lot. When I look at just my life and
what God has done for me, both temporally and eternally, having
every spiritual blessing in Christ, and I think, I am beautiful for
situation. Oh, by the grace of God, beautiful
for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. You know why? because Christ
stands there. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great
king. That's who we're seeing. That's
who we're seeing in Revelation. God is known in her palaces,
in Zion's palaces. God is known for a refuge. That's
Christ. So what a beautiful, beautiful
picture this is. He stands on Zion. The church,
his kingdom, he stands as victor over all of our enemies. He stands
as sovereign and savior, and we stand in him and with him.
That's what we see next in verse one there, and with him. Well,
I like those words, don't you? And with him. I like to hear
that he's with us, and I like to hear that we're with him. and with him 140 and 4,000. We've
seen these 144,000 before. We know this is not a literal
number. That's us, that's God's elect represented as 144,000. Not a literal number, of course
it's not. We see in the scriptures that
there's a number which no man can number. There's a multitude
that nobody can number. 144,000 is quite a bit, but we
could count them eventually. Might take about a year. But
a number which no man can number, but God can. God has numbered
them, every one. He calls them each by name and
knows them by name. Revelation 7, nine, after this,
I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number of
all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues. We're gonna
see that in a minute. He redeemed them out of out of
all men, stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with
white robes and palms in their hands. They're righteous and
they're joyful. They're celebrating. And cried
with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God, which sitteth upon
the throne and unto the lamb. And they have the lamb's, look
back at our text again, they have the lamb's father's name
written in their foreheads. Remember that those whose names
are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, they took the number of the beast
in their foreheads and in their hands. It doesn't say they were
forced to, This is false religion and the secular evil of this
world. This is man's evil nature. And
they take those marks proudly. They say, look how much we know
and look how much we've done. We're certified. And they're real proud of that.
And this is a mark that distinguishes and identifies evil religious
man. They trust their knowledge and
they trust their works. But notice that the elect don't
have anything in their hands. They don't wear the number in
their hands at all. They don't wear anything, the
number at all or anything in their hands. They are sealed
in their foreheads, the scripture says. And we know why, we know
what that signifies. They didn't literally have Jehovah
written across their heads. Again, this is spiritual language,
but they're sealed in their foreheads. We are given an understanding
and we can't lose it. We're sealed. We, by God's grace,
know him whom to know is life everlasting. Listen to 1 John
5 20. And we know, we know that the
son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may
know. We know that he gave us an understanding
that we may know, that we may know what? Him. That we may know him, that is
true. And we're in him, that is true.
It's not our knowledge of him even, but that's glorious. It's
salvation. But my security is his knowledge
of me. Even if I lose my mind, which
I'm pretty close, I'ma leave. I'm not joking about that. Even
just everyday stuff, I've told you for years, just everyday
stuff is overwhelming to me. I don't think we're all too far
from losing our minds completely. But if I do, as long as he knows
me, I'll be beautiful for situation. We are in him that is true, even
in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. But we have no mark in any of
our hands, no believer does, because our works have absolutely
nothing to do with our salvation, nothing. Verses two and three, let's read
verses two and three together. 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 and the elders. And no man could learn that song
but the 140 and 4,000 which were redeemed. from the earth. There is a song
that only we know. Many waters. That means everybody
was singing. Everybody was singing. That doesn't
usually happen in a worship service. There's usually somebody that's
not singing. But in this worship service,
everybody's gonna be singing. And it was like thunder. It was
clear and sharp and bold. Nobody was mumbling the words. And they sang with all their
hearts, with all their strength, thunder, like thunder. But it
was reverent. It was to harp music, not to
drums. I'm sorry. There's cultural differences
and all that. That's fine and well, but God
is not worshiped. man's display of entertainment
ability Simple harp music playing and we're singing with all of
our voices the praises of the land It's not about culture it's about
reverence it's about Worship it's worship And it's as it were a new song. Why didn't they just say it's
a new song? They actually say that, it says that in the scripture,
they sung a new song. But it's as it were a new song.
It's not new in the sense that sinners have been singing about
the mercy and grace of God and Christ Jesus all along, ever
since we knew anything about him, we've been singing about
him. It's not new in that sense. He's given us songs in the night
already, hasn't he? And when we worship, we sing
of his glory. We sing of his redeeming love
for sinners like us. And we do that now. We did that
a while ago. We do that all the time. We know
the words. We don't know them like we will,
though. It's as it were a new song, because
we've never sung it like we're going to sing it in his presence.
We've never sung it like that. And it'll be like it's new, because
we don't know anything. We don't even know what we're
singing. A little bit, we do. I understand that. God's given
us an understanding, but boy. how little we do know and how
little we're able to overcome the sinfulness of our hearts
just to come aside and worship for a little while. We can't
even do it without him, can we? We can't do it without him. But
there and then we're gonna sing, we're gonna know, even as we're
known, we're gonna be with him and like him. Can you imagine
the song, the power of that song? the beauty of it. And it's not just new when we
first get there. And listen, everything is new
and glory. The Lord said, behold, I make
all things new. Nothing ever gets old there.
It does here, doesn't it? We get tired of the most wonderful
things. It's a shame. Have you ever just
been sad about that? that we're so limited in our
flesh and things don't get old there like
they do here. And notice the last part of verse
three, this is a song of redemption. That's why only the redeemed
know it. How can you sing a song of redemption
by his precious blood unless you've been redeemed by his precious
blood? You have to have been forgiven
much and therefore love much to sing this song. Whenever I hear a new song, I
guess everybody's like this. Whenever I hear a new song that
I just immediately love, I love that song. And the first time
I hear it, every once in a while, you know, you hear something
that has to kind of grow on you a little bit, but then you hear
a song and you're like, man, that's beautiful. I'll just wear
that out. I'll learn every word of it.
I'll learn every syllable, every, the whole melody. I'll get it
all in my head. And then by the time I get it,
I'm kind of tired of it already. But boy, you know how that is.
It's exciting to learn a new song, but I know even as I cherish it and
I can't get enough of it, I know that one day I will get enough
of it. And it's sad even from the start. I know one of these
days I'm gonna get enough of this. But not this song, not the song
of the redeemed. We will never get enough of praising
our savior. for loving us and giving himself
for us. You're never gonna get enough
of it. And here in verse four, here's another description of
the elect. And of course, it's describing us in order to
glorify him. Like when he said, behold a woman,
a woman from Canaan. Why are we looking at her? Because
what we see in her is the grace of God. It's to glorify him. But look, these are they which
were 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 first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And this, again, of course, is
not talking about physical defilement. That's Old Testament law, right? Certain things were defiling.
And when the Lord fulfilled all of that, it wasn't that way anymore.
It doesn't also say here that there's any virtue in not marrying. Some religion talks about that.
The very opposite thing is taught in the word of God. Listen, in
1 Timothy 4.1, now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the
latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. So he's gonna give
some examples here of doctrines of devils. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, pretending
to love God and to know God and to speak for God. They're liars,
they don't know the true God of the Bible or have any desire
to know him. They know enough to hate him
and that's about it. And having their conscience seared
with a hot iron. You ever think that false preachers
ever like get alone and they kind of are sad that they're
saying things they know aren't true? No. With a cold heart, they murder
the souls of men. I'd say for the most part. If
not universally. That's what that's talking about,
their conscience is sin. They lie boldly, they know it's
not right. I've confronted one or two, and
they'll say, I know what you say is true, but they'll split
my church if I preach that. Their conscience is sin. How
can you say that? How can you sleep at night? How
can you live with yourself knowing you're not saying what God said
so that you can benefit? Well, that's how, that's our
nature. And you know what the next one
is? Forbidding to marry. That's a profane doctrine of
devils that we see. It looks so virtuous, doesn't
it, when they walk around pretending to be celibate and they've given
themselves to the Lord. It's devilish. and commanding to abstain from
meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth. Listen to this now. I should have had you turn over
here. Why don't you turn over there? This is beautiful. First Timothy
four, let's look at it, the language of this. I know we're, we've
kind of made our point already about the forbidding to marry,
but I like this passage right here. 4 verse 3 is kind of where we're
at, 1 Timothy 4, 3. It's a doctrine of devils to
forbid to marry. And commanding to abstain from
meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving.
He made that so that you would put it on your table and say,
thank you, God, thank you. That's why you have something
to eat, not so you can live another day and waste God's space. It's
so you can sit there and thank God for what he gave you. And
if we can't do that, and we can't by nature, then we shouldn't
eat. We shouldn't eat. We don't have to say our blessing
in front of a bunch of people and look religious, but in your
heart, thank God for every bite he gives you. Of them, which believe and know
the truth. It's a picture of spiritual things
that he provides. When we eat, when we sit out
at the table, and I love to sit down with those that I love,
my family, and some of the family of God, we'll sit down and we'll
enjoy a meal together. It's one of my very, very favorite
things in this world to do. And may God give us grace to
think about how that he is our meat. He is our drink. That's the picture there. We
got to eat to live, but we don't have to live physically. We've
got to live spiritually. We got to have him. But look at it, for every creature
of God is good and nothing to be refused if, if it be received
with thanksgiving. If you can thank God for it by
his grace, then receive it and enjoy it, and praise his name
for it, whatever it is. If you can't, then even your
plowing of your field is evil in the sight of God, if you can't
thank God for that. You see, that applies to everything.
If you can receive it with thanksgiving, if you can enjoy the things in
this world with thanksgiving unto God, that's one thing. But
if you're enjoying them just to consume them upon your own
lusts, you're not worthy of it. And I'm not either. If it be received, for it is
sanctified by the word of God. God told us it was fine, and
so it's fine, right? Paul said, don't put this yoke
of bondage on God's people, restricting things. It's sanctified by the Word of
God and by prayer, and by you saying, Lord, thank you, thank
you so much for this. Thank you, give me what I need
today, and praise your name that you would, So gracious and willing
and generous. Our text is talking here about
spiritual adultery. That's clearly what it says here. The opposite
in the text now of defiling yourself is what? In the context, what's
the opposite of defiling yourself? It's following Christ wherever
he goes. We only have eyes for the Lord
Jesus, nobody else. We worship only him. We're married
unto him spiritually and no other, and have no interest in any other. That's true even now. Even while
we sit here and I stand here full of sin and know it, everything
I do is mixed with sin and yet, knowing that we're not true to
him in the sense that we sin all the time, we don't. But think about this, Simon was
as much a sinner as any of us, we're all sinners, right? Simon
was a sinner. But when the Lord said to his
disciples, will you go away? He said, Lord, to whom shall
I go? And it's interesting, somebody
pointed, it might've been you, Moose, who just pointed this
out in your message the other night. I've never really thought
about it before. But he didn't say, where would
we go? That's what you'd normally say, where would we go? He said,
to whom? To whom shall we go? We're following
you. That's where we are, we're following
you. And we got nowhere else to go. No interest in going anywhere
else. No need to. Listen to 2 Corinthians
11, one, would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly,
and indeed bear with me, for I am jealous over you with godly
jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. That's what our text
is talking about. Religion takes that which is
beautiful and spiritual and makes it a fleshly thing. That's our
nature. Paul said, I fear less by any
means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in
Christ. Think about the whole idea of just following Christ. You know how simple and beautiful
that is? What a simple and beautiful thing that's before it to just follow
him. I don't need to know the way.
There are illustrations of this in life, isn't it? Where are
we going? Well, you'll see. Okay, I'll just follow you. I
don't need the directions. He is the directions. It's following
him. It's not, well, if we follow
him, then we know we're going the right way. He is the right
way. Following him is the right way. We're not following him to a
destination. You know what I'm gonna say next,
don't you? He is the destination. I wish I could learn that. Boy, I wish I could learn that.
These, it says, were redeemed from among men. Now that tells
us a couple of things. It tells us that the Lord Jesus
Christ loved whoever these are quite a bit, quite a bit. It also says that some weren't
redeemed. These were redeemed from among
men, from among others who were not redeemed. It's pretty clear
that Christ did not redeem everybody. From among a multitude of slaves
to sin and self, the Lord Jesus Christ picked out some. In love
and grace, he picked them out. It wasn't eeny, meeny, miny,
moe. That the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, he said, I love you, Jacob, I love you. In love and grace, he paid the
price necessary to free them from all of their sin and shame. And that price was his own precious
blood. The price was himself. He gave
himself a ransom for many. He redeemed 144,000, however
many that actually represents. That's who he redeemed, no more,
no less. It could say everybody if it was. I suspect it would
say everybody if it was everybody. But the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed
with his precious blood a certain number of men out of mankind,
from among all the masses of humanity. Why do we make such a point of
that? Why are we always harping on that? Why does it give us
joy to say he didn't redeem some people? Well, I'll tell you why.
It's not complicated. Because if our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, redeemed one sinner that goes to hell, one, then
he's a failure, his precious blood is impotent, and we have
no hope. That's why If you worship a Jesus
who tried to save everybody and didn't save everybody, you're
worshiping an idol. He's not God. I suspect God'll
get done what he wants to do. Religion loves to say God wants
to. If he wants to, it's done. It's already done. And then this
word in our text, firstfruits, we are his firstfruits, the firstfruits
of the father and of the lamb. And there are several definitions
of this, and we know the understanding in scripture of firstfruits,
God gets the firstfruits. And that was an act of faith
in God to give him the firstfruits, because there may not be any
other fruits. You give God all of your harvest that you get,
and then a plague comes, there may not be any other fruits.
You're giving it to God because he said, give it to me. But this
definition, if you look it up in Strong's, here's a definition
for firstfruits also, persons superior in excellence. Well, we know that's not true
of us in ourselves, but because we are in Christ Jesus, and God
sees us in Christ, because of God are we in Christ Jesus, who
has made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.
We are the first fruits unto God and his son. In verse five, there was no gout
found in their mouths. You know what's glorious about
that? And the fact that that can be said of me, The fact that that can be said
of me is a monument to God's grace. No God found in his mouth. And it's a clinic on how Christ
is himself our righteousness before God. Unless that were true, unless
Christ is my righteousness, that could never be said of me. There's
no God found in his mouth. but because it is true of him
and I am in him, it's true of me. Listen to 1 Peter 2.21, for
even here unto were you called because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps.
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. That's the
most beautiful thing about it. If you can say anything, think
about the wonder of this. If you can say anything about
the Lord Jesus Christ and say that same thing about me, that's
a wonderful thing right there. That's a marvel of the grace
of God. I don't care what it is. If it's
true of him and me, it's because of him. He did no sin. He was the doer of absolutely
no evil, no sin. Neither was guile found in his
mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered,
he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. He's an example to us in that. It says it right there in that
text. And that highlights the fact that we're not any of that
by nature. He's an example. He's showing
us what we're not and we ought to be. But more than that, he
is all of that for us. He's all of that for us. He committed
himself to the Father that judgeth righteously, who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. That we, being dead to sins,
should live under righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.
For you were a sheep going astray, but now are returned unto the shepherd and bishop
of your souls. Also said of him and here of
us is this, they're without fault before
the throne of God. Pilate said, I find no fault
in him. We know but it was God that orchestrated everything
that was done, everything that was said, everything that was
thought around that cross. We've seen it over and over,
haven't we? Pilate said, I find no fault. And he was looking,
wasn't he? Anything to get him off the hook,
anything to get him, like his wife said, don't have anything
to do with that innocent man. He was trying, wasn't he? He
was trying to find something. But think about this, if God
tried to find something on you, you think you'd be able to find
something? Everything about me is evil.
Everything I've ever done, everything I've ever said, the motive behind
it, the nature, it comes from evil, doesn't it? It has sin
mixed with every bit of it, every thought. And yet before the throne
of God, I'm without fault think about
where we are without fault It means without blemish and
unblameable Colossians 121 and you that were
at one time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. There are a few people in this
world, I got to thinking about this, you may be able to say
this, there are a few people that I just can't find anything
wrong with them. Is there anybody like that? There's
not that many. And don't start getting proud,
because you're probably not one of them. The odds are against
you. But there are a few, you know
some people, I just haven't seen, I know there's sinners, but I
haven't seen it yet. Don't mess it up. And then there are some people
that I can find a whole lot wrong with. But that doesn't really matter.
It doesn't really matter. What about before the throne?
What about there? What about there before God?
Is there anything wrong with you there? If not, that's what counts. That's
what counts. It doesn't matter what I think
of you. I'll tell you this, if you are faultless there, it's
because Christ is your righteousness. He will talk about different
righteousnesses and this righteousness and that. There ain't but one
righteousness and it ain't yours unless Christ is your righteousness. Jude 124, now unto him that is
able to keep you. Have you ever noticed that word
you in that? It's hard to think of it that
way, isn't it? I know he's gonna present somebody faultless, but
me? Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise
God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now. Oh, for grace to give him all
glory right now and ever. Amen. Let's pray.