We looked at the subject salvation
to our God in the first 10 chapters of first 10 verses of chapter
7 And now Lord willing we'll look at the rest of this chapter
Look at verses 11 and 12 again all the angels stood round about
the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell
before the throne on their faces and worshiped God saying, amen,
blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and
power and might be unto our God forever and ever, amen. Now we looked at these, this
benediction pretty much word by word recently, I believe in
chapter five, And so I just wanted to comment on the fact that in
verse 10 we saw last time where the elect of God, those whom
he loved and chose from eternity, all of his people gathered around
the throne, those elect in Christ, they attribute salvation, salvation
to our God. That was the title of the message.
And here the angels attribute all these wonderful things unto
God. but not salvation. And I honestly
don't know if there's any significance to that or not. I honestly don't. And I want to be honest about
that. But it reminded me of the precious truth that the Lord,
though he took not on him the nature of angels, a third part
of the angels in heaven fell with Lucifer and are consigned
to hell forever with no mediator, no substitute, no sacrifice,
no hope. The Lord did not save any of
the angels that fell. The Lord did not permit all of
the angels to sin, but those who did were not any of them
redeemed by the blood of Christ. All of mankind sinned, all of
us. Adam fell in Adam our representative
But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us
together with Christ We have a mediator. We have a substitute
We have a Redeemer God sent his only begotten Son And he did take on him the nature of
Abraham. In verse 16 of Hebrews 2, it
says, verily, he took not on him the nature of angels, but
he took on him the seed of Abraham. Have you ever wondered why it
says the seed of Abraham and not the seed of Adam? Adam was
the first sinner. It seems like it would say he
took on him the nature or seed of Adam. Well, the reason it
says Abraham, the seed of Abraham, is because though we do all have
the same nature in Adam, the Lord Jesus did this only for
Abraham's spiritual seed. He only died, he only took on
him, he took on him the nature of all of us, but he did it for
some of us. And they're called Abraham's
seed. You see why it says it that way? Let me read it to you
in Galatians 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Who's the us? That's what we're getting to.
For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.
And then verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith, through faith. Now if you skip
down to verse 26 in Galatians 3, listen to this. For you are
all the children of God. And this is to the church at
Galatia. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Neither is there Jew
nor Greek. Neither is there bond nor free,
neither is there male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus, and if you be Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed.
That's who he took on him, the nature of Abraham's seed. Yeah,
it's Adam's nature too, but the reason it says it that way is
because he died for Abraham's seed. He took on the nature of
Abraham's seed so he could die in their place, us. who are Christ's,
not earthly Jews, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise. All those who belong to Christ,
Christ apostrophe S, all who have been redeemed from the curse
of the law are in glory, they're before the throne and the lamb,
crying salvation to our God. which sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb. That's where they are. And in
our text, the angels attribute all these virtues unto God. Amen,
blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and
power and might be unto our God. He's their God too. He's not
their redeemer, but he's their God. And all, the only one they
thank is Him and us too. In honor and power, they know
who He is forever and ever, amen. And as I said, we spoke individually
about all of these, I believe in chapter five. So let me just
say this about these this time. These are exclusive to God. These are not just attributed
to God. They can't be attributed to anybody
else. Think about it. Who are you gonna bless? I can't
bless you, and you can't bless me. Who are we gonna bless? We're
gonna bless God. All blessing is attributed unto
him because only he can bless us. As for glory, the Lord's people
all say, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory. That's who we give glory to and
nobody else. We have no wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. And so
of course we attribute wisdom, all honor belongs to him, power. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for our sins. Thanksgiving, who do we have
to thank for everything we have? Everything. I want to be thankful also to
those that God uses. You know that. I say thank you,
just like you do. There's nothing wrong with that.
That's right to do that. But when one of y'all says, you
know, thank you for that message, Chris, you know where that message
came from. And I do too. All thanksgiving is truly due
unto his name, our gracious Lord. And in verse 13, back in our
text, one of the elders answered saying unto me, what are these
which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? Who are
they and where did they come from? This is interesting now,
this is a blessing. And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. We can't really answer stuff like that, can we? We can,
but not like the one asking. But you remember when those dead,
dry bones in Ezekiel, the prophet was asking, these bones live?
And he said, you know, you know if they can or not. But these
are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Who are
these people? Who is this multitude? that no
man can number, who are they? The answer is given by the elder
who asked the question. God never asks a question in
order to know the answer. And that's how this question
is asked. Not to get information, but to give information, to teach. A question is a good way to teach.
How many times does the Lord say, whose son is he? What think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? He asks questions,
you know why? Because that provokes the one asked to think about
the answer, the question and the answer. You've got to think,
it forces you to think about it. So what a great question
this is. Who is in glory, praising God? Who is before the throne? Who
is in heaven? And where did they come from?
Let's talk about who they are and where they come from. We'll
come into it of necessity. These are they which came out
of great tribulation. That's who they are. Where they
came from is who they are. Think about this now. You might
think this is limited to the martyrs that are mentioned in
the opening of the fifth seal in chapter six. Remember those
who were killed for preaching the gospel are mentioned in that
fifth seal in chapter six. But even as there, we mentioned
that this applies to all believers in a sense. So we see that here. This is that multitude, verse
nine, which no man can number. It's not just those that are
martyrs, died for preaching, specifically. This is that multitude
which no man can number, and it says they came out of great
tribulation. Great tribulation. Well, we may
go through life as believers and really not ever really suffer
a whole lot of tribulation. Paul said these light afflictions.
I guess it depends on your perspective, doesn't it? And of course, some
people go through more than others do. There is a sense in which
all believers go through some tribulation. We are persecuted
in this world. It's repugnant to me to go around
letting everybody know that I'm a believer or a preacher in the
day that we live in, because you're associated automatically
with the idiots on television, if you say that. And yet, even
that being the case, I don't even know the right word,
but I'm sure there's a lot of consideration that a lot of believers
don't get because they're simply believers in this world. Let's
just leave it at that. But this tribulation, that's
not what this is talking about, not all that it's talking about.
The word tribulation here means a pressing, a pressing. Its root word means to press
as grapes in a wine press, to press hard upon. Now, is this
talking about the trials that we experience in this life only?
Well, that's gotta be part of it, but why do we suffer affliction
in this life? That's where we've got to go
here. We gotta go back to the root of this matter. Why do we
suffer in this life? Because of our sin. And think
about this. The question is, who are these
people? Where did they come from? And
verse 15, look where they are now. You see that in verse 15? Who
are they? Where'd they come from? And look
where they are right now. And in that consideration, our
trials in this life are petty. Are they not? Paul went through
a lot more than we did, and he said they're light afflictions.
So I don't see that meaning this here. Think with me. It would
be out of place in this question, who are they, where'd they come
from, and look at them now. It would be out of place to speak
merely of our sufferings in this life in that equation. This is
talking about our sin and the consequences of our sin. We are
oppressed hard. The law of God and justice of
God weighs upon us from birth. We are pressed hard in this life
because of our sin and what it deserves. That's where we came
from. Not that God's people ever suffer
any of the consequences of our sin, but that is what we come
out of, out from under. See those two words in verse
14, out of? out of, out of, which came out
of the weight that we are pressed under by nature. By nature, we're
the children of wrath. Now think about this. We don't
suffer any of that, but we came out from under that when God
chose us and loved us and redeemed us with his precious blood and
called us unto himself. Out of, we were by nature children
of God's wrath, but by God's grace, we came out from the place
of bondage and oppression, pressing, affliction, like the Israelites
came out of Egypt. That's the picture here. They
were pressed hard, weren't they? Oppressed and in bondage, but
God brought them out. How did God bring them out of
the affliction and bondage of Egypt? by the blood of the Passover
lamb. And that's how we come out too.
And since God has seen the blood, you can just stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. This Greek word tribulation is
very akin to the Hebrew word bruised in Isaiah 53. That word there also means, it
means crushed. And this tribulation means to
be pressed upon like grapes in a wine press. What happens is
they are crushed in that wine press. That's what happens. Very
akin here. We come out of Egypt because
the Passover lamb died in our place. In every house in Egypt,
either a sinner died or a lamb died for that house. We're not crushed under the justice
and wrath of God because he was crushed for us. He was bruised
or crushed for our iniquities, Isaiah said. He suffered all
of the wrath of God for all of his elect, for all time. Therefore,
verse 15, we are before the throne. You see that word, therefore?
Brought out. Out of, and therefore, we stand
before his very throne, attributing salvation to our God, and we
serve him day and night, all the time, and he dwells among
us. So out from the bondage and affliction
and the penalty and consequences of all of our sin, and into the
very presence of God, And look how it says we got there. Back
in verse 14, they came out of great tribulation. And how is
it that you escape bondage, misery, sin, and shame? You wash your
robe in the blood of God's Son. That's how you do it. You make
your robe white in the blood of the Lamb. Remember Revelation
1 5 and from Jesus Christ who is
the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and
the prince of the kings of the earth Unto him that loved us
and washed us from our sins in his own blood And now think about
our text we have washed they have washed their robes and made
them white. So what happened? I Did He wash us in His blood? Or did we wash in His blood? You know it's both. Of course
it's both. Guess which happened first? Christ comes to us and we come
to Him. Sometimes when the Lord performed
miracles of healing, picturing the salvation of sinners clearly,
He went to the sinner and saved them in spite of them. Often
that was the case. Saul of Tarsus wasn't seeking
the Lord on the road to Damascus. Christ came and just broke him
down. The lame man at the pool of Bethesda,
the Lord asked him if he wanted to be healed and he didn't even
say yes. and he healed him anyway. The good Samaritan, that man
didn't take the first step. Lazarus, what's gonna happen
to Lazarus if the Lord doesn't come right where he is and say,
Lazarus, come forth. You know what's gonna happen.
He's gonna stay in that tomb and rot. He was four days dead
when the Lord came. and gave him life, just simply
gave him life. That's how sinners are saved.
But the woman with the issue of blood was determined to get
to Christ. She pressed through the throng
as weak as she was. Having had that issue of blood
for many years, she was able to press through the throng,
the multitude that had gathered around him
to touch the hem of his garment. Blind Bartimaeus, when they told
him to shut up, he just cried the more a great deal. Christ's coming and saving sinners
in spite of their inability to come to him is clear teaching
that salvation is just simply of the Lord. He initiates it. It is him. So how could he not
be the first cause of it? It's by grace, free, sovereign
grace that we're saved. And also, we're saved by grace
through faith. And it's faith that presses through
the throne. It's faith that won't shut up.
It's faith that won't let go until he blesses us. And what
happens first, grace or faith? Oh my, we know the answer to
that. Of course it's grace. Grace comes
first, grace is eternal grace. Sovereign grace, free grace,
not because you did something, grace. Freely, without a cause
in you, he bestows his grace upon us. And then part of that
grace is the gift of faith, not of works, lest any man should
boast. And when God, by his grace, gives
faith in Christ, That sinner will never let go, he'll never
shut up, he'll never stop until Christ blesses. When you find
yourself in Jacob's place, unwilling to let go of Christ until he
blesses you, you are in that place because he's already blessed
you. That's the most blessed place in the world. Because that faith is not of
yourself. It's the gift of God, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. That's
what we see here in our text. We come willingly. We come desperately. We come in dire need of cleansing. Nowhere else to go. No other
hope. No other desire. And we wash. We wash with all
of our heart. We wash in the blood of God's
lamb. The result of Adam's sin is that we had no covering. Naked
and guilty before God, but we come out from there out from
and therefore We stand without blemish and without spot dressed
in white the very righteousness of Christ In the white robe of
perfect Righteousness, there's not but one There's only one
righteousness. There's not Christ's righteousness
and then my righteousness is like his and There's just one
righteousness. The righteousness of God in Christ. And we are standing there simply
and only because of that precious blood. What can wash my sin away? Not a thing. But the blood of
the Lord Jesus. In verse 15 again, this is the
only way you can or ever will stand in the presence of God.
In verse 15, we stand in his presence. And it's neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, Christ
entered in once into the holy place for us, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. That's us coming to God. No man
cometh unto the Father, he said, but by me. That is, when he came
into the presence of the Father, we came in him and we follow
him. He's the first begotten from
the dead and went into the presence of God. Not with the blood of
bulls and goats, but by his own precious blood. And here we are
now in Revelation 7, 15, standing in that holy place. Who can stand
in the holy hill of God? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, a white robe. Not because he offered us redemption,
because he obtained it. Eternal redemption for us. Again,
that's Hebrews 9, 12. and we serve him day and night
in his temple. Wait a minute, I thought there
wasn't any night there. This is not physical day and night. This
is not literal light and dark, you know. There's no night, because
the lamb is the light thereof, not as we know night now. This
is just simply saying in spiritual language that we serve him all
the time, all the time. Where did we come from and where
are we now? We came from disobeying God in
the garden and all of our lives, even now. Have you ever obeyed
God perfectly? If you did, you're in big trouble.
You're going straight to hell because you're wrong about that. We went from disobeying God and
we've come to serving him all the time in his temple. We came from, as God said, to
whatever you say, Lord, whatever you say. And he that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among us. We don't even know what that
is. Christ is God with us, and how wonderful is that? I wouldn't
want to be with him for a nanosecond, without him for a nanosecond.
And I'm thankful that he never leaves us nor forsakes us, but
this is a whole other world, literally. Even Adam didn't know what this
is until the eternity that's described in our text, he didn't.
Adam had sinless fellowship with God in his presence for a time,
but not like this. Adam was righteous, but he didn't
have the righteousness of God in Christ. If he had, he never
would have fell like we never will. Could the angels that didn't
fall before, could they fall? I don't know. I have no idea,
but I know we can't. No way. No way. That's all I need to know about
that. We are more than conquerors through
him that loved us, and that's how. sinless, infallible righteousness. Where sin abounded, grace did
indeed much more abound. Grace didn't just abound, it
much more abounded. Now verse 16 in our text, they
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, Neither shall
the sun light on them nor any heat. For the lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. Led, fed, and comforted by him. Because we are like him, white
robes washed in his blood. Because we are with him, he dwells
among us then perfectly. And because we have him, he that
hath a son hath life. Because of him, all of our sin
and all of its consequences are gone. No more by the sweat of
your face shalt thou eat bread. That's the curse, that's part
of the curse. Now, the lamb himself feeds us. Can you imagine what
that's gonna taste like? One of the most enjoyable things
in this world, I suppose for anybody, is enjoying a wonderful
meal, but not just that. If I have to eat it by myself,
it's not that big of a deal. Even the most wonderful thing,
if I was eating it by myself, if I didn't have anybody to share
it with, to be with, it wouldn't be much to it, would it? The
first thing I'd want to do is tell somebody I love about it
so we could eat it together. Eating a wonderful meal with
somebody that you love. One of the most wonderful things
in the world. Actually dining with the Lord Jesus Christ our
Savior Remember what he said to the
church of the Laodiceans This is so beautiful to me in Revelation
3 20 he said behold I stand at the door and knock if any man
hear my voice and open the door I Will come in to him and what
are we gonna do when he comes in? We're gonna sup together. I will sup with him and and he
with me. Boy, that'd be hard to beat,
wouldn't it? That'd be hard to beat. We're
gonna have supper at the king's table like Mephibosheth, only
not like Mephibosheth. We're not gonna be lame on both
of our feet anymore. We are now. But we won't be anymore. And we'll be just like the Lord
Jesus Christ, having been predestinated to be conformed to the image
of God's Son. Our text is the destination in
predestination. But we still, here's what's glorious. Think about this for a second.
We're like Christ. He said, if you suffer with me,
you're gonna reign with me. Think about what that means.
And yet we still need Him. He still got to feed us. He still got to lead us. Why
is that? If we're perfect in every way,
then why is that? Well, I'll tell you this about
that. Needing Christ is not a weakness,
it's a blessing. Oh boy. It's an honor to meet
him. He will always feed us and he
will always lead us. It's not because we don't know
the way, we just gonna want him to lead us. We're gonna want
him with us constantly and he will be, he wants that too. He
said, Father, here's my will, here's what I want. Those that
you've given me to be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. And we will. We are in our text. He's always going to feed us.
It's not that we won't know that he's going to lead us. It's not
that we don't know the way. By grace, we already know the
way, don't we? We know how to get to the fountain
of living waters, don't we? He told his disciples, you know
the way. And they said, how can we know we don't know it? I am. I am. So by grace, we already
know the way, but this is saying that him leading us is the way. Needing him to lead us is not
a limitation. It's a wonderful, wonderful blessing.
Now and then. And God shall wipe away all tears
from our eyes. He's not going to get an angel
to do it. And he does that a lot, but not
this. He's going to do it personally.
Well, that's something to think about tonight when you're laying
in bed. You know, there are all kinds of tears. There are tears
that we first think of, tears of sorrow. There's tears of anger. There's tears of distress, tears
of frustration, tears of terror, tears of despair. Well, which
tears is this talking about? Well, he tells us that in the
text, all of them. It's all of them, that's what
it is. And you know, there's nothing more intimate and special
and just precious than this, is there? If you were crying
and I reached up and whapped your tears away from your face.
You'd know for sure that I love you, wouldn't you? You'd know
for sure. What an expression this is of
his love and care for us. And we're gonna know that about
him. We know a little bit now, don't
we? But we're gonna know how much
he loves us. We're gonna see that it's his precious blood
that has washed us. And he's gonna wipe all of our
tears away. And one last thought, this is
not only all the tears in the sense of every kind of tear,
this is God himself wiping away all of the tears that you're
ever gonna cry. Your last tear, he's gonna wipe
it away. The Lord has been saying to us
all along, hadn't he, fear not and weep not. How many times
does he say, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, don't be troubled,
let not your heart be troubled. When the little damsel in Luke
eight died, he said to them that were weeping, he said, don't
weep, she's just asleep. He said to the disciples on the
road to a mess, why are you so sad? And then when we're standing
in his presence before his throne and he wipes our tears away himself,
we're gonna know why he said those things. It's because he
really is all and in all.