Revelation chapter 14. We're
looking again at verses 1 through 5. And the title of the message this
morning is, Are you in that number? You know, that old hymn, when
the roll is called up yonder, Will you be in that number? Will you be in that number? When God comes again, when Christ
comes to this earth the second time, He will not come in humility. He came first in humility for
a purpose, and that was to redeem His people. But now that He has
redeemed them in the earth, As we'll see shortly, our Lord Jesus
Christ will come to redeem us from the earth. It's just a glorious
truth, a glorious revelation of Jesus Christ, that He is coming. He is coming and He is not slack
concerning His promise as men count slackness. Our Father is
coming and when that last one, that last child of God, believes
on Him and is brought into the fold, you mark it down, He is
going to come. And when He comes, He is going
to come in the brightness of His glory. He's going to come
in His power and He's going to display His omnipotence to everyone. And men who are outside of Christ
will cower in fear. At what? The Lamb. The Lamb. They'll fear the Lamb, the wrath
of the Lamb. But we, we who are in His number. We who are saved by His grace
have no cause to fear that day. We have no cause to fear that
day. Why? Because you have been redeemed. Because you have been bought
with a price. The precious blood of the Lamb
of Jesus Christ You have been brought into His fold and made
righteous. What then should separate us
from our God? Nothing. Seeing Christ has removed
all things. Now, look at this picture again.
Last time we looked at the Lamb in great detail. Let's go back
and read this again. It says, And I looked, and lo,
a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty
and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their
forehead. Now, before this, we know that
the vision was very troubling. The vision was of persecution. And this is true in every age. In every age, believers are called
to endure and suffer persecution for the cause of Christ. We are called to persecution,
not exempt from it. That's what the world believes
about Christianity, that once you become a Christian, you're
exempt from trouble. I tell you no because Christ
tells you no. In this world, you shall have
tribulation. but be of good cheer, when in
tribulation be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." See,
we are predestinated to this. We are ordained to trouble in
this world. And every believer must endure
some suffering for the cause of Christ. Some, as we do ourselves
daily, endure this flesh, do we not? Do we not daily have
to fight and battle this old man, this man of sin that is
constantly raging war within us? We do. And it is persecution. So the persecution is self, self-persecution. It's the worst kind. And then
we have the world, our family, our friends, all trying to lure
us away from the Gospel of Christ, all trying to either with sweetness
or with hostility, and yet we are being persecuted because
it tears us apart when our family and friends are against us. It
hurts. The the devil is constantly against
us So we have enemies and some did daily some have to even endure
unto death Many have for the cause of Christ
suffered the pains of death But this is our comfort, that
our Lord, having won the victory at Calvary, having crushed the
serpent's head, having redeemed all of His elect and ascended
to the throne of God, Satan is now cast out. Our enemy is cast
out. And He cannot accuse us before
God. This should be our joy. This
should be our comfort. There is no accusations against
us that can stand. But yet, because He is cast out
and not able to accuse us, let us not be ignorant. He is cast
into this world. Revelation 12, 13, it says this,
when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted
the woman, which is the church. And the tools that he uses are
revealed in chapter 13, the beast of anti-Christian government,
and the beast of false religion, and those who receive the mark,
which are all the world that goes after the beast and doesn't
believe in Christ. They are our enemies. And we
must see that all their power that they have is set to our
destruction. Don't be naive. We have vicious
foes. Vicious foes. They are trying to overthrow
our faith, to discredit our gospel, and mock our Lord and Savior,
the whole The whole ambition of this world is to allure us
from Christ. Now, if you want to pull the
veil back behind everything the world is doing, it is to allure
you from Christ, either by pain or by pleasure. They will try
to allure you away from Christ. That's what they're doing. And
it's constant. It's perpetual. Are you not bombarded daily by
sights and sounds of things in this world trying to lure you
away? You are. Listen closely. Anyone or anything
that keeps us from Christ, anyone or anything that adds to Christ
or subtracts from Christ is anti-Christ. It is against Christ. It is against
Christ. things in the world that keep
us from the obedience to our master are nothing more than
idols idols that must be cast down if our father and mother
seek to draw us from Christ to deter us from the gospel they
must be they are tools tools of the enemy used against you
If our children, our spouse, try to seduce us to hear or believe
another gospel, to entice us with sights and sounds of religion,
with the intelligence of science or human reasoning, or even the
amazement of miracles, do not go after them. They are tools
used of the enemy to thwart your faith. See what they are. Recognize them for what they
are. By all means, pray for those
who are lost. Pray for them. Pray for their
souls. Desire that the Lord reveal Himself
to them. But do not set them above Jesus
Christ. Do not set them above Christ.
nor set them above His gospel, the gospel of His free grace,
His perfect salvation through faith in Christ alone, without
the works of the law." Believer, are you so persecuted? Are you
tried and tempted by the world? Then I want you to realize this.
God has prepared a place for you. a hiding place, a refuge, a shelter,
a place of nourishment. You know, especially during the
Cuban Missile Crisis, there were people building bomb shelters
all over, stocking it with food. Why? In case of a nuclear attack,
they were going to have something to eat. They were going to have
some protection. I tell you, you've got something
better than a bomb shelter. Jesus Christ. is much better refuge
for your souls. God has prepared a refuge for
us. Look what that's what He did
for the woman. He said in verse 14 of chapter 12, And the woman
were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into
the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a
time, times and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
These wings, they are wings of faith. Wings of faith. Do you realize
not that you have these wings daily with you? It is faith that causes us to
soar above the clouds of confusion and causes us to see how things
really are. All is well. This is where faith
takes you. Faith takes you to the throne
of grace. And what do you see? I looked, and behold, a lamb
stood. All is well. Faith takes you
to a place. It is faith that causes us to
soar to the heavens. It causes us to see clearly our
union with Christ and our acceptance with God. And what gives lift
to these wings is the object of our faith. Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ. Only Christ is my hope. Only
Christ is my refuge. Only Christ is my salvation. And we lift, and that lifts us. It lifts our hearts, it lifts
our minds, it causes the confusion to go away. If Christ is all,
what else do I need? There is only one thing needful.
One thing needful. You remember Mary chose that
part. Martha's busy. She's busy. She was preparing a meal for
the Lord and Savior. What a job! What a mission she
had! And Jesus said, that's nothing.
Mary was sitting, listening to the teaching of Christ, hearing
the gospel, and said, Mary chose the better part. That's better. Why? It's your place. It's your place
of refuge. Christ and Christ alone. Therefore let us now soar. Don't
wait. Why would you wait? Why wait
to soar? The wings of faith are yours.
Soar! Rise to the heavens. Behold the
Lamb of God. See thy salvation. I love this, when the Lord told
His disciples, He said, if you ask anything in My name, the
Father will give it to you. You know why? Because He loves
you. The Father loves you. Why would
He not accept you into His presence? What would stop Him? Oh, my sin! My guilt! No, it's gone. It's gone. Christ has removed
it. Look to Christ and see it's gone. Therefore, we should soar above
the noise and strife and confusion and see what? I want you to see
your end. That's what God shows you here.
In these verses, chapter 14, 1 through 5, you know what He
does? He takes them to the end. of all faith. You ever read a
book and you don't know how in the world it could work out?
You don't know that the enemy's strong, the hero is almost defeated
and seems overwhelmed and you can't wait. So what do you do?
You go to the back of the book and you read. I've done that many times. Well,
I'm taking you to the back of the book and I'm showing you
the end result so that you're not fearful. That's what God's
doing in this revelation. He's showing you that this is
taking you back. The Lord by vision reveals to
us our ordained troubles in chapter 13, but in love shows us the
ordained end of all our troubles. Behold, the Lamb stood. The Lamb stood. Now that's important. Every word of God and every word
of this book is vitally important. And this word stood is very important
because where is our Savior now? What is He doing now? What is
His position now? The Apostle Paul says that He
is seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high. What is
His position? He's sitting. He's sitting. He is ruling and reigning over
all things. But you listen, one day He's
going to stand up. And when He stands up, it's over. Well, just to show you this isn't
an opinion, go to Zephaniah. Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse
8 I found this my heart just rejoiced
therefore wait wait ye upon me sayeth the Lord Wait in the midst of your persecution.
Wait in the midst of your suffering. Wait listening to the gospel
of God's grace. Wait on me, saith the Lord, until
the day that I shall do what? I will rise up to the praise. For my determination is to gather
the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms and pour out mine
indignation upon all my fierce, even all my fierce anger. For
all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people
a pure language. that they may all call upon the
name of the Lord and serve Him with one consent." See what He's
going to do when He rises up? He is going to destroy the wicked
and call His people. He is going to destroy the wicked.
The end, the Lord will gather His sheep. His people, and they
will be of one language. What language? It's the language
of the song that these 144,000 sing. They'll all have the same
song. They'll all have the same language.
And they'll all do it with one consent. We'll worship God with
one heart, one soul, one spirit together forever when He comes. And who are these that He will
gather? Who is this people that He will
gather? Well, He mentions that in your
text. He says that in your text. He said, look, they stood on
the mount, and notice who was with Him, 140 and 4,000. God
will gather all of these 144,000, which is the true Israel of God, all those He has redeemed,
and the song we now sing, which is the gospel we have learned
in the earth, that no man can learn, then we
shall sing it continually without interruption." Is that not going
to be a day when you can enjoy this gospel message for eternity
without ever tiring, without ever being wearied, without ever
being distracted, without ever having one thought of evil or
sin encroach upon your mind? You will one day worship Christ
in full glory. You see, you can't even imagine
it. Can't even imagine it. One day we will sing without
sin, without any interruptions. Now then, listen, since Christ
is coming, since the world is full of sin and trouble, since
He is coming to destroy the wicked, And call His people. You must ask yourself, am I in
that number? Am I in this holy number of the
hundred and forty and four thousand? When Christ gathers His sheep
and separates them from the goats, which division will you be in? Which number will you be in?
Because that's vitally important. Don't worry about your neighbor
or your... Concerned about yourself. Which number will you be in? This 144,000, we know that it
is a large number. It is not literally 140 and 4,000. It is
a large number, but I tell you this, it is a limited number. It is a specific number known
only to God. Only those that Christ has redeemed
will the Spirit call and quicken to be in this number. Let us briefly then see the marks,
because I desire myself to know. I desire myself to know. Am I in this number? Well, let's
see then their marks. In verse 2, And I heard a voice
from heaven, as a voice of many waters, as a voice of great thunder.
I heard a 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. which no man could learn that
song but the hundred and forty-four thousand which were redeemed
from the earth." Now this new song, this new song is revealed
to us in Scripture. Go back to chapter 7. It is the
same song that the 144,000 sung in chapter 7. You remember the
Lord in chapter 7, in this particular vision, which is separate from
the one that we're engaged in, he mentions these 144,000. Matter
of fact, he says, don't destroy the earth until I've gathered
all the 144,000. And when they're in heaven, notice
in verse 10. It says, "...they cried with
a loud voice, saying..." This is their song, listen. "...Salvation
to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and..." unto the
Lamb. Salvation to our God. What is he saying? Listen, salvation
belongs to God. This is our song. Salvation belongs
to God. Man's song is salvation belongs
to man. Now that's a natural song that
every one of our natures knows. Salvation belongs to man. Salvation,
that man holds the key to his salvation. That man could either
choose or reject God. He could exercise his free will
and then God must be obligated then to save him based on his
choice. Now that is a man-centered worldly
salvation. That is not my song. That is
not the song of these hundred and forty and four thousand.
Their song is salvation to our God. Salvation belongs to our
God. That's our song. Our song is that God from eternity
purposed to save a people, decreed to save, and set His immutable,
effectual love upon a chosen race, a chosen people. And God purposed that all their
salvation should be accomplished not by them, but by Christ His
Son. God set all of the weight and
the glory on Jesus Christ to accomplish the work of salvation.
Salvation belongs to our God. It is His plan. It is His purpose. It is He who accomplished our
salvation. And to the Lamb. It belongs to
the Lamb because He accomplished it. The Lamb came into this world
to do His work. He said, Lo, I come in the volume
of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God, by
the which will we are sanctified. By the offering of Himself to
God we are sanctified. By His one offering for sin,
He had forever removed the sins of His people and sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on High, the salvation purpose
of the Father, is now accomplished by God the Son, and so then the
Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, is sent into the world to seal
these elect. That's what it means that they
have this mark in their forehead. It is the covenant of grace that
He said, I will put My laws in their mind and write them in
their hearts. And they shall not have to teach
every man his neighbor, saying, Know the Lord. For they shall
all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. That's
what it is to be sealed in the mind and the heart and to have
His name written in your forehead. You know Him. You know Christ. These things I'm telling you
about Christ. You're not learning anything new about Christ. You
love to hear of Him. And when I preach of Him, you
say, yep. Yes, I know that. I know Him. Yes, I do. Why? You have the mark in your
forehead. That's why you know Him. And this is your song. Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Completely. And notice this in that same
chapter, chapter 7. Look at this. Verse 11 says,
And all the angels stood round about the throne, and all the
elders and four beasts fell down on the throne, and their faces
worshipped God, saying, Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to man's will. Is that what it says? No, you got
a scowl in your face. You know that's not what it says.
You know that's not. See what I'm talking about? You
know when I said that, that that was wrong. You knew it. Why? Because blessing and honor
and power and majesty and glory belong to who? Unto our God. That's who they belong to. They
do not belong to us. It is not by our works that we
are saved. It is not by our will we are
saved. It's by free and sovereign mercy we are saved. By the power
and grace of God, the Holy Spirit working in us, not we ourselves. Not unto us. Not unto us, O LORD,
but unto Thy Name. Give glory unto Thy Name. Believer, now our Savior sits,
but soon He will rise up, and He will come and get these, us
who are His, us who sing this song of grace. Is this your song?
And you mark it down, you are in that number. Is that good
news? That's your song. It's their
song. It's my song. It's your song. If you believe on Jesus Christ,
it is your song. And if you don't know this song,
listen to me. I can tell you and tell you and
tell you and tell you, but I cannot teach it to you. You get that? They said that this song no man
can learn but the 144,000. I pray not for the world. My Lord Jesus said that. I pray
not for the world. Why? Because they're not in that
number. But I pray for them which thou
hast given me out of the world. Thine they were and thou gavest
them in. Now secondly, these 144,000,
notice this, they were redeemed. Go down to verse 4 and it says that these are they
which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed
from among men the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. These who are in this number
are redeemed. The blessed Lord Jesus was purposed
to be our surety, to bear the weight, the full weight and responsibility
of all our souls. He was to fulfill the eternal
covenant of grace for the elect, therefore God made Him. You listen. Who made Him to be
your Redeemer? Who made Him to be your redemption?
God did. 1 Corinthians 1 chapter 1 and
verse 30. It says, But of Him are you in
Christ? For God hath made Him to be our
wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and what? Our
redemption. Our redemption. Which He did
upon the cross. Now what is redemption? You that
are believers in Jesus Christ, you have been called by the Spirit
to faith in Christ. You follow the Lamb by faith.
You believe on Jesus Christ by faith. Now, what is this about
your redemption? What is it to be redeemed? To
redeem simply means to buy back, to deliver one by paying a debt. This is illustrated in the Old
Testament by the bondservant. You remember that bondservant
that went into debt and sold himself to another man. And he was to be a slave to that
man until he could pay back the debt. Or, there were two other
options. Remember, that it could wait
to the year of Jubilee, which is a picture of salvation in
itself. But there was another one, a kinsman redeemer. Only
one who is of near kin could buy the debt, could pay the debt. You see, all men by nature are
bound and captive. What has bound us is sin. That
is the debt. That is the chain. But I want
you to know what man are bound to. A lot of men believe that
sin has bound them to Satan. No! You are bound to the justice
of Almighty God. That's who you're bound to. Sin
has chained you and barred you in the justice of God. The justice of God is to whom
you owe the debt. Because sin, our sin we owe,
is a debt to the holy justice of God. But what then is the
price? How little men think of God.
When they think little of sin, that just shows how little they
think of God. Well, if I just do this, change
my attitude, my behavior, you see how little that makes God?
It just demeans the holiness of God. Now, if you were to go
to a courtroom and you were guilty of murder and you were to say,
well, what if I just do some community service? Well, that
would be unjust for the law to let you off on such a thing. And yet, God, you would suppose
that just your community service would satisfy sin, the debt of
sin. No, God is very clear about this
matter of sin. The debt is death. The soul that
sinneth, it shall surely, not maybe, not probably, not perhaps,
it will surely die. The soul will die. And because
the soul is everlasting, so is the death. The death is everlasting. Sin is a big deal. Men say, well,
sin's not a big deal. God'll be merciful. Surely He
won't throw me into hell for these little things that I've
done. This only proves man's natural rebellion against God.
They say, I won't serve a God like that. Of course you won't.
Why? You're bound. Your sin has bound
you. It only proves man's spiritual
rebellion. But God, listen, God is merciful. He's merciful because, listen,
He has provided a Redeemer. He's provided a Redeemer on purpose,
on purpose. He did this even before there
was sin. God purposed a Redeemer. Purposed to have a Redeemer.
To send a Redeemer. To pay the price of redemption,
which He willingly paid. This Redeemer is called Thy Maker. In Isaiah 4.54 He said, For Thy
Maker, Thy Husband, the Lord of Hosts, is His name, and Thy
Redeemer. You see, Jesus alone then is
able to redeem. He alone was able to pay the
price. He alone was holy and spotless
because He is the eternal God. But because God could not die,
Son of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Son of God,
our Redeemer, was made flesh so that He might be a high priest
in things pertaining to God, things that you and I could not
do pertaining to God, He did. He offered the only acceptable
sacrifice and He actually redeemed. This is the message. This is
the gospel. He actually redeemed. He didn't
make redemption possible. He actually redeemed. He bought
them. His blood was not some set-aside
account that men can tap into. No, He actually paid the debt
and satisfied the justice of God forever. He took away our
sins. Forever. This redemption is pictured in
that Passover lamb. Remember that lamb was slain
before the child entered into the house. I like that. The lamb was chosen. He was slain
before the child ever entered the home where the blood was. Now that blood was shed for that
child. He just didn't know it yet. He didn't know it. Not till he got in the house Am I one of God's elect Am I
redeemed listen, are you in the house? Is the blood applied? That's the work of the Holy Spirit
to apply the redemptive blood to the heart. Now this is a matter
of affection. It's not just a matter of academic
understanding. This is a matter of my eternal,
immortal soul rests on His sacrifice. My deliverance rests on Him. And He blows where He wills and
He gives this and He applies the blood to whomsoever He will.
And notice those that He has redeemed. Listen, He redeemed
them from among men. Isn't that great news? He redeemed sinners. Sinners. When the Holy Spirit comes, He
always strips the sinner of all self-righteousness, exposes his
sin, and will not let him get better. Isn't that good? I'm
thankful God didn't let us get better in religion. Let many just go on thinking
everything's well. Not us. He exposed our sin, and
we knew we needed a Redeemer. But what did we find? We found
a perfect Redeemer, a perfect one. And notice this, He will
not only has redeemed us from among men, but He will redeem
us from the earth. Verse 3, No man could learn that song
but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed
from The earth. You see, one day He's redeemed
us from our sin. One day He'll redeem us from
this earth. He will bring us to Himself. Bring us to Himself. And lastly, I want you to see
this. All these 144,000 are perfectly
righteous. Notice this. Verse 4, "...they
are they which have not defiled with women." for they are virgins."
Now, I want you to consider, if this was a literal number,
that excludes all you women. You get that? That would exclude
women. So this is not a literal number,
and anybody who thinks so is a fool to think so, because then
the dragon would have to be real, the chains would have to be real,
all of this would... It's not real. This is a... It
is a real number. It's just not this 144,000 literally.
It's a spiritual type. It's a spiritual Israel of God.
And these that have not defiled themselves... What does that
mean, that they're all virgins? Well, you know, Peter wasn't.
Peter was a married man. Does that exclude him? Most of
the apostles. Does that exclude you that have
wives or husbands? No. No, it doesn't, because it's
spiritual. What this means is that they
have not gone after false religion. The woman in this is pictured
as the harlot. I believe 17, is going to be
the harlot of false religion. They do not follow false religion.
But, listen, these are they which follow the Lamb. You see the
two? They don't follow, aren't defiled
with women, but they follow the Lamb. These two are together.
They do not follow false religion, but they follow the Lamb. Listen
to me. If you are in this number, the
just shall live by faith. By faith. That's how we live. That's the law that we've been
given, the law of faith. You see, we were in false religion,
but now we have been brought out of it. But does this mean that we are
free? And notice this last part down here in verse 5, And in
their mouth was found no guile, for they were without fault.
before the throne of God without fault. Now then, look in the
mirror. Do you see that you're without
fault? Do you feel without fault? Of
course not. Why? Because you still have that
old nature. Believer, you are free from sin
in this respect. You are free from the penalty
of sin. You're redeemed. You're free from the power of
sin. The old man is now put down. The proof of that is that you
believe, right? You believe on Christ. That's
the proof that sin's power has been put down. Because you couldn't
believe if sin had power. Now it has no power. You can
believe. You do believe. And the only thing left is one
day we'll be free from the presence of sin. Therefore, the apostle
says, sin not, flee fornication. Why? Because we still have this
old man. But I'm going to turn to a couple
of pages, and I want you to take this to heart, you that are in
this number. I want you to see that though
you are not faultless in your own eyes, you are in the eyes
of God without sin. Jeremiah chapter 31. Verse 34, And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the LORD, for they shall all know Me, from the least of them
to the greatest of them. Sayeth the Lord, for I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." These are
the sovereign I wills of God. I will forgive. Now, do you question
if God will forgive you, believer? I know you do. But yet here He
is. I will forgive you. He has every
right to forgive you, seeing now that Christ has paid for
your sin. Now then, see how God sees things
in Jeremiah chapter 50. Go over
to chapter 50. Because of what Christ has done,
because of God's determination and Christ's accomplished work,
let's see how God sees things. Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse
20. in those days, and at that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah,
and they shall not be found. Why? For I will pardon. Them. Who? The hundred and forty
and four thousand. Whom I reserve. Are you in that number? Do you
believe on Christ? Is the Father's name written
in your foreheads and on your hearts? Then no matter your persecution,
look to the end of the book. See your end clearly. You are
His people. When He stands up, you'll stand
with Him. Why? You know the song. You've
been redeemed. And you are without fault before
your God. What then are you so troubled
about? What are you worried for? You
know the end of this story. Rejoice. Rejoice. Pray that God
blesses to your hearts.