Revelation chapter 14. We'll be looking at verses 1 through
5. Lord willing. No, that goes. Lord willing. The Scripture says,
And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on Mount Sinai. and with Him an hundred and forty
and four thousand, having the Father's name written in their
foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven
as the voice of many waters, as the voice of great thunder,
and 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, And no man could learn that song
but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed
from the earth. These are they which are not
defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which
follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And
in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before
the throne of God." Now, the title of the message this morning
is, The Lamb, the Saints, and the Song. The Lamb, the Saints,
and the Song. Now, in the previous chapter,
we have been made to see the tools the agents of Satan in
order to persecute the church. You remember in chapter 12 it
said that the woman, the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth
and he persecuted the woman. The woman is the church. The
dragon is Satan. And he is cast down, being defeated
by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is cast to the earth.
And what does he do? He persecutes the church. And
in chapter 13, we are given to see these two beasts, one ascending
from the sea, the other from the earth. These are the agents
used of the dragon to persecute the church. Now, the first beast
we saw was a monstrous beast. He'd come out of the sea having
seven heads and ten horns. And he had blasphemy written
on his forehead, so everyone could see he was a blasphemous
beast. In other words, he is openly
against God. He openly blasphemes God. He's powerful, and he does great
wonders, and he deceives the earth, and many follow him. Now, this beast is what Paul
calls principalities and powers, rulers of darkness in high places. This is what we would see as
anti-Christian governments or the world itself, which is not
my opinion. This is not my opinion. I don't
tell you this out of opinion. But we've seen this before in
Revelation 17. The angel gives the very definition,
the meaning of the beast. He says these seven heads are
seven mountains and seven kings. We know this. These are lands
and kings and rulers. That's who this beast is. And the second beast we saw Chapter
13, and he is in verse 11, he comes up out of the earth having
two horns like a lamb. This one has an appearance not
monstrous, but very meek, very gentle, docile as a lamb. This is the same as the false
church or Antichrist. Again, this is not my opinion,
but rather, even from this book in chapter 16, he is called the
false prophet. The false prophet. Now, I know
many of us have been taught from a child that Antichrist is one
man. That's just been Seeming like
that everybody's been taught that, that Antichrist is coming.
Oh, look over here. Look over there. He must be the
Pope. He must be this. No, John tells us plainly there
are many Antichrists. John says this in 1 John 2, verse
8, little children, it is the last time. As you have heard
that Antichrist shall come, even now, in John's day, there are
many Antichrists, he says. And by this, you know it's the
last time. It's the last time. John was in the last time and
so are we. Why do we know that? Because
there are many antichrists going out. The work of this beast is
one that's not open and overtly blasphemous, but rather deceptive
in his appearance and his miracles. And this one is very deceptive. He looks. like the one we're
going to see in chapter 14. He looks like the Lamb. He has
the very appearance of the Lamb, but he's not. How do we know?
How do you then know the difference of this agent because he is so
deceptive? You and I can see the world and
its false religion. We can see the world and its
blasphemy. We know that. That's open. But this one is
subtle because it's meek and it appears to be It appears to
be godly. Well, how do we know this? Well,
look what the Lamb speaks like. He said he speaks like the dragon. He has a speech of the dragon.
This false prophet, he has the same lies and false gospel of
his master, which was a lie from the beginning. Remember when
Satan tempted our mother Eve. This is the first false gospel
ever preached. Yea, hath God said? There's the question. Hath God said? Even so does the false religion
of our day say the same thing concerning this matter of election,
concerning doctrine. It said, Yea, hath God said that
He has elect people? Have God said the children not
yet being born, having done good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand as it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated? Did God say that? Are you sure? Does God hate? Surely God doesn't
hate. God says, I hate. God is angry
with the wicked every day. Every day. Yea, hath God said." You mean
that God will not save men even though they want to be saved?
How many times have you heard that lie? That's a lie because
they know not the truth. They know not the truth of man's
depravity because man will not seek God. No man seeks God or
cries for mercy except the Father draw him, except God save him. How subtle, then, is their lies. Scripture says, Jesus said this,
No man, you can't come to me. No man can come to me. except
the Father which hath sent me draw him." The lie of universal atonement
floods this generation as though it's common knowledge that Jesus
died for all men without exception. Yea, hath God said, Thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins."
Did Christ save his people from their sins or did he not? My scripture says he did. He
did. They say, Yea, hath God said
that Christ's one offering has obtained eternal redemption?
that all who are sanctified are now perfected by His one offering? I say, yes, that's what God's
Word says. Absolutely, that's what God said.
The lie of the dragon is that Jesus died for all men, loves
all men without exception, and His blood extends to all men. And then comes the result of
their lies. God doth know in the day thou
eatest thereof thou shalt be as gods, knowing good and evil. You know, that's the first free
will message ever preached. You see, when you eat that, then
you'll be able to choose good and evil. Lie. Because when they ate, they could
not choose good or evil. Evil overcame them. When they sinned, there was no
hope. They died. They were incapable
of doing good. The Scripture, therefore, says
that there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Why? Because when the day that
Adam ate, he died, and so did his whole race die. This is the
truth of God's Word, and anyone who counters that is a liar and
part of the beast. The doctrine of free will is a lie. That is the dragon's
voice. This false gospel is to the natural
man both appealing and reasonable." You do not see the correlation
between the so-called freewill Christian church and paganism. What's the difference? They both
are working to earn favor with God. They both believe they can
obtain righteousness by meriting and sacrificing. That's what
they believe. That's the lie. They are ignorant
of the righteousness of God that man cannot and will not receive
the truth. He cannot please God. He cannot
add to the work of Christ. Therefore, they will not believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And along with the false prophet,
he does miracles and deceives many. Our Lord said the miracles of
the beast would be so great that if it were possible, would deceive
the very elect. And notice this beast, he doesn't
just make an image of himself, he makes the image of the first
beast and calls people to worship him. This is the role of the
false church to make the world less hideous, more appealing. Isn't that what happened to the
church? With these different things, these programs they bring
in, oh, they sound good, they sound appealing. What are they
doing? They're trying to attract the world in, not knowing that
they're just making an image of the beast, making it more
appealing by putting the name Jesus on it. The role of the false church
is to make the world more appealing or less hideous. And all who
oppose the beast will either be killed or suffer rejection if they have not the mark of
the beast, which is not a literal mark. Some of the things that superstition
overrules man. There was a house, I think, in
Tennessee for sale, and it had the address of 666, and they
could not sell it. People too superstitious? No, this mark of the beast is
not literal. It is a spiritual mark. Just
as the mark of the 144,000, as we see, shall have the seal of
God in their forehead. You look at my forehead. There's
no mark here. No physical mark. It's a mark
on the heart. That's what it is. It's a mark
on my mind. I have the mind of Christ. I
have the Spirit of Christ. That's the mark of the Father.
The mark of the beast is to have the mark of false religion, to
have the mark of the world. And this mark of Satan is upon
the hearts and minds of his subject and on their hands, which means
he does their work. Jesus said to those Jews, who
were clearly the second beast, He said, You are of your father
the devil, and the works of your father you will do. You know why people have no interest
in the things of God? Because the work of their father
they do. They don't love it. They don't
adore it. They don't worship Christ. They
don't serve Christ. Why? They are of their father,
the devil. Now tell people that and see
if you don't get mocked. How dare you say that? By their
fruit you shall know them. Is that what it says? You bet. Satan is a strong man armed and
the only hope for men is that Christ come and conquer their
souls. And all who continue to reject
Christ and His gospel will suffer the same end and eternal destruction
as the beast and the false prophet and Satan. They'll be cast into
the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone forever and ever
and ever and ever. They will all have the same end.
Now, this is dark, isn't it? All of this is dark. This is
dark. The two beasts appear. They appear
victorious. If you see that in the previous
chapter, and it was given at the end, verse 7, to make war
with the saints and to overcome them. Yet, even in our suffering, even
in times of great persecution, let us be reminded of their number. What is the number of the beast?
What is the number of the false prophet? It is the number of
a man, 666. You remember, 6 is the number
of man. 7 is the number of completion,
victory. You pay attention. 6 will never
be 7. no matter how hard they try.
No matter how hard they try to overcome God and his church,
they will always come up short. And not only short, when it's
mentioned three times in a row, that's three times a loser. Three strikes, they're out. It's
complete and utter failure. Isn't that good news? So when
you hear that number, you think of this. Failure. Failure. They will always fail. Though
they appear to win, they will always lose. They will always
lose. All the efforts of Satan and
the false religion of this world will come to nothing. Go to Jeremiah. I want to encourage you in this
because this is something we need to be encouraged of in our
day of darkness that we live in. Jeremiah chapter 23. Let's read verse 30. He's talking about false prophets.
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord. that steal my words." Do you
not get this, that false religion doesn't come up with its own?
It steals from the Word of God. It uses the very same words we
use. Christ, salvation, crucifixion,
blood, righteousness, justice. They steal and lose their meaning
when they preach. Grace is not grace to them. Work
is not work to them. They steal God's Word, every
man from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,
saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say he saith. Behold,
I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord,
and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies,
by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them. Now listen to the result, therefore.
What are they going to prophesy? What are they going to do? Therefore
they shall not profit this people at all. At all. So what are all these
big conglomerates that they call church? What are they impacting?
What are they doing? Nothing. They're not hurting
the church of God one bit. They're not impacting the world
for Christ one bit. I know that's their slogan, impact
the world for Jesus. No, not doing it. Why? Because their gospel's wrong,
because their Christ is false. Though all the powers of deception
be used, we know this, not one of God's people will be lost.
So now then, come to chapter 14. We come to chapter 14 and
we see Light. We come in out of the darkness. The Lord gives us a picture of
what's happening in the world, and then He shows us a picture
of glory. The persecuted church is called
again to look up. He said, Behold, I looked, I
looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Sinai. Behold, believer. Are you surrounded by these beasts,
persecuted by the enemy? We are. Then look up. Look to Christ. Behold the Lamb
of God. This chapter here in chapter
14 is divided into three parts by these words, I saw or I looked. And this is the first part we're
looking at today. You would see that division in
verse 1, verse 6, and verse 14, but we're just going to look
at these first few verses here in verse 1 through 5. We're going
to look at this first part and then break this down into three
divisions. First of all, when John looked, what did he see
first? It saw the Lamb first. The Lamb. Remember now the purpose of this
book. What is the purpose of the book
of Revelation? It is a revelation of who? Jesus Christ. It is a revelation
of Jesus Christ. It's not just a book about future
things. That's what people take this book, they read it, they're
scared to death of it because they think it's some kind of
crystal ball they look into to see what's going to happen. No,
this is a gospel message. It is about Christ, just like
every other book in the Bible. It's about Christ. The purpose
of this book is to reveal Christ. It does and may contain future
things. And I'll give you a hint here
because this part in 1 through 6 is looking to the end. John is now from the darkness
called to his people to look. Jesus is calling his people to
look at your end. This is the end of all things
here. It's future that's happening here in these verses. The purpose of this is to comfort
and encourage and strengthen us in the midst of our troubles,
which is done by looking only to Christ. You know what? I can't be comforted any other
way. I can't be comforted in my knowledge of anything except
Christ. Everything else, that song, it
says, My hope is built on nothing less but Jesus' blood and righteousness. All others are sinking sand.
On Christ's solid rock I stand. All others are sinking sand. You see, except I see the Lamb,
except I see the blood of Christ, I have no comfort, no assurance,
no hope. Remember that all our afflictions
are not random, believer. Not by chance or by accident,
but they are purposed and decreed of God. In Amos chapter 3, in verse 6,
it says, "...shall the trumpet be blown in the city, and the
people not be afraid? Shall the evil be in the city?
And the Lord hath not done it." Is that not true? Why are the
beasts allowed to do what they do? The Lord hath done it. Look
to the Lamb who sits on the throne of God, ruling all things after
the counsel of His own will. Are we sick? Are we discouraged?
Are we cast down? Why? It is the will of our Savior. Bow down and look to Christ. Look to Him. Praise Him for all
things, because He rules all things after
the counsel of His own will. Look now, believer, Not at thy
trouble, not at the appearance and deception of the beast, but
look right now to the Lamb. Don't wait. Look now. Where is thy Lamb? Where is the
Lamb of God? He is our stay, He is our rock,
He is our sure foundation, Even Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
John the Baptist said, what? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away, taketh away the sin of the world. Now, is that not the
most glorious thing you've ever heard? My sins have been taken
away by the Lamb. The Lamb hath taken away my sins. You know this, that no man could
come to God except by a lamb. Isn't that proven throughout
all Scripture by those types and shadows? The very first time
the word lamb is mentioned, you know when? Isaac. Him and his father were going
up and he was about to be sacrificed and he said, Father, here's the
fire, here's the knife, here's the wood. Where's the lamb? That boy knew something. He knew
you could not approach God without a sacrifice. And what did Abraham
say? Don't worry. God will provide
Himself a Lamb. Isn't that what God did? Isn't that what God our Savior
did? Provided Himself a Lamb. He did. Because our sin, because
we had all died in Adam, We were walking in rebellion and hatred
of God. We could not come to God. We could not reconcile ourselves
to God. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, He sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. He sent His Son to die
in the stead of His people. Who is worthy to open the book
of salvation and loose the seals thereof? What did John see? He
saw a Lamb as it had been slain from the foundation of the world.
It is the Lamb of God. How can God and man be reconciled? Only by the Lamb of God. Only
by Christ being made flesh. and dwelling among us, obtaining
righteousness as a man in our stead." This is the Gospel message
that Christ has come in the stead of His people and obtained righteousness
in their place, atonement by His offering, making us acceptable
to God. The Lion of the tribe of Judah
hath prevailed to open the book and loose the seals thereof."
Why? Because God had made His soul
an offering for sin. Because God took your sin, my
sin, and imputed it to Christ. And Christ bore that sin in His
own body. And the flames of God's justice
was poured out on Christ instead of you. and he by himself in majestic
glory tread the winepress of the wrath of God alone and hath
prevailed." You know, he's the only one that
ever came out of hell. I'm telling you, God poured out
hell on him and he came out clean. And God hath highly exalted him,
having exhausted the justice... Imagine the justice of God pouring
out all of that? And when he could find no more
fault, he said, I'm tired. That's enough. That's more than
enough. I'm finished. He's perfect. He exhausted the
justice of God with his blood, satisfied him. Therefore, by
His one offering, He has already redeemed and reconciled us to
God in perfect peace, having made peace by the blood of His
cross." This is the Lamb. And God being pleased with this,
now He is ascended, seated on the right hand of God. Where is Christ now? Where is
this Lamb who was before the world and had come into the world
saving us, dying for our sins? Now, where is He? He is in heaven. He is seated on the right hand
of the Majesty on high. So now the Lamb of God is on
what is here called Mount Sinai. And I looked and lo, a Lamb stood
on Mount Sinai. This Mount Zion truly could be
the church. There's no doubt about that.
The Lord Jesus Christ shows Himself among His church. In the very
beginning of this book, He says He is the One walking among the
candlesticks, His church. The stars which are His ministers
are in His hand. And so right now, Jesus Christ
even is among us, right now, among us. As His Word is proclaimed,
as His name is exalted, Christ is walking among us. How precious
is that? How glorious is that? That He
would visit His church. And yet, where is He bodily? He is on His throne. He is on
His throne. But here we see that He is doing
something other than sitting. Notice what he's doing here.
He's doing what? He's standing. So then this tells
us that this is not something that is present, but rather something
that is future, something that is going to happen. When everything's
done, our Lord Jesus Christ will no longer sit, but he will stand
as a king to receive all the glory and praise. He will stand
as a king gathering his people to sing the song of Zion. Our Lord Jesus Christ is here
standing. John sees Christ, who is the
Lamb of God. He sees Him standing on Mount
Zion, which is heaven, which cannot be moved and is abiding
forever. And secondly, notice who is with
Him in Zion. 144,000 having the Father's name
in their Okay, go over to... We've seen
these before. These 144,000 are not new to
the book of Revelation. We've seen them in chapter 7.
Look at chapter 7 and verse 3. You remember the angels were
prepared to bring down judgment upon the earth. But yet the angel
of the Lord came, which we know is Christ, the messenger of the
new covenant. And he says in verse 3, hurting
off the earth, neither the seed nor the trees till. We have sealed
the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number
of them that were sealed. And there were sealed 144,000
of all the tribes of Israel. As I've said before, this is
a definite number of an indefinite number. It's a large number. God's elect is a large number. Matter of fact, at the end of
that, it says in verse 9, about these 144,000, it says, Behold
a great multitude. So these 144,000 are seen as
a definite number. God has a definite number of
people, but it is a large number. And these are they that are sealed
to be sealed of Christ. And so he holds off the fury
of judgment until these all are sealed. He must first set the
seal on these 144,000. Now how vain and foolish is it
to suppose that this is a literal number? A literal number. That there are some super-spiritual
saints. No, these are just the elect
of God. These are the sheep that Christ
said, I must bring in. Seeing the Father chose them
in sovereign election and the Son redeemed them and obtained
their righteousness, the Holy Spirit must and will redeem all
of His people. He will call them and give them
birth. Now, is this not comforting to you, believer? Is this not
comforting? God has a people. and the world's
not going to end until they're called. Why has it not ended? Is it not wicked enough? You
bet it is. Why has he not come? Because
there are still elect souls. And how are these elect souls
to be called? Is it not the same as we're doing
today, preaching the gospel, calling sinners to Christ? Come
to Christ. Come now, behold the Lamb of
God, and take away the sin of the world. Come to Him, and He'll
save all that come. Whosoever will, come. Take of
the water of life freely. Him that is athirst, come. And only when that last one has
come in is He going to draw in judgment. Therefore, believer, be of good
cheer. For all that God has chosen, all that are redeemed, shall
be in that number. It is a comfort to us to know
that none of God's elect will be lost. The gospel of Jesus
Christ then is the only message We are to preach. It is the only
message used of God to call His people. It is the only message
which saints are fed, encouraged, and strengthened. And it is the
only message that we love to hear. Behold the Lamb of God. Paul says, "...there will come
a time when men will not endure sound doctrine, but heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears." How many people hear the Gospel
for a little while and say, that's really good, that's good, and
pretty soon their souls say like the Israelites, my soul loatheth
this light bread. How long are you going to preach
Christ? How long are you going to preach
sin, righteousness, and judgment? Until my last breath. There is no other message. There
is no other message. Anybody tells you different,
they are a liar and the truth is not in them. The message is
Christ. The message is Christ, only Christ. And this is the one His saints
love to hear. Even so, will some not continue
to preach Christ, but will loathe the Gospel and preach science
and philosophy and morality? from such turn away." Turn away
from them. I don't care who they are. If
I come to you and start preaching science and philosophy and all
that mess, you get away from me. Paul says, if we or an angel
from heaven preach to you another gospel, let them be accursed. Is that not plain enough language?
I don't need to even clarify that. It's just plain, simple
language. These 144,000, they were with Christ. And notice
this, they followed Christ. It says, these are they which
God defiled with women. They are virgins. and they which
follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth, were redeemed from
among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb, and
in their mouths was no guile for, because they were without
fault." Why is it we're without fault? Why is it that we are
seen as chaste virgins before our God? Why is it that we have
no guile in our mouth before our God? Because we have no guile
in Christ our righteous. because of his righteousness.
God sees you as he sees Christ. Therefore, we gladly follow him.
I gladly follow him. You're not dragging me following
Christ. My flesh, it needs to be put
off and killed, true. But you're not making me follow
Christ. I want to. Why? He made me want to. Made me want
to. And notice their song. Their
song is this. They sung a new song, the song
of the elect. It is called here a voice. I
like this because it's singular. It's one voice. Though there
are many singing, it's all one voice. You know, it's a wonderful
thing. If you were to tune in to hear
any of God's men preach, You know, you're going to hear the
same voice. Same voice. Why? We're all singing the same song.
We're on the same page. Singing the same tune. And you
know what? If you hear somebody, an uncertain sound, put it away. Put it away. If it's not Christ,
put it away. This is the new song. It is a
song of the Gospel. It is majestic. It is like many
waters. It is like the great thunder,
and yet it is like harps. It's majestic and sweet at the
same time. It makes me tremble and it makes
me laugh at the same time. I'm rejoicing and I'm sad at
the same time. I regret all my sins and shortcomings,
and I rejoice that I find in Christ all my righteousness.
And this song, it is only learned of the 144,000. Look at that.
And I heard a voice from heaven, and they sang a new song before
the throne and before the four beasts and the elders, and listen,
no man can learn that song. The 144,000. Who's going to learn
the Gospel? Only those God teaches. Jesus
said, No man can come unto me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. As it is written, They shall all be taught of God. You know this song? Is this tune
familiar? Is all this tune familiar? Yes,
isn't it? and majestic at the same time,
and only you know it. Give thanks if you do. If you
don't believe on Christ now, may he teach you the song. Christ,
Christ, Christ is all. I pray God will bless this.