That's one of the happiest songs
that we sing. Every time I sing that, I'm ready.
Let's just start marching. I envision that's what it's going
to be like. Turn with me, if you would, back
to Revelation chapter 7. Revelation 7. I spent a lot of time. Searching
for what I was going to preach to you tonight. It did not come
quickly. I searched and search and I've
told you about this predicament many times. And. And this was really. Quite a
predicament. Oh, I wanted the Lord to bless
a message to me so badly, and I just searched and I waited
for so long, and I'm not talking about hours, I'm talking about
days of just searching and waiting and praying and asking. I searched
for so long, I finally got to a place where I just had to stop
and literally say, Lord, I will just sit here I'll just sit here
until you send a message to me. I have turned everywhere I know
to turn. Someone quoted this line to me,
and it became proven to be so. It is not by man's might. I was
talking to a brother on the phone, telling him my predicament, and
he said, well, it's not by man's might, not by man's power, man's
might. This is by God's Spirit. And
I thought, oh, that's so true. That is so true. I would, you
know, you see things and you see, I can see outlines, I can
see stories, but if it's not the message, it's not the message.
That's the thing about bringing the message is it has to be a
message. Otherwise, we don't have a message. We got a speech. But anyway, I waited and I begged
and I pleaded and I was just tired. I got to a place where
my mind was tired and my body was tired and I was sitting in my chair there
in my study and I was just spent and this thought went through
my mind. I just want to think about heaven. It's the word I
said. I just want to think about heaven. I just want to think about Life
with Christ in His glorious heaven. And Revelation 7 came to my mind,
so I turned over here to Revelation 7, and I looked at verse 9. That's the first verse that caught
my eye when I turned here. And the first two words got me. All right, read these first two
words with me. After this. After this. Now, I know that
John is talking about after the things that he had just seen
in a vision, but let me tell you what I'm talking about. I'm
talking about after this. After all this. All of this after this life that
we know and live on this earth. After all of the sin. After all
of the sin, you know you. You start out in life and. You
know. You delve off into sin as a human
being and then a teenager and then a 20 something year old
and a Finally get to a place where
you realize, I think I actually am a sinner. Just a life full of sin. After
all of this decay, do you ever get tired of decay? Everything
you have rots. You buy a house, it rots. It just rots. Nothing stays.
Nothing lasts. After all of this corruption,
there's just so much corruption. After all of this breaking down
of our bodies, you do everything that you can to try to maintain
your body, and it just keeps breaking down and breaking down.
It just gets older. It just gets more frail. It's just, you can't stop it. You just cannot stop it. After
all of the weariness and all of the trial and all of the trouble
and all of the fear, when you're a child, you fear things. As
a child, you fear the dark and you fear being left alone and
all those kinds of things. And then you get a little older
and you fear some true things out in the world. Then you get
a little older and you have kids and you start fearing things
for them. Then you get a little older and you start fearing death.
and just fear upon fear upon fear and trials and just troubles. And after all of this sorrow
that takes place and all of this pain that takes place after every
heartache that the ruin of sin has brought on us. Verse nine
says, after this, I beheld and lo, a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and
people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed in white robes and palms in their hands. That sounds like
going from darkness to light, doesn't it? Rags to riches. Well, that's what it is. That's what it is. After this, after all of this, after all
this is over. Look at first Peter five with
me, turn back just a few A few pages, not too many, 1 Peter
5. Verse 10, 1 Peter 5, verse 10
says, But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, After that, you have suffered a while after this make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. He said, after you suffer a while.
He said, the God of all grace. Oh, you talk. We're going to
know grace. We sing about grace. We love grace. We preach grace.
We hope in grace. One of these days we're going
to want to enter into grace. The God of all grace who has
called us unto his eternal glory. Eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After this, he is going to make
us perfect. He is going to establish us and
strengthen us and settle us. Just wait, it's coming right
after this. You used to see commercials on
TV. After these messages, it's coming
right after this. Just hold on one second. I know
this commercial is misery to you and you just want it to be
over, but just hang on. It's right after this. It's coming right after this.
Look at 1 Peter 1. Verse 3 says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope,
or a living hope. by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. And just after this, It's just
after this. Because of His abundant mercy,
because of all of His mercy, He quickened us, He begot us
again into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. That means when He put away that
sin, it was over and God said, well done and raised Him up and
raised every soul in Him up. And that was it. Raised us up in Him to an inheritance
that's incorruptible, undefiled, will not fade away. Reserved
in heaven who are kept by the power of God. And it's just right
after this. Incorruptible, undefiled. I love that. The Lord told that
thief on the cross. He said, today, you're going
to be with me in paradise. Paradise. Paradise with Christ. Paradise with Christ. This is
not paradise. Paradise is coming. Go back to
Revelation 7. Revelation 7 verse 9 says, After
this I beheld And lo, a great number, which no man could number,
of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood
before the throne and before the Lamb." What a glorious thought.
A number no man can number. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody
has the same thought. Everybody has the same faith.
Everybody has the same desire, the same aim. It's all Christ.
It's all Christ. Everybody's happy in Christ,
rejoicing in Christ, thanking God for Christ. They're all standing
before the throne and before the lamb. Who is the lamb? He's
the one who sits on the throne. The King of Kings and Lord of
Lords, our Savior, our substitute, our sacrifice for sin, Jesus
Christ, our Lord. After this is a great multitude,
all standing before Christ, worshiping Christ, all covered in the same
spotless, pure robe of His righteousness. They're all covered in white. And they have all obtained rest. They're all holding the palm
leaf, palm tree. When you think of paradise, you
think of palm trees, don't you? They've all obtained that paradise
of rest. Verse 9 says, After this I beheld,
and lo, a great number, which no man could number, of all nations,
and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne,
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in
their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our
God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. What's after
this? The Jubilee is after this. That's
what it is, the jubilee is after this. Crying's with a loud voice,
salvation belongs to our God which sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. I can't wait to hear that. Worthy
is the Lamb. Every soul there crying in perfect
unison, worthy is the Lamb. Salvation belongs to the Lamb.
He got the victory. The victory is ours because of
Him. Verse 11 says, and all the angels stood round about the
throne and about the elders, which the scripture also says,
they are a number no man can number, an innumerable company
of angels. They all stood round about the
throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before
the throne on their faces and worshipped God. The angels aren't
the only ones who get to fall down on their faces and worship
God. The angels were just joining the elders and the four beasts.
Look at Revelation 5 verse 14. Revelation 5 verse 14, it says,
And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders
fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever."
They fell down and worshipped Him. They were already down on
their faces worshipping Him. The angels just joined them.
And all of God's people are going to get to join Him after this. After this, every knee gets to
bow and every tongue gets to confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. Verse 11, back in Revelation
7, verse 11 says, And 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 worshipped God,
saying, and this is what it is to worship God. If we're going
to worship God, here it is right here. And after this, this is what
we're going to get to do in our hearts with absolute sincerity
and without any hindrance from sin. This is what we're going
to get to do. From the depths of our souls, we're going to
cry. Verse 12 says, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen means I'm with you. That's what it means. So be it. I agree. I'm with you. I'm with you. We're going to
get to cry. I'm with you. I'm with you. Thank God I'm with you. Amen. Amen. Verse 12 says, Amen. Blessing. All blessing. And glory. all glory and wisdom,
all wisdom and thanksgiving, all thanksgiving and honor, all
honor and power, all power and might be under our God forever
and ever. Amen. all of it be unto Him forever
and ever. Amen. That's what I want. Amen. After this is unending,
uninterrupted worship of our true and living God. It's coming
just after this. Verse 13 says, And one of the
elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are
arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? Who are
these souls that are covered in the perfect spotless righteousness
of Christ? And where did they come from? Verse 14. And I said unto him,
Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation. and have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." I've
told you before that the thought has always just amazed me. I
just, I guess that's the only word I know to say, is amazed
by it. That anything or anyone that is dipped down in Christ's
blood, anything that is washed in the
fountain of Christ's blood comes out white as snow. Everything
covered in His blood comes out absolutely white as snow. I believe
we're going to be amazed by that for all eternity. Verse 13, one
of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which
are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said
unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation. Great tribulation. What was that
great tribulation? It was the great tribulation
of the cross. Great tribulation. Those are
the ones who are going to be there after this. Every soul
that God the Father washed in the blood of His Son. That's
who's going to be there. He said to me, these are they
which came out of great tribulations and have washed their robes."
How did they wash their robes? Here's how. They believed on
Christ with the faith that was given to them. And the faith
that was performed in them, they believed on Christ that He would
wash their robes for them. That's what faith does. It looks
to Christ and it says, I can't, you can, you must. That's what
faith does. And that belief on Christ was
counted to all of them for righteousness. He did the work for them and
then He gave the work to them. That's how it happened. He did
the work for them and he gave the work to them. It's all counted
to his people for righteousness. Verse 14, I said unto him, sir,
thou knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God and serve Him day and night
in His temple. Because He did that for them, that's why they're there. Therefore
they are before the throne of God and they serve Him day and
night in His temple. And He that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell with them. We're going to live with God.
We're going to live with God. We're going to live with God,
just like we live with each other there. You know, we have brethren
who we know of on this earth who are gone and we we know of
them, but we don't live with them. We live with each other
right now. This is who we live with. Well, after this, we're
going to live with God. We're going to live with God. God is going to live with us.
He is not going to be ashamed to call us brethren. He's washed
all of us and made us white in His own blood. He's going to spend the rest
of eternity with us in the place that He prepared for us and He's
never going to leave us and He's never going to forsake us. The end of verse 15, He that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any
heat. They shall hunger no more. They
will never. We will after this. Right now,
every soul who belongs to Christ is hungering for righteousness. It's because we're just so we're
drowning in our sin. And we are hungering for righteousness.
After this, there will be no more hunger for righteousness.
We will be righteousness. We will possess righteousness. We possess it now in Christ,
but after this, we're going to possess it in body as he is. So will we be? So are we now
in him, but does that make sense? After this, we are not going
to thirst anymore for mercy. I'm telling you, I have a thirst
for mercy because I keep messing it up. I do. I mess it up every day and every
day I'm crying out for mercy again. Right after this, there
will be no hunger for righteousness, no thirst for mercy. He said in verse 16, neither
shall the sun light on them nor any heat. After this, there will
be no more judgment to come. Everybody talks about that judgment
day. Okay, on judgment day now. After this, there will be no
more judgment to come. Now for God's people, judgment's
over. We were judged on the cross of Calvary in Christ. But because
of our sin, something in us keeps us crying out for mercy. Judgment's
coming. I need righteousness. I need
mercy. Judgment's coming. After this, no more. It's all
finished. It's just all finished. Verse
17 says, 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." Christ,
our Savior, our sacrifice, our God, our King, He is going to
lead us everywhere we go. Everywhere we go, just like He
did with His disciples while He walked this earth. He is going
to lead us everywhere we go. And everywhere we go, is going
to be fountains of living water, which is Christ. Everywhere we
go will be Christ. The rock that was smitten, Christ. He'll lead us in the paths of
righteousness, which is Christ. Everywhere we go, he's going
to lead us and he is going to feed us like Solomon's table. I, you know, we, I'm sure many
of you know, and remember reading about Solomon's table. What a,
just an amazing spread that he put on every day for whoever,
whoever was hungry, come to the table. That's nothing compared
to Christ. That's nothing. Oh, a greater
men's a greater than Solomon is just after this. He's going to feed us. We're
going to sit down at Christ's table. We will be so privileged
to just be let into the front gate. We'll be so privileged
to just step over the threshold of the front gate. But we will
be ushered on a red carpet. Straight to the king's table,
just like Mephibosheth. And as he kept crying for Jonathan's
sake, we'll be crying for Christ's sake. Can you believe this? For
Christ's sake. And it says God Himself, Jesus
Christ our Lord and our God is going to personally, personally
wipe all tears out of our eyes. That's going to happen right
after this. right after this. I was going
to read something from Spurgeon to you, but there's no point. We can just enjoy right after
this. Just enjoy the King's table, the King's glory, right after
this. Just hang on. Just hang on. All of that is just right after
this. Just hang on. All right. Let's all stand together.
Brother Eddie, you come.