Good morning, everybody. Let's
open in our Bible back to Revelation chapter 7. Revelation chapter 7. And while you're turning there,
I want to read the words of Paul. And he wrote to the Corinthians, if in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are all men most miserable. Do we sometimes
forget? Do we not oftentimes forget that
there is coming a day when there will be no more sin, there'll
be no more sorrow, and there'll be no more death? There is coming
a day that we, we will be like Christ. Paul also wrote in the
Corinthians, to the Corinthians, he says, now we see through a
glass darkly. We see darkly. But then we'll
see face to face. Now, There's three questions
that I want to address quickly before we go into this passage.
First, who was writing this? And to whom is it written? And
also, why was this written? Well, this is the Apostle John. This is John the Beloved who
is writing to the churches. This is John who When at the
upper room, when the Lord said, one of you all are going to betray
me, John leaned his breast upon the Lord and said, Lord, is it
I? I can identify with John. It
is John who often wrote to his brethren and he called them little
children. So this is John, the apostle
who is writing. And he is writing to the seven
churches. and to the saints. He is writing this morning to
you and I. Well, why is John writing this? He is writing to bear a record
of the word of God, Revelation chapter one. And he is writing
to record the testimony of Christ. And he is writing to bear the
things that John saw. In Revelation 1, 3, it says,
blessed is he that readeth. Blessed is he that readeth, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy. We are given this morning
from the Lord a blessing, a blessing from his word. Now, let's look
at verse one, or rather verse number nine, where we began our
reading this morning. And it says, and after this,
I beheld. John is saying, I saw. What he is getting ready to follow
with, what he is getting ready to say is something that John
saw. I beheld. There are only two other occurrences
in the scripture that I know of that saw anything remotely
to what John saw. First, there was Paul, who in
Corinthians wrote and said that he had been caught up to the
third heaven and that he had seen things that was unspeakable
for him to utter. And as a matter of fact, Paul
said the reason he even mentioned this is that Paul might tell
of the thorn that was in his flesh. And the things that he
saw, Paul said, he couldn't even mention it. And then there was
another occasion that I know of in Isaiah. The year that King
Uzziah died, Isaiah said, I saw the Lord lifted up. And what
did Isaiah say about these things? He said, woe is me. I'm a man undone because I'm
a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. And when I look at Isaiah's words,
and I believe this morning, when you look at Isaiah and we see
that throne and the smoke and the holiness of God, For us,
it is unapproachable. For us, we see the holiness of
God, and with Isaiah, we say, woe is me. But John says, I beheld. And let us read what he beheld. And after this, I beheld, and
lo, a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations,
and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne."
Who are these people that are before the throne? And before the lamb, clothed
with white robes and palms in their hand, verse 10, and cried
with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God, which saith unto
the throne and unto the lamb. And all the angels stood around
about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and
fell before the throne on their faces, worshiped God, saying,
amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto God forever
and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered
saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came thou? 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. Now, there
are three things from this passage that I want us to look at this
morning. Okay, three things. First, in verse nine, it says,
there was a great multitude. There's a great multitude. And
what I wanna do this morning is let us see, who are these
people? And then secondly, in verse 10,
it says, and they cried, this great multitude, they cried with
a loud voice saying, salvation to our God. What do they mean
by this? What do they cry or declare in
this when they say salvation to our God? And thirdly, let's
read verse 13 and 14. And one of the elders answered
saying, what are these which are arrayed in white robes? And
which came thou? And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great
tribulation. What is this great tribulation? So again, this morning, if the
Lord would help us, I want to say, who are these people who
are arrayed in white robes with palms in their hands? And then
secondly, What do they mean when they cry salvation to our God? And then thirdly, again, who
are these which no man, who are, what is this great tribulation? Now, first of all, who are these
which no man can number? First, this is you who believe
on the sign of God. Turn with me to John, chapter
six. John, chapter six. In verse 40. Again, who are these? Which no
man can number. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the
last day. Are we not reading about that
last day? Who then will believe? John chapter
six, verse 37. All that the Father giveth me,
all that the Father giveth me, they shall come to me. They shall believe. And look also what it says in
verse 39. All that come, I shall lose nothing. You see, this great number that
is in this great day is a whole number. It is a complete number. It is a number that no man can
number, but it is a number that is missing no one. All that the
father has given to the son will be there in that day. And then
secondly, who are these that no man can number? These are
the children of promise. Now, if you will turn with me
to Genesis chapter 22, In verse 17, our Lord speaking
to Abraham told him, he said, I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven. I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven. What is it that we read in our
text that there before the throne of God was a number that no man
could number. And again, verse 18, it says,
In thy seed shall all the nations be blessed. You see, these are
the children of promise. These promises were made to Abraham. They were promised to Abraham.
but Abraham, but Christ was in Abraham when God made this promise. Just when Abraham was in Mephibosheth
giving offering, just when, I'm sorry, just as Christ was in
Abraham giving offering to Mephibosheth, also Christ was in Abraham when
God made him this promise. In Galatians 3.29, listen to
this. If ye be Christ's, then are ye
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You see, here
in Revelation chapter 7, we see the fulfillment of a promise. We see the fulfillment of a promise
of a people. that God swore that He would
bless. And then secondly, in Revelation chapter 7, it says
in verse 10, And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation
to our God. They all declared this and they
all cried this. But notice with me that no one
in this great number is boasting of their works. None of them. No one is saying, I cast out
devils or I preached in your name. or I accepted Jesus or
that I was baptized. No, they cry salvation to our
God. And also notice that none of
them is silent. They all are crying this cry,
salvation to our God. And notice also that their voices
are uniform in unison as in one crying salvation to our God,
every one of them. Why are they declaring this?
And why will we this morning, if you are the Lords, declare
this in that day? First, it is because God alone
chose them to be here. You see, no man in this number,
in this day, planned on being there. That wasn't their plan. No man sought to be there. This
was not their desire at one time. And no man desired it in any
way. Turn with me to Psalm 14. And in verse two, look at what
it says. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men. Why did the Lord look down from
heaven? to see if there were any that did understand and seek
God. What did he find? Verse three,
they have all gone aside. They are all together filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. It was God who planned their
salvation. In Ephesians chapter 1 verses
3 and 4 it said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. And here we are in that day,
holy and without blame and before him in love. And here they are, salvation
to our God. And secondly, they cry this because
God provided what they needed to be here. Do you see them? That they are raped in white
robes? These white robes is their righteousness,
and God provided that. If we read Psalm 51, we hear
David, and David is crying, and he says, wash me thoroughly from
my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. David
cries, purge me with hyssop. purge me with blood and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Here we find David is in this
crowd. David has been washed and David
now wears a robe that is whiter than snow. You see, what God requires God
provides. And these robes that they wear
is the robe of righteousness that God has provided for his
people. And then secondly, God provided
what they needed in the palms that's in their hand. We see
the white robes, which speaks of their righteousness, but we
look in their hands and there are palms. What do these palms
mean? These palms represent peace with
God. And if you remember, just a few
weeks ago, Brother Tom was here preaching for us, and he preached
the day of his fierce anger. You see, there was a day that
God was angry. There was a day of his fierce
anger. And in Zachariah, it says, awake,
O sword, give us against my shepherd, and against he that is my fellow. See, there was a day that God
was angry, and there was a day that there was no peace with
God. You see, these who these worship is the lamb, and that
lamb was our substitute. And God was satisfied with that
substitute. And because he is satisfied with
his own substitute that he provided, that there is peace between God
and man. And that's why they stand there
with palms in their hands. I was looking at this word, peace,
through the scriptures, and I don't know how many times there's Time
after time after time again in the New Testament, the Apostle
Paul writes, he says, peace from God the Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. In Galatians and the Philippians
and Colossians and just a number of places, everywhere you turn,
there is peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the last thing I want us
to look at this morning is what is this great tribulation that
we see here. Turn with me to Job chapter 19. And while you're turning there, let me remind you of Job chapter
1 and what is happening here in our text. Back in Job chapter
1, Satan had come before the Lord and had accused Job. And he told the Lord, said, Well,
verse 11, put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath. You touch all that Job has and
he'll curse you to thy face. And so now here in verse 19,
in chapter 19 rather, we see that Job is being afflicted. Understand that before we read,
in what we're reading, that all of Job's children are dead. They've all died. And everything
that Job has has been taken away from him, all of his wealth.
Job was a mighty and wealthy man, but all of these things
have been taken away from him. And also, if you were to look
at Job there in chapter 19, if you could see him physically,
what you would see is a man, and I quote, boils from the sole
of his foot and to his crown. He had sores from the sole of
his foot to the head of his crown. So, and not only this, but there
are three men about Job. His children are dead. All of
his wealth are gone. He has covered himself in sores,
and now there's three men about him, and they're sitting there
accusing Job. Job, you brought this on yourself.
Job, this is why this happened. This is why this happened. Now
let's read verse 21. and see what Job says. He says,
have pity on me. Have pity on me. Oh, you, my
friends, for the hand of God has touched me. Why do you persecute
me as God? And are you not satisfied with
my flesh? Oh, that my words were now written. Oh, that they were printed in
a book. They that were great, that they
were graven, a graven with iron pin and lead in the rock forever. But look what Job says, for I
know, I know that my Redeemer liveth. And he says, and that
he shall stand at the latter day upon this earth. And though
after my skin worms destroyed this body, Yet in my flesh shall
I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold,
and not another." You see this day, and you see this great number,
there in that mist is Job. That great tribulation that it
speaks about here is the tribulation of the believer. And let me tell
you something this morning. probably without exception. There is nobody in here that
is not going through some type of tribulation now. And I will
tell you that without exception, in this day, they will have all
gone through tribulation. Their faith will be tried. Their faith will be tried by
fire. And our heartaches that we suffer,
that we endure right now in this life, they are appointed of our
God. They are appointed to us. All things work together for
good to them who love God. God appoints our trials and our
sufferings. So in this day, All the saints
of God will be gathered together. All the saints of God will have
gone through tribulation. But then let us see what it says,
beginning in verse 15. We'll start back at 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 land. And notice
verse 15. Therefore, are they before the
throne of God and serve him day and night in
his temple. And 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. Verse 17, 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. One last passage of scripture.
Turn with me to Malachi chapter three, the last book of the Bible. Verse 16, in closing. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought
upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. And
I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him
not. Amen.