Revelation chapter 7. Revelation
chapter 7. And I'd like to read verses 9
through 17 and spend a little time on verses 13 and 14 tonight
in this conclusion, or towards the conclusion, of this sixth
seal. And I just remember the, I just
constantly want to remember that this seal is an opening up, a
revelation. And the Lord alone, the Lamb
of God alone was able to open these seals. And the word had
gone out. Is there anyone? And it's kind
of like the Lord there in the 14th Psalm looking down from
heaven. Is there anyone? And there was
no one found. And a great angel sent out the
word. And there was no one found in
heaven or in earth or beneath the earth. No one was found to
open the seals. And then it is identified for
the church, just like we are so pleased to find the Lamb of
God could open that. And it just centers us in again
on the importance, the value of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is all our value. He's all our hope. He's all our
peace. And other things, Jesus said,
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and that's the Lord Jesus.
And all these other things will be added to you. We have other
teachings, but my, they're minor in comparison, minor in comparison. Even eschatology is minor in
comparison if it's left by itself. And we mentioned one time that
we really like to call it the coming of Christ the second time.
The second coming of Christ has got all this aura about it, signs
and wonders and things, and the coming of Christ the second time
is just his advent, his coming, in that sense of coming back
to earth like he promised, and doing what he promised he would
do. Well, here in this passage of scripture, beginning with
verse 9, after this, John is led to write, after this I beheld,
and lo a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations,
and kindred, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne. And we looked at this last week,
and we saw that the Lord had a definite number in mind, chosen,
died for, paid for, buried for, risen for. He had a definite
number. But when we look at it from our
perspective. And our perspective is limited,
and we're glad in this sense, because we look at it as a number
that no man can number. People will talk about limited
atonement, but when we see the number, it's a number that no
man can number. God speaks of it as particular
redemption. God speaks of it as the people
that he had set aside before the foundation of the world,
have his son lay down a ransom for. And of all the people, the
millions and millions and billions of people, there is a number
that he definitely knows, but it's a number we would look at
and say it's a number that no man can number. And we'll not
so much be looking for relatives, we'll be looking at Christ. Now, I'm going to be thankful
if I find any of mine there. But I will be thankful to be
in his presence. And that deals a lot about common
religious theology, about what we're going to see when we get
there. We're going to see Christ. That's what the Bible says. He
stood and tongue stood before the throne and before the lamb
clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. and cried
with a loud voice, a salvation to our God, which sitteth upon
the throne and unto the Lamb. 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 worshiped God, saying,
Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might Now, we could
have spent an evening on every one of those words, what the
church is saying about Christ. We could have spent an evening
and still not have done it justice. But we're just going to say they
are saying amen. Now, Jesus put it this way, verily,
verily, amen, amen, so be it, blessing. And glory, our only
blessings, we only get blessings, spiritual blessings in Christ.
That's the only place we'll get spiritual blessings. And it tells
us there, glory, we only get glory in Christ. And wisdom. And we've just looked over there
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, about He is our wisdom. He is
the revelation of the Word. He is what the Word is all about. He is the wisdom of the Word.
He defines it, and He reveals it, and He shares it. and he
is the alpha of it and he is the omega of it and he is the
beginning of it and he is the ending of it. He is the all in
all of the word that the prophets wrote of me. Moses wrote of me
and he pointed out there on that two on the road to Emmaus all
the things in the scriptures concerning himself. And it has
been a fascinating discovery for God's people to go back over
those Old Testament pictures, types, and shadows and see our
Lord and Savior in those places. Faintly, yes. Because we still,
I have to agree with what the Queen of the South said, not
to have been told. And we still will never know
all there is to know. But just a glimmer here and there
has been a delight. Now it goes on to tell us here,
and thanksgiving. He is all our thanksgiving. We
have so much to be thankful for, living where we live and doing
what we do, but spiritually, we have only thanksgiving in
Christ. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. He's indescribable. We can't
put him in a box. There's so many facets to the
Lord Jesus, and honor, and then power. My goodness, we haven't
even scratched the surface on his power. I was fascinated the
other day. I was in a science room, and
there was a film being shown, a NOVA film, and found out that
6,000 bolts of lightning strike the earth every minute of every
day. That's over almost a million
and a half a year. No, it's more than that. That
was in a day, I think it was, in the Earth. And life would
not be on this Earth without the lightning strikes. It does
something to the atmosphere that allows us to breathe oxygen. More people are killed with lightning
than cyclones and hurricanes every year. The power of God. And that's
just a thundercloud passing overhead. The power of
God. We talk about it as his sovereignty.
The power of God, the ultimate power of God. Him having all
power and authority in heaven and in earth. Power of God. And they praised him for it.
And the church praises him for it. It took all his power to
raise his son from the dead, and it takes all that same power
to raise his people from the spiritual dead. to acquaint them
with true spiritual life, the power of God. Nothing else will
do. There's not enough power anywhere
else to do that very thing, to raise up lost, dead, and hell-bound
people to be spiritually alive in Christ Jesus. There's no other
place. There's not enough power. One of my favorite films, I've
got a lot of favorite films, is Back to the Future. They needed
1.3 gigawatts of power to go through time. A lot of power. But there isn't enough power
in the universe combined. to raise a lost person to spiritual
life. It takes God's almighty power
to do that. And they're praising him for
it. They know what it took for them to be where they were. No
other power would do. No priest could do it. No preacher
could do it. No song could do it. No decision
card could do it. It takes the power of God and
might Be unto our God forever and ever, amen. What a song.
It's kind of like that, well, it slipped. I had a kid tell
me the other day it went out the back door. I said, I'm going
to use that one. We have a song in our book about
the power of God. It took me all night to find
it. Anyway, power, might. Then verse 13, And one of the
elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are
arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? Now that's
an interesting statement that one of these elders, four and
20 elders, brings up this question. But it's almost like John is
sitting there almost mesmerized by what he's seeing. I think
I would be. I've been caught up to the third
heaven just reading about it. He's seeing it. He's viewing
it. And this one of the 412 elders
kind of intercepts him and interjects to him, do you know what you're
looking at? Do you know what you're seeing? And John says,
and I said to him, sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, now
that's a wise choice. You know, Peter had to say that
one time. Peter was asked, do you love
me? And finally Peter says, Lord, thou knowest. And sometimes that's
all we can say. Lord, you have to know that.
He says, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation. Do you know how
many books in the Bible mentions great tribulation? Matthew and Revelation. Now,
why in the world, if this is one of those big things, it wasn't
mentioned in Daniel, Ezekiel, and some of the other great prophetic
books? I think the people that are looking
at the Great Tribulation, in the sense that they're looking
at today, have missed a major point about it. Great tribulation
is mentioned in the book of Matthew and also in the book of Revelation
and no other places. And in the book of Matthew in
chapter 24, it is talking about Rome coming down to Jerusalem
in 8070 and God through Christ Jesus is telling the saints,
get out ahead of time. That's what he's telling them.
There will be great tribulation. And if you've ever read the account
of that great Jewish historian, Josephus, he recorded it and
said it was a terrible place to be during that siege. And it was a terrible siege,
and the Romans were going to take it. They just had more bodies
on the outside. And they took it, and they destroyed
Jerusalem. And God's promise to them was
fulfilled when they said in the streets that day, We have no
king but Caesar and let his blood be upon us and our children.
God let it. And it's the fulfillment of the
first covenant. I regarded them not. That's what he said, I regarded
them not, the Jews. All right, now let's look at
this. Let's look at this. Let me finish this chapter. The great tribulation 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 the temple. And he that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more. Blessed
is he that hunger and thirst after righteousness. But you
know what? When we're fed, when that hunger
is sustained and taken care of, we never hunger like we once
did in the sense that we have to have it. It's a constant feeding.
Never hunger like that. We were starved to death. That
prodigal son was starving to death when God awakened him. And then it goes on to tell us,
neither shall the sunlight on them nor any heat, for the lamb
which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall
lead them unto the living fountains of water, and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes. Now, I don't know how long it's
going to take us to get through that, but let's just deal with
a little bit tonight about these that came out of great tribulation. These are they which came out
of tribulation. Would you turn with me back to
the book of Matthew chapter 13, and I'd like to look at two or
three verses that deal with the same word, only it's translated
sometimes a little bit differently. So we can get away from, and
I have to shed some grave clothes here. When I hear great tribulation,
I immediately go back to my education. And I have to get rid of that.
I want to go back and I want to look at it from a scriptural
standpoint. And what does this word tribulation mean? In fact,
we're going to find out that it cannot separate us from the
love of God. It's the same word found in Romans
chapter 8. But notice here in Matthew chapter
13. These are the things. that separate. The Lord Jesus
said that there must be divisions. There must be separation. It's going to come. God's going
to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is going to happen.
And it happens over the gospel. It doesn't happen over doctrine.
It happens over the gospel. Now people may say it is over
doctrine, but the real issue is over the gospel. That's the
true winnowing agent is the gospel. It is the wind that separates
the wheat from the chaff. The wheat drops and the chaff
is blown on. It's the gospel. Now notice here
in Matthew 13, it tells us in verse 21, And this is the parable
of the sower and it is explained, the Lord explains it to us. But
notice there in Matthew 13 verse 21, yet hath he no root in himself. but dureth for a while, for when
tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by
he is offended. Now this is those that tells
us in verse 20, but he that receiveth the seed in stony places, the
same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it,
yet hath he not rooted himself. But dureth for a while, for when
tribulation," and this is the same word found in the book of
Revelation about the great tribulation. These are those who came through
great tribulation. Now, those that are found in
the good ground, this is not going to have any effect on.
Those found in good ground are not going to be dried up by tribulation,
persecution, because of the word. It's going to be the opposite.
They're going to take deeper root. I would rather be an oak
tree than a cheatgrass. It won't be long, and the cheatgrass
will be dry, and the oak tree will be still green. And that's
the difference, and that makes all the difference in the world.
When you've got this much topsoil, and the cliquetats have about
that much topsoil, and if it stays wet, we'll still see some
green. But when it dries up, you know
what we get. Brown. It cannot endure. but good ground, deep ground. And that's where God plants his
people, in good ground, in Christ. He has tilled the soil. He has
broken up the fallow ground. He has discarded the rocks. He
has made it and fingered it and fertilized it just right. And then he plants the seed and
his people grow there. And tribulation will not cause
them. These people have no, what's
it say? They have, Dureth for a while, when tribulation
come, because of the word. They have not root in himself. Boy, that's a terrible place
to have root anyway. Root in Christ, root in Christ. Now, that's tribulation. Turn
with me, if you would, over to the book of Acts, chapter seven.
Acts chapter seven, we find the same word used here that's over
there in the book of Revelation, the great tribulation. Now, there
is a place of great tribulation. There is a place. And I'm not
to say that there are not people that are being aggressively physically
tribulated because of their faith in the world today. But there
is a whole host of people that are going to sit at the feet
of Jesus that never ever went through physical persecution
like many have. They're going to arrive unscathed. They haven't been burned at the
stake. They haven't been thrown over a brow of a hill. They haven't
had any of the tortures and torments that we have read about in the
past. Before that time, after that time, there have been thousands
and thousands of people approach the throne of grace that have
never had that physical persecution that many went through, and yet
they too have come through great tribulation. And we want to look
at that. But notice here in the book of
Acts, Acts chapter 7, the scripture tells us here, Acts chapter 7
verse 9, And the patriarchs moved with envy and sold Joseph. Acts chapter 7 verse 9, the patriarchs
moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with
him and delivered him out of all his afflictions. Now that's
the same word that we find over the book of Revelation. God delivered
him out of his afflictions. Now that that seed that fell
in that stony ground. God did not deliver him from
all his afflictions. And he only lasted a short period
of time. He looked good to begin with,
but he didn't finish the race. And it is he who finishes the
race. And my goodness, when you get
to ride on the fastest racer in the race, When we are lifted
by him, we shall win. There will be no labors out. There's no second place. All
will be first place in Christ. Now, and then it goes on to say
in that verse 10, he delivered him out of all his afflictions
and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king
of Egypt, and made him governor over Egypt and all his house. This word affliction. Now turn
with me to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 8. Great chapter
about God's people and God's protective care over them. And
these tribulations that come along will not separate God's
people from the love of God. Notice here in Romans chapter
8 verse 35. Tribulation, same word that we find over there
in the book of Revelation. These have come through great
tribulation, but there is an account, there is a manner in
which God delivers us from this tribulation, persecution. Notice
here in Romans chapter 8 verse 35, who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? No. This tribulation will not separate
us from the love of Christ. It is not what so often is portrayed
as. Goes on to tell us, there shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword. And then 2 Corinthians chapter
1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse
34. They've all come through great
tribulation. Every one of them have come every one before the
Lord Jesus Christ have come through great tribulation And we're gonna
look at that but notice here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1
verse 34 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 Verse 34. Uh-oh. Oh, no, not
again It went out the back door Oh. The word came to them in truth. It's not 1 Corinthians, because
it doesn't have verse 34 either. Well, I'm sorry. First Timothy. First Timothy. Oh, you're right. There is a
dash there. Yes. Second Corinthians chapter
one verse three and four. Excuse me. Blessed be God, even
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble by
the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. In that
verse, two verses of scripture, there's tribulation and trouble
are the same words that we found over in the book of Revelation
chapter 7 as tribulation, great tribulation. Comfort us in our
tribulation and also comfort them which are in trouble. God
is so involved with his people in this area. Not one is going
to be left out as a result of this. There's going to be tribulation,
but it's not the kind of tribulation that is so often posed. It is, how many today were persecuted
because of your faith? I wasn't. I've had some mean things said
to me by some preachers, but it wasn't today. In fact, life moved on pretty
easily today. Only thing I had to do is flip
a coin and ask the winner of that coin, you're going to move. I had two boys fighting over
the same chair. One of them chose the heads and
he got to move. That's the trip. Well, that's not tribulation,
though, is it? Not for my faith. We go through life and very seldom
Do we have a lot of that? But every one of those people
that got there went through great tribulation. Turn with me to
First Timothy. First Timothy chapter one. First
Timothy chapter one. Now when the Lord saves us, when
the Lord gives us his spirit, when he resurrects us, when he
raises us from the dead, And we become a new creation in Christ
Jesus. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we're
going to have tribulation. And it's not on the outside. It's on the inside. Our great
tribulation. Now, this verse is not going
to deal with that, but we're going to get there in just a moment. I
want you to be thinking about it. First Timothy chapter one,
verse six, it says, I'm sorry, that's not it. Every child of God knows somewhat
of this, this great tribulation. If not from open persecution
of the world, yet from the plague of his own heart. Now we're going
to leave Timothy. I'm sorry, I have it wrong. But
I want to read Romans chapter 7. Turn with me to Romans chapter
7. Now this is where this great
tribulation starts. It starts when we're born again. It starts when we're raised from
the dead. Some of the greatest tribulation
we'll ever go through is when God strips us of our righteousness
and shows us the righteousness of Christ. But that's not the
end of the battle. The worst tribulation that we
go through is not from the outside, but it's from the inside. The
Apostle Paul deals with this so clearly here in the seventh
chapter of the book of Romans. Here he shares with us, as he
is led by the Holy Spirit, to share with us that even though
we may not have tribulation on the outside, and he did. He had
a lot of tribulation. He had a lot of Pharisees follow
him. He had a lot of people come up
against him. He was martyred for his faith. But that wasn't near the battle,
the tribulation that he put up with as is recorded here in the
book of Romans chapter 7. He shares a little. I'm ready
to be offered. But then he shares about his
inside what a warfare is going on there. He says, I've run my
race. But when it comes to the inside
with that new man that God created in him, the warfare that's going
on there, this is great tribulation. The warfare between the new spirit
person and the old flesh that God left with us. Now read with
me here in Romans chapter 7 verse 18. Romans chapter 7 verse 18,
the word of the Lord shares with us these words. Romans chapter
7 verse 18, it says, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not. What a tribulation, every day
of tribulation the Apostle Paul felt when his spirit and his
flesh were in warfare, the constant battle that went on. Now over
here he's having tribulation, but you know what he said about
it? I'm ready to be offered. I'm ready to be offered up. To
be absent from the body is present with the Lord. He used all kinds
of terms. He was supplied all kinds of
terms about his passing from this life to the next life and
what probably would happen to cause him to leave this life.
But when it came to this warfare, he shares with us here verse
20. Now, if I do that, I would not. I know more. I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. I'm going to do a good
job today. What happens? Oh, my goodness. We are in a warfare. The things
that we would do, we do not. And the things we wouldn't think
of doing, those things we do. The tribulation that is inside
of us, God has created within us a new spirit, a new creation
in Christ Jesus. And this new creation is in full
fellowship with God and is able to sit down in his presence,
in his righteousness. But that flesh he left with us,
It is a terror. It is a bitter terror. And it is a dragger down, and
it's an anchor. And if it wasn't for Christ,
we would be immobilized. Our progress would be zero. And there again, we find ourselves
absolutely dependent upon God moving us. Now the sin that Paul
committed was Paul's sin, but the help he got was Christ. He's not making excuses for himself. He knows where the problem is,
but it is a tribulation that he'll be going through all the
days of his spiritual life, and there will be a warfare. He goes
on to share with this, I find in the law, verse 21, that when
I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members
worrying against the law of my mind. Human nature deceives us
into thinking we have kept the law. That's another deceit that
we face. I've kept the law. Can you hear
that rich young ruler? I kept the law. What was that?
That was a deceitful heart. Deceitful heart. Our heart by
nature deceives us into thinking we have kept God's commandment. And that just is a greater sin
than we had before. Thanks be unto God that he puts
that aside from us, but this warfare. It's going to be from
the day we were born into the family of God until the day we
leave it, there's going to be a warfare, a tribulation. And it's called a great tribulation.
And everyone, doesn't matter male or female, bond or free,
rich or poor, it doesn't matter the status in life, when God
saves us, There's going to be a warfare on and we will arrive
at his presence in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and
we will be taken out of great tribulation. Why? We don't even know. We cannot
even imagine what it is not to carry around the flesh. We just
have no idea. It is so stuck on us. and the
things we would do that would please and aren't, we don't. And we have to say, at the conclusion
of the whole matter, it is he that worketh in us, both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. We can't get there. Even saved,
we can't get there. We need Him to carry us. He goes on to say here in verse
24, you can hear this tribulation. Great tribulation. The conflict. The conflict of the old man and
the new man. Now the winner is going to be
Christ. The new man has never lost. The
new man has never died. The new man has never failed.
And thanks be to God that he restrains the old man. But it
doesn't mean we don't have the battle. The battle's his, but
he did not save our flesh. He never said he would and he
never will. There's nothing in it worth saving. We carry it around. Well, I don't
want to get too far out there, but it would have been wonderful
if it had saved a whole being. To live the rest of our life
in sinless perfection, what would that have made us? We'd have
been so self-righteous. Now notice here, verse 24. This verse in Revelation chapter
7 and verse 19 just fits for me. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? In every one presence before
the Lord there in that verse of scripture have come out of
great tribulation. Our greatest tribulation is ourself. That agony, that pain, that fuss,
that fight that goes on in us. The things we want to do, we
do not, and the things we wouldn't tolerate in anybody else. Those
are the things we do, and that's what Paul said. And thanks be
unto God, he restrains us and puts us under opinion. I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind,
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of
sin. Human nature deceives us into
thinking we have kept the law, which has made us even greater
sinners. Thank God he deals with that when he saves us. Every
child of God knows somewhat of this, if not from the open persecution
of the word, yet from the plague of our own heart. gray tribulation,
this spiritual warfare. We war not against flesh and
blood. It's inside of us. It's not the
devil. It's not the devil. It's us. And we just get so thankful.
It takes, till we know somewhat of our
wretchedness, We think lightly of His righteousness. You know
what just makes His righteousness so much more glorious? His wisdom, so much more wisdom. His sanctification, so much better
when He shows us what He saved. Now, I was talking to Brother
Wayne the other day and he says, you know Brother Norm, I don't
mind when people call me a worm anymore. Because I know what
I am. I'm a worm. Saved worm. I've been put in the Lord's basket.
But what a tribulation now. A battle goes on. And it's a
great tribulation. And these that have been brought
out of that. The Lord saves us. And when he passes us through
the portals of death, it tells us there, he says, these are
they which came out of great tribulation. From that point
on, they never have to worry about this warfare. The battle's
over. Flesh is gone, buried. And he's
going to raise us in a new body. like unto his glorious body and
we will not contend with sin ever again. We'll never have
a doubt or a fear. There'll never be a statement
against God or against his church or against his word of thought.
We'll never creep into our mind. We'll have passed completely
and he will make it so that we'll be able to sing from the bottom
of our heart all of those sweet blessings. We delight in them
now, but then it will be a song. We'll be so glad to sing because
we have passed out of great tribulation. Passed out. We'll no longer think,
oh wretched man that I am. We'll thank God for his grace.
He has made us a new man. These are they that passed out
of great tribulation, and what have they done? They have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Now
that's a paradox. That's a paradox. Have you ever
got blood on you? You could have it on a white
shirt and it sure don't look white, does it? I like what he
has to say. He washed us and loosed us from
our sins in his own blood. And though our sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. They'll be gone. They'll be unloosed. Matt was telling me about this
chemical cleaning process. You don't use water, you use
chemicals and it entraps the dirt, surrounds it and entraps
it and you vacuum it out and it's not there any longer. And I said, oh my goodness, the
blood of Christ does that to our sin. It is not there anymore. He's taken care of. So these
are they which came out of great tribulation. The day before,
they were saying, oh, wretched man. And this new day, they said,
oh, what a blessing he is. All right, let us close there.