Join me tonight, if you would,
in the book of Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6. I don't know if I have the notes
from our previous study of the book of Revelation. I'm not using
them in any sense of the imagination. And we're going through it, I
think, a lot slower than we did then. We picked out a lot of
Very interesting things, but I'm about to the point to look
at everything I was ever taught about the Book of Revelation
as wrong, and all the interpretation that I was ever taught as wrong,
and try to look at it 180 degrees differently. And that's where
I'm going to go tonight. I just cannot see in this passage
of Scripture what is commonly taught about these words and
I just, I can't help but think that these words are about the
elect of God because prior to this it is and after this it
is and why would we change it in the middle? Let's look at
this Revelation chapter 6 verse 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. And then we want to say a few
words, 14 through 17. Verse 12, and I beheld when he
had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake.
And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became
as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as
a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a
mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a
scroll when it is rolled together, And every mountain and island
were moved out of their places. Now notice this list. The kings
of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every
free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
mountains. And said to the mountains and rocks, follow us and hide
us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne. And from
the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath
has come. And who shall be able to stand? These verses seem to lead us
to chapter 7 verses 3, 4, and 9. And I'd like to read those.
Verse 3. saying, hurt not the earth, neither
the seed or 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 they, that were sealed, a hundred and forty
and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
And verse nine, 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
with white robes and palms in their hands. All right, I'd like
to look at these verses tonight in the light that they are the
elect of God. They are the children of God
and it is an attitude that the children of God go through as
God, the Son, shows his redemptive work. Now, he doesn't redeem
us when we are born again. We've been redeemed. Redemption
took place at the cross. He doesn't redeem us. He lets
us know that it's happened. Redemption took place at the
cross. In fact, the purpose of redemption took place before
the foundation of the world. He doesn't sanctify us when he
regenerates us or when he lets us know that that has taken place.
There is an eternal, eternal sanctification that God purposed
in Christ and it was truly purchased on the cross and it is made known
to us. We are let in on the wonderful
secret things of God when he opens our understanding and causes
us to see him. Everything that Christ did was
purposed in the covenant of grace before the world began and was
brought out as he gave his life a ransom for many And all of
those great blessings of God in Christ are brought to our
attention when he gives us a new heart and a new life, and we're
able to see them. Now, they've always been there.
He's always had them for his children. But when he opens their
eyes and unstops their ears and causes them to hear and to see
and to speak the grace of God, then they truly are able to see
what he has had for them. Here in these verses they share
with us that the low, those that are made low by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now we're gonna look at some
verses found in the Old Testament, I think will help us see these
verses as the verses that share with us what God does for all
his people. The heaven departed as a scroll,
as it says in verse 14, when it is rolled together, and every
mountain and every island were moved out of their places. Now,
I can't see that these are the actual islands and the actual
mountains, but they're representative of positions that we have in
our undone condition, and also they are pictures of places that
God moves his people from. We're told by the Apostle Peter,
as he's led by the Holy Spirit, not to be turned or changed by
every wind of doctrine. And up to this point, we truly
are. There is really no settling business
about what we have in our religion until the Lord Jesus Christ settles
us on it. And so we're moved like those
islands are spoken of, and those mountains are spoken of, and
it looks like we have good security, and it looks like we have stability,
and in reality, we don't have anything. It's like the man that
we read about there in the book of Luke on Sunday, the foolish
man built his house on the sand. We think we have stability. Now,
last Saturday, I was in Portland, Nancy and I went down Friday
night. She went to a play with Rachel, and we stayed because
there was going to be a mini family reunion, and we just decided
we'd stay down there and invited to stay down there. I went out
with Matt to one of the, oh, the Tyee Yacht Club, that's it, Tyee Yacht
Club. They're on the Marine Drive,
and I walked into the to the lodge there or whatever they
have, and absolutely beautiful. I mean, and they were doing it
up. He was laying carpet for them.
And I went out and looked at underneath there at those old
logs that are holding that thing up, and I thought, oh my goodness. We're not paying attention to
the right part. we're making this beautiful,
and this is going to corruption. I wonder when it's going to sink."
And Matt and I got looked back, and that building is starting
to get a big bow in it as the outside is sinking. And I said,
whoa! Put the carpet down, make it
look good, and that's just religion. Man, put the carpet down, put
the paint on, fix it up, and outside it is going to the water. Those old logs are just water
soaked. I don't know if they put anything
else under it or not, but you can just see the bow in that
building. Well, someday they're going to
go down there with all of their new carpet and all their fine
paint, and it's going to be on the bottom of the drake. So that's
the way with religion. It's just that way. It's so unstable.
It looks like it's stable. And people were walking in there.
You could feel that. Building go like this, you know,
it's out on the water. And I just thought about that
as these mountains are so unstable. There's a whole bunch of people
in Italy found how unstable mountains are and how unstable islands
are. And when we look at it from a
spiritual standpoint and see the things that we attach ourself
to are so often so unstable. One of the greatest depressive
times of my life was just before I heard the gospel, I was doing
research on my religion and found out that all the preachers I'd
ever known as I was growing up lied to me. Now they did it in
an honest fashion because they didn't know any better, but everything
they had taught me was wrong. historically wrong, and biblically
wrong, and I was just set to hear the gospel. All my islands
had moved out of place, and all my mountains had crumbled, and
lo and behold, the Lord sends a man from Kentucky who knows
something, and preaches the gospel, and I got to hear it, and through
the process of time, God opened my understanding to it, and I
was glad those islands got shook up. And I was glad those mountains
fell. And as we look at these verses
in verse 15, I've never noticed until this afternoon that there's
the word bondman's in here. He's covering the whole gamut.
Everybody in there. Every bond and free, male and
female, prince and pauper, everybody is covered in there. And all
of these people are doing what all of God's people do when God
shows them what they are by nature and what he has by grace. They
are understanding. They are saying what God said
about me is right and he would be right. for everything to cave
in on me to cause me to die. He would be right that no one
will confess that they do not deserve the death. That is the second death. Every
one of God's people will readily admit they, we, deserved the
second death. It's not bad enough to die physically,
everybody does that, but to die the second death, Oh, God, you
are right. Cast the stones on me. You are
right. And it tells us there that they
hid themselves in dens and in rocks and in mountains. This
is just symbolic of the places that we go to when God begins
to work on us, where we'll bury ourself, where we'll go down,
where we'll find, hopefully, a little comfort. Now, turn with
me, if you would, over to the book of Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah
chapter 2. Now it's just in the next chapter
that we find the number of those that have done this. It is in
the next chapter we have the complete number is 144,000. That's the number of all the
elect symbolically. And then he sees a number that
no man can number. These are those like Saul of
Tarsus, like Peter and Matthew and David and Solomon. All of
God's people from the beginning of time have met God when they
have put, pronounced themselves unworthy of eternal life. Now, Paul told a group of Jews
one time, you've judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life. What
did they do? They turned away from the gospel.
God's people, when the gospel strikes them, will admit readily
Let it come, I deserve it. Let it fall, I deserve it. Let
whatever you have planned fall, I deserve it. Let them, now here
in the book of Isaiah chapter two. Isaiah chapter two, beginning
with verse one. Isaiah chapter two, verse one.
And it's been such a blessing to me to find out how much of
the book of Revelation is found in the Old Testament. That they
too were dealing with the same issues. They too were dealing
with the same, almost the same words. The book of Revelation
covers much of what's said in the Old Testament. Why? Because
the Old Testament is as complete in every sense about the gospel
as the New Testament is. People were preached the Old
Testament, people were saved by the Holy Spirit applying the
Old Testament. It was the gospel found in it
as Paul and Peter and Jesus Christ and all the Old Testament prophets
preached from it. As Philip preached unto that
eunuch, he preached unto him Jesus out of the book of Isaiah
chapter 53. That's what those people did.
They were preaching Christ out of the Old Testament. So we're
going to find almost identical verses over here in the Old Testament
that we're going to find in the book of Revelation because everybody
needs comfort. Those Old Testament saints need
as much comfort as we need and as much as was given here in
the book of Revelation that we get to enjoy. No generation has
ever been in a position that they did not need to be comforted
by God. What does he say? He says, his
name shall be Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. He's our counselor, he's our
comforter. Every generation, Abel needed
comfort. And God comforted him as he gave
him the prescription for what he must present. Now notice here,
Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah chapter 2 verse 1, it says, the word
that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem,
and it shall come to pass in the last days. Can you imagine
that wording used here in the book of Isaiah? Well, it was
used in the book of Joel too. It's used all over in the book
of Isaiah. The last days. Now it was their
days, it was the days following. It was the days of God's people. And it has been in the last days. We're in the last days. And you
know what? Christ shall come in the last
days. The second time. It may be in our generation,
and again it may not, but it will be in the last days. All
right, it says, and it shall come to pass in the last days
that the mountains of the Lord's house shall be established in
the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills,
and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go
and say, come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.
and the house of the God of Jacob, and will teach us of his ways.
And we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth
the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." What a statement
about the church here. And he shall judge among the
nations. and rebuke many people, and they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into
pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." And
that's what happens in the church. God takes our own nasty attitudes
towards people, and we become husbandmen. We're going to grow
vines. We're not interested in fussing
anymore. In verse six, therefore thou
hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they
be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the
Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of
strangers. Their land also is full of silver
and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their
land is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their
own hands, that which their own fingers have made. And the mean
men bloweth down, and great men humbleth himself. Therefore forgive
them not. Enter into the rock, and hide
thee in the dust. For fear of the Lord, for the
glory of his majesty, the lofty looks of man shall be humbled.
And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down. The Lord alone
shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts
shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon
every one that is lifted up. and he shall be brought low. And upon all the cedars of Lebanon
that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
and upon all the high mountains, upon all the hills that are lifted
up, on every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon
all the ships of Tarsus, and upon all the pleasant pictures.
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness
of man shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. And the idols he shall utterly
abolish, and they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into
the caves of the earth for fear of the Lord, and for the glory
of his majesty when he arises to shake terribly the earth.
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols
of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship to
the moles and to the bats. to go into the clefts of the
rock and to the tops of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord and
for the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake terribly
the earth. Cease ye from man whose breath
is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of." Now
through this passage of scripture, we saw that God is not going
to permit haughtiness. When He saves people, they will
not be haughty. They will not be lifted up. They
will not worship themselves. They will not worship their idols.
They will not worship their works. They will not worship their own
sanctification. They will not worship their own
justification. They will only worship the Lord. He will break us. And we will
bow down, and we will cry for the mountains to fall on us.
He said they cast all their idols into the rocks and said, cover
them up. Oh, thank God. Thank God, he covers them up. Now, turn with me, if you would,
over to the book of 1 Kings, chapter 20. We were over this
a long time ago, but here's a passage of scripture. King Ahab and Ben-Hadad,
Ahab is king of Israel and Ben-Hadad is king of Syria. And Israel,
king of Israel, and his armies have just, they have wore out
the Syrians, Ben-Hadad. and his men. They just wore him
out. The Lord said, take care of them, and they did, and they
just wore him out. Now here in the 20th chapter
of the book of 1 Kings, beginning with verse 28, and I had trouble
trying to figure out where to start here, but I just couldn't
read the whole Bible. So 1 Kings chapter 20 and verse
28, we read these words of And there came a man of God,
and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the Lord,
because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills,
but he is not the God of the valleys. Therefore will I deliver
all this great multitude unto thee. into thy hand, and ye shall
know that I am the Lord. And they pitched one over against
the other seven days. And so it was that the seventh
day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel slew the
Syrians a hundred thousand footmen in one day. But the rest fled
to Apec, into the city, and there was a wall fell upon 27,000 men
that were left, and Ben-Hadad fled and came into the city into
an interchamber. Now, I think that that's so pictorial
of where we go. We're trying to hide. We're like those people in the
book of Revelation that God is working with. We're trying to
find a safe place. Lord's on our heels. We're trying
to find a place where he'll, now notice here, and his servants
said unto him, now someone in this condition, someone like
Ben-Hadad, God sent him some servants that had some sense. Had some sense about him. He
didn't say run. They didn't say run. Didn't say
run away. They didn't say stay. They had some sense. Now that's
a gospel preacher. That's the man that came and
preached me the gospel. Here he is. These servants said
unto him, behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house
of Israel are merciful kings. Now Ahab, if there's anybody
ever written about in all the Bible that was unmerciful, Ahab
was that. Now to a lot of people, the Lord
Jesus Christ is unmerciful. But to his, we've heard, he's
merciful. The King of Israel is merciful.
And it tells us here, let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on
our loins. Now what does that do with what
we call for our righteousness? Oh, we don't have any more. Sackcloth,
I mean, we're down. It goes on to say here, and ropes
upon our heads. Now, it was a custom in these
days, and I was reading there, there was some citizens of a
town in England, four or five hundred years ago, they did exactly
the same thing. They were hunted people, and they came out, and
they had ropes around their necks, and were holding the ends out
to their pursuers. And that's what these guys are
doing. You have every right in this world to hang us. We have
been doing battle. We have been doing battle, and
now we have heard that the King of Israel is merciful. Now, if
you would spare us, but if you won't, we justly accept our due. And I agree that every blood
bought regenerated person that has ever lived has been in complete
agreement that God had the right to execute us. We have no rights of our own.
We are through trying to bargain with God. And we come like this,
they said, they put sackcloth on and ropes on their heads and
go to the king of Israel, peradventure he will save thy life. So they
girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads
and came to the king of Israel and said, thy servant Ben-Hadad
saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he saith, is he yet alive? He is my brother. Now the men
did diligently observe whether anything would come of him, and
they did hastily catch it, and said, Thy brother Ben-Hadad.
And he said, Go, bring him. And Ben-Hadad came forth to him,
and he caused him to come up into his chariot. Now, not many
times do we find good pictures in bad kings of our king of kings. But here we find a picture of
Ahab accepting Ben-Hadad with a rope in his hand and said,
you're gonna ride with me. And then he goes on to say here,
and Ben-Hadad said unto him, the cities which my father took
from thy father I restore and thou shall make streets for thee
in Damascus as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I
will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant
with him and sent him away. What Ben-Hadad said, you own
all I own. I give it all to you. He said,
I don't own anything. Now, what a beautiful picture.
And over there in the book of Revelation, couched between what
God has as his elect and what God has as his elect, is this
account of a whole bunch of people from kings to bondmen saying,
Lord, cast the rocks upon us. We deserve it. And here we find
Israel pictured in the same way in the book of Isaiah. Israel
pictured the same way here in the book of First Kings. And
we find that this account continues on and on, that no religion will
stand before him, and no works will stand before him, and no
sanctification will stand before him, and no salvation will stand
before him. He will have it his way. And then we have 144,000 representing
all the elect that he has brought to the knee. And then the next
passage we read about, there's a number that no man can number. Here's a representation of that
number, 144,000, 12,000 out of each tribe. And here is the whole
of that number, a number that no man can number. And so God's
going to bring his people, his way, to acknowledge him as king. And they will be his people,
not because they chose him, but because he chose them. And not
because they bowed before him, but because he made them bow
before him. And he would not allow them to be haughty in his
presence. Jonathan gave David everything
he owned. He didn't claim to be king after
Saul. Gave everything he owned. And
his sword, his clothing, he gave it to David. And we will too. We'll give it to our David. We'll
give him what we thought was our righteous. It's nothing.
Our fight against it, it's nothing. We give, we give, we give. Turn
with me to Psalm 76 and verse 7. Psalm 76 and verse 7. God will not let his people trust
in a lie. I'm so thankful. He will not
leave us where we were. He will not let his people trust
in a lie. He will make his people trust
in Christ. And they'll find out what they
were trusting and was alive, but he wouldn't leave them there.
All right. Psalm 76 and verse seven, Psalm 76 and verse seven. Thou, even thou art to be feared
and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry. Lord, cause me to bow. Lord, bring me low. Take my haughtiness
away. Take my pride away. Take my religion
away. You are God. You are God. They share with us the ones made
low by the Lord. All his people are made low by
Christ. Not one will confess that they
did not deserve what they had. If he had continued and let them
go to the second death, they deserve it. Nobody in heaven
is ever going to say, I deserve this. And nobody in hell is ever
going to say, I didn't deserve this. God's people will recognize
the fact that we deserved that. And he gave us eternal life.
We deserve the most absolute abject poverty. And he gave us
the wealth of glory. So these, let's go back over
there to the book of Revelation. This is a group of people, all
nations, all peoples, all strata, from the top to the bottom. Even
the slaves are mentioned in here. He says, the kings of the earth,
the great men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty
men, and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in dens
and in rocks of mountains and said to the mountains, on rocks,
fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the
throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of
His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?" We can't stand
before God in our own righteousness, and He's going to bring us down.
Now there's a whole bunch over here, they're standing, saying,
I don't need any help. The whole need, not a physician, but God's
people. His church, his elect, the ones
he died for, he's gonna deal with them in an altogether different
manner. The rest won't bow until they
bow before him in the end. But his people will bow now and
will accept that he is king and that he is sovereign. I don't
have much, I just don't have much faith in someone that says
that they bowed before the Lord but he's not sovereign. There's
just not much hope. How can you do that? You know,
that's not salvation. Salvation is bowing to a sovereign,
a king, and that's what these are doing. And then it tells
us here that they're not to be hurt. Verse three, seal the servants. Chapter seven, seal the servants
of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them
that were sealed, and they were sealed, 140 and 4,000 of the
tribes of the children of Israel. That's just another name for
all the elect, and this is a number that is typical or pictorial
of all that God has. And then we drop down to verse
9, after this, I beheld, I saw, I heard of it there in verse
4, I heard the number. But now I get to see him, and
behold, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of
nations, 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." This is the kind of peace that God
gives his people. Now he's going to give them the
Great Tribulation now. He is going to give them the
great tribulation. I'm not talking about the great tribulation that
we hear about. I'm talking about He is going to cause them to
understand that their righteousness will not avail. And in our flesh,
that is the greatest tribulation we could ever endure. Thank God
He allows us to endure it, so we can come out on the other
side and say, His righteousness. Not righteousness which is the
law, but His righteousness. That's what Saul, Paul said.
It's not my righteousness, which is of the law, but his righteousness
that's imputed to us. And so every king that he's ever
saved, every bond he's ever saved, he has brought them low so that
they can look up. And Hannah said the same thing
in her prayer. You kill that you might make alive. You bring
down that you might lift up. You make poor so that you can
make rich. And that's just a paradox that we find in the scripture.
God doesn't do it like we think. His ways are above our ways as
far as heaven is above the earth. And as we look at these verses
and put them together, we just see the pattern. And it's built
in the Old Testament, the pattern. God will not allow haughtiness. Now our boast is in the Lord.
That's our boast now.