Let's open our Bibles to Revelation
chapter 14 today. And we will be in this chapter
this morning and, the Lord willing, again this evening, Revelation
the 14th chapter. In the book of the Revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, The Lord gives to John seven visions. Seven visions. So you can remember
that the book is divided, as it were, into seven sections. These are seven distinct visions
that the Lord Jesus gave to John. John wrote these down. And then
he, in obedience to the Lord's word, sent these visions, sent
the book to each of the seven churches of Asia Minor. Those are the seven churches. Those seven churches, I should
say, are typical of all of the people of God. And so, just as
those folks receive this as being the Word of the Lord sent to
them. Even so, this morning, may we
receive the Word of the Lord sent to us, because it is sent
to us, preserved by His Spirit for these 2,000 years or so,
ever since the Lord gave the words to John. Now, through each
of these seven visions, John is led to see our Lord's
incarnation, that is, His first advent, and the Lord's second
advent, or His final coming into the world. And with that understanding,
We will better study these seven visions because in each of the
seven visions, all of the emphasis is upon Christ Jesus. It's not
upon Israel. In fact, the emphasis isn't even
upon the Lord's people, though we are safe and preserved in
Christ Jesus, but our attention is directed toward the Son of
God. That's the reason it's said to be the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It is an apocalyptic book. It is a book of revelation, a
book of revealing the Son of God. And this is the goal of
the Spirit in giving us these 22 chapters, these seven visions,
is to set before us God and the Son. And since we know that in
every vision, He's going to be, as it were, escorting us, taking
us kind of by the hand, and showing us our Lord's first advent, in which He accomplished redemption,
and then taking us to the last advent, where He comes in great
glory, to receive his own people unto himself and to judge the
wicked. Since we know that's in every
vision, we know that's also in this vision, the vision that
is before us, which is from chapters 12 through 14. He deals with the same period
of time. We've already studied in this
particular vision, the fourth vision, we've studied back in
two chapters ago, in chapter number 12, we saw the man-child
that is the Lord Jesus. We see Him absolutely victorious. He's born to the woman. He's
born to the church of the Lord Jesus. In the Old Testament,
if I may kind of repeat just a bit, in the Old Testament,
the saints of God travailed in birth for the Lord Jesus. They longed for His coming. That
which those Old Testament saints wanted more than anything else,
even more than life itself, they wanted the Son of God to come
into this world and fully and finally finish the issue of salvation. That's what they looked for.
You see, all of God's people, from the beginning unto the end,
whenever the end is, all of God's people are vitally interested
in this issue, the salvation of our souls. We understand that
it's through the bloody death of our Lord Jesus that God's
justice was satisfied. Those folks in the Old Testament,
they long for Christ to come. Oh, how they wanted Him. And
they were always travailing. Travailing in birth pains until
the Son of God came into this world. She always looked for Him. She
being the church of the Old Testament. She looked for the Son of God
who had put away the sins of His people. And all of the Old
Testament saints, they were fully persuaded and convinced that
those sacrifices that they offered on altars, morning sacrifices, evening sacrifices,
sacrifices for Israel on the Day of Atonement, before Israel
was a nation, the sacrifices offered on altars to the Lord,
They all understood those didn't put sin away. Because they knew,
even as we know, according to Hebrews chapter 10, that the
blood of bulls and goats could never put any sin away. But this
man, this man, this one to whom they looked, this one they expected,
this one that they travailed in birth pains until he came,
this one, the Son of God, He did what they longed to be done. And He did what we rejoice has
been done. He removed all the sins of His
people. He bore them in His own body
on the tree. All of the indebtedness of all
of God's elect, of all of the ages, they were charged to His
account, reckoned to Him, imputed unto Him. And he died bearing
our sins and he bore them away and therefore we became debt
free. And this is what they all looked
forward to. The scripture says he was manifest
to take away our sins. Well, as soon as he entered into
the world, the dragon, another name for Satan, the red dragon,
He set out to destroy the man and child. But He couldn't destroy
the man and child. Even the Lord's death didn't
destroy Him. You see, by His death, He destroyed
our sins. And by His death, He crushed
the head of the serpent in fulfillment of Genesis chapter 3. And verse
number 15, our Lord Jesus, this is set forth in chapter 12, our
Lord Jesus then was elevated, exalted to the very highest heaven,
took his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high. Says
that in Hebrews chapter one in verse three. And Satan, as a
result of the death of our Lord Jesus, he was fully and finally
cast out of heaven. No more access to heaven. He's
on this earth. And as it says in Revelation
chapter 12, woe unto them who are on the earth, because Satan
is on the war path. He couldn't defeat the Son of
God. He was himself defeated. Now
his aim is to harass the people of God. His goal is to persecute
the redeemed of the Lord. And his goal is to keep the minds
and the eyes of those who are dead in trespasses and sins,
to keep them blinded against the true gospel of grace. But understand this. He can't
defeat the purpose of God. I don't know, somewhere along
the way, preachers have indicated to people that, you know, the
devil, he's pulling against you, and God's pulling for you, and
finally the Lord, if you'll let Him, He'll eke out the victory.
That's not the way it is. There is no competition there,
really. Satan has already been defeated. He's been defeated by the death
of the Lord Jesus. His head has been crushed. He's a wounded dragon. But a wounded dragon, though
he is no threat to the church of God, though he is no threat
to the purpose of God, a wounded dragon is still quite dangerous,
quite dangerous to unbelievers. And so, as Revelation chapter
12 finishes up, he is in opposition to the church of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's chapter number 12. We get to chapter 13. Remember, only three chapters
in this particular vision. Chapter 13, we see the red dragon
unleashing two beasts. One of them is hideous. It's a hideous monster. Awful looking. Scary looking. And that monster comes up out
of the sea and represents the governments of this world, the
rulers of this world, the authorities of this world who historically
have been anti-God, anti-Christ Jesus, anti-His church. These persecute the woman, persecute
the Lord's people. This is set forth in Revelation
chapter 13. The first beast, godless governments,
empires and rulers. Then the red dragon releases
another beast, But this beast is a lamb. He's like a lamb. And he would appear to be absolutely
harmless. He wouldn't hurt anybody. But
this second beast is not the lamb, of course. It's a lamb. He's a pretender. He's Antichrist. He's Antichrist. He's false religion. He pretends to come in the name
of the Lord, but his goal is to lead people astray and to
keep them away from the gospel of the Lord Jesus. He sees to
it that people receive the mark of the beast, which is 666. Not
a literal number to be emblazoned upon people's foreheads or put
upon their hands, but this is an indication of The failures
of man. Six is the number of man. It
was on the sixth day that God made man. And what is man? Man's
not seven. Seven's a perfect number. Seven's
a wonderful number. Not six. Six is the number of
failure. Six is our number. Man's always
failed. God put man in a perfect environment. You hear people today say the
reason people do thus and so, the reason they misbehave, the
reason they steal, the reason they do this, that and something
else is because of the environment that they're in. Adam and Eve
were in a perfect environment. There was nothing there, nothing
there that was ungodly. But even in that environment,
Sin was found in Adam's will in his heart when he willed to
eat the fruit that God told him not to eat of. He sinned in that
environment. Six is the number of failures.
Six, six, six is the number of absolute failure. And that's
us. Anything we've endeavored to
do, we've failed at it. We're just a bunch of failures.
And I'll tell you this, if you try to earn your salvation, to
merit the grace of God, to work yourself into God's favor, if
you try to earn the mercies of God, earn the forgiveness of
God, by your doing and by your will, you'll end up six, six,
six. Failure, failure, failure. There is no success with man. That number seven belongs to
the Lord. That's His number. His number
is perfection. He saves His people with a perfect
salvation. Now, as we said in chapter 12,
we saw the people of God persecuted. In chapter 13, we see these two
beasts. But as we get to the next chapter,
the last chapter in this vision, We see the people of God seated
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, safe from all the harm.
Look at it. Chapter 14 verse 1. And my, what
a difference. What a difference. As you think
about what we read and studied and saw in the previous chapter,
chapter 13, these monsters, Here's one hideous monster. He's awful
looking. Here's another monster. He's
a clever counterfeit of the real thing. But both of them out for
destruction. And after you read that, you
say, oh no, there's so much opposition against the purpose of God, so
much opposition against the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Will
we fail to make it to glory? Will the purpose of God regarding
redemption and salvation, will it all be nullified and frustrated? by the red dragon? And John sees
in chapter 14, the answer to those questions is absolutely
not. The purpose of God can't be defeated.
And so in order to encourage the people of God, John sees this and he relates
it to us. Chapter 14, verse 1, Well, the last time he looked,
he saw this monster come up out of the sea and then another monster
come up out of the land. But now he says, I look and lo! A lamb. A lamb stood on Mount
Zion. And with him, 144,000. That's
a perfect number representing all of the elect of God. having His Father's name written
in their foreheads, in their minds, in their understanding. You see, here's the difference
between the people who receive the mark of the beast and those
who are the people of God. We have been the elect of God. We have in our understanding
the way that God saves sinners. God has not left us in the dark. He has revealed to us how God
can be just and justify the ungodly through the doing and the dying
of the Son of God. We understand by His blood He
put our sins away. By His sacrifice He honored the
justice of God. And we understand salvation to
be altogether of God's grace. With no merits of man, no works
of man, no will of man, it's the will of God in salvation
that Christ Jesus be exalted. And we have the mind of Christ
Jesus. We have that understanding. And
you understand how God saves sinners. I know you do. But these in unbelief, their
minds have been blinded. And that which is impressed upon
their minds and upon their thoughts and upon their hearts is that
salvation is something I must accomplish. And that is the number
666. Oh God, give us an understanding
of how you can be just and justify us. Oh God, give us an understanding
of the true gospel of grace. Lord, show us that from first
to last, salvation is God's work. Let us, Lord, be like a bunch
of Jonas. May we see that salvation is
of the Lord. We're in such a mess. We're in
such a dilemma. We're in such a wretched state
that none can save us. None can rescue us but God alone. And He does it by His grace through
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we have the Father's
name written in our foreheads, in our minds, in our minds. And if you ask anybody who believes
the gospel, what is your hope of heaven? What is your hope
of righteousness? What is your hope of everlasting
life? And we'll say, it's the Lord
Jesus and His sacrifice. You see, you can tell the difference
between the people of God and those who are deceived by the
red dragon and his beasts. You want to see those folks?
Listen to what they have to say. Matthew chapter 7, the Lord Jesus
says, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, haven't
we done all of these things in thy name? You see, they had the
mark of the beast in their foreheads, in their minds, and on their
hands. Listen, if you believe, because
it talks about the mark of the beast being on the forehead and
on the right hand, the right hand, that's a hand of power,
that's a hand of labor. If you believe, if you really
believe salvation is by your duties, by your deeds, by your
works, by your efforts, then you'll put forth your hand to
do something. And that's what they're saying
there in Matthew chapter 7. Lord, Lord, look at all we've
done. Look at all we've done. Because
in their minds they've been thinking all their lives. My destiny is
in my hands. And it's solely determined by
what I do. What I do. Lord, look what I've
done. And the Lord Jesus will say,
I never knew you. Depart from me. All that you
did was just iniquity. Every time you raised your right
hand, as it were, to do something for God, to do something for
your salvation, to do something for your soul, it was just iniquity
upon iniquity. That's all it was. You see, this
is what the people who are blinded by the dragon, by the red dragon
and his beast, this is what they plead. But the people of God,
I tell you, when we stand before the Lord, if He were to say to
us, which He won't, because we're His people forever, but if He
were to say to us, What right do you have to be here? On what
basis are you here? Why should I receive you? Why
should I accept you into my holy heaven? And we'll say, Lord,
receive us for Christ's sake. Receive us because of the blood. Receive us because of His righteousness. Receive us because of who Christ
is and what He did for poor sinners like us. And I'll tell you, if
that question was to be asked to us and we answer in that way
honestly from our hearts, because the Lord will force us to answer
honestly, the gates of heaven will fly open and the Lord will
say, welcome home. Welcome home. We have the Father's name written
in our foreheads. He says in the second verse,
and I heard a voice, I heard a voice from heaven, the voice
of many waters. And as the voice of great thundering,
like thousands and thousands and thousands of people, but
he said it sounded like one big voice. Because there's unity. There's unison among the people
of God. We all sing the same song, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. We all sing the same song. We all have the same testimony,
saved by grace. Hallelujah! Saved by grace. We all say the same words, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain, who has redeemed us unto God by His
blood. He said, it says a great noise,
but as though it were just one voice. He said, I heard the voice
of those who were harping, giving such a melodious sound. Do you
know what the most melodious sound there is? The most delightful
sound there is? Is somebody talking about salvation
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's just a blessed
melody. And if you want to hear something
that sets forth sounds that are awful, sounds that just in a
believer's mind and in our hearts we say, I can't stand to hear
that! Is somebody talking about salvation
by man's will? or salvation by man's works.
It's like when a musician, somebody whose ear is trained and God
has given to them the gift of hearing notes, and somebody hits a wrong note,
you just go... And I'll tell you, when the people
of God, when we hear somebody Bragging on man's will. Bragging
on man's works. Bragging on what they've done.
Oh, what I've done for Jesus. Oh, the burdens I have borne
for Jesus. Jesus knows how much I've done
for Him. We just say, oh! Oh, that's so
awful. That's so awful. Just like somebody
taking fingernails and scratching a chalkboard, you know. It's
just like, oh! Please stop that. Please stop
that. But here he says, I heard the
voice of the harpers harping with their harps. They're all
singing together. You see, here's what John sees.
He sees the Lamb of God. Now remember, in chapter 13,
he's seen a false lamb. A false lamb. The lamb had two
horns, but he says very distinctly in chapter 13, he looked like
a lamb, but he had the voice of the dragon. He's speaking
lies. Lies. And now, John, in this
vision, now his eyes are cast up toward heaven or lifted up
toward heaven. And he says, And then I saw,
notice, a lamb, and the word lamb in verse one is capitalized. I saw the lamb. I saw the lamb. He stood on Mount Zion. He stood! Well, you say, but the scriptures
talks about how that he, when he got to heaven, he sat down.
Well, he did. That indicates, and you know,
the Bible is full, especially the book of Revelation, full
of symbolic language. And when we read that the Lord
Jesus went to heaven and he took his seat in heaven, we're to
take those words in relationship to, like in the Old Testament
tabernacle and temple, there was no chair, there was no seat. Because those who ministered
in the temple and in the tabernacle, their work was never finished.
They didn't say, well, I'm done. We don't have to offer any more
sacrifice. I'll just sit down here. No, there wasn't a chair
to sit down. There wasn't anywhere to sit
down. And that indicated, hey, the work is not finished. And
after you finish your shift, somebody else will come in here,
another set of priests, they'll come in and they'll keep on laboring. And all of the priesthood together
offered many times the same sacrifices which could never take away sin. Therefore, they were never finished.
The priesthood was never finished in their work of sacrificing
and offerings to God. But this man, Oh, what a man. After he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand of God. That
simply means he finished the work the Father gave him to do. The work of redemption. The work
of saving us. Hey, His name is Jesus, which
means He shall save His people from their sins. And when He
went back to heaven, He went back to heaven and heaven received
Him with open arms because He had done this. He had saved His
people from their sins. Oh, they'll find out about it
in regeneration. They'll find out about it when
the Spirit of God grants to them the new birth and the life of
God in the soul. But that life of God in the soul,
that new birth, that's not what saved them from their sin. It's
the bloody sacrifice of Christ Jesus that saved them. And so he's pictured as seated
at his father's right hand, as in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse
3. And in Hebrews chapter 10, but right here, John says, I
saw in low a lamb stood on Mount Zion. He stood, he stood as the
victor. He stood as the triumphant one. He stood as the mediator of his
people. He stood on Mount Zion. Please put yourself, if you can,
in your imagination, in the position of the saints of God to whom
this letter was originally sent. Those people of God were severely
persecuted, and we must not lose sight of that. The original recipients
of the book of the Revelation were people of God who knew what
it meant, many of them, to see loved ones who laid down their
life for the cause of Christ. I tell you, God is merciful to
us, especially in this nation where we have the liberties and
the freedoms that we enjoy to worship God as we understand
from the Scriptures as led by His Spirit that He's to be worshipped.
But back in those days, they'd come in and shut you down. That's
the reason, and you've read, I'm sure some of you people have
read some of the old, old church history and the things that these
saints of God went through with. I mean, the authorities could
just come in. People met in private. They met
in secret, most of them. Because the authorities, they
got wind that, okay, you're worshiping, you're worshiping, A God that
the government doesn't sanction? They come in and shut you down?
Jerk the man out? Take him and you never see him
again? Preachers of the Gospel were martyred, butchered for
the cause of Christ Jesus? You've got to put yourself in
their position in those days when things were bleak! It was
an awful day to live in as far as the persecution of the people
of God. And John sets before these people
here in chapter 14 something that they needed to consider. How things will finally wind
up. You see, he doesn't Sugarcoat this, in chapter 13,
he sets forth these beasts. Pagan governments, they hate
God, hate Christ Jesus, hate the Word of God. Man, those people
knew first hand what that meant. And they knew about false prophets. In fact, the same man the Spirit
of God inspired to write the book of Revelation, he said back
in 1 John, he said, many Antichrists are in the world. That's the
second beast. They deny that the Son of God
has come in the flesh. These people knew about persecution. They knew about trouble. They
knew about heartache. The men who worked, who had jobs
that were pretty decent and paid good wages, they worked. It was
kind of like a union. And the union was in cahoots
with the government. And the union could fire you. If they came to you, they got
wind that, hey, you believe that Jesus of Nazareth, that man who
died, you believe He's the Savior? You believe salvation's by grace? Is this what you believe? And
if you said, yes, that's what I believe, you're fired. You
can't ever work again. Read history, historians will
tell you that. These folks lived in tough times,
tough times. And John writes to these people
who know something about heartache and misery in this world. We
just think we know something about misery. We think we know
something about heartache and persecution. We don't know anything
like these people knew. And John writes to them and he
says, I looked and I saw a lamb. And He's standing on Mount Zion.
He's standing in the midst of His people. There's all of His
people! What John is saying is this.
When times are tough, when times are difficult, consider how it's all going to
wind up. Consider how it's all going to
wind up. And he's saying to these persecuted people of God, we'll
all be there. We'll be there in that bright
and glorious day. He's saying, as it were, cheer
up our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. Because the
Lord has shown me how it's all going to end. It's all going to end with us
in heaven's glory with Christ Jesus. And I would say to you
this morning, to my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
I know that we don't have the difficulty of persecution in
the way that they did, but there can still be persecution within
a family, There can be people ostracizing you. People cutting
you off. People who say to you, if that's
what you believe, our friendship has come to an
end. That's persecution. Should there be people of God
in here this morning, or watching on the internet, and you say,
oh, my heart is so heavy. This is going on in my life and
this is happening in these difficulties. Here's what I say to you. Look up and consider how it's
all going to wind up. And see these people, 144,000, standing with Christ Jesus in
glory. You see back in chapter 7, You
remember in chapter 7, the Lord says to the angels, these four
angels, He said, and they have the judgment, north, south, east,
and west. They have judgment to pour out. Because this old world is ripe
for judgment. It always has been. And He says,
don't pour out your judgment until all the 144,000 have been
sealed. washed in the blood, robed in
the righteousness of Christ Jesus. And now we come to chapter 14. And it doesn't say 139,999. It's
the same group and not a one of them was lost. It's like the
Lord Jesus said in John chapter 17 to the Father. All that you've given me, I've
lost not one of them. Not one of them. And all that 144,000, which is
just a symbolic number. The old writers of commentaries,
they're all in agreement on this. This is just a perfect number
to set forth a multitude which no man can number. Here's the
elect of God. All who were chosen, All who
are redeemed, all who have been sealed by the Spirit are all
standing in glory with the Lamb of God. That's how it's going
to wind up. And so John, as it were, says
to these saints of God and to us, cheer up. I know things appear to be bad
and I certainly would make light of the difficulties and tribulations
and turmoils that the people of God go through. But it's not
always going to be that way. And even in going through these
things, we're not alone. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. And I say in your mind, in your
heart, in your understanding, Think about this. In a very short
time, this will all be over. And we're going to be with the
Lamb of God. And we're going to worship Him forever and ever.
Be absolutely glorious. I want us to sing for our next
song.