Revelation chapter 7. I've entitled the lesson this
morning, who is in heaven? Who is in heaven? And I have
three basic points. Who goes to heaven? How do the
people there get there? And what are they doing there?
Who is in heaven? Now we know from reading scripture,
you don't have to have very much understanding at all to be able
to read scripture and understand God elected a people. Only He
knows who those people are. And it's a lot of people. It's
a number no man can number. And many of them are in heaven
right now. John heard them. He saw some
of them. Well, who are those people? And
is there a way I can know if I will be one of those people
in heaven? Verse 13 of Revelation chapter 7. One of the elders
answered saying unto me, what are these? Who are they? Who
are these people? What are these which are arrayed
in white robes? And whence came they? Who are
these people and how did they get here? So here's my first
point. Who is in heaven? Well, John
gives us a description of the people who are in heaven. Everyone
who's in heaven. must go through great tribulation.
He says that in verse 14. And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great
tribulation. Now, every believer is going
to go through trials of our faith. That's the history of believers
in every age. That's the vision we looked at
in chapter six, those different horses that John saw. Every believer
sees the red horse of suffering. Every believer sees the black
horse of poverty. We all find it difficult to make
a living in this life. And every believer, sooner or
later, sees the pale horse of death. We all go through many
dangers, toils and snares, many difficult trials. But those trials
never crush the believer. The believer always comes through
the trials, the elder says that they have come out of great tribulation. They always come out of those
trials and arrive in glory. Now, if you look back in John
chapter 16, I'll show you why that's true. John chapter 16. Verse 33. These things have I spoken unto
you that in me you might have peace. In the world, you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. In the world, the child of God
will have tribulation, but in Christ will have peace. In this
world, the believer is going to have tribulation, but in Christ,
we have the victory because he's already overcome the world. So
why is it that in this world we must have tribulation? Why
is that? Why is that the case? If I could
choose, I wouldn't choose that. I'd choose a different way. When
you, why is it that the believer must go through these great tribulations
and before we arrive in glory, we'll first look at acts chapter
14. I have four. I'm sure there's many reasons,
but I have four that I can show us from scripture. Number one,
Trials are the way that the Lord weans us from this world. We
would never be ready to leave this life if it weren't for for
trials and things that just that wean us from the pleasures of
this world and make us ready to leave this place. Acts 14
verse 21. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city and it taught many, they returned again, they
went back to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch where they preached
before. Why did they do that? confirming the souls of the disciples
and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must,
through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. They went
back and made sure every believer there understood through much
tribulation we will enter the kingdom of God because this is
the way the Lord weans us from the pleasures and the things
of this life. Now look at Romans chapter four.
Here's the second reason. We must go through these trials
because the Lord uses trials to strengthen our faith, to increase
our dependence upon our savior. Romans chapter four, verse three. No, I've written down the wrong. Well, you just have to take my
word for it that I've written down the wrong, the wrong passage,
but the Lord used, you know, this from your experience, the
Lord uses trials to strengthen the faith, to increase our dependence
upon our Savior. Now thirdly, look at 2 Corinthians
1. We must go through these trials of our faith because trials make
us more useful to our brethren. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3. 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 any trouble
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. Trials
make us more useful to our brethren when they're in trouble and trial.
And then lastly, 1 Peter chapter 4. Trials are the lot of every child
of God. Trials and tribulations so that
we can rejoice in We can rejoice in them because these trials
and troubles and tribulations are marks or signs of the children
of God. This is how we know we're sons
of God. First Peter 4 verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some
strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice in as much as your
partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory should be
revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. That's how
we know we're sons of God when we go through these trials of
our faith. Now, we saw this last week in
the message. Everyone who goes to heaven has
been born again. They've been born with a new nature. And when
that new man is born, he's got a new nature. He also has a new
citizenship. We've been delivered from the
power of darkness. And we've been translated, transferred
into the kingdom of God's dear son. So the believer's citizenship
is not here on earth. The believer's citizenship is
in heaven. There's nothing for the believer
here in this life. We're just passing through it
on our way home. We're going through enemy territory. And
anytime you're behind the lines in enemy territory, there's going
to be suffering involved. This is the lot of every child
of God. but we'll come through them.
We come out of them. All of God's children one day
are going to leave this life of suffering and trials and tribulation
behind and end up before the throne of God Almighty. So that's
who goes to heaven. Second, how did the people in
heaven get there? And I'll tell you why I'm interested
in that. How did the people in heaven get there? Because everybody
who goes to heaven is going to go the exact same way. So how
will any of us get there? If we can find out how those
people got there, we can find out, is there a way for us to
get there? Well, everyone who goes to heaven has faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter seven, again,
verse 14. These are they which came out
of great tribulation and they've washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the land. Now we talked about this last
week. You know, it's Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, our
savior. who has washed his people in the blood of his sacrifice.
He cleansed his people. He washed them. He plunged them
in that fountain of his blood and cleansed his people from
all their sins. But here the elder talking to John says, they
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
What's that talking about? It's talking about faith. Saving
faith lays claim to the Lord Jesus Christ. Saving faith doesn't
have any other hope other than Christ. It lays hold on Christ
and plunges in. Saving faith, we're completely
passive in receiving salvation, but saving faith actively believes
Christ. Saving faith actively lays hold
on Christ and seeks Christ and feeds upon Christ. These people
that John saw were active in the faith that God gave them.
So you see, it wasn't their suffering at all. They all suffered, but
it wasn't their suffering that brought them to heaven, was it?
Their suffering did not purify them of any of their sins. Some
do suffer more than others, don't they? But their suffering didn't
make them more pure, more accepted, more loved than someone who suffered
less, did it? It's the blood of Christ. It's
not the blood of martyrs that brings them to glory. Actually,
all the blood of martyrs can do is stain. Because it's human
blood. It's sinful blood. Only the blood
of Christ cleanses. So the only reason anyone's in
glory is the Father chose to save them. The Son came and made
them righteous. He paid for their sin with His
precious blood. And the Spirit came and gave
them life and faith in Christ. They didn't have anything to
do with it. Their suffering, none of that mattered. the only
suffering that matters is the suffering of Christ to pay for
the sin of his people. So if Christ cleansed you from
your sin with his blood, then you're saved. You will be in
heaven. You will be before the throne
of God because the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's son,
cleanses us from all sin, makes us pure and white and spotless. as righteous as Christ himself,
as righteous as the Son of God. That's the power of the blood
of Christ. And when Christ died, he saved a host of people. I mean, he saved a host, a host
from all over the planet, from every generation, from every
time. And every last one of them is
going to be in glory. There's going to be a people
in glory from every nation, every people, every tongue. And we
believe that the way that's going to happen is babies who die. You think about there are many
nations that have never heard the gospel. Many nations have
never heard the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is never
preached to them. And how can someone from those
nations be saved? It's babies, babies who died
in infancy. Now they're not in glory because
they're innocent. They're not in glory because they're cute.
They're not in glory because they're sinless. They're in glory
by the grace of God. The father chose them. The son
died for them. That's why they're there. And
that host in heaven is going to be from all different languages,
every different nation, but every last one of them is going to
have the same residing place. They're all going to be in glory.
In glory, there's just going to be one nation. They're all
going to be united in the kingdom of Christ. There's just going
to be one blood. It's not the different kinds
of blood. You know, here we got all these different blood types.
There's going to be none of that there. They're just one blood. They're
all one blood, the blood of Christ. And there's all going to be one
tongue. Everybody's going to speak the same heavenly language.
I have a very dear friend in Mexico. His name is Elio Che,
his wife, Teresa. Elio's the pastor at Santun.
And I just love that guy. I just like being around him.
I like talking to him. But when we're together, it is
so frustrating. It's just so frustrating trying
to speak through a translator. If there's no translator around,
you're going to have to use sign language or Srage or something.
And apparently, neither one of us is very good at that game.
It's just so frustrating to try to communicate with each other. And you know, in this life, I
don't expect to ever see Elio Chagrin. I don't ever expect
to see him. I never expect to go back to Mexico and be able
to see him. But we're going to see each other again. And when
we do, where I'm going to need a translator. We'll speak the
same language, the same heavenly language. Everyone in heaven
will have that. The same nation, the same blood,
the same language. And they'll all have come through
great tribulation. And I'll tell you how they came
through it. It's through faith in Christ. It's through faith.
Every one of them is going to be dressed exactly like in the
perfect spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. That's what he
means here in verse 9. After this, I beheld and lo a
great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations
and kindreds and peoples and tongues, stood before the throne,
before the land, clothed with white robes and palms in their
hands. You know what those white robes
are? That's the righteousness of Christ. And it's not just
something that we wear over top. They're righteous, made righteous
through and through. Body and soul made righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they'll all have come through
great tribulation, through great suffering, through great trials
of their faith. But they came through them by faith in Christ. And every one of them there is
going to have the victory. That's what the palms in their
hands represent. Those palms represent victory.
When our Lord rode into Jerusalem that last time, they're throwing
those palms down, palm leaves down before him. It's the sign
of victory. Everyone there is going to have
the victory. They have it through faith. in
Christ. That's how they all got there is through faith in Christ.
All right, thirdly, what are they doing there? What will the
people in heaven be doing? Well, there's some things that
they are doing, and there's some things that they're not doing.
First, the things that they are doing. Number one, they're all
praising the Savior. Verse 10, and cried with a loud
voice saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb. Now, when they say salvation
to our God, what they mean is salvation belongs to God. It's
His. It belongs to Him. And it's His
to give. And if we find ourselves before
the throne of God with those palms in our hands, white robes,
what we're going to say is salvation belongs to God. And the only
reason I have it is He gave it to me as a free gift. When they
say salvation to our God, what they mean is salvation is of
the Lord. And that will be the testimony
of everyone in that number. No man can number. Their testimony
will always be salvations of the Lord. You could use a lot
of examples of people there, but there are two that we know
are there. The Apostle Paul and the thief on the cross. Can you
think of two more opposite men? Fleshly speaking, can you think
of two more opposite men? Yet, right now, they have the
exact same testimony. Exactly the same. They live very
different lives. Very different. But yet, there's
only one reason both of them are in glory. Salvation is off
the Lord. That's why they're there. The
Apostle Paul, someday you'll meet him, and I'll tell you right
now what he's going to confess. This is my testimony, he'll say.
Salvations of Lord. It was the Lord who came and
met me and saved me. He met me in my sin and my rebellion. God met me in grace. He met me
in power and he broke me. He put me down in the dust and
he revealed himself to me. And he revealed himself to me.
He saved me. And God gets all the credit for
it. I wasn't looking for him. I wasn't searching for him. Matter
of fact, I'll tell you what I was going to do. I was searching
for other people who believed, even if there were other people
this way, not just men, but women and children. And I was determined
to throw them in the deepest, darkest hole I could find. That's
what I was looking for. But God found me in mercy and
grace. He broke me. He put me in the
dust. He showed me what I am. He revealed
himself to me and God saved me. Salvation is of the Lord. God
gets all the credit for it. And Paul will say, I lived a
number of years after that. But everything I did, it was
all by the grace of God. It wasn't me. Yes, I labored
more abundantly than they all, but it wasn't me. It was the
grace of God which was in me. God gets all the credit for that,
too. He's the one that enabled me to do it. And then we'll meet
the thief. And the thief will have the exact
same testimony. He'll say, I was going on in
my sin. and my rebellion. I wasn't looking
for God, but God met me. He came where I was and He met
me in power, in mercy, in grace. He broke me. He revealed to me
what I am. I was a rebel my entire life. I was getting what I deserve.
And they nailed me to a cross. They nailed my hands and my feet
to a cross because other sinful men said I was so vile they couldn't
do anything with me. The only thing they could do
with me is kill me in the most painful, ignominious way they
could find. And even then, even then I didn't
know how guilty I was. Even then I wouldn't confess.
I wouldn't see how awful and rotten I was. Until the Lord
Jesus Christ revealed himself to me. Then I saw what I was. That's how he broke me. He revealed
himself to me and he saved me all by his grace, all by his
doing. I wasn't looking for him. I couldn't
do anything. The Lord gets all the credit
for saving me. Salvation's of the Lord. That's
what that thief will say. And then he'll tell us after
that, the only thing I did was go be with the Lord in paradise.
That's all I did. And that was by the grace of
God. Salvations of the Lord. All Paul's labor in the gospel,
all his service in the ministry of Christ, didn't add to his
place in glory one bit, did it? Not one. And the thief's lack
of labor and lack of service for Christ didn't take away from
his place in glory one bit. Both of them got there the exact
same way. The Lord Jesus Christ. The only merit they had to be
there is the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both
of them claim that white robe, this white robe, this is mine.
It's the righteousness of Christ, the obedience of Christ that
God gave to me. That's why it's mine. God gave
it to me. They lay claim to that white robe, spotless and pure,
because their sin has been washed away one way. Both of them washed
away the exact same way. The blood that Christ shed as
He died as their substitute. That's their confession. Salvation
is of the Lord. And both of them will tell you,
there's just one reason I'm here. It's because Christ Jesus came
into this world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. They both
lay claim to that title. I'm here because the Father chose
me. I never would have chosen Him. He had to choose me first.
I'm here because the Son appeared In the form of a man, in the
likeness of sinful flesh, He appeared to do for me what I
could never do for myself. To establish perfect obedience
to the law. To pay for my sin debt. The Spirit
came. He gave me life. He gave me repentance. He gave me faith in Christ or
else I never would have had it. This is my testimony and the
whole host of heaven can say it all at one time. Salvations
of the Lord. Both Paul and the thief give
that testimony and everybody in heaven says, Amen. They all amen that message. They
all say, that's right. So be it. That's my testimony
too, they say. Verse 11. And all the angels
stood round about the throne and about the elders and the
four beasts and fell down before the throne on their faces and
worshiped God saying, Amen. That's what they're all saying.
I amen that. Salvation's of the Lord. That's
what they're doing. Then here's the second thing
they're doing. Everyone in glory is singing the same song of praise. Verse 12. Blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be
unto our God forever and ever. Amen. They just keep amen in
that message, don't they? Now here's the song they're singing. God is blessed in himself and
all of his people are blessed in him. Christ is the fountain
of all blessing. He's the blessing of the church
and we're all blessed in him. And glory. They say all glory
belongs to God. He is the God of glory. And he
is the glory of his people. We don't have any glory. It all
belongs to him. And then wisdom. Now we know
God's all wise. But this is more than God knows
everything. His wisdom is seen most clearly
in this. The wisdom of salvation he's
provided for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the
way in the person of Christ. There's the way God can be both
just and justified. God can remain God. He can remain
holy. He can remain just. and justify
a sinner like me because Christ died for me. The perfect man
died for me. That's where God's wisdom is
seen. And then Thanksgiving. God gets all the thanks for everyone
being there. Can we thank him enough? The
only reason we're here is God's purpose. It's God's plan. It's
God's action. All Thanksgiving goes to him.
And then honor. God's going to get all the honor.
We don't get any honor for our suffering. We don't get just
like the Apostle Paul. We don't like any honor for our
labors in Christ. I mean, what are those? No, God
gets all the honor. He did everything he promised
to do. Look at what he gets all the honor for this. And power. God has all power. And again,
this I mean, that's just so obvious. God has all power. But I tell
you where His power is most clearly seen, where His power is glorified. It's in His power to take sinful
men and women like us and make us righteous. It's His power
to put away the sin of His elect. Thank God for His power and in
might. God has all might. Every purpose,
every attribute of God is upheld. by the power of His might. He's
the only one that's got the might. Anybody could come up with a
plan, couldn't they? Anybody could say, well, this is what
I like to do. Only God has the might to make it happen. He made
His purpose happen. That's why we're all here. That's
what they're singing. Then thirdly, everyone in heaven, I can tell
you what they're doing. They serve God day and night. Tirelessly
they serve Him. Not like you. We want to serve
our God, don't we? We want to. Every believer does. But boy, at night time, you just
gotta go to bed. I mean, there's just a limit
to what you can do. Not there. Verse 15. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and
night in His temple. They serve Him there tirelessly
with no end to it. Now listen to this, this is something
that the world has corrupted our minds about what heaven is,
what heaven is going to be like, what the people there are doing.
Heaven is a place of rest. No question about it, it's a
place of rest. But it's not a state of laziness.
It's a place of rest, but not laziness. There, we will serve
the Lord. What that is going to entail,
I don't know. There's some things we don't
know. We'll serve Him in praise. We'll serve Him in worship. But
I know this, we're going to be active in it. We're not going
to be lazy in it. We're going to be active in it. In serving
our God day and night. And then here's the fourth thing.
This is what everybody in heaven is doing. They're dwelling with
Christ. The end of verse 15. And he that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. He will dwell among
them. Now, that's the delight of heaven.
It's Christ dwelling with his people. That's the delight of
it. The delight of it is not a permanent vacation. The delight
of it is not whatever surroundings there might be in heaven. The
delight of it is this. The Lord Jesus Christ dwells
with his people, not by faith, by sight. That's the glory, the
delight of heaven. That's what the people there
are doing. But I'll tell you this, there's some things that
people in heaven are not doing. Look at verse 16. They shall
hunger no more. Nobody there is hungry. Now, they all suffered hunger
here. Physical hunger. Yes. And I'll tell you, they
are. I don't think anybody here can
really ever say we've been hungry. But every believer here suffered
hunger. spiritual hunger, hungering after
righteousness, hungering after the Lord Jesus Christ. I need
to be fed with him. I need him. We've hungered for
that here, not there, because it says here at the at the end
of the verse there, the lamb, which is in the midst of the
throne, he shall feed people. We're not going to hunger there
because Christ will feed his people. Secondly, the people
in heaven, they're not thirsting. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst anymore. Now, they thirsted here, didn't
they? They had physical thirst and they had spiritual thirst.
They thirsted after righteousness. As the deer panteth after the
water broke, so my heart pants after they thirst for thee, O
God. We do that here, but not there. We won't be thirsting
here anymore because the lamb shall feed them, and shall lead
them unto living fountains of waters." Well, thirst here, but
not there. And I'll tell you a third thing, they're not doing
there. They're not suffering trial anymore. Neither shall the sun light on
them, nor any heat. They suffered through the heat
of tribulation here, didn't they? They suffered the heat of the
fire of God's furnace here, the furnace of trial. They suffered
that in this life. All that's over there. There'll
be no more heat. There'll be no more suffering,
no more tribulation there. They've come out of it. And here's
the fourth thing. No one in heaven is doing it. They're not crying anymore. End
of verse 17. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. Now we touched on this last week.
You know, it's not like everybody in heaven They're going to be
thinking back to their time on earth. They're going to be thinking
back to those sufferings. They're going to be thinking
back to those sorrows. They're going to be thinking back to their
sin and their failure and all the things of this life, you
know, the disappointments of it. And they're going to be crying
all the time. The Lord's going to be coming
and constantly wiping away their tears because they're crying.
That's not what that means. When the Lord wipes away the
tears of his people, it means there's no more reason for them
to cry. Because sin and its consequences will all be gone. There's no
more of that there. There's no more pain. There's
no more heartache. There's no more sickness. No
more death. No more goodbyes. No more tears. There's no more reason to cry. Look back at Isaiah chapter 51.
This would be a good verse for us to close on. This is the eternal
gospel. It's the same hope Isaiah had,
same gospel that Isaiah had. This is the result of Christ's
victory for his people. There's no more crying, no more
reason to cry. Isaiah 51 verse 11. Therefore,
the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing
unto Zion. An everlasting joy shall be upon
their head and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and
mourning shall flee away. It'll all be gone and there'll
be no more crying, no more tears, because there's no more reason
for it. Because the victory of the Lord
Jesus Christ is absolutely complete. That's what they're not doing
in glory. That's who they are, how they got there, and what
they're doing. Well, I hope the Lord bless that to us.