All right, turn with me this
morning to Revelation chapter 14. Last week we talked about
the Lamb. The Lamb standing on Mount Sinai. Standing as meaning victorious
over all of his enemies. condemned to death by the sins
of his people and yet alive and victorious in glory. And then this morning we're going
to talk about the 144,000 who stand before this lamb. Last week we talked about the
heavenly vision. I've mentioned that a couple
weeks running If you're going to see these things, you're going
to see them by the revelation of God. These things require
heavenly vision. This is what John was enabled
by the Spirit of God to see that most men will never see. This
morning we're going to talk about these men, and we talked about
that vision, seeing things where they count in glory. seeing things as they are and
not how they appear to be. But this week we're gonna talk
about a heavenly voice. That was a heavenly vision, this
is talking about a heavenly voice. Now let's read all the verses
together and then I'll go back and make some comments. Revelation
chapter 14 beginning with verse two. And I heard a voice from
heaven. as the voice of many waters,
as the voice of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps. And they sung, as it were, a
new song before the throne, before the four beasts and the elders.
And no man could learn that song but the 140 and 4,000 which were
redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not
defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which
follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found
no guile, for they are without fault. before the throne of God. Now John begins to speak of the
144,000 by saying that he heard a voice, a voice in heaven. There was a time when heaven
heard their voice. Their voice wasn't heard in heaven
as such, speaking from glory, but on earth speaking to heaven. There was a time when heaven
heard their voice. under the conviction of sin and
experiencing something of the inability of their depraved nature,
yet by the grace of God given strength to call upon God. And
as Israel did in oppression and bondage down in Egypt, God heard
their cries. Heaven heard their voice in a
time excepted. I cannot begin to explain all
the acts of God's providence and His inward workings in men
except to say that He enables them in a time accepted to call
on Him. And as they call on Him, He hears
their cries. But this is not talking about
heaven hearing their earthly voice, but a man on earth hearing
their heavenly voice. These are they which stand before
the Lamb. They stand before the Lamb. And
there are several things that I want you to see here about
this heavenly voice. First of all, it is declared
here as a voice, not voices. A voice. Singular. Singular. It's not like it is
when you go into a crowded restaurant. I have hearing impairments and
I go into a crowded restaurant and it's like a buzz to me. I can't even distinguish the
words. It's just everybody's talking
about something different and this and that and the next thing.
Some of them are loud and some of them are soft. It's just a
buzzing to me. It sounds like a motor running or something. But this was a distinct voice. Now God's people all know, and
they all understand, and they all say the same thing. God's
people do. There are people out here who
are saying a lot of different things, but God's people don't.
They say the same thing. They say, by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. How many of them
say that? All of them. All of them. What about the folks up in New
Jersey? That's what they say. What about the folks raised over
there in the mountains of West Virginia? That's what they say. What about them folks up in Kentucky?
That's what they say. God's people say the same thing
because they know and understand the same thing. They all have
had that heavenly vision of the Lamb, and they understand what
to sow. The Bible said there's only one
body. This 144,000 that we're looking
at, this is the body of Christ, and there's just one body. His
body, His church, His elect. And there's just one Spirit.
Now no man could know these things, I have not seen or ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
among us by Spirit. And there's just one Spirit. Does this Spirit teach different
men different things? No. He's one Spirit. There's one body, there's one
spirit, there's one Lord. Now we're gonna talk about the
Lord here in a little while. Is it Lords? We're gonna talk
about it, we're gonna talk about the Lord. Bible says there's
one Lord. So when we talk about that Lord,
do we know what we're talking about? If we do, we all say the
same thing. Says there's only one faith. Well, preacher, all these denominations
out here, they're just spokes in a wheel. They all go to the
same hook. There's just one faith. Just one baptism. Just one God. Listen carefully to what men
say. You'll find out they're talking about another God. There's just one God, there's
just one Father. Now that Father's talking about
the Father of His people, the Father, the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and in that sense, He's our Father.
It wasn't until the spirit of adoption came down and revealed
that to us that we called Him Father, and could call Him Father
with some sense of understanding. He's the Father of all, who's
above all and through all and in you all. Now, that's too many
ones to be different. You see what I'm saying? Too
many ones. And you cannot have that many
ones and have a multitude of ideas and concepts and doctrines. The dragon and his beasts will
do everything in their power and influence to draw you away
from that one faith, from that one Lord. from that one God. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and
verse 2, Paul wrote this. He said, I'm jealous over you
with a godly jealousy for I have espoused you to one husband that
I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But he said,
I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity
that's in Christ. And that word simplicity, if
you do a little search and study on it, it means one. It means one. You know, you take
a complex teaching and you You keep boiling it down and boiling
it down and finally you come down to the basic doctrine and
it's stated in its simplicity. And he said, I fear lest you
be, as Satan beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. John heard the voice a voice,
but this voice was of the whole house of Israel. And what he
heard was one voice, just one voice. Secondly, it was the voice
of many waters. This one voice was coming from
many. Now I've already taken you forward
in the book of revelations and showed you what these waters
mean. It means nations and peoples. He's talking about a great multitude
of people here. The voice of many waters, a great
multitude, like the waters of Niagara, one writer said, when
they fall off of that precipice down and when they hit that deep
pool at the bottom, they make a great noise. Great noise. And then he tells us this. This
voice was as the voice of great thunder. You know, the Lord surnamed James
and John. Peter, James, and John went up
on the Mount of Transfiguration. Those three were, he called those
three out and he used them in a very special way. But James
and John, the Lord surnamed Boanerges. That's what he called them, Boanerges.
You know what that means? Sons of Thunder. This voice was
like thunder, like a great thunder. When the voice of God's people
is heard, it sounds like thunder. You ever had the voice of God
thunder to you through the preaching of the gospel? Oh, my soul, it'll
wake you up. It'll wake you up. It'll cause
the dead to rise. You know, at the resurrection
of Christ, he talks about the thunder. Talks about the thunder at that
resurrection. It awakens the sleeping saints.
It startles the unsuspecting. One of them said, that's the
voice of the Son of God. And somebody else said, no, it
just thundered. Isn't that what they said at
the crowd? It startles the unsuspecting,
and it shocks the ignorant when they hear it. You know, you're
riding along in a car, and all of a sudden that thunder cracks,
and you ain't expecting it, and man, you about to jump out of
your seat. And here's another thing about
this voice. He said, I heard the voice of
harpers harping with their harps. There's religions that don't
believe in musical instruments and the worship of God. But here's
the great congregation. This is all of them. And there's
no fault in them. We're going to see that here
in a minute. There's no fault in them. There's no guile in
them. There's no pretense in them. There's no ignorance in
them. And they're all harping on their
hearts. Every last one of them. I think it'd be safe to say that
what God commends in heaven could be encouraged on earth, don't
you? In Psalm 150, David said, praise
Him. He's talking about the worship
of God. He said, praise Him. Praise him with the trumpet,
with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him. Praise him with the
psaltery and the harp. Praise him with the timbrel and
dance. Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the high-sounding
cymbals. And let everything that hath
breath praise you, the Lord. But let me tell you something,
their harps were not being played simply to entertain, but in unison
with their voice. There's an and in here. They
were harping on their harps, and they sung as it were a new
song. A new song before the throne
and before the four beasts and the elders, and no man could
learn that song but the 140 and 4,000. which were redeemed from the
earth. What were they singing? They were playing on their hearts
and their hearts was in unison with their message. We don't play stringed instruments
simply to entertain a group of people or to work them up in
some kind of a frenzy. When we have music, that music
accompanies the song that we sing. And the songs that we sing
are glorifying to God. And they sung a song that the
angels couldn't sing. They'd never learned it. That
the world couldn't sing because they never learned it. But these were redeemed unto
God. And that's how they learned the
song. And they knew the words. They didn't have to have a book,
Luke. They could sing the song. They knew the words. And they sung this song before
the four beasts and the elders, and no man could learn that song
but this 144,000. Well, what were they singing? Revelation 5 verse 9. They sung
a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and
to open the seals thereof, For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and
priests, and caused us to reign on the earth. I said that so you'd know where
they learned the song. God's elect learned that song
of redemption as they experienced the saving Grace of God, that's
how they learn the song They learn it in their calling and
they learn it in their conversion and they learn it in their regeneration
and they learn it in their preservation In this life they learn that
song And I'm gonna tell you something
if you don't learn it here you're not gonna sing it there You're not gonna sing it there
If our hearts don't burn within us here, they're not gonna burn
within us there. Well, who are these people? Who is this 144,000? Is that
Israel? Is that the nation of Israel?
Is that what he's talking about? Who are these 144,000? These
are they that were redeemed from the earth. Well, is Israel the only ones
redeemed from there? No. No. To the Jew first and also to
the Gentile. He's talking about all is redeemed. All is redeemed. These are they,
verse four, that were redeemed from among men. They weren't
redeemed with men. That's what religion says. Christ
died for everybody. If he did, they're redeemed.
But it doesn't say here that they were redeemed with men. It said they were redeemed from
among men. They weren't redeemed with men,
as the universalists suggest, but from among men and from the
earth. You know, redemption is never
taught in the scriptures as being universal. You don't find that
in the scriptures. In Hebrews 9 verse 12 it says,
neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place. Now listen, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. It's not a thing unsettled, it's
a thing already accomplished. Religion puts the sacrifice of
Christ as a down payment and leaves it up to men to pay the
balance. It's not effectual unless you
exercise your will. Let me tell you something, the
sacrifice of Christ is effectual if you spend eternity in hell.
You can exercise your will all you want to. Your will is a will
not. Only his people, my people, he
said, shall be willing in the day of my power. That's how the
will enters into this thing. The same as the mind, the same
as the heart. It's never taught in the scriptures
as being universal. Redemption is a work accomplished.
We sing that old song, oh happy day. In the third verse it says,
"'Tis done." The great transaction is done. I am my Lord's and he's
mine. Oh, happy day. There's no possibility that any
man chosen of God in Christ and redeemed by his precious blood
should suffer after all or perish in his sin. The whole 144,000
that is sealed back yonder in Revelation 7, they're all standing
with him now on the mount in glory before the Lamb. Why? Well, first of all, because
it's God that justified him. He's not a guilty man. He's an
innocent man. God justified him. Who is he that condemneth? It's
God who justifies. If God justifies you, there's
nowhere beyond him to go. If he justifies you, you're justified. Now preachers, you go down to
the funeral home and these hirelings down there, they'll take a few
things that different men who knew this one who died, he's
got some good traits, he did this, he did that, whatever,
they'll take those three or four things and they'll preach that
man right into glory. I can't find any hope in that.
I find hope in that it's God who justifies. Now if God be
for us, that's how Paul started that teaching. If God be for
us, who's going to be against us? And if God justifies, if
he foreknew me, and he called me, and he justified me, and
he glorified me, who's going to condemn me? Listen to this. Who's going to lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God who justifies. And secondly,
it's Christ that died. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Who's going to stand before God
and say the blood of Christ was not sufficient? Who's going to
stand before the throne and look at the eternal God and say, your
son wasted his time? You failed in your will. Huh? Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Well, maybe he didn't pay the
whole price. Yea, rather that it's risen again.
Why was he risen? For your justification. He was
delivered for your offenses, raised again for your justification.
It's Christ that died. Yea, rather that it's risen again.
Now listen, who's even at the right hand of God? Him and God.
in the same throne, in the same place. And then thirdly, because they're
loved with an unchangeable, effectual, and eternal love. If God commended
His love to us while we were yet sinners, and spared not His
own Son to do so, what's going to separate us from that love
now? Listen to this argument. If when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son, how much more being
reconciled shall we be saved by his life? He's risen, he's
seated at the right hand of God. Whoever liveth to make intercession
for us. Now if he reconciled us to God
and we were saved in that respect, how much more now? Him ascended
back into glory, fully accepted, glorified, seated at the right
hand of God. God will not and cannot deny
His Son that which He redeemed by His own blood. Well, what
else do we know about this multitude? It says, these are they which
were not defiled with women, or their virgins. I'm not going to get caught up
in all the arguments of religion about this verse and all the
immorality of fornication. Let me tell you what this verse
is talking about. What this verse is talking about
is they're standing before God in Christ. Completely, totally undefiled. Oh, but you say you don't know
me. You don't know what I've done
in my life. I got a good idea. I had a life too. And I'm a sinner
just like you. I got a pretty good idea. And
those things which I haven't experienced, I've read in the
Word of God. I got a pretty good idea. But you're undefiled before
God. Because before Adam fell and
before you were born, God put you in Christ. Let me read you something here.
Let me just take a minute. I'm getting off track here, and
I'll have to cut this short, but I want to read you something. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
I was thinking it was in Romans chapter 8. Nope. The verse is gone, so I'll
just have to go on. But he put us in Christ. And our standing is in him. And
it was in him before the foundation of the world. You're gonna keep,
boys, read your Bible, you're gonna keep coming across that
phrase. Before the foundation of the world. Before creation,
before you were born, before any of this, before Adam fell,
before any, God put you in Christ. Our life is hid with God in Christ. When did he hide it? Back yonder
before the foundation of the world. So when Adam failed, did
I receive his nature? Absolutely. Did it change God's
mind on my standing? Not one iota. Oh, I know the
scripture. It's in 2 Corinthians chapter
five. 2 Corinthians chapter five. Now this is worth looking at.
I'm gonna interrupt my study to read it to you. And all things, verse 18, and
all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation,
to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world, that is,
Jews and Gentiles, unto himself. Now watch this. Not charging
their trespasses unto them. When did he start doing that? The day you were born. Before you were created. But
from the day you were born, everything that you did was being charged
to Christ. And that's why you have hope
before God. These are the... He didn't say
that they didn't do this and they didn't do that. That's not
what he said. He said, these are they that are virgins. They
never did it. They never did it. They never
committed spiritual fornication. They never did. They're undefiled. They stand before God perfect,
innocent, justified. Why? Because they stand there
in Christ. They stand there in Christ. There's
only one way this is possible, and that is by the righteousness
and shed blood of our Redeemer. The next thing he tells us is
that these follow the Lamb. They follow the Lamb. Where does
the Lamb go? Well, He leads them to faith
and repentance. He leads them to worship and prayer. He leads
them to hear the gospel. He leads them to His Word. And
if you read this as an act of faith, they follow the Lamb. They follow Him back into eternity. That's where faith follows the
Lamb. They look at the Lamb. The Lamb's where the life is.
It's in the Lamb. And they follow Him. What about
this Lamb? They follow Him back into eternity.
And here He is. He's appointed the one mediator
way back yonder. He's appointed the great covenant
head. He's appointed the covenant surety.
He's appointed as our Savior, as our Redeemer. They see Him with all of His
appointments and they follow Him through the Word of God and
His many prophecies, the woman seed and the righteous branch
and the root of Jesse and a priest after the order of Melchizedek
and on and on it goes. They follow the Lamb. And they follow Him as the Son
of God takes to Himself the form of a servant and was made of
a woman and made under the law. And they follow Him in His life
to see that redemption accomplished and that righteousness fulfilled.
They follow Him as He was tempted in all things, yet without sin.
Suffering and dying on the cross, they follow Him as He's laid
in the tomb and the stones rolled up and sealed in. And they follow
Him as God rolls away the stone and he arises from the dead and
ascends into heaven. And they follow him as he's seated
at the right hand of the Father, holding fast the scepter of Judah. That scepter is never going to
depart. Never going to depart from him. And they follow him
as he reigns over all flesh, causing his gospel to be victorious. Causing his people to be victorious. arranging providence, ordering
all things for their good and his glory and they follow him
till the last sheep is carried back to the fold and time draws
to an end and God calls him out of that tomb and gives him incorruption
and carries him into glory. They follow the Lamb, that's
who these people are. They're not interested in anything
else. They don't follow plans. They follow the lamb. Where do
they follow it? Whithersoever he goes. Huh? What's your hope when you die?
I want to follow the lamb. Don't you? And so this heavenly multitude
declares a full harvest of souls. They're the firstfruits, he says.
They're the firstfruits. And in their mouth was found
no gall. That's not a word we use much
today. But it was back in the 1600s,
and it means trickery, deceit, craftiness, intent to cover up
the truth. Good people don't speak like
that. Paul said, we have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor
handling the word of God deceitfully. But by manifestation of the truth,
we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. Believers know the truth. Believers
understand how the truth reflects on the character of God and how
the truth delivered them out of the snare of the devil and
from the net of his deceit. And I'll tell you this, about
that man who has no guile, religion makes him nauseous. It does,
it makes them nauseous. No guile in their mouths. They
stand before the Lamb and they sing the new song. And they sing
it with a pure heart. And they sing it in harmony.
And they sing it forever. Oh, may God enable us to do that
for Christ's sake.