Take your Bibles this morning
and turn with me to Revelation chapter 14. Last week I tried to cover all
the verses in Revelation 13 and talking about the dragon's
beast. This week I just want to focus
on one verse. Revelation chapter 14 verse 1.
Now last week I began the lesson by reminding you that the only
way that you could see the dragon's beast, that which was the subject
of the chapter, is by divine revelation. And this revelation
is threefold. It's not what men make it out
to be. They make it out to be this mysterious
vision that you get in your closet or something like that. That's
not what divine revelation is. Divine revelation is threefold. First of all, it's the testimony
of God's Word. His Word is the revelation of
God. This is his book. He tells you
who he is. He tells you what he's doing.
He tells us what his will is. He tells us who we are and our
relationship to him. Divine revelation begins with
the word of God and then secondly by the teaching and preaching
of his messengers. John the Baptist was a messenger
of God. God sent him and he was God's
messenger. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. And so it was with all the apostles
and all the writers of scripture. And then thirdly, divine revelation
is by the work of the Holy Spirit who confirms both God's word
and his messenger. And even so, it's the same with
our subject today, the standing lamb. Revelation 14, verse 1. And I looked, and lo, a lamb
stood on the mount Sinai, and with him a hundred and forty
and four thousand, having his father's name written in their
foreheads. Now this 144,000 that John now
sees in heaven before the standing lamb are the same as those back in
Revelation chapter 7 that he saw on earth and who were sealed by the angel
of the covenant Jesus Christ and who represent the whole house
of God now. How do I know that? Because back
in chapter 7 he said there was 12,000 from all 12 tribes of Israel
That's where the hundred and forty four thousand. That's where
that number comes from 12 times 12 and But also, as John saw
that 144,000, he saw a numberless multitude that were called out
of every nation and tribe and kindred and tongue and people
under heaven. So that what he's saying here
is that what he's seeing is all God's elect. He's seeing the
whole house of spiritual Israel. The whole house. In chapter seven, the revelation
of God shows us this numberless multitude in the earth and undergoing
great tribulation. In chapter 14, the revelation
of God shows us the same multitude with Christ in heaven, partaking
of his victory over the dragon and over the dragon's beasts.
In Isaiah 53, 11, it said, he shall see of the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. Now I've often interpreted this
verse as the father looking upon the suffering soul of his son
and being satisfied. That is, his justice satisfied,
his righteousness satisfied, his vengeance and wrath satisfied. And certainly that verse does
teach that. But there's another way to view this verse. And that
is to see the Lamb of God, whose soul was made an offering for
sin, looking upon His own travail, looking upon His own finished
work, looking upon His own suffering, with the knowledge that by this
satisfaction which He accomplished, He is guaranteed to have what
He purchased. Guaranteed to have. what he's
purchased. He himself shall be satisfied. Having accomplished the redemptive
will of God, both sanctifying and perfecting his elect forever,
he sat down at the right hand of God. That's Hebrews chapter
10, 10 through 14. He sat down at the right hand
of God. Now watch this. From henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. He expected
it. And he's gonna be satisfied.
He's gonna see every one of them. Shall he do the will of God and
then lose his reward? Now that's what men say when
they say Christ died for you, but if you don't believe, you're
gonna perish and go to hell. They're saying that Christ did
the will of God, but he couldn't have what he purchased. You won't
find that in the Word of God anywhere. I'm just telling you
what religion says. Shall he righteously and justly
take away the sins of his people? The scripture says he did. Put
away our sins by the sacrifice of insects? Bore our sins in
his own body on the tree? Shall he righteously and justly
take away the sins of his people and yet after all some perish
in their sins? Can he pay the debt in full and
then his elect be charged for the same sins which he put away? Our spiritual vision, we talk
about this revelation of Christ, our spiritual vision is bifocal. We see things in the moment because
we live in the now. We see things in the moment,
and we see them upon the earth in the present, but we also see
things as they are in reality eternal in the heavens. Moses
said to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 27, the
eternal God is thy refuge. The eternal God. Our life is
hidden with Christ in God, whose offices are eternal. His election
is eternal. The redemption he purchased,
according to Hebrews chapter 9, was eternal redemption. The
land that was slain at Calvary is the same land that was slain
before the foundation of the world. The eternal God is our
refuge. That which we see is temporal,
Paul said. But that which is not seen, that
which is seen by faith alone, is eternal in the heavens. The
eternal God is our refuge. That which we see by faith in
heaven shall never falter, never fail, never change, never disappear,
never be overturned. He said, I am the Lord. I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consented. Well, what does he see? He sees the Lamb of God standing
on the mount where God put him as king. Now you can read about
that over in the beginning of the book of Psalms. He said,
I've set my king in my holy mount. Mount Sinai. I put him there.
And all the kings of the earth and all the religious men of
the earth, they don't like it. They don't like this sovereign
savior. They want to dethrone him. They
want to get him off the throne. They want to put this poor little
Jesus boy, they want to put him on the throne, not the sovereign
crown. God said, I laugh. I laugh at you. Now the lamb was in the scriptures
taking several postures in the scriptures. He was curled up
in the womb of the virgin. He walked among men. He was laid
in a manger. He slept in the ship. He hung
on the cross. He ascended on a cloud and he
sat down at the right hand of God. But here John sees the lamb
standing. What's that mean? That means
he's victorious. That's what that means. I watched
a movie one time. I think it had De Niro in it,
or one of those actors. And he said, I'll tell you how
you know who wins the prize fight. It's the last one standing. That's
how you know who won. He's standing. He's standing. And then notice this, Revelation
14, one again, the second half of the verse. And with him, and
140 and 4,000 having his father's name written in their foreheads.
I believe it's a mistake to view God's people in heaven as in
the end of time alone, simply because we're always with him. We're always with him. Will we
be with him in the end? Yes. But I don't want to view
that alone way out yonder in the future somewhere. I want
to know right now, am I with him? If I understand what the scripture
teaches about our union with Christ, we're with him even as
I speak. We're with him. One with him. Always been one with him. Do
you know that Christ spoke of his rejoicing with the sons of
men before there was any men to rejoice with? Read the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 8 declares that
he did. Before ever the foundation of
the world was laid, before ever the mountains was raised, before
ever he gathered the sea into its place. Ephesians 2.6 said, he raised
us up together with him and made us sit together with him in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus before we ever heard the gospel. Quickened
us together with Christ. How long has it been since he
was crucified, Russell? 2,000 years. And yet the scriptures
speak in the present, seated with him in the heaven. And Paul
often spoke of our salvation in the eternal sense, and Peter
too. Paul said to Timothy, God has
saved us. Now wait a minute, I ain't probably
saved yet. No, but God has saved us. And called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works. but according to His own
purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. There's no possibility that any
person chosen of God should not be with the Lamb in glory. Salvation
is not our works, it's His. Salvation's not the fulfilling
of my will, it's the fulfilling of His will. Christ didn't say,
I come to do the will of the people. He said, I come not to
do my will, but the will of him that sent me. And to say that a man can be
chosen of God to salvation and then lost is to say that God
failed to save him, failed to do his will, and was overcome
by someone or something more powerful and more wise than he
is. The question is this, who is your Savior? Huh? Who is your Savior? Are you your
Savior? Is man's free will his Savior?
Who's your Savior? Who do you look to for salvation? Who do you trust in for salvation?
In whose hands do you rest your soul? Who's your Savior? Is God your Savior? Do you know
that that's what they call Christ? God our Savior. That's right. He's the eternal God made flesh. The perishing are those who are
righteously judged and condemned to death and hell. Every one
of them. Every one of them. The saved
are those for whom God himself has intervened. In John chapter 10, verse 28,
the Lord said, I give unto them, my sheep, eternal life, and they
shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man gonna pluck you out of his hand.
This is God our Savior. So the saint can be viewed in
his mortal and weak state under cruel persecution and overwhelming
odds, and at the same time, in glory, standing before the Lamb
complete. Our vision is bifocal. God says this. He said, you remember
the former things. Well, you remember these things.
Don't forget them. That is my promises and my covenants
and my name. For I am God and there is none
else. I am God and there's none like
me declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times
the things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand
and I'll do all my pleasure. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying this. It's not presumption to see your salvation complete
and effectual in God your Savior. That's not presumption. That's
faith. That's faith. Faith rests in
an effectual Savior, God our Savior. Let me tell you this. It is an impossibility to see
the Savior standing on Mount Sinai and not see the 144,000
with him because he chose them in Christ before the foundation
of the world. He predestinated them unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself according
to the good pleasure of his will and he made them effectual in
Christ And he called them in Christ, and he gave them faith
in Christ, and he preserved that faith unto death. And it's an impossibility we're
one with him. Now, if your salvation depends
on your works, you don't have anything to hope in. You might
lose it any minute. You might turn it loose. Something
may happen. Somebody might come along and
take it away from you. But if your salvation's in him,
It can't be lost. It can't be lost. Now here's something else I want
you to see. When John is led by the Spirit and enabled to
view heaven, he shows him Christ the Lamb. The Lamb. Now Christ is a high priest,
but it didn't show him the high priest. Christ is the king, he's
a monarch. Omnipotent. He's God Almighty,
but it didn't show him that, it showed him the lamb. Christ is king. It didn't show
him the king, it showed him the lamb. The lamb. Somebody said the word
lamb appears 26 times in the book of Revelation. 26 times. Why is the figure of the Lamb
so prominent in the revelation of Jesus Christ? You know that John the Baptist,
this is the forerunner of Christ. We're going to talk about him
here after a while. But John the Baptist, he was
baptizing out there in the wilderness and he was doing this and that
and all of a sudden, Jesus of Nazareth come walking down the
path. And he stopped everything he was doing. And he saw that
heavenly dove ascend on him and he said, behold, the what? The
Lamb. The Lamb. The Lamb of God. Why is the figure of the Lamb
so prominent in the revelation of Jesus Christ? Let me give
you four reasons. First of all, because no one
can approach God without a lamb. I remember these Jews one time
called Brother Mahan and especially this one woman and she said,
I just, I'm a Jew and I don't believe what you're saying. And
he said, you're a Jew? And she said, yes. And he said,
well, I want to ask you something. Do you all slit the throat of
a lamb and take it down there and put it on that burnt altar
and collect its blood and take it in and pour it on the mercy
seat. She said, no. He said, then you're not a Jew.
You're not a Jew. Because the Jews knew there was
no approaching God apart from the lamb. I'd have a lamp. If you were down there in Egypt,
and God himself is going to come through and he's going to destroy
all the firstborn in Egypt, and he said, except I see the blood
on the doorpost and on the two sides, on the lintel and on the
two doorposts. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. What blood? Where'd that blood
come from? A lamb. There is no approaching God apart
from a lamb. There's a very instructive story
back in Genesis chapter 22 where God commanded Abraham to offer
his long-awaited and only begotten son on the altar before God. Offer him up as a burnt offering.
Isaac was about 15 or 16 years old, and they arrived finally
in where God told him to go, into the land of Moriah. And
Abraham took the wood off of the ash, and he laid it on his
15-year-old son, put it on his back, a little bundle of wood.
And Abraham took the knife and the fire, and he carried that,
and they started up that mountain. And the boy said, Father, I see the wood, and I see the
knife, and I see the fire. Where's the lamb? Where's the lamb? That 15-year-old
boy knew that you couldn't worship God without a lamb. And he said,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. No one can approach God without
a lamb. Secondly, why is it so prominent
in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ? Because we cannot
serve, praise, or honor our God in true worship except by the
lamb. By the lamb. Peter said, ye also as lively
stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, the lamb is
the most prominent figure of Christ in heaven because it was
as a lamb that he died to accomplish the redemptive will of his father.
Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without
spot or blemish, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you.
And then fourthly, the lamb is the most prominent figure of
Christ in heaven because as a lamb on the throne, he can encourage
sinners to come to him. Come to him, he's a lamb. He's
a lamb. I tell you, I think about, and
I can't begin to say his name, but the old king and Esther had
to go in, in that throne room, and she dreaded going in there.
Because you didn't go in that throne room uninvited. And if you just walk in, if the
king decided to be gracious and accept your presence, he'd reach
out that scepter and point it to you. Oh, thank God we don't, our Lord
is sovereign. And our Lord does sit on the
throne. But I'm gonna tell you something, he's a lamb. He's
a lamb. I'd rather deal with a lamb.
God said no man can look on me and live. We have no idea about God and
his unapproachable character. But God in Christ as a lamb is
inviting. He's inviting. He appears as a lion to his enemies,
the lion of the tribe of Junior. of Jonah, of Judah, I'll get it out in
a minute. But he appears as a lamb to his
people. Christ is the lamb. And then finally in verse one
of Revelation chapter 14, it says the 144,000 all had his
father's name written in their forehead. Paul said this in Romans chapter
10, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. What if he's a black man? Whosoever
shall call. What if he's a yellow man? Whosoever
shall call. What if he ain't a Baptist? Whosoever
shall call. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, he shall be saved. But how are you going to call
on him of whom you have not heard? Huh? You don't know him. You didn't just sit in your seat
and suddenly this big bubble come into your head and told
you who he was. And now you're going to hear that preacher.
Somebody's going to have to tell you who he is. You have to hear it, you have
to understand it, you have to call upon it, or you won't be
saved. None other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. And this man, Jesus
Christ, this lamb standing there before him on Mount Sinai, bears
the name of God. How are you going to learn God's
name in Christ? By Him, God is able to be just
and justify. God's name is His character.
That's who He is. And God's just. God don't take
an eraser and just simply erase your sins or excuse your sins
as though they never took place. God's character demands payment
for the sin. And a payment that we can't do.
We can't possibly satisfy God. But Christ can. Indeed. By Him, God's able to be just
and justifier. Read about it, Romans chapter
3, verse 24. By Him, God's righteousness is
shown in the remission of sins. By Him, God's love is manifested
for His people while they were yet enemies. By Him, God's long-suffering
is manifested in the preservation of chosen sinners to faith and
repentance. And by Him is made known the
mercy and grace of God. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. They all had his father's name
written in their forehead. That is, they had faith and understanding
about who God is. That's eternal life, to know
God. And then let me close with this.
Those who stood before the Lamb on Mount Sinai, on Mount Sinai,
with the father's name written on their foreheads, when did he write it on their
foreheads? Back yonder in chapter 7. They were yet in great tribulation. Men don't understand this. Religion
don't understand this. This whole world is condemned
of God. It's set aside on death row.
It's awaiting the final judgment. But God has a redemptive will. God has a purpose. He's going
to save some folks for his glory. And to do that, he chose them
and intervened for them back in eternity. He chose them and
his son, and then he appointed his son with certain offices
to save them, to do for them what they can't do for themselves.
And they received this name in the midst of the dragon and his
beasts upon the earth. And I'm gonna tell you something,
if you don't bear the seal here, you won't bear it there. If that
name's not written in your heart and in your mind here, it's not
gonna be written there. Our Lord said, whosoever therefore
shall confess Me before Me and him will I confess also before
My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before
Me and him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven. How do we confess Him? We have
the name written on our forehead. We have the name written on our
heart. How do we confess Him? We just go running up and down
the street No, you confess Him in baptism. Well, that's odd. No, that's the purpose of God.
That's the commandment of God. That's the way He said to do
it. Well, can't I do it some other way? No. You're going to
do it His way. You're going to do it His way. You know, that's like old Nahum
when he went down there yonder to the prophet, that little Jewish
maiden, told him there was a man over there that could take care
of his leprosy. There wasn't anybody else in the world that
could do anything about it. So he said, all right. So he
packed up his entourage and here he comes. And he comes down there
to the prophet. The prophet's inside of his tent.
They send a servant up and he announces that Naaman's here,
King Naaman, General Naaman, or whatever his title was, and
he said, he's sitting out here, he's got everything out here,
all these people and everything, and he needs for Elijah to come
out and talk to him. Elijah sent his servant out.
Oh, Naaman was just, he had a meltdown. He had a servant come out and
said, I'll tell you what you need to do. Go down there to
the River Jordan and dip in that old muddy Jordan. Well, he said, I thought the
prophet would come out. I thought the prophet would come
out. And I thought he would say, I thought there'd be a ceremony.
I thought he'd say some words over me. I thought he'd come out with
a big gown on and dressed up and look like the reverend that
everybody called him and say some words over me. And then
the leprosy would be removed. And the servant said, well, it
ain't like you thought. It's like it is. And after all,
you are a leper. Maybe you ought to go down to
Jordan. And so he did, and God cleansed him of his leprosy.
Same thing today with baptism. Why? I think it ain't like you
thought. It's like he said.