The passage of scripture that
I have chosen for my message today is very special to me. A little over five years ago,
my only daughter died of cancer, and she requested that I preach
her funeral. And I chose this scripture as
the text for that message that I preached a little over five
years ago at her memorial service. And it's found in Revelation
7. I want you to look at it with me this morning. I want to talk
to you about the vision of John. That's the topic. That's the
title of the message, the vision of John. And it's found in Revelation
7. We'll begin reading with verse
9. And John wrote, After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude,
which no man could number. of all nations, and kindred,
and people, and tongues. They stood before the throne,
and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palms in
their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our
God, which sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the
angels round about the throne, And the elders and the four beasts
about the throne fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
Amen. And then the sevenfold blessing,
they said, Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power and
might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. Now the apostle
John is on the Isle of Patmos in exile. He's the last of the
apostles. All the apostles were dead at
this time, we believe. John's in his nineties. And the
Lord God is pleased to give him a revelation. It's called in
your Bible, in the King James translation, the revelation of
John the Baptist, but really it's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. God is pleased to give John a
revelation of Jesus Christ, a revelation of the glories of His eternal
kingdom, and a revelation of the joys of heaven. I believe
this scripture can be better understood. I believe I'll be
able to help you with it if I divide it into three parts under three
headings. First of all, let's talk about
what John saw. What did John see? And then I
want to talk about what John heard. John heard something. And then I want to speak on what
John learned. So first of all, let's talk about
what John saw. He said, 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. John saw a great multitude, a
great multitude, he said, which no man could number. 10,000 times
10,000 and thousands and thousands. Someone said that's a definite
number for an indefinite number. Here on the earth, John saw a
small number of believers. Probably on the Isle of Patmos,
he was the only one. In 1 John 5, 19, this is what
John wrote. And we know that we are of God.
And the whole world lies in wickedness. And then we know there were but
12 disciples. And at the cross, there was no
one to declare His generation. All men forsook Him. He walked
the winepress of God's wrath alone. And then after our Lord
died and was buried and rose again, It says in Acts 115, In
those days Peter stood in the midst of the believers. The numbering
names were about 120. But in heaven there's a great
multitude which no man could number. So many you can't count
them. God showed this to Abraham that
the people in glory would be more than you could number. He
took Abraham out under the stars one night And he said, count
the stars. Can you count the stars? Abraham
said, no. He said, well, that's how many
seed you'll have. Well, he wasn't talking about
the Arabs and the Jews and all these people that descended from
Abraham. He was talking about believers.
He was talking about believers. Because in Galatians 3.29, it
says, if you belong to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed.
If you don't belong to Christ, you're not Abraham's seed. In
Galatians 3.16 says, the promise of God was not to seeds, but
to see which is Christ. So we're children of Abraham
by faith in Christ Jesus. So God showed Abraham. He said,
there's going to be as many people in heaven as there are stars
in the sky. That's right. And in Psalm 24,
our Lord is called the Lord of hosts. A host is not a few. A host is not a handful. A host
is many, many, many. And John, listen to this. He
said, I saw a multitude. I beheld and I saw a multitude
which no man could number of all nations, of all kindreds. How many kindreds? Of all people,
of all tongues. How many? The Bible's been translated
into over a thousand tongues. There's tongues, tribal tongues
and dialects all over this. There's going to be somebody
out of every tongue in heaven. How can this be? How can this
be? Well, the gospel hasn't even
been preached to every tongue or every kindred or every people.
I was in a meeting some time ago, been several years ago,
and a man, a schoolteacher, An older man came to me and told
me a story, and then he asked me a question. Well, here's the
story. He had one daughter, and she
had one son. His little grandson was two years
old, and his little grandson was the apple of his eye. His
little grandson died, and it devastated him. He said, my little
grandson never joined a church, never made a profession, never
confessed Christ, He's my little grandson in heaven." I said,
well, would you take the word of a man whom God called a man
after his own heart? Would you take the word of a
man whom God designated as a writer of scripture? Would you take
the word of a man whom God called the sweet psalmist of all of
Israel? He said, yes. I said, well, David's
that man. And David had a little baby boy
born to him. And that little baby boy died.
And David washed his face. And David says, let's have a
feast. This little boy is with the Lord. And David said, he
can't come back to me, but I fully intend to go to him. So that's
the words of David. David got his comfort straight
from God Almighty. And he passes it on to us through
the Word. The old timers called them elect
infants. elect infants. And I'm telling
you this, think of the millions and millions and millions of
infants. There's not a tribe, a nation, a tongue, or a people
or a kindred that hasn't had babies die. Every one of them
are in glory. That's what I'm saying. And I've
never known one preacher, evangelical preacher, or one writer, and
I've done some studying of all the old writers, not one has
ever said, that those who die in infancy perish. There's a
lady in Virginia, a lady who lived in a log cabin where the
Blue Ridge Parkway now stands. Her name was Arlena Puckett.
Arlena Puckett. She lived in this little log
cabin up there where the Blue Ridge Parkway now is located. And she delivered, she was a
midwife, she delivered babies. And she herself gave birth, listen
to me, to 22 babies, and they all died. Every one of them was
born dead or else died shortly after birth. I'll tell you this,
more babies have died than have ever survived. And John said,
I saw a multitude composed of every nation, tribe, kindred,
tongue, people, under God's heaven. That's right. And then something
else John saw. He said they stood before the
throne. They all stood before the throne, before the Lamb.
You know, Psalm 1 says the ungodly shall not stand in God's judgment. Psalm 24 says this, Who shall
ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Who will stand in His holy presence?
Who can stand in God's holy presence? David in Psalm 130 said, Lord,
If you would mark iniquity, nobody could stand. But John said, I
saw them. I saw a multitude which no man
can number. And they were standing before
the throne of God. They were standing there. They
were standing. But here's the key. Here's the
key word. Before the throne of God and before the Lamb. You
see, God's throne is a throne of judgment and a throne of majesty. and a throne of power. But the
Lamb, through His precious blood, through His death on the cross,
has turned God's throne into a throne of grace. If you have
a Lamb, if you have the blood of the Lamb, you can stand before
God. You can stand before the throne.
Abel, he came to worship God, and he brought a Lamb and slew
that Lamb. And God had respect to Abel and
his Abel and Esau. God received them. Welcome. Abraham
told Isaac, God will provide a lamb. Welcome. Moses and Israel slew a lamb,
put the blood on the door. And God said, welcome. I'll pass
over you. I see the blood. I see the blood.
I see the blood of the lamb. John the Baptist said, there's
the lamb of God that taketh away our sin. These people stood before
the throne. and before the Lamb. Without
a Lamb, you don't stand there. Without a Lamb, you don't come
there. Without a Lamb, you're not accepted, you're not welcome. Because the Lamb of God has died,
God's throne of judgment and holiness and majesty becomes
a throne of grace, a throne of mercy to all who believe. I tell
you this, if God should bring an unrighteous, unholy man unwashed
person before his throne, that person would perish at the sight
of God. No man can look on God and live.
He'd perish at the sight of God. You see, God doesn't have to
put forth an effort to destroy evil. His presence destroys evil. His very presence destroys evil. As light dispels darkness. Turn
on the light. Where does the darkness go? The
light blew it away. And before God's awesome holiness,
you bring your sins in yourself and not on Christ, it'll blow
you away. You won't even be seen. Darkness
disappears in the presence of God, like heat melts ice. The
ungodly shall not stand in his presence, but you can stand there
if you got a lamb. Jesus, the lamb of God, has died,
opening the door of heaven wide. All who believe are justified
freely. from all sin." Listen to me. The Word of God declares plainly,
Leviticus 17, 11, the life of the flesh is in the blood. The
life of this man here is in his blood. Take my blood out, I'm
gone. Infect my blood, I die. If my
blood's permeated with sin, I die. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. And the life of the spiritual man's in the blood of the Lamb.
That's right. You can't live without your blood
and you can't live spiritually without His blood. God said,
the life of the soul is in the blood of Christ. I have given
it to you. I gave you this blood on the
altar. I gave my life a ransom for many. I put the blood on the mercy
seat. I give my blood as a ransom, as an atonement for your souls. Hebrews 9.24 says, Christ is
not entered into the holy place made with hands, not into an
earthly temple or tabernacle, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us, not with the blood of
an animal, but with his own precious blood. And Peter said, for as
much as you know, you're not redeemed with corruptible things
such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ
as a lamb without spot or blemish. What did John say? multitude,
no man could number, of all nations, kindred, people, and tongues,
stood before God, before the Lamb, accepted in the Beloved,
received, dwelling in the presence of God." And he said, what did
he say secondly? They were clothed with white
robes. They were all dressed alike. They were all clothed
alike in the robe of His perfect righteousness. They were clothed
with white robes. White signifies purity, purity,
perfection. They were clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. Everybody had on the right wedding
garment. They were from different nations,
same garment. They were different ages. Some
died young, some died old, but they had the same garment. They
were different years of service. Some of them knew the Lord for
a long time. Some, like the thief on the cross, a very short time.
Same robe. There are no degrees in glory.
We wear the same thing. We wear His robe of righteousness.
We're accepting the Beloved. We're all loved alike. No rewards
for special service. Christ is our reward. It says
in Isaiah 61 10, I will greatly rejoice in my Lord. My soul shall
be joyful in my God, for He, I didn't do it, He did it. He
hath clothed me with a garment of salvation. He hath covered
me with his robe of righteousness. John said, I beheld, I saw a
multitude which no man could number, of all nations, kindred,
people, and tongues. And they stood before the throne
of God, and before the Lamb, and they were clothed with white
robes, and they had palms in their hands." Palms in their
hands. What does this mean, preacher?
Well, these are palms of victory. For years and years and years
and years, way back yonder, palm branches from the palm tree has
been an emblem of victory. The conquerors wore crowns of
palms and they carried palm branches, the victors, the conquerors. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
rode into Jerusalem, what does the scripture say? The people
met Him with palm branches, palm branches. and that threw him
at his feet. And our Lord rode over them.
And they cried, Hosanna to the King, who cometh in the name
of the Lord. The white robes signify holiness,
clothed in His holiness and righteousness. The palms signify victory. The war is over. The battle is
won. Thanks be unto God, who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. O death, where
is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?
All the conquerors bring their palms to the Lamb on the throne,
and proclaim in joyful songs victory through the blood alone. This is what John saw, a multitude
which no man could number, from every tribe, kindred, nation,
tongue unto heaven, standing accepted before the throne of
God, accepted in the beloved, because of the Lamb, clothed
in perfect holiness, unblameable and unreprovable in His sight,
in His righteousness, victorious forever through the blood of
the Lamb." Well, what'd John hear? And he said, this multitude
before the throne cried with a loud voice, a loud voice. Did you notice that John didn't
say they cried with loud voices? He said this multitude cried
with a loud voice. They had one song, one song,
unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood
and made us kings and priests unto our God. To Him be the glory
both now and forever. They had one song. They had one
message. They had one voice. John said
it sounded like one voice in perfect unison, in perfect harmony. They all sang the same song,
salvation to our God. Salvation is of the Lord, which
sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb. That's what John wrote
in Revelation 1, 5. He said, this is a song of heaven
unto Him who loved us, to Him who washed us from our sins in
His own blood, to Him who made us kings and priests unto our
God, to Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen the multitude
cried with one voice Salvation is of the Lord and then he says
all the angels around the throne and all the elders Joined with
them and they all fell before the Lamb every knee bowed and
every tongue confessed Salvation is of the Lord every knee every
tongue the multitude the angels the elders all cried with one
voice and where there's the Lamb. You know, God hath given him
a name which is above every name, that is the name of Jesus Christ.
Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess he's the
Lord. Now, there may be people on earth now who brag of their
own righteousness, but nobody there. Nobody there. They're singing about the Lamb.
There may be people on earth who boast of their religious
works, what they're doing for God, not in heaven. That's not
the song of heaven. There may be people on this earth
who do not believe that salvation is a gift of God, but everybody
there knows it is. There may be people here who
do not rest in the blood, trust in the blood, preach the blood
of Christ, but they're unto Him who loved us and washed us from
our sins in His own blood. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. There may be people on earth
who believe there's a way to heaven other than through the
Lord Jesus Christ and His cross, but not in heaven. Not in heaven. The Lamb who was slain, slain
before the foundation of the world, slain and nailed to Calvary's
cross. There may be people on earth
who believe that His death is not effectual and not sufficient,
but not there. Listen to their song. Salvation
to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb,
who loved us. We love Him because He first
loved us. He loved us. He called us. He sought us. He saved us. Not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was
given to us in Jesus Christ before the world began. He loved us.
And He washed us. He cleansed us. He made us kings
and preached unto God. To Him be the glory. All hail
the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall and
bring forth the royal diadem and crown him, crown him Lord
of all." What did John hear? He heard that multitude in one
voice. He heard them say, salvation
is of the Lord. And then he heard a sevenfold
blessing. I told you that just a moment
ago when I read verse 12. The multitude, the angels, the
elders, all gave the glory to God. All the glory to God. Here's the sevenfold blessing.
They said, blessing? God is the source of all blessings.
They said, glory? All that God does is to the praise
of His glory. If you read Ephesians 1, it talks
about the work of the Father. What He did for us, chose us.
redeemed us, accepted us to the praise of His glory. Talks about
the Son, enlightened us, illuminated us, forgave our sins to the praise
of His glory. Talked about the Spirit to the
praise of His glory. All glory to God. All glory. Wisdom, divine wisdom displayed
in salvation. Christ is the wisdom of God.
Thanksgiving, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. honor. He that honoreth the Son,
God will honor. He that honoreth not the Son,
honoreth not the Father that sent him. This is so powerful. Honor. Honor God. Power. Christ is the power of
God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. And strength. The strength is
in Christ. Rock of ages cleft for me. Let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wound inside which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save
me from wrath, make me pure." That's the seventh old blessing.
If you're going to sing it there, you've got to learn it here.
Now, that's just a fact. If you're going to sing it there,
you're going to learn it here. Blessing to God. Bless God. Glory, all the glory. Wisdom, God's wisdom. Don't match
wisdom wits with God. Don't bring your natural wisdom
to God's Word. Wisdom, Christ is wisdom. Thanksgiving,
honor, power, strength. Well, what did John learn? This
is the last poem. We know what he saw, we know
what he heard, what he learned. And one of the elders said to
me, verse 13, who are these? Who are these, this multitude
of every nation, people, kindred, tongue, arrayed in white robes
with the palms of victory? Who are they? Where'd they come
from?" And I said, sir, you know. And so does everyone up here
know who they are and whence they came. Here's who they are. Here's who they are. They came
out of great tribulation. Now that's not talking about
the tribulation folks talk about. That talks about in this world
you'll have tribulation. Everybody listening to my voice,
if he's a believer, he's had tribulation. They lived on this
earth and all of them had their particular life story and history,
but they have two things in common. They knew trial, they knew sorrow,
they knew pain, they knew tears, and they learned something about
death. All of God's people know something about those things.
They came through great tribulation. Here's the second thing they've
got in common. They washed their robes in the
blood of the Lamb. They all heard the gospel of
Jesus Christ, believed the gospel of Jesus Christ, and washed their
robes in the blood of Jesus Christ. Who are these, this multitude?
These are folks off the earth who came through great tribulation,
but they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. And now,
their future, he said, there before the throne of God, they
dwell there. They serve God daily, the new
heaven, new earth in His temple. The Lord dwells with them. God
said, I'll wipe away all tears from their eyes. There'll be
no more sorrow, no more death, no more crying, no more pain
for all the things that passed away. They'll be my people and
I'll be their God. They'll never hunger and thirst.
The sun, the heat of trial, labor and toil will never light on
them. And God, wipe away all tears from their eyes. Behold,
I create new heavens and a new earth, and the old earth shall
be remembered no more." What a joy, what a blessing. If you
want this tape, The Vision of John, write for it, send two
dollars, we'll mail it to you. Until next week, God bless you.