| Feb. 4, 2001 | Tribulation Panorama | Rev. 14 |
If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn
to Revelation chapter 14. This chapter is a panorama of things
happening during the tribulation. It is only partly chronological,
mostly it is an overview of different ways that God is warning
men to repent and turn away from the antichrist, turn to Him instead.
In the first five verses, we see the Lamb of God and the redeemed
of God, we'll be coming back to that section in a minute. In verses
6 & 7, we see an angel proclaiming the gospel of God to the
whole earth, so that none are without excuse. Everybody will hear
the gospel during the tribulation. Everybody.
In verse 8, we see the destruction of Babylon, the city that symbolizes
the world's rebellion against God.
In verses nine through twelve, we see another angel warning the
whole earth not to take the mark of the beast or to worship the
beast. All those that reject God, along with all those that decide
it is more important to survive at any cost, end up eternally
losing everything. In verse 13, God Himself tells John that it
will get so bad on the earth, that believers are better off to
die in the Lord, than to live on the earth. And He tells them
that their works, their testimony for Jesus will be remembered
and rewarded. In verses 14 through 20 we find the Battle of Armageddon.
At the end of the tribulation, there will be hundreds of millions
of soldiers gathered in the land of Israel, over 200 million from
China alone, and it will be the most horrible slaughter that could
possibly be.
That is not a very profound or deeply spiritual synopsis of the
book, but we only have just so much time here, and I want us to
spend that time in the front of the chapter, and we'll start at
verse one.
"And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and
with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's
name written in their foreheads."
Back in chapter 7, we read about twelve thousand people from each
of the twelve tribes of Israel that were specially sealed and
dedicated to God during this time of trouble. I think that what
we are seeing here is those same twelve thousand at the
end of the tribulation, they have all come through it
unscathed, and they are all gathered around the Lamb of God, Jesus
Christ. Unlike those that took the mark of the beast, these have
the name of God written on their foreheads. They actually have
the name of God written on their face. Did you ever know someone
like that? Were you ever around someone that seemed to look different?
Pure? Clean from the inside out? Good? I have been around a few
people like that, but not nearly enough. You know what I'm talking
about. Even when it's hard to describe, you know it when you see
it. You know it when you come into it's presence. We need to be
seeing that more often. We especially need to be seeing that when
we look in the mirror. The reason we don't see it is because we
don't spend enough time with God.
Verse 2: "And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of
many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard
the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne,
and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn
that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were
redeemed from the earth."
Someone is singing, and someone else is learning the song. Who
is singing? Keep you place here and turn back to chapter 7 and
verse 9: "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people,
and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Rev 7:10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our
God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Rev 7:11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and
about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne
on their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 7:12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and
ever. Amen.
Rev 7:13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What
are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to
me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have
washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
The song from heaven is coming from those that were killed by
the antichrist and the false prophet, killed in the tribulation
for the sake of Jesus. They have a special song that no one else
gets to know except those that went through the tribulation like
they did, and came out on the other side. Perhaps those that are
singing in heaven are those that got saved because of the gospel
that the 144,00 were preaching? Perhaps God has these two groups
sharing the same song because it is a song of those that preached,
and those that listened and responded.
Perhaps those in heaven would have taken the mark of the beast
and been eternally destroyed if one of those 144,000 had not told
them about Jesus. That would give them a very special relationship
to each other. I think it is wonderful that all 144,000 of those
that started into the tribulation make it through and come out
the other side. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego going
through the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, if you don't bend
and you don't bow, then you won't burn unless God allows it.
God is able to preserve His servants. God is in control. If God
has plans for you and you are walking in His will, you are immortal
until God is finished with you. Does that mean that you can live
recklessly? If you are living recklessly, then you are not walking
in His will, are you? These 144,000 are committed to God, they
are sealed by the Lord, and they have made it through the worst
time that the world will ever know. When God seals you, then you
have been sealed. Whatever God starts, He finishes.
Something else about God's plans for His people, they are different
for different people. God sealed 144,000 Israelites to be evangelists
and come through the tribulation without any losses. Others He
saved and then allowed to be martyred. But they both share a song
that no one else knows. Not the angels, not the 24 elders in heaven,
only these two groups.
God does not make cookie cutter Christians. This church is different
from other churches. We believe the same gospel, we share our
church doctrines with a lot of other Christians, but we are not
all stamped out of the same mold, and that's good. God has a ministry
for each one of us here, and if yours is different from the person
sitting next to you, that's fine, and perfectly normal. Each one
of us in here is better at something than anyone else is. There
is something that you can do for God that is better than anyone
else can do. God has picked you out to do something for Him that
no one else can do as well. Don't be looking around to see whose
ministry and gifts you can imitate or copy, spend time with the
Lord, look around you, and see what it is that He wants you to
be doing.
If you are in a church that's deader than 4 o'clock, and wants
to stay that way, leave. If not, if it's a good church, God probably
has something for you to do right where you are. Until you learn
to bloom where you're planted, there's no reason to think things
will be better anywhere else. Don't ever assume that God doesn't
have anything for you to do here, that's wrong, because He does.
There is always something to do, at home, at work, in the neighborhood,
even in a small church such as this. Since I retired from the
FAA to pastor here full time, it turned out that it really is
full time. It usually takes me at least 30 hours a week to get
all the things done that this little congregation needs, and then
Barbara also puts in about 20 hours a week. Plus whatever Steve
and some other folks put in, it takes a lot of time and work even
for a small church. I don't mind it at all, but there is more
that could be done, if there were more folks eager to do things.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. God
put you here for a reason, He put all of us here for a reason,
we need to get busy.
Turn back to Revelation 14, verse 4: "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."
What does this verse mean? Are these all guys that have stayed
virgin bachelors all their lives? Is that what it says?
This is a good time to talk about a principle of Bible interpretation.
We always look for a literal application first. If the practical
or literal application or interpretation seems inappropriate,
then we look for a spiritual application. Once we
take this verse and start to think in terms of a spiritual rather
than a literal interpretation, it sorts itself out pretty quickly.
Let's start out with the part about not being defiled with women.
Are there any women mentioned in this chapter, especially bad
women? If there are, that will give us a hint about the context
of what the verse means. Yes there is, verse 8: "And there
followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
that great city, because she made all nations drink
of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
OK, we see the city of Babylon pictured here as
a harlot. If we wanted to take the time, we could go over to chapter
17, and see the Babylonian Mystery Religion pictured as a harlot
woman sitting on a scarlet beast, but we'll save that for next
month. The point is, there is a woman in this chapter, and she
does what? The woman referred to in this context in this chapter
is a worldly religion and lifestyle that seduces people away from
God.
So we would probably be safe to start off by assuming that not
being defiled with women in this context means not being defiled
with this harlot world religious/political system. We know that
there are a lot of places in the Bible where God uses the analogy
of marriage and sexual faithfulness or unfaithfulness to illustrate
this sort of thing, so all this is reasonable so far.
Note that it also says that they are virgins. Keeping the same
context, that means that these people never got
involved with the false religion of the world during this time,
they were true to the God of the Bible from start to finish, they
didn't fool around with it at all, period. In terms of religion,
they were virgins, totally faithful to God.
It appears to me that these 144,000 are not sexually virgin men,
but they are men and women, young and old, married and single,
that have been consistently faithful to God without going off
following after other religions.
Let's apply this Babylon deal to ourselves: even if you don't
go off following after other religions, how faithful will you
be to God if you get all involved in following after the world
and it's way of doing things? Maybe you never even picked up a
book on some other religion, you never cared anything at all about
any faith except Christianity, but you are up to your armpits
in the things of the world, then what?
Are you always thinking of some reason to buy this, buy that,
watching the Soaps, "what are all the Beautiful People are
doing this week," watching Oprah and Rosie, getting your
value systems from John Boy and Billie? You wouldn't even consider
any other Christ but Jesus, meanwhile you have one
foot in church and the other foot in the world, and the
world is not a neutral player in this game.
The world is not going to let you out as clean as you came in.
The word sanctified means "set apart,"
and that's the way you need to be if you're going to stay fit
for the Master's use. It says that these 144,000 follow the Lamb
where ever He goes, are there some places that you are going that
Jesus hasn't been to yet, and won't be at anytime soon? Then why
are you going there? If God has laid some soul, some lost person
on your heart, and you need to go through the gates of hell to
drag them out, or you feel called to go into some gin mill, some
hootchy kootchie club and rescue some poor backslidden believer,
then praise God, call one of us up and we'll go with you. I wouldn't
be ashamed to go into anyplace that God led me, if it was to save
some soul, or bring some other faltering believer out, but
I sure don't need to be out trolling for just what ever might
happen to come along. Most likely the only thing you ever
catch that way is something you don't want and better not take
home. Follow the Lamb. Where does the Lamb go? Lambs don't play
in the mud, they prefer to stay clean, this Lamb especially. And
we need to stay clean and set apart for the Master's use.
Verse 4 also says that these were the first fruits to God and
to the Lamb, the first fruits redeemed among men. The first fruits
are what comes out at the very beginning of the harvest, the freshest
and best, and the promise of a whole lot more to come later. Every
one of us here can consider ourselves as first fruits, God has
given us to Himself as a promise of more to come, and we can go
in confidence that if we are faithful to proclaim Him, and proclaim
the truth of what He has done for us, others will come too, a
great harvest.
And finally, verse 5: "And in their mouth was found no guile:
for they are without fault before the throne of God."
These two traits go together, both for them, and for us. If we
are saved, if we are before God's throne, (and we are, if we're
saved) then we are without fault, and we ought to be without guile.
If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, then God already
sees you as before His throne. If you have trusted Jesus Christ
for salvation, then you are as saved right now as you will ever
be, you are as secure right now as Jesus is, you are as good as
in heaven right now, because God sees His Son on the throne, and
He sees you in His Son. That's as saved and secure as you can
get. How can you ask for more security than that? There is none.
That is as secure as it's possible to be. For you to be cast away
from God, Jesus would have to leave the throne, and leave part
of Himself somewhere else, and that's not going to happen.
If you are in Jesus Christ before the throne, then you are also
without fault. You wonder how that can be? You know that you aren't
perfect. And if you don't know it, your spouse knows it, or the
person sitting next to you today knows it, you can ask them, and
if they are without guile, they'll tell you that you aren't perfect.
But Jesus Christ is perfect, and if you are in him through faith,
then you are as perfect before God as he is, and that's perfectly
perfect. That's without fault. When Jesus stood before Pilate,
Pilate said; "I find no fault in Him." God the Father
doesn't find any fault in Him either, and if you are in Him, God
the Father won't find any fault in you.
They are without guile. It means that they have no craftiness,
no deceit, no sneakiness. There are no unpleasant surprises. What
you see is what you get. How many of us manage to live that way?
Are our lives an open book, do we have nothing to hide? Do we
go no places that we shouldn't go, say nothing we shouldn't say,
act in ways that we aren't ashamed of? What would you think if
somebody beat on your door, and when you say: "Who is it?"
they answer: "This is Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes, and I
want to ask you a few questions." How many of us here today
could shrug our shoulders, open the door and let him in without
a second thought?
Lives without guile. Lives without any deception, or deceit. When
the whole world is controlled by the antichrist and his lies,
the 144,000 are without guile, they are honest and truthful. Are
we? If they can be honest and truthful in the worst of times,
can we be honest and truthful in our world?
I wanted us to think about these 144,000, because they are role
models for what the rest of us need to be right now. We need to
be gathered around the Lamb, we need to keep Jesus in the midst
of our lives all the time. We need to have the Father's name on
our foreheads, living so close to Him that people will
know that we have been with Jesus. We need to hear a song coming
from those that we have shared the gospel with, the song of the
saved, rejoicing with us in the salvation we share. We need to
be faithful to God, and not go off fooling around with worldly
behaviors or religious practices. Quit following the harlot.
We need to be sweet and fresh in our walk with God. First fruits,
fresh and juicy, not old and dried out, but alive and good, and
holding a promise of better things still to come. We need to remember
that our salvation is an accomplished reality, that Jesus paid
it all, there is nothing we can add to our salvation, or take
away from it, it is a finished work in Jesus. And finally, we
need to live a separated and sanctified life, a life set apart
for Jesus, a life without guile or deceit, a life that is pure
and good.
In just a few minutes we will be sharing the Communion of our
Lord, and this is a good time for all of us to stop and reflect
for a moment. Is there anything in our lives that we need to get
sorted out before we share Communion together? Lets pause here
for a moment and just reflect on that.
What kind of lives do we want to live before our Lord? Lives that
are pure and good? Lives without deceit or guile? Lives that are
set apart, sanctified for Jesus? Is that what we want? Can we
ask God to have His will in our lives today? To change us into
the sort of Christians He wants us to be? If it is our will and
our desire that He will do this, then we need to ask Him to make
it so. God loves to honor prayers that put Him first, our problem
is that we don't ask them often enough. Would you join me in prayer
right now, and if you need to come up here to this altar and give
it to God, then why not do it right now?