Open your Bibles, please, to the last book of the Bible, Revelation.
And if you don't have a Bible, raise your hand.
We'd love to bring you a copy that you can use, you could have, and take home with you.
We're in Revelation chapter 14, verses 1 to 5.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.
Heavenly Father, we gather in your name once again this week.
And we humble ourselves and incline our ears to you again, to your Word.
Because you are our Lord, our King.
And we want to be where you are.
We want to go where you go.
We want to imitate your character.
We want to be representatives and witnesses of Jesus.
So, Lord, to that end, now speak to us and by your powerful Word, transform us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
If you are willing and able, please stand for the reading of God's Word from Revelation chapter 14, verses 1 through 5.
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb.
And with him, 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.
And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder.
The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps.
And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.
No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins.
It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb.
And in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.
This is God's holy and authoritative Word.
Please be seated.
When I was a student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary,
I think some of you guys were just there this weekend to see some of our church members run a race in that area.
There was an older gentleman there named Mark Horvath who worked in campus security.
And he's now retired, but he was one of the people that I respected the most at seminary
because despite being pretty much unknown and unheralded for decades of his service and work there,
he did so so faithfully and joyfully.
And even though his work wasn't directly related to Christian ministry,
he considered it an honor to serve a seminary campus.
And whenever he got the chance to speak one-on-one with a seminary student,
he would take the opportunity to exhort them, and this is what he would say.
He told me this several times throughout my time in seminary.
Sean, when you become a pastor, please take two Sundays to preach one sermon on heaven and one sermon on hell.
It was a simple but profound counsel.
I think he was sensing a drift in people's understanding of these topics
and noticing the consequent loss of an eternal perspective that should govern our lives.
In his book, The Eclipse of Heaven, theologian A.J. Conyers concurs with Mark.
He says,
These are not prominent considerations in our modern discourse
about the important matters of life,
but they once were.
Keeping heaven and hell in view keeps our perspectives and our priorities aligned.
It motivates us to press on in faith and obedience
and to share urgently the saving news of Jesus Christ with others.
It holds out both the reward of heaven and the punishment of hell,
calling believers to perseverance and unbelievers to repentance.
That's precisely what Revelation 14 does for us as well,
and we're going to talk primarily about heaven today and about hell next week.
Whenever the Bible speaks of heaven,
it focuses on two most important aspects about heaven,
which is namely the presence of God and the people of God who dwell there with him.
Heaven is in essence the place where God dwells with his redeemed people
in the fullness of his glory.
We'll get the definitive biblical treatment of heaven in the later chapters of Revelation,
chapters 21 and 22,
but here we still get a glimpse of what the redeemed people of God in heaven are like.
And they are those who maintain their undivided devotion to Christ
despite the persecution of the beast.
That's the main point of that passage.
We see four specific details about the redeemed,
and they are that they are soldiers,
second, that they are singers,
third, they are virgins,
and fourth, they are first fruits.
And we're going to talk about each of those in turn.
But before we see the army of the redeemed,
we see first the Lamb of God in verse 1.
It says,
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb.
The Lamb of chapter 14 is set in stark contrast with the dragon and the beasts
that we saw in chapter 13.
Sorry, did I say chapter 14 earlier?
Chapter 14 is where we see the Lamb.
Chapter 13 is where we see the dragon and the beasts.
The second beast in Revelation 13, 11 had two horns like a lamb,
but spoke like a dragon.
All the false messiahs and the pretenders out there,
they all try to look like Jesus.
They try to look like the Lamb.
But we know what they are by what they say,
by their words, and we've talked about that.
The dragon in chapter 12, verse 17, stood on the sand of the sea,
but here the Lamb stood on Mount Zion.
The sand of the sea is a symbol of impermanence and instability.
You can write messages on the sand.
I'm sure you guys have done this all you want.
Draw little hearts on the sand and build sand castles on the sand.
And momentarily, they're all gone, washed away by the incoming tide.
In contrast, a mountain is a symbol of permanence and stability.
Whenever I visit Seattle to see my parents,
I notice that much of the landscape and the cityscape has changed.
There are new buildings.
There are new roads where there weren't roads before.
There are new trees planted or trees raised.
There's all kinds of changes,
but there's one thing that's always there that doesn't change,
and that's Mount Rainier in the backdrop of the city.
It's stable, immovable, permanent.
This contrast between the dragon that is standing on the sands of the sea
and the Lord, the Lamb of God that's standing on Mount Zion,
it evokes what Jesus says in Matthew 7, 24 to 27.
Because those who follow the dragon are like the people
who build their house on shifting sand,
which will surely come crashing down.
But those who build on the rock,
those who follow the Lamb are like those who build on the rock,
those who build on a mountain
that will withstand all the floods and the winds.
With the final battle between the Lamb and the dragon and the beasts
soon to be described in Revelation 19, 20,
it's also hard not to notice the strategic advantage of the Lamb's position.
Military manuals for thousands of years have written and taught that in war,
you should take the high ground and force your enemy to attack from the low ground.
Why? Because the high ground gives you an elevated vantage point from which you can see wider and further.
And also because gravity is on your side and it's much more wearying to charge uphill.
And because gravity is on your side, your projectiles also travel much further when you're shooting from uphill.
So this final battle is already decided.
The Lamb is going to win.
And these people who are with Him are going to be part of that victory and triumph and celebration.
Mount Zion is symbolically significant because, as Scripture repeatedly says,
the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem.
And in Psalm 2, there was a prophecy that God says,
where God says, I have set my king on Mount Zion, on my holy hill.
And that's Him speaking of the Messianic king that will come, which is Jesus.
And of Him, God says, you are my son.
Today I have begotten you.
I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
That's being fulfilled in this heavenly vision.
Jesus, the King, the Lamb of God, standing on Mount Zion to bring vengeance upon the enemies of God
and to deliver His people forever.
But it doesn't necessarily mean that Jesus will literally and physically come and stand on Mount Zion
in Jerusalem in the Middle East one day.
Because Mount Zion is also used symbolically throughout Scripture.
Hebrews 12, 22 says, Mount Zion is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Galatians 4, 26 likewise calls it the Jerusalem above, not here on the earth, but above.
So Mount Zion is figuratively describing the spiritual abode of God's people.
That's why, even though the 144,000 are standing on Mount Zion, it says,
their voice, in verse 2, is heard from heaven.
And they are singing before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders,
which we all know from chapter 4, are in the throne room of God in heaven.
So John's vision is depicting a heavenly reality that will soon come to bear upon the earth.
And in heaven, the Lamb is not alone.
He's surrounded by His heavenly army.
It says in verse 1,
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb,
and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads.
John mentions the 144,000 here without any further explanation
because He already gave us a detailed explanation of who they are earlier in chapter 7.
There, the angels sealed the servants of God on their foreheads,
and those who were sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel numbered 144,000,
12,000 from each tribe.
I preached on that chapter, chapter 7, in December,
and I explained to you that the 144,000 do not represent the Jewish Christians only
or only some special class of elite Christians,
but that it represents all of God's redeemed people throughout the ages.
And if you want more detailed explanations of that,
I encourage you to listen to that sermon
because I'm going to go through that briefly here.
The number 144,000 is a symbolic representation of all of God's people
from all nations, Jews and Gentiles.
The number 12 often throughout Scripture represents the people of God.
Why?
Because of the 12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles of the Lamb,
apostles of Jesus Christ who formed the foundation of the church of God.
And the number 1,000 is a figurative number in the same way we use it,
representing a multitude.
And when you multiply 12 by 1,000, you get 12,000,
which is the number of the sealed from each of the tribes of the redeemed,
of the redeemed Israel.
And when you add that up, you get 144,000.
In Revelation 21, we see the new Jerusalem,
which we are told explicitly is the bride, the wife of the Lamb,
which is an allusion to the people of God, the church of Christ.
And this new Jerusalem has 12 gates
with the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel inscribed on them.
And it has 12 foundations,
which have the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb written on them.
And so this is very consistently used symbols here.
When you multiply 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of the Lamb,
and then that's 144, and then you multiply that by 1,000,
you get 144,000, which symbolically represents the fullness of all of God's people.
I mentioned all of these things to you earlier,
but what I didn't mention to you when I preached in chapter 7
is that the 144,000 also represent the redeemed people of God as soldiers,
as the heavenly army.
There are several clues for this.
First, Revelation 7, 5 to 8,
which first described the 144,000,
is intentionally stylized like an Old Testament census.
It gives the tribe, it says,
12,000 from the tribe of Judah,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, and so on.
And in the Old Testament,
the census is always taken
to determine the military might of the nation.
And this is confirmed later by Revelation 19, 14,
where John sees a vision of Jesus riding on a white horse in heaven,
and he notes that the, quote,
the armies of heaven,
arrayed in fine linen,
white horses,
following him on white horses.
So that's confirmation,
that this is the armies of heaven.
And here in chapter 14, verse 4,
we are told that the 144,000 likewise follow the lamb wherever he goes.
It's the same group of people.
Their identity as soldiers, I think,
is partly why they are described in verse 4
as not having defiled themselves with women,
for they are virgins.
This is not because all of the 144,000
are literally male virgins,
but because they represent God's holy army.
Because the Israelite army in the Old Testament
is engaged in holy war,
they were commanded in Deuteronomy 23, 9-11
that the sisters are to keep themselves from becoming unclean.
And specifically,
they had to remain ritually clean while at war
by abstaining from sexual intercourse
because even accidental nocturnal emission of semen
made them ritually unclean,
according to the specific commands there.
This was not because sex is evil in and of itself,
but because it was intended to teach the Israelites
the meaning of consecration,
what it means to be set apart for God,
to be different from the other nations.
To give you an example,
in Leviticus 11,
you see an extensive set of dietary laws
that the Israelites had to observe.
They're forbidden from eating various kinds of animals,
not because those animals are evil or bad in and of themselves,
but because,
as God says in Leviticus 11, 14,
for,
this is the reason,
for I am the Lord your God.
Consecrate yourselves,
therefore,
and be holy,
for I am holy.
That's the reason why they had to observe those laws.
To be holy means to be set apart,
to be uncommon,
because Israelites didn't eat those animals,
they were unlike all the other nations surrounding them.
It set them apart.
It made them different,
and it reminded them.
That was precisely the point.
It reminded them,
we are not like the other nations,
because we belong to God.
God has set us apart,
especially for himself.
Similarly,
for the Israelites,
who are the soldiers that are at war,
there could be no emission of semen
among the Israelites' soldiers.
Enemy soldiers would visit prostitutes.
They would masturbate.
They would rape their female captives,
as soldiers have done for millennia,
all throughout the world,
but not the soldiers of God.
They were not even allowed to sleep
with their own wives.
Why?
Because they were holy,
set apart for God,
not like their enemy soldiers.
In 1 Samuel 21,
we see an example of this principle at work.
When David and his soldiers are fleeing from Saul,
they take refuge with Ahimelech,
the priest,
briefly and ask him for some bread.
But Ahimelech,
the priest,
informs them,
there is no common bread on hand,
but only holy bread.
And because there's only holy bread
that's been consecrated to God,
he tells David and the young men,
if they can help themselves to the bread,
if the young men have kept themselves from women.
And David answers him,
truly women have been kept from us,
as always,
when I go on an expedition.
This is how they always fought in war.
God's soldiers were to keep themselves from women
while at war.
Let's see this law at work in 2 Samuel 11,
when David commits adultery
with Uriah's wife,
Bathsheba.
Right?
David commits adultery with her
and impregnates her
and he's trying to cover his tracks.
He's trying to hide it.
And so he commands Uriah,
who is a valiant man,
fighting in the battles of the Lord,
he recalls his home.
He tells him to come home.
And then he throws Uriah a party,
feasts him,
feeds him full,
and makes him drunk,
gives him all this choice wine,
gets him drunk,
and then he tells him,
hey, go to your house and rest.
He wants Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba
so that he can pass off his kid as Uriah's
and act like nothing happened.
Isn't it amazing how Bible really doesn't hold up
these heroes as real heroes,
but tells us exactly what kind of sordid life they had?
This is what David is trying to do.
But this is what Uriah says to him.
The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths.
Meaning they're out on campaigns.
And my lord Joab, his general,
and the servants of my lord
are camping in the open field.
Meaning they're at war.
Shall I then go to my house
to eat and drink and to lie with my wife?
As you live and as your soul lives,
I will not do this thing.
Amazing.
Because they're in the middle of war,
Uriah refuses to sleep with his own wife
while he is drunk.
Uriah refuses to do
while he is drunk
with his own wife
what David does
while he is totally sober
with someone else's wife.
I mean, that's crazy.
We need more men named Uriah.
Uriah.
Anyway, that's...
I mean, David's redeemed later on,
so I know there's...
David's a good name too.
God has mercy on us.
We're all sinners.
So that's one reason why
the 144,000 ark is described
specifically as not having
defiled themselves with women.
They are soldiers at war
following the commander-in-chief,
the Lamb of God.
Remember also that this chapter
follows on the heels of chapter 13
where the beast,
which represents the worldly kingdoms
and rulers
that oppose Christ and his church,
they put there the beast's name
and the number of his name,
the mark of the beast,
on the foreheads
of all of his followers.
And those who refused
to take his mark
on their foreheads
were embargoed
from buying and selling
and some of them were slain.
The 144,000 are those people
who refused to take
the mark of the beast
because they had
the seal of God
on their foreheads,
the name of the Lamb
and the name of his Father
written on their foreheads.
And ironically,
this army of the redeemed,
they conquered the dragon
not by killing,
but by dying.
As it says in Revelation 12, 11,
they have conquered him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word
of their testimony,
for they love not their lives
even unto death.
The 144,000
are those who follow
in the footsteps
of the Lamb of God,
who, as we saw
in Revelation 5, 5-6,
conquered by being slain.
The Lamb defeated
the dragon
and redeemed his people
by dying on the cross
and pouring out his blood.
And we also,
as his people,
likewise,
are to defeat the dragon
in this life
by dying on the cross
and pouring,
carrying our own cross,
dying to ourselves,
bearing witness to Jesus.
Jesus,
even when we are persecuted
and killed
by the dragon
and the beast.
That's what the soldiers
of the Lamb
are meant to do.
It says in 2 Timothy 2,
3-4,
share in suffering
as a good soldier
of Christ Jesus.
No soldier
gets entangled
in civilian pursuits
since his aim
is to please
the one who enlisted him.
A soldier
ought to be focused
and disciplined
for the sake
of the war at hand
and not entangled
in civilian affairs.
Do your purposes,
people of God,
do your purposes
and priorities in life
reflect the spiritual reality
that the dragon,
the beast,
and the false prophet
are at large
and after us?
Are you sharing
in the sufferings
of Christ
by bearing witness
to him
or are you
shirking your responsibility
as witness
in search of the comforts
and the distractions
of civilian pursuits?
Is your aim in life
to please the one
who enlisted you,
your general,
your king,
Jesus Christ?
or are you living
to please someone else
who wields,
who wields in your life
controlling influence
upon your thoughts
and behaviors?
Is it Jesus
or is it someone else?
Are you,
as verse four says,
soldiers
who follow the lamb
wherever he goes
or are you straying
and following
your own way?
our country
cherishes
one of our greatest
strengths as a nation
that we cherish
the values
of individual freedom.
But even here
in the military,
submission,
following orders
immediately
and completely
is considered
of utmost importance.
why?
Because
the chain of command
is not respected
in the military,
it's impossible
to maintain order,
discipline,
and unity
in the army.
Because soldiers
often work
in high stakes
environment
where following orders
can be a matter
of life and death,
not only for themselves
but for many others.
A habit
of questioning orders
and delaying
obeisance
can prove deadly
and imperil
the entire mission.
are we
ready to follow
our king,
our general Jesus
wherever he goes?
Come what may be.
Come fire or water.
Go wherever
he goes.
the redeemed
are soldiers.
They're also singers.
It says
in verses 2-3,
and I heard
a voice from heaven
like the roar
of many waters
and like the sound
of loud thunder.
The voice I heard
was like the sound
of harpists
playing on their harps
and they were singing
a new song
before the throne
and before the four
living creatures
and before the elders.
No one could learn
that song
except the 144,000
who had been redeemed
from the earth.
The voice of the saints
here is compared
to the roar
of many waters
and the sound
of loud thunder.
Earlier in Revelation 1-15
in John's exalted vision
of Jesus,
the risen Christ,
it said that
Jesus' voice
was like the roar
of many waters.
many waters.
The redeemed of Christ
follow him
wherever he goes
and obeys
whatever he says
and now they even
sound like him
as they worship him.
Ezekiel 1-24
gives us more details
about what the sound
of the roar
of many waters
sounds like.
It says,
I heard the sound
of their wings
like the sound
of many waters,
like the sound
of the almighty,
a sound of tumult
like the sound
of an army.
This sound,
which is a sound
of tumult
like the sound
of an army
fits well again
with the vision
of that heavenly army.
Imagine the sounds
of a mighty host
marching
and you feel
the rumbling
of the ground
like a roar
of mighty waters
like the Niagara Falls
falling
and as you draw nearer
that deafening sound,
you can make out
what they're saying
and they're singing
like the sound
of harpists.
It's passages
like this
and Revelation 15-2
where those who
have conquered
the beast
and its image
and the number
of its name
have harps
of God
in their hands.
It's passages
like this
that have been
frequently misused
to create
the impression
that heaven
is boring
and unexciting.
In his book,
Heaven,
Randy Alcorn
writes about
how a friend
of his
once honestly
confessed to him,
whenever I think
about heaven,
it makes me depressed.
I'd rather just
cease to exist
when I die.
And Alcorn
asked him,
why?
And he answered,
I can't stand
the thought
of that endless
tedium
to float around
the clouds
with nothing
to do
but strum
a harp.
it's all
so terribly
boring.
Heaven
doesn't sound
much better
than hell.
I'd rather
be annihilated
than spend
eternity
in a place
like that.
That's a
disastrous
misconception.
And he's
completely
missing the
point of the
singing
that's intended
to convey.
First,
singing is not
the only thing
that we'll be
doing in heaven.
I think that's
obvious in many
passages.
2 Timothy 2.12
says we're
promised if we
endure that we
will also reign
with Christ.
And then in
the parable of
the minus in
Luke 19,
Jesus says that
the servant who
is faithful with
the gospel that
has been trusted
to him and
bears much fruit
and it brings
back ten minus
more will be
given authority
over ten cities.
So we will have
things to do
in heaven.
We will be
involved in the
governing of
the kingdom
of heaven,
reigning with
Christ.
But the
description of
heaven in
scripture often
features singing
because there's
something about
music and about
singing that
captures the
transcendent joy
of heaven.
In his book,
The Joy of
Music,
renowned American
composer and
conductor,
Leonard Bernstein,
recounts the
conversation he
had on a road
trip with a
friend of his
who was a
British poet.
And they
were driving
through the
mountainous
region of the
Picasso Pass of
New Mexico and
his friend remarks
looking at the
hills, he says,
these hills are
pure Beethoven.
I don't know what
that means but
it must have been
beautiful.
And Bernstein
follows up with the
question, why
Beethoven?
Why not Bach,
Mozart, Mendelssohn,
or Schumann?
And then they go
back and forth
discussing the
merits of
Beethoven's
compositions, why
they have such a
transcendent and
luminary quality.
And then this is
what Leonard
Bernstein concludes.
Quote, let me put
it this way.
Many, many
composers have
been able to
write heavenly
tunes and
respectable views.
Some composers
can orchestrate the
C major scale so
that it sounds like
a masterpiece or
full with notes so
that a harmonic
novelty is achieved.
But this is all
mere dust.
Nothing compared
to the magic
ingredients sought
by them all.
The inexplicable
ability to know
what the next
note has to be.
Beethoven had
this gift in the
degree that leaves
them all panting
in the rear guard.
When he really
did it, as in the
funeral march of
the Eroica, he
produced an entity
that always seems
to me to have
been previously
written in heaven
and then merely
dictated to him.
There is a special
place carved out
in the cosmos
into which this
movement just
fits, predetermined
and perfect.
Form is only an
empty word, a shell,
without the gift
of inevitability.
A composer can
write a string of
perfectly molded
sonata, allegro
movements with
every rule obeyed
and still suffer
from bad form.
Beethoven broke
all the rules and
turned out pieces of
breathtaking
rightness.
Rightness, that's
the word.
When you get the
feeling that whatever
note succeeds the
last is the only
possible note that
can rightly happen at
that instant.
In that context,
then chances are you're
listening to Beethoven.
Melodies, fugs,
rhythms, leave them
to the Tchaikovskis
and the Hindemiths
and the Ravels.
Our boy has the
real goods.
The stuff from
heaven, the power
to make you feel
at the finish.
Something is right
in the world.
There's something
that checks throughout,
that follows its own
law consistently,
something we can
trust that will
never let us down.
We might not
appreciate music
to the same level
that Leonard
Bernstein can,
at least not in
this life,
but we do know
that the best of
music captures
something of
transcendence.
They have a
heavenly quality,
whispers,
rumors of God
in them.
In heaven,
we're going to
have the fullness
of that.
And these songs
aren't just
generic songs.
They'll be
worship songs.
It says in
verse 3,
they were singing
a new song
before the throne
and before the
four living creatures
and before the
elders.
No one could
learn that song
except the
144,000 who
have been
redeemed from
the earth.
Only the
redeemed can
sing this song
because only the
redeemed know
God in a way
that inspires
eternal song.
The singing of
this new song
is a recurring
theme throughout
the Old Testament,
especially in the
Psalms.
It's always in
response to God's
triumph over the
enemies.
after his
deliverance of
his people.
Some 3,500 years
ago, after God
split the Red
Sea and delivered
Israel from Egypt
in Exodus 15,
the people sang to
him a new song.
And the people of
God have not
stopped singing
since then.
Christians today
still sing songs of
worship written
centuries ago,
ancient times.
Churches sing songs
like Of the
Father's Love
Begotten, O
Splendor of God's
Glory Bright.
They're written in
the 4th century A.D.
by Aurelius Clemens
Prudentius and
Ambrose, respectively.
We still sing as a
local church the song
Be Thou My Vision
written in the 6th
century A.D.
by Dallin Forgeil.
I don't know how to
pronounce that Irish
name.
But we also sing
new songs.
Our musical history
team carefully
calls the large,
the ever increasingly
large body of new
worship songs that
are added to
Christian copyright
licensing internationally
every single week.
And they try to
introduce to us the
most edifying,
most stirring songs.
And there will
always be new
songs to sing
because God is
infinite.
And his glory is
inexhaustible.
Don't you feel this?
I feel this when I
worship with you and I
sing on Sunday
mornings.
When you're
worshiping God in
song and as you
think of who God
is, as you think of
his everlasting love
and about what he has
done to redeem us as
his people, how he
sent Jesus, his son,
to die on the cross
for our sins, how he
saved us from our
slavery to sin and
death.
And as you're singing
those songs, does it
not feel like your
heart's going to burst?
Does it not feel like
you need to shout at
the top of your lungs
and raise your arms to
heaven?
And does it not make
you want to sing again
and again and again?
At the end of one of
the songs we're singing
this morning, I was
just like, oh, I just
want to sing that chorus
again.
I just want to sing that
chorus again.
Because some things are
too great to just talk
about.
Because God is too
great to just talk
about.
You have to sing.
Well, in heaven, we'll
get to do that.
In the fullness of the
presence of God, we'll
get to sing to him right
before his throne.
And here in life, we
could only sing so much
before we get tired, we
get emotionally exhausted
before we lose our
voices.
But in heaven, we will
never tire.
We'll get to sing.
Finally, in a way,
they'll give him the
worship that he deserves,
which is ceaseless praise,
ceaseless worship.
Because that's the kind
of worship that he
deserves.
Any worship that ends at
any time is not
sufficient for the glory
of God.
And brothers and
sisters, we're going to
make a magnificent
choir.
I look forward to that.
Not only that, the
redeemed people of God
are virgins.
Verse 4 has three
sentences that describe
what the redeemed are
like.
Each of those clauses
begin with these.
It is these who have
not defiled themselves
with women for they
are virgins.
It is these who follow
the lamb wherever he
goes.
These have been
redeemed from mankind
as first puts fruits
for God and the lamb.
I'll be brief here
because I've already
talked about some of
these things.
In addition to the
idea of soldiers keeping
themselves ceremonially
clean during war, the
fact that they are
described as virgins
captures the purity of
the people of God.
This verse is not
referring, as I've said
before, to literal male
virgins, but to all of
God's holy people, men
and women, married and
single, who have
maintained their
undivided devotion to
God and to Jesus
despite the persecution
of the beast.
The description of God's
soldiers as virgins is
especially appropriate
because later on in
Revelation 19, 7 to 9
and Revelation 21, 2,
they will be called
collectively the bride
of the lamb, clothed
with fine linen, bright
and pure, prepared as a
bride adorned for her
husband.
We'll be a bride as
bride should be.
This is why in 2 Corinthians
11, 2, Paul describes
his ministry to the
Corinthian church this
way, I feel a divine
jealousy for you since I
betrothed you to one
husband to present you as
a pure virgin to Christ.
The church is a virgin
bride because they have
not defiled themselves with
the passion of Babylon's
sexual immorality as it
says in verse 8.
They have not succumbed
ultimately to the
temptation of the great
harlot that we see in
Revelation chapter 17.
This is not speaking of
physical virginity but
spiritual virginity.
Are you a spiritual virgin
for Christ?
Revelation 21, 8 is
crystal clear as for the
cowardly, the faithless,
the detestable, as for
murderers, the sexually
immoral, sorcerers,
idolaters, and all liars.
Their portion will be in
the lake that burns with
fire and sulfur which is
the second death.
If there is any
unrepentant sin in your
life, turn from it today.
Confess it to another
believer, another brother
or sister in Christ in the
church this week.
find accountability and
take decisive steps to
cut it out of your life
because it's a matter of
life and death.
Because if you don't, you
will not be counted among
the 144,000 virgins of
Christ.
But if you repent and you
trust in Jesus, no matter
what you have done, maybe
you are not only not a
virgin but you've been so
promiscuous.
But no matter what you have
done, if you repent and you
take hold of Jesus in faith,
he will prove to you to be a
strong redeemer.
And that's what we see in
verses 4 and 5.
These have been redeemed
from mankind as first
fruits for God and the
lamb.
And in their mouth no lie
was found for they are
blameless.
The idea of first fruits
comes from one of the
three major pilgrimage
feasts that the Jews,
the Israelites celebrated
in the Old Testament
called the feast of harvest
of the first fruits of your
labor, of what you sow in
the field.
It says in Exodus 23, 16.
This feast came at the
beginning of the harvest
season.
And according to more
detailed instructions found
in Leviticus 23, Numbers 20
to 29, Deuteronomy 16, this
feast began when the sickle
is first put to the standing
grain.
And after the first fruits of
the harvest are harvested,
then the sheaf of the first
fruits were to be waved before
the Lord as an offering.
Because of the observance
of this feast, the first
fruits, first fruit offering
comes to represent the
portion of the harvest that
belongs specially to God.
God.
This is why I, this is possible.
Some people think that the
144,000 are called first
fruits because it's only the
initial harvest.
And there will be later
harvest of more believers.
Some people argue that.
I don't think that's the case
because these are those who
have been redeemed from
mankind as first fruits for God
and the Lamb.
I believe that represents all
of God's elect, all of God's
people because they are
specially set aside for him.
And I think the rest of the
harvest that is to come is not
the more of God's people but
of the judgment harvest, the
winepress of God's wrath that we
see in the rest of chapter 14.
This is confirmed by the fact that
in the Old Testament, for
example, in Jeremiah 2, verses
2 to 3, all of God's people at
the time are called the first of
his harvest, first fruits, in
contradistinction to the pagan
nations.
A related concept is the idea of
the firstborn, which is also
used to describe all of God's
people in the Old Testament, not
just a part of them, in
contradistinction to all the
other pagan nations.
The idea of first fruits and
firstborns are explicitly
connected in Nehemiah 10, 35 to 37,
Psalm 78, 51, Psalm 105, 36,
they're referring to the same
idea.
As James 1, 18 says, of all of
God's people, once again, of his
only will, God brought us forth by
the word of truth that we should
be a kind of first fruits of his
creatures.
That's what all of us are and all
of God's people are if we belong
to Christ, his special set-aside
chosen portion.
And we are the special first fruits
that belong to God, not because of
our own merit, but because God has
purchased or redeemed us, as it says
twice in this passage, in verse 3 and
verse 4.
The same word, redeem, though
translated slightly differently, is
used in Revelation 5, 9 to say that
the Lamb ransomed people for God by
his blood from every tribe and
language and people and nation.
Once again, this proves that the
144,000, the first fruits, refer to
all of the redeemed.
We are soldiers, singers, virgins, and
first fruits that belong especially
to the bridge.
A copying power is only for everyone
but also for all of theSaans.
Now, this is the bigger thing.
This is the largest gift that you
treasured home free from God!
Because of your life, it has
Has a victory right now.
Golden glass and golden glass!
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