"Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. 3 And they *sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. 4 These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. 5 And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless."
As we look around the world and look at our own lives and our families, I believe that we can all agree that these are difficult days we're living in. We all struggle with the inevitable problems of life
as we live it out in this fallen, sin cursed world. There is unprecedented corruption in our government and in our media. Those who are committed to the complete eradication of Christianity. The public educational system and an entertainment industry that bombards us with every evil. There is a dramatic increase in false teachers and religious systems, who are multiplying faster than fruit flies. It is all around us, pandemics, empty grocery store shelves, financial crisis, television, movies, radio, bookstores and the list goes on and on.
It's becoming more and more obvious, that the world is being prepared for the Antichrist and moving inexorably towards a day of judgment. However, in all of this chaos and disruption, there is good news for those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, it's all going to end. All praise and glory to God that amidst all the turmoil of this life, the time of triumph and glory is coming and we can rejoice in that.
In a society committed to super heroes, in our text today, we meet a group of men who are as triumphant as the world will ever know. A committed force of godly, battle weary men, who having survived the worst holocaust in the world’s history, seven years
of the onslaught of a combination of the wrath of heaven and the wrath
of hell, the judgments of God and the assaults of Satan. A group of men to which there has never before been and there never will be again, anything like. But before we look at them..
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We rejoice in Your eternal truths, offering us such great hope, reigniting our hearts with praise. Lord, commit these things to our hearts and cause us to examine our hearts so that we will remain faithful, even in the face the difficulty and persecution which is sure to come, so that we may walk in triumph and victory. Thank You for reminding us that no matter what we may lose in this life, if we are in Christ, we are invincible, triumphant and victorious. We pray for those who are yet lost, disturb their false peace and bring conviction upon their hearts, we ask that today would be the day, they will confess Christ as Lord and Savior.
It is in His precious name we ask and pray these things, for His sake and for Your glory.
Amen
Today's Message: The Lamb's Brigade
As we continue our study of the book of Revelation, I confess it has previous been one mostly of doom and gloom, especially for those who are without Christ. Now, we come to a wonderfully encouraging passage of Scripture, offering hope for every true believer in Christ. Especially those who are collapsing from the enormous weight of the cares and calamities of this world. However, allow me to remind you there is still hope for those who are lost, those who are living in fear and confusion, those whose lives are anything but a time to rejoice and celebrate, there is still time, we are living in the age of grace. Today is the day of salvation.
Have you ever noticed that there are a significant number of Christians, who are constantly complaining, everything is horrible and terrible which they just can’t seem overcome enough to function living in a constant state of fear, confusion and loneliness. Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 15, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I would like to point out, this wonderful chapter does not take us to the next events of the Tribulation. But rather gives us a preview of some of what lie ahead in that period of unprecedented trial. In fact, chapter 14 gives us both a backward glance to the beginning of the Tribulation and a forward glance to its end and prepares us for the climatic events which will follow in chapter 15 and forward.
Open your Bibles with me to the book of Revelation chapter 14. This chapter marks a dramatic change. It takes us back to what God is doing. The chronological order of events get picked back up in chapter 15. This chapter represents the third and final interlude in the book of Revelation. This chapter contains three vision and all three of them look at the victory of the Lamb. A beautiful vision of the goodness of God.
In our text today, the Lord reintroduces to us the most godly 144,000 Christ honoring, faithful men who lives transcend the unprecedented hardships and the devastating pain of the Tribulation, never giving up, never beaten down, even with all of Satan's efforts, they endure and persevere victoriously. We first met these 144,00 men back in chapter 7, a select group of Jewish believers from every tribe of the sons of Israel, protected by God. I believe there is a valuable lesson for all of us today, not only about the future, but we too can live victorious lives, even as we're facing difficult challenges in our lives. Even in the midst of a struggle.
In verse 1, "Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads."
Here, we see these 144,000 invincible men, these triumphant saints standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion. This is very important, because they were marked as belonging to God and His promise was that they would be sealed, and they would be protected, and they would be able to stand. And, here they are, at the end, standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb. They are preserved and standing triumphantly with the Lord on Mount Zion in the Millennium.
I have been asked "What makes these 144,000 so invincible?" Well, the first thing is they are marked out as the possession of God.God promised to protect them and when He makes a promise keeps His promise. And, they have a confident faith believing that God is going to do exactly what he has promised he is going to do. I believe this foundational for any true Christian, as we live in the light of His coming glory. If you want to be a triumphant believer, you have to believe in the power of God. We have been given absolutely no reason to believe otherwise. If you want to be standing when the smoke clears, you must depend on God to take care of you and protect you. Believe me, God will keep His own.
John continually calls attention to the dramatic things that he sees, in fact, he’s already done it eight times. And, he will even do it many more times. Here, he begins with "Then I looked, and behold." The first thing he sees is "the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion." This Lamb is none other than Jesus Christ.
This is monumental. It goes back to Psalm 2, when God the Father says "But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession." What we see here, is the fulfillment of that. The prophecy that the Messiah who would come and ultimately reign as King, planting His feet on Mount Zion. By the way, just to be clear, this is the Zion here on earth.
"And with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads." John is seeing something that perhaps they could not see, the name of the Lamb and His Father written on their foreheads. The rest of the world, if you remember, bears a mark called the mark of the beast. But this group is marked with the name of the Lamb, and the name of the Father. This is a picture of the coming glory of God.
Notice how praise comes from them very quickly in verses 2-3, "And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they *sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth." They immediately begin to join in the heavenly song of redemption. This is thunderous joy because the Lamb has returned and is standing victorious.
John says "And I heard a voice from heaven," this is a familiar thing to hear a voice from heaven. In fact, we heard it back in chapter 10, now, here again in chapter 14. Then, he tells us the voice was like the sound of many waters. This is indicating that it's a loud voice. I believe this may well be the voice of God and all the hosts of heaven singing God’s glorious praise for redemption. This is all of the great tribute of heaven to the God of redemption.
Verse 3 tells us the nature of the song. Nobody could sing the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. Heaven is overflowing with praise over the whole redemptive work accomplished. We know from Luke 15, that angels can rejoice over someone else’s redemption, they just can't experience it themselves. The song of redemption was first mentioned in Psalm 33, "Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; praise is
becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; sing
praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; play
skillfully with a shout of joy." We see all throughout Scripture, that God loves music. In fact, God gave us music to express the doxologies of our heart.
I have heard a number of people getting caught up in the details of whose doing what here, I believe we are to look at it collectively, with all of the heavenly voices joining in on the new song. The only ones who can learn the song on the earth are the 144,000, the redeemed, only those purchased by Christ’s blood. I believe only those who have been saved after the rapture can understand the meaning of this song in a more profound way than anyone else. I don't believe that intention is to exclude other believers, and to try to dissect every piece here, the point is they will be able to sing a celebratory song because of their committed faith. All of heaven is singing a song of praise to the redeeming God and now the 144,000 join that.
That brings us to verse 4, "These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb." They will have lived a life committed to sexual purity, to Jesus Christ, to the truth and to holiness. I believe this is an illustration of God’s keeping power. Without getting into a deep theological debate, I believe this a reminder that God has designed that men represent Him as the proclaimers of His truth.
The phrase with women points us to the conclusion that the issue here is sexual purity. Just imagine trying to find 144,000 pastors today who haven’t defiled themselves with women. I suspect you might be searching for a very long time. These men will have kept themselves separate from the world, a world that will be unimaginably corrupt society with sexual sin that will be running rampant. Not only will they have not been corrupted by the world system, they have gone beyond that, and are going to be sexually pure. By the way, this doesn't necessarily mean celibacy, because sex within a biblical marriage doesn’t defile anybody. I believe this is more pointing to the moral defilement of the culture around them. The text literally says they’re "parthenoi" they’re chaste, even while living in the middle of Satan’s empire.
I often think of this when I hear younger people who have fallen into sexual sin today, claims that the church needs to understand how difficult it is in this culture to remain abstinent. During the tribulation it will be exceedingly worse. You are to be set apart from the world, that means abstaining from sexual immorality. Whether you're younger or older, if you are practicing sexual immorality and you think you are going to heaven, I encourage you to think again!
In Luke 6:46, Jesus said "Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?"
John then says "These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes." These triumphant 144,000 are partisans, loyal to Christ, no matter the cost. I believe this is the same standard God expects from us. The Oxford dictionary defines partisans as "An adherent, a supporter, one who supports his cause through thick and
thin; a blind, unreasoning, prejudicial, and fanatical adherent." This is exactly what Jesus asks of us, when He said "If you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments." These men follow and serve Him as obedient servants in contrast to a world that as a whole goes whoring after the beast.
Here, we see what is necessary to be a winner in the spiritual life. "These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb." This is redemptive language. In the Old Testament, first fruits were considered to be the first portion of a harvest
from a particular crop that would be given to the Lord and used for
service. They were purchased out from among men as first fruits to God. Bought with a price given to God in special dedication. All of us are to serve God, however, some of us are consecrated uniquely and especially to divine duty. God designed that the first fruits be set apart unto Him as a special sacrifice. That’s the divine purpose of their life. By the way, the first fruits given to God were indication that there would be more to follow. In other words, the 144,000 are the first fruits of Israel, but that’s only the beginning of more to come, when all of Israel will be redeemed.
In verse 5, we see they are committed to truth. "And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless." At a time when the whole world will be head deep in lies and deception, these will be men of integrity, speaking only the truth. They will not exaggerate the truth or understate it, they will precisely speak God’s truth with precision.
At the end of verse 5, "they are blameless." The word blameless is the Greek amōmoi, which describes an animal that has passed inspection and is qualified to be a sacrifice because it has no defect.
So, we see here, they are committed to holiness. This is amazing. They are not only sanctified., they will be beyond reproach. Some have suggested that they'll be sinless, they are Jews, 12,000 out of every tribe. They're human. Nobody except Christ can be sinless, so there's no reason to assume that. But they are above reproach. How important this is for us as Christians to recognize today. Far too often the testimony of the church is negatively affected by the testimony of believers whose lives are utterly reprehensible. May I remind you that God wants us to be holy and blameless before Him.
In Closing..
If your life is anything but a celebration, may I encourage you to examine yourself, to see if you have a confident faith in Christ as both Lord and Savior. Your heart should be filled with overflowing joy because your sins that have been forgiven, for the hope of eternal life. Jesus Christ is assuredly coming again, let our lives be a testimony to the watching world of His truth and holiness, sacrificing our lives as an offering before God. May we rejoice in the coming victory celebration.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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