Who Is Able To Stand?
Revelation 6:17b
October 2, 2016
I realize it’s been a couple of weeks since we were in our study of Revelation and our minds can lose a lot of traction in two weeks.
But I trust it won’t take much to pull us back into the flow.
When we hit chapter 6 we began watching as the Lamb of God
Began to open the seals of the great scroll.
We said this scroll is the title deed to the earth
And outlines the judgments by which the world will be
Removed from the control of the Usurper and redeemed back to its proper king.
These are in a way the terms of eviction and Jesus is in the process of
Evicting the evil one and all those who are under his control.
• The first seal last 3 ½ years and was false peace.
• The second seal was world war
• The third seal was world-wide famine
• The fourth seal was death in which ¼ of the world’s population died
• And those were all bad to be sure
But when that 5th seal opened the wrath of God hit a whole new level.
We saw the saints below the altar crying out to God for vengeance.
And although they were told to rest and to wait for the rest of the martyrs to join them,
Their prayer clearly had an effect on Christ,
For at the 5th seal the wrath of Christ went FROM PASSIVE TO ACTIVE.
He went from allowing destruction to causing it.
We read about that 6th seal which was described by John as a “great earthquake” but we noticed how the consequences felt on the earth were far more than just that of an earthquake.
• Normal earthquakes don’t darken the sun
• Normal earthquakes don’t cause a blood moon
• Normal earthquakes don’t cause a meteor shower
• Normal earthquakes don’t rip away the sky and bring God’s throne into view
Instead we likened this to the Lord backhanding the earth,
Knocking it out of its normal orbit
And then grabbing the earth and pulling it right up to His face.
And for the first time the earth has begun to realize that
All of this calamity is not the result of global warming or environmental irresponsibility.
All of this calamity is the direct result of God’s fury.
When the earth catches a glimpse of the One on the throne and the Lamb
They immediately seek to hide from His wrath
By praying to the mountains to fall on them.
And then came their reasoning.
Revelation 6:17 “for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
And we really need to spend some time addressing this issue.
WHO IS ABLE TO STAND?
(I’m going to apologize at the beginning here because we may not even make it to our text this morning. There is much that needs to be done here by way of introduction.
The entire purpose of chapter 7 is to answer this question and therefore it is important to make sure we have an accurate understanding of the issue before we move forward.)
So: WHO IS ABLE TO STAND BEFORE GOD?
Psalms 15 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”
Psalms 24:3-5 “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the LORD And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
Isaiah 33:13-16 “You who are far away, hear what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might.” Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?” He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; He will dwell on the heights, His refuge will be the impregnable rock; His bread will be given him, His water will be sure.”
Those passages answer the question,
But I can’t say that the answer is all that comforting.
In fact, the answer seems to be: ONLY THOSE WHO ARE PERFECT
THAT REALITY HAS RATTLED MORE THAN ONE PERSON.
Perhaps you remember our study of the book of Job…
Many of those conversations centered around man’s inability to be righteous enough to stand before God.
Eliphaz asked:
Job 4:17 “Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?”
Bildad asked:
Job 25:4 “How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman?”
Even Job asked:
Job 9:1-3 “Then Job answered, “In truth I know that this is so; But how can a man be in the right before God? “If one wished to dispute with Him, He could not answer Him once in a thousand times.”
They all knew standing before a righteous God was a dangerous task.
We are all familiar with the God’s warning to Moses in the Old Testament:
Exodus 33:20 “But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”
Sinful man just cannot stand before a Holy God.
Or look at those who did actually enter His presence.
Isaiah 6 comes to mind where we actually find Isaiah in a state of absolute terror.
Isaiah 6:5 “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Or we could listen after Job actually stood in the presence of God.
Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”
I think you’re getting the point that I’m making.
When the sinners of Revelation 6 ask “who is able to stand?”
THAT ISN’T AN IRRATIONAL QUESTION.
That’s actually a good question.
We have a holy God and then we have sinful man.
• Who can be just before Him?
• Who can stand before Him?
Maybe you remember the story of the Rich Young Ruler.
The conversation of course centered around
His desire to go to heaven and yet keep his wealth.
• When Jesus told him he could not have both, the young man chose to keep his wealth and went away sad.
• This incident caused Jesus to turn to His disciples and say that it was easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
In short, making a way for sinful man to stand in the presence of God
Is no easy task.
• The disciples certainly picked up on what Jesus was saying for in the very next breath the disciples ask a very relevant question.
Matthew 19:25-26 “When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Their question wasn’t much different from the question in Revelation 6.
“who is able to stand?”
“who can be saved?”
In Matthew 19 the Lord answers that question like this: “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
And the answer to the question of Revelation 6 is found in Revelation 7.
Revelation chapter 7 is a PARENTHETICAL CHAPTER in the book of Revelation, and this is something John does a lot.
He will periodically break the natural flow of the revelation
To either give the same information from a new perspective,
Or sometimes to answer a confusing reality that has just been revealed.
That is what he is doing here.
Chapter 6 ended with the question, “who is able to stand?”
And chapter 7 is devoted to answering that question.
And I’m going to go ahead and give you the answer before we even start working our way through the chapter.
The answer is: THOSE WHOM GOD MAKES STAND
Who is able to stand?
Those whom God causes to stand
Sinful man surely is not capable of doing this by his own strength.
• That was made clear time and time again.
• That is what Job and Bildad and Eliphaz debated.
If God maintains His holiness then there is not a sinful man alive
Who is capable of standing in His presence.
It is impossible so far as man is concerned.
The ONLY POSSIBLE WAY this can be achieved is if God does it for him.
The only one who can stand is the one whom God causes to stand.
Romans 14:4 “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
Jude 24-25 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
It is God who causes sinners to be able to stand in His presence.
Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”
Colossians 1:21-22 “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach”
All of those passages are saying the same thing.
Man had dare not present himself before God.
If he were to try he would likely get the same greeting that Job received:
Job 38:2 “Who is this that darkens counsel By words without knowledge?”
Man cannot present himself before God
And man cannot stand before God
Unless the Lord presents him and the Lord causes him to stand.
This we know.
But the next question is also important to our understanding:
HOW DOES GOD MAKE HIM TO STAND?
• Sinners knew that there was no way any sinful man could stand before God.
• Scripture teaches that is true so far as it depends upon man,
• But Scripture also teaches that God is able to make them to stand.
So how does God do that?
How does God make sinful men able to stand before His holy presence?
And the answer is in reality the very heart of the gospel.
God makes sinners to stand in His presence
Through the work of Christ and the preaching of the gospel.
FIRST: The work of Christ is absolutely necessary.
It was Christ who came to this earth as a human and who lived an absolutely sinless life.
• We talk a lot about His death, but don’t miss the importance of His sinless life.
• He didn’t just come to pay the debt of sinners,
• He also came to impute His righteousness to sinners.
So before He could die to pay our debt,
He first had to accumulate righteousness which He could impart.
He spent 33 years accumulating that righteousness.
The writer of Hebrews made this point so perfectly.
Hebrews 10:5-7 “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'”
Christ didn’t come to offer sacrifices, Christ came to live an obedient life.
He came to fulfill all righteousness.
HE THEN DIED UPON A CROSS.
His death accomplished two things.
• Through His death He paid the debt of sinners
• And He also imputed His righteousness to their account.
Our sin was imputed to Him (that is clearly seen in the wrath He endured by God on the cross)
His righteousness was imputed to sinners who place their faith in Him.
Romans 3:21-24 “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”
Or perhaps stated even more clearly in:
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
AND WE STRESS THE NECESSITY OF THIS AGAIN
The ONLY people who ever stand before God are righteous people.
(the sinners of Revelation 6 had just been made aware of this)
If you have sin you don’t stand before God.
You must be righteous.
Psalms 15:1-2 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart.”
Now, can you honestly say that those verses describe you?
• Have you been a model of integrity or a worker of righteousness.
• Do you have a truthful heart?
Or this one:
Psalms 24:3-5 “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the LORD And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
• Can you honestly claim to have “clean hands and a pure heart”?
OF COURSE NOT.
And yet Scripture says that
THESE ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO STAND BEFORE GOD.
THIS MAKES THE WORK OF CHRIST NECESSARY.
Because God causes sinners to stand before Him through the work of Christ.
• Christ lived a righteous life, thus fully satisfying the Father’s requirement.
• He then gave that righteousness to sinners who trust in Him
• While also taking their sin upon Himself and bearing their wrath.
Our sin imputed to Him causing Him to be crushed before God.
His righteousness imparted to us, allowing us to stand before God.
The only way sinners stand before God is if God causes them to stand.
God does this through the work of Christ.
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
But I told you earlier that
There is more than just the work of Christ required here.
Now that is NOT TO SAY that Christ’s work is insufficient and needs help.
It does not.
However we know that just because Christ came and died
That this DOES NOT ensure that all men
Are automatically made righteous before God.
SOMETHING ELSE IS REQUIRED:
MEN MUST BELIEVE
(The atonement of Christ is limited only to those who believe in it)
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
We aren’t universalists, we don’t believe that every person is headed to heaven.
We believe what the Bible teaches, which is that
The atonement of Christ is limited only to those who believe the gospel.
That is why we say that
The means in which God causes sinners to stand
Is the work of Christ and the preaching of the gospel.
That is NOT TO SAY that preaching the gospel saves sinners, it doesn’t.
Rather, the preaching of the gospel is what reveals the work of Christ to sinners and calls them to trust in that work.
• No one stands before God apart from the work of Christ.
• AND no one stands before God apart from hearing about that work and believing in it.
NO ONE STANDS BEFORE GOD APART FROM BELIEVING THE GOSPEL
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Romans 10:14 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”
SO WE ARE CLEAR WITH THIS RIGHT?
In chapter 6 sinners asked:
“for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
And OUR ANSWER would be:
“Those who have heard and believed the gospel message
About the saving work of Jesus Christ.”
BUT IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION THAT IS A PROBLEM
Why?
Because at this point the church
(who has been entrusted with the gospel)
Is no longer here.
• We already saw them in chapter 4 (represented by the 24 elders) standing before the throne worshiping the Lamb for His great salvation.
That points us back to the question Paul asked in Romans 10.
Romans 10:14 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”
How are these sinners who are being crushed by the wrath of God ever going to stand before God if no one is available to preach the gospel to them?
Do you see the problem?
Men can’t be saved apart from believing in the saving work of Jesus
But men can’t believe in the saving work if no one is there to proclaim it.
So it would seem that the answer to the question of Rev. 6 would be:
NO ONE.
I mean if no one is there to give them the gospel
They will never believe in Christ,
Will never be justified,
And therefore will never stand before God.
So the answer would seem to be:
“who is able to stand?” – NO ONE.
And yet we also know that THIS CAN’T BE TRUE.
WHY?
Do you remember the word of consolation that was given to those martyrs who were below the altar?
Revelation 6:11 “And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”
That verse made it clear that not everyone who was appointed for salvation had yet been saved or martyred.
If there are more to be saved, then how is that going to happen
If there are no witnesses of the gospel available to preach to them?
THE SOLUTION TO THAT PROBLEM IS SEEN IN REV. 7
• God will ordain a new evangelistic army
• Whom He will appoint to preach the gospel to those who are living
in the tribulation
• With the result that multitudes of people will hear the gospel and
be saved.
Those evangelists are simply known as the 144,000
And those multitudes who are saved as a result of their ministry
Are seen, by the end of the chapter, gathered around the throne
Worshiping God having been saved during the great tribulation.
What seemed impossible at the end of chapter 6
Is made possible by God and revealed in chapter 7.
In the midst of this awful time of tribulation and apostasy
God will appoint His own personal evangelists
To proclaim the truth and call His elect to salvation.
In fact the great tribulation will be a time of absolutely unparalleled salvation, such as the world has never seen.
We have already talked a little about how
It is during the tribulation that the Jews will be saved.
Their eyes will be opened with the antichrist breaks his covenant with them and commits that abomination of desolation.
They will come flocking back to Christ.
Zechariah 12:10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”
But it’s not just Jews who will be saved during the tribulation.
There will also be a great outpouring of salvation among all the nations.
How do I know that?
Revelation 7:9 “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;”
And the point is explicitly made who they are.
Revelation 7:14 “I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
That means that we will have people saved from every nation, tribe, and tongue during the great tribulation.
Jesus said:
Matthew 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
God has appointed that during this great tribulation
He will see to it that His gospel is proclaimed throughout the world
And the result will be a multitude that no one can count
From every nation standing before the throne.
THAT SEEMS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION PRETTY WELL DOESN’T IT?
If you are under the wrath of God and you are bearing the judgment of God then believe the gospel that you might be forgiven, made righteous, and able to stand.
God is always in the process of saving sinners,
Even during the tribulation.
The unique part to all of this is that for the first time ever, Israel will be involved in this process.
Do you remember God’s initial purpose for Israel?
Exodus 19:4-6 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
God always intended for them to be a kingdom of priests.
They were always intended to be an evangelistic nation.
Isaiah 49:6 “He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
God always intended to use Israel to save the nations.
Psalms 67 “God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”
The problem of course is that Israel seldom believed God
And never evangelized.
But that day won’t last forever.
Israel is going to be that evangelistic nation:
Isaiah 11:10 “Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious.”
Joel 2:28-32 “It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. “Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.”
Zechariah 8:20-23 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. ‘The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go.” ‘So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.’ “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”‘”
God said they would be the great evangelists,
That is what we finally see taking place in Revelation 7.
• God will mark out this special evangelistic band
• 144,000 Jews who will be protected from the judgments of God and the wrath of the enemy.
• And they will be the great evangelists of the earth, preaching the gospel and leading men to faith in Jesus Christ.
• And the result of their ministry will be a multitude from every nation, beyond number standing before the throne of God and worshiping the Lamb.
And we’ll start looking at that next week.
This morning I just want to leave you with some wonderful truths.
From this we are well aware that God is by nature a Savior.
• Even in the day of His most furious wrath, we find that He is still offering mercy.
• God desires sinners to be saved.
• He will not destroy this world until every single one of His elect have been redeemed.
We also learn that even in the tribulation no one is ever saved apart from the work of Christ and the preaching of the gospel.
• There has only ever been and there will only ever be one method that produces salvation and that is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And I don’t mind telling you friends
That we are in a TREMENDOUS FIGHT over this today.
There is great confusion today over what the gospel is
And how sufficient it is for salvation.
It feels more to me every day like the days of the Great Reformation
When men had to stand and fight for the truth of the gospel.
• In those days the gospel had been lost in all the traditions of the Roman
Catholic church.
• Today the gospel is being lost in all the sentimentality and worldliness of the
American Church.
There are those who are standing strong for the purity of the gospel
And it is certainly time we stand with them.
No one is ever saved apart from believing the true gospel.
There will come a day when the church will be called home and God will raise up 144,000 from the nation of Israel to fulfill this task,
BUT TODAY THE TASK IS OURS.
• To preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
• To preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
• To preach the necessity of regeneration through the work of the Holy Spirit
• To preach the reality of eternal judgement for all those who refuse to submit to Christ
It is not an easy call, but as you can see, it is the continual call of God,
Both now and in the tribulation, and it remains the absolutely only way that sinners will ever be able to stand before a Holy God.
We know the answer to the question, “who is able to stand?”
It is our mandate to go and proclaim it.
