Victory In Jesus
Revelation 14:1-5
February 12, 2017
As you know we are currently in the middle of a parenthetical section
Here in the book of the Revelation.
In Chapter 11 we read:
Revelation 11:15-18 “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
The sounding of the seventh trumpet brought with it a heavenly declaration
That, regardless of how hard the enemy tried,
Nothing could stop Christ from reigning on the earth
And from destroying those who oppose Him.
And it is that declaration which has been more fully illustrated
Here in this parenthetical section of Revelation 12-14
Chapter 12 showed us:
• The Child Satan Couldn’t Stop
• The Battle Satan Couldn’t Win
• The Woman Satan Couldn’t Kill
We are currently looking at the 4th reality which is:
The Throne Satan Couldn’t Keep
As we studied through chapter 13 we saw Satan seek to set up His throne.
• We saw his puppet king known as antichrist rise to power, seemingly overcome death, and take the throne of the world.
• We then saw the rise of the false prophet whose sole purpose is to push the world to worship the antichrist.
• By the time we finished chapter 13 it appeared that Satan had a pretty firm grip on the throne of the world.
The antichrist is reigning, the false prophet is preaching
And everyone on the earth is required to put a highly visible mark
On their forehead indicating their allegiance to the antichrist.
If you don’t take the mark,
• Not only are you cut off from the ability to buy food,
• But you are also instantly revealed as a follower of Christ,
• And are martyred since God has temporarily granted the antichrist that right.
That being said, it really looks like Satan has a firm grip on things.
In fact, the message of the world endorses that view.
Revelation 13:4 “they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”
Revelation 13:8 “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.”
If you ask the world, it looks like Satan has seized full control.
But as I said, this is a throne which Satan cannot keep.
Namely because it is not his throne.
Psalms 2:4-6 “He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
Isaiah 24:23 “Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.”
It has already been determined by God
That regardless of the rage and efforts of the enemy,
He does not get to keep the throne of the earth.
That throne belongs to King Jesus.
Which is why, as we watched the rise and reign of the antichrist,
We also learned the importance of Perseverance and Wisdom.
It would be a most foolish thing to forsake Jesus or to worship the beast
Since the Bible promises that his reign won’t last.
And it is that reality which is revealed to us in chapter 14 of this interlude.
Let’s look at these first 5 verses together this morning. (3 main points)
#1 WHAT JOHN SAW
Revelation 14:1
The things which were seen in chapter 13 were quite disturbing.
There wasn’t much good to be seen there,
But in just a flash things sure pick up!
“Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion”
It is the second coming.
It is the rightful king, come to take His rightful throne.
• Satan has been busy
• The antichrist has been brutal
• The false prophet has been blasphemous
And their time is about to be over.
King Jesus returns!
Now, this passage is more specifically focused on in ch. 19,
Here the FOCUS is more on those who are standing with Him.
“and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.”
You remember who these are.
• They are the 144,000 of the tribes of Israel whom God sealed as His own and made off limits from the judgments of the tribulation.
• These are the ones whom we said were sealed for the purpose of spreading the gospel throughout this 7 year period of tribulation.
Now we find that at the end of this period they are all still accounted for.
They have survived, they have endured, they have remained.
• Throughout all the judgments…
• Throughout all the tribulations…
• Throughout all the persecutions…
• Throughout all the martyrdoms…
• Throughout all the trials…
These men would not be intimidated by the threats of Satan,
They stayed the course.
And please don’t assume it was easy for them.
It is true they couldn’t be killed, but that doesn’t mean they were loved.
You’ve never been killed for the gospel either,
But that doesn’t mean evangelism is easy for you does it?
It was unthinkably hard what these men endured, and yet they endured it.
The focus of these 5 verses seems to be HOW THEY ENDURED.
And first we must give credit to the Lamb who sealed them.
They are a tremendous testimony to the security of salvation.
• Baptists for years have sort of cryptically called it “Once Saved, Always Saved”. That’s true, but it’s a bad way to say it.
• Calvinists typically refer to it as “The Perseverance of the Saints” indicating that those who are real will in fact persevere to the end. That’s also true, but again not the best way to say it.
What it really is, is “The Preservation of the Saints”.
Namely that the God who chose us and who saved us
Has promised to preserve us no matter the conflict.
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.”
John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
Romans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
2 Corinthians 2:14 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”
And those are just the tip of the ice burg.
• It is the reality that those whom God foreknows, He also predestines
• And those whom God predestines, He also calls
• And those whom God calls, He also justifies
• And those whom God justifies, He also glorifies
And He loses NONE throughout that process.
John 6:39-40 “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
You get the idea.
• It did not matter how bad the persecution became.
• It did not matter how many died at their side.
GOD CAUSED THESE TO SURVIVE AND REMAIN FAITHFUL
And to that I remind you that
Christ does exactly that same thing for all of His children.
We are all sealed by Christ.
Ephesians 1:13-14 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Ephesians 4:30 “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
1 Peter 1:5 “[we] are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
This victory is first and foremost a victory in Jesus.
These men were standing because God caused them to stand.
What John Saw
#2 WHAT JOHN HEARD
Revelation 14:2-3
Next John turns to what he heard and he describes it four ways.
“a voice from heaven”
“like the sound of many waters”
“like the sound of loud thunder”
“like the sound of harpists”
The obvious understanding is that John heard a massive choir.
It was a booming and powerful song which echoed from the heavens.
Then John tells of what they were singing.
(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.”
John just says it was “a new song”
Indicating that it is a song that has never been sung before.
It is a song indicating an event that has never occurred.
And that makes perfect sense to us,
Since we are now dealing with the earthly reign of God’s king.
John goes on to say that “no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand”
The unredeemed of earth could not grasp what was going on.
• It was a song that made no sense to them.
• They couldn’t grasp it
• They couldn’t comprehend it
• To them it had no meaning
But those on the earth who are the redeemed…
Those who had been purchased understood it fine.
While no one can speak with certainty as to the content of the song,
I do think the book of the Revelation gives us some insight.
The book of the Revelation does reveal to us two songs
Which heaven will sing in an around the time of Christ’s return.
Revelation 15:1-4 “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.”
(obviously that is not a “new song” since Moses sang it)
But it does show us the focus of those in heaven
Revelation 19:1-6 “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.” And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.”
I’m not saying that either of those was the song John heard,
But I think they both give us insight
At least to the mood of heaven during this time.
The song sung here was a song of victory.
This a song that has yet to be sung on earth,
And when it is sung it will only be fully comprehended by the redeemed.
SO WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS CLEAR.
• After the greatest time of peril the world will ever know…
• 3 ½ years of terrible deception and persecution and martyrdom…
WE SEE 144,000 ARISE VICTORIOUS
AND ARE STANDING WITH KING JESUS AT HIS RETURN.
Even heaven seems to be applauding these men as they worship the King.
OUR QUESTION IS: HOW DID THEY DO IT?
And the first answer was clear…they were sealed by Christ.
But if you’ll notice John is interested in more than just that.
John would never be one to just say “Let go and let God”
As if there were absolutely no human requirement here.
If you’ve read John’s epistles then you know that while John most certainly believes in the sovereign prerogative of God,
John also heavily believes in the responsibility of man.
(not the free will of man, but the responsibility of man)
John knows that it matters how we live after we are redeemed.
That is also part of a life of victory,
And that is what John most certainly wants to look at next.
Apart from the fact that Christ sealed these men, how was it that they lived which allowed them to have such victory during such a perilous time?
What he Saw, What he Heard
#3 WHAT JOHN PERCEIVED
Revelation 14:4-5
There is no doubt that seeing these 144,000 standing with Christ,
Having overcome the threats of Satan that John is impressed.
He sees in these men an example to follow.
He sees in these men a blueprint for victorious Christian living.
Can I remind you that the Christian life is all about victory?
1 John 5:4-5 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
1 Corinthians 15:57 “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 2:14 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”
• No I don’t mean that you win every sporting event you enter
• No I don’t mean you win the lottery so that you can be rich.
• No I don’t mean you avoid every hardship or any such thing.
Christian victory is when a person remains faithful to Christ
Despite the temptation, despite the tribulation,
Despite the difficulty, and despite the deception.
True victory is to have overcome this world
And to be able to stand in triumph with Christ at His coming.
Certainly the 144,000 had that type of victory.
John wants you to see why.
There are 4 realities that characterized the lives of these men,
And it is these 4 which allowed them to emerge victorious
After the 3 ½ years of the reign of antichrist.
1) WHAT THEY FLED (4a)
“These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste.”
• Now of course this doesn’t mean women are evil…
• Nor does it mean that these men abandoned marriage…
• And it doesn’t mean that this was the only sin they were tempted with…
This specific temptation is used because
It is perhaps the strongest temptation our world faces.
(we can be certain they faced all sorts of temptations, but this would have been the strongest, and if they can overcome this one, they can overcome any of them)
We know what it is to live in a society motivated by sexual gratification.
Our society is consumed with it.
In the 60’s our country went through the sexual revolution
And all manner of immorality has been sought and celebrated ever since.
To the point that
• We have an uncontrollable pornography industry
• We have an absolutely immoral music and movie industry (they sell sex)
• We now have men declaring to be women and women declaring to be men.
• We have people fighting to legalize gay marriage.
• We recently had a group of women march on the capital demanding the right to
abort their babies.
All of that is because of sexual temptation and the desire to fulfill it.
It is a real and severe temptation.
And yet these men resisted it.
They made a conscious decision to keep “themselves chaste”.
They avoided it.
They took Paul’s advice when he said,
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
And so we learn that one of the first reasons they were victorious
Was because they chose to flee from things which were dangerous.
Consider what Paul told Timothy.
1 Timothy 6:11-14 “But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Paul there actually spoke to Timothy about greed (which is also an intense temptation) but you understand his path to victory.
Flee from those things and pursue Godly things.
• “Fight the good fight”
• “take hold of the eternal life”
• “keep the commandment…until the appearing of our Lord”
If you want to be victorious you must understand the danger of sin
And be willing to flee from temptation.
It is a foolish Christian who continues to put themselves in situations where temptation is heavy and expect that they will never stumble.
While we are called to resist and to even overcome temptation,
The BEST METHOD of overcoming it has always been to RUN FROM IT.
These men were victorious because they fled from sinful things.
What they Fled
2) WHERE THEY FOLLOWED (4b)
“These are the ones who follow they Lamb wherever He goes.”
They were committed to Jesus.
They stuck close to Jesus.
They were focused on Jesus.
They were passionate about Jesus.
THEY FOLLOWED HIM ANYWHERE.
They’d follow Him to the street, to their neighbor, into prison,
Even to the steps of the statue of the beast.
John Philips wrote:
“They allow now rivals, no refusals, and no restraint to mar their dedication to Him. Does He need someone to stand upon the steps of the Vatican and cry out against the marriage of Christendom to the Beast? There are 144,000 ready to go! Does the Lord need someone to beard the Beast at some high function of state and roundly denounce him, his policy, his statecraft, his religion, his economic boycott, his mark, his ministers, his alliance with Satan? There are 144,000 eager to go! Does the Lamb need evangelists to proclaim to the untold millions the gospel of the coming kingdom of God? To climb the highest Himalayas, to cross the desert sands, to blaze evangelistic trails through steaming jungles, or to mush huskies across wide arctic wastes? There are 144,000 ready to go! And though the Beast’s gestapo [sic] dog their footsteps and wreak upon their converts his direst vengeance, yet on they go undaunted and undeterred. That was the very spirit of their consecration as they followed the Lamb whithersoever He led them on earth, and their reward is in kind.”
Philips, John (Exploring Revelation, pg. 180-181),
Cited in: MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary; Revelation 12-22; Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL, 2000] pg. 78)
The point is they had no half-hearted commitment.
They fully surrendered their lives to Christ.
And it should go without saying that
If you aren’t fully committed to your cause you will never be victorious.
(We certainly understand the needed dedication of an athlete to win,
How much more the necessary dedication of the believer!)
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
Do you grasp why they were victorious yet?
What they Fled, Where they Followed
3) WHO THEY’RE FOR (4c)
“These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”
And this is one that I really want to drive home to you
Because it is so important to the concept of victorious living.
Yes we see that these men were “purchased”
We understand the facts about their redemption.
We know God had chosen them and that He had paid the price of their redemption which was the blood of His Son.
What I want you to recognize here is WHY they were purchased.
“purchased among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”
I think this idea has gotten lost on the American church.
We are so bombarded with the prosperity gospel
And humanism and the idolatry of self
That most American Christians still think it is all about them.
Cut most Christians down the middle
And it is apparent that they think God works for them.
I mean let me ask you,
• Would you say you spend more time telling God what you want or asking God what He wants?
• And when you ask God what He wants is that accompanied with time in His word so that He might actually have the opportunity to show you what He wants?
Now no one would say it, but it is apparent
That most people seem to have this notion that
God is nothing more than OUR DIVINE SERVANT.
He’s OUR GENIE IN A BOTTLE.
He’s A MIRACLE WORKER AT OUR BECK AND CALL.
AND THAT IS NOT CHRISTIAN
(that is absolutely pagan)
• Christianity does not say that we own God, Christianity says that He owns us.
• Christianity says that we were purchased by God and for God.
• Christianity says that we were bought with the enormous price of the unblemished blood of God’s own Son.
• Christianity says that we are not God’s advisors, we are God’s slaves.
1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
Listen to all the apostles refer to themselves as DOULOS (slave)
They knew what they were.
They had been purchased by God for service of God
To the end that God might be glorified.
May I submit to you that if you don’t grasp that in your life
You will never experience a life of victory.
See a person who thinks God is their personal servant
• Demands that God immediately fix their problems
• Is angry at God if He takes too long
• Will resist God’s will for their own gratification and demand God provide more of it.
But the slave of God who understands that the purpose of their being is to bring glory to God is totally the opposite.
• They know their trials are meant to glorify God
• They know they cannot submit to temptation because of their Master.
• They know they must follow because of their Master.
These 144,000 understood that.
They knew they had been purchased by God and for God
And that understanding helped them live lives of victory.
What they Fled, Where they Followed, Who they’re For
4) HOW THEY’RE FOUND (5)
“And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.”
This refers to their verdict after careful examination.
You know, how when the jury comes back and says “We find the defendant…”
Well look at how they are found… “blameless”
This speaks to the purity of their devotion.
• Their confession of Christ wasn’t merely external…
• Their religion wasn’t skin deep…
• Their commitment was just during fair weather…
Put these guys through scrutiny and we find that
They really did hate sin, they really did follow Christ,
And they really did understand it was all about God’s glory.
They remained committed to Christ, and it was a real commitment.
When you examine them they are “blameless”
And this is the idea.
Ephesians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”
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”
Everything Christ did, He did so that we might be
“holy and blameless and beyond reproach”
The idea was to make a pure and holy bride for Himself.
That is what these 144,000 understood.
And that is the key to the life of victory.
• When you understand that you were purchased by Christ and for Christ.
• When you understand that in purchasing you He also set out to purify you for
Himself alone.
• Then you begin to understand that your job is to follow Him and to forsake all
others and be committed to Him and glorify Him.
And that is a life that ends up standing with Christ when He returns.
SO LET ME ASK YOU…
• Do you think that standing with Christ when He returns is a good thing?
• Do you think singing the song of the redeemed will be worth it?
Well that decision isn’t made on the day Christ returns.
That decision is made today.
You make that decision when you decide to flee from sin.
You make that decision when you decide to follow Christ.
You make that decision when you decide it’s all about His glory
You make that decision when you walk blameless.
For 3 ½ years these 144,000 made that decision every day,
And on this final day it paid off.
FOLLOW THEIR EXAMPLE
