Victorious Voices

INTRODUCTION

The Doctrine of the wrath and judgment of God has fallen on hard times. In today’s world, any concept of God’s wrath upsets our modern sentiments. It’s too disconcerting, too intolerant.

We live in a day where we have set ourselves as Judge and God’s character is continually on trial. “How can hell be just?” Why would God command the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites?” “Why does God always seem so angry?”

The fact that so many people struggle with these questions is exactly one of the reason’s we are studying Jesus Revelation to the church.

J.I. Packer summarizes: “God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil” (Knowing God, 151).

There is an old song called “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which begins with words that reflect the text before us: “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” The idea of God trampling out sinners in wrath is not a popular idea in our culture.

We read in Psalm 94:1-2

Psalm 94:1–2 ESV

1 O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth! 2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve!

The prayer of the psalmist is now answered in Revelation 14, a text that stands in amazing contrast to Chapter 13. In 13 you have the beast, the antichrist, rises to power. He wars against the saints and overcomes them, takes authority over the whole earth, and puts to death those who will not worship him or bear his mark.

Now we have 3 separate visions by John (see “I looked” or “I saw” in 14:1,16,14) we see the warrior Lamb standing on Mount Zion with his army of saints. They sing the song of redemption (14:2-3) and now follow after the Lamb in holiness and purity (14:4-5).

Revelation 14:1–5 ESV

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. 2 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, 3 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. 4 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 firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.

1. On Judgment day the one you follow and worship is Crucial and Decisive.

Remember we spoke of how everyone is worshiping someone or something.

HOW DO WE SHOW THE ONE WE FOLLOW AND THE ONE WE WORSHIP?

Exalting Jesus in Revelation (Faithful Followers of Jesus Have a Glorious Future (Revelation 14:1–5))

Warren Wiersbe is certainly correct: “Better to reign with Christ forever, than to reign with Antichrist for a few years” (Be Victorious, 112).

Better to worship the Lamb who redeems us than the Beast who deceives and Destroys us.

*The Redeemed will decisively stand with Him

Decisive: having the power or quality of deciding in a resolute or determined manner.

THE 144,0000

We read about the 144,000 in Revelation 7:1-8. John now see’s mt. Zion the Lamb, and with him the 144,000 with his name and that of his Father is written on their foreheads. These marked with the mark of God from a contrast with the followers of the beast who bore his name on their foreheads and right hand.

Mount Zion is sometimes associated with deliverance and this is the picture we get here of those who have come out of the tribulation now standing in the earthly Jerusalem.

this is the mountain of the great king of the mountain, and there He stands in triumphant victory. By glorious grace those who follow Him stand now with Him. The reign of terror, of the antichrist, and false prophets is already passing away. Their doom is certain. There is a new king on the scene! The Beast is going down as the Lamb now stands up.

There is nothing here for us to assume that the 144,000 are somehow an elite group of martyrs. This number of completeness represents the whole church that has faithfully followed the Lamb. We must not miss the fulfillment here of the 144,000 were sealed, 144,000 were saved. They were on earth confronted by enemies. Now they are in Heaven and not one of them has been lost.

*The Redeemed Will Sing to Him Loudly

Have you noticed how much worship is taking place in Revelation?

I am astonished today when I see Christians who refuse to sing, or they stand with arms crossed during the music part of our worship. What do we think the scene is going to be like in the eternal kingdom?

Every picture we get is of the saints of God busting out in worship.

Notice that here the voice that John hears is not one but many. John hears “a resounding heavenly anthem. The sound is both booming and beautiful.

The sound of the water and thunders are impressive and powerful. The song, John says, is “like harpists harping with their harps.”

Consider that without the experience of redemption no-one could possibly sing the song. Redeemed of the earth indicates redemption from worldly people. They are God’s people.

Notice that singing is a natural response of all who have been purchased by God and bought back from the penalty of sin and death. The response in singing is a continual acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty and our unworthiness before a Holy God. We now rejoice in the Lamb who was slaughtered but is now standing.

Christianity has always been a singing faith and it will continue to be a singing faith throughout all eternity.

When we lift our voices in worship we are giving Worthship back to God.

*The Redeemed will stand Holy and Complete.

The Triple THESE

These who have not defiled themselves with women.

These who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.

These who have not defiled themselves with women

This first part appears difficult especially in regard to women simply because the 144,000 refers to the whole church and it is not easy to apply this to women and regarding the second part to men because sexual relations is not prohibited among the married in scripture.

We know that virginity is ascribed to the people of God in the Old Testament, and unfaithfulness to God is related to improper sexual relations. Israel was often referred to as playing the whore in it’s times of unfaithfulness to the covenant of God.

We also see in Paul’s writing that he see’s the ‘bride, the wife of the Lamb’. But the marriage is at this point a future reality. The bigger picture that John is giving us is that the 144,000 were not unfaithful to their Lord. They glorified God in their bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:20 ESV

20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Therefore, we should see the term as symbolic. The people in question have kept themselves completely free from sexual relations with the pagan world and its systems. They have lived up to what is implied in their betrothal to the Lamb of God.

These who follow the Lamb wherever He Goes

They do not nor can they just walk away and lay down the place where their faithful service takes them. Those who are truly secured by the Lamb will follow Him wherever He goes. Those who are not truly His might appear to be following for a time but will eventually leave the flock.

We read in John 10 that the sheep know the shepherd and the shepherd knows his flock. Wherever the shepherd calls the sheep to go they will follow. Jesus also talks about those who do not enter the sheepfold by the door which is Jesus. They attempt to climb in another way. They are regarded as thieves and robbers.

John 10:1–5 ESV

1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

John 10:14-16 Jesus goes on to explain that He lays down His life for the sheep and that there are others who are not yet a part of flock, so, he must bring them also in so that they will listen to his voice. “So there will be one flock and one shepherd.

And again in verse 27 He say’s “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and now 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 Fathers hand.”

Note: There is no Ambiguity with God.

Ambiguity: the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.

Finally John writes in 1 John 5:11-13 “And this is the testimony, that God have us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

These who have been Redeemed (purchased) from mankind as firstfruits

The word firstfruits were the first part of the harvest and were therefore, set aside as holy in a special sense. They could not be put to ordinary secular use for they belonged to God. Even when the word did not refer to the harvest in a strict sense it usually meant a gift made to a deity. The though primarily is belonging to God.

James saw the church as a kind of firstfruits in James 1:18. The church belongs to God. Her calling is to be consecrated to him.

“And in the mouth no lie is found, for they are blameless.”

NOTE: Complete truthfulness is a further characteristic of believers; no lie is found with them. Think of the world today, they do not appear to have a burden for the truth at all, and Christians must have stood out as different. Especially did they reject the lie, the lie of the antichrist. They are summed up as blameless.

Revelation 14:6–13 ESV

6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” 8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” 9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” 12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

2. On judgement day we will be judged based on the validation of our faith

What Validates our Faith?

1). Validation according to Truth

We are held responsible for the truth that we have been given.

Matthew 11:21-24 “Each will be judged according to the information they have received.

Romans 1:20 “humanity is without excuse.”

Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing the word of God.....”

Matthew 25 is perhaps the longest such passage in all of Scripture. In verses 31-46, Christ separates the sheep from the goats.”

Matthew 25:31–46 ESV

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Revelation has the more extended presentation of the final judgment.

The text we have read so far in Revelation either make no mention of the judgement or mention idolatry, sin, or works as a basis for our judgment.

Revelation 20:11-15 probably has the most explicit text about people receiving judgement based on what they have or have not done. “God judges the dead by what was written in the books, according to what they have done .... and they were judged, each of them, according to what they had done.... And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Those whose names are written down before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8) are not judged, since the slain lamb’s blood is the penal satisfaction for their sinful works. The Lamb suffered our judgement on our behalf. We must ask three questions:

1). God’s final judgement and

2). The Requirement that believers must show their good works to pass through the judgement, then we need to look at

3). How the final judgment relates to non-Christians.

Here is the call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. vs. 13 “That they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.

The final Judgement and Works

Romans 3:24-25 tells us explicitly that we are justified by Christ’s blood from the wrath of God. If this is true then whey does the New Testament teach elsewhere that “works” are necessary for passing unscathed through the final judgement.

For example Romans 2:13 says

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified (or better yet Vindicated). Make no mistake that there will be judicial evaluation of the works of all people. God will render to each according to his works at the time of judgement. (v. 6). He goes on in 2:7 to indicate that there will be those who do good, yet not perfect who will obtain eternal life.

But in 2:8 Paul indicates that there will be those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

“Undoubtedly on the day of judgement, the righteous will be … openly acknowledged and acquitted”

2) According to our Works

Works that Prove our Righteousness

Some large discount store chains require and annual fee for the privilege of shopping in their store. Now you must present the card as evidence that the fee has been paid before you are granted access to the store and all of its benefits. The card gives a true member entrance into the store, but the card by itself is not the ultimate reason a person is granted access.

The paid fee is “necessary” first as a causal requirement for entrance.

Therefore, Christ justifying and substitutionary death on the cross once for all and the good works done within the context of Christian faith become the evidence at our judicial evaluation, when the believer is openly acknowledged and acquitted before all.

Note: So, I would say to you if all you have to show for your faith is the card then you do not truly have saving faith, and if all you are resting on is the knowledge of the price that has been paid yet, it has made no difference in how you live your life then you do not have saving faith.

On the day of judgement both the believers righteousness and Christ’s death on the cross will bring you into the Kingdom of God.

Philippians 1:6 reminds us that He who began a good work in your will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

John 15 Jesus reminds us that He is the true vine and we are the branches, those who abide in him and he who abides in us bears much fruit. Apart from Christ you can do nothing. The branches that do not bear fruit are torn away and burned in the fire. In verse 10 Jesus declares that if you keep His commandments you abide in His love.

1 Corinthians 6:9 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? .....

Galatians 5:6 “for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love...

James 2:14-26 “Or what should we say brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can faith save him?...

So we must learn to make a biblical distinction between

earning life on the basis of works (which the bible does not teach)

receiving eternal life validated according to our works (which the bible does teach).

Note: Therefore, works confirm our faith in God and His son.

“According to works” means God will take the fruit of the Spirit and the “good deeds” by which we let the light of our faith shine before men, and he will accept them as evidence of our faith.

His sentence of acquittal will not be because we are not guilty. It will be because Christ bore our guilt.

3). According to God’s Standard

God’s standard is Jesus Christ

Humanity will be judged according to God’s standards, not ours. We will be measured against Christ, not compared with one another. (God’s standard is perfection Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect as I am perfect”)

John 12:48 ESV

48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

The one who rejects Jesus Christ will be judged.

The destiny of those who know Christ is radically different from those who die without Him. In verse 12 we are called to endurance, patience, steadfastness, or perseverance.

While salvation is a signed sealed and settled thing rooted in the keeping power of God, we are challenged to persevere, and the means of our perseverance is noted here in verse 12: those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

Jesus reminds us in John 8:31

John 8:31 ESV

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

Finally at the end of this section we read again that John heard a voice from heaven telling him to write - to write words that will be permanent and lasting. Here we receive the second of seven beatitudes in the book of Revelation.

“The dead who die in the Lord from now on are blessed.”

Note: Everything hinges on the words “who die in the Lord.” As opposed to those who “do not die in the Lord.” Paul reminds us in

2 Corinthians 5:8

2 Corinthians 5:8 ESV

8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Paul goes on with this theme in Philippians 1:21

Philippians 1:21 ESV

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

This is the only time that the Holy Spirit is quoted in the whole Revelation except in 22:17. His emphatic cry is “Yes.” This reveals His absolute agreement with the voice from heaven.

Revelation 14:14–20 ESV

14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. 17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

3. On Judgment Day Jesus will Pour out His Wrath in Righteous Judgment.

(Revelation 14:14–20))

I once heard a Jewish evangelist named Hyman Appleman say, “If I could scare you out of hell, I would.” I have to agree with him, knowing how terrible and eternal hell will be.

Revelation 14:9–11 makes this clear. Now verses 14–20 demonstrate its future horror by the images of two harvests: grain in 14–16 and grapes in 17–20.

While some students of Scripture believe the first depicts the harvest of the righteous and the second the unrighteous, it is best to see both as harvests of judgment on the wicked. The Old Testament background is

Joel 3:12–13, where the Bible says,Let the nations be roused and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the surrounding nations. Swing the sickle because the harvest is ripe. Come and trample the grapes because the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because the wickedness of the nations is great.

John now looks and sees the Son of Man on a white cloud with a golden victor’s crown on His head. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is our Lord in dazzling brilliance and majesty, awesome authority and power.

He has a sharp sickle in his hand and an angel coming out of the temple in heaven says the time to harvest the earth has come because “the earth is ripe.” Jesus describes the judgment in

Matthew 13:30

Matthew 13:30 ESV

30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

The angel responds immediately and decisively in verse 19. There is no delay, no hesitation.

In ancient Near East in John’s time, grapes were stomped by foot in a trough that had a duct leading to a lower trough or basin where the juice was collected. “The splattering of the juice as the grapes are stomped pictures the splattered blood of those who will be destroyed.”

Treading grapes in a winepress was a familiar figure of divine wrath and judgment.

Isaiah 63:3–4 ESV

3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come.

CONCLUSION

Charles Hayden Spurgeon: Understood the gravity of what it meant to stand with Jesus or against Jesus.

I beseech you, do not risk that doom for yourselves. Escape for your lives; look not behind you but fly to the only refuge which God has provided. Whoever will entrust his soul to Jesus Christ shall be eternally saved. Look unto him who wore the thorn-crown, and repose your soul’s entire confidence in Him, and then, in that last great day, you shall see Him seated on the white cloud, wearing the golden crown, and you shall be gathered.…

But if you reject Him, do not think it wrong that you should be cast with the grapes into the winepress of the wrath of God, and be trodden with the rest of “the clusters of the vine of the earth.” I beg you to take Christ as your Saviour, this very hour lest this night you should die unsaved.

Lay hold of Jesus, lest you never hear another gospel invitation or warning. If I have seemed to speak terribly, God knoweth that I have done it out of love to your souls; and, believe me, that I do not speak as strongly as the truth might well permit me to do, for there is something far more terrible about the doom of the lost than language can ever express or thought conceive.

God save all of you from ever suffering that doom, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen. (“Harvest”)

I beseech you with every fiber of my being this morning lay hold of Jesus Christ the only Savior of your Soul.

Think about who has God placed in your life today that you need to plead, as Spurgeon did, to flee the wrath and judgment of God?