Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 14. We'll be reading the first five verses of that chapter. Revelation chapter 14, beginning in verse one and going through verse five. Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures. And before the elders, no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is those 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. And in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless." Let's pray once more. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for its power. It is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. We thank You for the way in which it convicts us of sin and trains us in righteousness and thoroughly equips us for every good work as it is used by Your Spirit. So, Father, we ask that Your Spirit might do His work with Your Word in our midst this morning. And as you do these things, Father, we would further ask that you might see fit to magnify your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in our presence. It is in His name we ask. Amen. Please be seated. Oftentimes when we are beginning new projects, when you're undertaking some kind of task, perhaps you're building something or assembling something, it's important for you to know what the finished product will look like if everything's been done correctly, when it's all completed. Similarly, if you start out on a journey, it's often important to know what the destination is. And frequently, when you're on the journey, you think about the destination, just as you're in the middle of a project and you think about what the finished product will be like. This weekend we've been looking at the doctrine of regeneration. What does it mean to be born again? And you know that Jesus Christ is emphatic that you must be born again. No one who is born again can see the kingdom of God. And what we're going to look at today in this text, what we're going to see is a glimpse, a picture of, as it were, the finished product. of the church triumphant in heaven. And as we see this picture of the church triumphant presented to us, we also will see a description of how it is that God in His grace worked in those whom He had brought to new life to carry them through. and to present them to himself. Now let's look at this picture. And if you've ever... If you've ever met any veterans of wartime conflict, this initial verse will make sense to you. It will resonate with you. If you meet those who are veterans, they often reflect on the camaraderie that they enjoy. It's something that transcends the moment in which they served together. And oftentimes what you'll see is these comrades-in-arms, these veterans, even many decades afterwards, will be wearing something that identifies themselves with that battle that they fought. And there's something similar going on here in verse 1 as this picture is presented. to us. We see that He looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and these 144,000, as it were, have the marks of battle on them. They had His name and His Father's name written on their forehead. It's not a patch or a uniform, but it's the name of God Himself. The first question we have to answer, having seen these ones who have God's name written on them, is who are these 144,000? Well, we see, first of all, where they're located. This is an important part of identifying who they are. They're located on Mount Zion with the Lamb who is standing. Now, this is relevant in the context of this section of Revelation. If you look back at Revelation 13.1, you see a kind of parallel description, and John introduces it the same way by saying, and I saw. Only there, the parallel description in Revelation 13.1, he sees this beast coming out of the sea, this beast, as it were, standing on the beach at the edge of the sea. And then as he describes the beast who's going to make war, he then says, and then I looked and I saw, and that's where we are in 14.1, on Mount Zion, the Lamb. And it's as if John is portraying for us already who the victor clearly is. He's the one enthroned on the high ground. He's the one enthroned on the mountains in contrast to the one who comes up out of the sea. And so these 144,000 are those who are with the Lamb, the victorious Lamb, and who bear His name. That's significant, but it doesn't quite answer the question of who these 144,000 are. I think we get more information as we go further on in the text. We look at verse four, and it describes them this way. These 144,000 had been redeemed from the earth, it says in verse three. And then in verse four, it says, it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Now again, it's worthwhile to note that this is part of a larger section of the book of Revelation. It's a section of the book where the opposition faced by the people of God is on full display. Again, we have this beast and then this victorious lamb who wins out. But in the midst of all that, people are often oppressed and persecuted. And these are the ones who have made it through. In fact, it says in verse 4 that these are the ones who not only follow the lamb wherever he goes, but these are the ones who have not defiled themselves. And these are the ones who have, according to verse 3, been redeemed. from the earth. So they're the ones who have followed the Lamb in the context of persecution, and in that context of persecution and worldly opposition, have now been glorified with Him. Now, why is this helpful in terms of a description? Well, if we compare this Scripture with other texts of Scripture, we see that this is a description of the people of God throughout the New Testament. The Apostle Paul puts it this way, very starkly, echoing the words of Jesus. Jesus says, if they hate me, they will hate you. And Paul puts it this way, all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. The book of Revelation reminds us of something that the New Testament teaches in all of its pages. that from the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, we live in this time called the last days, and there will be opposition on many fronts. We should not be surprised when the Christian faith is opposed by the political powers that be. We shouldn't be surprised that the world is arrayed against us, that we're in a cult that has a negative view towards the church and towards the Christian faith. We should not be surprised, these texts would tell us, when being a Christian hurts us financially, makes it much more difficult. We shouldn't be surprised that there are all kinds of competing claims to worship something or someone other than the God of the Bible. None of that should surprise us at all. It is found in your New Testament and it is found in this section of your New Testament. namely Revelation 12-14. We have all kinds of examples of this. You know, of course, the example of the Lord, but think about the example of the Apostle to the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul. What did he face in this life? What was it like for him to live in the world in which he lived? We see Him imprisoned and tortured. We see Him have a thorn in the flesh from Satan that He asked the Lord three times to remove. We read this kind of summary from 2 Corinthians 11 where he says, five times I received at the hands of the Jews 40 lashes, less one, three times beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night," and on and on he goes. You see, this is what's described here in this section of Revelation. It's described as a time of opposition. A time of great persecution. And the picture that we receive is of 144,000 veterans of the kind of persecution, the very kind of persecution that we are all told to expect in this life. They are ones who are redeemed by God, it says, and who follow Christ. There's something else to note about the identity of these 144,000 and its applicability to all of us. In this section of Revelation, this section of Revelation 12 through 14, there are really only two categories of people. There are those who have received the mark of the beast, it's described for us. And then there are those, like these 144,000, who are marked with God's seal. And that brings us to the number itself. I would suggest, based on the way in which it's used in the book of Revelation, this number and all the surrounding descriptions of it that match up almost precisely with everything we see in the New Testament indicate the totality of those who are redeemed by God in these last days. There's a quote here. from a very well-known commentator who puts it this way. I think he summarizes it well. The number 144,000 connotes the completeness of God's true people in antithesis to the number 666 on the foreheads of the beast followers, which connotes their incompleteness in achieving the divine design for humanity. In other words, these are those who are in heaven, having been marked with God's seal. They have been chosen by Him. They have been brought to new life by Him. They have been kept by Him. See, that's the significance, I think, that we can't miss about this number. Believers are frequently called the elect of God, and we know that Our salvation is rooted in God's work. Salvation comes from the Lord. But this number reminds us that those whom the Lord has chosen, those whom God has redeemed, He will keep and He will carry to completion. He will bring to glory. Another commentator puts it this way when commenting on the significance of this number. Now on Mount Zion, he says, we find that not one of them, not one of the redeemed, not one of those who have followed the Lamb, not one of them has been lost. John sees not 129,600, which would be a 90% success rate, or even 143,999, with only one single precious sheep having perished. Instead, the exact number of those who begin the journey of salvation, in other words, the exact number of those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit, trusting in Christ for their salvation, the exact number of those who begin the journey of salvation through faith, arrive safely at His presence. In the terms of Psalm 23, everyone who begins by saying, the Lord is my shepherd, does in fact dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So this description, this description is a powerful comfort. It's meant to be a comfort to the people of God. Those who follow the Lamb, those who have faced perhaps great opposition. Nonetheless, in the end, when the Lamb is standing victorious on Mount Zion, He has with Him all those who have been bought and secured by Jesus Christ, and all those who have been brought to new life by His Holy Spirit. Now what else do we see here? We see not only that they have been bought and secured by the Lord Jesus Christ, but in fact, their allegiance is fully to Him. We need to pause here for a moment as we think about this and ask ourselves this question based on that identifying mark, His name written on their foreheads. And the question is this, the question is, would this be said of you? Are you trusting in the Lamb alone for your salvation? Is Jesus Christ your Redeemer? Would it be said that you have given yourself to Him, that you are leaning on Him for salvation, that you are trusting and following Him in your life? This is what it means in the Bible to be numbered in that great company of saints who one day will be said to be veterans in the war against Satan and his instruments on earth. Are you one of whom it would be said his allegiance is to Jesus Christ? Now, there's more to this description, not just identifying who this is, not just comforting us that they're all there. Everyone is numbered. but set against the backdrop of their suffering, it's a glorious thing to see their victory and to see what their victory looks like. Look at verse 2. He describes what is happening on Mount Zion with these redeemed hosts surrounding the Lamb. It describes it this way, they are in heavenly Jerusalem with the Lamb of God and they are hearing with His angels a loud roar of praise. Look at what it says in verse 2, I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps and they were singing a new song before the throne. This is a This is a description of a sound of praise to the Lamb that is beyond anything that we can really comprehend. The language that John uses to describe it is vivid in one sense, but almost seems to be contradictory. It's like roaring thunder that you can barely hear yourself think over. It's like many harps, but all of it is meant to show us that our best expressions of corporate praise today pale in comparison to what John describes in verse 2. They may be mere tastes, but they're not anything like the heartfelt praise of heavenly Zion. Think about what John must have experienced here, how this must have been for John. I'm often struck when reading the account of the rich man and Lazarus, there's this vivid depiction of Lazarus' suffering and his difficulties and his poverty and he's covered with sores. And then there's just this little phrase, and he died and he was carried by angels to Abraham's side. And I think to myself, what a radical transformation. What a radical new vision he must have received. And John has something like that. He's describing for us what it's like to be worshiping the Lamb in a way that we can hardly even experience. I have no doubt that if John were to were to think on life and think even about the suffering of life that's described in these chapters, these three chapters, he would have to say at the end of verse 2, with respect to those sufferings, exactly what the Apostle Paul says when Paul says, I consider that the sufferings of this present life and the sufferings described in Revelation 12 and 13 are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed. I wonder if you have this sense. I wonder if you look forward to heaven in this way, longing for the celestial city where our worship is perfected and we are in the midst of the Lamb. Today, even this morning, we order our public worship in a dialogical way. We hear from God and we lift our voices in response. But imagine, see what's pictured here, imagine what it would be like to hear from our God in a loud and thundering voice that is unmistakable and direct, and to respond to Him perfectly in worship that befits His revelation. Part of the object of the passage is to show us this, Those who are born again by God now, one of the images the Bible uses is that God's seed is planted in us. And here we see, as it were, this full flowering when we stand before the throne worshiping God. And you notice it's not alone. It's to host all the redeemed, all the holy angels, together in one place, undivided by space and time, and the divisions which mar our worship today. All God's saints, having made it through the battle, together on Mount Zion. And what are they singing? Well, verse three tells us that they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. This is significant in the Bible. God's people are often described throughout the Old Testament as singing a new song. But if you notice the pattern of when they sing a new song, it is when God has just defeated an enemy. who has just done something remarkable in saving them. This song, this new song, is in a sense a culmination of all those great victories in the past. The song that they sing, according to verse three, is a song that only God's redeemed can sing because only they know it and only they have experienced it. Can you imagine what it will be like to look around at all of those redeemed by God? and to see the many multifaceted ways in which God has brought them salvation. God has led them through the darkness of this present age. God has saved them from all kinds of trials. And as a kind of culminating song, together we sing this new song before the Lord. Not one of us has been lost. The opposition and the challenges and the suffering of life has been set aside. This demands a new song and you can't learn it until you reach the heavenly Mount Zion. Now one of the reasons that we can hardly even imagine what this kind of worship is like is because we can hardly even imagine that kind of gathering for worship. Every congregation we have ever gathered together and worshiped in is marred by sin. And this is so different, such a different picture. Sin mars our fellowship and our worship here on earth. But look at what it says here in verse four. Verse four. describes those who have been brought through this life. In fact, the way it describes them, we've already seen that these are ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, but it describes them as those who have been redeemed from the earth, who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. Now, some scholars throughout the history of the church have taken this to mean that the 144,000 are a sort of subset of the church, and these are people who have committed themselves to some kind of monastic celibacy. I think this is not the case for a number of reasons, both reasons that have to do with the whole Bible, but also we are God's children now, we've been born again, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears we'll be like Him, We'll see Him as He really is. Or what Paul says in Romans 8, speaking again about the new birth, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we're children of God, and if children, then heirs. Heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Our fellowship and joy in heaven at the end of this earthly pilgrimage, will be richer and greater than we can imagine. We will be with our triune God, but also everyone else will be presented, according to verse 4, without fault before God. It's hard for us to even imagine this kind of glory. The glory of the heavenly Zion and of the just men made perfect out of the context of suffering. Now, I would suggest that these blameless ones, according to verse 5, these ones whose mouths contain no lies, are a glorious picture, but they, when presented to us, present us with significant implications. First of all, they remind us, particularly in the context of this section of Revelation, that the world and the culture in which we inhabit right now, on this side of the heavenly Zion, is not neutral. To be a Christian right now is to be at war The devil and the systems that he influences are against us. Sometimes their tactics are obvious and violent. Sometimes they're subtle. But Revelation 14 reminds us that what God has redeemed us from is nothing less than slavery to sin. And He's taken us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His Son. What it means to be a Christian today is to keep oneself unstained by the world. To be married, as it were, to Christ. We've committed ourselves to Him in the midst of the battle through which He takes us. But there's great glory on the other side. Remember how Martin Luther puts it, though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. See, this is the picture that the Lord gives to us to remind us of the aim of the work he's doing in our lives. One day we'll be with him in glory. Second, this text reminds us that we can't speak of that glory without thinking and speaking about worship. To be on Mount Zion is to be lifting your voice in praise to God with the new song that only the redeemed can learn. It's to be listening to the booming voice of God and engaged with your whole being in giving thanks to Him for His redemption. So how do we begin to gain a taste for that today? Well, by engaging. in corporate worship, worship that's not governed by anything other than the Word of God. We approach God as He's mandated in His Word. And in so doing, we, as it were, begin to practice that which we will be enjoying in its fullness when God brings His redeemed people to Himself. We are also reminded something of the glory that is to be ours in heaven. Our broken fellowship here is unbroken in eternity. Our mixed congregations with sheep and wolves are transformed into pure, unvarnished fellowship with those who have fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith all by grace alone. And in that glory, we will experience something that puts in perspective the suffering of this life. That the suffering doesn't even compare with the glory. Now if we were to apply these things, I think we can hardly do better than the application given just after this. Just after we see this description of the heavenly Zion and God's people gathered together in glory. What do we see? We see three angelic statements and they serve as applications to us today. Look a little further in chapter 15 at verse 7. At the first angelic application. If these things are so, the angel said with a loud voice, fear God and give Him glory. One very important application for you today. Is to turn to God and give him the glory he deserves right now. If you have not. Come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. If you're not trusting in him for your salvation. If you're not invested in his glory now. One of the implications of this would be. Fear God and give him glory. while the opportunity still exists. The second application comes in verse 8. The angel again speaks in response to this vision. Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. This is a reminder to us, just as this picture is a reminder to us, that the world in its system will one day come under the judgment of God. It doesn't mean our lives now are easier, but it does mean that their doom is sure. It's notable, I think, that all of this is described as a kind of sexual immorality. Something that the people of God are not to participate in in this life. And finally, third application I would give is the third angelic testimony after this, and that comes in verse 12. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. For you right now, We are on this side of that great heavenly vision of glory, born again by God's Holy Spirit and dwelt by His Spirit, but in need of perseverance. So this text would call us to endure with all the saints. What does that endurance look like? It looks like obedience to the commandments of God and continued trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. Let's pray together. Our Father, thank you for this text. It gives us a picture of what you are doing now and what you will do in the future. Oh, Father, grant us a greater vision of these things, that we might be transformed from one degree of glory to another. Do this, we pray, and cause us to Persevere in faith, we ask. In Jesus' name, Amen.