Welcome to the Cary Baptist Church radio broadcast entitled Thy Word is Settled in Heaven. I'm Pastor Donohue. Today we're preaching out of the book of Revelation, and we're going to see a great scene of the saints and angels before the throne of God. And there's a great multitude of men and angels, so many that no one can number them all, and we're going to see what makes up this great scene and what we can learn from Revelation chapter 7. We'll begin reading in verse 9. and read about eight verses down to the end of the chapter. After this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying to me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said to him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation. and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into everlasting fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." Rather than that, we're going to end in verse 17. We've read about half of the chapter in Revelation 7, and we see the saints and angels before the throne, before the Lamb of God. And what a great site it is. We've got 17 or 18 things we want to say about this site, about this passage, and just collect them all together and draw some conclusions based on what God has presented to us. In this, the Apostle John's vision of the future. Revelation, John sees a vision of Christ. He calls him up to heaven and he sees things that are future, and this is one of the things that he sees. And we're going to learn some great things out of these passages. We'll learn first that what John sees in verse 9 is a great multitude, a great harvest of souls. They have been brought out of the earth. They have been saved. And they're from where? Well, the Bible says they're from all nations, all kindreds, all people, all tongues. This is the Bible's way of saying that of all people groups in the world, some have been saved and they are represented in heaven. The number of the saints is innumerable and they come from all people groups, all languages. And this great harvest of souls that are in heaven, that we see standing before the throne, They cried with a loud voice, salvation to our God. And they're praising God for the rich and gracious salvation he provided to them. And we have an image of that salvation there in verse 9. It says there in verse 9 that those that stood before the throne were clothed with white robes, and they had palms in their hands, a fitting image of the saints in heaven. Having a palm in your hand is indicative of having the victory, and so they are now enjoying the victory. But even more important than that is the white robes, which signifies all the stain and guilt of sin has been removed by the white robes. a glorious picture of salvation. As we mentioned, they cried with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God. Yes, God provided them salvation, and they could do nothing less than shout about it. Indicative of the salvation is the white robe that represents their clean before God. The stains of sin and guilt have been removed, and we know that's by the blood of Christ. The robes were made white in the blood of Christ. As John says in his first epistle, 1 John 1 and 7, the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. So these saints have been cleansed, they have those white robes, and Isaiah The great prophet of the Old Testament has something to say about these white robes. Let me quote that for you. Isaiah 61 10. He says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God for he clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with a robe of righteousness. Yes, Isaiah said, God gave him the garments of salvation, as if a man went to a wedding and a wedding garment was provided that all the guests were given, and they all put it on, they wore it during the wedding. This is a garment provided by God. These white robes are, as Isaiah calls them, the robe of righteousness. And they're standing before God, they're saved, they're glad to be saved, they're shouting about their salvation. They cried to the one who sat upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And so we have a vision of God on the throne and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb, standing next to him. This is repeated a couple of verses later, the throne and the Lamb. And Christ Jesus is known by many names in the scripture. He's the Messiah, the Christ, the Good Shepherd. He's the king of kings. So many names, but he's also the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And here he's pictured in Revelation as the Lamb, the one sacrificial animal. And Jesus is the sacrifice. And there were with this great multitude the angels. Notice verse 11, and all the angels stood round about the throne. Innumerable company of angels around the throne, around the saints that are there. And about the elders and the four beasts. Now, these are mentioned earlier in chapter 4, the elders, 24 elders and the four beasts. And I had said before that the 24 elders probably represent the church. They're representative 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles, 12 and 12 is 24. So the elders are perhaps representative persons before the throne, It doesn't say more than that here. It just says the angel stood around about the throne, and around about the elders, and the four beasts. The four beasts, again, mentioned earlier, and also the four beasts are found in the prophet Ezekiel. If you want to study the four beasts, go to the first three chapters of Ezekiel. And nevertheless, they're around the throne, and God will put around the throne sovereignly those beings and people and angels that he desires. Notice the angels fell down before the throne on their faces and worshiped God. That's verse 11. So in heaven, both men and angels worship God. It's their occupation. These would be the holy angels who have never sinned, who didn't fall with Lucifer and the fallen angels. And they're there, and they serve God night and day, and they worship Him. Heaven is a place of worship. It's a place of praise. It's a place of people standing around the throne and giving glory to God and singing to God and praising God. Heaven's a place of singing and praise and worship. It's a place where men are dressed in robes. They have palms in their hands. It's just a blessed place. Notice verse 12, saying, Amen. Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might. be unto God forever and ever. Now this is the saying of the angels, and there are seven things here that are mentioned, seven being the number of completion. Blessing number one, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might. These are the seven things, and these are the attributes of God. So the angels in heaven are bowing down to God, falling down on their faces, worshiping God, and they're praising God for his divine attributes. God is full of glory. God's full of wisdom. He is to be honored. He's full of power and might. And these ought to elicit our thanksgiving. So God is to be praised in heaven and on earth. We don't have to wait to get to heaven to praise God and to worship Him. We can meet in the house of God every Lord's Day and worship and praise God. and sing about his glorious attributes and his salvation. That's what we do at our church. We meet for worship and praise, and we thank God for his salvation, and we read and study the scripture, and we pray to God, but most of all, we worship the Lord. Now we have a question here. John is being asked a question by one of these elders. It doesn't say more than just that one of the elders answered, saying to me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? So John is being asked a question. He doesn't know the answer. And so he answers back in verse 14. He says unto him, sir, thou knowest. And it's perhaps a rhetorical question. And John takes it as such. And he's saying, in effect, well, sir, go ahead and tell me. that I will know who are these." And the elder says, these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So great tribulation that would be on the earth. On the earth, saints will have tribulation. Saints will have persecution. Jesus said in Matthew 5, blessed are you when men shall revile you, persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you. So the earth is a place of opposition to the will of God. Heaven is a place where God is always praised and His will is always done. So these are people that came out of that place of tribulation, the earth, where saints are facing tribulation. So many thousands of saints have died because of their faith. Others have been persecuted or put in prison. But what is even more important than that is that they have washed their robes. That's what you see is a person's clothing, and their clothes are white. They're perfectly white. They've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. They made them white. All the stain of sin, the guilt of sin, is removed in the blood of Christ. And here we have the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. That's a recurring theme in the Bible. Many good preachers will tell you that's the crimson thread that runs throughout the Bible, and it sure is. Our robes have been made white, therefore we can stand before God without blemish, without stain, in heaven before him as these multitudes of men, too many to number, do. Now notice verse 15, therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in the temple. And they have unlimited access to the glorious place of God's temple, the place of worship in heaven. And wherever God is there, he can be worshipped, and they're worshipping him in his temple in heaven. They serve him night and day. That's a glorious privilege. They have access to God at all times. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. You know, when Adam and Eve sinned, they were separated from God, and God no longer walked with Adam and Eve after their sin. But in heaven, God will dwell with men, because they have been cleansed, and they live in heaven where there is no sin, and God shall dwell with them. and he will have his servants, whether it's the elders, or the angels, or the beast, or the men and women that have been redeemed from all the peoples of the earth, they will serve him day and night, and they will be blessed forevermore. Now we have a glimpse into the eternal world, and that's in verse 16 and 17. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light of them nor any heat for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and lead them into the living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." And so that's eternity for the Christian. They will neither hunger nor thirst, and they will be led, they will be fed, and they shall have all their tears wiped away. There's no difficulty, trial, temptation in heaven. Because God is there, He will make everything glorious for the people that He has redeemed. This is the vision that John sees of heaven, and the center of the vision is the throne with God seated in the land, and they receive worship. All this is due to the grace of God in the work of Christ. God so loved the world, and the heart of God is a love for mankind. And here is eternal life in its fullness in heaven. Brethren, the Bible says, them he did predestinate, he called them he called, he did justify them, he did justify, He did glorify, and this is the glorified state in Revelation chapter 7. If you want to know what the glorified state is, you have it here in Revelation chapter 7. Brethren, looks like we're about out of time, so we're going to go ahead and close it up here. I'll remind you you've been listening to the Thy Word Has Settled in Heaven radio broadcast, brought to you by Cary Baptist Church. We're in Athens, Alabama. I'm Pastor Ben Donohue. And as always, let me thank you for listening. We hope you join us again next time. And until then, we'll say goodbye.