In a sense, the chronology of the book flows, but every now and then there is a parenthesis that just talks about some things unrelated to time issues. And such is the case here in this chapter. There are six scenes or sounds which are given as an overview of events yet to come. These are not particularly in chronological order.
They don't advance the chronology of the book, but we're simply given this information as an encouragement, not only to the people in that day, but to us today, an encouragement in the midst of our trials that in the end, history is going to come out where God says it will. We can be comforted by that. The first scene is found in verses 1 through 5. It is the scene of the Lamb and the 144,000. Follow along as I read these verses.
Then I looked and behold a Lamb, standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000, having his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the voice of a loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. And they sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who are redeemed from the earth.
These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile, that is no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. Reading from the New King James Version. The first scene then is a pastoral scene. It's peaceful.
This scene seems to take place at the beginning of the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, once again, in the chronology of the book, we've not yet come to that event, the beginning of the millennium. But in this chapter there is this snapshot, this scene that is given to us of what will take place at the beginning of the millennium between the Lamb and his 144,000. We see here that the Lamb is also the shepherd, and the 144,000 constitutes one of his flocks.
It tells us that there was not one that was lost of the 144,000 who were sealed back in chapter 7. These seem to be the same group. The 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel in chapter 7 are more than likely the same 144,000 found here in chapter 14. They were sealed as the tribulation began.
And now after the tribulation is finished, these seven years of terrible persecution and judgment from God upon the earth, at the end of that period of time as the millennial reign of Christ begins, they are still alive. They have been kept by the shepherd through these seven years.
I suggested earlier in our study that these 144,000 may well be evangelists, Jewish evangelists that will go throughout the earth preaching the gospel, the result of that being the salvation of millions of people who had not heard the gospel previously. Therefore they are candidates for salvation in the tribulation period. And now we see them standing with the Lamb victoriously on Mount Zion.
And the first question is, of course, where is Mount Zion, and those who have been recently in Israel can answer that question. Mount Zion is a hilltop there in the city of Jerusalem. There are those who think that it may be the heavenly Mount Zion that is pictured here, but it seems to me better to understand it as the earthly Mount Zion. These 144,000 now having lived through the tribulation and all of them now being gathered with Christ there in the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion.
And John says, I heard a voice or a sound from heaven, and he describes it like that of many waters and loud thunder. The same kind of language is used in chapter 19 and verse 6, where it describes a multitude in heaven that is speaking and singing. Consequently, it seems to me that the sound that he hears in chapter 14 and verse 2 would also be the sound of heavenly singers. I wouldn't understand this sound as being the 144,000, it comes from heaven.
And it seems to be a large multitude that is shouting praises to God there. And the song that they sing is accompanied by harpists who are playing their harps. And they are voicing a new song. Notice that it is a song that is sung before the throne of God and before the four living creatures and the elders. These are all figures that we have seen before in the book of Revelation. So there is sort of a joining here of heaven and earth.
There is the scene of the 144,000 on the earth linked somehow with this heavenly scene where the multitude is singing before the throne of God and the purpose of this seems to be the teaching of a chorus, the teaching of a hymn to the 144,000 who alone were able to learn the words of this new song. Now notice the interesting descriptions of this group of 144,000. It says they were redeemed out of the earth.
That is, they were saved upon the earth and have been delivered from this time of terrible judgment upon the earth. It describes them as being not defiled with women as virgins. Now this has given rise to speculation as to what this could mean. The word virgins here is rather unusual in that it is male. It is talking about male virgins when most commonly the word virgin is used of females in the Bible. There are basically two ways to look at this group in this description.
First of all, it could be talking literally. The tribulation will be unusual times demanding unusual situations and these 144,000 may be like Jeremiah of old and forbidden to marry. But the language, if you take it literally, seems to imply that marriage relations would constitute defilement. And that would be contrary to the whole tone of Scripture, the whole teaching of Scripture regarding the marriage bed. So it's difficult to see this in the literal sense, at least in my opinion.
I might say in passing that this is one of those texts that the Roman Catholic Church uses to undergird its teaching of the celibacy of the priesthood, which is coming under such attack today. The Roman Catholic Church allegorizes the book of the Revelation. That is, they see figures of speech here and nothing very literal in the book. And so when you approach any part of the Bible that way, you can make it say just about anything you want it to say.
Their understanding of this would be that the 144,000 is sort of an allegorical picture of the priesthood and therefore priests should be virgins. They should not marry. I would not agree with that interpretation. I think the better interpretation is a spiritual one, that he's talking here about a group of men who had not committed spiritual adultery by the following of Antichrist.
They had kept themselves pure in contrast to Old Testament Israel, which was called a virgin in a number of places, that is the nation was called a virgin, but they went a-whoring after their false idols and false gods from the nations around them. They compromised their faith in Yahweh and therefore they were an adulterous nation. And so it seems better to understand this group of men as having kept themselves pure spiritually.
It goes on to say that they are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Such is the case with this particular flock of the Lord. They follow Him wherever He goes. The language here may indicate that this group of people having survived the tribulation in their physical bodies will enter into the millennium in their physical bodies and will be some sort, have some sort of special service to Jesus Christ in the millennium.
Dr. Jay Vernon McGee offers that they will be the vanguard of the Lamb. That is, just as the President of the United States has a vanguard of secret service agents that go before Him and clear the way and secure it for Him, so this 144,000 will be the vanguard of the Lamb that wherever He goes they will go before Him in triumphant procession announcing that He is coming. It calls them those who are the redeemed, that is, those who are the purchased from among men.
This is the same word as describes you and me who are Christians now. We too have been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are called the firstfruits to God. The Lord Jesus is called the firstfruits, that is, the guarantee of all of those who are to come in the resurrection. But in some sense the 144,000 likewise are called firstfruits.
Perhaps in this sense they represent all of the whole nation of Israel that will be redeemed and which will enter into the millennial reign of their King, the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in their mouth, was found no guile and they are without fault, that is, without blemish. And so they did not accept the lying wonders of the false prophets as He will seek to ensnare the whole world and cause the world to follow after Antichrist. They didn't fall for it. They didn't participate.
They didn't believe in it. There was no deceit or guile about them. There was no lie in them. They are without fault in the sense that they are found blameless in Jesus Christ. So that's the first scene. It is a triumphant scene. It's a pastoral scene. This is not warfare. Victory has been accomplished. The Lamb and His vanguard are gathered in Jerusalem as the millennium begins. Now there's another scene.
John says, then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, verses 6 and 7, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth the sea and the springs of water. So here we have the angel and the everlasting gospel. You will notice he says, I saw another angel.
The word means another of the same kind. In other words, this angel is like other angels that John has seen previously in the book. And you will find that there is a mention now of another angel like this several times in this chapter, again in verse 8, verse 9, verse 15, verse 17, verse 18. This is the first of six of these angels that John sees and hears. This particular angel seems to act as God's spokesman at some point in the tribulation period, probably very close to the end of it.
But what he declares to the whole world is what is called the everlasting gospel. What does that mean, the everlasting good news? There are lots of different ideas about it. It seems to me that this may be somewhat distinct from the gospel we proclaim today. We talked about that gospel briefly this morning from 1 Corinthians 15 when I read from Max Locato's book.
The gospel is defined today as the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for our sins, his burial, and his resurrection from the dead, all according to the Scriptures. That is the gospel of the grace of God. But here we have, it seems, a different definition for gospel. Literally the word gospel means good news. Now what is this everlasting good news that the angel proclaims? Well, he tells us. It says this, fear God and give glory to him. The hour of his judgment has come.
Worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. That is the fresh water as well as the salt water. The emphasis in this gospel is not salvation, but it's judgment. Judgment has come. And it seems as though in this particular message people are offered the good news that if they will merely fear God and give him glory as the creator, there is some sense in which they will escape the judgment of God.
I suppose in one sense this is a message that could be declared in any age, but in that day we must just guess that perhaps there may be a nation or a tribe or a tongue or a people to whom the 144,000 did not get. Maybe some far off tribe in Papua New Guinea or Indonesia or some remote part of the earth. And so that everyone may have an opportunity, God sends this angel around the world declaring what he calls the everlasting gospel. He brings it down to the lowest common denominator, fear God.
Worship God. Recognize he is the creator. Now it doesn't say that people do this. It doesn't tell us that there's any response to it, but at least this message is declared by the angel, the everlasting gospel. Then in verse 8 there is an angel with the judgment of Babylon. Another angel followed saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Chapter 17 and 18 of the book give us some understanding as to what Babylon is. Let's just say briefly tonight that Babylon is the headquarters of Satan. Babylon is the headquarters, the capital city of the Antichrist system that will eventually control the world in the tribulation period. Babylon is a political system. Babylon is an economic system. And these two will combine together to have a stranglehold upon the earth.
And the pressure will really be upon those who do not receive the mark of Antichrist. There will be great persecution of those people. Persecution is something that we Westerners know little about really. Westerners and other parts of the world understand what persecution is. But I think that we see it beginning.
I was shocked this morning to talk to one of our ladies in the church who was listening to the Ruth Kozlak show this last week in which Ruth Kozlak got into a diatribe of Antichristian bigotry on the radio. She has sent for a tape of it. We are going to transcribe that and make that available to you so that you can know exactly what she said and can write that station and write CBS and tell them exactly what you think about it.
In this day of political correctness, or as someone I enjoy listening to says, political cleansing, there is only one kind of bashing that is still popular, and that is Christian bashing. And as long as we can, I think we need to rise up and say, no, we are not going to put up with it. And so we will make that available to you as soon as we can.
But in this day that we are looking at here in Babylon, when all the systems of the earth begin to come together and cooperate, there will be tremendous pressure upon believers. But this angel tells us the good news, and this of course comes right at the end of the tribulation, the system has fallen. It comes to an end. The city is destroyed.
The system of evil that causes all the nations of the earth to drink of the wine of her spiritual fornication, her adultery, this apostate religious organization combined with the anti-Christ political system will be utterly and completely destroyed, and that is indeed good news. It will fall. We come then verses 9 through 12 to the angel and the judgment of the beast worshippers.
A third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever.
They have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Now we have seen that the system itself is going to fall, but now there is an angel who comes to announce the damnation and the judgment of those who have been a part of that system, the beast worshippers. Certain judgment will come. They will not be overlooked.
There is no neutrality at all. They must drink from a cup which God will give them. It is a cup that contains what is called the wine of the wrath of God. Now this is a picture that is not totally foreign to the Bible. For example, in Psalm 75 and verse 8, it says, For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red. It is fully mixed, and he poureth out of the same. But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall drain them and drink them.
And so this picture of a cup that is filled to the brim with judgment and the wrath of God, which is undiluted, is a picture that is seen elsewhere in the Word of God. And so they are made to drink of the judgment of God. They have no choice. Their mouth is forced open. They must drink of the full strength of the indignation and the wrath of God. Now what does that mean? It says that it involves their torment with fire and brimstone.
There are none of us that can rejoice in the torment of those who are wicked. Even God does not delight in the death of the wicked. On the other hand, there is a certain sense of satisfaction that comes to the child of God as there does to the heart of God when the wicked are given what they choose. When what they have decided to live for and participate in gives them their just desert, there is a certain sense of satisfaction with that. And here we see what that involves.
It is fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. It does not say in the presence of believers, in the presence of the saints, of the 144,000 of the elders, but it does say that before the Lamb and before his holy angels, these will be tormented, and their torment is one that is described as eternal. Their smoke of the torment, it says, goes up forever and forever.
When you think of that picture in your minds of the smoke rising up beyond what you can see forever and forever, it may take you back to another time when that same picture was used, and that is in Genesis chapter 19, in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the cities of the plain are engulfed in this conflagration of fire and brimstone, when the tar pits and the volcanic action of that area resulted in the total destruction of the cities of the plain.
It says that the smoke went up forever and forever. There's a similar picture here. It says there is no rest for them day or night. That is, there is no relief from the torment that they endure. Why? Because they have worshiped the beast and his image, and they have received his mark, the mark of his name. It says that in some sense, this provides patience for the saints. I think you can understand that.
The suffering saints of that day will be sorely pressed by these wicked people, but their patience or their endurance will be that one day the judgment of these people will come, and it will be forever. We sang earlier this song, Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus. It says the day of strife will not be long. That is true for the Christian.
We may have strife and persecution for a while, but the judgment that comes upon those who are our persecutors will be forever and forever, and that provides endurance for the saints. Now in verse 13, we have another voice. It is a voice that deals with the blessedness of the righteous dead. I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. And then the Spirit speaks, Yes, that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.
This is a brief statement, but immediately you see the contrast to the beast worshipers. There's blessedness in contrast to the torment. These people are in the Lord. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, and because of that, they are with Jesus in contrast to those who are tormented in the presence of the Lord. On the one hand, you see relationship and possession. On the other, you see merely judgment in his presence.
You see here those who are resting from their labors in contrast to those for whom there is no rest forever. And then you see that their works follow them. That is, once they get beyond this life, their works will come as a testimony to their faithfulness and as a basis for their reward in the coming kingdom. But in contrast to that, you have the ungodly for whom there is not works that follow them. There's merely the wrath of God.
I suppose in one sense you might say that both are rewarded according to their works. Then it says the blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from this time on. Now it is true at this point, of course, that those who die in Christ are blessed. Paul says, I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, indescribably better. He doesn't tell us what that means. He leaves it to our imagination. He only wets our appetite.
But in some greater sense, in some intensified way, those who die in the tribulation period will rejoice in their blessedness. Perhaps it's because of the release which they have known through death from persecution, trial, and torture. The sixth and the final scene is that of the Son of Man and the Battle of Armageddon. Verses 14 through 20. Again, I invite you to follow along in your Bible as I read these words.
John says, And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat one like the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. Then another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, Thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
Then another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle, and another angel came out from the altar who had the power over fire, and he cried with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
The winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horses' bridles for 1,600 furlongs." An interesting paragraph to be sure. First of all, we see this one who is described as like the Son of Man, who is seated on a cloud and he has in his hand a sharp sickle. We cannot mistake this, it is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called the Son of Man in chapter 1 and verse 13 of this book.
In Daniel chapter 7, verse 13, and that following paragraph, he is described in similar terms as here. In John chapter 5, verse 27, he himself said that all judgment has been given to him. He is the final judge of all men, and here we see him simply bringing forth his judgment. Upon his head is a crown, a Stephanos. It means the victor's crown. He is the one who has overcome. He is the victor over his enemies. We see assisting him here two angels.
These angels bring forth two pictures of the coming judgment of God, which comes right at the end, it seems, of the tribulation period. And what is called elsewhere in Revelation, as we will see, the battle of Armageddon, the final great campaign against God and against his people. The first picture involves that of grain that is to be harvested. The second, grapes, which are to be harvested. In verses 15 and 16, there is the harvest of the earth.
Please understand this is not the harvest of soul winning. That is a harvest. This is a harvest of judgment. And the earth is ripe unto reaping. Literally it says the earth is overripe. It is so ripe it's beginning to wither. And it says that as a result of the action of the one who sat upon the cloud, the earth was reaped. In other words, judgment came. The second picture is that of a vine, a grapevine. The vine of the earth. It is in contrast to the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The ripe grapes here that are bursting with their juices represents humanity that is bursting now with wickedness and iniquity. Humanity is pictured here as ripe, as fully grown, as in prime condition for the harvest. It's not a compliment because it is ripe with its sin. Man's day, which now is in progress, will one day be consummated here. And the wickedness of man that we see blossoming in our culture will then be fully blossomed. There will be a ripeness about it.
And the grapes are taken from the vine and they are thrown into the wine press. The picture here is of one who enters into the wine press and begins to trample the grapes, resulting in the bursting of the grape skins. And the juice then begins to soak down through the mass of grapes and to pour out from the wine press. The one who treads the grapes is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is an interesting picture of him in Isaiah 63. Stand back there with me just for a moment.
Isaiah sees one who is coming with stained clothing. It says, Who is this who comes from Edom with dyed garments from Bosra? Isaiah 63. This one who is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength. He responds by saying, I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. It's the Lord, it's Messiah, it's Christ who is responding. The question is, why is your apparel red and your garments like one who treads in the wine press?
He responds, I have trodden the wine press alone and from the peoples no one was with me, for I have trodden them in my anger and trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled upon my garments and I have stained all my robes for the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come. So Isaiah sees this day when Messiah will come in judgment and trample as it were the grapes resulting in the splattering of blood even upon himself.
The blood of these condemned people is shed. Why? Because they have rejected the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the picture here is of great death. It says that the blood flowed up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 furlongs. That is a distance of 184 miles. What is this trying to picture? What is it telling us?
Well there are some who see this battle of Armageddon which is outside the city of Jerusalem and it seems to stretch all the way up through Israel into the valley of Megiddo where some of you probably stood a few days ago.
Where the armies of the earth will gather Napoleon stood there on the mount, the fortress built by Solomon in his day and he looked out, this is Napoleon now, he looked out upon this vast valley of Jezreel and he said what a wonderful place for the armies of the earth to do battle.
Well he probably didn't know what he was saying but indeed the armies of the world will gather there one day for battle in that valley of Megiddo or the valley of Armageddon and the battle will stretch from there it seems all the way down to the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be partly overrun as Zechariah chapter 14 tells us.
And then in the midst of this battle which is geared toward Israel there will be the sign of the son of man in heaven and suddenly he will come with his army from heaven and he will intervene in this battle, he will interrupt this battle of the armies of the earth and will take on the united armies of antichrist and will utterly destroy them. We'll see that again later in the book.
The result is this river of blood, it's impossible to think of blood flowing three to four feet deep, if it's just blood some have said well it's talking here about that blood from the killed soldiers flowing to rivers and streams and then this stream of red blood flowing through Israel because of the massive amount of casualties and death in this battle.
Or when it talks about the horses' bridles it may picture blood from the battles being splattered up onto the horses' heads around their bridles. Again the picture is similar, the effect of it is just a little different. The point is that it's an awful scene of God's righteous judgment but it's the end, it's the end of this age, it's the end of man's day, it's the end of Babylon, it's the end of antichrist, it's the end of earth's armies. Say why are there horses here?
Why doesn't it talk about tanks and helicopters? Well of course we know that John could hardly write in those terms and perhaps God gave him a vision of that day in figures that he could understand in his day or perhaps for some reason there will be horses involved in that battle in Israel in this coming war. But we see here the consummation as the son of man conquers the armies of the world in the battle of Armageddon.
And so there is this compilation of six scenes and sounds that tell us some of the things that will yet to come, that will be yet to come in the book of the Revelation. In a day when we see evil increasing and rising up, we can be encouraged by chapters like this. We must remember that evil will not reign forever. Evil will not always be on the throne and truth on the scaffold.
There will be a day when truth and righteousness will conquer, when God will intervene and will bring the dominion of evil to a quick and terrible end. How glad for the promise, he that believes on the Son is not condemned. He who believes on the Son is not condemned. He is saved. He is delivered from the judgments of God. I hope you are numbered among the redeemed of God, that your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ and that you will never have to experience any aspect of the wrath of God.
I'd like for us to sing a song in closing. And it will be hymn 241. It draws upon the picture that we have seen of the Son of Man coming victoriously. It says, Lo, he comes with clouds descending. This will not be an unknown tune to you, though the words may be a little unknown. I think as soon as Mark begins to play it, you'll recognize it. Let's stand together.