The 144,000 on Mt. Zion

Revelation

The 144,000 on Mt. Zion

December 16th, 1962 @ 10:50 AM

Revelation 14:1-5

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
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THE ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND ON MOUNT ZION

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Revelation 14:1-5

12-16-62    10:50 a.m.

 

Now we turn to chapter 14.  On the radio you are listening to the services of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, and this is the pastor bringing the eleven o’clock morning message entitled The One Hundred Forty-four Thousand on Mount Zion.  In our preaching through the Bible after these many years, we have come to the last and climactic book, the Apocalypse.  And in our preaching through the Revelation, last Sunday we closed with the thirteenth chapter, and today we begin with chapter 14.  And the message this morning is an exposition of the first five verses of Revelation 14:

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and before the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed and purchased from the earth.

These were they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.  These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.  These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are blameless—Period.

[Revelation 14:1-4]

A scribe added that last clause, “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault, they are blameless” [Revelation 14:5].  Now this beautiful vision is inserted in the goodness of God, as so often in the Apocalypse when terrible, and tragic, and dark, and black days are delineated, almost always there will follow immediately a vision of a light and a glory and the peace and the hope and the beauty of God.  And it is so in this vision of chapter 14 containing this glorious scene with the Lamb on Mount Zion and the one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 14:1].  That chapter immediately follows chapter 13, which describes the incomparable and sickening horror of the beast [Revelation 13:1-10, 11-18].  Chapters 12 and 13 delineate the malice of Satan and the rage of the evil one who is cast down to the earth [Revelation 12:3-13:18].  And in chapter 13 is described those two terrible monsters who are God’s symbols of the ministers of Satan, that ultimate and final Antichrist [Revelation 13:1-10], and the false prophet [Revelation 13:11-18], who delude and deceive the people of the earth and lead them into damnation and perdition.

And this beautiful chapter immediately follows the horror of those darkening days.  It is the same kind of a thing as after a storm and the rage of the tempest is over, then in the quiet and in the beauty and the calm, God over-arches the heavens with the rainbow of promise.  The clouds have emptied themselves and break.  The storm and the raging tempest has spent itself, and the thunders no longer roar, and the lightning no longer flashes.  And beyond and back of the cloud, break the beautiful rays of a golden light.

That is this situation here in the Revelation [Revelation 13:1-18].  For in those dark, terrible, and trying times, the Lord says: “For the elect’s sake, those days are going to be shortened.  They cannot last” [Matthew 24:22].  God would not permit it.  And before the time of the destruction of those two terrible monstrous instruments of Satan [Revelation 1:1-8], the detail of their destruction described in Revelation 17 and 18 [Revelation 17:8-18:24], before the time, God gives us this beautiful picture of Mount Zion and the Lamb of God, the King of Israel and of the nations of the earth and of glory and of all forever; the Lamb on Mount Zion and these one hundred forty-four thousand faithful who stand before Him and sing a new song in the land of a new and glorious beginning again [Revelation 14:1-3].

You see chapter 14 is nothing but the other side of chapter 13.  They are contemporaneous in history.  These things all happened together, and 14 is but the counterpart of 13.  One side is the dark description of the beast and of Satan [Revelation 13:1-7] and of the judgment of God upon those who worship his image [Revelation 13:10].  And at the same time, incongruent, is this beautiful scene of these glorious ones who serve God and Him alone [Revelation 14:1-5].

  • In chapter 13 is the beast [Revelation 13:1-8].
  • In chapter 14 is the Lamb, gentle and precious on Mt. Zion [Revelation 14:1].
  • In chapter 13 is the spurious and the counterfeit and the false [Revelation 13:5-6].
  • And in chapter 14 is the real and the genuine and the lovely [Revelation 14:2-5].
  • Chapter 13 is the mark of the beast [Revelation 13:16-17].
  • And chapter 14 is the mark of the children of God [Revelation 14:1].
  • In chapter 13 is the worship and idolatry and the corruption of the earth [Revelation 13:5-7].
  • And in chapter 14 is the worship of the true Lamb of God and their disassociation from the corruption of the earth [Revelation 14:5].
  • In chapter [14] are these that go with the beast and the idolaters down into damnation and perdition [Revelation 14:5].
  • And in chapter 14 are these who are redeemed from the earth [Revelation 14:3].
  • In chapter 13 those that follow the beast in all of his ways [Revelation 13:7-8].
  • And in chapter 14 these who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth [Revelation 14:4].
  • In chapter 13, the number of the beast, 666, six hundred threescore and six [Revelation 13:18].
  • And in chapter 14, the one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 14:1].

The fullness and the plenitude and the glory of the grace and beauty of God.  The two, side by side.

Now who are these one hundred forty-four thousand who stand with the Lamb on Mt. Zion?  Well, there are some who say the one hundred forty-four thousand are no other than a symbol of all of the sanctified hosts of God through all generations and all times.  That, they say, the one hundred forty-four thousand is the great and ultimate and final gathering together of the congregation of the Lord, and this symbolizes that congregation.  Then there are those who say the one hundred forty-four thousand represent those preeminent Christians.  Above the common, ordinary Christians, these are the remarkable and the unique testifiers, and witnesses, and preachers, and servants, and missionaries, and evangelists of God.  And you can continue that on and on almost without end.  As many interpreters as there are, so there are those many identifications of the one hundred forty-four thousand.

Now, what your pastor does this morning is following the text here to see if, reading in the Book, we can find the identification of these one hundred forty-four thousand who sing a new song with the Lamb on Mt. Zion.  All right, let’s look at the text.  First of all, I notice here that these one hundred forty-four thousand sing their new song in the presence of the elders [Revelation 14:3].  So, there is a difference between the elders, whoever they represent, and the one thousand forty-four thousand, for they are together.  And in the presence of the elders, this one hundred forty-four thousand is worshiping God and singing their new and remarkable song [Revelation 14:3].

All right, a second thing in the text; just the number themselves is remarkable and unique.  “I saw and behold, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand” [Revelation 14:1].  Now that’s not the first time I have met this throng or at least that number.  And it is so unique and it’s so remarkable and it’s so separate, that I would suppose that the one hundred forty-four thousand I have been introduced to in the seventh chapter of the Book of the Revelation [Revelation 7:4], is the same as the one hundred forty-four thousand I meet here in the chapter 14 [Revelation 14:1], for they are introduced here just as though I had met them before.  And there’s no thing about them to separate them as being distinct from the one hundred forty-four thousand that I have met here before in the Revelation [Revelation 7:4].  And the number is so unusual, and the whole situation is so remarkable, that I would suppose they are the same.  So when I turn back to the seventh chapter of the Book of the Revelation, I see there that before the great storm broke and the terrible tribulation began, the Lord God said to the four angels that held the four great judgments that were to fall upon this earth, those great mighty winds of the judging of God, before those four angels let loose those winds, the Lord said from heaven, “Wait, wait, until you seal the servants, the ministers of God in their foreheads [Revelation 7:1-3].  And I heard the number of those that were sealed, and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand; twelve thousand from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand from the tribe of Gad, of Asher, of Simeon, all of the way through: twelve thousand sealed from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, making up the one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 7:4-8].

Another thing I noticed here as I read in the Apocalypse, all of these people, these separate groups, are together in the same vision.  Here are the elders [Revelation 7:11], and here are the one hundred forty-four thousand sealed by God [Revelation 7:4].  And here, and this is the passage I had you read this morning for this purpose, and here in the same vision, at the same time, are the great throngs of the Gentiles, who stood before God and the Lamb, clothed with white robes, out of every nation and kindred and people and tongue under the sun [Revelation 7:9-14].  And they are all there together.  Here are the elders, and here is the one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 7:4], and here are the great multitude of the Gentiles who are coming out of the great tribulation with their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb, and here are the four living creatures, all of them are there together [Revelation 7:1-14].

Now for me, to identify all of those as being the same thing, makes the vision a jumbled, impossible, unacceptable revelation.  It doesn’t have any meaning at all.  If the elders represent the church, and the one hundred forty-four thousand represent the church, and the great multitudes coming out of the great tribulation represent the church, and if the cherubim represent the church, and the temple represents the church, and the author represents the church, and the angels represent the church; if that is what it is, then it is impossible to me to understand why God sets these things in such contrast and in such difference and describes them as being different.

So, seeking to find what God means by these marvelous revelations, to me, this is a very simple explanation.  First of all, the elders, they are twenty-four in number [Revelation 4:4]; they represent the resurrected, glorified saints of God, the twelve of the patriarchs, the twelve of the apostles, and there they are before God [Revelation 4:10].  Just like the beautiful city of Jerusalem, it had twelve gates.  And each one of those gates represents one of the twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes of Israel [Revelation 21:12].  And it has twelve foundations, and each one of those foundations, the Apocalypse says, represents the name of an apostle [Revelation 21:14].  It represents the old and the new, all of the saints of God—the old dispensation, the old government, the old era, saved by looking to the cross [Psalm 130:8]; and the new dispensation, the new era, the age of grace in which we live, looking back to the cross [Ephesians 1:7].  The elders represent all of the saved of God, the twelve of the old, the twelve of the new, the twenty-four—the four and twenty elders in the presence of the Lord [Revelation 7:11; 11:16].

Then, the great multitude coming out of every nation and language and tribe are those who have been won to Christ by these one hundred forty-four thousand sealed messengers of God [Revelation 7:4, 9-10].  There never has been nor will there ever be again any revival meeting like is coming to pass in those dark days, when men lay down their lives as martyrs, just in the confession of Christ, for “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” [Tertullian].  And in those days of terrible and dark and indescribable martyrdom and blood and sickening horror, we’re going to have our greatest and incomparable revival. And it is going to be led by these messengers of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit of the Lord, the one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 7:4-8]; a select, elect, separate, unique, remarkable group who pour out, in those dark and terrible days, their testimony to the saving grace of the blessed Lord Jesus [Revelation 7:9-17].

Then I read another thing about them.  It says here that these are the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb [Revelation 14:4].  “The first fruits”—now I must pause there because the elders, after Christ, represent the first fruits.  And they are already in heaven.  They have already been translated.  The Lord has already come to them, and they have been resurrected and glorified, and the elders sit there in the presence of God on their throne, gold-crowned, victorious! [Revelation 4:4].  After Christ, “Christ, the first fruits: and afterward, they that are Christ’s at His coming” [1 Corinthians 15:23]—these are represented by the elders.  Yet these also are called the first fruits unto God and the Lamb [Revelation 14:4].

Then I can see.  These are the first fruits unto God of this new beginning, of this new era, of this new time, of this new period, after the translation of the church [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17], after the rapture of the people of God [John 14:3] represented by the elders, gold-crowned and enthroned in heaven [Revelation 4:4], then comes these dark and terrible days of the judgment of God! [Revelation 7:2-3]. And before those dark days begin, God said, “First seal out for Me this one hundred forty-four thousand” [Revelation 7:2-4].  And they are the first, called here the “first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb” [Revelation 14:3-4].  And then after that, he saw the great multitude of the Gentiles that no man could number coming out of that dark tribulation, having their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb [Revelation 7:9-14].

So these are the first fruits unto God of the new beginning, of the time after the days of the Gentiles, when our present history has run its course, and when the church service is done, and the age of grace is past [2 Thessalonians 2:7]; and God has taken His people out of the earth, and we are raptured and translated [1 Thessalonians 4:14-17]; and in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we see God as Jesus is Himself, made like Him [1 Corinthians 15:52].  When that day is past, then comes this great and final and ultimate day, which is described here in the Apocalypse, in the unveiling, in the days of the judgment of God and the final and ultimate appearing of Christ at the battle of Armageddon, when God intervenes in humanity [Revelation 16:15-16, 19:11-21].  In that period and in that day, these are the first fruits unto God [Revelation 14:4].

You have adumbrations of that many times here in the Bible.  For example, in the first Corinthians letter and in the fifteenth chapter, Paul, is describing our blessed Lord Jesus, crucified, buried, and the third day raised for our justification [1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 4:25]; then he says, “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then to about five hundred brethren at once, then to James, then to all of the apostles, and last of all He was seen of me.”  He appeared unto me, hōsperei tō ektrōmati.”   What an unusual phrase!  “And last of all He appeared to me, as to one out of an abortion, before the time for me to be born, as an abortion as of one born out of due time” [1 Corinthians 15:5-8].  What does that mean?  Paul is referring to the fact that there is coming a time when our Lord will appear to His brethren, to Israel, for:  “There shall come the Deliverer out of Mount Zion,” and ungodliness shall be turned away from Israel, from Jacob, and so all Israel will be saved  [Romans 11:26].  “And a nation will be born in a day” [Isaiah 66:8].  And Israel,” according to the prophet Zechariah, “shall look upon Him whom they have pierced” [Zechariah 12:10].  And they will mourn and repent and receive their Lord Christ and Messiah and be saved; “And so all Israel shall be saved” [Romans 11:26], as Paul says.  But before that time, which is at the end of this tribulation period [Matthew 24:30], before that time, Paul says: “He appeared to me as one in an abortion.  Before the time, before that great and ultimate hour, He appeared unto me” [1 Corinthians 15:8].

These are those days, and these are those of a new era and a new dispensation, when God shall deal with apostate and unbelieving Israel [Romans 11:26], and when God shall take up the promises He has made to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob [Genesis 15:18-21, 26:3, 28:13], and when God shall win back to Himself His brethren [Romans 11:26], just like He appeared to James and to Joseph and to Jude and to Simeon [1 Corinthians 15:7].  And before He went back to heaven [Acts 1:9-10], the first time after His crucifixion [Matthew 27:30-50], He won His brethren to Himself [Acts 1:14].  He is going to do that for Israel some of these days [Romans 11:26].  Now, there is a veil over their hearts.  And when they read Moses and when they read the Prophets, they don’t see Jesus, and they don’t accept their Messiah.  There’s a veil over their hearts [2 Corinthians 3:15], but someday that veil is going to be taken away [2 Corinthians 3:16], and the Lord is going to appear to Israel themselves, and they are going to be saved, and they are going to accept their Lord [Romans 11:26].  And these are the first fruits of that new dispensation, of that new day and that new era [Revelation 14:4].  This is the mercy and the grace and the goodness of God to the lost sheep of the house of Israel [Matthew 10:6, 15:24].

Then another thing about them, it says: “I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand” [Revelation 14:1].  Mount Zion.  What is Mount Zion?  Ah, just to name it, just to name it is to call to mind the almost innumerable promises of God that on Mount Zion His King shall reign Lord forever and ever and ever.  I do not know of a more rewarding reading of the Word of God than just take a commentary and look up all of the passages on Mount Zion.  I haven’t time but just to refer to a few of them.  One of the great and messianic psalms of the hymnal is Psalm number 2.  The nations of the earth, the nations of the earth, they say, “Let us break God’s bands, and cast His cords away” [Psalm 2:3].  But He that sits in the heavens has spoken and said, “I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion” [Psalm 2:6].  Listen to the decaying nations of the earth.  “I will give Him the heathen for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession as He reigns on Mount Zion” [Psalm 2:8].

Then, of course, this glorious anthem that they have just sung:

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised . . . Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion . . . God is known in her palaces . . . As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts in the city of our God: God will establish it forever . . .  Let Mount Zion rejoice, and the daughters of Judah be glad . . . Walk about Zion, go around her.  Look over her towers, mark her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to generation following.   For this God is our God forever and ever; and He will guide us and keep us even unto death.

[Psalm 48:1-14]

Another like beautiful psalm is Psalm 132:

The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne, thy throne . . .

For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation.

This is My rest forever: and here will I dwell; for I have desired it . . .

There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed—in Mount Zion!

[Psalm 132:11-17]

And this beautiful and incomparable passage in Isaiah which describes the millennial earth with its capital in Mount Zion:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it.

And people shall say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord… and He will teach us His ways… for out of Zion shall go forth… the word of the Lord and from Jerusalem.

And He shall judge among the nations, and… they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

O, house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

[Isaiah 2:2-5]

This is that Mount Zion.  It was the capital city of David.  It was the home of the royal palace and king.  And it was the place chosen of God that there should He reign forever and ever [Psalm 132:13-14].  And this is a scene in that heavenly and millennial day when the Lord Christ shall reign from Mount Zion [Micah 4:2; Zechariah 14:9]; and this is the reward of the one hundred forty-four thousand when their task is finished and their assignment is done; in  chapter 7 therefore, you have the one hundred forty-four thousand in their ministry in the earth [Revelation 7:4-17].  This is what they are doing in the earth:  they are preaching the gospel; they are calling men to repentance and faith, and men will by millions and the thousands are coming out of those great and dark days of the tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb [Revelation 7:14].

There the one hundred forty-four thousand are seen in their work in the earth [Revelation 7:4, 9-14].  Here in the fourteenth chapter of the Revelation, the one hundred forty-four thousand are seen on Mount Zion [Romans 14:1].  Their task is finished, their work is done, and they are being rewarded by the Lord God for their devotion and for their faithfulness [Revelation 7:4-17].

Now, looking at the passage in the little time that remains, let us see some marks and characteristics of these unusual preachers of Christ, the one hundred forty-four thousand.  First of all, in a day when it was death to have the mark of God, for confession is made unto salvation [Romans 10:10], in the day when these men were confessing Christ as their Lord, in that day, these have the name of their Father, of our God, written in their foreheads [Revelation 14:1], and they are preserved from martyrdom and death by the Spirit of God [Revelation 14:1-3].  Any man is like that that preaches the gospel of the Son of God.  His life is invincible and infallible until his task is done!  He may be flying through the air in a plane; or he may be going down the Amazon river on a boat; or he may be crossing the ocean; or he may be out where the vile and vicious enemies of Christ assail him on every hand; if he’s in the will of God and if he’s doing the work of God, until his task is finished, his life is invulnerable and invincible—so with  these one hundred forty-four thousand.

All right, another thing about them; I read in the seventh chapter of the Revelation where God seals one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 7:4].  And here at the end, when they finish their ministries and they are numbered before God, there’s not one hundred thirty-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine!  There are still one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 14:1].  Not a one is lost.  Not one.  Not one is lost!  As Christ said: “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish” [John 10:28].

And as the Lord says in the high priestly prayer in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of John: “Of all those Thou hast given Me, there is not one lost, except the son of perdition; that the Scriptures might be fulfilled” [John 17:12].  When our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life [Revelation 20:12, 15, 21:27], they are there forever—forever and forever!  And when a man is saved, he is saved forever.  He’s kept by the power of God forever and ever and ever [1 Peter 1:5]; one hundred forty-four thousand, God sealed at the beginning of this terrible tribulation [Revelation 7:4, 13-14], and when the roll was called up there in heaven and they assembled on Mount Zion to receive their reward of their faithfulness, there were one hundred forty-four thousand there in the presence of the Lord God [Revelation 14:1].  Not a one had been lost.  Not one!  Not one!  And the man who puts his destiny and his life and his soul in the hands of God is saved forever and ever [John 10:27-30].  For when the roll is called up there, you’ll be there.  God will see you through.  That is the guarding, keeping care of the Almighty.

Another thing about them I read; they sang a new song that nobody else in the earth could sing [Revelation 14:3].  That is, they have a separate ministry.  They are unique.  That’s foolish for all of us to try to be alike in our separate ministries.  God doesn’t want us alike.  He didn’t even want our noses alike.  He didn’t even want our ears alike.  He didn’t want anything alike.  God likes differences.  God likes ramification.  He doesn’t even make two leaves alike.  He doesn’t even make two snowflakes alike.  And that’s the way with God in His ministry.  God calls me to be a preacher.  And God calls Lee Roy to be a singer.  And God calls Mrs. Cox to be a Minister of Education.  God calls Mel here to be a minister, a pastoral minister, a shepherd of the sheep and an assistant pastor to help us in the work.  And God calls Dean over here to be a business administrator.  And God calls you.  And God calls other people.  And for all of us to do God’s work in our place is to glorify the Lord.  And for us to be jealous of one another or for us to be envious of one another, and for us not to be happy where God has placed us, why, it is impossible.

Once in a while I meet a girl who wishes she was a boy.  She’s crazy.  She’s crazy.  Because I’ve been a boy!  I don’t know whether I ever wished I was a girl or not, but that’s life!  The Lord made us these different ways.  And let’s exalt in it.  If you are a businessman, be a marvelous businessman for God!  If you are an organist, be a marvelous organist for God.  If you are going to be a teacher, be a great teacher for God.  If you are going to be a physician, be a marvelous physician for the Lord.  God made us in these different ways, and these were a unique ministry unto the Lord.  Nobody could sing that song but the one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 14:3].

That doesn’t mean anybody else was denied.   Look at them.  These elders are there [Revelation 14:3].  Now, I know from that that there are degrees in heaven, just like there are degrees in the angelic orders.  There are some angels that are archangels.  And there are some that are seraphim.  And there are some that are cherubim.  And there are some that are judgment angels.  And I don’t know how many orders God has in heaven.  But I know there are great orders in heaven.  And that’s the way it is going to be when we get up there.  These elders are crowned, and they are enthroned, and they are seated [Revelation 4:4].  These one hundred forty-four thousand are not crowned, and they are not seated [Revelation 14:1].  There are different orders.  And I don’t know what the one hundred forty-four thousand are, they are not exalted like the elders are [Revelation 4:4], like you’re going to be [2 Timothy 2:12].  But there are different administrations, and there are different governments, and there are different orders in heaven.  And just like it is down here, we differ here in this earth.  We’re going to differ up there in glory.  You are going to be you with your reward and your assignment, and I’m going to be me with my reward and my assignment [1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10].  That’s what heaven is like.  They’re going to be like that.

Then it says here that these are virgins, and they “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, redeemed out of the earth” [Revelation 14:4].  Now a lot of people think that means they never were married.  Well, that has nothing to do with it whatsoever.  For example, over here in the eleventh chapter of the second Corinthians letter, the second verse, Paul says to the church at Corinth: “I have espoused you to Christ that I may present you as a chaste virgin to our Lord” [2 Corinthians 11:2].  Now does that mean that all of those folks there in the church in Corinth were unmarried?  All the men were bachelors and all of the women were maids, young maids?  Now, wouldn’t that be a fix now?  What in earth would you do for the generations that were following, as Psalm 48 says? [Psalm 48:13].

Why, it is impossible.  I know what He means.  It says here that church is going to be presented to Christ as a chaste virgin! [2 Corinthians 11:2].  And when it describes these men over here as virgins [Revelation 14:4], it refers to the fact that they separated themselves from the pollutions and the corruptions of the earth! [Revelation 14:4].  They didn’t like it.  Where they were carousing, and rioting, and drunkenness, and blaspheming, and orgying, they separated themselves from the corruptions of the earth.  They were virgins unto God [Revelation 14:4].  They had given themselves in a pure devotion unto the Lord.

And it says “in their mouth was no guile: for they are without fault” [Revelation 14:5].  That’s the same thing as when Jesus looked upon Nathanael.  “Look,” says Jesus, when Philip brought him to the Lord.  “Look,” says Jesus, “look, an Israelite in whom is no guile!” [John 1:47].  That’s God’s people.  That’s the Lord’s people.  You don’t have to have a Christian put his hand on the Bible and swear that what he said is true.  No!  If he’s a man of God and if he’s a true Christian, if he tells you something, that’s the way it is.  That’s the way it is.  His word is better than his bond.  You don’t have to have him sign when he says that’s what it is.  “An Israelite in whom is no guile.”  And “in their mouth is no guile” [Revelation 14:5]; God’s people, single-hearted, simple, plain, humble.  We have to close.  Ah, these things that the Lord presents to us of the glory of His children that are yet to come!

Now while we sing our song of appeal, somebody you give his heart to the Lord this day, “Today, preacher, I want to give my heart to Jesus, and here I come.  I’m hiding my life with Him.  I’m trusting Him as my Savior and here I am.  I don’t have any strength in myself, but He has strength for us both.  May not have all of the answers in myself, but He knows enough for us both.  I may not know all of the way, but He sees the end from the beginning.  And I’m trusting Him and here I come.”  Or a family you to put your life with us in the church, “Pastor, this is my wife and these are our precious children.  We are all coming today.  Here we are.”

I can’t say the word.  The Spirit of the Lord must do that.  If the Lord bids you here, trust Him enough, trust Him enough to come.  “I got battles to fight.  He will help us.  I got a war to win.  He will be there to see us through.  I’m giving Him the destiny of my soul and the forever that is to come, both now and then.  Here I am, preacher, I’ve given you my hand.  I’ve given my heart to the Lord.”  Would you do it?  Would you do it now?  Coming by baptism, or by letter, or by promise of letter, or by statement, these things are the mechanics, the great thing is, “Lord, here I am.  My heart and my soul I open to the call of Jesus.  And here I come.”  While we stand and while we sing.