The Triumph of the 144,000: A New Song in Revelation

Well, we're in Revelation tonight, and y'all probably know we're in chapter

14, Revelation chapter 14.

Revelation 14 · chapter mention

We're focused on verses two and three tonight. As you know, last week,

we started out looking at, we looked at the 144,000, and we're looking at the

seven characteristics of those 144,000.

Last week, we looked at the power, and this week, we're picking up with the praise.

And so we're going to pick up there in 14, verse two and three.

And it said, And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and

like the sound of loud thunder.

And the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps.

And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders.

And no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been purchased from the earth.

And standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion, the 114,000, And 44,000 will join

in this heavenly song that we just read about, this redemption story, right?

And in this heavenly song of redemption, with all the devastation that they've

seen, with all the trouble that they faced, think about it, with all the rejection,

all the hostility, all the hatred and persecution they've endured.

One might expect them to be sorrowful, Brother Ronnie, instead of to sing, right?

Too sorrowful to sing, I should say, right?

Of all they've been through, but instead, they will joyously praise the Lord,

just like y'all did up here tonight, we all did together, for their protection

and triumph in this situation here.

So this is not the first time that John heard a voice from heaven, is it?

We saw that back in Revelation 4. We saw it in chapter 10, chapter 8 even,

or chapter 11, I should say, chapter 12.

And it won't be the last that we see it. We're also going to see this again,

in verse 13 when we get to it here in this chapter and chapter 18 of Revelation and chapter 19.

But the voice he heard was very loud and continuous like the sound of many waters

and like the sound of loud thunder.

You know how the thunder rolls, right?

Ezekiel chapter 43 verse 2 actually likens the voice of God to the sound of many waters.

Ezekiel 43:2

And while Revelation chapter 1, if you remember when we started all this out,

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

verse 15 describes the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same way.

But since Revelation chapter 19 verse 6, actually we're going to see this down

Revelation 19:6

the road, uses both of those phrases to describe the voice of a heavenly multitude.

It's best to understand them in that sense here, this heavenly multitude,

I believe, that is hearing here.

But the song actually began, by the way, in chapter 5, verses 9 and 10,

when the four living creatures, if you remember, and the 24 elders,

they actually sang a new song.

Saying what? Saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals,

for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood.

Men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.

And then the next to join in were myriads of angels who began saying with a

loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and

wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

That's all the way back in chapter five that we read earlier. And finally,

every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth

and all the sea and all things in them begin saying to him who sits on the throne

and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

Just refreshing our memories from chapter five that we've read already and looked at.

In chapter seven of Revelation, verses nine and 10, the tribulation martyrs

joined as well in the escalating chorus of praise.

And after these things, I looked, it says, and behold, a great multitude,

which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues

standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes and palm

branches were in their hands.

And they cry out with a loud voice saying salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

So the mighty voice was not mere noise.

It had a musical quality, because if we look back in this text we just read, what does it say?

It says, like the sound of harpists playing on their harps.

And that reference to harpist and harps, it really suggests that the voice expressed

not thunderous judgment necessarily here, but what?

Joy, right? Joy. We sang about that this morning, the joy of the Lord.

Harps actually are frequently associated in the Old Testament with joyous praise, by the way.

You can think back to probably a few examples. One is 2 Samuel 6,

and then we've got 1 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles, we see it. Nehemiah, Psalms, of course.

And then heaven, though, is going to resound with loud praise when the Lord

Jesus Christ returns in triumph to establish his earthly kingdom.

And so the new psalm that it talks about, sung in heaven before the throne and

before the four living creatures and the elders, is the song of redemption.

So the angels will join the Old Testament saints, the raptured church,

and the redeemed tribulation martyrs in praising God for salvation.

Talk about get a hallelujah thank you

jesus glory to god hoedown right i mean you're talking about

a praise this is like a concert of praise

right and we're it can be praising the lord

and you know angels do not experience redemption they

do rejoice because of it though we read that in luke chapter 15 verse 10 and

Luke 15:10

all heaven will overjoy or overflow i should say even with praise because God's

redemptive work is culminating in the return of Christ.

And it's accomplished. It's done, right? It's accomplished here.

And so heaven's praise overflows to earth where the new song is taken up.

And John notes here that no one could actually learn the song except two.

Yeah. Who had been purchased from the earth, it says. So the unregenerate,

in other words, they cannot do it.

Of course, you know, sing the song of redemption because they're not redeemed, right?

And it's only for the redeemed, those who are purchased by Christ's blood.

And why the song is restricted to the 144,000 is not stated here in scripture.

But there is a scholar, one of them that I've looked at as well,

Henry Morris, who actually, he offered a possible explanation.

And you can see, you know, you can take this for what it's worth,

but I think it's worth noting. I thought it was worthy at least to share it tonight.

He said, although the words of the song of the 144,000 are not recorded,

it surely dwells in part, at least on the great truth that they had been redeemed from the earth.

Although in one sense, all saved people have been redeemed from the earth.

These could know the meaning of such a theme. Only these could know the meaning

of such a theme in a more profound way than others.

They had been saved after the rapture at that time in history when man's greatest

persecutions and God's greatest judgments were on the earth, he said.

It was at such a time that they, like Noah, had found grace in the eyes of the

Lord and been separated from all that dwells upon the earth.

Not only had they been redeemed spiritually, he said, but precursively,

as it were, they had been redeemed from the very curse on the earth.

Being protected from pain and death by the guarding seal.

And y'all remember that. We talked about that again last week,

that God had put his mark on their forehead.

So either way here, this 144,000 will join with the heavenly course in praising

God for his marvelous work of redemption.

And some of the lyrics of their song can be found in chapter 15, verses 3 and 4.

Where it says, and they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God,

and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and marvelous are your works,

O Lord God, the Almighty.

Righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations.

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy, for all the nations will come and worship before you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Y'all, can you just tonight, just for a moment, think about how much,

how grateful you are for the salvation that God has given you?

I mean, that just makes that praise well up in you, does it not?

I mean, a mark of triumphant Christian living in any era is constant praise to God.

Praising God through all circumstances, right? The 144,000 no doubt praise God

throughout their time of trial and persecution here because their ordeal is

over and they are victorious.

They're triumphant saints, right?

They're going to burst forth and praise to God for their deliverance.

Now, you just put yourself there for a minute if you can in your mind.

I know we can't do it perfectly, but what if you were part of this group in

all that had just went on on the earth and all the devastation and all the death

and all that had happened,

that we've studied this far, and God had protected you through the whole thing,

don't you think you'd be ready to shout some praise and sing some praise for

his deliverance and his protection for you?

I mean, wow, they are victorious.

And joy, obviously, it's the proper outflow of a heart that trusts in God's sovereign power.

It's going to be joy. That's why one of my favorite songs, and I share this,

I say it, hey, it's the joy of the Lord is my strength, right?

The joy of the Lord by Twyla Parrish, because that truly is it.

I mean, knowing that that's the response of a heart that is grateful,

that overflows, you know, with praise because we trust God and he's proven himself

again and again and again.

Well, that brings us to purity. And I think this is where we'll stop tonight.

We'll wrap up with this one for tonight.

But look at the first part of verse 4 of Revelation 14.

These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste.

The worship of antichrist during the

tribulation will be unspeakably vile and perverse we've seen that as it did

in the fertility cults of the ancient times sexual sin actually will apparently

run rampant we've talked about this before it'll be running rampant even in the current,

grossly immoral day that we live in, which I think we do, I'm pretty sure you'll agree with me,

we can hardly imagine what that deviant sexual perversion of the tribulation

is going to be like, because it's like, sometimes we think, well,

how much worse can it get? Well, it can get worse.

It's going to get worse. And so with all the divine restraint,

look at it this way, removed, it tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2,

2 Thessalonians 2:6

verses 6 and 7, it's going to be removed.

And the unbelieving world judgmentally abandoned by God, guess what?

Sin will be released like a flood, like a flood coming in. It's going to be

just inundating the world.

And fanning the hellish flames of wickedness will be who? It'll be Satan and his demon host, right?

Both those cast from heaven with him, it talks about in chapter 12,

and those vile demons newly released from imprisonment,

if you remember that we studied in chapters 9 verses 1 through 11 and 14 through 19.

So in the midst, picture this tonight, in the midst of the darkness of the tribulation period,

the 144,000 will shine forth like the beacons of purity despite that rampant

sexual sin that surrounds them.

They will not be defiled, it says here in these verses, with women,

but will keep themselves chaste.

That specific sin that they will avoid, you know, talks about it involves women

and indicates that sexual purity here is in view during this time, okay?

So think about it today. How bad is it today?

It's pretty bad, isn't it? Pretty bad in this corrupt system.

But that the 144,000 here will be separate from antichrist empire has already

been made clear they bear as i said earlier god's mark not the beast but god's.

And this passage here doesn't teach that they will all be unmarried since sex

within marriage doesn't defile anyone, right?

But what it means is that they will stand apart here from the sin of their culture.

It's kind of like today. We have a lot of sins in our culture,

but it's going to get even worse in the tribulation.

They're going to stand apart from the sin of their culture. 144,000 morally

pure preachers amid the defilement that's going to surround them there in that tribulation period.

And so sexual purity is essential to triumphant Christian living.

And that's what we see here in this passage.

In fact, in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3, Paul wrote plainly this.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

You remember this verse. For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

That is that you abstain from sexual immorality.

And so the apostle actually admonished the young pastor Timothy to flee from

youthful lust and to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those

who call on the Lord from a pure heart in 2 Timothy.

And to the Corinthians, if you remember, Paul wrote, the body is not for immorality,

but for who? For the Lord, right?

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body,

but the immoral man sins against his own body, he says in 1 Corinthians 6.

So those who would serve God effectively must lead holy, pure lives.

The godly 19th century Scottish preacher, Robert Murray, he actually gave the

following words, I'm going to share them with you, of advice to an aspiring

young minister. Listen to what he said.

He said, do not forget the culture of the inner man. I mean of the heart.

How diligently and the Calvary officer keeps his saber clean and sharp,

every stain he rubs off with the greatest care.

Remember, you are God's sword, his instrument.

I trust a chosen vessel unto him to bear his name.

In great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument will be the success.

It is not great talents, God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.

A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.

And I know about that. Y'all know what he's saying, right? It is an awful weapon

for the enemy to use against the enemy. Amen.

Y'all, purity matters, doesn't it? Purity is important. And we see that here,

even in this passage with the 144,000.

The next time we gather on the book of Revelation, we're going to look at the

partisanship of this group, and we'll pick up in the latter part of chapter 14, verse 4.