97 feet.
It's an old-fashioned hymn, and it's sung
at all the football matches, or at least
some of the big ones.
Abide with me.
But I don't think that a whole lot
of people who sing it know just exactly
where it was written, and why it was
written, and by whom it was written.
It was written by a minister of the
Church of England called Henry Light, and when
he was dying over a hundred years ago
with TB, dying of TB, and in those
days there was no cure.
If you had TB then, it was like
cancer now, and it was seen that he
was going to die.
And in his last hours in a weakened
state, with the flesh away from his bones,
and a human skeleton sitting up in bed,
he scribbled out on a piece of paper,
Abide with me.
Thoughts solve the eventide.
The darkness deepens.
Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help
of the helpless.
Abide with me.
He wrote this, verse 5, I feared no
foe with thee at hand to bless.
Elves have no wit and fears no bitterness.
Where is death thing?
Where grieve thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.
We'll take time to sing the next two
and the last two verses, 297 please.
Book of the Revelation, chapter 14.
And this complete chapter is taken up with
what I call visions and voices.
You will find that there are some visions
that John receives here, and there are many
voices that John hears.
Now we're only doing the first five verses
this evening, and these five verses embrace three
visions that John receives.
The vision of the Eternal Redeemer.
John says in verse 1, And I looked
and lo, a lamb stood on the mount
Zion.
And this is the vision of the Eternal
Redeemer.
But I'll tell you more about it just
in a moment.
And in these first five verses, not only
do we have the vision of the Eternal
Redeemer, but we have the vision of the
triumphal remnant.
The 144,000.
They have come through every day of the
three and a half years of tribulations, and
here they are on Mount Zion with the
Lord.
And not only do we have the vision
this evening of the triumphal Redeemer, and the
vision of the Eternal Redeemer, and the triumphal
remnant, but we have the vision of their
spiritual record.
Lot of things are said about them that
we will need to take time with this
evening.
And we're looking at these three visions this
evening.
Next week we shall deal with the voices.
See verse 7, A came an angel saying
with a low voice, Fear God and give
glory to him.
Verse 8, And there followed another angel saying,
Babylon is fallen.
Verse 9, And the third angel followed them,
saying with a low voice, If any man
worship the beast and his image, and so
on and so on.
And the way down there at verse 13,
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto
me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth.
Verse 15, And another angel came out of
the temple crying with a loud voice.
And verse 18, And another angel came out
from the altar which had fallen over fire
and cried with a loud voice.
So that in the chapter you have three
visions, and you have these six different voices
saying different things.
But we're only looking at the first five
verses and we'll need the voices until next
week.
Something I want you to try to remember
this evening, let's go way back to chapter
7 just for a moment.
I think you remember this chapter 7, just
before the full fury of the blast of
the great tribulation struck this earth at all.
Here's what it says here.
Verse 1, After these things I saw four
angels standing on the four corners of the
earth holding the four winds of the earth,
that the wind should not blow on the
earth, nor on the sea, nor on any
tree.
And I saw another angel ascending from these
having the seal of the living God.
And he cried with a loud voice to
the four angels to whom it was given
to hurt the earth and the sea, saying,
Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor
the trees, till we have sealed the serpents
of our God in their foreheads.
And I heard the number of them which
were sealed.
And there were sealed and hundred and forty
and four thousand of all the tribes of
the children of Israel.
Let's get that into our minds.
Hundred and forty four thousand Jews sealed off
to be the servants of God in the
fury of this great tribulation.
And then when we came to chapter 8,
I think you remember it well, these angels
began to sound these trumpets.
And you remember the first angels sounded at
verse 7, and their swords, hail and fire
mingled with blood, and they were cast upon
the earth.
And the third part of trees was burnt
up, and all the green grass.
The third part of everything on the earth
was burnt.
And then the second angel sounded at verse
8, and the third part of everything around
the earth, the third part of the ships
in verse 9.
And then the third part of everything under
the earth, and then at the end of
the chapter, the third part of everything above
the earth, the stars and the sun and
the moon and so on.
Now I wonder what the hundred and forty
four thousand servants of God was doing while
the fury of the fire fell.
How did they get through now?
Then you remember we came to chapter 9,
and this was the chapter where the demons
were let loose.
It was one of those horrible chapters where
demon possession came to so many.
And yet these demons, in verse 4, and
it was commanded then, and demons are intelligent
enough to be commanded, and it was commanded
then that they should not hurt the grass
of the earth, neither any green thing, neither
any tree, but only those men which have
not the seal of God in the forest.
You see, God was looking after the hundred
and forty four thousand, and he wasn't letting
the demons touch them at all.
He was looking after them very carefully.
And then you remember we went on into
chapter 10, and this was another great chapter
where the Lord put his foot on the
land and on the sea, and claimed it
to be his.
And then of course you know all about
chapter 11.
The temple is built at Jerusalem, and the
two witnesses are there, and yet the beast
is allowed to put them to death.
Where were the hundred and forty four thousand
then?
Chapter 12, it was Israel in the wilderness.
I've called it the troubled sister.
And you remember it says in verse 14,
unto the woman Israel were given two wings
of a great eagle that she might fly
into the wilderness, into her place where she
has nourished for a time, and times, and
half a time, which happens to be three
and a half years.
Of course, God saved Israel and kept them
in the wilderness for forty years, and he
shall nourish this remnant in the wilderness for
three and a half.
Where was the hundred and forty four thousand?
Last week we were at the great 13th
chapter, when the beast was abroad, and the
false prophet who serves him was abroad.
And you could neither buy nor sell, except
you had the mark of the beast.
Now taking all the fool's fury of the
blast of the great tribulation period, especially the
last part of the period of three and
a half years, how did the hundred and
forty four thousand sealed off Jews fare?
I'll tell you, you're going to see them
tonight, through the tribulation, and that's one of
the missions.
You know, can I say this before we
go too far?
If our Lord Jesus Christ is able to
keep a hundred and forty four thousand Jews
in the midst of such terrible tribulation as
we've just spoken about, he's quite capable of
keeping you and I in Ulster today.
It says he kept Daniel in Babylon faultless.
It says he kept these hundred and forty
four thousand faultless.
Is he keeping you?
Because he's able to keep you from falling,
you know.
Yes, we're going to have a look at
this this evening.
Now I want to do this for the
young folks.
Very often there's the part in the bible
reading each evening that's just for young believers,
and sometimes the old ones enjoy it as
much as the young ones.
Here's something that you young folks could do
very easily.
You could take the word lamb and you
could fix your eyes upon the Lord Jesus.
And even if you didn't know the old
and new testaments, if you had a good
bible concordance, you could take the word lamb
and you could trace this wonderful central bible
subject because the bible doctrine of the lamb
is the central doctrine of the bible.
You could do it like this.
Do you remember Peter saying this?
I won't turn you to it, you just
listen.
Peter said, for we know that we are
not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver
and gold from our vain conversation received by
tradition from our fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained
for you.
He was set apart to that job, yea,
he was chosen to be the lamb before
the foundation of the world.
And that's what I've been working out for
you.
You can see this.
You can start with the lamb chosen and
then go on to see him typified.
Because it's perfectly true that before the foundation
of the world, the lamb was chosen.
The whole eternal council had met.
Is this God the father said, if I
make a world and I make a man,
he'll make a mess of it?
Who shall go for us?
It was the Lord Jesus who said, here
am I, send me.
His delights, you know, were with the sons
of men before even man ever had a
beginning.
And the God who chose him to be
the lamb for sinners slain, as soon as
he began to write this book, he began
to typify the work of the lamb.
For the lamb is not only chosen, but
the lamb is typified in the book.
You can see Abel's lamb, and Abraham's lamb,
and the Passover lamb, and the Day of
Atonement lamb.
Somebody preached it like this once.
You can see the lamb for a man.
You can see the lamb for a house.
You can see the lamb for a nation.
But when you come into the New Testament,
you see the lamb for the world.
The lamb of God which taketh away the
sin of the world.
So that's a good study for you to
start.
You can see the lamb chosen and typified.
And then if you leave the types and
shadows and you come to the prophets, you'll
see the lamb foretold.
Because you remember Isaiah 53 talks about our
Lord Jesus being led as a lamb to
the flock.
And the lamb is foretold.
So that you have the lamb chosen and
then typified.
And you have the lamb foretold.
But when you come to John the Baptist,
you have the lamb identified.
Because he knew this was the answer to
all the types and shadows and parallels and
pictures and prophecies.
Sometimes we sing that old fashioned hymn, we
look back through the ages where the kings
and prophets trod.
We can see their altars reeking with the
sacrifice and blood.
But those types were only pointing to the
pastoral lamb of God.
And the day that John the Baptist saw
Jesus walking, he cried from the very depth
of his heart, Behold the Lamb of God.
Well, but this is the great study.
You can see the lamb chosen and then
typified.
You can see the lamb foretold in the
prophets and then identified by John the Baptist.
Then you can see the lamb led to
the slaughter.
And then you can see the lamb crucified.
And when we began this book of the
Revelation in chapter 5, we saw the lamb
standing.
I saw a lamb standing as it had
been claimed before God.
A glorified lamb.
Now we're taking a different step tonight.
We see the lamb here tonight on Mount
Zion.
And I'm telling you he's back on earth
again just in this chapter.
This is what John sees.
Oh, I know there are some here who
are going to argue with me about Mount
Zion.
Of course I sing sometimes.
We're marching to Zion.
Beautiful, beautiful Zion.
Marching upward to Zion, of course I do.
Because I'm old-fashioned enough to know that
there's an old Jerusalem and there's a new
Jerusalem.
There's an old Zion and there's a spiritual
Zion.
Ah, well, I'm pretty sure it's the old
one that's here.
Yes.
You see, we are going to see the
lamb standing on Mount Zion and I'll come
back to that in a moment.
This is just a little outline for you
young ones.
You can see the lamb chosen and typified.
You can see the lamb foretold and identified.
You can see the lamb led and crucified.
You can see the lamb standing and glorified.
And in this chapter you have the lamb
back here on Mount Zion and magnified.
Now I'll tell you a wee thing more.
There's a whole lot of chapters to go,
you know, and a whole lot more things
about the lamb that I dare not fill
into my trip.
There's the marriage supper of the lamb and
I mustn't tell you the rest.
You must find it now and fill it
in.
It's a great study.
From chapter 14 till the end of the
book of Revelation, look at all the times
you have the lamb.
See if you can finish the picture for
me sometime.
Yes, we have a vision here of the
eternal Redeemer because we come to the crux
of the matter in the chapter when we
look at the vision of the triumphal remnant.
Verse 1, John said, And I looked, and
lo, a lamb, capital L, stood on the
Mount Zion, and with him an hundred and
forty-four thousand having his father's name written
in their foreheads or here.
Some of my dearest friends do not believe
that the hundred and forty-four thousand here
is the same as the hundred and forty
-four thousand in chapter 7.
They don't believe that because they tried to
tell me that the hundred and forty-four
thousand back in chapter 7 without any trouble
at all are one hundred and forty-four
thousand Jews.
I believe that.
That's exactly what I believe.
One hundred and forty-four thousand of the
children of Israel, in fact.
But they now try to tell me that
the hundred and forty-four thousand here, Sir,
this is a picture of the church, if
you please.
Now, without any explanation being given one way
or another why there are two one hundred
and forty-four thousands.
Oh, I would think God would have needed
cleaner than that.
I said to one of these friends who
come to argue with me, why did God
say one hundred and forty-four thousand?
Why this particular figure?
And why this particular figure again?
And no details about the cross?
Why?
He says, I think it's only coincidental.
Now, I don't think that's exposition at all.
If you think it's a coincidence, it's a
pity of you.
That's what I would think.
I would think you would have a nerve
to talk like that.
God's word is no coincidence.
This is an inspired book.
This is not a coincidence that we have
two one hundred and forty-four thousands.
No, my friend, I won't accept that.
Of course, these who argue with me being
a millennialist have to say that this is
the church and she has just come through
the tribulation now.
This was the time to tell you.
So then I had to tie him down
a little bit.
The moment that I talked about Mount Zion,
he got on his high horse then.
So I had to leave that for a
moment.
And I had to say, let's read it
carefully.
The Lamb is on Mount Zion, and we
won't argue about the Mount for a moment.
And with him an hundred and forty and
four thousand, the exact number that we had
in Revelation chapter seven, and you're quite sure
the word Jews then.
Now, I said, let's go careful with this
bit.
Having his father's name written in the font,
I said, if it had been the church,
would it not be our father's name?
His father's name.
It's Jewish.
But we can't hang our hats there because
it's not solid enough.
So I went on reading and I said
to him, and I heard a voice from
heaven, of the voice of many waters and
of the voice of a great thunder.
And I heard the voice of starting with
the horse.
And they sang 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 the dean from the earth.
Which were the dean from the earth.
I said, now this is a particular song.
And this particular crowd.
They're the only ones who can learn this
song.
No man could learn that song.
I said, if you say this is the
church coming through the tribulation, then you'll have
to go back to chapter five with me
and explain who is singing there.
Because in chapter five, before the tribulation began,
there's a crowd in heaven and they're singing,
thou art worthy for thy wife's flame and
hast redeemed us by thy blood out of
every kindred and song and people and nation.
I said, who's singing there?
No answer of course.
I'm telling you the church was in heaven
long before this scene began.
The church was singing in heaven in chapter
five.
Then you know it goes a little bit
further.
It says here, not only that they were
able to, but it says they were redeemed
from the earth.
It says in verse four, they were redeemed
from among men, being the first fruits unto
God and the Lamb.
You know I'm positively sure that the 144
,000 in chapter seven and the 144,000
in chapter 14, they're just the same company.
Only with this difference that there they were
being sealed before the tribulation began.
Here they're singing because the tribulation has been
traversed and the Lord has kept them and
they're now meeting him as the first fruits
of the great tribulation and they're meeting him
on Mount Zion.
Let's go back to the book of Zechariah.
Malachi is your last book of the Old
Testament and Zechariah is the one before Malachi.
So that if you get the last book
which is Malachi, then you get the one
that's before that.
You know if we go to chapter 12,
I would love to do these chapters for
you properly, but time will not allow us
to do this, but I'll start you along
as and when you can do it yourself.
It says in verse one, the burden of
the word of the Lord for Israel, and
I don't think you've any problems there, this
is Israel, says the Lord which stretches forth
the heavens and layeth the foundation of the
earth and formeth the spirit of man within
him.
So you're quite sure that he's the creator,
aren't you?
You know the day that he gathered the
dust together, he was only making the material
part of man, made it out of the
dust of the earth of course, but when
he formed the spirit within man, then he
had a real man.
Now the woman was the creator saith, behold
I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling
unto all the people around the boat, and
I believe we're very near that spot just
now.
I was listening to Dion last evening, because
I have to listen in, I need to
know what they think and what they say,
and I can see that this military leader
in Israel is as determined as Elijah was
that he will never give back one inch
of the land.
He said they were talking about us giving
back the Palestinian part of Jordan now.
We will never, never, never, and then he
said it again, never.
Now with that attitude, Jerusalem is going to
become a cup of trembling unto all the
nations.
I can tell you that if the Syrians
move into Lebanon tonight, then there'll be the
biggest trial in the Middle East there ever
was, and the Syrians would almost attempt to
do it.
And if they do, I'll tell you what
will happen before it happens, then Israel will
move on Jordan and on Lebanon and will
take Jordan and Lebanon and Syria.
Make you no mistake about that, make no
mistake at all, and I'm afraid Egypt won't
be able to help them, but it makes
Jerusalem a cup of trembling.
Now that's the day we're nearly at.
You see verse one, verse three, and in
that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome
stone for all people.
And he will do that.
See verse six, in that day will I
make the governors of Judah make a hearth
of fire among the woods.
And it goes on down that chapter, and
it goes on down through the next chapter.
You see verse nine, shall come to pass
in that day.
See verse 11, in that day.
See the next chapter, 13, in that day.
See verse two, and it shall come to
pass in that day.
And it goes right on down till you
come to chapter 14.
Now look at verse one.
Behold the day of the Lord cometh.
Now that's the day of his wrath that
we were reading about in Revelation chapter six.
Because the day of the Lord is a
very long day.
First of all, it's the day of the
Lord's wrath.
That'll be for seven years, three and a
half, very bad indeed.
But then after that, it will be the
day of the Lord's reign.
That'll be for a thousand years.
And the day of the Lord cometh.
And thy spoils shall be divided in the
midst of thee.
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem
to battle.
Whether Dion likes it or not, the nations
are coming against you, and the city shall
be taken, and the house is rifled, and
the woman ravished, and half of the city
shall go forth into captivity, and the refugee
of the people shall not be cut off
from the city.
Then at that psychological moment, shall the Lord
go forth and fight against those nations, as
when he fought in the day of Batov.
And his feet shall stand in rod day
upon the Mount of Olives, which happens to
be Mount Zion.
That's where he's coming to, you know.
You know, we're very near to the Lord's
return.
He'll take the church away one of these
nights.
And out of the old common market, you'll
find this man of sin will appear.
He'll be a Jew, all right.
There's a lot of Jews there already.
And you'll find that this time of trouble
will come.
And Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling,
and a burdensome stone to all the nations.
And then at last, they'll all gather round,
squeeze her in.
Next week, we'll see her in the melting
pot, in the winepress, when God crushes her.
But you know, when the nations just think
they're going to blot her out for good
and for all, because she's been so burdensome,
the Lord will come again.
He'll come to the earth that time, and
his feet shall stand in that day on
the Mount of Olives.
And that happens to be Mount Zion.
And when he comes to Mount Zion, there'll
be 144,000 there to meet him.
They'll be the first fruits of the tribulation.
And they'll be on the Mount of Olives.
That's what John sees.
Yes, you see, the book of the Revelation
has always been going along a chapter or
two, and then a parenthetical one, just to
show us what's happening.
And this is exactly where we are this
evening.
Well, let's get back there.
We're back at chapter 14.
And I think you can see this now,
that here the 144,000 Jews who were
sealed off before the tribulation have been serving
God.
They were the servants of God throughout the
tribulation.
Now they're singing after the tribulation is over.
In fact, they're saved out of the tribulation
now when it is passed, because the Lord
is about to set up his kingdom.
But we don't only want to look at
the vision of the eternal Redeemer, and the
vision of the triumphal remnant.
We want to have a look at the
vision of the spiritual record of these 144
,000.
It says in verse 4, these are they
which were not defiled with woman.
You know, this raises a little problem.
I have the class of, we've got a
number of coming creatures, bless them.
I think we had 24 of them out
at the class last Saturday.
We go on Saturday to the Bible school.
And they do papers for me, and I
have to correct them now and again.
And last week we were looking at a
band of men whose hearts God had touched.
And I had asked the class to find
me quite a number of bands of men
whose hearts God had touched.
And you see some of the class, they
found a great crowd on the day of
Pentecost, 3,000 called, hey.
Only I said that's not a band of
men.
That's a band of men and women.
And then one of our men said 144
,000.
Is that a band of men?
Come on, he's a believer.
And I said that's not a band of
men.
And then my son, he said to me
when he came home, he said, God, listen.
Do you see this verse here, verse 4?
These are they which were not defiled with
woman.
There must be a band of men.
I said, you're not reading enough.
You're stopping too soon.
It says they are virgins.
So I can argue from that angle none
of them were a band of women.
Oh no, I don't think that sort of
argument will do.
You see, I'm looking at this wee thing
among men, I'm going to confess this, that
you know if it's 3,000, they'll have
to have them all men.
And if it's 144,000, they'll have to
have them all men.
You know, they wouldn't give a woman a
chance at all.
No wonder there's a woman's libs.
For all the boys that I see, they're
all men.
They're just three men.
You know, I don't think that God will
take 144,000 men, Jews, male Jews.
I believe they'll be women taking their stuff.
You see what this is this evening?
This is a great figure of speech.
And this is the thing you've always got
to look out for when you're expanding this
book, that there are figures of speech.
You see, supposing I took you back to
Paul writing to the Corinthians and he's talking
about the church.
And he says, you know, I exhort you
and I preach to you that I may
present you a chief's vision.
It ain't the church of men or the
women, because it's the figure of speech.
When he talks about the bride, the church,
it's all women.
It's the figure of speech, that's what it
is.
When the Lord said, I am the door,
well, it was the figure of speech.
And the figure of speech is there to
bring out something that God wants to be
brought out, and you have the two sides
of the pier.
These are they which were not defiled with
women, for they are virgins.
I believe the figure of speech is telling
us that the 144,000 Jews came right
through this tribulation period, and they were frothless
before the world.
What a record that must be.
You know, sometimes we think we're in trouble
here because we've a few barriers up.
And of course we talk about these terrible
days in Austria and all the rest but
I can tell you that the 144,000
are going to come through the worst period
that we're ever for on this planet of
ours, and come through with flying colours.
Oh, how it should make us forget our
moanings.
We moan about very little, you know.
Sometimes some of them say it was too
warm, you know, it was far too warm.
Then you get another old lady, she says
it's far too cold.
We had an old man here who used
to come to me with all his problems.
And he came one morning, and he says,
did you see that wee lass in the
front this morning?
She had no skirt on at all, he
says.
But then one morning in walks one of
our girls with a neck fit on, nearly
flippin' on it, you know what it is.
Later flashes up to me after, she says,
did you see that one with the long
clothes on?
Will you forever stop at this?
No, I says, a week ago you were
saying there were two shorts.
Now you're saying that you were, would you
tell me the measurement amount of an outfit.
But we do the greatest bit of moaning,
you know, about all of it.
I couldn't say a word to any girl
with a long skirt on.
Why would I dare to do it?
You know, these old fellows only annoy themselves
and keep themselves upon hell upon earth, over
nothing.
If they had something to mourn about, they
would, they would be better off with it.
I'll tell you that the man that goes
through the tribulation on the woman will be
in a fierce time.
But they're going to go right through.
Without a thought, the world can say nothing
about them.
Oh, how we should be ashamed of the
way we mourn at times.
Watch what it says about them.
It says, these are they which were not
defiled with women, for they are virgins.
These are they which follow the man for
those whoever he goeth.
You know, they were faultless before the world.
They were followers of the Lamb.
These were redeemed from among men, being the
firstfruits.
Here's a lovely phrase here, And in their
mouth was found no guile.
Here's the great testimonial to them, for they
are without fault before the throne of God.
What a vision of the spiritual record of
this crowd.
Faultless, followers, firstfruits, singing for a speech.
You know, there was once a little laugh
said to Peter, thy speech betrayeth thee.
It's a great thing when your speech tells
folk that you have been with Jesus.
Oh, we're not going on with the other
thing tonight.
We're going to take time and do the
voices properly when we come to it next
week.
But keep that in the back of your
mind as we come to next week.
Here's a great hymn for us to sing
this evening, 848.
It is the grandest theme through the ages
wrung.
It is the grandest theme for a mortal
tongue.
It is the grandest theme that the world
ever sung.
Our God is able to deliver the 848
things.
And if you came to the meeting and
you have no money with you, just take
whatever you want and we'll trust you, you'll
come back with the money all right.
So don't miss them while they're here because
we're not reprinting them again.
Last verse, please.
Thank thee for the great fact that thou
art not only able to save us, but
thou art able to keep us.
Thank thee that thou didst keep Daniel even
in Babylon.
Thou wilt keep the hundred and forty-four
thousand in the tribulation, and thou art able
to keep us as we wait for thy
coming again.
Part us in thy fear, and with thy
blessings, for thy holy name's sake.
Amen.