This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Revelation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 11, 1994.

Tonight we are looking at, first of all, Revelation chapter 7. We’re beginning at verse 1. Give your attention now to the reading of God’s wholly inspired word. After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God. And he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads.

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. From the tribe of Judah, 12,000 were sealed. From the tribe of Reuben, 12,000. From the tribe of Gad, 12,000. From the tribe of Asher, 12,000. 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000 were sealed.

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, From every nation and all the 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 cried out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing, and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.

Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying to me, These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they and from where have they come? And I said to him, My Lord, you know. And he said to me, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple. And he who sits on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun beat down on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life, and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.

Then turning over to chapter 14, beginning at verse 1, And I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. 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.

These are the ones who had not been defiled with women. for they are celibates. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, and no lie was found in their mouths. They are blameless.”

O Lord, we are tokens of the effectiveness of your word, for by your word you have brought us to life. Can we claim that the life that we had from our parents is enough? Can we claim, O God, that spiritual life is granted to us according to our right, even according to our merit, or that somehow we have brought it about in ourselves. Surely, O God, you know, and so we know as well, and that by your revelation. It has been your word, which is living, that has brought life to us. And in this life, O God, we confess that we are born of you, and that by grace.

Father, we pray for the effectiveness of your word in others. And once more, our minds turn to the great tragedy of this week. And we ask, O Lord, that as people turn to your word, that they would find that word satisfying, because your spirit with the word is working in their souls. This we ask for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Revelation 14 divides very nicely for us into three sections. Each one of those sections is set off by John telling us that he is now seeing something new. Therefore, we have verses 1-5, then verses 6-13, And finally, verses 14-20. Tonight we are looking at that first section, verses 1-5. At least we are making a beginning at looking at that first section.

These verses as a whole now, not just the opening section, but the entirety of this are intended to move us beyond the horrors that have confronted us in chapters 12 and 13, and into the triumph of God and the victory of His Church. Now, this triumph and this victory have been there facing us all along, even though the references to the victory and the triumph have been cryptic, tucked away in the text.

For instance, Revelation 12.17 talks about the woman’s offspring. whom we have identified as the Church now, the woman’s offspring, identified as the Church, against whom the dragon, so prominent in that twelfth chapter, wages world war in this earth. Revelation done recognizes that the Church presently lives a life in this world and is subject to persecution.

Now, this doesn’t sound much like triumph and victory. But notice again what is said in the thirteenth chapter, verses eight and twelve. The statements here, with reference to victory and triumph, are not explicit. They are indeed inferences, but real in their content, in their substance, nonetheless.

Verse 8 in that thirteenth chapter speaks about those who dwell on the earth. and all who dwell on the earth will worship him, that is, the beast, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slain.” Verse 8, then, speaks about those who dwell on the earth being those who worship the beast in view. But we’ve just heard, have we not? that the Church is among those who dwell on the earth. But they don’t worship the beast, do they? Those who make up the Church of Christ?

What possible meaning, then, can Revelation 13.8 have?

We must understand that the Church here is viewed in terms of her election. That’s how that verse plays out, you will note, but also in terms of the Church’s triumph and victory. In light of her election and triumph, the implication then is that the Church, as contradictory as it may seem, doesn’t live in the earth at all. Now, I can’t underscore this point enough. This is the vantage point, the perspective that you are to gain as you make your way through the revelation from John. Yes, on the one hand, the Church is very much in the world, and a victim of all of that oppression that rises to her account, on account of her identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time, the pressure of this revelation is such that it drives us to what seems to be a completely contradictory conclusion, that the Church does not live in the earth at all, but instead lives in and from heaven.

Now, in order to reinforce this, you will look at the implication of chapter 13, verse 12, where we find the same message. Here we are told about the activity of the second beast, or as we have identified him now, the false prophet, who makes the earth—note the expansiveness of the language here, we’ve moved beyond the language of verse 8—who makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast. The language here is so thoroughly and deliberately comprehensive. Not just those who dwell in the earth, but in order that you might get the point, the earth and all who dwell in it, but underscoring the comprehensiveness of that which is in view. Who, then, can be excluded? Do we not, the Church, dwell in the earth? But the inference is completely to the contrary. No, we don’t dwell in the earth. That is not how we are to think of ourselves in light of these texts.

But our election and our triumph has bound us to our Savior, who in chapter 12, verse 5, is portrayed to us as a child who has been caught up to God and to his throne. While we find ourselves, therefore, in the earth, our lives, as Paul says in Colossians 3 verse 3, our lives are hid with Christ in God.

Now, you might be tired of hearing this from me. You might be beginning to wonder if I have any other message for you. I seem to be always preaching to you about heaven and your heavenly life. But I wouldn’t be doing that if I didn’t find testimony with respect to this heavenly life everywhere in God’s Word.

Our lives, then, even as we consider them from the perspective of the Revelation, just as Paul says in Colossians 3.3, are hid with Christ in God. In other words, there is that sense, that very definite sense, in which we don’t dwell in the earth, since we do not have the earth. Rather, we dwell in heaven since we are born of God and have triumphed through Him and in His Son.

Now, what has been implicit in Revelation 13? is made explicit by John’s vision recorded for us in chapter 14. Matters open up for us with the vision of the Lamb standing on Mount Zon. Let’s take it piece by piece. First of all, the Lamb Well, everything’s confusing. Obviously we’re in the world, but you’re telling me we’re actually in heaven, in a very definite sense. Next, as I come to Revelation 14, I’m introduced to the Lamb, but I thought the Lamb was sitting.

Isn’t that what we’ve been taught? Isn’t that what Scripture says? Isn’t that what we confess, that He is sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty? For thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Time and again we are told that, are we not? Not just in the Apostles’ Creed. but in Scripture, that here the Lamb is standing. Now why is He standing, as opposed to sitting? The posture of the Lamb in this text presents the Lamb as the Advocate. as the advocate.

You understand the language? As the defense attorney. You remember Stephen’s vision? Are you like me? You find yourself turning to Acts chapter 7, just to read through that great story again, the magnificent testimony of Stephen, and the outcome of it. To be impressed again by the glory of its conclusion. Do you remember Stephen’s vision?

As he was found guilty, about to be stoned, he said, this is Acts 7 verse 55, I see the heavens opened up, and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand. that the Son of Man stands rather than sits indicates that he has risen from his seat and placed himself in the role of the advocate who, Stephen knows, pleads his case now, even though he is condemned by a human court.

As we turn to Revelation 14 then, we see the Lamb standing. The standing Lamb then identifying himself with those who benefit from his advocacy, identifying himself with those whose defense he makes. And not only that, But by standing, he is also indicating, in his union with those for whom he advocates, that he is the ground for their position before God. This is important as we begin the fourteenth chapter, for you will notice what is said about those who are then identified as making up the company of those for whom Christ makes his pleas, the 144,000. There are a lot of things that are said about the 144,000, and we might begin to think, you see, that their place before God is because of those things that are said about them—their purity, their righteousness, their blamelessness. All of these things mentioned later on, and we’ve read the verses that speak of those things. But lest we think, then, that it is by virtue of their goodness and their righteousness that they are saved, and that they have access to the throne and to God, we have set before us here at the outset testimony to the advocacy of the Lamb. And that is the ground of the 144,000’s hope, and the ground of their access.

But take note now that the Lamb is standing on Mount Zion. The Mount Zion here is not among the mountains that make up the peaks upon which the earthly Jerusalem and its sanctuary are set. This Mount Zion belongs to the world of eternity. It is the heavenly site of glory. Behind its mention here in 14.1 is its mention in Psalm 2, where it appears as the mountain upon which the Lord consecrates our King.

You will note verse 6 of the second Psalm. It is from this exalted place that the Lord’s Son, veritable Son of God, the King, the Messiah, is now destined to implement His rule by bringing the nations into submission. Read through that second psalm, and you’re impressed by the power, the might, but now is committed to the exalted Son, the King, who takes his place in exaltation upon Zion.

Now, this fierce picture from Psalm 2 has been the source of stumbling for many. Armed with this psalm, they have thought it is now the Church’s role to promote a civil that would be engaged in the breaking of hostile nations’ heads with a rod of iron, shattering them like so many earthen jars. Recall the statement in Psalm 2 verse 9. But listen now. Listen now as the Lord sovereignly exegetes his own word. Listen as the Lord exegetes his own psalm, Psalm 2.

And that by way of this revelation that is described here in Revelation 14. It is not without reason that Revelation 14 opens with the vision of the Lamb on Mount Zion. What that quote is, it is not without reason that Revelation 14 opens with the vision of the Lamb on Mount Zion. Pictured for us here, then, is not the awesome warrior king, who will most definitely be presented later in the book of Revelation, nor even of the line of the tribe of Judah, who had been introduced earlier. Instead, we see the Lamb and the Lamb alone, who repeatedly in the book of Revelation is identified as that Lamb that was slain. In other words, the Christ specifically in his humiliation, his suffering, and as he is a sacrificial victim. But now, here comes the twist. Here comes the beautiful irony.

For you see, we must not think that because our Christ is the Lamb, that he fails to rule. We must not think that because our Christ is the Lamb, that he fails to rule. Revelation’s point is not that the Christ as yet fails to rule and must wait for a future day in which He will rule. Rather, Revelation’s point is that Christ rules specifically in and through His identity as the Lamb.

He rules in apparent weakness. And even in this, you see, and specifically in this, and because of this, he triumphs. It is as victim as the lamb he is raised from the dead. It is specifically as the lamb that he is installed in Zion, and that for the sake of all those who will triumph in him and with him. their triumph being specifically in keeping with his Lamb character.

It is therefore not as we draw the sword, or assert our might and power, or even insist on it and our rights that we triumph. It is specifically as we follow the Lamb and emulate Him, as we are conformed to Him and to His image, as we become Lamb-like, that the triumph of God appears in us. a symbolic number, to be sure, a perfect number. If you will recall what we had read from Revelation 7 verses 4 through 9, the 12,000 from the tribes of Israel that symbolically make up a new and final Israel, the Church of God, idealistically conceived and presented to us here. And as those who follow the beast and dwell in the earth bear the mark of the beast, that set before us in Revelation 13, those who follow the Lamb imitate the Lamb and belong to heaven, and they have the name of the Lamb and of the Father on their foreheads.

That name shakes their minds, being something they cannot forget. You see, it’s the name of the Lamb that’s on their forehead. You cannot forget it. It is the mark of your identification. If you draw the sword and insist upon life and power and your right, you contradict the name that you bear. The name of the Lamb, and that even explicative of the name of the Father. They’re bound together so that the Father has no identification for himself in this context, except as it is mediated through the name of the Lamb.

This is the will of the Father. Here is the new phylactery that sets us apart as the true people of God. You may recall the popular Jewish interpretation of Deuteronomy 6 verse 8, the part that speaks about the binding of God’s commandments as frontlets between the arms. Many a pious Jew, that meant the production of a miniature scroll to be enclosed in a small pouch that was then worn around the head with a headband.

But the new philately will reflect that it is not an external application of the law to our foreheads, as among the Jews, rather it is the branding with the name of the Lamb and of the Father, both of our conscience and of our behavior, which are ruled by the Lamb. The Lamb’s meekness, the Lamb’s gentleness, the Lamb’s love, the Lamb’s submissiveness, the Lamb’s perseverance, the Lamb’s faithfulness, the Lamb’s suffering, the Lamb’s self-sacrifice. being now the law, but also the meaning and content of our triumph.

There is no victory for you unless you can give up your life. There is no victory for you unless you can give yourself away. This is the law of the Lamb. You have to let the earth go. And you have to deny yourself, and take up the cross that the Lamb bore himself, and follow after him.

Now, for those of you trying to make all the connections, once more with regard to Revelation 12.5, that strategic text.

Yes, the child of Revelation 12.5, who is also Revelation’s exposition of Psalm 2. is the Lamb of Revelation 14.1. Note the composition of the images. The child reigns. The Lamb reigns.

Both of these figures then, expressive of our Savior’s current rule and the law for our present lives, as those who do not dwell in the earth, but dwell in heaven. If, Lord, there is the least pride in us, O Lord, we would not be content until that is eradicated from us. Truly, O God, may these figures by which our Saviour is presented to us take hold of us wonderfully and fully. And may we live, O God, contented with the privation that comes to us because of our identification with him, knowing that even in our weakness we triumph, because in his weakness he triumphed. This we pray through our Savior. Yes, even the Lamb who is in sin.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.