The scripture reading for this afternoon worship service is found in the book of Revelation, chapter 7. We will read verses 1 through 4 and also verses 9 through 17, after which we will confess our wholly undoubted and Christian faith, whereupon we sing Psalter 51. Revelation 7. After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried 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, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. and crying out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne, and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be to our God for ever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, Who are these arrayed in white robes? And where did they come from? And I said to him, Sir, you know. So he said to me, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God. and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger any more, nor thirst any more, The sun shall not strike them, nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." And now we will confess our faith in the Word. Beloved congregation, in the book of Revelation, the inspired writer John gives us a preview of what is going to happen between Christ's ascension and his second coming. That does not mean that in this book we have a kind of history written ahead of time. That is how some interpret the book of Revelation. But we believe that Revelation was first of all intended for Christians living in John's time. It is God's answer to the prayers and the tears of his persecuted saints in Asia Minor. No, that does not mean, of course, that therefore the apocalypse has nothing to say to us today. It sure does. as long as we do not use revelation as a kind of timetable of events leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Revelation, I believe, presents to us a picture thrown onto the screen of symbolism and no attempt is made as following any historical or exact chronological order. We see the same themes being projected onto that screen again and again. There is repetition but also development. There is also progression leading to a tremendous climax, namely the great battle of Armageddon. But the main theme of Revelation is the successive opening of the book or scroll with its seven seals by Christ, who, as we are told earlier, is the only one counted worthy to reveal the awesome contents of those scrolls. namely, and we can sum it up in one word, the judgments that God is going to pour out upon this godless world. By the time we come to this chapter seven, six of those seven seals have already been opened. The first four describe the future in terms of four horses that are sent forth on their mission in the world. And in the fifth seal we hear the prayer of the martyrs. It is a prayer that God might send justice, that that justice might prevail and that God's cause may be vindicated. And this prayer is then answered by the opening of the sixth seal. And that means that a series of cosmic catastrophes are unleashed, so terrifying in their effect that the enemies of Christ and his church beg mountains and rocks to cover them, to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. And now we would expect that John would immediately proceed to tell us about the opening of the seventh seal and its contents. But that is not what happens here. Before the awesome contents of the last seal are revealed, John is directed by the Holy Spirit to comfort his fellow believers by reassuring them of God's love and of His protection. And in this new vision, John finds himself looking down from heaven upon the earth which is spread beneath him like a giant map. At the four corners of the earth John sees four angels who control the winds of wrath and the hurricanes of fury. They are like watchmen guarding the great gates of the earth. And so vigilant are those four heavenly spirits, that not so much as one breath of deadly air can pass through. Like wild beasts, those furies, who are the symbols of divine judgments, have to be kept at bay until the command is given to release them. And while John is still wondering what all of this means, he sees another angel descending, or rather ascending, from the east. And this angel holds in his hands the seal of the living God. And turning to the four watchmen at the earth's gates, this angel says, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And so the judgments of the seventh seal have to be held back, postponed, until God's servants will have been sealed. Now what is meant by the sealing of God's servants and who are these servants? That is what we will try to explain to you this afternoon as I speak to you about the sealing of the servants of God. We will first of all look at their only comfort, secondly at their greatest burden and thirdly at their glorious future. The sealing of the servants of God. Scripture speaks frequently about seals. Basically there are three kinds of seals in the Word of God. There is first of all the seal that protects against tampering. And here we think of course of the seal on Jesus' tomb after he had been taken down from the cross. and put in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, then the Jews, they requested from Pilate that the tomb be sealed. to prevent the theft of the body of Jesus secondly there was the seal that was affixed to documents to certify their authenticity in the olden days when you would receive a letter from a king or some other important authority and then that letter would come with a seal so that everybody would immediately recognize this is an important And thirdly, there was also the seal as a mark of ownership. We find an expression along that in the Song of Solomon where the bride asks her beloved, set me as a seal upon your heart. In our passage, the emphasis is on this third meaning, namely the seal as a mark of ownership. and consequently that denotes protection. Now what kind of seal was it that the angel had to affix to the servants of God? Apparently it was something that had to be put on their foreheads. We read in chapter 14 in Revelation that the redeemed had on their foreheads the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father. Maybe this is what is meant here as well. In any case it was something whereby the Lord's people were clearly identified. This sealing was intended for the comfort of the Christians to whom John was writing. Because by now, his fellow believers sure needed comfort. Why? Well, they had just read about, they had read this letter to the seven churches, and they had read about the awful judgments that were contained in the first six seals. They had heard Christ's enemies crying to the mountains and rocks to cover them, to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. And they were saying, who shall be able to stand in that day? But that was a question not only asked by the ungodly. Believers also had their fears. They also had their anxieties in connection with the coming of the judgment of God. How were they going to do in those terrible days of God's vengeance? When they looked at themselves, they could not be overly confident. For who were they? Sinful. Weak. Helpless creatures. Faced by the opposition from the enemy. And it was an overwhelming majority of people that were against them. And I think that that is still how God's people often think of themselves. They are not always so sure that everything is going to turn out alright for them. And John knew this. Or rather, God knew this. And therefore he instructs his servant to reassure his fellow Christians that they did not need to be afraid because they are the Lords. They could say, they did not know the Heidelberg Catechism of course, but they knew the essence of it. What is your only comfort in life and death? that I am not my own, but belonging to my faithful Savior, who has purchased us with His blood. And therefore, when the great tribulation would come, they would be safe. No, that does not mean, as some people think, that they would be exempted from all trouble. There are those and a great number of people who are basically biblical in their way of salvation, but they have this idea that there will come a time when the saints will be raptured and they will escape all the problems that the rest of humanity will have to endure. I don't believe that that is scriptural. God's people, certainly now, there are many who are persecuted already and for them that is a great tribulation, if not the great tribulation. Fearful times are prophesied in the Bible that will be experienced by God's children. Yet, and that is the difference, they will not perish along with the unbelieving world. God will save them and he will rescue them out of their troubles. They have the mark of ownership on their foreheads and therefore no real harm can reach them. Now who are these privileged people who receive here the seal of divine ownership? Well in verse 4 we read that John hears the number of those who are sealed by the angel. 144,000. Again, the same people I mentioned earlier, they think that the reference here is to the converted Jews who will become Christ's witnesses during the Great Tribulation after the church has been raptured. According to this view, the great multitude mentioned in verse 9 is made up of Gentiles who have been saved as a result of the preaching of the Jewish remnant but who in turn are martyred by the Antichrist. And then there are also very many different interpretations, some differences of opinion even among those people that understand the future in that way. But we as Reformed people do not agree with this teaching. There is no real exegetical foundation for this whole concept of the rapture. Our view is that the 144,000 represent the spiritual Israel of the Old and the New Testaments. In other words, the entire church made up of the elect of all times and places. The figure 144,000 is arrived at, as you know, by multiplying 12 times 12 times 1,000. The first number 12 referring to the 12 patriarchs representing the Old Testament and the other 12 representing the 12 apostles of the New Testament. The New Testament clearly speaks of the church as the spiritual Israel. In Galatians 3 verse 9, Paul writes to the Gentile Christians, if you are Christ's, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and you are heirs according to the promise. And in Romans 4.11, Paul refers to Abraham as the father of all who believe, whether they are circumcised or not. If believers are the true sons of Abraham, we may conclude that the church today is the true spiritual Israel, made up of believing Jews and Gentiles. They have a common salvation and therefore a common future in glory. And so we take the 144,000 to mean simply all believers in Jesus Christ, whether their background is Jewish or Gentile. And this interpretation makes very good sense also in connection with the rest of this chapter. Revelation 7. In verse 9 we read that John sees a multitude that no man can number. And what is the relationship between this multitude of verse 9 and the 144,000 referred to in verse 4? It's important that we understand that clearly. They represent the same people. the church of Jesus Christ, but viewed from two perspectives, seen in two stages of her history during the last days. First, according to this chapter, we see this church standing on the threshold of the Great Tribulation. And later, that same people is pictured as having passed through this ordeal. martyred perhaps, many of them will be killed, yet victorious over death. Now I'm going to say more about that great multitude in a moment, but first let us talk about those 144,000 who were sealed with the seal of God. These people are very blessed. when the great tribulation comes they will be spared that is to say their souls or their spirits will escape their persecutors they may have to lay down their lives for the sake of Christ many of them will but that will mean for them immediate happiness in the presence of God and of the Lamb and that is the comfort that John here is commissioned by the Lord to convey to his fellow Christians in his own time, but that is of course still the comfort for the Lord's people of today as well. Do you have that comfort? Let me ask that first of all. Can you appropriate what is written here by faith? Are you, in other words, among those 144,000 sealed ones? No, the 144,000 do not correspond to the elite as the Jehovah Witnesses have in their system that there will be 144,000 people that have served Jehovah so well that they are the the elite, the rulers in the church and anyone else who is converted after that number has been completed they will be hewers of wood and drawers of water, they will occupy lesser positions among the redeemed. That is fantasy. If you are a believer in Christ today Then you belong to those 144,000 which is of course a symbolical number. It denotes completion, the totality of the elect. Now John does not say much about them except that they are servants of God. That does not mean ministers only. or professors in the seminary, but all who love the Lord and serve Him, all who walk in His ways. The servants of the Lord referred to here, they were not always His servants. Before they were converted, they were servants of the evil one. But by the grace of God, they were changed. They were changed from servants of sin and they became servants of righteousness, as Paul puts it in Romans 6, 18. And that means that now they love the Lord and now they promote His cause. They rejoice when that cause of Christ prospers in the world and they are grieved when they observe that that cause apparently is being harmed. It is not really harmed but from their perspective when they see the enemies against God Christ and his people, believers, they are grieved deeply. We read about something like that also in Ezekiel chapter 9 and by the way the Apostle John in writing the Revelation often makes use of concepts that are found in the Old Testament throughout and you really have to know that when the Apostle is writing about some of these concepts these come straight from the Old Testament and so we have that also here in Ezekiel 9 we read there about people who received a seal on their foreheads the same thing as what is mentioned here and then we are told and let me just read a few verses from that to refresh your memory because you may not have read this chapter for a long time it says that there were people in Jerusalem which at that time was very wicked who were very troubled about the way things were going and they were sorrowing and grieving and then the Lord said to his servant which turns out to be Christ go through the midst of the city through the midst of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it But then God also issues an order to others and to them He says, go into the city and kill and do not let your eyes spare nor have any pity. That means except for the ones that were sealed by the Lord, who came under his protection. All the others in Jerusalem who were part of that abomination, those who served the devil, they were all executed, they were killed. And the one that was sent to put a seal on the true believers in Jerusalem, that was the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot go into that at this point, but this is a concept that John now takes over when he also speaks about the sealing of the 144,000. They are the people who are truly the Lords. They are people who are very sad when things are happening that go against God and His Church. they too receive a seal upon their foreheads." These faithful servants, in other words, although they too were sinful in themselves, and full of shortcomings, yet they were different from the rest in that they humbled themselves before God and looked to Him for salvation. Now, the question that comes to us today is, is that also true of us? You see, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who are the Lords and those who are not. And those who are the Lords, they are like those people in Jerusalem and also here in the book of Revelation. They were concerned about the state of the world, about the state of the nation of which they were a part, in their case the Roman Empire. Today we can say, are we concerned about the state of our nation, Canada, and of the church in this nation, also the church to which we belong. How great is the immorality today. in our society. How great is the apostasy all around us and if we are Christians that hurts us, that grieves us because we know that that means that the Lord is angry with us as a nation and as a church against our whole Western civilization that once was so blessed with the Christian gospel but from that gospel so many have apostatized and we see this getting worse and worse by the day. Who knows how soon the judgments of which Revelation speaks will fall upon our wicked world. And then when we look at ourselves, we may well wonder how are we going to do in that judgment that is to come. And we saw that this fear also lived among those early Christians and that therefore John was told by the Lord to write these words of great comfort to them. You see, the Lord is just. The Lord will punish unbelievers. He will execute His wrath upon His enemies, on those who despise and reject His Son. But He deals quite differently with those who love Him, with those who serve Him. All who trust in Jesus, God's Son for salvation, will be spared. That's the essence of this message. And they will be spared, because they are the Lord's. And the Lord has put a mark upon them. In our case, it is not necessarily a visible mark, but it is nevertheless a mark whereby we are distinguished from the world. Maybe we can think here of the sign and seal of our baptism. No, I do not mean that that sign as such can save anyone. I'm afraid that there will be many who are going to perish forever despite of that baptismal mark on their foreheads. how many there are who were brought up in the church and received the sign and seal of baptism who were taught the religion of the Bible but who later in life turn away from the Lord. That will be terrible. But, and this is the point, for all who value their baptism and who live in harmony with that sign and seal, who do what also the form for baptism tells us we must do, that we must crucify our old nature and forsake the world and live a new and godly life. Clinging to this triune God in whose name we were baptized, to them and to those it will be a badge of distinction, a mark identifying them as the Lord's property. And I hope and pray that that is true of all of us. Yes, how wonderful it is if that applies to us. Then the Lord says also of us, they shall be mine in the day when I make up my treasures. I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves Him, Malachi 3.17. And that day and what will happen on that day is the subject of the rest of this chapter beginning at verse 9 where we have John's wonderful vision of the great multitude. John sees a great multitude standing before the throne in heaven. They are the redeemed of the Lord, drawn from every nation from all the tribes and peoples and languages. You know, we read in the Gospel of Luke that someone once came to the Savior. He had heard Him perform or preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and maybe had seen Him also perform miracles. And so he approached Jesus one day and he said, Lord, are there few that will be saved? Maybe this man had already observed that so many people were no longer following Jesus, who were deserting him, and so he drew the conclusion that Jesus was really not all that successful anymore. Well, that question then he put to Jesus, are there going to be just a few? But you recall that Jesus did not reply with a simple yes or no. He knew that this man needed a different answer, not one that would satisfy his curiosity, but one that would shock him into reality. And so Jesus replied, strive to enter through the narrow door, the door that leads to salvation. In other words, don't you waste your time speculating as to how many or how few will be saved. Make sure that you yourself will be among those who will be saved. But while that is an important thing to remember, what that man needed to hear some of us may also need to hear at times, but that does not mean that there is no answer to the question as to the number of the redeemed. Here in Revelation 7 we see it clearly stated that there will be many. In fact so many that no one is able to count them. Now that is surely a cheering thought and intended as such, of course. The early Christians were also depressed many times when they looked around them. The multitudes in their society were all in Satan's camp, it seemed. The church was so small. A little flock, surrounded by countless wolves. And don't we feel like that too sometimes? Sometimes you wonder, is there anyone else here who thinks as I do? You may work with people on the job, in the office, or on the construction site, or wherever the Lord has placed you, in school perhaps, that you wonder, how many here really know the Lord, or even are outwardly religious? There's hardly anyone today that you can talk to about spiritual things. You know it better than I do because you go to work every Monday and you hear the stories. Did you see this on television? Did you follow this event? So few will say, what did you hear in church last Sunday? Let's talk about that. Hardly ever happens anymore. The Bible tells us that the church at any one time in history is small in comparison with the world. But that is still only half of the picture. The other half is what John here sees in this vision, namely that there is indeed a numberless throng standing before the throne of God. And we should not lose sight of that. We should be absolutely sure that God is going to triumph over all his enemies. And that he is going to fill his house We should never think of God's redeeming work as merely a rescue operation, pulling a few brands out of the fire here and there. No. Scripture teaches that the Lord will not going to be left with just a few leftovers. Christ will bring many sons to glory. And the new Jerusalem will have a population far exceeding that of any earthly city, ancient or modern. And why should that be so? Well, because as we read in Proverbs chapter 14, in the multitude of people is the king's honor. And this vast multitude, John reports, was standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and with palms in their hands. The Greek word used here for robe is stola. That means that long flowing garment that was worn on festive occasions. Well, here the saints are celebrating. They're celebrating the greatest feast ever held namely their own wonderful salvation. Their robes are white, symbolizing righteousness and holiness, and also they have palms in their hands as symbols of victory. And then John does not only see this immense multitude standing there before the throne, but he also hears them singing. And this is their song. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, verse 10. Notice what they're doing here. The saints, the redeemed, they ascribe their salvation to God and to the Lamb. They know it is through Him, that is Christ, and through Him alone that they may now wear the victor's crown and are no more by foes exalted. They triumph through their King by Israel's God exalted. And surrounding this redeemed multitude stand myriads of angels, and they will now join their redeemed brothers and sisters in singing. They fall down before the throne, it says, and they worship 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 so with their double amen and sevenfold ascription of praise the angelic world testifies its agreement with the adoration of the church triumphant and after John has heard this beautiful song of the redeemed and of the angels he is addressed by one of the elders who asks him who are these? who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come? verse 13 well John cannot answer that question and so he says sir you know and then the elder proceeds to explain the identity of that huge multitude these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb Although the reference here may first of all be to the great and final tribulation under Antichrist, the term also includes all the suffering that the people of God have endured throughout the centuries. All the judgments symbolized by those seven seals together, they constitute the great tribulation through which believers must pass on their pilgrimage to heaven. But the comfort here is that they do pass through it. They have been sealed, you see, by the Lord. And yet they are brought into many trials because of their association with Christ. But, and that's the thing here, they also come out of that tribulation. They are victorious saints. And they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." And now notice, it says that they have done this. And when you read a statement like that, then you think, well, that doesn't quite harmonize with our Reformed faith, where we are taught never to take any credit for being saved, and that is the Lord's work. Well, does this mean, this statement here, that they have saved themselves by their own efforts? No. Of course not. Because they have just finished singing salvation to our God and to the Lamb. But still, Still there is a sense in which the saints may be said to have saved themselves. How? Well, remember that believers receive from the Holy Spirit the ability and the strength to believe. Because it goes without saying, the Bible stresses that we are saved by grace, through faith. But the Holy Spirit enables us to flee to Christ and to cling to Him. And although it is true that faith is a gift of God, once it has been bestowed on us, it is still the believer who believes. It is faith exercised by the Christian. Through faith we appropriate Christ and all His benefits. Through faith we daily seek the cleansing of Jesus' blood. even though we must always remember that it is God's work for us and in us and through us. And that is what the multitude of those redeemed in heaven have done by God's grace, they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, making them white, spotlessly clean. They are pure, they are holy, not in themselves but they have been given the righteousness of Christ. When they believed, when you and I believe, God imputes, charges to us the righteousness of Christ, closes us in the robes of salvation. And we now become by His grace also more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Therefore, therefore, verse 15 goes on to say, therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Literally it says he shall spread his tabernacle over them. Now the tabernacle in the Old Testament was a tent in which there was the Ark of the Covenant and other objects and now it says that the Lord will spread that tabernacle, that tent over that huge multitude that no man can number. What does that mean? Well, remember the temple in Jerusalem. That temple was a place where God dwelt, where He lived, a place where He made His abode among His people. But doesn't God dwell everywhere? Is He not omnipresent, present everywhere? Yes, He is. But by saying that He lived only in Jerusalem's temple, God taught His people that the rest of the world was polluted with sin, so that He could not live among them. You see, in the beginning, all creation was God's temple, and all creatures worshipped Him. But sin changed all that. God could not dwell in a world permeated with evil, and therefore, to bring that home to the people, In the Old Testament he dwelt typically among a selected people, Israel, in a limited place, the Temple of Jerusalem, to the exclusion of the rest of the world. Only in Jerusalem and only in the Temple and only in that part of the Temple that was the Holy of Holies. But all this has changed in the New Testament. following Pentecost the gospel is now preached to the whole world now God takes up his abode in the hearts of believers everywhere they themselves become temples of the Holy Spirit God takes up his abode in the hearts of believers everywhere and yet even now there is still a limitation God still does not dwell in all of creation Nor is all of creation his temple. But that is going to change too. In heaven all limitations will have been removed. And that is what John sees in this vision. He sees God spreading his tabernacle, his tent, over his people. And that means that wherever they are in God's new creation, whether in the new heaven or the new earth, they will be in the presence of God and all creation will be God's temple again and all creation will worship God again. That is what is going to happen. And also it says they serve Him in that temple of the new creation, day and night. Heaven is a place of great activity. Sometimes young people think that, and I've heard that question at catechism from time to time, isn't heaven rather boring to be singing there all the time? It's a wrong question, but I can understand where you're coming from. Because it is not so that there will only be singing. There will also be a lot of work that will be done. It's a place of great activity. The saints will enter their rest, yes, and they will be doing a lot of singing, but it is not an idle rest. It will be a scene of uninterrupted, holy and delightful service to God. Our service here at best is partial, is incomplete, imperfect, because we are still sinful. But that's all going to change. And then John, I have to rush here, John goes on to describe some more details. All of them indicating how wonderful it will be for the redeemed in heaven. And I want to whet your appetite. This is our future, believers. It says, they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. Oh, what an enormous contrast, now and while they were still on earth. Here, God's people have suffered, they were despised and rejected by the world, hunted down like animals, as is happening right now in some countries, arrested, thrown into prison, put to death in various ways, and no one seemed to care. But now, in heaven, all that is behind them. They are home. all is well and all that because the lamb who is in the midst of the throne and that lamb will be their shepherd he will feed them and guide them to springs of living water this is all beautiful symbolism here we have the fullest and richest fulfillment of Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want for sure not in heaven. Here already God's people can rejoice in that blessing of a shepherd caring for them, but in heaven it will be even more glorious. Now, is it not wonderful to be a Christian? Boys and girls, young people, older ones. How glorious, how indescribably wonderful is the future of those who have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. One question, and that is, do you have that peace? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus? If not, seek Him today. Confess your sins, and yes, you also wash them in the blood of the Lamb, by faith. And that blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool, Isaiah says. If you trust Christ today, you will be saved. Or in terms of this morning's sermon, if you look to God in faith, you will be saved. And then you also will someday find yourself among that multitude that no man can number, and you will join in praising the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne. Oh, that with yonder sacred throng we at His feet may fall, we'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. Amen.