revelation chapter seven beginning in verse thirteen this is the word of the lord reading to the end of the chapter of course this is john uh... john's vision john uh... in in heaven seeing uh... uh... seeing all the things that uh... he's been shown up to now and he sees the uh... In verse 9 he says he beholds all nations and kindreds and people and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands saying to the Lord, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And one of the elders, in verse 13, one of the elders answered saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Well, everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Ever heard that statement? That's not universally true, of course, but it seems to be generally true. But the death of the body is a fact of life. Everybody who's ever lived is dead, except for those who are alive right now, and we're just a small percentage of everybody who's ever lived. uh... and we will soon die for some of us it may be many years from now uh... for other people it will be a much shorter time than they expect you know people talk about the end of the world coming when will the end of the world be uh... and when will when will jesus return well for a lot of people uh... for today for example it'll be today for a lot of people around the world the end of the world will come for them today because they're going to die and it's just a fact of life. Now even if Jesus comes back for the final time in our own lifetime, we will physically die when he comes for us. Our bodies will die when Jesus comes for us because without the death of the body we cannot be with Christ for eternity. There's nobody who's with Christ for eternity in the physical body that they have on earth. Now here in verses 13 through 17, we have a description of the honor and the happiness of those who have faithfully served the Lord Jesus Christ and suffered for him. And it's one of the most beautiful, profound, instructive, and comforting passages in the entire Bible. I don't know of verses that bring more comfort and peace and assurance than these. So we are, the Lord willing, going to steep ourselves in these verses to take the time over the next couple of Lord's days with his guidance to try to extract as much spiritual nourishment as we can from them. My sermon plan for these verses is to help us better understand death and the afterlife, and to do that is going to take more than one sermon. Verse 13, And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? it's more familiar to our ears and I don't believe there's any violence to the text to put this in modern language and one of the elders asked me who are these which are clothed in white robes and where did they come from that's what whence means now it seems to be spoken as as in an admiring tone as the song of Solomon of chapter three verse six says who is this that cometh out of the wilderness Now, these are two questions. Who are these people and where did they come from? Now, this is the first time that John speaks with an elder in the church in heaven. Obviously, the elder knew the answer to that question. He wasn't seeking information, thinking that John would know, but he didn't, obviously. Just as when a parent or a teacher asks a question of a child. You know, if they say, how much is eight times eight? They aren't asking because they don't know the answer and hoping the child knows the answer. They ask to find out if the child knows the answer. It's the same thing here. So in John 14, John says to the elder, well, you know the answers. That's what he's saying. If you look at 14, he says, sir, thou knowest. In other words, you know the answer, sir. Tell me. We can presume that that's pretty much what John is saying. Well, you know the answer. Please tell me what the answer is. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Now the elder is telling him only where they came from, notice he isn't saying who they are. But he is saying who they are, if you understand what's behind his language. they've been in great tribulation he says now this can't be the so-called great capital g capital t tribulation that pre-millennialists and some amillennialists say will come in the future at the end of time because the bible doesn't teach that there is such a thing and uh... in fact jesus told us there would be no great tribulation let me remind you uh... since we've we did a sermon series on that but please turn to matthew twenty four just as a little refresher in the Olivet Discourse. In the Gospel of Matthew verse 24, This is, as I said, the Olivet Discourse, which Jesus gave to his disciples on the Mount of Olives. That's why it's called the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus is describing at this point, which I'm going to talk about, the coming siege of Jerusalem and its destruction by the Roman armies under Titus in 66 to 70 AD, which is about 40 years after Jesus spoke these words. Now notice in verse 21 of chapter 24 in Matthew, for them then there shall be great tribulation such as was not since beginning of the world to this time no nor ever shall be look at that carefully jesus says the tribulation of seventy eighty will be greater than any that has ever come before and there will never be another time in the future that will be greater therefore there cannot be the great tribulation coming in the future in our life in our day or in our future. All tribulations after 70 AD will be less than that one was. So the Great Tribulation happened in 70 AD. And if you want to study that or have doubts about that, we're not going to go into the whys of it. You might want to look at that sermon series again on the Great Tribulation. It's on sermonaudio.com or we can get you a CD of that. Now verse 14, going back to Going back to Revelation chapter 7, verse 14, And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest, and he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It likely refers both to those who died in the great tribulation in 70 AD and all other tribulations. There have been many tribulations and there will be many tribulations for Christians. Tribulations meaning very difficult times, persecution times, killing times, torture, death, where the church is persecuted. The Greek word translated which came in verse 14, these are the which came out of great tribulation, is a present participle and it has a continuing implication. It means the souls are constantly coming into heaven. out of many great tribulations which they've endured during their lives on earth. So interpreting verse 14 as consistent with all the tribulations that Christians suffer throughout human history, that is consistent with the views of most Reformed scholars, at least the ones I've researched on this matter. Because the church is built, as we've said many times, through tribulations, through persecutions, through distresses, through tortures, through killings. As we said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Just one quick example is John Wycliffe, who in our upcoming Sunday School series, we're going to study the life of John Wycliffe quite right at first because he's what we call one of the proto-reformers. He was before Martin Luther and John Calvin. He was the first to translate the Bible into English. It was in Latin at the time and people couldn't read it. uh... and he was condemned as a heretic by the roman catholic hierarchy for doing that they wanted to keep the scriptures to themselves and tell the people only what they want them to believe in order to control after wickliffe died pope martin the fifth ordered that his bones be dug up out of his grave and burned and the ashes should be scattered into the River Swift. And then a saying arose that became very popular. Thus the brook hath conveyed his ashes into the River Avon, Avon into Severin, Severin into the narrow seas, and they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed the world over. They've washed their robes. They've made them white in the blood of the lamb. Verse 14, the end of 14. Now, if you washed your clothes in blood, what would you expect to happen? Think about that. You're young ladies. What would happen if you took your clothes and you put them in a washing machine and instead of water, you had a big jar of, I don't know, pig's blood or something. and you use that instead of water. What would happen to your clothes? Would not be a pretty sight, would it? It would be a mess. Well, if you try to clean your soul by washing it in anybody's blood, other than the blood of Christ, your soul will be a bloody mess. What I mean is, if you depend on your own good things that you do, your own feeling sorry for sins, and your own attempts to lead a really good life, if you think that's going to save you you're washing your soul in your own blood and it will remain filthy and polluted now if if and that's true of anybody who depends on anyone else other than jesus christ to save them people the moslems who depend on allah to save them uh... or buddhists who think that buddha or transcendental meditation or krishna or You know, people who think that the Virgin Mary has something to do with their salvation, or anybody else. If you depend on anybody else other than Jesus Christ for your salvation, you're washing your soul in their blood. And the result's going to be the same. You're going to go to hell, because your soul is still filthy and dirty. Hebrews 9.21 says, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. So there has to be a blood sacrifice, a payment for sins. So blood in the Bible represents getting right with God, the forgiveness of sins. So in 14b, the last part of the 14th verse here in Revelation 7, they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That's how they got there. That's what the elder is saying, John, this is how they got there. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. their own blood, which pollutes, not their good works, and many of them were mighty men and women of God. They were great, great saints, heroes of the faith, but it wasn't their good works, it wasn't their being heroes of the faith that saved them, but only the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that washes away sin and makes the soul pure and clean in the sight of God the Father. so we can earn god's favor by anything we do that's like washing our clothes and in our own blood much less what a big shot we might be on earth, or how rich we are, or what a great job we have, or how many friends we have, or what political office we might hold, or something like that. Those who aren't depending 100% on Christ's righteousness are trying to mix their own righteousness with Christ's. In essence, they're saying that what He did on the cross wasn't quite good enough to save them. I've got to help them out a little bit by doing these good works. Well, if you depend on your good works to help save you, you will die in your sins. Good works are the result of salvation. They're never its cause in any way, whatever. Okay, let's go on to verse 15 in Revelation 7. Continuing with the elders answering John, they've washed their robes in the blood of Christ, therefore are they before the throne of God, therefore Whenever you see the word, there's an old saying, whenever you see the word therefore in a verse, you have to ask, what's it there for? Well, it's there because it continues the thought of the previous verse. So therefore, therefore what? Well, they wash their clothes in the blood of the Lamb of Christ. Therefore, or because of that, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. Now this verse confirms that the Great Tribulation can't be at the end of time, as I said before, because those who came out of Great Tribulation, verse 14, are before, in verse 15, the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. So they've already come out of Great Tribulation. Now this implies they're not yet on the new earth, doesn't it? Which they would be if the Great Tribulation had happened at the end of time. It says God shall dwell among them, so they are at the temple of God here. The Greek here is, they serve him, present tense, and he that sits on the throne shall, future tense, dwell among them. So, they're not at the final new earth, which we'll talk about later, but that's the absolute end that goes on forever, is the new earth. They're not there because God shall dwell among them. well the question comes up we all ask these questions what are you going to do what do we do in heaven you know you've seen the cartoons of people sitting on a cloud playing a harp you know and do I get angels wings I mean what what do we do and what we do in heaven what what are our loved ones who are in heaven doing right now well here are some verses right here that tell you the saints in heaven serve God day and night in his temple okay in verse 15 they don't rest They serve him day and night. They don't have any need for rest or for sleep. They don't get tired. It's their delight. They serve him day and night. Of course, there's no night there. The term day and night is for our purposes, because that's how we understand days and night. So we know day and night means perpetually. Today, John might have written, in modern language, they serve him 24-7. The Lord willing, we'll have more to say on this in the next Lord's Day. Verse 16, they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. You know the subject of death and the afterlife raises a lot of questions. Why is there death? If God is altogether good, why is there death? Or is Satan responsible for death? But why would the Lord let Satan do that? And other questions come up when you think about this. What happens to the Christian when he or she dies? What happens to the person who's not a Christian? What happens to infants, little babies who die? What happens to aborted babies? Do they go to heaven? Do they go to hell? Do they go somewhere else? What about mentally retarded people who can't make expressions of faith? What happens to them when they die? Or someone else, I mean not necessarily mentally retarded, but some disability where they can't express their faith. Is there such a thing as reincarnation? How about purgatory? Is hell real? Is heaven real? Do you go to hell forever or is there some time when you can repent and get out of hell? Why would a good God condemn people to hell forever? And there are other questions raised by all this subject, such as after you die, do you have the opportunity then to accept Christ? And what are our loved ones doing right now? Are they conscious or are they asleep? Some people teach what's called soul sleep, that when you die you become unconscious until the resurrection. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that. Or are their souls just extinguished? Is life here and that's it? You're gone. That's called annihilation of the soul. Is death the end of life? If not, do the dead remember their time on earth? Do they remember their loved ones? Will we recognize them when we get to heaven? Will they recognize us? Do they know what's going on in our lives on Earth? Can they communicate with us? Do they guide or protect us? Do they worry about us? Can we contact them through prayers or some way or mediums or meditation or seances or maybe some other way, maybe some more Christian way, so-called. What about ghosts? What about haunted places? Are they real, or are they just some people's overactive imaginations? And if ghosts are real, are they the spirits of dead people? Well, the Lord willing, over the next few sermons, we're going to look at what the Bible has to say about all those questions, both for our instruction and our encouragement. let's take up one of those subjects reincarnation a lot of pagan religions including new age religions teach reincarnation now the word reincarnation I think most of us know what that word is but it's interesting to look at what's behind the words where these words come from reincarnation it means to become incarnate again now what is incarnate means incarnate means to become flesh or human For example, we say God became incarnate in Jesus Christ, meaning he became flesh, took on a human body, became incarnate. Now the word incarnate has also the word in it carnate, c-a-r-n-a-t-e, carnate. Carnate comes from the Latin word that means flesh, and it's the origin of words that we already know like carnal, meaning having to do with the flesh, carnage, meaning slaughter, especially of people, or you might be familiar with the Spanish word for beef. Anybody know that one? Carne. Carne. It also comes from the Latin word. Even the word carnival comes from carne. Carne means flesh. Veil in Latin means farewell. So carnival, carnaveil, means farewell to the flesh. And that's a reference to the first carnivals of ancient times, where they had all this debauchery, all this sinning, because Lent was coming up, and they'd have to give up all this to show, you know, for God. So they wanted to have one last fling, so it was a farewell to the flesh for a time, and that's carnival. Mardi Gras, New Orleans is the best-known carnival today, at least here in the United States, and it's held a week before Lent. It's the same tradition. So reincarnation is the theory that when a person dies, his soul is reborn into another body. And through being reborn over and over and over again, they don't believe you die and go right to heaven or hell. They believe you go into another body. a little body of an infant who's just, you know, the moment you die, somebody's born and your soul goes into that little tiny baby. And through this process over and over and over again, the soul is given the opportunity to atone for past wrongdoings and to live better and better every time you do this. That's known as karma in Indian-based religions. So in essence, it's a series of second chances. So the goal is to live so many lives that you eventually realize there's nothing in the world that will bring you lasting happiness. That's the whole point of this. Nothing in the world, you've tried everything through all these lifetimes and there's nothing that brings true happiness. So then you've reached a state of spiritual perfection after you've lived all these lives. you have the spiritual perfection in what and you don't have any more desire for anything in the world at that point uh... you you're not reincarnated when you die the soul enters nirvana or perfect peace and happiness or some form of that depending on the religion uh... well i'm speculating or trying to remember now at ekankar teaches uh... something of that nature um... scientology certainly does scientology through through a uh... scientology has a veneer of science uh... and through these these practices and uh... meditations and things you reach what's known as a point of being a clear which is the which is the state of of uh... spiritual perfection where where nothing on earth is really of interest to you and then uh... when you die you're going to be in the state of of Nirvana, whatever their term for it is. But the Bible flatly denies this. Would you turn please to Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, chapter 9. And this is a key verse, verse 27, which deals very flatly with reincarnation. And it simply says, And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." So there's reincarnation goes right out the window. We live once, we die once, after this the judgment. Now this being a physical death, we die physically once. There are no second chances, much less third or fourth or hundredth chances like reincarnation teaches. Reincarnation is based on the false hope that you can work your way to heaven. or what they would call Nirvana, or whatever term they want to use. So this central belief of paganism, reincarnation, is essentially, if you think about it now, the same as the central belief as Arminianism, which is taught in most churches today. Now Arminianism doesn't teach reincarnation, but it teaches that you can work your way to heaven. they just teach there's one lifetime you can do it reincarnation is pagan religions teachers a lot of lifetimes you can do it but same thing you can work your way to heaven that can't be found in the bible okay let's move on to some other questions why do we have to die? why would a good God allow death in the world? now to answer that question there's something fundamental we have to understand if we don't start with this we're going to get way off track Death has not always been in the world. It was deliberately brought into the world by man. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were warned, you'll remember, that if they disobeyed God, they would bring death into the world. But they disobeyed anyway. Please go to Genesis chapter 2. Let's look at that and see exactly what happened there. Because this is the key to it all. If we understand this, we won't have a lot of trouble with some of these questions. In Genesis chapter 2, beginning in verse 16, it says, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now Eve was also under this commandment even though it says just Adam here. She repeated it to the serpent in Genesis 3 in the next chapter and then saying it applied to her as well so we know that. Now as we know Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the prohibited tree and by doing so they did bring death upon themselves and upon all living things. They brought death into the world. This is explained, while death is a penalty for sin, Ezekiel 18.4 says, the soul that sinneth it shall die. The soul that sins will die. Please go over to Romans chapter 5. In Romans 5 explains Ezekiel 18 4 and it explains what we just read in Genesis 2 in Romans 5 beginning in verse 12 wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned By one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death came by sin, and so death passed upon all men, because all men have sinned. Even if we live perfect lives, we still have sin because it carried down through us by Adam and Eve through the generations. Keep your finger there, please, and I'm going to ask you to flip over to 1 Corinthians 15. in first Corinthians 15 verse 22 excuse me, verse 21 for since by man came death almost virtually the same words by man came also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive back where you had your finger, Romans 6 23, very familiar verse, for the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. What you get paid for, for sinning, is that you die. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death means much more than physical death, it means evil itself. You know when Adam and Eve sinned, They didn't just drop dead on the spot, did they? They didn't just fall over dead. But at that moment, death began in their bodies. They began to grow older, which they'd never done before. They received a death sentence, and death began in their souls also. Death includes all the evils we're subject to in life, and includes hell in the afterlife, which is eternal separation from God, and eternal punishment. The Bible says there are three kinds of death. There's physical death, when the body dies, returns to dust from which God made it. There's spiritual death, which is the state of the human soul that is not saved by Christ. And there's eternal death, which is spiritual death made permanent, which is the separation of the non-Christian from God and his eternal punishment in hell. We're all said to be dead in our trespasses and our sins. Ephesians 2.1 says that. That's spiritual death. And without Christ, we stay that way. We have eternal death when we physically die. Spiritual death made permanent. Death, as I said, is not a natural process. It's an aberration. It's a disorder. And we're all born with that virus. in our physical bodies, essentially, and its name is death. It's programmed into our bodies at conception. Even infants, who never have the opportunity to sin, they physically die too. Why is that? Because Adam and Eve brought it on them also. We can't blame God for the fact of death. If our first parents hadn't sinned, and if we didn't continue in sin, there wouldn't have been death. But then it brings up the question, why do Christians have to die? After all, haven't all of our sins been paid for, including original sin? Why are we still subject to the penalty of physical death? Well, that's not a hard question if you think about it, because then you might as easily ask, why do Christians have to suffer at all? Why aren't our lives perfect? Well, the short answer is that all the evils that befall us, including death, including physical death, are not sent as punishment for sin in the way that they're sent to unbelievers. Not in the punitive way that they're sent to unbelievers. The Lord chastises believers to prepare us for heaven. Remember our bulletin quote from last week? The pressures of life are the hands of the potter. The Lord. In Romans 5, I should have asked you to keep your finger there. I hope you have. In Romans 5, beginning in verse three very comforting words and very instructive words and not only so we glory in tribulations also knowing the tribulation works patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope makes not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us And our quote in the bulletin today, George Mueller said, God delights to increase the faith of his children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God's hands as a means. Trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats are the very food of faith. OK, you say, well, I can understand how trials and tribulations make us better Christians. But how does death do that? Well, Robert Dabney, wrote that the fact of death, especially our own death, has a definite purpose for a Christian. He says it humbles our proud soul, causes us to think about the fact that we're going to die, he says causes us to mortify or to put to death our lusts, checks our pride, fosters spiritual mindedness, and you know we know how the death of Someone else causes almost everybody who knows them to think about their own death and their own mortality. And that's when they start thinking about Christ, if they never have before. People are unusually receptive to receiving the gospel message at such times. So the physical death of some people is used by the Lord to produce spiritual life in others who are still living. We saw that very recently. Alina, a woman, got up. at the funeral and said that she's a neighbor and she said, just seeing what an example that little girl was, I'm going to make my life, I'm rededicating my life to the Lord and I'm going back to church. She was testifying there. So, as Dabney says, the fact we are all sinners makes death necessary. He said, death is the only check potent enough to prevent depravity from breaking out with a power which would make the state of the world perfectly intolerable. If there were no death, can you imagine what the depravity of the world would be? People continuing in their sin, evil people, people without Christ, continuing to get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse if the Lord did not take them out of the world. It hardly needs to be said that the Bible teaches man is both body and soul, that our physical body is wasting away, but our soul is immortal, that can never die. And that's true of everybody, whether or not they're Christians. The immortality of the soul is great comfort to us. Why? Because with a Christian, he'll be with the Lord forever. And it's of infinite pain to the unbeliever, because he will burn in the fires of hell forever. Denying that there is life after death, believing that death means extinction of the soul, is a pagan doctrine. It's totally at odds with the Bible. It calls Christ a liar, for he promised in Matthew 5, the hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation, and many other places. And the doctrine of soul annihilation, that this life is all there is, denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ, doesn't it? Which the Bible says is the precursor to the resurrection of everyone who has ever lived, as I just quoted. So, in closing, remember that if you trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation, the death of your body holds no terrors for you. O grave, where is thy sting? We cannot be with him without losing this body, which is wasting away. So in that way, physical death, when it's overruled by God for good, is the greatest of blessings. It's the doorway through which we must pass if we are to be in his presence forever. Jesus himself said in John, and then I'll quote Romans in closing, I am the door, Jesus said. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. If you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.