Well, let's turn together in God's Word this morning to Revelation 7, and we'll be looking at verses 13 through 17. Revelation 7, verses 13 through 17, where God's Word reads as follows. Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, who are these clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? I said to him, sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have 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 shelter them with His presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. So far the reading from God's word this morning. May he add his blessing to our hearts. Well, as of late, and unfortunately in the next couple of weeks ahead, it feels like our series in Revelation has become something of a shuttle run. I don't know if you're familiar with a shuttle run. That's what it was called when I had to do it in eighth grade. It was a physical education. fitness evaluation and you started on one and you ran as fast as you can for 15 feet and you touched down and you had to run back and you had to touch down and you never really felt like you were running, you were always starting. And so I'm afraid that it feels a little bit like that in our series of revelation right now where we have one week off, one week on and so forth. And so we have to remember where we came from a little bit more than we usually might do. The text that's in front of us today, it's a conclusion. A conclusion of the sixth seal. It began in chapter 6, verse 12. And the last time we were in Revelation together, we saw These two groups of people, both of which signify those who are in Christ. Those who are on the earth, 144,000, symbolic number. Those who are in heaven, this great multitude that no one could number, all of them giving praise and worship to God. And as the sixth seal comes to an end, we remember the sixth seal as an opening of the judgment of God. the judgment of God against the nations. And so when we conclude it here in verses 13 through 17, the contrast that we've kind of seen all throughout this chapter, throughout this seal is really coming to the forefront. There is a contrast that is impressed on us simply by what is described for us in these last verses that describe the sixth seal. The contrast that's before us is a crucial contrast. We can't miss it. We can't skip over it. We can't read it quickly as we're tempted to do with some parts of scripture that are either very familiar to us or that really stretch us in terms of our thinking. We have to settle in on it and understand this contrast because it is crucial, especially for us as believers. It is a contrast in our text today that helps us to understand the benefits of the covenant of grace. It is a contrast that helps us to see what the gospel promises to unworthy sinners. It's a contrast in drawing it that is meant to refresh. The people of God in the book of Revelation, They're suffering, they're under much affliction, tribulation even it's described, and we're gonna see plenty of that. But always in the book of Revelation there is a circling. It starts with the bad news and in the end you end up with good news, the best news you could really imagine. And that's what our text is doing today as well. It is a text that is meant to refresh The church of any age, any church in any age deals with tribulation, and our text today through this contrast shows us the great joy at the end of that tribulation. Now if the contrast that we will be considering together today is lost, the gospel isn't necessarily lost altogether, but the gospel is cheapened. the significance of the gospel is diminished. It is a contrast, as I said before, that is significant for believers, but it is actually significant for all people. Anyone who hears this contrast and considers it honestly, and considers it in sincerity, anyone who considers this contrast without pretense or without deflection, it will affect them. It will affect people who have all manner of relationships with God. Some people are hostile to God. If they consider the contrast that is drawn in our text, it should affect them. It should fill them with dread and fear over the coming judgment of God. If the kind of person is apathetic towards God, this contrast should make them see the significance of their relationship with God, that the relationship with God is not something to simply be thought about, you'll think about it 10 years down the road, or you'll think about it 15 years down the road. And for those who recognize their need for reconciliation to God, when you consider this contrast, It shows you the great joy that you have in Christ, a joy that is begun today but will be exponentially greater when you're with Him in glory. For all these different groups, the message of the need for reconciliation comes through the contrast that is drawn in this text. The contrast, the conclusion of the sixth seal, that's what we're examining today and it teaches us that the mercy of God is seen in his removing of judgment for sin and replacing it with his comforting presence. So the mercy of God is seen when he removes judgment for sin and replaces it with something. So we don't only see the glory of the gospel in seeing what we're spared from, we do see the glory of the gospel in that, but we see the glory of the gospel also in what the believer will receive, which comes through God's comforting presence. And to learn that lesson, we want to first look at the contrast of people in our text, and we're going to look primarily in verses 13 and 14 for that. And then we're gonna see the contrast of God's works among those people in verses 15 through 17. So the contrast of people, the contrast of God's works as we seek to learn that the mercy of God is seen in his removing judgment for sin and replacing it with his comforting presence. So let's begin by looking at the contrast of people as it's found in this text. The opening words of our verses, they are those that make us to look back, right? One of the elders, the 24 elders, comes and says, who are these clothed in white robes? Well, we've been introduced to those who are clothed in white robes. And it brings us back to verse 9 of chapter 7. This great multitude that no one could number standing before the throne, before the Lamb, and they're clothed in white robes. And as our text opens, one of the 24 elders, one of the elders that sits around the throne room of heaven, He comes to John, the apostle, and he asks him who they are. John, he is eager to learn, so he doesn't volunteer the answer. He simply refers back to the elder. He says, sir, you know. And then the Bible gives us an explanation of sorts, of who these people clothed in white robes are. They are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So when the Bible gives this explanation, it's talking about those who have entered into heaven after enduring the Great Tribulation. Now in Matthew 24, we just missed the verses in our New Testament reading this morning, we read them last week, but in Matthew 24, verse 21, it talks about the judgment of God on Israel at 8070, and it talks about that time as Great Tribulation. It culminates, this Great Tribulation, it culminates in the destruction of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple, the ending of the sacrificial system as John mentioned today already. But when it comes to the context of our verses, we know it's not just for the Jewish people. We're looking at verse 9 of chapter 7 as the thing that informed us. There's a great multitude from every nation, tribes, peoples, and languages. And so we've seen that in the past as a covenantal term. There is the inclusion of the Gentile among the Jews. And so when the elder is talking to John here in explaining who these people in white robes are, he can't be talking just about the Jews who were in Jerusalem at AD 70 because it's addressed to Jew and Gentile and the great tribulation that they will endure. So then we have to look outside of Matthew 24. So it's not just Matthew 24. There are other places in scripture that talk about tribulation as well. So for example, we can go to Romans 12 and verse 12 where Paul is turning from the truths that he's taught in the first 11 chapters, and now he's talking about how those truths are to be lived out by the Christian. And he says to the Christian church, be patient in tribulation. So Paul is exhorting the church to be patient in the kind of local hardships that Christian churches endured in that time and have endured since that time. Different instances of hardship, that change over time where nations that are strong with a strong Christian presence can eventually lose that strong Christian presence and can change from those who would evangelize the nations into those who need evangelism from the nations, from those who would protect the persecuted into those who would persecute the church. And so Paul's talking about that in Romans 12. The text is talking about the Great Tribulation. So it seems to be more than just kind of the localized hardships or even the nationalized hardships that Christian churches might endure in time. What is this Great Tribulation? Well, the Great Tribulation is hardship that is experienced by all tribes and peoples and languages as they are found in verse nine. All of those people who are in verse nine, clothed in white robes, came out of the great tribulation. And so it's describing a tribulation that is, in a sense, universal. Universal in the life of the church. It's more than 80-70 in Jerusalem. It's more than the local hardships that churches endure. Note, this text is describing a tribulation that is for Christians in all times and places. It is the great tribulation that we're going to become very familiar with in the book of Revelation. In later chapters, we're going to see the rage of the devil and his beasts unleashed on the world against the church. The great tribulation that we have in mind in our text is the enmity of the world against the people of God. That's what we're talking about. It's the kingdom of this world warring against the people of God. The Great Tribulation, those who are in heaven in these white robes, they've come through that. They've come through the outworking of the enmity that is established in Genesis 3.15 when God promises a resistance, a hostility between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the of the woman. It is this hostility that takes shape in the world almost as soon as sin enters the world. It is this desire for destruction that exists between the evil one and the people of God. Those who rebel against God and those who worship God. Those who seek God's face and those who seek to be hidden from His face. It has worked itself out as soon as sin has entered the world, seen first of all in Cain's murder of his brother Abel, the beginning of the Great Tribulation. It is this enmity that is expressed in action in the natural man. This enmity that is embedded deep within his heart, described in Romans 3, verse 15 and 16, when it says that the natural man, his feet are swift to shed blood, and in their paths are ruin and misery. That impulse is exercised against the church, in all places, in all times, known as the Great Tribulation. As the church waits for Christ's return, that Great Tribulation is ongoing and will continue until He does return. So when the elder asks John, who are these clothed in white robes, he's describing everybody in all places and in all times who has transferred, he's made their final church membership transfer from the church militant, as described in chapter seven, verse two, those living on the earth who have the seal of God on them, the church militant, to the church triumphant. the church removed from the earth and brought to heaven where they are perfected in their worship of God. They are the ones who are clothed in white garments. And they form the foundation for the contrast. Because when you read the description of these people, and you see what they're concerned about and the desires of their heart, And then you go back to chapter six and verse 15, where a different group is described. The contrast is so very plain. In chapter six, verse 15, you have the kings of the earth. You have the slave, and everybody in between, asking God, or asking that rocks and mountains fall on them, that they would be kept from the presence of God. that they would not have to behold his face. And you can contrast that to those who are clothed in white robes, who've come out of the great tribulation, who were faithful to God, even at the cost of their own life. There are those who flee from the Lord, and there are those who desire the Lord. That's the contrast in our text. The difference is anchored, in a sense, in verse 14. In verse 14, the main difference between these two groups of people is seen. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So there are those who have garments that are white, made white by the blood of the Lamb, and there are those who haven't. There are those who hate the Lamb, and there are those who depend on the Lamb. There are those of the world and the people of God. There are those who worship themselves or an idol, or those who worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the contrast of these people is found in their robes. There are those who have polluted garments, and there are those who have white garments. There are those who live in the guilt of their sin, and there are those who have been only found to be white through the cleansing blood of Christ. And that's the contrast of the people. Those are the two groups that exist in the book of Revelation. Now, we ask ourselves a question, why does that matter? Why do we need to decide how many groups there are and who they are? Well, the rest of our text really makes that plain when we think about the contrast of God's works towards these two different groups. So the contrast between these two different people is in who they are, but it is also in what they receive from God. And we've already looked at Revelation 6, 15 and following, where the kings of the earth and the slave, they asked, to be crushed, to be annihilated, really, rather than to face the God who will be their judge. And there's cause for them to be afraid, because there's a history of how God works with the evildoer. There is a history of descriptions, of illustrations of what judgment looks like in the world. Begins in the flood account of Genesis 6, doesn't it, where God Wipes out the whole world except for eight people because the inclination of their heart was only evil all the time And it says in Genesis 7 verse 4 that that God judges the world. It's not an accident. It's not a It's not some neutral force, some impersonal force causing the waters to pour out on the world. This is God's act of judgment. It says there that God judges the world through the destruction of every living thing in the flood. In the Minor Prophets, there are many instances of God's judgment against the world. You could look at Obadiah 9. Obadiah is prophesying against the nation of Edom. A proud nation rejoicing in the exile of Israel, rejoicing in the affliction of God's people. And they're judged for that. And it says that Edom's pride means that every man in that nation will be cut off by slaughter. This is God's declaration of judgment against the Edomites for their pride against Israel. You could go to the New Testament to Jesus himself who tells the parable of the weeds and the wheat. You remember that account where at night the enemy of the farmer goes in and sows weeds among the wheat and it grows up among it and they have to separate it? Well, when they separate the weeds, which represents the hypocrite, When they separate the weeds from the wheat, the weeds are thrown into a fiery furnace where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, which is a very common New Testament expression that encapsulates the despair of life without God, the despair of those who live under judgment. But our text is not dealing with that aspect. It's not dealing with judgment, it's dealing with the glorious opposite. So we can talk much about the judgment of the wicked, and it is right when the text requires it that we speak of those things, but today's text is primarily speaking of the glory that will be given to the regenerate. to the children of God, to those who have faith in God, what do they receive? And it is a contrast that is removed as far as the East is from the West, if we can use that illustration. Contrasted to the horrible, terrifying judgment of the world is the wonderful, joyful, magnificent promise of God to those who are clothed in white robes, who have their garments washed by the blood of the Lamb. This text is addressing what the saints might expect. And it is good for us to familiarize ourselves with that as well. What is to become of those who are, by God's grace, joined to Christ? What is to become of those who have their sins forgiven because the wrath of God for their sin was poured out on Christ instead? What is to happen to those who have been purified by his blood? Isaiah 53 and verse five talks about the suffering servant who is pierced for our transgressions and with his wounds we are healed. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 talks about Christ, says that Christ knew no sin at all, but that he was made to be sin. I'm describing how we are washed white in the blood of the Lamb. Because as we saw in our, as we heard in our prayer earlier on, this worship service, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And it is those who sin who face the judgment of God. So how do we escape the judgment of God? It's because the one who knew no sin was made to be sin. The Christ who was completely pure, whose garment is radiant white by nature, had all the imperfections of everybody else's garments, all his servants poured out on him. He suffered the agony that should have been ours. 1 Peter 2 says it this way. It says, he himself, Christ, bore our sins in his body on the tree. that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. That's how you were washed. By believing in Christ's works, that by the judgment of God poured out on Him, we might die to sin and live to righteousness. And if you're not affected by that theological truth, then there is still something else in our text that helps you to see the glory of this contrast. The theological truth should be enough. Well, the contrast really informs and shows that theological truth. But we should be able to get from theology to a deep, intense gratitude for God. But God is merciful and he knows our weaknesses, and so at times he shows us the difference, he gives us examples that we might be able to see the consequences of our theology in scripture. And that's what's happening in our text here today. There is, in our text, three basic things that the saints are able to expect to receive from God's hand because they have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. So if judgment and condemnation of the worst kind waits for the world, what is the expectation of the saint? Three things. First of all, the saint can expect God's presence. Now, if you are grown up in the church and you hear talk about the presence of God, a lot that can seem like kind of an insignificant contribution to your future, the presence of God. But the presence of God is the only thing that preserves anything good in this world. The presence of God is the only thing that ensures any kind of positive experience at all, and I don't mean that in a mystical way, right? What I mean is, if you don't have the presence of God, you have nothing. Think of Christ at the height of his humiliation, at the deepest part of his pain, when he's hanging on the cross, what is his cry? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The absence of God is the thing that terrorizes Christ on the cross. He never separated in his divine nature, but as a man, to have the face of God turned away from him is the greatest experience of the curse of God. Does the presence of God matter? You might say to yourself, I know lots of unbelievers. They seem like pretty happy people to me. Well, that is true, but only because God restrains the fullness of evil. There is some aspect of the goodness of God that remains present even in the fallen, corrupted nature of man. But if you remove God from the equation, If God is removed completely from the world, which he will be in hell, there will be no peace. There will be no goodness. There will be no kindness. All of those things belong to God. And if God removes himself from the equation, you will have the depths of evil and the depths of evil only. Those who have their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb, they have the opposite to expect. Not the complete removal of God, but what we experience imperfectly today will be the fullness of our experience in heaven. God's presence will be among His people. It says even that He will shelter them in His presence. The literal is, He's going to pitch His tent over them, like the tabernacle. When He is present among the people of Israel, visible, the pillar of cloud in the day and the pillar of fire by night, God present among His people, perfected in heaven, that's going to be the expectation of those who have their garments washed. So that's the first thing, God's presence. The second thing that the people of God can expect in heaven is the removal of suffering. And you see that in verse 16. They shall hunger no more, they won't thirst anymore, and the sun won't strike them, nor any scorching heat. The world, in chapter six and verse 15, the world invited suffering rather than facing the Lord. They call on mountains and rocks to fall on them, but for the saints, there is no more hunger. And there is no more thirst. The promise is, you will not hunger again, you will not thirst again. So what does that mean? That means the most basic level of suffering that the world endures, still endures today, is gone. It's removed in the life of the saints. Some of what we read in our text is difficult for us to fully grasp because we have lived in such ease and comfort all our lives. So, for example, when it talks about the sun not striking them, for us, why would that be a problem? You just go inside, you turn up the air conditioning. That's not the society that he's writing to. He's writing to a society where the sun could kill you. When you were in the desert and the sun beats down on you, it saps you of your strength and you collapse under the weight and the oppression of the sun. Talking to a society where the supply chain was perhaps more fickle than ours, even in this day is. And the hunger and seasons of famine that could affect a nation Very much a reality that will never again be the experience of the saint when they are in heaven with the Lord. The most urgent ways that a man can suffer will be removed. Man's physical weakness will be overcome by the Lord who provides for his people. So the saint can expect God's presence and the removal of suffering. And then finally, the third thing that is promised to the saints is the removal of grief, or the ceasing of grief. In verse 17, the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Of course, verse 17, very much a reference to Psalm 23, which is amazing when you think about it, because you have the lamb, The lamb here becomes the shepherd, and the shepherd leads his people besides still waters in green pastures. He restores my soul, and so on. The lamb fulfills what is talked about in Psalm 23. That's the work of Christ. Christ, in John 4, at the well in Samaria, says to this immoral woman, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The lamb, the shepherd of the people of God, who guides his people into comfort. There is a picture of peace. There is a picture of tranquility in these verses, it's really the opposite of the striving that we experience in this life. Our lives are filled with striving. It's all over the world, this striving. Nobody escapes it. There's always pain, and there's always suffering, and there's always hardship. And then there's that culmination right at the end. where it says God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The promise is that all grief will be gone. God wipes away every teardrop. The teardrops that come when life is overwhelming because of sin. Maybe your sin, maybe somebody else's sin, maybe both together. Maybe just the effect of the fallen condition of our world. But sin causes pain. Sin causes grief. And the promise to the saints, those who have their robes washed white by the blood of the Lamb, the promise to these saints is that these teardrops will be gone forever. And so you have this contrast in our text. Two different people. the righteous and the wicked with two different experiences. The righteous, they will enjoy the presence of God. the suffering of the righteous will end forever and grief will be removed forever. And on the other hand, you have the wicked who will enter into this place where the face of God is removed forever and his judgment is feared to such an extent and the intensity of it is so heightened that what they want is for mountains to fall on them and for rocks to bury them that they would escape the presence of God. And that is how wide the gulf is between what will happen to the people of God and the people of this world. So what does that mean for us? Two things. First, we must learn to take comfort in the promises of God and not skip past them. It is so easy to skip past the most significant promises that God makes. The promise that we receive, especially at the end of verse 17, that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, that is a promise that can affect every man or woman, boy or girl, because all of those are affected by sin. We all are affected by sin. We're all touched by it in some way. Now, apart from Christ, The grief of this world can overwhelm you. It can crush you in hopelessness and despair. It can just bury you and make you so crushed that you can't even catch your breath. The wickedness and the sorrow that we know today is exponentially multiplied in the eternity of hell. But if you are in Christ, and if his blood washes clean your garments, then the eternal expectation that you have is a joy, a joy that comes from being in the presence of God. Today, we don't see that joy fully. because sin pollutes it and sin clouds it. Maybe it's better to say that sin clouds our vision, our understanding of that joy, because we live under the effects of sin. But the promise is that there will be a perfect joy that comes from being in the presence of God. Right now, as we live under the condition of sin and misery, the whole planet groans under it. All people everywhere suffer under it. In what way? Well, we face the effects of sin even in the small, petty arguments that we have in our homes where we hurt each other's feelings and we are grieved ourselves. It can come in the pain that we experience throughout our lives. The older I get, the more sadness I experience. It doesn't become less, it becomes more. Isn't that right? My own sins cause sadness in my own home, cause sadness in my own life. The sadness of the sins done to me have at times made me so despondent that all I can do is cry out to God. The sadness over unbelief in a loved one makes your heart break, and it makes your heart ache, and it's all that you can do to just want to grab them by the shoulders and to shake them into the kingdom of heaven. Is that right? And we're anxious about our loved ones and their lack of belief. We have sadness over death. grandparents that have gone to glory. My father-in-law is in heaven, been in heaven for almost 10 years. For all of us, we face those kinds of pains. We face them in different parts of our lives with different intensities, but all of us have occasion and moments for grief because of sin. For some of us, it is closer and it is more raw than the rest of us can understand, but all of us have it to some extent. And if those circumstances wash over you without any remedy, they will bury you in a flood. But beloved, if you are in Christ, the pain that you have today is temporary. It's going to be replaced by a joy that is unspeakable to you right now. This is not a contrast that we can just put in a chart and say, oh, well, look at that. The righteous have this and the wicked have that. No, this is a contrast that affects your eternity, and the difference couldn't be greater And when you are in Christ, this is the assurance that you have. Every tear that you have ever wept will be wiped away from your eye. Not by an angel. Not by a saint who's gone before. Not by your spiritual heroes, great pastors that you know from the past. God Himself will do it. Your Father will do it. He will wipe away every tear from your eye. So we should take comfort in the promise of God, and then we shouldn't wander past this promise. I want to ask you today, does this text affect you? Does this text make you stop and take notice? I've never known life without the Bible. I've never known life without talking about the Bible. My parents were very faithful in family worship, and we were always talking about the Bible. And so that can make me prone to just reading. because I've read it before. I've read the Bible through cover to cover over 20, 30 times. The phrases are familiar. This week, past week, when I was reading through this text, I was preparing to preach it, I came to God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And I must have read it 12 times to myself. just put my head in my hands, that God would wipe away every tear from my eyes. He knows everything that I am. He knows what I've done. He knows what I say. He knows the temptations that are in this head. He knows those things. And yet, if I cling to Christ by faith, And if my garment is washed pure by His blood, then the promise that I have is not only that God will be with me, but He will be with me in such a way that my comfort will be total, complete. There will only be joy. Don't walk past that promise. Let that promise sink in. And let the full significance of that promise be known to you. All the pain that you endure because of sin is removed and replaced with divine comfort. Beloved, if you are in Christ, that promise must amaze you. And if it doesn't amaze you, then you haven't understood it. Do you lack thankfulness to God? Could it be that you haven't grasped this promise? Pray that the Lord would impress it on your heart, that it would overflow, your heart would overflow with praise because of this promise. Our text today is a wonderful testimony of all the good that God does for his saints. It is a good that is done not because of anything in the saints, of course, it's done because of Christ and his work in purifying and cleansing their robes. It's a good that comes from an absence of sin and Christ alone accomplishes this absence of sin. So when God removes sin through the blood of the lamb, what we end up with is a life that really in some ways is not even imaginable to us today. And so God gives us this contrast. This contrast that we would understand the glory of the gospel. The terror of the world contrasted with the goodness of the saints. Is it an adequate word? In some sense, it's a perfect word because God gave us the word. But in another sense, it's inadequate because words really aren't enough. But they are enough for us to hold on to. It is enough for us to hold fast to this blessing as God's people because it is the blessing of the forgiven. It is the blessing of living in the presence of God without any hardship, without any suffering, and without any sorrow. Let's pray together.