May we look to the Lord in prayer?
Our Heavenly Father, we do pray that the vision of Christ the Victor may ever be before us. When we are surrounded by things and happenings that seem to be depressing, confusing, and oppressing, we pray that in the very innermost of our hearts we can see Christ, the Conqueror.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that we can claim Him as our Overcomer. How we praise and thank Thee that by Him we too shall overcome. So we do pray that this vision may ever be before our eyes, no matter what happens.
We do commit this hour into Thy hand, and we claim Thy victory over this hour. We pray that the enemy may not in any way interfere with Thy work. We ask Thee that Thou wilt claim Thy victory over us, over the whole gathering for tonight.
We commit this hour into Thy hand. Oh, how we desire to worship Thee because Thou art the changeless One. We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
During the past two evenings, we have seen two glorious scenes. First, we saw the glory of our Redeemer: the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb standing before the throne—Christ the Overcomer.
Then, last night, we saw the vision of Christ as the Son of Man walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. There He is looking for Himself in His own church, and for this reason the call to overcome comes to us.
Now, this evening, we would like to see another wonderful scene. It is also in Revelation. Will you please turn to Revelation 7? We will read from verse 9.
After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands;
and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb.
And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and about the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These that are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they?
And I say unto him, My lord, thou knowest.
And he said to me, These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither at all shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat:
for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life: and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.
In this seventh chapter of the book of Revelation, actually, there is more than one scene. Before the portion which we have just read, we find another thing: the sealing of the 144,000 of the tribes of Israel.
We find that Revelation 7 is placed between the sixth seal and the seventh seal. In the preceding chapter, after the Lamb has opened the sixth seal, the last verse says:
For the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?
—Revelation 6:17
There you find the great day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb coming. Who is able to stand in that day? But before the seventh seal is opened, you find these two wonderful things. On the one hand, out of the twelve tribes of Israel, there are 144,000 being sealed with the seal of God.
I am afraid I have to do a little interpretation. I hope you will not mind that. If you do not see eye to eye with me, I am quite willing to be corrected, and I do not intend to force you to see my way.
Again, I will say: interpretation is interpretation. Interpretation is not the Bible. We believe the Word of God, even though sometimes we may interpret a little differently.
But what I would like to say is this: the interpretation is not important. What is important is that we desire to see something very significant on this matter of overcomers. If you can get that, you can forget all the interpretation. But anyway, I will try to interpret a little bit.
Before the four angels who hold the four winds of the earth are allowed to blow upon the earth—symbolically speaking, before greater tribulation and greater destruction come upon the earth—God stays the hands of these angels and says, “Wait a minute. Let Me do something first.”
Another angel ascends from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God. He says:
Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.
—Revelation 7:3
So here you find this angel sealing the foreheads of the bondservants of our God. Those who are sealed belong to the twelve tribes of Israel. I personally believe this is Israel according to the flesh.
Before greater destruction comes upon the earth, God seals 144,000—a round number. Of course, Israel as a nation must have many more people than 144,000. In other words, not every Israelite is sealed. Only 144,000 out of the tribes of Israel are sealed with the seal of God.
We know what sealing means. When God puts His seal upon something, it means that God claims that which is sealed as His own. God claims His ownership. God acknowledges, “This is Mine. It belongs to Me.” And because it belongs to Him, it is under His protection.
You remember, even in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel 9, the prophet Ezekiel experienced something of this. He was taken by the Spirit of God back into the temple in Jerusalem, and there he was shown all the abominations and abominable things that the people of God were doing in the temple.
Then he saw six men with destroying weapons. They came and stood by the altar. Another man, clothed in white linen with a writer’s inkhorn by his side, also came.
God said that before the six men with destroying weapons went forth to destroy, the man with the writer’s inkhorn was first to put a mark upon those who were mourning and groaning over the abominations in the city.
He put a mark, like a cross, upon the foreheads of those who mourned and groaned with the groaning of God. After the sealing was finished, the six men followed. Judgment began at the house of God, and they struck down everyone who did not have the seal upon his forehead. The prophet Ezekiel was spared.
So there you find in the Old Testament the same picture. You can bring that picture now to the book of Revelation. Here again, God is sealing His people.
All the tribes of Israel nominally belong to God. Every Israelite belongs to God. Every Israelite is supposed to be God’s bondservant. What else can they be? But in actuality, when you come down to reality, you find that out of the tribes of Israel only 144,000 are sealed.
In other words, God acknowledges them as His. The Lord knows those that are His. They are all sealed. Usually we say this is a Jewish remnant.
At the end of this age, as the end is approaching, there will be a Jewish remnant. We call it a remnant because it is only a very small part of the whole nation. Yet this remnant is faithful unto God, and God owns them as His. God protects them from hurt and harm.
Now this is the first scene that we have seen. In parallel with this scene, we have what is before us tonight.
The Apostle John said:
After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues.
—Revelation 7:9
Whenever in Scripture you come to such a description—out of every nation and tribe and people and tongue—you know immediately that it refers to the church of God. The church of God is composed of those whom God has chosen out of every nation and tribe and people and tongue and gathered unto one Name, the name of our Lord Jesus. That is the church.
If I may put it in a term that our brother Mr. Fox used this morning, this is a new Israel. In the first part, we find the old Israel—Israel according to the flesh. Here, in the second part, we find the new Israel, that is, the church of God.
But when you read on, you find further descriptions, and these further descriptions do not seem to fit the church in general.
You find that they are standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Now, this is a part of interpretation. This great crowd—nonetheless, I do thank God for this numberless crowd—they are standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
According to the order of the book of Revelation, and according to the time factor in the book of Revelation, this scene is seen between the sixth and the seventh seal. This is before the blowing of the seventh trumpet, not to say the blowing of the last trumpet.
We know from 1 Thessalonians 4 that the Lord shall descend from heaven, and there will be the voice of the archangel, the shout, and the trumpet of God. Then those who are dead in Christ shall be raised from the dead, and those who remain alive shall be transformed. We shall all be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Then in 1 Corinthians 15 you find that when the last trumpet is sounded, the dead shall be raised and those who live shall be transformed. Put these two passages together, and you find that the day will come when the last trumpet shall sound. All those who are dead in Christ throughout the centuries shall be raised, and those who remain living shall be transformed. We shall all be caught up into the air to meet our Lord there, because He has descended from heaven.
But here you find the seventh seal has not yet been opened. None of the trumpets has been sounded. Certainly the last trumpet has not been sounded. Yet these people are standing—not in the clouds, not in the air—but before the throne and before the Lamb.
Where is the throne, and where is the Lamb at that time? Revelation 4 tells us that the throne is in heaven. Revelation 5 tells us that the Lamb, slain yet standing, is before the throne. In other words, it is in heaven—not in the clouds, not in the air, but way up in heaven.
Here you find these people already standing before the throne and before the Lamb, even before He descends to the clouds and the air.
I feel this is almost like what we read in Luke 21:36:
But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Or you may revert to Revelation 12:5. The woman gives birth to a male child, and he is caught up unto God and unto His throne. So you find here a countless crowd standing before the throne, as if they are there to welcome the Lord back to earth.
Secondly, they are clothed in white robes. In Revelation 3, in the letter to the church in Sardis, the Lord says:
But thou hast a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.
He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments.
—Revelation 3:4-5
This is a promise to the overcomers in the church in Sardis: clothed with white garments. As you go on, you find that these garments are made white because they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, as we come to God, God puts a robe over us. Use the parable of the prodigal son. When the son comes back, he is in rags, and the Father says, “Take away the rags, but put the best robe upon him.”
In other words, we are clothed with Christ. As we come to God, we are clothed with Christ. Christ is our righteousness. This is the best robe.
But may I ask a question? Does that white robe need to be washed? Can that robe be defiled? We are all clothed with Christ—Christ our righteousness. Can that righteousness be defiled? Does that righteousness need to be washed? Certainly not.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is righteous forever. He does not need to be washed. He never changes. So you find that the robe with which we are clothed by God—Christ our righteousness—needs not to be washed. It is forever white, pure, and stainless.
But the Bible tells us that we believers are clothed with two garments instead of one. We are clothed with Christ, but there is another robe with which we must be clothed.
If you turn to Psalm 45, you find that it is a song which speaks of the King. The psalmist begins:
My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter;
I speak the things which I have made touching the king.
—Psalm 45:1
When we think of the King, Christ our King, it is as though the psalmist cannot already write enough. Oh, how his heart swells as he writes of the King—how glorious, how righteous, how majestic, how gracious!
But as he is writing concerning the King, naturally he turns to the queen. In verse 13 we read:
The king’s daughter within the palace is all glorious:
Her clothing is inwrought with gold.
—Psalm 45:13
Here you find the queen clothed with a dress inwrought with gold—a golden garment. Symbolically, gold speaks of God, the nature of God. It never changes. In other words, this woman is clothed with Christ, our righteousness.
But then, in verse 14:
She shall be led unto the king in broidered work.
—Psalm 45:14
Upon this dress of wrought gold, she is also dressed with a garment of embroidered work. That is another garment, the second garment. The first garment speaks of Christ our righteousness, but this second garment is of embroidered work.
The sisters know better. If you are making a dress of embroidered work, you have to have patience—one stitch after another. It is done with great patience, according to a pattern, and after it is done, it is most beautiful.
After we are clothed with Christ, the Holy Spirit begins to use His needle. He begins to work one stitch after another. He begins to incorporate Christ into our very life. That is a very patient work.
The Holy Spirit is most patient. He is there working one stitch after another, according to Christ, so that Christ may not only clothe us, but may be incorporated into our very being. It is an embroidered work.
Revelation 19 says that this is the righteous acts of the saints. Not only is Christ our righteousness, but Christ is so inwrought and incorporated into us that it comes out as though it is our righteousness—the righteousness of the saints. This is the second garment.
I personally believe this is what is meant here—not the first robe, because it can never be defiled, but the second robe, so far as our practical life is concerned.
So far as our standing before God is concerned, Christ is our righteousness. It never changes. But when it comes down to our daily life—our conduct, conversation, behavior, and manner of living—it is the will of God that, by the patient working of the Holy Spirit and the washing of the blood, there might come forth a beautiful embroidered robe.
But we have to say that very often we defile the second robe. Very often we do not listen to the voice of the Spirit of God. Very often we allow our garments to be defiled by the world, and because of that, they need to be washed.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
—1 John 1:7
If we walk in the light, the blood cleanses. This is how we have this white garment.
Thirdly, you find that they have palms in their hands. I think we all know that the palm always stands for victory.
When the Lord Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the last time, you remember the people took palm branches and ran forth to meet Him. They cried:
Hosanna: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.
—John 12:13
The palm stands for victory. They wave the palm. In other words, they are in the victory of Christ.
You know that in the house of God which Solomon built, you find all around the walls cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. The cherubim speak of the holiness of God. The cry of the cherubim is, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.” The palm tree speaks of victory, and the open flowers speak of the glory of life.
So, from these descriptions, if you try to see the parallel between the first part of Revelation 7 and the second part of Revelation 7, it is logical to conclude that as the 144,000 sealed among the twelve tribes of Israel represent the Jewish remnant, this countless crowd standing before the throne and before the Lamb represents the overcomers of the church.
That is why I feel most thankful to God. We often think of overcomers in terms of one or two. It is true that in comparison with the church at large, in comparison with God’s people, the overcomers may be only a minority.
But do not limit God, because here you find a countless crowd. God has His countless overcomers. You may think that you are the only overcomer, as the prophet Elijah thought. But God said, “I have seven thousand.” Thank God for that.
I wonder whether this countless crowd represents those overcomers in the seven churches in Asia. Certainly they do. I wonder whether this crowd represents all the overcomers in the church from the first century onward. I believe it does.
Here you find this great crowd of overcomers standing before the throne and before the Lamb. It is a glorious scene. They lead the song. They cry, “Salvation unto our God, who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb.”
Their song is taken up. Their singing is followed by the angels, and there is great worship in heaven—great worship. It is a beautiful scene.
Then one of the elders asks the Apostle John, “Do you know who they are, and where do they come from?” John said, “My lord, thou knowest.” I think John was very wise.
Very often we are like Peter. We do not know what to say, but we have to say something, and in doing that we always say the wrong thing. I think John was very wise because he said, “No, you know.”
Oh, how we like to guess! But John said, “You tell me who they are. Where do they come from?” This is the point upon which we want to fellowship.
The elder said to John:
These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
—Revelation 7:14
Forgive me for my little interpretation. Personally, I do not think this points only to the great tribulation of three and a half years which will come at the end of this age. Personally, I believe this great tribulation is a general term.
Where do these overcomers come from? They come out of all the great tribulation.
Dear brothers and sisters, when we think of overcomers, we are always thinking in terms of victory, superiority, high position, and ascendancy. That is true. The overcomer is ascendant. But do you know that to reach this ascendancy, you have to go through deep waters?
It is easy to pray, “Oh Lord, make me an overcomer.” But when the Lord tries to make you an overcomer, you will cry out and say, “Stop Your hand!”
How are these overcomers made? Where do they come from? They come out of great tribulation.
Oh, brothers and sisters, look at our Lord Jesus, the Overcomer. Did God prepare an easy, smooth, and prosperous way for our Lord while He was on earth? Quite on the contrary.
We find that because our Lord so pleased the Father, He was beset with tribulation. He was oppressed, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was, as a Lamb, robbed of all His beauty and glory. He was crucified on the cross of shame and curse. That is where He comes from.
You read the lives of the apostles, and you find the same thing.
A dear sister in the Lord, Annie Johnson Flint, wrote:
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
Our concept of Christian life is often the concept of smooth sailing all the way. But this is not the way to make overcomers.
To overcome presupposes that there are troubles, difficulties, problems, tribulations, and pressures. To overcome means striving, pressing on, wrestling to the very end.
It is not the picture of one who is sitting in a sedan chair and carried to heaven. It is the picture of one who is fighting his way through, dropping his blood all along. That is an overcomer.
I am very touched by what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4. He is writing to the saints at Corinth, and he says:
Already are ye filled, already ye are become rich: ye have come to reign without us: yea, and I would that ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
For, I think, God hath set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, both to angels and men.
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye have glory, but we have dishonor.
Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place;
and we toil, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;
being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now.
—1 Corinthians 4:8-13
You find two types of Christians: the Corinthian type and the apostolic type. The Corinthian believers are already filled; they need not be emptied. They are already full. They have already become rich. They do not need to be poor in order to be rich, like our Lord.
They have already come to reign. They get to the throne without the cross. They are very wise. They are very strong.
I suppose that if you do not know God, if you do not know God’s way, you will say, “This is good. Certainly, to be a Christian is to be strong. To be a Christian is to be wise. To be a Christian is to be filled. To be a Christian is to become rich. To be a Christian is to reign. Now, this is for me.”
Well, if you want to be the Corinthian type of Christian, you may have it. But the apostle says, “Not so with the apostles.”
They must be emptied in order to be filled. They must be poor in order to become rich. They must endure with Christ in order to reign with Him. They are as men doomed to death.
This is not just an exaggerated description. They are a spectacle unto the world—weak, foolish, poor. He says, “Even unto this present hour.” The situation does not improve.
We may say that it is all right to be hungry in the beginning, but he says, “Even unto the present hour we are still in hunger and thirst, naked, buffeted, with no certain dwelling place.” We toil. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you want to be an overcomer? It is costly. Are you willing to be emptied? Are you willing to be reduced to poverty? Are you willing to be a fool for Christ? Are you willing to be weak? Are you willing to be the offscouring of all things, the filth of the world?
You remember our Lord Jesus. When He called for His disciples, He said:
If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
—Matthew 16:24
You may substitute the word disciple with another word: overcomer. The Lord is calling for overcomers. But where does an overcomer come from? Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me step by step.
He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
—John 12:25
This is what is meant by these people coming out of great tribulation. Are you waiting for the great tribulation to come? Your tribulation is great enough.
This means not only the things around us. It is true that if we love the Lord and press on, there will be tribulation coming upon us—no doubt about it. But this great tribulation includes much more. There will be trials, testing, and pressure.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “I have the sentence of death within myself. I am pressed beyond measure.” But it is through all these experiences that he knows God.
Paul’s experience is that the grace of the Lord is sufficient. He said, “When I am weak, then am I strong.”
Dear brothers and sisters, who are the overcomers? They come out of great tribulation. As you follow the Lord, you will find that you meet crisis after crisis. There will be tribulations on all sides.
When you enter into these things, they reveal where you stand and what you are. You know, we do not know ourselves until we are put under pressure. Then we know what is in us.
In tribulation, we realize our weakness. How we need the blood of the Lamb to cleanse us. Under tribulation, sometimes we are overwhelmed. We need to repent and ask for the cleansing of the precious blood.
If there is anyone who thinks that he does not need the blood of the Lamb because he is so strong and never fails, beware. All those who know God, all those who live very close to God—if you read their biographies, you will find invariably one thing: the closer they draw near to God in their life experience, the more they feel the need of the precious blood.
Their garments are all made white by the blood of the Lamb. This is the righteousness of the saints. Without tribulation, we will not realize the need of the blood. But with tribulation, we know how much we need the blood of the Lamb.
Dear brothers and sisters, as we follow the Lord, you will find that His way, as our brother says, is the way of the cross.
Not only do the passions and lusts of our flesh need to be purified, but you find that our whole soul needs to be dealt with. Our emotional life needs to be washed with the blood.
It is only when we are faced with crisis that we realize how impure our emotional life is. That is the reason why the Lord said that if anyone loves father or mother more than Him, he cannot be His disciple. In even stronger terms, if anyone does not hate, he cannot be His disciple.
In other words, our emotional life needs to be washed in the blood. You do not realize how impure your love is. You think you love the Lord, like Peter: “Even if I have to die with You, I am quite ready. All the others may fall away, but I will not.” Sometimes we hope they do fall away, so that we may prove our point.
But you find the lowest point. Oh, it is only when there is conflict, when there is crisis, when there is contradiction, contrast, a cross, a tribulation—when a sword enters into your soul—that it exposes and makes clear. It washes us clean. It creates that white garment made white by the blood.
Not only does our emotional life need to be purified; our thought life, our mental life, needs to be purified.
You remember that occasion when the Lord Jesus began to reveal to Peter and the other disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, be rejected, die, and be raised on the third day. Peter laid hold of the Lord and said, “Not so, Lord. Be kind to Yourself.”
The Lord turned around and said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.” Peter’s mind was in the flesh.
How often we find that our thought life needs to be washed and purified. Of course, our volitional life also needs to be purified. Our will needs to be purified. But is that all? No.
In 2 Corinthians 7:1, it says that even our spirit needs to be purified. Not only does our flesh need purification; our spirit needs to be purified. It needs to be purified from a different spirit.
The Lord said to John and James, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.” They did not have the spirit of the Lamb, because they wanted fire to come down and burn that village in Samaria.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is only when we enter into trial, tribulation, pressure, and all these things that we begin to realize how much we need the blood of the Lamb.
This embroidered work of the Holy Spirit is made through the daily, patient working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As we face things, events, and crises, together with the washing of the blood, He makes this beautiful white garment.
Out of great tribulation.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we should not expect to be overcomers without paying the price of following the Lamb whithersoever He goes.
But thank God, if you read on, you will find:
Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither at all shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat:
for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life: and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.
—Revelation 7:15-17
They shall stand before the throne of God. Why? Because they are clothed. They are clothed with these two garments: the garment of gold and the garment of embroidery. They are worthy to stand before Him.
They shall serve Him day and night in His temple. It reminds me of Ezekiel 44. You remember God spoke to the sons of Zadok and said that at the time when the people of Israel fell away from God, even the Levites fell away from God, they kept the charge.
Because of that, they were able to minister unto the Lord—not merely minister unto the house, but minister unto the Lord. This is almost like that. They serve God day and night in the temple because they have been faithful in the days of tribulation and trouble.
He that sits on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. He will shelter them. They have been wandering, and now they have come home.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. They have hungered and suffered thirst, but no more. And God shall wipe away every tear.
Oh, this is the day of humiliation, not the day of glory. Glory is before us, but we have to follow the Lamb in humiliation. This is how overcomers are made.
Let us pray.
Ah, Heavenly Father, we do praise and worship Thee that it is not just a limited number, but a countless crowd that stands before the throne and before the Lamb.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that the wife of the Lamb has made herself ready, and it was given to her to be arrayed in fine linen, bright and pure.
We have to acknowledge that it is all of grace. If there is anything that we can lay down, it is a result of Thy grace.
Lord, we do pray that we may be those who on earth will follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. If it means the way of the cross, let it be so.
We praise and worship Thee because out of great tribulation the garments shall be washed white. Oh Lord, do speak to us. Do show us how overcomers are made.
So we ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.