Good morning, Saints. Let’s just begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, as we continue in Your presence, Lord, we do truly want to commit this time into Your hands. Lord, our confession is that apart from You, we can do nothing, as far as speaking or hearing. Lord, we are so dependent on You.
Lord, many words can be said, but if they are not of You, Lord, they will fall to the ground. So, Lord, we ask for Thy anointing for this time. Be gracious to us, Lord, as we know You are. And we just pray in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen.
Well, probably most of you kind of know the burden on my heart. It went out a little bit in the opening message, and it is very simple, really: that we would be a prepared people for the Lord. I was really touched by it because it came up a couple of times in our table time. It was rather overwhelming.
But, you know, as I was preparing for this, I thought of our dear brother Kong. I thought how he ever lived in the light of this truth, waiting for the Lord’s coming. And as he got older, that burden got stronger and stronger.
I think that is where we need to be. We need to be a people who are mindful of the Lord’s coming. Now, it is true that some of us may go to see the Lord before the Lord comes. So, regardless, we have to be prepared. But we do believe His coming is soon. When we look around this world, I am just amazed at what I see—that the Lord has not come yet. But He knows what He is doing.
I want to ask a question. When you think of the word beatitude, what do you think of? What portion of Scripture do you think of? Probably most of us think of the Sermon on the Mount, right? The famous Beatitudes there.
As the Lord spoke to me about what He wanted me to share on, I was rather amazed, to be honest. It was not really my first choice of what I thought. But when you look into the Scriptures, that word blessed that we see in those Beatitudes—that Greek word actually comes up about forty-nine times in the New Testament. I do not know if you knew that or not. I did not know it. I was rather amazed when I saw that.
I would like to read a couple that are not in the Sermon on the Mount, just to give us a little warm-up, if you will. I will start with Luke 1:45.
And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.
This was speaking about Mary, when she accepted the word from the angel, and she was called blessed.
Also, in Romans—these are a couple of my favorite verses—Romans 4:7-8. By the way, we are going to read a lot of Scripture today, so be ready for that.
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven,
And whose sins have been covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.
What a wonderful word. And last, James 1:12 says:
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial;
For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life,
Which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
That is just a couple of the forty-nine. But there are seven in particular that I would like to look at this morning. And guess what book they are out of? The Book of Revelation. Exactly.
It is interesting that there are seven there. When you look into the Book of Revelation, there are many sevens, are there not? Have you noticed that before? Let me just read something.
There are seven spirits; seven churches; seven golden lampstands; seven stars; seven lamps of fire; seven seals; seven horns; seven eyes; seven angels; seven trumpets; seven heads; seven diadems; seven last plagues; seven golden bowls; seven mountains; and seven kings. Do you get the point? That is at least seventeen, not counting these Beatitudes that are in there.
We know that the number seven speaks of completeness. It speaks of perfection, right? So, it is fitting that they are here in the Book of Revelation, where we see the completion of what God is after. We see what He is going to do in the end. We know the end, do we not? We have it written in the Book. Praise the Lord.
But let me now read the seven Beatitudes that are in Revelation.
The first one is found in Revelation 1:3:
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
The second one is in Revelation 14:13:
And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”
The third one is in Revelation 16:15. This is the Lord Jesus speaking:
Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk about naked and men see his shame.
Then, in Revelation 19:9:
And he said to me, “Write, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
Somebody prayed this morning about the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then, in Revelation 20:6:
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
And then, in Revelation 22:7:
And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.
The last one is in Revelation 22:14:
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.
So, there are your seven Beatitudes in the Book of Revelation. As I go through these, I will be reading them a little bit in context, so that we are not just picking them out of the air, so to speak.
As we go through these, I may share some stuff you may disagree with, and that is okay. I do not have a problem with that. As long as we catch the spirit of what these Beatitudes are saying, that is the important thing that is really on my heart.
Let us begin with this first one. Again, it is in Revelation 1. I am going to start reading in verse 1.
By the way, I thought about whether I should share this or not, but as we come to the close of the Book of Luke, I could not help but have the thought: I wonder if maybe the Lord would lead us into this book next, the Book of Revelation, as a fellowship. I am just throwing that out there. I do not know if that is the Lord or not, but as I read through this a few times, I was just captured by this book.
Revelation 1:1 says:
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must shortly take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
I want to stop right there for a second and say that it is very important that we see who this book is for. It says, “to show to His bond-servants.” Who are bond-servants? Basically, that is all born-again believers. We are all bond-servants. We have all been purchased with a price. We no longer belong to ourselves; we belong to Him only. Thus, we are bond-servants, or some versions, I think, say slaves.
So, we are all bond-servants. This is written to be given to bond-servants. It says, “the things which must shortly take place.” Then it says:
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Now, this word heed means to attend to carefully, to keep, to guard. Blessed are those who heed the things written therein, for the time is near.
I think it is very interesting that there is a blessing attached to this book. When I think about it, there ought to be a blessing to every book, but this one states that there is a blessing to this book. Why is there a blessing here?
I think if we look at the book as a whole, we realize it is because it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a full revelation of Jesus Christ. When we look into this book, we see Who He is.
Remember, John was given that vision in Revelation 1 of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, when you go into Revelation 2 and 3, we see Him walking in the midst of the lampstands. He is walking in the midst of the church. He is examining the church. As it has been said before, He is looking for Himself.
We can go on. We can go into Revelation 5, and we see Him there before the throne of God—the Lamb slain there at the throne of God. We could go on and on, but eventually we see Him coming back. We see Him coming back for His own. I liked that somebody picked that song that ended with that. We see Him coming back for His own.
But then we see Him coming back in Revelation 19, coming back to this earth to set up His kingdom. That is why there is a blessing here: we see a fullness of the Lord Jesus.
I think it is very interesting, too, how it says, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear.” Remember, when this was written, there were individuals who could not read. When they gathered together, when they assembled together, somebody would read the Scriptures, and there would be those who could only hear.
That was the common practice in the synagogues with the Jews beforehand. Typically, somebody would get up and read some Scripture. Remember the Lord when He went into the synagogue, and they handed Him the book, and then He read those verses about Himself. So, there is a blessing to reading and hearing.
Why is this so important now? I think it is important because of what it says at the end of this verse: “For the time is near.” The time is near.
When I read that, I thought, well, this was written how many years ago—centuries ago? But what came to my mind was 2 Peter, where it talks about the mockers who said, “Well, where is this coming? Everything is the same.” Well, no, it is not the same. It is progressively getting worse, actually.
Remember, with the Lord, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. So, the time is near to Him, He who lives outside of time. What is a million years? It is a drop in the bucket.
First, we start off with this: blessed is he who reads and hears this prophecy. This is a book of prophecy. It is in two ways: it is a forth-telling and it is a foretelling. We find both of these in this book.
That is the first Beatitude. I would just like to read a couple of verses to go along with this matter of hearing.
James 1:22-25 says:
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does.
This man shall be blessed. That is what our first Beatitude said: he who hears, and he who does.
I like this verse in Luke 12. We have been going through Luke. I think some of you have long gone by this chapter, but Luke 12:37-38 says:
Blessed are those slaves whom the master shall find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.
That is amazing—amazing. For those who are alert and ready, the Lord is going to come and serve us. Is that not amazing? The King of kings.
There is also a little bit of an exhortation on the warning side. Revelation 3:3 says:
Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent.
We see here that this first Beatitude hits the mark and says, “We need to hear. We need to keep.” That is the key to being prepared.
I will read a couple more verses in 1 John 3, beginning in verse 2:
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be.
We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
That is why it is so important that we ever be expecting the Lord’s coming, because it has this purifying effect on us. If we know He could come even before I finish this message, would that not be wonderful? We would be ready.
Let us move on to the second Beatitude, the one found in Revelation 14:13. I want to read a few verses that build up to this. I really struggled over how much to read, but it says it is a blessing to read this book, so we have an opportunity to taste that now.
If you are kind of a prophecy freak, you are going to like this section that I read. Let me say one other thing, too. This book is written to His bond-servants. That does not mean an unbeliever could not be touched by something out of this book, because that is how the Lord revealed Himself to me: through aspects of prophecy out of the Book of Revelation.
It is possible this book can touch anybody, but it is particular to His bond-servants because there is something very special He has for His bond-servants—something He wants us to enter into, to take part in, to co-partner with Him. We will see that as we go on.
Revelation 13:11 says:
And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.
And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.
And he performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.
And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.
And there was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead.
And he provides that no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
I probably do not have to tell you that there has been a lot shared within Christendom about this mark of the beast. We see things in place now where this could come in at any time, where all of a sudden we do away with paper money and all that kind of stuff and receive maybe a mark on our hand that basically has all the data about us.
I do not want to go down that trail, but it is just a sign that we are getting close.
Now I want to go forward a little bit to Revelation 14, where we find the next Beatitude. I am going to start in verse 1:
And I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.
And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps.
And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth.
These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.
And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.
Now I want to go forward to verse 9 and read through verse 13:
And another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”
When I thought about this, “Blessed are the dead,” I thought, if you walked up to somebody—particularly if you knew they were not a believer—and said, “There is such a thing as a blessed dead person,” they probably would look at you like you are crazy.
There is probably only a small portion of humanity, and by that I mean those who are not saved, who might agree with this. Maybe they have a loved one who is dying a very painful death, and they would think, “Well, they are more blessed if they are dead than they are alive,” maybe not realizing that this is just the beginning of what is horrible for them if they are not saved.
But here it says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” That is why I read these verses beforehand, because at this point in time, the beast is coming in. This is when they are going to bring in the mark and whatnot. If you refuse it, you cannot buy or sell. If they know you refuse it, you are going to be killed.
The only way you would survive in this situation would be if you became a hermit somewhere. You get off the grid, you throw your phone away, you throw all that stuff away where they could track you down, and you become a hermit in a cave somewhere. That would be the only way you would escape.
So, that is why it says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” It actually would be a way out for you at this point in time. Of course, the wonderful thing is, if you die in the Lord, that is a blessed thing. There is the verse that says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,” because we go to be with the Lord. It is a blessed thing.
We read these verses about the one hundred and forty-four thousand mentioned in Revelation 14:1. I do not want to spend a lot of time on this, because I do not have a lot of time, nor can I probably speak to it as well as some could. But I think the one hundred and forty-four thousand here are overcomers toward the end of the great tribulation.
We see another number of those before the throne in Revelation 7, and I think there it is speaking of all the overcomers from the first century to the end. But here, I think it is focusing in on these overcomers at this late period in time.
Now, whether this is a literal number or not, I do not know. I do not think it is. I think it is more symbolic, but that is beside the point. There are those who are going to be overcomers at this point in time, at the time of the great tribulation.
At this point in time, there will be those who have already been raptured. They have already been taken up. We saw that in Revelation 12. We do not have time to go into that. But there will be some who are already raptured, and these are some who were left behind, probably because they were not ready. They were not ripe for the harvest, so to speak.
Here they find themselves in this situation where it is pretty much do or die, if you will. But the wonderful thing is, I want to read Revelation 3:10, which is a promise:
Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.
That is a promise of the Lord to the overcomers of this time, and that is wonderful. But here we find these ones in this situation, and it is very interesting because Revelation 14:12 says:
Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
I looked this verse up in the Weymouth translation, if you are familiar with that. It is very interesting because there it says:
Here is an opportunity for endurance on the part of God’s people who carefully keep His commandments and the faith of Jesus.
Here is an opportunity. My NASB says “perseverance”; some say “endurance”; but here it says “an opportunity.” What kind of opportunity? I think it is another opportunity to become overcomers for those that might have missed the rapture.
Here is another opportunity for them to overcome before the Lord. Is that not the graciousness of the Lord? He wants us all to be overcomers—all of us.
These individuals are given an opportunity, and that is why they will be blessed when they die. It goes on to say that they may rest from their labors. They will be able to put all this age, this side, behind them. Their deeds will follow them. In other words, they will be rewarded. They will be part of that number of overcomers. That is the graciousness of the Lord there.
I want to take a little liberty here, if I can, with what Revelation 14:13 says. I think we can probably apply this to ourselves: “who die in the Lord from now on.”
We have an opportunity to die in the Lord from now on. I am not talking physically, obviously; I am talking spiritually. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily.” That was the attitude of the Apostle Paul.
He knew that unless he died daily, the life of the Lord could not be manifested through him. He would be a hindrance. His self-life would be a hindrance to the release of the Lord’s life in him unless he died daily.
Remember, our Lord said in Luke 9:23:
If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
We today have an opportunity. We have an opportunity to lay down our lives so that we could be a fit and useful vessel for the Master’s use. But the question is, how can we do this?
Obviously, we all know that we cannot do this in our own strength, because naturally we love ourselves too much, do we not, if we are honest with ourselves? We love ourselves too much.
But the wonderful thing is that the Lord gives us an answer, I think, in Philippians 3:10. This was Paul, of course, saying this—his great passion of heart:
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
Herein is the answer to how we can do it. I think it is very interesting. I do not know if you have ever thought of this, but I have often thought, why did he put “the power of His resurrection” first? Why did he not put “the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” first?
But it is first: the power of His resurrection. It seems backwards, does it not, in a way? You would think you have to be conformed to His death first to be a partaker of that resurrection life. But the reality is, we cannot be conformed to His death apart from His resurrection life. It is impossible. That is why I think it is worded in this order.
That is the graciousness of the Lord. As the Lord gives us opportunities to die to self, let us remember that we have a throne of grace to go to, where we can receive mercy and help in time of need.
Let us move on to the third one, Revelation 16. I am going to start in verse 13 and read through verse 16:
And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk about naked and men see his shame.
And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Armageddon—the famous last battle, Armageddon. In my version, Revelation 16:15, which is our Beatitude here, is in parentheses. I do not know about your versions, but mine is in parentheses. It is inserted here in the midst of this gathering together for this last war, the battle of Armageddon.
Then comes this verse: “Behold, I am coming like a thief.” I think it is inserted here because this battle of Armageddon is toward the end, is it not? The Lord will be coming back at that point.
I think the Lord wants us to remember that what we need to keep uppermost in our mind is that He is coming—coming like a thief. He does not want us to be caught up, per se, in the battle of Armageddon or other signs or things that are going on. Yes, they can kind of point to His coming being quicker, if you will, but that is not what we are to focus on. We are to focus on His coming. That is what we are looking for.
I was exposed recently to a teaching, and I will not tell you where it came from. This individual is a preacher, and he does not believe in the rapture. He does not believe in such a thing as the rapture. He just believes the Lord will literally come back personally, and that is it.
When I thought about that, I thought, well, then you would be looking for all sorts of other things, right? Because the antichrist has to come first before the Lord comes back to this planet. You would be looking for all these other things that would distract you from the Lord’s coming.
I thought this is such a subtle little thing. He gave all these reasons out of Scripture, and I thought this is something that can really sidetrack you off course from looking and being prepared for the Lord if you get caught up in that.
Notice what He says here: you need to be awake and you need to keep your garments.
I am just going to read a quick portion from 1 Thessalonians about the Lord coming like a thief. In 1 Thessalonians 5:2:
For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
Then, down in verse 6 of that same chapter:
So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
If there was one thing I want to leave today, it is that we would stay awake, that we would be alert, that we would be sober. That is really what is on my heart.
Even in Revelation 3:2-3, that church is told, “Wake up. Wake up if you have fallen asleep. Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die.” Then He says in verse 3, the latter part:
I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
There is the danger of falling asleep. If we get dull in this matter, the Lord will come and we will be shocked and surprised.
Also notice that this verse talks about keeping our garments. Some versions, I think, say clothes. Another way to translate “keeping your garments” is to put on your clothes.
Garments in the Scriptures primarily have reference to our walk or our conduct before the Lord—having our garments, keeping our garments.
When I thought about putting on your clothes, I thought of two portions of Scripture. I am not going to take the time to read them because I will run out of time, but I will give these to you.
One of them is Colossians 3:8-14. There we see this principle of putting off and putting on: putting off the old man and putting on the new man. That is what this is referring to here. It is like taking off these old rags that are not any good, throwing them all away, and putting on some new clothes.
That is a principle that is very important to us as Christians. We have to put off the old man and put on the new man. What does that require on our part? There is always a part on our side, too. We have to be willing to do this. Our will has to be engaged in this.
But thank God that even the enabling of our will comes from Him. Does it not say that He can enable us both to will and to do of His good pleasure?
The other portion is Ephesians 4:20-24. Again, it talks about putting off, concerning your former conduct, the old man; and then putting on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
In Colossians, it gets very specific about things to put on, such as tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering. What are these? These are really characteristics of the Lord Jesus. That is His character.
That is why I really like Romans 13:14:
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
Another simple way of putting this would be to say that we need to abide in Christ. Abiding in Christ is what it is.
Let us move on to the fourth one, Revelation 19. I am going to read from verse 6:
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”
And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
And he said to me, “Write, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
So we see here the marriage. Somebody actually referred to this earlier this morning, about the marriage supper of the Lamb. Remember, this book is addressed to the bond-servants. This is addressed to Christians, primarily. It is not talking here about the people of the world. It is talking to Christians, to be invited to this special occasion called the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Right there in verse 8, we read how we are to be prepared for the marriage supper of the Lamb. It says that they clothe themselves in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
How are we to do these righteous acts of the saints? I think if you look in the parable in Matthew 25, where it talks about the ten virgins, there are the five foolish ones and the five wise ones. The difference between the two of them—what made the five ready and the other five not ready—was what? Oil. What does the oil symbolize? The Holy Spirit.
It is through the Holy Spirit that we can be made ready. It is through the Holy Spirit that we can do these righteous acts spoken of here, to be ready for the Lord’s coming.
That is such an important thing in this matter of abiding in Christ: that we cooperate and that we be obedient to the Holy Spirit. I think it is Galatians 5:25 that says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” That is so crucial for us in cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
Those with the extra oil are able—Matthew 25:10 says:
And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast.
Those who were ready.
Also, in Matthew 22, there is that parable where the king gives the invitation to the wedding feast for his son. You remember that parable. First, they go out and try to bring in all these individuals, and they all have their excuses for why they cannot come to the wedding feast. I think there it is referring to the Jews, because then the king says, “Forget them and go into the byways and bring in whoever you can find.”
They bring in these individuals, but it is very interesting that in Matthew 22:11 it says:
But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes; and he said to him, “Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?”
It says that individual was speechless. He had nothing he could say. I think he knew that he was not really prepared and ready for that.
Actually, when we think about being invited to this marriage supper of the Lamb, I think our brother Kong pointed this out in one of his books. Dora could probably tell me which one it is. He mentioned how there are two garments required to be ready for this wedding feast of the Lamb.
The first garment is, of course, Christ as our righteousness. Christ has to be our righteousness. In other words, you have to be saved. You cannot get in there unless you are saved.
But the second garment is the garment in which the Holy Spirit will be building, transforming, and conforming us to the image of Christ. He will be building Christ’s character in us. That is this other garment that is going to be required.
In other words, as we have already said, we are walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are allowing the Holy Spirit to embroider the life of the Lord Jesus into our life.
As it says in Psalm 45:
The king’s daughter is all glorious within;
Her clothing is interwoven with gold.
Gold, remember, speaks of the nature of God. That speaks of those who are already born again. They have the life of Christ in them, but it talks about their needing this embroidered work too, this outer garment, to be able to be wedded to the King.
That speaks of the Holy Spirit’s work in our life as He embroiders that life of Christ into us, as we cooperate. Remember, cooperation is very important in this Christian walk. As we cooperate with Him and remain under when He brings us into circumstances that will enable us to be in that place where that embroidering can be done, then He is able to do that work. He is able to prepare us for that wedding feast on that day.
Next, let us go to the fifth Beatitude. We find it in Revelation 20:4-6:
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them.
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
In verse 4, we actually see three categories of ones named here who are going to be overcomers. I do not want to spend any time going into that. But I want to focus on this thing called the first resurrection.
It is very interesting because there are a couple of other verses in the Bible that speak of this same thing, but in a little different terms. Let me read them quickly.
In Hebrews 11, this is speaking about all these ones who have overcome—we call them the heroes of the faith—and what they did to overcome. I want to pick up in verse 35:
Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection.
A better resurrection.
Then, in Luke 20:35, Jesus was speaking to the Sadducees, the ones that did not believe in the resurrection from the dead. He said:
But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.
There is an aspect in which we become worthy to attain to that age. What is this age? This age that the Lord is referring to here is the millennium age.
All the Jews were very aware that when the Messiah would come, He would set up His kingdom and reign. That is what they were looking for. That was their hope. They were looking for this age when the Messiah would come back, and they would be freed from the Romans or whoever. They all looked forward to being partakers of that age.
But the Lord says you have to be worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead. We have already talked about how to be worthy, to some degree, in keeping your garments.
Paul also said this in Philippians 3. We read verse 10 earlier about the power of His resurrection. Then, in verse 11, he says:
In order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Does that not sound funny, though? Paul is talking about attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Paul, do you not know you are going to be resurrected from the dead? Of course he knew that.
But here he is talking about a very unique resurrection from the dead. He is talking about what it says back in Revelation: the first resurrection.
Now, is “first” here talking first in the sense of a number, or is it talking about something else? I think it can be translated in different ways. It can be translated “first”; it can be translated, as it says in Hebrews 11:35, “better.” I think probably that is a better way to look at it. It is a better resurrection.
This is the resurrection Paul was looking for. He realized this was going to be, if I can put it that way, a reward for the overcomer: being part of this first resurrection. The fruit of that would be, of course, that they would be priests of God and that they would reign with Him for a thousand years.
Unfortunately, within Christianity, there are some who believe that all that is required to gain the wedding feast or to gain this matter of the better resurrection is simply to be born again. If you are born again, you get it all, so to speak.
I think Scripture speaks contrary to that. It speaks of being ready. It speaks of allowing the work of the Lord in your life to the point where you are at that place where you are worthy, by His grace, to attain to these things.
We are out of time, so let us quickly go over these last two. The sixth one is in Revelation 22:7:
And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.
Here we see the Lord, in His mercy, repeating what He already said in Revelation 1:3. The Lord knows we are just dust. He remembers we are just dust. In His mercy, He does not mind repeating things to us and reminding us.
Even those of you who have children, or who had children who are now grown, had to repeat yourselves to your kids sometimes. “Now do not put your hand on the stove. You will burn yourself,” or whatever it was.
The Lord is very gracious to us as sheep. He wants to remind us again: “Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of this prophecy.”
Notice also that in Revelation 22, it is repeated twice more, in verses 12 and 20. He says it again: “Behold, I am coming quickly.” Do you think He is trying to make a point?
Last, let us go to the seventh Beatitude. It is in Revelation 22. I am going to read verses 12 through 14:
Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.
I so badly want to go down this rabbit trail, but let me just say this quickly: there is a difference between gift and reward. We need to know that distinction when we look into the Scriptures; otherwise, we can be confused.
That is why we have two camps in Christianity today over this matter of salvation. Some believe, “Once saved, always saved,” and that is it. Others say, “Yes, you are saved by grace, but you have to continue or you lose it all.”
I think where they are confused is because they do not understand the distinction between gift and reward. What is the gift? The gift is eternal life in Jesus Christ, Romans 6:23. It is a gift. Eternal life is a gift.
But there is the aspect of a reward to the believer. We have already touched on a couple of these rewards: reigning with Christ and being invited to the wedding feast. These are rewards for the overcomer. That is why they are blessed. It is a blessed thing. That is what the Lord wants for us. The Lord wants what is best for us, so He puts it out there for us in that way.
Getting back to this, it says, “I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me.” It is interesting: He said to the church at Sardis in Revelation 3:4-5:
But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments.
Wonderful. There will be this other white garment to the overcomer. We see that, I believe, in Revelation 17, when it speaks of those overcomers there. They are given white robes.
But here in Revelation 22:14, it says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes,” who wash their robes to be ready. When I thought of this, I thought, “Wash my robes.” It is speaking of my life, my character, and my conduct.
My mind immediately went to 1 John 1:7 and 9, these critical verses for us as believers:
But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Our robes get washed. As we walk in the light, our robes get washed. Is that not wonderful?
But what if we do not walk in the light? What if we stumble? He goes on to say in verse 9:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
All provision is made there for us—all provision to be overcomers.
In closing, I want to end in this one verse we are all familiar with. Most of us have probably heard this dozens of times: Revelation 12:11, giving the description of the overcomer.
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death.
They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb—number one. I am so glad that was mentioned first. Of course, it is talking about overcoming the enemy, the enemy of our souls. He does not want us to gain any of these things we are talking about. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. But we overcome him by the blood of the Lamb.
Thank God for the power of the blood. Everything that is under the blood will not come up on that day. I remember Brother Kong saying that once in reference to the judgment seat of Christ. He said, “Everything under the blood will not come up on that day.” Boy, that is so reassuring.
It says, “and because of the word of their testimony.” Their words match their life. Their words matched their life. “And they did not love their life even to death.” Wow. They did not love their life even to death. They were willing to give up their self-life, to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Praise the Lord.
Lord, we do just thank You, Lord, for these Beatitudes in this book. Lord, how You want us to be partakers with You, not only here but in the age to come. How You desire for us to be overcomers, because it was in Your heart all along that we would share dominion with You.
Lord, we thank You for Your word. Lord, we want to be those that stay awake, that are alert, that heed Your word. Lord, that are those who will follow the Lamb wherever He will go. Lord, may it be so.
Lord, we know we can only do this by Your grace. Lord, we have not the ability in ourselves. But we thank You, Lord, that You have made all provision for us, and that the Holy Spirit will not let us go. He will continue to woo us and work in our lives to bring us into all the truth.
Lord, we just thank You for that. And we pray in Your precious name. Amen.
Thank you.