Faithful to the End: Worshiping Christ in a World of Compromise

Summary

Pastor David preaches that Revelation calls believers to worship Christ alone, resisting the pressures of a world that demands compromise. He emphasizes that true victory comes through faithfulness to Jesus, who redeems and rewards those who endure.

Transcript

Send 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 anymore. 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. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to your word this morning because we would see the lamb in the Lamb's womb. The lamb whose blood does not stain but the lamb whose blood washes. The lamb whose blood whitens. The lamb whose blood cleans and releases us and brings us through a new exodus. Lord, we pray that we would look upon the lamb today and believe and trust and worship and serve. That you would grant us to have the hearts of those who are before the throne and then to be sent out with the gifts of God into this world to serve those who have need of the lamb and his blood. Capture us today by your word we pray in Jesus' name and amen. Before we dig in this morning, I want to pastor for a bit, not the preachy's not pastoring, just a little pastoring to the side a bit. G.K. Chesterton once wrote of the Revelation of John and though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators. Do you hear that? So there's a lot of monsters in the book of Revelation but what's even crazier are those who try to interpret the book of Revelation often. We get a little crazier than John himself even was. And my pastoral concern as we come to the book of Revelation is that we will miss chapter one and verse three. Chapter one and verse three says this, "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words "of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear "and keep what is written for the time is near." There is a blessing on those who read aloud this letter and a blessing on those who hear the words of this letter and who keep what is written. And the reason why it's easy for us to miss the blessing of this book is because we skip the next verse. And the next verse says this, "John to the seven churches that are in Asia." We forget that. We immediately run off into Chesterton's monster world after verse three and forget that John did not write a letter for us to run off into fanciful, best-selling fiction. But then John wrote a book that was written actually to seven actual churches who were in a dire situation and that it was written to them. They were the recipients of the letter and the letter being written to them, they were facing the monsters of this letter. They were the ones facing the beasts of this letter. The things in this letter were near at hand to them. And when we remove the letter from them is when we get into the fanciful stuff that we have seen and then the letter becomes nonsensical to us as well. Now listen, if we allow the letter to be written to them like it is, then the letter can be for us because it's in the canon, which means it's for the church, for always, to these seven churches, yes. But in order for us to understand what it means, we have to allow it to be to them so it can be for us. Does that make sense? And John identifies this in verse nine. He says, "I, John, your brother and partner in three things, the tribulation is here." We're in the tribulation now that was promised, John says. Secondly, the kingdom, that's why there's such a problem here. The kingdom of God is clashing with the kingdom of man. And then John says, "And the patient endurance," which is our lot. Our responsibility with the tribulation that is here, the clashing of the kingdoms that is here is for the churches to be patiently enduring what is coming and what is at hand. And that is why we saw last week in chapter two and verse 10, these words, "Do not fear which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you in prison." They didn't have the liberty to say, "Oh, cool, I'm glad this is really not about us." No, it's actually really about them. She's gonna throw some of you in prison that you may be tested and for 10 days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. And then in chapter three and verse 10, he says this, and this is really important as well. He says this in chapter three and verse 10. He says, "Because you have kept my word about the patient endurance," which we've already seen in chapter one and verse nine, "I will keep you from the hour of trial that is now coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth." And so there's a group of them that are gonna be protected from what is actually coming on to everybody else. And if you turn on me to chapter six and look at verses nine through 11, this is the context for the people that we meet and we didn't look at this last week. In chapter six beginning in verse nine, the fifth seal is opened and here's what we see. "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had born." So two groups of people, two groups of people are under the altar. One, those who were martyred and those who were faithful in witness. "They cried out with a loud voice, 'O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth.'" Now watch this. "Then they were each given a white robe." These are our white robe people in chapter seven. "They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little bit longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete as they themselves had been." And so this is written to these seven churches. This is the expectation that they themselves were facing. Some of them would bear witness and suffer and die. Some of them would bear witness and be martyred and be under the altar and have to wait for a bit until Jesus himself moves them before the throne. And you see one of the big pressures that they were facing, one of the huge pressures that there was a constant pressure on the church was whether or not these little, these seven little fledgling churches, whether or not they would remain exclusive in their worship of Jesus Christ. You see, the Roman Empire was fine if Jesus would have been added to the pantheon, right? You have the Imperial Cult worship the Caesar. You have all the Roman gods. And if you want to add Jesus to all of that and worship all of the gods and the Roman ruler and Jesus, we are fine with that. But if you want to exclusively worship the Lamb, to the exclusion of the Roman gods and to the exclusion of the Imperial Cult and exclusively say the Lamb is the Lord, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and reserve your worship for the Lamb alone, that's what got the Christians into the hot water that they got themselves into. And what you have to understand is that all of these seven cities that they were in, they were hotbeds for Imperial and false God worship. They were not centered, atheism did not exist in this day. Everybody had multiple gods, including the Imperial Cult believing that the Caesar himself was a son of God. Every one of these seven cities had cultic worship sites at the city center. It governed the life of the city itself. And the blessing of that city depended on the worship of the Imperial Cult, the Caesar himself, and the worship of the false gods. And so if you had a sect within your city that was deciding not to participate in the city center worship, you were facing the potentiality that the false gods were not going to bless your city, and that was going to be a problem for you and your city in the blessing of your city. In six of those cities, with the exception of Thyatira, they all of them, but Thyatira had Imperial temples, okay, all of them did. Five of them, except for Philadelphia and Laodicea, had Imperial altars and priests. In other words, worship of the Imperial Cult and worship of the false gods was not a tangential thing in these cities. It was a way of life. Worship suffused everything, religious festivals, their guilds, their celebrations. Their life was lived liturgically in these cities with the Imperial Cult and the false gods at the center, which is why the Book of Revelation makes such a big deal about the worship of the beast. We take this and we run off into future nonsensical things. These people were living with the reality of having to worship the Roman beast. They had to. Look at chapter 13 and verses eight through 10. It was their reality. It was the world they lived in. In chapter 13, verse one, the beast rises out of the sea. That's the Roman Empire. And we see in chapter eight, they have this faux authority that mimics the authority of the lamb. And so you'll hear the language that you've heard before. It says, "An authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation." Whoa, wait a minute here. That sounds like the lamb. That sounds like what the authority of the lamb has. But this is now the authority that the beast is parodying. It's a parody of the lamb. Now watch this. "And those who dwell on the earth worship it." Okay? "They worship the beast. Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world." You're going to hear this next Sunday, this passage. "Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain. If anyone hasn't here, let him hear." This is what you're, this is, this is your lot. If you refuse to worship the beast, this is your lot. If anyone has to be taken captive, to captivity he goes. If anyone has to be slain with a sword, with a sword he must be slain. You must be willing to die if your name is written in the lamb's book of life. You must refuse the worship of the lamb. And look at the end of verse 10. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. You either worship the beast, the Roman Empire, the Imperial Cult, and the false gods, or you died. That's your, that's what you're facing here. Turn over to chapter 14 and verses nine and following. Chapter 14 verses nine and following says, "And another angel, a third, follow them, saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast,'" this is what's on the line if you do. "If anyone worships the beast in its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand," this is not a future thing. This is present to these people. Here's what happens. "He will also drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels." And so if you decide that you refuse the exclusive worship of the lamb, and you worship the beast, you will face eternal judgment in hell. You will drink the cup of God's fury and wrath, which means that which Jesus drank on the cross for us, he did not drink for you. You will drink your own yourself. And Gavin, where's Gavin? Right here it says, "And in hell here, and in the presence of the lamb." The lamb is the problem in hell. He's not absent. He's there doling out his wrath. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night. These worshipers of the beast in its image, whoever receives the mark of its name. Now watch this. Here is the call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. You either endure and trust Jesus and worship Him exclusively, or you worship the beast and you get what's coming to you. This is no small thing. This was clear. You can add Jesus and you're fine. Exclusively Jesus and you're toast. That's what they were facing. That's the reality that the early church was facing. And so when we come to chapter seven, well we have to understand that this is a big deal, this issue of worship. Okay? Who you worship is a big deal on earth. It's the dividing line on earth. Worship Jesus exclusively or worship the beast. Okay? Worship the beast, pay for it in the future. Worship Jesus, pay for it now. You got to choose, right? But it's also a big deal in heaven as well. Because what we see in heaven is the exclusive worship of Jesus Christ and God the Father. And so what happens is, and this is important, because this sets the whole context for our passage. Okay? What happens is that in the book of Revelation, John provides interludes like step backs. Like, whoo. And he opens the veil up and he allows the churches on earth to see into the other side, the reality of heaven, the reality of the other side. And these interludes are there almost as oasis, as respites, to see what's waiting for them as they endure. Almost, where's Andrea? Andrea, you're running your races and your husband is at certain marker points to encourage you on kind of thing. And then there's little drink spots for you, that kind of thing. That's what this is. We're on the long endurance race. And then these interludes are little spots for refreshment for the church that say, here's what's coming in your future. Here's what's waiting for you. And, oh, by the way, here's what you join when you gather together on the Lord's Day. So here's what's going on when you gather. This is what you join. You see, so these interludes, they're important. They're vital. They open the heavenly viewpoint up. They offer perspective and consolation and hope and a pattern of worship. And they encourage these saints, continue on, because this is what's waiting for you. This is what's on the other side for you. If you will endure to the end and remain faithful, this is what will be for you. And this is what happens. This is what you join when you worship on the earth. And so last week, we were right in the middle of this liturgy. And we saw that the Adamic choir stepped forward and took their role and offered this new layer of worship with salvation. The angelic hosts responded by getting on their faces and offered this amazing double amen, seven full blessing. And so this was all in song and in singing. And now we move to a little bit of a spoken word part of the liturgical service. And we'll pick it up in verse 13. Pick it up with me there. And it says this, "Then one of the elders addressed me," saying, or one of the ancient ones, "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.' And so you have this, first you have singing, and then you have a responsive singing. And then now you have this word dialogue, just like we do in church. It's sing, sing, speak, speak. All of this dialogical stuff that we do on earth, we learn it because it's this way it happens in heaven. And we do on earth what's done in heaven. It's beautiful, okay? And so here we have this ancient one in John. And the question is, in this terms of this choir here, who are they and where did they come from? And this is important because where they came from is going to encourage the very people who are in the midst of the tribulation. What happens to us? The seven churches are facing it. John's facing it. What happens to us if we are faithful to the end? Well, here's the answer. The first we get the answer where they come from and then who they are, okay? So he said to me, first of all, where, where, where, where do they come from and who are they? Answer, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. And so the ones that John sees that are in the white robes that make up this heavenly, Adamic choir are those who are coming out of, notice this, of the great tribulation. Definite article is there, the great mega tribulation so there can be no way around seeing where they're coming out of. These guys are coming out of the thing that Jesus said, what would be the great tribulation like you've never seen anywhere on the earth. Now what's important here is the tents. The tents in the Greek matters here because it's a present participle, which means these are not the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. Okay, past tense. These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation right now. So this group is being added to every day by people who die, Christians who die during the great tribulation and martyrs who die during the great tribulation. This number is not a fixed number. It's an ongoing thing. It's a present participle. Those who are presently coming out of the great tribulation entering heaven, they're not all martyrs. Some of them who are those who have endured the great tribulation though that time of testing that has come on the earth. And so this is an encouragement because this is where the churches are. What happens to us? Where do we go? What awaits us if we are faithful to the end if we are faithful to the end? If we are faithful to give our lives for this, if we remain faithful on the earth exclusively to worship Jesus, have the patient endurance to the end, what awaits us? Is it darkness? Is it who knows? No, it's victory. It's victory. Is it great to know what awaits you sometimes? Don't you guys just wonder like, I just love to see what awaits me, right? God doesn't hide from us what awaits us. They get to see what actually awaits them if they are faithful to the end. And secondly is who are they? Well, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation and who are they? Well, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. This is so beautiful. These are the washed ones and these are the whitened ones. This is so good. These are the ones who are clean. These are the ones who are covered. These are the ones who are pure. These are the ones who are imprisely garb. They're in the wedding garb. They're in victorious garb. They're in glory garb, but they're not horse. They're not in prostitute garb. You have to understand this is the contrast here is important. The white robes, there are white robes mentioned all over the book of Revelation. And we're going to look at some of this in just a moment. But then there's this cat. Turn to chapter 17 with me. And we meet the drunk sexually immoral ho of Revelation. It just is what it is. I mean, that's what John did. It's like, it's not a monster I made up. That's just who she is. You got to, I have to explain this to my, you explain that to your kids when you get home. Senior Bibles, look at chapter 17. Let's just read. Then one of the seven angels said, the seven bowls came and said to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on the earth have become drunk. And he carried me away in the spirit to wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and it had seven heads and 10 horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorn with gold and jewels and pearls holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual impurity. And on her forehead was a written name of mystery, babble on the great, the mother of prostitutes of the earth's abominations. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. That godiness, right? That pomp, purple, scarlet, gold, jewels, pearls is given to us in contrast with the simple purity and glory and beauty of the white robe of the saints. That contrast is there for us to see what true beauty actually is. We are not gauded up like a prostitute on the corner. The church is white and ready for the wedding day, you see. Something is completely different. And these white robes are extremely important and I want you to look with me at a few verses. In Revelation chapter three and verses four and five, Revelation three, four and five, it says this, "You have a few names still in sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot them out of the book of life. So to the one who overcomes, the overcomer, the one of patient endurance who remains faithful to Jesus Christ to the end, here the white robe is given as a robe of victory. It's given to the overcomer, the one who stays with Jesus and is faithful all the way to the end. If you look at chapter three and verse 18, chapter three and verse 18 to that lazy spit out of your mouth church, Laodicea, Jesus says, "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich in white garments so that you may clothe yourself in the shame of your nakedness may not be seen." Here the white garment is given to clothe the shame of God's people, just like God clothe the shame of Adam and Eve in the garden with animal skins. And so in one sense this is a robe of victory and in another sense this is a robe that covers shame. We've already seen that this is a robe that's given to those martyrs who lost their lives. And then at the very, very end, I just love this. I just love this verse, man. In Revelation 22, just love this. Revelation 22, 14 says, "Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have a right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates outside of the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." There's gonna be people on the outside and they're not gonna get in, right? And like those two cats in Pilgrim's Progress, you can't climb the wall instead of go through the gate and get in, you gotta come in through the gate to get in. Well, how do you come in through the gate? Well, you gotta have a robe on to come in through the gate to get to the tree of life. And what kind of robe do you have to have? You have to have a washed robe. So get yourself a robe and get it washed. But where do you get it washed? Of all places to get your robe washed. You get it washed in blood. The place we would not think about to go, the detergent is blood. That which makes clean, that which makes white is the blood, but not just any blood, but it's the blood of the lamb, you see. It's the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, the blood of Jesus Christ doesn't stain. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses, it cleans, it washes, it covers, it answers, it forgives, it deals with our filthy rags, our sin and our shame. It's sacrificial because it's the Passover lamb. He's sacrificed in the place of. And when you are under the blood, you are brought out of the slavery of sin, death and the devil. And through a new Exodus, you are let out into the new creation and you have access to the tree of life. He brings you home. Through the blood, you move from homelessness to home, from exile to home, right? Everything is answered by the blood of the lamb. Everything is answered by the blood of the lamb. And the only thing, the only thing that can make your garment and robe white is the blood of the lamb. You cannot be found scrubbing your own robe. Can't happen, won't happen. Doesn't matter. The people in hell will scrub for eternity and it won't touch it. But the blood of the lamb, the blood of Christ shed for the forgiveness of sins is what makes the robe, listen, white and unstable forever again. You realize that? Nothing can stain that robe once the blood makes it white. You can throw every single thing at that robe, everything at that robe and it will remain white no matter what. Because everything that could have been thrown at that robe was answered on Good Friday. In the three hours of darkness on Good Friday, everything that could have stained your robe after the blood of the lamb was answered by the blood of the lamb inside that three hours. So you and I get promised this, not only a cleansed robe, but a robe that can never be stained again. No matter how up and down our life is, no matter how up and down our faith is, no matter how up and down our sin life is, nothing touches the robe. Nothing can touch the robe because the robe is not our robe. The robe is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which admits of no additions and no subtractions. It is always and forever the indestructible righteousness of Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen? Amen. That is why these people here, that's what they have to look forward to. They don't have to wait to get it. We have it now. It just shows up in its clarity then, you see. It shows up in its clarity then. But then there's this, let me bring it, let me bring this home. There's this beautiful, turn to Revelation 12 for a moment. There's this beautiful segue here. I actually didn't see it until yesterday. And I'll bring this around. Revelation 12, if you remember, we preached this during Christmas. I've been sneaking a lot of Revelation then recently. Revelation 12, 7, this was our Christmas passage. But I want you to see this. He says in Revelation 12, 7, he says, "Now war rose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back. And he was defeated. And there was no longer any place for them in heaven." I want you to see that, right? "No longer any place for the dragon and his angels in heaven. Kicked out, booted out of heaven here." Okay? And the great dragon was thrown down. The ancient serpent who was called the devil and saying the deceiver of the world. He was thrown down to the earth. And his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. And the acu- watch this. And the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before God." So there was an accuser. He was at the right hand of the father. And he spent all of his time at the right hand of the father accusing us, accusing God's people of what was true of them. Look at that sin. Look at that sin. Look at that sin. Look at that, brother. Look at that sin. Look at that sin. Look at that sin. You know what? Jesus went up and kicked him in the teeth and threw him out of heaven and said, "I'm done with you. Get out of here. No longer do you have access to this place anymore. Day and night in this place has changed." Notice how it says that he used to do this day and night. Who accuses them day and night before our God. And I watch this. "They have conquered him." How? "By the blood of the Lamb." By the blood of the Lamb. "We have conquered him and by the word of their testimony, for they have not loved their lives even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them." Right? Rejoice. Because he's been kicked out and we've overcome by the blood of the Lamb. So what do we find out when we look at our passage? "Therefore" verse 15, "therefore they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night." We're there. He's gone because the blood of the Lamb opened the place up for us and kicked him out. So guess what? There is no accusation anymore. Don't let anybody tell you that the accuser of the brethren is still accusing you before the throne. He's not. It's done. He's been kicked out. He's been kicked out. You want to know the only thing that's before the throne? Is your brothers and sisters singing praises to God? Salvation belongs to the Lord our God. That's the only thing going on day and night before the throne. No accusation is taking place there. So if no accusation is taking place there, don't let any accusation take place here. You don't need to have any accusation. Because God's already dealt with that. Jesus dealt with that by his blood, you see. So the only thing waiting for you is you don't have to go through the fight here and then go, "Oh, man, do I got to face Satan when I get there?" No, you don't. The only thing waiting for you there is a choir to join. And day and night, the replacement of accusation with worship. And here's what's waiting for you. He who sits on the throne is going to shelter you with his presence. And all of the tribulation now, Sianara, no more hunger, no more thirst, no more sun to strike, no more scorching heat. Everything they had to face in the tribulation has been answered. And now this crazy rebirth of images. A lamb who needs a shepherd now becomes a shepherd. The lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. And guess what he does? He grabs the future and he sneaks it in right now. John read the future. We're not there yet. We're not in the resurrection yet. We're in the intermediate state here. But watch what Jesus does. You know how parents are different than grandparents? The fundamental difference between a parent and a grandparent is what? The relationship of yes and no. Right? Parents are like, no. Grandparents are like, absolutely yes. Right? You want a cookie? How about seven? Right? Here's Jesus. Here's Jesus like a grandparent. And he says, how about let's grab some of them as springs of living water from the future. And grab some of that wipe away every tear from your eye from the future. Let's bring it forward a little bit into the intermediate state. Let me let me let you taste what's coming in the resurrection while you're singing here in heaven. And we wait for the resurrection to come. See, that's that's what that's that's the interlude. That's what was waiting for them. That's what's waiting for us. That's what we join every Sunday morning. That that's what we're racing towards is this. It a great in a grand and this is the interlude. So guess what? Carry on. Carry on. Every day move towards the goal because this this is waiting for you and this is waiting for me. And and the Christ who is the shepherd here is the one who's shepherding you there. He's a make sure you get there all the way. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for this rebirth of images in the book of Revelation. Encourage our souls and lift up our hearts and strengthen our faith that we might be faithful to you in each and every day. And we thank you that we have even now the table the gifts of God for the people who've got to feed us for the pilgrimage. And Jesus saying we pray. Amen.