Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #1 of Revelation, chapter 14, as we continue, verse by verse, through the Book of Revelation. As we go into this chapter we will see that it focuses primarily on Judgment Day (once we get a few verses into the study), but it begins with the scene of the Lord Jesus Christ upon Mount Sion. It says in Revelation 14:1:
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
This image that God is giving us is taking place some time before Judgment Day because the “144,000” identify with the church age, but let us take a look at this. When the Lord Jesus gave the Apostle John this vision, it says: “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion.” Now I know that almost all the listeners to EBible are aware that Christ is typified as a Lamb in the Bible, but we could have some new listeners that are not too familiar with this, so it is always good for them (and for us) to be reminded because the Bible speaks of being “brought into remembrance” of things even though you know them. The Lord tells us that in either 1Peter or 2Peter. (Sometimes I get mixed up between Books when there are 1st and 2nd Books of the same name, like this, but it is in one of those Books.) It is good for us to go over familiar things and things that we know and one of those things is that Jesus is portrayed in the Bible as a Lamb, as it says in John 1:29:
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Also, it says in John 1:36:
And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
There is no doubt that Jesus is the one identified and called “the Lamb of God.” The Lamb is the name given to Him because He is the sacrifice and offering for sin that God has provided for His people, just as God pictured the atoning work of Christ from the foundation of the world by giving Israel Laws that demonstrate that atoning work through their sacrificial system and, therefore, many animals were sacrificed – tens of thousands of lambs were slain and every one of them was a type or figure and a demonstration of what Christ had done from the foundation of the world and of what He would do “in time,” as John, chapter 1, is referring to the Lord Jesus as He entered into human history in the 1st century AD and the three and a half years of His ministry. Finally, He would go to the cross to make “manifest” the things He had done before this world was created. So all the Laws God gave concerning the sacrifice of animals (especially lambs) points to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ; He is “the Lamb of God.” The definite article is used – He not “a” lamb, but He is “the” Lamb of God.
The Lamb is seen in our verse on mount Sion with the 144,000. Why is God seen on Mount Sion or Mount Zion? Mount Sion is a very interesting name that God uses to refer to the people of Jerusalem, or the Jews, or to His elect people. These can all be represented by Mount Sion and there are many verses in the Psalms where Sion is mentioned, so we are going to look at several of them.
Let us begin by looking at Psalm 2:6:
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
That is exactly the situation in our verse in Revelation 14, verse 1. The Lamb stood on mount Sion and the Lamb is Christ and Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, so He is the King on mount Sion. It goes on to say in Psalm 2:7:
I will declare the decree: JEHOVAH hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
So there is a tie-in here between Christ, the King upon mount Sion, and the fact that He is the Son of God. How did Jesus become the Son, according to the Bible? He was “declared to be the Son of God with power… by the resurrection from the dead,” according to Romans 1, verse 4. He rose from the dead and in that way He was declared to be “the Son of God.” Why would rising from the dead cause God to declare Him the Son of God? It was because He was the first begotten from the dead, the Bible tells us. He is the first to come from death to life and He died for the sins of His people from the foundation of the world. He paid that penalty of death that satisfied the Law’s demand for all of God’s elect and once it was completely paid, Christ rose from the dead. When He came to life, He was declared to be the Son, the first begotten, but it was not as though He did not exist and then He existed, as is true of people; we are born and we become a son (if we are male) and we begin our existence. But in Christ’s case, it does not mean that. He was declared to be the Son because He was the first born from the dead. The Lord Jesus was always God. He was the Word, according to John 1:1, which tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Lord Jesus has always been from eternity past. He is the triune God, but He took upon Himself the name of “Son” and that should not be too shocking to us, as the Bible assigns to Christ many names. The many names of God reveal an attribute, characteristic or truth about Him. The name of the “Son of God” reveals the fact that He was the first born from the dead. Of course, it is significant that the Bible tells us that the Son created the world, as it says in Hebrews, chapter 1. This is significant because it is proof positive that Jesus first had to die and be raised from the dead in order to be called the Son who created the world. He could not be called the Son (who created the world) if He had not already come alive from the dead. Some people insist against the Word of God and they argue with what the Bible says and they stubbornly persist in saying, “Oh, no, it was 33 AD when Christ died for sins and, yet, the Bible is clear that He died from the foundation of the world. Remember it says in Revelation 13:8:
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Here is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and at what point did Christ die as our only Saviour and the only One who could pay for the sins of all His elect? It was at the foundation of the world. I did not make it up. It is what the Bible says. It was at that point that Christ, the Lamb of God, was slain. It does not say He was slain “from 33 AD” or “from the 1st century AD.” God could have worded that to clearly indicate that it was during Christ’s earthly life that He was slain for His people, but He did not do that. Instead, God said it was “from the foundation of the world.”
Now we have this statement and there are others that say that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world and we put that together with the fact that He is “declared to be the Son by the resurrection from the dead,” and the Bible is clear that Jesus, as the Son, spoke to create the world. So these are two very big pieces of evidence that He had already died and risen again before the world began. There are other verses; it is locked in. It is locked in and there is no question about it. People are back-peddling on this doctrine, as well as many other doctrines today. They are going backwards about as fast as you can, in spiritual matters. They are going back on the Biblical calendar of history; they are going back on the doctrine of knowing the day or hour and many are now in agreement with the churches on that point of doctrine.
A previously faithful ministry has just come out and said that it is not all that important, as far as the doctrine of the church age ending, but what is important is salvation. Now that is about as unwise a statement as anyone could make. You mean it is not important that God separates the wheat from tares? Is it not important that God says there is “death in the pot” concerning the gospels in the churches and congregations? Is it not important that the beast was given the rule in the churches during the Great Tribulation period and the Holy Spirit came out of the midst? So all of that is not important, but what is important is salvation? Well, is it not important that there is no salvation in the churches? If people are in the churches, would it not carry some importance to let it be known that they are in a situation where God was not saving during the Tribulation period? It was an extremely unwise statement. I could hardly believe that a once-faithful ministry would declare such a thing. It is almost like saying, “Well, it is not important if people speak in tongues – what is important is salvation.” But what about the fact that people that speak in tongues are adding to the Word of God and, therefore, God says that the plagues written in the Scriptures will be added to them?
Doctrine is important. Doctrine is extremely important and we cannot try to skirt around things and try to please everybody by saying something is not important just because we know there is a lot of controversy over the subject, so we do not want to talk about it. That is basically all that statement is: “We do not want to talk about that because we do not want to offend either Group A or Group B. If we say one thing, the other group holds to the other viewpoint.” It is a very “wishy-washy” thing to say that doctrine is not important, but what is important is salvation.
Here is how important God considers doctrine. It says in Titus 1:9:
Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
It is sound doctrine that is a means God uses to exhort and convince the gainsayers. What was so wonderful about the Open Forum program on the radio was that there was much sound doctrine. People could call in about all these “unimportant details” about the end of the church age. And if that is not important, then I suppose that the doctrines regarding marriage and divorce are not important. And I suppose a woman teaching men the Scriptures is not important and speaking in tongues is not important. The only important thing is salvation. Can you imagine a program in which people call in regarding a question about a “touchy” matter and the response is, “That is not important. What is important is salvation. Can we take our next caller, please?” Again, another person brings up another delicate subject and the response is, “Well, we really do not want to get into that area. That is not important. Let us go to our next caller and, please, let us only discuss salvation.”
Doctrine IS salvation; doctrine is the teaching of the Bible and God reveals “right doctrine” when we abide in the doctrine of Christ. Then we are abiding in His salvation. It is really horrible and terrible and I really cannot get over how foolish it is to say that the subject of the end of the church age is not important. It is extremely important. I would not dare to say that any doctrine of the Bible is not important. That is just a way for the enemy to get the upper hand in the matter. All the enemy needs to do is get the “edge of the wedge” in the little crack and then bring home the hammer blow. If we are not going to discuss doctrine because it is seen as unimportant, then there is just no way we are bringing the Gospel of the Bible – we are not bringing the truth of the word of God without doctrine and we are certainly not feeding God’s people without doctrine. Doctrine is the teaching of the Scriptures and it is the truth of the Word of God upon which the Lord’s people feed.
Let us go back to the Psalms. We were looking at mount Sion. Let us look now at Psalm 69:35:
For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.
It says in Psalm 74:2:
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
This pretty much defines Zion. It is the purchased congregation which God has redeemed. We will find that Zion is very similar to Jerusalem. God can speak of Jerusalem and be referring to His elect people. Remember the term “holy Jerusalem” or “new Jerusalem coming down from heaven” in the Book of Revelation, when the body of believers have been completely formed and all of God’s elect have become saved and then they are said to come down from heaven. God can also use “Jerusalem” in a corporate way to represent the churches and congregations of the world, but they are not true men and they are not truly saved. Well, it is similar with Zion. We can find a verse or two where Zion is mentioned, but the corporate body is in view and not the “eternal church” made up of those God has saved.
We will continue to look at Zion, Lord willing, when we get together for our next Bible study.