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The passage of scripture from which our teaching is taken this morning is found in Revelation chapter 7 verses 9 through 17. This is God's word. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying Amen, blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come? And I said to him, sir you know and he said to me these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in this temple and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, they shall thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat. For the lamb is in their midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to the springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Here ends the reading of God's holy word. One of the wonderful things about the Bible, God's word, is that although it was written over a period of roughly 2,000 years by 40 different authors from three continents who wrote in three different languages, these facts alone make the Bible one of a kind. But there are many more amazing details that define natural explanation. One writer puts it like this. Shepherds, kings, scholars, fishermen, prophets, a military general, a cup bearer, and a priest all penned portions of the scripture. They had different immediate purposes for writing, whether recording history, giving spiritual and moral instruction, or pronouncing judgment. They composed their works from palaces, prisons, the wilderness, and places of exile, while writing history, laws, poetry, prophecy, and proverbs. In the process, they laid bare their personal emotions, expressing anger, frustration, joy, and love. Yet despite this marvelous array of topics and goals, the Bible displays a flawless internal consistency. It never contradicts itself or its common theme. From Genesis to Revelation, we see man's repeated rebellion against his holy Creator. God made a perfect world, but mankind has continually rejected his authority and sought to decide truth for himself. Nevertheless, God promised to extend his love, grace, and mercy to an unworthy people who deserve to be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. God has always chosen a people for himself. God has always chosen to save a people for himself. The title of the sermon is Salvation Belongs to Our God. That's from the verse, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne into the Lamb. All the way back in Genesis 12, God called Abram and Sarai, and it wasn't because they were good. It wasn't because they were holy. It wasn't because there was anything particularly special about them. They were, after all, moon worshipers. They were pagans. But God called them, called Abraham to leave his family and to go to a land that God would show them. He made a covenant with them in Genesis 15. He said, count the stars if you can. So shall your offspring be. In Genesis 17, God said to him, behold, my covenant is with you. You shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you. I will shout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. In Exodus 6, speaking to Moses, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from the slavery to them. I will redeem you from the outstretched arm, and with great acts of judgments, and I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from the burdens of the Egyptians. It has been the eternal purpose of God that He would save a people for Himself. Nothing spells it out better than Paul's writing in Ephesians chapter 1. Now you may be wondering why am I reading so many scriptures? Because the scripture is the truth of God. When I was in seminary, my seminary professor had us read a book by John Piper and he said, Saturate your sermons with scripture. So Ephesians 1, Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. We should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption, His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. So He chose us to be His people. When did He choose us? It says before the foundation of the world, before there was time even, God chose us to be His people. He predestined us for adoption. How? According to the purpose of His will. What was His criteria? I was asked that by a college student when I was a minister in college as a college minister. He said by what criteria did God decide things? And the answer is the purpose of His own will. You can't get behind God to determine what He used for criteria. He has His own criteria. He has a purpose, is a plan set forth in Christ. Whatever that purpose is, it involved giving His Son, His only Son whom He loved, to the world to save a people from their sin and bring them into everlasting glory with Him. Some people when they hear this they say, wait a minute, this isn't fair. The idea that God is somehow miserly with His salvation. Well there are a couple things I want to point out. First, God doesn't owe us anything. We are all sinful. We all deserve to be separated from God for all of eternity. So He doesn't owe us anything. Any blessing we receive is all of grace. Some people have the idea that, I use the illustration of a soccer pitch. Everybody is lined up right in the middle. And God is on one end and everybody is saying, pick me, pick me, pick me. That's not the way it is. The way it is is everybody who is in the center of the field turns around and runs as hard as they can in the other direction to get away from God, to get away from His law, to get away from His salvation, to get away from the gospel. And God in His mercy reaches out and saves some. And it is not to blame Him if He doesn't save everyone. Ephesians 2 tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked according to the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working, the sons of disobedience. Among them we all once lived. All of us were in the halls, including Himself, and the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. That's who we all were, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Do you see it? All of us running as hard as we can to get away from God. All of us engaging in sin. All of us engaging in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. All of us were by nature children of wrath. And yet God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ. Far from being miserly, God is generous with His salvation. Especially when you consider that no one deserves it, and that no one would be saved apart from God's grace. We can see that's not a small number because it's a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes, and peoples and languages. This eliminates the idea that one race is better than the other. This eliminates the idea that those who are rich are better than those who are poor. This eliminates the idea that somebody from a particular nation is favored over others from another nation. Because it says a multitude no one could number. Remember back what God had promised to Abraham, to look to the stars. Stop them if you can. So shall your offspring be. And here they are, the offspring of Abraham by faith, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes, peoples, and languages. And the multitude is standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. Now what does this bring to mind? That there have palm branches. Brings to mind Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. John chapter 12 it says, the next day a large crowd had come to the feast, heard that Jesus was coming and they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. In Luke's gospel he records that the Pharisees, when they heard the people crying out, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and crying out, Hosanna. They said to Jesus, tell your people to be quiet, to stop saying these things, paraphrasing a little. What did Jesus say? That if these are silent, meaning these people, if they're silent, if they stop praising, if they stop saying Hosanna, then the stones will cry out. In our passage it says they're crying with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. The beginning of salvation, the middle of salvation, the end of salvation is all from God. Now many who hear this, in my experience, have said things like, what's the point of evangelism then? If God is chosen from before the foundation of the world, where does that leave us? Why should we do evangelism? Why should we witness? Unfortunately, some Presbyterian and Reformed people, that's us, often make that argument. If not out loud, they do so with their actions, in their unwillingness to witness to their neighbors and relatives. When I've heard all the excuses, well I don't know any non-Christians, everybody I know has a church, that's not true. 95% of the people in Halifax do not go to any church, much less an evangelical church. So it's beyond belief that everyone you know has a church. But I think we have to ask, how did that multitude so great that no one could count and get there? I remember when I was director of Campus Crusade for Christ at Kent State University, it's called Power to Change in Canada, it's now called CRU in the US. This question bothered one of my staff members. We had a staff of 11, her name is Lois. She was disheartened because she had come to believe what the Bible said about God's sovereignty and choosing a people for himself. But she couldn't see the point of evangelism. Why should we bother? What I tried to explain is that just as God has ordained the ends of salvation, he's also ordained the means of salvation, which is the witness of believers to an unbelieving world. And thanks be to God, that satisfied her. Listen to what Romans 10 tells us. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord as Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him. Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. Verse 14, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. See, the same apostle who wrote the passage in Ephesians about God choosing from before the foundation of the world wrote these words as well. It's what's required is someone to be sent, is someone to preach and to witness. And that's us. There's no contradiction. There's a contradiction in your mind. It's not a contradiction in God's mind. This great multitude is assembled as a result of God's sovereignty through the evangelism of his witnesses. When Jesus was preparing for his ascension, he said to the disciples, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. When I left Chicago to come here, a lot of people quoted this verse to me. They said, so you are going to the ends of the earth. In Matthew 28, Jesus said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. All I commanded you. It's beyond belief that Jesus would tell his disciples to go and make disciples and to teach them all I have commanded you, except not this particular commandment. He wouldn't say that. Teach them to be disciples, make disciples, witness. But when you teach them, leave this part out. He didn't say that, but a lot of us do. A lot of us want to say we're Christians, want to say we're obedient, but we never talk to anybody about Jesus. That's not right. Back to our passage, it says all the angels standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne, and they worshipped God. Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. It says they worshipped him. What does worship mean? It's a conjunction of worth, ship. It's giving to someone the praise that they're worth. It's to praise God for who he is. And a verse says blessing and glory and glory in the Old Testament was the word kavod, which is heavy. And it was a contrast to the Egyptians' belief. They believed that their pharaohs ascended to heaven because they were as light as a feather. But God says my glory is heavy. God has all wisdom. And for that we should give thanksgiving. Romans 12, 1 and 2 talks about the sacrifice of thanksgiving, meaning our entire life should be lived as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for all he has done for us. And we should give him honor. He has all power and all might. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothed in white robes? And where did they come from? I said, sir, you know. And he said, these are the ones that came out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Washed in blood, made them white. How? How is that possible? If you've ever gotten blood on anything, you know it doesn't make it white. How does the blood of the Lamb make us white? Our robes. This is a symbolic statement of what the blood of Christ does for believers. Because we're stained with sin. We're stained with selfishness. We're stained with disobedience. We're stained with resisting God. And when we come to faith in Christ, we're washed in His blood, which is a significance of this table we're about to partake in. We're washed in blood, the blood of Christ. And our sin is removed, forgiven, washed away. All the way back to Isaiah, a verse that we've said countless times in this church since I've been here. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. And the way this happens is the blood of Christ cleanses us from all of our unrighteousness. And we are given in its place the righteousness of Christ. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Psalm 5, verse 8 further says, but God shows His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we've been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God. The last three verses of our passage talks about being before the throne of God. And it says that He's a shelter. He's a shelter from exposure. Exposure to sin, exposure to the evil one. Exposure to the heat. They shall hunger no more nor thirst any more. Remember where Jesus said that He's living water. Think about that. These are things, physical needs that people have. God here is talking about them in a spiritual sense, symbolically giving shelter, eliminating hunger and thirst. The sun shall not strike them nor the scorching heat, giving them water. All of these things are necessary for life on earth and He's saying these are the things I will give you for eternal life. And beyond that I will wipe away every tear. Reminds me of Samwise Gamgee saying to Gandalf, is everything sad coming untrue? What are the tears from? From our sin and failure that we've committed. From a loss that we have, the pain, something you didn't get in this life, something you had hoped for. Your marriage fell apart, you lost a child. All of that will be wiped away every tear. All the heartbreak and sadness and sorrow of this life will be removed in Jesus. The Lord's table is a promise of what is to come. It's a remembrance of what has been done. By it we are strengthened spiritually. Prepare your hearts for the Lord's table.