The Lamb Our Leader

The Lamb Our Leader

(No. 2456)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 15, 1896.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
7, 1886.

"These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Revelation
14:4.

YOU, dear Friends who belong to the Tabernacle, are well acquainted
with our venerable friend, George Rogers. It was a great joy to me to
find him alive when I came home from the Continent. He said that he
must keep on living till he had seen me once more, and then he hoped
that he should go Home. That was a month ago, but yesterday I saw him
again and he seemed to be greatly revived and refreshed. He has
attained an extremely advanced age and it is only natural that he
should soon go to his rest and reward. He remarked to me, yesterday,
that he had bid farewell to the world, entirely, and he did not wish to
renew the acquaintance! He did not know why he should linger here any
longer, for everything was finished and he was ready to depart. And
then he said to me, in his cheery way, "I wonder whether I shall see
that new Baptist Chapel completed." You know that he is not a Baptist,
but a Congregationalist, yet he has been with us so many years that we
always claim him!

He added, "When it is built, I hope they will send a regular
old-fashioned Baptist to preach in it." I asked him, "What sort of
old-fashioned Baptist do you mean?" "Why," he replied, "the
oldest-fashioned Baptist was the man that cried, 'Behold the Lamb of
God, which takes away the sin of the world.' That is the old-fashioned
sort of Baptist I mean–John the Baptist–and that is the sort I hope
will come there." "Yes," I said, "and I wish that was the sort of
preacher who would go everywhere, for that is the Truth of God which
still needs to be preached." "Ah, yes," said Mr. Rogers, "there is
nothing like the doctrine of the Atoning Sacrifice! It is the doctrine
for this world and it is the doctrine for the next." "Do you not
think," he said, "that this passage would make you a good text for
tomorrow, 'These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes'?"
"Yes," I answered, "that will make me a good text. May God send me the
sermon!"

That is why I have taken this text–it really comes to you from that
venerable man who is so far advanced in years and so close to the
border of the eternal state. He feels that the old-fashioned Baptist
doctrine that ought to be continually preached is this, "Behold the
Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world," and that the best
character that can be ascribed to Christians in any age is this, "These
are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Upon that theme I am
now going to speak to you as the Holy Spirit shall enable me.

I. And, first, I would make this observation, that THIS IS
CHARACTERISTIC OF SAINTS–"These are they which follow the Lamb
wherever He goes." This has always been the way of the saints. This is
the way the holy Prophets went, the way of the martyrs, the way of the
reformers and confessors, the way of all who shall meet above around
the Throne of God and of the Lamb.

Begin at the beginning. When do you see Abel at his best? It is when he
brings of the firstlings of his flock and stands beside the altar of
sacrifice whereon lies the God-accepted lamb! The first of the martyrs
is a martyr to the doctrine of Sacrifice by Blood! He, being dead, yet
speaks, bearing his testimony that there is no way of access to God
except by the sacrifice of a lamb.

Pass on to Abraham. What is one of the most memorable sayings of the
father of the faithful? "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a
burnt offering." Did not Abraham, then, by faith, see Christ's day?
Yes, he saw it afar off and was glad. He knew that the great
Jehovah-Jireh would provide a wondrous Substitute who would die in the
place of His people, even as the ram took the place of Isaac. And
Abraham saw in his own offering of his son whom he so dearly loved, a
faint image of that greater Offering of the Eternal Father when He
would give His only-begotten and well-beloved Son to die that His
people might live.

Again I say that it is always characteristic of God's people that they
follow the Lamb, for look at Israel in Egypt. They are slaves at the
brick kilns. They are building treasure cities and pyramids, but they
cannot stir out of Egypt until, first of all, they have slain and eaten
the paschal lamb and sprinkled his blood upon their dwelling places.
Then they go out singing the song of Moses, the servant of God and of
the Lamb! All through their marching in the wilderness there was the
offering of the morning lamb and the evening lamb. The people of God
were known by their trust in a great Sacrifice, that Sacrifice being
prefigured by "the blood of bulls and of goats, and the sprinkling of
the ashes of an heifer," and especially by the Passover lamb and the
morning and the evening lamb.

I do not know any clearer characteristic of the saints throughout the
ages that are past than this, "These are they which follow the Lamb."
Think of the Prophet Isaiah and as you remember him and his prophecy,
does not the thought of the Lamb of God rise up to your mind at once?
"He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth."

Then, when the new saints come into the world in the brighter day–the
clearer dispensation of the Gospel–does not John the Baptist point all
who hear him to the Lamb of God? That morning star of the Christian
solar system throws its bright beams upon Jesus, the one great
Sacrifice! John cried, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the
sin of the world," and that other John, who heard Him speak, started
following the Lamb and all through his life he kept close company with
that blessed Lamb of God till, in his extreme old age, on the island of
Patmos, he saw visions of God and wrote that wonderful Book of the
Revelation out of which we were reading just now. And one of the
noteworthy points in that Book is that John continually speaks of the
Lord Jesus as the Lamb. The one Sacrifice has been offered, the
redemption price has been fully paid, the sins of the redeemed have
been all put away and now one might have thought that the Lord Jesus
would assume some other form–for instance, that of the Lion of the
tribe of Judah would always be predominant in the apocalyptic
vision–yet it is not so! John says, "I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood
on the Mount Zion."

Sacrifice is always first–first before the angels, first before the
elders who represent the Church, first in the very center of the Throne
of God, Himself–for it is the Throne of God and of Him who offered
Himself as the Sacrifice, that is, the Lamb! This, then, is the emblem
on the escutcheon of the Church triumphant as well as the Church
militant, "a Lamb as it had been slain." For the wilderness and for
Canaan, for the battlefield and for the palace, for the Cross and for
the Throne, it is always the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain and that
lives again, and lives to die no more. God forbid that this matchless
figure should ever be dim to our eyes, but may we gaze upon it with
ever-increasing delight!

Saints in all ages have followed the Lamb and I do not wonder that they
have done so, for it was the Lamb that made them saints. They have
"washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
Sainthood begins at Calvary! There is no possibility of being holy till
first there has been remission of sin–and there is no remission of sin
without the shedding of the blood of the Lamb! No, dear Friends, we
have no hope of being clean in God's eyes unless we have been washed.
And there is no fountain of cleansing for the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, but that which was opened when Christ hung on
the Cross! Well may they follow Christ who have been made saints by
Him.

They follow the Lamb, again, because it is He who keeps them saints.
"He keeps the feet of His saints." If we walk in the light, as God is
in the light, and so have fellowship, one with another, it is still,
"the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son," which, "cleanses us from all
sin." We need perpetual cleansing and we get that perpetual cleansing
in the ever-flowing stream from the wounds of Christ which, in effect,
perpetually bleed for those who put their trust in Him. Well may the
saints follow the Lamb, for to Him they owe not only the beginning, but
the continuance of their spiritual life and saint-ship!

And, Brothers and Sisters, what other leader could they follow? What
model, except Christ, is there for a saint to copy? How can we attain
to holiness if we work not after this pattern? Where shall any manhood
be seen as fit for imitation except where it is linked with the Godhead
in the Divine Son of God? Where shall we see the Law of God written out
in living characters but in the life of this glorious Man, this blessed
Son of God? Beloved, it is not possible for saints, in all respects, to
follow any other leader, and it is characteristic of them that they
follow the Lamb! Ask yourselves, my dear Hearers, whether you are among
these followers of the Lamb.

II. The second part of our subject shows us that THIS EXPRESSION IS
INSTRUCTIVE TO THOSE WHO DESIRE TO BE SAINTS. Those of us who have
already the commencement of sanctification should remember that we can
only be saints in the fullest sense by following the Lamb wherever He
goes.

First, then, we are to follow the Lamb. Some men spurn the idea of
following anybody–they have very capacious brains and they like to
think and to excogitate. They will have nothing but what is beaten out
on their own anvils. To accept the Word of God as a little child
receives it is altogether beneath their dignity. They think that the
Word of God, itself, is mistaken when it says, "My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your
ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." They fancy that their
thoughts are even a little higher than the thoughts of God! They are
followers of nobody. They are leaders or, at any rate, they are
"self-contained." They have their own revelation and each man of them
is a god to himself. Very well, you may stand there by yourselves, you
learned people! You may have your degrees, M.A., D.D., or whatever else
you like, for you are those who follow nobody! But of the true people
of God, it is written, "These are they which follow the Lamb." These
are not they who follow their own leading, striking out a path of their
own. These are not the great eccentrics, or the wonderful originals,
but these are they which follow–they are content to be merely
follow-ers–they do not aspire to be anything more than followers. But
they are glad, however, to add that they are followers of the Lamb!
"These are they which follow the Lamb."

There are other persons in the world who follow some one of their
fellow men. Whatever he says is gospel to them! Whatever he has written
is, of course, infallible. "Be you followers of me," says the Apostle
Paul, but then he adds directly, "even as I, also, am of Christ." While
we are children, we are necessarily under instructors, but we must take
heed, as we grow in Grace, that we never follow an instructor so
blindly as to follow him where he goes wrong. No, "to the Law and to
the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because
there is no light in them." Every true instructor will beg you to see
that, when he errs, you are not to err with him, but to keep a
conscience and an understanding of your own so that it will not be
said, "These are they who follow this or that eminent preacher or
divine." But, "These are they which follow the Lamb." Mind that, dear
Friends, for it is most important!

I know another company of people who follow "the church." That is a
wonderful thing, you know, "the historic church." This is the great
door of entrance into the church of Rome and many have been attracted
to it, and have gone through it down into Hell! There are certain
persons who think that "the church" cannot err, but I do not know a
more erring community than that which is commonly called "the church"!
Yet there are certain people who must follow the church wherever she
goes and, as she has gone to Rome, there they will also go! Or if they
think she has gone to Oxford, there they will abide. Or if she has gone
to Canterbury, there they will dwell. Well, I have great respect for
some of these brethren, but I prefer to be numbered with those of whom
it is written, "These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes."
Whether He goes to Rome, or to Geneva, or to Wittenberg, or to
Canterbury, or to Smithfield amidst the martyrs' burning stakes, or
among the misnamed Anabaptists, or the Methodists, follow the Lamb
wherever He goes!

I have been sometimes called to book for saying–yet I will venture to
say it again–that if I lived in a village, or if I lived in any other
place where I knew there was a Baptist or other Dissenting Chapel,
before I decided to attend it, I would want to know, first, "Is the
Gospel preached there?" I am not so blindly wedded to any denomination
whatever, that I should cling to the denomination if it did not cling
to Christ! "Follow the Lamb wherever He goes." If you can hear sound
doctrine concerning Christ preached anywhere, go and hear it! If it is
in connection with those who also follow the Lamb in the waters of
Baptism, show your preference for that form of worship, but do not
cling merely to an old name and an old flag when Christ has gone from
them. The first thing for your soul is to get near to Christ, to feed
upon His Truth and so to let it be said of you, dear Friends, "'These
are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes.' And if they do not
hear the Gospel in one place, they will go to another, for they are not
going to listen to false doctrine. They have, as sheep of Christ,
received a taste by which they know what is the Truth of God and what
is error. 'A stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for
they know not the voice of strangers.' But when they hear their
Shepherd's voice, they will follow that! 'These are they which follow
the Lamb wherever He goes.'" The church is all very well in its place,
but the church has often lost her Lord. In the Song of Solomon we read
how she went about the streets seeking Him. So I should not like to
have to follow her wherever she goes–but it is safe and right to
follow the Bridegroom wherever He goes. So let us keep to that and be
among those that "follow the Lamb wherever He goes."

A further instruction is this. We may always follow the lead of the
Lamb of the atoning Sacrifice. We can never follow it too closely in
our thought. You know that you may get some one thought into your head
and it may rule your whole being till you hardly know where it may lead
you. Few men know the consequences of introducing any single doctrine
into their minds, for it is pretty sure to bring another and another in
its train! This is especially true about the doctrine of the Atonement
offered by Christ, the Lamb of God, yet you may accept it without fear,
whatever its consequences may be, and never be at all afraid to follow
it wherever it goes!

For instance, when you think of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, dying in
unutterable pain to redeem men, it gives you the true idea of the
terrible blackness of sin. Well, follow out that thought and if you
begin to be greatly depressed under a sense of sin–if conscience
should sting and scourge your heart, if it should almost drive you to
despair to think that sin could not be put away except by the death of
the Son of God–still follow out the thought, for the process will not
hurt you! "Follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Though He should lead you
into a very trying experience and a very humbling sense of your own
guilt, go on still further with Him, for He who leads you into that
gloom will lead you out of it in the most efficient manner–you need
not be afraid to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes."

"If it is so," says one, "that the Son of God must die before sin can
be put away, then it follows that there is no salvation out of Christ."
Just so! Follow up that thought! Go on with it to its ultimate issues.
Do not be afraid, even though the consequences should startle you. Rest
assured that where the doctrine of the Cross may lead you, you may
follow it quite safely. One thing I know, the doctrine of the Cross
will never make you trifle with sin! It will never let you imagine that
the death of the wicked is a slight matter. It will never make you
indifferent as to the state of men when they pass into another world.
"Follow the Lamb wherever He goes," and you will hate sin more and
more–you will love souls more and more, you will have an intense awe
of the Law of God–and you will have an intense love for the Person of
your Redeemer. You cannot push this thought too far–it is a Truth of
God about which you can never go to an extreme! No, I wish that you
would go to any extreme that lies along this route, "These are they
which follow the Lamb wherever He goes," as a matter of thought.

But now, once more, you may also very safely follow the Lord Jesus
Christ, as the Atoning Sacrifice, in matters of fact. That is to say,
you may be in this world, as far as you can in your measure, as Christ
was. The man who believes in the doctrine of the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world, will feel that sin is bitter and he will
become very intolerant of sin. He will seek to put it down. He will try
to purge it out of his own conduct and he will not endure it in his own
family. Go on with that line of conduct and follow the Lamb wherever He
goes! How can you tolerate that which cost the Son of God the bloody
sweat of Gethsemane? How can you play with the dagger which pierced His
heart? No, you must practically, in your life, hate the sins that made
Him mourn and nailed Him to the tree! Alas, nowadays I see many who are
trifling with sin. We Puritans, they say, are much too precise and too
strict. Ah, Sirs, it is that preciseness and that strictness that are
needed more and more and we shall never know how to live thus except we
abide hard by the Cross of Christ! Unless we believe that sin cost
Christ His life, we shall never have that holy enmity towards sin which
we ought to have, that blessed intolerance of sin which ought to take
possession of every Christian's heart and mind!

"Follow the Lamb wherever He goes." If you do, you will have to go
outside the camp, just as He did, bearing His Cross. He went forth
beyond the gates of Jerusalem–you will have to do the same. You will
find people saying of you that they cannot endure you, you have become
too religious, too strait-laced, and so on. Blessed are they who are
not afraid of hard names, who, indeed, feel that if it is wrong in the
judgment of the world to follow Christ so closely, they intend to be
more wrong, even as David said to Michal, "I will yet be more vile."
God help us so to do! "Follow the Lamb wherever He goes," into the
place of separation outside the camp.

If you follow the Lamb, you may be called to suffer, you may have to
lose friends, you may come under the cruel lash of slander. You may,
perhaps, have to lose this world's gains for righteousness' sake and
holiness' sake–but whatever the cost may be, follow the Lamb, say to
yourself–

"Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He goes."

"The blood-spattered footprints of my Master shall receive mine! Not
with equal strides, but still with gladsome footsteps, I will follow in
His track, let that track lead where it may. What He did, I will do,
after my measure." This is what we ought to do, Brothers and Sisters.
How different our lives would be if we always worked them out by this
rule–

"What would Christ do in such a case?" I have sometimes got into a
great fix of conscience when I have put to myself the question, "What
would Christ do in such a case as this?" And once or twice I have not
been able to answer. And then I have had to stand back a little and
say, "Would Christ ever have been in circumstances similar to mine just
now? Is there not some mistake farther back and had I not better go
right back and begin again, somewhere or other, rather than keep on a
track in which I cannot suppose my Lord to be?" Oh, that we might feel,
from now on, that we will follow the Lamb wherever He goes, whatever
the consequences may be!

Young Christian, I recommend that you, in starting out in the Christian
life, aim at obeying your Lord's commands in every particular. If you
have believed in Him, the first thing that you ought to do is to be
baptized. "Follow the Lamb wherever He goes," and I am sure that He
went down into the waters of Jordan and was baptized by John. And then
the Holy Spirit rested upon Him and His Father said, "This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." When you have done that, go
and give yourself to the Church of Christ, for the Lord Jesus Christ,
from the very first, began to gather round about Him those who feared
God–and He had a company of disciples who constituted His Church.
Still keep on following the Lamb wherever He goes and if you do, you
will be a very amiable, loving, generous, hearty, self-denying,
laborious Christian. If you follow the Lamb wherever He goes, you will
go about doing good. You will lay yourself out in service for the
Master. Perhaps you will teach little children, for He said, "Suffer
the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not." Perhaps you
will stand and preach in the streets, for He, by the hillside and on
the mountain, and by the sea, always spoke the things of God. If you
follow Him, you will do good in one way or another–and not be a lazy
lie-a-bed in the Kingdom of Christ–expecting to be honored and
rewarded for doing nothing at all.

"These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Brothers and
Sisters, are we not happy that we may follow Him? His track leads to
rest, for He sits at the right hand of God! His track leads to victory,
for the Lamb is enthroned and He will give us to overcome and to sit
with Him upon His Throne, even as He has overcome and sits with the
Father upon His Throne! Oh then, by that sweet ending, let us make a
good beginning and a blessed, persevering continuance, in following the
Lamb wherever He goes!

III. I close with this remark–our text IS SUGGESTIVE TO ALL WHO WOULD
BE SAINTS.

You perceive that if you are to be true saints, first of all, you must
trust Christ. A man does not follow another unless he has faith in him.
Brethren, your way to Heaven lies in trusting yourself with Christ as a
Sacrifice for sin–as the Lamb of God. Trust yourself with Him and you
have begun the new life, you have started as a saint!

But, next, this trust must be of a practical kind. It is not said in
our text, "These are they which trust the Lamb," merely, but, "These
are they which follow the Lamb." You must do what He bids you, as He
bids you, because He bids you and because you trust Him. You must
begin, from this day forth, to show by your lives that your faith in
Christ is no mere sentiment, but a vital active principle within your
minds. In that way you shall find eternal life in trusting the Lamb and
following Him.

But, if you follow Him, remember that you must make no terms with Him.
"These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes." "Lord," you
say, "I will follow You across the grassy lawn, or over the smoothly
rolled road." No, no–you must make no conditions! You must follow Him
up the crags and down into the marshes. You must follow Christ
everywhere, with no picking and choosing of the road. Where He bids
you, you must go. Where He leads you, you must follow. Will you do
that? If so, you shall be His in the day of His appearing–but you must
take that, "wherever," into the contract. "These are they which follow
the Lamb wherever He goes." O Sir, will you follow Christ at this rate?
If you will, you are Christ's man–this is the sort of soldier that He
would enlist in His army–the man who is ready to follow Him wherever
He goes!

I heard of a young man who wanted to be an officer in Napoleon's army
and he came to get a commission wearing a fine new hat and a suit of
clothes of the very neatest cut possible. And the officer asked him,
"Sir, if you were in a situation with mountains on either side of you
which you could not ascend, and there was no possibility of going back,
and the enemy in front was at least ten times your number, what would
you do in such a case as that?" He answered, "I should resign my
commission." They did not make an officer of him, you may be sure of
that, but there are plenty of that kind who, as soon as they come to a
difficulty in the Christian faith, say, "Take my name off the roll! I
did not bargain for this." Now, if you mean to be a Christian, you must
"follow the Lamb wherever–wherever–wherever He goes."

And if you do this, you must be like He is. Christ and His followers
must be of one mind. Christ the Lamb is not to be followed by the
devil's lions. If you follow the Lamb, you must grow more and more
lamb-like–and that means being more gentle, more meek, more
self-sacrificing, more ready to submit to the Divine will. The Lord
make us so and may we be among the blessed people who shall have this
for their epitaph–no, not for their epitaph, for they are not
dead–but who shall have this for their motto, "These are they which
follow the Lamb wherever He goes!"

Lastly, remember that Jesus came to the Communion Table and His
followers should be like He in this respect, also. If there is any
child of God who has forgotten this Truth up to now, let him no longer
forsake the assembling of himself with God's people in the keeping of
this sacred feast. God bless you all, for Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: REVELATION 14.

The Church of God had undergone a very great trial. There had arisen a
cruel and wicked persecuting system, described by John in his vision as
a beast–a terrible dragon, of which we read that "it was given unto
him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was
given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." This was bad
enough, but afterwards there arose another system of evil which was
even more dangerous, because it was an imitation of the Truth of God.
Another beast came up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb,
yet he spoke as a dragon; and of him, John writes, "He causes all, both
small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on
their right hand, or on their foreheads." I will not go into the
symbolic meaning of these two beasts–it is sufficient to observe that
they had very terrible power and one might have thought that under
their successive attacks the Church of God would have been destroyed.
Yet note how this chapter begins.

Verse 1. And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion. Jesus
is not dead! He still lives! He is not defeated– "a Lamb stood on the
Mount Zion." He is not disturbed or troubled, but He stands in the
posture of quiet confidence. "A Lamb stood on the Mount Zion." Jesus is
not driven out of His Church, but He is still dwelling in the midst of
His people. That is something, yet unbelief says, "Well, I can
understand that John saw the Lord there, but had He any people with
Him? Had He any Church? Listen–"I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the
Mount Zion."–

1. And with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's
name written on their foreheads. They are all there, a vast number, a
complete number, the exact number which in the seventh chapter of this
Book had been described as sealed! They are all there without
exception–not one of them is lost–they all stand fast as a great army
surrounding their glorious Leader. Yes, my Brothers and Sisters, in the
darkest times Christ has His Church still around Him! It is with Him as
it was when the Lord said to Elijah, "Yet I have left me seven thousand
in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every
mouth which has not kissed him." Be of good courage! If your eyes are
but anointed with the heavenly eye salve, you may see, as John saw, the
Lamb on Mount Zion, surrounded by multitudes of faithful followers!

2. And I heard a voice from Heaven, as the voice of many waters, and so
the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping
with their harps. As loud as thunder and yet as musical as the choicest
notes from a band of harps– such is the testimony of the saints, such
is the expression of their exultant joy in their Lord!

3. And they sung, as it were, a new song before the Throne, and before
the four living creatures, and the elders. See Brothers and Sisters,
how little the powers of darkness can do? Not only are the saints all
there, but they are singing! The devil cannot rob Christ of a single
sonnet. The stanzas of our grateful praise shall continue to be poured
forth, though all the dragons howl as they may! "They sung, as it were,
a new song before the Throne, and before the four living creatures, and
the elders."

3. And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four
thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. There is a special
redemption, a "redemption from the earth." For such redeemed men there
is a special song which no others can learn–and that song will be sung
by them in the darkest of all days, in the roughest of all weathers.
When the dragons seem to triumph, Christ shall still have His praise,
blessed be His holy name!

4. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are
virgins. This is the Scriptural metaphor for those who have not turned
aside to idol gods, or to false opinions, or to unholy practices. You
remember how Paul longed to present the Corinthian Christians, "as a
chaste virgin," to Christ–he desired that Christ might have all their
love. These servants of God are of this sort, wholly the Lord's.

4. These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were
redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the
Lamb. Let no man deny, then, that there is a special and particular
redemption of God's people. All men are not redeemed as these were
redeemed, else the expression would be untruthful, or without
meaning–"These were redeemed from among men." There is an elect
company for whom Christ especially laid down His life! They are His and
they are made to know that they are His, and to take the position of a
blood-bought people who belong not to themselves, but to Him who has
bought them with His blood. These are the hundred and forty and four
thousand who stand on the Mount Zion with the Lamb in the midst of
them.

5. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault
before the Throne of God. Kept, by Divine Grace, pure in doctrine, holy
in life, devout in heart–these are the bodyguard of the Lamb, the
chosen companions of the King of kings–whose reward shall be
unspeakably great forever and ever.

6. 7. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of Heaven, having the
everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud
voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is
come: and worship Him that made Heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the
fountains of waters. The old interpreters used to understand these two
verses as referring to the great Protestant Reformation. When the old
dragon had done His utmost against the Church of God and the thick
darkness of the Middle Ages rested alike on the Church and the world,
then God sent the Reformers, like flying angels, to preach the
everlasting Gospel, and their special message was, "Worship not saints,
angels, relics and crucifixes, but, 'worship Him that made Heaven, and
earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.'"

8. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is
fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication. Babylon always goes down when the
Gospel is preached! The very flight of the angelic preachers is
sufficient to make old Rome totter to her fall! So our fathers used to
explain this chapter, for so they understood it. I am not sure whether
it refers to that or to any other particular form of anti-Christ, but
whatever it may be, whenever the Gospel is exalted, down goes the devil
and down goes the whole Babylonian system.

9, 10. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If
any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark on his
forehead, or on his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath
of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His
indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the holy angels, and in the Presence the Lamb. How we ought
to dread any collusion with deadly error, any fellowship with the
hypocrisies and falsehoods of those who would deceive, for if we
receive the mark of the beast either on our forehead, so as to have
unbelieving thoughts, or on our hand, so as to do evil deeds, we shall
have to suffer in company with Babylon, that great system of error
which is only an imitation and a counterfeit of Christianity! What
tremendously terrible words these are–"He shall be tormented with fire
and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the Presence
of the

Lamb"!

11-15. And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever; and
they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image,
and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the
saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith
of Jesus. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Write,
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yes, says
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do
follow them. And I looked, and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud
One sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown,
and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the
temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust
in Your sickle, and reap: for the time is come for You to reap; for the
harvest of the earth is ripe. This is the ingathering of the people of
God. You notice that this harvest of God is reaped by the Lord Jesus
Christ, Himself, that Son of Man who sat upon the cloud, "having on His
head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle."

16. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and
the earth was reaped. May you and I form a part of the great harvest!
May we be found among those golden sheaves which are to be the reaping
from Christ's great sowing when He gave Himself for His people, and was
cast into the earth as a grain of wheat to die, that He might not abide
alone!

17. And another angel came out of the temple which is in Heaven, he
also having a sharp sickle. The reaper this time is an angel.

18. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over
fire; And cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle,
saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the
vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. This is the
ingathering of the ungodly, they are not the Lord's harvest, they are
the vintage of His wrath. This vintage is not reaped by Him who wears
the golden crown, the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, but by one of His
angels, who is bid to thrust in his sharp sickle and reap, for the hour
of Divine judgment has at last come.

19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the
vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of
God. Shall any of us ever be cast into the great winepress of the wrath
of god? We shall, if we continue growing upon the evil vine and are not
grafted into Christ, the true and living Vine.

20. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out
of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a
thousand and six hundred furlongs. By which striking symbol the Apostle
describes the greatness and the terror of the overthrow which must
happen to the ungodly when once God begins to deal with them in
judgement! Oh, that the abounding mercy of God would give us a place in
His great harvest and not leave us to be gathered in the vintage of His
wrath, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.