Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #5 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are going to be reading Revealtion14:5:

And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

This is really a wonderful verse God has given us because the problem with mankind since Adam and Eve fell into sin back in the Garden of Eden has been “guile” or “deceit,” as this word is also translated as “deceit.”  There has been a problem of fault because we have broken and transgressed the Law of God.  We have offended Holy God and, as a result, we have come under the wrath of God.  But, by God’s mercy and grace and the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, God developed a salvation program.  This salvation began with the Lord Jesus Christ being slain from the foundation of the world as the sacrificial Lamb.  Upon that building stone and rock, God determined to save certain sinners throughout the history of the world. 

The 144,000 we read about earlier in Revelation 14 are called the “firstfruits unto God,” and they identified with a particular season, the season of the church age.  It was a 1,955 year-period, from 33 AD until 1988 AD, in which God utilized the churches and congregations of the world in order to save certain individuals from the nations of the world.  He saved them through His Word through the ministry of the churches.  The churches served a purpose; they operated at the command of the Lord Jesus Christ and they had the full authority and blessing of God, to the degree that they were faithful to His Word.  As a result, every individual that God intended to save over the course of that (almost) 2,000 year-period did become saved.

God completed the salvation of the firstfruits, but we do not know the number of them.  The Bible uses the figure of “144,000” to represent them, but it was more than likely several million people, but we do not know the number.  When God completed that salvation program by May 21, 1988 (when the church age ended), then He brought judgment on the churches and congregations of the world.  They had served the purpose He had intended for them and then judgment would begin at the house of God.  As we have learned more and more about God’s “times and seasons,” we have learned that would be it for the churches.  They would no longer be used by God to save any more people.  That would be reserved for the “little season” of the Great Tribulation when God would save a great multitude outside of the churches and these would be the final fruits.

Our verse in Revelation 14:5 says, “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.”  The emphasis is on the “mouth” and that is not surprising because it is through the mouth that we speak and declare the Word of God.  This means the Lord is indicating that these 144,000 elect individuals were speaking faithfully and truthfully, to the degree to which the Lord had opened their understanding, but we also have to keep in mind that during the church age the Word was still sealed up (until the time of the end), and the time of the end began at the end of the church age.  In other places in the Scriptures, God likens the church age to a time wherein “men slept,” and this applied to both the wise and foolish (saved and unsaved people, according to the parable of the wheat and the tares, in Matthew 13.  There was a period of “sleep” in the sense that the Bible was still sealed and much of the information was hidden and kept from the understanding of the people of God.  It was not time for them to understand the things that the Lord had reserved until the time of the end.  We should not think that this means they were any less faithful.  Just think about this: Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and when we look at the life of Noah, or of Abraham, or of David or any other Old Testament saints, how much understanding did they have of the Bible’s doctrines?  They had partial understanding, but they did not even have the New Testament to help them understand many things – they had a limited understanding, but it did not impact their ability to be faithful in the things God had revealed to them and what they knew to be true of the Word of God.  This is what God requires of His stewards.  He requires that His people have faithfulness to what has been opened up to them.  Now there is a “caution” with that because some people might say, “I am faithful to what I understand,” and then they use that as an excuse not to accept information the Lord has opened up in our time.  It is not as if Noah or Moses or David, when confronted with many truths, turned away from these truths, dismissing or ignoring them or just waving them away with a brush of the hand.  They would certainly have been open to all that God said to them.  Whatever God brought to them in His revelation, they would have been faithful to obey. 

Likewise, it is true of the Lord’s people understanding during the church age.  They had a little more understanding than the Old Testament saints.  Remember that the Apostle Paul wrote, under inspiration of God, in Ephesians, chapter 3, that a “mystery” had been revealed to him: the Gentiles would be fellow heirs with the Jews of the kingdom of heaven.  God had written about this extensively in the Old Testament, but He sealed it up and the Jewish people were (apparently) not aware of it.  Even the faithful believers in Israel did not have that information opened up to their minds until the proper time came where it was time to evangelize the world.  The nations of the world are the Gentiles.  Then in that “time and season” God opened up that information to Paul and it was like a glorious new revelation, but it had always been written about in the pages of the Bible.

So we should not look back and say, “Because the people during the church age did not have an accurate understanding of certain doctrines (like Christ having been slain from the foundation of the world, or annihilation, or the judgment on the churches), they were “less faithful” than those of us living at the time of the end when God has opened up more truths.  According to our verse in Revelation 14:5, “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.”  They were faithful insofar as what God had been pleased to give them in their “time” and era.  They could not break through the seal God had placed upon His Word, the Bible, so the Lord did not expect them to have that knowledge and He did not hold them to a standard of faithfulness wherein they must understand things that were impossible for them to understand in their day.   Knowledge would be increased at a later time, as we have seen in our time.

The Greek word “guile” is Strong’s #1388 (dolos) and it is used a good amount of times in the New Testament and we will look at how it is used negatively.  It says in Mark 7:20-23:

And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

The word “deceit” is the same Greek word translated as “guile” in our verse.  The stony heart of man is full of “deceit” or “guile,” as Jeremiah 17:9 says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”  This is a primary characteristic of the unsaved and unregenerate heart of the natural man.  Men are full of “guile.”  Mankind is extremely deceitful and to be deceitful means that they are liars and they are underhanded.  They might, if pressed, speak the truth, but they will easily and quickly lie because that is the nature of man and it is in the heart of the sinner: it is desperately wicked, not just a little wicked: “It is deceitful above all things.”  If you can think of deceitful, lying things, you can place the heart of man at the top of the list.  It is the most deceitful thing there is and that is why the world will not come to the light.  It is why the world is contrary to the things of God; it is why the world will praise “Santa Claus” at the time that was chosen to celebrate Christ’s birth; it is why the world prefers an “Easter bunny” to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

It is why the world will not listen to the Bible.  It is because of their very nature, the “guile” that is within mankind.  It is why a philosophy like evolution is believed, even though it is the most ridiculous idea anybody could possibly think up, which states that things, over the course of time, are slowly evolving and improving.  When we consider all these complex creatures and we think about the eyes, the ears, the nervous systems, the minds of these animals or the minds of men, that are so obviously designed by a Creator.  When things are just “thrown together” or “left alone,” nothing improves and nothing develops.  That is an obvious fact of life in this world.  The world has no proof for evolution, but so many scientists and scholarly individuals accept it as truth.  It is only held as fact and truth for one reason: “The heart is deceitful above all things.”  They are willing to grab hold of the most foolish and outlandish theory imaginable rather than hold to the truths of the Bible, which explains everything: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  This is what is in man (deceit) and that is why it is so beautiful and glorious when we read a verse like Revelation 14:5: “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” 

Would it not be nice to meet people and know people that have no “guile” within them?  Remember that the Lord Jesus met someone like that in the Gospel of John.  He met Nathaneal and it says in John 1:47:

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

Why would Jesus say that, especially since the Bible indicates that “guile” or “deceit” gushes out of the heart of man?  The only way Nathanael could be a man in whom there is no guile is if he had already received a new heart and spirit and all those evil and wicked things that come from the heart of man were gone – they were taken out of the one that God has saved, as he takes out the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh.  In that new spirit that God places within him, the redeemed sinner is seen as perfection, holiness and purity.  There is no guile.  There is no deceit in that perfect, born again soul of those God has saved.  Since Nathaneal is a child of God, this explains why when the Lord introduced Himself and made a few simple statements, Nathaneal was extremely quick to obey and follow Him.  He understood that Christ was the Messiah because those that God saves are given an ear to hear the voice of Christ their Saviour.  They do not hear the voice of strangers.  Nathaneal heard Christ’s voice and he knew that this was the voice of Truth.  This was the Messiah, the Holy One of God.

There are many more Scriptures we could look at, but let us turn to 1Peter 3:10:

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

Here, God is commanding His people to have a mouth that does not speak “guile.”  It says, “His lips that they speak no guile.”  The Lord would have His people speak the truth: to speak what the Word of God says, no more and no less and no additions or subtractions, but only what the Word of God declares.  That is the desire and goal of each and every child of God who is a true worshipper of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We strongly desire this because God has given us the desire to do the will of God in our lives.  This means we do the will of God in our actions, in our thoughts and in what we say.  These are all important areas in which we are to be submission to God.  We desire not to offend or transgress what the Word of God says and I know that we at EBible have this ongoing desire to be faithful to what the Bible says.  We study and study and we try to use the methodology the Lord has given us, comparing Scripture with Scripture, to allow the Holy Ghost to teach.  When we have done as much homework as we can do, then we speak and proclaim what we have learned from the Bible.  We do not do that perfectly; there have been areas where we have received correction in things we have spoken in the past and when we found we were in error, but we do not resist correction.  We desire correction (from God’s Word). 

It is just as God’s people during the church age had understanding to a degree, but some of their understanding was not fully correct and in agreement with God’s Word.  But God is in control of what He reveals to His people in His “times and seasons.”  In the Old Testament, there was limited understanding.  In the church age, there was more understanding, but it was still limited, since the Bible was sealed.  In these days after the Tribulation in the Day of Judgment, we have still more understanding.  We learn and receive correction from it and we speak what we know, but in all periods of time every child of God is limited by our finite nature.  We are not God, but we can pray and follow God’s methodology and beseech Him for wisdom and understanding.  Yet, there are some things that we do not have understanding of, but the Lord would have us to declare those things which we have been able to search out and to prove from the Bible.