Speaking of the firstfruit, Revelation 14:4 says: “These are they who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He may go.” Verse 5 goes on to say, “In their mouth no lie was found, for they are without blemish.” The virginity in verse 4 should be that mentioned by the Lord in Matthew 19:11-12. However, the same principle can be applied to the sisters (1 Cor. 7:7, 37). The principle of virginity is that we should not be defiled by anything earthly. In order to be a living overcomer we must be kept by the Lord’s grace from every defilement and pollution and live on earth like virgins. We need to follow the principle in verse 4. This principle is that we, sisters and brothers alike, must keep our virginity, looking to the Lord that, by His grace, He would preserve us for Himself.
We are also told that the firstfruit “follow the Lamb wherever He may go.” It is not that the Lamb follows us but that we follow Him wherever He goes. We all need to learn the lesson of following the Lamb wherever He goes.
Verse 5 says of the firstfruit that in “their mouth no lie was found.” Lies are the expression and representation of Satan. The Devil is the father of all liars, and lies come out of him (John 8:44). That no lie was found in the mouth of the living overcomers indicates that there is nothing of Satan in their expression.
Verse 5 also says that the firstfruit are without blemish. This indicates that they are without spot or wrinkle but are perfect in the holiness of God (Eph. 5:27), absolutely sanctified to God and fully saturated with Him (1 Thes. 5:23).
Luke 21:36 and Revelation 3:10 prove that the living overcomers will be raptured before the great tribulation. In Luke 21:36 the Lord Jesus says, “Be watchful, at every time beseeching, that you may prevail to escape all these things which are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Here to escape is to be taken, raptured, before the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), which will be a severe trial upon the whole inhabited earth (Rev. 3:10; Luke 17:34-36). To be thus raptured is to be kept “out of the hour of trial which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 3:10). The fact that the ones raptured before the great tribulation will “stand before the Son of Man” indicates that the raptured overcomers will stand before the Savior on mount Zion in the heavens. This corresponds to the standing in Revelation 14:1.
In Revelation 3:10 the Lord says, “I also will keep you out of the hour of trial.” Here the Lord promises to keep the overcoming ones not only out of the trial but out of the hour of trial. This promise of the Lord, like His promise in Luke 21:36, indicates that the saints who have kept the word of the Lord’s endurance will be raptured before the great trial. These overcoming ones, the first ones to ripen among the believers in God’s field on earth, will be raptured to the third heaven.
The firstfruit are purchased from among men (Rev. 14:4) to be raptured to mount Zion in the heavens, where the Lamb is, with His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads (v. 1). For the firstfruit to be purchased from among men indicates that they are no longer among men but are in the heavens.
Revelation 14:1 says, “I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.” Here we see that the firstfruit stand with the Lamb on mount Zion. The Zion mentioned here is not the earthly one but the Zion in the heavens (Heb. 12:22). Those who stand with the Lamb on mount Zion are raptured to the heavens before Antichrist’s persecution of religion. After this rapture, Antichrist will persecute people and compel them to worship him. By this fact we know that the living overcomers are raptured before the great tribulation. According to the Lord’s word in Luke 21:36, they escape the things which are about to come to pass, that is, all the things of the great tribulation, and stand before the Son of Man.
The firstfruit have the name of the Lamb and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. This is the designation of their being one with the Lamb and with the Father and of their belonging to Them. The name of the Lamb and the name of the Father written on the foreheads of these early overcomers is in contrast to the name of the beast written on the foreheads of his worshippers (Rev. 13:16-17). The fact that the firstfruit have the name of the Son and the Father indicate that they are wholly constituted of the Son and the Father.
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