Verse 4 says of the firstfruit that they “were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.” Just as there has been a debate about whether the number one hundred forty-four thousand is literal or figurative, there has also been a debate regarding the understanding of virginity mentioned in this verse. According to this portion of the Word, all the one hundred forty-four thousand living overcomers are virgins. Some say that this virginity is literal, and others say that it is spiritual. The virginity here should be the virginity mentioned by the Lord in Matthew 19:11-12. However, the same principle can be applied to the sisters (1 Cor. 7:7, 34, 37). The principle of virginity is that we should not be defiled by anything earthly. If we take this only literally, then all the sisters will be excluded. But it is not right to exclude the sisters from being among the living overcomers.
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. In the eyes of the worldly people it means little whether we go to the movies or not. But in the eyes of the saved ones it is serious for me to go to a movie theater. If I did, I would be defiled. We must live a life of virginity, a life of chastity. The reason I neither smoke nor drink is that I do not want to be defiled. On occasion some brothers have offered me a drink of beer. But I have always refused. The Lord’s mercy and grace have preserved me for more than fifty years. I will not sell myself so cheaply as to be contaminated by drinking beer. Although it may not be sinful to drink beer, I will not allow the drinking of beer to defile my virginity. But do not be legal about things like this. I can sit in the presence of brothers who are drinking beer and not be bothered at all. It is absolutely not a matter of legality; it is a matter of our desire to preserve ourselves as virgins for the Lord. We all must say, “Lord Jesus, I love You. Because I love You, I will remain as a virgin for You. Lord, I don’t want to be defiled or polluted by anything. Lord, I want to keep myself for You.” As a young man, I prayed this way day by day. How I thank the Lord that He has truly answered my prayer.
In my travels throughout the years, I have found myself in many different situations. In these situations there have been a great many temptations. But I can testify, even before the accuser, that the Lord’s grace has preserved me. Although there have been television sets in many of the hotel rooms, the Lord can testify for me that not once did I turn on the television. It would not have been sinful for me to watch television, but I would have been defiled. As I was in my room I said, “Lord, I don’t want to be defiled. I want to be kept as a virgin for You. Lord, I did not come to this city for television, but for Your testimony. I know the brothers and sisters cannot see what I am doing in my hotel room, but the demons can see.” If I had turned on the television set, my testimony for the Lord Jesus would not have had impact. But because my conscience testified that I was not defiled and that I was kept as a virgin for the Lord Jesus, my speaking had an impact.
It is deplorable to make the Lord’s salvation a matter of legality. We should never say that we cannot do certain things because our church forbids us to do them. What a pitiful attitude! With us, it is not a matter of legality, but of a loving desire for the Lord. We love the Lord Jesus and earnestly desire to be preserved as chaste virgins for Him. Whenever I am in a department store, I look to the Lord that He would keep me from becoming defiled. This is what it means to be a virgin. Both the brothers and the sisters may be virgins for the Lord Jesus. If you pray to the Lord in this manner and desire to live like a virgin, all the “bugs” will be under your feet. This is the way to be a living overcomer, one of the firstfruit.
You may be wondering about the difference between the overcomers in chapter twelve and the overcomers in chapter fourteen. In chapter twelve we have the man-child, and in chapter fourteen we have the firstfruit. In the messages on chapter twelve we saw clearly that the man-child is for fighting and defeating Satan. Hence, the man-child deals with the enemy. The firstfruit is not for fighting; it is for the satisfaction of God and the Lamb. God and the Lamb need enjoyment. We, the living overcomers, shall be the firstfruit to satisfy Their need for enjoyment.
The enemy, the Devil, in heaven must be cast down by the man-child, who will execute the Lord’s judgment over him. This is the function of the man-child. But there is another need in the heavens—God must be satisfied. God is hungry and thirsty. He desires some firstfruit to taste for His satisfaction.
Here again we see the sovereign wisdom of the Lord. The overcomers who have died throughout the centuries will be the man-child, the fighters. Although we who are living on earth must also fight against the enemy, there is no need to fight him all the time. After you have preached to Satan for a while, you should forget about him. The enemy is subtle. Once you begin to preach to him, he will attract you to preach to him constantly, saying, “My face has become very thick, and I have no sense of shame. I would like to hear you preach to me all the time.” He would do this in order to distract you from loving the Lord. Therefore, after preaching to the Devil for a period of time, you should say, “Devil, I have no more time to preach to you. Rather, I would use my time to tell my Lord how much I love Him. I want to remain with my Lord in a loving way. Satan, you are the Lord’s enemy and you are my enemy too. I have preached enough to you. Get away—now is the time for me to enjoy a honeymoon with my Lord.” Learn this strategy. Do not preach to Satan for too long a time. After preaching for a certain period of time, you must stop and spend your time in loving the Lord, saying, “Lord, I enjoy looking at You and talking to You. Lord, I want to satisfy You, to be one with You, and to stay in Your presence.” Learn to spend time loving the Lord Jesus in an intimate way. If you have never had such a time, you are short. It is not adequate merely to be sinless. It is not sufficient simply to be good or right. We must be in love with the Lord. Although I do not like the term in love, I am forced to use it. We all need to fall in love with the Lord Jesus, telling Him, “O Lord Jesus, I love You, and You know that I love You. Because I love You, Lord, there are certain things that I will not do.” This is the way to be a living overcomer. Although the Lord certainly needs the man-child to fight against His enemy, He needs the firstfruit, His lovers, even more to be His satisfaction.
In type, the firstfruit were brought not to the farmer’s home, but into God’s house, the temple, for His satisfaction. This was even true of the Lord Jesus as the firstfruit (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). On the morning of His resurrection, the Lord did not allow Mary to touch Him. He said, “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17). The Lord seemed to be saying, “Do not touch Me, because I must present My freshness in My resurrection to My Father. My Father must be the first to taste the freshness of My resurrection.” We all need to learn to present ourselves in a fresh, intimate, and loving way to the Lord for His enjoyment. If you decline to do certain things or to touch certain things simply because you are afraid of something, you are not on the high plane of being a lover of the Lord. Rather, you are down on the lowest level. We must be on the highest plane, refusing to do certain things, not out of fear, but out of love for the Lord. The sisters desire to be with their husbands instead of going home to their parents because they love their husbands. Likewise, because I love the Lord, I shall refrain from doing certain things. I may have the liberty to do them, and it may not be wrong to do them, but simply because of my love for the Lord Jesus, I would not do them. This is the true significance of this portion of the Word.
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 should be not only fighters, but also firstfruit, those who ripen earlier for the Lord’s satisfaction. We need to say, “Lord, for the sake of Your satisfaction, I want to ripen early. Lord, I don’t care for my rapture—I care for Your satisfaction. I want to be taken to the heavens to satisfy You. Lord, as long as I can satisfy You, it makes no difference to me whether I am on earth or in heaven.” This is the attitude of the living overcomers.
Because it does not matter to the firstfruit where they are, we are not told that they are caught up; instead, we are simply told that the one hundred forty-four thousand firstfruit are standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion. As we have pointed out, this surely is not the Zion on earth, but the Zion in the heavens. If you are one of the living overcomers, it will make no difference to you whether or not you are raptured. Because you are already in the Lord’s presence, the rapture will not come as a surprise. It does not matter to you whether you are in His presence here on earth or there on Mount Zion. When you get there, you will not be surprised. It would be wrong to say, “Oh, I’m here with the Lord. I’m in His presence!” Those who will be raptured as the firstfruit will have no feeling of surprise. Rather, they will say, “Lord Jesus, I have been with you continuously for years. Lord, it makes no difference whether I’m in Anaheim or in the third heaven.” To the outsiders, it will come as a surprise for you to be standing on Mount Zion, but it should not be a surprise to you. It should be a common experience. If you have been away from your husband for many years, you will be “crazy” with excitement when you see him. But if you are with him all the time, you will surely not be so “crazy.” Are you truly loving the Lord? Are you in intimate fellowship with Him right now, being kept in Him as a virgin? If you are, then the rapture will not come as a surprise; it will be an ordinary experience.
Although these verses on the firstfruit point to one kind of rapture, they actually say nothing about rapture. We are told that the man-child is “caught-up,” but we are told that the firstfruit are standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb. If you were to ask them when they got there, they might say, “We are simply here. We have no special feeling about being here because we have been in the Lord’s presence for years. We have lived in this atmosphere for a long time.” This is the rapture of the living overcomers. These are the firstfruit, those who satisfy the hunger of God the Father and the Lamb, the Redeemer. The earliest ones of God’s crop to mature are not for fighting; they are for satisfaction.
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 overcomers’ mouth indicates that there is nothing of Satan in their expression. If we live a life of loving the Lord, then no lie or falsehood will proceed out of our mouth. Although I hate to say it, for years I have suffered the lies of genuine Christians. What a shame! In the Lord’s recovery there should be no lies and no falsehood in our mouth. When we say “Yes,” we mean yes, and when we say “No,” we mean no. If we cannot answer with a clear yes or no, we should not say anything. In such a case we should exercise our wisdom to say nothing, so that no lies nor falsehood would come out of our mouth. We have nothing to do with Satan, the liar and the source of the lies.
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 God (1 Thes. 5:23).
The one hundred forty-four thousand firstfruit “follow the Lamb wherever He may go” (v. 4). It is not that the Lamb follows us, but that we follow Him wherever He goes. We all must learn the lesson of following Him wherever He goes.