Heaven's Hallelujah: Revelation 19

But we're in Revelation chapter 19 tonight. Can you believe it?

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

Boy, what a journey we've been on and we've still got a ways to go.

But we're in Revelation 19 verses one through 10 we're looking at tonight and

probably a week or so down the road with that as well.

Heavenly hallelujahs, we could say that tonight for chapter 19 verses one through 10.

And as you know, or some of you may not, we usually approach this passage because

we wanna dig deep and we approach it to start with from like a bird's eye view, right?

And we look at the big picture and other places in scripture and things like

that, that tie in with this passage in some way.

And we do that first. And then we do what we call a deeper dive.

We dive down into those sections and go back through those verse by verse as well. Okay.

So Revelation 19 verses 1 through 10. Are you ready for this journey tonight?

Revelation 19:1–10

Here we go. After these things, I heard something like a loud voice of a great

multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, because his judgments are true and righteous.

For he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality,

and he has avenged the blood of his bond servants on her.

And a second time they said, hallelujah her smoke rises up forever and ever

and the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worship God who

sits on the throne saying amen hallelujah.

And a voice came from the throne saying, Give praise to our God,

all you his bondservants, you who fear him, the small and the great.

Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound

of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying,

Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give the

glory to him for the marriage of

the lamb has come and his bride

has made herself ready it was given to

her to clothe herself in fine linen bright and clean for the fine linen is the

righteous acts of the saints then he said to me right blessed are those who

are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb and he said to me these are true words of God,

then I fell at his feet to worship him.

But he said to me, do not do that.

I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Let's pray. Father God, I pray your blessings upon this passage tonight.

Lord, I pray you'd just give us all wisdom to understand and to just see your

word and to speak to our hearts through your spirit.

We give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen.

We all, the Bible lists many reasons for giving thanks to God.

He is to be praised, first of all, for all the perfections of his glorious being.

Through him then, urged the writer of Hebrews, let us continually,

you might find this passage familiar, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. Hebrews 13, 15.

And one of the perfections that God is to be praised for is his holiness.

His holiness in fact in psalm chapter 30

Psalms 30:4

verse 4 david actually declared this he

said sing praise to the lord you his

godly ones and give thanks to his holy

name god is also y'all to be praised for his mercy how many of you are thankful

for the mercy of god amen concluding a psalm in which god's loving kindness

is praised in every every verse actually psalm 136 verse 26 commands this It says,

Psalms 136:26

give thanks to the God of heaven for his loving kindness is everlasting.

Praise God for that. Scripture also makes much of or extols God's goodness.

We serve a good God. Praise the Lord, cried the psalmist. Oh,

give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

Remember, we're talking about heavenly hallelujahs in this passage tonight.

In fact, the comforting knowledge of God's nearness also caused the psalmist

to actually explain this.

He said, we give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks for your name is near.

In Psalm 75, verse 1. So God is to be praised, y'all, not only for his attributes,

Psalms 75:1

but also for his mighty works.

Isaiah actually wrote, oh, Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you.

I will give thanks to your name for you have worked wonders.

How many have experienced wonders that God has worked in your life or in the

life of somebody you've known? Amen.

Wow. I mean, among those chief among those works are what?

Creation. Think about that.

Salvation. How many are thankful for God's salvation in your life,

right? The many rich blessings that God actually bestows on his people,

y'all, also call forth praise.

Chief, you know what? It's the gift of his son, Jesus.

That matchless gift, y'all, that Paul actually, it caused him to exclaim,

thanks be to God. You know how Paul described it?

For his indescribable gift. That's how he described it.

There's no description. It's so amazing. Jesus is so amazing.

And Paul also praised God for his deliverance from, get this, y'all, indwelling sin.

Anybody here have a sin problem? We all do, don't we? And I hope you have a problem with sin.

I kind of alluded to this this morning, but I always like when people said,

man, I struggle with pride or I struggle with lust or I struggle with this or that or whatever.

You just fill in the blank because when you're struggling with it,

that means you got a problem with it, right, and that you haven't been taken

in, right, in the sense of you're not a slave to sin.

And so Paul prays God for his deliverance from indwelling sin in Romans 7.

Believers triumph over death and the grave, amen?

I mean, we today, yes, we actually die physically. We've been studying that on Wednesday night.

You know, if the Lord doesn't come first, all of us at some point is going to

die because the wages of sin is death, okay?

But y'all, that's not the end. Jesus defeated death, hell, and the grave. And so guess what?

We have eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So death has no sting, right?

Where is the victory of the grave, really, right? Jesus has defeated death, hell, and the grave.

And so believers can triumph over death and the grave in Christ.

And the triumph also, y'all, think about it, of the gospel it talks about in

2 Corinthians. We're talking about heavenly hallelujahs, right? tonight in Revelation.

I mean, the triumph of the gospel, and this ties in because it talks about his

call to the ministry and the faith that's exhibited by other people,

by others, and the grace that God has poured out on believers in 1 Corinthians.

Man, aren't you grateful for that grace that God pours out on us?

There's so much to say, hallelujah, Lord, right?

There is so much to say, praise Jesus for what he has done.

And it also calls Paul to be thankful here. The apostle, he also modeled and

taught truth that Christians are to give thanks for all the basic necessities of life.

I mean, every bit of it, you know, these tangible expressions of praise and

thanks for God's love and care for us.

So in summary tonight, giving thanks to God is to be done always,

according to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 20, and for everything, by the way,

Ephesians 5:20

not just the good things, but for all of it.

And so, but all of these things, here's where we're going.

All of these things we've talked about in scripture, God is to be praised for.

Perhaps the least expected thing that he's to be praised for,

and it shows us in this passage tonight, is for his destruction of the wicked.

Probably didn't make it to the top of your list, did it? Just thinking about it.

One of the biggest things at the top that God is to be praised for is his destruction

of the wicked. And that's what we're looking at tonight.

Yet that too, y'all, is an important theme in scripture.

You know, Deuteronomy 32 verse 43 said, Rejoice, O nations, with his people,

Deuteronomy 32:43

for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance on his adversaries.

Psalm 48 adds, Let Mount Zion be glad.

Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments.

In Psalm 58, 10 and 11, it notes that the righteous will rejoice when he sees

the vengeance. He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

And men will say, listen to this, surely there is a reward for the righteous.

Surely there is a God who judges on the earth.

Have you ever thought about this? You know, we think about today,

we desire justice, right?

That's just our human nature, even though sometimes we want to point the finger

when we got the blame, you know, but that's our desire.

Like if you guys read a story of someone who kidnapped a child today and it

looks like they got away with it, what do you long for? Justice.

If you see somebody who was murdered, you know, on the six or seven,

whatever, at clock news or in the paper or the app or whatever you look at,

and they haven't found the killer,

and you see a gruesome murder that took place, what do you long for?

Justice. And God has promised this, and surely there is a reward for the righteous.

There is a God who judges on the earth. It may be that some people get away,

quote unquote, with something here on the earth.

There may be something that people do not serve and get justice for, so to speak, right?

But you can be assured that with God, he's going to see to it that all is set straight, right?

And one thing I'm thankful for, and I was talking to my brother earlier,

John, that's visiting with us tonight.

One of the things I'm so grateful for is that, guess what?

Jesus took my place on the cross.

And y'all, he's the one that lived the life I couldn't live.

He's the one, his grace, his mercy, his strength, all of that.

He is the one whose righteousness I depend on and you depend on.

Aren't you thankful that God gave us mercy and grace? Amen.

Because when you turn your back on that kind of gift, that kind of salvation,

what is left for you and me?

Judgment. Judgment. In Psalm 96, verse 11 through 13, the psalmist declared this.

Psalms 96:11–13

He says, let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice.

Let the sea roar and all it contains.

Let the field exult and all that's in it. Then all the trees of the forest will

sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming, for he is coming to what?

You remember? Judge the earth.

He will judge the world in what?

Righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Y'all, we have a good God. We have a good judge. I mean, as man's day draws

to a close here and the true king prepares to return to the earth,

and that's where we're at in Revelation, heaven will rejoice.

Heavenly hallelujahs tonight. Just ring out in chapter 19 here over the final

destruction of the evil world system and the glorious victory,

y'all, of the returning Messiah.

As that long-awaited time approaches here, The scene in Revelation that we're

looking at tonight, it shifts from earth, where it's been since chapter 6,

by the way. Where does it shift to?

To heaven. And the intervening chapters, though, they've detailed God's cataclysmic

just explosion of judgment, judgmental fury, if you will, on the sinful world.

And that fury actually began to be poured out, if you remember,

when the Lord Jesus Christ, the rightful heir of the universe,

received the title deed to the earth from his Father, all the way back in chapter 5 of Revelation.

And as he unrolled that scroll and broke its seven seals, terrifying judgments,

if you remember, struck the earth.

The seal judgments were actually followed by the devastating trumpet and bowl judgments.

And the particular target of God's wrath was Antichrist's worldwide religious,

political, economic empire, symbolized by the capital city of Babylon.

Babylon's destruction that we wrapped up with in chapter 17 and 18,

where it's described in detail, that destruction, which caused dismay and mourning over all the earth.

You know, we saw that last time now brings what joy where in heaven.

That's why there's heavenly hallelujahs. With the devastation of the capital

city, Antichrist empire was dealt a fatal blow.

The final destruction of the world's forces will take place shortly,

though, where we had the battle of Armageddon, which is going to come up in

this chapter in verses 11 through 21.

And some might think that heaven's rejoicing over Babylon's destruction is insensitive and uncaring.

You know, somebody just sitting on the outside, but that's a short-sighted view.

It actually ignores a reality, the reality that those sinners will have had

the greatest opportunity to repent of any people who have ever lived.

Just think about it, what we've studied in Revelation.

Those sinners will have had the greatest opportunity to repent of any people who have ever lived.

They will have experienced the unprecedented disasters of the tribulation that

we've looked at, which, you know, they will acknowledge, it says,

to be God's judgments. They know it's God's judgments.

And they will also have heard the most powerful preaching of the gospel in history.

They will have heard from the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, the two witnesses,

the host of the redeemed saved during the tribulation preaching the gospel.

And even, you remember, the powerful angel in midheaven preaching to all the

worlds, all the world could hear.

Yet despite all that, y'all, as we sit here tonight in Babenet,

Alabama, despite all that, guess what?

You know, they will remain unrepentant to the very end.

Hardened, y'all, into irreversible unbelief and defiant hatred of God.

That's why it's so important. Don't harden your heart. Don't let your heart be hardened.

Let it be tender before God. God gave these people mercy and grace throughout

the tribulation in the sense of repent, repent. You have an opportunity to repent.

They didn't do it. They didn't do it. And so the praise seen in heaven,

by the way, throughout Revelation, it really, it reaches that crescendo.

That's kind of like your musical term there, that crescendo in this particular

text tonight, the heavenly rejoicing is not over the damnation of those who

reject God. Did you hear me?

It's not over the damnation of those who reject God. We know that because of Ezekiel 18.

And other passages there in Ezekiel. But you know why?

It's because Jesus Christ will soon remove the obstinate sinners from the world.

And why is that important? God will then be properly honored.

The Lord Jesus Christ will be enthroned, and the earth will be restored to its lost glory.

Heaven rejoices here in this passage tonight because history is finally going

to reach its culmination as the true king establishes his kingdom on earth.

Man, aren't you grateful we serve the king of kings?

And as this text unfolds, that we're going to see five reasons.

We won't get to all these tonight. We might get to the first one or so,

but five reasons that for heaven's joy are going to become evident to us.

And I'll go ahead and list them now, then we'll break them down as we go deeper.

Heaven rejoices because full salvation has come.

Because justice is meted out, because rebellion is ended, and because God is

in control, and because the marriage of the Lamb is completed.

Who is the Lamb's bride, by the way? The church. Who are you?

The church, the bride, the bride of Christ.

Well, let's take at least that first one tonight. Is that all right?

We got a little bit of time here.

Because full salvation has come. That's the first reason that they're rejoicing.

Because full salvation has come.

Listen to this as we go back to the passage. Verse one, as we go deeper.

After these things, I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude

in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God.

You know, as it does throughout Revelation, the phrase, after these things,

it really marks the beginning here of a new vision.

And this new vision here takes place after the destruction of Babylon,

right? We just studied that.

And it takes place before the triumphant return of Jesus Christ to establish

the millennial kingdom.

And as the loud laments over Babylon's destruction that we studied fade into

silence, what is it replaced with?

Loud hallelujahs from heaven. They just ring out from heaven.

And so in his vision, John, it says here, heard something like a loud voice

of a great multitude in heaven.

The text really doesn't identify those whose composite voices make up this loud

voice that John heard, but they're likely angels.

Why do I say that they're likely angels? Well, this great multitude doesn't

appear to include the redeemed saints.

And the reason I say that is because they're encouraged to join in the praise

later in verses 5 through 8. Okay?

So the uncounted millions upon millions of holy angels make up a majestic,

awe-inspiring choir, if you will.

All right? The angelic core, so to speak, opens up with this important word, hallelujah.

Y'all have heard that word, right? Hallelujah. It's an exclamation of praise to God.

The Greek word there, hallelujah.

It's a transliteration of the Hebrew phrase that's compromised of the verb halal,

which is to praise, and the noun Yah, which is God. Praise God.

And it appears only in this chapter in the New Testament.

The Hebrew phrase first appears in Psalm 104, verse 35. Listen to this.

Psalms 104:35

Let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more.

Bless the Lord on my soul. Praise the Lord. And then in its first appearance,

in its first Old Testament appearance, as in its first New Testament appearance

that we saw, hallelujah here, y'all,

expresses praise for God's judgment on wicked oppressors of his people.

And that Hebrew phrase is associated

with God's deliverance of his people from Egypt in Psalm 113 to 18,

113, 18, which also just known collectively there as the Egyptian Hallel.

And it's a word that's often associated here with both the judgment of the ungodly

and the salvation of God's people.

So just think, when you're in that shower in the morning, how many of you like

singing in the shower? Does anybody sing in the shower? Or is that just me when I do?

Do you ever pat your foot in the water?

I wrote some of my best music in the shower, Thomas. The title of one of the

songs I wrote was, The Ground Has Water and the Ground Is Wet.

I won't share it tonight for time's sake, but heaven rejoices.

You can say hallelujah even in the shower. Heaven rejoices specifically because

salvation has come from God's people, for God's people, right?

And with it, the glory and power that belong to who? To God.

And so they've been put on display.

That word salvation, it doesn't focus here on justification or sanctification, right?

But it celebrates the final aspect of salvation history, the glorification of

the saints. that's us, in the kingdom of Christ.

Now, I got to do this really quick, but justification, y'all help me out.

We're just layman's terms tonight. Justification is what?

Yeah, or you can think about it. I always like to think about it this way.

As the old country preacher said, God sees you just as if you'd never sinned,

just as if I'd never sinned. We're justified in his sight.

We have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, right?

Just as if we'd never sinned. He sees the life Jesus lived instead of the life

I lived, right? So we have justification.

And then what about sanctification? These are big words. What is sanctification talking about?

Separated, coming out, be separate, be holy, right? Be separated.

And that's a process sometimes we refer to as progressive sanctification.

That means that throughout our lifetime, we are becoming more and more like

Jesus until one day we'll see him as he is. And scripture says we will be like him.

And so that's the process of sanctification. We're being sanctified.

We're going through that process on earth. And hopefully every day that we're

here, we are growing in our faith and we're becoming more and more like our

God, like our Father, right?

And then what about glorification that this is talking about here?

This glorification, that's what it leads to. I just really said it.

What? Be like Christ. Right. We'll be glorified. One day, Brother Ronnie,

we're going to have our glorified bodies. Amen?

Right? I mean, we're going to be glorified, justified, sanctified,

glorified. And this is where we see this glorification, the imminent coming of Jesus Christ here.

It prompts this praise as the angels anticipate the glory of his kingdom, y'all.

I'm telling you, heavenly hallelujahs. Wow.

Thank you, Jesus. Well, also, heaven will rejoice.

We'll probably end with this one tonight because justice is meted out.

Justice is meted out. Listen to this. Because his judgments are true and righteous,

for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality,

and he has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her. That's verse 2. So,

We see here that heaven also rejoices because God's judgments are true and righteous.

That's evidenced here by the destruction of the wicked, that deserving Babylon, right?

The destruction of that wicked deserving Babylon, it deserved every bit of it.

That joy over the imminent triumph, y'all, of God's justice is something that

all who pray and work for righteousness can relate to. Have y'all ever prayed

for something like that?

Have y'all ever prayed, God, show up in this situation.

Lord, may your justice prevail in this situation.

I mean, yeah. I mean, and so throughout history, God's people have been disturbed

by, if you will, the inequity or the injustice and unrighteousness in the world.

And we've longed for God's justice to come. That's what we were talking about earlier.

Anticipating what? the coming of the Messiah. And actually Isaiah in anticipation, he wrote this.

He said, y'all know this one, for a child will be born to us,

a son will be given to us, and the government will be, will rest on his shoulders

and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne

of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice

and righteousness from then on and forevermore,

the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

That's in Isaiah 9, 6, and 7.

So Jeremiah also anticipated the time, y'all, when the Messiah would bring justice

and righteousness on the earth. Wow.

You know, he said, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,

when I shall raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king

and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. Who's he talking about?

Jesus. All the way back in Jeremiah 23, earlier in Revelation,

do you remember the martyred tribulation believers?

You remember this? They cried out with a loud voice saying what?

How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging

our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, they eagerly anticipated, y'all, the day when God's justice would triumph.

God's people hate sin because it mocks God and love righteousness because it exalts him.

We hate sin because it mocks God and we love righteousness because it exalts him.

I remember it just triggered in my mind. Y'all know I always think of songs.

I remember years ago. Anybody remember the group Mylon Lefebvre and Broken Heart?

I remember the song they recorded years ago, Love God, Hate Sin.

All right, look it up. Let's do it on YouTube, Brother Ronnie.

Love God, Hate Sin, Mylon Lefebvre.

And he also wrote without him in our hymn book, just in case you were wondering.

So God's people hate sin because it mocks God and love righteousness because it exalts him.

They long for a world, y'all. We long for a world as believers characterized

by holiness and justice.

But y'all, that will only happen when Christ establishes his righteous kingdom

and rules with a rod of iron.

The stage was set here for establishing that kingdom when God actually judged

the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality here.

Babylon is identified as the great harlot, right?

Satan, an antichrist system that we studied about that seduced the unbelieving

world to actually believe the lies of Satan because that system rules the whole world.

We see it even today. it is guilty of corrupting the earth with its morality too, right?

We see all that. We see the corruption taking place even today.

The evil of the commercial and religious Babylon will be pervasive and dominant,

leading to this equitable retribution from who? God Almighty.

God's going to serve the justice. He's going to have the vengeance.

And a further reason for Babylon's judgment was her maltreatment,

if you remember, of God's people.

And as a result, it says in this passage in Revelation 19, he has avenged the

blood of his bond servants on her.

That God will exact vengeance for his people, that's for you and me,

is clearly taught all throughout Scripture.

You know, I often wonder sometimes why we try to seek our own vengeance.

Because when we're, if we're truly done wrong, if somebody truly does you wrong,

there's no better hands to put that in than God Almighty.

Because I'm going to tell you, we could mess up, brother Ronnie.

I mean, we don't know people's hearts and it's not for us to deal out judgment

or any kind of justice at all.

We're just thankful God, you

know, has looked over our sins as he looks to Christ on the cross, right?

But you know who's never going to mess up and he's never going to miss the mark

and his justice will be thorough where ours won't because we don't know everything.

How many of you can read minds? Have you know the thoughts and intents of another person's heart?

I mean, his judgment will be thorough. And so I think of no better hands than to leave, you know,

judgment or vengeance or anything like that than the hands of Almighty God for

true injustice, because he will have it done, and there'll be full justice,

and it'll be done holy and righteous.

I think in Deuteronomy 32, verses 42 and 43, listen to this.

Deuteronomy 32:42

He said, I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh

with With the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired leaders of the enemy,

rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants,

and will render vengeance on his adversaries, and will atone for his land and his people.

It is only just, the Apostle Paul wrote this,

it is only just, he wrote it to the Thessalonians, for

God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you

who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from

heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,

dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not

obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Revelation commands, rejoice over Babylon, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets.

Again, this rejoicing is not in their destruction, right?

And their condemnation or anything like that. This rejoicing,

because God has pronounced judgment for you against her,

as we see, it's both fitting and just that those who caused that moral ruin

of the world and persecuted God's people should face his true vengeance.

Again, God does not take any pleasure, nor should we, in the death of the wicked just for death's sake.

But he desires, it says in his word, that all come to repentance.

These were given multiple opportunities to come to repentance,

but they refuse to do so, and God meets out the vengeance and judgment that they deserve.

And by the way, we deserve it too. In fact, the only reason we don't get it

is because Jesus took it for us, and that's what he offered to the world,

and what he offered even in the tribulation period here, and people still refused.

Man, how hard can men's hearts get, right? How hard can we have our hearts?

Every time that we do our own thing, so to speak, I always think about this.

It just seems like it gets a little bit harder. Hearts get a little harder.

When we don't follow God's word, when we say, no, Jesus, I'm not going to do it.

It's the little things. You may have said that, Ms. Lynn, not long ago.

Somebody in here did. It's the little things. and those little things that pile

up and you'll be surprised how easy it is to end up taking some steps away from where we need to be.

And deceiving our own self. Yeah.

Absolutely. But I tell you, thank God that we have hope in Jesus.

And, you know, we can take those steps away sometimes or we can fall down a bit.

But y'all, in repentance and faith and getting up like we said the true believer

does, it's only that one step back into the arms of Jesus, right?

But we're going to continue next week, Lord willing, and we'll pick up that

heaven rejoices because rebellion has ended. That'll be where we pick up next week.