December 26, 2017
Good Morning Ladies!
I hope you all have enjoyed a blessed Christmas.
Due to the busyness this past week, I have found myself with little time to write a post for
today’s chapter.
I hope you find this transcript from a sermon from David
Platt as enlightening as I have. If you
want to read it in its entirety, here’s the link: http://www.radical.net/files/uploads/Revelation_TS10_web.pdf
Finally…the good news! We’ve been waiting. Seven seals and
seven trumpets of judgment, seven visions and seven bowls of wrath, the dragon
and the beast and Babylon rising up to oppose and seduce and deceive and
persecute the people of God. And now, in Revelation 19, Jesus arrives riding on
a white horse with eyes like fire and crowns on His head and a sword in His
mouth, and just like that the battle is over, the beast is gone, and a cascade
of praise erupts in a chorus of hallelujahs across the heavens. Yes! This is
where all of eternity is headed.
If we looked seriously and soberly, as we should, at the
dangers of worldliness, at the seductive attractions of this world that pull
away the people of God. They will not
have the last word. Satan and sin and the suffering produced by both will not
have the last word in this world. Man-centered worldliness will ultimately be
overcome.
Revelation 19:1, “After this I heard what seemed to be the
loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, ‘Hallelujah!’”
Revelation 19:3, “Once more they cried out, ‘Hallelujah! The smoke from her
goes up forever and ever.’” Revelation 19:4, “And the twenty-four elders and
the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the
throne, saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah!’” Revelation 19:6, “Then I heard what seemed
to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the
sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah!’”
Did you know that this is the only time in the entire New
Testament where this word is used? It’s like all the New Testament has been
building up to this. After 26 books and 18 chapters of Jesus coming to the
earth, dying on the cross, rising from the grave, ascending to heaven, sending
His Spirit, inaugurating His church, being preached among the nations, the
history of the church, the story of the King who came and His Kingdom being proclaimed,
by this point in Revelation 19, as a testimony to all nations and tribes and
tongues and peoples. And now as Jesus returns, in light of all history, heaven
has nothing left to shout but “Hallelujah! Praise Yahweh! Praise the Lord!”
The goal to which all of history is headed is the glory of
God. Everything in all history—everything!—is aiming toward the day when
“Hallelujahs” will ring from the heavens and the earth to the glory of our God.
God writes this Book, God writes this script, and He determines how it ends.
And it ends with Him being praised across the universe.
To some that seems selfish—for God to bring everything in
history to culminate in His praise. But I would ask you, “Who else do you think
should be praised in the end of it all?” You? Me? Us? No. God is the only one
who deserves to be praised in the end of it all.
You see, God orchestrates all of history to display His
glory, and God ordains all of His people to enjoy His glory. So John writes in
verse 1, “After this, I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great
multitude…” (Rev. 19:1). “After this…” After what? What’s “this”? “This” is a
reference back to the two chapters right before this that we looked at last
week where we read/heard about the destruction of Babylon. Babylon—this picture
of the non-Christian, anti-Christian culture surrounding the church throughout
her history, luring people away with worldly wealth and worldly pursuits and
worldly pleasures. Seducing people—even some who once seemed to be among God’s
people—seduced into spiritual adultery and spiritual idolatry.
So here’s the picture. You have the church in the middle of
worldly Babylon. They’re surrounded by all the pleasures and all the
satisfaction and all the wealth and all the fame and all the luxury this world
has to offer. And in the middle of it, the church is saying, “No. Our deepest
joy, our deepest pleasure, our deepest satisfaction is not found in the things
of this world. Our deepest joy, our deepest pleasure, and our deepest
satisfaction is found in the worship of God!”
I love the way John Piper puts it. He says:
“Worship is an open declaration to all the powers of heaven
and to all of Babylon that we will not prostitute our minds or our hearts or
our bodies to the allurements of the world. Though we may live in Babylon, we
will not be captive to Babylonian ways. And we will celebrate with all our
might the awesome truth that we are free from that which will be destroyed….
Corporate worship is the flagrant, open enjoyment of God in the midst of a very
seductive Babylonian culture.”
God praised for His vengeance upon the nations. But this
exactly what the book of Revelation is about. This is exactly what we heard the
saints crying out for in Chapter 6. Do you remember their prayers around the altar
of God? Revelation 6:10, “They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord,
holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who
dwell on the earth?’” They were crying out for the justice and the vengeance of
God.
And now, here, we see the multitudes of heaven worshiping
God in His justice. And this is where we need to remember what we talked about
a couple of weeks ago, when we considered how and why God is worshiped for His
wrath.
Remember that the focus here is on the true judgment that
sin and sinners are due in this world before a holy God. And specifically
Babylon here. Babylon, who Revelation 17:6 described as a “woman…drunk with the
blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.”
If God turned a deaf ear to these things, if God turned a
deaf ear to sin and evil and injustice and suffering in this world, He would
not be true, and He would certainly not be just. So here, God is rightfully and
wholeheartedly praised for His justice. Oh, what it would do for our evangelism
if only we really believed that the people around us who don’t know Christ are
sitting under the judgment of a just and holy God, a God who desires to save
them by His grace as we speak his gospel. If only we would truly see the
justice of God in our worship, surely we would be compelled to give our lives
as witnesses. God, help us to see the truth and justice of God in our worship.
Next, He is eternal. Verse 3 emphasizes the eternality of
His truth and justice. Smoke rising up forever and ever indicates that God’s
judgment is final, permanent, irreversible, and everlasting.
The judgment of God is final and eternal. Do not play around
with the justice of God, carrying on in sin like it does not matter. It does
matter. His judgment is final, permanent, irreversible, and everlasting.
And this is also good news. In light of evil and suffering
and tragedy around this world, it is good to know that there will be a day when
God’s justice and truth will reign supreme, and evil and rebellion against God
will never escape to arise again against God and His people. We praise Him
because He is eternal.
