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.