of salvation. Let's take our Bibles this morning
and turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 19. As we continue in this blessed
book, the whole of this book. Someone would say, what is this
book about? This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ, which Almighty God has purposed before the foundation
of the world and has been pleased to reveal to His people how that
for His honor and for His glory And for the good of His people,
He has been pleased to show them how He has kept them, protected
them. Revelation chapter 19. I'd like to speak this morning
on the God that we worship. The God we worship. Our last
study. we heard the cries of hallelujah
from the people of God for two reasons. That was in chapter
19, verses 1, 2, and 3. Two reasons. The first reason
that God's people cried hallelujah was found in verse 1 that says, and glory and honor and power
unto the Lord our God. That is to say that by His ability,
by His worth, and by His opinion, God Almighty has delivered all
that He has everlastingly loved. And all that Almighty God has
everlastingly loved, He shall save. All that the Lord has loved,
all that God has loved, God is going to save. His people behold Him by eyes
of faith now, seeing Him who is invisible. except through
the revelation of the Lord Jesus Himself. Hallelujah! Because our God has saved us. Our God by His glory, by His
opinion, by the way God thinks, His honor, His worth. Scripture that says, Unto you
therefore that believe, he is precious. That is the same word,
honor, his value. And power, that is by his ability. He saved us. But the second time
in verses 2 and 3, the second time the people of God cried
hallelujah, it was because of God's justice. Almighty God was
pleased to be merciful to whom He would be merciful. But unto
those that Almighty God has been pleased to leave to themselves,
and that is God's right. That is His prerogative. God
Almighty has the right to show mercy then, and He has the right
to leave a man to Himself. to do exactly what that man or
woman is pleased to do. Leave them alone. Just leave
them alone. Leave a man alone. And I'll tell you what he'll
do every time. He will reject Almighty God. I'll not have that
man to rule over me. I will not have him. The other day I was watching
television and I heard a very, very well-known preacher, false
preacher, a liar. And he stood and he said, he
said, God has done all the hard part. I'm quoting this. God has done all of the hard
part, Dan says. He said, God Almighty has done
everything that was necessary. And He said, He's come right
up to this part. And He said, all that's left
to do is for you to accept what He's done. And once you accept
it, it's a done deal. I thought, well, when the Lord
Jesus Christ said at Calvary, it's finished. Then evidently,
according to most men standing in pulpits today, then it wasn't
finished. Then the only thing left is for
you to make a decision. And once you make that decision,
then it's done. Listen well. If all that's left
for you to do is to make a decision to accept Jesus Christ as your
personal Savior, and then once you make that decision, then
it will become effectual. After you exercise your free
will, let me assure you that you're going to hell, because
you will not. You cannot. No man can come. No man. If Almighty God doesn't
pluck you as a brand out of the flame, If Almighty God doesn't
show mercy and save you by His power, by His worth, according
to His glory and honor, then we're lost. Salvation is of the
Lord. This second group cried, Hallelujah. Why? When Almighty God was just. Verse 3 again, they said, Hallelujah. and her smoke, that is the great
core, rose up forever and ever. In that day, as I said last week, all that God has left to Himself
when Almighty God puts Him in hell, all of the redeemed will
say, Lord, You are right. You are right. For doing that
which You have done, You are right. when God puts men and
women into that place that they have desired to go. You're right. In that day, all who have the
mind to behold God's right to execute judgment give the just
due of praise to their God as He puts all resistance down. In verse 4, and this is where
we'll pick up, I'd like to look at verse 4, 5, and 6 this morning. The four and twenty elders and
the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the
throne saying, Amen. Alleluia. All of the twenty-four
elders, all of the redeemed of heaven, that's who the twenty-four
elders represent. It says, and the four beasts.
Months and months ago, we looked at the four beasts. These are
the cherubim. These are those, I truly believe,
who are the heavenly types and pictures. Someone would say,
why would there be a heavenly type and a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ? I don't know. I'll just be real
frank with you. I don't know, but I'll tell you
this, the Scripture describes them. The cherubim, the seraphim
had the face of a man, the face of an eagle, the face of a bear,
the face of an ox. Pictures, types, revelation. It was the way by which John
saw, beheld types of Christ Himself. And it says that the four and
twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped He said,
Amen. Hallelujah. Let it be so. Praise the Lord. You remember,
as the earthly types and pictures of the Lord Jesus give honor
to the Lord, so do these four beasts. So do they. They fell down and they worshiped.
They prostrated themselves exactly as they did back in Revelation
7-11. Turn back to Revelation 7-11.
Here's the four twenty elders and the four beasts. 7-11, and all the angels stood
round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts,
and they fell down before the throne on their faces and worshipped
God. Listen, someone would say, well,
that type, when we look at the ark, a picture of the ark that
Noah was in. That's a picture. That's a type
of Christ that gives honor to the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's
not Christ Himself. It's a type. That brazen serpent
that Moses lifted up in the wilderness, that was a type of Christ. But it wasn't Christ. I'll tell
you what happened. It eventually got ground up. It's a type. It gives honor. It gives glory. It worships that
all the earth give honor and glory unto the Lord themselves. They fell down, the Scripture
says in verse 4, and worshiped God that sat on the throne. The only way that we can worship... And the word worship, the word
worship, When it comes right down to it, it's the same word
that we get, religion. Carl, it's the same. It's the
root word of religion. But I know how men have distorted
that word. They call everything, you know,
religion now. But it's truly the same root
word, paying due respect by the Spirit of God. The Lord said
it Himself. He says, they that worship. So
obviously, Freddie, there is worship. They that worship, they
worship God in spirit or by the Spirit of God. By the Spirit
of God and in what? Truth. They that worship, worship
in spirit and in truth. Well, without those two, there
is no true worship of the God that we serve. Without the Spirit
of God teaching us in truth. Worship. It is an internal respect
that always exhibits itself externally. We've come this morning, and
Brother Scott just said, accurately said, we've come to worship the
Lord. That's why we're here this morning. We've come to hear. We've come
asking, Lord, would You teach me something? of yourself today. Speak to my heart. Unless God
Almighty speaks in the power of His Holy Spirit and takes
that which is said, there is no worship. It is by the Spirit
of the Lord. We have come today to worship
the Lord. This is Sunday, the first day
of the week. This is the Lord's Day. He said,
where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I
am in the midst of you to worship, to hear. I don't want to leave
today without hearing something of God. I want to enter in. I want to hear. I want to be
taught by Him. Public worship is the general
means of receiving instruction and consolation I pray the Lord
has been pleased to teach you something. I believe He has me. I think He has. It should be
a solemn, cheerful, sincere. This is no place for foolishness. This is no place for distraction.
Be unprepared for work. Be unprepared for school. But,
oh, may God prepare me to worship. May God teach me something. Be
late for work, be late for school, but don't be late to worship.
Be here. Be disrespectful anywhere else,
but not to worship Almighty God. Be irreverent, be unconcerned,
be stingy, but don't rob God of the glory and honor that's
due Him to worship. Find other things to occupy your
mind, at any time, but pray, God, give me a mind to worship
Him, be found in Him, be respectful, respectful. I'm telling you,
if I was to have God Almighty give me a heart to be respectful
to Him, what a blessing. Here in Revelation chapter 4,
I mean, verse 4, the four and twenty elders and the four beasts,
they do perfectly. They worship what the believer
desires now. Though we're plagued with the
presence of sin. And I know we are. And I hate
that. I hate the disrespect that I
find within myself. That old nature in my flesh. Paul said, there dwells no good
thing. There is within me that air of
disrespect toward Almighty God, the flesh that despises. But there is a new mind that
loves Him. There's that which is born of
God that sins not, that loves Him, that worships Him, that
praises and blesses Him. And here we find the whole throne
of the redeemed and the four beasts worshiping God. But notice,
Though this sounds strange, I notice. Look at this. It says, "...the
four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped
God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen." Hallelujah! You know,
you'd almost pass over that. It's almost like it was just
so obvious, you know, but how the Scripture is set forth perfectly. that which is so, they worship
God that sat on the throne. He that remains, the I Am that
dwells powerfully, He is the object of our worship. The foundation
of our worship is Him in His nature, His attributes, His sovereignty. They fell down and worshiped
God that sat on the throne. How few do. How few. Glorious in creation. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. God. They worship God. Glorious
in providence. Or, in other words, He runs things. Who's in control? I heard Brother
Scott say that years ago. Who's in control here? Who's
running this thing? Who is? God is. And He's working
all things after the counsel of His own will. Everything,
everything, everything that's happened. Everything. I thought about that yesterday.
I was mulling over my mind some events that's happened in the
last few weeks, and I thought to myself, everything that has
happened has fallen out exactly The way Almighty God purposed
it for His glory and for the good of His elect. He orders
all of these things, everything, everything. Everybody that's
going to work tomorrow is going to go to work tomorrow exactly
according to God's purpose for one reason, God's glory. And
in that, the good of His people. He runs things. They worship
the God that sits on the throne. He's glorious in salvation. That's
what he told Moses. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. The Lord told Satan in Matthew
4.10, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God in Him only shalt
thou worship. This is the God that we worship. God. Jehovah. as considered in the Trinity
of His being." Who do we worship? We worship God the Father. We worship God the Son. We worship
God the Holy Spirit. God, the object of our worship. We reverence the Father that
has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Why? Well, you could say, that it
pleased Him, that's true, but He gave the reason. He said that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. You that believe, let me on the
authority of the Word of God tell you this, you are before
Almighty God without blame. No blame. No blame. No condemnation. None whatsoever. We reverence the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son, the Word Himself made flesh, the obedient One who has
obeyed the law of God for His people, suffered as their substituted
Calvary, being made a curse for them. We worship God that sits
on the throne. We worship the Holy Spirit. the quickening God who calls
effectually all that the Father chose and the Son redeemed. Worship, the due respect to God
Almighty, the God of all grace, and to worship any other than
Him. To give homage or respect or
obedience to any other than Him is idolatry. It doesn't matter. family, friend, false religion,
whatever, to worship any other than Him. Oh, how thankful I
am that Almighty God has considered Christ's obedience to be my obedience. The Lord Jesus Christ had obeyed
Him perfectly. That's my obedience. Whenever
Christ obeyed, I obeyed. Whatever Christ died, I died.
Whatever Christ was buried, I was buried. When He rose, I rose.
When He ascended, I ascended. Where He is, I am. I am in Him,
Christ. The Scripture says in a voice,
verse 5, "...came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God,
all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great,
a voice as the four and twenty elders fell down and the four
beasts fell down. That word fell down there means
to reduce to inactivity. That's the interpretation of
that word. To reduce to inactivity. I thought they were worshiping.
Well, yes, that's right, but it means in reducing to inactivity
brought perfectly to that realization that He is all and that I in
Myself am nothing. Worship. That's what we're doing
right now. You worship and you admit in
your heart, Lord, You're everything. And without You, I'm nothing.
Oh, but in Him, Almighty God looks upon me in favor and love
and affection. And a voice came out of the throne,
a mighty disclosure saying, Praise our God. Remember, we looked
at that word praise. Tell forth. The narrative is
what it means. Praise. It doesn't mean just
to lift your hands. Anybody can lift their hands.
Anybody can put their head back. Anybody can close their eyes.
Anybody can sway back and forth and make it look kind of spiritual,
sort of. But to praise God? How does a
man praise the Lord? To narrate. To tell forth the
story. Whether it be outwardly or in
your heart. To praise Him. To agree with
Him. I stand here this morning by
the grace of God, and I tell forth what these Scriptures say
by the grace of God. And all the while, I ask, Lord,
would You teach me something? Teach me of what Your Word says. Let me speak forth that which
honors You and is a help, an encouragement, blessed by Your
Spirit to Your people, all of us, praising the Lord. Tell forth to narrate what God
Almighty has done in glorifying Himself. Praise the expression
of a new heart that tells of His mercy and compassion for
the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ to a people that He has everlastingly
loved. Praise Him. Praise our God. The voice came out of the throne.
Praise our God. He is the God that others will
have no dealings with whatsoever, because all will stand before
Him. All will. But He is our God in mercy, in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, in covenant mercy. Praise our God! All ye His servants,
slaves, made so, desiring so, Do you have a problem with someone
saying, I'm a slave? I have been given a heart to
willingly bow. Lord, would You please teach
me that? A slave. About three years ago,
I guess, come this July, I moved to West Virginia from Tennessee. I know it's hard to tell. I moved
here from another state. You know why I came? Because
I wanted to. That's the reason I came. I wanted
to. This is home to me. I love being
here. But I'll tell you the reason
that I came is because Almighty God was pleased to give me a
heart to come here. That's the reason I did. And
now, I thank Him and praise Him and bless Him. Lord, thank You
for the privilege, the honor to be Your servant. Your servant. That's right. Your servant for
Christ's sake. What a privilege and an honor
it is to serve Him for His sake, for Your sake. Your servants.
That's what Paul said. Your servants for Christ's sake.
Well, Scott, do you ever regret God calling you to be a preacher? What a privilege! What an honor! O ye His servants, and ye that
fear Him, that reverence Him, reverence Him, in this life that
have respect for Him, a respect that's been imparted to you,
a fear, fear the Lord. Respect of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Almighty God teaching. Have a
respect for Him because God's given you a heart to respect
Him. A man or a woman that doesn't
respect God, respect Him in His glory, in His sovereignty, the
reason they don't, they don't know Him. Let me tell you what
will happen. Jeremiah 32, 40, I will make
and everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away
from them to do them good, but I will put My fear, My respect
in their hearts, and they will not depart from Me." Almighty
God gives a man a fear, a reference. The Scripture says, Praise our
God, all ye servants, ye that fear Him, both small and great. Small and great. I got to thinking
about that when I read that. Now, here they are in heaven. They're before the Lord. Small
and great. Now, you know, when we first
read that, you'd think, well, you know, all the small and all
the great. But it's not the way we think
of it, because who would be small? Or who would be great? if all
of their sufficiency is Christ. They're all on level ground.
That's what I'm getting at right here. But the Scripture says,
praise Him, you servants that fear Him, both small and great. The word small there means tried. Tried. Tried by the means of
the God of this world, Satan himself, God's tool, who desired
to have them, and sift them as wheat." That's what the word
small there. The tempted, as Eve was to doubt
God's Word and to not follow after Christ, those put to proof, those that have been made by
God's mercy and grace and compassion and love to be tested, to go
through tribulation, they're small. That is, they've experienced
adversity and have washed their garments white in the blood of
the Lamb. Praise Him, all you small ones,
all you tribes, all that's gone through, all that Almighty God
has put you through for your good, for His glory, to reveal
that He's given you faith to believe Him, and now they see
Him. By sight, who are these? These are they that have washed
their robes white in the blood of the land, that have gone through
great tribulation small. That's what it means. Tried. Worship Him that fear Him both
small and great. That word great right there,
actually the best way for me to relate it to my understanding
is actually by three different ways. Number one, great in rank. Great in rank. Revelation 5.10
says, "...and has made us unto our God kings and priests in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ." They're great. Great
in rank being found in Him, not in myself. You know that. Secondly,
great in authority. Also in Revelation 5.10, "...and
we shall reign on the earth." I'm going to say something about
that in just a minute. to reign is truly a state only that is
becoming to Almighty God. Turn back to Revelation 11, 17.
11, 17. The Scripture says, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God
Almighty, which art and wast and art to come, because thou
hast taken to thee thy great power and has reigned." He reigns. And the word reign there, it
actually means the right to. The right to reign. Almighty God reigns. He sits on the throne. But He
has the right to do that. He has the pleasure to reign
in the heart of His people, because He had given them a heart, a
new heart, which He reigns. And they bow to His reign. He has the right, He has the
pleasure to do it, He has the power to do it. The right to do it. A conqueror
comes in and He takes over. He comes over and overruns a
country. And He reigns over that country.
Well, He's got the right to do it. whether it be right or wrong
in our eyes, He's the powerful One, and He reigns. He's the
King. He has the right to do it. I'll tell you this, Almighty
God reigns over all. He's got the pleasure. He's got
the power. He's got the right. Our God reigns. He reigns. But here, the Scripture
tells us And He who sits on the throne, the One we worship, that
we bow before Him and praise Him, the small and the great,
great, we're going to reign on the earth, the Scripture says. Look at that, Revelation 5.10.
Revelation 5.10. and has made us unto our God
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." There's
another one I thought about when I read it. We shall reign on
the earth. Now, obviously, and we'll look
at this, Lord willing, in the next few weeks concerning this
new earth. We'll reign on the earth. Now,
if this is referring to the new earth, and it is, What does this
rain mean? We'll rain on the earth. Now
you think about this. Here it is, an earth in righteousness. Now what are we going to rain
over? Scripture says we'll rain. It simply refers to the whole
realm of redemption and the glorification of the saints of God being now
in the position with the conquering King of Glory, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He now reigns. All opposition
has been put down, and He reigns gloriously, victoriously, and
all of His people see it and know it. He has conquered death,
hell, sin, the grave, and as He reigns, we being His people,
we reign too. We are with Him. His obedience,
remember I said a moment ago, His obedience is our obedience.
His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His reign, we
reign with Him. With Him. And we'll reign. We
reign with Him. Yes, He reigns. And then thirdly,
I said great, we looked at great being first of all in rank, in
authority and great in number. Great in number. Again, back
in Revelation 5 in verse 11, the Scripture says, And behold,
I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the
beasts and the elves, and the number of them was ten thousand
times ten thousand and thousands and thousands, though relatively
small. Now, few at any given time, the
Lord has a people that no man can number. As I've said before,
and many I've heard say, no man can number them, but God knows
them. Almighty God knows them. How many are they? Ten thousand
times ten thousands and thousands and thousands out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue God has a people. And I truly believe,
as I said last week, I believe that the vast majority of the
throng of heaven shall be infants that have died in their infancy.
I believe they will. They will behold His face and
see Him perfectly, perfectly. It was a few months ago I was
asked to preach a funeral for an infant. I just, days or weeks
or so, and I'll be honest with you. I would rather preach the
funeral of one that died in infancy than I would preach a funeral
of someone that grew up in this world a rebel against God. I
would. If there be one that has grown
up in rebellion against Almighty God, has never outwardly confessed
their hope in Christ and worship, what are you going to say? I can't lie and tell them, well,
you know, I knew he grew up a rebel against God, but I know he's
in heaven, you know. I can't say that. You're sitting
there and you're looking at a family that's hurting You want to be
as kind as you can, but you know this, you're going to have to
be honorable. You're going to have to be respectful. Who? Before Almighty God, I can't. But here was an infant. And I'm
telling you, based on the authority of the Word of God, as I said
there reading what David said concerning that little baby that
died, he said, he can't come back to me, but I can go where
he is. He said that under the inspiration of God's Spirit.
I look and I see all the masses and these children that are dying,
and I think to myself how God Almighty has been so merciful
and gracious and kind in taking children, that God has taken
them out of this world, out of every kindred, nation, tribe
and tongue, the throng. Worship Him both small and great. And I heard, verse 6, as it were,
the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters,
as the voice of mighty thundering saints, hallelujah, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. While the great whore of this
world's religion has been judged, while her smoke rises up forever
and ever, the entire church with the cherubim, the four beasts,
praises our God. John hears a great voice, a throng
as the voice of many waters. The Scripture says, the voice
of disclosure was mighty and loud as the voice of mighty thunderings. It was shocking and arresting,
the thunderings, saying, hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Here the saints praise God and
tell forth the truth concerning the blessed Savior. He reigns. The Lord God, the Word made flesh,
the mediator between God and men, the sinner's substitute,
the faithful true witness is the mighty God. The Lord, what
He said, I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, as
the voice of many waters, the voice of mighty thundering, saying,
Hallelujah, the Lord. The Master. In Spanish, I've
listened, been down there with Walter and Cody, and I was listening
to them pray. And I listened how many times
I would hear them. Of course, I couldn't understand
what they were saying, but I did pick up on one word that they
kept saying as they prayed, and they kept saying, Señor. Señor. And I asked Cody later, I said,
I heard him saying, he said, Senor. He said, yeah, that's
the Lord. Mr. Sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I remember my dad when
I was growing up, boy, I tell you, you talked about just right
on the verge of just, you know, being slapped into next week.
My dad asked me something. I didn't say, yes, sir. No, sir.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Who is that? He's the Lord. The Señor, the
Master, the Lord God, the Divine Jehovah, the Lord God Omnipotent,
all-powerful, He who is able to do whatsoever He pleases,
when He pleases and how He pleases. Who is He? The Lord God Omnipotent. Psalm 115, verse 3, Our God is
in the heavens, and David said, He hath done whatsoever. He hath pleased." Don't ever
let anybody tell you that God has tried to do anything or God
wants to do something if you'll let Him. He's done whatsoever,
He's pleased. Is He pleased to call someone
out of darkness? He will. Is He pleased to leave
them alone? He will. Is He pleased to do
this? Is He pleased to do that? Psalm
135, verse 6, "...whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He
in heaven, and in the earth, and in the seas, and all the
deep places." What's He done? Whatever He wanted to. And no man stays His hand. Someone
says, He'd want to if you'd let Him. No man stays His hand. No man. No man says to Him, what
do You do? The weak God that men could keep
at bay or frustrate with their so-called free will is no God
at all. He's a weakling. He's nobody. He's nobody. Nobody. And no one will bow to a God
that they can control. If I've got the upper hand on
you, I will not bow. I will not respect you. If I'm
in control, then I'm the boss. He reigneth. Hallelujah, for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He reigns. Men say, well, you know, the
Lord comes in Song of Solomon. We studied this months ago. They said, you know, the Lord
comes and knocks on every man's heart. And He knocks on the door,
and if any man Let him come in. Go back and read the Scripture
and see who he's talking to. And you'll find that they're
misquoting it. They're not telling you the truth. Oh, he knocks on the door. Alright. Whenever he comes to his people
and he's pleased to come in, he comes in. He knocks it down.
He's God. He does as He will. The God that
we worship. This is God. This is the Lord. This is the Lord God Omnipotent. He reigns.