May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this morning as we turn to his word. Let us turn
to the book of the Revelation chapter 19 and we'll read the
first two verses. The first two verses in the 19th
chapter of the book of the Revelation. And after these things I heard
a great voice of much people in heaven saying Alleluia, salvation
and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God. For true
and righteous are his judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. One thing we can be sure of is
that God's word is true and that God's sayings will indeed come
to pass. In this 19th chapter and the
9th verse we read, He said unto me, Write, Blessed are they which
are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb, And he said
unto me, these are the true sayings of God. It is a wonderful blessing
for us to know today that we have those things which are recorded
in the Word of God which are the true sayings of God. And in a contrary respect, as
we read towards the end of that 19th chapter, that which is false,
that which is not true, and John writes in verse 20, and the beast
was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles
before him and which deceived them that had received the mark
of the beast and them that worship the image. And that's a very
solemn statement to realize that there is the false prophet those
who are false prophets, who even bring about miracles. And by
doing so, they deceive many. And we need to be very aware
of the truth of these things. You see, God's word is true. If we follow the word of God,
we shall not make any mistake, we shall not fall into any error.
But if we listen to what man says, we listen to man's ideas,
you know, we'll find that that is just a deceiver. And it's
easy to be carried away with such situations. It's very apparent
today in the world in which we live, there are many, many people
who are carried away like that by just an outward appearance
of religion. and yet there is nothing of any
true spiritual substance. There's much attention given
to the healing of the body, but little attention given to the
healing of the soul. And how vital it is for us today
to recognise that we come to worship for the purpose of the
benefit of our soul. It's not for the benefit of our
body, it's not to amuse our intellect, It's to satisfy that deep requirement
of our never-dying soul. Now, we have here in these words
the wonderful condition and situation which the Church of God are favoured
to look forward to with anticipation of the glory in Emmanuel's land. And the Apostle says, and after
these things, and the things of course he is referring to
are the fall of Babylon and the victory of the Lamb, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now we know that to a large extent
the book of Revelation is figurative and it is a spiritual book which
refers spiritually to those situations. So although the name of Babylon
is used here and the place of Babylon which we will be familiar
with, yet no doubt it has a reference to spiritual Babylon. Indeed that place of evil and
the fall of it was great and the fall of it will be great
when the Lord does indeed return in all his great and wonderful
glory which we know will come to pass. Now We see here then
this scene, the scene which John saw. What did he see? He heard a great voice of much
people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honour
and power unto the Lord our God. It was a wonderful voice to hear. What was it really? It was the
voice of the elect, saved, chosen people of God who were saved
in everlasting salvation and were able to come and to praise
in this way, this great voice which spoke in these terms, Alleluia. And this word Alleluia is a very
strong word and it means to praise the Lord or to praise Jehovah. And it will be, without any doubt,
the song of the redeemed, to praise the Lord, to praise their
God for what He has done. And that will be an eternal song.
That won't be something which will ever become out of date. There will be no time, of course,
in eternity. And it will be a song which is
sung forever. Hallelujah. Praise to the Lord. Well, it's a wonderful thing
to view such words in the Word of God. But it's also important
for us to recognise the wonder and the truth of them in our
own hearts. as they refer to our own spiritual
lives in the blessing that we have received. It's not something
which is just theoretical. It's not something which can
just be picked up and put down. It's not just a praise from our
mind, but it's a praise from our heart. and it's a praise
from our heart because of what God has done and because he is
worthy to receive our praise and because he is worthy to receive
that glory which is his and to recognise what he's done in his
power toward us and his name is therefore to be honoured and
glorified and it is surely a very important and definite test to
the reality of our innermost religion, and by that I mean
the religion which God has given to us, by that I mean the power
by which it has been applied to our heart, so it's not something
which we receive and then forget, and it goes away. Because that
which God does for the soul abides in our heart. It may sometimes
fade, we may sometimes forget for a while, but I believe that
those things are indelibly written by the word of God, by the pen
of God in our heart. And they must bring glory to
his great and holy name. And so the praise to God is enumerated
like this. Salvation. Salvation. The Church of God, in glory,
are praising God for His salvation. Praising Him for saving their
souls. Praising Him for bringing them
safe home to glory. Praising Him for all that He's
done for them in their spiritual life. Praise the Lord for His salvation. Now, I am sure of this, that if and when we get to heaven,
it won't be a new scene. It won't be something that we're
unfamiliar with. Because we would have had the
blessed work of the Spirit of God in our souls which would
have caused us to praise our God for His salvation toward
us, for His blessing that we received, for the spiritual awakening
which we received, for the light which has shone into our hearts
which we received. And it has been the work of God
and it's been the blessed revelation of his work because that revelation
has given to us an appreciation of how we stand before a holy,
righteous God and that view has given us a clear sight of our
uncleanness, of our unrighteousness, of our sinfulness, of the deserve
of our sin, that we do not deserve any favour, we do not deserve
any blessing and that we are utterly dependent upon the mercy
and the love and the grace of our God. Praise in the Lord then
for this salvation. So if we are to be found in heaven
amongst the much people that are in heaven When we arrive
there, we will in measure have the understanding of what praise
is there. Because we would have known what
it is to have praised our God for His salvation while upon
this earth. I do not believe that people
arrive at the end of their life without any evidence to their
soul of the work of God. Because our lives are for the
honour and glory of God. Our lives are not to be lived
as we want, to please our flesh and then hope that right at the
end everything will somehow work out alright. The Word of God is very clear
when it speaks to the people of God about our lives. The Apostle Paul is very clear
in his epistles how he speaks about the life of the believer
and the effect of the life of the believer in this dark world
in which we live. And I am very fearful sometimes
when people appear to be relying upon just an outward profession,
without, we might say, any possession of the things of God. We need
to possess the great blessing of salvation. And this is not
something which is trivial. This is the most important blessing
that you and I can receive while we are on this earth. The personal
evidence that we are the recipients of this great salvation. And when the Spirit of God reveals
this to us, the effect will be that we will say, Alleluia, praise
the Lord for his mercy towards an unworthy
sinner of the earth. So we may recognize that this
song, these words that John heard were true words are important
words, but they were words which, in measure, the Church of God
were aware of before they came to glory. Perhaps we might just think of
it in these terms. If we know nothing of the blessing
of salvation in our souls while we are on the earth, then there
would really be no desire to go to heaven. There would be
no real concern about it, because we would be very content to live
in this world forever. But when the Spirit of God truly
works in our hearts, there will be that evidence of that separation
between the things of the flesh and between the things of the
spirit. And our spiritual eyes will be
opened to discern that there is a difference. There is a difference. And that difference will be evidence
in our hearts between our soul and God. It will be a personal
knowledge which will be in that way between you and God. And it won't be anything anybody
else can put there. And anybody else can convince
you of. It will be the work of the Holy
Spirit of God, and that work will reveal to you your condition
and the blessedness of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so,
you will appreciate then, something of what John says here, as he
heard this voice. I heard a great voice of much
people in heaven, saying, hallelujah, salvation. Yes, the salvation
of our souls, the saving of our souls. Well, we have to then
come and ask ourselves, do we have the evidence that we do
possess the salvation of God in our souls? It's the work of
God's Spirit. It's not something that you and
I can drum up and work ourselves up into a kind of a religious
frenzy. And that we then think, well
I must be born again because of this. No, it's very often
in the very opposite way. A still small voice. The work of God's Spirit. We
might say nudging us. Yes, prodding us. Not letting
us. Just settle down in this world. Perhaps making our lives rather
uncomfortable. That's not a bad thing. To be
uncomfortable in this world. It's a bad thing to be comfortable
in this world. So you can be thankful if the
Spirit of God is making you uncomfortable in the world. And uncomfortable
because You recognise the great need you have of this evidence
of salvation, the Saviour of your souls. And you will not
be able to rest, you will not be settled down until God has
said with his own mouth that he has called you. Real religion is Not just on
the surface, it's not just skin deep. It goes right in to the
heart. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord for
this salvation. Well, what a blessing this morning. If you and I can join with this
heavenly throng and say from our hearts, Alleluia,
salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God. Now, one of the effects of this
salvation will be the concern and desire to glorify your God. And so there was this desire. Praise the Lord for His salvation
and praise the Lord for His glory. And His name indeed will be glorified.
It will be glorified. God will be glorified in His
saints. God will be lifted up. And what
a blessing it is if we find in our hearts the real desire to
glorify our God for His great salvation. How do we view God? How do we
view Him? Do we view Him like Isaiah did,
high and lifted up? What did he perceive? He perceived
a little of the glory of God. How great He was. how high and
lifted up. It made Isaiah feel very poor
and very small. And that will be the effect upon
you and me, if we have any right recollection of how great God
is, how wonderful of His glory. Or it will make us very small
and very insignificant. You see when Those three disciples
went up that mountain with the Lord and the Lord appeared in
His glory. What an effect it had upon them.
They became as nothing. My friends, when by the grace
of God, you and I have a little view of God's greatness and His
power and His majesty. You see, God will be very great
in our eyes. We'll be very small. And we will
desire that he might be lifted up. He may have all the preeminence. He may receive all the honour
and all the glory. It's not that we want to have
any glory ourselves. It's a wonderful blessing when
the work of God in our souls brings us to that situation where
we desire to be nothing that Christ may be all and in all. Because of that great debt of
sin that the Saviour has taken away through paying that price
which was on our head for our salvation. Alleluia. Praise the Lord for
His salvation. And because of that, may we view,
may we see, may we acknowledge, may we desire to bless Him that
He might be glorified for this great and wonderful work. Natural mind, natural man, the
flesh has no real desire to honour and glorify God. They are more
concerned about the glory of the flesh. They are more concerned
about what people will think of them, how well they think
of them. It may be in some religious activity. They may do so that
people think well of them. The great thing is what God thinks
of us. And I think, my friends, many things are done in secret. of which no one knows about,
but God knows about. It's to do those things in the
fear of the Lord, to bring honour and glory to His name. That should
be our continual and right motive as we journey through life, that
His name may be glorified. And His name cannot be more glorified
than when we view what he has done in order to deliver our
soul from that pit of corruption. We come here in the revelation
which points us in a hidden way really to the glory of heaven
But it also points out to us the terrible state of those who
are lost. Those who are relying on their
own works. Those who do not possess the
real life of God in their souls. What a terrible end will be theirs. Won't there be an end in this
world? But my friends, they enter into an eternity. of misery and eternity in hell. Sometimes it's just worth thinking
of what that means. Eternity in hell. Forever. Forever. No coming back. No recovery. No peace, no joy. Eternal punishment for sin. And yet, you see, the redeemed
are blessed to know that the Saviour has borne the punishment
that they deserve. what a favour it is to know the
truth of these things and that the Spirit of God may apply his
words to make us very much aware of our condition as to whether
we are right for eternity or whether we are still on that
road to damnation. The devil wants you to think
to think that you're alright, and in any event, things will
work out okay in the end. The devil wants you and me to
put off the reality of the state of our soul till a later date. Because his hope is that that
date will never come. And he hopes that the longer
he can put it off, the more likely it will be We will never hear
the great and glorious good news of the gospel coming into our
hearts. And therefore the devil's aim
is to put these things into the background. And don't underestimate
the cleverness of the devil. Because the devil knows what
things you and I are attracted to in our old nature. And he'll
bring those things to the fore. And he'll make them appear as
attractive as he can. So if possible, we spend our time on those things
rather than the things of God. Would it be a good exercise to
therefore ponder eternity in hell? And to see whether it is
worth just following those things which are temporal, and paying
too much attention to those things which perish with the using,
and to listen to the words of Satan, that we can perhaps wait
to the more convenient time, when perhaps these things won't
be so intrusive into our lives, and we'll be able to accommodate
them a little easier. Be quite clear about this, As
I often say, true religion is costly. The life of God in the soul means
that you and I will have to face the mortification of the flesh. That means putting to death the
things of the flesh. It will mean crucifying this
flesh. It's a very painful thing. to
put away those things which we perhaps went after and love to
do in our natural condition. But it's a wonderful favour when
God moves us to realise these things will only land us in eternal
hell. They will never bring us eternal
joy. Because the joy of time things
evaporates. The joy of time things evaporates. You only have to see, don't you?
Look around the world. You see people going after this and going
after that and then suddenly it finishes and they're looking
around for the next thing of excitement to occupy their minds
and their lives. What a blessing if you and I
are given spiritual eyes to behold the terribleness of eternity
in hell, and to follow those things which do not profit. Do not profit, and that's a very
extensive phrase. Do not profit. And you can analyse
that in your mind. You don't need to be a qualified
person to work that out. As to whether things that you
are doing, things that you are saying, are they profiting your
soul? And are they bringing into your
heart praise to the Lord? Hallelujah, salvation and glory. And do they therefore bring the
Lord into greater prominence that He is lifted up in your
heart. Do you really desire to praise
Him for what He's done? Well, I do hope that every one
of us may have some evidence of God's work of salvation in
our hearts which produces that desire to praise his name for
his great mercy toward us. Here we see the redeemed speaking
his words. Hallelujah, salvation and glory
and honour. Honour. The Lord is worthy to
be honoured. Isn't he? Do you agree with that? Do you say, yes, I do think God
should be honoured? Well, he should be honoured,
without any doubt. And if these words are true,
which they are, and here we see this statement being said, praise
the Lord, salvation and glory and honour to his great and holy
name, then surely This will be something that will not commence
in heaven. Surely this will be something
which you and I would desire to bring about in our lives on
this earth. And His name may be honoured
through our life. You may say, well why is that
important? Well, look at it this way. If you pray to God, and, well,
have you prayed to God? Well, I hope you have prayed
to God. Has God heard that prayer? Has He heard that prayer? If
He has, we have reason to honour the Lord, because He has honoured
us. He's heard our prayers. And he's
answered those prayers. It may not always be in the way
that we expected, in the quantum that we expected, but nonetheless,
if the Lord has done anything for our soul, as we cried unto
him, he has honoured our prayers. And that's a tremendous thought,
isn't it? To think of this great God, who
inhabits eternity, has graciously condescended to hear, to answer
a prayer of such an insignificant and unworthy sinner of the earth. Surely then, our desire must
be to honour Him. Honour Him. Hallelujah. Salvation and glory and honour. honour to His great and holy
name, you would desire, I am sure, by the Spirit of God, to
honour this great and glorious Saviour for what He's done, for
His love in coming to you, in meeting you, in watching over
you. She wandered on through life,
perhaps without a care for God, Until that time came, not to
propose, but call by grace. It wasn't just a proposition.
We're familiar perhaps with an actual proposition between a
man and a woman, or a young man and a young woman, and the young
man proposes to his girlfriend and asks her whether she will
be his wife. It's a proposition. My friends, it may be accepted. It may be refused. But you see,
when God comes and speaks to us, it's not a proposition. He calls us. And that call is
heard. That call comes into our hearts. and it produces a movement in
our heart. Really what it is, it's the evidence
of that new heart which God has given us. If you read in Ezekiel,
a new heart will I give you. What a wonderful blessing it
is for us to receive a new heart. And that heart, my friends, is
a holy heart, a God-given heart, and it cleaves after spiritual
things. We still possess our old heart,
our old nature, which is of the earth and earthly. And that's
why as we journey on through life, right to our dying breath,
there'll be this conflict between the two hearts, the two natures,
the two lives. But a wonderful thing it is,
if you and I know something of that conflict, that conflict
within. And it's a conflict between the
life of God and the work of the devil. So if you understand and know
something of the work of God in your heart, you'll also know
something of the work of the devil. You know what the conflict
is, but you'll bless God for that which he's done for you
in honouring you. You didn't deserve it. God has looked upon
you because of his love, because of his favour, because of his
blessing. And power, power. Power belongeth unto God. Isn't that a wonderful statement?
Power belongeth unto God. And God is able to do far more
and exceeding abundantly that we can ask or even think because
He is a God of power. We have so much evidence of that
power in the Word of God. Genesis to Revelation. The wonderful
outworking of God's work. When He spoke and it was done.
When He called and it was done. When He touched and it was done.
Power belongeth unto God, and I am sure of this, you and I
will say, praise the Lord for that power which has come to
us. What is that? It's this. God
has done for you and me that which we could not do for ourselves,
and that is the power of God. And what is that power? And what
is that evidence? It's the life of God in the soul. God gives the gift of eternal
life and it is a wonderful demonstration of almighty power. Praise the Lord for His power. for its power in our hearts,
for that power which has had an effect upon us, that power
which has changed our lives. Now again, let's be clear, that
power may not be some great earthquake experience, the power may be
just a still small voice, but nonetheless, it's the effect,
it's the power of God, The effect that power brings about in our
spiritual life to confirm to us that we have received that
which God has given and power. Therefore, this prize and this
salvation and glory and honour and power is to whom? The Lord
our God. The Lord our God. It's personal,
isn't it? Your God and my God, because
He's done it for us. It's our God. How wonderful to
be able to come and say that, in all humbleness, He is my God,
our God. All these here, you see, we're
joining together. They've all been redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb. They all joined together and
said, yes, our God. They were safe home in glory,
our God. What a blessing it would be for
us, you see, if we come and brought this place to be able to come
and praise and bless our God. It was indeed the voice of these
great multitude and as the voice of many waters And as the voice
of mighty thundering sang, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Now we know that's true. God
lives and reigns forever. Are you thankful for it? Do you
bless God for it this morning? That we have a God in glory,
who forever reigns. Who is in complete charge of
your life and my life. And by His grace, should be brought
safe home to glory, because of his work, because of his salvation,
because of the power which he has given to us. And therefore
we come and are thankful to realize what the Lord has done for us. Well, the word goes on for true
and righteous are his judgments. We never forget that. God is
a righteous judge. But he does judge. We are standing
before the judge. We shall stand before the judge
of all the earth. But he's true. And you see, you cannot deny
his work. You cannot deny his work. If you and I, my friends, have
experienced something of his work, it will not be denied.
It's true. And we can stand firm on that
foundation. It's the rock Christ Jesus, which
will never be moved. What he has said, what he has
spoken, is done forever. It is the word of the Lord upon
which you and I can rely. Well, as we just read earlier,
the Apostle came and said, right, blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. That time when the Church
of God will all join together and be found forever with the
Lord and will sit down with the Lord Jesus Christ at the marriage
supper of the Lamb. What a time, I say a time, it's
eternity, it's no time really, but what a situation it will
be. Blessed are they. How true. Not blessed for time, it's an
eternal blessing. It's a blessing which will never
cease. Forever with the Lord. Forever with the Lord. Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. May
we rejoice this morning in the true sayings of God and the evidence
of God's work in our soul to realize that one day by his grace
we shall be amongst the redeemed throng in glory saying, Alleluia. Praise the Lord. Amen.