Okay, Revelation chapter 19.
I titled our lesson this morning, A Tale of Two Cities. In this
book of Revelation, there are two cities that are prominent
throughout the book. They represent all the people
who've ever lived on this earth. Everyone resides in one of these
two cities. The first one, we've been looking
at it in some detail in the past few weeks, is Babylon. Babylon
represents false religion. free will religion, those who
do not believe Christ, but they've got to add self in there somehow,
some way. And then there's Jerusalem, God's
elect. And this tale of two cities is
two very different stories. It really is the best of times
and the worst of times, going on at the same time. While one
sorrows, the other rejoices. While one wails, the other shouts
hallelujah and sings praises. under our God. Now we saw last
week Babylon is completely and utterly destroyed. It doesn't
matter what they call the name that they put on their religion,
what particular brand of their rebellion that they had, all
rebellion was put down. They're all destroyed and they
all wail in sorrow. Now in chapter 19, we're going
to see the other city, the other end of the spectrum. It's New
Jerusalem, God's elect, and they sing hallelujah. verse one of
chapter 19. And after these things, I heard
a great voice of much people in heaven saying, hallelujah,
salvation and glory and honor and power under the Lord our
God. Now, this much people is the
whole host of God's elect. That number that no man can number
has been redeemed by the blood of the land. And they all say
hallelujah. They all say praise the Lord.
Everyone in heaven does. Look over here at verse 4. And
the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and
worshipped God that sat on the throne saying, Alleluia, or Amen,
Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne
saying, Praise our God, all ye serpents, and ye that fear him,
both small and great. Everyone in heaven sings this
song of praise, sings Alleluia. And at the exact same time, Babylon
whale those have been destroyed in their in their rebellion whale
and There are several reasons for that. This is going on both
at the same time First of all God's people sing hallelujah
because of all the attributes of Christ They ascribe unto him
salvation glory honor and power Salvation is an attribute of
God salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ God is able to save sinners
and still be God. God can save sinners and still
be holy through the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I tell you this so often, it's important for us to know salvation
is a person. Salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the redeemed don't shout
for joy because they deserve to be there because of what they've
done. Now they deserve to be there, but they deserve to be
there because Christ is their salvation. He put their sin away. He made them righteous. Only
Christ could do that. Salvation is an attribute of
God. Then glory is an attribute of God. All glory belongs to
God. And God Himself told us what
His greatest glory is. It's that He'll show mercy to
whom He will show mercy. His sovereign mercy is His greatest
glory. God shows mercy to sinners who
don't deserve it. And nobody knows that better
than those in glory. That's why they're singing. Then
they say honor. Honor is an attribute of God.
And the word, I looked it up, it means dignity. The most highly
esteemed, for all honor belongs to God. Dignity. He is dignified
in everything he does. He's God. And no one is as highly
esteemed as God. But that word honor, it also
means precious. unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. He is preciousness personified. There is nothing more precious,
and that word precious is the same word translated honor in
our text. It's the exact same word. There
is nothing more precious to a believer than the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the people in glory know that better than anyone. The only
reason that they're there is because of the preciousness of
Christ. Then they sing of his power.
Power is an attribute of God. All power belongs to God. And
the word they use here means a miraculous power, miraculous
ability. Look at Luke chapter six. Let
me show you an illustration of this. Only the Lord Jesus Christ
has the miraculous power, the ability to save a sinner by making
that sinner righteous, making him holy. Luke chapter 6 verse
19. Here's a good illustration of
this. And the whole multitude sought
to touch him for there went virtue out of him and healed them all.
That word virtue is the same word translated power back in
our text. Virtue. This miraculous power
comes in the Lord Jesus Christ and sinners are made whole in
him by having union with him. And nobody knows that better
than those in heaven. That's why they're singing. And
this word power comes from a root word meaning possible. Salvation
is impossible with men. This power does not belong to
men. It only belongs to God. We can't
earn a righteousness by keeping the law. We can't make ourselves
fit for heaven. It's just impossible with a man.
But with God, with our Lord Jesus Christ, all things are possible.
because he has all power. Nothing can resist his power. And since he has all power, the
salvation of his people is not a possibility. No, he never talks
about salvation in terms of maybe or possible. It's done. It's finished. It's complete.
And those in heaven know that better than anybody. Now, here's
the tale of two cities. Those in Babylon, they thought
they had some glory. They had some honor. They had
some power. They thought salvation was up
to them. They had to make a decision to
get it. They had to live a moral life to keep it. And they would
not give Christ all the glory. And now after they've been destroyed
and condemned and suffer the judgment of God, they still won't
give him the glory. They wail in suffering because
they will not praise God. But they're suffering, they're
suffering the justice of God, praises the justice and the holiness
and righteousness of God. All right, second, those in glory,
they sing hallelujah because of the judgment of God, verse
two. This is what they sing, 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. And again, they say, hallelujah.
and her smoke rose up forever and ever. Now here they're rejoicing
because those that lived in rebellion against God and their false religion,
they've been damned and they rejoice. Now we read last week
how those in Babylon, how they wailed, but those in heaven rejoice. Now this rejoicing, it's hard
for us to be able to understand their rejoicing because we live
in sinful bodies, but this rejoicing is not rejoicing. to see human
suffering. They're rejoicing because God's
justice has been done. They rejoice because it's only
right. This is the just penalty for their rebellion. Now they
can do what we can't do because they perfectly have the mind
of Christ. Scripture says the righteous
Lord loveth righteousness. Well, now they do too. And that's
why they can rejoice in this. Now we can't do that in these
bodies. To see people we know, to see people we love, to see
other people suffer like this, we couldn't rejoice like that
in these bodies. But then we'll be able to do
that with them because they've got a perfect body, perfect mind,
a perfect soul. And they're not rejoicing in
a vindictive way because of how the wicked treated them while
they were here on earth. That's not why they're rejoicing.
They're rejoicing because of how they treated Christ, Christ
their Savior. They're not rejoicing because
they've been vindicated to say, see, I was right all along. My
doctor was right all along. They're not rejoicing because
of that. They're rejoicing because the name of Christ has been vindicated
and the name of Christ has been glorified through his justice. Now, I don't like to talk about
hell. I don't like to think about it.
I really don't know very much about it because scripture doesn't
give us very many details. But here's what I do know. Hell
is a real place. It's a place of eternal torment.
John says here, her smoke rose up forever and ever. It's eternal
torment. And the suffering there is just.
It's because it satisfies, well, I mean, their torment is eternal
because their suffering will never satisfy God's justice.
But their suffering is the just wrath of a holy God against sin. Now, on the other end of the
spectrum is heaven. I don't know a whole lot about heaven either,
because scripture really doesn't give us a lot of details about
it. But I do know this. Heaven is a real place. It's
a real place of eternal glory, eternal rest. And the glory of
heaven is not streets of gold and big mansions and pearly gates.
The glory of heaven is being made just like you. Having that
mind, that perfect mind of Christ. The glory of heaven is being
with Christ forever and seeing his glory face to face. We couldn't handle that in these
bodies, but there we'll have that eternally. And the only
reason anybody will be in heaven is because God is just. It's
not because he bypassed his justice to bring them back to heaven.
The only reason anybody will be in heaven is because God is
just. The same reason people be in
heaven, because God is just. Christ satisfied God's justice
for his people. He suffered hell for his people
upon the tree. He put their sin away and he
satisfied justice for them and made them fit for heaven. That's
what enabled them to be brought there into his presence. What's
no wonder that they praise God for his justice, his justice
in salvation, his justice in the condemnation of the wicked.
Thirdly, they sing hallelujah because of the sovereignty of
God. Verse six, and I heard as it were the voice of a great
multitude and as a voice of many waters and as a voice of mighty
thundering saying, hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. You can't read this book with
any honesty whatsoever and not understand that God is Now God
is sovereign and that simply means this. God does whatsoever
he will. And it's right just because God
does it. Now either, either God is sovereign
or there's no God at all. There's no in between. Either
God is sovereign or everything in this creation really was just
created from a big bang and has evolved into what you see today.
One or the other. There's absolutely no in between. Either God is sovereign or there's
no salvation and there's no damnation. If God's not sovereign in every
minute detail, in every minute event of this creation, then
he's not God. That's all there is to it. It's
just ridiculous to think about a God, little g, an idol, who
can't do what he wants unless you let him. It's just ridiculous
to think about a God who wants to save a people, but He can't
do it unless you decide to make it happen. That's a powerless,
weak God. Can anybody tell me why on earth
would I trust my eternal soul to that God? He can't do anything
unless I let Him. Why might I just do all this
by myself, then, hadn't I? Something might come along that
is out of that God's control, out of that idol's control, and
cause me to be damned, and there's nothing He can do to stop it.
Why would I trust him? But thankfully, the message of
this book is God is God. God's sovereign. He rules over
all things and everything that happens in this creation happens
because it's the express will of Almighty God. If it wasn't
his will, it would not happen. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Nobody knows that better and
nobody rejoices about it more than those in heaven. Our God
has always reigned sovereignly, always. Before creation, he sovereignly
chose a people to save. That's his will. Then nothing
can stop his will from happening. In the fullness of time, he sent
his son into this world as a man to save those people from their
sins. Then it's not possible that the Lord Jesus Christ would
fail to do what the Father sent Him to do, because He reigneth
omnipotent. He sovereignly sent His Son to
the cross to suffer and die for those people that He gave to
the Son in the eternal covenant of grace. Now, there is power
in the blood of Christ. In His death, the blood of His
sacrifice removed all the sin of His people. He died as their
substitute. It's just not possible. that
the Lord Jesus Christ would fail to save anyone that the Father
gave him to save. It's just impossible that anybody
could perish for whom Christ died because the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth. He reigns to ensure the salvation
of his people and God's sovereign in the calling out of his people.
We preach the gospel and God uses it in his power, miraculous
power that's just you can't understand with the human mind. to reach
the hearts of his people and to call them out and to bring
them to Christ. He uses his power to make them
willingly come to Christ. He didn't use his power to make
them come against their will. He uses his power to make them
willing to come to Christ. When will a sinner come to Christ?
When will a sinner believe on Christ? In the day of his power. In the day of his power. He's
not going to fail. He reigns omnipotent today just
as much as he ever has. But those people have been born
dead in sin. How is it possible that they could have eternal
life? They're dead. Because the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
He has power to give them life in the new birth. But even after
God saves those people, they're still in the flesh. They can't
keep themselves for a nanosecond. They still can't do anything
to please God. How can they ever get from here to glory? Because
the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. He reigns over every event of
their lives to keep them safe and to bring them home to Him.
David said, our God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever
get pleased. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And He's been pleased to destroy
every enemy and His people rejoice. And He was pleased to elect a
people, to save a people, to regenerate a people, and to glorify
His people. and his people rejoice because
the only reason they could be there is the sovereign power
of God to bring them to glory. This is the tale of two cities.
Those in Babylon thought they had some power, didn't they?
They thought they had the power to decide to accept or reject
Jesus of Nazareth. And now they wail in torment
because they rebelled against the sovereign power of Almighty
God. All right, fourthly, They sing
hallelujah for the marriage of Christ. Verse seven, let us be
glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the
lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. Now all throughout
scripture, marriage is given to us as a picture of the union,
the marriage relationship between Christ and his bride. One of
my favorite passages of scripture is Ephesians chapter five, Paul
talks about marriage. He talks about the responsibility
of wives and husbands to each other. And then he says, now,
this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in
the church. Marriage, the marriage relationship and union is given
to us as a picture of Christ and his bride. Remember when
it was time for Isaac to have a wife and his father sent his
servant to go into our country to find a bride for his son.
And he told his servant, now you go to the house of my kin.
Don't you go anywhere else. This is where you go to find
a bride for my son. And he went there, he found Rebecca.
And he told her all about his master, all about his master's
son. And she said, I'm going with
you. I'm going with you. I'm going to go marry this man.
She got on a camel for many days. She rode a camel going to meet
Isaac. And when she finally saw him,
she jumped off that camel and she ran to Isaac. He took her. in his arms. He took her as his
wife. And she's the one who comforted
him after the death of his mother. She just, oh, she came from a
far country just on the word of who he is. She fell in love
with him. Can you imagine how she loved
him when she saw him face to face? See, this is a picture
of marriage. This is a picture of the relationship
with Christ and his people. Remember Hosea. Hosea, the prophet,
the prophet of God. And God told him, go down there
and take your wife out of the women of Hortums. And he did.
He joined himself to her. But she had that nature from
that country, Hortums. And she rebelled. She acted on
her nature. She went off from him. But Hosea
loved her anyway. In all her rebellion, Hosea's
the one that provided for her. Lovers didn't provide for her.
He provided for her. And eventually, eventually, he
broke her heart. He brought her home to him. And
she would be joined to Jose. She'd not be for another man
ever again. She belongs to him. That's what Christ has done for
his bride. He went down to the worst of
the worst and joined himself to a bride. She rebelled. She acted upon her sinful nature,
but eventually he broke her heart. He provided for her during all
that time. It wasn't her providing. He provided
for her all that time, even in her rebellion. And then he broke
her. He brought her home to him. She's
not for anyone else ever again. She's eternally joined to him
in a loving union. That marriage is given to us
as a picture of the relationship between Christ and his bride.
And the Jews had a very specific ritual about marriage. First,
there's what they called the betrothal. It's what we would
call an engagement period today. Now, when a couple was betrothed
to one another, they were legally married. They were in every way
they were married, except for this, they didn't live together
as husband and wife yet. Well, that's God's election of
his people, and he elected a bride for his son. And at that time,
they were redeemed. They were justified. They were
saved in the mind and purpose of God. They were saved. Well,
second, the Jews in their marriage ritual had what they called the
interval. It was the time when the husband and wife did not
live together yet. Now, it was during this time you heard about
the groom paying a dowry for his bride. That's what went on
during this interval. Remember that time Jacob worked
seven years for Rachel? Oh, he worked for her. It seemed
like just a day, just a few days for the love that he had for
her. Well, that's the time the Lord Jesus Christ came and he
paid the dowry to his father. He paid the redemption price
for his blood, for his bride, with his own blood. And he did
it because he loves his people. He went willingly to the cross
to suffer all that because he loves his people. Now, they're
not joined together yet, but they're married. The price has
been paid. Well, that's the believer's life
on this earth. You who believe You'll never be more righteous,
more justified, more saved than you are right now, even though
you're not personally in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
in glory. This is the time of the interval.
Thirdly, the Jews had a wedding procession. They just had a big
parade. The bride made herself ready
to come to the wedding ceremony. They had a big parade, the bride
and the groom coming together, a big parade to come to the wedding
ceremony. Well, that's what's going on
right now. This wedding procession, the bride makes herself ready. Now, how is it that the bride
of Christ makes herself ready to come to him and be joined
to him? Well, it's a work of God in her. It's not something
that she does, but it's when God's people willingly come to
Christ. She makes herself ready. She
believes him. She bows to him. She willingly
comes to him. And that's what goes on right
now through the preaching of the gospel. And then fourth,
there's the wedding feast. And that's what's being described
here in Revelation chapter 19. Heaven is gonna be an eternal
wedding feast. These wedding feasts sometimes
went on for days and days, more than a week even. That's what
heaven's gonna be. It's just gonna be an eternal
wedding feast where we will eternally praise the Lord Jesus Christ,
our husband. Now we've heard of it. Those
of you who believe him, we've heard of him. That's all I need
to fall in love with him. To hear him described in his
word, to hear him speak in his word, that's all I need. Can you imagine the soul thrilling
rapture? To see him face to face at this
wedding feast. He married me. He could have
had anybody. He married me. Reckon we'll shout
hallelujah. Oh, what a blessing. That's what
it happens. It's just an eternal wedding
feast where the bridegroom is praised. And then lastly, they
sing hallelujah because they've been made just like Christ, verse
eight. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in
fine linen, clean and white, For the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints. He saith unto me, write, blessed
are they which are called into the marriage supper of the Lamb.
He saith unto me, these are the true sayings of God. This is
no pipe dream. This is the true sayings of God. They have been made just like
Christ. Now there will be degrees of
hell. seen that in many different places
in scripture. Our Lord told us that there will be degrees of
hell, but there will not be different degrees of glory. No one in glory
will have more honor than another, a bigger mansion than another,
you know, closer relationship to Christ than another. They've
all been made just like Christ. They all have this fine linen,
the righteousness of saints. And it's not just a robe that
covers up who we are. But this is actually being made
righteous through and through. Being made the righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Having his righteousness in both
our bodies and our souls. I don't even know how to describe
that. But I do know this. It can't
get any better than that. To be made just like Christ.
And they rejoice. And there's not going to be any
degrees of glory now. They're all, we all have the
same Savior, same faith, and same gospel. verse 10. And I fell at his feet, this
angel, I fell at his feet to worship him. He said unto me,
see thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant and of
thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. You worship God for
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. See, no one
in heaven is going to be better than anyone else. He said, don't
you worship me. I'm your fellow servant. I'm just like you. You
worship God. Nobody's going to be better than
anybody else. And let me just give you a little hint. This
is going to go into our message here in just a few minutes. That's
true right now, too. Nobody's better than anybody
else here, either. We're all brethren. We're all brothers
and sisters. If we're saved, we got the exact
same faith, exact same faith. We have the exact same Savior.
We all have the exact same testimony. Our testimony is the gospel,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he saved me against
my will, my full conceit, how he did it all. He gets all the
glory. That's always the only testimony
we got. And we all bow together and we
worship together the same Lord, the same Savior, our Lord Jesus
Christ. The only difference between here
and there is we'll do it perfectly. That's the only difference. All
right. Lord bless you.