Revelation chapter 11, the title
of the lesson this morning, The Eternal Reign of Christ. I've
told you this several times. I think it bears repeating that
the book of Revelation has seven different visions in it, seven
different views of the same thing, the same person. There are seven
different visions from seven different points of view. of
the glory of Christ that's seen during man's history on earth.
There's seven different visions of what the church on earth will
experience throughout all time, not just at the very end of human
time, but throughout all of human time. Today, we're getting ready
to look at the end of the third vision. And the end of this third
vision brings us to the end of human time. Now, it doesn't describe
the judgment, but it does describe the end of human time, it ushers
in the what would will be the judgment. We'll look at that
a little later on. But in this third vision, you
may remember John has seen three walls. The first wall was false
religion. The wall of false religion spreading
across the whole earth. The second wall was when it appeared
that there was no true worship of God left in the earth. And
now John sees the third wall, the third wall, is the end of
time and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you might
think, well, that that's not a woe. Well, that will be the
return of Christ will be a glorious event that will bring in nothing
but eternal bliss for God's people. But the return of Christ will
bring nothing but eternal woe to those who do not believe him.
And this is what men are going to learn when Christ returns.
It's all about Christ. It's all about him. The judgment
when Christ returns, it's going to be all about Christ. Not only
will we be judged by Christ, not only will he be the judge
of all men, but he will be the standard by which we're judged. If we would be accepted, it's
all about Christ. We've got to be as perfect and
righteous as the son of God. And all of eternity, it's going
to be about Christ. The joy of heaven will be to
be with Christ. and the torment of hell will
be to be without him. It's all about him. When Christ
returns, men will finally see that all of human history has
always all been about Christ. It's all about him. God created
this world for this purpose, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that Christ would get glory in saving his people from their
sin. Creation was all done for Christ,
for the glory of Christ. All things were created by Him
and for Him. They were created so He would
get the glory. And this creation has always been ruled by Christ.
It's always been held together by His power. He is before all
things. He's the head of all things.
And by Him, all things consist. It's always all been about Christ.
It's always been about Him and His glory. Now the first time
our Lord came incarnate, He appeared as a lowly servant, and He came
as a servant. And the last time most of the
earth saw our Lord, they saw Him as a dead man hanging upon
a tree. And that's the way most people think of Him now. They
either think of Him in some form, shape, or fashion. They think
of the Lord somehow in a helpless state. They think of Him as a
lowly, meek, mild servant that wouldn't hurt anybody, that wouldn't
violate anybody's will. that they think they can do with
Him as they please. Or they think of Him as hanging on a cross,
helpless, can't move, can't do anything, poor helpless Jesus,
don't you feel sorry for Him, won't you accept Him. And if
they don't think of Him that way, they think of Him as a helpless
baby in a manger. But in some way, they think of
Him as helpless. But what a surprise they'll get
when our Lord returns, when they see Him again, they're going
to see Him as King of all. Christ has always been king of
kings and lord of lords. That's who he's always been.
But when he returns, that's the only way men will see him. They're
not going to see him as a sacrifice anymore. They're not going to
see him as a helpless servant anymore. They're not going to
see him with any weakness whatsoever. They're going to see him. They're
going to understand. They're going to see him that
he's king and his reign is eternal. Christ is going to reign throughout
all of eternity. because he's always reigned.
He's never not reigned. He must reign. He's always reigned
as monarch over everything. His reign is eternal. So there's
a few things we can learn. There's three things I want us
to learn from this text this morning. The first one is the
title. The reign of Christ is eternal. Verse 14 of Revelation
11. The second woe is past and behold,
the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded
And there are great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of
this world to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
And he shall reign forever and ever. These great voices in heaven
are great disclosures. That's what the word means. They're
great disclosures from heaven. What are some of the great disclosures
from heaven for sinful men? Well, there's mercy and grace
for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a great disclosure.
We wouldn't know that if it didn't come to us from heaven, would
we? There are great disclosures of righteousness through the
obedience of Christ. We would think we'd have to be
obedient to the law in order to earn a righteousness. But
the great disclosure of heaven is there's righteousness through
the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the great disclosure
of eternal life. through the death of Christ as
our substitute. These are the great truths of
the gospel. You know, the gospel we preach
is not a man, is it? It's a great disclosure from
heaven. This is how God speaks to his
people through the preaching of the gospel. The gospel message
is the great disclosures of heaven. And here's one of the great disclosures
that these voices tell us, that the reign of Christ is eternal.
He will reign forever and ever. Look at Daniel chapter four.
You know, they say here that these voices say the kingdoms
of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord. Well, they become
the kingdoms of the Lord because they've always been the kingdoms
of the Lord. He's always ruled over him. The only difference
is that when the Lord returns, all the earth is going to know
it, that the kingdoms of the earth are his. He reigns over
them. He controls them. And it's always
been that way. This is the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar
learned in Daniel chapter four. Daniel tells him why this decree,
you know, the story of Nebuchadnezzar, why this decree has come upon
him. It's for this reason, verse 17. This matter is by the decree
of the watchers and the demand of the word of the holy ones
to the intent. that the living may know that
the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men. Those kingdoms have always
been His. He rules in the kingdoms of men,
and He giveth it to whomsoever He will, and He setteth up over
it the basest of men. God rules. He uses the basest
of men to do it. That was God's purpose in this
thing. Did Nebuchadnezzar learn that lesson? You betcha. Look over verse 34. At the end
of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes into heaven,
and mine understanding returned unto me. And when I had understanding,
this is what I knew. I blessed the Most High, and
I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. He rules forever, and his kingdom
is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stake his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? And that's what's going to be
revealed when Christ returns. The kingdoms of the earth have
always been his. He's always ruled over them. Do we say that too often? Can
we say that to each other too often and be reminded of that
too often? We can't. How often now do we
look at the earth and we can't see the Lord reigning? We can't
see it. But even when we can't see it,
you rest assured of this, the Lord is reigning. He's ruling
over everything that happens. Nothing can happen that is not
His will. Nothing. So whatever happens
is the will of our God. That's right. He rules. So let's
just not get too bent out of shape worrying about what the
governments of this world are doing. I can promise you this. The basest
of men, they're going to do stupid things. Don't be surprised when
they do. Occasionally, they'll do some
smart things, because the Lord reigneth. He's ruling over them.
But whatever it is they do, I can promise you what they will do.
They're going to do the will of God. They don't reign. He does. And I'm saying this
to me as much as to you. I utterly hate to suffer for
stupid things politicians in Washington do. It just annoys
me to no end. But it doesn't matter what they
do. Really and truly, it doesn't matter what they do. Because
whatever it is they're doing is simply carrying out the will
of the eternal King of Kings, our Savior. They're carrying
out His will. They always have. Always. The
rulers in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, what did they do? They carried out the eternal
will and purpose of God by crucifying Jesus of Nazareth at Calvary.
When we thought they were doing the worst thing that a human
being could ever do, all they did was carry out God's eternal
will for the good of His people, for the salvation of His people.
God sets up over the governments of this world the basest of need. That king's heart, that ruler's
heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, He just
turneth it with us wherever He will. So wherever their heart
is turned, It's the hand of our God turning it, turning it there
to do whatever it is he's doing. So we just don't need to worry
about him, really. And it's it will always be that
way. Christ shall reign. This is what
they say. He shall reign forever and ever
because his reign is eternal. He's always reigned and he always
will reign. John the Baptist said he must
reign. Now this is where the words of
the Hallelujah Chorus are taken from. Much of the words are taken
from this verse. And I love to hear, I've listened to that song
twice this week. I love to hear that loud chorus
just thunder out the words. He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That's
the message of heaven. That's the message of heaven.
It's the declaration of heaven and the declaration of our gospel,
salvations of the Lord, our God reigneth. Christ rules in the
governments of this world, like we talked about. And that's the
small stuff. That's the small stuff. That's
the insignificant stuff. He rules in the salvation of
his people. And because he rules, their salvation
is secure. Christ, the Savior, is suffering. He saves whom he will, when he
will. Whoever it is he set his affection
on is going to be saved because he's suffering and none can stay
his hand. None can stop him. The salvation
of a sinner is not an offer. The salvation of a sinner is
a declaration of what the sovereign king has already done for his
people. That's what salvation is. If
you and I would be saved, we're going to have to find ourselves
at the feet of the Sovereign Savior, begging Him for mercy. Before the Lord Jesus ever becomes
our Savior, He's going to be our King. And we're going to
bow to Him in the dust, begging Him, knowing He doesn't have
to have mercy on me. He does not have to do anything
for me. He's the Sovereign. That's the
declaration of heaven, that Christ reigned is eternal. He reigns
forever and ever. Now here's the second thing.
There are two reactions to the sovereign reign of Christ. The
first one is the reaction of God's elect. When God's elect
hear of the sovereignty of Christ in all things, you know what
they do? They worship. Verse 16. And the four and twenty
elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces
and worshiped God. Now these 24 elders, we looked
at this earlier, they represent the whole church of God. And
when the church of God, those who believe and love Christ,
when they heard the message of heaven, that Christ reigns forever
and ever, their first response was to fall on their faces and
worship. Now the good news of the gospel
depends upon this fact, that our Savior is sovereign. If Christ
is not sovereign, if He is not in control of everything, then
something could cause His people to perish, couldn't it? If He's
not in control of it, if Christ is not in control of all things,
if He's not in control of the hearts of all men, someone may
resist His will and perish. Because I can promise you this,
if we're left to our own will, if we're left to our own selves,
we're going to perish. If Christ can't save me against
my will, With my full consent, I'm going to perish. If he's
not sovereign over all things. But the declaration of the gospel
is this, Christ is sovereign. None of his people will ever
perish. Everyone for whom he died shall
be saved. His perfect obedience, his perfect
blood, his sinless blood, his sacrifice and his sovereignty
guarantees the salvation of his people. And when God's people
hear that, their only reaction to their heart is to bow and
worship. You know the only way anyone
will ever worship? The only Savior, the only God,
the only one anybody will ever worship is somebody who's sovereign. They've got to be sovereign.
Someone who's in control of everything. The only person I'll ever worship
is someone that I can't make do what I want to do. I can't
influence him to do what I want to do, but he's going to do his
will. And I can't influence him. I
can't get him to do something. That's the definition of sovereignty.
That's the only person I'll truly worship. Just like that leper
came to our Lord. I imagine him hiding somewhere,
trying to stay out of sight. He couldn't come around people.
Somehow, I think he heard our Lord's sermon on the mount. And
he was compelled to come to the same. It didn't matter. He wasn't
allowed to come around people. He was compelled to come to the
Savior. And he came and fell at the Savior's
feet. And scripture says he worshipped
him. He worshipped him. He didn't
know if the Lord would do anything for him or not, but he worshipped
him because he's at the feet of the Sovereign. How do I know
that? Because of what it said. If you
will. It's not a matter of if you can.
If you will, you can make me come. You worship. And that's
the only way you and I will ever worship. If I can't get God to
save me by being good, if I can't get God to save me by making
a decision, but I'm totally dependent upon him to show mercy to me,
that's the sovereign that I'll worship. Christ the sovereign
is to be worshiped. and his people do. The second
reaction of God's elect when they hear of the sovereignty
of Christ in all things is to praise him. Verse 17, they fell
and they worshiped him saying, we give thee thanks. Oh Lord
God almighty, which art and was and art to come because thou
has taken to thee thy great power and has reigned. Believers thank
God that he is eternally sovereign. You know, we watch this world,
even though we know better, sometimes we catch ourselves thinking this
thing's a train wreck. I mean, this world is a train
wreck. It's just completely gone off its rails. Wait a minute
now. No, it hadn't. The Lord God Almighty
reigneth. There are times we think Satan's
got so much influence in this world. False religions got too
much influence in this world. No, they don't. No, they don't. They've got whatever influence
the king has allowed them to have. The Lord our God reigneth. The Lord reigns. Excited. This is the way they're
saying this. These 24 hours, they're excited
about this. You know, when I was in high
school. We had a chorus of over 220 members.
And every Christmas, We sang the Hallelujah Chorus.
And the whole chorus, as far as I know, just loved to do it.
I mean, we just love sing that song. We had a good teacher. Our teacher is Ms. Clymer. And
we were singing that song when she stopped us in the middle
of it. And she said, you can't just sing the words to this song. Don't just look at the words
on, you know, and sing them. That's not the way the song is
to be sung. She said, you're to sing this song excited with
enthusiasm because this is good news. You're singing good news. Be excited to sing good news.
The Lord God reigneth. She's exactly right. The Lord
reigns over all things. Be excited about that because
whatever things we think are bad, He's ruling over them to
accomplish good for His people. And there's so many examples
that we could look at. Let me give you two. The life
of Joseph. That poor kid. His brothers hated
him. They stripped him naked, threw
him down in a pit, sold him into slavery. All these horrible things
happened to this kid in Egypt. I mean, he's just a boy. His brothers meant it for evil.
Potiphar's wife meant it for evil. But God meant it for good,
didn't he? And he brought good out of it. He brought good. He
gave us, he saved his people alive. And he gave us a picture
of redemption. The second one is the death of
Christ. This is the best example. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We think all these horrible things these people are doing to this
perfect, innocent man is just horrible. God reigned over it,
didn't He? To bring about good, to bring
about the salvation of His people. And He can do that because He
reigns over everything. Go home this afternoon, pull
up on YouTube and just listen to one of these great choirs
sing the Hallelujah Chorus. It gets me. I know what they're
going to say. And it gets me every time. If
you think you're excited about that song now, you wait till
then. When we're those 24 elders, those
people that 24 elders represent, how excited we'll be to praise
our God who reigneth forever and ever. That's the only reason
we'll be there. You know, the church isn't so
much interested in the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. If
somebody gets a hold of a little doctrine, they get a hold of
this doctrine of God's sovereignty. They missed the blessing. That's
not what the church is really interested in. The church is
interested in worshiping and praising the Savior who is sovereign. And there's a big difference
there. Look at verse 17, how the church describes the Savior
himself. We give thee thanks, O Lord God
Almighty, which art and was and art to come. They're praising
him for who he is. And if you look back in chapter
one of Revelation, You know where they got those words? This is
how the Savior describes Himself. They're just saying what the
Savior says. They're just repeating what the Savior says. Revelation
1 verse 8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which
is to come, the Almighty. See, they're just saying, they're
just repeating what the Savior says. They're so taken up with
Him that they just want to say what he says, that they just
want to be where he is. They just want to look up on
him. They just want to hear about him because they're taken up
with him. That's the one they worship.
That's the one that they praise. But the second reaction to the
sovereignty of Christ is the reaction of the unbeliever. Verse
18 back in our text. And the nations were angry and
thy wrath has come in the time of the dead that they should
be judged. and that thou shouldest give
reward unto thy servants, the prophets and to the saints, and
them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy
them which destroy the earth. And that word destroy, if you've
got a sinner margin there means corrupt. Those which corrupt
the earth with their false doctrine, their idolatry and those kinds
of things. They hate to hear the sovereignty
of Christ. Now let me ask you a question.
How do you react? to hearing that Christ is sovereign
over all things. How do you react to hear that
he's sovereign over you? That he can save you or damn
you? And either way, it's going to
be right and nobody can say anything against it. How do you react
to hear that the salvation of your soul does not depend upon
your work, but the work of Christ the Savior? Does that make you
mad? I hope not. Oh, I hope not. Because that's the attitude of
the unbeliever who will be damned. I hope not. If your reaction
to hearing of Christ's sovereign rule is to get mad, ask God to
give you a new heart. Because the only way you're going
to get a new attitude is to get a new heart. Listen, here at
the end of time, when these rebels see Christ return And they have
utterly no doubt. This is the king. They hear the
declaration of heaven. He's the king. He reigns forever
and ever. Even seeing Christ in his glory
as king of all will still not make the unregenerate heart seek
mercy from God. It still won't do it. It won't
make them worship. It just makes them mad. And Christ
will destroy them from the earth eternally. It'll only be right,
won't it? Because they refused the rule
of the Sovereign. They refused to seek mercy. They
didn't want the only Savior. So it'll only be right that God
destroy them from the earth. All right, here's the third thing.
This is what eternity is going to declare. That salvation is
all in Christ. It's all about Christ. It's all
of salvation is in Him and nowhere else. Verse 19. And the temple
of God was open in heaven. And there was seen in his temple
the ark of his testament, and there were lightnings, and voices,
and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. Now the temple
of God, that's where God said he would meet with men. Remember,
he gave the first instructions of the tabernacle to Moses. He
said, this is where I'll meet with men. And that tabernacle,
and then later Solomon's temple, are pictures of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now those things are hidden in
type and picture and shadow now, aren't they? But when Christ
returns, he's going to be open in heaven. It's going to be made
obvious to everyone that the only way to God is through the
Lord Jesus Christ. The only place that God will
ever meet with the sinner in mercy and acceptance is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Solomon's temple was open,
but just to a degree, the Gentiles couldn't go all the way in. They
couldn't go past a certain gate. And even the natural born Jew,
the Hebrew of Hebrews, he can go all the way through that thing.
At least part of it was closed off to him. Only the high priest,
one man in that nation, just one, one man could go into the
Holy of Holies where the Shekinah glory of God dwells. Only one
man could do that and he could only go one time a year on the
Day of Atonement, not without blood. He had to go with the
blood of the sacrifice. The only person Who ever saw
the mercy seat? Everyone ever saw it. But when
Christ returns, everyone's going to see the mercy seat. Everyone
will. Everyone will see that mercy
seat, the place where God meets with men in mercy. It's always
been about Christ. That mercy seat is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everyone's going to see the way
of mercy. The way of salvation is through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That mercy seat covered with
blood, the blood of the sacrifice, enabled God to forgive the sin
of the people in type, in picture. It didn't forgive their sin,
did it? If it forgave their sin, they wouldn't offer a sacrifice
the next year. No, they had to keep offering it year by year
continually because it was a type. But the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ enables God to forgive the sin of His people in reality
and enable every one of them to come directly into the throne
room, directly into the presence of God himself. You remember
when Christ hung on the cross, and right before he gave up the
ghost, he cried, it is finished. Now they're getting ready to
offer the evening sacrifice back there at Solomon's Temple. This
is the Passover. Right at the time of the evening
sacrifice, our Lord cried, it is finished. You know what happened? That thick veil in the temple
was written from top to bottom. They saw the Ark of the Testament.
They saw the mercy seat. We're going to die. Nobody died. Why not? Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed
for us. The way to God is now wide open
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And everyone, everyone without
exception, who comes to God in Christ, without any of their
works, with no other hope other than the Lord Jesus Christ, God
will accept them. They're going to be saved. They're
going to be singing that hallelujah chorus in glory. And everyone
who refuses to come to God in Christ, if they insist on their
own works or their own decision, they're going to be rejected
and they're going to be damned. That's what the voices and thunderings,
the earthquake and great hail represent, the justice of God
upon their sin. Now that's so. That is the declaration,
the disclosure of heaven. May God give you and me the grace
and mercy to see and believe the Lord Jesus Christ, that He,
that sovereign, is all of our hope of salvation and cause us
to worship Him and praise Him. That is the function of the church
on earth right now. It's to declare that gospel and
to worship Him and praise Him That's our function right now.
And by God's grace, that's going to be our occupation in glory.
I can't wait. Can you? Lord bless you.