Our lesson this morning can be
found in Revelation 19. We'll be looking at verses 3
through 6. And the gist of the lesson is
this, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. He reigneth. Now we live in a
generation where men talk about letting God do this and do that. And that's a fantasy. We don't
let God. He said, I do all that I please. And I do it in heaven, and I
do it in earth, and the seas, and all deep places. He does
according to his will. And before I read the text, I
want to remind you that what's taking place here is the judgment
of this present evil world. It may seem an odd time to talk
about the Lord God omnipotent reigning, but this is the, what
would you say, the crescendo, this is the height of it. is
at this final judgment. And I'm talking about the judgment
of religious and irreligious church members or bartenders
or upstanding citizens or drug dealers. Doesn't make any difference.
They're all going to stand before him. And even those close to our hearts
who would not receive the love of the truth that they might
be saved. And this is a solemn fact. This
is something we need to think on. Nobody's going to be saved but
those who hear, believe, and repent of their sins. I don't care how well you kept
your bank account. I don't care how generous you
are. I don't care how long you preached. I don't care if you's the model
citizen and the hero of the county. It doesn't make any difference.
Nobody's going to be saved but those who hear, believe, and
repent of their sins. He that believeth is what our
Lord told his disciples. Now you go preach my gospel.
You preach it to everybody. You preach it to every creature.
You teach all nations. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned. It just don't matter who we are
or how we've lived our lives. He that believeth not shall be
damned. And even in this world, believers
are brought to see the righteousness of God's justice in the death
of sinners. That's what we've been talking
about here. God is righteous in his judgments. My sister died yesterday morning. She's not a believer. And I've
tried on many occasions to try to talk to her and just couldn't
get to first base. She's been a Trinity Lutheran
all of her life. attended a Catholic church for
a while, and all kinds of religions, and very superstitious about
this, that, and the other, and I just couldn't get to first
base with her in any kind of a conversation. And this judgment is gonna come
close. At that judgment, if we're believers,
if we're saved, At that judgment, we're gonna stand with Christ
as he cast this world into hell. And when I say this world, I'm
talking about everybody, even those close to us. Even our brothers
and sisters and mothers and fathers and on and on it go. Having the truth of the, Goodness
of God and grace of God and His sovereign mercy toward us revealed. We take sides with God even in
this world and even against ourselves. You ever prayed like that? You
ever find yourself praying, God, you'd be just if you sent me
to hell. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. But I'm not here to plead my
righteousness, I'm here to plead for mercy. You know, two men went into the
house of God to worship. And one of them, he was a publican,
and the other was a Pharisee. And that publican, he couldn't
so much as lift his eyes toward heaven. And he bowed his head, and here's
how he prayed. He said, Lord, have mercy on
me, the sinner, the sinner. That old Pharisee, he prayed
this way. He said, I thank God I'm not
like him. I thank God I'm not like other
men. You ever prayed that prayer?
Lord, you'd be just if you sent me to hell. And he would. But I'm not looking for that.
I'm looking for mercy. I'm looking for mercy. We take sides with God even in
this world and even against ourselves and now gather together out of
every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue under heaven. God's
elect stand with him who's on the throne and we sing praise
unto God as he casts this world into hell. Listen to this, Revelation
19 through 18. Let me just read the whole of
the text and then I'll make some comments. And again they said,
Hallelujah. And her smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and twenty elders
and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on
the throne saying, Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. Let me begin by saying again
that no man could possibly rejoice at this judgment who has not
been born of God. The only way he can stand in
this judgment and worship God and sing praise unto God at the
judgment of those close to him is to have a new heart and a
new mind and in that day no sin at all. No more obstructions. We should
know as we are known. And with pure minds, we are enabled
to do this. Listen to Titus chapter 3, verses
3 through 7. He said in verse 3, for we ourselves
also were sometime foolish and disobedient and deceived, serving
divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and inbehaviors. and hating one another. But after
that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. There has to be a washing, don't
there? You can't talk about these things
or speculate about these things or teach these things with that
old mind and heart. It takes a purified heart. It
takes a heart where all those old deceptions and all those
old concepts have been washed away. And they're washed away
as we see the glory of God in Christ revealed. Those things
are washed away. There's a cleansing that takes
place in regeneration, or rather as the result of it, which purifies
our motives and thoughts and reasoning. And it washes our
vain minds. See, that's how we used to walk
in the vanity of our minds. But it washes those vain minds
and hearts from all its former deception and all of its false
hopes. And it shows us that God is both
just and justifier of all them that believe. So that they can
say of God's judgment, amen. Amen. And secondly, I want you to consider
this voice proceeding out of the throne. First of all, I want
you to acknowledge this, that this voice is God our Savior. It's God our Savior. And I don't
know if you've ever even thought about this, but in these last
days, Paul said, God has spoken to us by His Son. By His Son. If God's got something to say
to you, He's gonna say it through His Son. His son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, and by whom also he made the worlds, who
by himself purged our sins, and sat down at the right hand of
the majesty on high. That's where God speaks. He speaks
through him. He's the mediator. Will God speak
to sinners? Will he yet, in his condemnation
of men, speak to sinners? He will through his son. He will
through his son. Listen to what God said to Peter,
James, and John. They was up on that mountain
and they saw Elijah. I can't even imagine what a hero
Elijah must have been to Israel. How they looked up to him. He
was a prophet of the prophets. He's that one who mocked them
400 prophets of Baal, stood out there alone. with an evil king
and a queen that would have slid his throat in a heartbeat. And
400 prophets of Baal all gathered together out there. One man stood
there for God, Elijah. And when they started to dance
and go through all their shenanigans, and of course everybody was being
all reverent about it, and they were out there cutting themselves
and crying. He said, maybe your God's asleep. Maybe you better holler a little
louder, he might be asleep. He mocked him. He mocked him. Oh, what a prophet Elijah was.
And then there's Moses. My soul. And you picture one
man with millions standing behind him and Egypt coming down upon
him and nowhere to go, mountains on the right, mountains on the
left, and Egypt behind and nothing there but a sea, a great sea
and not a boat in the midst. What are we gonna do? He said,
I'll tell you what to do, stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. Stretch forth that rod and that
seed is peeled back. Huh? Moses, oh my soul, Peter,
James, and John stood there looking. Here's Moses. Here's Elijah. And here's Christ transformed
right before their eyes. And his raiment, and his skin,
and his face, white and glistering. And they're standing there looking
at him. And they said, oh, it's so good to be here. Let's build
three tabernacles. All of a sudden, Moses and Elijah
disappeared. God spoke and he said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. Hear him. Will God speak to sinners? He
will through his son. He will through his son. He hath appointed a day into
which he'll judge this world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained. And the voice coming out of the
throne is the voice of the Son of God, our Savior. And then
secondly, I want you to think about this. I want you to understand
that every voice of every preacher who's ever lived and served God
in the ministry is a voice proceeding forth from the throne. Is that too much? Have I overstepped
my bounds? Our Lord appointed seven. They couldn't have had Too much
maturity. He hadn't been preaching but
just a short time. And here's these 70 men and he
anoints them and ordains them and he sent them out into all
those cities where he himself was also gonna go. You know what
he told those 70? He said, he that heareth you,
heareth me. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
me. And he that despiseth me despiseth
him that sent me. That's what he said. So every
voice of every preacher ordained of God, sent of God, how shall
they preach except they be sent? But if they're sent of God, then
that voice proceeds forth from the throne. They're his ambassadors. His
ambassadors. There is but one voice which
proceeds forth from the throne, and that is the voice of the
Son of God. Will He speak through men? He
says He will. He says He will. And our Lord said this, The hour
is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of Man, and they that hear shall live. I don't know, but I've had men
tell me that they heard me. They heard me. And when they
heard me, they heard from God. And now they live. Isn't that
something? Paul went so far as to say, I
have begotten you through the gospel. There's no voice coming from
God to sinful men that does not come from the throne of the Son
of God. And then thirdly, what does this
voice tell us to do? This voice that speaks, what
does He tell us to do? He tells us to praise our God,
all you servants and you that fear Him, both small and great. Praise Him. Praise Him. All those in heaven, all the angels, all the elect who've gone to
be with the Lord, they all praise God, every one of them. David said this, he said, praise
ye the Lord. Praise Him in the sanctuary.
We're gathered there today in the sanctuary. What are we to
do while we're here? Praise the Lord. Sing praise
unto Him. Praise ye the Lord. Praise Him
in His sanctuary. Praise Him in the firmament of
His power. That's the environment. All day
long we're out here in this environment This environment is an atmosphere
in which sinners can survive, which men that he created can
live and breathe and have a being and walk around and talk. And all out in this environment,
in the firmament, we're to walk around and praise him who made
it, who sustains it. Will I get another breath? I
don't know. But if I do, I need to praise
him for it. Raise him in the firmament of
his power. Oh, my soul, when I think of
the power, what kind of power must it take to maintain this
world and to arrange providence in
such a way that creation is sustained? Raise him in affirmament of his
power. Praise him for his mighty acts. John said if everything the Lord
did was written in a book, he said the world couldn't hold
the books if it was all written down. We don't have a clue. We know 50 or 60 things we could
sit down and write on a piece of paper. Maybe if we had some
time we might come up with 100. John said, if we wrote them all
down, the world couldn't hold the books. Praise him according to his excellent
goodness. Oh, our God is so good. And then he said, let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. And then he closed with this,
praise ye the Lord. Let me tell you something. If
you can't do that here, you won't be able to do it there. You won't be able to do it there. We're going to have to be able
to say with Job, the Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. If we can't do that here, we're
sure not going to be enabled to do it there. When I think
of what my Lord and my God has delivered me from, has forgiven
me for, and called me out of, when I think upon the great benefits
of God, which have been given to me freely by His grace, and according to the good pleasure
of His will, how can I not praise Him? What an evidence of the sin that
still dwells in this flesh. We ought to 24-7 praise God. Praise God. And that's what he
says. Praise our God, all you servants,
and ye that fear him, both small and great. And then fourthly,
John said, he heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude,
and as the voice of many waters. We stood under, I think they
call it Bridal Falls, that little section of Niagara. We stood
down there on a deck. I don't know how those men even
built that deck. The wind from the concussion
of that water is just, and the noise is deafening. And here
he says this, it was as the voice of a great multitude, a number
which no man can number, all of them saying the same thing,
and all of them saying it loud, and as the voice of a great multitude,
and as the voice of many waters, and listen to this, as the voice
of mighty thunderings, and this voice is the voice of
all God's elect, all of them, all of them. well you say i know some folks
and uh... i believe they're god's elect
but they don't praise god if they don't they're not god's
elect i assure you of that and it's a a point worth comment
that the lord you know he's talking about these mighty thunderings
did you know that It said the Lord took old Peter, and he surnamed him, he changed
his name, old Simon, and called him Peter. And James and John,
sons of Zebedee, they called them Berneges. You know what that means? Sons
of Thunder. They sounded that mighty voice
which God calls the thunder in the hearts of believing sinners. Shakes them up. Shakes them up. Sounds of thunder and I can't
imagine with one voice all the elect of God. Innumerable. All saying the same thing. And the voice of this great multitude
was as mighty thunderings, and here's what the thunderings declared,
hallelujah, hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He reigns in the heavens, and
he reigns among the inhabitants of this world. He reigns in the
armies of heaven, and among the armies of the sons of men. He reigns in creation, and he
reigns in providence, and he reigns in salvation. He's the
Lord of the dead and the living. He reigns. He's God over all,
blessed forever. And Paul said in his times, he
set a time for good. He sets a time for our salvation. You be careful, he said, when
the spirit speaks and if you'll hear, if you'll hear him, if
you can, you be careful. You be careful and don't harden
your heart. You listen to what he's saying. He said, in his times, these
times before ordained, from all eternity, He shall show who is
the blessed and only potentate. You know what a potentate is? That's a man who rules over everything. You don't run into his presence
unless you're invited. You don't question his authority.
You don't question his actions. If he tells you to jump, you
say, how high? Potentate. In his times, he's
going to show who is blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling
in a light which no man can approach unto. And Jesus Christ is the
omnipotent God of glory. He's called the Blessed Potentate
because his great power is used to distribute all God's heavenly
blessings to chosen sinners. He has the power to do that. He's the Blessed Potentate because
he's the only Potentate appointed as the mediator between God and
me. I know where else to go but him. He's a blessed potentate because
he has the power and authority to bring all the promises of
God to pass. He's a blessed potentate because
he's worthy of the power vested in him. And nowhere does his omnipotence
shine as it does in the light of his own judgment. I'm talking
about God's judgment on him for sinners. It'll shine in the judgment of
this world, but the reason why this great multitude can sing
hallelujah is because they saw it shine first in him. And both he and his people stand
together at the judgment and are in full agreement And they
all sing of His omnipotence in the salvation of sinners and
the judgment of all those who would not receive the love of
the truth, that they might be saved. And everything God reveals about
Himself is more clearly seen as it's manifested in the salvation
of sinners. And the salvation of sinners
is brought to pass by the Lord Jesus Christ. None other name
given among men whereby we must be saved. He is, Paul said in
Hebrews 1, 3, the brightness of the Father's glory and the
express image of His person. And He is, as I said a while
ago, God manifest in the flesh. Now listen to me. Is God just? Is He just? David said justice
and judgment are the habitation of his throne. They lived there
all the time. They didn't just come there and
visit for a while, they lived there. They lived there. Is God righteous? Is everything
God does right? Hosea said in the closing verse
of his prophecy, the ways of the Lord are right, and the just
shall walk in them. is god the god of judgment he
judged mankind in the garden his judgment was present at the
altar of cain and abel he judged this world with a flood in the
days of noah he intervened in the lives of
men at babylon and confused the language will god judge sin He
has, and He is, and He shall yet. He's a God of judgment,
but God is also love. He's good, He's merciful, and
He's gracious. And in Christ, all God's attributes
are manifested in the brightness of the Father's glory. Justice. We talked about that a few minutes
ago. Justice. He died the just for the unjust
that he might bring us to God. Judgment. He was taken from prison,
Isaiah said, and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Righteousness. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. to everyone that believed it.
Love, God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Mercy, oh, he said, but God,
who is rich in mercy, and for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, quickened
us to gather with Christ. Grace, by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of
God. But why are these men singing
about God's omnipotence? Why are they here shouting at
this judgment about God's omnipotence? Because only the omnipotent God
could manifest this glory to such worms as we are. And in that day stand safe in
the shelter of his grace and his mercy and on look as he cast
this world into hell and justify him both in our salvation and
in their damnation. Only the omnipotent God could
manifest this glory to such worms as we are and overcome such great
obstacles and pay such a great debt and suffer such a great
death and then rise from the dead and ascend into glory and
their reign until he put all his enemies and ours under his
feet. And when that day comes, Those
who have seen his glory shall say, as the enemies of our souls
are being tossed into hell, they're gonna say hallelujah. The Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. We hoped that he was, we trusted
that he was, we saw him as it was manifested, but now we see
it in its pureness and we sing hallelujah. The Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth.