Hallelujah, Amen, Part 2

How long will Jesus Christ reign supreme over the universe? Listen, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. This here in Revelation 19 is the beginning of that fulfillment.

He's going to occupy the throne of David and his kingdom will have no end. And the sound of all those singing sounds like mighty rushing water. There's a familiar Bible word that you've read and heard many times. That word is hallelujah. Hallelujah simply means praise the Lord. What is it that causes the host of heaven to sing and shout hallelujah? Well, in Revelation 19 there is a song and that song refers to four things that result in hallelujah. Four things that cause the host of heaven to shout praise the Lord. We're looking at that passage today.

This is wisdom for the heart. And here's Stephen Davey with a lesson called Hallelujah Amen. No wonder numerous authors I've read consider chapter 19 to be heaven's hallelujah chorus.

Well, let's go through these four appearances. We'll make these stand as our four points, four stanzas. And I want you to notice why the hosts of heaven are singing effectively the hallelujah chorus. First, they are singing hallelujah for what God offers. Look again at verse one. Hallelujah.

Why? Because salvation and glory and power belong to our God. These are God's alone. They're qualities of his character that he alone is able to gift to those who believe. The author of the New Testament book, the Apostle Peter, says you have no idea what kind of glory you're going to experience. Another word appears, for as many as received him, that is Jesus Christ in John 1-12. To them he gave the power to become children of God.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 9 that God has not destined us for wrath, but rather for the obtaining of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation through him. So power and glory and salvation belong to God alone.

They are God's possessions that he gifts to those who believe. So when Bono steps out on the stage during his concerts, as I watched a little bit online as I read that he did this just to make sure, and he puts up on the jumbo screen the word co-exist. The letter C representing the Islamic crescent. The letter X representing the star of David.

The letter T representing the Christian cross. And then he leads the crowd in what has become the mantra for the apostate church we in our generation are beginning to call the emergent church. And here's the quote.

Everything you know is wrong. What's he referring to? Religion? But even more than that he's referring to biblical propositional truth which is the hang up. Bono then leads the crowd in chanting, Jesus, Jew, Mohammed, all true. Jesus, Jew, Mohammed, all true.

What's he saying? He's saying Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all equally true. But think about it. Christianity believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah who came, was crucified, buried, rose again, ascended, and is coming back. Islam doesn't believe that Jesus is God incarnate. He is not the Messiah and he didn't even die on the cross. And Judaism believes the Messiah hasn't even yet come. How can they all be equally true? It'd be like taking I-95 South believing that you can go to Florida and New York and Alaska.

Isn't that great? Try it. Listen to the statesman-like spin of the same message only this time from Tony Blair, former prime minister of Great Britain, who by the way is now being promoted by the Willow Creek Association in their simulcast leadership conferences for evangelical leaders, which happens to be an utter mystery to me as to why hundreds of churches in America primarily, in fact thousands of churches, would desire unbelievers as they've invited Bono and Blair on how they could tell the church how to act and Christian leaders to lead. Utter mystery to me. And get the core of his message. Here's what he says.

God's Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religion. Be very wary of people who think theirs is the only way. Now who do you think he might be talking about? He's referring to Christians who muddle it all up by believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. We're the problem.

Watch out for us. Peter wrote to the believing church, listen, if you are reviled, you can translate that. If you are scorned, if you are maligned for the name of Christ, you are blessed.

Because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. But this is the message we have learned of Babylon. And the volume of Babylonian voices are growing ever louder. Pushing toward what they believe will be the panacea of hope and help.

One global order, one political power, one global village, one global economy, one religious unity. As we watch the message grow together as an assembly, as we've studied this book and take shape until it came to power and the tribulation under the reign of Antichrist, we watched it ultimately wage open war on God and it was defeated, the city of man. And now here in Revelation 19, as Christ is set to return, the multitude of heaven is chanting a different tune. And did you notice no one is singing salvation is from whatever God you'd like to believe in. It is Hallelujah. Praise Yahweh, our covenant keeping God. That's the first Hallelujah. Hallelujah for what God offers. The second Hallelujah is for what God settles.

Look at verse three. And a second time they said, Hallelujah, her smoke rises up forever and ever. Who is she referred to here? Her smoke rises up forever and ever. She, as we have come to know, is Babylon, the city of man, the world system and the world empire city.

This is who she is. Babylon is corrupting with its arrogant defiance, her man glorifying, nature exalting, animal worshiping, Christian murdering, promiscuous philandering, false teaching, ego promoting, money loving, sexually deviant, pseudo spiritual Christ denying, demonically bound, spiritually blind world system. And that's just the beginning of the profile of the man's city, of man's pride.

Babylon. As we enter this paragraph and work our way through it, we can imagine as believers that all the hosts of heaven and all the redeemed would say and sing Hallelujah as it relates to God's salvation and glory and power. And we can immediately get into that. But can you imagine the hosts of heaven here and the world of Christians and the resurrected saints are glorifying God for that and also now they are glorifying him for his eternal, unrelenting, terrifying judgment.

It's exactly what's happening here. We the redeemed are as thrilled over the justice of God as we are the grace of God. When God here measures out eternal punishment to the followers of the beast, to the great prostitute Babylon with its system, its false religion, who seduces the hearts of unbelieving mankind, as God is measuring out his divine justice and eternal punishment to the unredeemed, unrepentant humanity along with all the fallen angels, listen, the believer will be singing Hallelujah. We don't usually attach the word Hallelujah to the destruction of the unbelieving world, do we? This is the fulfillment of Moses' words in Deuteronomy 32-43 where he writes, Rejoice, O nations, rejoice with his people.

Why? For he will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance on all his adversaries. David wrote in Psalm 96, we know this psalm, the first part well, and we forget its context. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all it contains. Let the field exalt and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord. There's not a period there.

Why? For he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness. Psalm 96, 11-13. Now some might think that the believer and the angelic hosts of heaven are somewhat insensitive and uncaring to rejoice in the downfall and judgment of unbelieving humanity. But that ignores the reality here and the context from which we hear them praising God. It ignores the fact that this city and her inhabitants and the world of followers of Antichrist will have had the greatest opportunities to repent of any generation that ever lived. In chapter 6 and again in chapter 9 we're told that the human race at large refuses to repent even though they acknowledge the great plagues and the natural disasters are coming from the hand of whom?

God. They know it's from God and the text repeats over and over, yet they would not repent. Even though they have heard the most powerful preaching of the gospel in human history through the ministry of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, also recorded in chapter 6, they refuse to repent.

The world at large, many will. The world will also hear, this generation will hear and watch the amazing, supernatural, death-defying testimony of the two witnesses. Anybody attacks their testimony, fire comes out of their mouths and destroys them. And people are still going, we don't think we're going to believe still. Add to that the fact that they will see and hear that angel that will go around the globe delivering the gospel, there will be many among every tongue, tribe and nation who will believe, but the world at large says, wow, we're still not going to believe. And they refuse to repent. And on top of that, this generation will hear and watch those who've come to believe, choose the mark of the Antichrist, choose martyrdom over the empire of man, and walk with joy for the glory of God. Yet, despite all of that, the world at large will remain unrepentant to the very end, hardened in their defiant hatred of God. And the hosts of heaven and all the believers will be shouting hallelujah.

Why? Because at the root of all of this is that God has come to set the record straight. And the believer who longs to see the world bathed in the glory of God, the unhindered praise to his majesty, we are all going to rejoice when Christ sits as righteous judge over all the earth, and there's something that resonates with us, even as we go through it as genuine believers. We long for the day when the name of Jesus is no longer taken through the mud, don't we? We long for the day when his character is vindicated, when his word is honored, when he is glorified.

So we, with them, will see the day come and say hallelujah. Perhaps you heard about the Gallery of Modern Art. It's been in the news here in the States for some time in Glasgow, Scotland, where an open Bible was placed in a display case that was opened. Next to it were some pens and a note. The note said this, and I quote, If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, write your way back into it. You can imagine, within days so many people had defaced the Bible, written lewd messages, profaned God.

The gallery, which had no idea this would happen for some reason, pulled the display off. Messages like one person who wrote of the Scriptures, wrote it on the page of the Bible. This is all sexist sewage. Another who wrote across the page of a Bible, I am bisexual and proud, I want no God who disagrees with this. When the scales of holiness and justice are taken up by the hand of Christ, and righteousness prevails, and the word of God is vindicated, and his wonderful, pure, holy character is exalted, we will be singing Hallelujah. Hallelujah for what God has offered, Hallelujah for what God has settled, as he judges the earth. There's a third Hallelujah, it's a Hallelujah for what God fulfills. Look back at verse, or look ahead to verse four. And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, Amen, Hallelujah.

That's it, no commentary, just the church gets involved now. Twenty-four elders representing the church of Christ are wearing their white robes promised to the church, golden crowns promised to the church, seated on thrones promised the church, and yet they get off those thrones and they fall before God and they worship him and they add the word Amen. Amen! Hallelujah. What a wonderful, wonderful lyric. Amen, by the way, is a word of affirmation.

You could render it, so it is. It's true. The more well-known expression would be, so be it. I had a woman come up to me and she said, my grandson, little grand boy, was over and spending the night and I tucked him into bed. Well, we prayed first and while we were there getting ready to pray, he asked me, Grandma, what does Amen mean? And she said, it means so be it.

It's true. So he said, well, I want to pray. And he prayed, went through his whole routine, and then he got to the end and he said, in Jesus' name, so be it.

So be it. Did you notice the angels are thrilled to join in here? The 24 elders and the four living creatures, these cherubim we've studied representing the angelic hosts, they're all into it now and they're all involved.

Why? Why would angels join here? Well, as I thought about it and studied this text, it occurred to me that they must be extremely thrilled, at this point especially, to have resisted Satan's coup attempt, joining him in this attempt to dethrone God.

We know from the scriptures that Satan planned this coup attempt. Isaiah tells us, he said, I'm going to ascend. I will have the throne of God.

Anybody with me? And one third of the angelic hosts said, we're with you, Lucifer. And that, of course, led to the fall and at that moment, those unholy angels, we call them demons today, were confirmed in their unholiness and those who chose to stay with God were confirmed in their holy estate. And it just occurred to me, you know, I can imagine Satan coming to high ranking angels, like Michael, like Gabriel, perhaps suggesting to them, hey, join with me. We will depose the triune God and I will make you one of my chief ambassadors, lieutenants in my kingdom. Because we know the angelic hosts had a choice, Gabriel would have said, no thank you, not for me.

Why? Because of what he believed. He believed the word of God and he would be the ambassador of God uniquely. Gabriel, you know, would later announce to Daniel, he would come to him and tell him, Daniel, the kingdom of God is going to overthrow the puppet kingdoms of Satan. And now what's happening here in chapter 19? It's coming true. The kingdom of Christ is coming. His word is being fulfilled. I can't help but imagine that Gabriel's thinking, man, I'm glad I stayed with him. I'm glad I stayed on his side.

It's coming true. Hallelujah for what God offers. Hallelujah for what God settles. Hallelujah for what God fulfills.

One more. There's one final hallelujah for what God occupies. Verse 5 says, and a voice came from the throne. A voice from the direction, the grammar tells us, of the throne, probably one of the cherubim or maybe one of the elders.

And here's the announcement now to all the redeemed. Give praise to our God, all you, his bondservants, you who fear him, the small and the great. Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, Hallelujah for the Lord our God, the almighty reigns. God is occupying his throne. He is victorious.

His throne and his reign are now, without any obstruction, competition or rebellion. He is seen for who he is, the sovereign king of the universe. He's occupying the throne that had been long prophesied ago, now nearly 2,000 years ago. In fact, it was Gabriel himself who came, you remember, to that virgin teenage girl, Mary, and announced that she would conceive by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit and would bear a baby boy. And that baby boy was actually God the Son, fully man, fully God, and he would be the fulfillment of all messianic prophecy. And Gabriel told her this interesting text is given to us in Luke 2, that he will have the throne of David. He will have the throne of David, listen, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. Here in Revelation 19 is the beginning of that fulfillment.

He's going to occupy the throne of David and his kingdom will have no end. And the sound of all those singing sounds like mighty rushing water. You ever been to Niagara Falls? Quite a sound, isn't it? Six million cubic feet of water rushing over the edge, cascading down every 60 seconds. It thunders. It reverberates right here. Better than an amusement park.

They can't turn it off at night. It's great to go and see yourself. This is the sound of the praise of the redeemed. But I want you to know that it is wonderful not just with the mighty sound of millions upon millions. It is a wonderful sound if it's just one voice.

Your voice. Saying in the secret place of your heart, God's word is true. Amen. Praise the Lord. He is worthy of praise. I can praise him for salvation, glory, and power. For you today to say by faith, amen, it's true, might be a great statement of faith for you. Because maybe everything in your world doesn't seem to play out the truth that what he said is true. Maybe to say praise the Lord, the circumstances in your life don't seem to lead someone to say praise Yahweh. And so for you to say that brings from the recesses of your heart and soul deep resonating faith in God.

The word of God would commend you and encourage you today. I stood in the hospital room a few months ago. Our dear friends and coworkers had taken a turn for the worse. He'd been in the hospital quite some time. He had a chronic condition that was now deemed fatal. He'd been on life support for several days. His body was running down. I came over to the hospital room and learned from his wife, Sandra, that Dennis had been given 12 hours to be saved by the medical staff.

Then they were going to unplug all the paraphernalia. They had done everything they could. I've been in a number of hospital rooms and I've seen death and I knew that all I could do was go over to him and say goodbye. He'd been unconscious for some time, put my hand on his head and told him I loved him. I prayed, thank God for him. Then his wife and I, with tears in both our eyes, talked about the funeral. She asked me if I would preach it and I said I will. We talked for some time and then I left with a heavy heart, drove home and told Marsha the updated news. But during the night, something happened.

No one knows for sure what, but he began to improve. I didn't put my hand on him and pray he'd be healed. I didn't do that.

I can't claim that. Benny Hinn stands alone in the ability to do that. I said goodbye, farewell. But his vital signs all improved. Within hours he was off life support.

A few days later he's coming over here. His wife told me this. She said as he was coming, literally back to life as it were, he was able to breathe on his own. He took out the breathing tube and the nurses heard him singing even though he was unconscious and he was singing the Hallelujah chorus. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Isn't that amazing? I've never heard Dennis sing. He's not in the choir.

There's probably a good reason for that. But imagine just one of God's trusting children slipping in and out of consciousness with that on his mind and that word which is uniquely reserved for God's people. Hallelujah. Amen. I hope the truth of God's word results in Hallelujah being the cry of your heart and of your mouth.

We are the sons and daughters of the great and powerful king of the universe. His praise can always be on our lips and this great word, Hallelujah, is one of the ways that we as the church can express our devotion to God. In fact, that's why we've used the tune from the Hallelujah chorus as the theme music for our other daily broadcast. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart, a resource produced by Wisdom International. Our other daily program is called The Wisdom Journey. On that broadcast, Stephen Davey is teaching through the Bible, Genesis through Revelation, in three years. Because the Bible is God's word and it's all about him, we've used the Hallelujah chorus as the theme song for that broadcast. Well, I sure hope this message has encouraged you today. We're going to continue through this portion of Revelation in the days ahead. Join us next time here on Wisdom for the Heart. .