Simple Faith

Bill Henry: If you're a Christian, you belong to God. Pastor Bill Henry says that's the best place to be. No one can take us from His hand. You are His. Even if they take away our very lives, they still cannot take away your soul, your spirit from God who is all-powerful.

Every word that we read here in these 66 books that we call the Bible is true. He will do exactly what He has said in His word. We can rest and stand by His all-powerful spirit living within us as we stand upon His all-powerful word.

Guest (Male): Welcome to today's edition of Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, presented by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel. As Christians, we all have a lot to be thankful for, and not the least of which is the wonderful place God has prepared for us called Heaven.

In our verse-by-verse study through Revelation, we reach chapter 19 today. After all the wrath and destruction we've read about in the last few chapters, we finally get to the really good news here in chapter 19. The incredible panorama of Heaven we see described here is enough to take your breath away. Turn to Revelation 19. Let's join Pastor Bill for today's message.

Bill Henry: Revelation 19:1 says, "After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, 'Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.' Again they said, 'Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!' And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, 'Amen! Alleluia!' Then a voice came from the throne saying, 'Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!' And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of many thunderings, saying, 'Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!'"

In my notes, I wrote down, "Wow, we finally made it to chapter 19." It's funny because many who study this book get excited about who the beast is, what the mark of the beast will be, or who is going to be this or that. What's the one-world religion going to look like? And all these books and sermons... to be honest, you can have all that. Give me Jesus.

I'm so excited to start here in chapter 19 because we've come to my favorite part of the book—the end of the book. I love this where Jesus wins, the bad guys get their comeuppance, we enter into eternity with a new heaven and a new earth with our Lord God Almighty who reigns forever and ever.

I think that's one of the things... as a kid, I grew up watching John Wayne Westerns with the white hat and the black hat. It's interesting because in the '60s or so, it started changing. Sometimes the good guy would wear a black hat or different things, and they tried to mix it all up. I always just liked movies where the good guy wins. I love books like *The Hobbit* and *Lord of the Rings* and things where the good guys win in the end.

I think that's built into us. I truly do, because God will always win in the end. We are His people, created in His image. When we come to Christ, this kind of stuff should excite us because we're born again. Again, Jesus wins in the end. The good guy wins. Because Jesus wins, guess what? We win, too.

We are the bride of the Lamb. We're going to be talking about that, Lord willing, next week. But in the midst of the very gray and drab springs that we have here in the Pacific Northwest—I think this last spring was the major exception that I've seen in our 20-plus years, almost 25 years of being up here—many times during the season, I would have a calendar, one of those wall calendars, and it was Hawaii.

Even when the year was gone, I still kept that calendar up for many years after because I loved the pictures during the gray. I'd look up at the calendar. It might be in the middle of May and gray as can be. I know it's going to go probably through June. July 4th is usually the main marker. I would always look because I knew that it was coming. I knew that even in the gray, the sun was coming.

Beloved in Christ, though these are dark and gray days—can I have anybody say amen? If you're reading the news at all, you know this. May we again take time to look ahead at what is coming, who is coming. The glorious day when sin will reign no more, the curse of men and women will be gone for all of eternity. There will be no more struggles with our flesh, no elections to fight for, no more choosing the lesser of two evils when we do vote.

No more facing the temptations of sin and the world and our own fleshly desires. No more pain, no more sorrows, no more tears, no more fears. No more signs of the times, no more Satan and his deceptions, and all will be made new.

In Revelation chapter 21—and I don't have the slides today—verses three and four, just turn there real quick because it's worth reading. Turn over to Revelation 21. we get to cheat and see the end of what's happening.

Revelation 21, verses three and four: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'" Glory, I love this.

All right, let's dig in this morning. Look back at verse one, chapter 19: "After these things." So again, we see another familiar phrase in the Greek here in the book of Revelation: meta tauta, "after these things." It's interesting because we see once again the book moving forward chronologically.

As a Calvary Chapel, we just take the book of Revelation as it stands—that these is going to be a chronological order of events for the most part, unless otherwise stated. It's helped us greatly in our understanding on how to study this book. So, after these things—after what things?

You'll remember back in chapter 17, we saw that the world was under the rule of Satan and the Antichrist in three ways, labeled under Babylon. Three different systems or branches under Babylon. There was Babylon, the one-world political system. There's Babylon, the one-world religious system. And Babylon, the one-world monetary system.

Back in chapter 17, if you remember, we saw the political arm of Babylon. The ten kings rose up as they sided with the beast, the Antichrist, and they took down and replaced the one-world religion. This will come in the middle of the Tribulation where Satan himself will stand in the temple, the Antichrist, and demand to be worshiped by the world.

All of a sudden now, in chapter 17, the ten kings wiped out basically the woman, the harlot that rides the beast. Then in chapter 18 last week, we studied about Babylon, the financial system. The one-world monetary system will be wiped out by God.

In Revelation 18:3, it says, "All nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living." So now this one-world monetary system... as we talked about last week, there's a lot of sexual perversion tied in with that. Again, it doesn't take too far to look around today with all the sexual slavery, the perversion in Hollywood, etc.

Again, we see that now God has wiped this out, and it will happen within an hour. Many of your scholars believe it will be some kind of nuclear event, which is very possible. So now it has fallen, and heavens rejoice. Look at verse one as it continues: "After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, 'Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!'"

Look, so much truth about the Lord has been packed into these several verses this morning. We're just going to try to unpack just a little bit of it. Notice here that we hear that there's a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven. This would probably be those that we saw back in chapter seven. If you just want to turn back to chapter seven for a moment with me, because there will be a difference as we'll see a little bit later in this chapter.

Revelation 7, verses nine and 10, and then we're going to look at verses 13 and 14. Revelation 7:9: "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude... (so I believe here in chapter 19 these are the same great multitude) which no one could number, of all tribes, nations, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice saying, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!'"

Now go up to verse 13: "Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, 'Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?' And I said to him, 'Sir, you know.' So he said to me, 'These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'"

Back to chapter 19. We see here in verse one that as we see this great multitude of heaven—I believe it's the same great multitude—these are those who came out of the Great Tribulation. They're praising God because now He has been faithful. They're saying to Him, "Alleluia," because He has avenged their deaths, as we're going to see and we saw in the last chapter, by the way, as well.

Notice they're all saying, "Alleluia." I love this here. Your translation may say "Hallelujah" with an H at the beginning. It's a Greek word basically brought right into the English. It's almost the same word in the Greek. The Greek word is actually taken from two Hebrew words. The first Hebrew word is Halal and the second is Yah.

Halal means to praise or celebrate, and Yah is basically a contraction of Yahweh. Together they mean "praise the Lord." Give glory to the Lord, celebrate the Lord. So when we say Alleluia, when you sing Alleluia, you're basically singing, "praise the Lord."

Now, I don't know if you realize this, but this word... this is the only place in the whole New Testament that this word actually appears, here in chapter 19, these four times. I thought it was, without even thinking, "Oh, it must be all throughout." No, it's not. It's an interesting word. It's only used these four times here in Revelation 19 in the New Testament. It is used 24 times throughout the Psalms.

Now, it's interesting, as one commentator pointed out its use in the Psalms, he said this: "With one exception in Psalm 135:3, Alleluia is always found at the beginning or end of Psalms, suggesting that it was a standardized call to praise in the temple of worship." Ever hear somebody say Alleluia? Hallelujah? It's a call to worship, to worship God.

Alleluia. I just love that word. I've always, ever since I was a kid, remembered songs. Alleluia, alleluia, everybody sing Alleluia, for the Lord is risen, it is true. Just to sing Alleluia to the Lord. I remember what we just sang, Alleluia, one of the first praise songs I ever learned. I could actually sing praises directly to God. I didn't have to go through Mary anymore. I didn't have to go through the saints or anybody else. I could sing my praises directly to God.

What a blessed thing. Notice there they're giving praise. They're saying it, "Alleluia." Again, salvation, it goes on to say. These things that belong to God: salvation, glory, honor, and power. Salvation... do you know that salvation belongs to the Lord and Him alone?

We need to remember in Revelation 7:9, it says, "After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number, all tribes and nations standing before the throne." We read this a moment ago, but in verse 10, it goes on to say, crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb."

Salvation does not belong to Muhammad. Salvation does not belong to the Buddha. Salvation is not found in our good works. Salvation is found in God alone. It belongs to the Lord. Psalm 3:8, "Salvation belongs to the Lord." Acts 4:12, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Salvation belongs to God.

Now notice what else belongs to Him: glory. Glory... this is splendor and majesty, or and honor, precious reverence, esteem, power, dominion, authority. Again, it's interesting when we see in the world when we try to give glory to people. When you look at some of the most famous people who have ever lived, they're also some of the most miserable people who have ever lived.

I don't mean that they were bad human beings. I'm not going to go to just that part, but I'm just saying they were always unhappy. You look at people from Kurt Cobain to Robin Williams, just go down the list. Some of the most famous people. Lady Gaga says the only time she's happy is when she's on the stage, and even then it seems to be waning, she would say.

Mike Tyson, when he was at his prime, he could go anywhere in the world, he said, and they would recognize him and give him free things everywhere he went. But he was never happy. He would go home and just... never happy. Why? Because we're not meant to receive glory.

When you go to these concerts and people are receiving glory—Taylor Swift or others—and they're receiving the glory from the... "Oh, you're so great! You're so wonderful! You're just so awesome!" We're not meant to receive glory because there is only one to whom owns all glory, and that is God.

We need to remember this. Don't ever give glory to men and women, and don't receive glory from men and women. Honor and power are the Lord's, too. I love this. Only God gives salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Only God is glory, and He alone deserves our worship and our hearts. Only God is honor. He always does what He says. He is honorable 100% of the time.

Only God has power, dominion, and authority. This is what we're seeing here in the book of Revelation. Remember, mankind has just built its best. Mankind has put together its best—a one-world government, a one-world system, a one-world religion. Everything should be humming and working great, but it's terrible. And even the best that mankind can do, God squashed it, wipes it out, because He alone has all power, dominion, and authority.

No matter what mankind does, no matter what Satan does, God is always omnipotent, as we're going to see here in verse six. He alone is all power and glory. Glory to His name.

You know, it's interesting because I'm just as we study this, it's so interesting as we see today in the world so many seeking to take God out of politics, so many seeking to mock God... and this continues, by the way. To actually man's striving basically to be God through artificial intelligence and other such nonsense. You see, God alone was, is, and always will be completely sovereign, all-powerful and in complete control.

As His children now, as we have been born again of the spirit of God in the kingdom of God, as we have turned away from our sins and turned to Jesus Christ, believing in His death as an atonement for our sin, the payment for our sin upon the cross, believing that Jesus died for our sin, believing that Jesus rose again from the dead, and that as we turn away from our sins and turn to Jesus and believe in Him for that forgiveness, believe in Him as our Lord and Savior, we are then born again into the kingdom of God, born again by the spirit of God.

Thus we can now rest in the fact that no one can take us from His hand. You are His. Even if they take away our very lives, they still cannot take away your soul, your spirit from God who is all-powerful. This also means that every word that we read here in these 66 books that we call the Bible is true, that He will do exactly what He has said in His word. We can rest and stand by His all-powerful spirit living within us, as we stand upon His all-powerful word.

Now look at verse two: "For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her." So all these saints in heaven, all this great multitude, those who have gone through or were killed in the midst of the Tribulation, are declaring more truths as they give praise to God Almighty.

Notice more truths they're declaring about Him: true and righteous are His judgments. So many judges today so corrupt. Even as we look around here in the United States and we're supposed to have the best judicial system in the world—and we probably still do, sadly to say, even with how corrupt it has become—political ideologies are ruling over the Constitution and our laws.

So it's hard to find true and righteous judgments anymore. But God's judgments are always true and they're always righteous. Look, we may not always understand why God allows certain people to prosper, wicked people to prosper, or why God allows hurt and pain in our lives, though we know the cause to be the fall of mankind and our sin.

Things will still happen that are far beyond our grasp to comprehend or understand even as Christians. And yet we can still find rest in the character of God, knowing that He is just, that His judgments are true and righteous. Remember God will always punish sin, for that's what truth and righteousness will do.

Even here, they are celebrating the fact that God is true and righteous in His judgments of the great harlot. Look at verse two, it says, "Because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her."

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you've heard from Pastor Bill today.

If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3. We have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived, and you can find them at simplefaith.org. That's simplefaith.org. Just click the media tab.

And if you'd like to contact us, just click the contact us tab at our website. There's a tab at the top of the homepage where you can also send in a prayer request. You can also call us. The phone number is 833-By-Grace. That's 833-294-7223. And if you'd prefer the U.S. mail, our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battleground, Washington, 98604.

This month, when you support Simple Faith with a donation of any amount, we have a resource we're very excited to send you. It's a wonderful 365-day devotional book by Anne Graham Lotz titled, *The Joy of My Heart*. In this collection of daily devotionals, Anne Graham Lotz brings some of her most thought-provoking meditations from six of her best-selling books into concise and captivating readings for each day of the year.

It's going to help you rediscover that His word is definitely the joy of my heart. It's yours for a donation of any amount this month. To donate, go to simplefaith.org and click the give tab.

Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services every Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:45, and a great time of study in God's word Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org, and you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, and be sure to join us next time as our series in Revelation continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.