John has a vision of heavenly worship of great passion and power; multitudes proclaiming “Hallelujah” over the sovereign power of Almighty God.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This is episode 25 in our Revelation Bible Study podcast entitled Heavenly Hallelujahs, where we’ll discuss Revelation 19:1-10. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, we’re going to see a four-fold hallelujah. We’re going to celebrate in the midst of all the darkness. And I mean there’s just so much darkness and sorrow and destruction in the Book of Revelation. Revelation 19:1-10 is a ray of sunshine. And what it shows is when we get to heaven and look back on the 6,000 years of redemptive history and especially the 20 centuries that have come since between the first and second comings of Christ, there’s a lot of sorrow, a lot of destruction, a lot of pain and suffering, but it’s all going to be celebrated. We are going to see God’s hand in all of it. We’re going to celebrate the wisdom and power and sovereignty of God against such a dark backdrop. And so, these 10 verses with their four hallelujahs give us a foretaste of that, that we are going to absolutely celebrate everything that God has done, including terrible judgments on the wicked. We’re going to say hallelujah and we’re going to praise God for him. So, I’m looking forward to walking through these 10 verses.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read Revelation 19:1-10.
After this, I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
Once more, they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.”
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Andy, how does this passage relate to chapter 18, the fall of Babylon, and how would you contrast the reaction in heaven with that on earth?
Andy
Yeah, well, I mean Revelation 19:1-10 is the reaction, the heavenly reaction to the fall of Babylon the great in chapter 18. They go absolutely side by side. And so, you can almost just take out the chapter division between 18 and 19 at this point. And so, it’s fundamentally celebration. Hallelujah is I guess the one word that’s pronounced the same in every language. All over the world, people say hallelujah. They say it in every language. I remember my Japanese Christian friend said hallelujah.
So, it’s a Hebrew word, and halle means praise. And the L-U, halle-lu is imperative, plural imperative like you all, all y’all, so to speak, as I say down here in the South, praise, and then Jah is Yahweh. So, you all should praise Yahweh. So, it’s an exhortation horizontally to other creatures, to angels and men. You need to praise God. This is pretty awesome. So, it’s an invitation to worship. And what’s the topic? Babylon has fallen. They’re celebrating the judgment of God’s enemies, and that’s going to be very educational for us because we think differently as we walk through this. But that’s what this chapter is about.
Wes
What does John here at the beginning of this passage and what does it teach us about heavenly worship?
Andy
All right, chapter 18 begins with an angel with a mighty voice coming down and proclaiming the stuff about Babylon falling. This is a reaction of a huge multitude in heaven. So, we don’t know who they are. So, I would say everybody, all the good beings up there in heaven, so that would be angels and humans. So, all of heaven is reacting and celebrating a huge… and it must’ve been deafening, just loud, and they say, “Hallelujah!” in wave upon wave. And they’re celebrating, and what they say is, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments.” And then more, “He has condemned the great prostitute,” chapter 17, “Who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He is avenged on her the blood of his servants.” So that’s what’s being celebrated. So fundamentally the attributes of God in saving, all right, so salvation. So, who gets saved? Well, certainly not Babylon. Babylon’s not getting saved at all. Babylon’s being condemned eternally. And we’ll see that clearly in this passage in verse 3, eternal torment.
So why salvation? Well, because there are some individuals who should have, at some sense, shared in her judgments because we were part of that system. But we were rescued out of it. “Salvation belongs to God.” And so, we were going to celebrate the fact that we didn’t share in her torments though we deserved it. And not only salvation, but glory belongs to God. It is a radiantly glorious thing that God has saved a multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation out of the Babylonian world system. So, glory belongs to our God. And also power. It was a work of power to save us, and it will be a work of power to judge Babylon the great.
So, God’s power both in salvation and damnation will be clearly on display, and we will celebrate that. And we’re also going to say verse 2, true and just are his judgments. We’re going to say Babylon the great deserved it. She’s getting what she deserved, and he has condemned this whore, this great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her luxuries and adulteries and also drank the blood of the saints. God is giving her what she deserved. And so, we are going to see the justice of God in what he does.
Wes
You really get a sense of God’s care, his concern for the sufferings of his people. That comes across in verse 2 as he judges Babylon for persecuting his people. It’s a really comforting passage, I would imagine, for believers who are undergoing persecution that God is true and just and sees and will judge rightly in the end.
Andy
Yeah, amen.
Wes
What is the heavenly multitude celebrating here in verse 3, and why is it ground for celebration?
Andy
Yeah, this is a very sobering verse. This may be one of the hardest themes in my heaven book, a chapter I wrote entitled Memories of the Damned, and it was kind of a double hearing in terms of the title, memories that the damned will have when they’re in hell, but memories of those who were damned by those who are in heaven. And so, will we remember those who are condemned to eternity in hell? And the answer is, we will remember them. Will we have any sense of reluctance or regret about them? Literally none at all because this begins with the word hallelujah. And look at this one verse, this maybe one of the most troubling verses for people, and says again, they, the heavenly multitude shouted, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” It’s like, whoa, wait a minute, do you realize what you just said?
Eternal conscious torment is the doctrine of hell. It’s very clear here. They have no hesitation whatsoever about celebrating her eternal conscious torment. Now this is troubling to many of us. Why would the saints in heaven celebrate the eternal torment of human beings? Now imagine if you heard someone say such and such a person or group of people are going to suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire forever and ever, and the other person responded, “Praise the Lord.” You would think something’s wrong with that person. Now I think what I’ve learned as I teach this topic is to say we have to understand how different the rules of engagement are now versus what they will be in heaven. Right now, there’s weeping and sorrow over that, but I found in every case the weeping and sorrow is for people who are not there yet but are heading there. They’re not there yet but heading there. Weep then, pray, yearn, because something can still be done, come out of her, my people so that you will not share in her torments.
we underestimate the justice and the rightness and the power and the glory of God
And there’s weeping that’s involved in begging people to come out, but once we’re there and what’s done is done, there’s no weeping and sorrow. What is there here? Celebration. God deserves to be praised. So again, we struggle with that, but we shouldn’t. Our reticence to celebrate shows how much we underestimate the damage that the whore has done to the people of God. And we underestimate the justice and the rightness and the power and the glory of God in doing this. So, there’s no smugness here either. We’re going to see that we deserved to share in her torments, but we were saved by grace. We were rescued out of her. So, we’ll know that. The problem is we, to some degree, are a little bit hungover from the last time we drank from the cup from her hand.
And we’re still a little bit sluggish and slow to see things properly because we have still got a little Babylonian intoxication in us. But when we’re in heaven, it’ll be gone, and we’ll see it all very, very clearly. So, the angel that poured out his bowl on the waters in Revelation 16, the other angels are celebrating it. “You’re right in doing this, God, because you did it, and you’re giving them what they deserve.” We also saw in Revelation 14 the doctrine of eternal torment. “The smoke of her torment rises forever and ever.” That’s what it says in Revelation 14:11 and then again in 19:3, same thing. And not only that, as I’ve said, the saints will be absolutely, completely in detail aware of Babylon’s judgments. Clearly, we’re aware of it.
“They will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me,” Isaiah 66:24. “The worm will not die, and the fire will not be quenched and there’ll be loathsome to all mankind.” Yeah, we’ll be very aware of those who are damned. Also, we learn from Romans 9 that the vessels of wrath exist for our benefit, not for theirs. It would’ve been better for them, like Judas, if they’d never been born. Not better for them, but it’s better for us that they were. And why is that? Because we learn God’s great power and his incredible patience and his justice and the incredible grace he’s shown to us in rescuing us out of the torment we deserved. So fundamentally also when we get to heaven, we’re not going to be like Lot’s wife. Remember how Jesus said that? Remember Lot’s wife? What was her problem? She looked back at Sodom with longing, with regret. She wishes that she could still go on in that life.
We’re not going to be like that in heaven. “Boy, I wish we could go back to those good old days in Babylon.” It’s like, “No, thank you, God, for rescuing me out of that.” And you asked in the last podcast, and again with this one, how do we deal with this? Because we’re immersed in it. We’re surrounded by Babylon the great. I think what we need to realize is we are in the process of being rescued from it, and God will finish that. And when we get to heaven, we will see how gracious God was to us because we could easily have been swept away. We’re not much different. So fundamentally, we have to detach ourselves now as best we can from Babylon, “Come out of her, my people, so that you’ll not share in her sins so that you’ll not receive any of her plagues,” Revelation 18:4.
Wes
How does the worship of the elders and living creatures that we see next harmonize with that of the great multitude of verse 1? And what does the word amen signify here?
Andy
Amen, may it stand, I think it’s related to the Hebrew word for stand. It’s like, I agree. I think fundamentally, I agree. And so, the 24 elders aren’t adding anything new here, the four living creatures either, they’re just agreeing, they’re like, I agree that the smoke of her torment rises forever and ever and amen, that’s how it should be. So, there’s no, “Yeah, should we really be doing this?” There’s no discordant theme or minor faction up in heaven. “Not quite sure this should be happening.” Nope, not at all. Everyone is in complete agreement with God’s judgments on Babylon. We’re saying amen to what God has done.
Wes
Who speaks next in verse 5? And what does the voice command?
Andy
“A voice came from the throne.” Okay, so that’ll tell you something. No one borrows the throne for a minute. No angel, no saint says, “Hey Jesus, can I borrow your throne for a minute?” No. This has got to be the voice of the Lord. This is the voice of God or Jesus, and therefore, it’s authoritative. He’s telling us what to do. “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great.” So, Jesus is saying, “You need to think about this properly. You need to understand the fall of Babylon properly. You need to understand my just judgments and hell properly. And you need to praise God in reference to all of these things you servants, and you who fear him, both small and great.” So, what is that fear? The fear of the Lord is of his holiness, of his judgments, of his wrath.
And the Book of Revelation should put us in a state of holy fear. “You who fear God, flee the wrath to come. As John the Baptist said, “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” (Matthew 3:7) We have been warned. And in this chapter, Revelation 17, 18 and now 19, we are warned to flee the wrath to come. And so, the voice from the throne, from Jesus is saying, “Praise God, you who are being rescued.” Let me say something else. If this is Jesus’ voice, keep in mind, and I mentioned this a moment ago, this is the same Jesus who did weep over Jerusalem. So again, the rules of engagement are different. He’s not weeping now. I mean in Revelation 9, he’s saying praise God. And so, the time for weeping is now. I’ve thought a lot about this, the whole weeping and the great sorrow and unceasing anguish in Paul’s heart for lostness. That’s for now as a motivator to evangelism and missions. That’s the purpose. And also, it is sad when people get sent to hell, but it’s not sad in heaven. When we’re in heaven, there’s no sorrow about it at all.
Wes
I feel like we may have used the appropriate and inappropriate language before. Here, sorrow over the lost is appropriate, it’s fitting it’s right, but then it would be inappropriate because God is bringing to fulfillment what he said he would do.
Andy
Yeah, I mean everything he does, he does for his glory and for our joy, and we’re going to rejoice in everything God did. It is right for him to clean up the universe, frankly. I mean, let’s be honest, this witch, this whore, this Babylon woman symbolized, et cetera, caused immeasurable damage to the people of God. Why would we regret any aspect of her being destroyed and the universe being cleaned up from her? We’re going to celebrate it.
Wes
Who speaks next? What are they celebrating and what’s the attitude of the multitude toward God’s reign?
Andy
Okay, so it’s a huge multitude and it’s the same thing in verse 1, I think, this great multitude comes in verse 1. And so, it’s the same again. So, it’s I think all the saints and all the angels, and it sounds like Niagara Falls. It’s this massive loud noise, like loud peals of thunder. Think about that. What was that like? And what do they say? “Hallelujah, for our Lord God, Almighty reigns.” So, you have the ESV. What is that in verse 6?
Wes
“Hallelujah, for the Lord, our God, the Almighty reigns.”
Andy
Okay, so now we got to go with KJV, of course. We talked about this before in the podcast. KJV says, “Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Obviously, I cannot fail to mention that this was the exact text that Handel chose for his famous Hallelujah chorus. If you know anything about that, you can hear, and we’re not going to sing it for you. That’s not our role.
Wes
We discussed it.
Andy
We’re not going… You would do a good job.
Wes
We’re going to hold back.
Andy
Okay. But what are they celebrating? All right, the Hallelujah chorus, which is one of the greatest pieces of music ever. But what really matters more important than Handel in 1741 writing this is the scripture verse. And what we’re going to be celebrating in heaven is the absolute, complete, comprehensive sovereignty of God. He rules over everything; we will worship him for reigning actively and minutely over every moment of human history, including the martyrdom of many of his saints by this whore, this witch, Babylon. He sovereignly ruled over it, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). He allowed it to happen just like we learned in Daniel 7. The beast was given power to trample on the saints and to defeat them for a time, times and half a time, for a short amount of time.
And we’re going to celebrate that. We’re going to say, “We see your wisdom in it. We see your wisdom,” and we’re going to celebrate the sovereignty of God. And so that’s why you and I delight in theology that is suffused within and woven through the sovereignty of God. Some people call it Calvinism or reformed soteriology, the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. But when we get to heaven, I’m not going to say, “We’ll all be Calvinists.” We’ll be so far beyond such a title. We’ll be up in heaven immersed in the sovereignty of God. It’s a kingdom up there. And we’re going to look back over 6,000 years in which he never relinquished his sovereignty. At every moment, he was sovereign. And we’re going to celebrate it.
Wes
What does it mean, “Let us give him glory”? And what is the wedding of the Lamb? And how is the bride making herself ready?
Andy
All right, “Let us rejoice and give him glory.” Glory to God. I mean, what does that mean? There’s an old saying, I learned it a number of years ago, didn’t know what it meant, but then I looked it up, “coals to Newcastle.” Well, Newcastle was a place in the British Isles that was the number one exporter of coal. And so, if you’re going to bring a couple of buckets of coal to Newcastle, they’re not really needed.
Wes
They aren’t.
Andy
They’re all fine. They’re all set on coal. Well, how do we bring a little bucket of glory to this glorious God who fills the universe with his glory? We don’t bring him any glory. He is glorious. So therefore, when we say, “Glory to God in the highest,” what we’re saying is we are recognizing how glorious God is. We’re not adding to his glory at all. God has more glory than Newcastle ever had coal. And so therefore, we are just recognizing how glorious he is. I think it is an awareness, a cognitive awareness, and a heart delight in the glory of God that angels and the redeemed, the saints, have the capacity to see the glory of God when we say, “Rejoice and be glad and give him glory.” And then there’s a reason given, “For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean was given her to wear.”
And then it says, fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. So, what do we mean by that? Well, putting it together, and… This is interesting, you say, all right, are you saying we can’t bring any glory to God? Well, I want to walk that back a little bit. By doing good works in this world, we glorify God, and the unique good works that this servant or that servant, this brother, this sister, these famous people, these martyrs, these writers, composers, preachers, servants, nurses, others did, they glorify God in a unique kind of way. But they didn’t bring God anything that wasn’t his already. Because every one of them will say, “Apart from him, I couldn’t do anything.” So, they were actually displays of God.
So, in the end, yes, you’re not bringing God anything that wasn’t his already, but there is a unique aspect, Wes, to your life and to my life and others, that it’s ours. And we get to bring glory to God by who we are and what we do. And so that is discussed here when it talks about the fine linen, bright and clean given to wear, and there, it stands interestingly… You would say, all right, if you’re going to say, what is the linen that’s brought that covers shameful nakedness? It’s the imputed righteousness of Christ. And that’s what I would believe, by the imputed righteousness of Christ, we are covered with a perfect righteousness that covers us for all eternity.
we were created in Christ to do good works, and when we do them, we get to kind of wear a robe of good works.
But that’s not what’s going on with this linen. This linen has to do with the righteous acts of the saints, our good works. And so, we were created in Christ to do good works, and when we do them, we get to kind of wear a robe of good works. I don’t think it’s any different at this point from the crowns that are ours by, like Paul says, “What is my hope, my joy and the crown in which I’ll glory, is it not you?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19), he says to the Philippians, the Thessalonians, these people he worked with, they are his crown. In other words, he’s kind of earned the right to be celebrated for planting a church in Thessalonica or in Philippi. And so, there is a sense of personal honor that we will have for the good works we did for the glory of God. And the bride made herself ready. I find that interesting. She purified herself as 1 John 3 says, “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.”
So, purify yourself, like wash and get yourself ready. But then it says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” So, who does the purifying? Well, he does, but we make ourselves available to him. Say, “God, I’m unclean in this way. I confess this sin to you, cleanse me of it.” And then we live a pure life based on that cleansing. So, we’ve gotten ourselves ready for the wedding banquet. Also, it clicks into Ephesians 5 where it talks about, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” well for what purpose? To make her holy having cleansed her by the washing with water through the word in order to present her to himself as what? A radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. That fits into this. She’s beautiful, radiant, got herself ready, she purified herself, he purified her, he dressed her up, she dressed herself. Cooperative effort here, and we’ll talk about it more in Revelation 21.
Wes
What does the angel tell John to write at this point? And what’s the significance of the imagery found in verse 9?
Andy
Yeah, praise God that John wrote it down. Paul was forbidden to talk about what he saw up in paradise, the third heaven. But John was commanded to write these things down, “Write this down and write what you’ve seen, and then write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.’ Write that down too.” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” So, praise God. So, thank you John for writing the value of this and blessed of those who are going to sit at the banquet table of the Lamb, the wedding supper of the Lamb.
Now, this feasting imagery and banqueting imagery, I can’t help but think about the glory of God. There are going to be so many delicate dishes and sumptuous feasts of the glory of God. Will we eat literal food? Probably. But what’s really going to be enjoyable will be this detail or that aspect of the glory of God that we will enjoy at the banquet table, the wedding supper of the Lamb. And then he added, “These are the true words of God.” Revelation is true. So, you think about the judgments of Revelation 18, it’s true. This world system is going to come to an end. It’s going to historically end at the end of the world. And these are the true words. We can escape her judgments by repentance and faith in Christ. And we can cover ourselves in beautiful white linen by good works and by the imputed righteousness of Christ. So, write this down.
Wes
What do we learn about John and angels in verse 10? And what’s the significance of the angel’s statement, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”?
Andy
Well, I love how honest the Bible is about the sins of its great people. So, here’s the apostle, John, at the end of one of the best lives that has ever been lived, one of the best Christian lives. He was a great man of God, and he’s messing up big time here. I mean just messing up, as he falls on the ground to worship the angel that brought him this revelation. And it’s not the only time he does it. He does it another time too. And so, the angel has to stop him. And so, I think the idea is the angel is so glorious, and John has a sense of his own corruption as a mortal man in a dying body. And he just falls down to worship the angel. And the angel stops him and says, “Do not do it. I’m just a fellow servant with you. Worship God.” That’s what he says. “I’m a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
And by the way, it is beautiful that Jesus accepted worship as God. Clearest example of this of course, is Thomas, when he had said, “Unless I put my finger in the nail marks, my hands on the side, I will not believe.” Then a week later, he’s there (John 20). And Thomas realizes he’s in the presence of Almighty God, the resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus. And what does he say? “My Lord and my God.” And Jesus says, “Because you have seen me, you believe.” He accepted the worship, and not just from Thomas, but from other people as well. And that means Jesus is God. I mean, he would’ve been duty bound as the most perfect man that’s ever lived if he were not God to stop people from worshiping him. But he was there to make people worship him. He wanted them to worship him, and so he accepted it.
But anyway, back to the text. He says, “Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” By the way, that’s a comprehensive statement that I think is just generally true. All the prophets and the apostles together testify to Jesus. Jesus himself is the chief cornerstone. He’s the focus of everything. Everything, all roads in prophecy lead to Jesus.
Wes
Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us on these first 10 verses of Revelation 19 that we’ve looked at today?
Andy
Well, I think it would be good to just praise God. We don’t have to say hallelujah but say it. Why not? And just say, we should be praising God. Everything is on schedule. We live in an age of uncertainty and of distress and of difficulty. And we’re doing the podcast the day after the presidential election and a lot of uncertainty. A lot of people, some people happy, some people sad, people struggling. When I read Revelation 19, I realize how transcendent the kingdom of God is over all of these petty concerns. I’m not saying that it’s not important to vote or be involved in the political process. It’s not my point. My point is the kingdom of God and of his Christ is infinitely above all of those things. And so just to worship him is what I get out of this.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 25 in our Revelation Bible Study Podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 26 entitled, The Second Coming of Christ, where we’ll discuss Revelation 19:11-21. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This is episode 25 in our Revelation Bible Study podcast entitled Heavenly Hallelujahs, where we’ll discuss Revelation 19:1-10. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, we’re going to see a four-fold hallelujah. We’re going to celebrate in the midst of all the darkness. And I mean there’s just so much darkness and sorrow and destruction in the Book of Revelation. Revelation 19:1-10 is a ray of sunshine. And what it shows is when we get to heaven and look back on the 6,000 years of redemptive history and especially the 20 centuries that have come since between the first and second comings of Christ, there’s a lot of sorrow, a lot of destruction, a lot of pain and suffering, but it’s all going to be celebrated. We are going to see God’s hand in all of it. We’re going to celebrate the wisdom and power and sovereignty of God against such a dark backdrop. And so, these 10 verses with their four hallelujahs give us a foretaste of that, that we are going to absolutely celebrate everything that God has done, including terrible judgments on the wicked. We’re going to say hallelujah and we’re going to praise God for him. So, I’m looking forward to walking through these 10 verses.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read Revelation 19:1-10.
After this, I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
Once more, they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.”
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Andy, how does this passage relate to chapter 18, the fall of Babylon, and how would you contrast the reaction in heaven with that on earth?
Andy
Yeah, well, I mean Revelation 19:1-10 is the reaction, the heavenly reaction to the fall of Babylon the great in chapter 18. They go absolutely side by side. And so, you can almost just take out the chapter division between 18 and 19 at this point. And so, it’s fundamentally celebration. Hallelujah is I guess the one word that’s pronounced the same in every language. All over the world, people say hallelujah. They say it in every language. I remember my Japanese Christian friend said hallelujah.
So, it’s a Hebrew word, and halle means praise. And the L-U, halle-lu is imperative, plural imperative like you all, all y’all, so to speak, as I say down here in the South, praise, and then Jah is Yahweh. So, you all should praise Yahweh. So, it’s an exhortation horizontally to other creatures, to angels and men. You need to praise God. This is pretty awesome. So, it’s an invitation to worship. And what’s the topic? Babylon has fallen. They’re celebrating the judgment of God’s enemies, and that’s going to be very educational for us because we think differently as we walk through this. But that’s what this chapter is about.
Wes
What does John here at the beginning of this passage and what does it teach us about heavenly worship?
Andy
All right, chapter 18 begins with an angel with a mighty voice coming down and proclaiming the stuff about Babylon falling. This is a reaction of a huge multitude in heaven. So, we don’t know who they are. So, I would say everybody, all the good beings up there in heaven, so that would be angels and humans. So, all of heaven is reacting and celebrating a huge… and it must’ve been deafening, just loud, and they say, “Hallelujah!” in wave upon wave. And they’re celebrating, and what they say is, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments.” And then more, “He has condemned the great prostitute,” chapter 17, “Who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He is avenged on her the blood of his servants.” So that’s what’s being celebrated. So fundamentally the attributes of God in saving, all right, so salvation. So, who gets saved? Well, certainly not Babylon. Babylon’s not getting saved at all. Babylon’s being condemned eternally. And we’ll see that clearly in this passage in verse 3, eternal torment.
So why salvation? Well, because there are some individuals who should have, at some sense, shared in her judgments because we were part of that system. But we were rescued out of it. “Salvation belongs to God.” And so, we were going to celebrate the fact that we didn’t share in her torments though we deserved it. And not only salvation, but glory belongs to God. It is a radiantly glorious thing that God has saved a multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation out of the Babylonian world system. So, glory belongs to our God. And also power. It was a work of power to save us, and it will be a work of power to judge Babylon the great.
So, God’s power both in salvation and damnation will be clearly on display, and we will celebrate that. And we’re also going to say verse 2, true and just are his judgments. We’re going to say Babylon the great deserved it. She’s getting what she deserved, and he has condemned this whore, this great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her luxuries and adulteries and also drank the blood of the saints. God is giving her what she deserved. And so, we are going to see the justice of God in what he does.
Wes
You really get a sense of God’s care, his concern for the sufferings of his people. That comes across in verse 2 as he judges Babylon for persecuting his people. It’s a really comforting passage, I would imagine, for believers who are undergoing persecution that God is true and just and sees and will judge rightly in the end.
Andy
Yeah, amen.
Wes
What is the heavenly multitude celebrating here in verse 3, and why is it ground for celebration?
Andy
Yeah, this is a very sobering verse. This may be one of the hardest themes in my heaven book, a chapter I wrote entitled Memories of the Damned, and it was kind of a double hearing in terms of the title, memories that the damned will have when they’re in hell, but memories of those who were damned by those who are in heaven. And so, will we remember those who are condemned to eternity in hell? And the answer is, we will remember them. Will we have any sense of reluctance or regret about them? Literally none at all because this begins with the word hallelujah. And look at this one verse, this maybe one of the most troubling verses for people, and says again, they, the heavenly multitude shouted, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” It’s like, whoa, wait a minute, do you realize what you just said?
Eternal conscious torment is the doctrine of hell. It’s very clear here. They have no hesitation whatsoever about celebrating her eternal conscious torment. Now this is troubling to many of us. Why would the saints in heaven celebrate the eternal torment of human beings? Now imagine if you heard someone say such and such a person or group of people are going to suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire forever and ever, and the other person responded, “Praise the Lord.” You would think something’s wrong with that person. Now I think what I’ve learned as I teach this topic is to say we have to understand how different the rules of engagement are now versus what they will be in heaven. Right now, there’s weeping and sorrow over that, but I found in every case the weeping and sorrow is for people who are not there yet but are heading there. They’re not there yet but heading there. Weep then, pray, yearn, because something can still be done, come out of her, my people so that you will not share in her torments.
we underestimate the justice and the rightness and the power and the glory of God
And there’s weeping that’s involved in begging people to come out, but once we’re there and what’s done is done, there’s no weeping and sorrow. What is there here? Celebration. God deserves to be praised. So again, we struggle with that, but we shouldn’t. Our reticence to celebrate shows how much we underestimate the damage that the whore has done to the people of God. And we underestimate the justice and the rightness and the power and the glory of God in doing this. So, there’s no smugness here either. We’re going to see that we deserved to share in her torments, but we were saved by grace. We were rescued out of her. So, we’ll know that. The problem is we, to some degree, are a little bit hungover from the last time we drank from the cup from her hand.
And we’re still a little bit sluggish and slow to see things properly because we have still got a little Babylonian intoxication in us. But when we’re in heaven, it’ll be gone, and we’ll see it all very, very clearly. So, the angel that poured out his bowl on the waters in Revelation 16, the other angels are celebrating it. “You’re right in doing this, God, because you did it, and you’re giving them what they deserve.” We also saw in Revelation 14 the doctrine of eternal torment. “The smoke of her torment rises forever and ever.” That’s what it says in Revelation 14:11 and then again in 19:3, same thing. And not only that, as I’ve said, the saints will be absolutely, completely in detail aware of Babylon’s judgments. Clearly, we’re aware of it.
“They will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me,” Isaiah 66:24. “The worm will not die, and the fire will not be quenched and there’ll be loathsome to all mankind.” Yeah, we’ll be very aware of those who are damned. Also, we learn from Romans 9 that the vessels of wrath exist for our benefit, not for theirs. It would’ve been better for them, like Judas, if they’d never been born. Not better for them, but it’s better for us that they were. And why is that? Because we learn God’s great power and his incredible patience and his justice and the incredible grace he’s shown to us in rescuing us out of the torment we deserved. So fundamentally also when we get to heaven, we’re not going to be like Lot’s wife. Remember how Jesus said that? Remember Lot’s wife? What was her problem? She looked back at Sodom with longing, with regret. She wishes that she could still go on in that life.
We’re not going to be like that in heaven. “Boy, I wish we could go back to those good old days in Babylon.” It’s like, “No, thank you, God, for rescuing me out of that.” And you asked in the last podcast, and again with this one, how do we deal with this? Because we’re immersed in it. We’re surrounded by Babylon the great. I think what we need to realize is we are in the process of being rescued from it, and God will finish that. And when we get to heaven, we will see how gracious God was to us because we could easily have been swept away. We’re not much different. So fundamentally, we have to detach ourselves now as best we can from Babylon, “Come out of her, my people, so that you’ll not share in her sins so that you’ll not receive any of her plagues,” Revelation 18:4.
Wes
How does the worship of the elders and living creatures that we see next harmonize with that of the great multitude of verse 1? And what does the word amen signify here?
Andy
Amen, may it stand, I think it’s related to the Hebrew word for stand. It’s like, I agree. I think fundamentally, I agree. And so, the 24 elders aren’t adding anything new here, the four living creatures either, they’re just agreeing, they’re like, I agree that the smoke of her torment rises forever and ever and amen, that’s how it should be. So, there’s no, “Yeah, should we really be doing this?” There’s no discordant theme or minor faction up in heaven. “Not quite sure this should be happening.” Nope, not at all. Everyone is in complete agreement with God’s judgments on Babylon. We’re saying amen to what God has done.
Wes
Who speaks next in verse 5? And what does the voice command?
Andy
“A voice came from the throne.” Okay, so that’ll tell you something. No one borrows the throne for a minute. No angel, no saint says, “Hey Jesus, can I borrow your throne for a minute?” No. This has got to be the voice of the Lord. This is the voice of God or Jesus, and therefore, it’s authoritative. He’s telling us what to do. “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great.” So, Jesus is saying, “You need to think about this properly. You need to understand the fall of Babylon properly. You need to understand my just judgments and hell properly. And you need to praise God in reference to all of these things you servants, and you who fear him, both small and great.” So, what is that fear? The fear of the Lord is of his holiness, of his judgments, of his wrath.
And the Book of Revelation should put us in a state of holy fear. “You who fear God, flee the wrath to come. As John the Baptist said, “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” (Matthew 3:7) We have been warned. And in this chapter, Revelation 17, 18 and now 19, we are warned to flee the wrath to come. And so, the voice from the throne, from Jesus is saying, “Praise God, you who are being rescued.” Let me say something else. If this is Jesus’ voice, keep in mind, and I mentioned this a moment ago, this is the same Jesus who did weep over Jerusalem. So again, the rules of engagement are different. He’s not weeping now. I mean in Revelation 9, he’s saying praise God. And so, the time for weeping is now. I’ve thought a lot about this, the whole weeping and the great sorrow and unceasing anguish in Paul’s heart for lostness. That’s for now as a motivator to evangelism and missions. That’s the purpose. And also, it is sad when people get sent to hell, but it’s not sad in heaven. When we’re in heaven, there’s no sorrow about it at all.
Wes
I feel like we may have used the appropriate and inappropriate language before. Here, sorrow over the lost is appropriate, it’s fitting it’s right, but then it would be inappropriate because God is bringing to fulfillment what he said he would do.
Andy
Yeah, I mean everything he does, he does for his glory and for our joy, and we’re going to rejoice in everything God did. It is right for him to clean up the universe, frankly. I mean, let’s be honest, this witch, this whore, this Babylon woman symbolized, et cetera, caused immeasurable damage to the people of God. Why would we regret any aspect of her being destroyed and the universe being cleaned up from her? We’re going to celebrate it.
Wes
Who speaks next? What are they celebrating and what’s the attitude of the multitude toward God’s reign?
Andy
Okay, so it’s a huge multitude and it’s the same thing in verse 1, I think, this great multitude comes in verse 1. And so, it’s the same again. So, it’s I think all the saints and all the angels, and it sounds like Niagara Falls. It’s this massive loud noise, like loud peals of thunder. Think about that. What was that like? And what do they say? “Hallelujah, for our Lord God, Almighty reigns.” So, you have the ESV. What is that in verse 6?
Wes
“Hallelujah, for the Lord, our God, the Almighty reigns.”
Andy
Okay, so now we got to go with KJV, of course. We talked about this before in the podcast. KJV says, “Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Obviously, I cannot fail to mention that this was the exact text that Handel chose for his famous Hallelujah chorus. If you know anything about that, you can hear, and we’re not going to sing it for you. That’s not our role.
Wes
We discussed it.
Andy
We’re not going… You would do a good job.
Wes
We’re going to hold back.
Andy
Okay. But what are they celebrating? All right, the Hallelujah chorus, which is one of the greatest pieces of music ever. But what really matters more important than Handel in 1741 writing this is the scripture verse. And what we’re going to be celebrating in heaven is the absolute, complete, comprehensive sovereignty of God. He rules over everything; we will worship him for reigning actively and minutely over every moment of human history, including the martyrdom of many of his saints by this whore, this witch, Babylon. He sovereignly ruled over it, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). He allowed it to happen just like we learned in Daniel 7. The beast was given power to trample on the saints and to defeat them for a time, times and half a time, for a short amount of time.
And we’re going to celebrate that. We’re going to say, “We see your wisdom in it. We see your wisdom,” and we’re going to celebrate the sovereignty of God. And so that’s why you and I delight in theology that is suffused within and woven through the sovereignty of God. Some people call it Calvinism or reformed soteriology, the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. But when we get to heaven, I’m not going to say, “We’ll all be Calvinists.” We’ll be so far beyond such a title. We’ll be up in heaven immersed in the sovereignty of God. It’s a kingdom up there. And we’re going to look back over 6,000 years in which he never relinquished his sovereignty. At every moment, he was sovereign. And we’re going to celebrate it.
Wes
What does it mean, “Let us give him glory”? And what is the wedding of the Lamb? And how is the bride making herself ready?
Andy
All right, “Let us rejoice and give him glory.” Glory to God. I mean, what does that mean? There’s an old saying, I learned it a number of years ago, didn’t know what it meant, but then I looked it up, “coals to Newcastle.” Well, Newcastle was a place in the British Isles that was the number one exporter of coal. And so, if you’re going to bring a couple of buckets of coal to Newcastle, they’re not really needed.
Wes
They aren’t.
Andy
They’re all fine. They’re all set on coal. Well, how do we bring a little bucket of glory to this glorious God who fills the universe with his glory? We don’t bring him any glory. He is glorious. So therefore, when we say, “Glory to God in the highest,” what we’re saying is we are recognizing how glorious God is. We’re not adding to his glory at all. God has more glory than Newcastle ever had coal. And so therefore, we are just recognizing how glorious he is. I think it is an awareness, a cognitive awareness, and a heart delight in the glory of God that angels and the redeemed, the saints, have the capacity to see the glory of God when we say, “Rejoice and be glad and give him glory.” And then there’s a reason given, “For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean was given her to wear.”
And then it says, fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. So, what do we mean by that? Well, putting it together, and… This is interesting, you say, all right, are you saying we can’t bring any glory to God? Well, I want to walk that back a little bit. By doing good works in this world, we glorify God, and the unique good works that this servant or that servant, this brother, this sister, these famous people, these martyrs, these writers, composers, preachers, servants, nurses, others did, they glorify God in a unique kind of way. But they didn’t bring God anything that wasn’t his already. Because every one of them will say, “Apart from him, I couldn’t do anything.” So, they were actually displays of God.
So, in the end, yes, you’re not bringing God anything that wasn’t his already, but there is a unique aspect, Wes, to your life and to my life and others, that it’s ours. And we get to bring glory to God by who we are and what we do. And so that is discussed here when it talks about the fine linen, bright and clean given to wear, and there, it stands interestingly… You would say, all right, if you’re going to say, what is the linen that’s brought that covers shameful nakedness? It’s the imputed righteousness of Christ. And that’s what I would believe, by the imputed righteousness of Christ, we are covered with a perfect righteousness that covers us for all eternity.
we were created in Christ to do good works, and when we do them, we get to kind of wear a robe of good works.
But that’s not what’s going on with this linen. This linen has to do with the righteous acts of the saints, our good works. And so, we were created in Christ to do good works, and when we do them, we get to kind of wear a robe of good works. I don’t think it’s any different at this point from the crowns that are ours by, like Paul says, “What is my hope, my joy and the crown in which I’ll glory, is it not you?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19), he says to the Philippians, the Thessalonians, these people he worked with, they are his crown. In other words, he’s kind of earned the right to be celebrated for planting a church in Thessalonica or in Philippi. And so, there is a sense of personal honor that we will have for the good works we did for the glory of God. And the bride made herself ready. I find that interesting. She purified herself as 1 John 3 says, “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.”
So, purify yourself, like wash and get yourself ready. But then it says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” So, who does the purifying? Well, he does, but we make ourselves available to him. Say, “God, I’m unclean in this way. I confess this sin to you, cleanse me of it.” And then we live a pure life based on that cleansing. So, we’ve gotten ourselves ready for the wedding banquet. Also, it clicks into Ephesians 5 where it talks about, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” well for what purpose? To make her holy having cleansed her by the washing with water through the word in order to present her to himself as what? A radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. That fits into this. She’s beautiful, radiant, got herself ready, she purified herself, he purified her, he dressed her up, she dressed herself. Cooperative effort here, and we’ll talk about it more in Revelation 21.
Wes
What does the angel tell John to write at this point? And what’s the significance of the imagery found in verse 9?
Andy
Yeah, praise God that John wrote it down. Paul was forbidden to talk about what he saw up in paradise, the third heaven. But John was commanded to write these things down, “Write this down and write what you’ve seen, and then write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.’ Write that down too.” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” So, praise God. So, thank you John for writing the value of this and blessed of those who are going to sit at the banquet table of the Lamb, the wedding supper of the Lamb.
Now, this feasting imagery and banqueting imagery, I can’t help but think about the glory of God. There are going to be so many delicate dishes and sumptuous feasts of the glory of God. Will we eat literal food? Probably. But what’s really going to be enjoyable will be this detail or that aspect of the glory of God that we will enjoy at the banquet table, the wedding supper of the Lamb. And then he added, “These are the true words of God.” Revelation is true. So, you think about the judgments of Revelation 18, it’s true. This world system is going to come to an end. It’s going to historically end at the end of the world. And these are the true words. We can escape her judgments by repentance and faith in Christ. And we can cover ourselves in beautiful white linen by good works and by the imputed righteousness of Christ. So, write this down.
Wes
What do we learn about John and angels in verse 10? And what’s the significance of the angel’s statement, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”?
Andy
Well, I love how honest the Bible is about the sins of its great people. So, here’s the apostle, John, at the end of one of the best lives that has ever been lived, one of the best Christian lives. He was a great man of God, and he’s messing up big time here. I mean just messing up, as he falls on the ground to worship the angel that brought him this revelation. And it’s not the only time he does it. He does it another time too. And so, the angel has to stop him. And so, I think the idea is the angel is so glorious, and John has a sense of his own corruption as a mortal man in a dying body. And he just falls down to worship the angel. And the angel stops him and says, “Do not do it. I’m just a fellow servant with you. Worship God.” That’s what he says. “I’m a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
And by the way, it is beautiful that Jesus accepted worship as God. Clearest example of this of course, is Thomas, when he had said, “Unless I put my finger in the nail marks, my hands on the side, I will not believe.” Then a week later, he’s there (John 20). And Thomas realizes he’s in the presence of Almighty God, the resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus. And what does he say? “My Lord and my God.” And Jesus says, “Because you have seen me, you believe.” He accepted the worship, and not just from Thomas, but from other people as well. And that means Jesus is God. I mean, he would’ve been duty bound as the most perfect man that’s ever lived if he were not God to stop people from worshiping him. But he was there to make people worship him. He wanted them to worship him, and so he accepted it.
But anyway, back to the text. He says, “Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” By the way, that’s a comprehensive statement that I think is just generally true. All the prophets and the apostles together testify to Jesus. Jesus himself is the chief cornerstone. He’s the focus of everything. Everything, all roads in prophecy lead to Jesus.
Wes
Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us on these first 10 verses of Revelation 19 that we’ve looked at today?
Andy
Well, I think it would be good to just praise God. We don’t have to say hallelujah but say it. Why not? And just say, we should be praising God. Everything is on schedule. We live in an age of uncertainty and of distress and of difficulty. And we’re doing the podcast the day after the presidential election and a lot of uncertainty. A lot of people, some people happy, some people sad, people struggling. When I read Revelation 19, I realize how transcendent the kingdom of God is over all of these petty concerns. I’m not saying that it’s not important to vote or be involved in the political process. It’s not my point. My point is the kingdom of God and of his Christ is infinitely above all of those things. And so just to worship him is what I get out of this.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 25 in our Revelation Bible Study Podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 26 entitled, The Second Coming of Christ, where we’ll discuss Revelation 19:11-21. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
