Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #5 of Revelation chapter 19 and we are going to be reading Revelation 19:6-7:

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

So far we have been spending a good amount of time discussing the wording the Lord uses here that exalts His name and praises His name.  The word “Alleluia” is used four times in the first six verses and it is the only time in the Bible it is used.  It is greatly praising JAH because He has conquered the enemy and defeated Satan; He has won the victory and the Lord Jesus Christ is triumphant in His salvation program and the spiritual battle that has raged over the centuries during the course of the history of this world has now come to an end.  It is Judgment Day, so it is a very fitting and good time to praise the Lord.  So the voice of the great multitude (God’s people) and the “voice of many waters” and the voice of “mighty thunderings” (God’s word) are all in unison as they declare, “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

I just want to look at this last phrase in verse 6 before me move on.  The word “omnipotent” is a word we understand that only defines God – only He is omnipotent.  It is actually a Greek compound word made up of two different words and the two words mean “all” and “mighty.”  It is a Greek word that basically declares that God has “all might” and “all power” and “all dominion.”  There are some that have some might, some power, some authority or some dominion, but God possesses all might and all power, and so on.  So He is called the “Almighty,” and this particular Greek word translated as “omnipotent” is Strong’s #3841.  It is translated as “Almighty” in Revelation 11:17:

Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

Again, at this point in Revelation, chapter 11, it is Judgment Day and it is the time that the Lord Jesus becomes King of kings and Lord of lords because He has defeated the enemy and taken the kingdom.  Therefore, it is a wonderful point in time to declare God’s “almighty” nature.  There was a rebellion that raised its ugly head in this world and it began with Satan and the fallen angels and it expanded to include mankind who had been created in the image of God.  So the rebellion was that they wanted to be like God.  These created beings dared to attempt to usurp the authority of their Creator and to take the kingdom from Him; they tried to overthrow the kingdom of God and to remove God from His rightful place on the throne.  By right of conquest, Satan did take the kingdoms of this world because they had been given to mankind who were made in the image of God.  So Satan then ruled over the kingdom and over the unsaved people of the earth.  It was all part of this rebellion and this band of rebels shook their fists at God and the rebellion continued for thousands of years.  Practically the entire history of the earth is the story of the rebellion of mankind, on one hand.  Of course, it is a redemptive story of God saving a people to Himself and, yet, the history of the world is one of rebellion against God.  Finally, at the end and after 13,000 years of history, Satan was loosed and his deadly wound was healed which he had received at the cross and he began to rule, like never before, over the nations and over the churches.  It could appear to anyone that looked at it from an outside position that Satan had, perhaps, won in his rebellion against God.  Yet, God finally defeated Satan at the end and put down the ancient rebellion and put down Satan, deposing him from his seat in the temple and deposing him from his rule in the nations.  Christ won the war and took the kingdom and that is why it is such an appropriate moment to praise God and to sing, “Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”  He is the “Almighty” that reigns and there is no question that God is Supreme.  He is “all powerful.”   We read in 1Chronicles, chapter 29, something that has always been true, but the rebellion of Satan gave God the opportunity to display His all-powerful nature, as it says in 1Chronicles 29:10-13:

Wherefore David blessed JEHOVAH before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, JEHOVAH God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. Thine, O JEHOVAH, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O JEHOVAH, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

What a beautiful declaration that God moved David to declare here in 1Chronicles, chapter 29.  God is majestic and glorious and victorious.  He is all powerful and He reigns over all and, yet, at that time in history and for thousands of years there was the rebellion that God permitted.  God could have squelched a rebellion and destroyed all the rebels with a complete and utter destruction at any time.  Yet, for His own purpose of saving a people for Himself, He put up with the sinful rebellion of mankind and Satan.  Romans, chapter 9 probably explains it best in Romans 9:21-23:

Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

So God made his power known through longsuffering patience.  Remember He saved a people in the day of His power; the day of salvation was a demonstration of the power of God to save.  Yet, there was this open abomination and rebellion against God that the world flaunted year after year and year after year.  As time moved on, the world continued to go its own way as though it were an independent agent that was not accountable or subject to the Creator.  God permitted it, willing to make His power known.  Of course, the Word of God is a twoedged sword and it did cut to salvation or to condemnation all through history, but there would come an official day of Judgment Day, the day of the Lord’s wrath and the day in which He would pour out His fury and show forth His mighty power in another way against the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  So God ended His salvation program on May 21, 2011 and soon He will completely annihilate all those that never became saved.  This is the time we are living in and it is the present situation as we live on the earth in the day of God’s judgment, the day of His glorious power.  All of us sing with the great multitude, ““Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

It goes on to say in Revelation 19:7:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

The first part of this verse says, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him,” is connected to the second part because “the marriage of the Lamb is come.”  God has saved a people for Himself that He identifies as His “bride” and now is the marriage that takes place at the time of the world’s judgment.  We will discuss that shortly, but first let us look at the language where it says, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him.”  The Greek word that is translated as “rejoice” is Strong’s #21 and it points to great joy because of God’s salvation program.  For instance, it says in Matthew 5:11-12:

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

We are looking at the English word “rejoice” in Revelation 19:7, but the Greek word translated as “rejoice” there is not translated as “rejoice” in Matthew 5:12, but it is the two words translated as “exceeding glad.”   When we look at this word, Strong’s #21, it comes from a word that means “all leaping.”  When a lame man was healed in front of the Beautiful gate of the temple, he stood up and leaped and praised God.  That was one of the words that was part of this Greek compound word which would literally read “all leap” or “all leaping.”  Of course, when that lame man was healed he was “exceeding glad” and that is what the word “leaping” conveys – great and exceeding gladness.  And, here, God says, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”  In other words, when you are treated in the same manner as the Lord Jesus Christ was treated and you are treated n the same manner as the true and faithful prophets of God were treated, then rejoice.   Christ was “despised and rejected of men” and so, too, were those that brought His Word, but as God said to Samuel, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me,” and that is the nature of the world’s reaction to the true Word of God. 

If we identify with that Word and we identify with Christ, we can expect the same kind of reaction.  That is what God is saying will happen if you are so closely identified with His Word that you are experiencing reviling and persecution for the Word’s sake and people are turning from you and rejecting you.  Then you start crying and you hang your head and you say, “Woe is me.  People do not like me.  People used to like me and love me and it is so terrible and awful.”  Did God say that?  No, He did not say that at all, did He?  He did not say to go sit alone in the dark and cry about it.  Instead, God said, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”  In other words, you are on the right path and you are following the narrow way that leads to life and you are following the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is strong evidence that God may have saved you.  There is a good possibility He has saved you and that is why you are identifying with His Word and suffering as a result.

Of course, we always have to be careful.  In some cases, it is not the Word of God that is the offense, but it is the person himself that is personally offensive and people can react to that as well.  There is no thankfulness in that, as we read in 1Peter.  If we are personally offensive through our sins, through our wrong doctrines or in the manner in which we share the Gospel, this is not what God is talking about.  He is talking about someone who is humble and aligned with the Word of God and it is that truth that is despised and hated.  We want to personally be very nice and we want to be kind and gentle unto all men, not striving with people.  If we are doing those things, by God’s grace and Spirit, and we present ourselves humbly, gently and kindly, as we firmly hang on to the sound doctrines of the Bible, then the world’s rejection is for the Word’s sake.  At that point, we should “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad,” and not just a little glad, because it is a wonderful evidence in our life.  The world loves and embraces its own and it is open to all kinds of people, ways, religions and philosophies, but the world does not love the light of the true Gospel.  It does not love the Word of God that is rightly declared or followed and, therefore, we can be thankful and we can sing, “Alleluia, praise the Lord.  The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”  We can thank the Lord that this is evidence that proves that God, perhaps, did the work of salvation in me.

Let us also go to 1Peter, chapter 1 and look at a verse that mentions this same word “rejoicing.” It says in 1Peter 1:5-6:

Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

Notice that verse 5 mentions salvation and then God says, “ye greatly rejoice,” and that is the same word used in our verse in Revelation 19 and also translated as “exceeding glad” in Matthew, chapter 5.  So it is in association with salvation and then it says, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.”  This almost seems like a contradictory statement.  How can you greatly rejoice and be in heaviness at the same time?  And then verse 7 speaks of the “trial of your faith” and being tried with fire, and we know that is exactly what God is doing at this time; He is putting all His people through the fire and He is trying our faith to see if it is the faith of Christ.  True and saving faith is the “faith of Christ.”  Has Christ become our faith?  Has He worked the work of salvation in us, or is our faith just a profession or a belief in our mind that is not truly saving faith?  If Christ did not perform the work of saving us at the foundation of the world, then we do not have saving faith because that is the only faith that is genuine. 

So this is a test and a time of trial to see what our foundation is and what our life is truly built upon.  Are we built upon the Rock or are we built on a foundation of sand?  This time period will reveal it, so it can be a struggle.  In Hebrews 12, God also speaks of chastisement in relation to His children at this period of time and it can be grievous and not “joyous.”  God is not expecting His people to walk around with a big smile on their faces all the time and to be constantly laughing and giggling.  To “greatly rejoice” and to be “exceeding glad” is not necessarily revealed in those ways, but it is something that is within the individual; it is something God has done in our soul.  He has given us a new heart and a new spirit. 

The true believer knows this distinction and even when there is grief and when there are trials and tribulation or when things are a struggle, there is that wonderful knowledge that God has saved you: “Thank you, God, for having mercy upon me.  Thank you for saving me and giving me eternal life.  This life is not for ever, but there is an eternity to come and that is my expectation.”  So that “exceeding gladness” is still there at all times and we are thankful for what God has done.  Of course, it does not always work out in the physical realm in an outward way.