Praise for God’s Eternal Reign
Study Scripture: Revelation 11: 15 – 19
Background Scripture: Revelation 11: 15 – 19
Lesson 11 November 13, 2021
Key Verse
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 11:15
INTRODUCTION
Do you wish to know how the world is being run? When you look at all the examples of the powerful people running nations for their own benefit, stripping money and property away from nations and hiding it for the benefit of them and their families while their own citizens suffer and practically starve to death? How do you feel and how will you react?
Have you ever thought of the fact that many nations cannot even provide Covid 19 vaccinations for their people despite the fact that some of the elite of these nations and rulers have stashed away a lot of money abroad in tax havens? Have you ever thought about why there are so many diseases that remain untreated, why some people do not have access to water that will not kill them when they drink it, and why some have no stable electricity or energy supplies, or have little or no access to education? Have you ever considered the extent of abuse of women and children and the poor and realized that something is not right before our eyes?
Our Study Text continuous a discussion of what will happen on earth after the Lord Jesus reveals the Plan of God the Father to cleanse the world of its corruption.
Revelation 11 reveals the mercy of God for He provides two witnesses who have supernatural powers to try to turn away the people of the world from their evil doings. They combat the reign of the Beast set up by Satan to destroy human beings.
Never forget that Satan hates human beings for they have the opportunity of turning to the Lord God of heaven and receive forgiveness of their sins. But there is no forgiveness for him. His doom is sure. He deserves the Lake of Fire.
So therefore when we think about what is going to happen it is right and fair that we praise God for His marvelous work and praise Him for the fact that He is finally about to bring about His eternal reign on the earth so that evil will be eradicated everywhere.
We can celebrate but we have to remember that the time has not yet come for the will of God to be done on earth and so we have to carry out our task of pointing people to the love and mercy of the Lord God of heaven and for the provision that He has made for the salvation of men who will turn to Christ.
We have to tell people about the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth and all that is in them by the Lord God of Heaven, the Fall of man into sin in the Garden of Eden, and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth as OUR Kinsman- Redeemer and our Brother, teaching us, showing us the way back to the Father, dying on the Cross of Calvary, shedding His blood, and then being resurrected and ascended to the right hand of the Father to be the intercessor for us.
Remember that we are to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love must dominate our actions and motivate us to seek to save souls.
The Lord Jesus Christ has taken the scroll from the hands of the Father which contained God’s plan for dealing with the world. Revelation 6 to 8 tells us that the seven seals of the scroll had been opened and when the sixth seal was opened an angel gave John a scroll and told him to eat it and when he did it it was bittersweet. This bittersweet taste clearly emphasized that God’s plan to save the world and clean it up involved both tribulations that would come to the world of unbelievers but salvation for the believers. For some it will be bitter but for others it will be sweet.
John had been given a tape measure to measure the Temple, the altar, and those that worship there. The identity of the Temple that John was to measure is a matter of some controversy for some believe that the Temple is a symbol of the Church, for since the people of God are called the Temple of God this Temple is in fact an heavenly entity. John in fact was therefore told to measure the church, the people of God.
Others point out that this Temple was likely to be on earth to fulfill the prophecies of Daniel, the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul which spoke about the abomination of desolation with the antichrist defiling the Temple by putting abominations there. Daniel 9:27, 11: 31 and 12: 11 refers to this incident. But Jesus Himself in Matthew 24:15-16 spoke of this abomination standing in the holy place. The apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 also spoke about antichrist sitting in the Temple as God. Some therefore believe that the people of Israel will construct a Temple sometime in the future before Jesus returns.
One has to be cautious in the frequent spiritualization of things spoken about in the book of Revelation. Undoubtedly, there is an extensive use of symbolism because of the eschatological nature of the book of Revelation, but one must recognize that the Bible is quite clear that the antichrist and emissary of Satan himself does exist and will exist and will somehow bring abominations into what appears to be a real Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem which is yet to be built.
Believers must however be cautious but look to see what will have to happen in future, whether there would be an actual temple rebuild or not, and whether or not an actual antichrist which appears to be human will come.
We should remember the warning of John 5:43 where Jesus gave a solemn warning to the leaders of Israel, a warning which is directly relevant to events in the time of the end:
“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life: and these are they which testify of Me.
But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
I do not receive honor from men.
But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.
I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive”.
This suggests that the Antichrist will be a real being who seeks to enthrone himself in the earth. Sadly, it suggests that Israel and the people of the earth will be deceived and will willingly follow him.
We are all well aware that the modern world believes in humanism and that man will progress and there will be an unbroken advance in morality, justice, and goodness. There will be no limits set to perfecting the powers of man. Even some Christians have a false estimate of human nature and so they have this optimistic philosophy of human nature. It is easy to be deceived and for adults and children to become disobedient to the word of God, and for parents to become unthankful and give up their divine responsibility of bringing up their children properly.
Because some deny the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the uniqueness of the work that He has done by His sacrifice of His blood at His crucifixion they ignore the fact of the incredibly powerful and effective work that Jesus has done.
The Apostle John gives us a vision of human government which is not a great image at all like the image in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar but an image of four wild beasts. He will talk about a bear, a leopard, a lion, and then an indescribable beast that cannot really be properly named.
In the Seventh seal therefore which is now opened we know that God is against these beasts. God will set up His kingdom on earth and with the work of the unique Messiah, society will be fundamentally transformed, and become one dominated by spiritual things and will declare the glory of God.
John was told to measure and to leave out the Court which is outside the inner Temple precincts for that was given over to the Gentiles and they will tread under foot the holy city for 42 months which equals 1260 days or 3 ½ years.
There is an argument as to whether these things will happen in future. God will at this time according to the Apostle John bring two witnesses to prophesy about sin and the coming punishment of the wrath of God. They are clothed in sackcloth, the clothing of mourning, and have an effective ministry witnessing to the world about their evil deeds. They have the power to bring drought and plagues just like Elijah the prophet did and Moses did. These two men will be killed by the Beast from the bottomless pit which is most likely Satan himself. But John makes clear that their ministry will not be really cut short for they will fully complete their task and after their dead bodies lie on the streets of Jerusalem which is called Sodom, and Egypt, they will be resurrected to the great shock of the people on earth and they will ascend up to God.
The main lesson to be gained from the work of these two witnesses is that in fact they are people appealing to the people of their nation and the people of the world to turn away from following the satanic forces and individuals to which they were obviously wedded and which they followed slavishly .
It is to be noted however that some people see these two witnesses as symbolic of the Church in the Tribulation period. Some say they represent the “law and the prophets”, and the “Old and the New Testament”. In these many speculative interpretations the various cults like to apply this role to themselves. But others believe that we are to look at this as a plain and straightforward interpretation of these people as two real individuals specially appointed by God.
Some argue that these two witnesses are going to be Elijah, Moses or Enoch or even John the Baptist because of their history and the fact that some of them did not die a natural death but were carried to heaven.
But now our Text will move into a time of obviously great tragedy for the third of several Woes will come quickly. These Woes all bring terrible suffering and destruction on the earth At the sounding of the Seventh trumpet which is the period covered by our Text we are told there are loud voices in Heaven which declare a message that will make all believers happy.
Note carefully that those in Heaven know the end of things while we on earth do not know the end of things and in fact refuse to know. The Scriptures have set out clearly what is going to happen and it is a tragic thing that many will read about what is going to happen and yet vast numbers of people will refuse to pay heed to the invitation of God to save themselves and so they will lose their lives.
But believers know when they read this that the great voices that are sounded are heavenly in nature and they say what is going to happen to bring about the Kingdom of God and to glorify His name.
We are to remember however that God rules over all creation and Satan’s rule is limited only to the earth. But his rule does not override the plan of God and this book of Revelation shows this quite clearly. His doom is assured. Those that follow Satan are going to be doomed. The merciful God however is calling on all men even through this difficult period of time.
We are to be careful however not to rejoice in the suffering and sorrow of people that will happen before this Kingdom of God comes in its fullness and the rule of God which is fully implemented in Heaven is fully implemented on earth. We know that God is doing this to glorify His name for the promises were made in the Garden of Eden to the sinning Adam and Eve.
Remember therefore your task to carry the message of the Gospel for it is certain that the Kingdoms of the world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and His Messiah. The usurpers will be thrown out and the true Emperor will be in charge.
We will therefore see the fulfillment of the prayer:
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Psalm 2 has already told us what will be happening on the earth. It states:
“Why do the nations rage,
and the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
Let us break Their bands in pieces,
And cast away Their cords from us”.
He sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure”.
So we know what is going to happen and it will not be pleasant for most of the people on the earth. With knowledge comesresponsibility.
THE TEXT
Verse 15.
As indicated in the verse, the Seventh angel was given instructions to sound the seventh trumpet of judgment. The second Woe was now in the past and the third Woe was commencing. The seventh seal opening had brought a deep silence in heaven but now the sounding of seventh trumpet brings joy for it is known by the people of heaven that the resolution of the wickedness of the earth is now inevitable.
This Woe signified something very special, that is the beginning of celebrations for the children of God as now they could see the start of themselves being with God throughout eternity.
It starts with a loud and joyful acclamation of the saints and angels in heaven. All of God’s creation that willfully served Him, paid reverence with humility to Him through their worship and praise to Him would have certain victory.
All the individuals praising God recognize the right of our God and Saviour to rule and reign over all the world. It was always a truth, but now the Lord Jesus Christ will claim what is His by right for it was His creation and His by the purchase. They are glad that they could witness the Lords possession of them, and reign over them.
Thanks are given as the Lord has finally exercised His full and great power, asserted His rights and turned title into possession. Rejoicing has also come as they understand that all His and their enemies will be put under His feet, His reign will never end, His sceptre will remain in His hand forever.
Verse 16.
This reference is of those mentioned in Rev. 4:4, and in similar fashion to the verses that followed there, they in a very humble and reverential posture, let themselves give praise and thanksgiving to signify that the hour has come for it (His complete leadership of Creation) to take place and that these things are permanently set in motion.
Verse 17.
In this verse the person addressed is the Lord God Almighty, to who all kingdoms have become His, and who now reigns in great power and authority. He is Lord of all, and truly and properly God, and the Almighty, as His works of creation, preservation, redemption, raising Himself from the dead, reinforce each of these titles exceedingly, and to this end, that His visible kingdom on earth will be so greatly enlarged.
Now the seven reasons for thanksgiving given by the 24 elders is expressed in their worshipful attitude. They are reverent and fall on their faces as they worship God.
We certainly can learn what to do in worship from their attitude.
First, they give thanks to the Lord God Almighty. He is the Everlasting, “I am”, the unchangeable Jehovah: the phrase is expressive of the eternity and immutability of Jesus Christ, of The Almighty God.
His might and power is shown because He is going to bring the entire creation in submission. This will reveal His great power, His extraordinary power. God uses His power to make the kingdoms of the world God’s own kingdom.
God has always had this power but this will not be shown until God assumes His power and finishes the job. Our thanks will increase more and more as God shows the extent of His power and how He is prepared to use it.
Next as the verse indicates, God is the One who is, who was, and who art to come, indicating that this encompasses what is to happen in establishing His spiritual reign.
The language is clear that God has taken His great power and begun to reign. The tense is indicative of the fact that God has begun His reign as He carries out His ministry to establish a kingdom on the earth.
Verse 18.
Next we will look at another reason for our thanksgiving and the thanksgiving of the elders, We move into a portion of Scripture where we see the futility of the world. They demonstrated an angry resentment at the Power of God. The nations look at all the Christ has done, and is doing at this time, and as a result the nations of the world were angry. In their hearts they rose up against God, but now God would not suffer them anymore. The time to extend mercy and patience was at an end. So, the Lord God rose to met them, or more actually, His wrath met their anger.
Psalm 2 tells us about the attitude of the nations.
This is of course an extremely great hatred and it reached its climax in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. Both Gentiles and the Jews were responsible for crucifying the promised Messiah.
Jesus warned us that they are enraged against Him and hate constantly. But let us remember that the hatred is the continuation of the quarrel that the world has with the Lord Jesus Christ and they will keep at it constantly. They will never stop hating Christ, and they will never stop hating all of His followers.
It is not that the world will not like to have believers around them for they know that believers in Jesus are generally trustworthy, are honest, are hardworking, and know that their God observes everything they do. The world knows that true believers have been instructed not to seek revenge for their ill-treatment but to leave the issue of taking revenge to their God.
At this time therefore, God was taking a just revenge upon the enemies of His people, recompensing tribulation to those who had troubled them.
Then, it was a time in which He was beginning to reward His people’s faithful services and sufferings, and their enemies could not bear to see this. Just think of all the trillions of people who have faithfully served God from the days of Adam and Eve. Their blood has been shed so many times. They have been treated harshly. Millions have died even in modern times.
All the people of the world could do is fret against God, but in so doing it increased their guilt and hastened their destruction.
The next reason for Thanksgiving is now shown,
and the time of the dead, that they should be judged;
This trumpet here might signify His coming to reign in His churches and judge their enemies. The time of those that were dead for Christ, whose blood had been shed in His cause, the time for the vindication of them, and avenging their blood, is now come.
The souls of those under the altar had been a long time crying to God to avenge their blood on them that dwell on the earth; and now the time has come when God will judge the people, and will vindicate their cause. For it is to He whom vengeance belongs. He will repay it by pouring out the vials of His wrath on the anti-Christ party, by giving them blood to drink, because they are worthy; this judgment will issue in the fall and ruin both of the western and eastern antichrist.
And now we see another reason for thanksgiving.
And that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants;
This is not a reward of debt, but of grace. The marks of honour and respect, some measure of happiness, peace, and joy, which Christ of His rich grace will give to His ministers and churches, and all that love Him in this glorious period of time, are to those who are distinguished in the following manner,
the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great:
By the “prophets” are meant, the ministers of the word, the two prophets or witnesses, who had prophesied in sackcloth, but shall now be clothed in glad clothing and taken up to heaven.
This clothing is with salvation. This rather is a general character of both ministers and churches, since to fear the name of the Lord is a phrase that includes all religious worship, internal and external. And now all these, “small and great”, whether greater or lesser believers, whether men of larger or meaner gifts and abilities, will all have the same reward, enjoy the same church privileges, partake of the same ordinances, in the purity of them, have the same communion with God, and fellowship with Christ, and one another, and share in the same common peace and liberty, and security from enemies.
The last thing taken notice of by these elders, as matter of thanksgiving, is that the wrath of God has come, and this means the destruction of antichrist.
Along with this is the intention of God to destroy them that destroy the earth. This is not only the destruction of the beast, the false prophet, and the kings of the earth, but it might very well relate to those of us who do not behave as stewards of the earth. We do not treat the earth and the animals that exist with care and respect behaving as we should since we are the ones that God has entrusted to take care of them.
We are not to believe in some of the pagan Mother Earth philosophies, and we should not be extreme environmentalists, but it is a fact that God does not like people that do things to destroy His creation simply to make money to enrich themselves and to increase their power. We cannot justify destroying places where the poor live, throwing them out on the street, because we want to build extravagant buildings to enrich ourselves.
Verse 19.
Based on what occurs in this verse, we should come away with this one thing, that we know enough to save us, to comfort us, and to help us on our way to heaven. This verse speaks to things being revealed to us.
But even with that, the sad truth is we should understand that some of God’s children do not fully know even the common truths as yet, and those who do not know them realize but little of their depth and height. From the verse we get that God would have us know certain things regarding the end times and what being with Him would be like.
Looking more at this verse, we can all agree that all the saints in heaven beholding the glory of God can only perceive so much but will have an eternity to grow and learn about God.
The verse tells us there is a Temple of God in heaven and in it is the original Ark of the Covenant and understand that the Ark of the Covenant is always near to God. We recall that God told Moses when he was building the tabernacle to make sure that he did precisely as instructed for it was to be a faithful copy of what was in heaven.
The Covenant that God has established with His people stands as He stands, and that is forever, it is as immutable as He is.
This is of joyous news as the Covenant of grace is forever the same. There can be no change in God, Even understanding God just a little bit, we should know that His purposes are always infinitely wise, He knowing the beginning from the end, and so any such deliberations in the Councils of eternity, will not only be the wisest, make the best choices, and these will honour His deity.
Christ also falls into this discussion completely. Yes, Christ is God, and so all the attributes associated with the Father, apply to the Son, as it will to the Holy Spirit.
Christ is the great Sacrifice by whose death the Covenant was ratified. Christ, the Surety, who has sworn to carry out our part of the covenant, Christ, who is the very sum and substance of the covenant, never alters.
All God’s acts are done with a reference to His covenant, and all His covenant has a reference to His covenanted ones. Everything that He does follows the line and rule of His covenant. If He chastens and afflicts, it is not in anger, but in His dear covenant love. All that God does is still guided and directed by His eternal purpose and His covenant pledges to His people.
By faith we know that God has entered into covenant with us. He that believes in Christ Jesus is in covenant with God. He is at peace with God, even when mortal death occurs, and that believer will never come into condemnation.
Joy should be with all believers. We can wipe away those tears, so we may see the unchanging covenant made with us as it unfolds.
Faith may see the Covenant of God in all His actions. Everything that is to happen to us is in the Covenant.
Here is a quote about how we see things from different perspectives but gives us an idea how God sees things.
Miss Hannah More very prettily puts it that, often, we do not see the right side of things here. She went into a carpet manufactory, and she looked at what the workmen were doing, and she could see nothing that looked like beauty of design. ‘There were tags and ends hanging out, and she said to the men, “I cannot perceive any design here,” and they answered, “No, madam, for you are on the wrong side of the carpet”; but when she went round to the other side, she saw the beauty of the workmanship. Alas! we are at present on the wrong side of God’s work; we must get to heaven to see it perfectly, and when we get there, we shall-
CONCLUSION
There is God’s immeasurable love, but there is also God’s wrath.
We are living in the time of the forbearance and long-suffering of God. But there will come a time when God’s long-suffering will end and He will speak to the nations in His wrath.
Understand clearly that God controls everything and He awaits with great expectations the time of giving rewards to His people.
The fact that God has taken His great power to Himself and has opened the Temple of God so that John could see the Ark of the Covenant gives great encouragement to us for we know by this action that the promises of God will finally be fulfilled.
The Ark represents the presence of God and so we should remember that God is always going to be with His people and will take them into His kingdom. That is His nature and
He will fulfill His truth and His lovingkindness. So let us be careful.
Psalm 2 says something very interesting. It invites the nations of the world who are enraged against God and His Messiah to kiss the Son lest they perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.
So God in His mercy holds out the hand of forgiveness to these wicked people even at the very end. They are called on to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so that they will be saved. They are told therefore,
Kiss the Son.
This is in truth a most remarkable God.
It is also interesting to note that the only one that records stated kissed Jesus when He was on earth was Judas, the one who betrayed Him.
Let us not be like Judas the betrayer. Let us pray to God to enable us in His grace to kiss Jesus with the kiss of trust.
Let us fly to the bosom of Jesus and stay there while the tempests rage. Jesus will receive our souls and guide us when we go through the valley of the shadow of death so that we need not fear any evil.
So for those who are still under the judgment of God let us work 24 hours a day to pull them out of certain judgment for we do not want it to be too late for them.