Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #4 of Revelation chapter 19 and we are going to read Revelation 19:5-6:

And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. 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.

Again, this is a wonderful passage the Lord is moving the Apostle John to record regarding the time of the final victory of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of Satan.  It is a time of triumph for the Lord, triumph for His Word and triumph for His people and, therefore, the people of God cry out, “Alleluia” or “Praise God.”  As we saw in our previous study, it is an incredibly joyous and wonderful time, the final completion of God’s magnificent salvation plan.

This time we are looking at Revelation 19:5:

And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.

The reference to “small and great” is basically an all-encompassing statement which refers to the kingdom of heaven.  Of course, when it comes to the kingdom of heaven and those God has saved, God does not “rank” people; He does not have “great” ones and “small” ones in regard to the sinners He has saved.  He simply has the sinners He has saved and none are deserving and worthy and none are great in themselves.  If He were to look at the individuals, He would see the filthy, the polluted and the vile.  He would just see a bunch of rebels and, therefore, He does not look at the individual people, but He looks at Christ’s work on their behalf and each “work” is the same – it is a purifying and cleansing work that washed away all iniquity, leaving the sinner justified and righteous in the sight of God. 

God is no respecter of persons, but to help us understand, He uses the language of the world and in the world there are “small and great.”  There are kings and rich men and powerful and great men.  There are beggars and the impoverished.  So the Lord knows that this is how the world operates.  The world definitely has categories of people and the world esteems the “rich and powerful” much more than they do the “poor and needy,” that are least esteemed.  Out of the elect of the world, there were the “poor and beggarly,” like Lazarus or blind Bartimaeus.  God did save some people in the world that were the “least” in the eyes of the world and He did save some that would be considered “rich and powerful,” like Abraham.  Some other in the Bible had wealth; Joseph of Arimathaea was well-to-do.  So God did save those considered as “small and great,” but once He did save them, they were all the same.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, male or female, rich or poor or great or small.  They are all the saints and servants, the redeemed of God.

Let us look at Revelation 11, the point of the sounding of the seventh angel, which would be the beginning of Judgment Day when the seven trumpets sounded on May 21, 2011 and will continue to sound until the completion of Judgment Day, which will very likely be October 7, 2015.  We could look at it as a prolonged trumpet blast and it says in Revelation 11:15-18:

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. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, 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. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Here, we see God uses the same language of “small and great,” but it is identifying the same people.  The prophets are the same as the saints and the same as those that “fear they name, small and great.”  It refers to all God has saved out of the world, small and great.  They fear Him because He has given them a new heart and a new spirit that fears Him.

Then it goes on to say in our passage in Revelation 19:6:

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.

We saw the great multitude was in view at the beginning of this chapter and, here again, the Apostle John “heard as it were the voice of a great multitude,” that had come out of Great Tribulation and they were lifting up their voices on high and praising the Lord.  They were not praising the Lord in the way the unsaved people praise the Lord.  We know there are multitudes of people in the churches and congregations that “mouth” praises to God.  They say, “Praise the Lord,” and they may do that often.  Actually, today there are some churches in which that is all they can talk about and they just “Praise the Lord” and they do not get into doctrine.  It is all superficial.  It is all positive.  It is all wonderful, is it not?  “We just get together and we focus on the cross and we just praise the Lord for this and we praise the Lord for that and we lift up our hands in rejoicing.  And we love to sing modern Christian music that praises the Lord!  What can be wrong with that?” 

Who can find fault with someone that is constantly praising the Lord or with an entire congregation that just praises the Lord?  Would God not want them to do that?  Well, you cannot find fault with praising the Lord, unless what is in your mouth does not match what is in your heart.  Then there is a problem.  There is guile within and there is still a deceitful heart of unbelief and what is said from the mouth does not match the situation in the heart.  That is what is taking place in the church world because God has ended the church age and He had commanded His people to come out.  He is not fooled.  He is not fooled by masses of people that are in active disobedience to His command to come out of the churches.  That command had a time limit on it.  The time up to May 21, 2011 was the time to come out and if you failed to come out by then, you could not enter into the “nations of the world” where God was still sending forth the Latter Rain to save the great multitude. 

If you remained until May 21, 2011, that was the day God shut the door of heaven and ended His salvation program.  So if you came out on May 22, 2011 or if you came out today, what good did it do?  On one level, it would still be fitting to come out of the churches in obedience to God’s command, even though there is no possibility of salvation.  Yet, all of those that did stay in the churches were all bundled as tares for the burning and no amount of praising God will change their spiritual condition: the filthy will remain filthy and the unjust will remain unjust; they will never be translated out of that condition and be translated into God’s spiritual kingdom through experiencing salvation.

God’s true people are to praise Him and sing, “Alleluia,” especially now when we have much to praise Him for and to give great glory to God.  He has done what He said He would do and He has saved all He had planned to save.  He has defeated the enemy and, therefore, there is an incredible amount of reasons to thank Him and glorify Him in praise.  It is the time to praise the Lord and lift up His name in prayer and praise and not just by lifting up our arms and waving our hands and not by just making sure everyone sees us as we dance around.  That is not a right way to praise the Lord.  God is Spirit and God “meets” with His people in prayer as we go before His throne and we “speak” with Him and each individual can praise the Lord in this manner.  We might get together in a small group or fellowship and sing hymns of praise and even pray some prayers of thanksgiving, but, primarily, it is an individual and personal thing between God and each of His people. 

You know, you can see someone and you can think, “This person is not thankful and she is not really praising God.”  Again, there are people that are outwardly “showy” and they praise God with their lips and, yet, we see from the example of the churches, it does not mean anything.  It is not true thanksgiving and praise to God.  You could have quite the opposite and there could be an individual that looks very downtrodden and tired, but when that person goes to God, they say, “Thank you, Lord, for this day.  Things have been very difficult, but I thank you for the salvation of all your people and thank you for saving me, the chief of sinners.”  That person praises God.  Nobody knows.  Nobody sees it.  They go from praise to supplication, as God lays out in Philippians, chapter 4.

But, here, God is picturing the prayer of the great multitude and God sees the great multitude.  He knows what they are praying, even if it is not a conscious prayer.  We are so impacted and affected by living in this world that we do not know how to pray as we should.  I think it is in Romans, chapter 8, where God speaks of the Holy Spirit praying in “utterances” that the child of God could not pray.  The Holy Spirit (who indwells each believer) prays to God on behalf of the believer.  It could be that within that great multitude the Spirit of God is lifting up prayer to God on their parts and they are not aware of it.  They may be “stuck” in a mindset that is a wrongful mindset.  There is no excuse for not praising and thanking God and doing it often; if we fail to do so, it is sin because God has commanded that He should be praised and glorified.  There may be someone that is a relatively new believer and there is just not time for them to “come along” in the process of revealing things to Him about grace and knowledge of Him, so God is supplementing these things through the Holy Spirit which indwells them.

Here, again, the Apostle John “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.”  Let us go back to Revelation, chapter 1, when God first came to John on the island of Patmos.  We read in Revelation 1:13:

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

Here, the “Son of man” is revealing Himself to John as He is about to open up divine revelation to him and move John to write the things we read in the Book of Revelation.  Then it says in Revelation 1:15:

And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

This is the voice of the “Son of man,” the Lord Jesus Christ.  And who is Christ, but the Word made flesh, so the voice of Christ is the Word of God and that is the voice of “many waters,” the Gospel of the Bible.  It is the declaration of the Word of God and the Scripture itself declares, “Alleluia.”  It is the Bible that is stating that God is worthy to be praised: “Praise Jah.”

It also mentions “the voice of mighty thunderings,” and if we go to Job, chapter 37, it says in Job 37:2-5:

Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth. After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.

Here, the voice of God is likened to thunder and that is a very fitting comparison.  Have you ever been in your home and it is gently raining outside and then, suddenly, it gets dark and stormy and there is a great “boom” of thunder?  It is so loud and frightening that everyone within earshot takes notice.  It could even have been for miles around that people heard that tremendous boom from the sky and God likens His voice to that thunder.  It is a powerful voice.  It is a majestic voice.

And, of course, the voice of God is the Word of God as God speaks of it in Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit…

The power of the Scripture is great.  We do not really know the mighty power of the Word of God, even though the Bible gives us statements about it.  As we read them, we could stand amazed, but in our present condition, we do not have a proper appreciation of Scriptures that say that God spoke and created the heavens and the earth.  He spoke and created the seas.  He spoke and created the animals.  He spoke and created man in His image.  And God spoke through His Word and saved a people for Himself or He spoke and brought judgment, and so on.  It is just a tremendous display of might and power and glory and authority whenever God speaks, so the Bible likens it to thunder.

It says in Psalm 29:3-5:

The voice of JEHOVAH is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: JEHOVAH is upon many waters. The voice of JEHOVAH is powerful; the voice of JEHOVAH is full of majesty. The voice of JEHOVAH breaketh the cedars; yea, JEHOVAH breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.

Then it says in Psalm 29:7:

The voice of JEHOVAH divideth the flames of fire. The voice of JEHOVAH shaketh the wilderness; JEHOVAH shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of JEHOVAH maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory. JEHOVAH sitteth upon the flood; yea, JEHOVAH sitteth King for ever. JEHOVAH will give strength unto his people; JEHOVAH will bless his people with peace.

It is the mighty voice of God.  Well, it is this voice that Revelation 19:6 speaks of His voice “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.”