"GREAT AND MARVELOUS ARE HIS WORKS"
I. LOOKING AT VERSE 3.
A. The scene: Heaven.
B. The singers. Tribulation saints.
1. Those who had gotten victory over the beast, his image and his mark.
a. Their deliverance was through martyrdom.
b. Their victory is signified by the fact they did not worship the beast or his image, or take the mark of the beast upon their bodies.
2. They include many from Israel. "The song of Moses."
a. In
Exodus 15 we read, "Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song unto the Lord."
b. It was a song of praise to the Lord for the victory the Lord had given them over the Egyptians when Pharaoh and his army were drowned in the Red Sea.
c. This will be the song of redeemed Israel for the great hand of God who had delivered them from the anti-christ.
3. It is also called the song of the Lamb.
a. That great multitude spoken of in chapter 7 who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
b. They had come up out of the great tribulation.
II. THE BEAUTIFUL LYRICS OF THE SONG.
A. Great and marvelous are Your works Lord God Almighty.
1. They had seen the awesome work of God in judgment on this wicked world.
a. They had seen the devastation brought about by the tornadoes, the fire, the earthquakes, the meteorite showers.
b. They had seen the convulsions of nature in the cataclysmic judgments that God had brought upon the earth.
2. They had seen the work of God in their deliverance from the powers of darkness.
a. In the midst of these judgments, God had preserved them.
b. They had been redeemed by the work of Jesus Christ.
c. We read that at the time that Satan is cast out of heaven and comes down to the earth full of fury for he knows that his time is up, that he sought to make war against the faithful, that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
3. It would appear that Isaiah the prophet saw this same scene.
ISA 24:14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
ISA 24:15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, [even] the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
ISA 24:16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, [even] glory to the righteous.
ISA 24:17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, [are] upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
ISA 24:18 And it shall come to pass, [that] he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
ISA 24:19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
ISA 24:20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
ISA 24:21 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones [that are] on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
ISA 24:22 And they shall be gathered together, [as] prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
ISA 24:23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
ISA 25:1 O LORD, thou [art] my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful [things; thy] counsels of old [are] faithfulness [and] truth.
ISA 25:2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; the defenced city a ruin:
ISA 25:3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear You.
ISA 25:4 For You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,
B. These saints in heaven having seen God's judgments sing: "Just and true are Your ways Oh King of saints."
1. Just and true are Your ways.
a. Many object to the Bible's declaration of the wrath of God to be poured out upon the wicked.
b. Man seems to try to modify the severity of the judgment.
c. In reality, rather than softer than you imagine, it is probably far worse that anything you have ever imagined.
d. Jesus painted some pretty graphic pictures of how horrible it will be.
2. The fact of the matter is that it will not be as severe as man deserves. In seeing the judgment of God, Ezra said:
EZR 9:13 And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities [deserve], and hast given us [such] deliverance as this; Nehemiah said:
NEH 9:31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou [art] a gracious and merciful God. The Psalmist said:
PSA 103:8 The LORD [is] merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
PSA 103:9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep [his anger] for ever.
PSA 103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
PSA 103:11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, [so] great is his mercy toward them that fear him. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah said:
LAM 3:22 It is the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
LAM 3:23 [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.
3. One thing I am certain of is the fairness of the justice of God.
a. I know that God will be absolutely fair in His judgment.
b. For this reason I do not worry about those who have never had the opportunity to hear of Jesus Christ. However God deals with them will be perfectly just.
c. Just and true are His ways.
d. A lot of people who express concern for these who have never heard the gospel, should be more concerned for themselves, for they have heard.
e. It will be much better for them who have never heard the gospel, than it will be for them who have heard and rejected.
C. "Who will not fear Thee O Lord?"
1. The Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
2. It also tells us that the fear of the Lord is manifested in a hatred of evil.
3. There are many people today who like the anti-christ speak blasphemous words against God. They love to challenge God. They make fun of the idea of the existence of God and seek to demean those who have put their faith and trust in God.
a. Like the Pharaoh in Egypt who said to Moses, "Who is Yahovah, that I should obey His voice?" He found out.
b. Like Belshazzer the king of Babylon who was defying God as he drank his wine out of the vessels that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem, and was praising the gods of gold and silver, when the hand of God was revealed to him, all of his bravado left, and his knees began to knock in fright.
4. The day will come when all the inhabitants of the earth shall fear the Lord. But there are two types of fear.
a. The fear which is an awe of His power and greatness that leads to worship.
b. The fear, as of terror, that leads to cursing. Conclusion: We today see the great and marvelous works of the Lord in nature. The heavens declare to us the glory of God, the earth shows to us His handiwork. Does this lead you to worship God, or do you worship the creature rather than the creator? To me it is awesome that God has created us with the capacity of reproduction. Look at how many deny God and worship the sexual organs. If you do not fear God now, there will come a day when you will.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
