The Second Advent / Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19)

All right, tonight we're gonna be looking at Revelation chapter 19, which covers the second advent of Christ and his victory over the armies of Antichrist.

So this is the battle of Armageddon. So we're now moving out of the section, chapter six through 18, that detailed the seven year tribulation.

So chapter 19 marks the end of the tribulation. Jesus comes back.

You remember we talked about the rapture much earlier in the book of Revelation. That's when we say

Christ comes for his people, but now he is coming with the saints.

So we're gonna read about this. Jesus comes back, fights the battle of Armageddon at the second advent, and he wipes out all of his enemies.

So the Antichrist and his armies have all gathered together in one place.

As Zechariah 14 tells us, the Lord gathers all nations to battle against Jerusalem.

And it's at that moment, the Lord returns. As Zechariah 14, verse four says, and in that day, his feet will stand on the

Mount of Olives. So some people, there's churches out there that preach that yes, Jesus is coming back, but he's coming back spiritually.

No, the Bible says he's coming back. Every eye is gonna see him.

He is actually coming back to this earth to rule and reign.

And we know from the next chapter, chapter 20, his reign will last for how long?

Yes, 1 ,000 years. So that's sort of the brief overview of what's happening here.

So let's read Revelation 19. We'll go over it in more depth. And we'll begin by reading verses one through 10.

Revelation 19, starting in verse one. And after these things, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the

Lord, our God. For true and righteous are his judgments because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication.

And he has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her.

Again, they said, alleluia. Her smoke rises up forever and ever.

And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne saying, amen, alleluia.

Then a voice came from the throne saying, praise our God, all you his servants and those who fear him, both small and great.

And I heard as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying, again, alleluia for the

Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready.

And to her, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

Then he said to me, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb.

And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, see that you do not do that.

I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

And that last statement, another way of saying that, prophecy is all about Jesus.

Jesus is the object of prophecy or the main object of prophecy.

Okay, so who's giving this message to John? The angel.

The angel, okay, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. So Jesus gives the message to an angel who then, the angel gives the message to John.

So John, after seeing all of this, I mean, this is the greatest day in human history.

Maybe you could say the greatest day in human history. When Jesus was born, that was the greatest day.

When he died on the cross, that was the most significant day. When he rose from the dead, that was the greatest day in human history.

Okay, I agree with that. The rapture, that will be the greatest day. Yeah, but keep moving forward.

The second advent, okay, now this is the greatest day in human history. And John, when he sees this, he's just so overwhelmed, he does something he would normally never do.

He falls down at the feet of this angel and he starts worshiping the angel.

Now, did John know better than this? Well, yeah, but let me put yourself in his position.

So John is told, hey, get up, do not worship me, worship

God. So what does this tell us? You should never bow down to any man.

Doesn't matter who he is, he could be the king of the world or he could claim to be the king of the world. You never bow to a man.

And incidentally, for the past 1500 years, people have been bowing to the

Pope. Professing Christians have been bowing to the Pope who calls himself and other people call him the

Holy Father. Well, no more, because remember, Jesus has now come back and he has judged the great harlot.

And the great harlot is that false universalistic religion of the last days that has been eliminated.

You say, pastor, are you really saying, again, the great harlot is the

Roman church? Well, again, I'll tell you what I told you last week. I'm not saying that.

That's what every commentator for a thousand years, the past thousand years has said.

That's what they believe. And yes, I do believe that as well. So that false religion of the end times that brought all religions together and they bowed to the final man, the

Antichrist, it's all that corrupt system has finally been destroyed, dismantled.

So all of human history has been leading up to this point. All right, any questions on that?

All right, so the second advent, I said this is the greatest day in human history because Jesus is finally coming back to this earth.

So it's not a bad day, although it is gonna be a bad day for unbelievers.

The second advent is a wonderful thing for those who believe in Jesus, but for those who do not believe in Jesus, it's the worst possible day.

The way it's described here, yeah, it's a glorious thing. And the chapter begins with, because it's so glorious, the heavenly multitude cries out with this word.

What's the word? Hallelujah, okay, that's with an A. This is the

New Testament Greek equivalent of the Old Testament word. What's the Old Testament word?

Hallelujah. Hallelujah, with an H. Okay, so in the Old Testament, it's hallelujah with an

H. New Testament, hallelujah with an A. Basically, what does this mean?

What does this word mean? Basically, well, going back to hallelujah with an

H, hallel means praise, and jah or yah, depending whether or not you use an

H, J sound or a Y sound, it's saying what?

Praise. Jah or yah is Yahweh, you know? Praise the Lord. So hallelujah or alleluia means praise the

Lord. Or it's calling upon others to praise the Lord. Who knows that children's song, you know?

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise ye. Yeah, praise ye the Lord. And you're calling upon others.

You know, you praise the Lord. So that's what it means. So the multitude in heaven is praising the

Lord because he has judged the great harlot and because salvation and glory and honor and power belong to him.

See, Jesus comes back and he takes what is rightfully his. He is the head of the church.

All worship belongs to him. You know, for human history, again, the last 1 ,500 years or whatever, it's been misdirected towards men, towards a false system of religion.

Jesus is now taking what belongs to him. So he has judged the false church of the end times, the church of antichrist.

So because God has done this, because he has defeated all of his enemies, this great celebration breaks out in heaven.

Verse four, the 24 elders, they're praising God. Who are the 24 elders? They represent who or what?

Yeah, the church or, you know, the redeemed people of God. They, along with the angels, bow and worship

God, saying amen, hallelujah. And then verse six, this may sound familiar.

If you know the Hallelujah Chorus, right? Is that from Handel's Messiah?

Well, where do they get, they're just quoting Bible verses throughout that. So hallelujah for the

Lord God omnipotent reigns, or, you know, reigneth, if you have the

King James Version. And then we get this statement in verse seven.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready.

So I had said there's a contrast in the book of Revelation. There's the bride of Christ versus the harlot, right?

The true church versus the false church. Well, here is the marriage, the marriage of the lamb, and then there's the marriage supper.

So what is the marriage? Jesus is called the lamb. So we know that lamb refers to Christ.

I would say the marriage is the joining together of Christ and his bride.

So this is Jesus being united with the Christian church. I'd mentioned a few weeks ago, there is a, yeah, that contrast, and we're gonna see another contrast, not just of the two, you know, the bride and the harlot.

There's gonna be another contrast in verse 11 where Jesus comes back riding on what?

A white horse. A white horse. Well, we already saw someone riding on a white horse back in chapter six, right?

So who is that? The antichrist. Okay, so we're seeing the devil, really, he is acting as an imposter or the antichrist because he comes on a white horse.

When Jesus is gonna come on a white horse, he's acting as an imposter, just as the harlot tries to act as though she's the one true church.

So here's the lesson that we need to understand of how the devil operates, okay? The devil is a counterfeiter.

This is what he does. He copies whatever God does. Now, what

God does is great. What God does is perfect. The devil's counterfeit is not, you know, not as good, obviously.

But this is important because it helps protect us against the devil's tactics.

You know, we're not ignorant of his devices, as Paul said. So most people today,

I think they have the idea that Satan is involved in evil, which is true.

They think that Satan's primary operation is like devil worship and mass murder.

And, you know, the devil is involved with like the worst possible crimes and evils in the world.

Well, that's really not true. No doubt he has his part in all of that.

But Satan's primary operation is in the realm of what? The devil is a, he is a religious being, if you will.

The devil, his primary operation is in the realm of false religion, okay?

So I don't think the devil is all that concerned about, you know, drug trafficking and whatever.

Like I said, if it's evil, he probably has his hand in it somewhere. But his primary operation is in the realm of false religion.

He is able to deceive the most people through false religion and false ideologies.

And then he is able to present those things as though they were right and good.

How do we know that? Because the Bible says so. Remember in the Garden of Eden, what was the temptation directed at Eve?

Did the devil say, hey, Eve, let's just go out and commit evil. Doesn't that sound fun?

Let's go. Let's just be as bad as we can be. That's not what he did. He convinced

Eve, hey, if you do this, you will be like God. According to the devil, if you follow me, you'll be godlike.

Now, it's totally twisted and backwards. It's not true, but that's what he said.

Paul, writing to the Corinthians, he said that Satan himself transforms himself into what?

An angel of light. An angel of light. Therefore, Paul says, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness.

So the devil is very crafty. He takes what God calls evil and he turns it upside down and he presents it as though it's virtuous.

And isn't that what we're seeing today? I mean, the world is totally bought into all, maybe it's one ideology, but several different things where good is called evil, evil is called good.

This is happening because I believe, I don't know. You know me, I'm never gonna put a timetable on it.

The end is within the next so many years, we know better than to do that.

But the way things are shaping up, I mean, the stage is being set. This is happening in churches all across the

Western world. They've adopted an ideology where they're advancing evil ideas and then the churches are preaching this stuff and then the government passes laws and all of it goes directly against God and his commandments.

But it's all presented as though it's justice, it's virtuous, it's good.

And the world has really fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker. And it's the churches that are really leading the way.

True Christianity, the world is convinced that true Christianity is what?

Bad. Datev mentioned the street preacher, okay? Now what he was saying, he recognized that what he was saying was actually true.

But the people that heard what he was saying thought this is a great evil. And we're the ones, even though we're doing sinful acts, right in front, we're the good guys.

But they really believe that. They really think they're the good guys and he is evil.

And that's what they think. Biblical Christianity is wrong. But the universalist religion that celebrates sin, that's seen as open -minded, virtuous.

So long story short, what the devil is able to pull off in the end times with that final end times religion, it's like it's already practically here.

And what do they base stuff on? The Bible? No, they don't care about the Bible. They say, follow your heart.

God is a God of love. The false gospel of universalism that the devil is now promoting, it's taken root even in some evangelical ministries.

And that's why I bring it up because if we really understand this and how it is being applied and how it's being carried out, then if we know this, we're not gonna fall for it.

So that's why I bring it up. So hopefully, once we understand what the book of Revelation is teaching and how it applies to the real world, we'll understand the devil's tactics and it will protect us.

Whoever's listening, whoever's learning from this study, it'll help protect them from the end times deception.

Remember what Paul said? He was speaking about the end times in 2 Thessalonians 2. He said this 1 ,900 years ago that the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Well, it's just 2 ,000 years down the road. And like I said, the stage is perfectly set.

So all this stuff about the tribulation and what the antichrist is gonna do, again, it's like, it's almost happening right now.

So it really could start at any moment. Okay, so when

Jesus comes back based on verse nine, this is called the marriage, is it the marriage supper or what is it called?

You tell me. Marriage supper? Okay, the marriage supper of the lamb.

So what is the marriage supper of the lamb? The way I understand it, the bride is the church, right?

Bride of Christ is the church. The bride is presented to Christ, like the wedding ceremony,

I would say, is the rapture. The reception that happens after, that's what we would call it, a marriage supper.

We call it a reception dinner. That happens when Jesus comes back to earth and it goes on through the millennium.

So I would say the marriage is the rapture and the marriage supper is the millennium goes on for 1 ,000 years.

And then he says, blessed are those who are invited. Who's invited? Are Christians invited?

No, Christians are the bride. The bride doesn't get invited to her own wedding, right? So whoever's invited has to be some other group other than the

Christian church. Yeah, I think it would be those saved during the tribulation, maybe even the

Old Testament saints. But it really shows you that there is a distinction between the church and Israel and these other groups.

Now, today that's called the dispensational interpretation of the Bible, but I'm saying it's just the

Bible. I mean, that's just what it's teaching here. So, all right, let's look at starting in verse 11.

This is where we see the second advent. But the focus, like I said, is on the bride and the bridegroom, that's

Christ and his church. But here is the second advent, verse 11. Now I saw heaven opened and behold, what?

A white horse. A white horse, okay? But this is actually Jesus, not the Antichrist and the white horse in chapter six.

And he who sat on him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and he does what?

Jesus makes war. I thought he's the Prince of Peace. What's he doing making war?

Well, he has to make war because the world has become so evil, so corrupt.

This is actually justice when he defeats evil. He has to defeat evil.

If God is a just God, he has to do something about it, right? I mean, what kind of governor or what kind of ruler would allow lawlessness and chaos and murder and all the rest to happen under his watch?

And a wicked ruler would allow that, but a righteous ruler is not going to allow it.

So God has to deal with this. As for the statement that he makes war, going back for those who are here during the

Exodus series, Exodus 15, three, you can just make a note of this.

It ties in. Exodus 15, three says that the Lord is a man of what?

He's a man of war. If you remember, the children of Israel had just been delivered through the

Red Sea and then God closed the waters on top of the Egyptian army, totally destroyed the

Egyptian army. And they sang a song and part of that song was the Lord is a man of war.

Well, it's the same type of thing here. They're singing a song. Did we see that, I think, in the last chapter or two?

He has destroyed the beast system, the great harlot, and now they're singing his praises.

And really, if you think about it, this is true even in the world right now. You can't have peace until the war is over.

You have to defeat evil and once evil is defeated, then you can have peace.

If you try to appease evil, you're never gonna get that true lasting peace.

Larry, you had something? Yeah, you know, it says in verse 11, faithful and true and in righteousness, he judges and makes war.

Right. So, because everything else is unrighteous. Yeah, I mean, let's face it.

There are wars that occur that are unjust. Not every war is a righteous war.

Maybe most of them are unrighteous. I don't know, but this one is righteous.

Okay, verse 12, it says about the Lord, his eyes were like a flame of fire.

We've seen that before. Kind of speaks to the fact that nothing escapes his vision.

It says on his head were many crowns. He has a name written that no one knew except himself.

Say, well, what do you think that is? We don't know. Nobody knows, only he knows. Verse 13, he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood.

This is probably not the blood of those who have been killed.

It's probably referring to the blood of Christ, but we're not exactly sure.

And his name is called the word of God. That's a unique title that John has for Jesus.

Verse 14, in the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.

Now, who is this army? This army is made up of what?

Us? Us? Some would say, if it says saints, a saint could refer to angels, it could refer to believers.

John MacArthur writes about this heavenly army. He says it is composed of the church, also tribulation saints, those who have died.

Even Old Testament believers, and probably the angels. Probably just everybody is coming back with Jesus.

But he's the one who does the fighting. We don't need to fight, because really, it's not much of a war.

It's really an execution. I mean, Jesus comes back, he speaks the word, and it's over.

So it's not like a battle where, yeah, who's gonna win, and it's kind of going one way, and then another.

No, Jesus comes back, and it's just, like there's no real fight.

All right, so they do not, MacArthur says, they do not return to help Jesus in battle, but to reign with him after he defeats his enemies.

And yeah, they come back to earth. So if the rapture happened seven years earlier, okay, believers go up, the tribulation saints, they die, their soul goes to be with the

Lord. Well, they're coming back now. Certainly believers are coming back to rule and reign during the millennium.

All right, verse 15, it says, "'Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword.'"

Now, this may be what John saw, but we always say we try to take revelation literally, but does that actually mean

Jesus has a sword coming out of his mouth? No, his words are all the weapon that you need.

Really, now, out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it, he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron.

He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty

God. So you know that theory where people say, oh, God the Father, or the

Old Testament God, God the Father, he's the one with all the wrath, and Jesus is just about love and peace, remember?

You heard, who's heard this? Yeah, everyone's heard this. Yeah, the Father is the wrathful one,

Jesus is the loving one. Wrong, they're both filled with grace, they're both loving, and they're both wrathful, okay?

Remember wrath of the Lamb back in I think chapter six? So Jesus is treading out the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty

God. So we say, yeah, but the wrath was appeased on the cross.

When Jesus died on the cross, he satisfied the wrath of God. Isn't that, you know, in one of those songs that we like to sing?

Isn't that true, Jesus satisfied God's wrath? The chosen. Yeah, well, he satisfied the wrath of God for the elect, for believers, but for unbelievers who don't believe in Jesus because they haven't accepted the sacrifice, the wrath is still there, and now it's being poured out.

So in fighting the battle of Armageddon, all the Lord has to do here is just speak the word.

He fights with the sword of his mouth. If you think about it,

God created the heavens and the earth, he created everything just by speaking the word.

So that's all Jesus has to do to defeat all of his enemies. He just opens his mouth, and with a word, with one word, actually, it doesn't say one word, maybe it's a sentence,

I don't know, but you get the idea, figuratively. With one word, all the governments of this earth, whatever is left of them, it's just utter collapse at the second advent.

Jesus conquers the world really in a moment of time. Let's turn to Psalm chapter two.

This isn't a new idea. This was prophesied in the Old Testament in many places.

We could turn to, like I said, Zachariah 14 describes the battle of Armageddon.

There's plenty of places we could turn, but I like Psalm chapter two. So it says that he strikes the nations, and then after he does that, he will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

What does that mean, he rules with a rod of iron? There's no dissent, there's no rebellion, there's not gonna be a coup, there's not gonna be an uprising.

It either won't happen, or if it's attempted, it's gonna be put down immediately.

Unlike today, where world rulers and governments are constantly planning rebellions and overthrows.

One country is funding this group that's trying to topple this government, and they wanna replace it with this person, and just, that's the way the world is.

There's constant rebellion, constant war, constant overthrows. But the rulers of this world, there is one authority they want to overthrow more than any of the others, and who's that?

Christ. Yeah, well, let's read Psalm two, because it tells us. Psalm two perfectly describes what's happening in Revelation 19.

It says, 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, or they conspire against the

Lord and against his Christ, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces, and cast away their cords from us.

So according to the Psalms, the rulers of the world, this has been going on even back in David's time.

They were trying to get rid of David. The heathen nations would have loved to get rid of David. But now, they wanna kinda get rid of Christianity, get rid of it, we wanna do what we wanna do.

What's God's response in verse four? He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

Now, this isn't like a joking laugh. It's a laugh of mocking, and it says, the

Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath, and distress them in his deep displeasure, which is an understatement, and it says, yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

And I think that's a reference to, yeah, Jesus, when he comes back, his foot touches down where?

The Mount of Olives, which is in Jerusalem. Jesus is actually gonna reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years.

It says it right here, verse seven. I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me today, for you are my son, today

I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance.

When does Jesus take control of the nations? Revelation 19, right?

And the ends of the earth for your possession. So he doesn't just get Israel, he gets everything.

You shall break them, that is the nations. You shall break them with a rod of iron.

You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. So you think of the nations are like a clay pot, and he's got like a club and just, just that easy.

That's what's being described. Okay, now let's turn back to Revelation 19. But hopefully you see the connection.

Psalm two is really describing the overthrow of the world system where Jesus takes control and now he will rule and reign on the earth.

So when Jesus reigns, John sees a vision of him, Revelation 19, verse 16.

It says, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So let's just talk about, we only have a few minutes left.

Let's just talk about this title, King of Kings. I think this is one of my favorite titles for Jesus, King of Kings.

You know, if Jesus truly is, if he truly is the King of Kings, which he is, doesn't that mean he's the king of the

United States of America? Now, is he? You say, well, he's not. Well, he is.

Our nation's in rebellion against the king, but that's what it means.

So this is a spiritual reality right now. See, I think a lot of people either ignore

Revelation or if they preach through it, they don't wanna make application because to say

Jesus is the King of the United States, that's the application of this. But when you start talking like that, like people will get nervous,

I think. So you rarely hear this, but that's what it means. Larry.

Similarly, 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. Do you not know, have you not heard that you are not your own, for you were bought at a price?

Yeah. You are God's. He bought you with the blood of Christ.

Yep. Yeah. Paying for our sin and death that we could never have. He bought us, he bought, you know, the whole nations, they are his inheritance.

He will reign. I thought you were gonna quote 1 Corinthians 6, where it says, do you not know the saints will judge the world?

See, here's the thing, you know, and if people do get nervous about this talk,

Jesus being the King of the United, what are you saying, Christians are gonna take over the, you know, that's kind of the thing right now with Christian nationalism, if you've ever heard about this, like people are trying to paint

Christians as this threat to democracy that they're gonna take over the government. Listen, Christians do not do that type of thing.

They've been doing that since Rome. Yeah, well. One of the reasons why seditioning is

Caesar because they said that God was King and not Caesar. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's not, first of all, it's not gonna happen here, okay?

It's not gonna happen. When do Christians rule the world? When does

Jesus rule the world? Mm. You know, at the battle of, at the second advent.

This is not any call for, Christians are to be peaceful people, not to be involved in that kind of revolutionary activity.

So just to throw that out there, I think you probably knew that, but this idea of Jesus being the

King of kings, this is a spiritual reality right now. Jesus has already, according to the

Great Commission, you know, Matthew 28, he has already been given all authority, both in heaven and on earth.

But therefore, because he is the King of kings, every president, every governor, every prime minister, they should understand that they are

God's servants. They are to act as God's deacons, not just in theory, but in how they govern.

So any law, any decision that is made should be, now, like I said, it's not, but it should be made in light of God's word.

The kings of Europe, you know, at least gave lip service to this idea in the past.

But the actions of every government, certainly the ones that claim the Lord, like we once did or still do to some extent, every world ruler, every nation, should make policy and decisions that are in line with Christ's teachings.

Because he is the King of kings. Now, again, that's not happening. And that's why the second advent is necessary, because really the whole world is in rebellion against God.

That's what Psalm chapter two is talking about. So they all rebel, and the Bible predicts this rebellion will grow worse and worse.

There's gonna be religious apostasy in the end of days. So you're just gonna see this more and more.

And this is why I say the stage really is set for the end times, because that's exactly what we've been seeing, and it's radically increased just in the past 50 years.

I mean, no one can deny that. So people say, well, the world is, things are looking really bad, right?

But because they're looking bad, things are looking good. Because you just know we're that much closer to the return of Christ.

There's another theory called post -millennial, this is the pre -millennial view, but I say it's just the

Bible, because that's just plainly what it teaches. There's another view that is called post -millennialism.

They say that the world is just gonna get better and better, and the governments of this world, they're gonna willingly accept

Christ. And yeah, the church is gonna usher in the kingdom, and Jesus will come back at the end, and kind of say, good job, guys, and he'll take it from there.

That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible clearly teaches, Revelation 19,

Jesus comes, chapter 20 is the kingdom, the millennium.

So Jesus comes back in 19, sets up the kingdom in 20, therefore the return of Christ is pre, or before the millennium, and obviously he has to fight a battle with the nations in order to reign.

The idea that the nations are gonna willfully hand it over to Jesus, it's, post -millennialism is a great idea.

It's just the opposite of what the Bible teaches. So in that way, it's a horrible idea.

But let's close, verse 17. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather together for the supper of the great

God that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses, and those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people free, enslaved both small and great.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army.

Okay, we're almost done, I promise, but let's turn to Luke 19. Luke chapter 19, this is the final war of the age, the battle of Armageddon.

And like I said, it's not so much a war, it's an execution. And Jesus told the parable about this in Luke chapter 19.

Luke chapter 19, starting in verse 11, it says, now as they heard these things, he,

Jesus, spoke another parable because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.

Now, jokes on them, it's at least 2 ,000 years after this, but verse 12, therefore he said, a certain nobleman went, here's the parable, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.

Who do you think this nobleman is? Well, it's the Lord. Verse 13, so he called 10 of his servants, delivered to them 10 minas, piece of money, and he said to them, do business till I come.

But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us.

And this kind of speaks to the fact that, you know, the church, quote unquote, has kind of rebelled against Christ ever since he ascended.

Not the true church, but the false church. Long story short, though, some of his servants were faithful and they received their reward.

But when the kingdom of God is set up, look at what he says in Luke 19, 27, as for the rebels, he says, bring here those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them and slay them before me.

That's what Jesus said. So this is basically what we're seeing in Revelation 19.

The enemies of Christ, the Antichrist armies are just dealt with immediately.

Okay, now let's go back to Revelation 19 and we'll close out the chapter.

But the Lord has a special, so we see the execution of the wicked people of the world, but there's a special punishment for the beast and the false prophet.

And I can just imagine someone who's not used to hearing verse by verse, preaching through the

Bible. This is Christianity, this is horrible. Look at all the bloodshed and the, I can't believe it.

Well, it's the Bible. This is what happens when you actually read the Bible. You get the truth.

But Revelation 19, look at verse 20. Here's the special punishment for the

Antichrist and his false prophet. It says, then the beast was captured and with him, the false prophet who works signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

These two, so it's talking about the, what we believe is the Antichrist and his false prophet.

These two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone, and the rest were killed with the sword.

So special punishment for them. They get tossed alive into hell or into the lake of fire, which proceeded from the mouth of him, who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

That's the army. So they are in the lake of fire. Why is that significant?

Because in the next chapter, 1 ,000 years later, the Bible is very careful to point out that 1 ,000 years later, guess what?

The beast and the false prophet are still there. What does that tell you?

It totally refutes the false doctrine known as annihilationism.

That when someone is cast into the lake of fire, they just burn up and cease to exist. That's not true.

These men, they wanted a life without God. Ultimately, God gives them what they want.

They get a whole eternity without God. So in conclusion, what's the takeaway?

Knowing that this is where human history is headed, knowing that this is going to happen, and seeing how, based on what we're reading,

God is not showing any mercy to the wicked, is he? Here's what that tells me.

It reminds me that we are currently living in an age of grace, because today,

God shows great mercy to the wicked. There are people doing unspeakable things, and they still get to enjoy a sunset.

They still get to enjoy life to whatever degree. God is patient.

He is long -suffering. But like I said, this is an age of grace, but this time is going to run out.

Just speaking of the Lord's compassion, 2 Peter 3 .9 says, "'The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, "'as some count slackness, "'but is long -suffering toward us.'"

Like, he's not delaying his coming. He will come back, but why has he waited so long?

He's not willing that any should perish. There's still people to be saved. There are still people in the unbelieving world.

God is showing them mercy, and he's doing that because many of them still, he knows, are gonna come to Christ.

There are unbelievers right now living in that Psalm chapter two rebellion against God, but they're

God's people. They just haven't been saved yet. And that's where we come in. As long as we're alive in this age of grace, we are to warn people.

That's why you preach through revelation. We are to warn people, but we are to also preach the grace and the mercy of Christ that's shown in the gospel.