Revelation 19:11-21 (The Second Coming, Jeff Kliewer)

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The Second Coming Revelation 19:11-21 August 2, 2020

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of abundance flow. Blessed be your name. Blessed be your name.
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Great blessing to you, for out I'll turn back to praise.
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When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say, blessed be the name of the
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Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the
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Lord. Should be great blessing to you, for out
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I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in,
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Lord, still I will say, blessed be the name of the
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Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the
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Lord. Blessed be your glorious name. You give and take away.
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You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, blessed be your name.
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You give and take away. You give and take away.
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My heart will choose to say, blessed be your name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.
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Amen. Good singing this morning. You may be seated. Fuller of the world is coming, but he has no power over me.
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That's what Jesus says. Now we do know that we're talking about Satan. You can go into Philippians 1, the prince of the power of the air.
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When the ruler of this world comes, but he will have no power over me. Now the context, the direct context,
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Jesus is about to be betrayed. He is about to be taken in trial.
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He is going to have the passion. He is going to go to Calvary. He is going to hang on a cross. He is going to die, and my imagination has
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Satan fist bumping the other demons that he has won. But you know, the promise was made way back in Genesis that he will bruise my heel, but I will crush his head.
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And so what really happened at the cross was although the ruler of the world came, he had no power over Jesus.
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There's another application, and that's to us here and now. The ruler of the world is here.
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And he is all about promoting things that are against God. He is all about the evil of the world.
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But I'm here to tell you right now, and right here, that although the ruler of the world is here, and he thinks he has power, he does not have power over you.
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We have a Lord and Savior. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
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And so we can say, I will bless the Lord at all times. Amen to that.
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So I'm going to give you a couple of challenges. Set your heart on God. There are going to be reasons for you to not do it.
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And quite frankly, one, because things are going easy. And so you forget to give credit to God.
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Or you forget to turn to Him. More one times are hard, it seems difficult.
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But I'm telling you that through Him you will experience victory in the good times, in the bad times.
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You will experience life and life more abundant. So have a heart that always proclaims,
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I bless the Lord at all times. Amen to that. A couple of announcements.
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This coming Friday, a great event for the children of our church. There's going to be a one -day VBS. We weren't able to do the normal schedule where we would have a week -long
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VBS and all sorts of activities. But Ben and Jen Naviger, Carrie Meyer have gotten together and they have put together a one -day event.
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It will be Friday. Do you have any quick words you want to say about that? If you have questions, if you want to get signed up, see
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Pastor Ben, call Carrie, call Jen. I'm sure if you talk to Mike, he can help you out also.
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For your family, for your neighbors, for your friends, a great event. On a sad note, a member, a long -standing member of our church,
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Dottie and Ollie Perry, Ollie's sister has gone home to be with the
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Lord. And while it's difficult and it's sad, when a loved one goes, there's rejoicing knowing that she is in the very presence of the throne of God.
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And so we do want to hold the Perry family up. I got a question for you.
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Who knows what the parousia is? Ben, if you don't raise your hand, you're out of here.
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Who would like to learn what the parousia is? Jeff is about to give you an indication of one of the most amazing events that's been foretold.
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And it is the solid, solid foundation of our hope. The parousia. That's a tease. He's going to take you there.
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So now let's pray. Lord, today, today our hearts need to respond to things that's going on in the world, but we need to respond in blessings to you.
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We need to know that in all things, we should see God and we should bless him. We should not be distracted or discouraged by what goes on in the world.
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Today, Lord, we pray for our country and for those who are led astray into bad directions.
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We pray for their hearts, that they might turn and see you.
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We pray that you would give them the grace that the eyes of their hearts would be opened and that they would turn from wicked ways and turn down the path where they would also bless the
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Lord. And so, Father, give us the opportunity to be light and salt. Let us be that pure light and salt.
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So, Lord, we do rejoice in the hope that although things are weird now, we rejoice in realizing that your kingdom will prevail.
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Father, we pray for the Perry family. As Rosie has gone home, the family is left behind.
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Be their close comfort, we pray. And now, Father, give Pastor Jeff your words as he takes us into Revelation 19, as he will talk to us about the parrhesia.
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Pray that your Holy Spirit would strengthen him and open the eyes of our hearts. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
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Let's sing two songs together before Pastor Jeff comes. There is a truth older than the ages
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There is a promise of things yet to come
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There is one born for our salvation
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Jesus There is a light that overwhelms the darkness
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There is a kingdom that forever reigns
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There is freedom from the chains that bind us
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Jesus Jesus Who walks on the waters
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Who speaks to the sea Who stands in the fire beside me
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He roars like a lion He fled as the lamb
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He carries my healing in His hand
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Jesus There is a name
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I call in times of trouble There is a song that comforts in the night
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There is a voice that calms the storm that rages He is
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Jesus Jesus Who walks on the waters
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Who speaks to the sea Who stands in the fire beside me
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He roars like a lion He fled as the lamb
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He carries my healing in His hand
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Jesus Messiah, Messiah My Savior There is power in Your name
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You're my rock and my redeemer
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There is power in Your name
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In Your name On the waters
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You speak to the sea You stand in the fire beside me
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You roar like the lamb
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You carry my healing
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You are Jesus Jesus Jesus We're singing about the name of Jesus.
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Blessed be His name. His name is powerful.
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So powerful that even Satan trembles at the name of Jesus. Let's sing this next song as a prayer.
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Your prayer. As morning dawns and evening fades
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You inspire songs of praise
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That rise from earth to touch
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Your heart And glorify Your name
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Your name Is a strong and mighty tower
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Your name Is a shelter like no other
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Your name Let the nation sing it louder
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Nothing has the power to save But Your name
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Give us strength to live for and glorify
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Your name Your name
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Is a strong and mighty tower Your name
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Is a shelter like no other Your name
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Let the nation sing it louder Nothing has the power to save But Your name
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Lord, it's
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Your name that is so powerful. Even we don't understand. We pray,
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Lord, that every day we will look to You. Remember the power of Your name to save.
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You are a strong and mighty tower. You're a shelter like no other. We pray that not only us, but the nation will come back to You and sing
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Your praises louder and louder. Because nothing has the power to save like Your name.
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Your name Is a strong and mighty tower
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Your name Is a shelter like no other
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Your name Let the nation sing it louder
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Nothing has the power to save But Your name
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May we see that. Good morning.
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Let's pray. God, our prayer this morning is that You would make our hearts to burn for You.
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We think of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were discouraged and walking along the way.
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And You came alongside them and You opened the scriptures to them. That they would see
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Christ in all the scriptures. And afterwards they reflected and said, Did not our hearts burn?
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And so, Lord, our prayer is that You would make our hearts to burn. That we would see Christ in the scriptures.
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We would long for Christ. We would look for His coming. We pray then that it would inspire us to go out in the name of Jesus, preaching the good news.
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And this prayer is offered in the name of Jesus. Amen. Many of you probably know the name
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A .W. Tozer. Anybody familiar with Tozer? He's famous for his book, The Pursuit of God.
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And many other wonderful works that help us to walk with Christ and know Him more.
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Well, not a lot of people realize that Tozer not only didn't go to college, Tozer didn't finish high school.
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And at 17 years old, he was saved at a Methodist camp meeting. And then he began to preach.
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The Methodists wouldn't let him preach. And so he joined the CMA, Christian Missionary Alliance, and went to West Virginia to pastor a church.
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Then he went to Chicago's South Side and preached there for many, many years. But one of the things
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I love about Tozer is that he had in his heart a burning desire to know
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Christ. He would study the Scripture on his knees. He would open the
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Word of God and learn from the Scripture. And his heart burned to know Christ more. And so he took to calling others like himself, who loved
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Christ and wanted to know Him and make Him known, he took to calling them the
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Fellowship of the Burning Hearts. I love that description. The Fellowship of the
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Burning Hearts. That should be a description of all of us as Christians, a fellowship of those with burning hearts, to know
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Christ, to make Him known. We've been looking at the book of Revelation. And it's been almost a year, and so some of you had said,
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Boy, I wonder, are we still going to be studying the book of Revelation when Jesus comes back? It seems like he's going to preach till Jesus comes back.
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Well, today I'm going to preach till Jesus comes back. Why? Because he's coming back in the text today,
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Revelation 19, verses 11 to 21. But before we take this look at Christ and see
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His glory and all of His splendor at the parousia, at the second coming of Christ, when
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He is revealed in all His glory, coming from heaven. Before we do that, I want to take a few minutes to review what
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Revelation has already said about Christ. Because, to be frank, Revelation 19, when you take it in context, is terrifying.
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It is a terrifying passage about the judgment of God. And Christ is presented here as a judge, but it's in the context of the book of Revelation.
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So let's take a look at the presentation of Christ in the book of Revelation. The first place we see
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Him described, Revelation 1, 5 to 8. And this is a presentation of Christ as the lover of our souls.
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He doesn't come here in judgment. It's how John describes His Savior.
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When you think of Jesus Christ, and if you wanted to describe Him to a friend, how would you describe
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Him? John here uses nine descriptors. Follow these. Number one, a faithful witness.
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A witness you can trust. Not as one who's from earth like the rest of us, but as one who comes from heaven and speaks of realities beyond us.
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He is, first of all, a faithful witness. Second, He's the firstborn from the dead. He is one who has conquered death and risen.
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The third descriptor in Revelation 1, 5 to 8, is the ruler of kings.
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He's the ruler of kings. Fourth, John says He's the one who loves us.
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He is the picture of love, perfect love that lays down His life for His friend. And so, fifth,
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He's one who frees us from our sins by His blood.
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Sixth, He's the one who made us a kingdom and priests. Seven, He's the one who's coming on the clouds.
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Eight, He's the Alpha and Omega, the one who is and who was and who is to come.
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And finally, John describes Him as the Almighty. Those nine descriptors, that's how
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John thinks about Jesus. That's how he presents Jesus to us. And so,
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Revelation 1 is rich with the description of who Jesus is. But we're not done yet.
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There also, in Revelation chapter 1, John sees Jesus and describes
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Him as a holy champion of the church. Verses 12 to 18. Remember these descriptions?
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John turns and looks, and what does he see? The Son of Man. That is a description from Daniel chapter 7.
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The one who is man, He's the Son of Man, and yet to Him is given a kingdom. He is the
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Messiah. And He stands among the lampstands. So the second description there is
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He is the head of the church. The lampstands represent the seven churches of Asia. Typifying all of the churches,
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Christ is the head of the church. Third, He is described as a high priest.
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Because what does He wear? A robe with a golden sash. That's the high priestly vestment. He's dressed as the high priest because He comes to offer a sacrifice that can finally take away sin.
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His own body and blood. Fourth, He's described as wisdom. Wisdom personified because His hair is white.
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As white as my beard is becoming down here. Only His whole head and hair is white.
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It represents His wisdom, crown of glory. Proverbs 16. He's described fifthly as holiness.
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Because His eyes are a flame of fire and His feet are burnished bronze. He is holy.
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The ground on which He walks is holy. Because He is holiness personified.
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Sixth, He's described as the Word of God. His voice is like roaring waters.
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He holds the messengers in His hand. And from His mouth comes a sword. He is the
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Word of God. Seventh, He is the glory of God. Because His face shines like the sun in all its brightness.
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He is glory. And John falls down at His feet in terror.
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Because Jesus is the fear teacher. He teaches us to fear. But Jesus lays His hand on John and says,
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Fear not, I died and yet I rose and I hold the keys of death and Hades.
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And so He takes our fear away. All of these descriptions are there in Revelation chapter 1.
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Glorious Savior. In chapters 2 and 3, we have a repetition of those descriptions, right?
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Each letter to the churches is introduced with one of those descriptions. So He is the faithful and true witness to Laodicea.
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He's called the Amen, which amplifies that concept. So 2 and 3 reinforce these descriptions of who
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Jesus is. And then we come to a glorious, high watermark.
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The scene in heaven, the throne room. The Father and the Spirit are there. But there's no one worthy to open the scroll.
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And so in chapter 5, we have three more glorious descriptions of who
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Christ is. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
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The almighty power of God. The King who comes from the tribe of Judah.
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But this great King who descends from Judah is also the root of David.
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Meaning He was there before David or any other king ever reigned. He is the root of David.
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And then we see Him as the Lamb who was slain.
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A Lamb. The sacrificial animal who goes quietly without objection to the slaughter.
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To be a sacrifice, not for His own sins, but for ours. He is described as the
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Lamb of God. And so in response to the slain Lamb, the multitude sing,
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Holy, holy, holy, worthy are you to take the scroll. So Jesus is presented as the
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Lion, the root of David, and the Lamb. But there are a few more descriptions before we get to chapter 19.
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Do you remember Revelation 12 .5? Jesus is described as the male child who will rule the nations.
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The woman who represents Israel is giving birth and she gives birth to a male child. And so we see from that description that He is the humble child.
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We celebrate this at Christmas time. The incarnation. He is the one who took on flesh.
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The Word became flesh. Revelation 12 .5. Do you know Him in that humility?
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Revelation 13 .8 presents Him again. This time He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
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In God's plan A, He is the chosen one, the predestined one, the foreknown, slain from the foundation of the world.
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Do you know Him as the chosen? Revelation 14 .1. He stands on Mount Zion with the 144 ,000.
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These are the ones who refuse to take the mark of the beast. And so they will be persecuted.
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They cannot buy or sell without the mark. They are willing to suffer with Christ rather than to enjoy the pleasures of this world.
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And Christ does not stand with the world. He stands with the 144 ,000.
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And so He is the help to those in trouble. He stands with the persecuted.
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Every martyr who ever laid down his life knew the presence of Jesus in that suffering.
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He is the one who is there to hear the cries of the hurting. He is the help for any of us in our time of trouble.
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This is the Christ of Revelation. Finally, one more image is in Revelation 14, verses 14 to 16.
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There we see Him seated on a cloud with a Stephanus on His head, the laurel crown, which represents that He's run the race and He has won.
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He's the victor. And in His hand He holds a sickle for harvesting.
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And He swings the sickle over the earth, and the earth is harvested. And I think the picture there is the harvesting of souls.
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He tells us that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. The power to harvest souls does not come from us.
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It comes from Him. So we must know Him as the one who redeems and brings in the harvest of souls.
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Finally, now, we come to Revelation 19, 11. I wanted to set that backdrop because if we just jump in at chapter 19, we would be left with nothing but terror.
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But the good news is this is the Jesus revealed to us, the one who loves us, who laid down His life for us.
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If only we'll come in repentance and faith and follow the Lamb, we'll be saved.
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But here, Revelation 19, 11 -21, you'll notice that every image in here is judgment.
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He comes this time as a judge to execute justice on earth.
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Let's read it. Revelation 19, verses 11 -21.
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Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called
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Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
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His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
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He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the
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Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
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From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.
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He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written,
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King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead,
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Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both slave and free, both small and great.
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And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
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And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.
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These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse.
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And all the birds were gorged with their flesh."
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It's a terrifying image, isn't it? Let's look at it one by one to see this revelation of Jesus at his second coming, because again here
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I see nine more descriptions of Christ. The first is that he rides on a white horse, which means he is triumphant.
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The image of the white horse comes from the Romans. The generals would return from war and ride on a white horse with the captives trailing behind them and all the booty from war.
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And all the people would come out to the Via Sacra, that main road into Rome, and the general would ride in on a white horse.
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Well, we saw in Revelation 6, verse 2, that the Antichrist, when he established his worldwide kingdom, was riding a white horse.
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He had a bow instead of a sword from his mouth, so you know he's a pretender to the throne. He's only bent on conquering and conquest.
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That's all he cares about. But he rides on a white horse.
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Here, the true king is pictured triumphant. He's riding on a white horse, which means he's conquered every enemy.
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He is a triumphant king. I like the words of John Walvoord at this point.
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He points out the contrast between the Jesus of the Gospels and how
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Christ is presented here. But notice, it's the same Christ, different aspects.
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We need to understand both. Walvoord says this, The revelation of Jesus Christ, presented in the book of Revelation, is in contrast to the
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Christ of the Gospels, where he is revealed in rejection, humiliation, suffering, and death.
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His return, the parousia, is to be one of triumph, glory, sovereignty, majesty.
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You see, when Christ came the first time, he came humble. Born as a baby, laid in a manger.
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He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. He comes back riding on a white horse to conquer.
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A very different image. There's a contrast here. So then look at verse 11 again. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true.
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And so that's the second description to take note of. Faithful. Faithful to what?
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Faithful to every promise he ever made. True to his word.
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Back in Zechariah chapter 14, we were told that God himself,
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Yahweh, will come and conquer the enemies. And when Yahweh comes, he will set his foot on the
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Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives will split in two, and a river will flow from the east to the west.
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That never happened. Is it true? Will Yahweh come for Israel, or will they always be persecuted?
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We will see that he is faithful to that promise when Christ himself comes and he sets his foot on the
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Mount of Olives, and the mountain itself will split in two. Jesus ascended from the
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Mount of Olives. Remember that? And what was the promise made in Acts chapter 1, verse 11 and 12?
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Why do you stand there looking into the sky? This same Jesus that you saw rise will come the same way you saw him go.
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That promise will be fulfilled. Jesus will set his foot on the Mount of Olives.
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Every promise that God ever made is yes and amen.
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In this world you will have trouble, but he has overcome the world. Take heart. Hang on to the promises.
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Believe in his coming. Look to the skies. In your suffering, sometimes all we have left is what he's promised, because we're not seeing it with our eyes.
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We're not feeling comfort. Everything isn't just going well in our lives, but one thing that is steady and sure, the anchor for our soul, are the promises of God.
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He is faithful. Third, passion. I want you to see this.
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Look at verse 12. When you look into the eyes of Christ, he is not indifferent about the suffering of this world.
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He's not indifferent about the sin of this world. Look at his eyes. His eyes are like a flame of fire.
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That's a picture of passion. I remember watching John Piper preach back in the late 90s, and this sermon gripped me.
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I remember Piper, he preached, don't waste your life. He had these big nerdy glasses.
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Anybody ever seen this? He's preaching out in a field, and there's all these young people just kind of sitting there, listening to him preach.
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And he's beginning to age a little bit at this time. And people are barely listening at the beginning.
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But as he goes on to tell about two women in his church, who in their upper 70s, going on 80, were in Cameroon preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth.
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Their car got out of control on a mountain and careened off, and they blew up to their tragic death.
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But he said, is that a tragedy? And Piper said, no, it's more of a tragedy to give up your life and do nothing for the kingdom than to die like these women.
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He said, that's not a tragedy. They spent their lives for Christ, and they died reaching people with the gospel.
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But the thing that caught my attention, and that seemed to catch the attention of all the people in that field, was that as Piper told this story, you could see fire in his eyes.
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Behind those glasses, there was a passion. In all of Piper's preaching, you see that. This is what
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Tozer meant by the fellowship of the burning hearts. Like the passion in Christ's eyes, the flame, that should mark us in our lives.
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When the fire fell in Acts chapter 2, it rested on the disciples, and there was fire in their hearts.
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When Jeremiah couldn't preach, he said it was like fire in his bones.
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Unless he spoke the word of God, it would consume him. There should be a passion in our eyes, just like we see in Christ.
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An urgency, a love for him. It's not just indifferent. We don't go through the motions as Christians.
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If we want to be like our Savior, we need fire in our eyes. Fourth, look at this one. He's central.
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On his head are many diadems. This is a different word than Stephanos earlier in chapter 14, where he had run the race and he had the victor's crown.
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This is the kind of crown worn by kings to glorify and exalt the king.
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He wears these diadems on his head without shame.
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The ugliest thing that we can see in this world is an arrogant man.
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Amen to that? When someone draws attention to themselves, it is just ugly and it's repulsive because there's something in us that knows that we don't deserve glory.
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There's one who deserves glory, and it's God himself. Glorify God. Christ is right to accept the crown.
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For us to glorify ourselves is ugly because we are delighting in something that's meant to give glory to another.
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But Christ is the high point. He is the author. He is the one for whom and to whom and through him whom all things exist.
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Does that make sense? So it's right for Christ to glorify himself. When he wears that crown, he does so without shame.
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It's right for him to wear it. I got a really encouraging email a couple days ago. A lady said that one of the books that I wrote,
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Faith is Not Blind, was taken to a prison, and a prisoner had come to Christ and was kind of connected the dots for him, and he was so encouraged.
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And he's getting out of prison, and so he's able to come and visit, and he wanted to come meet the author of the book.
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So my response to this woman who told me this story, to say back to him, he wants to come meet me, was this.
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Prepare for a letdown. Prepare for a letdown. You want to meet the author of that book?
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You're going to be let down because there is nothing special about me. All that I did was write the words of the scripture and point how it reveals
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Christ and lifted him up. But glorify Christ. We have nothing.
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We are dust. But we have a treasure in these jars of clay.
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Christ in us, the hope of glory. Colossians 2. He is our treasure. He is the one who wears the crown.
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And so we should live our entire lives every day for the glory of another, not for our own glory.
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Next. Number six. No, number five. He has a name written that no one knows but himself.
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Think about this one for a minute. Why is that in there? When I first saw it,
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I thought, well, if we don't know what the name is, why are we being told he has a name that we don't know?
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Because it doesn't reveal what that name is. I think the point of including this sentence is to remind you and I that we cannot contain him.
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The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.
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Deuteronomy 29 .29. We are to know what we're told, but remember our place.
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That for however much we get to see Christ, this glimpse that we see of him, he is so much bigger than we imagine.
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We still see through a glass dimly. Then we will see face to face.
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We need to be reminded that he's bigger than all that we could imagine.
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I never stop marveling at these scholars who write books.
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You know, as opposed to Tozer. Tozer wrote books from the passion of his heart to know Christ, to reveal
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Christ, make him known, but did you know that in the academy, in biblical scholarship, a majority of those who are writing these religious tomes don't believe in the
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Christ that they write about. They have doctorates, some of them multiple
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PhDs next to their name, and they write theological works, Union Theological Seminary.
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Highly educated people write thousands upon thousands of words without believing in Christ.
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I wonder why they do that. Why not devote yourself to something else? But I think I have an answer for why they do that.
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They're not running to him, they're running from him, and they write books to try to contain him.
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They think if they can figure everything out and explain everything away, they have him in a box, and they're safe.
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And they devote their lives to trying to contain Christ rather than simply believing who he is and remembering their place and our place at the foot of the cross, prostrate, crying out, have mercy on me, the sinner.
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You see, he has names, a name that we don't even know.
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He's so much bigger, he's uncontained. Number six, he's clothed in a robe dipped in blood.
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This description is interesting. At first I thought, well, this must mean his blood, because he died for us.
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But that blood was shed once and for all. The commentators, I think, are right in saying that the blood here is anticipatory of what he's coming to do.
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Dipped in blood means he's going to war. He's coming as a judge.
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So his robe is dipped in blood, and what we're about to see here, what he does when he arrives is judge.
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John Walvert says, the scene of awful judgment, which comes from this background, is in flat contradiction of the modern point of view that God is dominated entirely by his attribute of love.
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Let me repeat that in simpler words. When you see his robe dipped in blood, it flatly contradicts what this world says and every other religion about Christ regarding his attribute of love.
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The world would like to flatten Jesus out to nothing but love, and indeed,
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God is love, but you cannot contain him under the title of that one word.
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This robe dipped in blood flatly contradicts that assessment. He is love, but he is also just.
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He is also holy and powerful, and the robe dipped in blood says he will come and judge the ungodly.
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We need to be reminded of that. Number seven. The name by which he is called is the word of God.
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Here then, we see a sword coming from his mouth. It says here that the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
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From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with the rod of iron.
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Again, that's that Psalm chapter two imagery. He has a rod of iron to smash his enemies, but the sword coming from his mouth represents his word going forth.
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Jesus is the word of God. He is the revelation of God, the exact imprint of his nature.
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He is the fullness of deity bodily, dwelling bodily, the revelation of what the
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Father is like. He is the word of God. Next, second to last, he is wrathful.
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There was a scholar early in the church named Marcion, and Marcion said that the
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God of the Old Testament is a different God from the God of the New Testament. The God of the
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Old Testament was harsh and judgmental. The God of the New Testament is love. Marcion said that the
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Old Testament God was really a demiurge and not the true God at all. Jesus, according to Marcion, is only loving all the time, and fury and wrath belongs to the demiurge.
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Nothing could be farther from the truth. In Revelation 6, 17, the people are crying out, who will save us from the wrath of the one who sits on the throne and from the
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Lamb? And here, read this verse with me. It says, the second part of verse 15, speaking of Christ, no demiurge, not just an
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Old Testament God, this is the New Testament Christ. It says, he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the
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Almighty. The winepress, of course, is where the grapes were put, and people would step into that winepress and trample out the grapes, and the wine would flow.
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The imagery here is people trampled under the feet of Christ.
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Their blood shed in his wrathful judgment. God does have wrath.
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Finally, the ninth revelation of Christ at his second coming is a picture of sovereignty.
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It says, verse 16, on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written,
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King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The reason he's
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King of Kings is there were a conglomeration of 10 kings working with the
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Antichrist in opposition to God. And now they discover that he is king over them.
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He is lord over the lords of this earth. Which leads us into 17 to 21.
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We won't spend much time here. It just needs to be said. What does Jesus do at his second coming?
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Do you know what he does? He judges. The Antichrist and the beast are thrown into the lake of fire.
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And all of those armies that came against Jerusalem for the battle of Armageddon are trampled underfoot.
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Verse 17, then I saw an angel standing in the sun and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead.
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Come, gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.
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There at the battle of Armageddon, remember, chapter 16 of Revelation goes right into chapter 19 chronologically.
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17 and 18 are about the one world religion Babylon and the one world government Babylon, which will fall.
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But chronologically speaking, the nations here, after the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments, they have nothing left.
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They're in the dark. The sun is extinguished. They're gnawing their tongues. They're enraged and they're coming to kill the people of God.
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They're coming to Jerusalem, a mighty throng, an army coming over the river from the east.
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They're intending to kill the 144 ,000 and the Jewish remnant in the land. They expect to get vengeance on God because they've lost everything.
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They're enraged. So when you come to chapter 19, it picks up here, and what they discover is that Christ himself returns and fights for them, whether they're small or great, captain or the lowest soldier in rank.
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All of them meet the same fate. 19, it's not much of a battle, is it?
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The battle isn't described. We don't have a gratuitous scene of how God does it, but the point is,
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God in Christ makes short work of the enemy. Look at verse 19.
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And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
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Verse 20, and the beast, that's the Antichrist, was captured, and with it the false prophet, that false
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Holy Spirit, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.
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These were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And it bears commenting here that hell is not annihilation.
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These were thrown alive into the lake of fire to burn forever in an everlasting punishment, conscious punishment.
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Now the rest weren't thrown to hell yet. That will happen at the end of chapter 20. The rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse.
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I think we will be included in those armies on white horses behind Christ, but none of us will have to swing a sword.
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Because you realize, the power of Christ and his word completely conquers the enemy.
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This is the battle between omnipotence and earthly power. And there's no comparison.
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An omnipotent God speaking the words by the breath of his mouth, he slays the wicked,
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Isaiah 11. There's not much of a battle here. The rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
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So this is the contextual image of the second coming of Christ. He comes as a judge.
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It's a terrifying scene. But where does it leave us as Christians to apply this?
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Well, I think it should increase our urgency to go out and evangelize. I think we ought to go to the
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Lord in prayer and seek him and call him
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King of Kings and call him Word of God and call him faithful, call him true, to bow down before him and say,
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Lord, make my heart burn like it should. Seek him in your prayer closet.
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And as your heart burns, then go out and tell the world about his mercy.
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It's still offered. The time has not run out, but the time is short. Go out and preach
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Christ to your neighbor. That means you gotta go knock on a door right next, I know it's not culturally appropriate to do, knock on your neighbor's door, offer him a
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Bible, attract, tell him about Jesus. Join the fellowship of the burning heart.
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Let your eyes have that passion, that flame, that you read in the words of Tozer and Piper and in so many of us that love his appearing.
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Let's close in a word of prayer and ask that he would put that fire back in our hearts to see him because we know this revelation is soon.
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The revelation of his appearing will be soon. The time is short.
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The workers are few. Let's pray. God, we, first of all, come to you in repentance, in confession.
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We have not always burned with a passion to know you and to make you known.
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But right now we ask for a fresh filling of your Holy Spirit. We pray that you would come on us like you did in Acts chapter 2 on the disciples.
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Father, come fill us right now. Send your Holy Spirit to fill us with passion for your name to know you and to make you known.
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Lord, we want to know you and your suffering as hard as that is to pray. In all that we're going through,
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Lord, we pray that we would know you more and the power of your resurrection.
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We pray that you would empower witnesses this morning, that every person who is here today would be filled with a fire that comes from you to go out preaching the name that is above every name.
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You will come in judgment, but you have already come to offer mercy, to shed your blood.
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And so we pray for power to go out preaching the cross and the blood and the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus.
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Amen. Will you stand with me for one last song?
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Through sin, through no sin,
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We might become His righteousness
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He humbled himself He carried the cross
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Love so amazing Love so amazing
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Jesus, Messiah Name above all names
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Blessed Redeemer Emmanuel The rescue for sinners
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The ransom from heaven Jesus, Messiah Lord of all
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Body the bread Blood the wine Broken and poured out
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All for love All earth tremble
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The veil was torn Love so amazing
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Love so amazing Jesus, Messiah Name above all names
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Blessed Redeemer Emmanuel The rescue for sinners
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The ransom from heaven Jesus, Messiah Lord of all
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Is in you All our hope Is in you
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All the glory To you
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God Light of the world
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Jesus, Messiah Name above all names
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Blessed Redeemer Emmanuel The rescue for sinners
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The ransom from heaven
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Jesus, Messiah Lord of all
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You're the Lord of all The Lord of all
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How many of y 'all want to join the fellowship of the burning hearts? I know I do. And Jesus came and said to them,
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All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Go in peace and in fire.