Revelation 19 (Cont)

Well, good morning.

Okay, we'll get started and will you open us up with a word of prayer?

Heavenly Father, we're thankful we can come before you and read your word, be instructed, Lord, and we're thankful for giving us another Lord's Day and may we be in your house and be under your instruction.

I just ask you to be with Brother Mike, Lord, as he opens the word to us, to give him wisdom and your words of hope for him and Jesus in my prayer. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Mike, for teaching for me last week as I went and put on my Presbyterian outfit, preached at a Presbyterian church. So, yeah. Open your Bibles to Revelation 19 and beginning of verse 1 it says,.

And after these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous for he has judged the great harlot who has corrupted the earth and her immorality and he has avenged the blood of the bond servants on her.

And the second time they said, Hallelujah, her smoke rises forever and ever and the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down. They worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, Amen, Hallelujah.

And a voice came from the throne saying, Give praise to our God, all you who are his bond servants, you who fear him, the small, the great. And then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters, like the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, Hallelujah for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen and bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

And then he said to me, Right, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true words of God. Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said, Do not do that for I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw the heaven opened and behold, a white horse and he who sat on it was faithful and true and righteousness. He judges and wages war.

His eyes are as a flame of fire. His head had many diadems and he has a name written on him, which no one knows except him. He is clothed with the robe dipped in the blood and his name is called the Word of God and the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

We're following with him on white horses for out of his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he would strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread down the line press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And then I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried out with a loud voice saying to all the birds which are in the fly in mid heaven, come and assemble for the great supper of God so that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and all those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free and slave and small and great.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and they had their armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was seized and the false prophet who performed those signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image.

And these two were thrown into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone and the rest were killed with the sword. And there came from out of his mouth, I'm sorry, and the rest were killed with the sword which came out of his mouth him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with the flesh.

The Twofold Contrast Between the Faithful and the Unfaithful

Now, remember we talked about there's these constant twos we had that go all the way through the book. The faithful, the unfaithful. What are some more? There's these dichotomies all through the book so far.

We have the faithful, the unfaithful. We can just say we've got the beast, the lamb. Yeah, these are, what else? We have the followers of the beast and followers of the lamb. What else? We could, there's a bunch.

Babylon and New Jerusalem. Oh, okay. Yeah, these are all in basically just showing this dichotomy in New Jerusalem. And then you had the harlot and the bride. And then in this chapter you got two suppers.

You got the supper of the, you had the supper of the lamb and then the supper of our great God. Two different categories. The supper of the lamb, for those of you who can't see, sorry. The supper of the lamb was for who?

For the, yeah, those that were being called in and I made the mixed metaphor of not only were it from the parables, the mixed metaphor being those, the guests that were being called ultimately would be part of that great supper and would turn, would be the invited guest would be the bride eventually.

And that's the mixed metaphor you get from Revelation and the mixed metaphor you get from the book of Matthew. So this one is a supper of celebration because it's time for the bride to be then handed over to then be married to her bridegroom for all of eternity.

But when we get to this, this has the supper of our great God and if you get to the end for our dispensational brothers to think that this is somehow the second coming of Christ and then to set up a millennial kingdom, they're sadly mistaken because anybody see what it says at the end in verse 21 and we'll get there, I don't know if we'll get there today, but if we get there, there's no one left.

Everybody, it says everybody that was left was killed with the sword. So if Jesus has come under our dispensational brothers to set up a millennial kingdom to rule over whoever's left on the earth. Hey, baby.

Well, you look cute. What's left? That's it. So if they were going to set up a kingdom, then who are they going to rule over with a rod of iron for a thousand years? And we'll get to that in a few weeks as well.

So here's the two suppers. Supper of the Lamb, great celebration. The supper of the great God is absolute utter destruction to whoever's left. And who ends up being destroyed by the supper of our great God?

Everybody took the mark of the beast. Everybody, go ahead. You were going to fix this up? No, I was saying the beast and everything. Yeah, because it says those who took the mark of the beast, those who followed the false prophet, and you were going to fix this up?

Just the non-elect, yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, and category, yes, the non-elect. Smart guy, sorry. Yeah, the non-elect, everybody else that was not part of this. The birds have a feast. The what time?

The birds have a feast. And there, just as they were, the guests were invited to the feast of the Lamb, God's calling the vultures of the air to come to this great feast and to eat all their flesh. I mean, it really is a gruesome scene.

If you could draw a picture, you would see bodies everywhere. You would see a battlefield full of carnivorous eating vultures feasting. So, when we finished up last time, two weeks ago, we finished up with the end right here for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy, which brings us to this opening section of a new vision.

The Apocalyptic Vision of the Faithful and True Rider

And once again, you've got this visionary hearing part of the apocalyptic book, and it says here, and I saw the heavens opened up, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it was called Faithful and True.

I don't think there is any debate on who this is. He sees the heavens opened up, he sees this man, this being, sitting on this white horse, and it's Faithful and True. Who's already been called Faithful and True in the book?

Jesus. Way in the back in the beginning. Yeah, way in the back. You know, we would have did it 70-something weeks ago, I guess. That's where we would have seen when he says, I am the Faithful, I am the True.

And it says he is coming and he's going to wage, in righteousness, he judges and wages war. Now, we're getting to, this is, most all of you that know me know this is my favorite depiction of Jesus. This is the description of who he is.

Now, if you're asking me do I really believe that Jesus has hair like wool, do I believe his eyes are literally fire, and do I believe he has a sword hanging out of his lips? No, that's not, we're fixing to talk about what this visionary is.

And you're probably asking, do I think there, that, is he really going to return on a white horse? Those are all questions we should ask. But if we're going to interpret it in light of it being apocalyptic literature, as cool as it would be to see Jesus come riding down on a white stallion just coming to make war and he's got all, in real life, that would then be inconsistent with my hermeneutic to say that this is literal, but everything else in the book has been imagery.

I would love it. I love it so much. Then I had this ungodly stuff that used to be, I had this picture tattooed over some of the stuff that was bad on me before I got saved. I had a guy, I went and said, hey man, I want you to draw a picture of this.

I want you to cover this up with that. And that's what he drew. He drew it out, and that's what covered it up. So if you don't think I'm a second commandment violator, so be it. I covered up ungodly stuff with godly stuff.

The Second Coming, Rapture, and Final Judgment

So when he is now coming, it says he will judge in righteousness, and he's going to wage war. Who do we know when Jesus returns, based on 2 Thessalonians, who is he coming to wage war on?

The ungodly, all that.

Yeah, everybody that does not obey the gospel. That's what it says. He will descend, and it talks about he will descend with flaming fire and with his angels, and I do believe that there is a mixed group of people that come.

I think there's angels and believers that come all at the same time. He is coming, and I do believe when that actually happens, we do come with him. No, we have the idea of the secret rapture is, you know, they're taken up, then they're gone for seven years, then they come back.

We do believe, if you're going to be orthodox, you still have to believe in the rapture in some form. Because rapture just means the catching away, the harpazo, raptura was actually the Latin translation of that, but the harpazo, the Greek catching away, is we meet him in the air, and then we come back.

And if you go to the parables in Matthew 25, I think, and begin in 24, all those parables show the dignitary. They go and meet the dignitary, and coming back. So we see us meeting him in the air. The dead in Christ shall rise first.

We all meet him in the air, and then we come back with him as he wages war. And I think that will happen in a split second. That war will not last. We're not talking about two armies clashing on one another.

We're talking about Jesus here, and it will say, he will basically speak the word, and it's over. And he says here that he's coming to make war. His eyes are as a flame of fire. Earlier in the book, his eyes, when he came to give the seven letters to the seven churches, it says his eyes, and I think it's in chapter one, it says his eyes were a flame of fire.

What does that represent? What are the eyes of Jesus' eyes being like fire? What is it? Anybody remember? I know it's been a year and a half ago. He has the ability to appear into every heart, the ability to judge every heart, mind, and motive.

You're not going to get away from his eyes. He sees through everything, and what is fire is a purifying element. What did they use to purify metals and gold? What's going to be used to purify our motives at the end of the age?

It's fire. Yeah, and those things that are left, is that which is done pure? So Jesus has the ability to look into every person, and do I believe his eyes are like a flame of fire today? In that sense, well, of course I do.

He knows the thoughts and intents of every man. He knows the thoughts and intents of every woman, and he's going to purify them with his judgments. And it says here, and on his head are many diadems. They actually, remember as we went through the book, there's two words that's used for crown.

Does anybody say crowns in their translation there? Yours does? It does. There's two words for crowns used in the book of Revelation. One is the Stephanos, which is the victor's crown. It's just basically a wreath that would sit, and the other is diadem, meaning royalty, conquering, warrior, and that is what would be signified here.

My translation says the correct translation did it in diadem. What does yours say, Andy? Crowns or diadem? Crown, yeah. So here it is. It's got many diadems. Why does he have many? I think it really, I think the idea is off, and here's why.

Through the book, you've had these, remember, these dichotomies. We have the lamb and the beast. We have the beast in opposition to the lamb. What was on the heads of the beast? You had, huh? Yeah, you had seven heads, ten horns, and what was on the ten horns?

Diadems, yep, diadems. Well, actually, we now see those ten. This man coming has all of them, and what does that represent? When you see crowns, so that had the idea of authority, power, and conquering, and now we're seeing him with all of them on his head, and it says that the name that was written on him which no one knows except him, and if you remember back, or this is all going back to the beginning of the book, it says that he was going to write on those who were his a name that nobody knew.

Remember that? He's like, hey, when those that persevere, remember, some of them were going to get a robe. Earlier in the book, when he was given the seven letters to the seven churches, some of them were going to get robes.

Remember, some of them were going to get this odd thing, and we go, huh? They were going to get a white rock. Remember that? They were going to get a white rock, and that was a representation of they were going to be acquitted because in a court of law, if they were given a black rock, you were condemned.

The white rock was you were justified. He says he would give them a white rock. He was going to give those a robe, and he says some of them will get, and one of them, he says, they're going to get a name that nobody knows but him.

And in this case, when you're brought into the covenant community of God, you get a name that only he knows, and he's going to write it on you, and it will be yours forever and ever. And then you get to verse 13, and he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood.

Isaiah 63 and the Blood-Drenched Robe

Now, if he's got a robe that's dipped in blood, what has taken place? It came from somewhere. This imagery has lots of connections back to Isaiah 63. Those of you that know me know that if you were to ask me what's my favorite hymn, we never sing it.

I can maybe talk Keith into doing, but it is He Who is That That Comes from Edom. And if you know that song, it is basically Isaiah 63 put to music. Well, let's just turn over and look at it real quick.

Turn over to Isaiah 63. It says, Who is this who comes from Edom? Who is Edom? What's that? And what did God promise he was going to do to the Edomites for what they did? The book of Obadiah was written about what?

About how they oppressed the Jews as they were trying to flee from the Babylonians.

Yep, and they were catching them, and they were giving them over to the Babylonians, and then Obadiah writes a prophecy against Edom that you were going to be wiped out. So, Who is this who comes from Edom with garments glowing colors from Basra?

This one who is majestic in his apparel, marching in his greatness of his strength. It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is your apparel red, and your garments like the one who has tread in the winepress?

I have trodden down the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there is no man with me. I also trodden them in my anger, and have trampled them in my wrath. And their lifeblood is sprinkled on my clothes, and I stained all of them with my raiment.

For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption has come. Hey, do you see the connection here with coming in judgment, crushing the enemies, is connected with what? Redemption. All through Scripture, we've said it time and time again, with judgment comes what?

Salvation. With judgment comes salvation. With judgment comes salvation. And it's right here. With his judgment on that of Edom, it's coming to salvation of his people. And he says, he goes on to say in verse 4, For the day of my vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come.

I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished, and there was no one to uphold. So my own arm brought salvation to me, and my wrath upheld me. I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.

This is the imagery from Isaiah that is depicted here. Who was the one that was coming from Edom in Isaiah? Who was it? God. What's that? God. Yeah, it was the picture of the pre-incarnate Christ coming and judging those people.

He says, look, he's the one that's coming to give salvation. Who offers salvation? Who's the only one that can give salvation? Christ. And if you take the book of Isaiah, and many people think that the latter half was the second Isaiah, and the first part was another Isaiah.

That's not the case. But you can take your book of Isaiah. It's got 66 chapters, and you can split it right like we do our New Testament. And if you look where chapter 63 of Isaiah fits towards the end of the book, and you see where chapter 19 and Revelation fit towards the end of the book, you're moving towards the new heavens and the new earth and the new creation.

Same thing with Isaiah. It's just interesting how our English translation has broken that up. I mean, obviously it was all inspired by God, but how it lands. What are the last few chapters of Isaiah about?

New creation. What are the last chapters of Revelation about? New creation. What is just a couple of chapters before the new creation? The destruction of the enemies of God through that man whose enemies have been drenched in his clothes with their blood.

Same thing in Isaiah. It's just an interesting parallel. So it obviously, if there's enough blood to stain his clothing, it means there has been a massive bloodshed. And we have already seen through the book that it's just laying into this wine press, and just as you would crush down the grapes or the muscadines or whatever other type of vine fruit would crush, what would happen as they stomped on you?

Now, they made wine. They used to stomp it with their feet, okay? So what would happen with the juice? Splatter. It would splatter. And that's the idea when it says they're going to put him in the wine press.

Well, if you're putting people into a wine press of God's wrath, and he tramples them, what's going to happen with their blood? It's going to be all over. Yeah. And the bigger the wine press, the bigger the mess.

That's right. The bigger the mess. And here it is. His name is called the Word of God. Where else have we seen him called? The Logos. And the Word became flesh. Yes. You know, there's only one writer in the New Testament that calls him the Logos, or Logos, however you want to say that.

And it's John. And John is catching on that here again. The Word of God. And what did the Word of God become? It became flesh and dwelt among us. And what did John say? And we beheld his glory. Came unto his own, and his own received him not.

What happens to those that received him not? They become part of the feast of our great God. What do the ones that did receive him? To them he gets. That's right. And then they become part of this here.

The Saints Clothed in Christ's Righteousness

It says here, and then the armies which are in heaven were clothed in fine linen. Who were clothed in fine linen? Already in the book. Who gets clothed in fine linen? Yeah, the saints. We saw the 144 ,000 standing on Mount Zion clothed in fine linen.

Well, why were they clothed in fine linen? They had been wrapped in the robe of the righteousness of his Son. That's right. Not our own. I mean, we can even back up to where it says here, back in the marriage.

Yeah, it says here that it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen. Bright and clean. Fine linen are the righteous acts of the saints. And how were those righteous acts done? Through the power of the Spirit, which was given to us by the Son of God, the Word of God, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.

The Sword of Judgment and the Rod of Iron

And then verse 15, and from his mouth comes a sharp sword. When it talks about a sword coming out of someone's mouth, or it's speaking of the words that come out of someone's mouth, what is being conveyed through this?

It's being conveyed that there's judgment that comes. What does a sword mean? When Paul says that the government has the right of the sword, what does that mean? They have the right to judge and execute.

So when it says here that he's got a sword that's coming out of his mouth, his words are judgment and execution. In Hosea, I think it's in chapter 6, I think it's 7 and 8. Somebody can check. I think it's chapter 6, verses 7 and 8.

It talks about how the prophets hew the people. I really like the funny word, hew. What does that mean? It means to chop the people up with their words. They spoke the words of God. What did they come and do?

They came in judgment speaking as what were the prophets' job. They were basically covenant prosecutors. And if you look at Hosea, I think that whole book is about God prosecuting the nation for being a whore.

I mean he had his prophet go marry one so that he could demonstrate the idolatry was that of a whore as a person, as a man being in an adulterous relationship. And it says that I sent the prophets to you, and they hewn you with their words.

Well, here it is. Jesus is coming, and he's going to speak words of judgment. From his mouth will come that sharp sword, and it has a specific purpose. It will strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

Where are we already seeing in the Bible where he's going to rule with a rod of iron? I think some translations say scepter. Psalm 2. He will rule the nations. He has the scepter. Well, we can go all the way back.

Who was going to have the scepter in the book of Genesis? It was given to the tribe of Judah. And then we see that tribe of Judah progressively move forward, and it would then go to narrow it down for not only what would be the scepter being the tribe of Judah, it would be the descendant of David.

And that descendant of David then, he would have one that would sit on the throne forever, and he would rule and reign with a rod of iron. What does it mean to rule and reign with a rod of iron? It means to do it with justice, to wield that rod.

That rod could have two purposes. Just like the shepherd hook had two purposes for that rod. You may know what they were. Whack them and bring them. Sheep are stupid. They go towards a cliff. That hook, or somewhere they shouldn't go, that hook was not to yank their head off.

It was to hook around their neck and redirect them. Because, hey, man, you've got a sheep. He's eating grass. He's just following wherever that grass is. You know that grass might be green all the way over to the other side of the cliff.

And if you've got a bunch of sheep eating, we're just following one butt sheep to another. And next thing you know, boop, boop. Matter of fact, you can get on YouTube. There was a guy that was watching the sheep were eating like that, and the whole multitude of sheep just followed that one sheep, and they're eating grass.

Boop, boop, boop. Now, I guess it was probably good for the next 15 or 20. They landed on a padded surface after the other ones hit the bottom down there. But, yeah, they're just watching these things just fall off.

Well, that hook is to pull them away from danger. If there was a wolf or some other type of danger, to pull them in. But what was the backside of that thing for? Like just whack. The rod of correction.

And it was to whack them when they did wrong, or if they kept coming this way and then they wanted to go that way with the hook, after the hook's pulled them. And what does it say? And David says, your rod and your staff comfort me.

They comfort me. There's something uncomfortable about the staff. But he says it's comforting. It's because what? Whom the Lord loves, he does what? He chastens. He chastens. It says here, out of his mouth was that sword.

The nations will be struck down. He will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. So there is no ambiguity that when he comes, this is his second coming, and it is for judgment.

Christ's First Coming in Mercy and Second Coming in Judgment

Now, I notice there can be disagreement on the timing of this. Is it going to be before the seven years' tribulation and all that? There's no doubt that when he comes, he is coming for one purpose, and it's for judgment.

What does Hebrews say about Christ's first coming? He came in regard for sin. Take it away. It says when he comes a second time, it will be regard for judgment. His second coming, he came with mercy. He came with offering peace.

He came as the Prince of Peace. Not peace in this life, but to make you peace with God. Keith preached, was it last week, on the abundant life. People often connect peace in this life with the abundant life, and that Jesus came to give us the abundant life in this life and peace in this life.

No, no, no. He came to make peace with God. You were an enemy to who? You were an enemy with God. Hey, forget everybody else. If you're made right with God, that's really what counts. Now, I'm not saying we should live in tumult with one another, but ultimately your goal is to be in right relationship and make peace with the God of war.

People don't like that about God. You know, he is a God of war. He goes out, he's going to make war with his enemies, and he has the right to do so. Anybody ever read Augustine's City of God, City of Man?

I mean, you could probably read it in eight months. It's a huge book. It's a difficult read, but he does have some sections in there that deal with just war. You're not going to worry about that when Christ comes.

There's going to be no saying that what he's doing is unjust. There are parts of that book that I can disagree with. You know, it says you should have the same amount of response as it is. You shouldn't be an overwhelming force.

Tell Christ that. Does it not look like he comes with overwhelming force? Look, if you want to crush your enemy, you better hit them hard and fast. It's like in a fight, hard, fast, and quick. You want it over.

This is not the progressive Jesus here, the liberalist. No.

Those liberals hate this depiction of Christ. They hate it because he's coming for one purpose, and it's to slay the sinner. And when you harmonize this with Thessalonians, he's coming to wage war on those who do not obey the gospel, who do not obey the gospel.

That makes it very clear. That makes it very exclusive to who this category of people are. They're going to be fed as the feast to the birds. It's those that do not obey the gospel.

When you think about this response in response to the saints under the altar who are crying, you know, how long until you avenge?

When is vengeance coming? It's like this is the answer. This is the answer to that.

This is the vindication, the vengeance being offered for their deaths, their sacrifices, the people that have killed the Christians down through all the centuries. Correct.

I should say that, yeah, we have an immediate fulfillment of that, which doesn't exhaust the fulfillment when he destroyed 70 AD. He crushed that city for what they did to the prophets, going from righteous Abel to the son of Berekiah.

But then you have from that time from the destruction of Judaism all the way until the time that he comes at the end of Satan being loosed after the thousand years, what about all those people that died?

This is vengeance. This is vengeance on that. Him then exhausting that fulfillment to its full. Because we're going to see here that there is a parallel to this in 20 where everybody's then cast into the lake of fire.

We also have other parallels to this that happen in the book in 14 and 16. So if you want to see parallels to this, read 14. Remember, and what's the whole structure of the book? I've said for 70 weeks or however long it's been.

Progressive parallel. You get here, you get the next one, it gets a little more information. The next one you get a little more information. Well, here we're getting a full picture of what's going to happen at the end of the seventh bowl being poured out of wrath, which is the Battle of Armageddon, which I believe that this is picturing, Armageddon, the great battle that every nation of the world is supposedly gathered against Christ and against His people to make war with the saints.

And then what does Christ do? He descends and saves them. I think it's in, when we looked at the little book from 11 to 13, you remember it says that they waged war on the saints, and it looked as if they were overcoming and they were winning.

And who descends and saves them? The Lamb. The Lamb. What is taking place here? The Lamb descends, and He does away with all of the enemies. And then here it says, and on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords

This is my favorite title for Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And if you know anything about all of the world powers before Him, whether it be Babylonian Empire, the Persian, Medo-Persian Empire, the way you get to the Greeks, you know what those meant?

Every one of them wanted to be called the King of Kings, whether it was Nebuchadnezzar or whether it was Xerxes, who actually did expand the realm and its riches to probably more than any other. I am the King of Kings.

Until His successors got laid waste by Alexander the Great. And what did Alexander the Great say? I am the King of Kings. I am the Lord of Lords. Until He died of malaria in Babylon, and then His kingdom is split into four, and there was this struggle for all of these men to figure out which one was going to be the King of Kings.

And none of them can do it. This here is proof positive in the imagery. Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Why? Because He kills everybody. Look, every one of those men weren't able to actually squash every quill out.

So what did they have to do? They constantly trying to expand their kingdom, trying to keep the other kingdoms from coming in. Even Rome, they struggled. Rome did have an iron heel, but buddy, they didn't want to go to the other side of the Euphrates because you know what was on the other side of the Euphrates?