King\'s Return

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Apendroth. And today it's Wednesday, Wednesday's new show, the Mario specials, YouTube podcast. I think we're still on Spotify and all those other things.

So you can always write me Mike at nocompromiseradio .com. Working on a couple of projects, still the book about parenting is, it's probably 70 done. I am working on a couple of other smaller projects about God as King, understanding prayer better, worship better, other things.

So we're trying, except most of the time I'm just tired. I don't read as much as I used to read. I mean, I read throughout the day, of course, working on my sermons, but just at night, I have so many books to read and I'm just not reading them.

And then if you don't have, you're too tired to read, you're too tired to write as well. So we'll see how it works. I'm excited to go to the Pactim Conference in October, 2025. The other speakers I think are going to be Harrison Perkins, Michael Beck, Pat Abendroth, and I'm trying to remember the Chris Larson from Ligonier.

Hope and Holiness in the Return of Christ

So that should be fun. Today, I'd like to talk about the second coming of the Lord Jesus, the return of Jesus in Revelation chapter 19. As I was thinking about Jesus as King, the King returns, the return of the King.

I think probably, you know, Lord of the Rings show, the return of the King. And when we think about eschatology, when we think about the return of Jesus, it's supposed to do many things for us. Give us hope and also help us to live holy lives.

Other things too, yes, but hope and holiness. So today I want to give you a good dose of hope and holiness that you can have hope because Jesus is coming back to make all wrongs right. And then also you can live a holy life.

When you know Jesus is coming back, you the Christian by faith want to trust in that. And then you begin to say no to sin and yes to righteousness. I know it doesn't really work perfectly, but when my dad would have to go to Oklahoma when there was a strike in the phone company and he was management and have to go fill in, he would be gone Sunday nights through Friday nights.

And so on Thursday nights, the night before his return, mom would say, you know, dad's coming back tomorrow night. Okay, yard, mowed, trimmed, pick up your stuff, make sure your room's cleaned. Dad is coming back.

Thanks for giving me the heads up. And in a similar fashion, knowing that the Lord Jesus is coming back, wouldn't we like for him to find us honoring him, obeying him, living holy lives, not found in some dark place with dark sins.

Obviously Christian sin, but the desire is, the Lord's coming back. We want to honor him because he's been good to us and he's a great king. It says that we do not want to shrink away from him in shame at his coming, 1 John 2, 28.

So today, hope and holiness, Revelation chapter 19, Jesus the Messiah returns. Now, hopefully in about two months, my wife and I will be in Rome for a conference on the Trinity. And one of the things when you're in Rome, you begin to think about Roman culture, Bible days, stuff like that.

And you can go to the forum, you can go to the Pantheon, you can go to the prison where they said Paul might've been in, which I doubt, but still, Mamertine prison. You can go to the Colosseum. You can see Titus's arch there that was put after the destruction of Israel in 70 AD.

It's got the candelabras from the temple, all kinds of Bible stuff. It's like being in the Holy land, essentially. Plus you can go see all the crazy Roman Catholic things too, which is interesting because many of them, of course, are Bible related.

The Romans had something called the triumph. And without getting into all the details about the triumph, it essentially was this. Some great general went to some country and conquered it. And it was such a great conquering that when he came back with the slaves and with the warriors of the opposing, you know, conquered land with elephants and artwork and all kinds of things like that, when they just would plunder the other country, they'd come back, they'd meet some senators before they came into town.

And the senators would say, it's such a great victory. We are gonna give you a triumph. It's gonna be a parade, right? The closest I can come to when it comes to parades. I mean, when the Celtics would win or when the Patriots would win, my kids, I'd let them skip school and go to the Patriots parade in downtown Boston.

I've never been to a Celtics parade or a Patriots parade, but I've been to two Los Angeles Laker parades where Magic Johnson, the great general through the streets of LA would go. And so there's a celebration, it's a parade.

So a triumph was a parade, a celebration of a conquering general that the senators said, we're gonna just do this up. We're gonna have him go through the city. There's gonna be flower petals. There's going to be captives that we're gonna go slay at the temple of Jupiter or Juno or all this stuff.

It's just the spectacle. And so that language of triumph, that idea of triumph is encapsulated here in Revelation chapter 19. Some of the same imagery is used by John that would be used in a triumph. It is said that if you've never seen a triumph, you've seen nothing at all.

And according to my research, 350 triumphs would happen in Rome with all the pomp, with all the circumstance, with all the warrior-like destruction described and the victory for Rome. Some people think God is just a God of love.

He's just a God of compassion. And we said even a few weeks ago on the show, we're so thankful that he's a God of love, but he's not God of only love. Actually, Exodus says God is a warrior. And Revelation 19 has got that language, the warrior language, the triumph language, the conquering King language, victory in Jesus language, the conquering King.

The Lord is the warrior. It's said to be Revelation 19, some of the grandest verses in all the Bible. Another said, this is one of the most graphic pictures of the second coming of Christ to be found anywhere in scripture.

And then another man wrote how the heart thrills and pulses bound as we read this description of the descending Christ of God with his saints. And one man said, this passage is too glorious to describe.

And then he went on to describe it. I'm gonna read Revelation 19, one through 16. Then we'll talk about it a little bit because I know you need hope today and I know you need a desire to live a holy life.

And I saw heaven open and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and wages a war. His eyes are a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems.

And he has a name written on him, which no one knows except himself. He's clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God. And the armies, which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, wide and clean, were following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it, he may strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the wine 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.

Wow.

The soon return of Christ. Now, even the book Revelation, think about the meaning of the book of Revelation. And by the way, don't ever say the book of Revelations.

Lots of people do.

I'll hear people, I'm a Bible scholar, turn to the book of Revelations. Now we've all probably done it. We've all probably said some things we shouldn't about the Bible, but we're learning. So just to let you know, if you're gonna preach Psalm 5, you say, turn your Bible to the book of Psalms and we're going to look at Psalm 5.

And if you're going to preach Revelation 19, you're not preaching from Revelations 19, you're preaching from Revelation 19. And the word revelation comes from the root word reveal. And so there's a revelation of God, a revealing of God, an understanding of who God is to show forth who God is.

God is revealed as the King who's returning in Revelation chapter 19. Let's just go through some of this passage because the revelation from God in Revelation is wonderful. Number one, this King, Jesus comes in on a horse of triumph.

That's what would happen back in the Roman triumphs. White horse, victory, not on a donkey, not on the foal of a colt, a white horse victory. You can just think of, I mean, a horse that had been running and their nostrils and the muscles.

So I just look at horses and go, no wonder we say our car has 350 horse power. Jesus isn't walking in on a humble donkey anymore. The second coming is with a majestic, holy, victorious return. He's not coming back on a real horse.

It's the idea, it's the symbolism. It's apocalyptic language to tell you victory. He's coming back in victory. Generals back in the day wanted white horses. Kings back in the day wanted a white horse.

And you can just think of purity and power and victory. That's what you should think of. One Met writer said, white horses were usually considered the best. And instead of holding up a white flag for surrender, it's the white horse, victory.

Behold, Revelation 1, 7, he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. And now that's happening. What was prophesied will happen. Not only that, the one who's coming back, the general who's coming back, the king who's coming back is faithful and true.

He keeps his promises. Verse 11, faithful and true. That's his name. I mean, back in the day, 30 years ago, we had a thing called promise keepers. And the desire for promise keepers were probably good.

It was ill-advised theologically, but it's a bunch of Christian men that want to be holy and be good witnesses and love everybody and et cetera. They're called promise keepers. But we've already got enough promises that we break.

They gave seven extra promises that we were soon to break. And so there's only one real promise keeper, the true one. Jesus is always faithful and always true.

And by the way,.

His return demonstrates further how faithful he is because he said he was gonna come back. And just like those angels said, the same way you saw him go up into heaven in Acts 1, he's coming back and every eye will see him.

Promises kept. Jesus said, I will come again, John 14. And for those that say, you know what? I will sin as much as I want. I'll do whatever I want. I'm an unbeliever. He's never gonna come back. It's been 100 years, 500 years, 1 ,000 years, 2 ,000 years.

He's never coming back. He's coming back. And in a day dominated by liars and unfaithful people, the faithful and true is going to come back. Well, not only that, number three, it says, he in righteousness judges and wages war.

There are a lot of peaceniks in this world, a lot of pacifists, a lot of people. I can't believe in any war because I'm a Christian. I can't even believe in what we call just war because I'm a Christian.

This war you better believe in, and it will be a just war. And God's judgment is going to be true. And he will judge. There's not going to be any hung juries or bribed jurors or partial judges. He's gonna come back and judge.

And he's coming back with a holy righteous vengeance. By the way, aren't you glad, Christian, he's not coming back to do that to you? Because Jesus has already paid for your sins. He's not coming back for you because you've got to pay one day.

No, no, these are for the unbelievers. These are those that will not confess Jesus as Lord with their tongue and bow with the knees of their heart. He's not coming back to get you, to punish you. This holy vengeance is for unbelievers.

And even his eyes demand triumph. His eyes are a flame of fire. This is not a literal fire coming out of his eyes in some kind of Marvel commercial. By the way, I see these Marvel commercials and it's like, they never end.

All these Marvel, I don't know. I guess I'd go see another Marvel movie if my grandson wanted to or something, but there's so many Marvel movies that I think I'm pretty much, Mario, done with Marvel.

Marvel movies.

Can't remember the last one I saw. What does it mean his eyes are a flame of fire? He sees everything. He judges everything. His eyes penetrate through everything. Superman, speaking of Marvel stuff, he's probably not Marvel, he's DC or something.

He can't see through lead. The simile here, the biblical force of the simile is as Robert Thomas would say, fierceness. He's coming back. Royal fury. Judgment that's exhaustive. Well, not only that, it says that his head are many diadems.

So literally Jesus is gonna come back and he is literally coming back, but he's literally gonna have like five crowns on his head. No, no, again, this is symbolic language. Here's what would happen. You're a general, you're a king, you go conquer somebody and you go to the throne room of the conquered king and you take off his crown and you put it on and say, I'm in charge now.

And you go to the other place and you conquer them and you go take the king's prize, that is his crown, with all the jewels and ornaments and gold. And you go, that's mine now and I'll just put it on because I'm in charge here now.

That's the idea. David put on the crown of the defeated Ammonite king plus his own crown to show I'm in charge of you and I'm in charge of these people as well. Pretty interesting. Jesus, with multiple crowns, is king.

Now, even his name shows his authority to triumph. He has a name written on him, which no one knows except himself. Back in the day, the one who is the superior one did not have to tell the name to the one who is inferior in status.

You have to tell me your name. Hey, I'm the king, you tell me your name. I don't have to tell you my name. And that's the idea here. The superior could withhold his name from the inferior. Jesus said in Matthew 11, all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father, nor does anyone know the father except the son and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal him.

The greater one has the prerogative of revealing if he wants. Well, not only that, his clothes display triumph. If he's clothed with a robe dipped in blood, imagine what that will look like. Anticipating massive bloodshed, baptized with blood, but not his own blood this time.

Victory is as good as accomplished. How about his name? That confirms how great his name is, his power is, his return is. His name is called the word of God. Of course, you know that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

The word of God. And now he's got a sword. I mean, all of these images. From his mouth comes a sharp sword that he may strike down the nations. And again, this is revelation language, apocalyptic language, end times language.

You ought not to be thinking that they're laser beams coming out of Jesus's eyes. He's got 18 crowns on his head. He's on a literal white horse and out of his mouth is coming a big sword. What would that look like?

He's got deadly force, that's the idea. Precision, lethal, deadly. This sword here is a long sword, longer than most. And it's sharp. And he, with sickle-like strokes, meets out justice for those that refuse to bow.

And it says, we're almost done. He'll rule them with a rod of iron. The warrior, with the rod of iron, Psalm 2, shattering the earthenware. The carnage will be indescribable. And then, in summary, who's this one who wins and wins decisively?

Who's the one who's the king? It says, and on his robe and on his thigh,.

He has a name written.

Now, by the way, if there was somebody up on a big white charger here, a big white horse, their garment would probably fall back a little bit. And what you would see at eye level was the thigh, the side of the thigh.

We're not talking about somebody on a little miniature pony, somebody on a big white charger. The thing that would be eye level would be their thigh. And on his thigh, he has a name written out. People do so many dumb things with this verse.

See, dad, Jesus had tattoos, therefore I get a tattoo. Hey, if you wanna get a tattoo, just don't use this verse. And if you wanna prevent people from getting tattoos, don't go to Leviticus. And don't say to people, you know what?

If God wanted you to have a tattoo, young man, you would have been born with one. Because then when it comes to your wife going out on the special date and she puts some makeup on, it's not going to work out so well in your favor.

Inconsistency sometimes hurts us when it comes to this. But the whole tattoo thing, I mean, is it a sin to get tattoos? I told my girls, if you're in the house and you get a tattoo, you're in trouble, that'd be a sin because they go against my direction.

Now, they're out of the house and they're off living their own life. They don't have to ask me if they could get a tattoo or not. What am I gonna do, call my son-in-law, say, are you letting her get another tattoo?

Okay, why am I talking about this? I have no idea, this is just radio. This is ADD radio. For whatever good I can do on radio, part of the goodness in my mind is just keeping your attention and just randomly talking.

This is welcome to ADD radio. They just did a study, by the way, and got back the results that all the speed that they're giving kids to help them with ADD never helped them with ADD. It just helped them study more because they were on speed.

It just came out last week. I could have told you that. I mean, I use ADD to my advantage. It just helps me be a good radio host. Don't change that dial. I mean, if you have the radio host that talks like this the whole time and they're very expressive with their words and their words alone, and they're just trying to drive home the point and never want to grammatically make any mistake, everything's continuous, the continuity's good, punctuation, grammar, semi-colons, next paragraph, double space, you are not going to want to listen.

You're going to be zoning out. But if we're ADD radio, then we're talking about who knows what, ferrets. There's ferret theology. There's tattoos, Rolling Stones, tattoo, you, album. There's all kinds of things that go through one's mind.

On his name, I mean, on his robe and on his thigh, he has name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You can imagine mighty general riding his horse. The wind might blow his robe back and exposes his thigh.

And here at obvious eye level, the name of Jesus is written. What's the point? What's the symbolic point? Everyone will know who this King Jesus is. It's obvious. It's at eye level. It's as plain as day.

The name under the streaming robe leaves no doubt. Who can escape this fact? No one. It's going to be obvious. King of Kings, total authority, total domination, total honor, Lord of Lords, complete sovereignty.

And you put them together, King of Kings, double name, Lord of Lords, double name. That's what you would do back in the day to show just how great you were. I'm not just a King, but I'm the King of all Kings, King.

And I'm not the Lord only, I'm the Lord of all Kings, Lording. Could Caesar ever call himself King of Kings.

And Lord of Lords?

Yes, but he'd be crazy if he did. Revelation 17, these will wage war against the Lamb and the Lamb will overcome them because he is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And those who are with him are called and chosen and faithful.

Knowing that Jesus will return soon, the imminent return of Jesus bodily, literally. How should you live? What's the response? So we learn truth, doctrine, and then we live it out by God's grace, by the Spirit's indwelling power.

Jesus is coming back. Lots of things could go through your mind. I'm thankful he's not coming back to get me. He's coming back to rescue me. Evangelistic, you know what? My friends and neighbors and kids and spouse who aren't Christians, this Jesus is coming back for them.

They need to be forgiven. They need to be protected. They need to be adopted in the family of God. Hope in the world that's bleak, in the world with all kinds of, are we gonna drop the bomb on Iran? What's gonna happen with China?

What's going on with the COVID strains? What's gonna go on with the new things? What's gonna go on with the economy? What's going on with the stock market? What's going on with my own health? What about I got rid of prostate cancer and leukemia, but now I got the aneurysm in my aorta.

All these kinds of things that go on.

You go, I have hope.

Thanks, evangelism, praise, and hope.

I have hope. You have hope.

The Lord said he's going to come back, the faithful one, the true one. And then lastly, holy lives. Don't you wanna live a holy life to honor this King? Not to be saved, not to stay saved, but because you're saved.

Like, this is like me with my son or my daughters.

I've loved you.

I've poured my life out for you. I mean, wonder what an average kid costs over 20 years. Wonder what we spend on our kids. We say, you know what? I've spent $400 ,000 on you, raising you. I don't even know the number.

What does that make you think, child? I hope you go, I'm gonna be thankful, dad. I'm gonna do things that honor your name, right? My children can go to Los Angeles and run in some of these reformed circles and evangelical circles.

And if they do something really dumb or stupid, it affects my name. It dishonors my name. Haven't you been raised better? Haven't you been trained better? You should have conduct befitting an officer.

You should wanna honor my name. Now, if they disobey, I don't kick them out. If they obey, I don't keep them in. They're my children. But in light of all that I've done for them, it's good to try to honor your father by obedience.

And that's what we're trying to do. Jesus is gonna come back, live a holy life. All eschatology is ethical. Now, notice today I didn't get into dispensational pre-meal, historic pre-meal, pessimistic on meal, optimistic on meal, crazy post-meal.

Well, dispensational pre-meal is pretty crazy too. But I like my historic pre-meal friends. I like my a-meal friends. I don't think I have, I have dispensational pre-meal friends. I don't have any post-meal friends, not any that will admit it.

Well, I guess maybe one. What does this have to do with anything? What this has to do with is Jesus is going to return. And that's why the reformed confessions didn't get into timing, they got into realities.

The truths of it. Here's your eschatology, dear Christian. You are going to get a new body one day. Personal eschatology of you, fit for heaven. And unbelievers get a body fit for hell. Personal eschatology, you believe that.

Secondly, the personal eschatology of Jesus. He literally will return. He's coming back to wage war and execute righteousness and justice. And he's really coming back just like he said. That's the wonder of the Westminster Confession, the Belgic Confession, 1689, Savoy, and many others.

Not parsing things. I mean, I have a real hard times when sometimes in their statements of faith, people parse it down to, you can't fellowship with us unless you're pre-trib, pre-meal, or you can't fellowship with us unless you're this post-meal, this, that, or the other.

No, no, personal eschatology of you, personal eschatology of Jesus. Belgic Confession, on the contrary, the faithful and elect shall be crowned with glory. This is what happens when Jesus comes back. And the Son of God will confess their names before God the Father and his elect angels.

All tears shall be wiped from their eyes. And their cause, which is now condemned by many judges and magistrates as heretical, will then be known to be the cause of the Son of God. And this is so good.

And for a gracious reward, the Lord will cause them to possess such a glory as never entered into the heart of man to conceive, blown away. Therefore, we expect that great day with most ardent desire to the end that we may fully enjoy the promises of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, amen.

And then the Belgic Confession says, amen, come Lord Jesus. So today on the show, the return of Jesus for hope, for holiness, and more. My name's Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Don't forget to write us, to recommend us, to refer us.

See you later.

No ferrets.