Well, as Brother Randy read those
verses at the end of Revelation 19, you can readily see that
there are both glorious things revealed there, things to rejoice
over, and then there are some terrible things revealed. The
terror of the Lord. You may recall, as we began to
study the book of Revelation and how we saw that Revelation
is divided up into seven visions. These seven visions are not chronological
order. Each vision shows us a different
viewpoint of the last days, the time between Christ's first coming
and his second coming. So each vision actually ends
up with some revelation of the second coming of Christ. And
that's what this is here in Revelation 19 in verse 11 through 21. This is the close, the end of
the sixth vision. And then chapter 20 begins the
seventh vision. And we'll get to that next week,
Lord willing. But it shows different viewpoints,
different angles, you might say, of the same time period that
takes in what we call the New Covenant or the New Testament
days, which we're living in now. And of course, in all of this,
we have the assurance from God's promise that Christ is coming
again. Now, a lot of people have a problem
with that because, as 2 Peter 3 says, they think God is delaying
or is not really going to fulfill His promise. They call it slackness. But Peter assures us, as he's
inspired by the Spirit in 2 Peter 3, that make no mistake about
it, just as the Lord destroyed the earth thousands of years
ago by a flood, He's coming again to destroy this world by fire.
And it's all going to be burned up. Well, this passage here shows
us some of the details of the second coming of Christ. Christ
came the first time to put away the sins of his people. And he
did that by his death on the cross as our surety, our substitute
and our redeemer. He died and was buried, and He
arose again the third day. He's now seated at the right
hand of the Father in heaven, ever living to make intercession
for His people. He stands as our Savior. He stands
as our Redeemer. He stands as our propitiation,
that sin-bearing sacrifice that brought satisfaction. He stands
as Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is our righteousness. And
that is brought out so well. in this passage that reveals
some of the details of his second coming. Look at verse 11. John
writes, he said, I saw heaven opened. Now Christ opened heaven
for his people again by his substitutionary work on the cross. He ascended
under the Father. You see that pictured so many
ways in the Bible. One of the ways that many of
you are probably familiar with is Jacob's ladder. That ladder
leading up to heaven. The angels ascending and descending,
pointing sinners to Christ as the only way to heaven. Christ
referred to himself as the door into the sheepfold, into the
kingdom. Christ opened that way for sinners
like us by his death on the cross. in His resurrection, ascending
unto the Father. And we stand before God, forgiven
of all of our sins, righteous in His sight. We have free access,
unlimited, unhindered access unto the Father. Hebrews chapter
10 speaks of that. That we have full access that
we can come boldly unto the throne of God because Jesus Christ were
washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness. So he saw
heaven open. And what did he see when heaven
was open? He said, behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him
was called Faithful and True. Who is that but our Savior? Faithful
in all his ways. You know, men and women are not
saved based upon or conditioned upon our faithfulness to God. We are saved based upon, conditioned
on Christ's faithfulness to do what He promised to do before
the foundation of the world. He is faithful and He is true. He never goes back on His word.
He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. This is
the Father's will that hath sent me, that of all that he hath
given me shall come to me, and I should lose nothing. He's faithful. He's true. He did everything
necessary to save his people from their sins. That's his name.
And if you think that he's not able to do it, he has another
name, Emmanuel, God with us. We stand before God in the righteousness
of God, who is Christ our Lord. And it says he's faithful and
true. and he's in righteousness, it says, and in righteousness
he doth judge and make war. Now that's why I entitled this
lesson, or this message, Christ the Righteous Warrior. He judges
in righteousness. That's the standard at the judgment
of God, righteousness. God has appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness." Well, what
is the standard of righteousness? False religion measures righteousness
in ways that are ungodly. They measure righteousness as
they compare with other people. Their righteousness is on a sliding
scale. They measure righteousness by
what they do and don't do. Taste not, touch not, handle
not. They measure righteousness in their sincerity, in their
religion, in their church attendance, in their giving, all of these
things. But it's ungodly and it's far from righteousness because
God measures righteousness by His Son. And that's who the standard
of righteousness is. Christ who is the great judge
of all, and Christ who is the standard of righteousness for
all. He is the one with whom we must measure up. And there's
no flaw in His righteousness. There's no sliding scale here. His righteousness is the perfection
of law and justice that's found in His obedience unto death.
And anything less, anything less will be declared iniquity. Just
like those in Matthew 7 who said, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached
in your name? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Haven't we cast out demons? And he said to them, I never
knew you. I never loved you. I never foreordained you. You that work iniquity, depart
from me. Well, he's going to judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, in
that he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead." The resurrection of Christ is the
certain assurance of judgment by his righteousness and the
certain assurance of his second coming, that he will come again.
Heaven opened for us by the captain of our salvation, coming the
second time on a white horse. What does that white horse symbolize?
The power, the truth, the purity, the justice, of all that he does
as the righteous warrior, as the righteous judge, and as the
righteous savior. Everything, faithful and true.
He's faithful to save all of his people from their sins, and
he's faithful to destroy his enemies. And in righteousness
doth he judge and make war. This is right. There's no sin
here. There's no injustice here. There's
no flaw here. And look at verse 12, his eyes
were a flame of fire. That's his omniscience. That's
how deep he sees into the hearts and souls of people. Nothing's
hid from his sight. We can fool each other. We can
even fool ourselves, but we can't fool God. He knows all. He knows our thoughts, our motives.
He knows the inner being. of every one of us. If our hearts
are right with God, then He has made it so, and He knows that
it's so. And what is the heart made right
with God? It's the heart that's cleansed by the application of
the truth and the knowledge and the assurance that Jesus Christ,
His blood cleanses us from all sin. Our consciences are clear,
not because we've done so well, but because Christ has done all
things well. And God sees that, He knows that.
Those men who stood before Him pleading their works, He knew
their hearts weren't right with God. You say, well they weren't
sincere. Oh no, they were sincere, but
they were sincere in promoting a lie. Do you know people can
be sincere in doing that? Those who believe salvation conditioned
on sinners, who believe that it's all up to them and they
make the difference. They may be as sincere as they
can be, but they're sincere in a lie. Understand that. His eyes were a flame of fire.
You can't fool him. He knows the truth. And on his
head were many crowns. Why are there so many crowns
on his head? Because he is a mighty conqueror of all of his enemies. Every king, every emperor, every
dictator, every false preacher, he's defeated them. At this time
when he comes again, they're all defeated. And he wears many
crowns because he's a multifaceted warrior king. He's sovereign
over this whole universe. And it says here, and he had
a name written that no man knew but he himself. Now what does
that mean? Well, later on, we're given one of his names in verse
16, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What does it mean it's
only known by he himself? Here's what it means. That if
you're going to know his name, now the Bible says that anybody
who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But here's
the problem, we by nature do not know His name. Oh, I know
we know the name Jesus, we know the Christ, we say praise the
Lord, but you don't know His name until you know the glory
of His person and the power of His finished work in the gospel. And you know what? Only He knows
that name, and you'll only know it if He reveals it to you. You understand that? It must
be revealed. Only God the Father knows the
Son, the Son knows the Father, and He to Whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. It takes the power of the Holy
Spirit to reveal the great and glorious knowledge of His name. And His name is more than just
a label. He has many names. Think about
it all the way through the Scripture. He's the King of Kings, the Lord
of Lords. He's the surety. He's the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He's the kinsman redeemer. We could go on and on. He's the
Lion of the tribe of Judah. All of these names that come
together in this one glorious person who has power and who
alone has power to save us from our sin. He's Jehovah Sid Canu,
the Lord our righteousness. All of these things. He's God
manifest in the flesh. He's the word. And we see these
names as he reveals them to us in his word. Verse 13 says, he
was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. What does that mean?
That's his redemptive work on the cross. His vesture dipped in blood.
He had to die. This is my blood, he said, shed
for you for the payment of sin. The blood of the Lamb, the blood
of the Son of God. This is why he had to become
man, God manifest in the flesh. He had to have a holy, sinless,
impeccable, pure, human nature, body and soul, to die on the
cross for our sins imputed to him. That's what it took. Nothing else would do. If he
was marred or contaminated with our sins, he would have been
disqualified. But he's the spotless Lamb of
God. Without blemish, without spot,
pure and perfect, Yet he went under the wrath of his father
because he was guilty by imputation. He was made a curse, he was made
sin, but only by imputation, only by our sin debt being charged
to him. And he died in that capacity,
that's his vesture. his clothing dipped in blood.
That's a metaphor now. He actually suffered. He actually
died. He didn't just wear it like a
coat. That's a metaphor. That's a symbol showing his suffering
unto death. The man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. Oh, on that cross, think about
it. Hanging there on that cross,
he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was
literally forsaken by the Father because of our sins charged to
his account. That's the reality of imputation,
isn't it? Can you imagine that? And I'll
be honest with you, that's mind boggling. How are you going to define that
or describe it in some kind of a human way that we can grasp
it? We just have to sit back and
marvel. The Son of God. Verse 13, His
name is called the Word of God, right there. In beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, the Logos. He is the
Word. He is the communication. He's
the alphabet. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
Everything we know about God concerning salvation and acceptance
with Him comes through the Word, through Christ. If you don't
know Christ, you don't know God. You may have some ideas about
God through nature and even through providence. When it comes to
salvation, a right relationship to God, it only comes as God
reveals Himself in His Word through the glorious person and the finished
work of His Son. All of this showing God's sovereign
rule. Look at verse 14. It says, The
armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean." Who's that talking about? Well,
we read it over in 1 Thessalonians 4. That's those who have died,
that's His children, His people, who have died and gone on to
be with the Lord and who are with Him in spirit. When He comes
again, they're coming back with Him on white horses. Because He, Christ, is their
purity. Their whiteness in that sense. And it says here, clothed in
fine linen, white and clean. That's His righteousness imputed.
That's who they are. That's what identifies us. Somebody
said there are two things required for us to enter heaven. Number
one, justice has to be satisfied. We must have a righteousness.
that answers the demands of God's law and justice, His righteousness
imputed, and then we have to have life from the dead, and
that's the fruit, the result of our salvation, our being justified. That's the work of the Spirit
who gives us a new heart, regenerates us, converts us, and we know
that by the fact that we cling to Christ. But here they are
clothed in fine linen. We are what we are by the grace
of God. We've been made the righteousness
of God in Him because He took our sins upon Himself, suffered
unto death, and defeated the curse of the law against us.
He was made a curse for us. And our robes have been washed
and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Isn't that marvelous? Isn't that something to shout
about? Verse 15, out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword. Now you
know what that is, that's his word. The sharp sword of his
word. Cuts to the quick. Gets to the
heart of the matter. That's what his word does. Man's
word will dance around the issues. Man's word will cover up the
truth. But God's Word goes to the very
marrow and cuts us to the quick. And in judgment, it will expose
all things as they are, not as men want them to be or think
them to be. It says that with it, he should
smite the nations. This is his sword of judgment.
You see, when he comes the second time, his word will be a word
of judgment against all who stand before God in their own works
or in their own deeds, stand there without Christ, stand there
without his blood, stand there without his righteousness, and
it will cut and smite the nations. That's everyone. who dies in
their sins, all those who die having their sins imputed to
them. And he shall rule them with a
rod of iron. You know, he rules his people
with the rod of a shepherd. Thy rod and thy staff comfort
us. It's his rod of grace, it's his
rule of grace and love. But here he rules with a rod
of iron. Spoken from the Old Testament,
he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty
God. In other words, he's gonna crush
them like grapes in a winepress. In his death on the cross, he
trod the winepress of God's wrath by drinking the cup of that wrath
for his people. That's why we're not going to
be judged. We've already been judged in Christ on the cross. Our sins have been paid for.
We're not going to appear before God at the judgment. We're going
to talk about that in the last vision when he talks about the
great white throne judgment. God's children are not going
to stand before him at the judgment to be judged for their good works
and their bad works. No, sir. And I'll show you some
scriptures on that that people get wrong. but we've already
been judged. When? When Christ died on the
cross. When he died, we died. When he
was buried, we were buried. When he arose again, we arose
again. Verse 16. He hath on his vesture
and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. This
is on His vesture and His thigh, meaning His power. All of this,
His name. There's no king or Lord above
Him who is our salvation and eternal life. And every king
or Lord who thinks they are above Him will be put down and dethroned. Look at verse 17. I saw an angel
standing in the sun. cried with a loud voice saying
to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and
gather yourselves together under the supper of the great God,
that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains,
the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses, of them that
sit on them, and the flesh of all free in bond, both small
and great. What's happening here? It's the
destruction of His enemies. Here's a messenger from God standing
in the sun. What's the sun? That's the glory
of God. That's Christ, the Son of Righteousness. He's the Son of Righteousness
for His people who comes with healing in His wings. But here
He's the Son of Righteousness that comes with judgment against
all who are enemies of Christ. And He invites them to a supper.
He, not the men, he invites the fowls of the air to a supper.
These are the fowls that feed upon dead things. You ever been
driving down the road and you'll see a bunch of vultures out with
a, trying to get a road kill before they get hit by a car?
That's the kind of birds he's talking about here. They pray. They feast on the flesh of the
highest and the lowest. Doesn't matter who, bond or free.
You see, when Christ comes again, if you're found without Him,
outside of Christ, not having His blood to wash away your sins,
not having His righteousness to justify it, it doesn't matter
what your station in life is, it doesn't matter the color of
your skin, it doesn't matter how much money you have or don't
have, you're damned forever. does that tell us? All these
things that we think we have to have in life in light of what
we need before God, they mean nothing. We must have Christ
and he's it. Verse 19, he says, I saw the
beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together
to make war against him that sat on the horse and against
his army. This is Armageddon, you remember
we talked about Armageddon? Now this is not a physical battle
over in Palestine somewhere, but this is a metaphor to state
the collective opposition and rebellion against God and his
Christ and his people. This is it, this is the final.
After this, there'll be no more opposition. There'll be no more
enemies. There'll be no more war. It's
all gonna be accomplished. And that's what this Armageddon
is. It's a spiritual battle. And there's no way that our Lord
is gonna be defeated. He said, the gates of hell will
not prevail against us. Verse 20 says, and the beast
was taken, beast that come out, and with him the false prophet,
That's the false religion that told lies. You can read about
that in 2 Thessalonians 2. That false religion, that antichrist,
that is so impressive to men and women who don't know the
truth. Oh, it's impressive. Think about it. Think about how
many people are drawn to religion and its outcroppings but there's
no gospel. Impressive. That wrought miracles,
it says in verse 20, before him, with which he deceived them that
had received the mark of the beast. Remember the mark of the
beast? We read about that back in Revelation 13. People think,
well, that's some kind of a computer chip or some kind of a tattoo. No, it's not a physical mark.
Listen, the mark of the beast and them that worshiped his image,
those who worship an idol, these both were cast alive into a lake
of fire burning with brimstone. They received the mark in their
forehead. Remember, what's the forehead symbolic of in the Bible? The mind. That's what it is. In their minds, They think they're
worshiping the true God, but they're not going by the Word
of God revealed in Christ. They're not going by the Gospel
of God's grace. They think salvation was something
they did or contributed to. You understand that? That's the
mark of the beast. It's sealed in their minds. And
it's sealed on their hands or on their arms. That's their works. Reaching for God, but they're
not going to make it. trying to establish their own
righteousness before God. But they won't make it. Righteousness
before God is only to be found in Christ. And then lastly, verse
21. And the remnant were slain with
the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded
out of his mouth, his word, and all the fowls were filled with
their flesh. Completely destroyed. You know, whenever the Bible
speaks of a remnant, usually it's talking about the remnant
of God's elect. The remnant according to the
election of grace. Isn't that something? That's
a beautiful thing. But here this remnant is not
beautiful at all. What's he saying about this?
He's saying when it's all over, and God has called His people
unto Himself, as 1 Thessalonians 2, called us up unto Himself,
gathered His people, Christ has gathered His church together
to be glorified. And He destroys this earth. When
it's all over, there will not be any left. It's over. And the fowls will be filled
with their flesh. It's over then. And my friend,
the lesson of this is the lesson of the whole Bible. Look unto
me and be ye saved, God said. Adjust God and say, look unto
me and be ye saved, for I am God. There's none else. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Stop trying to find reasons within
yourself to claim salvation and being right with God. Look to
Christ. Look to this one riding on that
white horse in that white pure garment. He is the salvation
of his people and he alone is. There's no other way. Now is
the day of salvation. Now is the time. Look unto Him.