come but no further, and here
shall thy proud waves be stagged." Concerning that passage Brother
Scott just read, I've read that before and I thought to myself
after reading those questions, if we could sum up All of those questions like this,
when God was talking to Job and said this, just who do you think
you are, man? Who does man think he is to question
Almighty God? That is what Paul said in Romans.
Who art thou, O man, that replies against God? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it. What doeth that? Well, thank you, Brother Scott. Turn with us to Revelation chapter
19. Revelation 19. We're going to begin. Lord willing,
I'm going to start out of verse 16 and go through the end of
the chapter. In our last study, he that sat upon the horse, the
white horse, just bringing us up to the study today, whose
eyes were as a flame of fire, had on his head many crowns,
John said. He had a name that was written. Verse 12, that no man knew, no
man understood, but himself. He alone, no man knoweth the
Son, but the Father. No man knoweth the Father, but
the Son. And He to whom the Son will reveal
Him, but the fullness of the understanding of the glorious
Person of the Lord Jesus Christ." Who could know that name? Nobody
but Him. Clothed with a vesture that was
dipped in blood. And His name is called the Word
of God. Someone says, well, there it
is right there. He said He had a name that no
one knew but Himself. There it is, the Word of God.
Explain that to me. The armies which were in heaven
followed upon white horses. They were clothed, the Scripture
says, in fine linen, verse 14. White and clean. That's how they
were robed. He was robed in a vesture dipped
in blood. The merit of their clothing was
from the merit of His clothing. His clothing itself. That was
their clothing. And the Scripture says in verse
15, "...out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he
should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod
of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and
wrath of Almighty God." Now, as I said last time, there is
a lot said in that 15th verse. But here's the jest of what's
being said. Out of His mouth. Now, recognize
where it comes from. It's His mouth. It's His Word. That's what we're doing here
this morning. We're considering His Word. What saith the Scripture? That's what Peter said when the
Lord told him. He said, y'all fished all night. You caught
anything? They said, no. He said, cast your net on the
other side. Peter said, we fished all night.
But at Your Word. We're preaching this morning
the Gospel. Have you seen great conversions
and hundreds and hundreds of baptisms? Have you seen that? No. No, sir. We haven't. But at Your Word, this is what
we do. We preach what You said to preach. And we trust that whatever Your
Word has been sent forth to accomplish. Lord, we believe. That's what
You're going to do. There's things that are happening
this morning that I have no earthly idea what's going on. Sometimes
you preach a message and one person will hear one thing and
that one thing, the Spirit of God just gripped them and they
said, Ah! That's what that means. And you ask him, you say, what
was the rest of what he preached? I don't remember, but I'll tell
you this one thing. I remember this. And another
one sitting there and they said, that was such a help to me. I
have no earthly idea what the Spirit of God. And I couldn't
sit down and plan, say, well, I'll do this. I'll write this
down. Now, this will be a real help
to Carl. I don't know what it's going to be. There's just some
things. I'll be listening to a tape or
something, and all of a sudden, somebody will say something and
I'll say, that's it. That nailed it right there. I
don't know. I can't remember what the rest
of it, but this Word, His Word, goeth forth as a sharp sword,
and it says that He smites the nations. That Word smites. We looked at this last time,
but just a reminder. That word smite means gently
or fatally. His Word goes forth and smites
the nations gently or fatally. Everybody. Everybody. The Word of God is going to have
an effect on everybody. He smites the nations. The Word
of God deals with all men. but he smites the nations gently
or fatally and rules them." Now here's the first thing it does. If the Word of Almighty God smites
one of His own, and it shall, He shall rule them, or that word
rule there means shepherds. He shepherds them. With a rod
of iron, straight, strong, secure, He shepherds them. That's what's
happening right now. We're meeting together for this
purpose. The Lord God Himself is shepherding
His people. Through the mouth of a man? Yes,
but it's God's Word. It's His Word. And He shepherds. I am, as John said, I'm a voice. I'm just a mouthpiece. I'm a
man. It's His Word. He smites the
nations and rules or shepherds them with a rod of iron and treads
the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, one
or the other. Either Almighty God in mercy
and compassion, because He is everlastingly loved of people,
He shall gently call them out by His Word and smite them gently,
drawing them to Himself, revealing Himself, He will leave a man
to himself and He will tread him under by His wrath. Well, today we are going to continue
the sight of this blessed One, this mighty Conqueror that John
saw sitting upon this horse as He is leading the host of the
redeemed. And the Scripture says now in
verse 16, He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written,
King of Kings and Lord of the Lord. Now, all of God's redeemed,
they delight to see the glorious display of His character right
now. We glory in the Lord Jesus Christ,
our mighty God, and this is what we say about Him. He's the boss. He's the Lord. He's the King. Who's in control? Why is this
happening this way? Because He ordered it that way.
Don't you believe in luck? No. What do you believe in? We believe that Almighty God
does as He will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. And we find great delight in that. What's He doing
in your life today? Whatsoever He's chosen. That
did He. He's the boss. All of His people
They look upon Him, and here is His vesture. He is the King. And He has got, the Scripture
says, upon His vesture that name written, King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. Oh, He has got all authority. He is in control. Psalm 45, verse
3 says, Gird thy sword upon thy thigh. O Most Mighty, with Thy
glory and Thy majesty." Hearts that are made sensitive of the
Master's glory long to see Him put forth His power. They delight. In fact, in Revelation 6.10,
remember when John saw those under the altar Revelation 6,
10, "...they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord,
holy and true dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth?" We hear men standing and proclaiming
lies on our matchless Lord and Savior. And you listen to them
and there is so much arrogance Disrespect. You think, how long? Lord, how long? But I know this,
He's in control. He is doing what He is pleased
to do. The Master. On that thigh, the
sword is girded. It means He's ever ready, ever
powerful. Isaiah 55, 11. I quoted this
portion of this a while ago. Isaiah 55, 11. He says, So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it. And here, that name that was
written. The King of kings. Lord of lords. How God's people rejoice. Comfort. He's in control. The battle is raging. But we
see our Captain is victorious. How is he going to come out?
He's the boss. He's the winner. And we are victorious. In Him, Romans 8, 37 says, Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us. In all these things. What things? We quote that Scripture. In all
these things. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. I'm going to show
you. In all these things we are more than conquerors. What things
is Paul talking about? Look at Romans 8.28. Here we
quote this all the time. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. Remember this. God does everything
by purpose. God Almighty is not waiting for
anybody to see if they're going to do something. God does all
things on purpose. If a man comes to Christ, why
did he come to Christ? Because God purposed that he
come to Christ. If a man refuses to come to Christ,
what has he done? God has purposed to leave him
to himself. Does he have the right to do
that? For whom he did foreknow. Know
beforehand. Know effectually beforehand. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate. Let me ask you this. If God has determined Daryl Hardman's
destination beforehand. That's what predestinate means.
To determine the destination beforehand. Whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. Whom He called, He also justified. Whom He justified, He also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? And when Paul said a while ago,
well, but when I said, nay, in all these things we're more than
conquerors, let me show you the these things. It's Christ that
died. Yea, rather, is risen again,
who's even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long,
we are accounted as sheep for the slaughtered, nay, in all
these things." We are more. He is the King. He is the Lord. He is King in creation, Lord
in creation, in providence, salvation. He is the Lord. And as in verse
12, we looked, he had on his head many crowns. Here's the
many crowns of our Lord. The victor over sin, He wears
the crown. The victor over our sorrow, He
wears the crown. Over death, He wears the crown. No king like our king. No Lord
like our Lord. King of kings, Lord of lords.
And I saw, verse 17 and 18, John said, an angel standing in the
sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls
that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together
unto the supper of the great God that ye may eat the flesh
of kings and flesh of captains and flesh of mighty men and the
flesh of horses of them that sit on them, and the flesh of
all men, both free and bond, both small and great." Now, the
identity of this angel, like the sure identity of the angel
back in verse 10 that we looked at, is not specifically set forth. It is not told exactly. I'll
tell you who I think it is. I bet you you've got a good idea.
But obviously, this angel could be said to be one of the elect
angels that never left this first estate. It could be. I'm not
saying. You know, there are certain things
that we can know. There are certain things that
we can consider and we look upon and we may think upon. But it could be. one of the angels
that left not his first estate. But though we are unsure of his
revealed identity, there are some things that we do know about
him. Number one, the Scripture says
that this angel was standing in the sun. That's what it says. He was standing. That means he
was abiding, he was appointed, he was continuing. In the Son,
in the instrument is what that actually means. The light. The
light. Standing in the light, which
is a fit and perfect attribute or representation or setting
forth of our Lord. Malachi 4, 2, But unto you that
fear My name shall be the Son of righteousness. Unto you that
respect Almighty God. My name that you understand and
realize is the Son of Righteousness arising with healing in His wings."
So, this angel, this messenger is standing in the Son in the
position that is truly only set forth, Carl, in the Scriptures
of being the Lord Jesus Christ. And as to the fowl, I'll say
a little bit more about that in a minute. But this angel standing
in the sun, standing in the position, in the attribute, in the light,
he says with a loud voice to all the fowls that are in the
midst of heaven. Now some insight may be given
as to who these fowls are or what these fowls are. Turn with
me to Ezekiel 39. Ezekiel 39 in verse 17. It says, And thou, son of man,
thus saith the Lord God, speak unto every... You see, number
one, just stop right there. You see why I'm saying this one
back in Revelation? This angel is probably, if not
without doubt, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And thou, son
of man, thus saith the Lord God, speak unto every feathered fowl,
and to every beast of the field. Assemble yourselves, and come,
gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice, that I do sacrifice
for you. even a great sacrifice upon the
mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood."
Now, just hold your finger there for just a minute. This passage
of Scripture in Ezekiel, as we've gone through the book of Revelation,
you see how closely Ezekiel and Revelation is tied together in
speaking of the same things. Here, this one is told to speak
or call are charged to every feathered fowl. It says, assemble
yourselves and come and gather yourselves on every side to My
sacrifice. Now, the fowl that are spoken
of here, I believe, set forth. Actually, God's redeemed the
fowls, the birds, the feathered ones. Turn over to Jeremiah. You can kind of hold your finger
in Ezekiel if you want to. Jeremiah 12. Jeremiah chapter
12 in verse 9. Let me show you something. Jeremiah
12, 9. The prophet says here, my inheritance,
speaking concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, my inheritance
is unto me as a speckled bird. The birds round about are against
her. Come, ye, assemble all the beasts
of the field. Come to devour." Now, here, the
prophet is speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit of
God and says, mine heritage, the Lord Himself's heritage,
is unto me as a speckled bird, a taloned bird. and the birds
round about her are against her. Come ye, assemble all the beast
of the field to come devour." Now, the word beast in Jeremiah
chapter 12 and verse 9. The beast there. This is the
interpretation of that word. The alive or the quick company
or congregation. The alive company. The quick,
the alive, the alive company or congregation come to devour,
cause them to devour. So this angel is speaking to
the fowls of which the Scriptures reveal. He says, My heritage
is unto me as a speckled bird, a taloned bird. Now the birds
around her, the others around her, they've come to despise
her or work against her. But you come, all the beasts
of the field, all the alive congregations, you come to devour. You come
to this supper. The angel, you see, who could
be one of God's elect angels that didn't fall, could be one
of the cherubim, the divine representatives, of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
but here, I truly believe, is Christ Himself. The word, an
angel, back in Revelation chapter 19 and verse 17, I saw an angel,
it means one. I saw an angel. I saw one. So we see this angel, whomever
it is, whoever he is, whether it's the Lord's, one of His elect
angels, the cherubim that sets forth the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Christ Himself. I believe it's the Lord Jesus
Christ standing in the sun and He calls for the gathering of
the great victory over the slaughter of God's elect. He says back
in Revelation 19, He says, Come gather yourselves together unto
the supper of the great God, the feast, the sacrifice. It's a sacrifice to the justice
of Almighty God and it's a feast to God's people. Psalm 74, verse
14 says, Thou didst break the heads of Leviathan in pieces
and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Now, in Psalm 14, 74 there, Leviathan,
it was a mystical creature, but actually what it means is everything
that opposes God's people. Leviathan. That's what it's a
type of. Thou didst break the heads of
Leviathan in pieces. Everything that opposes God's
people. is going to be destroyed. And
that destruction is meat. That's food. We're feasting right
now. When I tell you, every opposition,
everything that has raised itself up against Almighty God and against
you that believe, everything, God Almighty has broken it, destroyed
it. You feast on that. Why? Because
you feast on Him who's the victor. the One who wears the many crowns,
the One whose vestures dipped in blood. He stands and He says,
You come, all of My heritage, you speckled birds that are Mine,
you that are the alive congregation, you come to My supper. You come
and you feast, is what He is saying, on what I have done.
You feast on this. You fowls that fly in the midst
of heaven, You that will eat of the Lord Jesus Christ's triumph,
come and eat of these kings and captains, mighty men and horses,
small and great." That's what he says in verse 18. Now, you
know that phrase right there at the end, small and great?
You know, that was the word that was used to describe the servants
of God. Back in verse 1, a voice came
out of the throne saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants,
ye that fear Him, both small and great. When I first read
that, I thought, well, that's in verse 5, the small and great,
those words are talking about God's people. And here in verse
18, it says, You come and eat the flesh of mighty men, the
flesh of horses, them that sit on them, the flesh of all men,
both free and bond, both small and great. So I looked the words
up. Small, in verse 5 of Revelation
19, that word small, I'll tell you this, they're two different
words. That didn't really surprise you. In verse 5, the word small
means proven, tried, and tested. All of those that came out of
great tribulation, verse 5, the voice came out of the throne
and says, Praise our God, all ye His servants, ye that fear
Him, both tested, tried, proven, and great. The word small in
verse 5 means proven, tried, and tested. The word small here
in verse 18 means little in station. Little in rank. Little in influence. That's what it means. The word
great in both verses means in number. The same word there, but the
word small makes all the difference in the world. And John said,
I saw in verse 19, a 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." Now here again, here's a different
word. We looked over in Jeremiah. That
word, beast, means the alive. The congregation. The live congregation. This word, beast, right here
is a different word. It says, "...and I saw the beast."
It is from the root word in verse 19, "...I saw the beast." That
word, beast, comes from this word, the trap. That's what it
means. And I saw the trap. I saw the
beast. Here the beast of this world's
fading and fleeting sparkle. Everything that would lure a
man or attempt to lure him said, you know, come to me. Surely
you don't think that worshiping God Everything. I mean, it's got
its place, don't get me wrong, but I've got so much to offer
you. The beast of this world. The
ten horns. The things and mess and stuff
of this world. Whatever takes a precedent over
worshiping God. Whatever takes a precedent over
worshiping Almighty God. Trap. Come on, let's take our
fill of blood. The good man's God. I've perfumed
my bed with cinnamon. Let's have our fill of love.
Anything that takes a precedent, seek ye first. First, the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness and all these things will be
added unto you. God keep us from looking upon
anything that takes a precedent over worshiping God. The beast. The trap. And I'm telling you,
I know people who think they'll read the book of Revelation and
they think, well, I'm going to see big teeth and blood and big
horns and stuff like that. Boy, that's what we're going
to see in the end time. No, no. You're seeing it right
now in the end time. Right now. The beast of this
world's goods. fading and fleeting things of
this world, whatever takes a precedent over worshiping God. It's a trap. Be careful. I'm telling you. And the beast and the kings of
this earth, the kingdoms, the foundations of power and their
armies, more than likely the armies from the same that was
spoken of in Revelation 16. Turn back over there. Revelation
16, verse 13 and 14. Oh, I'm going to have to hurry. He says, I saw three unclean
spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the
mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet. They
are the spirits of devils working miracles which go forth into
the kings of the earth and the whole earth to gather them to
the battle of the great day of God Almighty. These frogs That
word, remember what that word frog means? It means fraud, quacks,
anything that is not straight. John says, I saw, verse 19 of
Revelation 19, I saw the beasts and kings of the earth gather
to make war against him that sat on the horse and against
his army. Here's the truth that absolutely everything that would
raise itself in rebellion against Almighty God. I don't care what
it is. Governments that see themselves
as seats of authority and power, religious boastings that they
are of God while they despise the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
set forth in His Gospel, philosophy that persecuted the church, thinking
that they are doing something for God, while in actuality they
hate God. They hate His gospel. They hate
His people. Here, the final battle of Armageddon,
and I want to say this because I will bring this out again tonight,
Lord willing. Remember, the book of Revelation is not written
chronologically. We are dealing with the same
segment of time looked upon and considered as we look upon Him
in the light of different situations. We've already looked at Armageddon,
and here John is seeing Armageddon again, and we'll see it again
in the twentieth chapter starting tonight. Here that final battle,
that battle that's been raging since the fall, It's a continual
battle that would surely defeat all of God's people if He were
not our buckler and our shield and our strength, our hiding
place. And here in all their arrogance
and haughtiness and their fading self-security, they raise themselves
up in that final, last day. And here's the battle. Here it
is. All of their stuff, they've gotten together. In verse 20,
verse 20 tells us how long this battle lasted. And the beast
was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles
before him, which he had deceived them that had received the mark
of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. And these were both
cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. It was
over. That's how long it lasted. You let everything rise up. against
Almighty God. And I'm going to tell you, in
that day, it will be over. And in that day, ask yourself
this, what's going to answer for you that was so important
right now when God Almighty wasn't? What will answer it? Well, I
just didn't have time. I was so busy. You know, the
thing about it was, you know, I said, In that day, I'm telling
you, one will answer. Whatever is more important than
Almighty God, I'm telling you, the beast has taken the beast,
the things of this world, the things and mess and stuff. And with him, the false prophet,
all the lying that is going on in men standing in pulpits today,
that wrought miracles, God Almighty will take them and cast them
alive into the lake of fire. It appears as though now that
the world's governments and their false religion is going to endure
forever. All of the Benny Hens and the
Jimmy Swaggers and the Billy Grahams and everybody else that's
standing up preaching free will. false religion, I'm telling you,
is going to be put away. Nothing will stand against Him. There's two messages being preached.
Free will, free grace. Sovereign, saving grace. And I'm telling you, anybody
that tells you that God has done all He can do and all you've
got to do is come down and give Him. They're lying to you. God
Almighty saves men powerfully. Here we see they're cast alive
into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. I've dealt with
this before. Brimstone is heaven's wrath. brimstone that fell on Sodom
and Gomorrah. Whenever you see brimstone, you
find out it was the wrath of God that fell against it. And
the Scripture says in verse 21, And the remnant were slain with
the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded
out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their
flesh. The remnant. Now, you know there
is a remnant. that is according to the election
of grace. That's what Paul tells us. But
here this remnant is the remnant that's left in wrath. The remnant
slain with the sword, the Word of God Himself. All that followed
after their deceptive ways of this false prophet and the beast
of this earth's good, in a moment, men are going to see uselessness of what they have
put their hope and trust in, the materialism, the religious
fraud, whatever it is. They're all going to be slain
with His Word. I want to turn to two passages
and I'm going to be done. Turn to Matthew chapter 24. In
this blessed passage of Scripture, our Lord deals with the end time. Matthew 24. And then we'll look
at one verse in Psalm, but Matthew 24, verse 24. For there shall arise false Christs,
false prophets. You know the thing that amazes
me, how we can read this in the Scripture, but when you ask somebody,
they always say, Gary, we all work for the same thing. Well,
if somebody is a false prophet and a false Christ, who are they? I'll tell you who they are. Everybody
that does not preach this message of sovereign, saving grace, salvation
apart from any works of righteousness that you can do, anything, there
shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show
great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible They
shall deceive the very elect. I'm going to deal with this passage
right here and tell you, I'm going to show you something on
that passage that is subtle. I won't deal with it now. We're
almost done. Behold, I've told you before. Wherefore, if they
shall say unto you, Behold, he's in the desert, go not forth.
Behold, he's in the secret chambers. Believe it not, for as the lightning
cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall
also the coming of the Son of Man be. And wheresoever the carcass
is, there will be the eagles, there will the eagles be gathered
together." Psalm 2, Psalm 2 verse 12. The Lord says in that passage
we just read, He says the coming of the Lord will be in a moment.
as the lightning twinkling of an eye. And at that time, all
the eagles will be gathered. All of God's people are going
to feast on what He's done. What He's done for Himself and
for His people. You got any recommendations,
Marvin, on this? Yes, I do. Psalm 2, verse 12. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
and ye perish from the way. when His wrath is kindled but
a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him." What is it to put your trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ? I'll tell you what it is. God
Almighty gives a man or woman faith to believe what he has
done is sufficient. It's enough. God Almighty is
not waiting for His people to do anything. He tells them what
He's done. And that settles it, Will Scott.
And they believe it. And they rest in it. And they
rejoice in it. And the Scripture says in that
day, when Almighty God destroys all rebellion against Himself,
All of His heritage, the feathered fowl, His people will feast. Not literally, you know that.
It's a spiritual feast. They're going to feast and rejoice
and be filled in what He's done. And they will say in that day,
Hallelujah! You're the King of kings and
you're the Lord of lords. Thank you. Thank you for what
you've done for me. Okay.