Alright, Revelation 19. Now you
know sometimes it's very difficult as you read through the book
of Revelation to keep all the symbols clear in your mind, all
of the characters that come up on the scene. And what we're
seeing here in Revelation 19 is the Lord Jesus Christ giving
the Apostle John a vision of his second coming. the final
end of all things, and the final defeat of all of his enemies.
And this one, remember back in verse 11, he saw heaven open.
And behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True. That's Christ. It's a beautiful
description of Christ that incites the believer's heart to worship.
That's what it is. And not only to worship, but
to have confidence. that no matter what we go through
in the end times and that's what we're living in and that's not
to say well we don't what well we do not know when christ is
coming in we don't know the day because god has revealed that
but whatever it is we go through our confidence and our boast
is in christ his faithfulness and his his trueness or honesty
is as it were and so all the enemies that come against us
will be defeated. Now, here in Revelation 19, he's
talked about the defeat of two enemies. You know, in Revelation,
basically, there's three enemies described of the church. One
is the beast, you know, and of course, in one place there were
two beasts, the beast that rose out of the water, the sea, the
beast that come out of land. And the beast that come out of
the land is sometimes called the false prophet. So you have
the beast, which is ungodly, anti-Christian governments, empires,
political systems, world systems. And then the second beast, or
the false prophet, is anti-Christian religion. And under that you
have Babylon, Babylon which is the false church, the false Christianity. And then the third one is the
red dragon, that's Satan. And they call that the unholy
trinity. The beast, the false prophet,
and Satan, the red dragon. So here in Revelation 19, you're
seeing the total defeat of the beast and the false prophet And
then beginning in chapter 20, you're going to see the defeat
of Satan, the final enemy of all. And let's look at it, verse
17. He says, I saw an angel standing
in the sun. You know, a lot of times commentators
will argue over who these angels are. Remember the word angel
literally means messenger. And sometimes an angel can refer
to a minister of Christ. Just like back in the seven churches
we saw that. Sometimes it can refer to an
angel from heaven who is by nature an angel sent with a message,
but it's a message. And sometimes it's Christ himself
who is the angel of the covenant, the messenger of the covenant.
Now no minister is an angel by nature, we're human. And Christ
himself is not an angel by nature. He's uncreated. He's the Alpha
and the Omega. He's God in human flesh. But sometimes these are angels
by nature. But here's the point. Whatever
you believe about that, that doesn't matter. What matters
here is the message that this messenger of God has for the
people of God. That's what matters. What's he
saying? And he is an angel from the Lord.
He's standing in the sun. Now this is what causes me to
believe that this is not Christ himself, but either a minister
of Christ or an angel sent with a message, because he's standing
in the light of the sun. And that sun, I believe, is a
direct reference from the Old Testament. Malachi chapter, I've
got it listed here, Malachi chapter four. where Christ is prophesied
as the Son of Righteousness, S-U-N, coming with healing in
his wings. So Christ is the Son of Righteousness. He's the Light of Righteousness.
And here the announcement is, is Christ coming as the Son of
Righteousness with healing in his wings, but as a righteous
conqueror. who's going to have victory over
all of his enemies. Look back up in verse 16, he
was called King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There's no one
above him. There's no one on the same plane
as him. There's no one equal to him.
And so then he launches into it. I saw an angel standing in
the sun. He cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls
that fly in the midst of heaven, literally mid heaven, which would
mean the sky. That's what he's talking about.
Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great
God. Now, any time you see the word
fowls in the scripture, if you go back to the, for example,
the parables of the kingdom, in Matthew 13, it talks about
the fowls of the air. What it is is they are birds
that feed upon dead things. That's what it's talking about.
They feed upon character, birds of prey that feed upon the dead. Sometimes they symbolize, in
certain contexts, they can symbolize the devil and his angels. The
fowls of the air, the parable of the mustard seed. When the
tree grows up, the fowls come in and lodge in the branches,
you know. That's false preachers trying
to infiltrate the church. what he's talking about. In other
words, it grows into a big bush or tree, but while on earth we're
going to be attacked. But here what they are are instruments
of God's wrath, symbolizing death, which they are feeding in this
supper. This is the supper of God's wrath. You know, a lot
of times supper, when we talk about eating with each other,
supper is a sign of fellowship. Christ ate with publicans and
sinners, not to condone what they were doing, but to show
that that was the kind of people he came to save. But when it's
fellowship with God, it's like a supper, the supper of the lamb,
you know, all of that, the marriage feast and all of that. But here
it's simply showing that God is going to bring his wrath down
upon all of his enemies, they will die, and the fowls of the
air will feast upon them. That's God's wrath. That's what
he's talking about. I don't think you can take it
any further than that. And in verse 18, the feast is described. Look, that you may eat the flesh
of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men,
the flesh of horses. In other words, their persons
and their power. You know, horse back then was
a real symbol of power. and their power will be gone,
the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh
of all, all men, both free in bond, both small and great."
In other words, there's no station or a status of men and women
that will protect them from this final death. You see, they're
without Christ. They're without grace. They don't
have a mediator, they don't have an advocate, they don't have
a savior. They're found in their sins, you know. Remember Christ
told the Pharisees, he said, if you believe not on me, you'll
die in your sins. That's what this is describing
here. And there's no, I don't care if you're a king, a prince
or a pauper. If you don't have Christ, if
you're not washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness,
this is the end for you. And it's eternal damnation. And
so both small and great. So verse 19, he says, and I saw
the beast and the kings of the earth, the beast here representing
ungodly governments, ungodly empires, anti-Christian, the
kings of the earth and their armies gathered to make war,
gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,
that's Christ, they're coming against Christ and against his
army, that's his church. Now, You know, back, uh, uh,
uh, this is another description of what they call the final battle,
the battle of Armageddon, lot of controversy around that. I
know. And what, what he's, what he's
talking about, I believe here is, is the spiritual battle that
takes place between Christ and his church and the world. I don't
believe personally that it's talking about that all the armies
of the earth are going to gather into one geographical area on
this earth and there's going to be a physical battle. I don't
believe that. But now some people do, all right? And that's all
right if they don't go too far with it. You know, the Bible
says the weapons of our warfare are not what? They're not carnal.
Now, are there going to be physical battles on earth? Well, of course.
Christ said you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. There's been
wars all along. You know, actually, we're going
to be studying this in our Wednesday night Bible study after the first
of the year. Come in to see passages like
Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and 2 Thessalonians 2. And when we talk about preaching
Christ in the end times. You know, whenever the scripture
speaks, whenever Christ taught about the end times, and he made
this statement, for example, he said, it'll be like in the
days of Noah. He said they'll be marrying and
giving him marriage, they'll be eating and drinking. You know
what he's saying there? He's saying things will go along
just as they always have, routine, and then bam, Christ will arrive
on the scene like a thief in the night. Now, whenever you
hear people describe what they call the Battle of Armageddon
happened in the Valley of Megiddo, and there is no real connection
there, word-wise, if you really study it out. That sounds the
same, the Valley of Megiddo, you know, over in Israel. And whenever they talk about
that, in fact, it would be geographically impossible to put all the armies
of the earth there, for one thing. But when somebody says, well,
God could do it, you know, I guess move a mountain or something.
He could. I'm sure he could. I'm not questioning God's ability.
But anyway, whenever they talk about that, this army is gathering
in expectation of the second coming of Christ. Whenever they
talk about a physical battle like that, they say the armies
of the world are going to gather together to do battle in expectation
of the second coming of Christ. Well, what does Christ say about
his second coming as it pertains to the world? They don't believe
it. The world does not expect Christ
to come again. We who are saved, we live in
expectation of his coming. We don't know when it is, but
we're to live each day as if he were coming today. But the
world doesn't expect it. And that's what he means in first
Thessalonians when he talks about he's coming as a thief in the
night. He's going to take the world by surprise. They're not
going to gather and wait for him, you know, or anything like
that. But anyway, what this is, this is the world against Christ
and his church expressing their hatred, their opposition, as
they've always done. It's never been different. And
as I said, I don't believe it's a physical battle or gathering
of all nations in one area of the world. And again, first,
I've got this listed here. The world does not expect the
second coming of Christ. He'll come as a thief in the
night. And we might also note that the army of Christ, his
church, carries no physical weapons. In fact, we're forbidden to take
up arms except to defend ourselves. That's what scripture says. But
our warfare here is a spiritual battle between, it's a war of
ideas. It's a war of truth against the lie. And so the only hope
that we have of surviving this whole mess is to be found in
Christ, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law. Well, look
at verse 20. He says, the beast was taken and with him the false
prophet. Now there's the first two of
the unholy trinity. Chapter 20 is going to deal with
the third, that's Satan, the red dragon. It says, the beast
was taken and with him the false prophet. They were subdued, they
were brought down, they were defeated, they were taken captive.
And it says here that the false prophet that wrought or worked
miracles before him, the false prophet, false religion, worked
miracles before the beast, that is the ungodly, unchristian,
unholy governments. And remember 2 Thessalonians
2, I've got a reference here that says 2 Thessalonians 2 99
through 12. There is no 2 Thessalonians 2
99. So that should be just nine. 2 Thessalonians 2, so mark that
out on your lesson. Mark one of those nines out on
your lesson. That's a typo. All right, so 2 Thessalonians
2 verses 9 through 12. That speaks of false religion
that comes in the name of Christianity there that are given the ability
to perform false miracles. It's called lying, L-Y-I-N-G,
wonders, and the deception of unrighteousness to deceive people. In other words, they'll do impressive
things. False religion will do impressive things. Things that
will impress the world. Which will cause the world to
conclude that that's got to be of God. That cannot be of the
devil. But it's a deception. It's strong
delusion. And what he says there in 2 Thessalonians
2, 9-12, now listen to this. It says that it's a judgment
of God against the world because of their rejection of the truth. I'm going to talk about that
in the message today. I've got two more messages that I want
to preach on this thing about what's really new. God gives
us a new heart and all that. When God gives us a new heart,
it changes our standard and our way of judgment. of ourselves,
of others. Now, don't tell me you don't
judge, because you do. If you think you don't judge,
you're just lying to yourself. Right now, you're making a judgment.
You're judging whether or not I'm telling you a lie or telling
you the truth. And you say, well, I don't care
what you say. Well, you've made a judgment that what I'm saying
is not worth hearing. Isn't that right? We judge everything. The problem with our judgment
by nature is it's wrong, and it's self-righteous, and it's
based on a lie. But when God changes the heart,
he gives us the right standard of judgment, which is what? His
word. His word. What does the scripture
say? So if I say I'm a Christian,
And somebody would ask me, well, why do you think you're a Christian?
Well, whatever reasons I give for claiming to be a Christian,
it better begin with what? The truth as it is in God's Word. If I start with my experience,
I'm going to go wrong. I've got to judge my experience
by this. And so my point is this, that
strong delusion will deceive those who believe the lie and
would not receive the truth. What does God's word say? We
make assessments about ourselves and about others all the time,
and we're commanded to do that. Should I receive you as a brother
or sister in Christ and say we have fellowship? What's the basis
of that? It's got to first begin with
the Bible, with the truth. You say, well, when I was 12,
I had a dream. I don't care about your dream.
And frankly, I don't want to hear about your dream. Now that
may sound harsh, but I'm sorry. I'm not here to talk about dreams
and visions. You say, I saw a sign. Christ
said a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.
What do I want to have to do with that? What do you want to
have to do with that? What does God's word say? That's where
we're at. And it's got to begin with the
gospel of reconciliation. You say you're a Christian, okay.
That means you're reconciled to God. Up on what ground have
you been reconciled to God? That's where we have to begin.
And if it's anything but Christ's righteousness imputed, His blood
alone, by the grace of God, you're not a Christian. And I don't
say that because I'm mean and hateful and don't like you. I'm
saying that because you need to hear the truth. Remember what
Paul told the Galatians? He asked the question, am I your
enemy? Because I tell you the truth.
If you have a little child who's sick, what do you want to do? You want to ignore it and just
let the child die? No, you want to face it and get
to a doctor where there's a cure. You're sick, you know, you've
got a problem. And so that's what we're seeing here. So when
he talks about these miracles in verse 20, Look at verse 20
again, he says, the beast was taken and with him the false
prophet that worked miracles before him, with which he deceived
them that had received the mark of the beast. Now the mark of
the beast, what is the mark of the beast? We've already gone
over that. But here's what it, the mark
of the beast is false doctrine. That's what it is. It's not a
barcode. It's not a microchip. It's false doctrine. It's a false
gospel. 666. What is the number six? It's
the number of man. And what is man? He's a center
who by nature is in darkness, spiritually dead, who cannot
see the truth. who will not on his own come
to Christ. That's 666. And any gospel or
any doctrine that leaves a person, a sinful human being in that
state is the mark of the beast. It says in the book of Revelation,
it'll be on his head. What is the head? On his forehead,
literally. The forehead means the mind.
That's what it symbolizes. In other words, whatever you
have in your mind as being the gospel, if it's not the true
gospel, it's the mark of the beast. It's less than seven,
which is perfection. Seven, that's the gospel, that's
Christ. And so man can never be a seven
by his own works or his own will. The only way to be a seven is
to be in Christ. Other than that, we fall short.
Six, six, six. Three times, because that trinity
there, that triple there, that just seals it. And then it says
to be on his hand. What does the hand represent?
His works. The works of men's hands. And
it's always a six. That's what the mark of the beast
is, look at it. He says, he deceived them with
these false miracles, promoting his false message, and they received
the mark of the beast, and then that worshiped his image. And
he says, these both were cast into a lake of fire burning with
brimstone. The lake of fire burning with
brimstone, the wrath of God, it's the eternal wrath of God. Obviously not a very pleasant
thing, is it, to say the least. What he's talking about is eternal
separation from God. Somebody asked me, what's hell
going to be like? I don't really know all the details,
and Christ described these things to a point, but I know this,
it's to be eternally separated from God, and that's unimaginable. unimaginable. We'll look at verse
21. He says, "...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." What he's talking about is all
who are found at that time without Christ will be damned. There'll be no little part of
mankind left. You see all these science fiction
movies where there's some kind of an apocalyptic end, but there's
a little group of people left. Well, this is not going to be
that way. This is going to be the total defeat of all the enemies
of Christ. There'll be no remnant. The remnant
were slain by the sword of him that sat on the horse. They were
slain by the sword of him that sat on the horse. Who's sitting
on the horse? Christ is. He's gonna slay them. This is
his wrath. And here's the point, too. As
you read through the book of Revelation, you see the various
views that God gives of the end time, like different camera angles. And up to this point, whenever
it talks about this destruction or the wrath of God being manifested
on earth, it was always a fourth part of the earth or a third
part of the earth. In other words, there were some
left over. It wasn't the full measure of God's wrath against
sin. No more. Here's the full measure. Whatever's left, they're going
to be slain too. And they're going to be slain
by that sword. You know, whenever we see the
word remnant, we always think about the remnant according to
the election of grace, don't we? I do. And that's a beautiful
thing. That's God's elect, you see,
a remnant. But here, it's not good to be
part of this remnant, because they're going to be slain by
the sword of him that sat on the horse. And this sword proceeded
out of his mouth. Back in Revelation 19, 15, this
sword symbolized the power and the authority of the word of
God. And what he's talking about is
God's pronouncement of the judgment, the sentence of guilt and wrath
upon all of his enemies. And remember he said now that
the one that sits on the horse is faithful and true. So in other
words, what he's doing here is not unjust or unfair. It's the
right thing to do, it's the only right thing to do. And so that's
why the word that he, this is the thing about it, and this
is where we can take some comfort, even in passages like this. The
same word that announces wrath and judgment against the enemies
of Christ is the same word that pronounces the justification
and eternal glory of all who are in him. Because the same
righteousness, you remember? The same righteousness that will
judge the world and condemn them is the same righteousness that
has judged the church and justified. God's gonna judge this world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. in that
he has given assurance unto all men that he has raised him from
the dead. So what's he telling us? The only hope we have is
to be found in Christ, to be washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness. We're safe in him, but outside
of him, there's nothing good and nothing pleasant to say. Okay.