All right, Revelation 19, beginning
at verse 11, and really going through the end of this chapter
before we get to probably one of the most controversial chapters,
which is chapter 20, and we'll look at that when we get to it.
But beginning here at verse 11, after having shown us the glory
of the marriage of the lamb, Christ and his church coming
together in the final culmination of God's purpose and grace, that
which God laid down from the foundation of the world. Then
he begins to focus on the bridegroom, the husband of the church, Christ.
And what we have here is a description that incites worship from God's
people. Somebody said one time that worship
has to do not just with feeling and emotion. I'm gonna deal with
that a little bit in the message today about what it means to
glory in heart, you know, when the Bible says that. It's not
emotionalism. Now certainly the emotions can
and most often will be involved. There's nothing wrong with getting
emotional when we read passages of scripture that describe the
beauty of Christ. But worship is not based on emotions. True emotions come from the beauty
and glory of worship. So worship involves ascribing
unto God the wonderful characteristics and attributes that belong to
Him. And also it involves not ascribing
to Him characteristics and attributes that don't belong to Him. In
other words, a lot of it has to do with how we think about
God. And our thoughts about God are to be founded upon what God
says, not what we think or not our opinion. Somebody says, well,
I don't think God would do this. Well, if you want to know if
God would do that or not, read the Bible. That's how you find
that out. Because it's what God says about
himself. And when you think about God's holiness, Remember Isaiah,
Isaiah chapter six, he said, in the year the king Uzziah died,
that was a man whom Isaiah respected. In fact, they think that he was
probably Isaiah's uncle. He was the king of Judah. And
he said, in the year the king Uzziah died, And if you know
the story of Uzziah, I'm not going to go into all that because
I don't have time. But he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple, the glory of God. And
he said there was cherubims and seraphims, and they cried, holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And what that holiness is is
God's uniqueness. When people think of holiness
today, they usually think of moral purity. Well, Holiness
literally means separateness. There's none like God. That's
His holiness. Now, it would include in God's
case moral purity because He is sinless perfection. And so
that does set Him apart, doesn't it, from everybody else. Christ
is the Holy One of Israel. There's none like him. That's
why he told the rich young man, he said, why do you call me good?
There's none good but God. What Christ was saying there
is if you don't think I'm God, then don't call me good. Now
he's talking about salvation there. He's talking about right
relationship with God. We go around here all the time talking
about, well, I know so-and-so and he's such a good man or she's
such a good woman. Well, all right, but you've got
to keep things in perspective. You're talking about how they
compare to other people. But when it comes to comparing
ourselves with Christ, there's none good, no not one. So it's
how we think about God. Well, listen to this. This is
verse 11. He said, I saw heaven opened. Now heaven opened has to do with
revelation. What is revelation? This is the
book of Revelation. The whole Bible is a revelation,
isn't it? It's an uncovering. It's a manifestation. It's God
intervening in history to tell us the truth that we don't know
naturally. We know some truth naturally,
but we don't know salvation truth naturally. We don't know what
it means, we don't know, we listen, we don't even really know ourselves
naturally. When I get into the message later
on, Mark's going to read Jeremiah 17, part of it. And it says,
the heart is wicked, desperately wicked. Who can know it? That's
talking about all of us naturally. And therefore the only way that
we're going to know God and know ourselves and know the way of
salvation is for heaven to be open. God must intervene and
reveal himself. And this is a revelation. Heaven
opened also means a way made to God. There is a way to God
for sinners. But God is holy and just and
he cannot save you and receive you and open heaven's doors to
you apart from his justice satisfied. So what is that way? It's the
way of Christ. That's what Christ said in John
14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Period. There's no other way. His way is the way of the cross.
That's the way of his death. It's the way of justice satisfied.
His way is the way of righteousness, not by me or you, but by Christ,
who is our righteousness. That's what this world is missing
in what they call Christianity today. You see, if everything
centers on man, what you're felt needs, you know, here's the thing
about, we're like children. Children, you all have raised
children. Children do not know what they
need. All they know is what they want.
Isn't that right? They don't know what they need.
You're the parent and you have to tell them and provide for
them what they need. That's why we're called children
of God if we're saved. Because by nature, we don't know
what we need, we know what we want. But God knows what we need
and he provides it in Christ. Well, look here, he says, I saw
heaven open and behold a white horse. The white horse is a symbol
of purity and power. That's what that is. And he that
sat upon this white horse was called faithful and true. That's
Christ. He's faithful and true. You know,
in Romans chapter three, there's a statement that's made and it
said, let God be true and every man a liar. Now, what does that
mean? Well, you got to look at the
context. Now we all know people. Lost people, for example, who
you might say, that's an honest person. In other words, he's
a person, he or she's a person who's true to their word. They
never, if they borrow money, they're gonna repay it. They're
honest people. But there's one particular area in which it can
only be said of Christ that he's faithful and he's true, and every
man is unfaithful and untrue. And what is that? Well, certainly
it's in the realm of salvation. But think about it this way.
I may be generally an honest person when it comes to my dealings
with men, and I hope I am. But I may make promises or have
intentions, I may make promises that I can't keep. It's not because I'm dishonest,
it's because I either don't have the wisdom or foresight to see
the obstacles or I just don't have the power to fulfill the
promise. I may promise you that I'll be, yeah, I'll be wherever
you want me to be next week, I'll be right there. But what
happens if I get struck down with an illness? Or get killed
in a car wreck? I have no control over those
things. But now when you consider faithfulness and trueness in
Christ, those things don't apply. He has the power to keep every
promise that He's made. All the promises of God are in
Him, yea and amen. Sure and certain. God has never
made a promise that He didn't keep. He's faithful and He's
true. And he's the only one that that
can be said about. You say, well, I wanna do this,
I wanna do that, I plan to do this. We make our plans and we
say, thy will be done. Because we know God's in control.
We're not in control. Somebody said, if you had things
to do over again, would you change? I'd change a bunch of things,
wouldn't you? Somebody said, I wouldn't change a thing. Well,
you're just lying to yourself. There are all kinds of things
I would change. But one old preacher said this, he said, if we knew
what God knew, we wouldn't change a thing. And that's true. That's hard for us to imagine,
I know. Christ is faithful and true. He doesn't promise to save
people and then don't save them. That's not the way he is. His
faithfulness. Lamentations chapter three, great
is thy faithfulness. We sing a hymn about that, great
is thy faith. You see, let me read a scripture
to you. This is Hebrews chapter 10. Why
is it when God saves a sinner, that sinner can never be lost
again? Why is that? Is it because that
sinner is such a good person now and so powerful? Is it because
that sinner can overcome every obstacle and provide every means
that he needs? No. He says in verse 23 of Hebrews
10, let us hold fast the profession of our faith. Let's persevere
in the profession of our faith. Now, what is the profession of
our faith? That Christ is our savior. We're
saved by the grace of God. We stand before God in his righteousness
alone. That's the profession of our
faith. And he says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith
without wavering. And in parentheses, it says,
for he, God, is faithful. That promise. There's the foundation
of it. Reason we can never be lost again
is because God will not let us go. He preserves us. Christ said, no one shall pluck
them out of my father's hands. So he's faithful and true. And
look at verse 11, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. There's
the key. Everything he does, he does in
righteousness. So it's useless to talk about
salvation without talking about the righteousness of the one
who is faithful and true. The gospel, the good news of
salvation is the revelation of the righteousness of God who
is faithful and true. What is his righteousness? It's
the merits, the worth, the value of his obedience unto death to
secure the salvation of all for whom he died and rose from the
dead. It's useless to talk about God's mercy without talking about
righteousness. That was displayed long before
for us as far as the book of Genesis. The mercy seat, propitiation,
all those words. Just as satisfied. Whatever he
does, he does in a just way. It's useless to talk about his
grace without talking about righteousness. Romans 521, grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. It's
useless to talk about love without talking about righteousness.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the what? Propitiation. for our sins, justice
satisfied. And so when he comes the second
time to gather his church, he does it in a way of righteousness.
He's not just feeling sorry for us, folks. He's not just looking
past something that is real, like our sins. Our sins are taken
care of in a righteous way through the blood of Jesus Christ. Justice
has been satisfied. All the wrath of God has been
emptied down upon the person of Jesus Christ on the cross.
And so he gathers us in a righteous way. And listen, when he stands
against his enemies, it's in a righteous way. You say, well,
you know, I hate to hear about people perishing and going to
hell. I do too. But I know this, whatever
this one who's faithful and true does, He does it in a righteous
way. He's not gonna make any mistakes.
He's not gonna do anything unjust. His people, his bride stand before
God in his righteousness imputed to them. Those who perish stand
in their own works and will perish. That's the righteous way. Look
at verse 12. Well, he makes war. And that's his wrath against
sin. He says in verse 12, his eyes were as a flame of fire.
That means this, that there's nothing that is hidden from his
view. That when he judges in righteousness
and when he acts in righteousness, it's all reality. There's no
pretense here. There's no false appearance.
There's no sham religion. It's all out there in the open.
That's his eyes as a flame of fire. He knows everything. He knows my heart. We're going
to be talking a little bit about the new heart. God knows our
hearts. I told you I think last week
or the week before about the guy who told me that he's no
longer a sinner. And I just made the statement,
I said, if I could take a movie or a film of your thoughts, just
your thoughts for one day, would you stay in the church building
as I flash that up on a screen before everybody? I guarantee
you, in any individual, those thoughts would be embarrassing,
some of them at least, a lot of them. Well, God sees them. Now, I can keep my thoughts today
hidden from you, but I can't keep my thoughts hidden from
God. And He knows the heart. He knows if your heart is set
on Christ and His truth and His righteousness alone, or if it's
set on something else, religion, works, whatever. Verse 12, on
His head were many crowns. That's His Lordship. That's what
it's talking about. It's his victories, the victorious
king. He's the king of kings, the potentate. That means he's all powerful.
Victorious, there's no defeat here, you see. That preacher
out in Chicago years ago who's talked about hell being a monument
to God's failure, doesn't know the God of the Bible. he on his
head are many crowns he's the king of kings and verse 12 and
he had a name written that no man knew but he himself now what
does that mean? well some theologians believe
that that's referring to the depths of the majesty of God
that no human mind can comprehend but I don't believe that's what
it's talking about I put that down. If that's what you believe,
that doesn't do any damage to the gospel. Because there are
depths of God's majesty that we cannot comprehend. That's
true. Romans 11. Oh, the depths of the riches
of God. Who can know him, his mind? I
mean, we know what God reveals to us through Christ. But when
it comes to the attributes of God, think about this always.
Somebody asked me one time, what is the most incomprehensible
attribute of God? You know what it is to me? Immutability. God never changes. I cannot comprehend
anything that never changes. Because that's all I know is
change. Every day I see change. I see
change in myself. That's why we say, O thou who
changest not, abide. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I can't comprehend
that, but I know it's true, and he's revealed it in Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever. And some theologians
say that's what this was referring to. But what I believe this is
referring to, it says, he had a name written that no man knew
but he himself. What I think that's talking about
is that if you know Christ, if you know the God of salvation,
he has to reveal it to you. No man knows that name, the name
of the Lord our righteousness. That's Jehovah Sid Canoe in the
old language. And here, I've put down here
Matthew 11, 27 in your lesson, where Christ said, all things
are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but
the father, and neither knoweth any man the father save the son,
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. So this name
written, can only be known as Christ himself reveals it to
his people. And he's revealed it to his people
in the gospel. By the power of the Holy Spirit,
what is his name? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, what is his name? People today really don't realize
the import of that. How important it is, rather.
because names to us, in general, are just kind of labels. It's either a family name handed
down, or it's just a label, a name, you go get a baby name bug and
you look it up, I like that name, you know. And usually in those
name books, it'll tell you what the name means, but that really,
you know. I don't know what the name William means. I really
don't. I probably looked it up, but it doesn't really concern
me that much. But I always think of William
the Conqueror. I was named after a bluegrass guy, Bill Monroe.
My dad played the bluegrass fiddle. If William means fiddle player,
then I'm not a fiddle player. But if it means conqueror, I'm
not a conqueror. So my name has nothing to do
with my character is what I'm saying. Christ's name identifies
him and distinguishes him in his character, in his nature,
in his work. He is the anointed one. He is
Messiah. He is the successful one. And
so that's what the name is. It's not just a label. You know,
it's not just some kind of a mumbo jumbo name that we invoke, you
know, like holding up a cross to a vampire or something. It
doesn't mean anything like that. There's no magic in just saying
Lord or just saying Christ. But if that name has been revealed
to you by the power of the spirit and you know who he is, And he's
shown you who you are, a sinner in need of grace and mercy, of
righteousness that you can't produce. You'll call upon that
name. I know who he is. That distinguishes
him from counterfeits and all of that. Look at verse 13. It
says he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. You know what
that is? That's his death. This is the suffering, successful,
victorious Lord who died but rose the third day. He is the
one who established righteousness that demands eternal life and
glory for his people. And that vesture dipped in blood
speaks of his redemptive glory. He's the lamb slain, speaks of
the cross. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross. and his name is called the word
of god john chapter one in beginning was the word in the word was
with god in the word was god he is the log off so that's what's
what that word is he is the alphabet is one one uh... person said
he's the alpha and the omega the first and the last the revelation
of god you wanna if you wanna put words together that reveal
the glory of god it's all i have a summation in christ He's the
living one. I had a good outline. Christ
is the eternal word of God. In beginning was the word. Christ
is the living word of God. The embodiment of the word of
God. Christ is the incarnate word of God. John 1 14, the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. Christ is the preached word
of God. You've heard the word Rahema,
or Ramah, transliterated as R-H-E-M-A, that's the preached word, the
uttered word. In other words, when we preach, what do we preach? We preach Christ. Paul said we
preach Christ crucified. We preach his blood, just to
satisfy. We preach his righteousness as
the only ground of salvation. Verse 14, he says, and the armies
which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed
in fine linen, white and clean. That's his people clothed in
his righteousness imputed. The white horses are those, that's
the power of God provided for them. Here's that fine linen,
white and clean, white and glistering. We've been made the righteousness
of God in him and our robes have been washed and made white in
the blood of the lamb. That's the fruit. of his vesture
dipped in blood. See, what we are as justified
before God, not guilty, righteous in Him, is the fruit of what
He accomplished in His death and resurrection. That vesture
dipped in blood. So you see, everything's put
in its right order. And that's what people missed,
a lot of people missed today. It's not, you know, People today
who believe salvation is conditioned on man, they've got it backwards. It's not conditioned on man because
if it were, it'd be a failure. You say, well, not with me. Well,
you think too highly of yourself. You need to read the Bible. You
need to look into the mirror of God's word and see the reality.
Why was the old covenant a failure? Now understand now, it wasn't
a failure as God intended it because the old covenant law
of Moses given to the nation of Israel was never given by
God to be a way of salvation. It was never intended for that.
God did not give it for that reason. But according to the
nation Israel, they failed because they couldn't keep it. They're
sinners. And that's why God gave it, to
expose their sinfulness and their need of righteousness that they
couldn't produce. And that's why we're not under
the old covenant. See, we're under the covenant
of grace. That's righteousness provided in Christ. So anytime you see a covenant
made between God and man upon which the conditions are placed
upon man, it's a failure. And that's why God gives it to
show that we're failures. Christ is victorious. Now I'm
talking about salvation now. You may not be a failure in your
family or in your career or in your school or what, and that's
great. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about in salvation.
Establishing and maintaining a right relationship with God.
If it's conditioned on me, I'm a failure. But it's not conditioned
on me. It's conditioned on Christ, and
he's not a failure. He's faithful and true. He's
my righteousness. I look at verse 15. It says,
out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword. That's the sword of the
Lord. His word cuts both ways. The word of God is quick and
powerful as any two edged sword. And that with it, he should smite
the nations just with a word. This is how he wins this war.
between him and his enemies. It's not with tanks and knives
and machine guns and nuclear bombs, it's his word. All he
has to do is speak it, and it's done. And he smite the nations,
that is the nations as they stand in opposition to him, and it
says, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. There is
absolutely no possibility of his failing here. He treadeth
the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. When he speaks of ruling them
with a rod of iron, I've got in your lesson, that's quotation
from Psalm two and verse nine. When he says, thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them to pieces like
a potter's vessel. In other words, every knee is
gonna bow and every tongue is gonna confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. He'll trample down his enemies
with the severity of God's wrath. What's going on here? Justice
is being fulfilled. That's what it is. I've often
said that when you think about the wrath of God, first of all,
don't think about anything that's undeserved. Back in verse 11,
in righteousness doth he make war. Everything God does in justice
against his enemies is giving them what they deserve. And that's
why we pray all the time, Lord, don't give me what I deserve. Don't you pray that? I don't
want what I deserve. I want mercy. But that's only
to be found in Christ. He's talking about people here
who have no mediator, have no savior, have no Lord, have no
righteousness. So first of all, when you think
about God's wrath, don't think about that which is undeserved.
This is justice. Secondly, when you think about
God's wrath, don't think about God throwing a temper tantrum.
This is not, as my old buddy in West Virginia said, this is
not God just running a wheel off. No, this is God's justice. And that's what we preach. The
Ministry of Reconciliation, we know the terror of the Lord.
That's why I preach the gospel. That's why I talk to people about
the scriptures. That's why I plead with them. Don't stay another
moment in that false religion. Come out from among them, because
I know the terror of the Lord. And then look at verse 16, this
is the last one. He said, he hath on his vesture,
his clothing, and on his thigh, the reason he says his thigh,
remember the Roman soldier used to strap that sword right to
his leg there? That's power, that's what that
is. And on his thigh, a name written, King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. That's who he is. There's none
like him. There's no other savior. There's
no other way of salvation. Now the rest of this chapter
goes on with some descriptions and we'll pick up that next week.