This morning, Christ the glorious
victor. Keep reminding us that the book
of Revelation has seven different visions in it. Each vision is
a complete history of man's time on earth. Our text this morning
finishes the sixth vision. And each of these visions show
us the ordeal that the church goes through throughout all of
our history on earth. At the end of this particular
vision, the Apostle John sees the return of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He's coming back in all of his glory, and every eye will
see him in that day. Now those who know and love him
will not be surprised that this one who's appearing is their
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. They know him. They love him.
They will know this is the Savior that I've entrusted my eternal
soul to him. Now they know him, they love
him, they won't be surprised to see him, but I promise you
this, he will be far more glorious than they ever imagined. They
will just, they'll be shocked, just in silent awe to see him
as he is. To them, the second coming of
Christ is going to be the beginning of this wedding feast we looked
at last week. This is going to be Christ the
bridegroom coming out of His chamber in the wedding procession,
coming to be eternally joined to His bride, and His bride is
going to be thrilled. But the enemies of Christ, those
who oppose Him, those who continually refuse to believe on Him, they're
going to be shocked to find out who Jesus of Nazareth really
is. When they see him, they're not
going to see a babe in a manger, are they? They're not going to
see a reformer who wouldn't hurt a fly. I think this is true. Every movie I've ever seen that
depicted our Lord Jesus shows him like he's some hippie on
quaaludes or something, you know, he's just spaced out and he's
so calm, he's so sweet, he just won't hurt anybody. They're going
to be shocked to see a man of war. They're not going to see
a sacrifice who's been put into the hands of men to do with as
they will. They're going to find out this
is the one who rules. I'm in his hand to do with as
he will. When Christ returns, they're
going to see a king, the king. They're going to see a man of
war returning from the victory. They're going to be filled with
terror to see that the judge is the one that they rejected,
the one that they hated. And he will be far more glorious,
far more awesome than they ever could have imagined he would
be. Everyone's going to see the same person his glory and his
power will fill his people with joy And it will bring the unbeliever
pure terror And I want us to look this morning at a description
how John describes our Savior the glorious Victor First when
we see Christ, we're going to see the glory of heaven verse
11 revelation 19 And I saw heaven open Now, in other times here
in the book of Revelation, John has seen a door or a window open
in heaven. But here, it's not a door. It's
not a window. Heaven itself is open. And when
heaven is open, we're going to see Christ as he is. He is going
to appear to be the glory of heaven. You know, there's not
going to be a secret rapture where the Lord secretly returns
and pulls some people out, brings them to glory. Nobody's going
to know where they went or what happened. No, when Christ appears,
the whole earth is going to see him at once. Heaven will be opened
and we'll see Christ is the glory of heaven. He's the ruler of
heaven. He's worshiped in heaven. He
is the way to heaven. And when we see him, We won't
want to go to heaven because there is a place of eternal vacation,
or streets of gold, or big mansions. When we see Christ as he is,
as the glory of heaven, all we'll desire is to be where he is.
Wherever he is, that's where heaven is. He's the glory of
it. Second, we'll see Christ as the
captain of our salvation. I saw heaven open and behold,
a white horse. Now the white horse, the king,
the most important man rides upon the white horse, the white
stallion. It demonstrates his power, his
majesty. When we see Christ, the one who
sits upon this white horse, this is the captain of our salvation.
He's riding back into town in a victory parade after he's gone
out and won a great victory. He's coming back to his people
in a victory parade. He'll have all glory, all honor,
all praise. That's why he's on his white
horse. Now the Apostle John is one of those ones, and others
saw the same thing. They saw the Lord Jesus as a
man, didn't they? They saw him in his humiliation.
Nobody will ever see him that way again. You and I will never
see him that way, ever. When Christ returns, it's going
to be in all of his power and all of his glory because that's
who he is. Now that'll make his people rejoice,
won't it? But it'll make his enemies tremble because none
can stand, none can resist this one on this white horse. And
white also represents purity. Now everybody knows that. If
you've ever watched one of those old westerns, I used to love
to watch old westerns. kind of hokey now, but I used
to love them. I'm a pretty good student of
them. You know what I never saw in those old westerns? Not one
time. I never saw the bad guy ride on a white horse. All you
have to do is figure out who's the bad guy, who's the good guy,
who's on the white horse. The good guy's the one on the
white horse. All you've got to know to find out who is the righteous
one, who is the only one good, find the one on the white horse.
This is the captain of our salvation leading this victory parade after
his great victory over every enemy. As he rides upon this
white horse, we see his character. His character is glorious. He's called faithful and true.
I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. And he that sat
upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness,
he doth judge and make war. Do you know why the Lord Jesus
Christ is called faithful and true? Because He is. These are His names. His name
reveals His character. He is faithful and true. You
can count on Him to do exactly what He said He'd do. He's faithful.
He's true. He's faithful and true to His
Father. He completely fulfilled the covenant of Christ. The Father,
Son and Holy Spirit entered into this covenant of grace. The one
who's faithful and true fulfilled the covenant. He's the mediator
of the covenant. It's all going to come to pass
because he's faithful. The mediator of it is faithful
and true. He's faithful and true to his
people. You go through this book and you read all the precious
promises that God made to his people. You believe every one
of them. You rest in every one of them.
Because they all depend upon this One who's faithful and true.
God's grace, God's mercy, eternal life to His people. They'll have
it all. Because it all depends on this
One who's faithful and true. Look back a few pages at Jude,
verse 14. He's faithful and true to His
Father. He's faithful and true to His people. And He's going
to be faithful and true to His enemies. To destroy them in His
wrath that He promised them. In Jude 14, this again, this
is one of those things that tells us the book of Revelation doesn't
tell us about those last moments before Christ returns. This is
talking about the exact same thing Enoch talked about, verse
14. And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied of these, saying, behold, the Lord cometh with
10,000 of his saints He's coming to execute judgment upon all
and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their
ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all
their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Christ is coming and he's going
to be faithful. He's going to destroy every enemy. He's coming to judge and to make
war. Now this war is not a physical
warfare. You don't have to be expecting,
you know, see some nuclear war. That's going to be the end of
the earth. This is spiritual warfare. Righteousness and judgment
or war and judgment are made in righteousness. The Lord Jesus
Christ came the first time and he brought in everlasting righteousness
for his people by obeying the law for them. And he conquers
his people with the truth of the gospel. What is the truth
of the gospel? It proclaims righteousness in
Christ, that we're righteous in him. In that way, he conquers
all his people. He's the mighty conqueror. He
conquers his people. On that last day, those who have
not bowed to him are going to be conquered. They're going to
be judged in righteousness, destroyed in righteousness. And that simply
means this. They're going to receive exactly
what they got coming. But the same thing is true of you who
believe. Everyone in that day will receive exactly what they've
got coming. Both saved and lost. Those who
are saved, they're going to receive exactly what Christ earned for
them. No more, no less. Those who are
lost, those who refuse to believe on Him are going to receive exactly
what they got coming. Exactly what their sin and their
rebellion and their unbelief has earned them. The only reason
anybody will ever be condemned to hell is they refuse to surrender. The only reason. Now how foolish
is that? The terms of surrender are so
easy, they're so simple, but they will not surrender. So their judgment will be right,
just on it. All right, fourthly. When we
see Christ, we're going to be able to look at Him face to face,
look Him right in the eye, and we're going to find out His eyes
are glorious. You know, you can tell a lot
about a person by looking them in the eye. I like to, if you're
doing business with somebody, I like looking them in the eye.
You can tell a lot. The windows, the eyes really are the windows
to the soul. When we see Christ, we're going to be able to look
Him in the eye, and we're going to see a lot about who He is.
His eyes, John said, are eyes of fire. Verse 12. His eyes were
as a flame of fire. Now those eyes that are a flame
of fire, they're the all-seeing eye of Christ. He sees everything. He doesn't miss anything. He
even sees the thoughts and the intents, the motives of the heart. Now that would be very frightening
to an unbeliever who's, what's in their heart? Rebellion. Hatred. That would be frightening for
them to know he can see right in my heart. What comfort that
is to the believer. I don't act right. I don't think
right. I don't do right. My faith is weak. My love is
weak. weak and sometimes looks to me like non-existent. But
we can say with Peter, Lord, you know all things. You know
I love you. His eyes don't miss a thing. He sees that heart he put in
his people. Those eyes of the flame of fire. He looks at his
people and it just melts their heart. Causing them to love him
and to cherish him. They make us, best illustration
I can think of, is like a schoolgirl. I've got two daughters. I've
watched them have a lot of schoolgirl crushes. I've watched them get
married. And you know, I can't even do
the look. It's just the schoolgirl look. That's what it's going to be
when we see our bridegroom. Just a schoolgirl crush upon
him. To look at those eyes. But those
same eyes will fill his enemies with terror. They can't be a
religious hypocrite anymore, can they? They can fool you and
me. They can appear righteous unto men, but not to him. His
eye sees everything. He's not going to be looking
at their outward actions, is he? He's looking at the motive of
the heart. He's looking at their heart of unbelief. And their
guilt will be known by all. There won't be any place to hide
it. And his eyes will also fill his enemies with terror because
those flames of fire represent the purity of the Lord. He demands
absolute purity and he'll judge the wicked in purity. And when
he destroys them, it'll be right. Right? Fifth, here's the character
of our savior. When he returns and we see him
as he is, we're going to see the sovereign king. Verse 12,
his eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. Now this mighty conqueror, he's
already king, isn't he? He's king. He wears his own crown
as God. He wears the crown of creation.
He created everything. He rules over. He has that crown.
He has the crown of providence. Everything that happens is happening
according to his covenant, his promise, what he said ordained
to happen before time began. And he wears the crown of redemption.
He is the king, savior of his people. He saves whom he will,
when he will. He's sovereign. And in this day,
Johnson has many crowns. He's going to take every crown,
every power that he's given on loan to earthly powers, he's
going to take it all away from them and put it on his head so
that we see all power, all authority vested in him. Now, that's already
the case, isn't it? All power, all authority is vested
with Christ our Savior. And we'll see this in just a
week or two in our study in the book of Romans. The Lord allows,
he loans this power to men, doesn't he? For the good of the earth.
The powers that be are ordained of God for your good, to keep
law and order, to keep things, you know, At least, in theory,
they're supposed to be keeping them on the tracks, aren't they?
That's why they don't have the power to make themselves rich
and to be able to avoid judgment themselves. It's for the good
of society. But in that day, there won't be any more power
on loan. It's all going to be consolidated into one place,
where it really always has resided. It's going to all be in Christ,
just like it is now. The only difference is in that
day, everybody's going to know it. Verse 16. And he hath on
his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. He will appear as the sovereign
king. Now he already is a sovereign
king, but in that day, everybody's going to know it. His name is
going to be known to all. Which brings me to the sixth
thing. The name of Christ, the name of our Savior, our conquering
Savior is glorious. At the end of verse 12, John
says, he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself.
Now look back at Matthew chapter 11. The Lord Jesus Christ has
a name, but no man by himself can know it. We cannot know his
name. unless the Father reveals it
to us. That's what this means. It doesn't mean nobody can ever
know his name. It means we can only know his
name if the Father reveals it to us. Matthew 11, verse 27. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son. And he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. The only way we can know his
name, if we know his name, We're saved. Salvation, eternal life
is in knowing Him, knowing His name. Salvation is not education. It's not being educated and being
able to memorize the doctrines of what we call the doctrines
of grace. Salvation is not an experience. Wednesday evening,
we went out to eat with Brother Joe Terrell. He was telling us
about some folks there in his area And they say, you're just
not saved. Do you have this great experience? You know, you've got to see crosses
lit up in your yard or you've got to have this vision, you
know, or you're not saved. Salvation is not an experience
like that. Not at all. Salvation is by divine revelation. Salvation is a person and we
can only know him by divine revelation. God must make us know him. Now, believers do know Christ,
don't they? We know Him. We know His name.
We know His character. So what does this mean? There's
a name written which no man but He Himself knew. Even we who
know His name, you know what that means? We don't know very
much about Him. We just don't know near everything
how glorious He really is. Look back at 1 Timothy. First Timothy chapter six, we
know him and we know something of his glory and his might and
his power, but we don't really have any idea how glorious he
really is. First Timothy chapter six, verse
14. Well, verse 13. You think of
Timothy reading this letter, this is serious business. This
is the Apostle Paul, his father in the faith, writing under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, says, I give thee charge in the sight of God,
who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before
Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. Timothy, I charge
this to you. This is your charge before God.
that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, who is it? Who is
it we're looking for his appearing? Who shall in his time, which
in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality,
dwelling in a light which no man can approach unto. whom no
man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. Timothy, that's our charge. That's who we preach. That's
who we're looking for. That's who we're looking to return,
this one who's the only potentate. The way Paul describes him there,
doesn't that fill you with awe? This is our Savior. And we know
many of the names of our Lord. Our Lord has many names in Scripture
because they all describe something different about His character.
But we're not going to fully know the glory of those names,
those traits of His character till we see Him in glory. His
name, Isaiah said, should be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Oh, what joy will be in that
day. to truly know Him as the Prince
of Peace. His name is Jehovah. God, my
Savior. He's the Savior of sinners. But
I'm not going to fully understand the glory of what it means to
be saved from sin until I'm with Him in glory. He's Jehovah, said
Kenneth, the Lord, our righteousness. How I love that name. Jehovah,
said Kenneth. But we will not truly know the
glory, what it means to be righteous until we're with Him who is our
righteousness. Face to face. Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. How many
times have you just clung on to that name? Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord's going to provide.
I don't know how, but He will. That's His name. That's His character.
We won't know how truly wonderful that is until we really see everything
He's provided for us. Made us just like Him. In that
day, we're going to understand a whole lot more about the sovereignty
of God than we do now. In that day, we see Him whose
name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We're going to really
understand this. Sovereignty is not a doctrine.
Sovereignty is a person. Sovereignty is the King that
we bow the knee to. And we don't know everything
there is to know about the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't ever be confused
about that. But you know, everything we need
to know about Him is revealed to us in His Word. God didn't
leave His people to doubt. No, He gave us everything we
need to know about salvation, everything we need to know about
redemption, about eternal life, everything we need to know about
the Lord Jesus Christ is found in the Word of God. Look here
at the end of verse 13, in His name, this glorious name is called
the Word of God. Salvation is found in this book. If you're here this morning and
you know you're lost, I'm telling you, make it your business to
get in the pages of this book and read it. Read it earnestly
and beg God to show you what it means. Now, when I say salvation
is found in this book, I don't mean it's found like in the page
of this book, you know, like it'll, you know, jump out at
you like a bug or something. And it's not found, salvation,
I've found in memorizing passages of it. Salvation is by knowing
the message of this book and the entire message of this book
on every single line, every single punctuation mark, every period,
every semicolon, every comma, every word. It's all written
to reveal one thing to us, one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you find Him, you'll have
eternal life. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Word of God. He's God's expression of Himself. That's why it's called the Word.
We use words to express thoughts and feelings. Well, Christ is
God's expression of Himself. The writer to the Hebrews says
that Christ is the brightness of God's glory. He's the express
image, the exact image of God's person. The only thing we'll
ever know now or throughout eternity, the only thing we will ever know
about God is the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is God. Christ reveals
all of God's character. God's character is love. How
do you know that? Christ. He came to die for sinners
while we were yet in our sin. That's God's love. God's character
is wisdom. How do you know that? He has
the wisdom. He found a ransom. Deliver him
from going down in the pit. I found a ransom. Who's the ransom?
The Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we see God's wisdom.
It's only in Christ that God is both just and justifier. He
can show mercy to sinners and still be holy, still be God.
We know about God's grace and mercy because of the Word of
God. Grace and truth, mercy, came
by the Lord Jesus Christ. We know about God's holiness
and God's justice. How? By seeing the Lord Jesus
Christ. God's holy. God is just. You know how I know that? Look
what he did to his son when he made his son sin. God's holy. God's holy. The only way He can
be approached is in that man, that one, through His sacrifice.
That's the only way that God can be approached is in Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God. Never may I speak
like this man. Christ is the Word. He spoke
for His people in the covenant of grace and said, Father, I'll
redeem them. I'll bring them home. Christ
is the Word of God who spoke the world. He spoke creation
into existence. He spoke and it was so. Let there be light and it was
so. It was all created by Him and for Him. Christ is the Word
of God who rules every event in this creation. It all happens
by His express will, by His express commandment. And we think this
thing is just going to implode and be nothing left. But it's
all held together by the Word of His power. Christ is the Word
of God. Preachers speak and speak and
speak. I know people think, oh boy,
they can talk a long time. But it's Christ, the Word of
God, who speaks and gives light to His people. It's Him that
speaks and creates new life in them. It's Him that speaks comfort
to their heart. He's the Word of God. Christ
is the Word of God who at this very moment sits on the right
hand of God, making intercession for the sin of His people. It's
Christ, the Word of God, who one day, for all of his people,
is going to speak and call them home. They'll close their eyes
in death and open their eyes, looking at him face to face.
And Christ is the Word of God, who one day will speak and bring
this whole thing to an end. He'll speak in judgment and condemnation
to his enemies, and he'll speak in glory and comfort to his people.
saying, come on with me. Enter into the rest prepared
for you. He's the Word of God. Seventh, Christ is so glorious,
even His clothing is glorious. His clothing is suitable for
the king and the victor. Verse 13 says that He was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood. Now a lot of people, I did some
reading on this, think that this refers to the blood of Christ's
sacrifice. And there's certainly something
to that. In glory, we will always see Christ as the lamb slain. We'll always know the only reason
that anybody is there in glory is Christ's sacrifice for them.
And people in hell will be there because they never would plead
the blood of Christ's sacrifice. They never would plead his blood
for the forgiveness of their sin. The issue always has been
and always will be the blood of Christ. That's the issue.
But mostly, This is talking about the blood of the enemies of Christ
that have been splattered upon him after he violently crushed
them in his fury. This is the way the man of war
appears as he's coming home fresh from the battle. We won't turn
over there. You can look at it this afternoon
if you want. But Isaiah 63, they see this glorious victor coming
back from the battle and say, who is this coming from Basra
that's got his garments splattered so much? Well, it's him that
tread the winepress of God's wrath alone. Well, in that instance,
this is not speaking of the sacrifice of Christ, because in that case,
he's the grape being trod, isn't it? This is the one who trod
the winepress. This is the one speaking of the
judge. He's the one doing the stomping. This is the judgment
of Christ, and he has obliterated every enemy by stomping them,
trampling them in His fury. That's why they see Him with
the blood, this blood scattered all over His vesture. It's the
blood of His victory. His victory. He's destroyed every
enemy. Then eighth, Christ will be victorious
and condemning His enemies. Verse 15. And out of His mouth
goeth a sharp sword. And 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 of the wrath of
almighty God. Now, you know, this sharp sword
that goes out of his mouth is the word of God. It's the scriptures
that we have. This is what he will use to condemn
and destroy his enemies, the word of God. They will be judged
by Christ, the Word of God. They'll be judged by Him and
they'll be judged by His standard. They won't live up to His standard.
They never did begging for mercy. And He that saves His people
in this glorious salvation that can never be lost, will use this
as a rod of iron to crush every enemy. See, God's going to get
to glory. Christ is going to glorify the
justice of God. If a holy God is going to save
anybody, His justice must be satisfied. Well, Christ satisfied
the justice of God for His people by being their substitute, by
being their sacrifice. And He's going to glorify the
justice of God by damning those who refuse to believe on Him.
And that judgment is going to be eternal because no matter
how long they suffer, They'll never satisfy God's justice for
even one sin. Only the perfect, sinless, pure
blood of Christ can do that. And that's going to glorify God's
justice either way, for those He glorifies or those He condemns.
But then verse 14, before we quit, I want us to see this.
When Christ returns in all of His glory, I mean, you know,
we've talked about it for a half hour. What can you say? Paul Mahan and I were talking
yesterday before he preached. I said, where are you preaching
from? He said, John 17. I said, well, your dad told me
about scriptures like that. Just get in that, roll around
for about 40 minutes and get out, because you're not going
to plumb the depths of that. This is the glory of Christ.
I feel foolish trying to talk about that. We just can barely
scratch the surface of His glory. But this is also recorded in
God's word. When Christ returns, his people
are going to be made glorious too. Look at verse 14. And the
armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean. Now this is the army that follows
Christ, the army of all his elect, the army of all those for whom
Christ died. And they appear just like Christ,
don't they? They're riding on white horses.
Somebody's made them the good guy. Somebody's made them good.
Somebody's made them righteous. They're clothed in white, holy
garments, which is the righteousness of the saints, which is the righteousness
of Christ. He's given them. And they're
riding into battle. They're following Christ, their
King, riding into battle. When you read that, did you notice
something? They are so confident in Christ, the captain of their
salvation. They're riding into battle. They're
not carrying any weapons. Bob, they're not wearing armor.
They're not wearing body armor. They're wearing linen. They don't
carry a weapon. Because no harm will come to
them. They're with their Savior forever. And that will be glorious. The
Lord bless you.