The Return of the King: Revelation 19 - Pastor Ryan Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM

His only son, to make a wretch his treasure. Up on the screen. It's a pro-presenter, they haven't... Good morning. How is everybody? Alright. Good, I'm glad to hear it. Glad you guys are here, glad you can make it out this morning. And all the rain and everything, so... You guys want to stand with us? We'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, we come before you this morning, God, and we just thank you for allowing us to be here, Lord, to be in your house this morning. Father, just ask your blessing upon this time. Lord, help us to focus completely on you this morning, God. If we're holding anything back, Lord, may we lay it at your feet. Work in that situation, Lord God. Work in that area of our lives that we need you to work.

Lord, help us to focus on you in worship and lavish praise upon you. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Have a seat if you'd like. Christ is my station, the rock on which I stand, when everything around me is shaking.

So it makes no sense, so I won't be the rock on which I shake it. So I got joy. It makes no sense, so I won't be gone with it. Because I built my life on generation, which I stand. We're never taken, so I... God, we just come to you this morning and we just thank you, Lord, that you are our firm foundation. God, when we fail, we know that you won't. When we think the battle is lost, you are our firm foundation.

And in you, Lord, there is victory. Lord God, I know sometimes that life seems like a battle. Every day seems like a battle sometimes, Lord. But God, we know that you have already won that battle. Amen. As one ages to the land, the song I is your name is the greatest. Your stance, all passions, your name stands above them all.

The song forever, if you walk in freedom. And if you bear me, I'll sing. Sing the song forever till the end. Sing the song forever. It's your name.

Did you guys go and stand with me for the last one? Our God.

He trembles at his voice. Trembles at his voice. Our God.

Father God, how great and powerful and majestic you truly are, Lord God. Lord God, you are the name above all names. Lord God, you are king of kings and Lord of lords. Lord God, you are worthy of all honor and glory and praise. And so, Lord, we give that to you this morning. And Father God, now as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray that you would speak mightily through him, Lord God.

God, speak mightily to our hearts through your Holy Spirit and through the power of your word. God, do something awesome this morning, God. We love you, Lord, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Good morning. Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. As always, on the left-hand side, things that are going on. In the middle section, a few reminders. First of all, if I understood correctly, there's still about five spots left for Guatemala. They've got seven confirmed, five spots left. There's going to be a meeting right after second service next Sunday.

If you are interested but still need some more information. There's going to be a meeting in the Agape room right after church next Sunday. And that deadline to sign up is coming up pretty quick. If you have questions, you can call Jana. The number is right there. There is no men's breakfast this month. There's just too many things going on with too many of us.

And so we will pick that back up next month. So there will be no men's breakfast next week. And then tomorrow evening, there is going to be a youth fundraiser. Tomorrow evening, you just need to go eat at Pizza Ranch, okay? Because a percentage of everything that is... Sold at Pizza Ranch will go to support the youth group. And then the kids will be there busting some tables.

And all of the tips from that will go also to support the youth group with going to camps and different things like that. So that is tomorrow night from 4 to 9 p.m. at Pizza Ranch. So go there, support a local business, and also support our youth group while you're at it. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced.

And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 12. Psalm 12. Looking at the New American Standard. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 12, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. My friend has a bum knee, and so it's a little harder for him to get down that.

There we go. We got him. We made it. Psalm 12. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. For the choir director, upon an eight-stringed lyre, a psalm of David. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak falsehood to one another with flattering lips, and with a double heart they speak.

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things. Who has said, with our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy. Now I will arise, says the Lord. I will set him in the safety for which he longs. The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.

You, O Lord, will keep them. You will preserve him from this generation forever. The wicked strut about on every side. While vileness is exalted among the sons of men. And so, Father, while we know that the world continues to turn against you, Lord, we know that you support the godly man. And so, Lord, help us to be those men and women of God. And, Lord, let us know that you are our support.

And, Father, as we take time this morning to dive into your word, I just ask that you would begin to minister to us by the power of your Holy Spirit. As always, Lord, I just pray that your spirit would move in our hearts as you see fit, bringing conviction, encouragement, comfort. But also, Lord, instructing us in the way that we should go. And so, Father, bless our time this morning.

Here we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19.

Well, after spending three weeks in talking about the first coming of the king and his death on the cross and his resurrection. And ultimately as the suffering servant. For the past couple of weeks. I've been thinking it would be great to cap off that series with sort of an addendum. Kind of add on to it. With something about the fact that while Jesus came the first time as a suffering servant.

He is returning again as a conquering king. And it's the hope that we have. As a matter of fact, I was listening to David Hawking teach on this. And he said there's a sense in which the entire Bible looks forward to the second coming of Christ. That there is an anticipation that builds from Genesis chapter 3 on through Revelation 19. Until it finally finds its climax at Revelation 19 with the return of Jesus.

Because ultimately that's what we are all as believers in Jesus Christ looking forward to. There's a lot of different opinions that people have on eschatology and the order of things. But when it comes right down to it. If you are a Bible believing Christian. Everybody comes back together at Revelation chapter 19. Because we all believe that Jesus is coming back.

If you do not believe in the bodily return of Jesus Christ. Then I do have to question whether or not you really believe. Because of how much the entire Bible leads up to Revelation chapter 19. And so there's three things that we want to look at in Revelation 19. We're going to look at the hallelujahs. We're going to look at the arrival of the king. And we're going to look at the fact that the battle is won.

And so we will start off with the hallelujahs. Notice what it says in chapter 19 verse 1. It says after these things I heard something like a loud voice. Of a great multitude in heaven saying hallelujah. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. Now before we get into these hallelujahs. It says after these things. And it's a great place for us to segue in.

With a little bit of a recap of what took place in the book of Revelation. Revelation of course is a fantastic book. Most people are either scared of it or they're fascinated by it. But it is a fantastic book of the Bible. But it starts off with this vision of Jesus. That John is given. And on the isle of Patmos. This wonderful vision of the king that is to come.

And then of course it continues with the seven letters to the seven churches. That were both local at that point in time. But also had a great prophetic reach. Because it speaks of different church ages. And also speaks of different churches that exist throughout every age. And then of course there's a scroll that's given to John. And no one is worthy to open the scroll or to loose the seals.

Until the Lamb of God comes. And John is weeping. And he says no one is worthy to open the scroll and to loose the seals. And he says behold the Lamb of God is worthy. Behold the Lamb of God is the one who is worthy of these things. And of course those seals ultimately unwrap all of the judgments of God upon earth. Throughout most of the book of Revelation.

These are judgments of God that are poured out on earth. That are written in this scroll. We're introduced to some very fantastic characters in the book of Revelation. We're introduced to the 144,000 sealed witnesses. We're introduced to the two witnesses who ultimately are put to death. And then resurrected and taken up into heaven. We are introduced to the Antichrist and his false prophet.

That will establish not only an economic system on earth. But a religious system on earth. And then it culminates in chapter 17 and 18. And in chapter 17 and 18 which are the direct context of after these things. In chapter 17 you see the destruction of religious Babylon. Babylon a city but also a religious system that dominates the world. And has persecuted the church not only through the years.

But especially into the tribulation period. And then in chapter 18 you see the destruction of economic Babylon. The economic system that has been guided by the beast this entire time. Not only throughout history but specifically in the time of the great tribulation. And after the culmination of all of this. All of these things that says after these things. The culmination of everything in history comes down to this.

And then we're introduced to some people in chapter 19. Or we're reintroduced to some people in chapter 19. It starts off like this. After these things I heard something like the sound of a voice of a great multitude in heaven saying. Hallelujah salvation and glory and power belong to our God. Because his judgments are true and righteous. For he has judged.

He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality. And he has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her. It says this great multitude. Now I believe that this great multitude we were first introduced to in Revelation chapter 7. And they are the tribulation saints that were put to death during the tribulation. Now the eschatology that I follow.

And not everyone agrees with me on this. And that's okay. You're entitled to be wrong. The eschatology that I follow is that there will be a rapture of the church. When you come to the end of chapter 3 of the book of Revelation. Those seven churches. The beginning of chapter 4 says after these things. And in my understanding of it. That means after the church age.

John was taken up into heaven. Which I believe is symbolic of the church being taken up into heaven. And everything else takes place in heaven up until this point in time. And you don't see the church on earth any longer. But you do see people come to know the Lord during that great tribulation. You see. You see a great revival that takes place. Because what's going to happen is during this time of great tribulation.

This time of great judgment being poured out on the earth. So many people will go. Oh my gosh. My nut job friend that always read the Bible knew what they were talking about. Oh my gosh. My nut job friend who was always talking about this God that he served. This Jesus who took away his sins. He must have known what he was talking about. Because they're all gone and we're not.

And everything he said was going to happen is happening. And so people will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior during that time. And they will be martyred. Because they won't take the mark of the beast. Or because they're being persecuted because of a different religious view. And so all of these saints that have been martyred during the great tribulation.

We're told in Revelation chapter 7. Are sitting at the foot of the throne. And they are praising God as a great multitude. But also crying out how long oh Lord. Until you bring judgment upon those who have persecuted us. Well I believe that's the same multitude that's gathered here. This great multitude in heaven saying. Hallelujah. Salvation belongs to our God.

And this is why I think that this is who this multitude is. Is because they're saying. Because righteous and true are his judgments. Because he has judged the great harlot. He has judged the world system that persecuted us. And so they're crying out this great hallelujah to the Lord. The word hallelujah is a fascinating word. This is the only time. These four times.

The only time it's seen in the New Testament. And the last time it's seen in the New Testament. It's a word that's borrowed from the Psalms. In the Hebrew. It's hallelujah. It takes the H off of it. But when transliterated into the Greek. It's hallelujah. And the word simply means praise the Lord. This is some of us grew up in Sunday school. Singing this song.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know who grew up in church. So we grew up singing that song. Right? Because that's exactly what that song means. Or that's exactly what that word means. And so this great multitude of tribulation martyrs. Are at the throne room. Or up in heaven singing this hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Because he is a God who judges.

And I bet you're asking yourself a question right now. I thought God was a God of love. How can you say that he is a God who judges? As a matter of fact. We know from scripture. We're going to find out here in just a minute. That the instrument of judgment for God. Is the very Lamb of God. That took away the sin of the world. We're going to find the one that actually brings the judgment upon the earth.

Is the one who took the sin of man upon himself. And I hear people say this all the time. Well my Jesus wouldn't judge anyone. That's probably true. Because your Jesus isn't real. Because your Jesus doesn't exist. Because you have to understand. That the attributes of God are such. That Jesus can both be loving and gracious. And at the same time be righteous and a judge.

That's what makes him God. Is that he can be both of those things. And be both of them righteously. And be both of them at the same time. And so this first hallelujah is crying out. Praising God that he has brought salvation to his saints. And judgment to those who are persecuted. And then a second hallelujah comes along. And notice what it says in verse 3.

And a second time they said hallelujah. Her smoke rises up forever and ever. And the 24 elders and the four living creatures. Wait I jumped into the third hallelujah. The second hallelujah is an echoing of the same thing. Okay. echoing of the fact that her smoke rises up forever because there is judgment that has been brought upon the world system. And then comes this third hallelujah. Notice what it says.

And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah. So the first thing you've got is this multitude of the martyred saints in heaven crying out hallelujah. They do so twice. And the 24 elders and the four living creatures begin to do the same thing. Now, I hope you're asking yourself a question. Who are the 24 elders

and who are the four living creatures? Well, again, this is my opinion based upon my own study of scripture is that the 24 elders are a representation of the church. You see, in Hebrew culture, 24 was a completed body. And so I believe this is the body of believers that are in heaven. And these body of believers, which by the way, that's going to be us, who are going to join in with the

hallelujah chorus. It started off with the martyred saints and then the 24 elders join in. And then the four living creatures who I believe are representative of the angelic beings, they all join in as well on this third hallelujah. And do you notice how they join in? I love this. They fall down on their face in worship. Isn't there a sense in which when we truly come to see

Jesus for who he is, that's the reaction that we have in our lives is that it will start with humility and it will end in worship, that we humble ourselves before the Lord, but ultimately we praise God for who he is. And then comes this fourth hallelujah. It says in a voice came from the throne room saying, give praise to our God, all you, his bond servants, you who fear him, the small and the great. And I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, hallelujah, for the Lord, our God, the almighty reigns. Now I want you to create the entire scene in your

mind. Have you ever seen one of those videos on YouTube or something of Handel's Messiah being played in like a mall or something like that? There's two different ones that I've seen. One was from about 2010-ish and one was from 2022. And it was fascinating. One was actually in a mall in Portland, Oregon. Wow, they've come a long ways. That was the one from 2010, believe it or

not. And then there was another one. Southern California in 2022. But it's fascinating to see how these things work out. Of course, some people are told ahead of time what's going to happen. But some guy in a mall that's playing some music, picture Nordstrom, if you've ever been there, the guy playing piano. And pretty soon, other people begin to gather around. And he switches from some little party tune that he's

playing to playing Handel's Messiah. And as he begins playing that, there's a small procession of people that begin singing out the hallelujah chorus. And then pretty soon, a few more other people gather in. And then some more other people gather in. And if you watch the video, what you see is lots of other people start gathering with their phones. Only the

fascinating thing is you can tell these people had no intention of being a part of this hallelujah chorus. But as they're filming with their phones, they're sort of taken over by the sound of the hallelujah being played. And pretty soon, the entire courtyard of the mall is crying out the hallelujah chorus unto the Lord. And it's a really cool scene. That's the scene that's painted here

for us. It's like these multitude of saints just watch the scene on earth take place as the political and religious Babylon was ultimately judged. And they begin crying out praises because he is the God of salvation. And he is the God who has avenged their blood. And then all of a sudden, as they're singing, the 24 elders, that's the church, everybody gathers in. And pretty soon,

the chorus swells. And everybody's singing hallelujah. And all of heaven is filled with the sound of the hallelujahs to where it's so loud that he said it was like a waterfall in noise. It was like a continual rumble of thunder that just filled the air. And I think in this moment, John was overwhelmed as he heard them cry out, hallelujah for the Lord God Almighty reigns.

Because God is proving himself to be exactly who he said he was, the king of the world. Well, before we get into this second coming, as all of these hallelujahs are being cried out that the Lord God Almighty reigns, we come to the second coming. And we come to the second coming. We come to the marriage supper of the Lamb. It says in verse 7, let us rejoice and let us be glad and give glory to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come.

And his bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And then he said to me, right, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, right, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to

me, these are the true words of God. And so he says, let us rejoice because the time has come for the marriage supper of the Lamb. It's important that we point out that a Jewish wedding feast was very different than what we would consider a wedding today. The first part of a Jewish wedding was what we called the betrothal period. That could last for an incredible amount of time.

Once the promise is made, there's no telling how long it will be. From the betrothal until the groom goes to get his bride. Because after the betrothal to the bride, he goes and he prepares a place to bring his bride back to. Which is interesting because that's exactly what Jesus told his disciples. He said, I go away to prepare a place for you, but I tell you if I go away to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that

where I am, there you may be also. After the time of the betrothal period was when the groom would go and he would get his bride. And after the groom would go and get his bride, there would be a feast that would take place. It's called the marriage supper. That's what you see early on in the gospel of John, where Jesus performed his first miracle at the wedding feast

of Cana in Galilee. Well, prophetically speaking, we are in the betrothal period right now. He has given us the, for lack of better terms, engagement ring of the Holy Spirit. That's what we're told in the book of Ephesians. And we are currently waiting. We are waiting for the bridegroom to come and get the bride. That's right. The church is the bride of Christ. Listen, fellas, you got to understand something right now. We're the bride of Christ,

okay? It's 2026. Just own it, okay? We are the bride of Christ. Ladies, you're the sons of God, but men, we are the bride of Christ, okay? So we just have to understand it. And we are awaiting the bridegroom to come and to take us home. See, I believe that's the rapture. That's Jesus coming to take his bride home. And when he comes again with his bride, which we'll see,

in just a moment, is when the marriage supper of the Lamb will take place. Notice how the bride is described. It says, Let us rejoice, verse 7, and be glad and give glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and the bride has made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. The bride, the church,

has made herself ready. The way that the bride has made herself ready is to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and white. Picture a beautiful white wedding dress that the bride is wearing. And the fine linen that she is wearing are the righteous acts of the saints. I believe that this is a twofold interpretation here. First of all, the righteousness that we are clothed in is none other

than the righteousness of Christ. Because that's the righteousness that we wear. That's the brand new God. That's the brand new God. That's the brand new God. That's the brand new God. That's the garment that we have put on. But to an even greater degree, we clothe ourselves with our righteous acts. If we were to dive into the book of Ephesians, you would find that what it says is

that you are to take off like a garment the old man. With all of the lust, with all of the anger, the immorality, the evil speaking, the covetousness, we are to take all of those off. Literally, the terminology that's used there in the Hebrew is to take off like a an old set of clothes. And we are to put on the new man as if we are putting on a brand new garment that is righteous in nature, that is clothed in love and in peace and in joy and in kindness and in all of those fruits of the Holy Spirit. That's what we as the church are to put on.

And if I may draw a quick personal application out of this, what kind of clothes are you wearing? What kind of clothes have you been putting on? Have you continued to put on the old man? Who is dead in nature? Who is full of the lusts of the world and the anger of the world and the hatred of the world and the evil speaking of the world? Or are you beginning to clothe yourself in

the fine linens that we are to clothe ourselves in? In love and in joy and in peace and in patience and in kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. What kind of clothes are you wearing right now? Because we are to clothe ourselves with the righteous acts of God. Beautiful thing about these righteous acts. This is not something that we have to try to work up

within ourselves. Again, we are told in the book of Ephesians that we are his workmanship. We've been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which have already been prepared beforehand. All we have to do is walk in them. In other words, all of the groundwork has already been laid for us. We just need to walk in the righteous acts that God has prepared for us. That means that

as you walk in them, you are to clothe yourself in the righteous acts of God. As you walk with Jesus and draw closer to him, you naturally begin to walk in the things that God wants for you to do. But all it requires for you is to walk with your Savior. He says the bride has made herself ready and she has clothed herself in fine linen, which is the righteous acts of the saints. And then he says, blessed are those who receive an invitation to the marriage supper of

the Lamb. And I love how the angel ends this in verse nine. He says, these things are the true words of God. I love that because as he's telling John this, John is just in awe of everything he's hearing right now and probably thinking it just sounds too good to be true. And the angel looks at him and says, I know what you're thinking. This is true. These are the true words of God.

And we need a reminder of that sometimes. But then of course, John makes a little bit of a mistake. He says, then I fell at his feet to worship him. He said, don't do that. I'm a fellow servant of yours. And your brethren, who hold the testimony of Jesus, worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now we give John a little bit of a hard time here because we're like, bro,

stop worshiping angels, right? Like this is not the first time in the book of Revelation he does this. However, if we had an angelic being standing there in front of us, declaring the things that have been declared, I'm not saying that we wouldn't all find ourselves falling down on our face going, dude, you are the man. You know how I know that? Because we do that to people all the time.

We tend to worship. We worship people and just go, man, you're so amazing. And if you're a really good servant of God, you should always say, worship God. Worship God because he is the one who is true. One of the things I always appreciated about one of my mentors, Chuck Smith, that would come and speak to us every week is his desire to see God glorified. I remember the very first time, 19-year-old kid

living in California, the first time Chuck Smith shows up to do chapel for us. And as he was on his way, it was right before worship. He was like, I'm going to worship God. I'm going to worship God. They said, listen, Chuck's going to be here in about five minutes. You need to know something. He does not like applause because he does not want any credit for anything. They said, he didn't tell

us to say this. This is just what we know about him. If you want to make him really happy, then point to Jesus when he walks out. When he's finished speaking, point to Jesus because that's the way he's lived his life. And that's the way he wants to continue to live his life is to point people to Jesus. And ultimately, brothers and sisters, is that not what we should want to do?

We live in a world that wants applause. We live in a world that wants attention. We live in a world of picnic girls, right, who are always like, look at me. And instead, we need to live in a world of people that say, look at Jesus because that's what our lives are to do. That's what Jesus said. He says, do your good works in such a way. Let your light so shine that when they see your good

works, they glorify your Father who is in heaven. And then the angel closes with this. Four, let me word this correctly. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I always like to include this anytime I talk about prophetic things. I don't like talking about prophetic things a whole lot, especially

when speculation is involved. Because what I find about most speculation is that it's all wrong. And it's just somebody getting excited about some article that they read somewhere. And oh my gosh, I think we figured out what the mark of the beast is and all those kinds of things. And then eventually, we're going to talk about the spirit of prophecy. And then we're going to talk about the

that doesn't come true. And everybody shows up the next Sunday and they're like, man, that guy was way off. I don't know if I believe anything else he says. So I always get nervous to talk about prophetic things, which is why I always try to bring us back to one thing. Anything to do with prophecy should always point us to Jesus. Because that's what prophecy does. It prepares us for his

return. And it reminds us that he is sovereign. Because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So we have, we've seen the hallelujahs that are declared. Well, now it's time for the arrival of the king. It gets real exciting here. Okay. And I saw heaven opened and I saw a white horse and he who sat on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and wages war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written on him, which no one knows except himself. He is clothed. With a robe dipped in blood with his name and his name is called the word of God and the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean. We're following him on white horses from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it, he may strike down the nations and he will

rule them with a rod of iron. He treads the wine of the press of the fierce wrath of God, the wine of the fierce wrath of God, the almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh, he has, he has a name written king of kings and Lord of Lords. And I saw heaven opened as John sees heaven opened. It's time. This is what we've all been building towards. This is all what we've all been

waiting for. Do you know what the word revelation means? The word revelation means unveiling. And so literally the very beginning of the book of revelation, it says, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the unveiling of Jesus Christ. And so literally the very beginning of the book of revelation, the unveiling of Jesus Christ. And we have been watching slowly but surely in shadowed

ways throughout the book of revelation, the unveiling of Jesus Christ. And now it's time for the curtains of heaven to be pulled back and Jesus Christ to arrive back on the scene. It says, I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. When was the last time we saw Jesus riding on something? It was Palm Sunday, right? What was he riding? He was riding a donkey. Why? Because a donkey

represented peace. A white horse represents a conquering king. It's also fascinating to take note of the fact that if we were to go back to the beginning of revelation, you would find that there are what we often refer to as the four horsemen of the apocalypse, right? The first horseman comes in riding on a white horse and he comes in conquering and to conquer. I believe that that's the antichrist. And when it means, when it says

antichrist, it doesn't mean against Christ. It means instead of Christ. In other words, he is a counterfeit of Christ. And what does he come riding in on? A white horse. And so what does Jesus come riding in on when he returns to earth? A white horse. Only what's his name? He who sat on it is called faithful and true. He who sat on it is called faithful and

true. In other words, he's the real deal. This is the faithful and true one. He's not the counterfeit. He's not the false. He's not the fake. He's the real. And if I may, one more time, bring a little bit of personal application here. Do you know the real Jesus? Do you know the real Jesus? The one that is given to us here in scripture? Not the one that your

mind created. Not the one that the media has created for you or liberals have created for you or republicans have created for you, but the one that the bible teaches us about. Do you know the real Jesus? The one who is faithful and true? Not the counterfeit, but the real deal. Because he's who's coming back. And when he comes back, he's on a white horse. And I want you to notice what it

says. In other words, when Jesus comes back to judge, there will be no question about whether or not his judgment is accurate or true, because it is in righteousness that he does what he does. It says that his eyes are a flame of fire. I love this. You know what fire always represents in scripture? Fire represents a purifying effect. And his eyes are a flame of fire. Do you know what

that means? It means that there is not only a purifying effect, but there is a purifying effect. There is a purity about who he is in his character, in his nature, but there's a purity in the way that he sees. You know what fire is able to do? Fire is able to separate out the fake from the real. You see, when metals, particularly gold, is tried in a fire, anything that is impure comes to

the surface and is revealed, and they scrape that off. It's called the dross. And they get rid of that. Do you know what? That's what the eyes of Jesus are able to do with you, is they are able to see past all the lies and the lies of the world. And they're able to see past all the lies and the fake, and they're able to get down to the real of who we are. They are able to see to the very

core of your being, which means that you can fool everybody else in the world, but you can't fool Jesus. Because his eyes are like a flame of fire, and they see through all of the bullcrap in our lives, right? They see through all of the garbage in our lives. It penetrates all the lies that you have in your heart, and it sees down to the core of who we are.

He says, his eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. In other words, many crowns. Now, in the Greek language, there are two different words for crowns. One is the crown of the victor. That's what we read about, that we will be given the laurel wreath for our work done here on earth. But the other is the crown of the king, which is why I do like the

New American Standard on this, because that's what the diadem is. That's the crown of the king. And did you notice that he has, many diadems. You know why? Because he is the king of kings, and he is the Lord of lords. He's the one ruling force who will rule and reign with the proper authority. And notice what it says, and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself. And I bet you're like me

right now. What is it? I don't like unanswered questions. I want to know what this name is. Do you know, I read a lot of commentaries, and everybody always has opinions on things, especially when they shouldn't have opinions on things. They're like, I realize that no one knows what this means, but this is what I think that it means. You know what the one thing I've never

seen a commentator comment on? What the name is. Nobody. Nobody says. It says no one knows it but him, but this is what we think it is. They're just like, no one knows. And I think that this is really cool. And let me tell you why. Because there's always going to be a lot of people who are going to say, there's always going to be something about Jesus that is a little bit beyond our understanding.

There's always going to be something about Jesus that's just a little bit beyond anything that our human minds can take in. And I love that about Jesus. Some people hate that about Jesus because it makes him a Jesus that they can't control. I love that about Jesus because it makes him a Jesus I can't control. It makes him a Jesus that I can't fully fathom with my mind, which makes him worthy

of a suit on a daily basis. You see, that's part of what makes him God. That's part of what makes him the conquering king is that he has a name written on him that no one knows. And then it goes on to say this, verse 13, and he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood. He's clothed with a robe dipped in blood. This is one that commentators do have some good-hearted debate over.

What blood is his robe dipped in? Is it dipped in his sacrificial blood or is it dipped in the blood of his enemies? And you know how I usually respond to these. Yes. I have no problem believing either one of those things because we're told in Zechariah that they will look on him whom they have pierced and their hearts will be broken because they will be aware of the sacrifice of Jesus

but at the same time, he has been treading out the winepress of the great wrath of God. One of the things that we forget about God is that the Lord is a warrior and he is mighty in battle. Again, in our Western culture, tame minds of God, he is just the simple loving Jesus who's holding small children on his lap and is completely inept. In battle. Because after all, he's the loving guy, right? And while he is 100% the loving Jesus

who will hold small children on his lap, he's the most elite warrior the world has ever seen. He's the most elite warrior there has ever been. And as good as he is, as loving as he is, it's also as dangerous as he is. And men, I think that there's something we should learn from this and I'm surprised. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. I'm

talking specifically to us as men right now. We should be the same way. We should be as gentle and loving and gracious and kind as we can possibly be. But listen, we should be dangerous. We should be men who are willing to take a stand for what is right. We are, we should be men who are willing to go to battle for what we believe, to go to battle for our families, to go to battle for our friends, to go to battle for Jesus because that's who we're

called to be. We have been told for too long that as men, we need to sit down, shut up and be nice. And at some point in time, we as men have to stand up, speak out and be dangerous because that's who God has created for us to be. Not a danger to the lowly and the meek and the gentle and the humble, but a danger to anyone that would stand between us and Jesus. Amen.

That's who we need. I didn't hear very much out of that and fellas, come on now. Amen. There it is. Don't, don't go weak, neat on me now. So, so we see this writer. He's faithful and true. He judges in righteousness. His eyes are like a flame of fire on his head are many diadems. He has a name, which no one knows. He is clothed in a robe dipped with blood. And do

you notice what his name is called? The word of God. Again, this takes us all the way back to John chapter one. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the word was God because this Jesus who comes in riding on the white horse is the very expression of God. And so now that we have seen him introduced to us as this rider on the white horse, now we look at the accompanying army. Notice what it says. And the armies, which are

in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses, an army from heaven is coming with him on white horses in their clothes and fine linen, white and clean. Now, I hope you're asking yourself a question right now, because this is the question that you need to ask if you're not going to ask it for you. Who are these armies in heaven? Well, let's take a little bit of a look and use the word to interpret the word.

These armies are clothed in fine linen, white and clean. When's the last time we saw that? Earlier this chapter. Who do we identify that as? The bride of Christ. And they are returning with Christ on white horses. And they are coming with him on white horses. And they are coming with Jesus. So if we allow scripture to interpret scripture, who is coming back to earth with

Jesus? It's us, right? We are the accompanying army going with Jesus. Now, before you get too high and mighty, I need you to understand something. Jesus does all of the fighting. We just do the riding, right? Like, I don't know how you picture this in your mind. I picture everything like a Monty Python skit, right? So there's Jesus, like he's cruising on the white

horse, you know. Flames of fire. He's like, I don't know how you picture this in your mind. Fire in his eyes. And just the ultimate warrior, right? Just coming cruising down to earth on the white horse. And we're going to find out in a minute, a sweet tattoo on his thigh that says King of Kings and Lord of Lords. A little name tag that says, hi, my name is King of Kings and

Lord of Lords. And he's riding on and a word of God's in his mouth. We're going to find out in just a minute. That's a sword. I'm getting ahead of myself just a little bit. And then we're riding along behind him on white horses, right? I'm there, right? I mean, that's the way it's going to be. But why that's me riding a horse, but that's me riding a horse in that moment.

And we're going to be riding along with him. Only we just accompanied, we are arm candy at this point in time, right? That's all we're there to do. We are the bride of Christ. He's like, come with me while I do something awesome. And we're like, we're in. We accompany him. Now, this is another reason why I believe that there has to be a rapture of the church. In 1 Thessalonians,

we read that the church is caught up together to meet him in the air. In the Latin, that word is rapturo, which is where we get our word rapture from, even though that's not actually in the Greek. That's where the word caught up is what's in the Greek there. But I believe that at that point in time, we're caught up to meet Jesus in the air. Now, wouldn't it be really

weird if we got to the middle of the air and Jesus is like, let's turn around and go back. And we're like, let's do it, right? I mean, that feels really weird, right? And so that's why I think we're caught up into heaven. And we sit there for those seven years while everything's going on down here on earth. And he's like, regulators mount up. I don't think that's what

he's actually going to say, but in my mind, that's what he says. If you don't know 90s rap, then that means nothing to you. But then we come back to earth with him. That's why I think that there has to be, there has to be a rapture of the church. And so we return with him. And as we return with him and arrive to earth, I want you to notice what happens. We once again go back to

describing the most important character here, and that's Jesus. From his mouth, verse 15, comes a sharp sword, that with it he may strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God Almighty. From his mouth comes a sword that's incredibly sharp, and that sword is the word of God. You know what that means? It means that Jesus doesn't need a single weapon to annihilate all the

enemies of the earth. He just needs the spoken word. I'm reminded of what we talked about a few weeks ago when they came to arrest Jesus in the garden. And they said, are you Jesus of Nazareth? And he said, I am. And everybody falls down, right? Again, my comedic mind just thinks that they stood back up. And he went, I am. And they all fell down again. He's like, I could do this all day, boys.

But he didn't. That's the way my mind works. But it's that word of his mouth that's going to ultimately bring victory. And isn't it great to have our faith in a God who doesn't need a nuclear weapon to destroy every enemy? He just needs the word that he speaks, which says, be defeated, and everybody's taken care of. It kind of reminds us that our greatest victory is the word of God. That our greatest weapon,

we are told in the book of Ephesians, offensively, is the word of God. And we're told in the book of Hebrews that the word of God is sharp, is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce between bone and marrow, able to prove, the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And so it says, with this sword, he defeats the nations. And then it says in verse 16, the part I got ahead of myself on, and on his robe and on his thigh, he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I hope on his thigh it also says,

hi, my name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Fascinatingly enough, in every Bible translation, at least as far as I know, that is in all caps. And do you know that in the fragments that were found, the book of Revelation, the original parchments that were found in the Greek, it's, it's in all caps. Like it's, it's large letters. I was just studying about this the other day. David Hawking

was talking about the fact that, that, that there was question as to whether it should be like that until they found these fragments. And they said, no, that's exactly the way that it needs to be. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Well, now that we have seen the arrival of the King, it's time for the battle. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun and he, he cried out with a loud voice saying to all the birds which fly in mid heaven,

come assemble for the great supper of God so that you may eat the flesh of the kings and the flesh of the commanders and the flesh of the mighty men and the flesh of the horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, small and great. It's an amazing scene. An angel standing there brighter than the sun. That's what it means when it says he saw an angel standing in the sun.

And he cries out to all of the birds. Hey, it's about time to eat. Come for a great supper of God. Jesus says the second supper that's mentioned in this chapter. The first one is the marriage supper of the lamb. The second one is the supper of the birds of destruction. Probably needs to be asked right now. Which supper do you think you'll be attending? It's time to make reservations.

And so this angel calls out and says, everybody gather for the supper, all of you, because, there's about to be a lot of dead bodies here in verse 19, it says, and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. You would think this would be the greatest battle ever because the, the beast and the false prophet, all of the, all of the antichrist and all of his armies, he gathers all of the armies of the world together. That's what's indicated here, that there's this great battle that comes together with one point. And one point, only, and that's that we are going to defeat this God who thinks he has any power over us.

It's interesting because if we go all the way back to the book of Genesis, we find that right after the flood, there was a guy by the name of Nimrod, the very first ruler of nations, the very first emperor, if you will, that decides what they're going to do is they're going to build this tower that will reach into the heavens. And they coded it with pitch because they said, God will never flood us again. And there's an indication in which Nimrod was going to defeat God. And God saw what was going on. And he went down and he confused

the language. If you will, this is another gathering much like that, because Nimrod becomes that type of the antichrist in the new Testament who will ultimately gather all of the armies of the earth to once again, try to defeat God. And, and in your mind, you know, as you're watching CNN or Fox news or whatever it is that you're going to watch, uh, as you watch it, you, you see, oh, my God, I'm going to defeat God. I'm going to defeat God. I'm going to defeat God. I'm going to

defeat God. Oh man, the armies keep gathering. This is going to be a big one. We have a major problem on our hands. We'll find out later tonight if there's a peace deal that's made, right? We've heard this story before. Um, and so all of these armies gather and it's not much of a battle. Verse 20, and the beast was seized and with him, the false prophet who performed the signs in his

presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. And these were, these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone. The rest were killed with the sword, which came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. We like to think that it's going to be like the end

of a Marvel movie, right? Where, where the hero arrives to deal with the evil and, and he just barely wins, right? He gets knocked around 17 high rises and New York city get destroyed. And, and when it just seems like, like all hope is lost, he pulls out enough strength to defeat whoever the bad guy was in that Marvel movie. And Jesus is like, it's actually going to be nothing like that. As a matter of fact,

it's not really going to be a battle. Jesus arrives. There's almost less fanfare with the battle than there is of him riding in on the horse. Can we all agree with that? Like Jesus comes magnificently riding in on this horse. All of us slower kids come in behind him and we think there's going to be this great battle. And Jesus is like, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen.

And then with the word of his mouth wipes everybody out. And we're like, well, that was anti-climactic. I was expecting a bigger battle. I was expecting more buildings to be destroyed because listen, we have to understand something about our conquering King. No one is a match for him. Satan is not his opposite. Satan is his enemy. Jesus was his creator. We have to understand that about Jesus, brothers and sisters.

The King is returning. And I think that we need to understand that. And so as I close out here this morning, before we take communion together, I want to bring two points of personal application from everything that we've talked about here this morning. We are told that we have this hope and that this hope should purify us. And so there's two things I want to bring to you

this morning. Number one, the hope of the second coming of Christ, the hope of the return of the King should bring a purity into your life. It should bring an aspect of purity into your life because the King is coming and you want to be ready. You want to be clothed in the righteous acts of the saints. And as we look at the world around us, we continue to see the stage be set.

Wouldn't this be the perfect time for somebody to come in and to be able to truly broker a peace deal without sticking his foot in his mouth? Sorry, I know some of y'all are trembling. I'm fans and I get it. But wouldn't it be great if somebody could broker a deal without then sticking his foot in his mouth right afterwards? And wouldn't it be amazing if somebody just

brokered an entire peace deal to where we did not have to deal with all the things that we're dealing with in the Middle East? Someone is going to come along and do that. We'll call him the Antichrist and everybody will worship him and go, oh my gosh, this guy is the man. Until he tells everybody, it's time to worship me. You know what's fascinating? You can actually

count the days from the beginning to the end. You can actually count the days from the beginning to the end. From the minute that the Antichrist will say, it's time to worship me. It's called the abomination of desolation. First spoken of by the prophet Daniel. Jesus references it in Matthew 24. It's given to us in the book of Revelation that you can actually count to the day from the

day that he sets up worship of himself in the temple until the day that Jesus comes riding in in Revelation chapter 19. To the day. Let this hope purify you. Number two, let this hope encourage you. As we watch the world continue to be crazy, as you see the craziness that goes on globally, politically, economically, personally, then let this hope encourage you

that Jesus is coming. That the king will return and he's going to set everything right again. Everyone on the Epstein list is going to get dealt with. It seems to be getting away with crimes right now. They're going to be dealt with. Because when the king returns, he will judge in truth and righteousness. Amen. So if I could have the worship team come on up. This morning is Communion Sunday. Sorry,

it felt like a good moment to say let's all stand. Felt like a great crescendo, but I forgot we got to do this. Today is Communion Sunday. We were going to do it last week, but we felt like with a lot of new people here, it might be a little confusing. So we opted for this Sunday on it. And as we partake, in this, we are reminded by scripture that as we partake, we're to do so in a worthy manner.

This supper that we partake in is one of the other suppers that's mentioned in scripture. And it's very symbolic and representative in nature. And we partake in this not only out of obedience, but we partake in this as a declaration of our faith, as a declaration of what Jesus did for us. And so as always, I'll tell you that inside of each of these trays, there's a couple of cups stacked together.

Bottom cup has the cracker in it. Top cup has the juice in it. And in and of themselves, they don't mean much, but what they symbolize, what they stand for, for us, means everything. Because of course, that bread reminds us that the body of Jesus Christ was broken for us. That the sacrifice that he endured was for us. And he endured all of those sins that we have in his

own body. On the tree. And so as we partake of the bread, we're reminded that his body was broken for us. And as we partake of the cup, we are reminded of the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ that was enough to cleanse us from all of our sins. You see, in the beginning of the book of Revelation, the vision that John sees, he sees one as a lamb who had been slain. Because that's the Jesus that we know right now.

Yes, he is the... He is the coming king. He is the returning king. But he's also the suffering servant. The lamb that was slain for us. So I would encourage you as we partake together, that you would make sure that your heart is right before the Lord. That you would make sure that you really belong to him. And that you would deal with the sins that have separated you from him over this last month. Let this be a time where

your heart is cleansed before the Lord. And as we partake together, we can do so as a body of believers communing together. And so the ushers are going to come down. They're going to hand out the elements. And as they sing this last song, to allow God to do his work in your heart. And as you receive the elements, if you would please stand, and then we'll partake together.

Father, we come before you. And Lord, thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, for what you endured in your own body on the tree. Lord, so that we could find new life. Father, for the nails that you endured, for the piercing, and then the beatings. Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. And Father, I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us, that

cleansed us from all of our sins. Lord, that has never failed us yet. And so Lord, keep us ever in mind of the great sacrifice that you've made for us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake. And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father, we come before you, and I thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Father, I pray that as we go out from here,

only the things that we've had in your word this morning will be the things that we've had in your Lord, that we would find great encouragement in knowing that you will return and that we can rest in that. And so Father, do your work in our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.