Revelation 19:11-21

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. ¹² His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. ¹³ He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. ¹⁵ Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. ¹⁶ And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: ‘KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.’

¹⁷ Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, ‘Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, ¹⁸ that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.’

¹⁹ And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. ²⁰ Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. ²¹ And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

Last week we celebrated the future fall of the system of Babylon. Sadly, it is still alive and well in our time today. It is growing right in front of us, and only the Rapture will rescue us from the total depravity that is coming to this earth. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

The passage we are about to explore is that final culmination of all we have hoped for. The earth will be ready for this deliverance; some 7 years of chaos have worn out the people of the earth. In particular, the final 3.5 years of focused war and destruction in Israel have wearied the people; it has fractured the world and it has prepared the Jews for the second coming of the Messiah. We all want to get to the part where Jesus shows up, and rightly so, but there is a lot to cover before that. We will get there, I promise, but there is some road to cover first.

The Anti-Christ is given power by the people. He seems meek and lowly, but inside he is a man full of himself and of rage. He is ruthless; and between him, his false prophet and the image they set up, they set about to subdue the whole world. About halfway into the Tribulation, he experiences an assassination attempt and is killed. He then resurrects and is indwelt by Satan. From this point on, his focus becomes the nation of Israel; and we have played out before us the time of Jacob’s Trouble, as seen in Jeremiah 30:7:

“How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be delivered out of it.”

God says in verse 6 that every man’s hands will be on his knees like a woman in birth pains. This will be a terrible day when the resurrected Anti-Christ (Revelation 13:3) turns his wrath on Israel. We have a prophecy in Daniel 11 that tells us what will happen.

A Picture of the Future from Daniel 11:20-24

“²⁰ There shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom; but within a few days he shall be destroyed, but not in anger or in battle. ²¹ And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably, and seize the kingdom by intrigue. ²² With the force of a flood they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant.

²³ And after the league is made with him he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. ²⁴ He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province; and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers: he shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches; and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time.”

Notice in verse 21 that a ‘vile person’ arises; this in history is Antiochus Epiphanes. A vile man. Notice how he comes in peacefully. He reigned just 9 years from 175-164 BC. In 167 BC he took the city of Jerusalem, and there he set up a statue of Zeus and desecrated the 2^nd Temple that had been built after the return from Babylon. Notice in verse 22 that he made a covenant with the people of Israel, but that he acted deceitfully in verse 23 and tricked the people. In like fashion, the Anti-Christ, a vile man, will also make a covenant with the nation of Israel, but he will break that covenant as well and desecrate the 3^rd Temple built after the Rapture. There he will set up an image to himself and force the Jews to worship it.

There were great exploits by the Jewish persons who rebelled against Antiochus; and from the reading of this passage, there will be some great exploits at the end as well. See Daniel 11:30-35:

“So he shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. ³¹ And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation. ³² Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. ³³ And those of the people who understand shall instruct many; yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering.

³⁴ Now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help; but many shall join with them by intrigue. ³⁵ And some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purify them, and make them white, until the time of the end; because it is still for the appointed time.”

See in verse 32 that there will be some who will be strong and carry out “great exploits.” Some, we are told, will fall by the sword and other means. But notice in verse 35 that those that fall will be at the time of the end. So, in the days of Antiochus, there were great warriors. We can read of the Maccabees that rebelled against the injustices of that vile man; but in the time of the end, there will also be a resistance as well in Israel. Men will not sit idly by and allow the Anti-Christ to desecrate and destroy. Nonetheless, the Anti-Christ is a skilled and excellent warrior; he repels at least 2 invasions from sizeable armies. We read about that in Daniel 11:44:

“But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore, he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many.”

Notice that while he is dealing with the internal issues in Israel, he gets word of two invasions from two areas: one from the north and one from the east. We are told that he goes out with “great fury” and that he annihilates many. This man is a formidable warrior and not one to be challenged.

Two Wars, Two Fronts and Two Victories

The first war is from the North. Russia lies to the north of Jerusalem. If we read in Ezekiel 38-39, we find that Gog, Russia, is called by God to attack Israel. They are repelled by a variety of things including hail stones, fire and other things. Just as this is wrapping up, an army of 200,000,000 from the east, China, (Revelation 16:12) begins an invasion of Israel; and the Anti-Christ is able to repel them with a great annihilation. These seeming victories will embolden him and feed his pride even more. How do we know this? When we read the chapter that we are considering in Revelation 19, we will see that only an arrogant man would attempt what the Anti-Christ did.

Let us a do a short recap. We are told in Jude 1:9 that Satan and Michael the archangel wrestled over the body of Moses:

“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

To end the fight, Michael rebukes Satan in the name of the Lord. Satan could not even beat Michael, his angelic equal. We are told in Daniel 12:1a that Michael is the prince who protects Israel, called ‘the sons of your people’ referring to Daniel’s people:

“At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.”

So, we know that Satan cannot defeat Michael. He has been beaten once by him and that, with the Lord’s help, Michael has Satan’s number, so to speak. But as we reach the end of the chapter in Revelation 19, we see that the Anti-Christ turns to take the fight to Jesus, as Jesus opens the eastern sky over Jerusalem and makes His descent to the earth as the Righteous King of Israel.

But let us first consider the entrance before we look at the fight. Well, really not a fight as far as Jesus was concerned – a skirmish – well, maybe not even that much. An incidental incident may be the right assessment of this engagement between the Prince of Light and the Price of Darkness.

Jesus Makes an Entrance, Revelation 19:11-16

Jesus splits open the sky over Jerusalem on His way to take his place on the throne of David. He is taking his place as the rightful King of Israel, fulfilling Genesis 49:10-11:

“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.”

From this day forward, that day in Revelation 19, Judah shall have a man on the throne of Israel forever. On that day, Jesus will bring in the Millennial Kingdom, but there is a bit of mopping up to be done with regard to the Anti-Christ and his armies. Go and read Isaiah 11, but here is a short part of the passage from verses 6-10:

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.”

When Jesus makes His entrance back to earth –and make no mistake; there will be no confusion as to who He is – He will arrive in his glory and be accompanied by the armies of Heaven. And yes, the Anti-Christ, Satan in the flesh, will know exactly who Jesus is. He will know that he cannot defeat Him; he will know that he can’t even beat Michael the prince, protector of Israel. But in his arrogance and in his hatred for the Son of God, he, the Anti-Christ, will turn his armies to engage Jesus (Revelation 19:19). The Anti-Christ and the kings of the earth that were still loyal to him turn to make war with Jesus.

Now, I will give the kings of the earth some leeway in fighting Jesus, but the Anti-Christ knew he could not win, or at least he should have. But, headlong and in full battle array, they turn to make war with Jesus. The battle is not a long one. In verse 20, the beast is captured along with the false prophet, and both are cast into the Lake of Fire immediately, forever. But that day Jesus defeated the armies of the Anti-Christ, millions died and the birds of the air came to eat their fill.

This is the day that Israel accepts their Messiah and repents of their rejection. We will explore this chapter 19 again next week as we take a closer look at Jesus himself and the names assigned to Him, His clothing and His armies. But rejoice in this: Jesus wins. This is the confidence that we live with. Jesus wins. He defeated death when he rose from the dead. And now He destroys the Anti-Christ and his armies and sets up the utopia that the world system promised but could not deliver. Jesus wins.

If you are a child of God – one who has agreed with God that you are a sinner under God’s wrath and worthy of His judgment, but you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus, trusting in His death, burial and resurrection as the payment for your sins (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10; Romans 6:23) – then you have the gift of Life in Jesus.

But, and this is serious, if you have rejected the gift of God, you are under God’s wrath. The same wrath that destroyed the whole earth in Genesis 6-9, the same wrath that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the same wrath that we have experienced in Revelation for the past 40+ weeks, and the same wrath that destroyed the armies of the Anti-Christ. You need Jesus, NOW!!! Romans 10:8-10:

“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Revelation 19: 1-10

“After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! ² For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.’ ³ Again they said, ‘Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!’ ⁴ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, ‘Amen! Alleluia!’

“⁵ Then a voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!’ ⁶ And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! ⁷ Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ ⁸ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

“⁹ Then he said to me, ‘Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true sayings of God.’ ¹⁰ And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’”

Last week we talked about the world mourning the fall of the system of Babylon. I am sure that in the Tribulation, there will be a Head Office for the system of Babylon, maybe a Head City. But make no mistake; this is a system. A system that has transcended time, wars, tragedies, the death of human leaders, and it is here and alive and doing very well today. We see a system that questions all there is about God. It has permeated our schools, our entertainment, our literature, our politics and our very existence.

The Bible clearly states that it is the Fool who says in his heart there is no God (Psalms 14:1 and 53:1), but today it is the Christian who is called the Fool by society around us. It is foolish, they say, to accept the fact of Creation; foolish they say, to accept that Jesus is the ONLY WAY; look at all the religions, how can just one be right? It is foolish they say, to live by the moral code of the Ten Commandments. Yet we still arrest people for murder and stealing, we see the effects of adultery, it is still against the Law to lie under oath, and covetousness is bankrupting most of us; keeping up with the Joneses is killing us.

We have come face to face with a generation of children, even in the Lord’s churches, that are disobedient to their parents; some hold their parents’ hostage as adult children living at home and using up their parents’ resources without conscience. The system of Babylon has created a sector of persons who feel entitled to the ‘good life’ at the expense of others. Many refuse to work, yet expect all the benefits of those that work.

The system has peppered our political landscape with abortion-loving, climate-change indoctrinated, welfare-loving and anti-capitalism politicians that are killing our economies with taxes and fees. And lastly, the system of Babylon has filled our churches – and even more sadly, our pulpits – with people who hate the truth. They hate the conviction of the Holy Spirit, as He does His job of purging us and cleaning us as we are saved and then begin to conform to the image of Jesus.

They hate the boundaries that God puts in place to protect us, and they despise His commandments. But they love His benefits. And the system of Babylon has replaced Godly preachers who love the study and teach the scriptures, with pre-fab sermonettes that never get to the meat of the Scripture that God painstakingly oversaw for us to have, for some 1,500 years.

From what I hear in the emails that I get, there are very few pastors who broach the subject of eschatology, and most never deal with the OT prophets. One will never get to the end of the Bible and put it aside if you are an avid student. There is always more to learn, more for the Lord to show you; there is always another level to dig down to, and there is always something that you missed the last 100 times that you read it.

In complete contrast to the mourning that takes place on earth, there is GREAT REJOICING in Heaven. A great multitude, we are told, will be rejoicing. Let us look at this together and find some reasons to rejoice even here on earth as we look ahead.

The Great Multitude, Revelation 19:1, 6

If you were to listen to the world around us, it would be possible to believe that us Christians are on the losing end of the numbers game. In a recent conversation with a devout atheist, he pointed out that about 30% of people recently surveyed in North America counted themselves as having no religious affiliation. But in real numbers, according to a survey in 2014, only about 3-4% of the US population describe themselves as atheists.

In 1 Kings 19:18, we have God’s answer to Elijah the prophet when he is complaining that he was the only one left in Israel that worships God. God states to him, Elijah, that He, God, has more than 7,000 persons who have not bowed to Baal. Let that sink in; God has more than 7,000 men (not including their families) that were His servants. God was not losing the battle at all for the hearts of people.

Right now, there are ministries all around the world reaching the lost for Jesus. Our church is part of a small Baptist group called the American Baptist Association. We have missionaries in Russia, Japan, South America, parts of Africa, Thailand, France, Central America, Ukraine, as well as throughout the US and some in Canada. We have short-term mission teams that do 4-to-5-day mission trips to help churches and missions spread the Word of God. We are a part of the Bible Project, and we have teams that go to every major sporting event in the world and hand out Bibles and share the Gospel.

Right now, we have a team of 4 men translating the Bible into the Yefta language so that tribes can read the Bible in their own language; and on, and on I can go. We are just a small group of the Lord’s churches doing this work. Imagine what the larger groups are doing to get the Message of the Gospel out.

I have a dear friend who ministers to prisoners, and every year this ministry sees over 100 men get saved. God has people everywhere, people that you don’t even know about and never will see until we get to Heaven. God has a great multitude. The devil wants you to think that he is winning; he is not. God’s grace is greater than the wiles of the devil, and God’s Holy Spirit is still speaking to the hearts of men and women all over the world.

Every day in some city, some town, on some corner, in some ministry setting, online, face to face or at a hospital bed, people come to Jesus. A Great Multitude. We will be slack-jawed when we see the Great Multitude in the Kingdom. We will be there rejoicing at the fall of the system of Babylon with the Great Multitude.

Our shouts of “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her” will drown out the lamenting on earth. No one will care about the burning Babylon, at least not anyone in the Great Multitude.

People sometimes picture Heaven as this quiet and serene place where we are going to rest (relax) for eternity. But the Bible tells us that Heaven is loud, full of life, a busy place with the work of the Kingdom going on. If you are looking for serene, I do not think Heaven is for you.

Folks, we are part of a Great Multitude, one that will sing the praises of our God and Savior and shut the mouths of the angels. They sing out of obedience, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, but we sing from hearts of gratitude, hearts of thanks and hearts that understand that were it not for the grace of God, were it not for His mercy, were it not for His love, we would be burning in Hell. And so we drown out the angels, we drown out the mourning on earth, and we make the noise of the redeemed.

The Bride of Christ, Revelation 19:7-9

The time has come for the wedding of the Lord to his wife the New Testament church. The betrothal time has come to an end, and the time for the union has come. Jesus told us about the betrothal in John 14:1-3,

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

In a Jewish betrothal, a friend would make an agreement on behalf of the groom in negotiating a marriage. In our case, that friend is the Holy Spirit; he lives in us as the ‘down payment’ on our salvation. Jesus, the Bridegroom, has returned to Heaven, his home, to prepare a place for us, just like a man would in Biblical days to prepare a home for his new bride. I use “the bride” because, unlike our modern engagements that can be broken at a moment’s notice, the betrothal in Biblical times could only be broken by the issue of a ‘writ of divorce.’ You will recall in Matthew 1:18-19,

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.”

Betrothal was considered marriage; and as such, Joseph thought that Mary had been unfaithful to him. He was a just man, so he was not going to make a public spectacle of her; he would then simply issue a writ of divorce and end their relationship had not God intervened with an angelic message.

Jesus had come and betrothed us as his wife, those of us that make up the New Testament churches. He, as was the custom, went away to prepare a place for us; and at the Rapture he came for us, suddenly.

Remember the parable of the Ten Virgins. The bridegroom came in the middle of the night, and only those that were prepared went into the Wedding reception. Notice that the Virgins all knew that the bridegroom would return, but NOT when. They needed to be ready. As such we need to be ready to meet the Bridegroom at any time when He returns. We need to be saved, to have the Holy Spirit represented by the oil, in us. Then when the Bridegroom appears, we will be ready to attend the feast.

In Revelation 19, that time of the Wedding Feast has come; the system of Babylon is dead. The next event is a massive war that will usher in the Millennial Kingdom. Before that happens, the Lord and His Bride are united forever.

This idea that a saved person can lose their salvation is ludicrous. God tells us he hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). Thus, if you are betrothed to the Lord Jesus and have the Holy Spirit in you, God will never divorce you. It simply will not happen. You are His and He yours. Jesus fulfilled the role of the husband laid out for us in Ephesians 5:25-32,

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourished and cherished it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

Will you be at the marriage supper of the Lamb? I pray that you will.

Worshipping Angels, Revelation 19:10

There is not much to say here. And I hate to end on a downer note; but God put it here, and we must address it. John tried to worship the angel, and he was immediately stopped by the angel. The angel points out that he and the other angels are just fellow servants like we are. They are different, but not God, and never will be. Do not worship angels and be wary of those that do and encourage you to as well. True angels of God will never allow you to worship them, ever. This is idolatry.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca