Sermon

Will you follow the Man on the White Horse ?

Carryduff Free Presbyterian Church

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. So this this evening, this Bible reading is from no, that's a

  2. hymn book. You can't get a Bible reading

  3. out of that. It's open and all here.

  4. It's Revelation chapter 19. And Matthew knows my testimony.

    Revelation 19 chapter mention

  5. And many of you do hear that I got saved through reading the

  6. Bible and Revelation just absolutely fascinated me.

  7. He from the get go. So Revelation 19 and reading

  8. from verse 11 and it's reading from the Authorised Version, the

  9. King James Bible. And we'll start Revelation 19,

    Revelation 19:11

  10. verse 11, and give it reference, because it is the Word of God.

  11. Verse 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a White

  12. Horse. And he that sat upon him was

  13. called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and

  14. make war. His eyes were as a flame of

  15. fire, and on his head were many crowns.

  16. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself.

  17. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.

  18. And his name was called the Word of God.

  19. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white

  20. horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

  21. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he

  22. should smite the nations, and he should rule them with a rod of

  23. iron. And he treadeth the wine Press

  24. of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his

  25. vesture and on his thigh a name written.

  26. King of kings, and Lord of Lords and men.

  27. Will end the reading there at verse 16.

  28. Now this the sermon I have titled, Who will follow the man

  29. on the White Horse? There's no greater decision that

  30. you can make tonight and in your life than to follow this man on

  31. the White Horse. The Book of Revelation was

  32. written by the Apostle John as he was an exile on the Isle of

  33. Patmos. Now for John, this was a place

  34. and time of isolation, suffering and persecution.

  35. But you may ask why? Why was he there?

  36. John was a man that stood for Christ and that's why he was

  37. exiled to the Isle of Patmos. Now this is a futuristic event.

  38. This hasn't happened yet. The White Horse hasn't came in

  39. the sky. The heavens haven't opened yet.

  40. This is a futuristic event written to encourage believers

  41. as they were going through persecution.

  42. Now for them it would have been very reassuring under a reminder

  43. through John's vision that Christ has the victory.

  44. And even more encouraging than that, the fact that his angels

  45. are with him and his born born again believers have the victory

  46. too. And this will be this will be a

  47. massive battle scene in the end times where Christ will lead on

  48. the White Horse as of called the word of God.

  49. The holy angels will be behind him and the born again believers

  50. will be behind that too. The Old Testament, New Testament

  51. and those, Satan, the tribulation.

  52. On the other side you've got Satan, his armies, the fallen

  53. angels and the unsaved people. And the challenge I want to

  54. bring is what side of this battle will you be on?

  55. So you must realise that John saw the heaven open, the sky

  56. split in two, and our timeline of revelation.

  57. This is after the rise of the beast.

  58. It's after the deception of the false prophet.

  59. It's after the judgement of Babylon, as even after the

  60. outpouring of God's wrath, which would have been Revelation 16.

  61. But yet, it's before Satan is cast into the bottomless pit for

  62. 1000 years and simultaneously believers will rule and reign

  63. with Christ in his millennial Kingdom for a literal 1000

  64. years. When John said I saw heaven

  65. open, this is an eyewitness prophetic account.

  66. And on this day, there'll be no debate, no delay, no denying.

  67. You see, we're very good to have Stephen Hawking's, Richard

  68. Dawkins, all these and don't have debate panels.

  69. There'll be no debate on this day when the sky is opened and

  70. the man on the White Horse comes through and his armies behind

  71. him. There'll be no bait debate.

  72. There'll be no delay. There'll be no denying Who's

  73. this? Does God exist?

  74. Their mouths will be silent. And at this point in Revelation

  75. 19, it's too late to get right with God.

  76. This is a point where he is King of kings and Lord of Lords.

  77. We may remember in primary school, Matthew alluded to

  78. primary school and growing up, and it goes very quickly as we'd

  79. all testify to. But we may have remembered, pray

  80. in the Lord's Prayer, Thy Kingdom come.

  81. Well, this is the Lord's Kingdom coming and it's total fulfilment

  82. over these chapters and this is the Lord Jesus coming for the

  83. second time. We have not seen the Lord Jesus

  84. in this fashion before. I remember reading a book by

  85. Dane Ortland, I maybe butchered the name Gentle and Lowly and it

  86. goes through this attribute of Christ in Matthew 1128 where

  87. he's a gentle and lowly Saviour and really like the shepherd of

  88. the sheep and alluded to Psalm 23 of him leading the believers.

  89. That is correct in all these things at His first coming and

  90. we can enjoy that today. But in this we don't see a

  91. gentle and lowly Saviour, we don't see a babe in a Manger, we

  92. don't see the the humiliated Saviour of the world.

  93. But we see the judge of the world here in this passage.

  94. At this point it's too late to get right with God.

  95. There's a day born again believers should look forward

  96. to. This is a day, however, of fear

  97. and terror for the unsaved. Man, child or woman?

  98. Man, woman or child? And I want to say is that is

  99. that you? Tonight by the endless sermon,

  100. you'll know who the man on the White Horse is.

  101. You'll know who will face the White Horse, and you'll know who

  102. will follow the White Horse. And that might even be you this

  103. evening. And I want to direct that

  104. challenge to you this evening. My first point is asking the

  105. question, who is the man on the White Horse?

  106. Verse 11 says and I saw heaven open and behold a White Horse.

  107. So for the next few minutes I'm going to focus on this because

  108. the fact heaven opens shows the fact that something has been

  109. revealed that before this point was hidden from human sight.

  110. We see the character of the one on the White Horse.

  111. What is this judge of Christ? Christ as judge.

  112. What does this look like? Who is Christ if you're outside

  113. him tonight? Says he was upon him, was

  114. faithful and true and in righteousness He doth judge and

  115. make war. So we see faithfulness, we see

  116. truth and we see righteous judgement.

  117. And as one upon the White Horse makes judgement, he's never

  118. mistaken. We might have people might say,

  119. oh, the legal system in this country is so corrupt, or they

  120. might blame this one or that one or politicians and that it's

  121. always a blame game. And they say, oh, that's corrupt

  122. or that's not right, or they got the wrong decision.

  123. But with God, with Christ, there's no corruption, there's

  124. not a mistake. And this is righteous judgement

  125. as never seen before. It says his eyes were as flames

  126. of fire in verse 12. It shows he's all knowing.

  127. You may be have sins in your life that nobody knows about.

  128. Be sure your sin will find you out.

  129. There's no sin that will be hidden from God and his

  130. omniscience is all knowing. These eyes as flames of fire

  131. showing that no sin is hidden from Him.

  132. No sin is unnoticed and He sees everything it says.

  133. We see on his head were many crowns.

  134. This shows victory. This shows kingship of Christ at

  135. this time, Revelation 19. He's a king of kings as verse 16

  136. says as he is total and ultimate authority.

  137. What they spend a bit of time explaining verse 13 because it

  138. talks of the one on the White Horse being clothed where the

  139. vesture dipped in blood and this through me.

  140. I have to say as I was as I was going through this.

  141. I need to do a bit more deeper digging into studying this

  142. because we know that the Word of God is Christ, the Lord Jesus

  143. Christ, and we can think of the clothing dipped in the blood and

  144. we can focus on Christ's blood shed on the cross for our sins.

  145. But this passage is not talking about that, although that's a

  146. very important detail for the gospel to go forth.

  147. Without shedding of blood, there's no remission.

  148. Christ's blood cleanseth us from all sin.

  149. How once we put our faith in Christ alone, but in this

  150. passage, it's too late for people.

  151. The sides have already been picked and the people in this

  152. battle against the Lord Jesus Christ.

  153. It's too late to get right with God by this point, but it's not

  154. too late tonight. You see verse 15 at lengths he

  155. should smite the nations he treadeth the wine Press of the

  156. fierceness and wrath of God. This is a a frightening picture

  157. when you think of it. These people on the other side

  158. of the battle will not be even noticeable to the point where

  159. Christ goes in, He takes a charge and the enemy of God,

  160. whether it be the fallen angels, whether it be Satan, whether it

  161. be the unsaved, will end up like trodden grapes to the point

  162. it'll look like a wine press. There'll be as crushed grapes.

  163. So please don't let that be you tonight.

  164. Christ personally carries this out.

  165. Isaiah 63 verse 3 prophecies. I have trodden the wine press.

    Isaiah 63:3

  166. He doesn't say with an army. He doesn't say with other people

  167. alone. He does it himself.

  168. Sin cannot and will not go unpunished because Christ is a

  169. righteous judge. Christ has died for your sin on

  170. the cross, but you've rejected him.

  171. I'll get saved sometime. Oh sure.

  172. Most people live to 8090. I'm afraid that's not the case.

  173. No man knows what a day may bring forth.

  174. Today is a day of salvation. It's not just the grave.

  175. And that's it. You can have a eternity with

  176. Christ or separated from Christ. If you're separated from Christ,

  177. you will be as Charlton grapes and a wine press.

  178. Now with the name of the word of God in verse 13 as I say it

  179. links it says out of his mouth goeth forth a sharp sword.

  180. And then John 11 it says in the beginning was a word and the

  181. word was with God and the word was God.

  182. And then in verse 14 of John one, it goes on to say, and the

  183. word became flesh and dwelt among us.

  184. This is clarification that this word of God, this man on the

  185. White Horse is the Lord Jesus himself.

  186. We think of the power of the word of God in the beginning,

  187. George and I would talk very frequently about creation and

  188. Genesis 1/3 he spake and it happened.

  189. That's a that's a God I serve. That's a God many of you serve

  190. tonight. That's a God.

  191. That's a saviour. He spoke and it happened.

  192. Everything in the universe He spake and it happened.

  193. Let there be light and there was light.

  194. Genesis 1/3. He spake everything into

  195. existence by His word as power in the Word of God.

  196. We must realise the same Lord Jesus came for the first time

  197. 2000 years ago or so. I will be the one coming back on

  198. the White Horse. But the question comes to you,

  199. Are you ready? Question also could come to the

  200. Christian, Are you living for God at this moment?

  201. You might be saved but you're very luxy days ago.

  202. Would you be comfortable having a conversation face to face with

  203. Christ as to how you're living for God?

  204. Jesus walked right in on your sin, stood, just stood in front

  205. of you. What are you?

  206. What are you doing? You're a child of God.

  207. What are you doing? You've been very, very, very

  208. uncomfortable, whatever that sin might be.

  209. So you need a reverence, a holy reverence of God, holy respect

  210. of God. He's made it my second point.

  211. Who will face the White Horse? Any battle has two sides we can

  212. think of, even the N via the South in America in the 1800s.

  213. I love the the Westerns and all that, but that's a side a side

  214. note not written here, but I think to myself, you know,

  215. you've the, you've the Yankees and you've got the, the redneck

  216. are the sort of war Confederates.

  217. There's two sides. You can't be on on both sides.

  218. You pick a side and you battle against the other.

  219. World War 2, for example, it was Nazi Germany and you'd you'd

  220. allied forces the the United Kingdom.

  221. You had America in the end, all these different, but there's a

  222. side to pick. Verse 19 says, and I saw the

  223. beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered

  224. together to make war against him that sat upon the horse.

  225. So if you're not born again tonight in the house or online,

  226. you are on this side of the battle.

  227. You're on the losing side of the battle.

  228. In fact, John 336 says he that believeth not shall not see

  229. life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

  230. But I'm a good person. That's not what it's about.

  231. The wrath of God abideth on him that does not believe.

  232. Hasn't there faith in Christ? Is that you tonight?

  233. Are you? Are you born again?

  234. Are you, are you an enemy of God?

  235. You see, it's not by what we do, as Matthew said, but rather he

  236. that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.

  237. This is a spiritual battle. This this side of the battle is

  238. a spiritual rebellion. Ephesians 612 says, For you

  239. wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against

  240. principalities. God's word went out and those on

  241. this side of the battle on this day, it's safe to say, rejected

  242. it. This unbelief takes many forms.

  243. Open rejection, we see. We see it in the street all the

  244. time. In Edinburgh for example, or

  245. even in Belfast. I'm not interested.

  246. You still believe the Bible 2000 years ago?

  247. Wow, what a dinosaur. I didn't think anybody believed

  248. that anymore. Every knee will bow, every

  249. tongue will confess that Christ is Lord.

  250. You'll do it on this side of eternity, or you'll do it on the

  251. other side of eternity when it's too late and you're on the wrong

  252. side of the battle. Secondly, unbelief could be

  253. religious unbelievers trusting their own works.

  254. Me before I was saved, I thought my works, my efforts, my prayers

  255. were kept me to heaven. Sincere.

  256. Most definitely. But not saved. 3rd.

  257. Thirdly, those trusting in sacraments or rituals cannot

  258. save. Praying to statues and idols and

  259. all these sorts of things. I shall have no other God before

  260. me. It's idolatry.

  261. Those who died saying I could save someday, Not yet, no, today

  262. is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time and I

  263. want to plead with you to get saved tonight.

  264. If you're outside Christ, even write a message online if you're

  265. on the computer or on the phone, but leads me to my third and

  266. final point and it is who will follow the Lord Jesus Christ on

  267. the White Horse. Verse 14 of Revelation 19

  268. answers and says in the armies which were in heaven followed

  269. him upon white horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

  270. So you remember John seeing the heavens open, I saw heavens

  271. open. Verse 11 these armies are not

  272. from earth. It's not a these are not earthly

  273. battles. This is these from heaven.

  274. Christ led the charge, the holy angels and the believers came

  275. after. This includes Old Testament

  276. believers. Abraham believed God was counted

  277. to him for righteousness. Abraham will be there.

  278. The New Testament believers are like Sir Paul.

  279. It'll be those who are saved today.

  280. It'll be those that are saved in the tribulation when the Bible

  281. says Saints are talks of born again believers.

  282. And I can I can assure you that it's not up to the Roman

  283. Catholic Church to dictate who is a St and who is not by their

  284. their way of choosing that whatever way they, they, they

  285. seem to do that. That is not a biblical St And I

  286. want to clarify that it's find nowhere in Scripture.

  287. We see rather in Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians and

  288. Colossians. Paul is writing to the Saints at

  289. Ephesus. Paul is writing to the Saints at

  290. Philip I Paula's writing to the Saints of Colossi Galatia verse

  291. 1, chapter 1 verses one and two if each of those books should be

  292. able to see that, but we see born again believers are Saints

  293. in the Old Testament Prophet Zechariah writes and the Lord my

  294. God shall come and all the Saints with thee as talking of

  295. this end time battle. The New Testament says First

  296. Thessalonians 313 at my at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ

  297. with all his Saints. So it's evident born again

  298. believers will be partaking in the battle of Armageddon, but

  299. there will be more than believers there following the

  300. Lord Jesus. Angels are explicitly present.

  301. They're mentioned and 2nd Thessalonians 17 says the Lord

  302. Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.

  303. It's not just a battle of Jesus and and the beast or the saved

  304. be the unsaved or but it's also holy angels against the fallen

  305. angels. The holy angels follow Christ

  306. and are on His side too. So tonight we have 3 realities.

  307. The one on the White Horse is the Lord Jesus Christ.

  308. We will come back to judge. Secondly, those who face the

  309. White Horse, the man on the White Horse are an unbelief.

  310. And thirdly, those who follow the one on the White Horse are

  311. the holy angels and the born again believers.

  312. John 316 says whosoever believeth on him should not

  313. perish, but have everlasting life.

  314. So I challenge you tonight, what side the battle will you be on

  315. Tuesday this day, whom you will serve?