Revelation 19:11-21 (The Rider on the White Horse)

We are now getting back into our series on Revelation that we took off for during the summer as we were going through some of the Psalms.

So we're going to be in Revelation chapter 19.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

We're going to do the rest of chapter 19, beginning of verse 11, going down through 21 this morning.

First Thessalonians 5, 11 says, Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, which that is such a good aspiration for us as brothers and sisters in Christ that we should seek to regularly build one another up.

And as I was preparing the message this morning, you know, honestly, I can uh think of nothing that can more effectively build us up and one another build one another up on a regular basis than to remind each other that Jesus Christ is coming back.

We sing of it, we read of it, we preach of it, we pray for it.

And we find ourselves periodically, even as believers, maybe you do this, hopefully you do, I do this.

Periodically, I look to the clouds, and I wonder when that great day will come.

Will it be today?

And I would encourage you, brothers and sisters, whatever ails your heart this morning, whatever you bring into this room, dear believer, I will tell you it has the same remedy.

Is it your worries that bog you down?

Is it your sin?

Is it your situations that you can or cannot control?

Is it jobs?

Is it finances?

Is it family?

Is it relationships?

Is it health?

Is it sorrow or is it despair?

If you are in Christ, I can tell you that there is no trouble that you bear today that will not be totally wiped out by the second coming of Christ.

And he's coming soon.

And I pray that your heart is encouraged by today's scripture to follow along with me as we read Revelation chapter 19, verse 11 through the end of the chapter, and verse 21.

Revelation 19:11

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on it that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, Come gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his arm.

And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.

These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

Near the end of JRR Tolkien's The Return of the King.

I don't know if I've ever told you about the Lord of the Rings.

Near the end of the Return of the King, which uh, spoiler alert, is about the return of the king, the city of Minas Tirith stands at the edge of ruin.

It's under oppression from a very strong and mighty army.

The gates are broken, the fields are burning, and out on the river, a fleet of black ships is bearing down on the last defenders.

You can feel the despair, every heart of Minasterith sinks until the banner catches in the wind of the lead ship on the black ships that are coming in, and it unfurls to reveal the white tree, the seven stars, and the high crown.

That's the banner of the king.

The king has returned to ministereth, and the day that began in despair ends in victory.

You see, Tolkien understood something that God has written into every human heart, and that we see displayed in Scripture, and that's that we truly are waiting for the return of the king.

But Revelation 19, unlike the Lord of the Rings, Revelation 19 is not a fairy tale.

It's not a story.

This is the true reality of what is to come.

For two chapters that we left off in the spring before the summer came, we saw, just to remind you, John has watched Babylon burn the whole seductive world system of pride, wealth, persecution, and it's just collapsing under God's judgment.

Heaven has erupted in hallelujahs.

The marriage supper of the Lamb had been announced earlier in chapter 19.

And now in verse 11, John writes five glorious words, words that you and I hope that we are among the blessed ones that we can join in saying, Then I saw heaven opened.

There are going to be Christians that can say that.

Now, the last time that Jesus rode publicly, he rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, humble and mounted on a donkey, donkey, just as Zechariah had prophesied.

His first time he came in lowliness.

He came to bear judgment in the place of his church, in the place of sinners, in the place of you and I, all who are in Christ.

But the second time, he's not coming in lowly on a borrowed donkey.

The second time, he comes in majesty to execute judgment upon all who refused him.

It's the same Lord, it's the same Christ, two different comings.

And notice what this passage is actually about.

It's not, first of all, a passage about the fate of the wicked.

That only really occupies its closing verses.

Nearly every verse from verse 11 to verse 16 is an ongoing description of Christ, the rider on the white horse.

The Holy Spirit's aim in this text, as much of Revelation has been, is behold your king.

In fact, if you were to say, hey, you get three words to sum up Revelation, tell me Revelation 1 through 21 in three words, I would say, behold your king.

So that's what we're going to do this morning.

We're going to walk through these descriptions one by one, and then we'll watch what happens to everyone who stands against this king.

Now, I do want to note something about the return of Christ.

You know, I want to teach what scripture teaches and then kind of just stop there.

We can spend so much time on speculation that I don't want to do that.

What I want to do is tell you what scripture teaches us.

And that's this the Christ that was crucified and resurrected and bodily ascended into heaven, which we talked about in Psalm 24 a few weeks ago, humanity flesh, for the human flesh for the first time enters into heaven at the ascension of Christ.

We have to know that the second coming of Christ is the exact same human flesh body returning from the heaven, parting the clouds, and coming down.

And if we pause and just take some hints from the rest of scripture, we do it, and we do know a few things about the return of Christ briefly.

And I put them on that top box with scripture references for you to see, just real quickly, just so we're all kind of on the same page.

Number one, Christ bodily returns from heaven, the human flesh, human Christ returns from heaven.

Hypostatic union, when Christ took on flesh, he took on flesh to have it for the rest of eternity.

And when he came as a baby in a manger, the human nature of Christ and the divine nature of Christ, the hypostatic union, he never again will part from this human flesh.

So when Christ returns, it is in human flesh.

That's important.

Every eye will see him, no one will mistake or escape his appearing.

Secondly, his coming is visible, public, and glorious.

It's not a secret event, but it's a royal arrival of the king.

Scripture doesn't tell us how one human body will return and every eye will see him.

It doesn't have to tell us.

We know it to be true.

Thirdly, he comes with the angels in the sound of a trumpet.

We see this as an event unlike any event we can imagine.

Number four, the dead are raised.

Number five, living believers are instantly glorified.

Number six, Christ gathers his whole church to himself.

Number seven, every person stands before Christ for judgment.

Number eight, Christ destroys every enemy and punishes unrepentant evil.

Number nine, the righteous enter everlasting life, the wicked receive everlasting punishment.

And 10, God renews creation and dwells with his people forever.

Now, obviously, there's a lot of details there that we can we can iron out, not doing that now, but just so we're on the same page about the return of Christ, the bodily return of Christ.

That's what we're seeing here in Revelation 19.

Now, because Christ is returning bodily, there are some descriptions here about Christ.

A lot of these are borrowed from earlier in Revelation or in other texts.

My view on Revelation is I take Revelation very literal, and that literally I think it's very symbolic.

So some of these uh descriptions about Christ are descriptions to describe an attribute about who he is, okay?

So, firstly, this morning, faithful and true in verse 11.

The character of the king, then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true.

And in righteousness he judges and makes war.

So when John is naming him, faithful and true, Christ is faithful.

Faithful means that he is true to his word.

He will see his promises to his people through.

Last Wednesday night, our kindergarten through second graders learned about how God is a keeper of promises.

And if you were to ask our kindergarten through second graders about what they learned about last Wednesday night, they know that God makes promises.

Starts with an R and rhymes with angbow.

A rainbow.

He gave us a rainbow.

And Casey was just working with, hey guys, when God makes a promise, he keeps a promise.

And then Casey taught them God has made a promise to us that we have not seen fulfilled yet.

That's a big promise.

He promised us that Christ is coming back.

He's coming back to get his church.

And when we look at scripture and we see all of the promises that have been made from Genesis on, we see so many of them have been fulfilled.

So many of the promises and prophecies were fulfilled in Christ, but yet there are some that still remain to be fulfilled, and the biggest of which is Christ is coming back.

He is faithful to his word.

And Christ is true.

Every word that he speaks is proven to be reliable.

And every word that he has yet to speak will be reliable.

Because Christ is truth.

Now think about the world that the first believers in the book of Revelation inhabited.

And think about the world that we inhabit, how they're alike, how they're different.

Babylon, Rome built on lies, the beast's kingdom runs on propaganda.

And in this world, and in the in this that we see in the book of Revelation here, the false prophets' entire occupation is deception.

And little has changed.

We live in an age drowning in spin, political messaging engineered to manipulate, advertising engineered to seduce, feeds engineered to inflame, and now even artificial voices and images engineered to deceive.

We hardly know who to believe about anything anymore.

We are surrounded by so much noise that it is, in fact, one of the greatest tools that Satan uses to drown out the truth.

And into that world rides the one who is called faithful and true.

He has never shaded the truth, he's never broken a promise, he's never over-promised and under-delivered.

Every pledge he made to his church, I will build my church, I will never leave you nor forsake you, I will come again, stands as solid as the throne of heaven itself.

Jesus Christ is the true word of God, and every word he speaks is truth because of the nature that he is the one that is speaking it.

This is the same God who said, Let there be light, and in saying it, light appears, because he is the nature of truth itself.

And in righteousness he judges and makes war.

Now, every human war that this earth has ever seen, even the most just cause, I mean, if you look at wars like like World War II, like, yeah, we we needed to intervene.

The other option was not good.

But every human war is prosecuted out by sinners.

Motives are mixed, the innocent suffer, propaganda will flow on both sides.

There has never been a perfectly righteous war in human history until this one.

Here, the judge and the warrior are one person, Jesus Christ, and he is perfectly righteous.

Notice too that judging comes before making war.

His war is not an outburst of an uncontrolled temper, it is a verdict that is executed.

The court of heaven has made a ruling, a perfect and good and righteous ruling.

The evidence is complete and the sentence is just.

And this answers the cry of the martyrs that we saw earlier in Revelation when they said, How long, O Lord, before you judge and avenge our blood?

The answer rides out of heaven on a white horse.

Believer, here is your first comfort.

Here's an application for you from verse 11.

The one who holds your future is faithful and true.

If you are in Christ, brothers and sisters, you are in good hands.

Secondly, verses 12 to 13, the blazing glory of the king, his eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

We have four descriptions.

All of them are four windows into the glory of Christ.

Firstly, we see his eyes are like a flame of fire.

John has seen these before.

He's mentioned them on the Isle of Patmos in the opening vision of chapter one.

And Christ described himself this way to the compromised church at Thyatira.

And remember what he said there.

He said, I am he who searches mind and heart with eyes of fire.

Fire penetrates.

Nothing is hidden from those eyes.

No secret sin smuggled along under a respectable reputation, no hidden compromise.

There's no hidden browsing history with Jesus Christ.

This is a warning.

Christ sees all.

And may that spur us on to pursue holiness.

But this also serves as a very deep comfort.

No secret suffering escapes him either.

The believer that endures quiet grief that no one at church knows about, first of all, I want to know about it.

Help us one another, you.

But if you have that silent grief that you suffer from, the saint that's persecuted in some forgotten prison, those eyes of fire see it all.

And they burn with holy resolve to put every wrong right.

Your unrecognized service in small and big ways here in this local church, the flaming eyes of Christ see it all.

In complete truth, he searches our minds, he searches our hearts, he searches our motives, our drive.

Now, in a non-comforting manner, Christ searches those who are not his people.

He knows their deeds, he knows their sin, their allegiance to anything but him.

And in this day there is no excuse, there is no argument, there is no appeal.

The eyes of fire see it all.

All is laid bare before him.

Things that you would have gotten away with in human courts, in flawed human justice systems, you don't get away with them with Christ.

Second, on his head are many diadems.

This is the royal crown, the emblem of sovereign rule.

Now, we've seen diadems before in Revelation.

The dragon wore seven, the beast wore ten.

Pretenders always have a countable number of crowns because their authority is limited, their authority is borrowed, their authority is temporary.

Notice, Christ's diadems are not numbered.

He has many beyond counting.

Because there is no realm, there is no nation, there's no sphere of authority anywhere in creation that does not belong to Christ.

Do you remember Job?

When Satan came to God and had to ask permission, Satan had no, God said, You can go this far and no further.

That's how far you can go with my servant Job.

You have no authority except for that which I temporarily allow.

When Christ rode into Jerusalem and was went through the trial, was mocked and beaten.

Before he was crucified, they placed a crown of thorns on his head.

He didn't go into heaven wearing a crown of thorns.

Heaven coronated the King of Kings with many diadems, the diadems that he is worthy of.

Third, he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

The mystery of his divine person exceeds all comprehension.

Comprehension.

We know him truly.

We can say that.

He has revealed himself, but we will never know him exhaustively.

Does that make sense?

We know Christ truly, but we can't know him completely.

In the 1689 London Baptist Confession, chapter 2, titled Of God and the Holy Trinity, paragraph one begins with this: The Lord our God is but one, only living and true God, whose substance is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself.

Paul in chapter 2 of Ephesians, verses 6 and 7, writes that Christ raises us up with him and seats us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The riches of Christ are immeasurable.

If his riches are immeasurable, how much more so is he?

In other words, there are infinite aspects of the Trinity that only he will comprehend and enjoy for all eternity.

Even in our glorified state and our glorified bodies, we will still be limited in our understanding of God.

That's why he's eternally God and we eternally are not.

But for all eternity, we will continue to see more and more of the goodness of God, and it will never run out.

But this is why no one knows the name written for him.

This is a symbol of there are aspects of Christ that we as his people, even us, cannot comprehend.

Christ has made himself known to us, but we are not capable of knowing the totality of him.

That's how big he is.

And it also means this.

As a kid, I used to always, I don't know why I got this image in my head.

I just always had this image of like trying to wrap my brain around eternity.

I'm like, heaven has no stop sign.

That's how I thought of it.

Like there's no stop sign, like there's no end.

We can't comprehend no end.

It's just really difficult for us to comprehend no end.

We go to heaven and we're there forever.

Surely there comes a point where it's boring.

I mean, even the best TV shows, I mean, after season 10, they better start calling it quits, you know.

Here's what this means.

Eternity itself will not exhaust the glory of the king.

Eternity itself will not exhaust the glory of the king.

You will wake up every morning ten million quadrillion years from now, a hundred quadrillion millennia from now, whatever number you want to come up with, you're gonna wake up one morning in heaven and you're gonna say, Wow, more goodness from Christ.

He's amazing.

Because eternity does not have the power to exhaust his glory.

What a rebuke to our casual, manageable, pocket-sized version of who Jesus is.

Fourth, and here we have to slow down.

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood.

My question is, or the text's question is, whose blood is this?

Many of us instinctively answer, well, this is his own blood.

It's the blood of Calvary.

And there's a long line of godly interpreters who haven't read it that way, but the picture that John is painting comes directly from Isaiah chapter 63, and we should see what Isaiah says.

Isaiah 63 · chapter mention

He says, Who is this who comes from Edom in crimson garments?

Why is your apparel red and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

I have trodden the winepress alone, their lifeblood spattered on my garments.

In Isaiah's vision, the stains on the warrior's robe are not his blood, they're the blood of his enemies.

And in verse 15 of our passage here, where he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, confirms that this is the picture here taken from Isaiah 63.

And notice this: his robe is already stained before the battle even begins, because his victory is already certain.

The outcome was settled before the armies even gathered.

And I would say those two readings aren't at odds.

It's not theologically inaccurate to say that his victory comes from his own blood.

Therefore, the blood on his robe could represent the blood of Christ.

But if we're just taking it from the imagery of Isaiah 63, where John pulls this from, it's the blood of his enemies.

Christ has the victory.

It's through his shed blood that he has the victory over his enemies.

For the judge who is on the white horse is none other than the lamb who was slain.

The hands that hold the reins still bear the scars of the nails.

The only one qualified to tread the winepress of the wrath is the one who first drank the cup of wrath for sinners.

And the name by which he is called is the word of God.

And only John uses this title in scripture, in John's gospel, he introduces it.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Again, when God speaks, things happen.

His word created the universe, his word will judge it.

Jesus Christ is God's final and full speech to mankind.

In the last days, he has spoken to us by his son.

If you want to know what God has to say, look to Christ.

And if you reject Christ, understand this there is no further word coming.

He is God's last word.

Thirdly, the armies and the arms of the king, verses 14 and 15, the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, for following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with the rod of iron.

This last sentence is intentional.

It's chunky, but it's intentional.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

Okay, first of all, look at first start the armies.

Who are they?

Just six verses earlier, John told us they had fine linen, bright and pure, and that that is the righteous deed of the saints.

It's the wedding garment of the bride.

And in chapter 17, we were told that those with the Lamb, when he conquers, are called and chosen and faithful.

Now, angels may be here.

I'm not saying there aren't.

There may be angels in this moment.

But the linens tell us another story.

The linens tell us these armies riding with Christ are the redeemed.

The bride is riding out with her bridegroom.

Believer, you are in this picture.

Did you know you're in the Bible?

If you're in Christ, here you are.

There you are.

Do you see?

Do you see yourself?

Which side are you on?

Are you on the right?

You on the left?

What's your horse look like?

But now we notice something remarkable about this army.

They carry nothing.

No armor, no sword, no spears, no bows and arrows.

And read to the end of the chapter, and you will find this army doesn't do anything.

Verse 21 says, the enemies are slain by the sword of the rider alone.

The armies of heaven do not come to fight, they come to witness the victory of their king.

Do you know what this means, believer?

It means what it always has meant.

The battle belongs to Christ.

The battle for your soul belongs to Christ.

The battle for your salvation belongs to Christ.

It is through Christ and through the works of Christ that we are saved.

It is through Christ and the works of Christ that his church is delivered.

It is through Christ and the works of Christ that judgment is delivered.

It is through Christ and the works of Christ that all things are made right.

The battle belongs to the Lord entirely and exclusively.

It means the Church of Jesus Christ now.

What does that mean now?

Okay, I get it.

I'm gonna be there, all is gonna be cool.

What do I do now?

What do I do until then?

Maybe we call this application.

Maybe I realize I'm not as good about giving you application.

So road sign application.

It means this the church of Jesus Christ does not advance his kingdom by carnal weapons, not by the sword, not by political muscle, not by manipulation or outrage.

The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh.

How did the believers conquer back in Revelation chapter 12?

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Do you remember?

They conquered by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

That's how the early church overcame a mighty and powerful empire that was persecuting them by all the world standards.

There's no chance that you're sitting here today.

We should have been easily snuffed out by the Roman Empire.

But the church grew by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

We didn't grow by raising up a sword, but with the gospel witness and with patient endurance.

And this is why Tertullian could taunt the persecutors of the church with every drop of blood that you spill is just another seed that's planted.

You can persecute the church and you can kill the Christians, but she will continue to grow.

Rome has fallen.

Church is still here.

We outlived Rome.

Luther had it right in the hymn that we love to sing, the prince of darkness grim, one little word shall fail him.

Which brings us to the king's weapon.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword, not in his hand, from his mouth.

His weapon is his word.

The word that spoke galaxies into existence will speak rebellion out of existence.

Paul says exactly this the lawless one will be killed with the breath of his mouth.

Well, when Christ returns, he will not need to lift a finger.

He will speak and it will be over.

He will rule them with a rod of iron.

This comes from Psalm 2, the Psalm of Raging Nations.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

You shall break them with the rod of iron.

Every generation replays Psalm 2.

Every generation of kings and cultures imagines that it can cast off the Lord and his anointed.

Every generation thinks it can ride off the church.

But Psalm 2 always ends the same way.

We're still here.

It's the same rod of Psalm 23.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

What did I tell you last week about the rod in Psalm 23?

With the rod, he defends his church.

And here in Revelation 19, his rod comes back for its final strike.

It's the same rod that he's faithfully defended his church with.

And then the clunky sentence.

And he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

The words just pile up.

Winepress, fury, wrath.

The Holy Spirit is stacking these words deliberately as to not soften what is being stated.

So we're not going to soften what's being stated here.

Our age is an age that is embarrassed by the wrath of God.

But the Reformed tradition has always understood that the wrath of God is not a blemish on his character, it is his holiness against evil.

Could you imagine if we had a God who just shrugged at Auschwitz?

If a God who shrugged at the abuse of children?

What about the the the three children that were murdered?

A God that just shrugs his shoulder?

Three children, innocent children being murdered, your blood's crying out from the ground?

Do you want a God that shrugs at that?

What about a God who shrugs at the blood of the martyrs?

We live in a world full of evil.

And he would not be more loving if he had no wrath.

He would be less good.

And notice the simultaneous, most tender and most terrible detail about this wine press.

He treads it himself.

Judgment is not delegated to the angels.

The Lamb personally executes the justice of God.

Fourthly, the name above every name on his verse 16, on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Here is the name anyone may read, just blazing where a warrior's sword would hang at his thigh, displayed like the title and a royal standard, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Pilate didn't realize it, but he actually got it right when they mockingly put above Christ on the cross, King of the Jews.

And here he is, and he's got the right identification for everyone to see.

And it wasn't given to him by a man, it was given to him by God.

King of kings was the boast of ancient Eastern monarchs and the emperors of Rome would gather divine titles to themselves.

Domitian was flattered as our Lord and God.

Caesar demanded a pinch of incense and the confession, Caesar is Lord.

And Christians would regularly go to their death saying, Jesus is Lord.

John's little churches that he was writing to in Asia Minor looked like they had backed the losing side.

The oppression of the Roman Empire, you must say that Caesar is Lord.

You must say that Caesar is a god.

But they chose rightly because every Caesar is now dust.

Their empire is nothing but an archaeology exhibit.

I know I've been there.

I've walked the Roman Forum.

I've seen where Caesar stood.

And it's just a museum.

It's a unit that our kids study in a history class.

And this morning, on every continent across the globe, millions and millions gather to still worship the rider on the white horse.

When Handel set this scene to music in the Hallelujah chorus, he simply lifted the word straight from this chapter, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he shall reign forever and ever.

You know Handel's Hallelujah.

Such a short I had to go and listen to a choir sing it last night as I was preparing this.

And legend has it that when this was sung before the King of England at the time, that he rose to his feet when he heard it.

And whether or not the story is true, it is theologically exact.

Earthly crowns stand in the presence of the name of Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And that name presses a question onto every one of us.

Is he the Lord of Lords of your life, or is he merely a consultant?

King of kings means that he rivals no thrones.

Not the state, not your career, not your comfort, not yourself.

Jesus does not accept a cabinet position in your life.

He takes the throne.

That's where he belongs.

Fifth, the certain doom of the king's enemies, verses 17 through 21, the end of the story.

An angel standing in the sun summons the birds of prey to gather for the great supper of God, where the fallen of every rank, kings, captains, and the mighty, slave and free, they become bird food.

It's a horrifying image.

It's drawn from Ezekiel's prophecy against Gog.

And John surely intends for us to see this ghastly contrast.

He's intentionally not uh he's intentionally making this a little stomach turning for us.

Now, something to notice, you may not remember because we haven't been in Revelation 19 for a few months.

This is the second supper in Revelation 19.

We've already had the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Every human being that has ever lived will be at one of these two tables.

As a guest at the wedding feast, the marriage supper of the lamb, or as food at the other.

There is no alternative, and no one can decline the invitation.

In verse 19, we see the beasts, the kings of the earth, and their armies gather to make war against the rider.

Here it comes, Armageddon, the battle, the world is made into a byword.

And now watch closely.

Because what happens next is astonishing.

What happens after they all gather?

Absolutely nothing.

Nothing happens.

That's the astonishing part.

Two opposing battles, uh, two opposing armies lined up against each other.

Nothing happens, there's no battle.

John does not describe one single moment of combat.

Why?

Because there's no combat to describe.

The outcome was never in doubt for a single instant.

All of the martialed might of hell and earth gathering against Christ, and him defeating them with his breath, with his spoken word.

It's not a battle, it's a sentencing.

They might think it's a battle, but it's over.

The beast and the false prophet, John immediately goes to this, they're seized, they're thrown into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, the very first inhabitants of hell, with the dragon and the unrepentant to follow in chapter 20, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse.

By his word.

Judgment is real, it is final, and it is coming.

This passage is not in your Bible to entertain your curiosity about the end times.

It is here in the form of love, as a warning from a God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and who tells us the end of the road precisely so that we can get off of that road.

So, which way will you meet him?

Heaven will open, and the king will ride out.

The only question that finally matters is this which way will you meet him?

His robe is dipped in blood, and here is the gospel in a single question.

Whose blood will answer for your sins in that day?

There are only two possibilities.

Either the blood he shed as the Lamb of God at Calvary answers for you, pleading mercy, full atonement, paid in full at the cross, or your own blood answers to his justice at his coming.

He came the first time on a donkey in humility to be judged in the place of sinners.

He comes the second time on a war horse to judge.

Right now, this morning, heaven stands open in grace before it opens in judgment.

The one called faithful and true has promised us this.

Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

Come to him.

Do not leave this room at war with the rider on the white horse.

And believer, lift up your head.

The king sees every hidden sorrow with his eyes of fire.

He keeps every promise, for he is faithful and true.

He wears more crowns than your troubles have names.

And on the last day he will win the last battle without any help from any of us.

Yet with you on his train, dressed in fine linens that he himself has provided.

The black ships on the horizon belong to him.

So church, endure a little longer.

The king is coming.

Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Let's pray.