Revelation 19

Good morning. Remember the start of this book as we look at this chapter. If we look at the very first verse of this book, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave John to show his servants what must soon take place.

And what we're about to hear about and read about this morning is about what will indeed really literally take place.

There is going to be an incredible day of judgment where the devil gets dealt with. And if you feel oppressed or perplexed when you see evil and you want justice, justice is coming.

And we're going to read about it and hear about it this morning. It's really going to happen. So that's the verse that starts the book of Revelation. And here in chapter 19 verse 11 he announces again, I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called Faithful and True.

We're going to read and find out about this rider and what he does. And as I was preparing this a couple of weeks ago, I was thankful at the end of this Saturday that I had to have the discipline of preparing this.

Because it's easy for us in our lives to get filled up with the activities of today. Of getting up in the morning and getting the kids ready for school or getting ready for breakfast or whatever has to be done.

But here we are in church today with an opportunity to see the bigger picture. And to fit ourselves into this big picture of what's going on in the whole of eternity, in the whole of the world.

God has a big plan. And he's going to deal with us. And he's going to deal with the devil, fortunately. And he's going to deal with Babylon and the prophet and the dragon.

So Saturday was an opportunity, two weeks for me to dwell in these more eternal realities. And which God gave to John.

Which God gave to Kenneth to show all of the Cornerstone congregation. What must soon take place. Are you good at planning?

Are you good at preparing for the future? Well, in business and in life, we're encouraged to consider what are our overall goals. What's the purpose of our lives?

What outcomes do we desire for our careers, our businesses, our families? Who are we trying to be as singles or as married couples? Or as a widow or a widower?

What's our goal in coming here to church today? Why did you bother coming? Or perhaps you come every Sunday and you wouldn't think of not coming.

Or maybe this is your first time and you only come occasionally. Well, here's a way to understand more about the future. About what we are all about.

How we fit into the big picture. Is it to just have a good life here? To work hard and play hard, as they say. To reduce your golf handicap.

Or is there some greater purpose? Something outside of ourselves that we can get immersed into. These verses give us a wonderful, a stark, a shocking even.

And a needed reminder of the ultimate big picture. Judgment is coming. The world's in a mess. We will all agree with that.

And right back at the start of the Bible, we read in the third chapter. What happened in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. And sin entered the world.

And discord ever since. Do you wonder why there's a lot of arguments? A lot of fighting? A lot of wars? A lot of trouble? Why you fell out with your neighbours?

Sin. Chapter 3. Some of us as children were taught to memorise the Shorter Catechism. Anybody here memorise the Shorter Catechism apart from me?

Hands up. Nobody apart from me memorised the Shorter Catechism. Well, you're going to get a little of the Shorter Catechism. Do you even know what it is? The Westminster Divines wrote this about 400 years ago.

And in the church I was brought up in, we had to memorise this. Question 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? This is about Genesis chapter 3.

The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity. You of us, all of us here. All mankind descended from him by ordinary generation.

Sinned in Adam and fell with him. Number 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind? To a state of sin and misery.

There's misery all around, isn't there? Sometimes you've got a horrible heart yourself. Haven't I? When you say, oh, I can't stand that person.

It's just horrible. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate wherein to man fell. It fell consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin.

The want of original righteousness. It's called original sin. Together with all the actual transgressions which proceed from it. All the stuff that you and I have done that we know is wrong.

And what's the misery? Question 19. There's 107 questions, but I'm not going to go through them all. What's the misery of that estate into which man fell?

All mankind by their full lost communion with God. Without God, you don't know nothing yet compared to the joy of knowing him.

They are under his wrath and his curse and are made liable to all miseries of this life, to death itself and to the pains of hell forever. Yeah, that's our condition.

That's chapter 3 effect of Genesis 3. Of the chapter 3 of the Bible. That's the effect. So well done you to be here. Well done you for turning up, for getting up in time this morning.

And for coming to listen to God's word. We're in what we used to call the means of grace. You hear good news here.

How to escape this wrath and this curse. Because Jesus bore for us on the cross. So that happened at the start of the Bible story.

We all sinned in Adam. The devil did his work. We got trapped. I got trapped in Adam. In the third chapter of the Bible.

And here's the end game being unpacked today. In the fourth last chapter of the Bible. Satan gets dealt with.

He trapped mankind. We'd have done no better. Adam sinned. But God has a plan. He wants to bring us home.

He's going to deal with the devil and his angels. And he'll show that God reigns. He deals with all the injustice. The evil. The awfulness.

Of all that flowed out of. The unholy trinity. And that he really reigns. You see there's a conflict. Between the holy trinity. And the unholy trinity.

The dark trinity. Yes there really is a dark side. And we better believe it. It started in the Bible. In chapter three. Of the Bible.

And the book of Revelation. Is full of the glory of God the Father. The ministry. Of Christ the Son. And the blessedness. Of the work of the Holy Spirit. And in recent chapters.

From chapter 12. What we see emerge. Is the opposition. To the holy trinity. And it comes from the dark trinity. The unholy trinity.

Of the dragon. And the beast. And the false prophet. The devil. And his angels. And they're real. It's the story of the whole Bible.

Where under the initiation. Of the unholy trinity. A city is being built. In this world. The city of the anti-god. The city called Babylon.

Those of us who were here last week. Remember Phil. Speaking about the two cities. It's set over against the city. That God is building. The city that Cornerstone.

Wants to be part of. The city of God. And the whole story. Is going to lead to a final. Dramatic conflict. In which at the end of the day. Only the city of God.

Is going to remain. Do you want to decide. Which side to be on. Do you like being on the winning side. Choose here. Choose his word.

Augustine. Augustine. Spoke about it in 410. He wrote a book about it. The city of God.

Where it's love for God. Love for eternal life. Compared to the city of man. Self love.

How many of us are guilty of that? Earthly pursuits. That's the main focus. So we want peace in this world. It's an entirely laudable desire.

But we need to be really clear. That since the third chapter. Of the Bible. Mankind lives in evil times. There has been a long war.

We read the fruit of our folly. And it's why we need to come to God. And confess our sins. And the sins of our nation. And the sins of our world. We see it all around us.

The devil goes about. Like a roaring lion. Seeking. Whom he may be. Devour. But. But. Judgment.

Is coming. And we see it here. In these verses. God deals with the root of the evil. In the dragon. And then deals with the fruit of the evil.

In the false prophet. That is supported by the beast. So do we want justice. For the oppressed. The ones that got away with evil. The source of all evil. Do we want the source of all evil.

Dealt with. We're fed up of it. Do we want it dealt with. Come Lord Jesus. The source of all that evil.

Gets finally punished. Judgment is here. In these verses. It's very close to us. As we read this. There is a day of reckoning.

And we have here in our verses. A fabulous picture. Of the ultimate triumph. Of our redeemer. And our king. The lion. And the lamb. Heaven.

Heaven. Heaven. Has erupted. At the beginning of chapter. Nine. There is great rejoicing. And what's the rejoicing over.

It's over the fall of Babylon. They see what's happening. Verse 1. Hallelujah. Salvation. Glory and power. Belong to our God.

Verse 2. For true and just are. His judgments. Verse 3. Again they shouted. Hallelujah. The smoke from her. Goes up. Forever and ever. The smoke of the judgment.

It's dark. Isn't it? Don't play about. The gospel stuff. This is serious. This is eternal reality.

That we'll all have to face. One way or the other. Again in verse 4. And the response from the throne. In verse 5. And verse 6. And verse 7. All of this because of the course.

Babylon has fallen. In the previous chapter. And there is this great invitation. To the marriage supper of the lamb. In verse 7. Let me find it.

Let us rejoice and be glad. And give him glory. For the wedding of the lamb has come. And his bride. Her maid herself ready. Fine linen.

Bright and clean. Was given to her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts. Of God's holy people. And then the angel said to me.

Verse 9. Write this. Blessed are those. Who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb. And he added. These are the true words of God. At this I fell at his feet to worship him.

But he said to me. Don't do that. I am a fellow servant with you. And with your brothers and sisters. Who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.

And so with these hallelujahs. At the judgment of Babylon. We come to our verse. John sees heaven standing open.

And there before me was a white horse. Whose rider is called. Faithful and true. Who is this rider. Congregation.

Who is the rider. Who is the rider. Is he your savior. Here's what he's doing.

It's the Lord Jesus coming as it were. As the great divine white knight of heaven. He has come 2000 years ago.

To rescue his damsel in distress. The church. And here he comes in verse 11. Seated on a white horse. And what's his name.

Congregation. Faithful. Faithful. And true. Do we like a faithful. And true friend for life. How many times have you been let down.

This one will never let you down. And he comes as the judge. Verse 11.

With justice. He judges. And makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire. And on his head. Are many crowns. He has a name written on them.

That no one knows by himself. Do you think that you know everything? Or do you even think you know the Bible really well? And I hope you do. But here's it.

There is a name written on him. That no one knows but himself. He is so much higher than us. And he is dressed. In a robe. Dipped in blood. And his name is.

Do you treasure this book? The word of God. Remember the gospel of John.

Chapter 1. Verse 1. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. He was with God.

In the beginning. Jesus was there at the beginning of the world. And he came as the divine champion. To rescue us. 2,000 years ago.

His people to overcome the powers of darkness. And he comes here. In order to do battle against the forces. That have been against his dear people.

Those for whom he died. The church of Jesus Christ. The enemy wants to screw you up. To stop you believing. To cause you to question your faith.

And he's coming to deal with them. Finally and forever. Verse 14.

The armies of heaven were following him. Riding on white horses. Dressed in linen. White and clean. And note. They are white and clean.

As a result of him. Having been dressed. In a robe. Dipped in blood. Remember what happened. 2,000 years ago.

Someone had to take the punishment. For the sins you and I committed. The sins. You have said. In your hearts. The evil thoughts.

In your hearts. Somebody had to come. And take that punishment. Someone died on the cross. And we know who it is. It's the rider. On the white horse. It's the lamb of God.

That taketh away the sin of the world. And here in this amazing glimpse. We get reported of what John saw. The rider is dressed. In this robe.

Dipped in blood. The ones following. They are in clean garments. Beautiful linen. Because. His blood was shed.

For you and I. So that you would I. You and I would have a faithful. And true friend. Friend. And out of his mouth. What happens after this?

Out of his mouth. Comes. A sharp sword. With which to strike down. The nations. He treads the winepress. Of the fury.

Of the wrath. Of God almighty. Wow. He enforces the fury. Of the wrath. Of God almighty.

And he just has to speak. Opens his mouth. And. God opening his mouth.

Is a very very big deal. Go back to the beginning of the Bible. And.

God. Said. Verse 3. Chapter 1. Let there be light.

He just. He just. This is amazing. This is the faithful and true one.

Who will come and dwell with you. Verse 6. Let there be an expanse upon the waters. Between the waters. Verse 9.

Let there be. The Trinity together. Let there be dry land. Oh. Scotland.

Amazing. Even. Even England. Even. I better not say our colony America. Because Angela would hit me. Let there be lights in the sky.

Let there be living creatures. He just said it. And think of the apostle Paul. Saying the same thing in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 8.

And then the lawless one will be revealed. Whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow. With the breath of his mouth.

And destroy by the splendor of his coming. By his breath. Exercising his authority and judgment.

Dispersing his enemies. And it gets even more stark. Verse 16. And on his robe and on his thigh. He has this name written. King of kings.

And lord of lords. Verse 17. An angel cries in a loud voice. To all the birds flying. In the midair. That he created back in Genesis chapter 1.

Come gather for the great supper of God. So that you may. Listen to this. This is gruesome. Is it? So that you may eat the flesh of kings.

Generals. Mighty men of horses. And their riders. What a contrast. Earlier in this same chapter. We heard about the marriage supper of the lamb. To which you and I are invited to.

Verse 9. That glorious invitation. We are invited to that great feast. Or the other side. Become the supper of the birds of the air.

Pretty stark choice isn't it? An enormous contrast between the amazing glory of sitting at the table of our Lord. Enjoying communion with him.

Glory. Joy everlasting. Privilege. Sonship. Family. And being the supper of the birds of the air.

And the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So which one do you choose? Whose side are you going to go to?

Yes. We get to choose. And all the more so when we are in the presence of our holy rider whose robe is dipped in blood.

And he is calling out to us. And he is calling out to us. Oh come to me. Call out to him in your heart. Close in with him. Do you hear him calling to you just now?

As you realize the starkness of the reality of scripture. As he shows you the contrast between good and evil.

Come into my heart Lord Jesus. Come into my heart and stay. I want safety. He just has to say.

A single word of scripture. And judgment comes. A sharp sword. And the nations are struck down.

The city of man is done. The unholy trinity is done. And verse 19. About the beast and the kings of the earth and the armies.

Well they are gathered together to make war against the rider and the white horse. We are in the middle of war all the time. But here there is a really gathering to make war against the rider and the horse.

But verse 20. The beast is captured. And the false prophet who had performed miraculous signs in his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast.

And worshipped his image. And the two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. I'm not a chemist.

Does sulfur burn pretty hot? I don't know. But they're gone. Finito. It's going to happen.

This isn't a fairy tale. This is going to happen. These are the powers that are so active in our world.

Maybe some of you have played with them. These are the powers behind all those who are so against the kingdom of God.

These are the powers who want the church to be so wet or bland that we say nothing. We don't speak about the Ten Commandments or about sin or about hell.

We want the church just to be nice. Who divert us away from the reality of the great purposes of God. Who want us to forget our Bible.

And only at best be lukewarm to Christian things. And even as followers of Christ. Don't get too heavy on this stuff. Come on.

Just go easy. You don't need to go to church that often. Turn up a bit. Enjoy yourself.

Lord's kind isn't he? He's nice. He's a friendly big guy. Let's just shape him into our image. And most of all these are the powers that most of all want to deny that Jesus came to bear the punishment due for our sins.

The forces and powers that want to intimidate us. So we get nervous in the queue or with our friends in church or with our friends much more even in our business.

To speak about Jesus. It's embarrassing. No longer the fashion. I might get called out when I go to uni or in school if I start speaking about Jesus.

It's so easy for us to be intimidated. The voice of evil seems so strong. It's hard to speak out. We better just keep our heads down eh.

Just live quietly. Is that what the Bible says folks? How much I think I think it's so important for us to see this bigger picture of the Lord in his eternal purposes reaching out to us of the rider on the white horse who's finally going to deal with the whole thing.

The truth of it all is that Jesus deals with them all in one verse and he blows them away. I've never used this mic before.

It's quite cool. But he blows them away. And we're on the winning side. Remember 1 John chapter 3 verse 8.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. And we saw it here foretold in this chapter. Four chapters from the end of the Bible.

The revelation of Jesus Christ. Which God gave John to show his servants which must soon take place. The verse from the beginning of the book of Revelation. And it's going to happen folks.

This great judgment. So to finish. We have two choices. Which leader are you going to follow?

You're invited. You're invited. To the marriage supper of the Lamb. I want to go there.

I want to be sitting with him. For the whole of eternity. I want to sit with him here. The faithful and the true.

May we respond to that greatest of invitation. Or do you stay stuck following those who became and will become the supper of the birds of the air.

And are chucked into the fire. Has everybody here decided one way or the other?

Or are some of you hoping to get off with not making a decision? There are two choices.

Which leader are you going to follow? Lord we pray that each one of us would follow Jesus. We pray for your Holy Spirit to come among us.

And to reveal the truth of these scriptures to us. And we thank you for Jesus the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. That has reached out to us.

And came to dwell among us. And came to die for us. Whose robe is dipped in blood. So that we would wear white robes.

Linen. Clean. Ready to be presented before the Father. We thank you Lord for your mercy and your grace.

In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.