Hopefully a few more will trickle in I told them all last week. You don't want to miss this week I feel like we're a little small, but you know, I figured that for Mother's Day It always kind of changes people's schedules. Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers there We're gonna pray and get started God, we thank you so much for this beautiful day that you've blessed us with. Thank you for Mother's Day. Thank you for godly mothers who maybe have given birth or adopted children. Thank you for even in this church of godly women who serve as role models of mothers and wives for so many. Just thank you that we can celebrate that today. Pray for those who maybe are hurting on Mother's Day for whatever reason that you would comfort them. We thank you for your word. Thank you for the promise and the hope that it gives us of your return and what that day will be like. And I just pray that as we dive into that today, that you would give me the right words to say, that it would only be true to what your word says. And I know I can't do it justice. I just pray that the Holy Spirit would do his work in our hearts this morning as we read about the return of the King. We give it to you in your name. Amen. So today we are talking about the return of the king. And that phrase might bring to mind different images or stories. I thought of the Lion King. If you know that story, you know the Simba returns to his kingdom that was taken over by his evil uncle. I thought of J.R.R. Tolkien's famous trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. The final book of that trilogy is called The Return of the King. That's actually the title of the book. And you know, these storylines are often similar. That the kingdom has been usurped from the rightful heir to the throne by a wicked enemy. And because of that, the kingdom and its subjects have been brought to the very brink of despair and disaster by this overwhelming evil. Many in some of these scenarios, many think that the king is dead or they have looked for the rightful king to come back for so long that they've lost hope that he's never coming back. And just when you think that evil might actually win this time. The rightful heir makes his dramatic entrance, right? That's how the movies and the stories go. He is the one and only person who can defeat the enemy, who can restore the kingdom to its previous glory. He has finally returned to vanquish all who oppose him, to right all of the wrongs that have been done, to restore peace to his people, and to resurrect the splendor of his kingdom. Authors and movie writers know how to spin a tale, don't they? That will captivate our minds and our hearts. But there's somebody who had first dibs on this story. His kingdom really has been usurped by a wicked enemy. His kingdom and his subjects have been brought to the very brink of despair and disaster by overwhelming evil. At one point, this true king really was dead. Some of his loyal subjects saw it with their own eyes. Their king died in front of them. And now his faithful subjects are looking for this king to return, and we have waited for millennia. And it is easy to lose hope because it has been so long. And just when we might be tempted to think that evil might actually win this time, the rightful heir will make his dramatic entrance. He is the one and the only person who can defeat the enemy and restore the kingdom to its previous glory because the king has finally returned. He will vanquish all who oppose him. He will right all wrongs. He will restore peace to his people, and he will resurrect the splendor of his kingdom. And this tale should captivate not only our minds and our hearts, but our souls as well, because it is a true story. The king is coming back. The king of the universe will indeed return. And girlfriends, it is going to be so good. So good. far beyond any Hollywood special effects, far beyond any author's perfectly crafted words, far beyond our wildest imaginations, will be the return of our King. And it will be a day unlike any that the universe has ever or will ever see. And we read about it in Revelation chapter 19. So turn there if you haven't already. Oh, I'm sorry. We read the first five verses last week, so we're going to start at verse 6, Revelation 19. At the beginning of that chapter, they praise the Lord over the fall of Babylon, which we talked about last week. Then in verse 6, it says, Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude. like the roar of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. For it was granted her to clothe herself in fine linens, pure and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. I'm going to stop there for a minute. Before we get to our king, we're going to briefly discuss the marriage supper of the lamb. So in Bible times, marriage was their greatest celebration and social event. It was far more elaborate, far longer than what our culture does today. There were three stages to it, which I have in your notes, number one being betrothal. So that's what goes in your blank there. The first stage was betrothal. We might kind of think of that as engagement, though for them it was much more involved than our engagements are. Their engagements were legally binding, so it could only be broken by divorce. So it had to be a legal thing that they would go through to break that contract. Both sets of parents would sign this contract. They were considered legally married, but did not live together. And it was often signed years before the bride and groom had even reached marriageable age. So it was a time of preparation, a time of preparation for both the bride and the groom. The bride would kind of learn how to be a mom and a wife, while the groom would prepare a place for his bride. Also, you see there that the bride was purchased with a dowry, sometimes by the groom or by the groom's parents. In many cultures, it's the father of the bride that gives the dowry. But in the Jewish tradition, it was the groom or the groom's parents that would pay the dowry to purchase the bride. So that was the first stage. The second stage was presentation. So that's number two on your blank. Presentation. So this is when the groom would finish building this home for his bride. The groom's father would decide when the groom was ready. If you're here for our rapture lesson, we talked a little bit about this during that. The father of the groom would decide the groom is ready He'd give him the go-ahead the groom would go to the home of his bride and get her so she had to pretty much always be ready because she didn't know when he's going to show up and He would go to claim her take his bride back to the home that he had prepared for her. So that was presentation Then there was a marriage supper. So that's number three and That was the lengthy part of the celebration. This is a celebration that could take up to a week or even more, depending on your social and economic status. And it was during this ceremony when vows were exchanged that granted full rights, responsibilities, and privileges to the couple as husband and wife. And the Bible often uses the imagery of marriage to describe the relationship between Jesus and the church. So when we get down to the marriage supper of the Lamb, our groom is Jesus. He is going to be the groom in this marriage supper. The bride is the church. And hopefully, if you look back at the notes under vitroism presentation and marriage supper, you can kind of see the similarities between our relationship with Jesus as being the church and what they did in their culture. So, for example, the betrothal for us is the moment of salvation. That's in your blank. We are betrothed to Jesus at the moment we put our trust in him through faith that he died on the cross and rose from the dead and that he paid the price for our sins. We are betrothed to him. So it's a binding relationship. It's not an engagement where we can take our ring off and say, you know, I don't want to be engaged anymore. Someone who is truly saved can never be unsaved. You can't lose your salvation. So it's a binding relationship that is awaiting completion. We see similarities with the preparation, because preparation is the rapture. We talked about that. That's in your blank. We talked about that during our rapture lesson. But preparation is the rapture and the judgment seat of Christ. So I don't know if you were... Oh, am I on here? There we go. Okay. Okay, so we're talking about second coming today. So in John chapter 14, this is Jesus' words. He's talking about how he goes to prepare a place and will come back for his followers, for his bride. So this is what he's doing now while we are having a time of preparation here ourselves, learning to be more like, hopefully learning to be more like Jesus as we live in this life. But then there's also this thing that's called the judgment seat of Christ. So when the rapture happens and we're taken up to heaven, the church will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. It's also called the Bema seat. And hopefully you got one over there. If you didn't, you can snag it later. I put a chart of judgments. there, because there's different judgments that the Bible talks about. And I thought this is just kind of an easy way to maybe wrap our minds around some of these. And we'll talk about some in the coming weeks. But this bema seat, it happens after the rapture. It happens in heaven. It's for everybody who lived during the church age. So not just those who are raptured alive, but also the dead bodies that are then reunited with their souls in heaven with glorified bodies. So all the church. And this judgment seat, is not about whether you're saved. So don't be nervous about that. You're saying if you're saved, you're saved. You can't lose your salvation. If you're in heaven, you're not going to be booted out because your works didn't live up to somebody else's. But this judgment seat of Christ And yes, while there probably will be some answering for sins that we have committed, the primary focus is rewards. Rewards for the faithfulness that we showed when we lived this life on the earth. Did we use our opportunities, our gifts, our abilities, our time, the lives that God gave us to serve him? Were we faithful? And so this is what this judgment is about. It's about getting rewards or loss of rewards. In verse 8, we read in Revelation 19, it talks about how the bride is clothed in fine linen, pure and white, and it says the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. So that's what that is. God, at the judgment seat of Christ, at the Bema seat, He's going to take care of our sin. And all the works that we did that maybe seemingly were forgot, maybe we did serve in the church and do these things, but God knows our hearts, right? Maybe our motives were off. Those works aren't going to stand. But God knows the ones where we were faithful, and our hearts were right, and we were serving the Lord, and those works will stand up. And that's what the righteous deeds of the saints are. And so this is a presentation where we're getting ready for the ceremony, where we where the bride well and truly becomes purified we see in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25 to 27 it says husbands of your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. And that's what's going to happen at the Bema Seat. And notice, Jesus does all the work in all of these verses. He cleanses her. He presents her without spot and wrinkle, that she might be holy. He sanctifies her. He gave himself up for her. Jesus does the work. We just get to be made pure. How amazing is that? And even be rewarded of all things, to be rewarded. And the Bible says, you know, even if you give a cup of cold water to the least of these, God does not forget it. What a generous God we have. It's just going to be amazing to see to be part of this and to be made into his truly pure and spotless bride, purged from sin, purged from impurity, ready for the third stage, which is the ceremony, which I have in your notes. The ceremony is the third stage, and that's the marriage supper of the lamb. So when is the marriage supper of the lamb? Well, there's debate on that. That's why I kind of put it in your little chart there on your notes. Uh, some people think that it will happen at this same time. So once that judgment beam of seat judgment has happened, then we will launch into the marriage supper of the lamb and celebrate that in heaven while the tribulation is going on on earth, because it does talk about invited guests. In verse nine, it says, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. So if that's the case, the invited guests are going to be the old Testament saints. People like Noah, David, Abraham, Sarah, Esther, those guys who weren't part of the church, they're invited as the guests to the marriage supper of the Lamb. However, there are some who think that The seven years will be all preparation, and that the marriage supper of the Lamb will be during the Millennial Kingdom. And it will be something that will be celebrated on earth, not in heaven. And if that's the case, as it says on your chart, then our guests will not only be the Old Testament saints, but the Tribulation saints. So the people who lived during the Tribulation trusted Christ as their Savior, and either they died during the Tribulation or they managed to survive. But those believers then will also be the guests that come for this marriage supper of the lamb. And I suppose there's no way to really know. I guess if I had to lean one way or the other, I'd probably think that it's going to be during the millennial kingdom. Because when you've got eternity, you can have a marriage feast that lasts for 1,000 years. I mean, that's like a drop in the bucket. So that's all good there. But I guess we'll see. We'll see when that marriage supper happens. So that's about the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then it goes on to verse 10 and says, Then I fell down at his feet. So this is the angel who just invited the people to the supper, and this is John. I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is a spirit of prophecy. So this scene, I mean, this opening scene to the return of the king, it's just so overwhelming and powerful for John that it seems that he temporarily forgets himself. Because John knows good and well that he's only supposed to worship God. He's not supposed to worship an angel. But I mean, you've got to admit, the poor guy has had some serious stimulation overload at this point. So he just kind of forgets himself. He falls at the feet of the angel. He's instantly rebuked and called back to his senses. I'm just a fellow servant. You only worship God. And now we get to the main event. You know, although believers are very familiar with the first coming of Jesus, it's actually the second coming that gets far more ink in the Bible. The references of Jesus' second coming outnumber those to his first by a factor of 8 to 1. There are over 1,800 references in the Bible about Jesus' second coming. In the New Testament, the topic that is talked about the most is faith, but the second coming is number two. It's the second most talked about thing in the New Testament, the second coming of Jesus, the return of the king. We cannot hype this too much. The king is coming back. So I'm going to let John attempt to describe this, since he is the one who saw it. And first he describes the conqueror, and then he describes his conquest. Verse 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 wages war. 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. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, hope that sounds familiar to you, 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 Almighty on his robe and on his thigh. He has a name written, King of Kings. and Lord of Lords. We see John open here with this glorious, magnificent, awesome, jaw-dropping description of the King. This is the same Jesus who came the first time as a humble baby in a manger, but the second time he is going to show himself quite differently. The first time he came to this planet, hardly anyone knew that he was even here. But the second time, no one will miss it. The first time, he came as the Lamb of God, to give himself willingly for the sins of the world. The second time, he is coming as the Lion of Judah, who will bring justice to the world. He will not be riding a lowly donkey, but he will be on a majestic white horse. He will not be simply called Jesus. Is that Joseph's son? But he will have many powerful names that are reserved exclusively for him. He will not be dressed in the garb of a simple carpenter, but he will be wearing a glorious white robe dipped in blood. At this point, he will not be speaking words of grace and healing and mercy, but instead words of wrath and judgment and justice. He will not be holding a reed that was forced into his hand as a mock scepter, but instead he will rule the nations with a rod of iron. He will not be wearing a crown of thorns on his head, But instead he will be wearing many diadems, which in the Greek is the word for the crowns of a king. Are you pumped yet? We see at least four titles of Jesus in these few short verses. The first one in your notes, it's faithful and true. That is in direct contrast to the Antichrist who has plagued the world with wickedness and deception. Jesus will be faithful and true. The second title we see is Word of God. Word is in your blank there. The Word of God, which was a frequent reference to Jesus and one that would have been very familiar to John. He opened the Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He's talking about Jesus. He knows who this is, the Word of God. Third title, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Just in case there's anybody who might be unclear or unsure as to who this guy is, he's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And then there's this interesting note that he has a name written on himself that nobody knows but him. So there's certainly no point in speculating because we don't know what it is. But why would the Bible then even bother to mention it? Well, we don't know exactly, but perhaps it indicates a unique relationship that Jesus has with the Father and the Holy Spirit that no one else shares. Kind of this this name within the Godhead that they use only among themselves Indicating kind of this intimate personal relationship You know, it's kind of interesting to note that if this is what that's referring to and you know, we can't say for sure obviously But it is interesting to note that it seems that this same type of relationship might be extended to everyone who puts their trust in Jesus because there's a verse in Revelation chapter 2 verse 17 and Talking about to believers and Jesus saying I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it and So some seem to think some scholars seem to think that this means that when we get to heaven we might have a special name that only God gives us and only God uses with us Isn't that cool? That's just so amazing to me. I mean, I thought of, and I have no idea where this name even came from, but for as long as I could remember, when I was a little grown up, my dad had this nickname, he called me Crizzle Toe. I have no clue where that came up, where that came up within his brain, but he called me Crizzle Toe. And I loved that because it was so unique And it was only dad that would call me that. Every once in a while, my brother would call me that, and he would do it just to, you know, ruffle my feathers, because I hate it. I'm like, Jeremy, only dad calls me that. Because that was my special name with dad, right? It was this indication of this intimate, personal thing. So perhaps this is what Jesus will do for each one of us, a special name. But we see the greatness here of Jesus not only in His names, but also in the description of what He looks like. Your next point there is His eyes are like a flame of fire. His eyes see all, even into the hearts of men in order to discern our thoughts and our motives. You see the second blank there? He is wearing many crowns. And as I mentioned, there's different words in the Greek for crown. This is not the word for a victor's garland that is sometimes used like the winner of an athletic competition would get like a wreath in the Olympic Games, you know, that would be a victor's garland. It's not that word. This word is talking about sovereign authority, talking about golden bands. They were only reserved for a king, these crowns, so by him having many crowns, showing that he is the undisputed monarch of the world. We see number four there, that he is wearing a robe that is dipped in blood. And there are some commentaries and scholars out there who say that this is Jesus' blood, you know, to show that he died on the cross. I adamantly disagree with that. Jesus blood was spilled on the cross and it will never be spilled again ever By anybody there is no need for it to be the blood of Jesus which then begs the question Well, where whose blood is this? Where did it come from? It's the blood of his enemies Now you might think well, wait a minute though hasn't the conquest hasn't started yet like where did the blood come from well the Battle of Armageddon hasn't started yet and But that might not be his first stop. We know from other passages of scripture that when Jesus returns, he is going to return to the Mount of Olives. This is a picture of people standing on the Mount of Olives looking down at Jerusalem. This is another picture where you're in Jerusalem and looking up to the Mount of Olives. And there is a verse in Zechariah that talks about that he will return to the Mount of Olives. It says, And the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. So that day his feet will land on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley. So that one half of the mountain shall move northward and the other half southward. So at the moment that Jesus' feet touch the Mount of Olives, it's going to be split in part and create a broad valley from Jerusalem to Jericho. And just kind of a side note, in 2004, there was a geographical survey of Israel. And in that study, it showed that the Mount of Olives is at imminent risk for an earthquake. And that's because they detected a fault line that is running right down the middle of the Mount of Olives. And guess which direction it's running? East to west. Now granted, God don't need no fault line if he wants to split the Mount of Olives. But it's just another proof that scripture is true. I mean, there's no way Zachariah's going to know that thousands of years ago. And yet, here's a fault line. It's going to split just the way he said it's going to. But obviously, the Mount of Olives is right by Jerusalem. But as we talked about, the Battle of Armageddon, if you were here a couple of weeks ago when we talked about the bowl judgments, that's going to happen in a place called the Valley of Jezreel, which is about 60 miles north. So here's Jerusalem. This is the Jezreel Valley. And here is where the Battle of Armageddon is going to happen. So the Mount of Olives is down here. Battle of Armageddon happens up here. So where is he coming? I mean, is he coming to the Mount of Olives? Is he coming to The Valley of Jezreel, what's the deal? Well, he's God. For one thing, he's omnipresent, so he can be at both at the same time if he wants. Or, perhaps, he's at the Mount of Olives first, and then he goes to the Jezreel Valley. I'm pretty sure his horse can cover that territory pretty fast. I bet he's got the fastest one out of the stable. So, you know, I have no problem with that. So it could be that potentially this blood that they see on his robe as he's coming down to fight the Battle of Armageddon, potentially it's blood from enemies that he faced at the Mount of Olives. So it could be it wasn't his first stop. But the point is that he will absolutely bear the stains of the blood of his enemies because he will be the victor. But nothing is going to stain his garments like the final battle, like the Battle of Armageddon. That's going to be the big one. We also read that a number five is a sword comes out of his mouth with which he will strike down the nations. Now, whether that's a literal, it's kind of an odd picture when we think about a sword coming out of somebody's mouth. And I suppose that could be what's happening. But oftentimes the word of God is called the sword. So it could just be Jesus' word. I mean, Jesus doesn't even need a weapon. All he has to do is say the word, and people will drop down dead. So this could just mean his word, because that is certainly the only weapon he needs. We also read that he will rule the nations with a rod of iron. That's in your blank, rod of iron. That will come a little bit later into play next week with the Millennial Kingdom, how he will rule the world. And we also read that he's followed by the armies of heaven. And hopefully, well, as we read, it said that his army has robes that are fine linen, white and pure. There is no blood on the army's robes. Because we're not doing any of the fighting. We're more like cheerleaders. Army's kind of a stretch. We're more like cheerleaders. Because this is going to be us, ladies. This is going to be us. All believers will return from heaven with Jesus riding horses in the sky. I mean, do heights or horses scare you? Is that why you're not excited? I promise they won't bother you on that day. I promise. It's going to be amazing. And we are simply there to be witnesses of His glory and to praise Him for His power and His justice. And we know from other passages that angels are going to be part of this army as well. So this is going to be an innumerable army. It kind of brought to my mind almost these fantasy images from Narnia, right? Where you see humans and these otherworldly creatures just following after Jesus. standing united side by side in order to serve the almighty God of the universe. Ladies, what a privilege that He would let us be there and that He would give us a place of honor like that. What a divine privilege and a holy honor that we will someday follow the captain of the heavenly armies into battle. It blows my mind. That's the Conqueror. Now the conquest. I know you don't have a lot of notes left, but don't be deceived. I guarantee we'll go till 1030. When Jesus returns to the earth, you know, it's really not... Oh, I think I missed... Let me back up a little bit. So there's the Valley of Armageddon. I was just gonna show that to you again. We had that a couple weeks ago. And this was a verse in Isaiah that talked about I even skipped that part. So here's even another part. So he'll return to the Mount of Olives. He will be at the Valley of Jezreel. But then Isaiah 63 also talks about Basra, which Basra is south of Jerusalem. So this is just a prophecy that says who comes from Edom and crimson to peril. So see, it already says that there's blood on his garment. So who comes from Edom, crimson garments from Basra, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? It is I, this is Jesus speaking, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is your apparel red and your garments like his who tread in the winepress? Jesus answers, I have trodden the winepress alone, alone. He'll fight it alone. And from the peoples, no one was with me. I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath, their lifeblood on my garments, and stained all my apparel. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come." So there's another geographic location. Like I said, Basra is south of Jerusalem. So again, this could be a reason why he's already got the blood-stained garments. because he might be making several stops before he gets to the Battle of Armageddon. Okay. Conquest. So reclaiming the earth, when Jesus comes back to reclaim the earth, it's really not quite as simple as planting his flag, because the earth needs to be cleansed. It needs to be taken care of. Just like if we bought a fixer-upper, we wouldn't dream of moving into a house that was infested with mold and rats. We're going to clean it up first before we move in. And Jesus is going to do the same. He's going to clean it up. He's going to clean up this planet before he moves in. Because all rebellion must be rooted out. who was the great grandfather of Noah. He was the first one of only two men to be taken up into heaven without dying, and he was a prophet. We don't really know much about him because the Bible doesn't tell us much, but in Jude, verses 14 and 15, Enoch, all the way back in Noah's day, talked about the second coming of Jesus. He wasn't talking about the flood here because the details don't match the judgment of the flood. So Jude says, it was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, behold, the Lord came with thousands of his holy ones. That's his second coming. Thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds, which they had done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Enoch knew a thing or two about ungodly men. He lived in the days of Noah. He says it four times here, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly. And even just seven generations from Adam, way back then, even then Enoch is saying there is going to be a day when God's patience reaches an expiration date. And he's going to come with his thousands and he's going to take care of the ungodly. Because justice can't always tolerate injustice. Truth can't forever tolerate lies. Rebellion can't be permitted to go on without end. Hardened sinners will face destruction because mercy that's been abused and grace that has been rejected is going to bring judgment, and it is time for Jesus to clean house. And so as we talked about, this massive army will gather in the Jezreel Valley And they come together, the armies of the world, and we talked about this a couple weeks ago if you were here, either it's kind of civil war against the Antichrist because they're a little fed up with his administration, or they've come together to destroy the nation of Israel to finally try to exterminate all the Jews once and for all, or it's a combination of those two motivations. But Satan knows the real deal. Satan has gathered them there because he knows that Jesus is coming, and so he puts together his piddly little army in his last desperate attempt to stop Jesus from coming. So they gather in this valley, but before a single shot can be fired, they get the surprise of their lives. Because the moment has arrived that has been predestined from eternity past, when every eye on the battlefield is going to not look at the opponent across the battlefield from them, but it is going to look up and realize they got some really big problems. One big problem, I should say. The true adversary has arrived. And as John says in verse 11, Jesus is there to judge and to make war. This scene that we will read, it is both beautiful and brutal. It is awesome and awful. It is triumphant and it's terrifying. It's victorious and it's vicious. It is glorious and it's gory. And this is just how fearless and authentic the word of God is. Because it doesn't hold back when perhaps the truth might make us a little bit uncomfortable. Verse 17, Revelation 19. 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, the Antichrist, and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. 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 sits on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. The armies of the world have no defense. They have no counterattack. They will be crushed like grapes in a wine press. That's mentioned earlier in the chapter. It's mentioned in Isaiah, and that's in your blank. The armies of the world will be crushed like grapes in a wine press. And the carnage will be so great. And we talked about this also a couple of weeks ago. There's a reference to it in Revelation chapter 14. where the blood will flow for a distance of about 200 miles, possibly to the depth of four and a half feet, otherwise it splatters up to four and a half feet, but an unimaginable river of blood that results because of the carnage at the Battle of Armageddon. Zephaniah describes it this way. Zephaniah chapter 1, 17 and 18, I will bring distress on mankind so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed, for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth." Zechariah describes it this way, Zechariah chapter 14, verses 12 and 13. And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet. Their eyes will rot in their sockets. Their tongues will rot in their mouths. And on that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other." It's going to be ugly. It seems that some of them kill each other in the confusion. Some kind of have this terrible plague that seems to rot them as they stand. It's carnage like we can't even begin to imagine. Number two on your blanks, the birds will feast on massive piles of decaying human and animal flesh. It will litter the landscape for miles. The Greek word there for the fowl or the birds that are invited to come, it designates a scavenger bird. It's probably best translated as a vulture. Vultures are ravenous eaters, and they're going to descend immediately to feed on all these corpses. There's going to be ugly birds ripping into the carcasses of millions in a 200-mile radius. It's a horrifying spectacle. We can't even begin to fathom. Words aren't even adequate to describe the horror of this disgusting, nauseating, stomach-curdling scene. You know, I kind of wondered, when the angel calls out to the birds and tells them to gather for this supper to eat the flesh of all these people, I wonder, will only the birds hear that, or will the men hear it? Will the people gathered there hear the angel tell the birds, come, you're about to feed on their dead bodies? Will that be the moment when it finally hits them that their fate has been sealed? And we see the second supper we find in this passage quite different from the marriage supper of the lamb. These birds are invited to the great supper of God. Because of blatant Blasphemy and their vile sins the Antichrist and the false prophet earn a unique and unwanted distinction They will be the very first to be sent to the lake of fire That's in your blank there the Antichrist and the false prophet will be thrown alive into the lake of fire the lake of fire is the final place of eternal suffering and Note that they're taken there alive You know, it's only happened twice so far that anyone's been taken alive from the earth to their eternal destination. And that's been Enoch and Elijah, and they got to go to heaven. These two are going to the lake of fire. Right now, when people die who didn't trust Jesus as their Savior, they go to a place known as Hades, in the Word of God. It's kind of a temporary holding place for unbelievers. Not temporary in the sense that it's some kind of purgatory, that they're eventually going to be restored to the Lord. It's just that's where they're being held now. And the Lake of Fire is hell in its eternal form. The Lake of Fire is the place that is permanent. permanent place of incarceration and punishment it is eventually we're all unbelievers and Satan will join the Antichrist and the false prophets We'll get to that next week But we'll see next week that Satan and other believers a thousand years from this point a thousand years from the return of Jesus are sent to the lake of fire and The Antichrist and the false prophet are still there So it's eternal There's a lot of churches and pastors out there who say hell isn't real and it's not forever. That is not what the Word of God says. As much as I would like to believe, honestly, that it's not real and it's not forever, I don't get to decide what's true and what's not. The Word of God tells us what's true. And that's what's true. And then we see that the rest of the world's armies who remain on the battlefield after the Antichrist and the False Prophet get their special punishment, All those who are opposed to Jesus will be killed by him that's in your blank the rest of the world's armies will be killed by Jesus himself Perhaps with a sword or like I said, he simply could just say the word and they are killed We'll go a little bit into Revelation chapter 20 to talk about the fate of Satan at this point and Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. We'll talk about that release next week. But for now, we're just going to talk about this imprisonment. We see a strong angel comes with a key and a chain. I kind of hope it's Michael because I kind of think he deserves this honor. But we don't know which angel this is. But a strong angel will come. He will grab Satan. He will bind him with a chain. He will throw him into the bottomless pit. So that's in your blank. Satan is bound for a thousand years in the bottomless pit. You could also put abyss there. If you were here for our for the judgments where the demons were coming out of the abyss, out of the bottomless pit. At that point, it was unlocked so that these demons could pour out onto the earth during the tribulation to cause havoc and death and destruction and pain. Now it's going to be locked up again because a demon no longer has the key. An angel has the key. They've gotten it back. So this is that place where imprisoned demons even now are awaiting future judgment. This is that place we talked about where when the man called Legion had all the demons inside of him and Jesus was commanding him to come out and they said, please don't send us to the bottomless pit. Please don't send us to the abyss. So Jesus sent them instead as pigs. This is that place. Demons don't want to go there. So this heavenly angel will do the opposite. The fallen angel in chapter 9, like I said, was given the key to release hordes of demons. Now this heavenly angel will do the opposite. He'll bind Satan with a chain, throw him into the abyss, seal it up. Satan will no longer have any influence whatsoever on mankind or on any of creation. But sadly, as we will talk about next week, that doesn't mean that people will be incapable of sinning during the millennial kingdom, because they will. Maybe you've heard me share this story before, but I just think it just fits so well. I love this guy. I've got to meet this guy in heaven someday. This is a story I read in a commentary once preparing for a lesson, and it fits so well. The story goes, ascending to the throne as Caesar of Rome in AD 360, Flavius Claudius Julianus reinstated pagan worship which had been abolished under the rule of Constantine. So this is one of the rulers of Rome, obviously reinstating pagan worship. With diabolical fury, this ruler opposed the followers of Christ, whom he viewed as powerful enemies of his gods. With fanatical resolve, he sought to remove Christianity from the face of the earth. History records that Julianists persecuted many Christians and took the lives of many who stood for their faith in Christ. In an attempt to entertain some of his friends, Julianists taunted one believer, a man named Agaton. With so many Christians being put to death, the emperor asked him, and I'm sure his voice was dripping with sarcasm, the emperor asked him, how is your carpenter of Nazareth? Is he finding work these days? Without hesitation, Agaton replied, he is perhaps taking time away from building mansions for the faithful in order to build a coffin for your empire. Mike, drop. I mean, I'm not real sure how much longer Agaton lived after that moment. But I like that dude. Oh my goodness. I love that story because Agaton was right. He was absolutely right. Centuries have passed. The Roman Empire has risen and fallen along with countless other power-hungry empires and kingdoms and governments and dictatorships throughout history. One day a human kingdom will arrive under the Antichrist It will be the greatest most powerful human empire that the world has ever seen it will rule the world and Yet it is going to fall with unparalleled carnage simply because a word comes from the mouth of Jesus And when Jesus returns, he will establish his kingdom, the only one that will never be defeated, that will never be conquered, that will never be overthrown. That is the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It will last forever and no one will be able to conquer it. So ladies, let us be encouraged for a couple of things, I hope, today. You on the day that Jesus returns, that's going to be a day of reckoning. That's a day when the sides have been chosen, when the lines have been drawn, when allegiances have been pledged. And for everyone who decides to shake their fist at God, and for everyone who decides to harden their hearts against him, and for everyone who decides that they're going to continue to defy him, At that moment, when they hear that birds are being invited to gorge themselves on their dead bodies, they're going to realize that they picked the wrong side. And my prayer, first of all, is that you're on the right side. I hope you're all on the right side. That you've trusted Christ as our Savior, as your Savior, personally, as your Lord and Savior, because He died on the cross for you. And for those of us, hopefully all of us who do know the Lord, who do know Jesus as our Savior, even though this passage really has some horrible graphic things in it, it also gives us such a glorious hope. You know, we live in a world right now where the world seems completely upside down. Doesn't it? Every time I turn on the news, I think I've heard it all, and then I hear something, I'm like, are you kidding me? We turn on the news or we read social media and it skyrockets our anxiety levels. In a time when we get discouraged because our nation seems to be throwing off every God-given restraint by calling right wrong and wrong right. In a time when technology is creating a world in which societies can be controlled behind the scenes like never before and by a fewer and fewer select group of people. When things like pandemics, struggling economies, racial tensions, corrupt governments, divisive elections, natural disasters, riots, protests, and wars seem to plague us every day. In a time when powerful and influential people seem to be in total control, and they are promoting evil agendas, and they are getting away with sin, and they are getting away with crime, because no one seems willing to do anything about it, or no one is able to do anything about it. May we be reminded that all of those circumstances, all of those events, all of those people are simply pawns in the hand of our God, who even now is setting the stage for the glorious return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The King is going to return. Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 says, Therefore God has highly exalted him, Jesus, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. It promises in that verse, ladies, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. And it's going to happen. And it's going to happen one of two ways. It's going to happen willingly or unwillingly, but either way, everybody's going to do it. And what folly it is, what folly it is to rebel against the Lord. Because one way or another, everybody's bowing the knee. So you might as well do it willingly, because you don't want to be one who did it unwillingly. And when you get a little discouraged by what's happening in the world around us, when you think that that return of Jesus is just a little too far away for my liking, I do this many times now. It's because I study prophecy and taught on this passage a few times. It's not quite every day, but it's a lot. I often look to the sky and I think to myself, someday, I'm going to ride a horse up there. And if you can say that and truly believe it, Not smile then there's something wrong with you. I mean unless you really really hate horses, but I promise you will like them on that day, but it's it's just I Have no words Which is rare for me, you know that it's just that is our hope ladies and may we also be inspired to share that hope with others and may our hearts be broken for those who don't know Jesus and Because we don't want those things to happen to them. I... I should turn off the mic for this so I don't get recorded. But there's a song, you know the song, Crown Him With Many Crowns? It was written by a man named Matthew Bridges, and it was actually inspired by Revelation 19. Because he read the passage that said, on his head are many diadems. And so he started thinking, what could we crown Jesus with? And so if you know that hymn, it talks about crown him the Lord of life, crown him the Lord of peace, crown him the Lord of heaven, crown him the Lord of love, crown him the Lord of years. He just tries to keep coming up with all these things that we can crown Jesus with because he is the King of Kings. And so I found a verse that maybe isn't quite as familiar. At least it wasn't to me, but I just thought, it'd be a good way to end. We could sing a verse of the song together. And I'll just end my recording here so you don't have to listen to me sing online.