If you would this morning, I want you to turn to Revelation chapter 19. Put your marker in Revelation 19 and then make your way back to Psalm 2. Revelation 19 and then go back to Psalm 2 will be in both this morning because they go hand in glove. While you're doing that, I just want to remind you because it has been a few weeks since we've been here, But the book of Psalms is essentially the ancient Jewish hymn book. They were songs that were sung, which is one reason why I like singing psalms, because you're singing the Word of God, and I love that. But psalms is not one book with 150 chapters, they're individual psalms, but they are divided by five books or five scrolls. And the first book of the psalms is the first psalm through Psalm 41. And each book of the psalms has a slightly different theme. And the theme in book one is human suffering and the need for divine deliverance. We see that even in Psalm 2. This suffering that it's talking about is the suffering that comes from being ruled by wicked leaders. When the wicked are in control, the people mourn. I hope you know that. That's always been the case. The only difference in America, while it lasts, is that our forefathers had enough sense to realize that when people get too much power, they abuse it. Now they're doing their dead level best to work around that and one day they will, but that's the only difference in what we experience today and what's always been the case. And so there's suffering involved with that. Now I preached the first part of this message before we left to go to Mississippi, so I wanna remind you that Psalm 2 is a royal psalm. The first half has to do with the first coming of Christ, the first advent. And the second half of the psalm has to do with His second coming or His second advent. There are those that, and I know good Christian people that disagree about the end times, so I'm not slamming anybody. I firmly am premillennial in my belief of the second coming of Christ. So were the patristic fathers the first few centuries of the church. They were firmly, unequivocally premillennial in their belief. But what happens is, is when you read something like Psalm 2, There's not necessarily the clearest transition between one thing and another. We just know by the totality of Scripture what it's talking about. And a lot of people think that Christ fulfilled everything in His first coming. and that basically the church is Israel. We are the fulfillment of what God set out to do with Israel. Although I do believe the church is a spiritual Israel, I do not think that God is through with Jerusalem. I don't think He's done with the Temple Mount. I don't think He's done with the nation of Israel. In fact, listen, the mere fact that Israel exists as a nation, listen, the nation of Israel is a walking, talking apologetic. Because no other people have ever been dispersed, not once, but twice. This last time they were dispersed, they didn't have a nation. From A.D. 70 when Rome basically destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, everybody ran all over the world to save their lives, and they did not get their nation back until 1948. Are you kidding me? Have you ever met an ancient Hittite? Or a Perizzite? Or a Jebusite? Now that's parasite, not parasite, okay? I know you might have met some of them. How is that even possible? It's because God's not done yet. And listen, there were countless people, even prior to 1948, that said, hey, Israel's going to have to get their nation back. Well, if anybody had made a prediction like that without the aid of Scripture, and it came true, we would call them a prophet. But they weren't a prophet, they were just quoting the prophets who had already spoken on the matter. And so, while I love my brothers that I disagree with, you cannot completely spiritualize everything that Jesus did at His first coming, because we're going to read some things today that did not happen in AD 70. They have not happened yet. But I do rejoice in this. Every Bible-believing Christian believes that Christ is coming back and that He will judge the world in righteousness, and on that we can rejoice. But I can still be clear about what I believe and what I'm going to teach you from the Scriptures this morning. And so the second half of this psalm, I preached the first half. We're going to see this. Jesus Christ fulfilled the first four verses of this psalm in His death, burial, and resurrection. We saw that clearly, did we not? From Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 13. When Luke, the writer, and obviously the writer of Hebrews reiterated this in chapter 1. that he fulfilled these things. In fact, let's just read the first four verses. It says, Why did the heathen rage? That's talking about the Gentile nations. And the people, that's talking about the Jewish leaders. Imagine a vain thing. Well, the vain thing was crucifying God. You can't get away with that. The kings of the earth, that's the Roman rulers, and the rulers, that's talking about the Sanhedrin, take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Well, they had them in derision because three days later, He rose from the dead. They'd never seen anybody do that before. I can't imagine the terror, the fear, the confusion and all the things that somebody would feel of seeing the person you murdered rise from the dead. That would not be a good day in my life. And so, but that was fulfilled and we don't have to guess about that because the New Testament writers told us specifically what Psalm 2 was talking about. In fact, Psalm 2 is the most quoted text in all of the Bible. We see it several times in the New Testament. And so with that in mind, let's go ahead and read the next part of our text that has to do with the second coming of Christ. Verse 5, then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sword as pleasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me. Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way. When His wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are they that put their trust in Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love You and we worship You. God, we're just so thankful. for the unity of this body of believers. We're thankful for just the spirit here today, Lord. Lord, the joy of fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ, the joy of singing these great songs, and Lord, of being under the preaching of your word, and we thank you for salvation in Christ. We're so blessed, God. I don't even think we really have enough knowledge to be as thankful as we should be, Lord, but we've got it good. It's a lot better than it should be, and I'm so thankful for that. Lord, I pray that you fill me with your Holy Spirit, empty me of sin and self. I pray that Christ would be magnified and preached and that, Lord, the message would be clear. And Lord, just remove me out of the way, and we'll thank you and praise you for it. In Christ's name I pray these things, amen. We're looking today at The King is Coming, part two. And what I want to do is I'm just going to walk through verses 5 through 12 in Psalm 2, give you these clear principles of Scripture, and then just like last time, I'm going to go to the New Testament in Revelation chapter 19 where we get John's commentary on what we're reading here. This is not just Brandon, this is Bible here. I don't have to guess as to what the psalmist was talking about. And if you look at verse 5, I told you what verses 1-4 are talking about, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ at His first advent, His first coming. But then in verse 5 it says, This seems to be a transitional word because then can mean right at that moment or it can mean after the fact, after these things are done. And I think the latter is the proper interpretation. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath. I believe he's talking specifically about the leaders of the world at this point. And vex them in his sore displeasure. I think this is speaking of the great tribulation that's going to come. I think verse 5 is a transitional verse between the first and second coming of Christ. See, what we believe the Bible teaches is that for the believers, for the church of Christ, that one day the Lord is going to just snatch us away from this world. We call it the rapture, and even though the word rapture is not in the Bible, I think the principle is clearly there, just like with the Trinity. The word missionary is not in the King James Bible. Nobody would deny that there are missionaries in the Word of God. And so we believe that we're going to be called out, and for those that are left, they're going to have to endure a seven-year period of the wrath of God being poured out on this world, the likes of which have never been seen. We're going to see that here in a minute. But then at the end of that seven-year tribulation period, that is when Christ makes His second coming. And I've often heard critics of this position say, well, you know, you actually believe in three comings of Christ. That is a straw man. Because in the rapture, Christ does not come to the earth. We go up to Him to meet Him in the air. You can find this very clearly in places like 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I believe you can see it at the beginning of Revelation chapter 4. And so that's a straw man. Christ does not come back. We go to Him at the rapture to meet the Lord in the air. That's exactly what 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 says. The second coming is a different event in which Christ actually comes to the earth to establish His earthly reign for a thousand years and on into eternity. We're going to see the distinction there as well, but I just want to lay some groundwork. By the time you get to verse 6, there's another transitional word here, yet. Even though He's going to judge the world and pour His wrath out upon the world, He is going to set his king. He says, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Now, this is important to know this. This holy hill of Zion, we know exactly what this is. This is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem from where the Lord is going to rule and reign. It's a physical place because it's going to be a physical kingdom. Here's another straw man I want to deal with while I'm here. I've often heard it said, well, you don't believe that the kingdom is now. You don't believe that Christ is reigning now. Seriously? He is absolutely ruling and reigning from the right hand of God the Father. He does what He wants to do and what He wants to do right now is let evil have its day because even that is accomplishing His purposes and then He's going to come. So, we don't believe in a not now and later. We believe in an already and not yet. The kingdom of God is absolutely active. It's a spiritual kingdom enacted through believers on this earth. If you're saved, you belong to the kingdom of God on this earth. But Christ is not physically ruling and reigning yet, but He will. from the holy hill of Zion. He goes on to say in verse 7, I will declare the decree, the Lord. Now, what do you notice about the word Lord there? We talked about this several times. It's all caps, every letter. L-O-R-D is all caps. That means Yahweh. And so we know this is talking about the covenant name of God, but then he said, I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, thou art my son. So we're talking about the son of Yahweh, the son of God. Does anybody have any trouble understanding who we're talking about right now? Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Now, there are people out there who do not believe that Christ is eternal, that He's not the eternal second person of the Godhead, and they completely rip this verse from its context to make it say that. What they say is, well, see, there was a day when the Son of God was begotten. So they say, well, there was a day where He was not. That is fallacious for several reasons, but I'm going to tell you why. This word begotten here actually has a few different meanings. And it literally means to bring forth. Now it certainly is true that when a woman begets a child, she brings forth that child into the world, but that is not what it's talking about here. It can also mean to put on display, to bring forth like in front of an audience. And this is exactly what it's talking about. On that day, God the Father is going to bring forth His Son as the King of the universe. It's going to be the coronation of Christ on this earth. Are you all excited about that? I'm excited about that. And in that day, He's going to be brought forth. He's going to be put on display. It's not talking about how He just came forth into existence. He's always been. So this is talking about the coronation of Christ. But then in verse 8, he says, of Christ, ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Now, I've already told you the heathen means Gentile nations and Gentile rulers. It's not just people that live like heathens. That's not the way the Bible is using that here. Now, this is, again, this is physical language. This is language that speaks of a physical rule and reign on this earth. The uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. The heathen for that inheritance. It's awful hard to reign over people who are dead. Who don't exist. It's hard to reign over an earth when every single thing about the kingdom is spiritual. That's just not good hermeneutics. It goes on to say, In verse 9, this is the verse that we need to pay particular attention to. I want you to burn this verse within your brain, at least for the rest of this message. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. This speaks of the judgment of the nations that takes place immediately at His second coming there at the end of the tribulation period. Just put a pin in that for a minute and we'll come back to it. Verse 10, be wise now therefore, oh you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are they that put their trust in him. And so this is basically his advice to the rulers of the world is repent and humble yourselves because the king is coming. In fact, this language here, kiss the sun, you know, it was not an uncommon practice for the kings of old to have their servants maybe kiss the emblem of the king on the ring that was on his hand, the signet ring. I'm sure you've probably read about that or maybe seen that in a movie or something. That's literally what he's saying. It was a symbol and a sign. of servitude and humility and allegiance to the King. And that is exactly what's being said here. Listen, when Christ comes, and even now, nobody is going to vote Him into office. Nobody's going to vote Him out. Nobody's going to kill Him or kick Him out. He's not going to die. He's not going to resign. He's not going to retire. And it doesn't matter who likes it. Like it or lump it. Take it across the street and dump it. It don't matter. Because He's in control. And that is the picture that's being painted here. But because we have the complete revelation of God in Scripture, we also have a much clearer picture of what this is going to look like. I want you to go ahead and go to Revelation chapter 19, and we're going to see the fulfillment of what we just read. This has not taken place yet. In the book of Revelation, this is the last book of the Bible for a reason. This is the close of the canon for a reason. And that is because Revelation is a prophecy of all things future all the way to eternity. All the way from the time that John wrote this into eternity future, God had him record everything that He wanted him to record. And so He doesn't want to give us any more scriptural revelation. If anybody says they come to you with new revelation, you know that they are a liar, liar, pants on fire. We don't have any new revelation because God's already given us His specific inspired revelation. But everything that John sees, even though we read about this as if it's already happened, what John saw, that vision has already happened, but the fulfillment of these visions have not happened yet. It's been 2,000 years approximately since John wrote these things, and I believe that on the prophetic timeline, I believe we're living in the last part of Revelation chapter 3 right now. So we have not got to this point. This is talking about the second coming of Christ here. Let's read Revelation 19 beginning in verse 11. And I saw heaven opened. And behold, a white horse and he that sat upon him was called fateful and true. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God." Does anybody have any doubt as to who we're talking about, especially in light of our John study? Verse 14, And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. Did we just read something about that? in Psalm 2 and verse 9. It's a direct quote from Psalm 2 and verse 9. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. And so, there's a few things this morning that I want you to know about the second coming of Christ and His millennial reign upon the earth and then we'll be done. The first thing I want you to know this morning about His coming and about His reign is number one, the promise of His coming. of His coming. Let's scan over verses 11 through 13 again. I saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. Look at verse 16. and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh name written king of kings and lord of lords." Now, I just want to throw this out here for the sake of doctrine. I think this is really important. There's a few reasons why any honest objector can understand why this has not happened yet. Number one, because it has not happened yet. Name one historical event that could possibly describe what we just read here in Revelation 19. Now, for those that are determined to say, for the full-blown preterists, those that believe that everything has already taken place in A.D. 70 and that surrounding time period, when did that happen? Are you telling me that Titus destroyed the temple and all the things? That's what this is? That Christ came back in A.D. 70? Are you kidding me? You're going to take the most climactic event in all of Scripture and make it anticlimactic? The second reason we know that this hasn't been fulfilled is whether they like to admit this or not, Revelation was written in the mid-90s A.D. The evidence is overwhelming. Well, the temple and the destruction of Jerusalem and the invasion of the Romans, that happened in A.D. 70. About 20 to 25 years prior to this revelation from John. So if it's talking about A.D. 70, how is he talking about a future event that took place two and a half decades prior? It does not make sense. And so, this has not happened yet. This is yet to be fulfilled in the future. And so the prophets have foretold in both the Old and New Testament that He will also come, you know, He came the first time as a lamb for the slaughter. But He is also coming back as a lion for the slaying. And just as surely as He came the first time, He is coming back the second time. And boy, is He going to make an entrance. I love what Mark says, and you don't have to turn here, but maybe just jot this down for future reference. But Mark chapter 13, verses 24 through 26, it says, in those days after that tribulation, so we know we're talking about the great tribulation and not just what happened in AD 70, the sun shall be darkened. When did that happen? and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Now I know that we tend to misinterpret this and we've heard it so many different ways, especially folks like John Hagee. Every time I walk outside and see a full moon or a red moon or a crazy looking moon, I know two things are happening. One, the werewolves are out and two, John Hagee is writing a book somewhere and only one of those things is actually happening. But what it's talking about is at the end of the tribulation, that's when the sun is darkened. That's when the stars fall. That's when the universe is literally shaking on its axis and everybody's looking up and saying, what is going on? And that's when he makes his appearance. That's what it's all about. The heavens are getting everybody's attention. It's almost as if the stars and the sun and the moon and the universe are saying, hey, everybody, look up. Hey, everybody, pay attention. And then he comes. That's what it's talking about. It's not, you know, all these blood moons and, oh, we can predict when the Lord's coming. That is hogwash. That's not even what he's talking about. But when it comes to this second coming of Christ, this is one of our greatest hopes as a believer. Not only what he accomplished through his death, burial, and resurrection on his first coming, but his kingdom at his second coming. Man, when we start thinking about what Christ has done and what he will do, it's hard to have a bad day. This is one of our greatest hopes. And think about this, when we're appalled at how messed up this world is, remember that Jesus is coming. When we're heartbroken, remember that Jesus is coming. When we're discouraged about the righteous suffering while the wicked prosper, remember that Jesus is coming. When we're so discouraged that we feel like we can't face another day, remember that Jesus is coming. Listen, in our present day, We usually greet one another with something like, you know, hey, how are you? Or how are you doing? And then we proceed to lie like good Baptists and act like we have no problems. Or in the case of Derek, how you doing, you know? But that's not what the early church did. When the early church greeted one another, they used one word, Maranatha. Maranatha, Maranatha. And what that means is, our Lord come, or our Lord is coming. They greeted one another by reminding each other that Jesus is coming, and they found comfort in those words. Maybe we need to get back to that. What a thought. Jesus is coming. Our Lord come, Maranatha. And we can find comfort in the promise of His coming. It's going to happen. We read about it and we accept it by faith. But one day, just as sure as you're seeing me and hearing me this morning, we're going to see Him. We're going to hear Him. And when our faith becomes sight, can you imagine that moment? Wow. The promise of His coming. We can find hope in that. It's certain. But then number two, I want you to know about the people of His coming. the people of his coming. Look at verse 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. So I'm going to be referencing some things that I learned on my trip to Israel. And I know that many of you have heard some of these things, but some of you have not, and it's so relevant to what we're talking about. But I did learn this, that when a king rode in to a foreign city or a foreign country, if he was coming in peace, he rode in on a donkey. It was kind of like a visible symbol of a white flag in our culture. If he came riding a donkey, he's coming in peace. But if he came on a horse, he was coming for war. We know that Jesus came the first time riding a donkey. He's riding a horse this time because he's coming on a different mission. But we find in verse 14, there are armies in heaven that followed him and they were also on white horses. So the question needs to be asked, who are these people? Who are these armies riding in on white horses? We don't have to guess because Jude tells us. Jude tells us in verses 14 and 15 of that short book. He said, And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." It's going to be us. Us. The saints, the church, writing down. Can you imagine that moment? we're gonna get a front row view of what the Lord is going to do. He's going to judge the nations. He's going to slay these armies that are against him. And understand this, and I don't wanna go in too much depth here. I mean, I really could be here forever. And we had a short series on the Millennial Kingdom earlier this year on Wednesday night, so I just don't wanna dig in too deep here. But I do want you to know this. Understand that at this point we've already been raised from the dead. We've already been given our new glorified bodies. and we're going to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. We couldn't do that if we could die. We couldn't do that if the rules were the same. We're going to be in our glorified bodies that can't be tempted with evil, that can't get sick, that have no need for sleep, that will never die. I mean, no ailments, praise God, and all these things that we deal with in this life. But we will be in a situation where there still will be other people in the millennial kingdom of Christ on the earth who are not saved, who can die, who can get sick, and we will be ruling and reigning over those nations. And that's going to be the difference between the thousand year reign and the reign for all eternity. Because the reign for all eternity, He finally does put down sin and death. He finally does make all things right again. It finally is the happily ever after that we've all desired, and the last Adam completely reverses everything that the first Adam messed up. But the rules are a little bit different in the thousand-year reign. I mean, just think about it. Think about ruling and reigning on this earth. with Jesus Christ, ruling everything in perfect peace and perfect justice, you've got a perfect body, it's going to be awesome. And there would be some people that say, well, why would you want to do that? Why would we have any desire to do that? Well, number one, because that's the desire of Christ. He's made it clear that's what's going to happen. But number two, I've often thought about it this way, He's going to take everything that's crooked and make it straight. Every struggle that we had in this life that we never saw the victory for. Every question that we never got answered. Every bad taste in our mouth. And you understand. I heard John MacArthur say it like this, and he got a lot of flack for this. But he said, we lose down here. We lose down here. And I know exactly what he's saying. You know, and he was really saying it against a lot of the post-millennial crowd. And I got some good post-millennial brothers. I love them. I just think they're wrong. They think that as we preach the gospel and as we evangelize that the gospel is going to go out in such power that basically the whole world is going to get saved and we're going to be having a Christian utopia and usher in the coming of Christ and Christ is going to step into a kingdom that's already been pretty much perfected. I don't find that anywhere in the Bible. And I certainly don't see it in my experience. And I do understand that experience is not objective. I do understand that Christ can do anything. Look, He can turn it around. He can do whatever He wants to do. But I read about a great falling away. I read about a great apostasy. I read about things getting worse, not better. I read about Christ coming and making things better. Not through the church, but through His reign. Now listen, that's not defeatist. When you read Revelation 19, how could that be a defeatist mentality? He's coming and he's going to straighten everything out. That doesn't depress me. In fact, it excites me. You know what our message is today? It's the same message that John the Baptist had at his first coming. Repent and believe the gospel because the kingdom of God is at hand. The King is coming, ready or not. How is that defeatist? How is that pessimistic? I know a lot of time the pre-trib, pre-male crowd gets accused, that's a straw man. And I realize there's some people that probably preach it that way, they're dead wrong. And so we see the people of His coming. How exciting is that gonna be? I mean, I know that we may not even be concerned about stuff like this, but in a thousand year period, I mean, who knows? We might actually get to stand over our own empty grave and read our headstone. Tell me it can't happen. Why not? The thousand year reign is when we do win. Listen, through this life, and I'm not trying to like be a downer here, but I'm telling you, in this life, and this is what I think John MacArthur meant, we lose everything we love in this life. Do you not know that? Every material possession that you gain in this life, you know what happens to it when you die? Your relatives get to fight over it. That's what happens. You can't take one thing with you. You lose it all. Everything you work hard to accumulate, you lose it all. Everybody that you love in this life, you're going to lose them. They're going to die. And the longer that you live, the more loved ones you're going to lose. It's a fact of life. We lose down here. We lose our health, don't we? The moment that you were born in this world and you started to breathe, you took that first breath, the timer started. And every breath you take, that's one less you got. Every heartbeat you take, that's one less you have. Every day you wake up and see the sunrise, that's one less you have to look forward to. You say, well, Brother Brandon, you're pessimistic. No, I'm not. We lose down here, but it makes it that much more special because we win because He wins. I may die, but guess what? Because of Him, I'm getting back up. I may suffer in this life physically, but when I get my glorified body, I'll never know pain and suffering again. I may know financial hardship down here, but I won't even know the term over there. We win because He wins. He's going to take everything we lose in this life and give us a thousandfold. Not because we're good, but because He is. I feel like preaching. I hope y'all don't have the oven on, or I hope you don't have any dinner reservations. I'm feeling preachy this morning. We see the people of His coming. Not only in the thousand-year reign, but for all eternity. Look at Revelation 20, just in case we have any doubt what we're talking about here. Revelation 20 and verse 1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that, he must be loosed a little season. And so another rule change for the thousand-year reign, Satan is going to be bound. So we'll be ruling and reigning without the presence of Satan and evil running around like they are now. And here's another thing for the awe millennial crowd, the crowd that believes there is no millennial reign. They teach that we are in the millennium right now, and that the millennium is just a generic symbol of the time between His first and second coming. We don't know how long it is. And in order to be consistent, they also have to teach that Satan is bound right now. I have an all-millennial friend right now. I just talked to him a few weeks ago, and man, I just bashed him so hard. Listen, every time something came across the news about this LGBT thing or this war or this murder or this, that, and he would say something, I said, well, I'm just glad Satan's bound, you know. If he's bound right now, God help us all when he gets out. Silly. I mean, I love them, but it's silly. It really is. But I digress. We'll get to shooting rabbits here in a minute. Look at what it says here again, it's going down to verse 4. And I saw thrones, chapter 20, verse 4. I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power. But they shall be priests of God in Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." This term, thousand years, is used six times in this one chapter. I mean, it just couldn't be more clear what he's talking about here. And so we're going to reign as kings and priests on the earth with Jesus Christ, and I am certainly looking forward to that. And sometimes the best comfort, you know, let me say it this way. As a pastor, I've seen a lot of tragedies, even among God's people. And as a young pastor, I used to always feel like I had to have the answer. I had to know exactly what to say. And I'll be honest, sometimes I don't. And that's the best thing I can say is I don't. But here's one promise that I can give you and you can walk out today with this promise. And that is this, that no matter what you go through in this life, no matter what you don't understand, No matter how many questions go unanswered or how much pain you experience, I can promise you this for the believer, it won't always be this way. That's the greatest comfort. It won't always be this way. Isn't that wonderful? What if this life was all we had to look forward to? You know, the Jews, Even in the Old Testament, many of them believed in the concept of resurrection. But a lot of them thought about it in the context of just being raised again to come into this life, kind of like Lazarus did. Is that the kind of resurrection you want? You want to be raised from the dead, just have to repeat this life all over again with all this aches and pains and suffering and heartache? I'm glad that's not the case. That's not what it's talking about, and that's our comfort. They won't always be this way. But lastly, third and lastly, and I'm done. I want you to know about the power and the peace of His coming. Look at chapter 19 again, verses 15 and 16. Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he should rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of lords. You know, when I think about our leaders today, even in America and across the world, there's one particular word that comes to mind. That word is corrupt. Corrupt. unbridled power, unbridled corruption. I'm convinced there is nothing that they wouldn't do if they felt like they had the power to get away with it. I don't trust them as far as I could throw them. But Christ is coming to rule and reign in righteousness, justice, and perfect peace. And in closing, I want to say this. The Lord, you know, this is a great way to illustrate this, but the Lord has placed a conscience within us. We know right from wrong. We're ingrained with a moral law given in our heart. We see somebody stealing from maybe another person. Our hearts cry, that's not right. We know that's not right. That's not the way that it's supposed to be. But if you're like me, when I look at this world and the condition that it's in, every time I turn on the news, every time I cruise through my social media feed, there's something that cries within me that says, that's not right and it's not supposed to be this way. I believe it's in our heart for a reason. We know that heaven is real because a little bit of heaven is inside of us if you're born again. And how great a comfort it is to know that day is coming, that Jesus is coming. The question is, are you ready? Will you be on the right side of this thing or not? Because it says here that Christ will have no mercy on His enemies. You say, well, I disagree with that. That's what the enemy would say. Criminals deserve punishment. We're sinners. We deserve punishment. It's only by His grace that we can even be saved and avoid the wrath of God. Listen, there's no true love without justice. Injustice is unloving and God will not continue to allow it to have its day. What kind of God would allow this to go unchecked forever? What kind of God would sweep this under the rug and act like it never happened? That is not the God of the Bible. He is a righteous judge. And you say, well, I just wish God would do something about it. Oh, He will. Justice delayed is not justice denied. And I'll say this and I'll be done. I sent out the pictures this morning of the Lion's Gate. Did you all see that? Raise your hand if you saw that. A lot of you. When I went to Israel, they took us to Jerusalem, and there's a lot of the wall that's still up around Jerusalem, including the eastern side. And on the eastern side of Jerusalem, it used to be the Sheep's Gate. That's the way that Jesus entered into Jerusalem when he came the first time. And that's where the sheep's gate is where they would drive the sheep in there to be examined for the sacrifice. They had to get a lamb without blemish and without spot and they would drive the sheep in there to examine and scrutinize them. That's exactly what Christ did. He went in and He was scrutinized and He was examined and He was sacrificed on our behalf. That was not a common people entrance. He was making a statement. He's saying, I'm the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. But here's something very interesting. It's almost as if God is sovereign over history or something. But about 600 years after the time of Christ, Jerusalem and the surrounding area was conquered by the Byzantine Empire. And the Byzantines changed the Sheep's Gate into the Lion's Gate. And it is still the Lion's Gate today. And in those pictures that I sent y'all, you saw that big massive brick, mortar entrance, and on the side, you saw those lions engraved into the stone. One of these days, Christ is coming back. His feet are going to touch the Mount of Olives. He is going to walk into the Lion's Gate of Jerusalem and take His rightful place on the throne. He came a first time as a lamb to the slaughter. He's coming a second time as a lion for the slave. You can't even make this stuff up. I've been to the very gate where he's going to walk in. I think I did a happy dance. I know I cried. Our tour guide told us that and we knew where he was going before he even got there. He's coming back, friend. The question is, knowing that he's coming back and knowing the judgment and wrath he's going to pour out, does that bring you comfort or does it bring you fear? Should be a comfort to the child of God. He's coming back. He's going to make everything right. The King is coming. Are you ready?