Revelation chapter 19 verse 1. This is the Word of God. And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his judgments. For he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again he said, Alleluia, and her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen, Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. He said, Unto me write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said unto me, These are the true saints of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. He said unto me, See thou, do it not. I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened. 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. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Amen, we conclude our reading at verse 16. Let's pray. Bless now, Lord, as we come to the preaching of Thy Word. Grant, Lord, the help of Thy Spirit, the infilling of God the Holy Ghost. And may we come to know more of our Saviour even now as we sit under the preaching of the Word. May we see our Saviour. May we see the Lord. we pray these our prayers in and through our savior's great and precious name amen i wonder as a child were you ever given a kaleidoscope to play with children nowadays are given a smartphone they're maybe given a ps5 or an xbox series x or nintendo switch to entertain them and yes i did have to google what modern game consoles are on the market in order to prepare for this message. But back in the past, when there were no iPhones, when there were no smartphones, when there were no computers, children were maybe handed a kaleidoscope and told to go and entertain themselves for a few hours. How do I describe a kaleidoscope if you haven't an idea of what I'm speaking about? I thought I would go to Wikipedia and try to understand and see the description that Wikipedia gives for such an object. I hope you're awake and ready to be confused as I give the definition. A kaleidoscope is an optical instrument with two or more mirrors tilted to each other at an angle so that one or more objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when viewed from the other end due to repeated reflection. Now are you confused? These reflectors, it goes on to say, are usually enclosed in a tube, often containing on one end a cell with loose colored pieces of glass or other transparent materials to be reflected into the viewed pattern. Rotation of the tube causes the materials to result in an ever-changing view to be presented. In Neyman's terms, it's a tube with colored objects inside. hold it up to the light, twist the tube, and it makes different patterns in the viewfinder. Every twist off that tube creates a completely different image. God's Word is like a kaleidoscope. And as we come to look through the kaleidoscope of God's Word, turning its pages just as we would turn the kaleidoscope tube and hold it up to the light, an ever-changing view of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ is presented to us. Each view bringing with it its own unique comfort and challenge to our hearts. In today's message we want to take this 19th chapter of the book of the Revelation and glean from its verses a number of other titles that are given by the Spirit of God through the penmanship of John to the second person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to, as it were, turn the kaleidoscope tube just a little bit more. I want to see another view of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's always the same objects within a kaleidoscope. It's just that it's taken at a different angle. It's taken looking at it at a different viewpoint. And so it is with our Lord Jesus Christ. It's always the Savior in these series of messages that we're thinking about, but we're just turning the kaleidoscope just a little bit more and seeing what we can learn about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The first title in this chapter given to the Savior, and I'm not rehearsing those that we've already been considering, the first title is found in the verse number six of Revelation chapter 19. And there the title is, Lord God And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Notice that qualifying term. The qualifying term, omnipotent, points us to the strength and to the power and to the might of the eternal Son of God, as well as his authority. The word speaks to the fact that God in the trinity of his persons is not only almighty, but he is also authoritative. While the Greek word is here translated omnipotent, every other time we find this word translated in Holy Scripture, it is translated with the word In fact, it appears ten times in the New Testament. Nine times here in the book of the Revelation, and only one time in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 8. And I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Same Greek word. And every time it's translated, Almighty, except here in Revelation chapter 19. The background to the chapter is that the great whore, that Babylon has been destroyed. God has come and saw to her destruction and has meted upon her the judgment that is due for her crimes against the saints of God. God has come to avenge the blood of the saints and the blood of his servants against the great whore Babylon. And now as heaven witnesses that destruction, heaven comes to acknowledge that the one who has done such a work is the Lord God omnipotent. It is the Almighty One. It is the One who is possessed with authority to do so. Now, we've looked at this word before when we found ourselves in chapter 1 of the book of the Revelation. And when I spoke on that occasion, I reminded you that this Greek word, pantokrator, Here translated, omnipotent and other times almighty, it literally translates to mean this, the one whose hand is on everything. The one on whose hand is everything. It really is a word, a title that speaks to us of the sovereign control that the Son of God has with regard to every event in this life. He has sovereign control over everything that is past, through everything that is present, and everything that is yet future. Now sadly today, there are many of God's people, and they have an unbiblical, and they have a defective view of the God of the Bible in these days. They have a defective view of God. They see God as some kind of old, decrepit, powerless, anemic being that can do nothing about the state of the affairs in our world. Well, beloved, that's not the God I love, and that's not the God I serve, and that's not the God you love, and that's certainly not the God that you serve. The God of the Scriptures, The true and the living God, the God who saves and the God who sanctifies, the God who sustains, the God who supports, the God who suckers, the God who strengthens, is omnipotent. He is omnipotent. I want you to notice what this omnipotent one is doing. Because John tells us here that he is reigning. He is reigning. The Lord God, omnipotent, reigneth, he reigneth. The God who reigns, the God on whose hand is everything, is a reassuring note that is struck throughout the pages of Holy Scripture. The one who reigns is a note that is struck repeatedly throughout Holy Scripture. We find this presented to us in the life of Joseph. coming to review all that occurred to him, especially at the hands of his wicked brothers and his brother's treatment of him, Jacob's much-loved son Joseph said the following to his brethren, ye thought evil against me. but God meant it unto good. He would say on another occasion that God had brought him hither to save much souls alive. In other words, he was able to trace the omnipotent hand, the sovereign hand of God upon his life. He was able to trace the unseen hand of omnipotent God. And Isaiah's vision of God, a vision that he records for us in Isaiah chapter 6, We find the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up on his tree and filling the temple. We find presented to us a reigning king, one who is on the throne. Psalm 93, verse 1. Psalm 96, verse 10. Psalm 97, verse 1. Psalm 99, verse 1. All repeat. the same refrain. What is that refrain? The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. Did you know that this truth of the Lord reigning, it impacts the glorified saints in heaven? Because notice as they come to acknowledge this, something happens to these ones, they come to lift up their voice and they cry in unison, Alleluia, or praise the Lord, for the Lord omnipotent reigneth. And then it goes on to say, Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour unto Him. You know, beloved, this truth is that which inspires the glorified saints to praise and to exalt and to glorify their God and their King. And, brethren and sisters, the fact that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth should do the same in our lives. The truth that Christ is reigning, that the King reigns, that the King is on the throne. It's a truth that turns our sorrow into singing. It's a truth that turns our mourning into mirth. It's a truth that changes our despair into delight. It removes our gloom and replaces it with gladness, for we cannot but praise and extol and glorify our God. Whenever we come to understand that the hand The hand of omnipotent God is upon everything that occurs in our lives. Then our mouths will be filled with his praise, just as it was in these days. Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor unto him. God is still on the throne, brother. Christ is still reigning, sister. Put away your pessimism. Let your mouth be filled with praise. You know, I was interested to do a little bit of reading the past week for regard to this message. I was reading Charles Simeon. Charles Simeon, he ministered in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. And he wrote about the society in which he lived. And he applied this truth that we're considering just now, that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He applied that truth with regard to the circumstances that he found himself at the end of the 18th into the early 19th century. And this is what he said. This is what he wrote. Most awful is the state of the world at this time. Revolutions and counter-revolutions are occurring in mighty kingdoms and in rapid succession. And no one can foresee what their end shall be, but it is a sweet consolatory thought that God reigns and is accomplishing his own designs by these unconscious and unwitting agents in other words he saw that even above those who obviously they were during the times of the revolutions in france and times like that he saw that above them there was a hand an unseen hand god using these individuals as his agents because he was still on the throne you see our god he reigns We need to be reminded of that, as we see, as it were, our world falling apart, as we look out into society and see the moral decay, and we look around ourselves, and at times we despair, and at times we wonder, does God not hear our cries? Does he not hear our petitions? Where is God in it all? He's on the throne. The Lord, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. You need to write it down, you need to remember it. Next time you find yourself slipping into a sense of pessimism, God is on the throne. You see, we are to look at life's events and we're to look at the events that occurs in our personal lives through the lens that nothing is done which is not directed by the hand of omnipotent God. Maybe a few more hallelujahs. Maybe a few more hallelujahs from the saints And from the lips of the saints below would bring us into harmony with the saints that are above. For they say, hallelujah. They say, hallelujah. They say, praise the Lord. Why cannot we? Are we out of harmony with heaven? I think we are. I think we are. Where are the hallelujahs? Where are the praise the Lord's among the saints of God? It's a little bit like Martin Luther's wife. Do you remember that occasion she dressed in black? Martin Luther came in and asked her, who died? Martin Luther's wife turned to her husband and says, God has died. He was shocked. God has died? Yes, Martin, by how you conduct yourself and by how you speak, it appears that God has died. And so she was dressed in black in the morning. He was rebuked by his wife, by the council. He was reminded that God had not died. God was living. He is the living God. He is the true and the living God. The Lord omnipotent reigneth. There you are, you're thinking about your loved one. You're thinking about that individual that you've invited in. And maybe unbelief would say to you, they never even will cross the threshold of the mission. Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Look away to him. Trust in him. He's the one whose hand is upon all things. Consider a second and third title with me very quickly as we make our way through this chapter. You'll find it there in the verse number 11. And there we find the title Faithful and True. Recounting of what he had been an eyewitness to, John, he recounts here in the verse 11 what he saw. He saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him, this was a stallion, it was a male horse, he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth he judge and make war. Now we'll come to understand that this is the Lord Jesus Christ as we make our way through the message. We consider a fourth title, but just take it as true, take it as truth, that this is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is the first title attributed to him? He's faithful. He's faithful. We have a faithful God. The question was asked by Solomon in Proverbs 20, verse 6, a faithful man, who can find We're all aware that among the fallen sons of men, no man can be found among her ranks who has been faithful in all things and at all times. However, our search to find such a one who is perfectly and who is perpetually faithful ends when we come to meet the rider of this white horse. In Revelation 19, verse 11, he is faithful. He is faithful. I remind you again of who John is writing to here. I remind you that he's writing from exile. He's on the Isle of Patmos. He himself has been placed there. He has been arrested. He has been sent away. He has been deported. This was one of the early first deportations of individuals not wanted within society. Here's John, unwanted. sent to the Isle of Padmas, and he's now writing to others who are persecuted. These are individuals whose goods had been plundered because they had renounced Judaism and they had pledged their allegiance, not to Caesar, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these afflicted people, they needed reminding of the very basic yet fundamental truth that God is faithful. He's faithful in his promises and faithful in his purposes. And maybe that's the truth that you as a child of God that you need to be reminded of today. The very truth that God is faithful. Maybe someone in your family, maybe someone in your circle of friends has been unfaithful to you in recent days, but God is faithful. God is faithful. I don't know where you are, I don't know what you're presently going through, but in the midst of your trial, God would say to you today, I'm faithful, I'm faithful. The faithfulness of God is a truth again. that is brought to our attention. We encounter it time and time again in Holy Scripture, Deuteronomy 7, verse 8 and 9. Know ye therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God. 1 Corinthians 1, 9, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And then in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5, 24. Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And if we confess our sin, he is faithful. And just to forgive us our sins, God is faithful. The Son of God is faithful. you not proven that in the week that's passed? God was faithful. Even when you were unfaithful, He was faithful. Faithful. God the Son is faithful to His Father. faithful in fulfilling all the terms and the conditions of the covenant that he entered into with the Father when the covenant of redemption was drawn up in eternity past between the members of the Godhead. God was faithful in the executing of the terms and the conditions of that covenant. He faithfully discharged his responsibilities as a representative of his people. He came into this world, took to himself humanity, lived for us perfectly, honored the law, satisfied the law, fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf, upheld the law in letter and in spirit, and then died the atoning death and rose again from the dead. He was faithful to his Father. Son of God is faithful to his people, faithful in fulfilling every word of promise that he has made to us. Oh, the saints of God, they must find themselves in agreement with what Joshua said there in Joshua 23 14 he says not one thing not one thing of field of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass onto you and not one thing hath field thereof why because God is faithful God is faithful and God the son is faithful to his enemies Oh, he's faithful to his father, he's faithful to his children, but he's faithful to his enemies. Faithful in executing every threat of wrath against them. And thus when He promises that He's coming to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by punishing those people, and I use words from Scripture, with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, you can be sure, dead on sure, that He will faithfully fulfill that which He has promised. He's faithful with regard to His enemies. He who is faithful today will be faithful tomorrow and every tomorrow until he comes again. Oh, beloved, what a consistently faithful one we find in Jesus Christ, one who is worthy of our trust and our confidence. He's faithful, but not only is the rider of the horse, as he called, faithful, he is also called true. True. You and I know that there are many fake goods in the marketplace today. Fake goods. You'll find them online. You'll maybe find an individual coming to your door trying to pass off something as genuine and it's fake. You maybe go on holidays and they present to you something, it looks the real thing, but it's fake. We know that fake news is propagated by many media channels today that exist. I and people can be fake, fake in their interactions with others. Oh, they pretend to be friendly to you, and then they go behind your back, and they speak about you and your family, and they spread rumors and gossip about them and about you that are not true. People are fake. However, when it comes To God, there's nothing fake about Him. He is true. God uses this word true. He's speaking here about the authenticity. He's speaking about the genuineness. He's speaking about the realness of the Son of God. This title expresses the total trustworthiness and reliability and consistency of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of that which is true, because He is truth. He said in that upper room discourse, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He came from the Father as one who was full of what? Grace and truth, John 1 in the verse 14. Truth governs his actions. Truth governs the affirmations of the Son of God. What he has done is true. What he has said is true. When we think about the truthfulness of His words, then it is for us to receive His words as the truth, that truth we may not like, that truth that we hear from His word. It might go against the grain. It might actually contradict our thinking on certain issues. But brethren and sisters, if that is the case, it is for us simply to set aside our flawed thinking on such issues and accept the truth of God as it is given to us in the Scriptures of truth from the God of truth. You know, it's very hard to be loyal and faithful to someone who is untrue, someone who's fake, because you don't really know where you stand with such a person. One minute they're your friend, the next minute they're your enemy. What they say in front of you is not what they say behind your back. And so to be loyal, to be faithful to such a person, to follow such a person, well, that's very difficult. But that's never the case when it comes to the one who is faithful and true. We can trust him and be assured that all that he's promised to do, he will perform. You know, maybe you're an individual who struggles You're maybe an individual who struggles with trust. You would be an individual that has issues with trust. Maybe people have been untrue to you, unfaithful to you. Well, let me encourage you today that there's one, there's one in the Scriptures, and his name is faithful and true. He's faithful and true. You can confidently trust in him today. And if you have trusted him with your soul, And I trust that you have. If you've trusted Him with your soul, you can trust Him with everything else. Your worries, your troubles, your concerns, your family, your future, your health, your wealth. You can trust Him who's faithful and true. He is a faithful God. There's a third name that is given to the Lord Jesus Christ, and with this name, I'm concluding today, and you'll find it there in the verse number 13. It says, and he was clothed, this one who rode the white horse, he was clothed in fine linen, sorry, he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. Now John has already employed this name, for the Son of God in the gospel that bears his name. The opening statement, the opening prologue of John's gospel is familiar to us all. We read there in John 1 verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That word, that statement, and the Word was with God, it literally translates to mean the Word was face to face with God. It's speaking about an entity. And he concludes verse 1, and the Word was God. And then in verse 14 of that chapter, chapter 1, he writes, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John uses a Greek word here, it's the word logos, the word logos, translated word to speak here about the Lord Jesus Christ in his gospel, in his first epistle, and then in the book of the revelation. Now while it's translated here word logos, I'm informed that the word logos had carried a lot of philosophical baggage in the ancient Greek world. You see, ancient Greek philosophy was concerned about answering the ultimate question and questions of reality. The Greeks, they sought to find ultimate truth, the ultimate reality that lay behind all other things. And so over time, the ancient philosophers, as they pondered these deep questions of philosophy, they came up with a term to describe this ultimate reality. And the term that they came up with was the term Logos. Logos. And so in Greek philosophy, the Logos, it came to be understood as that which gave life. And that which gave meaning to the universe. However, this Logos, as the Greeks understood it, they understood the Logos as an impersonal force. Not a personal being, but rather simply a force that directs and guides and gives life and gives meaning to the universe. They did not see the Logos as a personal being. When we come to John's writing, however, the apostle does two things with this word logos that would have been unthinkable to the Greek philosophers. Rather than viewing the logos as an impersonal force, the logos, according to John, was a personal being. One who could be received and one who could be rejected by others. And that's why we read in verse 11 and 12, He, speaking of a personal being, this Word, this Logos, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them give He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Also, this Logos, it became incarnate as a human being. And in His incarnation, He comes to manifest the glory of God. And the Word was made flesh. This isn't some kind of impersonal force. This is now a personal being. And this personal being comes from heaven. This Word is now made flesh. And what does he come to do? He comes to reflect. He comes to manifest the glory of God. He is one who is full of grace and truth. And so, according to John the Logos, That which gives meaning, that which gives purpose to all things, is far from being an impersonal principle or force, but rather the Logos is Jesus Christ, the very God of the universe. But this word Logos is not only a Greek concept, it's also a well-known concept to Jewish thinkers. In the Old Testament, God's Word, or the Word of the Lord, was connected primarily with three things. The word of God was connected with creation. In Genesis 1, we find that God spoke all things into existence. Genesis 1 verse 3, and God said, there's the word, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. Creation of the world is summarized by the psalmist in Psalm 33 verse 6 in this way, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth. God spoke and his word was powerful enough to bring everything into existence. And so the Logos, the word of God, the word of the Lord is connected with creation, but it's also connected with revelation. Time and time again, the Old Testament scriptures that you come to read statements like this, the Word of the Lord came on to Abram, Genesis 15, 1. The Word of the Lord came on to Isaiah saying, Isaiah 38, 4. The Word of the Lord came on to Joel, the son of Pethuel, Joel 1, verse 1. Now the Word of the Lord came on to Jonah, the son of Amittai saying, Jonah 1, verse 1. On those occasions, God, through His Word, was revealing something to these men, something that they had to do, or something that He would have them to communicate. And so the Word, this Word, it was revelatory in its essence, in its nature. Something was being revealed. So there's the thought of creation, there's the thought of revelation, and there's also the thought of salvation. An example of this is found in Psalm 107, verse 20. He sent His Word. and healed them and delivered them from their destructions." He sent His Word. He sent Christ. Christ is the Word. He sent His Word and healed them. He healed them of their sin, the wound of sin, and He delivered them from their destructions, going down into hell. The Word of God brought about deliverance according to the psalmist. And so, in the Old Testament, the Word of God is connected with creation, revelation, and salvation. And when John looks now for a title for the Son of God, when he comes to pen this book, this gospel, when he comes to try and find a title for the Lord Jesus Christ, this coming one, this Messiah, he lands on this most suitable title. He lands on the title Logos. Because you see, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who spoke all things into creation. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. I am through him God is revealed to man, for he that has seen the Son has seen the Father also. And through him salvation is secured, procured, wrought and found. And so, John, he says, the logos, the Word of God has come. God Himself has appeared. Oh, I wonder, has He brought salvation to you? Has He made you a new creation? Has he revealed to you your great need of salvation through the preached word? In Revelation chapter 19 we find that the one who rides the white horse, he bears this name, it's the word of God, and he goes forth to smite the nations. This word, it says, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and with it he should smite the nations. The word of God smiting the nations. My closing question to you today is this, Will you be found before him as one who has been smitten down by him? Or will you be found behind him clothed in white linen, fine linen, white and clean as part of heaven's great army? Because the armies of heaven follow pawn white horses, clothed in white linen, white and clean. What position will you find yourself as the Word of God, as Christ appears? Will he smite you down? Will he smite you down? Or will you be found in the wake of his victory, gathering in the spoils of Christ's triumphant reign and Christ's triumphant conquest, to join the ranks of heaven's army, you must come under the reign of Him who is described in verse 16 as the King of kings and as the Lord of lords. Will you do that now? Will you yield yourself to Him who is King eternal? Will you bow in submission? Will you gladly yield to Christ, the all-conquering King? Who is Jesus Christ? He is the Lord God omnipotent who reigneth. He is faithful and true. He is the Word of God. What he has said is done. What he has said is true. What he has said is faithful. I trust that you know him today. I trust that you're reconciled to God through the death of God's dear and only begotten Son. May the Lord bless His word to our hearts. Let's bow in prayer together, please. Our loving Father, we've turned again the kaleidoscope of Thy word. We've come to view our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is omnipotent. He is king eternal. He is the king of kings. He is the Lord of lords. He is faithful and true. He's dependable. We can rely on him. His words are true. His counsel is true. His ways are true. Oh God, we pray that we might be faithful and true ourselves. Oh, remove all fakery. Lord, remove all ungenuineness with us. Deal with our pretense. Deal with our acting. Lord, reveal to us who we truly are. May we be, Lord, those who are faithful in our duties and faithful in our service and true dear God to thee and to our calling as those who are redeemed by the blood of Christ. Oh, we pray that we might be those, O God, who hear the Word of God, submit ourselves to the teaching of Christ. Oh, may we not be, Lord, clambering after the words of men, but, Lord, after the Word of God. Oh, bless, Lord, Thy Word, we pray. May we view continually our Savior, more and more of Him, more of Jesus would I know, more of His grace to others show, more of his saving fullness see, more of his love who died for me, answer prayer, impart us in thy fear we ask, for we offer prayer through the Saviour's great holy