The Glorious Return of Jesus Christ, Part 1

I can give a resounding yes to will the world get better, but that yes is directly associated with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That and that alone is what is going to bring peace instead of war, justice instead of inequity, righteousness instead of wickedness.

As you watch the social and political turmoil unfold day after day, perhaps you wonder why God allows so much evil and when He's going to end it. Well, today on Grace To You, John MacArthur shows you when Jesus will judge the earth and how you can prepare in a study titled When Jesus Comes. Now John, you're about to wade into some theological waters that are treacherous for a lot of people, and for that reason, many Christians don't talk much about biblical prophecy. Instead they focus on things that are thought to be more practical. But I know that you'd say there are great benefits and profound blessings for today in studying what God's Word says about future events.

Absolutely. In fact, the book of Revelation starts out—I'm saying the book of Revelation, which some pastors want to completely avoid as being inscrutable, beyond understanding—but the book of Revelation begins with this promise. Blessed is the one who hears and understands the words of this book. The assumption is, listen, it is revelation.

It is not obfuscation. The point of the book is not to confuse, it's to clarify. And I think you can just read it, apply the same principles of interpretation that you would any other book in the Bible, and the meaning of Revelation completely unfolds in a clear way. I've preached on Revelation around the world in places where they weren't exposed to all different views and all they had was the Bible.

Amazingly, they came to the same conclusions that I did, even way in Central Asia, the eastern parts of Russia. So the Bible is clear, even about the end. And by the way, the end matters.

The end of the story matters, just like the beginning matters. So we're going to dive in. A series titled When Jesus Comes, and we're going right to Revelation 19 and 20. It's not so much a study of the fact that he is coming, we know that, but a thorough examination of what's going to take place when he does come. We're going to talk about his return, the battle of Armageddon, the difference between the rapture and Christ's return, who are the armies in heaven, so many fascinating subjects. You'll want to know what happens when Jesus comes, and for the next couple of weeks we're going to be showing you from Scripture.

Don't miss a day. That's right, and friend, if you've got questions about the end times, or perhaps you've put off studying the book of Revelation because it seems so difficult, well, I would encourage you to be here each day of this study. The title, again, When Jesus Comes.

And here now is John MacArthur with today's lesson. We're going to be looking at Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 to 16, where it says, And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems, and he has a name written upon him which no one knows except himself, and he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses, and from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty, and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

That tremendously graphic, powerful description of Jesus Christ portrays him in this vision to the Apostle John in the glory of His Second Coming. So often I am asked the question, I guess people know that I'm a preacher, a pastor, one who studies Scripture and teaches the Bible, and they often will say to me, will things in our troubled world ever get any better? Is it just going to continue to get worse and worse, or will there be an end to all the war, to the hostility and the inequity and the crime and the chaos? And I always answer the question by saying, it's going to get better.

It's going to be better. There's no question about it. I can give a resounding yes to will the world get better. But that yes is directly associated with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That and that alone is what is going to remedy the problems of our world. That and that alone is what is going to bring peace instead of war, justice instead of inequity, righteousness instead of wickedness. Jesus Christ will come and He will rule this world someday.

He will return to be the King and to establish His kingdom. This particular passage, which we just read, prophesies that greatest of all moments in human history and in the saga of redemption. Prior to the return of Jesus Christ, there will be worldwide hostility generated by Satan and demons and wicked men, as well as worldwide hostilities generated by God Himself as He pours out His wrath. The forces of heaven and the forces of hell will meet in final fury involving the nations of the world in a battle that we know as Armageddon as the darkness endeavors to stop the King of Light from establishing His glorious kingdom on the earth. At the head of the unified forces of the world army will be the beast or the Antichrist who marches in hostility with the power of Satan against God and His anointed.

We find down in verse 19 that it says, I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse and against His army. We also remember from the 16th chapter of the book of Revelation and verse 16 that the great focal point of that battle will be in a place called in the Hebrew language, Armageddon. So it is not without a tremendous amount of hostility far beyond what we have seen yet in our world. So when we are asked the question, are things going to get better, the answer is absolutely assuredly they will get better and they will get better in an instantaneous fashion at the coming of Jesus Christ in one great cataclysmic moment of redemptive history.

But before they get better, they're going to get worse, a lot worse. The world hasn't even begun to understand how bad life can be, how terrifyingly inequitable it can be, how unjust it can be, how criminal it can be, how chaotic it can be, how devastating and deadly it can be. If you want to understand that, understand the book of Revelation. Starting in chapter 6, the unfolding of seven seal judgments and seven trumpet judgments and seven bowls of the wrath of God, culminating in that which is called the day of wrath itself, describe for us how bad it is going to become. Before the world gets any better in the return of Jesus Christ, it's going to get far worse than it is today.

And sometimes we ask ourselves if it can get any worse, and the answer is it can and it will. And then in a great moment of redemptive culmination, Jesus will come and the world will immediately become a paradise regained. Now as we come to Revelation chapter 19 and verse 11 where the return of Jesus Christ is described for us, we want to remember that in the prior passage there was some presentation of the great event called in verse 9, the marriage supper of the Lamb, the time when the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, will join together with His redeemed people and they will participate in this wonderful marriage supper that in its fullness will be enjoyed in the time of the millennial kingdom, the thousand-year reign that Jesus establishes on the earth as the first phase of His eternal rule. But the marriage supper of the Lamb is wonderful as it is when the Lamb gathers His bride and they enter into the glory of the kingdom and participate in that wonderful time of celebration. Before that marriage supper can come to pass, the warrior king must win the final battle. He cannot take His bride into the kingdom. He cannot establish that great event of the marriage supper, that great and permanent celebration. He cannot enter into that promised marriage and that promised culmination until He returns from victory in the greatest battlefield of all time.

And so, in anticipation of the great event of the marriage supper, the great event of the kingdom, the warrior king goes to battle one final time. And it is at this time that the greatest...the greatest amassing of enemies comes against the Lord Jesus Christ. For now you have demons that have been loose and you have demons that have been bound and now are loosed. You have 200 million demons who have been released, have been held captive for a long period of time. You have the pit of hell opened up and demons belching out of that who have been incarcerated in chains until the hour of the time of tribulation. So the hosts of hell are more formidable now than they have been. You have what is left of the humanity of the earth, that which hasn't been destroyed under the power of Antichrist or destroyed by the furious judgments of God and they gather together in great armies and are led into the fields of Megiddo, as it were, and stretching all the way there into the south past the city of Jerusalem, they become really fuel for the fires of the returning king.

This greatest of all human holocausts is commonly known and rightfully so as the great holocaust of Armageddon. And before the king can take his bride to her supper and celebration, he has to make a final triumph. The daring challenge of the Antichrist is accepted by heaven itself.

It is accepted by the king, the warrior king and his holy angels and he comes in flaming fire to take his vengeance. As we come to this event in chapter 19 and verse 11, Babylon, the great capital city of the empire of Antichrist has already been destroyed. The world economic and religious system has been devastated. The empire of the Antichrist is in shambles.

The seven seal judgments have been opened and fulfilled. The seven trumpets have been blown and their furious judgments unfolded. The seven bowls of wrath have been poured out, man's day is about to end, the great tribulation to be over, Satan's time as well has ended as Jesus Christ comes in glorious triumph. It wouldn't do justice to the intent of Scripture and to the anticipation of all of the redemptive literature that is before us in the Bible if we didn't say at this point, this is the culmination of God's plan that His people have been waiting for throughout all of redemptive history.

This is that which has been anticipated since the very beginning. This is the time when fully the serpent's head is bruised, and that takes us back to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. This is the time when the scepter is given to the true king, and that takes us back to Genesis chapter 49. This is the time also, for example, that was anticipated in the great prophecy given in 2 Samuel chapter 7, in that great chapter in which David is told that there is going to come a king, there is going to come a king greater than any other king, and that king who will be a son of David will establish a kingdom that will last forever.

It will be a kingdom that will never end. Second Samuel 7 then is anticipating the very event described for us here in Revelation chapter 19. It is the very anticipation of this day and this moment that was certainly in the heart of Isaiah when he talked about the fact that there was going to come a great servant king, a great one who would establish a throne and a kingdom. Isaiah anticipates that in the eleventh chapter and again in the forty-second chapter. This was anticipated by Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39. It was anticipated by Joel in chapter 3 of his prophecy and by Zechariah in chapter 14. And certainly Isaiah had it in mind in chapter 9 when he said the government will be upon his shoulders.

He talked about a child who would come who would reign and rule. The Old Testament also pointed out very clearly that the center of this kingdom which the Messiah would establish would be in the city of Jerusalem. Clearly, the prophet Zechariah let it be known that Jerusalem was to be the place. In Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 3, it shall come about in that day, I'll make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples.

All who lift it will be severely injured and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. In the battle of Armageddon, there is a focal point as well at Jerusalem and Jerusalem is going to be a place, of course, where Antichrist establishes his rule. After desecrating the temple, you remember, during the Tribulation, he sets up himself as the one to be worshiped. He sets up the center of his worship in that sense in the city of Jerusalem.

And so the conflict will hit that city as well. Zechariah talked about it, even Isaiah talks about it in chapter 9 and verse 7. So the prophets were anticipating what was going to happen, that there would come a day when Jerusalem would be a place of judgment, there would come a day when God would send His great King to establish His eternal kingdom. And though they didn't fully have the revelation, of course, they had to wait until the New Testament even gave a greater revelation, that which came in the Olivet Discourse, that which comes in the book of Revelation. They understood how human history would finally reach its culmination. Isaiah would come one from heaven, the anointed, the son of David, the promised King who would dethrone the kings of the world and establish a kingdom of righteousness in which the people of God would be lifted up and exalted.

Peace and justice would prevail in the world. Certainly Isaiah, as well as the other prophets, knew and understood as much as they were told about this great event. So the conflict is set.

We understand it. We've learned about it from the book of Revelation, but so is the anticipation set. And Christians have longed for this great day to come and now we are reading about its coming.

I think back to Matthew chapter 13 and how the Lord early on in His ministry even began to talk about what was going to happen in the future. You remember in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, verses 41 and 42, He says, the Son of Man will send forth His angels and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and cast them into the furnace of fire. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, but the righteous will shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their Father. Here is Jesus saying there's coming a day of judgment, there's coming a day when the angels are going to be the agents of judgment and the reapers in the harvest, but it's also going to be a day of blessing and the righteous are going to shine like the Son in the kingdom of their Father. And in that great Olivet Discourse where Jesus preached a sermon on His own Second Coming, He reminds again of what's going to happen in Matthew 25, 41, He will say to those on His left, depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

But on the other hand, He will say to those who know and love Him, enter into My kingdom, come you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. And so that day is a day of tremendous judgment but also a day of tremendous blessing, tremendous joy, tremendous anticipation. In Romans chapter 2, as you remember, the Apostle Paul talks about the fact that there is coming a day of wrath and a day of revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And that day will render to every man according to his deeds, to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality will come eternal life, to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

So again, this event signals judgment and it signals blessing. And believers throughout the ages have anticipated this monumental moment. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 7, it tells us about a day when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven. It's the very day we're looking at in Revelation 19 when He comes with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. But on the other hand, He will come to be glorified in His saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed.

Again we hear the same rehearsing. It is a day of terrible judgment on the ungodly and a day of immense joy for those who know and love the Lord. So it is the anticipated day of saints in the Old Testament, the anticipated day of saints in the New Testament, the day of judgment. It's the very day which caused John to know sweetness and bitterness, sweetness because Christ was coming, bitterness because it meant the damnation of the ungodly was sealed.

So our text then is monumental in the history of redemption. It is the culminating event. It is the final great event. It is the end of the whole saga, really.

The rest that happens in the kingdom and the end of the kingdom, the satanic rebellion at the end of the thousand years is really a sort of a final mop-up operation. This is that which establishes the permanent end of man's day and establishes the eternal beginning of the day of God and the day of Christ when He will reign forever and ever. This then is the culmination of all of the Scripture, of all of Christian hope, of all of the hope of all the saints of all the ages. This is the final culminating battle for sovereignty in the universe and this determines who will rule forever and ever and ever and it will be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. We should be loving this event.

We should be anticipating this event. The Apostle Paul spoke when he was writing at the very end of his life to Timothy and he spoke some very, very important and practical words. He said in 2 Timothy 4, 8, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge will award to me on that day and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

In so saying, he defines a Christian as someone who loves Christ's appearing, someone who loves His appearing. When we think about it, when we contemplate it, of course we do as Christians. But certainly we don't demonstrate that kind of affection because we get so caught up in this world, so satisfied with this world that I think for the most part all of us if we were honest and looked into our hearts and the question we're asked, would you rather leave this world and be taken to glory? Would you rather that Jesus come or would you rather keep enjoying life? We would be hard pressed to honestly say it is clear cut I would in one split second give up everything in this world for the presence of Jesus Christ. We don't love His appearing as we should be, become comfortable and enamored by things in this world.

And I think maybe more so in this kind of culture than in many other cultures that are much more difficult and much harder, much more depressing and much less satisfying than our culture. Maybe...maybe the fact that our society is rapidly changing, that the golden era of American history is over, that the glory days of this country and our society are in the past, maybe the fact that things are going to get worse and worse is going to cause us to have a greater and a greater love for the appearing of Jesus Christ and so be it if indeed that is the case. And if we in our condition today can love His appearing, imagine how the saints are going to feel who live in the time of the Tribulation. Imagine what it's going to be like for them to anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ when they're having to experience all that is going on. Antichrist will be operating in full power, openly blaspheming and blatantly defying God and Christ. The whole world will be worshiping Satan and the son of perdition.

Those who refuse to do that, who belong to the Lord will pay with their life. There will be a massive martyrdom of believers, all men and women on the face of the earth will be enduring unbelievable and unimaginable carnage. Remaining believers from Israel who have survived the wrath of God will have come to the truth of Jesus Christ and will be in the last extremities of their persecution. They will no doubt be crying out with the psalmist who said, keep thou not silent, O God. Do not remain quiet, do not be still for behold, thine enemies make an uproar and those who hate thee have exalted themselves.

They make strong plans against Thy people and conspire together against Thy treasured ones. They have said, come and let us wipe them out as a nation that the name of Israel be remembered no more for they have conspired together with one mind against Thee and they do make a covenant. No doubt the redeemed Jews of the Tribulation will find their way into Psalm 83 and those first six verses and be crying out to God, keep thou not silent, O God. And living, believing Gentiles will join in that cry, those who have believed during that period and who are still alive and haven't been martyred. And then the martyred saints who are in heaven will also be crying, how long, O Lord, holy and true wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood, as they do in chapter 6 of Revelation and verse 10. And so saints on earth, both Jew and Gentile and saints in heaven under the altar will be crying out for Christ to come and they will be anxiously loving His appearing because life will be so horrifying. They'll want the King to come back and set up His kingdom and be honored and glorified. And they will be, of course, saddened by their own experiences, but even more so by the defamation of the character of God in the name of Christ and they'll want it all to come to an end and the time will come and the prayers of the saints will be answered and the cries of those under the altar in heaven will be answered as well. And we see the answer to it right here in chapter 19, the day will come.

As Jude put it in his little epistle in verse 14, when, behold, the Lord comes with many thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. It's going to come. It's going to happen, this great event. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. Today John began a series about a day that's closer now than ever. It's called When Jesus Comes. Now maybe you've thought that what Scripture says about Christ's return is too difficult to understand, something that's best left to Bible scholars. But there's no need to be confused about this next event in the prophetic timeline. As John's book called The Second Coming will show you, you can order your copy today. Dial toll-free 800-55-GRACE.

You can also go online to GTY.org. The Second Coming isn't a book about how today's headlines fit into the narrative of Scripture. Instead, this book looks past the news of the day and focuses on what the Bible says about the return of Christ and how you can be ready.

The title again, The Second Coming. Order when you call us at 800-55-GRACE or go to our website at GTY.org. I would also encourage you to visit our website GTY.org where you can download today's lesson and 3500 other sermons from John free in MP3 or transcript format. And if you'd like to hear John's newest messages just a few days after he preaches them at his church, you'll also find those sermons at our website.

The individual lessons and many other resources are available free at GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur and the staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day and be here tomorrow, same time, when John continues his study of Christ's future return and how you can prepare for it. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.