The Beast and His Armies Defeated - Revelation 19:17-21

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God First while viewing life through the window of the Bible.

Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. Well, we saw last week in our study, we saw the glorious appearing of our great Lord Jesus Christ. And what we found on display is that he is going to return as the righteous judge, as the righteous warrior and the righteous king. And that's the day that we look forward to when our Lord will come back as he came humbly at his first coming.

But at his second coming, he's going to come back, as we said, with power and great glory to receive the honor that he so rightfully deserves as the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords. And so what we're looking at today primarily deals with Christ as the righteous warrior as he comes to the Battle of Armageddon. And that is this beautiful valley that is to the east of Mount Megiddo in the nation of Israel. And as interesting as I state that, it brings to mind the fact that there are so many people today who profess to be Christians, but yet they say that current present day Israel holds no biblical significance. They say there's no relation of present day Israel to the Bible. And well, folks, we we look at the scripture and it's clear and I've stated it many times before the importance and the significance of the nation of Israel. And we've seen throughout scripture what God is doing with Israel, how Israel is God's prophetic time clock. And that is the very place that our Lord Jesus Christ is going to return. And there is going to be this great battle, this battle at the Valley of Megiddo, would we come to know as Armageddon in the great nation of Israel?

And as we think about mankind, we look throughout the world today and you don't have to look far to see the evil that is in our society. The heart of mankind with its evil ambitions, and we're going to see that on display when we get to the end of the tribulation, when driven by Satan, mankind will be the instigator of this battle of Armageddon. And Jesus Christ revealed to us in the book of Matthew Chapter 24, verses 27 through 31 that this battle will take place immediately after the distress of those days, which is the end of the tribulation.

And before the establishment of the millennial kingdom, that is the 1000 year reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what we're going to find is that Satan, the antichrist, the false prophet, they are going to inspire these armies of Satan to invade Israel. Again, significance that present day Israel is biblical, that present day Israel still has a place in the eyes of God. God is going to fulfill his promises to Abraham, to the nation of Israel. And what we're going to find is that Christ is going to arrive on the scene to thwart this attempt to annihilate the nation of Israel as Satan will come to try to destroy God's special nation. So let us turn our Bibles to Revelation Chapter 19, and we're going to look today at verses 17 through 21.

Revelation Chapter 19, verses 17 through 21 reads as follows. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather together for the supper of the great God that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all people free enslaved, both small and great. And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. Then the beast was captured and with him, the false prophet who worked signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

These two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone, and the rest were killed with the sword, which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your great and holy word. We thank you for this time of Bible fellowship. It is my prayer, Lord, that all things that are spoken, that it be nothing but sound doctrine. And may you be honored and glorified in all things in your name, Jesus.

Amen. So once again, we see this scene as we just looked last week at the glorious appearing of Christ as he comes back to claim his earthly kingdom. We saw Christ coming out of heaven on a white horse. And it says that the armies of heaven, the army of our Lord, that is us that have been taken away in the rapture. We are coming with him along with the Old Testament saints and the tribulation saints who were martyred.

We're all coming back on white horses. And so the scene here as we come to verse 17 is that the angel is standing in the sun. So he's not literally in the sun, but the sun is illuminating around this angel. And he cries with a loud voice, saying to the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, that is referring to the sky, our atmosphere, come and gather together for the supper of the great God. Ezekiel, the prophet prophesied a similar display in Ezekiel chapter 39 verses 17 through 20.

That text tells us. And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, speak to every sort of bird into every beast of the field, assemble yourselves and come gather together from all sides to my sacrificial meal, which I am sacrificing for you. A great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty drink, the blood of the princes of the earth of rams and lambs of goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. You shall eat fat to you. You are full and drink blood to you are drunk at my sacrificial meal, which I am sacrificing to you. You shall be filled at my table with horses and riders, with mighty men and with men of war, says the Lord.

Wow. What a mighty, what a mighty, mighty passage that is. Now, it is debatable. Bible scholars debate as to whether Ezekiel is referring to the Gog Magog battle or the Battle of Armageddon. And there are some out there who think the Battle of Armageddon and the Gog Magog battle are one in the same.

I believe that they are separate battles. But either way, whether Ezekiel is referring to the Gog Magog battle or the Battle of Armageddon, we see the similar text in which he's he's calling here prophetically for these birds to come to eat upon the flesh of those who are going to be defeated by Almighty God. And we find in the Book of Joel, Chapter three, verses one through 17, also a prophecy of this battle of the great day of our Lord. And so the angel is rallying the birds. That is, again, the birds in the midst of heaven, in our atmosphere, in the sky to prepare for a great feast. And then, as we saw in verse 18, that it says, eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and those who sit on them and the flesh of all people free enslaved, both small and great.

This shows here the futility of mankind, because in one moment they will be attacking the headquarters of Christ in a hate feel rebellion. And then the next moment they are being eaten by birds. I heard an account recently of a researcher who was stating that vultures normally lay one egg at a time. But for the past several years in this area of Israel, the Valley of Megiddo, they are finding that these vultures are actually laying three to four eggs at a time.

So their reproduction has increased. And it's hard not to think that could it be that God is increasing the count of these vultures in that area as the time is getting near for this great battle when our Lord comes back to the earth and he's going to defeat his enemies? Could it be pointing to that event? I think it's something that we should not overlook. And again, another sign that present day Israel is significant, present day Israel is biblical, and we should bless present day Israel as God says, I will bless those that bless you and I will curse those that curse you. And so we see in the text that from the most powerful, the most famous to the lowest slave, all who reject Christ will be consumed.

And my plea today is my plea that I always have come to Jesus Christ, receive him if you want eternal life, for that is the only way by which you will be saved. Then in verse 19, we see that the beast, the kings of the earth and the armies, they gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. We saw a few weeks ago, Revelation 16 speaks of this battle of Armageddon in further detail. So let's let's flip back to Revelation chapter 16 verses 12 through 16. And there we find that our text tells us, then the six angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and his water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I am coming as a thief.

Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. It is during this time when these unclean spirits are going to draw these wicked people of the earth to this location in preparation to battle against our Lord. And folks, we are in a spiritual battle today.

The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities of the air. And that is why we see today this increase in violence in our society. We see this spirit of lawlessness in which people are calling for a defunding of the police and we see people out having disobedience and not complying with the police. And we see all of these things happening as murder is skyrocketing, robbery, robberies. And these things are happening, folks, because these spirits, these unclean spirits of the devil are being unleashed upon the world and they're influencing more and more people. And we see people today that are walking around with depraved minds. They have been turned over and they are demon possessed. And we're going to see that increase when we get into the tribulation as the spirits are going to be released even in greater numbers to influence those who come to this battle of Armageddon.

Now, what I want to point out to you is that there are three renowned mountains that overlook this valley. There is Mount Carmel, and we know that it is famously known for the place in which Elijah had the great showdown against the prophets of Baal in First Kings, chapter 18, in which Baal, the Baal prophets. Elijah gave them the chance to prove that Baal was real and he was truly a god. And so he challenged them to call out to Baal to send fire, to consume the sacrifice. And they called out to him from morning until evening and nothing happened. And the Bible says they were leaping around and they were cutting themselves and they were were crying out to Baal and nothing happened. And Elijah began to mock them to say, call out a little louder. Maybe he's in the bathroom or maybe he's he's asleep.

Maybe he's away on a trip. And then we know that God sent fire when Elijah called upon the true God as God, as Elijah made it clear that he was calling upon the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And so this is the location that overlooks this valley of Megiddo, this valley of Armageddon, where this this battle will take place.

We also find that Mount Geboah and Mount Tabor overlook this valley. The prophet Zechariah also spoke of this attempt to destroy Jerusalem. That is going to take place in the tribulation in Zechariah Chapter 12, verses one through nine. And then we find that this beast that is the Antichrist, he's going to gather the worldly army to make war with Jesus Christ coming out of heaven. As crazy as that sounds, but they're going to come and gather together to make war with our great Lord.

But we know that our Lord is going to defeat them and he's going to rule and reign for all of eternity. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God First. For more of Brian's teachings, please visit Godfirst.org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage and the significance of Lesson Israel, just to name a few.

You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and visit our Web store. So please visit us at Godfirst.org. Now let's return to the conclusion of today's message. And folks, this spirit of Antichrist is already in the earth. This this hatred, this mockery toward our Lord Jesus Christ is already in the earth. And there was a movie a few years ago that was made called Rapture Palooza. And this movie was making fun of the event of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to the earth.

It was making fun. And in the movie, they were using a missile and they fired upon Jesus Christ as he was coming back to the earth. And they started to laugh and to say things about the just shot and killed Jesus. And so the whole thing again was to to be a mockery to to make fun of this event and again being driven by the spirit of Antichrist. But the day is coming when those people will not laugh anymore. The day is coming if that when if they have not yet repented, they are going to pay the price.

With eternal damnation. And so again, I call on all to come to Jesus Christ today to repent and to profess him as Lord and Savior. But we see the spirit of the world is getting more and more hostile toward Jesus Christ and toward his second coming. And they're making movies that are making fun, making light of the coming of our Lord.

But he is coming back to back again. He's coming to rule and reign on the earth. And then we found in verse 20 that the beast is going to be captured and with him, the false prophet, the one who deceived so many during the tribulation, and they're going to be cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 16, 17 through 21 that we looked at in previous weeks provides more detail of this. The second come in this battle of Armageddon tells us then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying it is done. And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings. And that was a great earthquake.

Such a mighty and great earthquake has had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now, the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations failed. And great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Then every island fled away and the mountains were not found and great hail from heaven fell upon men.

Each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Me and blaspheme God because of the plague of hell, since that plague was exceedingly great. We find further accounts of this event in the book of Zachariah Chapter 14, verses one through four concerning our lower second coming. The prophet writes, behold, the day of the Lord is coming and your spoil would be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken.

The houses rifled and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. And in that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley.

Half of the mountains shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. Our Lord's return is going to be a magnificent event. And when he comes back and he judges and makes war with those who are against him. There will be no question as to who is the king of kings and who is the Lord of Lords, as we see the Antichrist and the false prophet will be thrown alive into the lake of fire. And the same thing will happen to all of those who have rejected Jesus Christ at the great white throne judgment that we'll see in Revelation Chapter 20 when we get there in the coming weeks.

So again, folks, come to Jesus Christ today, receive him, because there is a lake of fire that is awaiting your eternal damnation if you do not receive him. And then in verse 21, the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of our great Lord Jesus Christ, and the birds are filled with their flesh. Scripture tells us that the blood is going to flow to the height of a horse's bridle for a distance of the entire length of Israel, and some of the troops are going to die from these approximately 100 pound hailstones that are going to fall from the sky during this time period. And then those who remain alive will die at the word of Jesus Christ. That is that sword which proceeds from his mouth, the symbolic of his word, and just like he spoke the universe into existence, he's going to speak a word and these people are going to all be killed on the spot.

And so imagine the streets flowing with blood mingled with hail. All who reject Christ during the tribulation are going to be slain by him at his glorious appearing. No one who has rejected his offer will escape the wrath of our Lord Jesus, and he offers it to us all today, which is to receive his sacrificial death on the cross, receive him so that you can be washed clean made clean of your sins and inherit eternal life. And so at the second coming of Christ, he'll gather the tribulation saints to him in the reaping of the harvest. We saw that back in Chapter 14, verses 14 through 16, which says, Then I looked and behold, a white cloud and on a cloud sat one like the son of man, having on his head a golden crown and in his hand, a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud thrust in your sickle and reap for the time has come for you to reap for the harvest of the earth is right.

So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped. So we see our Lord gathering the tribulation saints. These are the ones who had not yet accepted Christ at the rapture, but during the tribulation, they received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

So he's going to be gathering them to him. Now, it's important to know this is not the rapture. There are some people out there who see these this text and they think that it is pointing to the rapture, but it is not. It's pointing to the gathering that will take place when our Lord comes back to the earth at the end of the tribulation. But on the other hand, an angel, not Christ. Notice that Christ is the one who gathers up those who belong to him. But it's going to be an angel that will reap the rejecters of Christ in the reaping of the grapes.

We see that also in Revelation 14 verses 17 through 20. Then another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven. He also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar who had power over fire. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle. Say thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe. So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

And the winepress was trampled outside the city and blood came out of the winepress up to the horses bridles for 1600 furlongs. And then all the young saved in the rest of the world are going to be killed at the sheep goat judgment. When Jesus Christ comes back to earth, he's going to.

Settled the score with those who have rejected him. For those who will be at this battle of Armageddon, he's going to speak a word and they're going to die. And then the Bible says that for those who are in the rest of the world, other parts outside of Israel, the United States, Brazil, Africa, all these countries, they're going to be judged at the sheep goat judgment. Matthew Chapter 25. It says in verses 31 through 46, it speaks of this. Judgment that God is going to bring. It says, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goat. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when do we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, but surely I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.

Then he will also say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger and you did not take me in naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they also answer, saying to him, Lord, when do we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, Assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Folks, this is a text in which I could preach several sermons on it, but this is what I want you to know as I close that we are supposed to help those who are in need. But this verse is primarily referring to the treatment of the nation of Israel during the tribulation when the Antichrist will be out to annihilate them. And Jesus is saying that for those who do the right thing concerning Israel, those are the ones that will go into his kingdom. And no, we are not saved through works. That is not how you get saved. But it's by the grace of receiving our Lord Jesus Christ that motivates people to do these things when it comes to protection of Israel. But those who do not have the Lord, those who do not have the Holy Spirit are going to be on the side of being against the nation of Israel. And the Lord says they are the ones who are going to go into eternal damnation. So today, which side are you on?

Folks, this is real. This is not a fairy tale. These things will take place in a day of judgment is coming. And which side will you be on? Are you going to be on the side of the Lord's right hand and go into his millennial kingdom? Because only the righteous, only the saved will go into the Lord's 1000 year reign.

Or are you going to be on the left and go into eternal damnation? If you've not received him as Lord and Savior, I encourage you today to come to Jesus Christ while you have time. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time together. We thank you, Lord, again for your great and holy word. We thank you, Lord, that you are coming back to this earth again for your people. And as the world tends to to get darker and darker, Lord, we know that you said in your word that when we see these things begin to happen, to look up and watch because your redemption draws near. So we look forward to that day, Lord, when we see you come back for your people. Until then, Lord, we remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, blessings over your great nation of Israel, and until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our website, Godfirst.org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel, and seek first the kingdom of God.