The Coming King – Part 2

Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to serve as your Bible teacher every day on this great radio station.

On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. Jesus Christ is returning to earth one day to reward the righteous and to punish the unrighteous. And it is that certain visible, literal return of Jesus Christ that we have come to in our study of the Book of Revelation. If you have your Bibles, turn to Revelation chapter 19 as we talk about the coming King. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, the Great Tribulation is filled with dramatic events from God's judgments to Satan's demonic attacks to the rise of the Antichrist.

But all of these events are simply a prelude to something much greater. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress teaches on the most important event in human history. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. I'm pleased that you've joined us as we come to the final chapters in Revelation, the last book in the Bible. You know, those who typecast the Book of Revelation as an allegory or as a roadmap on biblical prophecy are only partially right. Because the last book of the Bible is more than that.

It's the unveiling of Jesus Christ in all of his glory. Yes, Revelation teaches us about the last days. And yes, we see a lot of strange symbols and imagery in John's book. But in the end, it's a book of triumph, glory, and victory, all pointing to the majesty of Jesus Christ. I've written two brand new resources to help you grasp these important topics. The first is a creative 50-page booklet called The Major Characters of the End Times. And then I've written a brand new book as well. It's called Mysteries of the End Times.

In my new book, I'll help you unravel five common mysteries of the Bible, such as the mystery of the day of the Lord, the mystery of the tree of life, and the mystery of Gog and Magog. You're invited to request your copy of both resources when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. But next week, this time-limited offer will come to a close. So, while there's still time, please get in touch with us today.

Now, let's get started with a study that began on yesterday's program. I titled my message The Coming King, and we're looking at Revelation chapter 19. Let's look at the first 10 verses first, in which the saints are rejoicing over the fall of Babylon. And that praise comes in the form of four hallelujahs.

First of all, verses one and two. Hallelujah, for the great harlot is fallen. That great harlot, remember, is the false church during the tribulation, that for the first three and a half years will assist Antichrist in his rise to power. Secondly, there's a hallelujah, for the great city is consumed. Verse three, when Babylon is destroyed, they said in heaven, Hallelujah, praise be to God, for her smoke rises up forever and ever. The third hallelujah, hallelujah, for God has vanquished evil.

He has vanquished evil forever and ever. We find that in verse four, and the 24 elders and the living creatures fell down and worshiped God, saying, Amen, hallelujah. And finally, hallelujah, for the Lord God Almighty reigns. Now, this four hallelujah chorus gives way to the final hymn in the book of Revelation. It's a hymn, a song, for the lamb and his bride. Look at verse seven.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him, for... Why? The marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. And we know who the lamb is.

We've seen it over and over in Revelation. The lamb is Jesus Christ. Well, who did he get married to? The bride of Jesus Christ is you and me, the church of Jesus Christ. That is the bride of Christ.

Notice verse eight. And it was given to her, that is the bride, to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. The bride is getting ready. We, the bride, are in heaven with the groom. We're getting ready to come back to earth for this great celebration.

And how are we going to clothe ourselves with bright linen? That is, if you don't know what that is, it is the righteous acts of the saints. You know, a lot of people get confused about this. They think that our works, our righteous acts, don't matter to God. After all, we're saved by grace, not by works, right?

It's true. Our good works are meaningless. They are worthless to God before we are saved.

But God does care how you and I live after we are saved. And the good things we do for God, our obedience to God, it is like a white garment we put on the righteous acts of the saints. And so the church is adorning herself with those righteous acts to get ready for the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Now look at verse nine. Then John said to me, write this, write this down, blessed, literally happy, are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. It is a happy thing if you receive an invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Now, that sets the stage for the return of Jesus Christ. Before that wedding supper can occur, Jesus and his bride must come back to earth again.

But something has to happen before they get to earth, and that is all of the enemies of the groom and the bride have to be extinguished. And that's what we see happening at the return of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 11, the triumphal entry of the king. Now again, let me set the stage what has been happening on earth. We've been through the seven years of the tribulation. The antichrist through the first three and a half years rises to power. But after that first three and a half years, the antichrist turns against Israel and he begins to persecute Israel and the group of believers who are on the earth. And those over whom the antichrist is reigning are getting sick and tired of all of the bad things that are happening during these last three and a half years.

And they plot to overthrow the antichrist. And so all of the forces of the world gather together in that valley of Armageddon. And so you've got this scene at Armageddon, the world forces fighting to overthrow the antichrist. They are against one another when suddenly they look up into the sky and they see the warrior king, Jesus Christ, and his army.

And suddenly that divided human army unites together to fight against Christ. And that's where we pick up in verse 11, a description of the coming king. And I saw heaven open, John says, and behold a white horse. And he who sat upon it is called faithful and true.

That word faithful means absolutely trustworthy, true, genuine. And in righteousness he judges and wages war for his eyes are a flame of fire, talks about his piercing judgment. And on his head are many diadems, regal crowns symbolizing his right to rule.

It was this picture that caused Matthew Brides in 1852 to write that hymn, crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his throne. His eyes are a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself. Are you curious about what that name is that is written on him that nobody knows about himself? Would you like to know? I don't have a clue, nobody knows. That's why it says nobody knows except himself.

We don't know what it is. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood. It's not in his blood, it's in the blood of his adversaries on earth who are fighting him and his name is called the word of God. This is what was anticipated in Zechariah 14 verses 3 and 4 about Jesus returning to earth to the Mount of Olives causing such a reaction that the Mount of Olives will split in two. This is the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice in verse 14, the description of the king's army. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. Who is this army from heaven that follows him? Some people say it was the angels, maybe. The tribulation saints, maybe. Maybe it was the Old Testament saints. It's the church. It is you and I.

How do I know that? That description, they were clothed in fine linen. Remember we saw earlier that the bride was making herself ready in fine linen which is the righteous acts of the saints. Now look at the description of the warrior king in verses 15 and 16. And from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may strike down the nations.

What is that sharp sword? It's the word of God. The word of God is alive and it's active and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. God's word is what gives life to some and pronounces death upon others.

Remember the Old Testament description? God's word is like a surgeon's scalpel. It brings hurt as well as healing. So does this two-edged sword, the word of God. It brings life to those who believe it. It brings eternal death to those who reject it.

And he will rule them with a rod of iron. I hear so many times people say, critics say, why can't you folks at First Baptist Dallas be a little more flexible? Why are you so rigid in your beliefs? Don't you realize culture is changing and the church needs to change with the culture?

No, we don't change with the culture. The Bible says thy word is established in heaven forever. God's word is like a rod of iron.

It is completely inflexible. That's what we see here. He's gonna rule according to that rod of iron and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. We saw that imagery earlier in chapter 14. He will tread the winepress of the fierce wrath of God. Remember that image of the vinepress in John's day when grapes were ripe, almost bursting forth with the juice at that point, those grapes would be put into a winepress and the servants or slaves would get in with their bare feet and they would stomp on those grapes and those grapes would burst forth with the juice that would be captured in another cistern below. In this image, the grapes represent unbelievers, sinners and they are bursting forth with sin. And at God's appointed time, Jesus Christ is going to trample the grapes of wrath. He is gonna bring judgment to those sinners and their blood is going to splatter forth, splatter forth like the juice from an overly ripe grape. That's the picture here. In fact, at this battle of Armageddon, the death is so great that blood will splatter up to the bridle of a horse.

That's the picture we have here. This is a fulfillment of Jude verses 14 and 15. Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken about him. Now in verse 17, we see the victory of the king over his enemies. Again, Jesus prophesied about this in Matthew 24, 30. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and with great glory. This brings about, there are three aspects of this victory of the king. First of all, it's referred to as the supper of God.

Now listen to me. In the book of Revelation chapter 19, there are actually two suppers that are described. The first supper we've already talked about, the wedding supper of the Lamb. And John said, blessed, happy are those who get an invitation to that supper. But this is a different supper here. It's called the supper of God.

And that is an invitation you never want to receive in the mail. The first invitation, the invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb is an invitation that is to be coveted. The second invitation, an invitation to the supper of God is an invitation to be dreaded. The first invitation, the Lamb of God's supper is an invitation to come and eat. The second invitation to the supper of God is an invitation to come and be eaten.

You'll see what I mean here. This is a supper of judgment. Verses 17 and 18, Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in mid heaven, come and assemble for the great supper of God, so that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of those who sit upon them, and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves of small and great. You know, the single day of battle in which the most lives were lost in American history, I read this week, was September 17th, 1862, the Battle of Antietam during the Civil War. Over 3,600 soldiers were killed in that battle. As devastating as that was, it is a drop in the bucket compared to what's going to happen at Armageddon.

There are going to be millions upon millions of people who will be slaughtered on that day. Do you remember some of the pictures coming out of New York City during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic? There were bodies. There were so many bodies, they couldn't take care of the bodies. The funeral homes couldn't take care of them. Those bodies were everywhere. They were in trucks.

They were being stored. There were too many bodies to deal with. It will be that way at Armageddon. Bodies will be left in the battlefield for the birds to eat. You know, we know right now that there are millions of predatory birds that migrate in the spring from Africa to Europe, and their migration path takes them over the land of Israel. It's very easy to see how those predatory birds could be instruments of God to pick at the flesh, to gorge themselves with the flesh of those who are destroyed at this great, great battle. That is the great supper of God. Notice secondly, the judgment of the beast and the false prophet. Verse 19, and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Christ who sat upon the horse and against his army, and the beast, the antichrist, was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence by which he received those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image, and these two, that is the antichrist and false prophet were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.

This is the first mention of the lake of fire in the book of Revelation. It is the eternal place of torment for those who die apart from Christ. You see, right now, if you're an unbeliever and you die without receiving Jesus Christ as your savior, you go to a place the Bible calls Hades.

Jesus talked about it in Luke 16. It's an awful place. It's a place of suffering, but it's a temporary place as well. Every unbeliever who has ever lived is right now in Hades awaiting his final trial at the great white throne judgment and his final sentence, which will be to be thrown into the lake of fire, to be tormented day and night forever and ever. The first two occupants of that lake of fire will be the beast and the false prophet, and we'll find after Revelation 20, after the thousand years of millennium, the reign of Christ, at the end of those thousand years, Satan will be cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20, 10 says, The great dragon Satan will be cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet are. To me, that's fascinating because Satan doesn't enter that lake of fire until a thousand years later, and yet a thousand years later when Satan is dispatched into the lake of fire, it says the beast and the false prophet are still there.

It doesn't say they were there. They are there, meaning they are still alive, and that is the awful truth about hell, the final judgment place of the unsaved. A person who goes to hell isn't just destroyed.

They continue to suffer, to be tormented day and night forever and ever. If you don't like that, if you think that's wrong or unfair, your problem is with the word of God. That's exactly what God says. God never meant for human beings to occupy the lake of fire. It was designed for the devil, his angels, for the beast and the false prophet, but those who reject the grace, the forgiveness of God will spend eternity there as well. Then we see this final word in verse 21 about the sword of Christ.

The rest were killed with a sword which came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh. This is the future that awaits those who die apart from Christ Jesus. But what about the here and now? I close with this, perhaps the best known verse in the entire Bible by Christians and non-Christians alike is John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in, trust in, claims to him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

People misinterpret that. They say, oh, you see, pastor, Jesus isn't a judge. No, he didn't come to judge the world the first time. He didn't come into the world the first time to judge the world. He came as Savior to save the world. He didn't come the first time to judge. He came to save.

John goes on to explain. For he who believes in him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already because he does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God. You see, a lot of people think when we're born into this world, we're born spiritually neutral, and when we die, you know, it's kind of a crapshoot whether we go to heaven or hell, depending on how nice we are while here on planet earth.

No, when we enter this world, we enter alienated from God. We are like prisoners on death row awaiting our final execution, but Jesus Christ came that first time to be our Savior to offer us a pardon from our sins, a stay of execution, if you will, if we'll accept his forgiveness. He came the first time to be our Savior, but if we leave this world without receiving that pardon from sin, we will face him one day as our judge, just as those will at the end time when they see him coming and riding on that great white horse. The second coming of Jesus Christ will be the worst day of your life if you have to face him as your judge, but the second coming of Jesus Christ will be the best day of your life if you receive his forgiveness now and when you see him, know that is the first day of the great future he has planned for you.

The choice, of course, is entirely yours, but as the Bible says, today is the day of salvation, and it's my prayer that you will take your first steps toward Jesus Christ as the pardon, the only pardon available for your sins. Well, we've been on an adventure since the first day of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Revelation started, and one week from tomorrow we'll conclude this teaching series called Final Conquest. With this deadline coming, I'm urging you to call, write, or go online to request a copy of my brand-new book called Mysteries of the End Times. In my book, we'll explore together five areas that often stir up confusion and even controversy. My book will shed light on important topics such as the mystery of America in the end times and the mystery of the marriage of the lamb.

This is a large volume, and it represents decades of personal study, all packed into one single book, and so I'll ask you to be generous when you make your request. Again, the title of my brand-new book is Mysteries of the End Times, and it's yours when you include a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. In closing, let me thank our Pathway partners and all those who give to Pathway to Victory. Our program would never leave the city limits of Dallas without partners like you, but because of the army of faithful friends God has brought to us, Pathway to Victory impacts the entire globe. So thank you, and please keep up the good work. Together we are piercing the darkness with the light of God's Word.

David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of Mysteries of the End Times. That's the brand-new book by Dr. Robert Jeffress. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. And when your gift is $100 or more, we'll also send you the complete CD and DVD teaching sets for this month's series on the book of Revelation.

In addition, you'll receive a copy of the best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress called Final Conquest. To request these resources, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. Now, you could also send your request by mail. Just write to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. Ever since the fall of man, Satan has enjoyed a measure of power and dominion over the earth. But during the last days, Satan will be vanquished and Christ will return to establish His Kingdom.

Hear a message called The Coming Kingdom. That's Friday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. The Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska with Dr. Robert Jeffress set sail from Vancouver, British Columbia on June 15, 2024. Join me along with musical artists Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien and comedian Dennis Swanberg for a vacation you'll never forget. I promise you will come back spiritually, physically and emotionally refreshed. Book your spot on the 7-Day Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska at ptv.org.