This is Chris Hughes with the Christian Perspective Podcast with Chris Hughes, where we encourage our listeners to engage the culture with Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds, so enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis.
Heard daily on this station at 8 20 a.m. and 5 20 p.m. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project, whose mission is to empower men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and marketplace of ideas, using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth and sharing the message of Jesus. Learn more about the ministry of The Truth Project at www.projecttruthmatters.com. Coming up, the second coming of Jesus is judgment, the rapture and more.
Let's join this week's extended edition of Truth Matters. Christ comes back with his saints. At the rapture, Christ comes for his saints, but in the revelation of Christ, Christ comes back with his saints. In the rapture, the church meets Jesus in the air.
If you remember, he comes in the clouds. Those that are dead in Christ, they rise first. Those that are alive in a moment are called up in the twinkling of an eye and we meet Jesus in the air.
But at the revelation of Christ, Jesus descends to the earth, to the Mount of Olives specifically. Thirdly, on the rapture, the coming of the Lord with blessings in mind. The rapture, as I've said before and I'll say it again, is the last act of grace on Christ's behalf. At the revelation of Christ, he is coming with judgment in mind.
Completely different scene. At the rapture, he's coming with grace and blessings in mind. This is his last act of grace. But at the revelation of Christ, he's coming with judgment in mind. And the timing of the rapture is imminent.
It could happen at any moment. There are no more prophetic events that need to happen on the prophetic calendar for the rapture to occur. But at the revelation of Christ, there are always no less than seven years away after the rapture. So the revelation of Christ happens seven years after the rapture.
So the key prophetic event for all of the church that will happen next is the rapture. So now that we've got that established and that is clear in everyone's mind, here Jesus has three names. In this section of verses, Jesus was called three names. First, he who sat on him was called Faithful and True. He is called Faithful and True. He is also called the Word of God. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God. And lastly, on his thigh, a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So those are his three names, Faithful and True, Word of God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let's look at his appearance and attributes. First, let's focus on his eyes. His eyes are a flame of fire. They burn up all that is false as he gaze upon the hearts and minds of mankind. Remember, he's coming with judgment in mind at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So his eyes are a flame of fire which will burn up all the false that is in the hearts and minds of mankind. He has a crown, many crowns. It speaks of his sovereignty. No one is above his rule. You know, there's no one higher than God.
He is the standard. And his robe is dipped in blood, which is interestingly, is a white robe, clean, but is dipped in blood. It speaks of redemption that he secured for us on the cross, because this signifies him as the lamb that was slain, that paid the dowry for our sin, that paid the payment for our sin. And we're reminded from Revelation, verse one, chapter seven, every eye will see him, even they who pierced him. Everyone will know that Jesus has returned.
It's just some will have a guilty conscience. Let's look at the armies of Christ in verse 14. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. When Christ returned, as I said before, he will bring with him an army. Every believer who dies before the rapture or who were caught up to be with the Lord at the rapture will return with him. Actually, Paul writes about this in Second Thessalonians chapter one, verses seven through 10. And to give you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
So that is when Paul is talking about the saints are coming back to help execute an everlasting destruction, which is out of the presence of God. So if you remember before, I talked about clothing at the judgment seat of Christ, and those are the righteous acts of the saints. Our fine linen, how the church is dressed in fine linen, are the righteous acts of the saints.
So we are clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And so I'm wondering, we're so clean, so are we going to fight physically? Or are we going to fight spiritually?
How are we going to be involved in this army? But we are going to be spectators, actually. We will watch the battle of Armageddon end simply by the words coming from Jesus's mouth. The fact that we're spectators as I was studying this and actually teaching this at our church, it reminds me of Second Chronicles, chapter 20, verses 14 through 17.
And let me just turn there. I think a lot of you are familiar with this story in Second Chronicles 20, 14 through 17. And it is the story of King Jehoshaphat. And when he was up against the people of Moab, and the people of Ammon, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehoshaphat, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaniah, the son of Jaleel, the son of Madaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly.
And he said, Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat. Thus says the Lord to you, Do not be afraid nor dismayed, because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, go down against them.
They will surely come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jeriel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you, oh Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them, for the Lord is with you. This battle, the battle of Armageddon, much like the battle for King Jehoshaphat. This battle is not the church's. This battle is not ours.
It is the Lord's. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. He calls us to be spectators.
He calls us to watch. And in studying this, I feel like a lot of us are trying to fight battles even in our own lives with our own hands. I know that I've gone through things recently and, you know, felt that I needed to garner my own weapon and start trying to advance on the side of the Lord when I saw the enemy trying to gain territory in certain situations of my life. But what we don't understand is that our weapons are carnal. Even our own intellect, even our own speech, those are carnal. Anything that is not of faith is sin.
Anything that is not by the Holy Spirit is out of the will of God. And we think that our intellect can affect change, that we can accomplish the will of God. But our thoughts are not his thoughts. His thoughts are higher than ours. And he spoke to me even in this situation that I would not need to fight this particular battle in which I perceived that I was in. The battle is the Lord's, just like the battle of Armageddon is the Lord's.
It is not the church's. We are to be a spectator. But even sometimes in our own life, we're fighting battles that are not ours. We're fighting battles with carnal weapons when we need spiritual weapons. And really, in some battles, frankly, and I know I'm speaking to someone, is that these battles are not even yours. So all we have to do is have to position ourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. And the Lord is calling us to do that in some situation. So if you're listening to me today, you're going through a battle that you're trying to win yourself and you're losing, frankly, you need to pray and ask the Lord, really, is the battle even yours? And are you supposed to be just a spectator? And in the battle with King Jehoshaphat, he was supposed to be a spectator. In this particular battle in my own life, I am supposed to be a spectator.
So think about this in your own life. Pray about it and see what the Lord tells you about this particular battle in your life. All right, let's get on to the authority of Christ. Let's read verses 15 through 16. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations. And he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In Revelation chapter 1 verse 16, we read about the sharp two-edged sword coming from Christ's mouth as he prepared to levy judgment upon the seven churches.
We've heard this before. We see him again in verses 15 through 16 with a sword coming out of his mouth. And we know in Ephesians 6 17 that the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Here the sword is used symbolically to represent a sharp instrument of war which Christ will smite the nations and establish his absolute rule. This rod of iron denotes absolute sovereignty of his reign as King of Kings. Psalms chapter 2 verse 9, you shall break them with a rod of iron.
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. And in Revelation chapter 2 verse 27, he shall rule them with a rod of iron that they shall be dashed to pieces like potter's vessels. And so this is quoting the Psalms from the book of Revelation. Also he's known as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This re-emphasizes his authority.
Now this name takes on its intended significance. Of all the kings on earth, he is the king. Of all earthly lords, rulers, he is the Lord. Every knee will bow before him when he comes to the earth. And this is mentioned also in a number of places in the Bible. So first let's look into Isaiah 45 verse 23. I have sworn by myself the word has gone out by my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. That to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.
And that is from Isaiah. In Romans chapter 14 verse 11, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. Let's turn over to Philippians chapter 2 verses 10 through 11. That at that name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth.
That every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God our Father. And I know that we've just gone through the Christmas season and this verse is mentioned a number of times everywhere you see it. You know you think it's talking about the first coming of Christ, but really it is about the second coming of Christ.
The first time Christ came as a baby he did not come with a government on his shoulder, but the second time he will come with a government on his shoulder and he will be called Wonderful Counselor. Let's then get into the avenging of Christ in verses 17 through 21. 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 and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men the flesh of horses and the flesh of those who sit on them and the flesh of all people free and slave but small and great. They saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war.
Then the beast was captured and cast into the lake of fire. Here we see the fowls of heaven and the foes of heaven. The fowls of heaven, John sees an angel standing in the sun crying out with a loud voice to gather a great feast. The battle of Armageddon occurs and the vultures are coming to eat the bodies of those who fall in the battle. This is verse 18 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 and slave but small and great. Like we said last time there are two suppers in the revelation chapter 19. The marriage supper of the lamb where we eat the food but the supper of the great God where the earthly kings will be the food.
The marriage supper of the lamb where we eat the food you know the church has a great banquet feast of grace but the supper of the great God is where they will be the food. The foes of heaven are the antichrist which is the beast and the kings and soldiers of the ten nation confederacy of the revived roman empire as well as the false prophet. The antichrist leads the rebellion against God. It is the climax of the seven years of the tribulation in the mountain plain of the ghetto. The degree of judgment is equal to the degree of rebellion and this is a key concept.
You need to remember that. In verse 20 the beast and the false prophet are captured they are the first two residents of hell and this really ends on the chapter 19. Really I just want to ask the question you know we've learned a lot of things here we've gone over the marriage supper of the lamb we've gone over the second coming of Christ which are all key events and we've gone over the great supper of our God which is the battle of Armageddon. But what does this mean you know we should really have genuine compassion for the lost. I think in reading this it has really softened my heart to the sinful state of man. I think a lot of times we as Christians can get self-righteous and to think well if we can be saved it should be easy for someone else but we never know another person's full struggle only God knows that and we should have compassion for the lost.
Secondly I think we need to maintain purity and holiness in the setting of love. Sometimes we can become so clean and try to make our churches so clean that we can't take in dirty people and they're the people that need to be there. You know we hear stories of people being asked to leave the church because of their sinful lifestyles when they're sinners.
The church is a place for sinners to come and fall under the conviction of the word of God. You've been listening to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project, a North Carolina based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church. If you'd like to listen to these messages on demand go to ProjectTruthMatters.com and click on the podcast link. Dr. Davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function. She can be reached by email at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com or if you'd like to send a letter the address is Project Truth Matters Post Office Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina 28384. You can hear Truth Matters devotionals on weekdays at 8 20 a.m. and 5 20 p.m. Until next time let's all work together to teach a biblical truth to assist, equip, edify, and encourage one another and bring the gospel to the world because truth matters.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-22 23:56:45 / 2023-05-23 00:03:34 / 7