Revelation 19:11-16

Revelation chapter 19 verses 11 through 16 for our study this morning. And I saw a heaven opened and behold a white horse. 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. And 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 and white linen, fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh, and name written, king of kings, and lord of lords. And God blessed to us his sacred and holy word this morning. We saw in chapter 17 and 18, The judgment of the great whore, which we said that Great Babylon was really the great city that’s mentioned. Revelation 11 and 8 or 11 and 7, excuse me, and that referred to Jerusalem, which was described and its destruction and so forth in more detail. chapter 18, chapter 17, we have it mentioned. But what about the other enemies of the church? Apostate Israel meets its demise. What about the beast? What about the false prophet? What about Satan himself? When we get to chapter 19, we now have the destruction here of the beast, of the beast, and the false prophet, and then chapter 20 will give us the follow-up where Satan is finally destroyed. After a long period, Satan comes to his end. And so we see the enemies of the church, the other two, and then the instigator of all the things, Satan himself finally brought to justice as time goes on here. It would be easy for us. If we just focused on the suffering of the saints, there’s plenty of that information throughout the book of Revelation. But it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, who is the king. The king of kings and the Lord of Lords of our text indicates to us. And therefore, the text here really is focused upon him. And the destruction of his enemies, putting them under his feet, conquering them all, and Satan will be the last one that is defeated. it. Of course, death is, you know, in scripture, 1 Corinthians 15, and death is also an enemy of the people of God, but the actual personal enemies here are the ones we’re dealing with. So the beast and the false prophet are going to meet their doom at the end of this chapter. We’re not going to quite get there today. We’re going to, it’ll be the next section. I’m just going to look at verses 11 through 16 this morning. But this chapter assures us of the advantage of the advantage of the advantage of the next section. of God’s kingdom despite all the powerful opposition that we’ve read about. So we want to talk about the victorious Christ from this passage of scripture this morning. Now, we’ve looked at the first part of this chapter deals with the triumph of the saints, how they sing a song of victory, how they praise the Lord and Christ for the defeat of the great whore. And then we saw the marriage. supper of the Lamb, where the saints in heaven are mentioned and rejoicing in what they have in Christ and the fellowship they have with Him. And that brings us, of course, to this section of Scripture this morning that we want to look at, which deals with the rider on the white horse. Now, as we look at this section, we should realize there’s always two sides in a war. For a lot of the book, we’ve seen a focus on the dragon warring against the church in Chapter 12. We have seen the beast and the false prophet using their power and authority and wrecking havoc in the church and waging war on the church, Chapter 13. Now, in this vision, Christ, the warrior king, rise forth to judge and to make war, as verse 11 indicates to us. Now, I would suggest that this is drawn, if you would, from Psalm 45. I mentioned this last week. But let’s just look at Psalm 45, the first part of the book, chapter. if you would. Psalm 45. The psalmist says here, by inspiration, My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of things which I have made touching the king. This is the Messiah king. My tongue is that of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men, grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty, ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness, thy right hand shall teach thee thee terrible things. Thine Arreuth, are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God is forever and ever. Thy sceptre, the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sector. Thou lovest righteousness and hateest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above above thy followers. Now, you’ll notice, verses 6 and 7 are quoted in Hebrews chapter 1 implied directly to Jesus Christ. And so this warrior king is divine. And so we see the warrior king here, of course, without question, is Jesus Christ, clearly indicated by our scriptural references. in the New Testament. The second part of this, and we don’t have time to look at that, but verses 9 to 17 in particular, you’ll notice it has to do with the wedding. So here we have the wedding of the king connected with him going forth and conquering. And we said the same thing in Revelation 19. And so we have this kind of thought here. So the question is, who is this person on the white horse? Well, the shouldn’t be any question at all. When we read, he’s the king of king, when we read he’s the word of God and so forth, that ought to be clear to us that it’s Jesus Christ. He rides forth to make war. He rides on a white horse. Now, you remember what we said about the white horse? Look at chapter 6 of Revelation. And verse 2. What’s this white horse symbolized for us? Well, when the seals are broken here. one of the seals here we read and I saw and behold a white horse. he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer. Now the one on the white horse here is not the same as the one of Revelation 19 as we said this was this passion. But you’ll notice the idea of the white horse is that of conquering, defeating of the enemy. And I think the same idea here is found in Revelation 19 and verse 11. He is going to defeat his enemies. Overcome them. Be the victorious conqueror. His description leaves no doubt about his identity. In verse 11, he is said to be faithful and true. If you look at chapter 1, of the book of Revelation in verse 5. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begottenly dead, the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Look at chapter 3 in verse 14. And under the angel of the church of the Laeo Deceans write, these things set the amen. The faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God. and it’s Jesus Christ who is speaking here as the faithful and true witness. We read in righteousness he doth judge and make war. Isaiah, or excuse me, Psalm 96 and verse 13 says this. Speaking of the Messiah, the Lord cometh to judge the earth, he shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with truth. And so here we have the idea of judging people and righteousness for he is the perfect king. Why would he do anything that wasn’t according to biblical thinking on this? It would be proper. His eyes were as a flame of fire. Again, you remember in chapter 1 and verse 14, this language is used of Jesus Christ, so there’s no question about this. Now, on his head, verse 12, were many crowns. Crowns here seem to be symbolic of Christ’s triumph over his enemies. The triumphs over many of his foes. He’s the king of highest royalty. Seven is the number of perfection and Christ certainly is the perfect king. Psalm 110 in verse 6 speaking about our priest’s king Malkizadec and Christ comes in the after the order of Melchizadec we read He shall wound the heads over many countries speaking of the Messiah. Do you remember when kings would conquer other kings, they would take their crowns and put them on their heads. Remember when King David conquered the Syrians, the king of Syria had this, you know, multi-crested crown in the book of 2nd Samuel, chapter 12, verse 30, that weighed like 75 pounds. It was such a heavy crown, and they put it on David’s head. Perhaps we could suggest here that the idea of him conquering all these enemies, he wears the crown because he defeats them all. Either one, either he has the perfect king, he’s that, or the idea of him conquering multiple foes, and that wearing the crown would be a symbol of his victories. Either one works well in this context. He has a name written that no man knew, but himself, verse 12. Now, John saw a name written, but it was too wonderful for him to comprehend or for anybody else to understand, for that matter. We don’t know what that name was. Jesus once declared, No man knoweth the son but the father. Of course, what we do know of the son, has been revealed to us. Christ appears here in some manner incomprehensible to man. A name which is above every name, and yet it all efforts to fully know. Now only the Son of God can fully understand the mystery of his being. He comes in the vast unknowableness here of his greatness. As I said, all we know is what is revealed to us. As I thought about this, do you remember there was a passage in the book of judges when an angel appeared to Manoa announcing Samuel’s birth. There’s an interesting statement there in Judgment chapter 13. at verses 17 and 18, if you would. There’s appearance of the Lord to Manoa. We take this as an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament of theophani. And you’ll notice it says here, Manoa said unto the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord here, what is thy name? That when thy sayings come to pass, we may do the honor. And the angel Lord said unto him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it’s a secret? I’m not going to tell you what it is. And so there’s a sense in which perhaps we can put it in the same category here it is in Revelation. He has a name here that it’s a secret in some category. Yes. And doesn’t Joshua have a very similar in calendar with the angel? the Lord. Yeah, Captain of the Lord’s host. Is that what you mean? I thought there was one where he also wouldn’t say his name. That would be, that would be in Joshua’s early on. I think it’s Chapter 5 of Joshua. Let me see here. That’s the one I’m thinking of. Yeah, verse 13 through 15, came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho. his eyes and look. And behold, there stood a man over against him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, art thou for us or for our adversaries? Nay, but as a captain of the host of the Lord, am I come? Now come. Joshua fell on his face and did worship and said unto him, What saith my lord unto thy servant? And the captain of the Lord’s hull said, under Joshua loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place whereon thou stand is holy and Joshua did so. Not quite the same thing. It is, I see often, I think it is indeed Jesus Christ appearing in that passage. I thought there was another one I read recently. It was very similar to what you said in general. There is an angel that appears before Jacob. Remember he wrestles with an angel. Is that the one you? thing? I think that’s Genesis 32. Let’s look at that real quick. 32.29, I think, is the one we’re thinking of here. That might be the one you’re thinking of here. Yeah, I think that is. Jacob asked him and said, tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him, but he really doesn’t have, he doesn’t tell him what the name is. Is that, is that what the one you’re thinking of, maybe? Okay. So we have these two areas. So there is some, there is some mystery about Christ that we just don’t know. And I think that is appropriately indicated to us here. He has titles. He’s called the Word of God. He’s called the King of Kings. But he does have a name. that we just can’t comprehend and we’re not told what it is. Any other questions about that? I don’t know how else to explain that, but I think that’s what it says here. Yes. So you’re saying the name can’t be understood because it denotes who he is at a level that we can’t understand? Evidently. I mean, I don’t know what else to say here. Outside of it, repeat, you know, the little light that we have, it’s a secret. It’s not something that we are going to be allowed to know. Maybe we’ll know in the future, but we’re not going to know right now. And so there’s some kind of mystery about his person that is hidden from it. Like I said, all we know about Christ is what is revealed to us. Only the Father knows the Son. and we only know it because what’s revealed to us, but we’re not always, not everything is always revealed to us. We can only know what is revealed. The secret things belong on the Lord, the things that are revealed belong unto us. All right. Verse 13 says he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. Now this warrior king and judge is portrayed. trade, as we said in verse 11, is waging war. So, obviously, he is going to have blood on him, in a sense. The blood saturating his clothes here is that of his enemies that he has slain. Verse 15, you’ll notice, it says, that he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and the wrath of the fierceness almighty God. Now, I don’t know much about wine pressing, but in those days they stomped the grapes with their feet. They had some type of like rocks or something they would build up some type of circular thing. And inside that, they put the grapes and you would stomp on it and they have a trough where it would come, you know, come out of the trough, so you’d press down on the grapes. But if you’re in there stomping, you’re going to get it splat, all the the juices splattered all over you. And I think the idea is he is trampling out his enemies. And as he tramples out his enemies, he has the blood standing. So I don’t think this does not relate to his sacrificial death. It relates to his war that he’s waging. In particular, this is a reminder of how Babylon, remember the city, the great city was crushed by Christ like grapes and a wine press. Chapter 14, verse 8, and verse 30 talks about that. Same idea. Here. His red apparel suggests a veteran of the battlefield, splattered with the blood of his fallen foes. Look with me at Isaiah chapter 63. We have an example of this. In beginning with verse 1, Who is this that comeeth? from Edom with thy garments from Basra. This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength. I speak in righteousness mighty to say, wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like that like him that treadeth in the wine fat. I have trodden the wine press alone. and of the people that there was none with me, for I will tread them in my anger and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment, for the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold. wherefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me and my fury it upheld me and I will tread down the people in mine anger and will make them drunk in my fury and I will bring down their strength to the earth. I think the same idea here. This is an Old Testament judgment that God brought but in the New Testament it has the same kind of connotation I think of flattering of the enemy’s blood. I wonder if that’s what Psalm 5810 is the righteous is the righteous shall rejoice when you see at the vengeance he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked I think it’s the same idea yes very good a very good passage in connection with that any questions about that well okay verse 13 the second part says his name is called the Word of God. Isn’t it interesting that it’s John that constantly uses this title for Jesus Christ. He opens his gospel, remember, with the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word creates all things, the Word was manifested in the flesh, you know, and so forth. So, you know, so forth. He’s presented to us Christ in John’s gospel this way. In chapter 1, the early part, talks about his pre-existence and his divine nature as well as his incarnation later in chapter 1, verse 14, when the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst. And so this, you know, this is no question about who we’re talking about here. It’s very clear. Christ, armies are mentioned in verse 14. And the armies, which were in heaven, followed him upon white horses, clothed and fine linen, white and clean. Who are these people? Well, I suggest to you, they’re identical to the companions of Christ who are mentioned in Chapter 17. We already have seen this. But let’s go to Chapter 17. verse 14 again, these shall make war with the lamb. These are the various kings associated with the Roman Empire and so forth. These shall make war with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. Then back up just a couple more pages to chapter 14. And verse 4, because there are people that are with the Lamb that stands on Mount Zion, these are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which fall the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. So they follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These are the people of God that seem to be mentioned here in Chapter 14. And we shouldn’t have any question that it is the people of God, because notice of the description. They’re clothed in fine linen, white, and clean. Look at verse 8. And to her, the bride, the lamb’s wife, was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean, and white. Fine linen is the righteousness of the saints, given to them by Christ. So their clothing helps to also decide who they are. So here we have the people of God with Christ in some capacity. Now, it says that these armies which were in heaven followed him on white horses. I’m not sure exactly how we are supposed to understand this. Some have applied it to the saints already glorified in heaven. Some have looked at it as heaven being, again, the spiritual realm that this war is taking place in. Sort of like chapter 13. There was war in heaven between the devil and his angels and Michael and his angels and so forth. That the woman is seen in heaven clothed with the son. and so forth. If it’s speaking about the spiritual realm, which chapter 12 verse 1, I think, indicates, then this is a spiritual war that’s fought in righteousness. For this reason, Christians are classified as soldiers prepared to do battle. And of course in the New Testament, we often have put on the whole armor of God to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, things of this nature, spoken of in the New Testament. They ride on white horses also. Now, since Christ is going forth conquering on a white horse, we riding on a white horse would indicate that we participate with him in the victories that are taking place. Out of his mouth goeth a sharp two-edged sword. or a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations. Verse 15. First part. Christ goes before his armies, and he’s armed with a sword, although it’s not in his hand in this passage. It’s in his mouth. Now there is an interesting picture. It shows us here that this is certainly not a literal confidential picture for us. A literal picture for us. but symbolic. Previously, used this sharp sword as the priest king, walking in the midst of the seven churches, to punish the impetinent members. Look with me at chapter 2 of Revelation, verses 12 and 16. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos, write these things said he which hath the sharp sword with two edges. And then verse 16, repent or else I will come onto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. What is this all about? How is it that the Lord smites the nations with the sword from his mouth? Well, it seems to have a reference to the book of Isaiah chapter 11 in verse 4, speaking about our Savior, the Messiah, he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall slay the wicked. Now in scripture, it seems clear that this sharp sword is the word of God. It’s called the sword of the Spirit. It is the word that Christ has spoken. I think that’s the idea. It is his spoken word. It is the gospel that is going forth that is conquering the nations or pronouncing a curse against them and bringing judgment upon them. Hebrews 4, verses 12 and 13, tells us about the word of God being a sharp, two-edged sword, and how it pierces the innermost being of man and so forth. The weapon then is spiritual. It’s not carnal per se. His word is powerful enough to either destroy his enemies or bring them into subjection. One or the other. I think the idea is that the gospel is that the gospel is being brought to the nations and Christ’s kingdom is advancing on the earth. Notice chapter 20, and we’ll have to at this, it seems like it backs up and also reveals something of this nature. In the first three verses, and I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit in a great chain in his hand, and he held, he lay hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loose a little season. He is bound so that he cannot deceive the nations, so that the nations are then able to be conquered by the message of Christ, which chapter 19 talks about. So, we’re talking about Satan and his end, and what’s going on with him in chapter 20, but he is bound so that he cannot deceive the Gentile nations like he once did. And now, in chapter 19, we see the present situation is the gospel is going forth. Christ speaks, and the gospel goes forth. So those two, I think, are interrelated. His enemies, however, who oppose his kingdom, will be destroyed, and they will fall under his feet. So verse 15, the second part, says, He shall rule them with a rod of iron, we rule over nations, we conquer, and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of God. Some he stomps out and destroys. So Christ conquers the nations in order to rule them, to shepherd or guide the nations as their king. Now this, I think, refers back to the book of Psalms, chapter 2, in verses 8 and 9. We read about the king that the people didn’t want, and the kings of the earth are against, and we won’t have him rule over us. We’ll break his bonds. We don’t want it. Yet have I set my king in Mount Zion, and he shall reign, and so forth. And what does it say in verses 8 and 9? Ask of me. This is the father speaking to the son, and I shall give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, and the other most parts of the earth, for thy possessions, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Two things. He inherits the nations, in a sense, to rule over them, but some also he is going to crush. Sometimes he’ll crush before he rules. But he’s going to crush nations also, and dash them to pieces, and so forth. The Hebrew word there can read either as, break or rule rule is a shepherd depending on the vow points they’re actually used it makes a difference in how that word is understood so in revelation i think we see both aspects as we see in psalm too he smites the nations with judgments but he also brings nations to the obedience of the faith of christ he shepherds the nations but he also treads them down like grapes in the winepress. And then verse 16, he hath on his vesture and on its thigh a name written, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. Here this lofty title represents and identifies Christ as the ruler of the kings of the earth. In chapter 17 and verse 14, He is also called the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings very clearly. In Psalm 2, verses 10 through 12, Be wise, now therefore, O ye kings, ye, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed at all they put, their trust in him. Either you put your trust in the Christ or and fall under his rule and submit to him or else you are crushed, you are defeated. So this provides assurance for his suffering church that he has the power over all the mighty kings that opposed them. Whether it be Caesar, whether it be the kings of the land, whether it be the kings of the land, whether it be the king, kings associated with the different provinces of the Roman Empire. It doesn’t matter. Christ is powerful. Now let me say this. There are many who come to this passage of scripture, and they apply it to the second coming of Christ. However, Christ comes on a white horse here. He comes to wage war. He doesn’t come to end the world, but to conquer nations, and they submit to him. The weapon used is the word of God, which is the advancement of the gospel that’s being portrayed. He rules or shepherd the nations implying submission to him as king. And while the nations fall under divine wrath at Christ’s head, the new heavens and the new heavens and the new earth are not declared at this point. They’re not usherty. And that awaits a future time and there’s going to be a great length of time before the new heavens of the earth come. Chapter 20, we have the thousand year rain before the new heavens and the earth in chapter 21, verse 1. You’ll notice in the last part here, and we’ll have to look at this next week. Versus 20 in chapter 19, chapter 19 verses 19 to 21 that it involves the beast and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army and the beast was taken with him the false prophet and wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image and they were cast alive into the lake of fire a lake of fire burning with brimstone and the remnant that were slaying with the sword of him that sat upon the horse which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all the fowls of the ill air were fowls were filled with his flesh so you’ll notice this this this coming talks about the judge but in particular it seems like it’s the time frame is focused earlier on here as the defeat of the beast and the false prophet which is the Roman Empire and the Caesar called so that seemed to be associated with this going forth and also the bringing nations under the gospel of Christ not the second coming of Christ any questions here we’re going to end I’m running late here but I wanted to get that section covered. Any questions about this? All right, let’s close with