The King Returns, Part 3

Revelation chapter 19. We will finish this chapter this evening. It's the third in the series on the king's return.

I want to read it to you, and then we'll spend some time talking about it. Revelation 19, verse number 17: And 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, assemble for the great supper of God, in order that you 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 on them, and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.

And 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. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet, who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped his image, these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword, which came from the mouth of him who sat upon the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

Tonight, Armageddon arrives. Tonight, Armageddon is nothing like most of us picture in our minds. It is a very rapid warfare. It ends almost as quickly as it begins. One word from the Lord, and it is over. As he spoke the universe into existence with just a word, so too he will speak a word, and his enemies will be destroyed. What we have before us is the final war of humanity. What we have before us is the end of man as we know it today. What we have before us is God's vengeance and how it explodes in such a way to display his spectacular power.

So much so that the whole world will understand what it means to bow before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Back in the Old Testament in Psalm 2, I would invite you to turn back there with me, if you would please. Describes what we're talking about this evening. It's important for us to understand that we begin with looking at the anticipation of the king. What it means to look forward to his return. And from there, we looked at the arrival of the king, how he comes out of heaven with blazing glory, and all see him.

And now we're going to look at the annihilation by the king as he destroys those people who have come against him.

And we're going to look at four things this evening. Excuse me, five things. We're going to begin by first looking at some comments, and then we're going to look at the call.

And then we're going to look at the conflict, then the capturing, then the conquest. As we read it, it takes a little bit or a little while for it to unfold before our eyes. It's all going to happen. In a moment. It's not going to take a long time. It takes a long time for us to talk about it, but in reality, it's going to happen very, very quickly. And what I want to do under our first point, under some comments, is to show you what some of the different prophets said and what some of the what even Christ him said in the New Testament to give you all the different scenes from their perspective.

To help you understand all that's going to happen. And while it happens instantaneously, it takes a little while for us to explain the whole period. Of his return. But Psalm 2 describes the event we're talking about. It says this: Verse number 1: Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.

He who sits in the heavens. What's the next word? Laughs. On Sunday, I told you I'm going to tell you what God laughs about. This is what God laughs about. That somehow man thinks that he can come against God, against his anointed, and destroy him. And God's response is basically just laughter. Almost as if you've got to be kidding me. That you still think you can defeat me. And God laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury. But as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain.

I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, Thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as thine inheritance. and the very ends of the earth as thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt shatter them like earthenware. Now, therefore, O kings Show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth, worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest he become angry. And you perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in him. Man comes against God, and God laughs at man. God scoffs man. He laughs against man's arrogance. He laughs at man's unbelief. He laughs at man's blasphemy because man in no way is able to come against the Holy One of Israel. It is the culmination. It is the climax. It is the final moment of the day of the Lord. As you read through the Bible, there are many ways in which this scene is depicted. But they pretty much have the same theme behind them over in Isaiah 66.

The prophet records these words, Isaiah 6, verse number 15: For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger with fury. And his rebuke with flames of fire. For the Lord will execute judgment by fire, and by his sword, on all flesh, and those sl by the Lord. Will be many. Joel the prophet over in Joel chapter three. Records these words: Let the nations be aroused and come up to the valley of Jehoshaph. For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of dec. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness. The Lord. roar from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble. In the valley of decision, there's going to be a decision made by God, not by man. He's had the opportunity to make his decision, and now God will make.

His decision, he will render his verdict upon man. Point number two: I want you to notice the call. This is so fascinating. It says in verse, excuse me, number 17, Revelation 19, and 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, Come assemble for the great supp. Of God. Now, the contrast here is quite marvelous. It's the great supp of God as compared to the marriage supp of the Lamb. You will either sit down with Christ in his kingdom and partake of the marriage supp of the Lamb, or you will be supper at The war of God.

You will be what the birds feast on at that war. You have one or two choices. Either you celebrate the feast with the king, or you become the supp of the great supp of God. To me, I thought that was kind of humorous. I guess none of you did, but to me, I was humored by that. This angel is standing in the sun. Almost as if the moon, as the moon, would eclipse the sun. So here is this angel. And He stands in a very conspicuous place, a very commanding place, a very central place. And maybe, maybe, this is how God makes the sun go black.

By having an angel stand in the sun. Maybe. It could be that when he calls all the birds, there will be millions of them that come. They will all come at the same time. Maybe that all these birds who come will block out the sun, and maybe that will cause the sun to go dark. Maybe. We don't know. All we know is that the sun goes dark, because God said so. And how that happens, we're not quite sure, but we know that it will be pitch bl. Over in Joel 2, verse number 3, it says the sun is turned into darkness.

And maybe this is how God does it. But the angel calls the birds together. To eat flesh. The angel calls the birds together, and then the Son of Man appears in all of his glory. His brightness, his blazing glory. The command is given with a loud voice. Key word in Revelation? That's the key word. God loves loud. Loves it loud. He wants to make sure everybody hears. Nobody misses. Everybody's awake. There are no excuses. And so, with a loud voice, the angel beckons the birds to come. I think it's interesting that as this angel speaks, he doesn't speak to man.

He speaks to birds. Very interesting. And you got to ask yourself the question: why is the angel standing in the sun yelling? So every man can hear that he's calling the birds. That's a good question, isn't it? The reason he does that is because he's declaring the victory before the battle begins. That's why he's declaring the victory before the battle begins. He's already calling the birds because there's going to be a supper. And of course, the kings of the East are saying, Well, what's for supper?

It's almost like saying, Your supper. So they call the birds to come because he's already declared the victory. It's over. The angel knows the plan of God. He knows that man can't come against God. God just laughs at them. And so he calls the birds. He's calling them to feed on the carnage. He's calling them to feed on the dead corpses, and they haven't even died yet. What an intimidating thing! You're going to die. So gather the birds together. It's over, man. It's done. You guys are fried. You guys are dinner.

That's victory. Christ says something about this in Matthew 24. Remember what he said in verse number 27? For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. And then he says in verse number 2, wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. For those of you who've asked, well, what does that mean? Well, now you know. Wherever the corpses are, that's where the vultures are going to gather. But in verse number 18, you have the extent of that supper.

Look what it says. He calls them all together in order that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both freem and slaves, and small. And great. Wow. Every man. Every one of them. This is the end of mankind. He will bring an end to man on this day. It's over. There's no way around it. Everybody will be executed. Everybody. That is, who has blasphemed the name of God, who is unregenerate, who does not believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

They will become supper for all the birds of pre. Number three, the conflict. Verse number 19. And 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? John says, I saw the beast. Who's the beast? That's the Antichrist. He was first introduced in chapter 11, verse number 7.

Chapter 13, verses 1 to 8 describes him. We went into great detail as to the description of the Antichrist. Here you have also not only the Antichrist, but the kings of the earth. As you recall back in Revelation 17, verse number 12, they ruled over ten sectors of the world. And it says that the armies have gathered. That is, everybody el who is alive. Notice that the Antichrist has armies, plural.

Christ has an army, singular. The armies have gathered against the army of God. They come, why? For one purpose. To make war against him who sat upon the horse. Wow. They've come to fight against God. And God laughs. You ever think that maybe when he comes from heaven in all of his glory, he comes Laughing. I don't want to make light of the situation, but the Lord in heaven scoffs at them. The Lord, I know, the Bible says, takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

But yet, he scoffs and laughs at those who have blasphemed his holy name. So the conflict happens. The Antichrist leads the kings of the earth. He leads the armies of the world. Millions and millions of people who have gathered together. They will fight against the Lord God as he descends from heaven. Next, I want you to see the capturing. That's in verse number 20. It says, And the beast was seized. And with him the false prophet, who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, those who worshipped his image.

These two were thrown alive into the lake of f. The first thing the Lord God does before he slaughters anybody is take the leadership.

He seizes them. Notice, he doesn't kill the Antichrist. He doesn't kill the false prophet. He seizes them. He captures them. He takes the leader. When the army loses leadership, it's unable to fight any longer. Remember that the Antichrist and the false prophet are human beings. Please remember that. They are demon-possessed, most assuredly. But they are human beings just like you and me are human beings. And they have been possessed by demons. And yet instead of killing them, Christ seizes them.

Amazing. And what does he do with them? It says, two, these two, were thrown alive. Into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. They don't even die. They have the unique distinction, the unique distinction of being the first two ind to go into the lake of fire.

They had the first distinction or the unique distinction of being the first ones Eternally separated from the Lord Jesus in a place called hell.

Hell is unoccupied at the moment. Hell exists, but nobody's there. And also realize that Satan doesn't run hell. God runs hell. He has the keys to death and Hades. He runs everything. Satan doesn't run hell. Satan will occupy hell. Satan will burn in hell. But the first two occupants in the lake of fire, which is hell, which is the second death, is the Antichrist and the false prophet.

Look over in Revelation 20. In Revelation 20, it says this: in verse number 10, at the end of the thousand-year reign of Christ. Satan will be released from prison. Verse number 8 will come out to see the nations which are the four corners of the earth, Gog and Mag to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. There will be another battle at the end of the thousand-year reign of Christ, and the people will be so many, it will number as the sand of the seashore.

You say, well, how can that be? Well, when we get there, I'll tell you how that's going to happen. And they came up on the broad plane of the earth. How'd they come up on the broad plane of the earth? Remember, there are no more mountains. In the Millennium Kingdom, only mountain is the great city of God in Jerusalem that's raised up above all else. Everything else, the whole earth, is a flat plain. Does that mean the earth is flat? No. But it means that there are no more mountains because every island fled away, every mountain fled away in the bold judgments.

So the earth will be fl. And so it says they would come up, surround the camp of the saints in the beloved city, which is Jerusalem. Fire came down from heaven, devoured them. Just like that. Boom. What does that mean? That is the destruction of the old heaven and the old earth. And it says, And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast And the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. List, this is important to understand.

The beast and the false prophet have already been there for a thousand years. 1,000 years, they've already been there, tormented day and night, both body and soul, forever and ever. The difference between Hades and hell is that in Hades, the soul is tormented. In hell, both body and soul are tormented forever and ever. That's the difference. And so you have the false prophet and the Antichrist being cast into the lake of fire. Into hell, the very first occupants of the lake of fire.

And Christ takes them and throws them in, and the rest. The rest one day will all follow. And then it says in verse number 21: this is the conquest. And the rest were killed. With a sword which came from the mouth of him who sat upon the horse, and all the birds were filled. With their flesh. He smites them. The war is a word. It's it. He smites them with the sword which came. From the mouth of him who sat upon the horse. It's swift, it's devastating. It's over. J. B. Phillips describes it this way.

Then suddenly, it will all be over. In fact, there will be no war at all in the sense that we think of war. There will be just a word spoken from him who sits astride the great white horse. Once he spoke a word to a fig tree and it withered away. Once he spoke a word to a howling winds and heaving waves, and the storm clouds vanished and the waves fell still. Once he spoke to a legion of demons, bursting at the seams of a poor man's soul, and instantly they fled. Now he speaks a word, and the war is over.

The blasphemous, loud mouthed beast is stricken where he stands. The false prophet, the miracle work windbag from the pit, is punctured and still. The pair of them are bund up and hurled headlong into the everlasting flames. Another word, and the panic stricken armies reel and stagger and fall down dead field marshals and gener Admirals and air command, soldiers and sailors, rank and file, one and all, they fall, and the vultures send and cover. The scene. And what is our response to all this? Zephaniah said it well in Zephaniah chapter one, verse number seven.

The day of the L is near. Be silent. before the Lord our God. Because this day is very near. What's the response? Silence. Amazing what God's going to do. I wonder what must have gone through the heart and mind of John as he saw all this, as he was transported into the future, to see what was going to happen. On the great day of the war of God, the great supp of God. Zephaniah said it well. Zephaniah did not know what you and I know, he doesn't even come close to understanding what you and I understand.

And he was a great prophet of God. We have the word of God. And he said, Because the day of the Lord draws near, because it quickly comes. The earth is to be silent. This is the most amazing, most astounding, most incredible event in the history of man. What can we actually say? Let's pray together.