from Palestine. Another pastor and I are tentatively
planning to lead a tour to the Holy Land in the
spring of 1989. If the Lord doesn't come before
then, and I hope He does, but looking forward
to that opportunity to see once again those places
which we have all read and studied. all of our
lives. Tonight we're going to open our Bibles
to the book of the Revelation and the 19th chapter.
Our world is on a collision course with the judgment
of God. There is a sense in the hearts of many,
many people that the world cannot go on as it
is now. That is true morally. It is true economically.
It is true agriculturally. It is true socially.
Our world is running out of time. Kenny King
and I were chatting before this service tonight,
and he made the statement, and I fully agree
with him, that the hour is much later than most
of us realize. The end of the age is quickly,
quickly coming upon us. The Bible predicted centuries
ago many of those things that are taking place
in our day. Do you realize how much the Bible
says regarding this truth that we begin studying
tonight in the coming kingdom? In the Old Testament,
there are eight verses to one that speak of the
second coming of Christ as compared to His first
coming. Eight times as many verses speak to Christ's
return to the earth and the establishment of
His kingdom. as speak to his coming at Bethlehem
and his work on the cross. In the New Testament,
one out of every 25 verses deals with the theme
of the second coming of Jesus Christ. And so
as we come to this topic, we are not coming to
a topic that is strange to the Bible or that's
difficult to find in the Bible. It's everywhere,
woven into the fabric of the Word of God. Our
theme in this mini -series will be the coming
kingdom. Tonight we want to look at the return
of the King. The next time, the Lord willing,
we will look at the retribution of the King and
then beyond that the reign of the King. But tonight
the return of the King. There are several false
teachings about Jesus coming again that I want
to mention briefly, because occasionally you'll
pick up a book that mentions one of these ideas
as the fulfillment of His second coming. There
are those who teach that Jesus comes again at
death, that that is the fulfillment of His second
coming. Now it is a blessed truth that when we
die we go to be with the Lord. To be absent from
the body is to be present with Him. And there
may be some sense in which our Lord comes to
receive the believer at that moment of death.
I shared with you some time ago the story that
Hugo Hegstrom, one of our members, shared with
me about his mother, and how that on her deathbed,
as she was dying, she suddenly regained strength.
and sat up in bed and said, the Lord is coming,
the Lord is coming, and then slumped and was
gone. So there may be some truth in that, that
the Lord comes to receive his own to himself
at the moment of death. D .L. Moody said, earth
recedes, heaven opens, God calls. And with that,
he entered the Lord's presence. As wonderful
as that truth is, it does not fulfill, however,
the promise of Christ's return to earth. There
are several contrasts between death and Christ's
return. Death, for example, is called the last
enemy, the last enemy that shall be destroyed
or abolished. Heaven, His return, is called the
blessed hope. That's a contrast. such that it
leaves the body in the grave. But the return
of Jesus Christ will see the body raised from
the grave. There's a contrast between the two.
At death, the spirit goes to be with Christ.
But at his return, he comes for the believer,
to take the believer home. And so we do not accept
the teaching that says that the return of Jesus
Christ is fulfilled in his coming for the believer
at the moment of death. And then there are those
who say that the second coming of Christ is fulfilled
when he came again at Pentecost. Now it is true
that Jesus said that he would be with his own
always, even to the end of the age. He said,
I will not leave you comfortless as orphans.
He said, I will come to you. He promised another
comforter who would be like him. But that is
not the fulfillment of the Second Coming. Our
Lord came spiritually at Pentecost in the person
of the Holy Spirit. But that is not the fulfillment
of His return to the earth. Even after Pentecost,
when the Holy Spirit came, the Lord Jesus Christ
was still in heaven. Do you recall Stephen's
statement at the moment of his death? He said,
I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing
at the right hand of God. He saw Jesus in heaven.
Jesus hadn't returned at Pentecost, although
He came in the person of the Holy Spirit. And
the epistles of the New Testament were penned
after Pentecost, and yet in those very epistles
we have so very many promises of His coming again.
And so Pentecost is not the fulfillment of the
Second Coming. And then there are those who teach
us that He comes again at our salvation. That
when we trust Christ that He comes again to us.
Now once again in a sense that is true, that
is in the sense that at the moment of our salvation
Christ is in us as the hope of glory. The Apostle
said Christ lives. in me. But he lives in us
again, in the person of the Holy Spirit. That
truth does not replace the promise of his return
to the earth. Tonight we want to look at the
return of the King. It is a future event. It
will occur at a time when the preparations in
heaven will have been completed. We have dealt
with some of those preparations. Previous to
his return to the earth, he will have come to
call the church home in the rapture. And there
in heaven we, the Lord's people of this age,
will be examined at the Bema, at the judgment
seat of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we will
be married to the Lord in a wonderful ceremony
to be consummated by the married supper of the
Lamb. During that same period of time, there
will be tremendous judgments poured out upon
the earth. All of the preparations in heaven
will have been completed, and the situation on
earth will be ripe for His return. Wickedness
will increase. The antichrist will rule and bring
terror to the people of God as he seeks to persecute
them. He will gather together the armies of the
world to do battle in Palestine in the valley
of Megiddo or Armageddon. The situation on earth
will be ripe and at that moment our Lord will
return. Here in Revelation 19 we read about that.
It says in verse 11, and I saw heaven opened.
This is the second time in Revelation that has
happened. It happened in chapter 4 verse 1. When
a door was opened in heaven and John was told
come up here and he went into the presence of
the Lord and Received the remarkable revelation
that we have been looking at here in the book
of the revelation as we call it and here again
heaven is open and behold a white horse and He
who sat upon it is called faithful and true and
in righteousness he judges and wages war Do not
be mistaken, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Revelation 3, 14, that same term is used of Him,
faithful and true. And His eyes are a flame of
fire, and upon His head are many diadems. And
He has a name written upon Him which no one knows
except Himself, and He is clothed with a robe
dipped in blood. For an interesting cross -reference
for that, look sometime at Isaiah chapter 63,
where the Messiah is pictured as coming in robes
that are spotted with blood, the blood of his
enemies. And that is the picture that is drawn
upon here. His robe is, as it were, dipped in
blood because of the warfare with his enemies.
And his name is called the Word of God, the Logos
of God. There can be no question as to whom John
has in mind as he writes these words. The Word
of God is his favorite name for Jesus in the
Gospel of John. And the armies which are in heaven
clothed in fine linen. My understanding of that
is that it refers to those mentioned earlier
in verse 8 of the same chapter. We've studied
that. It is us. It is we, I should say. We who
are the Lord's people, we are the armies that
are pictured here in fine linen which represents
righteousness. White and clean, he further describes
the linen. And the army were following him on
white horses. And from his mouth comes a sharp
sword so that with it he may smite to the nations
and he will rule them with a rod of iron and
he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of
God, the Almighty. Again, sometime look at Revelation
chapter 17 and verse 14 and understand that this
wine press is a picture. It is a symbol of the
wrath of God being poured out upon the world
in that day. And on his robe and on his thigh
he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. King of kings and Lord of lords. I'd
like for you to think with me tonight about three
purposes for the return of Jesus Christ that
we read about in this passage. Purpose number
one. He comes to destroy the Antichrist and his
armies. We read here of the warfare that is involved
in his return to the earth. It further says in
verse 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. 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." Those are the birds mentioned
in verses 17 and 18. This is not a very pretty
picture. Indeed, it is a day of great calamity
and death upon the earth. There has never been
a day like this day. You go to the greatest battles
that have ever been fought on the face of the
earth, and you cannot find a battle to compare
with that day when Jesus Christ fights with his
army against Antichrist and his armies. Field
at Megiddo, the great valley that stretches before
one at that place, said, what a perfect place
for the armies of the world to fight. I do not
know whether he was aware of the prophetic scriptures
regarding that very subject, but he was right.
And it is at that place that this battle will
take place. This destruction of Antichrist is
further described in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses
7 and 8. In fact, In every text where the Antichrist
is mentioned in the New Testament, there is a
word at that same place regarding his destruction
by the Lord Jesus Christ. So the first purpose
of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is to
destroy the Antichrist and the armies of the
world. But there's a second purpose for his return.
and that is that he might save his people from
persecution and death. Would you turn please
to Matthew chapter 24. The Lord Jesus Christ
gives us an extended teaching in this sermon
regarding those days of his return to the earth.
He says in verse 22, unless those days, what
days? The days of the tribulation that he has
just been talking about, unless those days had
been cut short, no life would have been saved.
But for the sake of the elect, those are his
people, Jews and Gentiles, for the sake of the
elect, that is those who are saved in the tribulation
period, For the sake of the elect, those days
shall be cut short. The pressure in the days
of the tribulation from evil and iniquity will
be unbelievable. The Word of God makes it clear
that unless those days had by God's sovereign
choice been cut short, it would have ended up
with the death, the annihilation of the entire
human race. What happens at that moment when
he comes when the elect are spared and saved?
Well in verse 31 he says and he the son of man
who comes in great glory He will send forth his
angels With a great trumpet and they will gather
together his elect from the four winds From one
end of the sky to the other Some say oh, well,
there's the rapture of the church not so This
is not a word regarding the rapture of the church.
If it were, then in what sense could the Apostle
Paul have used the word mystery when referring
to the rapture of the church? The word mystery
means something that has not been revealed until
that point. The Lord Jesus is talking about His
return to the earth and there will be at that
time a gathering together. of the elect from
all over the earth. There will be the sound of
a trumpet involved in that, and angelic forces.
In some means they will go out to the four winds,
that is, to the four directions of the earth,
and from one end of the sky to the other they
will bring together the Lord's elect, the Lord's
people who have been saved in that tribulation
period. Now many of them will have been martyred.
A great multitude is seen in the book of Revelation
as having died because of the persecution of
the Antichrist. But there will be many who will
be alive physically in that day when he comes
again to the earth. And it is they who will be
gathered together and spared from further persecution
and certain death at the hand of Antichrist.
This is a promise that God gives to the Jewish
people in particular I invite you to turn to
the Old Testament briefly with me to the book
of Zechariah Now if you don't know where Zechariah
is you can look it up in the contents or you
can go to Matthew and put it in reverse and You'll
get there pretty quick. We're going to look first
in Zechariah chapter 12 Here we have a word from
God regarding his concern and care for the people
of Israel. And he says in verse 10, well let's
back up to verse 8, in that day, what day is
that? The day of his return. In that day the
Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and the one who is feeble among them in that
day will be like David and the house of David
will be like God, like the angel of the Lord
before them. And it will come about in that day
that I will set about to destroy all the nations
that come against Jerusalem." That is the purpose
that Antichrist gathered these armies initially.
He is marching on Israel. He is coming against
the Holy Land when suddenly the Lord appears
in heaven. And the attention, of course, of the
armies is diverted at that point to that heavenly
army. But the nations of the world will come
together to do battle in Israel, to destroy Jerusalem.
And the Lord promises that He will in that day
destroy those nations that come together against
Jerusalem. And He says, and I will pour out on
the house of David and on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. the Spirit of grace and of supplication,
so that they will look on me whom they have pierced.
And they will mourn for me as one mourns for
an only son, and they will weep bitterly over
him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem."
He is speaking about that day when he returns
visibly gloriously, bodily, to stand on the Mount
of Olives. The prophecy through Zechariah is
that on that day there will be poured upon the
people of Israel the Spirit of grace and of supplication
and there will be a repentance in that day for
their rejection of their Messiah. The Lord says
they will look on me whom they have pierced Can
there be any mistake as to the person who is
involved here the one with the pierced hands
and feet inside and On that day they will mourn
Like they have mourned at no other time he compares
it to A situation in verse 11 back in the history
of Israel when good King Josiah was killed in
battle because of his own foolishness. He was
beloved by the people. He had begun reigning
as a boy and had reigned for some 36 or 38 years.
practically worshipped King Josiah because he
was such a godly man, had brought reform to the
nation and revival had come under him. But he
made a foolish mistake in going out against the
Pharaoh of Egypt when he didn't have to. And
apparently God sent him a message, don't go out,
he went out anyway. And it says that an archer,
by chance, shot an arrow that hit him and he
died as a result of that battle. And the people
of Judah were absolutely shattered. There was
tremendous mourning because of the death of this
young man, John Kennedy, kind of a figure to
the people of Judah in that day. And the writer
of Scripture here, Zacharias, says the mourning
on that day when Jesus comes back, when He is
seen... by the people of Jerusalem. That mourning
can only be compared, he says, to what happened
back there in ancient history. He will come back
to redeem or to rescue rather his people who
are in persecution. Turn over to chapter 14 of
Zechariah. Again, we read about this same day.
He says, Behold, a day is coming for the Lord
when the spoil taken from you will be divided
among you. In other words, you'll receive back
what the enemy has taken, he says to the Jewish
people. For I will gather all the nations against
Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured,
and the houses plundered, and the women ravished,
and half of the city exiled, but the rest of
the people will not be cut off from the city.
will go forth and fight against those nations
as when he fights on a day of battle. And in
that day his feet will stand on the Mount of
Olives, which is in the front of Jerusalem on
the east. And the Mount of Olives will be split
in its middle from east to west by a very large
valley. So that half of the mountain will move
toward the north and the other half toward the
south. He's describing here the event that will
take place when Jesus returns and actually touches
the Mount of Olives from where he went back to
heaven. The Mount of Olives will split in two
and a great valley will appear at that point.
Tremendous earthquake apparently will take place.
Seismologists tell us that fault is there below
the Mount of Olives for this to happen. The whole
topography of that part of Palestine, it seems,
is going to be changed as a result of the upheaval
of the earth and the splitting of it at the Mount
of Olives when the feet of Jesus touch that mountain.
Now why is all of this happening? So that the
Lord may rescue his people who are obviously
in danger of death. But then he comes also, thirdly
and finally, to restore Israel to her place of
theocratic prominence. That is, he comes to restore
to Israel the promise of the kingdom. We can
go ahead and read about it here in Zechariah
14. When it speaks about his being the king,
for example in verse 16, then it will come about
that any who are left of all the nations that
win against Jerusalem will go up from year to
year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts,
and to celebrate the feast of booze. And it will
be that whichever of the families of the earth
does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king,
the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.
And if the family of Egypt does not go up or
enter, then no rain will fall on them. It will
be the plague with which the Lord smites the
nations who do not go up to celebrate the feast
of booze. This will be the punishment of Egypt
and the punishment of all the nations who do
not go up to celebrate the feast of booze. We
do not have time to go into the details regarding
that particular feast of the Old Testament, but
read about it in Leviticus 23. That feast symbolically,
typically pictures the kingdom, the millennial
reign of the Messiah. And during His reign on
the earth, when He is the King reigning on the
earth, that feast will be reinstituted and all
of the nations of the world are commanded to
observe that particular feast, and if they do
not, they are punished from the Lord. It says
in verse 20, in that day they will be inscribed
on the bells of the horses, holy to the Lord.
And the cooking pots in the Lord's house will
be like the bowls before the altar, and every
cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy
to the Lord of hosts and all whose sacrifice
will come and take of them and boil in them and
there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house
of the Lord of hosts in that day." Canaanite
here seems to refer to those who are wicked and
unbelievers, disobedient people. And he says
in that day disobedience and wickedness will
be suppressed. Well what he is describing here
in these words and we've only read a few of the
words Notice verse 9 and the Lord will be king
over all the earth in that day the Lord will
be the only one and his name the only one In
just a few verses here that we've selected we
have seen that our Lord is coming back not only
to punish Antichrist to destroy his armies not
just to save his people from persecution and
death, but to establish his kingdom on the earth,
that he might reign over all the nations. Now
as we look to the future, there are three attitudes
that we can have. Dr. Wilbur Smith says this.
He says there are three possible attitudes. There's
indifference, there's fear, and there's hope.
The first, indifference, is unintelligent. One
cannot look to the future with indifference and
be considered intelligent. Not even an unbeliever
can be considered smart if he looks at the future
and the situation the world is in today and is
absolutely indifferent about it. That's unintelligent.
Fear. Well, that's unnecessary. It's unnecessary
to look at the future with fear and dread, for
the Lord is in control. The third hope. That's
available for anyone. The Lord wants us to place
our faith in Him, our trust in His Word. And
in a day when there are many questions and a
lot of uncertainty regarding the future, you
and I know what direction history is moving.
It is moving toward the return of Jesus Christ,
His return to the earth to reign. The next time
that we study in this series, we're going to
talk about the retribution of the King. There
are some things that our Lord will do immediately
upon His return to the earth by way of judgment.
For right now, would you take your hymnal, please?
and turn with me to just a chorus that is written.
I think that this is a chorus from an old hymn.
I can't remember the verse now, but if I did,
I wouldn't sing it anyway. But I'd like you to
sing just this chorus, number 255. He is coming
again. This very same Jesus rejected of men on
that day when he went up from the Mount of Olives.
The angels said to those gathered disciples,
this same Jesus that you have seen taken up from
you into heaven shall so come again in like manner
as you have seen him go into heaven. On the day
that we've studied about when he returns, he
will come with clouds, with great glory, and
he will return to the Mount of Olives, to that
place that he last left. and the people of Israel
who have not seen Him since before His resurrection,
before His death. The last time the people of
Israel as a nation saw Him was when He died on
the cross. In His resurrection glory He appeared
only to believers, but on that day when He returns
to the earth He will be visible to all. And the
spirit of grace and of supplication we poured
out upon the Jewish people in that day that they
might receive him as their king. Well, this is
talking about that verse in Acts 1 -11, he is
coming again. Would you stand with me as we sing
together, 255. The very same Jesus Rejected of
men He is coming again He is coming again With
power and great glory He is coming again My friend,
if you're here tonight and the thought of His
coming again fills you with fear, because you're
not prepared to meet the Lord. And that's not
a hope for you, it's a dread. May I encourage
you tonight to seek me out or one of our staff
members? Because we'd like to sit down and talk
with you about your salvation and how you can
have that as your hope. And you need not be afraid
but trust. Let's bow together. Lord Jesus, we
bless you tonight for your saving work, for your
first coming when you identified with us in every
way possible and went to the cross and bore our
sins, and then you were raised from the dead
gloriously. We bless you that now you have ascended
to the right hand of the Father, that you reign
in heaven. We anticipate this day of your second
advent We who are your people now in this age
look forward to the rapture when we shall be
caught away to be with you But we even look beyond
that blessed hope of ours to that day when you
will come back to the earth and establish a kingdom
of righteousness and justice and We pray for
that day and we pray your kingdom come May your
will be done on earth even as it is right now
in heaven. And may the anticipation of your return
stimulate us to godliness and to good deeds.
And may we be faithful ambassadors of the King.
And we pray this in your blessed name. Amen.
Good night.