John MacArthur | When Christ Comes Again | The Judgment

the Church of Jesus Christ at least as far as I can discern on a public level has become preoccupied with the issues at hand and has allowed itself to be sucked into the vortex of the world's problems and is making an effort to be a friend of the world which as we read in James is a very dangerous thing to do as I assess some of the reasons for this one glaring reason for the church to be preoccupied with the world is the absence of any vibrant expectation for the return of Jesus Christ weak eschatology leads to worldly Church when people lose sight of the fact that this is a fallen world Carini ever deeper and deeper into sin disintegrating continuously toward more and more evil and when the church thinks that its role in the world is to stop that it is living with a delusion our hope is not in fixing the world our hope is in the return of Jesus Christ I want to speak to you again this morning on that subject and even for the next few weeks and I want to draw your attention to the 19th chapter of Revelation revelation chapter 19 this is really where we need to place our eyes and our minds and our hearts and find our hope revelation 19 and I'll read the opening verses down through verse 16 after these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying hallelujah salvation and glory and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality and he has avenged the blood of his slaves on her and the second time they said hallelujah her smoke rises up forever and ever in the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying amen hallelujah and the voice came from the throne saying give praise to our God to all you his slaves you who fear Him the small and the great then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints then he said to me write blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb and he said to me these are true words of God then I fell at his feet to worship him but he said to me do not do that I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and wages war his eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadem's and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God and the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean were following him on white horses from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may strike down the nation's and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written king of kings and Lord of lords that is a stunning vision it marks the end of man's day will things in the troubled world ever be better will there ever be an end to war and hostility and inequity and crime and chaos the answer is a resounding yes when Jesus Christ comes to rule when he returns to be king we've been waiting for this event all our lives and all the history of the church has looked forward to this and the brighter this hope has shined in any generation of the church the greater the church's joy and ability to endure the difficulties in the world Jesus is coming this is the culmination of all human history and as we learn through the book of Revelation this glorious event does not happen without great preliminary judgment great preliminary hostility the Antichrist will by this time have gathered all his forces inspired by Satan and tells demons they will have gathered together to fight against the returning Christ they will engage in a final fury of battle at Armageddon as the darkness tries to stop the king of light from establishing his kingdom at the head of that unified force that world army will be the Antichrist who marches in hostility against God's anointed in the 16th chapter of the book of Revelation the scene is described with these words verse 17 then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and there was a great earthquake such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth so great an earthquake was it and so mighty the great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nation's fell Babel and the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath and every island fled away and the mountains were not found and huge hailstones about a hundred pounds each came down from heaven upon men and Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail because it's plague was extremely severe where did the horrors of that happen back to verse 16 they gathered together to the place which in Hebrew is called har Megiddo in the valley of Megiddo Megiddo the Beast as chapter 19 verse 19 says and the kings of the earth and his armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army this is the final conflict as the Antichrist and his demonic and earthly forces fight against the returning Christ the prior passage as we read verses 7 to 10 describes the wonderful marriage of the Lamb that's an event that takes place in heaven the church is raptured into heaven prior to these events meets with the Lamb the bridegroom establishes the marriage a wonderful time of blessing and joy and reward but before the bridegroom can take his bride to the new earth to dwell as her dwelling place with the saints of all the ages there has to be a great battle the bridegroom becomes the warrior king he can't fulfill his marriage promise until he returns in victory and faces the greatest battlefield ever the daring challenge of the Antichrist is accepted as the heavens opened and Christ in flaming fire comes to take vengeance Babylon by now has been destroyed Babylon is a term that speaks of the final form of the world system described in chapter 17 in his religious character in chapter 18 in its economic character Babylon has been destroyed the world's economic and religious systems devastated the seven seals have been opened and out of the seven seals seven trumpet judgments have been broken and delineated basically horrific death all across the planet at the seventh trumpet seven bowls of rapid-fire Wrath were poured out the final one I just read you in chapter 16 everything begins to disintegrate everything has come apart under the force of this judgment after all of this divine wrath there is one last effort of the blaspheming world against Christ man's day is about to end by the way this has been the plan from the beginning this has been God's plan all through redemptive history that he would bring back his son the great king King of Kings Lord of lords to take back this earth lest you think this is something that finds a place only in the book of Revelation let me take you back to Isaiah chapter 11 the prophet Isaiah 700 years before Christ came the first time listen to the 11th chapter of Isaiah a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse a branch from his roots will bear fruit Jesse was the father of David the Messiah will be a son of Jesse through the line of David and then it describes him the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and strength the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and He will delight in the fear of the Lord and he will not judge by what his eyes see they'll make a decision by what his ears hear no superficial judgment but with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked also righteousness will be the belt about his loins and faithfulness the belt about his waist and the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the young goat and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and the little boy will lead them all so the cow and the bear will graze their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the Ox the nursing child will play by the hole of the Cobra and the weaned child will put his hand on the Vipers den but they will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse who will stand as a signal for the peoples and his resting place will be glorious then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people enough to say that Isaiah saw the coming of the Messiah in judgment and establishing his kingdom and his kingdom would reverse the curse so that children could play in snake dens no one needed to fear wild animals the character of life on this earth would change dramatically again Isaiah in the 63rd chapter verse 1 who is this who comes from Edom with the garments of glowing colours from Basra Edom stands for the world Basra wants a capital of Edom Edom is a symbol of paganism who is this who comes from Edom with garments of glowing colours from Basra the one who is majestic in his apparel marching in the greatness of his strength it is I who speaking righteousness mighty to save why is your apparel red and your garments like the one who treads in a winepress i have trodden the wine trifle own and from the peoples there was no man with me I also tried them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath and their life blood is sprinkled on my garments and I stained all my raiment for the day of vengeance was in my heart and my year of redemption has come I looked and there was no one to help and I was astonished there was no one to uphold so my own arm brought salvation to me and my wrath upheld me I tried down the nations in my anger and made them drunk in my wrath and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth this is the picture of exactly what we read in Revelation chapter 19 the bloody judgment at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ one more Old Testament prophet to look at is Zachariah in Zechariah prophesied the first coming of our Lord in Chapter 9 verse 9 he said this rejoice greatly o daughter of Zion shout in triumph o daughter of Jerusalem behold your king is coming to you is just and endowed with salvation humble and mounted on a donkey even on a Colt the foal of a donkey and that is how he came the first time the first time the next time he comes it'll be very different over to chapter 10 in verse 6 I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Joseph and I'll bring them back because I have had compassion on them and they will be as though I had not rejected them for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them Ephraim will be like a mighty man and their heart will be glad as if from wine indeed their children will see it and be glad their heart will rejoice in the Lord I will whistle for them to gather them together for I have redeemed them and they will be as numerous as they were before when I scattered them among the peoples they will remember me in far countries and they with their children will live and come back and I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria I will bring them into the land of Gilead in Lebanon until no room can be found for them and they will pass through the sea of distress he will strike the waves in the sea so that all the depths of the Nile will dry up and the pride of Assyria would be brought down in the scepter of Egypt will depart and I will strengthen them in the Lord and in his name they will walk declares the Lord God says some day in the future I'm gonna bring Israel back to the land I'm going to be their Savior go to chapter 12 verse 1 the burden of the word of the Lord concerning israel thus declares the lord as stretches out the heavens lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him behold i'm going to make jerusalem a cup that costs is reeling to all the peoples around and when the siege is against Jerusalem it will also be against Judah it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the nations all who lifted will be severely injured and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it that's Armageddon in that day declares the Lord I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness but I will watch over the house of Judah while I strike every horse of the nations with - this is judgment go down to verse eight in that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem the one who was feeble among them and that day will be like David and the house of David will be like God like the angel of the Lord before them in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication so they will look on me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn in that day there will be mourning in Jerusalem like the morning of Haddad Rehman in the plain of megiddo the land will mourn every family by itself the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves family of the shimmie i'ts by itself and their wives by themselves and all the families that remain every family by itself and their wives by themselves chapter 13 in that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity in the end when the world comes to fight against Jerusalem God will redeem his people Israel defeat the nation's and establish his kingdom on the earth look at chapter 14 Zechariah chapter 14 behold a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city will be captured the house is plundered the women ravished and half the city exiled but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in a day of battle in that day and here's the second coming his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which is in 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 literally the splitting of that mountain he will flee by the valley of my mountains for the valley of the mountains will reach to his el yes you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of judah then the Lord my God will come and all the Holy Ones with him in that day there'll be no light the luminaries will dwindle we see that in the book of Revelation when all of the stars and the moon and Sun go out it will be unique day which is known to the Lord neither day nor night but will come about that at evening time there will be light and in that day Living Waters will flow out of Jerusalem half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea it will be in summer as well as in winter 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 amazing prophecies isaiah said it chapter 9 the government of the world will be on his shoulders before the lord establishes his kingdom he will have redeemed Israel and he will have necessarily defeated the forces of hell at Megiddo the battle is identified at Megiddo but it also encompasses Jerusalem and essentially runs the full length of the Land of Israel how did all this come about the Antichrist has established himself in Jerusalem and he endeavors to become the dictator of the world he accomplishes that by making a pact with Israel which he violates and breaks and by allowing himself an alliance with Satan and demons that gives him control over the world that is to say that the state of the world now is bad but it isn't as bad as it will be is that it's worse then the conflict is set by the time you get to this hour all golden eras of human history are long gone long gone the Antichrist has fully established himself it's described back in chapter 13 the dragon stood at the sand of the seashore verse 1 I saw a beast coming up out of the sea this is the Antichrist having ten horns and seven heads and on his horns were ten diadem's and on his heads were blasphemous names he is multiplied as a blasphemer and as a king he is a blasphemous King that has had no equal in human history he's described as being like a leopard like a bear and like a lion and the dragon who is Satan gave him his power and throne and authority and I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed and the whole earth was amazed and followed after the Beast apparently he pulls the false resurrection they worshiped the dragon Satan because he gave his authority to the Beast they worshiped the Beast saying who is like the Beast and who was able to wage war with him so the whole world vows to Satan in his Antichrist that was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for forty-two months that's half the seven-year tribulation three and a half years he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name his tabernacle that is those who dwell in heaven it was given to him to make war with the Saints to overcome them authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him so this Antichrist is the final global war old ruler and he is successful because of his demonic power verse 8 all who dwell on the earth will worship Him everyone whose name is not written and from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain your name is not written in that book you're gonna follow him gonna worship him Antichrist will operate in full power openly blaspheming blatantly defying God the whole world will be worshipping Satan worshipping Him all men and all women will have survived unbelievable indescribable carnage for forty-two months three and a half years as the judgments of God blast the earth on top of the horrors of Satan and his demons but in the process of all of that there would be people saved from every tongue tribe people a nation and Israel will be regathered to salvation that all leads up to the final end in some 83 we read this and perhaps is the very psalm that people in Israel may quote in this future a moment of history keep not silent O God do not remain quiet do not be still for behold your enemies make an uproar and those who hate you have exalted themselves they make shrewd plans against your people they conspire together against your treasured ones they have said come and let us wipe them out that the name of Israel be remembered no more so they have conspired together with one mind against you do they make covenant that would be a description of the final covenant that the world makes under Antichrist to blaspheme God and to win a victory over the returning son of God the martyred Saints are pictured in the book of Revelation chapter 6 verse 10 and they're saying this how long O Lord holy and true will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood how long is this gonna go on how long are you going to allow efforts against the king how long are you going to allow blasphemy in the little epistle of Jude verse 14 behold the Lord came with many thousands of His Holy Ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him ungodly ungodly ungodly people will feel the fury of final wrath now all of that leads us to verse 11 where the scene over us and I saw heaven open this is that moment speedily and triumphantly the gates of heaven burst open and the Lord appears a catastrophic collision is about to occur when he arrives on the earth market history market does not quietly gradually merge into some environmental meltdown history does not quietly and gradually merge into the kingdom of Christ as the post tribulation lists the reconstructionists the Theon amidst sand kingdom dialogues would like us to leave the kingdom comes with fury and viciousness in a cataclysmic divisive intervention from heaven that happens in split seconds the end of human history will come with violence fiery judgment the whole earth bathed in blood on that great day of God Almighty the prophets called the day of the Lord the last blow to a world already experiencing slaughter murder bloodshed violence satanic presence sin has run rampant you verse 13 he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood the blood of his enemies the blood of his enemies the blood we saw in Isaiah 63 these are battle clothes and they are blood-stained this is not his first battle Phu but he cut Rahab and wounded the dragon who fought for Israel in the days of Joshua who fought the kings of Canaan in Tanakh by the waters of Megiddo who vanquished all the world powers of the past and all the nations that have fallen it is the same almighty Conqueror who battled sin at the cross who shed his blood on that cross who will again be blood stained only it won't be his blood it'll be the blood of his enemies on his battle clothes back in chapter 14 verse 20 when he treads the winepress the blood came out from the winepress to the horses bridles for a distance of 200 miles when Jesus comes back the slaughter will run for 200 miles north and south east and west a bloodbath of eternal judgment says that he will come from heaven second Thessalonians 1:7 with his mighty angels in flaming fire dealing out retribution to those who do not know God those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus and they'll pay the penalty of eternal destruction final judgment is a bloodbath we'll see more about that next week when we get to verses 17 and following his name verse 13 is called the Word of God the Word of God we know who that is John 1 and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us John 1:14 then we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth his name is called the word of God it means he is the one who is the word whom John introduces to us he is the divine one so he has a name that no one knew that's his in comprehensibility he has the name that we can know the Word of God which thinks of his comprehensibility because he's revealed himself in his word and he is constantly given the name at the end of verse 16 king of kings and Lord of lords and so we we see the return of the conqueror verse 14 we see the regiments the regiments of the Conqueror and the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean were following him on white horses who are they the hosts of heaven the church because it says they were clothed in fine linen go back to verse 8 the marriage of the Lamb the bride the bride is the church in the New Testament verse 8 it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen symbol of perfect righteousness so we know the church is they're clothed in fine linen white and clean we know the tribulation Saints are there because those who died in the tribulation have been glorified we know the Old Testament Saints are there because they too have been gathered into the presence of the Lord and we know the angels are there from Matthew 25:31 that he returns with his angels so he comes with saints and angels and all the hosts of heaven coming down to earth at the moment of judgment and the establishment of his kingdom to reign with him on earth for a thousand years they're all on white horses they're all part of his triumph the gray warrior is mounted and so are all his armies so all the hosts of heaven come down for his glorious reign some 149 five let the godly ones exalt in glory let them sing for joy on their beds but the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance on the nation's and Punishment on the people's to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters fetters of iron to execute on them the judgment written this is an honor for all his godly ones praise the Lord what does that sing we're gonna be there all the godly ones are going to be there we're coming to reign with him we're coming to reign with him you see more details of that in chapter 20 so we see the return of the Conqueror we see the regiment's who were with him and finally the rule of the Conqueror verses 15 and 16 from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may strike down the nation's and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty this is graphic his mouth comes a sharp sword we saw that back in chapter 1 and chapter 2 as the sword that defends his church now it is the sword of judgment he comes with a sword to strike down the nation's John wrote that the Son of Man was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil and that's what he will do remember what I read in Isaiah 11 he will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked smite the earth rule them with a rod of iron in his kingdom with precise justice Psalm 2 become familiar with that tells us what he's gonna do with the nation's why are the nation's in an uproar and the people's 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 he who sits in the heavens laughs he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury saying but as for me I've installed my king upon Zion my holy mountain when God installs Christ on the holy mountain he'll scoff that the nation's who defy him I will tell the decree you are my son today I have begotten you ask of me and I'll give you the nation's as your inheritance the very ends of the earth is your possession you shall break them with a rod of iron you shall shatter them like clay pots he treads the winepress of the wrath of God that was described and it won't take time back in chapter 14 he crushes The Grapes of Wrath to produce the cup of wrath that the sinners must drink and establishes his rule he will rule them with a rod of iron having crushed them under his fierce wrath and then finally on his robe and on his thigh he has a name what is it king of kings and Lord of lords all foes are vanquished a massive global slaughter mercy abused grace rejected the murderer preferred over the Prince of life and Satan preferred over the Son of God through human history God openly blaspheme even under judgment and for judgment after judgment after judgment and the preaching of the gospel during the time of the tribulation the world ends up blaspheming his name and so he comes I think a fitting way to end this is to end where we begin go back to Isaiah chapter xxxii Isaiah chapter 32 verse 1 behold the king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly who are the princes that's the believers first corinthians lets us know that we come back to reign with him so does revelation 20 as we'll see a king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly each each one who rules will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm like streams of water in a dry country like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land look at chapter 33 woe to you o destroyer while you were not destroyed and he who is treacherous while others didn't deal treacherously with you as soon as you finished destroying you will be destroyed as soon as you cease to deal treacherously others will deal treacherously with you O Lord be gracious to us we've waited for you be their strength every morning our salvation also in the time of distress at the sound of the tumult people flee at the lifting up of yourself nations disperse your spoil has gathered as the caterpillar gathers as locusts rushing about men rush about on it the Lord is exalted for he dwells on high he is filled Zion with justice and righteousness and he will be the stability of your times a wealth of salvation wisdom and knowledge the fear of the Lord is his measure behold their brave men cry in the streets the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly the highways are desolate the traveller has ceased he has broken the Covenant he has despised the cities he has no regard for man the land mourns and Pines away Lebanon has shamed and Withers Sharon is like a desert plain Basin and Carmel who's there for lunch now I will arise as the Lord now I will be exalted now I will be lifted up you have conceived chaff you will give birth to stubble my breath will consume you like fire

Channel: Walking In Truth Ministry

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Keywords: Christ, Jesus, Bible, God, Doctrine, Theology, Bible Study, New Testament, Old Testament, john macarthur, john macarthur sermon 2020, john macarthur sermons, john macarthur revelation 19, john macarthur isaiah, john macarthur revelation, christ's return, second advent, jesus returns, jesus christ returns, rapture of the church, rapture, escathology, premil, postmil, tribulation, armageddon, war, israel war, endtimes, end times prophecy, Christ the king, christ on the throne, christian

Id: RWvPp_Io3i4

Length: 43min 32sec (2612 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020