Revelation 19:11-21
The King is Coming #2: Are You Ready?
I. Introduction
-We are troubled by how big God is.
1. Maybe I should just say ‘I.'
2. He is too big to comprehend.
-We cannot understand His vastness.
1. His glory is too immeasurable.
2. His holiness is too far removed from our existence.
3. His righteousness is too right when we have been bent, influenced & warped.
4. His narrow path is too straight for our crookedness & perversion.
-God is complex.
1. "How can a loving God send ppl to Hell?"
2. How can he be merciful & yet just?
3. ...love yet hate?
4. ...holy vs. vengeful?
5. ...glorious vs. jealous?
6. ...vulnerable (Jesus wept) vs. omnipotent?
-Like salvation or sanctification, God is more complex than the often simplistic descriptions of Him (though they have a place).
II. Scripture
III. Christ's Description
-v. 11 "called Faithful & True"
1. Won't let you down.
2. Ppl yes, God no!
3. "Great is Thy Faithfulness"
4. What He says He will accomplish!
-Faithful and True
1. The only thing you can bank on.
2. Truth pierces circumstances.
3. "That might be true for you, but not for me."
4. Not The Truth!
5. Everybody needs the True one!
-v. 12 "...eyes are like a flame of fire..."
1. Conviction.
2. Christ can see through all the fluff!
3. Rich young ruler.
4. Who do men... you say that I am?
5. You cannot hide in a crowd.
-v. 12 "on His head are many crowns"
1. He rules.
2. He has complete authority.
3. He only allows things to happen.
4. He is sovereign King of all.
5. Some serve a weak God!
-v. 12 "a name written that no one knows but himself"
1. Ill Jesus Seminar
2. Everyone wants to tell you about God.
3. Few really know Him.
4. His name, his identity, to most are lost.
5. Politicians talking about God.
6. "God bless you."
7. Do you really know Him?
8. Is it just hear-say?
-v. 16 "On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, "King of kings and Lord of lords."
IV. On That Day...
-He has come in the past... He is here now... He is coming again.
-He will reveal Himself as He has never revealed Himself to Humans before.
-It will be unmistakable who He is.
1. It will be undeniable.
2. It will not be able to misinterpreted!
-He will be King of kings and Lord of lords.
-Who will He be?
1. To atheists he will be the King they have denied.
2. To humanists he will be the King they have ignored.
3. To the agnostic we will be the King they have doubted.
4. To the sinner he will be the Lord rejected.
5. To the lost he will be the Lord to be feared.
6. To the earthly power he will be King of kings and Lord of lords!
-To Christians he will the King we have heralded!
1. He will be the Lord we have already bowed/submitted to.
2. He will be the Savior we have adored & worshiped.
V. The Great Struggle
-And while He will be revealed in all his glory & power there will still be some that rebel.
-v. 19 "And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army."
1. the beast- Devil or anti-Christ?
2. Deceiver (even some of you)
-Query: Why would they still wage war against God?
1. He is God?
2. He cannot be defeated!
3. Why did the Devil?
-Point: Because they presuppose on only one aspect of who God is... His mercy.
1. But in so doing, they ignore his justice, his holiness, & his righteousness.
2. God cannot allow sin to dwell with him throughout eternity... b/c he is holy.
-But they will believe that God, out of mercy & love, would not destroy them.
-Point: People today are presupposing on the grace of God.
-Some of the people w/in ear shot of me today believe that.
VI. Nothing Else Matters!
-When He comes everything will be known for what it's value really is.
-Nothing else matters!
1. What you wear to prom!
2. Who your girlfriend/boyfriend is.
3. Your bills. Your home/car.
4. Football game.
5. Job requirements.
6. Insignificant things we argue about.
7. How big your pension check is.
8. How long your resume is.
9. How many outfits you have in your closet.
10. What the community thinks about you.
-When the White Rider comes...
1. Wall street will freeze (& crash instantly).
2. The factory where you work will become silent except for the automated machines.
3. The restaurant food will grow cold.
4. Traffic will stop.
5. "Live" tv will go dead.
6. Concerts will be interrupted.
7. Ball games will cancelled.
8. Political campaigns will be suspended.
9. Paparazzi will cease to look for celebrities and eye the sky.
10. Every eye will be to the sky.
-Oh that the church could see it!... no LIVE IT!
-Ill. Pastor's meeting.
1. Lamenting low salaries, carnal Christians, retirment packages, moral, etc..
2. Church owes me...!?
3. I wonder if even preachers could see beyond the temporal?
VII. The Real Problem
-The problem for Christians is not knowledge... it is obedience.
-I know it, but don't want to live it.
1. I know what I should be doing Sunday night.
2. ...doing at work.
3. ....doing in my neighborhood
4. ...doing on Sunday during the altar call.
5. ...saying in my family
6. ...doing at school.
-But I don't want to live that way!
-Query: What will happen when the one called Faithful & True comes riding on a White Horse?
1. What are you going to do?
2. What excuse will you have?
-Query: What will you do when He comes and battles all that you have lived for?
1. All the world holds dear?
2. All that you believe so strongly in?
3. All that you have sworn allegiance to?
4. All that we believe is unshakeable/unstoppable?
-Ill. Spiritual Russian Roulette!
1. We play this with our soul?
2. An eternal soul.
-Ill. Shot gun chair art.
1. ppl want to sit in the chair w/ the gun pointed at their head & a timer that says the gun will fire sometime in the next 100 years
2. The thrill of the risk.
-Would you gamble with your eternal soul?
-Do you believe that you can continue to sin w/out consequence?
-1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, [10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
-Galatians 5:19-21 "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [21] envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
VIII. Conclusion
-There is a moment in every day when it's just you and God.
1. My prayer is that it would be right now.
2. No more putting it off.
3. No more delaying the inevitable.
4. No more close calls.
-Today is the day of salvation.
-I'm not asking you to make a decision between being a good person and a great person.
-I'm asking you to make a decision between being a good person (worldly defined) and a person set apart for God's work!
-Ill. Elementary school field day
1. Last week of school every year
2. Relay races, etc.
3. Parents would come.
4. Kid had fallen and was crying.
5. His knee was skinned and he was hurt.
6. Then his mom stepped out of the crowd of parents and said: "You can make it!"
7. "You can make it!"
-Can I tell you as your pastor this morning: "You can make it!"
-It's not that you don't want to be a Christian... it's just that it is so hard.
-"You can make it!"
-Revelation 22:20 "He who testifies to these things [Jesus] says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!"
