1. "Christ's faithfulness is one of the most striking aspects of His character. It is striking as you study Scripture. You will find the more you read it, the more you come to understand Christ, you will find more and more His faithfulness is one of His outstanding characteristics."

2. "Friends, when people speak to you of Jesus as just a sort of sweet religious teacher, they're just showing you they've never read anything by Jesus. They haven't looked at Him carefully. They've studied none of the primary documents."

3. "Friends, people can deny there's truth all day long, not a one of them lives like it. No one's going to get on an airplane with a postmodern pilot. Enjoy your philosophy and your deconstructionism, and you're going to go ahead and live your life. And you won't live it like a postmodernist."

4. "On the cross we see the supreme display of His mercy combined with the supreme display of His justice."

5. "Christ's tenderness to the weak should never be mistaken as indifference to the wicked."

6. "If Christ is not sovereign over all, He is not sovereign at all."

7. "Let us fear the Lord and we shall have no one else to fear because He is sovereign and He is good."

8. "Other religions will speak about our seeking God. Christianity tells us about a God who seeks us. And He does that in part by speaking and revealing Himself to us."

9. "Why would you waste one day of your life not living in submission to this good and loving Lord who made you in His image? And why would you ever dare oppose Him? Oh friend, befriend Him while you still can."

10. "The cross of Christ is so much greater than the small T of today's tolerance."

Observation Questions

1. According to Revelation 19:11, what two names is the rider on the white horse called, and what two things does the text say He does "with justice"?

2. In Revelation 19:12-13, what physical descriptions are given of the rider—specifically regarding His eyes, His head, His robe, and His name?

3. What does Revelation 19:14-15 say about the armies following Christ, and what imagery is used to describe how He will deal with the nations?

4. According to Revelation 19:16, where is Christ's title written and what is that title?

5. In Revelation 19:17-18, what does the angel standing in the sun cry out to the birds, and what categories of people are mentioned as part of "the great supper of God"?

6. According to Revelation 19:19-21, what happens to the beast, the false prophet, and "the rest" of those who gathered against Christ?

Interpretation Questions

1. The sermon emphasizes that Christ is "faithful and true" (v. 11). How does this description of Christ's character relate to the nature of His judgment—why must a faithful and true God also be a God who judges?

2. Verse 13 identifies Christ as "the Word of God," and verse 15 describes a sharp sword coming from His mouth. How does the sermon explain these images, and what do they teach us about Christ's role in revealing truth and executing judgment?

3. The sermon contrasts modern tolerance with Christ's goodness as portrayed in this passage. How does Christ's uncompromising goodness (as shown in His willingness to judge evil) actually reflect His love and justice rather than harshness?

4. Revelation 19 presents Christ as both the Lamb who was slain (referenced from earlier in Revelation) and the conquering King. How does the sermon explain the relationship between Christ's work of salvation and His work of judgment?

5. Verse 12 states that Christ "has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself." What does the sermon suggest this mystery reveals about the nature of God and our knowledge of Him?

Application Questions

1. The sermon states that Christ's faithfulness should be reflected in His followers. In what specific relationship or responsibility this week could you more intentionally demonstrate faithfulness—and what would that look like practically?

2. If Christ is called "True" and Christianity is concerned with truth, how should this shape the way you speak at work, at home, or online? Is there a specific area where you have been tempted toward dishonesty or carelessness with the truth?

3. The sermon warns against assuming Christ will tolerate our sins and calls unbelievers to surrender. If you are not yet a Christian, what is holding you back from turning from your sins and trusting in Christ today? If you are a Christian, how might complacency about sin have crept into your life?

4. Knowing that Christ is "King of kings and Lord of lords" who is sovereign over all earthly powers, how should this truth change the way you respond to anxiety about political events, workplace uncertainty, or personal circumstances beyond your control?

5. The sermon concludes by pointing to the "wedding supper of the Lamb" as a feast of life and joy provided at great cost. How can you cultivate a deeper sense of gratitude for what Christ has done for you, and how might that gratitude shape your worship and witness this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Isaiah 53:1–12 — This passage, quoted extensively in the sermon, prophesies the suffering Servant who bears our iniquities, showing how Christ's sacrifice provides the salvation that complements His role as judge.

2. Psalm 2:1–12 — Referenced in the sermon regarding Christ ruling with an iron scepter, this psalm declares God's anointed King who will judge the nations and calls all to take refuge in Him.

3. John 1:1–18 — This passage identifies Jesus as "the Word" who reveals God, directly connecting to Christ's name in Revelation 19:13 and His role in making God known.

4. Hebrews 4:12–16 — The sermon cites this passage to explain the sword imagery; it describes God's Word as living, active, and penetrating, and points to Christ as our sympathetic high priest.

5. Revelation 5:1–14 — This earlier vision in Revelation shows the Lamb who was slain being worshiped for purchasing people with His blood, providing essential background for understanding the Christ who both saves and judges in chapter 19.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Historical Context of Jefferson, Adams, and Religious Tolerance

II. The Contrast Between Modern Tolerance and the Christ of Revelation

III. Who Christ Is: Faithful, True, Just, and Wise (Revelation 19:11-13)

IV. What Christ Does: He Reveals

V. What Christ Does: He Rules

VI. What Christ Does: He Judges (Revelation 19:15-21)

VII. What Christ Does: He Saves

VIII. The Mystery That Remains and the Call to Trust in Christ

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Detailed Sermon Outline

One of the strangest facts of American history is that the two men most responsible for the Declaration of Independence signed and adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, both of whom later served as President of the newly independent United States of America, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Both lived to be very old men, and both died on the very same day.

And that day was none other than July the 4th.

And not only the glorious fourth, but July the 4th, 1826, 50 years to the day that the Congress had adopted the Declaration. Many of you have perhaps seen Jefferson's grave site at his home near Charlottesville, Virginia. Jefferson who was among many other things a state legislator, a congressman, a governor, a secretary of state, vice president, twice elected president, put none of these titles on his gravestone at Monticello. He was very particular about what would be written there. His epitaph was written by him and he insisted that only his words and he said these words and not a word more be inscribed on it.

And his words are simply these: Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.

Now we're familiar with UVA and with the Declaration of Independence, but the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom of 1779 is unknown to most everyone today, and yet in it Jefferson's views of tolerance were eloquently expressed and were adopted by the leading state in the nation at the time and so entered into the foundation of what we today agree on as a people and even take for granted. In defense of this statute, Jefferson wrote, Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on our opinions in physics and geometry. The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Now such even-handed fairness is taken to be the ultimate in virtue today, especially in our increasingly multicultural society. Tolerance is seen to be personally humble and intellectually honest and politically necessary. It is today the most obvious of virtues, the challenging of which is the most egregious of errors. The most mockable thing religious people do, at least to our culture, is to speak of someone else's religious opinions as being Wrong. I mean, that's taken by many to be as personally violating as racism or as socially dangerous as fascism.

It is philosophically naive and as politically out of date as advocating monarchy. You might as well criticize the way someone's imaginary friend is dressed. Let's criticize their religion. What a waste of time. Among the virtues today, tolerance reigns supreme, hailed as the bringer of peace and prosperity and freedom.

Now, consider Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was famously loving, where some religious leaders promoted indifference and others legal obedience and exclusion and still others asceticism. And military conquest even, Jesus has long been known for being the poor boy born into a small ethnic group whose tiny land was occupied by the mighty Roman Empire. Rejected by the authorities of His own day, Jesus healed the sick, proclaimed the blessedness of the meek, taught sensitive spiritual truths, protected the women accused of adultery, taught us to love God, our neighbors, even our enemies, and to give to the needy. He said that we should not judge or we too will be judged. He touched the touch-starved leper and took pity on Roman occupying soldiers.

He made the lame to walk and the blind to see. He associated with outcasts like those who collaborated with Rome and cared for the socially forgotten and marginalized. He gave rest to the weary and hope to the insignificant. He included women in a misogynist world and even held them up as examples. He fed the hungry and exposed religious hypocrisy.

He praised the faith of a Canaanite woman who had said something to him much to the surprise of his disciples and he picked his disciples from among the common. He went out to find the lost and taught forgiveness and mercy and told stories in which bad people were blessed. The hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner, all were objects of his compassion. He loved even those who would betray and disown Him. And He gave Himself up for us all.

He loved us even to the point of giving up His own life for us.

Now in this sense we would expect Jefferson, who famously edited the Bible, by the way, to fit his own ideas, we would expect Jefferson to find in Jesus the exemplar of toleration. And he did, so long as he ignored texts with which he disagreed. So it should come as no surprise what Thomas Jefferson thought of the book that we've been studying for the last few months. Jefferson referred to the book of Revelation as merely the ravings of a maniac.

Now there is no doubt that this book of Revelation is a book which has long been a happy hunting ground of many a religious eccentric. Revelation has been called the scariest book in all of Scripture. In fact, it runs the gamut from comic book to horror flick in how people, first time readers, react to it. This book, or what people take it to mean, is what scared, I think, so many political liberals about Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. They seemed to believe in Armageddon, which leaders in Europe took to mean they believed in a coming world conflagration, a nuclear holocaust that they maybe even felt they were fated to bring about, which I guess wasn't the case.

George Bernard Shaw dismissed the book of Revelation as a curious record of the visions of a drug addict. Carl Jung found them simply embarrassing. Jerome, centuries earlier, said that Revelation has as many mysteries as it has words. The book is famous for its obscurity. But friends, those of you who have been here in our studies for the last few months, has that been your response to the book of Revelation?

I think what we have been finding in the book of Revelation is that there is much that is clear in this book. About God and His gospel and about His provision for us in Christ. And that is certainly no less the case with the passage that we look at this morning. In our passage today, we have presented before our eyes the Son of God, the eternally existing second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. And while He certainly is all of those things that we noted in His earthly ministry, He is also much, much more.

What we find in the second half of Revelation, chapter 19, is that Jesus Christ is far more than a first century purveyor of tolerance. In fact, He's something quite different than that. According to the vision that John saw, Jesus, this one many take to be no more than a mild-mannered rabbi, Jesus is one who is in Himself and in His role and stations unwaveringly good, He will tolerate no evil.

And it is His very goodness that causes Him to leave loose thoughts of omnitemporance as an accurate way to understand and describe Him tattered and in shreds. Friends, when people speak to you of Jesus as just a sort of sweet religious teacher, they're just showing you they've never read anything by Jesus.

They haven't looked at Him carefully. They've studied none of the primary documents. Because the Jesus that we find in the Bible, the Jesus that we find in this book of Revelation, is so much more than that. This Jesus is good.

He is not indifferent. And because this Jesus is good, He will judge.

John is given a vision here of Christ's person and work, that is to embolden Christians and cause unbelievers to surrender.

And I pray that according to your state this morning, you will find yourself emboldened or surrendering before it's too late.

Our text is Revelation, chapter 19, verses 11 to 21. Revelation, chapter 19, verses 11 to 21. And you will be helped by following along in the passage. You'll find it either on page 1229 or 1301, depending on what Bible you're looking at. If you're looking at one of the Bibles we provide here in the pews and chairs, Or if you don't have either of those page numbers and you're not used to looking at the Bible, just hold your Bible with the back facing up, open it up and a couple of pages in.

You'll get there. Revelation, the last book in the Bible, chapter 19, that's the big number, little numbers after verse numbers, chapter 19, verses 11 to 21.

I saw heaven standing open. And there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows.

But He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter.

He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of kings and Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great.

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

Let's consider now what this passage teaches about two things: who Christ is and what He does. So if you're taking notes, the outline is simple: who Christ is and what He does. First, who Christ is. This passage presents us with one who is worthy of all of our worship.

God's character is simply good. Theologians talk about the simplicity of God, meaning that He is in Himself not complex. Not in the sense that He's not difficult for us to understand, but in the sense that There is nothing about God that is artificial or added on. He is entirely and perfectly integrated. He is Himself, and we see this character displayed perfectly in Christ.

But we can see this simple character from a number of different aspects as we look at it in this passage as it's shown us in Christ. We see that Christ is faithful.

You see that here in chapter 19 and verse 11. The rider on the white horse, that's Jesus Christ, is called faithful and true. He is faithful. Christ has called Himself this back in chapter 3 when He was writing to one of the churches. That's how He represented Himself.

Christ shows us God's faithfulness. God's faithfulness from His promises in Genesis 3 in the garden to His promises to Abraham in Genesis 12, God has shown himself to be faithful and the incarnation of the Son of God is the culmination and climax of God's faithfulness. He was faithful to send us the one to bruise the old serpent's head, to bear our transgressions in our place, and He will be faithful to return for His own to complete His work of deliverance. He is faithful.

Now, if you're here and you're not a Christian, let me simply say that Christ's faithfulness is one of the most striking aspects of His character. It is striking as you study Scripture, and if you read your Bible, which if you take a Bible and read it, it's a great way to learn more about yourself and more about God. But if you do, you will find the more you read it, the more you come to understand Christ, you will find more and more His faithfulness is one of His outstanding characteristics. And should you at some point be converted, should you become a Christian, you will find in your own life experience as the years go by, evidences of God's faithfulness in your own life will be piled higher and higher and higher because He really is like this. He is faithful.

Many of you over the years have had occasion to talk with me about pains in your life, about people who have betrayed you or not done as they should as your friend or harmed you in some way. I can tell you Jesus will never do that. Jesus is completely faithful, more faithful than you or I have ever been. As a friend.

His very essence is to honor His own words.

Friends, as His followers, of course, this means that we should be known for that as well. You know, in our homes, in our friendships, at work, we should be known as the kind of person who is faithful because part of our being faithful to Christ is being faithful in these other duties and callings. That we have. We should not give ourselves to grumbling and complaining, but rather we should do whatever we can to be faithful in our work. We should give ourselves to bless those around us, sharing the good news with them.

So those of us who are married should rejoice in the opportunity that God has given us in our marriage to be a profound example of His faithfulness to His people through Christ. And my Christian brothers and sisters, part of His very faithfulness is in bringing about this confidence that we can have, that we can know that even when we have not been perfectly faithful, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, if we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.

You see, His is the faithfulness that we must finally trust in. Not our own, not that of some other person, but His faithfulness. We are together as a congregation, in part, to teach each other just such faithfulness as we, indwelt by His Spirit, attempt to live that out here in this place. He is faithful. We also see here in verse 11 that He is true.

You see that in verse 11, I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. Jesus said to his disciple, Thomas, I am the way and the truth and the life. It is in Christ's nature to be true. So Christianity has always been concerned about truth because Jesus is. So for example, about the matter of tolerance in a fallen world, we think that God intends us as those made in his image to normally obey our conscience.

And therefore we do not want to concentrate power in the hands of those who will restrict and forbid people from following their conscience, because we know we must have a concern for truth as best we can perceive it. We Christians are concerned with questions of truth, and brothers and sisters, we should be known for it in the best way. We should be known as being truthful and reliable in our workplaces. Honesty should be our hallmark. If we say something, people should know it's true because we wouldn't say it otherwise.

We're careful with our words. Parents, have you noticed in your children how every child you have proves what Scripture teaches about human nature?

Everyone is made in the image of God. Have you ever noticed how your child, every child, has a concern for truth? They want to know what is true. They want the truth to be known, particularly if it's in their favor, but they want it to be known.

But at the same time, they have a tendency, a propensity, you could call it a twisted ability, to lie. If truth does not serve them well. Not something maybe that you feel you taught them, but nevertheless they've somehow picked it up, probably from somebody else. You see how Christianity has this anthropology far more accurate than that taught in most any school you or I would have gone to. An anthropology that understands human potential that we hear about all the time, but that also understands human depravity, the tragedy of our self-centeredness.

We are made in the image of God, says the Bible, but we are fallen in sin. Brothers and sisters, Christ is like we should be. He is always truthful. We should always be truthful. Get to know His teaching.

Get to know His Word. Meditate on His truth. Trust His truth. And thank God for the way Christ's truth is reflected in our life and here in our church.

And our teaching and reading and our talking and living. Insofar as it is, it's only by His kindness and grace to us that He is causing His character to be reflected in us by His Spirit. He is true.

He's also, we see here in verse 11, just. Look at that second sentence in verse 11: With justice He judges and makes war. Of course, justice is simply another way to discuss His rightness, His integrity. You see, in some ways, all of these are talking about the same thing, but they're talking about it from slightly different aspects or angles. Christ is not harsh.

He is rather utterly and completely good. There is nothing not good in Him. This justice in his character is in many ways the same thing as his truth, but it's considered from a moral standpoint, an ethical standpoint. It is his goodness that assures us that all wrongs will be righted. Scores of you are here to work for justice.

That's what you're doing in D.C. That's what you imagine your job is to be doing. And you spend your life with an unusual focus in some area of this world on the injustices that are perpetuated and perpetrated. You should know that Christ is committed to justice and to righting all wrongs. The God of the Bible is concerned with justice. In verse 11 we see with justice He judges and makes war.

This reflects the very character of God that we've seen throughout the Scriptures. Many of you will know of Moses and the Israelites in the Old Testament. At one point in the Old Testament, when God is supremely revealing Himself in Exodus 34, He says to Moses, He proclaims Himself, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet, He does not leave the guilty unpunished.

My friend, if you're here today as a friendly atheist or perhaps a member of some other religion, I just want to point out to you the way that Christianity combines mercy and justice in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

Christianity teaches justice because God is holy. He's perfectly good and therefore He is just in all things and He is concerned for justice. He's concerned for the good, the right and the true. And you see this in Jesus' own sinless life and in His teaching. He too is concerned for justice.

But God is also a compassionate God and a merciful God. He proclaims it there to Moses and we see it in the life of Jesus. We see it as he gives himself in all those ways that we consider just a few moments ago for the good and blessing of others even at cost to himself. And we see this supremely, this combination of God's justice and his mercy where?

On the cross brought together. That's where God's mercy and justice meet. It's on the cross that we see God's justice. He will not simply say, oh, forget about it. Don't worry about it.

Everybody does things that are wrong. No, He cares. He is just. He will have a price paid for every sin.

And yet, He doesn't send us all to hell yesterday. He is a merciful God. And so we see His amazing, condescending love in Christ, and we see Christ bearing that sin for us, bearing that penalty for us. And so on the cross we see the supreme display, the supreme display of His mercy combined with the supreme display of His justice.

So, my Christian brothers and sisters, we are to be followers of Christ. We are to be concerned with justice. So if you're here as an employer, it matters how you treat your employees. You're saying something about what Christ is like if you're a Christian and employ others in the very ways you treat them. All of your work is to be done to the end of bringing God glory, and that supremely by advancing the gospel.

Parents, you've been given a unique opportunity to have the blessing of children, in part, to model what God is like. To show your children, to teach them deeply in their spirits what God is like in His concern for the good and the right, for the true and the just.

And brothers and sisters, for yourself, you'll find in your own life that God is a provident God. He sees when we're struggling financially and we're struggling physically. We can trust Him. He sees when wrongs have been done to us and He will seek an exact justice because He's good.

As a congregation of followers of Jesus, You will see His justice reflected in our proclamation of God's holiness, even in the Good News itself in the gospel. It should be reflected in our life and our practice of church membership and church discipline, as we say that Christ's own goodness and rightness and justice is to be reflected in our own lives if we are to profess to be followers of Him. Christ is just, and He is concerned that we be as well. One more aspect of Christ's character to note here, He is wise. He is wise.

He is all-knowing. Look there in verse 12, His eyes are like blazing fire. His sight, that means, burns up anything behind which truth might be hidden. He brings light. He's not dependent on an outside source for knowledge, very much like John described Him back in chapter 1 of Revelation.

Very much like Jesus described Himself in a letter to the church at Thyatira in chapter 2. This is an image that conveys that nothing escapes Christ's knowledge. And that, of course, gives us an added confidence in His judgments because He knows everything. All history is before Him. No further evidence need ever be introduced in order for His judgments to be perfectly just and wise.

As long as He lives, the crucial witness for every sin ever committed lives, and all wrongs will be accounted for. Wrongs at work, wrongs online, wrongs in marriage, wrongs against us, all wrongs against God. He sees them all. His eyes are like blazing fire.

Well, so this is something of who Christ is, faithful and true. And you see how much of our passage is taken up simply with a description of Christ. He's faithful and true, just and wise, and perfect in all of these.

But what does this passage tell us that Christ does? And this would be the second point. What does this passage tell us that Christ does? And we see four things here in this passage that Christ does. I'll give them to you now.

He reveals He rules, he judges, and he saves. He reveals, he rules, he judges, and he saves. Let's look at these in turn. First, Christ reveals. Fundamental to this book that we're studying, the Bible, and particularly this book of Revelation, stands Jesus Christ as one who reveals the truth about God and the truth of God.

Christ shows us that this God is a God who speaks. This God is a God who communicates. You see His name there at the end of verse 13. Look at verse 13. And His name is the Word of God.

Well, who is the Word of God? Well, John answers that in his gospel, the very beginning of his gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So here we have the writer who is called faithful and true in verse 11 and is shown in verse 13 to be named the Word of God. And no one else in the Bible has that name except Jesus Christ. Christ's role is to reveal God, reveal His nature, His character, truth about Him, to make God known to us. That's why we have this image again in verse 15, this strange image about the sword coming out of His mouth.

Well, that sword was a well-known image among early Christians for the Word of God. We read in Hebrews chapter 4, For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the of the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. So that sword here in Revelation stands for the truth revealed about God through Christ's teachings and the other writings that His Spirit inspired in the books of the New Testament.

Other religions, you know, will speak about our seeking God. Christianity tells us about a God who seeks us. And He does that in part by speaking and revealing Himself to us. Now again, my friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I wonder where you have been looking for truth. I know it's not a fashionable thing in colleges right now to talk about truth, but listen, that is a passing fad.

We are made and hardwired to know that there is truth and to desire truth, to want truth, to seek truth. And we all do it, even if we deny it. One of my favorite stories will have to remain anonymous, but some of you will guess who it is. Became president of an institution, gave an address about truth, was immediately confronted by an older faculty member about how that was a ridiculous thing to say. He was too sophisticated epistemologically.

He knew there was no such thing as truth. It's all in the eye of the beholder. He should be ashamed of himself academically. To which my friend, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, said, you,'re fired.

To which this older faculty member shot right back, you, can't do that. I've got a contract. To which my friend responded, you,'re right, and that shows you're a hypocrite.

You understand that words can have meaning. Shared between us. You think you can win in a court of law because we both understand what these words mean in your contract. I was just saying the same thing about the Bible. Friends, people can deny there's truth all day long, not a one of them lives like it.

No one's going to get on an airplane with a postmodern pilot. Enjoy your philosophy and your deconstructionism, and you're going to go ahead and live your life And you won't live it like a postmodernist. You understand that there is truth. Christ reveals the truth about God.

He reveals the truth in a deep way. One of the interesting experiences people have is they begin to read the Bible when they're not Christians, and many of you will know this from your own experience. They begin to find that it's strange. You become surprised at all you can learn about yourself and about God. Become kind of morally visible to yourself.

The only image I could think of this when working on the sermon was if you take the old invisible man and you throw paint on him all of a sudden, you know, all of a sudden he can see himself, right? Non-Christians are often morally invisible to themselves. They have no agreed upon standards even in their own mind. They have a conscience that seems random, but they don't know how to understand themselves. All of a sudden they start reading the Bible and they begin to understand right, wrong, good, bad, lying, bad, truth.

Good and they become, as I say, morally visible to themselves. Fuzzy at first, maybe, like trees walking, as the blind man who's half healed at first says to Jesus. But they begin to become morally visible even to themselves as their conscience is educated and they begin to understand and wake up spiritually. They begin to perceive the truth. It is the work of Jesus Christ to reveal the truth.

About God. My brothers and sisters, be a follower of Jesus here. Witness to the truth about God, about Christ, about the Gospel. I pray that you will be known by your friends and neighbors, by your family and colleagues as a truthful person, as a reliable and trustworthy person. And do not look to our culture for truth.

Look to the Bible for truth. Parents, be especially vigilant in how you teach your children to be discerning. Work to help them know God's revelation of Himself through Scripture.

And especially through Jesus Christ. Give yourself to reading and meditating upon God's Word. We as a church are an extension of God's self-revealing ministry. We don't worship the angry God of the volcano and try to figure out how to pacify Him. No, we worship the God that we have alienated from ourselves by our sins and who has Himself taken the initiative to come and tell us how we can approach Him.

And so we do. As we sing His praises, we speak the truth about God. As we work to teach each other God's Word and encourage each other, we edify the church and build up each other. And as we evangelize, we speak the truth about God to those outside the church. We follow Christ, whose ministry is to reveal God.

But we see still another role of Christ here in our passage. Christ rules. Christ rules. We see His sovereignty clearly set out in our passage. In verse 11, He rides the white horse of the victorious general.

In verse 12, we see that on His head are many crowns. Oh, and Spurgeon had the most amazing sermon on this. I blogged about it on the 9Marks blog. If you want to read a great quote, don't have time for it in the sermon. Sometimes I do wonder, Am I wasting my time?

Should I just grab Spurgeon's sermons and read them to you. But if you have never read Spurgeon's sermons, they are so good, and he's great on this point. You can read the Nine Marks blog and see that great quote. In verse 13, we read that he is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, which is perhaps the blood of his enemies over whom he has triumphed. In verse 15, John quotes one of Jesus' favorite Messianic Psalms, Psalm 2, which predicts that the Messiah will rule them with an iron scepter.

And then in verse 16 we see that Christ says on His robe and on His thigh has this name written King of kings and Lord of lords. Christ is sovereign. We see here He is King of kings and Lord of lords. The thigh there is the symbol of power. It's the strongest muscle.

It's also where the sword is girded. So this one will exercise rights inherent in His title. He will show that He is sovereign. Just as Jesus was called Lord of lords and King of kings back in chapter 17. Back in chapter 1, he was even introduced as the ruler of the kings of the earth.

So here we see the doctrine of God's sovereignty, of Christ's rule isn't a problem for John. If anything, it's an answer to the problem. The problem in this world has not been too much good authority. No, but too little of it. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel are described like this: In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.

If you read the book of Judges, you find that it wasn't a pretty picture. Friends, ours is a city that is full of titles of power and importance. Senators and congressmen, Mr. President, Madam Secretary, Congressman so-and-so, the Honorable this and the Honorable that. Your Honor, we address the judge. Justice so-and-so, we say.

Yes, ma'am, we tell the lady giving us a ticket.

Earthly and appropriate courtesy and respect are to be found on all sides and yet all these positions, even the highest of them, are as nothing compared to the legitimate titles of Christ. What if you had a voicemail waiting for you on your cell phone after church saying that the ambassador of a nation wanted to meet with you? He was asking you to come to his office. Better than that, what if it was the head of state himself who was in town visiting? Friends, imagine the honor and the authority that attaches to even earthly titles.

Imagine the G8, seeing the heads of state for eight powerful nations together. Now, what about gathering all the kings and presidents of the world together? This passage says that Christ is King of all kings. That He is Lord and Master over them all. And friends, that means everyone.

Scripture is full of God using Pharaoh and Cyrus and Pilate and Herod for His sovereign purposes. Christ is sovereign over all. In fact, if Christ is not sovereign over all, He is not sovereign at all. But He is. He's sovereign over everything, including everything in Washington, D.C.

He is the one who is sovereign over what is happening in Iraq. And what is happening in Afghanistan and what is happening in North Korea. Friend, he is the one who is sovereign over what is happening in this district. And knowing that should help you sleep better tonight. It was certainly meant to give John some confidence in the first century when he was suffering under the persecution of the mighty Roman Empire that he had no earthly power to resist.

But he should know that as mighty as that Roman Empire was, it was on the short leash held by Almighty God. It would do nothing apart from His sovereign purposes for the good of His own. Do you see something of the comfort there is for us in this doctrine of the sovereignty of God? In theology breakfast this past week we considered Proverbs 29:25, Whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. And we listened as Jonathan Edwards led us in meditating on it.

At one point he said, They are safe with respect to temporal evils. Their faith and trust lifts them so high that they are above clouds, storms, and tempests. Worldly afflictions do often happen to them, but the evil of them doesn't befall them. They may be exposed to difficulties, losses, and troubles, but he is not properly in danger of them. Except as he may be said to be in danger of that which can't do him any hurt.

A true Christian may perhaps be exposed to be burnt at the stake, but not to be in danger of it. Except it is proper to say that he is in danger of being crowned with a crown of glory. Let sickness or health, poverty or riches, honor or dishonor, wars, famine or pestilence, or whatever will come, he that trusts in God is safe because God will work all things for good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose. Brothers and sisters, let us fear the Lord and we shall have no one else to fear because He is sovereign and He is good. Praise God that such a sovereign should be so loving to us as Christ has been.

Christ is Lord and He is Lord for us. Now the point of our passage is that Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is here called to use His sovereignty in a particular way. And so we see here that Christ judges. We've said He reveals and that He rules, but here we particularly see that He uses that sovereign ruling power to judge.

Christ judges. He condemns His enemies. We see that throughout our passage. Christ's tenderness to the weak should never be mistaken as indifference to the wicked. The Christ we see here is no pacifist.

We read in verse 11 that He judges and makes war. The Christ we see here is not merely the suffering Servant, but He is now the One whom we see in verse 15 will strike down the nations.

Of course, He is the faithful witness and is the faithful witness if He brings the right evidence, that can secure a conviction. And Christ is both the faithful witness and the true judge. The verdicts will now be handed down. The prophecies of old will come true. Just as we read in Isaiah 11, a prophecy that a descendant of Jesse, King David's father, will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

So now we have revealed to us the time for God's final word to be spoken. By God's word he created, by God's word he will judge. You remember Christ's terrible words of judgment in Matthew 25. Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Well now John sees a time when these promises will be fulfilled as Christ uses his sovereignty in judgment.

Jesus promised that he would come again as judge.

And here He does. We read in verse 15 that He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God. And then you see in verses 17 and 18 the angel makes the announcement of Christ's judgment and he does it in a strange way. It's this very graphic image of calling birds to feast on the remains of Christ's enemies who have been so soundly defeated. So completely defeated that there is not even one of them left to bury the others who have died.

And so the bodies face the ultimate dishonor of being unburied and thus exposed. And so they become carrion for the birds to feast on. The whole thing is described there, the end of verse 17, as the great supper of God.

Verses 19 to 21 tell the rest of the story about this judgment. The enemies gather there in verse 19. You see that? They're all lined up.

But there's no nuclear Holocaust. There's nothing like Tolkien's Battle of Helm's Deep. There's no eschatological Gettysburg here. Jesus simply wins.

Because the next thing we know in verse 20, the leaders, the beast and the false prophet, are captured. They're thrown into the lake of fire. And then verse 21 says, the rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

Of course, physical death is not all there is to God's judgment of the wicked. That's clearly elsewhere in Scripture. But here the point is that Christ's enemies are utterly overthrown. They are defeated. And in judgment they are utterly destroyed.

Their rebellion is completely crushed. It is a vain and useless thing to oppose God. Why would you waste one day of your life not living in submission to this good and loving Lord who made you in His image? And why would you ever dare oppose Him? Oh friend, befriend Him while you still can.

In all of this Christ's judgment vindicates God's holiness. God is right. And while might never makes right, one day might will finally reveal the right.

Unjust institutions will be brought down. Bad bosses will be unprotected by their power and status.

Good employees will be judged by God for their sins. Abusive parents, rebellious children, unfaithful spouses, mockers of Christians, Persecutors of others, all these because God is good, will be judged by Christ.

So Christ reveals and rules, He judges, and we must also note here, Christ saves. Christ saves. Part of His work that this book of Revelation tells us about Christ is that He is the Savior of His own. This is fundamental to the picture of Christ in the book of Revelation. If you look back in chapter 5, where John first sees the Lamb.

You remember the Lamb on the throne, and He is in the center of the praises of all heaven. What's He praised for? What are they saying about Him? Revelation 5 verse 9, They sang a new song, you, are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because youe were slain, and with youh blood youd purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Now back in chapter 19 we see little of that in our verses. Though even here it may not be entirely absent. So those armies following Him in verse 14, who are they? Oh, they could be angelic hosts. But up in verse 8, fine linen has just been defined as having reference to the redeemed, to the Christians.

And back in chapter 7 when John's attention is directed to those in white robes, he's told that these are they who have washed washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Friends, the army here seems to be composed of followers of the Lamb who are redeemed.

And mentioning His blood, look back in verse 13. Remember His robe there is described as being dipped in blood. Now I mentioned that reflects His victory over His enemies, and I think it does. Splatterings, if you will, from the winepress of God's wrath. But we must remember that this one is also the one who was Himself crushed for us.

His own blood we can see there too. Do you remember what Isaiah foretold about this one? He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

Yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds We are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away.

And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.

And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hands. And the suffering of his soul he will see the light of life and be satisfied. By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Now, friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, listen very carefully. Probably every week I have somebody tell me that this is what Christianity is. I try to do a good job. I die. God judges me.

And because I haven't done really bad stuff, I go to heaven. I get that literally every week as I talk with people.

That's not anything like what the Bible presents as Christianity. That's not anything like what Jesus taught. Jesus taught that He came to die as a sacrifice in the place of sinners like you, because what you have done is far worse than you have currently imagined it to be.

And God in His great love has come seeking us in Christ. And He has lived a life doing nothing wrong. But having that perfect character we've been considering. And therefore, He had no need to die. Death comes from sin, we're told in the Bible.

It's not natural to us. And yet He died. Why did He die? Because, as Isaiah just prophesied, He died in the place of all of us who would ever turn from our sins and repent of them and trust in Him. And if we do that, He will then give us a newness of life and forgiveness and restoration.

Of relationship with God, you can know for the first time why you are alive. You can know that today.

Friends, pray that God help you to understand this.

Those of us who are Christians, pray that God help us to understand what He has done for us in Christ. Pray that He grow our trust in Him. Pray that we will understand more and more of our sin and more and more of God's demands and more and more of how God has met those demands in Christ for us. And congregation, I pray that we will rejoice together as we get to experience and live out this good news of Christ's salvation. What a privilege, what a joy to know God's grace and forgiveness and acceptance given to us in Jesus Christ our Savior.

The world does not understand why Christians are so happy about this, why we call this good news, but we do We know that we are meant to have God's disapproval and His punishment because of how we have lived, because He's good, not because He's mean and harsh, but because He's just like He should be. And yet He has been so unbelievably kind to us in Christ. This is the music of the gospel that we want to hear preached in our ears and believed in our hearts every day. Friend, one more phrase I want you to notice in this chapter. Christ reveals and rules, just to review, and He judges and saves.

Yet still there is mystery. Did you notice that last sentence, verse 12? He has a name written on Him.

That no one knows but he himself.

For all this amazing truth about Christ, his sovereignty, his holiness and judgment, his merciful and gracious salvation of us through faith in Christ, everything about Christ and his glory has not been revealed. Indeed, it could not be. Deuteronomy 29 says that the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things revealed belong to us. Even given the amazing size and scope of God's revelation in Christ and in His written word, He is vastly greater than all of that.

Now our world today presents the doubt in our minds that if we don't know everything, we can't really know anything. But that's false. I also think intellectually it's stupid. Not one of us knows everything, and yet all of us know a lot of things. And we act on them all the time.

Friends, we don't know everything about God, but what we know we still do genuinely know. But let's think for just a moment about the fact that we don't know everything about God. That there is still mystery. Of course our finite minds could never comprehend everything about this God anyway. Surely no additional understanding or knowledge would ever falsify what we do know, what God has revealed of Himself, because He is true.

But can you imagine more, even more glorious truth about this Christ whom we love and serve, whom we adore and worship, whom we revere and depend upon, to whom we must submit and to whom whom we will give an account, and on whom we utterly rely, more grounds to praise Him, more grounds to trust Him, more grounds to serve Him, more grounds to love Him. Surely this God is inexhaustible. There will not be enough time in eternity to speak all the truth there is about this God in His grace and glory. Surely we will spend eternity reveling in the further revelations of His power and goodness, His mercy and His There is yet more.

Friends, we should conclude, there is a time and a place for tolerance.

At its best, it imitates God's long-suffering patience and mercy. Tolerance can be a stance of genuine humility and an expression of true love. But left alone, stripped and bare to stand on its own as it is so often today, tolerance is a weak and narrow echo of older deeper, greater truths about God and us and Christ and this world and this life. Truths like these we've been considering of judgment and of God's Vindication of his image in men and women oppressed and abused. Deeper truths of atonement and forgiveness and Liberation and adoption and mystery.

The cross of Christ is so much greater than the small T of today's tolerance.

And so my friends, waste no time in thinking Christ will tolerate your sins. Waste no time on that. All sin is opposition to him. Pick your image that's used in this passage or in Scripture and he will be victorious, he will win, he will conquer, he will judge.

So you must turn from your sins as you serve yourself and give yourself to Christ.

You must trust in His sacrifice on the cross. You must trust in Him.

Give yourself to Him.

You look in verse 21. That's where you and I are born.

We're born in verse 21. By nature we are part of the rest of them, to be given over to Christ's judgment on our sin. By nature we are the great supper of God, as he calls it in verse 17.

But we must not die there. We must not die in that state.

There is another supper. This other supper is a feast, not of death and condemnation, but of life and joy. It's the feast we considered last week in the verses just above: the wedding supper of the Lamb, the wedding feast. And this feast has been provided for us at a great cost.

In this feast, our lives are not required of us because another has given His life for our own.

And it is that supper that is displayed for us here this morning.

Come, let us feed on Christ by faith in our hearts.

Let's pray.

1. 1. 1. 1. O Lord, cause us to slow down and be patient and give attention to the most important things in life, and especially to our relationship with you.

Help us to understand the Lord Jesus better. Help us to discern Him even in this supper as we see Christ given for us. Give us, we pray, the gift of faith. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.