Living In The Light Of Vengeance

Take your Bibles now and turn to Revelation chapter 19 as we continue working our way through this book. I believe, I don't have it with me, but I believe we started this series in 2010. And believe it or not, if we'd put all those sermons right straight across, it wouldn't even be a year. This is only the 48th sermon on this book. And I'm doing better.

I have come to love this book. I've come to believe that it's promise given in the first chapter that those who read this book will be blessed is coming true in my life. I hope for yours as well. God has done a marvelous work of showing us through this apocalypse, through this symbolic way of what the world is like and the hope that we have in Christ. and it has been a blessing to me and I hope for you as well.

Let's pray and ask God to teach us His Word by His Spirit as we look into the text of Scripture. Father, we are Yours because You broke through the darkness and showed us Jesus. Now show us Him again. In this vision, help us to understand Him. Above all, Father, I pray that when we leave here, we will leave here praising the name of Jesus Christ, who is for us everything.

Teach us now, we pray. Give us hope. And we will thank you for all eternity. In Jesus' name, amen. Many of you have probably never heard of the man Miroslav Volf. He is a theologian.

He has written a number of things. he grew up in Croatia and he knows first hand the burning, plundering, rape, devastation and suffering visited on the Croatians by Serbian aggressors and he forthrightly proclaims that he and all Croatian Christians have a responsibility to love their enemies to do good to those who have abused them but he says this only the biblical confidence that God will bring the unjust to justice at history end can enable victims to respond to their attackers with non grace in the present Do you hear what he says? The only way we can love our enemies is to believe that God will bring justice in the end. He goes on and says, my idea that the practice of non-violence requires belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many Christians. then finally says this soon you will discover that it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the idea that human non-violence corresponds to god's refusal to judge do you hear what he says the fact that we believe that we respond in grace is connected to god's refusal to judge is only an idea that could have grown up in a quiet suburban house he goes on and says in a scorched land soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die.

Wolfe is right. You will have the ability to endure and to live in obedience to Jesus' commands in the midst of suffering and seduction if you are sure that Jesus will take divine vengeance. You will remain steadfast and pure as we have seen through this book, as we have gone through this book and seen that this is a call for us to remain steadfast in the faith in the midst of persecution and pure in the midst of seduction.

That will only happen if you believe that God's justice will prevail. Now recall that John addresses this revelation of Jesus Christ to seven churches in Asia Minor and thus it is addressed to us today, to this church in Leroux. They have experienced or will soon experience the atrocity of which fallen humanity is capable. When you're the victims of injustice and you cannot fight back, you must not despair.

The strong and the righteous judge is coming. when you can fight back you need not and should not retaliate repaying evil for evil for your strong judge assures you vengeance is mine I will repay because Jesus will return to write the scales of justice you need not despair now and you can love your enemies now the question is how can you be sure such justice is going to show up Is that just wishful thinking No Because the Apostle John has already seen it. He has seen the justice of God arrive ahead of time. Because God has given him a vision and has shown him that.

Let's look together now at Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19, beginning in verse 11. You follow along. Then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems.

And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then I saw an angel standing on the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.

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. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

Now in verse 11, John says, then I saw heaven open The indicator that God has given John another vision another peek at heaven perspective to help God people overcome to help them endure And this is the vision of the last battle Now, we've already been introduced to the last battle. We've seen it already in chapter 16. Just barely introduced, turn back to chapter 16.

If you remember, verses 13 and 14, And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs for they are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of god almighty drop down to verse 16 and they assembled them at the place that in hebrew is called armageddon there were introduced to this last battle in chapter 17 verse 14 they will make war on the lamb and the will conquer them for he is lord of lords and king of kings and those with him are called chosen and faithful. We've been introduced to the battle, but it's just been mentioned. Here now, the final details are filled in with this vision.

Now we see the whole compass of this battle. And it describes it for us in two parts. First of all, verses 11 through 16, our champion and his forces. And then 17 through 21, the battle and its aftermath. Now, again, you're always asking the question, why is this here? What's the purpose of this?

Why did the Holy Spirit give this to us? If you want to obey Jesus in the midst of persecution and seduction, Get a vision of your champion. Get a vision of your champion. You want to endure? Catch the vision. You want to remain pure?

Get the vision of your champion. We find that in verses 11 through 16. We're going to look at verses 11 through 16 this morning then. Now when you look at verses 11 through 16, this is not just about the great battle, but about the character of the champion. these symbols of Jesus say a great deal about his character so when you look at these verses it's less about a divine cavalry charge and more about the character of Jesus so as we look at these verses you're going to see that it that it basically in the symbolic The symbolic way, as we've seen through this book, describes for us who Jesus is.

So it's not so much about the last battle in these verses as about the leader of the forces of heaven, his character, what he's like. So if you want to endure, if you want to endure, then understand what your champion's like. Catch a vision of your champion. the first thing we see is that he is the divine conquering warrior John sees Jesus sitting on a white charger now remember this is not a photograph it's a symbol it's a symbol I do not believe that Jesus will appear in the sky riding a horse I don't think that's going to happen I don't think we're going to see Jesus galloping through the clouds alright you know when Jesus remember in chapter 6 when Jesus opens up the scroll right what happened first there was a rider on a white horse then there was a rider on a red horse then there was a rider on a black horse and then a rider on a pale green horse now Now, were there really riders in the sky on white, black, red, and green horses?

No. Those are symbols. But we noted in chapter 6 that the white horse stood for conquest. This Jesus, then, is the conqueror. This is the first thing you've got to see. He's the divine warrior who conquers.

He's the conqueror. Dio Cassius was a Roman historian, and he relates how when Julius Caesar had won these incredible military victories, the Senate voted him permission to come into Rome on a chariot pulled by white horses, symbolizing his triumphant military achievements. The white horse is about the military achievements or the conquest that Jesus has accomplished.

Jesus arises as a triumphant conqueror And this represents the one who has already conquered Even before Jesus even before John I sorry even before John lifts his eyes from the mount to the rider we know already by that horse that Jesus is already triumphant. The battle is not in question. He's going into battle with the white horse already. The victory is assured.

He's coming to conquer and the conquest is assured. But now let's look at the warrior that's on that horse. John says he is called what? Faithful and true. Now if I promised Becca that I would spend all day Tuesday with her, how would she know that I'm faithful and true? Well, that's easy.

If I'm true to my word and I faithfully do what I said I'm going to do. God has promised that Jesus will vindicate and rescue his people so he will remain true to his word. And he will faithfully execute what he promised he would do. Now remember, as we've led up, as we've walked up to this part, we've seen that in these scenes of judgment, primarily the focus is that Jesus is going to vindicate his people. that those who have heard the slanders and the persecutions and who have died for the sake of Christ because they were called evil, they were called guilty, on that day, in judgment, Jesus will vindicate them.

Jesus will faithfully vindicate his people. Now look at what faithful and true is like. in righteousness he judges and makes war john tells us jesus judges unerringly he will not be intimidated by any power he will not be corrupted by any money he he he there will be nothing that will sway him from making an exact and righteous judgment he judges righteously now i don't know if you notice some of you may go to perkins i go to perkins every once in a while and kind of hoping to take back to Perkins tomorrow morning I'm going to spend Monday with her, not Tuesday but be that as it may if you go to Perkins at a certain time you will see as you walk in the door you will see over here at a certain table over on the right side not a booth but a table for men that usually sit there Two of them are judges. And I think a couple of them are attorneys.

They meet there quite often. I've seen them there several times. That always causes me pause. My brother was an attorney for many years. He would tell me of how judges and attorneys would often get together and talk over cases that were coming before the judge. Hmm, that causes me great pause.

You see, Jesus is going to judge righteously. There's nobody going to sway him. He's going to cut it straight. He's going to cut it straight. There will be no wrongly convicted people when Jesus shows up. Okay?

He judges unerringly. And he wages war righteously. He wages war righteously. Probably all of us here have heard, maybe you don't know much about him, but William Tecumseh Sherman. William Tecumseh Sherman was a Union General who was instrumental in bringing the South to its knees in the Civil War you remember he was the General who commanded the Army of the Tennessee the Western Armies as they came down starting in Illinois they came down and he finally made it all the way down marching all the way down to Atlanta and then back up towards North Carolina sherman introduced a concept to war called total war and what sherman meant by that was this we no longer can fight a war just against military objectives this is total war we are going to destroy everything in our path including civilians houses civilian lands because if we don't we won't break the back of the Confederacy.

Total war. Now some would argue that's not waging war righteously. We can be sure of this one thing. Jesus will wage war righteously. There will be no innocent civilian casualties when Jesus shows up in justice He wages war righteously The war doesn start for wrong reasons It isn carried out the wrong way and it won end the wrong way When Jesus shows up in righteousness, the war will be waged righteously.

There will be no innocent casualties in that war. That's the point John's making, because he's faithful and true. Notice what else is true. He has eyes like a flame of fire. Now we've seen this picture of Jesus already in chapter 2, verse 18. Turn back to chapter 2.

Remember this is written to the church in Thyatira. Verse 18, And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. Jesus has piercing, discerning, holy eyes. Nothing will fool Him. No one will get by. No one will get by and sneak anything by Him.

He has eyes like a flame of fire. Now in our backyard, as we sit around our fire pit with the fire going, as we sit there with the fire in our place, those flames pierce the darkness. Whereas before, I couldn't see the scowl on that face, Now that the flames are up, I can see the scowl on that face. I can see that that guy is looking at my daughter over here, right?

I can see everything now that the flame's going up. That's the way Jesus is. His eyes are like flames of fire. He can see everything. It penetrates the darkness. Nothing will escape His gaze.

That is why the faithful and true can judge and wage war righteously. Jesus cannot be fooled. And He won't be fooled. Notice the clothes of faithful and true. They are a bloody mess. He's got blood all over his garments.

Now this is a reference to Isaiah 63 that we just heard a few minutes ago. In Isaiah's prophecy, God is a warrior who shows up to judge the nations for what they did to his people. And he shows up as the great champion for his people. And now we see that Isaiah was really picturing not just God back then, but God in the future in the person of Jesus Christ arose. striving to judge, to bring vengeance for the sake of his people.

And he achieves vengeance and redemption for his people. Remember, we've noted this now several times, vengeance on God's enemies means salvation for God's people. Judgment on one side always means salvation on the other. Why are his clothes so bloody? It says that in verse 15, He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God. Oh, don't lose the picture.

It's as awful as it sounds. He's into the winepress and crushing people and their blood is spattering up on His garments. It's a pretty awful picture. He's treading out the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God. That ought to give us pause to think about a few things. That may offend you.

As Miroslav Wolf says, what I'm saying may offend our sensibilities. But it is the revelation of God. It is the picture of Jesus trampling on people in judgment so that their blood squirts up and stains his garments. Now look. This is what God thinks of injustice. There is much injustice in the world.

And it seems that we just can't get a handle on. There has to be justice. You must understand that God sees it all and he will use his Christ to achieve justice if it isn't achieved here. And it will be the horrors of judging people who have sinned against the great God. Now let me add something here. God is not just familiar with the blood of those who have reviled him because there is the blood of his own son that he shed for the sake of delivering them from that Right He shed His own blood so that the blood of those who are the objects of His vengeance so that they could escape.

Let's not accuse God of injustice here. Let's not be, oh, I'm so sensitive, this is terrible, our God's not that way. Listen, that is not the total picture of God. For centuries he has placed before people his son and said, escape my vengeance by doing only one thing. Just one thing. Just entrust yourself to him.

You don't have to work for it. You don't have to prove yourself good enough for me. The only thing you have to do to escape that vat of vengeance is to just trust Jesus. So let's not get all worked up and say, oh, that's a terrible picture of God. He has delivered His Son to death for sinners, so that they don't have to experience that kind of vengeance.

But make no mistake, those who refuse such grace will bear the vengeance of this one called faithful and true. and because of that because you can be convinced of that you can live faithfully for Christ because he is the divine warrior called faithful and true you can live now for Christ in obedience and not worry about vengeance because it's not yours it's his you can love people today who persecute you and hate you because vengeance is his he'll take care of that you just love him do you see that? you can live and resist you can resist the seductions of Babylon why? because God's going to deal with Babylon God's going to deal with her right? we can live faithfully for Jesus convinced that he is a divine warrior called faithful and true. Now, he's also called the Word of God. He's the Word of God.

Now, when you look at that term, Word of God, in this book, it used four times So let look at it Look at chapter 1 This term Word of God is connected with something else all the time Chapter 1 verse 2 He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, verse 2, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now that and, we all use and this way. It doesn't mean that the word of God is something separate.

What he's saying is that the word of God, even the testimony of Jesus Christ. The word of God is the testimony of Jesus Christ. It's about God in Christ. All right. Look at verse nine. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

There it is again. The word of God is what? It's the testimony of Jesus. Chapter 6, verse 9, just a little bit phrase different. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and, that is, for the witness they had borne. The witness to the testimony of Jesus.

And then lastly, chapter 20, verse 4, a little bit ahead of where we are. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God. The word of God in this book is the testimony of Jesus. Alright? So when we see this, when Jesus shows up and he's called the word of God, he is, if you will, the testimony that confirms the testimony.

He is that gospel. Alright? He is that gospel. He's confirming that what they said was right. The one, this one Jesus that the saints proclaim shows up confirming that the word for which they died is indeed the word of God. The testimony of Jesus is indeed the word of God.

And so Jesus shows up as the word of God, as if you will, the testimony of Jesus to confirm what they had always said about him. And notice as you as you look through here what happens There a sharp sword that comes from his mouth This is the function of that word of God The sharp sword comes from his mouth Now the idea of a sword coming from the mouth comes from the Old Testament. All right, again, again, it comes from the Old Testament.

Let's look at Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 through 4. Look first at how it's described here. Verse 15, from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. So let's look back at Isaiah 11, this great passage that talks about this coming Messiah. Isaiah 11, 1 through 4, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. By the way, notice what it says next, and he shall not judge by what his eyes see, that is, he will have unerring righteous judgment, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked. There's that illusion.

So, this One who's coming is going to strike with the rod of His mouth. In Isaiah chapter 49 verse 2, He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of His hand He hid me. In Psalm 2, in Psalm 2, that's a very familiar psalm to us. In Psalm 2, it's this psalm about God. And he has his anointed one on Mount Zion.

And the kings of the earth have gathered against them. And it says it's gathered against the Lord's anointed. And what does it go on to say about the Lord's anointed? It says this about him in verse 9. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Again, all of these passages are drawing a picture that finds its clear fulfillment in Jesus.

He is the one that that's always been pointing to. And so Jesus fulfills God's vengeance against his enemy in the salvation of his people. So this rod, this sword from his mouth is God's word. of accusation that condemns the ungodly and sends them to destruction. That word, that sword coming out of his mouth that brings destruction, is the word that comes from the Word.

And it says, you are guilty, depart from me. Isn't that interesting? the testimony that brings salvation now the gospel that causes the death of God's saints will one day appear and that same gospel will condemn those oppressors to destruction but again again let us remember something Again, this may, some of you may be sitting there thinking, man, Pastor Tim, you know, you've never been a fire and brimstone kind of guy, but boy, you're really pouring it on. I'm just reading the Word of God.

But you know what? We live in a culture that has this funny view of God as this tolerant being who will never judge. That's not what the Scripture reveals. But never forget that the gospel that says this, be reconciled to God. As God holds out his hand and presents Jesus to you and says, I don't want to be your enemy. I want you to be reconciled to me. and time and time and time again people have heard that message and they have consistently refused to submit to Jesus as Lord then don't be surprised when finally that gospel shows up in the person of Jesus and condemns you.

It is not that God is this God who lives in heaven just waiting to throw people into fire. It is a God who in love and mercy offers His Son. And for those who refuse and instead turn on the messengers of that gospel we find that gospel condemning them Look at the last description found in verse 16 Well no it Yeah, verse 16. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Now this name is written on the part of the robe that covers his thigh. It can be translated on his robe that is on his thigh. So I think it's on the robe. As the rider comes into focus, as he starts getting closer in this vision, John sees written on his robe right here, right here on his robe, this phrase, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is the place where the warrior would wear his sword.

Again, the sword that will execute judgment lies on the place that has this description, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That name speaks of universal and absolute sovereignty. It's saying, this is the king that rules over every king. This is the Lord that rules over every Lord. Now, the Roman emperor with whom these readers were familiar had that name. the emperor was called king of kings and lord of lords this phrase is not chosen willy nilly is to make the point no you're not wrong you are not king of kings and lord of lords not at all Jesus is going to appear the real king of kings the real lord of lords and he will expose all such claims as false no one can ever ever on this earth ever claim that they are the king of kings or the lord of lords no country can say it no person can say it no one can and this king of kings and lord of lords has multiple diadems or crowns on his head again notice what it says um in verse 12 and on his head are many diadems.

On his head are many diadems. Now the number's not given, and that's done on purpose. Because this is a direct contrast to what we've already seen earlier in the book We seen the dragon with his seven crowns and the beast with his ten crowns Okay The dragon Satan with his seven crowns is making a claim to universal sovereignty. And the beast, his instrument, reflected in the governments that demand our allegiance, that belongs only to God, it too, it too, wears ten crowns. as kind of a claim to sovereignty.

Now, you know, the Olympics start in a couple of weeks. Next week, in fact. Okay? The Olympics start next week. And many are going to make claims about who rules the world of track and who rules the pool. You know what we're going to find out? whoever has the most gold rules.

All right? Michael Phelps comes home with all those gold medals. There's no discussion, is there? He rules the pool. That's it. There's nothing more to be said.

That's exactly what's going on here. The dragon and the beast make pretentious claims to sovereignty, but the unnumbered diadems of the king of kings proclaim who really rules. They're not numbered for us. Why? It's got more than they have. He's really the ruler.

The point is, live faithfully for Jesus now because He will surely expose all claims of sovereignty. He is useless and powerless. Live in faithful obedience to the Gospel now because the Gospel that will bring perfect judgment when Jesus, the Word of God, appears is that which rules. Live faithfully now in light of who Jesus is. Now there's still one more name that we haven't covered yet.

There's still one that we haven't looked at. You say, well, that's a waste of time because it's verse 12. He has a name written that no one knows but himself. Why even discuss it? No one can know it. Right?

Why even do it? Isn't that a name no one will ever know? No. We need to understand what's going on with that thing. He's speaking here. He's not speaking of intellectual knowledge here.

He not speaking of intellectual knowledge like who is that I don know That not what he talking about He talking about experiential knowledge Let me give you two statements where the word no is used I know the President That the first statement Here the second Michelle Obama knows the President. Does no mean the same thing? No, it does not. I know the President intellectually.

She knows the President intimately. She has experiential knowledge. I do not. I've never met him. I don't know anything about him. Except what I see.

But I've never related to him personally. I have an intellectual knowledge. I could recognize him on the street. I could see him on the television and say, that's the president. But his wife has an entirely different kind of knowledge. It's experiential knowledge.

All right? Jesus possesses a name that we do not yet know experientially. Name means character, right? Name means the person. There's something about Jesus that we don't know. Not yet.

Now, for example, some Jewish religious writings about the time of John's writing this, says this, when the final destruction of the wicked occur, the name of God will be complete. Now, what did they mean to communicate by that? They communicated by that the idea that God would not fully reveal his character until judgment day. That is to say, he would not be known fully and experientially until that day.

That's what John's driving at here. For example, you know the name of Jesus as Savior, don't you? You know that experientially, don't you? But can I say something to you? You don't know it fully yet. Why?

Because Jesus hasn't fully delivered you from sin yet. There's still a deliverance yet future. Deliverance from the still, the remaining sin within. Deliverance from the sin around us. Deliverance from the curse of the earth. We don't know that yet.

We don't know the name of Jesus fully. And I can tell you this. No one yet knows the name of God as righteous warrior who executes just vengeance. We may know it intellectually, but that's a name that we don't know. but God himself knows. But someday, and you know what? I will never know that name and neither will you if you're in Christ.

You will never know the name of God, the warrior, who takes righteous vengeance if you're in Christ, because you will not be the object of his vengeance. But there will be some who will. They will know that. So live faithful lives in light of the name yet to be revealed. Now very quickly, there's one last thing. Verse 14, right in the middle.

Catch a vision of your champion's army. Verse 14 says, And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. Who are these mounted troops following the warrior king? You. Those who are in Christ. You're looking at yourself there if you're a Christian. there's a it's like you're watching the dvd of you only it hasn't happened yet right that's you you say wait a minute aren't these angels isn't that the army of heaven well it might be except for one thing take a look at their uniforms what are they wearing linen pure and white now where have we met that we've met that early we've seen that earlier in the chapter okay verses seven and eight let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready it was granted her to quite and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints that's you so you're seeing you you say wait a minute okay in the little bit that we've learned about that very last day here's what we learned babylon destroyed the kings of the earth unite finally in a united front against the Christians of the world and they coming to them to fight this last battle Aren't we there?

Like there? But you're saying we're there? Yeah. Okay, let's think about this. Some of you are going to be really surprised at what I'm going to say. Because you've always thought I believe something that I didn't.

There's a rapture. Now, not a rapture before, you know, so that we escape tribulation. What happens is, you know what we know? We know from 1 Thessalonians, and we know from the gospel narratives, that the saints will be caught up in the air when Jesus comes down. Right? So, we're not here saying, oh no, here they come.

Where are you coming, Jesus? What's going to happen is, we're going to be caught up, given our uniforms and we're coming right back down to fight the battle okay we are in that army now okay don't ask me how because i don't know and i don't know that anybody else does again it's one of those things that some christian could write a great novel about you know those things that the bible says nothing about we we write the most about The only thing I know is that we are caught up, and this is telling me we head right straight back down, having enlisted, well, we haven't been enlisted, and again, we haven't been drafted. We're members of this army of vindicated saints that are coming back to do battle.

That's what it says. We are conquerors too. We also will be riding, well, symbolic. This is a symbol, all right? We going to be conquerors since the vision sees us on white horses So live in faithful obedience to the gospel in light of your membership in the warriors conquering army Miroslav Volf is right. Our faithfulness to Jesus and His commands will wither and die by believing that God is this supremely tolerant being who would never judge.

If you believe that, then faithfulness to Jesus is going to die. You won't have what it takes to make it to the end. Rather, gospel obedience in the midst of suffering and seduction grows only in the confidence that it is God who will bring righteous vengeance on His enemies and ours. that there is a God who believes in justice, His justice, His unerring justice, only then, believing that, will you be able to love your enemies.

Only then, believing that, will you be able to live for Christ now in the midst of suffering and seduction. Only if you believe that will you be able to make it. That's why it's here. And it's a vengeance that is just and righteous and only possible in light of our warrior king's character. He is faithful and true. He is the Word of God.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the Christ who fully reveals all of that when He appears. May God give us grace to obey the Lord Jesus Christ because He is our champion. Let's pray. Father we must know you and the Lord Jesus And in this text, you're revealed fully who Jesus is and what He's like. You've shown us judgment.

Not a judgment that is willy-nilly. It's not arbitrary. it is judgment that grows out of the righteous character of our God and of our Christ. Forgive us, Father, for our offense at who you've revealed yourself to be. Instead of, Father, recoiling in horror, we pray that we would look to you as our Redeemer who has delivered us from the tyranny of sin now and who will one day deliver us from the tyranny of sin on this earth.

God, we are convinced that we can love our enemies only because we are convinced that you, you will take vengeance. so help us to live obediently to the gospel following Jesus faithfully knowing that Jesus will write the scales when he comes to that end we pray that we would glorify him and magnify our father by the power of the spirit who brings these things to our minds when we are discouraged. Give us your grace, we pray. Amen.