The Judgment of Jesus Christ

RV231-02

Jesus Christ on a White Horse

This army from heaven was seen way back in time, and that observation was recorded in Jude 14-15, where Jude writes: "And about these also, Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, 'Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones.'" Here is Enoch, the seventh generation down from Adam, and God shows him this great prophetic picture which we are looking at, at the end of Revelation 19. Verse 15 says, "To execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds, which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which are ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

God has been taking it on the chin for centuries. He has been treated as a buffoon. He has been treated with great indifference and as an incompetent jokester. But God is biding His time. Finally, humanity has arrived at that climactic point where the wrath of God is now to be poured out. Grace and patience are passed, and the judge has arrived, and is ready to go into action.

A Military Force

Psalm 58:8-10 looks ahead and describes this event of conquest in this way: "The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." The field of Armageddon will be immersed in the blood of the enemies of Christ, and the warrior soldiers of Christ will find their feet immersed in the blood of these men which once coursed through their veins and enabled them to abuse and treat with contempt the people of God. Always feel sorry for the people who abuse you because you are a Christian; because of your integrity; because of the way you do things; and, because of the way you are able to take the crisis of life in stride. Pity them when they rebuke you and they make fun of you, because they have a terrible future, while you have a great one.

Also, we're told in 1 Corinthians 6:2 that we Christians are going to judge the world. Paul says, "Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" We are going to judge these people.

The Second Coming of Christ

I remind you again that we are talking about history which is immediately on the horizon. Stop thinking that you've got a lot of years ahead of you. You don't. Christ is at hand. The dawn of the return of the Son of God is already seen. The world is moving as rapidly and as madly as it can to world government, and to rebelling against the authority of the Word of God, and to rejection of everything that is godly, right, and decent. And Christ is about to return to deal with it.

Four Names of Jesus Christ

Armies

Paul looked ahead to this in Colossians 3:4. Paul said, "When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." Paul is looking forward to this time when Christ returns in His great glory at the Second Coming, and we believers with Him as part of His army. The armies, of course, probably will also include Old Testament saints and angels as well.

These warrior soldiers, who accompany Christ, we're told, are clothed; that is, they have a uniform which is worn as soldiers of the armies of heaven. The Greek word is "enduo." The word "enduo" simply means a garment which is worn. But one thing that is interesting here is that this is in the Greek perfect tents, which tells us that God provided, as the heavenly quartermaster, the army's uniforms in eternity past. Perfect means something happens way back here, and then it goes on forever. So, someplace before these people were even born, before they even came to an age of accountability where they could accept Christ the Savior, the heavenly quartermaster had already assigned a uniform to them.

If you've been in the military service, you know that one of the big things is when they take you down to the quartermaster, and you walk through that line, and they sleep on that counter, according to your size, or closely thereby, the uniform that you will be wearing. That is a big step. Once you walk out of there and you put on that uniform, the old civilian days are behind you.

Well, God's people are clothed in a uniform – this uniform of His absolute righteousness that He has prepared for them from eternity past. Furthermore, this is in the passive voice in this particular word, which means that the uniform is issued by God to the saints. They are not self-secured. This is a free grace gift of grace – absolute righteousness salvation. You don't secure this uniform on your own.

It is described as being made of fine linen, which means it's a high quality material. And they are white, which symbolizes the imputed absolute righteousness of God given to the Saints. These uniforms are brilliant, white, and clean, verse 14 tells, because these people are not returning from battle. They're returning from a parade ground display. They are not covered with the grime and the dirt of battle. And they are following Jesus Christ. They are coming after Him. Here again in the Greek language, we have an interesting observation. This word is in the imperfect tense, which tells us that this is something they did again and again and again. These people were in the habit of following Christ. I suspect that the word even goes back to the time before their death, or before their rapture. When they were Christians here on this earth, they were characterized by the fact that they were following Jesus Christ. And they actively chose to do that.

This is a statement of fact, and those who actively choose to follow Jesus Christ regularly can be identified in one respect quite clearly. They are the people who sit in church when the doors are open for church service. I know Christians like to parade, and like to pretend, and like to imagine things about themselves, and they like to exalt themselves and think the best of themselves. But I'm here to tell you this. When I see you absent in these services, I know that you are not imperfect tense Christians. You're not those who are repeatedly, doggedly, regularly showing up and saying, "Feed me on the Word of God. I'm an ignoramus. I can never come to the point where I am what I ought to be in Christ. But I can make strides toward it as long as I'm here to be fed.

It is a great disgrace to me to see churches, as you drive by and you look at their schedule. They have wiped out the Sunday evening service. It's too inconvenient. It's too dark at night. And there are so many good TV programs. You never know what you'll miss on television. You do need to rest up because on Monday morning, you've got to go to work. And you have to have some time to yourself, and all the other nonsense about which you will sit in heaven, and you will bow your head, and you will someday weep. Imperfect tense Christians means repeatedly, again and again, they have followed Him. We sing the hymn: "Follow, Follow, Jesus. Follow on. Follow on. I will Follow Him." Oh yeah, we can sing it. "But 50% of the time, I don't follow Him." If you're not in church, you're not following Him. ...

Well, Christ is the officer in charge. He is in command of God's army of saints, and they readily obey His orders. The word has been passed to move out from heaven. The trumpets blare. The flags are unfurled to the wind. And Christ moves out on His white horse, and His soldier warriors follow Him on their white horses. And it is a magnificent scene. It causes John to catch his breath as he views it.

White Horses

Judgment

These two verses say that when you have a difference with a fellow Christian, you should be able to settle it with yourself, or get some other mature Christians and say, "Here's my side of the story. Here is his side of the story. Here are the facts. What should we do? If you make a decision, we will abide by it." That's the way Christians should settle their differences. You don't go to a court of law to sit before some judge, who is headed for the lake of fire, to give you a decision over a Christian brother. Why? Paul says, "That's quite improper, because you are going to be judging these demon angels." And maybe what he means is that when Satan is imprisoned, at the beginning of 1,000-year kingdom of the millennium period, I wouldn't be surprised but that what each one of you is assigned a demon, and it will be your great privilege to take him by the scruff of the neck, and to kick him in the appropriate place, as he is sent flying off the planet into space. The place is going to get cleaned up. I suspect that this passage of judging includes executing the sentence.

The nations and the rulers on earth are going to be dumbfounded as they watch the descent to earth from heaven of Christ and His magnificent army. Fear with their hearts. They are the enemies of God. Now they are looking at Christ whom they insulted; they ridicule; they blasphemed; and, they rejected Him. And now He's coming to judge them. The armies on earth go into panic as they realize that they're on the field of Armageddon, and they cannot flee to safety, and they cannot fight this approaching host from heaven. They know that they are doomed to die. There will be no more arrogance against the Word of doctrine, and there will be no more hope. So, they simply weep and mourn: "What have been? What might have been?" What sad words!

Matthew 24:30 tells us, "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on clouds of the sky with power and great glory." That's talking about this picture here at the end of Revelation 19. These people had nothing good to say about God, and had nothing more to say about Christ than to use His name in a curse word. All these arrogant people in the entertainment world, and all these people that our children like to imitate as significant people, who have held the person of Christ in contempt – what a disastrous consequences they will now pay. They will weep.

A Sharp Sword

There are several different words for "sword" in the Greek Bible. This is the sword called "hromphaia." The "hromphaia" sword was the sword which was long. It was a long-handed sword, and it really almost took two hands to handle it. This is in contrast to the "machaira" sword, which was a short, almost dagger-like, sword, which was the main weapon of the Roman legionnaires. It was close in combat, and a deadly weapon. Once the Romans had designed the "machaira" type sword, they were invincible on the field of battle, because the "hromphaia" sword was a Thracian type sword, and it's long, and it takes two hands. It is unwieldy. When you make a swipe and you miss your enemy, you are in a position now where he can move in under you very quickly with a short weapon, and dispatch you.

So, this is a long-bladed sword. But the advantage of this sword was that when you did make contact, you cut a terrific swath of disaster. You could take a series of heads right off as you came across if you made proper contact. So, it was a sword of wide devastation. That's the picture here. This sword is coming from the mouth of Christ. This sword, as we have already learned, is the Word of God.

In Isaiah 11:4, we read, "But with righteousness, He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips, He will slay the wicked." The sword comes from the mouth of Christ. He needs only to speak for His will to be accomplished. The very omnipotence of His words was the means by which He created the universe, and created all the world itself.

Psalms 33:6-9 tell us about this: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made." He spoke it into existence: "By the breath of His mouth, all the hosts (all the stars and everything out there). He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in the storehouse. Let the earth fear the Lord. But all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast." It is an awesome God who simply stands there, and what He says comes to pass. Now that is a powerful sword, and when it's used, it cuts a wide swath of devastation.

Colossians 1:15-17 also refer to this work of Christ as Creator: "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities. All things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before things. And in Him, all things hold together." He not only created the world, but He keeps it together. He keeps all the molecules hanging in there together. John has noted this sword coming from the mouth of Christ in Revelation 1:16 and Revelation 2:12.

Lethal words of judgment now are poured out upon unbelievers in the tribulation, and they come from the mouth of the angry Son of God. The spoken words of Christ, which created man, are now used to destroy the antichrist and all his followers. This final moment of the judgment of God is what is described in 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Paul says, "And then that lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming." God the Son will speak, and the antichrist will be dead. Christ alone uses the verbal sword of judgment, as we have pointed out. His soldiers watch the battle because the battle is the Lord's.

The words of Jesus Christ always did have a powerful impact, even when He was simply dealing with people as a teacher. You may remember that when they approached Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Judas Iscariot had gone up to identify Him to the soldiers, and the people that had come to take Christ, by kissing Him on the cheek, that they asked Him who He was. And in John 18:5-6, we had the record of the consequence of His answer to that question: "They said, 'Whom do you seek?' They answered Him, 'Jesus, the Nazarene.' He said to them, I am He.'"

To fully appreciate that answer, you must go back and remember that Moses was told to go to Pharaoh and say, "God has sent me to demand that you release the Jews." Moses was also told to say to the Jewish elders, "God has sent me to you to lead you out of slavery." Then God told Moses, "They are going to say, 'Who sent you?'" So Moses asked God, "So, what is Your name?" Moses wanted to know, "What kind of name will I use to talk about You?" And that's where God said, "My name is 'I am.' You go tell them that 'I am' has sent you."

Now, in the Hebrew language, the word "I am" (out of the word "to be") comes the most sacred name of God, "Yahweh." "Yahweh" comes from the Hebrew word for "to be," which means "the eternal God." So, there's a lot of play on words here. When he says, "I am," it is the strongest way to say, "I am eternal deity. I never had a beginning. I never had an end. 'I am' has sent you." So, Jesus here said, "I am He." And he was stressing the fact that he was God.

Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them: "When therefore he said to them, 'I am He,' they drew back, and they fell to the ground." The majesty of His words, when he identified Himself by the name of deity, caused them all to fall back to the ground. The enemies of Jesus were overwhelmed by the power of His words.

They were overwhelmed by His words, even as He taught the Word of God. John 7:45-46: "The officers, therefore, came to the chief priest and Pharisees, and they said to him, 'Why did you not bring Him?' The officers answered, 'Never did a man speak the way this man speaks.'" The soldiers said, "We can't touch Him." You go and listen to Him speak. The people with tear us limb-from-limb were we to take Him into custody. We're afraid to do that." But the spiritually blind, official, religious leaders of Israel ridiculed the officers, and show that they were not impressed, and, therefore, none of them believed in Christ.

Notice verses 47-48: "The Pharisees, therefore, answered Him, 'You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers or the Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?'" They say to their soldiers, "Have you been led astray to believe Him? Look at all of us smart men here. We're the religious leaders. None of us believe that." That's the problem. To have the words of Christ is to have something terrifically powerful. That's why I come down so hard when I have empty seats to speak to in a morning or evening service that ought to be filled with human beings – believers in this congregation with minds who need the Word of God – the Word of God which has been dug out, and has been prepared, and has been brought together by an enormous amount of intensity and effort. We are saying that when we read Scripture, we read the Word of God.

Red-Letter Bibles

Tommy Cross was telling us in band that he had seen a little leaflet (a little tract), and on top of it, the cover said, "What Jesus had to say about homosexuality." And when you opened it, it was blank. The implication was that He didn't say anything; therefore, God has nothing against it, and it's OK. The truth is that what Jesus put in Scripture (and that we have recorded) was put there by the Holy Spirit. And what Paul and the other apostles wrote was put there by the Holy Spirit. It's all the Word of God, whether it's black letters or red letters. Don't be trapped by that. The whole Scripture is the Word of God. That's why the Bible says, "It is powerful and active."

Don't have contempt for the Word of God. Don't treat a church like Berean Church as just another one of the churches in town. There's not another one like this in town. And there are only a few in the Metroplex area. When you walk out of a service here, you will never be the same again, because of what you have heard, if you sat and paid attention. It is impossible. And there in your soul was planted something, and you turn your back upon it? Something is wrong. You are not that imperfect-tense Christian who, again and again, is following Christ by being there to be taught by Him.

So, the words of Jesus were held in contempt by the religious leaders, but the soldiers knew that they were listening to someone that bore the impact of God. And because they refused the words of Christ, it showed on their lives, just as it shows on your life. And don't kid yourself. Some of the rest of us can see it better than you when you're not in these services. When you act in constant reaffirmation and reiteration and expansion of the Word of God, it shows. If not, the fire does not keep stoked up, and only the Word of God in the setting of instruction will do that.

The sharp sword from the mouth of Christ will be used. His words will to carry out the divine judicial punishment of death on these tribulation rebels: "So that He will make them," which means a death-dealing blow. The results of the verbal sword is massive slaughter of tribulation unbelievers, his enemies, done at the Second Coming. He will strike with His words with a rod of iron: "He will smite the nations," all these gentiles. He will strike and slay the gentile nations of the antichrist's world government who resist His authority and who resist His standards of righteousness. Christ will break the national wills, and terminate the power of the political rulers united in opposition to Him. Christ will thus bring about world peace, and the Kingdom of God on this earth as the King of all nations for 1,000 years.

Jesus Christ is simply going to speak judgment, and death will hit the army scattered at Armageddon. Blood vessels will burst from millions of human bodies. And I mean they will explode. And it will pour out all over that field. So, the Bible tells us that the valley that runs for 200 miles from Jerusalem southward to Edom is going to be filled with blood up to the level of a horse's bridle (Revelation 14:20). Only the commander of Jesus Christ will fight the gentile armies. It will be a one-sided battle. There will be no chance for the antichrist or the kings of the earth. Jesus Christ will terminate all the military force at Armageddon with His spoken word.

A Rod of Iron

Isaiah 11:4: "But with righteousness, He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. He will strike the earth with the right of His mouth. And with the breath of His lips, he will slay to the wicked. He is talking about the Millennial Kingdom. At this time, all national governments and political leaders will be required to conform to the righteous standard of God. It will be the total reversal of today. There will not be any political scandals.

Justice Blackmun had a special farewell declaration with President Clinton on TV the other day. Justice Blackmun is the man upon whose shoulders rests the bloody slaughter of multiplied millions of unborn children, for he was the moving force for the abortion law, and he was the one who wrote up the justification for it. And when someone among the reporters asked him about that, he said, "Well, I didn't come here to answer questions," and I could understand that. But he said, "I think that abortion was right in 1973, and I think it is right today for a woman to control her body." Then he said, "And please remember, it was a 7 versus 2 decision."

What was he telling us? He was trying to say, "Don't play me, like I was alone. Seven members on this court said, 'Yes.'" And this poor man does not understand that all it revealed was how vile that court had become – that they could make an arbitrary decision that that which was in the mother's womb, which could never become a horse or a dog or a cat, but only a human being (that's what it was destined for), had been conceived by an act of God. And the Bible reveals that the body was created within the mother's womb by the hands of God, and it's a creative act of God which gets interrupted by the act of abortion. And this poor man thought that he was justified by the fact that others joined him in this horrible butchery that he brought upon the American public.

I'd like to tell Justice Blackmun that he's got a lot of peace to make with God, and that he is going to face some real horrible moments when finally he checks out, and he faces that God, with his hands dripping with the blood of the millions of murdered children. And it is murder. The Bible is very clear that, from conception on, we're dealing with a human beings. And, of course, the Supreme Court never denied that. They said, "Yeah, we're dealing with human beings, but he's not a person, because he's not walking around on the earth. And if he's not a person, he's not protected in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This was an arbitrary decision to satisfy an evil desire.

This past week or so, President Clinton had an ABC News interview in which he talked about his religious faith. And when he was asked about gay rights, the president said that there was nothing in the Ten Commandments about homosexuality. What a terrific, incisive statement! What great depth of spiritual knowledge! Doesn't that make you feel good to know that somebody is making decisions for your life up there, who has that great insight like that? Somebody is going to be making decisions about your health and physical well-being.

The president also pointed out, however, that there was a prohibition about bearing false witness in the commandments. He was suggesting that people were not telling the truth about him. The writer of the article asked the question whether it would have been disrespectful to call to the president's attention that there is a commandment prohibiting adultery (as long as you're going to talk about the Ten Commandments as your code). What clowns! What madness! What a reflection upon the American people who have done this evil thing, as to put people with such a benighted spiritual frame of reference in authority over our lives.

Vice President Al Gore doesn't find anything about the environment in the Ten Commandments, but that hasn't stopped him from creating a theology of the earth, and misrepresenting Scripture to support his now disputed and discredited view about global warming.

The article goes on to say that the president sidestepped the issue as to when human life begins by saying, "There's nothing about abortion in the Bible." Yep, the word "abortion" doesn't appear in the Bible. And neither does the word "Trinity." But they are both true because they reflect what the Bible teaches. And there is ample biblical evidence that abortion is interrupting the process of a human life being created by God.

Well, this is the kind of thing, folks, that's going to be brought to an end. When Jesus Christ comes, and He takes over, all of this kind of corruption on the political scene is going to come to an end. When He finishes putting all those unbelievers to death, there are going to be a lot of openings in the Congress. They're going to have to hustle around to see where they can find people to fill up those liberal seats so they can get the government running again. That is because the rod-of-iron rule of Jesus Christ is going to demand absolute obedience to His laws, and to His administration as world governor. There will be no making of a travesty of the Bible anymore. The iron rule signifies unyielding execution of divine justice and divine judgment.

Biblical Government

Psalm 2:8-9: "Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance (speaking to the Son, Christ), and the very ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware." Christ is going to shatter them with His authority, and justice is going to prevail.

The United States in the End Times

"He will break them with a rod of iron, and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty." "To tread" means "to walk on." This is the analogy of smashing grapes by stomping upon them in a great vat to squeeze out the grape juice. He will do this at Armageddon. He will do it Himself. He treads, and the Greeks stresses: He, and no one else. He will be in the winepress. Here's a picture of gentile rebels against God. They're put into the winepress like grapes. That's the picture you have in Isaiah 63:3 and in Revelation 14:9-20. These rebels are put in a winepress, and Jesus Christ stomps upon them without any help from His heavenly army. That way, His robe gets stained with the blood of His enemies as He treads upon them.

The Fierce Wrath of Jesus Christ

Joel 3:13 says, "Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe." Come, tread for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great." And Joel is talking about the Armageddon scene.

So, holy vengeance is exercised against those who, in the tribulation, have contemptuously rejected the grace of God through Jesus Christ, and they have worshiped instead the antichrist. For centuries past, God the Father, with loving longsuffering, has endured the insults to His Son Jesus. Those whom Christ sought to save from hell have responded to Him with blasphemy and rebellion. Now divine patience has come to an end. There's no more chance to escape the lake of fire.

Proverbs 1:24 gives us a picture of wisdom on this: "Because I called, and you refused, I stretch out My hand and no one paid attention, and you neglected all My counsel, and did not want My reproof." Isn't that a sad picture? Here is God stretching out His hand, and you're sitting at home doing something instead of being in a church service. He's stretching out His hand to teach you something of the Word of God, and you say, "Ah, gee, I know all of that. One time on Sunday is enough for me. In fact, one time a month is pretty good. How little different we can be from these unbelievers.

I'll tell you what God's going to do. Verse 26: "I'll even laugh at your calamity. I'll mock when your dread comes." Are you having a hard time? "Oh God, I need this." God will say, "Ha, don't talk to Me about it, buddy. You've been ignoring Me. You've been so high and mighty. You've found other things to do when the saints were meeting: now, go do them. Don't ask Me for answers. Struggle and sweat it out for yourself. When your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you."

There's going to be no sentimental excusing of man's rebellious wickedness. There will be only the fearful wrath of God, as is described in Hebrews 10:30-31: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God." There's nothing more inflexible in this universe than God's holy wrath when His grace has been spurned for the last time – love governed by holiness.

The one who does this, just to make it very clear just how real and sure this is, verse 15 ends by telling us that this is: "The fierceness of the wrath of the wine of the wrath of God the Almighty." God is not a weakling who talks big but cannot execute His judgments against evildoers. That is the mistake people make. He is longsuffering, and they consider that to be weakness.

The heathen grapes in the wine at Armageddon will be crushed to a pulp by the Almighty, and their blood will literally be poured out. In relentless fury, God's wrath is poured out, and His justice will there be satisfied. Once God begins a judgment, He'll finish it. There'll be no turning back. None will escape.

The apostle Paul tries to stress this principle when he says, "Don't come to the Lord's Supper without being prepared. Don't come to the Lord's Supper without having confessed all these times that you broke the law of God, like not neglecting the assembling of yourselves together (Hebrews 10:25) and all these others. Don't you dare come without having gone to Him and having said, "That was wrong, and I admit it, and I confess it."

God says, "When you got to a certain point, then I will bring weakness upon you. I'll bring psychological distress, I'll bring sickness. And if you keep on, I'll bring death. I'll bring a lot of troubles to you. If you don't wake up, I'll take you to the end of the line. Wake up." Once God begins the judgment, He will finish it.

So, the apostle Paul says, "If we judge ourselves, we would not be judged." That's the smart way to do it. God the almighty is fair, loving, just, and absolutely kind, but He is true to what He is. And you and I must be true to what we are as members of the royal family of God.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1993

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