His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Looking forward to the second coming of Christ and our involvement, here is Pastor Matt VanderVen.

Matt VanderVen: Every single born-again believer will return with Jesus Christ and will reign and be co-heirs with Him on this earth. We will all have ministries. We will all have different things in ways that we would call them maybe jobs today. We don't like to use that term for ministry, but it's a way that most people understand.

And all the saints will come with You. Who's You? You, Jesus. It's even capitalized in most of your Bibles as you can see there, right?

Guest (Male): Welcome to His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen. We're in Revelation right now as we go chapter by chapter through this last book in our Bibles. Today, Pastor Matt will bring us a message about the return of Christ. Yes, Jesus is coming again, and it will look much different than His first coming. At His return, He won't be a suffering Messiah, but rather the King of Glory. The question is, will you be a part of the King's return? Let's find out together as we join Pastor Matt in Revelation chapter 19.

Matt VanderVen: Let's look at chapter 19 here. I'm going to read through the whole chapter as we've been doing. I think that's important to keep context, but as a way of note, our passage this morning will be chapter 19, verse 11 through 21.

Chapter 19, verse 1: After these things, I heard a loud voice in a great multitude in heaven saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God. For true and righteous are His judgments because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her." Again they said, "Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!" And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sat on the throne, saying, "Amen and Hallelujah!"

Then a voice came from the throne saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!" And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he said to me, "Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God." And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on it was called Faithful and True.

In righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written on it that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. That's you and I. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron.

He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great!"

I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

As we come to verse 11 here, God is clearly telling us of His return from heaven, and He comes with this army. Many of you may be asking as we go through these scriptures, we will find out who that army is. God takes John's focus, John the apostle, and He brings it heavenward that he would see what God is getting to do and unfold after these things, *meta tauta*, the next section of God's prophetic plan. He's opening that door for John to see to communicate to you and I here today that we would be in the know. We would not be wondering. We wouldn't have to worry or fear. We don't have to be concerned we're going to miss it. We're not.

Because He says, "Now I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war." If you've ever wondered are there animals in heaven, we know that there are horses, and yes, there are animals in heaven. Can I tell you how they got there? No, I cannot. Can I tell you are there some animals that were created in heaven and different animals that were created on the earth? I can't tell you all that, but I can tell you that there are horses in heaven.

I can tell you that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is going to mount up on a horse, and He is choosing to ride that horse back. That is a beautiful picture and imagery given to us of victory. Certainly, He doesn't need a horse. He has a glorified body. He can fly through the air. He can transport himself in many different ways. How many of you know how to ride horses in here? A few of you. Any of you afraid to ride a horse? Raise your hand. A couple of you say, "Absolutely, I don't want to get bucked from that thing."

I promise you when you ride the horse, because you will have horses and you will come back an army of heaven—think about how many horses that's going to be, millions and millions and millions. You'll come back on a horse and you'll be following the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Let that play in your mind. Every one of us all through the beginning of time, all those that have been saved will be coming back with Jesus Christ, and we will be mounted with horses and riding back into glory of what God is going to do and minister on this earth. Don't fear if you don't know how to ride a horse. I promise you, you will.

Up to this point, we've been pressing into Jesus to understand His unveiling through the book of Revelation. I've continually said as we've read this book that we could read the book for prophecy's sake, but if you miss Jesus, you've missed and really misunderstood the entire book of Revelation. It's all about Jesus. It's not the revelation of John as some of your Bibles may have entitled it. In chapter 19, we're moving from earth, the power and the glory, to this Hallelujah praise in heaven that has been happening and praising God.

God is going to return to the earth. It is going to be something that every man, every woman, everybody who's alive in the great tribulation, they are going to see this. This is not going to be a hidden thing. This is very important because sometimes prophetically, this is where I believe people sometimes get confused or misapplication of the scripture. What do I mean by that? How many of you have heard the saying, "No man knows the time or the hour" which Christ is coming? Most of you, if not all of you.

What is that specifically speaking of? Is that talking of the *Harpazo* or the *Parousia*? How many of you think it's talking about the *Harpazo*? *Harpazo* means rapture. How many of you think it's talking about the rapture? Go ahead, don't be shy, raise your hand. You're not going to get booted out if you get it wrong. How many of you think this is talking about the *Parousia* or the coming again of Jesus Christ, the second coming? Again, don't be shy.

No man can know the time or the hour, yet we are told very specifically that the great tribulation begins and ends in how many years? I'll just use years instead of months or days just to make it simple for us. Seven years. The minute that the abomination of desolation begins, how many more years after according to the book of Daniel and according to the rest of the reading in the book of Revelation before Jesus Christ's second coming is? To the day, by the way.

Three and a half years or 42 months. Three and a half years or 42 months roughly or somewhere in there in which Jesus Christ is going to come back. Do we know when the rapture of the church is going to happen? Did Jesus Christ himself know when the rapture of the church was going to happen? No, He said, "Only my Father in heaven knows when that." And beautiful pictures we talked about last week of the wedding feast of the Galilean wedding, that only the father would know when he was going to tell his son to go get your bride.

For those that will be alive during the great tribulation, if they were to count from that point, they absolutely could. Just like if you've ever read Nehemiah chapter 2 and it talks about the rebuilding of the wall and the temple and everything, we knew and we can mathematically prove this out—and we have using a Hebrew calendar which is 360 days—to the very day, AD 32, April 4th in that area. We know that Jesus Christ came to this earth and was born, as we're going to celebrate. It's hard to believe Christmas already.

Immanuel, God with us, in an immaculate birth. It was declared and prophetic and prophesied in Nehemiah 2. It was also prophesied in other scripture how many days it would be. When you actually calculate out those days, it literally was AD 32, right in and around the time of April or so, and I think it's the 4th if I remember when I calculated it out. It's literally that specific. When God's telling us here and He's very specific, He's saying that heaven opened. He's talking about how He's called Faithful and True. That's important.

He's communicating His integrity. He's communicating He's a promise keeper. He's saying that He is righteous and He judges and makes war. Why? Because on the earth, while the great tribulation portion has happened, at the end of the seven-year period, there are still people that are rejecting Jesus. He's coming to establish something that you and I have been longing for since the day we got saved, and that's a theocracy. A theocracy where Jesus Christ is ruling physically on this earth.

A kingdom is established the way God originally intended before man turned around and said to God, "Give us a king. Give us a human man-made king because we want to be like the world. We want to be like the other nations. We want to lower our standard. We want to lower our standard and expectation." Just to look at this in a little bit more detail because I love the scriptures as I know you do, and I love when God strings pearls. Would you turn in your Bible to Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 14 here this morning?

We're going to look at verses 3 and 4. Really, we're going to make our way through this, but according to Zechariah chapter 14 as you're turning there, when Jesus returns, He's going to come first to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The mountain's going to be split in two from the east to the west. Then we're going to read in verse 5 that all the saints with Him, with You, Jesus. We're the saints, the *hagios*, the born-again believers. We just read that in Revelation here as well. In the Septuagint, it's translated as well with Him. Either way, you get the same understanding.

Verse 9 tells us that He's going to come and be king over the whole earth. This is very beautiful because God lays it out very succinctly for us in Zechariah chapter 14. I'll just draw your attention, I'm going to read through a portion of this chapter because I want us to see it's been prophetic. "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city."

"Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as He fights in the day of a battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives," which faces Jerusalem on the east. You now know where He's coming. You know exactly where He said He went up and He says, "I will return in likewise." If you've ever been to Israel, you can look right upon this area. The Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.

Now this is interesting. He's literally describing something here. He's talking about this mountain when He touches down both feet, that the mountain itself is going to be split in two from east to west. But then also half of the mountain's going to move, which means it's shifting this way, splitting in half—talk about power. But then also it's going to move north to south. This whole thing is the whole earth and everything of it is going to shift at this point in that area. I believe it's going to actually have an effect in multiple areas geologically.

"But move towards the north and half towards the south. Then you shall flee through my mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah. And thus the Lord my God will come." I want you to underline this in the Bible because if you have ever wondered, "Am I sure that I am going to come back with Jesus and minister on this earth?" God is not grammatically challenged. It ties perfectly in with Revelation chapter 19, verse 14.

It reads right here, "And all, all, all the saints with You." Every single born-again believer will return with Jesus Christ and will reign and be co-heirs with Him on this earth. We will all have ministries. We will all have different things in ways that we would call them maybe jobs today. We don't like to use that term for ministry, but it's a way that most people understand. And all the saints will come with You. Who's You? You, Jesus. It's even capitalized in most of your Bibles as you can see there.

It shall come to pass in that day that there will be no light. The lights will diminish. It shall be one day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time it shall happen that it will be light. In that day it shall be that the living water shall flow from Jerusalem. Have you ever wondered—remember we were looking at the book of Revelation—"All the water's been tainted. All the water's been contaminated. How are people going to live?" Remember during the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments?

"What's going to happen? How can life be sustained when Christ comes back?" Just wait for it. Wait for it. Because I knew if the Lord tarried, you and I today would be in this very passage and we would look and see with our own eyes that God is saying, "I'm going to make things clean, pure, and new. I'm making things new." He talks about how the living waters He's going to take—and I don't know how—but He's going to heal those waters.

It's just implied that He's going to do it because He says the waters are going to flow from Jerusalem. Where is He? In Jerusalem. From Him is going to emanate. That's beautiful because He stood up and declared when He was on the earth, "You who thirst, if you don't want to ever thirst again, come unto me. I'm the living water. If you partake or drink of me, you'll never thirst again." Are you saying that I'm never going to thirst again? Yes, because when you have Jesus Christ, you are truly quenched spiritually, physically, all the way around.

The living water shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, half of them toward the western sea. In both summer and winter it shall occur, and the Lord shall be king over the whole earth. In that day it shall be the Lord is one and His name one. That's amazing. We could just keep reading on and it is a beautiful passage, but for our time, I want to ask us to turn back here to Matthew chapter 24 if you will, please.

On your way back to Revelation, we'll make a little stop here. Matthew chapter 24, verse 27: "And behold, those that are the remnant." We're going to see they're going to survive the great tribulation and see the Son of God and the Son of Man coming. "For as lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be." Have you ever seen lightning in the sky? You can see it. It's not hidden. It's not like a thief in the night.

You wouldn't say that about lightning, would you? You might say that about the rapture because you don't know when it's coming and that's why you're to have the oil in your lamp, be ready. The rapture nobody knows, but the coming of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ coming to the earth? No, it'll be like lightning flashes to the east to the west. You're going to see it. "For wherever the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered together." We already read about that, didn't He talk about the birds that were going to be gathered to eat of the flesh?

You see that in Revelation was already given to us. It ties perfectly from a harmony perspective. It's perfectly applied and interpreted. God is so good in His word as we study it. We see there's just so much that many times we don't even realize that God has already put in there and we read over these passages, and it's not until the Holy Spirit connects them for us that we see these things. Lightning comes from the east and west and it flashes to the west, so the Son of Man will be.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. Isn't that what we just read in Zechariah? The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Everybody's going to see Him again. It's nothing hidden.

He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another. The other thing that's going to happen at that time is the 144,000 plus those that got saved, we call them tribulation saints or what we sometimes call latter tribulation saints. Again, I'm getting a little bit in the weeds theologically here in terms in seminary, but they call them latter theological saints. There's a term for it because we know the population in earth and many were martyred.

We know most of those tribulation saints had died in chapter 7. We read, "How long, O Lord, will You be too until You avenge our blood?" Remember that? And they were under the altar. There's going to be those that—towards the latter end of the great tribulation—will receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I think that's wonderful and Hallelujah and Amen because that's beautiful mercy, love, and grace.