Simple Faith

Bill Henry: When Satan comes and attacks you in the middle of the night and you wake up and your heart’s pounding, you’ve had this weird nightmare, you feel like you’re being spiritually oppressed or something, what do you do? Yes, we can pray, but man, also you pull out the sword of the spirit, you hold up the shield of faith, you put on your helmet of salvation, you put on the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness because you’ve hidden it in your heart.

You have the word of God, the power of God at your fingertips because you are a child of the King. God has given us this armor. God has given us the power of His word.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. Bill serves as senior pastor here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel. If you’re a fan of boxing, you know that the event that signals that the match is about to start is the flamboyant entrance of the two combatants.

Some of them get pretty intense, but those entrances can’t hold a candle to the grand entrance we’re going to read about today in Revelation 19. Jesus is returning to the earth to reign, and the events are enough to take your breath away. Here’s Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: "He, Jesus, had a name written that no one knew except himself." Verse 13, "He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God." First, notice again that he's clothed in a robe dipped in blood. To me, this shows the seriousness of what he is going to do. Again, you can cheat and read the rest of the chapter this evening and look and see what’s going to happen.

I actually encourage it; it’s awesome stuff. Part of what’s going to come is the judgment of men, the judgment of women, and there’s going to be a battle as they seek to fight against God as they join up with Satan, the Antichrist, the beast, and all the nations of the earth come to make war with God. So again, showing that his robe is dipped in blood shows the seriousness of what is coming.

It also is foretold in Isaiah chapter 63, verses 2 and 3. It says this: "Why is your apparel red and your garments like one who treads the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me. For I have trodden them in my anger and trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my robes."

Jesus is coming to mete out justice upon those who have rebelled against him. This is a simple truth. Now look at verse 13 as it continues. It says, "And his name is called the Word of God." I love this. Jesus Christ, the Word of God. John chapter 1, verses 1 and 2: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Jesus Christ. He was in the beginning with God. Jesus was not a created being, as some falsely teach today. He was in the beginning with God. Verse 14 there in John chapter 1, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus Christ, the Word of God. This is such a beautiful picture.

We're going to talk about the word of God a little bit more in a few minutes, but notice verse 14: "And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, follow him on white horses." So too we see all the angels here, the armies of heaven clothed in white linen. I believe as they’re clothed in that, it says fine linen, white and clean, they’re clothed too in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

It’s worth noting here that heaven has armies too. A lot of people don’t think about that, that there are armies in heaven. By the way, if you didn’t know it, heaven also has borders and walls, just to put that out there. There is a time for everything under the sun, the Bible says.

Now notice they’re on white horses. I do believe—I've been asked this before, do you think these are literal horses? I do. I think these are literal white horses. They might be a little different kind of horses than we’re used to because they are in heaven, after all. So I don’t think it’s going to be like Bullet or something like that, some of the horses that we’ve seen. They’re going to be from heaven.

I'm asked a lot, "Pastor, will there be animals in heaven?" Well, we at least know there’s going to be horses. So there's probably going to be other animals as well. We know in the Millennial Kingdom there will be animals. So yes, I believe that that’s a yes. They come and notice here in verse 15, it says: "Now out of his mouth, the mouth of Jesus, goes a sharp two-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations."

Again, as we continue our study, how many people here have heard of the Battle of Armageddon? Please raise your hand. We've all heard of it. It’s like put forth to us like it’s this great battle that’s going to be between good and evil, Satan and God, and this big war that will take place. No, there is no equal footing between Satan and God. There is no equal footing between all the armies of the earth and God.

Notice that it says here that this sword will go out that he should strike down all the nations. God, Jesus Christ, will simply say the word and they’ll be wiped out. How can this be? This is the same God who spoke and the universe leapt into existence. This is the same God that said, "Let there be light," and guess what? There was light. This is the same God who spoke to Lazarus, "Come forth," and he rose from the dead.

As the word of God goes forth from the mouth of Jesus, that is how he will strike down the nations. Again, you can cheat and read further ahead in the chapter because it tells us this. Does this sound familiar to you, that the word of God is a sword? In Hebrews chapter 4, verses 12 and 13, we read this: "For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and the spirit, and of joints and of marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

"And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 17: "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Revelation 1:16, "He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword."

Revelation 2:12, "And the angel of the church in Pergamos write: These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword." Revelation 2:16, "Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth." And in Revelation 19:21 it says this: "And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse."

Why do you think that the Bible, the word of God, is the most attacked book in the entire world? I don't know about you, but I never see them making fun of the writings of Muhammad. I never see them making fun of the writings of the Buddha or Krishna or others. Why? Because they're all dead. Their writings are dead. But the word of God is alive.

Even so many churches today are attacking the veracity of the word of God. They're not teaching the Bible from the pulpits. People aren't reading their Bibles and using their Bible in their everyday life. Why? Because we’ve been taught that it’s not reliable. We’ve been taught that we can’t trust it or that you know better than the word of God.

The lies continue to abound. It goes all the way back to the garden of Eden, if you remember: "Hath God truly said?" It goes right back to what God has said. Sadly, it makes its way even into our lives where all of a sudden, we don’t read our Bibles. We're not looking to walk in loving obedience to the word of God. We don't hide the word in our heart so when the enemy attacks we can hold up the sword of the Spirit.

Have you ever noticed that when you want to go spend an afternoon shooting, how easy and fun it is to go? Or you want to go hunting or camping, or you want to go shopping, or some of you younger folks want to go play a video game. The hours just blaze by. But then you sit down to read the Bible. Anybody notice how tired you get real quick?

Man, I’m so tired. I’ve just read two verses and I don’t even remember what I just read. And so there's this battle. Why? Because not only is the world, not only is Satan trying to get us away from the word of God, so too our flesh. Our flesh doesn't want us to read the word of God. Our flesh doesn't want us to walk in loving obedience. Our flesh doesn't want us to hide God’s word in our heart.

That’s where power is, beloved in Christ. That’s the power. When Satan comes and attacks you in the middle of the night and you wake up and your heart’s pounding, you’ve had this weird nightmare, you feel like you’re being spiritually oppressed or something and you get afraid, what do you do? Yes, we can pray, but man, also you pull out the sword of the spirit, you hold up the shield of faith, you put on your helmet of salvation, you put on the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness because you’ve hidden it in your heart.

You have the word of God, the power of God at your fingertips because you are a child of the King. God has given us this armor. God has given us the power of His word. Having a hard time in your life as a Christian? Grow in your knowledge of the word of God. Hide God’s word in your heart. Stand upon His word in faith and use it. Bring it up to unbelievers. Bring it up when you're witnessing.

Now look at verse 15. It goes, "And he himself will rule them with a rod of iron." It’s interesting when Jesus comes at the Second Coming, he’s not coming to destroy the earth. He is coming to rule and reign for a thousand years. We're going to look at that in what we call the Millennial Kingdom in chapter 20. Beautiful stuff. But when Jesus does rule, notice here, it will be with a rod of iron.

Mankind has basically tried every type of human government that there is, but they all fail. I mean monarchies, kings and queens, democracy and their voters and will and rights, communism, Marxism, dictatorship and authoritarianism basically under the guise usually of communism or Marxism. You have fascism, federalism, imperialism, totalitarianism, military dictatorship, oligarchy, theocracy, etcetera.

It's interesting. When you go on Wikipedia and you look up "show me the different forms of world government," you know what form doesn't come up? A constitutional republic. Isn't that weird? I don't know if you know this, but the United States is not a democracy. We're not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic.

We're to be ruled by our Constitution that recognizes our rights were given to us by our Creator, not by any king and not by any government. They did not put a democracy in place. But I just found it interesting that there in Wikipedia they had a democracy and they also listed as a government system capitalism. Now capitalism is an economic system. It's not a governmental system.

I think that's probably what they would say: we’re a democracy, capitalism, which again, I hate to say it, but you see these well-educated imbeciles that run a lot of these places. Be careful what you believe, by the way. But again, I believe personally that the constitutional republic is the best form of governance that mankind has come up with.

I really do because again, it’s based upon the word of God, Judeo-Christian values that God’s giving of rights rather than a government or a king or somebody in power. But even though this is the best that man I believe can come up with, because we always have to add women and men into the mix, into government, human government will always fail every time. Why? Because of the human element, because of the sin that we bring into the mix.

Even if we took all of us here and we’re all professing Christians and we’re all Christians, even if we went into government, we still would sin. we still would fail. We still would blow it. But here’s the thing: I think that every form of government is meant to fail because we’re not meant to be ruled by ourselves. We're meant to be ruled by God.

When Jesus comes, he is going to rule and reign and as we read earlier, he’s going to judge in righteousness, he’s going to rule in righteousness. And notice here again, look at verse 15, "He himself will rule them with a rod of iron." Now "he" there in the Greek is what’s called emphatic. In other words, when it says "he," "he will rule," it means he and he alone. No one else is going to rule besides Jesus.

Now it's interesting where it says "rule" here in the Greek. I love this word. It's a form of the Greek word *poimaino*, and it literally means this: to tend as a shepherd, to feed, to rule, to tend a flock, to keep sheep, to govern, to rule. So even when Jesus comes, he’s coming as the Good Shepherd.

And notice, though, he’s going to use a rod of iron, which most of your Greek scholars say that when he does rule as a shepherd, he’s going to rule, he’s going to govern with severity. In other words, he will rule and reign in truth and righteousness because that is who he is. And he will rule with the rod of iron. Psalm 2:9 says, "You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel."

Revelation 2:27 echoes this same verse. When Jesus rules, he will rule as a shepherd, I believe, but also a firm shepherd. Remember the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23? Everybody remembers that, right? And in verse 4 it says, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me." Then it goes on to say, "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

The shepherd usually had two implements that were with him to defend the sheep and to discipline the sheep. First, he had a staff. We've all seen the pictures of the big crooked staff. That was the staff that they would go out and if a sheep got caught in something, it would help get them out. They would direct their sheep.

They could also beat off animals, wild animals, with that so they could defend the sheep. But then they also had a rod, and the rod was to discipline the sheep. I don't know if you’ve ever seen some of those videos. I saw one video where some poor fellow was shepherding some sheep and he went down and he was doing something and this one sheep just came from the side and just plastered the pastor.

Now that would be a sheep that the rod would be used on, or if a sheep that continually ran away, the shepherd would use a rod. And so that’s what is shown here. Notice he has a rod. And so in 1 Corinthians, Paul warns the church there in verse 4:21. He says, "What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?"

When Jesus comes to rule the earth, he will do so as the Good Shepherd, but it will be with the rod of iron. In other words, he will rule correctly, consistently, and concisely. He will rule with true righteousness and truth. It will not be watered down. There will be no deception. There will be justice, period.

It's interesting to some, maybe even here today or listening, watching, this might bring fear. You say, "Dude, I don’t know about this. I don’t like this view of Jesus. What do you mean he’s going to rule with the rod of iron? That sounds kind of scary, kind of mean, kind of gruff." You know what? If we go back to Psalm 23, to those who are actually the sheep of the Good Shepherd, to those who hear the voice of Jesus and know his voice.

Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice. They hear me, they know my voice." I'll be honest with you, when I read about the rod and the iron rod, it makes me happy. It brings peace to me because I don’t know about you, but when I’m going off the trail, when I start going off into sin and the Lord disciplines those whom he loves and he disciplines you, man, that is an awesome thing because I don’t want to go off too far from my shepherd.

I don't mind him disciplining me. If this scares us, you have to take a step back and remember who Jesus is. He never does it just because he’s in a bad mood. "Oh man, come over here, I’m just mad, I’m just going to take it out on you." We’ve all had people do that to us. Maybe we’ve done that to others. That's sin. Jesus will never sin in that way. So his correction is perfect. His justice is perfect.

Now look at verse 15. It says, "He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of God Almighty." We're going to see in the Battle of Armageddon that God will complete his wrath against those who would dare to stand against them in their sin, in lies, in their wickedness. And there are many.

I think there’ll be millions and hundreds of millions, maybe billions that will come up against the Lord and say, "We’re going to take you on," like a bunch of little ants coming up to you, "We’re taking you down, big man." And what do you do? That didn't last long. That's what’s going to happen. But again, they have earned the fierceness and wrath of God Almighty. Is God love? Yes, God is love. Praise his holy name. Is God grace? Yes, he is grace. Praise his holy name. But he is also fierce. He is also wrathful to those who deserve it because he is also justice. He’s completely fair.

Now look at verse 16. It says, "And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." Dude, I don't know about you guys, but I read this stuff and it always just puts a smile on my face. This is our Jesus. He’s coming back. And when he comes back, it doesn’t matter who the people are. You can almost look at this verse 16, to me, it’s almost like the stamp of his authority in all these things.

Look, he has this written on his robe, on his thigh it’s written: the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is the stamp of his supreme authority. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. It doesn't matter what king it is. It doesn't matter what president it is. It doesn't matter how famous or how powerful someone is, how much money or how many armies with drones they have.

Look, I don’t know about you, but these days, you kind of realize that my voice doesn’t matter as much as I thought it did. Again, that doesn’t mean we don’t vote. We should vote. It doesn’t mean we don’t go out and peacefully protest. I believe that we should be very involved in our community as the light of the word.

But here’s the thing: as we realize these things and sometimes we can get, "Oh man, I’m just not going to even vote, it doesn’t even matter." Oh, you’ve been given over to the enemy. You've been given over to the flesh. You've been given over to the deception. We do what we can do and trust God with the rest.

But here’s the thing: you see, no matter how much deception men and women may use to make the world think they have all the power, including Satan the great deceiver, guess what? They have zero power compared to God. There is only one who is omnipotent, which means all-powerful. There is only one who is omniscient, all-knowing. There is only one who is omnipresent, everywhere at one time.

It is Jesus Christ. He alone is the King of Kings. He alone is the Lord of Lords and guess what? He is your Father which art in heaven. Don't you ever forget whose you are and who he is.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill from his new series in the book of Revelation. If you’d like to hear today’s message again or share it with someone, it’s available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

We have a large number of Pastor Bill’s messages archived, and you can find them all at simplefaith.org. That’s simplefaith.org. And if you’d like to contact us, we’d love to hear from you. There’s a tab at the top of our homepage where you can also send in a prayer request. Just click that "Contact Us" tab again, at the top of the homepage.

And this month when you support Simple Faith with a donation of any amount, we’re going to send you a wonderful 365-day devotional book by Anne Graham Lotz titled *The Joy of My Heart*. Now, whether you make it an inspiring addition to your personal devotion time or a gift to encourage a friend or family member, we pray that this best-selling devotional study will draw each one who reads it closer to Jesus, rediscovering that his word is the joy of my heart.

It’s a wonderful resource, we’re excited to send it to you, and it’s yours for a donation of any amount this month. To donate, just go to simplefaith.org and click the "Give" tab. You can also call us at 833-BY-GRACE. That’s 833-294-7223. And if you prefer the U.S. mail, our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, 98604.

Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services every Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:45, and a great time of studying God’s word Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org and you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time as our series in Revelation continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.