Morning Sermon

April 27, 2008

Two More Visions

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To keep your overall perspective, we are in the last section of this book of Revelation, a series of seven final visions each one beginning with the phrase, "Now I saw." Last week it was, "Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse." This morning we come to the second and third of those visions.

v.17 "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."

Then, v.19 "Then 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."

So what should we make of these two visions? A great supper and a great army gathered to make war? Well, with these final visions, I believe John's focus in this book has shifted to the future, especially the future judgment. We have seen that the marriage of the lamb has come, the marriage supper of the lamb has been prepared. But the rider on the white horse is Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and he has come to make war. To execute his justice in judgment upon all the nations of the world.

What becomes evident and obvious in this second vision, beginning at verse 17, is that judgment at the end of the age is actually nothing other than,

I. THE CURSE OF THE COVENANT. The curse of the covenant God had established, threatening judgment upon any who would reject the covenant in rebellion against God. We often think rightly of the covenant blessings bestowed upon God's faithful people, but with those blessings, right from the outset, were the declaration of curses.

And so this great supper of God is something far different than the wedding supper of the lamb. Then the bridegroom rejoices in the fellowship of his bride. But here, in this supper, we have an invitation to the birds of the air. v.17

These birds are rightly identified as birds of prey, raptors. And the distinguishing feature of a raptor is that they eat the dead carcasses of other animals. They scavenge among the dead, and so we see here,

A. The feast of the scavengers. These birds are described as "birds that fly in the midst of heaven." That's the place where the angel invites the rulers of the earth to embrace the gospel.

Rev. 14:6 "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth--to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people."

But it is also the place of the eagle declaring the warning of, Rev. 8:13 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"

So this feast is one of judgment. Destruction. Death. For what greater symbol and image of death could there be than the birds eating the flesh of those who have died. It is a symbol clearly revealed by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel,

Ezek. 39:17 "And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field: "Assemble yourselves and come; Gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal Which I am sacrificing for you, A great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel, That you may eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, Drink the blood of the princes of the earth, Of rams and lambs, Of goats and bulls, All of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 You shall eat fat till you are full, And drink blood till you are drunk, At My sacrificial meal Which I am sacrificing for you. 20 You shall be filled at My table With horses and riders, With mighty men And with all the men of war," says the Lord GOD."

Such will be God's judgment upon his enemies, as the just punishment for their sins. Ezekiel continues,

Ezek. 39:21 "I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. 22 "So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward. 23 "The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 "According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.""

But this feast enjoyed by the birds of prey, this judgment, is nothing other than the curse of the covenant. That curse meant,

B. The destruction of covenant breakers. Go back to,

Deut. 28:15 "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 16 "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. 17 "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 "Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. 19 "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. 20 "The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 "The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 "The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 "And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 "The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. 25 "The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 "Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away."

Those words were a warning to Israel, and as I've emphasized, this whole book is a declaration of those covenantal curses upon that Old Testament nation of God's people. But here the judgment, the curse of the covenant, is broadened to be pronounced upon all those nations who would join in the rebellion against God. All are covenant breakers. Those nations who refuse to submit to the Lordship of Christ will be utterly destroyed. So we read,

v.18 We read of that destruction of the nations at the hand of Christ in Psalm 2, when God the Father speaks to his son,

Ps. 2:8 "Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'" 10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."

But one more thought on this idea of a covenantal curse being related to the birds of prey. Go back to the very place where the covenant with Abraham is inaugurated. Abraham had a question when God promised him that he would inherit the land of Canaan.

Gen. 15:8 And he said, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" 9 So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away."

That's how the contract was established, with animals cut in two parts, themselves representing the curse of the covenant. Surely, to be cut in two demonstrated the curse of death. That's what would come to the covenant breaker, and the establishment of the covenant was literally called "cutting the covenant." Ordinarily, the obvious consequence would be that the birds of prey would then come and eat the flesh of the dead animals cut in two. In Genesis 15, Abraham drove the birds away, but in a later judgment pronounced upon the nation of Judah, that would not be the case,

Jer. 7:32 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. 33 "The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away. 34 "Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land shall be desolate."

The point of all this is,

C. God's authority in the judgment of the world. God's authority to inflict covenant breakers with the curse they so fully deserve. And so all of this comes at the announcement of an angel, a messenger of God. The invitation to the birds to this great scavenger hunt came from God himself.

v.17 "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."

This is God's hour, God's day to be exalted. For it is he who laughs at those nations and then declares to them in his wrath,

Ps. 2:6 "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."

One more thing about this vision of the curse of the covenant. One more thing that goes back to that account in Genesis 15, when the covenant was cut, when the animals were cut in two, when the symbolic death of the covenant breaker was shown forth and demonstrated in that rather bloody ceremony.

The cutting of the covenant actually took place when the parties in the covenant would themselves walk between the pieces. That was like signing your mortgage papers or notarizing some contract you make. If you were making a covenant, you would walk between the pieces of cut animals to demonstrate that you accept the curse of the covenant upon yourself if you would violate its terms.

But who walked through the pieces in Genesis 15. Did Abraham?

Gen.15:12 "Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 "And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 "Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 "But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." 17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates."

"It came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram."

So who walked through the pieces of the animals? God himself did. Who was willing to bring upon himself the curse of the covenant in the event of the breaking of the covenant? Why, God did. And he didn't require Abraham to accept that punishment. Instead, as Abraham so well understood when God called him to sacrifice his son Isaac, explaining the situation to Isaac,

Gen. 22:8 "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering."

And God did. God provided the lamb, for when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Jesus fulfilled the curse of the covenant, for those sheep for whom he laid down his life.

D. Jesus and the curse. Jesus was the curse, he who knew no sin becoming sin for us. So that through faith in Jesus, we might obtain the blessings of the covenant. But not so the wicked. They will endure the curse at the end of the age just as it is described here in Revelation 19.

Deut. 28:26 "Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away."

What, then, of the next vision. The third vision. Here we read about,

II. THE WAR AGAINST CHRIST. But actually, we read about the destruction of the beasts that fight the war against Christ. v.19

Let's look at all those players. They are,

A. Jesus and his enemies. We've seen them before. There is reference to the beast and the false prophet, likely the same as the beast from the sea and the beast from the land mentioned in chapter 13.

Rev. 13:1 "Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. 2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast."

The likely explanation of that beast represent all the political and secular forces joined together in opposition to Jesus. At the head of that list is, of course, the nation of Rome. And then,

Rev. 13:11 "Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men."

That beast represents the religious forces in opposition to Jesus, here in Revelation 19 called the false prophet. They are all gathered together against Jesus, with all their armies gathered together. But what shall come of this opposition to Jesus, who sits triumphantly upon that white horse? v.20

That is nothing but judgment. This chapter is a declaration of,

B. Judgment upon Jesus enemies. Remember how the chapter began,

Rev. 19:1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 "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." 3 Again they said, "Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!"

The smoke of judgment is an obvious reference to the destruction by fire endured by the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Gen. 19:24 "Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28 Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace."

We saw the same image in, Rev. 14:9 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 "he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 "And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."

Also, Rev. 20:10 "The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."

The nature of this judgment is clear. Elsewhere it is called the second death.

Rev. 20:14 "Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."

The second death. Eternal and unchangeable death, to the enemies of Jesus. And everywhere we read of,

C. The authority of Jesus. It is Jesus who will come to judge the world. v.21

It's not the birds of prey who inflict judgment, but Jesus. It's not the tragedy of fire that comes to the wicked, but the judgment of Jesus. It is the sword coming out of his mouth that strikes down the nations and puts to death, in the second death, those who serve Satan, those marked with the sign of the beast.

Remember the great contrast we studied in, Rev. 14:1 "Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads."

Those who are sealed by God are identified as belonging to God. The fulness of the 144,000, or 12,000 from every tribe, representing the fulness of God's elect people.

Rev. 7:4 "And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed... 9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

But those who face the judgment are sealed with a different seal. They are marked as belonging not to Christ, but to the beast. To Satan himself. And those are the only two groups among all mankind, those sealed as identified with Jesus Christ and those sealed as identified with Satan.

Jesus puts it this way,

Mat. 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 "And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...41 "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels...46 "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Jesus is the judge, the son of man coming in all his glory. Riding on a white horse, with a sharp sword coming out of his mouth. And each of us lives in the light of that day. Threatening the curse of the covenant upon lawbreakers. And promising the triumph of the gospel to those who live by faith.

So I ask the sixty-four thousand dollar question, "How, then, shall we live?" You see, that's the application of all this, the purpose. What effect will all of this have upon our lives.

Peter gives us a good answer, in his discussion of the coming judgment of Christ,

2 Peter 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

That's your proper response to the teaching of the Bible, how shall we live? And the answer? Oh, if you are without Christ, then the answer is repentance. Faith and repentance. Turn to God, and live. But even then, as Christians, what should you think about the coming judgment?

1 Peter 2:13 "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation."

Look forward to this things, with great hope and assurance. And be diligent to be found ready!

Even more specifically, Peter continues,

1 Peter 3:17 "You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever."

So there it is. And we are back where we ought to be. "To Him be the glory both now and forever."

What a glorious chapter of Scripture is Revelation 19.

v.1 "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!"

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