Final Justice: The Return of Christ, Part 1
The following points are highlights of Dr. MacArthur’s 28 minute sermon [all bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening are mine]:
- If you are not ‘in Christ,’ then you will not want to receive the ‘justice’ that will be your recompense at the return of Christ
- Sermon text:
1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”1
3 Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God,all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”
- Jesus Christ is the worthy Lamb: 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And… [This sermon would be best heard with a Bible opened to the book of Revelation]
- The Lamb unrolls the scroll and releases God’s furious judgment seal by seal
- The seven seal judgments, followed by the seven throne judgments, followed by the seven bowl judgments; the trumpet judgments open from the seventh seal judgment; the bowl judgments spring from the seventh trumpet judgment; these judgments become more intense as they proceed
- During these judgments, the gospel will be preached by 144 thousand Jews from the 12 tribes; by the two living witnesses; and by angelic beings, up until Rev. 19
- The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will be looked at next week, 19:11ff
- We have all likely had enough of what is going on here on the earth and we’d like to see what He has planned
- What are they rejoicing as Rev. 19 opens?
- The destruction of the world’s evil system; judgment of unbelieving sinners; the establishment of Christ’s victorious kingdom, and His glory
- This is the moment that all human history has awaited
- The 24 elders represent the church
- 5:11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
- Such praise is found in Revelation 4, 5, 7, 11, 15 and 16
- This is where are minds and thoughts need to be
- Those preachers in the world who have prostituted the church’s role, trying to fix this world, have followed a false religion
- 19, is the 7th vision of heaven in this book
- We hear hallelujahs in verses 1, 3, 4, and 6
- Why all the hallelujahs? Several reasons: salvation has come; justice has come; rebellion has ended, and God reigns
- The church, the bride, has been joined to the bride groom, Christ
- The phrase, ‘after these things,’ of 19:1, bridges the tribulation with the millennial kingdom
- In Ch. 17, the false religious system was destroyed; Ch. 18, the global economy was destroyed;
- 16:12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
- That battle is about to start, it will end the time of tribulation; we’re at the prelude to that
- As we come to Rev. 19, the praise is for the coming of full salvation and deliverance
- Rev 19 contains the only occurrence of ‘hallelujah’ in the New Testament; it was used about 25 times in the OT, mostly in Psalms; it means, ‘praise the Lord’
- In every instance, hallelujah is associated with God’s judgment of the wicked and deliverance of His people
- The world will never be right until it is under the control of God
- In the ‘day’ of His glory, power and sovereignty, all will belong to Him
- In that day, firstly, there will be much praise at the coming of full salvation; secondly, at the coming of full justice
- We need to be saying to the people of this world, forget the matter of justice on the human level, and realize that you are going to face the justice of God; if you have not believed upon His Son, then you will not want to experience His justice
- His justice will be swift and immediate – verse 15, He will rule with a rod of iron
- Thirdly, the praise is for the ending of rebellion – the whole world system is smoldering and the smoke is from the fires of God’s judgment – verse 18
- Like the judgment of Sodom in Gen. 18; and of Edom in Isaiah 34
- These fires will burn, the embers will cool and the ash will blow away [nothing will remain]
- Except that there exists an eternal fire for those who reject Christ, who do not believe in the Son of God
- At this point, all the persecution, injustice, false religion, materialism, evolution, wickedness, immorality…is over
- Man’s “advancing” [progressive] world system, his global disaster, will be completely destroyed by God’s judgment; every human institution, his economic systems, his religions…
- The rebellion of Adam and Eve, will then have been fully judged
- The four living creatures, the 24 elders (the church), the angels, ball down and worship God…
- There will be no distinctions between believers in heaven as there was on earth (social / economic; level of accomplishment…)
- All the prayers for ‘Your kingdom come…’ will have been answered
- If you heard the loudest bolt of thunder as you stood under the falls at Niagara, that might approximate the sound of the praise on that day
- Daniel 7: 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
- Matthew 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
- We need to have our minds and thoughts on the coming glory of Christ!
- The folly of those who are trying to fix the world is even more stupid in light of Christ’s coming glory as is stated in the aforementioned passages of scripture
- Next week’s emphasis will be on the coming ‘day of the LORD’
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