THE DAY GOD LAUGHS

Revelation 19:17 – 21

 

INTRODUCTION

·        Series Introduction: This is the second of the Seven Last Things, The Seven Last Things of Human History.  The first was the Return of Christ; this is Christ’s Defeat of the Anti-Christ.  In the sermon about the Marriage of the Lamb, we sang alleluia because of the attributes of Jesus, last week we saw the names of Jesus.  In this message . . .

·        Sermon Introduction: This passage brings up four distinct contrasts; contrasts as sharp as day and night, black and white, good and evil.

 

I.                   Peace and War

A.     The world cries, “Peace, Peace; when there is not peace,” Jeremiah 8:11.  The prophet went on to say, “We looked for peace, but no good came,” Jeremiah 8:15a.

B.     On September 2, 1945, aboard the Battleship Missouri, General Douglas McArthur presided over the surrender ceremony for Japan.  He said, “Men since the beginning of time have sought peace.”  We have had our last chance.  If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.  He finished with, “the problem is basically theological . . . [and the solution] involves a spiritual . . . improvement of human character.”

C.    Winston Churchill asked a young Billy Graham in the early 50’s “Young man can you give me any hope?

D.    Albert Schweitzer lamented, “Man has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall.  He will end by destroying the earth.”

E.     Rabbi Seymour Sigel said, “The central problem of Christianity is: If the Messiah has come, why is the world so evil?  For Judaism, the problem is: If the world is so evil, why does the Messiah not come?”  Revelation 19:17 – 21 answers both questions.

F.     My generation, our generation cried, “Peace, Peace,” and maybe it hastened us out of Vietnam.  However, it has put us in Haiti, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Kosovo, and maybe Iraq again.

The general, the prime minister, the doctor, and the rabbi and our generation have all seen this contrast and searched for the answers.

 

II.                The Gory Supper and the Glory Supper, 19:17 -18 & 19:9

A.     Review the scene and how terrible it will be.  The same group of people is begging for death in Revelation 6:15 at the beginning of the Tribulation, at the end they will be brought to death.

B.     The overthrow of evil is total, v. 18.

C.    The Beast’s army is powerless.  What is missing in this passage?  There is no description of a battle. The last portion of Isaiah 11:4 is fulfilled, “and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.”

D.    Jesus told parables about a great supper, Luke 14:15ff.

To which supper will you be invited?

 

III.             Cast Alive into Hell and Caught Up into Heaven, 19:20 & Genesis 5:24 & 2 Kings 2:1, 11

A.     God then picks up the beast and the false prophet and throws them into the lake of fire like tossing rocks into a pond.

·        The lake of fire – “These two men are cast alive into the lake of fire burning with fire and brimstone, where a thousand years later they are still ‘tormented day and night for ever and ever,’ thus proving that the lake of fire is not annihilation, and that it is not purgatorial either, for it neither annihilates nor purifies these two fallen foes of God and man after a thousand years under judgment.” (H. A. Ironside)

·        Hell is real.  Hell is long. Hell is hot.  That is how we preach it.  Here!

B.     Caught up into Heaven

1.      Enoch – Genesis 5:24 –

2.      Elijah – 2 Kings 2:1 & 11 –

To which place will you be invited?

Someone will be walking like Enoch.  Someone will be talking to a friend like Elisha and Elijah.  Someone will be driving a forklift, typing a letter; cleaning a house, remodeling a house; teaching an elementary class, sitting in an elementary classroom; home schooling a child, networking a computer; or preaching a sermon AND with “the trump of God: the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together . . . and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

 

IV.            The Day God Laughs and the Day God Loves, Psalm 2:4 – 6 & 1 John 4:8 - 10

A.     The Day God Laughs, Psalm 2:4 – 6.

1.      The Psalmist asks, “Why do the heathen rage?”  Because no man wants God to be over him, v. 3.

2.      God responds with laughter and ridicule, v. 4.  We will see v. 6 fulfilled in the next sermon.

3.      Acts 4:25 – 28 then 1 Corinthians 2:8

B.     The Day God Loves, 1 John 4:8 – 10.  God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Propitiation is God appeasing God’s anger.  God’s wrath was appeased at the cross.  The only way to avoid the situation in Revelation is to trust God as your Savior.

To which emotion will you be exposed?

 

CONCLUSION

• Jesus will win over the Anti-Christ.
• The power of deceit and delusion in the world, And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of Anti-Christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world, 1 John 4:3.
• The power of deceit and delusion to unite people.  Evil has a unifying power.
• The reality of divine judgment in hell.
• The Rider on the white horse is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.