So this this evening, this Bible reading is from no, that's a
hymn book. You can't get a Bible reading
out of that. It's open and all here.
It's Revelation chapter 19. And Matthew knows my testimony.
And many of you do hear that I got saved through reading the
Bible and Revelation just absolutely fascinated me.
He from the get go. So Revelation 19 and reading
from verse 11 and it's reading from the Authorised Version, the
King James Bible. And we'll start Revelation 19,
verse 11, and give it reference, because it is the Word of God.
Verse 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a White
Horse. And he that sat upon him was
called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and
make war. His eyes were as a flame of
fire, and on his head were many crowns.
And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.
And his name was called the Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white
horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he
should smite the nations, and he should rule them with a rod of
iron. And he treadeth the wine Press
of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his
vesture and on his thigh a name written.
King of kings, and Lord of Lords and men.
Will end the reading there at verse 16.
Now this the sermon I have titled, Who will follow the man
on the White Horse? There's no greater decision that
you can make tonight and in your life than to follow this man on
the White Horse. The Book of Revelation was
written by the Apostle John as he was an exile on the Isle of
Patmos. Now for John, this was a place
and time of isolation, suffering and persecution.
But you may ask why? Why was he there?
John was a man that stood for Christ and that's why he was
exiled to the Isle of Patmos. Now this is a futuristic event.
This hasn't happened yet. The White Horse hasn't came in
the sky. The heavens haven't opened yet.
This is a futuristic event written to encourage believers
as they were going through persecution.
Now for them it would have been very reassuring under a reminder
through John's vision that Christ has the victory.
And even more encouraging than that, the fact that his angels
are with him and his born born again believers have the victory
too. And this will be this will be a
massive battle scene in the end times where Christ will lead on
the White Horse as of called the word of God.
The holy angels will be behind him and the born again believers
will be behind that too. The Old Testament, New Testament
and those, Satan, the tribulation.
On the other side you've got Satan, his armies, the fallen
angels and the unsaved people. And the challenge I want to
bring is what side of this battle will you be on?
So you must realise that John saw the heaven open, the sky
split in two, and our timeline of revelation.
This is after the rise of the beast.
It's after the deception of the false prophet.
It's after the judgement of Babylon, as even after the
outpouring of God's wrath, which would have been Revelation 16.
But yet, it's before Satan is cast into the bottomless pit for
1000 years and simultaneously believers will rule and reign
with Christ in his millennial Kingdom for a literal 1000
years. When John said I saw heaven
open, this is an eyewitness prophetic account.
And on this day, there'll be no debate, no delay, no denying.
You see, we're very good to have Stephen Hawking's, Richard
Dawkins, all these and don't have debate panels.
There'll be no debate on this day when the sky is opened and
the man on the White Horse comes through and his armies behind
him. There'll be no bait debate.
There'll be no delay. There'll be no denying Who's
this? Does God exist?
Their mouths will be silent. And at this point in Revelation
19, it's too late to get right with God.
This is a point where he is King of kings and Lord of Lords.
We may remember in primary school, Matthew alluded to
primary school and growing up, and it goes very quickly as we'd
all testify to. But we may have remembered, pray
in the Lord's Prayer, Thy Kingdom come.
Well, this is the Lord's Kingdom coming and it's total fulfilment
over these chapters and this is the Lord Jesus coming for the
second time. We have not seen the Lord Jesus
in this fashion before. I remember reading a book by
Dane Ortland, I maybe butchered the name Gentle and Lowly and it
goes through this attribute of Christ in Matthew 1128 where
he's a gentle and lowly Saviour and really like the shepherd of
the sheep and alluded to Psalm 23 of him leading the believers.
That is correct in all these things at His first coming and
we can enjoy that today. But in this we don't see a
gentle and lowly Saviour, we don't see a babe in a Manger, we
don't see the the humiliated Saviour of the world.
But we see the judge of the world here in this passage.
At this point it's too late to get right with God.
There's a day born again believers should look forward
to. This is a day, however, of fear
and terror for the unsaved. Man, child or woman?
Man, woman or child? And I want to say is that is
that you? Tonight by the endless sermon,
you'll know who the man on the White Horse is.
You'll know who will face the White Horse, and you'll know who
will follow the White Horse. And that might even be you this
evening. And I want to direct that
challenge to you this evening. My first point is asking the
question, who is the man on the White Horse?
Verse 11 says and I saw heaven open and behold a White Horse.
So for the next few minutes I'm going to focus on this because
the fact heaven opens shows the fact that something has been
revealed that before this point was hidden from human sight.
We see the character of the one on the White Horse.
What is this judge of Christ? Christ as judge.
What does this look like? Who is Christ if you're outside
him tonight? Says he was upon him, was
faithful and true and in righteousness He doth judge and
make war. So we see faithfulness, we see
truth and we see righteous judgement.
And as one upon the White Horse makes judgement, he's never
mistaken. We might have people might say,
oh, the legal system in this country is so corrupt, or they
might blame this one or that one or politicians and that it's
always a blame game. And they say, oh, that's corrupt
or that's not right, or they got the wrong decision.
But with God, with Christ, there's no corruption, there's
not a mistake. And this is righteous judgement
as never seen before. It says his eyes were as flames
of fire in verse 12. It shows he's all knowing.
You may be have sins in your life that nobody knows about.
Be sure your sin will find you out.
There's no sin that will be hidden from God and his
omniscience is all knowing. These eyes as flames of fire
showing that no sin is hidden from Him.
No sin is unnoticed and He sees everything it says.
We see on his head were many crowns.
This shows victory. This shows kingship of Christ at
this time, Revelation 19. He's a king of kings as verse 16
says as he is total and ultimate authority.
What they spend a bit of time explaining verse 13 because it
talks of the one on the White Horse being clothed where the
vesture dipped in blood and this through me.
I have to say as I was as I was going through this.
I need to do a bit more deeper digging into studying this
because we know that the Word of God is Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we can think of the clothing dipped in the blood and
we can focus on Christ's blood shed on the cross for our sins.
But this passage is not talking about that, although that's a
very important detail for the gospel to go forth.
Without shedding of blood, there's no remission.
Christ's blood cleanseth us from all sin.
How once we put our faith in Christ alone, but in this
passage, it's too late for people.
The sides have already been picked and the people in this
battle against the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's too late to get right with God by this point, but it's not
too late tonight. You see verse 15 at lengths he
should smite the nations he treadeth the wine Press of the
fierceness and wrath of God. This is a a frightening picture
when you think of it. These people on the other side
of the battle will not be even noticeable to the point where
Christ goes in, He takes a charge and the enemy of God,
whether it be the fallen angels, whether it be Satan, whether it
be the unsaved, will end up like trodden grapes to the point
it'll look like a wine press. There'll be as crushed grapes.
So please don't let that be you tonight.
Christ personally carries this out.
Isaiah 63 verse 3 prophecies. I have trodden the wine press.
He doesn't say with an army. He doesn't say with other people
alone. He does it himself.
Sin cannot and will not go unpunished because Christ is a
righteous judge. Christ has died for your sin on
the cross, but you've rejected him.
I'll get saved sometime. Oh sure.
Most people live to 8090. I'm afraid that's not the case.
No man knows what a day may bring forth.
Today is a day of salvation. It's not just the grave.
And that's it. You can have a eternity with
Christ or separated from Christ. If you're separated from Christ,
you will be as Charlton grapes and a wine press.
Now with the name of the word of God in verse 13 as I say it
links it says out of his mouth goeth forth a sharp sword.
And then John 11 it says in the beginning was a word and the
word was with God and the word was God.
And then in verse 14 of John one, it goes on to say, and the
word became flesh and dwelt among us.
This is clarification that this word of God, this man on the
White Horse is the Lord Jesus himself.
We think of the power of the word of God in the beginning,
George and I would talk very frequently about creation and
Genesis 1/3 he spake and it happened.
That's a that's a God I serve. That's a God many of you serve
tonight. That's a God.
That's a saviour. He spoke and it happened.
Everything in the universe He spake and it happened.
Let there be light and there was light.
Genesis 1/3. He spake everything into
existence by His word as power in the Word of God.
We must realise the same Lord Jesus came for the first time
2000 years ago or so. I will be the one coming back on
the White Horse. But the question comes to you,
Are you ready? Question also could come to the
Christian, Are you living for God at this moment?
You might be saved but you're very luxy days ago.
Would you be comfortable having a conversation face to face with
Christ as to how you're living for God?
Jesus walked right in on your sin, stood, just stood in front
of you. What are you?
What are you doing? You're a child of God.
What are you doing? You've been very, very, very
uncomfortable, whatever that sin might be.
So you need a reverence, a holy reverence of God, holy respect
of God. He's made it my second point.
Who will face the White Horse? Any battle has two sides we can
think of, even the N via the South in America in the 1800s.
I love the the Westerns and all that, but that's a side a side
note not written here, but I think to myself, you know,
you've the, you've the Yankees and you've got the, the redneck
are the sort of war Confederates.
There's two sides. You can't be on on both sides.
You pick a side and you battle against the other.
World War 2, for example, it was Nazi Germany and you'd you'd
allied forces the the United Kingdom.
You had America in the end, all these different, but there's a
side to pick. Verse 19 says, and I saw the
beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered
together to make war against him that sat upon the horse.
So if you're not born again tonight in the house or online,
you are on this side of the battle.
You're on the losing side of the battle.
In fact, John 336 says he that believeth not shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
But I'm a good person. That's not what it's about.
The wrath of God abideth on him that does not believe.
Hasn't there faith in Christ? Is that you tonight?
Are you? Are you born again?
Are you, are you an enemy of God?
You see, it's not by what we do, as Matthew said, but rather he
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
This is a spiritual battle. This this side of the battle is
a spiritual rebellion. Ephesians 612 says, For you
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities. God's word went out and those on
this side of the battle on this day, it's safe to say, rejected
it. This unbelief takes many forms.
Open rejection, we see. We see it in the street all the
time. In Edinburgh for example, or
even in Belfast. I'm not interested.
You still believe the Bible 2000 years ago?
Wow, what a dinosaur. I didn't think anybody believed
that anymore. Every knee will bow, every
tongue will confess that Christ is Lord.
You'll do it on this side of eternity, or you'll do it on the
other side of eternity when it's too late and you're on the wrong
side of the battle. Secondly, unbelief could be
religious unbelievers trusting their own works.
Me before I was saved, I thought my works, my efforts, my prayers
were kept me to heaven. Sincere.
Most definitely. But not saved. 3rd.
Thirdly, those trusting in sacraments or rituals cannot
save. Praying to statues and idols and
all these sorts of things. I shall have no other God before
me. It's idolatry.
Those who died saying I could save someday, Not yet, no, today
is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time and I
want to plead with you to get saved tonight.
If you're outside Christ, even write a message online if you're
on the computer or on the phone, but leads me to my third and
final point and it is who will follow the Lord Jesus Christ on
the White Horse. Verse 14 of Revelation 19
answers and says in the armies which were in heaven followed
him upon white horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
So you remember John seeing the heavens open, I saw heavens
open. Verse 11 these armies are not
from earth. It's not a these are not earthly
battles. This is these from heaven.
Christ led the charge, the holy angels and the believers came
after. This includes Old Testament
believers. Abraham believed God was counted
to him for righteousness. Abraham will be there.
The New Testament believers are like Sir Paul.
It'll be those who are saved today.
It'll be those that are saved in the tribulation when the Bible
says Saints are talks of born again believers.
And I can I can assure you that it's not up to the Roman
Catholic Church to dictate who is a St and who is not by their
their way of choosing that whatever way they, they, they
seem to do that. That is not a biblical St And I
want to clarify that it's find nowhere in Scripture.
We see rather in Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians and
Colossians. Paul is writing to the Saints at
Ephesus. Paul is writing to the Saints at
Philip I Paula's writing to the Saints of Colossi Galatia verse
1, chapter 1 verses one and two if each of those books should be
able to see that, but we see born again believers are Saints
in the Old Testament Prophet Zechariah writes and the Lord my
God shall come and all the Saints with thee as talking of
this end time battle. The New Testament says First
Thessalonians 313 at my at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
with all his Saints. So it's evident born again
believers will be partaking in the battle of Armageddon, but
there will be more than believers there following the
Lord Jesus. Angels are explicitly present.
They're mentioned and 2nd Thessalonians 17 says the Lord
Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
It's not just a battle of Jesus and and the beast or the saved
be the unsaved or but it's also holy angels against the fallen
angels. The holy angels follow Christ
and are on His side too. So tonight we have 3 realities.
The one on the White Horse is the Lord Jesus Christ.
We will come back to judge. Secondly, those who face the
White Horse, the man on the White Horse are an unbelief.
And thirdly, those who follow the one on the White Horse are
the holy angels and the born again believers.
John 316 says whosoever believeth on him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.
So I challenge you tonight, what side the battle will you be on
Tuesday this day, whom you will serve?