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We're continuing together our study through Revelation 19, Day 5 today. We're
walking these weeks through five events in these two chapters, Chapter 19 and
20. Remember, we've already looked at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

We've already looked together at the visible return of Christ. We're going to
look today at the Battle of Armageddon. Then next week we're going to look
together at the Millennial Reign of Christ, and we're going to look at the Great
White Throne Judgment.

As we look at the Battle of Armageddon today, it's mentioned again, and as we
see this battle mentioned beginning in verse 17, in many ways we're going from a
wedding to a war. We're going from a bride to a battle, and in this battle, evil
in this world is defeated. It's not eliminated.

We're going to see in a moment, but it is defeated once and for all. It doesn't
know yet until it's eliminated. It will be eliminated in the next chapter, and
Satan is imprisoned in these verses.

Now, let me read what happens in verses 17 and 18. "And I saw an angel standing
in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, 'Come,
gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of
kings, generals, and mighty men of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all
people, free and slave, small and great. '" Here is an angel so bright that it
outshines the sun, and this angel says to the birds, "You gather together
because you're going to eat the flesh of those who have not followed God.

" Now, this means they're going to be defeated in battle, and there's no one
going to be there to bury them, no one to care for them, and so the birds are
going to eat their flesh. This is not a pretty picture intentionally. It is a
picture of devastation.

It is a picture of total loss, total destruction of life. "Come, and gather
together for this great supper of God. " This is not talking about the wedding
supper of the Lamb.

There are two suppers in this chapter, and either I'm a part of the wedding
supper of the Lamb, or I'm a part of this great supper. Either I am following
Him, I'm rejoicing with Him for all eternity, or I'm living in loss and grief
for all eternity. Listen to what happens as the description of this battle
that's going to happen comes in verse 19 through verse 21.

And then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered
together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast
was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous
signs on his behalf. With these signs, he had deluded those who had received the
mark of the beast and worshiped his image.

The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The
rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider
on the horse, and all the birds scorched themselves on their flesh. To us who
are not familiar with battles, who would rather have nothing to do with battles,
this can be an ugly picture, but I want you to remember the ugliness that people
in the day that we're first reading Revelation, the ugliness they were facing,
Christians being killed just for their faith, fed to lions, covered with pitch
and burned alive as torches to light the games.

I want you to remember even today the torture that people are facing because of
their love for Jesus Christ. This is not an ugly picture to them. This is a
picture of victory, that in the end Jesus Christ will be victorious.

But in the end the beast, the false prophet, they will be captured. The amazing
thing in these verses is here's Jesus Christ coming again. He's the rider on the
white horse.

He has the armies of heaven with him, and the kings of the earth think that they
can somehow still defeat him. He's giving them an opportunity right until the
end. See who I am.

See my power. But instead of falling down and worshiping him by choice, they
decide to continue to battle him until the very end. Selfishness, pride,
thinking I can defeat God, thinking I can be my own God.

As long as I want to be my own God, I'm always going to battle the true God. I'm
always going to think I can win, but I cannot. And they won't win.

The battle will see Jesus Christ as the victor. The beast, the false prophet,
they're going to be captured and they're going to be thrown alive into the lake
of fire. Now in a minute we're going to see that the others, all those who
followed the beast and the false prophet, they're going to be killed and then
they're going to face judgment in the next chapter.

But these two, the beast, the false prophet, they're immediately judged. They're
immediately thrown into hell. In some ways it's like in the Old Testament, Enoch
and Elijah, who went to heaven, you might remember, without dying.

They immediately just were taken to heaven. The only two people that we know
that that happened with. These two seem to immediately go to judgment without
passing through death.

And the amazing thing about how this happens is here is this great moment when
Jesus is coming again on this white horse and here are the armies of earth ready
to go against the armies of heaven and then it's done. They're captured. They're
defeated.

And there's no real battle that goes on here. It's just done. There's no real
battle when Jesus Christ decides that it's going to be done.

It's just going to be done. Right now you and I, we face evil in our lives. You
face the evil of temptation in your life every day.

We face the evil of the judgment of others every day and you might face far
greater evils. Evils of something that someone has done to you. Some way that
they have abused you or some way that they have hurt you deeply.

Evils of someone who's taken the life maybe even of someone that you love. Cut
short what they could have done for God in this world. We face evil in our lives
today and we battle evil in our lives today.

There's no doubt about that. The Bible tells us throughout the New Testament
that we are to battle Satan. We put on the armor in the book of Ephesians so
that we can battle Satan.

The fact that we battle, this is very important. The fact that we battle today
causes some of us to doubt the outcome of that battle. And we need to know what
happens in these verses.

The outcome is when Jesus decides it's going to be done, it's done in a moment.
There is no doubt about who the victor is going to be in the end. The fact that
you are having to battle evil today does not mean that evil has any chance of
victory in the end.

Never forget that. Let this moment, when evil is defeated, put your battle with
evil today into perspective. It's going to be defeated in the end.

Now I know, again, we've asked this again and again as we walk through
Revelation. The question that we have is, then why does God wait? Why doesn't
he, why doesn't he defeat evil right now?

If God's only purpose were judgment, he would defeat evil right now. But that is
not God's sole purpose. God's purpose is redemption.

He wants to bring humankind back to him, men and women back to him. He wants to
bring this world back to him. And so he is redeeming hearts even now.

He's redeeming hearts even through the book of Revelation. Even here at this
battle of Armageddon, there is an opportunity. It seems that no one is taking
it.

But there is an opportunity to worship Jesus for who he really is. There is an
opportunity for redemption. And don't forget that judgment is part of
redemption.

We looked at that a few weeks ago. That through judgment, God is cleansing this
world of the evil. When you and I look at the evil that we have to face in
day-to-day life, and we realize we have to wait, realize you're not waiting
because God is powerless, you're waiting because God is patient.

And God patiently wants to redeem even more people to himself. And as you face
evil in your life today, the evil of temptation, the evil of what others say
about you or have done to you, recognize that the fact that you battle evil
today, it has nothing to do with the end result. The end result is victory.

Jesus Christ will be victorious and evil will be defeated in the end. Let's pray
together. Lord, let that truth put everything into perspective in my life today.

In the midst of the battle, sometimes all we see is the battle. And sometimes we
get weary and we wonder, Jesus, we doubt. Calm our doubts today.

Strengthen us in our doubt today to see in the end that you will be victorious,
that it will be done, that evil will be defeated, and that your glory will shine
forever. And the evil that I'm facing in my life today, I pray that it would be
put into perspective by that truth. And Lord, we pray as you asked us to pray.

We pray that you would deliver us from evil. Lead us not into temptation.
Deliver us from evil.

And even as we pray that, we pray it with confidence because we just read these
verses. That is the end of the story. You will deliver us from evil.

And so we thank you. Deliver us today and deliver us into all eternity. In
Jesus' name, we pray, amen.

Join us next week. We're going to be looking at Revelation 20, only a couple
chapters left. And we're going to look together at the Millennium and at the
Great White Throne Judgment of God.