DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And I saw Heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He thatsat upon
him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He does 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, thatno man knew, butHe Himself.
And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is
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 goes a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the
nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treads the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on
His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF
LORDS." Revelation 19:11-16.
THE beloved John was, above all other men, familiar with the humble
Savior. He had leaned his head upon His bosom and knew better than any
other of the Apostles the painful beatings of His Lord's sorrowful
heart. Never from his mind could be effaced the likeness of Christ, the
visage more marred than that of any man. He had seen the dear Sufferer
on that dreadful night when He was covered with gory sweat in
Gethsemane. He had seen Him after He had been buffeted and scourged in
Herod's palace and Pilate's Hall. He had even stood at the foot of the
Cross and seen his Divine Master in the extreme agonies of death! And,
therefore, the tender, affectionate heart of John would never permit
his Master's suffering image to fade from his memory.
Truly, if he had spoken to us in vision–in symbolic terms–concerning
what he had seen of his Lord and Master here below, he would have
described Him as a footman going forth alone to the fight with no
armies following Him, for all His disciples forsook Him and fled,
Himself wearing no glittering armor, but with His garments dipped in
blood and with His face smeared with shame. He would have told us how
the solitary Champion fought alone amid the dust and smoke of the
battle and how He fell and bit the dust, so that His foe set his foot
upon Him and for a moment rejoiced over Him. He would have told us how
He leaped, again, from the grave and trod down His adversaries and led
captivity captive. Such would have been, only in far nobler terms,
John's description of his first sight of his wrestling warrior Lord.
But now, in the passage before us, a door was opened in Heaven and the
disciple whom Jesus loved saw what else he had never seen–what else he
had never imagined! He saw the same warrior Lord, but after quite
another fashion. If John had continued to look with the eyes of sense
at Christ and His followers even to this day and had viewed the battle
as it is to be seen in history upon earth, he would have said that he
saw the same despised and rejected One at the head of a band of equally
despised and rejected, leading them to prison and to death. He would
have told you how to this very day the banner of the Gospel is borne
aloft amid smoke and dust and Christ crucified is proclaimed amid
contention and ridicule. He would have drawn in black colors the scene
of the battle, the great battle which is raging among the sons of men
at this very hour.
But now a door was opened in Heaven and John saw the scene as God sees
it. He looked upon it from Heaven's point of view and saw the conflict
between good and evil, between Christ and Satan, between the Truth of
God and error! He saw it in Heaven's own clear view and he then wrote
the vision that we, also, might see it. Oh, if we are sharers in this
conflict; if we are following the Lamb wherever He goes; if we are
pledged to the Truth of God and to the right; if we are sworn to the
precious blood of Atonement and to the grand doctrines of the Gospel,
it will do us good and stir our blood
to stand on one of the serene hilltops of Heaven, above the mists of
earth and look upon the battle which rages still upon the earth and
will rage on till Armageddon shall conclude the war!
If we can behold the scene, God strengthening our eyes, it may
strengthen our hands for the conflict, our hearts for the fray. When
the door was opened in Heaven, the first thing that the Seer of Patmos
noticed was our Captain! Let us look at Him, first. Afterwards he saw
His followers. And then he marked the mode of warfare and caught a
glimpse of the great defeat of the foe.
I. First, then, JOHN SAW OUR CAPTAIN, the King of kings! Let us notice
His glorious state. He says, "I saw and behold a white horse; and He
that sat upon him." While Jesus was here, as we have already said, He
was a foot soldier. He had to plunge knee-deep through mire and dirt
and walk as wearily as any of the rest of the warrior company. But now
that He has ascended, though He continues to fight, it is in another
fashion. Of course the terms are symbolical and none will take them
literally, but our Lord is here described as sitting upon a gallant
steed, charging His foes upon a snow-white horse. This means that
Christ is honored. He is no weary, dusty, fainting foot soldier now, I
guarantee you!
Time was when Solomon said that he saw servants upon horses and princes
walking in the dust–and so it was with Christ–Pilate and Herod rode
the high horse and Jesus walked in pain and dishonor. But now, like a
greater Mordecai, He rides on the King's horse, for this is the Man
whom the King delights to honor! In royal state our Jesus goes forth to
war, not as a common soldier, but as a glorious Prince, royally
mounted! By a horse is denoted not only honor, but power. To the Jews
the employment of the horse in warfare was unusual, so that when it was
used by their adversaries they imputed to it great force.
Jesus Christ has a mighty power today–a power which none can measure.
He was crucified in weakness, but where is the weakness now? He gave
His hands to the nails and His feet to be fastened to the wood but He
does so no longer. Now He has mounted on the horse of His exceeding
great power and He rules in Heaven and in earth and none can stay His
hand, or put Him to dishonor, or dispute His will! O you that love Him,
feast your eyes upon Him this day! It is not for me to speak–to do so
were but to hold a candle to the sun–but gaze upon Him for yourselves
and let your eyes be satiated with the image, as you see Him, once
despised and rejected, now taking to Himself His great power!
Here is symbolized swiftness, too. Christ had to walk when He was here
and go from city to city, scarcely getting through them all till His
time was accomplished. But now His Word runs very swiftly. He has but
to will it and the voice of His Gospel is heard to the utmost ends of
the earth! Their line is gone out through all the earth and their Words
to the end of the world! Everywhere is the Gospel preached, if it is
but for a testimony against them, and today is fulfilled before your
eyes the Words of the Prophet Zechariah, "The Lord of Hosts has visited
His flock, the house of Judah, and has made them as His goodly horse in
the battle, and they shall fight because the Lord is with them."
The color of the horse is meant to denote victory. The Roman conqueror,
when he enjoyed a triumph, on returning from a campaign, rode up the
Via Sacra on a white horse and the Romans crowded to the housetops to
gaze upon the hero as he exhibited his spoils. Now Jesus Christ is
admired of angels and elect spirits who throng the windows of Heaven to
gaze upon Him who is glorified by His Father! There is a pale horse and
his name that sits on him is Death, and there is a horse red with
blood, and yet another black with judgment. But His is a white horse
significant of comfort and ofjoy to all that know and love Him!
He comes to fight, but the fight is for peace. He comes to destroy, but
it is to destroy His people's enemies! He comes as a conqueror, but it
is as a delivering conqueror who scatters flowers and roses where He
rides, breaking only the oppressor, but blessing the citizens whom He
emancipates. Again, I say, I scarcely like to speak upon this theme–it
seems too great for me–but I would bid the saints of God who have wept
at Gethsemane now lift up their eyes and smile as they see that same
Redeemer who once lay groveling beneath the olive trees now riding on
the white horse! Your Lord at this moment is no more despised, but all
the Glory that Heaven itself can devise is lavished upon Him!
John looked into the open vault of Heaven and he had time not only to
see the horse, but to mark the Character of Him that sat upon it. He
says that He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. By this
you may know your Lord. He has been a faithful and true Friend to you.
O soldiers of the Cross, when has He ever deceived you? When has He
failed you, or forgotten you? Faithful? Ah, that He is, faithful to
every Word that He has spoken. And true? Do you not recognize Him, for
is He not the Truth–the very Truth of God? Has He not kept every
promise that He has made you and have you not found His teachings to be
everlastingly settled upon Divine veracity?
And faithful and true has He been to the great Father. The work He
undertook to do He has accomplished! He has in nothing drawn back from
the Covenant engagements under which He laid Himself of old. He stood
as the Surety of His people and He has been faithful and true to that
smarting Suretyship. He came to be the Deliverer of His elect and He
has worked the deliverance. He has not turned either to the right hand
or to the left, but He has been faithful and true to every pledge which
He gave to His Father for the deliverance of His chosen.
Yes, and even His enemies, though they give Him many a black word,
cannot say that He is not faithful and true! He has not played false,
even to the basest devil in Hell, nor has He deceived, in any respect,
the basest man that lives. Nor will He, for when the day comes to keep
His Word of terror, He will make the penalty tally to every syllable of
the threat and mete out vengeance with a line and judgment with a
plummet–and even His adversaries, though they shall forever rue the
fact–shall confess that His name is Faithful and True! They called Him
many ill names when He was here. They said He had a devil and was mad.
But now it is acknowledged that His name is Faithful and True. We
acknowledge it with intense delight and are glad to think that He leads
the troops of Heaven to the fight.
John still looked and, as he gazed with opened eyes, he marked the mode
of action and of warfare which the Champion employed, for he says, "In
righteousness He does judge and make war." Jesus is the only king who
always wars in this fashion. There have been brilliant exceptions to
the general rule, but war is usually as deceitful as it is bloody and
the words of diplomatists are a mass of lies. It seems impossible that
men should deliberate about peace and war without straightway
forgetting the meaning of words and the bonds of honesty! War still
seems to be a piece of business in which truth would be out of
place–it is a matter so accursed that falsehood is most at home
there–and righteousness quits the plain.
But as for our King, it is in righteousness that He does judge and make
war. Christ's Kingdom needs no deception– the most plain speech and
the clearest truth–these are the weapons of our warfare! The
Jesuitical craft which speaks not what it means; the priestcraft which
undermines the faith of men in God to teach them faith in their fellow
men; the falsehood which does not teach a doctrine at the first but
gradually insinuates it into feeble minds; the craft which creeps into
houses and leads astray silly women who are in bondage to their
lusts–this has nothing to do with the kingdom of Christ. "In
righteousness does He judge and make war." He bids His champions come
forth with nothing but His Word and speak that Word faithfully, as they
receive it, whether men will hear or whether they will not.
He tells His people, wherever they are, to live righteously, soberly
and in all integrity. And He Himself shakes off, as a man shakes off a
viper from His hand, anything that is unrighteous, everything that is
contrary to the Truth of God and holiness. This is our Champion and I
guarantee you are right glad that He sits on the white horse and has
the upper hand. Since He fights after this fashion, the more of such
warfare the better for mankind! John, still gazing into the open door,
saw a little–not much–of the Person of His blessed Master.
And, of course, he looked, first, into those eyes, those dear eyes
which had so often been filled with tears and that, at the last, were
even red with weeping. John gazed into them, or wished to do so, but he
had to cover his own eyes, for they were dazzled. He says, "His eyes
were as a flame of fire." Think tonight of your Master on the white
horse with such eyes as these. Why are they like flames of fire? Why,
first, to discern the secrets of all hearts! There are no secrets here
that Christ does not see. There is no lewd thought, there is no
unbelieving skepticism that Christ does not read. There is no
hypocrisy, no formalism, no deceit that He does not scan as easily as a
man reads a page in a book. His eyes are like a flame of fire to read
us through and through and know us to our inmost soul!
Oh, think of this and if you have any deceit, tremble before Him in
whose spirit there is no guile! Those eyes, like a flame of fire,
belong to our Champion that He may understand all the plots and crafts
of all our foes. We are sometimes alarmed–we say that the machinations
of Rome are very deep and that the plots of infidelity dive very low.
But what does it matter? His eyes are like a flame of fire–He knows
what they are doing! He will confound their politics; He will expose
their knavish tricks and still lead on His host conquering and to
conquer! Let us never fear while He is on the white horse with such
eyes as His!
It was natural that John should carry his glance from the eyes to the
brow and as he looked at our Champion on the white horse he saw that on
His head were many crowns. The last he had seen there was a crown of
thorns–but that was gone and in the place of the one crown of the
thorns of the earth he saw many crowns of the jewels of Heaven! There
rests the crown of creation, for this Word made Heaven and earth! There
is the crown of Providence, for this Man now rules
the nations with a rod of iron! There is the crown of Grace, for it is
from His royal hand that blessings are bestowed! There is the crown of
the Church, for be it known to all men that there is no Head of the
Church but Christ, and woe unto those who steal the title!
He is head over all things to His Church and King in the midst of her.
Yes, on His head are many crowns, placed there by individual souls that
He has saved. We have each one tried to crown Him in our poor way and
we will do so as long as we live. All power is given unto Him in Heaven
and in earth and, therefore, well may multitudes of diadems fill that
august brow which once was belted with thorns! Glory be unto You, O Son
of God! Our hearts adore You tonight as we contemplate You on Your
white horse!
Still looking at Him, John saw one thing more, namely, His vesture. He
says that His vesture was dipped in blood. Oh, but this is the grandest
thought about our Master, wherever He may be, that He is always a real
Man wearing the bloody garment! As the atoning Sacrifice, He is at His
best! We love Him as we see the white lily of His perfect Nature, but
the rose of Sharon is the flower for us, for its sweet perfume breathes
life to our fainting souls! Yes, He bled and this is the greatest thing
we can say of Him. His life was glorious, but His death transcends it!
A living Christ, a reigning Christ–we are charmed as we think of
this–but oh, the bleeding Christ, the bleeding Christ for me!
As the blood is the life, so is His blood life to us–the life of the
Gospel, the life of our hopes–and one delights to think of Him that,
though He rides the white horse, He has never taken off the bloody
shirt in which He won our redemption! He looks like a Lamb that has
been slain and still wears His priesthood! Whenever He goes out to
conquer, it is with this harness on, this vesture dipped in blood! Oh,
preach Him, you, His servants! Preach Him in His blood-red vesture! You
shall never see souls saved if you portray Him in any other kind of
coat! You take His own garment from Him and put on that of another–and
you pretend that you are making Him more illustrious as you put on Him
a scarlet robe! But His own blood is His beauty and His triumph! Let
Him come before us in that and our hearts shall crown Him with loudest
acclaim.
One other thing John saw and that was His name. But here he seems to
contradict himself. He says that He had a name which no man knows, yet
he says that His name was the Word of God. Oh, but it is all true, for
in such a One as our Master there must be paradoxes. No man knows His
name! None of you know all His Nature. His love passes your knowledge.
His goodness, His majesty, His humiliation, His Glory–all these
transcend your mind! You cannot know Him. Oh, the depths! If you plunge
deepest into the mystery of the Incarnate God you can never reach the
bottom of it. "No man knows the Son but the Father." And yet you do
know His name, for you know that He is "the Word of God."
And what does that mean? Why, when a man would show himself, he speaks.
"Speak," said the philosopher, "that I may see you." A man's speech is
the embodiment of his thought. You know his thought when you hear his
word, if he is a truth-speaking man. Now, Christ is God's Word. That is
His heart, spoken out to you. His inmost thoughts of love are printed
in great capital letters and set before you in the living, loving,
bleeding, dying Person of the Incarnate Son of God! Thus is He called
the Word of God and, in that capacity, it becomes us to delight
ourselves exceedingly in Him and to exalt because He is now riding
triumphantly upon His white horse.
II. Thus have I bid you gaze at what John saw. Time chides me, however,
and I can only ask you next, if you have seen the brightest One of all
upon the white horse, just to look at HIS FOLLOWERS. "The armies which
were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses. See, then, that Christ
has a great following–not one army, but, "armies"–whole hosts of
them–numbers that cannot be counted! My Lord is not the chief of a
small band, but He has a great host. There are some who think that all
Christ's followers go to their little Bethel and so they all sit down
on the top of their own Mount Zion and sweetly bless the Lord who shuts
out the rest of mankind. But I tell you, your little Bethel would not
make a stable for the horses of His lieutenants!
He has great armies following Him, for a countless number out of every
people and nation and tongue has He redeemed with His most precious
blood. And these that follow Him, you notice, are all mounted. They
followed Him on white horses. They are mounted on the same sort of
horses as Himself, for they fare as He fares. When He walks, they must
walk. When He bears a Cross, they must carry crosses, too. But if ever
He gets a crown, He cries, "They shall be crowned, too." If ever He
gets on horseback, He will have His saints on horseback with Him, for
it is not like He that He should ride and they should walk.
Remember Alexander and how he kept up the spirit of his soldiers?
Whenever the troops were thirsty, Alexander would not drink. And when
they marched on foot, Alexander footed it with them. So is it with our
Master–He has been marching here in the rough ways with us and He will
let us ride in the Glory ways with Him when the time shall come. The
armies of Christ followed Him on white horses. Look steadily at these
white horses, for I want you to observe the armor of their riders.
Cromwell's men wore at their sides long iron scabbards in which they
carried swords which oftentimes they wiped across the manes of their
horses when they were red with blood.
A dreadful story that is to read, brave as were those Ironsides. But if
you look at these troops there is not a sword among them! Not a
scabbard dangles! Not a piece of metal flashes back the sunlight!
Neither helmet nor breastplate is there, nor does there seem to be a
pistol at the holster. They are not armed with lance or pike and yet
they are riding forth to war! Do you want to know the armor of that
war? I will tell you. They are clothed in white linen–white and clean!
Strange battle array this! And yet this is how they conquer and how you
must conquer, too. This is both armor and weapon. Holiness is our sword
and our shield! This is pike and gun.
If we but live as Christ lives and follow Him, we shall conquer, for no
sword can come at him that lives to God– since should it slay his
body, it cannot touch his soul, he lives and conquers still! Think of
this, and never ask for any other weapon but this in the day of battle.
Yet I have said they were all on horses which shows you that the saints
of God have a strength that they sometimes forget. You know not that
you ride on a horse, O child of God! But there is a supreme invisible
power which helps you in contending for Christ and for His Truth. You
are mightier than you know and you are riding more swiftly to the
battle and more rapidly over the heads of your foes than you ever
dreamed!
When a door shall be opened in Heaven to you and you get to the
battle's end, you will say, "Bless the Lord, I, too, rode on a white
horse. I, too, conquered when I thought I was defeated. I, too, by
simple obedience to His will and keeping the faith and walking in His
Truth, have been more than conqueror through Him that loved me." And is
not this a grand sight, this Man–this "bonny Man," as Rutherford calls
Him–on His white horse and all these bright ones following after Him
in all their glorious array?!
III. And now we must close, for the bell has tolled just now to show
that the hour is up, but we cannot end till we have spoken of THE
WARFARE. What is this warfare? There cannot be war without a sword, yet
if you look all along the ranks of the white-robed armies there is not
a sword among them! Who carries the sword? There is One who bears it
for them all! It is He, the King, who comes to marshal us! He bears a
sword. But where? It is in His mouth! Strange place! A sword in His
mouth! Yet this is the only sword my Lord and Master wields. Mohammed
subdued men with the scimitar, but Christ subdues men with the Gospel!
We have but to tell out the glad tidings of the love of God, for this
is the sword of Christ with which He smites the nations! Be His mouths,
my Brothers! Be His mouths, my Sisters! Tell the children in your
Sunday school classes! Tell the poor in the corners of the streets!
Tell by your little printed pamphlets if you cannot by your voices, all
the story of how He loved us and gave Himself for us–for this is the
sword of our warfare–it goes forth from the mouth of Christ! Let us be
content to fight with this and nothing else! And for those who will not
yield to it, our Leader has a hand as well as a tongue and He says that
He will rule the nations with a rod of iron!
And if you will read history through, you will find that all nations
that reject the Gospel have to suffer for it. I select one instance.
The Gospel came to Spain years ago and multitudes of the nobility were
converted. But they had their public executions and burnt the saints
and the accursed Inquisition stamped out the Gospel in Spain. And to
this day the nation cannot rise. It will, I trust, by God's forgiving
mercy, but for centuries she that ruled the nations and covered the
deep with her armadas has been sitting groveling in her poverty and
sloth, for Christ has ruled her with a rod of iron and so will He rule
all nations that reject the testimony of His mouth.
If the sword of His mouth is not heeded, then comes the last of this
dread warfare–and may God grant that we may never know it–when His
foot shall do it, for He treads the winepress of the fierceness and
wrath of Almighty God! Ah, what a crush must that be which will come
upon the clusters of Gomorrah from the foot which once was nailed to
the tree! Who stomped that sinner's soul and crushed it down? Was he an
angry angel with a sword of fire? No, it was the Christ of God, the Man
of Love rejected and despised! Fiercer than a lion on prey is Love when
once provoked! When Love turns to Jealousy, its fires are like coals of
juniper which have a violent flame.
Beware, you despisers, lest you continue to despise. Submit to the
sword of His mouth, lest you be destroyed by His hands! Be wise, when
once His hands begin to smite, lest you have to feel His foot, for it
is all over then! May you and I each have a white horse with which to
follow Christ. But we never shall unless we are His followers here. We
must put on the snow-white garments now! Here they are, ready for
you–the righteousness of Christ will be given to any man who accepts
Him and believes on Him! And when your snow-white garments are once on,
He will give you the horse of His sacred strength and you, even you,
following in the tracks of your gallant Leader, shall ride on,
shouting, "Victory, victory, victory, through the blood of the Lamb."
The Lord bless you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORESERMON–Revelation 18:21-24; Revelation
19. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–45, 324, 851.
__________________________________________________________________
Eternal Faithfulness Unaffected By Human Unbelief