Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – God’s Terrible, Swift Sw...

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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – God’s Terrible, Swift Sw... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: In the closing seven verses of Revelation fourteen, John described
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Speaker 1: the Lord's final judgment. He uses vivid word pictures that
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Speaker 1: an ancient grower of grain or of grapes would appreciate.
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Speaker 1: As we read about the Son of Man swinging his
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Speaker 1: sharp sickle of judgment, we're all reminded that God's justice
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Speaker 1: holds us accountable for whatever choices we may make. We
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Speaker 1: must accept or reject His truth, whatever our choice. We've
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Speaker 1: been warned, and today we'll get a preview of those
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Speaker 1: coming events. The hour fast approaches, when Jesus Christ will
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Speaker 1: return from heaven with power and in great glory. All
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Speaker 1: the misconceptions about who Jesus was and is will instantly
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Speaker 1: be dispelled, and the whole world will be forced to
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Speaker 1: face the full biblical truth about the person of Christ,
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Speaker 1: the Savior, who not only died for our sins, but
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Speaker 1: is also coming again to judge the living and the dead.
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Speaker 1: We cannot merely emphasize the first coming of Christ as
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Speaker 1: prophet and sacrifice. We must also embrace his coming as
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Speaker 1: judge and king. In preparation for our message today, I'd
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Speaker 1: like to read Revelation chapter fourteen, specifically verses fourteen through twenty.
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Speaker 1: If you have a Bible handy, please follow along as
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Speaker 1: I read for you Revelation fourteen, Beginning at verse fourteen,
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Speaker 1: John the writer, the disciple of Jesus the Apostle, is
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Speaker 1: writing these words. Then I looked and behold a white cloud.
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Speaker 1: And sitting on the cloud was one like a son
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Speaker 1: of me, having a golden crown on his head and
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Speaker 1: a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came
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Speaker 1: out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice
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Speaker 1: to him, who said, on the cloud, put in your
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Speaker 1: sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come,
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Speaker 1: because the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then he
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Speaker 1: who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth,
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Speaker 1: and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out
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Speaker 1: of the temple which is in heaven, and he also
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Speaker 1: had a sharp sickle. Then another angel, the one who
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Speaker 1: has power over fire, came out from the altar, and
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Speaker 1: he called with a loud voice to him who had
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Speaker 1: the sharp sickle, saying, put in your sharp sickle and
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Speaker 1: gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because
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Speaker 1: her grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle
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Speaker 1: to the Earth and gathered the clusters from the vine
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Speaker 1: of the Earth and threw them into the great wine
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Speaker 1: press of the wrath of God. And the wine press
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Speaker 1: was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from
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Speaker 1: the wine press up to the horse's bridles for a
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Speaker 1: distance of two hundred miles. Sobering. It was on the
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Speaker 1: seventh of November of December, the seventh of December nineteen
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Speaker 1: forty one, that the three Swindall children, ages seven, eight,
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Speaker 1: and ten, were sitting in the back seat of my
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Speaker 1: dad's new forty one Ford. My mother and dad were
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Speaker 1: in the front seat. We were on our way down
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Speaker 1: to the Little Bay cottage owned by my grandfather, and
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Speaker 1: my mother turned around and told us to be quiet,
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Speaker 1: that the President was speaking, and I'll never forget. My
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Speaker 1: dad pulled over and stopped, and we listened as President
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Speaker 1: Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the Day of Infamy as our
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Speaker 1: nation had been attacked by the Imperial Japanese Army. My
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Speaker 1: dad it was finished, wiped away the tears as my
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Speaker 1: mom did, and he said, we have no business having
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Speaker 1: fun for the next few days while we are at war.
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Speaker 1: I'll never forget. We did a u turn halfway down
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Speaker 1: there and made our way back to the little town
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Speaker 1: of El Campo where we lived, and shortly thereafter moved
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Speaker 1: to Houston, where my dad, a little too old for
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Speaker 1: the draft, went into what was called then defense plant work,
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Speaker 1: where the shop was changed from making roller bits. There
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Speaker 1: at Reid wrote a big company and began to tool
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Speaker 1: up for the making of armament, transmissions for the tanks,
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Speaker 1: landing gears for the great bombers to be seventeen's, and
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Speaker 1: some of the equipment for the fighters that flew. Every
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Speaker 1: time the seventh of December rolls around, I do a
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Speaker 1: quick pass and review. As my brother and sister joined
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Speaker 1: me in doing that, we remember our parents, now gone
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Speaker 1: to be with the Lord, and their love for our
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Speaker 1: country which was instilled in us. It's appropriate in this
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Speaker 1: moment that we pause to thank God for his protection
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Speaker 1: over us for now these more than sixty years relief,
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Speaker 1: or well over two hundred, and for who knows how
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Speaker 1: much longer. You join me as we pray we live
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Speaker 1: our lives at your mercy, our Father. We we are
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Speaker 1: able to exist in a free country because of your
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Speaker 1: protection and also because of the faithfulness and bravery of
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Speaker 1: men and women who've joined the forces to assist in
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Speaker 1: the defense of our freedom. We remember them at this
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Speaker 1: lonely time of the year. For them, we pray that
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Speaker 1: you would encourage them, you would protect them, Give guidance
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Speaker 1: to those who command the troops and the land, to
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Speaker 1: those who sail great vessels of the sea, to those
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Speaker 1: who fill the skies with fast moving aircraft, to those
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Speaker 1: who do the work of planning and strategizing in rooms
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Speaker 1: without winning, in places of confidentiality and great top secret gatherings.
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Speaker 1: I pray you'd protect our president his family, that you'd
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Speaker 1: guide us as a country though we don't deserve it,
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Speaker 1: and you'd have mercy on us though it would certainly
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Speaker 1: be unmerited. We have drifted far away from your truth.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for your grace in providing what we can
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Speaker 1: never earn and do not deserve, not only in the
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Speaker 1: freedom of our country as it continues, but also continuing
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Speaker 1: to guide us spiritually. This is a tough time of
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Speaker 1: the year for many our father those whose lives have
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Speaker 1: been fractured and crushed by divorce, those who have gone
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Speaker 1: through the horrors of that rejection against their wishes, those
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Speaker 1: in lonely places rearing their children, as single parents, those
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Speaker 1: with diseases that the doctor says are terminal, those who
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Speaker 1: have been laid aside in illness that's yet to be
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Speaker 1: fully diagnosed, those whose bodies will be in hospitals over
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Speaker 1: the time of the Christmas season. We pray for these.
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Speaker 1: We pray for those who struggle with addictions, those who
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Speaker 1: have recently lost that battle. We pray that you will
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Speaker 1: somehow give renewed strength, fresh courage, that you would use
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Speaker 1: this church and churches all around the world who love
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Speaker 1: to be for them a harbor of hope, the place
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Speaker 1: of refuge. Deliver us, our Father, from smug complacency. Forgive
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Speaker 1: us for relying upon our own strength and wealth to
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Speaker 1: gain what we want. May we realize that everything we
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Speaker 1: have and are yours, and it will all be called
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Speaker 1: into account, even every idle word. As with that in mind,
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Speaker 1: our Father, we pause of all things to give to you,
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Speaker 1: though you have no needs ministries. Do we pray that
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Speaker 1: these gifts will be given for all the right reasons,
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Speaker 1: from people of all ages and stages in life, and
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Speaker 1: that you will honor the gifts, the motives behind them,
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Speaker 1: the gifts themselves, and the expenditures. That you will be
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Speaker 1: honored in all of it. We're a little place in
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Speaker 1: a big world. Thank you for caring about us. On
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Speaker 1: the seventh of December especially, do we thank you and
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Speaker 1: give to you in Jesus dear name. Everyone said Julia
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Speaker 1: Ward Howell was a woman really far ahead of her time.
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Speaker 1: She was perhaps the most well known woman of the
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Speaker 1: nineteenth century, though to day most would not even recognize
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Speaker 1: her name. Unfortunately, she was an ardent foe of slavery,
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Speaker 1: spoke against it and marched against it. She campaigned also
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Speaker 1: for child welfare and equal education, as well as prison reform.
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Speaker 1: It was Julia Howe who first innovated the idea of
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Speaker 1: Mother's Day. She tirelessly promoted the right for women to vote.
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Speaker 1: She was a prolific writer, writing poetry and drama, biography,
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Speaker 1: and a number of books on travel, but none of
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Speaker 1: these represented her foremost accomplishment that came almost as an afterthought.
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Speaker 1: Following her and her husband, Samuel's visit to one of
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Speaker 1: the Union soldiers' camps near the Potomac during the dark
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Speaker 1: days of the Civil War, he heard in the distance
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Speaker 1: a few of the soldiers as they joined their voices
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Speaker 1: together and singing a tribute to John Brown, who had
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Speaker 1: been hanged a couple of years earlier for attempting to
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Speaker 1: lead an insurrection of slaves at Harper's Ferry. The rousing
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Speaker 1: tune they sang could be heard across the camp. John
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Speaker 1: Brown's body lies a moldering into grave, made her heart
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Speaker 1: sink with sadness. Her pastor, who was there with Julia
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Speaker 1: and her husband, leaned over and said to her, you
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Speaker 1: should write new words. You should put that tune to
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Speaker 1: better words. As she and Samuel made their way to
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Speaker 1: their hotel that night, and as they retired, his challenge
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Speaker 1: turned over in her mind again and again. She fell asleep.
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Speaker 1: But early the next morning, in the gray dawn of
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Speaker 1: that overcast day, the words began to flow, and they
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Speaker 1: came together beautifully, almost effortlessly. Julia Ward Howe had a
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Speaker 1: friend who worked at the Atlantic Monthly, and through him
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Speaker 1: the song found its way into its published form in
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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two. I should add they gave her the
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Speaker 1: huge check of five dollars for her writing. Mine eyes
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Speaker 1: have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
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Speaker 1: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of
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Speaker 1: wrath are stored. He hath loosed the faithful lightning of
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Speaker 1: his terrible swift Lord, His truth is marching on, and
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Speaker 1: other verses to follow. Julia Howell believed that what she
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Speaker 1: saw at the camp and the bloody, brutal condition of
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Speaker 1: the soldiers represented the fulfillment of what she had read
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Speaker 1: as a Christian out of Revelation chapter fourteen. The Civil
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Speaker 1: War certainly was brutal and bloody, but that war between
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Speaker 1: the states was nothing compared to the battle yet future.
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Speaker 1: She saw it as a fulfillment, But perhaps it was
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Speaker 1: merely a foreshadowing of what is yet to come. John said,
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Speaker 1: if you will, in his theaters eat and saw it
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Speaker 1: all portrayed centuries ahead of time, and what he saw,
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Speaker 1: along with the other judgments, was the pouring out of
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Speaker 1: the final bowls of judgment, as set forth in Revelation
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Speaker 1: fifteen and sixteen. And then ultimately he saw the final
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Speaker 1: great finale of battles of Armageddon, what Julia Ward called
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Speaker 1: his terrible swift sword. Scripture calls his sharp sickle and
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Speaker 1: mentions it seven times in the closing seven verses of
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Speaker 1: Revelation fourteen. If you haven't opened your Bible yet to
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Speaker 1: that chapter, I invite you to do so, and as
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Speaker 1: you do, I need to make it clear that the
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Speaker 1: same Jesus we love and sing about in the Christmas
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Speaker 1: season and in all of the beauty and gentleness and
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Speaker 1: innocence of his infancy and humanity, is the same Jesus
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Speaker 1: who will come with the sharp sickle and meet out
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Speaker 1: judgment on this earth. Don't miss both sides. If you
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Speaker 1: emphasize one as against the other, you'll misunderstand the balance
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Speaker 1: that he represents as a man of sorrows and acquainted
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Speaker 1: with grief, and yet at the same time as the
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Speaker 1: one who will be crowned as King over all. Who
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Speaker 1: call themselves king and Lord above all, who claim to
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Speaker 1: be Lord for this, Jesus who came in the manger
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Speaker 1: first time, will come the second time in an altogether
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Speaker 1: different role. Let's look at both. Think of them as
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Speaker 1: columns in your mind. On the left hand side, put
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Speaker 1: the first coming, and on the right hand side, put
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Speaker 1: the second coming. And let's contrast the two. At the
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Speaker 1: first coming, he came as a servant. In the second coming,
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Speaker 1: he will come as judge. In the first coming, there
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Speaker 1: was humility and gentleness. In the second, there will be
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Speaker 1: majesty and splendor in the first he was a helpless
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Speaker 1: baby in a manger. In the second Coming, he will
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Speaker 1: be the victorious, returning King and sovereign God. In his
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Speaker 1: first coming, he originally was the sower of the seed.
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Speaker 1: In the second Coming, he will be the almighty reaper
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Speaker 1: of the harvest. In his first coming, the emphasis was
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Speaker 1: upon his grace and his mercy, and his compassion and
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Speaker 1: his offer of peace. But in the second Coming there
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Speaker 1: will be justice and righteousness, and yes, wrath and righteousness.
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Speaker 1: The passage before us portrays the final Judgment as the
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Speaker 1: final harvest. There's a sort of an agricultural motif that
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Speaker 1: is woven into these seven verses, And because most of
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Speaker 1: us are not familiar with the soil, having never made
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Speaker 1: our living with our hands as farmers, we need a
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Speaker 1: little help in understanding the word picture. The first three
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Speaker 1: verses of these seven verses in this section show the
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Speaker 1: first harvest, which represents the Bowl judgments set forth in
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Speaker 1: detail in the next two chapters. We'll get to them later,
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Speaker 1: but this first harvest is what we might call the
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Speaker 1: grain harvest. The grain of the earth is harvested, and
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Speaker 1: that depicts the seven bowld judgment yet to come. All
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Speaker 1: of this again, remember is ahead of time. These are
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Speaker 1: previews of coming attractions. In this interlude, the last four
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Speaker 1: verses focus on the second harvest, which is the harvesting
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Speaker 1: of the grapes. Both, by the way, are ripe. Please
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Speaker 1: notice that the end of verse fifteen says the earth
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Speaker 1: is ripe. I'll come back to that word and camp
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Speaker 1: on it for a few minutes later. The end of
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Speaker 1: verse eighteen says, the grapes are ripe. So we have
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Speaker 1: ripened grain, and we have ripened grapes, both of them
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Speaker 1: representing times up. The era of grace, the time of compassion,
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Speaker 1: the patience and long suffering God have all reached the
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Speaker 1: end of their tether. It is time for judgment, and
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Speaker 1: there is no escaping it, and there is no recourse
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Speaker 1: for those who at that time in future, in the
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Speaker 1: future will have chosen to live their lives in rebellion
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Speaker 1: against the living God. It's helpful for me as a
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Speaker 1: sidebar here. It's helpful for me to remember that we
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Speaker 1: can be so caught up in and submerged in the
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Speaker 1: grace and patience and long suffering of God that we
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Speaker 1: forget there will be a time when He will no
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Speaker 1: longer tap his foot and wait with arms folded for
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Speaker 1: us to make up our minds. There will be a
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Speaker 1: day when all of that is over and the final
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Speaker 1: judgment fall. It's my duty as a minister of the Gospel,
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Speaker 1: not only to present the coming of the Lord Jesus
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Speaker 1: as the baby and to uphold the Christmas message year
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Speaker 1: after year. It's also my task to tell you there
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Speaker 1: will be a day when the Christmas season will no
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Speaker 1: longer come to pass, and time will be no more.
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Speaker 1: You could see even more clearly how Julia Howe found
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Speaker 1: her lyrics in this chapter. Remember her words, how he
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Speaker 1: was trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath
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Speaker 1: or stored. We'll get to that when we get to
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Speaker 1: the last four verses. One wonders if she had been
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Speaker 1: taught the letter or the Book of Revelation, or if
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Speaker 1: she had herself taught it, being a very capable speaker
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Speaker 1: as she was. But be that as it may. First
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Speaker 1: the grain harvest tracks our attention. John looks, and, as
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Speaker 1: he has before on so many occasions, he beholds some
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Speaker 1: phenomenon in the heavenlys. He sees a great white cloud.
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Speaker 1: The cloud seems to represent the Chicaina, the light of God,
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Speaker 1: which visited the earth in the Tabernacle, visited the earth
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Speaker 1: in the Temple, and on occasion would be a blazing
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Speaker 1: light that would come, such as at the Transfiguration when
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Speaker 1: Christ was on the mount with his three closest friends,
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Speaker 1: his disciples, Peter, James, and John. Here he is described
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Speaker 1: as a son of Man. We understand this to be
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Speaker 1: a messianic title of Jesus Christ. He is called that
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Speaker 1: not infrequently in the scriptures. And you will notice that
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Speaker 1: he has a golden crown on his head. It is
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Speaker 1: the word Stephanos, which represents the victor's crown. And he
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Speaker 1: has in his hand a sharp sickle. I mentioned that
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Speaker 1: the word appears seven times in seven verses. You will
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Speaker 1: see it fourteen, fifteen, sixteen seventeen, twice in eighteen, and
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Speaker 1: once in nineteen. Again and again and again. It is
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Speaker 1: a sickle. And what makes it interesting is that most
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Speaker 1: people I know have never held a sickle, and only
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Speaker 1: a few have even seen one. A sickle was used
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Speaker 1: in those days for harvesting, which was all done by hand,
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Speaker 1: not with machinery. There was a long wooden curved handle
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Speaker 1: that was fixed to another rather sizeable piece of iron
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Speaker 1: that was razor sharp and also curved, and one would
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Speaker 1: swing it in front as he would walk along harvesting
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Speaker 1: or cutting away the weeds, or cutting down the grain,
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Speaker 1: or cutting off the clusters of grapes in times of harvest.
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Speaker 1: In this case, it is all a word picture, and
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Speaker 1: it's a picture of judgment. We read that he has
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Speaker 1: the sickle in his hand, but he does nothing with
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Speaker 1: it until an angel verse fifteen, we read came out
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Speaker 1: of the temple, which apparently represents the throne room of God,
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Speaker 1: and the angel cries with a loud voice to him
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Speaker 1: who settled the cloud, and instructs him put in your
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Speaker 1: sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come,
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Speaker 1: because the harvest of the earth is ripe. I said,
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Speaker 1: we'd come back to that word, and I want to
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Speaker 1: do that here. The word ripe literally means over ripe.
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Speaker 1: If you've been around fruit that has ripened or has
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Speaker 1: hung on the tree longer than it should have, you
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Speaker 1: notice it begins to get mushy and begins to wither
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Speaker 1: or shrivel. In fact, this very Greek word is used
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Speaker 1: for a hand that withers on the body after disease
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Speaker 1: has captured the body. It's the picture of being more
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Speaker 1: than ripe. In other words, the earth has heard more
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Speaker 1: than enough. And before you're tempted to think, as you
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Speaker 1: come to a passage like this, how unfair, how harsh
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Speaker 1: of God to treat people like that. Stop Stop, don't
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Speaker 1: let such words leave your mouth. Think. Even before the
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Speaker 1: Savior was born at Bethlehem, there were prophets who told
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Speaker 1: of his coming. When he came, there were shepherds as
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Speaker 1: well as wise men who announced the message of his
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Speaker 1: coming and let the world know. And from that time
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Speaker 1: to this twenty first century, there have been those who
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Speaker 1: have proclaimed the Gospel message, telling people again and again
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Speaker 1: and again, over and over and over that the Savior
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Speaker 1: has come, that the price has been paid, that the
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Speaker 1: sacrifice has been made, that the Lamb has been slain
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Speaker 1: exactly as God has planned it, and the offer is
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Speaker 1: open to all who will believe. It's gone again and
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Speaker 1: again and again, in languages and dialects, in nations and
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Speaker 1: countries all around the world, one generation after another. Fact,
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Speaker 1: at the very end times verse six of chapter fourteen,
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Speaker 1: right across the page, you'll recall the Lord sends another
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Speaker 1: angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal Gospel, and
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Speaker 1: here he is again at the end of the age,
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Speaker 1: to preach to those who live on the earth. Notice
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Speaker 1: how broad a spectrum the sowing is to every nation
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Speaker 1: and tribe and tongue and people. Everybody hears yet again
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Speaker 1: of the Savior who has come. The price has been paid.
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Speaker 1: And finally, having rejected that, God says, that's enough. That's it.
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Speaker 1: That's it. The Angel says, to this one who has
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Speaker 1: the sickle, swing the sickle. This is in the words
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Speaker 1: of Julia Howe, the sharp, the terrible, sharp sword of God.
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Speaker 1: And he does so. In verse sixteen, He who said
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Speaker 1: on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and
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Speaker 1: the earth was reaped. There's no big fight, there's no
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Speaker 1: lengthy struggle to see who's going to win. He swung
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Speaker 1: the sickle, and the earth is reaped. Robert Thomas and
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Speaker 1: his two volume work on Revelation states succinctly the brevity
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Speaker 1: of the statement dramatizes the suddenness of the judgment. You
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Speaker 1: can just hear it swing. I was at the grocery
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Speaker 1: store several days ago doing a little shopping for Cynthia,
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Speaker 1: and my eye caught a busy little child sitting in
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Speaker 1: the back of the cart. You know how they'll do
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Speaker 1: facing their mom. And this child was busy, and this
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Speaker 1: was one mother who was very patient. I admired her.
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Speaker 1: When you're a grandparent and you see these things happened,
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Speaker 1: especially when it's not one of your own, you can
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Speaker 1: relax and you can watch it. And in fact I
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Speaker 1: sort of followed to see what was going to happen.
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Speaker 1: It was one of those. It was one of those
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Speaker 1: special children that never saw a can good he didn't like,
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Speaker 1: and never saw a shelf of stuff stacked high that
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Speaker 1: he didn't enjoy pulling something from the bottom and si,
29:09
Speaker 1: what do you eat in the morning? Cereal came off
29:11
Speaker 1: the shelf, And then we were at the water bottles
29:15
Speaker 1: and several of them fell over, and she patientally put
29:17
Speaker 1: She was telling him all the while not to do that.
29:20
Speaker 1: And then they get over in this other section and
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Speaker 1: he was dragging soaps of different kind off the shelf,
29:27
Speaker 1: and he's got the basket full of all kinds of
29:29
Speaker 1: things she didn't want, so she's as busy taking things
29:31
Speaker 1: out of the basket. So when they get up to
29:33
Speaker 1: the check counter to go, I just pulled in behind,
29:37
Speaker 1: thinking this has to have an interesting climax to it,
29:41
Speaker 1: and he turned look to his left. He saw the
29:43
Speaker 1: tic TACs and you know they are there by the
29:47
Speaker 1: gross and well, that did it, she said to him,
29:55
Speaker 1: that's it, and she reaches down, pulls him out and
29:59
Speaker 1: walks out. Now I did not follow them, but I
30:04
Speaker 1: looked at the lady checking us out, and she smiled
30:08
Speaker 1: and kind of looked funny, and I smiled. She said,
30:12
Speaker 1: I wonder what's happening now. I said, don't go there.
30:17
Speaker 1: You know, the woman never came back. I don't know.
30:19
Speaker 1: She may still be driving, for all I know, just leaving.
30:25
Speaker 1: That's the way it will be, continually, faithfully, patiently, with
30:31
Speaker 1: enormous lungs, suffering, cleaning up our messes, forgiving, never overlooking,
30:39
Speaker 1: but always treating us in grace until this comes and
30:48
Speaker 1: the sickle is swung and the earth is reaped. I
30:57
Speaker 1: found an interesting three word conclude to the Setting over It,
31:02
Speaker 1: chapter sixteen, verse seventeen. Look at the last three words.
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Speaker 1: We're going to get there when we're into the bold judgments.
31:11
Speaker 1: But it just wants you to look sixteen seventeen. Seventh
31:19
Speaker 1: angel poured out his bowld upon the air, and the
31:21
Speaker 1: loud voice came out of the temple from the throne,
31:24
Speaker 1: saying it is done. That's it. The tether has reached
31:33
Speaker 1: its extent. That's enough. Now it's with that in mind.
31:42
Speaker 1: Back in Revelation fourteen, we come to the second scene
31:46
Speaker 1: in this motif of the grapes, which is even I
31:51
Speaker 1: think more colorful than the grain. We come to alas
31:56
Speaker 1: angeles another way of saying it the Greek. That way
32:00
Speaker 1: it means another of the same kind of angel, verse seventeen.
32:04
Speaker 1: So if you're counting, this is the fifth of the
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Speaker 1: six angels mentioned in this chapter. The first one is
32:10
Speaker 1: in verse six, the second is in verse eight, the
32:16
Speaker 1: third is in verse nine, the fourth is in verse fifteen.
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Speaker 1: The fifth is now in verse seventeen. And there's another
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Speaker 1: angel verse eighteen, who is the one with the sickle. There,
32:30
Speaker 1: so there are six angels in this single chapter. Please
32:34
Speaker 1: observe the angels. Another angel came out of the temple,
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Speaker 1: which is in heaven. He also had a sharp sickle.
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Speaker 1: Now this is not the same as the first. The
32:42
Speaker 1: first was like a son of man, the Lord Jesus.
32:45
Speaker 1: Here's a second who comes, and he is pictured as
32:50
Speaker 1: the death Angel or the final Angel, the Angel of judgment.
32:54
Speaker 1: He comes with the message, or to hear the message.
32:58
Speaker 1: Here's the message verse eighteen. Another angel, the one who
33:01
Speaker 1: has power over fire, I mean trigged by that. Let's
33:06
Speaker 1: not move too quickly over it. One wonders if there
33:09
Speaker 1: is an angel of storm, an angel of wind, an
33:13
Speaker 1: angel who watches over lightning and thunder, or of other elements.
33:18
Speaker 1: Here is an angel who has power over fire. One
33:23
Speaker 1: wonders what role he plays in God's sovereign plan over
33:27
Speaker 1: this earth. It's moments like that. You could spend times
33:31
Speaker 1: like that. You could spend a lot of your time
33:34
Speaker 1: just meditating on what that must include. But this one
33:37
Speaker 1: has power over fire. Fire often used for judgment, a
33:41
Speaker 1: word for judgment in the scriptures. He came out from
33:45
Speaker 1: the altar, so he comes with the announcement. He calls
33:50
Speaker 1: with a loud voice to him. That's the other angel
33:53
Speaker 1: who had the sharp sickle, saying, put in your sharp
33:57
Speaker 1: sickle and gather the clusters from the of the earth,
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Speaker 1: because her grapes are ripe. It's time. So the angel
34:07
Speaker 1: swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters
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Speaker 1: from the vine and threw them into the great wine
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Speaker 1: press of the wrath of God, and the wine press
34:22
Speaker 1: was trodden. All of this reads eloquently and we are
34:27
Speaker 1: intrigged by it, but we've never seen it. In ancient days,
34:31
Speaker 1: there were two containers when it came time for the
34:35
Speaker 1: harvesting of grapes. They were large. One held the grapes,
34:40
Speaker 1: the other held the juice. There was a trough that
34:44
Speaker 1: was either hollowed out of stone, connecting the two containers,
34:48
Speaker 1: or it was shaped from metal. The grapes would be
34:54
Speaker 1: poured into by the clusters. They would be poured into
34:57
Speaker 1: the container up above, and people literally were hired to
35:02
Speaker 1: tread the grapes. That was before the Pure Food and
35:07
Speaker 1: Drug Act came into being. People came there and they
35:11
Speaker 1: of course washed their feet and then would begin to
35:15
Speaker 1: trample down the grapes. And as they did with these
35:19
Speaker 1: ripe grapes, of course, the juice would splatter and stain
35:22
Speaker 1: their clothing as well as their skin. And yet the
35:26
Speaker 1: most important part is the juice of the grapes would
35:29
Speaker 1: flow down the channel, down this connecting trough into the
35:35
Speaker 1: basin at the bottom and collect the grapes. Here is
35:43
Speaker 1: another word picture that Julia Howell captured in her song.
35:50
Speaker 1: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes, and
35:55
Speaker 1: she calls it as the scripture describes the grapes of
35:58
Speaker 1: wrath stored. It's another picture of that final sentence, that judgment.
36:09
Speaker 1: Her second verse captures it. I've seen him in the
36:11
Speaker 1: watchfires of one hundred circling camps. They have builded him
36:15
Speaker 1: an altar in the evening dews and damps. I can
36:18
Speaker 1: read his righteous sentence there. It is judgment by the
36:22
Speaker 1: dim and flaring lamps. His days marching on the wine
36:32
Speaker 1: press was trodden, says verse twenty, outside the city, meaning
36:37
Speaker 1: the city of Jerusalem. This battle, the final battle, will
36:42
Speaker 1: begin at Haar Megedo, the mount of Meghetto from which
36:48
Speaker 1: we get our word Aremageddon. It's mentioned in sixteen, verse sixteen.
36:55
Speaker 1: They gathered them together into the place, which in Hebrew
36:59
Speaker 1: is called her Mageddon. For the event itself, go another
37:05
Speaker 1: page or two to chapter nineteen, verse eleven. We'll again
37:11
Speaker 1: get here, but for now follow it. Verse eleven, Chapter nineteen.
37:17
Speaker 1: I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and
37:20
Speaker 1: he who set on it called faithful and true, and
37:23
Speaker 1: in righteousness he judges and wages war. This is the
37:26
Speaker 1: second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who
37:30
Speaker 1: came as the babe in the manger, now returns to
37:34
Speaker 1: earth as the judge. His eyes are a flame of fire,
37:40
Speaker 1: and on his head are many diadema, the word for crowns.
37:45
Speaker 1: He has a name written on him which no one
37:48
Speaker 1: knows except himself. He's clothed with a robe dipped in blood,
37:54
Speaker 1: and his name is called the Word of God. Then
37:59
Speaker 1: we'll read of believers of this age who return with him.
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Speaker 1: If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have
38:05
Speaker 1: been raptured from this earth. You will have been spending
38:08
Speaker 1: your time with the Lord Jesus, going through your own
38:12
Speaker 1: time of the judgment seat of Christ, giving account of
38:15
Speaker 1: your life and receiving your rewards. But your work isn't
38:19
Speaker 1: done and mine until we, with the others come back
38:23
Speaker 1: verse fourteen. As the armies which are in heaven, clothed
38:27
Speaker 1: in fine linen, white and clean, we were following him
38:33
Speaker 1: on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword,
38:37
Speaker 1: so that with it he may strike down the nations.
38:40
Speaker 1: Now notice the setting up of the kingdom. He will
38:43
Speaker 1: rule them with a rod of iron. And notice the
38:47
Speaker 1: word picture. He treads the wine press of the fierce
38:50
Speaker 1: wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on
38:53
Speaker 1: his thigh has a name written King of Kings and
38:57
Speaker 1: Lord of lords. Now that's the event. Interestingly, in chapter fourteen,
39:04
Speaker 1: the last verse, we read of the results of this slaughter.
39:09
Speaker 1: It really isn't a battle. It is a slaughter. It
39:13
Speaker 1: isn't really a lengthy period of time where one may
39:17
Speaker 1: be winning and then the other side winning, and yet
39:19
Speaker 1: another takeover and yet another gain advantage. It is one
39:24
Speaker 1: massive slaughter, and we read of it in no on
39:29
Speaker 1: certain terms. It is outside the city, by the way,
39:33
Speaker 1: that that is absolutely true. Harmageddon is outside the city.
39:37
Speaker 1: It is north of Jerusalem. And if you mark the
39:41
Speaker 1: distance of the land of Israel, you'll get about one
39:44
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty furlongs or about sixteen hundred furlongs I
39:51
Speaker 1: should say, which about one hundred and eighty miles. And
39:54
Speaker 1: that's precisely the link mentioned here where blood will flow.
39:58
Speaker 1: The wine press was try rodden outside the city, and
40:01
Speaker 1: blood came out from the wine press, meaning blood from
40:05
Speaker 1: those who have been slaughtered, up to the horses bridles,
40:08
Speaker 1: for a distance of two hundred miles. Now, I like
40:13
Speaker 1: you blink when I read that, and I thought that
40:17
Speaker 1: that really is not possible. There isn't enough humanity to
40:23
Speaker 1: bring blood up three to four feet from the ground
40:27
Speaker 1: for two hundred miles. It may in stream beds, or
40:31
Speaker 1: it may in valleys, but it so what does this mean?
40:35
Speaker 1: One fine expositor seems to explain it well. The staggering,
40:39
Speaker 1: horrifying blood bath of the Battle of Armageddon will be
40:42
Speaker 1: so widespread that blood will be up to the horses
40:46
Speaker 1: bridles for a distance of two hundred miles. A better
40:49
Speaker 1: interpretation sees this as hyperbole to suggest the slaughter in
40:55
Speaker 1: which the blood will splatter into the air profusely along
41:00
Speaker 1: the whole length of the battle. When the slaughter reaches
41:04
Speaker 1: its peak, blood could flow deeply in troughs and stream beds. Armageddon,
41:10
Speaker 1: as this passage indicates, will actually be a slaughter rather
41:14
Speaker 1: than a battle. While it is the Angel who cuts
41:16
Speaker 1: the grapes, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who crushes
41:21
Speaker 1: out their lives. I pause to let you picture that
41:36
Speaker 1: that is the future of those who live their lives
41:40
Speaker 1: unredeemed and in open rebellion against the Lord Jesus and
41:46
Speaker 1: his message of forgiveness. He has sounded forth a trumpet
41:54
Speaker 1: that shall never sound retreat. He is sifting out the
41:59
Speaker 1: hearts of men before the judgment. Seat. Obi, swift my
42:04
Speaker 1: soul to answer. Be jubilant my feet. Our God is
42:12
Speaker 1: marching on. I love the line. Ob swift my soul
42:15
Speaker 1: to answer him. Answer him. The Civil War, bloody and
42:26
Speaker 1: brutal as many of its scenes were, doesn't hold a
42:31
Speaker 1: candle to the final slaughter. It defies imagination. Now, what
42:39
Speaker 1: do you do with the message like this? I because
42:43
Speaker 1: His truth marches on, and because there are lessons to
42:46
Speaker 1: be learned, regardless of where the passage may be found
42:49
Speaker 1: in the sixty six books of the Bible. What lessons
42:53
Speaker 1: can be learned here, I suggest, too, too, seem to
42:57
Speaker 1: emerge from what we have read and learned today. First,
43:03
Speaker 1: God's justice holds all of us accountable. God's justice holds
43:10
Speaker 1: all of us accountable. If there's one truth that Scripture
43:14
Speaker 1: reveals repeatedly, it is our accountability to our maker. He
43:20
Speaker 1: didn't simply make us and fling us on the earth
43:23
Speaker 1: and carelessly walk away without concern for where we go
43:27
Speaker 1: with our lives. We will give account, and His justice
43:31
Speaker 1: holds us accountable. As we've seen in these vivid vignettes
43:38
Speaker 1: unregenerate humanity faces a frightening future. They'll never hear of
43:43
Speaker 1: it in the liberal Church. They'll never hear of it
43:47
Speaker 1: from those who would love them into hell. They will
43:51
Speaker 1: hear a lot about the Lord Jesus coming as a
43:54
Speaker 1: baby and living a great life, and loving humanity and
43:57
Speaker 1: giving himself as a sacrifice. And it stops there. And
44:01
Speaker 1: the message is then from there on, let's love as
44:04
Speaker 1: he loved. Let's have compassion as he had. Compassions stop stop.
44:08
Speaker 1: The whole picture is that he is the one who
44:11
Speaker 1: came and paid the price for sin that we deserved,
44:15
Speaker 1: and he paid it fully. However, those promises that were
44:19
Speaker 1: made to Israel have never been fulfilled, and the judgments
44:22
Speaker 1: that were promised by those same truth telling prophets have
44:26
Speaker 1: not yet fallen, and they are yet to be, and
44:29
Speaker 1: they will be carried out precisely as directed by the
44:34
Speaker 1: Living God through the one who is his appointed judge,
44:38
Speaker 1: and that's the Lord Jesus. All of that, yet, future
44:44
Speaker 1: God's truth marches on. In case you like verses that
44:48
Speaker 1: link up with ones that appear where we're reading, how
44:51
Speaker 1: about Hebrews ten thirty one. It is a terrifying thing
44:56
Speaker 1: to fall into the hands of the living God. It
45:02
Speaker 1: is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of
45:06
Speaker 1: the living God. God's justice holds all of us accountable. Now,
45:14
Speaker 1: the second lesson that I learned from this, thankfully, is
45:18
Speaker 1: a relieving lesson. God's grace allows all of us freedom.
45:23
Speaker 1: God's grace allows all of us freedom. You know what
45:28
Speaker 1: I hardly need to tell you. You're free to reject
45:31
Speaker 1: this message. You're free to reject Christ. You're free to
45:38
Speaker 1: accept it. You're free to reject it. You're free to repent.
45:42
Speaker 1: You're free to ignore and refuse. No one will arrest
45:47
Speaker 1: you as you leave the building. No one will take
45:50
Speaker 1: the keys to your car and confiscate your property. Because
45:53
Speaker 1: you choose to reject, You're free. Grace allows you the
45:56
Speaker 1: freedom to do that. You will be restless, you will
46:01
Speaker 1: be haunted in your spirit, that's all part of the
46:03
Speaker 1: work of the spirit. But physically you will not be
46:06
Speaker 1: harmed because you reject Christ. Not now, we're free, But
46:14
Speaker 1: let me add we are not free to escape the
46:17
Speaker 1: consequences of our decision. It's part of the laws of
46:21
Speaker 1: the harvest. We're not free to escape the consequences of
46:27
Speaker 1: our decision. If you choose not to accept the message
46:34
Speaker 1: of hope and forgiveness, the final judgment is help. He's
46:46
Speaker 1: sifting out the hearts of men before the judgment. See
46:50
Speaker 1: be swift my soul to answer. It was over four
46:57
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty years It was over one hundred
46:59
Speaker 1: and forty years ago that Miss Howell walked that camp
47:06
Speaker 1: near the Potomac. It was over one hundred and forty
47:11
Speaker 1: years ago her pastor made the suggestion that resulted in
47:14
Speaker 1: the Great Hymn, that it's found its way into American
47:20
Speaker 1: song and even hymnal sense. She tells this of the writing.
47:25
Speaker 1: I awoke in the gray of the early dawn, and
47:28
Speaker 1: to my astonishment, found that the wish for lines were
47:31
Speaker 1: arranging themselves in my brain. I lay quite still until
47:36
Speaker 1: the last verse had completed itself, then hastily arose, saying
47:42
Speaker 1: to myself, I shall lose this if I don't write
47:44
Speaker 1: it down immediately. I searched for an old sheet of
47:48
Speaker 1: paper and an old stub of a pen, which I
47:51
Speaker 1: had had the night before, began to scrawl the lines,
47:54
Speaker 1: almost without looking, as I learned to do by often
47:58
Speaker 1: scratching down verses in the darkened room, when my children
48:02
Speaker 1: were sleeping. Having completed this, I lay down again and
48:08
Speaker 1: fell asleep, but not before feeling that something of importance
48:13
Speaker 1: had happened to me. You want a great thought in
48:22
Speaker 1: the big picture of things. One wonders if God didn't
48:27
Speaker 1: lead her to write what she did with you in
48:31
Speaker 1: mind today, be swift to answer him. Don't put that off.
48:51
Speaker 1: Bow with me, please, serious, serious words. What makes the
49:14
Speaker 1: message so serious is the finality of it. Often in
49:19
Speaker 1: a message like this, there's a tomorrow, there's another dawning,
49:25
Speaker 1: there's another opportunity for the change of heart or for repentance.
49:32
Speaker 1: Not now do you hear the words final judgment, And
49:44
Speaker 1: the next scene following this one you don't want to hear.
49:50
Speaker 1: We'll get there too. Revelation reveals it. So I interrupt
49:58
Speaker 1: your world during this most beautiful of all the seasons,
50:04
Speaker 1: when they're all singing our songs out there, to urge you,
50:09
Speaker 1: to urge you not to put this off. Don't don't
50:16
Speaker 1: play with this. Don't be fooled by the grace you
50:22
Speaker 1: have which allows you the freedom. Don't be fooled by that.
50:31
Speaker 1: You can't escape the consequences. The Lord Jesus Christ when
50:38
Speaker 1: he paid that price with his death on the cross,
50:44
Speaker 1: paid the penalty for sin. It was a debt you
50:48
Speaker 1: and I owed. It wasn't for his sins he died,
50:53
Speaker 1: it was for years in mind, he paid for all
50:55
Speaker 1: of them. So the only thing that keeps you from
51:01
Speaker 1: the gift of eternal life and hope in heaven is
51:05
Speaker 1: your trust in Christ. It's the only thing. Do that now,
51:11
Speaker 1: right now, right there where you're sitting. Father. Thank you
51:18
Speaker 1: for the seriousness of a message such as this. It
51:22
Speaker 1: is a reminder that we are not in charge of
51:26
Speaker 1: the ultimate issues of life. You are, and you have
51:30
Speaker 1: mapped out a plan that will ultimately bring glory to
51:35
Speaker 1: your name, and we realize that we must fit into
51:39
Speaker 1: your plan. You don't fit into ours. Thank you for
51:44
Speaker 1: causing eternal things to work like that. Thank you for
51:48
Speaker 1: those today who have made a decision to turn their
51:52
Speaker 1: lives over to your son Jesus Christ, and we pray
51:56
Speaker 1: that that beginning relationship will be marked by gratitude and
52:02
Speaker 1: purity of life, and a change in direction from where
52:06
Speaker 1: they have lived their days and their years. For those
52:10
Speaker 1: of us who know you as Savior and Lord, may
52:13
Speaker 1: this message make a difference. May we realize that there
52:17
Speaker 1: are consequences that follow decisions that are wrong, and there
52:22
Speaker 1: are rewards that follow those that are right. Find in
52:26
Speaker 1: us obedience and the wholeness of life marked by authenticity
52:32
Speaker 1: and integrity and commitment. And so, our Father, we commit
52:37
Speaker 1: to you the results of this message. Wherever these words
52:41
Speaker 1: may land, may they bear fruit to repentance and to godliness.
52:49
Speaker 1: Thank you for your hand on our country, and we
52:52
Speaker 1: pray that that hand might now rest heavily upon our lives.
52:57
Speaker 1: For we commit them to you in the name of
52:59
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, Star Savior. Amen.