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The-Final-Reaping-of-the-Earth-Revelation · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Tonight we come in our study of the Apocalypse the
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  Speaker 1: Revelation of Jesus Christ to chapter fourteen. Revelation chapter fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: and we're looking at a text of scripture that deals
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  Speaker 1: with the final harvest of the earth, the final reaping,
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  Speaker 1: when the Lord Jesus Christ reaps the earth in judgment.
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  Speaker 1: First time Jesus came to earth, he came as a servant.
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  Speaker 1: Next time he will come as the sovereign king. The
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  Speaker 1: first time Jesus came, he came as one obeying. Next
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  Speaker 1: time he will come as one commanding. The first time
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  Speaker 1: Jesus came, he came alone to live with a Jewish
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  Speaker 1: couple in a small, obscure town. The next time he
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  Speaker 1: will come with all his holy angels to take over
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  Speaker 1: the whole earth. The first time Jesus came, he came
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  Speaker 1: in humility. The next time he will come in glorious
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  Speaker 1: majesty and splendor. The first time Jesus came, he came
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  Speaker 1: to seek and to save the lost. And the next
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  Speaker 1: time he will come to judge and sentence the lost.
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  Speaker 1: Or to put the contrast in the terms of our text,
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  Speaker 1: the first time Jesus came, he came as the sower.
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  Speaker 1: Next time he will come as the reaper. He came
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  Speaker 1: in grace, he comes in wrath. The Book of Revelation
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  Speaker 1: is written to give us a clear understanding of that
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  Speaker 1: coming of Christ that yet awaits human history. And no
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  Speaker 1: one need be confused. The revelation of Jesus Christ is near.
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  Speaker 1: Christ is coming. He will appear in sovereign glory, the
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  Speaker 1: very same Jesus, the world crucified and rejects. He will
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  Speaker 1: come no longer like the first time. But to judge
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  Speaker 1: the ungodly. Let's read this text because it gives us
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  Speaker 1: a preview of the final judgment at the coming of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Let's begin in chapter fourteen with verse fourteen. And I
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  Speaker 1: looked and behold a white cloud. And sitting on the
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  Speaker 1: cloud was one like a son of man, having a
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  Speaker 1: golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in
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  Speaker 1: his hand. And another angel came out of the temple,
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  Speaker 1: crying out with a loud voice to him who sat
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  Speaker 1: on the cloud, put in your sickle and reap, because
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  Speaker 1: the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of
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  Speaker 1: the earth is ripe. And he who sat on the
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  Speaker 1: cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth
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  Speaker 1: was reaped, and another angel came out of the temple
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  Speaker 1: which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.
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  Speaker 1: And another angel, the one who has power over fire,
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  Speaker 1: came out from the altar, and he called with a
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  Speaker 1: loud voice to those who had the sharp sickle, saying
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  Speaker 1: to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, put in
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  Speaker 1: your sharp sickle, and gathered the clusters from the vine
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, because her grapes are ripe. The angel
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  Speaker 1: swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters
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  Speaker 1: from the vine of the Earth, and threw them into
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  Speaker 1: the great wine press of the wrath of God. And
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  Speaker 1: the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood
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  Speaker 1: came out from the wine press up to the horse's
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  Speaker 1: bridles for a distance of two hundred miles. This is
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  Speaker 1: a description of the imagery related to the last judgment,
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  Speaker 1: God's final wrath. The theme of final wrath has already
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  Speaker 1: been discussed in chapter fourteen. You'll remember it from back
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  Speaker 1: in verse eight and following. In fact, even verse seven
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  Speaker 1: talks about the hour of judgment has come, and so
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  Speaker 1: back in verse seven judgment was introduced into this chapter
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  Speaker 1: ran all the way through verse eleven and then there
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  Speaker 1: was a brief respite in verses twelve and thirteen, as
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  Speaker 1: we heard an encouraging word of the perseverance of the saints.
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  Speaker 1: After that brief rest to encourage the faithful, the theme
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  Speaker 1: again is wrath.
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  Speaker 2: Now you know where we are in.
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  Speaker 1: The Book of Revelations, so you kind of get a
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  Speaker 1: feel for the flow of truth. The Seven Seals have
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  Speaker 1: been opened, the seven trumpets have blown, the abomination of
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  Speaker 1: desolations by the Antichrist, and the Temple of Jerusalem has
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  Speaker 1: taken place. The persecution of Israel has escalated to a
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  Speaker 1: fever pitch. The execution and martyrdom of Christians all over
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  Speaker 1: the earth is going on. The whole earth and sky
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  Speaker 1: is devastated by divine judgment divine vengeance.
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  Speaker 2: Satan is ruling the earth with.
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  Speaker 1: The iron fist of anti Christ, aided by the false Prophet.
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  Speaker 1: The whole remaining world is deceived into worshiping the Anti
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  Speaker 1: Christ as if he were God and blaspheming the True
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  Speaker 1: God and Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 2: It is the worst time in the world's history.
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  Speaker 1: We have been seeing the details of that period to come,
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  Speaker 1: known as the Tribulation. In the latter half of that
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  Speaker 1: seven year period known as the Great Tribulation. We are
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  Speaker 1: now toward the end of the Great Tribulation, and people
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  Speaker 1: all across the earth are hoping things are going to
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  Speaker 1: get better.
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  Speaker 2: It seems as if they couldn't get worse. But they will.
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  Speaker 1: Times will become worse rapidly so, and finally so, the
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  Speaker 1: judgment that ultimately sweeps away Satan and sweeps away anti Christ,
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  Speaker 1: and sweeps away the false prophet, and sweeps away the demons,
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  Speaker 1: and sweeps away all ungodly people is about to hit.
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  Speaker 1: And here it is depicted under the final reaping of
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  Speaker 1: the earth.
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  Speaker 2: Here is the.
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  Speaker 1: Unprecedented final holocaust that gives the world its greatest blood
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  Speaker 1: bath ever, the fury of Christ released in final and
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  Speaker 1: devastating judgment. Now such a promise of judgment is not
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  Speaker 1: new in scripture. In fact, in the New Testament, at
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  Speaker 1: the very outset of the work of Jesus Christ, his forerunner,
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  Speaker 1: John the Baptist came along, and John the Baptist said
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  Speaker 1: to those who listened to him.
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  Speaker 2: In Matthew three seven, it is.
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  Speaker 1: Recorded, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee
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  Speaker 1: from the wrath, to come from the very beginning before
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  Speaker 1: the Messiah even began to preach the gospel. Here was
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  Speaker 1: one talking about future wrath and of the Lord Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: The Siah John said, he will baptize you with the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit and fire. In fact, he will burn up
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  Speaker 1: the chaff with unquenchable fire, said John.
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  Speaker 2: Now the apostle.
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  Speaker 1: Paul also gave a number of warnings about the coming
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  Speaker 1: of wrath, as did Peter. Of course, we will remember
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  Speaker 1: the words of Peter and second Peter, as he speaks
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  Speaker 1: very explicitly about the earth melting with fervent heat, the
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  Speaker 1: elements being burned up, and the terrible judgment of the
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  Speaker 1: day of the Lord that is going to fall. We
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  Speaker 1: remember that Paul wrote in Romans one eighteen about the
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  Speaker 1: wrath of God. In chapter two, verses five and six,
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  Speaker 1: he talked about the day of wrath and the revelation
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  Speaker 1: of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to
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  Speaker 1: every man according to his works. We remember those extremely
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  Speaker 1: graphic terms that Paul used in describing the return of
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  Speaker 1: Christ to the Thessalonians in Second Thessalons Chapter one. He said,
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  Speaker 1: God is going to repay and He's going to give relief.
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  Speaker 1: When when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
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  Speaker 1: with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution
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  Speaker 1: to those who do not know God and to those
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  Speaker 1: who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away
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  Speaker 1: from the presence of the Lord and from the glory
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  Speaker 1: of His power, all of this when He comes to
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  Speaker 1: be glorified in his saints on that day. And so
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  Speaker 1: whether it was John the Baptist, or whether it was Peter,
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  Speaker 1: or whether it was Paul, or even the Lord Jesus
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  Speaker 1: himself who clearly predicted the coming judgment on a number
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  Speaker 1: of occasions in Matthew thirteen.
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  Speaker 2: It's recorded Matthew twenty four twenty five. So there are a.
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  Speaker 1: Number of New Testament passages that speak of God's coming wrath,
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  Speaker 1: not just the Book of Revelation. Even the Book of
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  Speaker 1: Acts has the apostles preaching about day in which the
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  Speaker 1: Lord will judge the earth by the one whom he
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  Speaker 1: has ordained, namely Jesus Christ. Now those are general warnings
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  Speaker 1: for the most part about the coming final reaping of
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  Speaker 1: the earth, the final harvest of the earth. There are
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  Speaker 1: some very specific ones however, and for those, we need
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  Speaker 1: to go back to the Old Testament, and it's very
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  Speaker 1: important that we do that. Turn to Isaiah, chapter thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: verse thirteen. We get a look at God's punishment of
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  Speaker 1: the world for its evil, as he says in verse eleven,
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  Speaker 1: and the wicked for their iniquity, and he describes it
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  Speaker 1: in verse thirteen with these words Isaiah thirteen thirteen. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth will
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  Speaker 1: be shaken from its place at the fury of the
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  Speaker 1: Lord of Hosts in the day of his burning anger.
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  Speaker 1: Now go toward the end of Isaiah to chapter sixty three,
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  Speaker 1: and I want to read you a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a longer passage here because it's so obviously fits the
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  Speaker 1: text of Revelation fourteen. The prophet Isaiah in chapter sixty
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  Speaker 1: three receives this word from the Lord, who is this
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  Speaker 1: who comes from Edom with garments of glowing colors, from Bozrah,
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  Speaker 1: this one who is majestic in his apparel, marching in
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  Speaker 1: the greatness of his strength. And he's talking really there
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  Speaker 1: about the majesty of the returning Messiah. It is I
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  Speaker 1: who speak to you in righteousness, mighty to save. Why
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  Speaker 1: is your apparel red and your garments like the one
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  Speaker 1: who treads in the wine press. I have trodden the
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  Speaker 1: wine troth alone, and from the people's there was no
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  Speaker 1: man with me. I also trod them in my anger
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  Speaker 1: and trampled them in my wrath, and their life blood
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  Speaker 1: is sprinkled on my garment, and I stained all my raiment,
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  Speaker 1: for the day of vengeance was in my heart, and
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  Speaker 1: my year of redemption has come. And I looked, and
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  Speaker 1: there was no one to help. And I was astonished,
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  Speaker 1: and there was no one to uphold. So my own
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  Speaker 1: arm brought salvation to me, and my wrath upheld me.
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  Speaker 1: And I trod down the peoples in my anger and
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  Speaker 1: made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out
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  Speaker 1: their life blood on the earth. There is a fascinating
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  Speaker 1: soliloquy on the part of the Messiah as he speaks
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  Speaker 1: about coming into the world for final devastating blood letting
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  Speaker 1: judgment that splatters blood all over his garments and trampling
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  Speaker 1: out the grapes of wrath is certainly also a parallel
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  Speaker 1: to Chapter fourteen. There's one other Old Testament prophecy that
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  Speaker 1: I want to give you, just as a background, and
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  Speaker 1: you'll see the parallels as we look more closely at
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  Speaker 1: Revelation fourteen, and that's in Joel chapter three. Joel chapter three,
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  Speaker 1: you remember that after the major prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel,
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  Speaker 1: you have the minor prophets Hoseiah, and then comes Joel
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  Speaker 1: right before the Book of Amos. Joel only has three chapters,
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  Speaker 1: but it's a very important brief prophecy because it is
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  Speaker 1: often quoted in the New Testament. It has a special
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  Speaker 1: place in the intent and the purpose of God.
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  Speaker 2: It's a powerful book Joel.
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  Speaker 1: It was written in a time when the land of
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  Speaker 1: Israel was being devastated by locusts. We aren't exactly able
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  Speaker 1: to be positive about the date of the writing of Joel,
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  Speaker 1: but we know it was a time of devastation. Locusts, drought,
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  Speaker 1: and fire had come. And the prophet uses those devastating
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  Speaker 1: temporal judgments to warn of a greater, more extensive, and
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  Speaker 1: more severe judgment to come. You think it's been bad
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  Speaker 1: with the locusts and the drought and the fire, we
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  Speaker 1: haven't seen anything yet. And the prophet moves from that
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  Speaker 1: temporal judgment to the doom of the nations when the
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  Speaker 1: Lord unfolds his wrath and treads the wine press of
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  Speaker 1: his furious anger. The prophecy is also, at the same
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  Speaker 1: time an appeal from God to the people to seek
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  Speaker 1: him through repentance so he can bless them before this
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  Speaker 1: judgment comes.
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  Speaker 2: Let's look at chapter.
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  Speaker 1: Three and get a little feeling for what Joel says,
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  Speaker 1: starting in verse nine, proclaim this among the nations, prepare
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  Speaker 1: a war. Rouse the mighty men, Let all the soldiers
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  Speaker 1: draw near. Let them come up. Beat your plow shares
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  Speaker 1: into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the
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  Speaker 1: weaks say I am a mighty man. Hasten and come,
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  Speaker 1: all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down,
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  Speaker 1: o Lord, thy mighty ones. Let the nations be aroused,
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  Speaker 1: and come up to the valley of Jehashafat, For there
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  Speaker 1: I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. And
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  Speaker 1: here you're seeing the gathering of the nations all into
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  Speaker 1: the land of Palestine, for the judgment Messiah will render
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  Speaker 1: upon them.
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  Speaker 2: Put in the sickle verse thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: For the harvest is ripe, Come tread, for the wine
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  Speaker 1: press is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great, multitudes,
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  Speaker 1: multitudes in the Valley of Decision, For the day of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord is near. In the Valley of Decision, the
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  Speaker 1: sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness,
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  Speaker 1: and the Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice
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  Speaker 1: from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble. But
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  Speaker 1: the Lord is a refuge for his people and a
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  Speaker 1: stronghold of the sons of Israel. Then you will know
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  Speaker 1: that I am the Lord, your God, dwelling in Zion,
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  Speaker 1: my holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy and strangers
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  Speaker 1: will pass through it.
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  Speaker 2: No more so.
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  Speaker 1: The prophecies of Isaiah, as well as this prophecy in
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  Speaker 1: the Book of Joel, provide a very similar imagery through
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  Speaker 1: prophetic understanding, as does Revelation chapter fourteen. The image of wrath,
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  Speaker 1: the image of vengeance, and the image of the stamping
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  Speaker 1: out of grapes in a wine press as symbolic of
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  Speaker 1: God crushing out the life of the ungodly. Now, as
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  Speaker 1: I said earlier, the Lord Jesus himself spoke directly of
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  Speaker 1: this harvest of wrath. And let me at least have
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  Speaker 1: you look at Matthew chapter thirteen, And just note a
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  Speaker 1: couple of verses there we won't beg the issue. But
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  Speaker 1: in Matthew thirteen, for example, verse thirty allow both to
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  Speaker 1: grow together, that's the wheat and the tears until the harvest.
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  Speaker 1: And in the time of the harvest, I will say
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  Speaker 1: to the reapers, first, gather up the tears and bind
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  Speaker 1: them in bundles to burn them up.
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  Speaker 2: But gather the wheat into my barn.
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  Speaker 1: That uses that same harvest kind of picture for judge.
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  Speaker 1: Then down in verse thirty nine of Matthew thirteen, Jesus
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  Speaker 1: speaking says regarding the enemy who sowed them, being the devil.
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  Speaker 2: The harvest, he.
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  Speaker 1: Says, is the end of the age, and the reapers
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  Speaker 1: our angels. Therefore, just as the terrors are gathered up
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  Speaker 1: and burned with fire.
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  Speaker 2: Social it be at the end of the age.
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  Speaker 1: The son of Man will send forth his angels, and
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  Speaker 1: they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks
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  Speaker 1: and those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into
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  Speaker 1: the furnace of fire. In that place there shall be
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  Speaker 1: weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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  Speaker 2: Then down in verse.
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  Speaker 1: Forty nine, so it will be at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the age, the angels shall come forth and take out
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  Speaker 1: the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them
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  Speaker 1: into the furnace of fire.
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  Speaker 2: There shall be.
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  Speaker 1: Weeping and gnashing of teeth. So our Lord talked about
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  Speaker 1: a harvest of wrath. Joel and Isaiah talked about God
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  Speaker 1: coming in the form of Messiah as the judge and
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  Speaker 1: stamping out the grapes of wrath in final judgment. That
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  Speaker 1: is precisely what we see described in Revelation chapter fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: To borrow the language of Psalm II, it is the
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  Speaker 1: time for the king to come. It is the time,
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  Speaker 1: as verse six of Psalm two says, for the Lord
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  Speaker 1: to install his king on Zion, his holy mountain. It
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  Speaker 1: is a time for God to laugh at the nations
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  Speaker 1: who scoffed and laughed at him.
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  Speaker 2: It is a time for.
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  Speaker 1: God to give the nations as the inheritance of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: and for him to break them with a rod of
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  Speaker 1: iron and crush them like an earthen pot. So, whether
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  Speaker 1: you're talking about the Old Testament prophets or the New
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  Speaker 1: Testament writers, or John the Baptist, or Jesus himself, they
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  Speaker 1: looked ahead to a great judgment harvests. Now the harvest
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  Speaker 1: here is pictured in two different motifs, first the grain
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  Speaker 1: harvest in Verses fourteen to sixteen, and then the grape harvest.
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  Speaker 1: The grain harvest and then the grape harvest, and you'll
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  Speaker 1: see the difference very clearly in both of them.
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  Speaker 2: There is a sickle and a reaping.
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  Speaker 1: Now the question immediately comes, why two visions of the
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  Speaker 1: same event. Well, one simple answer is, there are lots
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  Speaker 1: of different visions of this same event. I just pointed
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  Speaker 1: out a number of them to you. One in Isaiah,
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  Speaker 1: one in Joel, a number of them in the Words
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus, and then Peter and Paul and John the Baptist.
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  Speaker 1: It's not uncommon or is it unnecessary, to give repeated
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  Speaker 1: views of the same event. But as you approach this
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  Speaker 1: particular juncture in the Book of Revelation, there's something more
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  Speaker 1: here than just to repetition. There are two great aspects
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  Speaker 1: of judgment yet to come, and that's why I believe
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit has ordained two visions. There are two
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  Speaker 1: significant final judgments to come. First, we are going to
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  Speaker 1: see in chapter sixteen the Seven Bowl judgments. They come
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  Speaker 1: at the very end of the time of tribulation, a
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  Speaker 1: rapid fire, sequence of frightening worldwide judgments that destroy the
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  Speaker 1: whole world system of Babylon, destroying the Antichrist Empire. Then
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  Speaker 1: there is a second aspect to final judgment, and that
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  Speaker 1: is the battle of Armageddon, when Jesus Christ actually returns
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  Speaker 1: to the Earth. So in looking at the end, we
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  Speaker 1: still are going to see two phases of this final wrath.
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  Speaker 2: One will take the form of seven bowls, and the.
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  Speaker 1: Other will be the very direct in mention of Jesus
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  Speaker 1: Christ when he returns. One then is described in chapter sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: and the second is described in chapter nineteen. And I
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  Speaker 1: believe that the reason you have two images here is
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  Speaker 1: to accommodate those two distinct aspects of final judgment. Let's
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  Speaker 1: look first of all at the grain harvest. The grain harvest,
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  Speaker 1: in each case you have three simple points, the reaper,
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  Speaker 1: the ripeness, and the reaping. First of all, the reaper
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  Speaker 1: verse fourteen, and 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 man, having a golden crown on his head and
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  Speaker 1: a sharp sickle in his hand. Now in this vision,
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  Speaker 1: John sees the reaper. He says, and I look, that's
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  Speaker 1: a familiar phrase for students of revelation because it's used
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  Speaker 1: a number of times, and he adds that the exclamation and.
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  Speaker 2: Behold and.
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  Speaker 1: Wow and startlingly, I saw a white cloud. The imagery
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of the white cloud is also associated with the Old Testament.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Back in the Book of Daniel, in chapter seven, there
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: are a couple of verses that are very important. Daniel
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: says in verses thirteen and fourteen, I kept looking in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the night visions, and behold with the clouds of heaven
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: one like a son of Man. That's almost a direct
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: parallel passage. And so we can be sure that the
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: image that John sees there is drawn from that depicted
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: in the Book of Daniel, and it shows the Son
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: of Man surrounded by clouds which demonstrate his magnificent majesty.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: The Son of Man, then, is coming in fulfillment of
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Daniel's prophecy to him, was given a dominion, wrote Daniel,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: in Glory and the Kingdom, that all the peoples and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: nations and men of every language might serve him. His
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: And his kingdom is won, which will not be destroyed.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: And so here he is depicted sitting on the white cloud,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: ready to take the dominion that Daniel promised. The New
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Testament does not hesitate to speak of Christ in his
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: second coming glory as being associated with clouds Matthew twenty
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: four point thirty. Then the sign of the Son of
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: of the earth will mourn, and they will see the
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: With power and great glory.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Jesus said in Matthew twenty six sixty four, you have
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: said it yourself. Nevertheless, I tell you hereafter you shall
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Remember
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: in Act one he was taken up by a cloud,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and the Angel said, in the same Jesus, shall so
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: come in like manner as you've seen him go.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: And so here is one sitting on a cloud.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: And here we have the Lord as it were poised
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: to return in judgment.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: By the way is point of contrast.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: The beast sits on something very different than a white cloud.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen shows the beast sitting but sitting on many waters.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, verse one verse fifteen. And the waters are
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the heart where the harlot sits our peoples and multitudes
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and nations and tongues. But Christ is not earthly, he
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: is heavenly, and he is here associated with a white cloud.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: And I believe the posture there depicts the reaper waiting
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: for final orders to begin the reaping. The reaper is
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: then identified very clearly here look at it in verse fourteen,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: one like a son of man. That phrases directly as
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I said from Daniel seven thirteen. And there it refers
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to none other than the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and it does as well. Here someone might wonder, why
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: does it say one like a son of man? Why
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: doesn't it use a definite article and say was the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: son of man? One like a son of man? Well
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the answer is, I don't know why God chooses to
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: do what he does.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: But he uses the.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Identical phrase back in chapter one and verse thirteen, and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: we know it's there referring to Christ where he is
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: moving in the in the church in the majestic vision
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of chapter one, and he has called one like a
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: son of man Christ, and his incarnation takes on the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: form of man that's the intent of that text, And
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: so it does refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: who it refers to the very same phrase in chapter
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: one and verse thirteen, and that's certainly what Daniel intended.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: By the way, this is the last time the Lord
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: has ever called son of man. This is the last time,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: the first time you remember it, Matthew eight twenty. The
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: The son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: What a contrast. The first time he was called son
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: of man, he had nothing. The last time he's called
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: son of man, he comes to take everything.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: The Reaper is further described in verse fourteen as having
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: a golden crown on his head. This is Stephanos. This
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: is not diadema, the diadem. This is not the crown
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: of the king. This is the crown of the victor.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: This is the runner's crown, not the royal crown. This
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: pictures the son of man coming to conquer, coming to
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: prevail over his enemies. This was a crown that was
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: made out of like a laurel wreath, leafed in gold,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: worn on festive occasions, worn for wars and great athletic
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: events by the victors, the triumphers. This is the crown
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: of triumph that is referred to a number of times
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: in the New Testament. The word stephanos is a very
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: popular word, particularly with the apostle Paul. It's different than
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the diadem or the royal crown, which you see over
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: in chapter nineteen as being worn by the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Here he is seen not in his sovereign ruling position,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: but coming to conquer his victorious posture, riding out of heaven,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: as it were, on a cloud to come conquering, and
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: in his hand a sharp sickle.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: A sickle was a long curved blade.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: You may not understand a sickle unless you've looked at
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: an old encyclopedia, or seen some agricultural film somewhere, or
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: seen it in a book. We don't deal with that
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: anymore in our modern world. But a long wooden't handle
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: hat on the end of it, a long curved, sharpened
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: blade sharpened to the razor edge. In ancient Israel, sickles
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: were made out of iron or steel. They were sharpened
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: like a razor to sweep through the green, and they
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: would just sweep the sickle and it would just cut
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the grain right at ground level. And so you see
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: depicted then the Lord Jesus Christ, as it were, sitting
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: on a cloud waiting for final orders to come and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: take his sickle and begin the grain harvest, the final judgment.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: From the reaper. We come to the ripeness.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Look at verse fifteen, and another angel came out of
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the temple, crying out with a loud voice to him
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: who sat on the cloud, put in your sickle and reap,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: because the hour to reap has come, because the harvest
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: of the earth is ripe.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: The ripeness indicates the time is now.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Just a couple of details that are very interesting here,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: and another angel came out of the temple. The temple
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: refers to the dwelling place of God, the place where
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: God dwells.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: Verse seventeen marks the same thought.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: and that tells us that this is not the earthly temple.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: This is not the temple of the tribulation in Jerusal.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: This is Heaven, the dwelling place of God, the sanctuary,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the place of holy presence. Here comes an angel from God. Remember,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: now angels are instruments of judgment. You see that in
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Matthew thirteen. You see it all through the book of Revelation.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Here is the fourth active angel in this chapter. We've
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: already met three of them earlier in the chapter, in fact,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: even clearly given specific tasks to do precisely from verse
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: six down through eleven. And here comes the fourth angel
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: with a very specific task. He comes right out of
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: the throne room, right out of the sanctuary, right out
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: of the temple where God dwells.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: For very obvious reasons.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: He is coming to tell the Son of Man that
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: God wants him now to move in judgment. Now, remember
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: that the son of Man has been given all judgment.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: According to John five point twenty seven, all judgment is
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: committed under the son, but the father is the one
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: who passes the judgment task to the son at the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: appropriate moment. It is a delegated authority, and the son,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: as it were, sits on the battlements of heaven, waiting
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to have his right to judge delegated.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: To him so that he can act.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Son can now exercise his right and judge and execute
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Wrath has come. God's anger has reached its limit. He
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: is sending vengeance by the man with whom he will
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: judge the world, namely.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: The Lord Jesus Christ.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: So this angel comes out of the temple, the temple
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: that is in heaven, the dwelling place of God, crying
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: out with a loud voice to him who sat on
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the cloud. The idea of the loud voice is to
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: demonstrate authority from God, urgency power. He tells him, Put
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: in your sickle and reap, because the hour to reap
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: has come.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: No more delay, no more grace. It is time for
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: the harvest.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: The swift, sharp sickle shows the completeness of this judgment
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and its speed and its severity.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Just another interesting note. You see the word ripe.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: It's time to reap, because the harvest of the earth
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: is ripe. The word actually means to be overripe, to
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: have passed the point of any usefulness, to become actually dry, withered,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: over ripe, or rotten. In other words, the green the
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: earth has passed the point of any use at all,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: no purpose for it at all.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: It's overripe. It's very late.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: That may be a hint that God has been merciful,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: and he has been so merciful and so gracious that
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: he has waited until the world has even past ripeness
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: for judgment. What grays The other implication is that the
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: world is absolutely useless, might as well be hacked down, bundled,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and to borrow the imagery of our Lord thrown into
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: the fire. The Gospel has been being preached. We remember that,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: don't we, from the first part of chapter fourteen, by
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: the four one hundred and forty four thousand, and also
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: by the two Witnesses, and by the Everlasting Angel in
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen verses six and seven. But the rotten world
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: is going to be dealt with now, wow, because of
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: its over ripeness. And then thirdly the reaping verse sixteen.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: And he who sat on the clouds swung his sickle
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: over the earth, and the earth was reaped. Well, it's
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: a tragic verse. I wish we could live in the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: light of the reality of that. It is done. It
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: is done.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: The goats are destroyed.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: According to the terms of Matthew twenty five, the terrors
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: are destroyed according to the terms of Matthew thirteen. The
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: good are capped, the sheep, the wheat, the bad destroyed.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: This judgment, this devastating judgment.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Is going to fall and I believe certainly includes the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: seven bowls. If you go over to chapter sixteen for
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: a moment, I'll give you a little preview.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: What happens in this judgment is just frightening.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Verse two. Loathsome and malignant soars upon men. Verse three.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: The sea becomes blood like that of a dead man,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: and every living thing, and the sea died.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Verse four. To the rivers and springs of waters became blood.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Verse eight. The sun was made to scorch men with fire.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: They were scorts with fierce heat. Verse ten. The kingdom
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: of the Beast became darkened, and men gnaw their tongues
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: because of pain, blaspheme the God of Heaven, because of
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: their pains and their s. Verse twelve talks about kings
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: from the east. And I saw coming out of the dragon,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: and out of the mouth of the beast, and out
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: like frogs. They are spirits of demons, performing signs which
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: go out to the kings of the whole world to
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: gather them together for the war of the great Day
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: of God the Almighty, that's Armageddon. Verse seventeen. The seventh
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: loud voice came out of the temple from the throne,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: saying it is done. Flashes of lightning, sounds and peals
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: of thunder, a great earthquake. The city is split into
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: three parts. The cities of the nations fell Babel, and
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: the great was remembered before God to give her the
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: cup of the wine of his fierce wrath. Every island
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: fled away, the mountains were not found. Huge hailstones one
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: hundred pounds come down from heaven, and men laspheme God.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: All of that is rapid fire at the.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: End, and all of that speaks of the details of
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: the harvest without even a break. Another vision comes immediately.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Let's go back to verse seventeen. Not the grain harvest
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: this time, but the gray harvest. And while this certainly
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: could encompass the bulls, or a portion of those bulls,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: since even the gathering to Armageddon is a part of
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: those Bowld judgments, I think this looks specifically not at
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: the judgments described in the Seven Bowls, but at the
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: actual coming of Christ, the very last judgment that ends Armageddon.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Let's meet the Reaper here verse seventeen, and another angel
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: came out of the temple which is in heaven, and
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: he also had a sharp sickle. This is the fifth
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: angel in the visions of chapter fourteen. And he also
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: is an agent for God's judgment, and he has a
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: sharp sickle. Both the Lord Jesus Christ and the first
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: vision and this angel and the second vision have instruments
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: of judgment. Angels, you know, have played very prominent roles
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: already in Revelation. The four horsemen that we saw in
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: chapter six were called by angels. The seven trumpets were
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: blown by angel Satan, and demons were defeated by angels.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: The seven bulls will be poured out by angels. Armageddon
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: is announced by an angel. Satan and demons are bound
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: by an angel. And here is another angel. And this
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: angel comes out of the temple in heaven, and he
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: also has a sharp sickle. I remember this is a
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: visionary image of judgment. And from the Reaper to the
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: ripeness again verse eighteen. And another angel, yet another one
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: number six. This one is identified the one who has
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: power over fire came out from the altar. Now this
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: is more interesting, This is a little different, This is
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: somewhat unique. Here comes another angel and This angel is
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: the one who has power over fire, and he comes
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: out from the altar. Now the altar has already been
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Let's go back to
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: chapter six, and this is a fascinating picture. Back in
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: chapter six, verse nine, when the fifth seal was broken,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: describing the judgment of God in the time of the tribulation,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: as I saw underneath the altar the souls of those
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: who had been slain because of the word of God
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: they cried out with a loud voice, saying, how long,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: oh Lord, Holy and true, wilt thou refrain from judging
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: And there was given to them a white robe, and
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: they were told they should rest for a little while
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: longer until the number of their fellow servants and their
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: brethren were to be killed, even as they had been
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: should be completed.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: Also, what you have here is the altar of prayer.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: It is the altar of incense, if you will, which
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: was emblematic of prayers.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: There is a symbolic altar in heaven.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: There are saints gathered there, and their prayers, Our petitions
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: are rising to God. They are praying for God to
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: send his wrath. They have been martyred, and they are
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: praying to God to stop this martyrdom, to send his wrath,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: to crush the ungodly, to give victory to the saints,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: to vindicate the saints, to send Christ triumphantly to establish
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: his kingdom. So you see them praying there in chapter six,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: verses nine to eleven. I go to chapter eight, and
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: we'll go a little further into this picture. Chapter eight,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: verse three, and another angel came and stood at the alder,
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: holding a golden censer, and much incense was given to him,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: that he might add it to the prayers of all
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: the saints, went up before God.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Out of the angel's hand.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: The angel took the censer, and he filled it with
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: the fire of the aldar and threw it to the earth.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: And there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: of lightning, and an earthquake.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: Now let me give you a litt Jewish background.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: Twice a day, whether at the tabernacle or later on
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: the temple, at the time of morning sacrifice and the
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: time of evening sacrifice, the priest would go into the
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: brazen altar and he would get fire. The fire was
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: always going there symbolizing the ascending prayers. But the priest
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: would go and he would get some fire and he
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: would put it in the censer, and then he would
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: go into the Holy Place and he would wave the
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: censer as it were in the Holy Place, which was
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: like the presence of God, not the Holy of Holies,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: but still a place where God would be present, and
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: the incense would rise, symbolizing the prayers of the people. Actually,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: at that very moment outside the people would be praying,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: so he was symbolizing at the time of morning prayer
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: and evening prayer exactly what the people were doing. And
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: he would stand right in front of the veil to
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: the Holy of Holies and he would wave the censer.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: You would then ignite the alder of incense to its
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: fullest fleame brazen altar, and then the alder of incense,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: the incense arose, and it symbolized the prayers of the people.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: So the fire on the altar symbolizes prayer rising to God.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: It represents all the prayers of all the true saints
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: who pleaded for God to send Christ, who pleaded for
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: God to judge, all the saints, who ever said, Thy
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Kingdom Come, whoever said, even so, Come, Lord Jesus. Now
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: all of that background to take you back to chapter fourteen,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and have you note again that in verse eighteen, another angel,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the one who has power over fire, came out from
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the altar. Here comes an angel who has been dealing
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: with the heavenly counterpart to the alder of incense, the
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: fire angel, and he's coming out. And he called with
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: put in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters from
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: The picture here is that this angel is not so
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: much coming from the throne of God as the first
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: angel did, representing the will of God. But this is
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: an angel coming from the aldar because he is coming
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: to see that the prayers of the saints are answered.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: He comes from the place where the saints have been
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: praying and praying and praying, and it's now time to
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: answer their prayers. It's time for the grape harvest, just
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: as it was time for the grain harvest. And again,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: these two different pictures of the same great scene, as
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: I said, can focus, and I think do on two
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: great events that overlap the bold judgments and then the final,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: great cataclysmic return of Jesus Christ.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: And you can see how.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: This one emphasizes the wine press and thus the splattering
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: of blood and the gushing of blood and the deadliness
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: that is characteristic of the return of Christ. Verse eighteen says,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: the vine of the earth. Cut them off, sever them
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: from the earth vine, sever them from earthly existence. Why,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: because her grapes are ripe. A different word for ripe
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: is used here. It means fully ripe. They're in their prime,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: they're bursting with juice, the juice of wickedness. So the
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: reaper and the ripeness. And then you see lastly the
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: reaping verse nineteen. And the angel swung his sickle to
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: the earth and threw them into the great wine press
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: of the wrath of God. And the wine press was
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: trodden outside the city and blood came out from the
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: wine press up to the horses bridles, for a distance
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: of two hundred miles.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: The wine press was an interesting thing.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: There would be a large carved out piece of stone,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: then below it would be another one.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: That would catch the juice.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: There would be a trough running from the upper to
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: the lower one. The grapes would be thrown into this
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: press and then trampled under the feet of those who
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: did the work. And as they would stamp and crush
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: those grapes so full of juice would burst, and the
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: juice would then flow downward to the trough and run
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: down into that second basin, which would catch it. To
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: watch that happen, with the brightness of the grapes and
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: their color would be almost like you were looking at
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: a blood bath. And so there's a crossover in the
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: imagery here. The splattering of the grapes becomes the splattering
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: of the blood of those destroyed. All the enemies of
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: God who are still alive when the final return of
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Christ comes. All the enemies of God who have survived
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: the seven seals up to now, the seven trumpets and
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: the seven bowls, all of them who are still there,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: who are still left will be engaged in the great
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: final battle of Armageddon. It will be in Armageddon in
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the north Harmagido, the plain of Esdralan up in the north.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: It will stretch all the way down through the middle,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: through the Valley of Jehashafat all the way, as Isaiah
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: pointed it out to Bozrah in Eden, to the south,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: down even below the Dead Sea, that great stretch of
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: land that runs from the southernmost part to the northernmost
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: part of the land of Israel, all the way, if
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: you will, from beyond Dan to beyond Bearsheba, from Esdralan
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: to Eden, this great conflagration of nations of the world
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: will be gathered.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: In that land of Palestine.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: The very moment is described by Isaiah as I read
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: you in chapter sixty three, and by Joel in chapter three.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: And at that point God's powerful angel puts the sickle in,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: and the grapes are harvested and thrown into the great
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: wine press of the wrath of God to be crushed.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: The crushing is just amazing, it says in verse twenty.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: The wine press was trodden outside the city. It's best
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: to see that as a reference to Jerusalem.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: It's like the Lord sort.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: Of protects the city of Jerusalem itself at this moment.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: The prophets Zachariah in chapter fourteen, Daniel and che after eleven.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Joel in chapter three says the battle will be around Jerusalem,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: but apparently the city will be spared without the bloody
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: carnage that will go on all over the land, and
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: blood will come out from the wine press the juice.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Now the imagery turns to blood up to the horse's bridles.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: There are two possibilities here. If that's just running blood,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: it's four feet deep. Now you say, how many people
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: are going to be engaged in the Battle of Armageddon, Well.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: There will be many.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: It's not unrealistic to assume there will be millions. And
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: when all those millions that still remain and have survived
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: up to this last moment are fighting their battle against
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: God and against his Christ and Jesus comes in the
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: great final act of judgment, it's not beyond assumption that
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: there could be millions. We don't know how many millions
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: who would be caught in this blood bath, but even
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: millions of people in a blood bath would make it
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: very difficult to understand how that the blood could be
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: four feet deep for two hundred miles. So I don't
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: think that we are intended to assume that there is
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: this two hundred mile long lake of four feet deep blood.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: But I do think what we can assume is one
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: of two things. The implication here is that the blood
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: will splatter to the height of the horse's bridles, which
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: would be four feet blood splattered horses, or blood splattered
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: to that height. Or better yet, there may well be
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: a trough running right down the central valley of Israel
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: that is.
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: Four feet deep in blood.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: If the battle takes place in those areas that are
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: near the central valley. It's possible that at some points
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: that blood could run that deep as it troughs its
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: way down the center of the land of Palestine. But
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: certainly the idea here is that blood is going to
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: splatter to the horses bridles all over a two hundred
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: mile area. By the way, in the Greek you have
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: sixteen hundred steady eye here, which roughly translates into one
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty to two hundred miles. If you stretch
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: this thing all the way from Armageddon in the North
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: all the way down to eat them in the south
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and go, say forty miles beyond, you would have ample
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: space to fill up that one hundred and eighty to
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: two hundred miles.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the intent.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: The battle will rage from beyond the borders of one
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: end of that land and beyond the borders of the
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: other end of that land, because of the millions of
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: people that will be flooding in there to engage themselves
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: in this final great armageddon. And at that point the
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Lord will come. That description of the Lord's return is
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: given in chapter nineteen.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: Let's look at it, because here you have, I think.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: The description of the treading of the wine press the
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: bloody Slaughter Versus eleven of Chapter nineteen. I saw henn opened.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Behold a white horse, and he who sat upon it
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: called faithful and true, and in righteousness. He judges and
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: wages war, and his eyes are a flame of fire.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: And upon his head are many diadems. And he has
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: a name written upon him which no one knows except him.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: And he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: And his name is called the Word of God. And
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: the armies which are in heaven, clothed and fine linen,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: white and clean. We're following him on white horses. And
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: it he may smite the nations, and he will rule
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: them with a rod of iron. And he treads the
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: The angel cuts the grapes.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: If we can put these two scenes together, but the
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: Lord Christ crushes out their life. It's an incredible scene.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: The land is literally filled with blood, and its splattered
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: all over the garment.
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: Of the returning Christ. And it says.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: On his robe verse sixteen, and on his thigh he
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: he cried out with a loud voice, saying, to all
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: the birds which fly in mid heaven, come assemble for
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: the Great Supper of God, in order that you may
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: horses and of those who sit on them, and the
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: flesh of all men, both three men and slaves, and
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: small and great. I saw the beast and the kings
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: of the earth and their armies assemble to make war
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: against him who sat upon the horse, and against his army.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: who performed the signs in his presence, by which he
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: deceived those who had received the mark of the beast,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: and those who worshiped his image.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: These two were.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: Thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: and the the rest were killed with the sword which
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: came from the mouth of him who sat upon the horse,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: That's it. That's the final note on the gray harvest.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: The grain harvest, I think is describing those final bulls
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: that lead up to the gray harvest, when the Lord
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: himself comes and treads the wine press of the fierce
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: wrath of God the Almighty. Some people feel that in
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: Ezekiel chapter thirty nine, it's a debatable point. We'll talk
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: more about it when we get to chapter nineteen. But
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: for those of you who I know will ask me
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: the question. Some people feel that Ezekiel chapter thirty nine,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: verses eight to sixteen describes the cleanup that has to
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: take place going into the kingdom because of all this carnage.
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: That's left in the land of Palastine.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: The king doesn't want to set up his kingdom in
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: that land with all of that carnage and Ezekiel thirty nine.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: Some feel relates to the cleanup at this particular time,
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: and we'll say more about that later. No wonder the
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: Bible says, it is a fearful thing to fall into
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: the hands of a living God. No wonder the Bible says,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: kiss the sun lest he be angry. What a frightening
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: future the world has. They don't know it? Do they?
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: We know it?
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: Can you understand that, my friend? Can you understand that
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: you know where the world is going? You know that
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: it's not a guess. It's here. We have information that
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: we must give. We know the house is on fire
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: and hell awaits we know what's coming. What a responsibility.
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: We've got a nation full of people trying to figure
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: out the future. Right, we know the future.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: Father, We thank you for giving us this truth. The
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: same time, we feel responsible to pass it on to
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: warn men of the wrath to come, just like John
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: the Baptist did, Just like Jesus and Paul and Peter
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: every other faithful believer. Help us to be faithful to
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: warn of the terror to come. The world isn't going
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: to get better, It's going to get worse. And as
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: bad as it is now, they don't have any idea
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: what it's going to be like. Lord, help us to
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: have a passion in our hearts to tell men the truth,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: to tell women the truth, to warn. It's not enough
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: just to talk about the positive things and the happy life.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: We need to warn men, to warn them of what
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: is coming and coming soon. Surely, help us to be
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: faithful for jesus sake.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: Amen, you've been listening to John MacArthur, Bible teacher with
• 58:43
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• 58:46
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• 58:49
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• 59:01
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