Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / God’s Terrible, Swift Sword Msg 215 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

Transcript

God’s Terrible, Swift Sword Msg 215 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:01
Speaker 1: In the closing seven verses of Revelation 14, John described
0:06
Speaker 1: the Lord's final judgment. He uses vivid word pictures that
0:11
Speaker 1: an ancient grower of grain or of grapes would appreciate.
0:17
Speaker 1: As we read about the Son of Man swinging his
0:20
Speaker 1: sharp sickle of judgment, we're all reminded that God's justice
0:25
Speaker 1: holds us accountable for whatever choices we may make. We
0:30
Speaker 1: must accept or reject His truth. Whatever our choice, we've
0:36
Speaker 1: been warned. And today, we'll get a preview of those
0:41
Speaker 1: coming events. The hour of fast approaches when Jesus Christ
0:47
Speaker 1: will return from heaven with power and in great glory.
0:52
Speaker 1: All the misconceptions about who Jesus was and is will
0:56
Speaker 1: instantly be dispelled. And the whole world will be forced
1:01
Speaker 1: to face the full biblical truth about the person of Christ,
1:06
Speaker 1: the Savior, who not only died for our sins, but
1:10
Speaker 1: is also coming again to judge the living and the dead.
1:15
Speaker 1: We cannot merely emphasize the first coming of Christ as
1:19
Speaker 1: prophet and sacrifice. We must also embrace his coming as
1:24
Speaker 1: judge and king. In preparation for our message today, I'd
1:30
Speaker 1: like to read Revelation chapter 14, specifically verses 14 through 20.
1:36
Speaker 1: If you have a Bible handy, please follow along as
1:41
Speaker 1: I read for you Revelation 14, beginning at verse 14. John,
1:47
Speaker 1: the writer, the disciple of Jesus, the apostle, is writing
1:51
Speaker 1: these words. Then I looked, and behold a white cloud
1:57
Speaker 1: And sitting on the cloud was one like a son
1:59
Speaker 1: of man, having a golden crown on his head and
2:03
Speaker 1: a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came
2:09
Speaker 1: out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice
2:12
Speaker 1: to him who sat on the cloud, Put in your
2:15
Speaker 1: sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come,
2:19
Speaker 1: because the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then he
2:25
Speaker 1: who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth,
2:28
Speaker 1: and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out
2:33
Speaker 1: of the temple, which is in heaven, and he also
2:36
Speaker 1: had a sharp sickle. Then another angel, the one who
2:40
Speaker 1: has power over fire, came out from the altar, and
2:44
Speaker 1: he called with a loud voice to him who had
2:47
Speaker 1: the sharp sickle, saying, Put in your sharp sickle, and
2:51
Speaker 1: gather the clusters from the vine of the earth. because
2:55
Speaker 1: her grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle
3:00
Speaker 1: to the earth, and gathered the clusters from the vine
3:03
Speaker 1: of the earth, and threw them into the great winepress
3:08
Speaker 1: of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden
3:14
Speaker 1: outside the city, and blood came out from the winepress,
3:20
Speaker 1: up to the horse's bridles, for a distance of About
3:25
Speaker 1: 200 miles. Sobering. It was on the 7th of December, 1941,
3:32
Speaker 1: that the three Swindoll children, ages 7, 8, and 10,
3:40
Speaker 1: were sitting in the back seat of my dad's new
3:43
Speaker 1: 41 Ford. My mother and dad were in the front seat.
3:47
Speaker 1: We were on our way down to the little bay
3:49
Speaker 1: cottage owned by my grandfather. And my mother turned around
3:55
Speaker 1: and told us to be quiet that the president was speaking.
4:00
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget, my dad pulled over and stopped
4:04
Speaker 1: and we listened as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the
4:09
Speaker 1: day of infamy as our nation had been attacked by
4:15
Speaker 1: the Imperial Japanese Army. My dad, as it was finished,
4:21
Speaker 1: wiped away the tears as my mom did and He said,
4:25
Speaker 1: we have no business having fun for the next few
4:30
Speaker 1: days while we are at war. I'll never forget. We
4:33
Speaker 1: did a U-turn halfway down there and made our way
4:36
Speaker 1: back to the little town of El Campo where we
4:38
Speaker 1: lived and shortly thereafter moved to Houston where my dad,
4:43
Speaker 1: a little too old for the draft, went into what
4:45
Speaker 1: was called then defense plant work where the shop was
4:49
Speaker 1: changed from making roller bits to there at Reed Roller
4:54
Speaker 1: Bid Company, and began to tool up for the making
4:58
Speaker 1: of armament, transmissions for the tanks, landing gears for the
5:03
Speaker 1: great bombers, the B-17s, and some of the equipment for
5:09
Speaker 1: the fighters that flew. Every time the 7th of December
5:14
Speaker 1: rolls around, I do a quick pass and review as
5:17
Speaker 1: my brother and sister join me in doing that. We
5:21
Speaker 1: remember our parents now gone to be with the Lord
5:26
Speaker 1: and their love for our country, which was instilled in us.
5:31
Speaker 1: It's appropriate in this moment that we pause to thank
5:37
Speaker 1: God for his protection over us for now these more
5:40
Speaker 1: than 60 years, really for well over 200 and for
5:45
Speaker 1: who knows how much longer. You join me as we pray.
5:58
Speaker 1: We live our lives at your mercy, our Father. We
6:07
Speaker 1: are able to exist in a free country because of
6:12
Speaker 1: your protection. And also because of the faithfulness and bravery
6:19
Speaker 1: of men and women who've joined the forces to assist
6:25
Speaker 1: in the defense of our freedom. We remember them at
6:29
Speaker 1: this lonely time of the year for them. We pray
6:33
Speaker 1: that you would encourage them. You would protect them. Give
6:39
Speaker 1: guidance to those who command the troops on the land,
6:43
Speaker 1: to those who sail great vessels of the sea, to
6:49
Speaker 1: those who fill the skies with fast-moving aircraft. To those
6:56
Speaker 1: who do the work of planning and strategizing in rooms
6:59
Speaker 1: without windows. In places of confidentiality and great top secret gatherings.
7:08
Speaker 1: I pray you'd protect our president, his family. That you'd
7:13
Speaker 1: guide us as a country, though we don't deserve it.
7:18
Speaker 1: That you'd have mercy on us, though it would certainly
7:21
Speaker 1: be unmerited. We have drifted far away from your truth.
7:30
Speaker 1: Thank you for your grace in providing what we can
7:36
Speaker 1: never earn and do not deserve. Not only in the
7:42
Speaker 1: freedom of our country as it continues, but also continuing
7:50
Speaker 1: to guide us spiritually. This is a tough time of
7:55
Speaker 1: the year for many, our Father. Those whose lives have
8:00
Speaker 1: been fractured and crushed by divorce. Those who have gone
8:05
Speaker 1: through the horrors of that rejection against their wishes. Those
8:11
Speaker 1: in lonely places rearing their children as single parents. Those
8:17
Speaker 1: with diseases that the doctor says are terminal. Those who
8:24
Speaker 1: have been laid aside in illness that's yet to be
8:27
Speaker 1: fully diagnosed. Those whose bodies will be in hospitals over
8:33
Speaker 1: the time of the Christmas season. We pray for these.
8:40
Speaker 1: We pray for those who struggle with addictions. Those who
8:44
Speaker 1: have recently lost that battle. We pray that you will
8:48
Speaker 1: somehow give renewed strength, fresh courage, that you would use
8:56
Speaker 1: this church and churches all around the world who love
8:59
Speaker 1: Christ to be for them a harbor of hope, a
9:05
Speaker 1: place of refuge. Deliver us, our Father, from smug complacency.
9:15
Speaker 1: Forgive us for relying upon our own strength and wealth
9:21
Speaker 1: to gain what we want. may we realize that everything
9:26
Speaker 1: we have and are is yours. And it will all
9:32
Speaker 1: be called into account, even every idle word. And so
9:40
Speaker 1: with that in mind, our Father, we pause, of all things,
9:43
Speaker 1: to give to you. Though you have no needs, ministries do.
9:51
Speaker 1: We pray that these gifts will be given for all
9:53
Speaker 1: the right reasons. From people of all ages and stages
9:58
Speaker 1: in life. And that you will honor the gifts. The
10:04
Speaker 1: motives behind them, the gifts themselves. And the expenditures. That
10:11
Speaker 1: you will be honored in all of it. We're a
10:15
Speaker 1: little place in a big world. Thank you for caring
10:21
Speaker 1: about us. On the 7th of December. Especially. Do we
10:31
Speaker 1: thank you. And give to you. In Jesus dear name.
10:37
Speaker 1: Everyone said. Julia Ward Howell was a woman really far
10:45
Speaker 1: ahead of her time. She was perhaps the most well-known
10:49
Speaker 1: woman of the 19th century, though today most would not
10:53
Speaker 1: even recognize her name, unfortunately. She was an ardent foe
11:00
Speaker 1: of slavery, spoke against it, and marched against it. She
11:06
Speaker 1: campaigned also for child welfare and equal education, as well
11:11
Speaker 1: as prison reform. It was Julia Howe who first innovated
11:16
Speaker 1: the idea of Mother's Day. She tirelessly promoted the right
11:22
Speaker 1: for women to vote. She was a prolific writer, writing
11:27
Speaker 1: poetry and drama, biography and a number of books on travel.
11:35
Speaker 1: But none of these represented her foremost accomplishment. That came
11:40
Speaker 1: almost as an afterthought. following her and her husband Samuel's
11:47
Speaker 1: visit to one of the Union soldiers' camps near the
11:53
Speaker 1: Potomac during the dark days of the Civil War. She
12:00
Speaker 1: heard in the distance a few of the soldiers as
12:02
Speaker 1: they joined their voices together in singing a tribute to
12:07
Speaker 1: John Brown, who had been hanged a couple of years
12:12
Speaker 1: earlier for attempting to to lead an insurrection of slaves
12:16
Speaker 1: at Harper's Ferry. The rousing tune they sang could be
12:23
Speaker 1: heard across the camp. John Brown's body lies a moldering
12:28
Speaker 1: in the grave. Made her heart sink with sadness. Her
12:36
Speaker 1: pastor who was there with Julia and her husband leaned
12:40
Speaker 1: over and said to her, you should write new words.
12:45
Speaker 1: You should put that tune to better words. As she
12:51
Speaker 1: and Samuel made their way to their hotel that night,
12:55
Speaker 1: and as they retired, his challenge turned over in her
12:58
Speaker 1: mind again and again. She fell asleep. But early the
13:05
Speaker 1: next morning in the gray dawn of that overcast day,
13:12
Speaker 1: the words began to flow. And they came together beautifully,
13:18
Speaker 1: almost effortlessly. Julia Ward Howe had a friend who worked
13:23
Speaker 1: at the Atlantic Monthly. And through him, the song found
13:31
Speaker 1: its way into its published form in 1862. I should add,
13:38
Speaker 1: they gave her the huge check of $ 5 for her
13:41
Speaker 1: writing work. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the
13:46
Speaker 1: coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage
13:50
Speaker 1: where the grapes of wrath are stored. He hath loosed
13:55
Speaker 1: the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. His truth
14:03
Speaker 1: is marching on. And other verses to follow. Julia Howe
14:11
Speaker 1: believed that what she saw at the camp in the bloody,
14:14
Speaker 1: brutal condition of the soldiers represented the fulfillment of what
14:19
Speaker 1: she had read as a Christian. Out of Revelation chapter 14.
14:24
Speaker 1: The Civil War certainly was brutal and bloody, but that
14:34
Speaker 1: war between the states was nothing compared to the battle
14:42
Speaker 1: yet future. She saw it as a fulfillment, but perhaps
14:49
Speaker 1: it was merely a foreshadowing of what is yet to come.
14:57
Speaker 1: John sat, if you will, in his theater seat and
15:00
Speaker 1: saw it all portrayed centuries ahead of time. And what
15:07
Speaker 1: he saw, along with the other judgments was the pouring
15:11
Speaker 1: out of the final bowls of judgment as set forth
15:16
Speaker 1: in Revelation 15 and 16. And then ultimately he saw
15:21
Speaker 1: the final great finale of battles of Armageddon. What Julia
15:32
Speaker 1: Ward called his terrible swift sword, scripture calls his sharp sickle.
15:39
Speaker 1: And mentions it seven times in the closing seven verses
15:44
Speaker 1: of Revelation 14. If you haven't opened your Bible yet
15:49
Speaker 1: to that chapter, I invite you to do so. And
15:53
Speaker 1: as you do, I need to make it clear that
15:55
Speaker 1: the same Jesus we love and sing about in the
15:59
Speaker 1: Christmas season. And all of the beauty and gentleness and
16:03
Speaker 1: innocence of his infancy in humanity. It's the same Jesus
16:08
Speaker 1: who will come with a sharp sickle and mete out
16:13
Speaker 1: judgment on this earth. Don't miss both sides. If you
16:18
Speaker 1: emphasize one as against the other, you'll misunderstand the balance
16:24
Speaker 1: that he represents. as a man of sorrows and acquainted
16:29
Speaker 1: with grief, and yet at the same time as the
16:32
Speaker 1: one who will be crowned as king over all who
16:35
Speaker 1: call themselves king and lord above all who claim to
16:38
Speaker 1: be lord. For this Jesus who came in the manger,
16:46
Speaker 1: first time will come the second time in an altogether
16:49
Speaker 1: different role. Let's look at both. Think of them as
16:53
Speaker 1: columns in your mind. On the left hand side put
16:57
Speaker 1: the first coming. And on the right hand side put
17:01
Speaker 1: the second coming. And let's contrast the two. At the
17:06
Speaker 1: first coming he came as a servant. In the second
17:10
Speaker 1: coming he will come as judge. In the first coming
17:16
Speaker 1: there was humility and gentleness. In the second there will
17:20
Speaker 1: be majesty and splendor. In the first, he was a
17:25
Speaker 1: helpless baby in a manger. In the second coming, he
17:28
Speaker 1: will be the victorious, returning king and sovereign God. In
17:37
Speaker 1: his first coming, he originally was the sower of the seed.
17:41
Speaker 1: In the second coming, he will be the almighty reaper
17:47
Speaker 1: of the harvest. In his first coming, the emphasis was
17:51
Speaker 1: upon his grace and his mercy and his compassion and
17:55
Speaker 1: his offer of peace. Oh, but in the second coming,
17:59
Speaker 1: there will be justice and righteousness and, yes, wrath and righteousness.
18:13
Speaker 1: The passage before us portrays the final judgment time. As
18:18
Speaker 1: the final harvest, there's a sort of an agricultural motif
18:23
Speaker 1: that is woven into these seven verses. And because most
18:26
Speaker 1: of us are not familiar with the soil, having never
18:29
Speaker 1: made our living with our hands as farmers, we need
18:34
Speaker 1: a little help in understanding the word picture. The first
18:39
Speaker 1: three verses of these seven verses in this section show
18:43
Speaker 1: the first harvest, which represents the bowl harvest. Judgments set
18:49
Speaker 1: forth in detail in the next two chapters. We'll get
18:52
Speaker 1: to them later. But this first harvest is what we
18:56
Speaker 1: might call the grain harvest. The grain of the earth
19:01
Speaker 1: is harvested. And that depicts the seven bowl judgment yet
19:07
Speaker 1: to come. All of this, again, remember, is ahead of time.
19:10
Speaker 1: These are previews of coming attractions in this interlude. The
19:15
Speaker 1: last four verses focus on the second harvest, which is
19:19
Speaker 1: the harvesting of the grapes. Both, by the way, are ripe.
19:25
Speaker 1: Please notice that. The end of verse 15 says the
19:29
Speaker 1: earth is ripe. I'll come back to that word and
19:32
Speaker 1: camp on it for a few minutes later. The end
19:35
Speaker 1: of verse 18 says the grapes are ripe. So we
19:41
Speaker 1: have ripened grain and we have ripened grapes, both of
19:45
Speaker 1: them representing times up. The era of grace, the time
19:53
Speaker 1: of compassion, the patience and long-suffering God have all reached
20:00
Speaker 1: the end of their tether. It is time for judgment.
20:08
Speaker 1: And there is no escaping it. And there is no
20:12
Speaker 1: recourse for those who at that time in the future
20:18
Speaker 1: will have chosen to live their lives in rebellion against
20:22
Speaker 1: the living God. It's helpful for me, as a sidebar here,
20:27
Speaker 1: it's helpful for me to remember that we can be
20:32
Speaker 1: so caught up in and submerged in the grace and
20:35
Speaker 1: patience and long-suffering of God that we forget there will
20:39
Speaker 1: be a time when When he will no longer tap
20:43
Speaker 1: his foot. And wait with arms folded for us to
20:49
Speaker 1: make up our minds. There will be a day when
20:53
Speaker 1: all of that is over. And the final judgment falls.
21:01
Speaker 1: It's my duty as a minister of the gospel not
21:03
Speaker 1: only to present the coming of the Lord Jesus as
21:06
Speaker 1: the baby. And to uphold the Christmas message year after year,
21:10
Speaker 1: it's also my task to tell you there will be
21:14
Speaker 1: a day when the Christmas season will no longer come
21:17
Speaker 1: to pass and time will be no more. You could
21:28
Speaker 1: see even more clearly how Julia Howe found her lyrics
21:31
Speaker 1: in this chapter. Remember her words, how he was trampling
21:35
Speaker 1: out the vintage of where the grapes of wrath are stored.
21:39
Speaker 1: We'll get to that when we get to the last
21:41
Speaker 1: four verses. One wonders if she had been taught the
21:45
Speaker 1: letter or the book of Revelation, or if she had
21:48
Speaker 1: herself taught it, being a very capable speaker as she was.
21:53
Speaker 1: But be that as it may, first the grain harvest
21:57
Speaker 1: attracts our attention. John looks, and as he has before
22:03
Speaker 1: on so many occasions, he beholds some phenomenon in the heavenlies.
22:08
Speaker 1: He sees a great white cloud. The cloud seems to
22:15
Speaker 1: represent the Shekinah, the light of God, which visited the
22:22
Speaker 1: earth in the tabernacle, visited the earth in the temple,
22:25
Speaker 1: and on occasion would be a blazing light that would
22:28
Speaker 1: come such as at the transfiguration when Christ was on
22:32
Speaker 1: the mount with his three closest friends. his disciples, Peter, James,
22:36
Speaker 1: and John. Here he is described as a son of man.
22:43
Speaker 1: We understand this to be a messianic title of Jesus Christ.
22:50
Speaker 1: He is called that not infrequently in the scriptures. And
22:53
Speaker 1: you will notice that he has a golden crown on
22:58
Speaker 1: his head. It is the word Stephanos, which represents the
23:03
Speaker 1: victor's crown. And he has in his hand a sharp sickle.
23:09
Speaker 1: I mentioned that the word appears seven times in seven verses.
23:13
Speaker 1: You will see it. 14, 15, 16, 17, twice in 18,
23:20
Speaker 1: and once in 19. Again and again and again. It
23:24
Speaker 1: is a sickle. And what makes it interesting is that
23:27
Speaker 1: most people I know have never held a sickle. And
23:31
Speaker 1: only a few have even seen one. A sickle was
23:35
Speaker 1: used in those days for harvesting, which was all done
23:40
Speaker 1: by hand, not with machinery. There was a long wooden
23:44
Speaker 1: curved handle that was fixed to another rather sizable piece
23:49
Speaker 1: of iron that was razor sharp and also curved. And
23:55
Speaker 1: one would swing it in front as he would walk
23:58
Speaker 1: along harvesting or cutting away the weeds or cutting down
24:03
Speaker 1: the grain or cutting off the clusters of grapes in
24:08
Speaker 1: times of harvest. In this case, it is all a
24:12
Speaker 1: word picture. And it's a picture of judgment. We read
24:19
Speaker 1: that he has the sickle in his hand, but he
24:21
Speaker 1: does nothing with it until an angel, verse 15, we read,
24:26
Speaker 1: came out of the temple and which apparently represents the
24:30
Speaker 1: throne room of God. And the angel cries with a
24:33
Speaker 1: loud voice to him who settled the cloud and instructs him,
24:38
Speaker 1: put in your sickle and reap for the hour to
24:42
Speaker 1: reap has come because the harvest of the earth is ripe.
24:52
Speaker 1: I said, we'd come back to that word. And I
24:55
Speaker 1: want to do that here. The word ripe literally means overripe.
25:03
Speaker 1: If you've been around fruit that has ripened or has
25:06
Speaker 1: hung on the tree longer than it should have, you
25:09
Speaker 1: notice it begins to get mushy and begins to wither
25:13
Speaker 1: or shrivel. In fact, this very Greek word is used
25:17
Speaker 1: for a hand that withers on the body after disease
25:22
Speaker 1: has captured the body. It's the picture of being more
25:26
Speaker 1: than ripe. In other words, the earth has heard more
25:31
Speaker 1: than enough. And before you're tempted to think, as you
25:35
Speaker 1: come to a passage like this, how unfair, how harsh
25:40
Speaker 1: of God to treat people like that. Stop. Stop. Don't
25:44
Speaker 1: let such words leave your mouth. Think. Even before the
25:50
Speaker 1: Savior was born at Bethlehem, there were prophets who told
25:53
Speaker 1: of his coming. When he came, there were shepherds as
25:57
Speaker 1: well as wise men who announced the message of his
26:00
Speaker 1: coming and let the world know. And from that time
26:03
Speaker 1: to this 21st century, there have been those who have
26:07
Speaker 1: proclaimed the gospel message, telling people again and again and again,
26:13
Speaker 1: over and over and over, that the Savior has come,
26:17
Speaker 1: that the price has been paid, that the sacrifice has
26:20
Speaker 1: been made, that the Lamb has been slain. exactly as
26:25
Speaker 1: God has planned it, and the offer is open to
26:28
Speaker 1: all who will believe. It's gone again and again and
26:31
Speaker 1: again in languages and dialects and nations and countries all
26:35
Speaker 1: around the world, one generation after another. In fact, at
26:39
Speaker 1: the very end times, verse 6 of chapter 14, right
26:43
Speaker 1: across the page, you'll recall, The Lord sends another angel
26:48
Speaker 1: flying in mid heaven, having an eternal gospel. And here
26:51
Speaker 1: he is again at the end of the age to
26:53
Speaker 1: preach to those who live on the earth. Notice how
26:57
Speaker 1: broad of a spectrum the sowing is to every nation
27:01
Speaker 1: and tribe and tongue and people. Everybody hears yet again
27:06
Speaker 1: of the Savior who has come. The price has been paid.
27:09
Speaker 1: And finally, having rejected that, God says that's enough. That's it.
27:17
Speaker 1: That's it. The angel says to this one who has
27:21
Speaker 1: the sickle, swing the sickle. This is, in the words
27:27
Speaker 1: of Julia Howe, the sharp, the terrible, sharp sword of God.
27:39
Speaker 1: And he does so in verse 16. He who sat
27:41
Speaker 1: on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth. And
27:47
Speaker 1: the earth was reaped. There's no big fight. There's no
27:53
Speaker 1: lengthy struggle to see who's going to win. He swung
27:57
Speaker 1: the sickle and the earth is reaped. Robert Thomas in
28:02
Speaker 1: his two-volume work on Revelation states succinctly, the brevity of
28:06
Speaker 1: the statement dramatizes the suddenness of the judgment. You can
28:12
Speaker 1: just hear it swing. I was at the grocery store
28:21
Speaker 1: several days ago doing a little shopping for Cynthia and
28:26
Speaker 1: my eye caught a busy little child sitting in the
28:29
Speaker 1: back of the cart. You know how they'll do facing
28:31
Speaker 1: their mom and this child was busy. And this was
28:37
Speaker 1: one mother who was very patient. I admired her. When
28:41
Speaker 1: you're a grandparent and you see these things happen, especially
28:44
Speaker 1: when it's not one of your own, you can relax
28:47
Speaker 1: and you can watch it and In fact, I sort
28:49
Speaker 1: of followed to see what was going to happen. It
28:54
Speaker 1: was one of those special children that never saw a
28:57
Speaker 1: canned good he didn't like and never saw a shelf
29:01
Speaker 1: of stuff stacked high that he didn't enjoy pulling something
29:05
Speaker 1: from the bottom. And cereal came off the shelf. And
29:13
Speaker 1: then we were at the water bottles, and several of
29:16
Speaker 1: them fell over, and she was telling him, all the while,
29:19
Speaker 1: not to do that. And then they get over in
29:21
Speaker 1: this other section, and he was dragging soaps of different
29:26
Speaker 1: kind off the shelf. And he's got the basket full
29:28
Speaker 1: of all kinds of things she didn't want, so she's
29:30
Speaker 1: as busy taking things out of the basket. So when
29:32
Speaker 1: they get up to the check counter to go, I
29:36
Speaker 1: just pulled in behind thinking, this has to have an
29:38
Speaker 1: interesting climax. to it. And he turned, looked to his left,
29:43
Speaker 1: he saw the Tic Tacs. And you know, they are
29:45
Speaker 1: there by the gross. And well, that did it. She
29:54
Speaker 1: said to him, that's it. And she reaches down, pulls
29:58
Speaker 1: him out, and walks out. Now, I did not follow them.
30:04
Speaker 1: But I looked at the lady checking us out. And
30:08
Speaker 1: she smiled and kind of looked funny. And I smiled.
30:11
Speaker 1: She said, I wonder what's happening now. I said, don't
30:13
Speaker 1: go there. You know, the woman never came back. I
30:19
Speaker 1: don't know. She may still be driving, for all I know,
30:21
Speaker 1: just leaving. That's the way it will be. Continually, faithfully, patiently,
30:31
Speaker 1: with enormous long-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 conclusion to the setting over at
31:02
Speaker 1: chapter 16, verse 17. Look at the last three words.
31:08
Speaker 1: We're going to get there when we're into the bold judgments,
31:11
Speaker 1: but I just want you to look. 16, 17. The
31:19
Speaker 1: seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and
31:21
Speaker 1: the loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, Amen.
31:25
Speaker 1: It is done. That's it. The tether has reached its extent.
31:38
Speaker 1: That's enough. Now, with that in mind, back in Revelation 14,
31:44
Speaker 1: we come to the second scene in this motif of
31:48
Speaker 1: the grapes, which is even, I think, more colorful than
31:52
Speaker 1: the grain. We come to alas angelos, another way of
31:58
Speaker 1: saying it. The Greek reads that way. It means another
32:01
Speaker 1: of the same kind of angel, verse 17. So if
32:05
Speaker 1: you're counting, this is the fifth of the six angels
32:08
Speaker 1: mentioned in this chapter. The first one is in verse 6.
32:13
Speaker 1: The second is in verse 8. The third is in
32:17
Speaker 1: verse 9. The fourth is in verse 15. The fifth
32:24
Speaker 1: is now in verse 17, and there's another angel, verse 18,
32:28
Speaker 1: who is the one with the sickle there. So there
32:30
Speaker 1: are six angels in this single chapter. Please observe the angels.
32:35
Speaker 1: Another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven.
32:39
Speaker 1: He also had a sharp sickle. Now this is not
32:41
Speaker 1: the same as the first. The first was like a
32:43
Speaker 1: son of man, the Lord Jesus. Here's a second who comes,
32:48
Speaker 1: and he is pictured as the As the death angel.
32:52
Speaker 1: Or the final angel. The angel of judgment. He comes
32:55
Speaker 1: with the message. Or to hear the message. Here's the message.
32:59
Speaker 1: Verse 18. Another angel. The one who has power over fire.
33:04
Speaker 1: I'm intrigued by that. Let's not move too quickly over it.
33:08
Speaker 1: One wonders if there is an angel of storm. An
33:11
Speaker 1: angel of wind. An angel who watches over lightning and thunder.
33:17
Speaker 1: Or of other elements. Here is an angel who. has
33:20
Speaker 1: power over fire. One wonders what role he plays in
33:25
Speaker 1: God's sovereign plan over this earth. It's moments like that
33:29
Speaker 1: you could spend, it's times like that you could spend
33:32
Speaker 1: a lot of your time just meditating on what that
33:36
Speaker 1: must include. But this one has power over fire. Fire
33:39
Speaker 1: often used for judgment, a word for judgment in the scriptures.
33:44
Speaker 1: He came out from the altars. So he comes with
33:48
Speaker 1: the announcement. He calls with a loud voice to him.
33:52
Speaker 1: That's the other angel who had the sharp sickle saying,
33:55
Speaker 1: put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from
33:59
Speaker 1: the vine of the earth because her grapes are ripe.
34:04
Speaker 1: It's time. So the angel swung his sickle to the
34:09
Speaker 1: earth and gathered the clusters from the vine and threw
34:14
Speaker 1: them into the great wine press. of the wrath of God.
34:20
Speaker 1: And the wine press was trodden. All of this reads eloquently,
34:26
Speaker 1: and we are intrigued by it, but we've never seen it.
34:31
Speaker 1: In ancient days, there were two containers when it came
34:34
Speaker 1: time for the harvesting of grapes. They were large. One
34:38
Speaker 1: held the grapes, the other held the juice. There was
34:43
Speaker 1: a trough that was either hollowed out of stone connecting
34:47
Speaker 1: the two containers or it was shaped from metal. The
34:53
Speaker 1: grapes would be poured into by the clusters. They would
34:56
Speaker 1: be poured into the container up above. And people literally
35:01
Speaker 1: were hired to tread the grapes. That was before the
35:06
Speaker 1: Pure Food and Drug Act came into being. People came
35:10
Speaker 1: there and they, of course, washed their feet and then
35:13
Speaker 1: would begin to trampled down the grapes. And as they
35:18
Speaker 1: did with these ripe grapes, of course, the juice would
35:21
Speaker 1: splatter and stain their clothing as well as their skin.
35:25
Speaker 1: And yet, the most important part is the juice of
35:28
Speaker 1: the grapes would flow down the channel, down this connecting trough,
35:34
Speaker 1: into the basin at the bottom and collect the grapes.
35:41
Speaker 1: Here is another word picture that... Julia Howe captured in
35:48
Speaker 1: her song. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes,
35:55
Speaker 1: and she calls it as the scripture describes, the grapes
35:58
Speaker 1: of wrath are stored. It's another picture of that final sentence,
36:06
Speaker 1: that judgment. Her second verse captures it. I've seen him
36:11
Speaker 1: in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps. They
36:14
Speaker 1: have built him an altar in the evening dews and damps.
36:18
Speaker 1: I can read his righteous sentence. There it is, judgment.
36:22
Speaker 1: By the dim and flaring lamps. His day is marching on.
36:31
Speaker 1: The wine press was trodden, says verse 20. Outside the city,
36:37
Speaker 1: meaning the city of Jerusalem, This battle, the final battle,
36:42
Speaker 1: will begin at Har Megiddo, the Mount of Megiddo, from
36:48
Speaker 1: which we get our word, Armageddon. It's mentioned in 16,
36:53
Speaker 1: verse 16. They gathered them together into the place which
36:58
Speaker 1: in Hebrew is called Har Megiddon. For the event itself,
37:05
Speaker 1: go another page or two to chapter 19, verse 11.
37:10
Speaker 1: We'll again get here, but for now, follow it. Verse
37:16
Speaker 1: 11 of chapter 19. I saw heaven opened and behold
37:19
Speaker 1: a white horse and he who sat on it called
37:22
Speaker 1: faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges and wages war.
37:26
Speaker 1: This is the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
37:30
Speaker 1: The one who came as the babe in the manger
37:33
Speaker 1: now returns to earth as the judge. His eyes are
37:39
Speaker 1: a flame of fire. And on his head are many diadema,
37:44
Speaker 1: the word for crowns. He has a name written on
37:47
Speaker 1: him which no one knows except himself. He's clothed with
37:51
Speaker 1: a robe dipped in blood. And his name is called
37:56
Speaker 1: the Word of God. Then we'll read of the believers
38:00
Speaker 1: of this age who return with him. If you know
38:03
Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have been raptured from
38:06
Speaker 1: this earth. You will have been spending your time with
38:09
Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ. going through your own time of
38:13
Speaker 1: the judgment seat of Christ, giving account of your life
38:16
Speaker 1: and receiving your rewards, but your work isn't done and
38:19
Speaker 1: mine until we with the others come back, verse 14,
38:24
Speaker 1: as the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen,
38:29
Speaker 1: white and clean. We were following him on white horses.
38:34
Speaker 1: From his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with
38:38
Speaker 1: it he may strike down the nation's Now notice the
38:41
Speaker 1: setting up of the kingdom. He will rule them with
38:44
Speaker 1: a rod of iron. And notice the word picture. He
38:48
Speaker 1: treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty.
38:52
Speaker 1: On his robe and on his thigh has a name written,
38:55
Speaker 1: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now that's the event. Interestingly,
39:03
Speaker 1: in chapter 14, the last verse, we read of the
39:06
Speaker 1: results of this slaughter. It really isn't a battle. It
39:11
Speaker 1: is a slaughter. It isn't really a lengthy period of
39:16
Speaker 1: time where one may be winning and then the other
39:18
Speaker 1: side winning and yet another take over and yet another
39:22
Speaker 1: gain advantage. It is one massive slaughter. And we read
39:26
Speaker 1: of it in no uncertain term. It is outside the city,
39:32
Speaker 1: by the way, that is absolutely true. Har-Mageddon is outside
39:37
Speaker 1: the city. It is north of Jerusalem. And if you
39:41
Speaker 1: mark the distance of the land of Israel, you'll get
39:44
Speaker 1: about 180 furlongs or... About 1,600 furlongs, I should say,
39:52
Speaker 1: which is about 180 miles. And that's precisely the length
39:55
Speaker 1: mentioned here where blood will flow. The wine press was
39:59
Speaker 1: trodden outside the city and blood came out from the
40:02
Speaker 1: wine press, meaning blood from those who have been slaughtered,
40:06
Speaker 1: up to the horses' bridles for a distance of 200 miles. Now, I,
40:13
Speaker 1: like you, blink when I read that, and I thought
40:17
Speaker 1: that that really is not possible. There isn't enough humanity
40:23
Speaker 1: to bring blood up three to four feet from the
40:26
Speaker 1: ground for 200 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 bloodbath of the Battle of Armageddon will be so widespread...
40:45
Speaker 1: that blood will be up to the horse's bridles for
40:47
Speaker 1: a distance of 200 miles. A better interpretation sees this
40:52
Speaker 1: as hyperbole to suggest the slaughter in which the blood
40:56
Speaker 1: will splatter into the air profusely along the whole length
41:02
Speaker 1: of the battle. When the slaughter reaches its peak, blood
41:06
Speaker 1: could flow deeply in troughs and stream beds. Armageddon, as
41:10
Speaker 1: this passage indicates, will actually be a slaughter rather than
41:14
Speaker 1: a battle. While it is the angel who cuts the grapes,
41:18
Speaker 1: it is the Lord Jesus Christ who crushes out their lives.
41:32
Speaker 1: I pause to let you picture that. That is the
41:36
Speaker 1: future of those who live their lives unredeemed and in
41:43
Speaker 1: open rebellion against God. the Lord Jesus and his message
41:47
Speaker 1: of forgiveness. He has sounded forth a trumpet that shall
41:55
Speaker 1: never sound retreat. He is sifting out the hearts of
41:59
Speaker 1: men before the judgment seat. Oh, be swift, my soul,
42:05
Speaker 1: to answer. Be jubilant, my feet. Our God is marching on.
42:13
Speaker 1: I love the line, O be swift, my soul, to
42:15
Speaker 1: answer him. Answer him. The Civil War, bloody and brutal
42:27
Speaker 1: as many of its scenes were, doesn't hold a candle
42:31
Speaker 1: to the final slaughter. It defies imagination. Now, what do
42:39
Speaker 1: you do with a message like this? I... Because his
42:44
Speaker 1: truth marches on and because there are lessons to be learned,
42:47
Speaker 1: regardless of where the passage may be found in the
42:49
Speaker 1: 66 books of the Bible, what lessons can be learned here?
42:54
Speaker 1: I suggest two. Two seem to emerge from what we
42:58
Speaker 1: have read and learned today. First, God's justice holds all
43:05
Speaker 1: of us accountable. God's justice holds all of us accountable.
43:11
Speaker 1: If there's one truth that Scripture tells reveals repeatedly it
43:16
Speaker 1: is our accountability to our maker. He didn't simply make
43:21
Speaker 1: us and fling us on the earth and carelessly walk
43:24
Speaker 1: away without concern for where we go with our lives.
43:28
Speaker 1: We will give account and his justice holds us accountable.
43:35
Speaker 1: As we've seen in these vivid vignettes, unregenerate humanity faces
43:40
Speaker 1: a frightening future. They'll never hear of it in the
43:43
Speaker 1: liberal church. They'll never hear of it from those who
43:48
Speaker 1: would love them into hell. They will hear a lot
43:51
Speaker 1: about the Lord Jesus coming as a baby and living
43:55
Speaker 1: a great life and loving humanity and giving himself as
43:58
Speaker 1: a sacrifice. And it stops there. And the message is
44:02
Speaker 1: then from there on, let's love as he loved. Let's
44:05
Speaker 1: have compassion as he had compassion. Stop. Stop. The whole
44:09
Speaker 1: picture is that he is the one who came and
44:12
Speaker 1: paid the price for sin that we deserved. And he
44:15
Speaker 1: paid it fully. However, those promises that were made to
44:19
Speaker 1: Israel have never been fulfilled. And the judgments that were
44:23
Speaker 1: promised by those same truth telling prophets have not yet fallen.
44:27
Speaker 1: And they are yet to be. And they will be
44:30
Speaker 1: carried out. Precisely as directed by the living God through
44:35
Speaker 1: the one who is his appointed judge, and that's the
44:38
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus. All of that yet future. God's truth marches on.
44:45
Speaker 1: In case you like verses that link up with ones
44:49
Speaker 1: that appear where we're reading, how about Hebrews 10.31? It
44:54
Speaker 1: is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of
44:58
Speaker 1: the living God. It is a terrifying thing to fall
45:04
Speaker 1: into the hands of the living God. God's justice holds
45:10
Speaker 1: all of us accountable. Now, the second lesson that I
45:15
Speaker 1: learned from this, thankfully, is a relieving lesson. God's grace
45:20
Speaker 1: allows all of us freedom. God's grace allows all of
45:25
Speaker 1: us freedom. You know what? I hardly need to tell you.
45:30
Speaker 1: You're free to reject this message. You're free to reject Christ.
45:37
Speaker 1: You're free to accept it. You're free to reject it.
45:40
Speaker 1: You're free to repent. You're free to ignore and refuse.
45:46
Speaker 1: No one will arrest you as you leave the building.
45:49
Speaker 1: No one will take the keys to your car and
45:51
Speaker 1: confiscate your property because you choose to reject Christ. You're free.
45:54
Speaker 1: Grace allows you the freedom to do that. You will
46:00
Speaker 1: be restless. You will be haunted in your spirit. That's
46:02
Speaker 1: all part of the work of the spirit, but physically
46:05
Speaker 1: you will not be harmed because you reject Christ. Not now.
46:14
Speaker 1: We're free, but let me add, we are not free
46:16
Speaker 1: to escape the consequences of our decision. It's part of
46:20
Speaker 1: the laws of the harvest. We're not free to escape
46:25
Speaker 1: the consequences of our decision. If you choose not to
46:33
Speaker 1: accept the message of hope and forgiveness, the final judgment
46:41
Speaker 1: is held. He's sifting out the hearts of men before
46:48
Speaker 1: the judgment seat. Be swift, my soul, to answer. It
46:57
Speaker 1: was over 140 years, it was over 140 years ago
47:00
Speaker 1: that Ms. Howell walked that camp near the Potomac. It
47:10
Speaker 1: was over 140 years ago her pastor made the suggestion
47:13
Speaker 1: that resulted in the great hymn, that it's found its
47:16
Speaker 1: way into American song and even hymnal sense. She tells
47:24
Speaker 1: us of the writing, I awoke, In the gray of
47:27
Speaker 1: the early dawn, and to my astonishment, found that the
47:30
Speaker 1: wished-for lines were arranging themselves in my brain. I lay
47:34
Speaker 1: quite still until the last verse had completed itself, then
47:39
Speaker 1: hastily arose, saying to myself, I shall lose this if
47:43
Speaker 1: I don't write it down immediately. I searched for an
47:47
Speaker 1: old sheet of paper and an old stub of a pen,
47:50
Speaker 1: which I had had the night before, and began to
47:53
Speaker 1: scrawl the lines almost without looking. as I learned to
47:58
Speaker 1: do by often scratching down verses in the darkened room
48:01
Speaker 1: when my children were sleeping. Having completed this, I lay
48:05
Speaker 1: down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling that
48:12
Speaker 1: something of importance had happened to me. You want a
48:19
Speaker 1: great thought? In the big picture of things, one wonders
48:24
Speaker 1: if God didn't lead her to write what she did
48:31
Speaker 1: with you in mind today. Be swift to answer him.
48:43
Speaker 1: Don't put that off. Bow with me, please. Serious, serious words.
49:13
Speaker 1: What makes the message so serious is the finality of it.
49:17
Speaker 1: Often in a message like this. there's a tomorrow. There's
49:23
Speaker 1: another dawning. There's another opportunity for the change of heart
49:30
Speaker 1: or for repentance. Not now. Do you hear the words
49:36
Speaker 1: final judgment? And the next scene following this one, you
49:47
Speaker 1: don't want to hear. We'll get there too. Revelation reveals it.
49:57
Speaker 1: So I interrupt your world during this most beautiful of
50:02
Speaker 1: all the seasons when they're all singing our songs out
50:06
Speaker 1: there to urge you, to urge you not to put
50:12
Speaker 1: this off. Don't. Don't play with this. Don't be fooled
50:21
Speaker 1: by the grace you have, which allows you the freedom.
50:26
Speaker 1: Don't be fooled by that. You can't escape the consequences.
50:37
Speaker 1: The Lord Jesus Christ, when he paid that price with
50:42
Speaker 1: his death on the cross, paid the penalty For sin.
50:46
Speaker 1: It was a debt you and I owed. It wasn't
50:51
Speaker 1: for his sins he died. It was for yours and mine.
50:54
Speaker 1: He paid for all of them. So the only thing
50:59
Speaker 1: that keeps you from the gift of eternal life and
51:02
Speaker 1: hope in heaven is your trust in Christ. It's the
51:07
Speaker 1: only thing. Do that now. Right now. Right there where
51:15
Speaker 1: you're sitting. Father, thank you for the seriousness of a
51:20
Speaker 1: message such as this. It is a reminder that we
51:24
Speaker 1: are not in charge of the ultimate issues of life.
51:28
Speaker 1: You are. And you have mapped out a plan that
51:32
Speaker 1: will ultimately bring glory to your name. And we realize
51:38
Speaker 1: that we must fit into your plan. You don't fit
51:41
Speaker 1: into ours. Thank you for causing eternal things to work
51:45
Speaker 1: like that. Thank you for those today who have made
51:50
Speaker 1: a decision to turn their lives over to your Son,
51:53
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And we pray that that beginning relationship will
51:59
Speaker 1: be marked by gratitude and purity of life and a
52:04
Speaker 1: change in direction from where they have lived their days
52:07
Speaker 1: and their years. And for those of us who know
52:10
Speaker 1: you as Savior and Lord, may this message make a
52:14
Speaker 1: difference May we realize that there are consequences that follow
52:19
Speaker 1: decisions that are wrong, and there are rewards that follow
52:23
Speaker 1: those that are right. Find in us obedience and a
52:29
Speaker 1: wholeness of life marked by authenticity and integrity and commitment.
52:36
Speaker 1: And so, our Father, we commit to you the results
52:38
Speaker 1: of this message. Wherever these words may land, may they
52:43
Speaker 1: bear fruit. to repentance, and to godliness. Thank you for
52:50
Speaker 1: your hand on our country, and we pray that that
52:53
Speaker 1: hand might now rest heavily upon our lives, for we
52:57
Speaker 1: commit them to you in the name of Jesus Christ
53:00
Speaker 1: our Savior.