Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Pastor James Kaddis describes our day as the most exciting time to be alive.

James Kaddis: If somebody were to ask me today, would you rather live during the time of Christ or would you rather live in today's world? I would say in a heartbeat today's world. It's the most exciting time to be alive because we are watching the end of it all.

Can you imagine being a part of all that? Can you imagine experiencing that? We're in it. The only thing is we have to open our eyes to recognize that we're in it and watch God show His glory. It's amazing to see the opportunities that we have in front of us, understanding and knowing what God is going to do based on His promises.

Guest (Male): God will judge, and when He does, it will be forever. This will happen to the whole world at the second coming of Christ. Today on Light on the Hill, we aim to complete chapter 19 of Revelation, where we find two invitations to two very different suppers. One is filled with joy, peace, and anticipation, and the other destruction. Which one will you go to? Here's Pastor James Kaddis with his message on the second coming and Christ's final judgment.

James Kaddis: All right, Revelation 19, and I have to say this. We're going to start in verse 15, and I think more than ever, especially in the time and the day in which we live, as crazy as this might sound to some people familiar with this passage, I find Revelation uniquely cathartic, especially Revelation 19. There is a deep-rooted catharsis that exists within understanding even the simplicity of what appears to be a book filled with complexities in that what it brings to the table is a lot of assurance and reassurance concerning so much of the things around us.

I want to explain this because we are literally living in a world that is filled with ungodliness and injustice. We're living in a world that continues to grow darker and darker. We're living in a world that continues to demonstrate to us that it does not have the desire for righteousness to be promulgated on any level, and we continue to live in a world that continues to also demonstrate a deep-rooted hatred for God.

God is going to deal with it, and God is going to eventually intervene. But the way He's going to intervene is not the way that we think. The way that He's going to intervene is what we read about here in the book of Revelation, and that's where I find it cathartic. I find it cathartic because I know there's going to come a point in time that when God executes His judgment, there will be no more pain, there will be no more suffering, there will be no more wickedness, there will be no more injustice, there will be no more ungodliness, there will be no more danger for our children, there will be no more ripping off, stealing, thieving, there will be no more lying, cheating, there will be no more abortion. It'll all be gone. God will literally destroy it, and what we can read about here in the book of Revelation, He'll do with one word.

When we look at the book of Revelation, what we see here is everything coming into fruition that God warned us about, that God told us would happen, especially even in the Old Testament. I say this all the time. You're never going to understand the book of Revelation if you don't understand the Old Testament. Why? Because the book of Revelation is, in essence, the culmination of all that we learn about in the Old Testament.

Here's the thing that I continue to try to remind people of, especially Christians who choose to be so ignorant that they would believe that somehow there's a metaphorical basis to all of this that causes us to not look at this passage literally or look at this book literally. I try to remind them of everything. You do not ever object to the idea that the prophecies that the prophets gave us in older times regarding the first coming of Jesus were wrong in any way. You take them all literally. You agree that they're all literal. You recognize that there's not a single iota that's off, that every single bit of it is right.

Yet somehow, in some way, you've turned on some magical switch that says the same prophets who made the same predictions about the first advent are somehow going to be wrong about the second. Does that make any kind of sense? It doesn't. They're 100% right about everything that they say. Four years ago, when I was making videos about a lot of the things that were beginning to formulate in Ukraine, when I was telling everybody that Putin is going to go in there because we're making him go in there, when I was telling everybody look at what the president of Belarus is doing, be careful, the United States is never going to win, this is never going to be good for us, it's not going to be good for the rest of the world, when I talked against the sanctions and I was so confident that there was no way in the world that Ukraine is ever going to win, people called me crazy. People said go back to being a pastor, mind your own business.

My statement to them is the same statement that I make today, and that is this: if you are a pastor, if you are a Christian, if you are a student of the Bible, you should have the best grasp on geopolitics, better than anybody else. Because if you understand what the Bible says is going to happen in those regions, then your understanding of what you see beginning to metabolize in front of you should be the very thing that drives how you come to a conclusion. These guys were never wrong. They've always been right. God has never gotten it wrong. His prophets have always been dead on. Why don't we believe it?

Look what happens here. By the way, we talk about in the book of Revelation involving two specific invitations to two suppers, two different suppers. One is called the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's going to be one that we all get to look forward to. By the way, that is going to be quite the party. I hope you guys are looking forward to that. I know I am. That's going to be a great supper.

There's another supper that we're going to learn about today, and that's one you don't want to be invited to. It's called the supper of the great God, and you don't want to be a part of that supper because that supper is going to be the annihilation of mankind that chooses to rebel against God. That's not one supper you want to be a part of.

Let's get into that. Here we are, verse 15. By the way, just a little quick back note from what we went over last week. We are on these horses that are accompanying God. This is awesome. We are part of the army that accompanies God. That's going to be exciting. It's going to be a lot of fun to be a part of this and know that the God of heaven is about to make life right for everybody. It's just a powerful picture.

We're at this point in the future. We're already on these horses. I had this thought the other day, and it's weird how I tend to obsess about things like this. I wonder in my mind who did John actually see? I wonder, was I one of the guys that John saw when he was writing this down? When he's looking at these events taking place, whose faces was he actually looking at during that time? It's mind-boggling to think that John is writing about something that we're going to be a part of.

Think about that. Even right now, people tell me all the time, James, at what part of history would you want to live in? A lot of people say, well, I think I'd really like to live during the time of Christ. If somebody were to ask me today, would you rather live during the time of Christ or would you rather live in today's world? I would say in a heartbeat today's world. It's the most exciting time to be alive because we are watching the end of it all.

Can you imagine being a part of all that? Can you imagine experiencing that? We're in it. The only thing is we have to open our eyes to recognize that we're in it and watch God show His glory. It's amazing to see the opportunities that we have in front of us, understanding and knowing what God is going to do based on His promises.

So look at this, verse 15. Watch what happens here. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword. This is talking about Jesus, right? And it says out of his mouth come a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. There's a lot that we have to learn here that ends up happening. First of all, the Bible tells us that Jesus has one word that He speaks. There's that sword that comes out of His mouth. By the way, we know that the Bible is referred to as that two-edged sword, that sharp sword. That's the word of God.

It's funny that the association that John makes here with the word of God as being a sword. One word that Jesus uses here completely changes the face of the whole world. Think about how powerful of a thought that actually is. When I stop for one moment to just reflect upon the significance of something like that, and you think about what the Bible says about the word of God. The word of God is as powerful as a two-edged sword. When you look at the descriptors given to us in the book of Hebrews, specifically chapter four, verse 12, where he talks about what the word of God is capable of doing. It's able to discern the very soul of man, that it has surgical capacity, that it has the ability to be able to do anything that we are incapable of doing. The word of God is powerful. If you want to find the most incredible demonstration of the sheer and raw power of God, it would be His very word being spoken of right here in Revelation chapter 19, verse 15.

John made this very clear. He's the person that wrote the book of Revelation. He's also the one that wrote John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. When you stop for a second to reflect upon the assertions that John makes, even when he writes to his Greek audience, what does he say at the very beginning of his letter concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ? He says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," right? Then he goes on in verse 14 to say, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

You have to understand what the Greek audience would have thought when they had heard those words. The very moment you, as a Greek person, would have read the words "En arche en ho Logos kai ho Logos en pros ton Theon kai Theos en ho Logos," the very moment you read those words, you would be shocked. It would have been so revolutionary, it would have completely changed your mind. The way you looked at everything would just blow your mind. When you begin to see the introduction of the use of the other word that involves the Word becoming flesh later on in verse 14, I'm telling you right now, it is some of the most simple Greek that you will read in the Bible, but some of the most profound.

For the people that were reading it, their minds had to have been blown because they realized something. The very things that they philosophized about, the very things that they would oftentimes pontificate concerning the abstract thoughts that they always had concerning who God was, was literally made real for them in one literal sentence.

After it was made real for them, then it got even more real when John says yes, that very Word that you continue to choose to have these ideas about what it might mean, that very Word literally is not only real and true and definitive, that very Word lived among me and my friends, and He dwelt among us. We beheld Him, and He has an answer for you. To think about the idea of the power of the word of God is such a substantial thing. It's one walk away I want you guys to have. I want you to walk away with the understanding of the power of God's word. Look at how powerful it is in this particular context. Let's consider it for just one second. Look what it does.

He speaks out a simple word that with it He should smite the nations. That's the first thing. He just eliminates all the ungodly nations. They're just gone. Then the next thing that happens is He rules them with a rod of iron. By the way, do you understand that we'll be ruling with Him with a rod of iron? The idea behind that is that there will come a point in time where the enemy will be bound up for a thousand years, and while that happens, the only thing that we're going to have to regulate is the wicked heart of man.

The reality of it is there's not going to be a lot seeking to push that wicked heart off the cliff, and there will be us acting as law enforcement officials in essence, enforcing the word of God in their lives. Pretty powerful thing. When you think about it, we'll get to be a part of that. I think there's something really cool about that picture. But you think about the power of God's word and what it's going to end up doing.

That's why I always think it's funny when people think that heaven is going to be you kind of floating on a cloud and doing nothing, and just all day going, "Praise the Lord." That's kind of a cool thing, but we're going to be busy. We're going to be really, really busy. If you like being busy and being productive, you're going to love heaven because that's what we're going to be doing, and there's something very exciting about what that brings to the table.

Look what it goes on to say. This is the other thing that the word of God does. It says here that He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. By the way, when you look at the phrase "the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God," the picture that it gives us is two really critical words that I want you to focus on. Number one, I want you to focus on the word anger, and I want you to focus on the word wrath.

Anger, by the way, is indicative of a reactionary mechanism. Anger is indicative of the idea that somebody sees something, and what they see angers them, and as a function, they react as being motivated by the anger. Wrath is a completely different word. The implication of the word wrath actually shows the discipline to be reluctant concerning your action while you're observing a building up of a case in essence. In other words, you're looking at this again and again. You're watching the build-up take place. You're seeing it begin to happen. So you wait.

Now, this is interesting because a winepress was something that I was not really familiar with. As a matter of fact, most people are not uniquely familiar with the concept of a winepress or how it works. The first time I was really able to understand what a real winepress was—and I'm not talking about the winepresses that we see of the modern day. I'm talking about a winepress of the ancient day.

The first time I was really able to understand it was when I was standing in the city of Kaphernachum the very first time I was there. By the way, you know this as Capernaum. If you study Bible history or you know anything about the Bible, especially the area of the Galilee where Jesus was and what was believed to be the home base of Peter, you would understand the city of Kaphernachum.

Kaphernachum in essence means the city of Nahum. When we say Nahum in Hebrew, we say Nachum. All these words that we learn in the English language are very different from what you would say in the Hebrew language because it's a completely different tongue, different way to pronounce. But I'm standing in Capernaum, and as I'm standing there, I'm looking at this thing. Now, there are two things that I saw for the first time that I'd never seen before in real life. The first thing that I saw that just blew my mind was a millstone.

Most people have no idea what a millstone actually is. When they see it, they realize at that very moment God is very gangster-like when He talks about what He's going to do with a millstone. You think about it. I have a friend that does this actually. He goes to school board meetings and he's very articulate. Some of you know who John Amanchukwu is. He's a very powerful guy. He goes all over the country now. Pretty famous guy. He'll walk around sometimes with that big sign that says better tie a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the bottom of the ocean than stumble one of these little ones. That's what these school board members are getting a fixing. It's not going to be good what the Bible says concerning what's going to happen with them.

But here's the thing that's interesting. When you look at a winepress, you learn a couple of things about how it works. Unlike I Love Lucy, it doesn't quite work the way that a lot of people think it does. You put grapes in the winepress, and then what it in essence does is it smashes those grapes in a very specific way where it extracts the juice from those grapes into whatever you're putting the wine into.

But here's the thing that most people don't know about this fact, and that is if you're going to use an old school winepress the way that it was designed to be used—which by the way, I hear some of the most elite winemakers in the world still use this method. They take their crop of grapes and they allow that crop to ripen. Now, the funny thing about the way that it ripens is not like the way you think. Like we look at a ripe grape, we think it's the kind that's got a nice good snap to it, it's perfectly juicy. Have you ever tried to freeze a grape, by the way? It's so awesome. Put a bunch of frozen grapes with a little bit of 7 Up and you drink it, it becomes your ice.

But here's the thing. It's not what we call ripe. What a ripened grape to them is when the grape gets to that full plump state, and then it begins to almost, it's like almost the beginning of what you might see when it kind of turns into a raisin. It looks like it's beginning to dehydrate, although it's not dehydrated. It's still sort of at the fullest moisture level, but it's very soft. It's probably not the type of thing that would be attractive to us if we were to put it in our mouths. It'd be kind of soft and a bit mushy. But what they do is they take that and they put all of that in there, and my understanding is it just makes really great wine.

When you see the picture that's being given to us here in Revelation chapter 19, look at the phrase that's used. It says He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. So let me tell you what that implies. It's on its face is what it says. God is waiting until He sees the ripening of those that are wicked that gets them to the point where they are perfect for His judgment.

I think about this a lot. Can it get any worse? And the answer to that is yes, it can. Can it get any worse than anything we're seeing? Yes. Why? Because God is willing to watch the ripening go into full effect. Why does He want to see the ripening go into full effect? Number one, He's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and so He wants to give an opportunity for those to repent. We know that. He's not slack concerning His promise. Peter tells us that.

But the other thing that God understands and that we don't understand is that justice must be dealt out perfectly. The reality of it is you're never going to be able to deal out perfect justice until the timing of how that justice is executed is brought to its completion. So what's He doing? He's letting them get ripe. I think about this a lot when I see people continuing to flip off God. My first thought is I hope you repent because you're going to hell.

But then the second thought that comes through my mind is, okay, you've made the decision. It's just a matter of time watching you ripen to get to the point where you will be treaded upon by the wrath and the anger of Almighty God. That's a wrath and anger you don't want to experience. I promise you, it's a wrath and an anger that you do not want to experience. But this is what's going to happen with the world that He's going to judge.

I think, guys, we should find comfort in that. Not because we find comfort in the fact that people are going to perish. None of us should find comfort in that. But we should find comfort in the fact that God is going to set the record straight, that He's going to bring into fruition all that is wonderful.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor James Kaddis on Light on the Hill. He'll be right back with more. As we go through this study of Revelation, there may come a time when you miss a message or would just like to hear a program again. If so, visit lightonthehillradio.com and click on radio or listen through our app. We have a Light on the Hill app available for iPhone and Android users. Just search for Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Light on the Hill is heard all around the world, and it takes a team to bring these shows to the radio and internet. With your help, we're able to reach people with the truth of God's word at a time when they really need to hear it. You can donate today at lightonthehillradio.com. You can also give through our Light on the Hill app.

As we're going through Revelation, this is a great time to mention Pastor James's new book entitled *The Last Book*. It will share what you need to know about Revelation, the rapture, and the end times. This guide to Revelation is part one of two, and you can order it today at lightonthehillradio.com or at Amazon.

We hope you'll join our online communities. You'll find James Kaddis on YouTube, Rumble, and Instagram. You can also hear our weekly prophecy show, Countdown to Eternity, wherever you get your podcasts and at countdowntoeternity.com. Now let's hear about the supper of the great God, a supper you don't want to be a part of. Again, we're in Revelation chapter 19.

James Kaddis: Look what it goes on to say, verse 16. It says, "And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." Verse 17, it says this. It says, "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice." Now, here's the invitation you don't want to be a part of. Saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God." That's an invitation to all the birds to go eat the dead. You don't want to be a part of that invitation, folks. That's the second invitation in this passage. You don't want to be a part of that invitation, believe me.

My wife was telling me how there's a crow's nest that's beginning to build up that's in one of the trees near my house. I think about stuff like that. I'm like, that's nasty. We need to just burn that right out of the tree. That's the way I think. My wife's like, this is so cute. So she's telling me yesterday how the baby crow came out of the nest and was walking around and it was so cute. I'm thinking of Revelation chapter 19. That's what I'm thinking. They're not going to be so friendly one day. How about we put it that way?

So here's the invitation. Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. Isn't it interesting how in the last days there will still be slavery? It says free and bond.

I have to say this because I think it's important. I despise the lies that continue to be told in this country that we're a terrible country because of slavery that existed in this country. Do you understand that over a half-million Americans gave their lives to actually remove slavery from this country? Here's the bigger picture. Do you understand that slavery is more prominent today all over the world than it ever was in world history? And if we want to make this about a black and white thing, do you know that there were 16,500 black slave traders that existed in the United States during the time that slavery came into the United States? And did you know that the number one traders of slaves back then are still the same slave traders today, and that's the Arab Muslims? Most people will never know that or understand that or recognize it. And in the last days, we'll still see slave and free.

There will be slaves that will be rebelling against God. There will be free that will be rebelling against God. I don't think that's free, by the way. I think the free and the slave are both slaves because they're in bondage to sin. That's kind of how it works. It's a sad picture. I think about stuff like this all the time. It's just amazing to me how the lies of the enemy continue to be depicted here.

So the idea that we read here in verse 18 is that there's nobody that's going to be removed from this judgment who has rebelled against God. They're all going to be judged by God. Next time on Light on the Hill, hear all about the millennial reign of Christ when Pastor James enters Revelation chapter 20. Read ahead and join us there. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.