Mesa Hills Bible Church

Pastor Tim Dane: Morning everybody. In case you noticed, my tie is pretty long today. Too long, really. I tied it and then I thought, I don't want to go back and redo it, so I just left it like that. We're in Revelation Chapter 14. In our study of verses 6 to 13 last time, we saw a great emphasis on the good news that when Christ brings His kingdom to this world, He's going to bring a decisive judgment on evil. And it's going to be a just judgment because He's a just God, a perfect execution of justice, and it's going to be very fierce.

With this, we also saw in our last study that God promises there's going to be rest and blessing for those who have trusted in Christ and have stayed faithful to Him in the middle, especially of that tribulation period. They're being killed for their faith, but they're staying faithful. Now, death is not good. Death is an intrusion into God's design. So, death is not good. But here's something that you and I need to really think about: if you're a believer and you're faithful to Christ and you get killed for following Christ, death is not the worst thing in the world.

Death is not good, but what God says back there in Chapter 14, He says in verse 13, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them." So God says it's okay, I'm going to judge the evil. And when the Bible speaks about this judgment on evil, one of the things that we see in the Old Testament is that it will use an illustration of a harvest. For example, in Joel Chapter 3, when Joel talks about the judgment that God is going to bring on the nations that have invaded Israel in the tribulation period.

It hasn't happened yet. It’s end time, day of the Lord, tribulation period. When Joel says all the surrounding nations are going to invade Israel and they're going to come against Israel to annihilate Israel once and for all, God says, "I'm not going to let you do that. Not because these Jews are nice people, not because they're great people, but I chose that nation and I'm going to restore them. I have sworn that I'm going to restore them to myself one day." And so God says to those surrounding nations, "It's judgment time for you."

And it uses the metaphor of a harvest. So in Joel Chapter 3, verse 12, it says it like this, "Let the nations be aroused and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat," which is Hebrew, it means "the Lord judges," "for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision."

This is talking about the Day of the Lord when Christ returns to establish His kingdom on this world and that's going to include a judgment on the nations, and that judgment is symbolized by a grape harvest. But also the Old Testament uses the imagery of a wheat harvest to describe that judgment, like in Jeremiah Chapter 51, when it talks about the judgment on Babylon, an eschatological judgment on Babylon. It says, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is stamped firm. Yet in a little while, the time of harvest will come for her."

Now, we saw back in Chapter 14, verse 8, where it made mention of this judgment that is going to come upon Babylon, and we're going to have more to say about that when we get to Chapter 17 and 18. But back in 14:8, it talks about, "Fallen is Babylon the Great." There is going to be a huge judgment come upon the unsaved in the tribulation period, and there's these two metaphors. One of them is a grain harvest and the other one is a grape harvest. That's the idea that comes out right here in Chapter 14, verses 14 to 20, the Day of the Lord when God brings this judgment on the world.

Now, when the Day of the Lord comes, that seven-year time period that follows the rapture of the church, that seven-year time period is going to accomplish two main purposes. You’ve got to be careful about being reductionistic when we do theology and say, "Well, this is the only thing, the only purpose." There's two broad purposes that happen in the tribulation period. One of them is that God is going to save the remnant of all His people. And that includes Jews and non-Jews, Gentiles.

Now, when we were back in Revelation Chapter 7, verses 9 to 17, you see an image that describes the salvation that God is going to bring to the non-Jews, to the Gentiles of the world. And if you look back at Chapter 7, verse 9, John says that he saw a great multitude which no one could count from every nation, all tribes, all peoples, and tongues standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands. And what you see here in verses 9 to 17 is a massive number of Gentiles that are coming to faith in Christ in the tribulation period, but they're being killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.

John said, "I couldn't count how many it is." There is going to be a massive martyrdom of believers that takes place during that seven-year tribulation period. And the Old Testament speaks in a multitude of passages about the salvation that God is going to bring to the Gentiles in that tribulation period. Isaiah Chapter 11, verse 10, for example, says the nations will turn to the root of Jesse. Jesse, of course, is the father of King David. And so it says they're going to turn to Christ, the root of Jesse. They're going to turn to Christ, the Son of David in that time period.

In Psalm 72, Solomon wrote about the salvation that is going to come to the Gentiles. And in Psalm 72, he says, "Let the nomads of the desert bow down before God's King and his enemies lick the dust. Listen to this: let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring their presents." Tarshish is Spain. That's an ancient name for Spain. And so what it's talking about is the entire Mediterranean world, go all the way from Israel westward to the edge of the Mediterranean world, to Tartessos, Tarshish, Spain. And he says the kings of Tarshish are going to come, and they are going to bring their presents to God's King, namely Jesus Christ.

"Let the kings of Sheba and Seba offer their gifts." Sheba, you go all the way down to the end of the Earth in the bottom of Arabia, and we have modern-day Yemen. That's ancient Sheba, like Solomon had a wife, the Queen of Sheba, or anyway, Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon for sure, whether or not she became a wife is another question. But you have the Queen of Sheba way down there on the bottom of Arabia, and it says that the kings of Sheba and Seba, Seba is down in Central Africa. So what Solomon's describing here is that all the nations of the world are going to have people getting saved, and they're going to be coming and worshipping Jesus Christ when He brings His kingdom.

But God also says in a multitude of passages that He's going to save a remnant from among His own people, the nation of Israel. Multitude of passages. God is going to bring them, and back in Chapter 7, we see one little sampling of that in Chapter 7, verses 1 to 8, when Revelation tells us that there was 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. That's just a sampling, a portion of that remnant that He's going to save in that tribulation period. That’s 144,000 Jews. That does not mean the church. It's not like some mystical symbolic number. It's 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

God's going to restore Israel. Now, if you go back into the Old Testament, we see that God gave Israel the promises by bringing them into the land of Canaan under Joshua, Moses and Joshua. But God told Israel in the Law of Moses, He said, "You must stay faithful to me. If you violate the covenant, this Mosaic covenant, I am going to bring a judgment upon you and I'm going to cast you out and bring the curses of the covenant upon you." And that's exactly what happened when the Babylonians invaded and they took Israel into captivity. That began what we call the times of the Gentiles.

Jesus used that expression in Luke Chapter 21, verse 24, and He says the times of the Gentiles are going right now, but they're going to come to an end. The end of the times of the Gentiles is when Christ returns, brings His kingdom to this world, and when He brings that kingdom to this world, He's going to restore the people of Abraham into a covenant relationship. It's called the New Covenant, and He's going to restore them back in a right relationship in the Messianic Kingdom. Zechariah Chapter 8 speaks about this, "For thus says the Lord of hosts," speaking to Israel, "Just as I purposed to do harm to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the Lord of hosts, and I have not relented, so I have again purposed in those days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. So don't be afraid."

"I am going to restore you. I've sworn I'm going to restore you." God's promise to Israel is to restore them by saving a massive remnant from across the world, bringing them back to the land and settling them in their land in a new covenant. And if we say, "I believe the Bible, I believe the Bible is God's word," you really, really should believe exactly what God says about His promise to restore Israel because there are some people that say, "Oh yeah, well no, that's just all allegorical language, it’s figurative, it means the church." No, that is not true. If you say you believe the Bible, you must, you should believe that God is going to restore Israel like He has sworn in the kingdom.

And the Old Testament speaks about that a multitude of times and so does the New Testament. Isaiah speaks about this restoration in Isaiah 59, verse 20, "A Redeemer will come to Zion," which is Jerusalem, "and those who turn from transgressions to Jacob. A Redeemer will come to those who repent and turn to Christ, declares the Lord. And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord. My Spirit which is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth will never depart from your mouth nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring's offspring, says the Lord, from now on forevermore."

You know what? Paul quotes that verse in Romans Chapter 11, and he says this is going to be fulfilled and the reason why is because the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable in Romans Chapter 11, verse 29. God swore a calling to the nation of Israel that they were His people forever. God gave the gift of making them His chosen nation, and Paul says the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Now, they brought horrible consequences upon themselves when they turned their back on God centuries ago, and they've been suffering the consequences. But what God says is, "I am going to bring you back."

So in the Day of the Lord, there's one of the purposes that God is going to accomplish is He's going to bring salvation to a massive number of people, Jews and Gentiles. He says He's going to do it. He's going to do it. But there is a second major purpose that's going to get accomplished in that Day of the Lord, that tribulation period, and here's what it is: God is going to utterly destroy those that hate Him and reject the gracious gift of love that He extends in the cross of Jesus Christ. God is going to bring judgment on those that say, "I don't care one bit about Jesus. I don't believe in him, I hate him, I don't believe, I don't want anything to do with your God."

And God is going to say, "I will let you have the consequences of your sin, and I'm going to judge you for your sin." This is right. This is right because you and I are sinners. We constantly fall short of God's glory. And God could not be God if He didn't judge sin. That's why I would say this to each and every one of us here: the absolutely most important thing you can do is to examine yourself and say, "Have I trusted in Christ? Have I turned to Christ from my sin? Have I repented? Have I turned to believe what God says about sin and my need for Jesus Christ? Amen?"

Absolutely. I tell you this, fail to turn, that's what repentance is. It's turning from sin. And that doesn't mean, well, I have to make myself into a sinless angel and a saint and then God will save me. Nobody would get saved if we had to somehow become perfect angels. But what God does say is He says, "You're a sinner and that is against me. You need to turn from your sin and trust what I've done for you in Jesus Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection." And God says if you will do that, He will forgive you and save you, and He'll put you on a path to follow Him. We're still a work in progress, too, aren't we? We are still a work in progress.

But for those that refuse Him, here in verses 14 to 20, we see these two metaphors, these two harvest metaphors where God describes the severity of the judgment that is going to come. Let's read verses 14 to 20 and then go back and kind of pick it apart. Revelation 14:14, "Then I looked and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, 'Put in your sickle and reap, because the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.' And he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was reaped."

"And then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. And another angel, the one who has the power over fire, came out from the altar, and he called out with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle saying, 'Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.' And the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the winepress up to the horse's bridles for a distance of 200 miles."

Lord, we thank you for your word that tells us that you're a holy God, but you're a merciful God that forgives sinners. And you tell us in your word that Christ has made a way for us to be restored to you. And we thank you for the promise that one day you are going to deal with evil and you're going to purge this world of sin. You're going to bring in a righteous kingdom. We know that we can trust you in all of this. So use these things to help us draw near and love you more and know how we can serve you better. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

So here in verses 14 to 16, we see the first of these two harvest metaphors, and the first one here is that of a grain harvest. Verse 14, John sees one on a white cloud, one like a son of man holding a golden crown on his head, and then he had a sharp sickle in his hand. Now, first question is, who is this sitting on the cloud? It would be very possible that this is Christ Himself because it says one like a son of man. But the expression "to be like a son of man" in itself, the expression means it has a human appearance. His appearance is that of a man, a human being, one like a son of man.

Now, alternatively, if we go back to Daniel Chapter 7, verse 13, we know that Daniel 7:13 describes Christ, and Daniel said that he saw one like a son of man coming in judgment. And Jesus used that expression, Son of Man, for Himself. It was His favorite title that He used. Now, when we look at this and say, is that an angel on the cloud or is that Christ? It does not change our theology one way or the other. So we can make a pretty good argument that this is Jesus on this cloud, but on the other hand, there's some arguments that would say that it's simply another one of the angels that are involved in the judgments that God is going to bring.

For one thing, if you look at verse 15, it says that there was another angel that came out of the temple, and then he cried out with a loud voice to the one on the cloud in verse 14 and gave the commandment, "Put in your sickle and go and reap." So it does seem a little odd that you would have an angel giving a commandment to Christ, telling Christ, "Now go out and bring judgments on the earth." And we know that angels are the agents who come and exercise God's judgment on the earth in the tribulation period.

Now, I was looking back at my notes when I taught through this about 20 years ago or so, and I said, "Well, it seems like it's best to understand this as being Christ on the cloud," and as I went through this again, I said, "You know what, I don't think so." So again, it doesn't change our theology, but you can think about that on your own. It looks like, I think, in verse 14 this is an angel, another one of the angels that are part of the judgments that are here being carried out in the tribulation period. Assuming this is correct, if you come down to verse 15, we see what happens.

Verse 15 says, "And then another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to the one that sat on the cloud, 'Put in your sickle and reap, because the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.'" So here this one is called another angel, and that may be called another angel because the one in verse 14 is an angel himself. So here comes another angel and then speaks of the angel on the cloud and says, "Okay, it's time to reap. Go out and put your sickle in." I don't know if you've ever used a sickle. I can remember chopping weeds in Utah, this round blade that you would go out and chop. And that's the kind of tool that you would use for gathering grapes, but it's also the kind of tool that you would use for going out and cutting down the wheat, a sharp sickle with this nice curved blade.

Now, there's a question that we have to look at right here, another question. And when we look at this idea of harvest here, is the idea of harvest talking about gathering believers to God, or is it talking about a harvest of judgment? And as you go throughout Old and New Testament, we can see that there are places where the harvest idea is referring to believers being gathered into God's barn, so to speak. So the harvest imagery can be used to speak about the gathering of believers to God, but as you look at this whole context here, it pretty strongly conveys the idea that this is not believers being gathered to God, but this is a severe judgment that is taking place here.

First of all, when you look at this language here when it says "the harvest of the earth is ripe," the verb conveys the idea it's shriveled up, and it's dry. So here's this wheat harvest that is just, it's overly ripe, and God is saying, "It's time for me to come and just crush it and bring a severe judgment." Tell you what, I had some little communication from some friends in Ukraine over the last couple days, and one of them was one of my good friends Slavik, and he said that another guy, Alexey, his son just got sent out to the front line a couple days ago.

And another guy put something up and it was talking about the fact that we're watching so many of our people being killed in this war. And this is heartbreaking stuff and this is not the only place, of course, where we've got wars going on. But you look at this and you say we're living in such a messed up world. And then I got really ticked off this past week when they went and they're doing all they can to keep Donald Trump from running. And this doesn't say that Donald Trump is a choir boy, right? Doesn't say that he's a saint, doesn't say he's the best guy. But the left in America is doing everything they're fighting tooth and nail so that they can retain their control over our country.

And that left is not good. That left basically stands for everything that is virtually everything that's against God's word. And this is just such, I think that's the worst political hit job that we've seen in the history of our country. Whatever you think about that, okay, we live in a world that is rotten to the core, and what God says here in Revelation, God says there's going to come a time when I'm going to come and I'm going to straighten this whole thing out. I'm not able to straighten it out. Republicans can't straighten this thing out, as far as I see these guys can't get anything done. Democrats don't get anything done.

When I use these absolute statements, okay, is there anything good at all? Yeah, I suppose so. I just don't know what it is. We can't fix this broken world. Not even a country that began as more or less a Christian country. We're coming apart at the seams, and we're better than most other places across the world. God looks at this evil and He says, "I'm going to bring my Son to this world. I'm going to bring my kingdom to this world, and that harvest is ripe, and He is going to come and He is going to fix this thing by judging it."

MacArthur comments on these things right here. He says, "Here's one of the most tragic and sobering statements in all of scripture simply and without fanfare, it records the executing of divine judgment. The frightening details of that judgment are unfolded in Chapter 16 because what's happening right here when it talks about the harvest coming and the sickle going in, what's going to happen very, very quickly here is that the final unfolding of God's judgments are going to come in the bowl judgments."

Revelation has a series of seven seals on a scroll followed by seven trumpet blasts followed by seven bowls of wrath being poured out. So what's coming next is the final unfolding with the seven bowls. That's in Chapter 16. MacArthur says, "The unfolding of this comes in Chapter 16. Loathsome and malignant sores on the worshippers of the antichrist, the death of all life in the world's oceans, the turning of the world's rivers and springs into blood, the intensifying of the sun's heat scorching men, painful darkness over all of antichrist's kingdom, the drying up of the Euphrates River for massive invasion from the armies of the east, and the most powerful and destructive earthquake in history."

We get upset when the light takes too long to turn green. I do, I did this morning. That stupid light is not turning! What's going to happen in the tribulation period is going to be a time, Jesus said this, a time of tribulation such as the world has never seen. Look at verse 16. With the commandment to go and reap, it says, "Then he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was reaped." Judgment Day is coming and it is going to be unimaginably horrific. What does that mean for you and me? We were talking about this in Sunday school a bit this morning.

So God says, "Here is the Day of the Lord. Here's the judgments that I'm going to bring." What does that mean for you and me? Well, first and foremost, you better make sure that you have opened your heart to trust in Christ. You don't want to be here. Secondly, you need to serve God. You need to be faithful in following Christ and serving Christ. Why? Because He commands you to do so in His word. He tells you to serve Him in His word. He tells you to use the gifts that He has given you. The Spirit of God has gifted you. So I don't know, look at some of these things where we say, "Hey, we could use some help in this area or this area." Get involved! You're the one that's going to get blessed if you get involved. And that's why we try to encourage everyone to take ownership of something. If you say, "What can I do?" Just come and ask, okay?

Here's the third thing: tell others about God's Son. Paul called it redeeming the time because the days are evil. So when you are out telling others about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and what He's done to save sinners, you're making the greatest contribution that you can to what we're supposed to be doing in the church. Jesus gave a commandment. He said, "Go into the world, preach the gospel, call people to believe because there's going to come an end of time to this day of grace that is being extended to sinners."

And don't be afraid of the future. I know that many of you, probably all of you, get irritated with the stuff that we see happening in our backyard with our own country. It's irritating to me and I have to say, okay, it makes you upset, but I can't be consumed with that because that's not my battle. That's not the war. The war is a war for souls. God has not called us to Christianize the world. God has not called us to create a Christian country. We had a Christian country. Christian principles and values permeated America from the time the Pilgrims came here 400 years ago. There's never been a country in the history of the world that has had a more Christian beginning than the United States of America.

That's rapidly disappearing, and that is not going to reverse. I guarantee you that. I guarantee you that. That's not going to reverse. That's not the way that the world works. We're not here to just try to make a Christianized world. We are here to faithfully preach Christ and see God do His work of saving His people wherever they are. We've got a backyard filled with lots of unsaved people. I'd be willing to bet heavily that there's no more than 5 or 10 percent of people here in Colorado Springs that are born-again believers. There's a lot of evangelicalism, but there's a whole lot of people that aren't saved. Our calling is to preach.

And should I be afraid of seeing what's happening in our country or Israel or Ukraine or wherever you want to go? I don't like it, but I can't change that. Those things are not my war. My war, your war, is that of serving Christ, following Christ, trusting Christ, not being afraid of what the future's going to bring, but our war is this: the salvation of souls. So we should do everything we can to be actively involved in that.

Here in verses 17 to 20, there's a second metaphor of God's judgment, this time it's a grape harvest. And this imagery here is severe. Unquenchable wrath is going to come upon the unsaved world. Does God want unsaved people to fall under His judgment? The Bible says no, God does not want that to happen. Where does it say that? I'll tell you. Ezekiel Chapter 18, verse 23, "Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked? No, rather that he should turn from his ways and live." Second Peter Chapter 3, verse 9, "The Lord is not slow about his return, his promise to return, as some count slowness, but he's patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

First Timothy Chapter 2, "God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all." Bible is clear that God does not delight in human souls being destroyed. He's the creator of humanity. He desires men to be saved. He gave His son that men might be saved. But for those that say, "I don't want anything to do with you and your salvation," there's nothing but wrath, and that's what we see here in verse 17.

"Another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle." Lots of angels involved in this work. Verse 18, "Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar, and he called out with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle saying, 'Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.'" Now take note that it says here in verse 18 that this angel has the power over fire. Now what is that about?

If we start back in Revelation Chapter 5, we see that there is this imagery of heaven and the imagery is that of a temple in heaven. Now God gave Israel a temple on earth that was a physical representation that represented the heavenly truths of God and His redeeming work in Jesus Christ. So Israel's temple inside of it, when you went inside, it had an altar of incense. And as you walked straight into the temple right in front of the curtain that separated you from the Holy of Holies, there was a golden altar of incense. And priests used to go in there every day and add incense and burn incense, and that incense would symbolize the prayers of God's people.

Well, what John is looking at right here in this vision, he's seeing a heavenly altar. So look back at Chapter 5 and then notice this occurs throughout where there's this heavenly tabernacle with this heavenly altar and the incense symbolizing the prayers. Chapter 5 and verse 8, "When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." So these angels have these bowls of incense, and it says that they are the prayers of the saints.

Look at Chapter 6 in verses 9 to 11. In this vision, John sees the people who were being killed for their faith in Christ. These are martyrs. Chapter 6, verse 9, "He broke the fifth seal, and underneath the altar of incense were the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony that they maintained. And they cry out with a loud voice saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'" They're saying, "O God, they killed us for trusting in your son. When are you going to make full justice?"

Look at Chapter 8. Chapter 8, verses 1 and following, "He broke the seventh seal," and then verse 2, there were seven trumpets. Verse 3, "And another angel came and stood at the altar, that's the altar of incense, holding a golden censer, and much incense was given to him that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angel's hand." So what's happening here is that the prayers are rising up and it is bringing an increase of God's wrath to answer the plea for justice.

Look at Chapter 9, go a little further here. Chapter 9 and verse 3, "Out of the smoke came forth locusts on the earth and power was given over them as scorpions have power over the earth." I meant to go to verse 13. Chapter 9, verse 13, "The sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before the throne." So once again you see this altar of incense coming into this picture here where God's wrath is being intensified. And that's, as you go back to Chapter 14, verse 18, exactly what you have right here where this angel comes out with power over fire from the altar.

God is answering the prayer for justice and vindication. And in verse 18, they call out with a voice to the one with the sickle, "Put in your sickle. Gather the clusters from the vine of the earth. Her grapes are ripe, fully ripe." So with this, verse 19 says the angel swung in his sickle and he gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. One writer describes this bloody imagery comes from the fresh juice of stomped grapes, splattering and running down through a trough into the vat.

Now you're going to see the physical outworking of these things. It's going to be happening as you come to Chapter 19, verse 11, because Chapters 10 through 15 are a parenthetical section that are describing things and people and the main characters involved in these judgments. But what happens is that when you come to Chapter 19, verse 11, this is where you begin kind of picking up the flow of the judgments on earth. They ended in Chapter 9, and then they resume with the second coming of Christ in Chapter 19 and verses 11 and following.

Look with me at Chapter 19. Chapter 19, verse 11, "I saw heaven open and behold, a white horse and he who sat upon it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems and he has a name written that no one knows except himself. And he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood." Why is he clothed with a robe dipped in blood? Bible says this is not my blood, this is the blood of the ones that are falling under my judgment. Comes right out of Isaiah Chapter 63.

"His name is called the Word of God. The armies in heaven are following him in white linen, bright and clean. And then verse 15, from his mouth," this is Christ returning at the end of that seven-year tribulation period, "comes a sharp sword so that with it he might smite the nations and he will rule them with an iron rod and he'll tread the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty." This is the unfolding of what we see being described here in Chapter 14. Well, look what happens when you look back at Chapter 14, verse 20 here and you see this sickle going into the grapes.

"The winepress was trodden outside the city and blood came out from the winepress up to the horse's bridles for a distance of 200 miles." Notice that it says here that this massive annihilation that God brings on the nations of the world is not one that's happening right inside Jerusalem. There's going to be a lot of war going on within Jerusalem, but it's somewhere outside. This place where most of this is taking place is the place that we call Megiddo. Revelation Chapter 16 tells us about the significance of Megiddo.

Megiddo is a valley in Central Israel. It's about basically 10 miles wide and about 25 miles long. When we were there, we went to the edge of the hillside where the Mountain of Megiddo is, Har Megiddo, which is the Hebrew word mountain is Har, so Har Megiddo is the Mountain of Megiddo. In Greek, it just kind of turns into the word Armageddon. And what the Bible says in Revelation 16 is that this massive invasion that's going to come from the armies of the world, they're going to have their staging ground in Megiddo.

And God says, "That's where I'm going to wipe you out." And it says that this slaughter of these nations that have come to destroy Israel is going to be so bad that the blood is going to be up as high as the bridle on the horse and it's going to be from 200 miles, which is basically top of Israel to the bottom of Israel, 200 miles. Now, there is hyperbolic language when it says the blood is going to be as high as the bridle, but the point is this: there is going to be bloodshed throughout the entire land of Israel when God deals with those surrounding nations that have come against Israel to wipe them out.

And that's what we see happening here in Chapter 19. Go back to Chapter 19 and notice what it says down here. Come down to like Chapter 19, verse 17 and following. "I saw an angel standing in the sun, he cried out with a loud voice saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, 'Come, assemble for the great supper of God so that you may eat the flesh of kings and commanders and mighty men and horses and those who sit on them, all men, free men, slaves, small, great.' And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against him who sat upon the horse and against his army."

Christ has returned and the antichrist says, "I'm going to go fight against him and destroy him." That's not going to turn out well. What's it going to look like? Verse 19, "I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war." Verse 20, "The beast was seized and with him the false prophet who performed signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped him. These two, the antichrist and the false prophet, were thrown into the lake of fire and the rest were killed with the sword."

And so going back to verse 17, the angel says, "Hey, it's supper time!" Man, those crows are going to feast. Those vultures and buzzards and crows are going to have a banquet like never before. And that's exactly what Ezekiel Chapter 39 said is going to happen. Hasn't happened yet, it's going to happen. And that bloodshed is going to be like the world has never seen. God does it because He swore that He's not going to let those nations destroy His people Israel. Now, Israel is going to be brought to the edge of annihilation. They're going to be brought to their knees.

God said so. But He's not going to let them be annihilated and destroyed. The unbelievers are going to die in disbelief, but God is going to bring that nation through this. Jeremiah tells us in Jeremiah Chapter 30, he says, "O, that day is great! It's the time of Jacob's trouble, but he will be saved from it." In Chapter 30, verse 11, he says, "I am with you, declares Yahweh, to save you. For I will destroy completely all the nations where I've scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely, but I will chasten you justly and by no means leave you unpunished."

It is going to be hanging by a thread for that nation, but God says, "I'm not going to let you be destroyed." Why? Because they're nice people? No, they're a bunch of sinners like you and me. Because He swore to them that He would eventually save them and restore them. He swore it. And the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. God is going to restore Israel. This is called premillennialism. Christ returns, destroys the armies of the world that are trying to destroy Israel, establishes His kingdom, brings salvation to all of His remnant, Jews and Gentiles, and restores Israel in a new covenant.

He's going to do it. He said so. So as we close right now, what we have here is good news and bad news. The good news is for those that believe, God is going to judge evil. That's also the bad news for those that don't believe. This is terrible news if you don't repent and turn to Christ. So here's the final point of application: we need to rejoice that God is going to settle the score and judge evil, okay? And we must not be afraid of what the future holds.

We don't know how bad our country is going to get. By the time these events, we don't know when these things are going to happen. By the time these things come to have their fulfillment and the tribulation period begins, who knows how long it's going to be before these things come? We might see our country come into complete shambles before those things come. Whatever it's going to be, is going to be. But we can rejoice that God is going to judge evil. Secondly, we can rejoice that God is going to bring His restoration and His kingdom to His people.

And thirdly, going back to the gospel: we need to be faithful in bringing the gospel to this world. That's our calling, to live for Him and to bring the gospel to the world. Amen? Lord, we thank you for your word that tells us the future. Not everything, but you tell us what we need to know. And even though we don't know every tiny detail, that doesn't matter. You tell us your word, your purpose, what we need to know. So I pray that you would use this message to encourage our hearts and also to stir us, Lord, to be more faithful in what you've told us to do. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.