So we're in chapter 14 today of Revelation. If you want to read along, and I've been reading the whole chapters, but I'm not going to do that today. I mean, I'm planning on getting through the chapter, but a chunk at a time. So we'll look at the first five verses to kind of launch us into the chapter, but let me pray. Our Father and our God, we pause to ask your blessing on your word and Lord, to ask for your help. Father, I pray you'd help me as I read and unpack the text and help us all. Lord, give us ears that can hear your word and hearts that can receive it, minds that can understand it, Lord. And then I pray that you do that work of application. Lord, apply this to our lives individually. Lord, we're all on different paths. And Lord, you have a wonderful way of applying your word to everybody's situation uniquely. And I ask that you do that in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's read. This is Revelation 14, 1 through 5. Then I looked, and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 having his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with women. for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God." Let's unpack this a little bit. So we see here the image of the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ. We see that imagery in the book of Revelation over and over again. This isn't the false lamb of chapter 13. This is our Lord Jesus Christ, who's not standing on Mount Sinai. He's standing on Mount Zion. There's significance in that. And I don't have time to unpack the book of Hebrews for you. But if you go to the book of Hebrews, it makes a significant statement about that, that we haven't come to Mount Sinai. That's where the law was given. That's where the mountains shaked and smoked and people were terrified of God. Jesus has come, fulfilled the law, and we have come to Mount Zion. One of the commentators calls that the mountain of grace is where we are. And that's where our Lord stands on the mountain of grace. It seems, as we looked at last week, chapter 13, that all the world is under the sway of the devil, the beast, the Antichrist, right? And there's a second beast that's pointing all of humanity back to the first beast, except for God's people. who are aligned with God and aren't under the sway. And they're being abused. They can't buy or sell or trade because they don't have the mark of the beast. So they're under hardship. Whatever that is actually pointing to, that's what's going on with God's people. But the world has turned its back on God. And God says, yeah, but my lamb stands on Mount Zion. immediately made me think, and it's a psalm you're probably very familiar with because I turn to it so much, but immediately made me think of Psalm 2. And I want to read you a little bit of Psalm 2. I'll begin in verse 1 and I'll read it down to verse 6. It says, Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us. Well, he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I really do think, in the spirit, John has this psalm in mind. It's the same subject that the whole chapter is really going to cover here, the harvest. We're going to look at the harvest. So we have, again, the 144,000. We saw that before. You know there's differences of opinion on this. I see this as symbolizing God's people. And I'll read you what Keismaker says, the way he formulates this. This number, 144,000, is the sum of 12 times 12 times 1,000. In the apocalypse, the number 12 refers only to God, his people, and his works. 12 tribes, 12 stars, 12 apostles, 12 gates, 12 foundations. Twelve, symbolizing perfection, is raised to the second power in 144 and then multiplied. Thus the number 144,000 symbolically means perfection times perfection times a multitude. This number constitutes the totality of God's people. the true Israel of God, right? And you could also, I think last time we looked at that number, I was talking about the 12 tribes, Old Testament, and the 12 apostles, you know, the church of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Bible speaks of these as being redeemed. Literally, in the original language, they were bought. And the Bible tells that about us, right, as God's people, that we've been bought with a price. Not gold and silver and trinkets, but the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ purchased our redemption, right, and his atoning work. They are, I wrote in my notes, they are signed, sealed, and delivered. They've been redeemed. They've been delivered. They're signed. God's name is on them. He owns them. They're his. He purchased them through the blood of Christ. And they're also sealed. And the Bible tells us that we are, as Christians, sealed with the Holy Ghost. The Bible tells us that. It's the down payment, so to speak. The full redemption that will be brought into glory with our Lord. And we know that because we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. So here we see humanity in league with the beast, the Antichrist, and receiving the beast's mark. And here we see God's people who are not in league with the beast. They're under hardship and they're sealed with the seal of God, right? The true Israel, sealed with the seal of God. And we hear here the voice that says, of many waters, and allow thunder, calling our attention to the voice. And that harkens back to where we looked in chapter 1 of Revelation. And if you look at 13 through 15 of 1 of Revelation, it says, And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, this is our Lord Jesus Christ, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. And when we were in chapter one, I mentioned, and you've probably experienced this, Karen and I last year, maybe two years ago, went up to Niagara Falls, and there's something awesome about the sound of many waters, when you're just, you almost get mesmerized by it. You know, just this thunderous, powerful sound, and that's the sound of our Lord, right? The sound of many waters. They are taught and sing a song that nobody can sing but them, right? Reminds me of the hymn, I Come to the Garden Alone. You have this experience that none other has ever known. The unbelieving world really can't tap into. They can maybe sing the song of our hymnals, but they don't understand what we're talking about when we're singing to our Lord who's redeemed me from the grave, from the pit. I mean, we sing it from the heart because we know what it's like in that desperation to cry out to God and find a Savior there. We're pulling us up out of the pit. And so we sing from a heart and that's what's going on here. They have a song that nobody else can sing. Robert Mounce in his commentary writes, the anthem of redemption. No one can learn this song except those who have paid the price of endurance and experienced the joy of deliverance. Not even the angelic hosts are able to sing such a song, right? That's us. That's why it's a joy to come to church. Our scripture talked about don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We're to encourage each other. But it's a beautiful thing to join in the chorus of even a little church where people are singing of their own experience. It's not just flat words going up in the air, but it's a song from the soul praising our Lord who saved us. And that's what's going on here. The Bible speaks of their purity, right? These are the ones who were not defiled, verse 4, with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God. and to the lamb. This is not Mary had a little lamb and the lamb followed Mary wherever she went. This is God's people following the Lord's direction wherever they go. They are purified people. This is contrast to the citizens of the world. In Revelation 17, it will help us a little bit. Why does it say they are not defiled with women? That almost sounds politically incorrect. I don't think he's conveying here women, like they couldn't be married. The Catholic Church sometimes points to this as support for the celibacy of the priesthood. I don't think that's what's going on here. I think they're talking about spiritual harlotry, is what John has in mind here, what the Spirit's trying to teach us. They weren't defiled with spiritual harlotry. And I'll get some support for that in the same book. It's a good way to try to figure passages out and see what the rest of the book has to say. But when we get to chapter 17 and verse 1 and 2, says, come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. That's talking about spiritual harlotry there, right? And I think that's what's being mentioned here is that God's people have a spiritual fidelity to God, right? In 2nd Corinthians 11.2, Paul, using that same thought about the saints, says, For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. He's talking about spiritual fidelity. Paul wanted to do a work in the church that he could present them. as a work that he poured his life into, to Christ. And they would be that chaste bride who's kept all fidelity with her Savior. And look at that passage though, where it says that they follow the Lamb wherever He goes. And when I read that, and I was just kind of meditating on that, I thought, you know, I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm in my 60th year. And I just happen to pastor a church of folks that aren't super young either. And so you guys have lived a while, and I've lived a while. Isn't it true, when you look back at your Christian life since you gave your life to Jesus, that you made a decision to move here, you made a decision to take this job and not that job, but you really can see in all of those decisions, all those paths, that it was the Lamb leading you? Can't you see that in your life? I've told you many times, I never thought I'd move here. I remember the guy taking us down to look at the land. I was in the back seat with my wife, and at the time we were just dating, and I said, I'm never going to buy this land. And then I've lived here now all my adult life. Because God leads you. He has a plan for our life, and He leads us. We follow the Lamb wherever He might lead us. John 10, Jesus says in verse four, this is Jesus. He says, and when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice, right? Do you know that voice? Do you know the voice of the Savior? Has he led you? They'll continue to lead you. You know, we're not done yet. There's no telling what God has in store for us, you know, next year, next couple of years, who knows where he's gonna lead us, but he'll lead us and we need to follow him. And then it mentions their speech, right? There's no deceit in their mouths. They're not a deceitful people. Like our Lord, right? Peter mentions this in 1 Peter 2, verse 21. He writes, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. It's the same language of following the lamb. And then he says, speaking of Jesus, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. We're to be a truth-speaking people, you know, by and large. I kind of, from memory, read you the psalm today where David said in desperation, all men are liars and we've all told lies. We are to be a people of truth. Jesus himself is the truth. He's the way, he's the life. And we need to be a people of truth. And that's one of the marks of the saints, is that they're people that don't speak deceit. Our word is our word. You can trust what we say, right? Because we model and follow the Savior. Well, now we're going to come to three angels, and I'm just going to read this one angel at a time. And so we'll look at the first angel, which is the final call to the earth, to humanity, to worship a true and living God. So this is verse six and seven. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven. having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water. So the angel flying above, so all can hear, and heralding the gospel. And I don't know that this is the heralding of the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but it specifically is a call to people to worship the true and living God, to worship Him. They're told to fear God, right? Hollow his name. Isn't that what Jesus taught us to pray, right? Before you start asking for stuff, and it's okay, there's petitions. The Bible tells us we're supposed to pray for those things. But Jesus is not going to start out being zealous for God's name. for God's reputation, that God would be honored in your life, and God would be honored on planet Earth. Start with that. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And we start a prayer that way. And then it says to give him glory. Honoring God for who he is, how he's revealed himself in scripture, and what he's done, what he's doing. We honor him. Lord, I just want to honor you today. I want to praise you for what you've done. I want to praise you for what you're doing right now. And Lord, even what you're going to do. And I don't even know exactly what that is. And sometimes we're in scary places. I'm nervous. I'm scared. Lord, I don't know where this is going to land, but I know you're in it. I know you're with me. And Lord, I just want to praise you and give you glory for that. And then it says to worship him. And this is in light of chapter 13. Don't worship the image of the beast. Worship the true and living God. The language here reminds me a little bit, when you read the book of Acts, there's two kinds of sermons in the book of Acts. And one is to a people that know the Old Testament. And they're referencing Peter on the day of Pentecost, referencing Old Testament passages and saying, Jesus has fulfilled this. He is the Messiah that was to come. Sometimes you'd get sermons that were just flat out to pagans that didn't know anything about the true and living God. And the Apostle Paul would say things like, this God who causes the rain to fall in your gardens, and your grass to grow, and your plants to grow up. This God you haven't been honored to, you haven't worshipped Him. He's the Creator God. That's how this reads to me. To a pagan world that knows nothing of the true and living God except what's in creation. And so He says to them, His judgment is coming, so worship Him, Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, the springs of water. All these things that you think just came about on their own, right? Came out of nothing, all on its own, right? Which is ridiculous. No, there's a God who created all these things. The book of Romans, right? That was the whole world under the condemnation of God, in Romans 1. Because although they knew God, they wouldn't honor Him as God, and they weren't thankful. And God holds us accountable for that. The world needs to know that. You need to be thanking the God who gave you life and breath and food and clothes and everything that you have. And beloved, the world is the recipient and the benefactant. that receive the grace of God, the common grace of God. The Bible speaks of that. He makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. He's growing tomatoes in the backyard of your pagan neighbors that don't give a hoot about God. That's his common grace. One day common grace is going to be gone. And that's the warning in Revelation. Judgment is coming. Judgment. His judgment has come, the angel says. Worship him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. Because up to this point you have not, is what the angel is saying. It's a warning. Keismaker says, since the time of the Babylonian captivity, the name Babylon has stood for godless power and human degradation. And this is coming out of Revelation 14.8. The angel followed saying Babylon has fallen. The second angel. Let me read that text. Let me get to the text and I'll get to the statement. So the second angel, the fall of Babylon, verse 8. Another angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. So Babylon here, I believe, is symbolic of the world system, right? The world system. And you see that throughout. But let me read this quote I jumped to by Keismaker. Since the time of the Babylonian captivity, the name Babylon has stood for godless power, human degradation. The origin of the description of Babylon as great is attributed to the unbridled boasting of Nebuchadnezzar. Do you remember that? And let's look at that real quick. See what he said. This king, this pagan king in Daniel 4, going back to the book of Daniel, in verse 29. At the end of the 12 months, he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke, saying, is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty? That's a horrible thing to say in the face of God. This is the mighty empire that I've built by my own power for my own glory, is what he said. And you remember the story, he was made to be like a beast of the field. God dealt with him for that boastful statement. So Keistmaker goes on and says, Babylon is God's enemy. That is, a world power oppresses the saints. Hence, the name symbolizes the rule of the Antichrist that endures until the end of cosmic time. John is so sure of its downfall that looking into the future, he writes the past tense, fallen. Fallen is Babylon. The Bible warns us as Christians not to sink our teeth into and put our hands on the things of the world. The world system is going to come tumbling down. We don't want to be invested there. We want to be invested in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and pour our efforts into that kingdom. Not the city of man, but the city of God. And then the third angel gives a strong warning, verse 9 to 11. Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." It's a horrific picture of hell. The cup of wrath. We see that cup in many places in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's contrasted by what the psalmist calls the cup of salvation, right? In Psalm 116 verse 13, the psalmist writes, I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. That's almost a way to kind of illustrate our salvation experience. We just have an empty cup. There's nothing in it. There's nothing we can do. We're almost hopeless. If it wasn't for Christ, we're destitute. We see our spiritual condition. We know we've sinned against God. We're in rebellion to the living God. We've done things we know we shouldn't have done. And we just simply cry out to God and hold up the cup. And He pours into it, if you will, salvation. It's all a gift from Him for the asking. There's nothing we have. All I got is sin and resistance. We cry out to God and He fills our cup. That's the picture. But the cup of God's wrath, it had to go somewhere, guys. It had to go somewhere. It's not as if we don't take the cup of wrath and it's just dumped out on the street somewhere. Somebody had to drink that cup on your behalf. And that's exactly what's going on in the Garden of Gethsemane. And hopefully with that said, this will make sense to you when Matthew 26, 39 says of Jesus that he went a little farther. He fell on his face and he prayed saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. I always look at that as he didn't want to die as our Savior. I think this is here, at least my interpretation of it, so that we would realize there was no other way. Jesus says, Father, if there's another way for me to redeem these people you've given me, then take this cup and we'll go that route. And for us to know the Father's answer, and you don't get it in the Bible, but you know the answer was, there's no other way. You have to drink the cup of the wrath that's against them, down to its bitter dregs, the whole cup. And Jesus resolutely gets up and goes to the cross to die for us. So these are people the third angel is crying out to that reject the cup of salvation, and they embrace the beast, right? That's what he says. Philip Hughes says, the total grace they have rejected becomes the total condemnation they have chosen for themselves. The wine of God's wrath that they drink from the cup of his anger will be unmixed, for the day of grace will then be over. Beloved, that's the warning that the church has for an unbelieving world, right? It's not just, you know, hey, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. It might be true, but that's not the message that we need to give to people. We need to understand that judgment is coming, and either you're going to drink the cup of God's wrath, or there's a Jesus who drank it for you, but you've got to reach out in repentance and faith. Otherwise, that cup's coming to you, and you will drink it one day. And it's horrific. You know, read the book of Revelation. You'll see. And you notice here that with this judgment, there's an internal torment. They have to drink the cup. And there's an external torment mentioned about fire and brimstone. I remember somebody asked R.C. Sproul, do you really think hell is going to be like a literal fire, a literal lake of fire, but people can't die? And Sproul answered that and said, maybe it's symbolism. And then Sproul said, but let me ask you this. What's more potent, the symbol or the reality? And if it is symbolism, how horrific will hell be if the symbol is fire and brimstone? If it's not just simply, truly, literally fire and brimstone. It's a horrible picture. It's a horrible picture. And notice also that this judgment is done in the sight of the holy angels and the lamb. As if John's telling the church, you know, you've been publicly humiliated. You've been abused. Some of you have family members that have been martyred publicly. But those that have turned and embraced the beast, they also will be under the wrath of God publicly in sight of the holy angels and in sight of the Lamb. And then in verse 12, there's a voice from heaven. Verse 12 and 13 says, here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. So how do we live in a world that's turned its back on the living God, the true and living God? And beloved, that's the world we live in. How do we live? In Revelation 13.10, it says, he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with a sword must be killed with a sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. It's the same language that we get here. Here is the patience of the saints, right? It's the same idea, right? But God says there's a blessing in the dying of those that love him, right? Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. It's a blessing that we're given. And how do we live in the meantime? Well, he mentions a couple things. He says they keep the commandments. We don't keep them perfectly. That's why we need a Savior. But the direction of our lives has definitively shifted. Right? We want to do what God says to do. We love his word, right? We feel horrible at the end of the day when we failed our Lord and got mad or whatever the thing was that we failed at. And the Bible says, well, go to him in confession. You're cleansed by the blood of Jesus, right? But we're different people. We want to keep the commands. Psalm 19.11, moreover, by them, meaning the commands of God, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there's great reward. The book of Proverbs, when I thought through that, it's a book of wisdom, and it's truisms. In other words, things tend to go this way, not always, but they tend to go this way in your life if you'll just do what God says to do, and avoid the things God says to avoid. I heard one preacher talk about their guardrails. God's law is guardrails. We don't drive off the cliff somewhere, so we want to keep his commands. Secondly, he mentions these saints cling to Jesus and faith. Right? We want to keep on holding on tenaciously, and when we get to glory, we'll find out all along He was holding on to us. 1 John 3.23, this is the commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave His commandment. Jesus taught Himself in John 6. They said to Him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God. that you believe in him whom he sent, right? First and foremost, root yourself in faith and confidence in Jesus Christ, right? Keep his commands, cling to Jesus in faith. And thirdly, they're faithful unto death. That's called the endurance of the saints, right? That we remain faithful to Him. We don't get to the end of the road and finally I turn 70 years old and I turn my back on God. No, we endure. That's the passage we read, right? Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Why? Because we're encouraging one another while we're waiting for that day to come, for Jesus to come back. We're helping each other. You ever see videos, and I just watched one this week, of somebody running like a marathon and they're out in front and they're like five steps from the finish line and they collapse. And then the person coming behind them picks them up instead of winning the race and helps them get across the finish line. That's the church. That's what we do. You know, we're running the marathon and one of us collapses. We don't just go, oh, I'm off to the finish line myself. We pick them up. We pray for them. We talk to them. We get them back in line. And we march on together. That's the job of the church. We help one another to be faithful unto death. Dr. Paul Kretzmann, a Lutheran theologian, writes, those that die in the Lord are those that remain steadfast in his word and faith until the end, whether this end be that of a quiet death or that of martyrdom. With their death, they enter immediately into the bliss which is prepared for them. There's no purgatory. There's no soul sleep. And the sense of the term as used by modern false teachers Now the soul is in the happiness of heaven, and the body will there be reunited with it on the last day. It's a good statement. And then we move on to the harvest and the press, verse 14 to 20. And one of my points, and I want to say it now so you'll listen for it, is listen to how many times the word sickle, is used in this passage. So this is 14 down to 20. Then I looked and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud sat one like the son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, Thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time is come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth. and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 furlongs." Did you catch how many times the word sickle was used? Seven, yeah, and seven times the word sickles used. The number of completeness. It's the completeness of God's harvest, the judgment. That idea is also in the teaching about what the Messiah's mission would be in bringing judgment. And that's exactly what this is in the text. that there's a thoroughness to it. There's a completeness to it. In other words, beloved, everybody's going to be in one camp or the other. Either your grain that's brought into the storehouse of glory to be with your Lord, or your chaff, or in this case, grapes to be crushed. It's one or the other. And there's not a grape that rolls away and ends up on the floor somewhere. Everybody is brought under the judgment. That's the point. It says in Luke 3, 17, speaking of Jesus's ministry, his winnowing fan is in his hand. Everybody knows what that means, a winnowing fan. You would take grain in that day and crush it, and you would get it up on a platform somewhere where the breeze would blow, maybe up on a hill. And the grain would be separated from the chaff, but it's all there in one big nasty pile. You'd get a winnowing fork and you'd flip that stuff up in the air and the wind would catch the chaff and blow it away. And all that was left was the grain. So you could separate the chaff from the grain. It was an easier way than sitting there picking every piece. That's what's going on in this illustration. So Jesus is said to be the one who has that winnowing fan. He's separating the kernel from the chaff. So his winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor, and gather the wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." That word in the Greek, that he will thoroughly clean out the threshing floor, in the Greek means to cleanse perfectly. And that's what's being said here. There's nobody that's left outside of this harvest. Everything's harvest. Every human being is harvested and brought into the judgment, right? And the one who's here described like the son of man, this is Jesus. He's on a white cloud, right? We know that that would represent, you know, glory, purity, holiness. It also points to the parousia, the second coming. Because how often did the Bible in the Old Testament, Daniel chapter seven, but then Jesus claimed it for himself. Jesus says in Mark 14, 62, you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power. He means the father. and coming with the clouds of heaven." So it's a picture of the second coming, the judgment is here. And he's wearing a gold crown, in the Greek it's the stephanos, it's the victory ring. He's wearing his victorious crown as he comes. And you might have picked up on this, but there's a fourth angel. We've seen three, right? Now we get some more angels. And so it's another angel, in verse 15, who's coming out of the temple. That's the presence of God, the Father. He's in the presence of the Father. He's coming out of the temple and he's crying with a loud voice to Jesus, to him who sat on the cloud. This is the Lord Jesus. And the angel cries to Jesus and says, thrust in your sickle and reap. The time has come. Why doesn't Jesus know that? Jesus is God. How come he doesn't know? John is simply picking up on what Jesus taught himself. In Matthew 24, 36, where Jesus teaches, speaking of his coming, "...but of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only." So this angel doesn't know until the father tells him, go tell my son it's time. The time has come, go with your sickle and reap, right? Not all agree on this, but I believe that this is two harvests being reaped here. I believe that Jesus goes with his sickle and gathers his church to himself. There's another reaping that's gonna happen in a minute with another angel, and it's horrific, it's horrific. As a matter of fact, Keismaker says, indeed, what Jesus taught while he was on earth, John now teaches in a symbolic, apocalyptic manner. From the father to the son, the angel communicates a message that it's now time, the harvest has come. The time will come. And I think the world laughs and mocks God, just like Psalm 2, not thinking that that day will eventually be here. And it'll come. The playing around's done. God says, enough is enough. And he gathers his church. That's coming. In Mark 4.29, Jesus teaches a parable. And in that parable, he says, but when the grain ripens immediately, he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Beloved, there's going to be one last person that gives their life to Jesus. At some point in history, some point in the future, and that's going to be the last one. And God's going to tell the angel, go tell my son, the time has come. and they're gonna be gathered into the barn, right? The church will be gathered into the barn. Some say the harvest of the righteous. I say that's what it is, right? And you get a little support for that if you go back to verse four, where it says, speaking of the 144, these are the ones who have not defiled with women, they're virgins. These are ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. These were deemed from among men being firstfruits, being firstfruits to God and to the lamb. So now we get the fifth and the sixth angels. Verse 17 and 18. Then another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, who had the power over fire. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe." In other words, it's time. It's time to gather the grapes. And these are those that are not redeemed, right? So the fourth angel cried out to Christ, the time has come. The sixth angel now cries out to the fifth angel, very similar, and says the time has come. So here is not the first fruits, which I believe the first harvest was. Here is the ripe grapes, and they're ripe for the righteous wrath of God. Like no more Geist Maker, if you don't mind. The expression firstfruits refers to the harvest of God's elect. Separate from them is the harvest of the reaping of the grapes, the depraved, destined for the great winepress of God's wrath. The second sickle is used not for the harvesting of grain, which is God's people, but for the grapes of wrath, God's enemies. You see similar language in the Old Testament book of Joel, in Joel 3.13, where it says, Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. That's the idea of this angel has the power over fire. I think that's just a picture of judgment fire. We looked at that with the chaff. When Jesus separates them, the chaff will be burned up. In Luke 12, Jesus said very distinctly, He didn't mince words. I love the Lord for that. But in Luke 12, 49, Jesus says, I came to send fire on the earth. He's talking about judgment and how I wish it were already kindled, Jesus said, right? You don't see that on bumper stickers. So God's winepress, verse 19, so the angel thrust a sickle into the earth, gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 furlongs." It's a horrible picture, guys. Absolute horrible picture. Notice that they don't just gather the grapes. They gather the vine. And Dr. Paul Kretzmann, my Lutheran theologian, picked up on that. He said, the final judgment will not be a partial judgment, but will strike fruit, branches, stem, and roots. Not only the grapes are gathered, but all the shoots and branches are cut off, the fruit of sin and unbelief has reached its full maturity, the patience of the Lord is exhausted. We serve a patient God. He's long-suffering, but one day His patience will be exhausted and His judgment will come. So the winepress itself is trampled. Isaiah 63.3 says, I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me. For I have trodden them in my anger and trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my robes." Right? Outside the city. I believe that's symbolism. It's outside of the people of God. This isn't happening in the New Jerusalem. This is happening to the worldly world people, right? Is where this is occurring. So instead of grape juice, we have blood that's flowing from the press. And one more quote for you. What St. John sees flowing from the great winepress of the wrath of God is a deep tide of blood, reaching up to the horse's bridles, extending to the distance of 1,600 stadia. The latter should certainly be regarded as a number of symbolic significance, 4 times 4 times 100, signifying judgment that is worldwide and thorough and complete, says Philip Hughes." I want to read you one final little closing story that I think is a good closure for us. This is a tough passage of scripture. I get no joy in thinking that anybody's going to face the judgment of God Almighty. And that should motivate us as God's people to share the good news of the gospel. This hasn't happened yet. There's hope. There's hope for your family. There's hope for your neighbors. There's hope for your workmates. And we need to share the gospel. If we believe these things are true, how could we withhold that from people? And not say, do you know the day of judgment is coming? But there's a safety place for you, and it's Jesus Christ, right? So this is Holman's commentary, Kendall Easley. He usually puts a little story at the end of his commentary. I don't usually read them, but I thought this was good. So he has this little story that he ended this chapter with, and it's called Curtain Call. He says, I never did like to go to school plays much until my fifth grade son was cast as one of the children in a high school production of The Sound of Music. Suddenly, I had no problem with wanting to see his performances, and I ended up watching him four times. When the plot finally resolved at the end of the play, he had almost the very last line, and then the final curtain closed. All theater productions come to an end. In this chapter, the curtain at last falls on the drama that began in chapter 12. In the final scene, we have witnessed the incredible flow of blood from the wine press of God's wrath. When the curtain closes, we are left with this as an enduring image of the entire production. What is the plot resolution? The grain is safely gathered. The grapes are crushed in the wine press. Through these scenes and the others in this chapter, John has written for us images both glorious and terrible. For the righteous, there will be glory and honor. For the Lamb has protected and gathered his people. For the wicked, there will be shame and torment. For the winepress of God's fury will bring it to pass. And I'll end with that. Our Father and our God, we thank you for rescuing us by the blood of your Savior, Jesus Christ, Lord, the atonement you provided in your Son. Thank you for that, Lord. But Lord, there's many others that don't know you savingly. Lord, I pray for our family members, for our children, Lord, our grandkids. Lord, rescue them. Rescue them, Lord. If they won't listen to us, bring somebody to them that they might hear the good news of the gospel and turn from their sins and repentance and embrace you by faith. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in the peace of Christ to a world that desperately