If you would take your Bibles and go with me back to Revelation chapter 14, we are going to revisit. a little bit of a topic that we talked about last time. And I made mention when we first began to look at chapter 14, which chapter 14 ultimately, it does, we referenced the early section, first few verses of chapter 14 talks about the 144,000, a little more descriptive nature of them. And we didn't really deal with that because we dealt with what it says back when we talked about the 144,000 that is mentioned in the book of Revelation. But we began to deal with this in the book of Revelation here, down in verse number six of chapter 14, and then all the way through the remainder of the chapter, it talks about three angels and then two sickles, okay? Or two angels with sickles, which would go, not icicles, okay? But with your sickle, the old-fashioned harvesting sickles, or honestly, most places back in the day, years and years and eons ago, Some of y'all will be like, wait, hold on a second. Easy. But they used to cut grass with that. You'd have different size, different type things, but it would even be used to just basically chew up and cut the grass, and then when it got up big enough again, they just do it again. Not necessarily for harvesting all the time, but it was a way of reducing whatever was growing down to where it needed to be. And so there are two sickles that are presented here. And I mentioned last, well, it wasn't last Sunday, I don't think. It was Sunday before last, or I can't remember the last time we dealt with this. But the last time we did go into this, I had mentioned that I hadn't done a great in-depth study on that because my goal was not really to focus too heavily on it. And I'm gonna retract a little bit of that just because as I was continuing to read and look at chapter 15, 16, 17, 18, I began to see some things that to me started jumping off the page a little bit as to some further, what I believe could be very much further explanation of the ending of chapter 14. And again, you find chapter 14, and I'm gonna try to describe this as best I can without getting myself all twisted. But chapter 14 is kind of like an open declaration of several things to come. And it talks about the three angels, the one angel that is going to be a witness to those on earth. Then a second angel that is going to declare the fall of Babylon the Great. And then another angel which is gonna come through and declare the doom of those who have taken the mark of the beast. And then after that it goes into the two sickles. And it talks about the one that is, there was a cloud Verse number 14, behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sat like under the Son of Man, it doesn't say under the Son of God, so we said that there's differing opinions on whether or not this was actually a picture of Jesus himself as the Son of Man, he's often referred to as that, or especially with the fact that he had a crown, a golden crown, on his head, but others say that it is merely a representation of the holiness of God in that sense, but yet still in angelic form. I'm not gonna get into the whole debate on that again and talk about that anymore, but as a whole, regardless, I wanna focus more on the two things that the sickles are going after and what I think in a greater understanding we could possibly find. Now, I mentioned last time how you could kind of picture the sickles and understanding the process of harvest and that your first person going in, their job is to separate that which is growing from what it's growing on. And so the sickle is to separate it and you cannot glean a harvest until after it has been cut off from whatever it's attached to. And I'm not gonna retract any of those things that I was saying, because as a whole, it is still true that this area, the last several verses of Tetra 14, is still dealing with the preparation and the direction towards final judgment. But one thing I am gonna do is I want to look at what, again, with a little bit more study, some things begin to pop off the page, and I wanna present to you A view that I believe is fairly sound, that to me begins to stick out as you begin to look at some of the things that happen that reflect what chapter 14 is depicting is about to take place. So as we look at Revelation 14 and we look at especially verse number 14 down to verse number 20, we actually find here in looking at this in retrospect, looking back to it and looking now in a little bit greater detail, we are looking at, I believe, to be two separate groups. And these two separate groups are found by descriptiveness what it is that the sickle is doing. You have the first sickle being used to reap. Now to reap, it required the cutting off. But reaping as a whole and dealing with a harvest In retrospect, looking back now, and more I'm gonna show you in a minute, that I think is gonna make a lot of sense. Reaping and harvest, though it can be pointed in a negative context, but reaping and harvest has always been, for the most part, laid out in a positive aspect. into reaping a harvest. Why do we sow the word? Because we're looking to reap a great harvest from the seed sown. And I know whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. So it can have a positive and negative context to it. But I believe in this particular passage, there is a negative context, but it's not found in the first sickle. Ultimately, there is a severing that does take place, but it's because something has to be removed. And much like you have the rapture take place of the church before we enter into the tribulation period, I believe what we are seeing in chapter 14 is the declaration that there will be a removal of individuals who have been faithful to God and to Christ through the tribulation period, I believe this is pointing to a removal of a harvest before there comes judgment on that which is left. You don't burn the field until you've removed the harvest. You don't plow up until you've removed that which you've already worked so hard to receive as gain. And so, as we look at this, I don't plan to be very lengthy today because we've already covered a lot of these things. So I'm looking just to show you this aspect and where it ties into a couple of other verses here in Revelation. So if you would with me, looking here at, let's read verse 14 down, dealing with this first sickle and listen to the wording. And then I wanna take you over to a different passage of scripture. It says, and I looked, verse number 14, I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one that sat like unto the son of man having on his head a crown, 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 that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reaped. That is the connotation of gathering. It's the connotation of getting something you've been waiting to receive. So thrust in thy sickle and reap. It's gonna cause a severing, but something is being brought out. It says, for the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. In every aspect of scripture, you'll always find there is that which God is seeking for and that what sometimes he finds that is not what he was seeking for. In this scenario, you will find this first group is that which is waiting for God to complete something. that which is waiting. Now understand, we're in the last three and a half. Chapter 14 is not saying it's happening right now. It's saying he's seeing visions of what is coming. Three angels with declaration, and then angels also with two sickles, that one is thrusting in the sickle. It is time to reap the harvest of the earth. Now, the second sickle talks about it's time to gather the vine of the earth. We talked about that last time. That vine of the earth is dealing with the fleshly vine, that vine that is constantly been seeking to choke out the good vine. That vine of the earth is always described in scripture, when it talks about a vine, it's always talking about that constant intrusive, it wraps itself around, I think I mentioned last time, it's kind of like kudzu. Kudzu is not native to America. Kudzu is very much an intrusive plant. And when it gets in, you can rip it to shreds and think you've ripped it out. Give it time, it comes back. It might lie dormant. It might be held back for a while as long as you stay vigilant. But as soon as you stop paying attention to it, all of a sudden kudzu just seems to come out of nowhere, wrap itself around good, healthy trees and choke them out. That's a very solid picture of the description of the vine of the earth. The vine of the earth traces all the way back to the Garden of Eden. And it keeps on going, and I don't have time to go into that whole message series that I told you Brother Wood gave me. It's powerful and convicting. But the vine of the earth has never gone away. It has always been present. It is the sensuality that is drawing men into wickedness. The vine of the earth is all that tries to choke out that which is good and right and holy. Even Paul, when he said that no man that woreth entangleth himself In this, what was that, why is that word entangled? Well, what happens when you get into vines? You get entangled. and that entangling, but there's so many people who have been ripped back into the worldly mentality when they were seeking to follow God, and they stopped being vigilant, and next thing you know, the vine of the world, this earthly vine began to just kind of wrap itself around their emotions and their thinking and their life, and next thing you know, forget church, forget people at church, I want to do my own thing. And those which had a desire to serve God end up seeming to be choked out. That's the vine of the earth. And almost always, in one form or fashion, you'll find that there is sensuality entangled with their decisions. They always end up going to things that can be traced back to the sensual nature that Adam and Eve learned about. You'll start knowing all there is to know about good and evil. Prior, by the way, prior to them rebelling against God prior to them disobeying God. Bible says they were in our understanding now, they were naked and knew it not. God had clothed them in a righteousness, I believe. There was an innocence, there was a covering, there was no knowledge of the sensual. The moment sin came in, the sensual began to penetrate. And man has done most of what they do with a tie to the sensual nature. Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth death. By the way, It's even the love of money, or you could even say the lust for money, which is the root of all evil. And so that vine of the earth, you find the second sickle, we'll look at it in a minute, the second sickle also does a gathering, but it is with the vine. There's your negative connotation. of gathering a harvest. The grapes, I'll get there in a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself. But let's talk about that first group. Go with me to Revelation 18. Now, I don't have time, and we're gonna look at some of these other chapters here. Chapter 16. Well, I should say chapter 15 explains a little bit leading into chapter 16. Chapter 16 talks about the bowl or the vial judgments that are poured out upon the earth. By the way, one after the other, after the other. I mean, it is the fastest judgments that are laid out just instantaneous, one after the other. Men are gonna curse God. in that day. And this is the last time for him that that's happening, those vile or bold judgments that are happening there. And that's chapter 16. We'll do that another time. But go into chapter 17, and chapter 17 begins to explain the vision of mystery Babylon and the woman arrayed in purple and scarlet and begin to explain the beast thou sawest that was and is not and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And verse number eight of 17 goes into all of that. And the one that came up and had the seven heads and the crowns on the heads. And it begins to describe what he saw in a previous vision of things to come and chapter 17 breaks down what each piece and each part stands for. We'll do that at another time. But go to chapter 18. I said all that because I want you to understand, we're gonna see a little bit about Babylon, but I want you to understand and see the timeframes of some things that are falling out here. In chapter 14, the second angel that had a message to declare, what was the message? Babylon has fallen, Babylon has fallen, okay? In chapter 18, starting in verse number one, just down to verse number four, listen to this. And after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice saying, Babylon, the greatest fallen is fallen. Does that sound familiar? This is the actual event that he's seeing to a degree of what he saw foretold would be happening. So he saw a quick glimpse of it in chapter 14. Now he's seeing more of the actual event of the fall of Babylon and what happens around it. And it says in the middle of verse number two, and has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the kings, by the way, the whole thing, the grapes of wrath, and the wine that's in the winepress, and the vine of the earth whose grapes are full. All of this is, it's all in connotation to the understanding of the wickedness of the earth. the wine of wrath, the wine press in which it's gonna be squeezed out, the vine of the earth that the grapes are already, and all of that being brought to a place of being dealt with, and it all comes down to the wickedness of this earth. It's a description of wrath being poured out and judgment coming. But it says, for all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Okay, now, I'm gonna stop right there. All of this that you're hearing is not a literal thing. It is happening, yes, but it's not a literal woman who have literal people who are in fornication with a literal woman. No, no, no. It's talking about a government, a one world religious leading government. And all the nations of the world are in league with and are taking their enjoyment with this one world government idea that is leading men away from God in hatred towards the one true God to follow the power and prominence of mankind ourselves. This is the way in which it is described that the kings and the nations have committed fornication with the woman, and the woman being Babylon. This is talking about a geographical government setup. And the world, all nations and kings, all these individuals have basically sold their soul to enjoy the wealth and riches of the wickedness of this one world government and its leaders. So understand, it is literally going to happen, but not in a literal sense of being a woman and men and this, no, no, that's just a way of describing how to understand the wickedness of the lustfulness of mankind to gather themselves and just do all they wanna do in the face of God and basically spitting in the face of the Creator while they make their own world. led by Satan himself. And so you see all of that. And it's about to go into a lot of things as Babylon has fallen and all that's happening, and judgment's about to really fall. We're coming towards the end of the three and a half, last three and a half years. This is after the vile, bold judgments and all, and it's coming towards the very close of the tribulation. And by the way, what closes out the tribulation? Armageddon. when Christ himself on a white horse comes as King of kings and Lord of lords and they meet him. By the way, they don't just meet him, we'll see that in just a minute. God has presented this, God has gathered this into place. But what is that first sickle? And what is that first harvest that has been separated from this earth and from this world? Well, if you remember, there are some martyrs and all that prior to this, we have heard John witness, they said, how long, oh Lord, how long before you're gonna avenge us, avenge our blood? And by the way, the whole woman Babylon, The government that's presented here, the Bible does say that when she falls, matter of fact, in verse number 24 of chapter 18, and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. In other words, she is found guilty of the blood of so many. Who are they? The ones that have been saying, Lord, how long before you avenge us? How long before you take out your wrath on the ones who sought our lives and killed us for the name of Christ? Okay? So what we find in verse number four is, I think, personally, I believe, in reading this, in verse number four of chapter 18, I believe you find the first harvest. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues. Now in just a little bit, very shortly, there is going to be a final judgment that comes upon the people of earth. But before you get to that point of hearing and seeing that judgment come out, by the way, it actually happens in chapter 19. And before that, the entire earth is wailing and crying over the fall of their great city, mystery Babylon. Their constructed, put-together plan of world dominance and mankind can do all that comes crashing down. And it talks about, in chapter 18, the merchants are crying, and this is crying, and no longer is rejoicing gonna happen anymore. It just goes on and on and on. It talks about, in verse number 23, the voice of harpers and musicians and pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in the Babylon. It is fallen. It is over. And the world is crumbling to its knees because everybody had invested everything they had in this one world government and it falls apart. And towards the end of chapter 19, Jesus Christ comes back on a white horse. And they have gathered themselves at a place called Armageddon, where they will come to fight against the invader on a white horse. Their last ditch effort trying to hold on to their own way and their own life and their own plans in rebellion against God. I'm not even gonna go into that, we're not there yet, we'll look at it later. But I believe verse number four, prior to that final judgment that takes place before a thousand year reign, I believe what you have in verse number four is, the evidence, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people. Well, there was an angel that comes out of the temple and says, thrust in thy sickle. It is time the earth, the ripening of the harvest, the harvest is ready. Receive the harvest. Reap. I really believe, honestly, that what you have is you have those who have been patient. This is the patience. If you go back, I couldn't write all these verses down, so I'm trying to go off of memory. That's dangerous. I believe it's chapter 16. Hold on. It's in here. It talks about, and this is the, this is the patience of, I believe, the saints. Thank you. 12 of 14. Thank you. I don't know why I got so far ahead. Yeah, here is the patience of the saints. That's right, because this is looking at the things that are gonna be happening. And so after you have three angels mentioned, before you have the sickles, here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. All this is awaiting, awaiting, awaiting, and then comes the angel and said, it's time, thrust in the sickle. and reap the harvest, for the harvest of earth is ready. And that first thrust in, I believe, is also dealing with that voice in verse number 18 that said, come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers. Just as I believe the Lord removes the church before the tribulation, I believe that he is going to remove the tribulation saints that are remaining. I believe he is going to remove the harvest. Come out of her. So that you're not partakers of what's about to come. Now if somebody can prove me wrong on that, that's fine, I'll say I'm wrong. But I'm just telling you when you put all the pieces together, there is great judgment coming and the entirety of the earth comes against the Lord, but there has to be, there's a remnant that's always there, but all of a sudden they're not there, they're not mentioned. They're not in the judgment of the end time last thing. They're already gone. When would they have been gone? When there was a gathering through the sickle being brought down and removing those which belong to God. because there is a second aspect of the harvest in chapter 14. Very quickly, look at this and we'll close out. Chapter 14, and look at verse number 17. And another angel, I'm sorry. Yeah, another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven. He also having a sharpsicle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire. Interesting that after you harvest, typically you burn the fields. Had power over fire and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharpsicle saying, thrust in thy sharpsicle and gather. He didn't say reap, just gather. Go take in all the sweepers and gather up all the remnant. What is it? Gather the clusters of the vine of the earth. Again, that is very specific, always dealing with the sin-cursed side of the earth. The vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. In other words, it's judgment time. Final judgment. Go gather that vine. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth. And by the way, you say, how do you know for sure that that's what it's for? Well, because we already read some of this. Gathered the vine of the earth. And it doesn't say it just gathered and reaped it. It tells us very specifically what happens to that that gets gathered. And cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. That is judgment. And then it describes what judgment this is. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even under the horses' bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. That is specifically defining the results of the Battle of Armageddon. So you have the wicked of the earth, which is the clusters, the grapes of the vine of the earth. They are a product of the sensual, lustful vine of the earth, and they are what is left, which means what had to have gotten removed, that that's what's left. What has to be removed are the faithful saints of Israel, and of the Gentiles who believed during the tribulation period. You have those who have been attacked, who have been patient, who have been martyred this entire time, they've been hated by the world, and now they are being reaped out to be removed before the gathering of the vine and the casting forth into judgment. And you find also, Look at chapter 16, verse number 16. It mentions this gathering, this second sickle again. It says, and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. So the second sickle, gathering the vine of the earth to cast it into the winepress of God's wrath. That gathering is specifically labeled here in chapter 16, verse number 16, as a gathering together into a place they were cast, they were brought to Armageddon. So here's the thing. The world of that day is gonna think that they have decided together at this place to meet the invader. They think, according to way man thinks, they think they've got a plan. What they don't realize is God himself is the one who is thrust in and given the command to thrust in the sickle, gather up the vine of the earth, which is what they are, and to cast them, gather them to and cast them into the place where they are going to meet their end. They think it's their plan. They don't realize they're not the ones in control. They think they've come to the battlefield of victory and they've just come to the wine press of God's wrath. Now when you understand what takes place at Armageddon, I'm not gonna go, we'll look at that later, when Jesus comes back and he meets them, he fights the battle, the sword comes from his mouth and kills, by the way, he deals with Satan and deals with the beast, he deals with all of that first, then he comes in judgment and Death falls upon all those who have risen against him that are of the vine of the earth. But I really do believe, according to what you see in scripture, especially chapter 18, verse number four, I believe is a clear reflection of chapter 14, dealing with the first sickle. There was a harvest gathered that belonged to God. and he severed them from existence of this earth and he removed them to himself because they were his harvest. And then he sends the next command, all right, stick the second sickle in. Harvesting is done, now gather up the junk. We've now separated that which is pure from that which is fake. So now gather up, by the way, if you read in Scripture, you find, I'm gonna close my Bible so I don't get stuck going any further. If you read in Scripture and if you look at what we've done already and looked at, you find the Bible says that all those who take the mark are doomed. And we already presented the conclusion that if for those who had already chosen to in faith in Jesus Christ, it said right there, have faith in Jesus. Those who have chosen God through faith in Jesus will not take the mark. They're already sealed in their hearts. Therefore, When the sickle goes in to gather the vine of the earth, the wheat has to already be harvested and be out. Because all those who have found gathered at Armageddon, every one of them will have the mark. Every one of them, you say, well, shouldn't there be hope for them? There has been the entire time. And they chose. They sealed themselves when they said, give me the mark. When they choose to worship Satan instead of repent before God. They have sealed themselves. They have become grapes of the vine of the earth. And they will be gathered to the wine press of Armageddon. and it will be a permanent ending against the rebellion. I wish there was a greater presentation to give on, you know, there's gonna be a great revival take place. That's not what we see. There will be many saved. There will be many who will not be fooled. They will turn away from the error they see, and they will turn to God. But the majority of the earth during the tribulation will be of the vine of the earth, and they're gonna face wrath. Not because God wants to destroy them, but because their own choice causes them to be destroyed. Again, I say the whole reason we learn about Revelation is to understand, number one, throughout every generation, throughout every situation, God has always given hope. God's always shown mercy, God's always made available his grace. But it's important that if we have what we have now, we have the word of God, we have truth, it's important that we take the understanding of what is to come, and I believe shortly to come, very soon, is that we take what we have and share it with everyone we can. Because once you and I are removed from this earth, our opportunity to be effective in sharing the gospel with somebody else who does not know is over. All we can do is be onlookers for what is to come and hope that someone will choose right over wrong. Right now we have a chance to be a voice. Later we just get to watch and see, did anything we do really matter? Be worth it to go ahead and do that which matters while I have the strength to do so. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much again for giving us what you gave us.