[0:00] and we read the Word of God together, and we will read all of Revelation 14, and we'll see what the Word has to say to us. John writes, Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having the name of his Father written on their foreheads.
[0:19] And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of loud thunder. And the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been purchased from the earth.
[0:37] These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
[0:49] And no lie was found in their mouth. They are blameless. And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, and having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.
[1:00] And he said, With a loud voice, Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of water. And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.
[1:19] Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying, With a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast in His image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger.
[1:34] And he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast in His image and whoever receives the mark of His name.
[1:48] Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Right, blessed is the one who die in the Lord from now on.
[1:59] Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow with them. 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.
[2:13] 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 for the hour to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was reaped.
[2:28] And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven and he also had a sharp sickle. Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle saying, Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth because her grapes are ripe.
[2:44] So the angel swung his sickle on the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth and they threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. Verse 20, And the winepress was trodden outside the city and the blood came out from the winepress up to the horse's bridles for a distance of 200 miles.
[3:01] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, we rejoice in the opportunity we have gathered together to proclaim your praise through song. Lord, the privilege we have of reading your word publicly, seeing what it has to say.
[3:16] So Lord, now we present ourselves before you and we ask that by the power of your spirit that you would give us illumination. Lord, that you would help us to see what it is that it says. That we would understand its truth.
[3:27] And Lord, that we would move beyond understanding to application. Lord, that these truths would grab a hold of our lives for your glory. Lord, that they would shape and conform us and move us to be your people about your work and in your fields and your vineyards, laboring as you've called us to.
[3:43] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. We see in Revelation chapter 14, the light which shines in the darkest hour.
[3:53] The light which shines in the darkest hour. Because there has been no time in history like the one that is to come. It is a saying that we need to understand.
[4:04] Man is not getting better. Rather, they are getting worse. When you read the book of Judges in the Old Testament, there is a theme throughout the book of Judges that is repeated five times. And it is in those days, there was no king in Israel.
[4:16] And each man did what was right in his own eyes. But the theme that runs throughout the book of Judges is the theme that I believe will be played out also in the latter days. It is the theme, if you remember from the book of Judges, or maybe you're currently in that reading program that you're reading that now.
[4:31] If not, then maybe you've read it recently. There is this thing in the first couple of chapters that reminds us how man got to that point. Because that theme of each man doing what was right in his own eyes does not occur until the end of the book of Judges.
[4:47] And how we got there is really found at the beginning of the book of Judges. And it says that after Joshua died, and the generation of those who served with Joshua died, and that generation is described as those who had saw the magnificent work of God in the wilderness, and had seen the Lord deliver their enemies before them in the promised land.
[5:07] When those who had seen and witnessed the work of God vanished, the people of God faltered. The people of God began to go down because you cannot live. Friend, listen to me.
[5:18] You cannot live on the faith of those who went before you. You can stand on their shoulders, but you cannot live on their faith. Because it must be your faith. It must be your belief. It must be your understanding.
[5:30] You cannot live on the faith of your grandparents. You cannot live on the faith of your parents. You cannot live. You can stand on their shoulders and let them raise you up. But you cannot stand and live by their faith alone.
[5:42] That's what happens in the book of Judges. Those who had seen the work of God perish. They all died a natural death. And then the people of God began to wander. And then gradually they began to spiral down.
[5:53] What you find in Judges, which is a period we find in the book of Acts of over 450 years, is that man continuously gets worse. They are in a downward spiral to the point that Israel ends up in civil war near the end of the book of Judges all over a man who ended up in a place that he should have never been with a woman he should have never been with and got himself in trouble.
[6:13] And all of a sudden, they end up almost wiping out one of their own tribes. You have to go read it to find it. Listen, Hollywood doesn't make movies like this. God writes stories like this because they're true, right? And what we find is man not getting better the longer they live, they get worse.
[6:27] And history has been a picture of what we have described for us in Judges. Just in case you think man is advancing, you need to think again because man is in a state of degradation.
[6:38] We are going down, not in a manner of progression. We may be progressing in some things, but that does not mean we are progressing in morals. Those who have lived life a little longer than us can testify that things were different some days ago, even in our own recent memories, right?
[6:54] That it was not always this way. And why is that? Because those who have seen the works of God seem to be perishing. How much more so when we get to the book of Revelation and if according to at least my interpretation and interpretation of very many, the church is raptured after Revelation chapter 3 and all of those who have seen and witnessed the work of God are taken immediately at one moment off the face of the earth, how much more so could we expect man to spiral down and spiral down?
[7:24] And what we see is the darkest hour where man longs to worship something. There is created within the heart of every one of you a desire to worship. It is there.
[7:35] God has said eternity in the heart of every man. And God has also said the desire to worship in the heart of every individual. And you are worshiping something. You may not even know it, but you are giving something, your time and your attention and your focus and your admiration and all of your effort.
[7:50] You are worshiping something. So man has to worship. And what we see is man begins to worship this false Messiah who offers them world peace, though God is chastising them and they understand this correction is coming from him to the point that we have worldwide worship of the Antichrist and his image.
[8:09] This is what we have recorded for us in Revelation 13. There is not a darker moment in all of history. And yet in that moment, friend, listen to me, the light of Christ still shines.
[8:20] Revelation 14 contains for us the light which shines in the darkest hour and it is a refocus on the person and work of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful that John, when he was moved by the Spirit to write the book of Revelation, would write a few chapters and then pause and go back to heaven, right?
[8:37] And then he would come back to the earth and he'd write a few chapters and he'd pause and he'd go back to heaven. Because we cannot be so heavenly minded that we forget about the earth. But we also should not be so earthly minded that we forget to look at heaven, right?
[8:49] We are walking on the face of the earth. But we need to look up to heaven every now and then and be reminded who it is that's really sitting on the throne of heaven. Though we need to be earthly focused because this is the field he has put us to labor and walk on, let us not walk on it so long that we fail to look up to the heavens and declare his glories.
[9:08] And this is what John did in writing this. I want you to see this light shining in three different ways. Two of them will seem odd to you, but they are the way his light shines. The first one is very clear.
[9:19] We see the light which shines through the worship of the secure saints. The light which shines through the worship of the secure saints. He says, now, what has he just seen in Revelation 14?
[9:29] He saw the dragon standing on the seashore of the earth, right? And the seashore would be a representation of all of the world. He saw the dragon standing on the earth.
[9:40] But his vision didn't stop there because he says, beginning in chapter 14, then I looked. Not only did I see the dragon and the antichrist and the false spirit, and I saw all these things here, and I witnessed that, but guess what?
[9:52] Satan's work didn't hinder anything else because then I looked, and behold, the lamb was standing on Mount Zion. Now, Bible scholars go back and forth of which Mount Zion this is. In the Old Testament, Mount Zion is often referred to as the city of Jerusalem.
[10:07] Many people believe that it is referring, and many great Bible scholars believe that this is referring to Jesus Christ standing literally in the city of Jerusalem after Satan is bound because he is pinning things that are about to happen for us in the book of Revelation.
[10:20] John is a great author following all English context. He is doing exactly what you're supposed to do when you write a great paper. Many of you remember when you were in school and you had to write a paper.
[10:31] This is something, I never really liked writing papers, and then God called me to be a pastor, which is kind of astounding, right? He laughed at me. He said, ha, now you get to be a pastor because it's almost like writing two to three term papers every week, and they're just like, that's not fun.
[10:42] But anyway, you remember when you did that, you had an introduction. I love the way that it's explained. You need to tell people what you're about to tell them, and then you tell them, and then you tell them what you told them.
[10:53] That's a good paper, right? You give an introduction, I'm about to tell you what's going to happen, and then you tell them what happens, and then you conclude with, I told you what happened. This is what happened. And this is exactly what John is doing in Revelation 14.
[11:04] He is introducing the events that are about to happen. So these are things that have not happened yet. So with that in mind, many Bible scholars believe this Mount Zion that is referring to the Lamb standing on, that Lamb is Jesus Christ, is after Satan is bound and Jesus is establishing his millennial reign.
[11:22] We'll get to that later. His thousand-year reign. And with him are the 144,000 who endured the tribulation. And there is some weight to that. The book of Hebrews also refers to Mount Zion as the heavenly Jerusalem.
[11:35] So some believe that this is Jesus standing in the heavenly Jerusalem. The problem with either one of those is this. The first one, if this is Jerusalem, literal Jerusalem he is standing on, and the 144,000 are here, then by the time we get to the end of this chapter, Jesus is in the clouds.
[11:51] So we know that there was the first coming of Jesus, that he came to the earth born of the womb of a woman. He was born of a virgin, and he was a baby wrapped in the womb. And then there's going to be a second coming when he comes as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, right?
[12:05] But there is no time where he comes and comes and comes and goes back and he goes back into the heavens. So we kind of scratch our head and say, well, what is that talking about? Okay? Because if he's on the clouds and he couldn't be on the earth, right?
[12:16] He doesn't bounce back and forth. This is not who he is. He's a very pointed, decided action man. Now, the second part of that, if this is heavenly Jerusalem and the 144,000 are with him in the heavenly Jerusalem, then some have a problem with saying, well, those saints are secure.
[12:32] This is the 144,000 from the nation of Israel, 12,000 from each tribe. This is deep stuff, isn't it? Isn't this good? This gives you, I mean, I know this just excites you and you're so thankful. Just stay with me.
[12:43] It gets good in just a minute, okay? If this are those people, the problem would be, I thought they didn't die during the tribulation. So how are they in heaven unless they die?
[12:55] They're not supposed to die. They're supposed to be secure. So for that purpose, many believe that Jesus has to come to the earth to join them. I believe that he's standing in heaven and the reason I believe is because these 144,000 are referred to as the first fruits, right, of those who would be called.
[13:09] I don't think they died. I think they just went up to heaven. This is just my interpretation. If you interpret it differently, that is perfectly fine and it's okay, okay, because Mount Zion is both. But that is not the point as to which Mount Zion he's standing on.
[13:21] The point is this. Listen, Satan may be standing on the seashore, but Jesus is standing on the mountain, okay? Satan may have a little authority over the earth, but Jesus is still standing in the place of power and authority.
[13:33] And with him standing are the 144,000 secured saints. And John said, I heard the 144,000. They were there and then I heard this voice from heaven and this voice from heaven sounded like a pealing of thunder and it sounded like harps playing, right?
[13:46] Anybody ever heard thunder which sounded like harps playing? It was this sweet melody and they sang a new song and the they who sang a new song was 144,000 which they alone could sing.
[13:57] You know what's amazing with the book of Revelation? The book of Revelation is full of heavy stuff. I mean, the third of the seas and a third of the heavens and a third of the earth and of course men are dying by the millions and billions and a third of the world passes away but every time you see the saints, the saints are singing.
[14:14] Have you noticed that? Things are going crazy. You have to kind of forgive me for saying this but things are going awful on earth but in heaven people are singing. And every time you see Jesus, every time the lamb shows up, song breaks out.
[14:30] That's why you shouldn't have a problem when you come to church singing. This is why every time you walk into church and Jesus says we're two or more gathered together, I am there as well, song should break out. I was reminded this morning while I sat on the front pew, I went and sat beside my wife or I stood beside my wife, I'm going to go take this opportunity.
[14:46] Had a deacon's meeting, didn't get a chance to see her very often this morning so my seats up here have kind of been taken, we're not counting on anybody here so I just kind of went around, I was like, there's my wife, I'm going to stand beside her. As soon as I started singing she said, you're singing very loud.
[15:00] I said, I'm sorry. I know I do not have a good voice but I normally stand on the front where nobody hears me, right? I was like, I did not realize I was in the whispering zone.
[15:10] She said, you are. Don't blow the people in front of you away. She's going to get on to me later for calling her attention to that but listen, I can't help it at times, you know, and we're two or more gathered together, I'm there as well and sometimes I'm a loud talker but the reality is is that everywhere you see Jesus showing up in scripture, especially in the book of Revelation, his people start rejoicing and singing and praising.
[15:32] His people begin to proclaim his praises. Some of them are like me, they're loud singers. Some of them are like you, they may be quiet singers. It doesn't matter what volume you sing just as long as you're praising and singing, right?
[15:44] And it says that they gathered around but this is the 144,000 singing their own song. Those who had endured the darkest hour sing the sweetest song and no one else can know it.
[15:59] This is why the book of Psalms tells us, you know, over and over again the book of Psalms says, sing to the Lord a new song. Now friend, I want you to hear me out, I want you to hear me out on this in all sincerity and truth.
[16:11] We got a chance to witness this this morning. Brother Jerry came up here and he sang for us a new song. Great job by the way, brother. You know what that song was born out of? That song was born out of his experiences and his worship.
[16:24] It will never mean more if that song gets major and big and everybody starts singing it. It will never mean more to anybody than him because that's his song. I love the song Amazing Grace but that song will never mean more to me than it did to John Newton because when John Newton wrote that, he knew what was so amazing about grace.
[16:43] I love to sing the song, all these songs that are over and over, It Is Well With My Soul. That song is an amazing song but it will never mean as much than the man who wrote the song, It Is Well With My Soul because when he wrote the line, when sea billows roll, I will still sing It Is Well With My Soul.
[17:01] He is the man who lost his wife and children in a shipwreck and the sea billows rolled over them and they ended up drowning at sea when he alone survived. So when he wrote that, when grief washes over me like sea billows, he alone could sing that because it was his song, it was his praise, it was his worship, he was standing on his faith.
[17:22] You see, the reality is is that when men and women can sing praises which spur from their own faith and their own experiences, all of a sudden they take new meaning, they take new weight, and they lead to an exalted state of worship.
[17:36] What we see with the 144,000 is now wherever they're standing, either in Jerusalem or in heaven, they're with the Lamb, and they have just endured the great tribulation. They have endured the thing when other people who came to faith in Jesus Christ, they paid with their life, but yet they went through it unscathed.
[17:53] They were secure. They were kept. And the Lord had put his name on their forehead, and they walked through the darkest hour, and Satan had fought them, and Satan had thrown his fiery darts at them, and the world had despised them, and they made their way through it.
[18:07] They may have been scratched. They may have been scarred, but they would not die. And when they get to the presence of the Lamb, they cannot help but worship. Friend, let me tell you something. The 144,000 are just a testimony to the security you already possess.
[18:21] They're not the only secure saints because Paul said, who can take you from the hand of the Father? Neither height, nor death, nor powers, nor principalities of the air, nor spiritual forces of darkness, neither famine, nor sword.
[18:34] They cannot kill you. You say, well, I can die. They cannot kill you because Jesus says, he who has accepted me as our Lord and Savior has passed from death unto life. Past tense, right? I've already died my death, and I've been raised to walk in the newness of life.
[18:47] That's what baptism is, right? I am buried with the Lord in believer's baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life. I have already died my death. You can slay my body, and it can lay down, but I'll continue living my life.
[18:58] I am secure. I am helped. Nothing can take me out of the hand of the Father who loves me. Which means, every time I'm in his presence, I should worship him. One of the greatest lights in every darkest hour, the greatest light that shines in every darkest hour is the worship of the secure saints.
[19:15] Read your history, my friends, and you will find in the darkest moments of the church, the church has worshipped the greatest, and the light has shone out of that. Whether it be in the book of Acts when the church was born and Peter was in prison, the church was gathered together praying and worshipping, and Peter knocks on the door.
[19:31] Or whether it be in the early days of the church during the Roman Empire when they had to go to the catacombs and they would worship in secret and they were there being thrown to the wild beasts. Or if we move along a little bit further in history, and missionaries were in China and this great rebellion started in China and every foreign individual had to leave China and they had to get out of China because of all these things.
[19:52] And China Inland Mission was there, which would have been some of the work of Hudson Taylor and all those people. And when they left, they were like, this is terrible, the church will not survive because everyone who knows the gospel is leaving.
[20:02] But they forgot that God builds this church, not man builds this church, right? So when every foreigner pulled out of China, they left behind this fledgling newborn church. When they came back, they found a church that was stronger than ever, bigger than ever, and growing more than ever.
[20:16] A church that had went underground and in the darkest moment worshipped in a stronger way. Or whether it would be the underground church today in many a nations that is worshipping like none other before.
[20:27] What you find, my friend, is the places and the countries in which the church is dying is the places in which the church is thriving in the world's eyes. There are people around the world and many of us in our nation are praying that God will not bring persecution to us.
[20:43] And I have heard the personal testimony of other church leaders in other parts of the world that pray that God would return the persecution back to them because they said when we suffered, we worshipped. But when it got easy, we quit.
[20:55] And they're saying, oh Lord, see us fit again to endure discomfort and honor. Why? Because light shines when the worship of the secure saints rings out. And all that has to happen is they have to be with Jesus.
[21:07] Number two, we see not only the light shining in the worship of the secure saints, these next two are going to be a little bit difficult for us to accept but we need to understand them. Number two, we see a warning of impending judgment.
[21:18] God is loving and kind and patient and gracious and merciful, right? He is all of these things and we need to be reminded of that when we read the book of Revelation because when we read the book of Revelation we are seeing the final judgment of God on man's rejection of Him and we see what God fully brings upon man but let us never forget that God is gracious even in His judgment and we see this here in verse 6 we have now introduced for us a series of angels a number of angels we see from verse 6 to the end of the chapter in verse 20 God is doing His work through His angels why is God doing His work through His angels here?
[21:54] Anybody want to guess? Because His church is with Him He's doing a work on earth and the church can't do it anymore because the church is with Him by the way the things we see the angels doing here is the responsibility of the church today this is another reason for us to realize the church has been raptured and called home God does not tell okay church you failed me we're not going to do that God stays with His plan right?
[22:15] He is using the church and He's using the church until He calls the church to Himself and now He employs angels at this critical hour this time of tribulation this time of judgment and I saw another angel flying in midheaven which means He didn't come all the way to earth it's just in midheaven that's actually where the clouds are this is a Bible reference to where the clouds are into the sky He saw an angel flying in midheaven having an eternal gospel to preach this is the only time in scripture we find that angels preach because God's giving man a chance to repent okay God's going to the last measure preaching is our responsibility right now mine and yours it's not just mine it's mine and yours it's a shared responsibility I believe in the priesthood of the believers that if we know Jesus Christ we may not all stand up on a podium and behind a platform behind a podium and preach but we're all called to be proclaimers of the gospel right we're all called to be people who in some way form or fashion proclaim Jesus Christ and now that the church is with Him God gives one more chance He sends out this angel having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth remember that phrase to those who live on the earth it is repeated throughout the book of Revelation it always refers to those who have not accepted God as their Savior or accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior those who have rejected the work of God in their life what we see in the book of Revelation is those who live on earth quote unquote are those who are claiming the antichrist as their God those who are worshiping the dragon not those who are worshiping God and we see these are the ones with the mark of the beast on their forehead or on their right hand and God is giving a chance of repentance because this angel comes to proclaim the eternal gospel to those who dwell on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people all we need to see here is God is giving an opportunity for everyone to repent everyone and what is he saying he said with a loud voice fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come worship him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water by the way those things he lists are all things that have been affected by God's judgment and he is showing them you wish you had clean water to drink
[24:18] God's over that you wish you could go out to sea and the sea creatures weren't dying God's over that you wish the earth would be green again God's over that you wish the heavens would be lit up the way they used to be God's over that the first warning this is a threefold warning of impending judgment okay the first warning is be careful who you worship he says fear God and worship him and why is he proclaiming that to those who live on the earth because they are in a matter or they are in a season of worldwide worship of the beast and his image that is the antichrist we see that in Revelation 13 they are worshiping the beast who was as if slain and came back to life and the image of that beast and the angel says be careful who you worship by the way we need to heed these three warnings as well right these warnings are not just for a future to come these are warnings for a day to live in be careful who you worship number two the worship is this another angel a second one followed him saying fallen fallen is Babylon the great she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality this is a warning of the one you think is so good the one you think is delivering you that which you are trusting in it's already been defeated now the battle of Armageddon hasn't happened yet
[25:29] Babylon is a reference to the reign and rule of the beast or the antichrist that dragon which is Satan is empowering this is a reference to the worldwide authority and what we have here is this angel is proclaiming that which you are trusting in the most in the records of history has already been declared defeated fallen fallen is Babylon the great she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality so he not only does he say be careful what you worship be careful what you trust in man needs to understand that what do we trust in what is it we're leaning upon to hold us up leaning upon to set us free and leaning upon to deliver us in times of trouble God says be careful that which you trust in may be the very thing that's about to fall and Paul himself said we need to be careful how we walk lest we too fall and now we have the third angel which is probably the starkest warning and then another angel a third one followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast in his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night those who worship the beast in his image and whoever receives the mark of his name this is a warning of a soon coming eternity this is something we don't speak on very often that is the wrath of God friend God is loving and he is kind and he is holy but he is also just and he does have wrath and it is not an unfair wrath it is not anger it is wrath it is an expected deserving judgment and here the angel warns of that wrath
[27:19] Charles Spurgeon preaching on this passage made this bold declaration he said if I could I would and I would strive to scare every one of you out of hell we try not to use scare tactics and I desperately seek not to use scare tactics because of the testimony of my own life sure if I was to tell you you could spend eternity in one of two places you can either burn for all of eternity or you could live in heaven for all of eternity it would not take a very wise individual to make that decision I was given that decision I said well if all I have to do is spend eternity in heaven is go get wet then I'll go get wet so I went up there and went through a baptismal water but yet never made a decision in my heart to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life but the reality is this there is a coming judgment there is a coming destination for all people and that destination is eternal for all people and it's either one or two the realities of hell are something that we do not speak on very often but when we get to the book of Revelation we have to one thing you find in the book of Revelation is that hell and heaven are always compared and they are always set side by side and they are always spoke of as eternal in nature which means that hell has to be eternal or heaven is not eternal many people believe the judgment of God is an annihilation that I will die he will judge me and then it will be over and either I will suffer judgment eternally or I cannot suffer reward eternally because we want a temporary instantaneous it's over judgment but we want an eternal reward but scripture gives no room for that because as is heaven is eternal so is hell eternal and here we see the reality this is something as believers we need to accept friend listen this is the reality of the people we love and the people we care for and the people we seek to minister to the people we need to build relationships with the people we need to invite in our homes the people we need to spend time with to share with them the love and hope of Jesus Christ he says that those who worship the beast you say well they are not worshiping the beast
[29:13] Jesus said you will either worship me or you will worship Satan there's no middle ground you're the child of God or you're a child of the devil that's what he said there's no middle ground so if you're not a child of God if you're not worshiping Jesus then you are worshiping Satan you say I have nothing to do I'm not a satanic I'm not an occultist I don't bow down to him no all we have to do is worship ourself and that's enough Satan's got us right where he wants us right but what we see here look at this it says and they will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels in the presence of the Lamb and the smoke of their torment you see this goes up forever and ever you say well what kind of God would cast people into an eternal hell we have to read the rest of the book of Revelations and we would get there and we'll see that this hell this lake of fire was created for Satan and his demons so one thing I want you to understand is hell was never created for man it was created for Satan and his demons when Satan tried to take over the throne of God God says I'll show you where you can go and demons who went with him that's where it was created man chooses that destination because they reject the offer of the warning and you say wait a minute
[30:21] I know about people who have never heard the gospel I know people who have never proclaimed the gospel Paul has an answer for that in Romans chapters 1 through 3 because that which may be known about God has been clearly revealed by God in all of creation and you say well I can go to other countries and I can show you people who have never heard the gospel and the odds are that if we go to those other countries I can go back far enough in history and show you where God had his people on that continent and in that land proclaiming the gospel and either one the church failed to move forward as they should therefore the blood is on the church's hands or number two the people of that land rejected the church and ran the church out of that land man is without excuse for his denial and rejection of the gospel and man is without excuse for his denial and rejection of a holy God who has created them and God will be just in his wrath and here is the warning you will spend eternity somewhere and an eternity in hell is not a party it says it's torment that goes up forever and ever verse 12 gets us to the eternal destination of the saints and here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus what is the perseverance of the saints it means that you will endure sure the scripture says that you are saved by grace through faith alone but it also says that you will endure to the end blessed are those who persevere blessed are those who endure the reward is for the endurance
[31:40] God saves you redeems you and he secures you but you will endure how do I endure through keeping his commandments and keeping my faith he said well I fell in the commandments well join the club we all fell in the commandments right but we want to strive to love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our soul with all our mind and our neighbor as our self and no matter how dark the hour gets we need to strive to love as we should and no matter how dark the hour gets we need to maintain our faith in Jesus Christ that he is still on the throne so we endure through this and he says and I heard a voice from heaven saying right blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on saying that from that moment on those who die in the Lord receive a blessing see they're laying down their physical life but they're living an eternal life in his presence and now the Holy Spirit speaks do you see this this testimony of the Holy Spirit by the way when the Holy Spirit testifies to something we ought to pay attention to that the Holy Spirit says yes he gave an amen and again I mean I like it when some of you give me an amen and I miss my brother Johnny who used to give me an amen even at times it didn't seem fitting at least I got an amen every now and then right but here the Holy Spirit gives an amen and says yes he joined in with this testimony and when the Holy Spirit joins in with an amen that's powerful so that they may rest from their labors see the judgment of the unrighteous is an eternal torment the blessing of the righteous is an eternal rest and here's this thing and their work follows with them which means those things we have done for the kingdom will follow with us we will enter eternity some suffering loss some with gain but it is the warning of an impending judgment and how much more what does not surprise me is that the world lives as if there is no judgment coming what surprises me is when the church lives as if there is no judgment coming to the world when we neglect the world and we forget the world and we forsake the world and we act like the world will not be judged therefore the blood is on our hands number three let's get to this final thing and it will be very quick number three not only is there the worship of the secure saints not only is there the warning of impending judgment number three there is the war on sin and evil the light shines in this war on sin and evil we are introduced here in the last few verses verses 14 through 20 to two great harvest the first one says then I looked and behold a white cloud and sitting on the cloud was one like the son of man having a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand who is that that's Jesus by the way just as a bible reference saying this is the very last time in scripture
[34:08] Jesus is referred to as the son of man after this he is no longer the son of man he is the king of kings the lord of lords he is the lamb that was slain but yet now stands this is the very last mentioning of Jesus as the son of man he has one more act as the son of man and that is the act of gathering together his harvest and another angel came out of the temple crying out with a loud voice of him who sent on the cloud put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is ripe and he who sent on the cloud it is Jesus swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was reaped just like that what is this this is the fulfillment of the parable which Jesus told the wheat and the tares right he says the son of man went out and sowed good seed and he went to bed that night and when he went to bed the enemy came out and sowed bad seed and then they began to sprout up together that the wheat and the tares began to grow together and the disciples asked him the people said do we need to go gather up the bad seed out of the field he said no you may hurt the good seeds and leave the tares with the wheat because in the end age there will be a harvest and at that harvest we will separate the wheat and the tares the tares the tares we will bind up and throw them into an eternal fire but the wheat we will gather together and call to ourselves there we see in that parable that Jesus is the sower here we see in the fulfillment of that parable
[35:17] Jesus is the harvester not only is he the one who sowed the good seed which is the gospel he is also the one who would bring the harvest at the end of the age and this is the separation of the church from the world because I know the church has already been raptured but many will come to faith in Jesus Christ during the tribulation time as well primarily because of the testimony of the 144,000 some because of the testimony of the two witnesses and some because they open up found scriptures or they heed the warning that the angel declares so the first judgment we see is where God separates the righteous from the unrighteous and he does that through Jesus Christ the son of man and then we see in verse 17 and another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven and he also had a sharp sickle then another angel the one who has power over the 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 what is this saying it says that time for judgment has come this is the full measure of God's judgment on the sin of man so the angel swung his sickle over 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 brothel for a distance of 200 miles that is what we will read about shortly the great battle of Armageddon that in that valley when all of man is gathered together to fight against all of God the son of God the son of man who is Jesus Christ comes from the white horse and says that he slays them with the word of the Lord proceeding from his mouth it is that great battle and some say wow will there really be blood that comes out to the horse's brothel for a distance of 200 miles history has given us just one testimony to this one of the wicked rulers of the empire of Rome testified to the fact that when he went into Jerusalem and ransacked that city that during that ransack they set many of the city buildings on fire but because of the massacre inside that city it was testified by a non-Christian historian by a historian of the Roman Empire that many of the fires were quenched by the blood of the people who were slain that there had been such a great massacre that many of the fires that were started were put out simply because blood was flowing down the streets friend there will be a day where the war with sin and evil is through and in that end we will rise victorious with the king of kings and lord of lords you know one thing we will find about the battle of Armageddon is that the saints will join him wearing white get this picture we wear white robes to a battle that has so much blood it goes up to the horse's bridle for 200 miles because we're not fighting that battle we're just there to celebrate that victory every day you're fighting a battle with sin and you're fighting a battle with evil temptations coming against you the desire to do what you know you shouldn't do is there and the battle rages on here is the light which shines in that darkest moment there will be a day where that battle is won and the war is over and we rejoice in all purity and all holiness and all cleanliness with him who is finally risen victorious it is light that shines in the darkest moment and that light has a name and that light is Jesus Christ because he is the light of the world let's pray
[38:47] Lord we thank you so much for this day we thank you for giving us the opportunity to open up your word Lord we pray as we have seen its truths now that those truths would grip our hearts and minds and Lord that it would lead us to be your people for your glory Lord thank you we rejoice and we praise and we give you all the blessing and honor and we ask it in Jesus name Amen Amen Amen
[40:31] Amen Amen Amen
[42:01] Amen Amen Amen
[43:31] Amen Amen Amen
[45:01] Amen Amen Amen
[46:31] Amen Amen