Moving Toward Armageddon

Transcript

GR 2037
04/08/2018
Moving toward Armageddon
Revelation 14:14-20
Gil Rugh

We're going to the book of Revelation in your Bibles. Moving through this book, a book of special significance and importance because it is God's last word to His people. John wrote this about 95 A.D. We're told as the book begins that this is a message that God the Father gave to His Son Jesus Christ to give to His churches.

So it is addressed specifically to the churches of Jesus Christ, seven specific churches in chapters 2-3 by the intention of the Spirit of God and it has been preserved because it is a message for all of us in the churches down through history. You think about it, the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter have been dead for almost 30 years when John writes this letter.

The other apostles have passed off the scene, now John in his elderly years is in exile on Patmos and God has a final word to say to His people. It is a word about prophecy, about future events. I am always amazed to read and certain believers say prophecy is one of those things not of the same level of importance that would require us to divide over. How can we say that when so much of the Bible is prophetic and then this last book is given as God's final word. And what it does is what no other book of the Bible does. There are other prophetic sections in the Bible, other prophetic books, but the book of Revelation lays out now, with detail and order, what has not been made known before. It doesn't change any prior prophecies, but it does make more clear than has done before how these things will unfold.

We are looking at that as we come to chapter 14. There has been an order. Beginning with chapter 6 we have a series of judgments that happen sequentially—seven seals followed by seven trumpets. Each time a seal is broken a judgment comes, every time a trumpet sounds a judgment comes. Then we have an interlude or a pause, which really will go from chapters 10-15. Part of it is chapters 11-14, we'll talk more about that when we get into chapter 15, then we will pick up the bowl judgments which are the last.

There is increasing severity as these judgments move along. The last seven judgments, the bowl judgments, every time a bowl is turned over a judgment is poured out on the earth. It will climax with the return of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom. His return will be in chapter 19, the kingdom will be established in chapter 20.

It is an orderly book, it's a book that clarifies and helps us to understand. It was a book intended to be studied and understood because remember we are told at its beginning and its end that there is blessing upon those who read this book and heed it. You couldn't pay attention to something you didn't understand, you couldn't obey the truths and live in light of them if they were not clear. And as we have moved through it, we see that. That doesn't mean we understand everything because certain things that are made known here won't be clear until they come to pass. But basically the book and its contents are things we understand.

In chapter 14 after talking about some key events that will be taking place during the last half of the seven years, last 3½ years that lead up to the return of Christ, now he is going to give a little bit of an overview in chapter 14 of events that will come. Chapters 12-13 in particular could be discouraging. It seems like the devil is winning. He is cast out of heaven in chapter 12 but he is wreaking terror on the earth. The world has come to the point where it is joined together in the worship of one being, one person—the devil's man, the Antichrist. And anyone who won't worship him must die. And the infamous number 666 comes out of the end of chapter 13. But chapter 14 gives an overview of how things are going to end up, and that is an encouragement to believers, it will be an encouragement to God's people who are going through this time of tribulation.

The first part of chapter 14, the first 5 verses have Christ standing on Mt. Zion. He is victorious, He has returned to earth. The devil loses, the Antichrist is defeated. He is standing on Mt. Zion, with Him are 144,000 Jewish men, 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel. God's promises to the nation Israel will be fulfilled, as the prophets of old have said. We saw in verses 6-7 an angel flying with the eternal Gospel. And even during this terrible time the message of redemption and salvation through faith in Christ alone will be proclaimed. This is consistent with what Jesus said in Matthew 24 during His earthly ministry, this Gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed through the whole earth and then the end will come. So we get a preview of that.

Verse 8 announced the fall of Babylon, very important event. Just mentioned here, it will fall, it will be defeated, crushed. The details will be in chapters 17-18. This godless world system will be destroyed. Then a reminder, the ultimate destiny of unbelievers is an eternal hell. We have that very clear description of that in verses 9-11, when people bear the full brunt of the wrath of God with no mercy mixed in, in a torment that goes on into the ages of the ages, forever and ever. Then we had the last two verses we have looked at, encouragement to God's people. When God wants to encourage His people even in the worst of times, when He wants to encourage the churches to stay faithful in their period of time, He draws our attention to the end. It is the devil's trap to tell people that prophecy is not that important. We just trust God with the future. We do trust God with the future because we trust in the God of the future. We believe that what He has said about the future is important for us to understand and know. So in verse 12 he said, “Here is the perseverance of the saints.”

Want to put up just those points of review in verses 12-13. “Here is the perseverance of the saints.” The first point is we saw in this, these are what we used at the conclusion of our study of these two verses.

#1) Saints persevere because of the reality of hell. I mean, he has just talked about the awfulness of hell, then he said, here is the perseverance of the saints. It's what helps us endure. We realize Christ will win. The first part of chapter 14, He will stand victorious on this earth and in the letters to the churches in chapters 2-3 He promised that those faithful ones in the churches would rule and reign with Him in that kingdom when He comes. He just has told of the awfulness of hell, the terribleness of that eternity in hell. Realizing where we are going puts the sufferings of this time in perspective and enables us to endure, to persevere.

#2) Saints live in obedience to God's Word, they keep His commandments. It’s not particularly talking about the 10 commandments, the commands that God has given us in His Word for us as His people, as the church. You are characterized by obedience to the Word of God.

#3) Saints live with their faith in Christ. Salvation begins when we place our faith in Christ. From that point on we live in a life of faith in Christ, we keep our faith in Him. They keep the commandments of God and their faith in Christ. An encouragement to us in the difficult times. Lord, I trust you. I not only trusted Christ as my Savior from sin and all its penalty, I live by faith in Him day by day, as does every believer, trusting Him, knowing all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Even the things we don't understand, don't have the answer to why would this happen. Our faith is unshakable in Jesus Christ, His work on our behalf, His love for us.

#4) Saints are blessed in death. Through here, for the believers that will die in this awful time of tribulation as martyrs, but it's true for every believer. The blessing here is for the dead who die in the Lord from now on. We are reminded that for the believer, death is an enemy in that we don't look forward to it, and is the remnant of the consequences of sin. And even that will be overcome, as we sang in Anistasis. It's the resurrection and some day we will be raised again. When we are absent from the body, we will be present with the Lord. So death is not a defeating enemy. So blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, that they may rest from their labors. And in this time people will die terrible deaths, painful deaths as martyrs. But for believers death is a rest.

#5) In contrast to the unbeliever in verse 11, “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest night and day.” They have no future to look forward to. No matter what life brings to the believer, death, no matter how it comes, it relieves me from the toil and agonies associated with this life and brings me into the rest and peace that will be mine for eternity.

#6) Lastly, saints will be rewarded for their works after death, their deeds follow with them. We will be judged at the bema seat, be rewarded for what we have done in the flesh.

He is ready to wrap this preview up in verses 14-20, and we come to an event that is well-known by name, even if the contents are confusing to many people. This brings us to Armageddon….what will happen to this unbelieving world and those in it when Jesus Christ comes back to stand on Mt. Zion as he talked about in the opening verses of this chapter. Now again, all of this will be put in order as we move along. This is a preview of events, but they are not in order here because the ultimate sentencing to hell that we talked about in verses 9-11 are found at the end of chapter 20. But the return at Armageddon is recorded in Revelation 19. So things will be sorted out even further as we move along through Revelation. God will clarify now the order in which these things will take place and fill in the details.

God's wrath is not a pleasant subject. We saw the ultimate display of God's wrath when people will be sentenced to hell in verses 9-11. When Christ returns to earth at the end of that seven-year period called the tribulation, this will not be a pleasant time for the people of this world. It will be a deliverance for those who have come to trust Christ during that period, have not been martyred. But by and large for the world it is a time of destruction, doom, death. God speaks a lot about His love, He speaks a lot about His wrath. We want to be careful that we don’t focus on one and not the other. He is a God of love, there is no way to minimize that. We sing of it, it is a wonder, the love of God. But the wrath of God is just as real and just as sure. So Armageddon, a time of Christ's return to earth.

Look at verse 14, “Then I looked and behold,” and attention is drawn, this is what I saw, pay attention. “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.” He sees a white cloud. Sometimes on the days when the sky is so blue and you have these billowy white clouds, and you look and they almost speak glory. How awesome, how splendid, the splendor for us as believers. You sometimes look and say, I could see Christ coming through those clouds. Not yet, but He is coming to earth again and it will be in clouds. A white cloud, “sitting on the cloud one like the Son of Man.”

We have to go back to the Old Testament, the book of Daniel for the background of this. We're going to Daniel 7, we have been to Daniel 7 quite a bit because it is a great prophetic chapter, and it talks about that key individual, the Antichrist, that we talked about in Revelation 13. Then you come to Daniel 7:9, “I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days too His seat.” The Ancient of Days is God the Father, picturing His eternality. “His vesture was like white snow, the hair of His head like pure wool, His throne was ablaze with flames.” Awesome scene. You come to verse 13, “I kept looking,” a further description down through verse 10, But down to verse 13, “I kept looking in the night visions, behold with the clouds of heaven,” note we have the clouds, “and one like a Son of Man was coming.” There is where we get this background for what we have in Revelation 14:14. “Saw a cloud and One sitting on the cloud like the Son of Man,” Jesus' favorite title for Himself during His earthly ministry was Son of Man. He is both Son of God and Son of Man. Son of God emphasizes His deity, Son of Man emphasizes His humanity. During His earthly life, He did emphasize His humanity. He had been born into the human race, became fully and completely a man without ceasing in any way to be fully and completely God.

He is the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. “He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. To Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” I want you to note, the book of Revelation does not change anything about this Old Testament prophecy. Some, in their confusion, think with the coming of the New Testament, now the kingdom has come, it's in our hearts so we can go back and redo the Old Testament. I don't think this kingdom is in existence yet, I don't think all the peoples and nations and men of every language are serving Him. I don't see the evidence of His dominion over all things. That's why when we get to the book of Revelation it is yet future. Christ's crucifixion, it happened 60 years earlier. John gives no indication that they are in the kingdom. If Christ is ruling over all peoples and all nations, John is a prisoner on the island of Patmos. The kingdom is yet future. It is prophesied here in Daniel hundreds of years before John will write, as God prepares for further revelation. So that's the background.

Come to Matthew 24, a passage I just referred to a little bit ago—the Olivet Discourse where Christ talks about future events. Again, we have been in this chapter several times because of its connection to the book of Revelation, because the book of Revelation is taking what has been revealed by earlier prophets by Christ and now clarifying, not changing, but clarifying by giving additional revelation, and also helping put it in order so we can understand it more clearly.

Christ has talked about the seven-year tribulation down through verse 14, and verse 14 is the verse I referred to. “The Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world and then the end will come.” We saw that in Revelation 14:8. Then verse 15, “The abomination of desolation spoken of through Daniel the prophet,” we saw that when we went back to Daniel, we considered this. Then here Christ speaks about it, we saw this in Revelation 13 and then in 2 Thessalonians 2 we saw fulfillment of the abomination of desolation as it will happen in the future. Then we are told in Matthew 24:21 that in the middle there breaks out that Great Tribulation “such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be.” That seven-year period will be the worst. We have already seen billions of people die in the first half of the tribulation, we have the worst yet to come. That's why Jesus said in verse 22, “Unless those days had been cut short, no flesh, no life would have been saved,” no one would survive.

Then at the end of this time, Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days,” you have these events. We've seen some of these in anticipation in Revelation. Verse 30, “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” I tell you that has not happened. There ought not to be a living believer who is an a-millennialist, no one. How clear does He have to be? Go out and look, have you ever seen Christ coming on the clouds? If you have, you've been on something. It hasn't happened because when it happens the whole world will see Him and the people of the earth will mourn. Do you know why? He is coming in judgment on the unbelieving world as well as deliverance for His people. That's what we are talking about in Revelation. And the angels are involved, “He'll send for His angels.” We see these angels involved in Revelation 14, there are half a dozen of them that come forward. That's involved with this return of Christ and His final work in preparation for the kingdom.

Stop in Acts 1, this is the ascension of Christ. The ascension of Christ 40 days after His crucifixion and resurrection, the ascension marks His leaving earth, going now to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father, not to come back and be on earth again until His Second Coming. He appeared to John, but He is not here walking the earth. During the 40 days after His resurrection, He had interaction with His disciples. Remember He appeared to them in the upper room and so on, giving further explanation and revelation so they would be prepared to represent Him after His ascension. So that is what is going on. He is appearing to them again in Acts 1, chapter 1 picks up where the Gospel of Luke leaves off, Luke being the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, the human writer. He tells them they are going to be baptized with the Spirit shortly in verse 5, they have a question in verse 6. “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” They are looking for the kingdom. Now He doesn't say to them, “Guys, it is time for you to wake up. The kingdom already exists, it is in your heart.” No He doesn't.

They are looking for the earthly kingdom that existed under David and Solomon as a united kingdom, Saul initially. Then ceased to exist as an independent kingdom in steps, first with the Assyrian conquering of the northern ten tribes and then Judah and Benjamin in the Babylonian captivity. Even though they have been restored to the land, they are a subject nation. The times of the Gentiles ruling over Jerusalem and the Jews began, as we noted, with the Babylonian captivity. Never again will Israel truly function as an independent nation and kingdom. It is dominated by the Gentile powers.

Are you going to establish the kingdom? No, you don't need to know. He doesn't say, I'm not and then say I will. It would have been discouraging. Think about it if He had said to them, Men, the kingdom coming for at least a couple thousand more years. They don't need to know that, all they have to do is have the information that will enable them to live faithfully, like we do. All we have to do is be faithful today. Is the rapture going to occur tomorrow or next week? I want to know because . . . Because why? If He is coming tomorrow, what are you going to change in your life? Change it.

We are to be living in expectation. They were to be living with the information they have. You don't need to know when, what's going to happen. “The Father has fixed this by His own authority.” We'll see that authority demonstrated in Revelation 14 in a moment. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes and you are going to carry this message to all the nations.” That is a new dimension, we looked at this. Before Christ had told His disciples, don't go to anyone outside the lost of the children of Israel. Now the Gospel is going to be carried everywhere. “Then while they were looking,” verse 9, “He was lifted up while they were looking on, a cloud received Him out of their sight. Then two angels appeared and they said, men of Galilee,” verse 11, “why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” That's when He will return to establish the kingdom. That's why He said in Matthew 24, if people tell you Christ has come, don't believe it. When He comes, everybody on earth will know, just as the disciples could behold as He ascended in the cloud. So He'll return in the clouds. That's where we are in Revelation, previewing and looking forward to that time. Revelation 19 is when it will actually be unfolded in detail. Remember, we are just getting a preview of what is ahead.

So back in Revelation 14:14, “I looked and behold a white cloud, sitting on the cloud was One like a Son of Man, having a golden crown on His head, a sickle in His hand.” The golden crown, you are familiar, there are two crowns in Greek—a diadem crown, we just carry that over, transliterate it over into English from Greek. A diadem, that's the crown of a ruler, a sovereign, a king. And the stephanos crown, that's the crown of a victor, one who has won the victory. It's the kind of crown that would be given at the games, the Olympic games, Corinthian games to a winner. He would get a stephanos. Here Christ has a golden stephanos on His head. He will be one who wears both the diadem and the stephanos, but here the emphasis is, He is the victor. And He comes now to crush an unbelieving world with great destruction like has never occurred—Armageddon. He will stand victorious on Mt. Zion. So He has the crown of the victor.

And He has a sharp sickle in His hand. That picture of the sharp sickle, it is ready for judgment. We have picked up some of these biblical images, the number 666 from Revelation 13 and most people who don't know very much about the Bible know the number 666, they will use it in different ways just because it is something awesome and terrible. Armageddon, we hear Armageddon—Armageddon is coming. They are not talking about biblical Armageddon, they have something else . . . They pick up, they know. That's what we are talking about here. This sharp sickle in the hand, we have that now. You see the grim reaper, the grim reaper has that hood on and the black garment and he is carrying a sickle in his hand. He is bringing death. Here we are, this is where it comes from. This is a time of judgment. The One who is the victor is coming to claim His victory, destroy every last one of His enemies. We get done with Armageddon and the judgments associated with it, there will not be left alive one unbelieving person on the face of the earth. That's how complete and how devastating the judgment will be. There will be Armageddon and then there will be judgments associated with it that we'll look into when we get to Revelation 19 and the actual coming. So it is a time of judgment by the One who is the ultimate victor.

“Another angel came out of the temple.” Remember we had this series of angels going back to verse 6, “I saw another angel;” verse 8, “and another angel;” verse 9, “then another angel.” Now verse 15, “then another angel came out of the temple.” The temple is in heaven, it is the very presence of God. Remember this vision has transported John to heaven. We had the earthly tabernacle, then the temple built by Solomon that reflected on earth is like in heaven. In heaven this is the place where God manifests His presence before His creation most fully. God is omnipresent, He is here today. He is what we call omnipresent, He is everywhere. You cannot hide from God. You get to the depths of the sea, He is there; you go to the heights of heaven, He is there. But He manifests His presence, even visibly as we saw in Daniel 7, He was described, the Ancient of Days on the throne.

Well, coming out of the temple, which is the very presence of God, comes this angel. He is crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, which was Christ, the Son of Man. “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Now it's not that an angel is coming, giving commands to Christ, but He is coming out and announcing. And remember in Acts 1, we didn't read it all, but as the disciples have had questions about the timing of things, and this goes back even to Christ's earthly ministry, He said the Father has kept those things for Himself. Now the Father is announcing through this angel, it's time for judgment to come on the earth.

“Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is done.” Very important, we refer to this sometimes. Come back to Genesis 15, here God is confirming His covenant with Abraham and the animals are divided by Abraham and then Abraham goes to sleep and God passes in a visible way between the divided animals, birds, indicating God is taking full responsibility for the fulfillment of all the provisions of this covenant upon Himself. Usually both parties to a covenant pass through those divided animals and there would be devastating consequences if someone violated the terms. Abraham is sleeping, God passes through, indicating He takes full responsibility for the fulfilling of all the provisions of the covenant He made with Abraham. How can anybody say there are going to be changes in the Abrahamic Covenant? That's an attack on the very character of God. But we're not here for that.

Come to verse 14, He tells Abraham that what He has promised will be a while away. Verse 13, “God said to Abraham, know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not yours. They will be enslaved for 400 years.” That's the Egyptian captivity. “I will also judge the nation whom they serve, afterwards they will come out with many possessions.” Note how detailed God is. This is going to happen hundreds of years later, then He even tells him the details. And when they finally leave that captivity, they are going to have many things. They were slaves in Egypt, but remember what happened when they left Egypt? The Egyptians were happy to give them their possessions, just to get rid of them.

“As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace, be buried in a good old age.” In other words Abraham, you are not going to see any of this during your earthly life. You are going to live a good, long life, you are going to die. All of this is for something future. “Then in the fourth generation they will return here,” after their 400-year captivity, “for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

You talk about ripening for judgment, that's what God is saying. Not time for you and your descendants to take possession of the land of Canaan where the Canaanites, the Amorites being among them, live. Their iniquity is not yet complete. Another way of saying we have in the picture ripe, God's timing is right. Do you know what happened? When Israel comes out after their 40 years of wilderness wandering, after their 400 years of captivity, Joshua will lead the people in. And what does God tell Joshua? You take the armies of Israel in there, you kill every man, woman and child that lives in that land. Why? It is judgment time, there is no mercy to be shown. Judgment comes, they have ripened to the point that I am ready to ”pour out the fullness of My wrath” and that will include everyone there. Israel is not obedient and there are consequences for that.

But that's the picture you have here of being ripe for judgment. Stop at Joel 3. Joel 3 is about the Day of the Lord, in a large part that is that seven-year period. We don't have time to do a lot of this. Verse 10, “Beat your plowshares into swords, your pruning hooks into spears.” Remember the verse from the prophets that is put on the United Nations building? “Beat your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning hooks.” Well before you do that, you do that when Christ comes back because there will be no need for weapons of warfare any longer. But before then you ought to be beating your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. It's going to be a time of warfare, conflict. People don't want to hear this side. They pull a verse out of the Bible and quote it and think, now that settles the matter. Often it just shows our lack of familiarity with the Bible.

Verse 12, “Let the nations be aroused, come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations,” we'll talk about that in connection with the return of Christ, the judgments of Matthew 25. “Put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come tread for the winepress is full, the vats overflow for their wickedness is great.”

That's what we are talking about. Put in the sickle, the harvest is ripe. And we're going to go to the winepress as the picture in the last part of the chapter where you are familiar. Some of you have been to Israel. Some of you have seen the pictures. They would take a large stone and cut it out as a bowl. And they would put it on a higher spot. Then they would cut a spout out. Then they would make another stone bowl carved out, large. And then people would put all the grapes, dump them in as they cut them down, into the top bowl. Then they would bind up their garment, get in and trample all around on all those grapes and the juice would be squeezed out, run down the spout and fill up the lower bowl. That's the picture. “Come tread for the winepress is full.”

It's a picture, the people's iniquity has filled up the place for their judgment. Pictures like the grapes have filled up that upper bowl, ready to be trampled. The people are ready to be judged and destroyed. “The vats overflow for their wickedness is great.” That's what is pictured, so that comes out. “Multitudes, multitudes in the day of decision, for the Day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”

Come back to Revelation 14:16, we won't go back there, we are going to read some of what we just read in Joel at the end of Revelation 14, you have the picture. Verse 16, “Then He who sat on the clouds swung His sickle over the earth, the earth was reaped.” Remember we saw in Matthew 24 the angels are associated with coming out under the authority of Christ to carry out a work in the world. So here Christ swings His sickle. It's a picture, the earth was reaped. That doesn't mean there has to be a literal sickle cutting people down. It's like we use the symbol of that sweeping sickle, it is cutting people down, its doom, its death, and its destruction.

Then you have verse 17, “Another angel,” and similar picture, a little differently described. “Another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven. He had a sharp sickle. And another angel, the one who had power over fire came out of the altar.” So you have this other temple joined with judgment. So the angels are part of what is going on.

We'll see more of this when we get to Revelation 19 and other passages associated with it. “Another angel, the one who had the power over fire came out of the altar and he called with a loud voice to Him who had the sharp sickle, saying, ‘put in your sharp sickle. Gather the clusters from the vine of the earth because her grapes are ripe.’”

Again that picture, we saw that in Isaiah, we saw it in Joel 3, Isaiah 63. “The angel who has power over fire,” the picture here comes back to Revelation 6, this altar. In Revelation 6:9, under the fifth seal, “I saw under the altar.” The altar here is the altar of incense. We'll look at another passage in a moment, which was before the very presence of God in the tabernacle and the temple setup. We noted this is where the prayers of God's people come. So you have here underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain. And they are crying out to God for vengeance on their death, they have been martyred for their faith in Christ. And they ask the question, verse 10, “O Lord, holy and true, how long will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” He said, it will be a while. Now we see the preview in chapter 14, we've come to the time when the judgment is there. So the altar that the angel comes out from indicates he is coming in response to the prayers of the saints that have ascended up to God.

Come to Revelation 8, now we are under the seventh seal and you see the angel is so involved in all this. Verse 3, “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censor. Much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. The smoke of the incense, the prayers of the saints went up before God. Then the angel took the censor, filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth.”

Remember the angel in chapter 14, the angel of fire came out from the altar. The picture is he is coming out in response to the prayers of the saints, that God is now ready to answer, bringing judgment and vengeance on the earth that has so mistreated His servants in their rebellion against Him. So you see the connection, the fire, he is the angel of fire because he is coming out. Another symbol of judgment, fire, and the destruction it brings.

Come back to Revelation 14:18, “The other angel who has power over fire came out from the altar,” that altar of incense where incense was added to the prayers of the saints. Remember out of the Old Testament picture where the incense rose up before God and was a pleasing fragrance in His sight. And those prayers were pleasing to Him and He is pleased to honor them. Now we are coming to the honoring, so he will bring fire, destruction. It goes with the picture of harvesting the earth. Destruction on destruction.

He says “Put in your sharp sickle, gather the clusters from the vine of the earth because her grapes are wrath. So the angel swung his sickle to the earth, gathered clusters from the vine of the earth, threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” So the picture here just like those grape clusters gathered and thrown into the winepress, that place where the grapes would be trampled out and crushed. So these unbelievers are thrown into the winepress of God's wrath where they will suffer destruction. “And the winepress was trodden outside the city,” the city will be spared, “and blood came out from the winepress up to the horses' bridles for a distance of 200 miles.” It is basically going from south to north, north to south, covering the whole land of Israel. We'll say more about that.

Come back to Isaiah 63 and here you see something of the judgment. “Who is this who comes from Edom with garments of glowing colors from Bozrah?” We'll talk about Bozrah in this when we get to Revelation 19 and the coming of the Lord. That would be the region going from the southern part all the way up to the north and get your 200 miles and how Christ comes. “Who is this who comes from Edom with garments of glowing colors from Bozrah? This one who is majestic in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength. It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is your apparel red? Your garments are like the one who treads in the winepress.” You see the picture, when they would get into that winepress they would take those long garments and when they would talk about “gird your loins for action,” what they would do when they were going to do work or trample the grapes. They would bind those long robes up and bind them around their waist. Then they would get in and trample on those grapes and walk around trampling them with their feet. What happened? The juice would squirt out, spread up and stain their garments. The blood would run down and out into the lower chamber.

What he says is, verse 3, “I have trodden the wine trough alone, from the peoples there was no man with me. I also trod them in my anger, I trampled them in my wrath. Their life blood is sprinkled on my garments, I stained all my raiments.” This is an awesome picture, just like the grapes are trampled and destroyed. “So the enemies of the Lord are crushed under His feet, their blood splashes out and is on his garments. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, my year of redemption is come.” It is a day of vengeance, it is a day of redemption. “I looked and there was no one to help, I looked and there was no one to help, I was astonished, there was no one to uphold me, so my own arm brought salvation to me. My wrath upheld me, I trod down the peoples in my anger, I made them drunk in my wrath, I poured out their life blood on the earth.” We saw that in Joel 3 as well. That's the picture now.

Come back to Revelation 14:19-20. It is not anything new, just a reminder, now the day is coming. So in this preview the ultimate realization will be chapter 19. Some comments about Armageddon, people are gathered there in chapter 16, where the name comes from. And then the actual carrying out of the events in chapter 19.

This blood flowing to the horses' bridles for a distance of 200 miles, that would basically be the whole extent, north to south of Israel. The question is, is this actually something? Will the blood flow down into the Jordan valley and be as high as the horse's bridle? That is a possibility. In light of Isaiah and the description here of the winepress, I think it is saying from throughout the whole land of Israel this horrible destroying bloodshed will occur and that blood will be splashing up, as it said in Isaiah 63, on the garments. So the whole land of Israel. Because Christ is returning to Israel. Now the whole world comes under His judgment and in connection with His return in chapter 19 we have to consider the judgments that take place, because not everyone dies at Armageddon. There is a destruction that takes place there of great magnitude, but then all the peoples who are unbelievers, all the people who are alive period, will come before Him to be judged and they will be separated out of who goes into the kingdom. Anyone who lives thus far now stands before Him as an unbeliever will be executed. Only believers will go into the kingdom. So that's where we are here.

Let's put up the summary points, if we could, just to remind you of these things. I put the verses with this, even if I don't read them all for time you can see.

#1 The first one, most important, Jesus Christ is coming again. As we saw in Revelation 1:7, that's the theme of the book. He is coming again on the clouds and every eye will see Him. That's the book of Revelation, that starts out with that declaration and everything going on is to lead us to that point, when He comes in power and great glory, which will be chapter 19 and establishes the kingdom in chapter 20. And there will be further rebellion and then into eternity. But we're talking about when He comes again. That's the goal, His return to earth. So Jesus Christ is coming again. We sing the song, “coming again, coming again, with power and great glory He is coming again.”

#2 The world is ripening for judgment. They can expect as we move toward, and I'm not prophesying how close we are or not, I believe the rapture of the church will occur, then the seven years. But we can expect as we see what is taking place in the world, the closer we get to the return of Christ and the events of the seven years, that the world will be ripening for judgment. We see things going on in the world today that at least make us think these could be moving us to that end. How open in display is the defiance against God. It's remarkable how in my short lifetime as a young man I have seen such changes. You and I, we don't even know the difference between a man and a woman. And I see one of the major women's colleges in the news in the last couple weeks, they are going to ban the use of the word woman in their college because they don't want to recognize any distinctions. So even though it is a women's college, you can't refer to another woman in the college as a woman. It's a student. And we just do away with any distinctions, deny the role that is God's as the Creator. The world is ripening for judgment. So we don't wring our hands like the unbelievers and think Christians are just as frustrated just as upset as we are. No, I'm not pleased to see the world becoming more open in rebelling against God but neither am I surprised.

#3 The prayers of believers for justice will be answered. Our prayers come before God, they may not be answered immediately but God answers prayer. Now in prayer I don't tell God what to do but I can ask Him to do what I think is consistent with His character, consistent with His Word, what He promises to do. That's what the martyrs did. God has promised that He would avenge His people, they are just asking now, how long until you do that? They haven't initiated an idea of judgment on the believer, they are just asking God, when will you do what you have promised you will do? Because He will always do what He says He will do.

#4 Armageddon will display God's wrath on an unbelieving world. Sometimes you hear people talking about Armageddon, they have made secular movies with Armageddon in the title. And somebody will say, you feel like you are moving toward Armageddon. That's an opportunity to talk to that person. You know, that's a good observation. Do you know that God says that is exactly what we are doing, we are moving toward Armageddon? Then explain to them, there is coming judgment on a world of unbelievers.

#5 Important, God's wrath is as real as God's love. And it's not as pleasant to consider, but you really understand the depths of God's love when you see something of the depths of His anger, what you are rescued from in Christ Jesus. When the Bible talks about the propitiation that took place in the blood, the death of Christ. Do you know what the word propitiation means? To turn wrath away. God turned the wrath of God away from me by bearing it Himself, paying in full the penalty for my sin. God's wrath is real, you cannot escape it. You can be delivered from it by being covered by the death of Christ, so to speak, having His death credited to your account. He paid in full the penalty for our sin. Physical death, spiritual death, eternal death, separation from God in an eternal hell. God's wrath is real, God's love is real. This is a day of opportunity and choice. By God's grace you can choose to believe what He says about you as true, a sinner, under His condemnation, doomed to eternal destruction. And realize how magnanimous God is in His love. He says, if you call upon Me I will save you; if you place your faith in My Son as the One who loved you and died for you and let go of everything else, I will save you. It looks like it's no choice. Would you rather go to heaven or hell? I don't know about you, but I made my decision. There is no future in going to hell, and there is no cost, in that sense to me, because Jesus paid it all. So I'm taking the free gift of life and being brought into a relationship with God now that goes through eternity.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Lord, every word is true. Thank You for revealing yourself and Your purposes and plans. Thank You above all for the Savior, that salvation is found for all who place their faith in Him. May we live in light of these truths. We pray in Christ's name, amen.