That was such a good song. Thank
you so much for that. I have two scriptures that I
would like for you to look at. The first one is in 2 Timothy,
the second chapter. That's one of them. And I'm going to read from there
first, but then also I would like you to find Matthew chapter
7. I'll read from there second. First of all, 2 Timothy chapter
2. I'll give you just a few seconds
to find both of those references. 2 Timothy 2, Matthew 7. Let me begin this message by
making five statements. Here's the first one. Before
God made this world, in which we live, he made a distinction. He made a distinction between
those who would live in this world. He made a division, two
groups of people. Do you have that passage, 2 Timothy
2? 2 Timothy 2 verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal. Here's the statement that I'm
looking for. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. That's easy to remember. The
Lord knoweth them that are His. Now go over to Matthew 7. Matthew
7 and verse 23. Matthew 7, 23. Remembering the
words there of the apostle to Timothy, He said, the Lord knoweth them
that are His. That's one group, those whom
God knows. Those whom God loves with an
everlasting love. It's a knowledge of affection. A knowledge of everlasting love. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. But there is another group. There's
another group. And here the Savior speaks to
this group in Matthew 7 and verse 23. Then will I profess to this
other group, I never knew you. Therefore depart from me, ye
that work. There's the second group. And
that's the only two groups there are. Those that the Lord knows
and those that the Lord says himself, I don't know these other
people. It isn't that he doesn't know
about them. He knows about everything. Agreed? He knows everything. 4 says all things are naked and
open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. The Lord
says to Jeremiah, I the Lord, I try the heart, I search the
reins. He knows everything. He knows
everything about you and me. He knows every thought, every
deed, every word, He knows the words you're going to speak before
they ever come out of your mouth. He knows the thoughts you're
going to think before they're ever registered in your brain.
The Lord knows everything. But He doesn't have a loving
knowledge, a knowledge of affection for everybody. The Lord knows those that are
His, His by covenant grace. Those that are His according
to His appointment. He knows these, He loves these. He has an affection for these.
He loves these more than we can ever know. This is a love beyond
measure. It's a love beyond our understanding. It's a love beyond our comprehension. Whatever love we might have for
the Lord is nothing compared to His love for us. Our Savior
said, Father, thou hast loved them like you love me. The Lord knoweth He loveth them
that are His. That's quite a love. That's a
love to enjoy. That's a love to bask in the
warmth of it. It's a love to just dwell in
and love that feeds your heart, feeds
your soul. That's one group. But there's another group He says, I never knew you. Listen,
if he had ever known them, he'd still know them. Ain't that right? If he had ever loved them, he
would still love them. You see, our God, he can't, he
can't change. He won't change. And his attributes
don't change, and his either affection or hatred toward people,
that doesn't change. You and I change and decay, that's
us. We're very fickle, but not God. We're very changeable, but not
God. Those he loves today he's always
loved and he will always love. They're always going to be the
objects of his affection. The object of his loving knowledge. This is a knowledge. An example
of it is in Genesis chapter 4 where we read Moses wrote this by divine
inspiration and Adam knew Eve his wife. Well, yeah, he knew
about it. That's not what he said. He knew
her. The result of that, whatever
kind of knowledge he's talking about, resulted in conception. What he's saying is Adam loved
Eve, his wife. She conceived, bear a son. She called his name Cain. I've gotten a man, a son from
the Lord. And actually, I think what she
was saying was, I've gotten the Lord. She thought this was the
seed of the woman, but no, he broke her heart. That's what
he did. Cain broke her heart. because
he killed another one of her sons, Abel. But Adam knew Eve,
his wife. He loved her. He had great affection
for her. That's a verb. And the Lord,
He has known us, He has loved us always. So God, before He made the world,
made a distinction. A distinction. Look at Romans
11. I'll direct you to this scripture,
Romans 11, and look at verses 6 and 7. Romans 11, 6 and 7. In fact,
I'll back up to 5. Romans 11, 5, 6 and 7. Even so,
then, at this present time, And whenever you read this, it's
always at this present time, even this evening. Even so, at
this present time, even tonight also, there is a remnant, a remnant
according to the election of grace. You know what that word
remnant means? Seed. There's a group of people. The
Lord calls them a remnant, a seed. according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, if this election is by grace, then it is no more works. You've heard people foolishly
try to say something about election and say, well, God looked down
through the halls of time. and he saw who would believe
him and who would choose him and therefore on that basis he
chose him. No, it's not of works. It's not of works. If by grace
it's no more works, what man does then doesn't have anything
to do with it. Otherwise, that is, if man's
works have got something to do with it, Then it's no more grace. If God looked down through the
halls of time and He saw, well, you would do something to please
Him, and then therefore on the basis of that, He chose you unto
salvation, then there's no need for grace. That's not grace.
That's works. That's works. But he says, but
if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. These two don't mix. Now, grace
will result in works. There's no question about that.
Because we read in James, faith without works is dead, being
by itself, being alone. But when we're talking about
salvation, It's either grace only or works only. There's the two choices. But
the scripture says, for by grace are you saved through faith.
And even that's not of yourself, it's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we're God's workmanship. We're God's workmanship created
in Christ Jesus while we're a new creation. Nobody can create life
but God. That's what he did, he did a
creative work within us. That's what it is. Salvation,
not making a decision. Salvation is being a new creation. That's the work of God. Only
God can create. In the beginning, God created.
Whether you're talking about physical things or spiritual
things, only God can create. So this is a salvation by grace. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works is the rest of Ephesians 2 and verse 10. All right, now
look at verse 7 here. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for. For the election hath obtained
it. The election hath obtained it.
God in the covenant of grace, he ordained everything regarding
the salvation of his people. Grace obtained it. The election hath obtained it. And the rest The rest. What are you going
to say about the rest? Blinded. They're blinded. Two groups of people. The election
and the rest. The loved and the not loved. Look, in my Bible, it's right
across the page of Romans 9. Romans 9, look at verse 21. Romans 9, 21. Had not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor, what if God, willing to show,
to manifest, to put on display his wrath and to make his power,
his ability, his strength known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath." That's one group of people. That's those
he doesn't love. That's the rest who were blinded. He endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared
unto glory. When I was in Bible college,
We had a professor teaching us, of course, the book of Romans,
and he said, this is, he said, we've got to dispensationalize
this passage. He said, this is for another
time. This is for another era. So he said, we need not deal
with this. You better be very careful that
you don't try to dispensationalize the scriptures unless you cut
something out of the word of God. And you ought not do that. We have all of God's Word and
we have all of God's Word on purpose. Every word of the Lord
is to be treasured and valued. This is not just for the Jews,
that's what he said. And I know that because he just
ignored this, even though a couple of us raised our hands in class
and he didn't even call on us. You see the verse 23, the word
glory, it doesn't end the sentence, that's just a comma. Even us,
even us whom he hath called not of the Jews only, but also of
the Gentiles. Two groups of people. Before God made the world, he
made a distinction between those who would inhabit this world.
One group he knows, the other group he doesn't know. One group
is saved according to the election of grace. The other one, blinded. That's the rest. One group, vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction. The other, vessels of mercy which
he afford prepared unto glory. You know in the book of Exodus,
you need not look at this, but in the book of Exodus chapter
11, Moses said in 11 verse 7, but
against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his
tongue against man or beast, that you may know, that you may
know that the Lord hath put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And the Egyptians, if you want
to look at the picture, the typology there, the Egyptians, they represent
the world. All of the world. Ungodly world. The world set against God. And
Israel is representative of God's people. God made a distinction. A distinction. When did he make
this distinction? It says right here, aforeprepared. It happened before time ever
began. That's when this distinction
was made. That's the first statement. Here's
the second statement. Long before the end of this age
arrives, the Lord has already told us what's going to happen
to these two groups of people. Look with me in Joel. Would you
look in the book of Joel with me? Joel, and I'd like you to find
chapter 3. Joel, chapter 3. If you find
the book of Daniel, Daniel, Hosea, then Joel. Daniel, Hosea, and
Joel, and then chapter 3. Joel chapter 3. Let me read a
few verses to you. Joel chapter 3, beginning at
verse 12. Joel chapter 3 and verse number
12. And here's what I'm saying. There's
coming a day of judgment. As we're going to see in Revelation
chapter 14, it's called the time of reaping. The time of reaping. when God's going to reap both
of these groups of people. Those He loves, those He knows,
those He doesn't know. Those saved by grace, those chosen
in grace, and the rest. Those who are vessels of wrath,
fitted to destruction, and those who are vessels of mercy, whom
He aforeprepared unto glory. There's gonna come a day of reaping.
All right, I hear no more pages turning, so Joel 3, you must
have found it. Joel chapter 3, look at verse
number 12. Let the heathen be awakened and
come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there will I sit to judge
all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle. That parallels Revelation 14,
doesn't it? We read from that passage this
morning and will again in a few moments. Put ye in the sickle
for the harvest is ripe. Then he says, come get you down
for the press is full. The vats, the fats overflow for
their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision. I've heard that preached on years
ago, that you're in the valley of decision and you need to make
your decision for Jesus. That is not at all what this
passage is talking about. It's talking about the valley
of judgment. Literally the valley of threshing,
the valley of threshing. It's the valley of reaping. It's
the last day. It's the final day. It's the
judgment. Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of judgment. It's called here the valley of
Jehoshaphat, called the valley of judgment or the valley of
decision. Verse 15, the sun and the moon
shall be darkened. The stars shall withdraw their
shining. The Lord also shall roar out
of Zion. Where is He? He's with His people.
He's with Zion. Zion stands with hills surrounded. Zion kept by power divine. That's what you were playing
a while ago. And utter His voice from Jerusalem, which is the
city of God. Brother Allen is writing some
excellent articles and putting them in the newspaper up there,
and you can get a copy of them. He made three so far that I've
got. This is the city of God, Jerusalem. That's the city of God. God has
built it now. It is all completed. and the
heavens and the earth shall shake. But the Lord will be the hope
of His people." Isn't that wonderful? In that day, in that last day,
in the valley of decision, in the valley of judgment, in the
valley of threshing, in that day of reaping, the Lord will
still be the hope of His people. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood. and righteousness. He's still
the hope of His people. He's still the Savior of sinners,
and He will be in that day. He'll still be our Savior, still
be our Redeemer. But the Lord will be the hope
of His people. He will be the strength of the
children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the
Lord your God dwelling in Zion. My holy mountain. Then shall
Jerusalem be holy because He is our holiness. We're holy in
Him. And there shall be no strangers
passed through her anymore. The valley of decision. I say long before the end of
this age comes, has already told us what's going
to happen to these two groups of people. Go to my text in Revelation
14. Oh, there's going to be a day of
reaping. A day of reaping. Look at Revelation chapter 14.
This reaping is divided into two segments. Now, I'm persuaded
it's going to happen very, very quickly. I recognize the fact
that in Matthew chapter 13, there the wicked are said to be judged
first or brought before the Lord first. Here, it's the righteous
who are brought before the Lord first. I don't know the numerical
order. I don't know which will be first,
which group will be first, and which will be second, though
I think the righteous will appear before him first, according to
Matthew 25, and then the wicked second. But I do know this, the
righteous are first in order of importance. I don't know much. There's a lot about this I don't
know. I'm not a prophet, and I'm not a son of a prophet. But
I do know that which is most valuable to God is the city of
God, the Jerusalem of God, His people, His people, beloved of
the Lord, bought with a price, the blood of the Lord Jesus,
called by effectual calling to the blessed Savior. Here in Revelation
14, first of all, the reaping of the righteous is set forth
in verses 15 and 16. And another angel came out of
the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat upon the
cloud, to the Lord Jesus Christ, thrust in thy sickle and reap,
for the time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the
earth is ripe. And he that sat upon the cloud
He that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and
the earth was reaped of all of his people." The people of God
are likened unto the harvest of wheat, when the wheat is ripe. When the wheat is ripe. There's a verse of Scripture,
a passage in Mark chapter 4, we don't have time to read it.
Talks about the growth of wheat. First the blade, then the ear,
and after that the full corn in the ear. So it is in the kingdom of God.
I believe in the blade. Here's the wheat in the blade
is when the gospel seed was sown in the Old Testament. There's
the wheat and the blade. They had the gospel in picture,
they had the gospel in figure, in type and in emblem. They saw
Christ Jesus through the offerings and through the sacrifices. They
saw innocent victims died in the stead of guilty sinners.
Perhaps we could say that after our Lord's death, burial, resurrection,
and ascension, there is the ear of corn, as the gospel church
continues to grow, especially at Pentecost. And throughout
this gospel age, between the first advent of our Lord and
the second advent, it continues to grow until finally it will
grow to the full corn in the ear. And then the Lord comes
back to reap, to reap. That's when all the wheat is
ripe, when the crop is fully grown, the crop is in, and there'll
be a wonderful harvest. Then the Lord will come back
and gather his people unto himself. But there's another part of this
reaping, the reaping of the wicked, the reaping of those But the
Lord says, I don't know these. The reaping of the rest, the
reaping of the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, verses
18 through 20. Another angel came from the altar,
which had power over fire, cried with a loud voice to him that
had the sharpsicle, saying, thrust in thy sharpsicle and gather
the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully
ripe. May I make this point to you,
when it comes to the harvesting, the reaping of the Lord's people,
he does the reaping because we're so precious to him. When it comes
to the gathering and the cutting down of the wicked, it's a created
angel that does that. Thrust in, verse 18, thrust in
thy sharp sickle. and gathered the clusters of
the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And the
angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine
of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath
of God. And the winepress was trodden
without the city, without the city. What is the city of God? It is Jerusalem. It is the people
of God. It is the habitation of God.
But this, is going to happen to people who are outside the
city. Outside the city. Cast it. They're cast into the great winepress
of the wrath of God. The winepress was trodden without
the city. Hold your place there and look
at a reference over in Revelation 22. And then of course we know
the blood comes up. Chapter 22, verses 14 and 15. Revelation 22, 14 and 15. Blessed are they that do His
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and
may enter in through the gates into the city. For without... What does that mean? Outside
the city. Outside the city of God. For
without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. They're outside the city. Outside
the city. So here in the last few verses
of Revelation 14, we have the reaping of the wicked is likened
to the reaping of a cluster of fully ripened grapes. They are ripe for the vengeance
of God. They are said to be fully ripe.
Fully ripe. That is, they are up to the very
height of ripeness. The literal word is acme, which
means the very height, the very zenith of ripeness. And it's the time of judgment.
The day is quickly coming when the Lord Jesus is going to come
again in power and in great glory. He will gather His wheat into
His barn. And what's He going to do with
the tares? Burn them up. Burn them up. But here you see, the wicked
are not likened unto tares. They're likened unto grapes. You see, now the Lord's wheat
grows, and you can read in Matthew chapter 13, the wheat grows and
the tares grow along with it. A man sowed a field, Matthew
chapter 13, and sowed wheat. He said, somebody came along
and sowed tares. And then one of the servants
came and said, maybe we ought to go around and jerk up all
the tares. Let's just pull them tares up. He said, whoa, whoa,
whoa. Let's don't do that, because them tares can look so much like
wheat. You might pull up some wheat. And in this world, you see, even
right now, there's wheat growing and tares growing. And oftentimes,
we can't tell the difference. We can't tell the difference.
There's very little, if any, distinction to our eyes or to
our understanding. But in this final day, it's not
likened to wheat and tares, but wheat and grapes. You can tell
the difference between wheat and grapes, can't you? It'll be very obvious in that
day, obvious to all the angels and obvious to all the people.
Here's the Lord's sheep. Here's His wheat. These are the
ones the Lord has always known. These are the ones who are the
election of grace. These are the mercies, the vessels
of mercy that have been prepared for glory. That's the Lord's
wheat. And here are the grapes. He never knew them. He never
knew them. He never had a love for them.
They're unknown to him. They're vessels of wrath. They're
the rest. The rest. If you're keeping up, here's
the third statement. You didn't think I got lost on that, did
you? Here's the third statement. It is very clear. that there
are on this earth, even at this very moment, people from both
classes, both groups. And I say that to emphasize this,
there's not a third group. There's not kind of a group that's
in between or a group that's kind of walking the line, kind
of straddling the fence. There's not a group, you know,
When we talk about the wicked, to the natural man, to speak
about the wicked, to him, he thinks about a whoremonger or
a drunkard or a murderer. The wicked is anybody outside
of Christ Jesus. And a person may be moral, They
may be decent. They may be a wonderful neighbor.
And as you and I view them, we may say they're the salt of the
earth. They're great people to know.
There are a lot of people like that in this world who are nevertheless
wicked. They're wicked. That brother
Scott Richardson told me one time, he said he was getting
a haircut. And he said this guy came in
He's talking to the barber and said, did you hear old so-and-so
passed away? Oh, he said, I didn't know that.
He said, yeah, he did. Well, he said, he's a pillar
of the community. I'll tell you, that guy was.
And this fellow said, oh, yeah, he was. Talk about all the wonderful
things that he did. Oh, Scott said, they praised
that guy up one side and down another. And Scott said, just
one problem with him. And the barber stomped his scissors
I said, what was that? He said, he hated God. That was the only problem. He
hated God. And they were just aghast. But that's the way it is. There
are a lot of nice people in this world and you live beside some
of them. You may live with somebody who's
a very nice person, but if they don't know God, they hate God. They're a God-hater. That's the
truth. And the Bible says they're wicked. They're ungodly. They're ungodly. So there isn't a third group.
Just two groups now. Just two groups. And here's the
fourth statement. For reasons known only to God, both the righteous and the wicked,
both the good and the evil, Both the loved and the non-loved,
both the elect and the rest, both the vessels of wrath and
the vessels of mercy, to fulfill God's purpose, He allows them
to continue together side by side in this world. Now, I say for reasons known
only to God, but He has revealed to us one of those reasons. You
know why things go on with the wheat and the grapes growing
side by side? It's because the Lord is not
willing that any of His people should perish, but that they
all come to repentance. And so as it says in Isaiah 30
verse 18, the Lord waits that He may show mercy. That's right. So why do things keep on going?
Jim, why do things keep on going as they're going? Somebody met
me as I was going out this morning. They said, oh, sin abounds in
this world and things are so horrible. Do you think we're
at the end of the end of the days? And I said, well, the Scripture
says that men shall wax worse and worse. They shall wax worse
and worse. Well, when will the end come?
When all of the wheat has been brought to maturity, that is,
when all of God's elect have been brought to faith in Christ
Jesus, then the end will come. And so God waits that He may
show mercy. And you and I, the people of
God, we say, oh Lord, oh Lord, how much longer will it be? Oh,
Lord, come today. Heard a brother pray the other
day. He said, Oh, Lord, come back soon. I prayed that too.
Oh, Lord, come back soon. When will he come back? Well,
it will be after the full corn is in the ear. That's when he'll
be. That's when he's coming back. So for now, The righteous and
the wicked grove together. And then here's the fifth thing. At the time ordained by the Lord,
known only to Him, no need for you to guess. Don't be a date
setter and don't pay any attention to those who set dates. At such
an hour as ye think not, what the scripture says, That's when
Christ will come again in great glory, and that will be the time
of reaping. That will be the time of reaping. And in that day, it will be evident
whose are the Lord's and who are not. Now, in order for there
to be a harvest of wheat, what's got to happen? What's got to
happen in the natural world? You know, the Lord Jesus used
a lot of illustrations from the natural world, didn't He? He
sure did. And one, He used this illustration. Look at John chapter 12. Look
at John chapter 12. I'll tell you what's going to
have to happen. In order for there to be wheat,
a seed's got to fall in the ground and die. I know that. In order for there to be wheat
and wheat, they say is the very choicest of grains. And I know
that the wheat that we have today, that's not the pure stuff. Some of you, there's a book,
I won't even tell you the name of the book, but if you'll ask
me after the serve, because I don't want to promote any particular
book. But the wheat that we've got
today pretty much is not good for you. It's the old wheat that
was good for you. But in order for there to be
that wheat, A grain of wheat had to fall into the ground.
There had to be the commitment of the seed into the ground.
Just like when you sow, when you plant corn or whatever, you
got a kernel of corn's got to go in the ground. Maybe you'd
better plant two or three. One for the crow and one for
you and one for the whatever, varmints or whatever. But let
me show you this in John chapter 12. And this is that passage
where the song that we sang, we would see Jesus is taken from.
But I'm going to kind of cut a short look at verse 23. And
Jesus answered them saying, the hour is come, John 12, 23, that
the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
and whenever you see him or hear the Lord say, verily, verily,
I mean, every word that comes from his lips is like honey. But when he uses the word verily,
and if he uses it two times, verily, verily, perk up your
ears. Because something is going to
be said that you really, really need to hear. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a corn of wheat. One corn of wheat. fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone. But, if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. What do you think he's talking
about? Who do you think is that corn of wheat? Himself. I'll tell you what ensured this
crop of wheat that will come to full maturity, which he will
reap. He's the corn wheat that fell
into the ground and died. And when a farmer sows a kernel
of corn or seed of wheat or whatever, he does it on purpose. And our
Lord Jesus, he's the wheat that was sown on purpose. and God's
eternal purpose of grace. Had he not died, and it's kind
of foolish to even say this really, but had he not died, he would
have abided alone. He would have been alone. Because
nobody would be saved. Right? Isn't that right? If he
had abided alone, if he had just lived himself, He couldn't have
saved anybody else. In order for him to live, or
in order for us to live, in order for there to be a reaping of
the wheat crop, he had to die. And if he'd die, it'd bring forth
much wheat, much fruit. That's what happened. That's
necessary for this wheat crop. And I'll tell you something else,
looking at it in another direction, There has to be the sowing of
the good seed of the Word of God. The seed, the good seed is that
incorruptible seed, the Word of God that liveth and abideth
forever. This is the gospel we preach
to you, Peter says there in 1 Peter chapter 2, or 1 Peter chapter
1. You read in Matthew 13, our Lord
talks about the parable of the sower. Another illustration from
nature, sowing the seed. Sowing the seed. That's himself
and every preacher of the gospel, everybody who delivers the word
of God, everybody who talks about the gospel to somebody, we're
sowing good seed. But you know what's necessary?
It's got to fall on ground that's been prepared. That's the spirit
of God's job. falls on ground that's been prepared. That's what's necessary in order
for there to be a harvest of wheat. And then, let me give
you this, my time's gone, but go back to Revelation 14. Let
me just, let me point out to you just a couple of more things
back in Revelation chapter 14. Look at verse 18, and another
angel came out from the altar. The altar, the brazen altar. Old Testament. Tabernacle. Temple. That was the place of
death. That's what that was. That was
the place of judgment. You wanted to worship God? You
brought your lamb? to the priest, say, my family
and I, we want to worship God. Can't worship God without a lamb.
And I know we're sinners. Oh God, we want mercy. We're
bringing this lamb that hadn't transgressed your law. We're
bringing this lamb to die in our stead. Picture the son of
God who's going to die. And that lamb died at that altar. And then his carcass, his carcass
consumed. It's the place of wrath. The
place of wrath. And when it says in verse 18,
another angel came from the altar which had power over fire, cried
with a loud voice to him that had the sharp sickle, thrust
in thy sharp sickle and gathered the clusters of the vine of the
earth for her grapes. So right what he's saying is
it's time for vengeance. It's time for death. It's time
for judgment. It's time for God to do something
with the wicked that's right to be done. You wouldn't dare
quarrel with what God does with the wicked, would you? Men who've
lived and died without God, without Christ Jesus, with their fist
in God's face? Men who've been self-worshippers?
See, that's what we all are by nature. We're self-worshippers. God strikes somebody down like
that, and I tell you, He would have had every right to have
done us that way. That's the way we are by nature,
were it not for His marvelous grace given to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. So He takes the vines, He throws
them into the winepress. Verse 20, Without the city, the
blood came out. What is this picture? The awful
wrath of God. Oh my, you can't take the wrath
of God. You don't want to deal with the
wrath of God. Our God's a consuming fire. You don't want to deal
with an angry God. Thank God there's a mediator
between us and God. It's the man Christ Jesus. Let
me give you one other reference, Isaiah 63. Let me show you one man who faced
the winepress of God's wrath. You know Isaiah chapter 63? Writers have argued, is this
about the first few verses? Is this about the first advent
of our Lord or the second advent? And I say yes to both of them.
Because both of them are here. Both of them are here. Isaiah
63 verse 1. Who is this that cometh from
Eden? Eden was, the Edomites were the enemies of God. With garments dyed from Basra,
that was a principal city, or the capital city, maybe, of Eden. This that is glorious in His
apparel, this speaking about Christ Jesus, what is His apparel? His righteousness. traveling
in the greatness of his strength. I that speak in righteousness,
he says, it's me. Mighty to save. I like that. Mighty to save. And the question
is raised, wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy
garments like him that treadeth the wine fat? And he says, I
have trodden the winepress alone. And of the people there was none
with me." There's his first advent. There's
his substitutionary death where he suffered the vengeance of
God in order to redeem his people and bring in for us everlasting
righteousness. I have trodden the winepress
and I did it by myself. Salvation is of the Lord and
of the Lord only. It's by the bloody death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Don't ever forget that. And then
he says, and I think this is now the second advent, for I
will tread them in mine anger, I'll trample them in my fury,
their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment, for the day of vengeance is in mine heart,
and the year my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none
to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore,
mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury, it upheld
me. And I will tread down the people
in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will
bring them, I will bring down their strength to the earth.
I'll put them in the winepress." I don't want to go in the winepress. I'm going to worship Him who's
already gone in the wine press." And He did it for all of His
beloved ones. He did it for all of those who
of the election of grace. He did it for all of those vessels
of mercy who were aforeprepared unto glory. Well, that finishes
chapter 14, and that finishes the message, and that finishes
the