Revelation 14, 14. I missed y'all last weekend. We
had a good trip to see Frank and the congregation
there and to preach at their conference and enjoyed it very
much. I had a good time of worship.
Heard some good messages. I appreciate the Parks team. Junior and senior Taking care
of things here. I know y'all heard the gospel
here And worshiped in John 14 14 John Well, let's read. I want us to read this passage.
I want us to see kind of where this is going before we begin
looking at verse 14 particularly. So let's begin in verse 14 and
read through the end of the chapter. And I looked and behold a white
cloud. And upon the cloud one sat like
unto the son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and
in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of
the temple crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the
cloud, 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 on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and
the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of
the temple, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over
fire, and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle,
saying, thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather 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, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto
the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred
furlongs." So, You see that this is the final reaping, the final
harvest on this earth performed by the Lord Jesus himself. John
saw in verse 14 a white cloud and the Lord Jesus Christ sitting
on that cloud. The Lord appears this way many
times in scripture. once in another place riding
on a cloud, and in many places, he appears in a cloud or speaks
from a cloud. The best I can tell, it's only
the one time that it's said that the Lord rode upon a cloud as
opposed to being in the cloud. Like at Sinai, the cloud shrouded
him and there were great thunderings and his voice was heard. But it's in Isaiah 19.1 where
it says he rides upon a cloud. In 19.1 of Isaiah it says the
burden of Egypt, behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud and
shall come into Egypt and the idols of Egypt shall be moved
at his presence and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst
of it. So there, he's seen riding on
a cloud, and it's called a swift cloud. And I believe that's significant
to our text, because here he's sitting on a cloud, and there
in Isaiah it has to do with judgment, the hearts of the Egyptians are
said to have melted at his presence. And this being a white cloud,
white always signifies holiness in the scripture, the white robes
of righteousness that the saints were seen to be robed in, washed
in the blood of the Lamb, and how that Christ's raiment was
white and glistering at the Mount of Transfiguration. White is
always holiness, and this seems to signify here the swift and
righteous judgment of Christ. That's what we read. He puts
in his sickle and reaps, and it's life and death, it's eternal
life and death for everyone in the earth. white, cloud, and
Christ sitting on it. Remember that the Father hath
committed all judgment unto the Son. He said, the Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto me. And just as
swift judgment came upon Egypt there in Isaiah 19, where we
read the last part of Revelation 14, here is the Lord Jesus Christ
coming to reap that final harvest on the earth. And we're clearly
taught elsewhere in scripture of the suddenness of that event.
We know that that happens quickly. First Thessalonians 5-2, for
yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail
upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. Sudden,
sudden destruction will come. But ye brethren are not in darkness
that that day should overtake you as a thief. We're watching
for that day. We're waiting for the Lord to
come back. We expect it and we do so with joy. We long for it. But when the Lord says he comes
quickly, now that's talking about the final judgment when he returns
to this earth. but also we know that he comes
quickly whenever he comes. I don't know how long it's gonna
be before he comes back to this earth bodily, but I tell you
this, it ain't gonna be long before he comes for me. It won't
be long till he comes for you. He comes quick, he comes suddenly
when you think not. Here's the whiteness of this
cloud. Listen to Acts 17.31. Because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness. When he does this reaping, He
gathers the good to himself as we'll see This illustration in
scripture. It's in several places in scripture
and then The tears the weeds are burned up. He does that righteously
He does that in perfect righteousness on both sides It's right for
him to burn them up and it's right for him to gather those
whom he's redeemed in the everlasting glory. So he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, that's
the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he raised him from the dead. Now you're
gonna have to do business with the risen, sovereign, holy Christ
of Scripture. And the day is gonna come suddenly
when the reckoning comes, when the final reckoning comes. It
may come for you today. It may come for you tomorrow.
It may come for all of us when the Lord returns. He could return
at any time. But he comes quick, he comes
suddenly. He comes when you think not,
and it's final. It's final, and he judges perfect
righteousness. It speaks of the character of
the one sitting on that cloud that he's seen on this white
cloud. Christ saves sinners in righteousness. Everything he
does, he does in righteousness. He saves the lost in righteousness. He saves whom he pleases, and
he does that in right, it's right for God to save sinners. That
is, God can be just, he can be right, he can be the holy God
that he is, and justify a wretch like me, because Christ is the
righteousness and the sin offering of all his elect, all of his
people. That's what this separation is
in the rest of the chapter. There's a separation. There's
a reaping of the earth, and then there's the reaping that results
in destruction. and this separation, that's the
difference. That salvation is what that is
because you know what makes the difference between sinners? God
saves some of them. Otherwise there would be no difference
and we all go to hell where we belong. That's just the truth
now. The only difference is God saves
some of them in mercy by the blood of his son. And that's
the separation that takes place here. He makes the difference
by having mercy on whom he will. Look at the two thieves on either
side of his cross. He made a difference. One of
them died cursing his name and mocking him, and the other died
with the glorious promise from the Lord today, you'll be with
me in paradise. Because of that precious, the
difference was that man, that God man, and the precious blood
that he shed on that cross. That's the difference. Christ
makes an everlasting difference by having mercy on some sinners
that deserve hell just as much as everybody else. The children
of wrath, even as others, but God who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us. In Christ Jesus has redeemed
us and saved us and will bring us to be with him forever. He
has in our text also a crown of gold on his head. Calvary
it was a crown of thorns It was a crown of thorns turn
with me to Philippians chapter 2 if you would please Philippians chapter 2 Verse 5 Philippians 2.5, let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. He was God in human flesh, but
made himself of no reputation. and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross." There's the crown of
thorns. But listen to verse nine, wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name. that at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, there's your
crown of gold right there. And that's who you're gonna do
business with. You might do it today, before this day is over,
you might be standing in front of that king. He not only judges in righteousness,
he judges sovereignly. He's got the crown on his head.
And the Lord alone is exalted in that day. You can puff yourself
up now, but not then. You can be proud of your works
now, but not then. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. That's how God saves sinners.
and you can like it or not, but you better fall before him now.
You better fall before him now and not in that day, because
it's going to be too late then. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. And that don't start with you. That starts with him.
You see that crown of gold on his head? That means you bow. That's what that means. That
means he'll do as he pleases with you. and you'll bow to him. That means you come to him this
way, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean, if you will. It doesn't have anything to do
with your will. You can mark that down. And your will is not
free. This book says right here, you
see this one, the one God wrote, that's the one I'm talking about.
It says you're held captive by Satan at his will. How's that,
how do you like them apples? It's not like you thought it
was. It's not like most of the preachers, so-called preachers
in this world are telling people. It ain't that way. Your will
is depraved before God. Everything you've ever wanted
to do is evil and everything you've ever done is evil before
God. That's why you need mercy from him. That's why Christ Jesus
shed his blood for sinners. because there's no other way
to God. He's got to wash your sins away, and that's everything
you've ever done. The problem with how most people
think they're good outweighs their bad is you don't have any
good. Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. He said
that as a believer because he knew better. Listen to me now, the Lord never
turned a sinner away though that came like that, if you will,
Lord. I know you can save me. You can save me if you want to.
And I sure do need your mercy. He's never turned a sinner away
that came to him like that. But I'll tell you this, you come
before God exercising your so-called free will or bringing him any
of your so-called good works and you'll burn in hell forever
for it. And everybody's gonna shout hallelujah that's not in
there with you. All the angels, And all the saints
will shout hallelujah for true and righteous are God's judgments.
The boy, you come to him for mercy, you'll have it now. I'm
obliged to warn you about this. I'm obliged by God himself to
warn you. And notice in our text, he's
just sitting there. He's just sitting there. He's not worried
about a thing. He's not pacing the halls of heaven, wringing
his hands, trying to do things that men won't let him do. That's
another horrible lie that religion has told people for decades and
centuries, I suppose. He's not worried about it. He
doesn't even have to exert himself to send you to hell. He can do
it from a position of repose, or he can have mercy on you if
it pleases him to do so. I tell you what, I'd come to
him and ask him for mercy. That's what I'd do. I'd beg him
for mercy. Turn to Psalm, well, let me just
read Psalm 2 to you. I don't want to go too long in
that, but listen. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine
a vain thing? Why do people say things like,
you know, the man upstairs loves everybody? Because they haven't
read the Bible. That's the problem. Kings of
the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us
break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us,
their controls over us. We don't want God telling us
anything. That's the natural man. He that
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. It don't bother him. It don't bother him. It's not
going to bother him to put you in hell if that's what he does.
It's not going to bother him a bit. I'll tell you what though,
if he puts one of my loved ones in hell, it'll bother me. It'll
bother me, but I'm not going to question him about it. I'm
not going to question him about it. I'm going to tell everybody
I know, come to him for mercy and do it right now. Come to
the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading his precious blood like that
old publican came to the mercy seat and said, God, be propitious
to me a sinner. Be my sin offering. In other
words, that's what he said. Be my sin offering. My only hope. As if my sins are washed in the
precious blood of Christ. Then shall he speak to them in
his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure, yet, in spite
of all their opposition and their getting together and trying to
figure out ways to defy God, he says, yet, in spite of all
that, have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. And he
gives some real good advice at the end of that chapter, Psalm
2. Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in a moment,
in a moment. There he sits in our text now
in glory, reaping his harvest from this whole world. He don't
even need to get up. He don't even need to get up
off his throne to do it. He'll put you in hell from a
seated position or he'll have mercy on your soul at his sovereign
discretion. Well, Chris, what's gonna happen
to me? Would God have mercy on me? Have you bowed to Christ? I'm talking about this one, not
the Jesus of religion that's waiting on you to do something. My savior is not waiting on sinners
to do something. Do you know, do you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you love Him? Do you love
the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you love His truth? Not some
man-made, freewill, man-centered garbage, but His truth. as revealed
in this book. Do you love his truth? Listen
to what it says in 2 Thessalonians 2.10. With all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. You're gonna
have to love that God's on the throne. You're gonna have to
love him for being sovereign and saving who he wants to save. God says you're taken captive
by Satan at his will if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ now.
And not only that, he says that salvation is not of him that
willeth. This is Romans chapter nine.
Not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth or striveth
or does anything to be saved. It's of God that showeth mercy.
It couldn't be plainer in scripture. And the religious false prophets
of this world are just bald-faced lying. If you ever run into one
of them, ask them about some of these scriptures I'm quoting
you, because this is not my opinion. This is what God said. That's
why I quote scripture, so you'll know this ain't me speaking.
This is God speaking. God says Christ is the one thing
needful. Do you love the truth? Do you
love that truth? He sits because he finished the
work that the father gave him to do. Finished it. The work of redemption is complete. He cried from the cross, it's
finished because it is. He didn't say it's available.
He could have said that if that's the way it was. He said it's
done. Somebody's saved and somebody
ain't. It's over. It's done. And you'll experience, one of these days, either way,
you're gonna experience what he accomplished on Calvary. And
no getting away from him. Salvation is Christ and Him crucified. No Old Testament high priest
ever sat down as he was performing the work that pictured the atonement
of Christ, because the work was never finished. Listen to Hebrews
10, 11, and every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin.
The Old Testament sacrifices work for that. You know what
the Old Testament sacrifices were doing? There's Christ. Innocent blood has to be shed
for your sins if you're going to be accepted of God. Every
Old Testament sacrifice ever offered pointed right at Christ
and said, look to him. Look to the Lamb of God that
does take away sin. The blood of this animal doesn't
do that. could never take away sins, but this man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God from henceforth expecting until his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that he sanctified with that precious blood. Does that
sound like anything's up for grabs to you? He saved somebody
when he shed his blood on Calvary. Was it you? Do you believe on
him? All that the father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I'll
in no wise cast out. Do you believe on the son of
God? Do you love him? Do you love his truth? The work
of the tabernacle was perpetual because it just pictured and
set forth and exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't true
offering for sin. But listen, Hebrews 9.11, but
Christ being come in high priest of good things to come by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place having obtained, E.D., finished, accomplished, past
tense, eternal redemption for us. Everybody he represented
in his perfect, righteous life and in his precious sin-atoning
death on Calvary. And in his hand, a sharp sickle. A sharp sickle in his hand. I'm
glad this sickle is in his hand, aren't you? The one who is plenteous
in mercy, the one who delights to show mercy is the one that
reaps. I'm so thankful for that. I'm
thankful to him for the sake of my loved ones. Only Christ is wise enough, merciful
enough, gracious enough to wield this harvesting instrument. Turn
with me to Matthew chapter 13. We will have to turn and look
at this. This is key, key, key to our
text now, Matthew chapter 13. This is what's taking place. This is what's taking place in
our text, Matthew 13, 24. Another parable put he forth
unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But
when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then
appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed
in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?
And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said
unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But
he said, No, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also
the wheat with them. We don't know how to do that.
We don't know who's saved and who's not saved. We have good
hope for those that bear the fruit of the Spirit, that seem
to worship God the best we can tell and love the Lord Jesus
Christ and trust in Him and rest in Him. We have good hope, but
only He can do it. Look at the next verse. Let both
grow together until the harvest, until our text in Revelation
14 tonight. And in the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, gather you together first the tares
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the weed into
my barn. Oh, that's the sickles in his
hand. And I'm so glad about that. Look
at verse 36. This is where he explains the
parable. Verse 36, also of Matthew 13. Then Jesus sent the multitude
away and went into the house and his disciples came unto him
saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. They
didn't understand. He answered and said unto them,
he that soweth the good seed is me, the son of man. The field
is the world. Now you think about this. Religion loves to say, well,
God so loved the world. World means world. Yes, it does.
It sure does mean world. If you believe that that means
everybody that ever lived, then you've got to believe that nobody's
lost. Because I guarantee you, whoever
the Lord Jesus loves, he saves. He said, Jacob have I loved and
Esau have I hated. And that's the difference. That's
the difference. But here it says the field is
the world. Of course he loves the world. It's his garden. The
tares aren't part of that. They're just not. They're not
part of God's world. You look at it with me. Verse
36. Well, In verse 38 is where we're at.
The field is the world, the good seed are the children of the
kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The
enemy that sowed them is the devil. Now remember this now,
that he sowed the seed in the beginning. God's the one that
sowed his children into this world. There's nothing difficult
about that. That's not complicated. He didn't
just sow a bunch of seed and hope some of them turned out
good. We're all goners now if he does that. We're all goners.
Nobody turns out good. He's got to make good ground
and plant good seed. The enemy that sowed the tares
is the devil. The harvest is the end of the
world. That's our text. That's why I'm
reading this. Because I want to know what happens.
And the reapers are the angels. We saw that. The sickle's in
his hand now. He's the one in charge. He's
the one that is in charge of this. He's the one calling the
shots. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the
fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. You see how he
views this world? It's his garden. His children
are in it. And they're the good seed. He
loves them. He loves his garden. I love my garden. I don't lack
weeds. Now you can believe in the God
that loves some sinners and hates some sinners, or you can just
not believe in God. There ain't but one Bible. "'The Son of Man shall send forth
his angels,' verse 41, "'and they shall gather out of his
kingdom "'all things that offend and them which do iniquity, "'and
shall cast them into a furnace of fire, "'and there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth. "'Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun.'" You know why it doesn't say right there,
the righteous in Christ? Because the whole rest of this
book says that. That the only way a sinner can
be righteous is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't have to put
that in there. He put it in all of it, in the
whole Bible. Sinners are only righteous in
Christ. If his righteousness is your righteousness, then you're
righteous. There's just one righteousness.
It's his. My righteousness can't be like
his righteousness. It has to be his righteousness. The righteous shall shine forth
as the sun in the kingdom of their father who hath ears to
hear now. Let him hear. This is what we read about now
in Revelation 14. Look at verse 15. And another
angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him
that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reap. For the
time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth
is ripe. And that's not an angel giving orders to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's just him agreeing with it. It's him saying, this
is time, it's time. And he's announcing it. He's
announcing it. Thrust in thy sickle and reap,
for the time is come for thee to reap. That's the title of
this message, the time to reap. The time to reap. For the harvest
of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud
thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. You see how this is talking about
God's garden now? He reaps the whole earth. He
reaps his plants, his harvest, the fruit that's born for his
glory, he reaps that in the whole earth. That's what this whole
earth is here for. God has an earth because he has
a people, an elect people. He's the husbandman and the earth
is his vineyard, his field, his garden, his farm. And in all
of the parables that use this analogy, that's the way it's
plainly stated. Just because it has tares in
it doesn't mean it's not his garden. He deals with the tares,
doesn't he? His way, on his terms. He loves
his garden. He loves his garden. To God,
the earth is his elect. It's the plants that he planted.
That's my garden, not that crabgrass. That's not part of my garden.
It's there, but it ain't part of my garden, and I don't love
it. Now, that couldn't be any clearer,
that parable. Those parables could not be any
clearer than that. This earth is his elect, his garden, his
farm. And so it says here, the earth
was reaped. The earth, not part of it, not
the whole thing is reaped. God has sown good seed on good
ground throughout history by the preaching of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Read the parable of the sower
in Matthew 13, three through nine, and then his explanation
of it in verses 18 through 23 about that if you'd like to later.
This is why there's a harvest. There's got to be sowing before
there can be a harvest. God is still sowing seed right
now. There's a time to plant, and there's a time to tear up
that which has been planted. Right now is the time to plant.
He's still planting seed. The good seed that it talks about
in Matthew 13, three through nine. The good seed in that parable
is the gospel. He says it, the way he puts it
is this way, the word of the kingdom. Good seed, he's still planting
that seed tonight. wherever he pleases. Still sowing seed right now,
but there's a time to pluck up that which is planted. And that's
what we see in our text. Our Lord said the seed is the
word of the kingdom and here it is right here now. This is
what we're doing right now. So our text, the difference that's
made, the reaping, the gathering together into his barn and the
burning up, it all starts right here. Let me read this to you again
in Luke 10 38. I want to remind y'all of something.
Now it came to pass as they went that the Lord Jesus entered into
a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him
into her house. And she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. She sat there and looked up at
him and listened to him speak. That's what we're doing tonight.
If you are listening. If you're hearing with ears that
he gives. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving. Nothing wrong with wanting to
serve the Lord, but it's not the thing that's needful. The
Lord doesn't need you. You really think he need... Do
you need a God that needs you? I don't. I need a God that don't
need me. Martha was comforted about much
serving and came to him and said, Lord, does thou not care that
my sister has left me to serve alone? She's actually criticizing
the one that's sitting there drinking in the word of Christ.
She's left me alone to do all this work, to serve alone and
bid her therefore that she helped me. Can you see this part coming? And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha. Thou art careful and troubled
about many things, but one thing is needful. In light of our text
tonight, can you understand that? In light of what we've read,
these parables about God sowing good seed. And the result of
that, there's gonna be a harvest one of these days. And today
might be the day for you. One thing is needful, and Mary
hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from
her. Where are you, Mary? I'm at the feet of the Savior,
and I'm hanging on every word that he says. That better be
where we are. One thing is necessary, one. The rest of our text in, Revelation
14 is the reaping of those who have not the Lord Jesus Christ,
that know him not. Their end is the winepress of
the wrath of God. These are the tares which are
burned when the wheat is gathered into the Lord's barn. The tares
are gathered first, he said, and burned up, and the difference
is Christ himself. He holds the sickle in his hand,
so he's the one that makes the difference in actuality, but
also, And more importantly tonight, the deciding factor is Him. His electing love, faith in Him,
hearing His word and believing on Him. These are written that
you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And
that believing, you might have life through His name, John wrote.
Hearing His word, trusting Him, resting in Him. claiming him
and having him by faith as your only righteousness before God,
as your only sin offering before the Holy God that requires death
for your sin. 1 John 5.10, he that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, he has the testimony
of that in himself, He that believeth not God hath made him a liar,
because he believeth not the record that God gave, what does
God talk about? Of his son. From the beginning, it's been
about the son. He's the woman's seed. He's Abel's
lamb. He's Noah's ark. You believe not the record that
God hath given of his Son, and this is the record that God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that
hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Is that complicated? These things have I written,
listen to what he said next in verse 13 of 1 John 5. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God. I'm writing to you that believe
so that you will believe. And just keep believing. From
faith to faith, we're still coming to the Savior. Remember that the Lord judges
in righteousness. I wanna close with this thought.
He judges in righteousness those who suffer God's eternal wrath
do so because they richly deserve it. I think of those Israelites
when Moses went up into Mount Sinai to receive the law from
God and they began to worship a golden calf. They made absolute
idiots out of themselves and denied the God. They said, who
is this God? He's God. Let's make our own
God. And they made one out of gold,
made a cow out of gold from their jewelry and other things they
could melt down. And God sent Moses down that
mountain. And you know what? Instead of
saying, and he's got the word of God. They heard thunderings
from the mountain and they became afraid. But instead of saying,
we've offended God, what are we thinking? We made a golden
calf and we're worshiping that thing. What idiots we are. You
know what they did? Moses wrote a line in the sand.
He drew a line in the sand and said, who's on the Lord's side?
Who's on the Lord's side? And they would not cross it.
Many of them would not, still wouldn't cross that line. How
bad do they deserve to go to hell? About as bad as you do. Rebels. We murdered the son of
God and we laughed about it. We spit on him and mocked him.
And many still do. Just about everybody still hates
the Christ of this book. The Jesus everybody's singing
about, oh, how I love Jesus. It ain't this Christ. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 16,
22, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema
maranatha. Let him be accursed when the
Lord comes. If you don't love the Savior,
you're so evil that you've got to go to hell. You've got, that's
the only thing for you. You've got to go to hell. And here's the wonder of wonders.
Those who have eternal life and are with the Lord Jesus Christ
and just like the Lord Jesus Christ in eternal glory, they
enjoy all the blessings and favor and glory of God. They do that
because they deserve it. They're there because they deserve
it, not because of anything they've ever done or haven't done. Not because of who they are.
But because the Lord Jesus Christ had mercy on their soul and revealed
himself, no man knoweth God the Father save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal him. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ
and that, he gets all the glory. He gets all of it. because he's their substitute,
because he's their redeemer, because he gave himself for them,
they're right where they belong, in his arms, in glory, beholding
his face forever. Thank God, the sickle's in his
hand, and harvest is soon, it's soon for you. Whenever he comes back to this
earth, it's soon for us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll be saved. You'll be saved. Let's pray.