is the church. And then in chapter
13, we see the tools and instruments of this dragon. We saw the beast,
which is anti-Christian government, blasphemers, those who do not
hold any relationship or confess any union with God or his gospel. And then he uses the second beast,
which is false religion, and how he uses that beast to persecute
the church with its false gospel. And then we have those who have
received the mark of the beast in their forehead and in their
hand. Those are those who follow after false religion and Antichrist. They are His disciples. Remember
those Jews were a part of those men. He said, you, Jesus told
them, you of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father,
you will do. And so we have many enemies.
Believer, we have many troubles and enemies in this life and
God warns us by these visions to tell us that we have these
enemies. And these enemies are powerful. You remember that the
scripture says in chapter 13 in verse 7 that it was given
to him to make war with the saints and listen, to overcome them. I know that this is a of our
nature to think, well, I'm a believer, I'm safe, everything should be
well with me. No! No, it should not be well
with you, because we have such enemies. Our Lord promised tribulation
in this world. He promised, this is a veil of
tears. This is a world of trouble, of
sickness, of grief, of sorrow. And is this so? God does use
these things for His people to wean us. from this world. Why? This is not our home. This
is not our home. As we'll see in just a minute,
our Lord is coming. Our Lord is coming. And we should
be looking not at the world, but at His coming. We should
be looking for, anticipating His coming. He is coming to receive
us to Himself. But we're going to have trials
and tribulations in this world. But then in verse chapter 14,
you remember, He begins by telling us the end of all things. In
verse 1 through 5, He shows us that all of the elect, when Christ
stands up to come, all of the elect will be brought into Him. He will redeem them from the
earth. That's what it says in verse... Verse 4, it says, all that these
were redeemed from among men and the firstfruits of God. We are redeemed here in the earth,
but one day, listen, He'll redeem us from the earth. He'll take
us from this place and bring us to Himself. And so then in
verse 6, Down through our text, through verse 13, we have the
mission of the church, which is the preaching of the everlasting
gospel. What are we to do in the meantime?
Exactly what we're doing now. Declaring the word of God, so
that God should use His church to call in His elect. This is the business of the church.
To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. to grow in the grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ so that we should be built up
in the faith, pray in the Holy Spirit until He comes looking
for His coming. And so this everlasting gospel
preached by these angels, remember those are the preachers of the
gospel and that's their business. And here He gives us those comforting
words, though all that are outside Christ shall suffer the damnation
of God. And that's a part of our message.
The world doesn't like that. They don't like to hear of those
things. But these are truths, friend. These are truths. Everyone
who will not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ will suffer the
wrath of God without mixture of mercy. It is a sobering gospel. It is
sobering. But here is our voice of comfort. He says to us believers, write
this John, you tell those believers, blessed are they that die in
the Lord. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. And this is our comfort, our
joy. And so now then in verse 14 we
see now the end of all things. In verse 14 it says, John says,
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 a sharp sickle. And we see here in this verse, the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What we are to be looking for,
John says, this is what it is. This is what we're to be looking
for. The Lord Jesus, who is to come
and judge all men. And notice, He comes. How does He come? He comes upon
a white cloud. Isn't that how he ascended into
heaven? He ascended in the clouds. And you remember that angel told
the disciples, why stand you here lazing into heaven? This
same Jesus whom you saw taken up will come in like manner. He will come again in the same
way, in the clouds. He will come from heaven. He
will come from heaven. And he is, notice that he is
sitting on this white cloud. This no doubt symbolizes the
purity and sovereignty of his throne, the supremacy. Where
are the clouds? They're above us, aren't they?
Well you, I want you to understand this. Christ's throne is above
us. It is above all. His creation. It is in the heavens. His throne
is established in the heavens. And though it is now unseen by
men and mocked and rejected by natural men, we who believe know
by the grace of God through faith that this throne has been established
of God. Now it was established before.
Christ had this throne established in eternity because he himself
is God. But when He became a man and
accomplished our redemption, God made Him both Lord and Christ. And this throne is established
by God. But this day of His coming, this
day of the coming of the throne of Jesus, when He shall come to sin, that
all men will see it. Now men reject it. There is coming
a day when they must acknowledge it. They must bow to Jesus Christ. That day is coming. He will call
the dead, both small and great, and all will arise and all of
them will witness the omnipotent power He will summon all His
creatures before this holy bar. You and I will stand before this
bar, no doubt. Why? His throne is established,
and He is established as the ruler and judge of all men. And when the Son of God came
the first time, it was not in such manner, was it? It was not
as judged humility the first time. He condescended to be united
with our flesh so that He could represent us and redeem us and
justify us before God. But after Christ had died, after
He had accomplished redemption, He returned to heaven and established
that throne. But when He comes again, you
listen, He will not come as a meek and lowly Savior. He will come
as the sovereign ruler and judge. He will not come to save men,
but to judge them. He who sits on the throne in heaven will not exchange it for an earthly
throne either. When He comes, He's not coming
back to set up an earthly kingdom as some men think. Some men think
He's going to come back meekly humbly again and set up an earthly
kingdom here in this world so as that some might believe him
again and come in." That's not true. That's not according to
the Word of God. Some suppose you set up an earthly
kingdom. You remember what our Savior said. My kingdom is not
of this world. If it were, then would my servants
fight? But it's not. Behold, his throne is holy, it's
high, And He comes again, He'll come without sin unto the redemption
of His people. You see, He's coming again to
redeem us, to take us to Himself in power. In power. It is here the King and Judge
will give all men a just reward. All those, you listen, at this
bar, Without sin shall receive a just
reward. But on the other hand, those
who are found with sin, wicked and unholy, they too will receive
a just reward of their deeds. The righteous will be justly
rewarded with eternal life and peace with God, but those who
are found sinners before the judgment bar of Christ will receive
a just reward of eternal, unrelenting damnation. What will be your reward? He is coming. His throne is established. He said He's coming and there's
no way to stop it. He will judge you. How will you be found before
this judgment ball? The scriptures are clear. All
have seen and come sure. of the glory of
God. Come short of perfection, how then will any of Adam's race
be accepted? This is how. Only because God has chosen sons. Some, God has purposed to be
holy. If you want to know the root
cause of all salvation, it is in God. God chose a people that
He would make holy. Make them holy. But He only chose one way to
do it. by Jesus Christ. See, God didn't make anybody
holy by Jesus Christ plus themselves. Nobody is made holy that way.
Nobody is made holy that way. Only by Jesus Christ, who had agreed in a covenant
of mercy to be the Savior of God's elect. So then Jesus first
came in humiliation in the flesh to accomplish the sovereign will
of God, which was what? To make His people holy. That's His purpose. That was
His purpose from eternity that Christ should make, and Christ
did make them holy. Christ did make them holy 2,000
years ago with His redeeming blood and perfect righteousness.
Our Savior was made sin. First he said, Lo, I come in
the volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy
will. Listen, by the which will we are sanctified. What does
that word mean? Holy, holy. By that which will,
God willed that Christ should come and obey the law, that he
should be made sin for us who knew no sin. Why? That we should
be made the righteousness of God in him. And so when he was done, when
justice could demand no more, when all our sins were paid for,
put away, he cried, it's finished. Father, I have finished the work. What was the work? holy. I finished the work which
thou gavest me to do." He finished the work, and now
then the Holy Ghost is sent out to quicken all of those elect
to eternal life, to life, through the means of preaching the gospel, which they all shall hear. and
they all shall come, and they all shall believe, and not one
will be absent." Not one of them will not be made
holy before the judgment bar of Christ. So, then we heard. Have you heard? Have you believed? on the Son
of God, then we have been quickened and
listened. You who believe are righteous. You're holy before God. Our Lord Jesus said, My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give unto
them Eternal life. You see, what is eternal life
but the reward of the righteous? Eternal life is the reward of
the righteous. Only the reward of the perfect, sinless person. I give unto them. It's not they
merit it. I merit it, Jesus said. I did
it. And I give it to them. And no man is able They shall
never perish, neither shall any man be able to pluck them out
of my hand. Therefore, believers, we are
not to fear the coming of Christ, but rather look for it. You should be looking
for it. You know, when we're not looking
for it, it is most likely because we're too rooted in this world.
Too rude? What are troubles and trials
for? They are to wean you. To ready
you for glory. To draw you closer to Christ.
Is that not what troubles do? I know we don't like them. I
know they're painful. But they do have a worth. They
do have a mission, and that is to draw us closer to Him, to
be ready for His coming, to look with great anticipation. You know, I read that when the
disciples talk about His coming, that they always look with anticipation. The Apostle Paul said this, he
said, we which are alive and remain. He was ready for Him
to come then. Are you and I looking for that
coming and desiring that coming? We should be. Why? Because you
shall receive a just reward of righteousness. Somebody told you, somebody told
you you had a distant relative and man, they were wealthy. They
left you all kinds of stuff. He said, oh, you know, you just
got to be at this place at this time. And it's all yours. I guarantee you, you'd put that
on your calendar, wouldn't you? You'd be looking. Is it time?
Is it time? Why? That's just natural. That's
rooted in our flesh. Our spirit should be anticipating
the coming of Christ the same way. When is it coming? I don't have a time or a date.
I know it's coming. When, and the troubles, the sorrows,
they cause us to divorce ourselves from this world and look for
the coming of the glorious King who shall reward us with all
the blessings of God. All the blessings of God. We
are not to fear His coming but to look for it. Peter said looking
for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, seeing that
all earthly things of this house shall be burned up." What are
you holding on to? I'm going to tell you it's going
to burn up. Whatever it is, look at it. Look at your children.
Look at your family. Look at your home. Look at your
car. Look at all of those things.
Peter said, what manner of man should we be seeing all of these
things shall be burned up? What kind of life should we lead? Looking for and hastening to
the coming of God. That's what we should be looking
for. Because therein is our reward. Therein is our hope. Therein
is our joy when He comes. So when Christ comes, sitting
on His white cloud, His great white throne. Let not your heart
be troubled, for all who believe in Christ will receive a just
reward, not based on what you have done, but what He has done
for you. That's why it's imperative that
we look into what Christ has done, because our reward is based
on what He has accomplished. And so if we can see more of
what He has done, we would be less fearful of His coming. Because
whatever He deserves is what I deserve. I know you don't feel that. Put
them away and believe the Gospel. Put away our feelings, our thoughts,
and return to our God. He will abundantly pardon you.
Why? That's His promise. His promise. Now notice this person. Look
back at your text. He's coming in the white cloud. He's on His
throne. He is coming to receive us. He is coming in this way,
like unto the Son of Man. Now justly, by nature, we deserve
the title, Son of Adam. By nature, we all deserve that
title. For when He fell, we all fell in Him and obtained His
wicked and evil nature. Yet behold, Jesus the Son of
God was no son of Adam. That's why God said He
should be the seed of the woman and not the seed of Adam. He
was not born or conceived in sin as we are, but by the Holy
Ghost. Therefore, as a man, the Son
of Man, He was the truest man. He was a man who honored God and obeyed the law of God perfectly. Now that's what a man should
be. What you and I should have been, Christ was. Christ was. He said in Isaiah
chapter 42, He said, Behold who is deaf like my servant. In other
words, he's talking about Christ. He was deaf and blind to sin. Sin could not enter into his
eyes or his ears or his heart because he was sinless. And he
said that he is pleased for his righteousness sake. My servant
shall honor the law and magnify the law. And seeing that the
Lord came in our very nature, Will it not be pleasing to our
eyes to see Him come in our nature? You know, when you see Him when
He comes, He's going to be a man. You'll see a man. You'll see
a man. This is comforting. This is comforting. You remember how many times the
Lord appeared to His disciples, but especially that time He was
walking on the water and they were afraid? Wow, they thought
it was a ghost. He said, no, it's me. It's me. When He comes again, you know
what He's going to say? It's me. The same One that came
to you and revealed Myself to you, it is I! Be not afraid. It's a man. It is the God-man,
the Mediator. Therefore, because of His perfect
work, when Jesus comes, He says this, We call them brethren. He's not ashamed of you. I am ashamed of me. He's not ashamed of me. He's not. It will be with open arms. To draw you into his breast.
To hold you. Have you thought of that day? Have you thought of his arms? How they will feel when they
embrace you the first time? What a day! What a day! When He comes, He will be like
as He is in Heaven, the Son of Man. The same Jesus the angel
said you saw taken from you shall descend in like manner and receive
you. To the saints who love is appearing,
what joy will fall on our hearts when the Son of Man comes. Thirdly,
look at this. He comes as the Son of Man and
notice He has a crown. on His head. This signifies both
His victory and His sovereignty. This crown that Christ has is
not one obtained by right, but rather one that is won through
contest. That word crown, it's not as
though you would have a kingly crown. You have a king and his
son, he inherits the kingdom and he's given a crown. Now that's
true about Christ. He is the Son. He deserves the
crown. He is by right earned the crown. I mean, has the crown. But this is an earned one. It's
kind of like the Olympic Games. That's where this comes from.
It is a wreath that the Olympiads, when they had won, they would
be placing a wreath over their head. They won the game. They won the victory and deserve
the crown. So Christ has a golden wreath
on His head because He had won the victory. He had won the victory. Behold, the surety then and confidence
of our salvation is this, Christ hath won. Christ hath won. There's a song, come on home
to the Father, come on home to the Son, come on home to the
Spirit, come on home, the victory is won. It's won. The battle's over. Christ won.
The battle's over. This is the good news. There
is no war to fight for salvation. It's done. Salvation. Yes, we
do as believers fight. We fight against the flesh. We
fight against the world. We fight against Satan. But know
this. He has already overcome them. They're already defeated. You're
fighting a defeated enemy. He doesn't appear defeated, but
I tell you, He is. Why? Christ has the crown to
prove it. He won it. He won it. We were by nature in bonds of
sin, enslaved to our lust. We were held captive at the will
of a cruel taskmaster. We were dead in sins, unable
and unwilling to come to God by faith in Christ. Unwilling
to obey the law of God and satisfy the justice of God. But you listen,
all that that we could not do, He did. He did for you. The sin that condemned us, He
removed. The devil that tormented us,
accused us, He's crushed. The law that was against us,
he took it out of the way and nailed it to his cross. Therefore, the justice of God
was pleased with his offering. God was pleased with his sacrifice
and set that crown on his head. What joy will be in our hearts
then to see that crown. I see it now by faith. I see
it now through a glass door. And yet I'm troubled. My unbelief
is so prevalent. But see, that has nothing to
do with the victory, does it? The victory's won. The victory's
won. It's over. And the only thing
we're waiting for is Christ to come back. That's it. The victory's won. Now all things
appear to be opposed to that truth. All things appear to be crooked.
The righteous suffer, the wicked prosper, the saints are persecuted,
and the beast and false religion flourish. Therefore, look now,
knoweth what you see. Hear God's word." I looked and
saw one sitting on a white cloud, likened to the Son of Man. Listen. on His head, a crown. This crown now sits upon the
Savior's brow and He is now ruling all things, all flesh after the
counsel of His own will in order to call all of His people to
Himself. This is the cause of preaching. This is why I'm preaching, so
that His people should come to Him. Believe on Him. Trust in Him. It is my desire that you, if
you have not come, that you should come. I told you the victory is won.
Why would you not come? Only a mad fool would not come. The supper is ready. Salvation
is accomplished. Why would you still try to fight
for it? Why will you still try to earn
it? All who try to earn it will be those who receive a just reward
of nothing but sin. That's all we've done is sin. There is nothing we've done righteous. Why would you go to the bar with
that? Don't go to the bar with that. Why would you come to the bar
with righteousness? Why would you not? He would have
to be a mad fool rushing to hell in order not to receive and come.
Come ye sinners poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready, ready stands to
save you. Ready! That's a good word. Ready. Stands to save you full
of pity. Join with power. Let not conscience
make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness
he requires, he accomplished. He accomplished. All the fitness
he requires of you, he's accomplished. May by grace you feel your need
of healing. And to all who come, this key
of mercy. This is the king of peace. And
he will in no wise cast him out. You remember Esther, the story
of Esther, how Haman, that wicked man, had told the king to give
him that decree to kill all of the Jews. And the king set his
seal on it, And Mordecai, he rent his clothes
and was sorrowful. And that's a picture of our natural
condition, enslaved and bound, sealed to death by the king. Yet Esther, she drew near to
the king in her royal robe and sought to be heard of the king.
But unless he had yielded that scepter to her, She would have
been killed. O fearful sinner, come now by
faith in Christ. Draw near, not in your own robe,
but in His. In His robe of righteousness,
forsake your filthy garments of sin, and you will receive
exactly what Esther did. He saw her, and He healed his
deceptive. Come, come. Son's name. Come. No death for
you. No death for you. No death for
you. Come. Come. If you come in His
garments, you will not be cast out. Ever. Ever. And thirdly, He had a sickle
in His hand. Look at this. He had a crown on His head and
He had a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came
out of the temple crying with a loud voice, to him that sat
on the throne, thrust in thy sickle and reaped. 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 his sickle into the earth,
and the earth was reaped." He had a sickle in hand. This tool
is to cut the grain at harvest, to cut the wheat. It's a curved,
sharp instrument. thrust that sickle, and once
they thrust it, the wheat was cut down, and it was to be ready
to be gathered in to the barn. You remember that parable the
Lord said in, I believe it was Matthew, he was saying that the
man, the master had sowed good seed, and the enemy came and
sowed tares among the wheat. Those good seed are his elect,
his people, all that believe on Christ, you. That's who you
are. You are the wheat. You are the
wheat. And the tares are sown in among
us. Those are the false professors and worldly men of the world,
sown by the enemy. And they grow up together. In this life, isn't that true?
Aren't you growing up together with false professors and unbelievers,
wicked men? Yes, the tares and wheat grow
together, but there's a harvest coming. There's a time of harvest. And then you thrust in the sickle
at the time of harvest, and the wheat is gathered into the barn,
and the tares are put aside and burned. That's exactly what's
happening here. The sickle is ready. He is ready
to reap when it's time. And this angel comes. That's
a minister of the gospel. He's not demanding that he do
this. He is pleading. The angel is
pleading. Isn't that what we've been doing?
Isn't that what John did? At the end of this book, Jesus
said, behold, I come quickly. What did John say? Even so, come,
Lord Jesus. Is it time? Is it time? Is the harvest ripe? Is the last
one drawn in? Come! It's time when it is. Please
come. Please come. Please come now. Come now. Come now. Now. Please. Isn't that the plea of
all the saints of all ages? Now, is it right? Please. And when it is, sure enough,
he thrust his sickle, and it was reaped. Got that? Our Lord will come as a thief
in the night. but not to us. He's going to come when no man
expects it. But He's not going to come as a thief to us. Why? We know He's coming. We should
be looking for His coming. That's why Paul said, it's high
time you wake up out of sleep. Be ready for His coming. Don't
be as the sleeping virgins. Wake. You're children of light.
You should be expecting His coming. And so He's not going to come
as a thief to steal anything from you. He's going to take
away their life, the unrighteous. He's going to take away their
joy. He's going to take away their pleasures and their lusts
and their passions. He's going to reap that away
from them, but not until He gets you first. And that's what the
remainder of this chapter is. You'll see that there's another
reaping that is not of the harvest, but rather of the foul grapes
The foul grapes, you see, the dead in Christ shall rise, what?
First. And we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them. And what did Paul say?
The end. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. The end! And every man will see it. There
they are, there's Christ coming down. They reach those out of
the grave and they meet their souls in the air and we which
are alive and remain are caught up together with them. And you
know what the wicked will do? They will stand in awe! Rooking! They'll see it. The trophies
of God's grace rising to glory. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. And in verse 18, and another
angel came out of the altar which had the power over fire, and
cried with a loud voice to them 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." Remember when
God said to those Old Testament countries, He said their sin
had not yet reached a full measure. They had not filled up their
cup of iniquity. But there's coming a day when
the cup of iniquity will be full. Their grapes of sin will be fully
ripe to be what? Crushed. Isn't that what a grape's
for? When it's fully ripe, isn't that what it's for? To be crushed?
He said that's what they are. Have not I raised up Pharaoh
to show my power? What is he raised up for? To
be crushed. To show God's power. Listen, and the winepress was
trodden without the city. You see, our master trod a winepress. He trod a winepress of the wrath
of God alone by himself. You see, our sins were crushed
in him. But one day when he reached this
time, their sins of the wicked will be crushed in them. And
notice he was crushed outside the city. Guess where they're
going? Outside the city. Not you. We're in the city. We're in the city. And notice
this, it said, and blood came out of the winepress even unto
the horse bribes by the space of 1,600 furlongs, my friends,
this speaks of the eternal damnation. Their blood will have no end. Now let me ask you this. Is it not true that you, believer,
know all things? You do. You know it all. You know about eternity before
the world, don't you? How that God chose us for Christ.
You know how that from the beginning of sin all the way to the time
of Christ, He promised Christ would come. You know that. You
know that Christ actually came and accomplished our redemption.
Ascended to glory and has now sent us His messengers into the
world to preach this gospel, to gather all of His elect, so
that when He comes, He will wreak us into His barnhouse, and we
shall enjoy the pleasures of joy of Christ forever and ever,
and He will cast out all the wicked into eternal damnation.
You know it all. You know from beginning to end,
don't you? Not only do you know it in your
mind, you know this to be true. Therefore what do you do? You
look for his coming. They run from it. You desire
it. They hate it. You long for his arms to wrap
around you. You long for his lips to kiss
you and say, well done. glitch.