Thank you for that. All right, let's ask the Lord
to bless His Word. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for the privilege of being here tonight in this place
that You've chosen to put Your name here. People you've chosen, few, chosen
few, out of the many that are called. People that you've redeemed
out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, and blood,
and people. We have great reasons, innumerable
reasons, to be here, all the blessings
with which you've blessed us, more than we can number. And
we give thanks for all that you are and all that you do for us,
Lord. We come here tonight to praise
you, give thanks, worship that One who sits on the throne with
a golden crown on His head, King of kings, Lord of lords. In the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come here tonight. I ask that
you'd send your Holy Spirit, the wind that bloweth where it
listens. Lord, we ask that you would cause
that wind to blow in this place tonight, in the Word, not in
Word only, but in power, the Holy Ghost, and much more. Give
faith where there is none, all for your glory,
our good. For as we wait upon thy return
and say as we've just come, come quickly, O come quickly. We look forward. We hasten that
day, O Lord. We wait. Here we sit, waiting
on thy return to look forward to that great day of the Lord.
Now, make this a good time together. May our faith that you've given
be more firm, and may we be more grounded and settled, persuaded,
knowing whom we have believed. when we leave this place. Give
us of our sins, O Lord, forgiven through the blood and righteousness
of the one whom we have come to worship, Jesus Christ. Bless
your people everywhere in Christ's name. Amen. All right, look at
2 Peter 3 again, just as we would do well to Look at 2nd Timothy 3 more frequently
as the time goes by. Remember 2nd Timothy 3. We would do well to look at this
third chapter of 2nd Peter more often as time goes by. Let's reread again verses 10
through 13. The day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned
up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy life and godliness,
looking for, hasting, or looking forward to the coming of the
day of God? For that is being about those
things which hasten his coming for us. Wherein the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved, the elements shall melt with fervent
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, we do look for new
heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Now turn
over to Revelation 14. As with all the book of Revelation
is the study of the last day. Days since Christ till now and
his return. Here in verses 14 through 20 is the prophecy of two harvests
in the earth. Two harvests. Any of you that
have done some Some farming, especially growing and harvesting
hay. You'll know that there are generally
two harvests during the year. There's a harvest during the
summer and then there's a late fall harvest, right? You've done
some work in the hay. Two cuttings, generally. You
have a real good year, not this year. Generally, it's two cuttings. All right, let's read, and that's
what this is about, two harvests of sickles. Verse 14 through
16, let's read these verses. I looked, and behold, a white
cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto a son of man, having
on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. 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. The time is come for
thee to reap. The harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud
thrust in his sickle upon the earth, and the earth was wreaked. It behold a white cloud," white
meaning pure, holy, white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like
unto the Son of Man. It's very clear who that's speaking
of in Christ is the one. Do you remember back in chapter
1? Look back there. Chapter 1. I hope you have your
Bibles ready. We're going to study. I had to eliminate about 185
verses in this study. It was so much. This thing just
kept growing. For the sake of time, we sure
won't look at all of them, but we are going to look at some
scriptures, and you are going to enjoy this. Chapter one, you remember verse
seven, it says, this is how the whole thing began. Remember?
Verse seven. Behold, he cometh with clouds,
and every eye shall see him. And as we sung a moment ago,
they which pierce him, the kindred of the earth shall wail because
of him. Even so, amen. Well, he cometh
with clouds. Turn to Daniel, chapter seven,
the book of Daniel. Chapter 7. While you're turning,
the scriptures say much about clouds. These are some of the
scriptures I had to winnow through. You can't pick out the mess. They're
all good. But it says much about clouds,
and most of the references are in reference to him. The clouds, Nahum says, are the
dust of the scripture. Scripture says the Lord appeared
to Moses and the people in a cloud. Scripture says a cloud filled
the holy of holies. Scripture says a pillar of cloud
led the Israelites. through the land, numbers, with
the four of them behind it. One I like, in Exodus 14, I believe
it is, says, The cloud was darkness to the Egyptians. They were in a fog. They couldn't
see a thing. It was light, real light, daylight. And it was what separated them,
the clouds. It also says this in Psalm 104,
He maketh the clouds his chariots. That's what we just read, and
lo, he cometh with clouds. Well, it's not the first time
this was written. Daniel's vision of the same one,
the Son of Man, verses thirteen and fourteen, I saw in the night
visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the
clouds. of heaven, and came to the ancient
of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was
given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all people,
nations, and languages served him. This dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away, and this kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed." Sounds like Daniel and John collaborated,
didn't they? They did. They did. The same one taught them both.
All right, back in our text. Behold, he cometh with clouds.
And so every time we hear the thunder, what are you going to
think of? When you hear the thunder, what comes to mind? What should
come to mind? When Christ, when God spoke from
heaven, either when he said, This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased, or else when he said, Father glorified thy
name, and a voice came, and I glorified it, and you glorified it, and
the sun set, and it thundered. So every time it thunders, you
think, God's speaking concerning his son. And then, every time
you look up and see some clouds, you think, this, that's the dust
of his feet. Or you think, I wonder which
one he's carrying. It says he sat on the throne,
sat on a cloud, and having on his head a golden crown. He's
the only one with a crown in heaven, because he's the King
of kings, Lord of lords. And in his hand, Scripture says
a lot about his hands, and he has hands. The reason men don't
think so, they don't read the Scripture. But he has a hand,
and in that hand it says he has a sharp sickle. A sickle. All right, verse fifteen. It says, Another angel came out
of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the
cloud, thrust him by sickle in the reed. Time has come for thee
to reap harvest of the earth and the rock. Who is this angel?
Not sure. But I do, it just came in my
mind when one of the Old Testament prophets, I believe it was Isaiah,
maybe Jeremiah, that said, It's time for you to work, Lord. They've
made for it your law. Isn't that Isaiah? You recall the scripture, don't
you? Maybe in David, the Psalms. All the saints sing it. All the
saints say, How long, O Lord, how long? Even so, come quickly. That's
what this angel I've made is a preacher of the gospel. Lord,
come. Harvest your people. Thrust in the sickle. I say that
tonight. Lord, thrust in your sickle in
the wreath. The time is at the wreath. Harvest it. Dry it. Dry it up. Dry it up. All right, this first harvest.
We're going to look at this first harvest. Henry, what's the best habit
of the first cutting? Because it's full of seed pods,
isn't it? That first cutting is full of
fruit, as it were, growing there. Now you hear the wheat. We're
going to look at it in a moment. But the first fruit, when the
hay or wheat or grain or barley or whatever it may be grows up,
and right when it's at its peak, right when it's at its peak and
it's fullest and it's harvested, that first cutting, first fruits,
first cutting, first fruit, all right? This harvest, this first
harvest, is the harvest of God's elect. First fruits under the
Lord. These are those that bear fruit
unto his glory. Remember when Christ said that?
Herein is a Father glorified that you bear much fruit. The
fruit of the Spirit. You know why it's called the
fruit of the Spirit in Galatians? Because He's the one that gives
it. It's not our fruit. It's His
work. It's His work that does away
with all this talk of us protecting ourselves of progressive sanctification,
the fruit of the Spirit. Right? All right? And then the
fruit all comes from Christ. He's the bread. Did you know
that? Where is it? And all of our springs
are in Him. All of our fruit comes from Him.
It all came, all the fruit, the seed. Now, we're talking about
wheat, aren't we? I wish I had brought a stalk
of wheat in here with me. I said, I would have just let
Dickie would have done that. A stalk of wheat. Just pretend
you see one here, okay? It's full of seed pods of the
seed, right? It's all seed. Well, he shall
see his seed. Well, where does all this seed
come from? They have all this seed. They're
all together, too, aren't they? And a stalk of wheat. Where's
all that seed come from? You have all these innumerable
seed, not seeds, a seed in one pot. Where's all that come from?
It all came from one seed being, falling into the ground and dying,
and brought forth fruit. You see, Christ is the seed.
And Christ is all and in all for this fruit we're talking
about, the fruit of the Spirit, His regenerating work, the fruit
which comes from Christ. And He is the seed which fell
into the ground, which died, and by virtue of merits of His
righteousness were made righteous, by His death were justified,
and by His resurrection we have life. And bring forth fruit,
He sends the Spirit. And in bushel after bushel, bring
it in the sheep. Bring it in the sheep. You remember
singing that song? I looked it up tonight. It's
not worth singing. It's not worth singing. But the
fact is, He is going to bring in His sheep. He's going to turn to the book
of Ruth, and we just might not leave here. Book of Ruth. Do you remember? In the book
of Ruth, turn to chapter one of Ruth. Joshua, Judges, Ruth. I said that for my sake. You remember, Naomi was a broken,
impoverished widow, widow being the wife of a dead man. Naomi
represents all of God's people, broken, impoverished widow, wife
of a dead man. Ruth, her daughter-in-law, was
a heathen, pagan, a Moabite, enemy. They returned to Bethlehem. You remember the story, don't
you? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the
Moabite is her daughter-in-law with her, which returned out
of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning
of the barley harvest." I just send chills up my spine remembering
this wonderful story. Beginning of the barley harvest,
all right? And unbeknownst to them, they
were being harvested. But this harvest went on for
some time. You see, it was the beginning
of the barley harvest. The harvest we're speaking of
in Revelation 14, the harvest of God's elect, is not a one-day,
one-time thing. It began from the beginning,
when he begins bringing in his sheep, his people. All right? This harvest, this
barley harvest here, It took place over a long, pretty long
period of time. Everything was done by hand.
OK? And during which time there was
a wonderful man named Boaz. He was the husbandman, you see. He owned this place. He was the
landowner. He was the kinsman redeemer.
And he began to deal mercifully, graciously with these poor women.
Look at verse fifteen of chapter two. It says that when Ruth was
risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, picture of Christ
sending his preachers, saying, Let her glean, feed her among
the sheep, reproach her not. And verse sixteen, Let Paul also
sum up handfuls of purpose for her. Leave them there, let her
glean. Verses nineteen and twenty, when
she returned home that night. Her mother-in-law said unto him,
Where have you gleaned today? She came home with her arms full,
baskets full, and sacks full, and, Where have you gleaned today?
Where wroughtest thou? Blessed be he! Wherever you went,
blessed is the man that took knowledge of thee. She didn't
know him yet, but he knew her. He'd inquired about her. And
he's chosen her, and let's call some handfuls on her. He's wooing
her, he says. He's wooing her. He's going to
bring her to himself, to marry her. Verse 19, and she showed
her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought and said, I believe
the man's name with whom I wrought today is Moab. Naomi said unto
her, verse twenty, But how blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not
left off his kindness, loving kindness, to the living and to
the dead. Naomi said unto her, The man,
the man, is near kin to us, one of our next kin to us. The margin
says, one that hath the right to the kingdom. But one that hath the right to
redeem, he's the sovereign Redeemer, the Lord of the harvest. And
verse twenty-three, so she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz.
How about you? Are you a maiden of Boaz? Has
he let all of you handfuls on purpose? Huh? I believe so. He commanded his
young men to let you glean among the sheaves. That's what we're
doing right now. And it says, she kept fast, steadfast, by
the maidens of Boaz to gleam unto the end of the barley harvest,
and a wheat harvest, and a whale harvest. So the harvest lasted
a while, the barley harvest, and so is the harvest of God's
people. Turn back to Revelation 14. Now, how long does this last,
this harvest of God's people? No man knows. God's people keep asking, though.
This is human. When you hasten the coming of
the Lord, that means you're not out doing
other things. Your mind's off of it. And I'm anxious for her return.
How do I hasten her coming? Remember we read that? Hasten?
Well, it's by looking for it. Waiting for it. Looking forward
to it. When you go out and do another thing, your mind's not
on it. You're not thinking about it. Well, you hasten the coming
by looking for His coming. And it's human to say, how long,
oh Lord, how long? David asked that over and over,
how long? Daniel asked that, how long? The angels asked that,
how long? How long is this going to go? When, when? When is it
in his good time? But if you want to drop this
down, Deuteronomy 16, verse 9, you want to drop that down, look
it up for yourself, later on it seems to be an indication.
All right, Revelation 14. The harvest, in a harvest, Henry,
how many things are used in harvesting wheat? How many implements? The reason you got out of the
business wasn't about that. There's too many things involved.
It's expensive, isn't it? A lot of things involved. Harvest
back then of wheat and grain required cutting. It required
gathering. It required winnowing. It required threshing. All sorts
of things involved, all right? And so is the harvest of God's
sheep. What was used to harvest? What
is it that he uses to harvest? What does it say here? What does
it say here in the text? A sickle, all right? What is
the sickle of God that he uses to harvest, to bring in his sheep?
A sickle. Good, all right. Now I've learned. Hebrews 4,
12 says the word of God is quick, powerful, sharper than a two-edged
sword. The word of God is this sharp
sickle. All right? Verse 16 says, He
that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and
the earth was wreathed. Christ sits on the throne, and
he sends forth his word, right? Christ, the Word, was made flesh
and grew up among us for thirty-three years, but he went back to glory
and sat on a platter, crowned with glory and honor. And that sickle is his word,
the sharpsword, sharp, able to wound and heal, like a surgeon's
scalpel. It's a sharpsword, able to cut
down and raise up. The word, now, listen, getting
down to specifics. Peter said this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you. More importantly, is the word,
is the signal, is the sword. A lot of people claim to believe
the word of God. A lot of preachers say they preach
the word of God. But if they're not preaching the gospel, they
don't have a sword. They got a blunt instrument.
The gospel is called the offense of the cross. What's the sharpness of God's
word is the offense of the cross, you see. You follow me? God's word, the gospel, is what
he uses to harvest. And the gospel cuts down man.
It cuts us down in our pride. It cuts a man down. That's the
first thing the gospel does. Before it lifts us up, it doesn't.
It cuts us down. We've got to. Like Paul, we've
got to come down off our high horse and realize who's Lord
he is. Got to get down in the dust.
That's what happens when you cut down a stalk of wheat. What's
it do? It space tips the dust. And it's not going to rise up
until the harvester picks it up and brings it to the next
plot. And even then it stays in the
dust. We're going to see how that wheat stays in the dust
all of its days until it's changed. Well, this is what God uses,
his sickle. Three things, actually. Three
instruments that God uses. Turn to Matthew 3, Matthew chapter
3. This sickle is the first thing
he uses. Matthew chapter 3, John talks about an axe, same
thing. When you harvest grain or wheat,
several instruments are used, and all of these, all of these
represent the word of God. Sickle, being God's Word, it
cuts to the ground, it causes the sinner to bow down and cast
down and humble. Look here at Matthew 3, verse
12. It says, His fan, John is speaking of Christ here, whose
fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, gather
his weed into the garden. He'll burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire. that have been around where they
winnow grain. Or you can be young like me and
go to Explore Park, some place like that, a fountain, that museum,
and see them still winnowing grain. And what they do is they
have a huge barn, and they bring the freshly cut stalks of, well,
actually it dries a little bit, but they bring these stalks,
these sheaves of wheat, Still attached to the, well it's pretty
much chopped up, but they bring it in into the threshing floor,
the barn. Alright? And they stack it in
the barn. Chaff and wheat, all together. Alright? This winnowing is done
with a fan. A winnowing instrument. A fan
it's called. Like, you've probably seen them.
It used to be old wooden fork, rake looking, looked like a rake,
all right? And they'd grab this pile of
wheat and chaff, chaff being the stalks and the husks and
all that, wheat being seeds, all right? And they'd throw it
up in the air. The barns back then were built,
go up to the explore park and see one. They're built with open
doors on both sides, open doors where the wind can blow through.
They want a breeze blowing through. And he'd take that wheat in this
great big pan, the barn owner, the harvester, and throw it up
in the air. All right? And the wind would
come through. And the chaff would stop working. No seed, no fruit. Blow out the door. And the wheat
would fall right back in the ground. It would fall right back
where you found it. Until he kept doing that, he's separating
wheat from the chaff. Wheat from the chaff. Until finally,
after the wheeling process is over, all you've got is wheat. It's all on the floor, as you
see. All right? And the fan keeps
going forward. The fan, the fan, the gospel,
the gospel. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. The gospel is what separates the wheat from the
chaff. The gospel is what separates, it's what sanctifies. Sheep from
goats, wheat from chaff, the gospel. The gospel keeps being
sounded forward. You know what the gospel is,
don't you? God's on the throne, man's in
the dust, Christ is all. Christ's blood, Christ's righteousness
is all in salvation. He's the sovereign, electing,
saving, keeping, justifying God. It's all His work. It's all Christ's
work. Spirit's work. Man has nothing
to do with it. That keeps being sounded forth,
sounded forth, sounded forth, until Chaff can't take it any
longer. And as some new wind comes along,
wind up, and they say, it just sounds better. They're gone. Their life on the floor was just
a vapor. They're gone. But the wind now
just keeps getting grounded. It says, more and more. And blows away. Grounded and
said, all right, what's the next time? After the wheat's been
wintered, chaff can separate. What do you do with it? Thresh it. Thresh it, which means
you beat it to powder. Beat it to powder. And I was
going to have you turn to, we studied this years ago, in Isaiah
28 and 21. But now again, the floor of the
barn is called the threshing floor. And what they use is a,
well, there are many different devices, but a threshing instrument,
generally some kind of device, homemade, to beat that wheat. Beat it. And what you're doing
is you're still separating some chaff from that wheat. There's
a lot of chaff in us through it, and will be till the day
we die. Self-righteousness. It's got
to be, it's got to go. It's got to go. Self-worth and
all along. But this threshing instrument
beats that wheat to fine powder, okay? And that's what God's Word
does to His people continually. It keeps It keeps wounding and
bruising and refining, that's what it's doing. It's refining.
It's like the fire that James spoke of, Peter spoke of, the
trial of our faith. It keeps wounding and bruising
and refining, doesn't it, until that wheat is changed into wheat
flour. Now you've got something suitable
for the Master's use. Have you ever heard of a threshold?
Everybody here has gotten one, every door in your house. It's
an old term. You go in a barn, what you'll
see in the entrance to the door of that barn is a piece of wood
that's slanted down from outside in. Threshold, what it is, it
holds in the wheat on the threshold, so it can't escape. He's not going to lose any of
that precious wheat, all right? And so after all that's done,
the husbandman, the landowner, the harvester, stands at the
door, stands at the threshold. ready
to gather that wheat into his garden and change it into bread. All right? Christ said, I'm at
the door. People were at the threshold. Look, we are. Christ is at the door. That's
what he's saying. When you see all these things
now, the harvest is dry. Baptized one person every now
and then. Hallelujah for that. That's what the prophecy
talks about in the last days, that it'll be like a scattering
of corn on the mountaintop, here a little and there a little. This is the last of them. This
is the harvest, but the last of the harvest. At any moment now, the Lord will
give the order, gather my wheat into the garden. He's at the
threshold. We are. All right, here's the
second harvest, Revelation 14, the second harvest. Now, this
harvest uses the analogy of a grapevine. This is off the pressure of my
mind, grapevine. Fancy I planted two vines. I
went out to that place and I got two vines. All right? They both looked very similar. I planted both vines. One, I harvested, how many, how
many gallons? Fifteen gallons of grapes in
one box. Five gallons of juice in one
line. In one line. The other man died. No food. You know what I did to it? Let it down. That's what this
is about, alright? Christ is divine. There are many
false Christs. Many who claim to be. They don't
bear fruits of God's glory. This is it. Here's a cutting
down of this vine of the earth. Keep praying, Brother John. Look at it. Verse 17 and 18.
Another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven. He
also having a sharp sickle. Another angel came out from the
altar, which had power over fire. Cried with a loud cry to him
who had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in by a sharp sickle and
gather the clusters That is, the grapes of the vine of the
earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. After the removal of God's elect,
which we just looked at, when the last of his seeds are brought
in, and the winnowing process is over, and Paul in his letter
to the Thessalonians says that he'll come and they'll meet him
together in the air. which seems to be a time after
that for the rest of Europe. Now, that is His time, the destruction
of the planet. And again, the Word comes forth
that is not in any way, shape, form, or fashion a saver of life.
It's all judgment. The Word comes forth now, a saver
of life, a saver of life, a saver. Not then. It'll be words of judgment,
judgment, judgment. And where it comes forth, the
same sickle, right? Sickle. And he uses the sickle
to destroy, to cast down. Remember what Peter said we read?
Peter said, The heaven and earth which are now by the same word
are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men. Remember that? Sickle. The bind
of the earth. The vine of the earth is that
which the earth produces. Or as Paul said in Galatians
5, remember Peter said, these things Paul speaks of in all
of his epistles. Paul said in Galatians 5, now
the fruits, or that is, the works of the flesh are manifest, being
these, the health, the fortifications, the uncleanness, and so forth.
That's the fruits of the earth. The vine of the earth produces,
that's what it produces, religion. The vine of the earth is religion,
man's religion, his works, what he does, right? See, it comes
from the earth, it comes from the earth, the vine of the earth. God said he would raise unto
us a righteous bread. He was saying righteousness would
come down, right? And be planted. Let's pray that. But the vine of the earth is
man's religion, man's work. And look at this verse 19. It says, Now 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. Well, it's
saying in the Book of Grapes of Wrath, a version of this passage. But that is the name for those
who are outside of Christ. Romans 9 says, they're vessels
of wrath, pitted for destruction. Grapes of wrath. It says, cast
them into the great winepress of the wrath of God, those outside
of Christ. So verse 20, verse 20, the last
verse. And the winepress was trodden
without the city. Back in old days, they didn't
have machines. They did it with their feet. That's truly the
best way to do it. And they did it with their feet.
Well, here it says it was the winepress and all these grapes
of wrath were trodden by feet. Freedom, without the city, outside
the city. And blood, it says, came out
of the wine press, even up to the horses' private. The horses' private, five feet
tall at its back, almost six feet tall at the private. By the space of 1,600 furlongs,
furlongs always been an over 40 term, an eighth of a mile
of furlongs. In fact, there is a mile, 10 furlongs, a mile and
a quarter. 1,600 furlongs long is this river
of blood six feet deep. That's 200 miles long, six feet
deep, a river of blood. Peter said, we have not, it's
not coming into the eyes of people, this is no fairy tale, this is
no, this is real. In closing, Isaiah sixty-three,
Isaiah sixty-three. Do you know what that scripture
says in Isaiah sixty-three, anybody? These people are trodden by feet. Whose feet? Isaiah sixty-three, it tells
us that. You see, he is far different than the Jesus at these grapes of wrath, believe
me. Now, Barbara, did you get a hold
of that picture? A literal, this is literal now,
we're not talking, this is not figurative, this is literal,
when the Son of God comes to this earth. His blood was no figure of speech,
was it? The blood we've seen all through
Revelation, the seas and rivers and the land full of it, that's
been no figure of speech. This man hath run deep with blood,
has it not? I've read in some accounts of
the Civil War, and literally, Stephen has ankle-deep blood,
and some of those people as far as you can walk. This is disagreeable. Verse one, Isaiah sixty-three,
verses one through four. We'll read this in closing. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Bosnia, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I, that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Right now, a precious saving
thing. Kiss the thief. All that thief. Kiss him. He'll lift you up. But someday the thief is going
to be on the neck of his enemy. That's what the Scripture says.
Verse 2, Wherefore art thou read in thine apparel? and thy garments
like him that treadeth in the wine patch." All of this is a
double picture, a picture of Christ when He came the first
time to redeem His people by His own precious blood, and when
He comes again. It's all so interconnected. Verse
three says, Christ went through the winepress
of God's wrath for us. I was a vessel, should have been
a vessel of wrath, pitied for destruction, but Christ was made
bloody under God's feet. Amazing. That's the gospel right
there. None with Him. I will tread,"
but here's his judgment, "'I will tread them in my anger,
trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garments. I will stain all my raiment,
for the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my
redeeming is coming.'" The harvest is coming. The same one who came
the first time is coming again with clouds. God is His elect. We'll sit at his feet with Mary,
at her feet. And he's coming after who seeks
us. He's coming back to transform
the earth. And he's right this time. He doesn't know. He can set it on fire. This is
not fainting. There's two hearts. I hope you've been edified with
that. All right, let's thank the Lord. Our Heavenly
Father, we thank You for the seed of Christ. Thank You for
the Word. You've sanctified us with Thy
truth, O Lord. We thank You for it. We ask that
You continue to sanctify us. Thresh us through what you do
with your word. Thank you for it. We want to
be wheat gathered by you into your garner. We thank you for your word and
ask your blessings upon us. Lord, cause it to create fear
where there is none. Keep that fear of the Lord where
there is. Create faith where there is none. God stoves the
who have it to grow in faith. Lord, make yourself real to us. Your word's true. We believe
every word of it. It's your word. It's the word of you who cannot
lie. Heaven and earth will indeed pass away, but not one word of
you will. And you say it would not return,
boy, but it would accomplish what you sent it to do. So it
may be a sharp sickle in our hearts tonight. Pray these things
in Christ's name. Amen.