Well, we return to Revelation
chapter 14 this morning, and this is, at one and the same
time, an incredibly difficult message to preach, because it
is so full of the most serious warnings to people all around
us, loved ones, people that we know well, the most serious warnings,
and yet, at the same time, Whereas chapter 13 was full of comfort
for the people of the world and anguish for the people of God
living in this world, the scene is completely reversed. There
is a picture of the most dreadful judgment coming for the world
that rejects Christ, but there is the most blessed hope of glory
for the people of God. for this world is coming to an
end. These chapters 12 to 14 form the fourth of the seven
visions of Revelation. Seven visions, think of it this
way. Seven different perspectives
of this creation and this creation as the scene of God's recovery
of His kingdom from Satan. Satan usurped the kingdom of
God in the Garden of Eden, in the Fall. But this creation is
the scene where God recovers His kingdom from Satan. And in
Revelation we get seven perspectives of this creation as that scene
of God's recovery of His kingdom from Satan. It's a scene of spiritual
warfare. This world in which we live,
the history of this world in which we live, it's a scene of
spiritual warfare. Warfare between God and Satan. It's warfare between truth, God's
truth, and lies. It's warfare between the light
of God and the darkness of Satan. It's warfare between the righteousness
of God and the evil which is Satan. And it reveals Christ
coming into history. Chapter 12 shows us a woman,
which is the church, the people of God, those kept true to the
principles of God's grace. And the Christ child is born
of that woman. The Christ child, yes, it was
Mary was the physical mother of Jesus, but the picture is
that Christ comes from the people of God, the Church of God, and
he comes to accomplish redemption. He comes to do that for the people
he loved with an everlasting love that they cannot do for
themselves. He came to accomplish the payment of their sin debt
to the justice of God, and thereby disarming Satan. Satan, who wants
them all condemned to his kingdom, to his hell. That's what Satan
wants, but Christ came and accomplished redemption, and Satan is defeated,
and he's cast out of heaven, and he's cast down to earth,
and he's full of wrath, and he persecutes the woman and her
seed. And we see it in chapter 12,
the last verse, verse 17. The dragon, the devil, was wrath,
was full of fury with the woman, with the people of God, and went
to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments
of God. Who are the people of God? Who
are the true believers? They keep the commandments of
God, and they have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They keep the
commandments of God, you could say is, they keep the principles
of the gospel. The gospel is the law that they that is their rule of life. Christ
is their rule of life. They keep the commandments of
God and they have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And then it
went on from there and in chapter 13 we see the kingdom of Antichrist,
of the devil, the dragon, and the two beasts, the one from
the sea and the one from the earth. That's the kingdom of
Antichrist, and it's our world today in which we live. And maybe
we haven't yet reached the pinnacle of the evil of that kingdom,
but we are getting there. When you look, it's rapidly advancing. In the last 30 years, I would
say, how corrupted has politics become? How corrupted and evil
has economics become? It's just fantasy, it isn't truth. Philosophy is the philosophy
of evil in this world. Science is not true science.
The science is the very name that you can never apply to true
science. Science is falsely so called
because it's the science of the deceitful world of Satan. The
morality of this world grows ever more evil. The values of
this world are repulsive to the people of God. The religion of
this world, which seems so nice and warm and comfortable with
the kingdom of this world, will prove, in a few chapters' time,
to be revealed to be Babylon, to be all that is false. We are
living, if you're a believer today, if you are trusting in
the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are one of those described as
keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony of Jesus
Christ, we're living in alien territory. You're like foreign,
you're like an agent for your government in enemy territory. That's what it's like for Christians,
but We saw at the end of chapter 13 in verse 18, it's the number
of the beast is 666. It's failure, failure, failure.
That's what it is. The triumph of God's kingdom
is certain. Absolutely certain. So we see
in the first few verses of chapter 14, the 144,000 of God in this
world. You know where that number comes
from. It's 12 times 12. Why 12 times 12? 12 patriarchs
of the Old Testament, 12 apostles of the New Testament, 12 twelves,
144. times a thousand ten times ten times ten completeness completeness
completeness it's god's perfect number of his people and i believe
it's in this world at any one time and all the while that chapter
13 goes on all the while As Psalm 2 puts it, written hundreds of
years before this of course, Psalm 2 says, why do the nations
rage, the heathen rage, and imagine a vain thing against the Lord
and against his anointed. Satan's nations rage against
God and his rule, but all the while we see in chapter 14 verse
1, Christ and his people remain. There's a serenity about it.
The Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him, His people. His
perfect number of people. Why His perfect number? Because
it's the number ordained of God. All of them sealed. They have
His Father's name written in their foreheads. That means they're
sealed with God's ownership, as we saw at the start of chapter
7. And they're singing a song. In verse 2, I heard the voice
from heaven as the voice of many waters and the voice of great
thunder and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their
harps and they sung as it were a new song before the throne
and before the four beasts and the elders. This singing is coming
from heaven but no man could learn that song but the hundred
and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the
earth, which were bought with the blood of the sacrifice of
Christ, which were bought with the payment that He made to the
offended justice of God. They're redeemed from the earth,
and so they can sing this song of salvation. They're redeemed
from the curse. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. by Him being made a curse for
us. That substitution, that's the
gospel tenet of substitution, absolutely essential and central,
that everything is in the Lord Jesus Christ. They sung that
new song, They're made, look at verse 5, jump verse 4 just
for a moment. In their mouth was found no guile,
no sin, no evil, and they are without fault before the throne
of God. And you think, well, we're still
sinners, aren't we, we who believe the gospel of Christ? But no,
we're made the righteousness of God in Christ by virtue of
union with Christ, By virtue of that union, on the basis of
what He did, He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And this is the testimony
of heaven. In their mouth, the mouth of
the 144,000, of you if you are among them, in their mouth was
found no guile. It says in Jeremiah chapter 50
and verse 20, it says, the sins of Judah and of Israel were sought
for, and they were not found. Why not? Because Christ has removed
them. As far as the East is from the
West, they're removed. He has paid the penalty of those
sins. Those sins were nailed to His
cross. They're taken out of the way. They're kept pure. These
people in this earth, in this world of Satan, are kept pure.
Look at verse 4. These are they, this 144,000,
which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are
they which follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. They're
kept pure. from spiritual, it's spiritual,
spiritual fornication, spiritual corruption. Jesus prayed for
them, his people, to be kept from the evil. Before he went
to the cross, he prayed, don't take them out of the world, Father,
but keep them from the evil. Are you among them? Am I among
them? You know what the test is, we
have it very clearly, Philippians 3 verse 3. These are the true
circumcision, we are the true circumcision, who worship God
in the Spirit. We truly worship God. We rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Do you rejoice? What do you rejoice
in? Do you rejoice in your things
of this world, your possessions in this world, the places you're
going, the things you're doing, the aspirations of material blessing
that you have? Do you rejoice in Christ Jesus?
Because I'm telling you, there's a huge difference. You know,
God's people at various times have been materially rich. Abraham
was materially rich. Solomon was materially rich,
abundantly, overflowingly rich. But The rejoicing was in Christ
Jesus, always. It's always in Him. And having
no confidence in the flesh, none whatsoever. We don't look to
what we do, we don't look to what we are, we don't look to
what we say we have believed. Does God's Spirit witness with
your spirit that you are God's child? Because Romans 8.16 says
that. The Spirit of God witnesses with
our spirit that we are the people of God. Does God's Spirit witness
with your spirit that you are God's child? Have you surrendered
completely to the Gospel? belief of the truth. Do you believe
the gospel of God's grace? How did Paul know that the Thessalonians
were the elect of God? He says by their sanctification
of the Spirit and their belief of the truth. Have you surrendered
completely to the gospel? I don't know everything, Lord,
but I know that you are right. Let God be true and every man
a liar. God is right. Have you surrendered
completely to that? That what God says in His Word
is the truth? and is the principle by which
we seek to live. We fail, I know we fail all of
the time, but if God says, this is the way, walk ye in it, what
do we say? No, I'm going another way. No,
look, verse four, these are they which follow the lamb whithersoever
he goeth. Not my will, but thine be done. The words of Christ before He
went to the cross to His Father, but surely they apply to the
people of God. When His Word tells us something,
we follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth. If so, if you do that,
you are anchored on the rock of eternity. Christ is that rock
of eternity. Everything else is shifting sand,
but He is the rock. He is the rock on which to found
your dwelling for this life. That man, you know, Jesus told
the parable, didn't he, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
The foolish man built his house on the sand, and the winds blew
and the house fell flat, because it wasn't on a solid rock. But
the wise man built his house upon the rock, and the storm
came and it stood. He is that rock of eternity.
He is that unmovable rock. And in him, and on him, we are
eternally safe. The end is not in doubt. You
know, This is what chapter 14 is showing us. It's the end.
I mentioned last week Psalm 73, Asaph, a psalm of Asaph. And
he was well nigh ready to give up on the things of God and on
the things of his kingdom. he was about to throw the towel
in altogether and just stop trying to serve God, because he saw
how prosperous and happy the godless people were of his day.
But then he went into the sanctuary, it says. He went into the temple,
into the sanctuary. Then understood I their end. When we see the truth of God
and the justice of God established in the sanctuary. What does the
sanctuary represent? The gospel, gospel grace, gospel
truth. Then we understand the end of
those that reject it. We understand the end of those
who will have nothing to do with it, who are outside of it. who
to whatever degree, oh just mild indifference down to outright
opposition, it all amounts to the same, they reject the God
of truth and of scripture, they reject the Christ who alone can
save his people from their sins. And when we see that, we see
the revelation to us of the just destiny of Satan's kingdom and
its citizens. And so this chapter 14 reveals
the end of Satan's kingdom of Antichrist. We're going to have
another view of it in chapters 15 and 16 and so on, right the
way down to the end of the book. But here, in this 12, 13, and
14 section, we have the perspective of it that shows us again, it
is going to end in the triumph of the Kingdom of God, and of
the destruction of the Kingdom of Satan. This chapter reveals
the end of Satan's kingdom of Antichrist. Chapter 13 was painting
us a picture of the triumph and the supremacy of Satan's kingdom
of Antichrist, and how the people loved it, and worshipped the
beast, and worshipped the image of the beast, and fully were
on board, and they had his mark of ownership in their hands,
in the works that they did, and in the thoughts that they thought.
And the only ones that didn't worship that image of the beast
were those who, in verse 8 of chapter 13, were those whose
names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Fear not, little
flock. The tables are turning. And we
see that from verse 6 onwards. We see three angels. In verses
6 to 11, we see three angels coming. In verse 6, I saw another
angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel
to preach and to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation,
and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice,
Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment
is come, and worship him that made heaven, and the earth, and
the sea, and the fountains of waters. There's an angel preaching
the gospel. What's that? Lots of people have
said, have interpreted this as before the end, There is going
to be an angel come from heaven to preach the gospel of redemption
in Christ to this world, and they're all going to go, oh,
we didn't realize that's what you were saying all this time.
Yes, of course we'll believe, and hordes and hordes of those
that we know are stubbornly refusing to believe the truth, oh, they'll
all come flocking in. That is not what this means. What does gospel mean? What is
the gospel? Gospel, the word means good news. Well, what's the message? Fear
God and give glory to Him for judgment. Good news? It isn't
good news to those who are under the judgment, but it is good
news. It is good news to the people
of God. Oh, it's good news. It's the
gospel to the people of God. This is not a last chance warning
to a rebellious world. No, no. They've got all the chance
they need in this book that's in front of us now. If you look
in Luke chapter 16 and verse 31, it's where Jesus is telling
about the parable, as it were, of divers and Lazarus. The poor
man covered in sores and the rich man. The rich man is in
hell, and Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man
pleads, please send a messenger to my brothers to tell them to
flee from the wrath to come, to flee from the hell that they're
going to, because this is hell, this is dreadful, this is awful.
And the answer comes back to them. If they hear not Moses
and the prophets, if they don't believe this book, neither will
they be persuaded that one rose from the dead. He says, just
let one of them be raised from the dead and come back and tell
them how terrible hell is. No, they won't be persuaded that
one should rise from the dead. You think of all those stubborn
people you know who refuse to believe the gospel. Oh, if only
someone would rise from the dead. If only Jesus would walk into
the room now as he did in those days. They will not believe.
They will not believe. If they refuse to believe the
Bible, Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded
that one rose from the dead. This is the announcement here
of final judgment. This gospel is the announcement
of final judgment. It's only good news to God's
persecuted people, whose blood cries out for vengeance. Do you
remember in Revelation 6 verse 10, in the fifth of the seals,
the blood of the martyrs was crying out for vengeance, for
justice to be performed. And it's to be announced to everyone. Look, who does this angel preach
this gospel to? Verse 6, them that dwell on the
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
to everyone, they're all to hear this message that the judgment
of God is coming. We see it in Isaiah 45, for time
I will not turn there now. But it's also in Romans chapter
14 and verse 11. Romans 14 verse 11, For it is
written, As I live, said the Lord, every knee shall bow to
me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of
us shall give an account of himself to God. The time is coming when
everyone, without exception, will bow to God. It's summarized. Isaiah 45 is summarized and quoted
in Philippians 2, verse 8. Speaking of Christ, being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also has
highly exalted him, Jesus, and given him a name which is above
every name. Here it is, verse 10, that at
the name of Jesus, Most knees, no it doesn't say that, every
knee should bow. 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. Those who've said there is no
God, the fool who said in his heart there is no God, will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Those who've said and are revered for their unbelief, for their
denial of the truth of God, for they're trying to portray this
creation as saying that there is no God. Those like that will
bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father. In chapter 12 and verse 12, We
know that Satan knows that he has but a short time. There isn't
much time left. I know many people, most people,
they grasp, if they can, at the notion that everything's going
to carry on exactly like it is at the moment for at least another
5 billion years of apparent solar system stability. We're alright,
there's no end coming. They tell us that there's 5 billion
years for the sun to run its course. But do you know, however
long this goes on, it is only at the behest of Him, of God,
who upholds all things. He, it says in Hebrews chapter
1, He upholds all things by the word of the power of Christ. He upholds all things. It's for
Him. to say when things will come
to an end. He upholds it all. You cannot
rely on it going on as it always has, because it only goes on
like that because He's upholding it, and when He decrees it will
stop, it will stop. And then secondly, Secondly,
verse 8, Why is this significant? Well, If you remember Genesis chapter
11, there was Nimrod, that rebellious panther. This is the time after
the flood when sin was abounding again in the descendants from
Noah and his sons. Nimrod, that rebellious panther,
built the Tower of Babel. He tried to create a unified
world government, all of one language, and God came down and
confounded them. That was the wound that we saw
in chapter 13. The wound of the beast, it's
that wound that this worldwide government, God will not allow
it, because it's Satan's kingdom coming to its zenith. and defeating
the kingdom of God. That cannot be allowed. No, that
cannot be allowed. But Babylon also speaks of all
that is false and against the principles of God. It's where
Israel was taken captive for its idolatry, for its falsehood. It's symbolizing false and adulterous
religion. As I've said, when we get to
chapter 17, we will see most of that which parades as Christianity
revealed to be Babylon, revealed to be falsehood, revealed to
be adulterous religion. What's the characteristic of
it? They aspire to heaven without
Christ and without His blood. You look at nearly everything
in this country that calls itself Christian. You look at the Anglican
church, you look at the Methodists, you look at all of these. This
is your church in the community. Yes, but you do not have Christ
and his shed blood, do you? They don't have those things
which assure the redemption of the people of God. It's everything
that spiritually seduces men and women away from the service
of God. That's what Babylon is, whatever
it's called. There are details, as I say,
in later chapters, but Its end is pronounced now, so you can
hear it now. Children of God, you can hear
that the end of Babylon is pronounced now. Satan's kingdom of Antichrist,
this world, is ending. And all of the falsehood that's
in it, it is ending. If your hopes are pinned here,
we will see pictures in later chapters of the merchants of
this world, screaming and crying because everything they ever
trusted in and hoped for is taken away from them. You know, I've
said before, We need to learn the lesson. If we're true believers,
we need to learn the lesson that God blesses us with things. God
blesses us with the things that we need in this life. But everything,
hold it on an open hand because it's his to give and it's his
to take away. What did Job say? His wife told
him to curse God and die. And he said, the Lord giveth
and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's the attitude to live with. I'm not saying it's easy in the
flesh, but that's the attitude to live with. Paul said, I have
learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. What? When you're in comfort
and welfare, yes, but when you're also nearly drowning in the sea,
yes. When you're in the stocks in
prison, bleeding from your wounds from the stripes unjustly inflicted,
yes, there, in all situations, therewith to be content, if I
am in the hands of the living God. Then, in verses 9, 10 and
11, the third angel, a third angel followed them, saying with
a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and
receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, Can I just turn
you back to chapter 13? Can I just turn you back there,
right? It talks about worshipping the
beast. Verse four, they worshipped the
beast, saying, who is like unto the beast and who is able to
make war? The people of this world loved the beast and his
image. And they say, they that dwell
on the earth shall worship him. And then further down, the image
of the beast and He had power, verse 15, this second beast had
power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image
of the beast should both speak and cause, that as many as would
not worship the image of the beast should be killed. You see? They're all to worship, verse
12, they which dwell in the earth, to worship the first beast whose
deadly wound was healed. And He caused all, both small
and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in
their right hand or in their foreheads, the works that they
do, the thoughts that they think, the mark of the kingdom of Satan,
of the kingdom of Antichrist. And that no man might buy or
sell, save he that had that mark, or the name of the beast, or
the number of his name. Now back to verse 9. If any man
worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead
or in his hand, that's the whole world with one exception. Those
whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they're
excluded, but everybody else, everybody else, look, look what
their destiny is. In the just purposes of God,
the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture, without dilution, its full strength,
into the cup of his indignation. and he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence
of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment
ariseth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor
night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever
receiveth the mark of his name. Do you see how the tables have
completely turned from chapter 13, where it's the persecuted
little flock who can't even buy and sell and trade in this world.
and now look the way it is. It's turned round. This is hell
for all, without exception, who worship the beast and his image.
And they, whether they appear to do it positively, or whether
it's just by default, they worship the beast and his image. All
those, except those who are named in chapter 13 verse 8, whose
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. It is hell. Let me be absolutely blunt, and
as I said, this is a hard message to preach, because it's going
to touch every single one of us where it hurts most. What
is described here is hell for all the nice people we know who
reject Christ, whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. It's people we know and love,
relatives. friends, neighbours. It's those
lovely respectable people that we admire so much who reject
Christ, who do not worship the Lamb and follow Him whithersoever
He goeth. It's socially responsible people,
oh yes, they're good, they've got their heads screwed on the
right way. But all of them, all of them, have rebelled against
the rule of God and the truth of God. They're outside of Christ. They show no signs that their
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. It's a great comfort
to know that God takes His people out of this world. We're born
as children of wrath, even as others. And in the grace of God,
the time comes when he shows us the truth. And so nobody is
ever, until they die, nobody is ever beyond the reach of the
grace of God. But look, for the majority, for
those that we see all around us, they're on the broad way
that leads to destruction. What is hell? You say, what a
grim message. Yes, I know. for this world outside
of Christ. It's withdrawal of all of God's
temporal, of this time, physical blessings. Everything that is
comfortable and nice in this world. Hell is the withdrawal
of all of that. It is even the withdrawal of
the delusion of blessing of Satan's kingdom. and its realization
when time is no more must be an unending torment. There is
no purgatory. Today is the day of salvation.
Seek the Lord and ye shall find. Wait patiently. Look, there it
is in verse 12. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus. Here are the ones who are Saved
from all of this. Saved from this hell. Saved from
this condemnation. Because they're in the Lamb.
They're with the Lamb of God on Mount Zion. They're redeemed
by His precious blood. They're chosen in Him from before
the foundation of the world. So wait patiently, children of
God. Looking by faith at eternal reality. Confident that God will save
you to the uttermost out of this fallen world with its Babylonian
religion. It's a stark message, but it's
true. In the remaining verses, 13 to
the end, we see the harvest of the earth. And I'll be very quick.
First of all, in verse 15, well, let's just read the following
two verses from verse 12. Verse 13, I heard a voice from
heaven saying unto me, write, Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.
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. So, sorry, I've completely lost
my concentration. What was I going to say? There's an article in the bulletin
by Don Faulkner on verse 13. Okay, but then when we get to
verse 15, we see the harvest of God's people. 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 is 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 the 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 his 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. Wow, quite dramatic. For the people of God, they're
going to be taken out of this world. As we saw in Revelation
11 and verse 12, the people of God, the two witnesses, when
they stand on their feet having appeared dead, they're taken
up to heaven. In Matthew 24, we have it again. This is not some isolated notion. In Matthew 24 verse 31, He shall
send, Christ shall send His angels with the great sound of a trumpet,
and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other. They're taken out of this
world. The people of God, you and me
if we trust Christ, we're taken out of this world before these
judgments fall on the rest of the world. Their labors, their
struggles in Satan's world are ended. They rest in eternal bliss. That's the picture here. Their
works of faith, trust in Christ, they follow them there. That's
the works that follow them. What's the works? What work shall
we do? That we do the work of God? They asked Jesus. He said,
this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he sent. They're works of faith, trust
in Christ, follow them there. Just as we read earlier on in
the service in Matthew 25 verses 31 to 46, as Jesus is dividing
the sheep from the goats. In this world, They have lived,
it says in Galatians 2, lived by the faith of Jesus Christ. They've lived by the gospel of
God in Christ. They've lived by the faith of
Jesus Christ. The law of God has been established
by the object of their faith. Paul asks, do we make the law
void through faith? No, by faith we establish the
law. It's established by the object
of their faith. Not by their faith itself, but
by the object of their faith, which is Christ and Him crucified. Their heavenly citizenship is
eternally confirmed. Heavenly citizenship, it's eternally
confirmed. Philippians 3 verse 20, our conversation
or our citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we read earlier in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4, we read at the end of that chapter, the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout. with the voice of the
archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore,
comfort one another with these words. That's great comfort for
the people of God. That's the destiny of the people
of God. But then, for all the rest, without
exception, the harvest of the grapes, the clusters of the vine
of the earth that we read about in verses 17 to 20, It's peoples
who worship the image of the beast, who reject the rule of
Christ. Peoples who are not qualified to have been taken in the first
harvest to heaven. They're not justified by Christ's
atonement. They still bear their own sin
and rebellion. They're beyond the reach of mercy.
They rejected Christ in life, and now he leaves them to his
angels to reap. Instead of rest and glory, they
are cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God, it says
here. When God's people have been taken
out of the way, the final destruction of life on this earth will be
unleashed. However we thought this world
might end, the result is the same. It's symbolized there by
a river of blood, 1600 furlongs long, and up to the depth of
the horse bridles, a deep, a deep river. The symbology is simply
this, 1600, is 40 squared, 40 times 40. 4 is symbolical of
the world, the world of people. 10 is worldly completeness. 40 times 40 is 1600. It means all of it, with no escape,
despite frantic efforts, crying to the mountains to fall on us.
God will repay what his justice demands. Will you heed the clear
warning? Will you cry out with the Philippian
jailer? Will you save yourselves from
this fallen generation? Will you cry out with the Philippian
jailer, realizing that this dreadful hell of just judgment was his
just dessert? What must I do to be saved? And
the answer is the same to him, and to you, and to me, and to
anybody else that will hear. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. And you and all your household,
anybody, anybody who calls on the name, whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen.