The book of Revelation chapter
14. If we read this chapter, and
I want to read the whole chapter again, it's divided in three
main sections or three main divisions. And I think we'll see that as
we look at it tonight. In title, I want us to think
upon The title of my lesson tonight is Six Encouragements for the
Saints. It may not sound like there are
encouragements in here, but they are. So here in verses 1 through
verse 5 is the first main section, main division of chapter 14. Here is what it said, And I looked,
and lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with Him done a hundred
forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in
their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven
as the voice of many waters, as the voice of great thunder.
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. And no man could learn that song
but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which are redeemed
from the earth. These are they which are not
defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which
follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth. These were redeemed from
among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And
in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before
the throne of God. Now that's the first division.
Here's the second division. We'll begin tonight with this.
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting gospel to preach unto 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,
the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there
followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
that great city, because she made all nations drink of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the 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, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.
And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. They have
no rest day or night who worship the beast. and his image, and
whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience
of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus. And 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 labors, and their works do follow them. That's
the second division. Now here's the third division.
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, cried 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 power over
fire, and cried with a loud voice 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
thrushed in his sickle unto the earth, and gathered the vine
of the earth, and cast it unto 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 horses' bridles, by the space of a thousand six hundred. six by the space of a thousand
and six hundred furlongs. I want to do something just for
a minute. I think I did this before, but
I want to go over this again. The Book of Revelation, we've
said this so many times. It looks at history from several
perspectives. You'll see it from one perspective,
And then we have the end of the world comes, and then it goes
back in the very next chapter or the very next verses, and
we look at the history of this world as the New Testament history
of the church from another perspective. And then the world ends again. In chapter 5, you remember the
Lamb opening the seven seals. And in the sixth chapter, he
begins to open the seals, and every time he opened the seal,
certain judgments of God came upon this earth. And the seals
were opened, and then in that very chapter, the end of time
came, the judgment came. The great day of His wrath has
come, and who shall be able to stand? And then in chapter 8, We see the seven angels and they
have the seven trumpets. We looked at that and that was
the judgment of God upon this world from another perspective. We looked at it from a perspective
of the seals being open and the judgment of God come. Seven angels
had seven trumpets and each time one of them blew, another judgment
of God came upon this earth. And then chapter 11 and verse
15 through verse 19, when the seventh angel sounded, time was
no more. That's when the judgment of God
came upon the earth again. You can go there and read that
in chapter 11 and verse 11 through 19. And then in chapters 12 and
chapters 14 that we're looking at now, we looked at history
from another perspective. We looked at it from the perspective
of the dragon, Satan and his work and these anti-God governments
in chapter 13, the false prophet and who propped up these governments
and who propped up the false prophet, of course, was Satan.
And then in chapter 14 and verse 14 and 20 that I just read to
you, the world comes to an end again. This is the harvest. The harvest of the just and the
harvest of the unjust. And then in chapter 15, in chapter
16, we look at the history of the world from another perspective.
We have seven angels, again, seven angels, and they have these
seven bowls or seven vows of God's wrath. And each time they
poured out a vow, awful dreadful, grievous judgments came upon
this world. And then in chapter 16, verse
7 through 21, the end of the world came again. So the several
times in the scriptures we see the history, we look at history
from one's perspective, the end comes, he backs up and says,
look at it from this perspective, and then the end comes. And then
chapter 17 through verse 18, we look at history from the perspective
of wicked Babylon. Look here in chapter 17. We will
get to this in a few weeks. But look in chapter 17. This
is Babylon. And look in verse 4. And the
woman, this harlot Babylon, was arrayed in purple and scarlet
color, and decked in gold and precious stones and pearl, having
a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication. And look what she says over in
verse 7 of chapter 18. Look what she says about herself.
Chapter 18 and verse 7. How much she hath glorified herself,
and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her.
For she saith in her heart, I said a queen, and am no widow, and
shall see no sorrow." Awful presumption. And here in the 17th and 18th
chapter, we look at the history from the harlot's perspective.
But here in verse 16 and verse 17, we come to the end again.
Look what he said in verse 16. And saying, Alas, alas, that
great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet
and decked with gold and precious stones and pearl, For in one
hour so great riches is come to naught. And every shipmaster,
and all the company and ships and sailors, and as many as trade
in sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her
burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city? And
they cast dust on their heads, cried, weeping, and welling,
saying, Alas, alas, that great city wherein were made rich all
that had ships in the sea, by reason of her coastlines. For
in one hour she is made desolate." So there the end comes again. Then we go in the 19th chapter
and we look at history from the perspective of the anti-Christian
governments and that false prophet. And look here, look in chapter
19 and look in verse 19. Look at their purpose, what they
were purposing to do. We already looked at it a little
bit week before last, but here's the purpose of the anti-Christian
government in verse 19. And I saw the beast, that's the
anti-Christian government, and the kings of the earth and their
armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the
horse and against his army. And the beast was taken, and
with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him,
with which they deceived them that had received the mark of
the beast, and them which worshipped his image. These both were cast
alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. And the
remnant was slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse,
which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls
were filled with their flesh." So there's the end again. from
the perspective of these two beasts that we've been studying.
And then, of course, chapter 20, we see who's behind all of
this. Who's behind this chaos? Who's
behind these anti-Christian governments? Who's behind the false prophet?
Well, Satan is. That old dragon. And now, in
chapter 20, he's loosed out of his prison for a season. He that's
been propping up this anti-Christian government, supporting the false
prophet. And now here in verse 20, we're
told that he gathers humanity together, one last stand to oppose
God, to oppose Christ and his church. And what happens to him? Fire comes down from heaven and
devours those people. And Satan is cast into the lake
of fire where the beast and the false prophet are. And then the
end comes again, the last and final judgment. When God shows
His face and the heavens flee away from the face of Him that
sits on the throne, and then the world is judged. So we see
what's happening in here. We're just looking at the history
of this world, the New Testament history, mainly how it's playing
out from one perspective. Then we go right back and look
at it from another perspective. Tonight I want to give you six
encouragements in our text if you're here and you're a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think this is especially
going to come into play the closer we get to the end of time. And
I've said before, these things have been taking place. You've
always had your anti-Christian governments. You've always had
your false prophets and your false religion. But these things
are going to get really, really worse in the last days. And we
haven't seen it yet. And I'm sure that a lot more
will be seen and known as we get closer to the end of time.
And I've always said this ever since I've been trying to study
the book of Revelation. And I don't mean to discourage
anybody when I say this, but there is coming troublesome times
to this world, but especially the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's called the time of Jacob's trouble. And I think
these six things here that encourages us is really going to be encouraging
to the saints that's going to be in this world as we get closer
to the end of time. But let's look at these six encouragements.
The first one is found here in verse 6 and verse 7. Look back in chapter 14 in verse
6 and 7. John sees this angel and he's
flying in the midst of heaven. He is speaking with a loud voice.
It is to all the earth. It is to every nation, kindred,
tongue, and people. And here is what He said in verse
7. He said, Will the loud voice
fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment
is come, and worship Him that made heaven, the earth, the sea,
and the fountains of water. Now remember this. As we study
this, I have to remind myself over and over again, this is
not to be taken literally. This is symbolic. Every time
I get stuck up studying these verses, I get thinking to myself,
well, you're looking at it literally. And I was looking at this angel
literally flying, literally through the heavens, and he's preaching
the gospel to everybody and everybody can hear him. Then I have to
imagine that really makes no common sense. If the Lord said
it and it's true, all right, but I don't think that's the
meaning of it. When you see the word gospel in the scriptures,
it's not always the gospel of redeeming grace. It's not always
the gospel that Paul said, I preach the gospel that I received from
the Lord, that Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose
again according to the scripture. Sometimes when you see the word
gospel, it just means good news. The gospel itself is good news,
but in other places it just means good news. And to find out what
the good news is, you have to look at the text. And what does
the text say? Well, here is the good news.
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 seas and the fountains of water. Now, what's encouragement
about this? When we look at it in the context,
here's what's encouraging about it. What's been going on? What
have we been studying about in chapters 13? About the beast. These two beasts. And this beast
comes up out of the sea and he's a magnificent beast. And people
look at him and they see all of his heads and his horns and
his crowns and they marvel at him. They glory over him. And then somebody says, worship
the beast. They worship this beast and give
glory to him and say, who's like this beast? Who's able to make
war with this beast? Then you have this second beast
rise up, this false prophet, and he starts saying, worship
the beast. Who's able to be compared with
the beast, give glory to the beast? So in the midst of all
of this, when the world is worshiping this beast, here this angel comes
flying through heaven. And here is what he said, Worship
God. Worship God. Worship Him only
who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of
water. Who else is worthy to be worshipped,
brothers and sisters? And as we get closer to the last
day, well, look what is going on around us now. And people
are worshiping everything and giving honor to God's enemies
and worshiping God's enemies. And here we have this angel and
he puts everything in perspective. He brings everything back to
where it should be. And he tells us, this may not
be encouraging to the world, but it's encouraging to you.
Worship God. Worship your triune creator. Don't worship God's enemy. Don't
worship government. Don't worship this world. Don't
worship man. Worship God. Share, old Israel. The Lord your God is one God,
and you shall love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And listen, brothers and sisters,
God will never give up that right. We're His creatures. This world
belongs to Him. Everybody in this world belongs
to Him. We don't belong to Satan. He's
a usher. He owns nothing. He has nothing.
And to demand that men worship Him is nothing but idolatry. And here we have in the midst
of this world that's worshiping government and they're worshiping
false religion. And here this angel says, here
is who you must worship. Worship God. Worship the Lord
Jesus Christ. Doesn't that encourage you? God
will never change His demands, will He? He'll never liquish
the right to be worshipped in Him only. That was encouraging
to me as I read that, as you see the world wandering after
the beast and wandering after the dragon and giving glory to
Him. And here this angel says, No. True worship belongs to the Creator
of heaven and earth. Now, we've been leaning towards
this evolution deal for a long, long time. And I'm sorry to say
there are some professing Christians who believe in evolution. I don't
know how they reconcile that with the Bible, but they're professing
Christian. But do you notice as you read
through the scriptures that our worship is so often directed
not only to our redeeming Lord, but to our Creator? How can you
worship God if you don't worship Him as the faithful Creator that
He is? I've done tucking this stand.
Here's the stand that I take. I had a lady just the other day
to challenge me on this, but I don't care. Here's the stand
I take. I can't explain everything about it, but here's my stand.
I believe in six literal days God created the heavens and the
earth and everything in it. You say, Bruce, that would be
a miracle. Absolutely, that would be a miracle. What kind of power
would it take to do that? Absolutely, that's what we're
saying. He's a great triune creator. And since he did that, and since
he made us and not we ourselves, we're not only obligated, but
we're blessed to worship our creator. What encouragement that
is. Let the world go after the beast.
Let them worship false religion or whoever they please. We'll
worship the Lord. As for me and my house, we'll
worship the Lord and we'll serve the Lord. That's the first thing.
The second thing is found here in verse 8, and you may not see
when you first look at this where this would be an encouragement,
but there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is
fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of
the wrath of her fornication. This is the first time we see
Babylon mentioned in the book of Revelation. And some wonder
who this is. Some say, well, it's Catholicism.
Well, no doubt it's Catholicism, but I think that's much too narrow
just to say this Babylon is Catholicism. And others say it's all false
religion. I still think that's too narrow.
I like William Hendrickson when he gave the definition of Babylon,
and here's what he said, Babylon is this lost an unregenerate
world as the center of seduction. Babylon is this lost, unregenerate
world that appeals to the masses of people. It's the whole course of this
world that's gone whoring after Satan, sin, and lust. Love not the world, nor the things
that are in the world. For all that's in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. What makes this
heart so appealing? Lust. Lust of the eye. Lust of the flesh. The pride
of life. Love not the world, the things
that are in the world, whosoever Loveth the world, the love of
the Father is not in him. And whosoever will be a friend
of this world, listen to this, he's the enemy of God. The friendship
of this world is the enemy of God. Now, who is Babylon? We'll
deal with it, hopefully, in the 17th chapter. But I sort of lean
that it is this unregenerate world, including Catholicism,
including false religion, including every unregenerate person. And
the course of this world, the principle of this world, the
ungodly world, has not served Christ and His church well, have
they? Remember in the sixth chapter
when those were underneath the altar and they'd been killed
for their faith in Christ? And they said, Lord, how long
will it be before you avenge our blood upon those who dwell
upon this earth? They were murdered for the cause
of Christ. And in heaven they were crying
for vengeance. They couldn't revenge themselves,
but in heaven under the altar they were asking the Lord to
revenge them. You think of men like John Husk
that they kept in prison and starved him half to death simply
because he was a preacher of the gospel. You think of William
Tyndale. They hounded that man. until
finally they captured him and burned him at the stake simply
for translating the scriptures out of Greek and Hebrew into
English. This world has not served the
saints, the church, very well. And it's been Babylon living
after its lust and hating Christ and the church. Well, here Babylon
is fallen. It's fallen. If you're here tonight
and you're outside Jesus Christ, you're part of this Babylon.
And Babylon's going to fall. It's going to fall. It's coming
down, isn't it? The course of this world, this
world ain't going to stand like it has been. Just a few more
rolling stones and God's going to judge this harlot. And she's
going to fall. She will fall. Christ will avenge
His saints. of Babylon. This should be a
warning to everybody that's outside the Lord Jesus Christ, separated
from Christ. Come out from among her, the
Bible says, and touch not the unclean thing. Here's the third
encouragement found here in verses 9 through verse 11. And that's the judgment on those
that worship and serve the beast. See that? And the third angel
followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the
beast in his image, receive his mark in their foreheads and in
their hands, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture unto the cup of his indignation,
and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels and the presence of the Lamb. I'm telling you,
it's serious. Devil worship, government worship,
any kind of worship but the true worship of God is dangerous. And this world wants to know
what the mark of the beast is? I really don't know. We've done
looked at that. But I know this, brothers and sisters, anytime
we worship anything but our Creator and Redeemer, it's an awful sin. And one of the most terrible
judgments that you can find in all the Word of God is directed
at those who worship the beast and receive his mark in their
forehead. We don't read about language like this hardly in
any other places in the scripture. If any man, no matter who he
is, received the mark of the beast, and the number of his
name, the same person shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture unto the cup of his indignation."
What a way to describe the wrath of God coming upon a person who
worships the beast. There's a cup, and in that cup
wine is in there. But it's the wine of God's wrath.
His anger, His indignation, and those who worship the beast are
going to be made to drink that cup. We've read about that cup
before, haven't we? Remember when the Lord Jesus
was in the Garden of Gethsemane on that cold night? And He said,
Father, if you will, let this cup pass from Me? Well, here's
that cup. Here's one of the cups that He
was anticipating drinking of. And it made the Son of God tremble.
If it made the Son of God sweat drops of blood on a cold night,
how can mere mortals face such judgment? Well, here's a warning
to this world. When the beast sets up his kingdom
and they go worshiping him and glorying in him, well, you better
be careful because here's the judgment upon those that glory
in the beast and worship the beast and receive his mark. That's encouraging to me. It
really is encouraging. You say, Bruce, people are going
to be damned. That's encouraging to me. The Lord Jesus Christ
is going to be glorified either by grace or by justice. And it'll be a just judgment. Here's the fourth thing that
encourages me in verse 12. I love this passage. I don't
know how many times I've preached out of this. Here is the patience
of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus. Encouragement to be patient and
to follow the Lord in His Word and to live by faith. You think our Lord knows what's
coming? Do you think He knows that trouble is coming? I'm telling
you, it's difficult now, isn't it? How much more difficult as
we approach the end. And the Lord knows that. That
our souls are going to be tried. So He tells us here, be patient. In your patience possess your
soul. Stay in My Word. Follow Me as
I am revealed in My Word and live by faith upon Me. Don't be looking around. Don't
look at yourself. Look out of yourself to Me and
live by faith. The life I now live, I live by
faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Wait
on the Lord and keep His way. Obey His commandments. Walk after
the rule of His Word. And He shall exalt thee to inherit
the man. And when the wicked are cut off,
you'll see it. Say not, thou, I will recompense
evil. But wait on the Lord, and He
shall save thee. Well, we have to exercise patience,
don't we? One of the things that I did now for over 50 years,
more than anything else, I've spent a lot of time just waiting.
And you have too, haven't you? I've talked to some of you how
you've cried out to the Lord. And you've cried out and you've
had to wait on Him. But brothers and sisters, He'll
show up just in time. Be patient. Read His Word. Walk by it. Don't leave His way. Don't you dare leave His way.
Don't say, I'm waiting on the Lord and going your own way.
For God's sake, don't do that. But trust in the Lord with all
your heart. Wait on Him and look to Him and live by faith upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's encouraging, isn't it?
Here's the fifth thing that's found here in verse 13. I don't
know how many times I've preached on this either. I heard a voice
from heaven saying, Write, blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest
from their labors." The world looks on the sickness and death
as the greatest curse there could be. Boy, I've got cancer. Oh,
my soul, I'm cursed. Oh, what am I going to do now?
A saint's not that way. When a saint gets sick, And the
doctor shakes his head, nothing else we can do. And he lays his
head on his pillow and his body begins to swivel up. What a blessing. What a blessing. We've had spouses, we've had
friends, we've had loved ones that's died and our hearts have
been broken. But what a blessing for them.
You say, Bruce, a blessing to die? That's what the Holy Spirit
said. I'm not going to question Him
or you. Paul said, I have this desire to depart. You want to
die, Paul? I do. Why do you want to die? I want to go be with Christ.
I want to see His glory. I want to bow and worship Him
that I've never been able to do. I want to rest. What a blessing. And I'm telling you, as it gets
closer, And times get trying, this verse of Scripture is going
to be wonderful. Because you and I are going to
be saying, Lord, it's trying down here. Lord, it's getting
very difficult. Would you please, would you be
pleased to take me to be with Yourself? What a blessing that
is. I love that, where this is right here, in this context. Verses 14 and verse 20, here's
the sixth thing that's encouragement to us. And he talks about the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, sitting upon this cloud,
and he's got this sharp sickle in his hand. And an angel tells
him that it's time for him to reap. He calls Himself the Son
of Man because He's the Son of Mary. He took our humanity to
Himself. And in that humanity, a real
soul, a real body and a real spirit, He suffered for His people. He bore their shame. He bore
their load for them. And you know something, brothers
and sisters, He'll be rewarded for that. There's no way Jesus
Christ is going to suffer and die without being rewarded for
that. And here's His reward. Everyone
for whom He died will be in heaven with Him. They'll be there. Their souls will be there. Their
spirits will be there. And their glorified bodies will
be with Him in the end. That's what we see here in the
first part of this when this angel comes out. and said, It's
time, Lord Jesus, for you to reap. And He puts in His sickle
and He gathers the fruit of the earth. And the second part of this,
when the wicked are gathered, He sends an angel to do it. But
when His sheep are gathered, when His wheat are gathered into
His barns, He doesn't even trust an angel to do it. He does it
Himself. The Lord is coming Himself, isn't
He? He's not going to send and fetch
us. He's going to come himself and get us himself. The Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel. And he that sat on the cloud,
verse 16, thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was
reaped. Yeah, he's going to have those
he died for. They're his. He'll have them with him. But that's not all the reaping
is it? The wrath of God is coming on the wicked too. In verse 18,
And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over
fire. And he cried with a loud cry
to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sickle,
thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the bounty 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 verse 20 gives us this symbol
of this valley. Two hundred square miles. And the blood has been gushed
out till it has come up to the horse's bridle. That's the way
the wrath of God is described. at the last day, when the wicked
are judged. A sea, a lake of blood. I want you to turn to a scripture
with me, I think probably that explains this. And it's one of
the best commentaries on this. Look in Matthew's Gospel, Chapter
3. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 3.
This is where John the Baptist was preaching. And there came
to his ministry Pharisees and Sadducees. And look in verse
7, Matthew chapter 3, and look in verse 7. And when he saw many,
Matthew chapter 3 and verse 7, when John the Baptist saw many
of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said
unto them, O generation of vipers, who have warned you to flee from
the wrath to come, bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. And think not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. And now
also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees already there. Therefore every tree which bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, But he that
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy
to loose. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire." Now look at this. "...whose fan is
in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his floor." Now when they
wintered wheat, they gathered it, they took it up on a high
place where the wind was blowing. And they'd lay it down on the
floor. They'd take a scoop or a shovel and throw it up and
let the wind blow through it. And it would separate the husk
from the wheat. And that's what he's talking
about here. His fan. Sometimes they would fan them.
They had big fans to create wind. Whose fan is in his hand, and
he will thoroughly purge his floor. Now, this floor is the
world of humanity. And it's his. It's all belonged
to Christ. And look what He'll do in the
last day. He will gather His wheat unto the garner, His barn,
unto heaven. And He will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire. That's what we're studying on
in our text, isn't it? The Lord Jesus has His wheat,
and it's called His wheat. Why is it called His wheat? He
planted it. He germinated it. He watered
it. He cultivated it. He fertilized
it. And He harvested it. He called
you when you were dead in sin. He gave you His life. He put
you in His kingdom. You're His. And He'll have you
in heaven someday, brothers and sisters. Then the husk, the chaff, He's
going to blow it away. Where to? Into unquenchable fire. Now this is encouraging to me.
If you're here and you belong to Christ and He's planted you,
you're His, He'll separate you from this wicked world when the
time comes. And He'll take you up to heaven
to be with Him forever. And when the wicked are destroyed,
you'll see it. You'll see it. But you won't
be a partaker of it. That's encouraging, isn't it?
One more passage of Scripture over in Isaiah's Gospel, chapter
26 and verse 20 and 21. We'll look at this and we'll
close. Isaiah chapter 26. I can almost
hear the Lord Jesus saying that. this passage to us now. And he'll
be whispering it to his people when the trouble really comes.
Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 20. Come, my people. That's the message
of the gospel, isn't it? He's always saying that to us,
isn't he? Come unto me, all ye that labor, and I'll give you
rest. Come, my people. He has a people. He's redeemed
them. He's died for them. He lives
to make intercession for them. Come, my people. Enter unto thy
chambers." I think that's just a good way of saying, enter unto
me. Put on Christ. Enter into my purpose, my love,
my grace, my mercy, my power. Enter into your chambers and
shut thy door about thee. Hide thyself, as it were, for
just a little moment until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose
her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." Oh, brothers
and sisters, enter into Christ. Put on Christ. Realize your position,
your safety in the Lord Jesus Christ. And rest in Him. No matter
what's going on around you. No matter who's in the White
House. No matter where a war is about to break out. Look to
Christ. Enter into Him. And rest there
in Him. Lord, thank You. Blessed Savior,
thank You for this Word. Thank You for the encouragement
of these Scriptures. Even Your judgment. We praise
You even for Your wrath. Because it's just. It's right.
And we praise You because You've delivered us from it. Thank You
for Your Word. Please bless it to the hearts
of these dear saints tonight. Forgive me in my utter weakness. But Lord, the Word is Yours. It doesn't depend upon us. It's
Your Word. And it will never return into
Your void. Bless it as You're pleased to bless it. We worship
You tonight. We adore You. We glory in you. We give all glory to you. Bless
these dear saints as they travel tonight and as they go home.
Bless them in their homes. Bless them in their needs. Meet
their needs in their families and their children, their grandchildren,
in their bodies and in their souls. Lord, be pleased to bless
them. For Christ's sake, we ask these
things. Amen.