Our study today, our message
is taken from Revelation 14, starting at verse 14. And I looked,
and behold, a white cloud. And upon the cloud one sat. Now that would be a pretty strange
sight to see one likened to the Son of Man sitting on a cloud.
Likened to the Son of Man, of course, this is the picture and
vision of the glorified God-man mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. He had on his head a crown, a
golden crown. It's the crown of victory. He
had in his hand this sharp, sharp thrushing sickle, this sharp
harvesting sickle. Now, as I pointed out earlier,
if you look up to the top of the page, if you have the Cambridge
Bible, that most of us are using. It says, the harvest of the world. And certainly that's what we
see here. The gathering of God's elect and the gathering of those
greats of wrath. I'm taking the title or the message
from what is said in verse 14. The Son of Man with a sharp sickle. Talking about the God-Man Mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
again, there will be a great separation among all people of
this earth, between the sheep and the goats, between the weak
and the terrors, between the elect of God and the reprobate
who knows not God. The Lord will harvest his elect
into his eternal kingdom of grace. They are called vessels of mercy,
afore prepared unto glory. We're going to study in 2 Timothy
2, the foundation of God standing sure, having this seal. The Lord
knoweth them that are His. So there are vessels of mercy
for prepared unto glory, ordained, appointed unto glory. And there
are also, there'll be a gathering by the power of God, by the will
of God, a harvest of the grapes fully ripe, known as the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction. Vessels of wrath that are cast
into the eternal winepress of God's wrath. and righteous judgment. No wonder Top Lady wrote, save
me from that wrath to come. Now let me show you that in the
Scripture where that's taken from. If you turn back to the
book of Romans, the book of Romans chapter 9. The book of Romans
chapter 9 sets forth the sovereignty of God in salvation. That is,
God will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and upon
whom He will He will harden. He makes one vessel. Notice,
if you will, Romans chapter 9, verse 15. Romans 9, 15. He says
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. I'll love whom
I will. That's what God said. So then it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but God that shows mercy. For
the scripture saith of Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens. That will say then unto me, why
doth he yet thine fault? For who hath resisted his will?
But nay, O man, verse 20, Romans 9, who art thou that replyeth
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hath he made me thus? Had not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God willing to show his
wrath and make his power known, endured with much long-suffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, made up to destruction,
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels
of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory." So we can see there's
vessels of mercy. vessels of wrath fitted to destruction."
Now, this is what we're going to see here in these verses in
Revelation 14, verses 14 down through verse 20. We ended our
study last week with the precious and exceeding great promise of
the gospel that those who die in faith, those who die in Christ,
who have received the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, shall forever
be with Him and live with Him. You remember verse 13? Revelation
14, I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed
are they which die in the Lord. From henceforth, yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works
do follow them. Those who die believing the gospel
and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ are blessed now and forever. and ever and ever. Believers
are blessed now and will be forever blessed with all spiritual blessing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what salvation is, to
win Christ and to be found in Him because He is all our salvation. Now, I had the question earlier
in the Bible study, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back,
where do you want to be found? Where do you want to be found
when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back? There's only one right
answer. I want to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I want to be found in Him who
was all our salvation. Now one of the many key essentials
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is not only His first
coming, but His second coming. The coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ to receive us unto Himself. Now hold your place there. Remember
all the way back in chapter 1 where we started. Turn over there.
Let's remind ourselves of this word here in Revelation chapter
1. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
who loved us and washed us from our sin. Revelation 1, in His
own blood, He's made us kings and priests unto our God. Let
His Father to Him be glory forever and ever. Dominion and power,
amen. Behold, He cometh. You see that?
He cometh. That means He's on His way. And
every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him,
and all kingdoms of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even
so, amen. I am Alpha, Omega, the beginning
and the ending sayeth the Lord, which is, which was, and which
is to come. He said, I am the Almighty. Now
that's how it begins. Now turn to Revelation 22, the
last chapter. Revelation 22, and this is how
the book ends. He's coming back. Behold, the
Lord cometh. Even so, Lord Jesus, come. Revelation
22, verse 20. He which testifieth these things
saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus
Christ." Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back soon. Now, I don't
know the hour of His coming. No man knows the hour of His
coming. When Paul writes to those in Thessalonica, he said, The
time and the hour and the place, you don't need to know. We do
know this. He said, Be ye ready. Also, for
the Son of Man cometh in the hour when you think not. The
Lord Jesus Christ comes to gather His wheat into His garner, into
His barn. This is what is said in Matthew
chapter 3. The fan of the gospel is in His
hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor. He'll gather
His wheat into the garner, into His barn. that place of safety,
but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. That is the
holy judgment of God. The Lord also, when He comes
back, will judge unbelievers. He will separate the sheep from
the goats and the tares from the wheat. That is His business. In the parable of the tares,
he said, don't go out and gather up the tares, or you'll mess
up the wheat. Just leave them alone, and when I come back,
I'll sort everything out. Now turn to Matthew 25. This
is a familiar scripture to most of you. Matthew 25, when the
Son of Man come, verse 31. Matthew 25, when the Son of Man
shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him,
Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him
shall be gathered all nations, and shall be separated them one
from another, as the shepherd divided his sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats
on the left. Now who does the separating?
God does. Then shall the king say to them
on his right hand, come ye blessed to my father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Now look at verse
41. Matthew 25, 41. Then shall he
also say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Verse 46. Matthew 25, these shall
go away to everlasting punishment, but the righteous unto eternal
life. There is a time of separation coming by God Almighty in His
eternal purpose. Now, in these verses today, we
see the gathering out of His wheat, His elect, verse 14 down
to verse 16. And then we see in verse 17 down
to verse 20, the execution of judgment upon the wicked, the
grapes of wrath upon the world of unbelievers to cast them into
the winepress of God's wrath forever and ever. Now, this is
just so. This is just true. This is what
the Word of God reveals. Thirteen times I've counted in
the book of the Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, we
read about His wrath, His wrath, His judgment. His wrath is holy
and it's just. But we never read about the wrath
of God leading men to repentance. It's always the goodness of God
that leads men to repentance. Now, a lot of preachers make
a big, big mistake. They try to preach fire and brimstone
and hell and damnation. for a motive or an encouragement
to have sinners believe. That's not the right thing to
do. It's the goodness of God, the
gospel of God that leads us and brings us to repentance. It's
not the wrath of God. Now, we preach wrath and judgment
and condemnation. Look over here in Revelation
9. You remember from these verses
in Revelation 9, Verse 19, their power was in their mouth and
in their tails, were like a serpent, and they had heads which with
them they do hurt. Revelation 9 verse 20, And the
rest of men which were not killed by these plagues repented not
of the works of their hand, that they should not worship devils,
idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, which neither can see,
nor hear, nor walk. They repented not. It was the
judgment of God that fell upon them, and they repented not. Neither repented they of their
murder, their sorceries, nor their fornication, nor their
theft. So, it's not the wrath of God that drives sinners to
Christ, it's His goodness that draws us unto Himself. Now, we don't dismiss the wrath
of God, it's true. Believers resting in the Lord
Jesus Christ have been delivered from the wrath to come, because
God hath not appointed us to wrath, but rather to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that from our Bible
study in 1 Thessalonians 5, 19? He delivered us from the wrath
to come. There is therefore in Christ
no condemnation to those who are in Him. You see, and the
reason being, our Lord Jesus Christ took to Himself our sin. He bears the winepress of the
wrath of God alone. Remember from our study in Isaiah
63? The Lord Jesus Christ took our
sin in His own body on the tree, and endured the wrath of God
for our sin. Therefore, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, there is therefore now no judgment, no condemnation
to those who are in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ bear already
the winepress of the wrath of God for us. It says that in Isaiah
63. In Christ, who suffered once
for our sin, the just for the unjust, He brings us unto God. Now, having said all that, look
at verse 14. Notice who is coming back for
us. Coming back to harvest His sheep. It's the Lord Himself. It's the
Lord Himself who is coming back. John says in verse 14, And I
looked, and behold, a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat, likened
to the Son of Man." Now, this Son of Man here is the exalted
God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, having
on His head a golden crown, sitting on the throne, enthroned and
crowned, having all power and authority, and He had an instrument
in His hand, a sharp sickle to harvest His wheat. And another
angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him
that sat on the cloud, thrust in a sickle and reaped, for the
time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth
is ripe. And that word ripe, notice the
marginal reference is dried, which also means the harvest
is ready. Now those old farmers out in
Kansas, they wouldn't dare think of harvesting the wheat until
it's ready, would they? They wouldn't do that. They wouldn't
harvest, I was watching one of those big corn harvesters that
harvests 14 rows of corn at one time, but they wouldn't go out
and harvest that corn until it's ready, until it's dried, and
then they put in the sickle and harvest The crop. And that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ does. And notice He's the Son of Man.
He's the Son of Man. When the Lord Jesus Christ, who
accomplished our salvation as the God-Man Mediator, the resurrected,
glorified Lord Jesus Christ entered into heaven as the Son of Man.
He ascended to glory as the glorified God-man mediator, and He's coming
back again as the Son of Man, who is God the Son, who is God
over all, blessed forever. Remember those two men, those
two angels that appeared to the apostles when the Lord ascended
to glory, recorded in Acts chapter 1? And the two angels said to
the apostles, You men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall
so come in like manner as you've seen Him go back to heaven."
He's coming back. Turn to John chapter 14. Let
me remind you of this precious promise our Lord gives us. The
Lord Jesus Christ came, born of a woman, born under the law
as a real man. He lived as a man, died as a
man, ascended to glory having been risen from the dead, having
put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And He ascended to
glory as the God-man mediator. And our Lord reminds us here
in John 14 verse 1, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many
mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again, I will come again, and I will receive
you to myself that where I am, there you may be also." Now what
a precious promise. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of Man, the Son of God, God over all, blessed forever, He's coming
back to purchase us. He purchased us with His own
blood, and He's going to reap the fruit of His redeeming blood. this God-named Mediator, is sitting
on a white cloud. You see that? A white cloud,
symbolic of His throne, white, holy, and just. His throne is
above all, for Christ is highly exalted. He is on His throne
of absolute dominion and absolute sovereignty. The Lord God Almighty,
He reigns forever. I looked up in the book of Revelation,
The word throne is given 31 times. 31 times we'll see the Lamb upon
His throne. Turn back to Revelation chapter
4. Let me just remind you of one of them. The Son of Man sitting
on this cloud, symbolic of His throne. In Revelation chapter
4 verse 1, After this I looked, And behold, a door was opened
in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were
a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither. I will show thee things which
must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the
Spirit. And behold, a throne was set
in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to
look upon like a jasper, and a sardine stone, and there was
a rainbow around about it thrown in a sight like unto an emerald.
Again is a picture symbolic of his sovereign, glorious, eternal
throne of majesty and absolute dominion, for he reigned forever
and ever as our great king. His throne is without blemish. without sin, it's the throne
of exact and strict justice, which will be the only standard
of judgment the Lord Jesus Christ has appointed today, in which
He will judge the world by that man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And on His head, in verse 14,
the Son of Man sitting upon this white cloud, the white cloud
of His holiness, the cloud of His throne, likened to the Son
of Man, having on His head a golden crown. a golden crown, symbolic
or emblem of his victories he's won for us. An emblem. An emblem means a thing serving
as a symbol or representation of a particular thing. So we
have this symbolic language all through the book of Revelation.
The golden crown, symbolic of His victories, He's won for us.
Now remember I told you in the beginning, one of the key verses
in Revelation is chapter 6 verse 2, where it says, Our Lord Jesus
Christ, He goes forth conquering and to conquer. He's never lost
a battle. He conquers every enemy. He has spoiled principalities
and powers. He's gained the victory over
all things. Christ is our conquering King.
He's our victorious King. We win because He wins. Believers
in Him are more than conquerors to Him that loved us. Romans
8 verse 37. He went forth conquering and
to conquer. He spoiled principalities and
powers. He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them himself." This is the one who's coming
back. He's not weak and anemic. He's the Almighty God, the Son
of Man, the God-Man, the Advocate, the Mediator, the Intercessor.
He sits on the throne of His glory. He has the crown of victory.
And in His hand, His hand is the Almighty hand of God. His
hand is quick and powerful. And in His hand is this sharp
instrument to reap the harvest. Almighty hand, the sharp sickle
to reap the wheat. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lord of the harvest. His harvest will be exact, swift,
sure and powerful. It will harvest every one of
God's elect. No one will be left behind. He'll
gather all of his sheep into his barn. He'll garner and gather
all the wheat into His storehouse. He will bring us home unto glory. He's called the captain of our
salvation who brings many sons unto glory. He cannot fail. Not one of God's sheep for whom
the Lord Jesus Christ died can perish. He saved them with His
blood and He's going to take them home and enjoy them forever. Not one sheep of Christ will
be missing in that day. Now, in verse 15 and 16, notice
carefully, it's the Lord Himself that gathers out His elect. Then
He will deal with those vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Now, the believer in Christ anticipates
His coming with joy. It's not a dreadful thing. Turn,
if you will, to 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4. The second coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ is something we look forward to. We look forward
to the blessed hope and glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, look
at verse 16. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16. The Lord himself shall descend
from heaven. Who's coming back? The Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an
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. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. Now that's comforting, is it
not? The Lord's coming back to gather us unto Himself. After
the Lord comes again and gathers us unto Himself, then He'll deal
with those who were not found in Christ. Notice the time of
His coming, it says there in verse 15, "...thrust in the sickle
and reap." Well, the time has come. that time to create all
of God from eternity, the time has come for thee to reap the
harvest, for the harvest is ripe, the harvest is ready. When the
time comes, the Lord will come back for His church. The Lord, by His grace alone,
has made us ripe and ready for heaven, ripe for His presence. He's able to save us and keep
us and present us He makes us ready by His righteousness being
imputed to us. He makes us ready by purging
away our sin. He makes us ready and fit for
His presence. I'm unfit in myself, but in Christ
He presents us holy, unblameable, unreprovable in His sight before
His throne. Good news, is it not? And he that sat on the throne,
verse 16, thrust in the sickle on the earth, and the earth was
reaped. Now there is the Lord gathering
out His elect. Now the second part of this is
the harvest of the wicked. Those without Christ, those with
no Savior, no Righteousness, no Redeemer, they're without
the city. That is, they're not in Christ.
Now let's read verse 17 through verse 20, and I'll come back
and make a brief comment. Another angel came out of the
temple, which is in heaven, the presence of God, the habitation
of God, he also having a sharp sickle, another angel. Remember
it said he'll send forth his angels to reap the harvest? And
another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire. Now, whenever we read about fire
in Scripture, it's usually a symbol of judgment, the vengeance of
our God. Remember, our God is called a
consuming fire, which had power over fire. Now, given him power
by God, which cried, they came from the altar, the altar of
sacrifice, the altar of sacrifice, and that's Christ our sacrifice,
who had power over judgment, And cried with a loud cry to
him that had the sharpsicle, saying, thrust in the sharpsicle,
and gather the cluster of the vine of the earth, for her grapes
are fully ripe. Now that's when. the person who
is in the business of a vineyard, and when he's ready to make wine,
he doesn't harvest the grapes before they're ripe, but when
they are ripe, he goes out there and takes his sharp instrument
and cuts them down, and then what does he do? He puts them
in the wine press and presses out that bloody juice. And the angel, verse 19, thrusting
his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth
and cast it into the great winepress of the judgment of God, of the
wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden
without the city, without the city, trodden under the wrath
of God, outside of safety outside of Christ, without the city,
and the blood came out of the winepress, even to the horse
bridle. Again, this is symbolic language,
showing you something of the severe judgment and wrath of
Almighty God. The horse is bridled by the space
of 1,600 furlongs, and if my math is correct, about 200 miles. Again, this is symbolic language
representing an emblem of the terrible judgment and wrath of
God. Is it real? Is heaven real? Is
glory real? Absolutely. Is the wrath of God
also real? Is judgment also real? Absolutely. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life. But what? The wrath of God. The wrath of God abides on them. After the Lord has gathered His
elect, He will send forth His holy angels to gather up all
unbelievers that ever lived and destroy them forever in the winepress
of God's holy, just wrath. They're getting exactly what
they wanted. They're getting exactly what
they deserve. And that's what all of us deserve.
We all deserve the wrath of God, the judgment of God. For the
wages of sin is death. Thank God He has mercy on whom
He will. These vessels fitted to destruction. They despised the Lord Jesus
Christ in their life. They rejected the only way of
salvation. They persisted in their rebellion
against God. Now there's nothing left for
them but the pure, holy wrath and judgment of God. The white,
hot wrath of God. They're cast into the winepress
of the judgment of God forever and ever and ever. No mercy,
but holy judgment. No grace, but holy judgment. No love, but holy judgment. Nothing but endless torment,
misery, and banishment from God Almighty. Turn over here to 2
Thessalonians this time. Can you find 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1? 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 7. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God, that love not God, that obey not the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of his glory. from the glory
of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints,
and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony
among you was believed in that day." So there is that salvation
that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those without the city, without
the Lord Jesus Christ, no salvation, no mercy, nothing but judgment,
nothing but judgment, judgment, eternal judgment. You see, there
will be a resurrection on the life of the just, those who are
justified freely by His grace, and there will be a resurrection
of the unjust as well. Let's turn and read that. It's
found over in Matthew chapter 5. There will be a resurrection
unto life, and there will be a resurrection unto eternal condemnation. I told you to turn to John chapter
5. I hope that's what I said. John
chapter 5. John chapter 5. Verse 25, I say unto you, the
hour is coming, now is, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father
hath life in Himself, John 5, 26, so hath He given to the Son to
have life in Himself. For as the Father hath life in
Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.
and had given him authority to execute judgment because he also
was the son of man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice."
Now you think how many years people have been dead. I mean
there's billions and billions of people who have been dead
for thousands and thousands of years and they're nothing but
a speck of dust. And God's going to raise every
one of them from the dead. And they shall come forth, they
that have done good, unto the resurrection of life." Now, it's
not what you think it is there. It's not based upon your goodness,
your morality. Those that have done good are
those who are found in Christ. "...unto the resurrection of
life, and they that have done evil." And there's nothing more
evil than to disbelieve God and to not believe the gospel unto
them that have done evil unto the resurrection of what? Not
life. Damnation. Damnation. Eternal condemnation. In the Lord Jesus Christ, with
Him there is endless hope. Right? What begins in grace will
end in glory. Blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord. But without Him, there is hopeless
end. Did you get that? In the Lord
Jesus Christ, there is endless hope. We have a good hope through
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without Him, there is nothing
but a hopeless, hopeless end of eternal condemnation and wrath. Now, my friend, these things
are subtle. These things are true and I'm not using. I'm not
using the wrath of God and the judgment of God. It is so and
it is true. It's in Scripture and we must
preach those things. But I'm not using the wrath of
God as a motive or instrument to try to move you to believe
the Gospel. Because that's not what it's
about. It's the goodness of God and the grace of God that draws
us to the Lord Jesus Christ and causes us to flee from the wrath
to come. He delivered us from the wrath
to come because he died for our sin according to the scripture.