Revelation chapter 14. I am thankful to come back to our study of the book of Revelation. It's been a few weeks and I've missed it, but we are thankful to come back this afternoon. We've actually come in our study so far up to the last seven verses of chapter 14. So, if you'll turn there, Revelation chapter 14. And I want us to read, though, as we begin this afternoon, the entirety of this chapter again to kind of refresh our memories. So let's begin chapter 14 and verse 1. And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his father's name, the lamb's father's name, written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sung, as it were, a new song, those 144,000 before the throne, I'm sorry, those in heaven, sung the new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders, and no man could learn that song but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women, for they were virgins, they are virgins. These are they which followed the Lamb whithersoever 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. 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 and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water. 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. 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 forever and ever. They have no rest, day nor 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, write this, 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. Then here we go in verse 14. 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, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reaped. For the time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust 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 to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, thrust in thy sharpsicle, 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 the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horses' bridles. by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. So once again, I will remind us, because it is essentially important to rightly understand this passage, we are to understand what we are reading, it is essentially important to understand this, that chapters 12, chapters 13, and chapter 14 is like a snapshot. a snapshot of especially the last three and a half years of the tribulation period, as it is distinguished in God's Word, the time of great tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble. Now in chapters 12, chapter 13, chapter 14, especially in chapter 12, we have allusions even back to the Garden of Eden, but the main focus of those three chapters is on the last half or the last half, the last three and a half years of this age. And as we have just gotten a glimpse of, as we have just read, it reaches, that snapshot, that glimpse, it reaches all the way to the very end. of the tribulation, all the way to the very coming, the glorious coming of Christ Himself. That glorious coming of Christ is designated and distinguished throughout Scripture, and especially in prophetic Scripture, it is distinguished like this, that is the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. If you go back to the Old Testament prophets, they talked about the day of the Lord. And that is the glorious coming, the visible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at the very end of the age, at the end of the tribulation period. And that is distinguished from what we would call the rapture of the church. But we have to understand that what we are seeing in these three chapters is a snapshot. It's a preview of sort. It's kind of like a movie trailer. Everybody's seen a movie trailer, right? You kind of get a brief glimpse of the movie, but you haven't seen the movie yet. You got a brief glimpse, but you haven't seen the whole movies. In the chapters that are yet to come, this is the snapshot. This is the trailer, 12, 13, 14. And then in the chapters yet to come, we'll get the rest of the information. We'll see the whole movie. We'll get the rest of the details. As a matter of fact, let me just show you, let me give you a glimpse of this. If you'll look at chapter 11, verse 19, you may remember this. You'll notice it says, And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament, and there were voices, thunderings, earthquakes, and great hail. If you'll turn over to chapter 15, verse 5, look there. Chapter 15, verse 5. And after that, I looked and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was open. So, where John left off in 1219, he's going to pick it back up again. in 15.5, and that's the reason those two exact descriptions of the temple in heaven are seen, and everything that is in between that then, that we have been dealing with for the past many weeks, all of that is really a filling in or a preview, a trailer, if you will, of what is yet to come. And you might say, well, how can we know that? And I'll let you know how you can know that. In 14.8, chapter 14, verse 8, we hear the declaration that Babylon is fallen, is fallen. But over in chapter 18, we hear the exact same declaration with a lot more detail of what that is and what that means. And in chapter 14, verse 19, we hear about the winepress of the wrath of God, a snippet, if you will, of the winepress of the wrath of God. But in chapters 19, verse 15, we hear the same exact thing but with much, much more detail. Much more detail. And here in verse 20 in our own text in chapter 14 here, we have this great defeat with great bloodshed that is described in chapter 20. Well, at the end of chapter 19, we actually find out exactly whose blood this is and how it is that it got into this valley. We find that out. See? So we're basically looking at the movie trailer. in chapters 12, 13, and 14. What we have been and are yet about to see today, this afternoon, is a preview, and remember the way the chapters begin, a symbolic, a metaphorical portrayal It's not nearly as literal as the passages that we dealt with earlier in the book, but here, because John tells us, I saw a wonder, I saw a sign, I saw a metaphorical portrayal of something, we understand that this is a symbolic preview, if you will, a metaphorical portrayal of the culmination of redemptive history. It's really what we're seeing. So again, verse 14. 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, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in my sickle and reaped. For the time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust 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, that angel had power over fire, and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in my 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 the 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." And I say, we're reading that many different times. Why don't we just read that passage? I'm going to tell you. I don't know how many times I've read that passage. I don't know how many times I've actually kind of dreaded coming to this passage as we've approached it. I knew it was there. I read it and tried to gather in my mind, what is this? What is this? What does it mean? What is the truth of this passage? This is somewhat of a difficult passage, but I think we can see I pray that we have the correct understanding of this passage this morning, or this afternoon, because remember, what we have just read is the inerrant, infallible, faithful, but prophetic, prophetic Word of God, meaning it's going to happen. It's going to happen. So here again, the Apostle John exiled on the Isle of Patmos, and the Lord comes to him on one Sunday morning and gives to Him the completion of His written Word. The conclusion of the canonical scriptures and He gives them to Him in a vision and that He has written them for us. The completion of God's Word. This is all of God's Word that mankind will ever know apart from what He will actually tell us And I think it won't be anything different than what he's told us here. We're gonna see a fuller sense of it. But this is what he has declared from forever that will be forever. We have the whole entirety of God's word, how blessed we are. What responsibility that bears upon our shoulders. in this vision that John sees. He sees many things and many prophetical things concerning future events and concerning people of the future and times of the future upon this earth. But the main theme of this vision is and continues to be the unveiling, the revelation, the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the unveiling of the real, the living, the present day, right now, this moment, Jesus. This is who He is. Forget about what you might think in your mind who He is. Listen to God's Word. Heed God's Word. Because we will never get it right apart from God's Word. But we can get it right. We can have the right view of Him in God's Word. This is who Jesus is. And might I say, this is who He's always been. Did his actions differ from here? Yes, his actions did, but he was the same person. His work was different when he came the first time to this earth. Yes, but he was the same person. Had the same purposes that he's always had from eternity to eternity. And so it is here as this vision continues, John's vision, his attention and our attention is directed first here this afternoon to the heavens. He looks into the heavens where he sees who? Look in verse 14 again. Who is it that John sees? He sees one sat upon this cloud, one sat unto the Son of Man. The Son of Man. That's who he sees. Well, who is that? Who is the Son of Man? Well, we should know that this was the Lord Jesus Christ's favorite title for Himself. He used this title for Himself exceedingly more than any other title for Himself. This was His own favorite, if I could put it like this, His own favorite or most used title for Himself while He was on this earth. We find this title of Christ all throughout the New Testament. However, right here in this text in verse 14, this is the last time that it is used. And what a contrast. Just this would be a great message. The contrast. The contrast here as it's used the last time compared to the first time it was used in Scripture. The first time when Jesus Christ Himself said in Matthew 8 verse 20, So that Son of Man that He described Himself in Matthew 8, that Son of Man who made Himself of no reputation, who was rich but became poor for our sakes, the One who took on Him the form of a servant and died on the cross, that One, He is this Son of Man. The very same Son of Man who we see here is now riding on a cloud in the heavens wearing a golden crown. That crown is a Stephano, a victor's crown. Several centuries before John saw this vision of the Son of Man, Daniel saw Him, the prophet Daniel, in Daniel 17. He writes about that. He says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven. Same language, isn't it? He came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days and they brought Him near before Him and there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom which shall not be destroyed. When the Lord Jesus told His disciples Himself, when He talked and prophesied Himself of the sign of His coming, where they asked Him for that sign in Matthew 24, He said this in verse 30, And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The Lord Jesus Christ, the risen, the exalted, the one who owns the name above all names, the crown conqueror of death, sin, hell and the grave. He himself, who is the same yesterday, today, forever, here in John's vision, John sees him and he is waiting in the heavens as the victorious son of man. And He's waiting there with a sickle in His hand. He's waiting there with a harvesting tool in His hand. He's waiting there, John sees, with one of these in His hand. In this vision, as Christ waits there on the cloud with the sickle in His hand, He records here that an angel Notice the words, another angel, verse 15, another angel comes out. Notice this, this is very important. Chapter 14, verse 15. Another angel, where did he come from? He comes out of the temple. This is in heaven. The scene is in heaven. He comes out of the temple in heaven, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud. So this angel comes out of the temple of God in heaven. By the way, make note of this. This is the fourth of five angels in chapter 14. This is the fourth of five angels. The first three in verse 6, verse 8, verse 9 were warning of impending judgment. If you go back there and you look there, you'll see they are warning of judgment. Now these last two angels will actually execute that judgment. And so this, another angel, comes out of the temple of God. And you notice there, verse 15, he cries out to Christ. Look there. He cries to Him with a loud voice, and he says this, thrust in thy sickle, and this is in the imperative mood, which means it's a command. The angel commands the Son of Man here. He commands him. Thrust in my sickle and reap, and notice what it says, for the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of earth is ripe. Now, there's some that doubt, that deny that this is indeed this One who is like the Son of Man, that this is indeed Christ here because of this angel commanding the Son of Man, but they're not seeing the whole picture of Scripture. They're not. Remember, we've got to interpret Scripture with Scripture. You remember what Christ said about the timing of His coming? You remember what He said in Mark 13, verse 32? He said, But of the day and the hour knoweth no man. No one knows when the Son of Man is going to come. No, not the angels which are in heaven. And then He says this, and it's an astonishing thing, and some have run away with this and made this false doctrine, but He says, neither the Son, but the Father, but the Father only. So as the Son of Man, in His office of mediation, in His office of servanthood, He does not know when the time is. So he's standing there. The picture is very clear that John draws for us here. He's standing there with this sickle in his hand. And then, verse 15, the angel, the messenger of God, comes out from the temple. He comes out from the presence of God and commands him and he says, OK, it's time. How does the angel know that it's time? Because God just told him. He was in the presence of God. God the Father just told him, go tell the Son, now's the time. The time is come. Thrust. Now, thrust in your sickle and reap. Now, let's pause for an interjection here. Because there's something that we need to know. Something we need to be aware of, anyway. You know, the reality is I would rather tell you I don't know than to presuppose something upon you out of tradition, even if it's quote-unquote landmark tradition or whatever, Baptist tradition. I would rather say I don't know than I would rather for it just to be there in Scripture and let's wait and pray for God to reveal it in time. It would be such utter arrogance for you to even think that I know everything about God's Word. It would be arrogance for me to try to push off on you that I'm some superior intellect and I have all of this figured out because I don't. But I do know this and I know it by experience. Often what we don't know today, in the Lord's time, He will show us. Sometimes we just have to let the Scriptures lie and pray that the Lord will show us and desire to know, you know? eagerly desire to know the truth, not for some religious pat-me-on-the-back, but so that we may know the truth of our God. There's something that we need to be aware of here because these two verses, verse 14, verse 15, this is the pre-trib, I'm sorry, scratch that, This is the post-trib, those that believe that all of the Lord's people will endure through the tribulation. This is the, what they call themselves nowadays, the pre-wrath trib, pre-wrath trib. This is the stronghold of their viewpoint, these two verses. They see this, these two verses, as the fulfillment of what the Apostle Paul spoke of when he said in 1 Corinthians 15, 52, in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and here's what the whole thing really revolves around, this phrase, at the last trump. At the last trump. And I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know what to do with the last trump. I'll just tell you. I don't know what to do. I don't know exactly what Paul meant by that. At the last trumpet, for the trumpet shall sound in the classic pre-trib viewpoint of most Baptist churches. The classic is that that's the trumpet at the end of the Gentile age. Well, that's fine for that viewpoint, because you're going to have to show me the scripture. And I can't find it. Not yet, anyway. Paul said, in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, where the trump shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and those that are living, he included himself in that, we will be changed. That's what he said. They see this reaping here of the Son of Man, this Christ coming in the cloud to be the gathering of His saints. And I'm going to be very honest with you, at first glance, that's exactly what At first glance, it lines up. It does. It is revealed in John's vision in the section of the last trump. We are in the section of the last trump, of the last of these trumps, trumpets, trumpet judgments. And at first glance, it is odd that there is this reaping of Christ in verses 14 and 15, and then there is this reaping of another angel in verses 17 and 18, which is clearly wrath. That's odd. But actually, there are several problems with this theory. probably with this viewpoint. Like the promise of scripture that to us that are, as he spoke to his church, he said, we've been saved from the wrath to come. Well, they would say that he would save us from the last seven bowls of wrath. That's that pre-wrath movement. But really, the guys that claim pre-wrath and yeas are really talking about them, they're from the church. They're thinking they're going to go But the Lord said it, He said it exactly, that we would be saved from the wrath to come. And you also remember as we dealt with the first part of the book, the faithful brother loving church of Philadelphia, He said He would keep them from the period of tribulation that would come upon the earth, come upon all the earth. I don't know how I could say it any clearer than that. I think that's in chapter 3. And then, as you know, I've told you, I've been very honest with you about this, the elders of chapter 4. I've told you, I might lean to that post-trib, but you've got to tell me something about them elders. We have the description, you have the description of the church, you have these elders, and they have the same attributes as that description you just gave us three chapters earlier. So, scripture with scripture. I've asked some of the post-trib guys, who are the elders? They say, well, they're part Jew and part Gentile. I said, that's okay, but where is it in Scripture? The fact that, here's something else, Scripture never tells us to look for the Antichrist. Scripture never tells us to look for the, not as our focus, it tells us to look for who? And if I really believed the post-Trib view, if I really believed that, I'd be waiting for the temple to be built. I'd be waiting for the man of sin to be revealed. Because if we would see him, we would know him. Waiting for the temple to be revealed, I could count the days, seven years. But that's just not usually the way the Lord works. But let's just look right here at the text. The issues concerning the problems of that viewpoint right here in the text, there are some. The first, the sickle. The sickle spoken of here. Both the reapers, if you will, both of them have a sickle in their hand, don't they? Is this sickle spoken of here, is it a harvesting tool, a sickle of redemption and salvation? Because that's what it would be in the hand of the Son of Man if this is His coming to gather His saints. Is it the sickle of redemption, salvation, or is it a sickle of judgment? And here's the thing, if it is a sickle of redemption and salvation, it's the only one, the one in verses 14 and 15. This word sickle is used seven times in scriptures and everywhere it is used. every other place that it is used. Let's just take every other place. But every other place that the same word, the same instrument is used, it is always an instrument of judgment. So, even the same word used in the same passage, in the same context, the one right below it is a sickle of judgment, obviously. So would we just gather that all of a sudden this first sickle is the sickle of salvation? And notice, Also, where the angel tells the Lord in verse 15, this is the one that's important, that the harvest, notice the words, the harvest of the earth is ripe. That word ripe, that word has, it doesn't have positive leanings to it, it has negative leanings to it. Literally, it is withered, it is dried up, it is rotten, it is past due, past due. Now, you wouldn't think that heaven would describe the Lord's redeemed like that, would you? You wouldn't think that heaven would describe the Lord's bride, if I'm taking the post-tribute. You wouldn't think that the Lord's heaven would describe His bride with such language as something that means rotten and dried up, useless. That's exactly what that word ripe means. But actually there's something more conclusive than just those technicalities. And here's the thing, we must see this to be able to understand this text. What joy I found when I saw this. So we have seen into the heavens, the Son of Man coming into the heavens, but now let's be sure that we see the harvests. Notice I said harvest with an S because there are two harvests. There are two harvests, two different kinds of harvests described here. Let me expose it like this. In this vision, John sees two reapers, doesn't he? There's two reapers. The first is the Son of Man who receives the command from the messenger of the Lord out of the presence of God the Father to go and reap the earth. That's the first one, verse 14, verse 15. The other, verse 17, is distinguished in the text as another angel who gets his orders actually from, you'll notice, another angel. And that second another angel has come from the altar that is in the temple. We've already seen that altar in the book. It's the altar of incense. You remember the altar of incense from which the prayers of the saints were coming from. So this is filling in detail from us. This is talking about this. This picture, the reaping of this second reaper, are God's answer to the tribulation saints, the answer to their imprecatory prayers of righteous vengeance. How long, O Lord? Avenge our blood. So we understand that His judgment is an answer. We can see it in the picture, in the metaphor, because we have earlier revelation of that, that that is what it is here. This is God's answer to those tribulation saints that have been tortured throughout the tribulation period. It's the answer of their prayers for righteous vengeance. And notice the second harvest of verse 18 and 19, we find out exactly what kind of harvest it is. Look, in the middle of verse 18, "...thrust in my 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 the vine of the earth and the grapes of the earth, if you will, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. So this second harvest of verse 18 and verse 19, we know exactly what kind of harvest it is. It's a grape harvest. And these grapes, which by the way, you'll notice the word used here in, let me find it, The last word in verse 18, the last word in verse 18 for ripe, that means they are fully ripe. They are not rotten. The word means it is about to burst with ripeness. It is ready for gathering. It could not be any more ripe for picking. It is at the peak of its ripeness. And they are to cut with the sickle. And notice this, they are to gather. They are to gather those grapes. Verse 19, and the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the winepress of the wrath of God. But the harvest of the Son of Man, the first harvest, verse 14, verse 15, is not grapes. You notice it's not gathered. What is it? It's reaped. It's reaped. And that is what you do to wheat. That's what you do to grain. These people, the first century saints, would have been well acquainted with the reaping of the sheaves. That's what you do with grain. They would have been well acquainted. They would have known exactly what the apostle was talking about. They would have seen the distinction immediately. I wish I had a lot of years ago. As a matter of fact, the Lord has already told us about this kind of harvest, His harvest, the reaping. Matthew 13, if you'll turn there, you'll remember the parable of the tares and the wheat. Matthew 13, verse 36. Listen to what He says. You know, the Lord doesn't say anything just to be saying it, just for print on paper. Listen to what He says. Chapter 13, verse 36. Then Jesus sent a multitude away, went into the house. His disciples came unto Him. Tell us the parable. Tell us what you meant by the parable of the tares and the wheat. And He answered and said unto them, He that soweth a good seed is the Son of Man, it's Him. The field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil." Now notice, the harvest is the end of the world, literally that word world is age. The harvest is the end of the world. What harvest? The wheat harvest. It's the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Don't be put off by that, I'll show you in a minute. Because you might say, well, it says that the Son of Man reaped here. Well, just wait, we'll get to that. The reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be. In the end of this world, listen to verse 41, the Son of Man shall send forth His angels and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity. They shall gather out of His kingdom. Out of His kingdom. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. You know those passages? Us pre-tribbers that are preaching out of the text instead of in the text, that we often use those passages to talk about two people being in the bed or two grinding wheat, two in the field and one will be taken and the other left. Us good pre-tribbers, we say that's the way the rapture's going to be. It may well be, but those verses are not talking about the rapture. They're not. Actually, they help us to understand this passage. Let me show you. Luke 17. Luke 17, verse 34, and we're gonna jump in here, but you'll get enough of it to understand. Luke 17, 34. The Lord says, I tell you, in that night there shall be two men or two people in one bed. One shall be taken and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together. The one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in the field. One shall be taken and the other left. Now watch verse 37. And they, his disciples, answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? Where what? Where are they taken? One will be taken, the other left. One will be taken, the other left. One will be taken, the other left. Where? The disciples said, Lord, where? Where are they going to be taken? And the Lord answers, and He said to them, wheresoever the body is, thither will be the eagles, the birds, the praying birds. They will be gathered together, and we learn from the book of Revelation, they're gathered together to eat the flesh, eat the flesh. Where are they going to be gathered? Where are they going to be taken to? And if you look in the parallel passages of that language, it's the same every time. That's one of the things that kind of put me off with the classical pre-tribute. It's like, you've got to read the whole passage. Come on. We can't take two verses and say, well, see, one's going to be taken, the other left, that's the way the rapture's going to be. You know, that's not what that's talking about. That's talking about this at the very end, the day of the Lord, when He reaps unto judgment. They're taken to judgment. They are reaped to judgment, not to heaven. Not to heaven. And here's the thing. We need to see, to rightly understand this passage. Back here in Revelation again, Revelation 14. To rightly understand this passage, we have to see and understand and see what is being displayed there. There are two different harvests here described. One, verse 14 to verse 16, is a wheat harvest, a reaping. And the other, verse 17 to verse 20, is a grape harvest or a vintage, but both Both are referring to God's wrath upon sinners. And guess what? Here's where this comes in. Remember the snapshot. This movie trailer. It's given us just a glimpse of what's to come. Chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 14. Guess what? At this point in John's vision, this point in the book, we are about to see that there are two major campaigns of wrath that are left, too. Well, isn't that what we see in this snapshot? There's a campaign of the Son of Man, this reaping of judgment, and then there's this campaign of these angels, if you will, of this gathering of grapes, this vintage of judgment. There are two campaigns of wrath left in this book that when we turn the page out of this preview, we're going to turn on the movie and we're going to see all the details of what He has previewed us for. And He's previewing here in these that there are two major campaigns of God's wrath. The first is seven vials or seven bowls of God's wrath. The second is the battle of Armageddon. And you will notice verse 20, which is part of the second harvest, the vintage, right? Clearly we see that. You'll notice in this language there are direct references that uses the same language for the battle of Armageddon in chapter 19. Don't go there now, you can go there later, but you will see it's the exact same language. It's the exact same language. As a matter of fact, when I read in Matthew 13 about the angels that He would send forth to reap, you may have thought, as I mentioned, well, here the Son of Man reaps and not the angels. He does. He does, but we're going to see in those seven bowls, we're going to see in chapter 15 as those things are unveiled for us, He will use the instruments of His angels, but it is His reaping. It is His reaping, it is His wrath because, here it is, these bowls of wrath, The bowls of wrath will do just as is pictured here in verse 14 and verse 15. It will do just as is pictured in Matthew 13 that we read. It will remove the wicked from the earth. If you will, it will destroy them from off the earth. They will be reaped from the earth. We're going to see that in the seven bowls of judgment. And then the battle of Armageddon, the second campaign of wrath, the horror that will ensue there, will do just as the second harvest described here will do, the vintage harvest, it will destroy literally, it will trample, trample the wicked upon the earth. to the extent that millions upon millions, here's an interesting, if you go to chapter 19, verse 19, it even uses that same language. Millions upon millions will gather, will be gathered against Christ. They will be gathered. They're gathered by this angel, if you will, in the providence and power and the sovereignty of God. They're gathered, as it's pictured here, gathered in war against Christ, then He will trample them. He will trample them. He will destroy them. The battle will be arrayed over the entire land of Palestine, a distance of about, as is mentioned here, 1,600 furlongs, 200 miles from north to south. Millions upon millions will be gathered there in that land. 200 miles long. We'll actually even exceed the land of Palestine by a little bit. North to south from Megiddo down to Edom is prophesied in the other prophets. They will be gathered there, the scripture says, against Christ, but none will be able to stand. But it tells us that their blood will run down the mountainsides. The prophets tell us that the blood will run down the mountainsides into the valley of Jehoshaphat. That is probably the valley that will be created when the Lord Jesus comes and His foot touches the Mount of Olives and the valley is cleaved. That's probably the valley that will be created then when He comes in His glory. And in that valley, the blood will run off the mountains as the great slaughter. the Battle of Armageddon and it will fill the valley to a horse's bridle approximately four feet deep in the valley floor. Great, great defeat. Great, great horror, bloodshed. That's the vintage. That's the vintage. The bowls of wrath or the reaping of the Son of Man. This angelic vintage, if you will, is the battle of Armageddon. We see this snapshot, it runs all the way to the end, and then we're going to get the rest of the movie and the remainders of the chapters. But remember, all the wrath, and as much as we've seen, that's the reason tell these pre-trib or post-trib guys, and you know what? Listen, I'll be the first to admit I don't have all the answers. I got issues. I just told you one. I don't know. I don't know what the last trump is. But I tell them, I say, listen, there's a lot of wrath. Y'all know. We've studied it. We've studied through it. There's a lot of wrath before the seven vials. I mean, the world is going to be turned upside down. Nothing will look like it looks right now. Not only the earth, but the heavens as well. It's just going to look like a great bomb went off everywhere. There's going to be so much wrath before the seven vows, but the reality is, as much as we've seen so far, we haven't seen anything yet. We're about to. That is the reaping But all of this wrath is the wrath of the Son of Man. All of it is. It is the wrath of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell us tonight, He is not a Christ that you can take or leave. He is not. He is not the mamby-pamby Jesus of modern religious imagination. He is not the helpless pitiful looking man, wringing his hands in heaven, worried about the outcome of the events that are yet to come. He's not someone that's trying to do anything. He's not the Christ of religious sentimentality. That's why it's so important that we learn who the Christ of this book is. There are people that that refuse to believe God's word, refuse to believe the Old Testament because they say, well, we know Jesus and Jesus wouldn't do that to all them Canaanites. He wouldn't do that. A just God would. Just like a just God does this. Just like the just God trampled his enemies that come up against him, that are gathered against him. He will trample His enemies till their blood runs down in the valleys four feet deep. That's who He is. He's not a God that you can take and leave. He's not a God that you can commit insurrection against. He's not a God who will allow us, the creation, to rule on His throne. He's not because He's the God of truth. We're not fit to rule on His throne. Only He is fit to rule on His throne. He's not a God that will just allow you to think that you have created yourself and that you are the most important person in the universe. He's not that kind of God because He's a God of truth and He created us and we are His creation and He is the most important being in the universe. He is the Christ. He is God the King. He is the Supreme King. And if we, man, worms before his feet, the dust of the earth, if we are against him, if we could really see how preposterous it is, That we would be against this King. That we would have our own arms of rebellion raised against Him. If we could actually see how preposterous that is. These armies that will be gathered together against Him in the battle of Armageddon. Millions upon millions of people. And the Christ, this King, King Jesus. The true King Jesus. He will come with His saints, Scripture tells us. But if you will notice, and we will, there ain't nobody fighting but Him. And He destroys every single enemy. As the picture tramples, tramples them like you would grapes in a wine press. Their blood splattering, their blood covering The hem of his garments, that's the picture that scripture gives us. And there will be none left in rebellion against him. Do you think for a moment your arms of rebellion will be successful? Could we even dream such a thing as that? Not if we know this key. What's the logical conclusion? Bow to this King. Because He is this King that none can stand against, but I want to tell you right now, today, not in the day that we're about to look at, but right now, today, He is the King of grace. He will save us from our sin, our sin that committed crimes, unspeakable crimes before His face. Literally, spit in His face. Raised our fist to him and said, you're not God, I'm God. Said that to the true God. All the while he was giving us breath and we use that breath in rebellion against him. All the while he gives us strength and we use that strength in rebellion against him. Oh saints, let us submit ourselves. Let us bow, surrender ourselves to this king. He is the King of all kings. There is none. Don't let us be filled up in foolish, godless pride. Let us bow and prostrate ourselves before this King. Let us do it today. If we are not for Him, we are against Him. If we are not with Him, we are against Him. Lay down your arms. Surrender yourself. to this King. Surrender yourself to His service. Surrender yourself to His allegiance over you. This King is so merciful. He will give insurrectionists like us worthy of His wrath. He will give us grace and pardon and forgiveness. And then you know what He'll do us? He'll give us a life like we could never dream. where we find that we are servants of this King, but we would gladly serve Him. We would gladly be imprisoned by this King. As Paul said, I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ. He wouldn't give Caesar the credit, as someone pointed out this weekend to us. He wouldn't give Caesar the credit for chaining him in a cell in Rome. He said, no, I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said, I'm His servant. I would gladly surrender myself and enter into his prison cell because he is such a king that he would even make our prison cell more profitable than a life of freedom in this world. He is that kind of king. He's always been that kind of king. Psalm 212, kiss the sun. Literally, the picture is kiss his ring. Kiss His bow before Him and kiss His ring. Acknowledge Him as your King. Submit yourselves to Him as your King, lest He be angry. And He'd have a right to be angry. He's given us everything. Will we use it? Will we take and throw it in His face and rebel against Him with the very things that He's given us? Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish from the way. This is what's going to happen if we continue in this rebellion. We will perish when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. What a book this is. May we be thankful for the Lord's revelation revelation of himself, the revelation of this coming king. I've told this all along the way. Wonderful, if I could use that word, things that are full of wonder and that will be full of wonder are revealed to us in this word about the future. But those things are not primarily for the future. They're primarily for now. Because just look at the world around us. Look at your own heart. It's so easy to forget that the God of grace and mercy, the God of salvation, the God of love, the God who blesses us, that he is at the same time the God of wrath, the God of destruction, a God of fierce wrath, a God of judgment. He is at the same time. It's that let us not presuppose upon his grace, upon his mercy, and upon his goodness. Let us remember as we are reminded by scripture of who he is, and therefore, let us never presuppose upon him. Let us never presume upon him, but let us hear his word. See him as he is, bow to him, because the truth is he's worthy. He's worthy. May the Lord help us. Brother Shane, will you lead us in our closing prayer?