There's a penalty. For being dumb repeatedly. And we know that, all of us, we learn in life. that it's better to avoid trouble. than to try to get out of trouble.
Every time you pass by a courthouse, Inside that building are those who are learning that hard lesson. Courthouses, nothing friendly about them. They are battlegrounds. They are vicious. May I never have to see the inside of a courthouse again.
Anyway, coming back to this, I'm sorry if any of you have to go through stuff, but the Lord will be with you if you be with Him. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
Revelation chapter 14 is the text Pastor Rick will be teaching from today on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio.
Now if you follow doctrines of men, or a doctrine with the name of a man on it, then you're not going to agree with that. You're going to think that this is fatalistic and you'll end up in heaven or not. Tough luck for you. I do not have that opinion, and I categorically reject that opinion, and I'm not going to name it. because I do too much.
Anyway. But that gives me time in like a month or two, I can get back and start doing it again because you haven't heard me bash that particular doctrine. Matthew chapter 3. John the Baptist speaking of Christ's coming. His winnowing fan is in his hand.
And we don't use that word winnowing. You know, we just don't. Boy, it's hot. I'm going to have to winnow. It's the separation.
That so they would harvest the wheat, they would have oxen with a little device attached to trample the wheat, that separated. The shell or the husk the chaff that's around the grain.
Well, how do you now get it out of that pile?
Well, you would toss it into the air on a higher elevation, like a little hill or something when the breeze was coming through, and it would do it for you. It would separate the wheat from the chaff. And so, the Christ, that's what he's talking about. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. And gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with the unquenchable fire.
So it's repeating what is later said that I already quoted. But that's John saying this is what Christ is up to. There's a lot in between. You can get on that, you know, that you can either be the chaff or the wheat.
So, this is what we're studying.
Now we come to the angel, verse 17. Then another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven. he also having a sharp sickle.
Well He's going to use that sickle to cut down the invading armies against Israel. Using the figure of the wine press for God's wrath. And in Scripture, that's common to associate. The s The crushing of grapes with blood. This is not new language.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, again in Revelation, we come to it, but let's quote the prophet Joel. Who is very clear about these things? He says.
Now Joel came Oh, I don't know, seven hundred years before Christ. At least. Not sure about exactly when he came. But anyway, let the nations be weakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle.
for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for the wickedness is great.
So, we are not in an agrarian culture anymore. You know, we live in suburbs and cities mostly. But in those days, everybody was familiar with. you know, uh the green acres. They understood these metaphors faster than we might until you become a student of the Bible, then you begin to understand them also.
When Jesus said to Paul, Paul's out trying to destroy Christians, arrest them, and persecute them, and Christ confronts him. and says it's hard for you to kick against the goads. And of course it's an agrarian, again, you have a A herder of cattle, and he's got a goad to to push along the the oxen to get them to do what he wants. And so Jesus takes up that metaphor and he says to Paul. The herder has more control over you, you ox.
You know, you stop. You can't kick against it and win. And the stick was long enough so that if they did kick, they couldn't reach. The goater.
So that was the language. That's nothing to do with ouster. Nothing. to do with our story directly, but indirectly it's beautiful.
Well, the Lord's reaping the world, the angel. Is reaping the enemies that have come against Israel because this is all end times. Israel is Satan's prize target to destroy it. We see it now. We've seen it all through history.
He said, Why does everybody come against a Jew? They have not invaded anybody, they haven't hurt anybody. Oh, you know, falsely called the Palestinians. They're the ones that are the invaders. And if you listen to the people that tell you otherwise, Well there's a saying I like If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough.
Because there's a penalty. For being dumb repeatedly. And we know that. All of us, we learn in life. that it's better to avoid trouble.
than to try to get out of trouble. Every time you pass by a courthouse, you will Inside that building are those who are learning that hard lesson. Courthouses, nothing friendly about them. They are battlegrounds, they are vicious. May I never have to see the inside of a courthouse again.
Anyway, coming back to this, I'm sorry if any of you have to go through stuff, but the Lord will be with you if you be with Him. I know what that's what it's like. Anyway, here we are, the delegated angel. And together they're going to end the tribulation period.
Well, at this point, I should just go to Matthew 13.
So, those of you who don't read the Bible, you're getting some of it. It's almost like uh audio. I'm I'm your audio Bible, but only for verses that I've chosen. Verse forty one of Matthew thirteen and forty two. The Son of Man, that's Christ, will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practise lawlessness.
We call that a purge. Then he continues, And will cast them into the furnace of fire. there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Well, the wailing is the sorrow, the gnashing of teeth is Anger. and great sorrow together So verse 18 And another angel came out from the altar who had power over fire, and cried with a loud cry to him who had a sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine. of the earth For her grapes are fully ripe.
So, this one's sickle is sharp, also. These, Reapers are prepared.
Now, there's a lot here in this language. That altar that is being referenced here. This is the place where Man can approach God. That's the first, well, the second stop. The first start is in the heart, stop is in the heart.
But that has to show up somewhere. and it shows up at the altar. The Jew would take his sacrificial animal according to the specifications. Because you couldn't just, you know, I feel, you know, you couldn't take your neighbor if you didn't like him. But you could take a sacrificial animal according to the list of approved animals.
And uh the two The there were two altars. At this temple. The first one was the brazen altar on the outside of the temple, where sin was atoned for, where the blood sacrifice was made. It was a dirty area, all those animals, all that blood. The second one, the golden altar, was inside the tabernacle.
And only the priests could go in there. There intercessory prayers were offered, So the one on the outside was to atone for sin, the one on the inside was to intercede, to speak to God on behalf of sinners. The two altars were united. By fire. The fire that ignited the fires on the brazen altar was the fire used to ignite the incense on the golden altar inside the tabernacle that.
symbolized prayers rising to rising to heaven. The two altars are now united in Christ. His cross In his intercession. The cross intercedes for us. Christ is not constantly running to the Father, interceding.
It's done through the cross. Hebrews chapter thirteen, Paul says, We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
So those who have not come to Christ who are still offering blood sacrifices or others or anything else, They do not benefit from what Jesus has done. The two altars in the temple speak of Christ's atonement and his intercession.
Well, that's what's happening in heaven. It's all pictured for the reader. To understand. That God has got skin in the game. The blood of his son.
God had to go through that too. God is not without emotion. though he's never controlled by his emotion. We're glad God is not impetuous. Imagine if He woke up on a day that He didn't feel good.
Just, you know what? This is the wrong day to mess with me. And that would have been it.
So we're glad he's not that way. We're that way because we're falling.
Well, not me, because. I'm not going to admit to what I do. Anyway. Gather the clusters of the vine of the earth. her grapes are fully ripe.
Now evil's gonna get squashed. Verse 19.
So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth. and threw it into the great wine press. of the wrath of God.
Well, here we are in a cozy environment. We've got the A C on, we're all, you know, hopefully we've we're clean, you know, and we're just comfortable.
Well, there's nothing comfortable about any of what's going to happen. This is gonna be horrific. You know, we watch things on the animal channel. You got to look away. I don't want to see that.
Well, God's not going to look away from this. These judgments are planned. And they're necessary. and they're unavoidable. For the guilty.
Wickedness will not live forever in creation. Wickedness will not a get will not get away with its evil. Evil will not survive. In the end, evil will not survive. and sinners may oppose God's way.
But you can't oppose his wrath. And that's one of the lessons.
So maybe you're here and you say, I don't believe Christ because you've listened to somebody else, either yourself, Satan, or the world. Those are your three options. You've listened to one of them. but you haven't listened to God Himself. Because you think you can make up things about God and get away with it.
Well, you can't. You can make up things, but you can't get away with it. And you may get away with it for a while. like if someone falling from a skyscraper, he's okay for a while. But then that's going to end.
Well, coming back to this, it says, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. the harvest of grapes that he cut with the sickle. The Bible speaks of three vines.
Well, there's Israel, that's in Isaiah 5. Speaks of the people of Israel. As God's vine. Then there's the church. the true believers.
and of Christ in John 15. Then there are the godless, Society of the earth? The vine of the earth. What if what if there was during this time of these Antichrist armies, the beasts, because he's more than antichrist. There's a lot of things wrong with him.
That's the worst thing. But he's become a beast. and not a human any more, in his behaviour. He doesn't, you know, get hooves and horns and stuff like that. He stays human.
In appearance. But not in behavior. And what if there were some ethnic Jews who were didn't want anybody to know they were Jews, and they were in the armies of the Gentiles coming against Israel. Because you know, there are some Jews that are really don't think ju Israel should be a nation. That's reserved for Messiah to to do.
Well, they're going to be judged with the Gentiles. That's what would happen. This verse here, this section, is what Julia Ward Howe. who I don't know how she did it. How about But in 1882, she penned the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
and that beautiful verse he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
Well, however she meant it, the truths of that verse go beyond. The war of the states. There's truth scripturally. God will trample out the vintage, that long time sitting. Festering evil of man is going to be dealt with.
At its source. Verse 14 uh verse 20, sorry. And the winepress was trampled outside the city. The blood came out of the wine press up to the horses' bridles. for one thousand six hundred furlongs.
Well, we all know what that means.
Well Again, Christ is not going to attack. Jerusalem. Antichrist, of course, has attacked Jerusalem, and he's coming to finish it off completely. to this will be Satan's masterpiece. of a failure.
where he looks to completely rid the world of the Jewish people. and any confessed Christians that get in the way, or he can find.
Well, bloodshed. stops the armies of Antichrist. They're not talked out of what they're doing. They're not convinced otherwise. They have the mark, they have the worship of the beast.
And they are in the valley of Megiddo. There's a place in Israel to the north of Jerusalem. It's a beautiful valley, it's a natural battlefield, it's wide open, it's lush. That's where the armies will really meet with their fate. And won't be limited.
to that theater of operation. But that will be the epicentre of it all.
So sparing Jerusalem the worst of it since the major battle is up to the north of Megiddo. Parallel verses for you Bible students, Isaiah 63. and Joel chapter three. I won't give you the verses because that'd just be too easy. All right, verses 1 and 4, and verses 9 and 17, respectively.
Coming back to this. As I mentioned, wine, the regular, irregular scriptural metaphor. for blood as in Genesis 49, 11. Where the blood came out of the wine press, it says. Up to the horse's bridle.
So, John is being given a vision of future things as though they've already happened. But he's not seeing the actual slaughter of human beings He sees this imagery. which is very clear to him. Up to the bridle of the horse.
Well, depending on if it's a Clydesdale, it's going to be a little higher.
So the idea is not exact feet. And they're going to be like, oh, this is five feet.
Okay, we don't need a lifeguard.
So It's unprecedented carnage. Not just unprecedented evil. But the actual bloodshed human bodies. Because of what's coming. Uh it is Within it.
the figure of speech in this way. the depth of God's wrath. We can't even touch this. I mean, as we we read about it, we know it's coming, but how do you get emotionally you don't want to get emotionally taken by this? It's overwhelming.
But what you do want to say, okay, this is true. It's gonna happen. Just like everything else he said. is going to happen and he has backed it up with predictions. And by the way, nobody else has got anything like this.
You're not going to find anybody's writing outside of Scripture. You saw all of those books that people, the Gospel of Thomas and the the Venoch and all. Why aren't they in the Bible? They didn't qualify. That's why.
They're not inspired. They may be interesting, they may be historical. But they're not anointed. They didn't meet the standard. Of the 66 writings that we call the Bible, Written by Oh, you know, there are hundreds of contributors when you count the scribes.
over thousands of years.
So no one person sat down and said, Hmm. Let me just tell you about how great I am. I am the prophet, and there is no other. Uh that's the Tigger mentality. There's a religion like that.
And they'll kill you if you disagree.
Well, I I mean in their homeland, not in my house.
Well Be prepared. This lesson must be shared. Boy Scouts rule. Anyway. Uh it will be global.
So the generals behind this armies coming in, you know, they're not, some of them are on the battlefield. They've got your field commanders, but there's like the Pentagon and the, you know, the Chinese have their equivalent and the Russians. They're places where the generals and their staff are miles away. They're going to be destroyed too. Jeremiah 25, verse 33, and at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth, even to the other end of the earth.
They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried. They shall become refuse on the ground.
Well, part of why they won't Some of them will be just disintegrated. The language lends to that. When you read Ezekiel. You get uh it's chapters uh verse Ezekiel 39 Verses eight through sixteen. Layout The collection and the dealing with battlefield bodies.
as contaminants One comes along. marks the body, another comes along, removes the body.
Well, why can't the first guy just remove it? Because of the contamination factor.
Well, that would suggest nuclear exchange. How all that's going to work out, some of the details have been withheld. I mean Will angels be, you know, Armed with like nuclear hand grenades. Yeah. We had them in the Marine Corps, but you couldn't use them because you couldn't run fast enough away from them.
That's a joke. A nuclear hack, throw a nuclear bomb. How are you going to run from that? Why throw it then? Anyway.
The fitting imagery. that it we're given here Since those that are said to be trampled, have long trampled God's truth. And God's people.
So it's, you know, they're getting what they have, they're reaping what they have sown. When a God of love is forced to judge like this, No apology is necessary. Or do. How dare any one be offended by a just and holy God's severe dealing with the wicked? If he is just and he is holy and he does something, He has factored in His justice and His holiness.
And that bars us from any sensible objection.
So who is man to limit the severity of God's judgment and wrath?
Well, those who know the Lord, we endeavor to submit.
So that was the depth. And here is the distance of the wrath. For one thousand six hundred furlongs. That's about two hundred miles, not quite, but almost. Israel is is from north to south two hundred and ninety miles.
But the language is Certainly Symbolic But it it can be symbolic and literal at the same time. How's that?
Now that would make it a paradox. It can be literal in a certain area. And it could be metaphorical in a greater area. And so the whole earth will be judged, but the concentration of energy will be. Within the theater of Israel.
So if you have all these armies gathered, well, they all can't fit into the valley of Megiddo. But they can fit into other areas.
some two hundred miles either north or in some direction. And that is accounted for in this.
So, if someone was to object, you can't get an army, the world's army is in the Valley of Megiddo.
Well, it doesn't limit it to the valley of Megeddo. That's just. the central part of it all.
So, the war covers vast territories. It is a bloodbath for attacking Israel.
However, again, these numbers point. to a fixed amount of blood that is shed. And that I think is the dominant point. There's a fixed amount, no more, no less, typical of God in His prophecies. Israel's deliver and we're almost done.
The deliverer of Israel. He comes on the scene in prophecy, not as a spectator, but as a conqueror. Way back in Isaiah 63, we have this language talking about these times. Who is this? Who comes up from Edom.
Now Edom is was a people and a waste. Their culture, their territory, and had come to mean the world against Israel.
So who is this who comes from Edom with dyed garments from Basra? the capital of one of Edom's cities. Oh Areas. This one is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength. I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
And so it's this picture of Christ. Dealing with the enemies, and we see it here, and we see it in Ezekiel, and we see it in other places. There is a note of disgust. In that it has had to come to this. when it didn't have to.
This bloodshed. was brought on by those who were looking to shed blood. What they started out to do to others happened to them.
So, in closing, it comes down to this: for those of you who have not opened your heart to Christ. You do wrong before the throne of God, and you know it. Your conscience tells you that. You know when you do wrong.
Now you can. You can sear that conscience to the point where it no longer phases you. You just mean and vicious, and it doesn't bother you. But have you not gotten that far? There is hope for you.
It still comes down to a decision.
So, I close with this verse from Luke chapter 23, and then as we pray, I'll give an invitation to receive Christ as Savior. Luke 11, Jesus said, He who is not with me is against me. And he who does not gather with me Scatters. And this is what's illustrated in this final chapter of human rule on earth that we've just covered. Uh This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston.
This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreference radio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
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