Revelation 14 // The Promise Of God's Judgement

revelation 14 look at this we're getting started before 7:00 maybe I'll get done with it last time we lift off with the three angels in Revelation 14 and let's let's pick it up there well we'll just read the at the very beginning in verse 6 to get some context and we'll go through Father Lord we would we just want to commit the reading of your word to you the study of your word pray that you'd be the one who teaches us Lord in John you said that we don't have any need of a teacher because we have an anointing that comes from the Holy One and that's your Holy Spirit Lord we thank you that anytime I mean you put teachers in our place or in our paths Lord and you you give us those as gifts but ultimately Lord we're all accountable to you to be listening to you to be listening into your heart and that's what we want to do as we're going through your word so pray that you just bless the study of your word and that you do this all in Jesus name Amen okay revelation 14 verse 6 it says then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation tribe tongue and people saying with a loud voice fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth the sea and the springs of water and another angel followed saying Babylon has fallen is fallen that great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication then a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the Beast and His image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone and the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day or night who worship the Beast and His image and whoever receives the mark his name here's the patience of the saints here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me write blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on yes says the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them and so three angels going through the heavens making proclamations the first one proclaiming the gospel the second one proclaiming the destruction of the city of Babylon and the third one giving a warning to those who would take the mark of the beast in the last week we were we were talking about the angel proclaiming the destruction of Babylon and in the last week you know that next day we have this whole thing with Soleimani and the president Trump taken that guy out and all that stuff and it's pretty it's pretty wild how quickly things in the Middle East can turn around and how how interesting it is about the involvement of all these groups of people you know that immediately after the attack on Soleimani they launched missiles at our bases right you guys know this you've been paying attention in the news and at the same time that they not launched missiles to our bases they shot down a Ukrainian airliner you guys know about that and they denied that for a while and then they finally admitted it you know what they shot it down with a Russian weapon Russian missile yeah and so you have the Russians and the Iranians tied in there and then you you have this whole involvement with these guys with the Iraqis and so that whole area is in the Middle East is an area that specifically spoken about numerous places in the Bible and so those are those are places that you want to pay attention to again it's pretty interesting but there's a judgement that the Bible talks about we talked about it last week so I'm not going to go back into it but there's a judgment that's coming down on that area specifically the area of Iraq and the area that soleimani was in it's about 50 miles north of the place that the Bible talks about in any case you have those those two angels one going through sharing the gospel everybody gets to hear the gospel everybody gets to hear it and again what God's doing is he's wrapping things up we're about to when we get to chapter 16 we're about to get into the last judgments the bowl judgments and those are the wrap up right before Jesus comes back to the earth and so again you have that then the last angel we talked about the first two and let's talk about the last one again then verse 9 a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the Beast and His image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation that's a mouthful he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and so there's a warning for those who are looking at taking the mark that's the answer to the question can I take the mark without actually knowing it can I take the mark of the beast if I if I get caught and it's in this time it's like it's just it's just a mark we have people taking marks right now as far as things that correspond to the mark of the beast every every time that I'm doing a prophecy update I'm just going through and looking at the whole thing with the cash flow Society you know it's in in Sweden there's only 13% of transactions that are cash now they're there that's the nation that's the furthest along as far as going cashless they they only have 13 percent of cash transactions and those are all in the realm of old the older generations younger generations it's almost nothing and that makes sense you know it makes sense to me I have almost no cash transactions almost everything that I do I'm doing with debit cards and that kind of thing and the other thing that you have in Sweden is this whole thing with going from cards to going to being chipped they are chipping themselves and so either either they're doing it with with their companies or there's there's a large group of the Swedish that are literally taking those chips that we've been talking about for decades they've been around for decades it used to be called the digital angel of all things and they take these little chips that are about the size of the grain of rice and they stick them right here right right between your thumb and your your index finger and it's an RFID chip which is exactly the same thing as you have on some of your debit cards or F ID means free radio frequency identification and so it sends out a little pulse and it can be read with a reader and it usually what's happening is there's a number that's involved in that that gets you to a computer database but now they've got some of these chips that have up to a Meg of memory on them and so you can have all kinds of information that's just on the chip itself you understand what I'm talking about so before it would just broadcast a number and now it's broadcasting a number it can broadcast a number plus it can broadcast data and so you can have all kinds of identification that's involved in that whole thing you can do transactions and it would just be on the chip of all things in any case that's happening more and more in Sweden it's happening in the United States again really really interesting stuff and so you know I mean the thought is okay I'm going along and we're going towards this cashless thing I mean I have a card I have a number of cards in my wallet and you know they're part of the whole cashless society and so I can I get myself into a position where where I'm actually taking a mark or taking the number of the Antichrist name and don't know it and the answer that is no absolutely not one of the things that you have and this is something that you need to remember when you're when you're talking about issues with the mark of the beast going cashless is not not the mark of the beast it's going cashless and making an agents with the Antichrist at the same time there's an active act of worship that takes place when these kinda guys take the mark of the beast the reason that the angel is going through the heavens and and I'm not gonna go back into that whole thing again but I think it's like literally an angel I think God's opening up the spiritual dimension and letting people see that there are really angels that they're real really demons he's letting people this is and this is a gnarly period of time and so I think that he's letting them actually see because again the the stakes are so intense and he tells them what the stakes are in this situation and so this angel goes through the heavens warning people not to take the mark of the beast and on the side of the beast and Satan you have them warning people they'd better take it or their heads coming off and so you you have this struggle that's going on between God and Satan and these people are in the midst of this whole thing and Satan is putting these people specifically in a place where they're in fear for their lives and one of the things that God says about this situation if you look down again at verse 12 here is the patience of the saints here are those who keep the commandments of God then blessed right blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on so God recognizes obviously and he and he makes the statement that people are going to be dying over this whole issue and he lets he lets us know that those who died over this whole issue are going to be blessed of God in fact later on we see them standing around the throne of God and they're with Jesus specifically it talks about the fact that in Revelation chapter 20 that Jesus takes these people these people who died over this issue and he makes them people who rule and reign with him for a thousand years and so sometimes the stakes are high sometimes they're intense sometimes they're overwhelming Satan in this instance makes it such such an issue that people will be frightened out of their wit's can you imagine Jen your urine as you're in a situation in in this period of time and you have a choice of either taking a mark so that you can buy and sell and doing an act of worship this is stuff that the Romans did with people this is stuff that the Babylonians did with people remember in Daniel chapter 2 no Daniel chapter 3 I believe it is where Nebuchadnezzar decides that everybody should worship this image that he's put up and he says if you don't I'm gonna kill you and he tells Daniel and his three actually in Daniels out of town he tell tells Daniels three friends you're gonna bow to this image and if you don't I'm gonna I'm gonna burn you with fire and they didn't they told him basically to shove it and they didn't do it and so he got so ticked off that he but he he stoked the fires seven times hotter to the point that when when basically these guys are opening the blast doors the guys who were taking Shadrach Meshach and Abednego inside end up being engulfed in flame and died and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego or are saved through the midst of the fire and that's how that's a cool story it is actually a type of Israel going through the Tribulation Period Nebuchadnezzar is a type of the Antichrist the image that he's putting up and demanding that people worship is an is a type of the image that we have in Revelation chapter 13 that the false prophet commands everybody to worship it's 66 feet tall or X 60 excuse me 66 cubits tall and it's worshipped with six manor of music six types of musical instruments six-six-six is involved in in there there's a whole there's a whole bunch of stuff that's happening in that situation and point being this isn't the only time that this has gone on it went on during the time of Daniel it went on during the time of the Roman Caesars if you did not bow to Caesar they would kill you and the way that they killed you was by cutting off your head and so they they considered anybody who would not worship Caesar and the genius of Rome that's what they called it the genius of Rome they if they would not bow to that if they would not worship that then what they would do is they would consider you to be somebody who was a subversive and you were against the state and they would kill you off this is what dictators always do this is what dictators always do they want you to conform they want you to believe the way that they believe they want to want you to agree with everything that they say and if if you don't they become highly intolerant and they kill you off and so again you have this over and over you have it in multiple times in the 20th century you have it with Hitler you have it with Stalin you have it with Mao you have it with the with the guys in Cambodia after the Vietnam War you have it with the Vietnamese after the Vietnam War we left that place and 500,000 people got put to death after the Vietnam War nobody talks about that we stranded a bunch of people and so when when you have these type of people who are in power they're you know there's a lot of a lot of the things that are going on there that are absolutely state satanic and they will pressure you to the point where you bow the knee and if you don't bow the knee they'll just kill you and this is this is the ultimate guy all those guys I think Hitler was satanic I think I think Stalin I don't think I know Stalin was satanic Mao was satanic the the I'm forgetting it I'm forgetting the names of the guys in Cambodia those guys were saying satanic these guys are satanic and this is the ultimate guy this is Satan's man and so he puts pressure on people like no other and what God does is he warns everybody don't do it you may lose your head but you don't want to lose your life and the life that we're talking about is eternal life and so he says you worship the mark you worship the beast and take the mark then you're going to receive the wrath of God no room again for deception here there's no room for self-deception here God makes himself perfectly clear taking the mark again is a ceremony connected with the worship of the Beast and then you have the promise of God's judgment in verse 10 you do this he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation and he'll be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb interesting phrasing the the phrase is basically using a couple of words in Greek one of them is or gay and or gay is a term that originally comes from passion and you can you can kind of figure that out because it's the root of orgasm orgasmic you know that that kind of thing it came to be a word that signified anger is the strongest of all passion so when you read about it in the New Testament this is the word that's used for wrath there's another term FAMAS which means wrath and it's distinguished from or gay in the respect that FAMAS indicates more agitated condition of the feelings like an outburst of wrath from inward indignation I'm reading right now from vines dictionary while or gay suggests a more settled or abiding condition of mind frequently with a view to taking revenge or gay is less sudden and its rise than through months but more lasting in its nature through mas expresses more the inward feeling or gay the more active emotion through mas main issue in revenge that oh it does not necessarily include it it's not character not a characteristic that quickly blazes up and quickly subsides though that is not necessarily implied in each case and so both terms are used in this passage or gay which is a settled disposition I'm going to get you andthe moss is the whole idea of an outburst of wrath for anybody who takes them and so it's not just a warning where God's going you know please please don't do that it won't be good for you it's don't do that or you're going to get all that I have for those who are in rebellion against me that's the idea behind it and so again radical radical situation and mankind's in the midst of it and one hat needs to happen is you need to make the right choice that's the way it is for every single one of us we're going through life and we're being put in situations where it's a choice between doing what the world says what Satan says what my flesh says and doing what God says and I have to make decisions I have to live a life that is an obedience to the will and the work and the Word of God and I have to make those decisions consciously now admittedly when when we're looking at making those decisions a lot of times they're easy for us and I don't want to put my put myself in a position where I'm different than you or something but the older I get the easier this stuff gets I don't I don't I don't sit here you know when when it's a choice between what the world wants to do and what the flesh wants to do what other people want to do and what Jesus wants to do it's no longer this big struggle in my mind you know should I go this way should I go that way I've been doing this stuff long enough that I know if I go against the Lord I'm stupid and I'm tired of being stupid I don't want to do it anymore I don't want the consequences that come from it if I do what the Lord tells me to do there are times when people will get mad at me and not you know you'll lose friends and and there's that whole thing but you gain the best friend that you could ever have that's Jesus so you know I mean what made up my mind a long time ago that when I'm making decisions if it's a decision between you and Jesus guess who loses every single time it's between you and Jesus you lose every single time I think people need to have that settled in their minds and so when it's my family members that family you know my family is kind of tweaked and so there's not a there's not a closeness I'm not talking about my family my wife you just looked over at my wife that's what I want to talk about I've talked about my you know my brothers and my sisters and that kind of thing and so it's been a long time since that's been a struggle but some of you have relationships with your mother and your father and your and your children where it's a big struggle for you to pick between them and Jesus and it needs to not be you need to pick Jesus first one of the one of the cool things about following the Lord and doing the things that God wants you to do is he takes those things and he takes your situation and he tweaks it around where something that looks awful something that looks like it's just gonna divide people you know Jesus talked about bringing up a sword in your family things that look like they're just gonna divide people ends up being something that God uses maybe later on to show people how real you are and how it real Jesus is one of one of the things that I've had people say to me over the years and again this is this is experience and it's been a long time I've been a Christian for you know like almost 45 years now but one of the things that has happened with me over and over is people have seen me make those kinds of stands and maybe they've been on the opposite side of the stand that I've made you know later on they'll come back to me and go you know what I see what you were doing it was a principled stand you did what you did what the Bible said that kind of thing and they turn around on those things not always not always but at the at the very least people know where you stand and people know that you're going to stick up for God stick up for His Word and have a life of integrity and at least you're a player you're not a safe place but you're the right place and when when people get to the point where they're done being wrong you're somebody that they seek out at that point because again if the stands that you make and so it's got to be the kind of thing where where it's Jesus first always Jesus first and I'm not saying that I do that perfectly but it's in the forefront of my mind always it's always in the forefront of my mind I have people asking me stuff people wanting me to go in certain directions I have pressure all the time to do certain things and that is always in the forefront of my mind and I'm not you know I don't try not to mix my will with Jesus's will you know how that can go well it's not God's will for me to do the dishes at this point you know or whatever and and I always try to watch out for that but again what we're talking about is principled stance and you need to make him in you know again the world's gonna force you in those directions I'm actually I'm gonna talk a little bit about this at the prophecy update let me give you a preview here you know what I'm getting done with the whole political thing I'm getting done with with being even-handed with the whole political thing and I have real problems with a Democratic Party have real problems with you know can can you name one commandment talking about the 10 commandments actually when we get to chapter 15 it's gonna talk about the angels of judgment in chapter 16 coming out of the Holy of Holies where the testimony in heaven is verse 5 of chapter 15 look at that after these things I looked and behold the Temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened and out came the seven angels you know what the the Temple of the tabernacle of the testimony is you guys know what the testimony is anybody know it's a 10 commandments you know it's like it's like we have fights over whether or not the Ten Commandments should be over the Supreme Court or over a building in Alabama or those kinds of things 10 commandments is seated in heaven still to this day and so when I look at the Democratic Party I can't think of one commandment that those that that party is not against in their party platform the first four commandments are about honoring God is that something that's in the in the Democratic Party platform and then you then you go on to honor your father and mother is that something that Democrats and for you it talks about don't kill is that what Democrats stand for we've killed over 50 million babies since 1973 and you go through and it's don't take other people's stuff is that what the Democratic Party stands for don't want other people's stuff that's called coveting I want your stuff is that what they stand for you know and you go you go down through the list of the ten commandments and every single one of them they've got a party but they've got part of their party platform that's absolutely against that and I'm not saying that everybody in the rough in the Republican Party is squeaky clean and followers of Jesus I just have a real problem with a whole party that's anti God anti-competitive like this didn't used to be like this when you're talking about you know I just seen an evolution in this whole things since I was a kid in the in the in the 60s and I wasn't some little kid that was sitting in front of TV watching politics but I but I heard the rants from my military father as things were going on and it wasn't even close to what we've got now there was a guy named Hubert Humphrey I read some speeches by that guy he was involved in the 1968 presidential election speeches from that guy talking about Family Values that guy wouldn't be allowed in the Democratic Party today and so again the other you have a situation where the world is getting more and more into a situation where it's either for or against and that's what Jesus said it was gonna go on you're either for me or you're against me and everything's moving in that kind of direction so in this this situation he's warning these people do not take this mark and he warns them in in ways that you don't see throughout the rest of Scripture this is what this was one of those passages that's just radically intense and again I think it's because of the times that these people are living in so you take that mark you're gonna drink have the line of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation wrath and indignation our organ Tomas those words that we were talking about he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and their smoke the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever so how long are they tormented yeah - from the ages to the ages is what that says in Greek smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day or night and so it doesn't end is the point that's being made here day or night who worship the Beast and His image and whoever receives the mark of his name this is one of those clear passages that teaches that when somebody goes to hell they go to hell not for a short period of time not for a period of time of cleansing not for not for a period of time where they're wiped out you know like they get there and pull they go up in smoke or something and in they're wiped out and they're wiped out forever but you know it's like it's it's clear that we're talking about torment that goes on and on and there is no rest again for these people if you could turn over with me to Revelation chapter 20 let's check this out Revelation chapter 20 in verse 10 this is talking about the events that take place after Jesus returns and after he's ruled for a thousand years there's a rebellion of the people that he rules over and that Jesus puts that rebellion down and the devil verse 10 who deceived them talking about the people who rebelled against Christ the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are are they're still there and they talking about the devil and the beast and the false prophet will be tormented day and night for ever and ever okay if you look back at Revelation 19 verse 19 go to the previous chapter this is the second coming of Christ it's return of Jesus and in verse 19 John says and I saw the Beast the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse the one who sittings on the horses Jesus and against his army that's us then the Beast was captured and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped His image these two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone okay and so that's a thousand years before the previous verse that I showed you a thousand years later in chapter 20 and verse 10 they're still there and the devil joins them and they end up being tormented day and night forever and ever and again clear passages that's a it's not an iffy type of thing and so the Bible teaches eternal torment Jesus talked about the torment that that was found in hell over and over again in fact Jesus talked more about Hell than anybody in the Bible anybody in the Bible and he warned this stuff once again over and over you know that the that the lake of fire was not made for mankind Jesus made it clear in Matthew chapter 25 at the end of the chapter that the people who were going to be judged and be cast into the lake of fire were going to be cast into into eternal torment prepared for the devil and his angels so that place was not prepared for mankind it was prepared for the devil and his angels and it's not like God was sitting there when he was preparing it not knowing that anybody from mankind was gonna go there he specifically though you can do this he specifically made it for the devil and his angels and what happens with the devil is he tries to drag as many people to hell as he can and in in the midst of doing that whole thing there are doctrines of demons that the Bible teaches are spouted about if you wanted to keep people from being worried about the choices that they make in their lifestyles would you a allow them to be warned about a Hell where they're going to be tormented forever and ever and there was never going to be any rest for them or would you be tell them oh that's not real what's going to happen is you're going to cease to exist or oh that's not real what's going to happen is you're just going to be purged and you're going to end up in heaven or oh that's not real there's no afterlife at all this life is the only life that you get and then it's blackness and you just again cease to exist which one would you be telling people if you were the devil and you knew that you were dragging them to this place where eternally they were going to be in pain they were going to be suffering they were going to be in torment for the rest of eternity and again being devilish I could be a devil being devilish if I want to deceive people I'm never letting them know never letting them consider that the choices that they're making is going to get them into eternal I would never let them know that and that's a situation that you've got and so that comes from the world that comes from the church you have people in the church who go oh gods too nice to ever do that well you know what we can either take God at His Word the things that he said or we can take your judgement about what you think God should be like and you know again one of the one of the things that you have with the whole situation with hell is that it's a you know it's a it's an intense thing it's a harsh thing and with a lot of people especially people who are were more sweet it's like Oh God do that how could God be so intense how could God be so radical and as they're raising monsters little children who are tyrants and ridiculous yes my wife just had an issue with a lady this morning sent a recording of her child to my wife telling her mother wetters is what she thought of her over and over and over and over again my wife gave her good godly counsel read the book of Proverbs you know and it's like you know it's one of those situations where you look at this and again this is pretty intense but um you know ultimately when you look at what God's got going you're either gonna be with them forever or you're gonna be without him forever that's the point I'm either gonna be with God forever enjoying enjoying his presence enjoying everything that he has for me I'm going to be in the environment literally the environment that God designed for me in his presence is fullness of joy at his right hand are pleasures forevermore there's light there's peace there's joy there's an absence of sorrow there's no more death there's no more pain the exactly what God designed for me or I can reject him the problem with rejecting him is you reject all that because all of that is not found in a place that he prepares for you all of that is found in his presence that's the problem so you're either gonna be in the presence of God or you're going to be outside the presence of God if you're in the presence of God then all the things that you have as far as talking about heaven and that kind of stuff all of that you're going to have and it's going to be an awesome thing but there has to be a relation there I have to want to be with him I have to care about him I have to love him he has to love me all of those things need to be going on that's that's the that's the point of heaven heaven is not about a place heaven is about a person and the the person is Jesus Christ himself the person is the Father himself the person is the Holy Spirit himself and everything that has to do with them on top of that there's a family with them and that's all the Christians you got people who hate Christians and they want to hang out with them for the rest of eternity well I just want my little spot over you know on the side somewhere no there's communion when you get to heaven and admittedly we're you know we're a bunch of racks and so we've got personality quirks and things that you know we bug each other you know you go off on on vacation with somebody that you love and you know it's a 10-day vacation by the time you come back you know being a Christian you're not saying a whole lot but you don't talk to them for the next three months or so because you're so tired of what those people are like and you know and then you're wondering hey why aren't they calling me you know and come to find out they're they're irritated with you too and so we have all this stuff that goes on but when we go to heaven when we go to be with the Lord we're gonna be perfected and so right now you're see you're seeing Steve whinnery as as a work in process then you're gonna be seeing Steve whinnery perfected and I have some ideas of what that perfection is gonna look like here for one the hair is coming back you know and in all the right places not the wrong ones right and so that's all gonna be taken care of nothing coming out of my ears anymore my my you know the the older I get the more ridiculous this gets you got a you know when you get older you have to trim your eyebrows this is nuts why you gotta trim your ears why they're you know can you I think of people who live back during the 1800s and you know you you time out maybe that's why people died when they were like 40 yeah because you get past that and all of a sudden there's stuff hanging out your nose how's the stuff hanging out your ears your eyebrows roll you know and doing all all this stuff and when you get to heaven none of that you're gonna be in perfect shape right you don't have to work out gonna have to lift you don't have to you have to do crunches you don't have to do boards and all that kind of stuff perfect shape you know I started lifting again not too long ago and you know one of the one of the things that I was worried about was crunches and and that kind of stuff because you know the older I get the easier it gets for me to have cramps and and that kind of thing so I get cramps my belt and that's nothing worse than a belly cramp of all things so I decided I'm gonna go into this lightly and so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna do the board you don't you know what I'm talking about you down on your elbows and on your toes you know kind of a push-up position and you just sit there for a couple of minutes cramping at the end of it it's just like ridiculous ridiculous and so you know none of that you're not gonna have to exercise you can eat whatever you want carbs are okay in heaven in fact probably it's nothing but carbs to make up for all the carbs that you didn't get to eat while you were here on earth you know it's tough and so obviously I'm just goofing around but the point is the heavens good and it's not good because it's a place it's good because there's a person there I'm not really interested in streets of gold I'm not really interested in in foundations of jewels and and that kind of stuff I appreciate the God's doing that I think it's a cool thing in the New Jerusalem but the thing I'm looking forward to is God's dwelling place is going to be with man and there's no need for the Sun there's no need for the moon because you have the light of God and that's what Heaven's about it's about being with the Lord and if you don't want to be with the Lord and you don't want to be with his people why in the world would you think that God would force you to be there for eternity so there's only one other place because when you talk about the new heavens and the new earth there's nothing in it that defiles so anything that defiles is outside outside of what outside of the new heaven outside of the new earth outside of the presence of God that's what it is it's outside that's where the fallen angels are going they don't want to be with God they don't want heaven they don't want anything to do with the things of God or with the people of God and so they will be outside and that's when you're talking about the lake of fire that's what we're talking about now let me let me just talk about the lake of fire for just a second is it a literal lake of fire it can be anything that God wants it to be do I think it's a literal lake of fire I don't know I like the descriptions because if I think of a lake of fire I mean you just think you know it's Gollum falling off the cliff with the ring Boop in the lava and you know down he goes and then the ring you guys know what I'm talking about you know in Lord of the Rings that that whole scene you have a guy falling into a vat of lava basically so that's what I think of when I think of a lake of fire I think of something along those lines and if you're there forever and ever it's the idea of a torment a burning torment that never stops and so I think that's a good description other descriptions are you're in outer darkness outer darkness place where the where the smallest animal doesn't die where the worm does not die and you know another number of other turrent terms and all of the terms that are used about the lake of fire about the ultimate end of the the fallen angels and of sinful mankind are terms that are exactly the opposite of the terms that are used of God so outer darkness God is light in him there's no darkness at all and so there's no darkness in the presence of God and these people have nothing but darkness and then when you're talking about torment the Bible talks about perfect peace the Bible talks about having you know in God's presence you know or excuse me at his right hand are pleasures forevermore opposite of pleasure is torment opposite of joy is sorrow pain crying weeping gnashing of teeth all that stuff and so when you when you go through the descriptions of what it means to be in the presence of God and what you get when you're in the presence of God then you go through the descriptions of what it means to be outside what it means to be in torment what the lake of fire is all about it's all the exact opposite of what people get when they're in the presence of God we've talked about this before fish don't know how well how well they've got it until you take them out of water when you take them out of water all of a sudden or problems right and they're doing this oh you know trying to breathe and nothing's going through their gills and that kind of thing it's because they're out of their element and even though we're in a situation where there's a distance between us and God as far as the creation goes there there's not a complete distance we still have the goodness of God exhibited in creation so people in the world think that what's going to happen with them is that on some level their existence is just going to continue and in the same way that they're existing on this planet without God that in their eternity they could exist in someplace again without God and that is not the issue that you have in Scripture when you get when you get to the other side of eternity what you have is either you're with God or you're outside and so anything that speaks of God anything that points to God any aspect of God's nature any aspect of his goodness is just gone it's gone and now you have beings who are completely outside of their element and that involves torment and so you have that and so you know if you want to have a literal lake of fire and I'm not saying that it's not because I have you know it's like again God can do anything he stinking pleases there can be a lake of fire someplace and it's outside of the dimensions that we have and you know there you can't get there from here unless God sends you there that kind of thing he can do anything that he wants but what I'm telling you is when you go through the descriptions they're exactly the opposite of what God has for believers and it again has to do with the fact that people don't want to be with them they don't want God they don't want God's people they don't want to have anything to do with it and God grants their request it's only two places to go you can go with me God says or you can go with the enemy and so make your choice if people are making choices like that all day long every single day again the choice between torment and between having a real relationship with a real God there's a passage in the book of first Thessalonians much a turn over they're real with me real quick first Thessalonians chapter 1 that kind of cements this home oops second Thessalonians chapter 1 sorry let's see starting verse five it says talks about in verse four you could have to start verse three we were bound to thank God always for you brethren as it is fitting because your faith grows exceedingly in the love of every one of you all abound toward each other so that we ourselves boast of you among the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation or I have a translation here affliction those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus has revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes in that day to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power that that word destruction there is a word that means ruin it doesn't mean ceasing to exist it means ruin taking something and making it worthless taking something and wrecking it and so that's the destruction that's being spoken about and then it talks about from the presence of the Lord the idea of being in a place where God's presence is not known by you that's the idea behind that and so you you again have that passage back over to revelation 14 I want to I want to again deal with a with an issue that there is in this passage [Applause] I made some notes oh okay you know what you guys mic you back there you see you see on the next page second Thessalonians 1 7 through 9 down at the bottom of the page can you stick that that one up this is that that passage that I just quoted to you it says in God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven he will come with his mighty angels in flaming fire bringing judgment on those who do not know God and on those who refuse to obey the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ they will be punished with eternal destruction forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power and so that again lets you lets you see what the judgment is there and again that term destruction it's not it's not like our word for destruction it's not a term that means to cease to exist it's a term that means to ruin God ruins these people and so again you have that revelation 14 also one of the things that that's going to come up is because in verse 13 or in verse 10 it says he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and so one passage talks about being outside the presence of God this passage talks about being inside the presence of God in the sense that Jesus is witnessing those things and even the angels are witnessing those things let me ask you some questions does Jesus witness what's happening with you right now do you see him look around do you see him no does the Bible teach that angels are witnessing what's going on with us right now do you see them yeah we don't see them right and so Jesus obviously he's everywhere at the same time the fact that they're outside the presence of God are destroyed from the presence of God doesn't mean that the presence of God isn't there it just means they don't see it there's nothing about god that they see and when you're talking again about the Angels let's see it's the idea of they're seeing the everlasting judgment that comes upon those who have rebelled against God angels and Men and it doesn't mean that the angels and the men are seeing them and so again that's that's the point there and he goes on back in chapter 14 again and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day or night who worship the Beast and His image and whoever receives the mark of his name here is the patience of the saints that's what it literally says in in Greek here is the patience of the saints and it's the idea of this right here this this that that we're talking about this is the the thing that causes us to be patient this is the thing that causes us to endure the word for patience is the idea of being able to endure something that's heavy this is the thing that causes us to endure I'm making choices and those choices are going to be from my everlasting glory or from my everlasting ruin that's what causes me to endure so there are temptations that come up in my life and I have to make choices based on these kinds of things and it's still true I'm either gonna be with God forever I'm gonna be without him forever and I'm making choices that are sending me in those directions that's what helps me to be patient to endure here is the patience of the saints um here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus the commandments of God are important the faith of Christ is important and I keep those things and the reason I keep those things is because the the rewards and the punishments are of an eternal nature this is a big fat deal and I need to be doing the things that God's called me to I know what's right I know what's wrong I need to pick the right just pick the right and the more that you do that the easier it gets and the more that you get stubborn about it the easier it gets it's a choice again if it's a choice between you and Jesus guess who I'm picking every Jesus every single time they don't stinking care what you think about me right and you got to have that attitude and if you don't then you can be swayed you don't want to be somebody who can be bought you don't want to be somebody who can be intimidated you have to be somebody who will stand right okay then he said then I heard a voice from heaven and this is where the encouragement comes in saying to me write blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on yes says the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them and then again the idea is there is the God sees it all he understands everything that's taken place and he's got a reward prepared for these people then he goes into verse 14 and says then I looked and behold a white cloud and again you had this cloud so what's a cloud represent Shekinah it's the glory of God okay so then I looked and behold a white cloud and on the cloud sat.1 like the son of man who's the son of man now that's Jesus 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 who sat on the cloud thrust in your sickle and reap for the time has come for you to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe so he sat off he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped then 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 who had power over fire and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the 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 the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God and the winepress was trampled outside the city and the blood came out of the winepress up to the horses bridles for one thousand six hundred furlongs and so you you have this picture of the Son of Man and a sickle and again the Son of Man title of the Messiah and that's in reference to his earth-wide mission when you have Jesus for referenced as the Son of God it's talking about his deity when you have him referenced as the son of man it's talking about the mission that he came to the earth to the performance of speaking of Jesus as perfect humanity that's what Son of Man is about Bible teaches that the first man was Adam and the second Adam is the man who came down from heaven what Adam didn't do Jesus fulfilled when Adam Cain he caused all of mankind to go into sin he was kind of a federal head for that he was the one who led us into sin got us into the position that we're in when Jesus came this is out of out of Romans chapter 5 he came and he became the federal head for all those who are going into righteousness as a matter of fact revelation or Romans chapter 5 lets you know that when Jesus died he died for everyone just like when Adam fell he fell for everyone so there's no reason for anyone to go to hell there's no reason for anyone not to have the righteousness of Christ not to have the blessings of God because Jesus has already performed that John 1 49 through 51 there's this interaction with a guy named Nathaniel one of the Apostles and Nathaniel answered in the passage and said to Jesus rabbi you are the son of God you're the king of Israel and jesus answered and said to him because I said to you I saw you under the fig tree do you believe you will see greater things than these and he said to him most assuredly I say to you hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man and so in that passage Jesus is called both the son of God and the son of men by the way that angels ascending and descending thing you guys know where that's from out of the Old Testament yeah it's Jacob's Ladder so guess who Jacob's Ladder is that's Jesus Jesus is the connection between heaven and earth and that's that's a pretty cool thing and so Jesus fulfills the prophecies concerning the men after God gives this reassurance of the Saints reward what God lets us know is that there's a harvest coming and at the harvest is ripe when you read that the phrase there in verse 18 the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe what that literally means in Greek is that they're overripe and they're on the verge of being withered guess I've been around grapes I have grapes right and so we have concord grapes and this year we went out and my wife made grape jelly and so we went out and harvested our grapes right but most years what we do is we just ignore our grapes and so we leave them for the birds and we leave them for the squirrels and stuff like that you'll go walking out and they don't get them all and so they'll sit on the so they'll sit in these clusters and you know at a certain period of time right around September so they're just all full and they're you know they're they're really ripe and you can go out and you can grab one pop it in your mouth and it just kind of bursts in your mouth that's great and not too long after that it starts getting wrinkly on the outside and that's you know at that point they're overripe and it's been too long one of the things that you have with God and we've been talking about the judgment of God all through this passage one of the things that you have about God is the fact that he says that judgment is his strange work it's not the one that he wants to do what God would always rather do is pour out grace on people and so when you see God pouring out judgment on people it's always too late it's not it's never at the point where it should come in the sense that they're ripe for judgment God always waits until they're over ripe for judgment you see that with the flood you see it was Sodom and Gomorrah but it's by the time Sodom and Gomorrah gets gets judged it's a situation where you were you have people who are militant homosexuals pounding on doors so that they can rape men that's what you have with Sodom and Gomorrah that's a little far gone that's a little far gone when you see the judgement of Benjamin later on it's the same kind of situation they take a woman and they rape her all night long until she's dead and then God ends up judging Benjamin the guy who put his wife out she was a concubine put his wife out they wanted him and what he did was he gave her gave them her and this guy was a priest he's a Levite and he let them rape his concubine all night long that's pretty far gone and when you read about that in the book of Judges the point there isn't that God was looking down on that and going that's how life is supposed to go the point of that is in the book of Judges it says every man did was right in his own eyes there was no king there was no king in those days so everybody did what was right in their own eyes and by the time you get to the end of the book of Judges that's what you have going on and then judgment become begins coming on those people when you go through the destruction of of Israel when you go through the destruction of Judah you have some of the same things going on there's just blood in the in the streets basically well God says is is the blood of the innocence is crying out to me from the ground the same thing that he said about Cain and Abel blood of Abel is crying to me from the ground and specifically what they were doing was they were giving up their children in sacrifices to bail and to asteroth and and to to Moloch and all these false gods they were butchering their children and God finally went that's enough and one of the one of the things that you got to keep in mind when you're going through and reading those stories you know a lot of times I pay attention to these things I pay attention to what's happening to the righteous because a lot of times we're worried about oh no gods about to get get on God's about to do stuff and what you see in all of those stories are righteous people suffering and suffering for many times long periods of time before God comes in and just wipes it out and again over right over right why should the righteous have to suffer because the wicked are evil why should that have to happen and I think that what God's got again obviously is an eternal perspective you know I can go through some suffering and I'm going to heaven and it's going to be good and all of my eternity is gonna be spent in just radical bliss is what I what I know that's what's going to happen with me can I go through a little suffering get in there because I'm not gonna be looking back on this life going oh wow that was really hard I'm not gonna be doing that I'm just gonna be overwhelmed with the fact that I'm there and it's so good I'm not gonna be thinking about this life anymore on the other hand when you're talking about the wicked what they're getting is eternal torment what they're getting is no rest day or night what they're getting is screaming and screaming and crying and weeping and gnashing of teeth that's what they're getting and so you know how how eager is God going to be to allow those people to go into that and how willing would God be to allow me to go through some things that involves suffering on the off chance that these people will turn their lives around and give them back to the Lord you have some examples of this in the Old Testament too and so the problem of suffering and why does God allow unbelievers to do these things that I really think it has to do with the the love and the grace of God God's God's willing to go a long ways to allow people not to be judged over over six hundred years for Canaan the Canaanites burning their babies alive taking the bones sticking in the sticking them in the footings of their houses for 600 years God allows this stuff to go on people look at the Canaanites and go wow you know God's pretty harsh with Joshua and and the and the destruction of Canaan and stuff like that not harsh enough not harsh enough God's pretty harsh with a you know destruction of the Egyptians hundreds of years of slavery people in brick pits making bricks for these maniacs and and then killing off their children taking the firstborn sons and killing them because they're afraid of population increase with the Israelis you know if I'm an Israeli and you take you know my son is Nathan you take Nathan and you kill him I'm gonna be screaming for the judgement of God I'm gonna be trying to give out some judgment myself at that point and you you imagine the stuff that these people went through none of them none of the people who are on the side of the righteous are looking at that looking at the judgment of God on those people and going wow God little intense you know a little over-the-top little quick on that it's never like that you you see the judgment of God in the Old Testament you see it in the New Testament it's not a quick thing it's something that's measured it's something that many times is again overripe it's overdue and that's where the world's at in this situation you you know again you have this situation where God says enough and obviously Jesus is involved in this whole thing you have the one on the white cloud like the Son of Man let me let me show you a passage out of Isaiah chapter 63 because in this passage it talks about taking these people the the the clusters of the vine of the earth throwing it into the winepress of the wrath of God and trampling it outside the city talking about the city of Jerusalem trampling and outside the city in the blood and now we know that we're talking about warfare here the blood comes up to the horses bridles turn over to Isaiah 63 as a s63 Jesus says you don't usually see him in a verse one it says who is this who comes from Edom with dyed garments from Basra this one who is glorious in his apparel traveling in the greatness of his strength and then he answers I who speak in righteousness might is mighty to save why is your apparel red and your garments like one who treads in the winepress i've trodden the winepress alone and from the peoples no one was with me for I have trodden them in my anger and trampled them in my fury their blood is sprinkled upon my garments and I've stained all my robes for the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come I looked but there was no one to help and I wondered that there was no one to uphold therefore my own arm brought salvation for me and my own fury it sustained me I've trodden down the peoples in my anger made them drunk in my fury and brought them brought down their strength up to the earth and then it goes on and talks about actually I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord has bestowed to us according to all that the or and and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies according to the multitude of his loving-kindness for he said surely they are my people children who will not lie so he became their Savior in all their affliction he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bored them and carried them all the days of old but they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit so he turned himself against them as an enemy and fought against them and then he remembered the days of old and the whole passage goes on I wanted to read the second part because we're so into judgment here that it's nice to have a little grace in there to in any in any case when Jesus comes breath back the Bible says he's got claw robes dipped in blood and it's not his blood that they're dipped in so when you're eating Revelation chapter 19 he comes back with robes dipped in blood that's not talking about his sacrifice that's talking about the judgment of these wicked people that are fighting against him when he comes back and so it's in that passage in Revelation 14 where it talks about the blood being up to the horse's bridle for 1600 furlongs a hundred and eighty four miles 184 miles is what sixteen sixteen hundred furlongs is blood up to the horses bridles I was with a certain guy on my staff over in Israel we were talking about the valley of Armageddon and it's not the only battle that takes place but the valley of Armageddon and talking specifically about blood up to the horses bridles and he mentioned that it's probably not talking about actual blood up to the horses bridles and that kind of thing that it may be the idea that it's been splattered up to the horse's bridle anybody have a horse the muzzle of a horse sits right about here this is this is what happens when I go out with a helpful I have my arm just right here and his his heads right there horse's bridle is right about here okay and so when you're talking about the horse's bridle you're talking about three or four feet depending on the size of the horse here's another thing why are we talking about horses and the reason we're talking about horses is by the end of the tribulation everything's wrecked all the cities are destroyed if you have the cities destroyed by earthquakes and those kind of talks about the cities falling and so if you have this stuff going on you're obviously going to have the infrastructure destroyed there's not going to be the roadways that we have nowadays and so the best way to get over terrain simply would be be on horseback and so you see people on horseback by the time that you get to the end of the Tribulation Period in fact there's carts and horses and that kind of thing that are mentioned in the Book of Isaiah in any case the Bible says that there's an army coming down two hundred million men that's just one army coming down from the north into Israel with two hundred million men if they've got cavalry in that you know again you're gonna you're you're at the end of the tribulation there's going to be lots of horses there and you start to start talking about body mass and when you have the armies that are coming up against them there are armies of the Antichrist that are coming up against them as a matter of fact there are three different armies that meet in the valley Megiddo the Bible teaches and we'll get to that later on and so I real quick just pulled out my phone and started doing calculations and just went okay what's the average size what's the ad for average volume if you take the if you take that slaughter them all and you start letting the blood you're not letting the but the blood is not coming out without bodies in the blood and so obviously the volume starts filling up and you can again it can be literally you guys can be literal up to the horse's bridle and so that's the destruction that takes place at the at the end you have angels involved it's not just Jesus that's involved in this whole thing you have angels also and so you have the picture of the Son of Man on the cloud reaping you have the angels reaping - and Jesus flat out said that's what's going to happen turn bit with me back to Matthew chapter 13 this will be the last verse I just looked up at the clock Matthew chapter 13 you have two parables one is the parable of the tear and tears and one is the parable of the dragnet and it says in verse 24 Jesus speaking the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field but while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat tear is a plant that looks someone like wheat when it's growing but it's not we and the fruit of it is is bad for you in any case he sews tares among the wheat and went his way but when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop then the tares also appeared so the servants of the owner came and said to him sir did you not sow good seed in your field how then does it have tears and he said to them an enemy has done this the servant said to him do you want us then to go and gather them up but he said no less while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them let both grow together until the harvest and at the time of the harvest I'll say to the Reapers first gathered together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn and so later on the Jesus explains the parable to them in verse 37 he said this he who sews the good seed is the son of man the field is the world the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom but the tares are the sons of the wicked one the enemy who sowed them is the devil the harvest is the end of the age and the Reapers are the Angels therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire so will it be at the end of this age the Son of Man will send out his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth then the righteous will shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their father who has ears to hear let him hear in Ezekiel chapter 39 verses 25 through 29 Ezekiel chapter 20 verses 34 through 38 in Isaiah chapter 66 verse 20 in Daniel chapter 12 you have references to this gathering after Christ comes back he sends the Angels out into all the world and he gathers people to be judged in Jerusalem and all the unbelievers are the tares and they're going to be separated out and as jesus said he will send out his angels they'll gather out of his kingdom all the things that offend those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth and then if you look down at verse 47 parable of the dragnet again again the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind which when it was full they drew to the shore they sat down and gathered to good the good into vessels but threw the bad away that's carp so it will be at the end of him I'm joking that was a joke so we'll be at the end of the age the angels will come forth separate the wicked from among the just and cast them into the furnace of fire there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth and so again you have this whole picture of judgment and separating out and so not only is Jesus involved in the judgment that takes place at the second coming the angels are involved in the judgment that takes place at the second coming and everything's repaid everything's taken care of so gentle Jesus meek and mild not so much right and again when we're looking at what the Lord does with us that's exactly what he is he's good to me he's kind to me I sometimes I don't think he's as kind to me as he is to you I get the heavenly two-by-four pretty routinely I don't know if you do but it's it's like Jesus Jesus is pretty upfront with me and what he's done is he saved me out of this world and God has an obligation to judge and justice is supposed to be righteous it's not supposed to be you know this is this is the thing with judges judges are supposed to go by the law they are they're supposed to administer justice they're not supposed to administer mercy they're supposed to do what's right so when you go through the Bible and it says an eye an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that was written to judges and so somebody kills my wife a judge doesn't have the right to forgive them I have the right to forgive them but not a judge and one of the things that you got to remember when you're talking about the judgment of God is if God doesn't judge then there's no righteousness and so when you're you know again when you're talking about a stall and killed 66 million of his own people when you're talking about a mouth a hundred million of his own people these guys may make Hitler look like a junior higher he's killed these people killed hundreds of millions of people and you think that they're not going to get judgment and obviously they are and not everybody's on the level of a man of us Stalin or the Pol Pot or you know those kinds of people but still you have a choice between following the Lord and we're following the world being with God or being without him and that's what the judgment of God is all about so it's a simple thing if I want to go to heaven Jesus is involved here if I want heaven then I'm gonna have to want Jesus if I don't want Jesus and is gonna be a problem because that's what happens about and so there you go anyway let's pray get you out of here thanks Lord again for your word thank you for the warnings God thank you for the fact that I like that passage that says here is the patience of the Saints we have a need to endure they have a need to be able to put up with things that are burdens things that are hard and we need to have a forward thinking mentality in the sense that I know that there's coming a time when I'm going to stand before you and I'm gonna hear things from you and I don't want them to be bad I want them to be good I want you to be well pleased with what you see in me and Lord that's all our desire God we thank you that when we have that kind of heart that you move heaven and earth to make it make it so to make it something that that's real in our lives we're not just in this on our own but we are making choices lord help us to make the right ones god I pray that you'd have your hand on these people Lord that you give them victory and endurance like the passage says and that you'd help their walk to be something that's glorifying to you and we just ask that you do this all in the name of Jesus amen god bless you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 6,427

Rating: 4.8940396 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: O3-RipDdOFU

Length: 77min 5sec (4625 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 25 2020