Revelation 14:14-20 (Two Harvests, Jeff Kliewer)

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Two Harvests Revelation 14:14-20 June 14, 2020

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Good morning.
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Thank you for allowing us to come into your living room this morning. We're going to sing two psalms to get started, one taken right from Psalm 92.
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It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.
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Through these difficult times, we need to remember to continue to praise the Lord in the morning and praise him at night for his steadfast love and his faithfulness.
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Let's sing together. Good. I make music to your name,
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O Most High. It is good to praise you,
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Lord. I make music to your name, O Most High, O Most High.
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It is good to praise you, Lord. I make music to your name,
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O Most High. It is good to praise you,
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Lord. I make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.
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to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.
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I sing for joy and the sound of your name and the works of your hands,
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O you make me glad.
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And for all of my life, let my song to you rise,
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O Most High. It is good to praise you,
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Lord. I make music to your name, O Most High.
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It is good to praise you, Lord. I make music to your name,
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O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.
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to proclaim your love and your faithfulness at night.
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I sing for joy and the sound of your name and the works of your hands,
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O you make my song,
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O Most High, O Most High.
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Let's sing together. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
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O my soul. Worship His holy name.
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Sing like never before, O my soul.
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I'll worship your holy name. The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning.
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It's time to sing your song again.
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Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul.
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Worship His holy name. Sing like never before,
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O my soul. I'll worship your holy name.
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You're rich in love. You're rich in love and you're slow to anger.
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Your name is great and your heart is kind.
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For all your goodness, I will keep on singing.
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Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul.
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Worship His holy name. Sing like never before,
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O my soul. I'll worship your holy name.
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And on that day is failing.
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The end draws near and my time has come. Still my soul will sing your praise unending.
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Ten thousand years and then forever more.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul.
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Worship His holy name. Sing like never before,
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O my soul. I'll worship your holy name.
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Oh, I will worship your holy name.
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Good morning and welcome to Cornerstone. As we gather once more in our virtual worship service, we hope that we pray that this morning finds you resting in the
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Lord, confident in the Lord. And as we come together in worship, in this modem we pray that we would be celebrating our presence together with the
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Lord. This morning I'd like to turn to Psalm 26. It's a psalm that celebrates God, God's love, and it proclaims a heart that desires
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Him. It's a psalm that comes from a vantage that God is good and whatever else is around,
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God is good and so the heart is drawn to Him. In verse 3 it starts,
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For your steadfast love is before my eyes. And then it goes on and it says, I walk in your faithfulness.
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You see, in this world we're surrounded by conflicting and competing things that can grab our attention.
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On one side there's God because if you look at creation, you're going to see God. If you see
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God's hand in things that are around you, you can see God. But on the other side are the not
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God and all of the things that the world will throw at you, whether it's in television or whether it's in other activities that can draw you away from God, the world is full of not
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God. Being able to see with steadfast eyes,
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God should be our desire. Our prayer should be echoing what the psalmist, what
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David says, For your steadfast love is before my eyes. It is before my eyes.
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It never goes away but the question is, are we taking the time, are we having the heart to actually see it?
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To see God has a few things involved with it. One is we must have faith first and not my own self abilities if you would desire to see
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God. If you desire to see God, we should be in submission to him and not being self -reliant on ourselves.
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If we desire to see God, we should have a purity of heart and not self -indulging.
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Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are the pure of heart for they will see
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God. Blessed are the pure of heart for they will see God. And so David says,
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For your steadfast love is before my eyes. So our challenge to you is to choose to see
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God. You as a believer are empowered through the Holy Spirit with his grace to actually see beyond your own self -will, to see beyond your self -indulgences, to see beyond the distractions of the world.
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You have that ability. Choose to see God. Don't be satisfied with what the world has.
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Choose to see God. That's where life is going to be really experienced to its fullness. Amen. Some announcements are very short and very joyful.
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We will be, on this Sunday with this video coming out, we will also be meeting in person at the church.
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We have authorization to gather, and so the plans right now are going to be only one service.
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It will be at 1030, and it will be predominantly outside in the parking lot on the grass.
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And you'll have opportunities to find a way to sit out there, shelter yourself the best you can.
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The building will be available, and it will be given a speaker for those who come who would like to get out of the heat and into the air conditioning.
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So there will be an opportunity, and there will be the opportunity for the children to be cared for in the building.
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In addition to that, we're getting excited because we think that in two weeks we are going to have a baptism.
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We're targeting the 28th of June. We already have some people that are interested, and we're discussing with them and making the plans.
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We'll only do one a week just to be safe for now. But I really encourage you, if you have in your heart the desire towards baptism, talk to Pastor Jeff.
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Get that dialogue started so that we can get you into the schedule and get you part of our baptisms.
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With the summer months coming on, we're also going to be planning picnics on Sunday afternoon after service.
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More information will come out on that. So for now, let's pray. Father, we rejoice in you.
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We worship you. We join in fellowship with you.
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We come to you with thanksgiving and recognizing your sovereignty and your blessings for us.
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We would pray, Lord, that in all things, our desire would be to be able to see the steadfast love that is before our eyes.
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Father, as we're being released from isolation, I ask, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would keep us focused on God.
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When it becomes free to be able to go out and experience life's activities, keep us from the temptation to forget our intensity, our fellowship with you.
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Let us be tested and tried and found true in our faith to you. Keep us as a testimony to a dark world.
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Lord, we continue to pray for our country. There are things going on that you are sovereign and you have a hand.
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So, Lord, I pray now for wisdom to the leaders of our country. I pray for protection for our law enforcement individuals.
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I pray for the love of God and that we would know the love of God and that we would have love one for another.
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Now, Lord, as Pastor Jeff comes and opens to us Revelation 14, and as we pursue the two harvests,
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I pray for his spirit to speak through our pastor and to prepare our hearts to hear.
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And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Speak, O Lord, as we come to you
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To receive the food of your holy word
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Take your truth, plant it deep in us
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Shape and fashion us in your likeness
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That the light of Christ might precede today
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And your acts of love and our deeds of faith
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Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
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All your purposes for your glory
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Teach us, Lord, full obedience
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Holy reverence, true humility
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Test our thoughts and our attitudes
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In the radiance of your purity
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Cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see
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Your majestic love and authority
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Words of power that could never fail
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Let the truth prevail over unbelief
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Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds
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Help us grasp the heights of your plans for us
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Truth unchanged from the dawn of time
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That will echo down through eternity
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And by grace we'll stand on your promises
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And by faith we'll walk as you walk with us
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Speak, O Lord, till your church is built
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And the earth is filled with your glory
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer and then open his word together. Our God, we come to you this morning with joy in our hearts because you have made us glad.
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Those of us who have found salvation in Jesus Christ, we thank you, Lord. You have done great things for us and we are filled with joy.
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Psalm 126 says it well. Lord, this morning we pray that you would send workers into the harvest field, because the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I am not a farmer, and I've never been a farmer, but I love farmland.
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In fact, a lot of times I will just drive from the church just to get a little break and pray.
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Listening to scripture or a sermon, I will drive out into farmland. You can go just past that Vincentown Diner in Mount Laurel, and before long, it's just farms out there.
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And I did that this morning. I was actually listening to John MacArthur to see his take on Revelation 14, but as I went,
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I was driving through the farmlands and saw that the harvest is coming in. There are blocks of wheat on the ground, and they don't just get there like that.
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The ground brings forth the harvest, but someone must come through and work hard to create those blocks that are just set out in the field.
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Or you'll see these rolls. The baler has come through, and it rolls up the chaff or what becomes hay, and they just leave these rolls of hay, which will later be picked up as they're harvesting the wheat.
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So it's a beautiful thing. I find it so peaceful to drive through the harvest fields and pray, but I know that there's people that must work in order to bring in a harvest.
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I heard a country song by some country guy singing about harvest time. The song is called
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Harvest Time. There's a thermos and a water jug rolling around in the cab, a set of socket wrenches wrapped up in a greasy red rag.
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Bobby's mother pulls in the field, bringing us supper. We grab a bite and make sure to hug her.
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Saddle back up and let the big wheels roll. It's harvest time in this little town. Time to bring it on in.
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Pay the loans down. Makes you want to use the country voice even reading the lyrics here. Fill the diesel tank up and make another round.
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There's a big red moon coming up in the sky. Combines cutting in a staggered line.
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The only time of year we miss the church bells chime. It's harvest time. That's the only time they miss church, he says, is when those couple of weeks where they're bringing in the harvest.
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They work till two o 'clock in the morning. At a quarter to two, I kick off my boots in the laundry room.
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We will start it all over tomorrow at noon. Till it's all done.
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Till we're all done. I love that song. Not because I'm a country, I do kind of like country music every once in a while.
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Just to hear that, you know, that country flavor. But here the point is, harvest time.
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There comes a time when you have to work. And you have to work until it's done.
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And these guys work from noon until sometimes two in the morning. Driving the combines.
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And cutting in a staggered line. The hard work of bringing in the harvest.
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Well, what does it do for me to see that? I watched a couple videos of people bringing in the harvest.
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And you know, it stirred me. It stirred me to want to do the work that I'm called to do.
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And that you, brothers and sisters, are called to do. And that is to bring in the harvest. To go to work telling somebody about Jesus.
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Telling the world about Jesus. To bring in the harvest. It is hard work. I have a cousin who used to be a farmer.
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He's still in the farming industry, but he used to actually physically work as a farmer. Herding cattle and bringing the animals in and bringing in the wheat harvest as the seasons go.
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He tells a story about one night he was so exhausted from working out on the farm.
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Prodding the pigs into their route as he moved them along.
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And he went to bed late at night so exhausted. In the middle of the night, because he was so tired.
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Maybe you've been so exhausted that you begin to talk in your sleep. Or you begin to move around and you're just so in such a deep sleep that you begin to talk.
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Well, he began to speak in his sleep. And he began to herd pigs in his sleep.
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Unfortunately, his wife was the victim of this herding. He was prodding her and pushing her, trying to shove her off the bed to get her to go, in his dream, into the cattle stall.
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Not a good move for a husband. Especially since he was talking to her and calling her a pig as this went.
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So farmers are hardworking people. And we can learn something from that.
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Main idea today. While the harvest is still ripe. While this is the time for the harvest.
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It's harvest time. Go to work. Get to work harvesting. It is hard work to bring in the harvest.
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And now I'm speaking metaphorically as the church. Doing the work that we're called to do.
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We'll see in Matthew chapter 9 today that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
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Because we'll learn from Revelation 14 that this time of harvesting, joyfully bringing in the harvest unto
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God is short -lived. The time is running short.
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There's coming a dreadfully different kind of harvest. We will learn about these two harvests in Revelation 14 verses 14 to 20.
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So the first I'll say is a good harvest in terms of it being benevolent.
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And the second is a harvest of judgment. Both of these occur in Revelation 14.
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So last week we were introduced to the 144 ,000 who are on the
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Mount Zion where the lamb, the genuine lamb is with them. And the marks of them being genuine
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Christians are with them. They are honest and they are blameless. They are followers of the lamb.
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They sing a new song. These 144 ,000 followers are a picture of genuine
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Christians. And then we saw three angels. One brings the eternal gospel and the next brings not the gospel, but a threat of punishment and a denouncing of false religion in Revelation 14 .8.
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And then the third angel brings a warning of coming judgment, the cup of the wrath of God.
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So we come to verse 14. Then I looked and behold a white cloud and seated on the cloud one like a son of man with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
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And another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.
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So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped.
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This is the first harvest. And it is my view, which is a minority view, that this is a good harvesting unto salvation.
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Now, I once had a professor in seminary who it seemed like every class told us about his view being a minority view.
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And if that happens too often, you begin to wonder about the professor because you shouldn't be the first to see something or the person taking a minority view very often.
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And generally, scholars are able to follow in lockstep as they're interpreting
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God's word faithfully. But most interpreters here see this as a harvest of judgment.
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I see that in John Walvoord, the BKC, Matthew Henry. Many commentaries have this as Jesus swinging the sickle to harvest the earth in judgment.
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But I see it differently for five reasons. Number one, look at chapter 14, verse 14.
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He's seated on the cloud. Now, there's no debate about this being Jesus.
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He is one like a son of man. That is a descriptor of Jesus. But here's the five reasons.
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Number one, he's seated on the cloud. He's not yet coming with the clouds with the glory of piercing the clouds as he comes to earth to crush out judgment.
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He's still seated on the cloud. That's a picture of being on the edge of coming, on the verge of coming, but he's still seated on the cloud.
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He's not yet coming as judge. That happens in chapter 19, so that's the first thing.
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Secondly, look at verse 15. The angel that calls to him and says, put in your sickle, which is a command not from the angel, but one that he's brought from God the
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Father. So he's relaying a message, Father to son, put in your sickle and reap, for the hour has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.
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Fully ripe. Now, you could say the earth is fully ripe for judgment. But the word that's used here is exerante.
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And it really means overripe. It means almost beginning to wither.
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It's overripe in the sense that the time has almost run out for it. There comes a point in the harvest where if the cutters don't come through and take the harvest to reap the harvest, it'll go bad.
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You can't just leave the grape on the vine forever, and it would just wait for you to pick it.
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In fact, that's one of my big errors. I grow raspberries and strawberries, and I don't think I've yet to produce one fully ripe strawberry.
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Sometimes it looks, they're so small that you'd think they're not ready yet. But then by the time you pick them, you realize, oh man, this thing is already gone.
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You waited too long. So I don't get this concept of how to harvest in the right moment.
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But fully ripe means that it's past that point. It's almost on the verge of going bad.
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It's almost withering. That word is contrasted with the grapes being ripe in verse 18.
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And that word is ex maithan, fully grown or in prime condition.
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So there's a contrast here just in the Greek words that something is almost gone, whereas we'll see something that's full bloom and fully ripe in the sense of being absolutely ready.
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Here's the case. At this point in Revelation, the opportunities for salvation are almost gone.
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The time is running out. Those who would come must come now because that judgment of the bowls of God's wrath and then the second coming of Christ to crush his enemies, that is just at hand.
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There is hardly any time left. So I see this as a good, ripe picking of the harvest.
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Number three, notice that the gospel had been sown in this very chapter.
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The 144 ,000 of Revelation 14, one to five, are obediently following the
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Lamb. Obedience to the Lamb means obeying the commission that he gave them.
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So these are witnesses. They are obeying the great commission. They're going into all the earth, making disciples of all nations.
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They're sowing the gospel into lives in the first five verses of chapter 14.
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And so you would expect that if they're sowing, there would be a reaping.
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Okay? And not only do you have the 144 ,000, look at verse six, you have an angel joining in the party.
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And guys, it is a party. The opportunity to go, for me to go to Costa Rica and to sow the gospel for two weeks, that was one of the great delights of my life.
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Or going to Turkey when I went and took the gospel to Kayseri. I live for moments like that.
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The mission opportunity that you have to go is a party. It's a joyful thing.
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An angel gets in on it in verse six. He's flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim.
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So you have gospel sowing early in the chapter. And so it makes sense that here in verses 14 to 16, this is reaping the harvest.
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This is the harvest coming in, the last moment harvest. Number four, you also have
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Jesus in a benevolent position in Revelation 14 one. He's not yet coming in a violent judgment.
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In Revelation 14 one, he's standing with his own and their name is written. His name is written on their heads.
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And so that's the posture of Jesus in Revelation 14. So I expect that on the cloud, he's still the one bringing this benevolent posture.
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And in fact, that contrasts with the angel being the one to reap in 17 through 20, a violent harvest.
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So there's a contrast between Jesus offering mercy, which angels cannot do. Angels cannot come and rescue us from our sin.
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Jesus alone can rescue us from our sin, but angels are used for judgment. And we'll see this in verses 17 and following.
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Angels have often been used in that capacity. We'll see in 2
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Kings 19, an angel is used to kill 185 ,000
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Assyrian troops in one night. And that's the kind of things we see in Revelation 14, 17 and following.
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But here you have Jesus in a benevolent posture. And then finally, the kind of crown that he's wearing.
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When he comes in the second coming, in Revelation 19, it says he's crowned with diadems, the
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Greek word for diadems. But this crown that he's wearing is Stephanos.
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This is the victor's crown. This is the green laurel of a champion, someone who's won the battle and is coming back into the city and honored.
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And so here Jesus is pictured as one who has won a victory for us, wearing the
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Stephanos and receiving unto himself the reward of his suffering.
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The harvest. I love the Moravian saying as they went out as the first, some of the first missionaries to cross oceans with the gospel.
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Their saying was to win for the lamb the reward of his suffering.
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He's wearing a Stephanos. So for those five reasons, I see this part of the scripture, this pericope, this passage verses 14 to 16, as mercy, a harvest of salvation, a final last second at the very last second overripe harvest of souls.
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Now notice in verse 14 that when Jesus comes, he's pictured as one like a son of man.
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Now we cannot miss where that comes from. Very important. It comes from Daniel chapter seven.
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So turn with me there to Daniel seven, verse 13. This is the night vision that Daniel received.
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And first he saw the ancient of days, picture of God the father. Jesus is presented before him as one like a son of man.
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One like a son of man. Daniel seven 13. I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, you see the clouds imagery again.
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So it's clearly drawn from Daniel seven. With the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man.
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Well, many people have regarded Jesus as something less than divine and they seize on him being the son of man as if his humanity is all that he is.
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In fact, one of the strongest arguments for the divinity of the son is
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Daniel chapter seven where he's called one like a son of man, a unique man, a unique son of man has these things describing him.
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What other man could this apply to? He came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.
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Is this the application to a man or to God? To him was given dominion.
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Who gets dominion? God does. And glory. Who gets glory?
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Sola Dei Gloria. To God be the glory alone. But the son is given glory, which means he's
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God. And the kingdom, the kingdom of the earth belongs to the Lord, to Yahweh. Well, Jesus is
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Yahweh. That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
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There is one to whom the service of the nations and of the entire world belongs and that is
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God alone. So to call him one like a son of man is a claim to deity.
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His dominion is an everlasting dominion. Everlasting, eternal.
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He's not an ordinary man who takes a temporal throne. He is the divine son who takes the eternal throne and glory and dominion.
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It shall not pass away and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. Jesus recognized this about himself and those who rejected him rejected this very thing.
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In Mark chapter 14, verse 61 to 64, Jesus is pressed by the high priest questioning him just before the crucifixion.
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And he's deriding him and asking him questions, but Jesus remains silent.
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Mark 14, 61 to 64. But he remained silent and made no answer.
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Again, the high priest asked him, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed?
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And Jesus said, I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.
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And the high priest tore his garments and said, what further witness do we need?
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You have heard his blasphemy. So when Jesus claims to be the son of man 25 times he claims that in the book of Matthew alone.
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When he claims to be the son of man, he's claiming to be the divine son as written about by the prophet
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Daniel. Jesus often accepted worship from people.
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Very often people would, the disciples would bow down before him, proskuneho, and worship him.
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And Jesus never said, oh no, don't worship me, worship God alone. Instead, he accepted the worship of men.
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Here he does the same thing. He accepts the everlasting dominion, the service of the nations. He claims to be
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God. This is one of the great proofs of the deity of Christ. Mark 14, verses 61 to 64.
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Then in 15 to 16, we see he's bringing in the harvest.
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It's overripe, it's ready. Turn with me to Matthew chapter nine, verse 37 to 38.
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Because if this in Revelation 14 refers to a time when it's almost done, there's just not much time left.
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There is a running out of time. But here in Matthew nine, we see the present condition of the harvest.
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Brothers and sisters, let this be a call to get back to work in the gospel.
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Get back to passing out tracts. Get back to handing out Bibles. Go to your neighbors. Give them invitations to church.
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Give them a book that they can read which points them to the Messiah. Do the work of the harvester.
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It's long and hard work. You must sow and sow and sow in tears.
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And then you'll reap in joy. Psalm 126, where it says, the
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Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy. It goes on to talk about the sower goes out in tears because the thing that you must sow is your time, your talent, your treasure, everything you are.
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You must pour yourself out. You must give away your reputation to your neighbors that they would say in their heart of hearts or to their friends, what's with that religious fanatic?
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And you would be embarrassed by that. You must die to yourself and sow in tears because when you do that and you sow great seed far and wide, you will see the harvest coming in, believers being saved, and it will be the joy of your life.
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Psalm 126, verse three through six teaches this principle of sowing in tears but reaping in joy.
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There is no joy like harvesting in this earth. The joy of a farmer when the harvest is in and his debts are paid after all those months of work in tilling the soil, preparing the soil, seeding the soil, and then finally to bring in that harvest, it is joy and it is rest and it is peace.
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Christian, these things are available to you, joy and rest and peace. But see, you have to go and work.
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Matthew chapter nine, verse 37. Well, first notice the compassion that Jesus has in verse 36.
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He sees people as sheep without a shepherd. His heart breaks for them. He has a love for people.
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He wants people to know the Christ and not be lost. He has compassion. We must have compassion on the lost.
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Otherwise, we'll be content in our hot tubs, content in our living rooms, content with our comforts and our food that are given by God.
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And to be thanked, we should thank him for those things. But how can we sit in comfort when the sheep are harassed and helpless without a shepherd?
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And you, Christian, know the good shepherd. John chapter 10, Psalm 23.
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You know the shepherd. You can bring them to the one who can lead them to everlasting life and springs of water.
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He had compassion on them. We must also. They're like sheep without a shepherd. And then verse 37 and 38.
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This is Matthew nine, 37 and 38. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
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There are few laborers. Even among the Christian church, there are few worldwide laborers.
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But you, brother, you, sister, you are a laborer. Go and do the work. Therefore, pray earnestly to the
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Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. This is our prayer at this church that every one of us who belongs to Cornerstone Church as a member, regular attender, or just somebody that's influenced by our teaching and by the ministry here to pray that each one would become a worker in the harvest field, a disciple maker who's willing to sow in tears in order to reap in joy.
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So that's the joyful news here. I believe firmly that Revelation 14 verses 14 to 16 are about a harvest unto salvation.
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The Son of God is still swinging the sickle of harvesting, bringing in the harvest of the nations.
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And that's what we have. And then we move on to the second half, which is a drastically and dreadfully different kind of harvest.
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This is not a harvest of mercy, a harvest unto salvation. This is a coming harvest of judgment.
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Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
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And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire. I think that altar refers to the
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Revelation 6 altar where the martyred saints are praying before God constantly, symbolically at the altar.
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They're pleading, and their prayers rise like incense. Keep praying for the ones who don't know
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Christ. Those prayers rise like incense. Another angel came out from the altar.
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See, the time is short. The angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe, fully grown in prime condition, ripe for trampling.
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Remember the song? He's trodden down. I'm never good with lyrics. The Grapes of Wrath.
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Were the grapes of wrath or whatever? You guys know the song, Grapes of Wrath, right?
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Well, it refers to this, and especially verse 19. So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
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These are grapes being trampled out. You've seen how a winepress is like a giant vat, and someone will get in there with bare feet and trample out the grapes, and the juice of those grapes would then flow underneath and be released and carried into containers.
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And the winepress was trodden outside the city and blood flowed from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle for 1 ,600 stadia.
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Angels cannot save. Instead, they reap a different kind of harvest.
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Here, God uses the angels. We see this in Matthew 13, where he sends the angels to gather the weeds that are going to be thrown into a fire.
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Here, the angel comes to harvest judgment. Put in your sickle and gather the cluster from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.
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In 2 Kings 19, there was an Assyrian leader,
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Rapshaka, who was talking trash against Israel and saying that the gods of the
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Assyrians and the army of the Assyrians will crush your gods as they have crushed the gods of every nation.
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And they came upon Jerusalem ready to destroy. Hezekiah turned to the
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Lord in prayer, and Isaiah the prophet brought a message saying, Have I not told you that long ago
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I planned this of the Assyrians, that they would trample on nations? This was all planned, that God had determined the extent and power of the
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Assyrian army. But then the prophet Isaiah tells him that God will repel this threat.
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These troops from Assyria who have surrounded the city of Jerusalem, intent to destroy.
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And that night, an angel of the Lord went out and destroyed 185 ,000
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Assyrian troops, diminished them to a pool of blood.
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One angel, one night. This is the power of God and the judgment of God.
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And I think this is what's happening in this passage. Notice in verse 19, the angel swings a sickle across the earth to bring this harvest in.
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So there's some supernatural, I don't think it's a visible sickle. This angel is in a spiritual place.
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And yet his spiritual power can affect the events of earth because in verse 20, it says, the winepress was trodden outside the city.
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So it locates this outside the city, of course, is Jerusalem in this context. So outside of Jerusalem, there is bloodshed.
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And the blood flowed from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle for 1 ,600 stadia.
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1 ,600 stadia. It's the size of New Jersey. I think what's happening here is an army is coming against Israel, seeking to destroy that remnant.
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Perhaps it's the believing remnant that's now fled to the hills. We saw earlier in Revelation that they're probably hiding somewhere around Petra, out in the region of Edom in the wilderness.
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These people are coming after the believing Jews, could include the 144 ,000.
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And as they approach Jerusalem, they get no farther. They are wiped out by an angel.
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Now, Walvoord sees this as a figurative horse's bridle. There's not a river of blood that's this high.
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But symbolically, blood is spattered to that height. It's just a complete massacre of an entire army that stretches the size of the state of New Jersey.
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This is the wrath of God executed against the enemies of God. A dreadful and terrible and scary thing.
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He's trampling out the gates of wrath. So the gospel has done this. From the time of Pentecost, when the
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Holy Spirit fell on the first believers in Jerusalem, they were told in Acts 1 -8 that they would be witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth, going all the way out to the ends of the earth.
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What seems to be happening here is the gospel has gone from Jerusalem to Erie and Jaya.
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There's a book by that name. From Jerusalem to Erie and Jaya. It's referring to the missions movement as the gospel has gone out to the ends of the earth and all the way around the globe.
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I actually know a missionary. He and his wife and their kids moved to the jungle of Erie and Jaya probably back in the 1960s and brought the gospel to tribes that had never heard the name.
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And wow, what a privilege to bring the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.
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And now the gospel has circled back around and it seems that the only place without a really strong contingent of Christians is right around Jerusalem.
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The surrounding Muslim nations that surround Jerusalem. Now you see everything collapsing back in upon Jerusalem.
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And this, I think, includes a physical attack on the city. So it's collapsing back into the starting point and we'll find that's where Christ will land in Revelation 19.
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So from Jerusalem to Erie and Jaya and now there's a back to Jerusalem movement where the Great Commission has circled, as we've obeyed the
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Great Commission, the church has circled the globe and is now closing back in on the starting point of Jerusalem.
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Fascinating stuff. So how do we apply this teaching then? Well, if I'm correct, and I'm always correct.
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No, just kidding. If I'm right though about this interpretation, the first harvest is a harvest unto salvation.
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There's still a little bit of time left in these last seven years and now this is toward the very end of the
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Great Tribulation. The bulls of wrath happen in great succession. Babylon falls. Mystery Babylon.
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Political Babylon. In chapter 19 you have the Lord Jesus returning in glory. The Battle of Armageddon is the crushing of all of the enemies of Messiah.
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He comes in power as a judge. He came the first time to offer mercy.
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The second time he comes as a judge. The two appearances of Jesus. So here we have two harvests.
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The first harvest is still happening. The time is now. It is harvest time right now as that country singer sang about.
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It's happening physically in the farms of our country, but spiritually, brothers and sisters, now is the time to go preach the gospel like never before.
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When the Lord comes, what will he find us doing? Will he find us about the master's business?
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I was just talking to my good friend, Bill Luebkman. He and I were on a walk and we were talking about the nearness of Christ's coming and the long -term planning that is necessary to continue until he comes because no man knows the day or hour.
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So is it wise to build a building as a gospel tool for the harvest? If the
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Lord comes within a year, maybe we should just take every resource and throw it not to the long -term, but to the short -term.
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But if he tarries, maybe that building, like the people in 1990 who built this building and gave us this opportunity for Christians to come and hear the word of God, maybe that's an investment to make.
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But Bill Luebkman said something wise to me. He said, listen, if the Lord comes at the rapture and finds you laying bricks, you will be about the master's business.
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If those bricks are for a building, for a church building, if you're building that for the harvest, you're about the master's business.
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So there's many different pieces to harvesting. One man drives the combine.
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Another, parallel to him, drives a truck that receives the wheat.
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Sometimes the farmer leaves a trail of the hay because he knows he's going to send his animals out into that same field in the next season and they'll graze upon that hay.
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Others bale the hay. There's balers and there's combine drivers. And then there's Bobby's mom who comes with supper.
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All of you, brothers and sisters in the church, you throw yourself into the work that God has called you to do.
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I know my job is to stand here on a weekly basis and proclaim Jesus is
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Lord. He's coming. He is the King of Kings. He offers you salvation. Let's be about the business of our
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King. Not everybody has the gift of an evangelist. We have some people in our church. I think of Tim Robinson, for example.
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His heart beats to tell other people about Jesus. It's his passion. He does it all the time. But 2
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Timothy 4 tells us, do the work of an evangelist. That command, that imperative, is not just given to those who have the gift of evangelism.
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It's given to every last one of us. So whether you're gifted at it and it's the natural outflow of your heart, it's your passion all day long, or it's something you have to force yourself to do.
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Workers, farmers, you have to force yourself to get out of bed after working till 2 o 'clock in the morning to make it back into the field.
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Stir up that passion for the sake of the name and do it for compassion for the lost because there's coming a dreadful harvest upon those who do not know him.
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So get to your neighbors. During this pandemic, I've tried to reach every neighbor to hundreds of houses with flyers inviting them to come to a
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Cornerstone worship service online. And now we've had four services in a row outdoors. We're having another one this week.
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Get out there and invite your neighborhood to come to the harvest, the harvest party, where we celebrate that Christ has brought us in, brought us in to belong to him.
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We're the wheat in that analogy. We belong to him and are brought to him. So brothers and sisters, let's be about the master's business.
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Hopefully next week we'll have a surprise for you on the 21st, Sunday the 21st.
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Michael and I have been working behind the scenes to give you a tool that you can use. And amazingly,
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Revelation chapter 15 verse 1 ties in perfectly with what it is.
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I won't spoil it today. I'll keep you on the edge of your seat. But on the 21st, we have something.
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It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's something cool that all of us can do to stir us up for a summer of evangelism.
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The harvest time. The harvest is plentiful. The workers are few. So we're gonna do something to try to bring all of us on the same page to go and reap the harvest of the
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Lord. Let's pray. Lord, you taught us this in Matthew chapter 9. Pray to the
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Lord of the harvest to send workers into the field. So we do right now,
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Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus that you would stir up every person associated with Cornerstone Church to go to work because it's harvest time.
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I pray that you put tracks in every one of our hands. Bibles, Gospels of John, books.
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That proclaim your glory and who you are. Online invitations.
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That we would send sermons to friends and family. That we would not be ashamed of the gospel.
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We are not ashamed, Lord. Romans 1, 16. We pray that over all of our church that you would stir us up to do the work of the evangelist.
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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. ♪
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His love that came forth to a sinner's cross ♪ ♪
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You broke my shame and sinfulness ♪ ♪
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You rose again victorious ♪ ♪
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Faithfulness none can deny ♪ ♪
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Through the storm and through the fire ♪ ♪
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There is truth that sets me free ♪ ♪
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Jesus Christ who lives in me ♪ ♪
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You are stronger, you are stronger ♪ ♪ Sin is broken, you have saved me ♪ ♪
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It is written, Christ is risen ♪ ♪ Jesus you are
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Lord of all ♪ ♪ It came to seek and save the lost ♪ ♪
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You are stronger, you are stronger ♪ ♪
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Sin is broken, you have saved me ♪ ♪
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It is written, Christ is risen ♪ ♪ Jesus you are
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Lord of all ♪ ♪ You are stronger, you are stronger ♪ ♪
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Sin is broken, you have saved me ♪ ♪ It is written,
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Christ is risen ♪ ♪ Jesus you are Lord of all ♪ ♪
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You are stronger, you are stronger ♪ ♪ Sin is broken, you have saved me ♪ ♪
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It is written, Christ is risen ♪ ♪ Jesus you are
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Lord of all ♪ I hope that's your prayer.
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Bring it to mind. ♪ You are stronger, you are stronger ♪ ♪
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Sin is broken, you have saved me ♪ ♪
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It is written, Christ is risen ♪ ♪