Revelaton 14 Con't

She's got AI training. Well, good morning. Good morning. Morning. Would you,

Burt, would you open us up with a word? Am I starting too early? You've got eight seconds. All right, well hang on. Uh -uh.

Hang on, Burt. Don't talk to the Lord for eight seconds. And there was space in heaven. You'll open us up with a word of prayer?

Father, we thank you this morning for another day of life. We thank you that we can come on the

Lord's day and worship. Father, we're just asking the eloquence of Mike. We know he's prepared and ready and we're just giving what you have instilled in him to bring to us this morning.

Prepare our hearts also. May this just be a preparation time for our worship service. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. A bunch of sick folk. Open your

Bibles to Revelation 14. We will attempt to get through that chapter today.

And then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion. And with Him 144 ,000 having

His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters, like the sound of loud thunder.

And the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders.

And no one could learn the song except for the 144 ,000 who have been purchased from the earth.

These are the ones who have not been defiled with women for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the

Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as the first fruits to God and to the

Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouth. They are blameless. And I saw another angel flying in midheaven having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth through every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.

And he said with a loud voice, Fear God, give Him glory because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water.

And another angel, a second one, followed saying, Fall on, fall on this Babylon the great. She who has made all the nations drink of the wine of her passion of her morality.

Then another angel, a third one, followed them saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger, and he will be torn with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the

Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.

Here is perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the

Lord from now on. And yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors and their deeds follow them.

Then I looked and behold a white cloud, and sitting on that cloud was one like the

Son of Man, having a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud.

It says, Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.

Then he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.

Then another angel, the one who has the power over fire, came out of the altar, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying,

Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.

So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth and threw them into the winepress of the wrath of God.

And the winepress was trodden outside the city. The blood came out of the winepress up to the horse's bridle for a distance of 200 miles.

So, if you remember, early when we started this chapter, I don't know, it's five or six weeks ago,

I said it seems like these visions are very staccatic. Does anybody remember me saying that? It's just kind of like bam, bam, bam.

And it's almost as if he is seeing these visions and they're just like blips.

Well, they are connected, and I said then that I was going to try to show you how they're connected.

One, on Mount Zion was a reminder that we will be the 144 ,000, which are the people purchased from the earth, representative of the saints,

Old Testament, New Testament, on the earth, will be, our destiny is to be with the

Lamb. And Mount Zion was a real place, but typologically, it was always associated with the dwelling place of God and the people of God.

Then, when you get to the vision of the three angels, the three angelic messengers, that is, well, what does the 144 ,000 do before Christ returns for his bride?

It says here that that angel was flying in midheaven and it was proclaiming an eternal gospel.

And I said that I understand that that angel is not a real, like, seraphim or cherubim flying.

I see that as representative, because why would I believe it was representative? Because the book is apocalyptic in nature, which means it's visions and symbolism.

And even Mike said that we both agreed, if I remember correctly, that's the church. Well, angelos is the

Greek word for angel, but it does not always mean angel, okay?

I look more like a crow, didn't I? You know what I mean. It doesn't always mean cherubim or seraphim.

It can mean just messenger, and we know that because in other places in Scripture, when angelos is used, specifically, one we would probably all remember, if you've ever looked at the

Greek text, is when it talks about John the Baptist. He was the messenger, the forerunner before Christ.

The word that's used there is angelos. So, I believe that that is symbolically speaking of during this time, before this reaper's come, that the 144 ,000 are going to be proclaiming to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people with a loud voice, they're proclaiming, fear

God, because the judgment's coming. That is what we would say is the gospel message from what he is saying here.

Now, then that second angel, during this time of proclamation, says Babylon has fallen.

And we'll get more into it. Babylon, ancient Babylon has already fallen, but I believe that during that time of proclamation, since Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, giving of the

Spirit, the church is proclaiming this message. And in that time frame that they're starting to proclaim that message,

Babylon falls. Now Babylon, in my perspective, as an early date,

I see Babylon as being Jerusalem, because as we get to chapter 17 and 18, you're going to see that Babylon and Jerusalem are joined at the hip.

They're basically Siamese twins. And then we get to the third messenger, and he just talks about that angel talking about, hey, this is the doom during this intertestamental,

I mean the inter -advental time, that the 144 ,000 are being gathered, the 144 ,000 are proclaiming the word, that hey, those who accept the mark of the beast, their doom is going to be fire and brimstone forever and ever, where they don't have any rest day or night.

And during that time, the perseverance of the saints are to continue to persevere on.

Why? Because we're going to die in the Lord. Hey look, there's only going to be one generation of people that will not die.

Okay, let's just be honest. We could be, this could be the terminal generation right now, we don't know.

But everybody is appointed a man who wants to die and then the judgment. There is an exception.

There is going to be a group of people, when Jesus splits that eastern sky, that will not die. Okay, let's just be honest.

But by and large, every one of us are going to die in the Lord, if you're a believer. And it says, we're blessed for dying in the

Lord. And before I get into the reaper's part, why should we be blessed to die in the

Lord? Why should we be happy? Well, if we've understood the book, those who persevere to the end and die, and they die in the

Lord, you have completed your race. You have completed. And we should be happy that we've completed the race well.

That we've finished in perseverance and that we've finished to the end. Hey, and it says that our deeds follow with us, meaning everything that we did, good, bad, and different, it's going with us because there's going to be a day when it's going to be judged by fire, and we'll figure out if it was wood, hay, or stubble, or if it was fine jewels, gold, silver, which will be then refined.

And then what are we going to do with those jewels and those rewards? Are we going to stick them on our crown and walk around heaven with them?

No, what do we do? We put them at the feet of the Lamb. Now, that was a description of what's taking place during the

Advent time between Jesus' first Advent and His second Advent. But then we get to this section where we see these reapers.

It says here in verse 14, And then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on that cloud was one like the

Son of Man. Now, we have seen in this book already, there was back in chapter 10, there was an angelic being, and it had the same qualities in many ways as the

Son of Man. It had a rainbow behind His head, remember that? But it specifically called Him an angel.

And I know there were some commentators, because I got questions, hey, I've read some commentators that said that, hey, that was

Jesus, a picture of Jesus. Well, chapter 10 can't be, because it specifically says

He's an angel, and there's one thing we know that Jesus is not. He is not an angelic being.

He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and He is the God -man. In this case here, it uses what

I would say is an adjective, an adjectival phrase of Son of Man.

What did Jesus claim to be when He came to the earth? Son of Man.

Son of Man. I do want you, I do, we often get confused. And when

I say this, we often think that Son of Man is referring to Jesus' humanity.

It's not. And I know it sounds confusing, but if you read, you'll see to it, when

He talks about the Son of Man, it's actually speaking of His deity. When it says the Son of God, like you just said, the second

Son of God is actually speaking more to His humanity. And I know that sounds backwards, but that's not how the

Scripture has portrayed it. And here's why. Even if you go back to Daniel chapter 7, probably the biggest

Son of Man passage, it says that the Son of Man comes up to the Ancient of Days.

Well, if you look at the characteristics of the Son of Man in Daniel 7 versus the Ancient of Days, they're the same.

So we would go, oh, wow, He's just like His dad. You know what I mean? He carries the qualities of His Father.

And then when you look at the Son of Man passages through the Gospels, I just will use this one.

When Jesus, He healed someone, and they asked Him, why are you doing that? He says, because the

Son of Man, not only does He have the power to forgive sin, I mean, but to heal, but to forgive sin.

And then they picked up stones to kill Him. And why did they pick up stones to kill Him? Because He claimed to be

God. So they knew that saying the Son of Man, because the Son of Man had the power to forgive sin, who has the power to forgive sin?

Only God. So that's why He is associated, that characteristic,

Son of Man as being deity and Son of God, meaning if my son

Luke is the son of Mike, He is my descendant. That's the idea when it says

Son of God. Not that Jesus is descending from God. He is begotten of the Father. Understand?

I don't want to be too confusing, but it's characteristic of His humanity and His deity.

In this case, it says here, There was one like the Son of Man, having a golden crown on His head, and the word that's used there for crown, and I've said this several times in the book already, there's two terms, one's

Stephanos, one's Diadem. This one is actually the victor's crown, which is the Stephanos on His head.

And He has a sharp sickle in His hand. And it says here in verse 15,

And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud.

And He says, Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.

Now, I'm going to just be right up front. This is difficult in the sense of, here it is, we would say a picture of Jesus.

Hey, does most translations have the pronoun Him and His capitalized?

Where it says His head and His hand? Okay, so they even make the distinction that it's not an angel.

It's speaking of Christ. Any time they capitalize those pronouns, it's speaking of Christ.

And it says here that this angel comes out of the temple. Well, where would that temple be? We're not talking about the temple at this particular time that would have been erect in Jerusalem.

It's talking about the dwelling place of God in heaven. And we know that because we get down here again. It's going to say it again in verse 17 that an angel comes out of the temple, which is in heaven.

So, this angel comes out. And this is what's difficult for me. Maybe y 'all are smarter than me.

Why would an angel be telling Jesus to swing his sickle? Did anybody catch that?

No? Maybe I read it backwards. Did I read it backwards? It's still in here. And another angel came out with a loud voice.

And he said to him and sat on the cloud. So, here's this angel. He's going to tell Jesus to swing your sickle.

That's difficult for me. Why would an angel be telling Jesus what to do?

I think that's a legitimate question. We know in Jesus' humanity when he was talking about his second coming that no man knows the time, nor the day, nor the hour.

Okay? If that's what this is talking about. If. That's not the position that I hold.

But if that is what this is talking about, then Jesus really doesn't know. Okay? Like he was saying in that time.

In his time of humiliation. You know what I mean in his time of humiliation? The time in which he came.

And he was in his humanity. And he had not yet been glorified. Jesus was on the need -to -know basis.

Do we all agree to that or not? Jesus didn't know everything. When Jesus came into the world, Jesus didn't have exhaustive knowledge of all things.

And how do we know that? Because not only was the little baby that was in the manger had to live and grow and experience the human experience.

One, in his suffering. But he also said when he was left back in Jerusalem when the caravan had came from his hometown, he was left back there.

There's a little specific phrase that we often overlook that it says that Jesus then submitted himself to his parents.

And he grew in the grace and knowledge of God.

So he was learning. I mean, imagine this. Here it is. You're the exalted eternal son of God.

And you take your prerogatives of deity. And you just... I mean, I often wonder if Jesus goes,

Man, this is tough. This is a rough life. This is really hard, you know.

So if that's what this is saying, is that Jesus really doesn't know because he says in his,

Hey, darling. She's fine. Let her wander about. Is Jesus really...

That's the one thing Jesus doesn't know. Okay? If someone wants to hold that position, you're not going to hear me say they're a heretic.

You're not going to hear me say they're wrong. I would say I disagree. Okay? Because I don't think that's what's being conveyed here.

I think when Jesus was giving that message, he had not yet died, paid for the penalty of sin, preached to the souls that were kept in captivity, which would have been the ones by Abraham's bosom, then led the captive out of captivity, saying,

Look, I was the one you long awaited for. Here I am. I have done what you have put your faith in.

I'm here. He leads those from paradise into the presence of God. And then he is resurrected, glorified, exalted, and enthroned.

At that point, I believe that Jesus had exhaustive knowledge of all things. One, because of the inner

Trinitarian conflict that there would be if Jesus didn't know everything in his glorified state.

There would be something that the Spirit would know. There would be something that God the Father would know, but Jesus somehow don't know.

It would be lack of communication on my part. Okay? That's how I understand it. Now, how do

I understand this? Why is this angel telling Jesus, in this vision, to do this?

One, what is this? It's a vision. This isn't a literal thing happening.

Now, in the vision, does he literally see the Son of Man, John, is he literally seeing the Son of Man on a cloud?

Well, of course he is. That's what he's seeing. He's describing what he's seeing. But he's not giving us wooden -headed literal things to go, wait a minute, just as we wouldn't say,

I don't think anybody in here is dumb enough to go, hey, when Jesus says, I'm the door, they don't think that Jesus is somehow a slab of wood with a knob.

Okay? It's conveying a message. Jesus is the only entrance. I'm the gate to heaven.

I am the way. It doesn't mean that Jesus was actually a cobblestone road with dirt. Okay? When it says in the book that he's a sheep, he's the lamb with two horns.

We don't think that Jesus is somehow this hybrid thing that's got a body of a man and a head like a lamb.

It's conveying a message. And I believe that's what's happening here is that this is conveying a message that there is an appointed time that Jesus will come, and it's from the

Father. Jesus knows that Jesus has always been submitted to the will of the Father, and the

Father is going to say, go get my bride. That's what he's going to say. I believe that Jesus knows that time, but he's not going to do anything.

What did Jesus say? I don't do anything on my own initiative.

I only do what the Father tells me to do. Now, that doesn't mean that somehow Jesus is less of God, but there is economic distinctions, and you know what

I mean by that within the Trinity? God, Jesus is begotten of the

Father, and then the Spirit is then sent forth, okay, from the

Father and the Son. That's how, don't take my word for it, that is how it is even conveyed in our historical confessions.

Can we explain all of that? No, because if you think that you can somehow comprehend all the inner workings of the

Trinity, then you're lying, because there's nothing in our brain that says, okay,

I can fully comprehend 1 in essence, 3 in person. I can explain it to you, okay?

I can, and I have somewhat of an understanding of the Trinity and how they interact with one another.

One, they're not in conflict with one another, because when we talk about being in person, those aren't in conflict with one another from a philosophical understanding is those are two different categories.

So they're not in conflict. But we know here, this is saying there's an appointed time when

Jesus will come. He will come, and He will swing that sickle, and what's the sickle supposed to represent?

Supposed to be Him swinging that sickle and then reaping, bringing in the elect.

I understand the angel as being part of that based on what Jesus has already said in previous things.

And you can go to, well, let's just go to Matthew 13.

We'll just let Jesus' words. This is, and we'll just read the, it's several passages in here.

If you want to go home and read, this is the one that has the sower and the seed and then the sowing wheat among the tares and all of that.

But when you get to verse 36, there's a specific thing that Jesus says here, and He is explaining the parable.

And when He's explaining the parable, He then is beginning to tell you what, why did He speak in parables?

Anybody remember why? One was to conceal truth, and then for others it was to reveal truth.

Those are the two things that Jesus says that's why He spoke in parables. One, to conceal the truth from people who are hardened of heart, and the other was to reveal truth to those who had eyes to see, almost said eyes to hear, eyes to see and ears to hear.

So here it is in verse 36 of chapter 13. Here's what He says, and He left the crowds and He went into the house, and His disciples came to Him.

I love this. These are just like us. Lord, explain that parable to us.

We don't understand. And He says, no problem. In verse 37,

He said to them, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man. Hear that?

Once again, here's that son of man category. And the field is the world. And as the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom.

And the tares are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil.

And the harvest is the end of the age. And here it says, And the reapers are angels.

So just as the tares gather up and they're burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age that the son of man, there's that word again, that phrase again, the son of man will send forth his angel.

They will gather out of his kingdom all the stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness.

And they will be thrown into the furnace of fire in the place where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We've already heard weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that is an actual quotation from the 66th chapter of Isaiah.

Jesus being, remember once again I said, he is the last Old Testament prophet. He was the fulfillment of the old, the coming of the new.

So he's still proclaiming the same thing that the prophets of old proclaimed. You're going to die.

If you die apart from a relationship with Yahweh outside the covenant, what's your doom?

Weeping and gnashing of teeth. What did he say last week when we talked about there would be everlasting torment?

See, so here's the connection. Now, the angels are part of that going and collecting the harvest.

And then when you get back to Revelation chapter 14, he says in verse 16,

Then he, meaning Christ, swung, I'm sorry, he who sat on the clouds swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was reaped.

So here it is. I see this, okay? And we'll have enough time.

I see these, there's two parts to what we're seeing, this reaping. There's a reaping of the believer and a reaping of the unbeliever.

Whether you want to say this, we'll get to another passage in Revelation. You're going to see the resurrection of the living and the resurrection of the dead.

Remember, you've got these constant parallels. Now, before we get to that next section, whether you think this is two separate events, okay?

Whether you think it's a reaping of the elect and then a reaping of the damned.

Okay, I see this as one event, two perspectives.

Okay? When Jesus comes and he has split the eastern sky, it is going to be something that takes place in a split second.

Because it says in a moment, in a twinkling of the eye, the dead in Christ will rise first. The we who are left that remain, that generation that will be when here he comes, will meet him in the air and then we come with him.

At that particular time and moment, hey, it's over. It's over.

Everybody's fate, per se, is sealed. Nobody has the opportunity to hear the gospel anymore.

Nobody has the opportunity to repent. They're not even going to hear the message of the gospel again because it's over.

The reaping of the earth has come. Those who meet him in the air, the dead in Christ, those who meet him in the air, those are those who have been reaped to everlasting life.

The others, what are theirs? They're sealed in condemnation and when we get back to theirs, it's looked as being thrown into the winepress of God where they'll be crushed.

It's actually a bloody scene where they're thrown in the winepress of God where they're weeping, gnashing of teeth, and any time you think about something being crushed, if you were to take a grape and that's the imagery and you crush that grape as it is crushed, what happens?

It explodes, okay? And the juice comes out. What's going to happen to a person under the weight of God's wrath?

It's a grotesque scene. Matter of fact, it's so grotesque it says that the blood is going to run for, I like your translation, 1 ,600 stadia.

That's what yours says, isn't it? 1 ,600 stadia. That is the better translation. And we'll get there in a minute.

So, this is a, my understanding, one event, two perspectives.

If you say you think it's two events, no problem. That's just not how

I understand this text in Revelation 14. So, back to Revelation 14.

So, that reaping of the earth is the gathering by Jesus, the

Son of Man, is to bring in his elect. Hey, and even if you want to go back to the Sermon on the Mount, I mean the

Olivet Discourse, he even uses a passage there where he says, hey, I'm going to send out my angels to the four corners of the earth to gather in my elect.

Now, there's two ways of looking at that passage as well. If you think that that is an end of the age, like this, if you think that is the end of the age, who is he sending out to do it?

His agents are the angels again. Okay? Hey, what are the purpose of the angels? To do his bidding.

To do his bidding. Look, they're servants of God to do whatever he asks them to do.

Well, don't ask. Whatever he tells them to do. He doesn't give them an option. He says, you go do this. Or, you could also see that passage in Matthew 24 and 25 as when it says, hey,

I'm going to send out my angelos to the four corners of the earth to bring into my elect.

That could be also an inner advent time when

God sends out his messengers to then preach the gospel. And then preaching the gospel, what does it do? It gathers in the church, the elect.

Alright, verse 17 of chapter 14. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven.

And he also had a sharp sickle. It's interesting, and this is not part of the seven sequences that we've seen like the seven seals or the seven trumpets or the seven bowls.

But there is, it's interesting when you look at this, this is the sixth vision in this section.

Hey, and it ends in final judgment. It ends in the damnation of the wicked.

So if you go back to the sixth seal, if you remember that far back, four quarters to seven years ago, the sixth seal, that was the terror of the lamb.

The lamb had come. Remember, they were crying, they were saying, hey, let the rocks hide. We were hiding into the caves and the caverns.

Don't let the lamb get us. That is a picture of the coming judgment and return of Christ.

Same thing with the sixth trumpet. That was a picture of the coming armies coming across the

Euphrates, if you remember the demonic cavalry that were coming across, and they laid waste.

It's a picture of judgment. And once again, in this sequence, number six, is a picture of the judgment of the damned.

It says, and another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle, verse 18, then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar.

This you, we've got to remember what took place back in chapter eight. Anybody remember what took place back in chapter eight?

Remember they was praying and that there was an angel that came up from the altar and filled the incense with fire, and then he threw it to the earth, and it was judgment.

I believe this is the same angel. Remember, these are parallels, passages.

What did that angel have power over back in chapter eight? Fire. What does he have here?

Fire. And it says here that the angel who has power over fire came, and he came from the altar.

There's only been one altar that we've been speaking of in this sense in the book, and that's where the prayers, remember the prayers of the martyrs?

You remember? It says, how long before you will avenge us? And he says, well, it's going to be this long until the last one just like you.

Remember the disembodied spirits around the altar? They said, how long before you're going to avenge our death?

And he says, well, it's going to be a bunch more just like y 'all, and when those fill up, then I will take care of it.

This is it. It says that the fire came out from the altar, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, and now we got another angel, telling another angel, swing your sickle.

And he put in the sharp sickle, and he gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes were ripe.

Verse 19, so the angel swung his sickle to the earth, and he gathered the clusters from the earth.

Does anybody else say something other than clusters from the earth? Vine of the earth. Vine of the earth, because mine's in italics, and if it's in italics, that means it really ain't there.

They put that in to help you understand. So, grape harvest. They gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and they threw them into the great, great winepress of the wrath of God.

Alright. Once again, we've seen the bliss and eternal glory of the 144 ,000 that had been reaped from the earth.

Those who had been reaped by the Son of Man, they go into eternal bliss in the presence of the Lamb forever and ever.

Here is those who have followed the beast. Here are the ones who have taken the mark.

And how do you take the mark? By just not following the Lamb. And it says here that they are thrown into the winepress of the wrath of God.

Anybody ever seen a winepress or an olive press in ancient times? You can look them up on the internet.

I went to the garden. When I was in Israel, we went to the garden of Gethsemane, and Gethsemane is the place of crushing, and it is on the base of the

Mount of Olives, and what they did is they put all of the olives in that thing, and they rolled this big stone around it, and it crushes out all the oil, and we often think that the...

because when we eat an olive, we don't eat the pit, but the pit's got a lot of juice in it, so that's why they're...

an olive, it doesn't need to be crushed. It's like... I mean, the skin on it is soft, but the pit's got to be crushed, so they would roll that big old stone around that flat base, and it would just smash all the juice out.

That is the picture of putting something into the winepress of God's wrath, just like you would take a...

to crush the olive, you would put grapes or muscadines or whatever into a press, and you roll that thing around, or they would actually have slave women stamp it with their feet, and that's what would happen.

That winepress would then be trodden by here, by God. Hey, interesting though, if you were to go to the end of Isaiah, you'll have a passage there where it talks about God standing in the winepress, and He has trampled on His enemies, and His robe is splattered with their blood.

This is the image. This is the image. He has trodden down His enemy, and what have been some of the pictures of Jesus?

He's got these feet like bronze. What do bronze boots do? They crush the head of some...

they'll crush the head, yeah. And here it is. They're trampled on at the winepress of the wrath of God, and then in verse 20, it says here, and the winepress was trodden outside the city, and the blood came out from the winepress up to the horse's bridles for a distance of 200 miles.

I do not like 200 miles, and I love the new American Standard, but we have taken American Standard calculations and then imposed them into an idea that is supposed to be in their time stadia.

Does anybody say furlong? Furlong. Okay. It says stadia is 184 miles.

It's pretty close to that, yeah. There is a little bit of... a little bit of discrepancy on that, and the 184 miles or would you say how many furlong?

1 ,060. 1 ,060, okay, because a furlong in a stadia based on ancient is about the same, but you got to know why is it 1 ,600 stadia?

Why is it 184 furlong or 1 ,600 furlong, okay?

It's because... I wish I had my giant map in here I used to have in the other class.

In the Old Testament, there was a way of encapsulating Israel, and they wouldn't say 1 ,600 stadia in the

Old Testament. They would say from Dan to Beersheba. I remember we were at Hyde Park Baptist Church when

I was a kid, and I remember that pastor saying, oh, it was so bad, and he would just be talking however bad it was, something pervasive.

I had no idea what he was talking about. He was, yeah, it was so bad, it was horrible, that storm went from Dan to Beersheba.

I'm like, Dad, what was he talking about Beershebas? And then my dad told me, well, you know,

Dan was the upper, the upper last city before you went into the Gentile land, and Beersheba was supposed to be the furthest before you get into the

Negev, down into the Amalek. Okay, Amalek? Malachi? Beersheba?

Anyway, so it was supposed to be pervasive, and if you did take a measuring rod from Dan to Beersheba, it's about 184 miles, 200 miles, and it is 1600 stadia.

It's a lot of blood either way. Well, hang on, yes, I agree. I agree. And I, because I'm a nerd out on stuff like that,

I had to figure out, what size tank would you have to have to fill up 200 miles or 1600 stadia, but it would have been 7 miles long, 7 miles deep, 7 miles wide.

It's a little bug. Just to let you know, this has to be speaking symbolically, because I don't think there's enough blood in the

Middle East if you killed everybody, because there's only, I think, 1 .2

to 1 .5 gallons of blood in a person. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of people.

So what's being, what's the purpose of using something of that shocking was to show you that this judgment that's going to take place will be total.

It's going to be pervasive. Nobody's going to escape. Why? Because Dan to Beersheba, there is a river of blood that's speaking, remember this vision's taking place in Palestine, okay, or let me say

Israel, because somebody might get mad saying Palestine. From Dan to Beersheba, just a river of blood, and the idea is to be, that's gross, because it looks like the horses are swimming in it, and it's to show you that God ain't playing.

When we look what God does, even to his covenant people that apostatized, that should make us,

I forget who it was I was talking to earlier this week. It was here. I can't remember his ritual.

We often, when we see passages like this, when there's, let's just say it's round figures.

It's 1600 stadia and four feet deep. Let's just, okay. We go, wow, that's bad.

That's bad. God really did something terrible there. I agree. When God flooded the whole earth, we go, oh, wow, that was bad.

God really was angry. When Uzzah stuck his hand out to touch the ark because it was going to hit the dirt, and Uzzah thought that he was somehow holier than the dirt,

God struck him dead, and we go, man, that was tough. Or God sends an army in there to kill every man, woman, boy, girl, infant, and cattle, and we go, oh, wow, that's kind of harsh.

What we should do is not say that's kind of harsh. What we should do is be surprised when

God doesn't do that every time because when God does that, he is acting consistent with his nature, which

God should do that every time, and every time God doesn't do that, he is extending mercy and grace.

Extending mercy and grace. So what we should do is when we see, oh, wow, God actually saved some and killed a bunch, we should go, oh, wow, man, why did

God save some? But what do we normally do? Why did he kill all those people? Because he's holy.

And what he is saying in this picture here is nobody, once Christ returns, the reaping of the elect is over.

Nobody escapes God's judgment. Nobody escapes. And we're going to see this same thing come up again, the same winepress of God's wrath, we're going to see it come up I think two more times in the book.

And it's every time we see it, it's to make us go, that's gross. Let's just be honest.

I mean, if we saw, if we were to go over to Israel and we were to see horses tromping through the

Jordan River at four feet deep of blood, I don't think anybody in here would say, hey, let me get in for a minute.

No, because it's gross, it's horrific, and the imagery is to make us go,

God is not playing. He is going to see to it that His judgment is pervasive and thorough.

Hey, if there's that much blood, does anybody survive? If you take a big stone and you were running over a grape or an olive and it crushes it, is that olive good for anything else other than the juice?

That's it. That's it. I mean, it's over. And that brings us to the end of this section.

So, way back when we started the little book, back in chapter 10, remember?

That actually was dealing with, it was going to have a vision of a prophecy within a prophecy.

And then he prophesied about the interadvent time. We saw three pictures of the church. We saw the two witnesses.

Not only did we see the two witnesses, we saw the saints. We saw all these pictures of what it would be like during the intertestamental time.

Then when we get to the end of chapter 13, and we've seen the beast which rises up out of the sea, and he wants everyone to follow him, we then get to chapter 14, and then that gives us a summary of everything that's been said before we go into the main thrust of the book.

And if you remember, what the main thrust of the book was what? The destruction of Jerusalem for being an apostate.

So now, next week, we will actually go back to the main thrust of the book.

This has just been a summary of what's going to take place between the interadvent time and the end of the age.

Now we're going to go back to chapter 15, and we're going to see this

Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb which has briefly been talked about and go, wow, man, these people are praising

God, and why are they praising God and worshiping the Lamb? Because they're not hung up in four feet deep, 1600 stadia blood.

They're not drowning in the wrath of God's winepress. Any questions? Yes, sir.

I have one. So, you know, in Mark 13, you know, it's like Mark's...

Version of the Olivet Discourse? The Olivet Discourse, yeah. And so, obviously, as we understand that in time, we understand that as the destruction of Jerusalem that is to come.

When that passage talks about in verse 32, but of that day and hour knows no man, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the

Son, but the Father. I know we were talking earlier about the relationship of, you know, the angel talking to the

Son of man. And I might not have heard it, but so do you think that in His glorified state now,

Christ knows... He knows exhaustive knowledge of all things. When I mean exhaustive knowledge of all things, He knows every possibility.

And I can even point to... There was even a time when Jesus knew possibilities because He said...

Like I said, He was on the need -to -know basis. Jesus came into the world. He was doing what... Look, I'm not doing anything that God doesn't tell me to do.

And He is doing what Adam did not do. Adam in the garden was on the need -to -know basis. He was told two things, okay?

Let's summarize it up in this. Trust me and obey me. He didn't do either because if He trusted,

He would have obeyed. He failed to do that. Jesus has a second Adam comes in and what does He do? He trusts and obeys, okay?

He just does whatever. Jesus is... When the, you know, the ship's being thrown around, He ain't worried about dying.

Why? Because His hour's not yet come. When they pick up stones to kill Him, Jesus ain't worried about it because His hour has not yet come.

But He does have... At times, He is... God gives

Him information to peer into so that He can then either condemn people or encourage them.

There's a passage where He says, Hey, what I'm preaching to you today in Tyre and Sodom, if I would have preached it in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented.

That means Jesus even knew the possibilities of what would take place if He would have preached, okay?

In His glorified state, He is no longer veiled in humanity, okay?

He is no longer veiled in the frailness of what's here. Is Jesus flesh and bone?

Yes, He's flesh and bone, but He's perfect God, perfect man in His glorified state.

He's also knowledge of all things. Make no bones about it. But if somebody says, because I know there is a very good scholar whom...

We have different positions as far as dating and all of that, but his name is

Greg Beal. And you got to deal with Greg Beal. He is the real deal. I know it's... But he's good.

To me, he's the best Greek scholar there is to Revelation as far as the Greek.

He is the best. You want to read his Greek book on it and all that, it's only 1 ,208 pages.

You can do it in a month. He says that... He believes in this passage here that Jesus doesn't know.

I'm not going to tell him he's wrong. I just come to a different conclusion. I don't agree with his date. I don't agree with a lot of what he says in there.

But I think he's a solid man and I think he is a man of God and I think he has wrestled with the same things that we all wrestle with.

This passage here, he wrestled with the fact that, hey, Jesus already said

He didn't know, so therefore, if I'm going to be consistent and I have to give Him that, if He's going to be consistent, then

Jesus didn't know here either. And I say there's a reason why Jesus knows now when

He didn't know then is because He was not in His glorified state. Okay? Now that you've asked a very difficult question, you can pray for us.

Lord, we're thankful for His work and blessed to that day should come in our generation.

Lord, we thank You for this time that we can gather as saints and we ask that You would just be with us as we head into worship.

Lord, that You'd be with Brother Keith as he opens the word to us. Lord, that we would be instructed, that we would be in song, and that we would say that it's been good to come into the house of the