Revelation Part 13 - Pastor Josiah Shipley

They sing the song of Moses, servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, listen to this, great and amazing are your deeds,

O Lord God the Almighty. Hey Michelle!

We got something going on on the 21st, don't we? You mean March 21st? Yes, I do. Oh, are you talking about the spring break block party?

I am. Where on earth am I going? You're gonna be at Witten Baptist Church, which is 6773

Macon Road. It's right on the corner of Witten and Macon, across from the Walgreens. We're gonna have free hot dogs.

I like free. Popcorn, snow cone machine, and cotton candy.

Also, it's not just food. We're also gonna have games. So, you know, little hoops and we've got some other other games going on.

The first 100 families to come to our spring break block party on March 21st from 4 to 7 p .m.

will receive a free gift bag, and that's actually what I was just working on right now. Do we have a slide? We do have a slide.

Should I post it right now? Yes, post the slide right now. Good evening and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah Shipley of Witten Baptist Church.

We are on, what, part 13 of the book of Revelation? Yes, Revelation, not revelations.

God only needed one, and we are finishing up chapter 14 today and probably getting through chapter 15.

We'll see how far we can get. Excited to be with you guys. Without further ado, let's dig into the

Word of God. We left off in verse 14, so I'll read there. Revelation 14, verse 14.

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud, one like a son of man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

And another angel came out of the temple, calling out with a loud voice to him, and said unto the cloud, Put in your sickle and reap, for your hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.

So he sat on the cloud and swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who had authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had a sharp sickle,

Put in your sickle and gather the cluster from the vine of the earth, for the grapes are ripe.

Verse 19. So the angel swung his sickle across the earth, and gathered the great harvest of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

And the winepress was trodden out of the city, and the blood flowed from the winepress, as high as the horse's bridle, for sixteen hundred stadia, which is roughly a hundred and eighty miles.

Alright, there's the rest of chapter 14. This vision at the beginning is a clear reference to Daniel 7.

The Son of Man is Jesus, and he's given authority to rule, and his kingdom is an everlasting dominion that has no end.

And remember, this is why, you know, God may call other human beings

Son of Man, but Son of Man is also a messianic title, a title about the

Messiah, about Jesus, and it's clear from Daniel 7. In fact, in the Gospels, I can't remember the exact number, but I think the term

Son of Man is used eighty times. In 78 of those times, it's Jesus referring to himself as the

Son of Man. He clearly was wanting all of his listeners to see him as a fulfillment of Daniel 7.

So, he will have an everlasting dominion and will have no end.

Now, we kind of have two harvests here, one of the earth and one of the grapes.

If you view them as different harvests, this could very easily be a flashback to the

Rapture, where he gathers all his to his own, or you could view it as the same harvest, just in a different way.

But either way, this harvest ends in judgment, the second one.

So, you know, you've heard the book of the Grapes of Wrath. That's where it comes from. Notice that the grapes are put into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

Now, guys, this gets a little visual here. It gets a little, how am I trying to say this?

Explicit, if you will, but it's the Bible. The great winepress was trodden outside the city, and the blood flowed from the winepress as high as the horse's bridle for a hundred and eighty miles.

So, there's a great winepress of God's wrath, and he bore a throne in it, and it is trodden, and the blood flows for a hundred and eighty miles as high as the horse's bridle.

This is a clear look into the return of Jesus. I'll read the return of Jesus in Revelation 19.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. He has a name written that no one knows but himself. He's clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the

Word of God. Sound like John chapter 1? Hmm, I wonder who wrote the book of Revelation? John.

14. The armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword, which is to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

Interesting, 2nd Thessalonians says Jesus will kill the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, with the breath of his mouth.

Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword. He will, here it is, verse 15 of chapter 19, he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God.

God Almighty, excuse me. So it says here that Jesus is the one who is going to tread the fury, the winepress of fury of the wrath of God the

Almighty. So chapter 14 ends with a look into what's about to happen, that is

Jesus coming back, okay? So chapter 15 is going to be a return to our judgments of seven.

Remember we have our seven seals, our seven trumpets, and our seven bowls? Well the seventh bowl ends with the return of Jesus at the end of it.

So chapter 14 is a look forward to, hey this is what's about to happen at the end of these seven bowls, and he's coming back.

And just like at the end of chapter 14, the winepress is trodden, Jesus is the one who treads on the winepress of God's wrath.

Jesus is the one who divvies out that wrath to those who refuse to obey.

Okay, chapter 15. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.

Again, we can say after the bowls the wrath of God is finished because the last bowl ends with the return of Jesus.

Okay, verse 2. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with the harps of God in their hands, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the

Lamb, saying, great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty, just and true are your ways,

O King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. After this

I looked, and the sanctuary of a tent of witness in heaven was opened, and out of the sanctuary came seven angels with seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen with gold sashes around their chest.

And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with the smoke of the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of seven angels were finished.

Okay, I want to focus in on verse 3 and 4. I want to focus in on those two verses, and when we get done with those two verses, we'll be done.

Let's read that again. Chapter 15, verse 3 and 4. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of the

God, that is a reference to Exodus 15, when the people of Israel, and it's mentioned in Deuteronomy at the end,

I believe, when the people leave Egypt, people of God leave

Egypt, after he delivered them from all those plagues, they sing a song of redemption, a song of deliverance.

Okay, here, kind of the same thing, after making it out of all these plagues, the people of God who have lived during the tribulation, who were saved after the rapture, if you will, they're singing a song of redemption.

This is the remnant. But this is also the people who were killed.

It says, these are the ones who conquered the beast in its image. When you go back to Revelation 12, how did they conquer them?

By the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, because they loved not the lives, even unto death. These are the believers who were martyred.

They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, listen to this, great and amazing are your deeds,

O Lord God the Almighty. Just ensure your ways,

O king of the nations, or king of the ages, your Bible may say king of the saints, but it's fine, because it's about to make clear, it means everybody, who will not fear our

Lord and glorify your name, for you alone are holy. All nations will come worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty. Ὁρὶ ὁ Θεὸς ὁ Παντακρατὸς.

I'm gonna read it to make sure I said it right. Ὁρὶ ὁ Θεὸς ὁ Παντακρατὸς.

In Greek, the Lord God, the, now, Παντακρατὸς, your

Bible is probably gonna say the Almighty, a reference to the

Old Testament, El Shaddai. However, the word here literally means, παν means all, κρατὸ means ruling, or force, so it means the all -ruling, the all -force, the all -dominion.

I think a good translation would be the universal sovereign. The universal sovereign.

So, great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the all -ruler, the ruler of all, the universal sovereign.

Just ensure your ways, O king of the ethnos, king of the nations.

Verse 4, who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name, for you alone are holy.

Now, the regular word for holy is ἁγεὺς, it means set apart, on a different level.

Here we have a different word for holy, it's not the regular word for holy, I believe this is ὁσιὺς, and my point in saying that is, that normally, ὁσιὺς.

Normally, ἁγεὺς is the word for holy, but here the word ὁσιὺς means undefiled.

Now, why would John use that word here? Or why would these

Christians who have been martyred use that word here? Let me show you why. So, you alone are undefiled.

He's the only one who is undefiled in all his ways. Just ensure his deeds are his ways, all nations will come and worship.

By the way, Brother Hunter, a few weeks ago, I told you guys about this, gave a great definition of worship.

Worship is whatever you do in obedience to God. See, praise is with the mouth, worship is with the heart.

The word for worship literally means, to lay down as a dog before its master.

That's what worship is, and he is our master. Now, why is he alone undefiled?

Why will all nations come and worship him? Because, the end of verse four, all your righteous acts have been revealed, manifested, made known, shined light on.

Guys, I'm going to be honest with you, sometimes I read the Bible, like, the flood, or here, the end of Revelation 14 with the wine press and all the blood, and I'm like,

God, that's a lot of death.

And not even in a disrespectful, blasphemous way, but if I'm being honest, sometimes

I'm like, God, couldn't you have done that a different way? Couldn't you have?

God, why did you allow this to happen? God, why did you allow this to happen? Now, I know the theological answer to that.

I know about primary and secondary causes. I know how I would answer that if a person,

I know how to answer that. But sometimes I'm still like, man, Lord, couldn't you have done it another way?

Look at verse four again, and this brings me so much peace. Who will not fear our

Lord and glorify your name? For you alone are wholly undefiled. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed, manifested, made known.

One day, guys, I will be able to see the tapestry that God has been making all along.

One day, I will be able to see the symphony he has been conducting the whole time, that when you just get an individual piece, it doesn't sound very beautiful.

But when you see it as a whole, it sounds gorgeous. One day, his righteous acts are going to be revealed, and you and I will be able to look back at time, which won't exist for us anymore.

We'll be able to look back at time and say, oh, yep, that right there was the good, righteous, loving, and merciful thing to do.

Now, if that sounds crazy to you, just stay in the tension with me for a minute and live here.

I don't have to understand how every single act God has ever done or permitted was the good, righteous, perfect, and merciful thing to do, but I have to believe right here that one day

I will know that. It will be revealed. See, I don't have to know all the answers. I just have to trust and believe

God. One day, we will all be able to look back and say, yep, that was the right call,

God. That was the good, righteous, perfect, merciful thing to do, and we will all agree that that was the righteous thing to do.

Right now, I'm not going to understand everything he does or permits, but one day I will be able to see it all and see that it was the good, perfect, righteous, and merciful thing to do, even if it doesn't look like that from my vantage point.

I've got to trust God and that his ways are higher than mine. Even now, with the paradigm that I see the world through,

I've got to trust that it's full that he is God and I am not. Okay.

Very good. Well, that is the highlight for me of chapter 15.

Beautiful. His undefiled, his righteous acts are going to be revealed to us one day. Next week, we will pick up on chapter 16.

We're getting there, guys. We're getting there. Chapter 16, the seven bowls of God's wrath. It's a doozy, so be ready for that.

I love you guys very much. I hope this was a blessing to you somehow, someway. As always, make sure to tune in to Tuesday Night Bible Study.