The Harvest of the Earth: The Wheat and the Grapes - Glorious Hope | Studies in Revelation

Well, I don't think anyone here would doubt the care needed

to interpret Scripture.

Some portions of God's Word are easier to understand than others,

while passages, including many that we've looked at in Revelation,

that, and by the way, Exodus as well, can on first reading, appear

to have a meaning beyond our comprehension.

I openly confessed last Sunday morning that when I read it, read

last Sunday morning's passage in Exodus, I had no idea what it

meant.

And it took a week to work through it and pray through it to

see what that meaning would be.

And if I'm honest, the passage this morning was a little bit like

it.

And there is a truth in all of this.

And the truth is that we will not fully grasp all that Scripture

says to us in this life.

And that's a reality for us.

None of us will ever understand the full counsel of God

as revealed to us in His Word.

And I say that from personal experience that as we grow in faith,

we learn to understand the Bible in a different way as we learn

other parts of the Bible.

And so it begins to interpret different, differently, what perhaps

we first thought, or simply there's things we will never understand

because God has designed it as such.

And so there must be an element of faith and trust when it

comes to reading Scripture in what God has communicated through

it.

And over the years, as we look back on history, we can see that

Scripture has been used carelessly to justify certain acts

that we now see were not biblically faithful.

And so rather than looking to the God of Scripture, people have

not been faithful in their interpretation, and they have used

Scripture to justify their own means.

Take, for example, the structure of apartheid in South Africa.

This was a system of government that ran from 1948 to

1994.

And it was a system that separated people groups that they

were never to mix.

And it saw one group, the group that organized the theology

from Scripture of apartheid, as the superior group over all the

rest.

And the apartheid leaders used passages from Genesis, from the Acts

of the Apostles, and from Revelation to justify segregation

and to justify what was an unfair and an unjust system against

humanity.

And the passage that we're looking at tonight has also been

used to justify political and social conflict.

And all we have to do is look to the hymn by Julia Ward Howe and

see how it was used to justify the American Civil War.

Ward Howe wrote to him the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which

has as its opening lines, mine ey have seen the glory of the coming

of the Lord he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes

of Wrath are stored, taken directly from Revelation 14.

And you know, we do sing this hymn.

And it is.

I did check in our hymn books, find it there.

It's there.

And we don't see anything wrong with singing these words.

But the hymn was written to quite literally anoint the northern

armies in the American Civil War with the sword of God's justice

against their southern neighbours.

That was a civil war that had nothing to do with the defence of

the Lord or of the Gospel and was simply used to justify a political

military campaign.

And this was the battle cry, the Battle Hymn of the Republic,

using Revelation 14 to justify conflict.

Now, I use this example because Christians have sometimes

understood the details of the visions of Revelation differently.

And we may not interpret these verses in chapter 14 as being the

rallying call for a civil war for the northern armies.

It was, however, exactly how they read them.

But what I want to affirm tonight is that all faithful readings

of verses 14 to 20 agree on a day is coming when Christ will gather

the earth, judge wickedness and vindicate his people.

Regardless of however else we interpret the imagery of of this

passage, this is the certainty.

A day is coming when Christ will gather the earth, judge wickedness

and vindicate his people.

Chapter 14 has already seen three angels declaring the eternal

rule of God and the Lamb as Babylon, the great enemy of God's

people, falls.

And these angels also issue a call to repentance by those who have

worshipped the beast and his image.

And the vision now continues, as John now looks and sees, as we

read in verse 14, seated on the cloud, one like a son of man,

with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

And so, as we begin this section, already a question appears

for us.

Who is the one like a son of man?

Well, if we know our scriptures, and I think we do, then

we'll be drawn back to two places in Scripture.

The first will be to chapter one of Revelation, where we've already

been introduced to one like the Son of man.

But we'll also have to go further back to Daniel and in Daniel

7 and verse 13, one like a son of man, comes with the clouds of

heaven to the ancient of days, that is the Father God.

And so what we can say by how Scripture has taught us and by what

John has revealed in Revelation already, that this is

the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who is now seated on a white cloud,

telling us of his rule and his reign over humanity.

He has a golden crown, and that affirms the purity, and it also

affirms the Excellency of his reign.

But the one thing we don't expect to see in his hand is a sickle.

We might expect a mitre or a rod of justice, but a sickle.

Now this tells us that he is about to reap something.

And what he is about to reap is the harvest of souls.

And what we Read in verses 15 to 16 describe that for us because

John sees another angel.

So now we're into Angel 5 coming out of the temple and calls

to the risen Lord Jesus to put the sickle to work and reap the harvest,

for it is now ready.

Now I appreciate that after bringing an old fashioned camera

out in front of the girls and boys today, they think I'm really

old.

However, I know that many of you are older than me and you indeed

have put your hand to the sickle and you have reaped a harvest,

whether that be simply to cut grass in the old ways.

And by the way, I have tried that and I can't do it.

And so the strimmer was got and that's just how it was done.

You know how hard work it is.

You know what it means to have a sickle item to start to harvest

whatever it is you want to cut.

So here's the risen Lord Jesus, not with a mitre, not with

a rod of justice, but with an instrument that cuts and cuts down.

This is what we read in verse 15.

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.

So that's the first thing that last week's section.

The harvest of the earth is ready.

It's ready to be harvested, to be cut and brought in.

And though it's not clear here in the English text and none of our

English translation really help us here, but if you have any

understanding of Greek, which as you know, in Union College we

have to do for two years, the Greek original refers to believers

here whenever it talks about the harvest of the earth is fully

ripe, because verse 15 speaks of that ripeness of the harvest.

Now, fully ripe in the Greek means dried out, and that's a term

used for grain.

Other places in scripture that's ready to be harvested, such

as wheat.

Now, why is that significant?

Why do we need to understand why is it maybe we bit clunky in

our English and clear in the Greek?

Well, John the Baptist contrasted the wheat of the godly

with the chaff of the ungodly in Matthew chapter three in verse

12.

And in one parable, Jesus contrasted the godly wheat with the

weeds that the enemy sowed in the Master's fields in Matthew 13:25,

Matthew 13:25

30.

So the point is that there is a measured difference between those

who are saved and those who are condemned long before the final

harvest.

This difference is evidenced by their reaction to God's Word,

because Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is like a farmer who

went out to sow his seed in Luke 8.

And what does Jesus say?

He tells us that the seed is the word of God.

And while many hard and worldly hearts reject God's word,

believers receive it, and they bear fruit through faith, so that

quite literally, they are dried out as the harvest, ready to

be cut now by the risen Lord Jesus Christ and brought in as the

harvest of souls.

And so this measured difference of those who are ready

to be cut and brought in, as opposed to what we'll see in a few

minutes in the Grapes of Wrath, does not result from any moral

or spiritual superiority on the part of the Christian, but only

the grace of God that's at work in them.

How will any believer be ready to be harvested?

Well, it's all because of the grace and love of Jesus, because

he died for us so that indeed we may be the harvest of the earth

and the ingathering of souls into his eternal kingdom.

And it is this grace that makes all the difference in the final

harvest.

For we read Jesus saying in Matthew 13:39, the harvest is the

Matthew 13:39

end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

With this, the godly are gathered into the barn and the ungodly

are cast into fire.

And the way to know that you will be gathered for salvation when

Christ returns is to, as the Gospels tell us, to receive God's

word in faith now and live in a way that bears godly fruit for

the Lord.

This faith, or unbelief, is the decisive mark between God's gathered

wheat and the chaff that is cast off into that eternal fire.

And that's what the next verses in this passage tell us.

Although they're not telling us of what's been burned up.

They're giving us another image, another vision.

John sees of how this punishment is depicted of those who

have not accepted Christ.

Verse 17 tells us that another angel comes out of the temple, and

he is now the one with a sickle.

But there's another angel in verse 18 where we read, and another

angel came out from the altar this time, and 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.

So here we have another harvest ready.

But it's not going to be the harvest of souls unto righteousness.

It's going to be a harvest of the wicked, those who have rejected

the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

But it's all very different because we're not told that this

angel comes out from the temple, although that's where they

come from.

More specifically, we're told they come from the altar.

And again, this is what we've heard before, because we have to

remember that Revelation is.

Is giving us the same information in about three or four

different ways from different perspectives.

And so if any of this is sounding familiar, it's because we've

already looked at it in chapters four through to eight.

But here, now, in chapter 14, the altar of incense is mentioned

as this angel comes out of the altar.

And the reference to fire here fits in with what was spoken back

in chapter eight in verse five, where an angel fills his censer

with with hot coals or with fire, and he throws it on the earth.

And if you recall, that was a sign of God's judgment on the earth.

Well, the harvest here in this scene clearly represents that same

judgment.

The second angel summons the first angel with the sickle to begin

the grape harvest.

So the judgment is cast, and now the harvest must commence.

And all through Revelation, what we must understand is that the

good news of salvation always includes the destruction of the enemies

of Christ and his people.

And so to this end, this second harvest is depicted for us

here in these verses.

And John's vision seems to follow the sequence of Joel's prophecy

where we would read in Joel chapter 3 and verse 13, put in the

Joel 3 · chapter mention

sickle, for the harvest is ripe.

That's what the angel has said to do.

But look what happens next.

Go in tread, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their

evil is great.

And so Joel has already foretold what is going to happen

in vivid imagery that John is seeing that that harvest of grapes,

where judgment has been heaped by hot coals and fire on the wicked

of the world.

We're now given this image of the wine press where these grapes

are put into the wine and they're trampled underfoot.

They are the grapes of wrath, because they receive what is their

judgment and their punishment.

And so to help us understand this and where all of this is Coming

from, we need to remember something that we've read before.

And we need to remember that the souls of the martyrs were gathered

beneath the altar of heaven and that their prayers were offered

on that altar.

And so this association with the altar tells us that the judgment

of the wicked will be in part a response to the prayers of Christian

martyrs for God's justice.

And so now this is the second time we're seeing this, that God

hears the prayers of the martyrs, and he answers them.

Remember what their prayer was.

How long, O Lord.

And in the first cycle of seeing all of this, we saw God answer.

And here we now see him answer again.

This altar is not just the significance of the burning coals,

but it's the altar under which the martyrs are crying to God for

how long?

God is now reaping his judgment.

But notice who has the authority here.

This angel has the authority over the fire, which probably speaks

to his rule in judging the wicked.

And so he therefore brings God's command to gather rebellious

mankind and to judge them.

The English Bible scholar H.B.

Sweet writes in his Commentary on Revelation of the Delicate Beauty,

beautiful term, delicate beauty of this passage, because Christ

does not himself harvest the ungodly for their judgment.

But did you notice this is done by the angels?

Now, this may reflect that while Jesus is immediately involved

in the salvation of his people, the judgment of the rebellious,

while under his authority, does not involve such personal contact.

It is Christ's own hand that saves his people, but his command

is enough for the judgment of rebels.

And this understanding, this delicate beauty that HB Sweet calls

it, should not in any way suggest that Jesus is squeamish about

divine judgment, because as we go to chapter 19, we will see him

personally wielding the sword of judgment and treading the winepress

of God's fury.

But it at least suggests the same mercy that Jesus has shown throughout

his earthly ministry is now shown to us here and in his cry to

grant his persecutors forgiveness while suffering on the

cross.

And so in verses 19 to 20, when the angel swings his sickle,

the vintage of the earth is gathered in.

But this is a most unusual harvest, for the grapes are thrown

into the winepress of God's wrath.

In the Old Testament, treading a winepress is an image of God's

judgment.

And you have to remember the original hearers and readers of this

letter that John would send out from Patmos would understand

that, because they were still in the mind and in the culture and

indeed in the Mediterranean basin of wine presses.

And so we see this in Isaiah 63.

It's also told in Lamentations 1.

And as we read earlier, Joel chapter 3 and verse 13.

Joel 3 · chapter mention

And so we have here a picture of what is final judgment.

And the scene is a gory one, to be sure.

The blood of those judged flows as high as the bridles of horses,

like a river.

It flows for 1,600 stadia, and that's about 200 miles or 320 kilometers.

And if you're interested, that is about the length of the nation

of Israel.

But this river of blood vividly captures the judgment to

be poured out on those who sighed with the unholy Trinity.

Remember, we met them just a few chapters earlier.

They are the false Trinity of the dragon, the beast, and false

prophets there in chapters 12 and 13.

And so in this part of the vision that John now sees in chapter

14, he sees God's judgment against the wicked.

And it is complete and it is decisive.

That's why we have this image of this river of blood that is as

high as the bridle of horses and flows for 200 miles.

It is complete and it is decisive.

This is it.

This is God answering the cries of the martyrs and bringing

all people under himself.

And so verse 19 tells us 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.

Can anyone survive the wrath of God?

No, they cannot.

And so the contrast of this judgment of the wicked to the assurance

of the harvest of the redeemed is a stark one, where the harvest

is ripe, in both cases telling us that the fullness of time has

come and one is cut and brought into the barn, into the place

of security, into the Mount of Zion, that holy city.

And where is the winepress where the wrath of God's judgment?

Well, it's not in Mount Zion.

It's not within the city.

It is outside the city.

What else do we know happened outside the city of Jerusalem that

we call Zion?

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, where God's wrath was poured

out on his Son so that it wouldn't have to be put on us?

You see, all of these links, all of these golden threads that

take us through scripture from Genesis right through to Revelation,

are not insignificant.

And they are telling us, not multiple stories, but one story of

God's great love towards humanity, so that while there is

yet time, we can know assurance of being amongst the harvest

of the redeemed and so avoid the harvest of the grapes that will

be trampled underfoot in the winepress of the wrath of God.

You see, this is not a fine wine, as Nancy Guthrie says, that's

going to be produced.

It is punishment that is going to be executed.

The picture is bloody, the picture's even disturbing as we think

of this round stone base that captures the grapes and being trampled

underfoot, with a channel going out where the wine will flow,

but yet flowing as judgment as far as 320 kilometres and as high

as the bridle of a horse.

Complete and decisive.

And once again, in this section of Revelation, which is drawing

this second retelling to a close, we're given a stark warning.

And that warning is to pay attention, because the message is

the sickle will fall, the harvest will come, the winepress

will be trodden, but there's still time to flee to Christ.

The one who will judge is the same one who who was judged for sinners.

And in the end, God's purposes will be realized and his kingdom

will come.

And those he intends to save will be harvested and brought into

his kingdom forever.

And for that we declare Hallelujah.

But those who are wicked and pursue evil will not escape judgment.

Final salvation and judgment can seem unreal to us during our

present lives.

So John reminds us repeatedly that the last day is coming and he

summons us to be ready for it.

And so the applications of this passage are both urgent and,

I hope, obvious.

Christians.

We are reminded that we must be willing to be different now from

unbelieving people, since we hope for such a different end from

that which awaits them.

If in the eyes of Christ, believers are wheat compared to chaff

and weeds, then there must be a spiritual substance to our lives

and godly fruitfulness that corresponds to our identity in the

lord.

In Psalm 73, Asaph resented the difficulty of living out an obedient

faith in a world like ours.

Esau actually envied the wicked.

He envied them for their fun, the fun that they seemed to have

amongst their evil, and even thought of abandoning God and going

over to their side.

But when he went once more near to God, when he went into God's

sanctuary, he declared this in Psalm 73:17, 18.

Psalms 73:17

Until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Then I discerned their end.

Truly, you set them in slippery places, you make them fall

to ruin.

Asaph got a wake up call.

He envied the world.

He wanted to be them until he spent time with God and realized

exactly what we've been shown in Revelation 14 this evening, believer

never Envy the ungodly.

Never, never think they have more fun than you.

They don't.

For their judgment, for their wickedness will be final, complete

and decisive.

We may think that the world is impressive.

We may even, like as Asaph, think about jumping ship so that

we too can enjoy a life of sin that they have.

But if you belong to Christ Jesus, remember that he has separated

you now in the manner of your faith and life, and he will separate

you in the day of his return so that you may enter into eternal

life, escaping God's wrath through faith in Him.

But not only must Christians gladly accept the cost of following

Jesus in this world, bearing a cross, as he did for us, but we must

urgently warn the ungodly of the judgment that will soon appear.

I mentioned earlier that since Christ is now engaged in the great

harvest of salvation, we must make the witness of the Gospel our

chief labor.

We're reminded by the closing verses of Revelation 14 that this

witness must not fail to point out the terror of God's wrath.

And you can walk around this country.

You can go right across the world.

And today many Christians shy away from mentioning God's terrible

judgment, thinking that it will make the gospel more palatable

if we don't mention it.

But what they're doing is they're failing to realize that the

gospel saves us from God's wrath, apart from which it's not

fully clear why we should believe what are we being saved from.

So we must proclaim the truth of both God's justice and Christ's

redemption, trusting in his sovereign grace to call sinners through

the whole counsel of God unto himself.

It was the command that Jesus gave us before his return to heaven

in Matthew 28:19, 20.

Matthew 28:19

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing

them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you to teach

them to live as Christ taught us to live.

And Jesus says, behold the wonderful promise.

I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

But maybe tonight you haven't yet confessed your sin.

Tonight, God.

Maybe yet you haven't turned to Christ for forgiveness and salvation.

Well, everything that we have been looking at in Revelation 14

this evening is the most urgent matter of your life.

A name that I've quoted a number of times is that of John Bunyan,

who wrote the Pilgrim's Progress.

And can I encourage you if you've never read it, or if it's

been a long time since you've read it, get Yourself a copy.

I think you can even download them free for Kindles and everything

like that.

Have a read at this.

It's a fantastic book written over 500 years ago to help us understand

what it means to live in the way of Christ.

Well, in the Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan depicts the

urgent need in the opening chapter.

A sinner learns in God's book that he dwelt in a city, and that

city was called the city of destruction.

And what he learned was that that city was the city in which God's

wrath might fall at any moment.

And he found in that city a man named Evangelist who pointed

him to the cross of Christ as the way of escape.

And so, leaving his former life behind and with God's book open

in his hand, he began running towards the cross.

Life, life.

He cried, eternal life.

This is what it means to consider your mortal soul urgently.

Would you let this be your cry?

Will you too cry, Life, life, eternal life.

As you flee from God's wrath on your sins, gaining at the cross

both forgiveness and a place in Christ's gospel harvest, you see,

through faith in Jesus, you will find that he suffered God's

wrath for you so that he might gather you into his harvest of eternal

life.

And Jesus makes it clear for us in John chapter 5 and verse 24

John 5 · chapter mention

when he says, truly, truly or verily, verily, I unto you, whoever

hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, he

does not come into judgment, but has passed from life to death.

What is it that you want?

Are you assured this night that you will be amongst the harvest

of the redeemed, that you will be gathered into the barn?

Well, if that is the case, then your life will demonstrate that.

And maybe tonight you know, and you really know deep down that

that's not the harvest you'll be part of.

Rather, you're going to be part of the harvest of the grapes

that will be just as fully ripe, but they will not be gathered

into barns, rather into the winepress of God's wrath for judgment.

But the good news this night is that there is still time to run

to Christ, to run as Pilgrim did to the cross, crying, life, life,

eternal life.

And to trust these words of Jesus who says, whoever hears my

words and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

And when we have eternal life, we do not come into judgment, but

we pass from death.

Life.

This is the most excellent news of the Gospel.

This is what is truly our glorious hope.

As we read Revelation, regardless of how we interpret the

imagery, there is no doubt that judgment is coming.

I urge you tonight to be amongst the harvest of the redeemed

and avoid such great punishment as God will reap with

his wrath.

So let us pray.

Our Father God, tonight we come to you with a passage once again

in Revelation that challenges us to consider who we are before

you.

And we will be a mixed bunch in this meeting house tonight.

For we will leave this place assured that we are part of the harvest

of the redeemed.

But we also leave knowing that we will be amongst the harvest of

those who will be judged in the winepress of God's wrath.

But Father, there is still yet time.

For you are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

As our assurance of pardon told us this evening, so may we run

to Christ.

May we declare life, life, eternal life as we know how great

you are that when Christ comes indeed you will bring your own home.

We have no excuse.

And so this night convict us of our need of a Savior.

We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

Sam.