heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking. Jesus name we pray these things. Amen. Amen. Well, if you've been around our church for a while, you know, one of my favorite things about fall coming is I as soon as fall comes, I immediately begin to look forward to watching my favorite movie of all time. Now people, people often surprise that they say, so tell me what your favorite movie, they're surprised that it's not like, you know, lone wolf McQuade, Delta Force 2. Good guys wear black. Those are up there. But none of them comes close to the Muppet Christmas Carol. They just don't. What an amazing story. If you remember the Christmas Carol story, there were scrooge as a bad guy. I mean, scrooge is such a bad guy. His name now is a bad thing. Don't be a scrooge, right? Even though he was redeemed at the end. It's a bad thing. He was greedy. He was mean. He was heartless and Dickens. We were some God intervened in his life. And how did he intervene in scrooge's life? He intervened by showing him what? His past, his future, and his present. The whole reason he did that was for what reason. It was again to make some change in his present. Remember the ghost of Christmas past, took him and showed him when he was a school boy and how even then he liked math and how even in his past, if you've seen him up at Christmas special, remember when he followed in love, killing me. But the girl leaves him because he cares more about his money than he cares about her. And then the ghost of Christmas present shows him the cratchet household and little Timmy coughing in the corner. And then the ghost of Christmas future shows scrooge these people who are arguing over a dead man's clothing. And scrooge begins to get a little worried. And then the ghost of Christmas yet to come takes him to the graveyard and all the tombstones are covered with snow. And scrooge starts to get nervous and every turns to the ghost of Christmas yet to come. And he says, I put the quote up there for you. He says that these are shadow of the things that will be or the shadows of things that may be only. In other words, he says to the ghost of Christmas future is my destiny of sunk. Do I not have any choice about what's going to happen next? And remember the ghost of Christmas yet to come just points, he just points and scrooge wipes off the tombstone and sees his name and he just loses it and he starts crying and he wakes up and he's in his bed. I was right as the weather. I mean, he's so excited and his life is changed because what Dickens did was he used the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas future in order to affect some kind of change in scrooge's present. If you want to understand the book of Revelation, that's exactly what's going on here too. We've talked a lot about the book of Revelation, how it's about the fact that Jesus wins, right? He's won in the past and he's won in the future and he's even winning right now. But if you want to understand the book of Revelation at some level, you have to ask yourself this question, are these the things that shall be or the things that may be only? What do I mean by that? As we get deeper and deeper into the book of Revelation, you see the visions getting clear and clear and on one hand you have this vision of the followers of the Lamb. We looked at, we saw that last week, 144,000 are Mount Zion with the Lamb and they're on glory and they're singing to him and everything is great and glorious on one hand. On the other hand, you have those who choose not to follow the Lamb. They choose not to follow the Lamb and by not choosing to follow the Lamb, it makes them de facto followers of the dragon and for them is reserved wrath, the full justice of God. But the interesting thing is this book of Revelation is something that people could read now and so you have to ask the question of yourself, not are the events going to happen, but how do they affect me? Is this something that shall be or is it something that may be only in the answer? It depends on how you respond to the book of Revelation. In other words, remember the book of Revelation is at least three different types of literature sort of mashed up into one. Remember it's called an apocalypse and an apocalypse simply means to reveal. It's as if a curtain is being pulled back and what's being revealed, what's being revealed is the person and work of Jesus and all of his glory. It's also a letter, it's very practical, right? John says to the seven churches that are in Asia and he tells them stuff that he wants them to do. But more than anything else, I think for as far as trying to figure out how to apply the book of Revelation, you need to understand that he calls it a prophecy. And in the Old Testament or the New Testament, anywhere in the Bible, even if prophecies are something that predicts the future, which by the way most often they're not. But even if they're predicting the future, every prophecy is given in order to affect some moral outcome. In other words, every prophecy in the Old Testament and the whole book of Revelation is a call to action. It's a call to some action. And the question is how are you going to act? What are you going to do as a result of hearing the book of Revelation? For some people, maybe your Christians, you hear the book of Revelation. It's a prophecy and you realize what you need to do is you need to be more outwardly faced. You need to be engaging the world. For other people, you may not be a Christian. And what you might need to think about is what am I going to do with this person called Jesus? How am I going to deal with him? Should I deal with him? What's the outcome if I don't? So the question is at some level, are these things that shall be or things that may be only and it comes all down to what you are going to do with Jesus and what you're going to do with this book and what this book teaches us? So what does this book teach us among other things? The book teaches us a lot about these people that are called conquerors or called overcomers. And who are the ones who conquer? Who are the ones that overcome? Those again are the followers of the Lamb. Christians, people who follow Jesus and of the seven churches, each of the seven churches was given a major sort of promise. You see, there's judgment reserved for people who don't follow the Lamb, but for those who do follow the Lamb, you see in front of you, access is given to the tree of life, deliverance from the second death being made pillars in the household of God. All these promises are given to those who overcome. The letter is written to those who overcome. How do they overcome? Again, we've learned over and over again in the book of Revelation that they overcome through the blood of the Lamb. What the book of Revelation teaches us is that the work of Jesus is completely and utterly finished. I've told you several times, Eugene Peterson said there's no new information in the book of Revelation. It's old information given in a new way. And what the old information is is that Jesus is completely and utterly won. And because Jesus is won to the extent in which you trust Him and your faith is in Him and you are found in Him, you also win or conquer. And yet there are lots of pressure on the seven churches for sure. Political pressures, economic pressures, religious pressures, a lot of the same things we go through. And so again, what the book of Revelation does is that it should motivate us both to not cave into that pressure but also to thrive in and through it. So with all of that said, we looked last week at chapter 14. In chapter 14 and 15, it's hard to, I've told you this before. You know, you say, gosh, I can't complain a lot. Revelation is hard to preach. In fact, I talked to a guy, this is a side. Now I talked to a guy this week who did his doctoral dissertation on Presbyterian pastors preaching Revelation. In our denomination, one person has ever done past chapter three. So you guys are in good shape if I live to chapter 16. But in chapter 14, it starts very positively with the Lamb and its followers. And then it talks about judgment that is to come and then judgment happens. That's where we start today is the judgment is actually being affected. And then it ends again, chapter 15 ends with the Lamb and his followers again. So with all of that said, we're going to look at, as we look at verses chapter 14, 14 through 5, 4, we're going to look at two harvests. We're going to look at another sign and we're going to look at an old song. In order to understand the first, the two harvests, really what you need to understand at some level is the Jesus parable of the wheat and the tears or if you're using a more modern translation, it would be Jesus parable the wheat and the weeds, I believe. And I'm going to read it to you. I've quite a bit of reading to do this morning, but just hanging there with me. So Matthew chapter 13, starting at verse 24, says this, it says, he, that is Jesus put another parable before them saying the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who's so good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, when the weeds appeared also and the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does that have weeds? He said to them, an enemy has done that. So the servants said to him, then do you want us to go and gather them? But he said, no, less than gathering the weeds, you've root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned but gather the wheat into my barn. And then later on his disciples, this has been he left the crowds and went into the house and his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. And he answered, the one who sowed the good seed is the son of man, the field is the world and the good seed is the children of the kingdom, the weeds are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the clothes of the age and the reapers are angels just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire. So it will be at the clothes of the age. The son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom, all causes of sin and lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace and that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun and the kingdom of their father, he who has ears, let him hear. That sounds an awful lot like revelation, doesn't it? That's because I think it's the same teaching that you find in revelation. What do we learn in the parable of the weeds in the weeds? It's a pretty simple parable actually, it's something that everyone would have understood. A farmer planted good seed and wheat was growing and some one came in and planted weeds. And the people work in the field said, do you want us just to go cut everything down and he said, no, because you cut everything down then the wheat will be harmed as well as the weeds. And he says, just wait till harvest time then, harvest it all up and we'll separate the wheat from the chaff or the wheat from the weeds. And in Jesus' explanation of that, he says the wheat are the sons of the kingdom, the weeds are the sons of the evil one. He's drawing a pretty dark line between either following him or not following him. And at the end of the age, that's when they will be separated. Now just as a point of practical application, now at the end of the age they will be separated but until the end of the age, you and I will always have to deal with the fact that evil is cast all around us. And if you're naive to that fact, you're going to probably always be disappointed. Now, should you be as cynical as me? Probably not. But should you be aware that the wheat and the weeds are constantly growing side by side until the end of the age and then they will be harvested. And that's what we look at in the book of Revelation. The first, there's two harvest. The first one is in verses 14 through 16. John says, then I look and behold a white cloud and seeded on a cloud, one like a son of man with a golden crown in his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 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 reaped for the hour to reap his come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped. Now I'm going to just point out three things. We have a lot to get through. The three things were reaper, a command and a harvest. Notice who the reaper is here. One like a son of man, almost every commentator agrees that this is a reference to Jesus. And remember when Jesus left in the book of Acts, the angel said he would return in like manner on the clouds. So here you have Jesus, the son of man sitting on the clouds waiting. He's waiting to pull in his full harvest. He's waiting for the end of the age and then the next what you have is a command. What's the command? The command says and another angel came out of the temple with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, put in your sickle and reaped for the hour to reap his come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. So if Jesus is the man, if Jesus is the one wearing the crown, why does an angel have to come and tell him to do anything? It's a good question to be honest with you. What seems to be going on, if you look at the rest of the New Testament, remember when people asked Jesus when will the end of the age come? What he said? I don't know. No one knows but the Father. Probably what's going on here is the Father is sending a messenger. John's getting to see this play out to tell Jesus it's time. It's go time. If you've ever been in the military, you know what it's like to hurry up and wait until you're finally, you're just on edge, you're on edge, you're on edge and finally they say go and you just can't wait to go. And that's what happens immediately. The angel says now is the time and immediately reaping happened. It says that the harvest in verse 16 it says so he who sat in the cloud swung his sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped. Now notice in verse 15 it says for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. And as you're reading Revelation, yes, you can't help but think. I couldn't help but think of other places where John uses the same kind of language. In other words, at the end of the age, Jesus will finally and utterly reap all those who are his, all those who have trusted in him. But what about now? Remember John chapter 4 Jesus meets this woman at the well from Samaria and you know that's another sermon all in of itself known would talk to her because she was Samaritan known would talk to her because she's woman known would talk to her because she's an adulterous. And yet after being transformed by Jesus she goes and tells her whole village about him and they start coming unto him and as as they're coming to Jesus and he's standing on a hill with his disciples, they remember that they actually left to get him something to eat earlier. And here's the conversation. Has anyone brought him something to eat? Verse 33 of chapter 4 and John. And Jesus said to them my food is to do the will of him who sent me into accomplish his work. Do you not say there yet four months then comes the harvest look I tell you lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest already the one who reaches receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. I mean think of that picture they're asking him about something to eat they're standing on a hill all the Samaritan village is coming out and Jesus says look lift up your eyes lift up your eyes and what do they see they see people not only are they people but they're not Jewish they're people from a different tribe if you will and Jesus is the harvest is right now the reaping is happening right now so will the reaping happen at the end of the age absolutely but what Jesus has said his whole ministry is that the reaping is happening right now that right now Jesus is drawing people unto himself right now and every from every tribe tongue and nation Jesus is working remember he has one he will win and he is winning right now so with that said what about the second harvest the second harvest you see two angels another harvest in another location notice the two angels in verse 17 I'm just gonna hold this verse 17 it says then another angel came out of the temple in heaven he too had a sharp sickle and another angel came out from the altar and the angel had authority over the fire and called with a loud voice to the one who had a sharp sickle putting your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth for its grapes are ripe so the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the great harvest of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God and the wine press was trotted outside the city and blood flowed from the wine press as high as a horse's bridal for 1600 stadia so on one hand you have Jesus reaping on the other hand you have these angels being sent to reap by the way the imagery of the sickle is only used one time that I can think of in the Old Testament is Joel chapter 13 or chapter 3 verses 13 and it has to do with reaping unto judgment and these angels are doing exactly that they are harvesting too but as Jesus harvests unto righteousness and unto himself at the end of the age these angels are harvesting unto judgment and what what happens then well he says that the angels swung his sickle across the earth gathered the great harvest of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God and so the wrath of God will be born ultimately either by Jesus or by you the question is which would you rather be and I think the very next verse gives us a clue is to at least what John wants us to think or what Jesus wants us to think and it's the location of this judgment and verse 20 says in the wine press was trodden outside the city and blood flowed from the wine press as high as a horse as bridal for 1600 stadia by the way no one really knows the significance of 1600 stadia the closest is that 40 is a number of judgment in the Bible and 40 square to 1600 but what's more important is the location you see in the in the Old Testament and the New Testament judgment happens outside the city judgment happens outside the camp and John says in the future when all things are said and done judgment will happen outside the camp but we need to also remember that while it will happen in the future it is always it has already happened in the past every Hebrews chapter 13 let me read to you for a couple verses John says in verse 10 or the author says we have an altar from which those who serve of the tent have no right to eat for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice percent are burned outside the camp so Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his blood therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured you see either at the end of the age you will be judged outside the camp or you look into the past and say Jesus was already judged outside the camp Jesus went outside the camp and bore the reproach and bore the judgment that I deserve he bore the full wrath of God and so you can either look back inside trust what Jesus did or you can look forward and say I'm going to try it on my own I'm going to see if I can bear it I'm going to see what's like outside the camp and the the question then you have to ask are these the things that maybe or shall be only and what the book of Revelation teaches is that it may be that in fact you will bear the wrath of God if you will not put your trust in Jesus and that's what the whole point of this is because you're hearing this book being read even when it talks about the future it's not over or you wouldn't be hearing it as we continue look at another sign look at verse 1 chapter 15 and verse 1 you see 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 so what we have going on here again remember John interlocks things it's like when you're watching or watching news show and in the context of watching a news show they say after the break we're going to show X whatever it is and then at you wait through the break and you sit there and they don't show it man that drives me crazy and then another commercial that comes and they'll say after the break we're going to show our special on you know left hand its gate borders whatever it is you're excited about and they don't show it and really they're just dragging you along for the whole story so you'll pay attention in some ways that's what John does because what he's saying right here he's actually starting a whole different section of the book of Revelation this is the opening to the seven bowls of God's wrath and so in the middle of this interlude between the the trumpets and the bowls of God's wrath John actually starts talking about the bowls of God's wrath and so he says then I saw another sign great and amazing seven angels with seven plagues which are the last for with them the wrath of God is finished and he says now after the break we'll talk about that because he doesn't go on and talk about that he in seg gives a word of encouragement to the church but there was one thing I wanted to point out to you a couple things one is that the seven bowls of God's wrath that we're getting ready to enter into them they're all about plagues they're all about this Exodus imagery that's why we sung the plagues today I think it's cool but also notice what the seven bowls of God's wrath do John says right there at the end of it he says with these with them the wrath of God is finished so at the end of the age the wrath of God will be completely and utterly poured out when the seventh bowl of wrath is poured out or at the cross remember what Jesus said that he spoke seven words from the cross and and John's gospel the last thing he said after he said I thirst and he drank a bitter wine he said what it is finished the wrath of God has been completely and utterly born the curse has been born I took all of your sin and you can have all of my righteousness would you take it it's finished you see it was either finished at the cross or it will be finished at the end of the time but it will ultimately for every person here and every person in the hearing of this it ultimately will be finished the question is will Jesus bear that or will you and I bear that and then finally we look at this old song as we look at I want to look at three things about it who sings it what do they sing and the direction that they sing in other words to whom do they direct this song so who sings this song it's those who conquered notice in verse two he says 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 harps of God in their hand so you have an interesting image here because in chapter four the book Revelation remember that's where we saw the sea of glass the first time in the sea in the old testament is always a bad thing it's always chaos and yet in the providence of God under his control it's as if it were glass and here we have the sea of glass but also it's sort of peppered with fire no one really knows exactly what that image is about many of the church fathers said that was the fiery trials through which the the martyrs had to pass but either way the saints are there in the midst of chaos being governed by God and they are singing in other words remember all the way back to to the beginning of 14 we talked about the fact that all the church is an army the 144,000 and here they are as God has calmed the sea singing so that's who sings the ones who sing are God's church but it's the ones who conquered notice what they've conquered they've conquered the first beast they've conquered the second beast and they've conquered what both of them together have put upon them notice it says in first two it says they conquered the beast and its image and the number of his name remember the first beast was all about political pressure and if you look at the seven churches abundantly clear that they were under political pressure from Rome to cave to worship Caesar which led to also the second beast which is more religious pressure and we found out at the end of chapter 13 right this number 666 that whatever has the mark of the beast it affects them economically in other words the ones who overcome were the ones who did not cave to political pressure to a religious pressure or even economic pressure but to the very end held tight to Jesus and the reason they were able to hold tight to Jesus we learn several times in the book of Revelation it's through the whole Bible it's because Jesus is holding tight to them but their names are written in the Lamb's book of life so they overcome by not caving to all of these things and what comes next what do they sing notice the first part of verse 3 it says and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb sang great and amazing are your deeds oh Lord God almighty just and true are your ways of king of the nations now it's ever struck you as odd if you read the book of Revelation why they sing the song of Moses and what is the song of Moses for one the song of Moses but most there are two songs called the song of Moses it's in one is in Exodus 15 one is in Deuteronomy chapter 32 most people think I think it makes more sense because Moses is called the servant before the one in Exodus 15 like he is here that that's the reference and do you remember that song I will sing unto the Lord for he is trying to gloriously the wholesome writer thrown into the scene my Lord my God there that there that God delivers them from Pharaoh with mighty plagues with mighty actions that no one else could have done he kills their first born they go into the desert they come to the edge of the red sea and they say he delivered us from Egypt but now he's left us in forsaken it's oh no it's not over yet he opens the red sea they cross through on dry land and his Pharaoh and his boy start riding through all the waters crash over and they drown and what is Moses first response to that when it's all over they sing and they sing about the glorious things that God has done for them the victory that he has brought for them and you know what's interesting in this text it says the song they sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the lamb probably a better translation would be they sang the song of Moses the servant of God namely the song of the lamb and other words there's not two songs here there's only one so why would people in the in the book of Revelation be singing the book the song of Moses but it also be called the song of the lamb and the answer is it's because the song that the church has been singing since the first page of the Bible has been the same song it's a song of God finding his people in the midst of oppression and bondage and helpless and hopeless in and of themselves and delivering them with great and mighty deeds and they sing whether it's in the Exodus whether it's crossing the Jordan whether it's the cross of Jesus you see the people in the Exodus they sang about God's great deliverance and they didn't really even know everything they were singing about but we know we know that Exodus is nothing compared to the cross that Exodus is nothing compared to the bondage for which Jesus delivered us and because of that we sing we sing the song of Moses and not only that but note I want you to know the direction they sing and I think this is important at the end look at this is great and amazing are your deeds oh Lord God the Almighty just and true are your ways oh king of the nations who will not fear oh Lord and glorify your name for you alone or holy all the nations will come and worship you for your righteous acts have been revealed so why do I ask this question what direction do they sing remember when someone asked Jesus to summarize the law just teacher can you summarize the law remember what he said you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength and you should love your neighbor as yourself when Jesus summarizes the law both parts of the summary the law direct us outward we're to love God outward we're to love our neighbor outward notice the direction of this song first it's outward contrary to some Christian music the primary pronoun here is second person where I always have to go through them in my head I you he she it's not first person he doesn't say I I I I did such a good job I survived I made it through I was such a good person I was so moral I did all these good things the song that the saints sing at the end of the age is you you you you you you did it you delivered me your ways are just your ways are true your ways are everything notice he says great and amazing are your deeds just and true are your ways oh king of the nations you alone or holy all the nations will come and worship you for your righteous acts have been revealed but there's something else so it's first the song is directed outward toward God but it's also directed outward I'm using this word just so you'll remember it's also directed outward toward goats imagery is from Matthew 25 where Jesus says I'll separate the sheep and the goats those who follow me those who don't follow me those who love me those who don't love me you see if it was already over at this point in history it will be over when we get to this point but the people who are reading this right now to you to the people back in Johnson it's an invitation why is it did you not notice a question mark behind it he says who will not fear or lord and glorify your name given everything you've heard so far in the book of Revelation who would not you know one of my favorite movies besides the Muppet Christmas Carol was also enchanted have you seen enchanted it's cartoon you have to see it it's cartoon characters and they somehow become real and the princesses lost in New York and Prince Charming's looking for her and Prince Charming is the most disgusting narcissist who ever lived and he has an assistant with him who's constantly guilty and wondering about if he's good enough and at some point his assistant looks at Prince Charming and says do him sir you ever not like yourself it Charming looks in the mirror what's not the like and he goes about his way to him it's the most simple question in the world what's not the like when you look at the gospel of Jesus I ask you this question what's not to like who will not fear the Lord does anyone really want to confront bearing the wrath of God on their own to tread the wine press of the wrath of God all on their own what's not to like about the fact that Jesus has come and born all that and it's over and in fact not only that is there anything that could keep you from singing I told you before but Martin Lloyd Jones he said that the reason people didn't become Christians in his church is because he said of his church he said you guys are so miserable and I would never say that but I have to ask the question do we sing I don't mean just you sing like I do as I'm walking down the halls which I do all the time but does your heart sing is the world notice there's a world change because of that is your heart the song of your heart directed outward and I'm pretty sure I've shared this story before it's a true one I do have this thing I don't know if it's a disorder or what but when I work I sing I literally physically sing and in college I was a waiter at the Olive Garden and in in Tallahassee the Olive Garden's like where you take a prom date so don't look down on it all right it's a big deal there and as I would walk back and forth through the alley I would just sing at the top of my lungs I don't know why and I remember I remember very clearly this one I was singing low he comes on clouds descending carrying the dishes low he comes on clouds descending and I was singing and at some point a girl stopped me her name was Julie and she said Tommy I need to ask you two things first thing why are you singing second what are you singing I met Julie on break and she became a Christian that day that day and as I was leaving college for seminary all these folks at this restaurant gave me a big party and they actually gave me money many more Christians I wonder if it was like a payoff get out of here finally and as I was leaving she she yelled out and she said Tommy and I looked back and she said thanks for singing thanks for singing that you have to walk around like a not like I do oftentimes singing not notice you know but is the song of your heart directed outward is it directed outward to all the things that God has done for you on one hand and is it directed outward so that people around you could tell something has happened there's something different did they say why do you sing what do you sing think about that let me pray while they're praying that as we move forward as a church that more and more people would hear us singing that this whole neighborhood would hear the song of this church that the whole state our country the world would hear the song of Moses the lamb and the song of the lamb emanating from this place and as a result the world would be changed I pray that that would start even now in this room and work its way out in Jesus' name we pray amen and amen