Music
I pray that you would also bless our church family friends and those who are loved ones,
that you would also give favor unto them, and those who need to hear the gospel, that you
would give us the boldness and give us the opportunities to preach the gospel to them.
I pray that you would also be with the men and those in here that need favor with work
or any kind of job situations. I pray that you would just bless them.
I pray that you would also just bless our upcoming soul-winning events and all the things that we do,
that they would be done in honor and glory of your Son. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We're going to go ahead and sing our
Psalm of the Week, Psalm 148. Psalm 148. Brother Dustin is going to lead us.
All right. Psalm 148. Your King James Bible or in your special handout, Psalm 148.
Everybody sing out together.
Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens.
Praise Him in the highest. Praise Him.
All His angels praise ye Him.
All His ghosts praise ye Him.
Sun and moon praise Him.
All ye stars of light praise Him.
Ye heavens of heavens and ye waters that be above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the Lord.
For He commanded and they were created.
He hath also established them forever and ever.
He hath made a decree which shall not pass praise the Lord from the earth.
He who could dragons and all beings fire entails snow and vapor.
Stormy winds fulfilling His birth mountains.
And all hills fruitful trees and all sea earth trees.
And all cattle creeping things and flying fowl kings of the earth.
And all people, princes and all judges of the earth.
Both young men have made His old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord.
For His name alone is excellent.
His glory is from of the earth.
And heaven He also exalted the horn of His people.
The praise of all His saints even of the children of Israel.
A people near unto Him praise be the Lord.
All right, great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 14.
Revelation chapter 14, we'll read the entire chapter as is our custom beginning in verse 1.
And I looked and lo, a lamb stood on the mount Zion and with him an hundred forty and four thousand having his father's name written in their foreheads.
And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder.
And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps and they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders.
And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth.
These are they which were not defiled with women for they are virgins.
These are they which follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth.
These were redeemed from among men being the first fruits unto God and to the lamb and in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God.
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people saying with a loud voice.
Fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters.
And there followed another angel saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great city because she made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
And the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand.
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.
And they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receive at the mark of his name.
Here is the patience of the saints.
Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me right blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.
Yea sayeth the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them.
And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sat like unto the son of man having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time is come for thee to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar which had power over fire and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle saying thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
And the wine press was trodden without the city and blood came out of the wine press even under the horse bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father God we thank you for Revelation chapter 14 and for the opportunity that we have tonight to listen to the man of God expound on this chapter.
I pray that you fill him with your spirit and help him to teach the sermon tonight the Bible study tonight Lord.
And also help us to draw connections and to pay close attention to the study.
We love you and in Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Amen.
So we're here in Revelation chapter 14.
We finished in chapter 13 talking a lot about the transition where the Antichrist is coming into full power.
It's going to be his kingdom.
And we're kind of in that second half period of Daniel's 70th week when we talk about the seven year period of time that is the end times.
That midpoint of the week is or the midpoint of that seven year period is when the Antichrist is going to essentially die, receive a deadly wound.
But after a few days he's going to rise again and he's going to declare to the whole world that he's God.
He's going to demand that everyone take a mark whether they're small or great as the Bible is saying, rich or poor.
And really it's just saying every single person on the entire earth is going to be requested to take this mark of the beast and to worship him.
So it's not just a mark, it's also a form of worship that they have to perform for the Antichrist.
And as we go through these chapters, chapters 12 and 13 and 14, they're really still dealing with this exact kind of timeline and this situation that's kind of unfolding.
Now in chapter 14, it takes a little break here from what we've been talking about as the Antichrist to kind of describe something else that's happening.
But we really haven't left this timeline. We're still kind of stuck in this moment in time.
It says in verse 1,
Now the Jehovah's Witnesses make a big deal about this particular number of 144,000.
And of course the Bible brings up this group.
We already previously talked about them a little bit, how they're a culmination of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Approximately 12,000 from each tribe have been gathered together. That's who this 144,000 is talking about.
And in this specific verse, what it's alluding to or bringing up is the idea of them having a specific name in their forehead.
But I want you to pay attention to how the pronouns are being used in this particular verse because initially it says there's a lamb which stood on Mount Zion.
Now who is that lamb that's standing on Mount Zion? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the Lamb of God. That's the Son of God. That's Jesus.
Notice that it says,
Who's the him there? Jesus. With Jesus is 144,000.
Notice having his fathers. Who's the his there?
Talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Talking about the Lamb of God.
Saying the Lamb of God, his father's name written in their foreheads.
So it's not the lamb's name that's written in their foreheads.
It's the lamb's father's name written in their foreheads.
Meaning that the father and the son don't have the same name.
And of course they do share names.
So what's interesting about God is they have shared names but then they also have individual names.
And this is very easy for us to understand because most of us have the exact same situation in our family.
As far as I have a name, Jonathan, and my father has a name, Trey, but we both share the name Shelly.
We both have the name Shelly and in fact because Shelly is kind of a more unique name and Jonathan or John is really common,
almost everybody that knows me outside of this kind of environment calls me Shelly.
Like that's just kind of typically how it is.
And really it's not even just with me, it's like my whole family.
So I remember it would be funny when I'd go play golf with my grandpa and we'd be out on the golf course
and one of his buddies would be like, hey Shelly, come here.
And like all of us just turn because we're just so used to us all being referred to as Shelly
that it kind of was striking to me when someone was saying Shelly but they were talking to somebody else.
They were talking to my grandfather because he is also referred to as Shelly.
Just because it's such a unique name and usually what we do to differentiate our friends
is we kind of pick a last name or middle name or something when they have a really common name.
Whether that be a John or a Bob or a Bill or whatever it is, something that's pretty common.
Usually you refer to them as their last names because of the fact that you want to distinguish who you're talking about.
And the same here that God, while they share similar names, Jesus Christ is God.
That's a title that we could call him. He is God and God the Father is God but they have distinct names.
One is named the Father. That's not a title for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then we have the Son. That's not a title for the Father but that's for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so they actually have unique names because we believe in the Trinity where we actually have three persons and one God.
There is the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and these three, these three are one.
It doesn't say these one are one. It doesn't say these one are three. It says that these three are one.
And that's a really important distinguishment just how that's even worded.
Because other doctrines on who God is would confuse this. They would say one is one.
What is that? Islam or the religion of Judaism. They don't believe in a Trinity.
Many of them reject the idea of God having a son. This is a false religion.
Islam rejects the idea of God having a son. If you run into a Muslim, they do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Now what's weird is I've ran into Muslims and they'll tell me Jesus is the Son of God and I'm thinking like you're not a Muslim.
But that's just because in today's world many people don't even understand what religion they're in.
They don't even know what they believe. But Muslims that know what they believe, they reject the idea of Jesus Christ being the Son of God.
They don't only deny Jesus Christ's deity. They deny Jesus being the Son of God.
And they'll even ask you questions like when did Jesus ever say I'm God?
Well it's like what about is he the Son of God? And they're like yeah. Well here's where he's saying he's the Son of God.
And they're like well you know that was that interpreted.
You show them something in the Bible that contradicts what they believe and they're just like well it was written by man.
They just have to throw some of their accusation.
Then there's other people that would say well this one is three and I believe that's more the idea of modalism.
Because modalism essentially teaches that there's just one that pretends to be three but he's not really three.
And they basically say that God is just playing different roles.
So I am a pastor, I'm a father, and I'm a son. Right?
I have children so sometimes I'm playing the father role and I'm a son.
So sometimes when I call my dad I'm playing the son role and then sometimes I show up at church and I'm playing the pastor role.
And so this one is three. But you know what? That's not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible, it says these three are one.
What's the three? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the one God of the Bible.
And they're one in unity, one in purpose, and they're the Alpha and Omega.
They're the King of Kings.
You know there's a lot of titles that they all kind of claim or could be attributed to them.
But they also have distinct titles, they have distinct names like Jesus Christ.
That is only the Son. The Son of God, that's only the Son.
God the Father, that's only the Father.
Heavenly Father, that's only the Father.
And so there are distinctions.
I do believe Jehovah is a term that could be related to the Son or the Father.
But we want to make sure that we recognize the idea that when we're talking about this 144,000,
they have the Father's name written in their foreheads.
That's significant for another portion of Scripture.
I'm not going to go there for the sake of time, but when we get towards the end,
the Bible says that everyone's going to have the name of God in their head.
And it makes sense that it would be the same as here where we're all getting the Father's name in our foreheads.
And why that's significant is because also it tells us that we're going to see His face.
And so it really helps us understand that what we're going to really see is God the Father's face.
So when we die, and if we were to die right now and go to heaven,
I believe we would see Jesus and we could even see Jesus' face.
But we would still not quite be able to see the Father's face.
That's something that's going to happen after death has been defeated completely.
That's after the millennial reign and way in the future.
But this is a special privilege.
And you know, here's something that makes sense why that name is for both of us
and why they get it early is because the Bible says something in verse 4.
Just skip down for a second and look at the latter portion of verse 4.
It says,
So they're unique, but they're not like this special breed or something.
It's just the timeline.
And what we have to understand is that there's going to be all kinds of different timelines.
There's people who got saved in the Old Testament.
So they got saved and went to heaven before Jesus Christ even came here.
That's kind of a unique group of people.
Then you have the people that got saved prior to the end times.
That's kind of a unique group of people.
Then there's a group of people that get saved during the Great Tribulation.
That's also another unique group of people.
And then post, you kind of have like post the resurrection.
I believe there's going to be people that are saved.
Then you have people living in the millennial reign.
And you know, every single one of us has kind of unique opportunity to be in a special group.
But there's all kinds of different special groups.
This 144,000 are in a special group.
But at the end of the day, we'll eventually all have the name of the Father in our foreheads.
And we'll all see His face and we'll live.
And we'll have just, you know, eternity to enjoy the new heaven and the new earth.
So I don't want you to get confused and think like, what's the difference?
It's just that they're the first fruits.
Okay, so you know, not everybody gets to be in that resurrection.
Or not everybody gets to be in the first resurrection.
Not everybody gets to be the first fruits.
Not everybody gets to be in each category.
They're special here.
Now what makes them special?
The Bible gives us like some different distinguishing factors about them.
In verse 4 it also says,
These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.
These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.
And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Now, I don't know how to interpret these from a dogmatic viewpoint,
but just my personal opinion is that something that would make sense
as to why these people are being kind of praised for their characteristics
is because this was their characteristics while on earth.
And, you know, it's kind of interesting because it says they're not defiled,
they're virgin, and they have no guile in their mouth.
I don't know exactly how realistic it is to say that someone could live a full life
and have never had any guile in their mouth.
There is an example in John, chapter number 1, where Jesus Christ sees Nathaniel
and he says, An Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.
So it seems like that guy, at least at that point, or I don't know if it was his whole life,
Jesus is saying here's someone that doesn't have guile.
Guile is specifically, you know, referring to deceit, cunning, trickery,
someone who's not speaking in a duplicitous manner.
That's what guile is referring to.
But, you know, I don't know how extreme to take that because I think all of us,
if we were honest, there's been times where we've kind of been a little deceitful
with things we've said or, you know, things that we've done.
It would be hard to imagine someone going their whole life
and never having been, like, deceitful or been kind of tricky or sly
or cunning in the way that they speak.
It seems like it's a pretty common thing for all of us.
Have a couple kids and then get back to me on it if people can do that, right?
I don't even understand how my kids have so much ability to be sly and lie
and all these kind of things already.
You're just thinking, like, where did you learn this, you know?
And people can be very manipulative very easily.
But my theory is that perhaps these individuals died young.
That's kind of been my way to interpret this.
And it makes sense because think about it.
Like, some of us would say, well, they get this special unique opportunity.
Why do I not get that?
But think about someone that died young.
They didn't get an opportunity to live on this earth
and do all the things that we're doing.
So perhaps it's kind of God giving these people an option
to do something special with their life.
The Bible talks about how God rewards eunuchs in a special way
if they're faithful and serve God appropriately.
So I think that when we miss out on things in this life,
maybe God makes up for that in unique special ways, you know, like this perhaps.
And that would make sense.
You know, these kids, if they died young, and of course children have died young,
babies have been killed throughout all of history.
But if these specific children missed out on a great opportunity to serve God
or be part of David's army or build Solomon's temple,
I mean, that was kind of like frustrating to have parents born in that time
and then you totally missed out somehow.
But then they get a special unique opportunity to go out and preach the gospel
during one of the craziest times in history.
So it's almost like God's giving them this special opportunity
to do work for Him on this earth because they missed out,
and us, that we already got our opportunity.
You know, we don't partake in that particular adventure.
That's just kind of my viewpoint on that particular issue.
But go back to verse 2, the Bible says this,
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of a great thunder.
And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.
And they sung, as it were, a new song before the throne,
and before the four beasts and the elders.
And no man could learn that song but the 144,000,
which were redeemed from the earth.
So also this 144,000 are singing a song and playing a song
that nobody else can learn.
A couple thoughts I had with this.
Number one, apparently when we die and go to heaven,
we're not just automatically given infinite knowledge.
Because it's specifically instructing and telling us,
hey, there's some limitation here on ability to know certain things.
The only people that can know this song are the 144,000.
So there is some kind of a limitation.
They're playing this special song,
and then it describes who these individuals are.
Also it gives us a little bit of an insight that,
you know, it's not like when you go to heaven,
there's nothing to do.
Or there's nothing new.
Notice, here's a completely new song that's never been sung before.
And let me explain something.
This song still hasn't been sung yet.
This song has never been sung yet.
It's a new song that's going to be sung sometime in the future.
So there's some unique, awesome song.
And let's all be honest.
Isn't there this special feeling
when you hear a song for the first time,
and it's a really cool song?
Like, it's a song you've never heard before,
and you hear it that first time,
you're just like, wow, I really like that.
And then you want to listen to it again.
In fact, many of us, sometimes we can listen to the same song
over and over and over when we first hear it,
just because it's really cool, it's really unique,
and that's a special experience.
It's a lot of fun.
I've had this feeling, maybe I'm just weird.
But I remember I'll find a new song that I really like,
and I'll listen to it, and then I'll think,
like, man, I like this song so much,
but I wish I could somehow erase my brain
to hear it for the first time again,
just because I just enjoy it so much.
Who else has felt like this?
Okay, a few people. All right.
It's almost like a movie.
You've never seen a movie, and it was so amazing,
but you kind of wish you could watch it for the first time again,
just because that first experience of watching it
was just so fun and so unique.
And, you know, watching it a second or third time,
the law of diminishing return,
it isn't as enjoyable as that first experience,
that unique experience.
And so, you know, I don't think that you have to worry
that when we go to heaven, it's like, all right,
get out your old song, you know, song book,
and this is the only songs we'll ever sing.
Now, here's the thing.
I love these. These are classic.
I hope we still sing them. Don't hear me wrong.
But I also like the idea
that there's going to be new songs, too.
I also like the idea that there's going to be new stuff
and new things, you know, so don't be all, like, disappointed.
Like, heaven is not a disappointing place to go to, okay?
It's not like, oh, man,
I'm going to really miss all of this stuff.
It's kind of like if someone just came and said,
we bought you a multimillion-dollar mansion.
Just leave all your stuff here and go move into there.
And you're just like, all right, you know?
This is what I think of heaven as being like.
You know, it's when Joseph sent wagons up to his dad,
and he said, leave all of your stuff there.
We've got plenty of great stuff here in Egypt.
Just come on down, you know?
And it's just so much better.
It's like when people move to Texas.
You know, they didn't even realize what it was going to be like,
and then they move here, and then they're just like,
oh, man, this is so amazing, right?
Especially the food, all right?
And some people can't always appreciate that
because you grew up in the Promised Land.
Sorry for all the, you know, that we've been spoiled, and we live here.
But I just can't even imagine, like, when I visited other places,
like, when I visited the Philippines,
I'm like, I can't imagine what it would have been like
to leave there and then come here for the first time.
I would have been like, man, this place is amazing.
Okay, so, you know, that's my personal feelings.
You can feel differently if you want.
Some people are like, I like the Philippines better.
Well, go back. No, I'm just kidding.
But let's skip down to verse 5.
It says this,
Now, this is really interesting
because, you know, we think about the timeline,
and I want you to understand we haven't left
the Antichrist coming into power and declaring the mark.
That is the timeline we're in, okay?
So an angel is coming from heaven.
Notice, to do something very specific,
having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth.
So what I think is emphasized here
is this is the most important time in human history
to preach the gospel.
And, of course, there's never been a bad time
to preach the gospel, don't hear me wrong.
But what I'm saying is this is a special, unique window
where this is the time to really preach the gospel.
And I hope that so many Christians
don't have this mentality where they're going to go hide
in a cave and just try to hope to get raptured,
but I'd rather that boldness, a spirit of boldness,
comes upon Christians in the end times like never before
where we have a sense of urgency to preach the gospel
knowing that we have a short time as well.
You know, the devil, knowing that he has a short time,
goes all in.
Why would we, as Christians then,
knowing that we have a short time,
not do likewise and go all in and say,
all right, it's now time for me to take the gospel
really seriously and really try to take opportunity here
to get as many people saved as possible.
I mean, this is a very important time in human history,
and I think that the reaping will be very unique as well.
Because think about it.
I mean, we've just gone through all kinds of crazy war
and famine and all kinds of crazy things,
and who's receptive to the gospel?
Poor people that are desperate.
Well, that's like the whole world at this point, okay?
Plus, when there's a literal Antichrist
calling for people to get a mark,
it's never been a more important time to get people saved
because people that aren't saved
are going to be lining up to take this mark.
People that aren't saved are just being lined up
to just basically either be killed, massacred,
or become a reprobate, just like on hyperspeed.
And so it's a really, really important time
for us to take seriously preaching the gospel.
And notice the wording here, the everlasting gospel.
It's not like there's a dispensation of the gospel.
It's not like, well, this is the New Testament gospel.
No, it's the everlasting gospel.
It's the same gospel.
There's only been one gospel.
There will ever be one gospel
because it's the everlasting gospel.
Notice another aspect of everlasting that's important here.
Not just that it's always been true
and that it's always something that's the right gospel,
but think about it this way.
The gospel lasts forever.
And what I mean by that is that our salvation
is an eternal salvation.
Praise God that we don't have a temporary salvation.
Praise God that what Jesus Christ did on the cross
doesn't cover us for just 1,000 years or something,
and then now we have to work hard again
or try to get re-saved or something.
Praise God it's not a battery that runs out of battery.
Praise God that it's not something that ends.
It's something that's everlasting,
meaning that what Christ did on the cross
was an eternal salvation.
It's an eternal gospel.
He only had to die once for all time
because it's everlasting.
That's an amazing thing to think about
how He covered all sins in all directions forever.
That's another aspect of it being everlasting
that's a really important aspect.
Verse 8, the Bible says this,
And there falls another angel, such as all these angels,
saying, Babylon has fallen, has fallen, that great city
because she made all nations drink of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication.
This is an interesting verse,
and I'm going to park it on this for a little while,
but I find this verse interesting because of the timeline.
Because when we've been talking about Daniel's 70th week,
we've been right here kind of at that midpoint,
right at that great tribulation mark,
and yet it says Babylon has fallen.
Now, if you get a little bit further
in the book of Revelation, you'll understand
that when Babylon is destroyed,
it's at the very end of the 70th week.
So it's kind of interesting wording here
where it's saying Babylon is fallen.
That's not saying it's going to fall.
It doesn't say it will fall eventually,
or it's close to falling.
It says Babylon is fallen, as is an active current state.
That's a really, really interesting wording.
Now, I'm going to explain to you
what I believe that that means here,
but I want to make it clear what timeline we're in.
Look what it says in verse number 9.
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,
If any man worship the beast and his image
and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand,
the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture,
into the cup of his indignation,
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels
and the presence of the Lamb,
and the smoke of their torment is scented up forever and ever,
and they have no rest day nor night
who worship the beast and his image
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Verse 12, Here is the patience of the saints,
here are they that keep the commandments of God
and the faith of Jesus,
and there is a voice from heaven saying unto me,
Right, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord
from henceforth.
Yea, say it the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labors
and their works do follow them.
And I looked, and behold, a white cloud,
and upon the cloud one sat like unto the son of man,
having on his head a golden crown,
and in his hand a sharp sickle,
and another angel came out of the temple,
crying a loud voice to him,
that sat on the cloud,
thrust in thy sickle and reaped,
for the time has come for thee to reap,
for the harvest of the earth is right.
And he that sat on the cloud
thrust in his sickle on the earth,
and the earth was reaped.
So I read all that just so we make sure
we understand the timeline.
Notice he said Babylon is fallen,
then he brings up,
hey, there's a giant curse
to those who receive the mark of the beast.
Then he says there's a great blessing
to those who are patient and endure,
the saints and those who die
in the Lord from henceforth,
and then we have a reaping.
Now, we've looked at this previously
in the other chapters,
but this kind of,
if we look at our chart,
if you look at my chart,
if you look at what we've read in other chapters,
essentially this is about a 75-day period
that we're talking about,
talking about the time
from which the Antichrist is killed,
resurrected, declares a mark.
There's a great tribulation period.
I believe it's approximately 75 days
until the rapture,
which is that reaping event.
So what's being highlighted here
is that 75-day period
of the mark being doled out
and Christians resisting preaching the gospel,
dying in mass numbers,
Christians dying more than we've ever seen
in ever recorded history,
just giant amounts of Christians
being beheaded for the cause of Christ,
and then, in a moment,
the Son of Man redeeming the earth,
coming back with clouds,
reaping and getting all the saved
and bringing them with them.
That's the timeline.
Those are the events that are being described.
So then how is it that it's saying
that Babylon is fallen right now?
Well, go if you would to Revelation 18
for a moment now.
Go to Revelation chapter 18.
I want to look at a few verses here.
Look at what it says in Revelation 18, verse 1.
And after these things,
I saw another angel come down from heaven,
having great power,
and the earth was lightened with his glory.
And he cried mightily,
with a strong voice, saying,
Babylon the Great is fallen,
is fallen,
and has become the habitation of devils
and the hold of every foul spirit
and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Notice, again, in Revelation chapter 18,
it doesn't say shall fall or will fall.
It says is fallen.
So it uses the exact same language.
But then it also gives us a description
as to what it's referring to.
In what way is Babylon fallen?
Well, notice that it is in the state
is become the habitation of devils.
So it is become the habitation of devils.
It is become the hold of every foul spirit.
It is become a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
So what I believe that the Bible is trying to allude to
or trying to describe is the idea
that the state of Babylon
or the leadership of Babylon
has become so corrupted
and is so inept that it's completely taken over
and that doom is its destination,
that there's no rescuing it.
It's over.
And if you think about it like
if you were driving your car
and you were driving towards a cliff
and you go off the cliff,
here's the thing.
There's a moment in time
where all you're doing is falling.
You're not dead yet.
You're just woooooo.
So all that woooooo period,
you're falling, okay?
And it's accurate.
It's not like you might fall.
You currently are falling.
Now you haven't been destroyed yet.
When you hit, then you're destroyed.
But you're just in a state of free fall.
And there's no rescue.
It's over.
It's done.
You're going to die.
It's going to happen.
You're in the state of it happening,
but it just hasn't happened yet.
I believe this is what the Bible is talking about
when it's talking about Babylon
from the point of the midpoint
all the way up to its destruction.
It's in that woooooo.
And think about it this way.
If America was Babylon,
which I personally believe it probably is,
and if it happens in our lifetime,
it definitely is.
No question.
But it's possible this could be a thousand years from now.
Who knows?
If it's in our lifetime,
which I believe it probably is,
let me say that differently.
I believe America is probably Babylon, okay?
I don't know that it's going to happen in our lifetime.
I'm kind of 50-50.
That's where I've always been on that.
But I do believe it's most likely America,
and it could happen in the next hundred or so years
or something like that.
But it being America,
if all of our leadership,
our president,
our entire House of Representatives,
our entire Senate,
our entire Supreme Court,
and every single judge
and every single cop
and every single position of authority,
every governor,
is a complete unsaved reprobate devil,
then you could accurately just say,
America is falling.
Because it's not like the country is gone all of a sudden,
or it's not like things aren't functioning.
It's just, it's over.
There's no rescuing it.
There's no hope.
It's completely done for.
And so sometimes this happens with cultures
or civilizations where they've fallen,
and you say they've fallen,
not because it's been destroyed.
It's just you're like,
oh, the leadership's been taken over.
It's over at this point.
It's done for.
They're cooked.
It's just a matter of time at this point
until everything's going to be completely destroyed.
But they've essentially fallen.
Another aspect of this is the sense that
the Antichrist himself
is coming from that Seventh Kingdom.
He is essentially the leader of the Seventh Kingdom.
And then at the point of the midpoint,
when he dies and comes back,
he basically just declares,
hey, I'm God,
and it's like this Eighth Kingdom.
So now all of a sudden he kind of almost
makes a separation from himself
and that Seventh in a sense.
So you could even argue that now Babylon's
not even in control.
He's just in control.
That's another aspect of the way that you could
look at how Babylon has fallen.
The Babylon is just basically cooked.
It's just a useless whore at this point
that just has nothing to live for.
It's just going to completely destroy itself.
And it's filled with devils.
It's filled with all of these unclean spirits.
You can almost see how things like that
are happening in America.
You could even see a similar thing that happened.
How about when Joe Biden became president of America?
A lot of people just said,
well, America is fallen.
Why? Because it's like no longer do we even believe
in our electoral processes anymore.
No longer do things even seem legitimate anymore.
I mean, if you think that guy wearing the pins
is running our country, you're brain dead.
Just like him.
That guy is not in charge of virtually anything.
He can barely handle the ice cream cone in his hand,
let alone our country.
And so in many ways you could just say America is fallen.
Some people would say, oh, America fell a long time ago.
It fell with the Federal Reserve.
Or it fell when we got off the gold standard.
Or it fell with the Bush administration.
Or it fell with the Obama administration.
A lot of people say all manner of those things.
They'll say it fell when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
They have all their different views.
Some people say it fell from day one.
I think all of those have some level of legitimacy to them.
They all have an element of truth to them.
But here's something that's interesting.
Notice what it says about this in verse 2.
A cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
What does that even mean?
Well, go back to Leviticus chapter 11 for a moment.
Go back to Leviticus chapter number 11 for a moment.
What is a unclean and hateful bird?
That's a really interesting wording.
Well, let's just ask the Bible.
What's an unclean and hateful bird?
How about Leviticus chapter 11?
Look at verse number 13.
The Bible says this.
And these are they which he shall have an abomination among the fowls.
Abomination is something that's unclean.
They shall not be eaten.
They are an abomination.
Notice what the first one is.
The eagle.
The first one.
The absolute first bird mentioned.
The first one that God says,
Hey, don't eat this bird because it's super abomination.
It's really unclean. It's the eagle.
Well, what's interesting about the eagle is that is the animal of choice for America.
It is literally on our emblem the eagle.
And it's described as a hateful bird.
Whatever is in Revelation.
The eagle is for sure a hateful bird.
Okay.
I don't know how much you know about eagles.
And I want to give you just some of the things I looked up online about them.
But these animals are described as being hateful.
These birds.
What birds?
We'll look a little bit further in this list.
It says not just the eagle but the ossifridge and the osprey and the vulture and the kite after his kind.
It says every raven after his kind.
The owl and the nighthawk and the kukau and the hawk after his kind.
And the little owl and the komaran and the great owl.
It keeps going on.
But it says in verse 19 the bat.
What do you know about a lot of these birds?
Some of them we're not as familiar with.
Some are pretty common to us.
Eagles, vultures, kites, owls, bats.
A lot of these birds that we're talking about are what's called birds of prey.
Birds of prey.
Meaning that they're hunters.
They hunt down other animals and they eat them.
One of these that I'm really familiar with is the kite bird.
Especially when I lived back in the Amarillo area and the Panhandle area.
We have these birds that we call Mississippi kite birds.
And they're very territorial.
And they basically just kind of glide around.
They just kind of float around.
But if you come anywhere near their tree or anywhere near them.
They'll swoop all the way down and they will rip your head off with their talons.
They just come out of nowhere and they'll just attack you.
Just for getting close to them.
And this is what you would call a hateful bird.
You know what doesn't just randomly just start attacking people and animals?
How about doves?
Doves are not a hateful bird.
Hummingbirds aren't like a hateful bird.
You know what's a hateful bird?
The eagle and the vulture and the kite bird.
These different birds which are birds of prey.
And eagles are vicious.
If you look up about eagles.
They're described as being the apex predator of the sky.
Apex meaning they're the top of the food chain.
They are the top of the top.
Eagles also are known for their eyes.
Because their eyes they have great vision.
Where they can see from really really far.
And what makes eagles the apex predator.
And what makes them such a unique bird of the sky.
Is the fact that they can hunt their prey from really really far away.
And they have this advantage of being able to just swoop in undetected.
Now what nation in the world sounds like that?
Where they have an ability to view things from afar.
And just swoop in and attack their prey undetected.
How about America with all of its surveillance systems and drones and satellites.
And we basically rule the skies.
I mean that is what our nation really is like.
Not only this. Eagles are some of the most vicious animals.
Whenever an eagle lays eggs.
A mother eagle lays eggs.
And it has two.
Often times the first chick to hatch.
Will literally eat its sibling.
It will just eat its brother or its sister.
Just out of just pure spite.
I don't know.
Just out of hunger.
Talk about a hateful bird. I mean it just kills its brother.
I mean as soon as it's born it's just Cain.
And it just immediately murders its own brother or sister.
That is this type of an animal.
You know America is like that.
Where it's so savage it will just destroy anything and everything.
Destroy its brother, its sister. It doesn't care.
Not only that. They're also known as being animals who do unexpected ambushes.
Where animals aren't expecting them and they just come out of nowhere.
And they just ambush them in the middle of the night.
Another thing that they do is they steal prey from others.
So often what they'll do is they'll let an animal trap another animal.
Let's say a snake will trap a rabbit.
And then the eagle will come out of nowhere and just steal the rabbit from the snake.
Or he'll just steal someone else's prey.
He'll even let an eagle capture a rabbit or a snake or something.
And then another eagle will come and just steal it from it.
So it's just like a complete, just evil beast, evil animal.
That's just only in it for himself.
Very selfish, very self-centered apex predator.
Sounds like America.
Now here's something that's interesting.
Benjamin Franklin.
Now he's not a great person.
But this is a quote from Benjamin Franklin.
I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country.
He is a bird of bad moral character.
Like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor and often very lousy.
He said the turkey is a much more respectable bird.
And with all, you know, he says he's a native of America.
So he thinks that we should have picked the turkey.
I'm not saying we should have picked the turkey.
But what I find interesting is that even someone that's not even a great Christian
probably was for sure a reprobate, in my opinion, Benjamin Franklin.
But yet even he could recognize that the eagle is considered a bird of bad moral character.
That the eagle is an unclean and hateful bird.
Boy, that's another card in the deck of America being Babylon.
I don't know what else to say. I mean, that's a crazy one.
I'm going to talk about it a little bit more though, okay?
So here's another interesting point.
Because on the American seal we have the eagle.
And he has in one claw essentially a bunch of arrows and the other one he has olive branches
and it's supposed to represent peace and war.
But on the symbol or on our emblem it says E Pluribus Unum.
E Pluribus Unum, which is Latin.
None of you know what I'm saying. I don't know what I'm saying, okay?
But what does that mean?
Well, it means out of many, one.
Out of many, one.
Now, here's another thing that's interesting about it.
It's 13 letters.
And it's 13 letters to represent the 13 colonies which rebelled against the king of England.
And so we are a nation identified with the number 13 in rebellion to the king.
The king of England, and again it wasn't that king of course,
but the same nation and country that delivered us what?
The King James Bible that represented Christianity and godliness in this world.
We rebelled against that.
I mean, if you think about why America exists, it exists because it rebelled against the king of England,
which is probably representative of the most godly nation on earth, especially at that time.
Now, I'm not saying that it really was.
I think many people in America were more godly and Christian than those in England specifically.
But I'm just saying from a symbolic picture here, it's very interesting and kind of ominous what is being represented.
But think about this. Out of many, one.
Look at Revelation chapter 17.
Go to Revelation chapter 17.
I want you to look at another verse here.
If we're describing and talking about Babylon itself,
the Bible describes it in Revelation chapter 17 in a couple different ways.
And it says that it's representative of a whore that's sitting on water.
Well, it says in verse 15 here,
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest where the horse itteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
You know what that sounds like? Out of many, one.
And you know, America is unique in that way.
That many other nations are very specific demographic,
whereas America was even founded from lots of different nations and kind of a boiling pot even from the very beginning.
People coming Irish and Spanish and German and lots of different people groups coming from all over to make one.
And it's interesting that this future Babylon is described as peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.
And that's just a very interesting concept.
On the back of the American seal, you have the all-seeing eye above a pyramid.
And it has two other Latin phrases.
It has annuit coeptis, which says he favors our undertakings,
and the novus ordo seclorum, Latin for new order of the ages.
You kind of have to wonder who's the he, and he favors our undertakings.
But this is what I think is interesting.
Why, when we start a nation, think about it this way.
America was probably, you know, founded essentially with, you know, Columbus and lots of settlers.
And then, you know, the King of England sends more people.
They start creating colonies.
They have the 13 colonies.
And then eventually they rebel.
They have the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
People speak English.
Why would you then create an emblem that everything's written in Latin?
Like, why is everything written in Latin when you're an English-speaking country
and alternative languages are probably going to be German or other dialects that are European dialects?
I mean, virtually no one is speaking Latin as their primary language.
They might have been teaching Latin in school or having to learn Latin from an educational perspective.
But they weren't Latin.
They weren't speaking that kind of a language.
But you know what's really interesting is in the Book of Daniel,
especially Chapter 7 where we start off with our prophecies, there's four beasts.
And that fourth beast is the one that's described as having the ten kings and having the ten horns.
And it's really weird because that fourth beast for sure represents the Roman Empire.
Now the Roman Empire is going to basically conquer the earth and that's where Jesus Christ comes in.
He comes in during the Roman Empire.
But it breaks apart.
But then it's interesting that it would use it for that prophecy of the Roman Empire conquering the Greek Empire.
But then it's also used in the end times.
Almost as if that end times has a parallel between that fourth beast.
That fourth beast somehow can represent both.
It seems like there's a Roman connection.
It seems like there's almost a Latin connection.
And is it any coincidence that we put an unclean and hateful bird on the symbol of our country that says,
out of many, one, and we write it in Latin.
I mean that doesn't seem like coincidences to me.
Okay.
That seems like, wow, it's almost like it was done on purpose is what I'm trying to say.
And it's very interesting what is being described.
It also makes sense that if we're pictured as this disgusting unclean beast, this unclean fowl,
that then what are we represented as?
A cage of every unclean and hateful bird and just all these unclean spirits.
And that whatever is Babylon in the end times is filled with devils, demonic spirits, unclean spirits.
It's described, Babylon is described as the mother of all harlots.
And it's like you look at America, we are shipping harlotry out like never before.
I mean with Hollywood and our celebrities, I mean Hollywood is definitely a cage of unclean beasts.
Of all kinds of fowl spirits.
Washington D.C. is another cage of all kinds of unclean and fowl spirits.
I mean if you were to say where are the worst people that exist on this planet today,
it is Hollywood and it is Washington D.C.
It's almost without exception.
I mean you definitely have some other bad spots in the world, don't hear me wrong.
There's other bad people in this world.
But virtually some of the worst, scummiest, most evil humans to ever live, they're in America,
they're in New York City, they're in Washington D.C., they're in San Francisco, and they're in L.A.
I mean these places.
And you know what's interesting is there's a large Jewish population in all those places too.
So just FYI, that's just a side bit for you.
But go back if you would to Revelation 14.
I think that when it says that Babylon has fallen, that whatever nation this is,
if it's America it doesn't matter, that essentially the leadership and the control of that nation
has just been completely infiltrated by demonic spirits, reprobates, and unclean people.
And so that's what it's meaning when Babylon has fallen.
It's cooked, it's over, it's done for.
I mean at the point that they're teaching students that math is racist.
I mean think about the education system today.
They're trying to tell people that math is racist.
We have multiple high ranked position officers in America today that are men wearing dresses and skirts
and they say that they're women.
I mean how could you not say that our nation has not fallen when that's what's being represented?
I mean I could show you videos of where the United States military has a legion of soldiers
wearing women's red high heels and walking up and down the street.
How could you not say that your... I mean that is just mockery at its finest.
Can you imagine saying like we're going to get our enemy's soldiers to walk up and down the street in women's shoes?
Like you would think like never in a million years.
That would be something that you would think even if they lose in battle they wouldn't do that.
Like even if they surrendered, they're like we surrender.
Okay well you're going to have to march up and down the street with shoes, kill us now.
No we're just going to fight to the death. We're not going to do that.
It's like we're willingly doing such things. We're such a weak and effeminate culture.
The men in this nation have stopped becoming men.
We have manliness is at an all time low. Testosterone is at an all time low.
Education and intelligence is at an all time low. Energy is at an all time low.
We have an epidemic of apathy, an epidemic of drug abuse.
We have an epidemic of just men that are just only consumed with lust and just taken by whoredom.
And it's just destroyed so much of the fabric of our society that you could see if it was 100% you could say it's fallen.
Even if it hadn't been destroyed yet. Because it doesn't have to be destroyed to be fallen.
It can be fallen in other sense like economically, politically, spiritually, and every other aspect.
In Revelation 18, God explicitly tells. He says my people come out from her.
So he's even saying like wow this place is a dump heap. There's no one to even get saved. Just leave.
Right? I mean it's gotten so bad. Your only option is just simply to flee.
Think about this. Isn't that how Sodom and Gomorrah got?
I mean can't a city get to a point where it's just time to leave?
There's not any redemption here. It's just going to be nuked with fire just like Sodom and Gomorrah was.
Babylon's going to get to that point where it's just literally a dumpster fire and people just have to leave and get out of there.
And have nothing to do with it.
Now again, I don't think that that's America right now. I'm staying here to the bitter end.
Because I'm going to get raptured before that point.
But, you know, think about how America would be right now if every saved person was gone.
I mean, wow. I mean think about how much fun it would be to find a church then.
Think about just, I mean that's scary. And you know we live in a pretty insulated area of the United States.
I mean we live in a pretty nice part of the United States.
I mean think about living in New York City right now when all saved people that are there are gone.
I mean that's some dark times that have just gone through war and famine and all kinds of stuff like that.
I mean it's some dark days ahead of this world.
That's why it also gives a strong warning here though about what happens for these reprobates.
If you look in Revelation 14 it says in verse number 9,
If any man worship the beast in his image and receive a mark in his forehead or in his hand,
the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.
And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.
And they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and who shall receive it the mark of his name.
Now what's so crazy is after reading those few verses there are people today that will say hell is not eternal.
That is a doctrine that many people have flowed out there.
They'll either just reject hell or they'll say hell is annihilation or it's just where you're just destroyed.
The Bible uses those words like perish or everlasting destruction.
But when it's saying the word destruction it's not referring to ceasing to exist.
You cannot cease to exist in hell according to the Bible.
Notice how it's described here. It's saying that it's forever and ever.
And what's forever and ever? Their torment.
It's not saying like well just the smoke just keeps coming up for no reason.
I mean think about it. Like where's that smoke coming from? Nothing.
No, no, no. The smoke is coming up from their torment.
And they have no rest day nor night.
They don't get to like well I'm going to have to take my shift of pain for eight hours and then take a nap.
It's like no sleep ever again. Only pregnant moms know what that's like, okay?
Never again sleeping. And specifically it even says he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone.
I mean you know these people that believe in annihilation I'm thinking like
how long do you think someone today can be tormented with fire and brimstone?
I mean that's like immediate death. So like even if it just lasted one day that's supernatural.
Like that's not even possible, okay?
Like you can't be thrown into a lava pit and just hanging out for a while.
It's not like the hot tub or something, okay?
Or you're just like I think I've been in here a little too long.
It says it would be immediate destruction, okay?
So it's very obvious that's what's being described here as a supernatural destruction.
And you say well I don't think it could last forever. How can fire last forever?
Well again we're not talking about an earthly torment here.
Because an earthly torment can't last forever.
But this supernatural torment of fire and brimstone somehow it literally lasts forever.
That's the worst part about hell.
It's not only that it's a lot of pain. It's that the lot of pain is a lot of the time.
Like all of it. Forever. Literally.
Keep your finger here. Go to Mark chapter number nine.
I mean the people that don't get saved we read about a lot of the plagues and we think like man that's awful for them.
Nothing like hell though.
Nothing like what their real punishment is.
Nothing like the real torment is.
And it also should help us realize like any suffering that we go through in this life
it can't even compare to what's going to happen to these people that burn in hell for all of eternity.
I mean God made hell scary so you would believe in him.
And then he preached about it in a real dramatic way so that you would believe in him.
I mean Jesus is saying it would literally be better for you to just rip your eye out of your head right now.
I mean just get a knife and literally stab it into your eye socket and just rip your eye out right now.
He said it's way better to do that than to go to hell.
I mean he's saying it would be way better to just take your hand and just get that same knife and just chop it off and just throw it away than to go to hell.
I mean something that's unimaginable.
Like who would ever want to torture themselves with such anguish and pain?
And I mean your eye is like one of your most precious organs.
Like of all the body parts you're going to lose, eye is like one of the last things you're going to pick.
I mean you're picking all kinds of other body parts before you're going to pick an eye.
And he's saying it would be better for you to do that.
Now I'm not going to read this whole passage but look at the end part of chapter 9.
It says in verse 43,
It couldn't be clearer.
Jesus Christ is saying it would be way better to have been born with no arms than to be Lord Jacob Rothschild and burning in hell right now.
It would be way better than being Tom Brady and winning all kinds of Super Bowls and being the best quarterback ever and be going to hell.
On your way to hell.
Than to be any great star athlete or any great man of the earth.
He's saying it would have been way better just been maimed your whole life and get to go to heaven.
Than to have been some great person or having two hands and die and go to hell.
And notice he wants to emphasize how long it's going to last.
So he says specifically the fire that shall never be quenched.
Then he says where the worm dieth not.
And then he says oh just to make it clear where the fire is not quenched.
Because if you die it wouldn't matter that the fire is going your pain would cease.
Or if you're alive and the fire goes out then your pain could cease.
But he's saying no no you're not going anywhere so the pain keeps going and the fire doesn't go anywhere so the pain keeps going.
And you're like how long?
It's forever.
It's never quenched.
It's never over.
That's how long it is.
That's how scary it is.
Here's what you don't realize.
This is the future for the vast majority of people that have ever lived.
The vast majority of people that have already lived are already experienced.
They already know this verse better than you and I know.
You're like why do you get so winning?
Have you ever heard about hell?
Have you ever realized what hell is like?
Praise God that he made getting out of here as easy as possible.
Praise God that salvation is so easy.
And think about how little people actually serve God.
I mean if he made it by any level of works I mean almost nobody would be going.
Because when it's free hardly anybody goes.
Let alone if you actually had to do something.
Let alone if you actually had to attend church on Wednesday night.
Boy.
You know I mean hell would be a lot more full right?
Praise God you don't have to even go to church to be saved.
All you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ one time.
He couldn't have made it easier.
He couldn't have made it simpler.
Yet so many people in their pride will not accept it and they have to suffer for all of eternity forever.
Well that doesn't seem fair.
It doesn't matter if it's fair or not.
That's reality.
I don't get to decide what's fair.
I don't even know what's fair because I'm a human.
The only person that knows what's fair and right is God.
And he already determined what's right and wrong.
He already determined what's good and evil.
And he already determined heaven and hell.
I don't deserve heaven either.
You know we think about like, well how could anybody deserve hell?
But I don't deserve heaven.
It's like not only do I not get this horrible thing that you think is unfair.
I get something that's awesome that I don't deserve either.
So if you want to say, well the people going to hell they didn't deserve that.
Well I'm going to heaven didn't deserve it either.
But at the end of the day, yes you did deserve it because you rebelled against God and you sinned.
And because of your sin you're going to go to the lake of fire.
And because you rejected the free gift that God offered you every single day of your life.
All the way to the bitter end.
He's really mad about that.
He's really angry about that and he is going to burn them in hell for all of eternity.
Someone who says that hell is not for forever doesn't believe the Bible.
I don't think it's possible for someone to be saved and disagree on this doctrine.
Like maybe it's possible.
I'm just saying my personal opinion is I don't see how anybody could disagree or not think that hell is eternal and be saved.
It's super clear in the Bible and that's what even motivates you to get saved.
Someone that doesn't think that hell is eternal you should stay far away from that person.
And they will change their mind.
Okay?
When they're in hell for forever.
Now go back to Revelation 14.
They might keep hoping that it ends.
They're going to be really disappointed 10,000 years from now.
And a million years from now.
And a trillion years from now.
And oogalillion years from now.
Say what's oogalillion?
Oogalillion is 100 zeroes after a one.
There's a point in time from now where we could think back and it will be an oogalillion years.
How long have you been in hell?
An oogalillion.
How much longer?
More.
Times an oogalillion.
Wow.
That's the worst part.
They're just screaming.
They're torment.
When you realize how bad hell is, you shouldn't even want anyone to go.
That's why the Bible even says that God's not willing that any should perish.
But that all should come under penance.
God doesn't want anybody to go to hell in his perfect will.
But he is also not willing that those who reject the gift of salvation would have any other fate.
And so they will receive the wrath of God.
And we can see the extreme wrath of God and we can see the extreme goodness of God.
The everlasting gospel and the everlasting destruction.
The everlasting hell that exists.
There is no middle ground.
It's that black and white.
It's that binary.
All those non-binary people hate that.
Okay.
I'll tell you what.
Now, we'll just finish this chapter.
And will you help me just bring that board up real quick?
It says this in verse 16.
And he that sat on the cloud thrust in a sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped and another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven.
He also having a sharp sickle and another angel came out from the altar which had power over fire and he cried a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle saying,
thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe.
And the angel thrust in a sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
And the winepress was trodden without the city and blood came out of the winepress even under the horse bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Now, I kind of want to just focus on this end part.
There's technically two aspects of this reaping.
There's the reaping of those who are saved and they're going to go to heaven.
But then it's also talking about another group of people in verse number 18 that it says they gathered the clusters of the vine of the earth and in verse 19 it says they were cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
So if you take grapes and you put them in a big bucket, this is what they used to do, they would then step on them and they would squash out all the juice and that's how they made wine.
Today we have winepresses, so we have machines that basically squeeze the grapes.
But in times past they just had their servants or slaves literally wash their feet and barefoot just sit there and dance a jig, you know, on a bunch of grapes and just cause all the grapes to squirt all their juices out and they would filter it down and that's how they get their grape juice.
That's how they would get it.
And then of course you could drink it unfermented just like we drink juice today or they may take the skins and put them in, mix them in with the juice just to get a little bit of yeast and then over time it starts to ferment and then turn into alcohol.
And of course that's the beverage that the Bible tells us in Proverbs 23 to never touch, never look at, and never drink is when the wine is turning its color in the cup.
Because if you squeeze a bunch of grapes it's clear.
In order to be red it has to get that dye from the skins and has to go through the fermentation process where it starts bubbling through that yeast and it turns into an alcoholic toxin or poison.
And then people drink it. It's just crazy.
But at the end of the day it's using this analogy for people.
So what would happen if you took a bunch of people and put them in a bucket and then stepped on them?
What would come out?
Blood.
And in fact the Bible even uses that language about grapes. It talks about the blood of the grape.
It's talking about the juice of the grape.
And it's saying that when all of these people come together and specifically they're gathered and it's kind of without the city.
I believe what it says, I'm thinking of the verse.
I'll have to rethink which verse. Yeah, verse 20.
And the wine press was trodden without the city.
So it's like these people are gathered without the city.
And then specifically their blood accumulates to what it says is the space of 1,600 furlongs as far as depth.
And then it also talks about it stretching a space of, I'm sorry, the depth is the horse bridles and then the space is the 1,600 furlongs.
So I just wanted to focus on that for just a second.
And I'm kind of a visual person, so.
If you have 1,600 furlongs, that's not really a term that we typically are very familiar with.
But a furlong is an eighth of a mile.
So if you take this and you convert it into miles, that would be a 200 mile space.
That's 200 miles wide.
Now, in this particular drawing or this particular example of blood, it doesn't really tell us a third dimension.
It really only gives us two dimensions.
One is the horse bridle.
And I don't know the exact number, but if you can look at a picture of a horse, look at a man, oftentimes their bridles are kind of coming up to the shoulder of a man.
Of course the bridle is from their mouth all the way to the back of their head.
It covers the whole part of the animal.
So we just take the lower part of the bridle on a typical average horse.
It's maybe around the shoulder height, which would maybe be about five feet.
So just for sake of argument, we're just going to say it's like five feet.
Then it says it goes the space of 1,600 furlongs.
That's 200 miles.
Now, what we don't have is like this other measurement.
We don't have this other particular angle.
So we don't necessarily know.
I at first thought what if it was just a perfect square or circle or something where it would be like 200 miles all around.
That doesn't really work because that number isn't going to work.
But it could be that what we're describing here is more of like a river style object.
So imagine a river that goes 200 miles long and it's approximately five feet deep and I just threw out a number.
I said what if we just went ten feet as far as how wide this river is.
So if you kind of understand the shape that we have, we would actually have something probably akin to a half cylinder, a half cylinder type object.
So you basically have this pool of blood that's traveling 200 miles long.
It's horse bridle deep.
I'm just throwing out a number.
Let's just say it was a ten foot wide ravine.
So you kill a bunch of men and obviously the water just goes down to a low point.
That's why we didn't have rivers.
Rivers exist because you have a big pool of water like a lake or something and it's depositing itself down into a lower part of the ocean.
That's what the Mississippi River is.
That's what all rivers are.
So if you have a point where a bunch of men are killed and all their blood is squeezed out, all that blood is going to accumulate could potentially form some kind of a river that's chasing down to some eventual outlet.
So if you look at this, how would we calculate what this could potentially be?
Well, a cylinder, if you were to try and find the cubic volume of a cylinder, who knows the formula?
There you go.
My wife knew it. I didn't know it.
She's the math teacher.
Pi r squared times height.
So that's the formula to solve for a cylinder.
Now here's the thing. We have a half cylinder, so in order to get to our calculation, we would have to do this and then divide by two approximately to get this number.
So if we have, and I'm just going to kind of go with our numbers.
We have 200 miles.
We have to convert this first into feet.
So if we convert this into feet, it's 1,000,000, I'm sorry, 1,056,000 feet.
So that's how many feet we would have out of the 1,600 furlongs.
And then essentially we have five feet for the radius already, and then we have 10 feet for this.
So now we can come to our, we can calculate essentially this number.
So first of all, we'll square, because the order of operations, we've got to square our radius.
Our radius is actually going to be five feet, just because our diameter is 10.
Radius is half of that, so it'd be five.
Five squared is going to give us 25, okay?
That's the first part of our calculation.
This is r squared, or this was five squared.
Then we are going to times that by pi.
What is the calculation for pi? 3.14.
We'll just simplify the 3.14.
That would give us 78.5, okay?
So that's how much our total is so far.
Then we have to multiply that by our height, which is this million number, okay?
So that would give us 82,896,000 feet, okay?
But that's for a full cylinder, we've got to half that, so it's 41,448,000, okay?
Now here's where we have to create another conclusion, because this is how much cubic feet this particular diagram would be, okay?
So if we had all this blood, and it was a 10 foot long river going 200 miles, 5 foot deep, in a cubic style shape, it would be approximately that much cubic feet.
Well then we need to figure out how much blood we need.
The average adult man has approximately 1.5 gallons of blood in his body, okay?
Now that's again gallons.
If we take that number and we convert it into cubic feet, we're going to get 0.2 cubic feet, okay?
So approximately a person is going to have 0.2 cubic feet.
So to then figure out this number, we have to then divide this by 0.2, okay?
Now when you divide by a point, it actually goes up, the number goes up.
And so if you divide this number by 0.2, you get 207,000,000.
Now again, the reason why I even went through this calculation, a couple things.
Number one, I just want to see how realistic it is.
How many people would you have to basically kill to get enough blood to make a 200 mile river,
5 foot deep approximately, 207,000,000 people?
Now according to this prophecy, it's a bunch of people gathered right outside the city.
When you know, there's another prophecy in the Bible where a 200,000,000 man army
marches all the way right outside the city in the battle of Armageddon.
And when Jesus Christ comes, he slays them all in an instant with a sword that proceeds out of his mouth.
And you know, it's not like when those people die, their bodies and their physical organs disappear or anything.
No, they're just literally still on the earth.
But what would happen if you slew 200,000,000 men in one instance?
You could get a 200 mile river full of blood, 5 foot deep, gushing.
So I think that's really interesting that that number is actually almost, and again, I came up with this number.
So don't, and I didn't backdate this number.
I honestly just thought of a random round, I was just like, what if we just did 10 feet?
I could be totally wrong in how this is calculated.
Perhaps maybe when it's saying to the horse bridles, it's not the entire length,
it's just like a section towards the basin or the outlet.
That would make this number lower, making it even easier and more realistic.
I'm saying, what if it was basically that deep the entire way of the 1600 furlongs?
That's still a reasonable number.
We could still literally see 200,000,000 people killed on this earth.
We have billions.
So it's not like it couldn't be possible.
It's just a really interesting prophecy that the Bible talks about that 200,000,000 man army coming from the east,
being gathered outside the city, and that is when, if they were slayed,
that would probably produce this particular blood river.
So that's just my way of kind of looking at it.
Again, I'm totally willing to be wrong on these numbers as far as just the 10 or something,
but I believe my math is solid, and you should check it out.
Here's for your high school homeschool group, okay?
Have your kids re-perform this calculation, okay?
So that they can figure out what the heck we even did here.
And if you're an adult and you don't know, learn this, okay?
Figure out how math works again.
But I'll go to one more verse that we've already read, but just to kind of summarize.
Look what it said again in verse number 13.
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.
You know, when we read in the Bible, there's all kinds of different timelines,
there's all kinds of different stories, there's all kinds of different people.
You know, some people lived in a time when virtually nothing's recorded in the Bible.
Or the Bible just said, and then they had peace for 40 years.
And then there's other times in the Bible when we read about people like Gideon,
and we read about people like Daniel, and we read about people like Moses and Joshua,
and all these great humans that lived in really epic times.
And I believe what the Bible's trying to say here is that the people that are during this time,
it's a really special, unique time.
I think some people, like, they get worried about the end times, and they want to not go through it.
But at the same time, it's like, hey, you know, it's probably a lot of pain to play in the Super Bowl,
all the hits and how much the enemy's going to hit you.
But, like, if you're a football player, you want to play in the Super Bowl.
And it's like, as Christians, it's like, hey, going through the end times is probably really rough.
I don't want to downplay it or anything.
But at the end of the time, at the end of the day, it's kind of like the Super Bowl of Christianity.
Like, that Great Tribulation period is, like, the most epic event of Christianity
where you're going out, you're battling the Antichrist, and you're preaching the gospel,
and it's just, it's like a really unique special time.
I mean, the two witnesses are there. They're lighting it up in Jerusalem.
People are getting beheaded. I mean, this is like the epic battle scene.
This is the climax of the movie.
Instead of being fearful, I think in some ways we should almost think, like,
it would be an honor and a privilege to be a Christian during that time.
And notice what the Bible's saying. It's saying, blessed are they and the ones who die in the Lord in that time.
Hey, blessed are the people that go out and battle and do something for God during that time.
You know, if you had an eternal perspective in mind, like we thought about hell,
how about an eternal perspective on heaven and realize, why don't you do something with your life?
I just lived in peace for 40 years, you know.
It's like, why don't you be a Christian that did something epic for the Lord Jesus Christ?
And, you know, if it doesn't happen in our lifetime, hey, still serve God with all that you've got.
I believe that we live in exciting times. There's so much to do.
There's more work to do than could ever be done.
There's so many missions tripped. There's so many mission fields.
There's a raging battle. There are real evil people in this world that we're fighting right now.
I mean, the political forces are pure Satan.
I mean, there's so much evil and wickedness and sin, and there's so many people dying and going to hell.
I mean, we live in such important times.
It would be kind of depressing if, to go soul winning, you knock on the door,
there's already 30 other Baptist flyers on the door.
Wouldn't soul winning be a little bit less enjoyable when it's like,
yeah, the last 30 Baptists already knocked my door today.
You're like, oh, okay.
It's kind of nice to think about almost no matter where you go,
virtually those people have never even been witness to it all yet,
and that you just get all kinds of fresh opportunities
and new opportunities to preach the gospel.
I mean, we live in exciting times. There's so much to live for.
There's so much to do. There's so much work to be done.
You have a great church. We have so many great people here,
so many great soul winning opportunities.
I mean, there's so much to do and so much work to be done.
Don't be stuck doing nothing,
and don't let the enemy discourage you in thinking that your life is meaningless or something.
That couldn't be further from the truth.
We live in the most important times.
2024 is way more important than any time before.
I mean, we have so many more people that need the gospel than ever before.
Population has exploded. Evil is exploding.
The people that are doing the work of God are shrinking.
Now more than ever do we need us to really be steadfast
and really unmovable and abounding in the work of the Lord.
Let's be steadfast. Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us this knowledge and this wisdom.
I pray that you would help us to have an eternal perspective
and to not be fearful but rather be bold
and that we would just work hard.
And if we're in times that I pray that we'd have courage
and if we're not that we would just work hard anyways.
And I pray that you would just help us to just be a bright and shining light in such a dark world
and that we would be motivated to serve God and also encourage others to serve God.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, in closing, let's go to song number 146.
Song number 146, A Shelter in the Time of Storm.
Song number 146.
We're going to sing it out together on the verse.
The Lord our rock and hymn we hide
A shelter in the time of storm
Secure whatever will be time
A shelter in the time of storm
Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land
A weary land, a weary land
Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land
A shelter in the time of storm
A shade by day, defense by night
A shelter in the time of storm
No fears of harm, no foes of fright
A shelter in the time of storm
Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land
A weary land, a weary land
Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land
A shelter in the time of storm
The raging storms may round us be
A shelter in the time of storm
We'll never leave our safe retreat
A shelter in the time of storm
Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land
A weary land, a weary land
Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land
A shelter in the time of storm
Oh rock divine, no refuge near
A shelter in the time of storm
Be thou our helper ever near
A shelter in the time of storm
Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land
A weary land, a weary land
Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land
A shelter in the time of storm
Great job everybody, you were all dismissed.
Thank you for watching.