Morning Sermon

February 17, 2008

The Wrath of God

Text

Rom.1:18 "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."

That is where we are this morning in our study of the book of Revelation. The subject is the wrath of God. And don't be deceived, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus,

Eph. 5:6 "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."

God shall respond to all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men with his wrath. And that is not merely the expression of some measure of anger, but the wrath of his eternal condemnation. We have seen this subject before!

Rev. 6:17 "For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

And then again last week, v.9 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 "he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 "And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."

You are not likely to hear much about that judgment today, for the subject of the wrath of God is not one that makes for very popular reviews. It is not a subject that typically meets the felt needs of listeners. It is not a subject measured to make people feel comfortable and upon which the church will grow large. In fact, it is often judged to be a message of intolerance. Even an example of hate speech, that God would judge those who are not Christians with his eternal and unending wrath. There isn't much greater religious intolerance than that, is there? And there clearly are few things more offensive and objectionable than to declare that certain people who do certain things will find themselves subject to this wrath.

And yet Paul was willing to write to the Ephesians, Eph. 5:3 "But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them."

So we who believe the Bible to be true pass quickly over such topics. And those who don't believe the Bible to be true, why they just consider this subject one of the many reasons to disbelieve the Bible in the first place. After all, who could believe in a God who could say these things!

v.19 "So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God."

That is our subject this morning, and in one sense, it doesn't matter whether the immediate reference of this judgment is directed to the first century nation of Israel that was doomed to imminent destruction or directed first and foremost toward the wickedness of the whole world which will bring about God's wrath and judgment at the end of this age. It doesn't matter because our subject matter is God as the author of wrath. We are not engaged merely in a history lesson of nations but in the study of God. So if the reference is to Jerusalem of the first century, as I think it is, then that itself is a picture of what will come at the end of the age. And in either case, the focus is upon God. God as the avenger of wrath. And specifically, upon Jesus Christ.

Remember what this whole book is all about. Rev. 1:1 "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants--things which must shortly take place."

I. THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. And so we read, v.14

We've seen the cloud before.

Rev. 10:1 "I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land."

Also, Rev. 1:7 "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. 8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

That's Jesus. Clearly identified here as,

A. The Son of Man. Or, more accurately, "one like a son of man." That is an obvious reference to the great messianic prophecy of,

Dan. 7:13 "I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. 14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed."

I won't take the time this morning to reemphasize the point, but suffice it say that Jesus has already been established in all authority and power in his kingdom. The kingdom has already come, as David prophesied in Psalm 2, speaking the word of God himself,

Ps. 2:4 "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold [the kings of the earth] in derision. 5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: 6 "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."

That is the significance of Jesus' ascension to the right hand of his father in heaven. He reigns as king.

Ps. 110:1 "The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." 2 The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!"

So he rules. The son of man. Who came with the clouds of heaven, ruling as king. That's why the reference is to the clouds. Because "to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom." "His dominion is an everlasting dominion." And so he comes on the clouds, here in Revelation on the white cloud.

And so we see so clearly,

B. The king and his crown. Sitting as a king. That's what kings do. They sit, representing their authority. Those who rule with authority are those who are seated, or who are in session. That's where that word comes from, even as we use it for the elders who rule in the church today. Their authority to rule is represented by that word to sit, in Session. We use the same word of our national and state governments. When our congressmen are at work making laws, we say that Congress is in Session. Seated in the exercise of their authority.

So Jesus, the son of man, sits on the cloud as he comes. And, of course, he wears a crown. Another obvious symbol of kingly authority and power. The crown upon the head. This crown was the wreath or garland that was placed upon the head of the winner of an athletic contest or public games. This was the prize given to the winner of the games, like the gold medal placed around the neck of Olympic champions in our day.

Jesus wears the crown because he has been enthroned as king! Remember,

Rev. 6:2 "And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer."

An even greater description of this kingly crown is given in,

Rev. 19:11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself."

Many crowns. Only one will not do! For clearly this king has,

C. The authority to judge. v.14 "...and in His hand a sharp sickle."

This king shall bring in the harvest of judgment as a farmer would take a sickle to a field of grain. What had been a warning in the previous verses now becomes reality. The harvest has come. And so with this sickle in the hand of the king enthroned in his everlasting kingdom, we see,

II. THE REVELATION OF THE WRATH OF GOD. Now, some commentators will see the angel in verses 15 and 16 carrying out not the judgment of the world, but its salvation, gathering the elect as a farmer harvests his crops. The reaping of the earth would then represent the salvation of God's people and the judgment would begin with the additional angel mentioned in verse 17. But first comes the harvest of Christians. v.15-16

That image is then understood as being consistent with,

Mat. 24:30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

That would be the fulfillment of what Jesus said to his disciples in,

Mat. 9:37 "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

Now, I believe in that harvest of salvation. Surely God will accomplish it, but I am more convinced that this whole text in Revelation 14 is descriptive of,

A. Judgment upon the earth. This is a description of what is just about to be proclaimed in the bowls of judgment beginning in the next chapter. Just look at that language again, v.15-16

And so we will be looking at,

Rev. 15:7 "Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever. 8 The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed."

Rev. 16:1 "Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth."

Let me continue reading in the passage from Revelation 19 I started just a moment ago,

Rev. 19:13 "He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."

This same imagery is found in,

Joel 3:1 "For behold, in those days and at that time, When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will also gather all nations, And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; And I will enter into judgment with them there On account of My people, My heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; They have also divided up My land. 3 They have cast lots for My people, Have given a boy as payment for a harlot, And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink...9 Proclaim this among the nations: "Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'" 11 Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O LORD. 12 "Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow-- For their wickedness is great." 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness. 16 The LORD also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the LORD will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel. 17 "So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, And no aliens shall ever pass through her again."

So judgment shall come to the nations, but even in Amos' day that judgment was a prophetic sign of a judgment to come. In the immediate context of the book of Revelation, assuming it was written before Jerusalem was destroyed, that judgment upon the nations of the world is now inflicted upon the Old Covenant nation of Israel, as punishment for their rejection and dismissal of Jesus.

And this judgment upon Israel shows to us all what will come to all the nations of the world. Judgment upon the earth.

Peter puts it this way, 2 Peter 3:7 "But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up."

There is a reason for this judgment. There is a reason for the harvest of the earth. Sin. The sin of the world.

B. The wickedness of the earth. The harvest is ripe, according to verse 15. Then, v.17-18

The grapes are fully ripe! This harvest is the harvest of the wicked, the grapes of wrath. In the words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on."

The image is of judgment. Just judgment, judgment in response to the fullness of the sins of the nation. And judgment that fully reveals to us,

C. A picture of wrath. It is a detailed and graphic description of wrath. Retribution. Vengeance. v.19-20

There is no mistaking that image. "The great winepress of the wrath of God." You ought to immediately visualize an old fashioned winepress, with the feet of men crushing the grapes by stomping upon them.

Listen to this description of God's judgment inflicted upon Israel in the exile, which is the main subject of the book of Lamentations.

Lam. 1:8 "Jerusalem has sinned gravely, Therefore she has become vile. All who honored her despise her Because they have seen her nakedness; Yes, she sighs and turns away. 9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. "O LORD, behold my affliction, For the enemy is exalted!"...15 "The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst; He has called an assembly against me To crush my young men; The Lord trampled as in a winepress The virgin daughter of Judah."

The Lord is one pictured trampling out the grapes in the winepress, and that is such a graphic picture of his judgment.

The idea is presented also as the judgment of God upon the wicked nation of Edom,

Is. 63:1 "Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling in the greatness of His strength?-- "I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save." 2 Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? 3 "I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. 4 For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me. 6 I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the earth."

All of that is now applied to Jerusalem in Revelation 14. You can't miss the point. "Blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs." Horses were swimming in blood. The whole land is overflowing with blood in judgment.

For 1600 stadia. Or furlong. The stadia was a standard measure used by the Greeks for their athletic fields. It measured 607 feet. That is the origin of the English word "stadium," this ancient Greek and Roman unit of length. And if you calculate out the total and translate to our units, it is about 184 miles. But that misses the point of these numbers. 1600 is 4 squared times 10 squared, I think referring to the fullness of the whole land. All four directions, east, west, north and south. Squared. Magnified. And then ten squared, emphasizing largeness in every direction.

It is also noteworthy to comment that that distance is about the length of Palestine. So symbolically and literally, this was a total complete judgment upon the land.

Yet there is one more point worthy noting. This blood was shed outside the city. Thus it continues to be emphasized that the place of the judgment of God is outside the city. That's where the Old Testament sacrifices took place, and that's the place where Jesus' sacrifice took place as well. Outside the camp.

And so even in the midst of this terrible, terrible judgment of God, there is an obvious allusion to the only escape that is possible from that wrath of God. This very picture of God's wrath points us to our redemption, our rescue from that escape. It is not the blood that covered the land in judgment upon the nations of the world, but it is the blood of Jesus that was once and for all shed for our redemption.

Col. 1:13 "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

So blood will flow, blood as the symbol of death. Blood will be spilt for the punishment of your sins. "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." The only question will be, will it be your own blood, blood poured our in "the great winepress of the wrath of God." Or will the blood of Jesus shed once and for all be the sacrifice by which you are made acceptable to God?

Those are the only two options. This picture of the wrath of God is that judgment from which you escape, by faith in Jesus Christ. But it is the wrath which will be poured out upon you if you persist in your unbelief and rejection of Jesus Christ.

As one commentator notes, "However gory this language may be, it is meant to convey the seriousness of the punishment that awaits unbelief."

We will see this image of judgment again in chapter 19, and there as well it is used not only to warn the wicked, but to invite those who are redeemed to worship the Lord Jesus. We read, with reference to Jesus,

Rev. 19:15 "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, 18 "that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great."

And so I declare to you the justice and wrath of God. And I urge you to flee from that wrath to believe in Jesus Christ, and to rest in him alone for your salvation.

Heb. 10:30 "For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His people." 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

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