Revelation Chapter 14 Verse 12

• The implication of what the third angel says is that there will be some that do not take the mark.  The first word spoken by the angel in verse 9 is “if.”  “If anyone worships the beast…if anyone takes the mark…”  And therefore there will be some on the scene, during the Great Tribulation, who have come to a saving faith and have escaped eternal hell…however now are living quite literally in hell on earth.
• We know that God is blasphemed openly.  We know that they are starving as verse 17 of Chapter 13 says that no one may buy or sell unless they have taken the mark.  We know that they are hiding out, on the streets or in the wilderness because back in verse 15 of Chapter 17 we learn that each person has a household image of the beast that somehow is able to perceive whether or not they are worshipping that image, and if not, then the image has the power to kill them.
• And so the angel says, (well let me restate verse 9 in light of verse 12), “if anyone resists the devil, turns from evil, does not worship the beast and does not take the mark…those that have chosen the commandments of God over the commandments of men and are faithful to Jesus, hang in there.”  “Heaven is watching you, heaven awaits you, even though now, it is hell on earth.”
• Such is the situation so often for us.  The easy way out is there.  The anecdote to your frustration and abuse is there…just blow up on him, just go off on her…quit thinking about them and think about you…but the constancy of the holy, “the patience of the saints,” is spoken of here.  Hypomone in the Greek.  The light shining man…the characteristic of a person who is not swerved from their deliberate purpose and loyalty to faith by even the greatest trials and sufferings.  That is the calling we have in Christ.  That is the power we have available to us in the Holy Spirit.
• And the Devil is so deceitful, we’ll think we’re removing the suffering by serving self…but what we’re actually doing is adding to it…

Revelation Chapter 14 Verse 14

• White always speaks of pure.  Clouds always speak of deity.  Gold always speaks of kingship.  Crowns always speak of authority…

Revelation Chapter 14 Verses 15 – 16

• Several Bible commentators believe that at this point in the Great Tribulation men’s hearts have grown so hard that rebellion is fully launched against God, and all those that will take the mark and worship the beast have, and so the church, the Old Testament saints that died in Christ, the New Testament Saints that had been raptured prior to the commencement of the Great Tribulation and now the Tribulations Saints who have come to faith during the Great Tribulation (not taken the mark)…their number is complete and therefore the earth is fully reaped…
• And as we continue through this Book and finish it out, we won’t see talk of more folks coming to faith…we’ll only see God’s final judgment of the earth and then the New Heaven and the New Earth, and so I tend to agree with that interpretation, especially in light of the next verse…

Revelation Chapter 14 Verses 17 – 18

• So the harvest being complete in verse 15 and now the clusters of vine with fully ripe grapes, in other words another completion in verse 18.  Now notice, as we look at the next few verses, these are not good vines…these are the tares as spoken of in Matthew 13…this fruit speaks of the evil wrought in the hearts and lives of the men and women upon the earth who reject God…and so we see the completion of an entire time…the completion on one hand of the harvest…or the wheat, and the completion on the other hand of the grapes or fruit…or tares…
• Look what happens to these grapes…the tares…

Revelation Chapter 14 Verse 19

• And so the wheat are separated from the tares…Turn over to Matthew 13 and look with me at verses 24 through 30.  Notice it is the Owner who initiates the command but in Revelation, it’s the angels who cry out according to John.  Well how is that?  Remember the golden crown?  Jesus has authority over all of heaven man…the whole heavenly host obeys His command and so even though John sees the angels crying out the orders we know Whom it was that gave the command…Whom it is that is in charge!
• Understand the cross not only set the captives free but also captivated captivity…in other words, condemned evil once and for all!  And so not only was man’s righteousness restored for any who would choose the Lord, but man’s self condemnation was settled for all those who would reject the Christ!
• But notice one other thing… the Son of Man reaps the harvest Himself while another angel gathers and disposes of those that have rejected Christ.  I love that because in that is revealed God’s great and personal love even for those who hate Him…He loves them so much, each and everyone that He has to send an angel to finally them cast them off…He can’t bear to do it Himself…but He does do what He loves to do…He gathers the wheat into the barn…He brings His children into His Father’s house…He Himself does that…
• And what a great picture of the work of Jesus in my life contrasted with the work of me in my life.  Jesus seeks and saves what is lost and walks me right into the Father’s house while I simply fail apart from Him. 
• Look at this, Jesus doesn’t walk them into hell does He?  He simply gives men what they ask for.  Salvation, hope, love, life eternal…or hell…both now, today, in this situation you’re in…and in the end…at the time of the final harvest.
• And the time of the harvest has come man.  It’s all over at this point.  Men have chosen and now the time of the final bowl judgments and man’s final rebellion are at hand…

Revelation Chapter 14 Verse 20

• The “city” is always a reference to Jerusalem in the Bible and so the harvest has begun, the end of all things is at hand and notice where the blood flows, “outside the city.”  How fitting really because it was outside of the city where Jesus was crucified and thus we see the doctrine of substitution.  In the end, when it is all said and done and the family of God is utterly separated from the family of Satan, whose blood will you choose?  The wholly sufficient blood of the Lamb, shed for you and for all men, or your own blood?  Because really, that’s what it’s going to come down to…
• Charles H. Spurgeon taught a powerful sermon on May 30, 1869 in which he stated, “The whole pith and marrow of Christianity lies in the doctrine of substitution...sin is an accursed thing.  God, from the necessity of His holiness, must curse it; He must punish men for committing it; but the Lord’s Christ, the glorious Son of the everlasting Father, became a man, and suffered in His own proper person the curse which was due to the sons of men, that so, by a vicarious offering, God having been just in punishing sin, could extend His bounteous mercy towards those who believe in the Substitute.”
• This final verse in Chapter 14 is sobering because it speaks of the end.  It speaks of war.  See the horses?  And it is a vision that has been seen by other prophets in the Bible.  This is the battle of Armegeddon…Zechariah 12, Isaiah 34, Isaiah 63, the entire Book of Joel…this battlefield will stretch from Megiddo in the North, to Edom in the South…a distance of sixteen hundred furlongs or approximately 200 miles.
• The peoples of the earth will gather in great derision, thinking that they can overthrow God.  All the people, enough to fill 200 miles worth of army.  Psalm 2 says, “Why does the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing.  For they gathered against the Lord and against His anointed.”  But anytime anyone anywhere gathers against the King of Kings, the only option is defeat…and the end of wickedness, is always removal.
• See…they are outside the city.  The city they battle for.  The city they’ve prepared to defend as it were with their horses and their bridles…the city they will lose.  The same goes for us.  The same choice is before us.  God desires for you to be saved from all of this, and for that matter, from all that sin has for you today.  Removal, blood, defeat…but we must realize, the only way to save the city, our city, is to turn to Him today.