This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is our last day together looking through Revelation 14, Day 5. We're going
to focus on verses 14 to 20, and we're going to see together a third picture
that shows us a third truth about what to do when life is falling apart, what to
do when life is unfair. We've seen the picture of a lamb leading worship and
reminded ourselves that one day he will turn our sorrows into song.

We've seen the picture of angels announcing good news and been reminded that one
day we will rest from our labor. And here now we're going to see a third
picture. Amongst these darkest chapters of Revelation, there are some of the
brightest hope in the book of Revelation.

Hope that reminds us that God is in control, that reminds us that God's children
will never be forsaken. This third picture is the picture of a harvest coming.
Revelation 14 says, "I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated
on the cloud was one like a son of man, with a crown of gold on his head and a
sharp sickle in his hand.

" This is a picture of Jesus. There's no doubt about it. As we see this picture
of Jesus and we see what is happening with the angels and now the earth is going
to be harvested, we see that we're going back and forth between earth and
heaven.

Sometimes we're listing events in more detail, sometimes broader. Here we're
getting a very broad look at what's going to happen in chapters 15 and 16. I
believe we go into more detail about some of this, but here we get a broad look,
looking forward to what's going to happen.

Let me read the detail of this in verses 15 to 20. "Then another angel came out
of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud,
'Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest
of the earth is ripe. ' So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over
the earth, and the earth was harvested.

Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
Still another angel who had charge of the fire came from the altar and called in
a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, 'Take your sharp sickle and gather
the clusters of grapes from the earth of vine, because its grapes are ripe. '
The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes, and threw them
into the great wine press of God's wrath.

They were trampled in the wine press outside the city, and blood flowed out of
the press, rising as high as the horse's bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.
" What a picture. What a picture of a harvest.

To help you with this picture, Jesus told a story about this very event in
Matthew 13, the harvest. In Matthew 13, 41 to 43, Jesus said, "The Son of Man
will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that
causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, and
they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
He who has ears, let him hear. " Now we have wheat and we have grapes, and that
can confuse us sometimes, but let's focus on a wheat field for just a moment to
get the picture here.

When I look at a wheat field, it can all look the same to me. Yet in every wheat
field, as the wheat begins to grow, there is some wheat and there are some
weeds. And you and I who are not experts, we can't tell the difference.

An expert farmer can tell, but I can't. Jesus is saying here, "At the end of
time, there will come a harvest time, and I am the harvester. " That's the
implication.

That's the truth that you can't miss. He is the harvester, and you are not. We
are not.

We are not to go into this world and decide how the harvest at the end of the
ages is to be done. Now that doesn't mean we can't judge what's right and wrong
in this world. That doesn't mean we can't judge what the right thing to do is in
this world, but it does mean that we are not to judge someone's eternal destiny.

That is God's choice alone. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 13, 27 to 30,
before he gave this picture. He said, "The owner's servants," and another
picture came to him and said, "Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field?

Then where did the weeds come from? An enemy did this," he replied. "The
servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?

' 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up
the wheat with them. Let both grow together and tell the harvest. At that time,
I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to
be burned, and then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.

'" Jesus in his story is saying what's going to happen when you try to pull up
some weeds is you're going to get some wheat. You ever find yourself doing that?
You walk through your office or your school or even your family and you think
that's wheat, that's weeds, that's wheat, that's weeds.

We all tend to do that sometimes to judge people's eternal destiny. Jesus said,
"I'm the judge of that. " Now what's our job?

Our job is to be witnesses so that everyone gets the chance to become wheat, so
that everyone gets the chance to spend eternity with him and hear the good news
of who he is. Now in these verses we just read, we saw two harvests. We saw an
earlier harvest, didn't say what it was, and then we see a later harvest that's
of the grapes.

Many people believe that the earlier harvest is the harvest of believers and
this later harvest is the harvest of unbelievers. But however you believe about
these two harvests, the focus on this harvest is that there is a time of certain
judgment. The world is ripening is the word that's used here for a coming
harvest, and it will be a harvest of judgment.

God will not harvest the earth early. He will give full opportunity for all
either to come to him or to decide to go their own way. Some people look at this
and they think in light of what we're talking about this week, things being
fair, is this fair?

Is this harvest going to be fair? Will everyone really get a chance to hear?
Will every life be examined in a just way?

And ultimately, ultimately this is a question of trust. Whether you're talking
about the final judgment, or you're talking about the judgments that we see in
the Old Testament, or you're talking about the judgments that you even see in
life today, ultimately is a matter of trust. Do you trust God?

Whenever you hear questions about justice and fairness in the book of
Revelation, the real struggle is can I trust, can I really trust God? Because
the minute you believe that, the minute you believe that you can trust God, then
you know I can leave all those questions to him. He is the judge and I am not.

I can trust God. I can trust God to take care of children who died before they
had the opportunity to know him. I trust him with that.

I trust him to do the right thing. Don't you trust him? I can trust God to take
care of those who may not have had the opportunity to hear the gospel message
from a human voice like we do in America today.

I can trust him with that. Can you trust him with that? It always comes down to
that question, the question of trust.

When you hear someone in your office or in your family asking these kinds of
questions, how's God going to treat this group of people? Why would God do that
to that group of people? Why did God allow that in the Old Testament?

Is Jesus really the only way? It really comes down to a question of trust. Do
you really trust him?

If this world is all there is, and the evidence says no, I can't trust God
because there is evil, because there is unfair, but this world is not all there
is. And when you look at the hope to come, the truth hits you. God can be
trusted to make right the pain, to deal justly with the evil, to do the right
thing in the end, to keep his promise.

God can be trusted. What do I hang on to when life is unfair? We've talked this
week about the fact that you hang on to the truth that one day our sorrows will
be turned into songs, one day we will rest from our labor, but here's the third
thing you hang on to.

One day God will settle the books. When life is unfair, remember it is not
finished. When you feel it's not fair, remember it's not finished.

The harvest hasn't come. The books have not been settled. The evil will be
punished, and those who trust the Lord will be rewarded.

Our Father, we trust you as the judge. You've told us that a judgment is coming,
and you've warned us, "Follow me. Worship me, because I want you to be with me.

" And you've told us we can trust you as the judge. So we put our trust in you
right now. Even while we're in this life and we're experiencing the evil that's
in this world, we know that there'll come a day when that's no more, when one
day you will settle the books.

And Lord, we know you will do that with righteousness and with holiness and
justice. We know we can trust that into your hands. Thank you.

Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. We'll see you next week as we continue our
study and drive time devotions.