Turning Point - David Jeremiah

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
While Revelation celebrates the power and holiness of Almighty God,
it also displays the desperation of his enemy, the Devil. Today,
on turning Point, doctor David Jeremiah explains why Satan will
stop at nothing to do his work in the short
time he has left, even using the religions of the

(00:25):
world from the series Escape the Coming Night. Here's David
with the conclusion of two hundred miles of bloodshed.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
The Bible describes the carnage at the end of the
tribulation in visual, seeable terms, and many people will try
to use that as a metaphor. It is not a metaphor.
It Israel. This is what the Bible says will happen
when the nations come together to fight against the Messiah.
We're teaching the Book of Revelation. This is called Escape

(00:56):
the Coming Night. We're in Bio three of this series
and the study Guides, And that's a good way for
me to remind you that we have a study guide
series for the Book of Revelation for study guys that
takes you through every single lesson that we teach, with
the notes outlines, places to look for more information, scriptures
to examine. This series of study guides will be tremendously

(01:19):
helpful to you, and I hope that you will take
advantage of the resources and the work that we have
done to make these available. Right now, we need to
open our bibles together to the fourteenth chapter of Revelation.
Here is part two of two hundred miles of bloodshed.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Let's look at number five in this text, number five,
the Division of the people. Here's the next vision. And
I looked verses fourteen through sixteen, and behold a white cloud.
And upon the cloud one sat like under 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

(01:58):
and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap,
for the harvest of the earth is ripe. He that
sat in the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth,
and the earth was reaped. Now, in order to fully
understand what's going on here, I want you to hold
your place in revelation and go back with me, if
you will, to the Book of Matthew. And we're going
to look at a parable that explains what's happening here.

(02:19):
Look at Matthew chapter thirteen. Here we have a parable explained,
and he answered, unto them, he that soweth the good
seed is the son of Man. The field is the world.
The good seed are the children of the Kingdom. But
the tears are the children of the wicked one. The
enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is
the end of the age literally, and the reapers are

(02:42):
the angel as. Therefore the tears are gathered and burned
in the fire. So shall it be in the end
of this age. The Son of Man shall send forth
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom
all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and
shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall
be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous

(03:02):
shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father.
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. There is
another parable in this same chapter, beginning at verse forty seven,
which is exactly teaching the same thing. Notice in the
forty seventh verse again, the kingdom of Heaven is like
unto a net that was cast into the sea and
gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they

(03:24):
drew to shore and sat down, and gathered the good
unto vessels, and cast the bad away. So shall it
be at the end of the age. The Angel shall
come forth and sever the wicked from among the just,
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now go back
to Revelation fourteen, and Revelation fourteen records the end of

(03:45):
the age fulfillment of these words. At the end of
the age, we are told the Son of Man comes,
and an angel comes out of the temple, saying they
should thrust in the sickle and reap, for the earth
is ripe. What this means now is that God is
going to come down to this earth at the end
of the tribulation period. Now we're not talking about Christians

(04:06):
of this generation. We're not going to be here. We're
already going to be with the Lord. But there's going
to be a separation of the terrors from the wheat.
There's going to be a separation of the true Christians
from those who.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Are not Christians.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
And I don't think it'll be hard to identify them.
They're all going to be marked one way or the other.
And the Lord is going to come with his sickle,
and he's going to thrust in his sickle, and the
scripture says he is going to reap the harvest that
day of the earth. The Bible says that by that
time the harvest is ripe, and the sickle comes, and

(04:39):
the harvest is completed, and the wheat is gathered unto
the Lord, and the tears are gathered up and they
are burned. And that's just exactly what the text is saying.
What we've already discussed. Now, all of that is the
destruction of the false Christians, the destruction of those who
claim to be Christians who are not, the destruction of

(05:00):
the religious system. All that's going on during the tribulation
that is not according to the Word of God and
not after the Son of God. Now we come to
the last part of the chapter and verses seventeen through twenty,
and what we have here is the devastation of Armageddon.
The seventeenth verses, another angel came out of the temple
which was in heaven, also having a sharp sickle. And

(05:22):
another angel came out from the altar, which had power
over fire, and cried with a loud voice 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 onto 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

(05:42):
was trodden without the city, and blood came out of
the wine press, even unto the horse's bridles, by the
space of one thousand and six hundred furlongs. Now, please
note there's a difference between this vision and the one
we just talked about. The first vision, there's a separation.
There's the tears and the wheat, But here we are
talking about really the battle of Armageddon. This vision is

(06:05):
a picture of the final judgment of the world. There
aren't any Christians here. Then they're all gone. All that's
left in verses seventeen through twenty are those who need
to be judged by God. In this final vision of
chapter fourteen, John sees two angels. One comes from the
temple in heaven, and he has a sharp sickle the

(06:25):
other comes from the altar, and he has power over fire.
Apparently the second angel is in charge of this mission,
and he gives orders to the first angel to cut
the ripe clusters and throw them into the wine press
of God's wrath. It is not without meaning that the
fire angel comes from under the altar. You remember the

(06:46):
souls of those who had been martyred for the cause
of Christ. They're under the altar. And what do they say,
How long, o Lord before you will avenge us? And
the Lord says, just be patient, just take your time.
There's some more martyrs that have to come. But one
of these days the vengeance will come, and the souls
under the altar cry out and the Angel comes out

(07:08):
from under the altar to answer that prayer. And what's
happening in these closing verses is this That prayer is
being answered in the final destruction of those who have
persecuted God's people and martyred his saints in the battle
of Armageddon. And when the Great Tribulation concludes with Armageddon,
the false clusters of grapes will be destroyed. I want

(07:30):
to read to you two passages that describe what's going
on at that period of time, one from the book
of Joel, and one from here in the Book of Revelation.
You can just listen. Assemble yourselves, Joel three eleven to sixteen.
Assemble yourselves, and come all ye heathen, and gather yourselves
together round about thither. Cause the mighty ones to come down.
O Lord, Let the heathen be wakened, and come up

(07:52):
to the valley of Johasha Fat, for there I will
sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye
in the sickle, for the harvest is right. Come get
you down, for the press is full, the vats overflow,
for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley
of Decision, For the day of the Lord is near.
In the Valley of Decision, the sun and the moon

(08:13):
shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter
his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth
shall shake. But the Lord will be the hope of
his people and the strength of the children of Israel.
What's going on here is simply a prophecy by Joel
that God is ultimately going to be vindicated at the

(08:33):
Battle of Armageddon as he defeats those who have marshaled
their forces against him under the Antichrist and the false Prophet.
Now this actually takes place in the Book of Revelation
in the nineteenth chapter. So turnover to Revelation nineteen, and
let's read beginning at the eleventh verse. Here we have
the actual record of how it takes place. And I

(08:56):
saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. And he
that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and
in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes
were as a flame of fire, and his head were
many crowns. And he had a name written that no
man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with
a vestier dipped in blood. And his name is called
the Word of God. And the armies which were in

(09:18):
heaven followed him upon white horses. And out of his
mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should
smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron. And he treadeth. Watch this, he treadeth
the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
That's what the angel just said back in chapter fourteen,
that all of these nations are going to be put
into the wine press, and they're going to be crushed.

(09:40):
That's the figure the vintage that's being used. And he
had on his vesture and on his thigh a name
written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And I
saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried
with a loud voice, saying, to all the fowls that
fly in the midst of the heaven, come and gather
yourselves together unto the supper of the Great God, that
you may eat the flesh of king, and flesh of captains,

(10:01):
and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses,
and of them that sit on them, and the flesh
of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth,
and their armies gathered together to make war against him
that sat on the horse, and against his army. And
the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet
that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them

(10:25):
that had received the mark of the Beast, and them
that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into
the lake of fire, burning with Brimstone and the remnant
were slain with the sword of him that sat upon
the horse, which sword proceedeth out of his mouth, and
all the fowls were filled with their flesh. That's the
battle of Armageddon in a capsule form. Now, the final battle,

(10:50):
which is alluded to Hear in Revelation fourteen and is
described in Revelation nineteen, is also discussed by Ezekiel. We
won't turn to Ezekiel, but let me tell you what
Ezekiel says about this battle carefully. Ezekiel says that the
battle of Armageddon is so fierce, it is so terrible that,
according to his prophecy, seven years will be required to

(11:11):
rid the earth of the weapons which will have been
gathered by the nations for that battle. Seven years, and
it will take seven months to bury the dead. You'll
find that in Ezekiel thirty nine eight to sixteen. That's
what the prophet says. And the last verse of chapter
fourteen we're just going to talk about for just a moment,
because it says something that's really hard for our imagination

(11:35):
to fathom. The last verse of the fourteenth chapter gives
to us some descriptive terms that we really can't understand.
It says the wine press was trodden without the city,
speaking of the judgment of God. Now watch this, and
blood came out of the wine press, even unto the
horse bridles, by the space of one thousand and six
hundred furlongs. Now, the blood that is shed at the

(11:59):
battle of Army again, at this last and final battle,
is said to be spread out over a two hundred
mile area and to reach a depth of some four
feet that's how high a horse's bridle is. And the
Bible says that the blood that runs out of the
wine press will be four feet deep, and it will
be spread out over one hundred and sixty to two

(12:21):
hundred mile area. By the way, that's approximately the size
of the land of Palestine from north to south, from
one end to the other, in that valley where the
battle is going to be fought. You say to me,
Pastor Jeremiah, come on, now, what about blood four feet deep?
Are you kidding me? And I thought when I first
saw this, of all the passages I've read in the Bible,

(12:42):
this is what I'm going to have to take figuratively,
because there's just no way I can make any sense
out of that and then I read some things that
really made me stop and think for a moment. I
want to share them with you. Josephus the Historian described
the earlier destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. This happened in
seventy AD, and this is what Josepha said in his
Wars the Antiquities. He says, the Roman soldiers obstructed the

(13:05):
very lanes with dead bodies and made the whole city
run down with blood to such a degree, indeed, that
the fires of many of the houses were quenched with
these men's blood. That was the first time Jerusalem was
destroyed by Titus. It's hard for me to comprehend, and
there are many today, and I've read every commentary and
get my hands on on that passage because I want

(13:25):
to make sure I'm telling you the truth. I don't
want to just come in here and give you some
crazy truth that you know is going to be nice
for your fancy and sound like some scare show that
you might watch on Friday night. But someone has done
some research into this, and I just want to share
the research. Listen carefully, imagine, if you can, a massive

(13:45):
army of two hundred million men stretched out for one
hundred and eighty miles in length and say a mile wide.
This would allow each man an average area of only
twenty five square feet from the next man in front
of him, behind him, and on each side. If they
were on horseback, they would be packed like sardines. That

(14:09):
two hundred million is not an impossible number is evident
from the fact that this is the number of demon
horsemen released from the River Euphrates under the sixth Trumpets,
and the fact that at this time there will probably
be still well over two billion people on the earth.
Most of the able bodied men, possibly also women, will
be drafted into the armies of the nations under the Beast,

(14:31):
And if ten percent of the world's population is gathered
to fight under the Beast in the Holy Land, that
would come to two hundred million, And such a number
would become a veritable sea of humanity a mile wide
and one hundred and eighty miles long. And when the
blood suddenly burst forth from the bodies of these multitudes,
in addition to the blood of the horses on which

(14:52):
they are mounted, the sea of humanity will become a
sea of blood. The blood will drain toward the valley center,
where it will literally reach to the horse's bridles. End
of quote. You say that is gory, and you're right,
But the Bible doesn't make statements like that for nothing.
The Bible does just throw stuff light in the Bible

(15:12):
so we can read it and say, wow, I wonder
what that means. That's what the Bible teaches that at
the end of this age, at the end of the tribulation,
when Christ comes back and he finally takes judgment in
hand and he purges this earth, it is going to
be in a holocaust like nothing anyone has ever known,
and it will be justly deserved. Remember he said his

(15:34):
son who shed his blood outside the city, and they
rejected his blood outside the city, and now their blood
is shed outside the city. It's interesting in the verse
it actually uses that term. And the wine press was
trodden without the city. That same phrase is used of
Jesus Christ, who is killed without the city. They spurned

(15:56):
the blood of Jesus. Now their own blood is shed.
They spurned the witness of the prophets who wrote before
Jesus and the apostles who came after him. They have
spurned the gospel message that has been written and preached
and recorded and televised and programmed. They spurned the witness
of the one hundred and forty four thousand that the
Lord sent to preach the gospel to them. They spurned

(16:17):
the witness of the two witnesses who came to preach
the gospel to them. They spurned the witness of the
Angel who flew across the skies to preach the gospel
to them. And there is now no longer any alternative
but the judgment of God. It is finally coming, and
the Bible speaks of it very clearly, very pointedly, very graphically.

(16:37):
You know, as we look back over this chapter, it
seems to be sort of a montage of a lot
of subjects. And you know, this is a hard chapter
to preach because it doesn't stay any place very long.
It's here, and then it's here, and it's here. These
are just little vignettes. As I said, it's like a
table of contents of what's going to happen. All these
things we've talked about are just little pictures we're going
to see spread out in the future. But there is

(16:59):
a theme, and I want you to note the theme
in the chapter, the underlying theme that blends into each
paragraph might be stated as the dichotomy between the false
and the true, the real and the counterfeit. That's the
kind of theme throughout the whole chapter. In verses six
and seven, we see the Angel preaching the true Gospel
to a world that has been taken over by the

(17:20):
false gospel. In verse eight, we are reminded of Babylon,
the false religious system of the false prophet and the Beast.
In Verses nine through eleven, we are reminded that there
are two marks, the mark of the Beast and the
mark of Christ. Those who choose to take the mark
of the Beast will suffer eternal punishment from the Lord.
In verses twelve and thirteen, there is a precious blessing

(17:41):
for those who die in the Lord, as opposed to
those who choose to live by denying the Lord. In
verses fourteen and sixteen, we are introduced to the harvest,
which separates the wheat from the tears, the true believers
from the spurious ones. Finally, in verses seventeen through twenty,
God puts an end to all, and all the false
vines of the earth are destroyed in the final battle

(18:04):
of Armageddon. So what do you have In every one
of those little vignettes, you have the false and the true,
the genuine and the counterfeit. Satan is the master counterfeitter,
and today, more than ever before, he is using religion
to do his work here on this earth. He is
using the religions of this world to do his work.

(18:26):
The tears are everywhere in the world. More and more
bold is this enemy of our souls as he makes
his last move before the return of Christ for his church.
And I want to illustrate that with Chak Coulson's book
Kingdoms in Conflict. You need to get it and read it,
all of it, from cover to cover. There's a passage

(18:46):
in his book which illustrates the boldness of religion today
that is in opposition to Christ. Listen carefully. In eighteen
ninety six, the Victorian minded planners of Saint j On
the Divine Church in New York City envisioned a great
episcopal cathedral that would bring glory to God. Nearly a

(19:10):
century later, it is in use in a way that
its planners might well have regarded with dismay. Saint John's
Thanksgiving service has featured Japanese Shinto priests, Muslims, sufis performed biennually.
Lenten services have focused on the ecological passion of the earth.

(19:30):
One gathers that Christ's passion is passe. The cathedral has
featured christa a huge crucifix with a female Christ, and
Saint John's pulpit welcomes everyone from Reverend Jesse Jackson to
Norman Mailer, rabbis, imums, Buddhist monks, secular politicians, atheist scientists,

(19:54):
and during the Feast of Saint Francis in October of
nineteen eighty five, an arcload of animals received blessings from
the high altar, including a llama, an elephant, and a goose.
Logistical questions such as curbing your elephant within the cathedral.
Notwithstanding Saint John, the Divine seems to have ceased to

(20:15):
be a house of the one God of the scriptures,
and has become instead a house of many gods. Novelist
Kirk Vonnegut Junior wrote for the cathedral's centennial brochure that
the cathedral is, to this atheist, a suitable monument to
persons of all ages and classes. I go there often,
he wrote, to be refreshed by a sense of the

(20:38):
non sectarian community, which is the best of the whole
planet at heart. Underneath the main altar now of Saint
John the Divine, are seven stone chambers housing the cathedral's
artists in residence, two painters, three photographers, a sculpturer, a calligrapher,
a poet, a blacksmith, and a high way performer. I

(21:01):
suppose every church should have its own trapeze artist. Some
Episcopalians are concerned about the menora, the Islamic prayer rug,
the shintos that adorn the sanctuary altar along with the crucifix,
but Dean James Morton responds the cathedral is a place
for birth Episcopalians like me who feel constricted by the

(21:24):
notion of excluding others. What happens here, the Sufi dances,
the Buddhist prayers are serious spiritual experiences. We make God
a mini mouse, he wrote in stature when we say
these experiences profane a Christian church end of quote, that's
the religion of our day. And you know something, if

(21:44):
I read that in most circles today, apart from a
church like ours, people would applaud and say, my, isn't
that wonderful? Because it's all a part of the plot
to seduce this world through relief, and God is going
to tolerate it for only so long, and then he

(22:05):
will go into action. When I read what is to Happen,
and then I put that down and read what is happening,
I just have to say, it can't be much longer.
It can't be much longer before the Lord comes back.
The shadow of future events are cast before them, and
surely the Lord returns soon.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Amen. In light of that, how serious should we be
about our own lives, where we are and how we're walking,
whether with the Lord or without him. I think Prophecy
and especially the Book of Revelation is filled with reminders
to us that the events of the future cast their
shadows before them, and we're walking in the shadows right now.

(22:50):
I believe the coming of the Lord will not be
too far in the future. But regardless of how long
it takes, whether it's one day or a thousand days,
whether it's one year or a thousand year, you need
to be ready now. You need to trust Christ as
your savior. Now, you need to confess your sin and
ask for forgiveness now. And when you do that and
invite Christ into your life, he comes immediately to be

(23:13):
with you forever and ever. He never leaves, He never
leaves us. He will never leave us or forsake us.
That's his promise. And you need him in your life
to get to heaven. So if you haven't put your
trust in him, will you do it now? Just say,
Dear God, I know I'm a sinner and I know
I can't save myself. I'm sorry for my sin. Please
forgive me, and Lord Jesus Christ, please come and live

(23:34):
within my heart and make me one of your children.
He will do that. He's never turned to anyone away,
and he will not turn you away. Let these reminders
of the future have an impact on you in the present,
and you will be so glad you did one day.
I'm David Jeremiah. It is my privilege to be with
you every day, and I'll be back again tomorrow as

(23:56):
we continue our discussion from the Book of Revelation. I
hope you'll be with us then, and don't forget to
get your copy of the book in the words of
David Jeremiah two hundred and twenty eight pages, A wonderful
resource for this month to all who will give a
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(24:18):
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(24:39):
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have a great day, and please join us tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church
and senior pastor, doctor David Jeremiah. Please share with us
how this ministry is blessing you. You can write us
at Turning Point po Box thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California,
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(25:17):
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(25:40):
monthly gift of any amount, visit turningpoint plus dot org
for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow
as we continue the series Escape the Coming Night on
Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah.