Original subtitles

hello my name is Don Carson and you are

watching the 13th session of the 14 part

series the God who is there quite

frankly this talks topic can be

terrifying the God who is very angry yet

the fact remains of the Bible dares to

mention the wrath of God more than 600

times it never does so out of some

vicious glee that smirks at mention of

Hell no the person who talks about Hell

most frequently in the Bible is the Lord

Jesus himself the same Lord Jesus who

weeps over the city so I beg of you not

to skip this session after all we are

not talking about merely abstract ideas

of judgment but about the judgment

itself that all of us human beings must

face we're not evaluating an abstract

notion of punishment in hell we're

talking about something that will be in

our own future if we do not embrace the

escape that God has graciously provided

the Bible itself will drive us back from

the portals of Hell to stand in the

shadow of Jesus cross and in the

entrance to his empty tomb here and here

alone we will be secure

as solemn as this topic is the God who

is very angry there's a sense in which

for anybody who's followed the storyline

this far it should not be too surprising

any residual ideas of God as a kind of

slightly sleepy grandfather figure and

nothing more simply will not stand up to

the way the Bible portrays God's

righteousness his sense of the most

profound offense when his creatures wish

to distance themselves from him when you

stop to think through what the Bible

says about judgment there's quite a lot

there from Genesis 3 on or the judgment

of the flood the sacrificial systems

with all those dead animals the cycles

of decay under the judges in Israel when

the nation sank down again and faced

certain kind of judgment the judgment

that fell on the kings of Israel when

they were increasingly perverse and

corrupt and on and on and on all the way

through and then there's Jesus himself

with blistering language in a chapter

like Matthew 23 condemning some of the

sins in his own day so there is a sense

in which none of this therefore if we

follow the storyline at all should

surprise us but in some ways in our

culture it's harder to think about

because then anger is often connected in

the public mind with intolerance it's

connected with narrow mindedness and

bigotry the category of righteous anger

is not for us near the top of our scale

of virtues

one of the most frightening passages in

the Bible is found in Revelation 14

we've come to the last book of the Bible

there are many many passages to which we

could turn to explore this theme but I'm

going to focus on Revelation 14

beginning at verse 6 to the end of the

chapter I'm simply going to read it

first of all and note that the section

is divided into two The Herald's three

angels and then the harvest two

metaphors about harvest and and both

sections talk about judgment in frankly

horrendous terms 14:6 now you must

understand now that this writing is

another sort we often call it

apocalyptic literature full of symbolism

and and and figures that you don't find

in other kinds of writing and I don't

have time to unpack the background of

all of the symbolism if it were another

sort of course just on the book of

Revelation well then I do take time to

try to explain how this sort of

symbolism works in detail but you will

catch the thrust of it in any case then

I saw another angel flying in midair and

he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to

those who live on the earth to every

nation tribe language and people he sent

in a loud voice fear God and give Him

glory because the hour of his judgment

has come worship Him who made the

heavens the earth the sea and the

springs of water a second angel followed

and said fall and fall and his Babylon

the Great which made all the nations

drink the maddening wine of her

adulteries the third angel followed them

and said in a loud voice if anyone

worships the Beast and its image and

receives its mark on their forehead or

on their hand they too will drink of the

wine of God's fury which has been poured

full strength into the cup of his wrath

they will be tormented with burning

sulfur in the

presence of the Holy Angels and of the

lamb and the smoke of their torment will

rise forever and ever there will be no

rest day or night for those who worship

the Beast and its image or for anyone

who receives the mark of its name this

calls for patient endurance on the part

of the people of God who keep his

commands and remain faithful to Jesus

then I heard a voice from heaven say

write blessed are the dead who die in

the Lord from now on yes says the spirit

they will rest from their labor for

their deeds will follow them

I looked him 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 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 was seated on the clouds

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

Ana loud voice to him who had the sharp

sickle take your sharp sickle and gather

the clusters of grapes from the Earth's

vine because it's rape grapes are ripe

the angel swung his sickle on the earth

gathered its grapes and threw them into

the great winepress 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 horses

bridles for a distance of 1600 stadia

well I want to run through the passage

so that we understand it reasonably well

just to see what it's saying and then to

think through with you biblically

theologically what all this language of

judgment and hell means we divide the

passage into first of all the Herald's

the three angels verses 6 to 13 you

often find angels in apocalyptic

literature and the proclamations here

that they bring are interrelated and

they're progressive the first angel

summons all humankind to fear God and

worship Him verses 6 and 7 I saw another

angel flying in midair

that is Midheaven is what is meant to be

seen and heard by all and now he issues

the proclamation it's to those who live

on the earth is not for the angelic

hordes of heaven it's for people living

on the earth he had the eternal gospel

to proclaim to those who live on the

earth that's what he was there for to

every nation tribe language and people

so it's not restricted to merely one

subset now the question is what is this

eternal gospel there are two views one

group says that the eternal gospel

mentioned in verse 6 is given its

content in verse 7 so the eternal gospel

is what this angel says in verse 7 he

said in a loud voice fear God and give

Him glory because the hour of his

judgment has come worship Him who made

the heavens the earth the sea and the

springs of water in which case it sounds

as if this eternal gospel is somehow a

kind of generic and oh you may not have

heard of Jesus and you might not know

the truth but sort of worship the God

was manifested himself in nature and

you'll be alright that really doesn't

make any sense for two reasons first the

word gospel by this time is already such

a fixed word with real meaning by the

time John writes this about 8090 or

thereabouts

moreover early

on in this book in two spectacular

chapters revelation four and five

john has a vision that shows us what the

gospel really is what it looks like

it's spectacular I wish I had time just

to expound those two chapters to you in

those two chapters chapter 4 is to

chapter 5 what a setting is to a drama

in highly apocalyptic imagery God is

presented in the setting as transcendent

so spectacularly glorious that even the

highest order of angels covered their

faces before him and cry holy holy holy

is the Lord God Almighty

there were told that he's the god of

creation and the entire created order

lives and moves and has its being

entirely because of him that's

revelation 4 and then in Revelation 5

the drama begins in the right hand of

this God we're told is a scroll sealed

with seven seals and this scroll it

turns out is the scroll that contains

all of God's purposes for judgment and

blessing for the entire universe that's

where the scroll contains all of God's

purposes for judgment and blessing but

it's sealed with seven seals and as the

drama is set up in this vision an angel

proclaims to the whole universe who is

worthy to approach this God and take the

scroll from the right hand of God

himself and slit the seals and in the

symbolism of the day that meant bring to

pass everything that was in the scroll

what angel could approach this God and

be God's agent for bringing to pass all

of God's purposes and no one is found to

his worthy no angelic being no human

being no one in the abodes of the dead

no one after all he's the God who is

described in such terrifying terms in

the in the previous chapter if even the

highest order of angels dare not look on

him who's gonna come along and say here

I'll do that no problem and John the

seer the visionary he weeks

he weeps not because he's a nosey Parker

who can't see into the future he weeps

because in the symbolism of the vision

it means that unless somebody does come

along and slit those seals God's

purposes for judgment and blessing won't

come to pass that is history becomes

meaningless there is no final accounting

there's no righteousness the sufferings

of the church are useless and then one

of the interpreting figures taps him on

the shoulder and says stop your crying

John look the Lion of the tribe of Judah

he has prevailed to open the scroll so I

look John said and I saw a lamb so a

lion has been introduced and what he

sees as a lamb we are not to think of

two animals park side by side this is

apocalyptic literature and one of the

things that happens in apocalyptic

literature is that you can mix your

metaphors the lion is the lamb the lion

of the tribe of Judah means the one who

comes from the royal tribes the tribe of

Judah is the tribe of David that the

tribe of Judah is the one from whom the

King comes the Messiah the promised the

Promised One he he comes from the tribe

of Judah the Royal figure he has come

and he is prevailed after a struggle to

take the scroll and bring God's purposes

to pass but when John looks up he sees a

lamb because the lion is the lamb the

one who is the promised king is also the

sacrificial slaughtered lamb and we're

told that he does not come from the

outside and go in he emerges from the

center of the throne he's one with God

himself you're coming back to the

complexity of the one God and as he

manifests himself the lion lamb all

around the throne countless millions

around the throne break out in a new

song as they address this Christ figure

this lion land and say you are worthy

you are worthy to take the scroll and

break the seals for you have purchased

people for God from every tongue and

tribe and people and nation with your

own blood and made them to be a kingdom

and priests to serve our God in other

words the gospel is the same gospel as

you find in Paul it's what God has

ordained through his son this lion lamb

to pay the price of sin to take on the

the effects of the curse to to release

his people to gather and transform men

and women from every tongue and tribe

and people and nation it's it's the good

news it's it's the gospel life changing

focus on who Christ is and what he has

done that is the gospel in which case

here in revelation 14:6 and 7 the

connection between those these two

verses has got to be seen the other way

it's not that verse 17 gives us the

content of the gospel the content of the

gospel is defined by Jesus on the cross

and has already been laid out for us in

revelation 4 in Revelation 5 the

connection between 6 and 7 is a little

different listen granted that the gospel

is here granted that it's being

proclaimed granted that it is being

announced granted that this is the sole

means by which God's purposes for

salvation and judgment come to pass then

fear God and give Him glory because the

hour of his judgment has come worship

Him who made the heavens the earth the

sea in the springs of water

you're tied back to responsibility to

the creator and eventually this time of

salvation and patience will close the

time comes fear him then the second

angel announces the impending downfall

of paganism verse 8 the second angel

says fallen fallen is Babylon the Great

which made all the nations drink the

maddening wine of her adulteries now

historic Babylon of course

was the capital of the Babylonian Empire

in the tigris-euphrates system and at

one point was the capital of the

regional superpower the superpower that

destroyed the southern part of the Land

of Israel that is the tribes of Judah

and Benjamin destroy the temple in 586

BC but it becomes in the Bible a kind of

symbol for paganism that runs amok and

is finally destroyed the Great King

boasts powerfully in the Book of Daniel

of of this Babylon is not this mighty

Babylon that I have built but it becomes

almost a symbol for arrogance for

vaunted self independence it's a symbol

for the spirit of godlessness which in

every age lives in those who worship

anything but the Creator society set

free from God is its own worst enemy and

now in New Testament times Babylon has

already been destroyed

it's a piddling little village at this

juncture but the name of Babylon is

picked up and applied in a symbol Laden

way to the city of Rome which was at

that time the capital city of the

regional superpower and the mark of

paganism unbelief arrogance

and now as the final account is readied

the second angel says fallen fallen is

Babylon the Great that is there is an

announcement of the impending

destruction of all society and life and

arrogance that sets itself up over

against God himself in the first century

manifested in particular in paganism it

made all the nations drink the maddening

wine of her adulteries these adultery's

in biblical language have to do not

first and foremost with merely sexual

adultery if I may dare put it that way

but adultery becomes a figure for the

kind of apostasy in which in which

you're not as it were tied intimately

and covenant aliy with God but you

prostitute yourself to other gods so

that adultery becomes almost a symbol or

betrayal of God and this massive pagan

voice has made the nations drunk with a

maddening wine of her adulteries and the

third angel the third angel vividly

portrays the torments awaiting those who

worship the Beast

now the reference to the Beast is from

the previous two chapters chapter 12

pictures the devil himself referred to

as that old serpent hauling you back you

see to chapter 3 of Genesis again that

old serpent who then calls forth some

beasts as it were as his functionaries

there's one beast that is particularly

strong and powerful and there's another

beast which is deceptive sometimes

called a false prophet and in John's

language the devil and the first beast

and the second beast functioned together

as a kind of eighth trinity pretending

to be God trying to act like Father Son

and spirit but only evil only

destructive

never able to be gone and the beast then

wants everybody to be stamped by His

image and come under his way in control

that's part of the language of the

previous chapter that we don't have time

to press but now with that presuppose

the third angel says in a loud voice if

anyone worships the Beast that is

Satan's own emissary the Beast and its

image and receives its mark on their

forehead or on their head they too will

drink of the wine of God's fury which

has been poured full strength into the

cup of his wrath they will be tormented

with burning sulfur in the presence of

the holy angels and of the lamb and the

smoke of their torment will rise forever

and ever there will be no rest day or

night for those who worship the Beast

and its image

God's wrath poured out in full strength

the image is drawn from wine drinking

practices in the ancient world when you

produce wine it comes out about 30 proof

that is about 15 percent alcohol it can

go up or down a bit but it's not a

distilled product where you can control

the amount of alcohol it's a fermented

process and so it depends on the sugar

and the temperature and the kind of

berry and so on but it's about 30 proof

15 percent alcohol but in the ancient

world it was very common to cut the wine

with water somewhere between one part in

ten one part of wine to ten parts of

water and three and one so most table

wine that people drank in the ancient

world was cut this image is saying this

is now the wine of God's wrath poured

out full strength any manifestation of

God's wrath that you've seen so far the

exile for example plagues in the Old

Testament disease war any of these

things that you have seen as horrible

manifestations of God's wrath let me

tell you the author is saying that was

the dilute form

now God's wrath is poured out full

strength

different images are used burning sulfur

in the presence of the Holy Angels in

the Lamb does not mean the angels in the

lamb are sitting there laughing and

saying I told you so it means there is

enough awareness of these people in

these people of the Angels and the lamb

to whom they no longer ever can have

access that that is part of the

tournament there is no way out

and the smoke of their torment will rise

forever and ever

now the harvest verses 14 to 20 here the

arrival of God's judgment is depicted in

to agricultural portraits first the

grain harvest verses 14 to 16 the whole

point of these three verses is very

simple it is saying that a time is

coming a set time when the harvest takes

place and there's no escaping it the Son

of Man is Christ himself

with a sharp sickle in his hand and the

voice through the angel from the temple

it's a way of saying from his heavenly

father says 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 in other words life does not

go on and on and on endlessly this is

not Hinduism where there are cycles and

recycles and recycles of incarnation

where you sort of rise and fall history

and the Bible is telling a logical that

is it goes somewhere it begins somewhere

and it ends somewhere it heads toward an

end and when the time comes and the Lord

Himself swings a sickle time as we know

it will be no more

and finally the trading of the winepress

in the last verse is 17 to 20 emphasizes

the violent thoroughness of God's wrath

when it is finally poured out you need

to understand how these things worked in

the ancient world they would take the

grapes and put them into a great stone

VAT in a large vineyard a large stone

VAT at the bottom of the VAT where

little holes and the juice could come

out of those holes and run through stone

channels into collecting pots or the

like so you put in the grapes into this

VAT and the servant girls would pick off

their sandals pick up their skirts and

go in and stamp down the grapes and the

juice would flow and then the juice

would be collected and from it would

come the fermentation and the wine and

the drink and all the rest but now this

imagery is used to portray people being

thrown into the great winepress of God's

wrath who are being trampled underfoot

so thoroughly that the blood flows out

from the channels to a height of a

horse's bridle for a distance of almost

200 miles

now I know it's imagery the sulfurous

imagery - and elsewhere darkness and

chains no doubt our imagery but they're

not imagery of nothing in each case they

are meant to tell us something important

and hear what is being conveyed is the

violent thoroughness of God's wrath when

it is finally poured out what shall we

as Christians make of this there are a

lot of Christians today who want to say

that surely it's better to think of Hell

as a place where there will be some

temporary punishments until eventually

you simply lose all consciousness

annihilation others think that it is

manipulative and cruel to speak of Hell

at all just talk about the love of God

there are several things that really

have to be said this is not an easy

topic but they have to be said first the

person in the Bible who talks most of

hell is Jesus he is the one who

introduces almost all of the horrendous

and colorful images he can openly say to

followers of his who are at risk of

being crucified and beaten and sawn

asunder all the rest he says do not fear

those who can only kill your body fear

him rather who after killing your body

can consign both body and spirit to hell

he talks about two dungeons and chains

outer darkness people sometimes say well

I'd like to go to hell all my friends

will be there there are no friends in

hell

he can speak of weeping and wailing and

gnashing of teeth

not surprising he weeps over the city

and as for manipulating you you see it's

only manipulating you if it's not true

if it's true and I rest first and

foremost on Jesus authority it's warning

you and it would be unkind and

uncharitable for me not to warn you as I

must warn myself

moreover there are some small hints that

this place goes on did you notice the

line in 1411 the smoke of their torment

will rise forever and ever

this does not sound like a place where

it comes to an end or again a few

chapters on in Revelation 20

fire came down from heaven and devoured

them 2010 and the devil who deceived

them was thrown into the lake of burning

sulfur where the beast and the false

prophet had been thrown they will be

tormented day and night forever and ever

let me hasten to say that any Christian

who teaches on these things with anger

and without tears is betraying Jesus

we don't need Elmer Gantry x' who take a

kind of vicious glee over the tragic

ends of others we don't need that and we

will be the first to say as Paul calls

the Christians in Ephesians 2 the

passage we saw in the last section that

we are by nature all children of Wrath

it is only by the grace of the gospel

then we know anything different

but there's more I cannot quite prove

this but I think that there are enough

biblical hints to hold that it is true

hell is not going to be filled with

people who say all right all right you

win

I'm so sorry I do repent I really would

like another chance I really would like

now to trust Jesus I really now would

like to go to heaven it's not gonna be

filled with people like that the last

book of the Bible says let him who is

filthy be filthy still that him who is

unjust be unjust still let him who is

righteous be righteous still that is you

move into the new heaven and the new

earth you move into Hell itself and you

remain in principle what you are already

if it's a Christian you are already seen

as righteous in Christ if you have

already been increasingly conformed to

the likeness of Christ you you move into

a new heaven and a new earth and

righteousness becomes yours without

footnotes or exceptions or tendencies

away or the influences of the old nature

let him who is righteous be righteous

still there's the culmination of this

righteousness are you moving to hell and

you don't suddenly turn over a new leaf

and become spotless but him who is

filthy be filthy still hell is full of

people who don't want to be there but

still do not want to bend the knee and

for all eternity they still hate God

they still despise the cross they still

sin and hate each other in this endless

cycle of self chosen sin and iniquity

and rebellion and anarchy and idolatry

and its consequences it's horrendous it

so much is that part of their stamp and

their makeup that if they went suddenly

transported to heaven they'd hate it in

exactly the same way as we saw in John

chapter three in the passage on God's

love when the light comes people love

darkness rather than light because their

deeds are evil that is the horrible

awfulness of it

ongoing punishment and still god help us

no repentance not ever not ever

and that's why the Bible dare say flee

flee from the wrath to come

biblically faithful Christianity does

not present itself as a nice religious

structure that makes happier parents and

well ordered children and good taxpaying

citizens it may produce better parents

and better taxpaying citizens but the

issues at stake in biblical Christianity

have to do with eternity

and heaven and hell' matters of the

utmost significance your relationship to

your maker what God has provided in

Christ what the cross is about the

resurrection for at the end of the day

what hell measures is how much Christ

paid for those who escaped hell the

measure of his torment in ways I don't

pretend even to begin to understand the

measures of his torment as the god man

is the measure of torment that we

deserve and he bore

and if you see that and believe it you

will find it difficult to contemplate

the cross for very long without tears

let us pray

open our eyes Lord God so that we can

see the eternal significance of the

glorious gospel of Christ help us to see

that the terrors of the world the

threats and torments offered often

enough across history by the world are

nothing compared to the wrath of lamb we

face some kind of choice whether we will

live our lives terrified of people who

can do damage to us in this world but

then can't do anything or whether we

will leave our lie lead our lives in the

submissive fear of him who can destroy

body and soul in hell

Oh Lord God from the heart of each one

of us help us to turn to our only escape

to him who bore our sin with its guilt

and penalty in his own body on the tree

that we might be made the righteousness

of God in him

and so we sing Oh help me understand it

Oh help me take it in what it meant to

thee thou Holy One to take away my sin

Lord God be merciful to me a sinner for

Jesus sake amen

you

you