A Moment of Destiny pt. 2

Mark Finley: Until we enter tomorrow, we have no stake in tomorrow. It's unborn. We can't influence it. That leaves only one day. What day is that? That's today.
Guest (Male): This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley.
Guest (Male): Today's message, a moment of destiny, part two. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com. And now Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: When you read the expression Son of Man, you're reading about the glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ who comes in heaven and you're dealing with the concept of judgment. Matthew 25 verse 31 and 32. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him again, Son of Man comes, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. So if you the idea the Son of Man, you got the idea of the throne. All nations will be gathered before him. He will separate them for one from the other, the sheep from the goats. So in Revelation 14, the Son of Man comes in glory and you have two harvests, the harvest of golden grain and the harvest of golden grapes. In in Matthew 25, you have the Son of Man coming again and you have the sheep and the goats, but the same thing is expressed. Son of Man coming in glory, judgment. Now Daniel's prophecies reveal this same thing. Daniel chapter seven. Daniel chapter seven. Daniel chapter seven reveals that great judgment scene. And you're looking there at Daniel seven will begin at verse nine and 10. Daniel views the seating of the heavenly court with 10,000 times 10,000 angels. The judgment is set, the books are open. In the judgment, the records of our lives are open before the universe. The choices that we have made are revealed there. And here, notice what it says. Daniel seven verse nine and 10. I watched till the thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated. His garment was white as snow, the hair of his head as pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him, a thousand times thousand ministered unto him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court or the judgment was set, the books were open. So Daniel looks up into heaven and he sees the celestial court of the universe open. He sees 10,000 times 10,000 angels gathering there. It is a majestic scene. The destinies of the entire human race are going to be settled in the judgment. But notice what happens in verse 13 and 14. Daniel chapter seven verse 13 and 14. 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. Here you have Jesus comes. He steps forth in the judgment and when your name comes up and my name comes up because we've made a decision to accept Jesus Christ, Jesus says this man, this woman is one of mine. Before the whole universe, Jesus says my sacrifice is enough. The cross is enough. My death is enough. My righteousness is enough. My obedience is enough. My power is enough. My victory is enough. Jesus steps forth. If we have chosen Christ and he lives in our hearts and dwells in our lives, we need not fear the judgment. If the choices that we are making every single day are choices prompted by the Holy Spirit, not shaped and guided by the culture of this world. If we are not simply listening to the inclinations of our own heart to make decisions, but listening to the Holy Spirit when our names come up in judgment, Jesus steps forward. So back to Revelation chapter 14. What have we discovered in our Bible study so far? We've discovered this that just as Jesus ascended in a cloud, he will descend in a cloud. That this world is not in the hands of man. It's in the hands of Jesus Christ. The destiny of this world is not in the hands of a few political rulers, whether they're in Washington or Moscow or China or Europe or Asia. This world and its destiny is in the hands of God. We've discovered as well that the expression Son of Man is an expression that reveals to judgment. It's an expression that reveals to Christ coming. But notice what it says on his head a golden crown. Now the Greek word for crown there is Stephanos. And the Stephanos was a victor's crown. When an athlete won an important contest, they were giving this given the Stephanos, the victor's crown. It was a crown of honor, a crown of glory. It symbolized victory and conquest. Jesus once wore the crown of thorns symbolizing shame and mockery. He was despised and rejected of men. He was reviled and ridiculed and spit upon and beaten and whipped. But he comes again not wearing the crown of thorns, but wearing the crown of glory. Because evil will not triumph, but righteousness will triumph at last. Jesus comes and he comes again. He comes as King of Kings and he comes as Lord of Lords. Notice verse 14. I looked, behold a white cloud and on the cloud one sat like the Son of Man having on his head the golden crown, not the crown of thorns that pierced his brow, so blood comes down his face, but the crown of glory. And in his hand a sharp sickle he comes to reap. Verse 15. Another angel comes out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud. Now wait a minute. Who was the one who sat on the cloud according to verse 14? Who was that? The Son of Man. So the angel comes from the temple. And he says with a loud voice to the one who sits upon the cloud. When we read temple language, who is it that dwells in the most holy place of the temple in the sanctuary above? Who is that? That's God the Father. So the angel comes from the Shekhinah glory of God. The angel comes from the presence of God and the angel says from the presence of God, he cries with a loud voice to him who sits on the throne. That is to Jesus thrust in your sickle and reap for the time has come for you to reap here. The angel comes and is in the temple of God and God looks at this angel and he says it's time. The harvest is fully ripe. The angel flies from the temple to Jesus and declares with a loud voice it's time, Jesus. The harvest is ripe. The harvest of righteousness, the harvest of wickedness it's ripe. Jesus go. Jesus go. Jesus go. Marshal the forces of heaven. Jesus go. This is the time. The harvest is ripe. Command the angels. Go, Jesus. Get your children and bring them home. The long night of earth is over. Their suffering is over. They've been faithful. Go get my children and bring them home. The only place in the Bible that we find that announcement where the angel comes from the temple of God and speaks to Jesus on the throne is right here in this verse in Revelation. That where it is. Now notice verse 15. Another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the throne, thrust in your sickle and reap. For the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped. Now notice there is another harvest as well. There are two harvests. Notice the second harvest. The first harvest is the harvest of golden grain. The first harvest is the deliverance of the righteous. But notice the second harvest. Then the angel came out of the temple which is in heaven. He also had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the altar who had power over fire. So this angel who comes has power over fire. In other words, he commands the fiery judgments of God to come upon the wicked so that they will be destroyed. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle saying thrust in the sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe. Golden grain for the garner of God fully ripe. The righteous seeds that have been sown down through the ages, the literature given out, the Bible studies that are given, faithful Adventist Christians who prayed for their neighbors and shared a piece of literature. See all of that, the harvest of righteousness in the world and in our characters is fully ripe. But also the harvest of evil is fully ripe. The decisions that the people made to plant the seeds of evil in the world and seeds of evil in their life, that comes fully ripe, verse 19 and 20. So the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. When you read about the wrath of God, that 's the judgment of God. And the wine press was trampled outside the city and blood came out of the wine press up to the horses' bridles for 1,600 furlongs. Now people say what does that ever mean? 1,600 furlongs, blood up to there to the horses' bridles. A furlong is an eighth of a mile. It's an eighth of a mile. So 1,600 furlongs is 183 miles from the furthest, northerst part of Israel to the furthest southern part of Israel is 183 miles. So what this text is saying is this. It everybody who read this in that day would have understood it. It's saying that every seed has gone to harvest and God is going to wipe out evil because what this text is about is the destruction of evil. He's going to wipe out evil completely. So it's not talking about literal blood flowing from the top of Israel to the bottom. It's talking rather about the total absolute destruction of evil. And it is a picture because Israel represents the children or the people of God. You and I have accepted Christ, our spiritual Israelites. So what he's saying here is that evil is totally going to be destroyed.
Guest (Male): We'll be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you're enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers and effectively share with confidence his life-changing truths with others. You can support this ministry and help us reach even more by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now back to Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: Here is an urgent prophetic message of Revelation 14. Every seed is going to harvest. The grain's fully ripe. The grapes are fully ripe. The people of God reveal his image of grace and compassion and mercy and love before the universe. The children of evil reveal greed and lust and hate and jealousy and purity. The character of Christ is revealed in one group and the character of Satan is revealed in another group. Every seed's going to harvest. The universe will see in the people of God a revelation of righteousness that no generation before it has ever seen. The righteousness of Christ will be on display in the people of God. In contrast to that, the universe will see the full results of rebellion against God. Every seed is going to harvest. Wickedness, evil, sin, lawlessness will be on full display. In the last days, the seeds of righteousness and the seeds of wickedness will be fully ripe. Now every single one of us in the choices we make every day are sowing seed. The the fruit we produce in our life is the result of the seeds that we sow. You cannot sow seeds of evil and reap righteousness. You cannot sow seeds of immorality by what you watch on the TV and reap purity. You cannot sow seeds of dishonesty and reap honesty. You cannot sow seeds of worldliness and reap heavenly mindedness. You cannot sow seeds of anger and reap patience. You cannot sow seeds of intemperance and reap health. You cannot sow seeds of the world's mass media entertainment and reap heaven's character. Now here is a thought-provoking statement. Comes from a book called Great Controversy page 555 and it says this. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it can dwell. Notice the mind gradually adapts itself. You don't have a change in your thinking overnight. You don't have a change in your character overnight. But gradually, subtly, imperceptibly, the things that you look at, the things that you allow to go into the senses are shaping who you are subtly and perceptibly, almost unnoticed at first. Our characters, our personalities change based on the seeds that we are sowing in our minds. Sow good seeds and you get to produce good fruit. Sow evil seeds to the world and you're going to produce the fruit of this world in your character. In every harvest, there are distinct and somewhat certain laws of sowing and reaping. Now the Bible teaches that in Galatians chapter six, Revelation talks about the harvest. Paul in Galatians talks about sowing seed. You don't want to miss this one. Galatians chapter six. Galatians the sixth chapter. Here we go, verse seven. Galatians six and verse seven. Now the law of sowing and reaping is is prevalent in the natural world and it's also present in the spiritual world. Galatians six seven says this. Do not be deceived. Don't be what everybody? Deceived. I don't want to be deceived, do you? Don't be deceived. Why not? God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Now if you're taking notes or underlining in your Bible, underline the word mocked or put a circle around it. The Greek word for mocked is mukter, m u k t e r if I was spelling it in English. And you know what that word means? It comes from the root word nose. Nose. And here's what it means. It means to literally turn up your nose at. It means to treat with contempt or ridicule. In other words, it's saying this, the text saying this, you can't ignore and treat with contempt God's word, God's truth, God's law and his eternal heavenly principles without experiencing the consequences in your own life. Notice the next phrase. It says in Galatians six seven, don't be deceived. God is not mocked. In other words, you can't turn your nose up at God. You can't ridicule the things of God. You can't leave God's law in contempt. When you know truth and you know what you ought to do, simply to turn your back on that will be the mean to sow seeds of evil in your life and produce a character or a harvest of golden grapes rather than golden grain. Now notice what it says. It says God's not mocked whatever a man sows, whatever the Bible says. Now that makes this law of sowing and reaping universal and all inclusive. It applies to anything we sow. In other words, whatever we sow, if I sow good seed, I'm going to have positive results. If I sow evil seed, I'll have a negative results. Everything we sow produces after its kind. Another God can't be mocked. You you can't sow beans and produce watermelons, right? You can't sow beans and produce watermelons. You can't breed cows and produce thoroughbred horses. So no one can sow evil and produce good. You can't sow discord by your gossip and produce unity. Not going to happen. You can't sow lies and produce truth. You can't sow sin and produce holiness. You can't sow unrighteousness and produce righteousness. You can't sow criticism of others and then produce positive relationship with those other people. This is not positive. You can't sow prayerlessness and produce godliness. Not going to happen. You can't sow a life with lack of Bible study and produce the depth of a spiritual character. If we sow indifference to God in our lifestyle and spiritual values and priorities, we are going to reap the fruit of indifference and apathy, spiritual complacency and frustration in our spiritual lives. Now here's something to think about. You ready for this? If you sow a thought, you're going to reap an act. If you sow an act, you're going to reap a habit. If you sow a habit, you're going to reap character. And if you sow a character, you're going to reap your eternal destiny. The promise and warning of scripture is that we reap what we sow. Now here is the incredible good news. Every day of your life and mine, the Holy Spirit is working in our hearts to lead us to make positive choices every day. When we choose to make those positive choices, the Holy Spirit comes to our aid to strengthen us to enable us to carry out the choice. So the Holy Spirit prompts the choice. The Holy Spirit empowers the choice, but the Holy Spirit doesn't make the choice. Are you with me? The Holy every every impulse to do right, every desire to do right is prompted and motivated by the Holy Spirit. But God through his Spirit does not make that choice. That choice is ours to make. This means that life's choices are filled with consequences. You cannot make poor choices and avoid the consequences. Now reaping what we sow, there are seven aspects of this. I'll simply mention them. Number one. We reap only what has been sown. In other words, if you sow the seeds of prayer, you're going to reap spirituality. But if you don't pray, you're not going to reap spirituality. So you reap only what you sow. Number two. We reap in kind as we sow. In other words, think about Daniel. Daniel was thrown into the lion's den. Those who threw him in sowed evil. But what happened to them? They ended up in the lion's den for lunch for those lions. Okay? What about the three Hebrew worthies? They cast they were cast into the flames. But what happened to the people that cast them into the flames? They were burned up. So we reap in kind what we sow. Let me speak to your church. If you sow criticism about others, others are going to criticize you. That's what's going to happen. That's reality. If you sow negative relationships, you're going to have negative relationships. We reap not only what we sow, but we reap in kind what we sow. If you sow kindness, if you sow love, if you sow patience, that's what's going to come back to you. It's the law of cause and effect. Thirdly, you often reap in a different season when you sow. You often reap in a different season. You sow a a book that you give to somebody and they never respond. But 30 years later they do, you see. We often reap in a different season than we sow. You sow good seed in your children and maybe they drift sometime. But later those seeds come back to bear the fruits of the spirit in their life. Parents keep sowing good seed in your children. Keep sowing good seed because you may not see that seed all sprout right now. But the incredible good news is we often don't reap in the same season we sow. You can plant apple trees today and you're not going to get apples tomorrow. It may take three years for those seeds to grow. So so sow good seed. Fourthly, we always reap more than we sow. You don't sow one grain of grain of corn and get one grain of corn back. You don't see sow one seed of apple and get one apple back. You always get more than you sow. As you make positive choices prompted and empowered by the spirit, you're going to get back so much more than you sow. We reap in proportion to what we sow. The more good you sow, the more goods going to come back. Sixth, unfortunately, we reap what others have sown. We sometimes do. Some guy gets drunk and hits an innocent child, kills them. The child didn't sow that. We reap what others sow. In many nations today, despotic rulers are causing their people to reap what they have sown. Not the people haven't sown it, but the but the rulers have. We often reap what others have sown. That can be good or bad. This is what that means. The more good seed you sow, the more you're going to bless others by the seed that you sow. So as you sow good seed, you not only are blessing yourself, but you're blessing others. And lastly, it's never too late to begin sowing good seed. Many Christians spend time grieving over the seeds that they sowed yesterday in previous years. Secondly, they spend time worrying that the seeds they've already sown are going to ruin a future life of joy and fruitfulness in God's course.
Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at hopelives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now a final thought from Pastor Mark.
Mark Finley: It's only when you and I had the burdens of those two awful extremities yesterday and tomorrow that we fail. Our heavenly Father is working by his spirit to prompt you today to make positive choices. The seeds are going to harvest. America's at the crossroads. Society's at the crossroads. Your life is at the crossroads. What seeds will you sow in your life this week? Jesus is wooing us. He's drawing us to himself to make the best positive possible decisions for time and eternity.