Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #20 of Revelation chapter 19 and we are going to read Revelation 19:15-16:
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 the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
I will stop reading there. In our last study we looked at the phrase, “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron.” We saw that the Greek word translated as “rule” is found 11 times in the New Testament. Four times it is translated as “rule” and seven times it is translated as “feed” or “feeding” and it had to do with feeding the flock or feeding the people of God. It is the word found in John, chapter 21, verse 16, where the Lord gave the command, “Feed my sheep.”
We saw that due to the context being Judgment Day in Revelation 19, God is bringing together the two main objectives we have learned that God wants His people involved in during the time of Judgment Day.
The first objective is to feed the sheep, the great multitude that God brought out of Great Tribulation. They are to be spiritually nourished through the truth of God’s Word.
The second objective is to publish the information regarding Babylon’s fall or the world being under judgment.
We find both of these ideas coming together as God uses this particular word “rule,” and let us substitute the word “feed” for “rule.” It would read this way: “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall feed them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” It is clearly Judgment Day and clearly God has in mind feeding the sheep during this time and, of course, this is what we have seen in many other passages in the Bible. It has always been God’s plan to leave His people on the earth to go through the judgment and, in so doing, it will “make manifest” the judgment that came upon them in Christ from the foundation of the world. They will also be tried and tested during this period of time and, yet, God cares for them and He wants them to be fed. It is remarkably stated in this context.
Let us go on to look at the last phrase of Revelation 9:15:
… and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Jesus is the one that is on the white horse leading the armies in heaven and He is coming in wrath and smiting the nations with the sword that comes out of His mouth. He is feeding with a rod of iron and God also says he is treading “the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” All these images teach the same thing; it is the day of punishment. It is the final judgment of mankind and through each illustration God is teaching the same thing, but saying it in a different way. It is the time of the end of the world and the unsaved will be judged and destroyed for evermore and God likens this to treading the winepress. Of course, we have seen that language before in the Book of Revelation. Remember, back in Revelation, chapter 14 where it spoke of the cup of the wrath of God in verses 10 and 11. According to Matthew 13:39, the “harvest” is the end of the world or the end of the age, so Christ is coming forth to reap by sending in His reapers and gathering the harvest of the earth. Then we read in Revelation 14:19-20:
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
The word “wrath” in verse 19 is the word we see translated as “fierceness” in Revelation 19:15, where it said, “the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” God is doubling up on the emphasis on God’s wrath or anger. Here, Christ is in view and the unsaved of the earth are the “harvest” of the earth that has been gathered and they are cast into the winepress and it is said to be “trodden without the city,” because the city is made up only of God’s elect, so these are they that are without or outside of the kingdom of heaven. They never became saved, so since we have entered into the Day of Judgment, Christ begins to crush the “life blood” out of them. According to Leviticus 17, “the life is in the blood.”
Then it says, “and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” In our verse in Revelation 19:15 God is describing Judgment Day and He is drawing on that particular picture as the Lord “treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
The “1,600 furlongs” is in all probability a time reference God gives us to tell us how long the treading of the wicked will continue and how long the unsaved will be under the wrath of God in the Day of Judgment and how long their physical lives will be prolonged as their “blood” flows for the space of “1,600 furlongs” and then the flow of the blood ceases. Then God’s wrath would be complete, as the 1,600th day added together with the 8,400 days of the Great Tribulation makes a sum total of 10,000 days of judgment, the completeness of the wrath of God. God will then finish with His wrath, as it says in Revelation 15:1 of the seven last plagues: “For in them is filled up the wrath of God.” So the seven plagues are poured out and then God’s wrath is completed. That 1,600th day and 10,000th day would fall on October 7, 2015, which is the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles in this year. We are only a few months away from that point.
But this language reminds us of that because it says, “and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Let us go to Malachi, the last Book of the Old Testament and we read of Judgment Day there. Judgment Day is spoken of throughout the Bible and it is very much in view in Revelation, the last Book of the New Testament.
I know that we at EBible selected the Book of Revelation for our recent studies and we have been looking at it for almost a couple of years now, working through it chapter by chapter. But I think it is significant that we are in chapter 19 and we have only a few months of time left, in all probability. We will continue going verse by verse, but it seems like the way it is working out is that the timeline for the likely end of the world will coincide with our study in the Book of Revelation. As we approach October 7 of this year, we will be very close, if not finished, with studying this particular Book that has a lot to say about the end. It is the ideal place for us to be as we are approaching the end of the world.
It says in Malachi 4:1:
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith JEHOVAH of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
The terms “root” and “branch” refer to Christ. The day of JEHOVAH will remove the possibility of Christ (salvation) from the wicked and they will be burned up in the day of God’s anger. Then it goes on to say in Malachi 4:3:
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith JEHOVAH of hosts.
In Revelation 14, it is Christ that is treading the winepress, but in Malachi 4 God is speaking to the elect and He says, “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.” Both statements are correct; Christ is judging the world and the Bible says the saints are judging the world with Him, according to 1Corinthians 6, verse 2. Christ comes with “ten thousands of his saints,” and we are actively involved in the judging process as the Lord opens the Scriptures to reveal His judgment and we execute that judgment. This is the honor that all the saints have, to execute the judgment written. We do so by sharing the information, going on tract trips or sharing on Facebook, Twitter, You tube, websites or with personal one-to-one testimony or however you do it. God’s people have the honor of being involved in the judgment process.
At the same time, we love our fellowman and we have deep concern for our fellowman. We do not despise them or point the finger. We do not judge in that kind of way, but we are involved mainly by executing the judgment written by simply declaring what the Bible says, recognizing the day we are living in. For example, on May 21, 2011 the door to heaven shut and we share that with people because the Bible says it and, in that way, we are “treading” down the wicked. Their lives are being trodden underfoot by the Lord and their blood is coming out but their life continues during this period of Judgment Day. There is something interesting in Revelation, chapter 16, but keep your finger in Malachi, chapter 4. It says in Revelation 16:19:
And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Here, we see it – the cup of the wine of His wrath is given to Babylon, which represents the world. Where did that wine come from and what is this wine that is given to Babylon to drink? Babylon represents all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth (in the churches and out of the churches), but from where did this wine come? Christ is involved in treading the winepress and that is the picture in Revelation 14, verses 19 and 20. It is also the picture in Revelation 19:15, where it says, “and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
When you tread a winepress, what comes forth? Yes, blood is coming forth, but if you tread a winepress, wine comes out of the winepress and the wine represents the blood of the wicked. That blood we read about in Revelation 14 is as though it were “wine,” because it is coming out of the winepress. This is the Gospel that Christ has prepared and He is causing it to come out and He is filling the cup of His wrath to give it to drink to the people of the world.
In Malachi 4, the Hebrew word translated as “tread down” is only found in this verse. It is Strong’s #6072, but there is a related word that is translated as “sweet wine” and it is Strong’s #6071. It is a very closely related word and we find that word used in Isaiah 49:26:
And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I JEHOVAH am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Notice the statement that follows God saying that He will cause the unsaved to be drunken with their own blood. In order to be drunken, you have to drink it. You have to take the cup of the wine of the wrath of God, which is your own blood that was trodden out by the Lord. That is the “sweet wine.” Following that, God says, “and all flesh shall know that I JEHOVAH am thy Saviour.” God is relating this to the salvation of His elect because it does involve the salvation of all the elect – that is why He could shut the door to heaven. But that statement says, “and all flesh shall know that I JEHOVAH,” and we looked at that before and it has to do with the language in Matthew 24:36, “of that day and hour knoweth no man,” and Psalm 16 tells us, “JEHOVAH is known by the judgment which he executeth.” In Isaiah 49:26 God will give them this “sweet wine,” which is their own blood, “and all flesh shall know that I am JEHOVAH.” It is because the judgment that man had not previously experienced, he is now experiencing; he is now going through the wrath of God. This is the “sweet wine.”
This is the Gospel message for the world at this time. This is what the true believers are publishing when we say that Babylon is fallen and that God shut the door to heaven on May 21, 2011, ending His salvation program and no longer saving anyone today. That is the “sweet wine” of the wicked. It is the cup of the wrath of God that has been trodden underfoot by the Lord Jesus Christ.