Part Three of The CupBearer & The Cups
Revelation 14:9,10
And another, a third angel, followed them, saying in a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the anger of God, having been mixed undiluted in The Cup of His Wrath; and he will be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before The Lamb."
Such is the dreadful future of the unbelieving soul, the unrepentant heart. In Sodom and Gomorrah fire fell from heaven and utterly destroyed both cities for their wicked evil ways (Genesis 1924).
Psalm 75:8 tells us: For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and He pours out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.
Jeremiah 25:15,16 For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: “Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go out of their minds, because of the Sword that I will send among them.”
What is in the wine of God's fury, God's anger? Well, Jeremiah 25:16 says there is a Sword in God's wine; a Sword of ruin (vs 17). In this Cup is a Sword of judgment against Jerusalem and Judah and all the nations around them; against all the kingdoms on the face of the earth (vs 18-26). Isaiah 66:16 says many will be slain by The Sword of The LORD.
It is the Sword of war: destruction and desolation lay in its path. Whomever it touches dies and their bodies lay untouched, unmourned, unburied. Where they drop they remain until the birds of prey and wild animals devour their remains.
Jeremiah also tells us this Sword will first be poured out on Jerusalem (The City of Peace) and Judah (People of Praise). Judgment, The Word tells us in 1 Peter 4:17, begins in the house of God. Many who claim to be Christians, will receive their reward, their punishment, for the wickedness they brought into God's house.
Those who have set up carved images, idols, will be judged for their impudence against God and disregard for His Word. They who turn their hearts against God's Word and do not believe The TRUTH, who insist on listening to lies and fables, whose lives are guided by demonic spirits, will find the sword in their midst, destroying and tearing down everything it touches.
Witches, both "good" and evil, astrologers and they who follow them, occultists will be killed. The sexually immoral: fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, etc. will find that what they believed to be "good enough" is not even close to being good in God's eyes. Liars, thieves and braggards (the proud) will see that they were wrong. The Sword of The LORD will slay even these if they remain unrepentant and unchanged.
What is this Sword which is in the wine of God's Wrath? Ephesians 6:17 "And take the helmet of salvation and the Sword of the Spirit, which is The Word of God." And Zechariah 4:6 "Then he said to me, “This is The Word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says The LORD of Hosts."
The SWORD OF THE SPIRIT is THE WORD OF THE LORD. From the passage in Revelation 19:11-16 we find Revelation 19:15 "And out of His mouth goes forth a sharp Sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations; and He will shepherd them with a rod of iron. And He treads the press of the wine of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty."
The Sword of The LORD is fluid but not flexible. It is alive and capable of separating soul from spirit; it discerns our thoughts and knows our intents (Hebrews 4:12). It is a double-edged Sword (Revelation 2:12). It is sharp (Revelation 19:15). It is capable of dividing families: believers from unbelievers (Luke 12:51-53). All who war against God will be killed by The Sword (Revelation 19:21).
While the believer lives and dies by The Sword of The LORD (Philippians 1:20; Romans 14:8), it is the unbeliever who will suffer most in the hands of The Living God Who wields The Sword.
Blessed Be The Name of The LORD.
In this Cup is wine made from rotten fruit (Joel 3:12,13), which will be poured out on all nations. Revelation 14:18,19 "Still another angel, with authority over the fire, came from the altar and called out in a loud voice to the angel with the sharp sickle, "Swing your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the vine of the earth, because its grapes are ripe." So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes of the earth, and he threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath."
This Cup is not for me. I drink from the Cup of Blessing. Here am I to warn you, "Don't drink from the Cup of Wrath. Now is the time to take stock of your life and your soul. Today is the day to give your heart to God and believe that His only begotten Son Jesus Christ died on the cross, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Today is your day to repent of all your wickedness and pray The Spirit to show you in The Word of God how to turn your life around. Today is all we have for tomorrow is not a given.
Hebrews 3:7 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness."
Hebrews 3:12,13 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; But encourage one another every day, while it is called today, so that not one of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
