Today we will be looking at part 2 of chapter 14 in the book of teh Revelation of Jesus Christ. Chapter 14 sets us up to see the 7th trumpet’s judgement and that will unlock the 7 bowls of judgement in chapter 15. God continues to offer salvation and forgiveness to an unbelieving, hard-hearted world but as they continue to refuse His grace, He has no choice but to bring His judgement upon them. Today we will specifically see just this as we look at the message of the three angels. God sends them to offer one last chance at redemption, and one last warning before one of the most alarming passages of judgment in all of God’s Word, Revelation 14:14-20, the harvesting of the unrighteous. The first angel will offer to save, the second angel pronounces judgement, and the third promises damnation.
Let’s look at the messages the three angels bring to the world in verses 14:6-13
“Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
14:6-7 – “Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
God is merciful. Yet again, after all the rebellion, the pride, the idolatry, and the immorality, He offers His gospel and His saving grace to those unbelievers upon the Earth. How can God be so loving? If somebody flat out lied to you, ignored you, and even slandered you to your face, would you forgive them? Once maybe? Twice? How about 100 times? What, are you kidding me? I think if we’re honest, we would write people off and out of our lives after just a few severe infractions. But God is amazing. He is patient, slow to anger, and long-suffering. This first angel brings yet one more opportunity for people to repent of their sinful ways and accept God’s offer for eternal life.
The angel appears overhead in the sky and with a booming voice that the entire world can hear proclaims a message. A message of salvation. Talk about getting God’s Word out! Every nation, tribe, tongue, and language hear the message. Folks, when you hear the message of Christ, everything changes for you. Once you hear the gospel, you have no more excuses. I heard a preacher one time say, “you may not like me this morning because I’m gonna preach the gospel and once you hear it, you’ll never again be able to make the excuse that you haven’t heard it.” You see, when we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ it moves the responsibility from the believer to proclaim it, to the hearer. They are now responsible to act or not. Regradless of your answer, it's still an answer. In one huge last effort, God tells the entire world at once what they must do to accept Christ, escape the antichrist, secure a home in heaven, and avoid hell. But who will take heed? Will the world listen?
14:8 – “Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
A second angel appeared and had a message for the world. Notice that these angels are delivering very short, sweet, succinct messages. Folks, the gospel is not complicated. You don’t need to give a preacher 45 minutes to explain the plan of Salvation. You can sum it up in a few sentences and if accepted, one can secure eternal salvation in heaven in 60 seconds. I think it is so cool that God kept it so simple for us, a simple people. But on the flip side, hell and damnation is just as simple. Reject this message and missing heaven happens in the blink of an eye. The ironic wrinkle is that salvation is a moment in time that has eternal ramifications, yet refusing the gospel is something that must be done over and over. You accept the gospel once, but you must refuse it every day.
The angel’s message of judgment is clear and summed up in 21 words. Babylon the great is fallen, fallen. Babylon is a description of the antichrist’s worldwide political, economic and religious empire. This is everything that satan has worked so hard to create. He has used the 2 antichrists, one political and one religious, to deceptively control the world. He has forced people to take the mark if they want to buy or sell anything. He has threatened, deceived, killed, and coerced to the best of his ability, but it will not work. Babylon will fall. She made the nations drink of her wine. The world got drunk on the message of satan. The whole world bought into the lies. In their drunkenness they imbibed on their fleshly pleasures. Out of all the sins they committed against God, notice He mentions only one here. The “passion of her sexual immorality.” Immorality is a term used to describe any and all vile, perversions of sex. Adultery, homosexuality, incest, pediophilia, bestiality, necrophilia. Every sick and twisted sexual practice will be embraced and tolerated in satan’s Babylon. Folks, if you go back and study the fall of ancient civilizations it begins and ends with one major sin against God…sexual immorality. When mankind skews God’s gift of sex between a man and a woman within the holy bonds of marriage, He judges.
In the great book, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon identified five causes that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. One was the complete breakdown of morals within the culture. It’s cause? Another of the five reasons, the utter decay of religion. With no moral compass from God, people will seek out selfish, fleshly pleasure, which results in sexual immorality. The Roman empire in its decline was one of the most perverse, sexually immoral moments in history. Another glaring reason, and one of the five Gibbons lists, is the breakdown of the family. Because of the sexual immorality having a father and mother present was no longer the norm. Lack of morals, absence of God, and sexual sin destroys families. Wow, does this all sound frightfully familiar to our world today? Out of all sins on the earth during this pitiful time, God sees the horrible sexual immorality that man is capable of and moves in final judgement upon them.
14:9-11 – “And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
The third angel brings the message of damnation. If you worship the antichrist and receive his mark on your forehead or hand, you have made yourself an enemy of God. You have made your decision and you stand against God. Not a good choice to make. The result of their decision? They will drink the undiluted wine of God’s wrath. (Sidenote: It was customary in the day to water down wine to make it last longer, that will not happen here. God’s wrath will not be watered down, it will be at 100% full strength.) They will be tormented with fire, smoke, and brimstone. This is similar to the sixth trumpet and its judgement. The horses breathed fire, smoke, and sulfur (also called brimstone.) (Rev 9:17) This is not only the heat of the fire to be dealt with, but these three elements combine to poison the very air. When sulfur is burned it creates a toxic gas and if that gas is combined with water it creates a toxic acid that cannot be breathed. Hell will be a place where unbelievers are tormented with fire and poisonous air to breathe. “This torment will go on forever and ever and there will be no rest.” Even with my greatest effort of imagination, I cannot perceive many things, and this is one of them. The level of torment and pain will be unimaginable. And it will go on for eternity. All this for rejecting a loving God and choosing to go your own way. What a choice. And this choice is being made all over this world today, to love the dark more than the light. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” John 3:19
14:12-13 – “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
At the end of this passage God does not forgo the opportunity to encourage believers in Christ. For those who keep the commandments of God and hold tight to their faith in Jesus Christ there will be eventual peace. They might be suffering the great tribulation and living within the utter despair of the kingdom of the antichrist right now, but God promises rest.
Folks, it’s really a question of eternity. You can choose to love yourself, serve yourself, and please your flesh today but there is an eternity to be dealt with out there and it will not be dismissed. You can place faith in Christ today, serve Him today, and deny the flesh today, and eternity will look much different for you when it comes calling. There are hundreds of millions today that are serving themselves. Doing whatever brings them pleasure. They reject God in order to continue their selfish journey. God is gracious and God’s mercy is bountiful, but He will not be denied forever. This is a tough message to preach and it’s even tougher to hear, but that does not make it any less true. God has been warning mankind for thousands of years. Will the poeple heed the warning, repent and be saved?
Tomorrow we will study an even more difficult lesson. After these three angels have delivered their messages, God will move in His undiluted wrath that is full of His righteous anger. Tomorrow we will look at God harvesting the unrighteous from the Earth.
I pray so hard for the unbelievers of this world. My burden for the lost is so great. God’s will is not to judge and condemn. God wants to save. That’s why He sent His Son. Not for some, not for a few, but He sent His Son for all…for the World.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
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