Purpose: To show that warnings of coming judgment are demonstrations of God’s grace.
Aim: I want the listener to serve God energetically since judgment is imminent.
INTRODUCTION: It is SO easy to let life get out of focus. Life is filled with necessary things that need doing. There are bills to pay, groceries to buy, clothes to wash, floors to scrub, teeth to brush. Life is also filled with many distractions. Television and the internet are constantly beckoning us to check them out. There are friends to make small talk with and mindless games to play. In addition, we all struggle with many disappointments. Our health breaks and slows us down, or those we live closest to become frustrating as we try to find some way to live with them and still be content.
The list goes on and on. Life is hard and if we are not careful it will sap all of our energy to do what is really important.
One man who seemed to keep his priorities straight was John Wanamaker.
"In the late 19th century John Wanamaker opened a department store in Philadelphia. Within a few years that enterprise had become one of the most successful businesses in the country. But operating his store wasn’t Wanamaker’s only responsibility. He was also named Postmaster General of the United States, and he served as superintendent for what was then the largest Sunday school in the world at Bethany Presbyterian Church. When someone asked him how he could hold all those positions at once, he explained. ’Early in life I read, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. The Sunday school is my business, all the rest are the things.’
One evidence of Wanamaker’s desire to keep the Lord’s work first in his life was a specially constructed soundproof room in his store. Every day he spent 30 minutes there praying and meditating upon God’s Word. He had his priorities straight!" [1]
What can we do to get our priorities back in line? Studying the book of Revelation is one solution. This book gives us life’s big picture that will put all of life’s problems into their proper perspective. For example, someone may have hurt our feelings or treated us unfairly, but someday soon Jesus will come back and unleash His fury on the sins of this world.
After the first six seals are opened there is a dramatic pause before the seventh seal is opened. Last time we viewed this pause as seen from heaven in chapter 7 and as seen from earth in the first part of chapter 14. Today we’ll see God’s final preparations before He purifies this sin cursed earth.
REVIEW:
1:1-20 I. John’s Vision of the Past "the things which you have seen"
2:1-5:14 II. Christ’s Vision of the Present "the things which are"
Ch.6-22 III. John’s Vision of the Future "things which will take places"
6-7; 12-14 A. Satan’s war against God’s creation
1. The first seal 6:1-2; 12:1-2 4. The fourth seal 6:7-8; 12:7-9
2. The second seal6:3-4; 12:3-4a 5. The fifth seal 6:9-11; 12:10-17
3. The third seal 6:5-6; 12:4b-6 6. The sixth seal 6:12-17; 13:1-10
7. Grace for God’s persecuted people
7:1-17 a. Heaven’s view of God’s grace
14:1-5 b. Earth’s view of God’s grace
LESSON:
➽14:6-20 c. Angels proclaim God’s priorities
Out text today shows us five truths that will keep our priorities straight.
➽Vs.6-7 (1) Submit to the gospel "eternal gospel"
Notice that God’s gospel is eternal. It has never changed. Before Christ’s death people were forgiven when they trusted God’s promises that the Messiah would pay for their sin. After Christ’s death people are saved when they trust what Christ has already done on the Cross.
The gospel is clear: fear God, glorify God, and worship God.
The Gospel calls us to repent of our sins and turn to the Lord. It is the same message
that Noah gave for 120 years;
that the angels proclaimed to Sodom and Gomorrah;
that Jonah preached to warn Nineveh;
that Jeremiah preached to Jerusalem;
that Moses declared to Egypt,
that Daniel read before the fall of Babylon’s wall, and
that Jesus preached regarding the destruction of Jerusalem. This message is universal, and does not end!
Why should God be worshipped?
God should be worshipped and feared because He is the Creator who will judge sin.
Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created." (NAU)
Revelation 10:6 ... Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there will be delay no longer, (NAU)
Paul told pagan idol worshippers: Acts 14:15 "Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. (NAU)
These verses explain why Jesus said: Matthew 24:14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. (NAU)
Please don’t take the Gospel lightly because, ...the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8)
➽Vs.8 (2) Forsake worldly pleasures "passion of her immorality"
This is a quote from: Isaiah 21:9 "Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs." And one said, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground." (NAU)
"Babylon refers to the entire worldwide political, economic, and religious kingdom of Antichrist. (cf. 16:17--19 for details of this fall.) The original city of Babylon was the birthplace of idolatry where the residents built the Tower of Babel, a monument to rebelliousness and false religion." [2]
In chapters 17 and 18 we will study much more about the fall of Babylon the system and Babylon the city (hence "fallen, fallen"). There are disagreements about what Babylon stands for, but we do know that Babylon refers at least in part to the world’s wicked way of enticing people to worship idols rather than God. Revelation 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality." (NAU)
Revelation 17:5 and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." (NAU)
The prophet Jeremiah described Babylon as a: Jeremiah 50:38 ... a land of idols, And they are mad over fearsome idols. (NAU)
"What is idolatry? In the gospels there is virtually nothing about idolatry, but in the letters of Paul and the other New Testament books Christians are frequently warned against idolatry. The Christians lived in a world filled with idols. Both the Romans and the Greeks used them. Paul’s observation about Athens in
"In the New Testament period the term idolatry began to be used as an intellectual concept. Idolatry became not the actual bowing down before a statue but the replacement of God in the mind of the worshiper. Colossians 3:5 points in this direction: Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (NAU) At this point the modern believer must understand the vicious nature of idolatry. While we may not make or bow down to a statue, we must be constantly on guard that we let nothing come between us and God. As soon as anything does, that thing is an idol." [3]
The warnings from these angels should be clear to us! We are a people who can be very easily deceived if we are not careful, and we need to be sure that we are on solid ground as well!
➽Vs.9-11 (3) Worship God alone "worships the beast"
"[The angel] is urging the people of the world to change their allegiance from the beast to the Lamb. It is also called in the NT the gospel of God, the gospel of grace, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of peace, the glorious gospel, and the gospel of the kingdom. It is good news that God saves by the forgiveness of sin and opens His kingdom to all who will repent and believe. The whole world will hear this preaching by the angel as God graciously calls all to salvation." [4]
Those who worship the beast are breaking the first three commandments given to Moses! Notice Exodus 20:3-6 3 "You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (NAU)
Vs. 10 BRIMSTONE or "burning stone" is a bright yellow mineral usually found near active volcanoes.
"Divine wrath is not an impulsive outburst of anger aimed capriciously at people God does not like. It is the settled, steady, merciless, graceless, and compassionless response of a righteous God against sin." [5]
➽Vs.12-13 (4) Believe that faith will be rewarded "Blessed...who die in the Lord"
Vs.12 Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (NAU)
There is great reward for those who suffer for Christ. Matthew 5:11-12 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (NAU)
Notice: Vs.6 "Eternal gospel"
Vs.11 "torment goes up forever"
Vs.13 "from now on"
Vs.13 BLESSED means "to be happy, to be envied"
Rewards from God for believers are certain. Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name... (NAU) 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (NAU) Colossians 3:23-24 23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. (NAU)
➽Vs.14-20 (5) Know that God’s wrath is all-inclusive "wine press of the wrath of God"
Vs.14-16 This is an obvious allusion to Daniel 7:13-14 13 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed. (NAU)
This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24:30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. (NAU)
Acts 1:9-11 9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. 11 They also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." (NAU)
Vs.17 This angel comes directly from the altar in heaven to make sure that the believer’s prayers for judgment are answered. Revelation 8:3-5 3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, .... (NAU)
Vs.18-19 "Here it refers to the slaughter of all the enemies of God who are still alive, facing the destruction at Armageddon, the final battle against God’s enemies, staged on the Plain of Esdraelon." [6]
The prophet Joel also talked about this time of judgment. Joel 3:13-14 13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. (NAU)
Vs.20 It’s from these verses we get the song, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored!"
The book of Zechariah gives some more detail about this judgment scene: Zechariah 14:1-5 1 Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. 4 In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. 5 You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! (NAU)
"It is interesting to note that modern warfare in the area has been with Syria and Lebanon in the north and Egypt in the south, but Bosrah in Edom is on the Jordanian, Arabian side to the east. The whole land will be enveloped in the blood-bath. Walvoord suggests that ’a 200 mile radius from Jerusalem will be the center of the final carnage where the armies of the world will be gathered at the time of the second coming of Christ.’ " [7]
"If this battle occurs near the central valley of Israel, the tremendous volume and flow of blood could easily form troughs 4 ft. deep in some places. This event clearly is described in 19:11--21." [8]
Robert Murray McCheyne was a Scottish preacher who pastored St. Peter’s Church in Dundee, Scotland for seven and a half years until he suddenly died at the age of 29. In one of his sermons he explained why we should fear God.
"If sinners could see
--that there is nothing but the hand of god staying back the fury of His anger and
--that only for a time
--that there is nothing but the good pleasure of God keeping any of them out of hell
--if they could but see the same hand which balances the earth upon nothing, the hand that wields the thunderbolt, the hand that darkens the sun with ominous eclipse
--that that very hand is pledged to destroy every Christless soul, oh! who would be able to bear the sight? The stoutest hearted among the wicked would find their knees becoming weak as water -- they would cry ’to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us form the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.’
"The terribleness of wrath is always in proportion to the might of the being who is angry. The wrath of a child is contemptible, because it has no power to put it in execution. The wrath of a lion is terrible, because it excels in strength. When the sea is lashed into fury by the storm, it is fearful to look upon it, there is so much power in every one of the surges that dash upon the rocks. The wrath of the king, says the Bible, is terrible but, ah! what must the wrath of be the King of kings, for He is almighty. When the Almightiness of God is roused up to destroy, oh, who can stand? Who can tell the dreadfulness of being trodden in the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God?" [9]
CONCLUSION: Sin always brings consequences: Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. (NAU).
Those consequences are going to be terrible to all those who reject God. Romans 1:18-21 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (NAU)
Dr. M.E. Dodd told a story about some young people who volunteered to become foreign missionaries. One of them was the only daughter of a multimillionaire. She was socially prominent, wealthy and worldly. Her parents were not Christians.
One evening, out of curiosity, the young lady entered a little church building. There she heard the Gospel for-the first time. She was converted and later she heard God’s call to go as a missionary to China. She told her parents of her decision. Sneeringly they said, "You are mad! This is only a passing whim. We’ll put a stop to it!"
She was engaged to a successful businessman. He was not a Christian. She appealed to him to surrender to Christ. He, too, laughed at her. He said to himself, "I’ll dissuade her from this fanatical ideal!"
Sometime later, the parents gave a party to which they invited their socially prominent and wealthy friends. The parents told these friends their problem and got them to agree to help talk her out of being a missionary. All night long she endured earnest pleas and ridicule. She stood firm however.
She went to the piano and began to play and sing:
"Jesus, I my cross have taken,
By Thy grace to follow Thee;
I am weak, despised, forsaken,
Thou henceforth my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition
All I’ve sought, of hoped, of known!
Yet how rich is my condition
God and heav’n are now my own!
"Let the world despise and leave me,
All its hate my Savior knew!
Human hearts and looks deceive me
Thou art: not like them untrue;
Oh! While Thou dost smile upon me,
Lord of wisdom, love and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me,
Show Thy face, and all is bright."
Her fiancée was deeply moved. He went to her and said, "I didn’t know Jesus Christ could so mean so much to any person. If He means this to you, pray for me that I, too, may be saved and follow Jesus!"
Her prayer was answered. They were happily married, and both went to China where they labored for God for many years.[10]
Can you sing this song [399] as a promise to forsake all to follow the Lord?
Henry Drummond, a scientist at the turn of the century, speaking to a group of college students said: "Gentlemen, I beseech you to seek the kingdom of God first, or not at all. I promise you a miserable time if you seek it second."
We will keep our lives completely focused if we:
➽Submit to the gospel
➽Forsake worldly pleasures
➽Worship God alone
➽Believe that faith will be rewarded
➽Know that God’s wrath is all-inclusive
[1]10,000 sermon illustrations. 2000 (electronic ed.). Dallas: Biblical Studies Press.
[2] "Moments With The Book" Bedford, PA Tract #1331
[3] "Christianity Yesterday" Vo1.2,No.1 Jan-Feb 1995 p.5
[4] MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Re 14:20). Nashville: Word Pub.
[5] Custer, S. (2004). From Patmos to Paradise: A commentary on Revelation (164). Greenville, S.C.: BJU Press. (p. 223
[6] MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Re 14:19). Nashville: Word Pub.
[7] MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Re 14:10). Nashville: Word Pub.
[8] Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
[9] MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Re 14:8). Nashville: Word Pub.
[10] "Moments With The Book" Bedford, PA Tract #1331
[11] 10,000 sermon illustrations. 2000 (electronic ed.). Dallas: Biblical Studies Press.
