The Three Angels' Proclamations Rev, 14:6-13

Good morning. As we start this morning, one of the things that we had plenty of last week is questions, five of them, which is great. I always encourage the questions. What I've done is I've kind of boiled it down to a couple. The first one is, are the 144,000 in Revelation chapters 7 and 14 all males?

Does it include additional women and children? And there's the word men there where it talks about being redeemed from among men, since that's a more general reference to the human race. The word is anthropos in the Greek, okay? Couldn't that include others than just men? And could women also be chaste and not defiled by women?

So that general category of question I put under one particular set of questions. And the Greek, of course we frequently refer to the Greek, right? But the Greek is helpful in many ways. In some cases, it provides tremendous insight into the passage. In other cases, you have to look at other things. This is an instance where the Greek nails it down.

Here's the passage, and each place where you see in the blue underline, the pronoun is masculine. So it specifies specifically, this is male that it's talking about. And if we look at it, because it's true, as the person with the question pointed out, this word Anthropos, which it talks about them being redeemed, this 144,000 redeemed from among men, this word Anthropos is a general word for humankind. It isn't specifically male. But what's taking place, God is drawing out these people from among all mankind, by specific categories, and we could look at it this way. Okay, here's men, this Anthropos here, and they're purchased from, and notice the qualifications that are given to these.

So they are from the general mass of humanity, certain, male, female, young, old, the whole thing, but specifically drawn out with these characteristics. There are 144,000 of them. They are Jewish. There's 12,000 from each tribe. They are sealed servants.

We're given that in chapter 7. They're virgins here in chapter 14. They're able to learn the new song. We're given that in chapter 14. Follow the Lamb. Destined for Mount Zion with the Lamb. And we're told that there's no lie on their lips and they're blameless.

So, these are specifics about this group. They have a particular assignment. In this case, they, by every indication we have, appear to be indeed, male. So that's the response, and scripture is pretty clear, this is a very specifically selected group for the task that's set out there. Now, that wasn't all the questions. There was also, this other question came up.

Is the perfect tense of the word which says that Jesus was standing, this was last week's passage, the first five verses in Revelation 14, is the perfect tense of the word which says that Jesus is standing, one of the places that preterists point to, to try to prove their case. Now, before we lose anybody here, let's look at what is meant by preterists. It's a term that has come in more common, frequent use in recent years, although it's been around actually for some time. The Preterists actually have about three different grades of Preterists, but the generalization is this.

They will acknowledge that Christ had a first coming that was in roughly the first three decades of the first century. So that around the year 30 AD Christ was crucified, died, buried, resurrected, and ascended and seated. And they'll acknowledge that. They will acknowledge that in this period of time in between, that the New Testament Scriptures were written.

They do give a date for the book of Revelation before 70 A.D., typically about 68 A.D. They date it 30 years earlier. Why? And it's because they see prophecy, and some of them all prophecy, as being fulfilled by 70 A.D. Basically what they do is they see the book of Revelation that we've been studying as either entirely or largely fulfilled by 70 AD when General Titus brought the Roman army against Jerusalem.

That's the Preterist viewpoint. And what they look at is, this is Christ's second coming because Christ, and I'm putting quotes around this, they see that Christ came in judgment. A full Preterist, a person who believes that all prophecy was fulfilled by that event, would say this, Christ is not coming back any more than he already did.

You have no Christ to look forward to coming back. Sorry. That's it. It's a done deal. You've got all you're going to get. And, get this, I'm glad you're seated, they believe we're in a new heavens and a new earth already. Okay? We're there. This is as good as it gets, folks. Do you like it? I hope you do. See? That's their perspective. Now, so in answer to the question, they're not going to bother to look at just this little perfect tense in this one verse to stake their case.

Their approach is everything, or in some cases a mild preterist who would say most, but in general everything in prophecy was fulfilled by the 70 AD event or depending on which brand of preterist, sometimes within a few centuries thereafter. They basically look at largely the prophetic verses that we look before us here as having been entirely or almost entirely fulfilled. That's the preterist. They're not going to look at the particular verse we look at as staking their claim on their point. That's the viewpoint they're going to start off with.

In order to do so, they have to interpret a great deal of what we have been studying very figuratively, very allegorically. Obviously if you're thinking that this is the new heavens and the earth the new earth already we're in it That's allegorical. Okay, that can't be taken literally. So anyway, hopefully that answers the question Before we move into the passage that Mike read for us this morning However, we want to just kind of take a four views so that we get the big picture what's happening. Okay? In Revelation 14, 6 through 13, the passage that we're looking at this morning, there are three angels. Three angels talked about here. Oh, one other thing I wanted to bring up.

Something I'm going to try to do here, because I noticed as I've talked to people that you have your handout, and you'll be writing, and all of a sudden find out that what you're writing is already on the handout. So look for this little clue. If that's down in the corner, can you see that? Is that visible? This one that's got the L, look for that, it tells you on page one, that should be in your handout, right? Hopefully that made it there. Okay. And so anyway, that's the code that I'm going to try to use and that'll hopefully clue you in as to what's there and what's not. Unless I mess up, in which case it'll really confuse you. Okay. All right.

The three angels then, these three angels that we're going to see in this passage The first angel is announcing an eternal gospel. That's 14, 6, and 7. The second angel is announcing the fall of Babylon. That's just in verse 8. And then the third angel is announcing consequences for worshippers of the beast. Those are the three angels that we'll see in this passage, each of them with a specific assigned message.

And then next week, we'll get into a related announcement that finishes up chapter 14, and that's largely speaking of Armageddon. We'll get into that next week as we take a look at it. I think it's helpful just to keep in mind that we're talking about three angels here. They each have a particular announcement, and that's what we're moving into this morning as we look at this morning's passage.

The other question you might ask is, why this message? Why now? Why not just move on? We've got all kinds of plagues and things to get to. Why are you stopping with these messages? Well, there's some reasons. Basically, you've got these plagues that are about to start. The ones that we've seen already have been incredible, haven't they? It's going to get a lot worse.

One of the things that we noticed in the second series of judgments was that fraction one-third. Did you notice that? Several times In the trumpet judgments, we see the fraction one-third. In these last judgments, the fractions drop out. No more fractions. No more percentages.

We're talking for big time, major judgments. So what's happening? The Lord is saying, look, I am bringing horrific judgments upon the earth. Some incredible things are going to happen. I want to give you a last warning. So that's what's taking place here.

And before we go into it, a few key words would be helpful for us to take a look at. The first one is angel, in the Greek that's angelos, and it means a special messenger, actually just a messenger. The gospel, and you'll notice some similarities, the gospel, euangelion, is a good message, but notice here's this similar because you have a messenger and a message, So what looks like angel here is underlined in both, in order to bring the point home. The next one, we've alluded to it before, is alos, another, and that shows up several times in this particular passage, and we'll be seeing it again in the next couple weeks.

And then there's two different words that are in variously translated wrath or indignation. The first one is thumo, That's a burning passion, an anger and a wrath. The other word for indignation or wrath is orgase. That means a violent passion. They're closely related words. Both words are used to describe the wrath of God in the book of Revelation. They show up in this passage here. Let's turn to verse 6. Read along with me.

And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. And in verse 7, And he said with a loud voice, Fear God, and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. Now in these two brief verses, John is describing something for us that is truly remarkable. Here's an angel about the midpoint of the tribulation period who's flying about making open declaration of the gospel to everybody on earth.

You get that picture? I mean, that's quite an extraordinary thing. How many of you have seen that this last week? Not happened, right? This is an amazing thing. Now, John says that he saw another angel. Now, John's already seen a number of angels. We've seen them, and frankly, we're going to see some more. But he specifically lays out, this is another angel.

These are different from the ones that have been previously assigned to other things. These are different from those who are assigned to carry out the next set of bold judgments that are coming along. So he's specifying, this is an angel with a specific assignment, a different one from the ones that you have seen before, or that you'll see here on out.

Now, this is angelos in the Greek. This is a messenger. And while the word angels means messenger, in truth, sometimes we get to see angels that get other duties, don't we? We see them get assigned to specific things. This angel is really very much living out the name of what angel means. It's a messenger, one who has a message to carry from God.

Now, usually, and this is real interesting, usually we find that angels in scripture speak to individuals or small groups of people. Have you noticed that? Here's the angel appears to Mary, just to Mary, and talks to Mary about the Messiah that she is to give birth to. Or you can think of a group, here's the angel, the angels they appear to, this group of shepherds.

This is the first time I can think of where here's this angel and he appears to everybody. Just the whole world, everybody. And as a matter of fact, it makes it real clear that this is a huge group he's talking to, not just some small group or even an individual. Okay. Now, something else comes out about this.

This phrase, flying in mid-heaven. Now, it's valuable for us to kind of zero in on this phrase, mid-heaven. And it's interesting, that phrase shows up three times in the book of Revelation. Either flying or fly, so I have it in quotes here. Fly or flying in mid-heaven. And this word refers to the Earth's atmosphere.

It's still within the atmosphere, but in an elevation high enough, as it makes clear in Revelation 19.17, an elevation high enough that the larger birds will frequent that high elevation. But it's still in the atmosphere. This isn't something in outer space.

So do you see what John is writing about here? What John sees is an angel going about in the sky, up so that he can be seen, but close enough so that people can see him. And he's going about and he is giving a message with a loud voice, and I'll avoid the loud voice because I understand we've got several kids in the nursery. But he's going about with a loud voice, and what is he doing?

He's proclaiming this gospel with a loud voice in this kind of atmospheric level to everybody on earth. Now that's amazing. That is really an extraordinary thing. Now, the angel does this. He preaches an eternal gospel. The gospel he preaches is eternal because speaks explicitly about eternity. See, all the people during the tribulation are thinking about right now, aren't they? They're thinking about right now, and he's kind of getting this, hey, you know, eternity, folks, you know, you need to think about this. Now, there are a great many people, even here on planet Earth now, who think of life in terms of seven, eight decades, or more or less, right? And an awful lot of people just kind of figure that's all there is and make the most of it.

But you know what? That's really foolish. If you think about the average human circumstance, you know, we're here for some period of time, usually less than a century, and that may seem like a long time, but compared to eternity, it's nothing at all. And basing everything on what happens in this short period of time while we're here on planet Earth is a very unwise thing to do. Because, as I've heard one person put it, we're going to be dead a lot longer than we're going to be alive, right? So, thinking about that long period of time is critical. And he's trying to do that. Get people to understand, look, you've got eternity to face, folks. You need to think about this. Now, look at what he's doing.

This angel, this heavenly messenger, is telling an eternal gospel. This word gospel, like we looked at here, euangelion, okay? It's shown in your handout. It's a good message. Okay? It's a good message. Now, what this angel has to tell them about is specific for the tribulation period. Okay? Salvation always was and always will be by faith. There's no exception for that. Paul, in Romans, spends a good deal of time just kind of laying out that truth. Salvation was, is, and always will be by faith.

That's not going to change, but the Lord works differently with different people of different times. We have a different position than those saints of the tribulation period will have. Okay. We have a different position. Therefore, the message that he's telling them for this period of time is perhaps a little bit different than what you and I may say, but nonetheless, he's calling them to put your trust in the Lord. There just isn't any other way folks.

Okay. then notice that there's a two-level description, a two-fold description of the audience that he's talking to. Now, one of them, and we've referred to this before, those who dwell on the earth. There's a slight difference here. He uses a little different word for what is often translated dwell, and this one in some translations comes across living. It's basically a synonym, but it's along the same lines. Those who dwell upon the earth is not all those who live during the tribulation period. It's those who are unbelievers living during the tribulation period.

That's the explicit intent there, okay? The other aspect of his appeal is to peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations. This phrase is very similar to it. It shows up several times in the book of Revelation, and we've got one right here. You notice both of these are tribulation-specific phrases. This, however, is unique in this way. Nowhere else in the book of Revelation are these two specific tribulation phrases put together in one verse. This is a unique one from that standpoint.

One of the things that shows up here, if you put those together, this message is for those who are unbelievers. That's those who live on the earth. This message, and you also see this phrase here, this message is global. Holly Hill supports people who are with Wycliffe Bible Translators and has long done so. And it's because we want to get the Bible translated in lots of different languages.

But do you notice what's going to be totally done and run around here? The gospel is going to be spread out everywhere, regardless of what the language is. There will be no language limitation. There will be no people limitation. The Lord is able, miraculously, to step around this so that as the angel speaks, people are hearing it in the language that they understand. Nobody is accepted. This is a global appeal of the gospel. Nobody can say, boy, I wonder what's going on here. The appeal is universal. Everybody is going to get this message. No exceptions.

All the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations. Globally, this message is going to be spread. Now, let's look carefully at how the angel presents the gospel for the people of this time. just at this midpoint of the tribulation period. First, the angel says it with a loud voice. He wants to make sure the point gets across.

And can you imagine, here's all these people and they're trying to forget. They're trying to forget everything that the Lord has been doing and saying. They'd just as soon be distracted with other things. But the Lord's going to have this angel flying about. I don't know what the news people are going to do with this. This is going to be nuts. This is going to drive them crazy. And there's going to be people who are going to be stopping their ears, I guess. But the Lord's going to make sure the message gets out. It's going to be phenomenal. But notice this. Here's the angel's declaration. Fear God. Give Him glory. Worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.

And I've reversed the order here slightly just to separate things out. And he gives a because. Because the hour of his judgment has come. Really, none of these are new messages, are they? They're things that the Lord has been telling people for a long time.

But he's saying, look folks, you've got one last chance. As these next days and weeks and months roll along, and we haven't got very many of them left, Things are going to get really, really awful. And the chances of you coming out the other end okay is not real good. I'm giving you one last chance, and we're going to very explicitly lay out what the gospel is here. You see that? The Lord is saying, it's going to get bad.

But right in the midst of this kind of sword that's hanging over the whole earth, now you have this expression of the gospel. Now, so if we look at each of these separately here, one of the things that we notice is this. The first thing is fear God. God is the one who decides the eternal destiny of each of the persons on earth.

Now this is in sharp contrast to the Antichrist. What's the Antichrist message? Fear the Antichrist, right? So the Antichrist is coming in the opposite direction entirely. He's saying, fear God. That's the one that you need to concern yourself with. The next thing here, give him glory. You see, God is the very source and definition of glory.

The Antichrist can only imitate glory. All he can offer is fake glory. I can't even tell you what fake glory looks like, but that's what he's going to offer because he's an imitator. He's an imitator. God is the source of all glory and the definition of it. Glory is the radiance of the very essence of God himself. The Antichrist can't come up with anything close. So he's making a distinction here. Give him glory, not the Antichrist, God is the one who is the very source and definition of glory. The Antichrist is going to offer a cheap imitation at best, and not for very long. The next thing, worship him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the springs of waters.

Romans 1 spells out real clearly what happens with creator rejection. It spells out, and the Lord gave them over, and the Lord gave them over, and the Lord gave them over. The Lord gives them over to it because they reject the truth. And all those steps and moral decline, that downward spiral, is simply a progressive consequence of Creator rejection each time.

He's making the appeal, this Lord that we're asking you to fear and to worship, this is the one who really made everything. The Antichrist can only deal with the stuff that God has already made. You're going to see an image that you're going to worship. And all the material in that image, the Antichrist didn't make, God made it. And you're going to stand on an earth, and you're going to drink the water, and you're going to eat the food that comes from the earth, and all of it is God's creation. And the angel is just laying this flat out for them, because it's in sharp contrast with the cheap, lousy, temporary, foolish imitation that the Antichrist is going to offer. Many of you may have decorative fruit and things of that sort in your home, and that's fine. Can you imagine going to the grocery store and the whole store is filled with that stuff?

Not very satisfactory, is it? It's okay to look at it as a decorative piece, but you certainly don't want to have to rely upon eating it. It just somehow doesn't make it, especially those wooden ones. The plastic ones aren't very good either. That's what the Antichrist is going to offer. Here, have a plastic apple. This is not going to be satisfying stuff. He's making the appeal. This is real. What the Antichrist is going to offer you for the next three and a half years isn't. Plain, pure, and simple. Get it through your head. Now, as Christians, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Every one. And, think about it, what Satan offers here and now is fake imitations of that.

Do you think about that? He's going to tell you, well, you really haven't got all the blessings, have you? Or, even almost in the line of the same question asked Eve, has God really given you all the blessings in Christ? Do you see that? That's the way Satan's going to come across, and he's going to want to offer some kind of imitation. Fake blessings. How do you like fake blessings? Do you like that idea? Here, have a plate of phony blessings. That's what Satan is offering to believers. Satan is going to offer during this period fake identification with him. What good does that do? I don't know, but he's going to offer it. Satan offers us phoniness. Christ offers what's real and eternal. See, what's really happening is this angel is laying it out plain and simple. It's decision time on planet Earth. The Lord has sent several different kinds of witnesses. You think about this for a minute.

We're only the first half of the tribulation period, and we've got several different kinds of witnesses that have shown up, even though we're still at the midway point. First, we've got the 144,000 Jewish men. We studied those in chapters 7 and 14. In chapter 11, we looked at two witnesses. Those two witnesses had a testimony for the first three and a half years. We also have seen, and we're going to continue to see, saints that come out of the tribulation, and those have a testimony. And that brings us to one last and important point here, and that's this.

The fact that this gospel here is given as an assignment to an angel, is testimony to the fact that the church has been taken out of the earth. Do you see that? If we've got to come up with other witnesses than the church, then the church isn't there. Never while the church is on earth are angels given the task of preaching the gospel to the unsafe. Have you noticed that? It's not given to the angels to do. You read all through the epistles of the apostles. You read through the book of Acts. The angels are given various duties here and there. but it's not their job to preach the gospel.

But here it is. That's a sharp distinction. One of the things that we see here, here is this angel. This angel is given the task of preaching the gospel specifically because the church isn't there. He is now the fourth non-church entity that we've read about who's been assigned to preach the gospel and we're only halfway through the tribulation period. The church It's real clear, it isn't in the picture. We've been taken out. The rapture is definitely pre-tribulational. Now, let's take a look at verse 8. And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.

Now John tells us about another angel, different from the first one. He is another angel of the same kind, that word allos, another of the same kind. So he is an allos angelos, if you were to put those together in English sequence. It's followed by the Greek word deuteros, the second one. He is given to reinforce us for the understanding that this angel was not the same as the first one, but a different one altogether. He is the second angel. This angel is given to make an announcement like the first, but to announce something different. This angel is announcing the fall of Babylon the Great.

Now, it's been a long time since the empire of Babylon fell as a distinct empire, so it really makes some sense for us to ask the question, what's he talking about? What's he talking about here? If we look through biblical and other history about Babylon, here's what we find. The various elements of the Babylonian system that are referenced in scripture, and about which we have gotten other information from historical sources, comes to this.

First of all, we find that there was this original intent right after the flood for human beings to try to establish something on their own. Let's make something that human beings put together, and it's basically spelled out in Genesis 10-11, this is the humanism that came out of Babel.

That system is based on humanism, it's a worldly philosophy that says that human beings are really the center of all truth. And if we're really going to get anywhere as human beings, it's human beings that have to do it. Human beings, after all, have the answer within themselves. That's the message of humanism. That's Babylonianism. That's the philosophy.

There's also a Babylonian religious system, and it's been spread around the globe. It infiltrated the ancient world and even shows up in our own modern world. That religious system relies upon human manipulation of the gods. We're going to manipulate the fate. of mankind by the things that we do.

It looks to occultism, to human philosophy. It looks to alcoholic and drug enslavement as the answer. To idol worship and things of that sort. How about the astrology column in the local newspaper? There's Babylonianism in its religious form brought into our modern culture. Isn't that amazing? Some two and a half millennia later, here it is, showing up and we'll willingly print it.

Even one of the things that shows up in our own culture is you notice in the last decade or so how people seem so enamored with angels? Put this kind of exalted position with angels. There are even stores in some more urban areas where they'll have nothing but angel items. Lots of angel stuff. Places on the internet where you can order angel paraphernalia.

That's Babylonianism. It's Babylonian religion. Sensuality of every kind is also part of the Babylonian religious system. Babylon was also culturally anti-Semitic. And how did they do it? It wasn't a matter of going to try to wipe out the Jews physically, but just take them and brainwash them into this Babylonian way of thinking. They took the Jewish noblemen and tried to infiltrate into their thinking the Babylonian perspective.

Daniel and his three friends are case in point. The other thing, Babylon was saturated with materialism. The idea that if I've got enough stuff, that'll do it. The philosophy that shows up on bumper stickers, who dies of the most toys wins. Wins nothing, but wins, I guess, according to the Babylonian system.

Now, we need to kind of think through this because it's easy to think that that's just some sort of an ancient thing. In fact, it's infiltrated a great deal of our thinking, even in our own culture, and it still has all its tentacles grabbing on to the way people think in the Western world and in the Eastern world as well. Let's take a look back.

One of the things that happened from the Tower of Babel is, even though right now it's hard for us to identify one particular place where we can say, this is where the Tower of Babel was, one of the things that we notice is that various places in Iraq and Iran, there's still these towers made of bricks and some of them have kind of broken down, but still a number of them are evident. This is one of them that has still remained there and is in place. And that used to be taller and more extensive than what shows there now. One of the other instances of it, this shows a little more close-up detail, but you can tell they put quite a bit of work into this thing, even with some of the decay that's taken place. And what happened is after the Tower of Babel incident, that spread over even into the Americas where this kind of a tower, a ziggurat format, was the basis for a lot of worship, even in the Americas, in Central and South America.

Getting into the Babylonian era around the time of Daniel, this is a site of ancient Babylon even now where much of what was there two and a half millennia ago is still visible and a person can take a look at it. What's amazing is that in recent years, Saddam Hussein has had this sort of idea in his mind, apparently he's going to be the new Nebuchadnezzar.

And he's actually put quite a bit of his country's resources into restoring it. How about that? Going into parts of old Babylon and fixing it up. And trying to make it the place that it once was. Because after all, this is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The gardens of ancient Babylon. Okay? It was something that the ancients looked at as, boy, this is the apex of human creation. So that's some examples. We're going to see more about Babylon and its fall in a brief section in chapter 16. And we're going to see it extensively in chapters 17 and 18. So we'll wait for that to get into more detail there.

But one of the things to note is that the angel says this this way. Babylon doesn't say it's going to fall, he says it is fallen. Fallen. It's re-emphasized twice and it's spoken in the past tense. And what the angel is doing, even though the description of the actual fall is yet to be spelled out, he's saying that it's fall is a certainty. It is spoken of in the past tense as if it's It's already done, because what is going to take place is absolutely certain, no question about it.

And we speak in that same way. For example, we might say something like, boy, that guy's a goner. Well, what do we mean? We don't mean he's gone. We mean that his demise is so certain as to speak of it as already happened. So we use a similar kind of expression.

It's also a way of speaking that the Old Testament prophets would use as well. They would speak of something as past tense, as a way of underscoring it is absolutely certain to take place. This isn't a best guess, this isn't a I think so, it is absolutely determined that this will happen.

Alright, so we'll look at this in more detail in chapters 17 and 18. Let's look at verses 9 and beyond there. Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast in his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast in his image and whoever receives the mark of his name. And notice, here's the third angel that we've looked at.

This one has a message in sharp contrast with especially the first one. They're both messages kind of warning, but the first one was actually giving good news. The first one was saying, look folks, here is the avenue that I have for you to deal with things in a way where your eternity is good. Okay? It's a gospel angel. An angel has a message of good news. Now, this one is different. This one turns around and says, look, that angel had a good message.

I'm telling you, this one is not good. If you follow in what this Antichrist and his false prophet is about to force you into with everything they can try to force you with, if you follow that, no bones about it, No mincing any words. The consequences are going to be eternally horrible. Eternally horrible.

And he makes it clear. It isn't spoken in quite the same way in terms of speaking to all the languages and tongues and all that. But the way it's said and the kind of message, I think the implication is there. He is also telling everybody, giving this warning as well. In combination here, similar to what Paul frequently does, where Paul will say, don't do this, do this, or not this, this, okay? That's the same kind of message here. One angel's going about saying, here's the good news, and the other one's turning around and saying, here's the bad news, okay? So you've got a double-edged warning here.

Now, the angel spells it out clearly. There will be wrath here on planet Earth for sure. No doubt about it, no question, it's gonna happen. Taking the mark of the beast will absolutely assure each one a place in the lake of fire. No question about it.

We have another name for it given in scripture. It's called hell. Now a lot of churches these days have erased that from their vocabulary. Nancy and I came upon a church at one point in time where the pastor used to bring up hell and some people brought him aside and said, you can't talk about that. And unfortunately, he listened to them. And he just every week told people, God loves you and be nice. Well, this angel isn't pulling any punches. And we're not going to either. Okay. He's spelling it out.

This is hell for this is this lake of fire that you're headed towards. If you're going to follow this path, there will be consequences to making this choice. You can't just kind of be nonchalant about this decision, folks. Let's make it real clear. You're going to make lots of decisions in your life. This isn't one you want to be wrong on. Let's ask this question.

Do people have a right to go to hell? Do they have a right? Sure. Sure. If one wants to stand on their rights, one certainly has a right to go to hell. Okay? That's their option. We have a right to our own opinion, too, for all the good it'll do. all the rights to our own opinion won't do any good at all when it comes to eternity, will it? The folks in hell, the lake of fire, will have a right to their own opinion for eternity if they like. They can have it. It just won't change the facts at all. There is salvation in Christ alone and a person's right to his own opinion is not going to change the facts.

Let's look at verse 12 specifically. Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus And I heard a voice from heaven saying right blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on Yes says the Spirit so that they may rest in their labors for their deeds follow them The angels as we've looked at Lay out a path. They say the system of this world that you have been relying on and are counting on Is going to fall that's the second angels message the first angel there is a gospel for you to respond to. The third angel, if you choose to take the mark of the beast, you're toast. Eternally.

They're just laying it out real clear. Here John is writing in a way, and he's told to write. He's giving comfort. He's saying, look, we know that if you make this choice to refuse the mark of the beast, if we know that you make this choice to respond to that first angel's appeal, we know that the consequences are going to be tough. Good chance you're not going to live through this experience.

But he is giving them comfort in this. Blessed are the dead who die from now on. There's a blessing even in that death. There's a blessing even in that death. Let's face it. Being a believer during the tribulation carries with it a very high risk that that person is going to die. But The person who does can look for relief from the constant threat and the pressure. But in truth, this same issue has been put before church-age believers, hasn't it?

Paul wrote to the church at Philippi and he said this, For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better."

And these tribulation saints are going to get that same message underscored all the more. How very much better to be relieved from the pressures here on planet Earth. So that's why John gives this comfort. But it's a perspective we can gain from as we look at what Paul has written here. To live is Christ, yes, but to die is gain. Having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better. But he leaves it to the Lord, doesn't he? He leaves it for the Lord to decide that.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at your word, in truth, these will be times that we read about where the decision is very clear. We live in a time and a place here in America where the decisions sometimes do not appear as clearly. And Lord, we pray that you would bring home to our hearts and to our minds that in fact, while this world does everything it can and our enemy cooperates in every way, to make the decision as blurry and indistinct as possible. In fact, Lord, we have moment by moment the decision to make that is very clear and very distinct. Lord, either you are our life and our hope or you are not. And moment by moment we have that choice to make. But Lord, we have been identified with you. We've been seated with you as we believe. And we just pray that you would draw our hearts to count upon that, and that alone. In Jesus' name, Amen.