[Originally preached 16 November, 2003]
Revelation 14.6-13
We’re going to retrace our steps a bit this morning. We skipped these verses last week when we looked at heaven. Our text is about three angels and the message that they proclaimed. We need to spend a little time understanding what’s going on. But the key question that we want to get to is this. Why is this here? Why did John include it? We’ll get to that after a bit.
So, what’s happening with these three angels? What are they talking about? There is a certain progression in what they are saying. The first angel proclaims the basic message of the Bible. The second proclaims that the rebellion against the God of the first message has failed. Babylon has fallen. Then we have the third angel who pronounces the consequences that follow from all of this. God will condemn these rebels. That’s the overview of our text. Now, let’s get more specific.
I told you that the first message is the basic message of the Bible. That’s why it’s called ‘an eternal Gospel’. This message has never changed nor will it ever change. This message is built around three imperatives, three commands: ‘fear God’, ‘give Him glory’ and ‘worship Him’. Now, these aren’t three separate things. They are the same thing. The issue here is worship, a key theme of Revelation. The first two commands simply explain what the third one is about. I think that it’s safe to say that most people today don’t understand what worship really is. The popular notion is that worship is something that you do in a building especially built for that purpose. It’s limited to certain behavior done at a certain time in a certain place. But that isn’t what worship is, at least, not according to Scripture. Worship is a matter of fear. It may sound odd to relate the worship of God to the idea of fear. But think about that common biblical phrase, ‘the fear of the Lord’. The Hebrew language has no word for religion. This phrase is how they referred to religion. This is true religion, the fear of the Lord. This is true worship. When a person was confronted with God there was fear and there will be fear. And the reasons are obvious. For one thing, it becomes abundantly clear that God is not just man made larger. He is so different from us. He is God! And at the same time, we aren’t. And that is very scary. But even beyond that, it also becomes abundantly clear that it is to this God – the holy, righteous and just God of the Bible – that we shall give an account of our lives. And when that happens, a person grasps more clearly than he may like the truth of the Scriptures that, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ [Hebrews 10:31] Worship is responding to this God with a holy fear of who He is.
Worship is also a matter of giving glory to this God. The Psalms often talk about this.
Give to the Lord, O heavenly beings, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. [Psalm 29:1-2]
What is this giving to the Lord glory? Are we adding something to Him? Obviously not. Some translations render that Psalm slightly different. Instead of ‘give’ which is literal, they have ‘ascribe’. ‘Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.’ To ascribe is to credit someone with something. Giving glory to God is declaring something about His character. Giving glory to God is crediting Him with being faithful to His word, being patient with us because of His love, being merciful to sinners and all the rest. Giving glory to God for these things is our response to the different ways in which God reveals His character to us. And what is that but worship? One reason that we sing hymns and Psalms is to ascribe glory to God for the great things that He has done for us. Fearing God and giving Him glory are expressions of worship to our God.
Now, if someone understands that as only applying to what happens on Sunday morning then they’ve completely missed it. Fearing God and giving Him glory are things that happen in every day living. The key question of life is about worship. Whom will you fear? Whom will you credit for the good things you enjoy? These are the fundamental questions of life. These are questions of worship. And these questions go far beyond what happens on Sunday morning. The things that you do, the choices that you make, the ways in which you act all reveal how you are answering those questions. A person’s deeds reveal the ways that his heart has answered the question of worship. And so, the first angel declares this fundamental issue of the Bible. ‘Worship God!’ Not the beast, not Satan. Worship God.
The second angel refers to an image that we haven’t been properly introduced to yet. John doesn’t formally present Babylon the whore until chapter 17. He’s done this sort of thing before. And even if we don’t understand the imagery of Babylon the point of the second angel is clear. This agent of Satan, along with the other agents of Satan, has failed. The rebellion that Satan fostered has been crushed. The false worship encouraged by Satan has come to nothing. Babylon has fallen.
This leads, then, to the third message. God is about to act. There are those who refused to worship God. Instead they worshipped the beast. It was he that they feared. After all, he could kill them. It was he to whom they gave glory. Remember what they said, ‘Who is like the beast and who can fight against it?’ [Revelation 13.4] The Last Day has come. Having rejected the message of the first angel these now face the consequences. These now face the wrath of God. And did you notice that it is coming upon them ‘full strength’? Is there another kind of wrath that is only partial strength? Yes, there is. God expresses His wrath now, before the Last Day. Romans 1 teaches that. ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven…’ But that wrath is a tempered wrath. There is at least the opportunity for repentance. There is an element of mercy here. In most cases, one of the purposes of that wrath is to encourage people to repent that they might be delivered from their sin. But when the Last Day comes the wrath of God will not be tempered at all. There will be no mercy, no opportunity for repentance. No, on the Last Day, wrath will be expressed full strength. And this is why our text uses the language of torment. ‘They will be tormented with fire and sulfur.’ These who will experience the untempered wrath of God will be in inconceivable agony, misery and suffering. They will experience hell. Our text uses the language of fire and sulfur. Some ask this is real fire or just imagery. What an irrelevant question! If it isn’t literal does that mean that it will not be as terrible? Literal or not, hell will be a terrifying place. It will be the place where God’s justice will have full reign. These who rejected the first message will suffer for their rebellion. There will be no mercy. And notice that the text tells us that ‘the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever’. There will be no end to this. It will last into eternity. There are those today who reject this aspect of hell. And some of them even claim to be evangelical Christians. These tell us that hell comes to an end. The punishment is limited. These do not understand how serious it is to refuse to worship the true God. It is a sin of the greatest evil. The punishment of hell is appropriate. As our text tells us, ‘they have no rest, day or night’. It will go on and on and on forever.
Do you see the progression? There is the call to worship proclaimed by the first angel. Our text tells us that it is a call that goes out ‘to every nation and tribe and language and people’. This call is rejected. There are those who follow the different agents of Satan and in this way worship the devil. They rebel against the God who made them. But then the day of justice arrives. All flesh will stand before God to give an account of the choices made, an account of the behavior that was pursued. All will have the thoughts and intentions of their hearts exposed before God. Then hell will be filled with those whose hearts refused to worship God. They neither feared Him nor gave Him the glory He deserved. And they will bear their punishment. Our text gives us a sobering look into the future.
Now, we’re ready for the question that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon. Why is this here? Why is it included in Revelation? What you need to see at first is that it is not intended as a warning to the lost. Remember now, to whom was this letter written? It was written to the seven churches. They were the original audience. It was to be read to them. It wasn’t something to be preached to the pagans. So, the unbelievers were unaware of its contents. They were probably unaware that this letter even existed. So, it wasn’t intended as a warning to the lost. So, it must be that our text is for the sake of the Church. It’s for the benefit, first, of those first-century Christians of Asia Minor and then for us. So, what are we supposed to get out of it? The answer lies in what comes next in the text. Listen to verse 12.
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
Our text is intended to be an encouragement to the saints. It is intended to reinforce the need for them to endure, to obey, to continue their faith in Jesus. And it reinforces this need by reminding the saints, ‘If you fail in continuing to be faithful, your fate will be among the rebels.’ Jesus understands that faithful living is hard. He understands the temptation to give in. So, He sends a message to His people through John. ‘As hard as life might be for you now imagine what it will be like if you quit. Don’t quit! Endure to the end.’ Our text is an exhortation from Jesus for His saints to persevere in the face of suffering.
But it’s not just a warning of dire consequences. Remember what the next verse says.
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!" Revelation 14:13
If we do endure then heaven awaits. Fill in here all that I told you last week from this text. Enduring to the end, as hard as that is, is worth it.
Do you see the point of the text? It is an exhortation that you need to take to heart. It urges you to continue on, to endure to the end. It does this first by warning you of the terrible results if you give in. But then it urges you on by reminding you that the day will come when the struggles of this life will be over. The faithful will enter into their rest. Then the faithful will gain their reward.
Let me get more specific now. Satan is after you. It may not feel it at times, but it is a fact. He is trying to snare you. An obvious area of attack is your worship. How are you doing at developing your worship of God? How are you doing at developing a holy fear of God? Imagine if Adam and Eve had a fully developed fear of God. They wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to that tree. Is your understanding of the fear of God growing, developing, maturing? This may be surprising to you but you’ll know that your fear of God is developing when you notice that your fear of others is diminishing. As God more and more becomes your first audience, when what He thinks matters most, then the importance of secondary audiences fades away. The fear of others diminishes. In its place there develops a gentle boldness before the world. This isn’t some obnoxious devil-may-care attitude. But there is a quiet confidence before those who, at one time, sent you scurrying. You’re not afraid of them because you’re more afraid of God. That is a great protection. How else were the martyrs able to stand? How are you doing here? You need to have a growing fear of God so that you might stand before the pressures of an unfriendly world that is in the service of the evil one. [1 John 5.19]
And how are you doing at giving credit where it really belongs? How are you doing at giving God the glory for the great things He does for you? The blessings you enjoy aren’t yours because you’ve worked hard or were lucky or just because you’ve paid your dues and now it’s your turn. You are blessed because of the Father. Think about this in terms of the particular ways in which you and your families have been blessed. Who is getting the credit for all those things? Are you growing in your understanding of giving God the glory? How is it showing? Being careful to give Him the glory will result in a growing awareness of how much He really does love you. After all, you’re seeing more and more clearly the multitude of ways in which He has blessed.
Fearing God and giving Him the glory are great defenses against the evil one. Growing in these ways is just another way of getting to know who God really is to you. A life of worshipping your Creator and Redeemer is the best way to insure that you will endure to the end.
Revelation 14.6-13
We’re going to retrace our steps a bit this morning. We skipped these verses last week when we looked at heaven. Our text is about three angels and the message that they proclaimed. We need to spend a little time understanding what’s going on. But the key question that we want to get to is this. Why is this here? Why did John include it? We’ll get to that after a bit.
So, what’s happening with these three angels? What are they talking about? There is a certain progression in what they are saying. The first angel proclaims the basic message of the Bible. The second proclaims that the rebellion against the God of the first message has failed. Babylon has fallen. Then we have the third angel who pronounces the consequences that follow from all of this. God will condemn these rebels. That’s the overview of our text. Now, let’s get more specific.
I told you that the first message is the basic message of the Bible. That’s why it’s called ‘an eternal Gospel’. This message has never changed nor will it ever change. This message is built around three imperatives, three commands: ‘fear God’, ‘give Him glory’ and ‘worship Him’. Now, these aren’t three separate things. They are the same thing. The issue here is worship, a key theme of Revelation. The first two commands simply explain what the third one is about. I think that it’s safe to say that most people today don’t understand what worship really is. The popular notion is that worship is something that you do in a building especially built for that purpose. It’s limited to certain behavior done at a certain time in a certain place. But that isn’t what worship is, at least, not according to Scripture. Worship is a matter of fear. It may sound odd to relate the worship of God to the idea of fear. But think about that common biblical phrase, ‘the fear of the Lord’. The Hebrew language has no word for religion. This phrase is how they referred to religion. This is true religion, the fear of the Lord. This is true worship. When a person was confronted with God there was fear and there will be fear. And the reasons are obvious. For one thing, it becomes abundantly clear that God is not just man made larger. He is so different from us. He is God! And at the same time, we aren’t. And that is very scary. But even beyond that, it also becomes abundantly clear that it is to this God – the holy, righteous and just God of the Bible – that we shall give an account of our lives. And when that happens, a person grasps more clearly than he may like the truth of the Scriptures that, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ [Hebrews 10:31] Worship is responding to this God with a holy fear of who He is.
Worship is also a matter of giving glory to this God. The Psalms often talk about this.
Give to the Lord, O heavenly beings, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. [Psalm 29:1-2]
What is this giving to the Lord glory? Are we adding something to Him? Obviously not. Some translations render that Psalm slightly different. Instead of ‘give’ which is literal, they have ‘ascribe’. ‘Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.’ To ascribe is to credit someone with something. Giving glory to God is declaring something about His character. Giving glory to God is crediting Him with being faithful to His word, being patient with us because of His love, being merciful to sinners and all the rest. Giving glory to God for these things is our response to the different ways in which God reveals His character to us. And what is that but worship? One reason that we sing hymns and Psalms is to ascribe glory to God for the great things that He has done for us. Fearing God and giving Him glory are expressions of worship to our God.
Now, if someone understands that as only applying to what happens on Sunday morning then they’ve completely missed it. Fearing God and giving Him glory are things that happen in every day living. The key question of life is about worship. Whom will you fear? Whom will you credit for the good things you enjoy? These are the fundamental questions of life. These are questions of worship. And these questions go far beyond what happens on Sunday morning. The things that you do, the choices that you make, the ways in which you act all reveal how you are answering those questions. A person’s deeds reveal the ways that his heart has answered the question of worship. And so, the first angel declares this fundamental issue of the Bible. ‘Worship God!’ Not the beast, not Satan. Worship God.
The second angel refers to an image that we haven’t been properly introduced to yet. John doesn’t formally present Babylon the whore until chapter 17. He’s done this sort of thing before. And even if we don’t understand the imagery of Babylon the point of the second angel is clear. This agent of Satan, along with the other agents of Satan, has failed. The rebellion that Satan fostered has been crushed. The false worship encouraged by Satan has come to nothing. Babylon has fallen.
This leads, then, to the third message. God is about to act. There are those who refused to worship God. Instead they worshipped the beast. It was he that they feared. After all, he could kill them. It was he to whom they gave glory. Remember what they said, ‘Who is like the beast and who can fight against it?’ [Revelation 13.4] The Last Day has come. Having rejected the message of the first angel these now face the consequences. These now face the wrath of God. And did you notice that it is coming upon them ‘full strength’? Is there another kind of wrath that is only partial strength? Yes, there is. God expresses His wrath now, before the Last Day. Romans 1 teaches that. ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven…’ But that wrath is a tempered wrath. There is at least the opportunity for repentance. There is an element of mercy here. In most cases, one of the purposes of that wrath is to encourage people to repent that they might be delivered from their sin. But when the Last Day comes the wrath of God will not be tempered at all. There will be no mercy, no opportunity for repentance. No, on the Last Day, wrath will be expressed full strength. And this is why our text uses the language of torment. ‘They will be tormented with fire and sulfur.’ These who will experience the untempered wrath of God will be in inconceivable agony, misery and suffering. They will experience hell. Our text uses the language of fire and sulfur. Some ask this is real fire or just imagery. What an irrelevant question! If it isn’t literal does that mean that it will not be as terrible? Literal or not, hell will be a terrifying place. It will be the place where God’s justice will have full reign. These who rejected the first message will suffer for their rebellion. There will be no mercy. And notice that the text tells us that ‘the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever’. There will be no end to this. It will last into eternity. There are those today who reject this aspect of hell. And some of them even claim to be evangelical Christians. These tell us that hell comes to an end. The punishment is limited. These do not understand how serious it is to refuse to worship the true God. It is a sin of the greatest evil. The punishment of hell is appropriate. As our text tells us, ‘they have no rest, day or night’. It will go on and on and on forever.
Do you see the progression? There is the call to worship proclaimed by the first angel. Our text tells us that it is a call that goes out ‘to every nation and tribe and language and people’. This call is rejected. There are those who follow the different agents of Satan and in this way worship the devil. They rebel against the God who made them. But then the day of justice arrives. All flesh will stand before God to give an account of the choices made, an account of the behavior that was pursued. All will have the thoughts and intentions of their hearts exposed before God. Then hell will be filled with those whose hearts refused to worship God. They neither feared Him nor gave Him the glory He deserved. And they will bear their punishment. Our text gives us a sobering look into the future.
Now, we’re ready for the question that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon. Why is this here? Why is it included in Revelation? What you need to see at first is that it is not intended as a warning to the lost. Remember now, to whom was this letter written? It was written to the seven churches. They were the original audience. It was to be read to them. It wasn’t something to be preached to the pagans. So, the unbelievers were unaware of its contents. They were probably unaware that this letter even existed. So, it wasn’t intended as a warning to the lost. So, it must be that our text is for the sake of the Church. It’s for the benefit, first, of those first-century Christians of Asia Minor and then for us. So, what are we supposed to get out of it? The answer lies in what comes next in the text. Listen to verse 12.
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
Our text is intended to be an encouragement to the saints. It is intended to reinforce the need for them to endure, to obey, to continue their faith in Jesus. And it reinforces this need by reminding the saints, ‘If you fail in continuing to be faithful, your fate will be among the rebels.’ Jesus understands that faithful living is hard. He understands the temptation to give in. So, He sends a message to His people through John. ‘As hard as life might be for you now imagine what it will be like if you quit. Don’t quit! Endure to the end.’ Our text is an exhortation from Jesus for His saints to persevere in the face of suffering.
But it’s not just a warning of dire consequences. Remember what the next verse says.
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!" Revelation 14:13
If we do endure then heaven awaits. Fill in here all that I told you last week from this text. Enduring to the end, as hard as that is, is worth it.
Do you see the point of the text? It is an exhortation that you need to take to heart. It urges you to continue on, to endure to the end. It does this first by warning you of the terrible results if you give in. But then it urges you on by reminding you that the day will come when the struggles of this life will be over. The faithful will enter into their rest. Then the faithful will gain their reward.
Let me get more specific now. Satan is after you. It may not feel it at times, but it is a fact. He is trying to snare you. An obvious area of attack is your worship. How are you doing at developing your worship of God? How are you doing at developing a holy fear of God? Imagine if Adam and Eve had a fully developed fear of God. They wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to that tree. Is your understanding of the fear of God growing, developing, maturing? This may be surprising to you but you’ll know that your fear of God is developing when you notice that your fear of others is diminishing. As God more and more becomes your first audience, when what He thinks matters most, then the importance of secondary audiences fades away. The fear of others diminishes. In its place there develops a gentle boldness before the world. This isn’t some obnoxious devil-may-care attitude. But there is a quiet confidence before those who, at one time, sent you scurrying. You’re not afraid of them because you’re more afraid of God. That is a great protection. How else were the martyrs able to stand? How are you doing here? You need to have a growing fear of God so that you might stand before the pressures of an unfriendly world that is in the service of the evil one. [1 John 5.19]
And how are you doing at giving credit where it really belongs? How are you doing at giving God the glory for the great things He does for you? The blessings you enjoy aren’t yours because you’ve worked hard or were lucky or just because you’ve paid your dues and now it’s your turn. You are blessed because of the Father. Think about this in terms of the particular ways in which you and your families have been blessed. Who is getting the credit for all those things? Are you growing in your understanding of giving God the glory? How is it showing? Being careful to give Him the glory will result in a growing awareness of how much He really does love you. After all, you’re seeing more and more clearly the multitude of ways in which He has blessed.
Fearing God and giving Him the glory are great defenses against the evil one. Growing in these ways is just another way of getting to know who God really is to you. A life of worshipping your Creator and Redeemer is the best way to insure that you will endure to the end.
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