Admonition Podcast

Good morning.

We have made it to Revelation chapter 14.

encourage you to take your Bibles and turn over to that passage as we get into our study
this morning.

Good to see everyone out.

Let's begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our class.

Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you've
blessed us with.

grateful for the life that we have, the energy that we have, the abilities that we have to
work and to labor and to produce things that are valuable to ourselves and to others.

Lord, we're grateful for the care and the provision you give to this planet, to the nature
around us and the things that you have created.

Without those things, we would be completely incapable of doing any of the things that we
do.

Lord, we are mindful that every moment,

every second that we have on this planet is a gift from you.

And we pray that we might use our time here in honor of you, in service of your kingdom,
and to glorify your name.

Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.

We are eternally grateful for your Son who came and died on the cross for our sins and
sins of the whole world.

All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.

So to do a quick review, chapter one of Revelation, John hears a voice, turns around and
sees one who looks like a glorified image of Jesus Christ.

Seven stars in his right hand are the seven what?

Churches.

and seven golden lampstands that are before him represent the angels of the seven
churches.

so John is going to be told to write to those seven churches of Asia Minor.

And he is going to write to them in chapter two and chapter three, each one he's going to
write to.

Some, there's going to be uh a positive thing to say and a negative thing to say.

Some, there's going to be only positive to say and some only negative things to say.

But all of them are going to be written

to being warned that persecution is coming and that John is their brother in this
tribulation and in the Kingdom.

It is important to realize that John says he is going to participate.

He is going to live through the troubles that were coming that he was prophesying about.

That he was part of the kingdom just like they were a part of the kingdom.

He says that in Revelation chapter one, verses eight, nine, and 10.

So he is in the kingdom.

They are in the kingdom.

and he is a part of the tribulation and they're going to be a part of the tribulation that
is coming, but they're also going to be a part of the reward found for those who overcome

if they remain faithful.

Chapter four opens and he sees an open door.

So you're supposed to understand that he goes through the open door because he's told to
come and see.

So he goes into the throne room of God in

vision, not in reality, not in heaven, but in the vision.

In the vision he goes into the throne room of God and he sees the glory of God.

He sees the rainbow that surrounds the throne like an emerald.

He sees the four beasts that surround the throne that praise God continually, that declare
him worthy.

And he also sees the four and twenty elders that are there around the throne.

And they're praising God continually because He is worthy.

they praise God, then chapter 5 opens.

And as chapter 5 opens, there's a scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the
throne.

And they're looking in heaven and on earth and under the earth for anyone alive anywhere
who is worthy to open the scroll.

Because they want to know what the revelation from God says.

They want to know what's written on the inside and on the outside of this scroll that has
seven seals.

And nobody is found who's worthy to open the scroll.

And John begins to weep.

But one comes to John and don't weep, we've found the one who's worthy.

And John looks and there, where he had previously just seen the throne and the one who was
on the throne, and then later looked back and he saw the uh book that was on the throne in

the right hand of the one who was on the throne.

Now he looks back at the throne and now there's one who looks like a lamb who was slain,
but he's standing up.

And that lamb who was slain, who was standing up, has seven eyes and seven horns, and it
is a picture.

of the line of the tribe of Judah, it is the Christ, and He's worthy to take the scroll
and to open the seals.

And so the beasts and the 24 elders declare the one who is the Christ worthy, and they
worship Him.

Then the seals begin to be opened.

Seal one, you see a white horse going forth and conquering, and it looks like a Parthian
warrior, and it is the only enemy Rome never defeated.

and it is winning.

And it's a picture of the Church.

It's a picture of Christ.

He goes forth and He begins to conquer.

Well, when Christ takes an action, Satan takes an opposite action.

He tries to combat whatever Christ does.

So the second seal is open and you see war.

The third seal is open and you see plagues and difficulties and financial difficulties, or
sorry, the third seal is financial difficulties and the fourth seal you see plagues and

death and the grave.

The picture is, first it looks like the church is winning, now it looks like the church is
losing.

This is all a forecast of what's coming.

Then the fifth seal is open and now you see the saints.

who have died for the testimony of the cause of Christ and they're under the altar and
they're asking God, like the saints of the Old Testament ask God in the Psalms, how long

are you going to let this go on?

How long until you're going to do something about the persecution that we're enduring?

If you go over to Romans chapter 8, that passage which speaks so much about

our reliance upon God when hard times come and the culminating idea that all things work
together for good to those that love the Lord.

That passage in Romans 8 is tied back to Psalms and there's a specific Psalm.

I think it's Psalm 34, but go off my memory.

uh But that Psalm presents a picture of God where God seems to be

by the appearance of things according to the one who's writing the Psalm, he seems to be
doing nothing.

He seems to be not delivering his people.

He seems to be allowing the wicked to run over, persecute, and kill his people.

And the Psalmist writer is...

expressing how much he needs God to do something to counteract the evil and the things
being done and he sees nothing happening.

the last half of the Psalm, you have the picture of God taking action.

And Paul comes to Romans and he takes that Psalm and he says, listen, yes, you're going to
have hard times.

Yes, you're going to have difficulties.

Yes, you're going to have struggles.

Yes, you're going to have persecution, but don't worry.

God has it under control.

That's the picture of the saints under the altar.

because they cry out, they're given robes and told to rest for a little while, and then
the next seal is open, and God's answer to Satan's actions is forecasted.

Sun turns dark, the moon turns to blood, and a nation falls.

Everything that Satan thinks he can use to defeat God and His people, God will give an
answer to in His...

own time.

So the forecast of the sixth seal is, hey, the great, the mighty, the rich, the wealthy,
all the people who think that they rule, they're gonna cry for the mountains to fall on

them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb because they're not in charge, they're not
reigning, Christ is.

But then chapter seven opens and there's a pause.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Before all this forecast actually comes about,

Everybody needs to be sealed.

Everybody who belongs to God needs God's name written on their foreheads so we make sure
God and God's people in heaven make sure that, none of them are gonna get touched by the

judgment.

We're not coming to judge them.

They belong to God.

And so, again, Romans chapter eight, all things work together for good to them

that love the Lord.

God knows who belongs to him.

God's going to take care of them through the difficulties that arise.

So then the seven trumpets begin to sound.

And the seven trumpets are seven partial judgments with the seventh trumpet containing
seven bowls, which are the full judgment, which we're almost into.

So you see all sorts of different signs.

They're all Old Testament pictures.

They're all pictures from Exodus and from early Israelite history of God delivering his
people and causing a nation to fall.

So we're not gonna go through all of them for the sake of time.

Chapter nine opens and there's a mighty angel.

One foot on the land, one foot on the sea.

God reigns over land and sea, but we're about to see some beasts coming up out of the land
and the sea.

God wants you to know before it ever gets started, hey, I'm in control of both.

Okay, but there's a mighty angel with one foot on the land and one foot on the sea, he's
got another scroll, another revelation.

And it's a picture from Ezekiel, because Ezekiel was given very much the same type of
revelation.

And he's told it's gonna be sweet in your mouth, but it's gonna be bitter in your belly.

The message.

is God is going to deliver His people, but He's going to deliver them through hardship.

Ezekiel is going to tell the people in his day during the Babylonian captivity, Ezekiel is
going to write between the second carrying away and the final carrying away of Jerusalem

by Nebuchadnezzar.

And he's going to write to the people back in Jerusalem because he's already in Shushan.

He's already in captivity.

and he's going to write to them and make it clear God is going to take care of his people.

But he's going to do it through hardship.

You're going to go into captivity.

God is going to cure Old Testament Israel of their idolatry and of their worship of Baal,
but it's going to take 70 years in captivity to do it.

It worked out for their good.

To those that love the Lord,

and it worked out for judgment to those who opposed his will.

So the picture of the little book in chapter nine is an Ezekiel picture.

And then chapter 10 opens, John sees in the vision, he sees two witnesses.

The first version of the witnesses look like two olive trees and their light never goes
out.

Their lamps never shut off.

Why?

Because the olive trees feed the oil into the lamps and the lamps never go out.

God's light never goes out.

No matter how many people who belong to the Lord are killed by Satan and his minions,
God's light never goes out.

God always has a remnant that he reserves.

And he says, you're not touching them.

Back in the Old Testament, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, when Nebuchadnezzar came against
Israel,

What's the first group that Nebuchadnezzar carried away in the very first carrying away?

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and a whole bunch of the youth from the princes
of uh Judah.

So he comes down, he accepts tribute, and takes all their best, uh all their best and all
their brightest, all their young people that seem to be of good quality.

He takes them back uh to Babylon to make them part of his court.

Well, guess what?

Off go Daniel.

Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael.

And through the entirety of the Babylonian captivity, they're untouched by it.

They're rather actually in Babylon and eventually they're going to be reigning as
governors over provinces and some almost to the point of third in the kingdom.

So, God protects His people.

So, the second image of the witnesses, God's picture here to John is a picture of Moses
and Elijah.

And they do these great signs and they declare God's message.

And as long as they're speaking God's message until the message is finished, nobody can
touch them.

But when God's message is finished, the world comes and kills them.

Kills them, leaves them dead in the street.

Doesn't even bother to bury them.

throws a party for three and a half days, but then three and a half days are over and God
resurrects him back to life, pulls him up into heaven.

And the picture is God delivers his people.

Even death can't keep God from delivering his people.

Chapter 12 opens and you've got the woman and the dragon.

Another picture to declare to the church, Satan's gonna attack you, Satan's gonna try and
kill you, but...

God's under control.

So the picture opens, the woman gives birth to the child, the dragon tries to kill the
child, fails.

God takes the child up in heaven.

It's a picture of Christ.

He just says, listen, he's going to ascend back into heaven and Satan's not going to be
able to touch him.

And then the dragon comes up to heaven and tries to make war in heaven, trying to again
kill the child, but he doesn't even get to the child because God sends his angels and

Michael stops uh Satan and sends Satan and his...

minions back down to the earth.

You don't have a place up here.

Devil loses once, devil loses again, devil loses a third time for he tries to come and
again attack the woman.

The woman's just a picture of the church.

He tries to attack God's people but God gives the the church wings to fly out into the
wilderness and dragon can't touch her.

So he makes war with her children.

He makes war with the people of God.

He can't

kill the church.

What an interesting point, by the way.

Can Satan kill Christians?

Can Satan and his servants kill Christians

on this physical earth?

So you hear this way, yeah, a whole lot of them have died through last 2,000 years.

Yes, you go all the way back to Stephen.

Could Satan and his servants kill Christians?

Sure they could.

And they always have.

Jesus made it clear they hated me, they're gonna hate you too.

And some of you, they're gonna kill.

But think about this.

The beauty of the picture here with the woman representing the church is Satan can attack
and Satan can kill individual Christians, but can Satan kill the church?

No.

he's tried.

You go read some history.

He's tried.

But what does it take to reconstitute the church if it disappears from a location?

What does it take to reconstitute, to give birth again to the Church in any location,
anywhere in the world where the Church has been wiped out by persecution?

The Word of God.

See, this is the beauty of what God created.

God created a system that is so resilient to destruction that all you need is one copy of
the New Testament anywhere in the world in any language and you can have the church back

in one generation.

Because all you need is some group of people beginning with

an individual person who opens up that book and says, I'm going to do exactly what God
tells me to do in this book.

I'm going to be those.

I'm going to be the type of person who does what he says to be forgiven of my sins.

I'm going to do what he says to worship.

I'm going to do what he says in moral issues.

I'm going to do what he says in civil issues.

I'm going to do what he says in relationship issues.

And what do you have?

You got the church.

And Satan can't kill it.

He always loses.

So can he kill Christians?

Yes.

Can he kill the church?

So, chapter 13 opens and you see the dragon who's Satan because the text tells us he's
Satan.

What do we do when the text tells us what something is?

We know that's what it is.

What do we do when the text just gives us a picture of what something is?

We have to ask, what is it?

What does it mean?

Because it's a sign, and in this picture, in the vision, the sign, the picture that John
sees is a dragon with a tail so great it can knock stars out of the sky.

with seven heads and ten horns.

But what is the dragon in reality?

It's Satan.

And then so we have in chapter 13, the dragon and he gives his power to a sea beast.

Sea beast comes up and it looks like a beast out of Daniel's visions.

And it's a picture of Rome.

And it's got the head that looks like it's been killed, but it's alive again.

And then the land beast comes forth and it's a picture of.

Rome's priests and Rome's religion that told everybody, you can have part in our economy,
you can have part in all the glory of Rome, the only thing is we're just going to need one

thing from you.

You just have to say that Caesar is God.

If you'll just say Caesar is God, you can have everything you want from Rome.

But could the Christians say that Caesar is God?

No, not for a successful business, not for access to a marketplace, not even to save their
lives.

So chapter 14 opens and you find the picture of the lamb on Mount Zion.

and you're seeing the declaration before the end of the chapter that Babylon has fallen
and the reapers are going to start gathering the wheat.

Chapter 14.

Chapter 14 verse 1, that I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him
144,000 having his father's name written on their foreheads and I heard a voice from

heaven

like the voice of many waters, like the voice of loud thunder, and I heard the sound of
harpists playing their harps.

They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and
the elders, and no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the

earth." Now you say, oh, wait a minute, this is a special group of people.

This is a special group of people in heaven.

They are unique.

And the religious world says, these are the saved, these are the ones who are actually
going to heaven.

The latest version of this is there's a limited number that's gonna be in heaven and then
the majority of the saved from all the ages are gonna be on a renovated earth.

No, even if that were true, which let's just play with that for a moment.

If that were true, in the picture, where's the lamb?

on Malzion.

Now, if you're going to take the number as literal, and you're going to take the
description as literal, and you're going to say this literal group is a subset group and

they have special privileges in a special location, then where is this group going to be?

Well, if you're going to take the passages literal, Mount Zion is literal, Mount Zion's in
Jerusalem.

Therefore, this little list, little subset group is going to be on the earth, not in
heaven.

You got the whole thing mixed up.

If you want to say there's going to be a subgroup in heaven and a larger group on a
renovated earth, the subgroup's on the earth, not in heaven.

The point is Zion is not dealing with in the vision a physical location in the city of
Jerusalem.

Zion is a representation all the way back into the Old Testament prophets of God's
kingdom.

Now when Jesus was standing before Pilate...

And Pilate said, are you the king of the Jews?

What did Jesus say in response?

You say that I am.

And there's a discussion that goes on about why Jesus' servants aren't fighting to free
Him.

And Jesus will inform Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?

Well, if Zion is a Old Testament picture, an Old Testament term from the prophets of the
kingdom of God, then where is Zion?

It's a spiritual location, not a physical one.

It's the kingdom of Christ.

So the picture is Christ is in His Kingdom.

He's standing on His mountain.

He's standing victorious.

And He's standing with 144,000 who have the name of God written on their foreheads and
they've come through this tribulation.

They've come through this hardship.

They've come through this persecution and they haven't denied the name of Christ.

They have not pledged allegiance to the beast.

or to his image or to his number.

They have not declared Caesar to be God.

But then further he says, I heard all this and I heard noises and thunderings and I heard
harps playing and I heard these 144,000 and they were singing a new song no one else could

know.

Let me ask you a question, because, you know, we got to deal with this passage
appropriately.

Once you hear a new song, can't you know it?

Let's say you hear a new song on the radio.

You hear it first time.

You hear it the second time.

You hear it the third time.

About the second or third time, you pretty well picked up, oh, I recognize that.

You hear it a hundred times.

Can you know it?

then how is it they're singing a song nobody can know?

Unless they're singing a song about an experience and the knowing isn't the ability to
understand the song, it's having lived through the song.

Now let me take you to an Old Testament picture where you can understand what the picture
is.

Turn to Exodus.

because guess what?

This is just another Old Testament picture.

Exodus chapter 15.

Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and spoke, saying, I will
sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.

The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and my song and has become my salvation.

He is my God and I will praise him, my Father's God and I will exalt him.

The Lord is a man of war.

The Lord is his name.

Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has cast into the sea.

He has chosen captains that are drowned in the Red Sea.

The depths have covered them.

They sank to the bottom like a stone.

Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power.

Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.

And in the greatness of your excellence you have overthrown those who rose against you.

You sent forth your wrath.

It consumed them like stubble.

And with the blast of your nostrils, the waters were gathered together.

The flood stood upright like a heap.

The depths congealed in the heart of the sea.

The enemy said, I will pursue.

I will overtake.

I will divide the spoil.

My desire shall be satisfied on them.

I will draw my sword.

My hand shall destroy them.

You blew with your wind and the sea covered them.

They sank like lead in mighty waters.

Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like you, O glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them.

You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed.

You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.

The people will hear and be afraid.

Sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.

Then the chiefs of Enum will be dismayed.

The mighty men of Moab

trembling will take hold of them, all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away.

Fear and dread will fall on them by the greatness of your arm.

They will be as uh still as a stone till your people pass over, O Lord, till the people
pass over whom you have purchased.

You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance.

In the place, O Lord, which you have made for your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord,
which your hands have established, the Lord shall reign forever and ever.

For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and the
Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them.

But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea."

Over in Revelation 14

You have a picture of the Lamb and his 144,000, the ones who were marked with the name of
God on their forehead in chapter 7, the one where the angel said, wait, wait, wait, wait,

wait, don't start the judgment yet.

We got to mark all God's people.

And they marked all of God's people.

And John sees...

The partial judgment has happened and all these people have died and all this tribulation
has come and guess what?

Not a single one of the ones that God marked are missing.

and they sing a song just like Moses and the Israelites did.

And it's not that nobody could understand what the song said, it's that no one else had
lived through it.

What generation before Moses and that first generation of Israelites could talk about the
Lord passing them through the Red Sea and congealing the land and rising up the waters and

keeping them uh from coming across them and coming through the sea and coming to the other
side and then vanquishing the enemy with just the waters of the Red Sea?

Which generation could sing that before that point?

I'll tell you what, which generation could sing it afterwards?

None of them.

because none of them had lived through it.

Oh, we could sing the song.

We can learn the lesson, but we didn't live it.

The picture of the 144,000 is the picture of the Christians who were alive on the earth
who were going to live it.

and many of them were going to die in it.

But whether they were alive or dead when the tribulation and the difficulty and the
persecution and the ending of the persecution under Rome was over didn't matter because

guess what?

God hadn't lost one of them.

He had seen all of them through it, either through life or through death.

So they sing the song and they declare the same concepts that Moses and Israel declared
about God delivering His people and delivering them to His holy mountain.

These are the ones, verse 4, who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.

These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.

And in their mouths were found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of
God.

John is looking in the vision at 144,000.

and the testimony about them is the testimony about Christ.

What was the testimony prophesied about Christ?

No deceit in this.

He went as a lamb to the slaughter and there was no guile, no deceit, nothing to accuse
him of.

Didn't keep him from killing him.

John looks at these 144,000 and they look like Christ.

True or false?

Christ was married before He died and was resurrected and sent it back to the Father.

False.

In spite of a of nonsense that the Da Vinci Code and a bunch of other places uh argue for,
true or false, Christ was a virgin.

True.

True or false?

Christ had no deceit in His mouth.

True.

True or false?

When Christians are buried in a watery grave of baptism and they go down a sinful person,
they rise up covered in the appearance and the blood and the righteousness of Jesus

Christ.

True.

So John looks at the 144,000 and it's like he's seeing a whole bunch of Jesus Christ.

They all look like the Savior.

They all look like His people.

every time you look at them.

It doesn't look like they're alive, it looks like He's alive in them.

Isn't that what Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 2?

That Christ lives in us.

So this life isn't about us, it's about us allowing Christ to live in us.

All of these pictures are not new, all of these pictures are old.

We've seen them before.

Verse six, then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth.

God's not done trying to convert the lost.

We've said before, we're gonna keep saying again, every time we come to the passage and we
see those who dwell on the earth, we're talking about the unrighteous.

We're talking about those whose allegiance is to Satan, to the beast.

to the dragon, the prophets that declare the name of the beast, to the image of the beast,
and not to God.

But that's okay.

This angel is going to come along and he's going to fly through heaven and he's going to
declare the gospel to those who dwell on the earth.

Notice what happens.

He declares the gospel to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tongue, and
people.

saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has
come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

The angel flies through heaven.

John sees him in the vision.

He goes through the entire planet.

He says, judgments coming.

Worship the God who actually exists.

It's like Isaiah would prophesy all throughout his prophecy, trying to get Israel to give
up their idols.

And he says, why don't you worship the God who tells you the end from the beginning?

Why don't you worship the God who can speak?

He talks about the one, the worker who goes out and he cuts down a tree.

and he takes the tree and he cuts off part of it and makes wood and sells it.

He takes another part of the tree and he puts it in the fire and warms himself.

And with the rest of the tree that he hasn't used already, he makes himself an idol, sets
it up, bows down and worships it.

And God, through Isaiah, questions, why don't you worship the God who can talk to you?

In chapter 1 of Isaiah, God speaks to Israel and He says, come, let us reason together,
says the Lord.

There's a first challenge to all the idols that Israel had worshiped and all the idols
that Judah had worshiped and all the idols of the Babylonians and all the idols of the

Canaanites and all the idols of the Philistines.

If you can get one of them to answer you and reason with you, then there's a possibility
he might actually be a God.

But I'm gonna call on you to sit down and reason with me and correct your morality,
correct your life, and cleanse yourself and be white as snow.

Now let's see another God dude.

Let's see any one of you create a God out of wood or stone or stubble and see if you can
get him to do that.

So in the picture, the gospel is declared, the whole earth hears the gospel, they're told
judgment is coming.

Now, what Old Testament prophet was sent with a message in which he told an entire city,
repent or in 40 days you're gonna perish?

Jonah.

Now, how did it turn out?

They repented.

He wasn't happy about it, but they repented and the city was saved.

Here's your picture.

God gives the people he's about to judge one last chance.

The gospel goes out, you can keep this from happening.

You can stop the judgment.

Not the end of days judgment.

You can't stop the end of days judgment.

You can't stop Christ returning.

When the time is up, the time is up.

But you can stop judgment against a nation on this earth by turning a nation from being
wicked and sinful and following after Satan to being righteous.

It's an Old Testament picture.

Jonah went into the city and he preached an eight-word lesson.

and they repented and judgment was stayed.

But there's another message, this one involving two angels.

For those angels went down to Sodom and in that opportunity for judgment to be stayed,
they only needed to find 10 righteous.

But could they find 10 righteous?

Was judgment stayed?

No, it wasn't.

Judgment was enacted from God's hand to their existence.

So notice the picture.

He says with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has
come and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and springs of water.

And another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen that great city because she
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Then a third angel followed saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast in his
image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,

He Himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full
strength into the cup of His indignation.

He shall 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 ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest day or
night who worship the beast in his image and who ever receive the mark of his name." Here

is the patience of the saints.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Right, blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord from now on.

Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them.

First angel comes forth, preaches the gospel, the good news to the entire world, everybody
who's lost.

By the way, what is the commission of Jesus Christ to His apostles before He ascends back
into heaven?

Go into all the world and preach to every creature.

Take the gospel to every nation.

Repentance and remission of sin should be preached in every nation under heaven.

There's the commission.

What is this?

It's the work of the church.

You know, if the work of the church was accomplished in the form of the gospel being
preached and entire nations hearing it and repenting, you'd have a lot less nations fall.

you to have a lot less problems in this world.

But is that typically how the message of the Gospels received?

So, angel one goes forth, preaches the gospel.

Says, fear God, judgment's coming, your nation's about to fall, and they don't repent.

So, the next angel comes out and says, you know what, I'm gonna do just what Isaiah did.

I'm gonna declare the end from the beginning.

I'm gonna tell you, Babylon's already fallen.

Now, Isaiah...

is not only going to prophesy the end of Babylon, he's going to name the king of the
Medo-Persian Empire who had not yet been born who was going to do it.

What was his name?

Cyrus.

God is so different from Satan, from his angels, from his false prophets, from his false
idols.

They can't tell you what's going to happen five minutes from now.

And God can tell you the name of the King that's going to destroy a nation 70 years before
he is ever in power.

So the second angel comes forth and says Babylon's This news bulletin by the way, y'all.

The enemy has been defeated.

Then the third angel comes forth.

And he cries with a loud voice and says, every single one of you that decided to worship
the beast, decided to accept the name of Satan as your ruler and your king instead of

Jesus Christ.

Destruction's coming for you.

torment is coming for you.

And you're going to begin dealing with that torment long before you ever get to the
eternal one.

Now, I'm over time, but I want to mention this.

We'll come back to this in two weeks.

But the picture of fire and torment that never ends is not first a New Testament picture.

It's not first a picture that Jesus uses in his preaching.

It is originally an Isaiah picture.

So your assignment between now and two weeks from now.

Let's go read Isaiah 66.

If you want a little more background, read Isaiah 65 and 66.

And think about in your mind...

The interpretation of Isaiah 65 and 66 being a picture of God bringing his people back
from Babylonian captivity.

Back to Jerusalem, back to their city, to the place where he put his name, and God saying,
I am going to so defeat my enemies that they're going to keep piling up their bodies and

they're gonna keep burning them.

and the fire's never gonna go out because I'm never gonna be done defeating my enemies.

So between now and two weeks from now, Isaiah 65 and 66, go read it and think about it
because here's what it was.

It was a prophecy of God returning his people from captivity in Babylon and vanquishing
his enemies.

And think about it in that context because when you do, you're gonna understand Revelation
14 a whole lot better.

Okay, thank you for your attention.