Back To The Future – Sermon #35

Revelation 14:6-11

WHEN THE END COMES – PART 1

WHAT THE END HOLDS FOR THE SINNER

Intro: Revelation chapter 14 is an interesting chapter. In its verses, God takes care of some Tribulation housekeeping. In verses 1-5 the Lord shows us the fate of the 144,000. If you will remember, the 144,000 are saved Jewish preachers who travel the world preaching the Gospel of grace. These men are divinely sealed and protected as they carry out their ministry. When their time is completed, the Antichrist is allowed to take their lives and verses 1-5 picture them home, in Heaven, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

      Verses 14-20 speak about the horrific battle of Armageddon that will occur at the end of the Tribulation. We will consider that text in our next study. Today, we are going to focus our attention on verses 6-13. This passage speaks about the future that awaits two distinct classes of people. Verses 6-11 deal with the future of the lost sinner, while verses 12-13 speak to the future of the faithful saint.

      While these verses speak about future events, they are still relevant to us today. Every person in this room will reach the end of your earthly journey someday. There will an end of the road for each of us! We do not like to think about it, but we need to know what is coming so that we can be properly prepared for that hour. When the end comes, you and I need to be ready! When the end comes, there will be no more time to prepare. When the end comes, how we leave this world will be how we enter eternity. In Eccl. 11:3, Solomon said, “…if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” The same is true about your life and mine. However the end finds us, whether saved or lost, is how eternity will preserve us. We must be ready!

      Today, let’s consider these verses which clearly declare what the end holds for both the Tribulation sinner and the Tribulation saint. I want to preach on the thought When The End Comes. 

  I.  v. 6-7               A FINAL PROCLAMATION

A.  These verses depict an angelic messenger flying above the earth, proclaiming “the everlasting Gospel”. This angel declares the same message preached by Paul, Peter, John and the rest of the Apostles. It is the same message preached by the true church for the last 2,000 years. The message this angel delivers is the message of salvation through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

B.  Here is the Gospel – 1 Cor. 15:3-4. It is the “power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth”, Rom. 1:16. It is a simple message, Rom. 10:9. It is an available message, Rom. 10:13. It is a message of love, John 3:16; of hope, John 6:37; of eternal salvation, John 6:47; John 10:28; and of peace with God, Rom. 5:10. It is the same message that was proclaimed in Eden, Gen. 3:21; pictured in the Law; and purchased on Calvary, John 19:30. It is a message as fresh as the need of today; yet it is older than creation, 1 Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8. It is the only message that will save the human soul from the wrath of God and an eternity in Hell, John 14:1-6; Acts 4:12.

Yet, it is a message that has been, is, and will be rejected by sinners until the end of time! This message has been preached for 2,000 years. It has been ignored by most of those that have heard it. It is still being ignored in this day. It will be ignored during the dark days of the Tribulation. Many people will be saved, thank God for that, but many, many more will be lost. The people in the Tribulation will refuse to hear the 144,000 evangelists. They will refuse the preaching of the two witnesses, Rev. 11. The world will even rejoice when they are dead and gone. The world will refuse the steadfast, faithful testimony of the Tribulations saints. The world will be unmoved by their love for Jesus, their testimony and even by their blood when they are martyred for their failure to worship the Beast.

The world will turn a deaf ear to all human efforts to bring them to Jesus. In a final effort to reach them, God will entrust the Gospel to an angel. He will preach the message to a universal audience. He will call all people, everywhere, to flee the wrath to come. He will invite all people to come to Jesus for salvation. He will call them to refuse the Antichrist and to embrace the true Christ.

C.  It will be a powerful proclamation by a powerful preacher. But, the world will remain defiant in their rejection of the Gospel! The salvation offered through the blood of Jesus is humanity’s only hope. If Jesus is rejected, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin”, Heb. 10:26.

When the end comes, it will be too late to believe the Gospel. Today is the day of salvation, 2 Cor. 6:2. If you have never believed the Gospel and received Jesus as your Savior, you need to do that today. One day it will be forever too late. 

 I. A Final Proclamation

 II.  v. 8                   A FATAL PRONOUNCEMENT

A.  A second angel appears and pronounces God’s final judgment on Babylon. You may notice that the angel says “is fallen” twice. This indicates that Babylon’s judgment is absolutely certain! We will consider Babylon in greater detail when we come to Rev. 17-18. Today, we will try to understand why this city, above all others, is singled out for a special pronouncement of judgment.

B.  Babylon is more than a city, Babylon is a philosophy! Babylon represents everything the world is. Babylon represents everything that stands opposed to God and His perfect will. Babylon represents a system of unbelief.

            In Genesis 10:8-10, we are introduced to the descendents of a man named Cush. One of his sons was named Nimrod. Nimrod founded the city of Babel, v. 10. It was here that mankind rebelled against the Lord and attempted to build the Tower of Babel, Gen. 11. This tower was a place dedicated to the worship of the zodiac and the heavenly bodies. Babel was one of the first centers of false, idolatrous worship in this world and Nimrod was the ringleader. He is called “a mighty hunter” in Gen. 10:9. The phrase “mighty hunter” has been interpreted by some as “a mighty hunter of souls”. In other words, many scholars believe that Nimrod was the father of a religious system that was designed to seduce men and turn them away from the One True God.             Thus, when they build their tower dedicated to the worship of idols and heavenly bodies, God intervened and confused their languages. But, that did not destroy the seeds of false religion that had been planted in the hearts of men. People left Babel and carried their false doctrines with them around the world. Babel later became Babylon. It was a city that was the capital of false religion and idolatry. It represents everything in this world that stands opposed to God. In the Tribulation, it speaks of the economic and religious kingdom of the Antichrist.

C.  In this verse, Babylon is pictured as a harlot. She is seen seducing the foolish sinners of this world. She has lead them away from God with her lies and she is about to pay a terrible price. The judgment of God is coming upon her and her heresies and none can stay His hand of judgment. The philosophy behind all of mankind’s religious heresies and rebellion against God will be destroyed. Their foundation will be shattered by the wrath of God. 

  I.  A Final Proclamation

 II.  A Fatal Pronouncement

 

III.  v. 9-11              A FEARFUL PORTRAYAL

A.  A third angel appears. He preaches a message of judgment to all those who receive the mark of the Beast and who worship the Beast. This angel reveals what will happen to all those who refuse to receive the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. This angel preaches a fearful message, but it is one that we need to take note of today.

B.  We are told in verse 10 that “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:” What a horrible picture! Let’s dissect that verse a phrase at a time.

1.  “The wine of the wrath of God” – The word “wrath” translates the word “thumos”. It is a word that pictures “an explosion of wrath; a sudden outburst; a passionate display of anger.” When God’s wrath is poured out on this world, it will be a time of sudden judgment from which there will be no escape.

2.  “Poured without mixture” – When the wrath of God comes on this world, it will be pure and undiluted. Sinners and Satan have never experienced the undiluted fury of an offended God, but they will one day, Ill. Heb. 10:31; 12:29.

3.  “The cup of His indignation” – The word “indignation” translates the other New Testament word that is often translated “wrath”. It is the word “orge”. The word speaks of a “slow rising anger”. It was used to refer to the sap rising in a tree. It is the picture of water rising behind a dam, until the pressure of the water becomes too great and the dam bursts. It is the image of a person holding back their anger, becoming red-faced, until they final explode in wrath. One day the dam of God’s wrath will burst and all those who are outside of a relationship with Jesus are going to be doomed!

4.  “In the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb” – The heavenly host and the Lamb of God will stand as a constant reminder to the lost sinner that they did not have to arrive at this horrible place. They would have been saved if they would have turned to Jesus Christ by faith.

            Most horribly of all, we are given a glimpse of the horrors that await the lost sinner in the flames of Hell. Verse 11 is very clear; Hell is a place of unending, unimaginable torment for the lost sinner. When they die without Jesus, they will go to Hell. Once there, they will never know on second of rest or relief. They will go to a place where they will never die! They will suffer throughout eternity as they endure the wrath of God in Hell.

 

C.  It did not have to end this way for these people. It does not have to end that way for you! When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He bore our sins in His body, 1 Pet. 2:24. Somehow, in the economy of God, Jesus literally became our sins on the cross, 2 Cor. 5:21. During that time on the cross, God judged Jesus as if He were you or me. He poured out His wrath upon the body of His Son. The judgment was so complete that Jesus even cried out in His anguish that He had been forsaken by the Lord, Matt. 27:46.

Jesus has already experienced the undiluted wrath of God on the cross. He suffered on that tree because you and I are sinners. He took our place on the cross and suffered the wrath of God so that we would not have to, Isa. 53:4-6. Now, the only hope of salvation is Jesus Christ. Those who believe on Him by faith will be saved and they will spend eternity in Heaven. Thos who reject Him will spend eternity in Hell. Verse 11 will be their future. Where will you be five seconds after death? It all depends on what you do with Jesus, John 3:18, 36; 1 John 5:12)

 

Conc:  Lost friend, you need to know that you are walking a very dangerous path today. You are playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun and one day you are going to lose everything. The only reason you are not in Hell today in the good grace of a merciful God. At any moment, He could sever the golden thread of life and you would plunge into a Christ-less eternity, where you would be lost forever. Do not let that happen! Here again the promise and the call of the Gospel, John 3:16; John 7:37; John 11:28. Come to Jesus and be saved! Come before it is too late, for one day it will be too late, Pro. 29:1; Gen. 6:3!)