Revelation 14:6-13

God will accomplish what He has purposed.

Psalm 34:8 ESV

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

What does God intend to say to us by this? The appeal to the taste is an appeal to the senses. It is to realize that which is not only palatable and pleasant, but filled with sustenance which satisfies and nourishes. It represents not only provision but dependance. Seen in the physical miracle of manna in the wilderness and five loaves and two fish on the mountainside but realized in the spiritual resurrection of belief and trust whereby we see and sense that God alone is good. He alone can satisfy our longing, pleasantly surprise us with His goodness and purposefully nourish us with the visitation of His glory.

We taste in that we not only sense but believe with confidence that He is God and He is good.

Isaiah 48:9–11 ESV

9 “For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. 10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

God has purposed to glorify himself. He the unchanging, unique, and sovereign has purposed to glorify Himself not in the sense of needing to hear how great He is as if to be dependent on our praise for some egotistical purpose, but rather when we say He will glorify Himself pertaining to us we intend to say, He has made himself known to us and thereby glorified himself in the particular way of revealing the essence of His character in Holiness to an unholy people whereby they can sense and know that not only is He God, but also that He is good.

He has purposed to reveal His glory and in as much as it can be understood by sinners and cause fear and trembling, forsaking and turning, and faithfulness and trusting. Fear in the recognition that He is unique and sovereign, see it in the fallen nature of Adam and Eve and you and me in the hiding from God upon the recognition of our sinful rebellion. Sense it in the desire to forsake the world and turn to God’s provision for your salvation as witnessed in Noah, and realized through Christ and in us. Trusting with our God given faculties that the best place for us is under His watch care as modeled in the relationship with Ruth to Naomi as a foreshadowing of God’s intent for jew and gentile in the sending of His son Jesus.

Ruth 1:16–17 ESV

16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

God has purposed to glorify himself and while this is an eternal fact of which no creature has a say so in, there is for us as the highest order of His creation a will that exists. A determining factor by which the palet of our desires for God will be bitter or sweet, bad or good, enjoyable and satisfactory, or detestable and gross. Our text today is Revelation 14:6-13 John envisions a time in the future and I believe in which a message from heaven will be brought to earth by which God’s purpose is declared.

Please stand as we honor the reading of God’s word today.

Revelation 14:6–13 ESV

6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” 8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” 9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” 12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 13 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!”

God has purposed to take His eternal Gospel to the world.

The gospel shall be proclaimed to the whole world. 6-7

The gospel is not nor should it ever be understood as God’s plan B to Adam and Eve’s mistake. God has purposed in eternity past to save sinners. The fall of Satan, and subsequently Adam as rebels to God’s purpose is not surprising to Him. Yet for both is established a spiritual and physical consequence. You see the will is such as it allows us to make our decisions, but not choose our consequence.

Notice that this Angels message is the eternal Gospel not a concluding Gospel. The eternal Gospel is the good news that God’s sovereign, eternal, particular plan for sinners is to save those who dwell on the earth. His salvation is salvation not determined by birth origin, ethnicity, religious affiliations, or socio economic status, but rather instead and related to those who fear God and give Him glory. How is it you ask do we give God glory?

By fearing the judgment of God so much so that we turn our eyes toward Him and plead for His mercy through the trusting of His means to forgive our sins and redeem us through believing that Jesus is the fulfillment of what is foreshadowed in Noah’s story, and exemplified in Ruths, by being realized in us. We give God glory by trusting His Son Jesus alone to save us.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him- John Piper

This is the worship of the children of God, the saints of God, the priesthood of the believers of God. Fear the Lord today and serve Him only.

The sinful rebellion against God shall be powerless under His omnipotence. 8

Babylon historically is Israel’s arch nemesis. The nation itself represents a pagan, pluralistic, oppressive culture. Immorality and particularly sexual immorality took precedence. They represent a s one commentator stated an organized defiance of God. The nation historically and its association with the world context here is the antichrist’s rule and reign personified by drunken passion.

The ruler of the world Satan is drunk with the passion of thwarting God’s plan. He has tempted and deceived many just as alcohol. It fills the stomach, controls the mind, alters the behavior, loosens the tongue, and ultimately destroys the body. It is a mocker and brawler according to Proverbs 20:1

Proverbs 20:1 ESV

1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

I am convinced and concerned that there are some within ear shot of this particular message who have become drunk with the passion and pleasure of the world and will never recognize the fallenness of their condition.

Like Wayne Prendergast

Have you heard the story of Waylon Prendergast? The man from Tampa, Florida, had been out drinking when he decided to rob a house on his way home. The drunken man forced his way into a house, filled a suitcase he found there with the valuables he discovered, and made his way to the living room. In his stupor he decided it would be a good idea to set a fire to cover his tracks, so he ignited a blaze before making his way out the back door. Thinking he was home free, he continued on to his house—only to find three fire trucks parked outside fighting the blaze he had set to cover his theft from his own home.

“I didn't realize I had so many valuable things”

It is my prayer that you would wake up from your drunken seduction with your head aching, notice your condition as deteriorating, and realize that you are powerless to fix yourself and powerless to fight against the will of the sovereign God. How long must pleasure be your God?

For what pleases God is the Glory of his own name by the salvation of Sinners and righteously ordering the world He created. Fallen, Fallen is Babylon the great. It shall come to pass that God will make all things right.

The enemies of God will be a footstool. Greed, idolatry, immoral sexual revolutions, and prideful arrogance may win the world but they will not win the day of God’s judgement.

If you are not born again then you stand as an enemy of God and one of whom His judgment will fall.

James 4:4 “4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Fall today on your face before Him and plead His mercy or be subject to his wrath.

The sinner who rejects Christ and receives satisfaction by satanic means shall be the subject of God’s wrath. 9-11

The mark of Babylon, of the antichrist, and of Satan could be characterized as a mark of cultural norm in pagan societies who see pleasure as the highest goal. A mark of pride which precedes the fall and is evidence by the rejection of salvation, truth, sanctification, and glorification by the acceptance of relative cultural pluralistic norms. What is truth it asks? What is sin?

We live in a day in which many inroads into our lives are being paved with psychological manipulation, mind and will altering substances, and relative social thinking. I could give you a list of hot topic issues that are currently debated in the world marketplace, yet it would do you know good but to incite you to anger. Here in lies the problem. We are angry over cultural norms and the invasion of such norms upon our lives but we weep little over our own sin.

The reception of the mark is a rejection of the truth. The reception of the mark of the beast is to be satisfied with the wine of worldly passion… to have your fill of pleasure, seduced by the temporary with no thought given to the eternal.

If this is you then may this text serve as your warning. You can drink the wine of worldly seduction but if you so choose then know you will also drink the wine of God’s wrath for all eternity. See the cup of God’s anger as being filled with the wine of righteous and just judgment.

Many push back at the thought of God’s judgment being poured out eternally on sinners. They dispel this doctrine as fairy tail, make believe, and unbelievable. How could God punish people for eternity?

How could He be a good God if not willing to judge right and wrong righteously? God forbid a world in which the heinous vulgarity and violence goes unhindered or accounted for by a being who is righteously determining what is in fact right and good. There will not only be in His judgment a consequence for rejection but a punishment for acceptance. The heinous acts from the minds and lives of depraved men and women will not go unpunished.

The text says it will be the full cup of God’s wrath in anger and torment likened to sulfur and fire. Many have argued that these are but symbols and if so then how worse must actual hell be. This takes place in the presence of the Lamb the text reads. It could also be translated Before the face of. God sees and knows what is taking place in hell and ordains it too for his glory. Justice will prevail and penalty for sin paid. Yet the joyful, peaceful, grace filled presence of our Lord will only be present in Heaven.

The question of your will today is how will your personal sin be paid for? You will pay for it yourself in the place characterized as outer darkness, gnashing of teeth, unquinching thirst, fire, sulfur, and torment…. or you will see Christ as He has made Himself known the sinless savior and sacrifice for sin in whom the cup of God’s wrath was poured out on the cross as the propitiation for your personal sin. God’s wrath is appeased for you through Christ in you or upon you in judgment.

James 4:14 “14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

So our text says, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

May we die in the Lord and so be with the Lord, having our hope fully secured in the Lord.

Psalm 42:1 “1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”

10,000 Sermon Illustrations Somebody Has to Die

When the will of God crosses the will of man, somebody has to die.

Addison Leitch, quoted in Passion and Purity, Elizabeth Elliot, Revell, 1984, p. 72