This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - This is day three together of our look through Revelation
chapter 14. We're going to focus on verses six to 11 today. We're talking about how
God helps our hearts when life is not fair.

And we look the first few days at a lamb leading worship. When life isn't fair,
remember that one day, our sorrows will be turned into songs. And now in verse
six, we see a second picture, a second revelation.

We see angels announcing the truth. Let me read for you verses six and seven.
And then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to
proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and
people.

He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, "because the hour of his
judgment has come. "Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, "the sea, and
the springs of water. " And more than anything in these verses, I want you to
notice that he said in a loud voice.

Focus in your mind on that word voice. That word voice is used seven times in
chapters 14 to 16. And again and again and again in these chapters, a voice from
heaven changes everything on earth.

When life isn't fair, you just feel like your voice is not being heard. You feel
like other people aren't hearing your voice. You feel like the authorities
aren't hearing your voice.

You feel like your family is not hearing your voice. And sometimes you feel like
God isn't even hearing your voice. Now God always hears your voice.

Sometimes other people don't. But in our minds, we ask ourselves, will my voice
ever be heard? I can't promise you that it will on this earth by the people of
this earth, but I can tell you this.

You can't trust in this. Maybe your voice will never be heard, but his voice
will one day be heard. And when he speaks, it changes everything.

When he speaks, his promise for your life becomes real. And that is the hope
that we hold onto. The voice here of some angels, in fact, three of them.

The first angel, the voice of that angel says that we should worship God. In
fact, we just read that that angel comes proclaiming the gospel. That's a word
that means good news.

This is the one time in the book of Revelation that the word gospel is used. The
angel comes and proclaims the good news. And people are told to worship him who
made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.

Here, nature is a witness to the fact that there is a God. Even as things are
falling apart, worship him the one who made everything. Someone has said that to
deny that you can see God in nature takes at least four years of college and two
years of post-graduate work.

We can outsmart ourselves with this one. Even a child knows. When you look
around, you see what God has made.

Even in this fallen world, there is a God. And so you worship God. That's the
good news.

There's more news here. There's a second angel. In verse eight, this angel has
the announcement that Babylon has fallen.

Let me read that verse, verse eight. A second angel followed and said, "Fallen,
fallen is Babylon the Great, "which made all the nations drink the maddening
wine "of her adulteries. " This verse, verse eight, is the first mention in
Revelation of Babylon the Great.

This is going to move into center stage in verses 17 and 18. What is Babylon the
Great? Well, suffice it to say for now that it is Satan's power structure.

It is the way that Satan gets things done. And this angel comes and says, "It is
fallen. " Fallen is everything that is a part of Satan's principality,
everything that is a part of the way that he rules the world.

It's going to fall apart in the end. Second angel, Babylon has fallen. First angel,
worship God.

Then there's a third angel that comes. And that third angel announces in verses
nine to 11, "Do not worship the beast. " Let me read those verses.

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, "If anyone worships the
beast in his image "and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, "he
too will drink of the wine of God's fury, "which has been poured full strength
"into the cup of his wrath. "He will be tormented with burning sulfur "in the
presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb, "for their torment rises forever
and ever. "There is no rest, day or night, "for those who worship the beast in
his image "or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.

" These verses are very sobering verses. They're amongst the most sobering truth
in all of the Bible. You read these verses and you see these pictures, fire and
smoke and torment and no rest.

And you don't even have to be told that this is true. You almost know it
intuitively. Sometimes we argue about it in our society intellectually.

People argue with themselves and they set up philosophies about it. But we don't
even have to be told. There's something in all of us that tells us that this is
real.

If there is such an evil force and power in this world, then we know something's
going to have to happen to do away with that evil force and power. And so this is
real. This is a picture of suffering.

This is a picture of hell. And as you and I look at this picture, there's a part
of us, there's a part of me that wants to ignore it, to pretend that it's not
there. Because we know that if it's real, it's real for people and even maybe
for people that we love.

As the world around us looks at this picture, we all want to ignore it. We'd all
rather pretend there's a God who wants to take us to heaven and that there'd be
no such thing possibly as a place called hell, a place of separation. Yet these
verses are just as real as anything else in the book of Revelation.

When you and I look at this truth, we have to wonder, how does it fit in with
the good news? How does news that is this bad fit in with the good news? Well,
this is the news that makes the good news so good.

When you understand this news, you understand how good the good news really is.
Because the news is this. This is where everyone is headed without Jesus Christ,
a place from which everyone can be rescued because of Jesus Christ.

Not one of us would be good enough, not one of us would be smart enough that we
wouldn't be headed towards separation from God except for Jesus Christ. And
separation from God, of course that would be torment, of course that would be
suffering. God is all that is good and to be separated from him would be tragic,
eternally tragic.

One of the reasons we have a hard time accepting the truth that there is a real
hell is that we don't understand, even those of us maybe who grew up in church,
we don't understand sometimes how desperate our situation really is without God,
how desperately we need God. We are all headed here except that Jesus Christ
came, except that Jesus Christ rescued us. He does not want one of us to head
here.

I want you to notice very carefully in these verses that phrase, if anyone
worships the beast in his image and receives his mark on his forehead or his
hand, he too will drink of the wine of God's fury. That word too is one of the
most important words in all of theology, in all of this passage. Hell was not
made for people.

Hell is a place that was made for Satan and his demons, for the evil one to be
for all of eternity. But the Bible is saying here that if someone worships Satan
and says, "I want to be with Satan, I want to follow his way," he's going to get his
way. And so you too will be with him.

I don't want to be with him, I want to worship God. I want to worship the one who
wants to and desires to take us into eternity so that we can enjoy his presence
for all eternity. But if I refuse to do that, then I too will be with the beast.

I too will be with Satan and all his powers. And the place where he's going to
spend eternity is not a place anyone would want to spend eternity. That is why God
wants, that is why God is desperate.

That is why God went to the extent of a cross to rescue every one of us from
this. That is his desire. Now in light of that hope that he gives us, what do
you and I do?

In light of the life that he wants to give us, what should we do? We should do
exactly what the angel did. These angels went out and they proclaimed to all the
earth exactly what you and I should be proclaiming to all the earth.

They proclaimed the good news. They said, "Worship God. " That power that Satan
has is inevitably going to fall someday.

And those who worship Satan, who follow the ways of this world, are going to be
separated from God eternally if they follow him to his death. So you worship God
instead, the one who loves you, the one who wants to rescue you. Our joy as
believers is to tell other people to proclaim the love of Jesus Christ.

We're talking about the fact that there's one of two futures. There is a future
singing with the lamb or there's a future separated from God. We've talked about
the gospel we have, the good news, the opportunity that you and I have to
proclaim the love of Jesus Christ.

And I know that every one of you are just like me. There's someone that you'd
like to pray for right now. Just ask God to work in their lives.

Ask God to let them see the hand of Jesus Christ stretched out to them,
stretched out for them on a cross, and then stretched out to them, inviting them
in. Stretched out to them to rescue them. Let's pray for your friend right now.

Just pray, Father, you've heard each of these prayers as we've read through the
book of Revelation. And we've seen that they rise up before you like a sweet
fragrance. They're held in heaven in ways that we don't understand.

Lord, we all have people who are close to us. People in our own families who
don't know you. So pray right now, Lord, I pray that you would cause my friend,
this person in my family, to look to you for rescue, to see in you hope for
their lives, hope for their eternity.

Lord, I know that you love them more than I do. I know that you're reaching out
to them in ways that I don't understand. And so I just add my prayers to what
you are doing.

And I ask you, as only you can, to bring your love and your power into their
life. Help me to be a witness so that they can see who you are. Help me to
proclaim the truth clearly and with love.

And help those that I'm praying for right now to hear it. Not as a philosophy or
an argument, but as the truth, as love. Help them to see your love.

Help them to see your love, Jesus. I pray this in your name. Amen.