THE WRATH OF GOD
Revelation 14:6-13
James A. Gunn
Preached on October 14, 2007
Copyright © 2007 James A. Gunn
All rights reserved
Used by permission.
All By Grace
Sola Christus
Sola Scriptura Sola Gratia Sola Fida Soli Deo Gloria
Revelation 14:6-13
6 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth — to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people —
7 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 springs of water."
8 And another angel followed, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
9 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,
10 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.
11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."
12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Write: '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."
There is a faithful coordination of truth in God’s Holy Word. Sometimes one statement of truth apparently contradicts another statement of truth. Now this is not New Age insanity that says two opposites can both be true; such nonsense as “my truth and your truth.” But there are truths in the Bible that cause men to stumble. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are perhaps the best example. This apparent contradiction leads some men to deny God’s absolute sovereignty in salvation and conclude that man does indeed have the power to believe the Gospel without God’s divine enablement. The other extreme is to emphasize God’s sovereignty to the point that man is not responsible for his own sin and thus a man becomes antinomian in his lifestyle. Both positions are in error.
Where you read about God’s sovereignty you will also find man’s responsibility.
Philippians 2:12-13
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Where you read about God’s goodness you will find God’s severity.
Romans 11:22
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness.
And where you read about God’s love you will find God’s wrath.
God’s sovereignty; His goodness; His severity are attributes of God.
The attributes of God, those characteristics that define God, are never in opposition. Foolish men make a great mistake when they emphasize the love of God and ignore His wrath. Some people believe they are kinder than God Himself and say such foolish things as, “My God would never send anyone to hell.”
The only true source of information about God tells us more about God’s wrath than God’s mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ preached more about hell than any other single subject.
Today’s most successful preachers; “success” in terms of the large crowds that attend to their preaching, refuse to speak about sin and judgment and the need for repentance. They have learned how to “tickle the ears” of the multitudes that think of God as some sad Being who only wants to give them wealth and heal their ills.
In the message on Revelation 14:1-5 we rejoiced in a scene of joy as the redeemed of the Lord are gathered around the Lamb on Mount Zion and they sang a new song. “Oh happy day, Oh happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.”
The scene is of heaven and the saints of God are forever with the Lamb of God.
There are exactly 144,000 of us who have the Father’s name written on our foreheads. The exactness of the number of the redeemed is known only to God but to us there are “a great multitude which no one can number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues…” [Revelation 7:9].
The twelve and the twelve; the symbolic twelve tribes of Israel of the OT and the twelve apostles of the NT; the 24 elders, times 1000 is perfection!
We know this is all of the redeemed because no one could learn the new song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth.
They are symbolic “virgins” who “follow the Lamb” and in whom is no lie.
Ephesians 5:25-27
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
So in our chapter there is a scene of endless peace and rest in heaven around the throne of God with the Lamb on Mount Zion.
But the scene changes at verse 6: Judgment! The wrath of God!
There is a heaven and there is a hell.
This past week I “accidently” tuned the TV to an interview of the famous actress Kathrin Hepburn by Dick Cabot. Miss Hepburn said that she did not believe in life after death; that she was not a religious person and that death meant nothing to her; that you just went to sleep and were at peace. And she repeatedly said, “I really believe that.” People repeat, “I really believe that,” when in fact, they do not believe what they say.
She also said something like, “Oh I believe in Jesus. I believe that he was a good man and that was interested in other people. Now that is why I am happy, I am interested in other people like Jesus was.”
Like so many people who say they believe in Jesus, she knew nothing about the Jesus of the Bible. She had a concept that she learned from somewhere other than the Word of God. That is so very sad, but Miss Hepburn is in that great mass of humanity that put their own opinion over the Word of God.
No afterlife?
Jesus Christ gave us a lesson about heaven and hell and life after death:
Luke 16:19-31
19 "There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate,
21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 "Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'
25 But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.
26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'
27 "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house,
28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'
29 Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'
30 And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'
31 But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"
No preacher should enjoy speaking about hell and the wrath of God, but a faithful pastor must try to “preach the whole counsel of God.”
Now when I first wrote that last comment in my notes I was expressing my thought that somehow the wrath of God was not glorious and surely not to be praised. But is there any one of God’s attributes that is not a thing of absolute perfection? Who am I to impose my warped and sinful ideas on a holy God?
If we know God we know that there is nothing in Him that may be justly criticized by one of His creatures. So can you praise God for His holy wrath?
It would have been much more Scriptural if my thoughts about the wrath of God were like those saints who are in heaven. In Revelation chapter 19 there is another scene of Judgment and there the saints of God shout “Alleluia!” as their kindred are cast into the lake of fire, “and her smoke rises up forever and ever!”
Revelation 19:1-5
1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!
2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her."
3 Again they said, "Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!"
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, "Amen! Alleluia!"
5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!"
6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
The only satisfactory explanation to saints praising God when they see their own loved ones cast into the flames of hell is that now they see lost sinners the way that God sees them, as unrepentant haters of God.
In Luke 14:26 Jesus Christ is speaking about the comparison of love for Him and our closest relationships. Jesus demands our first love.
If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
The great Martin Luther caught the sense of this in “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” in verse 4: “Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His Kingdom is forever. Amen.”
The primary error of today’s “prosperity gospel” preachers is the false idea that a God who wants you to be “healthy, wealthy, and wise” can’t be angry at anyone?
Listen to me! If we are not completely committed to the sufficiency of what Jesus Christ has already done to save sinners; if we cling to a tiny shred of self-righteousness; we are right now under the wrath of a holy God!
We will deal with the Revelation text in a few minutes but first we need to establish the biblical teaching on the wrath of God.
It is true that Jesus our High Priest can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities as we read in Hebrews 4:15-16:
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. KJV
But that truth does not make our holy God an emotional wreck due to our sin. We see a child make wrong choices and we suffer anguish because we are helpless to give them our experience and they don’t want out advice. But God’s wrath is not emotional as if God had lost His temper.
The wrath of God is due to His hatred of sin and flows from His justice. How does someone come to be under the wrath of God?
The Bible has a lot to say about God’s hatred of sin.
Let me clear up a modern falsehood. You have heard people say, “God hates sin but He loves the sinner.” You cannot separate the sin from the sinner. Sin is not some abstract entity that will be cast into hell; it is the sinner who refuses to repent and believe the Gospel that will experience the wrath of God.
Thank you, God, that You do love sinners; but the sinners You love, You draw to Yourself through the preaching of the Gospel. All the rest of humanity remains under the wrath of God.
THE WRATH OF GOD
“The wrath of God is the personal manifestation of God's holy, moral character in judgment against sin. Wrath is neither an impersonal process nor is it irrational and fitful like anger. It is in no way vindictive or malicious. It is holy indignation-God's anger directed against sin.
God's wrath is an expression of His holy love. If God is not a God of wrath, His love is no more than frail, worthless sentimentality; the concept of mercy is meaningless; and the Cross was a cruel and unnecessary experience for His Son.
The Bible declares that all people are "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3) and that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18). Since Christians have been "justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Romans 5:9). The magnitude of God's love is manifested in the Cross, where God's only Son experienced wrath on our behalf.
"The day of the Lord's wrath" (Zephaniah 1:18) is identical with "the great day of the Lord" (Zephaniah 1:14). These terms refer to "the wrath of the Lamb" (Revelation 6:16), Jesus Christ, that will fall on the ungodly at His Second Coming (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
There is more about the wrath of God in the Bible than there is about His mercy.
Turn with me to these passages of Scripture that refer to the wrath of God and follow along as I read them.
Romans 1:16-32
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
That is the good news to everyone who believes but what follows this good news is some very bad news.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
John 3:34-36
35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.
36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Matthew 3:1-12
1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"
3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.'"
4 Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him
6 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
9 and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Ephesians 2:1-10
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
The Apostle Paul was well acquainted with the Scriptures when he wrote:
2 Corinthians 5:11
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
All of the foregoing came out of my thoughts on the wrath of God.
My exposition of Revelation 14:6-13 is taken mostly from Charles D. Alexander.
LOOKING TO THE END - THE VISION OF THE SIX ANGELS
Revelation 14:6-13
We have already commented on the scene in heaven with the saints of God singing a new song, a song of redemption, before the throne of God and the Lamb on Mount Zion.
Now the vision moves to the preparation for the final judgment. Three angels of judgment appear and pronounce their mission. They are followed by three more angels who are the reapers in the Last Judgment according to the words of the Lord in the parable of the tares and the wheat (Matthew 13:39) –“The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels”. See also the parable of the drag net, Matthew 13:49-50: “So it will be at the end of the age. The angels shall come forth and separate the wicked from among the just and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
The first of the six angels is described as ‘another angel.’ With one exception (9), each of the succeeding angels is similarly described. This has led Hengstenberg to the conclusion that in reality there are seven angels, seeing the first is designated ‘another’ as though he was preceded already by one going before him.
“Another angel” therefore must point back to a predecessor whom Hengstenberg finds in none other than the Mighty Angel of chapter 10, already identified as none other than the Son of God Himself, the Lord of all the angels and of men, the Arbiter of the events now about to be described.
The message is that same consolation which runs through the entire Apocalypse, taking its rise in the soul of the aged prisoner of Caesar in the Isle of Patmos.
Christ rules, sovereign and absolute, over all the powers of evil which He has already conquered by His victory over death, and whom He now permits only in so far as the overcoming of those powers in the individual soul and in history, and in the Church as a whole, brings to pass the fulness of the triumph of His kingdom.
The vision is of the twofold judgment - that of the just and of the unjust - now before us, is filled with comfort for the tried and persecuted saint, and with foreboding for the unbeliever.
All trials are tolerable if we look to the end of them. Who will fear the power of the enemy if we see clearly that he has but a little season left to him, and that his eternal overthrow is decreed? Hence verse 12 exhorts us to be constant in the faith and in the patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and verse 13 shows the eternal reward of those who believe.
THE GOSPEL WHICH NOTHING CAN HINDER FROM BEING PROCLAIMED
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the ever¬lasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship Him who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.- v. 6 & 7
The gospel is a message of life to all who believe, but of judgment to the unbelieving and impenitent (John 3:36). The dominion of Antichrist extends over ‘every tribe, tongue, and nation’ (13:7), so the Word of God, the gospel, by which men must be justified or condemned, extends to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (14:6).
Verse 7 summarizes the message of the gospel in its practical result among men.
“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” is ever the first word of the message of God and here is the meaning of those words in their impact on mankind, so shortly to be judged.
“Fear God and give glory to him…” - for the object of the gospel is to bring us back to a right relationship to God as Creator and righteous judge, the source of all life and light, and peace and joy.
Angels do not actually preach the gospel, but they carry the divine decrees, and have power to forbid and thwart every act of Satan who fears the preaching of the Word of God more than anything else.
That is why the loss of interest in expository preaching in our day is so dangerous. It is only by the preaching of the gospel will souls be saved; no one is going to be “entertained” into heaven.
In this flight of the first angel in the midst of heaven with the divine decree concerning the preaching of the gospel, we see the onset of that last proclamation of the divine grace in Christ for sinful man, prior to the final act by which God brings the history of creation to its fulfillment in eternity.
No act of man or demon can ever prevent the preaching of the Word. Fire and sword cannot overcome it. Persecution only spreads it. Error may seem at times to becloud its purity, but only for a season in the divine permission.
The gradual sinking of the Church into the subtleties of a new heathenism, could not prevent the emergence of the truth again through the preaching of dedicated men and the prayers of faithful and devoted women, until that great divine earthquake, the Reformation of the sixteenth century, overthrew the walls and towers of Satanic deceit and suppression.
It may be in our day, as we see the truth being obscured by errors not seen or heard of before, such as the evolutionary hypothesis which has befouled and diverted the processes of true science and erected the altars of a reckless atheism in regions once sacred to the true gospel - it may be we will yet witness a fresh proclaiming of the divine decree, and for the last time rejoice at the full and clear preaching of the Word of Truth in our time.
We cannot say, for it is not for us to know the times or the seasons, but this we know, that God will not leave Himself without witness, and when His decree goes forth, the world shall hear if for the last time, the clear testimony of the mercy of God to fallen man.
Such a worldwide preaching of the Word in the old-fashioned terms would exalt the Lord God to the highest and require that all men everywhere should repent and give glory to Him, but that is hardly the note of modern evangelism which is man-centred rather than God-centred. The emphasis today is not so much upon preaching as upon entertainment and money.
Here in the twenty-first century - the age of man and of man's pride and sufficiency - we are getting threadbare theology and the worst preaching of almost any age of which we have knowledge - and few there be who appear to be aware of it.
God grant He may yet send His angel before the end to proclaim an era of the preaching of the Word of God which will begin and end with that great purpose of all true preaching – “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters”.
That formula is prophetic. The heaven and the earth and the sea in the language of the Apocalypse are terms which bespeak the powers of creation and the inhabitants thereof, and the fountains of waters are the means of grace which the Father has placed in His own power.
The Lord describes Himself in Jeremiah 2:13 as “the fountain of living waters” which Israel had forsaken. He promises that in the gospel day a fountain will be opened to His people for sin and for uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). Christ shows Himself to the woman of Samaria to be a well of living water (John 4:14), and to the Jews at the feast He proclaims, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink” (John 7:37). In paradise He will lead His people “unto living fountains of waters”, which can only mean that the soul’s thirst will for ever be supplied by full participation in what Christ is to the soul (Revelation 7:17).
THE FALL OF BABYLON
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. - v. 8
Babylon is not a phenomenon of the latter days, nor yet of the times of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon is a continuing symbol of the history of man since the days when Cain fled into the east country and built for himself the first city, naming it after his own son (Genesis 4:17).
On the very much altered geography of the earth after the Flood, Nimrod, the first world emperor, built his city on the site of Cain’s ruined metropolis, and to raise a towering ziggurat or pyramid which stands even to this day in Mesopotamia, in a ruin of vitrified brick some three hundred feet high.
Alexander the Great in 324 BC visited the ziggurat and thought to restore and rebuild, but his sudden death in that vicinity brought the plan to nothing. The ruins still remain as a monument to the pride and rebellion of man against God and a memorial to that idolatry which ever exists in the heart of fallen man.
Babylon still survives as a spiritual principle of apostasy, endemic in the heart of man, ever creating for itself the old idolatry, ever-changing in form, but always the same in principle. That principle is man's worship of himself - making himself the center of creation - drawing all to himself, independent of God, and establishing his own name in place of the divine.
Is that not what man does as he attributes the cause of salvation to man’s free will instead of the grace of God?
It is convenient to the pride of man to deny divine history, and scoff at the ‘fable’ of man’s origin as made by God and for God in the holy image of God. The fable of man’s evolutionary origin is the latest device to render unnecessary, man’s dependence upon God - answerable to no-one for his own life.
Alas, death takes them all and overcomes them and they can make no headway against the grave. The humble and meek look for eternal life beyond the grave, and find their hope in that One who alone in all man's long and tragic history, has overcome death by enduring it and rising from the tomb.
The soul can never die. Job said about 4,000 years ago before all the Greek philosophers and poets had begun to write: “Though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God”.
Babylon is the symbol of the world’s false religion and pride - in continuity from the days of the building of Babel’s tower, indeed, from its predecessor, the city which Cain built when he was cast out from the presence of God and His people.
In John’s day it was imperial Rome which claimed the title, and there is every reason to suppose that the Babylon mentioned by Peter in his first epistle chap. 5, verse 13, is none other than Rome itself.
Papal Rome became the legal and historical successor of the city of the Caesars, when the purple of the pagan antichrist fell upon the shoulders of the Bishop of Rome. The Papacy however does not exhaust the full meaning of Babylon which is always located, with its citizens, where confusion, apostasy and pride do reign.
The message of Revelation is that all the oppressors of God’s people, in whatever age or form they appear, will inevitably fall. The characteristics of Babylon - the unholy alliance of religion with worldly power and pride, to the suppression of the truth - are symbolised in the adulterous wine-cup of false religion and lying deceit, found in the hand of the Great Whore of Revelation 17.
The lesson of verse 8 is that come what may, the doom of Babylon is already decreed, and the persecuting power of the enemy of the truth can only go so far as the wisdom of God decrees - far enough to bring about its own destruction.
THE THIRD ANGEL
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
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:
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.- vs. 9 - 12
“The aim of all three messages” observes Hengstenberg, “is intended to strengthen men’s minds against the temptation which the seeming omnipotence of the Beast should present to the followers of the Lamb, and arm them against his seductive arts by the solemn call: “Worship not the Beast, for the power of judgment has come - Babylon is fallen”. Hengstenberg adds, “Fear can only be driven out by stronger fear - the fear of God. Let us shut it up fast in our hearts. The times are drawing nigh when we shall again need such heroic means against fear”.
The fire and brimstone in this passage point back to the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah which are symbols always of the final judgment of the world. “Hell would be a fable if it had not such earthly types (as Sodom and Gomorrah),” says Hengstenberg; “What is to be done hereafter can only be regarded as a reality when the same law which necessitates it is found to be in operation here and now.”
Verse 12 emphasizes that the patient endurance of God’s people is founded on their unshakeable confidence in their sovereign Lord and Redeemer. Their eyes are always toward Him who has conquered death and therefore all power is His in heaven and in earth. There is no power which can challenge His throne. The destruction of all evil power is sure, and one of the supreme elements of faith is patience - the tried and the troubled can afford to wait, because their final triumph is guaranteed by the Saviour’s resurrection from the dead.
“Keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” has a peculiar emphasis. It is John who writes here at the dictation of the Holy Spirit, and he feels what he writes, for in his epistles he has already defined the meaning –“This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as he gave us commandment”. (1 John 3:23)
THE BLESSED DEAD
This brings our section to its natural conclusion:
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them(verse 13).
(verse 13).“Write.” Twelve times in the Apocalypse this imperative of the verb, to write, occurs. God will have His counsel preserved for the faith and comfort of His people. The Word of God is both written and absolute - settled in heaven before it is inscribed on earth. Those who have doubts as to the correct transmission of the Word of God to the latest day are defective in their theory of the written Word. It was as necessary for the comforting Word of God to be preserved, as it was originally to promulgate it. The one is useless without the other. The Word must be preserved inviolate or the people of God will be deprived of their consolation.
This verse teaches us that our full blessedness belongs to the world that is to come, and we are not to look for our reward in this present scene of trial and conflict.
“From henceforth” [from now on] –
“This word is a precious jewel” says Hengstenberg, “an antidote against the cheerless doctrine (of ‘soul sleep’) that would make a long night go before the bright day, such for example as theirs is, who dream of a sleep of the soul”.
“The soul’s life in Christ can suffer no interruption, and whenever any interruption is believed to exist, eternal life itself is indirectly denied”. (Hengstenberg)
The practical lesson of this scene of the wrath and righteous judgment of a holy God is that this life is not to be trivialized with the allurements of this sinful world. It is not pleasant to think much on our mortality. We all know that we will die but we usually choose to live as though we will not die, at least not today.
Try to keep the picture of those around the throne of God with the Lamb on Mount Zion as it is contrasted with the judgment of God against those who die without ever knowing their need for a Savior.
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
Amen
