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Based on a sermon preached at MPC on the 23rd Oct 2021

A special group of people

Friends, In our previous sermon, we saw how the dragon would recruit two other allies and create a counterfeit Trinity to persecute the remnant. We also saw that America would perform miraculous signs to deceive and that in the end the whole world will be coerced to worship the first beast, the papacy, and that people will be forced to show their allegiance to the beast by receiving the mark of the beast.

However, the remnant of God will not worship nor receive the mark of the beast. As a result, they won’t be able to sell or to buy. They will be persecuted as a result. The question that some may have is, will anyone survive this difficult time? Revelation 14 picks up where we left off last time (for there was no chapter nor verses when the Bible was first put together), and verses 1-5 answer that question. Will anyone survive the time of trouble? John saw in a prophetic vision that God’s people will be saved at last. Amen! In fact, he saw them standing on Mt. Zion (a representation of the mountain of God) having been saved. This is a comforting message friend.

As we branch into Revelation 14. We notice that the first five verses just confirms that the remnant will be saved, and from v. 14 to 20 we read of prophetic description of the second coming. Today we will focus merely on the middle section of the chapter for it concerns the church today – hence the title of these series “Revelation Today – The remnant and its message.

There is a message that the people of God are given to proclaim to the world before the time of persecution – Just before and during the time of trouble this message will continue to be given. Today, let’s focus primarily on Revelation 14:6-12. This pericope has been called, “The Three Angel’s Message.” This is a message unique to the Seventh-day Adventist Church – the Remnant of God. If you’ve missed the previous sermons, go to our website, or Youtube and follow those presentations to understand how we arrived at the conclusion that the Seventh-day Adventist is the true remnant church of God. Alright, let’s continue.

LINK: The Remnant and Its Three Angels Message.

The First Angel’s Message

When Jesus was asked about the sign of His return, he said that this would be the last sign, the one that would indicate that He is at the door… Jesus said

Matthew 24:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Revelation 14:6 we find a fulfilment of that prophecy. Please note verse 6.

Revelation 14:6 NKJV

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—

Just as John was shown in the Vision of Revelation 10 that His end-time people must Rev. 10:11 “…prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.” We find here in this chapter that God gives the remnant a message of “warning,” to share with anyone living in the last days. It is a solemn message. It is a very serious one.

Evangelism p. 119-120

In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light-bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import,—the proclamation of the first, second,  and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.

First of all, take note that John sees an angel fly in the midst of heaven with a message. Should we expect an angel to fly in the air one day preaching to the world? No friends, the word angelos used in Greek simply means a messenger. The preaching of the Gospel has been entrusted to man (Matt. 28:28-20). Second, John the Baptist was called a messenger and the same Greek word is used (Mark 1). So, in the last days, a message would be carried out to the world by the Seventh-day Adventist church, and that message would be this: Rev. 14:7

Revelation 14:7 (NKJV)

⁷ … “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.”

THE MESSAGE HAS THREE PARTS… WHAT, WHY AND WHEN.

Fear God: That means, take Him seriously. Reverence Him and Obey His Commandments.

1. When Abraham obeyed God’s commands – God declared that Abraham feared God (Gen. 22:12).
2. Those who have a genuine, loving and obedient relationship with God are rendered as fearing God throughout the Bible (cf. 1 Sam. 12:14, 24; 2 Chron. 6:31; Neh. 7:2; Job 1:9; Ps. 40:3; Jer. 32:39; 44:10; Hag. 1:12).

Psalm 111:10 NKJV

¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 NKJV

¹³ Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.

Give Him Glory: Once you fear God, everything you do must be in harmony with His will. When you live a life truly devoted to Him, your actions will glorify God.

1. Jesus said, John 15:8 “8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
2. Paul said, 1 Cor. 10:31 “31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 6:20 “20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Everything you do either honours or dishonours God.

Why are these two imperatives here given in this first message? because He created us (Rev. 4:11) and secondly because the hour of His judgment has come. It’s here. It’s now.

THIS IS GOOD NEWS: 1 Cor. 15:3, 4 – This is the Gospel.

This judgment begins before the second coming. It is the very reason why this message is going out. When did this judgment begin? According to Daniel 8:14 – every sincere student of the Bible knows very well that Daniel received a vision which revealed a cleansing of the Sanctuary (A.K.A judgement) after 2, 300 prophetic days (prophetic symbol for years) and that those 2300 years would expire in the last days. He was later told that when the decreewould be issued for the Israelites to go back and rebuild Jerusalem that he should start counting. When you do the math, you will come to the same conclusion many other Christians have come to, and that is that ever since 1844 we have been living in that judgment hour. (a side note: Rev. 22:11-12 a judgment is necessary or else how would He return with rewards).

We are living in a time when every individual’s records are being presented before God. According to the book of Hebrews, Jesus is our High Priest and great intercessor (Like a layer). Aren’t you glad if you have Jesus as your Lord and Saviour that He’s standing up for you?

Dr Luke looking into the future said:

Acts 17:30 NKJV

³⁰ Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,

And the great Apostle Paul, looking into the future said:

Acts 17:31 NKJV

³¹ because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

That day has arrived.

• Every idle word, every secrete vice, the seen and the unseen – all will be brought into judgement.
• However, Christians need no fear. In fact, John saw that the Saints, the martyrs cried out to God pleading for Judgment…

Revelation 6:10 NKJV

¹⁰ And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

So, judgment must be in favour of the Saints. (Rev. 19:2).

FURTHERMORE… Revelation 14:7

Revelation 14:7 (NKJV)

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.”

Worship Him (the Creator): Worship in scripture is done in two ways. We worship God in our day-to-day life by putting God first in all things.

Secondly, we worship God when we rest on the 7th day according to His commandment. Interestingly, the language used in this last phrase of that verse is borrowed directly from the fourth commandment.

Exodus 20:8–11 NKJV

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

This is a call for the inhabitants of the world to remember the creator [not the big bang],

this is a call to remember the Sabbath.

His Sabbath which He sanctified in creation. The symbol that He placed there to be between Him and His people.

How is this first angel’s message a Gospel? First, it calls mankind back to the worship of the true God – the creator. The same God – Jesus, is offering a way out of this sinful world. The same Jesus has redeemed us and He is our Intercessor in the heavenly courts. Jesus is there in heaven now pleading for your salivation.

Jesus is there making necessary preparations for you to receive eternity. However, in the context of the end-time great deception as well as the persecution to come, Jesus is saying – be very careful to worship God in Spirit and Truth. Work our your salvation with fear and trembling. Hold tight and cling to that which you have received.

AN APPEAL TO EVERY CHRISTIAN TODAY

Stay away from anything that is debasing. That is to mean, anything that lowers moral character or standards.

There is a poem that says:

Vice is a monster, so frightful and mean,

To be hated, it need only be seen.

Yet seen too often, we become familiar with her face.

First, we abhor, then endure then embrace.

—Alexander Pope

The call is to remain pure before God. The movies most popular today, are not elevating my brothers and sisters but debasing. You may say, but I don’t see anything bad in it. Soon you will be laughing at the foul language, soon by beholding you will become changed. You will find yourself saying if not the same… worse.

What about the dance of today with its sexually suggestive moves… and the music that is so bad that Jesus wouldn’t listen to them.

What about the dress of today? Friends, God made us pure and beautiful but the world would like to squeeze you into its mould by suggesting a certain body image (saying you have to put on the Jewellery the high hills, the half-naked clothing) all these things should not be found among the remnants. These are signs of backsliding…

The first angel’s message is calling those inside and outside the church who have not truly surrendered all to Jesus to purify themselves.

In fact, John has put it this way: 1 John 3:3

1 John 3:3 (NKJV)

³  …everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

This is so important to the remnant people. Otherwise, how can you take a message unless you look like the message you bear?

Friends, I  recognise that I am preaching to myself as well. I need to follow Paul’s example, who says…

1 Corinthians 9:27 (NKJV)

²⁷ …I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

LINK: The second angel follows with a warning now.

The Second Angel’s Message

Please read with me Revelation 14:8

Revelation 14:8 NKJV

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.”

It is a short and sharp message. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. What does that mean? This is the first mention of Babylon in the book of Revelation. However, this is not the first mention of Babylon in scripture. Because scripture interprets scripture, we must go to scripture to understand what or who this Babylon is said to be, right? In Revelation 17 John sees a prostitute who sits on many waters. We know that a woman is a symbol of a church in prophecy, and many waters is a symbol of a populated area. She has an inscription on her head that reads, Rev. 17:5.

Revelation 17:5 (NKJV)

⁵ …MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH

This Babylon is the apostate church. But not just any apostate church but the mother of them all. We are given more information about this apostate church. Let’s read what John says in Rev. 17:6

Revelation 17:6 NKJV

⁶ I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marvelled with great amazement.

Does this sound familiar? Have we seen an apostate church in Revelation 13 that persecutes the saints? YES. It’s the Catholic Church. And who are the daughters? Those are the apostate Protestantism. While professing to have protested her false doctrines, they kept Sunday and other doctrines like infant baptism and many more others.

Take Note:

 “A reformation of popery was attempted in Europe full three centuries ago. It ended in a Protestant hierarchy, and swarms of dissenters. Protestantism has been reformed into Presbyterianism, that into Congregationalism, and that into Baptistism, etc., etc. Methodism has attempted to reform all, but has reformed itself into many forms of Wesleyanism. All of them retain in their bosom — in their ecclesiastical organizations, worship, doctrines, and observances — various relics of popery. They are at best a reformation of popery, and only reformations in part. The doctrines and traditions of men yet impair the power and progress of the gospel in their hands.” — On Baptism p. 15.

– Uriah Smith, Daniel and Revelation. p.665.

Let me pause here to say that there are God’s people in those churches that are being referred to here. God’s plea for them, however, is this Rev. 18:4

Revelation 18:4 (NKJV)

⁴ … “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.

The word Babylon comes from the root word Babel (meaning confusion). Throughout the OT, Babylon has been associated with confusion and rebellion.

Therefore, Babylon is much bigger than “a church,” it is a confederacy of a worldwide satanic force. A conglomerate of different networks. It is at its core, the counterfeit trinity (the dragon, the sea beast, the land beast) and any form of false worship. How do we know this? Rev. 17:2-4; Jer. 25:15; 51:7 It’s a seducing power, Rev. 16:19 it’s wine is the false worship. BUT NOTE PRECISELY THAT BABYLON IS SPOKEN OF HERE USING THE PRONOUN SHE.  This should say something to us. It is a false church.

THE GOOD NEWS IN THIS SECOND MESSAGE is that God foretells the downfall of Babylon. In fact, the way in which the words “fallen, fallen” are written in Greek, with a future + past tenses conveys certainty of this fall. This means that the destiny of Babylon is determined and will come to pass. So here is a call for each one of us to return to true worship once again.

LINK: Now for the third time, God will raise His voice in warning.

The Third Angel’s Message

Revelation 14:9–11 NKJV

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.”

Here is the strongest warning. Here is the climax of this message. DO NOT WORSHIP THE BEAST. DO NOT RECEIVE HIS MARK. PLEASE DON’T. However, if you refuse to worship God, if you chose to unite with the wicked (those who will receive the mark of the beast, those who will persecute God’s people) then you will receive God’s full wrath.

WHY WOULD A LOVING GOD ACT THIS WAY? These people have refused multiple warnings from God. They have rebelled and have chosen not to accept the gift of Salvation (they have refused the Gospel). Now God’s holiness will have to respond to the issue of sin and this will include destroying those who have cherished sin.

WILL HE ALLOW PEOPLE TO BURN ENDLESSLY?

• The language John uses is taken from Isa. 34:8-10 where God speaks about what He would do to the nations and in particular Edom.

Isaiah 34:8–10 NKJV

⁸ For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion. ⁹Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch. ¹⁰ It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever.

Edom was burned with fire, but is it still burning today? Jude 7

Jude 7 NKJV

⁷ as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

That is the example of suffering God’s vengeance. Meaning the wicked would burn up.They will be consumed by fire. While the Saints enter an eternal rest, the wicked do not rest, for they suffer to destruction now.

God is strong in His warning because He is strong in His love.

Every parent understands that raising a young child is very difficult. Sometimes, it’s like walking on eggshells. You do not want to hurt them, nor do you want to have them out of your sight ever. Every time I walk outside the door, my two little ones, like running out of the door. Eleazar loves running towards the road. Now him being so young, he has no idea of how dangerous that is. We live on a corner block. There is a time where I have to raise my voice. Why? Would any loving parent do that? Because of the danger that that child would be putting themselves into. Correct?

CONCLUSION

God has a message to give to the world. Just like in the times of Noah, Elijah, and John the Baptist. In these last days, while the judgment is taking place in heaven, while the destiny of many is being decided, God has raised a movement, “the Seventh-day Adventist Church” to call as many as possible back to God. This prophetic message must continue and will reach its climax when the papacy together with the United States of America will decree a National Sunday Law.

Second, every person has a responsibility to bear. Every remnant church has work to do. Ever since the 1800’s this message has been preached and today, like never before it needs to be preached, friends.

BUT let each person ask himself, can you give a message that you do not believe in or practice?

Or we could ask the same question using Jesus’ words?

Matthew 24:45 NKJV

⁴⁵ “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?

Cont.d

Matthew 24:46–51 NKJV

⁴⁶ Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes, will find so doing. ⁴⁷ Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. ⁴⁸ But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, ⁵⁰ the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, ⁵¹ and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Let each one of us examine ourselves. Am I actively bearing that message to the world? Will my Master say, “well done good and faithful servant?”

The Desire of Ages P. 634

Those who watch for the Lord’s coming are not waiting in idle expectancy. The expectation of Christ’s coming is to make men fear the Lord, and fear His judgments upon transgression. It is to awaken them to the great sin of rejecting His offers of mercy. Those who are watching for the Lord are purifying their souls by obedience to the truth. With vigilant watching they combine earnest working. Because they know that the Lord is at the door, their zeal is quickened to co-operate with the divine intelligences in working for the salvation of souls. These are the faithful and wise servants who give to the Lord’s household “their portion of meat in due season.” Luke 12:42. They are declaring the truth that is now specially applicable. As Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses each declared the truth for his time, so will Christ’s servants now give the special warning for their generation.

Are you among the remnant my friend? Do you realise the privilege and the task assigned to you? Are you standing in your lot Soldier on the walls of Zion? Are you giving the trumpet a certain sound OR do you need to be awaked?

What is it that you can do to remain faithful to this calling?

APPEAL

Friends, plead with God and ask Him to be a faithful remnant

Second, ask God to open doors for you, and to give you passion so you can share the message that was entrusted to you to bear.

Lastly, let’s pray for our church so we can become a source of living water, a light in this dark world.

Prayer