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I want to invite you to Revelation, chapter 14 is where we’re at together today. In Revelation chapter 14. And this is a very significant, impactful difficult section through the book of Revelation we’ve gone through together, especially as as you have read chapter 12 and 13. There’s a part of you sometimes that when you get through Revelation, you know, you’re you’re about to read chapter 12 and 13. You think, well, we’re going to do 12 this week. 13 then 14 after people get through 12 and 13, I wonder who’s going to show up for 14, because in chapter 12 and 13 are some heavy sliding chapters. If you were here last week and you left encouraged at all, I’m going to count that as a victory. Okay? Because we’re talking about chapter 12. You’re talking about the dragon that is Satan and his dominance on the world, this fallen, broken Babylonian world. And then chapter 13, the henchmen that he uses to execute his plan, which are described as the two beasts and the devastation it brings against God’s people. And it’s a very difficult section of Scripture to work through. And if the Book of Revelation ended in chapter 13, we should all just take our ball and go home. That’s how that’s how that should work. Because it is it is a devastating section of the Bible. In fact, if you didn’t know how the story ended, like if you let’s say you’re in the first century and the first book of the New Testament given to you was the Book of Revelation, and you got to chapter 13, you would be looking at this thing and oh my gosh, like what? What are we going to do about this? How can these people move forward? How what is what is God’s plan for his people? Maybe you’re even skeptical as to whether or not you want to belong to that plan.
Chapter 14 is that that chapter that you want to hurry up and get to, right? This is the this is the chapter that now God helps helps us have a healthy perspective in light of a broken, fallen world. How do we respond knowing there’s going to be struggles in the world that we find ourselves in? In fact, if we follow Jesus, we recognize Jesus went through adversity. Yet in the Christian life, there’s also a tremendous joy. And in joy is important for God’s people to discover. It’s it’s it’s much deeper than happiness. I hope this morning you’re happy. And I hope if your team wins the Super Bowl or whatever, your emotions don’t ride on this. But I think it’s un-American to not cheer for an eagle, just so you know. But I’m just kidding. But but your happiness, it’s important, right? But but I want you to know God’s more, far more interested in something greater than your happiness.
Right? I know some people might say that that, you know, just. I just want to be happy. God’s really more interested in your holiness than your happiness. And with your holiness. I think we need to understand that what God ultimately desires to pursue is your joy. And joy is much deeper than happiness. And joy is something that we find that that endures beyond the circumstance. Happiness is fleeting, and it’s often dictated by the moment. But joy is something that endures beyond the circumstance. And so how, as God’s people do we have joy? How do we discover joy? And for us, it’s fixated on something more than just the moment. And fallen Babylon is going to lead to a lot of brokenness in people when they’ve put their hope in what the dragon and the beast represents. But for God’s people, there is this enduring joy. And one of the things I reminded us of is we started in the book of Revelation. I think it’s helpful just to repeat, in case we weren’t here for some of this, or maybe we’ve forgotten is, as you start to read the book of Revelation, you remember the first three chapters. It’s written to the seven churches, which is a picture of really all of God’s people. And then in chapter four, he starts to pull back. John starts to pull back this picture of of heaven. And knowing the the what God’s people are going to endure the things that might be before us, he wants us to have this refreshing view of who God is And the reason for that is, is to help us understand what our posture should be, because who we are is determined by who he is.
And when we think about who God is, if God is in a panic over circumstances, or if God’s in disarray or he’s not reigning in his sovereignty, then we should panic ourselves. And we should be like, oh no, we’re in trouble. If God God doesn’t feel like he has this, then what? Our future is looking bleak. But. But when we see a God who stands confidently, it gives us. What we would say in Christians is a very important four letter word. And it’s not a cuss word. Right. It’s it’s the word hope. As long as we have hope, we know we have a future. And when it comes to hope, biblically speaking, in the English language or languages in general have this way of morphing over time. And what hope originally meant versus what it means today is different. When we say hope today, it’s more like wishful thinking. You know, I sure hope so. That’s kind of how we we talk about the idea of hope today. But but when? When God’s people in the New Testament we talk about hope in Scripture. Hope is this great anticipation, this this place of certainty.
It’s just a matter of letting it play out. We know the way it’s going to end. We just have to let it play out. And when we talk about hope as God’s people, that’s what we’re describing is this this great anticipation because of of who God is. And so when you read chapter 13, you come away with this question of man, how are God’s people even going to survive this? And then when you get to chapter 14, it starts to demonstrate that idea to us. What do we do in light of this? And it really it reminds me when you read throughout the Bible and God’s people, time and time again, find themselves in difficult places. But the one who sustains them in that journey is always the Lord. If God can lead his people through the wilderness and feed them with manna, you just provide out of nothing something pretty sure he can take care of us too. And chapter 14 is the reminder of that. And so we’re going to talk about two practices to sustain us in challenging seasons. And it’s not to say, you know, take these two pills and and all the challenging seasons will just go away. But rather it’s to understand in a fallen world, we’re going to go through seasons that are challenging. And so how how do we find ourselves moving through those with this enduring hope and joy as God’s people? Right.
And so point number one in your notes is this genuine worship from a secure identity for God’s people. It’s important for us to step into this, this place of genuine worship from secure identity. Worship reminds us where we find our worth. Right. We’re in worship. We’re really attributing worth to something. But when it’s not in a fallen Babylonian world that we’re going to see the demise of, but rather in a God who endures, we find ourselves secure in that. So genuine worship from from a secure identity. And this is exactly where John starts. And we have we have this way as as people, when we go through hardship, it can often disorient us. And so when we go through difficult circumstances, we need this perspective, this healthy, proper perspective of how we are to respond in light of our situation, because our situation does not dictate who we are, but rather God does. And worship is this way of reorienting ourselves to remind us of our identity. As we go through the circumstantial experiences of life, knowing we have a greater hope. And so when you look at the first five verses, here’s what John’s going to do. He’s going to talk about verse one, what you see. Right. So what’s your what’s your perspective then what you hear. And then in verse that’s verse two and three what you hear. And then verse four and five what you do in light of that.
Right. Because what you do is determined by what you ultimately, ultimately believe. But but all of this is helping us understand, okay, difficult circumstances. I need to worship in a way that completely engages me from the identity identity I have because of who he is. And John starts off this way in light of all the things that we saw in chapter 13. Look at chapter 14. He says it like this starts off and says, then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name, and his father’s name written on their foreheads. So, so John is seeing from a perspective of a godly identity here. So he starts off okay in light of everything, all the difficult things, the fallen Babylon, the destruction that’s going to happen, this dragon who wants to dominate people and destroy them. This is your this is your perspective or your view that you should have as God’s people. It is an enduring view with with not just simply wishful thinking, the certainty of who you are because of who God is and the way that he he begins this, this, this idea of seeing for us is, is through this lamb who is standing on Mount Zion. Right? This this lamb who’s standing on Mount Zion is this this picture of the authority of God. If you remember, over chapter 12 and 13, chapter 12, it described to us the dragon.
And in verse 17 it said something unique about the dragon at the very end of chapter 12. It told us he was standing on the sand. Right. And that is an important idea to, to to think about. Because if you know anything about sand. Sand is constantly shifting by by whatever water might hit it, whatever breeze that might go by. Sand is always changing. It’s nothing that you can really build anything enduring upon. It was. I don’t know if you’ve ever been out to the salt flats, but if you’ve ever gone out to the salt flats and you take the opportunity to kind of observe the remains of things around as you go out to the salt flats, you’ll see on that journey, at least the least last time I drove out there, I saw the remains of some old buildings that used to be on on the that terrain. And people discovered, I don’t know if they didn’t know this at the time, but it’s a stupid idea to build your build your house on some salt flats and nothing, nothing endures out there, right? That’s that’s why you have to go so long before you get to even the salt flats are kind of weird that people drive that far to to go to it. But but it’s just this, this terrain of nothingness for a while. Right? And it’s you can’t build any life there.
It’s sand. It’s the same thing with the idea of this sand that that the dragon would stand on the sand. Is this this shifting identity. There’s nothing there that’s going to amount to anything. But now rather the the perspective as you look to the Messiah is, is the a lamb who is standing on a firm foundation. He’s on this, this rock. Right. And so when you think in terms of, of the dragon, here’s the dragon standing on the sand. And in And in chapter 13, verse 11, it reminds us that he was this. He pretended to be this lamb, but he couldn’t ultimately deliver. But now in chapter 14, you’re seeing the true lamb and the foundation that he rests upon. And this is important for all of us, because this determines who we are, right? Who he is gives us the proper perspective. So the question is, what are your eyes on when you go through adversity? What do you ultimately look to? Now Hebrews chapter 12 reminds us of this. It starts off in the beginning of Hebrews chapter 12, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Who he himself endured because he knew ultimately what was going to take place. And so it put perspective, like he had the joy before him. So, so circumstances didn’t dictate, but the ultimate reality of what would become so that no matter what happened, he knew his destination was secure.
Same thing is true for you and me. That’s why at the end of Hebrews, the way it ends is like this. In chapter 12, verse 28 and 29. It says, you serve a kingdom that is unshakable, its foundations unshakable. And so. So you think about the things that we go through in life having this, this perspective. It’s asking the question, what do you see? Well, the answer for us should be first, we begin with seeing who he is, the one who reigns from Zion. Zion is this this picture of this land of ultimate redemption. It’s saying, look, God fulfilled his promises for you and for me. It was first established by King David and second Samuel chapter five. But it’s this ultimate place where where the true Messiah, as David was seen as this messianic figure, that this true Messiah would fulfill everything that he’s promised for us. And here you see the security of that. And in light of that, then he goes on further and he talks about this, this picture of this 144,000. Now, when you think in terms of a messiah ruling and reigning from Zion, there’s all sorts of messianic pictures of this. The important thought related to this and how it impacts who we are. If I gave you just one this morning. Psalm chapter two. Psalm chapter two is a psalm that talks about the nations that are raging against God, and they’re really following the false beast, the image of this world, the fallen babylons.
And in chapter two, verse one, let me just read you a few verses. It says, why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against the anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill. And in light of his authority, he then talks about the 144,000 and they and they in this passage, verse one, they bear the marks on their foreheads. And we’ve looked at this together. You know, at the end of last week we talked about the number 666. And I warned you against the Covid vaccine, if you remember, which is really not the mark of the beast. I was being facetious, but but the idea of the mark of the beast is really saying to us what what controls who you are, what determines what you do, what truly has authority in your heart? Where do you find your worth and value? Where do you find your identity? That’s what this mark is.
And there are those that belong to the beasts of this world. But then there are those that belong to the Lord. And he talks about this 144,000. And we’ve already been introduced to this in chapter seven. If you weren’t here for that, let me just give you a quick reminder of what this represents. If you read at the very end of chapter six the question at the end of chapter six, verse 17 is, who can stand before the Holy God, and the answer to it is given to you immediately as you turn the page to chapter seven. The 144,000. And it goes on to describe the 144,000 as 12,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel. 12 times. 12 times a thousand, which is intended to say to us, it’s a lot of people. And during these ancient times, the idea of of a thousand was we play with monopoly money today. For them, that was a lot. And so it’s saying really this ridiculous amount, that’s what it’s talking about, this, this overwhelming amount of people 144,000. And so when you read chapter seven, you start to see the 12 tribes of Israel. And it says in chapter seven, John, here’s the number of 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel. But then when John actually turns and looks at the people, what he sees, rather than 144,000 Jewish people, he sees a multitude of every tribe, tongue, language and people.
And so the 144,000 44,000 becomes this picture of God’s people throughout history. All of God’s redeemed. So? So when you read the the Old Testament and the New Testament and, and you look in, for example, Revelation chapter 21, verses 12 and 14, and in Revelation 21, verse 12, it talks about the 12 tribes of Israel, but then it talks about the 12 apostles 12 times 12, making 144 times 1000 144,000. It’s this picture of all of God’s people, all of God’s people being redeemed because of of who we are in light of who he is. What do you see? What determines who you are? Where is your perspective? Adversity has this way of trying to disorient us, but what God has done for you is far more important. And so your genuine worship from your secure identity becomes that, that that place of encouragement for us in him. You know, when you read about this 144,000in this passage, a couple of things that are important to see. What is it? It talks about in verse four. It refers to them as as virgins. So they not defile themselves with women. So it’s 144,000 virgin males. And it goes on and says in this passage that they, they there’s no lie in verse five found in their mouth. Right. So I’m just going to tell you another reason that, you know, this is not a literal 144,000 is because there’s not on planet Earth, 144,000 male virgins that have never lied.
This is not even a that’s not even everyone in this room. At some point you have lied, right? This is not even a possibility, right? And so this this is painting for us a picture of of what Jesus does to us. He purifies us. In him we belong to him. We are his. In fact, if you read on in verse eight, you find that this 144,000 is contrasted to those who have found themselves prostituted in the beast. And So it’s saying, have you given yourself over to the things of this world? Have you prostituted yourself out? And it compares this idea of prostituting to idolatry? Or have you given yourself to the one true King? And so, so there is this, this identity that we have. And then and then John talks about what they hear. If I go back to verse two and I heard a voice from heaven, like the roaring of many waters, and this and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song, except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. You know, it’s funny, when I there’s certain passages of Revelation that when I read that caused me more trouble than any other, and you would think I would pick the more complicated ones, but it’s not.
There’s two passages in the Bible that I’m like, man, I have a hard time with this. The the first is when when I read Jesus returning on a horse and his army coming with him. I have a hard time with that verse, because I will just tell you I like horses, but I like them from a distance. If you own horses, I think they’re majestic, beautiful animals. I love that you have a horse and I will appreciate your horse from the ground. If I ride anything. I don’t want to ride something with a mind for itself. I’ll ride a machine, not an animal. That’s how I see. Can I get. Can I trade my horse in for a motorcycle? God, please. I’m going to try to have a discussion. Here it is. It’s kind of cool to think about the picture of heaven. There’s still animals there, right? So if you ask the question of my dog going to heaven one day, there’s animals in heaven. All right, that’s Jesus returns on a horse. That’s what’s described there. And then the other one that gives me a hard time is the fact that God’s got me described here as playing a harp. I don’t know how I feel about this. I, I am going to put in for an electric guitar and see if he takes me up on that.
I don’t I don’t know about a harp. If someone wants to borrow my harp, you can have it have it. That’s how it’s going to work in heaven. These are the two most challenging verses to me in Revelation. But, but, but here’s the more important. I don’t know if I need to take harp literal, but, but, but here’s what I think is important is that they’re singing a new song. Not only is it about what you’re seeing, do you have that proper perspective in light of the circumstances you’re going through? But what is the song in your heart? And in this passage, he talks about the idea of a of a new song. And when you read about this, this new song, this song is the song of the redeemed. It’s only a song for the redeemed. And the idea of being redeemed is it’s really it’s it’s used as a word of, as being bought off of a slave market. The song for you and for me is this. This song that rests in our soul. Have you ever. I know this has happened to you. It’s It happens to all of us. You turn. Well, maybe not today. I was going to say you turn on the radio. Just people. Do people still listen to the radio? If you turn on whatever you use for your music, and all of a sudden a new song comes on and you’re like, you really connect to the words that are there.
It becomes your soul music. And you just you, you listen to that, I, I will tell you, I listen, I listen to listen to the radio, but I listen to me mostly podcasts or talk radio. That’s what I typically am on. But I do music in other ways. But and listening to to the radio, you if you ever come into one of those songs, it’s like, this is my song. And, you know, sometimes we can listen to that one song so much we can wear it out. But but in this particular instance, it’s to recognize that you’ve come from this, this brokenness of the past, and God’s bought you out of this, and it’s giving you this, the this depth within you, this song, this soul song that really connects to where you are because you found your identity in this man. This is where I’m at now because of of what God has done for me. And so this there’s this place of, of worship. And so maybe we ask the question, what what song are you singing to yourself? What song do you hear? And, and and from this picture, you see this incredible worship that’s taking place almost to the degree that this is really by us here on earth. This is not even a sustainable level of worship for us, right? It gives us direction of what real worship should look like before the Lord.
But this is at a depth that we can just barely begin to taste. Here they are singing this song of worship, and it comes with this idea of thunder and water and the roars of the thunder and water. And when you you think about where this imagery comes from in the Bible, in Exodus 19, when Moses is called up on the mountain to to get the Ten Commandments, it tells you that this mountain is thundering with God’s presence. And in Revelation chapter one, verse 15. When when Jesus is speaking, it says, his voice roars with the sound of many waters. And now those images of God as the thunder and water. Now it’s being made known in God’s people, because the power of God’s presence is in their life. And they’re worshiping with this, that no matter the adversity that they’ve experienced, they know who they are because of who he is. And it’s given them this new song of redemption, this greater joy that sustains beyond the circumstance. And that’s what’s enriching their life. Genuine worship from this secure identity because of who God is, and therefore it leads to what they do as they have found themselves saturated in this identity. It is now determined how they’re going to live their life, because who they are in Christ is far more important than anything.
A broken Babylonian world can offer to them. In verse four it says, it is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. They’re not blameless in who they are. Remember, they’ve they’ve come from a, a fallen Babylonian world, but rather they’re blameless because of who he is, the perfection of Christ made known in their lives. And I love what John is doing here, because honestly, he’s he’s helping us have what? A holistic picture of worship should be about. If if you want to see the end of what worship should lead to and really what what the depth of worship is about, it says it here that they at the end of verse four, it is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes. If you want to know what it means to be a Christian, it’s that that is the definition. It is us who are determined to follow the lamb wherever he goes. You want to know what it means to be a disciple of Christ. It means that you follow the lamb wherever he goes. There’s kind of this, this, this pharisaical facade of an idea of what it means to to worship the Lord.
And sometimes, you know, people might, might think if you you gather with God’s people to, to worship that in the beginning we sang some music and then therefore we worshiped. And now now we’re in the portion of reading God’s Word and we did our worship part. Now we gotta study the Bible together. And truthfully, it’s it’s all worship, and music is a part of worship. But it’s not the end of worship. It’s just it’s the beginning of maybe coming before the Lord. But but worship is far deeper than that. And quite honestly, if, if, if we show up and we just go through the ritual of what a Sunday is without really connecting to God and therefore living a life that’s different, that aligns with him. The question is, have you really worshiped? We may go through the ritual of worship, and it’s possible to do that and never truly connect to God. And if someone says they’ve worshiped God but their life doesn’t emulate Jesus, the question is really, do you truly worship? Because the evidence of the depth of your worship is demonstrated by the way you choose to live your life. Because to know God truly is to transform who you are and then determine how you live. And so ultimately, real worship for us should lead us to what we do. I mean, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus and your life doesn’t look like Jesus, the real question you need to answer yourself for yourself is, do I actually belong to Jesus? The evidence of your life should be there, and really, your life should be compelled to want to live that way.
Because when you understand what the grace of God is really about, it makes no sense to do anything other with your life than to follow Jesus. If you know who you are apart from Christ, and you know the extent for which Jesus came to give his life for you, that you could find freedom with him and apart from him there is no liberation for your soul. To know a God that has loved you so intimately and cared for you so desperately, to then turn your back on, that is to say, you’ve never truly understood what it means to have a relationship with God and be forgiven in him. In Revelation chapter five, this is what it’s leading us to is to say, despite this broken world, the way you find yourself sustaining Meaning. It’s through this genuine worship and a secure identity because of who Christ is. I need to move on a little quicker from this, but but in addition to that, then point number two. Continue proclaiming the message of life. Continue proclaiming the message of life. You know, we tend to believe the message we repeat to ourselves. And if we place our hope in the wrong message, we’re going to find ourselves disappointed.
But if we anchor ourselves in the gospel and we remind ourselves of it, it gives us that firm foundation. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said it like this. He said, have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself, instead of talking to yourself? It’s a little bit weird. This. This quote gives me a lot of comfort because I talk to myself out loud a lot. I catch myself doing it quite frequently and think, man, if I was beside someone right now, they would think I was weird. But but here’s what he’s saying is sometimes we go through difficult moments and we sort of wear it and we we share that message in ourselves and we don’t let the gospel speak to ourselves. It’s this message of deliverance that Jesus brings from the outside in, and we sort of take the brokenness from the inside and kind of live it out. But the gospel is what transforms us. And Martin Lloyd-Jones is reminding us of this. And and he’s saying the same thing. Revelation chapter six. He said, then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. He’s saying, look, it’s so important to remind yourself of this message, but not just let that message be with you.
It’s to be with everyone. Like to understand that the world that we live in is a broken, fallen world. But there is this song of the redeemed that that God wants in your soul, that you get to sing with his eternal hope. Because, you know, circumstances do not dictate who you are, but rather the Lord does. And just let that song wash over you over and over this gospel message. And it don’t let it sit with you, but share it through you, because this is intended to bring liberation to everyone. And here’s what’s interesting. As in verse seven, now he goes on to explain what this message is, and this is the way he he chooses to encapsulate the gospel. He says it like this. And he said with a loud voice now proclaiming this message, Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who has, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and the springs of water. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about the way that you might share the gospel with with people, but but the way that this starts off is rather interesting, because I have to say, when I’ve shared shared the gospel with people, I didn’t start off like this. Fear God, right? Like that’s usually not the way that I take my approach in talking to people about what Jesus has done for them.
But this is the way he does it. Fear God and give him glory. Now, when you think about the idea of this, it’s important because in Revelation chapter 13, the way that the beast desired to dominate us was to cast fear in our hearts. We had the we had the the fear of uncertainty, right? We didn’t. We couldn’t buy, sell, trade, trade. We don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. That’s chapter 13. And so people just put their hope in a beast that might deliver them in the temporal of life. And now, rather than that, he’s saying, don’t, don’t be afraid of someone that in the temporary might hold something over you, but rather fear the one who has control of all eternity. Now, when we think in terms of fear, it’s interesting when you look at this, this phrase because you read passages like Second Timothy chapter one, verse seven, it tells us God doesn’t give us give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. That’s plainly what it says in Timothy. But. But then you read this verse and it’s telling us to fear God and the Bible contradicting itself. What’s wrong with the Bible? Right? You look at verses like that and you think, what in the world? Well, it’s important to know that there’s different Greek words for fear, right? In Second Timothy chapter one verse seven, it says, God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear.
That word for fear is actually cowardice. God doesn’t want you to be a coward, but power, love, sound mind to really be rooted in the identity that you have in him. You need to come boldly before the throne of God, not because of who you are, but because of who he is. You have a tremendous hope because of God, not because of what you’ve done, but because of what he’s done for you. So. So we don’t walk in cowardly attitudes. We. We walk bravely standing because he stands on Mount Zion and rules and reigns. But then in this passage, it talks about fear. So how do how do I respond in light of that? Well, in this verse it’s talking about a deep reverence. You look at the brokenness of this world and say, yes, there is power. And the beast, the dragon, want to leverage that power to to try to destroy me. But I have a much deeper reverence for the one who holds all things in his hands, and therefore he determines my steps despite the temporal circumstances of life around me. So this message reminds me of the one who is greater. And then he goes on and describes from there, and I got to do this rather quickly. He describes the second angel who comes and says, fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.
And so he’s saying this, this second angel that comes. Look, the physical part of this world is fallen. It’s coming to its destruction. So don’t put your hope in the physical things of this world. Babylon is done. And then he goes on in verse nine, he talks about the third angel. And when the third angel comes, he he only focuses just on the physical. Now he turns to the spiritual and he says this. 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, 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 in the presence of the lamb, 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. Every time I read verses like that, I always wonder who’s new this Sunday. This is a great welcome to Alpine Bible Church. What? When you read a verse like this, this is a very sobering passage. The idea of God’s judgment is a very sobering passage. But. But I want you to recognize that it’s also a very a very merciful statement.
God’s giving. Let me just say a couple of things. I’m a little short on time, so I kind of make this brief. But when it comes to judgment, it is not a mystery to us that God is a just God and he will bring judgment. He can’t be good and not bring judgment. God’s goodness demands he will judge the sinfulness of this world. And because we’re sinful people, we stand in the path of that judgment. I hope for all of us when we read verses like this, it is sobering to just stop for a moment and consider the weight of sin. I mean, Jesus bore that wrath on the cross for you and for me if you know Jesus. He bore that wrath for you on the cross. Jesus literally experienced hell on earth that you could be could be liberated. If you don’t know Jesus. When I read verses like this, sometimes I just contemplate. For people that don’t know Jesus, what is it going to take? What will it take for a soul to just be wakened to the destruction of what awaits before a holy God? What can God say to turn that heart? What more can be done? He gave everything by giving his life. And then he warns us. I mean, this passage, when you really think about it, is a merciful passage saying to us, God created you for relationship.
God gave everything that you could have. Relationship. God is warning you what the path apart from liberation in him brings. And God didn’t owe you anything, but yet he gave everything that you could find freedom in him. This passage is intended to provoke our soul to the liberation that only Jesus can bring. Because we know. We know what the ultimate kingdom represents, and it is destruction. But what Jesus wants for you and for me is life. And when we think about what that destruction is, one of the things I like to remind us of in terms of heaven and hell and that picture that’s painted in Scripture, and we often view those, those thoughts as destinations, right? Hell is this place and heaven is this place. But but what I what I like to remind us of, what makes these ideas most important is where you are in light of your relationship with God. What makes heaven? Heaven is not about getting to a location, it’s about getting to a person. It’s about being with Jesus. What makes hell? Hell is being outside of the the presence of God’s grace. His wrath is there, but his grace is not. And it tells you in Revelation 14, there is no peace for that soul, because you were made to find your peace in God. Second Thessalonians one nine describes hell this way they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.
It’s describing the idea of hell away from God’s presence, away from that relationship for which you were created. And I’d like to remind us in terms of relationship with God, God’s not going to force you into heaven, but he does give you an opportunity to belong to him. And the way that we do that is to surrender our life to him. When you think in terms of of why this is important, Jesus gave everything to liberate you. The idea that Jesus was willing to die should scream at us how important his life truly was. Us. If there was another way, Jesus would have never given his life. But but the fact that he’s willing to do that just screams at us how significant a moment like this is to put our hope in Christ and what it means for for you and for me. The result of this, when we find our identity in him, in true worship, secure in that, and we’re letting the gospel wash over us. The the liberation of that song, the song of the redeemed, that message that we’re sharing, no matter the circumstances that we’re in, when our hope is fixated on that, it gives us this great confidence in, in anything that is to come because of who we are, in light of who God is.
And the result for that, in verse 12 it says this. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and and their faith in Jesus. 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. Can I just tell you as you as you look at this passage, the result for us when we find our worship secure in his identity and we’re proclaiming that message for us and for others. The result is twofold. This is your next blank. It is endurance and blessing, endurance and blessing. This is what it says. Verse 12. You. You have the endurance to call for the endurance, and you have God’s blessing. You know who you are because you know who he is. You know the circumstances aren’t going to dictate who you are because circumstances are fleeting. You have a far deeper identity in the Lord. And in that endurance, you recognize how blessed you are to be able to have that relationship with God. You read chapter chapters in Revelation, like chapter 13. You think we should think to ourselves, oh man, how are God’s people going to endure? How are we going to make it through? It reminds me of of a picture I’m going to I’m going to close with this one.
This is we’re going to do a geography lesson because we we talked about Zion in the beginning. And I think this is this is important to understand how God has worked through his people, no matter circumstances. When you study ancient geography, when you when you look at the civilizations around Israel and describe for us in the Bible something interesting that you discover when you put them on a map is every one of those ancient civilizations found their strength along a river, for the AB is all dealing with. Every one of these letters are dealing with civilizations Assyria, Babylon, Persia. They were all established along the Tigris and Euphrates River, the fertile, fertile land that became this place where they were able to to grow as a people and become a dominating power. Egypt different than the Tigris Euphrates. They were on the Nile, right. This, this, this place of land became this place of strength for them. It provided the, the, the soil that they needed to be able to create crops to sustain a large civilization. And so these world empires grow. Right? But Right. But here’s what’s interesting about God’s people. Abraham is called from ur of the Chaldeans, which is near the Persian Gulf. It’s in modern day Iraq. He he comes out of this, this particular land, and he follows a route through kind of maybe see it there on your screen through B, a and, and it turns into this purple line and comes down.
This is where Abraham is called to. And and you know, God says, I’m going to bring you to this land. You’re going to turn into a great nation, great people group. And you can imagine here comes Abraham, he’s journeying into this land. And then all of a sudden he gets there. And something unique about this land that’s different from all the other lands. There is not a major river there. And you would think to yourself, God, don’t you know how all these civilizations got so powerful? What are you thinking bringing me to this land? I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the Jordan River in Israel, but let me just let me just share with you an idea of what that looks like. Just go to the Jordan River here, right? As underwhelming as that is. Right. That’s kind of that’s kind of the Jordan River in Israel. Like you imagine you’re Abraham. God’s going to take me to this land. It’s going to be great. And you get there and you’re like, what is happening? We are not going to do anything here. This is. Or did I get my. I gotta ask Siri, is this the correct place? Like that’s what Abraham would be thinking. Like why would you pick this land? But then when you start to discover this land, you realize, okay, this, this land is in a real fertile land.
In fact, Zion that we’ve talked about together, it literally translates as a parched land. Could you imagine that? God’s like, I’m going to take you, Abraham, to a great place, and you get there. And like God, the locals call it a parched land. Like, what are we going to do in this area? But when you study this land, you discover that this land is on a major trade route and it connects Europe, Asia, Africa, all the world empires go through here. And rather than be a land of power, what it really is, is a place of great influence. And if God’s people are faithful to him, it becomes a place where they’re going to influence the world. But the question for them is God, but how are we going to sustain here. And the answer has been the same answer from the beginning. By trusting in me, Israel, you’re going to succeed in this land if you trust in me. Same thing is true in a fallen, broken Babylonian world. God, this feels like a parched land. How in the world could we ever find hope? The answer has always been the same. If you trust in me. Worship from a secure identity through the hope of the gospel made known in his people, becomes the opportunity that we need to live for his glory and influence this world.