The Lamb Wins: Seeing Revelation 13–14 Through the Trailer, Not the Terror

have you ever watched a movie trailer and you thought after watching the trailer i would never watch that that would be a waste of my time that would be a waste of my life now on the flip side of that have you ever watched a trailer and thought i can't wait to watch that remember back in the day going to a movie theater and before the movie you would watch two or three or four trailers right and you would watch a trailer and you think actually i want to watch that movie more than the movie i'm about to watch and the whole point of a trailer is to capture your attention to tell you there's a movie coming out that's worth your time your money and if it's a really good trailer you're going to tell your friends about it you're going to go do some research on

it you're going to see if there are other trailers you're going to find out more about it you're going to look forward to that day that that movie trailer that movie actually comes out so that you can experience the full story because the movie trailer does not give you the whole story it gives you just enough to get you interested to get you hooked now we're in a study of the book of revelation it's the last book of the bible there are 66 books that make up the bible one book one story god story this last book of revelation is like a movie trailer john the author uses this apocalyptic imagery to get us hooked he wants to use this book to create imagination in your heart

and in your mind that you would see our god is greater he's greater than you understand you should look forward to the hope of heaven and so he uses this apocalyptic imagery of signs and symbols and numbers and creatures and animals so that we would would go there in our mind and see that the story of jesus is not linear it's not something our minds can fully fathom but it's something that god is going to expose us to so that we would want more so that you would want to tell your friends that you would want to spend time on this that you would want to take your treasure your finances that you would want to take your whole life and look forward to this story and john the author of the

book of revelation does just that everyone shall revelation come on revelation is all about jesus it is the revelation of jesus christ in chapter one john introduces us to this epic picture of jesus he gives an incredible description of jesus in revelation two and three jesus speaks to the church through seven letters jesus warns the church he encourages us he instructs us not to be apathetic or to compromise that if we have sin we can repent we we have a god that allows us to be conquerors that when you take jesus seriously there will be a reward and then john takes a turn

after these letters and tells us about a time that's to come a tribulation season of seven years it'll be a terrible time of god's judgment and wrath poured upon an unbelieving world and as john tells us about this tribulation he takes these intermissions these interlude from this time of tribulation and he reminds us why there is judgment why would god's wrath come upon the world some of us have a hard time fathoming having a hard time grasping if god is good then why would he judge the world why would it be a terrible time so john takes these tangents and exposes us to who god is he's good he's perfect he's a god of grace and the only time there's god's judgment and wrath upon the world is when the world

gets what they ask for when the world says i want nothing of god a god that's eternally good eternally perfect when god removes himself then you get judgment see hell is a real place hell is the absence of god's presence heaven is the exact opposite it's the fullness of god's presence so the book of revelation is written so that we would want the full presence of god and as john writes to us about a time when the church will be caught up there will be the seven year tribulation period he lets us know why these things happen last week we looked at revelation chapter 12 that happened to me mother's day so we talked

about this pregnant mom who's about to have a child and there's this dragon that wants to devour the child not the greatest mother's day message i'm sure but nonetheless that's where we found ourselves in revelation 12 but what we find is john uses this apocalyptic imagery to expose us to a greater truth the red dragon is none other than the devil red represents death the devil wants to steal kill and destroy the woman is none other than israel god has a plan for israel we looked at this last week israel is god's plan he loves israel we should love israel too and it's a part of his plan little did i know that a war would break out with israel last week we saw the importance that israel continues to be the center of the story of this world and so we see that that evil is real

and we looked at why evil is real we looked at this red dragon and where did the devil come from he was a created creature of god yeah he didn't want to worship god he wanted to be worshipped and revelation 12 tells us he takes a third of the angels in heaven with him this is why you should not argue with the enemy of the devil if the devil can convince a third of the angels to go with him in this rebellion against god it's not your job to try to debate the devil you have victory over the devil and john the author tells us how in revelation 12 verse 11 when he says and they that's the church and they have conquered him who's him that's the devil they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb who's the lamb is jesus it's always safe

to yell jesus in church the church has conquered satan not because we've been good enough not because we're religious enough not because we go to the right church not because you're born into the right family not because you're a part of the right nationality we have conquered satan because of the blood of jesus now john goes on to say this they've conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death so every time satan tries to convince you that somehow you're not loved or you're somebody that you're not or somehow your marriage is over or that somehow that you ought to stay depressed or somehow you should die or somehow you should go to some addiction to numb the feelings and pain that you're going through

here's how you conquer the devil by your testimony it's because of the blood of jesus christ that you could say i'm not who i used to be it's because of the blood of jesus christ that you have the hope of heaven it's because of the blood of jesus christ now you know i got to pause right here if you're visiting with us for the first time at journey church the book of revelation might sound strange and i'll tell you what it is it's strange enough that the author wants you to study this book he wants you know what is this lamb here in revelation 12 11 it's referring to a sacrificial lamb that for many years would be brought to a temple and a family would have that lamb put to death on behalf of sins that there's a penalty for sin that separates you from god and

the priest would make sure that this is done right to atone for your sins now jesus christ is the last sacrificial lamb he atoned for all sins once and for all for everything you've ever done you are doing or you will do by the blood of jesus christ you have the free gift of god's grace that by believing in jesus he gives you the gift of eternal life that's how you defeat the devil it's been done for you when it looked like the devil won with jesus on the cross he died but on the third day he defeated the devil when he defeated death it was by the power of the holy spirit that rose jesus from the grave he's glorified he's not resuscitated he is fully glorified which means when you put your faith in jesus you get the same power of the holy spirit in your life

to trust in him now revelation 12 tells us satan's time is short so he's unleashed a fury this war weighs between god and satan satan hates god's people that's why satan goes after israel it's god's plan satan goes after god's people and sometimes frankly it looks like he's winning we pick up in revelation chapter 13 as we remind ourselves last week of this terrible trio satan is a counterfeit he's not a creator nothing he does is new he takes what god does and he he's a counterfeit he twists it he perverts it he's a fake he's a fraud anything that's good in life is from god but what satan likes to do is twist it to to make it look like it's his idea

the trinity is god's idea it's who god is we have one god and three persons the father the son and the holy spirit satan comes along and says i'm going to steal that idea and it's the satan the antichrist and the false prophet so we pick up today in revelation chapter 13 starting with verse 1. and i saw this is john with his vision he's in heaven we saw satan the red dragon now he says i saw a beast rising out of the sea this beast is the antichrist according to the book of daniel with ten horns horns represent a political power and seven heads heads represent the power from the top so he's saying i have knowledge i have power i have authority with 10 diadems these are the crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads let's just pause for just a moment satan wants to be called all kinds of names

but i'll tell you there's only one whose name is above all other names when it comes to jesus he is infinite in attributes therefore he's infinite in names we can call him jesus which means lord savior you can also call him the king of kings the lord of lords he is the creator he is a rock he is a refuge he is a shepherd he's the door of hope you see he is infinite in attributes for he's worthy of every single name now satan comes alongside and says here's what i want to do i want some of those names so he wants us to get our eyes off of jesus and he wants to get our eyes on the things of this world he wants us not to worship jesus but to worship the things of this world so we see this beast what's represented here as the antichrist and verse two continues and the beast

that i saw was like a leopard its feet were like bears and his mouth was like a lion's mouth and to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority these animals are the same ones that daniel mentions in chapter seven daniel is an old testament prophetic book daniel whenever he refers to these animals is speaking of a corrupt government system in the scriptures we call that a kingdom a political way of life is a kingdom you could think of it as if there's a king and there's a way to that kingdom it's a political rule it's a political way of life when jesus introduced himself he said the kingdom of god has has come it's it's here he teaches us when we pray

that we can pray that god's kingdom was come and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven now we see this beast this antichrist will be the perfect picture of a corrupt government system he will use the government in such a way that there will be a a one world order a super leader if you will that will unite all together in the name of humanity this corrupt government will have all the features of the previous government systems looking through the lens of the first century church which john wrote this around 95 a.d if you were in the first century church this would have been clearly identified as none other than rome for the roman government system sounds a

lot like what we read in revelation chapter 13. if you lived in the roman empire you would have to uh to acknowledge that the emperor caesar is lord you would pinch incense and you would throw in your incense into the fire and you would declare caesar is lord now if you're a believer in jesus you know there's only one lord and that's jesus christ so if you did not buy into the government order of declaring caesar as lord you could be persecuted you could be put to death in the case of john he's put on an island called patmos to be isolated for preaching about jesus and being a pastor in in the church and now we have this corrupt government system that sounds a lot like what we read in

daniel chapter 7 what we read here in daniel chapter 13 is this beast will actually be the be satan encompassing man that what god did for us in jesus he is 100 man and 100 god not 50 god 50 man god became a man satan will actually take over the antichrist and he'll mimic jesus he'll want to be worshipped he'll want to be acknowledged for his work he'll mimic jesus to the point of having a fatal wound where he will come back to life but this is blasphemy there's only one to worship and that alone is jesus now john goes into not just one beast but a second beast the second beast is what the book of revelation later calls a false prophet prophecy means to speak forth

god's word i know sometimes the word prophecy sounds scary or sometimes it sounds weird in fact the book of revelation is a book of prophecy but god did not give prophecy to scare us but to prepare us you should never be afraid of prophecy it's god's word some of us think of prophecy as the the foretelling of the future we look at the prophets of old and they would come into a city and they would say if you don't do this here's what's going to happen and what they said happens so we think oh prophecy is foretelling the future but it's always telling god's word it's the fourth telling of god's word in fact prophecy is a spiritual gift that when you believe in jesus god gives some the gift of prophecy paul when he talks about these spiritual gifts in first corinthians

12 13 and 14 and first corinthians 14 1 says you should earnestly desire prophecy here's why you should want god's word when you have god's word you get into this book all of a sudden this book gets into you psalm 119 says how can a young man keep his way pure by hiding god's word in his heart when you have the word of god which would when i say the word of god i mean the bible when you have the word of god you're able to do what jesus did when he was tempted by satan what did he say it is written he was able to keep coming back to the very promises of god that we have so we come to first or we come to revelation chapter 13 verse 11 john says then i saw another beast this is the false prophet

rising out of the earth they had two horns like a lamb remember who's the lamb jesus this is a counterfeit he's trying to look like jesus and it spoke like a dragon so speaking on behalf of satan it exercises all the authority of the first beast and his presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed john this author is letting us know there is much in this life that is counterfeit the enemy loves to steal kill and destroy what god is doing he wants to influence the masses so jesus tells us that wide is the road to destruction

narrow is the road to life so just because everybody is believing one thing or doing one thing does not always mean it's right when it comes to worship there is only one who's worthy of worship now when you think about worship i don't want you to think that worship is just what we do in church worship is ascribing worth it's what you think about it's what you spend your money on it's what you spend your time on starts to sound like a cell phone you can worship something you can worship someone you could worship a sports team a car your career it's what consumes you and the enemy that is satan wants all people to do anything but worship god so in his deception he wants to distract us from the true worship

of the true lamb the one that died for your sins once and for all and get you to somehow start focusing on something else remember all those animals of the first beast that is the antichrist that represents the corrupt government is opposite to the one lamb that is jesus christ the one that saves us the ultimate ultimately in this system of this government system a one world order if we can describe it that way that daniel begins to describe this looking like all of a sudden there will be human efforts that will turn to salvation we have no need for a savior there's one right here we have no need for for a god we get to be a part of what's happening here the government's solution

is to be the savior the beast will convince all people that we can do this together it's in this place that john goes on to say in verse 16 also it causes all both small and great both rich and poor both free and slave to be marked on the right hand or on the forehead so that no one could buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of its name this calls for wisdom the bible teaches us that wisdom comes from god we need god's help here let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man and his number is six six six

of all the things in the book of revelation that people asked me about i was most asked about the mark of the beast which is only mentioned here in revelation 13 and 14. no one asked me about worship which is woven throughout the entire book of revelation no one asked me about loud music which over and over we read the music is loud in heaven no one said can we just crank it up just a little bit more in this room so it's a little more like heaven nobody said that to me but i did get emails i did get people asking i do have people ask me after the services pastor tell me about the mark of the beast i want to make sure that i don't get the mark of the beast and i want to warn you at this point if you get the mark of the beast

you've been deceived which means you weren't worshiping jesus if you're worshiping jesus i'm here to tell you you're going to be just fine but let's just explain this a little more so that we know we don't have to be afraid of anything to come or anything that's happening now the word mark in this original language which is greek means a carved image it's what we understand in the scriptures as an idol something made by man it's been the cardinal rule from the beginning that you should worship god and god alone there's one god but consistently humankind has constantly turned to that which is created and instead of the creator so god made it simple he said you are to worship me and to worship me alone not the things made by man so we see the word mark here is not necessarily something physical like many believe it

could be a chip in the hand or something on the forehead when you go to the grocery store you just scan your forehead you buy your food and somehow that somehow we're all going to be marked by something the government's going to give us and and now we all have this mark of the beast it appears here as we read carefully everything the enemy does is imitate god he doesn't come up with anything on his own nor is this in the future something that he cleverly came up with it was god when he was speaking to the israelites on their journey from slavery to the promised land a picture of what we're on we are all slaves to sin and through jesus our great deliverer the image of moses he's taken us to a promised land a place much greater than where we are right now it was on this

journey that god reminds his people israel to be faithful to him to not be distracted in deuteronomy 6 we find what's called the shema shema is a hebrew word that means hear or listen god wants his people to listen and here's what he tells them in deuteronomy 6 verse 4 hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might jesus confirmed this when he asked of all the great of all the commandments which is the greatest and jesus affirms the shema it says worship the lord he doesn't make it complicated he doesn't give us a list of rules he

says here's the one thing you should do worship the lord your god in verse 6 and these words that i command you today shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children this is what god wants he wants us to teach our kids what does the enemy want to do he wants the government to teach your kids he the enemy wants to get distracted or away from the lord not to know the word of god you shall teach your children diligently and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise when you put your faith in the lord god it's not a part of your life it's not on sundays sunday should be a priority in your life but it should happen on mondays and tuesdays in your car and at your work and when you're when you're thinking it should be a part of who you are verse 8 is important here's where we get this

that this is the evil shema here you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates this was god's idea god never meant us to take this legalistically and take the commandments of god and just duct tape them to your forehead just take the bible and just nail it to the doorpost of your home that wasn't the point here you read carefully the point is this should be on your mind it should be in your heart and it should be shown in your hands what you do with your life the application is it should be a part of who you are so when we come back to the mark of the beast is this a literal mark no

it becomes a part of who you are now let's just look carefully at numbers we see numbers have a significant meaning in the book of revelation throughout the book of revelation we have seen the number seven has significance our god is described as seven spirits does that mean there are seven spirits of god no the number seven is the number of completion when he writes seven letters to seven church he's writing to the complete church the number seven is the number of god he is complete in his presence so when we talk about seven spirits the spirit is the spirit of god he is the complete presence of god that's why when you believe in jesus you get the holy spirit now the number three means perfection if you remember in revelation 4 the

the creatures cry out holy holy holy three times the number of perfection god is perfectly holy the word holy means set apart so now we see the mark of the beast is the it is a picture of perfection 666 perfect but it's the number six not seven let's just do some quick easy math seven minus one is all right some of you got it we suddenly need to go back to basics seven minus one is six which means the enemy is not perfectly seven so let's just compare 666 versus seven seven seven seven is the number of completion that's god six throughout the

scriptures is the number that symbolizes man so seven minus one is the picture of incompleteness so the mark of the beast is perfect in completeness it's what man is we are made in god's image but we are not perfect we were born in sin as david describes in psalm 51. so sick success is a human philosophy that somehow human efforts can save you if you ask many people today how can you get to heaven well i'm not a murderer not as bad as most people i hope i'm good enough i hope my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds that's the mark of the beast 666.

your efforts get you to heaven the mark of 777 is what god's done for you i have nothing except for the blood of the lamb what's been done for me and so we see the distraction of the devil is to take your eyes off of god and to get your eyes on mankind that human efforts can somehow be the answers that save the world and we see this a lot today i just want to clarify human efforts will never ever save humanity or the world that does not mean we should be bad stewards of this wonderful earth that god created or that we should treat humans with anything less than dignity of being made in god's image but our efforts will not save us it will not save this earth the tribulation is real

and god's judgment is coming on those that refuse to receive his free gift of grace that's why john wants to turn our attention from the beast this terrible trio this evil trinity to jesus revelation 14 1 then i looked and behold on mount zion stood the lamb who's the lamb come on jesus and with him 144 000 who had his name and his father's names written on their foreheads so this hundred and forty four thousand if you're just joining us we first hear about them in revelation chapter seven there are 144 000 jewish people that give their lives to jesus as the messiah the christ is during this

tribulation time they see that jesus is the savior of their sins and they become these evangelists they share jesus with the whole world and they're persecuted for it this is like the delta force of christians these are the army rangers the navy seals they're willing to share jesus even if they have to die it's awesome but their life is full of terrible times in this tribulation for the beast wants to persecute those who follow jesus now john gets this vision of jesus on mount zion now you've already yelled the answer the lamb is jesus now zion throughout the scriptures is referred to as the city of god we see the city of god is jerusalem it's the capital of israel god wants us to know he has a plan for his people and there's this capital city that we call the city of god now the city of god jerusalem was always

meant to point us to a greater place to a heavenly home to the city of god now is jesus actually on jerusalem or is he in heaven malzahar the city of god it could be either but it looks like here that he's with the 144 thousand who have died now because of their faith in jesus it appears they're in their heavenly home mount zion in hebrews chapter 12 verse 22 the writer says this but you have come to mount zion into the city of the living god the heavenly jerusalem and to innumerable angels and festival gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are who are enrolled in heaven let's just pause there there seems to be this imagery of mount zion pointing us to our heavenly home which is why we have to remind each other that what we're going through right now

is temporary that we should live for something greater this is not the end we're on a journey to our heavenly home psalm 2 mentions this when it talks about one that will rule with an iron rod we remind ourselves that's jesus there's no other ruler like jesus his kingdom is greater than any political kingdom of this world and he rules and he reigns not like we see right now he's a unique king he's the ruler of all kings but psalm 2 also tells us about this heavenly home jesus is standing on the city of god he's with these 144 000 who have given their lives to him and we read in verse 3 and 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 thousand

who had been redeemed from the earth we see continually through the book of revelation worship through song it's absolutely awesome when you get into heaven there will be much singing and praying you should start practicing now some of you think i have a terrible voice i don't know if god even likes it when i sing i'll tell you he loves it when you sing and one day you'll be glorified your voice will be great so just start practicing now don't just sing at church you sing at home in the shower you should sing in the car you should sing when you're walking it should just become a part of your life singing now why should you sing because god's worthy of a song now this song is so unique no one else could sing this song except for the 144 000 because of all that they've been through they have a unique song i'll tell you

god wants to make your life a song everything you've been through will be worth it i'll tell you everything you've been through will be worth a song he's going to take all the sorrows and turn it into a joyous song that's what these guys are doing the scene in revelation 14 is to assure us that even if you suffer god's not left you god's not abandoning you satan has not won jesus is victorious and you get to be a part of that victory song that one day all that you're going through will be worth it eternity is real and it's encouraging to know that what happened with these hundred and forty four thousand will happen with us we one day will be singing that song in heaven when you have jesus it changes everything the greater your view of jesus the greater your worship

now if you don't have great worship in your life right now i want you to know that's okay jesus is in the transformation business you can come as you are before god i love that about jesus he does not say go get your life right first then come to me he says come to me and i'll change you i'll transform you i'm going to take you from burdens i'm going to give you rest i i'm going to take you from pain i'm going to give you peace i'm going to take you from addiction and i'm going to give you healing i'm going to take you from helplessness and i'm going to give you hope there's transformation in jesus that's why you can't have jesus just on sundays it's got to be on mondays and tuesdays and wednesdays it's got to be in your pain it's got to be when you screw up it's got to be

when you made a mistake last night you wake up today and you celebrate god's mercies new every morning you receive that mercy and your identity and when the devil tries to accuse you of who you were yesterday you say i might have made a mistake but my god's in the business of redemption of restoration i'm not going to keep making that mistake because you accuse me so i'm going to be who god wants me to be and i'm going to start singing that song now we have a mission at journey church and it's incredibly simple you join this church you join us on this mission we want to lead people on a journey of transformation and jesus that's what i want i want to be transformed i want to become more like jesus that's all i want for you is to be more like jesus i do not want you to be more religious i don't want you to try harder i want you to find that in jesus he starts to

shape you and change you to be more like him i wonder is anyone here that's been transformed by jesus come on god's not done with you yet so you haven't arrived you're not glorified yet don't stop now you keep coming to him you keep growing you keep getting ready for what god wants to do next we're told more about these 144 000 and these details of these 144 000 apply to our lives what we can start living right now it is these who have not defiled themselves with women for they are virgins let me just touch on this for just a moment having sex does not defile you sex is good it was created by god the picture here is of purity fornication is having sex outside of marriage that's defiling

god's good plan for sex that's defilement the world doesn't like to talk about this but god created sex and it's good and so the picture here is they're not they're not fornicating like the rest of the world is nor did they get married and have sex with someone other than their partner which is called adultery which is hugely normal right now if you're not happy in your marriage then just find some satisfaction in someone else that's defiling the marriage bed so the picture here is they're just pure they don't give in to the perversion of what the enemy wants to do remember anything created good is from god but the enemy let's take god's creation and twist it pervert it pornography comes from the greek word porneia it's a perversion

of god's way of sexuality so all we want to do is keep learning from god they were pure might be uncool to be pure but they were pure and it is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes i know that sounds like a nursery rhyme but this is the greatest thing any person can ever do if you have your own bible right now i'd be underlining that verse i'd be highlighting that verse that should be your mission i want to follow the lamb wherever he goes that's what this church seeks to do it's all about jesus we did that when we first moved to this building and now we're preparing for the next season of our lives when we moved to this building there was a strip club right where you're sitting some people say that's a terrible place for church we went right below the strip club because the the rent was cheap nobody

wanted to rent a space underneath a dirty nightclub that had strippers throughout the week but i'll tell you we wanted to go where jesus would go to reach people jesus would reach and when jesus comes into an area he begins to transform it it's a process he doesn't make us perfect in a moment he just starts to deal with the stuff in your life and and it lets us know that it's never too late with god and so these they follow jesus wherever he goes these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for god and the lamb the word first fruit means your very best in the old testament it's referring to offering giving to god you don't give god your leftovers you don't give god the last give god the first fruits give god the best and here when you follow jesus you're the first fruits and in their mouth was no lie for they were found for what no lie was

found for they are blameless we begin to see they're looking a lot more like jesus today we're told we can't be like that that you need to do things in your life to find satisfaction in one way or another but i want you to know the bible teaches us something really simple and it's not simple at all it's called the principle of sowing you reap what you sow so what you spend your time on what you spend your thought life on what you do with your life is what you're going to get so if you're not thinking about jesus then you won't get the transformation of jesus but if you're consumed with jesus if you surrender your all to jesus if you take jesus seriously you get jesus look at verse 4 again it is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes how are they pure how are they honest how are they willing to be bold

and courageous in a world that it was really hard to follow jesus it's because of jesus they took him seriously unfortunately today for many of us in the church we make the message of jesus too simple if you just pray this prayer you're saved and you're done that's not how it works you do start with prayer which is talking to god but now it's surrendering everything your addictions your mind your finances your relationships it's no longer about you jesus says when you follow me sometimes it divides a family not everyone will understand it and your allegiance needs to be to jesus more than anything else and although these 144 000 suffered yet they still sing they're they're saved they've been redeemed and now they're with jesus forever i

don't know about you but i want that i want to just know at the at the end of my life i did what needed to be done how do you do that you follow the lamb you follow jesus if you've never done that today you can do it today i'm going to give you an invitation john transitions from the 144 000 and he turns our attention to angels three angels that speak the voice here is that god has a message he has a message for the whole world including us today then i saw verse six another angel flying directly overhead an angel simply means a messenger god has a message with an eternal gospel gospel means what come on good news so there's this message of the gospel it's eternal to proclaim to those who dwell in the earth to every nation and tribe and language and people there's hope for everyone and he said with a loud voice fear god give him glory because the hour of his

judgment has come and worshipped him who made heaven and earth the sea in the springs of water this is the opposite of the mark of the beast worship what's made by man instead worship the creator now we can't look at this through natural eye we have to look at this through the spiritual eye the enemy wants to lie to every single one of us we talked about this last week one primary lie that god is not good but the gospel is this that god is eternally good and invites us into a relationship with him he takes our sin and gives us his goodness now sin is anything that separates you from god it could be a thought it could be a word it could be an action and we have the god of good news this is awesome god reveals this good news through a messenger and then there's a second angel that warns us in verse eight

another angel a second followed him saying fallen fallen is babylon the great she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality babylon first goes back to the book of genesis when humankind wanted to build a tower to heaven we can make our own way to god that's religion religion is man's attempt to god what jesus offers is a relationship with god now god sees this and he separates humankind and this place is now called babel they speak different languages they're confused and they head off into different directions later babylon would be known as this place of corruption instead of seeking god they seek their own ways babylon is known as the city of corruption if you will they can be powerful they can be beautiful they can have all the money in the world

but babylon is the place that's against god we see this in the old testament when the israelites decided not to follow god they were taken captive and they went to babylon sometimes it looks like babylon is winning now for the reader in the first century it would have been clear babylon is rome looks like they're winning everything they do is contrary to gods yet they keep getting greater and greater and this angel has a message it might look like babylon's got it going on and that they're going to keep being strong but babylon has fallen it won't last forever so don't give yourself into this corruption of this orderly system of babylon just because they're bigger because they have

power or because sex is driving this you can do things however you want just come up with your own conclusions don't go to god for your view of sexuality but there's this warning babylon has fallen that was true then for the first century church and it's even more true for us now we turn to the third voice of this angel we're told to keep going here is a call verse 12 says for the endurance of the saints those who keep the commandments of god 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 they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them what you did what you live for was absolutely worth it we see that there might be a war right now between

satan and jesus but jesus wins and we're on the side of victory i know this all may sound extreme but it is there is no switzerland of the soul i'm on the side of jesus and the other side i'm not for this way or that way i'm there's many different paths to god you can sort of search your own way or do your own things and and john is waving a big flag he's showing the movie trailer to us right now he's letting so there is one way it's jesus or your way and if you choose your way little did you know you were deceived and you chose the way of satan and jesus is for you so john concludes revelation 14 with a prophetic picture of the judgment to come he's saying this

the harvest is ripe now there's two pictures of harvest in the bible the first harvest is winning souls jesus says in john 4 this is before he even went to the cross he says the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few pray to the lord of the harvest for workers he's talking about people need jesus they're ready for jesus we we should do everything we can to introduce people to jesus we should tell them about the trailer we should tell them about the hope of heaven we should tell them about the gospel this is good news that you can be forgiven set free of your sins but there's a second harvest that's coming and this harvest is ripe this is the harvest of sin our god will only tolerate sin so long you can only get so fat as a grape before it falls off and it gets trampled it's the sin of greed it's the sin of jealousy

it's the sin of bitterness it's the sin of gluttony it's the sin of saying i want to do things my way so john concludes and i'm going to go through this quickly then i looked and behold a white cloud seated on the cloud one like a son of man this is the description of jesus in john chapter or revelation chapter one with a golden crown on his head there's only one king is jesus and a sharp sickle in his hand this is the harvest but this isn't a beautiful harvest it's the harvest of saying it's too late you didn't trust in the lord and another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe so he who sat on the clouds swung his sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped

then another angel came out of the temple in heaven and he too had a sharp sickle and another angel came out from the altar the angel has the authority over the fire and he called with a loud voice to the one who has the sharp sickle put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth for its grapes are ripe see hollywood and artists over the ages have had these renditions of the devil 666 with with a goat and with a pentagram and we we try to make things as they are but the enemy comes as a deceiver we've come and we've said the grim reaper he he looks like he's coming to take the dead this is an image of judgment that's in revelation don't let artists come to your conclusion of what death is or who satan is let god show you the way

the truth and the life so the angel verse 19 swung a sickle across the earth gathered the grapes of harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of god and the wine press was trodden outside the city and blood flowed from the wine press as high as the horse's bridle for 1600 stadia that's hundreds of miles of blood this is intense and it's meant to be john uses this hyperbole hyperbole so that you would in your mind imagine the exaggeration of blood six feet deep for hundreds of miles long this is the judgment of sin paul when he writes the romans says for the wages of sin is death it will destroy you inside and

out that's what sin is it always leads to death every time sin leads to death this judgment we read about in romans 14 is the consequence of sin leads to death for the wages of sin is death sin is missing god is choosing your way over god's ways but it doesn't stop there but the free gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord this is getting us ready for this last set of judgments these bowls of wrath but over and over we're introduced to this message our god gives us second chances he's the god of new beginnings you don't have to go through this judgment remember i started mentioning movie trailers if you really wanted to watch a movie you would be willing to go see it when it comes it's

now showing at the theater now i want to go spend my time on this now i'm going to go spend my money on this now i'm going to get a group of friends we're going to dress up up like the characters in the movie and we're going to wait in line just to see this movie sounds weird but people do it one day we're going to do it again we are living in a time where we no longer have to wait [Music] we can start living this out now we have to take jesus seriously you either want to see the movie or not and this is not a movie my friends you either want to follow jesus or you do not there are no half-hearted christians in heaven so now is the time for us to take this seriously and if you've never done that today right now i want to offer that to you i

do not want to manipulate you but if you're stirring in your heart and you're thinking i'm not sure where i'd go right now if i die the bible tells us there's no other name that saves but jesus it's the easiest decision you can make but it's the greatest decision and it doesn't stop right now so i want to ask you right now if you close your eyes right where you are i'm going to ask you to be bold i'm going to ask you to make a movement with your life saying from this day forward i want jesus and i want you to know that this is only between you and the lord i can't make that decision for you the person next to you cannot a parent cannot do this a spouse cannot do this for you you decide this day if you want jesus [Music] if you came in here today and you were uncertain of what that looks like maybe right now you're saying i want to choose jesus i'm going to ask you to do this bold decision throw your

hand up right now saying i choose jesus right where you are praise god yes amen if you want jesus right where you are throw up your hand i want to pray with you praise god yes yes amen i love it when a young person says today i choose jesus you're never too young to give your life to jesus i see that hand praise god god is looking for people that are willing to surrender their lives to him your life might not get easier but it will be worth it he gives you the gift of eternal life is there anyone else today i don't want to belabor this but i want to make sure that you take your life seriously that

god loves you so much he sent his son to die for your sins to forgive you [Music] i want to pray a prayer and if you've ever believed in jesus for some of you as long ago i want us to join for those who are praying this for the first time let's pray this out loud just repeat after me lord jesus forgive me of my sins today i receive hope that is found in you thank you for your love in jesus name amen and amen can we celebrate the love of god today amen listen my friends if you made that decision for the first time today if you decide i want to follow jesus we want to know you made that decision i'm going to ask you to get out your

cell phone right now even if you're watching online or wherever you are you could be at work and you just prayed that prayer would you text us right now just text us one word life because that's what you get in jesus to this phone number [Music] so that we 541-527-7277 celebrate with you that you've just crossed over from death to life my friends god's not done with us we got to get ready revelation 1 says he's coming with the clouds i don't know about you but i want them to come soon i'm looking forward to that day i'm going to ask that before we leave we sing one last song that we would celebrate what god has

done if you're able would you stand your feet for god you are worthy to be praised you