Angelic Messengers: Judgment and Damnation

We're talking about the second angel tonight, these angelic messengers in Revelation

14, and we're picking up in verse 8 tonight.

And this second angel, by the way, you remember this is the one who's pronouncing judgment.

Listen to what it says, verse 8. And another angel, a second one,

followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all

the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.

So john saw another angel a second one who followed the first angel and unlike

the first one this angel does not preach the good news of the gospel remember

that's the angel we talked about last week and just as a way of review where

was that angel preaching the gospel from.

Mid heaven right and i mean everybody saw and heard this angel high noon angels

what i like to call, right?

Proclaiming the gospel. But rather, this second angel here pronounces the bad news of judgment.

And sadly, that implies that the first angel's message was largely rejected, right?

It's almost as if the second angel interrupts the first angel because nobody's responded.

And the second angel's equally brief and direct message is what?

Look at it again in the text.

Fallen, fallen is babylon the great

and the repetition underscores the finality the certainty and the comprehensive

nature of babylon's judgment and babylon's yet future fall is so certain i want

y'all to see that tonight that it can be spoken of as though it has already happened.

In fact, the angel's pronouncement will come as a shock to the unbelieving world

that Antichrist's mighty empire, the most powerful in human history we've studied,

could be destroyed, will be inconceivable

to his followers that it's ever going to be destroyed, right?

In fact, it tells us that if we look back in chapter 13, verse 4,

it may be that a restored city of Babylon will be Antichrist's capital city.

But Babylon in this passage, I want you all to get this tonight,

refers not just to the city, but to Antichrist's worldwide political,

economic, and religious empire.

It's like this world system.

That's Babylon, right? And you could say in some aspects we're living in Babylon

today, right, in that sense.

But Babylon has from its inception symbolized evil and rebellion against God.

Do not we live in a culture that has evil and rebellion against God.

And it was founded, though, by Nimrod in Genesis 10, verse 9,

Genesis 10:9

a proud, powerful, God-rejecting ruler.

Babel, Babylon, was the site of the first organized system, if you remember,

of idolatrous false religion in Genesis chapter 11.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

The Tower of Babel, the expression of that false religion, was like a ziggurat,

an edifice designed to facilitate idolatrous worship, really.

And God judged the people's idolatry and rebellion by hell.

What did he do, finally, with the people who were building this tower that was going to reach to God?

Right. And he confused their language and he scattered them all over the globe,

it says in Genesis 11, 5 through 9.

And so the seeds of idolatry and false religion actually spread around the world

from Babylon to take root wherever these proud rebels and their descendants settled.

And so as humanity itself was united in idolatrous false religion at Babel,

so it'll be again united again in the end times under this final Babylon, if you will.

And history is going to come full circle, in other words. The final Babylon

is personified here as a harlot, and we'll see it a little bit later,

even more so here in chapter 17.

But it's described as she who has made all the nations in this passage drink

of the wine of the passion of her immorality.

So the world, get this picture tonight, will be so intoxicated,

deceived, and seduced by the Babylonian false religion headed by Antichrist.

And that word there is thumos or passion describing this strong,

consuming lust and desire.

And it would be unlawful, right? Unlawful desire.

And as a result of that passion, sinners will engage in, if you will,

an orgy of rebellion, idolatry, and hatred of God.

And so while sexual sin will be rampant, we've already studied that,

the immorality I believe spoken of here is spiritual prostitution to Antichrist false religion.

And it pictures unfaithfulness to God. Think Hosea.

Remember Hosea the prophet right and you remember what God told him to do marry

a wonderful upright lady.

Told him to marry a prostitute. And it was a whole thing.

God was showing them that the nation of Israel there, that they had actually gone after other gods.

They were whoring themselves out to other gods, so to speak, spiritually.

And they have forsaken their true God, the true husband, right?

And he's showing them, hey, he loves them. Even though they've wandered away,

he loves them and he wants to redeem them back, right?

He wants to win them back. And so, but this spiritual unfaithfulness,

if you will, spiritual adultery to God, having the wine of seductive harlot, as it talks about here,

the nations of the world will continue on their course of spiritual defection,

if you will, from God, and they'll end up drinking, it says in verse 10,

the wine of the wrath of God.

I don't know about you, I don't want any of the wine of the wrath of God.

As the third angel reveals, this will prove disastrous when they do it.

This judgment will be detailed.

We're going to see this here in the discussions we get to eventually as we break

down chapter 16 and 17 and 18 when we get to them. But that brings us to the third angel.

Here we go. We might wrap this up tonight for the angelic messengers.

Promising what? Damnation. So the first one's gospel, preaching the gospel.

Then what's the next one? Pronouncing judgment. And now the third, promising damnation.

Another angel that says here, let's take a look. Take a look in chapter 14 here, verses 9 through 11.

Then another angel, a third one, followed them saying with a loud voice,

If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead

or on his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God,

which is mixed in full strength to the cup of his anger.

And he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy

angels and in the presence of the Lamb. That's Jesus.

And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.

They have no rest day or night. Those who worship the beast and his image and

whoever receives the mark of his name.

Wow, I mean, look back at this. The three angels here appear in logical,

if not chronological sequence.

The rejection of the gospel preached by the first angel results in the pronouncement

of judgment by the second angel, which will be carried out in the damnation

that's described by this third angel.

And the third angel will deliver his warning. What kind of voice will he have? Will he whisper?

A loud voice, right? So that all will hear, it says, and understand his message.

It's like all these angels starting with the one proclaiming the gospel.

Everybody's going to hear. There's no excuses, right? Everybody's going to know.

God's not hiding any. God doesn't whisper off to people about what he desires for them.

It'll be a loud voice. God being perfectly holy and righteous judges people.

Why? Because they reject what they know to be true, according to Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

And that's why every one, church, sentence to hell will be without excuse,

according to Romans 1, verse 20, and chapter 2 of Romans, verse 1.

Romans 1:20

No one can say, I didn't know. No one can say if someone had just told me about Jesus.

No, everyone will be without excuse, because God has plainly told us that he

has made himself known to every man.

So the third angel's dire warning here is addressed to anybody,

anyone who worships who?

The beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand.

Now, we noted this back all the way in chapter 5.

Everyone, and y'all know this,

will be required under pain of death to worship the beast and his image.

And a sign of loyalty to antichrist

and in order to function in the world economy even everyone will be required

to receive what a mark on his forehead or on his hand and it'll seem to the

deceived followers of antichrist who received that mark that they are backing the winning side.

It's going to seem like the right way to go. But the angel warns that a terrible

fate here in this passage awaits those, despite all of God's judgments and warnings,

that persist in worshiping Antichrist.

Once again, once again, do you see it?

God graciously calls on sinners to repent, even in this final hour.

Man, we keep seeing that theme over and over. If nothing else,

as we go through the book of Revelation together, I hope you never forget that,

how much God calls sinners to repentance in the tribulation.

Because those who drank the wine of the harlot Babylon also will drink of the

wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed, it says here in this passage,

in full strength in the cup of his anger.

To drink of the wine of the wrath of God is to experience God's wrath.

The full fury of God's wrath, so long restrained will be unleashed. Can you imagine?

Such wrath, I mean, it's not an impulsive outburst of divine emotion at all,

aimed at people just kind of willy-nilly.

It is settled, church. It is deliberate. It is merciless.

It's like graceless. It's a graceless response of the righteous God against all sinners.

And I tell you, as we're going to see on Father and Revelation,

that that last battle man you're talking about i mean we talked about armageddon and all that right,

and how deep the blood's going to run i mean you take a look you just just for

a moment comprehend in fact if you're having trouble just even getting a little

bit of the wrath of god on display i know some of you may have thought of the

flood but i want you to tell you the most horrific place to see it, is the cross of Christ.

You see, a righteous God, unrighteous sinners.

John describes that terrifying reality by noting that God's wrath will be mixed. Again, see it?

In full strength in the cup of his anger. Mixed in full strength.

Literally mixed, unmixed. It refers to that ancient practice,

by the way, of diluting wine with water.

The wine filling the cup of God's is strong, undiluted wine.

You're going to get the full kick, so to speak, right? Nothing's held back.

This is God's astrological wrath. It's going to be undiluted vengeance,

unmixed with any trace of compassion.

And that's hard maybe for us to think about right now because we've seen so

many examples in Revelation, even in the tribulation of God calling upon man

to repent over and over again.

But there is coming a day when that's over and his wrath will no longer have

anything holding it back and it will not have, there's no compassion,

no more grace, total destruction, obliteration, if you will.

And the horrifying fate awaiting the person who drinks the wine of the wrath

of God is what? What does it say in this passage?

To be tormented with fire and brimstone. And the verb translated there,

by the way, To be tormented speaks of ceaseless infliction of unbearable pain.

How many of you have pain?

How many of you have ever experienced pain? I think some of the worst pain in

the world I've always thought was back pain.

Anybody ever had that back pain, lower back, and all that good stuff?

Man, it makes you cry sometimes, Brother Ronnie, right?

And, but, think about the worst pain you've ever been in, and then realize that

holds no candle to the pain that is going to be dealt out upon the unrighteous.

The noun form of that verb is used actually in Luke chapter 16,

Luke 16:23

verse 23, to describe, if you remember, the agony of the rich man,

Lazarus, right, and Hades.

Those whom God will force to drink the cup of his anger here, they're going to know.

They will know no lessening or diminishing of their torment in any way.

They'll enjoy no moments of rest throughout eternity. And by the way,

you got to look back here, and I'm going to bring this out again,

but who's actually dealing out this judgment?

Yeah, and in the presence of who? And in the presence of the Lamb, Jesus.

Man, fire, brimstone are often associated in Scripture with divine judgment. We know that.

God used that to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19.

Talks about it in Luke 17. In Psalm 11, verse 6, if you remember,

Psalms 11:6

David wrote, Upon the wicked he will rain snares, fire and brimstone,

and burning when he will be the portion of their cup.

Hell, the final resting place of the unregenerate, is described as the lake

of fire, which burns with brimstone in Revelation 19, 20, in chapter 20,

10, and in chapter 21, verse eight.

So that the unregenerate will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels

and in the presence of the lamb.

Will add shame and embarrassment to their suffering.

You see, to suffer in the presence of the host of heaven is not to lessen the

fierceness of the judgment, but to make it more grievous. Do you see that?

Christians have borne the shame of public derision, opposition,

and soon, though, their antagonist here will suffer before a more August gathering, if you will.

It's unbelievable here what's going

to happen and we can't comprehend all of it because unrepentant sinners will

be banished eventually here from god's presence relationally they'll be forever

barred from the loving fellowship with him that believers will enjoy they'll

not ever be away from his presence.

In the sense of his sovereignty. You remember, God is sovereign.

He's over all, his omnipresence.

He's everywhere at once, even in hell.

David wrote, y'all remember this passage, where can I go from your spirit or

where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.

Psalm 139, seven and eight. So those in hell will suffer eternal punishment

at the hands of God because he is the one who is able to destroy both soul and body and hell,

it says in Matthew chapter 10, verse 28.

Matthew 10:28

So this third angel concludes his message with a final sobering thought about

the punishment of those who worship the beast.

He's declaring again, look at it, that the smoke of their torment goes up for

just a few weeks. What does it say?

Forever and ever. They have no rest day and night.

You know, we think about, I told you all the worst pain you've ever experienced earlier.

We have these wonderful things today. At least some people, some people can't take them.

I know my mom had, she could hardly take pain medicine, but we do have some

pain medicine today that helps us sometimes with our pain. but think about never

having relief from your pain.

And the pain that we have here on earth is nothing to be compared with this.

So this angel would strongly disagree with those who deny the eternality of hell.

Y'all do realize that we're created in God's image, right? Every one of us sitting

here has an eternal soul.

And it's not a matter of question of whether or not you're gonna live forever

because your soul's gonna live forever. Your body's going to die unless God comes back first.

Jesus comes back first. You're part of that rapture, right?

But your soul is going to be forever living somewhere.

And as a brother in the Lord used to say, it's just a question of whose neighborhood

you're going to be hanging out in.

So there's an eternality of hell. You know, we talk about eternal life,

but we also have here eternal death and damnation.

And his description of hell as the place where the smoke of the torment of the

wicked goes up forever and ever is consistent with the rest of scripture, by the way.

Talks about this just quickly. Isaiah, Daniel, John the Baptist talked about

it and the apostle Paul talked about it in 2 Thessalonians.

Also, all of those affirm that hell is eternal.

Y'all do get that. there's no relief there's no stop of

the torment but no one thought or

taught i should say that that sobering clue truth to people more clearly than

who who do you think jesus right the lord taught it jesus christ he spoke of

hell as the place of eternal fire in matthew 18 and chapter 25 as well,

of unquenchable fire, where the fire is not quenched in Mark chapter 9. Wow.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

And in Matthew 25, verse 46, Jesus clearly taught that the torment of the lost

Matthew 25:46

in hell will last as long as the blessedness of the redeemed in heaven.

And though human sensitivity, as we sit here tonight, may balk at the doctrine of eternal punishment.

It's both the explicit teaching, and I want you to miss this,

of the Bible, the explicit teaching of the Bible, and it's demanded by God's

justice and his holiness.

And your longing, my longing today, tonight as we sit here for justice at all comes from God, right?

God would not be just, in other words, if there was not a place of eternal punishment called hell.

And so these three angels deliver God's last call to repentance before the final

judgments are going to fall and the Lord Jesus Christ returns at the end of the tribulation.

But God's gracious warnings, get this tonight, will go unheeded by most of the sinful world.

There's perhaps, I don't think, any clear illustration in

Scripture of the sad truth that's talked

about in john chapter 3 verse 19 where it says men love the darkness rather

John 3:19

than the light for their deeds were evil well we have a god who cares we have a god who's gracious,

but one day all of that's coming to the end the final judgment.