Standing on Mount Zion, that's
his church and we saw some things about his church in this But
it was the lamb He said I looked and lo not the church but a lamb
saw the lamb and us with him. I like those words We were with
him in verse 1 there and And that's really the definition
of his church, those who are with him. Of course, he's always
promised to be with us. But in verse six of chapter 14,
we see an angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth. Now we know
who this angel is. We know from chapter one, the
angels of the churches were the preachers, Pastors of those churches
which signified it wasn't just them it was signifying All of
God's preachers the way that he proclaims his gospel the way
that he tells forth the glories in the gospel of his son And
that's here. Nobody else preaches the gospel. When that angel appeared to Cornelius,
and Cornelius had been praying for somebody to come and preach
the gospel to them, but the angel didn't preach it. He said, go
get Peter. That old worthless fisherman that has a bad temper
and can't control it. Go get him and he'll preach the
gospel to you. God doesn't preach the gospel
by angels. By nature those with the nature
of angels as we understand that the word means messenger as we've
seen so many times This is the the preachers of the gospel that
God has ordained he's ordained that only sinners can preach
to sinners and he said the reason he did that he chose the weak
and the foolish and the base and So that no flesh should glory
in his presence We glory in him alone It'd be hard to glory in
me. That's for sure. You get a glory
in him or you're probably gonna find find something else to do
But these These angels, these messengers, they preach to everybody
that'll listen. Every nation, kindred, tongue,
and people. He said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, clearly those
men that were hearing that couldn't preach to every human being on
the planet at that time. It was a general instruction
to all of his preachers throughout the ages to preach to whoever
will listen. He had already told his disciples, if they won't
listen to you, don't preach to them. So there's qualifications
to that in the scripture. We don't put qualifications on
it, but God did. And so we understand it that
way in light of all scripture. But he said, go preach to everybody,
they'll hear you, everybody. And that's what we see here in
our text. He that believeth and is baptized, he said, shall be
saved. And he that believeth not, if you don't believe God's
preacher, You'll be damned. That's what's at stake. That's
why Paul said, who is sufficient for these things? The gospel
we preach is called here the everlasting gospel. And that word might be understood
because people tend to think that everlasting means, you know,
starting with us and never ending. But that's not what it means.
It means without beginning or end. If you look it up in the
Greek, without beginning or end, that which always has been and
always will be, eternal, everlasting. Nothing about the gospel is a
reaction to anything or anyone in time. It's an eternal gospel. You know, the false gospel that's
preached, the gospel of man's free will says that God looked
down in time to see what would happen and based his eternal
decrees on what man does. That's on the very face of it,
foolish. But when you start looking into
the scripture, it's absolutely blasphemous. The gospel is eternal. God purposed
from eternity that he would save sinners. What sinners he would
save, how he would save them. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. There's nothing
about the gospel that's a reaction to what people do in time. The
gospel can only be eternal because the essence of the gospel is
who God is. It's not just something that
God decided to do. It's who he is. If God is love,
he's not love unless he loves somebody. He's not mercy unless
he has mercy on somebody. He is all those things. He is
the love. He is the definition of love. And so it's essential to himself
and he's the eternal God. It can only be eternal because
of who he is, who Christ is. Christ himself is the gospel.
The good news is him. Knowing the good news is not
knowing biblical facts. It's knowing the son of God.
And so it's an eternal gospel. There has always been good news
for sinners, always. And it's not just bound by time.
It wasn't just, if you could trace back how many days, how
many times the sun, how many times we've gone around the sun
from the beginning, even before God created man, when time began,
in the beginning, whenever that was, God created. If you could
figure that out, there was good news for sinners then. And when
this world ends, when he burns this thing up, there'll be good
news for sinners on that day too. And it's not limited to
that. It's as eternal as God himself.
It's not knowing biblical facts, it's knowing the person of God's
son. There's always been good news. Christ is the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. So there was good news when he
was slain. When was he slain? He's always
been the lamb slain. When John looked up and looked
at the throne, he said, I saw a lamb as it had been slain.
That's an eternity now. There's no eternity past, eternity
future. There's just eternity. My mind's gonna blow before y'all's
does, so I might get ugly. That's mind blowing, but that's
just the truth, isn't it? God, the eternal, immutable God,
has from eternity elected a people in Christ. That's good news. It was then, if you can even
use the word, you can't even say then when you're talking
about eternity. There's no then in eternity.
God loved them with an everlasting, without beginning or end, love. And herein is love. That Christ,
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. He's always loved us. And that's
good news. I understand by God's grace,
I know that the Lord Jesus had to come in time and actually
die on the cross. He had to die in our place for
our sins on Calvary. He had to bear our sins in his
own body on that tree in time, in a certain place, at a certain
time. But was him doing that not good news before he did it?
It was good news to Moses. that God was gonna give himself
for sin, for his people's sins. God saving sinners includes his
purposes being carried out in time, but God saving sinners
is not contingent upon what happens in time. What happens in time is contingent
upon God's purposes. What happens does not determine
God's will. God's will determines what happens. And God's will has always been
and always will be the glory of his son in saving those whom
he gave to the son in eternity in the eternal covenant of grace,
saving his sheep, his elect, his people from their sins. You
know, we won't be preaching the good news and glory for the purpose
that we do now, for all of the purpose that we do now at least.
We preach it for his glory now because he deserves to be proclaimed
as he is by somebody. Somebody ought to be telling
the truth about God. Don't you reckon? There ain't
very many doing that. But I'll tell you what else though, we
preach it now to save his people. It's the way, it's the means.
He was pleased by the foolishness of what we're doing tonight to
save them that believe. We won't be doing it for that
purpose in glory, but we will proclaim the gospel in glory.
It's never gonna stop. We're gonna be, it says they
sung a new song saying, you're worthy, thou art worthy to take
the book and to open the seals thereof because you were slain.
and has redeemed us to God. You were slain and he didn't
make anything possible by that. There was no contingency. He
was slain and redeemed us under God by that blood out of every
kindred, tongue, people and nation. That's Revelation 5.9. Now think
with me for a second. This is simple to see. Notice
this from our text and from that verse that we just read. God's
preachers are sent to who in our text? Chapter 14, verse six. Every nation, kindred, tongue,
and people. That's who the gospels preach
to in Revelation 14, six, our text tonight. And what did we
just read? Who all is represented among
the redeemed? Every kindred, tongue, people,
and nation. God's word does not return unto
him void. If he sends a preacher, it's
because he's gonna save somebody. He didn't save every nation,
but his elect were in every nation, and so he sent his, he chose
sinners out of every nation, so he sent his preachers to every
nation. And all who were ordained to
eternal life believed him. And the gospel is what is needful
everywhere. It doesn't matter what nation
you are, what people you are, what tribe you're from. What you need is the one thing
needful. He is every sinner's one need. And then verse seven in our text,
saying with a loud voice, here's what they're saying now, but
understand, Well, let's read it first. Saying with a loud
voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment
has come and worship him. Worship him that made heaven
and earth and the sea and the fountains of water. I think we
have to understand this this way. It's not that when they
went out to preach the gospel, that this is their message, that
this is actually the words that come out of their mouth, fear
God and give glory to him. What's coming out of their mouth
is the gospel. We already saw that, it's the gospel, which
we know what that is. And so the good news of Christ
and him crucified. The words of verse seven here
are not literally all that is said by these preachers, represented
by this one angel. But in preaching Christ, what
they're saying is fear God. In preaching the gospel, they're
saying to you, fear God. It's the same message. Listen
to Psalm 130 and verse three. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, Who shall stand? That's where it starts,
doesn't it? What hope would we have, Lord, if you counted our
sins against us? We would have utterly no hope
at all, but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared. That seems odd, doesn't it? You'd think it would say there
is judgment with thee that thou mayest be feared. No, forgiveness.
What's fearsome about forgiveness? Because he gives it to whom he
will, and he withholds it from whom he will. And so you're gonna
bow before this God. You're gonna bow. You're gonna
beg him. You're gonna reverence him. You're
gonna be in awe of him. How in the world could he even
have mercy on a wretch like me? This is our text right there
in that verse. There's good news. We're without any defense before
God in our iniquities. Nobody can stand before him,
but there is gospel. There's forgiveness with God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a gospel. And what's
the sinner's reaction to that gospel? Fear, reverence, fear
God. That's what he's saying there.
And give glory to him. How is God's glory shown forth? In the preaching of Calvary.
In the preaching of the cross, that's how. All of God's attributes
are magnified and set forth. And he's exalted in all of his
wonderful persons at Calvary. So in preaching the gospel, they're
saying, give all the glory to him. If that doesn't happen,
you haven't preached the gospel. Listen to Luke 2.9. Would you
turn there with me? I'm not having you turn to any
of these, but we should look at these together. Luke 2.9,
we're saying give glory. They're saying give glory to
him when they preach Christ. They're not just saying the words
give glory to God. How are you going to do that
if you don't even know who God is? The way you know who God
is is by the gospel that they're preaching. Luke 2, 9, and lo,
the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord
shone round about them. And they were sore afraid. And
the angel said unto them, fear not. Now this is not a preacher,
this is an angel by nature from heaven, apparently. Said unto
them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.
You know what that is? That's gospel, good news, good
tidings. That's what the word gospel means.
Which shall be to all people. What is it, Mr. Angel? Unto you
is born this day in the city of David, a person, a person,
a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign
unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God and saying, glory to God. You see how this pictures what
happens when the gospel is preached? A messenger came down from heaven.
We have a message from heaven. And when it's declared, it's
a person. It's look who this is. Look who
came. Look who is God with us. That's
the message. And the result is this, glory
to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill toward
men. Glory, give him glory. Give it
to him alone. And I'll tell you this, whenever
God's angels preach, God gets all the glory, whether anybody
likes it or not. Some will like it. Those who
know him will like it. He loved and chose whom he would. Give glory to him. He elected
a people from the foundation of the earth. Give glory to him
for that. Christ died for his sheep, and
he saved every last one of them when he did. Give glory to God. The Holy Spirit is like the wind
that blows where it pleases. Give glory to God. He gives life
and faith in Christ to whom He will. And it just so happens
that who the Father chose and whom the Son laid down His life
for and who the Holy Spirit came to and gave faith in Christ to
them and regenerated them, gave them life and faith, they're
all the same folks. He's God. Give glory to God. Salvation is of the Lord. And
worship Him. Worshiping, that's what they're
saying. When I preach the gospel, what
I'm saying to you is worship Him. That's the only way that
sinners can worship God, is when they hear of the sovereign redeemer
of sinners. That Christ died to save sinners
of whom I'm chief. And his blood is effectually
gets the job done. It saves who he will, who he
shed it for. His word doesn't return into
him void. It accomplishes the purpose where
to he sent it. And so we worship him. That's
the only Christ you can worship. Revelation 19.6, if you want
to turn over there, Revelation 19.6. And here it is now, all of these
things in connection with the hearing of the gospel. And I
heard, Revelation 19, six, I heard as it were, the voice of a great
multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice
of mighty thundering saying, hallelujah, for the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth. You know what that's what sovereign
means? The word reign is in the word
sovereign. That's who we preach, the sovereign
Christ. The Lord God omnipotent, all
powerful reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him. That was what we said a while
ago. Give glory to God because he's on the throne. For the marriage
of the Lamb has come. That's the whole purpose of God
in everything. The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a king that made a marriage for his son. That's what the
whole shooting match is about. The marriage of the lamb has
come and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was, how did
she make herself ready? Oh, we've done many wonderful
works. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. How did she make
herself ready? To her was granted. that she
should be arrayed in fine linen. Clean and white. For the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints. You know, I used to think, why
doesn't it just say there that it's the righteousness of Christ?
I'll tell you why. Because the righteousness of
saints is the righteousness of Christ. And it's important that
we understand that. That's why it's worded this way.
We know what the clean robe is. It's not anything we've come
up with. That's the righteousness of Christ, but it's our righteousness.
Our righteousness is not like his, it is his. And he saith
unto me, right, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, these are
the true sayings of God. This is the gospel. God chose
a people, a bride for his son and gave his bride to him. And they're married to him. They
wear his righteousness. And he said, I fell at his feet
to worship him. Think about that. For what reason? When he saw the lamb getting
married to his bride, somehow God gave him a vision of that.
And he fell down to worship that angel. He's gonna worship somebody
because that's such a beautiful sight. Such a glorious sight
that he was caught up in the moment of seeing that. And he
began to worship this angel. And that angel said, see thou
do it not. I am thy fellow servant and of
thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. That's the gospel. What they just saw. Worship God. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is
the spirit of prophecy. That's what all God has prophesied
throughout all the ages of time, is that the Lord Jesus Christ
and his bride are one. That's God's purpose. The marriage
supper of the lamb. Everything comes to that Now notice the little phrase
in our text there in what is it verse 8 we're in Verse 7 We skipped over a little phrase
there for the hour of his judgment It's come the hour of his judgment
Is come fear him and give him glory and where the hour of his
judgment is come. What is the hour of Christ's
judgment? What would we be preaching about
the hour of God's judgment? What would we have to say about
that? Remember, they're preaching the gospel, and what they're
saying when they preach God saving a people, electing a people,
loving a people, and giving them to his son, and his son coming
to this earth and shedding his blood for their sins, and the
Holy Spirit giving them life and faith in Christ Jesus. What
we're saying is this, the hour of God's judgment has come. It's
come to you. He said to the Pharisees, the
kingdom of God has come unto you. When most people think of judgment,
I've said this to you many times, and I'm gonna keep saying it,
because most people still think this way, that judgment is always
bad. God's judgment, you know, it's
his condemnation and wrath. That's not right. Here is his
judgment. Turn with me to John chapter
five. Here's the judgment of Christ. And then we'll talk about the
hour of his judgment. John 5, 21. Usually when I talk about this
and sort of remind us that judgment is both good and bad. His judgment
is unto salvation. If he judges you worthy of eternal
life, you're gonna have eternal life. Of course, that's true
in Christ. If you be in Christ Jesus, he
that hath the son hath life. But think about this now for
John 5.21, for as the father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth
them, that just means he gives them life. He gives life to them,
even so the son gives life to whom he will. For the father
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the son. You
see how him giving life to whoever he wants to, which clearly necessitates
that there are those he doesn't want to give life to, Whosoever
he will is not everybody, we know that. Even so, for the father
judgeth no man. And that just means he doesn't
judge anybody without the son. It's not saying God doesn't judge
people. We know better than that from
the scripture. So what the context is telling us here is he doesn't
judge anybody apart from his son. The way that he judges is
by his son. Even so, the son quickeneth,
gives life to whom he will, because all judgment is committed to
the son. To give life, to decide the case,
whether you're gonna live or not live before him. that all
men should honor the son. You see, there's the fear, there's
forgiveness with him. He holds it in his hand. How
can you not fear the one who has mercy in his hand? And he'll
give it to you if he wants to, and if he don't want to, he won't.
How can you not fear him? That all men should honor the
son, even as they honor the father. He that honoreth not the son,
honoreth not the father which hath sent him. You can say all
you want to that, oh, we're all, you know, Muslims and all, everybody's
going to the same place. We all worshiping God. If you
hate the Lord Jesus Christ, you hate God. And you don't know
either one of them. It ain't just Muslims. That just
came to my mind first. The Jews are in this case too.
They reject the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't know God. as a nation, of course there's
exceptions, always has been. That all men should honor the
Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming. at the hour of judgment. And
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God in
the preaching of the gospel. He said, my sheep hear my voice. It may be a man speaking, but
you've got to hear from Christ. You're not gonna hear an audible
voice, but you're gonna hear the authority of the power of
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart now by faith, not
with these ears. But with an ear of faith, you're
gonna hear from God the Son. And they that hear shall live. Because that's the way he judges
this thing. It's by the preaching of the
gospel. So you could say the hour of judgment is when the
gospel is preached. You could say the hour of judgment
is Calvary. The hour when he either shed
his precious blood for you or he didn't. I'd say that's the
hour of judgment. That's the hour of deciding as
well. For as the father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself. He has life to give to whomsoever
he will and has given him authority. Think about those two things.
He has life in himself and he has authority to execute judgment
also. In other words, decide who gets
it and who don't. Because he's the son of man. The Lord Jesus Christ decides
who lives or dies. Salvation is not by the will
of man. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy on whom
he will and hardens whom he will. Fear him and give him glory. Because the hour of judgment
has come. It may be decided for you tonight
and since. It's decided from eternity by
God. But I tell you what, the hour
of judgment is more than, you could call it more than one thing
here, right? Just like when were you saved?
Were you saved in eternity? Were you saved when Christ died?
Were you saved when you believed on him? I'd say yes to all of
that, wouldn't you? And so it is with the hour of
judgment. Listen to Luke 12, four. talking
about fear in him because the hour of judgment has come. I
say unto you, my friends, think about this. This is the Lord
Jesus speaking to his beloved disciples. Turn over there with
me, Luke 12, four. I started to say we'll be brief,
but I'm not making any promises tonight. I hope we will. Luke 12, four, I say unto you,
my friends. He's not trying to, he's not
using the scare tactics of religion here to scare people into, nobody's
ever believed on Christ because they were afraid they were going
to go to hell if they didn't. That's not how faith is given.
That's not the gospel, is you're going to go to hell unless you
do this or that or the other. But he said this, I say to you
my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and
after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn
you whom you shall fear. Fear him which after he hath
killed hath power to cast into hell. He has the authority to
give you life or eternal death. at his sovereign discretion.
Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Arnot 5, spare, and listen, after
he said that, what's he gonna say next? I imagine they were
a little bit scared, don't you imagine? That's not just talking
about just reverence there. There's a little bit of just
flat being scared mixed into that. Wouldn't you say, if he
can put you in hell in a moment, But listen to what he says to
him. You're my friends, my friends. Fear me, fear me. And then what
does he say next? Are not five sparrows sold for
two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten
before God. But even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Fear not. He just got through
telling him to fear. Now he's saying, don't be afraid. Yes, be in awe, be in reverence,
and have that fear that acknowledges that all authority is Christ's. And he exercises it as it pleases
him. Now, I thank God, the scripture
says, he delighteth to show mercy. And he is plenteous in mercy.
Because it ain't up to you, it's up to him. But don't be afraid, you're my
friends. Fear not, for you are of more value than
many sparrows. So he comforted them at the same
time that he taught them the fear of God. What a precious
savior. And there followed, verse eight
in our text, another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. It must have been a great fall
to say it twice. that great city because she hath
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Now, this is another thing that
happens when the gospel is declared. It comes with a mandate for you
to fear God. If you don't fear God, you're
not gonna hear him. And worship him, glorify him and worship
him. But here's something else that happens. When the gospel
is declared, the gospel declares the destruction and hopelessness
of all false religion. Babylon is false religion all
through the book of Revelation. And the wine of her fornication
is the false gospel that she declares. You've heard the expression,
you know, you're drinking the Kool-Aid. Well, it has application
here. You're drinking the wine. If
you're listening to false religion, you're drinking the wine. and it's damnation, it's hopelessness. There's no hope in a gospel that
depends on you. If it's up to your free will,
you're a goner. You're gonna fall with everybody
else that believes in the antichrist of this religious free will age. It's called fornication because
it's sinful unfaithfulness to the God that made them. Often
in the scripture it's referred to that way, to worship idols,
it's fornication against God. Antichrist false religion. Now
the gospel speaks doom to that, and everybody that's involved
in it. And the way to dispel error and cause error to fall
is to preach the gospel, to preach the truth. We don't have to go
on some kind of campaign to destroy false religion. The truth. set
sinners free, or not, as it pleases God. And there's no way to, I don't
know any other way to tell if a stick is crooked than to lay
down a straight one. You gotta have a straight edge,
don't you, if you're gonna find out whether something's straight
or not. Some of it, you might be able to just look at it and
tell. With religion, that's mostly the case. You can just look at
it, that's crooked, because the Lord's taught us better. But
it's because of Christ. It's because of the truth, because
we know the truth of the Lord Jesus. Now these angels have
the everlasting gospel. That's why and how Babylon is
fallen, is fallen by the preaching of the everlasting gospel. The
other result of the gospel preached is what happens when the gospel
is rejected, despised, or just ignored, just neglected even.
That's in verse nine, in 10 and 11, I believe. Look at verse
nine with me. And the third angel followed
them, saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast.
The gospel message tells you what? Worship God. Worship God, give him glory.
He gets all the glory. What was the issue in the garden? God getting all the glory, wasn't
it? You're not gonna eat, and the day you eat of this fruit,
you're gonna die. But Adam wanted a little glory
for himself. He wanted the right, you know,
he wanted a free will. I'm gonna decide what's right
for me and what's not. And that's death. It still is.
Still is. If any man worship the beast
in his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his
hand, you remember that, what you know and what you do, that's
what distinguishes false religion. If you have to know something
to be saved, what we preach is if you're saved, you'll know
something. He'll give you an understanding
if he saves you. It's completely the opposite. or in his hand,
gotta do something. Here's what you need to do to
be saved. The same shall drink of the wine
of the wrath of God. If you drink of the cup of the
wine of her fornication, then you also drink another cup. The
wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture. There's
no mercy mixed with God's wrath. Into the cup of his indignation,
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels. There's so much in the book of
Revelation that's figurative and that's expressed by analogy
or metaphor or things like that, that we don't know if hell is
actual fire. We know it's not like fire here
because whatever fire is there, it won't ever burn you all the
way up. It'll last forever. and you'll never be rid of it.
It's a spiritual fire. It's the fire of God's wrath.
It's whatever is the worst thing God can do to you. You think about that. It's got
to be, doesn't it? It's got to be. Heaven is everything that God
can do for you. Everything good, every spiritual
blessing. So what's hell? I don't want to know. I don't
ever want to know. tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb
and The smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever
and they have no rest day nor night no rest Who worshiped the
beast in his image and whosoever receiveth the mark? Of his name
whosoever trusteth in themselves whether it be knowledge or works
and It doesn't matter. You don't have to be what this
world calls a devil worshiper in order to worship the beast.
There's a lot of people worshiping the beast that have no idea that's
what they're doing. Just by despising Christ, you
are fulfilling the exact purpose of the beast. That's pretty much
all he cares about. He doesn't care that much about
what else you do or don't do as long as you have no use for
Jesus Christ. And if you don't, you're worshiping
him. To worship yourself is to worship the beast. That's what
he was all about in the garden. He was all concerned about Adam.
What about you? Now, this is not right for you.
God's not treating you right. It's all about himself. And notice in this whole text
that we've looked at tonight that there are two kinds of worshipers. Everybody worships somebody. Verse seven, you worship Christ,
you worship God. You worship him that made heaven
and earth and the seas and all deep places. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ, isn't it? Without him was not anything
made that was made. You worship God and his son.
You worship God and all of his persons. Or verse nine, the beast. Everybody's worshiping somebody.
And those who receive his mark, they trust what they know or
what they've done. That's what his mark is. That's
what distinguishes those who have taken the cup of that wine
and drunk it. You see, that's a willing act
now. There's man's free will for you right there. Every time,
every time. It was in the garden, it still
is. You can call it an apple, or
you can call it a cup of wine. Whatever you want to call it.
What the scripture calls it, that's what we'll call it. It's
exactly the same thing. You're worshiping the beast.
You're obeying the beast. You're giving glory to the beast. And they'll drink the wine of
the undiluted wrath of God. No mixture. But in closing, let's
remember this. Let's remember why you and I
don't drink that wine. We never can, and here's why.
John 18, 10, Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and smote the
high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. You remember
that story, and the servant's name was Malchus. And you remember
in another, Account of that scene the Lord
Jesus picked up that man's ear and put it back on And I've often
wondered if the Lord had mercy on that man That might be why
his name is in the Word of God. His name was Malchus. I Don't
know Then said Jesus unto Peter put
up your sword into the sheath and the cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? Shall I not drink it? I never have and never will taste
the wrath of God for any of my sin, because my Savior drank
it all for me. He took my sins and my sorrows."
And he said, notice the way he said that, shall I not do it?
as if to express the absurdity that anything else could possibly
happen, but that the Lord Jesus would bear my sins on Calvary. God said, I'll have mercy. How's
that gonna happen? Shall I not drink it? God has said, I will be glorified. How's that gonna happen? Shall
he not drink it? God said, promise to sinners,
his people, his sheep, your sins and your iniquities, while I
remember no more. How does that happen? Shall I not drink it? He shall,
he did. And that's my salvation. That's all, Ma.