Revelation 14, I'd like to read
the first 13 verses and then spend a little time on just a
few verses here with regard to three angels, the ministry of
three angels. Sometimes I have to remember
that angels are not always Creatures that have wings. The word angel
means messenger. And sometimes it is a creature
that has wings, a higher created being in a sense than, well in
fact it says, he, Christ, was made a little lower than the
angels for the suffering of death. So that means that the human
race is a little lower in power and abilities than the angels. But in the first Three chapters
of this book, angels, when it's speaking, writing to the seven
churches of Asia, angels there represent the pastors of those
churches. They were the messengers. And
it's not a creature that has wings, but it's a messenger.
And sometimes we lose that and we think of other things. And
I'd like us to keep that in mind when we read this section of
scripture, keeping it spiritual. This is not literal. If we start
looking at the book of Revelation as a literal experience, we soon
are going to run our craft to ground, and it's going to be
on the rocks. It's a spiritual book. It's the
same thing when we hear the Lord Jesus Christ say, I am the bread
of life. Now there's some really, really,
really good bread being made today. But he's not talking about
that kind of bread. I am the water of life. I am
the door. We look at him as spiritually
speaking that way. So when we look at the book of
Revelation like so many other books, we want to make sure that
we are asking the Lord to share us what is there spiritually. And that's what I want to read
here. First, in Revelation chapter 14, And I looked, and behold,
a lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four
thousand. having their father's name written
in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven,
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder.
And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps." And
we've looked at that lamb. The lamb is mentioned here in
the book of Revelation more times, I think it's 22 times. It's referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ and we've seen that probably the
reason that that's mentioned that way it was as a lamb he
was successful on our part. He is demonstrating himself in
a successful garb as a lamb. The Old Testament represented
him that way. John spoke of him as the Lamb
of God which takes away the sin of the world. The book of Revelation
shares with us his victory as a lamb. And it tells us that
there were 144,000. This is not a literal number. This is a representative of the
church. It shares with us that God looks at the church as an
absolute, identifiable number. We look at it as the scripture
shares the book of Revelation as a number that no man can number.
We are so finite and He is so infinite. We are unable to number
that number. He is able to number that number. And He knew exactly who He would
be the Lamb slain for. And it's represented as 144,000.
They sung a new song before the throne, and last week we saw
that when he brings us out of a horrible pit, he puts a song
in our heart, and that's a song of praise to the Lord. And it's
only after we're regenerated that we can sing these songs
from our heart. I am beginning to understand
a little bit more of what John Newton meant when he wrote that
poem, Amazing Grace. It's not just a song that we
sing. It was a heartfelt, heart-believed
conviction on His part. And God's people are able to
sing that song with the same kind of heartfelt, heart conviction. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. And they're able to see that
as more than a poem. It's words of praise to God. They sang it before the throne
and before the four living creatures, the four beasts and the elders,
and no man could learn that song but the 144,000. And it's just
that way. We'll not ever learn that song by works. We'll never learn that song by
reformation. That song can only be taught
to us in regeneration. And we brought up that passage
over in the book of Joshua about the Shibboleth and Sibboleth. If you don't have it, you can't
say it. If you have it, you can say it.
If you know the word, you can say it. If you don't have it,
your mouth just can't form the word. And that's the way it is
with grace. It's something that God gives
to us in regeneration, and only the 144,000 can sing it, and
only those that are redeemed, which are the 144,000, and these
are they which were not defiled with women. And we looked last
time, just a little later in this book, The whole world has
committed fornication, spiritual fornication, spiritual adultery. And it's so pictorial of Hosea's
wife. She had committed a crime against
her husband, but when he went after her, like the Lord goes
after the church after they have been taken in this unfaithfulness to God, spiritually
speaking, and we got that in Adam. When he comes back, he
makes it as if it had never happened. He takes away that, the guilt
of it. And so these have never had that.
They are as if they had never sinned. And that's the position
of the church. We found over in Jude that he
is able to present them spotless. So this is his ability. He's
able to take that which is highly corrupted and make it incorruptible. He is able to take that which
was gone after the world to make it go after Christ. He is able
to change a part of us for eternity and a part of us will be changed
in eternity. We'll have the removal of this
flesh and then we will be as Adam was before the fall, able
to love God completely. and only then. The heart does
now, the regenerated part does now, but then we'll be able to
do that with our whole being. And in their mouth was found
no guile, this is just another statement about the effects of
regeneration, and they were without fault before the throne of God.
Now, verse 6, and I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven.
having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell
on the earth. Now, if we look at this as a
creature that has the ability of wings and flies, this is the
only time in Scripture that God has ever commissioned that kind
of being to ever preach the gospel. It is by the foolishness of preaching,
and that he has committed to people. He never committed. In fact, angels look into the
gospel, trying to figure it out. It is so foreign to them. They
know it is precious. It was precious to God. It was
precious to the Lamb. It was precious to the covenant
of grace. It is mentioned and praised in heaven. It is precious
to the saints. It is precious to the church.
It is precious to God's people. It has been precious. It is precious.
And it forever shall be precious. And they can't understand it.
They don't know a thing about grace. Those who kept their first
estate have no idea what grace is. And those who did not keep
their first estate will never learn what grace is. We fell
in Adam and we're the only creatures that God ever created that will
ever be given an ability to understand what grace is. The animals never
will. The mineral kingdom never will.
They will have things happen to them in the restoration when
all things become new, but only human beings will ever be able
to understand what grace is. And so this angel came out, it
says there, in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel
to preach unto them that dwell in the earth, and to every nation,
and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice,
Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment
is come, and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and the fountains of the waters. There followed another
angel, saying, Babylon is fallen. is fallen, that great city, because
she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication. The third angel followed them, saying with a
loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and
receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, The same shall
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without
mixture into the cup of his indignation, and shall be tormented with fire
and brimstone in the presence of his holy angels, and in the
presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they shall have no rest.
day nor night, who worship the beast in his image, and whosoever
receiveth the mark of his name." Now we get over a little further,
that's just a... this is a very vivid description
of everlasting death. It's more vivid than when we
get over there. This is a vivid description. My goodness. This
is a denunciation against those who worship the beast and receive
the mark. These are those on the left hand. these have a statement made against
them that they will suffer forever and ever and we get over to the
statement about death and hell give up those that are in them
and they stand in judgment and are pronounced those whose names
are not found in the Lamb's book of life shall enter into everlasting
death everlasting hell and this is the second death so here is
a very very In glorious, I don't know how
to put it. I can't say good description
of the judgment that shall fall and then it says there in verse
Verse 12 kind of goes back up to the group that We read about
early, here is the patience of the saints, here are they that
kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Now I'd
like to look at these three messengers that came and pronounced these
three things here in the book of Revelation as three statements
made about how God saves his people. First thing is necessary,
we must hear the everlasting gospel. It is essential. And the everlasting gospel is
brought out there, another angel in the midst of heaven, flying
in the midst of heaven, the everlasting gospel to preach to them that
dwell on the earth, to every nation and kindred and tongue
and people. The second messenger, the second
angel says this, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Now I don't know about
you, but I was always taught, we're talking about the Roman
Catholic Church here. Sorry folks, that's not what
it's being talking about. It is talking about when God
in His great power comes upon His saints in regeneration, He
looses them from the prison of darkness. religion, everything
else that we have, all that is fallen. The gospel of Christ
causes this statement of religion to fall away. And we're going
to look at several verses about that. And then we find the results
of the preaching of the everlasting gospel, the life changed by the
gospel, and that is the patience of the saints. They keep the
commandments of God and they have faith in Jesus. This is
what they have. So, let's first of all look at
this statement made by this messenger, the everlasting gospel. Now,
in order to have an everlasting gospel, you must have an everlasting
God. If you don't have an everlasting
gospel, you can't have an everlasting God. They go hand in glove. And if you have an everlasting
God, you have an everlasting Father. Because it is the Father's
relationship that gives us a birth. We are necessarily dependent
upon the relationship to God as our Father. He is the one
that bears us in this regenerative process. And if we have an everlasting
God, which the Bible declares, and let me put it this way, since
we have an everlasting God, and since we have an everlasting
Father, we find that we're going to have an everlasting righteousness.
It just goes hand-in-glove. The glove's gonna fit. Alright,
turn with me to the Old Testament. Book of Isaiah, chapter 40. As
we look at the everlasting gospel, we're going to see that there's
some essential qualities of this, and this is the gospel. Isaiah
40. Isaiah chapter 40. It is the
everlasting gospel runs hand-in-glove with God's everlastingness, which God's elective grace It's everlasting
It's eternal. All right, Isaiah 40 Isaiah 40 and verse 28 Isaiah 40, verse 28, Hast thou
not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary,
there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power
to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."
In verse 28 it says, "...hast thou not known, hast thou not
heard, that the everlasting God..." Now that's a quality that is
found throughout the Scriptures, that there's an eternal, everlasting
God. We can't put a time frame on
Him. We are so limited when we come and talk about the eternality
of God. We can only deal with it with
terms that we can understand. And we being finite and He being
infinite, we don't have the words to describe it. So, we have words
that we can't understand. Everlasting. Eternal. They're there. We do the best
job we can. The Holy Spirit has to fill in
the gaps. The Holy Spirit has to share
with us what it means. And we walk away and say, I really
can't understand it, but I believe it all. I just believe it. It is part of God's purpose that
His church believe that He is everlasting. Now, turn with me
just back just a little bit in the book of Isaiah chapter 9. Chapter 9 tells us, and we often
read this around Christmas time, but we're going to read it two
or three months later, two months later, Isaiah chapter 9. This is the name of God. this
is his name instead of commas I think it should have been hyphenated
this is his name it says for unto us a child is born and unto
us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and
his name doesn't say names his name shall be alright his name
shall be Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. It is essential that we have
an Everlasting Father. part, this revelation, this reflection
of God to us, shares with us that God was infinitely and eternally
interested in us being his children. When we read the word Father
in the Old Testament or the New Testament, we're talking about
the Being that bears us. He bore us into this world. He bore us. By His Majesty, He
gives us the physical birth. I'm taking back a little bit
yesterday. I'm laying way back here. We're getting ready to
have surgery. The doctor comes in. I've already
met him. He says, would you mind if we have prayer right now?
And I says, I think it would be appropriate. As long as we're talking to a
great almighty God. Now, this Everlasting Father,
He had an interest in bringing children into this world before
the world began. He was so interested that He
had them set aside. Now, how He did that, the means
in which He performed it, is beyond our grasp, but He is the
Everlasting Father. He is going to have a family.
He's going to have children. He's the Everlasting Father.
He's the Everlasting God. He's going to have a... Well,
I'm jumping ahead. He's going to have an everlasting
kingdom. And if he has an everlasting kingdom, he has to have everlasting
subjects. You don't have a kingdom if you
don't have subjects. Alright? Let's go to Psalm. Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Psalm 119 tells us
some facts about the everlasting God and the everlasting Father
with regard to His character. Psalm 119, verse 142. Psalm 119, verse 142, it says
this about God. Now if we have an everlasting
God, an everlasting Father, and He is who He says He is, and
since He is who He says He is, He is going to have this characteristic
everlasting righteousness. He is going to have everlasting
righteousness. The scriptures bear this out.
He reveals it in regeneration. I have always been, I have always
been the everlasting Father and I have always had everlasting
righteousness. There's not a time when he acquired
righteousness. He is not like us. We're the
only ones that can say, I have been given righteousness. In
regeneration, God gave to me his righteousness, but God never
had to say that because he has everlasting righteousness. He
is so pleasing. to the righteous qualities of
righteousness. Psalm 119 verse 142, the scriptures
share this, thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness
and thy law is the truth. your righteousness, God's righteousness
is an everlasting righteousness when this messenger came out
and presented the everlasting gospel this is declaring that
there's an everlasting God this is declaring the everlasting
fatherness of God declaring everlasting righteousness of God and would
you join me in Psalm 145 Psalm 145 and this is where the church
comes in The church comes in, everlasting
God, everlasting Father, everlasting righteousness, and every characteristic
and attribute of God is everlasting. I just brought up that one. That's
so valuable to us. The rest of them are so valuable
too. Don't get me wrong, but all the righteousness of Christ,
the righteousness of God, imputed to us. That is all our hope,
and that is all our righteousness. Psalm 145, verse 8. The scriptures share this. Psalm
145, verse 8. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. Church is
just saying, hallelujah. We love every word of it. I like
God slow to anger. The only time He was ever angry
with me in His everlasting righteousness, and His everlasting fatherness,
and His everlasting Godhood, the only time He was ever angry
with His everlasting children was at the cross when He was
angry with His Son. That's the only time. I was visiting with Brother Wayne
Boyd one time, I said, Wayne, what happened? What does God
do when a Christian sins? He thought about it for a while.
He says, nothing. It's either paid for or it's
not. He's not going to mark it down
and say, well, I'm going to have to stomp on you for a while. He does nothing. He's already
done it. Now, he will correct us, but
it's not over that. He corrected his son. He says,
now, as a human being, he demonstrated to us what it is to be corrected.
He became sin for us. God took out after him. Now,
to us, when we sin, when God's people sin, how does that reflect
on God? How does God deal with that?
He does nothing. It's not in his character if
the payment has been made to do something about it. It's not
in the covenant of grace. He's not going to rise and fall
in his love over his children. He has an everlasting church,
an everlasting kingdom. Now look here. The Lord is good
to all, verse 9, and has tended mercies over all his works. All
thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall
bless thee. They shall speak of the glory
of thy kingdom and talk of thy power, to make known to the sons
of men thy mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
Thy kingdom! is an everlasting kingdom, and
thy dominion endureth through all generations." What does that
say? The church is an everlasting
church. His assembly has been everlasting.
He's not going to remove one out of it. Because of what they've
done. It's all been paid for It is
enough I believe this it is enough for God through his word to strike
our heart Over what we do It is enough God will take the word
and strike our heart But he's not gonna be moved I For he was
moved. Against all our sin. It's an
everlasting father everlasting God with an everlasting righteousness
demonstrating his everlasting fatherliness with an everlasting
kingdom and Back going ahead just a little bit to Isaiah chapter
45 Isaiah chapter 45 it's no wonder that this great angel
this great messenger to go out and who did it go to? every kindred
nation people and tongue The everlasting gospel. The everlasting
gospel. That means it did not come into
creation after Adam fell. God was not caught off guard. He was not caught off guard with
Judas. Even though the scriptures tell
us plainly, my own friend did this. He was not caught off guard
when they arrested him. He was not caught off guard.
I lay down my life. All right, Isaiah 45, verse 17. Isaiah 45, verse 17. The scripture
says, but Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. you shall not be ashamed or confounded
verse 17 Isaiah 45 verse 17 but Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation now the only way you can contort
this is if you believe national Israel is God's chosen people and the only way you could do
that is say God failed when his son came to this earth he didn't
accomplish what he intended to do and therefore we have to have
this other process that we're going to go through which is
so common among people today unknown to God and unknown to
Christ and unknown to Paul and unknown to Peter he had a purpose
when he came he didn't have this new modern idea of what's going
to happen This is the picture of the church. The church has
everlasting salvation. We have an everlasting righteousness. We have an everlasting salvation.
What does God do with lost sheep when he regenerates them? He
acquaints them with the fact that he had an interest in them
before the world began. He acquaints him with the fact
that he's their everlasting Father. He acquaints him with the fact
that he has an everlasting righteousness. He acquaints him with the fact
that he's an everlasting God. He acquaints him with the fact
that he has an everlasting kingdom. And Jeremiah 31... We've been
there many times. Jeremiah 31, when the Lord is
speaking through his prophet Jeremiah with regard to the church
again. This passage is called Israel.
National Israel never got anything. Spiritual Israel gets everything. And in Jeremiah 31, we have this. And it doesn't fade, doesn't
tarnish, does not die away. God does not love us more today
because we were faithful and less yesterday because we weren't.
He loves us with an everlasting love. Unchanging. If God's love changes, it means
God changes. And if God changes, let's go
fishing. Because there's nothing for us. God must be unchangeable. He said, I change not, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. It's because of his unchangeable,
because of his promise in a covenant, because he has a covenant, a
promise to keep. All right, Jeremiah chapter 31
verse 3, it says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying,
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. I've loved the church with
an everlasting love. Why? Because God's everlasting.
There wasn't a time that he started to love the church. He's ever
loved the church. There wasn't a time he started
to have a kingdom. He has forever had a kingdom.
There wasn't a time he started to be a father. He's the everlasting
father. There wasn't a time he started
to be God. He's the everlasting God. There wasn't a time he started
to have a people. He's always had his people. And
turn with me to Isaiah 60. Isaiah 60. This is just going to drop us
right into the next angel's message. Isaiah 60 verse 19. These are words right out of
the book of Revelation. The sun shall be no more thy
light by day. Neither for brightness shall
the moon give the light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto
thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." Everlasting
light. Now, He's an everlasting God,
everlasting Father, has everlasting righteousness, He has an everlasting
kingdom, He has everlasting salvation. He has everlasting love. He has everlasting light. And it is that light that breaks
the hold of Babylon. when God gives us understanding
in salvation. So, look over here, just flip
over to Revelation 14 again if you would, and we notice here
that the next great messenger shares with us, and this is the
same message, I don't know, I've heard some
people say, Heck must have froze over because God saved somebody. What is it? Well, the other angel
said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she
made all nations to drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Babylon is fallen. no longer has the grasp, the
grip. What God did is peel the grip
of religion, peel the grip of old Babylon, the means of our
religious fornication against God off of us. Turn with me if
you would to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. This is brought out
so wonderful here. This is a wonderful chapter that
declares the many benefits of God's eternal election. But I
just want to spend a little time on verse 9. I just want to read
it. This is what God does, and this is how He strips us of old
Babylon. Babylon has a grip. Religion
has a grip. Our own old ways have a grip. Our being is gripped by sin. Our being is gripped by death. And God strips that off. We've been grappled down. We've
been held in prison. I don't know how many times in
the Old Testament and then pictures in the New Testament how God
demonstrates what he does when he releases a soul out of prison. Releases us from Babylon. Releases us from everything that
is opposed to God we are enmity against God and he takes and
gives us a new mind about God he strips us of all contrary
to God Babylon if first Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9 It says here,
For they themselves show us what manner of entering in we had
unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living
and true God. What happened? These stone gods Gold gods, wooden gods, metal
gods, everything that would attract us away from God, they're stripped
away. They're removed. They're plucked
off. Turned away from. And the only
one that can do that is God. But He does it. And the next
thing that God is able to say through His messengers is that
the reality of the gospel in the hearts, lives, and minds
of His people is they will put away their old religion. They will not be caught up in
it. They will not go back to it.
Now a lot of people go through the form and say, yes, I've forgotten
it, and before you know it, well, three out of the four seeds in
the parable of the sower do exactly the same because they never were
stripped of Babylon. They were dutiful hearers, but
didn't hear a thing. The one God worked a work of
grace, and it, this one, bore fruit. Just as these in Thessalonica
turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. They
turned to God. God turned them. Turned me and
I shall be turned from idols. look in Psalm again Psalm 142
Psalm 142 look at this look at this the everlasting gospel is preached
and the results of it God's gonna do something and he's gonna cause
Babylon the great to fall Around off the hearts of his people
Psalm 142 verse 7 Bring my soul out of prison Now there's nothing
worse than a religious prison Bring my soul out of prison.
I don't care what we call it I A lot of people say, I don't
believe in any organized religion. Well, that's fine. But God's
going to bring us out of that. He's gonna strip us of that.
He's gonna cause the hold of Babylon the grips of Babylon
shall fall What's it say bring my soul out of prison that I
might praise thy name the righteous shall come past me about For
thou shall deal bountifully with me now The Lord went into prison
for us. He went into the death for us.
He went into hell for us He went into the second death for us,
but my friend we are like Barabbas in prison, spiritually speaking,
and it is only the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Barabbas, he didn't put, I don't know if he ever put it
all together, but as a result of Christ going to the cross,
he's released. A murderer is released from prison
to go out in sunlight again. Well, that's just certainly a
wonderful picture of God saving his people. Our substitute went
to the cross. We held in prison in darkness,
in sin. He causes us to be released from
that prison. of our old self-righteousness,
our old mores and morals, our own thoughts, all our intents,
all of our own faith, all of our own good works. He strips us and causes us to
say, I am dependent wholly upon the blood and righteousness of
Jesus Christ and that alone. No longer does Babylon have part
of me. Now, though we fall, we shall
not utterly be cast down. We're going to skip and fall
and all these things. And we may be tempted, but we'll
not be turned by every wind of doctrine anymore. We'll not be
caught up. We'll be not taken away. We'll
not spend the rest of our life there. And we say, and we ask
God every day, don't ever let me go back. Don't let me ever
go back. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Isaiah again, chapter 42. Isaiah 42, verses 5, 6, 7, and 8. Isaiah 42 verse 5 Thus saith
God the Lord he that created the heavens and stretched them
out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out
of it He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and the spirit
to them that walk therein, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness,
and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for
a covenant of the people, for the light to the Gentiles, to
open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison,
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am
the Lord that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another,
neither my praise to graven images. I'll take prisoners out of the
prison house." And religion is really a prison. it is a prison whether we are
in recognized religion or not we cannot we will never you ask
someone that is steeped in religion and they will tell you they cannot
and one of the articles of Arminius in which the group that came
out with what we know as the five points of calvinism or the
doctrines of grace was just a rebuttal against that their comment was
Whether man is eternally saved or not, we'll have to do some
more study on. My goodness, that's prison. Ask someone steeped in religion,
they say, are you saved? The temple of doom next door,
you ask, we won't know until we stand before God. Thank God He takes the prisoners
out of prison. He releases Babylon, changes
our heart. The idols are left behind. Thank
God. Thank God. Final verse here.
I'm going to have to quit. We're not quite finished, but
we're going to quit. We can always come back here. Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. This is part of what
the Lord Jesus Christ shares with the church. Isaiah 61. The Lord went into a synagogue
one time, and he's a visiting preacher. And so, for all the
ways that religion hated him, he sure does cause providence
to happen. He goes in there and sits down
and they bring over a scroll and say, would you like to say
a few words? Opens up Isaiah 61, reads it and says, This day
was this fulfilled in your hearing, and sat down. Well, here it is. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening
of prison to them that are bound. to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that
mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them
beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified." Do you notice in there? He is going to cause proclaim
liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound. Great messenger comes out and
says when God gets through with his work you're free. Free indeed. First freedom we
ever had. He liberated us from Babylon. Babylon goes way back. Oh, that's
the Tower of Babel. That's where men decided that
they'd go up and be as good as God was. Their righteousness
would be as good. They could commune with the stars,
lay out the astrological, all that stuff. It goes way back
in the history of man. And God says, I will liberate
you from Babylon. That's what He is. It's fallen.
Well, the next one comes out and says, This is what happens
when God does his work. I'll give you patience. I'll give you the ability to
keep my word. And I'll give you faith. And
we'll look at that next time, Lord willing. Revelation 14, as we see the
great works of the gospel, the everlasting gospel. The work
of it is, it is the everlasting gospel to every kindred, nation,
people, and tongue. And the results of it is, I'll
pry the slimy grip of Babylon off of you, and I will put my
spirit within you.