Revelation In Overalls
Bible Prophecy Speaks To Century 21

Part VI: "The Gospel According to Revelation" (Revelation 14)

Sermon by Pastor Dale Wolcott

March 9, 2002

[Scripture References are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted]

Responsive Reading 

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace,...from Jesus Christ,...him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God...; to him be glory...for ever and ever. [Revelation 1:4]

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy...for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. [5:9]

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun.... And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. [12:1-5]

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. [3:20]

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. [22:17]

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. [3:5]

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. [12:11]

And I heard...the voice of a great multitude...saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.... Let us be glad and rejoice,...for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. [19:6-8]

These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. [7:14]

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. [22:20]

*  *  *   *   *

"A man met me at the door of the apartment with a drink in his hand," recalls police chief Jerry Peralta. "He was laughing." Peralta was doing his duty that August evening. It was the kind of duty most police officers would prefer. Instead of arresting people, he was trying to help people. He’d been knocking on doors all afternoon in the seafront town of Pass Christian, Mississippi, giving the word that Hurricane Camille was due ashore in just a few hours, and giving out evacuation instructions. Most people were grateful, of course. By nightfall, the streets were empty. People had gone inland to higher ground, taken refuge in a safer place. At around 9 p.m., the winds were gusting past 60 mph. Breakers were splashing over the seawall, and the chief decided to make one last call on a beachfront apartment complex where some folks hadn’t left yet.

That’s when the man came to the door with a drink in his hand. There were about 20 people in that luxury apartment overlooking the ocean. They were having a hurricane party, and they had no intentions of evacuating. They asked the officer if they had to leave, or if it was their choice. Later, Officer Peralta recalls how the conversation ended. "I told them I couldn’t order them out, but I could take the names of their next of kin. That’s when they laughed." So the officer turned away; the party-goers shut the door. A few hours later, the wind was hurling bullets of rain at 210 mph, and then a giant wave, 40 feet high, slammed into the steel and concrete of that apartment building, collapsing it into a pile of rubble. Everybody at the hurricane party died. [H. E. Douglass, How to Survive the 21^st Century, pp. 111, 112]

When the police chief brought the hurricane warning to every door in Pass Christian, Mississippi, was he carrying good news? I’d like to suggest that his warning message was very good news — wonderfully good news. The news was:

#1 We have an early warning system — sophisticated electronic equipment that can see over the horizon and tell in advance what’s coming this way.

#2 We have a highway system. All the roads are open. There is a way to escape the coming storm.

#3 We have a place of refuge for you. If you don’t have anywhere to go, the school gyms are open. The Red Cross is there with hot chocolate and blankets.

Good News — you don’t need to die tonight! You can live to see the sunshine beyond the storm!

Seventh-day Adventists believe that we have been commissioned by God Himself to give the last good-news message to a world that’s facing a global storm. Some people think they’ve heard it all before. Many people prefer to party on. But all around the world, there are hundreds, thousands, millions of people who are saying, "Thank you, Lord, for this great good news."

Let’s open our Bibles to Revelation 14. Our topic today is "The Gospel According to Revelation", or in other words, "The Good News According to Revelation."

Chapter 14 brings us to the climax of the historical portion of Revelation. Do you recall the prophetic sequences? First there are seven churches, then seven seals, and then seven trumpets. Then, starting in chapter 12, there’s a fourth and final historical sequence, verified by the 1,260-year prophecy, referred to three times in chapters 12 & 13, which ties this prophecy securely to the prophecy of Daniel 7. In every case, these historical prophecies have been nearly all fulfilled except for the very final portion. That’s why we know we are living in the "time of the end." Hymn writer Frank Belden expressed it this way:

Look for the waymarks as you journey on,

Look for the waymarks, passing one by one;

Down through the ages, past the kingdoms four—

Where are we standing? Look the waymarks o’er.

Look for the waymarks, the great prophetic waymarks,...

The journey’s almost o’er. [SDA Hymnal #596]

And then in Revelation 14:14, John finally sees what he’s been looking for ever since chapter one. In chapter 1 he was told, "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." Now in Revelation 14:14 we read:

"Then, I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle."

Now note the verses just preceding verse 14. Starting in verse 6, we see three angels, flying through the sky like the police chief sweeping the streets in advance of the hurricane, carrying the very last message of warning before Jesus returns to put an end to human history and human probation. This is the passage we call the "Three Angels’ Messages." These are the verses that contain the reason for the existence of the Seventh-day Adventist church. No other church is proclaiming these three messages. In no other church will you hear these messages explained. Here in Midland, we’ve placed them at the forefront of our weekly worship experience. [http://members.aol.com/MidlandSDA/3angels.html]

Let’s notice very briefly what they say:

Revelation 14:7 "saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

Revelation 14: 8 "And another angel followed, saying "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."

Revelation 14: 9, 10a "Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation."

This is the perhaps strongest warning in all the Bible. It is as if the angel police officer is shouting — get to high ground! A hurricane is coming!

Now let’s go back to verse six and notice how the Three Angels’ Messages are introduced: "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel." (Revelation14:6) "Gospel" means "Good news". This is only time this word is used in Revelation, and it’s used to introduce these three messages! How can we preach this last warning message as "Good News"? How can we understand it as Good News?

There’s a key principle in studying Revelation: All other Bible books meet and end in Revelation. To understand Revelation, we must understand the rest of Bible. What does the rest of the Bible say about "the gospel"? Let’s look at two key passages found earlier in the Bible.

1 Corinthians 15: 1-4 "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

The gospel is the story of Jesus. "Christ died for our sins" — That is the gospel! He died for you, for me. I’m doomed because I’m a guilty sinner. But Jesus took my place. Hallelujah!

There’s more: Jesus is alive! That is also the Gospel. Jesus is the road to higher ground. Jesus is the hostel where we find refuge from the storm. Do the three angels shout? Yes. Are the three angels’ messages scary? Yes, we live in a scary world, a scary time in history. The cover of a recent Time magazine asked, "Can we stop the next 9/11?" The one word answer inside was "No." So the three angels shout. But what they are shouting is, Come to Jesus! Only in knowing Him will you find refuge from the storm! The Book of Revelation is the "Revelation of Jesus Christ."

What is the last word of the three angels’ messages? Look at verse 12: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." The three angels’ messages begin with the everlasting gospel, and end with the faith of Jesus! All through Revelation, Jesus is the bleeding Lamb, sitting on the throne of universe!

If people are getting deep into speculation about how the mark of the beast is going to be put on people’s foreheads or hands; if people are getting deep into exactly how much food we should stockpile in preparation for the great tribulation that’s ahead of us, or which cabin in the north woods will be the safest place to hide, remember: Safety is in Jesus; preparation is knowing Jesus. If you know Jesus, you have peace in the face of the storm!

Another key passage about the Gospel is found in Romans 1:16, 17:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

Note two things regarding the gospel:

1) The gospel is about righteousness. Revelation is about the great controversy between good and evil, right? It’s about righteousness and unrighteousness. Good is going to triumph. Evil will be destroyed. If I’m going to go to heaven, I have to be righteous, right? The Bible says the gospel is the power of God to save me. In other words, the gospel is where I’m going to find the righteousness I need in order to be saved. I’ll find it in Jesus.

2) So how do I get this righteousness? Now note the end of verse 17 – "The just (i.e., righteous) shall live (i.e., be saved, escape the tribulation, get to heaven) by faith." So what is faith? How do I get it? How can I be sure if I have enough of it? The three angels’ messages are about the contrast between false faith and true faith. That horrible "mark of the beast" is Satan’s last-day counterfeit for saving faith! It’s important to identify the beast in Revelation 13. It is a religious/political power that Satan has used through the centuries to turn people away from genuine, simple, saving, powerful faith in Jesus. Prophecy makes it crystal clear that that power is the papal system headquartered in Rome. Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 leave no room for doubt. But let me share a paragraph from a book originally published in 1900:

A pope is one who presumes to occupy the place in counsel which rightfully belongs to God alone. The man who makes himself pope by following his own counsel is just as bad as the man who dictates to another, and he is more likely to be led astray than is the man who follows some pope other than himself. If one is to follow a pope at all, it would be more consistent to accept the pope of Rome, because he has more experience in popery than any other. But we have the Word of God. When God speaks, the part of wisdom is to obey at once without taking counsel even of one’s own heart. The Lord’s name is "Counselor" (Isaiah 9:6), and He is "wonderful" in counsel. Hear Him! [E. J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, pages 24, 25]

A few years ago Nancy got a letter from a college roommate who had been through a lot of trauma since their school days. She went through a divorce and had a lot of spiritual ups and downs. She had finally found a faith relationship with Jesus and wrote:

"I’ve often wondered why I made the mistakes I did.... I assume it was because I had the wrong idea about Christ’s place in my life — I thought I was supposed to do everything as good and as hard as I was able, and the thought that I was supposed to daily give myself to God, for Him to actually direct my life, never entered my head!"

Notice these words from my favorite author; I am putting it into the first person, to apply it to myself:

"By faith [I] can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner's [my] account. Christ's righteousness is accepted in place of man's [my] failure, and God receives, pardons, justifies, the repentant, believing soul, treats [me] as though [I] were righteous, and loves [me] as He loves His Son." [Selected Messages, book 1, p. 367]

Do you believe that? Have you done what it says? Bring to God the merits of Christ. Talk to Him in prayer that way. That is "righteousness by faith"! That is believing the gospel!

John Bunyan’s famous book, Pilgrim’s Progress, tells the story of a man named Christian, who lives in the City of Destruction. Someone named Evangelist comes and gives him a scroll that says "Flee from the wrath to come." (The three angels’ messages!) So he sets out for the Celestial City and begins his pilgrimage. But he has a heavy burden on his back, a burden of sin and guilt. He doesn’t know how to get rid of it. The pilgrimage is hard.

Then he comes to a little gate that leads him to a hill topped by a cross. As he approaches the cross, the burden falls from his back, rolls down the hill into the mouth of an empty tomb, gone!

That’s faith! Just come to Jesus. Do it daily. He will change your life. He will give you His righteousness! Keep believing, Keep inviting, keep coming, keep trusting Him instead of yourself.

Later in that famous book Pilgrim’s Progress, there’s a passage that sums up the gospel according to Revelation, according to the whole Bible. It’s a conversation between Christian and Hopeful as they are nearing the end of their pilgrimage:

CHRISTIAN: Why, what was it that brought your sins to mind?

HOPEFUL: Many things; as: If I did but meet a good man in the streets; or, if I have heard any read in the Bible; or, if my head did begin to ache; or, if I heard the bell toll for some that were dead; or, if I thought of dying myself; but especially when I thought of myself, that I must quickly come to judgment. [This sounds like the first angel’s message!]

CHRISTIAN: And could you at any time, with ease, get off the guilt of sin, when by any of these ways it came upon you?

HOPEFUL: No, not I; for then they got faster hold of my conscience; and then if I did but think of going back to sin -- though my mind was turned against it -- it would be double torment to me.

CHRISTIAN: And how did you then ?

HOPEFUL: I thought I must endeavor to mend life; or else, thought I, I am sure to be damned.

CHRISTIAN: And did you endeavor to mend ?

HOPEFUL: Yes, and fled from, not only my sins, but sinful company too, and betook me to duties, as praying, reading, weeping for sin, speaking truth to my neighbors, etc. These things did I, with many others, too much here to relate.

CHRISTIAN: And did you think yourself well, then?

HOPEFUL: Yes, for a while; but at last my trouble came tumbling upon me again, and, that over the neck of all my reformations.

CHRISTIAN: How came that about, since you were now reformed?

HOPEFUL: There were several things brought it upon me, especially such sayings as these: "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." "When ye have done all those things, say, We are unprofitable"; with many more such like. I further thought thus: If a man runs a hundred pounds into the shopkeeper's debt, and after that shall pay for all that he shall fetch, yet if his old debt stand still in the book uncrossed, the shopkeeper may sue him for it, and cast him into prison till he shall pay the debt.

CHRISTIAN: Well, and how did you apply this to yourself?

HOPEFUL: Why, I thought thus with myself; I have by my sins run a great way into God's book, and my now reforming will not pay off that score. Therefore I should think, still, under all present amendments, But how shall I be freed from that damnation that I brought myself in danger of by my former transgressions?

CHRISTIAN: A very good application; but pray go on.

HOPEFUL: Another thing that hath troubled me ever since my late amendments is, that if I look narrowly into the best of what I do now, I still see sin, new sin, mixing itself with the best of that I do; so that now I am forced go conclude, that notwithstanding my former fond conceit of myself and duties I have committed sin enough in one day to send me to hell, though my former life had been faultless.

CHRISTIAN: And what did you then?

HOPEFUL: Do! I could not tell what to do, until I broke my mind to Faithful; for he and I were well acquainted. And he told me, that unless I could obtain the righteousness of a man that never had sinned, neither mine own, nor all the righteousness of the world, could save me.

CHRISTIAN: And did you think he spake true?

HOPEFUL: Had he told me so when I was pleased and satisfied with my own amendments, I had called him fool for his pains; but now, since I see my own infirmity, and the sin which cleaves to my best performance, I have been forced to be of his opinion.

CHRISTIAN: But did you think, when at first he suggested it to you, that there was such a man to be found, of whom it might justly be said that never committed sin?

HOPEFUL: I must confess the words at first sounded strangely; but after a little more talk and company with him, I had full conviction about it.

CHRISTIAN: And did you ask him what man this was, and how you must be justified by him?

HOPEFUL: Yes, and he told me it was the Lord Jesus that dwelleth on the right hand of the Most High. And thus, said he, you must be justified by him, even by trusting to what he hath done by himself in the days of his flesh, and suffered when he did hang on the tree. I asked him further how that man's righteousness could be of such efficacy, to justify another before God. And he told me, he was the mighty God, and did what he did, and died the death also, not for himself, but for me, to whom his doings, and the worthiness of them, should be imputed, if I believed on him.

CHRISTIAN: And what did you do then?

HOPEFUL: I made my objections against my believing, for that I thought he was not willing to save me.

CHRISTIAN: And what said Faithful to you then?

HOPEFUL: He bade me go to him and see. Then I said it was presumption. He said, No; for I was invited to come: Then he gave me a book of Jesus inditing, to encourage me the more freely to come; and he said concerning that book, that every jot and tittle thereof stood firmer than heaven and earth. Then I asked him what I must do when I came; and he told me, I must entreat upon my knees, with all my heart and soul, the Father to reveal him to me.

CHRISTIAN: And how was he revealed unto you?

HOPEFUL: I did not see him with my bodily eyes, but with the eyes of my understanding; and thus it was. One day I was very sad, I think sadder than at any one time in my life: and this sadness was through a fresh sight of the greatness and vileness of my sins. And as I was then looking for nothing but hell, and the everlasting damnation of my soul, suddenly, as I thought, I saw the Lord Jesus looking down from heaven upon me, and saying, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." But I replied, Lord, I am a great, a very great sinner: and he answered, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Then I said, " But, Lord, what is believing ?" And then I saw from that saying, "He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst," that believing and coming was all one; and that he that came, that is, that ran out in his heart and affections after salvation by Christ, he indeed believed in Christ. Then the water stood in mine eyes, and I asked further, "But, Lord, may such a great sinner as I am be indeed accepted of thee, and be saved by thee!" And I heard him say, "And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Then I said, But how, Lord, must I consider of thee in my coming to thee, that my faith may be placed aright upon thee? Then he said, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "He died for our sins, and rose again for our justification." "He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." From all which I gathered, that I must look for righteousness in his person, and for satisfaction for my sins by his blood: that what he did in obedience to his Father’s law, and in submitting to the penalty thereof, was not for himself, but for him that will accept it for his salvation, and be thankful. And now was my heart full of joy, mine eyes full of tears, and mine affections running over with love to the name, people, and ways of Jesus Christ.

CHRISTIAN: This was a revelation of Christ to your soul, indeed. But tell me particularly what effect this had upon your spirits.

HOPEFUL: It made me greatly ashamed of the vileness of my former life, and confounded me with the sense of mine own ignorance; for there never came thought into my heart before now, that showed me so the beauty of Jesus Christ. It made me love a holy life, and long to do something for the honor and glory of the name of the Lord Jesus. Yea, I thought that had I now a thousand gallons of blood in my body, I could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus.

This year, we are hosting a series of meetings called Hope for Homeland. The gospel is such good news that we can’t keep it to ourselves! This will be an opportunity for all to share the gospel. Those you bring will be the harvest. Let’s sing about Jesus in our closing hymn.