Recap of the first angel’s message:

• Fear God:
  • Obedience to the commandments of God.
  • Obeying when you don’t understand the reason why.
  • Faith and works.
• Give glory:
  • Reflecting God’s character through a holy, obedient life – remember Romans 3:23. Sin makes us come short of God’s character.
  • The importance of the health message.
• The hour of His judgment has come:
  • God judges us by His commandments.
  • It highlights 1844 and the investigative judgment.
• Worship the Creator:
  • It zooms into one of the ten commandments – the Sabbath.
  • We need to worship in the beauty of holiness – to be holy is to be free from sin, which means we are commandments keepers.

Recap of the second angel’s message:

• The fall of Babylon.
• Who was Babylon? It was the fallen churches that refused to receive the first angel’s message preached around the time of 1844. Apostate Protestantism.
• The wine of Babylon was false doctrines, the commandments and traditions of men. It was Sunday sacredness.
  • And really, it is any doctrine that doesn’t line up with scripture.
  • Doctrines such as the immortality of the soul are a big one. When a person dies, they don’t go straight to heaven. They are asleep until the second coming of Jesus. This ties in a lot with spiritualism.
• And the wine of her fornication is what we call the national Sunday law.
  • 2 things that are put together that God cannot bless.
  • The sacredness of Sunday.
  • And also the church and state coming together.

Now we come to the third angel’s message.

Revelation 14:9-10
9 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, 10 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. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Here is a warning message. The greatest warning message ever given to man.

• It is the warning about receiving the mark of the beast.
• This message has the most about of information.
• The third angel’s message is the climactic point of all the three messages. And it is the most serious and stern.

This warning message brings us back to Revelation 13 and all that will take place with United States of America, the apostate protestants and the national Sunday law.

• The last day events will come to a conclusion at this event.
• This is the event that is going to divide the whole world.
• This is such an important event, that God uses this third angel’s message to warn us about this one thing that is going to take place.
• The everlasting gospel concludes in this.

What is the main thing that we are dealing with here though?

• It is all about worship.
• The worship of the beast and the image, versus the call to worship the Creator God back in the first angel’s message.
• Revelation 13:8
  All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
  • Those that will worship the beast and the image are those whose names are not in the book of life.
  • Meaning, if this beast and its image is worshipped, you will be lost.
• It’s interesting to note that this word worship is mentioned right here in Revelation the most times out of any book in the whole Bible.
  • It is 24 times compared to the rest of the books that mention the word worship.
• Revelation 13:4
  So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
  • The dragon wants to be worshipped.
  • The beast wants to be worshipped.
  • And who really is behind all of it? Of course, Satan is!
• Look at what he said to Jesus on the mountain when he came to tempt Christ at the beginning of His ministry right after He was baptized.
  • Matthew 4:9
    And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
• He desires to be worshipped. He has desired to be God for so long! Since he was there living in heaven.
• And the mark of the beast is going to be his moment on earth. Forcing everyone to worship him.

It is in the three angel’s messages that we understand what it means to worship.

• If Satan can get us to break the 10 commandments and cause us to sin, we make Satan our master. It is him that we worship.
• Romans 6:16
  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
  • When we sin, we become a slave to sin.
• This is why the first angel’s message emphasizes the importance of fearing God.
  • To obey His commandments.
  • And when we do that, we will give glory to God.
  • We won’t be afraid of the judgment.
  • And we will understand what true worship is about – the center of it is the Sabbath.
• So the devil’s desire above anything else is just to get us to sin.
  • When you break one, you break them all.
  • And when we sin, we become the slave to sin.
  • He is our master.
  • It is he that we worship.

What is the first commandment?

• You shall have no other gods before me.
• What does that mean?
• Let me show you from scripture what it means to have another god before the true God.

I want to take you back to the time of Moses. He’s been out feeding sheep for 40 years already after he ran from Egypt.

• One day, God decides that it’s time. And He calls Moses from a burning bush.
• Moses turns aside to see this phenomenon and quickly realizes that God is calling him to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
• Moses gives all sorts of excuses.
  • I can’t talk.
  • They won’t believe me.
• God deals with them all one by one.
  • He says I will be with your mouth.
  • He shows him miracles that He will be with Him.
• But then finally, look at what Moses says to God.
• Exodus 4:13
  But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”
  • He basically tells God, please send someone else!
  • After all that God has done to show him that He would be with him he still doesn’t want to go.
• So what does God do?
• Exodus 4:14-16
  14 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. 16 So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.
  • God tells Moses that He will choose Aaron to be his spokesperson.
• And look at this detail. He says in verse 16 that he will be your He will be your mouth.
  • And you, Moses, will be to him like God.
• What was the order going to be?
  • God would tell Moses, and Moses would tell Aaron, and then Aaron would speak to the people.
  • God didn’t really need Aaron. He didn’t call Aaron. He was just happy to speak through Moses and that was it.
  • But Moses was unwilling.
  • So Moses was going to be like God to Aaron.
  • Why was that?
  • Because God was using Moses simply like a channel to communicate to Aaron what he wanted him to say.
• Who is your God?
  • The one that has the loudest voice in your life that you listen to and that you obey is your God.
• And many people at the end of time will simply follow the commandments of man, the traditions of man. And they will follow that despite truth being so clearly preached to them.
• They will choose Satan as their God.
• All those that receive the mark of the beast on their foreheads or their hands are worshipping the devil even though they may be thinking in their hearts that they are worshipping the true God because they are despising His ten commandments and dishonoring God with their actions.
• Matthew 15:8-9
  8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
• It’s easy to say we are honouring God. But are we really? What do our actions say?
• That sort of worship is vain. It’s useless. They are following and living a life that God never intended for them to live.
• They are worshipping the devil.

Now coming back to Revelation 14, what does it say if we receive the mark of the beast? What is the result?

• Revelation 14:10
  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. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
• We will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength!
• Remember that we read about the wine of the wrath of Babylon back in the second angel’s message?
• We will either have to face and drink the wrath of Babylon or the wrath of God one day. It is up to us to decide which one we would rather have.
• It’s an easy choice of course. Give me the wine of Babylon any day, right? That will be nothing in comparison to the wine of God’s wrath.
• But because of economy, no buying or selling, because of the love of money many people will choose to drink of God’s wrath later rather than stand faithful today.
• 1 Timothy 6:10
  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
• That is going to be the downfall of many – their love for money.

Jesus actually drank of the wine of God’s wrath for us already.

• Matthew 26:39
  He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
• In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ tasted of that wrath for each of us.
• He paid the penalty for our sins already.
• That cup held the wrath of God as we read in Revelation 14 there – poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation.

What is the wine of the wrath of God?

• Revelation 15:1
  Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.
• It is the seven last plagues that God will pour out on the earth at the end of time. The righteous will be spared from it, but those that receive the mark of the beast will feel God’s wrath, the plagues, upon them.
• This takes place before the second coming. The punishment on those that are wicked and alive at that time who have worshipped the beast and received the mark of the beast.
• The wrath of man will pale in comparison to those seven last plagues. We will read about it in the future.

However, that is not all. What else does the third angel’s message say?

• Revelation 14:10
  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. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
• It says that he will also be tormented with fire and brimstone as well.
• When does that take place?
• Revelation 20:10
  The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
• This is after the 1,000 years which commences after the second coming.
• So before the second coming, there is the seven last plagues after probation has closed.
• Then after the second coming is the 1,000 years. And at the conclusion of that 1,000 years, God will finally destroy all the wicked including the devil and all his angels.

So this third angel’s message is a warning message and a salvational message. Trying to save everyone from worshipping the beast and its image and to prevent people from receiving the mark of the beast!

• God in His mercy is trying to save everyone.
• Yes, He draws us with His love. He shows us the blessings of a sanctified and holy life.
• But He also warns us of the consequences of our disobedience. Not to scare us. But to show us that it is not worth it going with the devil. It’s a bad business decision on every level. It makes no sense to go down that path.

Let’s continue on in Revelation 14.

• Revelation 14:11
  And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
• This is still describing about the fire and brimstone event that takes place at the end of the 1,000 years.
• And it seems to suggest that there will be an eternally burning hellfire that will continually burn all the sinners and the devil and his angels.
• However, this is not the case at all. This is not the time to study about hellfire. But if you are questioning that, then I appeal to you to have a deeper Bible study time with me into the truth about hell.
• God is not going to burn the sinners forever. Rather, the consequences are eternal and there are many Bible texts to show that.

Notice that it says that they have no rest day or night.

• When you think of rest, you think of the Sabbath.
• This group refuse the Sabbath rest.
• Hebrews 4:9-11
  9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
• There still, today, remains a rest for each of us. And the Sabbath is symbolic of that.
• But God wants us to cease from our works on the Sabbath. And it is a greater object lesson that there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves.
• Titus 3:5
  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
  • We are not saved by works of righteousness, but by God’s mercy alone.
  • There is nothing that we can literally do to be righteous.
  • God can only make us righteous.
  • Keeping the law of God does not make us righteous. It is evidence that we are righteous.
• Romans 4:6
  Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works.
  • We are righteous apart from works.
  • God imputes that righteousness to us through faith, not through works.
• So the Sabbath is a reminder of that every week, that we must cease from our own works of self-righteousness. Come to church on the Sabbath and rest. There is nothing you can do to BE righteous.
• But then go out the rest of the week and show the fruit of righteousness through an obedient life in Christ.
• That’s the blessing of the Sabbath.

Romans 1:17
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

• The truth of the matter is that we are made righteous through faith. We need to learn to live by faith.
• What does that mean? How can we live by faith?
• Romans 10:17
  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
  • Faith comes by hearing the word of God.
• Learning to live by every word of God. Not living based on what we see. Not on the outward. But solely based on the word of God.
• At the end of time, the overwhelming evidence will be that we need to worship on the Sunday.
  • Already majority of people in this world who are Christian worship on the Sunday.
  • And then there will be a law instituted with good intentions to call people to worship on Sunday.
  • Many will be deceived. They will believe that this is for the best, that we need to come back to God. The law will just echo the sentiments of many people’s hearts so it will be an easy matter for many to follow.
  • But God says, don’t look on the outward. Look at my word. Live by every word. Trust what I say in the Bible.
  • Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
  • Trust me and not the overwhelming majority who are sincere and think they got it right, yet they are so far from the truth. They are the commandments of men. The traditions without any foundations on truth.
• Exodus 23:2
  You shall not follow a crowd to do evil…
  • We shouldn’t be following the majority.
  • Often the majority is not correct.
• Only 8 people were saved in the ark.
• Only 2 of the 12 spies came back with a faithful report.
• Only an 144,000 will be faithful at the end of time in the very last of days.

Abraham was the father of faith. And he had to learn to live by faith.

• The greatest challenge that he had after God told him that he was going to have a son… do you know what the greatest challenge and hurdle was? Abraham runs home after God has given him a promise that he will be the father of many nations. Look at what the Bible says.
• Genesis 16:1-2
  1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.
• On the outward, it didn’t seem very hopeful that they would ever have a child.
• And Sarai could not believe it. So she encouraged her husband to go and have a child with a woman who was not his wife!
• And look at what it says at the very end of that verse.
• Abraham went and listened to the voice of his wife Sarah.
• The biggest competition with God’s word is the word of a loved one. The word of someone we care about or that cares about us.
• Remember who is your God?
  • Who is the loudest voice in your life that you listen to?
  • For a moment, Abraham made Sarah his God. He faltered in faith.
• Don’t you think Sarah wanted the best for her husband.
  • Don’t you think she wanted to assist in the plan of God.
  • She didn’t want to be the hinderance.
  • But in her sincerity, she influenced her husband to go down the wrong path.
  • And there is the father of faith, faltering just for a moment. Listening to man’s word over God’s word.
• God later corrects him and sets him on the right path. Finally he is able to exercise the faith that would later define his life for the right, to be just.
• But friends, sincerity is never an indicator of truth. We can be sincerely wrong.
• We need God’s word to be a clear guide in our life.

And this is why the conclusion of the third angel’s message says this.

• Revelation 14:12
  Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
• The saints – they keep the commandments of God and they have the faith of Jesus.
  • They don’t have the faith of Abraham. They have the faith of Jesus!
• And it is faith that helps them to bear the fruit of righteousness in their lives – that is obedience to all of God’s commandments.
• We’ve already seen the importance of the 10 commandments throughout all of the three angel’s messages.
• But how to really keep it? You can’t keep it by yourself. You need the faith of Jesus. You have to exercise the measure of faith that God has given to you already.
• Look at how Jesus lived. What was His faith like?
  • John 5:19
    Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
    • His actions were guided by His Father. Whatever He saw the Father do, that is what He did.
  • John 5:30
    I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
    • He didn’t seek His own will. He always sought the will of His Father. He was always asking His Father what He should do.
  • John 12:49-50
    49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
    • He didn’t even speak His own words. Everything He said was guided and influenced by His Father.
  • Galatians 2:16
    Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
    • We are not justified by the works of the law.
    • We are justified by the faith of Jesus.
  • The works are an evidence of our faith. That’s all.

But there is one last thing we have to look at before we close here. The patience of the saints.

• Why is patience such an important characteristic?
• Another word for patience is endurance.
• Where do we see endurance in the Bible?
• Matthew 24:13
  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
  • We need to endure if we are to be saved at last.
• Endure what? Look at what it says in the earlier verses of Matthew 24.
• Matthew 24:9-12
  9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
  • Endure persecution.
  • Endure the love of others growing cold against us.
  • Endure betrayal.
  • Endure the mark of the beast!
• And guess what we will have to do during this time when people are trying to kill us.
• Matthew 24:14
  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
  • The gospel will be preached to all the world.
• James 1:2-3
  2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
• God’s people will have the greatest patience more than anyone else ever because they will go through the greatest trial on earth that no one will have ever faced before.
• That is why we need the faith of Jesus.

How can we endure?

• Hebrews 12:1-2
  1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
  • Look to Jesus.
  • Keep your eyes on Him.
  • Run the race with patience.
  • We have to lay aside every weight of sin.

How to look to Jesus?

• Revelation 1:1
  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John.
  • Study the book of Revelation!

And finally, there is one other thing that we need to consider if we are to endure and have patience to get through the last days.

• 2 Peter 1:5-6
  5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.
  • Before patience you have temperance.
  • This is why the first angel’s message talks about health – giving glory to God through what we eat and drink.
• Do not underestimate the importance of our health today. Many people will receive the mark of the beast simply because they could not control their appetites.

There is much to look at.

• Righteousness by faith.
• The Sabbath.
• The commandments of God.
• Patience.
• Our diets, what we eat and drink.

May God help each of us grow in these areas of our lives. I’m just touching the surface of them. Study. Dig deeper.

But the most important today. We need to learn to live by faith. Faith in Christ. Faith in His word, the Holy Scriptures. Learning to make that the rule of our faith and our lives.