Simple Faith

Guest (Male): Coming up today on Simple Faith, Pastor Bill Henry reminds us to stay the course and lean on God.

Bill Henry: You look around and you just feel like giving up. Maybe some of you have. You know, dude, I'm just, I go to the grocery store, I come home, I don't go out, don't do anything. A lot of people kind of went into COVID reclusive and never came out. And a lot of Christians even started living in fear. We got caught up in the fear of the world.

And some of us maybe still there. Hey, knock yourself out of that. Knock yourself out of being afraid of the world. We need to be those enduring. We need to be those going forth in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Guest (Male): This is Simple Faith featuring the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Bill Henry. Revelation has long been one of the most controversial and argued books in the entire Bible. The things revealed to John in this amazing vision of the end times is frightening in some places, but it's also something wonderful to look forward to.

We'll be in chapter 14 again today as Pastor Bill shares more about the three angels. Here's our teacher, Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: And let's open our Bibles please this morning to Revelation chapter 14 as we continue our verse-by-verse study. Revelation chapter 14, and we're going to be looking at verses 12 and 13 this morning. Revelation 14:12, "Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus."

"And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' 'Blessed indeed,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.'"

So, it's an interesting thing as I was looking at this scripture. I'm reminded even once again as we did the Friday night prophecy update. My wife always comes up to me during the week and she says, "How are you doing, honey, just kind of wading into the muck of the world as you're looking through and sifting through all the stories that you've gathered from the month?"

And I'll be honest, sometimes I feel just like I need to get up and take a shower. And so I just come to the Word of God once again and I'm washed afresh by the Lord. But as we live in these days and we see the things that are happening, it can be overwhelming. Anybody else, amen? You can start to have that vexed feeling like Lot's.

There's a new song out called *Come Jesus, Come*. And some of the things on there, biblical-wise, like if we did it here, we'd probably have to change some of the words. But the heart behind it is, "Lord come. Your bride, the spirit and the bride say come," and crying out for our Lord Jesus to come for us. And yet we are called and commanded to endure in these days.

And so if the Lord calls and commands us, guess what? Here's the blessed thing: He then equips us to do so. And even here in the midst of the great tribulation, notice again we've had three angels here in chapter 14 go around the world. The first one, if you remember, was preaching to all the nations, the tribes, the tongues, and the peoples the everlasting gospel.

Then the second angel came around and basically saying that it was time for Babylon, the city that made all the nations of the world drink of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, to fall. And then the third angel came around and it warned the earth of the wrath to come for all those who would worship the beast and its image and receive the mark on their forehead or on their hand, that they shall drink of the wine of God's wrath.

And yet in the midst of that, we come to verse 12. And it says, "Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus." Now let's read this out of verse 12 out of the Amplified. I love this. "Here comes in a call for the steadfastness of the saints, the patience, the endurance of the people of God who habitually keep God's commandments and habitually keep their faith in Jesus."

Now remember, we are at the last part of the tribulation. Again, this is sometime either at the three-and-a-half-year mark now or past that. It may be a few weeks, a few months, even a year or two. We don't know exactly the time because again we're not given an exact timeframe always here. But again, this is at the last part of the 70th week of Daniel or the seven-year tribulation.

And God has been pouring his wrath out for some time. And yet, the wrath now is going to be poured out full strength, as we saw in verse 10, upon a world that is rejecting Jesus Christ. And this still includes a majority of the Jewish people upon the earth who have not come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Yet, what we need to understand is that during the tribulation, there will be many who come to faith in Jesus Christ. Countless numbers will come to faith in Jesus Christ. The church raptured up at the beginning of the tribulation, not here for these seven years. And so these other people though come to faith in Jesus Christ. So these are what we call tribulation saints, if you will.

Let's look at that real quick. Look, turn to Revelation chapter seven with me. Revelation chapter seven, verses nine and 10. And it says, "After these things I looked, and behold, a great number, which no one could number, all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice saying, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.'"

Now again, look at verse nine again. "A great multitude which no one could number." Well, who are these people? Look at verse 13. "Then one of the elders answered saying to me, 'Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?' And I said to him, 'Sir, you know.' So he said to me, 'These are the ones who came out of the great tribulation.'"

So these are those who are going to come out of the tribulation, saints that are saved during the tribulation. "And washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. And they shall neither hunger anymore or thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to the living fountains of water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Amen. Now again, this is for the tribulation saints. These are the tribulation saints. Interesting how it says they won't hunger anymore. They won't thirst anymore. The sun will not strike them or any heat. He will lead them to fountains of living waters. Now again, as we're going to see here in just a few minutes as we look briefly at the seven bowl judgments, that describes a lot of the seven bowl judgments that are still to come.

So and even at that time, God will wipe away every tear. So basically what we see is that even though these huge multitudes of people that no one could number from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, they will come out of the tribulation, they will suffer. We need to understand this. They will be persecuted like never before.

Now today, as we see all this wicked antisemitism happening, it's around the world. It's not just here in the United States, although it seems to be mostly at our colleges and universities. We see these wicked people. They're not just there chanting against the war, but they're there just saying all these disgusting and despicable things against Jewish people and the United States as well, "death to America" as well.

Mainly right now it's about the Jewish people. At one of the colleges, they were celebrating because at night in one of their little camps, they were showing videos from October 7th, videos of Hamas as they're slaughtering the people of Israel, innocent people. Murdering, raping, throwing babies in ovens in front of their moms and dads. Again, remember the ones that they say the IDF did all this, and yet they're showing the Hamas video and cheering them.

That's how wicked it is. But here's the thing, even in the midst of this wickedness that we see, and by the way we should stand up against this stuff, we should vocalize, be vocal and stand up against this wickedness. But here's the thing, even though this is wicked, we need to understand that Christians even today are still the number one persecuted faith in the world.

Christians have been the number one persecuted faith probably since the beginning of Christianity with Stephen and then on after that. It's a very interesting thing. But again, like nothing before, notice it says here, we understand that they will be persecuted like never before. Remember the time they're living in.

Satan now and his angels have been cast out of heaven. Satan's angry because we're told he knows his time is short. And we're also told if you're there back in 14, just flip back to chapter 13 and look at verse seven. Take a left in your Bible, one page or so. Revelation 13:7, it says this, "It was granted him to make war with the saints and to overcome them."

So in the wrath of Satan, he will make war with the saints and God has given them power at this time to overcome those saints. Now again, as we saw in chapter 13, if they don't receive the mark or worship the beast, they will be killed. Turn back there with me. Look first of all in chapter 13 verses 16 and 17.

They won't be able to buy or sell anywhere in the world without worshipping the beast, taking his mark. Verse 16, "He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or name of the beast or number of his name."

Now look at verse 15 of Revelation 13, because if they don't worship the beast, they'll be killed as well. Verse 15 says Revelation 13:15, "He was granted power to breathe to the image of the beast, and that image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed."

So they're facing the anger of Satan, they're facing basically the anger of the beast. They won't be able to buy or sell. All these different things. And again at this point of the tribulation, it's really winding down, but they're still having to go on to endure the worst part, the last part of the wrath of God being poured out upon the world.

And there will be Christians, I believe, that will be collateral damage, tribulation saints that will be what's called collateral damage. Now as we come to the next couple of chapters, we're going to see the last judgments of God. They're called the bowl judgments. We're not going to look at them, I'm just going to kind of read to you what's coming.

The first bowl judgment, there will be loathsome sores on all the people. The second bowl judgment, all the seas will be turned to blood. The third bowl judgment, the rivers and springs of water turn to blood. The sun, the fourth bowl judgment, the sun will increase in heat and will scorch men and women with fire.

The fifth bowl judgment, the kingdom of Satan will become full of darkness and people will literally gnaw at their tongues in pain. The sixth bowl judgment, the great river Euphrates will dry up and three unclean spirits will come out of the mouth of Satan. These will be lying spirits performing signs to get the kings of the world to rise up against God and declare war with the Lord.

And then the seventh bowl judgment says this, that a voice will be heard all around the world saying, "It is done." And there will be noises and thunderings and lightnings, and there will be a great earthquake that has not occurred since men were on the earth. Anybody here ever live in California, Southern California specifically?

You know, you got to a point where you get up out of bed, you feel shaking, you get up and it's like, "Eh, this is about a 4.2, 4.3. I'm just going to go back to bed." And others, "This might be a five or six." But this is going to be an earthquake that has not occurred since men were on the earth. This didn't happen back in AD 70 as the Preterist view falsely believes.

This is going to happen. Now it's interesting, there are some Bible scholars who believe that the tribulation saints will be sealed by God against most of these bowl judgments. But they, I still believe that they're going to be dying in large numbers, whether they're killed by Satan or other things. So again, it's a very interesting picture and a very wicked picture to be looking at.

Yet in the midst of this, in the midst of all this, I love this in verse 12. Check it out again. We come to our text this morning, "Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus." Again, I like how the Amplified says it. It says, "Here comes in a call for the steadfastness of the saints, the patience, the endurance of the people of God, those who habitually keep God's commandments and their faith in Jesus."

This is a call for the steadfastness of the saints, and I love this in the Greek. There it's patient endurance. You know, a lot of us, we don't hear those words today, endurance or patient, or to be steadfast. And today, even as we're enduring the signs, a lot of us have a tendency and a lot of us are being told by churches to back down.

The world is telling us to back down, be quiet, and just just be quiet. And yet as Christians, instead of sitting down and being quiet, we need to stand up and shout the gospel from the highest mountains. Amen? We need to not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for that is the power of God unto salvation.

Now so again, this is a call for the saints, "Hey, be steadfast." Here comes in a call of steadfast, patiently endure what is happening. So again, if this is true for during the 70th week of Daniel, the seven-year tribulation, how much more so true for all of us here today? Anybody, you look around and you just feel like giving up? Maybe some of you have.

"I go to the grocery store, I come home, I don't go out, I don't do anything." A lot of people kind of went into COVID reclusive and never came out. And a lot of Christians even started living in fear. We got caught up in the fear of the world. And some of us maybe still there. Hey, knock yourself out of that. Knock yourself out of being afraid of the world.

We need to be those enduring. We need to be those going forth in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And so again, it's interesting to be enduring. But again, how do we endure? How do we do this? Now we're going to talk about that, kind of combining it together. But first of all, notice here in verse 12, we see also a description, a definition of these who these true saints are.

Notice, these are those in verse 12, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Now it's interesting, so not only does it tell us who these saints are to be enduring, but it tells us what they're doing to endure. Do you notice? These are those who are keeping the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

Notice again there in the Amplified, "who are habitually keeping God's commandments and habitually keeping their faith in Jesus." Look, guys and gals, can I ask you this this morning? Are you one who when you wake up this morning, are you thinking, "Man, I want to be one who habitually is keeping the commandments of God?"

Is that on your heart this morning? Is that even on our radar as we live our day? "I want to be one of those who's habitually keeping the commandments of God." Look, this is a description of what a Christian is. This is a description of what we see here, someone who's habitually keeping the commandments of God.

Notice it doesn't say, "Hey, these are those who keep the commandments of God." It doesn't say, "These are those who said a prayer when they're eight years old. These are those who simply have gone to church for many, many years. These are those who say they're Christian." No, these are those who keep the commandments of God. These are those who habitually keep the commandments of God.

I love how simply the Lord always puts things. We like to mix them up sometimes, don't we? We like to go a little deeper I think than we need to go. Look, so many today who profess faith in Jesus Christ, they would call this a legalistic verse. "Well what do you mean I need to keep the commandments of God? What do you mean it needs to be my goal? What do you mean I need to habitually keep the commandments of God?"

Well look here, this is not legalism. This is called biblical Christianity. Amen? We could even say biblical Christianity 101: Keep the commandments of God. Because this is a basic description of what a true born-again believer in Jesus Christ will do. They will be someone who is seeking to keep the commandments of God.

Why am I going like this? Because it's weird today. Something's happened in the church over the years. And again because we do like to go our own ways. Amen? "Go my own way," whatever that one song is. We like to do things my way, as Frank Sinatra says. We like to do it. And so even as Christians...

It's weird because when I first asked the question, how many of us woke up this morning, "You know what? I want to be one who is keeping the commandments of God." Most of us would probably say that didn't even come on my radar today, if we're honest with ourselves. Why? Because we're saved by grace. Amen?

And because we're saved by grace, for some reason, there has come another belief with that, we're saved by grace, that we don't need to keep the commandments of God, that that's what that means. And that's heretical. That is not biblical, that belief. If you have it here today, if you're watching at home, if you're listening, that is not a biblical belief. "Oh I'm saved by grace of God so I no longer need to keep the commandments of God."

That's your flesh talking. This is a basic description of what a true born-again believer of God is, someone who keeps the commandments of God. Can I ask you this morning sincerely, does that describe you? Do you excuse your sin or do you excuse not keeping the commandments of God with grace?

Well go read Jude for me, would you? It's a short read, but that's where you're at. You're using the grace of God for sin, using the grace of God for lasciviousness. Look here, the one who's been born again of the spirit of God is going to be someone who wants to keep the commandments of God.

And you know, I like how John said it in 1 John chapter five, verse three. He said, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome." You see, in the Bill Henry version it says, "His commandments are not a bummer." They're not a bummer.

And yet so many of us act like the commandments of God are a bummer. Look, if you feel that way, then most of the time we're going to have to look at you and say, "Get saved." Because the commandments of God liberate the Christian. The commandments of God strengthen the Christian. The commandments of God show us how to walk and how to love and how to be holy, as he who has called us is holy, and that's going to be our desire as Christians. Amen? And we need to understand this.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today.

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