Simple Faith

Bill Henry: See, guys and gals, we all listen to someone. We all listen to something that guides us every day in our morality, in our marriage, with our kids, with our parents, with our friends, at work. How are we going to respond? And in politics, by the way, how are we going to respond?

"Well, this is how the Republican Party tells me to respond, so I'm going to respond that way. This is how the Democratic Party tells me to respond..." No, let's say: what does God tell us in His Word?

Guest (Male): Greetings and welcome to another installment of Simple Faith, a daily time of study in God's Word with Pastor Bill Henry. We've been steadily making our way through the Book of Revelation. It's an account written by the Apostle John and dictated by Jesus Christ Himself.

Today, we find ourselves in Chapter 14, where we're going to read about God using three very special angels to carry out a very special mission. In a message originating from the pulpit of Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington, here's our teacher, Pastor Bill Henry.

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

As we come to verse eight, we come to the second angel. I don't often say this, but if you weren't here last week, I do highly recommend you go online and watch the video from last week. They're only $50 apiece to watch them. I’m just kidding, they're obviously free. But it's about the Gospel because the first angel, previous to this, there was another angel that went around the whole earth preaching the Gospel. There are so many false gospels out there today.

We talked about this last week, and here at the end of days, in the midst of the tribulation, around the midpoint or maybe a little after, an angel of the Lord will go around the entire earth announcing to all people the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet, now we come to a second angel here in verse eight. It says, "And another angel followed, saying, 'Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication.'"

When we come to chapter 17 of the Book of Revelation, we're going to talk a lot more in-depth about Babylon, so I'm not going to go too deep this morning about it. We're really going to dig in there. But here, what we see basically is another angel who will follow the first angel proclaiming the Gospel, and this angel now is basically declaring that Babylon will fall. Basically, another forewarning of God's wrath to come, specifically upon the city of Babylon.

Notice we're told that it made all the nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication. In the ESV, it translates it this way: "Another angel, a second, followed, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.'" It is interesting because even today, we see that more and more nations around the world are drinking of the cup of the passion of sexual immorality.

I believe this is a precursor to what is coming with Babylon. I find it interesting and very troubling that even today, the United States itself, I believe as we read about Babylon, pretty much checks every box there is to check. We are an extremely wicked country. Basically, we are forcing other countries even today to accept homosexuality, or they won't receive the funding that they receive, or to accept abortion in these different countries.

We continue to export, encourage, and even twist the arms and force these countries to partake of the passion of our sexual immorality. And what we're seeing here this morning is that there will be consequences for this. It's going to continue to go around the world, even as we see the United Nations embracing now the same things that the United States puts forth in all this wickedness and sexual immorality.

And again, if you don't embrace these things, you can't be part of the United Nations, even though it's a very wicked organization itself and very corrupt. If you do any homework on it, it's sad that it's corrupt, but that's simply the truth. Now, what's interesting, though, is what is going to come in the future. Even though now I believe we see it foreshadowed in the United States, and it's been so for many years.

If you look at after World War II and then in the Korean War, it's very interesting to look that a lot of the guys who came back from the Korean War came back with so many sexual diseases, and they brought their immorality home to the United States. Then suddenly, in the late 50s and early 60s, pornography became prominent in the United States. It's interesting because then we started to export these things.

We exported our pornography around the world. We exported liquor around the world, and cigarettes and other things that other countries that were trying to stay more conservative, if you will. And again, you have a lot of your Muslim countries. Even though they have a false religion, they were trying to keep their people holy, if you will, in their eyes.

Yet, so you have this country, the United States, that is shipping in pornography, getting your people drunk, and encouraging them to smoke and all these other things. No wonder they still call us "the Great Satan," because we are. We don't like to hear that today because most of us don't like to think of our country that way. But again, if we take that step back, that's who we are today.

And again, this is going to evolve into something more. I believe there'll actually be a city called Babylon. I think they're going to rebuild this, and that's the view that many end-time scholars have. It's also going to represent this world system that everybody's going to buy into. It's a corrupt, sexually immoral system.

Others say that Babylon here is basically the Roman Church, the Roman Catholic Church, basically Rome reborn, if you will, that that's what Babylon's going to be. Again, we'll talk about that more when we get into chapter 17. But it's very interesting to see that it will be destroyed because they did not only partake of these things, but they basically encouraged the rest of the world to drink of their cup of their perversion.

If I may encourage you this morning, beloved in Christ, to be careful not to be drinking of that cup of perversion even today. It doesn't seem to matter where we go. You drive down the streets anymore and half the billboards are almost pornographic in what they're presenting. You get emails, you get stuff on TikTok or any of the social media stuff, on the television, in movies, and it's disgusting.

I was watching another interview with Shirley Temple last week. She was talking about how she went into MGM Studios; they had been at Fox Studios. Her and her mother went; she was about 13 or 14, I think she said. She went in and they had split up. One of them went and met with one of the mayors, one of the main guys, and another was head of the casting.

Shirley Temple walked into the room. This is back in the 40s. The guy was completely naked. She had never been exposed to anything like that and she said she just started laughing hysterically at the fellow. She couldn't stop laughing and he got all embarrassed and told her to get out. Then she went to the car and was all quiet, and her mom came to the car and she was quiet too, abnormally so.

Basically, the mayor had been hitting on the mom while this other fellow was exposed. This is back in the 40s. And today, everything from Epstein to all these others, perversion is the normal thing within the elite circles. We need to keep ourselves from these things, guys and gals. Be careful. If you have to start turning off the TV more and more, turning off your iPads and your computers, so be it.

If you have to get rid of your cell phones, so be it. We need to be careful to be those who are seeking to be holy as He who has called us is holy. Right now, I feel like I look around the world and I feel like we're the frog in that proverbial pot. The water is being turned up just a little bit day by day, inch by inch.

All of a sudden, these words that were never on TV before, you hear the word and you're like, "Oh, what was that? What channel we on?" This is just a regular thing. How can this be? Well, because we're becoming "prude," don't you know? We're becoming those who are prudish in different things. Let the whole world sadly go down that road, but let us be careful with what we're doing, that we're not buying into this because again, we see this foreshadowing of this to come.

Now look at verse nine. Check this out. It says, "Then a third angel," so this is now the 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.'" Remember back in chapter 13, we read that it will be required that people be required to take the mark of the beast on their hand or on their forehead to be able to buy or to sell.

But the main reason, notice it says here, "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 cups 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."

So now we see a third angel coming with warning. Remember, it came first preaching the everlasting Gospel, the first angel. Second one: "Babylon is falling." It's going to partake. It's been giving the world this cup of fornication. And now the third angel comes: "Look, man, if you worship the beast and his image, you're going to partake of the cup of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cups of His indignation."

It's interesting because this is the first angel, by the way. Notice in verse nine, that is speaking with a loud voice. It's not a voice that's real soft and, "Hey everybody, wake up because this is sin." No, this is a loud voice. This is proclaiming: "Look, if anyone worships the beast and his image, receives his mark." This is a clear warning. Don't do it! "Danger, Will Robinson!" Some of you remember that, going back. Others are like, "What was that?"

Look, there will be a mark on the forehead or on the hand. Notice here, though, too: nobody's going to be fooled into taking this mark. A lot of people today, for many years, from the first time I heard about the mark of the beast, I wasn't even a Christian then, and I didn't even know what the mark was but I heard about it. People were acting like you could be tricked. "Don't get an ATM card!"

Remember anybody back in the day? "If you get an ATM card, brother, that's the mark of the beast!" "Don't get an email, that's the mark of the beast! Don't get a tattoo, that's the mark of the beast! Don't get a chip under your skin, that's the mark of the beast!" You want to get a chip under your skin, go for it. I don't think it's very smart, but go ahead.

You cannot be fooled out of losing into losing your salvation. It's so sad how I hear so many Christians being like, "Be careful of the mark of the beast." I don't believe we're going to be here for it. And here's the thing: it's not just a buyer-to-sell, which it is, but the main reason that they partake, and we're going to see this over and over, is to worship the beast.

I don't know about you, but I know a lot of people. If you're here and you did, God bless you there. I don't have a problem, well I kind of do, but if you got the shot. That was everybody's individual determination. It should have been, I should say. But here's the thing: people got excited about it. There was one fellow was it in Germany that got 40 or 50 of them or something like that? That's how excited he got about getting these.

There were other people who were excited about turning in, "I think there's two people over my neighbor's house." And even here in Washington, Inslee did this little app where you can turn people in: "Hey, there's people, there's more than there should be people over at our house." And people get excited. And again, I think that's a foreshadowing of what's to come.

For some of us, that's so foreign. It's like, "How could they do that? That's so weird." But people are going to be excited: "Yes, give me! Give me that mark! Put it right here, man, because I want to display it for all to see!" Because they're going to worship the beast. Remember, it says in chapter 13, "Who's able to make war against the beast, bro?" It's almost just thumbing it in the nose of God.

So, here's God, though, once again. I love the grace of God. Even before, "Don't take the mark. It's coming. Don't take the mark of the beast!" The angel is warning, "Don't worship the beast because if you do, you're lost. It's over. It's done." And yet God is so gracious that He's warning them once again. They're being warned by God Himself through this angel.

But here's the thing: when it comes down to it, will people listen to God through His angel or will they listen to Satan and his false messiah? Again, some application for us here this morning: are we going to listen to the Lord through His Word or are we going to listen to Satan? Or are we going to listen to the world? Or are we going to even listen to ourselves?

Even today, we have these choices to make. Every day, as we go throughout our lives, "Am I going to respond in this situation like God tells me to respond and enables me to respond through His Holy Spirit? Or am I going to respond how I feel led to respond? And certainly, however I respond is going to be fine with God because I'm a Christian, you know."

No. To please the Lord, we need to respond how He has told us to respond, and He has equipped us by His Holy Spirit to respond. You see, guys and gals, we all listen to someone. We all listen to something that guides us every day in our morality, in our marriage, with our kids, with our parents, with our friends, at work.

How are we going to respond? And in politics, by the way, how are we going to respond? "Well, this is how the Republican Party tells me to respond, so I'm going to respond that way. This is how the Democratic Party tells me to respond..." No, let's say: what does God tell us in His Word? And let's respond to His message because look at here in verse 10 again.

He Himself shall also drink. Those who have taken the mark, those who are worshipping the beast, shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Boy, there's an inconvenient Scripture today, amen?

You don't hear this preached from the pulpits, and if you do, it's usually some off-kilter dude, or at least presented like that some way. "Oh, he's going off again, look at this, talking about hell. Oh yes, like hell, hell!" In the ESV, it says, "He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb."

New Living says, "Must drink the wine of God's anger. It has been poured full strength into God's cup of wrath, and they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb." God's angel is bringing a warning once again to the people of the world. And it's interesting here because "angel," this is God's angel.

Do you know what the word "angel" literally means in the Greek? *Angelos*, it means "messenger." So it's interesting because I was thinking, this is an angel, a messenger of God. And what is he doing? He's not changing the message. He's not going, "Hey, this might offend some people, so I better water it down just a little bit. This might hurt some people's feelings, so I don't really want..." No, dude, he is a messenger.

What does a messenger do? He's not given authority to change the message. He is to just deliver the message to whoever it's addressed to. It's interesting because a lot of people today, and a lot of men in the pulpits and sadly some women in pulpits today too, they are declaring a false gospel. We talked about this last week. They don't want to talk about hell. They don't want to talk about drinking the wine of God's anger.

Why do we think that Revelation is hardly taught in churches today? Is it just because it's that hard to understand? I think if you've been here with us since we began, it's not as hard as we think when we take it and let Scripture interpret Scripture. You just take what it says for the most part literally; if there's something symbolic, it's pretty evident.

But here's the thing: I think one of the main reasons is because we don't want to read Scriptures like this. We don't want to be taught Scriptures like this. And be honest, who likes to talk about God's wrath? "Yeah, can't wait to talk about God's wrath. Ooh, study on God's wrath today, praise the Lord, Hallelujah. Have a big revival, come in and hear about the wrath of God and His anger, praise God, Hallelujah."

But you see, guys and gals, we need to understand that we are simply to be messengers, too. We don't have a right to change the message. I don't care how many letters before or after my name I have. I don't care if I've been through seminary, how many years I've been teaching or been a pastor. I do not have the right to change the message. We are messengers.

We want, and so many, we want to water it down because we're afraid. What do we tell people? "You know, God's wrath is abiding on you right now, and if you continue to reject, you're going to have the full strength of the cup of His wrath. You're going to be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy..." And we start to get a little bit quieter and quieter.

Guys and gals, we don't have the ability to change or modify what God the message God has given. If we're faithful and we love the Lord, we're going to give His message, not mine. And I'm not going to say it's not hard, amen? I remember years ago when I was young and preaching and it would come up about women submitting unto their husbands.

I'll be honest, I kind of got a little quieter when I was preaching. "And women submit to their husbands, and so forth, why husbands love your wives," and you kind of... It's not very popular today, is it? I don't care if it's popular anymore. That was sin on my part. I was embarrassed a little bit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Shame on me.

And we need to be those who are like, "Look, this is the everlasting Gospel." And I'm glad it never changes, by the way. "Oh, it's crusty, it's dusty." No, it's everlasting. It doesn't change. And I love that because it means it's dependable. It's solid, it's pure, it's holy. I like what one commentator said. He said this: "Many people would have us modify the punishment declared against the wicked found in the Word of God.

We cannot. We must not. God has called us to declare His Word, not our opinions as so many do within the church today."

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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