The Hour of His Judgment

What do the phrases: “The End is Near” “Turn or Burn” and “Fire and Brimstone” all have in common? Some would say, these are phrases that some fanatical preachers have used over the years to scare people into heaven. Others might say that these phrases are meant to awaken us to the fact that Judgment Day is coming. And for others, when you hear these phrases, you might picture a weird looking dude wearing a billboard on a street corner and calling people to repent.

But what’s fascinating about each of these phrases, “the end is near,” “turn or burn,” and “fire and brimstone,” is that all three can be associated with the passage we are going to look at today from the book of Revelation. For as the apostle John receives another revelation from God, this time the vision he receives comes in the form of angels announcing that the end IS near, that the HOUR of God’s judgment has arrived, and that if sinful mankind doesn’t repent, all hope of heaven will be lost. And it is this revelation from heaven that announces the end is near is found in Revelation 14:6-13.

In this passage, God’s messengers, the angels, will proclaim three messages to a sinful world. What I find fascinating is that the subject matter of these messages is something many Christ followers don’t like to talk about today. The first angel will announce a message of repentance because of the coming judgment. No one likes to talk about the reality of a coming judgment day. People just want to hear good news. But when this first angel makes his announcement of Judgment Day, we’re going to see that there is good news in his announcement.

The second angel will bring a warning of judgment to those who have been seduced by the world. The second angel warns mankind that their immoral way of life is going to come crashing down. It’s going to end. Again, Christians today struggle with confronting lost people with the consequences of their sinful lifestyles. But this angel’s warning is meant to awaken ungodly sinners to the futility of their choices.

Then the third angel will tell idolatrous mankind the disastrous future that awaits them if they continue to reject God. This angel spells out the reality of hell, of the fire and brimstone that awaits those who worship the beast. Again, we live in a time where most Christians don’t want to talk about a God who judges sinners and leaves them to suffer. But here this third angel will reveal the consequences awaiting those who refuse to receive God’s offer of grace and mercy. And it’s not going to be pretty.

But this passage isn’t all turn and burn. For once these angels are done, then the Holy Spirit announces a message of blessing to those who endure this evil age and remain faithful to Jesus. This quite a passage. So, if you’re ready to hear God’s final word to unrepentant mankind, let’s look now at the first angel’s message from God.

God’s message of Repentance to the Spiritually Indifferent: Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” Revelation 14:6-7 The first thing we see here, is that John is given a new vision. This is his fifth vision. He sees an angel “flying directly overhead.” This angel is flying above him is at the highest point of heaven. At this high point all will see him. He speaks with a loud voice, so that all will hear him. What will all people hear? They will hear the eternal gospel. Now it’s interesting that this is called the eternal gospel. It’s the only time the good news is called eternal. Why is this important for us to know at this point?

First, the gospel of Christ has eternal consequences. This is the point of the angel’s warning to the spiritually indifferent: When Jesus returns the hour of judgment will begin. That’s the warning. Here, God is being gracious to all mankind. He is giving every person who dwells on the earth one final opportunity to turn away from their sin, turn to God and receive forgiveness. For once the hour of judgment arrives, there will no longer be opportunity to turn to God and receive His forgiveness.

Secondly, the gospel fulfills the eternal plan of God for displaying His glory in the salvation of sinners. Remember, not one person deserves His salvation. But God freely gives us what we don’t deserve. God wants to give all people eternal life, not eternal death. That’s the good news: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 God loves every person in this world He created. He doesn’t not want even the worst of sinners to spend eternity separated from Him. So, He gives everyone one final chance to turn from their sin and turn to Jesus. He calls for everyone to repent. That’s what the angel proclaims, saying in a loud voice to all: “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” Revelation 14:7

“Fear God” People don’t fear God anymore. They are spiritually indifferent. They don’t take Him seriously. Instead, they blame Him for everything they see that’s wrong in the world. What does it mean to fear God? It means acknowledging that He is great, good, holy and loving and you are not. It means to humbly revere and honor God as God. Many in our world refuse to honor God today, because they are full of pride. They live as if God doesn’t exist. They are spiritually indifferent to His grace and mercy. They can’t be bothered with what He wants for their lives. So, there is no reverence for Him, only contempt. But God’s day of judgment has arrived. And the only way to receive His mercy, is to turn from their contempt for God and humbly honor Him as God. “Fear God.”

“give Him glory” This is a mark of a changed heart. Those who are indifferent to God live to shine the spotlight on themselves. They want others to applaud them, make a big deal about them. But when your heart is set on giving God glory, life no longer revolves around you getting what you think you deserve. It revolves around giving God the glory He deserves. And you can only do this if you repent. If you have a change of mind, a change of heart about how gracious and merciful God truly is. And the only way that change can happen in you is when you personally receive His grace by trusting in the One who gave His life on the cross to remove your sin. It’s only when you see what God did for you in Jesus, that you will want to give Him glory. Which leads to this final aspect of repentance:

“worship Him who made heaven and earth” Again, the spiritually indifferent simply don’t worship God. Scripture notes this offense saying: “for although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him.” Romans 1:21 Worshiping God is the fruit of repentance. Having heard the eternal Gospel, that out of His great love for us, God holds back His judgment, and instead forgives our sins, when we trust in Jesus – this should do something in us. It should create hearts that are eternally grateful to God. It should create hearts that want to honor and worship Him who rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves.

That’s the point of the eternal gospel! The hour of His judgment has come. He’s giving the world on last opportunity to receive His grace. So, the only question that remains is this: Will the spiritually indifferent hear the eternal gospel and respond to God’s final offer of salvation? There’s going to be a day when God’s grace will no longer be available. But God is so good, He’s going to offer His grace up to the final minute. Which leads me to ask, are you listening to His offer? Have you received His free offer of eternal life that’s found in Jesus? God still calls the spiritually indifferent to turn from their sin and turn to Jesus. Are you listening to God’s call of repentance today? “Fear God and give Him glory, and worship Him who made heaven and earth” God wants to give all mankind one final chance to repent. That’s the point of God’s message through this first angel: That no matter how indifferent you’ve been to His grace, His salvation is still available. The question is: will you repent and believe in Jesus?

That’s God’s message through the first angel. Now comes His second messenger: God’s message of Warning to the Spiritually Immoral: 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.” Revelation 14:8 Here, the second angel warns mankind that their way of life promoted by Babylon the great is going to come crashing down. God will end it at His hour of judgment. We will learn more in chapters to come about Babylon. But for now, we learn that “Babylon” speaks of that system that stands religiously, politically and economically in opposition to all that is of God. It is the antichrist’s worldwide political, economic and religious empire.

So, it is here that the second angel warns of God’s judgment on those who drink from Babylon’s cup. Revelation 14:8 speaks of “the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” The word for passion is the Greek word for wrath (thumos), in this case referring to corruption and disorientation. The destructive power of sexual immorality compares to the stupor brought on by drunkenness for alcohol.

Richard Phillips describes this seductive effect of Babylon by saying, “We learn that the evil world system not only oppressed people in bondage but also seduced them into soul-destroying sin. The original Babylon stood not only for power and violence, but also for luxury and sexual indulgence. If people could not beat Babylon, they would be easily led into imbibing the wine of its pleasure.” Jeremiah described Babylon as “a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, making all the earth drunken: the nations drank of her wine; therefore, the nations went mad.” Jeremiah 51:7

In other words, Satan and his agents are at work in Western culture today to seduce all people thru the love of money, material possessions and pleasures, and especially sexual indulgence so as to make us totally insensitive to and unaware of what’s truly happening around us because of our presumptuous enjoyment of worldly pleasures.

So, it is good news to hear this warning of Babylon’s fall. So, certain is its demise that the word fallen is repeated. Babylon’s days of seducing and deceiving mankind are numbered. God will judge its immoral way of life and destroy it completely.

Now, even though this is a warning that will be shouted from heaven at the hour of God’s judgment, it is also a warning we need to hear today. It’s a warning to understand the dangers of the immoral influence impacting us in our world today. God wants to give everyone a chance to turn away from their empty lives of sin and turn to the life He wants for us: A life of peace, joy, acceptance, love, goodness, mercy and so much more. Too often, we get seduced into thinking this life is all there is, but there is so much more that we are missing out on when we ignore God. Not only that, but the immoral influence of our culture is designed to move us away from God, so as to make comfort and pleasure our gods, that we might compromise our faith or loose it altogether. This warning reminds us that this worldly way of life will one day be judged by God, and when He judges it, it will be completely destroyed. So don’t let this world destroy your faith. For one day, God’s going to pour out the wine of HIs wrath on Babylon the great. That’s God’s second message, now the third…

God’s message of Judgment to the Spiritually Idolatrous: And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of His anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” Revelation 14:9-11 If the first two angels foretold the certainty of judgment, the third angel now warns all mankind of the reality of hell. It is always easy to go along with the world, but here we are called to calculate the cost. English Pastor Steve Wilmshurst explains that “the choices made here on earth will have their consequences in eternity, in heaven or in hell… If sin is not dealt with by Christ on the cross, its consequences must be borne by the sinner, eternally.”

The consequences of worship of the beast are now stated. The punishment fits the crime. If you do not repent but continue to worship the beast and its image, or receive the mark of the beast, God will pour out the full strength of His wrath upon you. These verses describe the full intensity of God’s wrath as punishment in the form of torment – of fire and sulfur, resulting in extreme suffering.

We should remember God’s punishment on Sodom and Gomorrah, when fire and sulfur fell to destroy those wicked cities (Genesis 19:24). Sulfer, or “brimstone,” refers to a type of asphalt found particularly in volcanic deposits that produced both intense heat and a terrible smell. It was an image used often in the Bible for terrible suffering under divine judgment. That’s the physical reality awaiting those who reject God. But that’s not all.

Next, the angel adds that this torment takes place “in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb” Revelation 14:10. This statement seems to indicate not only that the suffering of hell is physical, but that it also involves the anguish of seeing Christ, the Savior they had warred against in rebellion, exalted in triumph as Lord. I believe this will be the greatest torment anyone can ever face, knowing that you rejected the One who created you, loved you, died for you. Seeing Jesus and knowing you rejected him, will cause such agony in your soul.

But then add to this that there will never be any relief from the torment of hell and separated from all that is good: And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name” Revelation 14:11. But what gets me here is the finality of it all. It’s tragic. After all the opportunities that God gave mankind to repent, and their continual rejection of His mercy and grace, leaves them with no hope. The finality of their rejection of God, will leave them separate from God’s love forever. No hope of forgiveness, no hope of love, no hope of comfort, no rest from anguish an pain. The finality of this is hard to comprehend.

This should have an impact on us as to how we see people today. Every person you lock eyes with has an eternal destiny. Either they will repent, fear God, give God glory and worship Him. Or they will continue to defy God and suffer the consequences of their rejecting Him with this unbearable torment forever. That’s the reality of the judgment to come.

So then, Why does God give us this glimpse of the finality of hell? So that we might see lost people like He does. He doesn’t want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance. This vision of hell should give us a burden for the lost. This vision of hell should fuel our motive to share the good news about Jesus. It should create in us a sense of urgency. That people need to know there is hope. Perhaps one of the reasons that we have such little sense of urgency today is that we’ve forgotten how horrible and how final the consequences will be for those who reject God.

The third angel’s message is also a reminder that our time is short. There will be a day when God’s hour of judgment will come. But then it will be too late to share the good news about Jesus. It will be too late for those who’ve been seduced by the world, for those who have rejected God, to repent and find rest with Him. I think that may be why God doesn’t just leave us with the stark reality of what it will be like for those who reject Him. But now, reminds us of the hope awaiting us with Him, in…

God’s message of Blessing to the Spiritually Faithful: Here’s God’s comfort to us after seeing the awful consequences for those who refuse to repent. He says, Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Revelation 14:12 Throughout this book God has given us this same call: persevere, endure, overcome. God knows we need His encouragement to keep going, to stay faithful to Jesus in the face of evil. God knows that in this age of counterfeit Christs, counterfeit religions, and counterfeit pleasures – that it may seem easier to just give in to the spirit of the Age, to go with the flow, not rock the boat. Enjoy life and don’t worry about tomorrow. But if we do that, if we don’t persevere, not only will people perish without Jesus, but we too may miss out of God’s blessing.

So, we conclude this passage on the hour of God’s judgment with a message to the faithful from the Spirit. He says to us: “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!” Revelation 14:13 This is the only message from the Spirit in this book. In other words, our reward is not in this life, but in the life to come.

Somehow, we’ve been seduced to believe that our reward comes in this life, in the comforts and pleasures of this age. But that’s just not true. One day we will enjoy rest from all our labors in this life. This life is an endurance race. But one day we will rest from all the trials, all the heartaches, all the uncertainties and insecurities of this age.

One day we will rest in the presence of Jesus, where there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more anxiety, no more pain. So, take heart. This is our hope! One day we will be with Jesus and He will give us rest. And it’s this hope God wants us to share with others before the hour of His judgment comes. And it’s coming soon.
Let’s pray.