Babylon Is Fallen (Revelation 14)

Let's turn to Daniel chapter 2. I want to start there before we look at Revelation chapter 14.

I've talked about this image before that you see on the screen. We've talked about the world empires and that final one world government, the final empire revived

Rome. So I've made reference to this statue that King Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream in Daniel chapter 2.

So I just want to read this passage because Revelation chapter 14 is talking about the fall of Babylon.

In Babylon, by the time you get to the book of Revelation, Babylon simply means the world system, the corrupt world system.

And that final one world system is going to be crushed and destroyed by Jesus.

So Daniel chapter 2, we're going to pick up in verse 31.

Daniel speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar. He says, you, O King, we're watching and behold a great image.

This great image whose splendor was excellent stood before you and its form was awesome.

And this is his dream. So Daniel's explaining what he saw. This image's head was a fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze and its legs of iron and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

What did we say this represents? The head of gold is what? Well, the answer's right here,

Babylon. Then you go down, the next empire was

Medo -Persia and then Greece and then finally Rome.

And then the legs of iron or the feet partly of clay, that is the revived

Roman empire. So the final, you know, new world order, final kingdom of Antichrist, the one world government during the tribulation will be the revived

Roman empire. So verse 34, this also happened in Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

Daniel says, you watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces.

And then he goes on to say in verse 35, that that stone, it struck the image and the stone became a great mountain and it filled the whole earth.

What do you think the stone represents? The stone represents Christ and his kingdom.

So you have the kingdom of this world and revived

Rome and it's destroyed by Christ. And Christ then sets up his kingdom, his millennial kingdom, which lasts for a thousand years.

Okay. With that said, let's turn to Revelation chapter 14. And this is what we're going to be looking at in this chapter, the fall, the fall of Babylon.

So right now, God's people were in a minority, right? We've always been in a minority, even in, you know, the

Holy Roman empire where people will say sometimes that, you know, Christianity ruled

Europe. No, it was a false form of Christianity, sort of an imposter replacement that, not to say there wasn't true

Christians within the empire, there was, but really it was a false form of Christianity that ruled

Europe. Because true believers were persecuted during the reformation, true believers were persecuted.

So right now we're in the minority and who's in charge of the world system right now? Yeah, he's,

Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He's called the God of this age. So this corrupt world system is going to come to an end.

And that happens, well, it's being described here in Revelation 14. But let's begin with verses one through five.

Before we get into that, we see a little more information about this group known as the 144 ,000.

John writes, then I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144 ,000 having his father's name written on their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters and like the voice of loud thunder.

And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps and they sang as it were a new song before the

Lord or before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the 144 ,000 who were redeemed from the earth.

I mean, this speaks of the close relationship they have with Christ.

Verse four, these are the ones who are not defiled with women for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes.

These were redeemed from among men being first fruits to God and to the lamb and in their mouth was found no deceit for they are without fault before the throne of God.

So this is the second time this group of the 144 ,000 are mentioned. You remember where we saw them last time, what chapter was that in?

Revelation chapter seven, where remember 12 ,000 from each of the 12 tribes were sealed.

And what the 144 ,000 do is they basically act as evangelists and missionaries and they go out and they preach the gospel during the tribulation period.

So this vision is of them standing with Christ on where? On top of Mount Zion.

Now, where is Mount Zion? Well, this is either a heavenly vision and John sees them in like Mount Zion in heaven or it's in Jerusalem.

But either way, this speaks of their close connection with the Lord they serve.

It's probably Mount Zion in Jerusalem. So we're probably looking ahead in the story at the end of the tribulation where Jesus has come to the earth.

He's with his people on Mount Zion and they're preparing to rule for a thousand years because the kingdom of Babylon or the kingdom of the

Antichrist has been destroyed. But there's a few more things that we learned about the 144 ,000.

So I just wanted to touch on that. And we noticed they have the mark of God in their forehead and that is in contrast to what other mark?

Yeah, the mark of the beast. So there's the mark of God, which is, we don't know exactly what it is.

It's something visible apparently on their forehead and saying he comes up with his own counterfeit mark, the mark of the beast.

We learn in verse four that the 144 ,000 are virgins.

Now, why would they be virgins or why would that be necessary? Maybe this is my opinion, but what did they say?

What do we think they are? They're like missionaries, right? I think if a man wants to enter into the ministry or even a woman, really, if they want to enter into the ministry, if they want kids, if they want, you know, a spouse and children have a family, the best thing for a man to do in that situation would to become a pastor because that's part of the qualifications of being a pastor.

If a man wants to enter into the ministry and he doesn't necessarily have that desire to have a family, then the best option would be the mission field.

Because when you bring a spouse and little children to the mission field, I mean, there's a lot of complications.

So the 144 ,000, they're virgins for life. They have no spouse, no kids.

The point is they are 100 % devoted to God. Because if you're married and you have a family, you know, half the time you need to be spending with them.

So the 144 ,000 are sold out. What else do we learn for them or about them?

There's no deceit in their mouth. So everything they're preaching is 100 % true as opposed to sort of the preachers today, where let's face it, you pick any random preacher in the

United States. I mean, whether or not he's preaching the truth or not is you get a 50, 50 shot probably.

But these men preach the truth. Also, it says that they're without fault.

Now, what does that mean? Does that mean they're they're perfect?

They're without sin? No, it's just that there's no obvious sin in their life.

So just one thing before we move on to like the main section, main things we're going to be looking at.

I think this is a good opportunity to talk about how to interpret the

Bible. And do you take it literally? We take the Bible literally. Yes, but we don't, we don't interpret the

Bible as people might say a wooden literalism. So when it says that they were without fault, that doesn't mean they've never in their entire life, you know, never done anything wrong.

Like you don't want to interpret that to the extreme.

So there are things in revelation that are symbolic. These statements that, you know, they're without fault.

You know, you have to compare that with other passages that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So it's, it's not saying that they were, they were, they were perfect.

It's just that you look at them. These are godly men sold out for Jesus, commit their lives to him.

And they spend their time as missionaries preaching the gospel all around the world.

So I think we have a good handle of who the 144 ,000 are, right? Any questions on that?

All right. So let's, let's get into the next section here. Um, obviously as evangelists or missionaries, they want to tell people about Jesus.

Uh, but actually it's not just them. You actually have the two witnesses. You have people that are converted by, you have all sorts of people in the tribulation, preaching the gospel.

And just in case somebody didn't come across the 144 ,000, just in case somebody didn't hear them preaching, guess what?

An angel from heaven preaches the gospel front from the sky.

Look at verses six and seven. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel, the preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people 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 the springs of water.

So in the tribulation, here's the thing. Everybody gets a chance to hear the gospel.

I would say it living in the United States of America, people that are our age.

Okay. Who's the youngest person in here? 20. How old are you, Patrick? Okay.

32 and the oldest person. Okay. So from 32 to 90,

I would say anyone in that age group, uh, anyone in this country in that age group has probably heard something about Jesus, right?

I would say the odds are pretty good. If not everyone, most everyone has at least heard the gospel to some degree in this country, but there's places in the world where people haven't heard, you know, in the

United States, there's churches everywhere. There's Bibles everywhere. Uh, there are places where that's not the case, but in the tribulation, everyone is going to hear if not from the 144 ,000.

I mean, how, how cool is that? And I don't know what is going on, uh, in the minds of the people on earth who don't believe you would think this would make them believe that anything, if you have an angel from heaven preaching that I realize there's people who probably don't take this literally either.

They think somehow this is symbolic, but I don't know what it would be symbolic of. So everyone is going to hear the gospel when these, this angel proclaims it from heaven.

And what does the angel say with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him.

Well, what are the people on earth doing? Or do they fear God? No other places in revelation.

We read that they're cursing God, but they're not fearing God. Are they giving

God glory? No, they're giving their glory to who, you know, the beast, you know, into his, uh, world system.

So I guess the point is, uh, everyone is going to be responsible for hearing the gospel.

There's not going to be a single person who stands before God and say, you know, I just didn't know. I just didn't hear.

If I had just known the truth, I would have believed. Well, they're hearing it from directly from heaven at this point, and they still don't believe.

So I think this is more proof that the people during the tribulation, they know what's going on.

They know they're opposing the God of heaven. They know they're opposing the

Christian God. Do you think people realize that today? Okay.

There's people that don't care. They don't really give it any thought. I think that's true, but people who are maybe in power, do they know that they're opposing the

God of heaven? Let let's turn to Psalm chapter two, Psalm chapter two.

And I realize I, I can't point to any one individual and say this person, this man, or this woman knows this because I can't read minds.

I can't read hearts, but I can read the Bible and I believe what the

Bible says. Where did I tell you to turn

Psalm two. Okay. So here's what scripture says.

Psalm chapter two, starting in verse one, why did the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?

The Kings of the earth set themselves in the rulers, take counsel together.

What against the Lord and against his anointed.

That is the Kings of the world are basically plotting together. They're plotting together against Jehovah and against his

Christ saying, let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us.

In other words, the Kings of the earth are saying, we don't want God telling us what to do.

And we're going to plot and we are, our actions are directly opposed to God's anointed.

Now back this back there, when this was written, David was writing this and it was true.

The enemies of Israel were plotting against David. So that was kind of the application back then, but it's a future application really pointing ahead to Christ.

And that's what the Bible says. You know, you can believe it or not. I suppose it's your choice, but I see a very clear statement that the rulers of this world know full well that they're opposing the

Christian God. You kind of see this even now. I mean, we're not living in the tribulation now, so things are going to be more obvious and more extreme in the future.

But even now, this is what I hear. I hear a lot of world rulers when they talk about like Hinduism, they're very favorable and friendly towards Hinduism or Buddhism or Islam, right?

We've heard that in the last 15, 20 years, politicians, world leaders, bending over backwards to kind of appease

Muslims. But when it comes to Christianity, like Bible -believing

Christianity, is it me or do they just seem to be a little more hostile towards Bible -believing

Christians? You're not inclusive. It ain't me. I'm not imagining this.

They definitely have, yeah, we're not inclusive. Of course, a lot of Muslims aren't inclusive either, but again, there's a lot of, there's a bias against the

Christian God. So I would submit this is happening even at this moment, but during the tribulation, the final kingdom of Babylon is directly set against Christ.

This is the battle, the Antichrist and his world system Babylon fighting against the

God of heaven and his anointed. All right, that's what's happening. And I think the people, they understand that.

They know it. Any questions on that? Do you agree? And that's not to say every human being on earth, but generally speaking, they understand what's happening.

So we see in verse eight that this world system is going to collapse.

It's going to be destroyed. And again, it's an angel from heaven declaring it.

Verse eight, John says, 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.

So the one world system is called Babylon. When you hear the word

Babylon, is that what you think of? Have you heard any other definitions? Like if you're reading in the old

Testament where they're talking about Babylon, it's the literal physical kingdom that was located in what is now modern day

Iraq. But Babylon, it just, they were like the archetypical enemy of God's people.

So that name, Babylon was just carried over into the new Testament as a, as a label for the people who oppose

God. So it's not literally Babylon, but it's the one, one world system that seeks to replace

God. When it says Babylon is fallen, notice it's repeated is fallen, is fallen.

What do you think that means? Like, it's not just destroyed.

It's like, it's, it's really wiped out. It's fallen. So it's, it's emphasized it's total destruction.

Where did Babylon begin? The whole story of Babylon, it begins where?

Tower of Babel, Genesis chapter 11, right? What, what happened with the tower of Babel? They, they built a, a tower that says we're going to build a tower, tower reaching into the heavens.

Now I don't, I don't really believe the people, because sometimes modern, modern man thinks that ancient man was just stupid or something.

And they, they had these absurd, they didn't really think that they were going to build a tower, like literally to heaven.

It was going to reach out into the sky. It was like a ancient equivalent of a skyscraper.

So that's probably what it means, you know, reaching into the heavens are up to heaven. There's another idea that it was on the top.

It was something to do with the signs of the Zodiac. I mean, I think there is some evidence that they were into worshiping the stars and that might be part of the meaning as well.

But we know that the tower of Babel, their whole point, what God said, go and spread out across the face of the earth.

What God wants, and I know this is kind of a controversial thing to say these days, but God, what

God wants is God wants nations. He wants individual nation states.

Babylon or the tower of Babel was trying to create a one world system and empire right there.

God said, spread out. You're going to have your own nations, your own tribes. And they said, no, we're not going to spread out.

We're all going to stick together and we're going to build a tower to heaven. And we're going to remember what they said.

We're going to make a name for ourselves. So whenever there's an empire or like a one world system today, we might call it globalism, right?

Where nationalism is bad. Nations are bad. We need to have a world community.

Anytime you see that, that's the spirit of Babylon. And Nimrod was the one who did all this.

He is a foreshadow of the, of the antichrist. In Acts chapter 17, it said, this is what

God has ordained that God has put people at certain places at certain times so that they might reach out and grope for him.

So nations might worship the true God. But once you have a one world system and empire, the true

God always gets replaced. And who gets worshiped? Well, either the empire itself or, and, or its leader, because usually, you know, you can't separate, you know, the dictator or the emperor from his system.

Isn't that what happened with Rome? You know, Rome might've been seen as this glorious thing, but they were actually worshiping who they were worshiping

Caesar. Like he was seen as, as a God. So that's one reason why

God does not want a one world system. That's why I put this statue up here.

This image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. That's what it represents. The first one world system you could say is the tower of Babel, but the great power that formed was

Babylon. And then the next empire that took over Medo -Persia, then the next empire we've all heard of Alexander the

Great, right? He, I forget, nobody conquered more land in a quicker amount of time than Alexander the

Great. And he died young. It could have taken a lot more territory. And then after him came the

Roman empire. Like I said, Caesar was worshiped. Do you remember,

I forget when we talked about this, but the Babylonian system, they had a religion, it's called

Babylonian mystery religion, and they worship the queen of heaven. And the prophet

Jeremiah talked about that. Well, that same, that same religion was kind of passed on to each empire.

So by the time you got to Rome, the Roman empire, they had their own pagan religion.

And the priest, the pagan high priest was called Pontifex Maximus who remembers us talking about this.

Okay. And then once Caesar, I think it was Caesar Augustus. He was the, he was the

Caesar who really expanded his power. And I think he was the first Caesar that was worshiped as, as a

God. Well, he took that term Pontifex Maximus and he, he took that title for himself that not only is he the leader of the one world empire, now he's also the head of the religion and he's the object of worship in that religion.

So he's, he's the head of the Roman empire and he was their God, right? Like you're aware of this.

Um, when the Roman empire fell, it was replaced with what?

Come on now. Someone, someone's got to say it. I'm not getting, I've given you the answers up until this point.

Thank you. Yes. The Holy Roman empire is what took the place of the Roman empire.

Well, what happened to that title? Pontifex Maximus who took it from there?

The Pope. And once again, the Pope was sort of that man who was ruling over the empire.

I mean, he was the real authority and he basically took that place as the

God man. Now the Catholic church will say that, well, he, he doesn't really mean he's God.

Well, some Popes, if you look at some of their quotes, you think some of them probably did believe that, but yeah, technically he's, he's, uh, in the place of Jesus, but he, he has this title of Pontifex Maximus.

So basically that one world system continued from Rome to the

Holy Road. That spirit is still, was still alive and it's still alive today.

Now you can argue today, where is it? Is it within the United States? Some people think the

United States is Babylon. I don't think the United States is Babylon, but I think that that spirit is alive and alive and well of a corrupt, you know, plans for a one world government along with this, this false religion.

And the two are going to be merged, uh, in the end times. So notice, let's see, it's, it's verse eight.

What does it say? 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.

I just find it interesting that the term wine, uh, is, is used.

So the, the wine of the wrath of her fornication, look at verse nine, then a third angel followed them.

So you have these angels proclaiming things from heaven. What did, what did the first angel proclaim?

The gospel fear God. The next one proclaimed Babylon is fallen, is fallen.

And then the third angel verse nine 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.

And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.

Um, it just, as far as the wine goes, when we get to chapter 17, uh, we see that the, the harlot, that kind of corrupt false religion,

John says is seated on seven mountains. Rome is historically been known as the city on seven hills.

And he says that the woman had a cup, a golden cup in her hand. And what was in the cup?

Well, presumably we're talking about the wine is in the cup. Um, so just planting those seeds in your mind when we get to chapter 17, as far as what or who that's describing, but this verse, verse 10.

So this cup that, that the antichrist, his world system, he's causing everyone to follow him, uh, buy into his religion, that, that system, those who do are going to drink of the wine of a different cup.

And what's that the cup of God's wrath. I think verse 10 has to be the most clear verse in all of the

Bible that speaks about the eternal nature of, of hell.

I know this isn't a subject that anyone likes. Um, you know, no one likes to talk about this, but you know, there's a lot of people today who deny, you know, that the

Bible teaches hell. Okay. A lot of popular pastors have, have denied the existence of hell.

And that's kind of a trendy thing right now. We've dealt with that locally. There's that thing last year, people denying the existence of hell, verse 10.

What does it say that the people who basically follow the antichrist and his world system, it says they shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.

And then verse, let's see, revelation 1410. Sorry, I might've mixed up the verses, 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.

So long story short, there's a lot of people who will go back in the gospels and they'll say, well,

Jesus talked about hell is everlasting destruction. And they'll say, well, see, yeah, destruction means you're just annihilated.

So people would either deny that hell exists, or they say, you know, people are thrown into the lake of fire and they're just burnt up and they cease to exist.

So the term would be annihilation where you see though, in this verse, that the people who are there are what,

I mean, they're conscious, they're awake. The smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever.

So there's the eternality of it. And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image.

So the people who give their life, they reject Christ and give their lives to antichrist and his false system.

According to John, who's giving John this revelation? Jesus, right?

It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. So if you believe that revelation is Jesus giving his word to John, then according to Jesus, they're conscious and this, this torment never ends.

This is why everybody who denies the existence of hell, they have to deny the literal nature of revelation.

So if you talk to someone and they say, the book of, I believe the Bible, but you know, I don't know about the book of revelation or they say, well, the revelation is basically all symbolic.

One major factor, why people do that, it's to get around this teaching. And again, it's not pleasant.

It's not supposed to be pleasant. I mean, people should worship God and serve

God because they love God. You know, Jesus came because he loved, he died on the cross because God so loved the world.

That's the right reason to believe in Jesus and to follow God. He loves us.

We love him. We appreciate what he did for us. But at the same time, this is, this is a motivating factor that you also believe in and trust in Christ because you don't want to go to this place.

So just pointing it out that the book of revelation does clearly teach that doctrine.

Okay. Where are we now? So revelation 1410, let's look at verse 12.

Here's the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Notice here, having faith in Jesus is closely tied to keeping his commandments.

Now we know the salvation is by grace through faith and Paul makes it very clear, not of works.

And there's all sorts of different verses that make it plain that nobody is saved by keeping the commandments or doing good works.

But at the same time, people who are saved, do good works, right?

Jesus said, and I repeat this probably more often than any other verse, but Jesus said,

John was at 14 verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments. Cause that's really one, one of the signs of a true convert that they actually obey

Christ. They have a desire to obey Christ as opposed to the people of Babylon, you know, who are in this world system.

Do they have any concern for obeying Christ? You know, it's like James said, they don't care.

That's the best case scenario that they, that there's not concerned about it. Some people, we probably know people like this.

They, they, they just find it this, they make sport of, you know, breaking commandments.

They seem to find some pleasure in it. And they want to try to get other people to do that as well.

So Jesus makes it very clear here that there is a connection between trusting the faith of Jesus and keeping the commandments.

Verse 13 is a really interesting statement. Another voice from heaven this time saying to John, blessed are the dead who die in the

Lord from now on. I don't know if that strikes you funny, but it kind of blessed are the dead.

How do you, how would you interpret that? That statement? Yeah, it says, yes, says the spirit.

So blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works.

Follow them. This reminds me of Psalm 115 or excuse me, 116 verse 15, which says precious in the sight of the

Lord are the death of his saints. It's kind of another one of those verses. It's like, did I read that correctly?

You know, blessed are the dead and blessed are those who die. Um, you're like, what, what does that mean?

Well, I think this verse, one thing it does, it shows us that God cares about his people and that there's nobody, not a single person who's insignificant of all the people that lose their life in the tribulation.

God cares about every single one of his people. I mean, he cares about the lost because his desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

But when, when a saint dies, that's a precious thing in the sight of God.

And especially if a believer dies at this point in the tribulation, you might say they're blessed because they don't have to see what's about to happen next.

Because when you get to chapter 16, then you have the bowl judgments, right? The, the seal judgments were bad.

The trumpet judgments were really bad. And then in chapter 16, the bowl judgments are just absolutely horrific.

So the people who die now, I mean, basically, if I can paraphrase this happy, are they, because they don't have to see all that.

They don't have to experience it. All right. We're almost done. Uh, now the story jumps ahead a little bit and we sort of get a 30 ,000 foot view of that final battle known as Armageddon and the events leading up to it.

Uh, versus 14 through 16 is titled reaping the earth's harvest.

John says, then I looked and behold a white cloud and on the cloud set one, like the son of man, having on his head, a golden crown and in his hand, a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud thrust in your sickle and reap for the time has come for you to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped.

The next section is reaping the grapes of wrath verse 17.

Then another angel. So you have all these angels proclaiming things from heaven. He came out of the temple, which is in heaven.

He also having a sharp sickle and another angel came out of the altar who had power over fire.

And he cried with a loud voice, uh, with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle saying thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the cluster of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe.

So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

Um, so you see here, the wine it's going to picture what, I mean, think of communion.

What is the grape juice or the wine represent? You know, it speaks of the blood of Christ and communion.

Well here, the wrath of God or the grapes of wrath and the, the wine that flows from it.

I mean, it represents a bloodshed basically. And you get this verse, uh, verse 20.

This is probably the memorable verse of the whole chapter. People all have asked me about this verse many times.

It says in the wine press was trampled outside the city and the blood out of the wine press was up to the horse's bridles for 1 ,600 furlongs.

Now how high is a horse's bridle? It depends on the horse.

You're talking at least four to five feet tall, right?

Well, let's just say five feet and 1 ,600 furlongs. That's about 180 miles, 200 miles, something like that.

So are you telling me there's going to be a river of blood five feet deep flowing for a hunt?

Now, most people would say that's not even possible. Even if there's a trench or maybe a river and people, their blood gets mixed in.

I don't know exactly what this is, but, um, is this literal? Well, I mean, that's a kind of a frightening thought.

If it's literal, I tend to think it is, but even if I don't understand it, but clearly there's going to be great bloodshed at what, what battle is this?

Yeah. Armageddon. This is like the battle to end all battles. And technically it's not even the last one, but, um, just as far as maybe being literal, uh, there's back in chapter nine and idea.

Many believe there's going to be a 200 million man army that marches from the East. So 200 million people.

I mean, I'm just saying it's, it's possible that this might be a literal thing, but either way, starting to bring this to a close,

I think a contrast is being drawn here. Going back to the 144 ,000, you know, you kind of have a choice.

Uh, the people of this world have a choice. Either you're going to be with Christ in heaven, or you're going to stand with Christ on the earth raining for a thousand years, or you can take the other side and side in with the world and the antichrist and his system.

And we see how that, that ends. Uh, but the message of revelation is clear and how we can be, uh, encouraged walking away from this and kind of feeling good about it.

I mean, there should be a heaviness for the lost. I mean, this, this should make us want to get the gospel out and get as many people saved as possible.

It's not our choice though. Obviously people need to make that decision for themselves. And it seems like as time goes on, less and less people want to make that decision, unfortunately.

But the only way to deal with that is to just be honest and tell people the truth.

That's what the angel from heaven is going to do. He's going to say, fear God. Why? Because there's something to be afraid of.

And the people of this world need to know. Yeah. You need to fear God because if you reject

Christ, according to the Bible, uh, this is what is going to come of those who reject

God's grace. But aside from that heaviness, uh, we know that if we believe in Jesus, we're on, on the winning side.

One last statement, you know, everyone, and I know there might be somebody who say, you know, this is book of revelation.

It's just kind of a drag. It's all negative. And you know, I don't like hearing about this stuff.

Okay. And maybe this doesn't fit this. Maybe this doesn't describe you, but there's still a lot of people who might say that and think that, but they'll watch

TV shows and they'll watch movies where there's all sorts of violence and destruction.

And that's basically violence and destruction for entertainment sake. And they have no problem with that, but like this is real, but everyone sort of likes a good story of the good guys defeating the bad guys.

And this is kind of that, that ultimate story. God is God is fair. I mean, the people that are cast into the lake of fire, they, no matter what your opinion is, you know, they truly do deserve it because God is not unjust.

They, they have a choice and they decided to worship the devil. So they're going to go where the devil is.

The other alternative is believe in Jesus and go where he is. Where is he?

He's in heaven, but he is coming back. And when he does, this is what's going to happen.

So I would just close with this statement. If anyone is not a believer and they're listening to this message, my statement would be that of the first angel.