God's Lasting Message

Mark Finley: Praise God that we have a message of the gospel to go to the ends of the earth to prepare people in the light of the judgment, to live obedient lives and to worship the creator and not worship the beast.
Guest (Female): This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message: God's Lasting Message. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com. Stay with us for a free Bible study offer later in this program. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: You have three sections to Revelation 14: a people, a redeemed people, a saved people; a message that prepares the redeemed, saved people; and the event for which the redeemed, saved people are prepared. We're going to focus particularly in this program on the message that prepares men and women for the coming of Jesus. We start with Revelation chapter 14, verse 6: "Then I saw another angel flying in the middle of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." This is God's last-day message for humanity. As you look out through biblical history, every time God has a message for humanity that affects the world and affects their eternal destiny, he has sent a messenger to prepare for that event so that as many people would be saved as possible. Think of the first time the world was destroyed by God. It was destroyed by water. In the end times, the world will be destroyed by fire, but if you let your mind go back to the book of Genesis, the world is destroyed by water. Noah, in the Old Testament, was raised up by God at a time the earth was to be destroyed, but he was raised up to send a message to the world. It wasn't God's intent that just a few be saved and one ark be floating. Wouldn't it have been amazing if there were hundreds of arks floating during the flood time because they followed the blueprint of Noah, accepted the true God, and were saved? But that didn't happen. It was just Noah and his family. The point is God raised up a messenger with a message to prepare for the event. When you look at John the Baptist, Jesus was to come once, and Jesus sent a man, John the Baptist, to prepare the world for his coming. You look at Lot in the days of Sodom to prepare the world for the destruction of Sodom by fire. Or you think of Joseph sent into Egypt to prepare for the coming of the Jews to Egypt at a time of famine. When you look at these great events in the history of humanity and the Bible history and you see Noah, John the Baptist, Lot, and Joseph, you recognize it would be very strange if God did not have a special message for this generation. It would be a special message that was uniquely designed for the end time, a special message that met the challenge and the difficulties of this generation. God has always had a message to prepare people for worldwide events that affect their eternal destiny. God's last-day message for the last generation is found in the book of Revelation. It is pictured here in the heart of Revelation. Pause for a moment and think about the structure of Revelation. Revelation 1 introduces the eternal Christ. Revelation 2 and 3 talk about the spiritual qualities of the church in every age. Revelation 4 and 5 are an interlude to prepare for the seven seals and the seven trumpets. They talk about worship of the creator and worship of the redeemer. Revelation 6 and 7 talk about the seven seals, that is, the impact of the Christian church on the world. Revelation 8 and 9 talk about the trumpets, that is, the judgment on the Jewish nation, the judgment on the Romans, the judgment on apostate Christianity that has rejected God's word, and judgment on the Muslims who have come across and attacked Christianity. The first 11 chapters take you down from the first century to the end time. They give you a panoramic view of history. When you come to chapter 12, it's the hinge upon which the whole book turns. Up until chapter 12, you have history being revealed. But in chapter 12, God gives you four episodes. First, Satan is at war with God in heaven. God wins, Satan loses. Second, Satan attacks Jesus on earth. But once again, Jesus wins, Satan loses. Thirdly, Satan attacks God's people in the Middle Ages. God wins, Satan loses. Then he focuses his attack in Revelation 12:17. It says the dragon, Satan, is angry with the woman and goes to make war with the remnant of her seed, his end-time people. What's the war on at the end time about? It's about those who have faith in Jesus, those who are committed to Jesus, those who have been saved by grace, and those who keep his law. Where does this war end? Revelation 13 explains that to you. It leads you to the idea that church and state will unite under the religion of the beast power when no man can buy or sell and ultimately there's a death decree. Revelation 13 also tells you that religious liberty will be taken from us, that there will be a union of church and state. Now, where is the message that's designed to prepare all humanity beyond denominationalism, beyond people of a particular religious creed? Where is the message for people to stand in the crisis of the mark of the beast in Revelation 13 and stand with the remnant in Revelation chapter 12 at the end time? It's found in Revelation chapter 14. That's the very message that we're going to study today. Revelation 14:6 is the message that is God's answer to all humanity. It's a message that goes to the ends of the earth to prepare people for the end time. It's a message that is as important in our day as Noah's message was in his day or John the Baptist's message was in his day. In Noah's generation, very few understood his message. They lived their lives, they were involved with their families, with making money, and with materialistic pursuits. They were involved with the ordinary activities of life, and the Bible says they knew not until the day that the flood came and Noah went into the ark. Today, the world is unconscious of a message of God given in Revelation that's an urgent, eternal, universal message. It is as important as Noah's message was to prepare the world for the coming of the Lord. "Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven." What does the angel do? Does he float or does he fly? Does he waft his way on the breezes, just gliding along with majestic serenity, or does he fly as if on an urgent task? If you want to know what flying is like, watch my wife when she runs down the aisles of a church passing out Bibles during my evangelistic meetings. That's flying. I try to walk with my wife and she's always 10 steps ahead of me. Or watch her when she's late for a plane. We really know how to run through airports. Flying is not something that you just lollygag and walk along slowly. No, you move. I'll let you in on a little family secret. When we get to airports, if I'm late for the plane, I walk. If I miss it, I miss it. I'm not running through any airport. My wife takes off. She goes and leaves me halfway down in the airport. It's a wonderful thing to know that God has an end-time message that flies. I remember a time I was late for a plane. My wife hastened on, and as I got there, my wife was already at the door and she said, "Darling, I've been holding the plane for you." I said, "Thank you, dear," and I got on the plane so relaxed. That's what flying is like. You have an urgent message. You want to catch a plane. The door of that plane would shut, and if I did not have a wife that was quick and fast, I could miss a plane. But when you think of human probation, one day the door is going to shut. One day those that are in are in and those that are out are going to be out. Just like in Noah's ark where there was a time that Noah preached 120 years. Praise God many had the opportunity to respond, but they didn't. Only Noah and his family went into the ark. When the door was shut, it was too late. So the angel flies in the midst of heaven. He has the everlasting gospel to preach to those dwelling on the earth. Notice what he's preaching. He's not preaching some new gospel or some new message. The angel doesn't try to shape the gospel to meet the consumer needs of society. The angel preaches something that's eternal, something that's everlasting. The beauty of the gospel is that it appeals to hearts and minds in every generation. Although society may change, the deepest needs of our fundamental lives are essentially the same. This is a reason why God says he preaches the everlasting gospel. It doesn't simply say the gospel; it's not some new gospel. We need to look at what that gospel is. It is preached to those that dwell on the earth, to every nation, every tribe, every tongue, and every people. This message leaps across linguistic boundaries. It spans oceans. The message touches continents. This is not a message simply for America, for Anglos, whites, or Hispanics. It's not a message simply for Asians. This is a message for all mankind. It goes to every nation, every tribe, every tongue, and every people. One of the reasons why God sends the gospel to the ends of the earth is because the gospel is for everybody. The gospel is for the world. What is this gospel? The Apostle Paul defines the gospel in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says, "Moreover, brethren, I have declared to you the gospel which I preached unto you, which you have received wherein you stand." The Corinthians eventually received the gospel. They stood in the gospel. "By which also you are saved if you keep in memory what I preached to you." In other words, there is no eternal salvation without the gospel. If you keep it in memory, if you choose to live in the gospel, unless you believed in vain. "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins." This is the gospel. It is not a gospel of legalism or a gospel of works. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose the third day according to the scriptures. The gospel is the incredible good news of Christ's life. His perfect life atones for our imperfect lives. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. When Christ died on the cross, the guilt and shame of all humanity rested upon him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us." Christ took the guilt, the shame, and the condemnation of our sin. Galatians 3:13 says, "Cursed is everyone that hangs on the tree." Hebrews 2:8 and 9 says that Christ would die the death for every human being. Christ left the glory of heaven, the splendor of heaven, and the worship of the angels in an act of love. When we were lost, he came and dwelt in human flesh. He came and bore the sins of humanity. He faced the temptation of Satan and lived the life we should have lived. He faced Satan's temptations head-on and he never yielded to those temptations. Christ gave his life so that we could live eternally. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 14, verse 6, "I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." It is a universal message. I've had the privilege of traveling the world, preaching in probably 100 countries. As I have preached the world in multiple languages, having my messages translated, I have been so impressed to see what God has done. I remember going to the Olympic Stadium in Moscow and seeing thousands come to Christ. We baptized over 3,000 people in Russia in about a three-year period after we had done meetings there. I think about India and the city of Chennai, preaching there and seeing scores of new churches planted and raised up. I think of South or Inter-America where we were in large stadiums and thousands of people came to Christ. Africa, just recently, we were in Africa and preached by satellite uplink to 20,000 locations and saw about 200,000 people come to Christ and be baptized. What a privilege it has been to travel the world, preaching the word of God in China. I praise God that the Chinese government gave me a 10-year visa to go in and out of China, and I praise God for the opportunity to preach there, in the Philippines, or in Indonesia. What a blessing it has been to travel the world and see the fulfillment of these prophecies in the book of Revelation. There's a special message given in Revelation chapter 14, verse 7, saying with a loud voice. God wants us all to wake up and to be ready. "Fear God, give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters." Here is a message to prepare a people for the coming of Jesus. It's a message that is as important for our day as Noah's message was for his day or John the Baptist's message was for his day. "Fear God." The word fear there does not mean fear in the sense of quake or to tremble before God. It means reverence God or respect God. The interesting word there in the Greek language for fear is phobeo and it means to take God seriously. How do we take God seriously? We are letting the Bible explain itself, so let's go to Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes to see if we can discover what it means to fear God. In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13 and 14: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it's good or whether it's evil." There are those people who have the idea that if you talk about keeping the commandments, that is legalism. It's not at all. If you understand that the keeping of the commandments do not save you, that Christ's grace saves you. We are saved by grace not to disobey God's law but to keep God's law. We are saved by grace not to turn our backs on God's law but to live in harmony with it. This is exactly what the Apostle Paul says in the book of Romans chapter 3. He points out in Romans 3:31, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law." Saved by grace, we long to be obedient to Christ. This is part of God's last-day message. First, the gospel in verse 6 of Revelation 14. The gospel goes to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Men and women are saved and redeemed by grace. It leads them to fear God, that is, to obey him and to give glory to him. How do we give glory to him? The Bible says whatever you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Our bodies are not a funhouse to be abused; they are temples of the living God to be respected. We eat and we drink to the glory of God. Whatever we do, we do to the glory of God. The places we go, where our feet take us, we go to the glory of God. In the things that we see, we say, "Lord, consecrate my eyes, only look at those programs on the YouTube or internet that will bring you glory." Lord, help me to give you glory in everything I hear and listen to. In other words, we give glory to God in the totality of our lives. Why? For the hour of his judgment has come. Notice it doesn't say the hour of God's judgment will come in the future. It says the hour of God's judgment has come. We are living in the judgment hour. Revelation chapter 22, verse 11 and 12, puts it this way: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy still." This is a time when two classes have been developed: the unjust and the just, the righteous and the unrighteous. Everybody has made their final irrevocable decision. There has been a time of judgment, a time of choice. "Behold, I come quickly, my reward is with me to give every man according to as his work shall be." If Christ is coming to give out his rewards, there must be a judgment before he comes to determine who receives what reward when he comes. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 36, Jesus says every idle word that men speak, they shall give account of in the day of judgment. In Jesus' day, the judgment was in the future. When Paul spoke to the church, he said that he reasoned of righteousness and judgment to come. Judgment was future. But when you come to the book of Revelation, it says the clock has struck the hour. We are living in the judgment hour, living in the last days of earth's history. Then it says, "Worship him that made heaven, earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters." Another name for the one that made heaven, earth, sea, and the fountains of waters is the creator. If you look at Revelation 14:9, it says the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, "If anybody worships the beast and his image and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand." In verse 7 you have true worship: worship the creator. You have in verse 9: don't worship the beast. You have in verse 12 how you avoid worshipping the beast and worship the creator: "Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Revelation chapter 14 is a universal message that's to go to the ends of the earth. It's based on the everlasting gospel of God's goodness and grace. It leads us to appreciate the cross of Calvary and leads us to have our hearts broken over sin. What is sin? It's the transgression of God's law. 1 John 3:4. It leads us to fear God, that is, respect God, reverence God, or take him seriously. It leads us to give glory to God in every aspect of our lives. It leads us to recognize that the hour of God's judgment is come, that we're living in a unique time of earth's history. And it leads us to worship the creator rather than the beast power. Think about that. Here is a message that goes out to the ends of the earth. Would there be any time in earth's history that a message to worship the creator would be more relevant than this generation? This is a time when millions believe in evolution. They have the idea that the genes and chromosomes that came together to form the unique biological structure of our personality just happened by chance. They have the idea that we evolved with some Big Bang explosion or out of some amoeba that grew to advanced animal creation and advanced life. But here God calls us to worship the creator. The basic conflict in the book of Revelation is over the subject of worship. Revelation 4:11 says, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power because thou created all things." How do we manifest the worship of the creator? It says in verse 12, "Here is the patience of the saints." They don't worship the beast; they worship the creator. Here's the endurance of the people of God; they hang on to the truth. How are they identified? "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." One of those commandments says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, and in it the Lord created the heaven and the earth." We pay supreme homage to our creator out of worship, out of love, out of concern, as we understand that he is our creator. He's given us a day upon which to set aside to worship him. I just praise God for the creative power of Christ. I praise God for the book of Revelation. Praise God that we have a message of the gospel to go to the ends of the earth to prepare people in the light of the judgment, to live obedient lives and to worship the creator and not worship the beast. Open your heart to the message of Revelation and let Jesus change your life. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you with all of our hearts for Jesus. We thank you for his love, for his grace, and for his goodness. We thank you for the appeal of Revelation to worship our Lord, our savior, our redeemer, our high priest, our coming king, and our creator. We choose to worship you in Jesus' name, Amen.