From the Lips of Angels, Part 2

The book of Revelation depicts a scene where an angel makes a declaration about God's enemy. Babylon has fallen. The pride of the Antichrist, the world system, everybody under the title and term Babylon, the angel shouts from on high. The obituary of Babylon has already been written. Babylon has fallen, no matter what the stars might say. Throughout the book of Psalms, King David often asked God this question, when will you judge your enemies? When you come to chapter 14 of Revelation, God finally sends the answer. In that chapter, Revelation 14, we read of a series of angels making a series of proclamations. One of those is the proclamation that Babylon has fallen. Well, what does that mean? What does Babylon even refer to?

And how does it relate to us? Stay with us because we're going to learn some very practical principles today here on Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Stephen's working his way through a series called, A Preview of Things to Come. Today's lesson is part two of a message called, From the Lips of Angels. Now, today, obviously, the church is responsible for the proclamation of the gospel. But here in the tribulation period, the methods of God now shift. We have 144,000 Jewish evangelists that are uniquely gifted and enabled to preach the gospel. You have the two witnesses that can't be put to death until God so allows who deliver the gospel. You have those who certainly do believe the gospel message delivered by those evangelists who deliver the gospel to their friends and family.

And now here you have an angel. Now, I know and I fully respect Oswald Chambers and his wonderful devotional that sort of began this idea that an angel can't and doesn't preach the gospel. The problem I have is with the text of scripture that says an angel will preach the gospel. It is an everlasting gospel. The word is used that is used throughout the New Testament. This gospel, however, is not unique and it is not altered in any way. In fact, there are just nuances of the gospel that are used throughout the New Testament. This one is called an eternal gospel. That means it's timeless. It's unchanged. It is the same gospel, in fact, that has been preached throughout human history.

The elements are unchanging. Man is sinful. Man is in need of atonement. Man is in trouble with God.

Man needs to be saved. In pre-Christ times, they look toward the cross and the one who would come to suffer from Adam to Isaiah. They were waiting for the suffering one upon whom the Father would place the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 53 verse 6.

They looked forward to having their sins fully atoned for by the Son of God. The ancient world looked forward to the cross and we look back to the cross of Christ, where he bore our sin in his body on the tree that we being dead to sin could live in a righteousness, 1 Peter 2 24. Listen, no matter where you go in the world, the intuitive understanding of guilt and sin is there in every human heart. The need for the gospel is apparent and real. And no matter where you go in the world, you find mankind trying to deal with the reality of sin, the stain of sin. I've watched people scrubbing themselves in the putrid water of the Ganges River, Hindu pilgrims believing that that river was a gift that dripped down from the locks of their god Shiva, so that mortals could have their souls bathed and set free.

Where do they come up with that desire? The Bible tells us that the law of God is written on their hearts. Mankind, the world over, intuitively understands the concept of some need for atonement. So the eternal gospel is not new and it is not somehow bound in one culture. It is the gospel of the Lamb, the merits of atonement.

This one, we believe, as the Bible tells us, who paid in his death the sacrifice not only for our sins, but the sins of the world, 1 John 2, verse 2. This is the gospel and this is why we deliver the gospel to the world. The gospel has all sorts of nuances and viewpoints. It's called the gospel of the kingdom, Matthew 4, 23. It's called the gospel of Jesus Christ, Mark 1, verse 1. The gospel of the grace of God, Acts 20, 24. The gospel of God, Mark 1, 14. The gospel of the glory of Christ.

That means now we're talking about the gospel and it happens to glorify Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4, 4. The gospel of salvation, Ephesians 1, 13. The gospel of peace, Ephesians 6, 15. And the glorious gospel, 1 Timothy 1, 11. When you understand that the word means good tidings, he is saying now this good tidings happens to be timeless, it is eternal. This is then the eternally good news about Christ, the eternally good news about the grace of God, the eternally good news about the glory of Christ, the eternally good news about the true path to peace with God, and on and on and on.

And here you have the gospel, John writes, being preached by an angel and it is consistent with the gospel preached by Paul and the apostles. Now notice verse 7. And he said with a loud voice, fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come.

He tells mankind to do a couple of things. Fear God. Remember this is in the middle of the tribulation where to turn to Christ would probably mean death. They would be afraid of the antichrist. He is saying, don't be afraid of him, don't fear him, fear God. Not only does the angel preach from the sky for mankind to fear God, but also to glorify God, give him glory that is elevated. The world for the most part is falling at the feet of the antichrist. They're deifying him, they're giving him honor, they're exalting his name.

They're wearing it, many of them on their right hand or on their forehead. Glorify God instead, the angel is saying. And what happens to be the one area where mankind throughout human history and in our generation has trouble glorifying God, creation. In fact that's the text, that's the theme so to speak of the angel. He happens to be worthy of worship, why?

Because he made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. This is the gospel of creationism, it is the gospel that is tied to the creator God. Without a creator God there is no gospel delivered to us. Anyone that will deliver a gospel outside of creationism is delivering a different gospel.

And our generation is running after it like never before. There have always been theories of origins in our western world over the last 150 years. It has been that promoted by Darwin and his theory of origins, his theory of evolution.

And now more than ever, not only the world outside the church, but the church is honoring and bringing glory to him. In a unique way it started and many of you missed it and I did too, but in February 2006 they decided there should be a special Sunday marked Evolution Sunday in honor of Darwin's birthday, which is in February, February 12th. Supporters said their religious services and sermons on evolution were designed, can you imagine a sermon on evolution, what text would you use?

I guess the reversed version. These services were planned, and I quote, to stand up to creationism, which holds to a literal interpretation of the Bible. I mean somebody's just got to stand up to those people, as if we're the majority voice.

Somebody stand up to them. In 2007 it was so wildly popular, if you can imagine it, they changed it from Evolution Sunday to Evolution Weekend, where more, quote, faith systems, who don't care about Sunday, could play a part and a role. In February 2009, they celebrated again, we missed it, I just went right over my head, more than 12,000 ministers in America and churches participated, and over 400 rabbis participated.

To do what? To honor the work of Darwin and his theory of origins over and against those who would take the scriptures literally. And I guarantee you not one of those services had anything from Romans chapter 1 in their bulletin that day.

Let me read it again. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. What truth are you talking about in this text, Paul? Well, that which is known about God is evident, for God made it evident to them.

How? Since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse, for even though they knew that is intuitively about God, they did not glorify God. They did not give God glory for creating the universe and all there is. Listen, the apostle Paul was writing this in the face of his culture, which was filled with evolutionary pantheists.

This isn't new. The gospel in the first century was already confronting Buddhism, which had reached the Mediterranean world, teaching their own theories of evolution. The church was delivering Romans chapter 1 to a world of Stoics and Gnostics, who disbelieved in a personal God and a special creation. They were the scholars of Paul's generation. So how important is creationism to the gospel?

I'm so glad you asked me that. I want to give you three statements to answer it in honor of Darwin's birthday. Number one, the credibility of Jesus Christ requires creationism. If creationism isn't true, then Jesus Christ preached error and believed falsehood. He said on one occasion, recorded in Mark's gospel, chapter 10, verse 6, from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. He didn't say after millions of years of evolving, male and female human beings evolved. No, at the beginning, at the beginning stage, you could render it, he created them male and female. Now, he wasn't just saying that because he happened to be around.

It's more than that. John's gospel records it this way. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word what? Was God. Later in the chapter, John will say if you missed it, the word tabernacled among us, it is Jesus Christ. Verse 2 of that chapter says all things came into being through him, and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being.

He closed every loophole possible in that text. So in other words, Jesus Christ wasn't just casually present at creation. He was the creative power behind creation. So for those that might tell you that, well, you know, creation is only in Genesis, and the rest of the Bible doesn't make a big deal about it, my friend, the credibility of Jesus Christ hangs upon it. Number two, not only does the credibility of Christ require it, the gospel of Christ is tied to it.

There can be no mistaking this. The apostle Paul said this in another text as he preached to the intelligentsia of his day, called all the professors and philosophers together, and he said this to them in Acts 14. We preach the gospel to you. There again is that word used in Revelation 14. We preach the gospel to you.

What is it, Paul? What's the nuance this time that you want to bring up out of this gospel truth? He said that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Why should Paul's audience turn from their idols and their vain speculations? Because the gospel introduced to them of this true and living God is the gospel of a creator God who made all there is.

Not only is the credibility of Christ tied to creationism and the gospel tied to creationism, thirdly, the future judgment of the world is tied to a creator God. Go back to your text in Revelation 14 and look again at verse 7. Fear God and give him glory.

Why? Well, because the hour of his judgment has come. And so you'd better, implied, worship him. And why should we worship him?

Because he happens to be the God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and even the springs of water. The world may not want to deal with a creator God now, but Revelation tells us it will deal with him in the future. Evolution eliminates the God of Genesis, but it has a big problem. They've got the God of Revelation to deal with. The first book and the last book reveal the truth, and in light of the coming day of judgment, the angel preaches the gospel of repentance and faith, and he says honor and glorify and worship creator God. My friends, can you imagine, and I'll get off this in a minute, but it struck me all over again, but can you imagine the utter folly of a church and a minister, a sermon, a service honoring instead of creator God evolution?

Can you imagine the utter folly of that? Is the church that lost? Is the church that bored with the gospel?

I believe it is. Listen, by the grace of God, our church will never have evolution Sunday, okay? We're not even going to have evolution Monday or Tuesday. We don't celebrate evolution Sunday.

We do celebrate resurrection Sunday, and we do want to see transformation Sunday happen over and over and over again. We honor and exalt and worship just as this angel encourages the world to do, our creator, Lord, who happens to be coming to judge the world. That's the first angel. I thought I'd get to all three, but I won't.

Let me at least get to the second one. Look at verse 8. And another angel, here's the second one. This is the gospel of consummation. A second one followed saying, fallen, fallen Babylon the great.

She who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality. Now, we will table this for the most part until we get to Revelation chapter 17, where Babylon is revealed to us in the symbolism of mystery Babylon. Now, understand that Babylon, this is a categorical term for idolatry, I believe, among other things. Babylon was founded in Genesis chapter 10 by an idolater, an evil man named Nimrod.

It became the site of the first organized system of idolatry in human history. They built the tower of Babel or Babel. They built this tower, Genesis 11, 4 says, whose top would reach into heaven. You can understand that Hebrew text a little better when you understand what he's saying is the top literally represented heaven. They weren't going to try to build it so tall.

It just kept going on. I used to imagine as a kid, you know, how many bricks it would take to reach heaven. Well, a misinterpretation. Unfortunately, the Hebrew literally means that just the top represented heaven. The Babylonians developed the zodiac. They began to effectively bow before the movements of the stars, planets, believing their lives would be governed not by creator God but by a created star. How popular is the religion of Nimrod today?

Millions of people have their devotions in it every morning devoted to the horoscope, believing that their lives are somehow irreversibly affected by the sign and the movements. It is pagan religion. It is another gospel. Babylon was the first system of idolatry devised by mankind. Here's the fascinating point to consider. As humanity was united in its first idolatrous false religion at Babylon, so it will again be united in the end times under the name Babylon, history will come full circle.

Fascinating. It starts with Babylon, it ends with this one world religion, idolatry in Babylon. But you notice that the angel speaks here of Babylon as if it has already fallen. Fallen, fallen. He speaks twice, it is emphasis and certainty that he is delivering in his message in this gospel tiding. Babylon has fallen.

In fact, from his vantage point, it is as good as done. In other words, we know Babylon hasn't fallen yet, this is a preview of things to come. The pride of the antichrist, the world system, everybody under the title and term Babylon, the angel shouts from on high, the obituary of Babylon has already been written. Babylon has fallen, no matter what the stars might say.

No matter how secure it seems, no matter how many millions say, this gospel is the true gospel. I remember touring one year for my Christian college while I was in college in a singing group. You got to use your imagination, I used to sing bass. Not very well, but they let me go. When I went through that, I realized what God was doing because it was during that tour and I began to preach and wasn't the designated hitter, but yet the two guys that were supposed to be really didn't want to. We'd go to high school assemblies, Christian schools two and three times a day, and as we traveled and preached and sang in 200 different churches and schools, I got volunteered and God began to use that to turn me from wanting to be a history teacher to becoming a pastor teacher, but I get to teach you history every chance I get. At any rate, we were out in California and we took an afternoon to tour one of the major Hollywood film studios.

If you knew anything about my Christian college, you would know why we didn't ask for permission to do that. It's been long enough, I think I can confess that now and I'm safe, but we took a tour of a Hollywood film studio and our tour included some amazing movie sets, trained animal demonstrations, stunt shows, behind the scenes look at how movies were made. Of course, we're going back a ways, but I'll never forget my amazement at how the film industry had so successfully, creatively fooled the American public. They could make anything look real. This is really going to date me, but they showed us the set for The Six Million Dollar Man. Any of you remember that? Let me see.

Oh, I got a lot of old people in here, wow. Terrible acting, but I love that show, huh? Six Million Dollar Man, they showed us how they made it look like he jumped to the top of a building. He's just standing there and the screen behind him had projected on it a building and he'd jump and they'd scroll the building down and then he'd land. And of course, you look at that and you realize he's not jumping to the top of that building.

It's really bad, bad acting. At any rate, that was pretty slick back then. Our tour led us to a pond where Jaws was filmed. You remember that movie? That scared an entire generation back on the beach. Remember that? A plastic head of a shark that they'd covered with water-resistant paint.

That was it. What struck me the most, however, on that tour was walking down a short alley and being shown, leave it to beavers home. How many of you are old enough to remember that?

Not quite as many. You remember that's where his dad were next to even cutting the grass and his mother cooked dinner in high heels in a dress. But she put on gloves so there was a difference there. You remember that? You remember the opening to the show? The camera would pan. I think they were running home from school or something and it pans the neighborhood and their lawn and then that big two-story house and it was just the perfect setting and he'd go through the front door.

Well, we went to that. We saw that house and the houses next to it, they were nothing more than sheets of plywood nailed up, braced up and a front door that opened into the back alley. If you went around to the back, as we did, you could see all the two-by-fours bracing the plywood façade that had been painted to look like home. It was inviting. It looked good, didn't it?

It's the two-story house you'd want to have. Millions of people watched Beaver go through that front door. It was all make-believe. Ladies and gentlemen, Satan and his angels have done an incredible job presenting their versions of the gospel from the beginning of time.

Life after death, how to wash away your sin, how to atone for your guilt, heaven, how to get there. It sounds real. It looks inviting. Babylon looks solid.

It looks permanent. But when compared to Scripture, it's all make-believe. It is religious plywood propped up with counterfeit visions and false prophets and angels of light and plagiarized texts.

And it is plywood thin. My friend, today you can believe those gospel tidings of any number of angels. I commend you to this angel in Revelation 14. And I will tell you that you have every reason to be concerned that you might be following the wrong gospel message. The key truth to reflect upon today is what Stephen just said. Is it possible that you're following the wrong gospel?

That question is worth your reflection. Have you been saved by Christ? We've seen today that the message of the gospel is both a warning and an assurance.

I hope that for you, it's assurance. If you joined us partway through this lesson, you've been listening to Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. We have a resource that clarifies the message of the gospel. We call it God's Wisdom for Your Heart. We have it printed up as a small brochure that you can share with people in your life. And that resource is available at our website. We also have God's Wisdom for Your Heart posted online so you can read it there.

And it's on the landing page of our app so you can have it with you wherever you go. I hope it's an encouragement to you. And I hope it's a valuable tool you can use to share the message of the gospel with others. If we can help you today, please call us at 866-48-BIBLE. Candice and her team of volunteers are always eager to speak with you. We'll return to this series on Monday. Tomorrow is one of our question and answer broadcasts. So join us for that right here on Wisdom for the Heart. We'll be right back.