Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #19 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are looking at Revelation14:9-10:

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture 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:

As we are moving along in this chapter in Revelation 14, God has been progressing in His salvation program and in His judgment program.  We saw that the chapter began with the “144,000” saved out of the church age, the firstfruits unto God.

Then there was another angel flying in the midst of heaven, “Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come,” (or “has came”) and that was the hour that points to the Great Tribulation.

Following this is the next stage with another angel declaring, in Revelation 14:8: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”  And that is the end of the Great Tribulation and the end of the “hour” and the time when God turns His attention to Satan and the kingdom of Satan. 

God had allowed Satan to ascend out of the bottomless pit, spiritually speaking.  He had been bound at the cross and he was shut up in the bottomless pit for a figurative thousand year-period, the entire church age.  Then he was loosed and allowed to come against the churches and congregations and be the means for God to pour out the cup of His wrath against the churches; God abandoned the congregations and removed His hand of restraint from them.  He was no longer holding Satan back, but He allowed him to take his seat as the “man of sin” to rule in the church world, showing himself that he was God.  The churches that had always lusted (at least to some degree) after the things of the world and had made the things of the world their “high places,” were now allowed to do this without restraint.  They could go after their lusts and drink the cup that God had prepared in the hands of Babylon to give to the churches and they drank the cup of the “wine of her fornication.”  That was the “cup of the wrath of God,” as the churches were free to go after the sins they had long desired and this resulted in their utter destruction.

Yet, it was also God’s plan for the “little season” of the Great Tribulation to allow Satan to be His servant and to deliver the cup of wrath to the churches, but at the conclusion of the twenty three-year Great Tribulation period, the Lord turned his attention to Satan and his kingdom and every unsaved person within it.  Now it was their turn to drink the cup and that is why God says, in Revelation 18, “In the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”  It is the cup of His wrath. 

It says in Revelation 14:9:

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice…

Before we move on, there is one interesting thing here.  God is “numbering” the angels, and this is the “third angel.”  The number “three” would indicate the purpose of God and that is one reason He numbers them, but He also wants us to know that when we see these angels appear, we should count them.  When we go back in the Book of Revelation, we see the first angel in Revelation 14:6:

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach…

This is the first angel that was mentioned.  Then it says in Revelation 14:8:

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen…

This is the second angel and now it says in Revelation 14:9: “And the third angel followed them,” and that means that God has numbered these angels.  There will be another angel that appears in verse 15, in verse 17 and in verse 18.  So we should consider verse 15 to the “fourth angel,” and verse 17 is the “fifth angel” and verse 18 would be the “sixth angel.”  Each number would have corresponding spiritual meaning.

Again, it says in Revelation 14:9: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,” and this means it was not done secretly in a corner somewhere, but very publicly.  God revealed the end of the church age and the coming judgment upon the world on May 21, 2011 in a very loud and public manner.  It goes on to say in the middle of Revelation 14:9:

… If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God…

This language is familiar to us because we read it in the previous chapter regarding the image of the beast, in Revelation 13:14-17:

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Another place we found this language was in Revelation 13:8:

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

This is referring to the beast.

So when God says, in Revelation 14:9, “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,”  we have to remember that the mark is not a literal mark.  Some people get all carried away with this and they do not understand that Christ spoke in parables; they take the Bible literally, although they pick and choose when to take the Bible literally.  For instance, most do not believe a literal beast is going to come up out of the sea, but when it comes to “the mark of the beast,” that is too alluring for them to pass up and they come up with all sorts of elaborate scenarios: the “mark” is our social security numbers or a tattoo on our wrists and all kinds of crazy things.  It is none of that.  It is not a literal mark.  It is a spiritual mark and it is significant that the mark is in the forehead where the mind is located or the hand, which points to the will of an individual, so the mark has to do with the “soul” and the “will” of man that has been given over to Satan in all unsaved individuals.  In their complete being they serve Satan.  Of course, they are not consciously aware of that.  They are serving sin and they are aware of that.  They know their desires are to seek after money and satisfy the lusts.  Yes, they are aware of those things, but they do not realize that when they obey sin, they are serving Satan.  That is why the Bible speaks of being taken captive by him at his will.  It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Satan deceived Eve into eating of the forbidden tree.  In her active sin, she believed the “father of lies,” Satan, and she did not believe God who always speaks the truth.  So the unsaved people of the world serve sin and Satan and they are the ones that are in view in Revelation 14:9. 

Once we entered into the Day of Judgment…and, once again, we keep repeating this because the Bible keeps referring to Judgment Day.  The Bible reveals that May 21, 2011 was the beginning of Judgment Day and it was the day that God shut the door of heaven, thereby sealing the eternal fate of every individual.  All that were saved are still saved; they cannot lose their salvation.  All the unsaved remain unsaved and they cannot obtain salvation.  Everyone has returned to their own land, spiritually speaking: God’s people are in the kingdom of heaven and all the rest are in the kingdom of Babylon, the kingdom of Satan. 

I am sorry to say that the unsaved number in the billions of people, alive and living upon the earth, and they “shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation,” as it says in our verse in Revelation 14:10.  The wine of the wrath of God is poured into a cup.  And what are they to do with that cup?  They are to drink it.  That is why God speaks of a cup because it is a vessel you can drink from.  It is a “measure” of the wrath of God that has come as a result of the sinner’s sins and God pours out the Law’s demand into a cup and they must drink.  

When Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was in agony and great drops of sweat as blood dropped from Him because He was demonstrating the atoning work He had performed from the foundation of the world.  But not only that, God was actively pouring out His wrath a second time upon the Lord Jesus Christ, although no payment was being made for sin.  But there was genuine and terrible suffering taking place as Christ manifested those things He had already done.  In that agony of being under the wrath of God, Jesus went and prayed, “Father, may this cup pass from me.”  Then He would say, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.”  It was such agony that He went a second time and a third time to pray.  He did this a third time to indicate the purpose of God and the will of God and that is what Jesus prayed each time: “Not my will, but thine be done.”  It was the predetermined counsel and will of God that Christ drink of the wine of the wrath of God to demonstrate that all the sins of the elect were perfectly paid for and the Law’s demand for justice was satisfied from the foundation of the world.  Jesus manifested and revealed that, as He drank of the cup. 

It also tells us that the cup is spiritual because Christ did not have an actual cup in the Garden of Gethsemane, but He was in great pain as He was the object of God’s wrath and it was all in the spiritual realm and, therefore, it was a spiritual judgment – there was no literal cup; there was no literal sword; there were no literal lightning bolts falling from heaven.  If you would have looked at Him, the Lord Jesus was alone and no one was with Him, but the great drops of sweat as blood were falling from Him and He was in awful pain and suffering in order to make this demonstration.  So this is another example of spiritual judgment concerning “the cup of the wrath of God.”

When we go the Old Testament, we read in Psalm 11, where God speaks of the cup.  It says in Psalm 11:4-5:

JEHOVAH is in his holy temple, the JEHOVAH'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. JEHOVAH trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

You will notice the context is Judgment Day when I read the next verse, but take note that God says He is trying the righteous.   What is interesting is that we are here, living on the earth in the Day of Judgment.  God’s elect are still present in the world and God is punishing the wicked and, at the same time, the Bible indicates He is trying the righteous.  And in this little Psalm, which is only seven verses long, God tells us that “He trieth the righteous,” and in the same context, He says, in Psalm 11:6:

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

Here is the cup of the wrath of God and the portion of the wicked is fire and brimstone, but we see that joined together with the declaration that God is trying the righteous.  And this fits perfectly with what we have seen in many places in the Bible – the Lord’s people are present and they go through the Day of Judgment.  They “appear,” as 2Corinthians 5:10 says, and that word “appear” is to be made manifest.  We are to be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ and that is where we find ourselves today as Christ is actively judging all the unsaved people of the world.  Also, the true believers, as they stand before the judgment seat, are making manifest that they have already been judged in Christ.  It is a demonstration; just as Christ died for sins from the foundation of the world, yet He came into the world and suffered a second time (without making payment) in 33 AD to reveal what He had already done.  Well, God’s people were “in Christ” from the foundation of the world as He paid for their sins and God reckons and imputes that to His people; our sins were paid for then.  But, here we are before the judgment seat of Christ, but not to make payment for sin, but to make manifest that our sins had been paid for in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ from the foundation of the world.  We will go through the fire and come out as “gold and silver” that is purified, tried and perfected.  God will get all the glory and it will be evidence that our sins were paid for and there was no sin upon us or we would have been burned up as the chaff and destroyed over the course of this long period of judgment.  Then on the last day we would be annihilated with all the wicked, but that will not happen to us.  So there is a very definite reason for the Lord to leave His elect in the world to go through this period of time.  It accomplishes the “trial of the righteous.”

Notice, also, it says in Psalm 11:6: “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone.”  We have talked about this before, but this teaches us the spiritual characteristic of Judgment Day and the spiritual characteristic of “fire and brimstone,” because God joins it with “snares.”  I do not know any theologian or commentator that has thought that in the Day of Judgment, God would rain down “snares” along with “fire and brimstone.”  They may have thought the “fire and brimstone” was literal, but, obviously, they would not have thought that “snares” or “traps” would fall down from heaven and, yet, God joins “snares” together with “fire and brimstone,” so if the “snares” are not literal, then the “fire and brimstone” is not literal either.  So when we read in Revelation 14:10 that, “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture 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,” we have Biblical justification for understanding the “fire and brimstone” spiritually.  When God shuts the door of heaven, and when He puts out the light of the Gospel and ends His salvation program, He is spiritually pouring out “fire and brimstone.”  There is no literal fire, no literal brimstone and no one is literally burning up, but these things are the evidence of God’s anger and fury.  “Fire and brimstone” expresses the terrible fierceness of God’s wrath toward sin.  He is giving the cup of wrath and pouring out fire and brimstone toward the sinner; and that was revealed when He shut the door to heaven and sealed their eternal fate, guaranteeing that they would die in their sins.