Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #22 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are continuing to look at Revelation14:10:

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:

Last time we were looking at the Greek word translated as “tormented,” which is “basanizo,” Strong’s #928.  We saw that it can be translated as “tossed” as the waves in Matthew 14:24; it is translated as “toiling” in rowing upon the waves in Mark 6:48; it is translated as “vexed” when Lot’s soul was vexed by the unlawful deeds of the wicked around him in 2Peter 2:7.  We did not look at this, but let us look at another verse that speaks of the woman about to be delivered, in Revelation 12:2:

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Here, it is translated as “pained.”  And, of course, it is translated several times as “tormented,” and there is one place, in particular, that helps us understand God’s usage of this word, which is the account of the two witnesses that lie dead in the streets, in Revelation 11:9-10:

And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

The people of the world are said to have been “tormented” by the two prophets or the two witnesses.  There is only one way to understand this: as the Word of God went forth into the world over the course of the church age it was “torment” when the people of the earth heard about God’s wrath and judgment, and so forth.  That means the Word of God and the things that the Bible teaches are a source of torment to the unsaved people and this is important because every unsaved person whose name is not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be “tormented,” as it says at the end of Revelation 14:10:

…and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

If we search the Bible we find that it is not literal “fire and brimstone.”  No one should think when they read this verse and other verses that speak of “fire and brimstone” that this will be literal in the Day of Judgment.  It is not so and Psalm 11:6 helps us to understand that.

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

If it had just said “fire and brimstone,” then we might think it was literal, but He says He shall rain down “snares, fire and brimstone,” and this word means a “trap” or “cage” like a hunter would lay a “snare” in the forest to catch an animal.  It really seems completely out of place when God is speaking of the Day of Judgment, as compared to terms like “fire and brimstone,” “horrible tempest,” or “the cup of wrath.”   But why does He use the term “snares”?  It is because of what it says regarding Judgment Day, in Luke 21:35: “For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.”  We now fully understand what God meant by that because He brought to pass a “spiritual judgment.”  A spiritual judgment is an invisible judgment that is unseen by the naked eye – you cannot see something within the spiritual realm because it is invisible.  God shut the door to heaven and that was an invisible act of wrath; no one could see the door when it was open and no one can see the door when it was shut.  God put out the light of the Gospel and the world never saw a physical light when it was shining and, therefore, they cannot see when that light is darkened.  It is a “snare” because the world thinks all is well and that all things continue as they have – it is just another day and there is nothing different. 

But the truth is that there is a huge difference when we went from May 20, 2011 to May 21, 2011 because that was the beginning of the Day of Judgment, so the Lord rained down “snares” with the “fire and brimstone,” as the “fire and brimstone” expresses His anger with man’s sins; now it was time to punish (unsaved) mankind, which is being done spiritually.  Those without spiritual eyes to see do not see the punishment and they do not see the wrath of God.  It is God’s people that are given eyes to see these things because it is the Bible that is proclaiming and teaching these things.  God’s people see, with the eyes of faith, the things God opens up to them in the Bible.

When we look up the term “fire and brimstone,” we find a verse that expresses it well, in Isaiah 30:33:

For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of JEHOVAH, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

So why is this verse so helpful in defining “fire and brimstone” and helping us to understand what is in view?  It is because it mentions the “breath of JEHOVAH.”  Remember that the Bible is inspired by God, according to 2Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.”  When we look closely at the Greek word translated as “inspiration,” we see it is a compound word made up of two Greek words that mean “God breathed.”  All Scripture is “God breathed,” so in Isaiah 30:33, it says, “The breath of JEHOVAH, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.”  The “breath of JEHOVAH” reminds us of the Scripture that comes forth from the mouth of God and when we speak the Word of God, we are breathing out those words, in a sense.  God’s Word is “God breathed,” and in that Word is information that says that May 21, 2011 is the Day of Judgment.  We got that from the Bible.  In the Word of God, we find the timeline and the Biblical timeline of history that presents information to reveal the church age to be 1,955 years; it reveals the end of the church age as 1988 and it reveals the 23-year Great Tribulation.  And from the Bible, we get the phrase, “Immediately after the tribulation (which would be immediately after May 21, 2011) the sun shall be darkened and the moon does not give her light, and the stars fall from heaven.”  In other words, the light of the Gospel goes out across the face of the earth.  These things are God breathed and there are many other things in the Bible that are confirming and reaffirming that Judgment Day has come – that the light of the Gospel is out and God has completed His salvation program.  It is coming forth from the Word of God like a breath of “brimstone.” 

We also learned something back in Revelation, chapter 9, when we went through that chapter.  Revelation 9 describes Judgment Day.  For instance, it says in Revelation 9:2:

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

So we find that the sun is darkened, just as Matthew 24:29 declares: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened.”   This locks in the period of time God is discussing as the time after the Tribulation.  And what comes after the Great Tribulation?  It is Judgment Day. 

Then in Revelation 9 there is a series of illustrations God gives of His people being utilized by Him in the Day of Judgment.  They are pictured as “locusts” and as “a great army” on horses.  It says in Revelation 9:16:

And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

These 200 million are, in all likelihood, all those God has saved; they represent the entire company of the elect.  It may be an actual number of those God has saved throughout time and since He has now completed His salvation plan and saved everyone whose name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, then this becomes a source and a means of judgment on the world.  And because God has saved the elect, He is able to end His salvation program, which is the instrument of judgment.

Then it says in Revelation 9:17-18:

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

Now, obviously, this is not literal “fire and brimstone.”  It is coming forth from the believers, the 200 million that have breastplates of “fire and brimstone” and “jacinth,” because Christ is the breastplate – He is our righteousness and quite often the breastplate points to righteousness in the Bible.  But in this case, Christ is the Judge and the believers are taking on the characteristic of being identified with “fire and brimstone.”  Also, the horses that have heads of lions also issue out of their mouths “fire and smoke and brimstone” and identify with Christ as Judge.  It is God’s people that are going forth with Him.  The Bible says of the saints: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?”  Christ comes with ten thousands of His saints and we are judging the world with Him through the Word of God.  The Bible is bringing forth the “fire and brimstone” through the inspired Word that is God breathed.  God is “breathing forth” his furious wrath through the pages of the Bible and He commands His people, in Jeremiah 50 and in Revelation, to “prophesy again.  And when we do, the Word of God is “honey” in our mouth but it makes our belly “bitter” because there is no more salvation.  God’s people are bringing a message where there is no more mercy from God for those that are still in their sins.

So this all helps us to understand what it says here in our verse, in Revelation 14:10, that sinners shall be “tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels.”  Men come to the Bible and they are seeking God because they have been “conditioned” and trained to go to the Bible to seek God – that is what they have heard; there is salvation there.  That has been the case for thousands of years and century after century.  The Bible had brought salvation: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  People misapplied that, along with the churches, and they thought they were seeking God by going into the churches, but God cut off that avenue in the time of the Great Tribulation when judgment began at the house of God.  Yet, He still permitted men to seek Him outside of the churches through His Word when he was saving that great multitude of people.  Now God has ended that possibility, too, but men will still go to the Bible and seek God in some form or fashion; they will seek Him according to their own understanding and their own terms and, yet, the Bible indicates that God will not be found by them.  This is what it also said in Revelation 9:6:

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

They will desire to “die in Christ” through salvation, but “death shall flee from them.”  God’s salvation will not be found; it will resist the searcher.  God will not open the door when people come knocking on the door in the Day of Judgment, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.”  It was entirely possible in time past for a sinner to come knocking at the door – that is, to read the Bible and pray for mercy.  If they were one of God’s elect, God would have dealt with them according to His salvation program.  If they were not one of His elect, they would not have been saved then either, but the Bible is now resisting all that are still in their sins when they come to the door.  The reply is, “I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”  Or the question is asked, “From whence come ye?”  God is saying He has already brought in the firstfruits and He has brought in the final fruits during the Great Tribulation, so God is asking, “Who are you?  How do you fit in to my salvation program when I had these two periods of time in the New Testament age and both periods of time has expired?  There is no more salvation.”  So the Books are opened and God diligently searches the Lamb’s Book of Life and He says, “I do not find your names recorded here.  Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.”  This is the Bible’s response to the “seekers” today who go to God with any sort of expectation for salvation. 

Of course, this is a sorrowful thing for the true believers.  We were so blessed and we enjoyed so much the task the Lord had given us in time past to be messengers of the Word of God and the Gospel of grace.  We enjoyed going into the world with the Gospel.  There are many of God’s people that now believe that salvation is over and some of these people were on the caravan’s and gave so much of their lives to go forth with the Gospel daily.  And some went abroad on many mission tract trips; I know people that were very, very active in this.  They loved sharing the Gospel and the Gospel tracts like, “Does God Love you?” and some of the other tracts that beseeched people to cry out for mercy while God might still grant mercy. 

These people have not suddenly grown “cold and hard-hearted” over night; it is not as though they would not desire to return to the day of salvation; it is not as if they would not welcome an opportunity to once again have hope and expectation that God might save people – even some in their own families and maybe even their own children.  Yet, the child of God knows this cannot be.  The time is past.  The only hope the Bible allows is that God may have saved an individual outside of the churches before He shut the door.  Sometimes we look at our family members or friends and we see no movement toward God and we are so saddened and grieved in heart that this is the case, but we cannot change the Gospel.  If God is “breathing fire and brimstone,” then how dare any servant of God (whose task is to do what the Lord commands) go against that. 

We might have greatly relished flinging the door wide open as God saved a great multitude out of the Great Tribulation.  I know I really loved that idea, even as some people fought against that and said, “Oh, I do not see a great multitude.  He only saves a remnant at a time, so you are all wrong in thinking God is saving a great multitude.”  But EBible stood firm and God’s people stood firm.  “The Bible says it.  This is the time of the Great Tribulation.  Just look at Revelation 7.  From every tongue and nation and people a great multitude is being saved that cannot be numbered; we held the door wide open because the Bible insisted upon it, regardless of the gainsayers.  We knew God was saving a great multitude.  We could not see them.  We could not count them.  No matter what the truths of the Bible are, you are always going to find people that are adversaries and critics of the truth.  There were critics then and there are critics now. 

Those of us that so happily held the door wide open are now telling people that the door is shut, because it is coming from the same Book, the Bible.  The Bible that told us He was saving a great multitude is now telling us that He has ended His salvation program.  God’s people are not the determiners of the Gospel.  We are not the determiners of times and seasons.  We are not the determiners of when God saves or who He saves.  It is His plan of salvation and we just lowly, humble servants that do as we are bidden to do.  This is our duty and responsibility, to obey God and to obey His Word.  We dare not stand in the way of what He wills.