[0:00] Revelation 14, we read the verses 5 to 8. And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
[0:42] We might say that in these four verses we have here a little glimpse of heaven, a little glimpse of the opening mouth of hell. And in the midst of verses 6 and 7, the declaration of what is described here as the everlasting gospel to be proclaimed to them that dwell on the earth, to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.
[1:06] We have in verse 5 this little glimpse of those who are in glory with the Lamb, in their mouth was found no guile. They are without fault before the throne of God.
[1:18] The words that we have translated as without fault, it's a reference to the sense of a sacrifice, an animal for sacrifice that was examined by the priests and found to be without blemish.
[1:31] There was no fault in it, it was acceptable, it was suitable as a sacrifice to the Lord. And thus, those who are redeemed, they have been cleansed, they have been purified, they are without fault.
[1:44] There's no guile in their mouth because there's only praise and truthfulness. The reason why people use deception or lies in this world is usually to gain some advantage to themselves.
[1:56] Either to put somebody else down so they feel better, or to make themselves look better in the eyes of others, or to enhance their description or their situation. We use guile, we use deception because we are fallen creatures, but we use it almost always to gain some advantage ourselves.
[2:14] Now if you're already in heaven, there is no further advantage to be gained. There's no reason for any guile or deception. There is no sin whatsoever there. In their mouth was found no guile.
[2:26] They are without fault before the throne of God. And of course, at the opposite end of the spectrum, those who have trusted in Babylon itself and all the powers of this world and its delights and sins and problems and violence and evil, all that is in heaven, it is fallen.
[2:42] And the picture is almost of the mouth of hell opening up and Babylon and all the trust in it about to career over the edge into the abbots.
[2:53] Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city. And here between the two then, we have verses 6 and 7, the everlasting gospel. Fear God and give glory to them.
[3:05] But if we look first of all at verse 5, to whom is this referring? Those who are without guile, who are without fault before the throne of God.
[3:15] Well, we look back to verse 1 of this chapter 14. We see it describes those who stood on the Mount Zion, 144,000 having his father's name written in their foreheads.
[3:26] We think, well, where did these 144,000 come from? Well, we look back a couple of chapters and we find in chapter 7 that the 144,000 are described there. And there are 12,000 sealed from each of the tribes of Israel.
[3:42] For some reason, Dan is not included there, but Joseph has been given an extra tribe. But for whatever reason, in verses 4 to 8 there, we see the number of them which were sealed in chapter 7, 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
[3:58] Then lists all the tribes and 12,000 from each tribe. Now, anyone reading the Old Testament knows that the different tribes of Israel were of vastly different sizes and strengths.
[4:12] Some, like Dan, were little more than an extended family. Others, like Joseph, were divided into two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. Judah was always the biggest and the strongest of the tribes.
[4:25] Simeon was swallowed up, effectively, in Judah. Benjamin was the little tribe, but the very privileged royal elite tribe, and so on. There were different strengths, different sizes, different numbers.
[4:37] Whenever they're massed for war and they're loisted, there's hugely disparate numbers in each of them. They were in different parts of the Holy Land. And they had different strengths and weaknesses.
[4:48] But they are each here numbered with the same number, 12,000, sealed for the glory of the Lamb in chapter 7 of Revelation. Now, whatever we understand by these being, as chapter 14 tells us, the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
[5:07] And yes, the gospel is to the Jew first. Israel, the firstfruits, his chosen people. He is the Messiah of Israel before he is the Christ of the Gentiles. But even so, the firstfruits are only ever a token of what is to come after.
[5:22] And in that chapter 7, we see at verse 9, After this I beheld, and lo a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white lobes and palms in their hands, and so on.
[5:38] We'll come back to that in a minute. But clearly, the 12,000 sealed from each side, each tribe, are a token, a symbol of that which is to follow. Israel is the firstfruits.
[5:50] These are sealed, each one, each tribe of absolute equality in the sight of the Lord. Now, I know Revelation is filled with symbolism, as well as descriptions and pictures.
[6:03] There is that which may be literal through it. There is that which is symbolic. There is that which is illustrative and who is sufficient for these things. But I think one of the things we need to understand from it is that in the sight of God, despite the different strength or wealth or distribution of the tribes, despite the differences between all God's children and each one who is redeemed, each one is of equal worth in his sight.
[6:30] Each one is equally precious in his sight because the price paid for each one is the same. It is the death of the Son of God upon the cross.
[6:42] There is no higher price that has ever been paid in heaven or in earth from the beginning of time to the end. It is the highest price. It costs everything that God, if we may say so reverently, had to give.
[6:58] And the price that is paid to redeem one lost soul is the same as the price for every other soul that is redeemed. Such that if only one person were ever going to be in glory with the Lord, he would still have gone to the cross to pay the price for their sin.
[7:16] And because he is God, the Son, the price that he has paid, the death, the sacrifice he has rendered up, is sufficient for every last one that he has redeemed.
[7:28] They are each worth the same in his sight. I would suggest to you this is one reason why in chapter 7 it is exactly the same number sealed from every different tribe, even though there were vastly different numbers in each one.
[7:42] Also we should understand that having redeemed his people, thus having paid the price, and then being beloved in his sight because of it, there are those then who follow.
[7:56] As we see at verse 9, we made reference to this a minute ago in chapter 7, A great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and towns stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.
[8:08] This is a verse describing a victorious scene, a scene that is already accomplished. But notice the correlation there in chapter 7 verse 9 with what follows here at verse 6 here.
[8:22] The everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. Just as we've got here in chapter 7, of all kindreds and people and tongues and nations stood before the Lamb.
[8:35] In other words, those who end up with their white robes redeemed and in glory are taken from those to whom the everlasting gospel is preached. And in both chapters, you've got 144,000, the triumphant firstfruits and so on.
[8:50] And then you've got those who follow, who enter into the same glory that these 144,000 had. There are these firstfruits, but those who come next, it's not like they get a sort of lower grade, kind of not such a good salvation.
[9:05] What they enter into is exactly the same as the firstfruits do. So in other words, what is there for the Gentiles, for the likes of us, for the multitudes, the nations of every tribe and kindred and tongue that is to come, what we stand to inherit is the same as those 144,000 stand to inherit.
[9:25] And the reason for it, the reason we will be made, if we are trusting in Christ, pure and white and clean, is not because of any good in us, but because of this good news, this gospel and what Christ has done.
[9:42] Having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell in the earth, to every nation and kindred and tongue of the people. This is what redeems us.
[9:52] This is what gives us that victory. If we go back to chapter 7 again, we see that verse 14, or 13 and 14, the angel says, What are these which are made in white robes?
[10:03] And whence came they? And I said unto them, Sarela, Noah's. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
[10:16] Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve them day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun lighten them, nor any heat.
[10:29] For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Well, that's pretty good, isn't it?
[10:41] That's a pretty good inheritance. That's every bit as good as 144,000 have got. So all the tribes and nations and kindreds and towns, to whom the everlasting gospel comes, if they are trusting in Christ, if they are putting their faith in him, washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, this is their inheritance.
[11:00] Now, what do we understand by this washing their robes, making them white in the blood of the Lamb? Well, clearly it cannot be a mere earthly or physical washing.
[11:12] If you wash anything in blood, the one thing it does not become is white. So what we understand by this washing in the blood, if I say, oh, well, it's a spiritual washing, not a physical washing, it's not really real then.
[11:27] It's what we mentally think. It is real, but it is not merely earthbound. It is not an earthly washing in blood.
[11:37] It is a real and actual cleansing, although it is happening in a heavenly sense. Now, how do we explain or how do we understand that?
[11:47] Well, the only way we can do this is to look at an illustration elsewhere in the New Testament. So if we look, for example, at the Transfiguration, if we look, remember what Luke says in chapter 9, verse 29, it says about Jesus, as he prayed, this is on the Mount of Transfiguration, the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering.
[12:10] Now, I know that in children's Bibles and illustrations and pictures that we see purporting to be of Jesus, he's almost always dressed in white and with a blue or purple kind of sash-type cloak coming over his shoulder sort of thing.
[12:27] But, you know, we've got no evidence that Jesus dressed in white in his earthly ministry. The likelihood is he dressed in the same kind of poverty clothes that would have gone with his own station as a carpenter in Nazareth and the same as his disciples and everybody else.
[12:45] Not exactly beggars in rags, but not rich men clothed in purple and fine linen either. They would have worn the clothes of the comparatively poor, which would have been sort of grayish, brownish, or dyed particular colors if the people had dyed them with the colorings they had from, whether, fruits or plants or whatever.
[13:06] We have nothing to suggest that the clothes of Jesus in his earthly ministry were white or nigh. They would have been just ordinary, and yet we read, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Mark chapter 9, verses 2 and 3, After six days Jesus taketh with him Peter and James and John and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them.
[13:29] And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fool, or that is no soap manufacturer on earth, can white them.
[13:39] His raiment became shining. It became exceeding white as snow, such as nobody on earth could make them that white. In other words, they weren't like that before.
[13:51] But when the curtain of heaven is pulled back, and Jesus is transfigured, his face, his countenance is altered, his clothes are transformed, they shine with the whiteness of this heavenly light.
[14:06] and because they are being bathed, as it were, in the glow of heaven, he himself reflects that radiance. Now, if you think back to when you were at school, and you were in physics classes and so on, can you remember this, you know, when they would send light through that sort of triangular block of glass, the prism, and you would see it all spread out into the colours of the rainbow in the darkened room.
[14:32] They spread white light, white light into one side of the prism, and rainbow light comes out the other side. Now, that's not because white light has no colour in it. It was to demonstrate that white light, in fact, consists of all the colours of the spectrum in it.
[14:51] Now, when we say that Jesus, his robes, his clothes, become white, such as no fool on earth could make them, it's not all a total absence of colour in heaven. It's rather that there is so much colour and richness and fullness in all of glory that white is just the summing up of it all, the colour, the brilliance, the radiance, which is indescribable in earthly terms.
[15:18] Because he is bathed in the glow of heaven, his raiment becomes this transfigured white, such as no power on earth can make it.
[15:31] Now, when our robes or we ourselves or our filthy lives are washed in the blood of the Lamb, the perfect sacrifice offered up for God's glory, they are likewise transfigured.
[15:49] They are likewise made pure and white. These are they which came out of great tribulation have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
[16:02] This is like the clothes of Jesus, the clothes of his people are washed, transfigured, transformed by the blood of Christ. It's not an earthly washing in physical earthbound blood.
[16:16] It is a heavenly washing in the blood of Christ that has been shed once and for all but is now that which achieves this glorious heavenly reality.
[16:28] We are changed when we are in the presence of the Lamb. But this which effects the change which brings it about is this, as we read verse 6, the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.
[16:48] That which the 144,000 have, this being without fault before the throne of God having no dial in their lips, that's where all the nations and tribes and people also have the chance to enter into and to receive.
[17:02] It is the everlasting gospel which brings this about. The forever good news, we might translate it, to preach to all those who receive and believe they are likewise washed in the blood of the Lamb.
[17:17] Now, what does it say about the content of this good news? So we think Jesus is saying we'll repent and believe the gospel and, you know, trust in Christ and so on but what does it say? Fear God and 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.
[17:37] Now, this is the angel that has the everlasting gospel to preach and this is what he says and the first thing he says is fear. Now, we think, well, that doesn't sound terribly inviting. That doesn't have a very inviting reason to believe in this gospel.
[17:50] Fear, you know, we don't really want to be afraid but what does he say? Fear God. Fear God and give glory to him and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters.
[18:02] You think, well, that doesn't sound very fear. Surely, whenever the angels appear to people they say fear not but to fear God is to take away or rather to overcome all other fears.
[18:17] of anything that may trouble us or cause us to be afraid. The fear of the Lord, Psalm 19 tells us, verse 19, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
[18:31] Remember that wonderful section in Psalm 19 where it says, you know, the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
[18:44] The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever, everlasting gospel.
[18:56] When we have the fear of the Lord, it takes away or rather, it overcomes the fear of everything else.
[19:07] We're all afraid of something in this world and it'll be different things for different people. But if we have the fear of the Lord, then we know that if He is the thing that rules and controls our lives, this is what it is to be smart.
[19:22] That's what it says in Proverbs 1, verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
[19:33] Likewise, chapter 9 tells us in the same book, verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If we would be wise, if we would be smart, we'll have the fear of the Lord.
[19:44] The knowledge of the Holy is understanding. The fear of the Lord takes away all our other fears. If we fear God, everything else falls into place.
[19:55] It's rather like if you're anxious about going through some rough or dangerous part of town, but you know you've got with you the most powerful, well-armed set of bodyguards that anybody's got in the whole world.
[20:10] You're not scared because you've got all this protection around you. Now you've got the living God as your protection. Whatever it is that may cause you to be afraid, God is bigger than that.
[20:21] God is more powerful than that. The fear of the Lord, the worship, the reverence, the awe that constitutes that fear because it's not like a dread or a frightened slavish fear.
[20:34] It is this awe, this reverence, the fear of the Lord overcomes and takes away. it causes to melt away all other fears that we may have.
[20:46] The fear of everything else is put into its proper place. Fear God and give glory to Him. This fear is bound up with glory in the same way as the fear of the Lord is the love of the Lord because that true love of the Lord outshines and so makes dim by comparison all lesser lots.
[21:10] You know, some of us, you know, for example, if you fall in love and love of your life or whatever, it's not that you cease to love all the other people that are really important in your life, your mom or dad or if you really enjoy your work or whatever.
[21:25] All these legitimate loves, yeah, they're still in place but this love outshines them all and makes them look dim by comparison. It's like the example I've used sometimes in the past is if you've got a power cut and it's pitch black and you light a few candles and these candles, well, James, they're all the light you've got and you're very glad of the little bit of light you've got here and there or you've got a torch well, that helps too and as long as it's pitch black this light looks great but then the morning comes, you open the curtains and daylight floods in and when you've got sunlight and daylight the candles, well, they don't actually look so impressive anymore.
[22:01] It's not that they've guttered and gone out they're still there, it's just, it's just their light looks like nothing compared to the light of day and whatever loves we may have in this world compared to the love of the Lord, they're like the sputtering the candles compared to the daylight that fills the heavens.
[22:21] So, likewise, the love on the feet of the Lord are bound up with each other. The feet of the Lord causes all lesser fears to fade away. If we would fear anything, fear the Lord.
[22:32] All these other things will fade away. If we were to love anyone, love the Lord. And what the love of the Lord will do is it will take away also all that is all loves that are at enmity with Him.
[22:47] If there's things that we love that probably we shouldn't, things that are sinful, things that are harmful or wrong, the love of the Lord will take away, will eat away at, will overcome and break down all that is at enmity with Him that we might love and it will eventually weaken and take away those loves.
[23:08] But that same love of the Lord will enhance and strengthen and enrich all loves that are consistent with the love of the Lord.
[23:18] See, you start loving the Lord, it doesn't mean you stop loving your parents or your husband or wife or your children, it means that rather the love you have for them is seen in a richer, better, fuller life.
[23:30] To love the Lord makes you a better husband or wife, it makes you a better child of your parents, it makes you a better parent or grandparent, it makes you a more diligent employee.
[23:44] If you really have the love and faith of the Lord, it makes you more patriotic in the love of your country, it makes you more diligent in the love of your family.
[23:55] All these legitimate loves which are consistent with the love of the Lord are enhanced and enriched and strengthened by having the love and fear of the Lord first.
[24:08] But other loves, if there are things that are sinful that we love, things that destroy us, that harm us, things that are perhaps unclean, things that are inconsistent with the love of the Lord, things which if the Lord saw us while we were thinking or doing those things, we would be ashamed.
[24:26] Those kind of loves will be withered by the love of the Lord. They will be weakened, they will perish, they will be gradually dug out and taken away.
[24:37] The love of the Lord will enhance and enrich all legitimate loves consistent with his love. He will weaken and wither all loves that are lessened.
[24:47] Now what we see here also in this verse 6 is that this fear God, verse 7, the everlasting gospel, fear God, give glory to him. It's almost like a command rather than an invitation.
[25:01] It's up to a level, come on, believe the gospel everybody, welcome and come in, if you'd like to, please do. It's a command, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come.
[25:13] Look, you might think, well, that's a bit strong, isn't it? God, this is heaven and hell we're talking about. This is literally life and death. If somebody is dithering on the brink of something that will either save their life or cause them to lose it, you can't say, well, you know, what would you like to do?
[25:31] Decide what you'd like to say. Get in there. Get into the place of safety. Feel like you're hanging out in a helicopter. Don't dangle yourself over there. Get back in. Put on your life jacket.
[25:43] Strap yourself in. Make sure you're safe. And if they're looking like they're playing dangerous, you don't mess up and say, well, you know, let's take a vote in it and see if you'd like to come back in. No, it's a command.
[25:55] God is commanding. This is what he says to Paul in Acts 17 when he's speaking to the Athenians. Acts 17 at verse 30, when previously men worshipped gods of silver and gold and graven images, the times of this ignorance God waked at.
[26:11] But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead.
[26:30] Hallelujah. Jesus is alive. He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world. What do we read here in Revelation 14 verse 7? The hour of his judgment is come.
[26:42] Worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters. It's a command. God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world.
[26:58] And here in Revelation it says, fear God, give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come. It is a command. Likewise, when we have the wedding supper that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 22, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son.
[27:18] And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants saying, tell them which are bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready, and come unto the marriage.
[27:34] But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, back to the things of the world. the redneck took his sons, and treated them spitefully, and slew that they made light of it.
[27:50] He sent this command, come now to the marriage, the oxen and the fatlings are killed, and we might say that the Lord is saying, come to salvation, come and be saved, because my beloved son has been killed upon the cross, so that you might be saved.
[28:07] He has died and paid the price, fear God, come, because this is the price that he has paid, but they made light of it, and they went, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, in other words, to the things of the world, the things that seemed so much more real and immediate and made light of the fact, despised the fact of what the king had done for them.
[28:34] The remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully, and threw them, but when the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.
[28:48] Now, notice that it says their city. Now, Jesus elsewhere, you know, in the Sermon on the Mount, he makes reference to the fact that Jerusalem was described as the city of the great king, and you weren't to swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, but it's as though, in reference almost certainly to Jerusalem, as though it is no longer God's city, now it is just their city, because they crucified God's son, God's glory has departed like the prophet Ezekiel saw it do, and God's glory has departed, now it's their city now, it's not his city, and because it's just theirs, with Christ gone out from it, with the glory of God departed from it, there's nothing left but a share, to burn up their city.
[29:37] what do we understand by this city Jerusalem, well, it's the city where Christ was crucified, but in Revelation, that same city where Christ was crucified, in chapter 11, it's described as being, their dead bodies shall lie in the suite of that great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, when also our Lord was crucified, now we know he was crucified in Jerusalem, but that spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, that's Revelation chapter 11, verse 8, this is the two witnesses, when they are killed, their bodies lie in the streets of that city, Jerusalem, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, now Sodom and Egypt, that's the places of lasciviousness, of depravity, of perversion, but also of enslavement, of the bondage that the Israelites were in, and to which some of them longed to return, this is what some people choose, they made right of it, of the marriage supper of the land, we can call it
[30:37] Jerusalem, we can call it Sodom, and we can call it Egypt, ultimately, it will be summed up in the one generic term, Babylon, and what do we read about that Babylon verse 8, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, now this is again a fulfillment, foreseeing this fulfillment as prophesied in Isaiah chapter 21 verse 9, where it's a reference to the original earthly Babylon, now it's the spiritual Babylon, in other words, all that which is merely this world, and its sin, and its depravity, and its darkness, and its violence, and men choose this, rather than the sanctity, and the safety, and the deliverance, of the everlasting gospel, this is the contrast, this is what men have chosen, so many, they made light of the offer, the command is given, to come to the marriage supper of the Lamb, but they made light of it, and so eventually when they destroyed his servants, he went, sent his armies, burned up their city,
[31:44] Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, now, lots of things going on in Babylon, Babylon is a great city in which all these things happen, we read in chapter 18, from verse 9, the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall they wait on her, all the earthly riches of it, lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for fear of her torment, saying, alas, alas, that great city, Babylon, that mighty city, in one hour is thy judgment come, the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore, the merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and all fine wood and all manner vessels of ivory and all manner vessels of most precious wood and of brass and iron and marble and cinnamon and odours and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves and souls of men.
[32:54] It's not just all the marketplaces of the world. It is that this soul bedazzles and blinds the minds and the eyes of so many that their very souls are bought and sold for a mess of potage, for a lump of shiny metal, for the things of this world which are not simply passing away but tipping over the lip of the abbess.
[33:24] There followed another angel saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen. That great city, it is already in the process of going.
[33:36] It is already passing away. And even if it were to last many years yet, our hold in it is passing away.
[33:47] We cannot hold on to whatever may be the riches or the likes of the bedazzlement of Babylon. It is going. It is falling. And at the other extreme, there are these, the firstfruits clothed in that perfect white robe of righteousness, washed in the blood of the lamb.
[34:05] They are without fault before the throne of God in their mouth who's found no guile. Without fault, remember we said, is without blemish like a sacrifice perfect for the altar.
[34:17] Exactly the way Christ desires to present his perfect bride, his redeemed. Ephesians 5, 27, made reference to it in previous weeks, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
[34:37] That is the offer. That is the everlasting gospel. Fear God. And all these other fears fall away. Love the Lord and all these other loves are given their right place.
[34:52] The legitimate loves are enhanced and beautified. The illegitimate ones perish and wither because they are not worthy to share space with the love and fear of the Lord.
[35:05] Give glory to him. Worship him that mean heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains and waters. All that you see around us is glorifying the Lord. Lord, for the hour of his judgment has come.
[35:18] And we look above and we see the redeemed in their white. And we look below and we see Babylon tipping over the edge into the abyss. And here in the middle are the nations and tribes and tongues of the world, including our tongues and languages, including our culture and our islands and our communities.
[35:39] And here is the everlasting gospel, the forever good news, if we will receive it and believe it. Fear God and give glory to him.
[35:55] Recognize that only in him will your robes be made white in the blood of the lamb. There's nothing on earth can cleanse you and me, save the blood of the lamb.
[36:06] No fuller salt can ever make our garments as white as those of Christ were made. in that moment, in that split second on the Mount of Transfiguration.
[36:16] So likewise in a moment, the Lord's children are transformed from this world of death into the glory that he has laid out for them.
[36:27] These are the opportunities of this day. The everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.
[36:39] Fear God. And give glory to him. Worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters. For the hour of his judgment has come.
[36:51] That doesn't mean all doom and gloom judgment. It means perfect justice. In the Old Testament they cry, oh give judgment to the widows and the orphans. It doesn't mean condemn them.
[37:01] It means give them justice. If you and I receive justice from the Lord, you know what will happen. What we need from the Lord is not merely justice, but mercy.
[37:17] And mercy is only possible if somebody else has paid the price. That is the good news. That is the everlasting gospel.
[37:29] Let us pray. Thank you.