Sermon 16: A Review

  This is the last evening allotted to our Bible study, and it therefore seems proper that we should take a little review of the truths we have been considering.  We shall find this review outlined in Revelation 14:6-12:

  "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, 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.  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.  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, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.  Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."

  We are accustomed and rightly so, to speak of these three messages as one threefold message.  The word, which is rendered “followed”, means properly, "went with."  Thus rendered the text would read, "and the third angel went with them."  It is the same word that is used in 1 Corinthians 10:4, "And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual rock that went with them (margin), and that rock was Christ."  Thus the first angel sounded, the second joined him, and the third joined them both, and together they all three go sounding the message.  There is therefore but one message for us to consider, and that one comprises all three.

  The message prepares a people who are described in the twelfth verse:  "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."  There are three points, which these people have--patience, keeping the commandments, and the faith of Jesus.  While they are all combined in one, I think we may consider them in a reverse order to that in which they are stated:  faith, obedience, and patience.  For faith is the foundation upon which everything is built and out of which everything grows.  Faith that works obedience and the crowning grace is patience, for the apostle James says, "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."  James 1:4.  When patience is perfected in the saints, then they themselves are perfect.  So it is that this threefold message brings out a people who are perfect before God.  They are just what the Saviour says they must be, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."  Matthew 5:48