Thursday September 17
God’s Final Appeal
Read Revelation 14:8, Revelation 17:3-6, and Revelation 18:1-4. What do we learn about spiritual Babylon from these verses?
In the book of Revelation, the term “Babylon” represents a false system of religion based on human works, man-made traditions, and false doctrines. It exalts human beings and their self-righteousness above Jesus and His sinless life. It places the commands of human religious teachers above the commands of God. Babylon was the center of idolatry, sun worship, and the false teaching of the immortality of the soul. This false religious system has subtly integrated many of ancient Babylon’s religious practices into its worship. God’s last-day message to our dying planet is the message of Jesus and His righteousness. It echoes heaven’s appeal, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen … Come out of her, my people” (Rev. 18:2, 4). God has divinely raised up the Seventh-day Adventist Church to exalt the message of Christ in all of its fullness. To exalt Jesus is to lift up everything He taught. It is to proclaim the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). It is to expose the errors of Babylon in contrast to the truths of Jesus.
Read Revelation 14:7, 9-11
14:7 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.
14:9 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,
14:10 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:
14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever 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.
What contrasting objects of worship are highlighted in these verses?
Revelation 14 describes two different acts of worship — the worship of the Creator, and the worship of the beast. These two acts of worship center around God’s day of worship, the true Sabbath, and a substitute or counterfeit Sabbath. The Sabbath represents the rest, assurance, and security that we have in Christ our Creator, Redeemer, and coming King. The counterfeit day represents a human and false substitute based on human reasoning and man-made decrees.
Read Revelation 14:12.
14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
What is this text saying, especially in the context of what came before? How are the law and grace both revealed in this text, and what should this teach us about how law and grace are two inseparable aspects of the gospel?
Sinners are saved by grace through faith in Christ. The faith of Jesus enables repentant sinners to keep the law of God. Those who keep the commandments of God glorify God by representing His character. It is the grace of God that causes sinners to fall on their faces and love Him who first loved them. There are those who are religious by profession but do not die to self, do not keep the law, and do not love their enemy. They are those who follow the commands of man and refuse to keep God's fourth commandment at the end of all things in this Earth.