THE VISION OF THE FAITHFUL SERVANTS OF GOD
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
THAT we may be assured of the safety of God’s faithful ones, even during the time of the triumph of the beast and false prophet, we are shown the sealed ones all secure and in the charge of the Lamb; and we are further assured that seven angels are ministering to the protection and comfort of the imperilled saints. The angel of good news (Revelation 14:6-7); the angel proclaiming the doom of the great world city (Revelation 14:8); the angel who warns men against the mark of the beast (Revelation 14:9-12); the angel of comfort (Revelation 14:13); the angel of the wheat harvest (Revelation 14:14-16); the angel of the vintage (Revelation 14:17-20); the angel of fire (Revelation 14:18).
Revelation 14:1. Father’s name.—Read “His name and His Father’s name.”
Revelation 14:4. Virgins.—The term is used figuratively, not literally. They were virgin souls who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal: and so here they were virgin souls who had refused to offer incense to the bust of the emperor.
Revelation 14:6. Everlasting gospel.—With idea of its universal applicability. Everlasting and eternal are constantly used to indicate quality.
Revelation 14:8. Babylon.—The type of all cities that stand in the pride of self-reliance, and so put dishonour upon God. “Is not this great Babylon which I have builded?” “Babylon is clearly an emblem of some principles which have been more or less accepted by all nations, and which will more or less involve all in the consequences of her fall.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Revelation 14:1-12
The Bible for the World’s Salvation.—The portion which is most suggestive for the purposes of the preacher is that comprised in Revelation 14:6-7. See a first truth. It is not the Bible as a record of the gospel that saves the world. The gospel saves the world. The gospel is God saving.
I. What is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God?—
1. Good news of God Himself. Good, because no other religion proclaims it. It is the news that God is Love, and that we may use the Father-name for Him, and the fatherly relations to represent Him.
2. Good news of God’s gift. “Gave His only begotten Son.” A man, given to men. A son, given to prodigals. We have to “believe the love God hath to us,” as shown in His “unspeakable gift.”
II. Wherein lies the saving efficacy of this gospel?—
1. In its universal adaptation. It is a salvation, not for what is peculiar to some men, or some nations, under some unusual circumstances, but for the woe that is common to all men, which we put into the word “sinners.” Other religions are limited to particular tribes or nations. Illustrate gods of hills and gods of valleys. Distinct deities in different parts of India.
2. In the power of God that works through it. We must never separate agencies from the Divine life that is in them, and think that agencies can save.
(1) The Bible cannot save.
(2) The gospel cannot save.
(3) Faith cannot save. God saves, through faith, by means of the gospel, which is carried to men in the Bible.
3. In the attraction of Him who is the essence of it. There must be personal soul-relations with Christ, the Living Saviour, if there is to be salvation. And these are brought to men through the attractive power which Christ exerts when “lifted up” into their view.
III. Where shall we find the gospel enshrined?—In the Bible. As the Jews, carried and preserved the primary truths of the unity and spirituality of God for humanity, so the Bible—the whole Bible—carries and preserves the gospel—the primary truths of Divine redemption—for humanity. The Bible is not a book of science, or of history, or of social principles; these are but its framing, and setting, and illustration. The one concern of the Bible is Religion. It tells us what God’s relations with man have been. That is the very heart of its history. It tells us what man’s relations with God should be, and may be. That is its message. It is summed up in the words, “He that hath the Son hath life.” Men have done the Bible great wrong by taking it to be what it never proposed to be, and never could be. Then to scatter abroad the Bible, in every land and every tongue, is for the angel to fly abroad with the everlasting gospel. There are two ways in which the angel—as the symbol of agencies—carries the gospel.
1. It is spoken by the servants of God. At first the message was spoken by aposties and teachers. It was not written and collected together so as to be at the command of evangelists and missionaries, for more than two centuries. At first men were possessed with the Word, and spake what they had in them. And this is the deeper truth, and holier power now. The true speaker is the man who has got the Word in him. Send that man anywhere, and he is an angel, having the everlasting gospel.
2. It is distributed as the book which we call the “Word of God.” And we can readily recognise the wisdom that lies in the employment of this agency.
(1) Its attractiveness.
(2) Its variety. Suits all ages and all abilities.
(3) Its adaptation to the world, through being Eastern in form.
(4) Its uniqueness, as compared with the Bibles of other religions. Compare Vedas, Koran, Book of Mormon, etc. But these two—the speakers and the Word—are really one, seeing that the speakers only speak the Word. Always the Word is the agency, whether it be heard from the lips or read from a book. And we must face the fact that what a sinful, dying world wants is that gospel which is in the Bible, and which may come to men either as spoken or as read. Both ways we may think of when we sing:
“Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel,
Win and conquer, never cease.”
For the gospel does everywhere—all the world over and all the ages through—prove itself able to meet and satisfy all kinds of spiritual needs that humanity can feel.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Revelation 14:1. Marks of Servitude.—It was a custom among the ancients for servants to receive the mark of their master, and soldiers of their general, and those who were devoted to any particular idol, the mark of that particular idol. These marks were usually impressed on their right hands, or on their foreheads (Revelation 13:16), and consisted of some hieroglyphical character, or of the name expressed in vulgar letters, or in numerical characters. Galatians 6:17: “The marks of the Lord Jesus”. What these marks were, the apostle explains by the stripes, etc, mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:23. There is a beautiful allusion to the stigmata—marks which were sometimes fixed on servants and soldiers, to show to whom they belonged. How strikingly do these two remarks illustrate the scene of Jesus the Lamb of God, the all-conquering Redeemer, standing as the great Captain of Salvation at the head of His brave army of saints on Mount Sion! “I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His father’s name written in their foreheads.”
Revelation 14:6. The Gospel of Retribution.—That a Divine judgment impends over all the actions and generations of men; that the hour of judgment is sure to strike at the due moment, let men play what tricks they will with the hands of the clock, and sure to be heard over all the world, let men close their ears as they will; that this fact of impending and inevitable judgment is an eternal or œonial gospel, veritable good tidings of great joy to every nation and tribe, tongue and people;—all this is at once of supreme importance and supreme interest. A gospel for all men in all ages must be a gospel for us. A gospel weighted by no miracles and no dogmas, a gospel which is open to no question and no doubt, but is felt to be true always, and everywhere, and by all. What, then, is this gospel? It is the gospel of retribution. We are to fear and glorify God because the hour of His judgment is come. This is the truth which the angel, flying in mid-heaven, between God and man, proclaims today, and always has proclaimed, and always will proclaim. This is the truth which St. John calls “an eternal gospel”—not the gospel, and still less the only gospel, but still a veritable gospel, glad tidings of great joy, to us and to all mankind. If the law of retribution is familiar to you, is it nothing to you to be assured, and assured on the highest authority, that what you admit to be a law is also a gospel? When we are told that God’s judgments on sin are an eternal gospel, a gospel for all beings in all ages, what is implied? This is implied, and there is no truth more precious and more practical: that the judgments of God are corrective, disciplinary, redemptive; that they are designed to turn us away from the sins by which they are provoked; that the message they bring us, and bring from heaven is: “Cease to do evil; learn to do well.—S. Cox, D.D.
The Everlasting Gospel.—Only one gospel is everlasting, which can pass from country to country, from continent to continent, and be at home everywhere; which time cannot wither nor custom stale; which has the safe and certain reversion of all the future. Why is this? What makes the gospel of Christ everlasting?
I. It is a message to what is universal in man.—Religions have been the religions of single tribes, or single countries, and have not been adapted for other parts of the world. But the glory of Christianity is that its teaching is addressed to what is most characteristic in human nature, and absolutely the same in all members of the human race, whether they be rich or poor, whether they inhabit one hemisphere or the other, and whether they live in ancient or modern times. You have only to glance at the most outstanding words of the gospel to see this. E.g.,
1. The word “soul.” Jesus went down to the child, the beggar, the harlot, the weakest and most despised members of the human family, and when He was able to find, even in them, this infinitely precious thing, it was manifest that He had discovered the secret of a universal religion.
2. The word “sin.” Speak to the conscience, and every human being feels that He is the man.
3. The word “eternity.” “God hath put eternity in their heart.” When the hand of the gospel touches this string of the harp of human nature, it responds. On this preaching the union of Christians must be realised.
II. It is a message to what is peculiar in man.—It can meet, as they rise, the changing conditions of society; it has an inexhaustible facility of adaptation to the wants and the circumstances of every individual whom it addresses. Some “preach to the times,” others “preach for eternity.” The two things are not inconsistent. His gospel has a word in season for every condition of life—for the little child, the young man in his prime, and for old age; a word for the multitude, and for the few. We have not exhausted Christ, and we have not exhausted the gospel of Christ. The pulpit is too far away from the individual. We must come nearer to men, and acquaint ourselves with the details of their experience. Sympathy is the key which opens the heart. Professional authentication sometimes only creates obstacles; but all difficulties melt away before the force of love.—James Stalker, D.D.