By John Thiel, Second Angel’s Message, study 10, mp3

Through the studies of the second angel’s message we have focused on Babylon, because that is what the message was, Babylon is fallen. We have seen the harlot, the woman / church that became corrupt and rejected the first angel’s message which was trying to restore her, the church of Sardis. As we studied into the babylonish title, we also beheld that Rome was Babylon, the Mother of harlots, with the Protestants being the daughters, and the United States of America being the apostate Protestant nation, and the dragon being paganism. We looked into the New Age movement of today, which is a mingling of paganism with all these other ingredients so that we have a new movement of enlightenment, as the people call it.

Ever since the three angels’ messages have been proclaimed, ever since 1844, we are living in an atmosphere that we must be careful not to be coloured by. It is an atmosphere in which we must proclaim the three angels’ messages because of that atmosphere. We recall that when we studied the first angel’s message we looked into the subject of who the angels are, and the following quote has been instrumental in helping us to understand that:

The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth’s history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. Men and women, enlightened by the Spirit of God and sanctified through the truth, proclaim the three messages in their order. {2SM 387.1}

The people of God who live in the last days, who live in this atmosphere, are working in harmony with the universe of heaven and are proclaiming this warning ever since 1833 (when the first angel’s message started, with William Miller). Everything we have studied in regards to the atmosphere of paganism, of apostate Protestantism, of Catholicism, of the New Age spiritualism, this is the reason why the three angels’ message are given. As we are shown by the symbols of the angels, these messages are given by the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven.

That faithful city became a harlot. She was once a faithful people, but became a harlot. Is it possible that the people of God who are also identified as faithful since 1844, could follow in the same footsteps as the previous people who were faithful once? Is that possible? This is the purpose of this research. Under the second angel the announcement of Babylon being fallen could also include, over this whole period of time, some who are claiming to be God’s people and who are fallen.

The very message according to which God calls His people to be separate can be seen in the following scripture. We have been studying spiritualism, the New Age movement, and all these different things, and this is question that now comes to us:

2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

We have read this statement many times under the first angel’s message. Now we can see how very important it is. As we are living under the atmosphere of idolatry, of paganism, and of apostate Protestantism, we are called upon to withdraw ourselves from that. Come out from among them. You can’t fraternize or co-habitate closely, and fellowship with them, for what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? We are to be the temple of God, God’s church. There is a very strong call to be totally distinct from that evil atmosphere that surrounds us.

Christians are to stand out distinct from the world as God’s standard bearers, showing in their lives the influence of the transforming grace of Christ. {TMK 305.2}

Christians are to stand out distinct from the world, and are to be totally identified as different.

The Scriptures furnish abundant evidence that it is safer to be joined to the Lord and lose the favor and friendship of the world, than to look to the world for favor and support and forget our dependence upon God. {TMK 308.2}

The Lord Himself has established a separating wall between the things of the world and the things which He has chosen out of the world and sanctified to Himself. The world will not acknowledge this distinction. . . . But God has made this separation, and He will have it exist. In both the Old and the New Testaments the Lord has positively enjoined upon His people to be distinct from the world, in spirit, in pursuits, in practice; to be a holy nation, a peculiar people, that they may show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. The east is not farther from the west than are the children of light, in customs, practices, and spirit, from the children of darkness. This distinction will be more marked, more decided, as we near the close of time. . . . {TMK 308.3}

These three angels’ messages are expressed by a people who, in expressing these truths, are actually identifying the world and the fallen churches all as one big conglomerate of worldliness that they will have no part with. It is God who has put it that way. In the Old Testament when they failed to stand out distinctly they became a harlot, and in the three angels’ messages that harlotry is identified and brought forth into proximity of understanding.

Those people who are preaching this message mustn’t just preach it; they must also be living it, this separate condition. They are working in harmony with the universe. Those who are making up the three angels’ messages are of the calibre such as we have been reading, and they live under the terrible times when to be able to do that is very hard, This distinction will be more marked, more decided, as we near the close of time. As the close of time is upon us and we are living in a world such as been described in these studies, we are to be more marked and distinct. The church of God must be like that. If it isn’t, there is something wrong.

The warning that Jesus gives for this time is written in Matthew 24:

Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

This is the terrible plight in which people are living.

Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

The very things we have been studying about are those things Jesus warned of. There will be false prophets – remember what apostate Protestantism was termed in Revelation, the false prophet. As we are living at this time iniquity is so abounding that God’s love that is the hearts of God’s people is very strongly affected to grow cold. Therefore these three angels’ people are in danger. Jesus is warning about that. They need to endure unto the end, and as they endure unto the end they are going to be preaching the gospel – that’s the first angel’s message, the everlasting gospel being preached – as a witness to all nations and then shall the end come. Here is the grand finale ever since the three angels’ messages were introduced, which was quite some time ago.

As we near the close of time, the current of evil will set more and more decidedly toward perdition. {TMK 307.6}

The current of evil is more decidedly toward perdition.

We can be safe only as we hold firmly to the hand of Jesus, constantly looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith. He is our mighty Helper. {Ibid.}

As we read all these things, can you appreciate that this is what we are under? We need to understand this. We need to understand the terrible inroads that everything is making around us today, and as the people proclaiming the three angels’ messages we can only be safe by holding firmly to the hand of Jesus, constantly looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith, who is our mighty Helper. In others words we can’t just be mediocre Christians, because we’re going to slip, we’re going to grow cold. We need to be intense, diligent, and then we can be safe, only then.

In regards to this danger in which we are living, Jesus then clarifies:

Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noe [were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

What were they doing? They were eating, drinking, giving in marriage, just like in our days, we are under the same pall.

Matthew 24:42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

This is the message of three angels’, just before His coming. You have to watch.

Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

In such a time as this, look at what Jesus says about the three angels’ message people who are announcing the final warning to the world.

Matthew 24:45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed [is] that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

At such a time as this the three angels’ messages have to be proclaimed in all their power, and this is the meat in due season. At that time, when people will be in danger of missing out, He warns, Watch and pray that you be not taken by surprise. There is a faithful ministry that gives these messages at the right time (the meat in due season).

Matthew 24:48 But and if that evil servant …

There is a servant that is supposed to be preaching the three angels’ message but who is an evil servant,

Matthew 24:48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming; 49 And shall begin to smite [his] fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;

Who were the drunken? Isn’t that Babylon drinking and giving the wine of the wrath of her fornication? Here they were and the people were drunk with that, with those false teachings. This servant says in his heart, Yes, the three angels’ messages, he preaches them but in his heart he says, My Lord delayeth His coming. So He begins to play around with the customs and practices of the world, eating and drinking with the drunken.

Matthew 24:50 The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for [him], and in an hour that he is not aware of,

Jesus is now identifying another company during the time of the three angels’ messages. This is not the fallen churches. This is the company that is proclaiming the three angels’ messages. The servants are proclaiming the coming of Jesus but one of them says in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming. And how does he show what he is saying in his heart? He eats and drinks with the drunken. He is not distinct from the world, in such a time as this. As we near the close of time, the current of evil will set more and more decidedly toward perdition. This fellow servant is eating and drinking with this perdition. He is sinking deeper and deeper.

There are two classes of three angels’ message preachers. This is identified in Revelation 3. There is the announcement of the judgement by the first angel’s message, then the understanding of it in the second angel’s message, and here are the people of the judgment.

Revelation 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

Remember the angels are the people that are presenting the message. Here is the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, the ministers of the period of the hour of God’s judgment. Laodicea means, the people of the judgment.

Revelation 3:14 … These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Jesus is here talking to the ministers, to the preachers in this period ever since the first angel commenced. He says, You are not distinct from the world, you are lukewarm.

Revelation 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Who is He talking to? He is talking to that servant who is smiting his fellowservant. He is talking to the people who are eating and drinking with the drunken and don’t even know it. They are not distinct, they are in a state of haze, and yet they are the ministers of the church. But there is the other class, the one that gives meat in due season:

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Here is that servant who lets Jesus in, and who gives meat in due season, because Jesus is there in him. He is the temple of Jesus Christ.

The period of the three angels includes the message for the church itself, a call for reformation from worldliness in the church itself. The people who are giving the message of the three angels need the message for themselves as well.

When did the angel of Laodicea contract this worldliness that called for this reformation? When did the three angels’ message people begin to enter into a worldliness that they were meant to be giving a warning of? We read it in history as it given in Early Writings. When the message of the first angel was first given, they had accepted the first angel’s message and had proclaimed it, the experience then came through to the second angel, where the people were upholding the pure message, Babylon the great is fallen. We have here a description of the people under the first and second angels’ messages:

A spirit of solemn and earnest prayer was everywhere felt by the saints. A holy solemnity was resting upon them. Angels were watching with the deepest interest the effect of the message, and were elevating those who received it, and drawing them from earthly things to obtain large supplies from salvation’s fountain. God’s people were then accepted of Him. Jesus looked upon them with pleasure, for His image was reflected in them. They had made a full sacrifice, an entire consecration, and expected to be changed to immortality. {EW 239.1}

That was under the first and second angels’ messages. They were prepared to go, to be with the Lord.

But they were destined again to be sadly disappointed. {Ibid.}

They were disappointed when in 1844 Jesus didn’t come, when they were giving the messages of the first and the second angel. That was the wonderful condition that they were in. They were a faithful church. In 1844 and even after the disappointment their condition was that of a very faithful people. But then, in 1852, this was the declaration for the time (written in the Review & Herald, June 10, 1852):

As I have of late looked around to find the humble followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, my mind has been much exercised. Many who profess to be looking for the speedy coming of Christ are becoming conformed to this world and seek more earnestly the applause of those around them than the approbation of God. They are cold and formal, like the nominal churches from which they but a short time since separated. The words addressed to the Laodicean church describe their present condition perfectly. (See Rev. 3:14-20.) They are “neither cold nor hot,” but “lukewarm”. And unless they heed the counsel of the “faithful and true Witness,” and zealously repent and obtain “gold tried in the fire,” “white raiment,” and “eye-salve,” He will spew them out of His mouth. {EW 107.2}

The message of reformation within the church was already relevant by 1852. The very people who were professing to preach the three angels’ messages were being conformed to the world. They were being affected by apostate Protestantism, by Babylon. As that was affecting them, the message came in 1852, This is already happening. This worldliness developed to such a point that around 1902, the Lord inspired E. G. White to write this:

God calls for a spiritual revival and a spiritual reformation. Unless this takes place, those who are lukewarm will continue to grow more abhorrent to the Lord, until He will refuse to acknowledge them as His children. {RH, February 25, 1902 par. 7}

God calls for a spiritual revival and a spiritual reformation. Unless this takes place, those who are lukewarm will continue to grow more abhorrent to the Lord, until He will refuse to acknowledge them as His children. Here are the people who are preaching the three angels’ messages, they are the ones addressed here.

A revival and a reformation must take place, under the ministration of the Holy Spirit. {RH, February 25, 1902 par. 8}

Revival and Reformation

This is the very subject which we are studying. A reformation within the church in this period of time. This was called for in 1902. What is revival and reformation?

Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death. {1SM 128.1}

Because that is what they drifted into, spiritual death.

Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. {Ibid.}

The condition of the church had slipped into ideas, theories, habits and practices, which called for a reformation. They were being affected by the current that was going to perdition. By 1852 the Laodicean condition began amongst the people of God. By 1902 there was a call for an awakening out of their terrible condition and for a reformation. Here are the qualifications of our study – Reformation within the church.  What was the first thing? A revival. What does the Bible say a revival is? The Spirit of prophecy said, Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death. Now let us read it from the Bible:

Revival

1 Corinthians 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak [this] to your shame.

This is what had to happen. The church had slipped down so far that God said, Awake, you are not righteous, you say you are rich and increased with goods but you are to awake. – A revival, an awakening to righteousness and a ceasing from sin. This is a shameful condition to be in for the church.

Ephesians 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

What did we read? A resurrection from death. Spiritual death had taken place, so this is the message. Awake, you that sleep, revive! Arise from the dead! and Christ shall give thee light. The very church that is supposed to be preaching the three angels’ messages needs that.

Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. 3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

How relevant this is. Gross darkness covers the earth in this terrible time. It’s gotten worse and worse, until it’s so black that the church must revive. Arise, shine, because I am sending you this message. In 1888 He gave the message of Christ our Righteousness. There is the call for awakening and the necessity that this is to take place within the three angels’ message people.

The Holy Spirit is the One that is needed, and we see how Romans 8:10-13 connects the revival with reformation through the Holy Spirit. Arise, shine; for thy light is come … Christ shall give thee light.

Romans 8:10 And if Christ [be] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin; but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness.

Awake to righteousness. Sin has rendered you as dead, but awake out of death. The Holy Spirit is life within, Christ is life within.

Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Now because we’ve been awakened, what is next?

Romans 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

What must we do now that we’ve been revived and awakened? Through the Spirit that is within us the body that was dead in sin, that was just following the impulses of the flesh, just drifting along, is suddenly brought to an awakening of not following that way anymore. As it says there, Do not live after the flesh. What must we do? If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. The deeds of the body must be mortified by the Spirit in the process of reformation. That is how we now come to the second part – Reformation.

Reformation

What is reformation? A reorganization, a change of our practices which we have done, because under this terrible death we have been using our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness. There is a reformation that is to take place after we have awakened. Because when you become awakened there is a certain thrill and enjoyment of Jesus, but that is not enough. What is to take place?

There is a science of Christianity to be mastered,—a science as much deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination. {8T 314.1}

We’ve got something inside of ourselves, it’s inborn, and we must do service for God which is contrary to our inborn inclination.

There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome. Often the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded, that one may become a learner in the school of Christ. Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation. We must learn to look upward. The principles of the word of God—principles that are as high as heaven, and that compass eternity—we are to understand in their bearing upon our daily life. Every act, every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles. {Ibid.}

This is reformation. When we’ve been awakened, this is the next step. This is expressed in the Bible. Paul, through Jesus Christ, has died and risen again, and now what does he do?

Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

This is reformation – Progress. I haven’t reached perfection yet. I am to press on in reformation after I have been aroused to the awakening of things. Under the Holy Spirit I will press on to the mark, by going step by step towards perfection.

Lest His people should be deceived in regard to themselves, He gives them time for the excitement to wear off, {1T 186.2}

When you become revived you get excited, Yes! Now you are alive, now you are awake, Jesus has woken you up. Ah, what do I do! He gives us time for us not to get too excited anymore, but what does He do?

He gives them time for the excitement to wear off, and then proves them to see if they will obey the counsel of the True Witness. {Ibid.}

That counsel of the True Witness was the call to Laodicea (Rev 3:18).

God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: “God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.” Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. {1T 187.1}

An idol, in the period of paganism and New Age idolatry. It is to be discovered.

Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness. … Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation. {1T 187.1}

That is reformation. This is the message for the very people who are proclaiming the second angel’s message. This is to happen within the church, and as Matthew 24 reveals, some will reform and some won’t – the faithful servant and the unfaithful servant. What is actually the living experience within the church that is giving the three angels’ messages? What should we expect when this reformation message is called for within the very church that is meant to be the three angels’ message church?

The Experience within the Church

Amo 9:8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD [are] upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.

He will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob. The wicked kingdom, all these ones which we have already identified as Babylon, will be destroyed. But the house of Jacob, God’s church, will not be utterly destroyed. What does that mean? They can also be destroyed.

Amos 9:9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as [corn] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

Within God’s three angels’ message church, the Jacob church, the true Israel, there is this sifting going on, so that she will not be utterly destroyed like the other churches. There is going to be those that are the true grain that will not be lost, and the rest of it will be burned. This is relevant for the church of the three angels. That is the experience.

Babylon, in its threefold manifestation, develops and reveals itself while at the same time there is sifting that is going on in Israel. Everything that we have preached about Babylon, Rome, apostate Protestantism USA, paganism, spiritualism, the New Age movement, there is all that plus the sifting within the church.

Soon God’s people will be tested by fiery trials, and the great proportion of those who now appear to be genuine and true will prove to be base metal. Instead of being strengthened and confirmed by opposition, threats, and abuse, they will cowardly take the side of the opposers. {5T 136.1}

To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few—this will be our test. {5T 136.2}

That is the experience.

As trials thicken around us, both separation and unity will be seen in our ranks. {6T 400.3}

In the ranks of the three angels’ people.

Those who have had great light and precious privileges, but have not improved them, will, under one pretext or another, go out from us. Not having received the love of the truth, they will be taken in the delusions of the enemy; they will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and will depart from the faith. {Ibid.}

This is the experience within the church.

Divisions will come in the church. Two parties will be developed. {2SM 114.1}

This is what we read in Matthew 24, the faithful and the unfaithful servant. The wise and the foolish virgins. As the corruptions get worse and worse what does the work become?

The work will grow deeper and become more earnest to the very close of time. And all who are laborers together with God will contend most earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. They will not be turned from the present message, which is already lightening the earth with its glory. {2SM 114.2}

Two parties within the ranks of Adventism, within the ranks of God’s faithful church, those who are faithful and those who are saying in their hearts, My Lord delayeth His coming. Under one pretext or another, there will be a separation, as the two parties develop. As the corruption of the world gets more intense, the experience of the separation gets more intense as well.

The Great Controversy gives us the amplification of the final separation that takes place between the faithful and the unfaithful servant of Matthew 24, when there is all this sifting, shuffling around and trouble within the church:

As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. {GC 608.2}

They will eat and drink with the drunken. What happens?

By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side. Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most bitter enemies of their former brethren. {Ibid.}

As the storm of the end comes, as the three angels’ messages are becoming louder and clearer in the hands of those who are faithful, the intensity of the opposition gets worse and those within the church who are going along with the world and who are not responding to the three angels’ messages, come to see things more and more like the world. This is ever so slow, ever so subtle, until finally when the final test comes, it’s so easy to just drift along, they can’t stand firm.

From the things that we have studied here, we can now see distinctly that we stand at the imminent coming of Jesus Christ. In the little time that is still left we need to heed the following call:

Romans 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now [it is] high time to awake out of sleep: for now [is] our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to [fulfil] the lusts [thereof].

That is the message for the time. There is little time left. Let us take it seriously. Then God’s people who proclaim the three angels’ messages will be clearly distinguished from those in the church who are palliating with the world, and even more clearly from everyone around them.

This concludes our series on the second angel’s message, Babylon is fallen.

Amen.