While the threefold message of Revelation 14 deals with various subjects, such as the judgment, the fall of Babylon, and the beast and his image and mark, the foundation theme is the cross, and the great purpose of the message is to exalt the cross; for in introducing this threefold message, John says: "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." Verse 6.
Here is a prediction of a great revival of the preaching of the gospel. It is clear that the purpose of this gospel message is to prepare men for the judgment; and in order that all may be prepared for that solemn event, they are urged to "fear God, and give glory to Him; . . . and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters;" in other words, to worship God as Creator. In Exodus 20:8-11 God makes it clear that we worship Him as Creator by keeping holy the day that memorializes creation, and worshiping Him thereon.
From this it is evident that the first angel's message, as well as the second and third, calls for a restoration of the Sabbath, and that the preaching of this threefold message is designed to build up the breach mentioned in Isaiah 58: 12. Those who proclaim this message naturally have a great deal to say about the Sabbath, and because of this we are often accused of preaching the Sabbath and neglecting the gospel. But let us remember that John said these angels had the everlasting gospel to Preach, and not fail rightly to present this gospel in the threefold message.
The gospel is the story of the everlasting covenant ratified by the blood of the cross. Hence, when we preach the judgment, calling attention to God's law as the standard of judgment, and pointing out the fact that the breaking of the Sabbath is the transgression of that law, and presenting the remedy, we are thereby preaching the gospel. When we preach about the fall of Babylon, showing that the result of turning away from the Sabbath is to pave the way for Modernism to wreck the faith of millions, and by contrast enunciating the faith once for all delivered, we are preaching the gospel. When we preach the third angel's message, identifying the beast as the one who has changed the Sabbath, and warning men against his image and mark, thus exposing the false sabbath and exalting the true as we draw men back to God, we are preaching the gospel.
This threefold message aims at a restoration of the Sabbath; and whenever we preach this message, we should keep the Sabbath in mind; for the Sabbath truth, linked with the second coming of Christ, is our distinct message to the world. Every Seventh-day Adventist minister knows that his success as an evangelist is measured by the number who are won to keep the Sabbath as the result of his preaching.
But what is the Sabbath? In Exodus 31:13 we read: "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you... that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you;" and in Hebrews 13: 12: "Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate." We are sanctified by the blood of the cross, and the Sabbath, being a sign of our sanctification by the blood of the cross, is necessarily the sign of the cross. Since the Sabbath is the sign of the cross, whoever exalts the Sabbath in its true setting exalts the cross, and to preach the Sabbath aright is to preach the cross.
We are told that Seventh-day Adventists should be foremost in exalting Christ and His cross, and if we preach in its right relation this great threefold message which calls men back to the Sabbath, it will never be otherwise; for the Sabbath is the sign of the cross. The last great controversy in this world between the forces of good and the forces of evil will be concerning Christ and His cross, and in its final stage only those who keep the Sabbath will continue truly to exalt the cross, and those who cling to the cross will exalt the Sabbath as its glorious sign.
Chicago, Ill.
