Well, we're in Revelation chapter 18. Revelation chapter 18. That's at the back of the Bible. If you don't have a Bible, there's a black book right in front of you that you can use. Just go straight to the back and find chapter 18. We'll do the entire chapter. I'm going to read it. and then we'll walk ourselves through it. Hear now the Word of God. Now after these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. And she has become a dwelling place of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins, and that you may not receive her plagues. For her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds, in the cup which she has mixed twice as much for her. to the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen and I am not a widow and will never see mourning. For this reason, in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire, for the Lord God who judges her is strong. And the kings of the earth who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning. standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour your judgment has come. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore, cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and every kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and the fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep and cargos of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives. and the fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you, and men will no longer find them. The merchants of these things who become rich from her, or who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment. weeping and mourning, and say, Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! For in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste, and every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor and as many as make their living by the sea stood at a distance and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like the great city? And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid to waste. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her. And a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, thus will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence and will not be found any longer. And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer. And no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer. And the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer. And the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer. And the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer. For your merchants were the great men of the earth because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints and of all who have been slain on the earth. May the Lord bless his word. Well, we come now to what I would argue is the most interesting portion of the entire book of Revelation. From here, things are gonna begin to progress very, very rapidly. The pace, the intensity is just gonna rise to a crescendo that culminates at the end of chapter 20, and then the whole pace of the book will change again in chapter 21 and 22 as it talks about the nature of the new heavens and earth where all things are made new. There's this increasing sense of pace leading to the culmination of everything under the rule of our Lord. And so, here we see the destruction of the city Babylon. In the very next chapter, we're going to see the return of Jesus Christ. In chapter 20, it will describe what happens after Christ returns. But before He makes all things new, And then in chapters 21 and 22, we have the joy, the glory of seeing everything made new, and the finality of God's cleansing judgment on all who are his rebels, and how all things are right for once. Today we're going to finish with Revelation's focus on this entity known as Babylon. We've spent a decent amount of time on it because the Bible spends a decent amount of time on Babylon. And most definitely two entire chapters plus multiple reference in this book to this Babylon requires us to understand it. Now, when we learned about Revelation 17, we saw that it had a different focus than the one here in chapter 18. In chapter 17, we're given a picture of that religious system that is flowing through all of humanity called Mystery Babylon. It was pictured as a harlot, as woman, and that she works with the merchants and the people of power and commerce and business and authorities and politics so that she can work her evil in her various religious expressions. And I pointed out to you that wherever you see idolatry, wherever you see evil, triumphing wherever you see things that are good being called evil all of that is just a mark of this harlot of this mystery Babylon doing its work but you also saw at the end of it that this mystery Babylon was also called a city and it ultimately became summed up not in all of its various iterations or expressions like Hinduism and Mormonism and Buddhism and whatever, but that it ultimately all came together and was culminated in one person, the Antichrist, and that he became the source of worship. that he was the one then that all of the nations came and worshiped because he literally, it looked like he suffered a fatal wound to his head and then he was healed and he lived again. And so at that moment, the world was astonished, they saw this and they all came and his power and his religious presence was felt throughout the earth so that literally you became a one world religion. And I taught that this is all bound up, not just in the system and the concept of Babylon, but it's also bound up in the city of Babylon, that that is where he will find his place, and that's where the people will come and worship. Now here in chapter 18, the focus is different. This is now focused not upon the religious side as much, though it's present, it's really focused on the political and economic system of the end time, which is known as Babylon the Great. Now there's a lot of similarities because they're ultimately still dealing with the same thing. So they have a lot of similarities. First of all, they share the name, obviously, Babylon. Second, they're empowered by Satan. Third, they are both under the rule of the Antichrist. They are also filled with blasphemy, and they all share a hatred for the people of God. So these are the similarities. But more important than all of that is that here is that they both come under the judgment of God, and they are destroyed. But with that, the similarities actually end, and they are also marked, there are marked differences between Mystery Babylon in chapter 17 and Babylon the Great in 18. And we're not gonna take the time to go through them. I think as we just preach through the passage, you can see how the emphasis is so different. But so, there's a lot of similarities, but there's also a lot of dissimilarities. But the key thing that you take away is that God judges, and He judges this entity in the most fullest of manners. Now, when you look at it, I always try to give you a sense of the flow of the passage, and the reason for that is just to continue to help teach you how to read your Bible. If you just simply passively read, and that's how most people do it, it's time for Bible, so reading maybe, and so they sit down, and they may just randomly open up somewhere, and they just start letting their eyes go over the words. That's not reading. That's just eye exercise. You're not actually taking in and attempting to derive a meaning from the text. And so when you're reading, you want to try to look for structure and logical flow, and that's why I take the time to show you how maybe a chapter or a passage breaks down. Here it breaks down very, very easily, and it's all built around two pronouncements, by angels. We see one in verse 1 and the other one in verse 21. And so those are the two controlling hooks, if you will, upon which we can understand our text. So with that, let's look at this passage and we'll just take ourselves right through it and make the necessary comments and application. First, we have this initial angelic announcement. The first one comes in John's vision, and it says, mighty angel, and he's coming. And I want you to see how verse 1 describes the event. I saw another angel coming down from heaven, that's point one. Having great authority, that's point two. And the earth was illumined by his glory, and that's point three. So he comes down from heaven. Now that's something you and I are so comfortable hearing that Honestly, those are the kinds of phrases that our eyes just kind of run right over and it means nothing. But we ought not to do that. It loses the weightiness of what is really going on. That this is one sent by God, and he is sent by God to bring news of destruction. This is not a private opinion. This is not just some angel wandering around the earth who decides he wants to be heard and his opinion is going to be stated. This is one where he has been given a task in heaven, he leaves heaven, he comes to earth with this task, this declaration of judgment upon these people. Second, we see he is granted not just authority, but great authority. Now, to be frank, if any angel came from God and was gonna speak to me, I would assume he has great authority. He's coming from God, and he's an angel. And angels are never seen as cute little cherubs trotting around with chubby legs and wings with an arrow. They are mighty men, always warrior-like and frightening. Remember that when they show up, people tend to fall down onto the ground and filled with great fear. But this angel, even though he is an angel and a mighty angel, he's also given this great authority. So the writer John is trying to emphasize this is a weighty message, a heavy message, something we need to think. And so by describing this, it just intensifies it. It's the idea that nothing is able to hold back the message that he is going to pronounce. And once it's pronounced, nothing's going to stop it. It's frightening. And so great and mighty is this angel that the earth is filled or illumined by his glory. And I think it's worth contemplating what kind of a vision that is. In Revelation 10, It described an angel. It could be the same angel. I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven clothed with a cloud and the rainbow was upon his head and his face was like the sun and his feet like pillars of fire. The whole thing is to describe majesty and power and glory. And so when we think of an angel, Like this, we need to be aware of how incredibly great this angel is. How massive in his presence he is. So much so that God has granted him such greatness that the world itself becomes illumined by him. His glory, his heaviness, his weightiness, his presence is felt without any exception throughout the entire of humanity. Now how does that work? I don't know and I don't think I need to worry about it. It is sufficient for me that here in the end times that when God wants himself heard, he sends this angel and the world will hear. Now my mind really was struck with this image. Because all I could think about was Revelation, I mean, Psalm 19, where it says that the heavens and the earth are constantly crying forth with the glory of God. And when the more you see the images coming back from the Hubble, Space Telescope right and and the vastness of this universe and that all of those little images that you see on the screen They're not just little images their entire galaxies and their galaxies of galaxies of galaxies and you you're boggled the vastness of it And of course, in the arrogance of a heart that does not believe, they say, see, it's so big, there is no God. And I'm like, no, see, it is so big, what a mighty God we have. Well, look at the glory of this land. Look at it in the midst of its fury when nature explodes, if you will, with a tsunami or an earthquake or a violent hurricane. And in all of this, it's just simply declaring the glory of God, even in the simple way that a bee passing by your head on a sleepy Saturday afternoon in springtime also screams out that God is glorious. Think about the fact that Isaiah saw an image of God A vision in Isaiah 6, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The angelic hosts are just circling the throne, and that's all they're saying over and over again. And it says, and that from the throne room of God into all of the earth comes this outpouring of God's glory, so that the whole earth is filled with His glory. These are all images of God. And then you have an angel. An angel is here, and he illumines the world with his glory. And I'm thinking, if this guy is that great, if this guy is so glorious, I am really in trouble, because if that's what a creature can do, how much more does the infinite God manifest his glory? And the fact that you and I are not trembling right now with that image shows how hard it is for us to get our heads around these things. The only thing I can beg of you is to not allow yourself to become bored with the person of God, to fight against that tendency. Because whatever it is you think you know of God, whatever sense of massiveness and greatness that you have about God, it is really but a speck. So how much more will the glory and might and power be of God if this is what we see with just an angel? He makes this pronouncement in verse two. It's very simple and it's very clear. Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. And she has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird." Notice the contrast, and it's done on purpose. Fallen, fallen. But what is fallen? Who is fallen? It's not just Babylon, but Babylon the what? The great. So here it is, here is the ultimate city, and your mind should go back to Genesis. Remember the Tower of Babel and the Plains of Shinar, and this is where it all began, and they were gonna build this great ziggurat, this big tower, and it's gonna go all the way up to heaven, and we will be unmoved. and unchanged. We shall do our will, humanity says. And so God then confuses the languages and everyone is forced to scatter. Here again, we see this great city. It's finally risen from the ashes, and it is the most glorious city, the greatest city, the most powerful city, the most richest city. It is the seat of power for the unholy trinity of Satan and the Antichrist and the false prophet. This is the center of centers of all of humanity, and the angel just looks and says, fallen. The great one is gone. What we see in Revelation from the beginning to the end is this incredible power of evil. We see how it's so destructive and how it sets itself in the most violent of ways against the people of God and the purposes of God. But alongside that, we have also had the better image of how unimpressed God is. He's not afraid. He's not worried. The angel's not coming down and saying, you better stop this or God's going to get mad, back off and trying to intimidate. It's just a simple pronouncement. You're fallen. It's done. God is in heaven and he is utterly unperturbed. And so this pronouncement of doom is not something to be ignored. Not that it could even be ignored. The fact that his glory is throughout the world indicates that the message is heard by humanity as a whole. It's not whispered, it's not quiet. It is a worldwide declaration that the place where everything is happening is done. So then he describes Babylon in the second half of two in verse three. First of all, we see that the city is described in a specific ways. Now listen to me on this. I want you to hear it. It's described in specific ways to indicate that it's not just a concept, but it is an actual city, a literal city. It's very common in various ways that people will approach Revelation, that they will see that this Babylon, this great Babylon, is not a city in and of itself, but it's just simply a concept. We should see it as a symbol, and we should see it in a spiritual sense, and it's just simply representing the satanic system of this age, as it corrupts the world. But it's worth noting that the choice of details are given that we can't really ignore them. We ought not to. Because if we're going to make this a symbol, then you're going to also have to make all of those details that it gives symbolic as well. And what does that represent? Why does he go into the detail? that he does. So I'm just going to show you some of the ways in this chapter that we can make a legitimate observation that this is more than a symbolic presence of Satan's system of evil, but it's an actual place. First, it's called a dwelling place. It's made distinct from other nations. Notice that. Now remember, all of the earth is under the power of Satan. He is the God of this age, and there is none in this age, apart from believers who have been saved, there is no human who's in a state of neutrality. You want to keep that in mind as you think about what I'm saying here. It's not like, well, we have the satanic system, and then we have Christians over here, this is a category, then we have this satanic system that pervades all of the earth, and then we have just neutral parties, like nations or kings or people. Those people, if they're not in Jesus Christ, if they're not believers, they belong to that system. That system pervades everything. But I want you to see how this place is made distinct from other nations. So it's different than the other nations. It's a dwelling place. In verse 4, it's a place from which people are actually called to come out from. so you can come in or go out. In addition, you'll see in this chapter later on described in terms of doing commerce of cargoes. In fact, if you notice how long of a list I had to give of the various cargoes that were in there, the list was done on purpose so that you're like, Once you're going to stop adding one more word, cinnamon and spices and this and that, there's a massive amount of cargo coming in and goods being bought and sold. You see that it has entertainment. It is seen as having a harbor with ships. It has craftsmen. It finally is able to begin to burn, and the smoke rises from it. It is a place you can leave. It is subject to pestilence and disease. It has armaments and slaves. It has shipmasters and passengers. There were weddings, and in it believers were murdered. And finally, as it is destroyed, the merchants and people who don't belong to it Mourn, because it's taking their wealth with it. That very last line is one of my points. If we're going to say it's just simply the satanic system, then who are the people mourning it? because they have to belong to the satanic system. The people mourning are not neutral. They belong to the satanic system. Everyone in this world we know from the scripture is born with their father being Satan. their spiritual father, if you will. The Bible is clear that we are all born dead in our sins and that we all, this is Ephesians 2, we all walk according to the prince of the power of the air, which is another way of saying Satan. All of us, apart from the grace of God, are belonging and part and under that world system that exists even to this day. And yet here we see that it is being destroyed and they, distinct from that, are mourning it. That cannot be if this is merely a symbol. So this is why I take it to be a literal city. There's other reasons as well, but I think within its own context that we ought to see it that way. And so it points to a literal city rather than just simply a symbol. But at its core, it is a place where the power of sin and satanic, Satan's power is evident. You see that in point in verse two, it's a place of demons, of unclean spirits, of hateful birds. As I've already taught, this is a place where Antichrist makes his base of operations. Again, we're not gonna go back over all that. We've done it several times. This is his base of operation. This is where we see then the nations coming to worship him because once that happens, the Antichrist, Satan stirs up the nations so that they will only worship him. and he is seated on his throne, and we talked about that back in chapter 13, that if he's seated on a throne that the nations are coming to worship him, there has to be a locale, and that locale, as you go through the revelation, becomes Babylon. You can imagine that if one, all of the systems, let me back up. Think about, if you know anything, about the pilgrimages of Islam. Think about the massive movement of humanity that goes to Mecca. Just picture that, how many people from all around the world that will travel to Mecca, because it's required that they do this once at least in their lifetime. There are similar pilgrimages that go into Israel. There are similar pilgrimages that will take place in Asia with Hinduism and Buddhism. It is very, very common to see these massive pilgrimages, but they all belong to their own unique religion and entity, right? But now let's take all of those entities and eliminate them, because in the end, remember what we learned in chapter 17, in the end, the Antichrist removes all other religions and brings them all underneath himself, so there's one religion. And he is seated in one place, and you can imagine how all of the world then coming to worship this one person, how quickly Babylon would grow in its wealth. It's the place to be. You wanna get rich, you set up shop in this place because everyone in the world will eventually be coming there and they're gonna wanna buy and sell, they're gonna wanna eat and sleep so you can become filthy rich in this city because this is where it's all at. This is a place from which then during a tribulation, the lies, the false teaching will come pouring forth from the mouthpiece of the false prophet. And it's worth noting that although the Bible describes Babylon in the past as facing God's judgment, somebody here mentioned after my study on just the city of Babylon in biblical history, they said that as they're reading more and more in the Old Testament, it's shocking to them how much Babylon keeps popping up. And it is, it's just all over the place. And in the judgment of God, Babylon faced Babylon faced a judgment of God. The Old Testament repeatedly gives it. But there's one, we won't turn, I'll just reference it. It talks about a day when it will suddenly fall in Isaiah 47, 11. But what's interesting about that is that moment has never actually happened yet in history. There's never been a time where the kind of fall that the Bible describes it undergoing has never happened. And so we're left to make decisions that the Bible doesn't really mean that, or it's just hyperbole and we should just take that the fact that Babylon has suffered and been diminished and lost its power base, that's all it's talking about. Or we can say this is something that's yet future. And again, I believe it's yet future and is being described here. The picture with all of this of the demons and the unclean spirits and even the unclean birds is a picture of abandonment and spiritual desolation. I tried so hard to figure out how can I make sense of this? Because you're like, what's up with the birds? And I want to say it's one of the Lord of the Rings, but it's one of those kinds where Picture the scene, all of a sudden it'll fade into your picture where everything is gray and black and there's smoke rising up from all around, there's rubble and usually a few bodies, maybe a few impaled on a pike and you hear cries and moanings. and invariably you'll see like some guy hanging, trapped in a cage hanging and he's now dead and the birds are pecking at him and all of that nasty stuff and invariably you'll see crows or rooks. and they'll just be sitting there and they're cawing, and those are unclean birds, they're carrion birds. And that's the image of what it is, that this is just a place where everything has just died. It's just a filthy, desolate, unclean place that is now under the judgment of God. Demons dwell here. The unclean spirits are here. Remember in Revelation 9 that the Euphrates, which is right there by Babylon, is described as a prison for demons. So it's just a place where no joy, no beauty dwells. Now what once was this vibrant city is now fallen into utter ruin because God's judgment has come upon it. The wrath of God is staring at it, and it's not good. In verse three then, this place is one that has great influence over all other powers. You can see that in verse three, all nations, notice how it says, all nations, the kings of the earth, and the merchants of the sea. By giving those three descriptors, you have the fullness of the world, the fullness of power and commerce. All of them are affected by Babylon. Notice that each of these categories are also guilty, he says, of partaking of Babylon's evil. They wanna make money, so they'll turn a blind eye. And they do, and they continue to do that so that they might become wealthy. They're not Babylon themselves, they just will do business. And they know full well the evils that go on. They just don't care. It's really no different than investing in China. I mean, we do it. If you have stock portfolios, if you were to look and see what kind of stocks you have with companies in China where some of the worst of human trafficking and treatment occurs, but it's also a place you can make a lot of money. Think about how many people are willing to turn the blind eye to the suffering and say, look, we live in a world of falling. We're just going to have to deal with it. And they'll just turn the blind eye to the way that that nation functions for the sake of being enriched. Same thing here in our own nation where so much evil is perpetrated and pushed upon us, and yet we'll invest our time and energy, because it's a great way to make money, and we'll just sort of try to keep our eyes blind to what's happening. In verses four and five, he then gives this warning to believers. He says, come out of her, my people. Why? For what purpose? It's to protect them, so you won't participate in her sins, and so you won't receive her plagues. It's not because I'm going to destroy and you're going to get destroyed. He's like, get away from her. You have nothing to do with her. You shouldn't be there. There's nothing good there. In light of the guarantee of destruction, the promise of judgment, God is calling all who are faithful to Him to flee. So how do we understand these verses? Well, if you're gonna take these chapters about Babylon as purely symbolic, then you say that it refers to God calling believers to be pure and to reject this fallen age. That's your normal way of saying it. Well, He just wants us to live pure in this world, and we want to reject the things that are impure. But if you take the city, like I do, to be an actual city, then it's understood one of two ways, and either would work, you will see what my choice is. The first would be to recognize that even today, how history is moving toward the establishment of a single false religion centered in a city and have nothing to do with that direction, that you just don't participate in those types of things, because you know where they're heading for. A second one would be to see that during the tribulation, since there will still be believers, that they should flee when they see the time approaching, much like Lot fled Sodom and Gomorrah. Never did God rebuke Lot for living in Sodom. But when it came time that he was gonna judge Sodom, he said, flee and lot wisely fled and was saved. In the same way, I believe that what's gonna happen is this, the city is gonna have so much influence and that it's also gonna be a place where people will seek to bring the gospel into it. which is why the people of God, their blood is being shed, and they will not be received with a gentle spirit, and that there'll come a point where they will see all of this impending, and at that point, it's get out, get out now so that you don't suffer with them these plagues. That's my position. Now one side point of interest that I think you should take note of. Notice in verse 5 the idea of their sins piling up to heaven. Now I want you just to picture it. So he says, what has happened is the city of Babylon, I'll call it a different way, slightly different, the city of Babel, It's now piled all the way up to heaven. Does that hearken your mind to something back in Genesis? Do you remember that they were gonna build something that was gonna reach all the way up into heaven? They were gonna build this tower, and they were gonna show their might and their power, and they were gonna be who they were, the fullness of the strength of humanity, and he just made them all go away? Well, something did pile up to heaven, and it's their sin. And their sins have just piled all the way up until it's, the image is, it's bubbling out into even heaven itself. And he is gonna deal with it. Now he goes, and here we'll go quite quickly, he'll give this judgment of God on the city. Verses six through nine then just begins to lay that out. It doesn't have a lot of need for commentary, because it's quite straightforward, unless you're gonna try to create this all symbolically, and then you have to deal with why is this symbolic and that one not symbolic, what do we do? But I'm taking this as an actual city, and so it's very straightforward. Here's what I want you to take away though. I want you to take away the understanding that nothing is going to be forgotten by God. This section is brutal because it shows that everything that was done is remembered. God has not forgotten God has not overlooked something. God is not ignoring something. God remembers. And when He remembers, all that means is He's now turning His attention to it. So it's not like Him saying, oh man, I totally forgot. Now I remember. It's not that. It's when the Bible talks about God remembers, it's that He's now going to give His attention to that situation. And so everything is there now. And everything that was said and done in public and in hiding is laid out before them. I want to make some quick observations in this section about the nature of his judgment. In verse six, whatever is done against God in rebellion shall be paid back how? Double. Pay her back even as she has paid. Give back to her double. according to her deeds." So all of humanity and this city is filled with its filthiness, and he says, take it all, double it, and give it right back at her. It's not like one loses a fight but gets some good licks in. This is just a brutal beatdown. This is a brutal, brutal beatdown where I like MMA, I like USC, I like watching it, I think it's an excellent sport. And yet there are times where you're like, oh dude, you had no business in that ring. Oh my, wow, I sure hope you learned your lesson. It's just so lopsided, the skills. Well that's this, here is this great city, the city where everyone in the world is getting rich off of, where it's pouring out the filth and the people are loving it for the filth that they can gain, and now God says, I'm just gonna double it up and then pay it right back to you, brutally. In verse seven, you see that sin shall be met with the judgment in the same degree. In other words, there's no concept, listen, no concept of mercy in the court of God. There's no mercy when you stand before God, none. So if some of you are betting on that, if you're betting that you can put off until another day because you've got things you want to experience or take hold of or enjoy, And you figure you can work it out in the end with God. You understand that when you stand before the judgment seat of God, there is no mercy whatsoever. Either it is dealt with in Jesus Christ, or you will suffer the fullness of all that you are. No mercy. In verse seven and eight, you see also the sheer arrogance of all sinners who do not repent, and that that will become their undoing. Here she is, the city is described as a woman, and she says, I sit as a queen, I'm not a widow, I'll never see mourning. And then for that reason, he says, because you're so filled with yourself, for this reason, in one day, her plagues will come. Pestilence and mourning and famine, and she'll be burned up. You sit there and you're so full of yourself, and you think this and that, and then that day it will come, and it will come so swift. I also think that you need to understand in this section that it's very clear that shame is part of the judgment of God. This is obvious as God is going in this entire section and taking the arrogance and the pride of this city and just grinding it into the dust. God's judgment also is swift and unexpected. I understand the nature of salvation. I understand how God works. And I've been here long enough for you to know that. But in my mind, when I'm talking to somebody old or young, and you're trying to talk to them about the situation that they're in, that their life is literally held safe by the slenderest of threads, that it's the pleasure of God that you're still living right now, and if he wishes to, he'll just release it, and you're done. And the board looks at you, you get back. The eye rolls, sighs, oh, I know, I know. And it's like, you need to think about it. I do, I will. Okay, Dad. I can't tell you the number of people I've gone to in nursing homes Literally dying. I mean they even know they're dying. There's nothing left there. It's just days And you try to talk to him. I don't have time And just not getting it and not understanding how they are not promised anything. I It's swift, it's unexpected, and for Babylon it will occur at the time of its power and wealth. And then it goes from that to nothing. Also, I think you should note the hardness of the heart of humanity in this section. All of these merchants and kings and such, what are they doing? They're weeping. They're weeping because they see the destruction. Don't be fooled, though. Don't think that they're weeping because they're gentle souls who are so sad over the lost souls and, oh, the humanity and the brokenness. No. They're not fleeing from God's wrath by repenting. They're not weeping over the fullness of their own sins that participated in this. They're just like every other time we've seen it in the book, that in the face of God's wrath, they just become more hard. They're not weeping over the sin. What they're weeping over is they lost out on their power. They lost out on their wealth. Their agendas and their desires are now obvious to everyone, because they're looking at this place now under the obvious judgment of God, and all they can think about is their investments. And so in verse 19, they're bemoaning the loss of wealth rather than the loss of soul. Remember in Revelation 17, 12, you can probably glance just right over to see it, that there were these 10 kings who rose in power under the rule of Antichrist. And likely, at this point in time during the tribulation, the earth is probably broken down into 10 parts controlled by these leaders. We don't know that for certain, but there are 10 leaders, kings, that rise to absolute prominence and are used by the Antichrist. And so it's probable for a king you have to have a realm that these kings then essentially break down and they're overseeing the different parts of the world. And that's not hard to see even in our current state how that would easily be done. But remember, their role back in chapter 17 was to ultimately wage war against Jesus, the Lamb. And now we see them here in verse nine of chapter 18, and they're weeping as the destruction is rendered by God upon this city. And the sense they're getting is that as powerful as it was, it can't stand against the wrath of God, and they're in trouble. So what are they gonna do? And I would argue it's here that these kings then realize we need to do something about this Jesus and we're gonna marshal all of our forces. We're not gonna do it one at a time. We're gonna all of us marshal the forces and we're gonna march against this one and we're gonna see if we can kill him because if we don't, We're done, we're finished. Everything is being taken from us. And that is what you'll see in chapter 19. This is nothing new for God, of course. He's shown time and time again the point where his patient ends. his rises up in power and wrath to execute his judgments. You saw it in the flood in Genesis six through nine where all of humanity were swept away except for Noah and his family. You saw it in the utter destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. You see it in the great city of Tyre. If you've not read that story and also read the history along with it of Ezekiel 36, it's a fascinating and frightening story. where God just says, you're done. Remember also that these kings are raised up to be used to fight against the Lord, and that's what we will know as the Battle of Armageddon. They're watching the city burn so easily, they're watching their wealth melt away, and it's probably why they're gonna rise up. Now from there we go to the second angel's pronouncements in verses 21 to 24. And here, before we go any further, I want you to hear a prophecy from Jeremiah. It is written, So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. And then Jeremiah said to Saraiah, as soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud and say, thou, O Lord, or thou, O Yahweh, has promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation. Does this sound familiar? And it will come about as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it, throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, and say, just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her. And they will become exhausted. Thus far, those words have not happened. These are the words of Jeremiah. This is a prophecy against Babylon. It's in Jeremiah 51, and that prophecy has not occurred. It has not taken place as it was written. Now hear the verse 21. And a strong angel took up a stone, like a great millstone, and threw it into the sea, saying, thus will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence and will not be found any longer. To this day, Babylon exists. To this day, there have been efforts to rebuild it and to a degree it has. In fact, there's a major city that's right next to it that would be considered part of Babylon. It doesn't sit on the ruins. It's called Hillah. It's got about 500 to 600,000 people. And you can go and you can stay in luxury hotels and you can go visit the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon, but it has never been utterly cast away. It has never been made desolate, as the scripture says. And trust me, when the Bible describes places that they will finally be desolate and no more, they mean it. It means it, and these nations have just disappeared. That's what's happened here. And I think that this is where the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy takes place. Then in verses 22 and 23, it leaves us with this final picture of desolation. No more music, no more craftsmen, no more weddings, no more anything. It's an immensely wealthy place. It had all the baubles. It had all the distractions. I've taught you many, many times over the years what the word amusement means, but I'll say it one more time. The word muse means to think or consider. So when you muse over something, you're thinking about it. The M-E-N-T at the end means to be in the state of thinking. When you add the A in the front, it's the absence of that. And so to amusement is simply this, it is being in the state of not thinking. There's a great book by a guy named Neil Postman who wrote back, I think it was the 80s, called Amusing Ourselves to Death. And if you think it was true back then in 2017 and 18, it's even more true. This is a city at its heyday when it's there that everybody will go, because that's where you can worship and you can do this, you can get filthy rich, and everything your heart desires will be present there. You can get it all. It will make the red light district of Amsterdam look like Disneyland. It is a place of filth in every way. It will be the destination point for weddings. This is the place. and now it's silent. The lights are all turned off, the sounds are squashed, there's no joy of even a wedding, it's just finished. Now notice in verse 20, go backwards, I want you to see something. Notice the posture of Christians toward the judgment of God. It's not one of shame. This is a command. What is it that we're being commanded to do? Rejoice. Rejoice over what? Her. Rejoice over her. Rejoice over this city that has just been laid to waste with the thousands and hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of souls in it, just wasted. And what does heaven say to you? Rejoice over her. Rejoice that it's done. No shame. It's not our dirty little secret, even though we treat it that way. While the vile parties are silenced in Babylon, all of heaven erupts into joy and celebration, because that's what it's supposed to be like. There should not be those kinds of actions. There should not be that kind of rebellion and grossness of sin. There should be none of that. And so all of heaven's angelic hosts and all of the believers who have died and enter into their Lord's presence are now shouting and rejoicing. Why? Why? Because God, it says, because God has pronounced judgment, what? For you against her. You're rejoicing over her because God has kept his promise. Never forget, never forget, Jesus commands you and I right now to love our enemies and pray for them. Never forget that we are forbidden from taking vengeance. We're not allowed, not even a little bit. Romans 12, 19, never, boy, that's an easy word to understand, right? Never, never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it's written, vengeance is mine, I will repray, says the Lord. So God says, I'm making this promise, I will take care of the vengeance, so you don't have to. You worry about showing them kindness, praying for them, Loving them, don't bring vengeance. Leave it to me, I'll take care of it. And you know what? He doesn't, it seems like. You know, you get cheated, and you get demoted at work, and you get fired, and maybe your wife or your husband cheats on you, and leaves you, and harms you, and all kinds of other stuff, and you're like, so... I keep trying to show this kindness and all I do is get this in return. Why? Why? Why? You have to believe that God is faithful to His promises. You have to. Because He says, I will repay. Listen to these words. I bet you haven't read Nahum lately, so I thought I'd throw this one in. A jealous and avenging God is, I'm going to use the proper word, is Yahweh. Yahweh is avenging and wrathful. Yahweh takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power, and Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In a whirlwind a storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet. The reason heaven is rejoicing and all of it is excited and happy is because God's vengeance is here. has come and everything ever suffered is gonna be dealt with double. So you don't have to worry about it. He's gonna take care of it. And if you're still unclear about why this judgment is so complete and so fierce, then look at verse 24. And in her, in Babylon was found the blood of prophets and of the saints and of all who have been slain in the earth. It's a killing machine. It's a city filled with not just the blood of the people of God, but of the innocent. If you fought against it, if you resisted, they would just be able to take care of you. You would just be murdered. And now their blood guiltiness is something that they must all own, and they will be judged by it. It's, again, worth reminding you that they're not left without a witness for the gospel. If I'm correct, some don't agree with me on this, if I'm correct that the earth will go through the time of tribulation, then they will be there with this witness, even though they'll suffer greatly for it. But also, along with that, go back in your brains to early part of Revelation, there's those 144,000 Jews that were raised up specifically to function as witnesses. But it's all gonna be ignored. It's not like they didn't hear, they just didn't want it. The love of money, the love of power have scents that are so intoxicating for them that a desire for the gospel is not even felt. It's so weak, it's so shameful, why would I do that? To do that means I lose everything. I'm all about my 401K and wealth building, thank you very much. And because of that, they shall, in chapter 19, meet their end in the most horrific ways. And at the end of that, the only thing that waits them is eternity with the wrath of God. So to you hearing my voice, whether you're hearing here or via the live stream, if you're hearing my voice, let it be heard one more time. If you are one who is not a Christian, this is you. This is your end. You can roll your eyes, disagree, yawn, get angry, resent it, whatever you might be, doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you think. You have no say in this aspect. That promise of God's wrath is your end. If you think somehow that you can put things off until later, then you are to be pitied. You are assuming tomorrow is a reality. You shall be likely to be found to be like that rich man that Jesus described, who sees his wealth is growing so rapidly that he needs to build bigger barns, right? Because he's got a bigger expectation of a crop, and it's just like, man, I gotta get busy. We gotta get bigger ones. And then these words come to him, you fool. This very night, your soul is required of you. And now, who will own what you have prepared? On that day, while you're saying, well, one more day, one more day, just a little bit more, little bit more, you will hear the words, you fool. For tonight, your soul is required. So hear me on that. If you have rejected Jesus Christ, might you hear the words, This is the reality. This is the bad news. In your sin, only the judgment of God, unrelenting and eternal, is yours to have. And then there's that free offer of salvation in Jesus Christ from which you are saved from the wrath of God and your sins are washed clean so that you who were once filthy are now white as snow, that you are brought into his household and you enter into the joy of your Master.