Revelation chapter 18.
I know it's exciting because we're getting closer and closer to the end.
If you have...
Well, yeah, I don't want to spoil it for you.
It ends with the maps.
If you've missed any of our Revelation sermons, we've got two and a half years of them on
the website, so y'all can back and watch.
We are in Revelation 18.
Last week we were talking about the prostitute and the beast and how Satan works through
human governments and through worldly, fleshly enticements to try to get people to join his
kingdom of darkness.
The angel ended part of that section by telling us that the prostitute was Babylon.
If you remember, we said that this is most likely not referring to the literal actual
city of Babylon that's going to rise to power again, but Babylon is being used as a symbol
of all the worldly powers that are opposed to God and in rebellion against God.
And now, as we come to chapter 18, we get to hear about the judgment that is coming
in the fall of Babylon and also what we are to do as Christians in light of that judgment
in that fall.
So notice how he starts in verses one through two here.
After this, I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the
earth was made bright with his glory and he called out with a mighty voice, fallen, fallen
is Babylon the great.
She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt
for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
All right, so here's my first question.
We're reading this.
Who is this angel?
Which angel is this?
There's only one right answer.
Nope.
I don't know.
Okay.
We got to get used to saying this, does the Bible tell us who this angel is?
No?
Yeah.
Okay.
So let's not get hung up on speculation and debates because if you read any book on revelation
anytime an angel is mentioned, they will almost certainly try to identify and they'll
put a name and say, we don't know.
The Bible doesn't tell us.
Let's be content because the point is not the identity of the angel.
The point is the message of the angel and what he has to tell us.
What is he doing?
He's announcing the fall of Babylon.
And so Babylon again represents a culture in rebellion and opposition to God.
And so her fullness mean that this rebellious culture is finally coming to an end.
So this chapter therefore is depicting the judgment that the worldly cultures and governments
opposed to Christ are going to suffer at the end.
And there are those who would say that this is referencing the fall of Jerusalem or the
fall of Rome, which is not out of the realm of possibility.
But I think more importantly, rather than it specifically referring to Jerusalem or
Rome, I think what's actually happening here is the Bible is establishing a principle that
applies for all of these possibilities.
And so the Bible is saying here that just as literal Babylon fell and just as literal
Jerusalem fell and just as literal Rome fell, so too all the rebellious kingdoms and cultures
of this world will fall and they will be judged for their idolatrous ways.
So does this refer to Rome?
Yes, and Rome and America.
Rome and North Korea, Rome and Russia.
You can apply this same principle to any godly government or culture that is opposed to God
in his ways.
And it is important that we specify kingdoms and cultures as opposed to the world itself,
because this passage doesn't depict judgment upon the physical world as a whole, but on
an evil and idolatrous culture that inhabits the world.
And it's important for us to remember that because the Bible tells us that when God created
everything, he said it was good.
The world was good.
Even though creation has been marred by sin, the fact remains that God has great plans
for creation.
God is going to restore creation and renew creation, which is, sorry Doug, how the book
ends, with a new heavens and a new earth.
So God is actually going to regenerate the world and it's going to be brought back to
how he originally intended it to be.
And I do think it's important for us to understand this point, because I think too often Christians
tend to paint with too broad of a brush when we speak about the world, because we have
a tendency to condemn the world as a whole, but we need to remember that there are good
things in this world.
And here's the kicker that not a lot of Christians like to get behind.
God wants us to enjoy those good things.
The Bible tells us that everything we do, we do to the glory of God.
So can you eat a really good ribeye to the glory of God?
Amen.
Yes, you can.
I mean, that's the way God intended it to be, right?
Like, you can enjoy music, mazahn, right?
To the glory of God.
You can enjoy stories and books and all these good things that God has put into our world
to enjoy them, because they are ultimately a reflection of his goodness and his character
and his design and making things.
But the reason a ribeye tastes that good is because God is amazing and creative, and he
allowed it to taste that good.
So like, that's how you can eat a steak to the glory of God.
So we need to be careful not to just condemn the whole world, broad strokes.
We need to be careful to remember that there are good things in the world that God wants
us to enjoy.
That's why Paul says in Philippians 4-8, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there
is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Now why would Paul say that unless those things actually existed?
He wouldn't, right?
It would be a waste of his words.
And so he's saying these things exist in the world.
And so this is not a condemnation of the entire world or even all that is in the world.
This is a judgment upon Babylon, that symbol of an idolatrous, perverse world system that
is in rebellion against God and His kingdom.
So I want you to notice how the angel describes the fallen culture in verse 2.
He says, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.
And I love this section.
She's become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for
every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
Now I want you to pay attention.
Notice in your Bibles there, it does not say that Babylon will be these things, but Babylon
has become these things.
I think that's a very important distinction.
The rebellious culture of this world at the time of judgment will be such that it is an
appropriate dwelling place for demons and every kind of detestable beast and creature.
In other words, what you're seeing is the slow culture death in the world.
You're seeing this slow downgrade in the world.
Basically when the kingdoms of this world and the cultures of this world turn their
back on God and remove His presence from our world, that vacancy is naturally filled
by what?
Evil.
The demonic.
When we leave God a vacancy, when we push Him out, there's this left vacancy, the demonic
come in and they fill that vacancy in our world.
So whenever you stop living in accordance with God's ways and according to God's standards,
society will start to collapse and corrupt.
And we have seen this time and time again in our culture.
Have we not?
Anytime you remove God and His word from our culture, the culture goes downhill.
And there are great examples of this.
For instance, in 1963, anybody know what happened in 1963?
Okay, someone was born over here.
1963, the Supreme Court made a ruling.
It changed American history.
Anybody remember what that ruling was in 1963?
Yeah, that's right.
The guy got it.
They banned teaching the Bible and prayer in school.
And when that happened, they essentially made us a secular society.
And so what happened to America after 1963?
Well, I did some digging to find some statistics for you because I really like statistics.
So this is from 1963 for the next 41 years because I didn't have a lot of time today.
So we went up to 41 years.
Okay?
So this is what happened after that decision over the next 41 years.
Pregnancies out of wedlock increased 500%.
Reported child abuse increased 2,300%.
The divorce rate increased 350%.
This one is staggering.
Illegal drug use among youth increased 6,000%.
Marriage suicide increased 450%.
And one out of every four pregnancies in which the baby was completely viable was ended in
abortion because of the preference of the mother.
That is what happens when you remove God from a society.
It becomes a hunt for demons and the culture begins to decay.
Or you can think about even examples closer to us.
For instance, there's a church about 30 minutes that way.
First Baptist Church of Greenville, which is oxymoronic because it's neither Baptist
nor a church, but it's called First Baptist Church of Greenville.
And it played an essential role in the Southern Baptist Convention for a long time.
It was actually the birthplace of Southern Seminary, My Alma Mater.
It started at First Baptist Greenville.
And again, I think I've told you this, but if you drive near the Bylaw Center, the Bylaw
Center, you know where I'm talking about.
So if you use the Bylaw Center, it always will be.
So if you drive near the Bylaw Center and look across the street, you'll see street
names like it's Pettigrew Avenue over there.
There's Pettigrew Place.
There's Boyce Avenue.
There's Toy Road or Toy Street, something like that.
Those are all the last names of the founding professors of Southern Seminary.
It's just right there in Greenville.
And so First Baptist Greenville was essential in getting Southern Seminary going.
They were a pillar of orthodoxy for a long time, but now they are a hunt for demons.
And they are no longer orthodox.
They no longer hold to the inspiration, inerrancy, or infallibility of Scripture.
I believe at this point they have a woman pastor and they're fully accepting and affirming
of LGBT people, not just as members, but as pastors and elders within their church.
They removed God and His Word and the authority of God's Word from their church.
And so they are therefore no longer a church in the eyes of God.
So what happens when you remove God and His Word, you get evil.
You get corruption and you start accommodating to the culture, which is exactly what they
have done there.
And that's the angels point here when he's saying this.
He is saying that when the presence of the Lord is removed, that vacancy is occupied
by the demonic.
It's like a living death.
And then notice the sins that the angel lists there in verse three.
He says, for all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and
the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her.
And the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.
So there are three sins here.
The nations they've drunk the wine of her sexual immorality.
The kings of the earth have committed immorality with her.
And then the merchants have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.
And we get even more insight into this and to the rulers specifically in verses nine
through 10.
The Bible tells us and the kings of earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in
luxury with her will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.
They will stand far off in the fear of her torment and say, alas, alas, you great city,
you mighty city Babylon, for in a single hour your judgment has come.
Now the rulers here are most likely referring to the rulers of local provinces around the
Roman Empire, like the province of Asia Minor, which is significant because all the
churches that John is writing to in Revelation were located in Asia Minor.
And so he's referring to these rulers of these provinces and what they had done, they aligned
themselves with Rome and they participated in all of its paganism, idolatry and sinful
ways.
And they did so because Rome provided them with power and security and prestige and stability.
And so all these local provinces, basically what they did is they made a deal with the
devil.
And so Rome said, hey, you side with us, you do what we tell you to do, you participate
in all the things we participate in, you go by our system and here's what we can do for
you in return and not appeal to them.
And so they did it.
But notice when they lament, they're not necessarily mourning the loss of Babylon because they
love Babylon, they're mourning the loss of what Babylon did for them.
There was something in it for them that is now gone.
And you see this kind of thing play out throughout history as well.
There are often times when lesser forces will join up with greater forces that they know
we're evil and they know we're doing wrong because they think there's something in it
for them.
I mean, you can think about the Soviet Union.
And the Soviet Union had a bunch of satellite states and many Eastern European nations like
East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, they all aligned themselves with the Soviet Union
and they submitted to the Soviet Union because they benefited economically and militarily.
But they showed their support and they made a deal with the devil and it cost them because
the Soviet Union oppressed them and ultimately when the Soviet Union collapsed in, figure
out who Gene would be the only one who knows.
1991.
Doug, you're pretty close.
Good job, man.
Yeah, when I read it collapsed in 1991, I was like, oh man, I was born in 92, so that's
a little weird.
But basically what happened?
The Soviet Union collapsed and then all of these nations, they faced economic turmoil,
political instability and lasting troubles as a result of their partnership with the
Soviet Union.
And you say, well, okay, well, that's history, but look, I think we still see it today, right?
I think you still see it in America today, which we don't like to think about because
what happens is people are aligning themselves with politicians in America who are against
God, against His word, against everything God stands for.
And then when you have someone who comes and does stand for God, they what?
They weep and wail, right?
So when a president says that life begins at conception or when a president says that
there are only two genders, male and female, or when a president sends abortion back to
the states, what is the response?
Weeping and wailing.
People are crying in the streets.
I mean, they're mourning, they're walking around in like sackcloth and ashes and black
and they're just parading it around the streets.
And as a Christian, we look at this and we say, well, I know exactly what that is.
Babylon is falling and those who have aligned themselves with Babylon are crying for her.
Exactly what you see here.
They're having a lament in this moment just as we read about in this passage.
When we see these things happen, it's like we can already hear the shouts of fallen,
fallen is Babylon, the great Christians rejoicing these things.
But I want to just remind you this evening that the people who mourn the fall of Babylon
are those who are Babylonian in heart.
Those who have aligned themselves with that wicked kingdom will mourn her fall.
And that's exactly what we're seeing in our country.
I mean, you look at so many horrible things.
I told you before about, I think it was last year, there was a LGBTQ plus rally that was
going on in the streets of a major city.
And at one point, they were walking around naked and everything.
And at one point they were screaming, we're here, we're queer, we're coming for your children.
And that sounds like a line people would make up to say, oh, that's what they say.
But it was actually on video of them saying this, we're coming for your children, we're
coming for your children.
And this was in response to things that had been said about, hey, maybe abortion needs
to go back to the States or maybe this needs to be done.
And people were weeping and wailing.
The fact that something good was done in their response was to rise up with wickedness and
rebellion.
That's exactly what we're seeing here.
Babylon is falling and those who are Babylonian in heart are going to mourn her.
And that's not just the rulers you read about in verses 11 and following the merchants.
It says the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her.
Because no one buys their cargo anymore.
Cargo gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds
of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood,
bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine
flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots and slaves.
That is human souls.
The fruit for which you're so longed has gone from you.
And all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you.
Never to be found again.
The merchant of these weirs who gained wealth from her will stand far off in fear of her
torment weeping and mourning aloud.
Alas, alas for the great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet adorned
with gold, with jewels and with pearls.
For in a single hour, all this wealth has been laid waste.
And all the ship masters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea stood
far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning.
What city was like the great city?
And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned crying out, alas, alas for
the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth.
For in a single hour, she has been laid waste.
Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given
judgment for you against her.
So notice here, it's not just the rulers, it's the merchants and those who trade on
sea.
There's a theologian who said they see their whole livelihood in purpose of living disappearing
before their eyes and all that they have counted valuable is gone.
You see, all that list and you heard that long, long list of extravagancies.
And it's interesting, I know that a lot of times people compare America with Rome, you've
probably heard this comparison many times before, how America is a lot like the Roman
Empire.
We have nothing compared to their extravagancies.
I mean, it's not even worth comparing.
Aristides wrote this of Rome.
He said merchants are merchandise is brought from every land and sea.
Everything that every season begets and every country produces the products of rivers and
lakes, the arts of the Greeks and the Barbarians, so that if anyone were to wish to see all
these things, he would either have to visit the whole inhabited world to see them or to
visit Rome.
Everything flows to Rome.
Price cargos, the products of land, the emptying of mines and the product of every art that
is and has been.
And you look at how the emperors lived and their extravagance.
Suetonius wrote this of the emperor Caligula, who was crazy, absolutely crazy.
He said this, in reckless extravagance, he outdid the prodigals of all times in ingenuity,
invi- in new sorts of baths and unnatural varieties of foods and feasts, for he would
bathe in hot or cold perfumes.
He would drink pearls of great price that had been dissolved in vinegar.
And he would set before his guests loaves of loaves and meats of gold.
It was said of Nero that he never wore the same outfit twice, that he never traveled
with less than a thousand carriages, and that he actually put silver horseshoes on his mules.
This was the extravagance of Rome.
So it's one thing to afford name brand soda.
It's another thing to be drinking pearls that had been dissolved in vinegar.
That was the extravagance of the Roman people.
And the Bible is saying here that everyone who's been enticed by this and this extravagant
living as a result of siding with Rome or the Babylonian empire is going to lament this
great fall that is happening.
They mourn and they well.
But I want you to notice something interesting here.
It never says that any of these, the rulers, the merchants, or the sea traders, none of
them come to her aid.
None of them go to help her when she falls.
They stand afar.
It's said afar multiple times.
You can go back and underline that word or circlet.
They stand afar and they witness her fall, but they do nothing to help her.
They are paralyzed by their loss, thinking of only themselves and what they have lost.
And so really the question comes to this.
What do Christians do in a world like this?
The Bible is saying Babylon is here.
Babylon is in the process of falling.
One day it will ultimately fall finally.
But we are here in a world that is also inhabited by the Babylonian spirit.
So what do we as Christians do?
And it's interesting if you read verses four through six, we hear exactly what we're supposed
to do.
The angel or a voice from heaven says, come out of her, my people, lest you take part
in her sins, lest you share in her plagues for her sins are heaped high as heaven.
And God has remembered her iniquities, pay back her or pay her back as she herself has
paid back others and repay her double for her deeds, mix a double portion for her in
the cup she mixed.
So notice what he's doing here.
He's saying there's a call for separation.
You are in a world and Babylon is in this world and there's a call for separation.
Christians are to be separated from the Babylonian culture in this world.
But more importantly, Christians are to be separated to God.
So when we talk about holiness, you've probably heard it said that holiness refers to being
separate or being distinct.
And that's only part of it.
You look at the word holiness in Hebrew, there's a lot that goes into it.
But the other side of holiness is a commitment to something.
So it's not just that you're distinct or you're separate from something, you're also wholeheartedly
committed to something else.
And so when Christians are called to be holy as God himself is holy, the Bible is saying
we are to be separate from the world, separate from this sinful culture, but we are to be
wholly devoted to God and to his kingdom.
Yeah.
It's not a secret Christian.
Yeah, there is no secret convert.
There is no secret Christian.
But it does raise the question like what does this actually look like?
Because we say these type of things, right?
Christians are to be in the world, but we're not to be of the world.
So what does this look like?
Are Christians to withdraw from the culture entirely?
Like do we need to be living like the Amish and be our own separate society?
Mark says yes.
Okay.
Do we need to build the monasteries again and we all inhabit the monasteries where we
have our own place where we can be and the whole world can just do whatever it wants,
but we're our own separate thing.
Well, it's interesting.
The voice says to come out and he says part of that coming out process means not taking
part in her sins.
It says, lest you take part in her sins.
And I want to just pause here because I know that it's easy for us when we read that not
to take part of in her sins.
It's easy for us to start thinking of all the obvious sins in our heads, right?
Okay.
If I'm not supposed to sin like the rest of the world, you know, you go back to the old
phrase, you don't drink, you don't chew, and you don't go with girls who do.
Like that's what a Christian is.
And so that's not original.
Y'all have heard that before, right?
Okay.
Yeah.
That's what we think of all the obvious ones.
We think about that.
We think about don't still, don't commit adultery, don't do drugs, don't be a drunkard, but leaving
Babylon, it also means not adopting the Babylonian mindset, which is a lot harder to identify.
So it's one thing to say, hey, I'm a good Christian because I don't kill, but it's another thing
to look at your heart and say, yeah, but how much do you love materialism?
How much of your life is devoted to consumerism?
Comfort.
How much of your life is devoted to individualism, which is not taught in the Bible, by the way,
the Bible is a very communal book, but here in America, we're all about individualism,
my rights, my wants, my needs, it's all about me.
And this is all part of the Babylonian mindset.
And if we're not careful as Christians, we can avoid all the quote unquote big sins while
still being guilty of all these other sins that are present in this culture.
Yeah, yeah, that's great that you have that ambition, but if ultimately you view that
as a means by which God should be pleased with you, it's like, well, you can do nothing
apart from God.
So what does that even mean?
I mean, there's so many things like this in our world.
Our world is currently telling people to buy the lie that getting married and having kids
will somehow take away from your life experience or the joy that you're going to have in life.
And so they're telling young people, hey, never get married, just be in a perpetual
state of dating.
Or if you do get married, don't think about having kids, just go and travel, have fun,
do whatever you want to do, which again is an anti biblical mindset.
We're literally one of the first things God says to humanity after he marries someone
is be fruitful and multiply.
Like it's about more than you in this world.
And so yes, we're called to leave behind the obvious sins, but in order to truly come out
of Babylon, we have to work hard to identify the deeply ingrained values of Babylon that
we are wrestling against in this culture.
And so Christians, yes, we are to be in the world, but not of the world.
And we need to separate ourselves from Babylon.
And it was this exact mentality that we see our God writing to Jeremiah or God telling
Jeremiah to write to the Israelites in exile in Babylon.
And so God was putting forth this way of living for him in a anti Christian world when the
Israelites were in Babylonian captivity.
Now this is literal Babylon, keep in mind, not the metaphor or the symbol.
They were in Babylonian captivity.
And you remember, they thought they were going home quickly.
You know, there are even false prophets saying, hey, pack your bags, be ready to go.
God's getting us out of here tomorrow.
And Jeremiah writes to them to kind of spoil that.
And he's like, actually, hold on, going to be about 70 years.
And so they know that they're going to be in this anti God culture for 70 years.
So what does God say to them?
Does he say, just do everything you can to bring the culture down?
Do everything you can to defy the king?
Do everything you can to make some noise there and rile people?
Now this is what he says in Jeremiah 29.
He says, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have
sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, plant gardens
and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons
and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there,
do not decrease.
But here's the key.
Listen to this phrase.
Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on
its behalf for in its welfare, you will find your welfare for thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive
you and do not listen to the dreams that they dream for it is a lie and they are prophesying
to you.
They are not prophesying to you in my name.
I did not send them declares the Lord.
Now here's the thing.
If that was true of the Israelites who were in exile, how much more true is it of Christians
today?
In other words, if it was true that the Israelites were to seek the good of their captors, how
much more is it true for Christians who are living in a free land, not in captivity?
And so is America a picture of Babylon?
Yeah.
Does the spirit of Babylon permeate America?
Yes.
So what do we do?
We separate ourselves from America's sins.
But listen to me church.
We seek the good of America.
Every good citizen of heaven is also a good citizen of his earthly kingdom.
So we do what God says here.
We get married.
We have kids.
We raise them in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.
Christians should be taking part in politics at every single level at the city level, the
county level, the state level, and the national level.
I know that people say Christians shouldn't be involved in politics.
That's hogwash.
Of course Christians should be involved in politics.
Otherwise the government's going to keep going downhill.
We need Christians in politics.
We need to seek the welfare of the place that God has placed us.
And God has placed us in this room in America.
And so we need to seek the good of America.
And one of the ways we do that is by getting involved in politics to try to get government
bodies to implement Christian principles in their governing.
We pray for our city.
We pray for our county, our state, our nation.
And we ask the Lord to raise up Christian men and women who will bring about biblical
change in an evil and ungodly world.
That's exactly what we need.
Yeah.
Yeah, how are we supposed to shine our light before men if we never actually put that light
before the darkest areas?
It's the darkest areas that need the light.
And I think we all know politics is probably the darkest area, right?
They need the light of Christ.
And so in other words, church, Babylon will not go away by us isolating ourselves and
just waiting on Jesus to return.
We're not called to do that.
Babylon will fall from within.
Babylon will fall and collapse as a result of God working by his spirit through his people
to bring this world back into conformity to his standards.
That's how Babylon begins to fall.
That's how we can bring about the fall.
And ultimately, the Bible is telling us here that that final death blow will be when Jesus
returns and he brings that city to destruction and announces fallen, fallen is Babylon.
And so we need to be doing our part in the meantime.
All right, Don Cruz hit us with a word of wisdom.