9-24)
The Fall of Babylon – Part 2
Revelation 18:1-24 (9-24)
April 23, 2017
If you were here with us two weeks ago, you know we began our study of Revelation 18 in which we began to look at the judgment of the economic and commercial system of the Antichrist.
Well we want to finish our look at this chapter this morning.
But before we dive back into Revelation 18,
I want you to turn with me to Psalm 73.
TURN TO: PSALM 73
What you have in this Psalm is a man (Asaph)
Giving testimony of a period in his life in the past
When he almost left the faith because he could not come to grips
With the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked.
In fact, that is what he says right off the bat.
(READ 1-2) – He says, “My steps almost slipped”
What was the problem that nearly caused him to walk away from God?
(READ 3-9)
See, he has a real problem with how “blessed” the wicked seem to be.
And it’s not just that they are prosperous,
But that they are wicked and prosperous.
He just can’t seem to grasp
How God would let the wicked do so well in the world.
And coupled with that, is the fact that their unchecked immorality only seems to make them that much more arrogant and cynical.
(READ 10-11)
The fact that they spurn God and nothing happens
Only makes them that much more arrogant about what they are doing.
NOW IF WE STOP THERE FOR A MOMENT – We recognize that Asaph is only voicing a dilemma that more than one person has faced.
I know we commonly hear the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The reality is we know that there are no good people, we all deserve bad, so it’s really not that hard to gain understanding there.
Here Asaph is asking, “Why do good things happen to bad people?” and the reality is that this may be the even more difficult question to answer.
How is it that God allows people who are so arrogant and so vile
To live so comfortably in the world?
And incidentally, pondering this almost caused Asaph to leave the faith.
(READ 12-14) – Do you hear him?
• My religion has been pointless…
• My purity has been in vain…
Perhaps you’ve even pondered those things in your life before.
In the way we’ve been blasted with the prosperity gospel in our day,
More than one person has made the assumption that
God’s favor is measured in earthly treasure.
This notion nearly wrecked Asaph’s faith.
(READ 15)
Asaph was distressed about what he did not understand.
(READ 16)
But the day of enlightenment came on the day he drew near to God.
(READ 17-20)
The key there is that God will in fact
Judge the world and the sinners who love it.
And what you notice is that what Asaph saw in Psalm 73
IS THE SAME THING WE ARE SEEING IN REVELATION 18.
Last time we met we began talking about the day in which
God will destroy the commercial and economic system or the world.
We said that the judgment of the world is certain, and Asaph says the same.
(18) “SURELY You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction.”
We said that the judgment of the world would be sudden
(19) “How they are destroyed IN A MOMENT! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!”
We also said that because we know this we are also those
Who have been commanded to “Come out of her, my people”
Asaph figured that out as well.
(READ 21-28)
That is Asaph’s confession that he is no longer interested in the allurements of the world. THOSE THINGS ARE A PRISON!
Isn’t that how Babylon was described to us last time as well?
Revelation 18:2 “And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.”
Asaph learned that the only way to escape this coming judgment
Was to realize that God alone was his portion
And to quit craving the things that the world loves.
And incidentally, this is our answer as well.
James 4:1-4 “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
And that is precisely what we are learning here in Revelation 18.
We are seeing the fall of the commercial/political/economic system of the world.
At this point, that is all tied up in the capitol city of the Antichrist;
The city known as BABYLON THE GREAT!
We are looking at this rather detailed and graphic destruction,
And we are pulling out 4 simple truths about the destruction of this city
And the inevitable judgment of the world.
The first two we saw last time.
#1 THE CERTAINTY OF JUDGMENT
Revelation 18:1-3
Very simply, here we saw the heavenly announcement
From that angel who had dwelt in the presence of God.
He said, “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great!”
It is not an issue of “IF” Babylon will fall, but “WHEN” she will fall.
This world has defied its Creator,
And the Holy Creator has determined to destroy this world.
We then saw the second point.
#2 THE SUDDENNESS OF JUDGMENT
Revelation 18:4-8
We saw in verse 8 “in one day her plagues will come”
Those plagues we read about in the bowl judgments.
Those were rapid fire poundings from the Lord.
She thought herself to be invincible, and it simply wasn’t true.
God brought her down suddenly!
TURN TO: ISAIAH 47
(This was a prophetic picture of the events we see unfolding here)
That is precisely what John saw.
Judgment was certain and Judgment was sudden
This morning let’s move forward in our study and see the third reality about this coming judgment.
#3 THE SHOCK OF JUDGMENT
Revelation 18:9-20
Here we find yet another often overlooked reality of judgment,
And that is the absolute shock which accompanies it.
If you will remember, Babylon was filled with arrogance.
(7) “for she says in her heart, ‘I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW, and will never see mourning.’”
The reality is that very few of the wicked actually expect judgment.
Most, seem to think it is a myth.
• It either won’t happen because a loving God wouldn’t do that.
• Or it can’t happen because we’re too strong and God is a joke.
Isaiah 28:15-18 “Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.” Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. “I will make justice the measuring line And righteousness the level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies And the waters will overflow the secret place. “Your covenant with death will be canceled, And your pact with Sheol will not stand; When the overwhelming scourge passes through, Then you become its trampling place.”
These were people who just didn’t think judgment could ever get them.
Isaiah 30:16 “And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,” Therefore you shall flee! “And we will ride on swift horses,” Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.”
The point is that there is an enormous mass of people
Who just don’t think judgment will ever really occur.
The Bible reveals their shock at its sight.
Look at that shock here.
It STARTS with the “the kings of the earth”
(9-10) “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.’”
These were the men who used all that world had to offer
As a means of gratifying their sinful lusts and ambitions.
The world to them was a great vineyard ripe for the picking.
The world was that which afforded them power and prestige
And everything they desired.
And they didn’t think there was any way it could fall.
Until it did…
And there they will be weeping and lamenting
And standing at a great distance saying,
“Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city!
For in one hour your judgment has come.”
And it’s not just the kings, but also the merchants who used her economic system to get rich.
(READ 11-13)
You have there a list of over 25 commodities.
• It speaks of this city like a buffet for the flesh.
• Anything and everything the flesh could want, these merchants had figured out a way to deliver it.
It is the ultimate consumer driven society.
If you want it…
If you’ll buy it…
Then there is a merchant who can make it happen…
And this society had made the merchants rich,
And now God says He is putting an end to it.
(14) “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.”
Boy there’s a warning to find your contentment in God alone isn’t it?
If it requires the things of this world to make you happy
You are setting yourself up for a long and painful eternity.
And yet we live in a day when people see God
As the means of obtaining the world
These merchants certainly weren’t handling it well.
(READ 15-19)
Do you understand why God is so adamant that you not put your hope in the things of this world, or that you not love the things of this world?
BECAUSE THEY WON’T LAST.
AND THE RESULT IS THE SHOCK AND MOURNING OF THE WORLD.
They just didn’t think it could happen.
And honestly their weeping is so pathetic.
• There is no weeping over grieving God…
• There is no weeping over spilling the blood of saints and prophets…
• There is no weeping over their slave trade…
• There is no weeping over their gross immorality…
They weep because it is over.
They have clung to their sin to the bitter end.
And now the shock of judgment has overtaken them.
Incidentally, Jesus spoke often of this coming shock of judgment
Luke 13:22-30 “And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.’ “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. “And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. “And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.”
Do you hear their shock?
• They just knew they belonged in the kingdom.
• They just knew judgment wouldn’t touch them.
• It was pure false religion.
We see that same shock here.
These Kings thought they’d be in power forever…
These Merchants thought they’d be rich forever…
God showed Asaph
Psalms 73:18-20 “Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form.”
Psalms 49:16-20 “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives he congratulates himself — And though men praise you when you do well for yourself — He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.”
Psalms 52:5-7 “But God will break you down forever; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent, And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah. The righteous will see and fear, And will laugh at him, saying, “Behold, the man who would not make God his refuge, But trusted in the abundance of his riches And was strong in his evil desire.”
Proverbs 11:4 “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers from death.”
LOVING AND ACQUIRING THE WORLD
IS NOT A GOOD RETIREMENT PLAN.
Paul said instead:
1 Timothy 6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
So the earth will weep, but heaven is a different story.
(20) “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.”
Now there is something you may not have considered.
I’m NOT TALKING ABOUT the rejoicing, we’ve already covered the fact that heaven rejoices over the destruction of the wicked.
I’m talking about the MOTIVE for this judgment.
“God has pronounced judgment for you against her.”
2 Peter 2:4-9 “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,”
God knows how to punish the wicked
And God knows how to vindicate the righteous.
It is true, that if you forsake this world and stand against the corruption and the immorality, that you may be hated.
But you can also rest assured that God will not leave the guilty unpunished and He will in fact vindicate His children.
He will destroy the world,
Not just for how they have dishonored Him,
But also for the ways in which they have persecuted His children.
The Certainty of Judgment The Suddenness of Judgment The Shock of Judgment
#4 THE FINALITY OF JUDGMENT
Revelation 18:21-24
Here we get a dramatic demonstration from one of the angels of heaven.
He “took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea”
• A “millstone” was a giant stone used to crush grain in the mill.
And an angel takes a stone like that and plunks it into the water.
WHAT IS THE MESSAGE?
“So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer.”
The next time you go to the lake, or to a pond or tank,
And you see a kid pick up a rock and fling it into the water,
LET THAT BE A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT FOR YOU.
You wouldn’t be able to dive in and ever find that rock again, and that is the picture.
What God will unleash on this world is not temporary punishment,
IT IS FINAL JUDGMENT.
God will throw down this world and this world will never rise again.
And all the joys of the world, and all the extravagances of society
WILL CEASE.
“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;”
GOD IS NOT SAYING THAT THESE THINGS ARE BAD THINGS
BUT ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION.
AND AT THIS POINT THE WORLD WON’T BE CELEBRATING.
This city of Babylon was a constant party,
But on this day the party is over.
It’s the day the lights went out in Vegas.
Today you can run around that city or one like it, and there’s always something going on. People living it up and celebrating the flesh.
Well, after God is through with it, the party will be over….FOREVER.
“because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.”
She is being judged because she corrupted the world
And killed the righteous.
Isaiah 24:19-20 “The earth is broken asunder, The earth is split through, The earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard And it totters like a shack, For its transgression is heavy upon it, And it will fall, never to rise again.”
FRIENDS THAT IS THE REALITY OF THIS WORLD.
And it is absolutely foolish to cling to it, to crave it, or to trust in it.
The command to God’s people is to separate themselves from it.
Let me remind you of the discernment of Asaph.
Psalms 73:25-28 “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.”
Ponder that passage for a second as it is the perfect response of a man
Who has just witnessed God’s judgment of the world.
“Whom have I in heaven but You?”
• That is to say, what from this earth are you going to take with you? Nothing.
It seems foolish to spend your whole life seeking to collect
That which you cannot take into eternity.
Which is why Asaph says, “And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”
He is a man who figured out what lasts and what matters.
“My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Let me ask you, to do a little soul searching this morning.
Can you say with honesty what Asaph said?
Can you say that losing everything doesn’t matter because God is your portion?
• A believer is one who has been crucified to the world…
• A believer is one who forsakes this world for the next…
• A believer is one who has suffered the loss of all things to gain Christ…
• A believer is one who sold all that he had to buy that field with the
treasure…
Like the Levitical priest who had no physical inheritance in the land of promise, the Lord was their portion.
Can you say that?
And probably more importantly, are you content with that?
You should be
“For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.”
It is only those who have God who will stand in the end.
You ought to be content with God alone as your portion.
That is why Asaph could say:
“But as for me, the nearness of God is my good”
People talk all the time about being “blessed”
And praying for God to “bless” them.
Most of that time that blessing is associated with some sort of worldly increase.
Asaph measured his blessing by his nearness to God.
The more of God he had, the more blessed he was.
Let me encourage you to surrender it all to Christ
That you may enjoy Christ above all things.
