Judgment Delayed is Forthcoming

Transcript

GR 2048
07/15/2018
Judgment Delayed is Forthcoming
Revelation 18:9-24
Gil Rugh

We’re studying the Book of Revelation together so I would direct your attention to the last part of that book, chapter 18. The study of prophecy in Scripture is challenging and encouraging, and God has chosen to take a significant portion of His word to unfold for us what He will be doing in the future. He’s not doing that just to satisfy our curiosity, enable us to know something that other people don’t know, it is truth, as all truth, that is to impact our lives, to affect the way we live. Some people think that prophecy is one of those non-essentials of Christianity and biblical study that you can have a variety of opinions and that’s fine, but like all the word of God, we are to be diligent to show ourselves approved of God, workmen that handle accurately the word of truth, and every part of this truth is important. God didn’t say anything that was unimportant. He didn’t say anything that was, well, take it or leave it, that’s up to you so we take the study of prophecy seriously. It is founded in the fact we take the word of God as we have studied in a normal literal way, historically, grammatically, prophecy as well as the other portions of the Word.

Before we look into Revelations, back up just a little bit before Revelation to 2 Peter, chapter 3. There were issues as Peter wrote over the matter of the future, and what God said about the future. Peter didn’t have the fullness and clarity of understanding that we have. Peter will be executed late in 60 A.D. perhaps around 67, 68 A.D. John won’t write Revelations until 95 A.D, so Peter will have been dead almost 30 years by the time God gave the Revelation to John, but Peter knew certain basic truths about the future that God had revealed. One was that the Lord was coming to earth again, and that truth, in and of itself, should alter and shape the way we think about our life here.

He reminds us in verse 3 of 2 Peter 3 that “in the last days mockers will come with their mocking and they’ll be saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’” Nothing’s changed, people have been talking for hundreds of years about Christ is going to come back to the earth and nothing has happened. What makes you think anything is going to be different over the next hundred years and so on, but they fail to take into consideration he says, when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago. The earth was formed out of water and by water through which water, the world at that time was destroyed in the flood of Noah. So, they have to go back and think, God created this world by His word. He called it into existence, water covered the face of the earth and God separated the land from the water, but then He destroyed the earth in the days of Noah with a flood. There is a worldwide catastrophe and destruction of the earth. Note verse 7, “but by His word”—you note that’s up in verse 5, by the word of God the heavens were created, the earth was formed and the earth was destroyed by the word of God. By that same word, verse 7 but “by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

The emphasis here is on the surety of God’s word. God said it, that settles it. It’s true! They say all things have been—No! There was a flood that destroyed this earth! Well, some people don’t believe that. Well that’s their problem. God said it happened. He has said that the world will be destroyed by fire, so verse 8, what are we waiting on? “Let not this one fact escape your notice, beloved.” He’s writing to believers, those that have placed their faith in the word of God, the truth concerning Christ for their salvation. They have their hope for the future in what God has said. “With the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, a thousand years like one day.” It hasn’t happened; that means it must not be going to happen. His point here is the Lord is not like us in that sense.

You know we live in the computer age. I don’t live there but I do use one occasionally, but you know, I even notice I’ve gotten into this. I turn on my computer and I want to go to something, I push it, three seconds later if it hasn’t gone there, come on let’s go! Something must be wrong it has to happen now. You send a text to somebody, don’t do it now, you might be discovered, you don’t know, but you send a text. If they don’t immediately respond, well what’s wrong, wonder where they are, wonder why they haven’t responded? No, it has to happen that way. This has maybe just compounded what Peter had to deal with way back in his day. If it hasn’t happened in my lifetime or my parent’s lifetime, why should I expect it’s going to happen. I mean 1,000 years is a long time, but for me, for the Lord, that’s more like a day. His point is not to make an exact comparison, but you know like we might say that could be a 1,000 years off. We’re not saying exactly. Just time comparison.

Why is the Lord waiting if He’s going to bring judgment? We look at the world around us and we’d say this is a good time, but the Lord is a God of patience, kindness and love, so verse 9. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but He is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance,” so we remind ourselves. God tells us about coming judgment, and that is to impress upon us something of the urgency and necessity of calling men and women and young people to salvation through faith in Christ, because judgment is coming. When it comes, it will come suddenly and destructively, so he says in verse 10 “the day of the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will pass away” and so on.

Peter didn’t have an understanding of how all the future was going to unfold but he did know that the Lord would be coming. In connection with the coming there would be a destruction of the earth. The breaking out of the details Peter didn’t know as well as you and I know. You know you stop and think about that, He walked with the Lord on the earth for three years. He was used of the Spirit of God to write 1 and 2 Peter and he didn’t know as much about the Bible and about God’s prophetic plans as you and I, but he did know that the Lord would be coming and there would be sudden judgment on the earth and so that ought to affect our living. If this world is going to be destroyed, verse 11, “since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,” looking toward that time when all these things will be destroyed, but we’re looking forward to a new heavens and a new earth.

“Therefore beloved,” verse 14 “since this is what you’re looking for be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless. Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” We don’t want to lose sight of the fact, what are these days about; they’re about God’s patience. These are days of salvation. We get caught up in the news, we get caught up on what’s going on, we get engrossed in it, and sometimes even we as believers forget. The world is going toward judgment. It doesn’t depend on what the decisions of Congress or the president are and who gets in, that’s not the major thing. The world is going toward judgment. That is not reversible, and this day of salvation may not be there in the not too distant future, as Peter writes here, and Peter said some of these things.

Paul wrote about our salvation. You know it was to Paul that God revealed the doctrine of the Church, this period of time in which we live, and God’s grace in bringing salvation to the Gentiles. Peter didn’t have the whole prophetic picture yet and he said, verse 15 “Paul, our beloved brother, according to the wisdom given to him,” wrote about some of these things, like Ephesians 3 about the mystery of the Church. As also in his letters, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand. Peter said Paul challenges me because I don’t understand it all because he had to learn it from Paul. The unbeliever distorts it, “so beloved,” verse 17, “knowing these things beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It interests me with Peter, even though he doesn’t have as much knowledge about prophecy, because God hadn’t revealed this truth yet, he said it ought to shape the way we’re living. He knew something of the ultimate end that we’ll get to in Revelation chapter 21, ultimately. If that’s the case, we ought to have this shaping how live, how we think, our attitude toward the world, how we allow ourselves to be involved in the world. We are not to be conformed to the world. We are to be “transformed by the making new of our mind.” He’s writing this to the beloved so that reminds us as we’re coming toward the last chapters of Revelation, Jesus said, “blessed are those who read, those who hear and those who heed.” What’s that mean? It means not just know about these facts, but live in light of them? You understand something of the importance of what God has revealed.

Come to chapter 18 of Revelation which is about Babylon. Babylon, this is the culmination of the satanic world system where all that has gone on since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, into sin. All that has transpired is now coming to a culmination. Babylon, we went back to Genesis chapters 10 and 11. In chapter 11, Satan attempted to bring the people of the world together through the flood of Noah and those who were developing from Noah’s family into one city, one area, with one center of worship. God came down and scattered the people, but Satan’s desire down through history has been to bring the world together, united as one, with one world government, one world religion. Remember he is attempting to thwart the purpose of God in the prophecies that God’s Son will come and establish one world government with one world religion, the worship of Jesus Christ, so we’re coming to the culmination of the satanic system.

Remember Satan is the god of this world, small (g). First John 5 says “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Remember, Satan said to Christ when he was tempting Him in Matthew; “look at the kingdoms of the world, they have all been given to my authority,” so he has been working in the world. The kingdoms come and go, there’s a divided world, but his desire is to have the world brought together. That will be possible when believers are removed at the Rapture of the Church. Then we have this seven-year period. Chapter 17 talked about the destruction of religious Babylon that was an apostate religious system, that worked together with the Antichrist, the political ruler, and together they were solidifying the revived Roman Empire. That went on for 3½ years, the first half of the 70th week of Daniel. In the middle, we saw that apostate religious system is destroyed and in chapter 13, we saw that the Antichrist becomes the supreme world ruler and the false prophet directs the worship of the world to him. Anyone who won’t worship him must die, so we have now one ruler, the completion of globalism as the devil intends it to come to be, and the Antichrist is worshiped.

This is great for the world. It brings prosperity to the world; the part of the world that has survived the judgments which will be for sure the revived Roman Empire and nations associated with Israel in prophecy, so we come to chapter 18 and you’ll note it says, “after these things.” The chapter opens up, the Greek expression "Then I saw another angel” and so the first eight verses gave an overview. God is now ready to bring destruction on the city that has been constructed as the capitol of the world, and it is Babylon. We have noted in Old Testament prophecy, Babylon is a major focus of large sections of Isaiah and Jeremiah in their prophecies. Other smaller sections come up in prophecy, talking about a future not yet experienced by Babylon.

Come back to just one reference at the end of the Old Testament, the Book of Zechariah. We looked at an interesting prophecy in chapter 5. Now historic Babylon has been destroyed and we don’t want to go back and repeat but there was an early Babylonian Empire. Then there is what is called the neo-Babylonian Empire, which is the Babylon we know of from the Book of Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar being the prime ruler. Short-lived, Babylonian Empire of only about 70 years to bring about the captivity that God had prophesized. When you come to Zechariah that neo-Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar and his successors had been conquered by the Persians.

This is important because when you get to Zechariah chapter 5, Zechariah is given a vision of a future event for Babylon. It’s a vision and we read through this, so we’re not going through but he sees in this vision “an ephah,” verse 6. An ephah is a measure. It could be a bushel, for dry measure like of grain. You’d put the grain in, you’d have a bushel of grain. For liquid measure, it would be about like a five-gallon drum, so this is a vision, so it’s not done according to size, as you’ll see. This bushel has a lead cover to secure it. It had to be heavy to hold in what’s in it. What’s in it verse 7, the lead cover is “lifted up” and here’s a woman sitting inside the ephah and the woman is not to be just be taken as a literal woman, it is a picture of something. Verse eight “he said, ‘This is Wickedness!’ As the woman moved to get out of the ephah while the lead cover’s up, the angel pushes her back down in and closes the lead cover. Then two women come with stork wings, lift up the ephah, and carry it off and I said,” verse 10. “I said to the angel who was speaking with me, ‘where are they taking the ephah, with the woman in it, with Wickedness? Where is Wickedness being transported?’ He said to me, ‘to build a temple or a house for her in the land of Shinar’” and as we talked about, the land of Shinar is Babylon, where the city of Babylon is, what we know as Iraq today, “and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.” What it tells you, in the last days, wickedness and evil won’t be limited to Babylon but that will be it’s center from which it spreads out to the world because, remember, we have one world government centered there. We have one world worship now taking place there, so the land of Shinar.

Why don’t you put up the Babylonian map if you would? We looked at this. This is Israel right here, the brown, and this little area is the West Bank over there. You can see, you go across, here we are in Iraq, the land of Shinar and old Babylon, here’s Baghdad, we’re familiar with the news today. This is the Euphrates River, this river running down here. It starts up here in Turkey and comes down. Old Babylon was right on the Euphrates. I take it what the Scripture is prophesying will be a rebuilt Babylon. Now some take it it’s symbolic of Rome. The fact is, there will be a city that is the center of the world, so that won’t change, but some think it was just a code name, but I think as we noted, all the prophesies mention Babylon here in Revelations as well.

Some of you are familiar with Henry Morris. He’s with the Lord now; he was with the Creation Research Society. He founded it. Let me read you what he said about Babylon and the possibility of a rebuilt Babylon. He’s written a commentary on Revelation as well as a commentary on Genesis, both worth your having. He says, “Babylon is indeed a prime prospect for rebuilding” and that would be true even if there were no prophetic prophecies regarding it. (This goes on with what he says,) “Computer studies of the Institute for Creation Research have shown for example that Babylon is very near the geographical center of all the earth’s land masses. It is within navigable distances of the Persian Gulf.” (You see if you come up the Euphrates from the Persian Gulf to Babylon.) “It is within navigable distances of the Persian Gulf, is at the crossroads of the three great continents of Europe Asia and Africa. Thus there is no more ideal location anywhere for a world trade center, a world communication center, a world-banking center, a world education center or especially a world capital. The greatest historian of modern times, Arnold Toynbee used to stress to all his readers and hearers that Babylon would be the best place in the world to build a future world cultural metropolis” (and Arnold Toynbee of course not writing from a biblical viewpoint.) “It is not farfetched at all to suggest that the future capital of the United Nations Kingdom, the ten-nation federation established at the beginning of the Tribulation should be established there. The idea of locating the capital in any one of the ten kingdoms would undoubtedly be resisted by the other nine so that a neutral location would be needed. With the defeat of Gog, Russia along with the Muslim allies, including particularly Iran, Turkey, Libya plus Ethiopia and so on as described in Ezekiel 38 as well as many other peoples not named. Iraq may well be sufficiently neutralized to make such a project politically desirable and feasible. By the end of the first half of the Tribulation there is every possibility that Babylon will once again be a city of great size and splendor.” It was just an interesting observation. Why would anybody do that and yet, from just their scientific studies and hearing, somebody like Toynbee says from his observation, ‘such analogies of the world and world civilizations that Babylon would be the great location.’

Come back to chapter 18 of Revelations. We’re seeing the fulfillment in the last days. The center of wickedness will be here, and I take it Babylon could be rebuilt early in those first 3½ years and in anticipation of it ultimately becoming the center. The religious aspect is destroyed in the sense it now just focuses in one man. Before it was a system, separate from him that had a great influence in his being able to assemble power because worship is always part of what the devil is building. He is not interested in building a kingdom that’s not focused on worship because he is intending to be worshiped. He wants to replace God the Father, have the Antichrist as the replacement of God the Son, and the false prophet the replacement of the Holy Spirit, so we have the satanic trinity as we referred to it.

So, we have the prophesies in the first eight verses of chapter 18 of the destruction of the city of Babylon which is the political and commercial center of the world. We had the religious dimension destroyed, now it focuses in just one man and the false prophet associated with him and he will personally be destroyed at the second coming of Christ as we’ll see in chapter 19, so all other religious systems except this one now, the culmination of it. This is all that’s left but this is the devil’s greatest accomplishment, if you will, a one-world religion with a one-world government and he is the ultimate focus of worship. Babylon is destroyed so these first eight verses just announce it. Verse 2, “fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” We noted as in the Old Testament prophecy so here we have it used in the past tense, the destruction is coming but often the prophets wrote in what we call the prophetic past. They prophesized a future tense, a future event using the past tense because when God says it, when He gives His word, it’s just as sure as something that happened in the past. I may have more to say about that in our question and answer time tonight. In light of the coming destruction of Babylon, there is a cry from heaven in verse 4, “Come out of her my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues.” First, and foremost a call to Israel because remember one of the key purposes of the Tribulation that seven years is to complete God’s program with Israel, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to have the salvation of the nation and thus all Israel will be saved.

Now there will only be a remnant but that is a call and it would include anybody who had trusted Christ. You know God’s intention is that His people not be involved in this system. We noted there’s a similar instruction given in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 to the Corinthian Church where Paul reminds the Corinthians, quoting from the Old Testament, that God’s intention is for His people to be separated. Not be involved in this world system because “all that’s in the world,” 1 John 2 “is lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” We live here, we live in this world. We have to be part of it in the sense we make our living here. You work jobs, we have to make money, pay bills, fulfill responsibilities, we obey government, but we are not citizens in the full sense of that word. Paul says our “citizenship is in heaven” in Philippians. We are “strangers and pilgrims here” that’s why we are “not to be conformed to this world but be transformed.” We live in it. we avail ourselves of it. We live in a prosperous country. We are privileged, even as believers, to enjoy that prosperity. We, by and large, don’t have to worry where we will live tonight, where we will sleep, where we’ll get food to eat as some parts of the world are under such stress.

We have to be careful though that we don’t become drawn in and become conformed to the world. Pretty soon we’re thinking like the world. The world’s goals, the world’s motives begin to corrupt our thinking as believers, and we get stressed out when things aren’t going right in the world. We say well what are we going to do, what are we going to do if these people get in power, if this happens? We just sang about what? Our feet are planted, we are not stressed by the shifting sands that are the foundation that world has. Our foundation is our God and His promises, so that’s what we have to be careful of, that’s why Peter wrote what he wrote. Remind us we are to be living differently.

We know where this world is going, so these things are to shape us, so come out, don’t be part of it. Down at the end of verse 8 the last line, “for the Lord God who judges her is strong” and that’s given also as a promise to Israel for their deliverance in the Old Testament. That’s why it’s sure. Nobody can thwart the purpose of God no one is stronger than God, so what He said about salvation is sure, what He said about judgment is sure. Don’t play one off against the other, both are settled.

Then you come to verse 9 down through verse 24. Verses 9 through 20 talk about the destruction of Babylon, then verses 21 to 24 talk about the suddenness and completeness of that judgment, so it’s sort of like a conclusion only it doesn’t give necessarily more detail, it just tells the impact of it, so we’re just going to highlight it because it’s almost self-explanatory. The world now is drawn in. It’s just like when the government collapses in a country and the country turns to chaos. You note we talk about Venezuela today and I saw on the news, you know with inflation where you know it goes up a 1,000 percent in no time. The money’s just not worth anything. I remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about his father, how he had saved in anticipation of his retirement and so on. He says by the time he got to retirement and the Nazis had taken over Germany, all he had left was enough for a cake and a little bottle of cheap wine. What happened? It’s just not worth anything. What are they doing? I saw on TV in Venezuela they had made a soccer ball out of the money. It’s not good to buy anything so you might as well make something with it. Well, you see the catastrophe that happens. What would happen if our government collapses and the whole monetary system destroyed and catastrophe happens?

That’s the picture here, so verse nine, “the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality, lived sensuously with her.” They have lived their lives involved in this satanic system. All that’s in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, the boastful pride of life and this was their life, so they’re spiritually immoral. They’re living spiritually immoral sensuous lives. They’ll weep and lament when they see the smoke of her burning, so you have the prophecy of it, now you have something of how it unfolds. Here they are all at a distance, this is a literal city, and it’s destroyed. Well you know, what does that say? The government of the world is going up in flames and this is one world government. Everything is going to be gone, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment. I mean they’re trying to get a way back because they don’t want to get engulfed in her destruction. They’re saying, “Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city! In one hour your judgment has come.” This judgment from God is direct and complete.

It’s like when we looked at the judgments of the nations coming to attack Israel in the middle of the Tribulation in Ezekiel 38 and 39. The judgment comes from God. It’s immediate, it’s direct, it’s complete. Here in one hour, it is emphasizing the shortness. It happens quickly.

The merchants of the earth, that’s why we call this commercial and political Babylon. You have the kings of the earth, they’re involved as part of this political system under the rule of the Antichrist. The merchants, this is the commercial side of the earth. They weep and mourn, so in Revelation 18, verse 9 “the kings weep and lament.” In verse 11 “the merchants weep and mourn because no one buys their cargos anymore—cargoes of silver gold, precious stones,” all these valuable things. Things that are an indication of wealth.

You know it’s like us; we talk about the stock market collapse. Wall Street destroyed, so these things represent everything that brought wealth, that brought importance, enabled government to function. It’s seen going up in flames and that goes down to the end of verse 13, it talks about slaves and human lives and part of that went on. The wealthy ruled and it was a good life for now, many, perhaps most, but then they have servants and those that work for them and so on. “The fruit you long for,” verse 14 “is gone, all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away. You’ll no longer find them. The merchants of these who became rich will stand at a distance because of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet adorned. In one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’ Every shipmaster every passenger, every sailor, make their living by the sea were crying out as they saw the smoke, saying, ‘What city is like the great city?’” It’s another indication it would fit Babylon, historic Babylon rather than Rome because Babylon was a ship city. “They threw dust on their heads, they’re crying out weeping and mourning, saying, ‘woe, the great city, which had all the ships at sea.’” All the wealth that was brought all that mourning, but how do we wrap up this section?

“Rejoice over her, O heaven and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgments for you against her.” What is salvation for God’s people is disaster for the world. What is disaster for the world is an indication of God’s righteous judgment on the unbeliever, so heaven is called to rejoice. The world is in mourning because everything they valued, they lived for, that was important is gone but heaven is celebrating because God has finally brought judgment. You note, you saints, apostles. It’s heaven that’s rejoicing because God has pronounced judgment for you, against her. She loses, you win. Remember early in Revelation martyrs ask, “How long O Lord before You avenge our blood?” You have to wait time, remember this system not only those who have been martyred during this period of time under the Antichrist and they will be many, but this Babylonian system is the culmination and fruition of all that Satan has been doing since the fall in opposing and trying to destroy God’s people. Now it all comes to a point here with the destruction of Babylon and the judgment you are awaiting on, this people, this world, this satanic system now comes, so the contrast, the mourning of the world.

Back in chapter 16 with the judgments of God, that should have brought people to their knees in recognizing their sin, said men would not repent, they would not repent but they mourn over the loss of their physical things. This is life. I mean what do they have? But heaven, it will be a cause of joy and we will be in heaven as a result of the Rapture, and we will see the judgment on the unbelieving. Well, why do You let this go on, why do You let Your people be persecuted? Why have people had to die for their testimony for You? Lord it seems like you don’t care. It just doesn’t stop, and the Tribulation will be the worst but now it will stop.

Now an overview. “Then a strong angel took a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer.” So, you see now, He’s just giving you a concluding chapter where He pulls it together. He said, this city, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon . . .” Now it’s all going to happen. Now let’s just give an overview here. It’ll be like a millstone, a great millstone. The millstones, you see them in archeological pictures and some of you have been over there. They had smaller ones and the women used that to grind out the grain for their family. They had huge millstones that weighed tons and tons and were pulled by the animals, so you could grind out large amounts of grain. Well, this is one of those great millstones and no problem for the angel. He picks it up and throws it into the sea.

Remember back in Jeremiah’s prophecy about Babylon. Jeremiah wrote the prophecy from God, gave it to his servant who was to take it and read it in Babylon, and after he had read it, throw it into the Euphrates and let it sink to the bottom, and so shall Babylon sink, so that’s the same picture, not using the scroll but using the millstone. It’s just a picture, what happens when you throw this huge stone in; it’s not going to float for a while, its going down to the bottom. That’s the point, in one hour it’s gone. All these things indicating this is going to happen suddenly, quickly and completely. Then he goes down under the water. You know how the water is, it smooths over, that settles on the bottom, all trace of it’s gone. That’s the picture here. It will not be found any longer. Babylon will be annihilated.

“The sound of harpists, musicians, flute-players will not be heard, no craftsman will be making anything, the mill won’t be working…the light of the lamp will not shine there, the voice of the bridegroom and bride won’t be heard any longer. Your merchants were the great men of the earth because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.” You see this is the center that’s gone out now into this united kingdom of Satan. It’s all come to an end, it’s all over. Babylon is done, it’s gone.

With that, we will be ready for the return of Christ in chapter 19. That’s why I say, we have been building and we’ve fit all these pieces, verse 24, “In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.” That’d be true, particularly the Tribulation is going to be the time of greatest slaughter of God’s people but is the culmination because, remember this is the same Babylonian system that we saw starting back in chapter 11 of Genesis. All that have died under this satanic system, whatever form it took along the way in coming to this climatic form that is so centralized and so invisible. This is God vindicating His people and bringing judgment. This is not the last there will be and the finality of it all will be the great white throne at the end of chapter 20, but this brings this satanic system as a unified system. There’ll be one more rebellion that will take place but we’re 1,000 years away from that. But it won’t be as this; the coming together of all the devil has attempted down through history to this point. Chapter 19 will open up with celebration in heaven. Verse 20 of chapter 18, “there was rejoicing in heaven because of this judgment.” Now chapter 19 will open up. There will be rejoicing in heaven because now Christ is going to come from heaven to take possession of the earth, establish His kingdom. We’ve come to the conclusion. We’re ready to go into the kingdom with chapter 19.

I’ve prepared some summary points just to help fix these verses in our minds. There are a number so I didn’t put verses with the first four because the entire section keeps reemphasizing these points.

1. The general one that would come from a variety of places, but coming to this culmination point reminds you the world is moving toward judgment. If you are part of the Babylonian system of this world, you will be destroyed. That’s it, there’s no…now it doesn’t mean Christians can’t get corrupted by it, allow themselves in ways to be conformed by it, but the more conformed you are to it, the more important it is, you analyze whether you’re a part of it and that’s why you’re so conformed to it. It doesn’t matter you attend the church where the bible’s taught, you haven’t placed your faith in Christ and had your inner being transformed by Him so that you are made new. You continue to live for the world trying in ways to look like a Christian. You’re part of the Babylonian system. Only God can transform you, redeem you out of that system, but then all of us, we need to be careful. The world constantly wants to pull us in. Pull us in. You know we’re like believers swimming up against the current and as soon as you stop swimming up against the current, you know what happens. You’re going down with the current. That’s sort of how it is for us as believers living in this godless world. We want to separate ourselves. We were just like them. Remember these are days of salvation. We are lights in the darkness. The world doesn’t know it but they need what we have more than anything else in the world, the message of the gospel. How did you get out of the world system? Somebody told you the gospel. How will they get out of the world system? Well I don’t know I don’t like to be around those dirty, you know they just make me feel dirty. Well don’t get involved with them. Don’t get involved mentally in their thinking. But, be happy to be there to tell them truth, so the world is moving towards judgment.

2. Coming judgment will be swift and complete. We have the saying, “justice delayed is judgment denied or justice denied.” That’s not true with God. Judgment delayed is judgment sure. Justice will come. He will vindicate His holiness. Every word He has spoken is true.

3. People focus on material loss in the destruction of Babylon that’s where the world is. We think, oh boy we live in a materialistic world. There has never been any other kind. It’s the characteristic of fallen man and he wants you to have the fall in the Garden of Eden. We act like, well this day, oh what has happened; we live in such a materialistic world. “All that is in the world” John wrote that was 2,000 years ago when he wrote it, “is the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes the boastful pride of life and the whole world lies in the evil one” and Satan’s character hasn’t changed a bit. We act like we live in the most difficult of times. No, we live in the times God’s appointed for us and He’s placed us here for the accomplishing of His purposes, and the thing thrust upon us is to be faithful as His slaves at this time.

4. People are unaware that they’re on the brink of judgment. They’re moaning the loss of Babylon, it’s nothing! What is really of great importance is, they are on the brink of judgment and they’re sitting there crying about the loss. It’s nothing. It’s all going to be destroyed. They’re unaware they’re on the brink of judgment. If we don’t tell them and they don’t want to hear about it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t tell them. We don’t want to adjust our thinking to be like them thinking they’ll get to like us, and we’ll be able to talk to them.

5. God’s people will be vindicated. That was verse 20. Heaven rejoices. We don’t mean that in the wrong way but when this comes we will be glad that the world is being judged. We will see things with a purity of eyes. We think, oh, were being sympathetic, we understand, and we do want to--we see their wretched condition. They come to the point, those who do not place their faith in the God who has provided deserve to go to hell and that’s true of us. You know we’re not going to heaven because we weren’t as sinful as these people the bible’s talking about, we were just like them. Not similar in ways just like them, we served the devil, we did his will, but God by His grace redeemed us. What we desire for our unbelieving family and friends and contacts is that they experience that redeeming grace also. They’re not beyond the power of God’s salvation. If He saved you, He can save anyone. I’m looking at a motley bunch of sinners and you’re looking at one of the moteliest of all. Well that’s what we are.

All right, but we will be vindicated, no matter—we’re not perfect yet we’re on the way, we come to present truth and we will be vindicated. This world’s joy and happiness will suddenly end, so when you think the worlds having all the fun—there is pleasure in sin for a season. There is an easiness of life by allowing yourself to be conformed to the thinking and conduct of the world. Let’s not get around it. People out in their mansions riding in their cars and yachts, taking their vacations and you know, they say, I couldn’t want anymore, I’m enjoying life. You know it’s like a person who has a fatal disease that is eating away on the inside.

I had a person I talked to, a believer from our body and he said to me, he was talking to me one day in the hall; he’s with the Lord now. He says, you know it’s amazing, I feel better than I’ve ever felt and there’s nothing I’m not doing, and yet at my doctor’s visit this weekend, he says my brain’s full of cancer. He says, it’s hard for me to realize that, look at me, I feel great. That’s the way the world is. Their joy and happiness will suddenly end. You don’t know. That’s what Peter reminded us of, that’s what God is reminding us of, don’t lose your perspective, that’s why he’s telling us these things. We won’t be here but that ought to shape the way we live. We know where it’s all going.

God will avenge the bloodshed of His servants, the last verse of chapter 18, it ends on that note as we’re prepared for heaven to open and Christ to come. Babylon is being destroyed because they were the enemies of God and the enemy of God’s people, so it’s not a complicated message. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and Paul says, “you can count me chief and God saved me as a demonstration He can save anyone, because I was one of those who even killed Christians and yet God saved me.” Nobody here’s probably killed another Christian or killed a Christian, but you’re just a sinner nonetheless and God’s judgment will come.

This is a day of salvation. If you haven’t trusted Christ, why did He bring you here today? What are you doing here if you haven’t trusted Christ? Something brought you here. Well, my friend brought me, my parents make me come, but ultimately God in His grace brought you here, so you could hear the truth of the gospel and believe it. Well, I don’t think I will today. Now don’t say no today, God may not give you tomorrow to say yes tomorrow. Today is the day of salvation. For us as believers what excuse will we have not living? We have it from Genesis to Revelation. We have a completed revelation, a completed word from God. We know how it’s all going to end. It doesn’t say we can’t enjoy the good things God has given us, but they are not our life. Our life is Christ and living for Him.

Let’s pray together: Thank You Lord for clarity in Your word. It would not be a help to us if You had spoken and spoken beyond our understanding, but You have spoken with clarity. You’ve given us Your Spirit to give us understanding. Lord, pray these truths will grip our hearts according to our needs of where we are, in order that we might in obedience and in faith, allow ourselves to be conformed and transformed to Your glorious image, I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.