Introduction:
Coming Soon: Babylon's Funeral. (Revelation 18)
The COMMENCEMENT . (Rev 18:1-3)
The CALL to escape. (Rev 18:4-5)
The CAUSE of death. (Rev 18:6-8)
The CELEBRATION. (Rev 18:20)
The CRYING. (Rev 18:9-19)
The COMMITTAL. (Rev 18:21-24)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:18-00:20
Revelation 18, coming soon.
00:21-00:22
Babylon's funeral.
00:22-00:24
Revelation 18.
00:24-00:29
Last week, we were reintroduced to the city Babylon.
00:30-00:33
It's a city. It's clear from God's Word.
00:34-00:37
But in this vision, she was depicted as a prostitute.
00:38-00:42
And the city is going to be the headquarters of the Antichrist empire.
00:43-00:46
It's a city of idolatry and worldwide commerce.
00:47-01:02
Just as the first Babylon back in Genesis 11 was man's attempt to build a city to exalt himself with a one-world religion and a one-world empire, so will the last Babylon become.
01:02-01:05
We called it Vegas on steroids.
01:05-01:10
It's going to be the hub of immorality and consumerism.
01:10-01:16
After the Antichrist uses this one-world religion to get into power, he's going to demand worship.
01:16-01:19
We talked about that several times throughout Revelation.
01:19-01:24
The Antichrist is going to fake his own death and resurrection to get the world to follow him.
01:24-01:32
And once the world worships the Antichrist, he's going to destroy Babylon, this false religious system, he and the ten kings.
01:32-01:33
That was the sermon last week.
01:34-01:40
So when you get to chapter 18, at this point, Babylon has endured the direct judgments of God.
01:41-01:45
And God sovereignly had the Antichrist and the ten kings destroy her.
01:45-01:49
So the only thing left for this prostitute is her funeral.
01:49-01:51
Let's talk about funerals for a minute.
01:52-02:00
Years ago, I got a call from a local funeral home for an individual who died but did not have a pastor.
02:01-02:06
I would get those calls all the time, like, "Hey, they don't have any church affiliation, they don't have a pastor.
02:06-02:12
Would you be willing to come and hold a funeral service?" And I always looked at it as a great opportunity, right?
02:12-02:17
meet some people, share the gospel, love people through a very hard time.
02:18-02:28
So I got to the funeral home and I met the family and friends, and I could just get a sense - and you'll know how I mean this - I could just get a sense that there wasn't much church background here.
02:29-02:32
And I felt like - I mean, wonderful people - but I felt like here's an opportunity.
02:33-02:37
I just really felt like maybe they haven't really been exposed to the gospel.
02:38-02:41
So the funeral service came, and I laid it out.
02:42-02:45
Just like passionately sharing the Gospel.
02:46-02:53
And as I'm sharing the Gospel, I'm looking out at this room full of people at the funeral home.
02:53-02:54
And what were they doing?
02:55-02:55
Nothing.
02:56-02:58
They were not even looking at me.
02:59-02:59
None of them.
02:59-03:00
They weren't sleeping.
03:01-03:03
They just weren't paying attention at all.
03:04-03:12
Looking at their fingers, or looking at their cell phones, and looking at the little memorial card and looking around the room.
03:13-03:17
Not one person in this room full of people was looking at me.
03:17-03:24
And my natural tendency - I'm just being honest - my natural tendency is like, "They don't care, let's just wrap it up, call it a day." I don't know.
03:25-03:33
I'd like to think the Holy Spirit lit a fire in me, because at this time I'm like, "No." I'm not letting them walk out of here disinterested in the Gospel.
03:33-03:35
I'm going to crank it up.
03:35-03:57
So I cranked it up, And I'm like, "Do you realize the love of God that He has showed up?" And I've got straight Southern Baptists, and I'm screaming and stomping, and I'm in their faces, and I'm like, "You have a hope for eternity!" And still, nobody was looking at me at all.
03:58-04:05
So I cranked it up a little bit more, and still, nobody in the room was looking at me.
04:06-04:11
It was... the looks on their faces were like I was trying to sell them a timeshare.
04:12-04:22
And have you ever been talking to someone, and you're in the middle of talking, and you realized while you're talking that they had stopped listening a couple minutes ago?
04:22-04:24
Has that ever happened to you? That happens to me a lot.
04:25-04:31
Well, just imagine a whole room full of people like that.
04:31-04:33
So we got through the sermon.
04:33-04:41
And after I closed in prayer, everybody just sort of got up, put their coats on, and I stood by the door. Everybody sort of shuffled out the door.
04:41-04:55
Still nobody looked at me. Like, "Is there something on my face?" They sort of shuffled out, and one man, one man, he was dressed like the best way I can describe it, as a fancy cowboy. You know what I mean by that? He had the little leather rope tie.
04:55-04:59
What's that thing called? Yeah, whatever, that's the thing. And he had the fancy cowboy boots.
04:59-05:00
Looked real nice.
05:01-05:04
Anyways, he didn't look at me either, but as he was walking by, he never broke stride.
05:05-05:12
As he was walking by, he slapped me on the shoulder and went, "Nice job, Padre." And I thought to myself, you know, I didn't lose them.
05:13-05:13
I never had them.
05:14-05:18
No one was listening, no one was crying, no one even cared.
05:19-05:24
Revelation 18, this chapter is a funeral, okay?
05:24-05:25
But there's a difference here.
05:26-05:56
You're going to see with this funeral, entire world is weeping and wailing uncontrollably at this funeral. This, this is the end of the tribulation. So with every funeral, so Babylon's is going to have sort of an order of service. If you're taking notes, here's sort of a funeral order of service. You can keep this, reproduce it, maybe if you're asked to do a funeral, here you go. Babylon's funeral order of service, number one, the The commencement.
05:56-05:57
The commencement.
05:57-06:01
That's the opening or the summary that sort of kicks it off.
06:01-06:03
And here's the summary that kicks off this funeral.
06:03-06:04
Look at chapter 18.
06:04-06:12
He says, "After this, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.
06:13-06:18
And he called out with a mighty voice, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great.
06:18-06:28
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.
06:28-06:47
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 here's a new vision. John says he sees another angel.
06:47-06:53
This might be the angel from chapter 14, verse 8, because this angel says the exact same thing.
06:53-07:01
"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great." And in this introduction, we see that Babylon has sort of become a spiritual ghost town.
07:02-07:08
There's nothing there but demons lurking around, and animals picking at human remains.
07:09-07:12
And the angel reminds us of the reason that Babylon was wiped off the map.
07:13-07:20
She's been a place of idolatry and obnoxious materialism, Because wickedness is very profitable during the tribulation.
07:20-07:22
Hold that thought, we're going to circle back and see that again.
07:23-07:25
As a commencement, secondly, here's the call to escape.
07:25-07:29
Now this isn't part of a typical funeral, but it's going to be part of this one.
07:29-07:30
Look at verses 4 and 5.
07:30-08:01
He says, "Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, '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." Right before her death, God calls for His people - these are people that come to Christ - during the tribulation, He says, "Get out of there." We've talked about this before, but God has this track record when He's about to pour judgment on the earth, He removes His people, right?
08:01-08:02
Remember Noah's day?
08:03-08:04
Remember Sodom and Gomorrah?
08:05-08:09
God has a way of removing His people before He judges the earth.
08:09-08:10
And here it is again.
08:10-08:20
Just like the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 trying to reach heaven, here it says Babylon's sins are piling up to heaven.
08:20-08:22
And somebody's like, "Wait, wait, wait, hang on.
08:22-08:33
You're telling me the people who come to Christ during the tribulation are in Babylon and God tells them to get out?" That's right. Well, why are Christians in Babylon in the first place?
08:33-08:34
Why are they in this city?
08:35-08:36
Was it a chance to make money?
08:36-08:38
Was it a witnessing opportunity?
08:39-09:07
Like, "Hey, I'm going to work here because I know there's lost people." I don't know. I don't know why there were God's people in Babylon, but God didn't say, "Hang out there and attract them and try to woo them with the gospel." God says, "Get out of there. Get away from her sin, and get away from the hammer of judgment that's about to come down on this city." And I would say there's a time to witness, and there's a time to remove yourself from people who refuse to come to God.
09:08-09:11
And God makes it very clear in this passage, "Get out. Get out.
09:11-09:15
this thing's coming down, and I want my people out of there." The call to escape.
09:15-09:16
Thirdly, the cause of death.
09:17-09:19
The cause of death, look at verses 6-8.
09:19-09:25
"Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds.
09:25-09:28
Mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
09:28-09:39
As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, 'I sit as a queen.
09:39-09:44
I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.
09:44-10:00
For this reason, her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire, for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her." So the angel turns from John to God, and he calls for vengeance on Babylon.
10:00-10:02
He says, "Okay, pay her back.
10:02-10:09
Actually, more than pay her back." He says, "Double down. Give her double." We see the cup highlighted again.
10:09-10:12
Babylon used a cup to deceive the nations.
10:12-10:15
We saw it in v. 3, 14, 17.
10:16-10:23
Babylon, this prostitute is talked about as having this cup that she uses to deceive and allure the nations.
10:24-10:36
And in that very cup, God says, "Here, I'm pouring My wrath into that cup, and you're going to choke every last drop of that down." Babylon is guilty of three major sins.
10:36-10:37
Here's the cause of death.
10:37-10:40
Here's the three major sins. The first one is pride.
10:40-10:51
Verse 7, it says, "She glorified herself." That's pride. Like, "Look at how awesome I am." I mean, just look. I have everything going on.
10:51-10:54
It's pride. I am powerful. Self-glory.
10:55-11:04
Number 2, "She lived sensually." It says, "Lived in luxury." And as we've seen throughout this study, sexual immorality is going to be at an all-time high.
11:04-11:07
and living in luxury, living sensually.
11:08-11:09
It's living for the flesh.
11:09-11:11
That was her second sin.
11:11-11:12
And thirdly is self-sufficiency.
11:13-11:16
Her quote actually comes from Isaiah 47.
11:16-11:19
In her heart, she says, "I sit as a queen.
11:19-11:21
I'm no widow. Mourning I shall never see.
11:22-11:25
The sin is self-sufficiency." I don't need anyone. Look at me.
11:25-11:27
I am the queen bee.
11:28-11:29
These are three things.
11:29-11:34
These three sins, These are three things that God absolutely will not tolerate.
11:34-11:36
And it should cause us all to listen up.
11:37-11:41
Because these things rob God of His glory - they try to rob God of His glory.
11:41-11:44
And these things seek to make yourself an idol.
11:44-11:53
And I would say to be thankful that God will not tolerate these things because these are three sins that will keep you from coming to Jesus Christ.
11:53-11:59
If you're sitting here right now, and you have not come to Christ, it's probably one of these three reasons.
11:59-12:00
One is pride.
12:01-12:02
You think you've got it going on.
12:02-12:06
You think that you're great, and you're awesome, and you're good enough.
12:06-12:08
You're not going to come to Christ if that's what you think.
12:09-12:10
You're wrong in your self-assessment.
12:11-12:12
And it's condemning.
12:12-12:15
Secondly, is living sensually or living in luxury.
12:15-12:17
Jesus said you worship God or you worship money, right?
12:18-12:24
And you can either live for your Creator, or you can live to fulfill your sensual desires.
12:25-12:25
You can't live for both.
12:26-12:28
Self-sufficiency - I don't need God.
12:28-12:29
I don't need Jesus.
12:30-12:32
I'm good enough. I can take care of myself.
12:33-12:38
Religion is a crutch or whatever." That's what Babylon was guilty of.
12:38-12:50
And that's what God says, "I can't tolerate that, because they rob Me of My glory and they make Yourself an idol, and they keep people from coming and receiving My grace." And church, it's our very nature to go after these things.
12:51-12:53
And coming to Christ means you have to abandon them all.
12:53-12:57
Due to her sins, did you notice this is going to come up a lot in this passage?
12:57-13:31
Verse 8, "For this reason, will come in a single day. What this means is Babylon, this awesome metropolitan city, this hub of the world, she's going down, but it's not going to be like fading away, like over the course of ten years, "Yeah, it seems like things have sort of gone downhill a little bit." Single day. It's death blow. It's God shows up, boom, it's over. And people are not only astonished that she's gone, as you'll see here in a second, they're doubly astonished because of how fast she went.
13:31-13:31
Note that.
13:32-13:34
You're going to see that in verse 10, verse 17, verse 19.
13:35-13:37
God is about to wipe this city off the map.
13:38-13:39
We talked about this last week.
13:40-13:44
And people are going to be astonished at how quickly everything happened.
13:45-13:46
Babylon was an amazing, powerful city.
13:47-13:48
Here's another reminder.
13:48-13:49
Who really has the power?
13:49-13:50
Did you see that at the end of verse 8?
13:50-13:59
"For mighty is the Lord God who has judged her." Cause of death, pride, sensual, luxurious living, and self-sufficiency.
14:00-14:01
Babylon's funeral number four.
14:02-14:04
You can't have a funeral without some crying, right?
14:04-14:06
Well, I just told you about one that I had where there was no crying.
14:06-14:08
But there's a lot of crying at this one.
14:08-14:12
Again, these groups are making crazy money from this empire.
14:12-14:16
And now you're going to see they're watching her burn at her funeral.
14:17-14:23
And there's three groups mentioned here, and I just want you to see as we go through here if you can pick out something that they all have in common.
14:23-14:25
The first group are the kings.
14:25-14:26
Look at verses 9 and 10.
14:27-14:35
as the kings of the 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.
14:36-14:51
They will stand far off in fear of her torment and say, "Alas, alas, you great city, you mighty city Babylon, for in a single hour your judgment has come." We have the 10 kings that were with the antichrist.
14:51-14:55
We have other world leaders, and they fearfully stand off.
14:55-14:57
This city is burning. They see the smoke.
14:57-15:04
And I believe standing off from a distance also includes TV, Internet, all the other ways that we watch these things.
15:05-15:07
And again, they're shocked.
15:07-15:09
They're shocked at how quickly it's over.
15:10-15:13
This was our city and it's gone.
15:13-15:17
It says that they, verse 9, they weep and wail.
15:17-15:23
Actually, the Greek is literally sobbing and beating their chest.
15:23-15:29
They weren't just like, tear down the eye. These people are despondent!
15:29-15:46
They're just like, wailing. "I can't believe it's gone! These are grown men! Why are they crying?" "There goes my life of luxury. There goes all my money. What am I going to do now?" Those are the kings. Secondly, the second group are the merchants.
15:46-15:48
Look at verses 11-16.
15:48-15:55
merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore." Don't you see a trend?
15:56-16:24
Cargo of 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.
16:24-16:32
The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again.
16:32-16:43
The merchants of these wares who gained wealth from her will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud.
16:43-17:05
"Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls, for in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste." So with the city destroyed, all sales are going to stop.
17:05-17:08
All economic activity is going to stop.
17:08-17:19
And remember we saw back in chapter 13, In verse 17, this city, the Antichrist, his empire, is in control of the entire world's economy.
17:20-17:24
And the destruction of the city means the destruction of the economy.
17:24-17:25
Now he gives a list.
17:26-17:28
Did you see this starting in verse 12?
17:29-17:30
He gives a list.
17:30-17:34
There's actually, I think, 28 items on this list.
17:34-17:40
And I just want to take a few minutes on each one of these and sort of lay out what exactly people are losing here.
17:41-17:43
I thought for sure I'd get backlash on that.
17:43-17:48
All right, there's just two that I wanna draw your attention to that I find particularly interesting.
17:48-17:49
Look down at verse 13.
17:50-17:51
There's the word chariots.
17:51-17:58
Interesting thing about that word is the word in the Greek for chariots literally is four-wheeled vehicle.
17:58-18:06
You're like, "Well, what's interesting about that?" Well, it's not a typical word that you would have expected John to use because the chariots in John's day didn't have four wheels.
18:07-18:12
When we think chariot, we think the thing pulled by a horse, but I'm not sure that that's what was communicated to John.
18:12-18:16
What was communicated to John was a four-wheeled vehicle.
18:17-18:18
So what do you think he's talking about?
18:18-18:21
I think he's talking about the automotive industry, right?
18:21-18:22
Four-wheeled vehicles.
18:23-18:26
Another thing that stuck out to me is the very last thing on the list.
18:27-18:29
It says slaves, human souls.
18:30-18:38
You know, in our day, human trafficking, Sex trafficking is a huge and horrible and wicked source of income.
18:39-18:41
And it's only going to get worse.
18:41-18:45
And we see that even in the last days, people are being sold. Horrible.
18:45-18:49
The good news is, as of this moment, it's over. It's over.
18:49-18:55
So like the kings, the merchants stand far off in fear, weeping over the city.
18:55-18:57
And what are they crying for? Why are they crying?
18:57-19:01
"There goes my money. There goes my money." They're not repenting over their sin.
19:02-19:07
They're not crying over the destruction that their lifestyle has brought upon them.
19:07-19:10
They're crying because they're out of business.
19:10-19:13
Verse 17, let's talk about the third group, the sailors.
19:13-19:22
"For in a single hour, all this wealth has been laid waste." We saw "Tail End," the merchants, and then it goes right into the next group, the shipmasters.
19:22-19:31
"All the shipmasters 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.
19:32-19:37
'What city is like the great city?' And they threw dust in her heads as they wept and mourned, crying out.
19:38-19:45
Alas, alas for the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth.
19:45-20:03
For in a single hour, she has been laid waste." To the third group, her people who make their living by the sea, sailors standing far off, astonished at Babylon's destruction, because no stuff to sell means no stuff to transport.
20:04-20:06
So here we're talking about FedEx.
20:06-20:08
We're talking about UPS.
20:08-20:10
We're talking about the USPS.
20:11-20:16
We're talking about all of these organizations whose job it is to transport.
20:17-20:18
And once again, why are they crying?
20:19-20:20
Why are they crying?
20:20-20:21
There goes my money.
20:21-20:22
They throw dust in their heads.
20:22-20:24
It's an expression of grief.
20:24-20:27
again, not over their sin, over their personal loss.
20:27-20:31
And you know, this is the last lament in the Bible.
20:31-20:33
The Bible is full of laments.
20:33-20:35
This is the very last one.
20:35-20:49
And I would suggest to you it's the very saddest one, because in this last lament, hopeless souls know that they're lost and doomed as they're watching God judge the earth, but they are completely unable to care about their sin.
20:49-21:03
They're completely unable to acknowledge that their rebellion against God has brought them to this place of ministry, and their only thought at this point is, "My wealth is gone." That's all they can think about.
21:04-21:09
Somebody might be looking at these people who are watching Babylon go up in smoke.
21:10-21:11
They've lost everything.
21:12-21:19
They know this is God, and maybe some are thinking right now, "Well, why don't they just repent?" I mean, think about it. They're not making any more money.
21:19-21:21
They know God's a-coming. It's obvious.
21:22-21:24
So why don't they just repent? I'll tell you why.
21:25-21:27
Because they don't want God. They don't want God.
21:28-21:31
They don't want righteousness. They don't want justice.
21:31-21:34
They don't want the things of God.
21:35-21:39
That's one thing this chapter is teaching, is there's only one thing they wanted, and it's money.
21:40-21:43
That's why they didn't just repent. They're not interested.
21:44-21:50
They are completely oblivious to what's really important.
21:50-21:52
We saw this last month.
21:52-21:53
I'm not making this a political thing.
21:54-21:55
Let's just step back and be objective.
21:55-21:57
And this isn't a political thing at all.
21:58-22:01
But I just thought it was interesting and it certainly fit.
22:02-22:10
Last month, in order to combat human trafficking over the US-Mexico border, the president had threatened to close the border.
22:11-22:12
I'm just going to close the border.
22:14-22:19
to fight human trafficking, one of the most horrible evils man can do to another man.
22:19-22:25
The president said, "I'm gonna shut the border." And do you remember the outrage that was the backlash from that comment?
22:26-22:28
All the people did not, they did not reply.
22:28-22:31
You know what, Mr. President, I'm with you.
22:31-22:34
How else can we save and protect the innocent?
22:34-22:35
That's not what they said.
22:35-22:40
They didn't say anything that needs to happen to stop this horrible evil.
22:40-22:41
That's not what they said either.
22:41-22:42
Do you remember what they said?
22:43-22:48
They said, "What if this keeps me from getting avocado toast?" Like, really?
22:48-22:55
We're having a conversation about stopping human trafficking, and the only thing you can think about is your stupid toast?
22:56-22:56
Really?
22:57-23:00
It's almost laughable if it wasn't so pathetic.
23:01-23:03
But that's where people's minds went.
23:03-23:07
What if the price of avocados goes up?
23:07-23:10
Oh, boo-hoo, you don't really like avocados anyways.
23:10-23:11
Nobody really does.
23:11-23:12
It's like kale.
23:13-23:20
We pretend to like it because we're told it's the superfood and we all have to let people know that we like it.
23:20-23:24
We pretend to just so people think that we're trendy, but nobody really likes avocados.
23:25-23:27
You just eating that to get to the toast.
23:27-23:30
We start playing around, but you see the point.
23:30-23:34
No outrage, no outrage over people being sold.
23:34-23:39
Much outrage on the prospect that our precious avocados might go up in price.
23:40-23:40
What's the point?
23:40-23:41
Here's the point.
23:42-24:11
At this point in Revelation, if worldly people's state of mind is still in question, if God's judgment still seems rash, I think it's fitting that the thing that God chooses to highlight to John and to us is that after experiencing all these manifestations of God's wrath on the earth because of sin, People still only care about themselves.
24:11-24:12
I think that's the whole point.
24:13-24:24
He's showing us that there's worldwide mourning, not over sin, not over the destruction of sin, but over the loss of dollars, over the loss of avocado toast.
24:25-24:27
And if you really do like avocados, I meant no offense.
24:28-24:29
But you see the point.
24:29-24:35
Jesus said in Mark 8.36, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" You can have it all.
24:36-24:38
and you're going to die, and where does your stuff go?
24:39-24:41
You forfeited your life in order to pursue stuff.
24:42-24:46
And that's just the mark of those who have the mark of the beast.
24:47-24:50
Number five, wrapping up here, two more parts, the celebration.
24:51-24:56
The celebration, verse 20, now, this isn't part of a typical funeral either.
24:57-24:58
Just throw that out here.
24:58-25:05
If you're going to use this as an outline, like if somebody in your family dies, and you're like, "Yeah, Pastor Jeff asked me to do the funeral." I would say don't put this in the funeral.
25:06-25:12
This is the part of the funeral where there's rejoicing over the fact that the person is deceased.
25:13-25:16
Not typical, but we have a shift.
25:16-25:18
The angel is speaking again.
25:18-25:19
Look at verse 20.
25:20-25:29
It says, "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her." Rejoice.
25:29-25:37
"The redeemed in heaven rejoice over the triumph of righteousness." Rejoice over the prayer that we studied "Clear back in chapter 6.
25:38-25:41
How long until you do something about all this, God?
25:41-25:43
How long?" Chapter 6, verses 9-11.
25:44-25:46
"How long?" It's finally answered.
25:46-25:48
It's finally answered, and there's great celebration.
25:49-25:52
Like, "Well, wait a minute, I thought God didn't take pleasure in the death of the wicked.
25:53-26:02
So if God doesn't take pleasure in the death of the wicked, why is all of heaven celebrating the downfall of this city?" Well, God doesn't take pleasure in the death of the wicked.
26:02-26:05
In fact, God would rather people turn to Him and receive Christ.
26:06-26:08
But something God does delight in is righteousness.
26:09-26:16
Something God does delight in is to see the suffering of His people finally come to an end.
26:16-26:20
All of heaven delighting in justice finally being carried out.
26:21-26:25
All of heaven delighting in the truth that the wicked are no longer shedding blood.
26:25-26:29
And then finally, this is the last part of a good funeral service, you've got to have the committal.
26:29-26:30
You've got to have the committal.
26:30-26:32
We usually say these at the graveside.
26:33-26:34
This will be the last few verses here.
26:35-26:50
"Then a mighty angel took up 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 be found no more.'" Quick demonstration, picturing Babylon's destruction.
26:50-26:56
A millstone was about four or five feet in diameter, and it was about a foot thick.
26:56-27:02
So this angel takes this giant millstone and says, This thing represents Babylon.
27:03-27:05
Bloop! Into the water.
27:05-27:10
Point is, here it is, and suddenly and instantly and totally, bloop! Gone.
27:10-27:12
We'll be found no more.
27:12-27:19
Look at verse 22, "And the sound of the harpists and musicians of flute players and trumpeters will be heard in you no more.
27:19-27:23
And a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more.
27:23-27:27
And the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more.
27:27-27:30
And the light of a lamp will shine in you no more.
27:31-27:35
And the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more.
27:35-27:42
For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
27:42-27:52
And in her was found the blood of the prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on earth." Recurring phrase there, "no more." No more. No more!
27:52-27:54
You lived how you wanted.
27:54-27:59
You deceived and you hated and you abused and you murdered.
27:59-28:01
No more. It's over.
28:01-28:02
Nothing will be left.
28:02-28:04
No music. No working.
28:04-28:06
No making food. No light.
28:07-28:09
No weddings. No more.
28:10-28:11
You've rejected your Creator.
28:11-28:13
You've despised the blood of Christ.
28:14-28:15
And you've killed His people.
28:16-28:18
No more. Fallen. Fallen.
28:19-28:20
Is Babylon the Great.
28:21-28:24
This concludes the funeral service for Babylon.
28:24-28:28
I'm not going to say, Well, she's in a better place.
28:28-28:34
And I'm certainly not going to say, "Well, she'll be missed." I usually just close a funeral with a prayer.
28:34-28:35
Shall we?
28:35-28:39
Father in Heaven, You are merciful, and You are slow to anger.
28:39-28:48
But the day is coming when You will say, "No more." And today, Father, I pray that we would all take a look at Babylon and see if there are any of Babylon's ways in us.
28:48-28:53
Pride, self-sufficiency, living according to the lusts of the flesh.
28:54-28:56
Father, show us if there's any way of Babylon in us.
28:56-28:57
Grant us repentance.
28:58-29:08
God, we thank You that You don't tolerate these things, because tolerating these would keep people from coming to Christ, would keep justice and judgment from truly happening.
29:08-29:10
So Father, let Your Holy Spirit bring us to the place.
29:11-29:13
Let Your Holy Spirit grant us repentance.
29:13-29:14
We thank You, Father.
29:15-29:19
In the glorious name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 18
GROUP
What was your big “take-away” from the passage / message?
Review the sins of Babylon for which she faced judgment (v7). How do you see these sins in our culture? Be specific.
If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11), why is heaven rejoicing over Babylon’s destruction in verse 20?
Why exactly are the people of earth crying in verses 9, 11, 15, 18, and 19? What does this tell you about those facing judgment during the Tribulation?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another. Pray for God’s mercy on our nation.