Mesa Hills Bible Church

Pastor Tim Dane: Revelation 18, you've heard the expression, "It's going to be the end of life as we know it." Now, that's the kind of theme that atheists and liberals like to make movies about. Maybe it's that evolution goes in reverse and apes take over the world, Planet of the Apes. People love "end of life as we know it" kind of movies. There was one a long time ago, where it was like a global warming thing where all the oceans flood the earth. I think it was called Waterworld. People love this "end of the world, end of life as we know it" kind of theme.

The fact is that the Bible shows us that there is going to come a time when it's going to be the end of life as we know it. This is what we see in the book of Revelation, and it's not going to be pretty at all. We're in Revelation 18, and Chapters 17 and 18 deal very heavily with this concept of Babylon. We see that Babylon is a wicked religious system that is going to rise up. As John focuses upon the end of the age, the tribulation period, John focuses on telling us about how there's going to be this wicked religion that rises up called Babylon. This is using imagery and language out of the Old Testament to do this.

We know that in the Old Testament, way back in 605 B.C., Babylon was a powerful empire that invaded Israel and destroyed Israel and took Israel into captivity and exile. God promised that he was going to bring them down, and he did bring them down in judgment by the Persians in 539 B.C. But the rise of Babylon as a world power back in 605 B.C. was followed by other major world empires. The book of Daniel deals with this really extensively. You had Babylon, a world empire, and that was followed by the Persians, and then it was followed by the Greeks, and then by the Romans.

The Bible tells us at the end of the age, there's going to be a final rise of godless political military power. The way that Daniel and Revelation describe it, there are going to be ten nations that come together in a political, economic, military union. Those ten nations are going to be headed up and ruled over by the Antichrist. It says this in the book of Daniel very explicitly, and it says it also very explicitly in the book of Revelation. A final rise of wicked power. But when this wicked block of power comes together under the Antichrist, as we learned in Revelation 17 last week, it also says that there's going to be a rise of a very wicked religion. That religion is described as Babylon.

In Chapter 17, we saw the fact that God is going to bring a judgment upon this wicked religious system. But Chapter 18 has more to say about the whole thing, and that's where we're going to be this morning. Chapter 17 had more of a religious emphasis on the nature of Babylon. Chapter 18 shows its political influences and its intense wealth, the incredible wealth that is part of this religious system. God tells us again in Chapter 18, as he did in 17, that there is going to be a catastrophic destruction that comes to Babylon in the tribulation period.

This morning we're going to focus on Verses 1 to 8 because it's a large section and there's a lot to say. So let's read these verses right here, and then we'll start to make some comments and some application. Chapter 18, Verse 1, John said, "After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk from the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.'"

"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, 'Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, "I sit as a queen, I'm not a widow, I will never see mourning." For this reason, in one day, her plagues will come: pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.'"

Father, we thank you for your word. Your word shows us that we're sinners who need a savior. Your word shows us how your son paid the price of our sin. Your word shows us how you conquered the curse of sin and death on Calvary. Your word shows us that your son is going to return and judge an evil world, and your son is going to purge the evil that permeates and dominates this world right now. Your son is going to establish a kingdom when he returns. It's a kingdom with righteousness and peace and blessing. You are going to remove the wickedness that dominates our world today, and it will be the end of life as we know it.

But that's a good thing because these things cannot stay like this. Your son Jesus told us that we should pray, "Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This is our hope and our prayer that you would return quickly, that you would bring a restoration to this fallen world. Thank you for giving us sneak previews of your victory. Lord, some of these things are really challenging, understanding how they fit together. I pray that you would help us to see clearly what you want us to see and understand. Help us to understand your word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

As you go through Chapter 18, the way I'm breaking it down, we can see a series of six prophetic promises about God's destruction of Babylon. This morning, we're going to focus on Verses 1 to 8 and look at two of these prophetic promises. The first one comes in Verses 1 through 3. You noticed down here in Verse 1, John starts it off and he says, "After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven." When he says "after these things," what's happening is that this is another unfolding element of the vision that God is showing him, and this unfolding element that God has is going to be explained by another angel.

One angel came back in Chapter 17, Verse 1, and gave this first description of Babylon. Now there's another angel to give us further descriptions of Babylon. As you look at these two different descriptions of Babylon, these are not two different Babylons. There's one Babylon that's going to rise up at the end of the age, but you are receiving different emphases in each of these two chapters. Chapter 17 speaks about the abominations of Babylon, which speak about the idolatrous nature of this false religion.

Chapter 18 focuses upon the power of this religion, Babylon, that rises up and the incredible wealth of Babylon and how the religion is interacting with the political powers that are in the world at that time, the Antichrist and these ten nations. Both chapters, if you compare them, have tremendous similarities. Both chapters call them Babylon the Great. Both chapters say that Babylon is characterized by immorality. Both chapters talk about the way that Babylon causes the earth and the kings of the earth to become drunk, which means that there is a corrupting power that comes from Babylon that brings ruin to the powers of the world.

Both chapters speak about Babylon being burned with fire. Both chapters speak about utter desolation and destruction. Both of them speak about the way that Babylon is guilty for the death of God's people. There's tremendous hatred against Christians, and Babylon is going to be guilty for killing a lot of Christians in the tribulation period. It's a wicked religion that has incredible wealth and very sinful, ungodly values that drive it. Here in Verse 2, it says that this angel came and he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great."

That statement is basically a quotation that comes out of Isaiah Chapter 21, Verse 9. In Isaiah Chapter 21, the Old Testament context for that one is that God is declaring that Babylon is going to be destroyed by the Medes and the Persians because, in fact, Babylon, that powerful empire that overthrew Judah in 605 B.C., God also told us in his word that Babylon is going to be judged itself. There was a historical judgment that fell upon ancient Babylon in 539 B.C. literally when on October 12th, 539 B.C., the Persian armies rerouted the Euphrates River. The Euphrates River ran directly under the walls of ancient Babylon, and it gave a permanent, safe, fresh water supply for the city.

If you were being attacked by enemy armies, you had water coming in because the water ran right under the walls of the city. What the Persians did in the middle of the night, they diverted the river and they came in underneath and they overtook the city, and Babylon fell to the Persians. It is very interesting, especially as we see how those things in ancient times connect and relate to what God says is going to happen in the future. We recognize that there is a lot of imagery and language that gets employed to talk about what's going to happen at the end of the age. There's parallel in terms of ideas and concepts and things that happen, but the events that happened literally historically in ancient times, they happened. John uses that language and applies it in talking about what's going to be there in the future.

When Babylon was overthrown by the Persians in 539, the truth is that the city was not destroyed. It remained intact and people continued living there. It's just that the Persian armies came in and they took over. It was kind of like just a change of the guard, you might say. There were battles and wars that took place in that, but Babylon itself was not wiped out and catastrophically destroyed. The city remained in place. But when we look at what is described in Revelation Chapter 17 and Chapter 18, it describes a violent, catastrophic destruction that completely brings Babylon to ruins.

That didn't happen back then because these are things that are going to be fulfilled eschatologically in the tribulation period. Here in Verse 2, we see two descriptions of Babylon, what it's going to look like. First of all, it says that Babylon is going to become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and secondly, a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Demons, unclean spirits are going to be inhabiting Babylon. I'm not quite sure what to make of that, to be honest, like what exactly is this describing. Then it also says that they're going to become a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

For Israel, according to the Law of Moses, unclean birds would be things like birds that eat carrion. We think about vultures, crows. Personally, I like crows because I used to have one. But for Israel, it's like, "Ah, these are disgusting, nasty birds. They're the ones that come on the side of the road and eat the dead flesh that's laying on the side of the road." Whatever exactly is being portrayed here, the point is clear: Babylon is going to come to a place of catastrophic, devastating ruin, and demons and nasty birds would be the kind of thing that are going to be dwelling in Babylon. God is going to bring Babylon to ruin.

The reason why is because of sin. We go back to the Old Testament times, literal Babylon invaded Israel, wiped them out, killed tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and took people from Israel into captivity in Babylon. God said, "I'm going to get you for this." But as Babylon rises at the end of the age, and when we say Babylon, this does not have to correspond exactly to that literal Babylon of ancient times. There's application of language and imagery to what's going to happen at the end of the age.

I think there's a real strong reason to say that this wicked religion that rises up and has worldwide influence, I think there's really good biblical reason for saying that that may be one of the places where it originates from, that part of the world. There's biblical passages, some of which we looked at last week, that would tell us that this wickedness rises up out of that part of the world. But the principle is this: God says you are evil, you're doing evil, and now it's time for you to receive your just punishment.

In Jeremiah Chapter 21, Verse 24, God says, "I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea," which means Babylon, "for all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes, declares the Lord. Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain," which means a kingdom that brings destruction, mountain here speaking about the kingdom of Babylon. "I'm against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys the whole earth, declares the Lord. And I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the crags, and I will make you a burnt-out mountain. And they will not take from you even a stone for a corner, nor a stone for a foundation; but you will be desolate forever, declares the Lord."

Violent, catastrophic, irreversible destruction. This is Jeremiah writing from the same timeframe when actually Babylon has already fallen to the Persians way back in the sixth century B.C. Shortly before the overthrow of Babylon, he's speaking about this imminent judgment that God is going to bring, but you notice here that in Jeremiah's description in this particular passage, the same thing holds true in some of the ones in Isaiah. It speaks about violent, catastrophic overthrow that can never be restored. But you go back when the Persians invaded, those things didn't happen back then like that. Persia conquered Babylon, but Persia became the ruling empire. This violent, catastrophic overthrow did not happen. The reason why is because God has a judgment that's going to come at the end of the age, and this is what it's going to look like when it happens at the end of the age.

Verse 3 tells us the reason for this. "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality." Two primary kinds of sins are being described right here. One of them is evil political self-interest, and the other part going along with it is just indulgent, godless sensuality. This word "sensuality" that is used right here in Verse 3, the Greek term speaks about just excess kind of wealth and excess kind of dedication to riches.

Robert Thomas, a commentator, says this idea of sensuality is that of insolent luxury, self-indulgence with accompanying arrogance and vicious exercise of strength, exuberance of strength, which is the flower of pride or the impudence of wealth, wantonness and unruliness arising from the fullness of wealth. This is Babylon. We remember from our discussion in our last messages that this idea of giving the nations this cup of wine, in the Old Testament prophets, it would describe nations like Babylon, specifically Babylon and also other nations, that to make the nations drunk is the idea of destroying them. When a nation metaphorically speaking makes the other nations drunk, that means that they have made them vulnerable and incapable to defend.

Babylon was there giving this cup of wine to the nations, making them drunk metaphorically and then destroying them in their drunken state. God told Babylon in the Old Testament, "You've been making everybody else drunk, you've been passing the cup of wine around. The cup is going to come back to you, and you're going to receive the same judgment." It speaks about the way that what's going to happen here at the end of the age is this: this wicked religion that rises up for a time period has a lot of support and interaction with the political structures that have come to rule the world.

When we talk about the Antichrist who is spoken of very distinctly and directly in the Bible, especially in Revelation, he's going to come to control a massive block of ten nations. But Babylon the Harlot is not the Antichrist and these governmental nations and powers that come together. The Harlot, Babylon, is working in association with that wicked block of political power. In the end, here's what we saw in Chapter 17. In the end, the Antichrist and his ten nations are going to turn against Babylon and say, "We hate you and we're going to wipe you out."

Go back to Chapter 17, notice what happens here in Verse 11. "The beast," 17:11, "the beast who is the Antichrist, who was alive and then was dead and then came back—he was and then he is not—is himself an eighth, but he's one of the seven. And these ten horns," it says in Verse 12, "these ten nations that come together, are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour." The Antichrist comes to control a massive block. It says in Verse 13 that all of these nations have one purpose; they give their power and authority to the beast. They're going to be following this world leader and saying, "Hey, you're the guy. We give you all of our support, all of our military, everything."

But notice what happens as you come to Chapter 17 in Verse 16. "The ten horns that you saw, and the beast, the Antichrist, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled." Very fascinating. In the end, what happens is that this really, really wicked guy, the Antichrist, and all of these nations that have given their support to him, in the end, they turn against this wicked religion, Babylon, and say, "We're going to wipe you out and destroy you."

There's a relationship that exists during that seven-year tribulation period. It's going to be a strange thing to see how this fleshes itself out in terms of this godless religion that comes to have dominant influence across the face of the planet. How this wicked religion ends up, for a time period, being a bedfellow with the Antichrist and his nations, but in the end, the Antichrist and his nations turn against Babylon and wipe them out. It says here in Verse 3 that one of the aspects of why this judgment is coming is because all of the nations have drunk from the wine of the passion of her immorality. The nations have been infected by this wicked religion, and all the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her. There's this relationship between Babylon the Harlot and these powerful nations that are under the Antichrist.

Furthermore, it says the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. This is a block of religious power that has immense wealth. Babylon is a bad-news religion with immense power, immense wealth. Here in Revelation, it shows us that the world in its power structures have been operating with this godless religious system for corrupt purposes. God says, "Okay, this is it. I'm going to deal with you now." Paige Patterson in the New American Commentary says this, "Babylon is not only an idolatrous religion, but it's also the one that seeks to dominate all areas of politics and power. The merchants of the earth profited by her suzerainty," which means her influence and power, "which demonstrated itself in a love for ostentation and wealth." This is going to be bad stuff.

Well, it's coming. As you go a little further in Revelation, we're going to see that when this judgment comes, it is going to be a game changer across the face of the whole world. I was talking with my pastor Friday from Las Vegas—he's now back in L.A., has been for 15 years or so—but we had a nice talk about all kinds of things. Really a dear friend. When you look at this world and you see where this world is headed, God tells us a whole bunch of stuff on what's going to happen. Some of this, very admittedly, you have to say, "I'm not quite sure what exactly is going on here" because some of it we're going to have to wait and see how it comes together and what it means. But there's enough here that tells us that God is going to bring a massive judgment on this world.

As you look at these kinds of things, just that very expression, "the end of life as we know it," probably the first thought you would have is, "I don't want that kind of thing to happen to this world. I have my kids. I love my kids. I don't want to not have my children. I don't want to not have my grandchildren. I have my friends." When we look at this, we naturally don't want to lose some of those things that we have right now. Yesterday, we had a birthday party for two of my grandsons. Cara called it "double trouble" because both Elias and Callum turned two this month in May. It's just a blast watching these guys, and these guys are boys, man. They rock 'em sock 'em. It's kind of funny to watch them with each other.

We look at these kinds of beautiful things and say, "Man, I don't want this to change." I think that's natural. But understand this: as we look at what God says must happen, this world can't stay like it is. This system that is infected by Adam's sin, this world, this system, it can't stay like this. God must cleanse it and purge it. He must judge evil because he's holy. He must take these things and bring them into judgment. But when he does this, he's going to replace it with something that is perfect and good. In Lucy's memorial service yesterday, they had a song that played on the screen with pictures and words. I can't remember even the name of the song and all the lyrics, but it was a really neat song. It was basically saying, "Hey, I'm here in a place of beauty and peace. Don't feel bad for me."

That truly is what it's going to be when God brings this complete and final restoration. We look back at the stuff that today we hold to—this doesn't mean that what we have right now is not good because we have a lot of good stuff: love, family, and so on—but we're not going to miss it. Verses 4 to 8 has a second prophetic promise about the ruin of Babylon the Harlot. It's about the implications of this destruction. Really Verse 4 begins this description and it goes all the way through Verse 20, but we're going to come to Verse 8 for right now. What we're talking about is, again, the end of life as we know it. It's going to be a judgment on evil that has been spoken of for a long, long time.

God first announced a judgment upon evil to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:15 when he said, "I'm going to bring a descendant into the world who's going to crush the head of the serpent." This was God's first promise of a destruction of evil, a savior to destroy Satan and a savior to bring us restoration. The Bible has spoken many places over and over again about this final judgment that's going to come when Christ the Savior brings his kingdom to this world. For example, in Job Chapter 21, Verse 30, Job says, "The wicked is reserved for the day of calamity, and they will be led forth at the day of fury." In Psalm 1, Verse 5, it says, "The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."

We can go way back, God has been promising a judgment on sin. Revelation is what brings us the capstone of this revelation, this message that he unveils. So here in Verse 4, notice what happens. John says, "I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people.'" So that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues, for her sins have piled up as high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquity. Again, we see language that comes right out of the Old Testament. When God says, "Come out of her, my people," because Babylon is about to be judged, it's language and imagery that comes right out of Isaiah, Jeremiah, throughout the Old Testament.

God is commanding his people, "Come out of Babylon, because I'm going to judge her." As you think about this, we look at wicked religion. What is the number of people that we have, let's say for example, in the religion of Islam? Over a billion, a billion and a quarter. Are any of these people—let's just say we talk about Islam for a moment, which I think there is a connection with what Babylon is going to be at the end of the age—are there people who are part of Islam that are going to come to faith in Jesus Christ? Absolutely. The system is false and it's wicked and it hates Christ and it hates Christians. But there are going to be people that God saves, huge numbers of people that Christ is going to save and bring out of that false religion in the day of judgment. During that seven-year tribulation period, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to get saved out of that false religion.

Now we have to separate religious systems from ethnic people that are in those religions. Because we can look at Islam, there are people from all over the world that are part of Islam, but they come from different ethnic backgrounds. Islam originated in Arabia; that's where Muhammad rose up. Muhammad was born in 570. You have people who are Arabs that are part of Islam. You have people that are Egyptians, Iranians, Iraqis, in Africa there's many countries, Libya—these people have different ethnic backgrounds, but they're all part of that false religion.

What's happening here is that God is giving the commandment for those that are his people—and he's going to save them—it's a call to come out of Babylon and to embrace Christ in saving faith because God is going to destroy the religion. Now when I give my descriptions right here and explanations, I'm couching it with a little bit of uncertainty and hesitancy because I don't think I would die on this interpretation that Babylon right here is Islam. I think there's a pretty good argument that it might be, but I'm a little hesitant to be that dogmatic about it. So that's why I'm giving a little bit of qualification on it.

But God is calling his people to come out so that they will not be caught in the judgment and the devastation that is going to come upon Babylon. Verses 5 to 8 describe the intensity of this judgment. It says, "Her sins have piled up as high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquity." Now okay, just that expression right there, "her sins are piled up as high as heaven." What does that sound like from the Old Testament? Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11, you had the world coming together in false religion at the Tower of Babel, and they said, "Let's build a tower that will reach up to the heavens." So you had this wicked rebellion against God way back right after the flood. Wicked rebellion is going to start peaking and climaxing in the tribulation period with Babylon once again.

Better come out of her right now because her sins are piled up and God now has remembered her iniquities, which means that it's time to bring the judgment upon them. In Jeremiah 51, Verse 9, it says, "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven and towers up to the very skies." God's going to crash the party. Verse 6, we again see how intense this judgment is going to be. It's going to be full and equal retribution for their sin.

Now there's an expression, you've heard of the expression "Lex Talionis," Law of Retribution. Lex Talionis is the idea like "eye for eye, tooth for tooth." With that law, which was very widely used in the ancient world, what it means is that the punishment should match the crime. So eye for eye is like, well, if you harmed somebody in this way, then your punishment should be equal to that. So this is what's happening right here in Verses 6 and 7 and 8 when God says, "Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her."

The idea is this is equal punishment for the crime. The double is the idea of equal punishment, equal retribution. It's going to come, and when God brings the judgment on sin, it is going to be horrific because sin is horrific. Verse 7, he says, "To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously," there's that word sensuously again, "opulence." Babylon, however and whatever it's going to look like, is just rolling in the dough. I tell you what, there are some people that are part of that entire religion that are rolling in the dough.

So here's the idea: to the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning. Furthermore, here's another aspect about this judgment that God is going to bring upon Babylon, and it is the fact that Babylon hates Christians. Look back at Chapter 17, look with me at Verse 6. When John sees Babylon in 17:6, "I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I looked, when I saw her, I marveled greatly." Here's what's going to happen: this wicked religion is going to be killing massive numbers of Christians in the tribulation period. Drunk with the blood of the saints, just satiated with God's people's blood.

Look over at Chapter 16 with me, and we look at these bowl judgments that God is pouring down. Look at Chapter 16 and Verse 4. "The third angel poured out the third bowl of wrath onto the rivers and springs of waters, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, 'Righteous are you, who are and who were, O Holy One, because you have judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you've given them blood to drink. They deserve it.' And I heard the altar saying, 'Yes, O Lord God the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.'"

When Jesus Christ returns in the closing days of the tribulation period and he brings these judgments on this world, it's going to be a bloodbath. And from a human perspective, it is going to be unthinkably devastating and horrific. But the angels of heaven look at this and say, "This is good. You're right for doing this. You've given them blood to drink because they've been shedding the blood of your people. They deserve it." It's going to be a bloodbath like the world has never seen.

John MacArthur made a comment on this and made reference to Psalm 137. In Psalm 137, it was speaking about the judgment that Babylon brought upon Israel 2,600 years ago, and the Psalmist is saying, "O God, you need to settle the scores for what they've done." And in Psalm 137, Verse 8, it says, "O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you've repaid us. How blessed will be the one who dashes the heads of your little ones on the rocks." That's what Babylon did to the Jews when they invaded. They took the little babies of Israel and they smashed them on the rocks. And the Psalmist says, "How blessed will be the one that brings this kind of judgment back on you."

This is super, super harsh stuff; there's no way around it. But sin, this is the wickedness of sin. What we need to understand is this is how bad sin is. Now we can look at multiplied examples of really, really wicked stuff right here in our own country, right? Coming from all kinds of people, including our own political leaders, really, really wicked stuff. And I'm sure there are times where you, like me, get angry and you say, "This picks me off." Why is it that we have an entire month, June, dedicated to sexual perversion? Pride Month. Why in the world do we have a country that takes wickedness and says, "Hey, let's celebrate sin for the whole month of June"?

God has his payday coming, and this is what we see in Revelation. Look at Verse 7 and Verse 8. Here's another aspect of why God is going to judge her, and this would be the idea that Babylon thinks, "I'm untouchable." Look at Chapter 18, Verse 7. It says here, "She says in her heart, 'I sit as a queen, I'm not a widow, I'll never see mourning.'" That passage right there comes right out of the Old Testament. It comes right out of Isaiah where ancient Babylon said, "Hey, nobody can touch me. Look at how big my walls are, look at how big my armies are, I'm untouchable." This is what this false, wicked religion is going to be doing at the end of the age, looking there basically with smug self-sufficiency. "I'm a queen, I'm not a widow, nobody's taking my kids from me."

This is smug self-sufficiency. So God says, "Okay, I see your evil. Therefore," Verse 8, "for this reason, in one day," very suddenly, "one day" doesn't mean one single 24-hour day, it's looking at that time period that comes right here. "For in one day her plagues will come: pestilence, mourning, famine, and she'll be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong." It's going to be the end of life as we know it, in particular for Babylon. One writer said here, when God says the Lord God who judges her is strong, this is the idea of this: nobody's going to stop God from doing what he needs to do. One writer says, "No one can frustrate God's plans or keep him from accomplishing what he purposes to do."

Job said to God, "I know that you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted." So despite the plans that man has in man's heart, the counsel of the Lord will stand, Proverbs 19:21. Isaiah 14, Verse 27, "For the Lord of hosts has planned something," declares the Lord, "and who can frustrate it? His hand is stretched out, who can turn it back?" The answer is that God says, "Here's what I'm going to do," and he's going to do it. So we look at all this and we say, "Alright, how should we respond to it?" You say, "Oh, I don't want these things to happen." Well, it's going to happen, and it's good. You love your children, grandchildren, your wife, your husband—we have all these things that are nice—but these things are all temporary at this level, in this present age.

So, yeah, we may look at things in closing and we say, "I don't want to lose this." And I can understand that. But God must change these things. So what should we do with this as we close and think about a point of application? I would say this: you better make sure that your faith is in Jesus Christ. You better trust him; you do not want to end up under God's judgment. Trust Christ and grow in your relationship with Christ. This is a commandment, right? 2 Peter 3:18 says, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." You should be reading your Bible. You're here in church, so praise God that we're here together to learn from God's word. Keep reading your Bible, keep going to church, do what you can to grow in the grace of Christ.

And be living in readiness. We've had a great week this past week, sent out almost 25,000 gospel pieces. That's like sending the gospel to 50,000 people this week. We had invitations for our Creation Conference coming up and Vacation Bible School, but we put the gospel into the hands of some 50,000 people, on average two people in each home. That's what we can be doing. We were out there yesterday, about 15, 20 people went out to Territory Days. So this is something we can do because we're not going to change the things that are going to happen to this world, but what we can do is we can bring the message of God's salvation to the people who need it. That's everybody.

That's what we can do. As you think about this, I think that's being ready, is just serving the Lord right now, serving God with your opportunities right now, serving God with your time, with your talents, with your treasures. Whatever you have, use it for the glory of Christ. Going along with this, I would say that we need to remember that we should not be afraid of these things. I don't believe that we're going to be there in that tribulation period according to scripture. I think we're going to be raptured out before that tribulation period, and I think the Bible speaks clearly enough on that that we should believe in that.

But you and I don't know how bad our world is going to get before those things come about as well. We could be sitting on the edge of massive chaos and collapse in our own country or in the world. Hey, if it happens, it happens, right? We're not going to be able to stop that. What we can do is we can trust Christ and not be afraid. Just trust the Lord and don't be afraid. And then do the best that you can to be responsible, which would be growing in Christ and living for Christ and preaching the gospel of Christ. Amen?

Father, we thank you for your promises that are good and certain. We thank you that we can trust you no matter what this world brings. I pray, O God, that you'll take these gospel efforts that we've been working on. Right now this week, a lot of people got the gospel in their hands. So we ask in Jesus' name that your Holy Spirit would go to work in the hearts of these people, and we pray that your spirit would work to draw people to faith in Christ. We pray for those people that received the gospel yesterday at Territory Days, Lord, some thousand people, some thousand conversations with people receiving the gospel of Christ. We're asking that your spirit go to work in the hearts of these sinners, draw them to faith in your son.

We pray for our upcoming conference, that you'll bring many people here to hear about your great creation and how you are the creator who's to be worshiped. Bring many people. And we pray for our Vacation Bible School that's coming up, that you will bring many young people into this program to give us the opportunity of leading them to know you as Lord and Savior. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.