Mesa Hills Bible Church

Pastor Tim Dane: Thank you. We are in Revelation Chapter 18. As you are turning there, I have a couple of additional comments. We had a great Bible conference last weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Jason Lisle and Bill Hoesch, a physicist and a geologist, were here. It was a great time. If you did not get a chance to see everything or anything, you can go to Mesa Hills Bible Church’s YouTube page and you can watch those messages that we have recorded. That was great stuff.

It was a busy week, and then we followed that up with Vacation Bible School that ended Friday night. It was a fantastic time. At the conference, we had about 80 or 90 folks each day. For Vacation Bible School, we had about 40 kids from Monday through Friday. We prepared for all that by sending out the gospel. Invitations went out in the mail for the conference and for VBS. We did that mailer about three weeks ago where we sent the gospel out to 25,000 homes here in Colorado Springs. About 50,000 people got the gospel.

As we think about our study in Revelation 18 this morning and the fact that God is going to bring a judgment on this world—and it is going to be a horrific judgment—we have to remember what the Great Commission is. God’s commandment to the church is this: Go into the world and preach the gospel of Christ, calling people to repentance and faith. Make disciples of all the nations. This is what our job and calling is. We just need to keep doing what God has commanded us to do as we look at what is happening in this world. There is lots of bad stuff on every side, but our calling is to preach the gospel and we must make sure that we never forget that commandment.

When it comes to Christian living, faithful Christians have an interesting calling because we basically have a balancing act of maintaining the way that we respond to evil in the world. On the one hand, Christians are called to hate evil and to preach against it and call people to repentance. In Ephesians 5:11, Paul says, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them." Our calling is to say that it is sin, you need to turn from it, and believe in Christ. We are to hate evil and to call people to turn from it.

On the other hand, we are also called to have compassion and concern for those people whose lives are dominated by sin because you and I were once those people. If you are a Christian, there was a time, no matter how nice of a kid you were—maybe you were a good kid growing up. I cannot try to say that I was because I have got my family sitting here. But when you look at the unsaved world, even those that are engaged in lots of sin, our calling is to care for those people by bringing them the gospel.

We are not to turn our back away from the unsaved world, but our calling is to have compassion for the unsaved and bring them the gospel. That does not mean that we approve of wicked ways. That is what they want. They want us to say, "Oh, that is wonderful. Let's have a whole month dedicated to your sin." They want people to say that this is good and let's celebrate it. No, we cannot do that, but that does not mean that we have to have a hateful attitude toward the unsaved world. We are not to have a hateful attitude. We can hate the evil, but we are to have concern for those unsaved people.

When God brings His Son back to this world—Jesus Christ is going to return to this world, I guarantee you—God says so in His Word. Jesus Christ is going to come back. He is going to bring a judgment on evil that we could never accomplish and He is going to establish His kingdom on this earth. We are not in the kingdom of God right now. I am just amazed at people who make these claims and say we are in the kingdom of God right now. They do not cite any Bible verses when they do this.

We are going to look at what the Bible says. Christ is going to return. He is going to bring His kingdom to this world, and when He does this, it is going to be a different world, a radically different world. As we see in Revelation 17 and 18, a big part of this final judgment is going to be His judgment on what the Bible calls Babylon the Great, a religious system. It seems to be a religious system that rises up at the end of the age in the day of the Lord, that final seven-year tribulation period after the Rapture.

What God says in Revelation 17 and 18 is, "I am going to bring a huge judgment on Babylon." So far, we have seen in verses 1 through 19 three prophetic promises about this judgment that God is going to bring on Babylon. This morning, we are going to look at two more prophetic promises of how God is going to judge evil. It is interesting because when you look through verses 1 through 19 and you look at this judgment that is going to come down upon the world, the whole world is mourning and crying about all of the destruction that has come to the world because of God's judgment.

For example, back in Chapter 18, if you look at verse 10, the kings of the earth are standing—the leaders, the political leaders of the world—saying, "Woe, woe, the great city." Then in verse 11, the merchants of the earth, all the business people that did business with Babylon, they weep and they mourn over Babylon. The whole world is saying, "This is terrible." This is what you get in verses 1 through 19. But then, interestingly, God comes on the scene and says, "No, you should not be sad about this."

Robert Thomas, in his commentary, says just as verses 9 through 19 told about the sorrow of all of these people mourning over the destruction of Babylon, verse 20 says, "No, you should rejoice over this." Once again, we see this idea that as Christians, we are to have a different view of this world and a different view of evil. Here in verses 20 to 24, we are going to look at two final prophetic promises about what God is going to do at the end of the age. Let's read these verses together as a unit. Verse 20 to 24 says this:

"Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her. And a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, 'Thus will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer. And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.'"

We are to have a different attitude, and God's Word tells us why we are supposed to think differently about this world. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your goodness to us, that You have not left us in the darkness of our unsaved sin, but You have shown us grace and You have brought us to Yourself. We do not deserve this forgiveness. Nobody does. But we praise You and thank You for sending Your Son, and we thank You for drawing us to Jesus. We pray that You would help us through this study to understand Your saving grace and Your plan so that we can be better messengers of this gospel message. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen.

We come down to verse 20, 18:20, and we see this fourth promise of God's destruction of Babylon, and it is a call for rejoicing. There is a call to rejoice, but there is also a reason for rejoicing. When he says here in verse 20, "Rejoice," this word is basically, "Have a party. Make merry." For example, this is the same word, if you remember back in Luke’s gospel, when there was the prodigal son who walked away from his family and abandoned everything and abandoned God. He was gone for this long time, and then one day they look down the road and they see this prodigal son coming back. The father says, "Hey, rejoice." Same word. "Make merry. We need to have a party. Quick, go kill a calf. We are going to have a big celebration because this son of mine was dead, but he is alive. He was lost and now he is found. We need to have a party."

This is the same word that is used right here in verse 20. The whole world is saying, "Oh, Babylon is gone. It's all ruined." The whole world is going to fall under God's judgment, but then God says, "No, you need to have a party because I have finally brought the judgment on evil." So much of the book of Revelation brings language and imagery that comes all out of the Old Testament. There is a lot of imagery and language that comes out of the Old Testament in like Jeremiah that talks about Babylon. This also, this idea of throwing the party because Babylon, the ancient world power, was the one that invaded Israel in 605 BC and destroyed Israel, destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon's Temple.

God says, "Okay, I saw what you did to my people. I'm going to get you, and when I bring justice on you, Babylon, there's going to be a huge party." In Jeremiah 51:48, it says, "Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers will come against her from the north. Indeed, Babylon will fall for the slain of Israel, as also for Babylon the slain of all the earth." Babylon is worthy of judgment for what it did to the people of Israel.

I have explained this as we have been going through the book of Revelation. You see that there was a judgment that God brought on ancient Babylon, and He did it by bringing in the Medo-Persian armies in 539 BC. But as you look at these prophecies of the Old Testament, as in Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Zechariah, you see that those prophecies of God dealing with Babylon, some of these prophecies speak about something that has not yet happened. It is eschatological. It is end time, and these things have not been fulfilled. But the language and the imagery God uses in the book of Revelation says, "Guess what? There's still a future judgment that is going to fall on Babylon."

This is what we see happening right here. This is a really big topic to deal with. Right here in verse 20, we see that four groups are singled out. He says, "Rejoice, heaven, saints, apostles, and prophets." When we talk about apostles and prophets, the prophets were messengers that God raised up to speak His Word by the Holy Spirit. Prophecy in the Bible was always a work of the Holy Spirit speaking directly to a chosen messenger, a prophet, and they spoke forth words from God. That is what it says in 2 Peter 1:21. Prophecy was always a message directly from God.

We have people today that say, "Oh, I'm a prophet." Yeah, the false prophet. There is no gift of prophecy working today. Contrary to what you will see and hear in the Pentecostal and Charismatic circles—because I guarantee you right now there are people all over the world, all over Colorado Springs, saying, "Oh yeah, well, God gave me a message. The Lord spoke to me. The Holy Spirit said." Biblically speaking, that is absolutely not true. I will tell you, when you go throughout history and you see wicked religions that rise up, it is because they said, "God is talking to me." Muhammad said, "God is talking to me." Joseph Smith and the Mormons said, "God spoke to me." It is all over the place. Do not buy into that stuff.

The apostles had prophetic giftedness, but the apostles were a group of 12 men that were eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ. If you want to know four key characteristics of what an apostle is, an apostle of Jesus Christ was one that saw Christ in His resurrection. That is what it says in Acts 1:22 and 1 Corinthians 9:1. An apostle was one that was personally chosen by Christ to be His eyewitness. John 15:16, Jesus said, "You didn't choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you." An apostle of Jesus Christ is one that receives prophetic revelation that gives us the New Testament. Ephesians 2:20. An apostle of Jesus Christ is one that had miraculous powers. In 2 Corinthians 12:12, here is what Paul said: "Hey, when I was with you Corinthians, I did the true signs of an apostle. I did signs and wonders and miracles."

These other guys that are claiming to be apostles, they do not do miracles. Now, I guarantee you there are people out there in the world today that say, "Oh yeah, I'm an apostle." No, they are not. This is arrogance. It is deception and it is arrogance for these people to be claiming these things. If you have questions about that, talk to me. I have got plenty of stuff on this topic. But what you have here are God calling out to the apostles and saying, "You need to rejoice."

Just think about this for just a minute. The apostles of Jesus Christ were all killed for their faith. John, at this point here, is the last living apostle of Christ. John himself is being called on to rejoice. John was there, for example, if you go back to Acts 12, John was there to see when Herod Agrippa I killed his brother, the apostle James. John lived to see Nero kill the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul. John lived at this point here—John is probably about 95 years of age and he has lived to see all of these precious brothers preaching Christ and killed for their faith.

John only saw in that first century a little fraction of how many would be killed over the ages. Historical studies have suggested that there were probably about 900 and something people that were killed for their faith, all people, in the first century after the church came into existence. Under a thousand. That is an estimate from people who have tracked numbers on that. Whatever the exact number is, it does not matter. What is going to happen in the tribulation period is there is going to be persecution and martyrdom like never seen.

John would have seen the death of his brother. John would have seen Peter being crucified in Rome. John would have seen Paul getting his head chopped off. John would have been living to see Thomas killed in India for his faith in Jesus Christ. John would have known about all these things. But what is going to happen in the tribulation period is there is going to be persecution like never seen before. Right now, what God does is God says, "Hey, rejoice over it all."

Why? The answer is, look, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her. You see, the tribulation period after the Rapture, when you have the day of the Lord coming upon this world, this is going to be the time period that all of these persecuted, martyred saints have waited for. Even if you did not experience martyrdom, we are living in a world that is just being overtaken by evil. Evil has been here since Genesis 3, but we are watching in our own culture a massive onslaught of evil like America has never seen before. It really is like America has never seen.

When God brings this judgment on the world, God is saying, "Hey, time to rejoice." Look back with me at Chapter 6 of Revelation. Notice what happens to these people that are being killed in the tribulation period. Revelation 6:9-11 says, "When He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar"—this is the altar of incense in heaven, a vision of this altar of incense—"I saw the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' And there was given to each one of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the full number of their fellow servants and their fellow brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also."

There is a long history, a long history of believers being killed. Why? Because they belong to God and Satan and the unsaved world hates them. That is what this is all about. Why did Cain kill Abel? It tells us in 1 John it is because Cain was an unbeliever and Abel was a believer. So, brother murders brother because of the fact that the brother is saved and Cain was not.

I want to read you a little story here about one of these martyrdoms. How many of you know the name Michael Sattler? Anybody? Josh might, you have probably been there and seen where he was killed. Michael Sattler was one of the early believers in the Reformation. He was one of the guys that is called an Anabaptist because what happened is that the Reformation—which basically we tie the beginning of it, although this is not an absolute date, but we look to Martin Luther and say, "This is Martin Luther sparking the Reformation." But what happened is that as people began going back to the Bible, they began saying, "Salvation is through faith alone." That is what Luther said, right?

Luther invented the idea of salvation through faith, right? Trick question here. No, Luther did not invent the idea of salvation through faith alone. He got saved and he recognized it. But what happened in the Reformation is that you had all kinds of other Bible studies happening from these new believers, and they began to say, "Hey, guess what? There's a whole lot of stuff that we believe that is not biblical." For example, baptizing babies. They said, "This is not biblical." In the Bible, baptism is a declaration of faith from somebody that has understood the gospel and believed.

Guess what? We have strands of Christianity that still exist today that say, "Oh no, you’ve got to baptize babies." That is an unbiblical idea. Unbiblical idea. What happened is that those people back in the early 1500s that began to recognize this, they were reforming even beyond some of the reformers, and they said, "No, it is only salvation through faith alone. Baptism is what a believer does to declare their faith." These people, they were called the Anabaptists, which means to be baptized again. So they practiced adult baptism, believer baptism—and that could include kids, but kids who believe.

Michael Sattler got saved in 1525. He was a Catholic priest and he got saved. These guys were all part of the circle that existed with Huldrych Zwingli down in Zurich, Switzerland. But some of his followers, they were called the Brethren, and these Brethren said, "Wait, we should be getting baptized as adults when we come to faith." Well, Michael Sattler believed what you and I believe. We believe it's Christ alone, He died for our sins, it's faith alone, it's the scripture alone. They killed him for this. I am just going to read to you the verdict that was brought down.

"The judges having returned to the room, the sentence was read: 'In the case of the attorney of his Imperial Majesty versus Michael Sattler, judgment is passed that Michael Sattler shall be delivered to the executioner who shall lead him to the place of execution and cut out his tongue, and then forge him fast to a wagon, and thereon with red-hot tongs, twice tear pieces from his body. And after he has been brought outside the gate, he shall be plied five times more in the same manner. After this had been done in the manner prescribed, he was burned to ashes as a heretic. His fellow brethren were executed at the sword, and the sisters were drowned. His wife also, after being subjected to many entreaties, admonitions, and threats under which she remained steadfast, was drowned a few days later.'" Michael Sattler was executed on May 21, 1527, having been a born-again believer for two years.

This was the Catholic Church. That was the Roman Catholic world. By the way, it was the Emperor of Austria who really hated Sattler and went after him. But when you look at all the stuff that has flowed throughout history with wicked religion operating in association with wicked political powers—we have seen this relationship of wicked political powers, wicked governments, and wicked religion operating—the Catholic Church has been a big part of that throughout history.

What you see in the book of Revelation is there is going to come a climax and a culmination here in this tribulation period. John says, "Yeah, here's Babylon the Great." It says this has been going on throughout the ages, but there's going to come a culmination of wicked political power working in harmony with wicked religion. But God says, "I see it. I'm going to deal with it."

So there is this long history of persecutions going on. Historical studies that were done from Gordon-Conwell Seminary have estimated with good reason that about 70 million Christians have been killed over the last 2,000 years. About 70 million Christians have been killed, but guess what? More than half of them died in the 20th century under communist regimes, fascist and communist regimes. So in the 20th century, atheist wicked power structures, atheism—when people say, "Oh, religion's always the cause of evil," that really is not true. It is the religion of atheism. In the 20th century alone, 35 million—it's estimated that 35 million Christians were killed under people like Mao and Stalin and so on.

They estimate that 1 million Christians were killed between 2000 and 2010, and another million from 2010 to 2020. That is 2 million Christians killed for their faith just in the last 20 years. History has a lot of martyrs' blood. But guess what? It is going to become even worse in the tribulation period. In Revelation Chapter 7, verses 9 to 17, John said, "I saw an innumerable multitude from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation being killed for their faith, coming into the presence of God."

The point is this: there is a massive debt of sin and evil that is building up, and what you see right here in Revelation is that the day has finally come when God says, "I'm going to settle the scores." When God settles the scores on sin, it is going to be fair. He is going to give the unsaved world what it deserves. Look at Chapter 16 of Revelation. Notice what happens here during the seven bowl judgments.

Revelation Chapter 16, verse 4: "The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the 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 have 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.'"

We have a real inability in Western culture to punish evil. I mean, you could just watch the news day in and day out, and you see stories about somebody that has committed rape or murder, and for these guys, nothing happens to them. You go, "What in the world is going on here? How come nobody is punishing evil?" The reason why is because our wicked political leaders and the wicked judges, the unsaved political leaders and the unsaved judges, do not have the capacity for saying, "That is wrong." Because as soon as you say there is right and wrong, you are just establishing the idea that there is a God and that there is such a thing as right and wrong. So they cannot call evil evil.

Well, you know what? When God brings His day in, it is going to be a different story. MacArthur says heaven will have quite a different perspective on Babylon's judgment than the Antichrist and his followers. The long-awaited moment of vindication, retribution, and vengeance for which the martyred tribulation believers prayed for will finally have arrived.

Now, let's apply this to ourselves, coming back to this thing about this balancing act that you and I have to deal with. Because the Bible talks about the fact that we are supposed to hate evil just like God hates evil and that God is going to judge evil. We cannot be swayed by a world that says, "Oh no, you cannot say that that is bad. If you say this is bad, we are going to fire you. If you preach against these things, we are going to come against you and arrest you."

Last week in Massachusetts, there was a 75-year-old woman, a grandmother, and they sent her to prison because she was praying on the sidewalks in front of an abortion clinic. They sent a 75-year-old woman to prison for praying in front of an abortion clinic. You know what an imprecatory prayer is in the Bible? That is where the psalmist is praying for God to judge evil. Imprecatory prayers are not ungodly. Imprecatory prayers are biblical. We should be praying for God, by whatever means and wisdom God says is good and best—you can pray that God will remove evil people from our land and replace evil leaders with righteous leaders.

Listen to this: Psalm 7, verse 6: "Arise, O Lord, in Your anger; lift Yourself up against the rage of my adversaries; arouse Yourself, O Lord, for me, for You have appointed judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You, and over them return on high. The Lord judges the peoples. Vindicate me, O Lord," says the psalmist, "according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me. Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end and establish Your righteousness."

Psalm 139, verse 19, King David says, "Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God." Oh wait, David should be going out and handing out flowers to those people. No, when David prays—now David, if you follow the life of David, you see he was a godly, righteous man that believed in good and he was a gracious person. You can see that. But David is looking at within Israel wicked people who were intent on hating God and destroying the good things of Israel.

Here is what David says, by the Holy Spirit. David says, "Oh, that You, O God, would slay the wicked. Depart from me, you men of bloodshed." David says, "For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies, O Lord, they take Your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with utmost hatred. They are my enemies."

Wow, that is strong stuff, is it not? Listen, this is Spirit-inspired scripture showing that God's people should hate evil, speak against it, and pray that God would stop it. But again, I remind you that as we do this, there is also this balancing act, if you want to call it that, where we have to watch our own heart. So right after David prayed these things about the wicked, listen to what he says in the next verse, Psalm 139, verse 23. He says, "Search me, O God, know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there is any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way."

"Oh God, I pray that You would stop these evil people, but help me to not be consumed with unrighteous hate." That is the balancing act that we have living in a fallen world. Last night, we had dinner with some friends that were down from Castle Rock, Todd and Susan. We went to seminary with Todd back in the early 90s, and we became good friends and we are still friends. He said, "You know, man, on the one hand as I look ahead to the end of the age and Christ coming back, I want to see my grandchildren grow up, and I want to be able to see the joy of watching my family grow and follow Christ." He says, "But I just look at what this world is and I know that I should long for Christ to come and fix it."

Don't each one of us have that same sense? We should. There are a lot of nice things that we still have in this world, but dear friends, as it is right now, this world is not our home. We are going to be here when Christ comes and brings His kingdom, so this world is our home in that sense, but not the way it is right now. This is not the way it's supposed to be.

That brings us down here to verses 21 to 24 with the fifth and final prophetic promise that God says about Babylon. It is a series of illustrations about God's judgment. Sometimes an illustration just does justice to what words try to communicate. What we see here in verses 21 to 24 are three illustrations of the catastrophic, violent overthrow that God is going to bring on evil.

The first of these comes in verse 21. It is the image of a stone being cast into the sea. Look at verse 21: "A strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, 'Thus will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will never be found again.'" A strong angel picks up this massive stone and hurls it. It is called a millstone right here. Now, a millstone is about four to five feet in diameter and about typically about a foot thick. You are talking about hundreds of pounds, maybe into the thousands.

Jesus said, "I tell you, if you were to sin against a fellow Christian, it would be better for you to have one of those millstones hung around your neck and dropped into the bottom of the ocean." That is how serious it is to sin against other believers. But these are massive millstones. So what you have happening right here is that John, by the Spirit in this vision, sees a strong angel pick up this giant millstone and throw it into the sea.

This is kind of like the mob, right? We are going to give him some cement shoes and send him down with the fishies. When Lake Mead was suffering from this drought over the past few years, they began finding all kinds of stuff in the bottom of Lake Mead, literally people in barrels that were killed and drowned. In this vision, John sees this angel throwing Babylon into the sea. Babylon is going to go swimming with the fishies. Babylon, the great city, will be thrown down with violence and never seen again.

Once again, the imagery is coming right out of the Old Testament. In Jeremiah Chapter 51, verse 63, it says this: God told Jeremiah, "As soon as you finish reading this scroll about judgment, take this stone and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River and say, 'Just so shall Babylon sink down and never rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her.'" The language and the imagery is now being used to speak about this final judgment upon Babylon the Great in the tribulation period.

You’ve got to understand something. When you look at some of the passages that talk about God's judgment on ancient Babylon, Persia came in 539 BC and carried out God's purpose for bringing a judgment on Babylon. By the way, God even named out the name of the Persian king who would bring the armies in. In Isaiah 44:28, God says, "Well, the name of the Persian king is Cyrus. He's going to lead the armies of Persia to destroy Babylon."

When God spoke those words through Isaiah, that was 700 BC. Persia did not come on the scene until 539 BC. God named out the name of the Persian king that would bring destruction to ancient Babylon. So some of the prophecies of the Old Testament were directly fulfilled in 539, but many of these passages speak about something that goes beyond what happened historically, and it is because there is going to be this one final judgment on Babylon the Great.

In Jeremiah 51:26, it says when Babylon is judged, they will not even take a stone for you for a foundation. In Jeremiah 51:37, it says Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and hissing without inhabitants. When Babylon fell to the Persians in 539, people kept living there continuously. The city was not destroyed; people continued living there, it was just that Persia now had control of it. So something really radical is yet to happen, and that is what we see in the book of Revelation.

Regardless of the precise details on how these things unfold—and I have to say I have studied this for a long, long time and taught it many times—there are things in here where I have to say I am not quite sure exactly how this fits together and exactly what some of these things mean. I do not think anybody can say it dogmatically, and the scholars who really study these things will say, "Well, it looks like it could be this or maybe this."

That is okay. Regardless of what exactly is going to be taking place, I can tell you this. There are some larger principles at work, and here is one of them: God is going to send Jesus Christ back to this world. Jesus said, "I am coming again, and you better be ready." The Bible says that when Christ returns, He is going to judge evil. He is going to bring a judgment on evil and He is going to purge a wicked world of evil. When you read this in Revelation 19, there's going to be massive removal of evil.

This is something that you and I have to rejoice in. Jesus said this: "When you pray, here is how you should pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." When He says, "Hallowed be Your name," literally that means may Your name be recognized as holy. That is what is going to happen when Christ returns. They are not going to be mocking Jesus Christ in that day. Christ will bring glory to God when He returns and God's will is going to be done on earth just like it is by holy angels in heaven. This is the day we are to pray for.

John gives a second illustration of this judgment in verses 22 and 23. This time, it is the idea that there is going to be a complete end of all of the life in Babylon that presently is there. Just think about a city like New York City. I know some of you were born in New York City. Raise your hand if you were born in New York. There he is. I did not want to single you out, but you bravely raised your hand.

What did Frank say about it? "I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps. New York, New York." Now, I have not lived in New York City. I have been there a couple of times. But Frank Sinatra says it is the city that never sleeps. My point of reference is Las Vegas because that is where I was born. Las Vegas is a city that never sleeps. You have constant nonstop action going on in Las Vegas. If you go in a casino, what you hear 24/7 is the sound of slot machines. What God does here is He talks about a city where there is just life, all kinds of life, and yet when He is done with it, silence.

Look at verse 22: "The sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer, O Babylon." Curiously, this also is coming right out of imagery from the Old Testament prophets. In Jeremiah Chapter 25, but kind of curiously, when you look at Jeremiah 25:5 and it talks about this, in Jeremiah 25 when God talks about a complete end of all of the activity and the life, in that particular passage in Jeremiah 25, Babylon was the one bringing a judgment on the people of Judah, Israel, for their sin. God is saying to Israel, "When Babylon's done judging you, it's going to be an end of all the activity. Silence is going to come."

But here, by the Spirit of God, that imagery is now being applied to Babylon the Great at the end of the age. Total cessation of life. Notice all the musicians and musical instruments: harpists, musicians, trumpet players, flutists. What a terrible thing it would be to not have music, huh? All the music is going to come to an end for Babylon in that day.

Furthermore, verse 22, there is going to be a complete loss of life with all kinds of activity. Look at verse 22: "No craftsman of any craft will be found in you, Babylon, any longer, nor the sound of a mill will be heard in you any longer." Construction work is loud, right? You construction workers know about that, slamming and banging, hammers crashing, everything else, saws going off. Not when God is done with Babylon.

MacArthur's Study Bible makes this little comment: The fall of Babylon ends whatever semblances of normalcy still exist in the world. Life will be disrupted. Verse 23, the imagery continues here: "And the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer, Babylon, nor the voice of the bridegroom or the bride will be heard in you any longer." One writer says so complete will Babylon's destruction be that none of the normal activities of human life will take place. I have used this expression several times over the past weeks: it will be the end of life as we know it. It will be like one of these apocalyptic end-of-the-world movies where everything is destroyed.

You and I might look at that right now and say, "I don't want that. I love my kids. I love my grandkids. I want to see my children grow." Of course we do, because those are good things. But this is what must happen. God must put an end to it. Why is this going to come in this way? Notice what it says here: "Because the merchants of the earth were the great men of the earth, all the big shots, because all the nations, Babylon, were deceived by your sorcery."

That word sorcery, the Greek word is *pharmakeia*. Of course, we get our English word pharmacy from that, but *pharmakeia* was in ancient times a word that meant sorcery because sorcery many times involved different kinds of hallucinogenic drugs and they would make potions and spells using different kinds of hallucinogenic drugs. But the basic idea is this: some kind of spell, magical spell that brings people into slavery of false thinking.

As we look at what Babylon is going to be at the end of the age, what we are talking about here is a demonic system, a demonic religion that operates to bring people under the lies of its system. It says right here that all these power brokers of the earth and all of these nations fell under the captivating power and sorcery of Babylon. Babylon was the seductive godless religion that leads all these nations astray. God says, "That's why I'm going to deal with Babylon. I'm going to bring it down."

Last week, I saw this little thing on Facebook. *Star Wars* was brought out by Disney maybe 15 or 20 years ago. Disney is not a godly company. But they have this new series called *The Acolyte*. In this Disney series, this article that I read said that it features black lesbian space witches who create babies by using the Force. Walt Disney is probably turning in his grave as he sees what they are doing with his company. But this is the spirit of the age. We are just living in a system that has been overtaken by lots and lots of evil, and it is going to come to a climax there in that tribulation period.

Lastly, here in verse 24, you see a third and final illustration about Babylon's destruction. It says in verse 24 that this judgment is going to come "and in her, in Babylon the Great, was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints and of all who have been slain on the earth." Kind of curious, because when you go through the Bible, you can see God single out different groups for their evil when He is dealing with that group.

Jesus in Matthew Chapter 23, verse 35, said, "Jerusalem, you have been guilty for killing all the prophets throughout the ages." Revelation talks about Babylon. In the Old Testament, you see Babylon being singled out as a city of murder and bloodshed. In Revelation Chapter 6, verse 10, it talks about those who dwell on the earth, an expression that we have seen many times where the unsaved world is called those who dwell on the earth. Revelation Chapter 6, verse 10 says these people that have been killed cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

Now, when you come to Revelation Chapter 13, verse 7 and verse 15, it talks about the Antichrist and the false prophet. Revelation 13:7 says it was given to the Antichrist to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Antichrist is killing Christians. A few verses later in Revelation 13:15, it talks about his buddy, the false prophet. It says it was given to the false prophet to give breath to the image of the beast—some kind of image or idol—so that the image of the beast would speak, and he would cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Antichrist is having people executed, believers executed. The false prophet is having people executed.

But then look back to Chapter 17. Notice what happens here when we come to Babylon the Great. Look at 17, verses 5 and 6. It says, "On the forehead of this woman was a name, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of abominations of the earth." Then verse 6, "And I saw the woman, Babylon the Great, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled greatly."

There are different kinds of groups that are identified as being guilty for all of this martyrdom of God's people. Right here in 17:6, it is said to be Babylon the Great. Then look ahead to Chapter 19. Notice what happens when heaven begins to respond with the hallelujah choruses. Chapter 19, verse 1: "After these things I heard as it were a loud voice of the great multitude in heaven, saying, 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God because His judgments are true and righteous, for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bondservants on her.'" The day of vengeance has finally come.

Again, I am going to quote Thomas in his Revelation commentary. He says here the city of Babylon is not only the scene of martyrdom, but it is through her example that antagonists have killed saints around the world. So ultimately, the guilt for this worldwide slaughter rests on her shoulders. Nothing of this scope has heretofore transpired. This prophecy looks to the future and a massive system will encompass the globe in its animosity against Christ and His people.

Again, I am going to remind you as we close that as I look at every detail of this—and I have given you perspectives by showing you how widespread some of these details are—I find it hard to be dogmatic on every detail. But this much is absolutely clear. Jesus Christ is going to come back. Look with me at Chapter 19. Let's read this. Revelation 19:11. This is the second coming of Jesus Christ. Do not dare to fall for these foolish ideas that say the second coming of Jesus was back in the first century. That is absolutely unbiblical.

Jesus Christ is going to return in the future visibly, physically, bodily. Every eye will see Him. Verse 11: "I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; He has a name written that no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood"—that is the blood of His enemies—"and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven"—the church, the glorified church—"clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He might smite the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, King of Kings, Lord of Lords."

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in the midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of God." There are two suppers in Revelation 19. One of them you want to be at; that is called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The other one you do not want to be at; otherwise, you are going to be the main course. The slaughter of the unsaved.

God says, "Hey, it's buffet time." Come so that, verse 18, you may eat from the flesh of kings, commanders, mighty men, horses, those who sit on them, all men, free men, slave, small and great. Then John says, "I saw the Antichrist, the beast, and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse and His army." Bad things are going to happen to these guys that hate Christ and try to fight Him. They are going to lose. Verse 20: "The beast was seized and the false prophet, and they were cast alive into the lake of fire. The rest of these unsaved armies were killed with the sword." This is the Word of God. This is Jesus Christ returning to judge this world. This is going to happen.

When it happens, Christ will then establish His kingdom on this earth. How do I know it? Because the Bible says so. Look at the next verse: "And then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great chain was given to him, and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." The Latin word is Millennium. That is what the Millennium is. Christ returns, brings a judgment on evil, and then He binds Satan, casts all the demons out of this world, and He binds Satan for the thousand years.

Verse 3: "He threw Satan into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he and his demons should not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed. After these things, he'll be released for a short time." There is going to be a Millennium with no demons on this earth. Verse 4, John said, "I saw the thrones and all of God's people in resurrection sitting in judgment." There was given to these resurrected saints judgment.

John says, "And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded." Why? Because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God. Here are believers whose heads were chopped off because they believe in Christ. John saw them, these that would not worship the Antichrist, they would not worship the beast, they would not worship his image, they would not take the mark on their hand or their forehead. Look at verse 4: "They came to life and they reigned with Christ for the thousand years."

In the kingdom of God, there are going to be resurrected saints on earth ruling over the world. This is the kingdom of God. This is what the Bible says. When you get people who say, "No, we're in the kingdom of God right now," no we are not. That is not biblical. In the kingdom of God, Christ is going to rule on this earth, and all of the resurrected saints from the Old Testament are going to be here ruling with Christ. The resurrected church is going to be here ruling with Christ. People that were killed by the Antichrist are going to be resurrected, ruling with Christ for the thousand years. This is what the Word of God says.

There's going to be a resurrection to the unsaved at the end of the Millennium. Verse 5: "The rest of the dead didn't come to life until the thousand years were completed. Verse 6: Blessed and holy is the one that shares in the first resurrection; over these, the second death has no power. They'll be priests of God and they'll reign with Christ for the thousand years." John goes on to say that at the end of the Millennium, Satan is released and there's one final rebellion. It does not last very long.

After this, verses 11 to 15 say there is going to be a judgment of all the unsaved of all ages. At the end of the thousand years, they are going to be raised, resurrected, and judged. So there is a resurrection of all believers at the beginning of the Millennium and a resurrection at the end of the thousand years of all the unsaved.

What happens after this? Look at 21:1. John said, "I saw a new heavens and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away; there's no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down." Verse 3: "I heard a loud voice, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among men and they will be His people and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death, no longer any mourning or crying or pain; first things have passed away.' And He says, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"

This is when you come into a completely recreated heavens and earth. This is the Word of God. You and I need to believe the Word of God. Amen? Father, we thank You for Your promises. We believe in Your Son, that He took our judgment and He rose again. Our trust is in Your Son, Jesus Christ. We believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ, is going to return and judge evil and purge it from this world and He is going to bring an eternal kingdom. Never, ever will it pass away. We trust You, we believe You. Help us, O God, to be faithful in the Great Commission until that day when Christ comes. We pray this in His name. Amen.