Simple Faith

Bill Henry: We all owe a debt for our sins, and it is pretty frightening to consider what that debt is. But there is good news.

We are still dead in our sins, and the wrath of God remains upon you. In that wrath, it just basically means you still owe the payment for your sin. You haven't received that payment from Jesus that he paid your debt. No, you still owe that payment, and the payment is this: the payment is an eternity of separation from God in hell and then into the lake of fire. That is the payment for our sin, but Jesus died so we don't have to take that.

Guest (Male): It's a real pleasure to welcome you to Simple Faith. Today on the program, Pastor Bill Henry will continue his verse-by-verse study through Revelation. We're about halfway through the tumultuous happenings found in Chapter 18.

Now, you're familiar, I'm sure, with the old saying: "what goes around comes around." Well, that's exactly what we're seeing here in Revelation 18. The Antichrist and the false prophet and those who have chosen to follow them have had their day in the sun, so to speak, and now it's time to bring this terrible chapter in human history to a close. Jesus Christ is preparing to return to the earth to reign over it for a thousand years. Join us in Revelation Chapter 18.

Bill Henry: I don't care the poorest person here, whoever you are, the poorest person, you're still part of the top 5% of the world's rich. It's crazy to think that way, but that is the truth. I've been to countries where people are living literally in cardboard shacks. To get water, they go down to this big ditch, and they would take water out of this ditch and the kids are bathing and pooping and peeing upriver in the same river.

The food they are going through dump sites and other such things. That's most of the world. We think this is the norm. That's why I think we have so many spoiled brats, I call them, within the woke movement today because they've never been outside of this country to a country where food isn't like it is here, clothing isn't like it is here. But again, we need to be careful, beloved in Jesus, not to get caught up in this world more than we have to.

Notice he says here, and again, this is future, but this is applicable to all of us. "Hey, come out of her, my beloved, lest you share in her sins and you receive her plagues." We need to be careful not to get too much into the world because we are not of the world anymore. Turn with me, please, to 2 Corinthians Chapter 6. We find a warning about this for us today.

Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God's temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

As God said, "I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they will be my people." Therefore, come out from among unbelievers and separate yourself from them, says the Lord. Do not touch their filthy things and I will welcome you. And I will be your father and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

Now, it's interesting because a lot of us will say, "Well, golly, we have to be in the world." I don't want to become so snooty that we're not being the light and salt that we're called. I'll be honest, I've rarely met that person who is so worried about being holy that they're not in the world as much as they should be. You see, we have a holy God living within us.

Be careful. Come out from amongst the world. We shouldn't be watching the movies that the world is watching. We shouldn't be watching the television shows or listening to the music. We shouldn't be caught up even in the American dream that the world is caught up in. And we shouldn't teach that to our children. Yet so many of us even here, we do this continually because we think that's the way it's to be.

We want our children to have better lives than we had. We want them to make more money than we had. I'll be honest, I don't care how much my daughters make. I don't care how much my sons-in-law make. How are they doing with Jesus? Sincerely. I don't care if they're working at McDonald's. I don't care.

So many of us want my daughter to be a lawyer, I want my son to be a doctor, I want them to be rich. Now, again, I'm not saying if God has called you to those positions, great, go. But go to bring glory to God. Don't go to be rich. Don't go to have position or to be in the world. "Well, what's your position?" "Well, I'm a doctor. Call me Doctor Henry." No, I'm going to call you Henry, bro. I'm not calling you doctor nothing.

Be careful is all I'm saying because it's so insidious. It's so easy to get caught up on that train. "Well, everybody else has a house, we have to have a house. Everybody else has two cars, we have to have two cars. Everybody else has, let's make sure we have our kids all go to school and put themselves in debt." But have we prayed about it? Have we taught our children to seek the Lord? Have we done that? Or are we caught up in the American dream?

Just because we were formed as a quote-unquote Judeo-Christian country doesn't mean that all the values that are put forth are from the Word of God. So be careful is all I'm saying. Look at verse 5. It says, "for her sins have reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities." And as we're looking around today, the lawlessness, the sinfulness, the good being called evil and evil good, this is all being set up right before our eyes.

You know, it's interesting to note, Babylon, okay, so this we're talking about the destruction of Babylon. Babylon is where the first Tower of Babel was built. Remember the Tower of Babel? What were they trying to do with the tower? Reach the heavens. Guess what? They never made it. But they did with their sins. Your sins have reached to heaven. Dude, whew.

Verse 6, "Render to her just as she rendered to you and repay her double according to her works. In the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow. For she says in her heart, 'I will sit as queen and I am no widow and will not see sorrow.'"

Basically, what they're saying here is let them be as cursed with the same amount of greed they had. Let them be a curse just as much with the cursing as much greed that they had. You know, the Bible says in Galatians Chapter 6, verse 7 and 8, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."

What are you sowing to, guys and gals? Be careful. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and we see this. The world, all it does is tells us to be more, to be more unhappy, not to be settled with what we have. We deserve more. Look, we deserve hell. But God in His grace and His love gave us Jesus Christ so we could have heaven for all eternity.

Look at verse 8. "Therefore her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be utterly burned with fire. For strong is the Lord God who judges her." Now, several of your modern commentators believe this city, whether it be New York, whether it be Rome, whether it be Babylon rebuilt or some other city, that it will be destroyed as we see here with fire. And they believe it will be a nuclear bomb.

It'll be a nuclear attack here. That's what they see here. And to be honest, if you read the description and what is to come, it does make a lot of sense. And again, remember no matter how it comes, it is God judging her. So notice again, these it will happen in one day, utterly burned with fire.

Look at verse 9. "The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her." Notice "when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment." Again, that if there is radiation, that would make total sense standing afar off. "Saying alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come."

Golly, even if we sent all the bombers in the world, it would still take I think more than one hour to wipe out a city. I could be wrong with some of the armaments that are out there, but just seems to make sense here. But notice something as the kings are crying out. Notice they're lamenting for her. They don't care about the people that are dying. They care about the money that they're going to lose.

It'll be the same with the store owners. Look at verse 11. "And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her for no one buys their merchandise anymore." It's gone. Imagine no more Amazon wiped out. Remember when Amazon first started back in the early 2000s, it was books. That was all it was, all books. But now most a lot of people buy a lot of their stuff merchandise through them.

Imagine you can't buy Grubhub anymore. Maybe the whole internet is wiped out now, who knows, within an hour's time. "Merchants of the earth will weep and mourn." Look at verse 12. "Merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple silk, scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object most precious wood, bronze, iron and marble, and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots and bodies and souls, slaves of men."

It's very interesting to note in verses 12 and 13 that these are all luxury items. Even the flour is the fine flour and wheat. It's very interesting to note this. Even there at the end where it says "bodies and souls, slaves of men." I think most of us here know that today there are more slaves in the world than there has ever been in the history of mankind. And the majority of these, from what I've read, are sexual slaves.

I just saw a news story just yesterday. Some fellow was following a big semi-truck and saw a little hand sticking out the back of the semi-truck and called the police. And sure enough, they pulled them over and it was a sexual slave ring thing going on. Wicked stuff. Think about how entrenched this sexual wickedness is within the entertainment industry.

I saw an interview with Shirley Temple back in the '30s and '40s, there was a bunch of sexual perversion towards her, towards her mom. Mickey Rooney, again, I'm talking mainly to a lot of the older people here. And then you go to today, there was just a whole thing, I forget which channel it was on. It wasn't the Disney Channel, but one of the others where there was all kinds of sexual abuse happening to the child stars.

A lot of the young people know I forget who it is. But how about Epstein Island? Ever since all that information came out, they had all the court documents from the lady they sent away. And, you know, Epstein killed himself. Uh-huh. But notice we've not read of one famous or powerful person who's gone to prison for these things.

And yet we read of these people who frequent the island continually. We're talking the very rich and very famous. But not one person. Why not? Because it's all part of their system. Again, they still hold great places of power and I believe that this allusion here at the end of slaves, but they won't have them anymore. For some reason, this is all gone.

Verse 14. "The fruit of your soul longed for has gone from you and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you and you shall find them no more at all." Take note of that, never ever again. Not in the coming thousand. See, here's the beautiful thing. The reason I love getting through this chapter is because we're coming to Chapter 19, right?

We're coming to the thousand-year reign of Christ. We're coming to the new heavens, the new earth, all this beautiful radical stuff. But there's not going to be any of this stuff in the new thousand-year reign of Christ. There's not going to be anything in the new heavens and new earth. There's not going to be all this junk, right? It's going to be none of this splendid things, rich and splendid. You will find them no more at all forever.

I think that's awesome. Look at verse 15. "The merchants of these things who became rich by her will stand at a distance in fear for her torment." Again, notice another one standing afar off. "Weeping and wailing and saying alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing."

"Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors and as many as trade on the sea stood at a distance." Notice, why is everybody standing at a distance? It would, again, it would make sense if it is something nuclear. "And cried out when they saw the smoke out of her burning, saying 'What is like this great city?'"

Verse 19. "And they threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying 'alas, alas, that great city in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she is made desolate.'" Interesting to note the way that they're mourning. In New York, when people mourn, I rarely see them throw dust on their heads. Neither in Rome, but this is very common in the Middle East. This is part of how they mourn and wait, weep and wail. So again, to me another pointing that it's at least in the Middle East there.

Now, notice in verse 20. "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her." Now we went from the world's view: they're weeping and mourning, they're just tearing themselves, all this is gone, all the good stuff is gone. But then in heaven, I love this, "Rejoice over her!" Rejoice that she is fallen, basically. "O heaven, you and your holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her."

Now, we're going to come into more of this in the beginning of Chapter 19, what actually happens in heaven. They break into praise and worship. This is such a rejoicing because it's basically one of the last things to fall, if you will, before the return of Christ. But notice here: "Rejoice, O heaven, you holy apostles and prophets." This is not gloating. This is not inappropriate.

For remember that both Babylon systems, both of them had shed the blood and killed countless saints of God. Countless prophets and holy people of God that we see here. "And for God has avenged you on her." So again as we're going to see in verse 24, that basically that they had killed countless Christians.

But again, it's interesting so many think sometimes. Notice how they continued on until God finally stopped them. They had no thoughts of God as we were reading at the fall of Babylon and they're just mourning that they're not going to be making this money or get the good stuff anymore.

So many even today, they think that because God does not smite them right after they sin, that He doesn't care about their sin or He's not there at all. I've talked to people and said, "Well, you know, I started and I really felt bad about doing this, but then I did it and I waited for the lightning from heaven to fall and it didn't come. I was waiting for God to strike me dead and He didn't strike me dead. So I figured eh, I can go do it again."

The second time I didn't have as much thought about doing it. My conscience didn't bother me quite as much. And so that's what can happen. You see, both of these views are far from the truth. That God doesn't care about the sinner or that there is no God at all. God does care about sin.

And if we've not turned away from our sins and to Jesus Christ, believing in His death upon the cross for our sins, believing that He died for us, rose from the dead on the third day, believing in Him to be the Lord and Savior of our lives and walking, coming into a relationship with Him, being born again of the Spirit of God. If we have not done that, we are still dead in our sins and the wrath of God remains upon you.

And in that wrath, that just basically means you still owe the payment for your sins. You haven't received that payment from Jesus that He paid your debt. No, you still owe that payment and the payment is this: the payment is an eternity of separation from God in hell and then into the lake of fire and that is the payment for our sin. But Jesus died so we don't have to take that.

But even here we see that this is a just this is justice being performed and so even here we see that God and in heaven is rejoicing. Now, look at verse 21. "Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, 'Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore.'"

So again, just kind of giving an example: this is what it's going to be like. And how can we not but think of Matthew 18, where Jesus said in verse 6, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in and acknowledge and cleave to me to stumble and sin, that is who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea. Woe to this the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong."

Verse 22. "The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore." There'll be no more rejoicing upon the earth, basically. You're not going to hear this anymore. "No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore." Basically, mainly talking about Babylon, though. "Found in you anymore. The sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore." In other words, the grinding of wheat, the making of products.

Verse 23. "The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore and the voice of a bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived." How were they deceived? They were deceived into thinking they needed that next thing. They were deceived into thinking that they needed to spend all of their money on these luxuries and items instead of blessing others as God has commanded us to do as Christians. Be careful again. Don't get caught up in this, guys and gals. So easy.

Look at verse 24. "And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and all who were slain on the earth." So many will be slain in the name of this system because many won't take the mark of the beast, even though it's mainly to worship, say they're worshipping the beast, they'll also be killed, they just won't be able to sell and to buy.

Now, as we close Chapter 18 this morning, we're coming to the end of the Great Tribulation. Anybody else excited about that? I am, I think it's awesome. Jesus is going to return, He's going to rule and reign for a thousand years, and then there'll be a new heavens and a new earth. And we get to see the end of the story. We get to cheat and go to the back of the book. And I don't know about you, maybe you need some extra hope today. Go there today. Read Chapters 19, 20. Read the last few chapters and be blown away at what's coming. Be encouraged that this is not all there is. Amen?

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill from his new series in the book of Revelation. If you'd like to hear today's message again or share it with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

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