Believe it's just gonna be better
and better these last chapters But this this part here in chapter
18 is Cheery and bright But it is for God's people always always
is but Let's begin with verse 7 again.
We looked at verses 7 and 8 last time, but I wanted to spend a
little bit more time on those to set up the rest of this chapter. You know that the first part
of chapter 18 speaks of the fall of Babylon, and in chapter 17,
verse 5, mystery of Babylon, and description of her, and then
the fall, Babylon and then in the beginning of chapter 18 We
get a little bit more insight into that but this whole passage
that we'll look at tonight Concerns the fall of Babylon and the consequences
of that fall and The whole rest of the chapter
the last part too but from the opposite perspective So think
about this, how much she hath glorified herself, talking about
false religion in this world. If there's one thing that identifies
false religion as opposed to the true gospel, it's this question,
who gets the glory? Brother Jack used to say, years
ago, we just have one rule in this church, Who gets the glory? Who gets the glory? There's one
question, there's one litmus test, if you will, that everything
is gonna be judged by. Who gets the glory? And that's
a good question. Does man decide everything or
does God decide everything? Is God trying to get man to do
something for him? Or is it us that desperately
need for God to do something for us? Does God try while man determines? Or does God determine though
man tries? Is God waiting on the sinner
or is the sinner waiting on God? It's just that simple. How much
she hath glorified herself. You know religion is all about
man's will, and man's decision, and man walking an aisle, and
man living the Christian life. It's completely man-centered,
that's why we call it man-centered, free will, false religion. How much she has glorified herself,
how much she repeats over and over, it's up to you, it's all
up to you. How much they glorify themselves
in just recognizing one another. If you walked in without stubbing
your toe this morning, we've got a plaque for you. It's absolutely
ridiculous and I speak from very intimate experience with it.
Though long ago, thank God. And lived luxuriously, that's
the word, luxuriously. They live in a spiritual sense
as though they had need of nothing. We have everything we need right
here. We can get saved. We can get you saved. We can
do what we need to do. We can have a revival. Think about that. Think about
what, if you look up the word revive in the scripture, it's
God breathing fresh life into the soul. We're just gonna have
one of those? How are you gonna do that? What we're gonna do is we're
gonna wait on God. We're gonna cry unto him and pray, Lord,
wake us up. Wake us up. but she lives luxuriously. Listen to, they don't need God.
Listen to Revelation 3.16, 3.16 of Revelation. So then, because
you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out
of my mouth, because you say I'm rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked. She lives as though she has need
of nothing, because she knows not. She knows
not who God is. She knows not what she is. She
knows not how God saves sinners. Our verse says, to the extent
that she hath robbed God of his glory, and to the extent that
she has lived in self-sufficient pride and vainglory, to that
extent, pour out upon her torment and sorrow. For she saith in her heart, I
sit a queen. She don't say it out loud. She speaks of humility, you know,
out loud. And, you know, we're just poor
old sinners, you know. But she, in her heart, she says,
I sit a queen. I decide. My will is inviolable. What I say goes, God waits on
me. This is the reason given for
God's absolute annihilation of this terrible whore. Because
she says in her heart, I'm in charge. She richly deserves to be destroyed.
And when I say she, I'm talking about some of our loved ones. I'm talking about people that
we love. That's why Paul said, others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire. If there's any way God will use
us to pull them out of the fire, God help us. Give us wisdom and
discernment in that, courage in that. It's not too late yet. She richly deserves, she's earned
every bit of it. Instead of her self-righteous
works earning reward as she imagined, They've earned her the wrath
of God. And it'll all come, it says, in one day. And those that
have distanced themselves from her, you see how those who have
been fooled by false religion, there's no real love there. Which the same sentiment is in
our hearts. When our Lord was stricken, we
all forsook him and fled. Every one of us. Simon wanted
to save his own skin. That's why he lied and cursed. But there's no love lost here.
As soon as God begins to judge, everybody's like, whoa, I didn't
have nothing to do with that. Standing back and saying, oh
man, in their heart though, they're saying, Oh, what a tragedy. They mourn the loss of what they
trusted. It'll all come, they said it's
happened in one hour. That just means that it's happened
so suddenly and so swiftly. It doesn't mean a literal hour
or a literal day. And there's no escape. Notice those words, strong is
the Lord. that judgeth her. Strong is the
Lord that judgeth her. And remember now, don't miss
this. The Lord, it says, judges her. At the end of verse eight there,
therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning
and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire. For
strong is the Lord who judgeth her. She says in her heart, I
sit a queen. That word judgeth there. Everybody
always equates judgment with condemnation and wrath. That's
not the right way to characterize that. Judgment just simply means
this. to deem, to determine, to preside
over with power of deciding. That's the exact words from Strong's
Concordance. The definition of that is nobody
sits a queen in his presence, he decides. So it's deliberate,
the wording is deliberate there. The issue, the point of contention,
the point of enmity is who's God? It has been since the garden
now. It's a question of who's gonna
be God? Ye shall be as gods. It's the
same issue now. It'll be the same issue in the
end. Who decides? Whose will is supreme? Who sits
on the throne? Now, the last part of this chapter
is describing three types of sinners that are affected by
the fall of Babylon, that are included in Babylon. And these
three encompass all of humanity. It's just three different descriptions
of everybody, is what it is, and we'll see that as we look
at it. Everybody's included, but as we look at these, this is the encouragement, this
is the blessing, this is the good news. As we're looking at
these three groups of people and how God is judging Remember this God has already called out in
this same chapter in the very context in verse 4 God's already
said to his people Come on out of there Come on out of there. That doesn't mean you were ever
in a Catholic Church or part of a you know Episcopalian whatever
that is. I don't even know what that is
It doesn't mean you were ever a member of that. That's not
what it's talking about. You had to come out though of all
that they do and worship and say and trust, you had to come
out of it. You had to come out of there
and God called you out. That's how you get out. You don't
decide to get out. God says, come out and let there
be light. It happens because God said it. God's people by his saving, electing,
sovereign, free, immutable grace. His people now have come out
of that, have we not? Think about it, what do they
do? They glorify themselves. How has she glorified herself?
What about us? We can't even do that if we wanted
to now. I know that there are ways in
which we still get puffed up and things like that. But when
it comes to the worship of God, the believers cry, it's not unto
us, oh Lord. Not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory. For thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. We don't want any glory. And
then again, we do. Our flesh does, we know that.
But by God's grace, It's just as true that we don't want any. Think about Romans chapter seven.
There were two Pauls that opposed one another. And that's true
in us, our flesh and the spirit of God, our flesh and Christ
in us, the hope of glory. But we say not unto us, Lord,
we don't live deliciously in spirit before God. We don't sit
here and think that we're self-sufficient. And again, our flesh doesn't
change. But before God and by His grace,
we live before God needy and utterly waiting on our Savior
for everything. We have to cry to Him for everything,
no matter what He requires. He says, believe, and we say,
Lord, give us faith. Help our unbelief. He says, pray, and we say, Lord,
teach us to pray. Because he called us out of self-glorifying,
self-sustaining religion. Though we may not have been formally
involved in it, we were in our hearts, we were free willers
before God saved us. That's all that religion is,
is an expression of what we are. None of it good. So the first group that is mentioned
is kings. Now this describes everybody
by nature. You see there in verse nine, And the kings of the earth who
have committed fornication and live deliciously with her, they're
right in the big middle of it. They're not, they can back away
all they want. See in verse 10, it says, standing
afar off for the fear of her torment. Well, guess what? They're
right in the big middle of it. Remember, remember what God said
in that same verse four where he said, why did he tell his
people to come out? Lest you be partaker and receive
her plagues. They're not getting away. They're
not getting away. The kings of the earth. It describes all of us now by
nature. But let's read this. Live deliciously
with her, shall bewail her and lament for her, end of verse
nine, when they shall see the smoke of her burning. It's gonna
be shocking. It's gonna be shocking. They put all their trust. in
false religion. They're all in on it. They're
all tied up in it. And then verse 10, standing afar
off for the fear of her torment, saying, alas, alas, that great
city, Babylon, they're still saying great, but they're shocked
that God is who he is and is doing what he's doing. For in
one hour is thy judgment come, So these kings, now, this is
spiritually, man considers himself the ruler of his own destiny.
This does refer, in a physical, earthly, temporal sense, to the
influential of the world, those who are in leadership in the
world. You see on TV how that they unite
themselves, and, you know, the imagery in our text, it's pretty
graphic. You know, everybody wants to
pose with the Pope. Everybody wants a visit from the Pope.
Everybody wants to, you know, stand next to some big religious
leader and say, I've got his endorsement and things like that.
And we see that, but the spiritual reality is all of us are kings
in our hearts. And that's the problem. She sits
a queen and God says, I'll do the deciding. It ain't gonna
be good for you. That's the issue. And so this
first one, it gets all of us. The nature of false religion
is I sit a queen. And so everybody in false religion
considers themselves royalty in a spiritual sense. They defy
the God of heaven and earth in their hearts. They hate anybody. We've been through this before,
how that everybody wanting to be God reveals itself in everyday
stuff. Why does somebody just think
they can just kill somebody? It's the right thing to do. Me and them can't live in the
same world together, so I'm gonna kill him. Only God can kill. You can't do that. That's not
your right. It's not your right to take somebody's life. Being able to do whatever you
wanna do. I've got a free will. No, you
don't. You're trying to be God, and
you ain't. You're not very good at it. Me
neither. You know, gaining money. God's
got power, he can do, he can have whatever he wants, and that's
what we want too. We wanna have everything we want,
whenever we want it. That's not gonna make you God.
You can't have everything you want. Only what money can buy
if you attain to that, and that ain't much. It's nothing. in God's estimation. In fact,
the love of it is evil. So we've talked about that so
much now. I see a king in your own mind,
your God in your own mind, by nature. They say things like
you can't spell church without you. Have you ever thought about
that? We're talking about God's church
now. You are indispensable. God can't
have a church unless you're in it. God can't have an elect people
unless he includes you. That's a problem. You see, that's
a big problem. You are necessary to God's elect
church. And that's their actual literal
attitude. If God had a church without me, it wouldn't be fair. Well, that's a long way from
God be merciful to me a sinner. That's a long way from Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. Look at verse nine. Again, the
kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously
with her shall bewail her and lament for her when they shall
see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear
of her torment, saying, alas, alas, that great city, Babylon,
that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come. There is an earthly and temporal
truth to this, as we said, the influential, those in leadership
roles in the earth do certainly pay homage to false religion.
And the reason, money, money. False religion, and just Catholicism
alone, but all false religion, takes in massive amounts of money. Massive amounts of money. It's
big big big business and you'd probably be shocked and disgusted
and Infuriated if you knew where
that money ended up if you knew where it went It doesn't all
go in the yacht and the airplane that the pastor has and the two
homes Vacation that ain't gonna account for all of it It's big, big business. It buys
influence. It buys power. But this is an outward display
of a spiritual problem. Those who have not bowed to the
Lord Jesus Christ will be sorry. That's what our text is talking
about. That which they have invested their very soul in is burned
up in one hour. And then next is the false preachers,
described as merchants. Look at this with me. And again,
who is not a propagator of lies against God? This spirit is in
everybody by nature too. They just make up stuff, Romans
chapter one. They knew God, but they refused
to glorify as God and became vain in their imagination, making
gods out of birds and creeping things, whatever suits them. Here they are. Again, it has
an earthly temporal reality to it and actual false preacher,
people that are pastors of churches or priests or whatever they are.
So let's look at it together in verse 11. And the merchants of the earth
shall weep and mourn over her for no man buys their merchandise
anymore. the merchandise of gold and silver,
and it describes all these wonderful things, these useful things,
these things that people, that are attractive and needful for
people. Some of it's wheat and fruits
and things like that. But isn't it interesting that
it ends up saying, souls of men. And we'll see that in a little
while. but they're merchandising the very souls of men. And that's how we know who these
are. You think, well, merchants, that's anybody that buys or sells
goods. How do you know this is false
preachers, Chris? Well, there's no spiritual evil
that could be described by legitimate business transactions. There's
nothing evil or even a picture of evil in carrying on business
in this world. In fact, God said, if you don't
provide for your family, you're worse than an infidel. You were
supposed to do business. And this will remember the parable
when he gave the talents and he said, go do some business.
Go get me a return on my investment. That's part of life. That's God's
way in this life. So how do you know this is false
preachers? Well, there's, how are you gonna, obviously it's
talking about evil. It's talking about spiritual
evil. And that's not gonna picture any kind of spiritual evil. These
are evil transactions in which a product is offered for money
or some return on investment, influence, power, popularity,
whatever. And listen to 2 Peter, turn to
2 Peter 2.1 with me if you would. Let's look at this together.
This is what we're, these are the people we're talking about
here in our text, 2 Peter 2.1. But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways. This is like an exposition of
our text. Many shall follow them, by reason
of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, and through
covetousness and shall they with feigned words make merchandise
of you. You saw that in our text, the
souls of men are on the table here. Now in verse 13, I'm not sure
if we read that far or not. Yeah, we did. In verse 13, chariots
and slaves and souls of men So there it is right there in 2
Peter. They make merchandise of you whose judgment now of
a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
Their damnation is what we're seeing in our times. When God brings their empire
down, nobody's buying their garbage anymore. That's why they're mourning. Now, you know, they're big shots.
They say a few words and you've got thousands of people out here
reacting and laughing and making a big deal about it. Nobody's going to buy that crap
for long. And it's going to be when God
judges, when God shows who he is. It's not going to be marketable
anymore. The lies that they perpetrate. It looks like gold and silver
and precious things now to people. It's just like another commodity.
I believe the reason that all those things are listed is religion
is just like a commodity. People talk about salvation.
It's like, yeah, I've taken care of that. It's like getting life
insurance. I've taken care of that. What
about living for God? What about salvation being an
eternal reality, much less a lifetime reality. It's just a commodity
to them. Looks like things that they,
just another thing that they need, you know. But when it's
all seen for what it is, nobody's buying. Nobody's buying anymore. Who's gonna buy God loves everybody
when they see his actual wrath poured out on those who have
rejected the sovereign Christ of the Bible? Who's gonna buy
that then? Who outside of Noah's Ark would
have bought that? If the Ark said God loves everybody
on the outside of it, who would have bought it? Who would have
believed it? That's what we're talking about.
No more, you're not gonna sell it anymore. Who's gonna buy rosaries
and purgatory and confessions when God's utter condemnation
of such things is revealed? When every knee is forced to
bow, And every tongue is compelled to confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. All of false religions,
illusions and trickery are no longer marketable. When in that day, Christ is seen
to be, listen to this now. When Christ is seen actually
to be the one thing needful. On that day, when he's seen to
be the only thing that matters, everybody's gonna realize that
he always was. That's gonna be a great day for
some, but not for these, not for these. They're mourning,
they're weeping, they're wailing. It says they bewail the defeat
in the fall of Babylon. When in that day he's seen to
be the pearl of great price, everyone will understand that
he always was and always will be. They'll regret
and they'll mourn throughout eternity that they did not sell
all they had and buy that pearl. The third group is also everybody. This spirit of false sovereignty
is in every sinner, as well as the desire to gain from lies
about God. On the one end, the actual false
preachers are gaining everything somebody could want by lying
about God. The people that listen to them
are gaining heaven when they die, and a mansion on the hilltop,
they think. But those two also have reference,
as I said, to earthly realities, and so all-inclusive is this
third group, in case anybody is not represented in those other
two, although there's a sense in which we all are. But listen
to this in verse 17. For in one hour, so great riches
has come to naught. And every shipmaster, and all
the company in ships and sailors, and as many as trade by sea,
stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning,
saying, what city is like unto this great city? And they cast
dust on their heads and cried, weeping and wailing, saying,
alas, alas, that great city wherein were made rich all that had ships
in the sea, by reason of her costliness, for in one hour is
she made desolate. Now remember verse five again. I'm sorry, verse 15. Listen to verse 15 in connection
with this. And he saith unto me, the waters,
I'm sorry, it's chapter 17, verse 15 that I'm wanting to refer
back to. Chapter 17, verse 15. He saith
unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth,
are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And
so the water pictures everybody in the world, and those that
do business on the water, on the sea, is everybody involved
in the commerce of this world. That's everybody again, just
a different picture. So let me ask us a question tonight. What is your business in this
world? You that do business on the sea
tonight. I believe we need to think about
that a lot more than we do. What is our business in this
world? It's really amazing if you think
about it, because we don't. We don't think about it. But
when you do, and you think about people getting up every morning,
going to work to get the money to buy food, to get the energy
to go to work, to get the money to buy food, to get the energy
to go to work, And it's that for how many years? And then
what else is there? Again, my pastor in Texas, Jack
Shanks, used to tell a story about a conversation that he
had with one of his grandsons. And I believe he had just graduated
high school, and Jack said, what are you gonna do, son? He said,
well, I'm gonna get a really good job. And Jack said, and then what? He said, well, I'm going to make
a lot of money, maybe start a family, get married, have children. And Jack said, and then what? He said, well, one of these days,
I'm going to retire. And hopefully, before I'm too
old to enjoy everything, I'm going to be set up, have a good
place to live, and retire, and just enjoy the rest of life.
And then he said, and then what? He kept saying it. And before long, the boy realized
what he was talking about. And we need to all ask ourselves
that. Is it just about that? I mean,
well, then what though? I do believe we need to think
about that more. I'll tell you what else I believe. I believe that when a kindness
is done to one of God's sheep, it's more of an accomplishment
than everything we have ever built, sold, or achieved in all
of our jobs put together in our whole lifetimes. I think it means
more. I think it's more than every
forklift I've ever sold. I think it's more than everything
I've ever built. And I don't mean to be ungrateful
or remiss concerning what those earthly jobs do accomplish. They are important. God gives
us work to do in this world. And what the gain from that work
is very much can be the means for many of the kindnesses I'm
talking about. But is that job, is it for making
you wealthier? More self-sufficient? able to
live more luxuriously. And I'm telling you, there's
nothing wrong with that. I always want to be clear about
that. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not a bad thing to make
money and to enjoy the things that you can buy with money.
It's not a bad thing as long as you are grateful for it. Thank God for it. Use it for
his glory. But is it just for the sake of
having more? Is it security? To many people it is. Or is it for the glory of God? Does providing for your family
glorify God? Of course it does, if you glorify
God for it. And it's not just about you.
You see, God sees on the inside. So let me ask again, what's your
business on the sea tonight? All of you who, as the text puts
it, trade by sea, what is your trade? Think about that when you have some time. Because
it'll take a while to think about that. Those who trade on this sea,
once God's elect, are called out. Those whose trade depends upon
Babylon. All whose trade is done in false
claims of sovereignty and authority. in false religious free will
doctrine and lies about God. All those who trade in such a
way that they mourn the fall of Babylon, all they will ultimately
be destroyed with her. Remember again that last part
of verse four, how blessed is the first part of verse four.
Come out of her. Thank God for that. Thank God
for calling us out. But remember what he said, come
out of her lest you be partaker. Unless you receive of her plagues. But thank God he's called us
out. That's the silver lining in this cloud. God has called us out. He's made
a difference. Psalm 65, four, blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. There's the true judge right
there. that we may dwell in thy courts, we shall be satisfied with the
goodness of your house. Boy, that's a difference, isn't
it, between us and the merchants of the sea of this world. Are
you satisfied with the goodness of his house? Or are you looking
for what this world can give you? Even of the Holy Temple, that's
Christ What's your trade and is Christ enough Let's pray