Revelation chapter 18. I titled
our lesson this morning, the sorrow of free will religion. You may recall that in our last
lesson, we saw the city Babylon fall, which was a picture of
false religion being destroyed in judgment. And that destruction
of man's free will religion is going to bring so much sorrow
to people who are in it. And it's very sad for us to think
about right now, the sorrow, the wailing that they will endure.
But that destruction will be right. That's some of the things
we'll see in our lesson this morning. One more lesson here
on the destruction of Babylon. My first point is this. False
religion, free will religion. And no matter what false religion
you look at, what's at the root of it? It's man's free will.
It's man's works, man's ability to do something. Man's free will
religion is going to be destroyed. There's going to be weeping and
wailing, but God's not going to give them anything that they
don't deserve. Look at verse seven of Revelation 18. How much
she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment
and sorrow give her. For she saith in her heart, I
sit a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow. Therefore
shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine,
and she should be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the
Lord who judgeth her." Those in false religion, they've glorified
themselves. They've lifted themselves up
and say, salvation's up to them. They can earn it, they can keep
it, they can improve it by, you know, their works. And when they
glorify themselves, they lift themselves up, they cast Christ
down from His glory. And they should be destroyed,
shouldn't they? They live deliciously. The word means luxuriously. They've
cared only for the flesh. They've treated this flesh so
luxuriously, and they never sought any spiritual blessing. They
never sought anything for the inner man. They will not humble
themselves. They're not going to give up
these luxuries. They won't humble themselves. They won't submit
themselves to the righteousness of Christ, and they should be
destroyed. She said, I'm a queen. I'm the
one who sits on the throne. She's exalted herself to a position
where she rules upon the throne. And she makes the decision whether
she's going to accept or reject Jesus. She says, I don't need,
I don't need Christ's righteousness. I don't need his grace. I don't
need his mercy. I don't need his keeping power.
I can do all that by my own self. Well, she should be destroyed,
shouldn't she? And that's what the Lord will do. He'll come
suddenly when it talks about in an hour, it's just going to
be something that happens suddenly. And he's going to give her torment
and sorrow. Let's do her. That's exactly
what she's deserved, what she's earned from God. And there'll
be no escaping from it because strong is the Lord who judges
her. Now, everyone in free will religion is going to suffer the
same condemnation. And scripture here next describes
three classes of people that all fall under this sorrow and
judgment. And the reason I believe that
he gives us these three classes of people just it encompasses
everyone upon the earth is going to suffer this sorrow and judgment
is to teach us this one lesson. There's no refuge to be found
anywhere in anything about this earth. These three classes of
people you see covers everybody in the earth. First, the kings
of the earth, the people who gain power and influence on the
earth, they're going to suffer this sorrow. Verse nine and the
kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and live
deliciously with her, shall bewail her and lament her, when they
shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for fear of
her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that
mighty city, for in one hour thy judgment come, is thy judgment
come. Now this is talking about people
who have the kings, the power of the earth, political power.
And you see this in our day. And it's always been this way,
I imagine. Political power so often is tied to free will religion.
That's where people, they get their power. How many presidents
have you seen quickly take the opportunity to get a picture
taken of Billy Brannan or other religious leaders? How many of
them do you see readily take the opportunity to meet with
the Pope? Even some dictator somewhere who just practically
outlaws religion in his country, they're afraid to make the pope
mad, aren't they? If the pope will come to town, they'll meet
with him to give an appearance of trying to get along and pacify
this fella. They get their power from there.
Every politician, when they start running for office, they all
go to as many different religions as possible. I hear. that this is illegal, but they
do it. They make appearances in these
churches and the pastor has to find a way somehow to get around
the legal loophole who he's endorsing for political office. But they
make these appearances in a religious service. They're coming up here
trying to make an appearance here. I can tell you what's obviously
not happening in that meeting. There's no worship going on.
Christ is not being exalted there, is he? No man is. And they're
using the fervor of religion to gain power and influence in
the world among the people there. Now, that is so wicked. God should
destroy that, shouldn't he? And when he does, they're going
to stand back. They're going to see this destruction. They're
going to try to get as far away from it as they can. And they're
going to wail over the destruction of this false religion that they
used to depend upon. This was their power base. And
now it's gone. And they're going to see it.
It's gone. They're going to see it's worth nothing, but it'll
be too late. All right, second, the false
preachers, the leaders of false religion, they're going to wail
in sorrow when God destroys it. Verse 11. And the merchants of
the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their
merchandise anymore. Look over second Peter chapter
two. We've got commentary here on what the apostle John is talking
about. These merchants represent false
preachers. False preachers make merchandise
of the souls of men and women. There's just nothing more disgusting
than that. Making merchandise of the souls
of people who had come here then preach. 2 Peter 2 verse 1. But there are false prophets
also among the people. And again, let me point out about
the book of Revelation. This is not talking about something
that's going to happen in the very last hours of human history.
It's always been that way. It's always That's what Peter
tells us. There were false prophets also
among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among
you who privilege to bring in damnable heresies, even denying
the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way
of truth should be evil spoken of and through covetousness. So they would feign words, make
merchandise of you whose judgment now have a long time, lingereth
not. and their damnation slumbereth
not. They make merchandise of you.
All they're doing is being a merchant, buying and selling goods. But
there's coming a day when no one's going to buy the lies of
that false prophet anymore. And they're going to mourn and
wail over the loss of this. And that day, nobody's going
to be allowing themselves to be made merchandise of anymore.
And they're going to be so angry with the one who made merchandise
of them, nobody's going to be just handing over things. over
and over and over to these false prophets, they're not going to
hand it over to them anymore. And it wouldn't do them any good
if they did. It wouldn't do that false prophet any good if people
just keep giving them the things of this earth, because the things
of this earth won't be able to save them from God's wrath. There's
no shelter there. There's no protection there.
But yet, while they're on this earth, that's all the false prophet
is interested in. gaining the things of this world.
If it's not, it's good, it's, it's fame, it's influence. It's,
you know, popularity with people. That's all they've been interested
in. Verse 12, the merchandise of gold and silver and precious
stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet
and all fine wood and all manner of vessels of ivory and all manner
vessels of most precious wood and of brass and iron and marble.
and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense,
and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep,
and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. See, these false prophets are
always trying to gain more merchandise, more riches and comforts of this
life. Now, there's a lot of people trying to get rich in this world,
a lot of people trying to do that. But I tell you what makes
these false prophets particularly disgusting is they're doing it
under the cloak of religion. They're hiding their greed under
the cloak of religion and making merchandise of people under the
threat of religion, the whole a carrot of religion out there
in front of them that nobody can ever get to trying to get
things from people. And it's just, it's disgusting.
And some of these, descriptions of the merchandise here that
they're talking about, they sound a whole lot like spiritual blessings
described in scripture. Sounds like it. But this merchandise
that they're gaining is not the gold and silver and precious
stones that are the foundational truths of the gospel. They're
gold and silver and precious stones of elements of this world. And all that stuff is is wood,
hay, and stubble. You're not going to build anything
It's all going to just be burned up one day. And that day they're
going to wail because they're going to realize it's all been
worthless. Always. It's never been worth
anything. But gold, silver and precious stones of the gospel,
Christ's righteousness, God's mercy and grace, peace with God
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those things will
never be worthless. They'll always be precious. But
when these false prophets see everything that they've accumulated
and they've ignored the weightier matters, they ignore the real
treasure, they're going to wail in sorrow. Now all these elements,
I'm confident, you know, represent something. Let me just make a
comment about each of them quickly to show us something of spiritual
blessing. The fine linen and purple and
silk and scarlet, those things are all pictures of Christ's
holiness, his deity, his blood. Those are all things we saw pictured
clearly in the tabernacle, how all those things picture our
Lord Jesus Christ. The sweet wood here, thione wood
is sweet wood. It represents the incorruptible
wood, the sinless humanity of Christ. The white ivory represents
the righteousness of Christ. The brass and the iron and the
marble, those things represent the strength of Christ. His strength
to stand up. The brass can stand up to the
fire of God's wrath. That altar made of brass, they
kept fire burning that thing all the time and the brass was
never affected by it. Strength, that represents Christ's
strength to be the sacrifice for his people and to not be
consumed. The marble represents his strength,
those legs of marble, his strength of Christ. He's a sure foundation. You can rest upon him and he'll
never fail you. He's got the strength to carry
all of His people all the way to glory. The cinnamon and the
odors and the ointments and the frankincense, all those things
represent the preserving power of Christ. The preserving power
of His blood to make us smell good. To make us, not the stench
that we are in Adam, but to make us a sweet savor to God. The
wine and the oil, that's an obvious one isn't it? That's the healing
power of Christ. to heal all of our spiritual
diseases. The fine flour and the wheat represents Christ,
the bread of life. The beasts and the sheep and
the horses, all those things represent the power of the sacrifice
of Christ to put away the sin of his people. All those things
are such a blessing, aren't they? When you see those things, how
they picture Christ, oh, that's the heart's desire of a believer.
But these foolish false prophets sought actual linen. actual Egyptian
cotton, actual ivory, actual riches, gold, silver and precious
stones, rather than ever seeking the real blessing, seeking the
Lord Jesus Christ. And in that day, all that stuff
will buy you something now, but in that day, it'll be worthless.
In that day, the only thing, the only thing of any value is
Christ. Let me ask you a question. If
in that day, We're all honest, that day is the only day that
matters. If in that day, Christ is the only thing that's valuable. What's the only thing valuable
right now? It's Christ, isn't it? And these false prophets
are going to wail because they never saw him. They missed him.
And I tell you the worst thing that they've done, the worst
thing that false prophet in free will religion has done, He makes
slaves of men. He makes merchandise of the souls
of men and women. They use men. They use men and
women. They put them under some sort
of bondage, some sort of spell, sorceries, to get people to go
out and slave away so they can give gifts to the preacher, so
they can, you know, enrich the ministry, build bigger buildings
and buy the preacher nicer things, you know. They're using people
to go out and get things for them. rather than go out and
get them to Christ. They put men in bondage under
the law. They use the law to try to whip
people into shape, to keep them in line, to keep them giving
things to them. They put them under bondage to the law, make
them slaves to the law, rather than tell sinners how there's
liberty in Christ, how there's freedom in Christ. The Lord should
destroy him for that. I mean, that makes me so angry.
Think what that makes a holy God. He should destroy him, shouldn't
he? Verse 14, and the fruits that thy soul lusted after are
departed from thee, and all things which are dainty and goodly are
departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.
The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her,
shall stand afar off for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing. In that day, they're going to
see everything they've accumulated on this earth was all worthless,
and it's no shelter for them. It's no help for them, and they're
left with nothing. Everything they tried to build,
they're going to see all destroyed. And they're going to weep and
wail in sorrow. And they should, shouldn't they? All right, here's
the third class of people. The third class of people just
covers all men. If we missed, left anybody out,
this covers all men who hope to find some shelter, some protection,
some goodness from the things of this life, this earth. And
they're all going to wail in sorrow for 17, For in one hour,
so great riches has come to naught, and every shipmaster, and all
the company, and 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 likened to 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, she is made desolate. Now look back at one page of
Revelation 17. The sea here represents the whole
world. That's what the angel told us
here. Revelation 17 verse 15. He sayeth unto me, the waters
which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes
and nations and tongues. It's all the people of the earth.
And the shipmasters represent people, all the people of the
world who go out into the world seeking their riches, their fame,
and their fortune from the things of this world. You know, a shipmaster,
especially at this time, I mean, you know, without GPS navigation
and all these things, I mean, a shipmaster is going to great
lengths to get rich at sea, to sail out where you can't see
anymore. You know, they're going to great lengths. They're taking
great risk. as an entrepreneur to get rich in this world. And
they're doing that. They're willing to risk that
and go to such great lengths because they think they're going
to find security in those things. And that day, they're going to
be great weeping and wailing and sorrow because they're going
to see everything that they thought would bring them security is
just crumbled into dust. And that's not just going to
happen at the very end of time on Earth. It's going to happen
at the end of this life. When they see everything they
tried to get out of this world, everything they thought would
bring them refuge is nothing more than a pile of dust. And
they spent so much time and energy trying to get security from the
things of this world. You know how they're going to
show their sorrow? Keeping that dust on their head. Because there's
no security there. There's nothing glorious there.
It's just the ashes of this world and That's what they're going
to heap on their head. And so all those things they
thought would bring them joy and security is going to be the
demonstration of their sorrow when they dump it upon their
head. Now look back at Matthew chapter six. Our Lord warned
us about this. Jan and I were talking on the
way to service this morning. She had no idea this was part
of the lesson this morning, but our Lord warned us about this,
about being too caught up trying to gain the things of this life.
It's so easy. The things of this life, the
things of this world are so sweet to us. It all appeals to our
flesh. Even the oldest, strongest believer,
the things of this world are sweet to us and still appeal
to this flesh. So our Lord warned us about it.
Matthew 6 verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust are corrupt and where thieves
break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves do not break through and steal, for where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. Don't make the things of
this life your treasure, because that's where your heart's going
to be. Now, listen. It's fine for us to want some
things of this life. Everybody ought to take a vow
of poverty or anything like that. And we need things to live. You
need food and clothes and shelter. You need a car to go back and
forth to your job and things. of this life and nothing wrong
with, you know, liking things that make us a little more comfortable.
Ain't nothing wrong with that at all. But don't make those things
your treasure. Don't make them the be-all and
end-all now. Make Christ your treasure. Don't make the same
mistake these false prophets made. Pray God will give you
a little more wisdom than that. Make Christ your treasure. Seek
Christ and His righteousness first. And all these things will
be added to you. Don't make your treasure a pile
of dust that with the breath of God's
nostrils can be blown away. First Corinthians chapter seven,
the apostle Paul told us about this. I mean, that's just wise, isn't
it? Not to make the things of this life that are just going
to be blown away so easily. Don't make them your treasure.
First Corinthians chapter seven, verse 29. This I say, brethren, the time
is short. Young people have a hard time
understanding that. But the time is short. Time is
short. It remaineth that both they that
have wives be as though they had none, and they that weep
as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they
rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not,
and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion
of this world Pass it away. Use the things of this world,
but don't let them get ahold of you. Don't let, don't, don't
let them abuse you because the fashion of it, the value of it,
the preciousness of it fades away quickly. It's going to be
gone so quickly. Back in our text, you know, this,
this sorrow and wailing and overhaving trusted in freewill religion,
it, it, it, there's a good reason for it. There's a God's trust. in doing it because they trusted
man, not God. They promoted the flesh, not
God. And there's good reason for all
this wailing and this sorrow, because this destruction is going
to be eternal destruction. Verse 21 of Revelation 18. And a mighty angel took up a
stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying
thus with violence, so that great city Babylon be thrown down and
should be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers and
musicians and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all
in thee. And no craftsman of whatsoever craft he be shall
be found any more in thee. And the sound of a millstone
shall be heard no more at all in thee. And the light of a candle
shall shine no more at all in thee. And the voice of the bridegroom
and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee. For thy
merchants were the great men of the earth, and by their sorceries
were all nations deceived. Now you remember when the Lord
said it's better for someone than a millstone were hanged
about his neck and drown in the depths of the sea, that he offend
one of these my little ones. That's what this angel, this
mighty angel comes in and with this great millstone, cast them
into hell for eternity. They were offensive. They offended
God by not believing him. They offended God's people by
mocking them and resisting them. And the Lord's going to put a
millstone about their neck and cast them out of his presence
eternally to never return. Now that's going to be a violent
judgment against sin, but it's exactly what they deserve. And
there's no joy left there. All their comfort and their entertainment
is going to be gone. The harpers and the singers,
they're not going to be heard anymore. Their so-called righteousness
that they worked to get is going to be gone. Their craftsmen won't
be heard from anymore. all their light will be gone,
their candles gone. There's going to be nothing left
to them but eternal darkness. They'll never hear the bride
groom and the bride speaking again. They'll never have the
opportunity to hear from Christ through the gospel again. They'll
never have the opportunity to hear the bride of Christ preach
Him, preach His glories, to tell of His sufficiency, to tell of
His righteousness, to hear them sing of Christ their Redeemer
ever again. The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the
bride is gone. They're a good reason for all
this wailing. And that's very real sorrow.
And this sorrow and this wailing, it's sad to think about now.
I mean, there are people out in false religion. We just know
they're people in false religion. You see them on TV, you hear
about them sometimes. And it's sad enough to think about this
total, complete destruction for those people. It's sad. And every
person in this room have loved ones in that religion. That makes
us sad. I mean, there's this. There's
no other way to say it, and it ought to be in this life. It
ought to be sad to us. We ought to be giving ourselves.
Not just the pastor. This is not just my minister.
No, this is your minister. We ought to be giving ourselves
to be able to preach the gospel to people that they come to know
Christ, that that they don't suffer this horrible sorrow.
But when God gives it to him, it will be just. Look at the
end of verse 23. For thy merchants were the great
men of the earth, and by their sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood
of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the
earth. God's judgment against these
will be violent. It will be eternal, and it will
be just. They deceived millions by their
sorcery. Now, the inerrant Word of God
calls this doctrine of free will, man's doctrine, man's religion,
they call it sorcery. It's the stuff of wizards and
witches. It's vile and it is to be avoided
like the plague. They deceived millions by it
and they killed them by it. They killed all the martyrs.
It was false religion that killed all the martyrs. There is nothing
good about this, this free will religion. Some fella gets up
there and he's got an expensive suit and a cheesy smile, and
he knows all the ways to win friends and influence people.
But I don't think there's anything, there's not one good thing about
it, not one. They kill people. It's false
religion that killed the Lord Jesus Christ. It's false religion
that killed every martyr. Every one of them. And it's false
religion that kills the souls of men and women. Leading them,
making them slaves, leading them away from Christ. John says,
avoid them like the plague, that you be not destroyed with them.
Their destruction will be just. All right. Enough of babbling. Let me end on this note. That
day is going to be a day of great sorrow, wailing and weeping.
But by God's grace, in judgment, there's always mercy. And that
day, there's going to be great joy too. You notice I skipped
verse 20. Go back up to verse 20. Rejoice
over her, thou heaven and ye holy apostles and prophets, for
God hath avenged you on her. Now that day, God's people, the
redeemed, they're going to rejoice. Oh, they're going to rejoice.
They'll rejoice, of course, because they're with Christ. He's finally
brought them to be with Him. But as sad as it makes us to
think about this destruction of free will religion today,
that day we'll rejoice. We will rejoice that God has
destroyed them. And it's not going to be like
we would now. You know, if I hear of you know,
some scandal or something, you know, happening, bringing one
of these false prophets down. I'm always glad. I mean, let's
just be honest. I'm always glad. But I'm sure there's a wrong
attitude there. You know, it's just... But in
that day, it's not going to be like that. In that day, it will
be a holy rejoicing. It won't be vindictive. It's
not going to be saying, ha, ha, ha, ha, you know, look what happened
to you now. It's not going to be saying,
oh, Bet you're sorry the way you're treating me now, you know,
but how do you like me now? It doesn't have anything to do
with us. This is God's saints rejoicing
in the victory of God our Savior. It's the God's saints rejoicing
in the captain of our salvation, having all the sports, all the
victory. It's rejoicing that there's vindication,
that the name of Christ has been vindicated. Not that we've been
vindicated, not my name has been vindicated, but that his name
has been vindicated. And this rejoicing in that day,
when we're perfect body and soul, that this rejoicing will be able
to say with a happy, thankful heart. Amen. Just to everything
that God does. Amen. I'm glad it's that way. It's agreeing with God's justice
that glorifies who he is. Not only will God's people spend
eternity rejoicing in God's mercy and grace, and we will. Oh, we'll
be so thankful. We'll be rejoicing in the sacrifice
of Christ, seeing of his blood, the one who loved us and watched
us from our sins. To him be all glory and praise
and power and honor forever and ever and ever. But we'll also
praise God for his justice. Not just his justice to those
he damned, but his justice to those he glorified. Those in
heaven will be there because Christ satisfied justice for
them. We'll thank God and praise God for His mercy, His grace,
and His justice. Only God can do that. And that's
why we'll spend eternity praising Him for it. All right, Lord bless
you.