Well, Revelation, let me remind
you, the book of Revelation, and, you know, quite a marathon,
we've been going since September, and there's still a little way
to go yet, but we're up to chapter 18. This book was given to the
last living apostle, around 95 AD, so just over 1900 years ago. The New Testament had been completed,
all the epistles had been written. The only bit of the scriptures
that wasn't yet completed was this one. This was the only bit
left. And it had been some years, maybe 30 years, since the last
bit of the New Testament. And you can imagine, the New
Testament church was going on. It was growing, Paul's missionary
journeys had taken place, all around the Mediterranean area
was the influence of the Christian church, but yet still it was
very much in the minority. Imagine that you're a believer
in about 85, 90 AD. Scriptures are finished, yes
the gospel is spreading, but it isn't converting the world. You know, the Roman Empire is
still very, very strong and powerful. The persecutions are terrible.
If anything, they're getting worse. The apostle John, the
last living apostle, has been exiled to this island and put
in a prison. Is he going to survive? Is this
church just going to peter out, you know, like so many other
movements have risen and then just failed and slipped away?
And in 95 AD, in his prison on the Isle of Patmos, God gives
the revelation, this book, to John. What for? For his servants,
the people that will come after him, the believers. Here we are,
1900 years and a bit later. Here we are, believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ, trusting the gospel of his grace, going in
that same narrow way as so many others have gone before, persecuted
in so many different ways. In our society today, we don't
suffer physical persecution and violence, but we suffer isolation
from the things of the world. We're persecuted in that respect.
God's people always have been. He gives this book to give us
a heavenly perspective on the world and its history. What's
it all about? Why are things as they are? He gives us this book to show
us and assure us. Don't be alarmed. Don't be alarmed. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against the church of God. He will be triumphant, however
small you may seem. Even if you're down to one or
two, don't despair. God is in control. He'll show
us what world history is. All these things that we look
at in the news and we think, this has got nothing to do with
us, we're so insignificant. Oh yes, it has. Our God is controlling
all of it. Don't be alarmed by any of it.
right from the fall in the Garden of Eden, right to the ultimate
destiny, the end of this world. He gives us seven views of how
things really are from a heavenly perspective. He shows us, at
the time of John, in the height of the Roman Empire, in the height
of its civilizing effect, and yet at the same time it's brutalizing
effect. It was the kingdom of iron in
Nebuchadnezzar's vision. Iron is hard. It's strong. You don't want to be hit by an
iron bar. It'll hurt you. It's an iron kingdom. It's strong. Where does all that earthly power
come from, that Roman Empire? Where does it all come from?
They must have been thinking, we believe God is sovereign,
but what about all of this earthly power? Satan is constantly trying
to establish his universal worldly kingdom of Antioch. Ah, that's
where it comes from. It's part of that. This book
has shown us that. Where does the Roman Empire come
from? We know. Satan is allowed by God to try to establish his
universal worldly kingdom of Antichrist. Satan mimics God's
way with his lies and his falsehood. There's Satan, there's the beast
that came up out of the sea, there's the false prophet which
we could call the infernal trinity, the hellish trinity, not the
true trinity of God. There's the harlot woman, not
the pure woman, the woman who is the church, is God's church,
but there's this woman, this woman sitting on a scarlet beast,
this gorgeously bedecked woman, this harlot woman who is the
false church. And why is it false? Why is it
all false? Because they have an aspiration
to heaven without satisfying divine justice. Is that not it? That's it. You examine it. I
don't care what it calls itself. I don't care what the religion
calls itself. Whether it be Christian, or Islam,
or Buddhism, or whatever it is. Whatever brand of Christianity
it is. Whether it calls itself Catholicism, or Anglicanism,
or even Reformed Baptist. Whatever they are, they have
an aspiration to heaven that doesn't satisfy divine justice,
because there's only one thing that satisfies divine justice,
and that's the blood of the Lamb of God, shed particularly, specifically,
for the people that the Father gave to Him. Why was His name
called Jesus? For He shall offer an opportunity
for everybody to be saved. Is that what the angel said?
No. He shall save His people from their sins. That's it. And
they all deny it. To the last one of them, they
all deny it. It's the very thing that started
at Babel, in Genesis 11. In Genesis 11, in verse 4, they
built, under that man Nimrod, that rebellious panther against
the things of God, they built a tower to reach to heaven. Whatever
that was physically, I don't know, but this is it. It's an
aspiration to get to heaven without any redeeming blood of the Son
of God. That's what it is. It's without
the justice of God. Child of God, if you trust Christ,
you know that you will justly be in heaven. You know that you
will justly be in heaven. Why? Because Christ has satisfied
the law for you. He's fulfilled everything that
was necessary. He's paid the law's penalty in
your place. But while Satan's doing all that
he is, he assures his people, God assures his people, that
he's constantly frustrating Satan's purposes. So we saw the seven
seals, the gospel, war, economics, death, all of those things. We
saw all those things that God brings to frustrate Satan's purposes. And the seventh seal issues in
seven trumpets. which make the earth a difficult
place to live in, and it kills lots of people, and it's not
a good place to be in many ways. And the seventh trumpet issues
in seven vials of the wrath of God, which bring in the end.
This is what he shows. God is controlling all things,
and he will bring it to an end. The flood is an example to us. The flood of Noah's day, the
sins of the earth came up to God and he said, enough is enough,
and he came down and flooded, and he provided one means of
escape, and one only, and that was the ark that he commissioned
Noah to build, and Noah to preach, a preacher of righteousness,
and If they would come in, they would be saved, but they wouldn't.
And God shut in Noah and his family, just eight souls all
together. And after that flood, you would
have thought, you would have thought that that would have
cleared away all the evil, so that now, you know, like when
the Pilgrim Fathers sailed off to the United States of America,
oh, they can have a lovely, perfect, godly society. But you know,
all it produced was Babel, wasn't it? Not very long later, just
a couple of generations when they'd multiplied, it produced
Babel. World empires that we see never
quite achieve Satan's purpose of a unity like they had at Babel. We saw that in the kings, the
mountains, the seven mountains that rise up. Five are gone,
one is, which was Rome, and there's one still to come. They never
quite achieve Satan's purpose. Now, although this message is
on Revelation chapter 18, I'm gonna spend a little bit of time
back in chapter 17 at verse 14. Go back there with me, please.
chapter 17 and verse 14. All of these worldly antichrist powers, whether it
be the political unity of the world, whether it be the harlot
false religion which rides on the political powers and the
peoples of the world, these shall make war with the Lamb, and the
Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King
of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and
faithful. These shall make war with the
Lamb. Who? Who shall make war with
the Lamb? Earthly, political, economic,
philosophical, academic powers that we see all around us in
the world today. You know, they've been all the
time since this was written, but they're at a peak of their
powers in these days in which we live. These Antichrist powers,
and the peoples and the false religion that's borne along by
them. How do they make war? How do they make war with the
Lamb? primarily with ideas, with philosophies, with society's
values. Is this not what we've seen more
than ever before in history in the last 40 years or so? That right is now wrong, isn't
it? That which was absolutely right
and morally good and wholesome is now turned entirely on its
head and is exactly the other way up, isn't it? whether it
be sodomy whether it be transgender nonsense that we hear all of
the time all of these things everything that used to be regarded
as right and fair and honest and truthful is turned upside
down increasingly you see things in the press they've appointed
a new man to take over as one of the presenters on the BBC
breakfast program and I'm not going to say that he's a true
Christian, he claims to be a Christian, that's absolutely fine. He says
that he likes to keep Sunday special and go to church, and
he actually believes in creation. And have you seen the vile venom
that's poured out against him just for saying that? In this
society in which we live, you are not allowed to think like
that, and if you do, they'll stop you from trading, they'll
stop you from working. I used to be a teacher, and when
I was teaching I had complete liberty in the 1970s to say in
the face of all the evolutionary teaching in the school where
I taught that I did not see that it was scientific, and we shouldn't
teach it as fact. And I got a department of eleven
graduate professional science teachers to agree with me that
whilst they had to teach the syllabus for the examination,
that they had to say, this is just a theory, but it is not
a proven scientific fact. And they agreed with me. I used
to be regarded as a good physics teacher. The state system, if
I was young enough to do it, which I'm not anymore, but the
state system would not employ me as a teacher now. Why? Because I'm no good at physics,
well I'm nowhere near as good as I used to be, but no, the
reason they wouldn't employ me is because I believe in creation,
and I don't believe evolution is a proven fact. And for that
very reason, I would be prevented from trading. How many times
have we seen about not being able to buy and sell? You know,
trade, interact with this world. I know you have to go to work,
and you get work wherever you can and as you can, to feed your
families, to raise your families, to house your families, you do
the right thing. and carry on doing it as long as you can,
but are we not living in days when it's getting more and more
difficult? Christian couples who find that they have a house
with spare bedrooms, oh we'll turn it into a bed and breakfast
place, they can't do it anymore. Do you know why? Because some
a couple of sodomites will turn up there just to put them to
the test of the law, and when they don't allow them to share
a room together in their house, they'll be put out of business.
The courts of this land will put them out of business. This
is what is happening. This is the war that is being
made by this kingdom of Antichrist against the Lamb. Because why
is it against the Lamb? It's against his people. War
against God's people is war against the Lamb. Do you remember Jesus
said, when he's talking about in the day of judgment, when
did we do this to you? You know, you gave me a drink
of water. When I was in prison, you came. He said, if you do
it to one of these, my servants, one of these, my people, one
of these little children, you do it to me. The world of Antichrist
makes war against God's believing people. And be under no delusion,
if you follow Christ, you will constantly find yourself in a
fight with this world and its false religion. Always. With
its philosophies. Always. Don't ever try to make
peace with it. Now I know, Paul tells us, as
in you, as much as in you is, Aim to live at peace with all
men. Of course we should. Get on with your neighbours.
Don't be known as an obnoxious, noisy, aggravating person. Don't
do that. Don't do it. But do not ever
try to reconcile the true faith of Christ with the fallen principles
of this world. You can't do it. They're utterly
irreconcilable. Now they make war, they make
war with the Lamb, but it's a very uneven contest, because what
do we read? The Lamb shall overcome them. As simple as that, isn't
it? It's amazing in its brevity. They'll make war with the lamb
and the lamb shall overcome them. You know, they'll come up to
do all sorts of bang. The lamb shall overcome them.
They will not proceed any further. Why? For he is Lord of Lords
and King of Kings. They don't know who they're fighting
with. They fight against him by fighting against his people,
but they don't know ultimately who they're fighting with. He's
Lord of Lords and King of Kings. and he is supreme and it seems
as if Satan is the prince of this world and the kingdom he's
king of his kingdom of this fallen world of Antichrist but he isn't
who do we see in earlier chapters standing one foot on the sea
one foot on the land with his little book in his hand while
all this is going on our glorious Lord Jesus Christ our God, our
great God and Savior, is controlling all things. He's sovereign. Of
course they can't win, these forces of Antichrist. Because
he overcomes. How does he overcome? How has
he overcome them? He overcomes them, look how he's
written, they make war with the Lamb. Why the Lamb? Why didn't
they make war with the Lion of the tribe of Judah? He's a belligerent,
war-like person, isn't he? No, they make war with the Lamb,
and the Lamb shall overcome them. How does the Lamb overcome them?
He overcomes them as the Lamb, as the sin-atoning sacrifice,
because as the sin-atoning sacrifice, he completely disarms Satan who
is the accuser of the brethren. We saw that in earlier chapters.
Satan accuses them, chapter 12, Satan accuses those Old Testament
saints of being in heaven and yet not being justified. And
Christ comes and redeems them. And He binds Satan and He puts
them to flight. He overcomes them. He conquers
them. He overcomes some of the children
of wrath by His saving grace. and praise God some of us can
say that that's true I was a child of wrath even as others but he
overcame me he overcame me with his grace praise God but the
rest he will overcome with the wrath of his strict justice and
though they that are with him bear the brunt of the warfare
in this world with all of the things that we oppose and that
speak violence to us and that we hate we with him are as invincible
as he is because look what it says of us at the end of verse
14 they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. His people are with Him. We're
with Him. If you trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're with Him. How do you know you're with Him?
You're with Him by election, before time began. Before time
began, you were with Him. He put you in Christ then. He
betrothed you to Him by betrothal in eternity. When He stood as
our surety, when Christ stood as our surety in the covenant
of grace, we were put in Him in union with him. When he became
a man and lived under the law, as he walked this earth, we were
in him. When he died as our substitute
on the cross of Calvary, if you're a believer, you died with him,
for Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Yet I live, but
not I, Christ lives in me. You were with him. When he arose
from the dead, you arose from the dead. And he ascended into
heaven, and Paul tells God's people that we are even now,
in eternity, we're seated with Christ in heavenly places. And
we're united with him in faith, in our hearts, by faith, and
by love for him. We're united with him. He says
that we are called, we're called. were called in that eternal betrothal,
when our names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life, were
called by the Holy Spirit quickening us in time, for we were children
of wrath, even as others, dead in trespasses and sins, but he
made us alive. There was a time when the light
switched on, and our ears were opened, and our eyes were made
to see things that we'd never seen before. All of these things,
he called us. He called us by Holy Spirit quickening
in time. He sent us a gospel preacher
at the time that spoke to us, each in our individual situation.
He sent us a gospel preacher. And he irresistibly called us
by the Good Shepherd's voice, for when we heard that preacher,
that under-shepherd speak, we heard the Good Shepherd. And
he said, follow me. And what did we do? We followed
him. By faith. We followed him. Which proves,
the fact that we followed him, we believed him, proves what
Paul said to the Thessalonians, that God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. I know you're chosen because
you believe the gospel. So we're called. And we're chosen. And we're faithful. Faithful
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Given faith. By grace you are
saved through faith. And that, not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Faith to trust Christ. Spiritual
sight to trust Christ. Made faithful by His grace. By His grace He makes those who
are given faith, He makes them into faithful people. And though
we fall constantly, yet He makes us trustworthy. He makes us different
people. He imparts a new nature to us. And He causes us to remain faithful
to the end by God's keeping. His called, chosen, faithful
people shall overcome with Christ. Be encouraged with that. These
words are powerful. How shall He do it? In verses
16 and 17 of chapter 17, these shall hate the whore, and
shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and
burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts
to fulfil his will, and to agree, and to give their kingdom unto
the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled." How? Well, what did God do at Babel?
when God saw that kingdom of Antichrist there building its
tower to heaven without Christ he came down and he confounded
the language so that they couldn't understand what they were saying
and so he split up that human Antichrist kingdom of earthly
unity and dispersed them across the world and in the same way
as God disrupted Babel God shall disrupt this Babylon, this kingdom
of Antichrist unity he makes the worldly kingdoms hate the
woman. Do we not see that? I mean, I
don't know if I'm stretching out a bit too far, it's different
in different places, there's such a lot of evangelical religion
in the United States of America that very often our friends over
there fail to understand what it's like here. That over here,
our society has come to hate organized religion in general.
The vast majority, I would say nine out of ten people in our
society Most of Europe hate organised religion. They've grown to hate
it. Is that not exactly what this verse says? Hate the fall?
They hate it. They don't respect it, they hate
it. They've come to hate it, like never before. God is disrupting
it. This is how it's coming to an
end. So now let's move over to chapter 18. And after these things,
I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power. And the earth was lighted with
his glory. And he cried mightily, nobody's going to stop him, with
a strong voice saying, Babylon, the great, is fallen, is fallen. And he's become the habitation
of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of
every unclean and hateful bird. What is Babylon? Is it a real
city? I don't know. It might turn out
to be, I don't know. I don't know. Is it? I'll tell
you what it is. I'll tell you what I do know
that it is. It's everything in this world, and its political
power, and its economic power, and its philosophical power,
and its academic power, and its religious power, everything that
opposes the truth of the gospel of Christ, for that is the only
thing That's the only thing by which a man or a woman shall
be right with God, is that gospel. There is no other way. There
is no other attainment to eternal life, to eternal bliss, even
though it's the lie of Satan, there is no other way than through
Christ. And Babylon is everything that
opposes that. Now then, how it manifests itself
ultimately, I do not know. One word of warning I would give,
In trying to say, ah, well, the end can't come because Babylon
has not reached this state that we think it will come to yet,
beware. Because does it not say, in the
hour that you think not, Christ will come again as a thief in
the night? Will he come today? Oh, he can't come today because
Babylon hasn't reached to what my interpretation of Revelation
says it must reach before he comes again. You beware, my friend.
In the hour that you think not, he comes again. I know this,
this angel pronounces that it's fallen, it's fallen and he's
become the habitation of devils and it doesn't sound a very nice
place does it? This world that the people in
the world love above all other things is fallen, is fallen. All the nations have drunk of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication. That's of her infidelity,
of her lewd infidelity. The kings of the earth have committed
fornication. They've sated their appetites
on the things of this world all around. The merchants of the
earth, those that buy and sell, they become rich through the
abundance of her delicacies. But it's all coming to an end,
all coming to an end. all of it, Babylon, the world,
all that opposes Christ and his people, the society we live in,
the culture, all the false religion, whatever extent of manifestation
it gets to, it will end. This is the message that God
is giving us, as his believing people, it will end. What will
end? Verse 5, it's sin will end. Think of that. Is it not full
of sin, this world? Is there not sin in every aspect
of it? In the best of things, is there
not sin? Her sins have reached unto heaven,
and God hath remembered her iniquities. And God will say, Enough, as
he did with the flood and Sodom. He came down and judge. It was
enough. His tolerance goes so far, but
then the time comes for the end, and he must bring about judgment.
Sin will end. Think about it. Child of God,
if you're plagued with sins, think of this. It's going to
end. God is bringing an end of sin. An end of sin. Verse 6, he's
going to bring strict justice, reward her even as she... This
doesn't mean double the penalty from what it should be. It means
give it a mirror image, double it. You know, when you say someone's
the double of his dad, you know, it's an exact mirror image. It's
give like for like. God's justice is strict and it's
in exact proportion, give recompense for the sins. Give it exactly. Verse seven, She's lived presumptuously. This world in which we live,
this Babylon, she's glorified herself, she's lived deliciously.
Because of all of that, in direct proportion to it, give her so
much torment and sorrow. For she said, in her arrogance,
in her godless arrogance, she said, I sit as a queen, who's
going to challenge me? And I am no widow, I've got all
my children, look at that, and I shall see no sorrow. Oh yes
she will. is what it's saying. Therefore
shall her plagues come upon her in one day. All of her joy, and
there is, don't be under any delusion, of course we know,
there is joy in this world, there is joy in living, in your families,
in the things that you do, there's even joy sometimes in your work
and places you go, there's joy in these things. But it's all
coming to an end. It's all coming to an end suddenly.
The joy of this world, the joy that the people of this world,
with no thought for God, it's the thing that motivates them
to get up, it drives everything that they do, and it's coming
to an end. Instead of joy, it's going to
be sorrow, for judgement is coming. If you read on down, and we've
already read it before so we won't, but in verses 11 to 18,
all the trade of this world. All
of the things that people lust after, verse 14, covet, want,
you know, we're a world of lusting after things, aren't we? Everybody
is, everybody is. It's all coming to an end. This
is what it's telling us. When Babylon falls, the things
that we trade in this world will be traded no more. You think
about the day of your death. You think about the bank accounts
and the issues you've got and the people to whom you must pay
money or whatever else it might be. In the day of your death,
guess what? It won't matter one bit. It will be of absolutely
zero importance. The money that you've accumulated
that sit in your bank accounts and you say, oh, chance would
be a fine thing, but you know, the day does come. You say, oh,
isn't that wonderful, we've got all of this. In that day, it
will be worthless. As worthless as it, well, you
say, you're talking, you know, you're going out on a limb here.
And I often think about, say the rich Jewish communities in
Germany in the 30s when Hitler was rising and before the Second
World War started. how those rich people, in a very
short time, everything that they had and that they possessed,
it became as nothing. Fleeing for your life was the
only thing that mattered. I'm not trying to over-dramatise
this, but this is the idea. This world holds these things
dear, and they're all coming to an end. It will all cease.
It will be a violent end. Look at verse 21. A mighty angel
took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the
sea, saying, Thus with violence shall the end come, shall great
Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And
verses 22 and 23. Listen. I love going to concerts. I love hearing good music. I
love that kind of thing. But listen, the voice of harpers
and musicians and pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no
more at all. And craftsmen, we look at art and we say, oh look
at that, isn't that a beautiful sculpture? And whatever it will
be, it will not be found. Even the light of a candle. In a dark room, in a dark, cold
prison cell, I would imagine that one little lighted candle
might cast a little bit of joy in that absolutely joyless place. But there's not even going to
be that. It's all going to end. The end of culture, the end of
craft, the end of industry, the end of society, the end of marriage,
even the end of candlelight. The end of this world's deception,
verse 23. And verse 24, the end of the
church's persecution. In her was found the blood of
the prophets, and of the saints, and of all that was slain upon
the earth." What are the people of God to do? Verse 20. Verse
20. Rejoice over her. Again, to use
a war illustration. You know, when it got to 1944,
I imagine the news got around to the prisoner of war camps,
and the concentration camps, Auschwitz, and then the Japanese
prisoner of war camps. I imagine the news got around
to the dreadfully afflicted inmates that the end is coming. This
is going to be brought to an end, and you're going to be liberated. And you know, in the midst of
the mud and the squalor and the death and the disease, I can
imagine those people were rejoicing in their hearts Is this not what
the people of God are told to do with this world? Rejoice over
her, thou heaven and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God
hath avenged you upon her. The justice of God is coming. The justice of God. What must
God's people do? Now look at verse four. We touched
on it last week. I heard another voice from heaven
saying, come out of her, my people, and be ye not partakers of her
sins. Whose voice is this? This is
Christ. calling us out of this world.
How are we to do it? How are we to come out of this
world that is coming to an end? Are we to go and live in a monastery?
Are we to go and find a remote island somewhere where we can
set up a Christian community and all be pure together? Well,
as I said earlier, after the flood, it didn't prevent Babylon,
did it? It didn't prevent the kingdom
of Antichrist. In fact it was the very fertile
seed ground. Why? Because sin was still there.
Satan was still there. So what are we to do? There are
many references in Isaiah and in Jeremiah for God's people
to separate from Babylon. Then it was the physical city
of Babylon, the physical city, you know, and that city was thrown
down and destroyed and has never, God's Word said it would never
be rebuilt and it hasn't been. Zechariah 2.7, Deliver thyself,
O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. Come out,
come out from her. How? Be in the world, but not of the
world. Lot put himself in Sodom, but
then he had to live in Sodom when it grieved his righteous
soul. He had to live there until he was taken out of there. But
unlike Lot's wife, Sodom was not in Lot's heart. Sodom was
in the heart of Lot's wife, and when she came out, she looked
back and was turned to a pillar of salt. This world, we live
in it, but don't be of it. Partake of its bodily necessities,
the things we need for life, of its food, of its drink. Enjoy
it, of its air, even enjoy all those things that don't defile
but don't rest your hopes on it don't invest your treasure
in it rather put your treasure in heaven we've already heard
about that in the prayers this morning in 1 John chapter 2 verse
15 John is very blunt he says this to believing people to his
little children love not the world neither the things that
are in the world oh use them Enjoy that which doesn't defile.
Yes, you live here. You need these things. Oil to
make your face shine, wine to gladden the heart. It's good
to get out in the hills, in the fresh air. All of those things,
there's nothing inherently wrong with any of those things. But
know what's happening. It's all coming to an end. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Lot's wife loved Sodom. She loved her life in Sodom.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
but of the world. And the world passeth away, and
the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. Little children, it is the last
time. It is the last time. No, be in
the world, but not of the world. Don't rest your hopes there.
Don't stay in the world and its false religion to try to heal
it, because you can't. God has said it's coming to an
end. Don't waste time in political campaigning, to get society to
conform more to God's word. I see a lot of things, I get
lots of emails telling me to vote for this campaign and this
petition and all sorts of stuff like that. Quite honestly, I've
come to the conclusion I'm not going to waste my time on it.
Really, really, don't waste your time on it, there's no point.
God is going to bring this to an end. We're not going to reform
it. We're not going to make it better.
We're not going to deal with sin by that. No, it's just futile. Rather, what should we do? What
Jesus told the demoniac man that was healed at the Gadarenes. You know, he said, Lord, might
I come with you? And Jesus said to him, no, go home. and tell
them what great things the Lord has done for you. Witness to
what God has done for you. When you're asked, testify to
your eternal hope. What's the reason for your eternal
hope? Don't stand on a soapbox and annoy people, but when they
ask, Give them a reason. Don't bother arguing. I mean,
I used to think there was a great need to argue about creation
and evolution. Complete waste of time. You know
those people that have been writing such venom in the press? Oh,
I ought to write a letter to them. Complete and utter waste
of time. Don't even bother doing it. There
really is absolutely no point. Recognise it for what it is.
It's the kingdom of Antichrist. and God is going to bring it
to an end. If you're asked your opinion, you could give your
opinion, but don't waste effort and energy. Because if you convince
everyone around that, yes, of course evolution's rubbish and
creation's true, you still won't make a solitary one of them a
child of God. For it's only by grace that people
are saved. I'll close with this. I've got
an illustration. Living in this world. Remember
the Titanic? that sailed in, what was the
year of the sailing? Was it 1912? It was something
like that. Historians, apologies, give or take a year, I know it
was about then. And this was the unsinkable ship, wasn't it?
And it was opulent. Gosh, it was posh. It was beautiful. The furnishings were, there was
nothing better. If you were a first class passenger
on the Titanic, wow, you were rich. You had an opulent suite,
you had servants, you had the best of food and of wine and
of champagne. You're a passenger on that ship. But your cabin is the ship's
only working lifeboat. There's only one working lifeboat
on this Titanic, and that's your cabin, that's where you are.
You have to come and go, you've got a job on the ship, so go
and do your job, and interact, and raise your family, and go
around the ship, and you can look at its opulence and go,
wow, that took some money to build, oh gosh, look at its high
society, look at, look at, wow, it's very, you don't have to
hand it to them, these were clever engineers that put this ship
together, wow, and think of its engines and its, and it's watertight
compartments and wow there's a lot of skill went into this
and you can admire it and you can admire the skill that built
it and its performance as a seagoing ship and when you get any of
its food and drink you can enjoy it and you can admire the views
from the top deck but you know for sure that it's destined to
hit an iceberg and sink with the loss of everybody on board
except those who are in your lifeboat which is Christ and
his justice satisfying blood, because there's nothing else
that satisfies the justice of God than the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Keep that at the front of your
mind as we go through this life. You're on, this world is like
a Titanic, you know it's going to sink, do what you have to
do, but my dear friends, love not the world, Enjoy that which
you can do without defilement, but love not the world. Set your
hope on the things of eternity, for all of this is coming to
an end.