Commercial Babylon Rev, 18:1-24

Good morning. We want to take a look here at chapter 18 of Revelation for the last 13 months. Can you imagine that? We've been studying the book of Revelation for the last 13 months, just hitting the high spots, you understand. We've had a few breaks, and then we took an intentional detour, as you recall, through the end of the 23rd and in through most of the 24th chapter of Matthew.

Last week, we came back into Revelation chapter 17 and that speaks of the downfall and destruction of religious Babylon this worldly religious system and this week will bring us into the 18th chapter which is a milestone and the reason it's a milestone this is the last subject before we turn to chapter 19 which speaks of the second coming of the Lord so this is a pivotal subject we're looking at here Let's take a moment for a big-picture view of Babylon before we move into our passage. There's Revelation 17 and 18, 17 being this religious Babylon and its downfall, and chapter 18 being commercial and political Babylon's downfall. Together these two chapters tell us about the end of this world's system. These chapters come right before the account of our Lord, and we'll take a look at that in more detail, where the second coming comes in place, and then he reigns on the earth for a thousand years. Can you imagine what it would be like? Right now, believers have three enemies. The world, the flesh, and the devil. This time that our Lord will reign, the devil and the world will be eliminated. How about that? At least for that time, eliminated. Okay.

But we'll take a look at that more in chapter 20, more detail. First, let's look at verse 1 here. After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. Now, this verse has some extraordinary things in it, so let's take a look at them.

The first thing is after these things, that little phrase there. It shows up in the Old Testament, and it turns out it shows up again, and again, and again. It's a repeated phrase. So we know from that that this phrase is a very Jewish phrase, but the other thing that we see here is that it is always used in a historical context to spell out time sequence. You have this, and then after these things, this next thing happens.

So it's to indicate historicity. It's to indicate reality. This is not just daydreams or stories. These are things that happened in sequence. But every instance here is an historical statement. The next place it shows up is, John uses the phrase, and it also shows up several times in the book of Acts. And again, however, it's an historical statement. It's a phrase that comes up again to indicate historicity, it indicates sequence. And finally, we see it showing up a number of times in the book of Revelation, and I think It has some of the same sense, and yet John is using it in a new way. It has the sense of sequence. John is telling you, this is taking place, then this is taking place, and then this is taking place.

But, at the same time, he's also using it in a new way. Never before in Scripture, up until now, have we seen this phrase used to speak of what is going to happen in the future. How about that? And yet, what is he saying? This is as sequential and as certain as all the other things you've read about in the past in Scripture. How about that?

It has that certainty. That's why early in Revelation we see this statement, these things must take place. They aren't God's best guess, it's to determine what is going to happen. So we see this now at the second to last usage of this phrase, after these things. Okay, the next thing that we see showing up here is this word pair, another angel. It's been eight times before on the book of Revelation, and it shows up here. Another is this word alas. Another of the same kind is the meaning of the Greek word there. This is the last time we're going to see this word pair in Revelation.

Then the next one that comes up is came down from heaven. This angel, another angel as we've seen, is come down from heaven. This phrase shows up nine times in the book of Revelation. It shows that God is certainly able to act and communicate. Heaven is not silent and heaven is not inactive. God is certainly able to act and communicate and be involved with this creation.

So we see this come down from heaven sequence, this word phrase, happens again. Since it says that this angel came down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory, some have concluded that this must be the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

But we need to set that conclusion aside for a few reasons. First, Jesus Christ will come when he comes, and that's in his second coming, and not before then. We have a good description of what the Second Coming will be like, and this isn't it. It will be different than this and beyond this.

The next reason is we might be inclined to see great authority as fitting the Lord. But in fact, this word great authority is used in two other places in scripture, and one is describing the satanic system ruling during the Tribulation. But in any instance, it also shows up in Daniel. But in no case prior is it used of Jesus Christ. There's another thing, too. Think of this great glory. You think, well, that must be the Lord. Well, maybe not. Think about Moses. He went up on Mount Sinai, right? And what happened when he came down? His face shone.

We see that description, Exodus 34 and 2 Corinthians 3, where Paul describes it. And there's this great glory that he comes down with. It has to do with coming from the Lord's presence. That's the reason. It comes down with great glory. It's not because this is the Lord, but because the angel has been with the Lord. We also see the fact that you see various angel accounts in scripture, and almost universally, the human beings that see those angels are overwhelmed. And this is no exception. Nonetheless, we do get the impression that this angel is not one that you would miss or ignore, nor would you miss hearing his voice. Let's look at verse 2 and 3.

He cried out with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling place of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality. and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality."

Fallen is in the past tense. It's a done deal. This is the way a lot of the Old Testament prophets would speak if something was certain to happen. It's been determined. And so they would speak in a past tense. This is already set in stone. It's going to take place. Now, two beings are said to be there in Babylon. You notice that? One is demons. Isn't that interesting? It's a place where demons hang out.

The other is unclean birds. And it's interesting, unclean and hateful birds. Now, birds, you know, some of them are kind of nice. People even have them in their houses and they feed them and that kind of thing. So why this unclean and hateful? That sounds kind of mean towards birds, right? This isn't something PETA would approve of, right? No. Anyway, let's see what that's about.

Unclean birds are, for one thing, ceremonially unclean. In Leviticus 11, 13 through 19, the Jews were given a list of these are the birds you are not to eat. Okay? Don't eat them. Included owls, ravens, pelicans, things of that sort. So they had listed, I think it's something about 20 birds, things that they were not supposed to eat. And these were on the list.

So, that's what this is about. These birds that are not allowed to eat are hanging around this Babylonian ruins. So that's one thing it's describing. But furthermore, it is used in Isaiah and another passage there in Jeremiah as a description to indicate this place is desolate. This place is desolate. It's a picture of that desolation.

The next thing, you notice the entities and the acts that are given in verse 3. All the nations, their acts, acts of passion of immorality. Kings of the earth, acts of immorality. And merchants of the earth, rich by the wealth of Babylon's sensuality. So these three entities come forward in verse 3. Now here we see these three laid out.

One of the things we have to understand is we get fairly accustomed to merchants and being in touch with them. We need to go back and take a look at what a merchant was in the Jewish realm and how they thought of it. Israel did not have a lot of really good seaports. And just as it happened, a lot of Israel's enemies ended up being merchants. And a lot of their relationships with these people like Tyre, Sidon, a lot of the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, a lot of these enemy nations were ones who were involved in being merchants. Furthermore, most of the Israelites would be involved in agricultural pursuits.

And this merchant activity was not something that was necessarily encouraged or prominent. Merchants typically would be involved, because they wanted to make lots of money, not marketing to the regular people. Merchants in those days would be involved in marketing their goods to those who were wealthy, to those who were rulers.

And so they tended to appeal to those people and to look down on everybody else. So there was a kind of a negative overtone to these merchants to begin with. And so the perspective here when he talks about the merchants of the earth, these are ones who carry it to the extreme. They're appealing to the rich and to the wealthy and everything sensual and materialistic.

Okay, verse 4. I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues. for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities." Now, we've heard a voice from heaven several times in the book of Revelation, and this is the fifth and final time to be exact. And there's no doubt about the source of this voice in chapter 18.

Only the Lord himself would say, come out of her my people. See that? Come out of her my people. Now this verse says that those living during the tribulation period, when they see and recognize religious and commercial and political Babylonianism, to come out of her. There's this appeal. Now this says that those living during the tribulation period, when they see and recognize this Babylon, will come out of her.

He says to them, don't participate with her. You don't want to, what does he say? You don't want to receive the plagues that are due her. Come out. You don't want to be a part of that. They're going to receive judgment. Get out of there. You don't want to participate in that.

Now, while we who believe now are not and will not be tribulation saints, still there is a consistent call for church-age believers to come out of the world as well. Come out of the world. It's fine for you and me to have friends in the world. Even our Lord did that, didn't he? But it's another thing to be a friend of the world. You see the distinction? We can have friends in the world, and that's a good thing. But to be a friend of the world is a different matter altogether.

You see, this world is the corporate and collective system of thinking and values and perspectives all based on the flesh, all based on the sinful nature in those who do not believe. Believers have been separated positionally from that sinful nature, have we not? The life of Christ is therefore not subject to God's wrath. The life of Christ has no participation in the sinful nature.

That's the distinction. Believers are called to separate, and we certainly don't have time to go into all of what this means. On page one in your handout, it shows it. There's a listing of New Testament passages applicable to New Testament believers, not those in the Tribulation period, where it talks about being separate from this element of worldliness. And I'll leave it to you to look those up. We won't have time to go into that this morning. But the one thing that we have to remember is we are positionally separated, not only from the sinful nature, but from the world.

Galatians 6.14 underscores the believer's position in Christ with respect to the world, which ultimately has its capital expression during the tribulation period. Paul says this, but may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." Notice here in this verse it says that Babylon's sins have been piled as high as the heaven. This fits the quote from Jeremiah on page 2 of your handout very well. But it also fits this picture.

Remember when they were building the Tower of Babylon, what were they trying to do? piling up bricks up to the heavens. That was their goal. That was their intent. So what we see here now is the same thing. The Lord is looking at that not as bricks, but as sin. You've got this tower you're building and it's no longer bricks. It's sin. Babylon, you've piled it up high enough. I get the point. You're not changing.

Then he says in verse 6, Pay her back even as she has paid, give back to her double according to her deeds, and the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. That very same cup. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning, for she says in her heart, I sit as queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning. For this reason, in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire, for the Lord God who judges her is strong."

This paying back double is an expression you see comes out in the Old Testament, and obviously the Jews understood it well. And that means to pay back fully. Pay back fully. It's used in these passages in Exodus 22 to talk about full recompense for somebody who has stolen or damaged or dealt unfaithfully with somebody. You're going to make restitution double. That's a full payment. That's the idea that comes across here. But notice something else. Remember the reference here to the cup. Take that same cup and use that cup and mix it to serve it back. Notice the cup. That's mentioned in chapter 17 that we looked at last time.

The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations of the unclean things of her immorality. The Lord's saying, as she has that cup full of immorality, he's going to serve back the judgment against her.

Isn't it interesting that what man considers his best effort, because this cup has to do with religious abomination. It's religious Babylon. Man's very best effort God finds not partly acceptable, but disgusting. Man's best effort at religion falls short, way short. God is not slightly pleased with it. Instead, he says, no, this is repulsive, because what's the only satisfaction of God's righteousness? Not man's best, but Jesus Christ. Pure and simple. Plain and only. It doesn't matter how good it looks on the outside.

You think about it this way, if a man refuses the cup of mercy and grace and blessing that God offers through Jesus Christ, that man is left with the only other cup that God can serve him, and that's the cup of wrath. Which cup do you pick? That's the question the Lord is asking. There's a cup, and there's another. I offer you one cup, and that's Jesus Christ. If you offer me your cup, I've got to serve it back to you with wrath. That's the way the Lord puts it. That's the choice.

Babylon chooses a cup of its own making, to its own destruction. There's something else that comes up here too, though. What does Babylon call itself? Babylon says, but I'm a queen. That's very interesting. The Babylonians had a principal goddess, Ishtar, who was called the Queen of Heaven. Now several reference to our idolatrous worship among the Israelites refers to them pouring a drink offering out to her with this cup.

Jeremiah records that this worship of the Queen of Heaven was so offensive to the Lord that the Lord told Jeremiah more than once, do not pray for these people. How about that? The Lord finds that religion that says, okay, man's going to do something and God's going to be appeased by it. The Lord finds that repulsive and not appealing.

Now, the Babylonian Tribulation period, the world in that period fashions itself here as a queen. The queen of heaven come back again. Verse 9, And the kings of the earth who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city of Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour your judgment has come."

Do you notice the parade of personalities here? They mourn the loss of Babylon. Verse 9 tells us again and more about these kings. Those who rule and have political clout. Notice what they mourn. The immorality and sensuous living. That's what they mourn.

Oh, we miss it. Oh, we miss it. Can you imagine that? Oh, what we miss. Because Babylon is no longer here. But notice where they mourn it. At a distance. At a distance. That's too bad about them. Too bad about them. They are fearful and powerless to stop the demise. They don't want to suffer her judgment, so they keep their distance.

And by the way, that one hour figure may indeed be literal. Remember how quickly those towers fell just a little over a year ago? It's not that I compare that to Babylon, but just to kind of give us some sense, it was there, and then it wasn't. In a very short period of time, it went from There it was, and people were looking at it as a tourist site, as a landmark, and then it was gone.

That was a shocking thing to watch, wasn't it? Watching Babylon will be the same way, only obviously in a different context. It'll be shocking to them. They'll be startled. But in the same way we were able to watch it at a distance, they will too. They'll watch it at a distance. Let's look at verses 11 through 19.

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore. Cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and every kind of citron wood and every kind of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil. and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep and cargos of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives. The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you, and men will no longer find them. The merchants of these things who became rich from her will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city! She was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.

For in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste, and every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance. And they were crying as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like the great city? And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour She has been laid waste. Now here we have the merchants lamenting the loss of Babylon.

John writes for us that some of the cargoes that were typical of this Babylonian commerce, and these fall into several categories. Now a number of these, you look at them, and they don't seem too insidious, not too wicked, nothing too bad. But one of the things that John finishes off with is slavery, underscoring it, human lives, souls. We tend to think of slavery as something typical of a bygone era. Something that, yes, it took some time, but it's finally come to end. Not so quick. Even today it still exists in some parts of the world. One place where I'm aware of its presence is in Sudan.

The Muslim dominant government there will go in and destroy Christian villages, and if they have kids left over, or even if they capture them and the parents are still around, they'll take them away and sell them. So they'll sell the children of the Christians. And many of the times these children have lost their parents in the process.

So it's a sad situation. Might it not be possible for something similar to happen during the tribulation period? Now, these merchants who have been rich from trade with and via Babylon will, like the kings, what are they going to do? They're going to stand at a distance again. You see that show up. These merchants mourn the loss of what? Babylon's great wealth. Oh, what a great wealth system this was. And they mourn the loss of their own opportunity for wealth as well, no doubt.

Before we dismiss, however, this international trade description that John gives, John is not being ignorant here. There's something that we need to remember. There was a lot of trade going on in his time. There was even a trade route set up about 200 years before the book of Revelation was written from China. And they carried over silk and things. There was trade between China and Rome. And it actually passed through Antioch, which was the first city where the believers were called Christians.

And so there was a lot of this kind of activity, and the northern route for that trade went through Asia Minor, where John was located. So John was very well aware of a lot of the trade and activity. And so he saw it and recognized it. He knew it for what it was.

Now, I need to ask this question here, though. The things that the Lord places in our hands are not fundamentally evil, are they? Are they? What's the difference between the things that the Lord gives us and Babylon's possessions in these verses? I think we've got to ask those questions, don't we? I think so. How are we to be any different from Babylon? The Babylonian philosophy does what?

It looks upon the possessions and pleasure of things as the ultimate end. It's the ultimate. There is no better. There is no higher. That's one difference. For us, there is nothing greater than believing in and beholding Christ. The things we have are not who we are. Do we see the distinction? The things we have are not who we are. That's a distinction the world doesn't easily make, does it? You've seen the half-joking bumper sticker? He who dies with the most toys wins? What we have is no measure of who we are, because scripture has laid out who we are, and it has nothing to do with what we own. Second thing, the Babylonian philosophy does not recognize God as the provider of those things. but sees man as his own provider for his own ends.

Notice, too, that not only the merchants lament the loss of Babylon, but also the ones involved in every aspect of sea transport. Let's look at verse 20. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her. Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer. There is a time for dealing with every injustice of the world, and Babylon and its philosophy are no exception.

Each of us has been dealt some number and degree of injustices in our lives, haven't we? Are not the sins of mankind an injustice against God? Isn't that true? The sins of mankind are an injustice against God. God will deal with every injustice at one time. For those of us who have placed our trust in Christ, those injustices were dealt with on the cross. Every injustice will be dealt with eventually. Everyone. Because justice is God's character. Now, it's simply a matter of Am I going to depend upon God's provision for that justice, or my own? That's the question that we're left with, aren't we? Do I depend on God's provision for dealing with that justice, or my own? My own, I guarantee you, will be insufficient.

The next thing we see here is the angel throws a great millstone, like this giant millstone, into the sea. A millstone was something that was large enough that they would typically have a donkey or an ox carry around. I'm talking about the larger ones, not the little hand mills. And so the average person wouldn't think of just grabbing a millstone and throwing it.

But this angel is obviously an exceptional one. And so this angel goes and takes this millstone and throws it, hurls it into the sea as an expression, this is the kind of final and decisive and dramatic judgment that will take place to end Babylon. Babylon is terminal. Next, verse 22 through 24.

And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer, and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer, and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer, and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer, and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer, For your merchants were the great men of the sea, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth." Now we know that the Babylonians went to great lengths to develop musical instruments and even import them. We have records, for example, in Daniel 3 where he records names of musical instruments that we know that those instruments came from Greece. So they brought them all the way there to Babylon to make sure that they had them available. And this, for example, here's some ancient instruments, replicas of those instruments, being played in modern times.

It's basically saying, no more of that. No more of this music. And notice the picture here. No craft work or milling would take place. No productivity, no buildings, no furnishings, no food. Nothing. No lamp either. Darkness. See, light isn't needed if you don't have anybody to use it, right?

And the physical darkness, however, reflects the spiritual darkness that was there all along. The spiritual darkness was always present. Now it's just making the physical darkness About 2600 years ago, the Lord brought judgment upon Judah by means of the invasion of Babylon because of Judah's sins before the Lord. Here's what the Lord had Jeremiah say to Judah.

Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. Sound familiar? What he's saying is, okay, Babylon was used by the Lord to bring judgment upon Judah. It's time to turn the tables. And now, the reverse will be made the case. Judah, instead, will receive the Lord Himself. And Babylon will receive these judgments. How's that for a turn of tables?

Now, one of the last things we see in this set of verses is the word Pharmacia in the Greek, sorcery. Pharmacia. Sound like a word we know of? Pharmacy? That's the source of the word. What it means is, one of the things that will bring judgment upon Babylon is this illicit use of drugs for occultic purposes. Occultic purposes. Now, this chapter ends with the mention of those who are martyred for their stance for the Lord over the centuries.

You think about it, false religion has martyred a great many people. The Pharisees, the pagan Roman Empire, the established religion of the Middle Ages, Islam and its hordes, even today. Atheistic communism, which makes material things the ultimate issue, right? Animism and tribal religion have done the same. It all falls under Babylonianism, man's attempt at religion and man's commercialism on man's basis.

Now how are we to take this chapter? Should we just say, well that's too bad for those folks and move on? Or perhaps this is an opportunity to reflect upon the position we have in Christ in which we have been crucified to the world and the unfathomable riches and untouchable riches that we have in Christ, that we've been blessed with in Christ. Does that mean that we are in no way to enjoy the things that we have been provided for us in this world? How are we going to answer that question? Fortunately, the Apostle Paul had a perspective on it.

Philippians 4, 11-13, Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. And in speaking regarding provision of food, 1 Timothy 4, 4 and 5, For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude. For it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

It still comes back to relationship with the Lord. That's the ultimate issue, isn't it? It still comes back to relationship with the Lord. It's not the things themselves that were the problem. It's the Babylonian philosophy. Religious, political, commercial philosophy says this is what man can do and looks not to the Lord. We can do different.

And look at all these things. Thank the Lord for what we have. See it as His provision. And be used of the Lord in the midst of whatever He gives us to enjoy. And if we don't have it, that's His purpose too. Let's pray. Lord, we give You thanks. Just as we look at this passage, certainly we're thankful that we will not be there at this tragic and awful time. And yet, even now, we look at these very same issues. And you ask us not to be a friend of the world. Instead, Lord, to cherish that relationship with you, and to behold you, and to count that first and most. And Lord, we ask that you draw our hearts to that, and to you. In Jesus' name, Amen.