I once saw a poster that said “Everything I needed to learn about life I learned in Kindergarten” and it had a list of things that he learned in kindergarten, lessons about life, and as I saw it I was reminded of a nursery rhyme that sort of encapsulates the book of Revelation chapter 18: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, And all of the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn’t put Humpty together again. The final ruling emperor, the Antichrist, will be like Humpty Dumpty. He’ll be sitting up there on his political, economic, religious wall, thinks he has got the world at his command, and he will have a great, great fall. It’s been mentioned in this chapter, in fact. It’s an irrecoverable fall and all the king’s horses, all the kings and merchants of the world, will lament this fall but will be helpless to do anything about it at all. And so, Humpty Dumpty sort of sums up chapter 18. So let’s go now to chapter 19. No, I’m just kidding, we want to look at it.
We saw last week in chapter 17 spiritual Babylon. This system depicted as a great harlot that is able to lure the entire world in. It’ll be a melting pot of all the world’s religions, no doubt, and now John turns his focus on yet another Babylon, a Babylon of a different sort. You might think right off the bat, because Babylon is mentioned, it’s just a continuation of chapter 17 when in fact it is a political and economic Babylon. That is the emphasis of this chapter. People are always curious about their economic future. One of the big issues in the election was the economy of the nation. It was a big issue not only this last election but the election before that, the election before that, the election before that. People are curious about what the new administration will do for their personal economy, issues like the stock market, the budget deficit, all of these things fill newspapers and news reports every single day. And they should because of the crisis that even we’re facing. The federal government’s debt is now more than 3 trillion dollars which means 20 cents out of every dollar goes to pay off the interest on what we owe. And that affects people. As people wonder about it and they hear those things, it causes an emotional response. A few years ago, when there was a slump in the market in the United States, Time Magazine wrote in one of their articles, the rise of unemployment, the inflation of the dollar, the slump of the economy, all have far-reaching consequences. One of them is that more and more Americans end up in clinical depression. Already people in the areas of the country’s hardest hit economic decline are exhibiting more of the symptoms. For example, in the suburbs of Detroit, a local counseling service made 20% more psychiatric referrals over the past 6 months. New England pharmacies report higher sales of over-the-counter remedies for ulcers, depression, and insomnia.
There will be, in the end times, in the day of the Lord, in the great tribulation period, a global economic system. We have seen hints of this already as John saw a mark given to everyone who would buy and sell during this time. It would be for economic purposes. It would be for the purposes of controlling things, reducing theft, and so forth. This global economy will not be communistic; it will be, in fact, very capitalistic. There will be a lust for luxury, a lust for materialism, it will be capitalism gone absolutely berserk, as people feed on the need to indulge themselves. We already read in chapter 6 that when the Antichrist comes on the world scene he will be very peaceful. He will be the nice guy just sort of slithering his way in; he will not muscle his way in. He will have an economic plan. He will incorporate world religions with him as we saw last week, but it will be a peaceful takeover, no doubt through finance. But, like Humpty Dumpty, he will have a great fall and all of the merchants and the kings and the distributors of the world will in absolute chaos when they see this thing crash. That’s what chapter 18 is about. In fact, chapter 18 is a somber chapter. It’s sort of like a funeral dirge. A very sad lament goes on in this chapter. Let’s read then the first 8 verses and then we’ll make some comments and we’ll move on:
“After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.”
The theme of this chapter is get out of Babylon! It’s the cry that God gives to His people during this time. But the chapter comes to us in four distinct sections. There is first of all, in verses 1 through 3, the proclamation of judgment. God is heralding the announcement: it’s fallen. This final kingdom is over. After the proclamation of judgment, there is an admonition to God’s people to come out of the system. And though we haven’t read these verses yet, we will in a moment, there is the lamentation of merchants and kings and distributors over the fall of Babylon the great. And finally, while this is going on, there is a celebration in heaven. That’s the fourth section of this chapter, as heaven is exultant over the fact that Babylon is toast—is history. Let’s go back to the first verses then and look at the proclamation of this judgment. We see another angel coming out of heaven and notice what he says. He cries out in verse 2, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen”. Now the angel’s not stuttering in saying it twice. I think he says it twice because there’s a double fall. There’s the fall of spiritual Babylon in chapter 17 by the replacement of the Antichrist’s system, as we saw last week, then there is also the fall, the ultimate collapse, of this economic system in chapter 18. Now you might think that it’s all one and in the same entity in chapters 17 and 18 because, after all, they’re given the title Babylon. And there are similarities. Here’s a few of them: both are under the rule of the Antichrist, both are ruling like royalty and filled with blasphemy, both hate the saints and shed their blood, and both are under the judgment of God. But that’s where the similarities end. There are now differences that would make us think that there are two distinct things happening. The differences are that religious Babylon in chapter 17 is given the title Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, whereas in chapter 18 it’s Babylon the great. In chapter 17, it’s a woman who’s guilty of religious evil. In chapter 18, it’s a great city. It’s mentioned four times as a city that is guilty of commercial greed.
The first then refers to spiritual or ecclesiastical Babylon. And it is destroyed by the Antichrist. He moves it out of the way so that the world might worship him. The second Babylon, in chapter 18, is destroyed by God and it is over. That’s when Jesus Christ comes again to reign in chapter 19. This Antichrist dude, whoever he is, will be a remarkable person. An amazing human being. He will be able, somehow, to build an economic system in the midst of the worst time in human history. Think of the catastrophes so far: earth burning up, stars falling from heaven, the sun scorching men with fire, darkness prevailing over the earth, the springs of water being depleted, the oceans being destroyed. And in the midst of all of that tragedy, he’ll be able, with an amazing feat, to build a world empire on a materialistic basis. Look at verse 3. At the end of it it says, “and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” In verse 7: “In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously,” and then in verse 9: “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her,” verse 12 speaks of merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple silk, scarlet, every kind of citron, wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, marble. There is a lot of trade going on during this time. And there are a lot of luxurious items that are being traded, bought, and sold. And it indicates that the world will not, again, become communistic but feverishly capitalistic. There will seemingly be economic opportunities and there will be a lust for luxury, for greed. The world will be led into a materialistic stupor by this Antichrist with this system. Everyone will want to indulge in it.
And the countries that are already used to living in greed and living in luxury and having more and more and more, will be immediately hooked while those countries that don’t have will also be hooked as well because they’ve never had it before. Vance Havner, who was one the chaplain to the United States Senate, said the great difference between Patrick Henry and the average American living today is that Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death,” while the average American today just says, “Give me.” And the world increasingly will be chanting give me, give me, give me, as they see the opportunity to have more and more. People, it seems, will do almost anything for money and then, when it’s gone, their world will just cave out from underneath them. I heard of an American businessman who went to Seoul, Korea, was speaking to another group of businessmen and he was giving his presentation, he had an interpreter with him, and when he gave the presentation he shared a humorous story, a joke. The interpreter retold the story but just used a few words and the audience burst out laughing and applauded. Afterwards the businessman went to the interpreter and said, hey, they really liked my joke, I thought that was great and amazing how you were able to take my story and condense it into just a few words in Korean. The translator said well, not at all. What I said was, man with big checkbook told funny story, do what you think is appropriate. So they applauded you and they laughed at your joke.
We have seen that the world will go to the extreme of even taking a mark on their body and worshiping the beast to be part of this economic system of the end times. But, though that is true, doom is announced for Babylon. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. There’s a little passage in the book of James, though James wrote it for those scattered Christian Jews among the empire, it sounds as if it’s prophetic for those living in the end times in Babylon. James said come now you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver are eroded, their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire, for you have heaped up treasure in the last days. What is this Babylon of chapter 18? What is it speaking about? Well let me just say that scholars are divided on this. Some say that it is probably a symbol of capitalism or commercialism as a whole. It’s a symbol of the whole system—a godless system of commercialism. Others say it is a city that will be rebuilt in the Middle East called Babylon in Iraq. It’s the literal city itself. And there are a few verses that speak to that. In verse 10, notice, “standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” Verse 16 the merchants cry out saying, “Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!” In verse 18 and 19 it says, “They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’
Four times in this chapter Babylon is called a city. So because the Scripture calls it a city, we have no warrant to go outside of the Scripture and say it’s not a city. And perhaps it’s both. Perhaps it speaks about the entire godless commercial system opposed to God with its headquarters of the Antichrist, at least for a time, in Babylon. The rebuilt Babylon. That’s a possibility. Those who say it is only figurative, it is not literal, will quote a verse out of Isaiah the prophet chapter 13 which says, and Babylon the glory of the kingdom, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It never will be inhabited nor will it be settled from generation to generation. Let me say in response to that, that many people confuse the overthrow of Babylon, which happened in 539 BC, with the destruction of Babylon, which has never happened yet. In 539 BC, Babylon was overthrown by Cyrus the Second. He was the Medo-Persian king. He surrounded the city while Belshazzar was having a feast and the waters of the city started receding because he took the Euphrates River and diverted it into channels of water so that the water went lower and lower in the moat that protected the city and they went right through waist-deep water underneath the gates and they took over the city. While that was happening, Belshazzar was stoned out of his mind, holding his beer bottle in his mind, with all of his friends, and God wrote something on the wall: “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” He started shaking, or as the King James said, his knees smote one against the other. And Daniel said, allow me to interpret what you are reading, king. Mene, mene, means numbered. Your number is up. Tekel means you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Upharsin means that your kingdom is divided, given to the Medes and the Persians. That very night the kingdom was divided and the Medes and the Persians took it over.
That’s 539 BC. That’s when Babylon was overthrown but it has not been destroyed. And the prophets, over and over again, said it will be absolutely destroyed. In fact, in Isaiah chapter 13, it said it will be destroyed, it will not be inhabited, and it will happen during the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord, of course, is the tribulation period. So Babylon needs to rise again in order for it to be destroyed, according to the prophets. And because it’s called a city here, it’s safe to assume that it will be the city of Babylon in Iraq. But it has a worldwide umbrella as well so it could imply that the commercial power center of the earth will be in the Middle East, which shouldn’t surprise us. We have seen a shift in economic power in the last 25 years as the countries of the Middle East have become richer and richer and richer selling the West oil, selling the world oil. We need it for fuel, we need it for fertilizer, and the great magnets of power and wealth, many of them are in the Middle East. We can imagine how the Middle East could use oil to make the nations of the earth turn against Israel. After all the prophet said the nations will gather against Israel. They can simply say, any friend of Israel is no friend of ours—you can’t have any oil. We could see how the kings of the east could quickly turn and invade that land because of the Middle East oil crisis.
Then there is an interesting character in the Middle East named Saddam Hussein. Anybody ever heard of him? At one time nobody did but now everybody knows because he invaded Kuwait. Saddam Hussein had a lifelong dream to rebuild Babylon and make himself the new Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the world, beginning with the Arab world. Last year I stood in Babylon and I saw the walls that had been erected already in that great processional city. There’s a book called The Rise of Babylon by Charles Dire, this is how he begins his book: Picture a cloudless, late summer night along the banks of the gently flowing Euphrates River. Thousands of guests and dignitaries walk by torchlight to the procession street leading into the city of Babylon from the north. They line the streets flanked by massive walls to watch row upon row of soldiers with swords, spears, and shields, and helmets march past on the procession street toward the Ishtar Gate. Interspersed among the ranks of soldiers are groups of musicians playing harps, horns, and drums, children carrying palm fronds, and runners carrying bowls of smoking incense. The crowds follow the last of the soldiers through the Ishtar Gate and into the city of Babylon for the concluding ceremony of the evening, a tribute to Ishtar, the mother goddess of Babylon. A scene of pagan worship in the time of Daniel? No. A scene that I witnessed in September of 1988 as part of the Second International Babylon Festival held under the patronage of Saddam Hussein.
The New York Times has noted that over 60 million bricks, at the expense of hundreds of millions of dollars, have been laid in place to rebuild the city of Babylon. Many of the bricks have the name of Saddam Hussein inscribed in them to lay the foundations of the city. The Washington Post ran this article: In the next few years, the Director General of Antiquities, Dr. Mouhad Sayad predicts the government will also re-dig and refill the city moat, close the city to all traffic, and maybe even rebuild the ziggurat. Which was the Tower of Babel at first. Iraq has access to oil-rich resources and of course they’re not satisfied—they want much, much more. They can carry 1.6 billion barrels of oil a day to the Red Sea for ships to take out and bring to places all over the world. They have the capacity. Notice it says it is, in chapter 18, a dwelling place of demons. Boy, I’d hate that to describe my city, wouldn’t you? It’s a place where demons feel comfortable. They feel at home in the city of Babylon. We have already seen in the book of Revelation how, during the tribulation, demons will be all over the earth en masse. Demons will come up from the pit, 200 million perhaps, there will be four demons that have been incarcerated by the river Euphrates that are released, demons come from the sky, and they all feel at home in Babylon because what epitomizes Babylon is a value system that is so opposed to God, they feel at home there. And this, of course, would account for the massive deception worldwide. It’s demonic deception that lures the world into an economic false stability.
Let’s move then into the second step of this, the admonition that God gives to His people. He says in verse 4: “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” Did you know that in the Bible throughout, on seven different occasions, God calls people to come out of Babylon? He calls different ones who are called His people to get out of Babylon before He judges it. In every age, God always calls His people out of any godless system—any group, any system—that is opposed to His plan, opposed to His love, opposed to His plan of salvation. God calls them out. For instance, when God called Abraham, He said, get out of your country and get out of your family and come to the land I’m going to show you. When God delivered the children of Israel, He said get out of Egypt and never go back. I’m delivering you from their bondage. In the tribulation period, there will be lots of people saved. We have seen that but I think we need to repeat that because some of you have those questions. You’re afraid that if you get raptured, will anybody that you’ve witnessed to that have rejected Christ ever be saved? And we have already seen that perhaps the greatest revival to hit earth will happen during the tribulation period. The Bible says an innumerable group of people from every tribe, tongue, kindred, nation will be saved. There will be 144,000 Jews who are saved. There will be angels flying through the atmosphere of heaven in every conceivable language and dialect preaching the gospel. Many of course will reject but many will not and will be saved.
Those who are saved, a lot of them will be martyred. But some of them will obviously survive and those that survive will perhaps be tempted to get involved in this godless, materialistic, hedonistic system. After all, there’s the need to live. You can’t buy or sell without a mark. You’re stranded unless you get involved in this system. And so perhaps by the pressure of family members, friends that apply the pressure, there’s this temptation to well, just get hooked up in Babylon in this system. God says come out of her, my people. Why? Well notice the two reasons. Number one, “lest you share in her sins,” number two, “lest you receive her plagues.” In other words, what she’s doing is rotten and I’m about to destroy it—so get out! Those are good reasons, aren’t they? Now what sins specifically does God outline. Well in chapter 17, it’s idolatry. In verse 7 of chapter 18 it says she glorified herself—that’s pride. Also in the same verse, she lived luxuriously. That’s another sin. The idea is to puff oneself up in pride and live luxuriously and not care about people who have any kind of a need at all around you. That’s really the idea here. This political, economic system will ignore need and indulge in greed. That’s really what it speaks of. Could it be that perhaps today God is crying out to some of us, come out, My people, from the Babylonian-ish system that is around you with all of its value system that is against God? You know, we pass through this world and its magnetic pull, come get involved in this, come get this, all of its allurements, all of its attraction, it’s difficult to be a pilgrim following the cross in the midst of this society with all of its magnetic attractions. It’s easy to be fascinated. That kind of stuff can intoxicate the person and harden our hearts to any spiritual matters. In fact, it is possible to go to church week after week and really not listen from the heart and change at all and just kind of get a little dose of God but not really be committed to God. It’s easy to harden our hearts.
Wilbur Reese wrote with sort of a sarcastic note, “I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb not a new birth. I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I’d like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.” There are some people that think like that. They say something like, you know, I need to get God in my life. I need a little God. As if He’s some product on the shelf. You go, well I need a little of this, a little of that, a little religion over here, a little God. God won’t come on those terms. You don’t get a little of God. God wants all of you. It’s a surrender and so God is pleading with His people. Come out of Babylon. Get out from that system lest you share in her plagues. We as Christians today need to take heed to what John said in his epistle, 1 John chapter 2, you’re familiar with it. He said do not love the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. It’s interesting that the Bible encourages us to love except it comes to one thing and it says don’t love that! You’re to love everybody, you’re to love God, but don’t love the world. Now that doesn’t mean don’t love the environment, don’t love the trees and the clouds and the mountains. I think that a Christian can love the environment more than anybody else because he knows the One who made it. He can appreciate it on a greater, grander scale. So when God says don’t love the world, He doesn’t mean don’t go out and say, boy, I love that tree, oh no, I love the world! When God says don’t love the world, He’s not saying don’t love the people of the world. That would contradict the Bible, right? We’re to love all men. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Love your neighbor as yourself, said Jesus. So when Paul or when John writes to Christians and says don’t love this world, he’s speaking about the system called the world. The godless system hostile to God with all of its value systems that would corrupt and hinder a person from following Jesus Christ. It’s the system that is hostile to God. We have to guard our hearts against that. We have to steer clear of what would hinder our growth as a Christian. We have to filter everything through will this give me a greater love for God or will it hinder and diminish my love for God?
Remember Jesus gave that beautiful story about the sower who went to sow seed and He said some of the seed fell upon ground that was choked up by thorns. He said that’s the cares of this world that choke out the seed of the Word of God and it becomes unfruitful—unfruitful. The world wants to replace your love for God with love for itself. It will say you’re the most important one, do it for you, love you! And that’s why Paul said don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Or as the Phillips translation says: don’t let the world squeeze you into its own mold. Be a non-conformist. You want to be a non-conformist; you want to be a rebel? Don’t love the world because everybody’s doing it. Well the question naturally follows, how can I tell if I’m loving the world or if I’m loving God? It’s not that difficult. You don’t need to be a theologian to figure it out. Example: if you see a bird that quacks and waddles and swims like a duck, what is it probably? It’s a duck! If you see a person that acts like the world with the value system of the world, it’s probably because he or she is of the world. I don’t care if they say they’re of God. A tree is known by its fruit, said Jesus, which brings me to the most important point. If you find yourself there, how about a switch today? Why don’t you swap kingdoms? Swap Babylon for the kingdom of God. If you find yourself in that system. Jesus said what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? You say well why should I do that? I’m happy the way I am! Because of what we read here. This kingdom of the world has weak foundations. It’s going to be toast soon. It’ll be destroyed soon. It will be no more soon. And God’s kingdom will live and last forever and ever.
Be like Abraham. It says of Abraham that he left his own city and he looked for another city that has real foundations whose builder and maker is God. He became a pilgrim so to speak and if you dedicate yourself to God and His kingdom, then you’re involved in a system that has no end and long after this world is destroyed, you’ll still be with Him. There’s a song we sing around here: I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. And one of the verses says: the world behind me, the cross before me. Though none go with me, still I will follow. And when the world’s system is behind you and you follow the cross, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be abandoned. God will take care of you. God will bless you. But if you’re purpose is to glorify God and it’s the cross of Christ and to win others to Christ, there’s the kingdom on the other side of the cross. The kingdom of heaven.
Verse 5 is sort of interesting in the light of the history of Babylon: “For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” Remember what they said in ancient times when they were building the tower? They said let’s build a tower that reaches heaven! They didn’t do it. Their tower didn’t reach heaven but their sins, in the end, will. They’ll be so monumental that they reach heaven. Let’s now move to verse 9 and see the third phase of this chapter. It’s the lamentation of the kings and the merchants: “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for a fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and,” the most disturbing, “bodies and souls of men. The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, “What is like this great city?” They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying,” here it is again, “’Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’”
Now that’s a long paragraph of mourning. That’s sad. They’re not rejoicing. They’re sad as they see the fall of Babylon. This great and final city. Verses 12 and 13 are a partial inventory of the assets of this system. There’s 28 commodities listed and we don’t have time to pick them all apart but notice there’s different kinds of jewelry, four different types of cloth, building material of every sort, next on the list, luxury items like spices and perfumes, then come food groups, and then finally labor and transportation. All of that fallen—all of that gone. All that keeps the world going economically—over. It will make the great stock market crash of ’29 seem like nothing. Children’s play. And then it says the bodies and the souls of men. Now remember again, everybody’s going to have to take a mark on their forehead or right hand to buy or sell. Their body and soul will be involved in this worship system and economic system of the Antichrist. In verse 17, it mentions shipmasters, those who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, they stand at a distance and a whole section is devoted to the fact that these traders or distributors by sea are lamenting. And perhaps that’s an indication that it refers to the oil rich countries whose great commodity is oil. You can’t fly it in an airplane; you have to send it by a boat. It depends on the shipping lanes of the world for the commodities to get out. And it says it’s destroyed in one hour and everybody sees the smoke of its burning at a distance.
Notice the lamenting. It’s in verses 9, 11, and the last part, verses 15 through 19. Three groups are crying: leaders, merchants, distributors. And notice what they’re crying about. They’re not lamenting over their sin. They’re not crying for their soul. They’re lamenting over their pocketbook, their wallet. Business is over. They’ve lost their customers. Their wealth and their investments are destroyed. Alas, alas! The great city is destroyed. My future is destroyed. Verse 14, I want you just to camp on that for a moment. It’s a very foreboding and foretelling verse: “The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all.” That’s got to be the most miserable condition. Wanting, longing after something, and never being able to have it anymore. And they weep and they weep and they weep and folks, the weeping will continue through all of eternity as we’ll see. Forever and ever. It will never, ever stop. Those who have banked on the world’s system and the pleasures of this life alone apart from God will forever weep and wail and mourn. That’s what Jesus said. And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. That’s why Jesus said what does it profit you if you gain the whole world but you lose your own soul?
I’ve told you before about Ussif. He was the Turkish wrestler—300 pound champion. His nickname was Ussif the Terrible Turk. And he came over to the United States of America by ship in those days, that’s how they got around, and he fought Strangler Lewis, and they had this huge wrestling match back east. Strangler was only 200 pounds, no match for 350 pound hulk. And the winner, of course, went to Ussif, this Turkish wrestler. Ussif, when he won the prize, demanded the prize money, $5,000, to be given to him in pure gold. So they gave him gold nuggets and he filled his money pouch with gold, quite weighty. But he strutted out toward the docks, in view of all of the press, with his gold, $5,000 worth of gold, around his waist, marched onto the boat, they took off, and the boat got in a wreck. And the long and short of it, Ussif had no recourse, no lifeboat, no buoy could hold him up because the gold that he loved so much around his waist was the anchor that brought him to his death. And they never recovered his body. And that story along with Revelation 18 remind me of what Proverbs tell us. Proverbs 11 says riches do not profit in the day of wrath. What good is all this? Serving luxury when judgment is coming upon the earth.
There’s one final phase to this and we’ll close with it. Verses 20 through 24, there’s a celebration in heaven which kind of sounds weird. Let’s read it and find out why: “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!” Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore. The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore.” Can you imagine dating during the great tribulation period? Honey, I’m gonna marry you and take you away from all this. Sad tragedy—it’s impossible. “For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.”
Earth is lamenting; heaven is rejoicing. Who’s singing? Who’s rejoicing? We already met them in chapters 4 and 5, right? The four living creatures, 24 elders, tribulation saints, those who are martyred, this innumerable host from that come out of the great tribulation. They’re all singing. They’re all rejoicing. When you read about that, some of you might think, that’s kind of harsh. With all of the sad lamenting on earth, heaven is rejoicing. I think if you’re a Christian you can understand that. I think if you’re a Christian you have no problem understanding this. After all, the gospel and Jesus Christ have been humiliated for so long. God’s children have been persecuted on this earth, those who are His children, for long enough. They’ve endured it and righteousness and purity and justice have had enough abuse. Now it’s over. Heaven rejoices. No more wickedness! Jesus is about to descend and heaven is exultant over the fact that Babylon is over. Verse 21 mentions a millstone being tossed into the sea. My mind goes to what Jesus said. He said if anyone offends one of these little children, these followers of Mine, it’s better that you take a millstone and hang it around his neck and throw him into the sea. Babylon has offended the whole world. This system has taken captive the souls of men, it says, and this is God’s indictment against them.
This morning you are either a citizen of Babylon or a citizen of heaven. Either you are taken by the world system or you are a member of and a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Your name is written on the roles of God’s book, the Book of the Lamb, or on the customer logs of Babylon. I’m not saying that you can’t be a Christian and be involved in commerce. That’s nonsense. The idea is loving the system that would cause you to turn away from God. Loving and exalting yourself over the things of the Spirit of God. I want to close with a letter. It’s anonymous. I don’t know who wrote it but it was at the end of his life. It was a guy who lived obviously for this world and he has great remorse at the end of his life. Listen to what it says: “How foolishly I have employed myself. In what delirium my life has been passed. How I’ve wasted my life while the sun and its race and the stars and their courses have lent their beams, perhaps only to light me to perdition. I have pursued shadows and entertained myself with dreams. I have been treasuring up dust and sporting myself with the wind. I might have grazed with the beasts of the field or sung with the birds of the woods to much better purposes than any for which I have lived.” Isn’t that a sad way to end your life?
Now let me quickly say that I have never, ever met any person who, at the end of his or her life, have wailed the fact or bemoaned the fact that they were too spiritual. I never heard anyone at the end of life saying, I feel so bad! I loved God too much! I was too devoted to the things of the Spirit and to world evangelism and to the church! I’ve never heard anyone say that. In fact, I was with a man last week. He looked at me, he’s in his hospital bed, he said, I’m about to go to heaven. I’m about to go home. Would you pray for me? And so I prayed that God would comfort him in the last days of his life before he goes to heaven and when I said before he goes to heaven he said out loud, soon, Lord, soon! He was ready. Babylon had no hold on him. His feet were already at the door, the threshold of heaven. People die wonderfully who live for God. People die miserably who live for themselves. It is, always has been, and always will be a fact of life.