Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Going to read verse 14 of chapter 17 to begin our time together.
[00:00:08] Revelation chapter 17.
[00:00:14] Hear verse 14.
[00:00:17] Hear the word of Christ.
[00:00:20] They will make war on the lamb, and the lamb will conquer them.
[00:00:28] For he is Lord of lords, King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.
[00:00:41] Oh, God, I pray today that we would be those who are marked out.
[00:00:47] It is clear we have been called to another city.
[00:00:51] We would be those who are absolutely faithful to Christ, no matter what.
[00:00:57] That he would be our vision.
[00:01:02] That we would turn from the things of this world and to Christ.
[00:01:08] That in light of all that he offers us, we would choose him every time.
[00:01:14] Bind our hearts to Christ.
[00:01:17] May we be a people who flee Babylon.
[00:01:20] In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:01:27] When I first met my wife, denae, she noticed something that to her was extremely odd.
[00:01:36] A lot of things, but one thing in particular, and it's when people ask me where I was from, I do what a lot of even Kentuckians do and Tennesseans do, especially when you're from a small town.
[00:01:51] I would say Marshall County, Tennessee, instead of Lewisburg, Tennessee.
[00:01:59] I would say. I would. I would answer by giving the county that I was from. And a lot of you folks in Kentucky, you do the same thing before you start making fun of me.
[00:02:10] And then I would explain, this is outside of Nashville, and try to give a good location where Lewisburg, Tennessee, was.
[00:02:18] And after she heard me do that a few times, she said, that's weird.
[00:02:23] Why do you tell people what county you're from?
[00:02:26] Is that a Southern thing?
[00:02:28] What's going on there?
[00:02:31] And no one knows where Lewisburg, Tennessee, is, so it made no sense. And when you're in Tennessee, you go by west Middle East Tennessee. Have you ever seen the state map, the tristar? That's what it represents.
[00:02:43] West Middle East, Tennessee.
[00:02:46] You talk about Memphis, you talk about Nashville, and you talk about Knoxville, not Gatlinburg. For some of you that really like Gatlinburg, Knoxville identifies east Tennessee.
[00:02:59] And my high school was Marshall county High school. And so I just grew up saying that my whole life.
[00:03:05] And Nashville gives more sense to where I'm actually from.
[00:03:11] And I remember saying to her, you actually do the same thing, by the way, where are you from? And she would say, orlando, Florida.
[00:03:20] And I would say, no one's from Orlando, Florida.
[00:03:24] You're actually from Altamont Springs. But you say Orlando to give people an idea of where you're from.
[00:03:33] And it's true. Cities give a better sense of where we're from.
[00:03:40] And it's not just geography, it's culture.
[00:03:44] Because cities represent, they literally billboard the culture of where we're from.
[00:03:51] And this is what we see at the end of Revelation. There are two major cities that emerge.
[00:03:59] We're going to have the new Jerusalem that's going to come down from heaven, that will be inhabited by the church.
[00:04:08] And its culture is established by Christ.
[00:04:13] But before we get there, John talks about this other city, Babylon.
[00:04:20] And it is established by the Antichrist rule, and it is temporarily occupied by the world, the earth dwellers.
[00:04:33] Now what is Babylon? Is it symbolic or is it a literal city?
[00:04:41] Yes.
[00:04:44] The concept of Babylon began at the Tower of Babel. And so it's marked by human rebellion. That's where we get the word Babylon from the Tower of Babel, this place in the land of. Of Shinar, this place that was founded by a guy named Nimrod, which actually means rebel.
[00:05:06] And so Babylon is marked by rebellion against the Lord. This place where they built a tower to reach heaven out of rebellion.
[00:05:18] But then there becomes a place, Babylon, a literal place.
[00:05:25] This nation that was became very prominent during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar that we read in the book of Daniel.
[00:05:34] And Babylon is marked by pride, idolatry and oppression.
[00:05:41] The same things we see of Rome in the book of Revelation.
[00:05:46] This is Babylon. We think about Daniel and the lion's den.
[00:05:50] We think about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace. Why are they there? Because there is a tyrant king like Nimrod who is a rebel against God, who is calling the people to idolatry. And when they will not bow before him, they must suffer the same things that we see with the Church in the book of Revelation. And so Babylon is literal places, cities that are marked by this human rebellion against God, this anti God culture.
[00:06:30] But in a broader understanding, Babylon is just the spirit of human rebellion that is established in every culture to some degree.
[00:06:42] And it is a culture that denies God as king, seeks to destroy his people. That's what Babylon spirit is, hates God, deny him as king and oppress and stamp out anyone who does claim that he's king. And so Rome at this time is causing those who witness Jesus as Lord to suffer because they hate Christ, they hate God. They want no other king but Caesar.
[00:07:17] But Babylon antichrist culture is also built on some things. Power, pleasure and provision of the world. Wealth, power, pleasure, wealth.
[00:07:33] Things that we might call worldliness.
[00:07:37] The things of this world that entangle our hearts and. And lure us away from Christ. This is what Babylon, the Babylon spirit is marked by.
[00:07:49] And in this chapter, Babylon is described as a harlot. And we see that in verse one of chapter 17. Notice then, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls that we talked about last week, God is unleashing this final judgment on the world through these seven angels, his perfect, complete judgment.
[00:08:12] One of the angels says to John, who is seeing this revelation of what has happened, what is happening in his time, and what will happen before Christ returns.
[00:08:24] He has a picture of the last days.
[00:08:29] And here there is another vision that comes to him through this angel.
[00:08:33] The angel says, come and I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute Babylon. And notice she's not described as a bride who is faithful.
[00:08:45] She is described as a harlot, a woman of the night.
[00:08:50] And we think about the Old Testament, how idolatry was described as adultery.
[00:08:58] You are making yourself one with a false God in worship and in all of life.
[00:09:07] You were to deny the Lord, who is faithful to all of his promises, and give yourself over to another God. That was spiritual idolatry, spiritual adultery in the Old Testament. But we see this is what Babylon, the spirit of Babylon that is marked out in the cities of Babylon, wants from us.
[00:09:30] She wants us to deny, to be unfaithful to Christ. And this is what is going on in Rome, the city of Rome, the rule of Rome at this time. But notice who is seated on many waters. And we're going to learn later in this chapter that water, sea, represents the nations. So it's not just one place where she is prominent.
[00:09:54] Her rule is in many places among many nations and cultures. You see her everywhere, this great prostitute, this Babylon spirit, seeking to lure us away from Christ.
[00:10:09] And notice verse two, it gets even more graphic with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality.
[00:10:19] Now, again, we go back to this idea of spiritual adultery. This is what is being described here.
[00:10:26] But sexual immorality is also a way in which you commit spiritual adultery. You give yourself to a person instead of being united to Christ.
[00:10:38] But here there is the imagery of the rulers of the earth, those who govern, they give themselves over to this great prostitute, Babylon, in this very intimate way, they become united to her. And why is that?
[00:10:54] Well, the Babylon spirit offers kings and rulers, and those who lead offers them power, offers them a rule as they establish Antichrist cultures.
[00:11:12] So if you will establish a culture that is Antichrist, you will have greater power.
[00:11:20] And that's exactly what's going on in Rome.
[00:11:23] Think about emperor worship. You must say Caesar is Lord, he is king, not Jesus.
[00:11:32] And the Babylon spirit convinces the emperor, if you do this and you lead people away from Christ, you will have more power, you will have more authority.
[00:11:43] And so the kings of the earth are in bed with Babylon. But notice, and with the wine whose sexual immorality the dwellers of the earth have become drunk in some sense. The whole world is drunk on Babylon's pleasures.
[00:12:03] She gives them what they want.
[00:12:06] We know we have sinful hearts that desire what is anti God, what denies Christ.
[00:12:13] And so the Babylon spirit offers us whatever we want that would cause us to walk away from Christ.
[00:12:23] And the world is drunk on these things. So it is an easy sell for the emperors. I will give you pleasure if you give me power.
[00:12:33] This is how the Babylon spirit works in the world.
[00:12:38] I will sell you Babylon if you give me votes, if you give me authority. We see that in our culture in so many ways.
[00:12:50] Notice verse three.
[00:12:52] And this angel carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. We've already talked about the wilderness being a place of tribulation for the people of God. Remember we saw this story of the beast, of the serpent and the woman. And it takes place in this wilderness. It takes place in a place of tribulation.
[00:13:14] That is where the church finds herself, the church who is the bride of Christ. But here, Babylon is another woman in this wilderness. And notice I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast. And this is Babylon.
[00:13:31] And she is on this beast. Scarlet means blood, blood thirsty beast.
[00:13:37] And we've talked about the beast that is behind this antichrist rule in the world that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. And we talked about the way in which the beast uses the rulers of this age, the rulers of the last days, to accomplish its purposes through government rule.
[00:14:02] But along with the beast is this woman and her power, her enticements.
[00:14:10] Even as these emperors use their power to blaspheme God, she rides with them. Notice verse 4.
[00:14:17] And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls. This is just a description to describe her wealth.
[00:14:29] She looks like she has much.
[00:14:32] She looks like a very successful wealthy woman in all appearances.
[00:14:40] But remember what kind of woman she is.
[00:14:44] Remember what is behind her wealth.
[00:14:47] Her wealth and the wealth she offers comes at the expense of denying Jesus.
[00:14:54] This is what she calls you to.
[00:14:57] And notice holding in her hand a cup full of abominations.
[00:15:02] Abomination simply means things God hates.
[00:15:07] Things that cause God's stomach to turn this is what she offers. All types of perversion against God's design.
[00:15:18] And impurities of her sexual immorality, impurities of her idolatry. Women, what would make you impure before God? This is what she offers you. And so if you're going to enjoy her wealth, you're going to have to deny Christ.
[00:15:34] You're going to have to turn from Christ and bind yourself to her in all of her pleasure to enjoy her Success.
[00:15:44] Notice verse 5.
[00:15:46] And on her forehead was written a name of mystery. Now remember this idea of marking. We think about the mark of the beast, the mark of God on the forehead. Here she has this name of mystery. Babylon, the great mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. She is the source of all of this intoxicating, immoral pleasure that's being offered to the world. But, but notice she is described as the mother of prostitutes, meaning she will produce more cities like herself.
[00:16:24] Her goal is to reproduce herself. Now think about those who have received the letter of revelation, the seven churches.
[00:16:33] And for them, it wasn't just the city of Rome that had all of these intoxicating pleasures and idolatry. We talked about it as we went through the seven churches, and every one of those cities was marked out by the same perversion. Where does it come from?
[00:16:48] The mother, the mother prostitute who is Babylon, she creates all of this immoral pleasure, all of this idolatry that marks out the culture of Rome.
[00:17:07] And notice verse six.
[00:17:09] And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And here we get to her goal.
[00:17:19] Why does she offer all of these things?
[00:17:22] Why is she united with the rulers of the world so that she can destroy the church? That is the goal of Babylon, to ruin the churches. Witness. To destroy the church. We see the blood of the saints to kill the church, the blood of the martyrs to wipe out this declaration, this truth, this witness, Jesus is Lord. That is her goal. And so we would say, how does she do this?
[00:17:51] Well, first of all, she lures us away from Christ to her pleasure.
[00:17:58] We would also say, well, she makes it impossible to say Jesus is Lord.
[00:18:03] We think about in cultures where everything is permissible, every sort of pleasure, sexual freedom, anything you want is permissible. Let's cheerlead those things, let's promote those things, let's sell those things. But if you begin to say Jesus is Lord, no way.
[00:18:22] The one thing that is good and right and true in God's economics, don't you say that.
[00:18:29] What's the same thing going on. This is what Babylon does.
[00:18:32] Everything is permissible.
[00:18:35] But saying Jesus is Lord, so she makes it impossible.
[00:18:40] But one of the repercussions of both of those things that I think goes on in our own culture is she just makes the church powerless with her worldliness.
[00:18:50] The church becomes so enticed with her and drawn to her that our witness is irrelevant.
[00:18:58] We're not distinct in the culture in which we live. We are powerless and we are ineffective because Babylon's goal is to make us powerless, ineffective and useless.
[00:19:10] And notice what John does when he sees her in this picture.
[00:19:15] When I saw her, I marveled greatly.
[00:19:19] Now I think John's doing something for us here, and he's saying to us, be careful.
[00:19:28] Because when I saw her, I saw a greatness that took my breath away.
[00:19:33] I marveled at her.
[00:19:36] In some sense, John would say I was drawn to her.
[00:19:40] John, in this glorious vision of heaven and Jesus rule for just a moment, forgets he's looking at a harlot, because she offers everything you would possibly want.
[00:19:55] And so how do you resist the spirit of Babylon?
[00:20:00] As a Christian in Babylonian cultures?
[00:20:05] Let me ask you this question.
[00:20:07] If you were being totally honest today, what would cause you to deny Christ?
[00:20:15] Answer is probably different all across the room.
[00:20:19] If today you said, I was offered this, I would leave Jesus for it, what is it in your own life today that you would deny Christ for? We. We often put that in the context of persecution.
[00:20:34] I would never deny Christ. If I had to say jesus is Lord or die, I would never deny him.
[00:20:42] But here, Babylon puts it in the context of pleasure.
[00:20:46] What pleasure, if offered to you, would you deny Jesus for?
[00:20:52] Well, let me ask you this. What do you marvel at?
[00:20:56] What are the things of this culture, in this world that cause you to marvel, that take your breath away?
[00:21:03] Your algorithm would probably tell you the things that you are constantly enamored with, the things that you want so bad.
[00:21:15] And you live in this fantasy world, constantly glutting yourself with visions of Babylon so often it could even be Pinterest, the cabinets you want so bad, and there's something going on there.
[00:21:35] I want those so bad.
[00:21:40] I want that life so bad.
[00:21:44] The images of others at the gym, I want to look like that. And if I could look like that, I would do whatever it takes.
[00:21:55] I want to be the influencer.
[00:21:58] I want to live the life of the celebrity.
[00:22:03] Do you fantasize often about being the person in the song of Babel that you listen to?
[00:22:11] As you are singing the song, you're thinking, I really Wish I could have that life.
[00:22:18] I wish I was in that world.
[00:22:21] And you fantasize about those things?
[00:22:24] Or the movies you watch?
[00:22:28] Where is the voice of Babel in your life?
[00:22:31] It tells us something about our heart.
[00:22:34] It tells us something where the harlot is trying to lure us away. These things that we crave, this lifestyle that we want so bad.
[00:22:47] The wealth, the prestige, to be the person up front, leading on the stage. Even in Christian circles, one of the most grotesque things right now is celebrity Christianity through Christian influencers, podcast, preachers all. It's everywhere.
[00:23:09] Nice, pretty songs, very wealthy on a lit up stage with all of the technology and we're drawn to that. That's what Christianity should be like.
[00:23:25] A little more bablish.
[00:23:29] Think about that. Think about those things that entice you. Where do you find security Babylon offers you security.
[00:23:38] Money, wealth, political power. When my team wins, I find security in that or this amount in my savings account.
[00:23:50] Where do you find ultimate joy?
[00:23:54] Sexual freedom?
[00:23:56] These are things Babylon is offering us to lure us away from Christ. You've got to understand that.
[00:24:04] And so the next point is, be faithful to Christ no matter what. Notice verse 7. Then the angel said to me, why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast and of the seven heads and ten horns that she carries. I will tell you, I will unfold for you what is going to happen to all of these entities. The beast, the snake, the serpent, Satan, and all of the powers that they use in the world. I'm going to tell you what's about to happen to them. Notice verse 8.
[00:24:36] The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to rise. Now this is just a parody of how Jesus, how God has been described in Revelation. The one who was and is and is to come his eternality. And so you have this parody, you have this fake rule and, and this Antichrist that pervades the world.
[00:25:03] Notice it is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction.
[00:25:08] And the dwellers on the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will marvel to see the beast. And so this Antichrist figure is about to rise up. But this Antichrist figure is being led to slaughter will be destroyed. But along the way, there are those who are not marked out by God. They will be deceived.
[00:25:34] They will be led astray. Notice the word. They will marvel.
[00:25:40] It's the same word John says. He marveled greatly. He was drawn to Babylon's beauty and so Those who are not sealed by Christ, by the blood of Christ, not trusting in Christ, they will be drawn by this beast. Beast. Notice, because it was and is not and is to come, it will be destroyed. It's a temporary rule, verse 9.
[00:26:07] This calls for a mind of wisdom.
[00:26:10] You've got to be wise.
[00:26:12] Remember, wisdom is to fear the Lord, you've got to fear God, and you've got to see things correctly.
[00:26:18] Notice, and this is where it gets dicey for me today.
[00:26:22] Try and explain this, but just follow along.
[00:26:25] He's going to describe who or what all of these rules are. Notice the seven heads and the seven mountains on which the woman is seated.
[00:26:34] These rules which she uses are being used by. She's being used by.
[00:26:40] Now, a lot of people, the number seven, they point to Rome.
[00:26:44] Rome was known to be the city of seven hills. And they had many festivals with these hills. And we've even talked about the seven cities or seven places that the churches that Revelation is written to are from. And so a lot of people would say, he's talking about Rome here. And if you have an earlier date when the book of Revelation was written, you could even mark out the exact Caesars and times of the Caesars that lead up to eight, which we're about to talk about.
[00:27:14] And that would make sense to some, some people. This is what he's talking about, the Caesars, Rome. We even talked about how Nero Caesar 666, it is the sixth ruler at this time, but there's a seventh to come. Notice verse 10.
[00:27:31] They are also seven kings, five whom have fallen. So there's already been five. We're at the sixth king, but there's seven. The other has yet to come.
[00:27:42] And when he does come, he must remain only a little while.
[00:27:46] And so we're at this time of the sixth kingdom, but there's a seventh coming, and that's for a short time before the end comes.
[00:27:56] I think a better way to think about these kingdoms, if you just look at biblical history, you think about Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, you think about Greece that are mentioned in Daniel, it may make more sense to say those are the kingdoms, five kingdoms that have already come. And now rome is the sixth kingdom. Rome is still ruling.
[00:28:23] Rome personifies this sixth kingdom. Notice verse 8.
[00:28:28] As for the beast, now there is a seventh kingdom that will come.
[00:28:35] But here he mentions the beast, which, remember in Revelation is the specific antichrist kingdoms of the world probably doesn't just refer to one kingdom, but a kingdom that is always present, but then will make itself known. It's in all of these kingdoms. But notice that was and is not it is an eighth kingdom. This kingdom that is present in all of these earthly rules will rise up by itself one day as its own earthly power. The Antichrist kingdom as an eighth kingdom.
[00:29:11] And so to try to make sense of all this, if you were looking at numbers one through ten, we're already past the midway point. We're in the sixth kingdom. There's a seventh that is to come.
[00:29:26] And I just think what that means is one day man's rule is going to end.
[00:29:32] And as man's rule is coming to end, there is a kingdom that's going to come out up of man's rule and it's going to be this otherworldly satanic kingdom. It's going to look like the world a man. Notice it says it belongs to the seventh, but it goes to destruction. It looks like Rome. It looks like the powers of this earth influenced by Babylon. But. But it is satanic. And what does it do? Verse 12.
[00:30:01] And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings. Ten is just completion. This last kingdom that will eventually come will combine all earthly powers, just like the beast has through Rome. Rome was said to rule the world at this time. And notice who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings. For one hour. The kingdoms of this world that we talked about last week, in this final Armageddon battle, they will join with this Antichrist rule against Christ together with the beast. Notice verse 13. They are of one mind and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. They give him all of their power.
[00:30:44] And so there is one kingdom that will combine all earthly rule and oppose Christ. And we saw last week and it will be wiped out.
[00:30:52] Now that may not make any sense to you. That's fine. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me at this point either.
[00:30:58] Some people go to this passion, they say, well, you can outline all of the popes who derived from Rome or just false religions.
[00:31:08] There's all kinds of grids that you can put on this section and come up with specific people and places.
[00:31:16] But I want to get to the point. Whatever time in history, you will see rulers in bed with Babylon at every time, every season.
[00:31:25] And that is to temper our political allegiance and idolatry.
[00:31:30] We're not to be used by political power.
[00:31:34] We will be left with nothing.
[00:31:36] It's also for us to take seriously false teaching, idolatry, specifically toward the end. We don't want to be lured away.
[00:31:45] But notice verse 14. Because I think this is where this section is getting to.
[00:31:51] All of these powers will ultimately make war on the land, on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is lord of lords and king of kings. So throughout history, you're going to see all of this power and it's going to be scary and it's going to be mighty and. And you're going to see tyrants do whatever they want to do. But there is one king coming who will destroy them all. And it is Jesus the Lamb, who is Lord of lords, not Caesar, who is king of kings.
[00:32:24] He rules over them all.
[00:32:27] But notice, as opposed to those who are led astray by the beast, those with him are called, chosen and faithful.
[00:32:38] Those who remain faithful to the Lamb are those who have been called by the Lamb. Those who remain faithful to the Lamb are those who are chosen by the Lamb.
[00:32:49] And this is very important because that is a description of a chaste, faithful bride, the church.
[00:32:58] And so he is describing and beginning to describe the Church.
[00:33:03] Who will be faithful to Jesus to the end, who will be faithful to their groom to the end. And why is that? Jesus has called the church to himself in a world that is being wooed by Babylon pleasure. What Jesus does in the Gospel is he woos a bride to himself. He calls a bride to himself out of this world. And her witness is all the pleasure of Babylon could be mine. But Jesus has offered me something better. And it is a powerful witness that you would choose Christ over all of the pleasures of this world. Notice his bride has been chosen out of Babylon. He has set his love, unconditional love, on his bride and secured her in a holy covenant that that is pictured in marriage where he has become one with his bride and nothing can separate him from his bride. This is why the church will remain faithful to the end.
[00:34:10] Because Jesus has called her to himself. He has chosen her as his bride and he will not let her go.
[00:34:18] And this is what leads to her faithfulness. The Church is not enticed by lesser lovers.
[00:34:26] She loves Christ.
[00:34:28] She will remain faithful to him to the end.
[00:34:32] But what does that look like? And how is that done? You may be asking that question.
[00:34:37] You're here today and you say the enticements of Babylon are. They're becoming too much for me.
[00:34:45] They're overwhelming my life. I'm distracted.
[00:34:50] I'm powerless when it comes to my witness.
[00:34:54] I'm tempted to go astray.
[00:34:58] So how do you remain faithful?
[00:35:00] How do you remain faithful to Christ who has given his life for his bride?
[00:35:06] Well, I would put it this way.
[00:35:08] You're going to have to spend more time with Jesus than you do in Babylon.
[00:35:14] Your days are going to have to be ordered where you spend more time with your faithful groom, who is Christ, than you do with the harlot. Babylon.
[00:35:25] Think about your days. What does that look like for you?
[00:35:29] Is your heart glutted with pictures of the new Jerusalem or the enticements of the harlot?
[00:35:38] What occupies your mind and your heart? Because I'm going to tell you this and just be honest, but Babylon is too powerful for you. Of your own strength, you will not overwhelm her on your own.
[00:35:55] And if you have a tepid spirituality, you will be lured toward Babylon over and over again.
[00:36:05] So often I, I, I feel like this is the council. I feel like a, I guess a broken record when I, when we talk to people and we're trying to repentance of sin and sinful struggles and temptations and even the anxiety that living in this world causes because Babylon oversells herself over promises and under delivers every time and leaves you miserable and anxious and insecure.
[00:36:36] And it comes down to this.
[00:36:39] It's not some sort of amazing theological spiritual discipline trick.
[00:36:48] It's you can't be tepid in your spirituality. In the world in which you live, you can't. You'll be ineffective, powerless, and eventually led astray.
[00:36:58] And so it comes down to this.
[00:37:01] You've got to spend time in the Word of God. You do. It's impossible. Why? You have the promises of Babylon luring you away. And if you're not reminded of the promises of Christ, you will give in. Every time Jesus himself in the wilderness quotes Scripture, why man shall not live on bread alone. But every word that comes from them, every promise that comes from the Father, he shows us what it means to live in the wilderness. Glut it with the promises of God. And if you're not in the Word of God, you will not see Jesus and his kingdom as more glorious.
[00:37:40] And if you're not engaged in worship, because I'm in the Word and I'm in prayer and I'm fighting this fight every day against the Babylon spirit. And if you try to do that alone, you're going to lose.
[00:37:54] Because if you're like me, you get to the end of every week and you're worn out, you're tired, and you need to gather with other people who say no, let's go. Come on, let's sing this song together.
[00:38:10] Let's remind ourselves of all of the idols that our soul longs for. And let's look at one another on Sunday morning and say, let's finish well. Well, you help me finish well, I'll help you finish well, you got to fight Babylon together, but you got to spend more time in the new Jerusalem than Babylon. I'm just telling you it won't work any other way. There's no trick.
[00:38:36] Get in the word of God. Engage in this local church or a local church. That's how you display your faithfulness to Christ who gave his life to for his bride. The church.
[00:38:49] You love the church. That's how you love Jesus. You remain faithful to him.
[00:38:55] Doesn't happen any other way.
[00:38:57] And then as we continue, don't try to gain the whole world and lose your soul. Verse 15.
[00:39:04] And the angel said to me the waters you saw where the prostitute is seated. And the peoples and multitudes and languages and nations. Again this is countered the church that we're going to see this picture of every tribe, tongue, language, people makes up the church. Here is the city of Babylon, which is the world. Many from all over the world. And the ten horns that you saw, they. And the beast will hate the prostitute. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[00:39:32] It only lasts for a time is the point.
[00:39:35] Babylon only lasts for a time. And the powers that uphold Babylon eventually turn on Babylon.
[00:39:43] They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. This is a picture of Jezebel who is leading the people of God astray. And then she's eventually destroyed and trampled. The same thing will happen to Babylon. For God has put into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power. So they think they're free. They think they can oppose God. All of the world power comes down together. Well, it's God who's behind it all. Notice. For God has put into their hearts. What God will allow to happen in the end is he will allow sin and wickedness and power and pleasure to take hold and eventually destroy itself. But God will allow this to happen. No one's free, no one can really oppose God and defeat him.
[00:40:34] And notice they give their power to the beast.
[00:40:37] They're slaves of the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.
[00:40:41] Verse 18.
[00:40:43] And the woman that you saw is the great city. Remember chapter 16. Babylon is split into three here I'm referring to the great city. Babylon will be destroyed. The one that has dominions over the kings in the earth.
[00:40:59] And the point is city after city, culture after culture. Rome was destroyed just like that was destroyed just like that, on God's whim.
[00:41:12] Okay, I'm going to let you rule for a time. And then your power will destroy you. In kingdom after kingdom, country after country, city after city. This will happen over and over through human history. It will culminate in human rebellion and then God will put an end to it all. But notice the culture of Babylon is unsustainable.
[00:41:32] The just thirsting and craving for pleasure and serving yourself.
[00:41:38] Eventually that falls apart because everyone is out for what they want. They're serving themself and Babylon destroys itself and there's nothing left.
[00:41:52] And so here's the question Jesus would ask us today.
[00:41:56] What if you could gain the whole world and lose your soul back to what would cause you to deny Jesus?
[00:42:06] But I want you to think about the question Jesus offers. What would it profit a man if he could gain the whole world?
[00:42:15] The reality is he won't gain the whole world.
[00:42:18] But just here's the math of the kingdom. God's math.
[00:42:23] What if you could?
[00:42:26] It still wouldn't be worth losing your soul over.
[00:42:30] And the reality is, we know I'm not going to gain the whole world, but I want this little sliver of the world right now.
[00:42:38] So it's not even the whole world that we're selling our soul over to.
[00:42:44] It's momentary pleasure in Babylon.
[00:42:48] What if you could gain the whole world?
[00:42:50] It wouldn't even be worth it. Then why do you give yourself over very little of the world and still lose your soul?
[00:42:59] You see, the reality is at the end, we're all going to be the quarterback who everybody loved and the prom queen who everybody thought was pretty.
[00:43:07] We're all going to be those people where we got glory for a moment and then we live in the good old days.
[00:43:16] For some of us, those images and those desires is what we're selling our soul over to.
[00:43:26] Momentary power and status and pleasure and wealth.
[00:43:33] And it doesn't last.
[00:43:36] It's gone.
[00:43:39] Time, age, history, and ultimately Jesus is going to put an end to all of that and we're wasting our time with it.
[00:43:52] We're selling our soul.
[00:43:55] We're being prostituted.
[00:43:58] And it's sad that we give ourselves over to such fleeting, temporary Babylon luxury.
[00:44:07] What are you investing your life in?
[00:44:10] What's your agenda this week for your life?
[00:44:16] When you think about work, you think about what your kids would be involved with.
[00:44:21] Is it the glory of Christ and all of those things?
[00:44:27] Even as you think about providing and making money? Is it the glory of Christ should make as much money as you can use for the kingdom, you should be as successful as you possibly can and witness the kingdom. We're not to be losers, lazy, weak, pathetic. But what is our goal? Is it the glory of Christ?
[00:44:49] Parents, what are your expectations for your kids if you just had to mark them out? This is what I want for you, son. This is what I want for you. Daughter at the top of the list, is it Jesus?
[00:45:02] Is it that they would believe in Jesus? Because your priorities for them are determining that right now. And you're even without saying anything to them, you're saying something to them.
[00:45:13] If you're more passionate about their batting average than you are, their knowledge of scripture, that's saying something to them.
[00:45:27] Their playing time, their grades, the way they appear among their peers.
[00:45:36] If you care more about those things and you're willing to invest everything into those things at the expense that they never hear about Jesus, you're saying it. You're already telling them what you want for them without telling them.
[00:45:53] What is your agenda? Is it Babylon?
[00:45:56] Because your kid could gain the whole world. They could have a sliver of Babylon and lose their soul.
[00:46:03] I heard this this week, and it's. A lot of people are saying it and quoting it. I think I heard it from David Pollock, Georgia Bulldog.
[00:46:14] He said there is less than a point 0.
[00:46:23] Chance that your child will be a professional athlete, but there is a 100% chance that they'll stand before Jesus.
[00:46:33] Here's another one.
[00:46:35] There is less than.0086% chance that your child will be a celebrity or an influencer.
[00:46:48] What do you want from them?
[00:46:51] There's a 100% chance they'll stand before Jesus.
[00:46:56] And the reason I bring that up is because that reveals so much of our own hearts.
[00:47:02] What do we want for those who are under our care?
[00:47:05] What do we want for those who we have a responsibility to? We pour that into them.
[00:47:12] We model that for them.
[00:47:14] Do you want Babylon or the New Jerusalem?
[00:47:18] Where is your investment? Where are you given time? Where are you given energy? Where are your words leading others?
[00:47:24] Or better yet, where are you from?
[00:47:31] Babylon or the New Jerusalem? Let's pray. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for the Christ of your word. Thank you that you allow us to gather here today and worship Christ.
[00:47:46] God, I pray in these moments, Jesus would be our all in all. We would give our hearts and our minds and our thoughts and our souls over to Christ and nothing and no one else.
[00:47:58] It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
[00:48:02] I kind of get a sense at the end of the sermon that. That was really, really heavy.
[00:48:09] It was meant to be heavy.
[00:48:12] And here's what goes on in these moments.
[00:48:15] You have an opportunity to repent of those things.
[00:48:19] I have an opportunity in my own life today as a culmination of repentance. I've struggled with these things all week, wrestling with the text and what does this mean? And does my life mirror the new Jerusalem or Babylon?
[00:48:33] We, in these moments, have opportunities to repent. So it's not to just leave us feeling bad.
[00:48:38] It is to lead us even further into Christ.
[00:48:43] And so across the room, there should be repentance. This is what I've been giving my life over to. But Jesus is better.
[00:48:51] This should be moments of great joy where I am reminded even in the song, even as I hear others sing around me. Jesus is better.
[00:49:02] Why would I sell my soul to those things? Jesus is better. And so that's. That's what I want in these moments. Not that you leave here today and go, oh, he made me feel so awful.
[00:49:15] Say that. He made me feel awful, but reminded me of how glorious Jesus is.
[00:49:21] And that's what I want all across this room. That's what we want as pastors and those leading today, that you would delight in Jesus in these moments. Let's do that as we stand and sing together.
