Commercial Babylon - Revelation 18:1-24

We are in Revelation 18. We're going to do the whole chapter, as we did last week, in one small book. Okay? But I have a question. Last week was about commercial Babylon. This week, excuse me, last week was about religious Babylon. This week about commercial Babylon. Chapter 17 of Revelation deals with religious Babylon. We talked about that last week. This week, chapter 18, is commercial Babylon. Before we leave this subject, brought up last week.

Does God like religion? Yes? No? Okay, Jessica says no. Any other opinions or qualifications to that statement? What do you think? Spiritual religion, not worldly religion. A God-like spiritual religion and not worldly religion. I think it's a word that's got a bad knock. Yeah, it's possible to make a qualification to it and have a different meaning. But, okay. And now, when you say no, what are you describing when you say no? I would just kind of explain it by the opposite. You'd be more interested in the relationship with God. When I think of religion, I think of rituals and things you do. and not so much as things of the heart.

Christ said that he does not like repetitive prayer, rather sincere conversation. So that's what most religions teach us is repetitive prayer. A good number of religions out there teach repetitive prayers, and that's true both in Western religion as well as Eastern religion. There's a song sung by the Stadler Brothers, I don't know who wrote it, but the song talks about keep a little prayer wheel turning. Well, the prayer wheel's out of Buddhism, so I don't know that that's something you want to keep turning.

But it's something that, yeah, it's possible to have things creep in and get accepted, but in reality, no, there is a difference between the religion that is frankly what comes down with a great boom and a crash as we saw described in chapter 17 and that which is truly, you know, consisting of a relationship with the Lord and there's only one way to do that, faith in Christ.

Okay, this time we have commercial Babylon and so I have another question. Is business bad? Is business just bad to the bone? What do you think? Is business bad to the bone? It's necessary. And what evidence do we have that it's something that isn't all just bad to the bone? The people that run it. Pardon? The people that run the businesses. The people that run the businesses? What do you mean by that? Well, they can be deceitful. It depends on how they carry it out? Sure. Your thought?

Well, Jesus, even when he was on the earth, used money. He had a treasurer. He got the money out of the fish and paid his tax. So he used Peter's fishing background to pay this tax. Can you think of some other instances where Christ was involved with business? What was his business before he started his ministry? He was a carpenter. Yeah, he was a carpenter for many years more. Then he was in ministry.

That's correct. Yeah. And I also heard that, and I don't know how true this is, maybe it's something that's been carried on that's not true, but they said that his ministry was probably supported through Mary Magdalene and some of the during that period of time actually supporting his ministry financially. Yeah, there was a matter of people giving to the ministry that he had and both men and women from many evidence that we have contributed to the ministry. Yeah, that's a good point.

Here's another one. We're studying a letter of Paul, 1 Corinthians, and what did Paul do to support his ministry? Pardon? He gets some donations, but what else? He made tents, right? And so that was business. So another thing is Paul said, you know, if the person will not work, let him not eat. So business by itself is not something bad.

What's the difference? How come this Babylonian business is a problem? Why is that bad and what Jesus and Paul and the disciples did good? First thing that comes to mind God actually didn't even want to receive those sacrifices and those gifts because the faith and the attitude that was required from them were no longer present.

Right. So there is a difference in heart that makes the difference between whether business, sounds like the issue with religion, doesn't it? It makes a difference whether this business is a good thing or a bad thing. There are several different places where we could make some distinctions.

One of the things that the Jews were told not to do was to have unequal weights. They were not allowed to have unequal weights and special ways of cheating people. If you had somebody who was giving you collateral, for a loan among the Jews. One of the things that they were not allowed to do was to take someone's coat or their grinding wheel for food overnight. Can't do that. Why? It's because the business is to have mixed in with it grace and mercy. You don't take what people need to keep warm and to eat with. as collateral. Yes? One thing. We were studying precept last week.

I think it's if you keep your focus on the first three commandments, the last seven more or less work themselves out. And the last seven have to do with the things that we're talking about, which is religion, economy, and this sort of thing. Religion that is essentially personal interactions. And so it is relationship, the first three, is developing this relationship and through the relationship you turn your works into service and they are acceptable to God. What happens is if we carry out business that does not first start with relationship with the Lord, you're sowing the seeds of a problem.

One of the things that we have wrestled with big time in our own country in the last decade is business ethics. Big time. When I went through business school, I had this teaching on business ethics. Well, it's pretty well useless because none of it is based upon relationship with the Lord. And a lot of these guys who are violating what we would call business ethics in the course of their business, are doing so having had courses in business ethics. It doesn't help, because in the end, and what this commercial Babylon issue is all about, is business without God in the picture. What does James say, you know, don't go say we're going to go here and there and do this and this, make this much money. if the Lord wills. Start with the Lord in the picture, and then your business will go differently, quite differently. If, however, the business is all about just simple human interaction, it will go awry.

It will head astray. I had an uncle who lived for many decades in Honduras, and he worked in a small town in Honduras that it didn't even have a road to it. You had to go drive down this dry creek bed, which was of course the ruin of all the vehicles in that town. Because it pretty well beat them apart. But he told the people, he says, there will not be abundance and prosperity in Honduras until people learn honesty. And where do people learn honesty? Not in a business ethics class.

It comes from relationship with the Lord first. So your point about the Ten Commandments essentially, or your reference to relationship first, yep, that's where it starts. And not from human beings trying to press ethics on one another. with morality. Yeah, and there's, you know, we have kind of a degradation in our own day symbolized by, this is actually I think not the core, symbolized by the objections to one nation under God. That we have people squawking about that is really the symptom of the problems. The problem is we do need to be under God.

You can leave it in our Pledge of Allegiance, leave it in our coins, leave it on our, you know, dollar bills. That won't make any difference. It's where are people's hearts. That is what makes a difference. And that's the problem with commercial and religious Babylon. It's all the religion, all the business, all without God. That's the problem here. See?

So now, Here's verse 1 in chapter 18, After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. We brought out, when we first studied Revelation back in January of this year, we had an appendix item, and I've got a few extra copies in case you didn't get hold of that.

But it lists all the places in the Bible, most of them anyway, where after these things is used. And the pattern that John uses, more or less uniquely, is John uses it prophetically. But that phrase, after these things, communicates two things. One, it communicates historical reality. It is used in other places in the Bible to communicate things which were historical. This happened. That happened. It's not just a fairy tale or an allegory or something. So it's historical reality. And the second thing it conveys is sequence. Historical reality and sequence. Those two things.

So John uses it similar to all the other places that it's been used in the Bible up to this point with one difference. He uses it for events that have yet to take place. See that? So anyway, I've got a couple copies if you didn't happen to grab it back in January. Or maybe you can't remember if you had it in January. But anyway, we do have them.

Now, the other thing is this another angel. We've seen it eight times before in Revelation. Another in the Greek is alos. Remember we've made a distinction. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. Hopefully so. Alos is another of the same kind. Heteros is another of a different kind. And so another of the same kind. So I saw another angel of the same kind. Same kind of angel. So this angel has come down from heaven.

This phrase shows up nine times in Revelation. It shows that God is certainly able to act and communicate. He is not silent. He is not impotent. One of the other points we made not in your handout here, and that is that God is the one who makes things come down from and go up to heaven. Man never does that in the book of Revelation. Man does not say, you know, God went and sent this thing down so we're going to just fire up a few missiles at it. That never happens. Man never sends anything up to heaven or makes anything come down. God does all the from and to heaven action. God uniquely does that. So it says this angel came down having great authority and the earth was illuminated or illumined with his glory. So some people have read that and said, ah, that must be Jesus.

But there are a few reasons why I don't believe that's the case. And those are spelled out on the top of page two. Jesus Christ will come when he comes at his second coming and not before. We have a good description as to what the second coming will be like. In fact, we'll be seeing it in the next chapter. Number two there, though we might be inclined to see great authority as fitting our Lord, the phrase is used early in Revelation and once in Daniel. In neither of those cases does it refer to Jesus Christ in those passages.

So having great authority is real interesting. Did Jesus Christ have great authority? Yes, but that particular phrase is interestingly enough not used with Jesus Christ, so it would not mark it specifically for him. Number three, Moses came down from Mount Sinai with great authority and he even displayed such glory that when he came down from the mountain that Israel could look upon him. This is in Exodus 34 and 2 Corinthians 3. And he had this glow about him, right? But he was not Christ the Lord. He had been with the Lord, and so had this angel, coming down with glory. Alright, so, then we hear his voice.

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 for every unclean bird and a prison of every, excuse me, 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. This word fallen is in the past tense, spoken as many Old Testament prophets did, and we've actually seen it before in Revelation.

It kind of goes along with the way that we speak in English sometimes. We will occasionally, even in English, speak of something in the past tense if it is yet future, but considered very certain to take place. You ever hear this threat? Maybe it's a TV thing. Maybe you've heard it otherwise. Hopefully not too many times. Somebody says, you're dead meat. Well, you're not dead meat, right? But the idea is it's a threat that is intended to be, you know, you're a great hazard and it's so certain that you're like you were dead meat.

And so we have those kinds of expressions even in English. And that's the way it's used here. Then, as we look at it, the Jews were not permitted, because you see a reference here, two things to be said there. The beings are said to be, there are one, demons, unclean spirits, and those, that's another term for, there's demons, unclean spirits, and fallen angels, those are synonyms for the same thing. And two, unclean and hateful birds.

It's interesting, as you read through the Bible, there are some places where birds have a good connotation. Even God himself is pictured as a mother bird, protecting the young. So there's a good connotation with that. Christ talks about the Lord taking care of the birds. When one bird falls, the Lord knows. aren't there clean and unclean birds and animals as well?

Sure, yeah, I mean, and that's the thing. This animal is good, this one is, you don't touch it. And the inclination among the Jews is, well, if God doesn't want us to eat it, then I better hate it. Right? So that's the hateful birds. It's not that the birds are really hateful birds, it's just that you're inclined to hate them because God's called them unclean. Yeah.

And back in those days, it's a health issue for them. And second of all, it's a picture of eating flesh. And is that not what dishonest people are doing? I mean, they're taking advantage of other people that are actually eating or destroying, you know, people that they should be loving, but they're actually destroying them. Like wild animals, to eat other flesh. So it's a picture and it's also a health issue.

Some of the carrion birds, they can eat botulism, which to a human being a very tiny amount is toxic and even deadly, especially if ingested. But here with these birds, I mean, I remember we'd have vultures come around the property, you know, coming after different animals when I was on the farm.

I mean, You kind of get close to what they were eating, and it was like, well, you better keep your distance. You're going to get overwhelmed with the stench. But they don't mind it at all. I guess, one, they can't smell it, and two, it doesn't poison them. So away they eat.

But the Jews were forbidden to consume any birds that ate carrion. And one of the problems is all kinds of risk of not only poison, but all sorts of parasites and insects and that sort of thing. And again, it's a picture of God's order and His plan. You can't have dead carcasses laying all over the earth. They've got to be cleaned up and eaten and destroyed. It's a marvelous plant. Yeah, I mean, it certainly works ecologically. It's just a question of, do I want to eat that? Yeah. Crabs taste pretty good, right? Yes.

And the thing is, if you look at it, I mean, we regularly, in our culture, eat things that they were forbidden to eat. We also regularly don't eat things that they were also not, you know, to eat. And usually for good reason. But yeah, and one of them was, we'll eat certain kinds of shellfish and crustaceans and things like that that they were not allowed to have.

Look at the Acts in verse 3. There are the nations, all of them, drawn into her web of immorality. They were drunk with it, in fact. Then there were the kings of the earth who were totally involved in her snares. Finally, the merchants who come buying and selling so as to offer luxury as the ultimate condition a man can desire. To the Jews in biblical times, this is an example in Genesis 37 that we saw some months back, merchants were not held in high regard. It was the merchants who were buying and selling things that took Joseph off, took Joseph to Egypt. That's what the Genesis 37 reference is here. Common folks could not afford their wares. They often catered to the wealthy and the royalty of their extravagant tastes.

One of the points I believe we've made, but if not I'll repeat it, is that, for example, we talk about reference to scarlet. Things made that were scarlet or red were frequently made from dyes that were extremely expensive. And by extremely expensive, I mean the cost of the dye is greater per ounce than gold. So when we talk about something made of scarlet, it was extremely expensive. We even have one record of a dress worn by one of the wives of the Caesars that was, if we were to put it in modern dollars, it would be about a half million dollar dress just by the materials that are in it. Made with lots of precious metals and stones. And so by the description of it, when you calculate what it would take, this is upwards of a half million dollars for the dress. So the idea that they're talking about here is lots of money.

Something else, and that is that During that time, and starting a couple centuries before the New Testament era, began what's called the Silk Road. This is the merchant's path from China and India into the Roman Empire. The first major city that it came to was Antioch. That's where the believers were first called Christians. That was the entrance from the Silk Road into the Roman Empire.

But many of those were very high-priced goods. When the Roman Empire collapsed, that Silk Road also collapsed and wasn't restored until the time after Marco Polo. But so there's another area of merchants bringing very expensive things. And by the way, by the time you bring something, you know, the way things were carried in those days from China and India, yeah, it's going to be expensive no matter what it is.

Verse 4 and 5 here, 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. I've heard this voice from heaven before in Book of Revelation. This is the fifth and final time that we're going to hear it. There's no doubt about the source of this voice in chapter 18. Only the Lord Himself could say, come out of her, what's the word? My people. This is the Lord speaking. There's no question about it. On page 3 there, this verse says that those saints living during the tribulation period, when they see and recognize religious and commercial Babylon, to come out of her. Don't participate with her. You don't want to receive the plagues coming to her. We in the church, of course, are not and will not be tribulation saints. We're not going to be there.

But there's also a consistent call among church-age believers to come out of the world. It's fine for you and me to have individual unbelieving friends in the world. That's not the same as being a friend of the world. See the distinction? How many of you have friends who are unbelievers? Yeah, they have friends who are unbelievers. In fact, you probably related to some, right? Friends and relatives who are unbelievers. Yeah, I've got those too. And some of them, I dearly love them. However, that's a different thing from being a friend of the world. And when we say the world, we mean the world system. And being friendly with it and not discerning the spiritual and moral danger that is there.

So that's the distinction. This text box that you see below here contains passages addressed to the church calling for believers to separate from false teaching, false doctrine, as well as fleshly and worldly behavior. So this idea of coming out and being separate is true and is there. It's for real and it's pretty consistent here. It starts in Romans, the first letter that we have in the New Testament sequentially. all the way into Revelation, this book that we're seeing here. Those are all addressed to the Church. So there is a valid place for it. Here's Babylon. Sins have been piled up as high as the heavens. I have a reference there in Jeremiah 51 that talks about sins being piled up as high as the heavens. And by the way, that's another one of those instances.

Remember we said 70% of Revelation is out of the Old Testament? There's another connection right there. So we have the quote here, the nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations are going mad. The drinking of wine is also out of Revelation 17-18 there.

Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken. Wail over her, bring balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed. We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven and towers up to the various skies." So here's the picture of its fulfillment here.

It's man's effort to reach heaven. By the way, that's a big distinction between religion and worldly religion. It's man's effort to reach heaven on his own terms. Buddhism is man's effort to reach heaven on his own terms. Hinduism is man's effort to reach heaven on his own terms. Islam is man's effort to reach heaven on his own terms. They all define that a little differently, but it's the same, isn't it? Even Judaism, not as Christ intended it, but as many Jews have it, is of the same. It's become the same. Man's effort to reach heaven on his own terms.

Verse 6 there starts the next section. Pay her back even as she has paid. Give back to her double according to her deeds. And the cup which she has mixed makes twice as much for her. To the degree that she has glorified herself and lived sensuously, the same degree give her torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen and I am not a widow. I will never see mourning. For this reason 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 Jewish way of saying things, payback double, that basically comes out of the Old Testament law.

We have a reference there, Exodus 22.9.

When making restitution for theft or a breach of trust, you're supposed to pay back double to the neighbor. So what does it say of Babylon that's just full of theft and breach of trust? Revelation chapter 17 said the cup of Babylon was full of abominations and immorality. So if the cup of Babylon is filled with her abominations and immorality, she will be served up full judgment.

That brings up a point about the way the Lord works with us humans. We are all offered the cup of mercy and grace and blessing. This is righteousness of Christ at God's own expense. If a person refuses that, he may seek to establish righteousness on his own terms. Oh, but Lord, I did this. Lord, I know I did a few things wrong, but I'm not as bad as that guy. Or even, Lord, Lord, I did this. And what does he say? I never knew you. I never knew you.

Man's best efforts at religion, even the person who works at it very hard, even the person with whom this world is impressed, I would say probably within our lifetime we've had people that this world would say, that person's impressively religious. Is the Lord impressed? No. Because it's faith in Christ and taking His offer of mercy and grace only by faith. That is all that God asks for. Nothing else will do. He doesn't need our help to be saved, for us to be saved. He doesn't need our contribution.

Some people have the attitude that say, well, the Lord's given me the requirements, I'll just meet Him when I get there and it'll turn out okay. And the Lord says, no, it won't turn out okay. He says, I need to know you now so that when you meet me, you'll be one that I know. You won't be coming to me, Lord I did this, Lord I did that, Lord I didn't do as bad as that guy. You don't want that. He needs to know you now in order to know you when you see him face to face. Babylon, however, chooses a cup of its own making to its own destruction.

Notice here, we have this, I sit as a queen. In Jeremiah, there's reference to the Queen of Heaven. And by the way, it's real interesting. In this Queen of Heaven worship, Ishtar was the name. In this Queen of Heaven worship, the women took prominence in leading the services. Isn't that interesting? The women took prominence in leading the service.

And Jeremiah 7.18, there's a quote there and then another from several verses in Jeremiah 44.

But what's interesting is more than once the Lord tells Jeremiah, don't even pray for these people. Isn't that interesting? Don't even pray for these people. I don't want to hear it. It's that bad. Can you imagine what it takes for God to get to the place with somebody saying, I don't even want to hear about this person. Don't pray for these people. Isn't that interesting? That's pretty incredible. It's interesting because a lot of people are deists.

They believe that God put the world in order and then he steps back and lets it go. There's a letter flying laws and stuff that he set up. But if that was the case, he wouldn't be affected by Yeah, it says basically deism, the term that he's using, basically that there is a belief in a God, but God kind of created things and kind of wound up the clock, so to speak, and then just let her fly. Let's see what happens. And things operate according to physical and other laws.

Yeah, that doesn't compare with scripture. God didn't create the world in six days and in seven days let it go? Not really. No, He continues to be involved with us. He could have said, Adam and Eve, they just blown it. I'm walking away from this thing. And instead, what does He do?

He sends His Son to pay the price, to restore relationship, so that by faith we might have eternal fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Lord Jesus Christ. a relationship with God, instead of, as the deist would believe, that God just created things and then just let her fly. Let the clock tick, let it unwind, let it go in whatever pattern it goes.

On page 5 here, I'll read verse 9. 10. 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 to the great city Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour your judgment has come." The way I put it here is, notice the parade of personalities who mourn the loss of Babylon. Verse 9 tells again and more of the kings, that is those who rule in a political clout. What do they mourn? The immorality and sensuous living. Oh, I miss the immorality. I miss the sensuous living. Oh, how terrible that we've lost this.

And where do they do it? At a distance. Go more than, but don't get too close. That could be a little dangerous. But that's interesting because, like you were saying last week, to me anyway, it is a city. Yep. You're talking about an influence, you're talking about, it can be both I guess. But specifically here, it's talking about a geographical location. I think there is a literal intent here. This is not just all figurative symbolism. It's a city.

One of the ways, I think, here it is falling down an hour, one of the ways that I think that we can relate to this, this may be painful to recall, but remember 9-11? Those towers, matter of fact, I've only visited New York City one time and that was before they built the towers. They were, I think, maybe just beginning construction when I was there, so I never saw them. It took a while to build as I understand. Quite some time, but they came down in about an hour.

It was all done. And so here is this phenomenal destruction. And by some comparison, I think we can begin to relate to it. You can still find on the internet the video clips. showing the tower coming down, tragically, but coming down, and I think it kind of gives you an idea of, whoa, here's something that, this is the World Trade Center, this is the place where, you know, a great deal of commerce takes place, and now it's, shockingly, all gone. We're still getting over the shock, although I think an awful lot of Americans have forgotten a great deal. I'll read through the rest of the verses 11 through 19 there.

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, silk and scarlet. Every kind of citron wood and every article 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 cargoes 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 become rich from her, will stand in a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, who 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 ship master and every passenger and sailor, as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance. And they were crying out 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. So we see these merchants here lamenting the loss of Babylon. John writes some of the cargoes there, and they certainly fall into several categories.

Some of them might not seem too insidious, but the one that might get our attention is the last one. Human lives. People. You might say, wait a minute, we don't have slaves anymore. Oh, yes we do. Yes we do. continent of Africa. The Muslims are going in there in places where they have power. Sudan is one of them.

And they kill the Christian parents and sell the kids regularly. I don't know what the statistic is now, but it was pretty high rate of slavery. And the reason that they do that is because many of the villages they're attacking are almost entirely Christian. I heard about one fellow who is a pastor over in California who travels over there. He said they have a hard time getting pastors. The first thing they do is go and kill the pastors. and they'll just kill the pastor right out.

But they'll find out any other Christian parents and kill the parents and then sell the kids. And then another place, and it's a fairly substantial trade, it is not mentioned much, but it's sex slaves here in the Western Hemisphere. And the center of the sex slave trade is the Caribbean.

We've had some high-profile cases that have come to the forefront But reality is that's fairly common. So, human cargoes, especially at a time when the restrainer is no longer functioning to restrain these things. Imagine what it's like when everything's loose. For the world and the flesh, call all the shots. Let's look at verse 20 down the page there. And 21.

Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her. And 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.

I think one of the things, and it's a point that I try to make from time to time, there is a time for dealing with every injustice in the world, and Babylon and its philosophy will be no exceptions. What's the importance of talking about there will be a time for dealing with every injustice in the world? Why is that an important thing for us to talk about? or our pain and suffering is going to be avenged. And the Bible says that vengeance is God's and not ours. So even though we have to live in the world system and follow the rules that we've been given, the final judgment for horrendous acts are going to be taken care of by God. Getting that settled in our minds, this is not just some sort of hypothetical doctrinal thing.

It's actually quite personal. And there's a couple of reasons that come to mind for me that I'll share. And that's in my own life, I've shared it openly and I'll do it again. In my own life, in my earlier years, boy, I would get angry. And I would do things about it that were violent. And if that had been carried on, it could be very serious.

But I think for Christians to have settled in their minds, it is not up to us to go around making sure justice happens in every single place. It won't. We have what we call a justice system. I'll say it's sometimes called that, but it's actually a legal system. Sometimes it's a justice system, but it's a legal system. And I'm sure all of us can think of instances, if not specifically, at least in some kind of a general memory, when justice isn't exactly what happened in our legal system. People who got away with things that they should not have gotten away with. And conversely, people who were condemned for things, they should not have been condemned for. Our system of justice is not always just.

But ultimately, everything will be taken care of, either on the cross, In this life or in eternity, everything, nothing will be accepted. And here's another important reason, aside from someone like me where I look at it and I say, you know, I'm going to carry out justice, which ends up being unjust. But there's the other part of this too. If you have been, or someone you love has been a victim of something where justice didn't get carried out, and probably in some way or another you can think of almost, well at least one thing if not multiple things in each of our lives. Something where justice didn't happen. Sometimes people quite unable to defend themselves were victimized.

There will in eternity be ultimate justice. God will not let even the slightest thing go. There will be ultimate justice. So in eternity there will either be, it's dealt with on the cross, it is dealt with here in this life sometimes, or it's dealt with afterward through this earth. But everything will be dealt with. No question about it. We will talk about this a little bit more when we get to Revelation chapter 20. Yes.

I think it's really interesting that passage in the New Testament, I can't remember it exactly, but what was it? Causing your brother to stumble or if you harm a young child or something that it would be better a millstone tied around his neck. Jesus talks about it would be better if it was a millstone than to cause one of these little ones.

Yeah, I think what you're looking at is there is individual justice and one of the things that we'll look at when we look to Revelation chapter 20 is Christ also talks about judging certain peoples and even cities. Sodom and Gomorrah will stand up on the Judgment Day and say this, okay? And woe to this city and woe to that one. And so there is judgment for nations There is judgment for cities, there is judgment for individual people.

And it's part of, and here's even, Jesus says, a bird falls from the sky and God knows it. God knows the number of hairs on your head. It's not that tough for me. God knows all these things and God's sense of justice will not miss one thing. And it was part of my own reckoning in dealing with My anger is realizing, hey, God's going to take care of all this stuff.

I don't have to settle it in my life and in my lifetime. He will bring absolute justice and I can trust Him for that. For both the things that I look at and say, justice wasn't served here, as well as the things that I've done. It will all be dealt with on the cross, in life or in eternity. Period. No exceptions. And settling on that in our hearts is a huge way of dealing with the various injustices that we either see or maybe even have perpetrated. Big, big issue. A huge settling point in our lives as believers.

Okay, I have to leave the rest of it to you, but what we're going to be moving on to is Chapter 19. This is really cool because this is the Second Coming. And so we're past a lot of this, you know, pronouncement of judgment per se. However, we're not done with the final judgments, and when we get to chapter 20, we'll look at all the different judgments throughout time.

There are a lot of them, and Scripture talks about a lot of them. Any thoughts, questions, interjections, exasperations? Yes? arrival, his second coming? It would appear from everything that I see there that it is just before his second coming, but there is also still involvement at the second coming.

And we'll take a look at what that means. We've looked at it before, but we'll take a look at it again. So could this city then have been destroyed through man's war? Possible. It's possible the Lord could use that as an instrument, but not necessary. Okay, any other thoughts? Yeah? Did I see a hand move? Yes? No? Okay.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at your judging Babylon, both religious and commercial Babylon, We see that this world system, man's efforts to reach heaven, man's efforts to carry out the affairs of life apart from you, are ultimately doomed. And we just also settle in our hearts and minds that you are a God of justice. That as we look around the world and we think of things that are unjust, we think of people who have done horrible things and appear to have gotten away without sufficient consequence and punishment. All these things will be resolved down to the smallest thing. We thank you for your mercy and your grace, Lord, because we ourselves are not without fault as we look around and see injustice. And we thank you for your mercy and grace in that. And we just give you praise and glory and honor in Jesus name.