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Summary
Revelation 18 reveals the total destruction of Babylon — the godless political, economic, and religious system that will dominate the tribulation period. The passage teaches us that materialism, pride, and idolatry are the tools Satan uses to seduce the nations into rebellion against God. We are reminded that wealth has a subtle and seductive power, and that earthly treasures are transitory. The chapter calls believers of every age to separate from the world’s corrupt systems and place their hope in Christ alone.
Key Lessons:
- Luxury and prosperity lead to pride, which leads to forgetting God, which leads to idolatry and the exploitation of others — a blueprint for spiritual disaster.
- Wealth has a subtle, seductive power that can enslave even believers; we must live within our means, trust God rather than riches, and use money to glorify Him.
- The world’s economy and systems are transitory — everything the earth dwellers built apart from God will be destroyed swiftly and completely in divine judgment.
- God always vindicates His faithful people; no one will escape divine justice, and Christ alone is the way of salvation.
Application: We are called to evaluate our relationship with wealth and worldly comforts, to separate ourselves from the unfruitful works of darkness, and to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth. We must ensure we are ready for Christ’s return by trusting in Him alone for salvation.
Discussion Questions:
- In what ways might wealth and material comfort be subtly pulling your heart away from dependence on God?
- How can we practically “come out” of the world’s system and values while still living and working in the world?
- Does the swift and total destruction of Babylon change how you view the permanence of earthly achievements and institutions?
Scripture Focus: Revelation 18 describes the fall of Babylon and God’s judgment on the world’s political-economic system. Revelation 17:17 shows God’s sovereign control over end-time events. 1 John 2:15-18 warns against loving the world. 2 Corinthians 6:14 commands separation from unbelievers spiritually. Matthew 6:19-24 teaches storing treasures in heaven and the impossibility of serving God and wealth.
Outline
- Introduction
- The Two Evil Powers in the Tribulation
- The World’s Dream of Unity
- Satan’s Blueprint for Seduction
- The Angel’s Death Announcement Over Babylon
- A Demonic Wasteland Void of God
- Two Reasons for God’s Judgment
- Seduction by Wealth
- John’s Warning: Do Not Love the World
- Practical Warnings About Money
- Heaven’s Directive: Come Out of Her, My People
- The Lament of the Kings
- The Lament of the Merchants
- The Lament of the Seafarers
- Heaven Rejoices Over Babylon’s Fall
- The Urgency of Being Ready for Christ
- Closing Prayer
Introduction
Everyone, let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation.
Revelation 18.
And as you turn there, let me have a word of prayer this morning.
Let’s pray. Father, we do thank you so much today. We thank you for your grace, your common grace you give to us just to enjoy the simple things of life.
And thank you Lord for your greater grace that you give to us. And part of that greater special grace is to understand the word of God, to see your plan and where this world is heading all found in your word.
And I pray Lord that as we think of these things that we would be motivated by the Holy Spirit to be ready for whatever you have for us because we know Lord things will come to an end, our life, this world.
And Lord I pray that we would know for sure that we have a relationship with you because of what Christ has done in our behalf. By his shed blood, by his sacrificial death and washing our sin away and by his resurrection to give us life.
And thank you, Lord, even now you’re praying for us to keep us and you’re preparing a place for us that where you are, we may be. And for that, we’re very grateful and thankful.
Use your word today to make us ready in Christ I pray. Amen.
The Two Evil Powers in the Tribulation
Now as we are in chapter 17 and 18, these are very pivotal chapters in Revelation because there is working in the world—actually there has been working in the world for a long time—but it’s going to be more concentrated in this seven-year period called the Great Tribulation. The two evil powers will be destroyed by the Lamb, Jesus Christ. All the undertakings that we have been looking at even so far in Revelation are under the sovereign control and will of God. In fact, it is God who is bringing about his purpose.
If you look to chapter 17 and verse 17, be looking at Revelation in your own Bibles so you can see what I’m saying today. In Revelation 17:17, he says, “God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled.”
In other words, God will raise up vassal kings in the end time that will aid the beast to carry out the destruction of the first evil power. The first evil power will be the apostate church that will be in the tribulation period.
Now, I believe chapter 17 and 18 really encompasses the whole of the tribulation—what’s going on in the beginning and then what’s going to go on in the latter half. These two chapters are very pivotal for our understanding. In other words, the beast, which is the antichrist, has vassal kings—10 kings that turn on the great harlot.
Revelation 17:17: “God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose.”
The great harlot is the religious system. He strips her of all her power and wealth, leaving her desolate and destroyed. There will be a total annihilation of the apostate church.
Evil power number two is referred to in Revelation as the scarlet beast or the evil political economic system that will arise.
It says in the word of God in chapter 17 verse 18, “The woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” So chapter 18, which we will look at today, deals with Babylon.
Babylon as a political economic force also will be destined to destruction.
In chapters 17 and 18, Revelation actually gives us a thrilling narrative of the overthrow of the three-fold representation of Babylon: the religious part of it, the political part of it, and then the commercial or economic part of it. This really does reveal the strength, the final strength and confusion that will happen in the latter days—this confederate imperial empire of the combined rule of the false prophet and the antichrist that will take place during the seven-year tribulation period.
The apostle John, as he’s writing here, was told already in chapter 17 verse 1 that there’s going to be a judgment of this great harlot. The harlot is referred to as a woman.
The harlot religious system professes to be a religious system, but it is really a political religious system.
It is a counterfeit system, and Christ refers to it as a harlot because it commits spiritual prostitution.
Babylon: Symbol of a Pagan Culture
It has forsaken the way of God. In other words, here in our chapter we’ll look at this morning, we are still considering Babylon, but this time we are looking at an examination of its overthrow and why it’s overthrown.
And if you didn’t pick up on it before, I have been saying that Babylon is the symbol and epitome of a pagan culture.
It is godless. It is immoral. It is materialistic.
“Babylon is the symbol and epitome of a pagan culture. It is godless. It is immoral. It is materialistic.”
It is disobedient to the true and living God. And I believe it is also embodied in a real place. That is, in the latter days there will arise really a great metropolis and the seat will be the seed of the final world empire headed by the antichrist.
And realized in a revived imperialistic romanlike empire and that will be the empire the Bible refers to as the beast. Now remember, Babylon is really the Greek term of the Hebrew word Babel which means confusion.
It is symbolically used in scripture of the godless civilization of men, the rebellion of people against God, and the confusion that results from mankind drifting away from God into a godless rebellion.
Revelation 18 is really setting the scene of the earth just before the return of Christ. The people of the earth are locked into an atheistic materialistic economic system. And this system will exist along with a religious system until Antichrist no longer needs it. Then it will be done away with.
Now in chapter 17 we see that religious system is destroyed by the antichrist and now it seems we’re in the middle of the tribulation. The antichrist exalts himself as God. But at the same time this economic political system has been there in the beginning. In fact, before the tribulation, it’s in the world even now.
The World’s Dream of Unity
Things are being set up in the world even now. Christians, as they grow in Christ, understand that they’re in the world, but that they’re not of the world. The generation that we live in now is probably the most connected of all time. We can speak to people across the globe on our phones, email them, FaceTime them, text them—just to name a few.
We live in a world that seeks connection, wants community, preaches peace and tolerance, and loves diversity. In other words, the world united in love. That is the political dream of the day.
“We live in a world that seeks connection, wants community, preaches peace and tolerance, and loves diversity.”
A kind of utopia that people are trying to get. Many churches and professing Christians eat that up. In other words, let’s get all the religions together under one roof and forget our differences. We’re all underneath the same, right?
Wrong.
In fact, they say, “Let’s focus on what brings us together, not what divides us.” Yet that type of thinking flies in the face of scripture. Second Corinthians tells us this. Paul writing to the church says, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers.” Then he goes on in the latter part of that verse: “What has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”
James says, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” That language is all over the Bible.
But some would say that’s not very loving, is it?
Believers Have Nothing in Common with Unbelievers Spiritually
But what is true is that a believer has nothing in common with an unbeliever.
Scripture is not talking about what we have in common as people in general. It’s talking about how we have nothing in common with unbelievers spiritually.
“We have nothing in common with unbelievers spiritually.”
A non-Christian does not view the world the way a biblical Christian does. We place value on spiritual truth. We place value on spiritual things.
Christians love Jesus. They live to please God. That’s their desire.
But unbelievers really love themselves and they love the world system that they’re in. They really live to please themselves.
Satan’s Blueprint for Seduction
So the big question would be: when we get to this part of the tribulation, how is antichrist going to get the whole world on board with his agenda, especially when it comes to the political and economic world? How is he going to do that?
Well, let’s take a peek this morning at the world scene and see the whole world led astray from the truth. Instead, preoccupied with self-glory, a lust for gain, luxury, and pride.
It’s not a pretty sight from the vantage point of heaven, but from the vantage point of earth dwellers, it is a beautiful sight of human achievement.
Matter of fact, remember I said that religion started at Babel. But God shut that down because they wanted to build a tower that would be high to the sky. In other words, they wanted to do something apart from God. They wanted to build something apart from God.
So what didn’t happen at Babel actually takes place in the tribulation because it looks like mankind in the tribulation works out the bugs and is unified into a worldwide economy, which turns out distributing wealth to many people.
Satan will appeal to the natural desires of intimacy, success, and security. He will use legitimate needs to hide his real intent. His real intent is to get people to disobey God, to move away from God. See, Satan is a cunning deceiver.
“Satan will use legitimate needs to hide his real intent — to get people to disobey God.”
It was Patrick Mortley who called this kind of lifestyle a pursuit of the beautiful, wrinkle-free life.
When people live by one dimension—a one-dimensional standard, a material standard, just an earthly standard—they tend to forget that there’s a spiritual, moral, and relational standard. This lifestyle brings unwelcome and disastrous results.
But the problem is this is what Satan’s going to use to get the whole world on his agenda.
In other words, he has a blueprint that’s going to be given to him. This blueprint has already been tried in the Old Testament several times already.
The Bible tells us that when people move away from following God, they follow the ways of the world. The term used in the Old Testament says, “There are three transgressions of Israel and four—I will revoke. I will not revoke its punishment.” Because people move away from God and do really stupid, dumb, and silly things.
The phrase “three and four” was a common poetic literary device that communicated intensification, moving from one state to a more complete, fuller state. It’s used when God sees his people have reached their limit of countless sins and have crossed the line.
It is a blueprint for actual disaster.
So what blueprint am I talking about?
The Danger of Affluence
I’m talking about the one that Satan will use. And how does he do it? He does it like this. He offers luxury and leisure to people. When people live in a state of relative success, prosperity and comfort, what do they usually do? Well, that usually leads to pride. That’s the first danger of affluence, pride.
Because pride is an internal condition of the heart. It is inherently blasphemous because it attributes to oneself what should be rightly attributed to God. And so luxury and leisure leads to pride which leads to forgetting God because people who are materially well off and attribute their good fortune to their own abilities tend to forget about God.
“Pride is inherently blasphemous because it attributes to oneself what should be rightly attributed to God.”
And forgetting God typically leads to idolatry. And idolatry substitutes the God of the Bible for a God of one’s own desires. It fashions a God in our own image rather than God who made us in his own image. And that leads to oppression and exploitation of the weak and vulnerable. If we stop loving and honoring the Lord our God, then we stop loving our neighbor.
And so all kinds of stuff happened then.
But the last one happens also: refusing to return to God. People who in this condition ignore and resist God and refuse to repent.
That’s what they refuse to do. Just take your Bible quickly to look at Revelation 9:20 because it says there, “And the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of their works, the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, the idols of gold and silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk.”
So see, this is what happens. People don’t want to repent. They ignore and they resist God. And the resistance actually takes the form of seduction, and that leads to compromise with the truth, to believe a lie, and then Satan hooks them.
So there’s a danger that lies ahead for the generation that will come under the full seductive power of the antichrist because he will use this kind of blueprint and it will bring about spiritual disaster. But the world doesn’t know that.
The Mystery of Iniquity at Work
But it should serve as a warning to each generation. It should serve as a warning to us that we live in an evil time. The mystery of iniquity is working behind the scenes and danger lies ahead.
The mantra of the day for sinful man is that the world’s getting better, democracy is getting stronger. These seem to be good things. In fact, some of them make for a strong country and a robust economy.
However, in the hands of godless people under the deceptive tactics of the Antichrist, it will lead to all business being under the control of a satanically world government.
“In the hands of godless people under the deceptive tactics of the Antichrist, it will lead to all business being under satanic control.”
And this government is called Babylon.
So let’s look first at the description of this Babylonian system. Take your Bibles to chapter 18 this morning.
The Angel’s Death Announcement Over Babylon
It says in verse 1, “After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory, and he cried out with a mighty voice saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.’”
Just reading that, this other angel speaks with a heavenly authority and displays the power and splendor and magnificence of God himself as he comes to speak on the Lord’s behalf. The angel comes from God’s presence and being in his presence radiates with the glory of God just like Moses coming down from the mountain and he has to veil his face because he was in the presence of God.
The angel’s voice is mighty and he gives the death announcement concerning the certainty of judgment upon Antichrist’s political system. The prophet Isaiah pronounced the judgment of Babylon.
But Revelation is the foretelling of the desolation of the empire of the beasts.
He even uses the same language about old Babylon which we read this morning where it says, “Now behold, here comes a troop of riders horsing in pairs. And once said, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods are shattered to the ground.’” Did you hear that? All of the gods of Babylon will be shattered.
Something very similar will happen against the beast’s kingdom and the ungodly world.
“The Lord will scatter their gods and their idols and everything they loved and hoped for will be gone.”
A Demonic Wasteland Void of God
That the Lord will scatter their gods and their idols and everything they loved and hoped for will be gone. That’s what the Lord’s going to do.
We are looking here at the end of civilization in a sense as we would know it. Now, what’s the reason for this destruction?
Notice in verses 2-3, God really depicts the city as a desert place, a lonely place, a grotesque place, not fit for human beings. The earth is kind of described as a big bird cage.
Notice in verse 2, it says in the middle of the verse, “She has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit.”
A prison house of demons and unclean spirits—that’s what’s going to go on in the whole earth, not just in one area, even though it’s focused on a particular place. This is a system that has gone throughout the whole world.
And then it’s described as unclean birds or scavengers in the passage. Satan is symbolized as a bird in the parable of the sower, where the word of God is cast out and it says the birds came and ate up what was cast out of the seed of the word of God. It says, “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches it away.” We see this in scripture.
And then it says unclean, detestable beasts—she becomes a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. In other words, it’s an ugly place because Satan heads up and controls the realm. Babylon the great has become a demonic wasteland void of anything that represents God. God is out of the picture completely.
“Babylon the great has become a demonic wasteland void of anything that represents God.”
Just like we read in our passage this morning, it will be full of owls and ostriches. And then another passage says, “But pelicans and hedgehogs will possess it, and owls and ravens will dwell in it, and he will stretch over it the line of desolation, the plumb line of emptiness.” It will be a horrible place to be, especially for those who will be believers.
The world doesn’t see it like that, though. That’s how the Bible’s describing the reality of what will take place there. But why does God judge Babylon?
Two Reasons for God’s Judgment
Well, there are two reasons why. In verse 3, it says, “And 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.” What it is saying here is that the people of the world will participate in a lifestyle that is completely anti-good.
Spiritual harlotry is turning people away from God and it leads them into religious apostasy, immorality, and idolatry. So they must now drink the wine of God’s wrath. In other words, God’s filled up. You’ve had enough. This is it.
“Spiritual harlotry turns people away from God into religious apostasy, immorality, and idolatry.”
And then it says also in our passage, “And the nations, the kings of these nations are willingly, they willingly lead their people into immorality and idolatry.” So they’re guilty of idolatrous sin, but it’s also guilty of economic sin.
If you notice in verse 3, it says in the middle of the verse, “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.” So Babylon, this system becomes not only a capital but a place of godless materialism and luxury.
The sin of materialistic luxury in which the world’s merchants sold their goods at great quantity therefore grew enormously fat in their lust for wealth and luxurious living. Now both these sins appeal very powerfully to the base appetites of the sinful human.
Wealth brings a social control over its subjects while idolatry has a spiritual control. It was often said of old Rome that Rome conquered the world as much through its merchants as through its armies.
Seduction by Wealth
Now do you get the sense how powerful these temptations will be in this kind of environment?
This is literally seduction by wealth.
“This is literally seduction by wealth.”
It will be very difficult to see through the smoke screen. As long as the nations and the peoples are benefiting and growing wealthy and have gotten a taste of the luxurious life, who will want to get out? No one.
Everyone will be sitting pretty and enjoying themselves. Those who receive the mark of the beast will enjoy themselves.
Christians will not.
But they will have their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because they know and see through the smoke screen.
John’s Warning: Do Not Love the World
You can understand more easily the strong injunction that the Apostle John warned the church about. The church can get ready about the spirit of Antichrist and falling into the idolatry of the world when John wrote, “Do not love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father. It is from the world. And the world is what? Passing away.
So why do you want to put all your stuff in a place that’s passing away?
1 John 2:15: “Do not love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
But the one who does the will of God lives forever. John says this: “Children, it is the last hour and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared.” From this we know that it is the last hour.
And this begs a question for us.
Practical Warnings About Money
Does money control us? Does God actually control us?
Maybe it doesn’t now, but during the different phases of your life, it could get you pulled in and money may become an obsession for you.
But Jesus warns us that obsession with wealth is like worshiping false gods.
No one can serve two masters. He said either you will hate the one and love the other. And then he goes on to say, you cannot serve God and wealth. Jesus also told us how to survive in a world that often seems driven by wealth: store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth.
Why? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Also, if you look at your portfolio, your checkbook, your credit card statements, it should remind you where your money is and also where your heart is.
“Jesus warns us that obsession with wealth is like worshiping false gods. No one can serve two masters.”
Christians, we really need to take this to heart because earning, investing, and accumulating money claims our attention at some time in our life.
But little goes to understand the deep and often subtle spiritual challenges money brings.
Don’t ever forget that wealth has a very subtle and seductive power to it. We should just live within our means.
“Wealth has a very subtle and seductive power to it.”
Don’t get under the debt pressure. Put your trust in God and not in wealth.
Use your money to glorify God and ultimately to give.
Heaven’s Directive: Come Out of Her, My People
Brethren, because of these temptations—because they’re so subtle, so powerful, and so enslaving—God must accomplish two additional directives in the next heavenly announcement. That brings me to number two.
Notice in verses 4 to 8, heaven’s directives for true believers to flee and for Babylon’s double judgment.
Look at the command in verse 4. It says, “I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive her plague.” God is ready to finally pour out his wrath upon the world, upon this system. He calls out his people.
Maybe this is the very reason the time is shortened for the elect’s sake there in the tribulation, those who have believed in Christ. The command is for the saints and the holy ones to separate themselves from the depraved society and the things that are in the world. If you participate with her sins, you must also share in her judgment.
This has always been the clarion command for the saints of any age. The Bible tells us do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but instead expose them. Christians, you and I must distance ourselves even now from the unfruitful works of darkness. But God first calls out his faithful from this system to protect them.
“Christians must distance themselves even now from the unfruitful works of darkness.”
God Remembers and Acts
But notice in verse 5, it says that God remembers. It doesn’t mean here that God forgets.
But it does mean something. It says in verse 5, “For her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” So her sins, the sins of the world, and the people of the world are piled up to heaven to the very feet of God himself.
And when God remembers, he acts.
“Her sins are piled up to heaven to the very feet of God himself. And when God remembers, he acts.”
When he remembers his people, he works on their behalf. When he remembers sin, he acts in judgment. The wrath of God is really that judicial response to the criminal activity found among wicked, wicked humanity.
Even though it is hidden sometimes, it seems these days it’s not hidden very much. It’s out there. Their dirty laundry is out there. We can all see it.
What does that mean? That means Satan doesn’t care if what he’s doing now, right? His plan is going forward. But God wants you to care, to know what’s going on.
Double Judgment for Double Crimes
Her sins have piled up to heaven. And so he tells his people, he commands them to come out. There’s like four commands here. And then the second command would be to command Babylon to get double what she has paid to others.
Notice in verse 6, pay her back even as she has paid and give back to her double according to her deeds in the cup which she had mixed twice as much for her. So this is God bringing this equal justice to the world paying back double. Actually, this is a metaphor that means full recompense for all her sins. God’s going to bring it down with her. And he doesn’t want his people to be there when that happens. He tells them to remove yourself. Get out of there.
And this cup which she has mixed is mixed twice as much for her.
Precise compensation. Double punishment for double crimes. Double for one’s deeds is really an Old Testament idiom indicating punishment in full measure. And then there’s the command to give her like measure for her pride and living in luxury. So there’s really a two-fold sins going on here.
If you notice what it says in verse 7, to the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously or that could mean extravagantly to the same degree give her torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen. I’m not a widow. I will never see mourning.
So these two sins that she glorifies herself instead of God and she lives sensuously out of self-centered greed.
“She glorifies herself instead of God and lives sensuously out of self-centered greed.”
And those who stand against God will receive torment and mourning. And all this is really heading to a judgment the world has never experienced before. A judgment that comes by the power of God who has no equals. No one can equal what he is doing here.
And so what does God do? He brings judgment on this worldly system for its pride.
Warning about materialism.
And those whose mode of operation in this life is to live for greedy gain and luxury will face God’s judgment for seeking those things that perish, those things that are earthly treasures and neglect the eternal things like heavenly treasures. So self-gratification, sensuous luxury, prideful arrogance are opposite of humble dependence on the Lord and sacrificial love within a community of believers that has genuine care for each other.
Swift and Complete Destruction
And what does God do that? Like I said, it’s the end. Is the judgment prolonged? No, the judgment is swift.
Look at verse eight. For this reason, in one day her plagues will come: pestilence, mourning, and famine. Notice that it will be a swift destruction, and it will be a complete destruction. In verse eight, she will be burned up with fire, for the Lord God will judge her who is strong. Fire is used because it has the ability to consume something completely.
The judgment is swift. It is certain because God is a mighty judge. But notice there’s no repentance.
“The judgment is swift, certain, and complete because God is a mighty judge.”
Instead of repenting, they mourn for what they lost. And that brings me to my third point. Look at verses nine through nineteen. This is the disheartening funeral of those whose hope was in the system. They believed in the system.
But what do you have? You have three depressing laments. In other words, three sad songs.
Humanity without God will prove to remain hard-hearted, self-centered, and embittered right to the end.
The Lament of the Kings
Right to the end. In verse 9, he says this: “And the kings of the earth who has committed acts of immorality live sensuously with her and will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning.” See, in other words, there are three groups that mourn. The first group are the kings, the leaders, the heads of the nations.
These kings grew rich from this system.
The loss of wealth and the loss of this lavish sensuous lifestyle proved to be way too much for them. The Bible tells us that they mourn. The rulers of the earth who were intimate with this system, with pleasure and luxury, cry and beat their chest in mourning because they lost everything.
“These kings grew rich from this system, and the loss of wealth proved to be way too much for them.”
When each of these three groups sees judgment fall on Babylon, they don’t stick around. They don’t come to help her. Instead, they desert her. Each group does not want to participate in her judgment, not realizing that her judgment is their judgment.
Look at verse 10. Standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, they say, “Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour your judgment has come.” That’s what they do. There’s no help here.
This one city, this one system that the world loves, is now removed.
The rulers stand far off, unable and unwilling, frozen in fear to rescue her or do anything. In a single hour, there is absolute justice and divine judgment. These kinds of people are not ready because they’re self-absorbed and they don’t have any discernment.
They can’t discern the times because they believed the lie that they would be protected, that they would be safe. They were blinded by riches and comfort.
They believed this day would never come, and they have no God to make them dwell in safety. They have no scriptural guidance, no wise counselors. There’s no safety at all.
It’s like what it says in Proverbs: where there is no guidance, the people fall or they perish. In other words, when there’s no scriptural boundaries for life, people tend to fall off the cliff and destroy themselves. They will do that if they leave God out, if they leave God’s word out. They don’t know what’s going on. They just get swept up in it all.
The Lament of the Merchants
And then the second group is the lament of the merchants in verse 11 and onward. Now before I look at that, I do want you to notice what’s going on here. These merchants are the business people of the world.
These business people who shared her expanded markets knew instantly that something devastating had happened to their business. These are wholesale dealers made rich by this worldwide trade system.
Now take a look at the cargo list of the things they were selling. Notice in verse 11: “The merchants of the earth wept and mourned over her because no one buys their cargo anymore.”
“The merchants of the earth wept and mourned because no one buys their cargo anymore.”
The Cargo List of the World’s Wealth
And what is their cargo? Actually, there are 29 items and seven different categories.
This is all wealth, the wealth of the world. This time in world history, people could get very wealthy who don’t know the Lord, who don’t follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice category one: precious metals and costly gems. In verse 12, cargos of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls. Category number two: expensive clothing and fabrics, fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet. Category three: costly decorations, expensive wood and building materials.
“There are 29 items and seven different categories — all the wealth of the world.”
Category four: expensive fragrances and perfumes, spices and scents. Category five: rich and fine food items. Category six: animal livestock, horses and transportation.
In fact, it’s interesting. It says “the cattle and sheep and cargos of horses and chariots.” These are four-wheeled chariots, not just two.
Human Lives Reduced to Merchandise
And then notice the last part, verse 13. It says “and slaves human lives.”
This last one shows how depraved and wicked mankind has stooped so low that human beings created in the image of God are regarded as nothing but human livestock, to be controlled and sold for service and the pleasure of the wealthy.
All these niceties of life in a day’s time are gone.
“Human beings created in the image of God are regarded as nothing but human livestock.”
In fact, three times in verse 14, he says it. All the common graces that God gives to all of us to make life pleasant and enjoyable and pleasurable even in the midst of trouble are all gone.
It says in verse 14, “The fruit that you long for, you lust after has gone from you.”
In verse 14 also, “All things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you.” And verse 14 says that men will no longer find them—that the things that have always been destined to rust and decay will ultimately pass away.
The Global Economy Crashes
Something happens at a point of time and this Christless world system of idols and its wickedness and extreme materialism comes crashing down—sudden death to the whole global economy.
The business people are mourning in despair because of the destruction of this worldwide economic system and it crumbles. It says here in a short time, just imagine a worldwide stock market crash, actual digital currency becomes like confederate money. Even gold and silver will be useless. Stores, shops, businesses stop producing.
All commerce stops. Internet trade and shopping stop. Amazon dries up.
“A Christless world system of idols and extreme materialism comes crashing down — sudden death to the whole global economy.”
Now, for your information, did Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, name his company after the longest river in the world, the Amazon River?
We all benefit from his company and we probably will benefit some more. But Amazon, however, will dry up someday and then there will be a bank collapse.
The world political and economic system will collapse. Everything will collapse. Do you not see that happening now? Do you not see that heading there in this global economy we have, even with our own president making all these trade wars with Paris?
This is setting the world up for the antichrist. The antichrist is working behind the scenes. You can’t have this kind of unity in the world unless there are satanic things going on behind the scenes. You cannot.
So what do the merchants do who have become wealthy from here? Now they cry the blues because they lost everything.
God’s wrath comes on them because of their showy self-centered materialism. There’s no happy news here.
I heard a song from the 1970s. One of the lyrics expressed a similar sadness when the person said, “I asked a girl who sang the blues if she had some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away.” There’s no happy news.
Again, these merchants do not mourn for their sin. They only mourn for all the luxurious living and pleasure they have lost.
Notice in verse 15 it says, “The merchants of these things who became rich from her will stand at a distance because of fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city. She who was clothed in fine linen, purple, scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. For in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste.’”
The merchants see judgment fall on Babylon and they also don’t stick around. They have no way to help. All that they could do is mourn.
The Lament of the Seafarers
But there’s another group that mourns too in verse 17. This is the sea captains, the passengers, and the sailors. Meaning that people are really busy. They’re buying. They’re selling. They’re traveling all over the place.
And notice what it says in verse 17. He says this: “For in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste. And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor and as many as make their living by the sea stood at a distance and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning saying, ‘What city is like the great city?’”
In other words, they had their hope in this system, in this place, and the one who was running it. These who carried the cargo all over the world made tons of money doing it but realized at this date it’s over.
The life they loved and enjoyed is done. And they realized the whole industry was done. And all they can do is cry in deep despair and sadness because the day the people of Earth wept and mourned, the day life went up and smoke spoke, the day the world’s economy crashes, the day there’s worldwide unemployment and no jobs for anybody—that day is God’s day. It is payday, and he does it to uphold his justice and vindicate his people.
“The day the world’s economy crashes is God’s day. It is payday, and he does it to vindicate his people.”
That’s what he does.
So this great city, this great system that everybody got wealthy from, that everybody had their hope in, everybody made fortunes.
From Riches to Ruin
But now they throw dust on their heads in deep mourning. Not for their transgression against God, but for the destruction of the system they loved and relied upon for sustenance and wealth.
Now the great city is nothing. It has fallen from riches to ruin.
Now this should remind all present-day Christians that the world, its riches and glory are all transitory.
The great problem with wealth is it doesn’t last.
“The world, its riches and glory are all transitory. The great problem with wealth is it doesn’t last.”
And they say whoo whoo.
But God declares a double woe on Babylon so that all her beauty and her wealth is corroded. It’s tarnished. It’s stripped away. And she is left naked and poor and desolate. No longer able to control the world religiously, politically, and economically.
See those who supplied the world with the wealth of the world. It says in verse 19, for in one hour she has been laid waste.
That the antichrist reimplementation of the Babylon project has failed.
That all who centered their earthly wealth without considering God are doomed to destruction.
Now, where does that leave everybody?
Heaven Rejoices Over Babylon’s Fall
Where does that leave the world when we get to this place? It leads to the last thing, and this is the last point: the dwellers of heaven greatly rejoice over Babylon’s death.
Look at verse 20. It says, “Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.” In other words, God vindicates his faithful ones.
The faithful, the name of the true God has triumphed and his people have been vindicated.
“The name of the true God has triumphed and his people have been vindicated.”
Divine justice is served against those whose evil days are finally meeting their just due. It’s always been Satan’s focus to destroy God’s people.
It’s always been like that. It’s never been different. Here it’s very concentrated, but it’s never been different. And I do want to say this: nobody will get away with anything.
They can escape justice here, but they will not escape his justice. Divine justice will be served.
And who rejoices in all this mourning, in these funerals all over the place? The saints rejoice, the apostles rejoice, the prophets rejoice, the occupants of heaven have a different response to the judgment of Babylon.
God’s judgment on Babylon is an answer to the prayers of the godly ones.
The faithful ones know that the only one who escapes judgment and lives forever is the one who does the will of God. They know that.
The Decisive Death Blow
It will be a decisive death blow against Babylon. It will be total destruction. In verse 21, 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 it will not be found any longer.”
The fall of Babylon and its system will be great. It will be violent, and it will be total.
This is it. This is the end.
No longer can the Babylon system control the world religiously, politically, economically behind the scenes and manipulate and control people. It’s done.
“The fall of Babylon will be great, violent, and total. No longer can it control the world.”
When the decisive death blow on this system is seen and it is total, Babylon in all its forms will be dismantled by the judgment of God at the end of the tribulation.
Five Losses: Everything Goes Silent and Dark
And who loses out? All the earth dwellers lose out. Five losses.
In other words, everything goes silent and dark.
I think this is the part of hell that is mentioned in different places in the Bible when things are silent and dark. How long could you stand in a place in silence and darkness without getting antsy? You can’t. It’s very hard to do.
But look at the five things that they lose in verse 22.
Song and dance stop. The sound of the harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer. The earth dwellers have no longer any reason to celebrate things.
The pleasure that once came through all kinds of music is taken away forever.
Music is a great benefit for all of us in the different genres of music we may enjoy. Music may make us sad or make us happy or just get us excited or bring us back to a time when we first heard that song or some event was going on in our life. Music is a powerful instrument that God uses.
It’s gone. It’s done.
“The pleasure that once came through all kinds of music is taken away forever.”
No more music. Secondly, notice in verse 22, every day labor stops. The day of skilled craftsmen die. It says, “No craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer, and the sound of the mill will not be heard in you any longer.”
In other words, the earth dwellers will experience economic collapse—no craftsmen, no production, no commerce. The pleasure received from normal everyday stuff is no longer existent.
It’s gone. Then notice the day the lights went out. The lights will be turned off. Verse 23 says, “And the light of the lamp will not shine in you any longer.” Earth dwellers will be in the dark.
All trustworthy and normal things are gone forever. Then verse 23, weddings will stop. The day when life as normal stops, it says, “And the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride will not be heard in you any longer.”
So I guess in our church you hurry up and get married, right? I thought there were two or three marriages coming up soon.
But just imagine the normal life is gone. The hope of wanting to get married someday is not there anymore.
The Reasons for Babylon’s Fall
Babylon’s fall is complete.
The reason for her fall is self-centered materialism. A very seductive and subtle power of materialism is used by Satan to deceive the whole world.
Sorcery and idolatry deceive all the nations. In verse 23, all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.
“The seductive and subtle power of materialism is used by Satan to deceive the whole world.”
The deception and sorcery is worldwide. Then if you notice in verse 24, notice this murder.
And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth. The murder of God’s spokesman and faithful ones are vindicated by God.
How is it that in the end the believers, the true believers, are harmed and hurt, killed? It’s because they are connected to the true and living God. That’s why the world rejected the true message and all that is left is divine judgment.
No one will get away with anything. We were going to find that in Revelation 20:11 at the great white throne judgment where all God’s record books come out and he judges the world, small and great, raising people from the dead.
However you were killed, you’re standing before him in judgment because God will vindicate everyone and he will give justice to everyone.
The only one who will escape will be those who know Christ. Christ is the only escape.
The Urgency of Being Ready for Christ
Just think about this.
The next thing on God’s schedule is the rapture of the church. I don’t care what anybody says. The rapture of the church is going to be imminent. It can happen any time. There’s nothing else that needs to be done for the rapture of the church.
When the rapture happens, that doesn’t mean the tribulation starts right away. It could be some time before the tribulation starts, but the system is in place. It’s in place. Amen.
What really starts the tribulation is when the Antichrist signs the covenant with Israel for them to go ahead and build their temple and get things going. That’s probably going to be right in the beginning of the tribulation, but in the mid-tribulation, this is what’s going to happen. And at the end, this is what will take place.
Really, the book of Revelation presses a person to be ready for Christ’s return.
“The book of Revelation presses a person to be ready for Christ’s return.”
Have you really honestly evaluated yourself as to how you stand in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ today?
Will he be your savior or will he be your judge? It will be one or the other.
The Bible teaches you that you have a sinful nature. According to the word of God, you are among those who are alienated and enemies of God in your mind by wicked works. You are either for God or against God.
If you remain his enemy, you will someday feel his full weight, the full weight of his wrath against sin, against your sin.
You will share the doom of Satan and Antichrist and the false prophet and all those who oppose the one true God.
The Gospel Invitation
So today I urge you: if you have not turned in sinful faith and received Jesus as Lord and Savior, turn from your sin by repentance and call on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from God’s wrath while the door of mercy is still open.
If you’ve never done that, why not receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior right now before it’s too late? But if you have done that, thank the Lord.
Because when that time comes, there is not a second chance.
You’re going to either be in Christ or you’re going to be outside of Christ.
“You’re going to either be in Christ or you’re going to be outside of Christ.”
Right now, in the sincerity of your heart, you can pray a simple prayer to the Lord. Just say something like, “Lord Jesus, I know I’m a sinner and I could never save myself.
And right now, I confess with my mouth and believe with my heart that you died in my place. You shed your blood, washed it away, forgiven me of all my sin. You rose again to give me eternal life to all who believe in Christ alone.
And I’m receiving you now as my Savior, as my Lord, as my hope of salvation in order to make me right with God, to save me now according to your promise. Save me now according to your promise that all those who come unto me I will in no wise cast out.
Because someday Jesus is coming. Either you will meet him in death or you will meet him at his return.
Are you ready? That’s what Revelation does. It pushes us to get ready.
Amen.
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray. Lord, thank you today.
Lord, I know that was a lot to take in at once, but Lord, that’s all in the chapters that you’ve given us today to feed on.
And I just pray, Lord, that it would do, Holy Spirit, that we know that you will do your work in the people’s hearts, that you will prepare them for what will take place.
And I pray Lord that they truly would be ready for meeting you. And I pray Lord today that they would meet you as their savior and not as their judge.
And Lord, we thank you now even as we think about preparing for the Lord’s table that you are the one who died in the place of sinners.
You are the one, Lord Jesus, that took the full wrath of God, paid the full price, shed your blood to wash away our sins so it never comes up against us to condemn us.
And then, Lord, you rose from the grave to give us eternal life.
For this, we’re ever grateful and thankful for the great work you’ve done on our behalf. And I pray this morning in the precious name of Jesus Christ.