A Tale of Two Women (Revelation 17:1-19:10)

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Good morning church. You want to go ahead, grab your Bibles. You can open up to Revelation 17. Revelation 17. We’ll start there this morning as we turn into Revelation 17. If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember when they used to have cigarette ads. Those don’t happen anymore. I realize not in the same way. But if you go back, you can Google them, and they’re actually terrifyingly hilarious. One of the best ones I saw was whatever ad. You know, it’s the taste that expectant mothers love, and you’re like, this is this is not good guys. We did not do well here. But what almost always happened in these cigarette ads was you had these young, impossibly beautiful people living easy, pleasure filled lives. You know, it’s always the James Dean looking guy, you know, leaning up against the Mustang, and the women are swooning, because who doesn’t love nicotine stained teeth, of course. And so that’s what it is. But tucked in the corner of these ads was the Surgeon General’s warning, promising you exactly the opposite of what the ad promised you. You want a healthy, beautiful life. Maybe don’t try cigarettes, because it will take your health, it will wreck your beauty, and it will kill you in the end, most likely so it’s this pretty picture with this fatal message, it’s promising life, but delivering death. And what’s more, it also reminds us that we are our own worst enemies, because we have to have the warning there, because otherwise we’re just going to give in to these sorts of temptations all over the place. We can’t be trusted to choose what is best for us. We have to have somebody screaming at us, telling us what to do and what not to do. In a nutshell, that is exactly our passage this morning. We have a great beauty promising life, but delivering ugliness and death. Can we be trusted to choose? Probably not, probably not, unless God pulls back the curtains, unless he gives us the Surgeon General’s warning, unless he shows us the lungs blackened and spotted with cancer as result of all the years of smoking, the choice is given to us here in a tale of two women I mentioned this last week, worth mentioning again. Why women? Because the word for church or people or city, all these words are feminine in Greek and Hebrew, and so they’re personified as women. And so we are the women in this story, and the question we’re asking is, what sort will we be? It is a graphic passage. Most of revelation has been, of course, I will do my best to use euphemisms, because we got kids here and stuff. But this is a passage that is meant to shock so Flannery O’Connor, the Catholic writer from the Bible Belt, and a couple decades back, and she was writing to a group of people who were convinced they were Christians, but who were not living in line with their beliefs. And so she wrote these short stories that were certainly graphic and startling. Why? Because she said to the heart of hearing, you have to shout. And to those who are almost blind, you draw large and startling figures. What is hard for us to hear the Word of God. And spiritually speaking, we are almost blind, and so God is shouting at us in this passage and drawing these large and startling figures for us to shock us awake. He does so in three scenes, really three questions that we need to ask to help make our choice. All of these are a zoom lens on what we got at the end of last week, chapter 16, verse 19, where we saw the great city collapsing, right because God remembered Babylon, the great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of His wrath. And now what happens is we take that one verse and we look at it across a couple chapters like what exactly happens in Babylon fall? We get this expanded recap. So that is where we’re headed. The first question we get, first scene all of chapter 17. What do you want? What do you want? Let me read 17 for us. One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who sits by many waters with her. The kings of the earth committed adultery. The inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries. And the angel carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and 10 horns. Woman was dressed in purple and scarlet was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery Babylon. The great the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. The angel said to me, why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and 10 horns. The beast which you saw once was now is not and yet will come up out of the abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life, from the creation of the world, will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was now is not and yet will come. This calls for a mind with wisdom. Seven heads. There are seven hills on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen. One is the other has not yet come. When he does come, he must remain for only a little while. The Beast, who once was and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction. 10 horns you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings, along with the beast, they have one purpose, and will give their power and authority to the beast. They will wage war against the Lamb, but the lamb will triumph over them, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and with him will be his called chosen and faithful followers. The angel said to me, the waters you saw where the prostitutes sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages, the beast and the 10 horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked. They will eat her flesh and burn her with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal authority until God’s words are fulfilled. The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. So one of the angels that we met last week with the seven bowls and the seven plagues shows John, this great prostitute who has seduced kings and the inhabitants of this world. She is beautiful, although it is certainly a skin deep beauty. This is another one of those ones where we need a surgeon general’s warning. This is a woman where, again, may look good, but lie with her, you’re going to end up with VD and you don’t want to meet the dangerous pimp that she works with. Now, why this image, this graphic image? It’s because the whole world owes God fidelity, faithfulness, because he made us and we are his, we ought to be like a devoted wife to our perfect husband, but instead, we play the harlot and we sell ourselves to whoever seems to promise the most and the Best, and that truth should shock and disgust us like this image. I mean, Kings should serve God’s kingdom. That’s the lesson Nebuchadnezzar learned. We saw in Daniel this fall. But instead, they pursue their own power and glory and wealth, and the rest of us, the inhabitants of the earth, are intoxicated by the world and what it offers us, and so we are drunk in a godless stupor, as one commentator put it, staggering about in stupid self importance, like drunks laughing at our own Bad jokes.
Now throughout this chapter and the next revelation, is drawing on Jeremiah 51 it’s really just an extended treatment of Jeremiah 51 but like the climactic version, the climactic fall of Babylon in verse seven, we even read that Babylon is a gold cup in the Lord’s hand. She made the whole earth drunk right. The nations drank her wine, therefore they have now gone mad. That’s what we’re talking about here. That explains the many waters, by the way, as well, because just a few verses later, in verse 13, we read you who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end has come because Babylon situated between the two great rivers. But it’s more than that. This is meant to show the Empire’s reach, how profound the reach is. And you see that all the way down to verse 15, the waters you saw are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. So this empire is reaching the ends of the earth, this wicked empire. Now, as we read this, it’s easy, of course, for us here in the church to point fingers out there. This is what the world is like, not the church. But of course, we see this equally in here in the church, because John has used similar language, Jesus has used similar language already in Revelation chapter two, when he’s writing to the church in Thyatira and the false prophetess Jezebel uses the same graphic image of adultery to describe her heretical teachings and how she’s led the people into immorality. And it’s a reminder that this sort of. Seduction can come from those who claim the name of Christ. Can come from false teachers in the church. One thinks of the health wealth gospel that is so prominent here in the US, but which we’ve exported across the world as well, which promises us Babylon, not heaven, but Babylon, all the wealth and power that we could desire. One thinks of progressive Christianity, which is, of course, no Christian Christianity at all, because it’s Christianity stripped of sin and therefore stripped of salvation, which is made peace with the world and with the world’s morality, especially in the area of sexuality. We have to be careful here, also that Babylon doesn’t reach in Now it’s important that she’s riding on the beast that we met way back in chapter 13, we’ve looked at quite a bit, because the beast and the prostitute together are this perfect cocktail of temptation, because you’ve got seductive beauty wedded to coercive power, exactly what you would see in Rome, by the way. I mean, they’ve got all the power they rule all nations, it seems. And look what happens as a result. Look at all the the wealth and the luxury in which they live this, by the way, should give us pause, because if you wanted to talk about a nation that wedded seductive beauty with coercive power today, what would it be, the US of A wouldn’t it? We’re the ones who’ve got the most strength. We are materialisms Mecca, wedded to militarisms might, and that is why the nations flock to us, because in so many ways, our culture promises life, but to what extent do we deliver death? But let’s not miss again. It looks good. She looks good. Look at verse four. She’s purple Scarlet, glittering with gold. It looks good. You understand why it’s tempting, like that cigarette ad, she’s got beauty and wealth and power. Why wouldn’t you run to her? Is the question, and the answer is, Because of who she really is, which is a mystery. Mystery here, just meaning you need some interpretive help, and so the angel’s gonna explain it to us and we get these names, then who she really is. The names here in verse five, that’s the Surgeon General’s warning. Okay, that’s where it is, just stamped right there on it. This is who she actually is. Now, she is Babylon, the great meaning, she is the great city that we keep meeting in Revelation. And it is not just the city of Babylon, but Babylon. Remember that the great city is every city and every culture that stands in opposition to God. Takes us back not just to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, but really to the founding of Babel in Genesis five under Nimrod, who was opposed to God. And so it’s every city, every culture, every part of every city, and every culture that is in opposition to God. Rome, yes, at this point, but again, every other one, and of course, moving towards this climactic end of times, city, whatever it is. So she is great, yes, but she’s a harlot and a sinner as well. And worse, you see in verse six, she’s drunk, not just with immorality, but with the murder of God’s people, because the city of the world is in opposition to the city of God and has waged war on it, and so God’s faithful witnesses have been put to death time and time again. Second half of verse six, John is kind of impressed, actually, when he’s looking at this woman and the Beast again, it looks good. The angel rebukes him and exposes her the beast for what they are like. This is when the we bring out the high definition camera so you can see the wrinkles underneath the foundation. This is when the home inspector comes and and kicks the side of the house. You can start to see the rot underneath the paint as well. This is the same beast again. We met chapter 11, chapter 13. It’s the same time, right when the beast comes up. This is the church age. This is what we’re living in now. And notice that the beast and the woman together, they draw in those whose names are not written in the book of life. Just reminds us of God’s sovereignty in salvation, which is clear throughout revelation. But more interesting to my mind here is that they’re drawing in those why? Because this beast is still the same worthless counterfeit beast, because you get this, it once was now is not and yet will come. And that sounds really cool. What exactly does it mean? It means he’s pretending to be like Jesus again. Because if you think of Jesus in terms of his ministry here on earth, he once was here. Now is not because he has. Into glory and will come again. And so the beast is once again, pretending to be like Jesus. He has nothing real, genuine, original to offer. He’s the singer songwriter who only plays covers. Why would we be drawn to him? Then it gets more confusing, because the seven heads are the seven hills. Rome famously built on seven hills. But I think it’s a little bit more than that, because you notice the seven hills are also seven kings, and hills are occasionally used in Scripture as an image of a king. Where would we see that? Jeremiah, 51 crazy, right? We’re still in the same chapter. I am against you. God says, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth. This is speaking to Babylon, again, the kingdom. So the same kind of idea we get this, this great city, in other words, a city built on seven hills, but it’s this succession of kings and kingdoms. And now we get to what sounds really cool, apocalyptic stuff. Five have come. The sixth now is and then there’s gonna be a seventh. And all the Bible nerds start geeking out, right? Well, who could this be? And now we get our charts and our maps so we can figure out exactly what date Jesus is coming back. I don’t think so. It doesn’t work very well. By the way, been all sorts of efforts to get these numbers to line up with, like Nero or Domitian, or some of these other emperors who were particularly bad and stuff. And it works great up until it doesn’t, because they’ll be like, right? It’s five, and you get to Domitian, and you’re like, Well, what about those three that you skipped? And they’re like, well, they weren’t important enough. You’re like, okay, but they were still emperors. So I don’t think so. What’s happening? Seven sounds like an important number, doesn’t it? Okay? Five have already happened. We’re in six. We’re not at seven. We’re almost there, but we’re not there yet. That’s all John is saying here. That’s all that this revelation is we are near the end, right? We’re in the last days, but it is not yet the day of the Lord. That day is still coming, and that steals us to persevere. Of course, Satan has been defeated at the cross. We saw that in chapter 12, his time is short, right? It’s coming to an end, but that time will be rough, and will get rougher, unfortunately, and at the end, which is the eighth, who’s one of the seven, but it’s the beast, I don’t know. We’ll figure it out. Okay, he’s got 10 kings. 10. Another number shows the full force of the opposition against God. These 10 kings are gonna receive full authority to wage war on the lamb and on his church for one hour only. By the way, you remember, we keep looking at this, it’s like supposed to be three and a half years, but then it was actually three and a half days, and now it’s like it’s the blink of an eye, which we’ll see next week, by the way, that it really is just the blink of an eye, and it’s not gonna be much of a battle either. So come back next week, we’ll talk about that, because we’ll be at Armageddon. But notice that the Lamb who triumphs over this great city has with Him those who are called and chosen and faithful the Church of God.
Who are those, those who have heard the gospel summons. That’s what it means to be called. Of course, come all you who are weary and heavy laden, chosen and we choose Jesus only because he first chose us, and then we live in faith. In other words, God makes us faithful by His Spirit. And maybe right now you’re wondering, Is that me? Because you’re still questioning Christianity. I got good news for you, at least. The first one for sure is you, because right now you’re hearing the call. This is the invitation. This is the gospel summons, the peak behind the curtains to go. You don’t want this, but there is something better, and you could turn even now from the prostitute and the Beast and trust in the Lamb who will triumph. The end of this chapter is just shocking, because the beasts and the kings turn on the prostitute. They ruin her, abandon her, destitute, devour her and ultimately burn her. You talk about large and startling figures. Here you go. It shows the self defeating nature of sin. Of course, because the nature of sin is to serve the self, that means that ultimately we will turn on each other. Any opportunity we have, we will turn on each other unless we have been freed by the gospel to love one another. I think there’s a piece of this too, just based on the beast versus the woman that shows us reminds us that power ultimately devours pleasure the military industrial complex demands all and then you want some pictures from. History about this. I think of the women of Italy sending Mussolini their wedding rings, and that’s the idea right in service of the military, we’re giving up our wealth, and even symbolically, our marriage. There’s something more important. That’s what’s happening here. But what happens when you have a great empire as well is eventually to defend the borders. You devour the empire from within. You devour its wealth. You see that in Rome, you see that I think of Nazi Germany, for example, the whole reason the Nazis come to power is because the settlement after World War One, the reparations the Germans had to pay, it bankrupted them. And so Hitler was there to restore Germany to its national greatness, and so he’s promising, what? Prostitute, the beast, right? Wealth, luxury, pleasure and strength. But in the end, of course, the Germans are, you know, eating shoe leather to stay alive, all in service of the army. That’s what we have here. Even more interesting, though, God puts it into their hearts to do this, to accomplish his purposes. Like God is absolutely sovereign, even over human wickedness. He is not wicked. Is not cause wickedness, or anything like that, but he uses wickedness for his purposes. Of course, we see this most clearly when Herod and Judas and Caiaphas and Pilate conspire together to murder his son exactly as he had planned for maternity past to bring about our salvation. So the people in rebellion against God are actually on his side, and as they attempt to thwart his purposes, they bring them to fruition, and the great city falls. So let’s just pause and ponder for a moment what to take from this. The key question, as I mentioned in this chapter, is, what do you want? What do you want? I mean, take the image that’s here, graphic though it is, a husband. Even today, husbands will pay a harlot for a cheap imitation of the joys of marriage. That’s the large and startling figure, right? It brings up the question, why, like, why would you go to the world? Why would a husband do that when what he’s seeking can actually be found in marriage? Why would we go to the world? What does the world promise that God doesn’t freely offer you in Christ, love No. God’s promised that so loved the world, He sent His only Son money with the riches of grace available to us pleasure in his presence, our pleasure is forevermore. Psalms tells us, peace, yep, that surpasses understanding. Joy. Jesus says, my joy. I give to you that your joy may be complete, like if that’s what you want, then run to the God who gives it, and run from the city that’s got a surgeon general’s warning stamped on it takes us to the second question in what do you trust? 18 is long. Good news. It’s also pretty simple, pretty straightforward, but I’m going to break it up into chunks, just mostly for boredom sake here, and we start by reading 18, one to eight. After this, I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice, he shouted, fallen. Fallen as Babylon, the great she had become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal, for all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries, the kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries. Then I heard another voice from heaven say, Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues for her sins are piled up to heaven and God has remembered her crimes, give back to her as she has given, pay her back double for what she has done, pour her a double portion from her own cup, give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart, she boasts, I sit enthroned as clean. I am not a widow. I will never mourn. Therefore, in one day, her plagues will overtake her death, mourning and famine, she will be consumed by fire. For Mighty is the Lord God who judges her again. This whole chapter is just restating Jeremiah 51 but just talking about this climactic End Times Babylon we read in Jeremiah, 5137 Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives. And so we see this Babylon is desolate here at the end, except it’s haunted not by unclean. Animals like jackals, but by unclean spirits, which shows just the depth of its depravity. It is a fit abode only for the demonic. Once again, we see the wrinkles beneath the foundation at the end of the day, there is nothing there. There’s no beauty, there’s no strength, there’s no life. And worse than that, of course, she has dragged others down with her, the many who have been caught up in her immorality and therefore caught up in her destruction. Reading this account, it’s like reading these stories of you know, the innocent neighborhood kid who falls under the sway of a charismatic gang leader and ends up in prison or worse. That’s what we have here. So what do we do? Verse four, come out of her. My people. Come out of her. My people, you read the Surgeon General’s warning and you flee. Direct quote from Jeremiah 51 verse, 44 come out of her, my people, run for your lives. Run from the fierce anger of the Lord. Now, anytime we read a phrase like, come out my people, we should be thinking of the Exodus, right? This is Exodus language, for sure, where God calls his people out of wicked, oppressive Egypt and into promised life. What does God say in the Exodus? Judgment is coming, so you need to trust and what does that trust look like in the Exodus? It looked like sacrificing a lie a lamb and then painting the door posts with the lamb’s blood. Of course, for us, the Lamb has come, and He has already been slain into His blood that we paint on the door posts of our heart when we trust in Jesus Christ. So judgment is coming, so we trust in Jesus, and then we flee. We flee from the world and pursue purity. We do so again, because judgment is coming as we keep seeing her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. God remembers the sins of the unrepentant. In the end, no one gets away with anything in this life, maybe, but ultimately, no, nothing whatsoever. And maybe you’re sitting there thinking, well, then I’m in trouble, because if you knew what I had done, he’d tell me not to come back, and certainly God is going to tell me, I got no room for you in here.
But here’s the good news, it doesn’t have to be this way. God remembers the sins of the unrepentant but the repentant when those precious promises of the gospel is also in Jeremiah, by the way, Jeremiah 31 verse 34 this is the new covenant, for I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins. No more omniscient. God chooses to forget stuff. Chooses to forget the sins of His people as if they’d never happened. We needed blood on the doorpost, though. We need to cover ourselves with the blood of Jesus Christ, because that’s where our sins were punished. Otherwise, punishment is still coming. We get the famed lex talionis, the law of retribution, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. That’s what we have here. When it says, pay her back, double give her a double portion. It means, basically, do what she has done. The way to say it in English, where you get that double idea is duplicate, right? Duplicate her crime. So it’s not you get twice as much punishment, but we’re gonna make a copy of what you did, except this copy gets handed to you. So why did she why do we do such evil? And the answer, of course, is because we thought we’d get away with it. That’s the end of verse seven, I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow. I will never mourn right. Judgment is not coming. There will never be a reckoning. Rome certainly thought that, I mean, their power or their glory, was unmatched. Who was ever going to defeat Rome, ragtag group of barbarians is who but or again, go back to Hitler’s Germany. In the Third Reich was going to last for 1000 years. Turns out more like six. But you know, that’s that’s the way the world works. It’s an empty boast in a day she’s brought to nothing. And by the way, when God does this in the here and now, when God brings something that you trust in to nothing in the here and now, that is grace, because it is a preview of the nothingness that will be exposed in the end, pay attention and. Let that direct your trust like I think we saw this during COVID, right? We had all these grand plans that were just wiped out in an instant. And God’s going are you paying attention? Are you paying attention? Do you know how flimsy are the things in which you place your trust? The whole world participates. The whole world, it seems, trusts in Babylon. So the whole world mourns. We get three groups offering three laments, three fold wo it starts with the kings. Here’s 18, nine and 10. When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury seat to smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her, terrified at her torment. They will stand far off and cry, woe. Woe to you great city, you mighty city of Babylon. In one hour, your doom has come. The source of their power, in other words, has gone. But notice they lament, but don’t repent. And you can see their folly, by the way, because they’re still calling Babylon great and her strength mighty where you’re going, maybe consider the one who’s actually strong and mighty and great at this point, but no, and they grieve. They grieve selfishly. They grieve selfishly, because, again, the source of their power is taken away. Why do you weep when you see God punish sin? Do you weep because sin got caught? You won’t get to participate in it anymore, won’t get to do it again. Or do you weep because sin offends a holy and good and gracious God? The Kings weep. Next the merchants weep. Here’s verses 11, first half of 17, the merchants the earth will weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargos anymore, cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen, purple, silken, Scarlet cloth, every sort of Citron wood and articles, every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble. Cargos of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and carriages and human beings sold as slaves. They will say, the fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your luxury and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered. The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment, they will weep and mourn and cry out, whoa, Woe to you, great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls, in one hour, such great wealth has been brought to ruin. Here we see, by the way, why it’s not just the city but its inhabitants who are judged because they become like the harlot in whom they trust. They are living in luxury and self indulgence, being fattened for the day of slaughter, as James five says, and their luxury, their self indulgence, leads them to exploit others. It’s so poignantly phrased at the end of verse 13, it says, cattle and sheep, horses and carriages, bodies and souls. Literally, that’s what it reads. Because you can just say here the merchants, in their minds, they’re going right, cattle, sheep, bodies, just another thing that we sell. But of course, we know those are image bearers of God. They have souls. They have lives. Now, slavery is a particularly egregious example of this selfish exploitation. We all do it even in smaller ways. What is gossip? After all, if not selfish exploitation, to puff myself up. I gotta push someone else down, or think of something through Tiktok, like hard under the bus a couple weeks back, right? I think it’s Tiktok again, though. So I’m sorry. All right, we’re just running with our Tiktok theme here. It probably had a hashtag. Don’t know what it was, sorry, this like milkshake thing that happened where people would buy a milkshake from a fast food drive through while they’re filming themselves, and then toss the milkshake of the person who works at the counter and screech away. And for what likes that’s it clicks and views. That’s selfish exploitation, because that’s not a body, that’s a soul, that’s an image bearer right there. And by the way, who clicked on it, who viewed it, who liked it, because that’s participation in that same evil. You can see it, of course, we become like the harlot, but notice it’s all gone in the end, right? They’re seeking their best life now and transient things seem much wiser to seek Eternal glory instead. Finally, the sea captains here 17 B to 20 in one hour, such great wealth has been brought to ruin. Sorry. Every sea captain, all who travel by ship, the sailors and all who learn their living from the sea, will stand far off when they see this. Of her burning, they will exclaim, was there ever a city like this great city? They will throw dust on their heads and with weeping and mourning, cry out, woe. Woe to you, great city where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth and one hour she had been brought to ruin, Rejoice over her. You. Heavens rejoice. You. People of God rejoice, apostles and prophets, for God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on you. So again, we get this selfish woe. We became rich through her wealth, our income has been cut off. But this lament, this threefold Whoa, whoa, whoa, is followed by shocking joy and a threefold Rejoice, rejoice. Rejoice. Why? Because vindication justice has come. They’re rejoicing the same way a grieving victim’s family rejoices when the gavel bangs out guilty. There is this great question being worked out in history, and if you’re struggling with joy at the fall of Babylon, just keep this question in mind. The Great question being worked out in history is, Will God or Satan rule in the end, that’s the choice. Do you want sin and Satan to triumph so that we live together in hell forever, because we will certainly make a hell of this place we are already. And if your answer that is not, then
we need God to bring judgment so that God can rule in the end. And it is cause for joy that he does. We see this, of course, 2124 I’ll keep reading. The mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said with such a violence, the great city of Babylon will be thrown down never to be found again. The music of harpists, musicians, Piper and trumpeters will never be heard in you again. No worker of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world’s important people. By your magic spell, all the nations were led astray. In her was found the blood of prophets and of God’s holy people, of all who have been slaughtered on the earth. Again, we’re drawing from the end of Jeremiah, 51 at the end of Jeremiah’s prophecy, he writes it on a scroll. He ties a rock to the scroll and hurls it into the water to show that this is a bad one’s gonna sink and never rise again. That was the prophecy. This is the fulfillment. She has been tossed into the water. At this point, the city of man is finally overthrown, and once again, the main charge is in verse 24 she murdered God’s people there from the beginning, when John first heard of the great city, the corpses of God’s faithful witnesses were lying dead in its Plaza. When he first sees her in the last chapter, she’s drunk with the blood of the church. And here we get the charge again. All that she is rests on the bodies and runs on the blood of the helpless victims she exploited to satisfy her insatiable lust for more many trusted in the great city to provide for their selfish desires, merchants, kings, captains and you. And what do you trust? Is it a sure foundation, or could it be wiped out in an hour? Last question, for whom will you live? 19, one to 10 after this, I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants. And again they shouted, hallelujah, the smoke from her goes up forever and ever. The 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne. And they cried, amen, hallelujah. Then a voice came from the throne, saying, praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, both great and small. And I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, like loud peals of thunder, shouting, hallelujah, for our Lord, God Almighty reigns, let us rejoice and be glad and given the glory. The wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people. The angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. And he added, these are the true words of God at this I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, don’t do that. I’m a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus, worship God, for it is the Spirit of Prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus. Just interesting to note at the end there, by the way, that unlike all these counterfeits we’ve been meeting, this angel won’t. Receive the worship that is due God alone, the worship that is due the God who brings the Word of Jesus, the message of Jesus Christ, through the proclamation of the spirit, wonderful, little Trinitarian moment right there, there’s this great multitude. This is the the saints of old, the saints of today, and the angels all together singing, let’s praise Yahweh Hallelujah. And why? Because he brings salvation and judgment that are required for His kingdom to come. I’ve said it previously. I’ve said it kind of throughout revelation. We will rejoice in judgment in the end. It grieves us now, and in part, inspires our mission, of course, our evangelism. But we will rejoice in the end, because at the end, we will have seen fully what they are, those who are unrepentant and judged in it. There’s no hope of repentance because our hearts have hardened irrevocably. We saw this when Kyle preached. Of course, we are, all of us progressing. We’re all becoming more something in this life. And so we are either becoming more Christ like, or more beast like. And go back to it once more. It’s a little bit like Germans under Nazism, like there was a choice, something was going to happen to you in that time. Just finished the novel, All the Light We Cannot See, and there was a school there that was training up teenage boys to join the German army. And the boys became increasingly barbarous, the climax of their training, not of the book. I’m not spoiling it for you. I promise. The climax of the training was when they actually participate in the murder of a prisoner of war, these 12, 1314, year old boys, except for one who really functions as a symbol of innocence in the book, and he refuses to participate. And so what does the great city due to him, tramples him under foot, and I won’t spoil it for you, but actually preserves him in his child like innocence as a result, where all of us going to go one direction or the other, but we will, we keep going in that direction. So the proper response, though, is that is praise when God’s kingdom that we long for, that we’ve been praying for, finally comes when, when judgment happens, when vindication is there. God has fulfilled his every word. We should want him to reign right. Verse six, hallelujah, for our Lord, God Almighty, reigns. We should be longing for this, because, again, otherwise, who’s going to reign? Who else is worthy to reign for eternity? Think about how anxious we get, thinking we got four more years of this guy or that guy or the next guy. What about eternity? Thank God, our Lord, God Almighty. Imagine you’re on a transatlantic flight, and, you know, you take off, and it was a pretty rough takeoff. And then the captain comes on and goes, Hey, by the way, it’s Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. So my six year old just she’s flying the plane right now. That was rough. But, you know, hoping for good. How much relief would you find when the captain comes back on and says, it’s her nap time? I got the controls like, that’s the relief we feel here, except it’s not even just a six year old. It’s terrible. Year old. It’s terrorists that have grabbed a hold of the plane. The captain comes back and says, We’ve got it back. Hallelujah, our Lord, God Almighty, reigns. Let’s rejoice and be glad. Our king is reigning in perfect wisdom and love and power and grace and justice. We rejoice because he’s reigning, but we rejoice also because his wedding has come and the bride has made herself ready. How do brides Get ready? They spend all day? It’s hair, it’s makeup, it’s the dress, it’s all that stuff, right? Same with us, except what we put on isn’t isn’t close, it’s, it’s our righteous acts. We are saved by grace alone, yes, but the grace that saves does not stay alone. It produces good works. That’s what we see here. We see that that’s why Jesus came, what he plans for his bride. Here’s Ephesians 525, to 27 up on the screen. Not going to read it all for you. But Jesus loved us, loved the church, gave himself up for us. Why? To make us holy, to cleanse us by His Word, to present us before him without stain, wrinkle, any other blemish. And keep in mind, by the way, he came for us despite our sin, despite the fact that we’d played the harlot and served false gods. Think how that gospel that he would love us and give himself up for us, how that produces good works in us, how quickly we would be taken from greed to generosity, because we know that all of our needs have been met, how quickly we’d move from lust to chastity, because we have been loved fully and with an intimacy beyond anything. We can experience as humans, we’ll be moved from sloth to zeal because we adore our Savior and want to see him glorified in us. That’s why it says, By the way, that fine linen was given to the church right. Our righteous acts are a gift from Jesus Christ. It is all of grace, even our works blessed indeed, then are those who are invited to this marriage supper, and the invitation is good. You don’t need to worry about it being counterfeit, because all of God’s words are true. And so this raises the last question, for whom will you live? You are going to produce deeds for someone or something. Will it be for God, or will it be, ultimately, for Satan? Each one of us is the woman. I know that these two women stand for groups of people, but as individuals, we’re kind of figuring out which one we want to align ourselves with. You have the choice to play the harlot or prepare to be the bride. The answer to that question is the answer to the question, which husband do you want? Which husband do you want? You want the one who’s going to devour you in the end, provide you with nothing that lasts and who will fail fall ultimately? Or do
you want the other one? Do you want the one who has proved himself to the uttermost and who offers you more love and kindness and power and joy than you can even begin to imagine. There are no surgeon general’s warning on this picture of glory, Jesus Christ offers life to the full, the abundant life, and he delivers on his promise again, even better than we can imagine. It seems like such an easy choice, so make it a big idea, right? Just drawing right from this chapter here. Make yourself ready for your perfect husband. Jesus, make yourself ready for your perfect husband. Jesus, read the warning, flee from Babylon. Cast aside what won’t satisfy but will kill you and lay hold of him. One of the most charming characters in all of literature is little Natasha Rostova from Tolstoy’s War and Peace. She’s betrothed to a good man, a noble man, an upright man named Andre Bunski, and she’s engaged for a year because she’s young, so she’s got to grow up a little bit before she gets married, and she waits faithfully and patiently for her groom to come until the night before her wedding, when she has swept off her feet by a scoundrel named Anatole, and she agrees to elope with him. She is rescued at the last moment, doesn’t go through with it, but the damage has been done, because Andre cannot forgive her and won’t marry her. As a result, we are all of us, Natasha, because we are betrothed to the noblest, the purest, the most loving husband. Will we wait and live patiently for the wedding? Because there are many Anatoles in this world seducing us and sweeping us off our feet, promising what they cannot deliver. And in truth, we have rushed off many times. In contrast to Natasha, we have given in to temptation. We have defiled ourselves and played the harlot. And that is bad news. We are worse than Natasha. But here’s the good news, we have a better bridegroom than Andre because Jesus still forgives us and loves us and rescues us at the cost of him self. Make yourself ready for him. Make yourself ready for your perfect husband, Jesus. Would you pray with me? I’m actually going to lead us in a prayer of confession here, and I’ll give you some time to pray silently in the middle, in part because I don’t know how you’ve played the harlot, and so I don’t know what you need to confess specifically, but I’ll give you space to do just that. Let’s pray, Father. We worship you because we know that you are almighty God, that you are reigning even now, and that your kingdom will come finally, fully and forever. And we long for that day. We long for that day when temptation will finally be at an end, because we will see you face to face and live in unshaken glory for eternity between now and then the Lord, we are assailed by temptation on every side, the world and the devil conspire against us, but so does our own flesh. Ish and our Wicked, wayward hearts and so God, now would you hear our silent prayers of confession as we acknowledge the ways that we have played the harlot before you have turned from the good life that you offer Jesus and turn to the death and destruction that this world offers because it glitters like gold you
Lord, have mercy on us sinners that we are, we rejoice that you loved us enough to come for us, to give yourself up for us Jesus and to make us holy. We rejoice in the gospel and pray only that we would live lives worthy of it, as by your Spirit, you give us fine linen clothes to wear the righteous deeds that you are producing in us for Your glory. Be glorified. We pray through Christ, our Lord, amen.