Sun, Sep 11, 2011
Revelation 18:1-8
Revelation 18:1-8 by Ray Viola

REVELATION 18.1-8

 

As a quick refresher, remember that the end-time Babylon system consists of:

(1) political/commercial Babylon (Rev 17:8-17;18:1-24), which is the beast’s confederated empire, the last form of Gentile world dominion as is seen in Daniel 2,7, 8 and

(2) ecclesiastical Babylon which is the great religious harlot (Rev 17:1-7, 18;). Although the two are in unison for a period during the tribulation, there will be a time when by divine design (Rev 17.17), ecclesiastical Babylon or the “great harlot” (Rev 17:1) is to be destroyed by political Babylon (Rev 17:15-18), so that the beast may alone be the object of worship (2 Th 2:3-4; Rev 13:15).

 

Rev 18:1 And after these things (the judgment upon the great religious whore, MYSTERY BABYLON by the beast and his confederation of nations) I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. Rev 18:2  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

  • This Mighty angel descends from heaven and pronounces the fall of Babylon, which is different from the fall of ecclesiastical Babylon at the hands of the beast. 
  • More details of this fall of Babylon can be found in Isaiah 13, 21, 47 & Jeremiah 50, 51. It is interesting to note that in Isaiah 14, the king of Babylon is a picture of Lucifer himself.
  • Because The Spirit takes John into the future, John sees the fall of Babylon as an accomplished fact. Although it is presently future to us, it will happen just as God reveals it to John.
  • Note in verse two, three descriptions of the political/commercial Babylonian system. It has become (1) the habitation of devils, (2) the hold of every foul spirit, and (3) the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. This commercial system is devilish, foul, unclean and filled with hate.
  • When Paul writes about, this present evil world (Gal 1.4), the Gr. word that he uses for evil in this verse is poneros which means, “Evil in influence; morally malignant; the source of pain and sorrow.” This is the world that we have been delivered out of by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Rev 18:3 For all nations (Gr. Ethnos) have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies (Gr, luxuries).

  • Religious Babylon (chap. 17) lures the nations into spiritual drunkenness and fornication with false gods (17:2,4); commercial Babylon (chap. 18) seduces the unbelieving world into a materialistic stupor through the abundance of her delicacies, or luxuries. Jesus gave this false deity of materialism a name….mammon. Solomon calls this present world system vanity and vexation of spirit.
  • Note that this wicked system is spoken of in the female gender and that is because God originally designed our hearts to be in love with Him our Maker, not to materialism and the things of this world. We are born by nature with an attraction to and bent towards this fallen world system and its affections and lusts.
  • The redeemed church is the married to Jesus Christ (Rom 7.4). We are called the bride of Christ in Ephesians 5, thus, when a professing Christian loves anyone or anything more than The Lord Jesus Christ, that is very spiritual whredom in the eyes of God. James wrote to believers about this: Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
  • When a Christian falls prey to the things of the world or the lusts of the flesh, he or she is making a grievous and evil decision. How true are the words of the prophet Jeremiah: Jer 2.13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
  • Beloved, our loving heavenly Father does issue this word of warning to us for no reason: 1Jo 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
  • It is inconceivable that a child of God would choose to remain a part of religious Babylon with all of its heretical views and doctrines, but commercial Babylon, with its materialistic lure, is a constant threat that each one of us needs to guard against.

 

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

  • God says right here that there are people who belong to Him that are trapped in this Babylonish system, but He calls them to come out of it. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the righteous were to “separate” themselves from the “children of the pit.”
    • 2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. Psa 1.
    • Just like God called Abram out of pagan Babylon, so too must you and I are called to come out of the world system. The same idea of coming out from the world is conveyed when Paul writes to the Ephesian church that they were not redeemed to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5:11)
      • Separation in Scripture is twofold: (a) from whatever is contrary to the will and mind of God; and (b) unto God Himself and His will and purposes.
      • As Christians, we are not to isolate ourselves from the world (1Cor. 5:9-11). For how else can evangelization take place? Where are we to be salt and light?
      • Separation is not from contact with the evil that is in the world, but from participation with and conformity to it. Ro 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
    • Observe the warning not to partake of her sins that you receive not of her plaques. God directs this warning towards saints (My people) because they are in a place they should not be, like the position Lot was in while living in when God called him out of Sodom (Genesis 19). 
    • Beloved, are you in a place in your life this morning that you know you ought not to be in? Have you failed to heed the warning of God to come out of that situation or that relationship? Have you misread His longsuffering as a sign of His approval for sinful conduct? When the saints in Corinth were not heeding the warning of God regarding ungodly behavior, Paul told them that for this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (1 Cor 11.30).
    • But in this warning we find another expression of the Father heart of The Almighty Who is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet 3.9). Scripture has clearly prophesied of the time when this present world system, and anything or anyone that belongs to it will be destroyed. The only way that a person can escape the judgment of God on this world system is by placing one’s faith and trust in The Lord Jesus Christ, and the day to do that is today, and the time to do that is right now. Today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time. The best time to repent and live for Christ is always right now!

 

Rev 18:6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. 

  • This is the wages of sins payday! The angel calls for God to recompense wrath to Babylon in her own cup to repay her according to her deeds.The cup of wickedness from which so many have drunk (14:8; 17:2,4,6) will call for the cup of wrath (14:10; 16:19).
  • God will deal with this wicked and cruel religious system as she dealt with others. She will reap what they have sown to others.
  • Herein is a vital principle of the Christian life. Romans 13:14 tells us that we must not make allowances for our fleshly lusts. Many people go to church and fool themselves into thinking that they can live to please their flesh and have a good relationship with God, too.
  • Every Christian is the possessor of two natures, one spiritual, but the other fleshly. These two natures are constantly battling for control of our will because each would like to dominate our lives. The flesh would love for me to constantly focus on my bodily appetites and desires. My spiritual nature would cause me to long for fellowship with God and make the will and nature and love of God my top priority. And so I am torn. Both my flesh and my spirit are constantly pulling at me. Is my flesh going to be in control? Or will my spirit exercise dominion over my life? This all depends on what we sow in our lives.
    • Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Ga 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
    • The law of sowing and reaping contains no room for exceptions. Here is the menu of life friends…sow to the flesh and reap corruption or sow to the Spirit and reap life. The choice is yours! You can mock your parents or your spouse or your children or your pastors, but you cannot mock God.
    • In Eph 5 and 1 Cor 6, we read that that those who pursue a life that is dominated by the deeds of the flesh shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Beloved, let me state this as lovingly and yet as seriously as I can. If our faith consists only of external performance and not a change of heart, and a progressive change of affections and behavior towards the things of The Lord, we have deceived ourselves.
    • In the parable of the sower, Jesus declared that the Word of God, planted in the soil of a heart that is open toward God would produce a crop thirty, sixty, and even a hundred fold beyond what was planted. As we become wisely selective about the things that we allow in our hearts and minds, we can experience a beautiful consistency in our walk with Christ. We can know the wonderful peace that passes all understanding and the excitement of walking in the abundant life Jesus promised to us.
    • The key is continual dependence upon the grace of God that results in a consistent sowing…keep sowing, in season and out of season beloved. 

 

Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow (cp.Isa 47.8,9). Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong [is] the Lord God who judgeth her.

  • Note that this system that called herself a queen, glorified herself and lived deliciously, eventually ended up in torment and sorrow.  That is always the harvest of pride and indulging in the flesh.
  • Her delusion of affluent security also finds a chilling parallel in the blind self-reliance of the Laodicean church Rev. 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
  • When an ancient city was taken and destroyed, it was burned with fire. The same holds true for all that reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. Scripture says that they will be tormented in the flames of the lake of fire forever.
  • This account of prosperous Babylon is very similar to the story of the rich man who fared sumptuously every day in Luke 16, but has been in torment ever since the very moment he left this earth because he lived for this world instead of for The Lord.
  • The root of all sin and deception is pride. Pride exchanges God's glory for self-glory. The spirit of Babylon is manifested whenever a person or a church exalts itself or selfishly lives for their own pleasure and glory rather than God's (Rom. 1:18-32; Dan. 4:28-37). Remember beloved that is was pride that caused the anointed cherub to become a devil and enemy of God.
  • Her plaques shall come in one day- The judgment will be consummated in a single day, as happened once before to historical Babylon, when it was taken by Darius (Daniel 5:1, 3-5, 30).

 

The call of God today is 2 fold, come out of the snares, deceitful pleasures and lusts of the world and come away to that place of rest and peace in Jesus Christ.

Jesus spoke about the lame excuses that men used for not accepting the invitation to come to the great banquet that had been prepared. The excuses were obviously invalid. Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, that a man that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

If Jesus Christ commands me to repent and give my heart to Him today and I refuse to do so for this reason or that, that is an invalid excuse and a recipe for a life of frustration and ultimate destruction.

To the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus said, take up your cot and walk. To the man with the withered hand in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus said stretch forth your hand. By faith they were to respond to the invitation of Jesus. I say to you today to come up front after the service and by faith and fixed determination, surrender your heart to Jesus Christ.