Babylon Falls: Heaven’s Vindication and the Millstone of Judgment

Revelation 18, verse 20 is where we pick up tonight. We're going to wrap up the chapter tonight.

Revelation 18:20

And we're actually talking, we're in a section here tonight,

judgment enjoyed. And that sounds a bit weird when you say it.

How could judgment be enjoyed?

Well, by who, right? Because judgment is judgment. The person that the judgment

falls upon is probably not going to enjoy it.

But listen to this, verse 20. He says, rejoice over her, O heaven,

and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.

So God has done this on your behalf, he is saying.

Heaven will have a quite different perspective on Babylon's judgment than that

of Antichrist's earthly followers, right?

Because I told you, the one upon judgment falls, I mean, that's not enjoyable.

The angel who began speaking, though, in verse 4, then addressed the redeemed in heaven.

The saints it says here

that's really a general term for all believers the

saints and and apostles and prophets the

special class of saints given to the

church as indicated in ephesians 2 you've read that ephesians 2 20 ephesians

4 11 he calls on them here to rejoice over babylon's fall in the sense because

God has pronounced judgment for them against her.

The long-awaited moment, y'all get this setting here, the long-awaited moment of vindication,

of retribution, and vengeance for which the martyred tribulation saints,

you remember them all the way back in chapter 6, those martyred saints who were

crying out to God under the altar, right? Their blood was calling out.

Now, I know y'all know this, but what does it mean to be a martyr?

Yeah. And what's it for you believe? Right. And so here are these martyrs,

saints, as we talked about, you know, that we've seen the mercy and the grace

of God throughout the tribulation, even against just sinful mankind all across

the board. He's given opportunities.

We've talked about this time and time again to repent, to come to faith in Christ.

And there will be some who do, But there's also many who will give their lives who do, right?

And will be martyred for their faith. And there's still martyrdom going on today

for people's faith, right, in the Lord.

And so for which all the redeemed had hoped here.

They had hoped and cried out for this. This judgment that God finally brings,

it has arrived in full here.

Babylon's fallen. Heaven rejoices. I got to make this clear.

I think you know this already, not over the damnation of sinners,

but because of the triumph of righteousness. There's a difference.

Because of the triumph of righteousness, the exaltation of Jesus Christ,

the elimination of his enemies and the arrival of his kingdom on earth,

that is reason for all of heaven to rejoice.

And we talked about last time we were together on Sunday night in Revelation

about the fact that we need, just like the Lord, to have no pleasure in the

death of the wicked just for death's sake, right?

That there should be tears that are shed for people who do not repent,

who do not come to faith in Christ.

Our hearts cry should be that they be saved.

But here there is that rejoicing in the sense that God's judgment has been fulfilled

and that his saints have been fully vindicated on all of this tremendous death

and torture and all these things that have happened.

And then we have judgment completed. Woo, yes, judgment completed.

Listen to this. We'll pick up here in Revelation 18, 21 through the first part of 23.

It says, Then a strong angel took up a stone, like a great millstone,

and threw it into the sea,

saying, So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence,

and will not be found any longer.

And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeteers will

not be heard in you any longer.

And no craftsman of any crafts, Ms.

Leanne, there'll be no craftsman there like you were talking about,

of any craft will be found in you any longer. And the sound of a mill will not be heard any longer.

And the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer.

And the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not

be hurting you any longer wow that

is truly judgment completed right another strong angel

now appeared in the vision in a

really a dramatic act picturing babylon's destruction he took up a stone like

a great millstone it says like those used to to actually grind grain they were

four to five feet in diameter okay wasn't a little pebble okay four to five feet in diameter,

a foot thick and very heavy.

And the angel, this angel, it says, threw it into the sea.

Okay. And so explain the angel will Babylon, the great city,

be thrown down with violence and will not be found any longer.

So in one moment, y'all, the imagery here is that the stone disappeared into the sea.

Kind of like, even though these millstones were giant, it's kind of like if

we just think about, we'll go back to that little rock or little pebble for

the angel or for the God, it's like that.

You know, it's just kind of like, you ever thrown that rock across the water before it sinks?

It's kind of like, and it's gone. It disappears.

That, a similar demonstration predicted there, that doom of ancient Babylon.

That's how it's going to be. Just like that.

And listen to this. It says, Then Jeremiah said to Sarah,

As soon as you come to Babylon,

then see that you read all these words aloud and say, You, O Lord,

have promised concerning this place to cut it off so that there will be nothing

dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.

And it will come about as soon as you finish reading this scroll.

You will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.

Does that sound familiar from what we just read in Revelation?

And say, just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity

that I am going to bring upon her, and they will become exhausted.

That's Jeremiah 51, verses 61 through 64.

Jeremiah 51:61–64

It is neat how that parallel there, even in the Old Testament of the ancient

Babylon's destruction, right?

Remind me about exhausted. I won't stop here and do it, but I'll tell you later.

Just say, Judd, it's exhausted. It'll remind me of something at the end.

So complete will be Babylon's destruction that none of the normal activity of

human life, that's the point, will take place.

Think about it. There'll be no one making music at all.

How many of you play any musical instruments out there? I know we have some, right?

No sound of the voice, right? Or that at all. The sound of harpists and musicians

and flute players and trumpeteers, they'll not be heard.

Bass players, they won't be heard, right? All that.

None of that music. There'll be no one working. Again, there'll be no craftsmen

of any craft going on. There'll be found.

There'll be no one preparing food.

Those of you that might like to cook and be awesome cooks, right? Love those recipes.

The sound of a meal will not be heard. those of you that maybe have a specific,

you know, you think about your particular vocation or whatever God has called you to do.

And maybe it's something you do, as we talked about earlier,

even as a service or ministry on the side of your regular job,

whatever it is, but he's telling them here, look.

There won't be even, even the city will be so completely abandoned that even

the light of a lamp, it says, will not shine in her any longer.

There'll be no more falling in love.

The voice of the bridegroom and bribe will not be heard in her, it says, any longer.

Babylon, y'all, will be so thoroughly destroyed by God Almighty that it will never rise again, ever.

And that's just as predicted by the Old Testament prophets, all the way through

Isaiah, Jeremiah, all of it.

And so we have that judgment completed. Y'all, when God does something,

when he says he's going to do something, and he said he is going to bring it

to account or pass judgment or whatever it is,

or salvation, you name it, it doesn't matter. He will see it through.

Reminds me of he who has began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

I mean, that our God is a God of his word.

And then we come to finally tonight, as we wrap up this chapter, judgment justified.

Listen to this. For your merchants were the great men of the earth,

because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.

And in her was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints and of all

who have been slain on the earth.

That's verses through 24 there in chapter 18. So three final reasons are given

here for Babylon's judgment.

We'll go through these quickly. First, her merchants were the great men of the earth.

So using her wealth or using their wealth to ascend to positions of power,

of prominence and influence, those abuses, the abuses of the proud,

in other words, the arrogant rich are well documented in scripture.

Y'all probably think of several passages already.

It is not the rich who oppress you and personally, is it not the rich who oppress

you and personally drag you into court?

James asked that question in James 2, verse 6.

James 2:6

And later in the epistle of James, he gives a further indictment of the rich

for the abuse of the poor.

Listen to this. I think we need to be reminded of this. He says,

behold, the pay of your laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you.

In other words, he didn't give them what they should be getting,

right? He didn't pay them for their work.

It's been withheld by you, cries out against you, and the outcry of those who

did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath.

You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure.

You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

That's some powerful language, y'all, in the book of James. In other words,

you've lived like you've wanted, you've fattened your hearts, but you know what?

It's for your slaughter, for your slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man.

He does not resist you. That's in James chapter 5, verses 4 through 6.

James 5:4–6

Well, Isaiah and Amos, you know, old famous Amos, also condemned the rich,

y'all, for their self-arrogance, all those things, and maltreatment of the poor.

And a second reason for Babylon's being judged is that all the nations were,

remember reading it here, it says were deceived by her sorcery.

Now, there we think sorcery. Some of y'all may be thinking, the sorcerer's apprentice

or something like that. I don't know. But you see that word.

It's not something that we come across a whole lot, you know,

today in our reading necessarily.

But it's like they were deceived by our sorcery. What does that mean?

Well, sorcery here in the Greek is from the word pharmakeia.

That's the root word. You probably guessed it of the English words pharmacy and pharmaceuticals.

Right? And so the word is used in the New Testament, actually,

to refer to magic and occult practices, believe it or not, okay?

And of course, as you know, some of that also is enhanced, as you know,

or maybe you don't, but even in some of these satanic occult practices around

the world in different places, it's enhanced by the use of pharmaceuticals, right?

Drug-induced and all those things, and communication with spirits and all that.

But Babylon's hold on the world will not be entirely due to her military and

economic power, but also to her occult influence, that ability,

as we studied in previous weeks, to deceive,

to have them under her spell, so to speak, right?

And then a final reason given for Babylon's judgment in this passage is her

murderous slaughter of whom?

Christians, God's people. I mean, in her was found the blood of the prophets

and of the saints and of all who had been slain on the earth.

I mean, serious indictments here.

The heavenly rejoicing over Babylon's downfall also mentions this.

After these things, I heard someone like a loud voice of a great multitude in

heaven saying, Hallelujah.

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous.

For he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality,

and he has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her.

And that'll be in chapter 19, verses 1 and 2, which we'll get more in chapter

19 next week, Lord willing, but the words of Jesus that's found in Luke chapter

Luke 12 · chapter mention

12, we're going through the gospel of Luke, by the way, on Sunday morning, isn't that great?

Luke 12, verses 16 through 21, we covered this not many weeks ago,

Luke 12:16–21

they form a fitting conclusion to the message of judgment here on commercial Babylon.

Listen to this again. And he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich

man was very productive.

And he began reasoning to himself saying, what shall I do?

Shall I have no place to store my crops?

Then he said, this is what I will do.

I will tear down my barns and I'll build larger ones.

And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul,

soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come.

Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, what, you fool.

I know that today, maybe calling somebody a fool is not the sense of connotation it was back in this day.

But it's pretty serious stuff when you say somebody's a fool, right?

Only God really has the right to say that to us. You fool.

This very night, your soul is required of you. Reminds me, fear not the one

who can kill your body, but fear who?

Yeah, yeah. But he said, you fool this very night, your soul is required of

you. And now, who will own what you have prepared?

So if the man who stores up treasure for himself, so is the man who stores up

treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Y'all, that's something that should be challenged, all of us, being rich toward God,

rich toward him, and realizing that when it's all about, just like Babylon here, when it's all about,

the success or all about the money or all about this, that, or the other,

the prestige or whatever it might be, then guess what?

The Lord is able to bring you down.

He is the one we should fear. He is the one.

Who can take our very soul and cast it into hell. And by the way, this is for free.

Hell is eternal punishment that never ends according to God's word.

And Jesus preached more about hell than he did about heaven.

It's eternal conscious torment that will never cease.

The fire, the worm never dies, the fire's never quenched.

And even though there are a few other views of that, In our world today,

the annihilation and all that and different views that aren't necessarily heretical,

but they're not orthodox either.

They're unorthodox because the Bible plainly teaches that there is an eternal

place of torment in hell.

Prepared for the devil and his angels, but just like here, all who reject God's

offer of salvation and the tremendous love that he's shown to us,

none of us being worthy, y'all, none of us should have got a second chance. None of us.

He didn't have to save anybody. Y'all do realize, as we close tonight,

you do realize that after man's fall in the Garden of Eden, If God had done

nothing but just gave us what we deserved, right,

he would have been fully justified, fully just.

There's no evil in God. He would have been totally holy and just in condemning

you and me to eternity separated from him and in hell forever and ever and ever.

And his goodness would not be tarnished one bit. But in his great love and his

mercy, he literally laid down his own life in our place.

That's amazing. That is truly the greatest story ever told. I mean,

about what Jesus did for us on our behalf.

And it's just, it's amazing that God would love me that much that he would do that.

Because the scripture says, you know, if you think about it,

hey, some people might die for a righteous man, possibly.

I don't know about y'all, but if somebody, you know, I think I've given this

illustration before, but let's just say a terrorist.

You can think of that modern terrorist today, you know, came in,

slaughtered a bunch of people and they were fixing, they were caught and they

were fixing, they were put on death row and were fixing to be executed.

And would you be the one who would say, my son is going to take their place

of that terrorist right there and offer forgiveness and salvation?

Y'all, we don't think about it that well all the time, but we were the terrorists.

We really were. We don't think our sin offends a holy God like it does in our

culture. We think, you know, we tell a lie, that's no big deal.

But against the sovereign of the creation of the world, of the universe,

one lie, y'all, it's a tremendous offense to Almighty God.

He is perfect. He is holy. And man, the value of the thing you sin against determines

the consequence, right?

I mean, you key a beetle bug in a junkyard, what are the consequences going to be?

You run a key down the beetle bug, what's going to happen? Volkswagen?

Probably not too much unless somebody catches you and gets on to you a little

bit. It's a junk car, right?

What about if you start keying cars in parking lots at Sam's?

You know might have a little more severe consequences right right but what if you key,

a super high expensive sports car what's

the consequence i mean you see what i'm saying it's like we we just can't we

put all this into categories but it's like y'all our sin against the sovereign

of the universe you know how serious it is it's so serious and this is where

i come back to eternal torment in the lake of fire.

It's so serious that it cannot, there's not enough time we can serve to atone or expiate it.

It's that serious against God, right? It's always, always perpetual because

it's such a severe sin against the sovereign of the universe.

That's how serious our sin is.

But we tend to brush it off sometimes, but it's not that way,

man. And anytime you start thinking your sin is not serious,

just take a gander at the cross.

Yes, that's grandma's word, gander. We don't use that much either anymore.

I think I learned that reading her magazine, Modern Maturity or something,

I don't know, back in the day.

Yes, yes, it's those little things, right?

The little things that people think, hey, if I just do that,

I could start out doing this.

And it builds, doesn't it? It builds and builds until you become more comfortable.

Because we have a sinful nature. That's it.

That's it. But I'm grateful that we have a Savior. Amen.

Well, next time, Lord willing, we're going to pick up in Revelation chapter

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

19. We're looking forward to that.

By the way, we're not that far from being through with the book of Revelation.

And let me tell you something. We're getting into some of the favorite parts

I have in Revelation, right?

But we'll be in chapter 19 next, and we'll move forward. We're going to talk

a little bit about heavenly hallelujahs, right?