The Fall of Babylon and the Victory of the Lamb | Hail to the Victor!

How many people are ready for that to be done?

Hey, that's great. I thought it would be everybody.

I am. One more week. One more week.

But it has been an amazing sermon series so far.

It's been one that I think goes on the charts as far as the most talked about,

which makes a lot of sense because it's actually one that's the least talked about in a lot of churches.

I've said this before. I'll say it again.

One of the things that blows me away is, and again, January will be 20 years in this,

I've never preached all the way through it, and I know all of you, or a lot of you,

have never really been in a church where we've preached all the way through it.

And to be fair, we're doing a 10,000 foot view.

I know like BSF, their book is like that big.

It's like a phone book for their homework because they're taking 33 weeks.

And they're hitting everything.

And again, we'll come back and do a lot of the things again, I'm sure, in the years to come.

But this 10,000 overview I think can be summed up in one word,

and that is the word that we sang about today.

It's the word victory.

And now, victory can mean a lot of different things.

You know, you could be feeling victorious when your team wins the sport match, right?

Or you could have a sense of victory when you're ringing that bell for the last chemo

and you just went into remission.

Victory can be when all of a sudden your kid's potty trained.

I mean, victory can have all sorts of different meanings.

But I want to throw another word in there to start our conversation today,

and it's the word control.

When you think of the word control, and we all have, I'm sure, different engagement with the word control.

Some of us think we don't have any.

Some of you maybe have too much of it.

But when you think of the word control, what comes in light of the book of Revelation,

so let's center it that way because I don't need us to go all crazy.

We have a lot to get to today.

When you think of the word control, what comes to mind?

Power, absolutely.

Yeah, great minds think alike.

All right.

Order, yeah.

Randy.

There's a lot of things going on but not as random as you think.

Tom, give your dad a high five.

That was really good.

Mighty, interesting.

Others?

When you think of the word control, order, yeah.

How about, does the word victory get thrown in there?

Does anybody think control and victory?

You know, we hear things especially in sporting events.

Well, they just took control of the game.

Or one of the things that our beloved bulls can't seem to do is have control over the first half.

They're always playing from behind, it seems like.

And again, when I think of control and when I think of victory,

I think of the sense of Revelation, the victory is actually certain.

That there's a control that happens in the creative cosmos in the book of Genesis

that goes now generation after generation to the book of Revelation

where God's control is ultimately on display in victory.

And it made me think of God's sovereignty a little bit different this week

in light of the last couple weeks of kind of just church life, not always easy.

When you have funerals but you also have weddings, you have births, you have deaths.

It's just the kind of the alpha and the omega of what it means to be in the church.

That'll be next week as we close.

But that this victory that we are singing about today,

that we're going to read about today is victory over someone, a victory over something,

a victory that brings eternal life forever and ever, amen.

And I'm going to stress it one more time as I think I've done every other week,

is when we get to the end next week, like that's the end.

That that's the end of the book. That's the end of the conversation.

And a lot of us, even into this week, week 10 and 11 going into 12,

it's hard to justify that because we don't have control.

It's hard. We can't fathom or we can't come to a peace with,

well, what do you mean there's no more second chances?

Like isn't there just this great altar call in the end that people that see all the things,

you know, the demonic toads and the frogs and the beast and all of these,

all the different heads and the names and the vulgarities being yelled out,

like can't people kind of be scared straight in the book of Revelation?

No. That is for this time. That is not for that time.

I can't stress this enough. So as we navigate Revelation's unfolding narrative,

which is a beautiful thing, what we're going to talk about today are kind of four different things.

We're going to talk about the fall of Babylon.

We're going to talk about the victory of the lamb.

We're going to talk about why this matters.

And we're going to talk about worldly powers.

And again, you can read the book of Revelation, those four different ways that we go all the way back

to week one. We are reading it in not only historical but in an apocalyptic way.

To me, I believe is the right way to read it, that we have to engage what all of this means for us

not only today to what it will be, to what it also meant in the first century.

It's a great book that way.

But one of the things we're going to pull out today is we're going to explore how God's justice

and Christ's victory speak into and over our lives today.

Because one of the things that we're going to resonate with, especially in our culture today,

is that we live in an increasingly materialistic culture.

It's about the stuff. I want the stuff.

But it's also going to be about the division and the groaning that is going on in our world

and in our culture today.

So let's dive in. We're not going to read all of these three chapters.

We're going to read some selected sections.

The first is Revelation 17, looking at the fall of Babylon and the judgment of worldly powers.

It's going to be in the first six verses first.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me,

Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on the waters,

with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of those

sexual immorality the dwellers on the earth have become drunk.

And he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast

that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.

The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls,

holding in her hand a golden cup of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.

And on her forehead was written a name of mystery, Babylon the Great,

mother of the prostitutes and the earth's abominations.

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

When I saw her, I marveled greatly. So much for tying this up with a nice bow.

So what we see in these first six verses, we see this symbolic figure of Babylon.

Babylon has been and always will be kind of the great opponent of the kingdom of God.

That Babylon would have been known in the first century kind of as the Babylon cults of the Old Testament

into the Roman Empire that is in the first century.

The Babylonians were gone, but Babylon was this understanding of anybody that opposes the Israelites,

anybody that opposes the people of God.

Yet you have this interesting character and families.

I apologize for whatever conversations you may have about the name of her after this.

Feel free to call one of your elders.

But understand that that word that is used to describe her is something that we ought to pay attention to.

Because in that quote unquote line of work, there is the greatest gift that God has ever given us.

And that is that intimate relationship not only that we have with him, but that we have with our spouse.

The thing that he has given us is completely cheapened in that.

And that is representative of the cheapness of the grace that Satan offers.

That Satan tries his best to mimic God in all things and tries to offer you a grace, oversells, under delivers, always.

Because the goal is to hurt you.

The goal is to keep you away from God by giving you all of the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the authority, all of the riches.

Pastor, where are you pulling this from?

Well, he tempted Jesus with it.

So if he has the goal to tempt the Son of God with all of those things, though he didn't do kind of the sexual immorality with Christ,

which I find interesting, and we talked about that a couple weeks ago, he does with those three other things.

Sustenance, gluttony, right?

Having everything you've ever needed or wanted to eat and consume.

He's done it with authority.

He's done it with power.

He's done it with prestige and owning all of the kingdoms of the world.

And he did it with the power and authority of riches and wealth.

That when I talk to people that are on different parts of the socioeconomic ladder or different parts of fluency, it's always interesting.

The struggles still tend to be the same, regardless if you have many commas in your bank or many zeros.

And it's interesting that as we come, and not only have we rounded third, we're almost in the batter's box coming home in the book of Revelation,

that this gets brought back.

That this individual is sitting out there, blasphemous as all get out, yet the rulers of the world, the worldly powers have had their way.

And that culmination is so deviant, that culmination is so against what God has planned for each and every one of our life.

It is exactly the ends of the earth that Satan will go to keep your eye off the prize.

To keep your heart away from God, to give you all the powers of the flesh, the lusts of the flesh.

And haven't we seen that throughout the years?

It's always been there, whether in paper form or now internet form, it's all right there.

And if you don't know what I'm talking about, call your elder.

Understand that that is one of the last things, one of the last temptations, one of the last powers that need to be broken in the end of the world apocalypse, is the flesh.

And what we see is that the worldly powers, the spiritual corruption, that has to do with it.

You're not going to find empire corruption, worldly power corruption, without engaging that, without engaging lust in everything that comes with it.

Porneneia is the Greek word where we get that word, right, that has to do, that's literally sexual morality.

So we're camping here for a minute, verses 12 to 14.

And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power.

But they have received authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.

These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and their authority to the beast.

They will make war on the lamb, and the lamb will conquer them.

For he is Lord of lords and King of kings.

And those with him are called and chosen, are called and chosen and faithful.

Leave that up there.

Man, we don't get it.

This is it.

We're coming to the end.

17, 18, 19, 20, 21.

We're getting there.

And the devil's still trying to do his thing.

And people are still falling for it.

All the stuff we've been through.

And this is still going on.

Because again, there is no altar call here.

There is no opportunity to say, pause, time to go meet with the elders and make profession of faith.

I need to secure my soul.

I need to go to Camp Antetokua and pray the prayer or Camp Roger or wherever you went.

This is it.

We're in the end.

And do we not see the tools that the enemy, the evil one is using?

Worldly powers and lust.

Putting them together.

They even got a time limit.

Each king, you get one hour.

Now again, we can make that and we can turn this super crass and it would actually be legit.

We don't need to because we have brains.

We can think.

But understand that not only do they get the hour together with the beast, but what are they going to do?

They're going to still try to make war on the lamb.

They're going to still try to make war with Jesus.

I would think you would have learned already, but they haven't.

And maybe you've said that of yourself or somebody you love.

Wouldn't they just learn?

We've seen them over and over again fall in this same thing.

Haven't they learned?

But then we also have to look at ourselves.

That we have to understand the metaphor for the great prostitute, the metaphor for these kings, is the perverse influence.

Drawing nations and people into idolatry and sin.

The beast she rides, covering blasphemous names, represents oppressive, godless governments.

The Apostle John describes the spiritual infidelity and corruption that is characterized by Babylon

showcasing that it is pleasing to the eye, but will destroy you in the end.

I could just stop there and some of you probably hope I am.

I'm not.

But understand that's right there.

That's revelation.

That what is going to come to take you away from the cross, to take you away from God, to take you away from your first love,

if you go all the way back to the letters, which feels like years ago.

These are the temptations, friends.

And pretty sure that's how it works in 2024.

If the Lord doesn't come back, it's how it's going to work in 2025.

If he doesn't come back again, it's going to be 20...

You see, this is the allure of power and the lust of the flesh.

You can draw most people's downfalls of faith, downfalls of marriage, downfalls of corruption, of companies, all of these things.

You could boil it down to these two things.

It's not hard.

It's predictable.

John did it in the first century.

You can read this and go, man, is he talking about 2024?

Is he talking about the US?

Is he talking about the world today?

Well, you don't have to just stop today.

Go back 100 years.

Go back 200 years.

Go back 1,000 years.

It's the same thing.

Lust of the flesh, lust for authority.

You put them together and you get corruption.

Why?

Because those combined is saying, I have authority over you.

I own you.

Whether for an hour or for a lifetime, that is a mentality that Satan tries to get into each and every one of us to think that we have.

Friends, we don't own anybody.

Yeah, you may have kids and they may grow up in your house, good, bad, and ugly.

One day you won't.

They'll leave.

Whether at 18, whether at 35, whether at 40.

If that's the case, let's have a conversation.

But understand that that isn't, though that's a responsibility, that's not ownership.

What Satan's trying to get us to think is we can do that.

So let's jump to Revelation 18 and unpack this a little bit more because though this is awful and terrible, where are we?

Revelation, it will come to an end.

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority.

And the earth was made bright with his glory.

And he called out with a mighty voice, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great.

She has become a dwelling place for demons, a hut of unclean spirit, a hut of every unclean bird, a hut for every unclean and detestable beast.

For all nations have drunk the wine of the passions of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,

and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.

Wow.

Friends, I think we should understand the concept here.

What is Satan, what is Satan's greatest way?

He's going to try to take you down.

It's right here.

I've read it about four different times.

Lust of authority, lust of the flesh, and understand that the great Babylon will fall.

This is the pronouncement of Babylon's fall and describes the reason for her judgments, her corruption, her immorality that she spread across the world

and yes, unfortunately, even in the church.

Yet there's a difference.

Never justifying it, don't hear that.

But a lot of times when we know people that have fallen in this way, what do we do?

Let's be honest.

We write them off.

You can't come back from that, we say.

Unfortunately, that's not right.

With reconciliation, with confession and forgiveness, you can be made right again, though the wake of that pain, that mistrust, that distrust is there.

And you have to wade through that.

You'll lose family members and friends over stuff like that.

Absolutely, but there is forgiveness to it.

Again, never justifying it.

Don't come away and say, oh no, Pastor Jim said I can have adultery because I can just seek forgiveness.

No, that will add you in a world of church discipline.

Because that is you taking one of the most sacred things.

Pastor, I don't think it's held that high in Scripture.

Oh really?

The last book, the last Hail Mary, if you will, sports term, not Catholic term, understanding of this, this is how he's going to come?

This is how he's going to take the church down and you don't think we should take it and make it important and serious?

You better believe we do.

Because it just doesn't happen.

Seeds of that get planted.

A thought, an idea, that's a whole other sermon series that, or probably Adult Sunday School.

But understand that that's how that works.

It gets a little seed and it just pervades.

It takes up a little bit of space.

It takes an inch, takes two, takes four, takes eight, you see where I'm going.

But the judgment ultimately comes.

Verse nine and ten.

And the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.

There's a thought, there's a, wow, okay.

They will stand far off in fear of her torment and say, alas, alas, you great city, you mighty city Babylon, for in a single hour your judgment has come.

Oversell, under-deliver, always.

Why?

For five minutes?

Is that worth it?

No.

Never has been, never will be.

But understand, I mean, we're seeing these kings.

And how did they become kings?

Power, authority, riches, probably killed some people, conquered some people, did all the things, standing up there on their high horse literally and figuratively.

What happens?

You think you're untouchable.

You think that the rules don't apply to you.

Because I have wealth, I have riches, I run a payroll, I do these things.

So you think yourself a little higher than you ought.

The scriptures talk about that.

Yet what happens?

In an hour or less, it all comes crashing down.

Well, then we've got to hide it.

Well, then I've got to start lying.

And then I've got to start sneaking.

And then I am so far away from who God created you to be and the life he wants you to live, you don't even see your reflection in a mirror anymore.

And then guess what?

All that stuff you are attracted to, all the things you clung to, both literally and figuratively, starts burning on fire in the end.

It all gets burned up.

Alas, alas, you great city, you mighty city Babylon.

Here are these kings.

I just like as I hear them say it, it is a giant W blank blank.

What did we do?

I cannot believe that is who I became to be, that I attached, I hooked my cart to that literally, figuratively.

The judgment continues, friends, verse 21 of 18.

And then a mighty angel came and took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying, so will Babylon the great city be thrown down in violence and will be found no more?

Revelation 18 elaborates on Babylon's sudden destruction.

The chapter is filled with lamenting, mourning, destruction.

And what I love is Revelation is like, yeah, we are getting ready to be done too, if the book could talk, all done in an hour.

The years of whatever it is you have built up, the years of that infidelity, the years of that adultery, the years of the thoughts, the years of the broken marriages, the years of all of these things,

undone in an hour or less.

Friends, that is what sin offers you.

That is what Satan offers you.

Because guess what?

He can't offer you eternal life, but he can offer you an instant death.

And so many times we would rather take that than eternal life.

Oh, but eternal life is so boring.

I get so bored in my marriage.

It hasn't been creative in a while.

We have been stuck in a rut.

You guys are like, why is this a marriage sermon?

You tell me.

Because I think this is one of the last great calls in the world.

The church can and should be seen in your marriages if you are married.

If you are single and you are upholding that, God bless you.

May the Lord provide that for you.

That is a whole other sermon.

But even that, that is a celibacy thing.

But those of us that are, is that not always the temptation?

Right?

To glance, to notice, to linger for that seed.

And now we can all do it online with a fake name.

Is that not what Revelation is trying to scrape up for each and every one of us?

Because guess what your life will be?

It will be found no more.

It's thrown into the abyss.

That is the opposite of heaven if my math is right.

Because that's where who's gone so, who's gone into the abyss?

The dragon, the demon toads, which I had a nightmare about a couple days ago, by the way.

They came out of, nothing good comes out of the abyss.

That's where it all goes along with the infidelity of the mind, the body, the soul, and the spirit.

So I think it makes sense that this last band-aid is ripped off.

So where do we go from 17 and 18?

Let's go here.

When we are tempted to rely on worldly systems, including ourselves, rather than God's kingdom,

how are our priorities influenced by a culture that idolizes power and wealth?

Man, believe me, I'm asking myself those first.

One way that I was thinking about this is fasting.

But I like food too much.

Amen, Marshall, amen.

What else can I fast from?

Probably fast from social media, I wasn't asking.

Don't offer, don't tell me what I need to fast from.

You figure it out for yourself.

I think for me, maybe a fast for always being connected.

This is one of the things I love, being married to an introvert.

She enjoys that.

I can't stand it at times.

But I think I can learn from her.

I do, and I'm grateful.

But when there's things that are just clinging on to us, that are wanting just to take you down,

it's not take you up.

None of this stuff is take you up.

This is take you down.

Then I think we need to shed it.

I mean, Colossians tells us to take that jacket off, that jacket of lust, that jacket of booze,

that jacket of whatever it is that's bringing you down, the sin that so easily entangles Hebrews.

We need to take off and live without.

Maybe it's okay to do without some things.

Maybe it's okay to do without this or that.

Now, one thing you can't say is, well, I'm married and so I can do without my marriage.

No, that's not it.

But a healthy marriage brings life.

And understand that as we shed those things, we become more like Christ,

the one that will raise up on the last day and not get thrown into the abyss.

So maybe it's a fast from social media or consuming or materialism.

Jesse, I see you over there.

If we get a bunch of people that just need to go work the farm, you down for that?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Very good.

You have to pay.

That's in the Bible.

Okay.

You have to pay your laborers.

All right.

I got to start the sermon.

So we're in Revelation 19.

We've gone bad.

I know.

We're all feeling awful.

I don't know why you thought you'd feel great.

We haven't gotten that every week.

It's coming, though, and it's coming here in Revelation 19.

Because though we are down and we see ourselves and there's probably some people staring at you,

at least you think in your mind, nobody is, or you see yourself in some of these faults,

there is victory.

And the victory belongs, as we sung and as we're going to see, to the Lamb and to the Lord.

So Revelation 19, this is a long set of verses.

Bear with me.

After this, so after she's gone, she is in the abyss, after this I heard what seemed to be a loud voice

of a great multitude in heaven crying out, Hallelujah!

For salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just,

for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality

and has avenged on her the blood of the saints.

Once more they cried out, Hallelujah!

The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.

And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God

who was seated on the throne saying, Amen, hallelujah!

And from the throne came a voice saying, Praise our God, all you servants,

you who fear him, small and great.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude,

like a roar of many waters and like the sound of many pearls of thunder, crying out,

Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Oh, that's good news.

Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory, for the marriage of the lamb has come

and his bride has made herself ready.

But it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure,

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, Write this.

Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper for the lamb.

And he said to me, These are the true words of God.

Then I, this is John, fell at his feet to worship him.

But he said to me, You must not do that.

I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

And then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true.

And in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like flames of fire.

On his head are many diadems.

And he has his name written that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood.

And his name by which he is called the Word of God.

And the armies of heaven are raided fine linen, white and pure.

Or following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.

And he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the Rhine press with the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

On his robe and on his thigh he has written a name.

He has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Finally, right, we've been waiting.

Now just think, what if he came as a baby?

I'm sorry that would be a giant wah wah.

From all that we have seen Jesus finally enters the scene.

He finally says it is time.

I am going, I am coming back and it all will be completed.

There is a symphony of praise in heaven.

The repeated hallelujah meaning praise the Lord resounds.

And then we see the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The event, the culmination of the messianic covenant.

This is the culmination of salvation history from Genesis chapter 3 to now Revelation 19.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It marks the perfect union between Christ and his church.

The imagery is rich with echoes of Jesus' parables of the wedding feasts

reminding us that believers are invited to this intimate celebratory relationship with Jesus.

And then verses 11 through 16 is the striking vision of the warrior king.

Finally, riding on a white horse, his eyes like fire, his robe dipped in blood,

reflected his dual role as Savior and Judge.

His name, I love this, faithful and true.

How do you combat the sins and the temptations of chapter 17 and 18?

Live that out. Let that be your name.

As you live in your marriage, as you work in your job, as you worship at Munster Church,

as you neighbor to wherever you live, be someone known as faithful and true.

Because what is the opposite? Unfaithful and false.

If that's what people think about your Christianity, that's a problem.

But Jesus, faithful and true, always has been, always will be, to the very end.

King of kings and Lord of lords.

I don't know about you, but Advent's going to take on a little different meaning for me.

Pretty sure the sermon series will be a giant disappointment for all of us compared to Revelation.

But the same holds true, because this baby is going to be coming to fulfill this.

It's a beautiful depiction of the life of Christ and should be a teaching guide for you and for me.

How has your Christianity lived out? Faithful and true.

What about in the midst of chaos? When it seems like nobody is in control,

let's go to this application for kind of wrapping up our year.

How can we live as people of hope actively participating in God's redemptive mission

rather than succumbing to fear and cynicism?

When we think that nobody is in control, we should know that he is.

He always has been. He always will be.

Yet we want to hit it with cynicism because we're cynical beings.

Skepticism because we can be skeptical.

God, if you were in control, then my bank account wouldn't look this way.

My marriage wouldn't feel this way. I wouldn't act this way.

Huh. That's interesting. We're going to get to that next week.

So what do we do as we come into this last sermon?

We need to identify the brokenness in us, in our communities,

take tangible steps to bring Christ hope and healing.

How do we do this? I've given you a list.

Both we need to cry out. Absolutely we need to cry out. Thank you, Weston.

But how do we live in the light of God's victory?

We mourn like Weston over our sin, but we need to resist the spirit of Babylon.

As followers of Christ, we must discern and reject the ways in which our modern society mirrors Babylon.

Our allegiance is to our God's kingdom, not to fleeting cultural trends

or empty promises of wealth or power.

And then I did something a little different. I put an action step in there.

And all of this will be printed out in two weeks.

All the questions, all of my sermon notes, Mike's going to put into a packet.

So how do we action this? Regularly examine our heart and our resources.

Are they dedicated to God's purposes or consumed by worldly pursuits?

Set aside time each week to pray about those priorities.

Second, we need to anchor our hope in Christ's reign.

That Jesus' victory assures us that evil does not have the final word.

Even in a world marked by uncertainty, we live with confidence.

Knowing that God's redemptive plan will prevail, how do we take a step in this?

We share the hope of Christ's return with someone who needs encouragement.

Speak words of assurance rooted in God's faithfulness and the certainty of his promises.

And finally, we engage the world with gospel-driven action.

That should be the church.

We are called to be active participants in God's work on earth.

This means proclaiming the gospel, seeking justice, and loving our neighbors.

So take a step with me this week.

Partner with your local ministries and organizations.

Foster Church, our missions programs, things that we align with, with gospel values.

Whether they're serving, giving, or praying, friends, let your life reflect the hope and victory of the Lamb.

I wrote this in my notes.

Teaser for next week.

The story doesn't end with Babylon's fall.

It leads us to a vision of eternal life with Christ.

And what we're going to dive into is what eternal actually means.

Because all things become new.

And I don't know about you, but I need a little newness in my life.

Let's pray.