Grief

Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would fall, continue to fall upon us.

We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would both humble us,

but at the same time, Father, that your Holy Spirit humbles us.

May your Holy Spirit fan into flame within us a hunger for you,

to know you, to be known by you, to be yours.

Father, we ask for this double work of your Holy Spirit this morning,

to both humble us and fan into flame a deep hunger for you.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

I'm getting older, so I'm allowed to be curmudgeonly,

although I have to be careful I don't become too curmudgeonly.

But for a long time, even before I got older,

I've had problem in churches when they applaud the praise band.

Not that we've done it here,

and not that we couldn't clap our hands for Jeremiah and the band,

but on my holidays, I go in some churches,

and they sing a real rock and praise song,

and then everybody stops and claps their hands for a while,

and then they sing another song,

and then they all clap their hands and hoot and holler.

And I have to confess, I always feel very conflicted when I'm there.

In fact, if you saw me, everybody's clapping and doing all this

and clapping and doing this, and I'm just standing here like this,

because I just feel, it sort of feels funny.

It feels a little bit like when you watch a lot of sporting things,

and after somebody's done really a good job,

they say, I'm the man.

I'm the man.

I mean, how would it, you know, I just, I, like, we're the church.

Whoa, you know, like, listen to us sing.

Whoa, I just, it feels, it just feels funny to me.

You know, I know that, you know, I know it's, it's,

I know that it's not the case that churches where everything is really solemn,

like a lot of Anglican churches where nobody cracks a smile,

like to crack a smile is to sin against the Holy Spirit.

Whoever she is, that's how a lot of Anglican churches would say, speak.

And, or whoever it is, and you're allowed to crack a smile.

You have to be completely and utterly serious.

And, you know, there's, you know, immaculate,

whether it's a band or a choir and everything's immaculate.

And, you know, it doesn't, it seems as if you don't have,

I understand sometimes that people just get really excited and joyful

and they want to clap, and it's, I just, I feel conflicted by it,

you know, a lot of times.

And I also know that it's not the case,

that it might very well be the case at that church that I visit

where the band has just really pumped out something

and then everybody cheers and claps,

that the band is completely and utterly,

it might very well be the case that the band is completely and utterly unmoved by it

and they don't take the glory onto themselves.

And that the solemn, somber church that would no more clap after something than,

I don't know, than, you know,

they would say, drop the F-bomb during the service,

that the organist or the minister or the choir or the band might walk away

just feeling really like, wow, did I ever do a good job?

Like internally they have, you know, externally they have the solemn face,

but internally they're going, I'm the man.

I'm the man.

Did we ever knock that out of the park today?

I'm the man.

But, you know, somber on the outside.

But it, don't you, it's, I, anyway, I feel conflicted

when churches applaud the band.

You know, I mean, I do sort of like listening to Joyce Meyer

and she makes a good point and the whole auditorium bursts into applause

and I wish it would happen to me occasionally.

But I guess I just don't speak as well as Joyce Meyer.

We often have supper to Joyce Meyer, by the way.

So those of you who listen to CHRI know roughly when we eat supper,

we go from Joyce Meyer to focus on the family.

But anyway, the Bible text here talks a little bit about glory

and the dangers of glory.

And maybe after we've read these next few verses in the Bible text,

it'll just, you will, I will have given you the gift

of being conflicted about applause in church.

So let's just turn to it.

And because the text begins with a sort of actually a very, very powerful insight

into human glory and angelic glory

and sort of what it is and how we easily misread it

and misunderstand it when it's sort of going on in our own lives.

And as always, there's Bibles up at the front.

If you didn't bring your own Bible, you can have it,

use it during the service, take it home as a gift if you'd like.

And we're looking at Revelation chapter 18.

Revelation 18 · chapter mention

And it's back of the Bible if you're not familiar with the Bible.

And verse 1 is where we'll begin.

And just to give you a bit of context,

I'm not going to give you the context for all the book of Revelation

as we're preaching through it.

But in chapter 16, there's sort of a final cycle of judgments.

And then the book of Revelation, John sees something different.

He's sort of looking at the same thing from a different perspective.

And he sees sort of a pronouncement made on Babylon, the great city.

And all the way through the book of Revelation,

Babylon, sometimes it's called Rome, sometimes it's called Jerusalem,

sometimes it's called Egypt.

But it's a consistent vision of the city

organized in contempt against the living God

and in rebellion against the living God.

Babylon sort of becomes a symbol throughout the book of Revelation

for the city and all that the city means.

That means culture, it means government, it means education,

it means commerce,

it means just the normal way that life is organized

and the city is organized in a preeminent way

in contempt against the living God

and in rebellion against the living God.

And in chapter 17,

we see it described

and we're told of its doom.

And in chapter 18,

we now sort of get the judgment

that God makes on it

and two types of responses to that judgment.

But it begins with this

interesting comment on glory.

Look at verse 1.

After this, I saw another angel

coming down from heaven,

having great authority,

and the earth was made bright

with his glory.

Sort of notice that here,

and it's a very easy thing for us to misread

what's happening in text.

Look at it again.

Having great authority.

I saw another angel coming down from heaven,

having great authority,

and the earth was made bright

with his glory.

I like watching movies.

I like watching superhero movies.

I'm looking forward to seeing

the next Captain America movie

that's already come out.

I haven't seen it yet.

I enjoy the first Iron Man movie very much

and the other ones to certain degrees.

And the problem is that,

not the problem,

but if you've watched Iron Man movies

or have watched any of the Avengers movies,

I'm going to maybe get some of the details

a little bit wrong

because I'm not a Marvel comic geek

that always remembers all the details

of the made-up science and mythology,

but Iron Man is, of course,

a billionaire who, of course,

is good-looking,

who, of course, is witty,

who, of course, is a genius,

and, of course,

he's able to invent a metal suit

that allows him to fly,

and it's all powered by,

I think it's some type of

cold fusion type of thing

that's just a little small thing

that goes right there in his chest,

keeps him alive,

and it creates enough power.

I don't know,

they said an early thing about,

I don't know,

it could power all these cities

for all these decades forever,

and he doesn't need all that.

It means he can fly faster than jet planes

and do like this with his hands

and knock walls down

and tanks and people,

and what guy wouldn't be able

to like to do that?

I can't speak for girls,

but what guy doesn't wish

he could just do that

and go, woof,

and the power just knocks things down?

So anyway, this is Iron Man,

but in many ways,

what happens to us

when we think of glory,

we think of something like Iron Man,

because Iron Man has all the power

in and of himself, right?

And so when we think of this angel coming down,

we think a little bit of like Iron Man coming down,

because you see,

in our hearts of hearts,

all of us like to say,

I'm the man,

I'm the man,

because we sort of think

that there's glory in us

that comes out.

But every time the Bible talks about glory,

and especially in the book of Revelation,

it's really trying to communicate

a very different image to us.

Image would be something like this.

I'm out maybe somewhere,

you know,

I'm lost in the woods

or something like that.

I'm with maybe my little granddaughter,

Bria,

five years old,

and we come across,

you know,

like sort of an old cottage,

and we're sort of going to take some shelter in there.

And for some reason,

I want to go and look at something.

Maybe I think I can hook something up.

And I can't get any light.

I don't have any matches or anything.

But I notice that there's a mirror.

I take the mirror down

and I give it to my little five-year-old granddaughter,

Bria,

and I say,

Bria,

if you just stand here right like this,

and the sunlight will come in and hit this mirror.

And if you just point it like this,

the sunlight will come and hit the mirror

and bounce into the spot that I want to see

and get some work done

and maybe it'll help us.

And virtually every time in the Bible,

every time in the Bible,

actually it's talking about true glory.

The image we should think of

is a five-year-old little girl

holding a mirror

that catches the sun

and shines into a dark place.

We should never think of Iron Man.

We should think of a little five-year-old girl

holding the mirror

that reflects the sunlight

into the darkness.

Here's the first point.

There is no autonomous glory.

The Bible says there is no autonomous glory.

Period.

All true glory of created things

is a reflected glory from the living God.

There is no autonomous glory,

a glory in and of ourselves,

an Iron Man-type glory.

There is no such glory.

We might think,

I'm the man,

I'm the man, you know?

Jeremiah might leave after service going,

I'm the man.

George might leave after service going,

I'm the man, you know?

But there is no autonomous glory.

You know,

the President of the United States,

the President of Russia,

the Prime Minister of Canada,

might go,

I'm the man, I'm the man.

There is no autonomous glory.

All true glory of created things

is a reflected glory

from the living God.

See,

that's why it is

that the Bible can talk about

how the heavens declare the glory of God,

the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

The heavens declare the glory of God.

The image underneath there

is it's somehow or another

the stars and the moon

and just the sky

and later on in other parts

in the Old Testament,

in the New Testament,

in the trees and the rivers,

that it's not that these things,

and it's not that when we see

an unbelievably beautiful sunset

that we're seeing something autonomous

and separate from God,

but we see the created order

properly turned

at least for a moment

to reflect the glory

that ultimately comes from God.

The glory to which

we are called to,

and we as fallen,

bent human beings,

at times,

we reflect the glory of God

because there is no autonomous glory.

All true glory of created things

is a reflective glory

from the living God.

See,

that's why Christians aren't dualists.

It's why Christians aren't Buddhists.

It's not,

we're Hindus.

It's not that we think

that the material world

is an illusion.

It's not that we think

that the material world

is a prison.

It's not that we think

that the material world

isn't as important

as soul or spirit.

It's none of those types of things.

The soul is created.

Angels are created.

My mind is created.

Trees are created.

Rivers are created.

Angels are created.

Sheep are created.

And all creative things

have the power

to reflect the glory

of the living God.

My mind and my body

can reflect the glory

of the living God.

That's what the Bible teaches.

That's how we are to understand.

And you can sort of see it

a little tiny bit

here in the text.

It's more obvious

than the original language.

Look at verse one again.

After this,

I saw another angel

coming down from heaven.

And it's because he's coming down

from heaven

that he has great glory.

And it's because he's coming down

from heaven

that the earth was made bright

with his glory.

He's aligned with heaven.

He's reflecting that glory.

And as he reflects the glory,

it illuminates the earth.

And the implication

and the invitation is

that for we who also

are trying to align ourselves

with God,

that that glory goes

and shines as well through us,

through broken,

ordinary people

like you and me.

Now some of you might say,

George, that's all,

that's sort of very,

that's interesting.

But,

George,

the thing about this text,

and sometimes,

George, you do this,

you know,

you pick on something

really at the beginning

of the text.

And I'm almost worried

sometimes, George,

you'll stop preaching then

so you don't have to deal

with the fact

that, you know,

the problem in this text,

George, for me,

isn't the early parts,

it's verse 20.

It's verse 20

where it sounds

like God is telling people

to rejoice

over the destruction

of people.

It's not that they're all

clapping their hands

to the choir

and clapping their hands

to the praise song

or even that all of a sudden

something weird

happens to the congregation

and it's like a

Joyce Meyer congregation

and they all clap

every time you make

a good point.

The problem isn't,

that isn't the problem,

George,

the problem is

that it's as if,

look at verse 20,

it's as if,

it's as if after all

the judgments are talked about

that they're saying,

okay, let's rejoice,

rejoice,

for God has given judgment

against this city

and that,

George,

that's the problem

with this text

and I hope you don't just say,

oh, well,

we're going to get up

to verse 13

and I've run out of time

and off you go.

Like, you have to deal

with this, George.

It's a very, very good thing.

It's an important part

of the text

and so let's actually,

we are going to get there

but to get there

we have to first see

something in verse 2

because the text

actually has a great consistency

of talking about

not only God's glory

but of justice

and of the appropriate way

to respond to justice,

the call to justice

and it's all in the text

which leads us

to that verse.

Let's look at verse 2.

The angel comes,

sorry, verse 1,

so the angel comes down

and the angel,

in verse 2,

he called out

with a mighty voice,

fallen,

fallen is Babylon the great.

She has become

a dwelling place

for demons,

a haunt

for every unclean spirit,

a haunt

for every unclean bird,

a haunt

for every unclean

and detestable beast.

In other words,

it's become a place

where no proper thinking

human being

would now want to go.

No, if you were there

you wouldn't turn

your back on anybody.

verse 3,

for all nations

have drunk the wine

of the passion

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

and immorality here

is a,

it's an image

of the merchants

and the kings

just can't get enough

of what a city

organized

in contempt

against God

and rebellion

against God

and we're going to see

in a moment

what that sort of entails,

what it looks like

and all these merchants

and the kings

they just can't get

enough of that.

They just can't get

enough of contempt

of that.

They can't get enough

of that rebellion.

They can't get enough

of,

as we'll see in the text,

economic exploitation.

They can't get enough

of sorcery.

They can't get enough

of having slaves.

They just can't get

enough of oppressing.

They just can't get enough

of killing innocent

human life.

They just can't get

enough of that

and that,

the image of sexual

immorality is,

it's an image

of passion

as if when a couple,

they just can't get,

you know,

enough of a person

who's another man's wife

or another,

a woman's husband

and they just can't

get enough of it

and that's the image

behind it

of the judgment

not only on Babylon

but of these other kings

and the merchants

and the sailors

and the political class

and the cultural class

and the educational class

and all of these classes

that just,

they can't get enough.

They can't get enough.

They can't get enough

of something

that God ultimately

is saying has fallen

and that in its heart

it's a haunt

of demons

and unclean beasts

and unclean things.

That's the image.

Verse four will continue.

Then I heard another

voice from heaven

saying,

come out of her,

my people,

lest you take part

in her sins,

lest you share

and her plagues

for her sins

are heaped high as heaven

and God has remembered

her iniquities.

Virtually every time

in the Bible

when it says

that God has remembered

you should understand

that God remembers

to act.

That's the implication

of the image.

God remembers

to act.

When he remembers

he's acting.

Verse six,

pay her back

as she herself

has paid back others

and repay her double

for her deeds.

Mix a double portion

for her in the cup

she mixed.

Just pause.

That's not like

a double-double

from Tim Hortons.

It's not saying

that she should get

twice as much

as what she's done.

It's an image

of full,

up to the brim.

When I go to Starbucks

I like my coffee

either black

or next to black

and so when they ask me

how,

I always say

I have my coffee black

because I don't want

to get a coffee cup

and have like

an inch and a half

of space between

the coffee

and the top.

I want them to get it

right to the top.

And that's the image here.

Make sure

that the cup

is completely full.

That's the image

of double.

Verse seven,

as she glorified herself

and lived in luxury

so give her

a like measure

of torment

and mourning

since in her heart

she says,

I sit as a queen.

No,

verse seven again,

she glorified herself,

right?

Her entire ideology,

I am the man,

I am the man,

I am the man.

That's her theme song.

Okay.

And then it shows itself

out in verse seven

in the middle.

I sit as a queen,

I am no widow

and mourning,

grieving,

I shall never see.

For this reason

her plagues

will come in a single day,

death and mourning

and famine

and she will be

burned up with fire

for mighty is the Lord God

who has judged her.

And this word judged here

is an important word.

It actually is a word

that's,

by pointing to this word

you can get a bit

of an understanding

of underneath

in the original language

underneath a lot

of the images

up until here

and all the way through.

It's a specifically

legal image

from the law courts.

And so what's being

presented here

a little bit

is an image

and this might help

us a little bit

with understanding

what's going on

in the text.

Imagine for a second

that there's a company

that knowingly

put some type

of toxic substance

in a whole pile

of products

and tens of thousands

of people

either died

or were made

severely ill.

And so in our culture

a class action suit

was brought

by these tens

of thousands

of people

who've been damaged

by this company

that knowingly

did the wrong thing

and you go to court.

And so the image

here very simply

is on one hand

there is the plaintiff,

this company

that willingly did

something

to cause lots

of damage.

And on the other side

are the defendants

and the defendants

are the ones

who've suffered

underneath

what the plaintiffs,

what the defendants

have done

and the plaintiffs

have gone to court

about it

and God

is the judge.

So in this particular,

the image is

that Babylon

is the defendant

and if you go

to the end

of the text,

go to the end

of Revelation chapter 18

Revelation 18 · chapter mention

you'll see

that the plaintiffs

are the followers

of Jesus

and every innocent

who's died

as a result

of Babylon's action.

We're the plaintiffs.

All the innocent dead

and all the followers

of Jesus

are the plaintiffs.

Babylon is the defendant,

God is the judge

and Revelation 18

is God pronouncing

his judgment.

Babylon is guilty,

the defendants

are vindicated

and just as you would see

in a law court

if something like that

was to happen today,

you would see

the plaintiffs

cheering,

that's partly

a key part

of the image

here

because it's an image

of a law court.

But there's something

far more significant

to the text

to help us understand

the jubilation

and Andrew

if you could put up

the next point

it's this,

that God's justice

is so high

and so humble

that when I face it

and I should probably

have said him,

I will fall short

and I will have

no valid excuse

or rebuttal.

God's justice

is both

so high

and so humble

that when I face it

I will fall short

and I will have

no valid excuse

or rebuttal.

Here's what I mean.

A lot of people

when they start to hear

about the Christian faith

and Christians struggle

with this as well

and on one level

if you read through

the book of Revelation

and even this text

it portrays

the complete

and utter

perfect justice

of God.

God is perfectly

just,

he's perfectly

sovereign,

he's perfectly

good,

he is the perfect

creator,

he is the perfect

sustainer,

he is the perfect

end of all things,

everything about God

is perfect,

he's in heaven,

Babylon can rage

against him,

the dragon can rage

against him,

the beast can rage

against him,

the false prophet

can rage against him,

the armies can gather

in Armageddon

to rage against him

but he is so high

above them,

this is all completely,

this is like microbes

right now

being mad at us,

okay,

microbes in this room

are angry at you

and they have nothing,

they're nothing,

they're microbes

and we're people,

we don't even know

they exist,

not that God knows

they exist,

he's active in all this

but God is high

and so many people

when they see this text

and they hear about

God's judgment

they say,

George,

how on earth

could me appearing

before God

ever be fair?

It would be a little bit,

George,

like all of a sudden

you having to go

in a week's time

and you go with

all the engineering

students at Ottawa U

and you take

Calculus 2 final exam,

okay,

let me tell you right now

if I had to take

the Calculus 2 final exam

with all those

engineering students,

the only way

I wouldn't get zero

is if they give you

a mark

for spelling your name right

on the booklet,

okay,

if they allowed me

a mark

for spelling

George Sinclair correctly,

I could go home

and say,

Louise,

I got 1%

on that exam,

1%,

but if they don't

allow a mark

for that,

it's zero.

In fact,

I would look at it,

I was a very,

very bad student

in first year university,

like I was a really

bad student,

nobody took attendance,

nothing happened,

I remember

it was a full year

course,

I went to take

my economics exam,

no,

it was a take home exam,

I got my take home exam

and I think,

I'm just going to be able

to blow this off,

I'll just look it up

in the book,

I'll be able to answer this,

I was so far behind,

I couldn't understand

a single question

to know where

to look it up,

okay,

and that would be

way ahead of me

doing a calculus exam,

so you see,

a lot of people

when they think

of God's high justice,

they think,

how on earth

could this ever be fair,

George,

look at how perfect

God is,

how on earth,

and so,

the book of Revelation

not only communicates

how high God's justice is,

but if you look

at verse six,

it's a really important verse

and it's repeated

in different forms

all the way

through this text

and it's a very,

very important verse

and it says this,

pay her back

as she herself

has paid back others,

pay her back

as she has paid back,

she herself

has paid back others,

and so,

what it's doing,

this is showing

the humility

of God's justice,

so God says,

so I make this

complaint to God,

I'm at the justice,

the final throne

of judgment,

I say to God,

come on God,

it's like making me

do calculus too

with all the engineering

students,

okay,

like that's not fair,

and so God says,

okay George,

I'm going to accept

for a moment

that that's not fair,

you know what I'm going

to do?

I'm going to use

George's standard

of judgment

to judge George,

that's all I'm going

to do,

so George,

you just stand here,

I'm just going to replay

a little bit

about when you're driving,

how you evaluate

other drivers,

when you're thinking

of other ministers,

how you evaluate

other ministers,

when you're thinking

of people's spiritual walk,

how you evaluate that,

I'm just going to go

through all these evaluations,

I'm just going to go

through your evaluations,

George,

we'll make a list,

now we're going

to replay your life,

and judge you

by your list,

and I would fail,

because I'm like

every one of you,

I in effect

live my life

like a pagan god,

believing I can

pass judgment

on others,

and I myself

am immune,

and separate

from the judgment

I pass on others

from that ever

being applied to me,

and I don't think

I'm being more evil

or wicked

than anyone here,

God will say that

to every single person,

okay,

I could judge you,

I have every right

to judge you

by my high

exalted standard,

I'll just judge you

by your standard,

my wife and I

at different times

have joked

that we wish

that we'd had

videotaped recordings,

we were the first

in our family,

and the first

in our circle

of friends to marry,

we were the first

in our circle

of friends

to have children,

and for many years

we wish that we

had videotaped

our friends

without children

commenting

on our child-rearing

practices,

so that when

they had children

we could play it

back for them,

and watch them

squirm,

and get red,

and terribly embarrassed,

and for the same

parents who have

this little trusting

two-year-old,

you know,

trusting two-year-olds,

and we have like

a 15-year-old

or a 13-year-old,

and the comments,

well, my child

will never do this,

my teenagers will,

we wish we could

have videotaped that,

and showed it back

to them when their

child turned 13 or 15,

once again,

to watch them squirm,

because the fact

of the matter is

is we pass judgments

all the time,

and don't think

that we ourselves

have to live under it,

and so verse 6 says

that what God

does to Babylon

is God uses

Babylon's standard

of justice

to judge Babylon,

see, that's why

in the book of Romans

and the book of Revelation,

the message is

that God's justice

is so high

and is also so humble

that when I face it,

I will fall short

and I will have

no valid excuse

or rebuttal.

How is God going to

deal with evil?

How is God going to

deal with people

who have never heard

of Jesus?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know all

of the intricacies

of his mercy.

I don't know.

I know what I know

about God.

What I know

with unshakable certainty

is that God is just.

What I know

with unshakable certainty

is that God is merciful,

that he is good.

And what I know

with unshakable certainty

is that if you or I,

when you or I,

stand before God

with all of their humanity,

we will not hear

a single judgment

made by God

on any single human being,

and we will not say

that God was wrong

and that they had,

that there was any excuse

that they could have used.

I have that.

I believe that.

The more I read the Bible,

the more I am completely

and utterly certain

about that.

I'm willing to have speculation.

I'm willing to talk.

But the bottom line is

no one will have an excuse.

That's what the Bible teaches.

Now,

the question then

is

how do we respond

when we get caught?

How do we respond

when we, in a sense,

have to stand before God?

That's one of the things

that really drives the text.

In our own lives,

how do we respond?

I mean,

there's us doing wrong

and nobody catches us at it.

But the really interesting question

in our own lives

is when we get caught out

doing something wrong,

how actually is it

that we're responding to it?

Like,

for a married man

getting caught

watching pornography,

and he gets caught

by maybe his best friend

or by his wife

or daughter or son,

how does he respond

how does he respond

to that?

Is partly

how he responds

is it

not that

is a large part

of his response

grieving,

mourning,

because he's been caught?

is it

because

now

he has

less status

or prestige?

Is he

grieving

and worried

that now

they're going

to put

some type

of control

on the computer

and they won't be able

to watch

the pornography game?

Or is he

grieving

because what

he's done

is truly wrong?

And there's

many,

many,

many,

many areas

in our lives

where that type

of question,

it's a bit

of a subtle question,

but it's a very,

very profound

difference,

and it's this

very question

which the Bible

text here

now presses

in on,

that after

Babylon

is judged,

even by its

own standards,

what's the

response to this?

Like,

how is the

response working?

And that's

what happens

from verses

9 right

through to

verse 19,

and it's

an important

thing to see

in the text,

and it's an

important thing

for our own

lives,

in terms of

how is it

that God

wants us

to respond

to having

his just

standard

come against

us,

so that we

realize what

that just

standard is,

and it's

sort of revealed.

How is it

that God

wants us

to respond?

Look at how

it works

in the text,

verse 9.

And the kings

of the earth

who committed

sexual immorality,

that's the image

I explained

earlier,

and lived in

luxury with

Babylon,

will weep and

wail over her

when they see

the smoke of

her burning.

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.

And the

merchants of

the earth

weep and

mourn for

her,

since no one

buys their

cargo anymore,

cargo of gold

and jewels,

and it keeps

going,

and the real,

if you sort of

skim through them

to the end of

verse 13,

sheep and

cattle and

sheep and

horses and

chariots and

slaves,

that is human

souls,

there's a bit

of a pause,

this is a

profound critique

of slavery.

It's a profound

critique of the

slave labor that

still exists in

many parts of

the Muslim world,

there's a profound

critique of

slavery that

exists in

China,

an atheistic

government,

that still has

slave labor,

it is a profound

critique of

the sex trafficking

which is a

very common

form of

slavery in

our modern

world,

women made

virtually to

live as

slaves to

give sexual

favors to

men for

the money of

the men who

own these

women as

chattel,

for the

child labor

that exists in

many parts of

the world,

people,

it's a form

of slavery

and this is a

profound

rebuke.

And it's

specifically designed

in the text,

okay,

the person,

he has a dog,

he has a cow,

he has a horse,

he has an oxen,

he has Joe,

and it's just

for the slave

owner,

there's no

difference,

the dog,

the oxen,

the horse,

the cow,

Joe,

Sally,

Betty,

and the text

says human.

Human soul,

it's a profound,

profound critique

of the institution

of slavery.

And then look how

it goes in verse

14,

the fruit for which

your soul longed

has gone from

you,

and all your

delicacies and

your splendors are

lost to you,

never to be found

again.

The merchants of

these wares who

gain wealth from

her will stand

far off in fear

of her torment,

weeping and

mourning aloud,

alas,

alas,

for the great

city that was

clothed in fine

linen and

purple and

scarlet,

adorned with

gold,

with jewels

and with

pearls,

for a single,

in a single

hour all this

wealth has

been laid

waste.

And we'll

just sort of

pause there.

You see what

they're longing

in their

mourning?

It's as if

these merchants

are saying,

oh,

Babylon's

destroyed,

all the gold,

remember all the

gold we used

to have?

I'm going to

miss that gold.

Oh,

the great

meals,

all the

great meals

destroyed,

I'm going to

miss that.

Oh,

the slaves,

all the

slaves I

owned,

I'm going

to miss

it.

What you

see in the

response to

Babylon's

judgment,

and the

text is,

the implication

in the text

is that they

recognize that

the suddenness

of Babylon's

judgment and

doom indicates

that something,

someone like

God has been

at work,

and they

see this,

and they

know this,

but what

characterizes

their grieving

is that their

grieving is

self-centered,

that their

grieving consists

of hiding

from God,

their grieving

consists of

wishing that

the pleasure

that they had

will return.

The grieving

they have is

that they grieve

that they've

lost their

status and

their power

and their

prestige,

but none

of them

says,

what was I

thinking

owning a

slave?

What was I

thinking

exploiting my

workers?

What was I

thinking

using my

power to

force people

to sell

things to me

really cheap

that I could

sell them

for a huge

profit?

What on

earth was I

thinking?

Never enters

their head.

Here's the

point.

Put it up,

Andrew.

there is a

godly grief

that leads

to life

and a

worldly

grief that

leads to

death.

There is a

godly grief

that leads

to life

and a

worldly

grief that

leads to

death.

And what we

see here,

we see it

with the

kings,

we see it

with the

merchants,

and we see

it with

the sailors,

which I

won't bother

reading,

is that in

every case,

they're not

actually

concerned that

what they've

done is

wrong.

And their

reaction to

God revealing

himself and

revealing the

wrong is to

hide or to

flee, in a

sense to

retrench and

get more

resources and

more power.

Isn't that

often how it

works with the

powerful?

That when

something's about

to be revealed

that's going to

make them look

weak, our

response is not

repentance,

but get

more power.

I'm going to

get in trouble,

I'm going to

get the better

lawyer, I'm

going to

outspend, and

I'm going to

get the better

lawyers to

beat these,

I'm going to

beat the

rap.

I'm going to

use my

skills to

talk my

wife around,

I'm going to

do that, I

don't want to

lose my

power, I

don't want to

lose my

prestige, and

there's a

grieving, there's

a sorrowing,

there's a

worrying about

what's going

on, but it's

not a

repentance based

on an

acknowledgement

that what

was done

was wrong.

It's a

grieving that

leads to

death, and

God wants us

to grieve in

a way that

involves repentance

and turning to

him and saying,

God, I don't

know, what I did

was wrong, I

see that it's

wrong, have you

any mercy for

me?

Can I be

relieved or

delivered from

this?

It's the

difference between

a man caught

watching pornography

who now spends

all his time

trying to figure

out how to

continue watching

pornography,

or the man who

says, I have a

problem, and I

want to amend my

life, God.

I want to amend

my life.

The Bible

here portrays

that there is a

choice that we

have between a

godly grief that

leads to life and

a worldly grief that

leads to death.

What is God's heart

for you and me?

What is his hope?

Next point.

What is God's hope

for me and you?

Choose life.

What is God's hope

for me and you?

Choose life.

Choose life.

Choose life.

The cry of the

Old Testament, the

cry of the New

Testament, choose

life.

Choosing God is

choosing life.

Choosing repentance

is choosing life.

Now, some of you

might say, George,

here's the problem,

George.

Okay, you're talking

about sin and all

that type of stuff,

and you know, it

just sounds a little

bit like what you're

just saying is, you

know, the grovel,

grovel, grovel,

grovel, rules,

rules, rules, rules,

you know, sorry,

sorry, sorry,

sorry, maya culpa,

maya culpa,

maya culpa.

And you know,

George, if that's

just, like I can

sort of see how

people turn their

back on us.

I can see how

people say, let's

just live and let

live.

What's with all

this breast

beating?

I can see why

people want to be

spiritual and not

religious, because

religion just seems

to be about, first

we make a whole

pile of rules, then

we make a whole

pile of loopholes

to the rules, and

then if we get

caught breaking the

rules, well, we

either just sort of

say forget about it

and do something

completely and utterly

different, or,

you know, where we

just deal with the

shame.

The Bible here in

the text shows us a

profound option.

We, in our world, we

tend to think that the

only options are being

highly religious, which

is going to involve a

lot of beating of our

breast and groveling,

or just basically doing

what we want, and

those are the two

options.

spirituality being sort

of close to doing

what you want, but

with some different

types of rules than

religious people, and

those are the two

options.

And the Bible here

gives us a completely

and utterly different

option.

And it was earlier on

in the text, it's

verse 6, verse 6,

sorry, not verse 6,

it's verse 4.

Then I heard another

voice from heaven

saying, come out of

her my people.

Then I heard another

voice from heaven

saying, come out of

her my people.

Then I heard another

voice from heaven

saying, come out of

her my people.

The difference between

religion and being

completely and utterly

just, who cares about

right and wrong, just

going to live and let

live, just going to do

whatever I want.

Those aren't the two

options.

The option is that

God, out of grace and

love, calls you.

Calls me to a new

life.

He calls me.

One of the great

images in the New

Testament of what

Jesus does for us is

the Bible never

portrays that there's

all these Christians

who never do anything

wrong because we're

very good at playing

religious games.

And on the other

hand, there are all

these other people who

don't know how to play

all the religious games

and all the religious

rules.

We don't know when to

raise our hands.

We don't know when to

clap.

We don't know when to

bow.

We don't know how to

say all the words.

We can't keep straight

all that stuff.

The Bible doesn't say

that those are the two

options.

The Bible says that

every single one of us

is in a sense a citizen

of Babylon.

And that what happens

on the cross is that

God who sees our

weakness and our love

for Babylon and our

inability to face what

it is that we've done

wrong.

And God sees us in

Babylon and he sends

his son to die upon

the cross so that the

justice and the doom

that I deserve, the

judgment that I will not

be able to withstand

even under George's

rules, that that will

fall on Jesus.

That will fall on him

in my stead.

And he calls to George

in Babylon and he says

to me, George in

Babylon, I want you

to be my people.

Come to me.

Come to Jesus.

In your place,

condemned, he stood.

The call here is not

to the religious.

It's not to the people

who do not need Jesus.

The call is to the

citizens of Babylon.

That when we put our

faith and trust in Jesus,