You know, I have to tell you that I am in no way an economist. When daily financial reports come on the news program that I happen to be watching, I usually take a break and either grab something and read it, or I'll get up and I'll do a different activity. But as naive as I am about economic concerns, I've had my eyebrows raised a time or two in recent years because of the near economic collapses that we have experienced in our country. My parents and my grandparents would tell me stories of what it was like for them in living through the aftermath and in the midst of the Great Depression here in America. Boy, what a frightful time. What a time of tremendous uncertainty those days were. Movies and books and television programs have depicted scenes of just the uncertainty and the hopelessness that make me shudder. It makes me hope that that would never happen again. But apparently, We came very close in 2007. In 2007, that stock market trouble, also known as the bank loan crisis, where it was the beginning phase of what became the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression happened. U.S. lenders had issued a large number of risky loans, primarily home loans, to borrowers who had poor credit. Many of them had defaulted on their loans, causing the banks and the financial institutions to plummet. World banks, world commerce suffered heavy losses. People lost confidence in stocks and in financial institutions. But then, 13 years later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. And it had an even greater, massive, far-reaching impact on world commerce. No longer was the bank loan crisis the worst threat of an entire economic collapse since the Great Depression. Now, it was the financial crisis brought on by the pandemic. Whenever the economy and the entire system of commerce threatens to fall to pieces, even as someone as economically naive as me, I feel unsettled and disturbed. What's going to happen to my life as I know it? We've all worked so hard to be able to maintain the life of abundance and provision and the comfort levels that we enjoy. So my sense of security gets shaken. More than not being able to buy gasoline and drive my vehicle wherever I need to go, I'm far less certain whether or not my family and I will be able to have food, clothing, shelter, Am I gonna be out in the forest somewhere without heat and electricity and medical supplies and forced to eat whatever wild prey I can catch with my own two hands? Take an honest look. Don't allow what you know ought to be true Don't allow that to keep you from acknowledging what actually is true here with this question I'm gonna ask. Have we constructed a sense of security that is more based on the current system of commerce and economy? In other words, What we have accomplished through the world's operating system, if we develop more security from that than on God, which is where we know our sense of security should be primarily sourced. Does your sense of security come more from our system of commerce and the economy than God? I have little interest in reading stock market reports, but I have to admit that this dependence can be my tendency. What about you? It's why I have such a fear of living through another Great Depression like my parents and grandparents did. And its passages, like the one that we come to today in Revelation chapter 18. that drives me to ask God to forgive me and to help me to see that this unstable world system is not really where my security is sourced. Now, don't get me wrong, please. I am not suggesting that it is wrong for us to participate in the aspects of commerce like the stock market and banking. That's not at all my point here. It's only wrong when it gets so bad as we begin attempting to use it as the primary means for our living. And it's wrong whenever God asks us, and we know he has asked us to do something, but we refuse to do it because it might diminish our source of income. Then it's a problem. So often, people in our society are using commerce to try to live without God in their life. And we're well on that path ourselves when we start behaving that, oh, I can't do what you're asking me to do, God, because I need my job. People are living. Trying to live? I don't need God, I can provide for myself. No, you can't. Dependency on commerce is a false dependency. So is dependency on government to provide all your needs, and so is dependency on man-made religion. I don't like the God of the Bible, so I will construct a God of my own liking. Now we are in a section of Revelation where we are showing, God is showing mankind that each of these attempts to live on this foolish dependency on something other than him is futile. Life that tries to shut God out, live without Him, reject Him for our own self-efforts, will not work. Last week, we saw this through the destruction of man-made religion in Revelation chapter 17. Today, we will see it through the destruction of man's attempt to live without God through an inadequate dependence on commerce and government. All three of these elements, man-made government, commerce, and religion, are what Revelation refers to as Babylon. Babylon is the world's system to live without God. But just so we are clear, I want to say I happen to believe that Babylon was a physical, literal city built on the plains of Shinar, which is modern-day Iraq. I also happen to believe that this city is going to be rebuilt and it will become prominent in world commerce and it will be the capital from which the Antichrist will rule with 10 kings, his cronies. A lot of evangelical theologians who I admire, who I learn a lot from, don't believe that the revelation Babylon is a physical city. They don't believe it's physical and it's going to be rebuilt. They see Babylon and Revelation as simply symbolical, representing man's attempt to live without God in their life. Now, they might be right. That might be the case. But because it is such an important question in this passage that we come to, and we see the destruction of Babylon today, I want to give you my reasons why I think it is going to be both a literal city that's going to be rebuilt, and it also represents world commerce and government, as well as what we saw last week, man-made religion. Now my belief that Babylon will be rebuilt physical city, it's based on scriptures like Zechariah 5, verses 5 through 11. Let me just kind of paraphrase it for you. It's in the midst of a whole bunch of prophecies, and this one is about this basket that when the lid is taken off, a woman that is described is very much like the woman we saw last week in Revelation 17. It's a woman who has given out her wine and the nations have become drunk from it and so forth. And so I see it as pertaining here to what we are studying in Revelation here. This woman that's in this basket, the lid of the basket gets pressed down on it firmly and these two beings that have the wings of storks, which are unclean animals in Jewish literature, these beings with these wings of storks pick up the basket and they fly off with it to the land of Shinar. What's that? Babylon. They fly off to the land of Shinar and it says where a home will be built for it, a place it says, a place will be built for it. Okay, now that to me sounds very much like the city's going to be rebuilt where all of these things, the place, all of this evil, this place will be built for it is what it's saying. That to me testifies that it's probably going to be a physical city. Now two weeks ago when I preached on the Armageddon campaign, I mentioned that, and I read from four chapters in Jeremiah and Isaiah, Jeremiah 50 and chapter 51, Isaiah 13 and chapter 14, that these are only some of the many passages that are concerned with Babylon's future destruction. Revelation 18 is not the only place that the Bible is talking about the fall of Babylon. Today we're going to see it in Revelation 18. We're going to read about the collapse of Babylon. What I believe is the physical city and the world's economic system. In one single day it falls. The Dow Jones and every economic measurement will go in an instant to zero and never rise above that again. It will be just as if the entire city of New York today, or maybe London, or Tokyo, or Singapore, burned entirely to the ground. the world's economy would be devastated because these places are centers of the world's economy. But Zechariah 5, verses 5 through 11, seem to be indicating that all of this is going to be placed in one basket and located in one place that will be built on the plains of Shinar. So when it falls, The world's economy, of course, will fall. Well, let's start our reading now of our passage, Revelation chapter 18, verses one through three, and this is the way it reads. 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 haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. 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. After John had the vision of man-made religion, the harlot being destroyed, which was a subject of last week's passage in Revelation 17, John here has another vision. The repetition of fallen, fallen in verse two gives a very special emphasis of this event. We already know that this is very significant because as I pointed out two weeks ago, the fall of Babylon is mentioned in over 40 passages of both the Older and the Newer Testaments. It is a major theme of Scripture. God does not want any of us to depend on other things apart from him. He will take away man's attempt to live without him. Now, finally, at the end of his holy word, here in Revelation 18, we see human government and commerce are decisively removed. Fallen, fallen at long last. Now all that will be left is the establishment of God's kingdom and mankind's rightful total dependence on it. Every time I pray the Lord's Prayer, and I pray it daily, I'm praying for this significant scriptural event. Hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Babylon must fall in order for this to happen. No wonder there is such an emphasis of it throughout the Bible. But there is another reason why the fall of Babylon is so important. And that reason is because the return of the Jews as God's people is so closely tied to the fall of Babylon. God is bringing the Jews who rejected Jesus Messiah back to himself. First, let me show you once again a clear Old Testament prophecy that declares God is going to redeem his people, the Jews, to himself. And then I will relate some scriptures that tell of the fall of Babylon and how it relates to the Jews returning to God. There is all kinds of passages I could show you in Zechariah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. All of these have a lot to say about God's people coming back to him. But here is just one of the many passages that clearly show us that the Jews will return to God and will recognize Jesus as their Messiah. This is found in Zechariah 12, verse 10. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weeps bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn. Now mind you, Zechariah 12, 10 here is written surrounded by verses that go on and on into chapter 13, speaking of Israel coming back to the Lord and putting away idols forever. That's never happened yet, but it will. That's why I know it's dealing with end times prophecy. All of this is going to happen one day. They will recognize Jesus who they pierced and will deeply mourn. They will return to God and they will put away all of their falsehoods forever. And Babylon's fall is going to play a part in this. Now, I would like to return to another passage I showed you two weeks ago. We'll just briefly take a little bit of time again. Because Revelation 18 is gonna be speaking of this again. God is going to warn the Jews who have probably been influenced by the 144,000 witnesses that we saw in Revelation 7, and the two powerful witnesses in Jerusalem that Revelation 11 speaks of. They're gonna be influenced by them. God's gonna warn them to flee Babylon just before it's destroyed. He tells them to go and proclaim in Jerusalem how they have been mercifully spared. And you know what? They do. They will do that. And that's gonna play a part in the Jews returning to the Lord. Here's Jeremiah 50, verse 8, and then Jeremiah 51, verses 6 through 10. Here he's prophesying this. Flee from Babylon, free from the midst of Babylon, and go to the land of the Chaldeans. Go out of the land of the Chaldeans. And be as male goats before the flock. Okay, it goes on, but I'm trying to give some of these that speak of it real clear here. Here's another one I think is very clear. Jeremiah 51, six through 10. From the midst of Babylon, let everyone save his life. Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance, the repayment he is rendering to her. Now, I'm gonna stop just real briefly here and just say this. This didn't happen when the Jews were held captive in Babylon. Remember just before they went back and reestablished the temple and everything? No, this is still yet future, okay? Because this didn't happen. This prophecy wasn't fulfilled then, but it will be. But it will be. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunken. The nations drank of her wine, therefore the nations went mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken. Wail for her, take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she would not. She was not healed. Forsake her and let us go each to his own country for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up to the skies. The Lord has brought about our vindication. Let us declare in Zion, that's Jerusalem, the work of the Lord our God. Okay, so we know that this is an event that's spoken of, as I said, it's more than 40 times throughout scripture, the fall of Babylon, and much of this hasn't happened yet, so it is still yet future. I want you to see now how it is picked up in our passage that we're studying through in Revelation. Revelation 18. Let's now return where we left off with verse 4 through 8 now. Revelation 18, 4 through 8. Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. For her sins are heaped high as heaven. And God has remembered her iniquities. 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. 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. I am no widow, and mourning 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." Now, what we've read here is most likely the voice of God himself calling his tribulation saints from the city and to go and to tell their Jewish kinsmen in Jerusalem about God's merciful action in saving them. Perhaps they will flee and they'll go into Jerusalem and they're gonna show people such passages like what we just read here. The evidence that God has left for them for thousands of years. Maybe they'll be saying, look how merciful God gave us such accurate prophecy thousands of years before to warn us. He is real, folks. We can't deny it. Oh, and here's another. Take a look at Zechariah 12.10. And since I have your attention, look with me at Isaiah 53. The fall of Babylon, and God's warning about it, is going to get Israel's attention. Babylon will seem so secure, so untouchable, unsinkable, just like the Titanic. So when it falls and prophecy shows that God had predicted it, God's gonna have the attention of his people. In verse six, God calls for Babylon's sins to be paid back double according to her deeds. And I must confess, I gasped a little at this. Maybe you did too. At first glance, it doesn't seem very godlike. He tells you and I that we are to forgive anyone who does us wrong. Taking vengeance, he tells us, is not what we are to do. Even the Old Testament law, what does it say? It says, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, Not two eyes for one eye, not two teeth for one tooth. But God here is talking about paying back double. Okay, first, in Romans 12, 19, we are indeed told that we are not to take our own vengeance. But the rest of the verse goes on to say, leave room for the wrath of God. And this is Revelation 18. It is the wrath of God. We are never told to give up our desire for justice. We are told to leave it in the hands of the only one who knows what true justice is, God himself. And what God wrote in his Old Testament law was holding men back whose angry actions were often skewing justice. Okay, you took my eye, I'm taking both of yours. And so the law says, no, no, no, no, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Angry emotions will often skew true justice. I've always known that this could happen. So I bring this up just in case what just has happened will happen. If you can give me just a second here. We've been having an awful lot of bugs and things to our electronic equipment and so forth. I should not be surprised. We are seeing that God says, let me take my vengeance. And what we're seeing here in Revelation 18, God is taking his vengeance. If you've been hurt deeply, trying to take vengeance yourself is only going to lead to bitterness on your part. Let God settle the score. He's going to do it far more effectively than you. Revelation 18 should encourage each and every one of us that God will have justice prevail. We can leave it in his hands. We don't need to take it in our own. Now our passage today next turns to three groups of mourners over Babylon's fall. And first we see the kings who are in anguish. 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. 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. Their source of wealth and power is now gone. And the same is true of the world's merchants. They're going to mourn deeply as well. And so we pick up with verse 11 and we see the merchants turn now to be in mourning over the loss of this great city of great commerce. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her since no one buys their cargo anymore. cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple, cloth, silk, scarlet cloths, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls. 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 gained 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, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls. For in a single hour, all its wealth has been laid waste. Unsold merchandise is going to be sitting in Amazon warehouses. Walmart warehouses, on docks, on store shelves. You know, before the COVID-19 onset, this would have seemed unthinkable. Who would have ever even thought that this would be possible? We enjoy right now the greatest economy the world has ever known, yet we read here, just in one hour, all of the businesses are gonna be shut down forever. forever. Major chains are going to file for bankruptcy. Online stores are going to go offline. And suddenly there's going to be no ability to buy and sell. Interestingly, did you notice I kind of paused at the point of slaves and human lives? They're not going to be sold any longer. They are mentioned here in this passage as commodities. They will no longer be bought and sold. I've read recently that slavery is more abundant today than it has ever been in world history. That shocked me. I thought, how could this be? But yeah, reading on and reading other articles and so forth, human trafficking is such a tremendous problem. There's received too little attention though. According to the State Department, an estimated 24.9, almost 25 million people have been bought and sold against their will. That number's probably a lot higher because we don't know the untold millions that have been brought across our southern border in recent years. for this very purpose. We just don't know what those numbers are. And then, those who transport the shipments of the merchandise, they're gonna be in such anguish. Revelation 17, following down to verse 20, it says, and all the shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning. What city was like the great city? And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, alas, alas for the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth, for in a single hour she has been laid waste. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her. Well, this group is a little bit different than the previous two, the kings and the merchants. I'm not quite sure why yet, I haven't figured this out, but the first two groups mourned the loss of their political power and their wealth. These transporters, they're mourning because of the loss of Babylon's greatness. What city was like the great city? But I must tell you, I look at this as further evidence to me that it is a physical city that we're dealing with here, not just the world system of commerce, because they're comparing this Babylon with other cities of the world. So the scene of mourning from the shipmasters and these sea-fearing men reminds me of what happened during 9-11. After the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, boats fled from New York Harbor and they watched with horror off at a distance out in the ocean. But 9-11 is only a foretaste of what the fall of Babylon will be like. Now to the end of the chapter, it reads this way. Then a mighty 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 be found no more. And the sound of the harpist and musicians of the flute players and the trumpets will be heard in you no more. And a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more. and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more, and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and the nations were deceived by your sorcery. and in her was found the blood of the prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on earth." What we have been seeing here, being related to us here in Revelation 18 is such a good reminder to us why we should not put our hope in riches. In other words, the economy. Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6, verses 19 through 21. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now let me go back to a question I asked as we initiated our time together in Revelation 18 this morning. Do you feel more secure because your investments of a bank account? Stocks? Real estate property? Or is your primary security coming from your investment in heavenly treasure? If God asks you to do something that puts any of that at risk, would you do it? What is it that you truly value? Worldly wealth is transitory. One day you may have it, and the next day it's gone. Revelation 18 speaks of this and the warnings we have had in recent years due to the banking crisis of 2007, 2008, the COVID-19 pandemic. Proverbs 11.28 warns, whoever trusts in his riches will fall. But the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. Do you notice how those two things are paired? Doing what honors God, what honors him, what he asks us to do, putting him first. These will flourish like the green leaf. But those who continue to put all their hope Their primary sense of security in the world system will not. God will one day make this truth very certain to everyone when we see the literal fulfillment here of what we've read in Revelation 18. But you and I need to know and we need to live by this truth now. today. You see, God wants our primary trust to be in Him, sourced in Him. Would you pray with me?