Well, hello, good morning, everyone. It's a small group like it usually is right around 930, but I'm sure we'll multiply here. You're with me for two weeks. I'm Alex, that's why I haven't met you. We're gonna continue in Revelation chapter 18 today. Maybe get through the chapter by the end of next week, but we'll see. To be determined. For now, you can go ahead and flip to Revelation 18, and then Jeremy, would you pray to open us? And thank you for another opportunity to gather here together as a people, Lord, around your word. And just thank you for this opportunity, God, to go to the Book of Revelation, which we have a promise, Lord, for those who study it. We're blessed, Lord. We just ask, God, that you would bless us this morning, God, as we submit ourselves to your word, as we commit to your teaching, Lord, and desire for our minds to be renewed, for us just to grow in our understanding, God, of the fact that Christ is our Lord and our Redeemer and our King. That His kingdom is the one that who endures, which endures. And that in Him we have eternal life and we have eternal hope and eternal joy. And that His kingdom will reign. And we just thank you for the truth of that. This great testimony, God, we would be with Alex, God, as he seeks you. to teach us from your word. I pray that you bless him, God, as he seeks to do that. And I pray that you would encourage our hearts and our minds as we listen to the Bible we pray. Bless our time together, may you please, the Bible we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Jeremy. Yeah, so again, Revelation 18, we are going to be going from verses 4 through 8 today. And then, as I said, we'll see how far we get next week. But for today, I wanted to start very quickly by refreshing what Steve talked about last week. Steve only covered three verses, but there's sort of a main idea that he talked about that kind of permeates itself through the chapter. Does anyone remember those two main words? What's the main theme of Revelation 18? What are God's people supposed to do? Two words, come out, exactly. And as Steve showed us, this is not exclusive to Revelation, right? This idea of God's people coming out of the world, it's in the whole Bible. It starts back in Genesis chapter one, even, and it's a very recurring theme. And that was super helpful, I think, to look at this idea. Because what we see here is as bold and as vibrant as this language is, it's talking about some very extreme things and some sacrifices that we have to make in the Christian life. This isn't a new thing. This is always how God's people have had to live. And I think that's just a refreshing reminder and just a good starting point for our time together. So we really have looked at the what of this chapter. What are God's people supposed to do? They're supposed to come out of Babylon. So for the next two weeks, I want to focus on the how and the why. So what, how, and why. What does it mean to come out of Babylon? How does that practically work itself out? And why is that something that we've been called to do? So there's going to be some overlap with those three, but mostly next week we're going to look at the how. And today we're going to look at the why. So we're going to think a little bit about what actually the command is here. Why is this something that we're called to do? How does it affect our lives? What's God saying in this passage? So I just want to start off with a discussion, a table discussion, just to sort of get the ball rolling here. Here's a question. What is it about the world that can be attractive to people? What are the things of the world that can distract us? And why are they enticing? So if we're thinking about why we have to escape the world, what is it, just to set the stage, that attracts us to the world? What pulls does the world have on our life? So take a couple minutes, just talk with your table. What are the things that the world has? We might find attractive. What are things the world seems to offer us? The world has many things to offer, and they could be our pride, the gratification of the things of the world, and we talked about how the world gives us an opportunity to not have to change, and holding on to things that we think are Highly valuable when in actuality, following Christ, you get something far better in this life and in life to come. Absolutely, yeah, the world caters to our pride, absolutely. It caters to this idea that we're in charge, that we have control over everything that goes on around us. And it's very comfortable and it's very attractive because we're not accountable to anyone when we just live in the world. We get to do whatever we want to do and that's it. Obviously, in scripture, we know that God is in charge and we're accountable to him. The world is very deceptive in that way. But if we're thinking very short-sightedly, It can be easy to see why people are drawn to it. Anything else? Anyone else want to toss something in? Awesome. Then let's go ahead and just read our passage for today. We're covering four to eight, but let's go ahead and go back to verse one. Steve, would you just read that for us? Revelation 18, one through eight. Sure. Revelation 18, one to eight. 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 the 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. 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 all her deeds. Mix a double portion for her in the cup she has 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. Death and mourning and famine, sorry, yep. Let me get the right. And she will be burned up with fire, for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her. some heavy stuff, right? This is a very vivid picture of the judgment of the world. And as Steve talked about last week, this is everywhere all around us. This is the future for the world that we live in. God will come in judgment and measure out justice according to all the sins that have been committed in it. And so the call for the people of God is to come out of that situation, to escape the pull of the world, And as I mentioned today, we're thinking about the why. Why is that the command given to the people of God? So I think there are kind of two ways we can answer that question. The first is just an illustration that I'm going to use. It's a quote from C.S. Lewis. I think it's really cool. I think it's very powerful. So I'm just going to read it to you. This is C.S. Lewis talking about just the idea of us being separated from the world. He says, we are far too easily pleased. We are weak creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition, and we so often neglect the infinite joy that is offered us. We are like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slums because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation out at sea. And I love that image because what it really captures is this idea that the world has something that we think is attractive. This idea of making mud pies in the slums, it's just something that occupies us. Oh, the microphone, that probably sounded terrible on the recording, sorry. There's this idea that the world has something that offers us, but in comparison to living with Christ, in comparison to the glory of God, That's compared to a vacation out at sea. And really the things of the world, they pale in comparison, don't they? I just love the way he puts that. It helps us frame the right perspective. And I think that's absolutely going on in the book of Revelation. We see that all throughout the book with the glory of Christ and him reigning in the throne room of heaven and the future coming kingdom in Revelation 21 and 22, all these things. They paint a beautiful picture to give us proper perspective and context of why are we so attracted to the world. The world isn't nearly as attractive as we think it is. That's an excellent motivator for us to come out of the world. We're going to explore that more next week when we talk about how we actually put this into practice. Today, I think there's a second response that we can have, a second motivator for why we should come out of the world. So I'm sort of going to modify C.S. Lewis' illustration. I'm going to expand on it a little bit. Let's imagine that you are offered a vacation out at sea. And for the sake of this illustration, that represents what the world is offering us, right? You're offered this vacation out at sea. It's all inclusive. It's going to be this massive trip across the Atlantic Ocean. There's this amazing cruise ship that has all the amenities that you think you could ever want. It's got a swimming pool. It's got fine dining. It's got live music. It's got everything that you think you would need to have a wonderful trip. And the world, by and large is going to take you up on that offer, right? They're going to accept that offer because it's so enticing to them. It's what they think they want. If someone handed you that ticket, would it change your mind if the name of the boat was the Titanic? I think so. I mean, we're not going to have a time machine. We're not going to travel back in time and go on the Titanic. But if I see maybe Titanic Two written on there or something like that, I think that would be a motivator for me to second guess myself or to actually think about what might happen if I get on this ship. That's kind of what I see going on here in Revelation 18. Despite how attractive we might think the world is, we know what's going to happen to it. We know that that ship is going to end up at the bottom of the ocean. It makes one voyage. It really makes half a voyage. If you're getting on that ship, you're not coming back. And that's kind of the image that John is painting here in Revelation, is that the world, Babylon, all the attractive things that we think it offers, it's going to lead us in a disastrous place if we decide to jump on board and to see where it takes us. It's not going to be a happy ending. So let's go ahead and look at a couple other verses that sort of explore this idea of the judgment that is coming to the world, because this is kind of a tricky thing for us to wrestle with sometimes. I thought God was supposed to be loving. I thought he was supposed to be merciful. Why is it that he's going to judge the world? That's sort of the idea we're going to explore now. So I would like three people to read. Michael, can you get Exodus 36, sorry, 34, verses 6 through 7. It's probably one we know well. Jill, would you like to read? Sure. Nehemiah 9, verses 16 through 21. Jerry Butterworth, can you read Psalm 103, verses 8 through 12? So these verses, they all sort of have this balance between the judgment that God is bringing on the world and the fact that God is a merciful and loving God. So we're gonna listen to these and then we're gonna process how does that reconcile with what we read here in Revelation. So Michael, Exodus 34. Yes, please. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord of God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faith and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. Yeah, so It really has these two ideas in it, doesn't it? It's God's revelation of himself, and he says that he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and at the same time, he will by no means clear the guilty. He won't leave the wicked unpunished. There's this dichotomy, isn't there, of the fact that God is patient, and he cares about people, and there's judgment if we transgress. Jill, would you go ahead and read for us Nehemiah? Nehemiah 9, 16 to 21. But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them. But they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God, ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, this is your God who brought you out of Egypt and had committed great blasphemies. You, in your great mercies, did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. Awesome, so yeah, again, it's this picture, right, of God's people being shown mercy and forgiveness. They could have been judged because they transgressed God and instead God was patient with them and he expressed his steadfast love and forgiveness in the way that he treated them in the wilderness. One more, Psalm 103, Jerry. Eight to 12, please. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. He does not deal with us according to our sins. So back here in Revelation, verse four, I hear 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. So table discussion two, here's the question. Why do we think it's important that there's a final judgment? If God has been so merciful to people and nations in the past, and if he has forgiven their sins, and if he showed patience, why doesn't he just do it forever? Why is there necessarily a final judgment? Why is that a good thing? So talk about that. Just wrestle with that tension and your tables for a couple minutes. Why doesn't he keep on forgiving us forever? Let's go corner table. What do you guys think? One of which is that it's really the motivation for us to live a Godly life of the concern over the So it really brings to a climax our ongoing struggles, but it also announces the beginning of our everlasting new life. It's really good stuff. Yeah, it made me think of Romans 2. Romans 2, it says, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourselves, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Absolutely, I think that's a perfect idea, right? That God is patient with us so that we might be reconciled to Him. I love it. Anything else? What about the other corner table? What do you guys say? The world doesn't see, they just see the God of love. They don't see God's judgment or His patience. We talked about the time of the flood, the end of time, but their thoughts were evil all the time. Sooner or later, God's going to deal with sin. He's going to take it, and our time is going to be good. He is. And here in Revelation, we kind of get a picture of what that looks like. Sort of what's happening here is we're being offered this ticket to the Titanic, right? And the world is touting how amazing this journey is going to be. It's showing us all the things that are on board. And something that we can use to fight against that is seeing how disastrous it's going to be when it all falls down, right? That's sort of the image that's being painted here. the city of Babylon, this woman that's portrayed as a harlot, just this idea of it all falling apart, it all unraveling, this final judgment coming. If we see how real and how impending and how complete that is, then that would make us want to come out of that life. So let's go ahead and look now back at verse six and the first part of seven. It says, 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. I think there's a Psalm that really captures the imagery here. So Joe, would you read for us Psalm 75? All right. Let's listen to just what this says and pay special attention to the words about the cup and about judgment, mixing a portion, this idea of judgment on the enemies of God. Psalm 75, Joe. Psalm 75, to the choir master, according to Do Not Destroy, the Psalm of Asaph, a psalm. We give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. At the set time that I appoint, I will judge with equity. When the earth totters and all its inhabitants, it is I who keeps steady its pillars. I say to the boastful, do not boast, and to the wicked, do not lift up your horn. Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with haughty neck. For not from the east or from the west, and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. but I will declare it forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. The image, right, is this foaming concoction that God has in his hand, and it represents all the evil, all the wicked that the people of the earth have done. And judgment looks like God pouring that out on the world and saying, hey, this is what you deserve. Drink it to the dregs, this toxic concoction. It's what you got coming. And it's a really sober image, right, of what it looks like to be paid back for our sins. Because if we look at the world and if we think about all the things that it seems to offer us, there's a lot that the world seems to get away with, right? There's a lot of things that go on in the world that are very normalized that we as Christians know shouldn't be that way, that we know breaks God's heart. I'm sure you could come up with a list very quick off the top of your head of things that are just wrong about the way the world is, things that need accounted for. And we have a promise here in Revelation that they will be, that it will be done and it will be done justly. Pay her back as she has paid back others. The world is so quick to point fingers and to exact vengeance on people, but it never holds itself accountable. But that standard that it uses is going to be applied back to itself because God has been waiting, he has been storing up the wrath, and he has been prepared to pour it out. Of course we know that that doesn't happen for everyone, right? That there is grace for us, that there is mercy for us, that there's forgiveness for us, that we don't have to face the wrath of God. And if you think back to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, right, what's the thing that he prays for God to do? He prays it three times, he says, Lord, If you be willing, take this cup from me, right? Paul expands on this idea in his epistles. Jesus seems to be talking about the wrath of God. The wrath of God, this cup that Joe just read about, is gonna be poured out on Jesus instead. And he knows the weight of that. He knows what it's gonna bring to his soul if he has to face the judgment of God. And so he pleads with the Lord, if it be his will, to not let it pour out on him. That's a great question, right? So what Eric is saying here in verse 6, pay her back as she has paid back others. That seems to be equal retribution, right? And then he goes on and says repay her double for her deeds. The commentator that I was reading, he has an idea, and I think it's probably a pretty good idea. I'm not a Greek expert, so I don't really know. But basically what he's saying is this double sort of refers to the idea of twofold. That it's not that he's being paid, you're not being punished twice for what you're doing, but you're being punished for two different things. So if you look down a little bit at the start of verse seven, what's the two things that the woman of Babylon has done? She has glorified herself, and she has lived in luxury. And so if you're gonna pay back what she has done, if you're gonna repay her, if you're gonna be just, you're gonna punish those two things, right? You're going to give her a like measure of torment, it's the first one, and mourning is the second one. So it's this kind of complete two-dimensional aspect. Everything that this woman has done is being accounted for, it's being just, it's being repaid. That's sort of the idea there. Hopefully that's helpful. But let's go ahead and segue into another discussion here. As we think about Christ suffering on the cross and taking our sins for us, just anecdotally, anything in your life, I just want to have the floor open at your tables, I guess. How have you personally grown to appreciate the justice of God in light of his mercy towards you? So if you think about what Christ has done in the cross, in your life in particular, how does that make you appreciate God's justice and his mercy more? really gonna share with the class. We're not gonna toss these around, but feel free to pull someone aside after and just hear about how God's worked in their lives. This is always edifying to hear, so you're welcome to do this after hours. But let's go ahead and go back and just finish up what we're reading here in verses seven and eight. God is going to do this, but how does the woman of Babylon feel about it? Halfway through verse seven. 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. Back when the Titanic was actually being constructed, The original one. There were a lot of people who were pretty sure that it was an unsinkable ship. And they expressed that in a lot of different ways. And there was one passenger who sort of has an, I guess, an infamous quote at this point. And he said, God himself could not sink that ship. God absolutely can sink that ship. And God can sink Babylon too. God can sink the world. God is powerful. We know he is mighty. And I just want to read a couple of verses that remind us of that. Because when we're faced with the world and all the things that we think it has to offer, we need reminded of who God is and God's power and his control. and his promise to judge the wicked things of the world. So we're just going to read a couple more verses here. We're going to have one final discussion, and we're going to wrap up. Let's see. Ben, can you read Colossians 1, 15 through 18? Danny, would you read Proverbs 21.1? Someone else who doesn't read. Robert, could you get Isaiah 45? verses 5 through 7. And then Treva, could you do Genesis chapter 11, verses 4 through 6. Anyone need a reminder? You know what you got? Go ahead. the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. God can sink a ship, can't he? Can't he? That's a crazy sentence that I just made up. God is preeminent. Christ holds the whole universe together. He can do whatever he pleases. Amen. Proverbs 21.1, Danny. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. Yeah, not only is God in control of things, he's sovereign over people too. There's nothing that the world thinks it can do that God doesn't have control over. Isaiah 45, verses 5 through 7. Robert, once Steve gets the mic, go ahead. I am the Lord, and there is no other. Besides me, there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. Shower, oh, heavens from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness. Let the earth open that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit. Let the earth cause them both to sprout. I, the Lord, have created it. Awesome. Yeah, these really just prove, and there's plenty other verses, that God is in control and he can do whatever he pleases. He is sovereign and he reigns and there's nothing the world can do to thwart that. And it tries and it tries and it tries to ignore that fact. And it buries its head in the sand and it just lives the life that it wants to live. And so let's look one more time at the original example of this. Treva, you've got the Tower of Babel, the first Babylon, right? This is what they tried to do in verses four to six. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, behold, they are one people and they have all one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. And so we can sit here and we can hear passages like that and verses like that and we can say, well, there's no way that I would ever fall for it. There's no way that I would ever be attracted or lured by the world. There's no way that this could ever grab a hold of my heart. And I wish that were true. But we live a long life and we can go through seasons of hardship, seasons of temptation, seasons of despair, whatever it is. And there's times when the world can just seem attractive to us, or things of the world that we feel like we can compromise with. And we need to remind ourselves that that is not what we've been called to do. So again, next week, we're gonna look at the how. But I just wanna finish this up by reading from Matthew 13. This is Jesus with the parable of the seeds. It's a very iconic passage. I'm gonna start in verse 18 of Matthew 13. He says, hear then the parable of the sower, When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on count of the word, he immediately falls away. Here's a key verse for us. Verse 22, as for what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another 60 and in another 30. And so with that reminder that we can be caught up by the world and that there are people who get led astray by the things of the world, our final table discussion, what have you learned so far from the book of Revelation, or maybe the Bible as a whole, but specifically Revelation, that gives you motivation to come out of the world? What have you learned that gives you fuel to fight the temptations of the world? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.