What Babylon’s Judgment Reveals Pt 1 | Revelation 18:1-24 | Richard Caldwell

Scripture

• Revelation 18:1–24

About this sermon

Introduction: We have seen from the book of Revelation and from other prophetic portions of Scripture, that the final sinful world empire — the empire of antichrist — will consist of three components. It will be a political empire. It will be a commercial empire. It will be a religious empire. Each aspect combining with the others to form a great hoax that is RELIGIOUS at its core. It represents a great lie that serves the great delusion that God sends in His just judgment upon this rebellious world. ESV 2 Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. THE WORLD OF LOST HUMANITY HAS ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT IT CAN ACHIEVE A HEAVEN OF ITS OWN MAKING — A PARADISE ACCORDING TO ITS OWN APPETITES. AND GOD, IN HIS JUST JUDGMENT, WILL ALLOW THE WORLD TO BELIEVE IT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED. All around us, in our own nation, is the evidence that men are constantly striving for a kind of peace, prosperity, and unity, that is DIVORCED from CHRIST, divorced from TRUTH, and divorced from HOLINESS. Its version of heaven is a world freed from God’s presence. Mankind freed from God’s law. Mankind freed from a conscience aware of its guilt. Mankind freed from a certain final judgment upon sin. Mankind freed to run headlong into its own sinfulness. ESV Psalm 2:1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." The last attempt at that false heavenly state on earth will be the empire of antichrist. In the man of lawlessness, in the man of sin, you have THE GREATEST EXAMPLE of every FALSE CHRIST. There are many antichrists now, but there is THE antichrist who is coming (2 Thess 2:3,8). The religious arm of this threefold deception will be destroyed at the midpoint of the tribulation period. Coinciding with the mimicking of the resurrection — a wounded head that is miraculously healed — will be the destruction of the GREAT HARLOT that gained worldwide influence by her association with the beast. SHE MUST BE DESTROYED TO MAKE WAY FOR THE EXCLUSIVE WORSHIP OF THE BEAST. BABYLON THE GREAT WILL THEN TAKES ITS FINAL FORM. What the apostate harlot represented is simply absorbed BY ANTICHRIST HIMSELF. NOTE: God gives us previews of this throughout history. How many times has the apostate church aligned itself with wealth and power, only to be devoured when the politicians and the business men no longer need the harlot? ESV Revelation 13:12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. ESV Revelation 13:15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. ESV 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. The Babylon of our chapter is THAT version of Babylon, and what is especially emphasized is its ECONOMIC SEDUCTION. John MacArthur — “At the midpoint of the Tribulation, Antichrist will destroy the false Babylonian religious system, which will be absorbed into commercial Babylon (cf. the discussion in chap. 12 of this volume). Religion will not cease to exist, but will be restricted to the worship of Antichrist. The Babylon in view in chapter 18 is Antichrist’s worldwide commercial empire, which will rule the world during the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. That Antichrist will be able to build the greatest commercial empire the world has ever known in the midst of the devastating judgments of the Tribulation reveals his incredible power.”

Topics

• Bible Study
• Hell & Judgment
• Prophecy & End Times