Evidence precipitates judgment, and God is saying that. He's saying, I've had my case against the world. I'm going to let things go on long enough so I can collect as many true believers. as I can. from this world by faith.
And once that number is complete, I'm going to end it. And when I end it, I'm not going to forget the evils that were done, not only to my people, but to my will. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
Sorrow of the World is the title of Pastor Rick's message. And today, he'll be teaching in Revelation chapter 18. I don't believe John was a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos in a jail. I believe he was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. and had freedom to move around the island, but not to leave the island.
I think there's enough evidence for that. If that is true, which if I said it it must be, if that is true, then perhaps there was a day that he was down at the docks at the pier and he saw the ships come in and the merchandise being moved from one ship to another, a stage, whatever was going on. It doesn't have to be that way. It just makes it for exciting imagery. Either way, God sees what's going to happen.
And he put it in a language that not only John would understand, but everybody who would read the Revelation in the ancient world would understand. This is the cargo list. It's not meant to be exhaustive, but informative. Trade is going to stop. And when trade stops, look, we fall apart.
when the electricity goes off. We don't want to do it ourselves.
Well, I guess I'll go mow. The point is, man is unable to protect his material wealth against God's judgment. It all belongs to him anyway. These are all created items. from the merchandise to the slaves.
the bodies and souls of men. It was a big fuss today, and it should be. About Slave trading. about enslaving people. and kidnapping them and Selling them is still going on.
and the bodies of the souls of men. People treat it as commodities, not as created beings of God. These are the people that are running the world at this time. the great tribulation period. This is how the world ends.
and its culture with it, verse 14. The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you. And all the things which Are rich and splendid. have gone from you. And you shall find them no more.
Now, this was one of the verses we stood and read just a moment. It is one of the. Kingpin verses of this section. If you are without Christ, let this Word echo in your head. Gone from you, gone from you.
Your judgment will be personal. Mark chapter 4, the cares of this world. The deceitfulness of riches. and the desires for other things. entering in, choked the word.
and it becomes unfruitful. That is to people who have heard the gospel and have allowed the world to cancel it in their own hearts. How much worse will it be for those who are hating God's people and committing atrocities against them?
Now, I should add, Paul late in his writing said, God has given us things for our joy. If you have wealth, it's for our joy, but under the authority of Christ. Not in a malicious way, or an extravagant way, and that is relative, of course. What he's saying here in verse 14, among other things, is they invested in that which was perishable. And in the Greek, where it says rich and splendid, in the Greek, it literally is sumptuous things, glittering things.
the attractive things that men have placed value on. We all like nice things. When those nice things become dictating policy in our life, there's a problem. Verse 15: the merchants of these things. who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her, torment, weeping and wailing, verse sixteen, and saying, Alas, alas that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls Well, if you were a slave In the first century, first and second century, when John published this information.
You would certainly appreciate what was being said here. This would hold your attention, and should hold ours too. They will be detached. From joy all will be gone They will weep over the loss of things. And not their souls.
Verse 17: For in one hour such great riches came to nothing. Every shipmaster, all who traveled by ship sailors, And as many as trade on the sea stood at a distance, verse 18, and cried out. When they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What is like this great city?
Well, in John's day, again, there was trade by ship, but not 85-90% of the world's trade as it is today. That would help understand this is end time information. This is after the industrial age. This is a modern world. They are dumbstruck.
They can't believe. Everything has fallen apart. Will they dare to say the Bible was right? The city of Rome is fifteen miles inland. And in those days virtually all of Rome's wealth came by sea.
Well, I've hit that point enough, how much wealth comes by sea to this day. But why I believe it's literally Rome is discussed in chapters seventeen and even eighteen with the seven heads and the seven hills. As discussed, the resurgence of the ancient Roman Empire, the feet mixed with clay. There's so much biblical symbolism and teachings on this part, I don't find it difficult to understand. But to look at the details Well, the Roman Emperor Constantine He moved his empire from Rome to Constantinople and Turkey.
So there's precedence for a Roman figure, a Western civilization figure. to move his headquarters, to relocate them. And I believe Antichrist will relocate his political and financial center to the Vatican City, and here's why. I believe he takes on The number 666 intentionally. to taunt God.
He's known as the great blasphemer. He's called that straight out. He knows that, look, the whole world, well, in Western civilization, you can go to a co-worker and ask them. What do you know about the number 6, 6, and 6? And they're going to associate it with the devil.
It's really associated with man who's under the authority of the devil. My point is. The world, Western civilization, is very familiar. With six, six, and six. I believe he intentionally takes His Headquarters to the Vatican City because he has trampled out the owners of that city, as we discussed in chapter 17.
Uh I don't want to go back too much in reading reading it Because will just get sidetracked and won't be able to give you other goodies.
So to back this up, Remember He took over the Jewish temple. Jesus said he would do that. When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
Well, what is that all about?
Well, Paul tells us, 2 Thessalonians 2. Again, you teens, understand what you're getting now is predictive prophecy. You're getting the future being told to you, and there's enough evidence to set the stage up in front of you so you know what the next scene is going to be.
So, if you're sitting out in the audience and you see the stage being set and you say, okay, this is going to be a cafe scene, or this is going to be a battlefield scene, you'll be able to tell that. by what's being put in front of you. And that's what the Bible does. And Paul says this about Antichrist, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, that is worshipped so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
So he has this characteristic of taunting God. Why would I not think that his numbers six, six, and six is not totally? Intentional. Why would I be confused? Because we know Babylon, ancient Babylon, apocalyptic Babylon, ends up in Rome, ancient Rome.
Geographically. Why? As I mentioned, he intentionally does these things. Once he tramples the woman that rides the beast, he's going to take the city and the wealth that goes with it. And the world's going to love him for it.
Every visage of Christianity will then be put under his authority. That's how they're going to see it. until Christ comes. which will be shortly after, in an hour. Not 60 minutes.
Verse 18. They threw dust on their heads, they cried and They cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth. For in one hour she is made desolate.
So that repetition, that one hour, that one hour coming up again and again. Is God telling us this is going to happen so fast? They won't know what hit them. And they should. Because I've already wrote about it thousands of years, two thousand so far.
2,500 years before it's happened, almost. This dust on the head is that ancient sign of mourning and grief. at some catastrophe. and that's the language John uses of his day to tell us they are going to be devastated. We saw a little look at this in the fall of 1929, the stock market crashed.
People killing themselves, they think that that was it for them. That's going to be nothing compared to what's coming because. Many recovered from the crash in 1929. Nobody's recovering from this one. Verse 20, rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her.
What a sharp contrast between verse 19, where they're wailing at the catastrophe and the dust and the ashes, and here, The saints are rejoicing. Yeah, because the end of evil has come. It's finally come. It's here. For us, before the rapture is like, Lord, I just want to go to heaven.
But there are no more sorrows, no more tears. No more weeping.
Well, what about the earth? before Christ comes back. They're going to want relief too, and they're going to get it.
So you have these two opposite effects between heaven and earth. The two cities of metaphorically of creation, the city of man. in the kingdom of God. The earth is plunged into mourning. Heaven rejoices over justice delivered.
Now there's a difference between gloating and rejoicing. Gloating includes mockery of the soul's fate. It is malicious. It is designed to stick it to the other person with no other reason Get personal satisfaction. And sometimes it's innocent.
You win a. Checker game against somebody or Something like that, and gloat a little bit, not too much, because the flesh, you know, gets serious, it's like when. When boys play fight, it starts out playing. Ends up real fight. Anyway, that's the flesh in action.
Rejoicing, however, delights in justice. Served. Evil stopped. seeing evil end. is reason to rejoice.
The evil th those doing it No one put a gun to their head. No one put a gun to Adolf Hitler's head. To make him do what he did, or Osama bin Laden. No one put a gun to his head to make them do what they did. But when they finally died, Relief.
Joy. In that sense.
So Before you demote yourself into becoming an advocate. for the Jesus-hating world, consider these things. Heaven's view. Heaven's view is not advocating for evil. Ever.
And I say that because there are those Christians that feel like, you know, they have to somehow. Think that God is being harsh. That he's overdoing it. If that is you, if you claim Christ as your Lord and you advocate for the wicked, you have not been filled with the Spirit of God. You may have a head knowledge of salvation.
But what's happening in your heart, y'all leave it at that. Remember They are willfully listening to a very real Satan and preferring what he has to say over what God has to say. Their heart is not contrite for Christ. They do not tremble at his word. The contrasts are sharp and they are willful.
They are willfully committed to the unpardonable sin of getting the mark of the beast. This is one of the unpardonable sins.
Well, it's actually. joined. They get the mark of the beast and they worship him. Full out, throw themselves into The Antichrist. Revelation 14:11, they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
They brought God's wrath on themselves.
So there will be those that will say, uh-uh, I'm not doing that, and they will be killed for it. And their lives won't be wasted. He says, and you holy apostles here in verse 20 and prophets, likely in its fuller sense, not the apostles of Jesus Christ only, not the prophets of the Old and New Testament only, but an apostle is one who is sent. And a prophet is one who speaks the mind of God. That would include all Christians.
Who are led by the Spirit, who share God's Word. The mind of God. That can be done in a lot of ways. The one odd way is Stephen. It was commented about Stephen that his face was that of an angel's face.
Well, these people never saw an angel. Likely. We have no evidence or anything reason to think that they did, but We do have reason to think that what is communicated is they never saw anything like this on earth. Just his countenance. It was unnerving.
It got to Saul, the Pharisee who became Paul the Apostle. He couldn't get that out of his head either. Before I came to Christ, I was an Antichrist. And My brother was sharing Christ with me, and I'm giving him all the reasons why he shouldn't be a believer. And eventually he stopped.
defending the faith. He just looked at me. Which at the moment I interpreted as a stupid look that I've never seen before, and I couldn't get it out of my head. It irritated me so much, I said, I'm gonna get the Bible, I'm gonna read it, and I'm gonna show them all the kinds. I'm such an idiot.
Such a full-blown fool. And that look was I know my brother, he's too dumb to have a good look like that. That was God. It was the face of an angel. It was love.
It was just sheer love. I never saw anything like it. And it drove me to salvation.
Well, I mean, I drove me to read the Bible and God got me. Is it not hard for you to kick against the goats? You can't beat the truth. You know who I am now. This, you holy apostles and prophets, includes the people of God.
And all that is about them. Philip the disciple of the Lord. He had those daughters that prophesied. They likely were singing or reading scripture. When Saul, the king of Israel, Israel's first king, when he was singing with the prophets, the word was, Is not Saul amongst the prophets?
What was he doing? He wasn't telling the future. Prophecy is not limited to prediction. There are great elements of prophecy. What I'm doing now by speaking the word is in a form of Christian prophecy.
When you share Christ, it is a form of Christian prophecy. You're speaking forth the mind of God. The priests, they spoke from man to God. The prophets spoke from God to man. And that still happens.
When you intercede as belonging to a royal priesthood, you're speaking to God on behalf of somebody else. And then, when you say God's word to someone, you're now speaking from God through you to them.
So that would give authority to saying, well, who are these holy apostles and prophets, those believers of any age? And they rejoice because they know the world system will never rise again. For God has avenged you on her. What would be the alternative to let evil continue to be evil? Verse 21.
And a mighty angel took up a stone Like a great millstone, threw it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence, and the great city Babylon shall. Be thrown down and shall not be found anymore.
Well, we've covered the Armageddon in several of the past chapters and how much bloodshed there would be in the theater of operation, how it would spill out not only in the valley of Megiddo, but other places too. And so a violent end, that's what it's going to take. God could have just struck them all with a deadly disease, but that's not how it's going to end. Babylon represents world development in opposition to the Godhead of the Bible. That's an important part, and it's a deliberate thing.
Ancient Babylon serves as a type of apocalyptic Babylon. Even into his final doom.
So you have the prophet Jeremiah. He was given words to preach, of course. And this is what we pick up in Jeremiah 51.
Now it shall be when you have finished reading this book, what God gave him. that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it Out into the Euphrates, that's the river in modern-day Iraq, ran past ancient or through ancient Babylon. Then you shall say, Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her.
So you see the connection. Between the attitude of ancient Babylon And the attitude of apocalyptic Babylon, the book of Revelation Babylon. As the historical ancient Babylon perished without recovery, so will that Antichrist system. This is the end of the world system, not the planet that ends over a thousand years after. It is the end of the world.
system. And it won't be by global warming or nuclear exchanges uh or some other or meteor hitting the planet. God is sovereign. This is his world, it's not man's world. And those who are saying those things are really they have not respect enough for the Scriptures.
Her violent end is still future, but it occurs in these two stages. Spiritual Babylon gets destroyed by political Babylon. The two make apocalyptic Babylon. And then God will destroy the political Babylon. Verse 18, and we'll come to that again in chapter 19.
And the sound of the harpists, the musicians, the flutists, the trumpeters. Shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman or any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of the millstone shall not be heard in you anymore.
So they were quite creative. They had a whole life going on with music and creativity and four-star hotels with the chefs and all the good food, thus, the millstone is emblematic of the culinary world. The world system is personified in this verse. Productive, creative. and all will be replaced by God's productivity, God's creative Abilities and God's craftsmanship.
So, where is that in the Bible? I'm glad you asked. Revelation 21. Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write, these words are true and faithful.
And it says earlier about Jesus Christ, He does all things well. Believers are those who have had enough evidence From the scripture. to believe it. That's a big part of becoming A child of God. Is you have enough of his word to believe it and act on it according to his will.
Verse 23: The light of the lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall not be heard in you anymore, for your merchants were the great men of the earth, and by your sorcery. All the nations were deceived. This word sorcery there is pharmakia.
Now, we all benefit from pharmacies. You know, big farm is evil on one side and beneficial on the other side.
Well, that's. Nothing surprising. That won't get them off the hook. Much of the occult uses psychotropic elements, you know. hallucinogenics, mushrooms, and uh God sees all of this stuff and He's going to deal with it.
And it's interesting that He's pointing this out 2,500 years so far before it even happens. The need of humanity is personal. And lose sight of man's spiritual need, and all is lost. And there are these people that are totally antichrist already in big positions doing evil things, and God is going to get them. Verse 24.
And we don't relish that thought. In fact, it's the opposite. We have a burden for lost souls. And in her was found the blood of the prophets and saints. Verse 24.
and of all who were slain on the earth.
So the body of evidence Calls for an indictment, a prosecution. and sentencing like any Court. that would uphold justice would do. Evidence precipitates judgment, and God is saying that. He's saying, I've had my case against the world.
I'm going to let things go on long enough.
So I can collect as many true believers as I can from this world by faith, And once that number is complete, I'm going to end it. And when I end it, I'm not going to forget the evils that were done, not only to my people, but to my will. And so The religious and commercial political systems embodied in this Babylon Has committed unspeakable atrocities against God's people. And I want to close with this verse. Matthew chapter 5 verse 18.
For assuredly Jesus said, I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass away One jot or one tittle will by no means pass From the law Till all is fulfilled. Not a punctuation mark will fail. I will get it all done. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, We assemble so that saints can become We saints can be strengthened.
become useful to you and Fresh. old ways at the same time. Uh This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand.
Just visit us online at crossreference radio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Hello. I didn't run up to the bottom of the city.
