I think a missing piece to our lack of spiritual thought is our lack of the use of the Word. Dr. Tony Evans says knowing the truth means little if we fail to do anything with it.
We're satisfied to learn about the Word, study the Word, read the Word, but not use the Word. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Much like a long-awaited championship game, the return of Christ in Revelation marks the ultimate showdown between good and evil. Today Dr. Evans walks us through this powerful moment to come as we witness the triumphant arrival of the King of Kings back to establish his eternal reign.
Let's join Dr. Evans as he sets the stage. In chapter 17, we have the doom of Babylon. I gave you the history of Babylon going all the way back to the Tower of Babel.
The Tower of Babel was when men sought to build their lives, civilization, without God. So we come in now to chapter 18. After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. One of the things you should have noticed as we go through this book is there's a lot of angelic activity. Angels are showing up everywhere in this battle, so to speak, against Satan. So angels are all over the place. I explain to you they're all over the place now.
We're just not as conscious of them. In the book of Revelation, when the church has been taken away and the spiritual has taken over the whole earth, they become very, very visibly active, even though they're active now but not as visibly. And he cried out with a mighty voice, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great. She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. So Babylon now is being declared about to be destroyed.
That is, man-centered civilization is about to be destroyed. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, that is, unfaithfulness to God, and the kings of the earth has committed acts of immorality with her, with Babylon, this man-centered civilization in society. And the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. Pay her back even as she has paid and give back to her double according to her deeds, so double level of judgment, in the cup which she has mixed, mixed twice as much for her.
So the judgment will be twice as bad. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning, for she says in her heart, I sit as a queen and I am not a widow and will never see mourning. In other words, nothing's gonna happen to me. I'm never gonna be sad.
I got too much money, too much this, too much that. For this reason, in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burnt up with fire for the Lord God who judges her is strong. So the judgment is gonna come twofold. The kings of the earth who committed acts of immorality, that is unfaithfulness to God, lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, when they see God's judgment come. Standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour your judgment has come.
So it's coming swiftly. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargo anymore. So there will be economic disruption when God intervenes. Cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and, you know, all of these costly things that he begins to enumerate. Verse 14, the fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendor has passed away from you, and men will no longer find them. Just by way of application, throughout the Bible, the Bible warns of the intoxicating power of wealth. The Bible does not condemn wealth. There are many spiritually wealthy people in the Bible and many people who God made wealthy. He told Solomon, you know, I'm going to make you the wealthiest man in the world, which he did. He's the wealthiest man who had ever lived. And so God is not against wealth.
You having it, he's against it having you. In other words, the wealth of Babylon was causing their denial of God. The more blessed you are, the more grateful you should be. The more grateful you should be, the better worshiper you should become, because you've been blessed so much.
And so God is judging them not because they had wealth, but because they were unfaithful with it in terms of their relationship with God. In chapter 19, I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah. Hallelujah is made up of two words.
Hallelu, which means praise, and Yah, J-A-H, which is short for God. So praise God. Sometimes it's hallelujah, sometimes it's hallelujah, okay? It's the high point of praise. Let me define praise. Praise is your declaration, your declaration of the glory, the greatness, the power, and the majesty of God.
There's no such thing as silent praise. You can have silent worship. You can worship God in your heart, but you praise Him. That's why the calls to praise in the Bible are often tied to your lips, because it's the declaration of God, okay? So it's the declaration of God. So that's the concept of hallelujah. Salvation and glory and power belong to the Lord, which is why they're doing this with a loud voice.
They are giving verbal expressions of praise. It also explains why God inhabits the praises of His people, because God inhabits the recognition of who He is. Now, some might say, well, God sure has a big ego, you know, that He's calling for all these people worldwide to praise Him.
So let me give affirmation to that. God has an enormous ego. In fact, let me let God tell you how big His ego is. God says that He does all things to the praise of His glory.
All things. Let me tell you how big His ego is. His ego is so big that He created you to praise Him. That's how big His ego is, okay? But you say, why should we give all this hallelujah praise to God? Well, let me ask you the question that He asked.
To whom will you liken me? Okay? 800,000 people showed up to the Kansas City parade to praise them for winning five baseball games. There was praise, because they were expressing it. They were clapping, they were shouting, they were celebrating, because they won. In other words, they got praise for what they did, okay?
See, we don't have a problem doing that with folk. They got award ceremonies. They got all this stuff where we praise people because of their accomplishments.
And that is acceptable from men to men, okay? Who do you know that's created a universe? Who do you know that's created life? So you can share God's praise when you can find the God to share it with. That's why He doesn't like you giving His praise to another God, acting like that thing you praise done did something, okay?
It's called idolatry. So He says, to whom will you liken me, okay? So only give me what I deserve, okay? Only give me what I deserve. If I don't deserve it, don't give it to me.
But now, if I deserve it, if I didn't want and didn't even lose a game in the process, if I am who I declare myself to be, so praise is a big deal. In this case, because of the judgments, verse 2, Because thy judgments are true and righteous, for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth. So Babylon was—it was a specific place, but its influence was worldwide. So it corrupted the whole earth with her immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his bondservants by judging them at the second coming. And the second time they said, hallelujah, her smoke rises up forever. That is the judgment. Twenty-four elders, that represents the church, the four living creatures, the anthelic host, and a voice came from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all you His bondservants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.
Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Now, notice when they see He's reigning. They see He's reigning in judgment. Now, God can reign in two ways. He can reign in blessing or in judgment. Either way, He's showing you who's God.
So He can lift you up and raise you, or He can drop you down and let you know, I'm still God. Dr. Evans will have more on the coming of the king in Revelation when he returns in just a moment. Stay with us. Here at The Urban Alternative, we have so much to be grateful for. Not the least is the unwavering support of our faithful listeners. To show our appreciation, if we hear from you today, we'll say thanks for your contribution to this ministry by sending you Dr. Evans' current sermon series on the book of Revelation, along with his new devotional book, Trusting God in Turbulent Times.
These resources will help strengthen your commitment to God as you gain an understanding of how He not only works on a grand scale in time and creation, but also on a personal level within your own life during both good times and bad. To receive this special resource package, visit tonyevans.org and look for the link right on the home page. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call us any time of the day or night at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our resource team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans is back now with more of today's message. 7 to 10 is the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Let's quickly review. This is taken off of an oriental wedding. The oriental wedding started with a betrothal, a legal engagement. That betrothal would lead to the presentation or the wedding ceremony where the bridegroom would come get the bride and take her to his father's house. Then there was the reception or party, the party where the guests would be invited to celebrate the marriage of the bride and the bridegroom. So there's the betrothal, there's the wedding, there is the celebration or the reception. The reception is a party. This party will last a thousand years. It's a thousand-year reception. It'll be a nonstop celebration, one, because you cannot experience anything negative.
You won't feel the pain of things that would cause you pain in this life. That's number one. Number two, because Jesus is going to be ruling with a rod of iron, none of the things that you experience due to disorder will be allowed to take place. This caused him to worship.
This marriage supper of the Lamb, when Jesus comes back, and that led to the second coming, which I'll just summarize here. When it opened, there's this white horse, the symbol of victory. The Roman soldiers came on a white horse when they came in victory.
They even show that in movies today. If you watch some of the movies, if a Roman general is coming back in after defeating an army, he's coming in on a white horse. His eyes are a flame of fire. His head are many crowns, because he's king of kings, the Lord of Lords, he's king of over every king now, clothed with a robe, dripped in blood. His name is called the Word of God, and the armies which are in heaven, clothed in linen, were following him on white horses. So that's you and me.
Even if you don't know how to ride, you'll be okay, okay? From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, and on his robe and on his thigh—so he's wearing this banner that's crossing him that crosses over his thigh—this banner reads, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Translation? I'm in charge now. That's translation.
I'm over all rulers and all rulership. I saw the angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in men heaven, Come, assemble for the great supper, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, commanders, mighty men. I think Matthew 24 mentions this. Let me look at Matthew 24, verse 27. Just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
Vultures gather around death. So the birds are going to be summoned because there's going to be judgment. Now you have to remember that they are seeking to destroy the Lord when he comes.
That's why it's called the Battle of Armageddon. So they're seeking to destroy the Lord. They are going to literally fight him, and it says he's going to fight them with the word of his mouth.
That question I asked earlier, how do you deal with demons? The same way Jesus is going to destroy with the word of his mouth. In other words, he ain't going to break a sweat. All he's going to do is speak.
All he's going to do is speak. Let me summarize. Well, let me finish this chapter, and then I'll summarize. The beast was seized—that's the Antichrist— the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast. So once you receive the mark of the beast, you have sealed your fate and sealed your deception. And those who worshiped his image, these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire. Notice how they were thrown alive. So there's no annihilation in hell.
You don't stop existing. We'll get to that later. Which burns with brimstone, and the rest were killed with the sword which came—that's the human people—who came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh. I want to just talk a little bit about what I talked about earlier and what comes up in this passage. Jesus is going to destroy the enemy with the word of his mouth. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.
John 1. When God created, it says, and God said. Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of my mouth.
In other words, you don't just live by physical food, you live by spiritual food. And of course, here and in many other places, it was the word of God. I want to make sure you understand this principle about God's Word. It has intrinsic authority.
In other words, it has built-in authority. The Bible is not merely words about God. Now, it certainly is words about God. You can learn about God from the Bible.
But one of the great weaknesses in all of our lives to varying degrees is we use the Bible for learning, not for use. God didn't just think, Let there be light. He said, Let there be light.
Jesus didn't just think, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He spoke it to the devil. So He's actually talking to the devil with the Word. In fact, Jesus could have said, I say unto you, since He wrote it, but He didn't. He says, It is written.
The word that destroys the enemy here, it says, came out of his mouth. I think a missing piece to our lack of spiritual authority is our lack of the use of the Word. We're satisfied to learn about the Word, study the Word, read the Word, but not use the Word. And so we wonder why the Word we learned isn't working.
If you're in a sport and you're learning that sport, they have a playbook where you learn the play based on the sport, but then they take you out to execute it, to use what you learned. The great danger of Bible study is you become satisfied with Bible study. The great danger of preaching is you become satisfied with preaching.
So let me just ask this. When is the last time you used the Word in a particular situation with a particular person, even with the devil, but you actually quoted God? If you have somebody in legitimate authority over you, and you are a legitimate representative of that person, and you go tell somebody else so-and-so said, and they know that you know so-and-so, and that so-and-so has authority to say that, even though so-and-so may not be visibly there when you say what so-and-so said, the fact that you are quoting them accurately gives you authority that belongs to them that's being expressed through you, because you have been duly authorized to quote them. You can say—you can even get more specific. You can say, John told me to tell you.
We do that all the time in our relationships. We do it our family. Mama told me to tell you. Daddy told me to tell you. And if you are accurate, you are carrying authority without that person being seen. God has given you designated authority. You've been delegated assuming something now.
That's assuming that what you said He said, that's one thing, and that you've been authorized to say it. Dr. Tony Evans on the coming of the King. A look at the triumphant return of Christ as revealed to us within the pages of Revelation. If you missed any part of the broadcast today or would like a copy of this message to share with a friend, it's available online at tonyevans.org. And that's also where you can take advantage of that special two-part resource package I mentioned earlier, all ten messages from Tony Sermon's series on the book of Revelation, along with his 30-day devotional guide, Trusting God in Turbulent Times.
They're both yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help keep this listener-supported program coming your way. Just visit tonyevans.org to make the arrangements or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 where team members are standing by to assist with your request. That's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org.
Old structures are often torn down to pave the way for something better and more up to date. In Revelation 20 and 21, God begins his ultimate reconstruction project. And tomorrow, Dr. Tony Evans will unpack those pivotal chapters for us. Right now, though, he's back to finish out today's broadcast with this closing prayer. Father, I thank you for the Word of God that goes forth through this ministry and for every ear that hears it. I pray that you will use the Word in the life of each person individually so that they know that they are hearing from you and are transformed by what they hear. I pray that that transformation touches them at their place of need. Wherever they're hurting, struggling, wherever they're in pain, or wherever they're celebrating, may you be the center of that. And may they be able to say because of the Word that they've heard and because of the true God that they're interacting with right now that you have showed up and shown off on their behalf doing good by them no matter what their circumstances happen to be. Thank you for how you're going to touch every listener today in your own special way. In Jesus' name, amen.
