{"id":19007,"date":"2019-11-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-058-the-two-lasting-things\/"},"modified":"2019-11-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-058-the-two-lasting-things","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-058-the-two-lasting-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 058 – The Two Lasting Things"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19007","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 058 - The Two Lasting Things","sermon_date":"20191103","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7203,"sermon_slides":7204,"sermon_mp3":7207,"sermon_id":"113191252582539","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"18:9-19","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nTwo Lasting Things\n\nRevelation 18:9-19 Lesson 58\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter 18 and verse 9, moving into this morning verses 9-20.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Two Lasting Things.\u00a0 What are the two things that we can invest in right now that are actually going to\u00a0 last and stand the test of time.\u00a0 Everybody today is looking for safe investments; I\u2019m going to give you two of those today from the Word of God.\n\nWe continue our study through the Book of Revelation and we were in at one point chapter 16, the very end of that chapter where we had the manifestation of the final judgment of God, the seventh bowl judgment.\u00a0 And in the process of that seventh bowl judgment we had the destruction of Babylon.\u00a0 Chapter 16 and verse 19 says concerning Babylon, it says, \u201cBabylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You might be asking yourself the question, well what is this Babylon that we\u2019re talking about here?\u00a0 And anticipating that question you have these words at the beginning of chapter 17, John says: \u201cThen one of the seventh angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, \u201cCome here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.\u201d\u2019\n\nWhat we have now in the Book of Revelation is something that happens five times in the book, as we have studied.\u00a0 This is the fifth and final time where the chronology stops to fill in information about something that just happened in the chronology, in this case the subject of Babylon.\u00a0 And so that leads into chapter 17 and 18 which is your most in depth treatment of the subject of the city of Babylon in the last days that you find really anywhere in the whole Bible.\u00a0 It\u2019s fascinating how it takes scattered verses and puts them together into a cohesive whole that we can understand.\u00a0 We saw chapter 17, the destruction of Babylon featuring her religious side.\u00a0 We saw that God is actually going to put His plan or His purpose to destroy Babylon in the heart of the beast.\u00a0 God actually uses the beast to destroy Babylon and in the process we have a tremendous description of the religious influence that city will wield in the last days.\n\nAnd that moves into chapter 18 where now we get a description of the political and the commercial side of the exact same city and the exact same destruction.\u00a0 This chapter that we moved into last week that we\u2019re going to continue moving into this week and we\u2019ll continue to move, no doubt, into it further next week, can be divided into four parts.\u00a0 Number one, we had the prediction concerning Babylon\u2019s destruction, verses 1-3.\u00a0 We saw that last time.\u00a0 We know that Babylon is going to fall and then what you have in those verses is the reasons why God is going to judge Babylon.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same reason God is going to judge any civilization\u00a0 or any nation or any country.\u00a0 And then we have part 2 \u00a0which we saw last time where the people that are living on the earth at the time, God\u2019s people in particular, to separate themselves from Babylon.\u00a0 And we saw that in verses 4-8.\u00a0 And we have the appeal for separation and the reasons for the separation, the exact same reasons God people should separate themselves from any sinful situation.\n\nAnd now what we move into today is verse 9-20, we may not get through all of them today, but what we have is part 3, the reaction to Babylon\u2019s fall.\u00a0 I think the old saying goes something like this:\u00a0 The dog that barks loudest is the one that got hit by the rock.\u00a0 And what causes people to bark the loudest or become emotional of become upset is some sort of fault or attack on their god (little \u201cg\u201d.\u00a0 What gets you the most upset?\u00a0 Are you like David, for example, who upon hearing about the [can't understand word] of Goliath against the living God became upset, become upset, become outraged.\u00a0 Are you one of these people that stands up for the zeal of God and the holiness of God or is it something else in your life that gets you upset when it\u2019s attacked, an account, debit or credit balance statement, income, the price of taxes going up.\n\nSee, what it is that we react to first when it\u2019s assaulted sort of is a window into what our hearts value the most.\u00a0 And may we be the type of people of God, men and women of God, that are most\u00a0 upset when God Himself and His character and His nature is attacked, may we not be the kind of people that become most upset when personal or self-centered to us is attacked.\n\nSo we need more David\u2019s out there, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 People that are upset at the assault on the living God.\u00a0 And so what you see at this reaction from people, and because Babylon has become sort of a god, little \u201cg\u201d to these people, they are all emoting, they\u2019re all getting upset.\u00a0 First the kings bet upset, verses 9 and 10.\u00a0 Then the merchants get upset, verses 11-16.\u00a0 And then a special category of merchants gets upset when Babylon falls, the sea merchants, verses 17-19, and as all of these human kings and merchants are becoming upset with the destruction of Babylon in the final bowl judgment what does heaven do?\u00a0 Verse 20, heaven rejoices.\n\nI find that to be very interesting that heaven is rejoicing in the very things that the earth is mourning.\u00a0 And the opposite is true, heaven is mourning, as we see in the Book of Revelation, over many of the things that the earth is celebrating.\u00a0 We have studied the two witnesses in Revelation 11 who will be killed in the city streets of Jerusalem and yet the world that sees that event is so enthralled by it they begin to have (chapter 11) sort of a miniature Christmas and they begin to send gifts to one another.\u00a0 So while heaven is weeping the earth is rejoicing.\u00a0 And here the opposite is happening, Babylon has fallen, the earth is weeping and heaven itself is rejoicing.\n\nWhy is that?\u00a0 Why does heaven exalt in the very things that the world weeps over?\u00a0 It has to do with who exactly is the authority over this present world.\u00a0 Satan is!\u00a0 It\u2019s has value system that governs this planet; he is the prince and the power of the air in the story that we\u2019re reading about in the Book of Revelation is how he is deposed from that position when Jesus Christ comes back and establishes His kingdom.\u00a0 See, the earth today with all of its confusion, with all of its mixed up morality is just sort of a temporary occupier because the day is coming in human history when the kingdom of God will be planted on this earth and things that are upside down, things that are topsy-turvy, things that are anti-biblical will be made right.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why when the Lord taught us to pray in Matthew 6 He taught us to pray this way: \u201cThy kingdom\u201d what? \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s to be our prayer, that\u2019s to be our hope, that\u2019s to be our anticipation.\n\nBut you\u2019ll notice here first of all these kings, notice what they begin to do at the prospect of Babylon\u2019s destruction.\u00a0 Notice, if you will Revelation 18:9, it says,\u201d And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice here that these kings are said to be committing immorality.\u00a0 Their enticement with Babylon, their following along with Babylon is described by God as a sign or immorality.\u00a0 And this is what happens to us when we follow the value system of this world, particularly as God\u2019s people, particularly as His bride; God looks at it the same way a person would look at their spouse who just cheated on them.\n\nJames 4:4, James says, \u201cYou adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?\u00a0 Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that these kings, as they\u2019re weeping over the destruction of Babylon are upset because Babylon allowed them, while she was in place, to live sensuously.\u00a0 What does it mean to live sensuously? \u00a0\u00a0It basically means to live for the desires of the sin nature.\u00a0 This is how many, many people live; what motivates them is the desires of the sin nature.\u00a0 What they think about are the gratifications of the desires of the sin nature.\u00a0 Gosh, when is the weekend going to come, then I can get myself into inebriated condition and really have a great time with friends.\u00a0 That becomes the focus; that\u2019s a sensuous lifestyle.\n\n1 Timothy 5:6 describes that lifestyle as death.\u00a0 1 Timothy 5:6 says of the sensuous woman, \u201cBut she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, there\u2019s always some temporary pleasure associated with sin but it pushes out of a person\u2019s life true life, the true life of God, true relationship with God.\u00a0 The sensuous person is out on all of that and consequently they\u2019re living in wanton pleasure but are dead even while they live.\u00a0 And consequently these kings are mourning, in fact, the text says weeping and lamenting, verse 9, at the prospect of Babylon\u2019s destruction.\u00a0 Why would they weep and mourn?\u00a0 Because as we\u2019re going to see later on in this chapter, particularly down in verse 16, that Babylon made them rich.\u00a0 The gravy train is gone and they begin to weep and lament.\n\nOne of the things we\u2019ve brought up as we\u2019ve been looking at these chapters is most commentators including some of the very best, like Charles Ryrie and John Walvoord, they basically believe that there are two Babylon\u2019s here.\u00a0 Chapter 17 is just a religious system destroyed midway through the tribulation\u00a0 period.\u00a0 Chapter 18 is a literal city destroyed at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve done everything within my power to talk you out of that perspective; both chapters are talking about the same destruction and the same city, the literal city of Babylon which will one day rise to prominence on the Euphrates River.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve given you different arguments that people use to drive a wedge between these chapters and one of the arguments that they use here is number five.\n\nThey say it\u2019s a different set of kings, after all, in chapter 17 and verse 16 the kings hate Babylon but in chapter 18 the kings are mourning over Babylon, they look like they\u2019re a friend of Babylon and so therefore we\u2019ve got two Babylon\u2019s here; chapter 17, the kings hate Babylon, chapter 18 the kings mourn over Babylon.\u00a0 It must be two different events.\u00a0 And I\u2019m here to tell you that I don\u2019t think that is true at all when you understand that you\u2019ve got two different sets of kings in view here.\n\nYou see, some of these kings are connected to the woman, not so much the woman but the beast that she is on.\u00a0 Remember we talked about the woman rides the beast?\u00a0 And on that beast, as we saw, are ten horns or ten kings; this is the sort of confederation of the antichrist turning on Babylon in the last days.\u00a0 That\u2019s one set of kings, ten kings allied with the beast.\u00a0 But then you have a different set of kings, the merchants primarily, some kings but primarily merchants aligned with the commercial city of Babylon.\u00a0 And so when you understand that the kings in chapter 18 are different than the kings in chapter 17 you understand why there\u2019s two different reactions.\u00a0 In other words, there\u2019s no need to drive a wedge in these chapters just because the kings reacted differently.\u00a0 The first set of kings is allied with the beast; the second set of kings is allied with the commercial city of Babylon.\u00a0 God has put His purpose into the heart of the beast to destroy Babylon. That\u2019s why the kings in chapter 17 hate Babylon,\u00a0 But in chapter 18 you\u2019ve got a different set of kings that have become wealthy because of Babylon, that\u2019s why they\u2019re mourning. \u00a0And I\u2019ll have more to say about this as we continue on to our study.\n\nBut we continue on and it talks about here verse 9, the smoke of her burning. \u00a0Revelation 18:9, \u201cAnd the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning,\u201d and the backdrop for this whole section of Scripture is Jeremiah 50 and 51.\u00a0 In fact, if you were to go home today and read those two chapters you\u2019d be astonished,\u00a0 you\u2019d be somewhat shocked at how much information that we\u2019re studying here in Revelation 17 and 18 has already been predicted by the prophet Jeremiah.\n\nJeremiah 51:30 puts it this way: \u201cTheir dwelling places\u201d concerning Babylon that is, \u201care set on fire.\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah predicted this day would come for Babylon.\u00a0 The Book of Revelation is recording the fulfillment to a large extent of Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that in both chapters the city is destroyed by fire, chapter 17:16 and chapter 18:9 and many other passages.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 51:30, \u201cThe mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, \u2026 Their dwelling places are set on fire, the bars of her gates are broken.\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah 17:16, \u201cBut as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, Nor have I longed for the woeful day; You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips.\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah 18:9, \u201cOr at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it;\u201d]\n\nThere is no need to look at chapter 18 as being some kind of different city and different event.\u00a0 The forces uniting these chapters are greater than anything that may divide them.\u00a0 But you come to verse 10 and you continue to see these kings weeping and notice what it says there, \u201cstanding at a distance because of the fear or her torment saying, \u2018Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour her judgment has come.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 18:10]\n\nWhy are they standing off at a distance?\u00a0\u00a0 Well, when you look at a map and I\u2019ve got an arrow there to Dubai there in the Persian Gulf; the Persian Gulf is somewhat removed from Babylon on the Euphrates, and perhaps that\u2019s why these merchants are described as standing off at a distance in the Persian Gulf area.\u00a0 People say Babylon today doesn\u2019t have a harbor so this can\u2019t be literal Babylon. But if you look at the language very carefully you\u2019ll see that these kings are off at a distance, perhaps in the Persian Gulf area mourning the destruction of Babylon.\u00a0 Now a little later, if we have time I\u2019ll try to make a case that Babylon herself is thinking very strongly (since the days of Saddam Hussein) of having a harbor which would solve that problem.\n\nBut they\u2019re standing off at a distance and they\u2019re mourning and they\u2019re calling Babylon a great city and you should be thinking about Daniel 4:30 because that\u2019s what Nebuchadnezzar of Neo Babylon, back in the sixth century called that particular city.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting that this city is destroyed in an hour!\u00a0 Verse 8 said a day, \u00a0verse 10 says an hour.\u00a0 [Revelation 18:8, \u201cFor this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 18:10, \u201cstanding at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, \u2018Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting to me that the zenith and the height of the antichrist\u2019s system, the city of Babylon, is going to be destroyed that fast, this worldwide city.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019re going to eventually get down to verse 21 where the destruction of Babylon is going to be analogized and this is also in the writings of Jeremiah, to a millstone sinking into the Euphrates River.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be giving you the dimensions of those millstones in the ancient world, they were very large.\u00a0 This is why Jesus made it very, very clear that if you offend a child it\u2019d be better for you if a millstone was tied around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.\u00a0\u00a0 [Mark 9:42, \u201cWhoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.\u201d]\n\nA millstone is massive and think of something of that size sinking into the Euphrates. \u00a0That\u2019s how fast Babylon will fall.\u00a0 And this reveals to us the foolishness of living for the things of this world as if they\u2019re permanent.\u00a0 We\u2019re told over and over again in the Bible to take our eyes off of the things of the earth and to set our minds and eyes, Colossians 3:1, on the things above.\u00a0 [Colossians 3:1, \u201cTherefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.\u201d]\n\nWe ought to be living for things that are going to last; we ought to be living for things that are going to matter, not for a system and a city that looks spectacular on the surface but it\u2019s going to be destroyed very, very rapidly.\u00a0 And a little bit later I\u2019ll talk to you about two things that will last and the two things that matter, two safe investments so to speak.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting there in verse 10 it talks about she\u2019s going to be destroyed in a day; you ought to be thinking about Daniel 5:30, because that\u2019s what happened to Belteshazzar who took the vessels of God from the temple and he began to use those vessels in the days of the Babylonian captivity for purposes of debauchery and the hand started to write on the wall mysteriously and the message was divided, numbered, numbered and divided.\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 5:25] \u201c\u2019MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN'\u201d in Aramaic, numbered, numbered and divided.\u00a0 [26]\u00a0 This is the interpretation of the message: 'MENE '-- God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.\n\nBelteshazzar you have come so far in your rebellion against God that your days are numbered and your kingdom is about to be divided.\u00a0 And according to Daniel 5:30 the political power changed in one night; that\u2019s all it took!\u00a0 The Babylonians felt that they were invincible as many people today feel they\u2019re invincible.\u00a0 After all, they had all of the treasures of Babylon, they had walls built around the Neo Babylonian Empire, around the city and Belteshazzar and his friends partied all night\u00a0 taking the vessels of God which were designed for holy purposes and used them for a profane sinful purpose and they just laughed the night away in a drunken state until the handwriting appeared on the wall.\u00a0 And we know for Herodotus and other extra biblical writers exactly how the Persians conquered Babylon; they just diverted the Euphrates River and they tunneled under the wall.\u00a0 And the Persians conquered Babylon without even firing a shot, so to speak, without even a battle.\n\nAnd all of these things are given to us in the Bible for those who think they\u2019re so mighty, think that they\u2019re so secure, think that they\u2019re so invulnerable, think that they are so invincible, because none of us are.\u00a0 When you look at the problems that were caused by the nine-eleven hijackers and how that changed the course and the direction of our own country back in 2001.\u00a0 A bunch of guys hijacking a plane or planes with box cutters were capable of bringing the Americans financial system to its knees.\u00a0 It happened that easy; it happened that fast.\u00a0 That\u2019s how Babylon fell, in a single day, a single night.\u00a0 One hour, and that\u2019s how future Babylon is going to fall as well.\u00a0 And these warnings are not just there to fill our minds with historical data, these things ought to change the way we prioritize our lives and the foolishness of living for the shifting sands of this world.\u00a0 We ought to align our purposes with God.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even understand how vulnerable we are half the time. Brother Ron [can't understand last name] having his memorial service this Thursday, you go back a week, two, three, four weeks, I\u2019m not sure Brother Ron understood that his number was up and would be\u00a0 up that fast.\n\nAnd it\u2019s not just him, someone else\u2019s number may be up tomorrow or the next day or the next week or the next month, we just don\u2019t think that way.\u00a0 And yet the Bible wants us to live every single moment as if you can enter the threshold of eternity and how we ought to be prepared for that and be living for the right things.\u00a0 And how easy it is to get our minds off those things onto the things we can see that are so temporary.\n\nSo the kings are lamenting and then another group laments and it\u2019s the merchants.\u00a0 And take a look if you could at verse 11 of Revelation 18, \u201cAnd the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her,\u201d why? \u201cbecause no one buys\u201d isn\u2019t that interesting, \u201cno one buys their cargoes anymore!\u201d\u00a0 When you look down at verse 15 you learn that these merchants had become extremely wealthy through the city of Babylon.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her,\u201d and these are the ones who \u201cwill stand at a distance because of the fear or her torments weeping and mourning.\u201d\u00a0 And these merchants are weeping because their god, money, has been cut off.\u00a0 And no one is buying their cargoes anymore.\u00a0 And what kind of cargoes exactly are we talking about?\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad you asked.\n\nLook at verse 12, it describes it in great detail.\u00a0 \u201ccargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every kind of<\/em> citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made<\/em> from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble,\u201d it is interesting to me that the first cargo mentioned on that list is gold.\n\nThat personally reminds me of the Babylon of the ancient who was called a head of gold in the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel 2.\u00a0 In fact, it was there that the prophet Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar following that dream, \u201cyou are the head of gold.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 2:38, \u201cand wherever the sons of men dwell, or<\/em> the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them<\/em> into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.\u201d]\n\nAs you drop down this list you\u2019ll run into purple, purple and gold.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:29, \u201cThen Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put<\/em> a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now<\/em> had authority as the third ruler<\/em> in the kingdom.\u201d] That\u2019s how Babylon is described in chapter 17, verse 4.\u00a0\u00a0 [Revelation 17:4, \u201cThe woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality.\u201d]\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting to me that when Daniel gave the interpretation of the handwriting on the wall, according to Daniel 5:7, 16 and 29, he was arrayed or clothed with purple and he was given a necklace of gold.\n\n[Daniel 5:7, \u201cThe king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the [ a ] Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, \u201cAny man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as [ b ] third ruler in the kingdom.\u201d\n\n[Daniel 5:16, \u201cBut I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now if you are able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the [ a ] third ruler in the kingdom.\u201d\n\nDaniel 5:29, \u201cThen Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.\u201d ]\n\nIt mentions here silk and scarlet, wood, ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron, marble.\u00a0 You move into verse 13 and the rest of Babylon\u2019s wealth continues.\u00a0 It says, verse 13, \u201cand cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargoes<\/em> of horses and chariots,\u201d oh my goodness, look at this at the end of verse 13, \u201cand slaves and human lives.\u201d\u00a0 Of course frankincense reminds us of what the wise men coming from that same part of the world did with the Christ child, the gift that they brought to Him.\u00a0 They recognized who He was; they recognized the unique time in history that they were living in and they brought gold and frankincense\u00a0 and myrrh to the Christ child.\u00a0 Matthew 2:11.\u00a0 [Matthew 2:11, \u201cAfter coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s not so much the gold and the frankincense that\u2019s the problem, it\u2019s how those things are being held onto by people.\u00a0 Sadly with the story of Babylon those things had become an idol; those things had become a god (little g).\u00a0\u00a0 And how different we should be as Christians with the resources God has entrusted to us.\u00a0 You know, we shouldn\u2019t be hoarders and people that hold onto those things so tightly; we should see those things as a gift from God, like the three wise men did, and be willing to submit those things unto God for purposes of worship when God calls us to do that, understanding that the resources that we have really are not ours to begin with.\u00a0 That\u2019s the deception.\u00a0 We think these things are ours, this is mine, I\u2019m going to hold tightly onto this.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is according to Daniel 5 you wouldn\u2019t even have your very next breath if God wouldn\u2019t allow it.\n\nEverything\u2019s God\u2019s, right down to my respiratory system, and the blood coursing through my body, not to mention my wealth, whatever it is I have; it\u2019s ALL of the Lord.\u00a0 The only reason you have it is because God allows you to have it.\u00a0 Well, wait a minute now, I worked hard for those things, I mean, I have a lot of business sense and a lot of acumen and I came up with the right business plan and the right marketing plan and I did this and I did that.\u00a0 Question\u2014who gave you the mind to come up with the right business plan?\u00a0 Who gives your body health so that you can work on your business plan?\u00a0 And labor under your business plan?\u00a0 Everything is the Lord\u2019s; nothing is ours.\u00a0 He mentions wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots; I mean, it\u2019s astonishing how wealthy Babylon is going to become and how wealthy she makes these kings and these merchants which is explaining why they are crying, they are mourning, they are lamenting at her destruction.\n\nAnd that too fits the prophecies of Jeremiah.\u00a0 Jeremiah 51:13 of Babylon and her destruction says, \u201cO you who dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, [your end has come, the measure of your end has come.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 And boy, we\u2019re seeing a list here of tremendous treasures.\u00a0 You take, for example, the place where Babylon is located.\u00a0 To me it doesn\u2019t require an awful lot of imagination to see that part of the world and that particular city abound in wealth.\u00a0 You can see where most of the world\u2019s oil is in the Middle East, in that part of the world.\u00a0 You can see how a city arising in that part of the world could sort of annex a few surrounding nations and in a nanosecond control the oil and the economies of the earth.\u00a0 This is what your Bible predicts what will happen in the last days and yet it\u2019s an artificial list because it\u2019s not going to last.\u00a0 Only the things of God will last forever.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that when\u00a0 you become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord sort of begins to convict you of holding on too tightly to these things and reminding us that these things really belong to him to begin with, it\u2019s so interesting to me that when we submit to his authority we don\u2019t give up anything.\u00a0 You actually (in the end) end up getting far more than what you\u2019re holding onto.\u00a0 Gold, everybody is interested in gold apparently; this is what makes Babylon successful, treating gold as if it\u2019s some kind of god and yet if you are a believer of the Lord Jesus Christ at some point in time you will enter the eternal state, Revelation 21:21, where gold will be so common it will be beneath your feet because you\u2019ll be walking on Revelation 21:21, streets of \u201cpure gold.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 21:21, \u201cAnd the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.\u201d]\n\nDon\u2019t let the devil convince you that you\u2019re just giving up way too much here.\u00a0 What you\u2019re going to end up getting back in the long run outweighs anything that our very small hands are clinging onto today.\u00a0 It is interesting to me that when you look at the end of verse 13, after mentioning all of this wealth that Babylon will accumulate it talks about slaves and human lives.\u00a0 You sort of get the impression that this wealth was acquired, it was accumulated through slavery, through ripping people off, through cheap labor, and we know from the Bible that that is not how God wants people to be treated.\n\nYou know, these corporations they just move people around like they\u2019re people on a chess board, understanding that their tearing people away from their churches, tearing people away from their community, acting as if men and women are just sort of pieces on a chess board, move this person over here, move that person over there because it\u2019s all about the bottom line.\u00a0 And we\u2019re subjected to that so frequently we think that\u2019s how God is; that God has such a low view of humanity and the only thing He cares about is the bottom line and using people to get rich.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the world works.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how God works!\n\nWhat we learn in the Book of Genesis is that human beings are made in God\u2019s image, male and female.\u00a0 Genesis 1:27.\u00a0 [Genesis 1:27, \u201cGod created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 26, \u201cThen God said, \u201cLet Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.\u201d]\u00a0 And man was originally given authority over the earth, to subdue the earth and rule over it, to rule over the fish of the sea and of the birds of the sky.\u00a0\u00a0 And it\u2019s so easy to lose sight of the dignity that God has given to every single human being and consequently the abuse of people for the purposes of acquiring wealth is an abomination to God.\u00a0 And yet that\u2019s how Babylon has become rich; she\u2019s become rich through human lives and actually it goes on and it says enslavement.\n\nYou might be saying to yourself come on Andy, isn\u2019t slavery a thing of the past?\u00a0 Is it?\u00a0 If I\u2019m right on this and it will be in this part of the world in Iraq where the city of Babylon will reemerge slavery is alive and well is it not?\u00a0 It\u2019s practiced in the religion of Islam.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s so interesting to me to look at the critics of the United States and to go on and on complaining about the United States.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you know that the United States was started with slavery?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you know that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, etc. etc. etc. etc. Yeah, I\u2019m aware of that and you know what?\u00a0 We did something about it.\u00a0 To my understanding the United States of America is probably the only, or one of the few civilizations I can think of that did something to correct the institution of slavery and the wrongs that were done at that point.\u00a0 I\u2019m still waiting on Islam to correct their wrong.\n\nAnd by the way, if you want to start complaining about slavery why are you talking about something that happened two hundred\u00a0 years ago?\u00a0 Why don\u2019t\u00a0 you talk about what\u2019s happening right now in specific cultures and countries on the earth?\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how good Satan is in changing the subject.\u00a0\u00a0 Everybody today wants to talk about the history of the United States and not the slavery right now as it\u2019s being practiced.\u00a0 And we even had a presentation not long ago at this church in the men\u2019s meeting of sex trafficking and sex slavery that\u2019s alive and well, illegally, not just the United States of America but right here in Houston.\u00a0 This idea that these prophecies can\u2019t be literal because we all know that slavery has been done away with.\u00a0 Are you kidding me?\u00a0 Slavery illegally in the United States and legally elsewhere it\u2019s alive and well.\n\nAnd I find it very interesting that the Holy Spirit surfaces that at the end of verse 13 to describe exactly how Babylon has become wealthy.\u00a0 They have violated\u2026 the city has violated the dignity that God assigned to each individual.\u00a0 In no way, shape or form does God ever condone the acquisition of wealth or gain through the abuse of somebody else.\u00a0 And yet that\u2019s how Babylon has become wealthy in the last days.\n\nWe come to verse 14 where these merchants begin to continue\u00a0 to lament their loss.\u00a0 It says in verse 14, \u201cThe fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men<\/em> will no longer find them.\u201d\u00a0 The luxuries, the wealth, disappears in a day, disappears in an hour.\u00a0 Is that not how the Bible describes this present world system?\n\n1 Corinthians 7:31 says, \u201c\u2026for the form of this world is passing away.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Wow!\u00a0 I don\u2019t even have to wait for it to pass away, the Bible says it\u2019s passing away as you speak.\u00a0 1 John 2:17 says, \u201cJohn 2:17 says \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>The world is passing away, and also<\/em> its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.\u201d\u00a0 Which takes me to my sermon title, The Two Lasting Things<\/em>.\u00a0 I mean, where can we invest our time, talent and treasure into something that will last?\u00a0 The reality of the situation is\u00a0 your Bible only gives you two safe investments.\u00a0 The first safe investment you have is the souls of men and women because God, when He fashioned man in His own image and woman in His own image together they were male and female, part of that involves the fact that He has designed people to live forever, it\u2019s called the soul or the immaterial part of a person.\n\nThe Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3 and verse 11 says, \u201cHe has also set eternity in their heart,\u201d\n\n[Ecclesiastes 3:11, He has made everything appropriate in its time. \u00a0He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.\u201d]\u00a0 The fact of the matter is people, whether they\u2019re Christians or not, are going to be alive somewhere a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now, a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, a million years from now, and we can just keep on going because that is what God has done with people.\u00a0 This is the reason that the Holy Spirit is trying out, in verse 13, against the abuse of human beings via slavery or some other source to acquire wealth.\u00a0 You can\u2019t treat people that way because God has made people in His image.\n\nI guarantee you folks, your kids, your grandkids aren\u2019t getting this message from a lot of sources because they\u2019re taught in the school system from K to 12 and beyond, the evolutionary model that they are nothing more than a naked ape.\u00a0 They went from the good to you via the zoo over billions of years.\u00a0 I get worked up over that because it robs humanity of the dignity that God gave them.\u00a0 It strips them of who they are, as image bearers of God.\u00a0 And so when you invest in a person through evangelism, someone you\u2019re mentoring, someone you\u2019re discipling, your own children.\n\nYou know, you look at some of the statistics in your typical evangelical home is too busy to have a family prayer time, a family quiet time, a family Scripture meditation time.\u00a0 That\u2019s\u00a0 [can't understand word] priorities and yet when you\u2019re with those little ones sharing with them the things of God and the Word of God, entertaining their questions, (and they can ask some very difficult questions), I think little children, little kids ask the best questions.\u00a0 Through my own best research is they find questions that my daughter has asked of me that I really didn\u2019t have an answer for, and yet every single moment you spend in a situation like that into a heart you\u2019re making a faith investment because that little child, their soul that they have as an image bearer will go on throughout eternity.\n\nYou invest in a person and an investment always requires time and effort and energy doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 That\u2019s a safe investment!\u00a0 And there\u2019s only one other safe investment that I know of, everything according to 2 Peter 3:10 is going to burn except two things\u2014the only thing that\u2019s going to last is the soul of a person and the second thing that\u2019s going to last is the Word of God.\u00a0 Jesus said in Matthew 14:35, \u201cHeaven and earth will\u201d He didn\u2019t say might, \u201cwill<\/u> pass away, but My words will not pass away.\u201d\u00a0 Isaiah 40:8 says, \u201cThe grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.\u201d\n\nEvery moment you spend reading this book, trying to understand this book, building your life upon this book, seeking to live out the principles in this book, is an investment that\u2019s safe and it\u2019s eternal.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the only two things that\u2019s going to make it from this world into the next.\u00a0 And certainly the instantaneous destruction of Babylon communicates that to us, does it not?\n\nVerse 15, it continues on and it says, \u201cThe merchants of these things who became rich from here will stand at a distance,\u201d why are they standing off at a distance? Maybe it has something to do with their standing off at a distance in the Persian Gulf area, I don\u2019t know that for sure but it\u2019s an interesting conjecture.\u00a0 \u201cThe merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning.\u201d\n\nVerse 16 continues, and it says this; what are they saying, \u201csaying, \u2018Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls;\u201d you\u2019ll notice again the reference to \u201cthe great city,\u201d Babylon the great!\u00a0 Daniel 4:30 should be in the back of your mind. \u00a0[Daniel 4:30, \u201cThe king reflected and said, \u2018Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/sup>You\u2019ll notice her colorful attire, purple and gold, chapter 18 verse 16.\u00a0 [Revelation 18:16, \u201csaying, \u2018Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls;\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s what Daniel was arrayed in when he interpreted the handwriting on the wall.\n\nAnd then you might also remember that purple and gold is how Babylon was described in chapter 17.\u00a0 [Revelation 17:4, \u201cThe woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls\u2026.\u201d]\u00a0 That was the harlot\u2019s desire, purple and gold.\u00a0 \u00a0Notice what we\u2019re seeing here, \u201cpurple and gold,\u201d chapter 18 verse 16, the forces that unite these chapters are greater than anything that may divide them.\n\nAnd who else is lamenting here?\u00a0 \u201cThe merchants of the sea\u201d are lamenting. Notice Revelation 18:17, \u201cfor in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!\u2019 And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance.\u201d\u00a0 You say well pastor, Babylon doesn\u2019t even have a harbor.\u00a0 Not yet!\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice the destruction in a day, that should bring to your mind Daniel 5:30-31.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:30-31, \u201cThat same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain.\u00a0 [31] So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.\u201d]\n\nI\u2019ve shared this article with you before, Babylon Needs a Harbor<\/em>.\u00a0 It was unacceptable to Saddam Hussein that a country as great as Iraq did not have a long coastline.\u00a0 Over and over again he talked about the necessity of building a navy and becoming a sea fearing power.\u00a0 Iraq\u2019s isolation from the sea was a cruel accident of history he believes, and no one, or one that had to be rectified, a theme he continued to dwell on after his invasion of Kuwait.\u00a0 The reason I\u2019m bringing this up is people have long dismissed the literal interpretation of Babylon on the ground, that these are sea merchants and Babylon doesn\u2019t even have a harbor.\u00a0 My response is not yet she doesn\u2019t.\n\nDo you realize the prophecies related to the return of the Jews to their land, which began to be fulfilled in 1948?\u00a0 You understand that for 2,000 years of church history people look at those prophecies as allegorical.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s no way that could be literal, that\u2019s obviously taking about\u2026 and they start to symbolize it as something else.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting how in 1948 with the rebirth of the nation of Israel and then in 1967 with the nation of Israel recapturing Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, it\u2019s sort of interesting to me how all of a sudden all of this stuff that everybody thought was allegorical looks pretty literal to me.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t the same thing happen with Babylon?\u00a0 Is that too big of a stretch?\n\nDan Haven in his book on Babylon says this:\u00a0 \u201cActually, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers converge in southern Iraq and enter the Persian Gulf in Iraqi territory. The problem has been that Iran and Kuwait squeeze Iraq into a bottleneck at the mouth of the rivers and Iraq\u2019s attempts to forge a harbor there have been thwarted by the hostile refusals of those two countries. But suppose international pressures were brought to bear upon Iran to allow Iraq access to the Shatt al-Arab waterway all the way to Basra and cooperation could be coerced from Kuwait to open up the area around its little island of Bubiyan and Warba.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cA commercial port and harbor for ships could become a reality for Babylon in a relatively short period of time. With modern dredging equipment, a deep channel waterway could be opened from the Persian Gulf all the way to Babylon. With its location on the Euphrates River, ships and sailors\u201d the kind we\u2019re reading about herein the Book of Revelation, \u201ccould indeed have access to this future queen of modern cities. The Antichrist ruler, with his political and economic power and global influence, could easily make that happen. So, as you can see, a harbor in Babylon is not at all out of the question.\u201d\u00a0 [Dan Hayden, Iraq: In the Crosshairs of Destiny: What the Bible Says About the Future of Iraq (Altamonte Springs, FL: Advantage Books, 2008), 115.]\n\nYou\u2019ll notice verse18, these sea merchants, like the other merchants we read about earlier, are crying.\u00a0 Look at verse 18,\u00a0 \u201cand were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, \u2018What city is like the great city?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 The smoke or her burning,\u201d that\u2019s Jeremiah 50:30.\u00a0 The burning is in both chapters.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice the reference to \u201cthe great city\u201d again, that\u2019s Daniel 4:30, and then verse 19 with which we\u2019ll conclude.\u00a0 [Daniel 4:30, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>The king reflected and said, \u2018Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?\u2019\u201d]\n\n\u201cAnd they\u201d that\u2019s the sea merchants who now don\u2019t have the wealth that they once had because of the destruction of Babylon, \u201cthrew dust on their heads and were crying and weeping and mourning saying, \u2018Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 18:19]\u00a0 They threw dust on their head, you find a reference to that in Job 2:12.\u00a0 [Job 2:12, \u201cWhen they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky.\u201d]\n\nYou remember the struggles of Job and when Job\u2019s friends saw that what had happened to Job they didn\u2019t know what to do.\u00a0 They were just beside themselves and they began to wail and weep as Job is suffering, to the point where they threw dust on their heads towards the sky.\u00a0 That\u2019s what these merchants are going to do with the destruction of Babylon, they\u2019re crying, they\u2019re mourning, they\u2019re weeping over the great city, again Daniel 4:30, the ships at sea, her wealth ends, and what does it say here, \u201cwithin one hour.\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 5:30, destroyed in a day, later in the chapter destroyed in one hour. \u00a0\u00a0[Daniel 4:30, \u201cThe king reflected and said, \u2018Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 5:30.\u201d That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain.\u201d]\n\nAnd then as the kings and the merchants and the sea merchants are mourning what is heaven doing?\u00a0 We\u2019ll see it next week.\u00a0 They\u2019re celebrating.\u00a0 Heaven has the exact opposite reaction as the world does.\u00a0 And so a lot of the question is well whose applause are we living for exactly?\u00a0 If you want to live for the applause of the world you\u2019re not going to get the applause of God.\u00a0 If you want to live for the applause of God you\u2019re not going to get the applause of the world.\u00a0 Make up your mind, Christian!\u00a0 Which side of the ledger are\u00a0 you on?\u00a0 And since all of these things are going to be destroyed in this way what sort of people ought you to be?\n\nLet me give you this closing illustration.\u00a0 I\u2019ve used this before but when I was younger my parents would take me to a particular restaurant and it was a fairly nice restaurant and there was a giant block of ice and we would sometimes get a table right next to this sculpture, and the was sculpted out of this block of ice.\u00a0 And given the fact that we were sitting so close I, as a young child, could see the perspiration dripping off his face.\u00a0\u00a0 And this guy had talent, let me tell you.\u00a0 He could take a giant block of ice and turn it into anything; he could turn it into as it was Christmas time a Santa Claus or a Christmas tree, at Easter time an Easter basket, or at Thanksgiving whatever you want it to be he could make it into.\u00a0 And I remember watching him work and work and work and work and work and work on it.\u00a0 And I remember being very young the frustration I felt watching him labor because I knew that eventually everything that he had created in such beauty with such energy, was going to melt.\u00a0 What would it last form a few days?\u00a0\u00a0 And if\u00a0 you can sort of put that image in\u00a0 your mind that\u2019s what your average Christian\u2019s life in the\u00a0 United States of America is like.\u00a0 They\u2019ve allowed the American culture to influence where they spend their time, and their energy, and their priorities. And they\u2019re working and investing, not because of a lack of energy, it\u2019s just not a safe investment.\n\nAnd imagine what your spiritual portfolio is going to be like if all of that time, effort and energy that you spent was just redirected into a person or to a human being or into the Scripture.\u00a0 And so that image has always been so astounding to me and I share that with you and I hope it challenges you.\n\nBabylon falls!\u00a0 The real issue is are you going to fall along with Babylon?\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to!\u00a0 If you\u2019re an unbeliever you\u2019re going right over the cliff but if you\u2019re a Christian you\u2019re on the winning side of history, not because there\u2019s something inside of you that makes you a winner.\u00a0 It\u2019s because\u00a0 you\u2019re connected to the One by faith, Jesus Christ, who overcame.\u00a0 His overcoming makes you an overcomer because you\u2019re connected to Him.\u00a0 You see that?\n\nAnd you become a Christian, the Bible says, over 150 times, by trusting in the One that He has sent.\u00a0 John 6:28-29, \u201cWhat must we do to do the works of God?\u201d they asked Christ.\u00a0 He said this is the work, [29] \u00a0<\/sup>Jesus answered and said to them, \u201cThis is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.\u201d\u00a0 Believe means to trust.\u00a0 You trust in Him for your salvation,\u00a0 you trust in Him for the safe keeping of your soul, you trust in Him for your eternity and that makes you an overcomer because you are connected to the One who overcame.\n\nThat\u2019s how easy it is to become a Christian.\u00a0 And no doubt the Spirit of God is convicting people of this, maybe in the room, maybe as our teaching goes out on the internet and social media, who knows?\u00a0 Who knows whose computer file or desk this sermon will come across?\u00a0 Part of it is just fun to figure out what God\u2019s going to do with us based on some of the e-mails we get.\u00a0 We\u2019re just astonished at what God does with so little.\n\nAnd so we always want to complete our service with a presentation of the gospel, albeit it brief, reminding people that they can get right with God; they need not be on the sinking sand as the Babylonian city and system, they can be a citizen of a city that\u2019s come whose builder and maker is God, whose foundation can never be shaken, simply by trusting in what Christ has done.\u00a0 Now how easy is that!\u00a0 And we encourage you to do that; you don\u2019t have to walk an aisle to do it, join a church to do it, raise a hand to do it, fill out a card to do it, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you trust in Him and He saves you at that point.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 But as we grow in Christ we ought not to let the world\u2019s temporal values drive the way we live as Christians.\u00a0 We ought to invest our time, talent and energy into safe investments, and the things that will last.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for this time of the year and the many things that we should be thankful for.\u00a0 We\u2019re thankful for You and what You did for us and how we are not on the losing side of history; we\u2019re on the winning side of history, we\u2019re overcomers because of You.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t