Dependable
End of Days • Sermon • Submitted
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· 36 viewsGod will vindicate His people. When this is all over, we will be proven right because He is right.
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Read Revelation 18:1-24
You guys remember the story of Jonah from the Bible, right?
Jonah and the whale - it’s a favorite in the children’s department.
The story goes something like this: Nineveh was an enemy of Israel.
The Ninevites as they were called, were wicked, evil, unGodly people and they often tormented Israel.
And the people of Israel would have been very happy if God had dropped a Sodom bomb on them and wiped them off the face of the planet.
But that wasn’t God’s plan.
God called Jonah and told him to go tell the people of Nineveh to repent and follow God.
Jonah said, “Oh no. Not going to happen.”
So you know the story - he runs in the other direction as fast as he can, gets on a boat, boat encounters a storm, everyone finds out that the reason for the storm is Jonah is running from God, they toss Jonah overboard, he gets swallowed by a great fish.
For three days he swims with the fishes as it were, the fish upchuck’s him on land, he goes to Nineveh, he preaches repentance and they do, they repent and follow the Lord.
And it made Jonah mad as fire that they repented and God saved them and he asked God to kill him, Jonah 4:3
Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
I’ve wondered why he said that and I may have an answer - don’t really know because the Lord didn’t think it important enough for us to know.
But I have a theory about why Jonah wanted to die when Nineveh repented.
He had to go home.
And the people at home hated Nineveh and the people at home thought Nineveh should be destroyed and the people at home thought the people of Nineveh should be killed in the most horrendous way possible.
And Jonah is the guy that the Lord used to save them.
It’s no fun being a prophet.
You are swimming against the tide - it makes you tired and it invites opposition.
Prophets aren’t the most popular dudes in town.
It dawned on me Friday that this is why I’m so troubled preaching Revelation.
The text has forced me - and I chose that word on purpose, forced me into the role of a prophet.
See, if Revelation is somewhere out there in the future, then the preacher can simply be a fortune teller - this is what’s going to happen one day to the bad guys and we aren’t the bad guys.
But if Revelation is now, well, that means we have to take a good hard look at our world and what we think and believe.
And we might realize that the Lord is calling us - and our nation - to repent.
Revelation 18 is dark - for me at least it is the darkest chapter in the Bible that I’ve ever read.
And here is the reason - I believe if you do an honest reading of Revelation 18, you can’t help but see the United States as Babylon.
I’m not going line by line, we could but I don’t know that we could bear it, but if you are honest as you read it, you can’t deny what you see.
The only good news in the entire chapter is Revelation 18:20 and it speaks to God’s dependability.
Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you saints and apostles and prophets,
for God has given judgment for you against her!”
God said He would judge the world if people did not repent and follow Him - and that’s exactly what He has done.
This morning we are going to look at three ways Revelation 18 calls the people of the United States, and the church, and you and me, to repent because of His dependability.
Number one, we must repent because God is dependable in his price.
In chapter 17 and 18, I keep hearing echoes of the Tower of Babel.
You remember the tower of Babel story - again, it’s used in the children’s department all of the time.
We have to go way back to Genesis 9.
The great flood is over - the ark has landed and everyone has gotten off the ark.
Noah conducts a worship service and then God says a couple of things: Genesis 9:5-7.
And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
What is that saying?
First, God says that people are to spread all over the earth.
Second, God says that, because God made us in His image, we all, every human being alive regardless of any difference - visible or invisible, every human being alive has ultimate worth.
Whoever disrespects human life is in essence disrespecting God.
He created us in His image.
Are you with me?
Now, in Genesis 11, people started gathering together and listen to what they said: Genesis 11:4
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
Do you hear the rebellion?
God told Noah and his kids - have babies and spread all over the earth.
What did the people at Babel say - “let’s make a name for ourselves,” hear it, “lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth,” lest we do what God told us to do.
That’s what I hear when I read what Babylon said back in Revelation 18:7.
As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,
since in her heart she says,
‘I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
and mourning I shall never see.’
Do you hear it?
She glorified herself.
She said, I have made a name for myself.
I did it my way - I didn’t need any help from any one.
I did this.
Not once did she even hint that she understood that God provided her with the very air she breathed.
Jesus said that the Father “makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Paul says in Romans 1 that if you want to see God all you’ve got to do is open your eyes, Romans 1:19
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
She didn’t want to see.
If she saw, she’d realize that God had a claim on her life and her rules would have to change.
And she liked her rules - her rules made her rich.
You saw her shopping list in verses 12 and 13 - it sounded like the punch list for an episode of “My Lottery Dream Home.”
Gold, silver, fine linen, costly wood, bronze, marble, all kinds of perfumes - did you notice cinnamon and spice?
I love going to North Georgia in the fall and going into some of the rustic little shops in Blue Ridge and Helen.
You know the ones I mean - they look a bit like a log cabin or they are decked out in rustic wood.
And what do they smell like?
Cinnamon and apples.
That is the most down home smell on the planet - it just says sit down and relax - enjoy the view - take a load off.
Babylon could afford all of that she wanted.
The list keeps going until it get to something that sounds odd in English but is downright peculiar in Greek.
At then end of the list it says, “slaves, that is, human souls.”
Now stick with me, this is technical.
First off, if the people in our country right now who are so upset about slavery were really upset about slavery, they would be doing something to free the over 25,000,000 slaves in the world right now.
India and China are two countries with the highest numbers of slaves.
And yet, how do we treat them?
India operates almost every call center in the world now - it’s almost impossible to speak to an American when you call for customer service.
And China - every time you put on your Nike gear, say a prayer for the Uyghur children who are slaves in China and are forced to sew the gear with the swoosh on it.
And some how, I’m not fully sure, Coca-Cola benefits somehow from China’s slave market.
But you just don’t hear much about that, do you?
This is technical - but I know you can follow me.
The wording at the end of verse 13, “slaves, that is, human souls,” is an odd construction.
Why not just say slaves?
Why say it like that?
So, I looked at the original language and there I got a surprise.
The typical word for slave in Greek is doulos - it’s translated servant sometime too.
The word in verse 13 is soma.
Soma means body.
Now follow me - remember the value God places on every man, woman and child, born and pre-born, black, white, fat, skinny, smart, challenged, blue eyed, brown eyed, you name it, remember?
God created us in His image, we are of ultimate value.
But to Babylon, we are simply bodies to be counted.
A doulos - a slave has value - the slave can provide a service to their master.
Relationship were sometimes formed between the slave and their master.
But a body - a body is useful only as long as it is useful - when it is expended, replace it with another body.
We see this lack of respect for God and his creation all around us, don’t we?
We create a right out of thin air to allow a pre-born child to be disposed of.
We pass laws for assisted suicide and work so we can dispose of those who are no longer useful.
Or Nike or whoever, can have nameless Uyghur children sew over priced clothes so they can make an insane profit and finance millionaire athletes who protest their own oppression.
You know that angst you feel every time you call customer service and the corporation has a phone-tree so deep you can never get to a live person?
Let me put a name to that for you - they are treating you like a body and not a person.
God is dependable in His price.
Human beings will always be the most valuable entity on this planet because God created us this way.
The world was very good after God created the man and the woman in His image.
We are precious.
Their is no human life that is not precious.
And yet, we are growing more and more accustomed to being treated as bodies.
We must repent because God is dependable in his price.
His people have ultimate value to God and they always will.
In fact, look at Revelation 18:24
And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,
and of all who have been slain on earth.”
God didn’t forget His people.
God will never forget His people.
God will never forget you - ever.
God’s people are forever on His mind and one day He will vindicate His people.
All of the people on this earth who degraded and demeaned, who mistreated and abused people, God will - well, He will burn them and the smoke of their burning will rise up forever.
And the only way to forestall this judgment is to repent.
The church in particular, we can’t accept this devaluing of human life.
And it’s not only abortion, as appalling as that is, it’s the devaluing of life all around us.
From slaves making our clothes to science saying we no longer need to test older folks for diseases because they are going to die anyway, to real, true injustice where ever we see it - it’s got to matter to us.
We need to pray the Lord forgive us and pray the Lord open our eyes to it and pray the Lord show us how to make a real difference so people are people created in God’s image again and not just bodies to be stacked up for the crematory.
Second, we must repent because God is dependable in his precepts.
A precept is the way God does business - precepts are the rules God Himself follows in all that He does.
Here is one I know you’ll remember - it’s used as an argument to justify most everything now a days.
Matthew 7:1-2
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
We aren’t supposed to judge anyone for any reason.
What they do is what they do and we should support them in their expression of themselves and the reality they are creating.
But if that’s true, what do you do with this?
Revelation 18:4-6
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues;
for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.
Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,
and repay her double for her deeds;
mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
God is dependable in His precepts.
How does He do business?
By the judgment you pronounce you shall be judged.
Pay her back as she has paid back others.
God is dependable in His precepts.
Now that’s one example - but there is another one hidden in there too.
“Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.”
I know it’s hokie but it’s true, if you lay down with dogs, you are bound to get fleas.
If you hang out with evil, don’t be surprised when you get burned too.
I wonder how many young folks lives have been seriously diverted because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong crowd.
The book of Proverbs begins with Proverbs 1:10
My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
He goes on and on and on trying to convince his son that evil glitters like gold but it’s a deadly poison that you don’t even have to drink to die.
All you have to do is touch it.
Let me ask you bluntly, are you flirting with evil?
If I started making a list of ways we flirt with evil the list would go on for hours and I still might miss your temptation.
But the Holy Spirit knows and right this moment He’s calling to mind how you - and I - flirt with evil.
Repent - follow the Lord - for He is dependable in His precepts.
Even if you are His child, you will not escape His discipline - you will forever be His child - but He will not let us get away with sin.
Repent, for the Lord is dependable in His precepts.
And finally, repent for the Lord is dependable in His plan.
One phrase in chapter 18 jumped out at me - “For in a single hour...”
“For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
“For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”
“For in a single hour she has been laid waste.”
In our End of Days series, we’ve studied 4 empires.
The Babylonians empire lasted 1,300 years - but then it was gone.
The Assyrian empire lasted 300 years.
The Persian empire lasted 220 years.
The Roman empire lasted 500 years.
But then they were gone - in a single hour.
I may have mentioned this before recently, I don’t remember, but someone said to me, “you never know when you say good-bye to someone that it is the last time you’ll ever see them.”
Think with me now, your high school friends, did you really realize that last time you went to Dairy Queen and sat in the parking lot and talked.
Then you all got in your cars and went home, did you ever in your wildest thoughts dream that was the last time you were going to see them?
Life changes without warning and without our permission.
A single phone call, a single conversation, a single moment - and life as you imagined it changes - and you can’t do anything about it.
There is no time travel.
Forgiveness never wipes out the consequence.
There is only one thing to cling to, the Lord is dependable in His plan.
He will never leave you for forsake you.
You know, John has no clue of a rapture in the book of Revelation.
It doesn’t speak of a rapture - it gives no real clues about when that kind of event might happen.
For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, the rapture is a word used to describe what happens in 1 Thess 4:14-17
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
My personal study of Revelation so I could preach each Sunday has brought me to a new place.
I have no clue what the rapture will look like or when it will occur or how it will occur - I have to believe something will happen because scripture says so - but I don’t know how.
This I know for a fact, with the end of chapter 18, the judgment of the earth is done.
Oh, I know, there are some loose ends to tidy up - Satan, the Antichrist, the False Prophet, all of the unGodly people have to be dealt with yet.
But the way Jesus deals with them - it’s with fire, it’s with a word, it’s with angels.
And it’s done.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:43-44
But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Next week, in chapter 19, Jesus returns.
And you know, when he does, it doesn’t matter what you are doing that day.
It will be the last time you ever do it, because the Lord is dependable in His plan.
Church, for 18 chapters the Lord has been calling to us to repent - because the Lord is dependable.
He will do what He says He will do.
Friends, for 18 chapters the Lord has been calling you to repent and trust Jesus as your Savior - because the Lord is dependable.
He will do what He says He will do.
He’s going to come back and if you are not ready, well, you’ll become a loose end that will be cleaned up.
Repent - please listen - hear me - repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Let us pray.