If its not worth doing, then don't do it!
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If its not worth doing, then don't do it! |
     
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The Fall of Babylon Revelation 18: 1-24
A few years ago when I was coming into the PCA one elder asked me the basis for my choosing to abstain from alcohol. I was shocked! The old denomination that I grew up in had always been involved in the temperance movement! In that old United Presbyterian Church in North America men in leadership had to justify their choosing to drink. Certainly we now understand that the temperance churches went too far fundamental in their regulation of personal habits. However, let us also remember that habitual or outrageous drunkenness which reflects on the reputation of the church is a matter for church discipline.
The real reason I mention this issue is to get us to Chapter thirty-five of Jeremiah. This is the text that I personally discovered to justify my own personal abstinence. This chapter is about the Recabites, who were a rural people who not only refused to drink wine for many generations also refused to live in settled towns and cities. At the time Jeremiah reported the faithfulness of this family in Israel, the whole country was swarming with Babylonians. To escape these destroyers the Recabites had to come to Jerusalem. I feel like I can personally identify with the tragedy of these people. For most of this century our way of life in rural America has been under assault by what I would call babylonian powers that limit our abilities to function independently. One Reformed author noted that in the two millenial movement west from Jerusalem the growing Church over the centuries has regularly fled babylonian types of persecution. In this fleeing, new lands have been led to Christ, new continents and countries settled and founded. This author has also stated that now there is no longer any place for Christian Pilgrims to flee to reestablish anew Christ's kingdom separate from any babylonian powers. We are caught in the midst of a babylonian world today. And just as Jeremiah urged the people to flee from Babylon in chapter fifty-one, so does the Apostle John urge us to spiritually come out of Babylon even now. Just as I and my family are being caught up in the babylonian destruction of rural prosperity, so are we all faced with choosing our relationship to worldly powers, temptations and associations. Let us turn to chapter eighteen of John's Revelation to see the long term implications of Babylon's great influence and power! In this chapter and the next the Apostle John outlines the judgment of the great city. His description here echoes the prophetic doom songs of Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. While John's revelation is a new song in its application, he does rephrasing what the ancient prophets had announced of Tyre, Babylon & Nineveh. Here John announces not only the fall of one city or empire like the Roman, but of the eventual collapse of human civilization itself! Final judgment implies the overthrow of all that opposes itself to God. And this is the nature of every Babylon that has raised its head since the beginning of time. In the first three verses a great angel announces the fall of the great city. This fall of humanistic civilization will probably have its roots in the very evil nature of humanism itself. This fall of Babylon is certain, because it has already been announced by an Angel of the Almighty everlasting creator, our own Father God. The angel speaks of the complete desolation of the city. Babylon is deserted by men, it has become the cage of every foul spirit and it is haunted very probably by vultures. Verse three gives us the reason for the destruction. It is because of the sin of corruption. Not content with sinning herself, the great city encouraged others into sin. Kings and Merchants are compromised in their temporal relationships. And in being caught in compromising positions, their guilt is very real! The next two verses in four and five are addressed to the people of God. In the midst of Babylon where subtle and not so subtle forms of persecution harry believers, we may be tempted to come to terms with the great city which is the world around us. After all, Babylon can not only cause persecution to cease, but Babylon may make lives rich and comfortable. All of the vain things of this world do have an attractiveness to us we must remember. What is it we desire most, worldly prosperity and comfort or spiritual assurance that God is with us and for us? Come out, Come out of Babylon is a theme that is echoed from Genesis to Revelation. Step apart from the kingdoms of this world. Remember that we are citizens of another Kingdom. Compromise with the world is fatal and Paul in several letters urges the Church to be aloof from the world. Be in, but not of the world is the theme here. These verses are the key to Chapter eighteen. John is not writing to celebrate the destruction of Babylon, he is appealing to Christians to see the realities of the actual situation. In verse five he points out that the sins of the city are glued together in a pile that reaches to heaven. This image reminds me of my last trip to the dump in our area. This huge landfill which is attracting material all the way from New Jersey is becoming mountainous in proportions. We are beginning to hear of plans to raise up an mountain of trash to dominate a whole neighborhood. We will be viewing the mountain for many generations in Logan County. In the same way, the sins of the worldly Babylon are not forgotten, but are stacked up and eventually reach heaven. God will not be mocked! We move on to the next three verses (6-8). Here a voice calls for the destruction of Babylon. Notice that her own plagues are to overcome her. Also note that the punishment is to be in proportion to her own wanton attitude as one rare greek verb expresses it in verse seven. The words "in her heart" points to a deep-seated attitude and probably one of which she is quite unconscious. I know of several people with worldly powers who have absolutely no knowledge of the wickedness they are promoting. Such is the society of Babylon which sets itself up as the Gate of Heaven. Such a society seeks the glory of its own towers at Babel. Such a society is well described by the prophet Isaiah (47:7): You said, "I will continue forever - the eternal queen!" Yet, four plagues of destruction are promised. Death, mourning, famine and fire spell disaster for the great city. When I was in Seminary, a group of musicians took it upon themselves to rewrite several hymns. They removed the rural images and replaced them with descriptions of cities. The God they pretended to worship did not tower over their worldly arches, girders and steel! The power and might of the Lord God Almighty must not be overlooked because it is he who will judge Babylon. So we are assured that Babylon will fall and be destroyed. But, how will people respond to that falling? We find out in verses nine through nineteen. Back in the seventies when the international situation was grim, one of the ladies at our school was lamenting the possibility of a nuclear war ending our way of life. Wouldn't it be awful if the centers of power and commerce were dislocated by such a tragedy? She was absolutely furious when I observed that such a destruction might give us a chance to rebuild a new society. But where would she shop, she asked? As you look at these verses you will see the mourners listed. There are the kings, the merchants and shippers. Power and commerce are always the glories of mankind. Whenever Babylon falls there is always severe political and economic dislocation! In John's time the might of the Roman babylon was all too obvious to the little Church. The Apostle John wants believers to see that no might can stand against that of the Lord our God. The original historic Babylon is today a pile of ruins visited only by Bedouin and Archaeologists. It is the haunt of wild animals and birds. This was the city that meant to raise up a tower to the heavens to make a name for themselves. At the bottom of that same tower archaeologists found a clay tablet which proclaimed that the gods became angry during the course of its building and threw down their dreams of fame. So will our newer babylons fall in time. The focus of this chapter now switches from the forces of evil to those of the good in verses twenty to twenty-four. Verse twenty was the verse I had in mind when our faculty argument over Babylon occurred. Just last fall some other people were dwelling upon the great plans for Logan County. Very many are looking forward to huge development projects, Malls, factories and sub-divisions. Won't that be great I was asked? I wondered it there would still be any room for cows and sheep. I stupidly said out loud that the only thing that would save our pastures and woods would be a good Depression! This same sentiment was echoed during a Media visit to the local crowd in the East Liberty gas station and elevator a few months ago. The media reporter was very confused about the lack of enthusiasm for the planned development of Honda valley! One of my commentators observes that this verse twenty appalls many modern people. Let me remind you that this is not a vindictive outcry. It is a longing that justice be done. In my area I can see the economic forces impoverishing the farmers to cheapen their land so that governmental powers and mass merchandizers can develop new fortunes upon the economic graves of our way of life. Now, let me be fair in saying that the rural population is not perfect, we are receiving a just punishment for our own abuse of the land and economy. And as this century draws to a close the seeming power of babylon grows and affects more and more of the everyday concerns that fill all of our lives. This babylon that is destroyed is symbolically portrayed throughout this whole chapter. The description of Babylon is general enough here to apply throughout all time to those worldly powers that would claim our devotion and attention. Babylons rise and fall throughout history, we have seen some fall in our own lifetimes and may live to see the fall of others. When our Lord Jesus Christ returns Babylon, will be tossed into into the depths of the sea forever. The main point before us today is that we are called to observe that the pleasure mad, arrogant world, with all its seductive luxuries and pleasures, with its antichristian philosophy and culture, with its teeming multitudes that have forsaken God and have lived according to the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the mind, shall perish. Where will you make your eternal home? The call of this chapter is for you to come out of the world into the heavenly kingdom. The reason for that call is so that you do not share in the sins of Babylon, the plagues of Babylon or the destruction of Babylon! Certainly, you can continue to work and live in that place God has appointed for you whether it be suburb, city, village or farm. Those places are physical and material. For now we live in a material world. But, it will not last forever. Even the green green grass of every home will perish at the end. We must seek a spiritual kingdom that will outlast the physical realities of this present age. And that kingdom is to be found only in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America) Box 13926 -- Columbus, OH 43213 Rev 18a 06 May 90
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