Lamenting Babylon
The Conquering Lamb • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
“Don’t care how, I want it now.” -The famous last words of Veruca Salt—the nasty little girl from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, who was so spoiled that Wonka’s factory determined her to be a bad egg.
This world lives with this as her mantra.
Pleasure, Power and Profits.
These things must be had in immediacy.
Don’t care how I want it now.
Therefore, the world gets in bed with Babylon.
They give themselves over to the Harlot who promises these things to them if they will simply tip back the cup of her sexual immorality and imbibe it.
And at times, it is difficult for the godly to observe the people of the earth, in bed with Babylon, drinking up the immorality and yet, they seem to prosper.
They see to get all the things they want.
The pleasure, the power and the profits.
And maybe, as a godly person, you feel like you are abstaining from the world in futility
You feel like you are pursuing the Lord, but reaping affliction
Meanwhile, the godless advance and grow more and more affluent and authoritative
You would agree with Asaph—the choir director of David—who says this about the godless
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
And in observing this and comparing it with his own godly life, where he is struggling, he says:
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
Asaph is trying to reconcile these two realities:
I live for the Lord and yet I suffer.
They live for themselves and yet they prosper.
It wore him slam out to think on these things:
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
Maybe you are weary tonight from the same business.
You have been trying to reconcile your struggles with the blessings of those who oppose God and seemingly hate Him.
And you are worn out.
You are worn out from watching Babylon prosper from your place of affliction.
Well, I hope that Revelation 18 will help you tonight.
Sometimes, we need to remember how dangerous the pinnacle of prosperity actually is.
The world thinks they are standing on the top of the globe—getting everything they want with no God to answer to.
Revelation 18:9-19 shows how this pride will end in lament.
CONTEXT
CONTEXT
We pick up the text where we left off last week. We have seen five of the seven cycles of Revelation pass. We are in the 6th and we are focused on this comparison between two women and two cities.
The Great Prostitute and the Bride of Christ
Babylon and The New Jerusalem
One body is made up of those who reject God’s provision of salvation in Christ
One city is made up of those who dwell on the earth and bow down to the Dragon’s Beast
The other body is made up of those who are in covenant with God through Christ
The other city is made up of those who dwell in the Son and bow down to Him as King
We are not quite at the point of seeing the glory of the bride of Jesus. It is close. Lord willing, that is September 6th.
But we do see Babylon’s funeral tonight.
Her old friends stand up and eulogize her.
“Let me tell you some stories about the Great Prostitute that is laid to rest by the justice of God today...”
And we will see how God takes the Veruca Salt Kingdom of Man and flips it on its head in judgment.
And with that flipping, there will now be someone else on top.
And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,
“Alas! Alas! You great city,
you mighty city, Babylon!
For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.
“The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your delicacies and your splendors
are lost to you,
never to be found again!”
The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
“Alas, alas, for the great city
that was clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold,
with jewels, and with pearls!
For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”
And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
“What city was like the great city?”
And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out,
“Alas, alas, for the great city
where all who had ships at sea
grew rich by her wealth!
For in a single hour she has been laid waste.
THE LAMENTATION OF THE KINGS (v. 9-10)
THE LAMENTATION OF THE KINGS (v. 9-10)
We start with the lament of the kings of the earth.
They commited sexual immorality with her and lived in luxury with her (v. 9)
They weep over her and wail over her when they see the smoke rising up (v. 9)
These kings of earth have been in bed with Babylon.
with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
For all nations have drunk
the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,
and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
What exactly does that mean? What did that look like at the time of the Roman Empire?
Well let’s remember what the term “sexual immorality” means.
It is a phrase that points beyond itself to something much worse.
It is a way that the Bible speaks of spiritual infidelity
It is an effort at autonomy apart from God
In the same way a wife who steps out on her husband to be a prostitute is rejecting his provision and love to provide for herself apart his headship, humanity rejects God and seeks to exist apart from His love and provision.
And when you reject God in this way, it will ultimately devolve into some sort of sexual immorality.
Romans 1 tells us that.
With that in mind, how did the kings of the ancient world get in reject God and seek power apart form Him by drinking the sexual immorality of Babylon?
Well, I would say that they did the same thing as the kings before them and the kings after them.
The same thing that the kings of today do.
They are willing to sacrifice any and every moral in order to keep power, gain influence and build wealth.
If getting into bed with Babylon means enjoying the pleasures and luxuries of Babylon, the world’s leaders are all to eager to do it.
We would not say that this is the case with every king or every leader.
But we would have to admit that this is the case with many.
And it is evident in how they govern.
It is evident in how they speak.
It is evident in how they live.
They change with the times.
They walk out in the morning and lick their fingers and put it in the air and see which way the wind blows and then they go with it.
Wherever the bulk of the population is going, they will jump in front of it and say they are leading the way when really they are just followers
True godly leadership is not afraid to stand alone on convictions, even if the hoard is going the opposite way.
But this is not the way the kings of the earth live.
So they cry out and lament in v. 10.
Babylon was once great, but now she has been reduced to nothing in a single hour.
In a very short amount of time.
The mighty city is no more.
In this section of verses, when you see the wording, “For in a single hour,” it signals the end of a lament.
This is the end of lamentation of the kings of the earth.
1. Those who sought POWER from Babylon lament her (v. 9-10).
1. Those who sought POWER from Babylon lament her (v. 9-10).
TYRE
TYRE
The rest of the words of verse 10 here are meant to draw our attention back to the lamentation of the sea princes who come off their thrones mourning the destruction of Tyre in Ezekiel.
Then all the princes of the sea will step down from their thrones and remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground and tremble every moment and be appalled at you. And they will raise a lamentation over you and say to you,
“ ‘How you have perished,
you who were inhabited from the seas,
O city renowned,
who was mighty on the sea;
she and her inhabitants imposed their terror
on all her inhabitants!
The princes of the sea mourn the fall of Tyre like the kings mourn the fall of Babylon.
Tyre was a natural, complimentary Old Testament reference to liken to the judgment of Babylon.
Tyre was much like Rome—beautiful, but grimy.
Much like Babylon—beautiful, but full of abominations.
Tyre was a Phoenician city located in a very lucrative position in terms of trade and commerce.
They ruthlessly pitted the Assyrians and Egyptians against each other to build their wealth.
The merchants in the city were known for ripping people off.
The city was a hotbed for religious idolatry and sexual immorality.
But they felt their geographical position and their wealth made them invincible.
And Tyre hated Jerusalem.
The city looked at Jerusalem jealously and rejoiced when they suffered.
So Ezekiel said that Tyre would be destroyed to the point that it would look like nothing was left but the top of a rock.
They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock.
The city won’t just fall. God’s judgment will be so thorough there will be no evidence that anything had even been there.
It was described like Satan himself:
“Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God:
“Because your heart is proud,
and you have said, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of the gods,
in the heart of the seas,’
yet you are but a man, and no god,
though you make your heart like the heart of a god—
Tyre fell in Old Testament times in part.
But it wasn’t until 324 BC, when Alexander the Great took it down to the ground that the prophecy was fulfilled in whole.
However, by the time of the New Testament, Tyre had been built back up and it gained some prominence again.
Jesus spoke of Tyre and Sidon in His teaching.
But before it was rebuilt, Alexander made it like the top of a rock.
God’s words came true.
Babylon in 539 BC
Tyre in 324 BC
Rome in the 4th century
And then, in the end, the whole world of Babylon will be brought to destruction in judgment.
And if this is what will come of Babylon, then the kings know that they are doomed.
They put their hope and trust in Babylon and now Babylon is burning.
As they watch the justice, they anticipate their own.
And that justice comes in the great supper of God’s justice in Revelation 19:17-18
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.”
Do not make the mistake of the kings of earth and seek power in this world.
THE LAMENTATION OF THE MERCHANTS (v. 11-17)
THE LAMENTATION OF THE MERCHANTS (v. 11-17)
We have seen how those who sought power from Babylon will lament her fall. Now we turn our eyes to the merchants in verses 11-17.
At first it might appear they are after profit. That is certainly part of it—after all, they are merchants.
But I want to say that these are actually the ones who are pursuing pleasure most passionately.
Take a took at the first few verses (v. 11-13) that precede this lamentation from the merchants.
These verses are a parallel to Ezekiel 27, where Ezekiel is listing out all of the goods and wares that merchants will no longer be able to sell because of Tyre’s destruction.
Just as that passage lists out the goods being sold, so do verses 11-13.
They sold the absolute best of the mineral kingdom.
Gold, silver, jewels, wood, bronze, iron, marble and the chariots that come from such materials.
The absolute best of the plant kingdom.
Linen (flax plant), cinnamon (tree), spices, incense, frankincense, myrhh, wine, oil and flower
The absolute best of the animal kingdom.
Pearls, purple cloth (snails), silk (silkworms), scarlet cloth (made from dye gathered from insects in oak trees), ivory (elephants and a few other mammals), cattle, sheep and horses
The awful culmination is seen in verse 13.
These merchants sold slaves to the people of Babylon.
SLAVERY (v. 13)
SLAVERY (v. 13)
And before I get to our second point, I want to take just a couple minutes to set the record straight a bit regarding the Bible slavery.
Because I see this as a key New Testament verse that you can set up alongside an Old Testament verse and see that the Bible does not condone slavery in the modern sense of the word.
Owning slaves is something that was common before the Law of Moses was given.
God spoke into a world in which it existed.
So God did not institute slavery.
God regulated it.
The Law allowed Hebrew men and women to sell themselves into slavery to other Hebrews.
But the Law insisted they be treated well
The arrangement could last for 6 years, but on the 7th year—in the year of Jubilee—the slave was to be released
When they are released, they were to be blessed as the Lord blessed Israel, with full hands for what they will need in life
The Law also allowed Hebrews to have Gentile slaves.
But again, they were not to rule over them with brutality
You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
The Law also provided an option for a Hebrew to sell themselves into slavery under a Gentile.
They also were to be released in the year of Jubilee and the Law instructs for them to be treated with dignity.
The New Testament keeps in this spirit.
God speaks to the slavery system of the ancient world and calls for the Gospel to reform it.
Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Paul teaches that there is no problem with a slave being a brother in the Lord
no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
You might ask—why didn’t the New Testament just outlaw it?
The Gospel meddles directly with no political or social arrangements, but lays down principles which will profoundly affect those, and leaves them to soak into the general mind.
Alexander MacLaren
And that is true. The principles to end slavery are all there in the Bible.
All people are made in the image of God
The divine regulations regarding slavery in the ancient world that standalone
For outside of ancient Israel, you simply don’t find slaves being treated with such care and humanity
Slaves should be accepted as brothers in the Lord
The redeeming and freeing nature of the Gospel itself
But even with that said, I want to point out that the Bible is clear about the type of slavery that we are most familiar with.
The Bible is clear with the sort of slavery where you would go and kidnap people from their home and take them away and enslave them like an ox.
“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,
And here in Revelation, you see that the culmination of the evil of the relationship between Babylon and the merchants is people.
They have had the best of the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom, but that is not enough.
They must go beyond that which God created as good, which they buy and sell as their own.
They will go and take that which was very good in God’s eyes, humanity, which He created in His image—and they will enslave them like property.
It is the ultimate offense to God in terms of theft of His creation.
“We will take people that you made for your glory and we will ensure they are about OUR glory.”
Slavery is not over, of course.
We know that there 27 million slaves in the world today.
Many of them are children.
And the church should be at the front of the fight to end it—the governments and celebrities don’t seem to care.
EXPOSED (v. 14)
EXPOSED (v. 14)
The heavenly voice from verse 4 is speaking in verse 14:
“The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your delicacies and your splendors
are lost to you,
never to be found again!”
Now, all the merchants can do is think of the glory of the past.
With Babylon judged, they will never enjoy the pleasure that comes from their evil business dealings with the world.
And in verse 14, we are seeing the real pursuit in all this for the merchants who made their money with Babylon.
It was about more than money and possessions.
They wanted the best of the mineral kingdom and the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom, but they wanted those things because those things will give them pleasure.
This was beyond the physical.
Their souls longed for the fruit of pleasure that the riches brought.
In the inner man, they do not find pleasure in God. They find pleasure in the world.
And as long as the world’s goods are stacked up high, their guarantee of pleasure lives on.
2. Those who sought PLEASURE from Babylon will lament her (v. 11-17).
2. Those who sought PLEASURE from Babylon will lament her (v. 11-17).
But in verse 14, the voice is saying, “You will not have this pleasure again.”
This must have been the feeling that the merchants of Tyre had as they watched it burn at the hands of Alexander the Great.
This also must have been the feeling that the merchants of the world had as they watched Rome burn in the 4th Century at the hand of the Visigoths.
Where will we make our money now?
But of course, new cities rose up.
Constantinople.
London.
New York.
Tokyo.
And the merchants just find a new Babylon.
Until the end comes.
When all the cities of man and the evil network of humanity is brought to nothing and is never to be found again.
MERCHANT’S LAMENTATION (v. 15-17)
MERCHANT’S LAMENTATION (v. 15-17)
This section concludes with our second lamentation of the passage. The merchants utter their final lament for Babylon.
They stand far off in verse 15 because they know the same judgment will come for them.
There are no more cities to run to.
There is no more pleasure to be had.
They only have memories.
Now, like a widow at a funeral, it is time for the merchants to weep and wail because their harlot has fallen.
As Thom Schreiner says:
The day of the harlot’s judgment has come, and now they can only think nostalgically about a past that will never come again.
Thom Schreiner
The lament itself is a eulogy for the former beauty of Babylon.
She lies in the coffin now—cold and lifeless.
She used to be dressed in all that fine clothing from chapter 17.
The clothing of the prostitute:
Fine linen or purple and scarlet
Gold
Jewels and pearls
And all this supposed beauty, and all her supposed wealth—it comes down in a single hour.
It is laid to waste.
All the schemes and systems we have come up with to make money so that we can go out and find joy and happiness apart from God...
All the complex economies of the world...
All the parlors and bars and theaters and brothels and even royal throne rooms, where humanity has gone to drink from Babylon’s cup ...
It will be brought to nothing.
All the ways we came up with to get pleasure from riches, God will destroy in an instant when His Son returns in judgment.
Do not make the mistake of the merchants and seek pleasure in this world.
THE LAMENTATION OF THE SEAMEN (v. 18-19)
THE LAMENTATION OF THE SEAMEN (v. 18-19)
We now arrive to all who make their trade on the seas in verses 18 and 19.
They are closely related to the merchants who make their lamentation in verses 11-17 in the sense that they are about accumulating wealth.
But the focus here is not so much on the pleasure that comes from wealth.
These seafarers are the ones who depend on the ports of Babylon to survive.
These are the shipmasters—the pilots.
These are the seafaring men—the dockworkers and ship-owners.
These are the sailors—the passengers and workers upon the ships.
This is anyone who made their trade on the sea and trusted in Babylon to provide for them.
Those who go alone with her wicked ways in order to make a place for themselves in this world
I make this distinction because I know we have men and women who have made their living off the sea that attend this church.
Some of you still do.
But you aren’t in bed with Babylon.
You have come out of the world and you are in Christ.
You don’t need to fear these verses.
But I have a feeling that you know people who do need to fear them.
3. Those who sought PROFITS from Babylon will lament her (v. 18-19).
3. Those who sought PROFITS from Babylon will lament her (v. 18-19).
MOURNING (v. 18-19)
MOURNING (v. 18-19)
They cry out as they see the smoke go up from her destruction like a funeral pyre saying, “What city was like the great city?”
It is the same cry of the generation that would see Tyre made like the smooth rock:
In their wailing they raise a lamentation for you
and lament over you:
‘Who is like Tyre,
like one destroyed in the midst of the sea?
This is very much how people reacted when Rome fell as well. Do you remember what the early church father Jerome said about it in a letter to a highborn woman from Gaul?
If Rome be weak, where shall we look for strength?
Jerome
Even believers were shook when Rome came tumbling down.
How do you think those who made money from her ports and her industry felt?
Those who had placed all their hope in her.
They weren’t taking their eye off heaven for a moment like our brother, Jerome.
No—they are fixated on the smoldering ashes of the harlot they loved.
And the only care they have of heaven is their realization that God’s judgment has come against her.
Again, they are like mourners at a funeral in verse 19.
They throw dust on their heads and they cry and they mourn and they cry out again:
English Standard Version Chapter 18
Alas, alas, for the great city
where all who had ships at sea
grew rich by her wealth!
For in a single hour she has been laid waste.
Much like the merchants, all the seafarers can do is eulogize the woman that they loved.
She never loved them back.
She used them to keep the depravity and the rebellion churning.
But oh, how they loved her:
For everything they had on their plate...
Everything they had on their back...
Everything they had in their homes...
The very ships they steered through the waters...
They attributed it all to her.
You see that in verse 19.
They weep and wail as she burns because she was their hope.
She was the one they depended on to grow rich and make profit.
And now she is gone.
And the One who laid her to waste in a single hour will do the same to them.
This is why stand “far off” in verse 17 as well.
You see this in verse 20 as ell. We will focus more on the rest of the verse next time, but you can see that they recognize who has brought this justice on her:
It was the Lord. It is God.
Do not make the mistake of all whose trade is on the sea and seek profits in this world.
Because in this world alone will you have your reward.
THE GREAT REVERSAL (PSALM 73:17-19)
THE GREAT REVERSAL (PSALM 73:17-19)
And that leads us to where I want to leave off tonight.
We won’t be in Revelation together again until September.
DON’T STOP COMING TO MIDWEEK.
Pastor Ben is leading next week from the Psalms.
You are invited to my front yard on August 23rd to sing for a while as a way to close out the summer.
There is a Members’ Meeting on August 30th.
So this is the last you will hear from Revelation for a month and I want to leave you with the impending reality of how things will reverse in the end.
Let’s go back to King David’s choir director in Psalm 73. Remember that he has nearly lost his faith it seems. He couldn’t understand why the wicked prospered and God’s people suffered.
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
This brother was struggling.
Until what?
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
He remembers who God is.
He remembers that God is a God of justice.
And so Asaph says:
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Is this not the story of Babylon?
How they are destroyed in a moment
What was the refrain that we heard from each of Babylon’s lamenters?
For in a single hour…laid to waste
For in a single hour…judgment has come
We may look at those who stand on top of the world and see their power and think, “Why are people like that running the culture?”
We may look at those who are experiencing the heights of pleasure and think, “Why do they get to taste that in their souls?”
We may look at those who are making copious profits off of the evil in this world and we think, “Why do they get to have all of the toys?”
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN
But we have to remember that they are playing King of the Mountain here.
Do you remember that game?
ILLUSTRATION: We used to play it when I was a kid.
You find a hill of a dirt and one person jumps on top and yells, “I am the king!”
But they are only there for a second.
Some other little beast would come charging up the mulch pile and spear you like Lawrence Taylor
It was like watching the old ESPN “Jacked Up” segment when they would show all of the hardest hits of the day
That was before we realized concussions probably shouldn’t be a gimmick
But this world is playing king of the mountain.
They run up there and yell, “I am king” and then they won’t be.
Most of them can’t even stay up there for an entire lifetime.
How often do we see people rise and then fall?
And even if they manage to accumulate enough wealth and power to live in pleasure for a lifetime, at some point, you die.
You can’t stop it.
OH HOW THEY WANT TO STOP IT.
Jeff Bezos is worth $200 million.
He is involved in a thing called the Live Forever Project, where they are trying to extend human life by fifty years.
This will supposedly be done by mixing monkey cells and human cells together re-program the human body.
I know you probably think this is some conspiracy theory.
You think I am talking about some weird Twilight Zone plot where a bunch of billionaires go to some mansion in Palo Alto in the middle of COVID and try to figure out how to live forever.
IT HAPPENED.
And it isn’t a conspiracy or a Twilight Zone plot. I read about it in a MIT article!
They will not live forever, no matter how much they want to try and change God’s design.
Are not all of these just more Babel-like attempts from humanity to build a tower to heaven in rebellion against God’s will?
IT WILL BE FLIPPED
IT WILL BE FLIPPED
The truth is that their end will come.
God will make them fall to ruin
They will be swept away utterly by terrors
Destroyed in a moment
You mix all the monkey and human cells you want—It cannot atone for the sin of your soul.
Those who are far from God because they are still devoted to sin and those who are unfaithful to God and faithful to Babylon, will perish.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
When that happens, we should rejoice, as the saints of God—as those who have been made righteous through faith in Christ—because justice has finally come.
The world that hates us has been defeated.
It will be time for righteousness to reign.
Even the seafarers know that. (v. 20)
English Standard Version Chapter 18
Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you saints and apostles and prophets,
And when world is defeated—when the city of man finally falls—everything will be flipped on its head.
Those who suffered for the Lamb, will suffer no more.
Those who went without for the Lamb, will go without no more.
Those who were powerless because they would not take the mark of the Beast, will be powerless no more.
Those who were impoverished because they couldn’t buy and sell in the marketplace, will be impoverished no more.
The reason the kings and the merchants and the seaman come to Babylon’s funeral to eulogize and throw ashes in the air is because they are no longer on top of the mountain.
They realize that they are no longer at the pinnacle, but under the point.
It is like their mountain got flipped upside down and what they stood on now crushes them.
They stand far off hoping this won’t be the case, but it is not going to stop it.
But for believers, who have been living under the pressure of the point--
For believer who have been underneath the mountain of suffering for Christ in this transient life--
They will now stand on the pinnacle.
But there will be no king of the mountain played, because they will be co-heirs with the King on the Mountain.
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Christ will be on the Mountain of His glory forever.
He will never be removed from that pinnacle as Lord of all.
And as those who have him as our Head—our Second Adam—Our Refuge and fortress of feathered, shadowy wings—we will never be removed either.
For He has died and rose and conquered in order to share His Kingdom with you—just as God intended to do with the the First Adam from the start.
BEATITUDES
BEATITUDES
So hold on.
Yes the wicked may have power now, but you know that you will reign forever on the New Earth.
Yes the wicked may have pleasure now, but you will have pleasures unending flowing from the right hand of God to your glorified heart forever on the New Earth.
Yes the wicked may have profits now, but you will have profits beyond measure when the King of Glory shares His whole Kingdom with you forever on the New Earth.
Be willing to suffer for Christ now, knowing that you will win in Him in the end.
Let me close with the Beatitudes. The greatest start to a sermon of all time.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
But have you ever considered them in the negative?
If the Beatitudes represent the ultimate reward that will come to the blessed ones who wait on the Lord, what will come of those who bow down to the Beast and choose instant gratification?
Cursed are those who are full in this world, for theirs is the kingdom of man.
Cursed are those who are celebrating this world, for they have their comfort now.
Cursed are those who are proud, for they have their inheritance now.
Cursed are those who hunger and thirst for evil, for they are satisfied now.
Cursed are the brutal, for they shall receive brutality.
Cursed are the sinful in heart, for will not see God.
Cursed are the divisive and quarrelling, for they are not children of God.
Cursed are those who revile Jesus’ people and persecute them and utter all kinds of evil against them falsely. Mourn and be sorrowful for you have your reward now and not in heaven.
Do not make the mistake of the kings, the merchants and all whose trade is on the sea.
Your King is in heaven
Eternal pleasure is the kingdom to come
And the profits will be unending as we live and serve under the scepter of our Bridegroom. The Conquering Lamb.
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