Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would fall, continue to fall upon us.
We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would both humble us,
but at the same time, Father, that your Holy Spirit humbles us.
May your Holy Spirit fan into flame within us a hunger for you,
to know you, to be known by you, to be yours.
Father, we ask for this double work of your Holy Spirit this morning,
to both humble us and fan into flame a deep hunger for you.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
I'm getting older, so I'm allowed to be curmudgeonly,
although I have to be careful I don't become too curmudgeonly.
But for a long time, even before I got older,
I've had problem in churches when they applaud the praise band.
Not that we've done it here,
and not that we couldn't clap our hands for Jeremiah and the band,
but on my holidays, I go in some churches,
and they sing a real rock and praise song,
and then everybody stops and claps their hands for a while,
and then they sing another song,
and then they all clap their hands and hoot and holler.
And I have to confess, I always feel very conflicted when I'm there.
In fact, if you saw me, everybody's clapping and doing all this
and clapping and doing this, and I'm just standing here like this,
because I just feel, it sort of feels funny.
It feels a little bit like when you watch a lot of sporting things,
and after somebody's done really a good job,
they say, I'm the man.
I'm the man.
I mean, how would it, you know, I just, I, like, we're the church.
Whoa, you know, like, listen to us sing.
Whoa, I just, it feels, it just feels funny to me.
You know, I know that, you know, I know it's, it's,
I know that it's not the case that churches where everything is really solemn,
like a lot of Anglican churches where nobody cracks a smile,
like to crack a smile is to sin against the Holy Spirit.
Whoever she is, that's how a lot of Anglican churches would say, speak.
And, or whoever it is, and you're allowed to crack a smile.
You have to be completely and utterly serious.
And, you know, there's, you know, immaculate,
whether it's a band or a choir and everything's immaculate.
And, you know, it doesn't, it seems as if you don't have,
I understand sometimes that people just get really excited and joyful
and they want to clap, and it's, I just, I feel conflicted by it,
you know, a lot of times.
And I also know that it's not the case,
that it might very well be the case at that church that I visit
where the band has just really pumped out something
and then everybody cheers and claps,
that the band is completely and utterly,
it might very well be the case that the band is completely and utterly unmoved by it
and they don't take the glory onto themselves.
And that the solemn, somber church that would no more clap after something than,
I don't know, than, you know,
they would say, drop the F-bomb during the service,
that the organist or the minister or the choir or the band might walk away
just feeling really like, wow, did I ever do a good job?
Like internally they have, you know, externally they have the solemn face,
but internally they're going, I'm the man.
I'm the man.
Did we ever knock that out of the park today?
I'm the man.
But, you know, somber on the outside.
But it, don't you, it's, I, anyway, I feel conflicted
when churches applaud the band.
You know, I mean, I do sort of like listening to Joyce Meyer
and she makes a good point and the whole auditorium bursts into applause
and I wish it would happen to me occasionally.
But I guess I just don't speak as well as Joyce Meyer.
We often have supper to Joyce Meyer, by the way.
So those of you who listen to CHRI know roughly when we eat supper,
we go from Joyce Meyer to focus on the family.
But anyway, the Bible text here talks a little bit about glory
and the dangers of glory.
And maybe after we've read these next few verses in the Bible text,
it'll just, you will, I will have given you the gift
of being conflicted about applause in church.
So let's just turn to it.
And because the text begins with a sort of actually a very, very powerful insight
into human glory and angelic glory
and sort of what it is and how we easily misread it
and misunderstand it when it's sort of going on in our own lives.
And as always, there's Bibles up at the front.
If you didn't bring your own Bible, you can have it,
use it during the service, take it home as a gift if you'd like.
And we're looking at Revelation chapter 18.
And it's back of the Bible if you're not familiar with the Bible.
And verse 1 is where we'll begin.
And just to give you a bit of context,
I'm not going to give you the context for all the book of Revelation
as we're preaching through it.
But in chapter 16, there's sort of a final cycle of judgments.
And then the book of Revelation, John sees something different.
He's sort of looking at the same thing from a different perspective.
And he sees sort of a pronouncement made on Babylon, the great city.
And all the way through the book of Revelation,
Babylon, sometimes it's called Rome, sometimes it's called Jerusalem,
sometimes it's called Egypt.
But it's a consistent vision of the city
organized in contempt against the living God
and in rebellion against the living God.
Babylon sort of becomes a symbol throughout the book of Revelation
for the city and all that the city means.
That means culture, it means government, it means education,
it means commerce,
it means just the normal way that life is organized
and the city is organized in a preeminent way
in contempt against the living God
and in rebellion against the living God.
And in chapter 17,
we see it described
and we're told of its doom.
And in chapter 18,
we now sort of get the judgment
that God makes on it
and two types of responses to that judgment.
But it begins with this
interesting comment on glory.
Look at verse 1.
After this, I saw another angel
coming down from heaven,
having great authority,
and the earth was made bright
with his glory.
Sort of notice that here,
and it's a very easy thing for us to misread
what's happening in text.
Look at it again.
Having great authority.
I saw another angel coming down from heaven,
having great authority,
and the earth was made bright
with his glory.
I like watching movies.
I like watching superhero movies.
I'm looking forward to seeing
the next Captain America movie
that's already come out.
I haven't seen it yet.
I enjoy the first Iron Man movie very much
and the other ones to certain degrees.
And the problem is that,
not the problem,
but if you've watched Iron Man movies
or have watched any of the Avengers movies,
I'm going to maybe get some of the details
a little bit wrong
because I'm not a Marvel comic geek
that always remembers all the details
of the made-up science and mythology,
but Iron Man is, of course,
a billionaire who, of course,
is good-looking,
who, of course, is witty,
who, of course, is a genius,
and, of course,
he's able to invent a metal suit
that allows him to fly,
and it's all powered by,
I think it's some type of
cold fusion type of thing
that's just a little small thing
that goes right there in his chest,
keeps him alive,
and it creates enough power.
I don't know,
they said an early thing about,
I don't know,
it could power all these cities
for all these decades forever,
and he doesn't need all that.
It means he can fly faster than jet planes
and do like this with his hands
and knock walls down
and tanks and people,
and what guy wouldn't be able
to like to do that?
I can't speak for girls,
but what guy doesn't wish
he could just do that
and go, woof,
and the power just knocks things down?
So anyway, this is Iron Man,
but in many ways,
what happens to us
when we think of glory,
we think of something like Iron Man,
because Iron Man has all the power
in and of himself, right?
And so when we think of this angel coming down,
we think a little bit of like Iron Man coming down,
because you see,
in our hearts of hearts,
all of us like to say,
I'm the man,
because we sort of think
that there's glory in us
that comes out.
But every time the Bible talks about glory,
and especially in the book of Revelation,
it's really trying to communicate
a very different image to us.
Image would be something like this.
I'm out maybe somewhere,
you know,
I'm lost in the woods
or something like that.
I'm with maybe my little granddaughter,
Bria,
five years old,
and we come across,
you know,
like sort of an old cottage,
and we're sort of going to take some shelter in there.
And for some reason,
I want to go and look at something.
Maybe I think I can hook something up.
And I can't get any light.
I don't have any matches or anything.
But I notice that there's a mirror.
I take the mirror down
and I give it to my little five-year-old granddaughter,
Bria,
and I say,
Bria,
if you just stand here right like this,
and the sunlight will come in and hit this mirror.
And if you just point it like this,
the sunlight will come and hit the mirror
and bounce into the spot that I want to see
and get some work done
and maybe it'll help us.
And virtually every time in the Bible,
every time in the Bible,
actually it's talking about true glory.
The image we should think of
is a five-year-old little girl
holding a mirror
that catches the sun
and shines into a dark place.
We should never think of Iron Man.
We should think of a little five-year-old girl
holding the mirror
that reflects the sunlight
into the darkness.
Here's the first point.
There is no autonomous glory.
The Bible says there is no autonomous glory.
Period.
All true glory of created things
is a reflected glory from the living God.
There is no autonomous glory,
a glory in and of ourselves,
an Iron Man-type glory.
There is no such glory.
We might think,
I'm the man,
I'm the man, you know?
Jeremiah might leave after service going,
I'm the man.
George might leave after service going,
I'm the man, you know?
But there is no autonomous glory.
You know,
the President of the United States,
the President of Russia,
the Prime Minister of Canada,
might go,
I'm the man, I'm the man.
There is no autonomous glory.
All true glory of created things
is a reflected glory
from the living God.
See,
that's why it is
that the Bible can talk about
how the heavens declare the glory of God,
the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The image underneath there
is it's somehow or another
the stars and the moon
and just the sky
and later on in other parts
in the Old Testament,
in the New Testament,
in the trees and the rivers,
that it's not that these things,
and it's not that when we see
an unbelievably beautiful sunset
that we're seeing something autonomous
and separate from God,
but we see the created order
properly turned
at least for a moment
to reflect the glory
that ultimately comes from God.
The glory to which
we are called to,
and we as fallen,
bent human beings,
at times,
we reflect the glory of God
because there is no autonomous glory.
All true glory of created things
is a reflective glory
from the living God.
See,
that's why Christians aren't dualists.
It's why Christians aren't Buddhists.
It's not,
we're Hindus.
It's not that we think
that the material world
is an illusion.
It's not that we think
that the material world
is a prison.
It's not that we think
that the material world
isn't as important
as soul or spirit.
It's none of those types of things.
The soul is created.
Angels are created.
My mind is created.
Trees are created.
Rivers are created.
Angels are created.
Sheep are created.
And all creative things
have the power
to reflect the glory
of the living God.
My mind and my body
can reflect the glory
of the living God.
That's what the Bible teaches.
That's how we are to understand.
And you can sort of see it
a little tiny bit
here in the text.
It's more obvious
than the original language.
Look at verse one again.
After this,
I saw another angel
coming down from heaven.
And it's because he's coming down
from heaven
that he has great glory.
And it's because he's coming down
from heaven
that the earth was made bright
with his glory.
He's aligned with heaven.
He's reflecting that glory.
And as he reflects the glory,
it illuminates the earth.
And the implication
and the invitation is
that for we who also
are trying to align ourselves
with God,
that that glory goes
and shines as well through us,
through broken,
ordinary people
like you and me.
Now some of you might say,
George, that's all,
that's sort of very,
that's interesting.
But,
George,
the thing about this text,
and sometimes,
George, you do this,
you know,
you pick on something
really at the beginning
of the text.
And I'm almost worried
sometimes, George,
you'll stop preaching then
so you don't have to deal
with the fact
that, you know,
the problem in this text,
George, for me,
isn't the early parts,
it's verse 20.
It's verse 20
where it sounds
like God is telling people
to rejoice
over the destruction
of people.
It's not that they're all
clapping their hands
to the choir
and clapping their hands
to the praise song
or even that all of a sudden
something weird
happens to the congregation
and it's like a
Joyce Meyer congregation
and they all clap
every time you make
a good point.
The problem isn't,
that isn't the problem,
George,
the problem is
that it's as if,
look at verse 20,
it's as if,
it's as if after all
the judgments are talked about
that they're saying,
okay, let's rejoice,
rejoice,
for God has given judgment
against this city
and that,
George,
that's the problem
with this text
and I hope you don't just say,
oh, well,
we're going to get up
to verse 13
and I've run out of time
and off you go.
Like, you have to deal
with this, George.
It's a very, very good thing.
It's an important part
of the text
and so let's actually,
we are going to get there
but to get there
we have to first see
something in verse 2
because the text
actually has a great consistency
of talking about
not only God's glory
but of justice
and of the appropriate way
to respond to justice,
the call to justice
and it's all in the text
which leads us
to that verse.
Let's look at verse 2.
The angel comes,
sorry, verse 1,
so the angel comes down
and the angel,
in verse 2,
he called out
with a mighty voice,
fallen,
fallen is Babylon the great.
She has become
a dwelling place
for demons,
a haunt
for every unclean spirit,
a haunt
for every unclean bird,
a haunt
for every unclean
and detestable beast.
In other words,
it's become a place
where no proper thinking
human being
would now want to go.
No, if you were there
you wouldn't turn
your back on anybody.
verse 3,
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
and immorality here
is a,
it's an image
of the merchants
and the kings
just can't get enough
of what a city
organized
in contempt
against God
and rebellion
against God
and we're going to see
in a moment
what that sort of entails,
what it looks like
and all these merchants
and the kings
they just can't get
enough of that.
They just can't get
enough of contempt
of that.
They can't get enough
of that rebellion.
They can't get enough
of,
as we'll see in the text,
economic exploitation.
They can't get enough
of sorcery.
They can't get enough
of having slaves.
They just can't get
enough of oppressing.
They just can't get enough
of killing innocent
human life.
They just can't get
enough of that
and that,
the image of sexual
immorality is,
it's an image
of passion
as if when a couple,
they just can't get,
you know,
enough of a person
who's another man's wife
or another,
a woman's husband
and they just can't
get enough of it
and that's the image
behind it
of the judgment
not only on Babylon
but of these other kings
and the merchants
and the sailors
and the political class
and the cultural class
and the educational class
and all of these classes
that just,
they can't get enough.
They can't get enough.
They can't get enough
of something
that God ultimately
is saying has fallen
and that in its heart
it's a haunt
of demons
and unclean beasts
and unclean things.
That's the image.
Verse four will continue.
Then I heard another
voice from heaven
saying,
come out of her,
my people,
lest you take part
in her sins,
lest you share
and her plagues
for her sins
are heaped high as heaven
and God has remembered
her iniquities.
Virtually every time
in the Bible
when it says
that God has remembered
you should understand
that God remembers
to act.
That's the implication
of the image.
God remembers
to act.
When he remembers
he's acting.
Verse six,
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.
Just pause.
That's not like
a double-double
from Tim Hortons.
It's not saying
that she should get
twice as much
as what she's done.
It's an image
of full,
up to the brim.
When I go to Starbucks
I like my coffee
either black
or next to black
and so when they ask me
how,
I always say
I have my coffee black
because I don't want
to get a coffee cup
and have like
an inch and a half
of space between
the coffee
and the top.
I want them to get it
right to the top.
And that's the image here.
Make sure
that the cup
is completely full.
That's the image
of double.
Verse seven,
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.
No,
verse seven again,
she glorified herself,
right?
Her entire ideology,
I am the man,
I am the man.
That's her theme song.
Okay.
And then it shows itself
out in verse seven
in the middle.
I sit as a queen,
I am no widow
and mourning,
grieving,
I shall never see.
For this reason
her plagues
will come in a single day,
death and mourning
and famine
and she will be
burned up with fire
for mighty is the Lord God
who has judged her.
And this word judged here
is an important word.
It actually is a word
that's,
by pointing to this word
you can get a bit
of an understanding
of underneath
in the original language
underneath a lot
of the images
up until here
and all the way through.
It's a specifically
legal image
from the law courts.
And so what's being
presented here
a little bit
is an image
and this might help
us a little bit
with understanding
what's going on
in the text.
Imagine for a second
that there's a company
that knowingly
put some type
of toxic substance
in a whole pile
of products
and tens of thousands
of people
either died
or were made
severely ill.
And so in our culture
a class action suit
was brought
by these tens
of thousands
of people
who've been damaged
by this company
that knowingly
did the wrong thing
and you go to court.
And so the image
here very simply
is on one hand
there is the plaintiff,
this company
that willingly did
something
to cause lots
of damage.
And on the other side
are the defendants
and the defendants
are the ones
who've suffered
underneath
what the plaintiffs,
what the defendants
have done
and the plaintiffs
have gone to court
about it
and God
is the judge.
So in this particular,
the image is
that Babylon
is the defendant
and if you go
to the end
of the text,
go to the end
of Revelation chapter 18
you'll see
that the plaintiffs
are the followers
of Jesus
and every innocent
who's died
as a result
of Babylon's action.
We're the plaintiffs.
All the innocent dead
and all the followers
of Jesus
are the plaintiffs.
Babylon is the defendant,
God is the judge
and Revelation 18
is God pronouncing
his judgment.
Babylon is guilty,
the defendants
are vindicated
and just as you would see
in a law court
if something like that
was to happen today,
you would see
the plaintiffs
cheering,
that's partly
a key part
of the image
here
because it's an image
of a law court.
But there's something
far more significant
to the text
to help us understand
the jubilation
and Andrew
if you could put up
the next point
it's this,
that God's justice
is so high
and so humble
that when I face it
and I should probably
have said him,
I will fall short
and I will have
no valid excuse
or rebuttal.
God's justice
is both
so high
and so humble
that when I face it
I will fall short
and I will have
no valid excuse
or rebuttal.
Here's what I mean.
A lot of people
when they start to hear
about the Christian faith
and Christians struggle
with this as well
and on one level
if you read through
the book of Revelation
and even this text
it portrays
the complete
and utter
perfect justice
of God.
God is perfectly
just,
he's perfectly
sovereign,
he's perfectly
good,
he is the perfect
creator,
he is the perfect
sustainer,
he is the perfect
end of all things,
everything about God
is perfect,
he's in heaven,
Babylon can rage
against him,
the dragon can rage
against him,
the beast can rage
against him,
the false prophet
can rage against him,
the armies can gather
in Armageddon
to rage against him
but he is so high
above them,
this is all completely,
this is like microbes
right now
being mad at us,
okay,
microbes in this room
are angry at you
and they have nothing,
they're nothing,
they're microbes
and we're people,
we don't even know
they exist,
not that God knows
they exist,
he's active in all this
but God is high
and so many people
when they see this text
and they hear about
God's judgment
they say,
George,
how on earth
could me appearing
before God
ever be fair?
It would be a little bit,
George,
like all of a sudden
you having to go
in a week's time
and you go with
all the engineering
students at Ottawa U
and you take
Calculus 2 final exam,
okay,
let me tell you right now
if I had to take
the Calculus 2 final exam
with all those
engineering students,
the only way
I wouldn't get zero
is if they give you
a mark
for spelling your name right
on the booklet,
okay,
if they allowed me
a mark
for spelling
George Sinclair correctly,
I could go home
and say,
Louise,
I got 1%
on that exam,
1%,
but if they don't
allow a mark
for that,
it's zero.
In fact,
I would look at it,
I was a very,
very bad student
in first year university,
like I was a really
bad student,
nobody took attendance,
nothing happened,
I remember
it was a full year
course,
I went to take
my economics exam,
no,
it was a take home exam,
I got my take home exam
and I think,
I'm just going to be able
to blow this off,
I'll just look it up
in the book,
I'll be able to answer this,
I was so far behind,
I couldn't understand
a single question
to know where
to look it up,
okay,
and that would be
way ahead of me
doing a calculus exam,
so you see,
a lot of people
when they think
of God's high justice,
they think,
how on earth
could this ever be fair,
George,
look at how perfect
God is,
how on earth,
and so,
the book of Revelation
not only communicates
how high God's justice is,
but if you look
at verse six,
it's a really important verse
and it's repeated
in different forms
all the way
through this text
and it's a very,
very important verse
and it says this,
pay her back
as she herself
has paid back others,
pay her back
as she has paid back,
she herself
has paid back others,
and so,
what it's doing,
this is showing
the humility
of God's justice,
so God says,
so I make this
complaint to God,
I'm at the justice,
the final throne
of judgment,
I say to God,
come on God,
it's like making me
do calculus too
with all the engineering
students,
okay,
like that's not fair,
and so God says,
okay George,
I'm going to accept
for a moment
that that's not fair,
you know what I'm going
to do?
I'm going to use
George's standard
of judgment
to judge George,
that's all I'm going
to do,
so George,
you just stand here,
I'm just going to replay
a little bit
about when you're driving,
how you evaluate
other drivers,
when you're thinking
of other ministers,
how you evaluate
other ministers,
when you're thinking
of people's spiritual walk,
how you evaluate that,
I'm just going to go
through all these evaluations,
I'm just going to go
through your evaluations,
George,
we'll make a list,
now we're going
to replay your life,
and judge you
by your list,
and I would fail,
because I'm like
every one of you,
I in effect
live my life
like a pagan god,
believing I can
pass judgment
on others,
and I myself
am immune,
and separate
from the judgment
I pass on others
from that ever
being applied to me,
and I don't think
I'm being more evil
or wicked
than anyone here,
God will say that
to every single person,
okay,
I could judge you,
I have every right
to judge you
by my high
exalted standard,
I'll just judge you
by your standard,
my wife and I
at different times
have joked
that we wish
that we'd had
videotaped recordings,
we were the first
in our family,
and the first
in our circle
of friends to marry,
we were the first
in our circle
of friends
to have children,
and for many years
we wish that we
had videotaped
our friends
without children
commenting
on our child-rearing
practices,
so that when
they had children
we could play it
back for them,
and watch them
squirm,
and get red,
and terribly embarrassed,
and for the same
parents who have
this little trusting
two-year-old,
you know,
trusting two-year-olds,
and we have like
a 15-year-old
or a 13-year-old,
and the comments,
well, my child
will never do this,
my teenagers will,
we wish we could
have videotaped that,
and showed it back
to them when their
child turned 13 or 15,
once again,
to watch them squirm,
because the fact
of the matter is
is we pass judgments
all the time,
and don't think
that we ourselves
have to live under it,
and so verse 6 says
that what God
does to Babylon
is God uses
Babylon's standard
of justice
to judge Babylon,
see, that's why
in the book of Romans
and the book of Revelation,
the message is
that God's justice
is so high
and is also so humble
that when I face it,
I will fall short
and I will have
no valid excuse
or rebuttal.
How is God going to
deal with evil?
How is God going to
deal with people
who have never heard
of Jesus?
I don't know.
I don't know all
of the intricacies
of his mercy.
I don't know.
I know what I know
about God.
What I know
with unshakable certainty
is that God is just.
What I know
with unshakable certainty
is that God is merciful,
that he is good.
And what I know
with unshakable certainty
is that if you or I,
when you or I,
stand before God
with all of their humanity,
we will not hear
a single judgment
made by God
on any single human being,
and we will not say
that God was wrong
and that they had,
that there was any excuse
that they could have used.
I have that.
I believe that.
The more I read the Bible,
the more I am completely
and utterly certain
about that.
I'm willing to have speculation.
I'm willing to talk.
But the bottom line is
no one will have an excuse.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Now,
the question then
is
how do we respond
when we get caught?
How do we respond
when we, in a sense,
have to stand before God?
That's one of the things
that really drives the text.
In our own lives,
how do we respond?
I mean,
there's us doing wrong
and nobody catches us at it.
But the really interesting question
in our own lives
is when we get caught out
doing something wrong,
how actually is it
that we're responding to it?
Like,
for a married man
getting caught
watching pornography,
and he gets caught
by maybe his best friend
or by his wife
or daughter or son,
how does he respond
to that?
Is partly
how he responds
is it
not that
is a large part
of his response
grieving,
mourning,
because he's been caught?
is it
because
now
he has
less status
or prestige?
Is he
grieving
and worried
that now
they're going
to put
some type
of control
on the computer
and they won't be able
to watch
the pornography game?
Or is he
grieving
because what
he's done
is truly wrong?
And there's
many,
many areas
in our lives
where that type
of question,
it's a bit
of a subtle question,
but it's a very,
very profound
difference,
and it's this
very question
which the Bible
text here
now presses
in on,
that after
Babylon
is judged,
even by its
own standards,
what's the
response to this?
Like,
how is the
response working?
And that's
what happens
from verses
9 right
through to
verse 19,
and it's
an important
thing to see
in the text,
and it's an
important thing
for our own
lives,
in terms of
how is it
that God
wants us
to respond
to having
his just
standard
come against
us,
so that we
realize what
that just
standard is,
and it's
sort of revealed.
How is it
that God
wants us
to respond?
Look at how
it works
in the text,
verse 9.
And the kings
of the earth
who committed
sexual immorality,
that's the image
I explained
earlier,
and lived in
luxury with
Babylon,
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,
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
and jewels,
and it keeps
going,
and the real,
if you sort of
skim through them
to the end of
verse 13,
sheep and
cattle and
sheep and
horses and
chariots and
slaves,
that is human
souls,
there's a bit
of a pause,
this is a
profound critique
of slavery.
It's a profound
critique of the
slave labor that
still exists in
many parts of
the Muslim world,
there's a profound
critique of
slavery that
exists in
China,
an atheistic
government,
that still has
slave labor,
it is a profound
critique of
the sex trafficking
which is a
very common
form of
slavery in
our modern
world,
women made
virtually to
live as
slaves to
give sexual
favors to
men for
the money of
the men who
own these
women as
chattel,
for the
child labor
that exists in
many parts of
the world,
people,
it's a form
of slavery
and this is a
profound
rebuke.
And it's
specifically designed
in the text,
okay,
the person,
he has a dog,
he has a cow,
he has a horse,
he has an oxen,
he has Joe,
and it's just
for the slave
owner,
there's no
difference,
the dog,
the oxen,
the horse,
the cow,
Joe,
Sally,
Betty,
and the text
says human.
Human soul,
it's a profound,
profound critique
of the institution
of slavery.
And then look how
it goes 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.
The merchants of
these wares who
gain wealth from
her will stand
far off in fear
of her torment,
weeping and
mourning aloud,
alas,
for the great
city that was
clothed in fine
linen and
purple and
scarlet,
adorned with
gold,
with jewels
and with
pearls,
for a single,
in a single
hour all this
wealth has
been laid
waste.
And we'll
just sort of
pause there.
You see what
they're longing
in their
mourning?
It's as if
these merchants
are saying,
oh,
Babylon's
destroyed,
all the gold,
remember all the
gold we used
to have?
I'm going to
miss that gold.
Oh,
the great
meals,
all the
great meals
destroyed,
I'm going to
miss that.
Oh,
the slaves,
all the
slaves I
owned,
I'm going
to miss
it.
What you
see in the
response to
Babylon's
judgment,
and the
text is,
the implication
in the text
is that they
recognize that
the suddenness
of Babylon's
judgment and
doom indicates
that something,
someone like
God has been
at work,
and they
see this,
and they
know this,
but what
characterizes
their grieving
is that their
grieving is
self-centered,
that their
grieving consists
of hiding
from God,
their grieving
consists of
wishing that
the pleasure
that they had
will return.
The grieving
they have is
that they grieve
that they've
lost their
status and
their power
and their
prestige,
but none
of them
says,
what was I
thinking
owning a
slave?
What was I
thinking
exploiting my
workers?
What was I
thinking
using my
power to
force people
to sell
things to me
really cheap
that I could
sell them
for a huge
profit?
What on
earth was I
thinking?
Never enters
their head.
Here's the
point.
Put it up,
Andrew.
there is a
godly grief
that leads
to life
and a
worldly
grief that
leads to
death.
There is a
godly grief
that leads
to life
and a
worldly
grief that
leads to
death.
And what we
see here,
we see it
with the
kings,
we see it
with the
merchants,
and we see
it with
the sailors,
which I
won't bother
reading,
is that in
every case,
they're not
actually
concerned that
what they've
done is
wrong.
And their
reaction to
God revealing
himself and
revealing the
wrong is to
hide or to
flee, in a
sense to
retrench and
get more
resources and
more power.
Isn't that
often how it
works with the
powerful?
That when
something's about
to be revealed
that's going to
make them look
weak, our
response is not
repentance,
but get
more power.
I'm going to
get in trouble,
I'm going to
get the better
lawyer, I'm
going to
outspend, and
I'm going to
get the better
lawyers to
beat these,
I'm going to
beat the
rap.
I'm going to
use my
skills to
talk my
wife around,
I'm going to
do that, I
don't want to
lose my
power, I
don't want to
lose my
prestige, and
there's a
grieving, there's
a sorrowing,
there's a
worrying about
what's going
on, but it's
not a
repentance based
on an
acknowledgement
that what
was done
was wrong.
It's a
grieving that
leads to
death, and
God wants us
to grieve in
a way that
involves repentance
and turning to
him and saying,
God, I don't
know, what I did
was wrong, I
see that it's
wrong, have you
any mercy for
me?
Can I be
relieved or
delivered from
this?
It's the
difference between
a man caught
watching pornography
who now spends
all his time
trying to figure
out how to
continue watching
pornography,
or the man who
says, I have a
problem, and I
want to amend my
life, God.
I want to amend
my life.
The Bible
here portrays
that there is a
choice that we
have between a
godly grief that
leads to life and
a worldly grief that
leads to death.
What is God's heart
for you and me?
What is his hope?
Next point.
What is God's hope
for me and you?
Choose life.
What is God's hope
for me and you?
Choose life.
The cry of the
Old Testament, the
cry of the New
Testament, choose
life.
Choosing God is
choosing life.
Choosing repentance
is choosing life.
Now, some of you
might say, George,
here's the problem,
George.
Okay, you're talking
about sin and all
that type of stuff,
and you know, it
just sounds a little
bit like what you're
just saying is, you
know, the grovel,
grovel, grovel,
grovel, rules,
rules, rules, rules,
you know, sorry,
sorry, sorry,
sorry, maya culpa,
maya culpa,
maya culpa.
And you know,
George, if that's
just, like I can
sort of see how
people turn their
back on us.
I can see how
people say, let's
just live and let
live.
What's with all
this breast
beating?
I can see why
people want to be
spiritual and not
religious, because
religion just seems
to be about, first
we make a whole
pile of rules, then
we make a whole
pile of loopholes
to the rules, and
then if we get
caught breaking the
rules, well, we
either just sort of
say forget about it
and do something
completely and utterly
different, or,
you know, where we
just deal with the
shame.
The Bible here in
the text shows us a
profound option.
We, in our world, we
tend to think that the
only options are being
highly religious, which
is going to involve a
lot of beating of our
breast and groveling,
or just basically doing
what we want, and
those are the two
options.
spirituality being sort
of close to doing
what you want, but
with some different
types of rules than
religious people, and
those are the two
options.
And the Bible here
gives us a completely
and utterly different
option.
And it was earlier on
in the text, it's
verse 6, verse 6,
sorry, not verse 6,
it's verse 4.
Then I heard another
voice from heaven
saying, come out of
her my people.
Then I heard another
voice from heaven
saying, come out of
her my people.
Then I heard another
voice from heaven
saying, come out of
her my people.
The difference between
religion and being
completely and utterly
just, who cares about
right and wrong, just
going to live and let
live, just going to do
whatever I want.
Those aren't the two
options.
The option is that
God, out of grace and
love, calls you.
Calls me to a new
life.
He calls me.
One of the great
images in the New
Testament of what
Jesus does for us is
the Bible never
portrays that there's
all these Christians
who never do anything
wrong because we're
very good at playing
religious games.
And on the other
hand, there are all
these other people who
don't know how to play
all the religious games
and all the religious
rules.
We don't know when to
raise our hands.
We don't know when to
clap.
We don't know when to
bow.
We don't know how to
say all the words.
We can't keep straight
all that stuff.
The Bible doesn't say
that those are the two
options.
The Bible says that
every single one of us
is in a sense a citizen
of Babylon.
And that what happens
on the cross is that
God who sees our
weakness and our love
for Babylon and our
inability to face what
it is that we've done
wrong.
And God sees us in
Babylon and he sends
his son to die upon
the cross so that the
justice and the doom
that I deserve, the
judgment that I will not
be able to withstand
even under George's
rules, that that will
fall on Jesus.
That will fall on him
in my stead.
And he calls to George
in Babylon and he says
to me, George in
Babylon, I want you
to be my people.
Come to me.
Come to Jesus.
In your place,
condemned, he stood.
The call here is not
to the religious.
It's not to the people
who do not need Jesus.
The call is to the
citizens of Babylon.
That when we put our
faith and trust in Jesus,
the Bible describes us
as being transferred
from Babylon to being
my people.
Here's the point.
You can put it up,
Andrew.
In grace, he died for
me.
In grace, he calls me.
In grace, he saves me.
And by his grace, new
life is formed in me as
I say yes to his call.
In grace, he died for
me.
In grace, he calls me.
In grace, he saves me.
And by his grace, new
life is formed in me as
I say yes to his call.
Because the Christian
life begins when we say
yes to the call of Jesus
to come to him.
It doesn't matter if we've
lived our whole life in
Rockcliffe or if we've
lived our whole life in a
trailer park.
It doesn't matter if we're
serving on Parliament Hill or
if we're living on the
streets.
It doesn't matter if we
have a PhD or if we're
Down syndrome.
It doesn't.
None of the...
The Christian life begins
with ordinary people like
you and me who are citizens
of Babylon who say yes to
the call of God in the
person of Jesus.
And that's how the
Christian life begins.
And all of the revelations
of God's judgment against the
sin in our life as it is
exposed is not just a
revelation but a call to
come to Jesus.
In fact, it's by grace as we
realize that in my place
condemned he stood that we
can start to have the
freedom and the hope to look
at the evil that we do, the
place of evil in our lives,
and actually start to address
it.
Because we understand that in
grace he died for me.
In grace he calls me.
In grace he saves me.
And by his grace new life is
formed in me as I say yes to
his call.
The Christian life isn't we say
yes once and then we live a
life of religious rules.
The Christian life is we say yes
to become his child.
And then we live a life of
constantly learning to hear his
daily call to us to come to
him.
Come to me all who labor and are
heavy laden and I will give you
rest.
Take my yoke upon you.
For I am gentle and humble of
heart and you will find rest for
your soul.
Please stand.
If you're here and you've never
understood that Jesus is calling
you, I didn't say this but if you
go back there in the text, the
voice, for textual reasons if you
look through all the book of
Revelation, the voice is Jesus.
The voice that calls is Jesus.
You look through all of Revelation,
you track it through.
That's who's speaking.
And if there's anyone here who
has never realized that Jesus is
actually calling you to be his
people, his person, there is no
better time than today.
Use your own words.
Just say, Jesus, that's me.
I hear your call.
I want to come to you.
I'm weak.
I can't do it on my own.
Jesus, please cross that infinite
distance and come and take me to
yourself because I now know you've
called me and I want to be yours.
There's no better time than right
now before God.
Don't even finish, don't even stop
listening to me and just say to
Jesus, Jesus, I hear your call.
I recognize that's the tug of my
heart.
Here I am.
Take me.
Here I am.
Take me and keep me yours forever.
That's all you have.
Here I am.
Take me.
For every one of us, God calls to
us.
He never convicts of sin.
Every conviction of sin by
conscience is also a call from
Jesus to come to him.
To be gripped by the gospel and
understand how because of what
Jesus has done for the cross, we can
be grounded in dealing with our
lives.
We can be pushed into new life.
We can be drawn into new life.
We can be shaped into new life.
There's no better time than now to
say yes to that call.
Bow our heads in prayer.
Father, if there is any here who
today has just taken, not my
urging, Father, it's an urging that
comes from the Holy Spirit that I
just, Father, try in some small way to
give voice to, that the pull and tug of
their heart for the first time to
realize that you have been calling them
all their lives and that they are
hearing your call today.
Father, may you pour out your Holy
Spirit upon people.
Pour out your Holy Spirit and help
them to say, here I am.
Take me and never let me go, Jesus.
And, Father, for myself and for
others who hear your call in the face
of things that we do in our lives that
require amendment of life and
repentance, Father, we just ask that
your Holy Spirit would fall with
mighty power upon us.
Help us, Father, to be delivered from
the idea that the choice before us is
a life of religious rules or a life
of completely and utterly ignoring all
rules.
Father, deliver us from such dichotomies
and help us, Father, to hear the call of
Jesus and come to him.
Father, help me to hear the call of your
son Jesus and come to him.
Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us
and make us disciples gripped by the
gospel, living for your glory.
And this we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.