Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #18 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are looking at Revelation14:8-10:

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

I will stop reading there.  We had been talking about Babylon’s fall and God gave us the reason: “Because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

We saw, in Revelation, chapter 17, that God identified Babylon as the “great whore that sitteth upon many waters.”  He said, in Revelation 17:2:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

We also saw that in verse 5, God gives a title to Babylon.  He says, in Revelation 17:5:

And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Babylon is not just a “harlot,” but “THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS.”  From the very beginning, she was the first “harlot” that entered into the world after the fall of mankind into sin, spiritually speaking.  God traces the beginning of the kingdom of Satan, Babylon, back to that point when Eve ate of the fruit and then Adam ate and they died spiritually in their souls and Satan’s kingdom was formed; darkness entered the world and all men were born into darkness, conceived in sin and born speaking lies.  All mankind became a part of the kingdom of Satan, unless God did a work of grace in bestowing mercy upon some, as He did occasionally in the Old Testament with individuals like Noah and Abel. 

A few individuals would be translated out of that kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.  It was just like any point in history – salvation has always been the same.  That is why God says that “Noah found grace in the eyes of JEHOVAH.”  Some theologians miss that and they think that Israel was under a different dispensation and, therefore, through their works in offering sacrifices, they were able to get right with God.  Of course, this idea is abominable to God; this has never been the case in any dispensation or age.  Man is never justified by the works of the Law.  It has always been a Gospel of grace: “Noah found grace in the eyes of JEHOVAH.”  In the Old Testament or in the New Testament, whomever God chose to save were taken (by grace alone) out of Satan’s kingdom, but the rest remained in that kingdom.  It was the beginning of the kingdom of Satan and then, of course, the peoples of the world multiplied and Satan’s kingdom multiplied.  That was the original “harlot.”  What Babylon represents is that initial kingdom of Satan.

We read this last time, but it says in Isaiah 1:21:

How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Now we can answer this.  We know that the New Testament churches and congregations were considered a faithful city as long as “righteousness” lodged in it and the Lord Jesus is the essence of righteousness.  As long as He was in the midst, God counted Christ’s righteousness, in that sense, and He did not come to visit the churches for their “high places,” which had been in full swing since the beginning in the first century AD and throughout church history.  But as soon as Christ abandoned the corporate churches, the “faithful city” could no longer be considered faithful.  God only saw their spiritual fornication and their harlotry, so the faithful city became a harlot.  It is important to know that the church was not always a harlot, as God viewed them, but they became a harlot because they involved themselves with spiritual fornication with Babylon, the kingdom of Satan and of this world.

We can show this from the Bible because God writes out it in a couple of places in the Book of Ezekiel.  It says in Ezekiel 16:26-29:

Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.

Chaldea is another name for Babylon and the Babylonians are also known as the Chaldeans.  Here, God indicates that the sin of His people is that they have involved themselves in spiritual fornication with Egypt, which would represent the world, and with the Assyrians.  It was the Assyrians that conquered Israel (Samaria) in the North.  They also committed fornication in Babylon and the Bible actually paints a picture of Israel and Judah looking at their neighbors and looking, enviously, at their mighty armies and their power and the great kingdoms that they were able to build.  They lusted after their neighbors and they also went after the gods of their neighbors.  They would bring the teachings and doctrines back with them and build the high places for these false gods and then bow down to them.  God took notice and He was offended because He is a jealous God, as Israel and Judah had the only true God.  The other nations had their idols and false gods and they were not the true God, so God was greatly offended.  I am going to read in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 23, where the Lord gives Israel and Jerusalem, representing Judah, two names and these would, in turn represent the New Testament churches and congregations.  It says in Ezekiel 23:4-5:

And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

Again, this is talking about the ten tribes of Israel in the North.  First of all, they “doted” upon the Assyrians; they wanted to be like them; they wanted their gods.  As a result, God raised up the Assyrians to assault Samaria and to destroy them and take them away.  The Assyrians conquered the ten tribes in the North.  Judah or Jerusalem was no better.  I am going to read several verses in Ezekiel 23, so we really get the feel for this.  It says in Ezekiel 23:9-11:

Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her. And when her sister Aholibah…

And this would be Jerusalem, but keep in mind that God is speaking about the New Testament churches.  Then it says in Ezekiel 23:9-24:

And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side; The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

I wanted to read all of this because we can see that historically, Judah followed the pattern that Israel in the North had set in going after a neighboring country.  With Samaria, it was the Assyrians, primarily, and with Judah, it was the Babylonians.  God raised up the Babylonians as an instrument of judgment to judge Judah who had involved herself in spiritual fornication, whoredom, or harlotry with the Babylonians and their gods.  As a result, God used them to judge her.

Now let us relate this to Satan coming against the churches.  Satan is typified by the king of Babylon and Babylon is his kingdom.  And let us ask the question: “Have the churches been enamored with the world?”  Since we entered into the days of the Great Tribulation and in these days after the Tribulation, we now we have a vantage point of being able to look back and see many of the churches’ sins.   What is behind the churches’ sins?  Why are they not satisfied with the Word of God, the Bible, and with the faithful King James Version of the Bible?  Why are they not satisfied to bow down only to God and allow God to govern and direct them, by comparing Scripture with Scripture?  Why do they not submit to the rule of the Word of God?  Why did they not tear down the “high places” of their creeds and confessions?  Why did they not just follow the Bible, like good King Josiah, and rid themselves of these things? 

It was because Satan had infiltrated the churches and his emissaries were there, so since the churches had tares among the wheat and many people within the congregations were unsaved, they naturally had an “eye” toward the world.  They lusted after the world because they were never changed in their hearts.  They had not been born again, so going to church did not satisfy them.  Following the Bible alone was not sufficient.  It did not take care of the deep down desires and the lusts within them that had never departed, so they looked out into the world to fill their lusts. 

We can examine any area you can think of – look at the music in the churches.  The churches looked at “rock-n-roll” and the other music of the world and it was so exciting, as the world had just given itself over to these kinds of music.  Then they looked at the music of the churches; it was very old-fashioned.  It was very calming and peaceful, yes, but it was not exciting and it was not alluring enough.  So they went after the music of the world and they brought the “beat” and the “tempo” and all the instruments of the world into the churches; they would throw a couple of Bible verses in now and then, but now they had the music of the world.   They lusted after Babylon and they doted upon their neighbors and they brought the music back to the land of the kingdom of God, the churches and congregations.  It was idolatrous music. 

Or, we could look at the excitement and drama in the world and we see how churches have brought the drama into their sermons or crusades where they had people weeping and crying and desiring to make a confession of faith in “accepting Christ.”  It was all dramatic and exciting.  In so many things, they had an “eye” to the world.  The “tongues” and the “falling over backwards” and the “holy laughter” were all attempts to spruce up the dull worship of just sitting in a pew with a Bible and a hymn book, quietly listening to the teaching from the Word of God.  “Oh, no, we will have none of that!”  Now someone can just rise up in the pews and start speaking in tongues.  Now people can be “slain in the spirit” and “fall over backwards.”  Now a whole pew full of people can just erupt into “holy laughter.” 

It was bringing the visible and outward things of the world into the churches, because that is how the world operates in the physical realm with things you can touch and feel and experience.  But it was all idolatrous and it was all another gospel and, yet, they brought it in.  God used this fornication with the things of Babylon, the world, to destroy the churches.  These things they lusted after became a means of their destruction.  Babylon conquered the New Testament churches and congregations and Satan and the world ruled the churches.  The holy Word of God and the King James Version of the Bible gave way to versions like “Good News for Modern Man,” and they have a version for teenagers and a version just for women, and so on.  There are dozens and dozens of versions, but it is all of Babylon and it has not just infiltrated the churches, but it has completely overrun the churches and conquered them, to the point where the churches are the world today and this is true of every congregation and every denomination on the face of the earth.  Babylon has taken the churches over.  Satan had ruled within them for twenty three years and, therefore, Babylon was triumphant.

But in our verse, God is turning around, saying that this time is over: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”  We have already seen how Babylon was a cup of wrath in His hand to give to His people in the churches to drink and now Babylon must drink “double” because of the destruction she brought and she will be destroyed “double.”