Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #14 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are going to be reading Revelation 18:6-7:

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

I will stop reading there.  I just want to quickly go over the language of “double,” as God says, “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”  He is directing our attention to the cup of His wrath.  As we discussed previously, Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand because God used Babylon, which represents the kingdom of Satan, to bring judgment on the churches of the world.  The churches were given the spiritual designation of the “third part,” so the cup that Babylon was instrumental in administering to the corporate church was a cup (we could say) that was measured out to the “third part.” 

But now God is looking at Babylon herself, which is made up of all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth, and God is giving a different spiritual designation for the unsaved mankind outside the churches (according to Revelation 13:8 and Zechariah 13:8-9) as “two thirds” or “.666.”  That is “double” the third part.  Now God is bringing judgment on the world and His people are commanded to publish Babylon’s fall, as the Lord tells us in Jeremiah, chapter 50.  We are commanded to go forth and pour out of the vials of the seven last plagues, as we read in Revelation 15 and 16, as well as several other Scriptures that indicate we are to share this information with the inhabitants of the earth.  In doing so, we will accomplish the purpose of feeding sheep and we will be publishing the news of the fall of Satan’s kingdom.  We will also be rewarding her as she rewarded the kingdom of God as Satan came against the churches, the representation of God’s kingdom on earth, and now God says to give unto her “double.”  The news that God has brought judgment on the world is “double” because it impacts every unsaved individual in the entire world, whereas the report from the Bible about judgment on the churches had only impacted the “third part.”  I think we have covered that.

Let us go on to the first part of the verse in Revelation 18:7:

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously…

God is continuing to discuss Babylon as He says that Babylon has “glorified herself.”  When we read in the Bible of God being glorified or as we read the word “glory” or “glorified” as it is applied to God, it is a good and right thing.  It is very fitting that God be glorified.  For instance, let us look at a few verses, starting with John 12:16:

These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.

It also says in the same chapter, in John 12:23:

And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

Also, it says in John 12:28:

Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

It is a very common thing for God and the Lord Jesus Christ to be glorified.  In the next chapter it says in John 13:31-32:

Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.

Again, this is typical of the Bible in giving proper and right glorification of God.  God glorifies God.  We sing that lyric, “To God be the glory, great things He has done,” and it is a very fitting song for believers to sing because it is our desire to glorify Him.  It is something God puts in His people, to glorify His name.  We can glorify Him with our action in doing the good works He has prepared for us to do or we can glorify Him with our mouths as long as our words match the condition of our hearts. 

We can offer glory to God and recognize that God does get all the glory because He has done everything for us in the matter of salvation.  He has come to us and delivered us from the horrible pit and lifted us up and placed our feet upon the Rock.  He has established our goings and put a new song into our mouth, even praise unto God and many see and fear and trust in the Lord.  God has granted us repentance.  He has granted us faith.  He has given us eternal life and bestowed upon us rich and abundant blessings that are beyond our ability to comprehend.  They are beyond measure, really, and we cannot begin to measure or fully understand just how truly glorious and super-abundant these unsearchable riches of salvation are, because we are in the early stages of being the recipients of God’s grace and mercy.  We are in the early stages wherein we have the “spirit,” but we do not yet have the body and we do not have the new heaven and new earth and we do not have a history of having entered into that eternity future to live in God’s very presence for eons to come – we cannot even use time references then because we will be beyond time and into eternity.  So how can we even grasp the greatness of what God has done for us?  But we know He has done it even though it is beyond our ability to fully understand.  Therefore, we can sing, “To God be the glory, great things He has done,” and that will be our song into the coming glorious, eternal future.

So this is all good and right and proper.  It is a correct response for the children of God to give God the glory and, yet, that is not what we are reading concerning Babylon because it says in our verse in Revelation 18:7 that Babylon has “glorified herself and lived deliciously.”  Babylon follows the pattern established by its king.  Remember, in Daniel, chapter 4 the king of Babylon was boasting and in his pride, he said in Daniel 4:28-31:

All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.

Then he is caused to “lose his mind” and to dwell with the beasts for a period of time.  Yet, we can see in this man, who typifies Satan, that God made a good selection of men, just as He did with Pharaoh in the exodus.  This king of Babylon was a proud and arrogant man who lifted himself up and he thought he was some great one.  He looked over Babylon, which was a tremendous kingdom, but we have to remember that God is the one that can lift up the basest of men and give them power over kingdoms.  Nebuchadnezzar was one of the basest of men.  Here, as he is looking over his vast kingdom, he is full of ego and he says, “I have built this kingdom “by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty.”  It is all self-centered and it is all focused on him.  He really thought he was somebody and, yet, it is God that gives kingdoms to even the basest of men and God instructed him by causing him to “lose his mind” for a time.  Then God restored him to his senses, but Nebuchadnezzar was taught a lesson, at least to some degree.  He was never saved, so he never had a complete change of heart, but God is showing us through the king of Babylon glorying in his kingdom how Satan viewed himself when he ruled over the nations of the world.  He ruled, especially, to a great degree at the time of the end when he was loosed to enter into the churches and take his seat as “the man of sin.”  At that time Satan was exalted and lifted up.  Also, in his own mind he really thought he was something.  Just look at the language of Isaiah, chapter 14, which speaks of the king of Babylon.  It says in Isaiah 14:4:

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

God begins by speaking of the king of Babylon, but this king is a type and figure of Satan, sot here is a natural transition to speak of Satan, in Isaiah 14:11-14:

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Notice it is, “I, I, I,” as Satan is an ego-maniac.  He thinks he is a great king and, more than that, he wanted to be like God and he thought he had become a god because he was also ruling in the churches over all that God had previously ruled over, the corporate church which had the name of Christ.  Remember, it said in 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, that Satan took his seat in the temple to be worshipped as God.  It says of him in 2Thessalonians 2:4:

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Of course, Satan was under a delusion.  He was only created as an angel and he became a fallen, corrupt angel that ruled over the nations of the world.  God permitted him to overcome Adam and Eve and all mankind in order for Him to accomplish His own purposes.  God had to set someone up as the head of the enemy kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, so the Lord allowed this fallen angel, Satan, to be the opposition to the kingdom of Light and the kingdom of God’s dear Son, in order for the plan of God to develop as He intended.  God could then demonstrate and show forth His glorious attributes, like His mercy, love and goodness, so there had to be this contrary and opposing kingdom that demonstrated the evilness of man in his fallen condition. 

It is only in contrast that you can see the wickedness and terrible evil that is in the hearts of men versus the love of God in dying for such wicked sinners.  The “principalities and powers” that have seen this display have been given a great opportunity to see the incredible contrast as God shows what man has become in his fallen condition and there is nothing worthy or good within them: “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”  Just look at the things men do, the things they say and the things they think; they are completely wicked creatures in body and soul because of their rebellion against God.  There is nothing in them that merits God bestowing His grace and mercy upon them in saving them and, certainly, nothing worthy that Eternal God would die for them to pay their penalty.  So the great and wonderful nature and character of God is put on display as He bestows such great love upon those fallen creatures He has determined to save. 

In other words, one of the reasons God allowed the world to get to this point in its fallen condition and to reach such depths of evil is that the more wickedness man performs the more it glorifies God in that He would save such dirty, rotten sinners.  When the child of God looks out at the world, we are shocked by the degree of evil that man has sunken into and the depths of their depravity.  As God has lifted His restraints off the hearts of men, it is not that mankind is showing forth a character that they did not possess before, but man is showing the true nature of the evil heart that has always been within them since the fall.  It has only been the fact that God restrained sin until the end that we are seeing a more true reflection of the evil heart of mankind today than ever before in history.  It is more accurate and it could become more accurate still if God continued to lift His hand of restraint (and this is something we do not even want to think about).

This is one of the reasons that God allowed Satan to rule over the kingdoms of this world as an evil potentate and evil king and to keep his subjects in the dark, as he showed himself that he is God.  In doing so, Satan was trying to glorify himself and glorify his kingdom, just as God does in His Kingdom.  God glorifies Himself and God glorifies the Kingdom of heaven, the right and true kingdom, which is worthy of glory.  But Satan is not worthy of glory.  The kingdom of Babylon (the kingdom of this world) is not worthy of glory, so they have done that which adds further to their fallen condition; it is just further sin in its failure to glorify God.  That is one of the greatest sins of mankind when man does not properly glorify God and give God the glory due His name.  Instead, man glorifies his fellow man and man glorifies the things of the world and all kinds of things that are unworthy of glory.  But he will not give God the glory, as it says in Romans 13:7:

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

We could certainly add to that, “glory to whom glory is due,” and there is only One worthy of glory and that is God.

God speaks of mankind in the Book of Romans and He says in Romans 1:21-25:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. herefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

This is what mankind does.  He does not give God the glory.  Instead, he gives glory to things that are not worthy or deserving of glory.