SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road by Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_02: I remember when I was 18, I got saved.
SPEAKER_02: I remember thinking I'd trade it into like a Volkswagen for an old boy.
SPEAKER_02: This was great.
SPEAKER_02: I get Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I get forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: I get faith.
SPEAKER_02: All my sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Surrender your addictions to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Give it to him.
SPEAKER_02: Invite him to come in and break out of the Babylonian system and come into the system of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on the road, visit therode.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_02: We are in the darkest part of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: There's no darker place in all scripture than Revelation 13 through 18.
SPEAKER_02: If you've come in the last few weeks and you're still here, I just want to thank you because that's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: You're walking by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: But uh we started a few weeks ago in Revelation 13.
SPEAKER_02: If you'd look at Revelation 13 real quickly, if you have the app, you can look on that.
SPEAKER_02: In Revelation 13, we covered the characteristics, the eight characteristics of the beast, the eight characteristics of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_02: If you missed that, you can go to our website online and look at that.
SPEAKER_02: And so we looked at this rise of this one world leader along with a prophet.
SPEAKER_02: This we classically call him the false prophet, and we call it this unholy trinity of the dragon and the beast and the unholy, uh, the false prophet of there being this antichrist empowered by the dragon.
SPEAKER_02: So Satan, an antichrist, and this spiritualist, who's sort of a sort of an assistant to the Antichrist, rising through a one-world government.
SPEAKER_02: And then in chapter 14, we looked at the rising up of 144,000 Jewish evangelists upon the earth, who are kind of kosher Billy Graham's, who are preaching the gospel around the world very, very powerfully and effectively.
SPEAKER_02: And then in chapter 15 and 16, we see these judgments, the wrath of God upon sin and God's hatred for sin.
SPEAKER_02: Luke, who's our guest worship leader today, couldn't have chosen a better first song for us to sing and to worship the Lord with than this idea of God being holy and that he's coming back, and he's coming back for a holy bride, that he's looking for a church, he's looking for men and women who are holy before him.
SPEAKER_02: And so he judges the earth.
SPEAKER_02: And we looked at how God's heart is breaking, God's heart is brooding in chapters 15 and 16, and it's not his desire that any should be, should not be saved, that any should perish, but that all should come to salvation in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And yet there is this holy side of God that judges sin.
SPEAKER_02: And so there's these bowls, these seven bowls are released upon the earth.
SPEAKER_02: And last week we looked at what I consider to be the hardest chapter to teach from in all of the Bible, and that's chapter 17.
SPEAKER_02: And the idea of this Babylonian system, the spiritual Babylonian system that's been a part of the earth since Adam and Eve sinned.
SPEAKER_02: And we see it in the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_02: And we went back, if you recall, if you were here last week to Genesis 10, and we looked at the table of nations and the rise of the Tower of Babel through Nimrod.
SPEAKER_02: And then I shared with you last week that Nimrod was a classic type of Antichrist, a worldwide dictator that ruled through the Tower of Babel, and that what we're seeing as we come into these last days is a repeat of what was happening in those early days in the same location on the plains of Shannar.
SPEAKER_02: And so we talked about the fact that 287 times in Scripture Babylon is mentioned.
SPEAKER_02: And that really the Bible could be, I don't know if anybody's ever written a book, but it could, there could be a book out there called the Bible, the Tale of Two Cities.
SPEAKER_02: Because Jerusalem and Babylon are constantly shown as in contrast to each other.
SPEAKER_02: The Jerusalem system of a one true God, the Jerusalem system of a Savior of the world that came through through hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament fulfilled in the New Testament that we have today.
SPEAKER_02: And then we have this Babylonian system that's in constant conflict with the Jerusalem system, which is one of immorality and demons and excessive luxuries poured out upon the earth to entice and to tempt and to pull us in.
SPEAKER_02: And so last week we looked at chapter 17, which was the spiritual Babylon, this week, and this is our darkest hole.
SPEAKER_02: This is our darkest place, and all of the Bible is 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_02: And then starting next week is chapter 19, 20, 21, and 22 in the weeks that follow about the coming of Christ and the beauty of the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So it gets really positive.
SPEAKER_02: So the contrast is huge.
SPEAKER_02: But let's delve in if you have your Bibles with you.
SPEAKER_02: We're in chapter 18.
SPEAKER_02: If you're looking at the app, my notes are there.
SPEAKER_02: This is an actual city.
SPEAKER_02: So in 17, we look at the spiritual Babylon.
SPEAKER_02: Chapter 18 is the actual commercial center of Babylon that we believe will be rebuilt in the last days.
SPEAKER_02: We're looking here at the probably around the sixth or the seventh year of the rule of the Antichrist, a one-world government, and this is his eastern capital of Babylon.
SPEAKER_02: And Babylon is literally being rebuilt in our time right now.
SPEAKER_02: And do we have that video?
SPEAKER_02: So why don't we watch this video?
SPEAKER_02: And this is with Jay Inman, one of our shepherds here at the road, and him discussing the physical economic Babylon.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when we've talked about the new Babylon, I mean I covered that a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_02: Um do you, you know, what's your perspective on the idea?
SPEAKER_02: Because you've been there.
SPEAKER_02: I have you sent me pictures.
SPEAKER_02: You literally were there serving in our military, you saw what Saddam Hussein had built, because he kind of kind of re-envisioned himself to be like another Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_02: And so there's these beautiful uh walls and beautiful cities that are uh renovations, as it were, of what Nebuchadnezzar built.
SPEAKER_02: You know, how do you see that playing out?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of interesting theories about what the next Babylon is.
SPEAKER_01: Um I kind of lean toward the ones that point to the current Babylon and the rebuilding of Babylon because of the prophecies in Ezekiel that Babylon will suffer destruction such that they won't even use the bricks for building material.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's always been villages of people around there, and they've used Nebuchadnezzar's bricks for centuries.
SPEAKER_01: And um even after we after Saddam started building, rebuilding the walls using the old bricks, uh, some good old boys from Texas carved Texas on one of the that's why they don't let U.S.
SPEAKER_01: soldiers in there anymore, because they don't want any more graffiti on the walls.
SPEAKER_01: But um the one of those courtyards um was intended for canvas or silk to be over it.
SPEAKER_01: It might have been, we're not sure, it might have been the courtyard where Belshazzar had his big party.
SPEAKER_01: And then uh the head many, many people.
SPEAKER_01: Um Babylon has a role to play, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of infrastructure going in, or justifying it as tourism.
SPEAKER_01: But uh, there's infrastructure, there's fiber backbones, there's electrification.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Now the great historian Honor Tombe proclaimed Babylon to be the ideal spot for a cultural, political, economic, religious center.
SPEAKER_02: It makes perfect sense that this would happen.
SPEAKER_02: Modern Babylon is the strategic crossroads for Asia, Europe, and Africa, located not far from the Persian Gulf.
SPEAKER_02: It's also in the arena of the richest oil fields in the world.
SPEAKER_02: Second greatest oil fields in the world are in Iraq.
SPEAKER_02: 70% of all the world's oil supply are found in the oil corridor of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
SPEAKER_02: In Babylon, they've discovered the ancient temple Ezigilah.
SPEAKER_02: In Nebuchadnezzar's day it was the temple of Marduk, which was over 300 feet high, with a temple at the base and a temple at the top, and the ancient name is E-Taman Anki, which is, quote, temple of the foundations of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_02: And many believe that this antichrist figure, because of the unification of all religions of the world, will use and rebuild that temple as a place of worship.
SPEAKER_02: We believe that Jerusalem, that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and there, as we covered in the past, will be this image of the beast.
SPEAKER_02: Very clear that there's this image of the beast that the world leaders will come and worship at, and you can look back at those messages.
SPEAKER_02: So look at Revelation chapter 18.
SPEAKER_02: After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory.
SPEAKER_02: And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.
SPEAKER_02: For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.
SPEAKER_02: In your NIV, for some of you who read the NIV, it would be the excessive luxuries.
SPEAKER_02: We see three aspects of the Babylonian system in this commercial merchant city mentioned.
SPEAKER_02: The first is a dwelling place of demons.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you would say that you feel like at some point in your life you've encountered a demon?
SPEAKER_02: So many of us, even here in America, where we would consider ourselves very modern and very scientific in our worldview and approach, so many of you raise your hands.
SPEAKER_02: The Babylonian system is a system of sorcery and witchcraft.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 23.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_02: It says in the second half of the verse, the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.
SPEAKER_02: That word is pharmacoon, it's where we get the word pharmacy.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to cover this in just a moment.
SPEAKER_02: What I think could be part of the meaning of this demonic sorcery.
SPEAKER_02: So a dwelling place of demons.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, look at verse 3, her fornication.
SPEAKER_02: So pervasive demonic activity first.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, rampant immorality.
SPEAKER_02: Rampant immorality.
SPEAKER_02: And so there is this immorality flowing out through the Babylonian system.
SPEAKER_02: And then thirdly, the abundance of her luxury.
SPEAKER_02: The abundance of her luxury, an excessive luxury.
SPEAKER_02: It's interesting how these play out together.
SPEAKER_02: One percent of the world's wealthiest control over 50% of all global wealth.
SPEAKER_02: Let me repeat that.
SPEAKER_02: Most of it was controlled by the 20 wealthiest percent, which does probably include most of us in this room, leaving just 5.5% of global wealth for 80% of the world's population.
SPEAKER_02: It used to be that the total wealth of the world's billionaires and that of the bottom half of the globe increased at roughly the same rate.
SPEAKER_02: That changed in 2010.
SPEAKER_02: Total wealth for the poorest 50% has actually decreased from what it was in 2009, while wealth at the top has doubled in normal terms.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_02: This is phenomenal.
SPEAKER_02: Just 80 billionaires now control the same wealth as 3.5 billion people.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that incredible?
SPEAKER_02: The Oxfam report zeroes in on the political influence.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is the part that's really interesting.
SPEAKER_02: So what has made the ultra-rich ultra-rich?
SPEAKER_02: So the Oxfam report zeroes in on the political influence affordable to the ultra-rich, and here's what it is.
SPEAKER_02: Quote unquote lobbying specifically in the financial and pharmaceutical and health care industries.
SPEAKER_02: The billionaires who saw the greatest increase in wealth were those with interest and activities in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.
SPEAKER_02: Now it's interesting to me when I read verse 23, and we've talked about this before in past messages, that sorcery or witchcraft is from the Greek word pharmacoon, where we get the word pharmaceutical.
SPEAKER_02: And so there is something going on, and I'm going to cover this in a moment from another angle that was eye-opening to me about the wealth involved in the pharmaceutical industry and how it's exponentially growing.
SPEAKER_02: Do we really want a cure for cancer?
SPEAKER_02: Why would we want a cure for cancer?
SPEAKER_02: There's so much money involved in the pharmaceutical industry.
SPEAKER_02: Well, it doesn't make you happy.
SPEAKER_02: And you make shows like The Rich and the Famous because they're is it because their lives are just so fun?
SPEAKER_02: No one would watch that.
SPEAKER_02: It's because they're having affairs, it's because of the constant drama that makes a TV program so interesting.
SPEAKER_02: The Kardashians really seem to be happy right now.
SPEAKER_02: They haven't quite figured out all of them what their gender is.
SPEAKER_02: And so the reality is, is that when we look at the statistics, we know that the excessive luxury of those that have it often lead to demoralized lives, depression, suicide, rehab centers.
SPEAKER_02: How many athletes do we know that have gotten in bar fights?
SPEAKER_02: These guys are like millionaires.
SPEAKER_02: You could build your own bar.
SPEAKER_02: You could only invite your friends.
SPEAKER_02: They've got so much money.
SPEAKER_02: And so we see the bankruptcy.
SPEAKER_02: And it's part of the system of the luxuries that come with the Babylonian system that men and women we're all tempted by, are we not?
SPEAKER_02: For more.
SPEAKER_02: For more and for more.
SPEAKER_02: And then I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people.
SPEAKER_02: Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, unless you receive of her plagues.
SPEAKER_02: For her sins have reached heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
SPEAKER_02: Interesting in verse 5, her sins have reached to heaven.
SPEAKER_02: We were to read this in literal Greek.
SPEAKER_02: It means the sins are glued together and piled up.
SPEAKER_02: Glued together and piled up.
SPEAKER_02: What does that remind you of?
SPEAKER_02: It reminds me of the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_02: You know, reaching up.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, reaching up to heaven.
SPEAKER_02: God has remembered your iniquities.
SPEAKER_02: You've heard me say this before.
SPEAKER_02: God doesn't measure time by chronology, he measures time morally.
SPEAKER_02: God measures time for a nation morally.
SPEAKER_02: God measures time in your life morally.
SPEAKER_02: There's a point where God has had enough over a nation.
SPEAKER_02: Billy Graham said, I believe it was back in the 1960s, he says, if God doesn't judge America, he needs to apologize for Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_02: And so he's speaking of this system, this Babylonian system, in a literal city at this time on the plains of Shannar in Iraq, this building up of this piling up of sin where God finally has to release his wrath and his judgment.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're living that life of some secret sins that nobody knows about, God does.
SPEAKER_02: And there will be a point if you don't repent that God's loving and gentle and kind judgment will come, even to believers.
SPEAKER_02: He'll discipline you.
SPEAKER_02: This can also be translated, go in.
SPEAKER_02: So instead of coming out of it, he's saying, come in to me.
SPEAKER_02: Come into me, come out, but go in.
SPEAKER_02: Come into a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with me, with intimacy with me.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I remember when I was 18, I got saved.
SPEAKER_02: It's like I remember thinking I traded in like a Volkswagen for a Rolls-Royce.
SPEAKER_02: This was great.
SPEAKER_02: I get Jesus, I get forgiveness, I get grace.
SPEAKER_02: All my sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I knew I wasn't good enough.
SPEAKER_02: I knew I was bad enough to get in.
SPEAKER_02: And you're not good enough.
SPEAKER_02: You're never going to be good enough, but you can be bad enough.
SPEAKER_02: So be bad.
SPEAKER_02: Surrender your badness.
SPEAKER_02: Surrender your addictions to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Give it to Him.
SPEAKER_02: Invite Him to come in and break out of the Babylonian system and come into the system of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: But the way of excessive grace.
SPEAKER_02: Away from excessive luxury into excessive grace.
SPEAKER_02: And don't hear me wrong.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not for making money.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not for us being in the gifts that God has given us.
SPEAKER_02: You know, some people in here are made to make money.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you here are gifted to be millionaires.
SPEAKER_02: And Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians talks about the gifts of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the gifts of the Spirit is the gift of giving.
SPEAKER_02: And you can't give if you don't got.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: So with the gift of giving is the gift of making.
SPEAKER_02: And some of you are gifted in making money, in building businesses.
SPEAKER_02: Go for it for the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Be all in, be wholehearted in whatever your spiritual gifting is, but then give.
SPEAKER_02: Give, give.
SPEAKER_02: You can't give if you ain't got, and you got some of you got the got gift, and some of you got the make gift.
SPEAKER_02: And it's cool, it's exciting.
SPEAKER_02: And so God does that.
SPEAKER_02: But He's speaking of a luxury acceptance.
SPEAKER_02: That has lost sight of the strategic nature and the trap that comes when we when we get ourselves into a position of just focusing on our stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And we're, guys, we're in that.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we really are in that 10%.
SPEAKER_02: We know.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, yesterday.
SPEAKER_02: We were down in this neighborhood, and so many funny stories.
SPEAKER_02: There were so many of you.
SPEAKER_02: It was like roadsters were everywhere with our yellow shirts.
SPEAKER_02: And were they green?
SPEAKER_02: They're green, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: That fluorescent green.
SPEAKER_02: They were all over the place, and we're at these four houses just working away.
SPEAKER_02: And some of us were chainsawing, and some of us were painting, and some of us were doing stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And little guys and just all ages out there and the comments.
SPEAKER_02: And the comments were were great.
SPEAKER_02: And Paula, are you in here?
SPEAKER_02: Paula, I don't see a mic for Paula.
SPEAKER_02: Is there a mic?
SPEAKER_02: I want to Paula to share this one story.
SPEAKER_02: I thought it was classic, and I can't remember it well.
SPEAKER_02: So this person walks up to Paula while she's working away.
SPEAKER_03: Hey everybody.
SPEAKER_03: It was actually an older lady that had driven by, and I'd seen her drive by a couple times, and this time she stopped.
SPEAKER_03: And in Liz fashion, it was so cute.
SPEAKER_03: You know, she stops and Liz is like, Hi, who is that?
SPEAKER_03: And I don't know.
SPEAKER_03: So she puts her window down and I walk over and she said, I don't I know what you guys are doing without really knowing what you guys are doing, but thank you for blessing the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_03: And she said, I just want to share with you real quick.
SPEAKER_03: My dad used to always tell me, see if I can get this right, um, let your video as I go before, let your video match your audio.
SPEAKER_03: I said, I've never heard that before.
SPEAKER_03: That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03: And she said, truly, you guys are definitely matching your video and your audio today.
SPEAKER_03: So I just blessed you and thank you for what you're doing in you know their area.
SPEAKER_03: So it's really cool to see that.
SPEAKER_03: That they took notice and she wanted to stop to make sure that we see you.
SPEAKER_03: That was cool.
SPEAKER_03: So we're just spreading seeds yesterday.
SPEAKER_02: Let your video match your audio.
SPEAKER_02: You guys that were part of that, you did that yesterday.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 6 Render to her just as she rendered to you and repay her double according to her works in the cup which she has mixed.
SPEAKER_02: Mix double for her, in the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously.
SPEAKER_02: In the same measure, give her torment and sorrow, for she says in her heart, I sit as queen and am no widow, and will not see any sorrow.
SPEAKER_02: So there's this kind of arrogance that we have all that we need.
SPEAKER_02: That I don't need God, I don't need anybody, I'm taken care of, I have everything that I need.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about measuring.
SPEAKER_02: How do you measure a life, men and women?
SPEAKER_02: I wonder if if God would be pleased that if we measure not how much we make, but how much we give.
SPEAKER_02: It was John Wesley who said, make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.
SPEAKER_02: That we would be a people that measure our success and our effectiveness in the kingdom, but how much we can give away, not how much we can keep.
SPEAKER_02: And as we look at the world and we look at the needs around the world, if some of you watch my Facebook post, the statistics, the actual fake news that's out there about what's happening spiritually is phenomenal.
SPEAKER_02: This idea that skepticism and atheism and agnosticism is actually on the rise is not only not true, the opposite is true.
SPEAKER_02: They're saying now the 21st century will be the religious century, the greatest religious century in the history of humankind.
SPEAKER_02: And they're not talking about just the rise of Islam, they're talking about the rise of Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: It is just amazing what's happening in China right now, what's happening in India right now.
SPEAKER_02: I remember standing there in India and hearing the stories, speaking to a pastor's conference there a few years ago, and this gnarly guy gets up and he's hunched over like this.
SPEAKER_02: He's got scars all over his face, which I found out later from all the times he's been beaten.
SPEAKER_02: Just a sugar cane, just a sugar cane farmer.
SPEAKER_02: That's all he was, and he got saved.
SPEAKER_02: And he didn't know how to plant a church, so he just started preaching in the fields to all the other sugar cane uh workers that were out there that he had hung out with, and they suddenly started getting saved, and so he started having services in the midst of a sugar cane field.
SPEAKER_02: And then they built this thatched roof little church, and then they built a wood church, and then they built a stone church.
SPEAKER_02: This guy's pastoring 500 people now.
SPEAKER_02: And his daughter, who Maria, just a gorgeous little girl, she came up and she's his assistant pastor.
SPEAKER_02: And they're going for it.
SPEAKER_02: And so what I was preaching at actually was their seminary.
SPEAKER_02: So what he would do is a great idea that uh Vision Nationals has, which is the name of the organization, is that there's about 500 of these pastors, just like uh this guy, I can't remember his name, but um these guys are uneducated.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't even graduate from high school in some cases, and sometimes they have to learn how to read.
SPEAKER_02: And the first book they read is the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And then they start preaching, and people start getting saved, and they get revivals going on, and they don't want to pull them out to get them to seminary.
SPEAKER_02: So every three months they come to this location and then they bring in people like me, which is really ridiculous because we've never done anything like that here.
SPEAKER_02: And I used to say to our junior, our Junior, that guy should be leading your training.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Oh no, they won't come to hear him, they'll come to hear you.
SPEAKER_02: And I go, okay, then let's get as many testimonies of them as possible whenever people like me are here.
SPEAKER_02: That's happening, church, that's happening all over the world.
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing how Christianity is growing around the world.
SPEAKER_02: It's a revival.
SPEAKER_02: So whenever you see that fake news that comes in from some of those channels about spirituality, these are usually from agnostics themselves who are completely uninformed.
SPEAKER_02: God is moving mightily.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, her plagues will come in, verse 8, in one day death and mourning and famine.
SPEAKER_02: I just love teaching this chapter.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord who judges her.
SPEAKER_02: Six times here we're going to see the word merchant, speaking of the commercial sinner of Babylon.
SPEAKER_02: The kings of the earth who committed fornication and live luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city.
SPEAKER_02: For in one hour your judgment has come.
SPEAKER_02: So something's going to happen really quickly.
SPEAKER_02: And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of the most precious wood, bronze, iron and marble, and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.
SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
SPEAKER_02: Bodies and souls of men.
SPEAKER_02: The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all.
SPEAKER_02: This is total devastation.
SPEAKER_02: The merchants of these things who became rich by her will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.
SPEAKER_02: Here we go again, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Every shipmaster, all who traveled by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea stood at a distance, and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What is like this great city?
SPEAKER_02: They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she is made desolate.
SPEAKER_02: Encouraging passage for us to meditate upon.
SPEAKER_02: I know this idea of one hour judgment coming reminds us of Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_02: Interesting, Isaiah 13, 19.
SPEAKER_02: Jot that down.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to turn there.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 13, 19 says, and Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_02: So will it be fire and brimstone from heaven where God just releases fire from heaven?
SPEAKER_02: It could be.
SPEAKER_02: Burning, heat, smoke, world leaders, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, BBC, Fox News, they'll all be there.
SPEAKER_02: All the world leaders will see the destruction of the Eastern Capital of the Antichrist, Babylon.
SPEAKER_02: Come out of that.
SPEAKER_02: Men and women, come out of it before it's too late if you're in it.
SPEAKER_02: 1 John, same author, John writing his epistles said this do not love the world or the things in the world.
SPEAKER_02: If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
SPEAKER_02: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.
SPEAKER_02: And the world is passing away.
SPEAKER_02: And the lust thereof.
SPEAKER_02: But he who does the will of God abides forever.
SPEAKER_02: You see any pictures of me in high school?
SPEAKER_02: Bell bottoms, baby.
SPEAKER_02: Red, white, and blue bell bottoms with stripes and stars.
SPEAKER_02: I had bell bottoms that started at the knee.
SPEAKER_02: Really tight in here.
SPEAKER_02: And then it came down at the knee.
SPEAKER_02: How many?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, be honest.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you wore bell bottoms?
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Where are they now?
SPEAKER_02: They're not to be found.
SPEAKER_02: I've had Hulk kids come to the fridge and open the fridge.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing to eat.
SPEAKER_02: And I look in that fridge and there's tons to eat.
SPEAKER_02: I'll get in there and gouge myself on all of it.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing to eat.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing to wear.
SPEAKER_02: I have nothing to wear.
SPEAKER_02: You should have saved those bell bottoms.
SPEAKER_02: These are definitely not bell bottoms.
SPEAKER_02: But these will be out.
SPEAKER_02: Give it a year or two.
SPEAKER_02: Boom, out of here.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: They look pretty cool now.
SPEAKER_02: Excessive.
SPEAKER_02: Be careful.
SPEAKER_02: Wear the cloak of materialism loosely.
SPEAKER_02: Put on the cloak of Jesus tightly.
SPEAKER_02: He never changes.
SPEAKER_02: And he loves you no matter what you wear.
SPEAKER_02: And he loves you no matter what kind of an account you have.
SPEAKER_02: And so to pour our heart and our intimacy into him always wins.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus wins.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus always wins.
SPEAKER_02: And so pull away from the weight of trying to live up to something that's going to change anyway.
SPEAKER_02: And live for him and love him.
SPEAKER_02: Money is a great servant and a lousy master.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
SPEAKER_02: Be careful.
SPEAKER_02: Rejoice over her, you heavens.
SPEAKER_02: Rejoice, you people of God.
SPEAKER_02: Rejoice, apostles and prophets.
SPEAKER_02: For God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on you.
SPEAKER_02: And so is it interesting as the great men of the earth weep and lament for Babylon, the heavenly hosts are rejoicing.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know how many times you've done things on this earth that you'll be made fun of, that you'll be persecuted for, that people will say you're a nut, that heaven's rejoicing over?
SPEAKER_02: That the great men of this earth look at you as a loony tune, and heaven looks at you as a saint?
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm not going to tell you all the story because it's I wouldn't want to impugn anyone.
SPEAKER_02: We might meet her again.
SPEAKER_02: But there were also some negative comments about us being out there yesterday by some of the neighbors.
SPEAKER_02: Probably because of jealousy?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe because they know these people.
SPEAKER_02: We don't.
SPEAKER_02: Do we deserve anything?
SPEAKER_02: Do we deserve a bunch of crazy Looney Tune, wholehearted, all-in, burn the boast disciples to come to our house and remodel the whole thing in about four hours?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: But we do it.
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus would do it, and it's fun to do, and it's the right thing to do, and heaven's applauding.
SPEAKER_02: How do you measure life?
SPEAKER_02: Really, what this boils down to is how do you measure a life?
SPEAKER_02: How do you measure life?
SPEAKER_02: What the earth considers expendable, heaven applauds.
SPEAKER_02: How do you measure a life?
SPEAKER_02: Evolution.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you here might believe in evolution, but evolution is interesting because it defines life in a way that if there's no creator God and we just evolved, then we're just the highest order of monkeyhood.
SPEAKER_02: And in so doing, we should be able to call the shots about what our ethics and values are.
SPEAKER_02: And yet what we're finding, and what and what scientists that are really doing their research are finding is that Darwin had no idea even about simple cells.
SPEAKER_02: He couldn't have.
SPEAKER_02: Nobody knew it at the time.
SPEAKER_02: This idea of a rotary motor and the complexities, the millions of details of complexity in a simple cell that we knew nothing about before, even those scientists that are truly honest know that Darwinism is full of holes like Swiss cheese.
SPEAKER_02: And that what and that what we're finding is that there has to be, with that kind of complexity of creation, a creator who put the motor together.
SPEAKER_02: And this fall, this fall, we're starting classes.
SPEAKER_02: They're going to happen on Sunday morning, and we're going to begin to equip this church and some of these issues to make you understand at a highest level we can that we can love God with our mind.
SPEAKER_02: That we don't have to be pushed and pulled by scientific views that aren't even scientific in many cases, anyway.
SPEAKER_02: Evolution devalues life.
SPEAKER_02: It was Lenin who said, quote, who cares if two-thirds of the world is destroyed in a nuclear war, if one-third who are left are communist?
SPEAKER_02: Richard Day, former National Medical Director of Planned Parenthood in 1969.
SPEAKER_02: I'd encourage you to research this.
SPEAKER_02: In 1969, before pediatricians and doctors speaking, I think it was March of 1969.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, I've got it.
SPEAKER_02: I think I've got the website right here.
SPEAKER_02: Let me check real quick.
SPEAKER_02: It was March 20th, 1969.
SPEAKER_02: March 20th, 1969.
SPEAKER_02: He asked all the doctors and pediatricians in the room to shut off their recorders.
SPEAKER_02: There'd be no more recording.
SPEAKER_02: Put away your notes.
SPEAKER_02: There'd be no more note-taking.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what's remembered of what he said.
SPEAKER_02: Talking about what our world needed in the future.
SPEAKER_02: Richard Day.
SPEAKER_02: Homosexuality will be promoted, it is no longer considered abnormal behavior.
SPEAKER_02: Hard-to-cure diseases will be created.
SPEAKER_02: Hard-to-detect means have been developed already for inducing heart attack assassinations.
SPEAKER_02: Drug addiction will be promoted so that the unfit will die.
SPEAKER_02: Euthanasia will be accepted as healthy care costs will be intentionally made high for the use of euthanasia.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know what that is, it's letting, in this case, those who would need a machine or need chemicals to live, let them die.
SPEAKER_02: Divorce will be made much easier.
SPEAKER_02: ID badges will be promoted for identification, especially underneath the skin.
SPEAKER_02: All salary payments will be made through computers in one banking system.
SPEAKER_02: All world religions and especially Christianity will have to change into a one-world religious system and a one-world church, and the church will be the one that brings it about.
SPEAKER_02: There will be increasingly airplane and airline crashes.
SPEAKER_02: Bridges and infrastructure collapses will occur to create more instability.
SPEAKER_02: Terrorism will create the need for more worldwide government controls.
SPEAKER_02: Economic controls will devalue individual national sovereignty as people become citizens of the one world government.
SPEAKER_02: 1969.
SPEAKER_02: Man, it's exciting to be alive.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you're not walking with Jesus, you're in big trouble.
SPEAKER_02: Seriously, it's going to get really complex for you.
SPEAKER_02: It's not complex for us, folks.
SPEAKER_02: Be a worshiper and a warrior.
SPEAKER_02: Be all in, be wholehearted.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is your protector.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is with you.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is your power.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is your love.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is your security.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is your peace.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is your joy.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to move into Philippians soon.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to talk about the leverage of joy, how important joy is.
SPEAKER_02: The only place to find joy is in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But if you're going to, if you're hooking your future on this system, this is where it's going.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_02: Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her.
SPEAKER_02: Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence, the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore.
SPEAKER_02: The sound of harpist, musicians, flautists, trumpeters, shall be found.
SPEAKER_02: Shall not be heard in you any more, no craftsman of any craft shall be found in you any more, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you any more.
SPEAKER_02: The light of a lamp shall not shine in you any more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you any more.
SPEAKER_02: For your merchants were the great men of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: For by your sorcery, in the NIV it says, by your magic spells all the nations were deceived, and in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.
SPEAKER_02: The earth is wailing, and heaven is rejoicing.
SPEAKER_02: The great men of the earth don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna look at Armageddon and what happens at Armageddon next week.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: And yet, what does it say in verse 20?
SPEAKER_02: The apostles and prophets are on the mezzanine.
SPEAKER_02: We're hanging with them, gang.
SPEAKER_02: We've been raptured out of this mess, and we're on the mezzanine, and we're hanging out with Peter and James and John, and they're going, woo-hoo! Yeah, like a Broncos game.
SPEAKER_02: And the great men of the earth don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: Right now they don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: We're in a mess.
SPEAKER_02: Worldwide, because the great men of the earth don't know what to do with Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know what to do with northeastern and northwestern Africa.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know what to do in Russia.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know what to do in Ukraine.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know what to do in the Persian Gulf.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: We have Christ.
SPEAKER_02: We know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: This is our watch.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be planting churches.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be feeding the poor.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be building houses.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be loving people.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be out there making an impact by just being you.
SPEAKER_02: Just be you in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Don't try to be anybody else but you.
SPEAKER_02: Just be who God made you to be.
SPEAKER_02: God is glorified through you.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_02: Don't look around.
SPEAKER_02: Just look to Jesus and be you.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're if you're in a place right now where you don't know where you stand with Christ, get right with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Repent.
SPEAKER_02: That means turn around.
SPEAKER_02: Not a 360.
SPEAKER_02: I used to be a skateboarder.
SPEAKER_02: 360 means you end up in the same place you started at.
SPEAKER_02: So many believers do that.
SPEAKER_02: They go, I'm going to change.
SPEAKER_02: And then they go around, and somewhere around 180, they don't stop.
SPEAKER_02: And they just keep coming back around and they're back where they were before.
SPEAKER_02: But they said they repented because somewhere in their turning, they did have a moment or two, maybe three or four days, where they changed, and then boom, they're back where they started from.
SPEAKER_02: Talk about a 180.
SPEAKER_02: Let's let's make a new path.
SPEAKER_02: Let's take the road less travel.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: That's where the joy is found.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
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SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.