The sermon by Scott Brown, titled 'The Fruit Your Soul Longs For,' explores Revelation 18, which focuses on the fall of Babylon. It describes Babylon as a symbol of a world culture that embodies sin, luxury, and idolatry, which ultimately leads to its downfall. The sermon emphasizes a call to 'come out of Babylon,' warning of the consequences of sharing in Babylon's sins and plagues. The sermon also highlights the lament of those who relied on Babylon's wealth and luxury, which are fleeting and ultimately unsatisfying. It challenges listeners to reflect on the longings of their souls, urging them to seek righteousness and find satisfaction in God rather than in the false promises of worldly desires. The sermon concludes by underscoring the inevitability of God's judgment and the need for spiritual discernment to navigate cultural influences.

Please open your Bibles to the inerrant, all-sufficient, holy, sweeter than honey, word of God. Revelation 18, I'll be reading the entire chapter. I'm going to read it and sort of give you a sense of the outline and the focus. You have perhaps an outline in front of you, but I'll guide you through the reading of this long section. Verse 1, this is a warning that the fall of Babylon is coming.

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory 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. 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." In the next section verses 4 through 8 is a call. It's an appeal to come out of Babylon. Verse four, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people, lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues.

For her sins have reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you and repay her double according to her works, in the cup which she has mixed, mixed double for her, in the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, 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 sorrow 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 God who judges her. And then the next section is a lament, a long lament. It's a funeral lament for those who are caught up in Babylon.

Verse 9, the kings of the earth who committed fornication, who 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 for in one hour your judgment has come. And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore. 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 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 of souls of men. The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all.

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, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing. Every ship master, 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? They threw dust on their heads and cried out weeping and wailing 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 and then a reaction verse 20 rejoicing over her demise rejoice over her oh heaven and you holy apostles and prophets for God has avenged you upon on her and then finally the completion the final demise is explained 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.

The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall not be heard in you anymore For your merchants were the great men of the earth For by your sorcery all the ain't the nations were deceived and in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and of all who were slain on the earth. Let's pray. Oh Father, Come, come feed your flock.

Come comfort the brokenhearted. Come teach us your ways. Come exalt your truth in your son. Come convict us of sin. Our longings.

Come Lord, Give us further ways out of Babylon. Reveal to us how Babylon has come and infected us. And Lord, Let us rejoice that you and you alone are the good king. You're the one who delivers out of Babylon. You're the one who will put her down forever.

No longer to torment us, no longer to tempt us, no longer to hurt us. Amen. Please be seated. Well, these are dramatic pictures of doctrines that God desires for us to understand. Revelation is a book of pictures.

It's a book of doctrine in pictures and their various doctrines that are illustrated here in these very dramatic words just riveting riveting language And of course we know from the first three verses in Revelation that Revelation is a book of symbols. So we should always look for the symbols and the things that they point to. These symbols here point to many, many doctrines. Of course, most obvious is the doctrine of the judgment of God against the wicked. God wants you to see it and feel the force of the picture And there's the whole doctrine of the soul.

God has made man with a soul. And our souls have longings. All of our souls long for certain things. You can't be a human being and not have your soul be longing. And so this pictures the longing of the soul.

And this passage speaks of the harsh reality when your soul is longing for the wrong things. Not only is it damaging while you long for them in the world, but the damage will be eternal, everlasting, and devastating. And you have this phrase in verse 14 that should take your soul by storm. The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you. The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you.

I want us today to consider that. You know whenever you're bringing a passage of scripture to a church, you realize that God is shepherding the church through the words. Well that's what we believe is that when the words of God are delivered, this is the way that God shepherds his people. And I pray that this would be such a helpful shepherding tool and the language here, especially to help us recognize the things that our soul longs for. The truth is that everything that our soul longs for isn't bad, but there is a way that our soul longs for things that is reflective of the life of God bereft in our souls.

You know, God has made us with the soul, and there's nothing sweeter in the world than to have the life of God in the soul of man, to quote a Puritan who wrote a book with that title. But also as we consider the longings of our own souls, with every line of this text, which is so terrifying, I don't want us to forget what the Lord Jesus Christ said. He said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can satisfy the soul. And the word that he uses there, it has to do with satisfaction, with fullness.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Babylon is the place where they do not hunger and thirst for righteousness. They hunger and thirst for everything their heart desires with no limitations. And so in this chapter, we find the pictures of the fall of Babylon, the doctrines of the ruined soul by Babylon, the culture of judgment that God faces Babylon with. So this passage, of course, is to help us to understand the world that we live in, to recognize the finger of Satan, to recognize the effect of culture.

You know, we're in this section of Revelation, chapter 17 and 18 have a similar focus. It's really one unit. In chapter 17, we found the exposure, the disclosure of culture, and it's pictured in a harlot. And she's drunk. She's inebriated.

Her speech is slurred. She says ridiculous things. She's staggering, and she's not thinking right. And the world culture was depicted in the picture of a harlot, and God wants to drive that into us. What is this culture like?

It's like a harlot. But now, as we turn into chapter 18, we find the destruction of this world culture, of this harlot. And we've been asking ourselves how the culture has affected us. Well, it's affected us profoundly. And last week I quoted, and I'll quote again, Aristotle, who said, does the fish know he's wet?

How wet are we? How drunk are we? Are we just tipsy? Are we drunk like the harlot of Babylon? So these are the questions that we find here.

And here, well, in the earlier chapter, in chapter 17, we saw this beautiful harlot. And at the end of the chapter, it's revealed that She's a city too. And now in chapter 18, she's a city in ruins. And so that's what we find here. So you see the outline here.

There's a warning in verses one through three. There's a call in verses four through eight. There's a lament in verses nine through 19. There's a reaction of the saints in verse 20 and then there's a final completion, the final demise of Babylon in the picture of a millstone being cast away and sunk forever. It's such a, it's so astounding isn't it?

You know you all often wonder why a text is in front of a church. God wants to shepherd this church in the ways of the culture that she lives in. I'm confident of that. And I'm also confident that we're also enmeshed in our culture. We need so much help from the Holy Spirit.

So I pray that God pours his Spirit out upon us to give us discernment to leave Babylon, every vestige of Babylon, to remove every unclean thing from our lives. So let's get into the text. First there's a warning, verses one through three. After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory. I'm tempted to go on and on about the doctrine of angels in Revelation and in the Bible.

But here you have an angel that has great authority. Angels have different measures of authority and this angel reflects the glory of God in the earth. And the beauty and the glory and the majesty of God's power is displayed through this angel. Some have said this might be a Christophany, an appearance of Jesus Christ. But in the Bible, in Revelation, we've gotten sort of an advanced degree on angelology and Revelation.

But they are mighty beings. They protect the people of God. They declare the truth of God. They destroy armies. They wipe out nations and they comfort and they do many many things but this is a loud angel did you notice that he cried with a mighty and loud voice and the message is very clear Babylon the great is fallen is fallen notice Babylon the great remember who in the Bible said that last?

Nebuchadnezzar. Is this not great Babylon which I have built and God turned him into a beast for seven years until he learned that it was God that rules everything. Really God kept him there for seven years until the moment where he would say with sincerity, It's heaven that rules everything. And then he came to his senses. You know, so many people are like that.

They need to come to their senses. They're discouraged about all kinds of things. They're fretful about what's coming down the line. You know, here's the truth. You're either in the midst of a trial, you're going into a trial, or you're coming out of a trial, or you're going into a trial, or in a trial, or coming out of a trial.

That's the way your life is. But what people often forget is that God is in control. It's heaven that rules. And this angel says Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons. So the first thing we learn here is that the culture of Babylon is doomed.

You know, this actually is perhaps the first and central message of the Christian. And that is that God is holy and that man is sinful and that the world is doomed. The unbelieving world is doomed. That's the message that begins the message of the gospel. But the hope and the truth is that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the doomed.

So this is the critical Christian message that man is sinful but Christ is a Savior. This language is all over the Old Testament. I wish I could take you to all these places. Thirteen books of the Bible say things about Babylon. Isaiah 13 9 and Babylon the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans pride will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

It will never be inhabited nor will it be settled from generation to generation. You know although the kingdoms of the world that have fallen are just parables they're just foretaste of the final fall. When you see a kingdom fall, just mark it. All kingdoms are falling. All kingdoms have fallen.

And Babylon is no different. Here in Isaiah 13, 19, God is comparing Babylon with Sodom and Gomorrah that were absolutely obliterated. Now even to this day you can't find Babylon. Babylon has been uninhabited since its fall and this is the reality of Babylon and her culture. Now you also see sort of the dark underbelly of Babylon here.

She has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. What is this all about? Well, her nature is revealed. Her true nature is described and her facade has been stripped away. She's beautiful.

She was so well dressed. She was so alluring. But what's the reality? She's demonic. That's what, that's the reality.

A dwelling place of demons. If you don't look around and see Or at least understand that so much of this world is being driven by demons You're not seeing the world as it really is this is the real world and The world is drunk verse 3 for all the nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth had become rich through the abundance of her luxury. Now again we encountered this term fornication it appeared several times in the previous chapter in the exposure of the harlot. Now the word appears again and this is so striking. This should shock us, especially for anyone who does not believe today.

God calls your unbelief fornication. He's calling it unfaithfulness. He created you. He created you in his image. He caused his rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

And he's poured out so many blessings. And he's calling your unbelief fornication. Do you understand that? And maybe you've been struggling with unbelief and you're saying, I don't know if I believe, but Please understand what it is. Call it what the Bible calls it.

You're not struggling with unbelief. You are fornicating before God. It's so serious. And what you do with that knowledge will determine your eternity. So we have this issue of Babylon and of course what is Babylon signified?

We've spoken of this many times. Babylon is signified by our appetites. Babylon is signified by our lifestyles. Babylon can be signified in our ambitions, in our activities. These are just modern examples.

Babylon is exemplified in the modern psychological movement. Babylon is in economics, is in the politics, in the church, in medicine, it's everywhere. This is just the reality. Thankfully, God is saving people out of Babylon. Thankfully, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be satisfied.

Now the reasons for her fall are given, and the reasons are all tied up in her fornication. And this is the word pornea that's very common in the New Testament. He uses this for spiritual adultery here. Of course, spiritual adultery is almost always connected with physical adultery. But Gregory Beale, one of the commentators, speaks of this matter And how it's tied to economic security.

So many of the errors and sins that we possess are related to our fears about money. And so Gregory Beale says economic security would be removed from Babylon's subjects if they did not cooperate with her idolatry. Such security is too great a temptation to resist. The verb drank refers to the willingness of the society in the Roman Empire to commit itself to idolatry in order to maintain one's security economically. Once one imbibes the intoxicating influence it removes all desire to resist Babylon's destructive influence and blinds one to Babylon's own ultimate insecurity and to God as the source of real security and numbs one against the fear of the coming judgment.

That's the metaphorical use of the word drink. So in Babylon there are compromises for financial gain. And this is very common in many different ways. Fathers are often known to do this. They neglect their wives and their children and their churches because they're all wrapped up in their business and they care nothing for those things.

Really, they say they do, but their time tells it all. You know, it's very easy for your business to lure you away from devotion. It's very easy for your desire for beauty and strength to lure you away from the Church of Jesus Christ for pleasure. This is what it means to drink the wine of her fornication to distract you from the kingdom of God. And when we talk about the doctrine of Babylon, because this is doctrine in pictures, here's the reality of the doctrine of Babylon in the 13 chapters of books of the Bible that speak of it, Babylon is every institution or individual that rejects God and Babylon is found everywhere.

So there is this warning, the fall of Babylon is proclaimed in the first three verses. Then there's a call, an appeal to come out of her in verses four through eight. And I heard another voice, so now there's another voice. You see the flow here. There's this strong, mighty angel saying, Babylon has fallen.

Then there's another voice, we don't know whose voice it is, but it's coming from heaven, verse four. Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works. In the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her.

In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow. For she says in her heart, I sit as queen, I'm no widow, and I will see no sorrow. 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 God who judges her. So this is the call to come out. I can't think of a more gracious and helpful thing for all of us to hear, to come out of Babylon.

You know, Babylon is the abuser of your soul. Babylon is the one who has caused so much havoc in your life and my life. Even as a Christian, The desires of the heart are often not helpful at all. And this call is a call of love. It's to come out, but it's a call also to come in.

To come to me, says the Lord, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. That's the call. The call out is a call into every good thing. Of course it is a call to come out. Now, there are two very grave consequences that are listed here.

And the first is, lest you share in her sins. Lest you share in her sins. In other words, lest you become like her, lest your life becomes a reflection of the luxurious desires of Babylon. There's pollution there. You share in her pollutions if you don't come out and you'll continue to be poisoned.

And then the second consequence is lest you receive of her plagues. Lest you receive of her plagues. Lest you receive of her plagues. I believe these are the consequences of sin. The consequences of going somewhere else other than Jesus Christ.

And we receive, we receive the natural punishment of sin. Sin is its own punishment. You know, when you're far away from God, it's no help to your soul at all. There's no encouragement there, there's no true joy there. And so these two consequences are very grave.

They are sitting here in front of us as warnings, lest we share in her sins, lest we become like her, lest we receive of her plagues. In other words, lest we get hurt, like we've been hurt before already by Babylon. And so this is the call of God and it's the call of God that runs All across scripture, you know God called Abraham to come out of his father's house and go to the promised land God called Lot to come out of Sodom Isaiah speaks of this exact language This is where the angel got the language, is from Isaiah. Isaiah 52, 11 and 12, depart, depart, Go out from there. Touch no unclean thing.

Go out from the midst of her and be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord. Touch no unclean thing. You know, David said, I will set no unclean thing before my eyes. This is so important To remove from Babylon is to set no unclean thing before your eyes to touch no unclean thing literally in Isaiah 52 11 go out from the midst of her, be clean. This is the call, this is where the joy is, this is the satisfaction, this is the hungering and thirsting for righteousness, be clean.

You who bear the vessels of the Lord. He's speaking of the worship of God, the vessels of the Lord. And then he says in verse 12, for you shall not go out with haste, nor by flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard." In other words, God will take you out. He'll take you out of Babylon. And perhaps, Why we're all here this morning is to hear the Lord say, go out with haste, anything you're still holding onto, leave it now, drop it, let it go, get rid of it.

In another place in Isaiah, he says that there'll be a day when you'll hate your idols. You will be so sorry that you petted them and you'll want to throw them into the hole though to a bat hole in the ground and you'll want to be away from them so you might as well do it now come out go out The Lord will be your rear guard the Apostle Paul spoke of the very same thing in first Corinthians and St. Corinthians 6 He said do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness And what communion has light with darkness and what accord has Christ with Baleal or what has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God as God has said I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. But then he says this, therefore come out from among them as the scripture and be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. The apostle Paul says the same thing to the Corinthian church using the exact same language. And then he says, I will be a father to you And you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Almighty. You know, when we were reciting Revelation 21 earlier today, We've been reciting it for weeks. And there's one phrase in there.

Says, and you shall be my son. You shall be my son. That just stops me in my tracks every time I see it up there on the screen. But that's what God is offering you to be a son, a beloved son. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters.

And then there's a measure of the judgment. It says that she'd be given double. What is the measure of her judgment? And her judgment is according to the righteousness of God. And In this passage, I think the language is clear enough in the original language.

And the idea is that the crime fits the punishment. The word receive double for her sins. It in many places means duplicate, not double. So it's what we call Lex Talionis. The punishment fits the crime, and it's a duplicate of the crime and that's why this descriptive language is here according to her works and to the measure that she glorified herself and in the same measure give her torment and sorrow so the the judgment is measured out according to true justice.

This is God's justice. But we also see that she's delusional. She says in this passage she has a golden goblet. It's a golden goblet, but inside of it is poison. And the false promises, the false advertisements of her golden goblet are depicted here.

You know, is it safe to drink the golden cup? Is what's inside really delicious? It looks good on the outside. It looks very alluring. It would make you successful and beautiful.

But is it? But what is it? What's in it? What's in the cup? Ezekiel 23 speaks of this kind of thing.

He speaks of going after the harlot. He says, you've been defiled by their idols, you've walked in the way of your sister, therefore I will put her cup in your hand, says the Lord. He's talking about the cup, the cup that's being drunk. You shall drink of your sister's cup, the deep and wide one. You shall be laughed to scorn and held in derision.

It contains much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow the cup of horror and desolation the cup of your sister Samaria you shall drink it and drain it You shall break its shards and tear at your own breasts for I have spoken says the Lord. In this cup is poison and it will make you beat your breast and tear yourself to pieces and it will go down like shards of glass and Make you bleed. This is Babylon. Of course.

This language is is so shocking But Babylon is very proud very very proud Babylon is coming down, but she's delusional. The city doesn't know what's happening. You know, I was reading Joe Beeke's commentary on this, and he printed a story of a letter to an editor. A farmer had written a letter to the editor of his newspaper, and here's what the letter said. In defiance of your God, I plowed my fields this year on Sunday.

I disked and fertilized them on Sunday. I planted them on Sunday. I cultivated them on Sunday. I reap them on Sunday. This October I had the biggest crop I ever had.

How do you explain that?" And the editor published the letter in his newspaper with this footnote, God does not always settle all his accounts in October. Babylon is delusional. She thinks she'll last forever. She thinks her wealth will last forever. It will not last forever.

None of your wealth, none of my wealth will last forever. And then in this next section, the lament. This is a very long section, the lament for the longings unfulfilled in Babylon, verses nine through 19. The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxurious with her will weep and lament. This is a funeral lament.

Everybody's at the funeral and they're looking on this and they're so grieved at what has happened. And they'll lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning. Verse 10, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, alas, Alas, that great city, Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come." So there's this, this is a picture, right? This is a picture of a doctrine. It's a picture of the regret of the unbeliever who looks and sees what it all came to, what the reality was, what the luxury ended in, in order to wean, this is here in order to wean us from our addiction to luxury and wealth.

And frankly this isn't, this is not an argument against wealth. This is an argument against wealth apart from God, apart from the absolute government of God. And then notice it happened so quickly in one hour. One hour apparently was the shortest increment of time that ancient writers spoke about. We would know it as a moment or a second.

In other words, just very, very quickly. It happened so quickly. And we've already seen this too. If you've been alive long enough, you've seen wealth wiped out in very short periods of time. And it will happen again.

And it will happen one final time as well. Samuel Rutherford said this, build your nest in no tree here, for you see that God has sold the forest to death. Now there are all these different things that are going on in this text. They really are. They're so astonishing.

You find the merchants are weeping in verse 11 because no one buys their merchandise anymore. Buying and selling has stopped. And look at the list of the merchandise. I mean, you have minerals and animals and merchandise. You have clothing.

You have fabrics. You have all these glorious materials. Your granite, you know, countertops. Your beautiful wood, your remarkable fabrics. They're just remarkable fabrics and materials of all kinds.

There isn't, again, there's nothing wrong with these things, but look at, look at these things. Gold, 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 most precious wood, bronze, iron, marble, cinnamon, incense, fragrant oil, frankincense and oil, wine, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, chariots and horses. I don't know if you notice this, but many of these items are also in the temple of God. There's nothing wrong with them, Unless, except if they're used for man's glory rather than God's glory. That's the idea.

This one is so striking. You know, you have horses and chariots, this is transportation. Who doesn't love a beautiful, you know, fast car? But then you get to the bodies and souls of men. This is slavery.

There's lots of slavery going around all over the world and almost all of it has nothing to do, all of it has nothing to do with colors of skin all over the world. Ezekiel speaks of this in the this quality of the nations, it's a quality of the nations today, Ezekiel 27 13. Your traders, They bartered human lives and vessels of bronze for your merchandise. You traded your wares with horses and steeds and mules, trading human beings for money. Such a tragic reality of Babylon.

But then when you get to verse 14, you get to the doctrine of the soul. This is a picture of the doctrine of the soul. God gave us souls and we in our souls have longings. Every soul longs. You can't escape it.

Verse 14, the fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you. All the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you. You shall find them no more at all. Be careful what your soul longs for. If the great things that your soul longs for will be taken away from you, if the great things that your soul longs for will never be taken away from you, Now that's another matter.

If the things that your soul longs for, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness, you will be satisfied. But when your soul longs for the things that will be taken away from you, You need to recognize where you're putting your soul. You know, that's why Jesus told that parable of the man who built barns and he said to that man, soul, your soul is required of you. All of us will experience that. This word that he uses for longed for, for the fruit that your soul longed for, The beauty, the goodness, the happiness that your soul longed for, this is a very, very common word in the New Testament.

I didn't count. I stopped counting. It's the word passions, the fruit that your soul had passion for. In Strong's Concordance, Well, this is the word epithumia. It's used in so many places.

It's translated various things. The essential point of epithumia is that it is a desire, an impulse, a motion of the will, it is anxious self-seeking. And in the concordance, there's a note that these things persist after we're converted. We know that, we already knew that. But they're always a danger, it's always a danger.

But the word is used all over the Bible. It was used for the longing eyes of Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39. She cast her longing eyes on Joseph. It's used in Numbers 11 of the intense craving of the people. That's the term, intense craving, but it's actually epithumia, this exact same term.

It's the same term that James uses in James 4, too. You lust, you have passion for, you desire, you want, you want something. It's sometimes translated covet. You lust and you do not have. You murder in covenant and cannot obtain.

You fight in war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. In 1 Peter 2, 11, we learn that it's this epithumia that wages war against your soul. Your desires wage war against your soul. That's the startling reality in Colossians Through chapter 3 verses 5 through 7 We're told put to death your members which are on the earth fornication uncleanness Epithumia passion passion desires desires for the things that don't matter, inordinate desires for things that are passing away. In Romans 13, the soul's longing is described as coveting.

In Romans chapter one, God gave men over to their passions, to their epithumia, this very same unfulfilling thing. Jesus used the same word for lustful looks in Matthew 5 28, but I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her, to epithumia, to have passion for her, has already committed adultery in his heart. In John 844, these passions are of the devil. In Galatians 516, this word is used of the lusts of the flesh in Galatians 5 where he says, walk by the spirit and you shall not fulfill the epithumia, the passions, the desires, the lusts of the flesh. So the word is very, very common.

We could go on and on. But before we go on and on, It's also a word that is used for holy passions. It was used for Paul's longing to see the Philippians. It's used for a man's desire to be an elder. It's used for Paul's desire to depart and be with Christ, to be relieved of the troubles of the world.

It's used of the angels longing to look into things to come in the gospel and its power. So all desires aren't bad. Paul's desire was that the Hebrews would show diligence in good things. I think that's what I'm trying to say, Hebrews 6 11. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until that end that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." So there's a desire that we would not be sluggish in our passions, but passionate about the right things.

Because happier those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Hunger is a good thing, passion is a good thing. Fire is a good thing as long as it's kept in the fireplace. And that's true with passion as well. And then there's this astounding scene, the merchants, they're wailing, they're weeping, and in verse 15 and forward, and you see all these, you see the clothing, you know, she was clothed, the city was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls the city's identity was bound up in her clothing and The there are six luxurious items that are mentioned here that make her statement her style her her image of luxury, you know, They say the clothes make the man.

And here the clothing defines the city. Clothing does define you. Don't take clothing lightly. There's an entire doctrine of clothing in Revelation. Someday maybe we'll visit it.

But it's very interesting again. Some of the elements of these garments here are like the garments of the priests. That's because the devil can only copy what God made. The devil copies beautiful things to enslave you. But they are beautiful things, and they can be of holy use.

But the devil is a counterfeit priest. Babylon is a counterfeit city. He, she is a counterfeit city. So beautiful using the things that God made, the fabrics that God created, the stones that God created, the materials that God created. The devil can only use what God created.

He's a counterfeiter through and through. This is not an argument against beauty. This is not an argument against beauty. This is not an argument against precious stones. In fact, I think that there's an argument for beauty and precious stones in the Bible for your apparel.

Some of you are wearing them today. Some of you manufacture them. Praise the Lord. Do it under the glory of God. The Proverbs 31 woman is dressed in scarlet and fine linen and purple.

Her beauty was a holy beauty. The Bible's not against beauty. Bible's not against wealth. The Bible says God is the one who gives you the ability to make wealth. You see a very significant emphasis on the feelings of those who've lost everything.

The feelings of those who lost everything are so striking. All of a sudden, they lose their music, they lose their money, they lose their fashion, they lose their clothing, everything that they loved, everything that gripped their souls, they lost it. Their soul was gripped by a counterfeit. You know, what satisfies? Some people get a great high out of shopping or travel or food or friends or gold or cryptocurrency, whatever it might be, what gives you a rise?

Be careful what gives you a rise. Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness and are satisfied or Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness and are satisfied? Or do you hunger and thirst for the things that will never satisfy? Oh yes, they can satisfy as a counterfeit. There's a certain pleasure of wearing a counterfeit.

Everybody thinks that you're wearing something real, but it's not real. And then the reaction, the reaction verse 20. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her. Well, the Lord's people will be glad why Babylon has been disarmed. The thing that hurt them, the counterfeit, they realize that the devil has given them a counterfeit.

That these are fake pleasures. This is the position of the whole redeemed community. They're glad that Babylon has been done away with. They're glad for the poverty of Babylon. Isaiah prefigured this in Isaiah 51.

Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them will sing joyously over Babylon for the plunderers shall come To her from the north says the Lord The people of God are rejoicing. Well, they shed the blood of the Saints as well Not only did they do harm to their souls, but they also killed their friends And she's drunk with the blood of the Saints and Then the completion the final demise of Babylon verses 21 to 24 She's thrown down like a millstone 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 of Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks of this. Those who cause his children to stumble, it would be better for them if a millstone were hung around their neck. You've been to my property, so many of you.

I have four millstones on my property and they're there for a purpose. They're there to say something. They're there to say don't cause one another to stumble. Don't cause children to stumble. Please don't cause children to stumble.

It will be like a millstone thrown around your neck and you'll be cast in the bottom of the sea, don't cause one another to stumble. Husbands don't cause your wives to stumble. Wives don't cause your husbands to stumble. Children, I've seen children cause their parents to stumble by the ungodly pressure they put on them. Children don't cause your parents to stumble because you long for the world.

It will not go well with you. Think of that millstone. Go look at it. Go look at the millstone. Verse 22, the beauty of music dies, the sound of harpists.

The work is destroyed, no craftsmen or any craft. The light doesn't shine, the light of the lamp shall not shine in you anymore. Marriage and joy ends, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice and the voice of the bride shall not be heard in you anymore. And the reason is given in the last two verses. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery, by the word that word sorcery is the Greek word pharmakeia, which we get our word for pharmacy.

The life enhancing drugs that really don't enhance in the end. Sorcery of all the nations, hey by the way, all the nations were deceived. They realize that all the, they realize that they've been deceived. I was cheated. I was lied to.

That's the message. That's what they will say. That's what everyone who will say who doesn't hunger and thirst for righteousness They'll find out that they've been deceived lied to Okay what do we say about this? God is trying to shepherd this church in matters of culture and our involvement in it and our desires, our passions. And God has given us these two great cities as a warning.

You have the city of man and the city of God. You have on the one side Sodom and Gomorrah and Babylon and Tyre and Egypt and Nineveh and Edom and Rome and Jerusalem, the whole world culture that's expressed in every generation. Culture's not neutral. And be sharpened in your discernment. Touch no unclean thing.

Come out of her. Set no unclean thing before your eyes. Have a healthy distance from the world. Consider luxury, We all love luxury. But it wasn't true wealth that was the problem.

It was an idolatrous passion for luxury, for arrogance that surrounded it. The wealth was not for the glory of God. It was for man's glory. And only you or I can know whether the wealth is for the glory of man or of God. Only the Spirit of God can discern that.

You can't tell by the wealth. The Bible says that God gives wealth to some of the stupidest people in the world. You can't tell. A person may be the most poverty-stricken person and be the most covetous and the most worldly. You can't tell.

Only God can tell in the heart. What does your soul long for? What's driving you? What satisfies you? I pray that for all of us, that the fruit that our soul longed for would be like the fruit that Jesus, the fruit of happiness.

Happier those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Would you pray with me? Lord, what do we do with these remarkable words? What do we do with these pictures of these remarkable doctrines? The doctrine of our soul, the doctrine of our passion, the doctrine of luxury, the doctrine of judgment.

All these things have been set before us Lord. Equip the saints Lord for the work of the ministry. Send us forth to do your work. Save the lost here today Lord. Stop anyone running toward Babylon.

Turn us around Lord. Amen.