All right. Before we begin in our continued
study of Revelation 18, let's have a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you this
morning for another day. And Lord, it is so good to be
able to come together and to assemble ourselves together in
your presence. We ask Your blessing upon Your
Word. Teach us according to Your grace
and mercy. For Christ's sake, Amen. Revelation
18. We had begun our study last week,
and we saw where John in his vision, the Scripture said, In
verse 1, He saw another angel. One of the same sort is what
that word means. That is, the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. And He came down from heaven. No one prays Him down. No one
commands Him down. He came into this world being
sent by His Father. The Scripture says in John 3.16,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. As I've said before, that verse
of Scripture, John 3.16, the one that the free willed false
religions of this world cling to and say that that verse of
Scripture proves universal love by Almighty God. That Scripture
does not prove universal love because the word world means
the order. Actually, human family is another
way. God loved the order of man, would
not leave man to himself. John saw the angel come down
from heaven, great power. The earth was lightened with
his glory or his opinion. That's how we knew the opinion
of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. Outside
of that, we'd know nothing of God's opinion, God's purpose
to show mercy had Christ not come. Verse 2 said, He cried
mightily with a strong voice, Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit,
cage of every unclean and hateful bird. The Lord revealed, the
Lord Jesus Christ revealed through preachers, through John. John
is the means. We stand here this morning and
we proclaim Christ, His glory, His honor, His purpose. But this
is not my message. It's our gospel, Paul said, being
given to us, taught it. But this is the gospel of God,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we pick up in verse
3 for a moment. He said in verse 2 that Babylon
is fallen is fallen. Why? Now remember who Babylon
is. Babylon is false religion, the
false religion of man's pride. You remember when Nebuchadnezzar
in Babylon, you know, this is this is this is not that city. This is a symbolic city of man's
pride, which is the basis of all false religion. Nebuchadnezzar
stood out on the porch, looked at Babylon, and he said, look
at this great Babylon that I built. Look what I've done. Look what
I've accomplished. And Scripture says, and while
the words were in his mouth, God took his mind away from him.
Seven years he grazed out in the pasture. People would come
by and look at him. Who's that? Nebuchadnezzar, great Nebuchadnezzar
that was instrumental building all this. God took his mind away.
Seven years later, God gave his mind back. Nebuchadnezzar was
the one that says he does, as you will, in the army of heaven
among the inhabitants of the earth. But why? Why is Babylon
the great? False religion. Why are they
fallen? Verse three. For all nations
have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and
the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of
her delicacies." Now I will say this, this statement right here
in verse 3 is going to be developed later in this chapter more fully. But I want to touch on it for
just a minute on what was just said. Number one, this is the
reason why they're under the wrath of God and are fallen.
Number one, they've drunk of the wine of her fornication. Now men are going to drink of
something. Drinking there is to receive
into the soul. That's what it means. When the
Lord said, drink of me, Well, does that mean that we can actually,
you know... It is received into the soul. I want you to read. Turn with
me to John 6. John 6, verse 53. John 6, 53. Now listen to this. When the Lord Jesus Christ says,
Verily, verily, truly, truly, listen to what I'm saying. Listen
to what He's saying. John 6, 53, Then Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you
have no life in you. Now, is the Lord Jesus Christ
saying something that means that we literally can eat of Him? and drink literally of Him. He said something here and said,
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood,
no life. Now what was He talking about?
The flesh there means of His life. His life. He was made flesh. Almighty God took upon Himself
the form of sinful flesh. The form of sinful flesh. Why? Because there was no sin in Him. Made flesh at Calvary, yes. Made
sin at Calvary. But He took upon Himself the
form, the likeness of sinful flesh. Real flesh. A body was prepared in Him. And in the flesh, He obediently
walked before God Almighty, the triune God. Great mystery. Here's God obeying God. God obedient
to Himself. As Brother Scott says, the Lord
had to do something for Himself before He could do anything for
us. We eat of His flesh. We take it to our soul. When we see by faith the flesh
and eat of the flesh are the obedience of the humanity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We eat of His flesh and say this,
by faith I believe that Almighty God has taught me and appropriated
to me, given to me, imparted to me life, that His life, His
obedience is my obedience. We eat of His flesh and say what
he did for himself, God has imputed that to me. His righteousness
in the flesh is my righteousness before God, except you eat of
the flesh and drink of the blood. Blood speaks of his death. The
Lord told the nation of Israel, put the blood on the lintel of
the doorpost. He said, when I come through,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. When we drink of the
blood, that is by faith, we believe that when He died, He died for
us. He died for His people. He died
for the elect. He put away their guilt being
made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
So a man is going to eat and drink of something. One of two
things. No gray area here. God Almighty
has declared. Men drink of something. Well,
what have these done? In Revelation 18, 3, all the
nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. They've drunk that rebellion
against God Almighty. The kings of the earth committed
fornication with her. Now, remember, we will look at
this in Matthew 11, 12, 13. It starts. in a fuller explanation
of this. But let me tell you this, these
kings or these kingdoms, you know, it's real easy to start
thinking about kingdoms. And we'll think about like Egypt,
Syria, and that's right. There's no doubt about that.
That's right. But what is more fully being set forth concerning
these kingdoms. I'll tell you what it is. It's
the different places or denominations, let me say it like that, whereby
men create themselves a god. The Egyptians had a god. The Babylonians had a god. Turn
with me to Exodus 32.1. Let me show you how this attitude,
Exodus 32.1, That mindset is in every man. Every man is born with that mindset. Exodus 32, 1. When the people saw that Moses
delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves
together under Aaron and said unto him, up, make us gods. which shall go before us. For
as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land
of Egypt, we what or know not what is become of him." Can you
think about who said this? The very ones that came through
the Red Sea band and saw the deliverance of the hand of God. Man by nature has it within himself
to make him a god. It says the kings or the kingdoms
of the earth committed fornication with her. Mystery Babylon, the
great harlot, has fallen under the judgment of God. Why? Because
she's drunk of her fornication against God Almighty. And these
kings, these kingdoms, Let me bring it just a little bit closer
to home for you, if I can. These kingdoms or these diversities,
here again, we can think back on Egypt and Assyria and all
of these. Let's break it down to every
different denomination that you can think of. Call it whatever
denomination. I'm talking about in the United
States. Let's just talk about Fairmont. How many different denominations
or kingdoms or diversities are there among false religion? Call them what you want. I mean,
whatever denomination it is, do you know what they've done?
They've created them a god. They've made them a god. And one of those kingdoms or
denomination says that, you know, you've got to, my God demands
that you speak in tongues. That's what my God wants. And
another one says, now my God says you have to be baptized
in order to be saved. That baptism is salvation. That's their God. They made them
a God. They told Aaron, make us gods, make us some gods. The
kingdoms of this, the diversities, the denominations, call it whatever
you want to call it. But man by nature is going to
get him a little group, and he's going to form himself a little
pact. And they're going to have a god.
And their god demands whatever they have figured out they can
do. We can do that. Our God says you have to be baptized.
I can be baptized, so therefore I can, by my own ability, obey
my God. My God demands that I have to
do this, that, or the other. And whatever man by nature thinks
or imagines that he can perform, that's the demand that he has
upon his God to him. Whatever my God says, I can do
that. Now you think about the only message that set forth where
men cannot do what God Almighty demands. It's the gospel of God's
grace. No man can of himself obey God. Almighty God is a holy God, just. The scripture says back in Revelation
18.3, Alright, they drunk of the wine of the wrath of the
fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication
with her. The kingdoms, the diversities, the denominations, just divide
them up ever how you want to. And the merchants of the earth
are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Again, do
not be redundant, but I'll show you where these merchants, these
tradesmen is what it is. Tradesmen. It's a tradesman that
orders another's life. What does this mean? The merchants.
It's a tradesman that orders another's life. These tradesmen, every denomination,
every kingdom, every diversity has a God. And every diversity
has their false prophets. And they preach. And these false
prophets go into this world and are proclaiming their God, and
they have those that hear. This mystery religion is fallen,
is under the wrath of God. But before I end, I cannot end
on that verse. I must look at verse 4. I heard another voice from heaven
saying, Come out from among her, my people, that ye be not partakers
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues by the grace
of Almighty God. There are some, I'm convinced
here, and many in other places that are sitting where the gospel
of free grace is being preached. Left to ourselves, let me tell
you what we would do. We would do the very same thing
that those in the desert did, speaking to Aaron, and they said,
make us gods. Make us a god. I told you about
my friend that said that he had a nephew. I asked him, my friend
was a preacher, a preacher of the gospel of God's grace. And
his nephew came to him and he asked him, he said, let me ask
you something. He said, you say that God's sovereign. And you say that God has chosen,
and you say that God predestinated, and you say that God made one
vessel unto honor and another vessel unto dishonor. That's
what you say. And he said, now, I've listened to this guy over
here, and this guy says that God loves everybody. And this
guy says over here that God wants to show mercy to everybody if
they will let Him, if they'll exercise their free will, and
that He's provided salvation. This guy says this over here,
and he says this one's wrong, and he says you're wrong, and
you say they're wrong, and he said, how do I know? How do I know? How do I know
who's right? My friend told him, he said,
but for the grace of God, you won't. And he said, unless Almighty
God gives you a new heart, to see what's being preached truthfully
is consistent with this book, with these scriptures. Unless
you have ears to hear that what is proclaimed by God Almighty
in His Word is the same message that we're preaching, unless
God gives you a heart to hear that, you're going to pick something
that sounds good to you. Something that kind of fits your
fancy. And you'll start attending right
there. And you'll settle down right there. And if God allows
you to continue what you're doing, you'll die right there. That's right. The only hope that
any man has is when Almighty God says from heaven, come out. When Almighty God by His Spirit
quickens a man by His grace and calls him out of darkness, My
sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. All that the Father has given
Me shall come to Me." How do we know that they shall? Almighty
God said they would. They shall come to Me. When are
they going to come? When God Almighty says come.
Why didn't you come before? You did. Because He didn't call
you then. Yes. When did you come? When He called you. Was there
any possibility that you weren't coming? Not if you weren't one
of the Lord's own. Not if He had everlastingly loved
you. Come out from her. Who? My people. They've always
been His people. He's always loved them. He always
saw them in grace. He always saw them in mercy.
He always saw them in Christ. Come out, why? That you be not
partakers of her sins and you receive not of her plagues. Let
me tell you of the mercy of Almighty God. That God has everlastingly
loved a people that He has set forth in an eternal covenant
I'm not going to let you perish. I'm not going to leave you to
yourself. I'm not going to let you die. And there are some realizing
that God has shown mercy to them. And they realize the reason I'm
here is because God has shown mercy to me. I am what I am by
the grace of God. I pray that the Lord in this
just a few moments that we've had that we'd realize afresh,
by the grace of God, we have a heart to be here. We have desire
to hear of Him and to drink of Him. Not of her fornication. Not of false religion. You that
believe the thought of sitting and drinking of that message
that is rebellious against God Almighty, that honors man and
not God Himself is repulsive to you. To sit there and think
of listening to someone set forth that which is disrespectful before
our God repulses you. May Almighty God be pleased to
teach us fresh something of His mercy and grace to us for Christ's
sake.