All right, it's good to see everybody
this morning. It's good to be home, and again, we're thankful for another
time. Let's have a word of prayer.
Our Father, this morning we ask you to teach us concerning your
glory that is found and exhibited only in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray for these that
have been mentioned, those that we know of that are sick. We
ask You to show concerning Your mercy and compassion according
to Your will and purpose. And we ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the book of Revelation, chapter 18. Now, I apologize. Lord willing, I'll have a set
of notes next week, but I'm going to go ahead and begin this week. And let's look at a couple of
verses out of Revelation, chapter 18. We realize again, and we never want
to forget the book of Revelation is setting forth. It is the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But you realize when we say the
revelation of Christ, what we're saying is the revelation of how
God Almighty has purposed to show mercy to an everlastingly
loved group of people, those that He's chosen in the Lord
Jesus Christ to preserve them, redeem them, keep them, bring
them to Himself, that they are in an eternal covenant of grace. They are holy and without blame
before Him in love. Now, how long have they been
holy? They have always been holy. Those chosen in Christ have always
been God's elect, always been in Christ, justified, declared
to be with no record of sin. And in the timing of God, when
it pleased God, that's what Paul said, when it pleased God, in
time, God brings that new creation about to our understanding. We then understand and know. But that new creation didn't
come into being in time. It came into being in my understanding
in time. But when God Almighty says, I've
always loved you, How does that come into being in time when
God says, I've always known you? Chosen before the foundation
of the world. Okay. That's what the book of
Revelation is all about. It's how God Almighty is going
to preserve His people and that there's going to be a final and
total destruction and judgment of all that is in rebellion before
God. Okay, Revelation 18-1, after
these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven having
great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. After these things, after all
that had been shown before, For John to see, he said, I saw
another angel. For John to see this one of great
power, to see him spiritually, to see him actually in the revelation
of Almighty God, for him to see in this angel of another sort,
that's what it means, another angel, one of the same sort.
This angel must come down and reveal himself. The Lord Jesus
Christ was made flesh and He has revealed Himself to His people.
And He came down, the Scripture says, in great power and the
earth was lightened with His glory. Spiritually illuminated. Turn to Matthew 11, 27. Matthew
11, 27. Matthew 11, 27 says this, ìAll
things,î now you stop right there, ìAll
things, all men, all angels, all power, all obedience to the
law for righteousness, all redemption of all that had ever been given
Him in that everlasting covenant of grace, all preservation for
those that God gave Him, all mediation for those that God... All things are delivered unto
Me of My Father. All judgment, all redemption,
all mercy, all curse, everything, everything has been delivered
unto the Son. And no man knoweth the Son."
Now you think about this. By the grace of God, you know
Him, but the Scripture says, No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. What does that mean? No man knows
the work of the Son. No man knows the mission of the
Son. No man knows the calling of the
Son. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the Servant of God. That's what the Father said.
It's My Servant. No man knows the Son. Boy, can
you imagine trying to enter into the depth of the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ? We know in part. We prophesy
in part. We see through a glass darkly.
But I'm telling you, no man knows the Son but the Father. The Scripture says, neither knoweth
any man the Father but the Son. What is that? The holiness, the
justice, the demand for righteousness. What does the Father demand? Well, we know this. What does
the Father demand? Absolute obedience. Can you tell
me what that is? No man knoweth the Father but
the Son." But listen to this, "...and He to whomsoever the
Son will reveal Him." There are some things that we do know. But as I said a minute ago, there
are some things that we don't know. The secret things belong
to God. But those things that are revealed,
those are ours. What do we know? We know what
God has been pleased to reveal us. John said back in Revelation
18-1, I saw another angel, one of the same sort, coming down
from heaven, having great power. How much power? All power. And the earth was lightened with
His glory, with His opinion, with how He thought. The earth
was illuminated Who saw it? All that the Father revealed
Himself to. All that the Son made known the
purpose of God. Now, there are many that are
darkened. Minds are darkened, blinded.
But some know. Verse 2, And He cried mightily
with a strong voice, saying, This is the voice that's heard
by the sheep. I want you to turn again to John
10, 16. John 10, 16. John 10, verse 16 says this. Another sheep I have. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
speaking to a group of religious folks And he's revealing something
here that I think is very, very wonderfully set forth by the
Master. Other sheep I have. That is to say, other sheep I
hold. Other sheep I possess. I possess them in eternal election. They're mine. My sheep. As I've said before, there may
be lost sheep right now. There may be some sitting here
this morning that may be lost and still be the sheep of God. Lost sheep. There's some enlightened
sheep and some lost sheep, but they're all sheep. They've always
been sheep. A sheep has never been a goat.
Never been a goat. Because for them to be a goat,
God would have to look upon them, Brother Scott, in a different
light, wouldn't He? There have always been sheep. Other sheep I have. Now, if you've got your Bible
open, I want you to look at something. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one foal and one shepherd. Now, he just said something. and used the word F-O-L-D two
times. And they're not the same word.
They're not the same word. He says this, Other sheep I have,
and they're not of this fold. That word right there, fold,
means a yard, an uncovered enclosure. Uncovered. It's got a fence around
it, but it's open. It actually means a yard. The Lord was speaking to some
that were in Judaism. They were Jews of the law. And they found great comfort
in being in that yard. The Lord says, Other sheep I
have. And he said, They're not of this yard. Them I must bring. I must lead by taking hold of. I'm going to accompany them.
I'm going to attach myself to them. Them I must bring, and
they shall hear my voice." They're going to understand my language. That's what he's saying. Have
you ever noticed or thought back whenever you sit? Now, I've said
this before. There's many that are sitting
here that grew up under the sound of a faithful gospel preacher.
And you heard what he said. You heard. You understood the
words that this pastor preached. You understood him. You understood. You could understand his language
and you understood. But you didn't understand the
disclosure that he was preaching. because the Spirit of God had
never revealed it to you yet. But then in the process of time,
Almighty God, when it pleased Him, I talked about it a while
ago, when it pleased God to reveal Himself in you, you heard it. You said, I understand what you're
saying. I understood it. I understood
it with my head. But then God Almighty revealed
it to my heart and opened my eyes of understanding. And with
ears to perceive what was being said, that's when you heard the
voice of God. Not what you perceived by that. There's a natural understanding
of the Scriptures. But it takes the voice and power
of God to reveal other sheep I have. They are not of this
yard, them also I must bring. They shall hear my voice, and
there shall be one foal." That word, foal, there means a flock
guided and kept. It is precious. It is a tender word. It is a
flock. Other sheep I have, they're not
of this yard. I'm going to bring them, and
there's going to be one flock guided and kept. And there's
going to be one shepherd, one pastor of the sheep. That's all I'm going to have.
Now what does John, back in Revelation 18, what does John? He cried,
verse 2, mightily with a strong voice. And this is the voice
that the sheep hear when it pleases God. What did they say? He says,
Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. Two things. Number one, they've fallen under
God's judgment. They've fallen into ruin. But
the word fallen also means they failed. They failed. Babylon is failed, is failed. Failed to what? Well, men and
women left to themselves go through this life being promised by the
great harlot false religion. Just like back in Proverbs 7
where the man, simple-minded, he sees a woman of the night.
That's a picture of false religion. And she says, come here. I want to talk to you. The good man's gone. That's me
and you go take our lay of love. I've perfumed my bed. Tapestry's
beautiful. Beautiful. You're going to love being with
me. It says it's not until that dart,
the dart of God's judgment, pierces him through that he realizes,
you lied to me. She has failed. Babylon is fallen,
is fallen. She has failed to come through
with what she said. I'm of the Lord. That's what
these hucksters are saying. That's what they're promising
people. God's got a great plan for you. Fallen. And do you know the only one
that hears that voice right there? Babylon is fallen, is fallen?
Those that hear the voice of the Master. those that hears
the voice of the shepherd. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. She is become. She is brought
into being. She is made manifest. God's sheep,
those that are regenerated by the grace of God, they know it
now. And those that God will bring
out of darkness shall know it before they leave this world.
They are going to know that Babylon is a is brought into being to
be a habitation, a dwelling place of devils and a hold, a guarded
place of every foul spirit, impure soul and a cage, a prison of
every unclean and hateful bird. That is all that God has declared
to be unclean. Back in the Old Testament, God
said there was clean birds and and dirty birds, and there's,
you know, different types of animals. That's a clean animal.
This is an unclean animal. What does that mean? It says
what God calls clean is clean. That's what He told Peter. He
laid down, or lowered down that sheet, and the Lord told Peter
in a vision, you take and eat. And Peter says, not so, Lord.
I've never eaten anything unclean. And the Lord says, don't you
call unclean what I call clean. Almighty God has the right. Babylon
is fallen, is fallen. The habitation of devils, the
hold of every foul spirit and cage of every unclean and hateful
bird. Two instances in the Scriptures
when that word habitation is used. Ephesians 2.22, speaking
of the habitation of God's elect. And the other one is right here,
the habitation of devils. God has the right. God has the
right. In closing, turn to Matthew 25
and we'll stop for this morning. Matthew 25. God has the right to decree, to choose, to make
known that which he has eternally purposed to do. God has the right to decree the
habitation of all that he's ever made. Does the potter have the
right, out of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor,
one that's worth the cost, and another unto dishonor? Matthew
25, verse 34, Then shall the king say unto them on his right
hand, You, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world." Now, you think about
this. All that God has ever purposed to show mercy to, He has prepared
their habitation, their eternal habitation. It was always prepared,
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Is there a possibility
that Almighty God did not have a habitation of mercy and grace
and companionship with Him for all these everlastingly loved?
No possibility. Look at verse 41. Then shall
He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me ye
cursed into everlasting fire. prepared
for the devil and his angels, all that were of him. Babylon
is fallen. God's people know it now. In
the day of judgment, all men are going to know it. But in
that day, Almighty God will reveal what He has eternally purposed
to do. Show mercy to whomsoever He will. and to whomsoever He will, He
hardens. May the Lord be pleased to bless
this message to our understanding and to our comfort and peace
for His sake.