Isaiah 47, this is a prophecy
of God's destruction of Babylon and the salvation of His people
by the hand of Cyrus. But spiritually, it's speaking
about the destruction of mystical Babylon. That is, the judgment
of the falsehood of this world, the religions of this world by
which the souls of men are deceived and being deceived. Babylon represents
everything that's opposed to God. And it represents especially
false religions. They go by many names, but basically
what it does, if you know it's false by this, it exalts man. He puts something in man's hand
that he has to do. Every religion, it doesn't matter
what name it is, it has this in common. It puts a work in
man's hand. And this is the gospel of God's
sovereign grace. It's the only gospel that declares
salvation is of the Lord. A to Z. It's all of the Lord. Every bit of it. Now, I'm going
to try to read this, but I want to give you some descriptions
here first from Revelation. Revelation 17.1 described Babylon
as the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. The waters
represent people and multitudes and nations and tongues. And
she's described as riding on a beast that goes by many names
of blasphemy. And that's what we say here,
these are many religions. Many made up of different names,
but it's all blasphemy. It's described as her with whom
the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Made folks drunk. She's described
as being very attractive. The woman was arrayed in purple
and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, but it's full of
abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. Her name
is Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations
of the earth. And she's the enemy of God's
saints. Enemy of God and the enemy of
His saints. He said, I saw the woman drunken
with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, first thing we see here,
I'm just going to read through the chapter in Isaiah 47. I'm going to make a few comments.
I'm going to come back to verse 4 because I want to show you
something that about our Redeemer in the midst of judgment. But
let's look first here now. This judgment of God will be
just and it will be absolutely complete. Verse 1, He says, Come
down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the
ground. There is no throne, O daughter
of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called tender and
delicate. She's called the virgin daughter
sarcastically because that's how she tried to portray herself
as a virgin, chaste virgin. She loves, claims to love righteousness
and hate wickedness and all those things. But she's exalted. She puts herself on a throne
and called tender and delicate and what have you. And he said,
now just come down to the dust. Just come right down. There's
no throne for you to sit on. Come down to the dust. He says,
verse 2, take the millstones and grind meal, uncover thy locks,
make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
The picture here is of one taken captive and made to serve in
chains of bondage. Babylon made her servants serve
in hard bondage with bitterness and now the Lord says, in my
judgment, she's going to serve in chains and bondage. That's
what the millstones and the grinding of mill, it's a slave work. That's what she's going to be
brought to do. Verse 3, thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea thy shame
shall be seen. I will take vengeance and I will
not meet thee as a man. Verse 5, he says, sit thou silent,
get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt
no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms. Everybody that's found
within Babylon, everybody that's, and I'm talking spiritual Babylon,
I'm talking about anybody that comes to God not resting in Christ
alone. This is the, this will be the
end right here. The Lord will all those that
come to Him not resting in Christ alone as anti-Christ. That's who they will be, anti-Christ. And they'll be cast out into
outer darkness. This will be the judgment that
He will execute. Now that's solemn. That's a solemn
thing to think about. I want you to look at Revelation
20. Hold your place in Revelation. We'll come back. Look in Revelation
20. The vengeance that God is going
to execute is going to be perfect. It's going to be complete. It's
going to be a matter of justice. It's going to be a vindication
of His righteousness. It's going to be a matter of
Him avenging His own holiness. And it's going to be toward all
who have trampled underfoot the blood of His Son and abused His
saints. Look at Revelation 20 and verse
11. Now this is coming. We're going to meet God very
soon. John said, first Revelation 20, 11, I saw a great white throne
and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away and there was found no place for them. All the spiritual
beings that we wrestle against and then those on the earth too,
in heaven and earth, they try to flee away from it, but there
wasn't a hiding place. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God. The books, plural, the books
were open. And another book was open, singular,
which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works, that is, those who make up Babylon, who come outside
of Christ. They were judged out of these
books that God opened according to their works. And the sea gave
up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. We'll
die first, and then we're gonna be raised, everybody be raised
to come into God's presence to be judged. And if we're not found
in Christ, we'll be judged out of the books. Every record that
can be kept of every, all our nakedness will be uncovered.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire." Now that's serious. It's just complete judgment. Now look at the second thing
back in our text. Hold your place in Revelation. It says here,
we're going to see in just a moment, somebody might ask this question.
They'll say, well, why does God even allow falsehood, false religions
and what have you? Why does He even allow this to
be in the world? Why did He even allow that? Well,
when He was speaking to Babylon, He said this, verse six, I was
wroth with my people. I have polluted mine inheritance
and given them into thy hand. God used Babylon to correct his
children. He used Babylon, who was just
a heathen nation, just like he uses mystical Babylon, all falsehood
in this world, to correct his children. He everlastingly loves
those that he's put in Christ, and none of those are going to
be lost. He's not going to lose any of his children. But in the
midst of Israel, there was a lot of wickedness. There were folks
trying to lead his people out of the way and lead them into
all sorts of abomination within the nation Israel. And so he
opened up the hedges and let Babylon come in. And through
them, he took away those that were leading them away and leading
them out of the right way. He used false religion to do
that, to take them. He uses it that way, to take
those that would steer you wrong out of the way. And he does it
because he loves his children. He corrects his children. You
see, when He did this with a nation, He did this with a nation for
His elect in Israel. And this is what Habakkuk said
about that. He said, O LORD, Thou hast ordained
them for judgment. Thou hast established them for
correction." He's talking about Babylon. He's saying, Lord, You
established them, You constituted them a nation, You settled them,
You made them a monarchy, You made them strong and You made
them mighty, and You did it for this end, that they might be
a rod in Your hand for destruction, not to destroy his people, but
to correct his children and to destroy the wicked that would
turn his children out of the right way. God used a nation
to do that. He used this whole world to do
that. That's what he's doing. And when he does it, he shows
us how mighty he is to save, how merciful he is to us who
he called out by his grace and how he's going to keep and preserve
his people. So that's a purpose that mystical
Babylon serves and that falsehood serves is for the correction
of his people. Now let's look at Let's look
at this third thing. We see that God's judgment is
always just. God doesn't just have the idea
that He elected some to salvation, and you hear it taught that because
He elected some to salvation, He damned others to hell. He
elected some to hell. He didn't do that. His election of grace takes into
account the fact that His all would fall, and He saved some
from them. The reason that's a necessity
is because God doesn't unjustly condemn anybody. We earn the
judgment. If we go to hell, we're going
to earn that. We're going to go because we deserve it, and
God's just to give it to us. Look at verse 6. He said, Thou
didst show them no mercy. Upon the ancient hast thou very
heavily laid thy yoke. Babylon went beyond what they
were commissioned to do. They treated the Jews with cruelty
and they showed them no mercy. That's what false religion is
full of. It's full of unjust judgment
and it's not mercy. It's full of a heavy yoke upon
men. I don't tell you this. I feel
like sometimes folks feel like we've come so far in religion
that now that's just done. Well, we ought to go through
the Bible then and just tear these pages out, shouldn't we? Just
rip these pages out. They're not revelant to us today.
We go through and the Scripture I'm going to preach out of in
the second hour in 1 Corinthians. You'd think we're supposed to
just go through and rip those pages out. Everything Peter's been
writing to us in 2 Peter chapter 2. Should we just rip that out?
It doesn't apply to us today. It does. It does apply to us,
because the same thing's happening today. It's happening today.
When the Lord came the first time, it was like it is right
now. When the Lord came the first
time, religion was abounding. Religion was alive and well. It was prospering. Not like religion
wanted it to. They would have liked to have
been freed from the yoke of Rome, but they were in bed together.
They both were operating together. doing the same thing, promoting
the same lives, they joined together to crucify the Lord. And it'll
be that way when the Lord comes back. There'll be a famine of
bread, not of bread we eat, but of hearing the Word. That's how
it is today. It's a prideful religion, trusting
in self, calling wickedness righteousness, exalting man as God. Look at
verse 7. Thou saidest I shall be a lady
forever, so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart,
neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now
this, that thou art given to pleasures, thou that art given
to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thy heart, I am,
and none else beside me. I shall not sit as a widow, neither
shall I know the loss of children. But these two things shall come
to thee in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood.
They shall come upon thee in their perfection, for the multitude
of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. For thou hast trusted in thy
wickedness, Thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy
knowledge, it hath perverted thee. And thou hast said in thine
heart, I am, and none else beside me. They didn't call it wickedness. They didn't call it enchantments
and sorceries. Men don't call things that. They
call it worshiping God. Men are sincere. They call it
worshiping God. But that's what God says it is.
That's how God regards it. And then he goes on, he shows
us how his judgment is just. Let's read it out, the rest of
it. Verse 11. Therefore shall evil come upon
thee. Thou shalt not know from whence it ariseth. And mischief
shall fall upon thee. Thou shalt not be able to put
it off. And desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which
thou shalt not know. Stand now with thine enchantments,
and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast
laboured from thy youth. If so be, thou shalt be able
to profit. If so be, thou mayest prevail. Now, let them save you. Let all
those things that you've been trusting in, let them save you,
He said, if they can prevail. Verse 13, Thou art wearied in
the multitude of Thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the
stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save thee from these
things that shall come upon thee. It's just as evil as all of those
things are. The folks who's writing horoscopes
and looking at stars and trying to give people counsel and people
go from one council to the other. Well, this one didn't tell me
what I wanted to hear, so let me go over here and look at a
stargazer and see if he'll tell me what I want to hear. And let
me read this horoscope. He didn't tell me what I want to hear.
Let me go read this one. That's all evil. Every bit of that's
evil. It's not of God. None of it. That's the same thing
with folks who claim to be worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
folks that came into Galatia. Paul said, it's another Jesus.
Altogether, another gospel. He said, I'm telling you these
things that the gospel might continue with you. He wasn't
trying to be contentious about it, he was telling the truth
about it. Go on and let's read this out,
verse 14. Behold, they shall be a stubble. The fire shall
burn them. They shall not deliver themselves
from the power of the flame. There shall not be a coal to
warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee
with whom thou hast labored, even thy merchants from thy youth.
They shall wander every one to his quarter, and none shall save
thee. But now look back up at verse
4. This same God of judgment is also God of mercy. He's not
going to clear the guilty at all. But look at this, verse
4. As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, the Holy
One of Israel. God the Holy Spirit moved Isaiah. The rest of this is in the voice
of the Lord speaking. And here the Holy Spirit moved
Isaiah to say, this is our Redeemer. This is the Lord of hosts. This
is the Holy One of Israel. Now what made him to say that
in the middle of giving all this judgment? Well, it has to do
with the judgment. He says He's our Redeemer. Why
is the just retribution and the just vengeance upon this world
of the ungodly, why is it sure and certain? Why is it sure and
certain? For us, who Christ, our kinsman,
Redeemer, has redeemed. Look over at Isaiah 63, verse
4. You see, God is going to punish
all those that aren't found washed in the blood of the Redeemer.
And this is what we read here, verse 4, Isaiah 63, 4. The day of vengeance is in mine
heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. You see, the day of
vengeance, when God pours out vengeance upon the ungodly, that
will be the year of my redeemed. It's come, it's going to be our
deliverance fully from this. Now the Lord has the right, this
is our redeemer, he has the right, he's the near kinsman who came
to where we are and who with his own blood purchased his children. He paid for them. He bought them
from the bondage of sin, from the bondage of corruption, purging
them of their sin altogether so that no charge can be laid
against them. They can't be found guilty before him. those that
He redeemed by His own blood. And He hasn't failed to redeem
them to the Father, and He hasn't failed to bring each one out
in time, out of bondage, out of Babylonian captivity, out
of our blindness and the depravity of our own hearts, and bring
us to see what He's done for us. He hasn't failed to do that
with His children, and will not fail to do that with any of His
children. And none of his children are going to be lost. And so
with that same right as the Redeemer that he has bought with his own
blood, he too will see to it that he executes judgment upon
Babylon. And he's going to do that for
his redeemed. He's doing it for his redeemed.
So that we can say our Redeemer, he will not fail and he will
not be discouraged till indeed he has set judgment in the earth.
Just like he set true discernment, true judgment in the hearts of
his people, Through the gospel, He does the same thing in justice,
in judgment, executing vengeance upon the ungodly. He will do
that. And when we hear judgment, that scares us. It shouldn't. If we're in Him, if we trust
Him, the judgment's been satisfied. The judgment's been accomplished
for His people. We're not going to come into contact in Judgment
Day and be judged by our works. We're going to be judged by what
our works will be His works. That's what we're saying by faith
that our works are His works. That's what we're going to be
judged by and be found perfectly righteous in Him, be found complete
in Him. Now, just as He promised His
redeemed children, so He promises His redeemed children throughout
the world. Let's look at Isaiah 35.10. Isaiah 35.10. Look at
this. He says, and the ransomed, that
means the redeemed knows he's ransomed. He paid the ransom,
price of his blood. The ransom of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion. Not that hill over there in the
dirt. To heaven, Zion. To heavenly Jerusalem. We're
coming to God's Zion. With songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads and they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow
and sighing shall flee away. He said He's going to do this.
Why? Because they're my ransom. Look at Isaiah 41.14. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, ye
men of Israel. That's who all of God's elect
children are, whether you're a natural, physical descendant
of Abraham, or you're naturally a Gentile. Those are a Jew who
are born of the Spirit of God, whose praise is of God and not
of men. That's who a true Jew is. And we're true Hebrews, true
children of God. Through faith, you're the children
of Abraham. And he says, fear not thou worm Jacob, and ye men
of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel. Look at Isaiah 43, 3. I'm the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel. I'm sorry, Isaiah, yeah. I'm
the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. I gave nations for you. I gave
people for you, he said. Look at Isaiah 43, 14. Thus saith
the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, for your
sake For your sake, I have sent to Babylon and have brought down
all their nobles and the Chaldeans whose cries in the ships." Just
as he did that with that nation in this immediate context of
this prophecy and delivered his children out of that national
Babylon, he's going to do the same thing for his children in
this world from mystical Babylon. He said, for your sake, I've
done this. For your sake. I want to show
you something in Psalm 9. Psalm 9. I want to preach a message
from this, Lord willing, soon. I've been working on it for a
while. Psalm 9, let me just read it to you for now. The Lord is
known by the judgment which He executed. The Lord is known by
the judgment which He executed. You know how we know the Lord?
We know the Lord by what he did at Calvary. That's where we see
his judgment executed. In perfect righteousness, he
didn't spare his son. He's not going to spare one guilty
sinner. When his son was made sin, who knew no sin for his
people, he did not spare his son. He poured out wrath on him.
And he's going to do that for every guilty sinner. But for
all those for whom he did that, justice is accomplished. And
he won't punish sin twice. He won't do that twice. He won't
be guilty of double jeopardy. It's accomplished for his people.
The Lord is known by the judgment which he executed. There's two
sides to that coin. The wicked is snared in the work
of his own hands. Hegion sila. That means give
this double meditation. Think on this. He's known by
His judgment. The wicked will be snared in
the work of His own hands. The trap He's laid, the net He's
laid, everything He's done for Himself, He's going to be taken
in His own work of His own hands. And look at verse 17. The wicked
shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.
But there's another side of that coin. Here's why He's doing that.
For the needy shall not always be forgotten. And the expectation
of the poor shall not perish forever. You and I who are in
this world and who need Him and who long to be with Him and who
long for His salvation to be accomplished and for this judgment
to be over and for us to be in His presence with no sin and
nothing to interrupt us anymore, with no more contentions and
no more nagging and carrying on from men who will not bow
to God, He's doing this for us. For the poor, I will do this. Because our expectation is that
He will. And He says, I will. I will.
All right, go back now to our text in Isaiah 47. Let me show you this next name.
Now we see that our Redeemer is going to do this because He
has the right to do it. He's the Redeemer. He's the kinsman
Redeemer. He has the right to do it. That's
His name. This is our Redeemer we're talking about. Now, does
He have the power and the wisdom to execute this justice? Does
He have the power and the wisdom to execute this judgment for
us? Look at verse 4. The Lord of hosts is His name.
Now that means all power over all things in heaven and earth
belongs to our Redeemer. All power over all things in
heaven and earth belongs to our Redeemer. Let me just ask you
this, would you want that much power? I don't have the wisdom
to handle what I got, much less that much power. I don't want
it, I'm glad it's all His, aren't you? That's Him, the Lord of
hosts. That means the hosts of heaven
and earth, the armies in heaven and in earth. He's over all of
them. This One, you think about that now, the One who is our
Redeemer, the One who gave Himself for us, the One who bought us
with His precious blood, the One who is formed in us by the
Holy Spirit, this One who is leading and guiding and protecting
us day by day, this One who, I pray, speaking in our hearts
right now from His throne in glory, who brought this gospel
to us and keeps ministering to us through the word of the gospel,
this one has control of every enemy as well as every friend,
inanimate and inanimate. He has control of all, everything. And the scripture says, Ephesians
121, it says, this is the description of him, I want you to see. This
is a totally, totally, totally different Jesus than the one
that the world is presenting to people. I want you to see
who this one is. Ephesians 1.21. This is where
the Lord has put Him because He's so well pleased with what
His Son has accomplished for His people and for the glory
of God. Verse 21 says, He's far above all principality and power
and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and
has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." When he came back, when he came
back to the to his disciples after he was resurrected from
the grave. He came back to them and he told
them, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth. This
is who our Redeemer is. After he talks about that great
heart over in Revelation, he talks about a war going on and
he says, these shall make war with the Lamb. the harlot and
all her kings and rulers, and they don't like each other either.
If you read it, they're fighting amongst themselves. They don't
like each other. But it says, these shall make
war with the Lamb, that's Christ, and the Lamb shall overcome them.
Why? Because He's Lord of lords and
King of kings, and they that are with Him are called and chosen
and faithful. That's who our Lord is. Thy Redeemer
is strong. The Lord of hosts is His name.
He shall throughly plead their cause that He may give rest to
the land and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. That's who He is.
He's going to be able to do this because He's not only redeemed
His people and has the right and the authority by that redemptive
work to do it. He also is the Lord of hosts.
Our Redeemer is our God and our God is our Redeemer. That God-man
who's touched with the feeling of our infirmities and knows
what we suffer, that's seated in glory, is God. And He has the control of everything
in this world. That's why this judgment, this
vengeance, is good news for the righteous, because that's who
He's doing it for. Look at the next thing. Well,
we know He's our Redeemer, so He's got the right to execute
vengeance. This is our Redeemer. He's going to do this upon our
behalf. He's the Lord of hosts, so we
know He's got all power and all wisdom to do it. But what about
His character? What about His character? Does
His character assure us that He will execute judgment on our
behalf? I've known some men that had
the power, and I've known men that had the wisdom, and I've
known men that, as far as their rights were concerned, had the
right, but they didn't have the character. where everything they
ended up saying to me were lies and ended up doing the opposite
of what they said they were going to do. I need to know it's not
going to be enough that he's got the right as our Redeemer
and that he's got the power and the wisdom to do it. I want to
know if he's told me he's going to do it, will he do it? Don't
you? I want to know, can I trust him?
This is the third name that's given, verse 4. He is the Holy
One of Israel. The Holy One of Israel. That
means that everything that God has promised us in Christ Jesus,
He has sworn to us by His holiness that He will perform it. We were
called with what? A holy calling. A holy calling. That means when God called His
people, He called us in holiness. Let me show you Psalm 89. Psalm
89, 34. You're going to like this. Psalm 89, 34. This is what He
promised David. You know David's a type of Christ.
And this is what He promised David. And just as surely as
Christ is going to get this, David's going to get this. And
just as surely as Christ and David get this, all those who
are the true spiritual seed of David, those elect children from
Jew and Gentile that he's called out, we're going to get this.
Look at what he said, Psalm 89, 34. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips, Once have
I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. I will not
lie. His seed shall endure forever
and his throne as the sun before me and it shall be established
forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath." God
didn't have to make an oath. If He says something is true,
He can't lie, but He confirmed it with an oath too. And He said,
I've sworn in my holiness that I'm not going to break my covenant.
I'm not going to break my covenant with my Son, our King David,
our Christ, our David. We're not going to break His
covenant with Him. Nor is He going to break His covenant with
any of His children who He calls in Him. He's the Holy One. He
destroys our enemies and He preserves us from them as He promised. Look at Ezekiel 39. I want to
show you why He does this. Do the right there from Isaiah.
Ezekiel 39. And look at verse 7. So, he's talking about destroying
So Gog who is in Israel and Magog who's in the islands, the Gentiles
without, that means everybody that's falsehood. He said, I'm
going to destroy them all. I'm going to destroy them all.
And look at why he does this. Verse 7, So will I make my holy
name known in the midst of my people Israel. And I will not
let them pollute my holy name anymore. And the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. You see,
everybody's gonna know this. When it's all done, everybody's
gonna know He really is the Holy One. He really did speak that
which is right. He really did speak that which
is holy, and He really did have the character, the trustworthiness,
the holiness of heart to bring about everything He said He would.
That's our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts, the Holy One of Israel.
God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of
his holiness. That's what the scripture said.
Now let me bring this down to you into some application here. Let's, let's, all right, I got
to give this to you though. You be looking at Isaiah 52.
The Lord God calls for his people to come out of Babylon. In Revelation
18, verse 4, I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come
out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,
that ye receive not her plagues. In Isaiah 52, verse 11, that's
what He said. He says, Depart ye, depart ye. Go ye out from thence, touch
no unclean thing. Go ye out of the midst of her.
Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. And we know from
2 Corinthians 6, 17, this is what Paul quoted. He said, Wherefore
come out from among them and be ye separate, said the Lord.
and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I
will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty." And that's what God commands. He
commands, come out of her. She's going to die. She's going
to be judged. And everybody that's found in
Babylon not trusting Christ, not found in Christ, they're
going to be judged just in this judgment we've looked at. Now,
make sure you get this. You can't reform Babylon. You
can't reform Babylon. I can't reform Babylon. It won't
do you any good to go into her midst and set up camp and decide
that, well, I'm going to sit here and teach some things and
maybe I can do some good here. That's not how God said do it.
He said, when He separates His people and sanctifies us, He
said, I'm bringing you out of Babylon. And then he calls his
children out of Babylon through the gospel. He doesn't make his
children one with Babylon. He doesn't do that. Can't reform
her. Now, if a man is saved by works
so that it's no more of grace, then stay in Babylon. That's
the best place she can be. But if a sinner is saved by grace
so that it's no more works, come out of Babylon. Get out of her.
Come to the Lord. If a sinner is saved by the will
of man, if he's saved by blood relationships, who his mom and
daddy, grandma was or whatever, by the will of his flesh, then
you just go on being one flesh with the harlot. But if a sinner
is saved by God's will to the praise and glory of His grace,
then come out of her and be joined to Christ. If a sinner is saved
by a co-effort between the Lord and some loathsome little maggot,
like we are, if that's how this thing is accomplished, then stay
married to that prostitute. But if God saves, according to
the scripture, in salvations of the Lord, come out of her
and leave her alone. If that other Jesus who died
for all men, but whose blood is only made effectual by man's
will, by man's work, by man looking down on him and letting his poor
little Jesus have his way, if that Jesus is the true Jesus,
then go on drinking the wine of her fornication. But if Jesus
Christ who laid down his life for his sheep and put away their
sin by the sacrifice of himself is the true Lord of glory, then
repent from Babylon and believe on Christ. If your doctrine's
true, got your doctrine down true, but Christ doesn't mean
enough to you not to mingle truth with the lies of her alluring
attractions that she uses to seduce men, then go on practicing
her whoredoms. But if Christ is all to you,
then come out of her and leave her alone. Don't have anything
else to do with it. And he said, and I'll receive
you and be a father unto you. And somebody will say, well,
I don't believe that free will religion is anti-Christ, that
is devil worship. The only thing I can say about
that is a man who says that hasn't been made to know the holy name
of God. Paul said, you were carried away
unto your dumb idols. Wherefore I give you to understand,
no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed.
Nobody calls him a failure. Nobody says he tried but he didn't
succeed. Nobody speaking by the Spirit
of God says that. He says, and no man can say that He is the
Lord, that He did accomplish everything He came to accomplish
except by the Holy Ghost, the only way. But for you who have
come out, turn to Revelation 19.1. I'm trying to show you
this is that we have as much to rejoice in in the judgment
of God as we do in the mercy of God, because it's all right,
it's all holy, it's all just, and it's all for His people.
Look at Revelation 19.1. And after these things, I heard
a great voice of much people in heaven." Now this, after these
things, if you read Revelation 17, 18, you'll find that he's
talking about the judgment of Babylon, that great harlot. When
the final judgment has taken place and men are cast into hell
forever. You think everybody in heaven
is going to be sad and crying about that? Not when we know
what true holiness is. Not when we know what true righteousness
is. Not when we see him face to face. We won't. We won't. Because we'll
know what we'll rejoice in righteousness. Look, and after these things
I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying hallelujah. Salvation and glory and honor
and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his
judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." And again they
said, Hallelujah. And her smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and twenty elders
and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on
the throne, saying, Amen, Hallelujah. And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah. For the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Amen.