12th chapter of Isaiah is brought
before us. The victory that's ours through
Christ our Savior and the new birth, the miracle of the new
birth. making us aware of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, revealing Him to us, and giving us that blessed assurance
that we're His after the passing of time. Good song. Thank you. I draw your attention to the
13th chapter of Isaiah. We finished chapter 12 and was
talking with Brother Ray. We could go right back through
that 12th chapter and not be sorry in doing so. It's just
loaded, but let's move on through our studies in the book of Isaiah.
As an introduction, let me share this with you. Actual recorded
Old Testament historical events all have spiritual interpretations. When God rested on the seventh
day, from His work of creation, which He called the Sabbath day,
that typifies, the Sabbath day typifies Jesus Christ who is
our Sabbath. And when we come to Him by faith,
when God gives us the gift of faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, we cease from our own works as God did from His
and we rest in Christ and only in Christ and His finished work.
Adam's sin reveals to us the total depravity of man. Adam
didn't just dub his toe, he plunged the whole human race into condemnation. We come into this world dead
in trespasses and sins, helpless and hopeless, totally depraved
in that awful state and cannot get ourselves out of that. It
takes the power of God to raise us from that state of spiritual
deadness. Cain and Abel typifies two classes of people, two religions. Cain slew his brother Abel because
his own religious works now were evil, and he was of that wicked
one. Abel brought a little lamb and
offered that to God, which typified Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world. God had respect unto
Abel and his offering. He did not have respect unto
Cain and his offering. God gave Abel faith to believe,
and he has given us that same faith. We look to Christ and
only to Christ. Enoch's walk with God points
to the believer's walk of faith. Enoch had this testimony that
he pleased God, and God took him. But you can't please God
without faith. It's absolutely impossible. We
read that in the book of Hebrews. Noah's faith manifests the gift
of God, his gift of faith to Noah, And when he was moved by
fear to prepare an ark to the saving of his soul, that ark
points us to Jesus Christ, who is the only ark of safety to
deliver us from the wrath to come. God poured out his wrath
on a world of ungodly people. The only ones who were safe were
those who were in the ark. And Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. It does not say that God found
grace in the eyes of Noah. And that's exactly what happens
to us. It's God's grace. We're in Christ. And God finds
grace in His own eyes for His people. It's God's grace. And
so all of these different Old Testament events point us to
Jesus Christ our Savior. The flood is a warning of the
eternal wrath of God that is yet to come. God had no mercy
on anyone outside of the ark. They all perished. National Israel
typifies God's spiritual Israel, His chosen blood-bought church. Egyptian bondage is a picture
of God's elect and sinful bondage. The Passover lamb that was killed
and the blood sprinkled on a doorpost of those Israelites typifies
Christ our Passover, the sacrificial lamb of God. The deliverance, Israel's deliverance
from Egyptian bondage points to the power of God in delivering
His chosen people from the power of Satan, the power of sin, the
power of darkness, the power of self. And the list goes on and on and
on of the different things that we read in the Old Testament
that all have spiritual meanings pointing us to the Lord Jesus
Christ and what He has accomplished for His people. Now, I've titled
this morning's message, Mystery Babylon the Great. And this 13th
chapter of Isaiah is a prophecy of the destruction of that wicked
city Babylon. It had not taken place yet, but
Isaiah had received a vision from God. And God gave him an
understanding of what was yet to come in relation to the destruction
of Babylon, that wicked city. And it has a spiritual meaning. The destruction of Babylon, like
all of those other things that I have mentioned and so many
more that we could talk about, this destruction of Babylon has
a spiritual meaning. And when I walk us through this
13th chapter of Isaiah in a cursory fashion, I want to take you into
the 17th chapter of Revelation and briefly show you the meaning,
the spiritual meaning of the destruction of that wicked city
Babylon. Now Isaiah is God's prophet,
he's God's spokesman, he's God's preacher. And our Lord Jesus
was revealing to His prophet in this 13th chapter of Isaiah
what He was going to do, what He had already purposed to do.
In other words, God was declaring His absolute sovereignty over
all things, all events, all people in the destruction of that wicked
city Babylon. And it draws our attention to
what we have been discussing over and over and over again.
Our God is on His throne. He rules over this whole universe
and everything in it, doing whatever pleases Him. He is not a failure. God cannot fail. And popular religions today present
Jesus Christ as a colossal failure. He tried to save His people but
couldn't get the job done. That's blasphemy. That's nothing
but blasphemy. You worship a God like that,
I just, I pray God have mercy on you. God has delivered us
from mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots. And we'll
see that as we continue in this message this morning. And please
keep in mind what I've already stated. that what we're reading
about in this 13th chapter of Isaiah has a spiritual meaning
concerning mystery, battle on the grave. So starting at verse
1 of Isaiah 13 and I'm just going to go through this in a rapid
form. We read, the burden of Babylon
which Isaiah the son of Amos did see. Now this is a vision
of the determined wrath of God that will be poured out on his
enemies in a future date. God himself declared what he
was going to do, revealing this to his prophet. Verse 2 says,
lift ye up a banner upon the high mountains, exalt the voice
unto them, shake the hand that they may go into the gates of
the nobles, and a banner refers to a sign, a signal of some sort
to be given to the Medes and the Persians to march against
Babylon. It was to be lifted high above
them, a voice should speak to them, a beckoning from a hand
to rally their armies against Babylon, to assure them that
they would be able to go into the gates of that wicked city.
Verse 3 says, I have commanded My sanctified ones, I have also
called My mighty ones for My anger, even them that rejoice
in My Highness. And the Medes and the Persians
were the sanctified ones, the instruments of God that He would
send, those that He had set apart as instruments to accomplish
His purpose, to manifest His anger against His enemies. He
would make those ordained nations aware of His Highness, causing
them to rejoice in His mighty power. Verse 4 says, The noise
of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people, a
tumultuous noise, of the kingdoms of nations gathered together,
the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. And so the
vast number of the armies of Medes and Persians would create
a loud noise of shouts of preparing themselves to battle as our Lord
Jesus would muster them together. Verse 5 says, They came from
a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the
weapons of His indignation to destroy the whole land, and the
land of Assyria was between Babylon and Media and Persia. So there
was a great distance between these armies that God was mustering
to be used as his instruments. They would come from a far country
to accomplish what God had purposed for them to accomplish. In other
words, there would be weapons in God's hands to perform His
wrath against those ungodly people in Babylon. Verse 6 says, How
ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand, it shall come as a destruction
from the Almighty. And these prophetic words from
God through His spokesman was addressed to the wicked king
of Babylon and those wicked people under His reign. They had every
reason to lament with howling of despair, because the Almighty
was coming to destroy them. The day of the Lord was at hand.
Then we read, and let me remind you before we read this next
verse, that we're looking at a prophecy of the destruction
of Babylon, a historical event that had not yet happened, but
did happen exactly as God purposed it to happen. And He gives exact
detail of what's going to take place and everything that He
purposed was carried out to the minutest detail. Every little
detail of it was performed by God using whatever He was pleased
to use to accomplish His purpose. Now verses 7 and 8 tell us, Therefore
shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt.
And they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows shall take
hold of them. They shall be in pain as a woman
that travaileth. They shall be amazed one at another.
Their faces shall be as flames. All the inhabitants of Babylon,
from the nobles down, From the high muckety mucks who were on
the throne to those who were in any kind of a position down
to the pauper, the person who was the most lowest person of
any degree that you could possibly think of, all of them would lament. All of them would be in a situation
where their hearts would faint. They would just have no strength
at all, knowing what was coming upon them. Their faces would
be as flames, or as the word signifies, black with pain and
anguish. Verse 9 says, Behold, the day
of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the land desolate, and He shall destroy the sinners
thereof out of it. God did not show any mercy, none
whatsoever, on those wicked, sinful people. Isaiah is telling
it just like it was revealed to him. The Lord is coming against
Babylon with wrath and fierce anger, he was saying. He will
lay the land desolate and destroy all the sinners in that land,
and none would be able to stop Him from doing what He had purposed.
This was God's purpose. Verse 10 says, For the stars
of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their
light, the sun shall be darkened in the going forth, and the moon
shall not cause her light to shine. And this is not to be
taken literally, but figuratively. This language denotes the horror
and terror of that terrible day of the Lord's wrath. Verse 11
says, And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked
for their iniquity. And I will cause the arrogancy
of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible. That wicked King Belshazzar and
all his nobles, filled with arrogant pride, dared to desecrate the
sacrificed vessels that had been taken out of the temple of the
Lord on that awful night before their downfall. They had a feast. They were getting drunk, filled
with arrogant prides, and let's use those vessels that were taken
from the Holy Temple, and they used them to drink wine. That's
when you know the story. That's when the handwriting came
on the wall, and Daniel had to interpret that. The interpretation
was telling them that they were laid into balance and found wanting,
arrogant, hateful, Christ denying people who had taken the Israelites
captive, just mistreated them and hated them. And God is going
to show His fierce anger by pouring out His wrath on that whole land.
Verse 12 says, I will make a man more precious than fine gold,
even a man than the golden wedge of over. There would be no great
men left in Babylon to come to the aid of the people. Their
gold and their silver would be useless to those ungodly sinners.
The Medes and the Persians would show no mercy even if the most
precious gold in the world was offered them. God would make
sure of that. He had stirred up those instruments
of war to carry out His purpose. Nothing could change that. Verse
13 says, Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall
remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and
in the day of His fierce anger. Some believe that a giant earthquake
took place on that day. But once again, the language
is to be understood figuratively. there would be nothing but mass
confusion, that it would appear to those who were dying under
the wrath of God that the heavens were shaking and the earth was
being removed out of her place, just that awareness of what was
going on and not being able to do anything about it. Verse 14
says, And it shall be as the chaste roe, and as a sheep, that
no man taketh up. They shall every man turn to
his own people, and flee every one into his own land. The inhabitants
of Babylon will be as frightened as a timid deer that was being
chased by dogs. or as a sheep from being chased
by a wild wolf who had no shepherd to take it up in its arms and
protect it. All would turn to their own families and flee for
their lives. Verse 15 says, Everyone that
is found shall be thrust through, and everyone that is joined unto
them shall fall by the sword. God's instruments of death had
been prepared against them, and none would be able to escape.
Like we stated earlier, the Medes and the Persians would show no
mercy. Look at the next verse. Verse
16 says, Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before
their eyes. Their houses shall be spoiled,
and their wives ravished. That paints a terrible picture
before our eyes. But remember, this is God's Word.
Those ungodly, Christ-hating sinners will see their own children
put to death right before their eyes. their houses spoiled, and their
wives ravished, raped, sexually mistreated. And this is exactly
what they did. to the wives of those Israelites
when they were taken captive, and God was bringing this right
back on their own heads. Verse 17 says, Behold, I will
stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver,
and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. This is what we
stated earlier, those Medes and Persians were gods. ordained
instruments to carry out his vengeance on the Babylonians
and nothing, nothing could turn them away from doing what the
Lord Jesus had purposed for them to do. Verse 18 says, their bows
also shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have
no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eye shall not spare children. For emphasis, these words are
repeated to draw our attention to the fact that this was God's
wrath being poured out on them. No mercy shown to them. God himself
purposed this. Cyrus, the king of Persia, brought
many, many archers with him. And those archers killed many
of those young men with arrows, but they also thrust them through
with their bows and put them to death in that way. There was
no pity on them, no pity on their women, no pity on their children.
Now let me read verses 19 through 22, and we'll go to Revelation
17. Verses 19 through 22 says, In
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees, Excellency,
shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall
never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation
to generation, neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there,
neither shall the shepherds make their foal there, but wild beasts
of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full
of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs
or shaggy goats shall dance there, and the wild beasts of the island
shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant
palaces, and her time is near to come, and her days shall not
be prolonged." These words were spoken by Isaiah, God's prophet,
God's spokesman of the fall of that great, beautiful, excellent
city of Babylon, which was the glory of those wicked nations,
those wicked kingdoms. That happened. It was prophesied
in this 13th chapter of Isaiah. It happened just exactly like
our Lord Jesus said it would happen. Now turn to Revelation
chapter 17 if you would please. Don't forget what we stated earlier. There is a spiritual meaning
behind every actual historical biblical event. To illustrate
that very truth, I draw your attention to an article that's
in today's bulletin written by Pastor Don Faulkner. It's on
the inside back cover of today's bulletin. titled Babylon the
Great, the Mother of Harlots. And Pastor Fortner took his thoughts
from the fifth verse of Revelation 17. And here's what he said about
that. Listen, this is so very important.
In this vision, John did not see the resurrection of an ancient
city. He saw a picture of a woman.
with worldwide influence for the destruction of men's souls. This woman is called Babylon
the Great because she represents all the religious systems and
doctrines in this world that are opposed to the truth of God.
Babylon is the religion of man. It is any and all religions which
teach that salvation is ultimately dependent upon and determined
by either the works of man or the will of man. This religious
system was begun in opposition to God in the fourth generation
after the flood by Nimrod, the cursed grandson of Noah's cursed
son, Ham. Idolatry is not a gradual decline
from truth by well-meaning but uninformed men. It began in Babel
as an organized, intentional rebellion to God. It was the
invention of a proud race who refused to bow to the God of
Noah, trust a substitute, and come to God upon the grounds
of grace alone. Babylon was born in defiance
of God. The people of Babel despised
God's sovereignty, despised God's atonement, and despised salvation
by grace alone. They attempted to build a tower
to heaven by the works of their own hands with no regard for
the glory of God. Therefore, God scattered those
men and brought their religion to confusion. Yet, Wherever these
idolaters have been scattered through the earth, their religion
is essentially the same. All pagan mythologies, idolatrous
images, religious rituals, and corrupt doctrines in the world,
no matter how much they differ, have an underlying sameness which
proves that they are all from one original source. And that
sources Babylon, Nimrod's plan to defeat the purpose of the
God of Noah. The one foundational tenet that
always remains the same in the worldwide religions of Babylon
is this, man's salvation ultimately depends upon and is determined
by man himself. And folks, we're in a war. We're
in an all out war. I don't know why God has placed such a high
honor on this old country sinner saved by His grace to allow me
to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. And I don't
know why he has bestowed such an honor upon this little nucleus
of people here at Rescue Baptist Church to entrust us with his
gospel. But he has. We, as God's enlightened
saints, have a relationship with God that cannot be put into words.
God himself purposed our salvation. Jesus Christ Himself purchased
our salvation. God the Holy Spirit Himself by
His life-giving power brought the realization or the understanding
of the enlightened minds by His power to an awareness of who
Christ is, our great Creator who became a man for this purpose
of redeeming His chosen people. And we've been brought out of
darkness into His marvelous light. There's no greater honor in the
world than to be a servant of the Most High God through the
grace of God alone, through the merits of Christ alone, by faith
alone. What an honor. And brethren,
everybody outside of those people who have been purposed by God
before a star ever twinkled in the sky to be recipients of His
grace, every person who is trusting in the works of their own hands,
every person who is on that broad road that leads to destruction,
who have no regard for the Word of God and His gospel truths,
are vehemently opposed to those who have been enlightened by
God the Holy Spirit, who follow Jesus Christ and worship Him
in spirit and in truth. And so what we're about to read
in the 17th chapter of Revelation, and I won't have time this morning
to cover all of what's contained here, so I want to pick this
up again next week the Lord willing. But I do want to explain some
important truths concerning the spiritual meaning of what we
read in Isaiah chapter 13. So starting, and let me say this
before I read verses 1 and 2 of Revelation 17. The book of Revelation
is not an isolated book. I hope you understand those words. This book perfectly harmonizes
with all the Holy Scriptures. So many who profess to be God's
preachers blatantly deny that. They have set this book up as
a separate book from the rest of the Bible, and they're wrong
in doing that. The first verse of Revelation
1 tells us that this book is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Verse 3 announces the blessings on those who read and those who
hear the words of this book. So what I'm reading to you from
this 17th chapter is as much a part of God's Word that points
us to Jesus Christ as the rest of the Scriptures. I understand
that there are some symbols Some things that we read in the book
of Revelation that requires some deep study to come up with the
right meaning. But in every difficult passage
of Scripture in the book of Revelation, we have this blessed assurance.
It all points to Jesus Christ and His blood-bought church.
So here in verses 1 and 2 of Revelation 17 we read, And there
came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and
talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto
thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many
waters, 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. Our Lord revealed to his servant
John the spiritual meaning of the destruction of Babylon that
was prophesied by what God had revealed to Isaiah. Verse 3 tells
us that God's angel carried him, that is, carried John, away in
the Spirit into the wilderness. By the enlightening power of
God the Holy Spirit, John saw a vision. John saw the great
whore that sitteth upon many waters. Verse 5 tells us that
great whore is Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots,
an abomination of the earth. In his book, in Pastor Fortner's
book, Discovering Christ and Revelation, he said, this great
harlot, false religion, is called by the name Babylon the Great. We have seen this name twice
already. First, in chapter 14, verse 8.
Secondly, in chapter 16, verse 19. In both places, the name
is mentioned as the object of God's great judgment. In Revelation
17, 18, and 19, John describes that judgment assuring us of
the fact that all false religion here represented by Babylon will
be destroyed and the truth of God will prevail to the glory
of God. I say, Amen. Our Lord Jesus said,
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against us. And so we are surrounded by the
enemies of God, the enemies of God's church, those who hate
the truth. But God's truth, His Word, His
purpose cannot be thwarted. It cannot. God cannot fail. He wouldn't be God if He could
fail. And this gives us the assurance that He which hath begun a good
work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. We have
nothing to fear. Nothing to fear from those enemies.
Oh, I'm not painting a picture to encourage you to take the
evil forces of darkness lightly. They're powerful, but they're
no match for our Savior. They're nothing but pawns in
His hands. One little word from our Lord
Jesus Christ and He'll destroy all of them. And He will. He'll
destroy them with the brightness of His coming. Now, this great
whore that we read about here in Revelation 17 is the spirit
of Antichrist. It's the mother of harlots that
sits upon many waters. Those waters represent unregenerate
religious people of this earth in any given generation. Now, Brother Steve has been reading
through the book of Proverbs, taking a chapter a week. And we've been hearing about
the error of the young man in being deceived by an adulterous
woman, being carried away by her temptings and her ways of enticing
a young man to come to bed with her. That's wrong. Adultery is
wrong. But that points to spiritual
adultery. And those who are involved in
false religions are committing spiritual adultery against God.
And they will try to entice you into their way of thinking. Beware
of Satan. Beware of the dogs. Beware of
the concision. Beware of those who are anti-Christ. because they're all around us.
John was carried away in the spirit of the wilderness. The
whole world is a wilderness, a world full of ungodly self-righteous
religionists who have been made drunk with the wine of the religious
lies of the spirit of Antichrist. And because they have not been
quickened by the Holy Spirit because they have no love for
the truth that they might be saved. God sends them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie. We've been talking about
this during our Friday night Bible studies in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. God sends those people a strong
delusion. Those who have no love for the
truth that they might be saved. Those who love the lies of those
prophets of Baal. God sends them strong delusion.
God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.
But listen, we were there. We were there. We were involved
in that. In our unregenerate, ungodly
state of spiritual deadness, we were deceived by the same
lies of that whore that sits upon many waters. We were blinded
to the truth. We loved the darkness we were
in. We loved those lies we were hearing.
We were just as self-righteous, just as ungodly, just as deserving
of God's wrath. is all of those who will perish
when our Lord returns in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those
that know not God and know not His gospel, obey not His gospel.
Why? Why is it that God has been pleased
to deliver us out of that? Why have we been separated from
that awful group of ungodly people who love those lies and hate
Christ and His gospel. Well, Paul tells us why in the
context of what we were studying in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Right after, right after he wrote those words that those people
have no love for the truth that they might be saved, therefore
God sent them a strong delusion that they might believe a lie,
right after those words. The Holy Spirit moved Paul to
write these words. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel through the obtaining of the glory of Jesus Christ
our Lord. Can you imagine? And I brought
this out Friday night, but some of you were not there. Let me
share this with you. Can you imagine the joy that
flooded the souls of those saints at Thessalonica when they read
about that strong delusion that God sins those people who have
no love for the truth, but rejoice in lies? Knowing that they were
a part of that, can you imagine the joy that flooded their souls
when they heard these words. But we are bound to give thanks
to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. The reason
God has not left us in that state of spiritual blindness, that
state of spiritual death, is because He loves a particular
people, and He has loved us from all eternity. were called Beloved
of the Lord. It was the love of God that chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. God our Father,
in love, predestinated us unto the adoption of children. This
is God's love for His own. He has a love for His own chosen
people that moved Him to write each individual name of His elect
in the Lamb's Book of Life before a star ever twinkled in the sky.
It was the love of Jesus Christ that caused Him to willingly
subject Himself to such pain Torture. The ignominious death of the
cross at Calvary cannot be described by human tongue. When our Lord
Jesus cried, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He suffered the wrath of God. in the room instead of his people,
those he loved with an everlasting love. There was no other way
that a sinner dead in trespasses and sins could be delivered from
God's wrath to come except through what Jesus Christ did for us
at Calvary. What a manifestation of God's
love for his chosen people here in His love. Not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That word propitiation means
sin atoning sacrifice. Jesus Christ did not try to save
His people. That's why His name was called
Jesus. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins. He didn't try to redeem us. He
obtained eternal redemption for us. We are Precious in God's
sight because we're in Jesus Christ. We're in Him. We were
in Him way back. And eternity passed when He agreed
to the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace. We were chosen
in Christ. We were in Christ when He came
into this world. We were in Christ when He walked
humbly before God the Father in perfect obedience, establishment
of righteousness for His chosen people. We were in Christ when
they nailed Him to that cross and lifted Him up and dropped
Him in that hole. joint was moved out of its socket. And we were in Christ when God
poured out His wrath on His own darling Son. And only because
of that, only because of what Christ has done for us, can we
stand before a holy God acceptable in His sight. We've been made
accepted in Christ, knowing with full assurance that we're free
from the wrath to come. We were in Christ when we were
running from Him, hating Him. In this generation, And in every
generation that preceded us, God has a remnant. They're called
His elect. And we were in Christ when we
were yet enemies. Hating Him, despising Him, running
from Him. And the Holy Spirit, because
of His love for His own chosen people, arrested us by sovereign
love, brought us under the sound of the Gospel, gave us life,
quickened us, enlightened our minds to the truth. It's the
love of God that just How can we understand the love
of God? I put this little article under Food for Thought, way down
at the bottom of that page. Something to ponder. If God chose
a people in Christ before the world began, if those same people
were in Christ in His life of obedience up to and including
His death, burial, and resurrection, if those He died for are seated
together in Christ in glory, Where am I? I asked you. Answer that honestly. Where are
you? Are you in Christ? Have you come
to Him by faith? I'm not talking about this phony
Jesus that the mother of harlots is presenting before thousands
of people. A Jesus that's done all He can
but You can't do anything else unless you allow Him to do so.
That Jesus does not even exist. Come to the Christ of Holy Scripture. I warn you. I warn you on the
authority of God's Word. There's coming a day when Mystery
Babylon. Mystery is a comma after it.
Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots. All of those
who follow after that beast. There's coming a day. When God
is going to pour out His wrath on that whole mass of false religionists,
He will have no mercy. Like He destroyed Babylon, men,
women, and children, He'll have no mercy. The only mercy that
can be found from God Himself is through His beloved Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. who suffered and bled and died
for a particular people, His elect. Who is now seated on His
throne in glory. Who is God Almighty, ruling and
reigning over everything. The same God we read about in
the Old Testament. The glorified God-man. Come to Him. Come to Him by faith. We don't dishonor God by encouraging
you to come to the front of the church and repeat some sinful
words after a foolish preacher, and then give you a false assurance
that now because you have done this, you're saved. No, we point
you to Christ, who has saved His people, right where you're
sitting, right now. Come to Him by faith. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved. There's
no other way. Jesus Christ our Lord said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. Have you come to Him? If you're
in Christ, you have come by faith, by the sovereign, irresistible,
drawing power of God the Holy Spirit. Or you will come if you're
in Christ, God's opponent, time of love for you. Our Lord said,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And hang on
to this, because this is precious. Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Where he is forever because of
God's sovereign grace and his sovereign mercy through the merits
of Jesus Christ alone. Cease from your own works. Come
to Christ our Savior and rest. Find that perfect rest in the
finished work of the eternal Son of God when he suffered and
bled and died for his own chosen people. Amen.