Revelation chapter 18, I'd like
to read the first four verses of this chapter and spend some
time on the subject of Babylon falling. We have noticed Babylon
in the past in two or three other places in the Book of Revelation.
And we have commented that Babylon is not the religion that is commonly
referred to today. The religion of Babylon the Great
precedes any modern religion. It's Old Testament times. It
was there also. Babylon represents the world
and particularly and especially the religion of the world. That's what we're going to find
out. And I say that because in this 18th chapter and down in
verse 24, it says here, Revelation 18, 24, and in her was found
the blood of prophets and of saints and all that were slain
upon the earth. Now, this shares with us that
not just in the last 2,000 years or last 1,800 years or last 1,500
years was Babylon a great problem to the church, but it goes back
before the New Testament era and into the Old Testament. So
any religion is going to fall under this name of Babylon the
Great. Babylon represents the world
and especially the religions of the world in opposition to
Christ. The religions of the world have
many names. We're not going to spend any
time naming them. We know some of them. Some of them are bigger
problems to God's people than others are. The religions of
the world, their essential tenets are all the same. You boil them
down, you're going to come up with two things that they all
agree on. Number one, free will, and number
two, people are saved by their works. Two things that all the
religions of the world agree on. That's Babylon the Great.
That's the religion of the world. That's the religion of our heart.
When we come into this world, we are fully persuaded that we
will be saved by our own will and by our works. And it takes
the grace of God to change that in us. And that's part of the
blessing of this chapter. When we read about Babel and
the Greatest Fallen, it falls every day that God saves one
of his lost sheep, Babel on the Great's Hill. hold as we might
have anything being held in prison by religion, God is able to break
that hold, to break that restraint, to break that power, and demonstrate
that he has power over all things. He is all-powerful and he has
the ability to break the hold that religion has on people,
and he does it every time he saves one of his lost sheep.
The power of religion is broken, and there's a big difference
between religion and Christ. And Christ is not a religion. Christianity is not a religion.
It's a relationship with the Lord. It's a relationship with
God. It's a relationship with a birth that God gives us. And
religion is based on these two things, everyone, wherever you
go, whatever place, whatever culture, whatever color, whatever
creed, whatever, whatever. I have a free will and I'm saved
by my works. and it's preached from the pulpits
or it's preached from the huts and hovels. That's what we have. Religion of Babylon is a religion
of free will and salvation by works. This religion is popular
and we're going to see that in this passage of scripture. It's
a popular religion. It's all around us. We all vote
for it by nature. We're almost born into it by
nature. Men love it. Men love their religion.
It's very difficult for anybody to leave their religion unless
they're going to trade for another one. They find one that's a little
bit better, they think. Now, Jennifer located a bed and
breakfast for us. I'm very thankful that she did
that. She has the ability of getting on the internet and doing
things that I could only dream of. She located a bed and breakfast,
and it's, the place was in the news today. That guy that was
holding those people hostage was in Silver Springs, Maryland.
That's where this lady lived. Now, probably quite a ways from
there. I haven't looked on the map. I probably won't. I don't
want to be nervous. But anyway, we were out the first
day, and we walked a lot, and we slept in a little bit. Nancy
slept in. I got up about 8, 8.30. Went
down, had breakfast, was visiting with this lady. And right out
of the blue, she says, you know, Norm, some of my friends who
are Christians have a real problem with the word predestination.
Whoa, I didn't expect that. She says, it's right in the Bible.
My Christian friends, when I talk to them about it, they just walk
away. They don't want to even talk
about it. What do you think of that? Well, for two hours. We
discussed a wonderful subject of God's salvation in Christ,
and what it meant, and what it means, and what this word is. And I just used the illustration
I've often used here. I would never want to get on
an airplane that didn't have a predestination. And God has
purposed a predestination for his people. And that really is
opposite the religion of Babylon. You talk about those kinds of
things, that's opposite of free will, and that's opposite of
works. Now, I don't know where this lady stands. I have no idea. She talks a good talk, and she
brought up a good question, and we had a wonderful talk, and
the conversation is not finished. I'm going to be sending her one
of Hawker's morning and evening portions, and I want her to have
some good reading material, and the conversation. If we ever
go back, I want to stay there again, because I am not through,
but it was just a blessing to be able to have that kind of
conversation, that far away, and not even realize that that's
what it's going to be. It was better than having a fuss.
Well, anyway, the religion of the world is popular, and men
love it, and they support it, and they promote it, and they
defend it. It has always been the religion of the world. This
Babylon the Great is the religion of the world, and it has been
around since the very beginning of humanity. When Adam fell,
and his sons were called on to offer a sacrifice, And I can't
help but believe that it was more than just Adam instructing
his sons. I believe God was involved, just
like he is always involved, with the instruction about his son
that in some manner, whether Adam was the preacher of righteousness
or God conversed with them in a personal manner, Both of those
boys knew what they were supposed to do, and one of them was broken
and did, and the other one was, I don't care, I have a free will,
I can do what I want, and I will be saved by my works. And that
system has permeated the human race, and it's Babylon the Great,
but we're thankful to God that he said, Babylon the Great is
fallen. I love reading about that. Babel
on the great is fallen. Those words could have been written
before the foundation of the world. Babel on the great is
fallen. In fact, they were. Because whatever
is written in our Bible was in God's purpose and mind before
the world was ever created. He did not have to sit down and
think about what he was going to give to the prophet Isaiah.
He had already determined what he was going to say in the covenant
of grace. And he did not have to stop and
think what he was going to tell John there on the Isle of Patmos. He had already determined before
the world ever began in the covenant of grace, this is the message
I will share with this secretary This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ, Revelation 1 through Revelation 22. That's what he
purposed. So these words could have been
written in time. Babylon the Great has fallen.
These words could have been written the day of the crucifixion of
Christ. That's when we really read about
the victory of God over sin was when Christ was crucified on
the cross. It could have been written in
the last days. And these words could have been
written in that great day. Babylon, the great is fallen. Now let's read these first four
verses where it shares with us. And after these things, I saw
another angel come down from heaven, having great power. And
that word power is authority. Now, whether this is Christ or
whether this is his representative, this one had great authority. He spoke, he came down, and an
angel so often is mentioned as a messenger. We know that the
Lord Jesus Christ is often called the messenger of God, the angel
of God. He appeared unto those in the Old Testament under that
appearance, the angel of the Lord, the angel of God. And if
this is him, yes. If it's not and there's something
else here, that's great too. But he's still a messenger of
the Lord and he speaks with great authority. Jesus preached one
time and the people noticed. Now they didn't believe on him,
but they noticed that he spoke with authority and not as one
of their common everyday preachers. They noticed this. That was something
they noticed about the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what he did?
He preached what he knew. And that makes all the difference
in the world. He knew what he was preaching about. He knew
what the Old Testament was about. He knew what the book of Isaiah
was about. This day has this passage been
fulfilled in your ears. What's it say? I am he. All right, goes on to tell us
here, and he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon
is fallen, is fallen, is become the habitation of devils and
the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and
hateful bird. What a way that Babylon is described
here. And then in verse three, and
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 have waxed rich through the abundance
of her delicacies. These are merchants of religion. That's the kind of merchants
they are. They're merchandisers, religious merchandisers. They've
grown rich through religion. One of the things that was in
Ephesus when Paul was there, when he started preaching Christ
and some of those people were saved and quit buying those idols
of Diana, what was it? Three hours. They chanted, great
is Diana of the Ephesians, great is Diana. Well, that's just about
what we hear if I was talking to Brother Stoniker, and he was
raised in a religion, and he said he went and made his first
confession at eight years old, and the worst thing he could
think of, he told me what it was. But anyway, he had to say
a few Hail Marys and a praise God or something, and I was clean. What an impression that makes
on an eight-year-old boy. And what impression that makes
on older people, oh, that's all there is to it? That's the religion
of Babylon, the great. It has always been here since
Cain and Abel. And then it goes on to tell us
here, and I heard another voice out of heaven saying, come out
of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and
that ye receive not of her plagues. This is a command, and this is
a command we hear in the gospel. God's people will be brought
out of Babylon, the religion of this world. Whatever name
it falls under, God's people will be commanded out of Babylon
the Great. God's people will be commanded
out of this religion. By God's grace, we are commanded,
we're called out, and we're ordered out by his grace. Now turn with
me, if you would, back to the book of Isaiah chapter 21. And
Isaiah chapter 21 is a passage of scripture with regard to Babylon,
the city. Now, it was interesting for me
to find out that Babylon was destroyed and travelers in the
days of Robert Hawker that it was hard to find where it was. There was a few remnants of it.
It was so totally destroyed. And as I've been reading through
Isaiah and Jeremiah and read about Babylon, Daniel read about
Babylon and find out how this city of Babylon literally was
destroyed as God said, Babylon the great, the religion is going
to be destroyed. Here we have the type, here we
have the anti-type. Babylon is brought up and destroyed
by the armies that God had at his disposal, destroyed and destroyed. It's hard to find the place where
it was. That's just what we find with
regard to Babylon the Great with God's people. I've never yet
met one of God's children that ever wanted to go back to that
city, it can't be found by them. It's been erased from them. They
don't want to get back under the burden of it. They don't
want to get back under the sin of it. They don't want to get
back under the displeasure of it to God. They don't want to
get back under the disgrace that it is to God. They don't want
to get back under all of that stuff and junk that they carried
around for so long. It's been erased and destroyed
from them, and God's people cannot go back, just like those in the
days of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 21. Turn there
with me. Babylon is going to fall in Isaiah's
day. Babylon is going to fall in Jeremiah's
days, and it's a type of what's going to happen every time one
of God's people are saved. Whether it's in this time or
the previous era or the era in the future, there will be a time
when it will finally all be wrapped up and Babylon won't be an issue
to anyone anymore. Religion will not be an issue
to God's people ever. It will be plain and simple worship
of the living God. It will be without without restraint,
worship of God. It will be without anything,
worship of God. We'll be able to worship God
in purity and in simplicity, like we can't do now, but the
Holy Spirit. Thank God for the Holy Spirit
that allows us to worship God in spirit and in truth. We can't
do it alone, but we can do it through the Holy Spirit. All
right, Isaiah 21, verse six. The scripture shares with us
here, Thus hath the Lord said unto me, go set a watchman, let
him declare what he seeth. And he saw a chariot with a couple
of horsemen, and a chariot with donkeys, and a chariot of camels.
And he hearkened diligently with much heed. And he cried a lion,
my lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime,
and I am set in my ward whole nights. And behold, there cometh
a chariot of men with a couple of horsemen, and they answered
and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven
images of her gods he hath broken into the ground. O my threshing
and the corn of my flour, that which I have heard of the Lord
of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. Babylon
has fallen. Here it happens literally. Here
it happens historically. And in the book of Revelation
it shares with us, this is a type of what's going to happen. Babylon
will no longer be. Nebuchadnezzar is going to lose
his power. Now, we know another king came in. It's already told
us about that in the book of Daniel. Another king's coming
in. But Babylon has fallen. Babylon the Great has fallen.
The gardens have fallen. All the power has fallen. And
it speaks of what we read over in the book of Revelation spiritually.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit spoke
out against the religion of this world and saved their people
out of it, out of every kindred nation, people, and tongue. Babylon
is released. Babylon is put down. Babylon
no longer has a hold upon his people. Babylon, the religion,
no longer can hold the people down. Oh, for seasons it seems
like nothing can be done, but God is able to go up against
the worst religion of the world, free will and works religion
and convert a soul to see Christ and His grace as more powerful
and save His people from their sins. This is a great declaration
that God has made. Babylon fallen. Babylon is fallen. Babylon is going to fall. Every
day that God saves his people, Babylon is put down, and it's
a victory. Now, there's going to be a time,
we read about here, it's going to be final. Babylon won't ever
be an issue again. I'm sure it'll be an issue in
hell, but it won't be an issue in heaven. Babylon will still
reign in hell, but Babylon won't be even thought of in heaven.
Turn with me to Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 50. We read here again,
the prophet Jeremiah speaking about Babylon, the city historically
will be put down. And there in Isaiah, we read
about the gods of Babylon. They're put down. Now notice
here in Jeremiah chapter 50, beginning with verse one. It
brings it up again. Babylon is going to fall physically
and their gods are going to be, what is going on? Their chief
gods are going to be disrupted. They're just rock, stone, trees,
dead. The psalmist said everyone that
worships him is just like they are. That's why Babylon is so
important to be removed from the people of God. They've been
given the Spirit of God. They're a new creation in Christ
Jesus. They're not like stone or wood
or gold or silver. They are made alive. They can
worship God. Here in Jeremiah chapter 50 verse
1 it says, The word that the Lord spake against Babylon and
against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet, declare
ye among the nations and publish and set up a standard, publish
and conceal not, saying Babylon is taken, Baal is confounded. That was one of the chief gods
of Babylon was this word Baal. And then it says there, Meroduk
is broken in pieces. That's another. That was the
chief god of Nebuchadnezzar. These gods are fallen. They can't
protect Babylon. The merchants can't protect Babylon. The kings can't protect Babylon.
We're going to read over there in Revelation. All the people
that were involved with Babylon the Great, the religion of the
world, cannot protect it when God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit go up against someone that has been
trapped by nature in this religion. He will pry religion's fingers
off of his people. They cannot be held. By the authority
and power of Almighty God, He decrees Babylon is fallen. And the church rejoices if we
did not have this promise made by God that He'd take care of
the religion that we're in by nature. And we don't have to
name any religion. It's just normal and natural
to be in a religion. and to promote self-will, free
will, and works religion and salvation by works. And God comes
along in his infinite wisdom and infinite power and comes
up against that enemy and comes out victorious and said, Babel
on the great has fallen. Today's another day to demonstrate
what God's power does. with his people and for his people. Goes on here and says in verse
3 of Jeremiah, for out of the north there cometh up a nation
against her which shall make her land desolate and none shall
dwell therein. They shall remove, they shall
depart, both man and beast. None shall dwell therein. What
a promise. This is physical, yes, but as
so often we find the physical is speaking of spiritual. This is a promise that God made
with regard to Babylon. It's going to fall and none will
remember it. It's going to be such a fall,
such a great fall, and we find it is the head of gold. Why people, oh man, this is great,
look at this. We're the rulers of the world,
Babylon the Great, rulers of the world, head of gold. We got
the merchants, we got the kings, we got the princes, we got the
people, we got the sea, we got the ships, we got everything.
Spiritually speaking, everything. And God comes up and in the breath
of the word of his mouth, causes the leeching power of Babylon
the Great to be released from his people, and they go away,
never to return again to that. If we ever do, we were never
released. We ever return, we're never released. We're still there. Job's wife,
not Job's wife, Lot's wife, We say, oh, they're for a season.
No, no, no. Why did she turn around? She
never left. She just never left. Her heart was there. A person's
heart's still in Babylon, they'll turn around and leave. A person's
heart's created by God, they'll stay the course. By His power,
we'll stay the course. In those days, verse four, and
in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall
come, and the children of Judah together, going and weeping,
they shall go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the
way of Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, come and
let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant
that shall not be forgotten. My goodness, what grace God gives
to his people to leave this place. Why did the children of Israel
get to leave Babylon? A picture of what God does when
he does away with Babylon the Great. Got to go back, where? To Zion. Jerusalem, Israel. All right, let's go back over
here to the book of Revelation. All of these statements could be true. Babylon the Great
is fallen. Times of Abel, times of Jeremiah,
times of Isaiah, times of Hosea, times throughout the Old Testament,
Babylon the Great is fallen. Days of the Lord Jesus. Great
victory was won on the day of the crucifixion. A man said,
Lord, remember me when thou enterest thy kingdom. Talk about Babylon
the Great being put down. Here's probably he's a Jew. Been in that Jewish religion
all his life, been trained in the Jewish religion, in Babylon
the Great. was fallen that day by the blood
of Jesus Christ, just like it is today. The Lord never tells
his people, as we look here in verse four, Revelation chapter
18 and verse four, and I heard another voice from heaven saying,
come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins
and that you receive not of her plagues. The Lord never tells
his people to stay in Babylon and heal her. Never tells his people to stay
in Babylon. He does not say find a way to get along in Babylon.
Compromise until you're happy. He does not say love Babylon
and pray for Babylon and try to help Babylon. Babylon is a
bad place. The religion of this world is
a bad religion. It's a religion of free will
and a religion of works, and neither one are pleasing to God.
We don't have a free will first place, and works will never please
God. God says, come out of her, my
people. Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Corinthians chapter six. 2 Corinthians chapter six. Babel on the great has fallen.
Hallelujah. That's what David could have
said when he was saved. Babel on the great has fallen.
Babel on the great has fallen. That's what Abel could have said
the day the Lord saved him. Babel on the great has fallen.
I think the church probably said that when God saved Saul. Babel
on the great has fallen. Well, he's been a rascal, a thorn
in our flesh, in our side for so long. Babylon the Great has
fallen. When he was brought to the church
and they heard him preach, they said, oh my goodness, something's
happened here. And never once did Saul ever want to go back
under that yoke of bondage. Those saints that were saved
on the day of Pentecost, Babylon the Great's fallen. Oh, we were
caught and snared. Now, when Paul comes back one
time saying, God's been saving them Gentiles, and there's a
whole group there in that assembly at Jerusalem says, uh-uh, no,
no, no. They haven't been circumcised,
so they're not saved. Well, when we got finished with
that little time together, it was discussed by those who knew
and said, God's saving the Gentiles just like he saves everybody
else and that's by his grace. Here's a bunch of people that
are really upset with that. Now there's some people, Babylon
hasn't fallen yet. God be merciful. May he cause
it to fall with him. But those who know the difference,
they cannot put up with that nonsense of works religion. It's all of grace, or it's not
of grace. It's all of works, it's not of
grace. Grace and without works. Now, 2 Corinthians chapter 6,
verse 16. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 16. And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk
in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you,
and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord. Almighty. Now, this is just another
statement about the everlasting covenant. I'll bring you out. There's no fellowship with Babylon
and Christ. There's no fellowship at all.
Now, we have friends that are in Babylon. We have family in
Babylon. We have children in Babylon.
We have, it just goes on all around us. And the gospel is
the only hope. For those that are in Babylon,
the gospel, it's not anything else that will change a person,
bring them out of Babylon. That's the only hope. That was
the only hope for us, it's the only hope for anyone else, is
the gospel of God's grace. And that's the only thing that
can remove someone from Babylon. Come out from among them and
be separate, saith the Lord. Well, as much as we may try,
we'll not get the job done alone. In verse 18, I'll be a father
unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the
Lord God Almighty. Why did he say Almighty? I'm
able to deal with the problem. I'm able to deal with Babylon.
I'm able to deal with free will, works religion, and he's been
doing it since the beginning, pulling his people out of that.
God will work in the hearts of his people to come out. That's
what he promised in the book of Ezekiel, I'll give you a new
heart. That's the only way out of Babylon, is a new heart. Realizing
what it is. It is works religion. It is free
will religion. It is not grace. The only way
that we'll ever come out is with a new heart. We are stuck in
the hearts religion. Religion of Babylon until God
calls us out. But thank God, he says, Babylon's
fallen. I'll strip you of it. I'll take it away from you. I'll
place you in my family. I'll put you in the very hand
of God. I will remove you from that. He did the children of Israel
in the Old Testament. He promised them that Babylon
would fall. It fell, even to the mystery
of Babylon, it fell. All of the people that were involved
with it, all the merchants, all the money that was exchanging
hands, all of the wealth, everything. In one day, Babylon fell. And it was no more. And that's what God does for
his people. Turn with me, if you would, back to the book of
Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 30. I'd like to read just a couple
of verses, and then we'll close. We are stuck in this religion,
the religion of Babylon, until God calls us out. Come out. That's what he said. Come out
of Babylon. Come out. Deuteronomy chapter
30, verse six. This is what he said. So many
years ago, through Moses the prophet to the children of Israel,
Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse six, and the Lord thy God will
circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou
mayest live. The Lord thy God will do this.
It is him and him alone that can pull us out of Babylon. And
then we hear Babylon has fallen. It's no longer attached to us.
The agreement has been broken and we've been placed into the
kingdom of his dear son. The agreement has been broken
and we're under the covenant of grace. Babylon has been removed. One other passage if you turn
with me, Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32 and verse 39, Babylon
is fallen. Come out, those of you that are
in there, come out. That's what he's doing every
day, calling his people out of Babylon, releasing them, releasing
them from the prison of Babylon, releasing them from the works
of Babylon. Excuse me, Jeremiah, Jeremiah
32 and verse 29, Jeremiah 32 and verse 39, Jeremiah 32, 39, and I'll give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and of their children after them. And I'll make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good. I will put my fear in their hearts
and they shall not depart from me. come out of Babylon. Babylon is fallen. Christ won
the victory over Babylon at the cross. The promise was so secure
that he could win the victory and everyone that was born again
from the beginning down to his crucifixion, they're all saved
on the promise that he'd go to the cross and bear the sins of
his people. And when he promised that, he
could take them out of Babylon all along the way. Even those
who lived there stripped them of Babylon. Babylon the Great,
the religion of the world, the religion we're born with. Charles
Spurgeon said, we're all Armenians by nature. It's worse than that.
It's worse than that. We're free will, works oriented,
religionist by nature. And it takes the grace of God
to separate us from that. And he does it by a new heart.
By a new heart.