Let's go to Revelation chapter
18. This morning. It's time to go to work. You
take your jacket off. I think we need to put a fan
up here for me. Or give me a fan. It is warm up here to me, but
anyway, I want you to be comfortable. Revelation 18. You know, as we
get toward the end of the book of Revelation, we find that the
Lord shows the great apostle John
two great cities. One is the city of God. It has this name, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, that is the city of
peace. This is a city at peace with
God. She didn't make her peace with
God. God established the peace by the blood of the Son of God
who loved Jerusalem. and gave himself for Jerusalem. And she is now at peace. He made
peace by the blood of his cross. This is a wonderful city, the
city of Jerusalem. It's a great city in that she
has many occupants. And when we talk about these
two cities, one being Jerusalem, and of course the other one being
Babylon, Both of them are said to be great cities, but we don't
want to think of a literal city here. We don't want to think
of blocks and buildings and all of those things that constitute
a typical city. This is a city of Jerusalem. It's a spiritual city. It's made
up of many inhabitants. These were selected by God and
own eternity. These are the chosen ones of
the Lord. These are the ones the Savior
has redeemed. He bought them with His blood.
He ransomed them. He reconciled these to God, this
great multitude. As a result of that, the Spirit
of God brings these, who are the people of God, knowledge
of Christ Jesus. In fact, he shows them all. He shows them their neediness
before God. He shows them a little bit of
what God is, of who God is, of his attributes, and in the light
of who God is, then they find out who they are. You know, we
first of all find out who God is. This doesn't start with,
nothing starts with man. It starts with God. And if we're
going to have any understanding of salvation, if we're going
to have any understanding of the gospel, of God's grace, of
how God deals with folks like us in mercy, it's got to start
with God. And it's got an end with God,
right? It's got a beginning and end with God. And so, we find
out who the Lord is. These occupants of this city
of Jerusalem. We find out who God is. We find
out a little bit of His holiness. And admittedly, we can't comprehend
the holiness of God. We're just beginning to scratch
the surface of understanding the essence of His being. You
can't know the mind of God or the ways of God in its fullness. And you can't comprehend God.
He's too big for us. But we do know this, He is a
consuming fire. And we can't draw near to Him
as we are, because it's in the light of His awesomeness and
His holiness that we see our depravity. We're talking the
Sun School lesson this morning, and I often refer back to the
Sun School lesson when I'm preaching out here that the woman who had
the daughter grievously vexed with the devil, she ran into
the Lord's silence, She ran into the Lord's sovereign
grace. And she ran into the fact of
her own depravity, her own sinfulness. He said, I'm not sent to the
dogs. And folks, that's what we are. We're dogs. We're dunghill
dwellers. Does this offend you? I'll tell
you what, if you've been made to know your need in this before
this great God, Neither the silence of God, nor the sovereignty of
God's grace, nor your own depravity will make you to leave. You'll
still wait at His feet for mercy. And all of the occupants of this
city of Jerusalem, they find out something of their own sinfulness. And then the Spirit of God shows
them, here's the real issue. How can this God, this glorious
God, this holy God, this righteous God, how can He reach out to
us? How can He embrace us? How can
He forgive us? How can He pronounce us to be
righteous? And do all of this in a just
way? And the answer is, through the
Lord Jesus, and his substitutionary sacrifice at the cross of Calvary. And all of the occupants of the
city of Jerusalem, they have this message of the gospel, the
good news of finished redemption revealed to them. It's a glorious
city. And if you've had the gospel
revealed to you, if Christ Jesus is all of your hope, and all
of your righteousness, He's your only plea before God. That's
the evidence of your election. That's the evidence of your redemption.
You see, you can't know, you can't know of God's electing
grace if it's for you, if you were chosen. You can't know that
Christ, when He died, He died for you. You can't know that
unless by the grace of the Spirit of God you embrace the Lord Jesus
and you commit yourself to Him as they say, lock, stock and
barrel. He's your only hope of glory
if you believe Him. That's evidence of your election
and your redemption. You've been quickened by the
Spirit and everybody in this city is therefore called, it's
called the holy city. We're called the holy city. There's no holy city in this
world. You look at the cities of the
United States, the cities in this state, There are unholy
cities. There is but one holy city and
it's the Jerusalem of God. Because we have a holiness, it's
not a holiness of our own except in the fact this righteousness
has been freely imputed to us. Because the scripture says God
has made Christ Jesus to be our wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification, that's our holiness, and redemption that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. The
occupants of this city were holy people. Can you imagine that? That you, and you just think,
You are the people of God. Just think about your own depravity. It's awful, isn't it? You've not even scratched the
surface of it. What was it? The Queen of Sheba. The Queen of Sheba said about
Solomon, of his wisdom, the half has not been told. Well, the
half of your depravity hasn't been told. It hasn't even been
revealed to you. I doubt we could stand to see
the fullness of our depravity. It's absolutely awful. And yet,
the Lord says, of all of the occupants of Jerusalem, All of
God's elect, all of God's redeemed, all of those called by His grace,
made righteous in Christ Jesus. You're a holy city. Isn't that
amazing? We're a holy city. And it's a beautiful city. It's
a beautiful city. Oh, understand this, there's
nothing beautiful about us inwardly. I know outwardly, I'm looking
to face some beautiful people. But inwardly, we're quite ugly. But you know, in the eyes of
God, as he sees us, and that's all that matters is how God sees
things. Isn't that right? That's all
that matters. It's how God sees things. And in the eyes of God,
we're beautiful. We are made comely through the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Read Ezekiel chapter 16 again. And everyone in the city is beautiful. It's a beautiful city. And it's a large city. Oh, it
has lots and lots of occupants. In fact, John said on one occasion,
he looked and he saw this city. He saw all these people. He said
it was a multitude. A multitude of people. And John
says by divine inspiration, which no man can number. No man can
number it, but I guarantee you God has numbered them. Because
He knows everyone. He knows every name. For all
of the names of the occupants of the New Jerusalem were written
down in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the
world, without any consideration of what we would do, or who we
are, or what contribution we might make to society, or anything
else. Purely from the good pleasure
of His will, He wrote our names down in that Book of Life. It's a large city and it's a
valuable city. Imagine this, we're valuable
to the Lord. And we're bought with a very
expensive price. Bought with the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, we're a safe
city. The city of God is safe. Because
all around us are the walls of salvation. And no enemy, no enemy
can infiltrate the city. And we have a good foundation
too. Because the foundation is Christ
Jesus himself, who is the rock of our salvation. It's a well
illuminated city. As it says toward the end of
the book of Revelation, the Lamb is all the light in the city
of God. Ah, what a great city Jerusalem
is. It's the city of God's making.
It's the city made up of the people of God. But there's another city spoken
of toward the end of the book of Revelation. It is the city
of Babylon. It is also said to be a great
city. Not great in the sense that it's
great in the eyes of God, but it's great in the sense that
it's very powerful, very influential in this world. It's a city that
has many occupants. They're deceived and they're
deluded. You see, Babylon, and we've said
this before, Babylon means confusion, mixture. I find it interesting,
and we've been talking about Babylon here for several weeks,
or at least mentioning Babylon, and I forget who it is. Some
churches are having vacation Bible school, and that's the
name of their Bible school is Babylon. Babylon. I think that's kind of timely
in the providence of God. Because most of them, if not
all of them, it's just confusion. It's confusion. And it's a mixture. A mixture of truth with a little
bit of error. This is Babylon. Babylon is God's
word, God's name, For this great city, it's God's
name for all the false religion, for every religion that is contrary
to the gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. It doesn't matter what the label
is. It doesn't matter what the denomination
is. It's all Babylon. Babylon. And this is what John
sees in chapter 18. I want to show you this in verses
20 and 21. He says this about Babylon and
having in chapter 18 set forth the description of Babylon. In chapter 17 he sets forth the
description of Babylon. In chapter 18 he sets forth her
destruction. And he says this in verse 20
of chapter 18, rejoice over her thou heaven and ye holy apostles
and prophets for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel
took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the
sea saying, thus with violence shall that great city Babylon
be thrown down and shall be found no more. at all. The symbolic actions of this
powerful angel is really kind of what I would call an intensified,
intensified picture of an Old Testament passage. Go back with
me, hold your place please here in Revelation. Go back with me
to the book of Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah chapter 51. Jeremiah chapter 51. Here the Lord tells Jeremiah,
it's called the weeping prophet. He wept over the condition of
Israel, of Judah. And the Lord speaks to him concerning
the Devastation that was going to come upon the enemies of Judah,
the Babylonians. Babylon, because Babylon had
taken Judah into captivity. Destroyed all but destroyed the
temple. And now this is what the Lord says He's going to do
to Babylon. Now this is the literal city
here in chapter 51, which speaks to us of the mystical city that
we're talking about over in the book of Revelation, okay? So,
here we go. Chapter 51 of Jeremiah, verse
1, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up against Babylon
and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up
against me a destroying wind." That's what God says. I'm going
to raise up against Babylon a wind of destruction. Now, hold your
place right here. Go back to the book of Revelation,
but this time go to chapter 7. A chance to get reacquainted
with your Bibles this morning. Look at Revelation chapter 7 and verse 1. After these things I saw four
angels standing on the four corners of the earth. They're holding
the four winds. Remember, the Lord told Jeremiah
over here about a destroying wind that's gonna come upon Babylon. Okay, let's keep reading. They're
holding the four winds of the earth, and that the wind, the
wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. I saw another angel ascending
from the east, having the seal of a living God, And he cried,
he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was
given to hurt the earth and the sea. And here's what he said,
hurt not the earth. This is what the Lord of Glory
says. He says, don't hurt the earth, don't hurt the sea, don't
hurt the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God
in the forehead. In other words, the winds must
not blow, the winds of judgment, the devastating winds of the
wrath of God, they cannot blow. Until first of all, all of my
people have been sealed in their foreheads, That is, till they
understand and know and believe the Gospel of Christ Jesus. It's
got to be put in our minds, impressed upon our hearts. How God can
be just and justify the ungodly. The beauty and the glories of
God's salvation to sinners like us through Christ Jesus and His
death. His substitutionary sacrifice,
His great sin offering, the offering of Himself to God, because God
couldn't do anything for us until He did something for Himself.
And so Christ Jesus was offered, offered as the sacrifice. He's
not offered to us, He was offered to God. And God received Him,
God accepted Him. And therefore God accepts us
in Christ Jesus. And we've got to believe on this
Christ. We've got to come to know Him.
Because the same God who purposed our salvation, who redeemed us
by His blood, He will therefore reveal to us the Lord Jesus and
we will believe Him. And all of the elect of God will
be gathered into the fold of salvation, and we'll all be safe
in Him, and then the wind will be released. The devastating
wind. Now go back to Jeremiah 51. Okay,
Jeremiah chapter 51. So the wind, they can't blow
till God's people are safe. He says this in the second verse,
and I will send unto Babylon fanners, strangers that will
fan her, scatter her, and shall empty her land, for in the day
of trouble they shall be against her round about. Drop down to
verse six. He says to his people, flee out
of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul. be not cut
off in her iniquity. For this is the time of the Lord's
vengeance. He will render unto her a recompense. That simply means He's going
to give her exactly what she deserves. Now, once again, hold
your place here in chapter 51. Go back to Revelation chapter
18. Go back to Revelation chapter
18. Now remembering the words here
that we just read. To flee out in the midst of Babylon,
deliver every man his soul. Don't be cut off in her iniquity.
Now look what he says in chapter 18 and verse 4. And I heard another
voice from heaven saying, this is the voice of the Spirit of
God. This is the voice of effectual grace. Preacher, what does effectual
mean? It means able to get the job
done. That's what it means. It means God gets the job done.
This is the spirit of God dealing with a sinner in a way in which
he accomplishes his purpose of revealing the Lord Jesus in the
sinner. That's what Paul said. He said,
when he pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son, In me! In me! Oh, to have a revelation
of the Son of God, to have a revelation of the Lord Jesus to our hearts. The Spirit of God comes to us.
Oh, may the Spirit of God come to you and come to me to do a
work of grace, to show us that this matter of the redemption
of our souls This salvation that's all of God, it is already finished
by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The work has already been done.
You know quite often the Lord Jesus in the New Testament, especially
in the Gospel of John, He talked about the work that the Father
sent Him to do. I have a work to do. I've got
to finish this work. And He says in John chapter 17
in His high priestly prayer, I have finished, I have finished,
I have completed the work Thou gavest Me to do. What work is
that? The work of redemption. The work
of reconciling us to God. Something had to be done about
our sins. Christ did something about them.
He put them away. He washed them away. And by His
death, He established righteousness for all of His people that is
freely imputed to us. Imagine that. Freely reckoned
to us. And it's not a pasted on righteousness. We're made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. He's the Lord our righteousness. That's why I had you read that
passage of Scripture. In ten chapters over in the book
of Jeremiah, we read that that's our name. That's another name
for the new Jerusalem, for the holy city, the Lord our righteousness. That's our name. That's our name. This is what the Lord has done
for His people. And He's going to teach us this
gospel. I heard another voice from heaven
saying, come out of her, my people. You mean some of the Lord's people
are mixed up in false religion? Yeah. And really, we all were. Because we're all worshipers
of self. And that, my friend, is a false
religion. That's a religion that won't
do you any good. And the winds won't blow. The
fanners won't come. until the Lord's people are brought
out of Babylon. And now he says in chapter back
over in Jeremiah 51, flee out of the midst of Babylon. There's
no time to waste. You know, when you talk about
flee, it's run. Hey, let's mean business here. Let's get out of her. You don't
want to have any business dealings with Babylon. You don't want
to delay here? Because she's marked for a fall.
The winds are going to blow her away. Judgment's coming her way. Back in Revelation 18, John said,
I saw an angel with this millstone put around the neck of Babylon
cast into the sea. She's gone. You want to be part
of that? You want to perish? Everything
set in opposition to Jesus Christ the Lord is going to perish.
That's for sure. And if you're opposed to Christ
and His way of salvation by grace alone, if you think in some way that
you must make a contribution to your own salvation, you're
still in Babylon. You're still involved in will
worship and works worship. All of Babylon is going to be
blown away. Do you want to be blown away
by the winds of God's wrath? I don't. Flee out of Babylon. I may be
talking to somebody on the internet or maybe somebody in here, you
kind of been, you know, toying around. Well, I'll go over here
and hear this church and that church and, you know, I think
there's good in all religions. There's bad in all of man's religions,
I'll just tell you that. Because they're all based on
a lie. because they make salvation ultimately
dependent upon, conditioned upon the sinner. That is absolutely
categorically wrong. This salvation is all conditioned
upon Christ Jesus and His obedience to the Father. He was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. It's not you. It's not your works. It's not your prayers. It's not
even your repentance. It's not even your faith. And
faith is necessary. I agree with that. There's no
argument there. But faith doesn't put your sins away. Faith doesn't make you presentable
to God. Faith doesn't make you righteous.
Faith doesn't wash away your filth. It's Christ Jesus alone, plus
nothing and minus nothing. And that's so simple to me, it's
so very, very clear to me, and I hope it is to you. Get out of Babylon, that's what
he says. Flee out of Babylon, she's in
for a fall. Because the Lord's gonna render
to her a recompense. What's that mean? She's going
to get what she deserves. Understand this. In the judgment, that awesome
day when we all stand before the Lord, everybody, and we'll all be there,
everybody's going to get exactly what we deserve. No exceptions. And don't misunderstand me when
I say this. In that day, judgment is not
going to involve mercy. It's a matter of strict justice.
Now, it was merciful for God to choose. We were chosen in
sovereign mercy. I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. I'm thankful, because I sure
don't deserve it. But when we talk about the judgment,
the judgment, there will be no flexibility, no bending of judgment. You know, I'm one of those people
And it's just my own makeup, okay? To me, it's either right
or wrong. I see everything kind of black
or white. That's just the way I am. Well,
in the day of judgment, that's the way things are going to be.
It's just black and white. Right and wrong. Righteous and
wicked. That's it. You've got two groups
of people. The sheep on one hand, the goats
on the other hand. and everybody is going to receive
a just recompense of reward. You say, oh preacher, man, I look
to Christ alone. I believe Christ, but I'm still
a sinful person. Oh, I know you are. I'm not going
to argue with you on that. But you see, God sees you in
Christ Jesus where He's always seen you since He put you in
Christ Jesus before the world ever began. And being in the Son of God,
being in everlasting union with the Lord Jesus, you're accepted
in the Beloved. You've always been accepted in
the Beloved. Even when you were lost, you
were accepted in the beloved. You didn't know anything about
it, but He did. And remember, as God sees things,
that's the way they are. And His obedience unto death,
even the death of the cross, God sees us in Him perfectly
righteous, Not one sin. Preacher, you don't
think we're going to be judged for good deeds and bad deeds.
Everything's going to be good. His goodness. His holiness. His righteousness. Well, if He
doesn't measure out my good deeds and my bad deeds, how am I going
to have more rewards in Heaven? Well, He is our reward. Right? And you need to trust
me on this. You don't want what's coming
to you based upon what you've done. Because even of the people of
God, it is said, there's not a just man, there's not a righteous
man, There's not a justified man on the earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. I don't care what you might believe
about that. There's not a justified man.
There's not a man who's righteous in God's sight who does good
and doesn't sin. That's what God said. You don't want what's coming
to you based upon your deeds. I surely don't. The just recompense
of reward is God sees us in Christ Jesus. And in Christ Jesus, you
know what he says to each of us? Well done, thou good and
faithful servant. Well done. What have I done? Your righteousness is the righteousness
of another. He established that for you by
His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. But as for Babylon, she's going
to receive the recompense that she deserves too. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. Yes. The Lord's going to render
to her a recompense. A recompense. Go over later into
chapter 51, and I must hasten here. A little further into Jeremiah
51. Look at verse 48. Well, I'll
tell you, Wherefore, behold, the days come.
Jeremiah 51, 52. Wherefore, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will do judgment upon her graven images. Do you not understand that Babylon,
mystical Babylon, is just filled with graven images? Idols. They may call those idols Jesus, but it's still an idol because
it's a concoction of their own minds. It's a Jesus they can
get along with. The Lord says, I'm going to do
judgment upon her of graven images. and through all her land the
wounded shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up
to heaven, though she should fortify the height of her strength,
yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord. The
sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the
land of the Chaldeans, because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon,
and destroyed out of her the great voice. When her waves do roar like great
waters, a noise of their voice is uttered. Here's the problem
with Babylon. It's that great voice coming
out of her. It's what she says. That's what's
wrong. It's what she says. Her message
is wrong. This great voice that comes out
of Babylon. Of course, one of them says,
be baptized and wash your sins away. Another one says, you need
to christen that baby to get her under the covenant. Another
one says, you need to join the church. Another one says, you
need to do better. Another one says, you need to
quit this. Another one says, you need to start doing this.
All of these things that Babylon, all the rules and the regulations
of Babylon are but the great voice coming
out of her. The great voice says things like
this, let Jesus save you. Let God have His way. Let God do this, let God do that. Babylon always leaves man in
charge. That's what Babylon does. One day God's going to shut the
voice off. And as we're studying in Revelation,
that's when all the saints of God, and we're going to see this
more especially next Sunday morning, that's when the saints of God
shout, Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
He shut the great voice of Babylon. She's been spewing out her false
gospel. And there are a multitude of
false Gospels. There are a multitude of counterfeit
Gospels. You don't need to know the counterfeit
Gospels. You just need to know the Gospel. The glad tidings of the substitutionary
sacrifice of Jesus Christ that finished the work of salvation
for all of God's people. It's done, folks. The message
isn't due. You need to do something. You
look at Babylon all around us. Look at false religion all around
us. The word do certainly does suit. They're always doing something.
I'm not saying that the people of God shouldn't be doing some
things, but not for salvation. Can you enter into this? It's
done. It's finished. Watch this, verse 56, because
the spoiler has come upon her, even upon Babylon and her mighty
men are taken, every one of their bows is broken. And here's the
reason. Because the Lord God of recompenses
shall surely requite. You think God's gonna stand idly
by? While all of these liars, all
of these great voices are spewing out their venom, their false
doctrine, where they're demeaning the Word
of God. The Lord God of recompenses shall
surely requite. Now go back over to Revelation
chapter 18. I'll read and make a couple of
comments here as we go down to chapter 18 again. Why must Babylon
fall? Why must Babylon fall? Look at
chapter 18 verse 1. And after these things I saw
another angel come down from heaven having great power. Revelation
18 verse 1. And the earth was lighted with
his glory. This is Christ Jesus. He has
great power. All power has been given unto
Him because He did the work God gave Him to do as a reward. All
the earth was lighted with His glory, illuminated with His glory,
the glory of God. He cried mightily with a strong
voice, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. It's become the habitation
of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, a cage of every
unclean and hateful bird. I'll tell you something about
Babylon. It is truly a cage. People are caged in it. And they can't get out. Except by an act of God's free
and sovereign grace. You know, we have a natural blindness,
right? We have a natural blindness to
spiritual things. But when you get involved in
Babylon and the deceptions of Babylon, the delusions of Babylon,
then you have a religious blindness. So the Lord says if the sight
that is in you be blindness, in other words, if you have a
double blindness, you got natural blindness and then on top of
that you got religious blindness. How great is that darkness? How
great is that blindness? and people are in a cage. Here's why we need the almighty
grace of God, because we're caged. We're in a cage. To put it another
way, at the end of 2 Timothy chapter 2, Satan holds all men
captive at his will, in his cage. And you can go ahead and boast
about the power of man's free will from now on, but you can't
get out of the cage. You don't even have the will
to, and you don't even know you're in the cage. You don't even know
you are imprisoned. That's how bad off we are. It's become a cage of every unclean
and hateful bird. and God's gonna destroy it. Because you see, here's something
else, verse three, because all nations have drunk of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication, all men have drunk of her false
gospel. Read again Galatians chapter
one, where we find the great apostle, saying, if anybody comes
preaching any other gospel than I preached unto you, let him
be accursed. Let him be accursed. There's
just one gospel that deserves the word Thee. The gospel. There's not another like it.
There are a lot of counterfeits. You know, my mother was a bank
teller. In fact, she was a teller of the vault. And I always said,
could you bring a little extra money home? You get to go in
and out of the vault, you know. Obviously, I couldn't do that.
But she had people came from, you know, the authorities came
from Federal Bank or whatever. And they taught them about recognizing
real currency. And the reason was because even
there in Farrum, Virginia, Farrum, some counterfeit money,
counterfeit money showed up. So the feds came in. And so you know, I'm asking mother
about it. So I guess, what, did they bring
in a bunch of counterfeit bills? She said they brought in one
bill, the real thing. And here's what they said, anything
that isn't like this is counterfeit. In other words, get to know the
real thing, as we say, the real McCoy. Get to know the real thing, and
then anything that is different is a counterfeit. And as it was
and still is with money, currency, So it is with the gospel. You
don't need to get acquainted. Well, I want to study all the
different religions and find out about all their beliefs.
Well, there's a lot of interest in that. You know, it kind of
satisfies your curiosity, I suppose. But that's not going to help
you. Study the real McCoy. Study the gospel of God's grace.
And then, anything that doesn't line up with this gospel, then
you'll say, that's a counterfeit. That's a counterfeit. All nations have drunk the wine
of her fornication. You try to talk to people who
are caged in Babylon, It's like trying to reason with
or talk with a drunk man. They're just intoxicated. Oh,
I hear what you're saying, preacher, but... I know. And don't get mad at them. Pray for them. Because the only
one who can help them is the one who helped you. The Lord
Himself. And I'll tell you why God's gonna
punish her. Verse five, her sins have reached
up. They've reached unto heaven. If your sins reach to heaven,
here's what that means. God's taking notice. This is like the ultimate, ultimate
issue with Babylon. Her sins have reached, how far
have they reached? All the way to the throne of
God and God sees them. And he takes notice. He's remembered her iniquities. So he says in verse six, reward
her. gave her what she deserves. In
fact, double it. Double it. We talked about judgment
according to recompense a while ago, according to what we deserve.
Here's what the Lord says about those involved in Babylon. What
they deserve, the wrath they deserve, that everlasting torment
they deserve, double it. Just double it. It's a dangerous
thing to lie to people. I'll be thankful for the day
when all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. I don't want me to come across
being cold and calloused and heartless. And I'll tell you,
I'll rejoice when every voice coming out of Babylon is forever
silenced. And you may think that's cold
and callous, but listen, they're against the glory of God. They
would take the glory for themselves. Several years ago, a well-known,
quite renowned preacher died. And I made this statement to
a couple of people. I said, I am glad God has silenced
his voice. And he's now where he deserves
to be. Unless God did something for
him at the end, which, I mean, God can do that. But based upon
his record of preaching, I'm glad God silenced his voice.
And some people went, I can't believe you'd say that about
a preacher. I have no patience with liars.
I pray for them because I used to be a liar myself. I don't
have any patience with them. No. And when God shuts a lion's
mouth, all the saints of God are going to shout, Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord. He did that. Are you in Babylon? Flee out
of her. You better get out of her as
quick as you can. God help you. God help you. Well, let's sing
a song.