We're going back to the book
of Revelation this morning, chapter 18. Revelation chapter 18. What a wonderful word, Revelation
is. Revelation, the name of the book
is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not the revelation of Saint
John the Divine. It's the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The word revelation, we get the
word apocalypse from it. And I know that in writings today,
quite often when men write and speak about great apocalypse
that's coming, they mean a devastating time. But that isn't the meaning of
the word. The word revelation means the
manifestation of. Revelation means the unveiling
of that which is concealed. It means something that was hidden
is made known. That's what the word revelation
means. And I will get to Revelation
chapter 18, so just put a marker there, put your bulletin there,
so you can get back there pretty quick. But I want to show you
how this word is used in a few places in the New Testament.
Let's go to Luke, the second chapter. Luke, the second chapter. Here's the word revelation, but
it is the original word revelation, but it's translated a different
way and it gives us a little more understanding of the meaning
of the word revelation as it's found in the book that bears
that name. Here in Luke, the second chapter,
and this is, we're in the temple with a man by the name of Simeon. He has been led of the Spirit
to enter into the temple with the promise that he would not
die until he saw the one that God promised to send into this
world, that is, the Lord Jesus. So we read in verse 27, I'll
begin there, of Simeon, Luke 2, 27, and he came by the Spirit
into the temple, and when the parents were brought in, when
they brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom
of the law, then took he him up in his arms and he blessed
God. And this is what Simeon said,
Lord, now let us thy servant depart in peace according to
thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which thou
hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten
the Gentiles, which literally means a light for revelation. This is what the word light means
here. Or lighten, it means to reveal
or to have revealed to the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus, when He entered
into this world, He is the revelation of the person of God. This is how we know God, through
Christ Jesus. Say, what is God like? Look at
the person Jesus Christ. Who manifested the Father. He's
the glory of the Father. He's equal with the Father. And
He came, He's the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. He is a revelation of the mind
of God, the will of God, the ways of God. He's the one who
lightens the Gentiles. He's the one who manifests the
Father unto us. In other words, He's the one
who reveals God to us. You can't know God in any saving
capacity apart from the work of the Lord Jesus. He came down
here to make things right between us and a holy God. He came down
here to be our substitute, to be the satisfaction of God's
justice for all of God's elect people. And these are the words
that came out of the mouth of this man, Simeon. He's a light
to lighten the Gentiles as a revelation of God to us. And the Lord has
to reveal himself to us. This is a portion of the meaning
of the word revelation. And I can give you another reference,
Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Here we read in Romans chapter
8 and verse 18 or 19. Romans chapter 8 and verse 19. Here the word revelation is set
forth as manifestation. Romans 8 in verse 19, For the
earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation
of the sons of God. And if we were to read a little
down further in this passage of Scripture, here's what it's
telling us. All of creation groans beneath
this awful, awful thing of our sinfulness, which has affected
all of creation. Creation, the things around us,
the earth and the heavens and so forth, these things didn't
rebel against God. We did. We did. And as a result
of our sinfulness, of our corruption, of our pollution, of our rebellion
against God, This awful thing called sin has had a devastating
effect upon all of creation. And here's what the apostle is
writing. All of creation, it groans waiting
until the people of God are manifested as being in fact the people of
God. In other words, there is going
to come a day of revelation. That is, when those who are the
Lord's, His by sovereign grace, His by redemptive price, and
those by effectual grace who have been made His, when we will
be made manifest as being the Lord's people. In other words,
God is going to set us on display. The trophies of His grace. And
then it will be made manifest to all of creation. It will be
revealed to all of creation. These are the people of God.
Look at them. Washed in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. These are the objects of God's
grace. These are the trophies. of His
victory at the cross of Calvary. These are robed with the garments
of God's salvation. And it will be made manifest
to all of the angels and all of creation. These are God's
people. They'll be manifested, will be
manifested or revealed. It'll be a day of revelation.
That's what it means, a day of revelation. Now, let me give
you another reference, Galatians chapter 1. Now the name of the book that
we're involved in studying is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. That expression is only found
three times in the New Testament. Here's the first one. Galatians,
the first chapter. Look down at verse number 10.
Galatians chapter 1 and verse 10. For do I now, Paul writes, persuade
men or God? In other words, do I seek to
win the favor of God? Or do I seek to please men? Do I seek the favor of men? We
were talking in our Sunday school class this morning. Our Lord
Jesus had denounced the Pharisees, the scribes, for their heartless
religion. And as he spoke to them, about
not having a heart of worship with God and not seeking the
Lord through faith and through loving Him. Then the disciples,
they said to him, Lord, you've offended these Pharisees. The Lord had rebuked them for
their heartless religion. And they got offended and the
disciples said, you've offended them. And I said to the people
in the Sunday school class this morning, now we don't want to
ever be the offense. But we set forth the Word of
God because there's somebody else that's far more important
than any of us, and we don't want to offend Him. That's the
Lord. We don't want to offend Him if
we dull the Word, if we take the sharp edges off the sword
of the Spirit. If we don't set forth the gospel
of grace as it's put forth in the Word of God, then maybe we
won't offend men, but I'll tell you who we will offend, God.
And I'd a whole lot rather offend people than offend God. So I
don't want to cut down on his word. I don't want to water anything
down. I want to give it out just as
he set it forth in this book. And this is what the apostle
is saying now. I don't want to just win the
favor of men. That's not what I'm about. He's
saying I want to please God. Now look at verse 11. He said, but I certify you, brethren,
I want you to understand, that's what the word certify means,
I want this to be absolutely understood, brethren, that the
gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither
received it of men, or of man, neither was I taught it, but
by, here it is, the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the first
time the expression is used, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
What is he saying? The gospel of God's grace, the
gospel of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. That
message of how the Lord Jesus is the savior of sinners, God
saves people through his substitutionary death. That gospel, that gospel
which I set forth to you, which I have received, it was manifested
to me, it was revealed to me by the Lord himself. Listen, there has to be a revelation
of the gospel of God's grace to our hearts. There's got to
be a manifestation because these things are hidden from us. And
they've got to be made known. They've got to be exposed to
us. Made clear to us. There has to
be a manifestation. There has to be an enlightenment
of our minds and of our hearts as to who God is, as to what
kind of mess that we're in, and as to who the Lord Jesus is,
and what He accomplished by His substitutionary death on the
cross. And this is what the Apostle is saying. I didn't receive this
of men. This is by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Now, let me give you the second
reference where this is found. 1 Peter chapter 1. Look at verse
13. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 13. Peter, as he admonishes the people
of God, he says, 1 Peter 1.13, wherefore gird up
the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace
or on account of the grace or because of the grace that is
to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, he's going to
say there's going to be the fullness of our salvation will be accomplished
at the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is when he
is revealed from heaven. He is going to be coming back
someday. That's his promise. He came the
first time to obtain redemption by his blood. He's coming back
the second time as the sovereign. He's coming back as that one
who will gather all men unto himself and separate them as
the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. He will gather
all men unto Himself, and then it will be made manifest He is
the King of kings, and He is the Lord of lords, and then it
will be also made manifest who are His and who are not. I don't
know whether you belong to Him or not. I don't know who's the
sheep, who's the goats. I don't know anybody's heart.
I can't read anybody's heart. Something else I'll share with
you. I told the Sunday School this morning. I said a man told
me one time of another person. He said, he's not saved. I'll forgive him if God ever
saves him. You can't tell who's saved and
who's not saved. You can't examine the heart.
You can't look at a man and say, well, I know He's saved because
He does thus and so, because He attends church. He's a good
person, she's a kind woman. You don't know, you can't even
say, well I know they're not saved because look at the way
they have misbehaved in their life. I'm sure if you'd seen
David, if you'd been a spy and you saw David when he was with
Bathsheba and then he was trying to cover that all up, you'd have
probably said and probably I would have said too, well that man
can't be saved. and behave like that? Simon Peter,
when he cussed the name of Jesus Christ, and said, I'm telling
you, I don't know the man, we'd have said, well, he's surely
not saved. You're not the judge. The Scripture says, let every
man examine himself, whether he be in the faith. You've got
no business examining somebody else. You're not the judge. You're not fit for that position.
And neither am I. We don't know. Here's what I
want to do. Examine my heart. Examine my
faith. Examine the foundation I'm building
on. You see, other foundation can
no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ the
Lord. Am I building on the rock? Is
all of my hope in Christ Jesus only? Do I believe salvation,
all of grace? Do I believe I must make some
contribution to God? Or have I been convinced by the
Spirit of God that it's done, it's been finished by Jesus Christ
the Lord? I've got to examine my heart. Is He all my hope? Am I really
trusting Him? Do I have a mere head knowledge
of Him? I know the Word. I know the Gospel's
got to come into the mind. It's got to come in through the
ear gate. But it's got to go deeper than that. I don't want
to just have an intellectual grasp of biblical facts. That's not salvation. It's knowing
Him. Knowing Christ Jesus. It's having
a love for Him, faith in Him, confidence in Him. Our Lord said,
Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Oh, that's the issue. Because if any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Do you love
the Son of God? Lord, thou knowest all things. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. And thou knowest. I love you
because you shed your love abroad in my heart. Tell you our Lord Jesus is going
to be made manifest one of these days. I sure want to be on the right
side, don't you? I want to be found in Him. There's
no place of safety anywhere else except in Christ Jesus. It's
like Noah building that ark. Noah, a preacher of righteousness.
Preaching, building. Preaching, building. He's a just
man, a righteous man. Building that ark. What are you
building that ark for? Judgment's coming, gonna be a
flood. I think you're crazy, Noah. You talk about rain falling
from heaven? What is rain? We've never seen
that before. And they hadn't. A great canopy
overhead. Everything was lush. You're crazy. No, I'm not crazy. Pass me that
timber over here. Let's keep on building now. He said, I'm telling you, the
only place of safety is in this ark. Because judgment's coming. I don't know when it's coming,
but it's coming. And I can tell you this, the
only place of safety is in this ark I'm building. That ark's
a picture of Christ Jesus. And I'm telling you, judgment's
coming. Judgment's coming upon this world. Our Lord Jesus is
gonna be revealed from heaven. His very presence will enlighten
the world in this sense. He will illuminate the world
because everybody will see His glory and His appearing. He will
be manifest from heaven and it will be manifest to all men everywhere. He's Lord to the glory of God
the Father. That's what's gonna be made manifest. And you better be in the ark. And that ark is Christ Jesus
himself. Like somebody said, the only
place to hide from God is to hide in God. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. Lord said, there's a cliff in
the rock over there. You better get in there. I'm
going to pass by. If you want to be safe, get in
that cliff of the rock. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in Thee. That's what old Augustus' top
lady said. Our Lord Jesus is going to be
made manifest one of these days. Now, Revelation chapter 1. Here's
the third time this expression is used. Revelation chapter 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God He gave unto him to show unto his servants things
which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John. And to John is given a
revelation, a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as
John writes this book, he sees He sees the Lord Jesus manifested
as the exalted Son of Man, number one. The exalted Son of Man. He's always in the midst of His
people. Well, that's encouraging to us,
isn't it? He's always with His people, this exalted Son of Man. He loved that title. He loved
that title. He took that to Himself. As the
Son of Man, He came to this world to seek and to save that which
was lost, laid down His life for us. The Son of Man has been
exalted, and He's coming again, coming again. John sees Him as
the exalted Son of Man. Number two, he sees Him as the
Lamb of God. The Lamb of God, smitten, slaughtered,
slain for sinners. The Lamb of God who shed his
blood to redeem his people. The Lamb of God who has, upon
the basis of him finishing the work of redemption, he's taken
the book out of the hand of God and he's bringing to fulfillment
all of the decrees of our God. John sees him as, thirdly, he
sees him as the conqueror. He's the great conqueror. He's
the one who defeats all of his enemies. He defeated them at
the cross. Oh, that's where the war took place. And that's where
the war was won. Make no mistake about it. I know
we have our battles every day. Battle of the flesh and the spirit. Battle with Satan. Battle with
the world. But these are just little skirmishes. The war was won 2,000 years ago. And that one who is the seed
of the woman His heel was bruised. He was crucified. He suffered
by transgressions. He died under the wrath of God. His heel was bruised. Ah, but
the head of the serpent was crushed, was crushed. John said over and
Chapter 20, he said, I saw this angel come down from heaven.
He had a chain in his hand, and he bound the old serpent. That happened when our Lord Jesus
Christ died. Oh, you who are the people of
God, rejoice. The Lion of the tribe of Judah
has triumphed, and he has prevailed, and he has all power in heaven,
earth, and under the earth to fulfill and execute all of God's
counsel. Everything's going right on schedule.
Don't you ever lose heart. Don't ever be dismayed. Don't
ever be driven to weary. All things are governed by King
Jesus, who is the friend of sinners, who redeemed us unto God by his
blood. He's the conqueror. And I'll
tell you something else. Go to chapter 18 now. He's the
judge. He's the judge. And right here
in chapter 18, we see him bringing divine judgment upon Babylon. Divine judgment upon Babylon. In chapter 17, Babylon has been
described. She has been set forth as a city,
a great city. She's been set forth as a beautiful
harlot. She is very seductive. She is
God's name for all false religion. For every religion that stands
in opposition to salvation by God's free and sovereign grace.
Babylon is every religion, every belief, doesn't matter what title
it is, what denomination it is, what the name of the religion
is, it's God's name for all of those who preach anything else,
believe anything else other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Anything other than salvation
by God's free and sovereign grace. Babylon. Chapter 17, Babylon
is described. The governments of this world,
they hold her up, they support her. But at the end of chapter
17, and we didn't go into this, end of chapter 17, it does appear
toward the end of the age, whenever that is, the governments of this
world are going to begin to forsake her. They're going to desert
her. It's already happened in some
of the governments of this world, where they have forsaken religion
altogether. That's going to happen. As we
get into chapter 18, we see divine judgment brought upon Babylon. There are lots of things that
are told us here in chapter 18. Let me just point out a few of
them. First of all, in verse number four, John says, 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. First of all, the Lord will always
bring his people out of Babylon. If any of his people are found
in Babylon, before the world is going to be destroyed and
before God destroys Babylon, he's gonna bring his people out
of it. And many of us, in fact really all of us, because you
may not have been in organized religion, but you did have a
religion. So all of us were, before conversion,
before we were confronted with the gospel of God's grace in
Christ Jesus, we were all in Babylon to some degree. Well, Babylon is marked for destruction,
but she cannot and will not be destroyed until all of God's
people have been effectually brought out of her. Because we
can't be condemned with the wicked. You know why we can't be condemned
with the wicked? Because our sins have already
been punished. Our iniquities have already been
transferred to our scapegoat, the Lord Jesus, who has borne
them away into a land uninhabited. He has already satisfied justice
for all of his people, and so here's the call of the Spirit
of God, come out of her! You can't be partakers of her
sins, and you can't be partakers of all the plagues that await
her. Come out of her. So I'll say
this, first of all, about divine judgment against Babylon. Number
one, God remembers all of the iniquities of his enemies. Look at verse five. Her sins
have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered, remembered
her iniquities. It's bad news for you if God
remembers your iniquities. That's really bad news. And over
in chapter 20 of Revelation, at the last judgment, you know
what it says about those who are unbelieving? The books were
opened. In other words, the records were
open. God's been keeping records. Now, we know that expression,
the books were open. It isn't that God needs books
to remind Him of what people have done and of what people
are. That's for our benefit because
it's the only way we can kind of comprehend what He's talking
about. But here's the simple fact of it. God has never forgotten
a single iniquity. of any of those who die in their
sins. He's never forgotten. The Lord
says He remembers her iniquities. What an awful thing. The Lord said about apostate
Israel over in the book of Amos, He says, I will not forget your
works. I will not forget. Well then the issue comes down,
the issue as far as I'm concerned, regarding me, comes down. Lord,
will you remember mine? Will you remember my iniquities?
Listen, I don't even remember my iniquities. I can't know all
of my sins. You can't know all of your sins.
But I know this, I'm very confident of this, I don't want God to
remember them. And there's only one way that
God could not remember our sins is for the Lord Jesus Christ
to put them all away, which He did by His death. And so here's a wonderful promise
of the New Covenant. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Hallelujah. No more. God says,
I won't remember them against you. They're gone. Buried in the deepest sea, put
behind God's back. Our Lord Jesus Christ removed
them, but he remembers every single iniquity of all of his
enemies, and he'll never forget. He'll never forget. Here's something else I know,
number two. God God Himself will punish every single sinner in
exact proportion to the evil they've committed. In other words,
this will be in strictness of justice. Look at verses 6 and
7. Reward her even as she rewarded you. Double unto her double according
to her works. In the cup which she hath filled,
filter her double. How much she's glorified herself
and lived deliciously. In other words, she lived very
extravagantly. That's what Babylon did. Because
false religion generally has lots of wealth. Therefore, he says, so much torment
and sorrow. Give her. For she said in her
heart, I said as a queen, I'm royal. I'm not a widow. I have nothing to be sad about.
I'll never see any sorrow. I'm religion. Religion's good. Listen, religion is bad if it's
a Christless religion. If it's a godless religion. If
it's a religion based upon your works or your will, it's a deadly
religion. You've got to remember that. Now there are no degrees of reward
in heaven. We know that. Because we're all
saved by the same grace, washed by the same blood, regenerated
by the same Spirit, brought to know the same Savior. The Lord
is my portion, saith my soul. You can't get any more than the
Lord. He's our reward. He's our glory. He's the one
we want. No degrees of glory, no degrees
of heaven, but there will be degrees of hell. Because to whom much is given,
much is required. Babylon, God said reward her
according to what she deserves. Give her what she deserves. Here's
my prayer. Don't give me what I deserve.
I don't want what I got. Somebody says, well, I just want
what I got coming to me. Not me. Not unless you look at
it like this. Christ Jesus is my righteousness. He's the one who died in my stead. He's the one who bought me. He's
the one who satisfied all of God's demands. He is my fitness
for heaven. He makes me meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of God. Now if you look at it like this,
then I'll get what's coming to me. Actually, you see, our God will
deal with all men in the strictest of justice. So you will get what's coming
to you. You will. Either that which is appointed
to you by God's everlasting grace, or that which is appointed to
you due to your own depravity. God said, give her what she deserves. Number three, she's glorified
herself. Here's the third thing. She's
glorified herself and not the Lord Jesus. Verse eight again.
Or verse seven, excuse me. Oh, how much she's glorified
herself. This is really the issue. Here it is. Who gets the glory? Isn't that it? You want to get
right down to who gets the glory. I mean ultimately, the bottom
line. Let's take everything else out
of the way. Let's just get right down to
the baseline here. Right down to the foundation.
In your belief, who gets all the glory? Because you see, the
one on whom salvation hinges, that's the one that's going to
get all the glory. If it all hinges upon our God, He gets all the glory. On the
other hand, if it hinges on you, this is what I was taught in
preacher school. I've said it before, I can remember
it as if it was yesterday. A professor pointed to a door
and he said, there's salvation. That door is salvation. That's
all of God's rights. God's work right there. But he
said, if you open that door, you'll find that that door opens
and it closes due to hinges. He said, now that's your will.
It all turns on you. It all turns on you. And my friend,
just being honest with you, I'm not your enemy because I
tell you the truth. The salvation you believe, if
it ultimately hinges on your will, you're still in Babylon. You're still in Babylon. That's
not right. And you see, this is God's accusation
against her. This is the Lord's accusation.
How much she has glorified herself! Who gets the glory? You read Ephesians 1 again. It
talks about the Father chose us in Christ before the world
began. It says, under the praise of
the glory of His grace. It talks about the redemption
of our Lord Jesus to the praise of the glory of His grace. It
talks about the Spirit of God, the earnest. We're sealed with
that earnest, the Spirit of God to the praise of His glory. It's
always to God's glory. Who's getting the glory? That's
the issue. Examine every religion, examine
every message, examine every sermon you ever hear by this
one question, who gets the glory? And a Babylon, it's always this,
ultimately, she glorifies herself. And I'll tell you something else
about this judgment, this divine judgment, number four, It's going
to come quickly and without notice. Verse 8, Therefore shall her
plagues come in one day, death, mourning, famine, and she shall
be utterly burned with fire. In fact, you go down a little
bit further, look in verse number 10. These people, the kings of
the earth, are standing afar off for the fear of her torment,
saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city,
for in one hour, in one hour, her judgment has come. And look
at verse 17. For in one hour, so great riches
has come to nothing. She seems so great. She seems
so wealthy. She seems so wonderful. In one
hour, she's gone. That's how sudden this destruction
is going to be. Absolutely cut off, Solomon says,
and that without remedy. I'll tell you something else
about this judgment, divine judgment upon Babylon. It's going to be
so thorough, it will be an ultimate total defeat. Look at verse 8
again. She shall be utterly burned with
fire. Totally. Totally. And something else about this,
just to move on to number 6. We know this is going to happen
because of the might of Him who brings it to pass. The last statement
of verse 8, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. He's mighty to judge. And let
me tell you something, He's mighty to save. Isn't that wonderful? He's mighty to save. He's mighty
to overcome my rebellion. He's mighty to raise me from
a spiritual death. He was mighty to put all of my
sins away. He's Christ Jesus, the omnipotent
Son of God. He's mighty in salvation, and
He's mighty in judgment too. And just as His grace is irresistible,
His judgment is also irresistible. Who can stand before this Lord? Oh, how strong is the Lord God
that judgeth her. And I'll tell you something else.
Number six, her righteousness will do her no good. Look at
verses 16 and 17. These, the merchants who They
sided with her and then forsook her finally. They will say, alas,
alas, that great city, she was clothed in fine linen, she looked
so beautiful with purple and scarlet and decked with gold
and precious stones and pearls, but in one hour all of this has
come to naught, all of her righteousness. She looks so beautiful. In Matthew
7 they will say to the Lord, we did so many things in your
name. We cast out devils in your name.
We did many wonderful works in your name. We did all of these
things in your name. We have a wonderful righteousness
and it's all come to naught. Because all of man's righteousness
is his filthy rags. The only righteousness that we
must have is that righteousness that is absolutely freely imputed. It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord our righteousness. I want no other garment but the
one He gives me. I want no other righteousness
but the righteousness He gives me. And He gives me that freely. And we see throughout this passage
number eight that those who cooperated with, those who supported Babylon,
those who even were manipulated by Babylon, they're gonna bemoan
her devastation and her destruction. The kings of the earth, the merchant
men, and the mariners, they're gonna bemoan her. So we thought
she had it, but she didn't have it. She didn't
have any life. We thought she'd do us good,
but she didn't do us any good. She only brought death. And the last thing I want to
show you is the judgment of Babylon, this
divine judgment upon Babylon. though it's a time of sadness
for all those who were within her and who supported her, will
be a time of joy for the people of God. Look at verse number
20. 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. And the voice of harpers and
musicians and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all
in thee. In other words, no more joy.
and no craftsman of whatever the craft he be shall be found
any more in thee, all who supported her. The sound of a millstone
shall be heard no more at all in thee. The light of a candle
shall shine no more at all in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom
and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee, for thy
merchants were the great men of the earth, for by thy sorceries
were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood
of prophets, And of saints and of all that were slaughtered
or slain upon the earth, even the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
is found in her. The saints of God rejoice. In
fact, if we get in, I'll just read the next little bit into
chapter 19. After these things I heard a
great voice of much people In heaven, these are the people
of God saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power
unto the Lord our God, for true and righteous are His judgments.
In other words, the Lord hasn't been too judgmental here. He
hasn't been too strict. Babylon is going to get exactly
what she deserves. And if you don't see that Babylon,
the judgment that she's going to receive, is well deserved
and earned and merited, if you don't see that, I have great
fear for you. Because Babylon stands in opposition
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It stands in opposition to salvation
by grace. Babylon wants the glory herself
and would rob God of the glory that is rightfully His. The Lord
said, I am the Lord, that's My name, My glory will I not give
to another? And she's glorified herself.
Don't bemoan what's going to happen to Babylon. It will be
a glad day, a day of rejoicing when God shuts the mouth of every
lying preacher. It'll be a wonderful day when
Babylon has a millstone put around her neck and she is sunk by the
hand of Christ Jesus down to the very bottom of the deepest
pit of hell itself. Babylon's gonna deserve everything
she gets. His judgments are true and righteous. For he hath judged the great
whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and
he's avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again
they say, alleluia, and her smoke rose up forever and ever. It'd be a great day. It'd be
a wonderful day. When Babylon is shut down, God
puts her out of business. And we'll rejoice. And forevermore,
we'll say, Lord, thank you. You brought me out of Babylon.
You brought me out of false religion. You brought me out of, you see,
this is ultimately the false religion we were in. You brought
me out of worshiping myself. Yeah, that's what you did. And
you brought me to Christ Jesus. And you made me see he's the
one I need. And He of God has been made to
me to be wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, He that, what? He that glorieth. Let Him glory in the Lord. Don't you try to steal His glory.
It puts you in hell for that. He will. He will.