give some diligence and practice
that song. They didn't know it. I've known
it for years. I bet you've known it for years
too. Maybe some of the rest of you as well, but of course that's
taken from Isaiah, the first chapter, which is the reason
I asked Ron to read that. And it's a wonderful song and
got good words and we're thankful that he is of great compassion.
and of wondrous love. Well, if you would, take your
Bibles and go to Revelation chapter 18. Every time we open the scriptures,
and I'm speaking when I say we, I mean servants of the Lord,
preachers of the gospel, we We want to honestly handle the
scriptures. And we deal with subjects as
they present themselves to us. Now, today I want to talk about
Babylon is fallen. And certainly to a degree that's
a negative message. But I want you to understand
that the message of the Word of God is not a negative message
to people who need Christ Jesus, to those who've been made aware
of their sinfulness. It's a very positive message.
Ours is a message of the mercy of God to sinful people through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is, that's the, the
body of the word of God. The Lord always has words of
mercy for sinful folks. One of the things that I mentioned
in the Bible class this morning, we started in Matthew chapter
15 this morning, but I mentioned to them at the end of chapter
14, everybody who came to the Savior and touched the hem of
his garment, They were healed of their diseases. Oh, He is
a God of great compassion. And I say to all of you this
morning, you come to Christ Jesus just as you are in your neediness
with all of your transgressions. You come to God through Christ
Jesus. He'll receive you. He never has
turned anyone away. I note to that about the Savior
that any time a person came to him out of their emptiness, well,
he blessed them out of his fullness. But if somebody came to him and
were already full, as in the first few verses of chapter 15,
the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, He didn't have words
of great compassion for them. He had words of great condemnation. So we're thankful that our God
pities sinners. And I'll tell you, if there's
someone in here this morning and you acknowledge you're a
sinner, Like the songwriter said, a sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. If you recognize your condition
before God, I have a message of wonderful good news to you
of a loving, merciful Savior who entered into this world to
save sinners by his death upon the cross of Calvary. You say,
well, preacher, I don't know a lot about doctrine. I don't
know a lot about the Bible. Let me tell you this. If you're in need of the mercy
of God, there's one person that you should look to, and that's
Christ Jesus. Here's what you need to know.
You can't come to God as you are. You may not understand all the
attributes of God. Listen, nobody does. There are no experts on God.
We're just commencing to begin into getting started to scratching
the surface of knowing about God. I do know this about Him. He's so majestic and so holy. We can't come to Him as we are.
Do you recognize that? You do recognize that, don't
you? You can't come to Him as you are. God's a consuming fire. You can't come near a consuming
fire. You know what will happen? You
will be consumed. That's who God is. And do you have any understanding
of your condition? Being an ungodly sinner? You're helpless. You have no
hope. You've tried to do better. You've
tried to quit this and quit that. Maybe even you've made an effort
to be religious and you say, I can't do it. I get no peace
from that. Well, there is no peace in those
things. There's no peace in anything that you would do. You're absolutely unworthy of
the least of the mercies of God. I'll tell you that. But you're
not by yourself. See, that's the way we all are.
We're unworthy of the least of His mercies. Now, here's the
good news. God sent His Son into this world
to save sinful people. Folks like us. And this is a
way God saves unworthy sinners. He saves them through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he died. You see,
God's a just God. God's a righteous God. God can't
just wipe away sins. He can't pretend they're not
there. And He just can't forgive them without His justice being
satisfied because God is a consuming fire and God is a just and holy
God. Therefore, all sin has got to
be dealt with by God in the severest way. And the severest way is
death. And if you die without the Savior,
if you die without forgiveness, then you're going to have to
go to hell. And you're never going to pay
your debt. You'll never even begin to pay your debt. You're
there to endure the wrath of God because you wouldn't come
to God the right way. And the right way is the Lord
Jesus. He's the Savior of sinners. The
reason He entered into this world, the reason He came down here,
was to save sinful people. Listen to what the Apostle Paul
said. This is a faithful saying. A faithful saying. You know what
that means? This is something worth believing. I'm going to
tell you something worth believing. There's a lot of things in the
news and throughout the world that's just not worth believing.
You can't believe everything you hear. But I'll tell you something
that is worth believing. And you can take this to the
bank. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation for everybody to accept this. What
is it? It's just it. Christ Jesus. He
came into the world to save sinners. And then the man who wrote that
said, of whom? I'm chief. I'm chief. That's why he came. He came to
reconcile his people back to God. He came to pay a debt that
he didn't owe. It's a debt we owed. But he took
that obligation on himself. And he died for sinners. He died
for lawbreakers. He died for unrighteous people.
Yes, he died for people like us. And he who died, he satisfied
God's law and justice. And we know that because God
raised him from the dead. And then he went back to heaven
where he makes intercession. That is, he's the one who prays
for folks like us. Now, salvation's in Christ Jesus. There may be a lot of things
you don't understand. That's okay. You'll pick up on
these. You'll learn. God the Spirit
will teach you. I'm very much afraid, as a preacher
myself, and other preachers as well, I'm very much afraid that
maybe we give Sort of the impression, you've
got to know a lot. You've got to know a lot. No,
it's not the amount that you know, it's the one you've got
to know. You've got to know Him. You've
got to know Christ Jesus. And these other things, God will
teach you these other things. But here's what you do, this
is what you've got to know. There is no salvation, there
is no acceptance, there is no forgiveness outside of Jesus
Christ the Lord. Now that's just a fact. And if
you die without Him, you're a goner. Oh, and I do compel you, I intrigue
you. I like the words of that song.
I sang all of it, but you see, hear the voice that entreats
you. Oh, return ye unto God. Well,
how can I come to God? Through Christ Jesus. Just as
one old preacher said this, he said, you come to Christ, don't
move a muscle. It's not about walking down here.
It's not about coming to see me. It's coming to see Him. It's
coming to see Him by faith. Come in your heart. Ask God to
teach you. Lord, teach me. Maybe you grew
up under the gospel, maybe you didn't. Maybe you know a lot,
maybe you don't know much at all. But I'll tell you this,
I can tell you where salvation is found. It's found in Christ
Jesus and with all of the the honesty and the urgency of my
soul, I compel you to come to Christ Jesus. The message of
the word of God is salvations of the Lord. That's the message
of the word of God. And we deal with that. We'll
deal with every subject as it arises as we work our way through
the scriptures. Now this morning, we're working
our way through the scripture that talks about false religion. how bad it is, and that anybody
who's wrapped up in false religion will come to no good end. Well, what is the Bible word
for false religion? It's Babylon, which means confusion
and a mixture, mixture. You know what it means to mix
things. You ladies and some of you men
as well, you cook things and you mix stuff together to make
a batter or whatever it is. Well, this is what false religion
does. It mixes. And this is what it
mixes. It mixes some of the word of
God, some of the truth of God. It mixes this with error. And it don't take much error.
It just takes a little drop of error. And it's a bad concoction
then. That's what Babylon does. That's
what false religion does. That's the reason we must, as
best we can, maintain the purity of the gospel as we set it forth,
that it's all of grace with no works of man involved
whatsoever in any way, shape, or form. And here's what Babylon does. It takes words like grace and
salvation, the Lord Jesus, His blood, righteousness, they use
biblical words and then they mix in it that which you've got
to do to really make it salvation for you. And that's when it's
a deadly mixture. It's a deadly concoction. And Babylon is God's name for
every religion that's wrong. Every religion that's wrong.
Now, I mean, I can't do anything about religion out there. I can't
change them. But here's my job as I'm dealing
honestly with the Word of God. My job is to warn you. Be careful what you listen to.
Be careful to the voice that you listen to. Because there's
much error out there concerning the things of God. Babylon, as
we've looked through chapter 18, she makes herself beautiful. She's very alluring. She's very
attractive. She's very seducing. She's very
seductive. In fact, she's even presented
as a harlot, a beautiful harlot. And she is, she's held up by
world governments, rulers, presidents, governmental authorities. False
religion, Babylon, is set forth in Revelation chapter 18, as
we've seen, as riding on the governments, the rulers, the
presidents, and so forth of this world. Because they hold her
up, they support her. But Babylon is any doctrine,
any belief, any way of salvation, Contrary to the salvation which
is only of God. You see, when we talk about salvation,
it is all of the Lord. It's all of the Lord in its purpose. Okay? Purpose. The Lord purposed
salvation. See? This is His doings. It's like if you're going to
build something. Let's say you're going to build
a house. Or you're going to make something. First of all, you
make some kind of plans. And if it's a house, there are
blueprints to follow. And then the builder looks at
them and says, uh-huh. Yeah, I see. Uh-huh. You want
this here, and this has got to be done this way. Blueprints. That's kind of the foundation
of it. That's the basis of it. And then
the house is built. Well, salvation is a wonderful
house for sinners like us. It's a spiritual house. It's
a spiritual refuge for sinners like us. Well, would you think
God would embark on this great work of salvation without having
any blueprints? No. He had it all purposed. He had it all planned out. When
did He do that? Before He made the world. Before
He made the world. That's when salvation was purposed. He chose a people unto salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, one of the things you'll
find out if you come to Christ, If you're brought to Him by effectual
grace, if you're brought to believe Him, and rest in Him, and look
to Him, and hug up to Him, here's what you're going to find out.
The reason is because God chose you unto salvation. And then
you'll rejoice. You'll rejoice. Well, that's
one of the first things that Ananias told Saul of Tarsus. The man had met the Lord Jesus
Christ. God sent him to a preacher, and
here's the very first thing the preacher said to him. The God
of our fathers, He chose you. He chose you. He made this abundantly
clear to this man. The reason he now is a believer,
the reason he looks to Jesus Christ alone for all of his hope
and all of his righteousness and all of his acceptance is
because God, before the world began, chose him unto salvation. That's the very first thing he
taught him. Salvations of the Lord in its
purpose. And then salvation of the Lord
in its purchase, purchase. Christ bought His people. He
bought His people. He came down here to make things
right between us and God. Hey, things are wrong between
us and God. We're wrong. Our sins, the Lord
said your sins and your iniquities have separated you from me. And
things gotta be made right. Christ Jesus came into this world
to make things right. To make things right. And he
did that by his bloody death. Our sins, our iniquities, something
had to be done about them. And we couldn't do anything about
them. Our tears won't wash them away. Our repentance won't do
away with them. Our faith won't do away with
them. The only thing that could put away all the sins of all
of God's people is the bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he died. Salvation's
of the Lord in his purchase. and salvations of the Lord in
his great power. You see, Christ who died, he
must be revealed to us. The same God who ordained, who
purposed salvation, he ordained the means whereby that salvation
is made known to us. And the Spirit of God comes to
us in the midnight, in the blackness of our defilement and death.
And the Spirit of God takes the word of God, the word of truth,
the incorruptible seed, and using this word, this gospel word,
he makes us alive. He gives us life, spiritual life
to believe. And if you believe this gospel,
it's because the Holy Spirit's made you alive. He's made you
alive. And he's made you to see that
everything necessary to satisfy a holy God, your substitute satisfied
it for you. He did it. This is God's salvation. But Babylon mixes something man
must do in all of that. And so Babylon introduces works
of man or the will of man. And Babylon leaves you with this
understanding. Your salvation ultimately is
dependent upon you. And that is the doctrine of Babylon. Doesn't matter what name she
wears, doesn't matter what kind of religion it is, doesn't matter
what denomination it is, that's the bottom line. Babylon leaves
you with this understanding. God's done all He can do. Christ
Jesus, He did His best to save me. The Spirit of God, He's calling
me and He's begging me, but ultimately, it's all in my hands now. That's
the doctrine of Babylon. It's no good. Salvation's of
the Lord. Therefore, when we get here to
Revelation chapter 18, Look at verse one, and after these things,
after the Lord had showed John Babylon, he said, after these
things, I saw another angel come down from heaven. Now, throughout
the book of Revelation, we read about angels, right? You read
the word angel a lot of times in the book of Revelation. And
you'll say, well, who is this? Who does this represent? Is this
a winged creature? Or who is this messenger? Because
that's what angel means, a messenger from God. So in this scripture,
who is this angel? I saw another angel. Well, it
says he came down from heaven. Well, that's where angels are.
They're headquartered in heaven. But this is what he says about
him, having great power. Who's got all power? Who's got
great power? We're only one. There's only
one. You see, there's only one who has infinite power and authority
in and of himself. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the Son of God and the Son of Man. As God, He's always
had power. As the Son of Man, He earned
the right to have all power by His successful work of redemption
upon the cross of Calvary. He's got great power. And the
earth, watch this, was lightened with His glory. Well, the earth
is enlightened by the glory of a winged creature. The earth
is only enlightened with the glory of the one who is the glory
of God, Christ Jesus. So that's how we know who this
angel is. And you'll notice what it says
here about this angel. He says, after these things I
saw another angel come down from heaven. Bless the name of Christ
Jesus, he's come down. He's come down. Over in the book of Exodus chapter
three, the Lord said, I've come down
to see the condition of my people. I've come down. In fact, let
me show that to you. Look at Exodus. Look at the book
of Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter three. Look at verse seven. Exodus chapter
three, verse seven. And the Lord said, now you know
the story. Israel's in Egyptian bondage
for about 400 years, right? It's like the Lord told Abraham. They weren't in bondage when
they went into Egypt, but when the good pharaoh died and an
evil pharaoh took over, oh, their captivity was awful. And they
were made to be slaves. And the Lord said, now here we
go, Exodus 3 verse 7, you got the place? Sure you do. And the
Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people.
which are in Egypt, I've heard their cry by reason of their
taskmasters, for I know their sorrows, and I'm come down." I like that, I've come down.
You know who he's saying this to? He's saying this to Moses.
He's speaking to Moses out of a bush that burned but wasn't
consumed. The one who is speaking is the
great I Am. Who identifies Himself especially
in the Gospel of John. He told those Pharisees before
Abraham was, I Am. I am the bread of life, I am
the light of the world, I am the vine, I am the resurrection
and the life, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. All
of these times he said, I am, I am, and he's speaking, this
is the one, this is Christ Jesus, Jehovah our Savior, speaking
to Moses out of the burning bush. And he says to Moses, I've come
down. I've come down to deliver them
out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that
land unto a good land and a large under land flowing with milk
and honey under the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites
and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. I've come down. What has He come
down for? He's come down to save. He's
come down to rescue. He's come down to liberate. He
came down to save them by two ways. Number one, He saved them
by price. The death of the Passover lamb. And number two, He saved them
by power. By His own right hand, He liberated
His people. And you see, that's a picture
of salvation by Christ Jesus. What has He done? He's come down!
He's come down here! 2,000 years ago he came down
because he saw the great needs of his people. He saw our agonies. He saw our dilemma. We couldn't
deliver ourselves from bondage. He came down to save us by price. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. What price, oh God, will it take
to save my people? Here's what the Father said to
the Son. Here's the price, your blood. That's what it's gonna take.
Your death, your sacrifice. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. He rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. We're saved by power, we're saved
by price, and we're saved by power. Power. How is it that I come to know
about Christ Jesus and to know Him and to believe Him by power,
effectual, infinite power, working with Him to show me what's already
been done for me by Christ Jesus and to rejoice in Him alone?
He said, I've come down. I've come down. Let me show you
another verse. Look at Psalm 72. Psalm 72. Here's a psalm for Solomon, looking
ahead to Christ Jesus the King and His reign. And here's what
it says in Psalm 72, verse 6. He shall come down like rain
upon the mown grass. He shall come down as showers
that water the earth. And he's speaking prophetically.
And hundreds and hundreds of years went by, and then like
a refreshing rain from heaven, Christ came. He came down. He came down to where we are.
He came down to live amongst people like us. He came down. He came down to lift us up. If He doesn't come down, we're
not going up. He came down. But I'll tell you one time when
He didn't come down, He was hanging on the cross, dying for our sins
according to the Scriptures. And those who mocked him and
made fun of him said, if thou be the Son of God, come down. That's what they said. That's
exactly their words. Come down, save thyself. Save thyself. They even said
this, he saved others, himself he cannot save. My friends, if
he had come down from the cross, He couldn't save us. But He didn't
come down. He didn't come down. He saved
us by substitutionary death. But here in Revelation 18, He
comes down not to save. He's already done that. He's
already done that. He's already defeated the enemy.
And I'll read this again, but turn a page or two over to chapter
20 and verse 1. Chapter 20 verse 1. He says, and I saw an angel.
John said, and I saw an angel come down from heaven. Well,
what angel is this? Remember, if you're going to
identify the angel, you've got to see what the angel does. See
what he's like. That's how you'll identify the
angels in the book of Revelation. Well, who is this angel come
down from heaven? Well, what's he like? He's got
a key. He's got the key to the bottom of his pit. And back over
in Revelation chapter 1, Christ Jesus has the keys. He's got
all the keys because he's the owner of all things. So this
is Christ Jesus and he's got a great chain in his hand. He's
the angel come down. And here's what he did. He laid
hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and
Satan. And he bound him a thousand years.
He bound him a long, long time. When did he do that? When he
died upon the cross of Calvary. He's the one that came down to
save his people from their sins. But in Revelation chapter 18,
he comes down not to save, but to condemn. Not to show mercy,
but to judge. And the judgment is upon Babylon. Go back to chapter 18 now. This
mighty angel who lightens the earth with his glory. The disciples
saw his glory. John wrote of his glory. He said,
he has the glory as of the only begotten, the father full of
grace and truth. And this angel, verse two, he
cried mightily with a strong voice. Who's got a voice like
the Son of God? Says Babylon the great is fallen. And lest anybody misunderstand,
he says it's fallen, it's fallen. It's become the habitation of
devils. Now listen, everything that is
in opposition to God is in Babylon. Everybody who's in opposition
to God is in Babylon. Every doctrine, every belief
that is in opposition to the Word of God and to Jesus Christ
is in Babylon. It is the habitation of devils. It's the hold, it's the prison
of every foul spirit. It's a cage, as it says, a cage
of every unclean and hateful bird. Everything in opposition
to a holy God's in Babylon. That's what the Lord says. Well, what has she done? What
has happened because of her? Verse three, for all nations
have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The
kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. The merchants
of the earth are wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And then John said, I heard another
voice from heaven. And this is what that voice said.
And whose voice is this preacher? I believe it's the voice of the
Holy Spirit. Because here's what the Holy
Spirit says with a voice of authority. Come out of her, my people. My people. The Lord's got a people. from every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save them. His name, Jesus, means He shall
save His, what's the word, people? His people from their sins. And what does the Holy Spirit
do? The Holy Spirit draws people to Christ Jesus, and He pulls
people away from Babylon. Come out of her, my people. Doesn't
say try to change Babylon, We can't change Babylon. It doesn't
say reform Babylon, my people. You can't reform Babylon. There
have been preachers who've been mixed up in false religion, false
churches, and then God teaches them the gospel, and they try
to stay in. They say, you know, I think I
can change this denomination. You can't do it. You can't change. The Lord didn't call you to change
Babylon. Babylon is what she is. She's
in opposition to God. You can't change her. Well then,
what is to be done with God's people? The Lord's got to bring
His people out of her. Watch it. He says, come out of
her! Come out of her! that ye be not
partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues.
In other words, that you receive not of her judgments. You can't
receive her judgments because your sins have already been judged
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So you got to come out. Come
out. Because here's what's happened,
verse 5. Her sins have reached all the way to heaven. and God hath remembered her iniquities. He had never forgotten. You know
what the Lord says about the sins and iniquities of his people
due to the bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ? Your sins
and your iniquities will I remember no more. No more! This is what the Lord says of
Babylon. All of her iniquities are remembered
by God. Just like He wrote every single
thing down in a book. He doesn't have to do that. But
the Bible talks and uses words that we can generally comprehend. That's why it says in Revelation
chapter 20, the books were opened. And the dead are judged out of
those things written in the books. That's what it says. Written
in the books. Because God has never forgotten
our sins. God brings his people out of
Babylon. Maybe speaking to somebody today,
maybe you've been toying around with Babylon. You say, well,
I think there's good in all churches. Let me tell you this, there are
some sincere people in all churches, I believe that. I believe in
all churches, in all religions, there are people who mean well,
I do believe that. But where there is error, where
there is an absence of the gospel of truth, there's no life there. There's no life there. And the
life is to be found in the gospel of God's grace. So the Lord draws
his people out. Come out of her. Come out. That's effectual grace. That's
the effectual call. Be ye separate from her. Be done
with her. Be done with her. She's in for
a great fall. I don't want to have anything
to do with her. I preach to people who are within Babylon. And I'll
warn them, and I'll tell them, hey, I was in Babylon. The Lord
brought me out. But there's no life there. There's
no bread. That's a wilderness. That's what
John said back in chapter 18. He said, it's a wilderness. He
was taken out into wilderness to see Babylon. There's no bread
there, there's no water of life there, there's nothing that can
do the soul good, only that which can do harm, everlasting harm
to the soul in Babylon. Where's the truth to be found
in Christ Jesus only? Oh, may God bring us all to the
truth of the Son of God who loved us.