Thank you. Let's look in the
scriptures back to the book of Revelation chapter 7 this morning. Revelation chapter number 7. In the scriptures there's many
blessed, blessed words that God has given to us at speak great
peace to each of us who are the Lord's people, the Lord's children. And one of these great, great
words is the word salvation. If we know anything about the
word of God at all, we know that The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. This is the doctrine of one of
the prophets of God. Well, all of the prophets of
God, but one specifically spoke of this salvation. He did so
as a disobedient preacher. God told him to go somewhere
and preach and he didn't want to go. He didn't want to preach
to those people in Nineveh. And so Jonah sought to escape
from his duties and not do what God told him to do. But I'll
tell you, God's will, it shall be done. And God had instructed
him to go to Nineveh and preach against it. He didn't want to
do it, He wound up doing it. He just had to travel a hard
road to get there. You know, as the people of God,
we recognize the fact that God's will, God's purpose is going
to be fulfilled. And you and I oft times find
that we are somewhat rebellious to the will of God perhaps. We
find his will to be inconvenient for us or maybe rather painful
for us. It's best if we just bow and
say, Lord, your will is right. Your will is absolutely perfect. I don't understand what you're
doing and I confess, Lord, that I'm a poor old sinner and I lack
the wisdom to know and to identify. how this is going to work together
for my good, but Lord, as best I can, by your grace, I bow to
your will." Jonah learned a lesson a very difficult way, that people
in Nineveh, they needed a preacher. And so the rebellious prophet
of God set out with some mariners upon a great journey. But he didn't make it to the
end of their journey. He did make it to the end of
his journey. And as you know, God sent a great fish that swallowed
up Jonah after Jonah had told the men, listen, I'm the problem.
And if you guys will just cast me into the ocean, cast me into
the sea, you'll be okay. because it's me, I'm the problem. They did indeed cast him into
the sea. The wind stopped blowing, the
storm stopped its anger, and God sent a great fish to swallow
Jonah. We know that his abiding in the
belly of the great fish three days and three nights is typical
of our Lord Jesus being in the very belly of the earth, as it
were, the heart of the earth. For the Saphir said, as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, the
great fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. Jonah is a picture of our Savior
in some ways. Every picture of our Lord is,
of course, an insufficient picture. That's the reason the Bible is
absolutely filled with pictures of Christ Jesus, because it takes
thousands and thousands of pictures of our Lord Jesus, pictures of
Him, figures of Him, typologies of our Lord Jesus, and even all
of them can't set forth fully His glory. But Jonah in that
was a type of our savior. But then Jonah recognized the
fact that he was in a bad way. It wasn't any getting out. It's
like he was in a dungeon. In fact, he writes in a very
picturesque way of how the seaweeds were around him as the great
fish, the whale of some sort, as it continued to eat and so
forth. And these things came in upon
Jonah. And he's in there and he said, I can't get out. And
finally he said, salvation is of the Lord. And out he came. And guess what? He went to preach. He did that which God originally
told him to do. But he made this declaration.
Salvation is of the Lord. This is the message of the Bible.
The salvation of folks like us, poor old, insignificant, wretched
sinners that we are. There is a salvation for us.
And I'll tell you, it's purposed in old eternity. I know the reason that we need
salvation is because of sinfulness. But even before, as you indicated
in your prayer speaking to God for us, before we ever became
lost and sinful, our Lord Jesus, He was appointed to be the Savior. God ordained salvation. And as
you think about the salvation of folks like us, It is an everlasting
matter. It didn't just happen when you
were converted, and I hope and pray that you are converted,
that God has revealed Christ Jesus to you. He's revealed the
gospel to you. He's brought you to know how
God can be just and justify the ungodly only through the person
and the work of Christ Jesus the Lord. It's through His blood.
It's through His righteousness that sinners are justified. I
hope that you know that. But that's not the beginning
of your salvation. Your salvation actually began
with God. As all good things begin. Everything
good begins with God because God is the only one who's good.
The salvation He ordained before He made the world. In fact, the
reason He made the world is to pass, bring to fulfillment this
everlasting decree of salvation. It's like this is the stage upon
which this great drama of salvation is carried out. But make no mistake about it,
it was ordained before God ever made this globe. God chose a people unto salvation
in Christ Jesus. 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13
says that. So, this matter of our deliverance,
of our rescue, of our salvation from all evil, salvation from
our own sinfulness, salvation from the world, salvation from
the devil, it's of God. It's of God in its origin. It's
of God in its purchase. He purchased us. That is, the
Lord Jesus bought us with His blood. It's His salvation at
the cross. That's where the Lord Jesus saved
us. That's where He justified us. You read to us from Romans
chapter 5 and verse 9, we're justified by His blood. Why did Jesus die on the cross? And someone says, well, he died
to just show us that he loved us. Well, that's an unusual way
to show us. It would be a very unique and
unusual thing for you to go up to somebody and say, I love you,
so I'm going to die. I'm going to die and show you
how much I love you. Well, that doesn't show me how
much you love me. If you love me, I'd appreciate
if you'd stay alive. But you see, this is a demonstration
of the love of God. The only way God could save us,
the only way God could forgive us in a righteous way, in a just
way, was for the Lord Jesus to die. Because our guilt deserves
death. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So if somebody asks you, why did the Lord Jesus die on the
cross of Calvary? He died to save people from their
sins. Isn't this His very name and
the meaning of His name? The angel said to Joseph, Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. From their sins. And from themselves. And from Satan. You want to know where salvation
It originated in the heart of God before the world began. You
want to see salvation brought to pass at the cross? At the cross. And you want to
know when salvation becomes a reality to us? As we hear the preaching
of the gospel, as we hear of the Lord Jesus and His substitutionary
death, His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. As we hear
of the grace and the mercy of our God and the forgiveness of
our sins and the acceptance of us through the merits of the
blessed Redeemer, as we hear this message, the Spirit of God
gives us an interest like we've never had before. And He invades
the heart as the Word of God goes forth, just like He did
with Lydia. Lydia there, she's with some
other ladies who are having some kind of prayer meeting by a river. Along comes the Apostle Paul
and Silas. And they sit down and they begin
to speak with them and talk with them about the things of God.
And it says of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened so that she gave
attendance to the Word of God. That is, she gave her attention
to the Word of God. She believed what she had just
listened to. And this is salvation. This is when salvation becomes
a reality to us. Listen, I wasn't there when God
chose a people unto salvation before the world began. I wasn't
there when the Lord Jesus died on the cross some 2,000 years
ago. I've got to be an object of God's
mercy myself. The Spirit of God has to show
me something of the nature of God, the righteousness of God,
the holiness of God, something of my own wretchedness, And then he's got to show me
the only one who can help me is Christ Jesus the Lord. That's
the only place salvation is to be found. And I'll tell you when God shows
you the Lord Jesus, He shows you the Lord Jesus as the altar
you need, as the sacrifice you need, as the very high priest
that you need. When God the Spirit shows you
He's the only one, the only one who's a mediator between somebody
like you and a holy God, He's the only one who can bring you
into God's presence. And the Spirit of God brings
you in your soul to want this Savior, to look to this Savior,
to have confidence in this Savior and believe He is the only Savior. You believe He's the Son of God
and you rest in Him and you don't have any confidence in anything
you've done and you say, my hope, blessed Jesus, is anchored in
Thee. Thy righteousness only now covereth
me. Thy blood shed on Calvary. Now is my plea. My hope, my hope
is in Thee. That's just what they sang a
while ago. What is a hope? What is a good hope? It isn't
a wish. It's not a desire. It's absolute
confidence based on what God has said in His Word. And this
is what God says, He that hath the Son hath life. And if you've got the Son of
God, you've got life. And I'll tell you this, he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life. The wrath of God abides
on him. This is salvation. Back yonder
before the world began. Back 2,000 years ago when the
Savior died. When we experience grace, that's
salvation. And I'll tell you, there's going
to come a glorious day out yonder in eternity when our salvation
will be full and complete. Because my soul is saved. Your soul is saved. But this
body, this body ain't doing too good. It's going to go back to
the dust. Take your vitamins and exercise. Do those things. Take reasonably
good health. All things in moderation. That's
what scripture says. All things in moderation. You
know, take reasonably good care of yourself, don't live a reckless
life, you know, and that sort of thing. But you're going to
die. You're going to die. And when
your soul goes back to God, all of those who are saved by God's
eternal purpose, saved by the purchase of the blood of Christ
Jesus, saved by the power of the Spirit of God, soul goes
back to God and there's going to come a resurrection day. when
this body that's got to be laid under the sod is going to be
raised. It's going to be a glorified
body. It's going to be a body that will never die. It's not
going to age anymore. It's not going to have any hurts and aches
and pains and cancer and heart disease and all those kind of
things. No more! No more! As we shall see next
week from this very seventh chapter of Revelation. God's going to
wipe away all tears from our eyes. Agonies of life. I know life
has a lot of joys and life has a lot of happiness. Life has
a lot of agonies. And in this world we shed a lot
of tears. There won't be any tears in heaven. There won't
be any weeping in heaven. And that's when this great salvation
will be fully brought to pass as far as our reality of it.
As far as God's concerned, salvation is, He inhabits eternity, so
it's over with Him. It is. The moment He chose us
in Christ Jesus, everything, everything is right there before
God, present tense. But in our experience, we've yet to experience one other
salvation. That's the salvation of this
body, because our Lord Jesus redeemed it too. It's just like
when the Lord told Moses to lead the children of Israel out of
Egypt, and Moses went and told Pharaoh and said, we're all going
to leave here. Well, Pharaoh said, well, you can leave, but
you can't take the animals with you. Moses said, we're all going
out. Not a dog will be left behind.
Nothing's going to be left behind. And I tell you, this great salvation,
everybody, God's purpose to be saved by His grace, we're all
going to be saved everlastingly in Christ Jesus. Salvation. Now, here's what's interesting
in the book of Revelation. The word salvation is only used
three times. It's only used three times. And this subject of salvation
is always the declaration of the redeemed. That's the title
of the message. The declaration of the redeemed. It's only the redeemed of God
that speak of this salvation and it's spoken of just three
times. I want to show you those three
times. First of all, here in chapter 7 of Revelation, look
at verses 9 and 10. This is John seeing this great
multitude John has been, as you know, the Spirit of God has called
him up to heaven, the third heaven, to see things that no human eye
has ever seen before, and then come back and wrote about it.
He sees the end. He sees a lot of other things
as well, but right now in Revelation chapter 7 verse 9, He sees the
end, the way things are going to be in eternity. And He wrote about it. He wrote
about it. And this is what He wrote in
verse 9, Revelation 7. After this I beheld, and lo,
behold, be amazed! Oh, what a sight! A great multitude! How many, John? Well, no man
could number them. I don't have a calculator go
that high. I can't count that many. Well, where did they come from?
Where are they from? Well, of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and languages, or tongues, they stood before the
throne of God. They're standing there in God's
sight. Standing there. Accepted. And
before the Lamb, the Lamb of God, another blessed name for
the Lord Jesus. The Lamb of God. And He says
they're all robed. They got on the same garments.
What are they robed with? They're clothed with white robes. Oh, that's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus. And they're waving something.
What's that they're waving? Waving branches or palms. Waving palm branches. signifies
the victories of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the victorious
king. He made his entrance into Jerusalem,
the triumphant entry. It's what most people call that
when he entered into Jerusalem. And he wouldn't leave again until
he laid down his life as a sacrifice for his people. And all the people
lined the street waving palm branches. He's the victor. He's the one who's the mighty
conqueror. And indeed, as we saw in the
opening of the very first seal back in chapter 6, he's the one
who goes forth conquering and to conquer. What does he use
to conquer? Well, he conquers his enemies.
By the rod of His justice, He conquers His people with the
Word of God, with the gospel of grace. It's a gracious conquering.
He conquers us. And then this also means the
waving of the branches, the palm branches. It means the harvest
is ended. We talked about this last Sunday
night, on the last day of the Feast of the Tabernacles, or
the first day of the Feast of the Tabernacles, where they weighed
the branches of the palm trees, and that indicated all the harvest
has been gathered in. That's when they had the Feast
of the Tabernacles. It was the last feast of the
year. First one, the Feast of Passover. The second, 50 days
later, the Feast of Pentecost. That's the beginning of the harvest.
And isn't it interesting in Acts, the second chapter, and there
the Gospel goes forth. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples,
don't go out and preach the Gospel until the Spirit of God comes
upon you. And they waited, and 10 days later, the Spirit of
God came upon them. 50 days after Passover, God's
Passover lamb had died. Now 50 days later, that's when
the time of Pentecost was, It was also the time of the first
harvest. The first harvest. And look here. Thousands were harvested in.
But then there's the last feast of the year. That's the Feast
of Tabernacles. And that's when the harvest was
ended. They harvested crops all during the summer. You know,
you've got your early crops that come in. You get your greens
that come in and so forth, and things that come in early, and
then things a little bit later, things a little bit later. Then you finally gather in the
last maybe apple crop or something like that. Up in Michigan, that's
the last thing harvested up there. and also the beans, the soybeans. Here's when they waved the palm
branches when all the harvest was in. This is the time of celebration. Wave them palm branches! And
hear the saints of God in glory. What has happened? The harvest
is over. All of God's elect have been
gathered in. They're all in heaven. They're
all robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
all bathed in His blood. And here they stand before God
Almighty in His presence and in the presence of the Lamb.
We will be waving the palm branches. We're more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. And all of us are here. All of God's harvest has been
reaped. Now look at verse 10, and they
cried with a loud voice. This is us. This is always our
cry. Salvation to our God which sitteth
upon the throne and unto the Lamb. cried with a loud voice. Now
notice, John sees a multitude which no man can number. He hears
it there, this is their, could I put it this way, their song
of redemption. Their song, this is what they
gathered together and they all, they're all singing the same
words. Salvation to our God which sitteth
upon the throne and unto the Lamb." He says, with a loud voice. The word voice is not plural,
but singular. In other words, John said, there's
such unity, there's such oneness of a multitude which no man can
number. It's like, I really appreciate
the special song this morning. I hadn't sung that for years
and years. It's been... I think the last time I directed
a choir singing, I was like 21 years old. But I can pick out
the voices, because I have ears. I actually got two of them. I can pick out the voices. But
imagine a multitude singing in a choir. And nobody's voice stands out.
But every voice singing with every other voice so that as
it comes across, it's just like one great big voice going out. And everybody's singing in the
exact same words. You see, we learned this. We
learned this song on earth. Essentially. Isn't that right?
We learn the words down here. We learn salvation to our God. God's salvation. It's not a salvation
that we wrought. It's not something we've done.
It's something God's done. We've been singing this song.
Some of you have been singing this song for years. It's going
to be the exact same song in heaven. What's that song Herman
Herman used to sing? Second verse, same as the first.
I don't know why I thought of that. I'm Henry VIII, I am. So you remember that. But we're
going to sing the same verse over and over and over again.
As it were, we're going to shout salvation to our God and unto
the Lamb. And we'll do it forever. Forever. Everybody is in agreement. Everybody
is singing in absolute concord. Not one word of praise to men. Not one statement of the Lord
letting us. Well, we let you save us. Not
one word like that. Well, Lord, I said yes to you.
Nothing like that. It's salvation to our God. which sitteth on the throne,
the God who reigns, who reigns in creation, who reigns in providence,
and who reigns in grace. Salvation to our God, which sitteth
upon the throne. And unto the Lamb, the Lamb of
God, O blessed Lamb, whose precious blood washed our sins away. All praise goes to the Lamb,
and to God who sits upon the throne. That's the first time
salvation is used in Revelation. Now go to Revelation chapter
12. Let me show you the second time. And I'll tell you this,
even the word saved, it isn't found in the book of Revelation
either. And you're welcome, take your concordance, prudent, strong,
young's concordance, whatever kind of concordance you might
have, you'll find that just three times this is used in the book
of the Revelation. And here it's used the second
time in Revelation chapter 12. We'll be getting to this in a
few weeks and go into it in a little more detail. But the very first
section of this chapter deals with or sets forth the birth
of our Savior, the incarnation of the Son of God. That great
mystery of godliness when God was manifest in the flesh. And
then we're introduced to and we're actually taken back to
the fall of the dragon, which is another name for Satan, when
he led a third of the angels in rebellion against God. The reason it starts off, you
notice in chapter 12 verse 1, there appeared a great wonder
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, The moon under her feet,
chapter 12, verse 1. And upon her head a crown of
twelve stars, she being with child, crying, travailing in
birth. She's pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder
in heaven. The first one's a great wonder.
That's the incarnation of our Lord Jesus. And that's great. That's a great wonder. But then
there appeared another wonder. And what John does, what the
Spirit of God does, He takes us back, to the fall of the dragon,
the fall of Satan. Because that sets the stage for
the dragon's enmity against this child, against this infant, against
this one who is our Savior, and against those whom he saves.
So then he brings the dragon into the picture, having set
forth our Lord Jesus The Spirit of God says, now John, tell them
about the drag. Tell them about the fall of Satan. He led a third of the stars of
heaven. He cast them to the earth. That's
their fall. And then we see Satan attacking
the Son of God. In verse number 7, there was
war in heaven. Michael. Michael. Who is Michael? You say, well, Michael's an archangel.
I think if you'll do some study, you'll find that Michael's name,
which means one who is God, that's what Michael's name means. One
who is God. This is just another name for
the Lord Jesus. He's the great archangel. He's
the angel of the covenant. The messenger of the covenant.
And his angels, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.
Remember the book of Revelation is full of pictures. Lots of
language that is symbolic. His angels fought against the
dragon. The dragon fought in his angels and prevailed not. They can't prevail against Christ. You remember back in chapter
5 when John saw the Lamb of God take the book out of the right
hand of Him who sat upon the throne? What was His worthiness
to take the book? He has prevailed. Now what does
it say? He has prevailed. He has conquered. There is His worthiness. But
the dragon, he can't prevail. He is prevailed over by the Son
of God. But he prevailed not, and neither
was there a place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan. Four
names for the devil right there. Get them. Dragon, he's like a
ferocious beast, breathing fire. He is destructive. He's the devil. He's the devil. He's a liar and the father of
it. He is the old serpent who deceived
our Mother Eve. He is full of deadly poison. He is truly, he is the slithering
serpent. And he is Satan who is the accuser. The great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent cast out. Now, when did this happen? The
only way to correctly, absolutely correctly interpret Scripture
is to compare Scripture with Scripture. Whenever you get the
passage of Scripture you don't understand, don't reach up on
the shelf and, well, let's see what good old Dr. So-and-so says
about this. Let's see what Reverend So-and-so
says. Let's see what this commentator... No, let's find out what God has
to say about this. I'll give you a reference on
this. You hold your place right there and turn to John chapter
12. I'll show you exactly what this is talking about. I'll show
you what is intended in a very A very symbolic way. A very typical
way, I could say. Look at John chapter 12. John
chapter 12. Look at verse 31. The Savior said, Now! John 12,
31. Now is the judgment of this world. He's just a very short time from
His death. See, he's talking about his death
and his resurrection. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. What does he mean by now? How
is this going to happen? Look at verse 32. And I, if I
be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men, all kinds
of men unto me. What is this about? The 33rd
verse gives you the answer. This He said signifying what
death He should die. And you go back over here to
Revelation chapter 12. Here's the dragon, here's the
old serpent, the devil and Satan. When was He cast out? He was
cast out when Christ died. He was cast out of His rule. Oh, he has some limited, limited
authority now, but it's the authority that King Jesus gives him. And
he's ultimately cast out of the hearts of God's people. And our
Lord did this. Our Lord did this. The great
dragon was cast out, which deceived the whole world. He's a deceiver. You say, why are there so many
religions in the world? Because there's a deceiver in
the world. That's why. And because we're
naturally gullible to religious falsehoods. And that's just a
fact. I'll tell you, the gospel, somebody
said the false religions send their message around the world
while the gospel is still putting its boots on. Because people
are, we naturally receive religious lies. And we think, well, the
more I do for God, the more God will do for me. We think God
needs me. God can't do anything without
me. I was watering, feeding Nancy's flowers in front of the house
the other day, and it was starting to rain. But I had mixed up some
of that Miracle-Gro, Now I wanted to water them flowers and a lady
walked by and she said, well, they look nice. And I said, well,
I try to make them look nice. I said, I know the Lord's going
to water them, but I'm going to feed them before He waters
them. And she said, well, you know,
we're His hands, you know. We're not the hands of God. He
uses us. He uses us. But He's the one
who rules. And He's the one who reigns.
People are deceived. They're deceived. If you think
God needs you and God relies on you and God can't do something
unless you let Him, you're deceived. And our Lord Jesus, as far as
His people is concerned, He cast out the great deceiver. His people,
the Lord's people, are not going to be deceived. We will be brought
face to face with the truth and bow to the truth and believe
the grace of God in Christ Jesus. The Lord's people will. Look at verse 10 now. And I heard
a loud voice say, watch it, one voice. Not loud voices. One voice. I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, now is, now, when's now? The same now as you
read back in John chapter 12. Where he said, now is the judgment
of this world. Now, what has come to pass? Now is, now has come. Salvation, now has come salvation. and strength, and the kingdom
of God, and the power of our Christ. For the accuser of the
brethren, that's Satan, he's the accuser of the brethren,
he's cast down. Who did it? King Jesus did it. That one who accused them before
God day and night. Now is salvation come. When did salvation come? When
did the kingdom of God, when was it brought about? When was
the strength of God's Christ set forth? At the cross. At the
cross. Now is salvation come. I know
salvation becomes a reality to us when the Spirit of God teaches
us the gospel. impresses upon our hearts. The
only way by which we can be accepted with a holy God is through Christ
and His work of redemption. I know salvation is made real
to us, but the revelation, and you've got to get this now, the
revelation of Jesus Christ to our souls, the belief on the
Son of God, that's not what puts sin away. You say, well, I know I'm such
an awful sinner. Yes, you are. And I believe,
and when I believe, my sins will be washed away. You got that
wrong now. Because your belief has nothing
to do with putting your sin away. Here's what the song of the saints
is. When our Lord Jesus died, now is salvation come. Now, oh,
it does become a reality to us. It becomes very precious to us. It becomes special to us when
the Spirit of God reveals the glories and the beauties and
the work and the necessity of the Lord Jesus and His sacrificial
death. But salvation really came when
He died. It's made known to us for the
gift of the Spirit of God. Your faith can't put sin away.
And your faith doesn't make you righteous. God doesn't look within you to
see the work within you. He looks back to Christ Jesus
on the cross and sees absolute satisfaction to His justice.
Now is salvation coming. Isn't that right? Now is salvation.
When is now? When He died. That's the now. And the Spirit of God revealing
this salvation to us, that's the result. That's a sweet, sweet
result. And as we'll see when we get
into this a little later, after our Lord Jesus dealt him a fatal
blow, he's limping around. And I know he still deceives,
he's a deceiver of the nation, but he's a wounded dragon. You better be careful of a wounded
dragon because it's like When the Lord
Jesus died, Satan realizing his time is short, and he knows that
according to the last statement of verse number 12, because he
knoweth that he hath but a short time, he hit the ground running. And he's busy. And he's persecuting
the church. Now is salvation coming. But
let me show you this last one, chapter 19. Chapter 19. In chapter 18, In 17 and 18 actually, John is
enabled to see the destruction of Babylon. Babylon, and Babylon
is like the Bible word for all religions that are against God,
against God's truth, and religions that have ganged up on the gospel.
Against the gospel, that's God's word for it, Babylon. It's just
like Babylon, the capital of the Chaldean Empire, back many,
many years ago, that was the enemy of Israel. Well, there
is an enemy today of God's real Israel, God's spiritual Israel,
and that enemy is Babylon. It's Babylon. Babylon has the
meaning of that which is tyrannical. that which is fierce, and she's
fiercely against the gospel. She's fiercely opposed to salvation
by grace. That's the reason the religions
around us, most of them, not all, not everybody, but most
everybody, they're preaching man's works up. What you've got
to do for God instead of what God has to do for sinners. You
just have to listen to them. Well, chapter 17 and 18 sets
forth the strength of Babylon and the certainty of the fall
of Babylon and then the destruction of Babylon. But Babylon is not
going to fall until, watch this in chapter 18, verse 4. Babylon
is not going to fall until this happens. I heard another voice
from heaven saying, Here's a voice that John hears and the voice
goes throughout the world, as it were. The voice says, come
out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins
and that you receive not of her plagues. That you receive not
of her judgments. And essentially, this is the
same thing that we read back at the beginning of chapter 7.
when you have the four angels standing at the four corners
of the earth, and you have another angel, the angel of the covenant,
Christ Jesus, and He says, don't let the winds of judgment blow
yet. They must not blow till all the
servants of God are sealed in their minds, in their foreheads,
in their hearts with the gospel. And here's what the Lord is saying
here. Babylon, she is going to fall. False religion is going
to come crashing down. all of the religious edifices,
all of the popes, all of the priests, all of those who wear
silly, funny looking costumes and parade themselves around
before men, all of those who love to call themselves reverend,
because as we pointed out in Sunday school class and one of
the brethren was speaking about it, the word reverend is only
found in the Bible one time, and that's God's name. That's
God's name. Holy and reverent is God's name. And everything that is opposed
to God and everybody opposed to God is going to fall. But
that can't happen until all of God's elect are pulled out of
Babylon. Because you see, I was once in Babylon. False religion. Ah, weren't you? You say, well, no, I've always
come to this church. Well, that's good. But before
God touched you and taught you the gospel, you were relying
on something, and that something is a false religion. You're relying
on your works. God's not going to leave His
people in error. So this Babylon era, it's not
going to be destroyed until all of God's people are effectually
brought out of it. Then, look out. Look out. Notice what it says. Look at
verse number 20. Rejoice over her, Revelation
18, 20. Thou heaven, ye holy apostles
and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. A mighty angel took
up a stone like a great millstone, cast it into the sea, saying,
Thus with violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown
down, and shall be found no more at all. And then look at the end of verse
23. For by her sorceries, by thy
sorceries, were all nations deceived. You see false religion, they
are like a sorcerer. They bewitch people. People are
deceived. And they think they're believing
the truth. It's like God says to His disciples,
one of these days they're going to punish you, whip you, persecute
you, and kill you, and they'll think they're doing God's service. By her sorceries. Back in chapter
17, it says she's made men drunk with the wine of her fornication.
People are drunk on a false gospel. In verse 24, and in her was found
the blood of prophets of saints, and all of them that were killed
and slain upon the earth. And you remember back in the
end of chapter 6, where the saints of God, when the fifth seal was
opened, the saints of God are saying, oh Lord, how long do
you not avenge our blood? Oh Lord, put them out of business. God said, rest a little season.
Some more things have got to happen. before that time comes. And right here, here it's happening. Now look at chapter 19, verse
1. After these things I heard a
great voice of much people. Not voices. One voice. That's the way it's been through.
One voice of much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah! What does
that mean? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Salvation. Salvation. And glory and honor
and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are His
judgments. For He hath judged the great
whore which doth corrupt the earth with her fornication, and
hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again
they say, Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Her smoke rose
up forever and ever. John said, I heard them use that
word salvation a third time. And it's after Babylon has fallen,
when God has shut the mouth of every false preacher. All false
gospels are once and forever done away with. And all of the
saints of God, all of us will say, Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Salvation! Salvation unto the
Lord our God. You know what that means? When the day of Babylon's destruction
comes, the only reason that you won't be in her, suffering the
damnation that she's going to suffer, is because of what God
in Christ Jesus did for you. And you're going to give Him
glory. So there are three times. Three times. Revelation 7, Revelation
chapter 12, Revelation chapter 19. And it's all one voice. We all sing in unison. All sing
in perfect harmony. All sing in the same song. Salvation
unto our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb
forever and ever. Let's sing a song.