I turn back to Revelation chapter
18. I've taken the title of tonight's
message from verse 4 of this chapter. The title is, Come out,
my people. Come out, my people. Now, if
you followed along in the scripture reading, you realize that this
chapter speaks of the final fall of Babylon the Great. Babylon
the Great Harlot. The Apostle John in Revelation
had already spoken of Babylon's fall back in chapter 14, also
in chapter 16, and then even mentioned it in chapter 17. And
then here in verse 18 we see a vast description of that fall. We see the assurance of that
fall. The first eight verses of chapter
18 set the stage showing the fall of Babylon. speaks of it
in the past tense. It hasn't happened yet, but those
things which God purposes and sets forth in his word are sure
and certain to happen so much that he speaks of them in the
past tense. And we see that often in the Old Testament, especially
concerning prophecies of Christ. The whole chapter of Isaiah 53
is in the past tense, and yet it speaks of a future event. the redemption of the sheep,
God's elect, by the suffering unto death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And here in these first eight verses, he speaks of God's
judgment and God's wrath upon Babylon the Great. And then the
rest of the chapter shows two reactions to Babylon's fall. There are two reactions, and
only two. One is the reaction of great lament and sorrow and
pain. And that has to do with the kings
and the nations and the merchants who had fallen prey to Babylon's
deception up until the time of her fall. And then the other
reaction is rejoicing from heaven, which is rejoicing from the people
of God over God's judgment and his vengeance. You know, the
Bible says, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. And when God
takes vengeance, it's right. Now, when we take vengeance,
it's not. Because our vengeance is fraught
with selfishness and self-pity and self-righteousness. But when
God takes vengeance and pours his wrath down upon the ungodly,
it's only right. And in heaven, there'll be rejoicing. And in those two reactions, you
might notice that, as I said, there's only two. There's no
in-between. There's no indifference in that day when Babylon the
Great is fallen. Now remember, Babylon the Great.
What she is called is the great harlot, the city of man. Babylon
represents all false, deceptive, seductive religions that stand
opposed to Christ and his church, that seek to draw people away,
God's people away from Christ, from the truth of God's grace
in him. So this is descriptive. This
is an all comprehensive picture here. Babylon the great harlot,
the seductive harlot, who seduces men and women of the earth to
commit spiritual idolatry and fornication and adultery. As
it's said here, who entices the ungodly to drink of the wine
of her fornication, which refers to her false ideas, her false
doctrine, her false philosophies, all that is in the world in religion. that opposes Christ. The religion
of Babylon shall be totally and utterly wiped out and destroyed
by God, and all who are deceived by this great harlot shall perish
with her. And therefore we have the command
of God to his people, come out, come out, my people. Come out
of her, he says in verse 4, my people, that you be not partakers,
fellowshippers, of her sins and her fornication, that you receive
not of her plagues, her sicknesses, her spiritual poverty, her spiritual
leprosy, and the plague of judgment that will come upon her. Now,
let's take a moment tonight just to look at these first eight
verses on this issue of, Come out, my people. Let's take them
one by one, and I want you to be ready to turn to some Scripture
here in your Bibles, because this sets the stage for it now.
If we're going to come out of Babylon, and I'm going to tell
you something, we who know Christ, we have been brought out of Babylon. We've come out, but it's by the
sovereign grace and mercy of God that we didn't remain there,
and we've come out. But it's necessary that we recognize
Babylon. that we see the issues of life
and death. You know, that's the problem
with religion today. There's so many people, there's
a lot of talk, there's a lot of sermons, there's a lot of
people to preach to, a lot of preachers. But they're not dealing
with the issues of life and death. And people want to get sidetracked.
And that's the problem. That's one of Satan's, I believe,
greatest devices. It just gets you sidetracked
onto some issue. some non-issue, some minor that
will confuse you, questions that cannot be answered, that can
only be debated and argued and cause division, and not focus
your heart and your attention on the life and death issues
of the gospel. Because I'm telling you now,
that's the only way that we're going to recognize and not be
caught up in the deception of the day. We need to understand
what's real, what's truthful, and what's meaningful, and what's
valuable as it relates to Christ and the gospel. Christ and him
crucified. And look at this. It starts off
this way in verse 1. It says, after these things,
that is, after these pronouncements of judgment, the bowls of judgments,
the vials of judgments, the description of Babylon, the great, in verse
5 of chapter 17, mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth." Now, understand, her greatness
is not greatness in the sight of God. It's greatness in the
sight of the world. It's greatness because of her
influence all over the world. So after these things, in verse
1 of chapter 18, he said, I saw another angel. Now, this angel
is a messenger from God, with a message from God. And he come
down from heaven. having great power, and the earth
was lightened with his glory." Now what it shows here to begin
with is this, and listen very carefully here, the deception
of Babylon, the deception of Satan, the lies of Satan can
only be exposed and recognized in light of the glory of God
in Christ. Now, I'm going to turn to a scripture
here, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, that we look at quite a bit,
because it is so full of truth that would help God's people
not be deceived. You know, Paul told the churches
to whom he wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he said,
I would not have you ignorant of Satan's devices. Don't be
fooled. Don't be sidetracked. Don't be
ignorant of how Satan operates. Satan has been exposed by the
Word of God. And there is no need for us to
be fooled. There is no need for us to be
deceived. And here is the issue. Now look at verse 1 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Paul writes, Therefore, seeing
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, We think
not. We don't give up. We've received
the ministry of Christ. He described it in 2 Corinthians
3 as the ministration of the New Testament. He described it
as the ministration of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. He described
it as the ministration of righteousness. We have a message. And what a
message it is. And I'll tell you what, it's
sad when people mess with it. It's sad when people manipulate
it. Oh, what a message. He says in verse 2, he says,
we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. That word dishonesty
there, if you've got in your concordance, it probably says
shame. Shame. Now, let me tell you something.
If we preach anything but Christ and Him crucified, shame on us. If we look to anyone but Christ
and Him crucified, shame on us. There is no shame in Christ.
Everywhere else, there's nothing but shame. The Lord tells us
that, that those who appear before him at judgment outside of Christ,
they shall be ashamed. But my friend, we don't have
anything to be ashamed of. In witnessing the message of
Christ and the glory of Christ, we don't have a thing to be ashamed
of. We don't need to hide our heads.
We don't need to placate people. We don't need to satisfy the
world. We have a message of grace and glory, and it's a message
of life eternal in Christ. We don't have to be ashamed.
We don't have to hide it. We don't have to be dishonest. He said, not walking in craftiness. In other words, we're not trying
to finagle this thing into the minds of people. We're not trying
to weave it into the fabric of false religion. You see, we're
not walking in craftiness of human wisdom, nor, now listen
to this, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully or deceptively. We let Scripture speak. We let
it lie where it lies. Don't try to jerk this verse
out over here or this verse out over here and destroy it with
your word studies and your philosophies and your ideas and your confusion.
But handle the Word of God. the way the Word of God tells
you to handle it. That's another thing. See, that's not a difficult
thing to do as far as the instructions given in the Word of God. But
men have their own ideas, and so they want to inject those
things into the Scriptures. Paul said we don't do that. He
says, now look in verse 2, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. Now what he means by that is
simply this. It's almost the same kind of
atmosphere and situation as the noble Bereans. In other words,
I'm going to preach to you tonight. Now you check me out with the
word of God. You test me by the word of God,
you say, and that's I'm commending myself to your conscience in
the sight of God. Don't let me do your thinking
for you. You think for yourself according
to the scripture. Reason out of the scriptures.
And that is impendent upon you to do that. Now, you can't place
your souls into my hands because I can't even save myself. Our
souls are in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what he's saying there. So verse 3, now here's the issue
now. But he says, but if our gospel be hid, it's hid for them
that are lost. What's the difference between
saved and lost? Well, we could describe that scripturally many
ways, couldn't we? We could talk about grace. Anybody
who's saved, they're saved by the grace of God. Isn't that
right? We could talk about truth. Those who are saved, are saved
by the word of truth. That's what the scripture says.
Christ is the truth. We could talk about the new birth. That's salvation. We could talk
about redemption and justification at the cross. And the gospel
is the message that goes forth by the power of the Spirit to
enlighten our minds and our hearts concerning these issues of salvation.
Now, if that gospel is hid, If that gospel is not revealed,
and it has to be revealed by the power of God, just the same
power that this angel, this messenger, he had great power. Any time
you see that word power, don't think about tornadoes and earthquakes
and things like that. Don't think about jet engines
and guns and all that. Think about Christ. For he is
the power of God, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1. He is the
wisdom of God. And that's what this angel had.
He had the gospel. This is the message of Christ
and him crucified. Now, if that message is hidden,
if that message is veiled, if that message is confused and
unrevealed, it's hid to them who are what? Lost. They're lost. Now, they may be lost sheep. And if they are, that message
will one day be opened up to them by the power of God, by
the Spirit of God in Christ. And they'll see it. But he says
in verse 4, now listen to this, "...in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not." Now a sinner
who doesn't believe the gospel, their mind is blinded. By whom? By Satan. And it says, "...lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them." And then Paul says in verse 5,
"...for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord." We
preach the gospel. We direct sinners to look to
Christ, not to ourselves. We preach salvation conditioned
on Christ to fulfill those conditions, not salvation conditioned on
ourselves. We're not trying to gain a following
for ourselves. We're not trying to build a monument
to a man. We preach Christ. And we're not
preaching out of ourselves. The word that I preach to you
is not of me. Paul said that when he heard
the gospel and believed it, he didn't get it from man. This
is the gospel of God. This is a message from heaven.
Just like the angel who's coming down with the power of God, the
glory of God. So he said, we're not preaching
ourselves, but we preach. And how do you know that? Now,
that's a good question. Somebody says, well, I don't
preach myself. Well, every preacher in the country would say that.
But how do you know? Well, here's the key. Who do
they preach? Do they preach Christ Jesus,
the Lord? Do they preach Christ and Him
crucified? Do they preach salvation, all
of grace in Christ? Now, if they don't preach salvation
totally in Christ and in Him alone by His blood and His righteousness,
they're preaching themselves. I don't care what else they say.
So he says, and we're your servants for Jesus' sake. You see, that's
what we are. We're ministers. We're servants.
But look at verse 6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, The darkness of lies, the darkness
of deception, the darkness that Babylon promotes. Well, he has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What is the
face of Jesus Christ? That speaks of who he is. Who
is Jesus Christ? What think ye of Christ? He's
God and man in one person. He's the son of God incarnate.
He's the Savior of His people. He didn't come down and try to
save anybody. His name is Jesus. He shall save
His people from their sins. Is He able? His name is Immanuel,
which being interpreted as God with us. He's able to save to
the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. He said, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. He said, This is the will
of him that hath sent me, that of all that he hath given me
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. He's the sovereign Savior. That's how he's identified and
distinguished in this book right here. He's not a defeated reformer. He's not a defeated Savior. He's
the victorious, sovereign Redeemer who is seated at the right hand
of the Father, disposing of all things according to the purpose
of His own will, to bring all things to the glory of God and
the good of His church. And the gates of hell will not
prevail against Him. That's right. Now, that's it.
Now, this is the message that exposes Babylon for what she
is. This is the message, the message
of glory, this message that the angel had here, with great power. You see, our power is not in
ourselves. Our power is in Christ whom we
preach. And that's how the earth was
lightened with His glory. God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Christ said, other sheep I have
that are not of this folk, them I must also bring. He must bring them. He's going
to get the gospel to them. Well, that's the only way that
God's people are going to be called out of Babylon, right
there. Now, we were in Babylon, make no mistake about that. We
fell in Adam, deceived by Satan, in false religion. And I'll tell
you something, when men get away from God's Word, when they get
away from God's truth, and when they get away from the simplicity
of Christ and Him crucified and get into confusion and deception,
That, my friend, is darkness that seals men and women into
that city of man, Babylon, the great whore. Our only hope to
come out of Babylon is a messenger from God with truth empowered
by the Holy Spirit to expose our sin and drive us to Christ
for salvation, for redemption, for justification. Christ who
is both the power and the wisdom of God. Now look back at Revelation
18, look at verse 2. Now he says, and he cried mightily
with a strong voice. You see, there's nothing to be
ashamed of here. Paul said, we're not ashamed, we're not dishonest.
We cry with a strong voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen,
is fallen. You notice how that's said twice?
That's emphasis. Make no mistake about this. There is no salvation for Babylon. She is fallen, is fallen. And it's almost like a double
damnation, if you can use that term. Somebody said double damned. I don't know what that means
unless they're referring to that passage where Christ talked about
the Pharisees going out encompassing sea and land to get converts
And he said, what you do when you get one, here's what you've
got, here's the product of your mission effort. He said, you
make him two-fold more the child of hell than you are. And I suppose
that's what he's talking about. She has fallen, she has fallen,
and has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every
foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. I believe
that refers to the source of her evil, I believe it refers
to the manifestation of her evil, and I believe it refers to her
message going out like a bird all over the earth, preaching
her false doctrine. What does this teach us? This messenger of God used truth
to expose and announce the fall of Babylon the Great. It takes
the light to expose darkness. Remember what I said, Babylon
is a religious system. Not a literal city. It's a religious
system, a religious idea, a religious philosophy. Babylon is the spirit
of Antichrist. That spirit which was in John's
day in Prevalent, that spirit which was in Paul's day, and
that spirit which is in our day. And it's everything that opposed
the glory of God in Christ. Turn to John chapter 3. And it
takes the truth. the light of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ to expose her for what she is. Now,
you've got to understand that on the outside, to the natural
eye, Babylon appears great and beautiful and wonderful and marvelous. But when the light of God's glory
shines upon Babylon, what do you see then? You see she's the
habitation of devils. She's the hold of every foul
spirit. She's a cage of every unclean
and hateful bird. What does it take to show that?
Well, look at verse 18 of John chapter 3. John writes here,
or our Lord speaking, and remember now, here in John 3, He's speaking
to Nicodemus. Now, Nicodemus was a religious
man. He was a Pharisee. And he was
a Pharisee who had risen up through the ranks. He was a member of
the Sanhedrin, the court of the Jewish religion. And he told
Nicodemus, he said, you must be born again. Your eyes cannot
be enlightened to see the reality of who you really are in yourself,
in your sins, and to see the glory of Christ except the Spirit
of God give you eyes to see spiritually. ears to hear spiritually. And
then he says in verse 18, it says, he that believeth on him
is not condemned. Now what he's talking about is
the evidence of a sinner who has been redeemed by Christ and
justified by his righteousness on the cross, gives evidence
that he's not condemned when he believes the gospel, when
the Holy Spirit brings him to see Christ, when he's born again
by the Spirit. But he says, but he that believeth
not is condemned already. Now, notice there, it's not his
unbelief that condemned him. He was condemned already. When
was he condemned? In Adam, in the fall. For as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that
death passed unto all men, for that all sinned. Condemned in
Adam. Now, unbelief just reveals. Now, what he's talking about
is unbelief that persists here. It persists. all the way to the
end, unto the wrath of God. And so he says, because he hath
not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now
look at verse 19, and this is the condemnation, that light
is come into the world. Now this is the light of Christ,
Christ who is light, Christ whose truth is light. the light of
the glory of God that we read about in 2 Corinthians 4, in
the face of Jesus Christ. Now this light is coming to the
world, Christ himself entered the world, he brought the truth,
and it says, and men loved darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. That light of Christ and his
glory The light of Christ and Him crucified exposed the deeds. Now, when the Bible uses the
word deeds there, it's talking about the efforts of men to keep
the law in order to be saved. You see, even the natural man
has a conscience given him by God. He can tell you that murder
is sin. He can tell you that robbery
is sin. Now, he doesn't know the extent of sin that reaches
unto the heart, the motive, and the deed. That has to be revealed.
But what he doesn't know by nature is this, that his best efforts
to save himself and to make himself acceptable unto God are wicked
and evil in the sight of God. And the reason is because they
cast shame and reproach upon the glory of God. Where are you
going to find the glory of God in Christ? and him crucified. They deny the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every attempt of a sinner to
be saved by his works is an open denial of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's so ironic, isn't
it, when you think about it? I think about denominations who
claim to believe salvation by grace, who claim to love Christ
and rest in him, and they believe that baptism, water baptism,
is the application of the blood of Christ. You have to be baptized
to be saved. You know what water baptism is?
It's a confession. It's a confession. It's a public
confession of what Christ has already accomplished. And when
they get into the water thinking that that baptism saves them,
what are they confessing? They're actually denying Christ.
But it may appear beautiful. The world may look at that and
say, oh, thank God they're being baptized. And they may be just
as sincere as anybody in their baptism. I'll tell you, Saul
of Tarsus was a sincere religionist before God saved him. To the
Jewish, natural, self-righteous eye, he was a great man. Saul
of Tarsus was. But yet when the light of Christ
came, it exposed him for what he really was. That's right. All that he thought recommended
him unto God now turned to dung. Evil deeds. And that's what it
takes to expose Babylon for what she is. Look on at verse 20 of
John 3. He says, for everyone that doeth
evil hateth the like. In other words, those who are
persistent in their unbelief of Christ and in their wickedness
and in saving themselves by their own works, they hate the like.
They're not going to sit comfortably and listen to a man tell them
that their deeds are evil. They're going to go where the
man is going to tell them, boy, God, you're the only arm he has. If you didn't do it, who would?
God wouldn't get it done. Give you the key to the city.
Applaud you for what you've accomplished. Stand up and give a testimony.
What you say to the Lord is done for you. That's what they want
to hear. They want to hear those things
which exalt the flesh, not those things which put the flesh where
it belongs, in the dust, on the dung heap of false religion.
So they hate the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be literally discovered, reproved. That's what that means.
It takes the light. But now look at verse 21. Now,
the command here is, come out of her. Now, listen to this.
But he that doeth truth." Now that's an interesting phrase,
isn't it? Doeth truth. We often talk in terms of believing
truth, understanding truth, receiving truth, and loving truth. But
what is this doing truth? That's exactly what it is. It's
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trusting in Him. Resting in Him.
Following Him. Realizing that I'm a sinner in
need of mercy. in need of grace, realizing that
I have no hope of salvation but Christ in Him crucified." That's
what doing truth is. Walking in His light. Walking
in His grace. Walking in His mercy. And he
says those who do that, and they do it by the power of God, by
the grace of God, they don't do it naturally or of their own
free will, they come to the light. Coming out of Babylon is coming
to the light. And it says that his deeds may
be manifest, made known, that's what that means. That what? That they are wrought in God.
Now what does that mean? That means they're the work of
God. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. A sinner saved by the grace of God. That's what you
are. You're the work of God. You're not your own work. You
didn't make yourself. You don't keep yourself. And
you won't bring yourself to glory. You're the work of God. Now,
go back to Revelation 18. Now, that's what it takes to
come out of Babylon. Look at verse 3 of chapter 18.
Now, he says here, "...for all nations have drunk of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication." And that's spiritual fornication
here. And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with
her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed or grown rich. They've grown rich through the
abundance of her delicacies. The picture here is one who is
eating a meal that is sumptuous and tastes good. And it fills
them up. But the problem is it's full
of poison. You know, somebody said that
rat poison is 99% good food. I've heard that. I don't know
if that's true, but it sounds good. 99% good food, or else the rats
wouldn't eat it. And that's the way it is with false religion.
You see, there may be a lot. Somebody said, well, they said
some good things. I think Brother Scott Richardson
said, well, there's some good food in a trash can, but I'm
not going in there to get it. You see, listen, Satan is a deceptive
devil. We've got to understand that.
He's a subtle devil. He doesn't work by standing before
crowds of people openly denying what they think is truth. He
works in. He weaves in. He's poison. Sin, for example, and false doctrine
is sometimes pictured in the Scripture as leaven. How much
leaven do you have to put in a lump of dough to make it spread
through the whole dough? The whole lump, say. Not much,
do you? So all it does is take a little. And that's why we've
got to pray, Lord, keep us focused on Christ and what He's accomplished
for us. You see, people will get off
on things that sound good. They'll go to a verse, and they'll
read that verse, and they'll hammer that verse. Get people's
minds off of the glory of Christ, and the power of Christ, and
the wisdom of Christ, and His precious blood, and His righteousness
imputed, and get your mind on something else. Look within.
That's one of the mainstays of Satan's work right there. Look
in and find your hope. Look within and find your assurance.
Look within and find your peace. No, no, no. Look to Christ. Look to Him alone. He's our peace. And this is what he's saying
here. Babylon's false doctrine is widespread. Her influence
is both political and economic. And greed and pride are her emblems. Look at it. He says there, the
kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. And the
merchants of the earth are grown rich. The merchants that go out
selling her wares. You know what I believe that's
really referring to is her missionary efforts. Spreading that, going
out, encompassing sea and land. Look with me at 2 Peter 2. In 2 Peter 2, verse 1. Now, this Babylonian activity
is no new thing. Peter spoke of it here, verse
1, but there were false prophets also among the people. Now where
were they? They were among the people. Even
as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall
bring in damnable heresies, privately, subtly, quietly creep in, even
denying the Lord that bought them. I believe that's what that's
talking about is they claim the Lord bought them, but they're
denying him. And it says, "...and bring upon
themselves swift destruction, and many shall follow their pernicious
ways." You know what a pernicious way is? It's an evil way. It's
an evil way. "...by reason of whom the way
of truth shall be evil spoken of." Those who would stand firm
for the truth and the simplicity that's in Christ, they'll make
fun of them. They'll speak evilly of them.
And it says in verse 3, And through covetousness shall they with
feigned words make merchandise of you, making merchandise of
men so, drawing people after themselves, whose judgment now
of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not. Now, what he's saying is their
damnation is sure. Look back at Revelation 18. So what does he say? Look at
verse 4. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come
out of her, who? My people. Whose people? God's people. How are they God's
people? Well, they're God's people by
divine sovereign election. He chose them from the foundation
of the world. My friend, if you come out of
Babylon, you can rest assured that you're one of God's elect.
That's what the Bible says. Give diligence to make your calling
and your election sure. You know your election by your
calling. Have you been called out of Babylon
by the power of the Holy Spirit in the new birth? Has he convinced
you of sin and of righteousness and of judgment? Has he exposed
the evilness of your deeds to the point that you not only come
to the light, but you can't do without the light now. Where
else would I go? To whom shall we go? Our Lord
has the words of eternal life. Where else would we go? But where
the light is preached, where Christ is preached. And they're
His people by redemption. They are bought and paid for.
My friend, if you've come out of Babylon, if you've been called
out of Babylon by the power of the Spirit, you're not your own. You belong to the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. Christ redeemed you with His
precious blood. And he justified you on Calvary
when he bore your sins away and gave you to your account his
righteousness, making you a perfect standing before a holy God who
judges according to truth. And they are his people by birth,
the new birth, the miraculous birth, not the fleshly birth.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but by a new birth,
a birth from above. born of God by His Spirit, born
into His kingdom, given spiritual life, and instructed and brought
to the truth of Christ and Him crucified. Come out from her,
my people. Why do we need to come out from
her? Verse 4, that you be not partakers
of her sins. You're not in fellowship with
her. That's what that means. John said it in 1 John 1, our
fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. We've been
brought into an intimate union with Christ and the Father through
Him. Our fellowship is with the Father
and the Son, and we walk in the light, John said in 1 John 1.
And those who claim to be children of light but who walk in darkness
are deceiving themselves. We walk in Christ. We walk in
the glory of His person and the glory of His finished work. Our
fellowship is with the Father and the Son. Look back at 2 John. Something similar right here.
2 John, verse 9. He says, Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, the gospel of his
glory, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." Now, these are
the people who do truth. These are the people who come
to the light. They've been brought there by the power of God. And
it says in verse 10, "...if there come any unto you, and bring
not this doctrine, this light, this gospel, this truth, Receive
him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed." Now what he's
saying here is don't have religious fellowship with him. You're not
a partaker with him. That's what that word partaker
means. It means to be in fellowship with him. It's a partner. Partner. You've heard the term partners
in crime. Well, we're partners in truth.
We're participants of the truth. That's what that means. Just
like that phrase, partakers of the divine nature, that's being
brought into fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Spirit
through Christ. That's what that means. It doesn't
mean that I'm changed into anything divine. I'm not divine. You're
not divine. Only God's divine. But we're
brought into fellowship with the Father and the Son and the
Spirit through Christ. And it's an unbreakable fellowship
so that when one comes in from Babylon, and seeks to entice
you into partnership and fellowship with him, no sir, he says, you
don't go into that. You don't bid him Godspeed. Verse
11, for he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds. When you partner up with him,
you're partnering up with his evil deeds. Look back at Revelation
18.4. Come out of her, my people, that
you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her
plagues." You see, we're separate from Babylon. What is our separateness? It's not what we wear. It's not
what we eat or don't eat. It's not how we look outwardly. Our separateness is the grace
of God in Christ. Our separateness is our standing
before God in Christ. Our separateness is the truth
of God in Christ. Our separateness is our fellowship
with the Father and the Son and the Spirit, and thus with one
another, which causes us to support one another, help one another,
stand with one another against Babylon and her deceptions. We are his people. Well, he says
here, he says, come out from her, my people. Well, we know that if left to
ourselves, none of us would come out from her, would we? If left
to ourselves, we'd be right there, happy as we can be, a citizen
of the city of man under the great whore. But God, by his
grace, has a people whom he chose, whom Christ redeemed. and he's
going to bring them out and he's going to issue the commanding
call come out of her my people