One of the things that is so
stressed in the Bible throughout Genesis to Revelation concerning
God's revelation of Himself and how He brings sinful people to
know Him in salvation is the justice and the judgment of God. And yet, it's one of the most
neglected truths in religion today. People don't want to talk
about God's judgment. And it filters down into their
own lives because they say, well, we can't judge anything anymore.
We can't even judge right and wrong. I mean, we do have civil
laws and things like that that we have to go by, but basically,
You know, it's a philosophy even in religion, even in what's called
Christianity today. If it's truth to you, then it's
okay. If it feels good, do it, as long
as you don't hurt anybody else. But that's not the God of the
Bible. The God of the Bible is a God of judgment. And his judgments
are always according to truth. You have to start out, if you're
going to know this God, the one true and living God, You have
to know that his judgments are always right. He never does anything
wrong. He never judges unfairly or unjustly. You can't know God from looking
at, we can't know God from looking at ourselves. Somebody says,
well, my God wouldn't do this, or my God wouldn't do that, or
he would do this and would do that. If your basis of making
that statement is what you would or would not do, it's wrong.
I can tell you that right now. Somebody said to me one time
when we were in a discussion, religious discussion, and he
said, the only way you can find God is to look within yourself.
Well, tell Adolf Hitler that. or tell some mass murderer that
when they look within theirselves. The only way we can know God
is as he reveals himself in his word and what he says about himself.
And the scripture says, Mark preached on it a few weeks back,
and I think you're going to continue with it, God is known by his
judgments. Now somebody says, well, what
about God's love? Well, God is known by his love,
but his love is founded on his judgment. And that's what people
have missed today. The scripture says that it is
appointed unto men once to die, and after that, what? The judgment. And I'm convinced that most atheists
and agnostics, the main reason that they shove the natural knowledge
that men and women have of God, there is a natural knowledge,
it's not saving knowledge, but even atheists and agnostics who
shove the natural knowledge of conscience and creation that
they have of God out of their minds is because they don't want
to be held accountable. The idea that we're going to
have to stand before God at judgment. That's the issue. And that's
what's happening here in the end days in Revelation 18. Look
at verse 6. He's talking about the judgment
and the fall of Babylon. Babylon being false religion.
and here's what it says it's uh... look at verse five it says
her sins the sins of babylon the sins of false religion and
understand that mainly what he's talking about here is religious
deception and the lack of righteousness which is all of us by nature
in other words when he talks about her sins we can Don't relegate
that to the immoral segment of society. That's a big mistake. And I could go into a lot of
scripture on this, but we don't have time. But always think of
it in light of things like this, Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Lord, haven't we preached in
your name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many
wonderful works, only to hear him say, depart from me, you
that work iniquity, I never knew you. Think about it in the same
vein as the religious Pharisees who were more on, Christ himself
said, you do indeed appear righteous unto men, but inwardly, you're
full of dead men's bone. Think about it in light of Saul
of Tarsus, a man who was doing his best to keep the law, but
in a self-righteous, legalistic way. And don't, don't relegate
that to insincerity now. You just say, well, they weren't,
they weren't sincere about it. I guarantee you Saul of Tarsus
was sincere in his false religion. And the moment you relegate it
to insincerity, what you are actually saying is that you're
going to make an end to heaven based on your sincerity. And
I'm going to tell you something, you're not going to make it on
that. I'm not going to make it on that. I hope I'm as sincere
as I can be, but that is not my righteousness before God.
Christ is. That's what people need to hear
today. Yes, we should be sincere in the truth. We don't want to
be hypocrites. I don't want to speak one thing
up here behind this pulpit and then go live another. I don't
want to do that. But that's not my way of salvation. My way of salvation is Christ
who is the way, the truth, and the life. And so when he says
her sins, verse five, her sins have reached unto heaven and
God hath remembered her iniquities, what he's saying is this. Now
think about it this way. Whatever Babylon is and her followers,
they have no savior. They have no surety. They have no substitute. They
have no mediator. They have no righteousness. They
have no Christ. If I come before God at judgment
and stand before God in the person of Christ, The Bible says, my
iniquities will not reach heaven. In other words, they will not
be recorded and brought up in heaven in the great judgment,
and God will not remember my iniquities. In other words, He
will not hold them against me because Christ stood as my surety,
my substitute. Christ paid the debt to God's
justice for my sins. I'm washed in His blood. I'm
clothed in His righteousness. But if I don't have Christ, here's
what it's going to say about me. It says, her sins have reached
unto heaven, God hath remembered her iniquities. Now look at verse
six. So therefore now, reward her even as she rewarded you,
and double unto her double according to her works, in the cup which
she hath filled filled to her double. Now think about that. What's he saying here? He's saying
the punishment's gonna fit the crime. That's what he's saying. There's no mercy here. See, mercy
is in Christ who is the mercy seat. There's no grace here. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. There's no love here. Because love is based upon the
propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice who brought satisfaction
to justice that we find only in Jesus Christ, the Lord of
Glory. There's nothing but justice.
This is raw justice given to those who don't have Christ. And he says, reward her even
as she rewarded you. Now what he's talking about is
her persecution of the true saints of God. You see, she persecuted. You know, there's been so much
blood shed under false religion, but even under false Christianity. Think about the Spanish Inquisition,
things like that. Think about the Crusades, all
of that. It's false religion shedding blood in the name of
their religion. And many times, they would go after true believers. The Jews in the New Testament. Saul made havoc of the church. All of that. So he says, you
reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double
according to her works, the punishment according to her works. Now you
see, God's people When we stand before the judgment, before the
judge, we're not going to be rewarded according to our works.
If we were, we would all be damned forever. You say, well, what
about the works of the believers? Well, the Bible says their works
will follow them. Now that's significant. Their
works don't go before them. Their works follow them. Now
I'm going to talk about that in today's message a little bit
from Galatians chapter two, so I'll get into that more. But
here's what the works of believers are the work of God through the
believer and they are evidences of a believer's standing in Christ. This is the grace of God. It's
not, well, he's going to look at Jim Casey and say, now, Jim,
you worked hard at the church. I'm going to give you a mansion.
But now, Randy, you just didn't work as hard, so I'm going to
give you a cabin in the corner. No. Randy, you want me to reverse that? That's not what's going
to happen. You see, grace, by nature, cannot be earned or deserved. You know, we all like acrostics,
you know what an acrostic is, where you take a word and each
letter of the word stands for something. Somebody said grace
can mean God's righteousness at Christ's expense. Or it can
mean God's reward at Christ's expense. We're gonna sing a hymn
at the end of the services today. Jesus paid it all. Did he pay
it all? You see, God never puts himself
in a position where he owes a sinner, well, owes his children anything
based on their works. It's all through Christ. And
the moment you shove man's works into the mix or into the scheme
of things, you deny Christ. That's what I'm gonna be talking
about in the message. If the reward, Romans 4, if the
reward is reckoned or accounted or imputed, because of debt,
you see, then it's not grace. Whenever God blesses his people,
it's always in Christ Jesus by his grace. And that means whatever
I have, I don't earn it and I don't deserve it. And I want to tell
you something, I always look at it, that certainly, certainly
would include anything that has to do with salvation. eternal
life and a right standing between me and God. But you know what?
I believe it applies to the next breath I take. That's a gift
from God. I didn't earn it and I don't
deserve it. That's how this thing filters down. But now those without
Christ, they will be judged by their works and they will be
found wanting or lacking. Because the standard of judgment
is righteousness. Acts 17 31. God has appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained. You see, God's the one who appointed
the man who is the standard. You don't appoint. You, somebody
said, well, I'm better than this guy. Well, that guy's not the
standard. It's a man that God appointed,
and who is that man? In that he hath given assurance
unto all men, in that he hath what? Raised him from the dead. It's Christ. So if you're expecting
to be judged righteous before God based on, for example, your
love of other people. You say you love people. I say
I love people. If I go before God and stand
before Him and expect Him to judge me not guilty and righteous
based upon my love, my love has to equal Christ's love for His
people. Now how many of us would be so
bold as to say that? I hope nobody here. I can say I love my brothers,
I can say I love my family, I can say I love my neighbor, but I'm
going to tell you something, I'll just be honest with you,
my love is nothing to brag about. And whenever my love is tested
in a lot of ways, I fail. Remember the rich young man that
came to Christ? He said, what good thing must
I do to inherit eternal life? And of course, what Christ was
showing him there in Matthew 19 is how that his standard of
goodness was too low. And remember Christ said, why
do you call me good? There's none good but God. In
other words, the man didn't believe Christ to be God in human flesh,
so he called him good master. And he said, look, if you don't
believe I'm God, don't call me good. There's none good but God.
If you want to talk about standards of goodness and judgment, we're
not talking about how we compare to other men and women. We're
talking about God. And so Christ told him, he said,
well, keep the law. And the guy said, which? He said, well, and
you know what he went to? He went to the second table of
the Ten Commandments, which has to do with love to our neighbor.
You know, it's easy for a person to look up in the sky and see
a beautiful cloud and say, oh, boy, don't I love God. But it's
another thing to sit there and say, I love that individual that
I have to deal with every day at work or at school or, you
know, that's another matter. So he went to the love that equates
on this horizontal plane. Like I told you last week, you
know the little poem? To dwell above with saints we
love will be a wonderful glory. To dwell below with saints we
know, well, that's another story. Not everybody is lovable as me. How about you? So we don't have anything to
brag about about our love. Christ is the standard. And that's
what's happening here. This Babylonian religion, even that which comes under the
name of Christ but denies the doctrine of Christ, denies his
righteousness imputed, Her sins have reached unto heaven. She's
gonna be rewarded according to her works and they will be found
wanting. Now he says here in verse six
that reward her double unto her double according to her works.
Well, what does that mean? Now, I've already said the punishment's
gonna fit the crime. So when he says double unto her
double, it does not mean she will be punished more than she
deserves or more than justice requires. Because God is always
a just God. He always judges according to
truth, and it's always going to be an eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth. The punishment's going to fit
the crime. That's what that rule says. But the key is to understand
this. The statement is made in view of Babylon's treatment of
Christ's witnesses here on earth and how they treated the witnesses,
the true believers. Babylon's treatment of true believers. And remember, he says, as she
rewarded you. Again, that refers to her persecution
of the true people of God because of her hatred of Christ, her
hatred of the church, her hatred of the gospel. And what it is,
double here refers to the fact that she will, in the end, Babylon
and her followers will receive double the judgment the wrath
that she placed upon the people of God here on earth. And it
kind of refers to it like this way. You know in the Bible, eternal
damnation is called the second death. Now, it's appointed and
man wants to die. We're going to die. But believers,
those who die in the Lord, we will not experience the second
death. That is eternal death, eternal
damnation. But Babylon will, and that's
what that means when it talks about double. Look at verse 7.
He says, How much she hath, how much, well let me say, in the
cup which she hath filled filled to her double. That is, this
is the cup of God's wrath, the cup of her sin that God's wrath
is going to pour down upon. She filled it up, you see. Well, look at verse seven. He
says, How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously,
so much torment and sorrow give her. For she saith in her heart,
I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Now,
this is all metaphorical language. And here's her sin. What'd she
do? Now, we can talk about all the
sins of depravity in mankind. But it is all kind of summarized
right here. She's glorified herself. She
boasts. That's what that means. She's
boasting in herself. Now let me show you how to filter
that down to understand it. Go back to Cain and Abel. Here's Cain. Approaching God
based on the works of his hands. Just as sincere as he can be.
What's he doing? He's boasting in himself. He's
glorifying in himself. Here's Abel bringing the blood
of the lamb. What does that say? I'm a sinner.
I have nothing to boast in. I have nothing to... I've got
nothing to recommend me unto God. I'm a sinner. God, if you give me what I deserve
and what I've earned, it would be eternal death. That's what
Abel's lamb testified of Abel. Any sinner who seeks salvation
or blessings from God based upon themselves, their works, that's
what they're doing. They're glorifying in themselves.
Paul wrote in Galatians 6.14, he said, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross. That word glory is boast. Philippians
3.3 says, we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and
rejoice. That word rejoice is the same
word glory in Galatians 6.14. We glory in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh, the best of the flesh. The most
religious of the flesh. The most sincere of the flesh.
1 Corinthians 1. Remember how it starts out in
verse 29? He's talking about how God saves
sinners and it has nothing to do with anything in or from that
sinner. And he says that no flesh should glory, boast in his presence. Let him that glorieth glory in
the Lord. We glory in Christ. Our boast
is Christ. When you stand before God at
judgment, what are you going to plead? Well, I joined the
church when I was 12. I got baptized. I got a Sunday
school pin. Is that it? Where does it say
that in this book? I made a decision for Christ.
How many people do you think are going to be saying that?
I walked an aisle. I witnessed. I gave my tithe. Is that the judgment standard? No. No. I've got one thing to plead,
and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. That's His righteousness.
That's it. And He's all. He's all. She said in her heart,
and it says here she lived deliciously, That means she lived in luxury
and comfort and peace that she found in the sinful, perishing
world. That's what that means. So much
torment and sorrow gave her. Turn her comfort and her luxury
into nothing but judgment and wrath. That's what that means.
Turn her joy into sorrow. You see, We rejoice in Christ
Jesus. We have joy and peace in believing. That is, believing in Christ,
looking to Christ. He is our joy. Not this world. She said in her heart, I sit
a queen. She's making her boast here, but it's a lie. And I've
got in your lesson here, you need to go back and read Isaiah
chapter 47. We don't have time to do that
this morning. But what's happening there is Isaiah, as the prophet
of God, is pronouncing judgment against the actual physical nation
of Babylon, which would come in the future. In Isaiah's day,
you see Babylon, the actual Babylonian Empire didn't come down on Judah
and Jerusalem. until around 500 and something
BC. Well, Isaiah, he was prophesying
around 700. And he was prophesying of that
future kingdom that would come down and bring judgment upon
Judah, but he's talking about the judgment of Babylon too.
That's Isaiah 47. But what way he describes Babylon
back then is much the same as you see the Babylon, spiritual
Babylon, idolatrous Babylon described here. And it's just interesting
to see. But look at it again. She says,
I sit as a queen. She's riding high, in other words. She's okay, she's safe, she's
got authority. He says, and I'm no widow. In
other words, she's got a family around. And shall see no sorrow. She'll have children. Her children
are her followers, false believers. Look at verse eight. He says,
therefore shall her plagues come in one day. Now remember when
it says one day, One day with the Lord is a thousand years
and a thousand years is one day. What does this one day mean?
It's a very short period of time. It's going to come quick. It's
going to come clean. It's going to come full. He says
death, mourning, famine. You know, she boasts that she
can give life. No, death. She boasts that she
can give joy. No, mourning. She boasts that
she can fill people with the nutrition of her false religion,
but no, there'll be a famine. You know, the Bible speaks often
of a famine of the word of God in the land. Well, we have that
today, don't we? People are religious, but there's
not much Bible. How many people say, well, let's
read the Bible, let's study the Bible, let's go by what the Bible
says. Oh no, you got your opinion,
I got mine, we'll differ. You interpret it your way, you
interpret it mine, I interpret it mine. That kind of thing. It says here, she shall be utterly
burned with fire. People say, well, we don't want
to hear any fire and brimstone preaching. Well, fire and brimstone
preaching, again, fire and brimstone are metaphors except if you lived
in Sodom thousands of years ago. It was kind of literal then,
wasn't it? But what he's talking about is the wrath of God. The
scripture says that without Christ Our God is a consuming fire. That's what it is. But here's
the point, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. God's strong in judgment. It
cannot be defeated. It cannot, listen, when this
time comes, there'll be no place to hide. That'll be it. Right
now, we have a hiding place. And that hiding place is Jesus
Christ, crucified and raised from the dead. That hiding place
is under the blood of Jesus. We sing that little chorus. Safe
in the shepherd's fold, under the blood of Jesus, safe while
the ages row. We are clothed in his righteousness
and no arrows of charge from the law or even from Satan himself
can penetrate that righteousness that we stand in. that God has
imputed to us. There's our safety. He's our
safety. All right.