Revelation chapter 18. I titled
the lesson this morning, Come Out of False Religion. One more
time. It won't be the last time, but
one more time. I want to remind us again of the theme of the
book of Revelation. The theme of this book is this,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be the victor over every
enemy and his people will be more than conquerors in him.
The enemies of Christ will appear to be winning the battle for
a while, but it's not going to last. Christ ultimately is going
to destroy every one of them. And I remind us of that often
because it's so ingrained in us, what we've heard from the
world, it's inundated in us. We can't help but have this be
in our mind that the book of Revelation is full of prophecy.
It's full of hints that tell us about the these final, horrible,
scary final days of man's history here on Earth before the Lord
returns. And that's not the theme of this book at all. The theme
of this book is Christ is the victim. There are seven different
visions in this book, and each vision takes us through the entire
history of man's history on Earth. How Christ is calling his people
out of the world, how he's saving his people, how they will ultimately
be glorified with him. Maybe, this is my hope. If I
remind us of this often enough, it might start to sink in. So
what we've been looking at here in these previous chapters is
the fall of Babylon, the fall of false religion. Babylon is
a picture of false religion. It's a picture of the best ideas
that brilliant men could come up with. And Babylon's going
to fall because all false religion is the enemy of Christ. I don't
care what name you put to it. It's the enemy of Christ. It
could be the, idolatry of Catholicism. It could be the mystery of Hinduism
or Islam. It could be the free will Baptist. It could be the moral living
Christians, a moral majority, whatever name you put on them,
they are the enemy of Christ. And I know they do appear to
be dominating the world right now, but ultimately they're going
to be destroyed by Christ our savior. So in our lesson this
morning, I've got a few things for us to learn about the destruction
of false religion. Then I have a word of warning
and word of comfort for the people of God. First, let's look at
what scripture has to say about the fall of Babylon, the fall
of false religion. The destruction of false religion
is an absolute certainty. Revelation 18 verse one. And
after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven,
having great power and the earth was lightened with his glory.
And he cried mightily with a strong voice saying, Babylon, the great,
It's fallen. It's fallen. Now this angel,
it could be Christ himself. It could be a picture of him.
Certainly our Savior has great power, doesn't he? He has all
power. He is the light of the world. He fills the world with
his glory. And in his might and in his power,
he proclaims Babylon, false religion, is already fallen. It's not that
it's going to fall someday. He declares it is already fallen. I'll tell you why that is. The
purpose of God is so sure it's already happened. It's already
happened. False religion has already fallen. It's already failed to take away
any of God's elect from Christ. Now hold your finger there. Look
back at Romans chapter eight. This applies to all of God's
purpose. All of God's purpose is so sure. God speaks of it in the past
tense because it's already done. Romans eight verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. Now here's God's purpose. For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. The apostle there is speaking
all in the past tense. Because the will of God and the
redemption of his people is already done. It's already done. And
the destruction of false religion is just as sure. It's just as
sure as the salvation of God's elect. I know it appears to be
powerful in the world now, but it is fallen. And the angel says
it twice. Babylon the great is fallen,
is fallen to show us how certain that is. All right, the second
thing I want to see is this, that the destruction False religion
is deserved. The Lord's not going to destroy
anybody. Are you listening? The Lord's
not going to destroy anybody because he didn't elect them.
The Lord's going to destroy false religion because that's what
they deserve because of their sin. And there are several reasons
that false religion deserves to be destroyed. First, false
religion deserves to be destroyed because it is the doctrine of
devils. Verse two, he cried mightily
with a strong voice saying, Babylon, the greatest fallen is fallen
and has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every
foul spirit. A false religion tells people
to look to something other than Christ alone. Look over at first
Timothy chapter four. That is a lie that comes straight
from the devil himself. First Timothy four, Verse one. Now the spirit speaketh expressly
that in a latter time, some should depart from the faith, giving
heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devil. You notice
that word doctrine is plural doctrines of devil, all different
kinds of doctrine, any doctrine that takes you away from Christ.
The doctrine of the gospel, the doctrine of Christ in scripture
is always singular. Anytime you hear of doctrines,
it's the doctrines of devils, the doctrines of men, anything
that causes you to look away from Christ. And Paul gives Timothy
a few examples, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience
seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain
from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving
of them, which believe and know the truth. For every creature
of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received
with thanksgiving. See, doing something, giving
up something that the flesh likes, something to eat that appeals
to our taste buds, or giving up something that this flesh
likes to do, something that appears to be holy to men, that's the
doctrines of the devil. It's the doctrine that comes
straight from hell itself. It's not the doctrine of Christ. Our Lord told the Pharisees what
they're teaching is the doctrines of men. They took the commandment
of God, they took the law of God, and they added their own
things to do it. You know, you had to wash your
hands, you know, ceremonially before you ate and things. Those
are the doctrines of men, something that's Christ plus. And scripture
says that's the doctrine of Satan. Whatever it is that appeals to
the natural mind is the doctrine of Satan. That's why Satan could
deceive Eve, he gave her something that appealed to the natural
mind. That should be destroyed, shouldn't it? It should be. Second,
false religion deserves to be destroyed because it's unclean.
At the end of verse two says, and it's become the hold of every
foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. False
religion takes in everything that God says is unclean. Now,
that doesn't mean that we should go back and look at the Old Testament
law and we should try to follow the dietary restrictions, you
know, the Old Testament law. We won't turn and look to it.
You're very familiar when the when the Lord came, sent that
vision to Peter before Peter would go preach to the Gentile
Cornelius. He saw all those manner of unclean
birds and animals. And the Lord said, take it, eat.
Peter said, oh, no, no, no, no, no. I've never eaten anything
common or unclean. What Lord tell Peter? Don't you
call something unclean that I've cleansed. Don't you call something
common that I've cleansed. And this is also true. Don't
you call something clean God has not cleansed either. No. The only way we can be clean
is to be washed in the blood of Christ and to claim that we
can be clean by acting good on the outside, by not doing certain
things that people think are so awful. That's calling something
clean the Lord hasn't cleansed. And you know what the Lord said
about that? He said, you can try to do that if you want. And
in the end, you know what you've got? You've got a white encyclopedia. You've got a box. You've painted
it all white. You've put up a nice headstone that's painted all
white and whitewashed and looks so nice. But what's on the inside
where God loves? Dead man's bones. It's full of
corruption. If someone trusts their cleansing
to anything other than Christ alone, Christ alone, without
any help from me, started to act better, they're unclean. They deserve to be destroyed.
All right, third, false religion deserves to be destroyed because
they have union with sin. Verse three says, for all nations
have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Now, the angel says they've drunk
the wine of her fornication. Now, that doesn't mean that they
drank too much wine. It means that they have union
with these things. Remember when the Lord said,
except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, drink his blood.
You've got, you're not saying you have no union with him, no
fellowship with him. Well, the Lord didn't mean that we should
become cannibals. He didn't mean that we should actually drink
the blood of Jesus of Nazareth and actually eat his flesh. And
he certainly isn't teaching the elements of the Lord's table.
We're going to observe that Wednesday night. He's not teaching that
the elements of the Lord's table, the wine and the bread, actually
become the body and blood of Christ. When we serve the Lord's
table Sunday, you're going to drink wine and you're going to
eat unleavened bread. It's not become the body and
blood of Christ. What he's taught, that would
just be gross, wouldn't it? What the Lord's teaching there
in John chapter six, where he said that here in Revelation
18, he's teaching us about union. When we eat something, when we
drink something, it becomes part of us so that It has union with
us, so pretty soon after that food or drink is digested and
goes out to all the cells of your body, you can't separate
you from that food or the drink that you just took in into you. Well, that's salvation. Salvation
is having union with Christ so that we are everything He is,
so that we become inseparable from Him so that He's the head
and we're the body. And you can't tell. where Christ
begins and where we begin. We're one with him. That's salvation. Well, those in false religion
are going to be damned because they had union with sin. They
just readily drink up the doctrine of free will. They drink up the
doctrine of man's works and self-righteousness, so they'll be destroyed. That's
what they deserve. Their will? Not good enough. Their so-called
righteousness is not good enough to satisfy God. Only Christ can
satisfy God. When you look here what he says,
he says, all nations are drunk of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication and the kings of the earth have committed fornication
with her. I look that word fornication
up. What the angel is saying here, he calls all false religions,
any doctrine, any religion, any preaching that is not Christ
alone is so vile, God calls it fornication. And that word fornication
means all manner of sexual deviousness. It includes a harlot selling
her body. Now that violates the picture
of a chaste virgin being married to Christ, doesn't it? That does
not teach. Talking about Christ being married
to a chaste virgin. Paul said, I want to present
you a chaste virgin to Christ. It does not mean that you have
to be a chaste virgin in order to be saved. Christ didn't come
to save good people, holy people, did he? Christ came to save sinners. If you would be saved, you've
got to be a sinner. But Christ makes his people a chaste virgin
so that they're dressed in his righteousness, not in our own
vile nature, in our own works. Christ has a people, and she's
his bride. She's not a harlot, she's his
bride. The end of the word fornication also includes adultery. And that
violates the picture of Christ, our husband. I love to read Ephesians
5, when Paul talks about marriage, about the husband and the wife.
But adultery violates all that picture. Paul says, this is a
great mystery. But now I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Adultery violates the picture of Christ our husband. He's got
one wife. One wife. He's not offering himself
to every woman out there to see how many might accept him. No,
he's got one wife. He's going to have her. He's
going to call her. He's going to give her life.
He's going to make her holy. He's going to make her join him.
He's got one wife. Bride's got one husband. God's
people have one Savior. They've got one gospel. They've
got one faith, one Lord, one baptism. They've got one. He
is faithful to her. There's no spiritual adultery
here. And then third, the word fornication
includes incest. That's just too vile to even
talk about. But these things are things that
fall in vile flesh. enjoys. They find those things
enjoyable and it should be destroyed. It should be put where it can't
hurt anybody ever again. Scripture tells us that religion
that's not Christ alone is the spiritual equivalent of sexual
deviance. It's something that fallen vile
flesh finds enjoyable and it deserves to be put away. The
Lord should destroy it and put it where it can't hurt anybody
ever again. Right? Fourthly, false religion should
be destroyed because they make merchandise of men's souls. Here
at the end of verse three says, and the merchants of the earth
are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. I look over
at second Peter chapter two, second Peter chapter two. Peter writes to us, telling us
about those who make merchandise of men's souls. Verse 1, But
there are false prophets also among the people, even as there
shall be false teachers among you, who privileged shall bring
in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord to balk to, and bring
upon themselves swift destruction. They should be destroyed, should
they not? And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason
of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. and through
covetousness, so they with feigned words make merchandise of you,
whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not." They will be damned. They will be
destroyed, and they should be. Here's the thing about false
prophets, often, not every time, but often. False prophets know
the truth. I mean, it's not, the Bible is
not difficult to understand. It's impossible for the flesh
to believe, but it's not difficult to read this book and know God
elected a people. It's just not hard. It's not difficult to read this
book and know Christ died for his sheep. He said, I pray not
for the world, but for those whom you've given me. That's
not difficult to understand with the natural mind. Often these
men know the truth, but they won't say it. They won't proclaim
it, because that is not going to draw in a crowd of people
who bring their tithes, is it? When we were in college, Janet
was looking here in Columbus for a place we might go hear
the gospel. And she called this fellow, pastor,
and he told her, oh, yes, I believe all those things, those five
points of Calvin. Yeah, absolutely. And I don't preach them. I don't
preach them. He said, I'll talk to you about
them in your living room, but I don't preach those things publicly. It's false prophet. He's making
merchandise of men's souls. They're very careful how they
say things so they don't upset the flesh. I hope when I preach,
I upset the flesh every single time. I hope so. They won't upset
the flesh. That's what privilege with feigned
words mean. They're very careful so they
don't upset the flesh because they don't want to run people
off. And their goal is this. their own comfort. It's to fill
their own bellies. They're covetous. That's what
Peter says. So what do they do? They deny the Lord. They say,
you can do something to make this infection. You've got to
make a decision. You've got to walk out. You've got to be baptized.
You've got to do these things in order to be saved. That gives
the flesh like that. That gives the flesh something
to do, flesh something to glory in. They know the truth, but
they know part of their crowd does not like particular redemption.
They just never preach on it at all. They don't say anything
about it. They know the necessity of the new birth. At least they
know that the word says, you must be born again. They know
that. But part of their crowd doesn't like the necessity of
the new birth. So what's their solution? I'll just never say
anything at all about the new birth. I might say, you must
be born again, but I'll never tell you what that means. Because
they don't want to offend the flesh. They're making merchandise
of men's souls. That's heartbreaking to me. They're
making merchandise of men's souls. They don't care about people
that they preach to. They care more about their own
profit, their own belly, their own bigger house, their own bigger
car, their own finer clothes than they do about the profit
of men and women's souls that they preach to. And that should
be destroyed. That makes me so angry. You think,
how may God feel? He should destroy it, shouldn't
he? Thankfully, God's preaching him to do that. God's preacher
preaches Christ to you, and he leaves you alone with him. He
just leaves you alone with him. God's preacher. Here's a good
way you can identify God's preacher. All he wants is for you to know
the name of Christ. That's what he wants. It doesn't
matter so much if you know his name. What he cares about is
that you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. God's preacher's
not trying to gain something for himself. He's trying to gain
something for you. He's trying to gain you to Christ.
That's God's preacher. and anything else ought to be
destroyed. And if God's given us one of his preachers, that's
God's giving, that's God's grace. All right, fifthly, false religion
should be destroyed because of sin. Verse five in our text,
Revelation 18. For her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Look back at
Matthew chapter seven. Our Lord gives us a commentary
on this. Now we know sin should be punished
with death. It must be. God's holy. And these bodies, unless the
Lord returns first, they're all going to die because of sin that's
in this flesh. And if we die in our sin, if
we die in our sin without Christ, we'll be damned because sin must
be punished. It must be punished either in
us eternally or in our substitute at Calvary. One way or the other,
sin must be punished. Well, false religion talks about
sin, talks about salvation, talks about some spiritual things.
But you listen to me. It's not good. It's not good.
Don't say, well, they've got some good things. No, they don't.
They don't have some good things for people. False religion is
vile iniquity that's a stench in God's nose. This is what our
Lord says, Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. but he
that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven." Everyone
who uses religious jargon, everyone who uses the name of Jesus, they're
not saved. Everyone says, Lord, Lord, they're
not saved. Not everyone. Verse 22, many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your name,
prophesied in my name and in thy name have cast out devils
and in thy name done many wonderful works. Not every preacher saved
it. Not every preacher that wears
a suit and tie and stands up behind a podium is saved. They're
not preaching. All of them aren't preaching
the gospel. A lot of them have programs, don't they? They have
programs for outreach to the community. They want to do good
things for people. That doesn't mean they're doing
their soul any good. Going out and trying to feed the poor.
Trying to clothe the poor. Casting out devils, all that
I reckon is good. There's some benefit to that
to the flesh. But without Christ, they will perish. If they're
not making Christ their primary, just taken up with him. It's false religion that should
be destroyed. Our Lord doesn't call it a good
thing. He doesn't call it, you know,
good morality. Our Lord calls it iniquity that will be destroyed. Verse 23. The N.Y. profess unto them, those that
preached in his name and cast out devils and all these wonderful
works, I'll profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. Our Lord calls their good works
iniquity that should be destroyed. All right, here's the sixth thing.
False religion should be destroyed because God's just. Back in our
text, Revelation 18, verse six. Reward her. even as she rewarded
you and double unto her double according to her works in the
cup which she hath filled to her double. Now, the Lord's not
going to punish somebody double twice as much as what they deserve.
He will give everybody exactly what they deserve, and it will
either be shockingly awful or shockingly glorious. They will
receive, it says here, double. false religion, they'll receive
double for how they treated God's Christ and how they treated God's
people. And it will be shockingly awful. Shockingly. Just like God's mercy
and grace to his people. Salvation in Christ that Christ
has earned for them will be shockingly wonderful. See if I could show
you that. Isaiah chapter 40. Double does not mean double what
we deserve. It means God's justice, giving
exactly what someone deserves. Isaiah 40, verse one. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her, her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received to the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. She's received mercy and
grace from the Lord, and she will ultimately receive eternal
glory with Him, and it will be shockingly, shockingly glorious. All right, now that's false religion.
Enough of them. Now I've got a word of warning
and a word of comfort for the people of God. We skipped over
verse 4. You may have noticed that in
our text. Look back here at verse 4. And I heard another voice
from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be
not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues. Here's a word of warning from
God. Come out of false religion. Get out of it. Don't be partaker
of their sin. Don't be partaker of their religious
activity, which is sin. Come out of them. You've got
to come out. Don't stay and try to fix it
from within. Brethren, it will not work. It will not work. You
want to hear John the Baptist, you've got to come out of false
religion, don't you? You've got to go out and work. You're not
going to fix them from within. Now, come out of it. There are
several things that that means. It means don't have fellowship
with them. You can't have fellowship with
somebody that doesn't believe Christ, that doesn't believe
the gospel, doesn't preach the gospel. It can't be done. Our
only fellowship is in Christ. When you talk to them, come out
of them. Don't offer them any hope of salvation in that false
religion, in their own works, in their own decision, in their
own morality. Don't offer them any hope of salvation in that.
They're good works. Don't offer them any hope in
those things. Don't support them. Don't support
them in any way. Financially, don't support them
by standing with them so people might think that you agree with
them. Don't publicly endorse any of their doctrines. Don't
publicly endorse any of their preachers. I know their preacher
might occasionally say one good thing. Don't go repeating it
and trumpeting it so that people are mistaken into thinking the
rest of your message is okay. In sum, this is just a short
sentence and a way to understand, come out of them. Don't do anything. Don't do anything that make other
people think you've put your seal of approval on that ministry.
Don't do it. Come out of them. Come out from
her. Why would you want to take part
in their sin? I mean, what their gospel is,
their preaching, their message is rebellion against almighty
God, against Christ the sovereign savior. Why would you want to
partake in that? Come out of her. Why would you
want to join yourself with people who are going to be destroyed?
Sounds like you get your own self destroyed with them, doesn't
it? You're going to be destroyed with them, so get out from them.
Get out of her. But when you get out from her,
where do you go? Get out from her and go to Him. Get out from
her and go to Christ. Go to His gospel, because that's
the only place you'll find life. That's a word of warning. Here's
a word of comfort. The end of lesson and the end
of message with the word of comfort. God says, get out from her. God's
not going to leave his people in Babylon. He's going to bring
them out. He can bring them back to Jerusalem.
God's not going to leave his people in false religion anymore
that he could leave Lot in Sodom. God went down to destroy Sodom,
didn't he? He's going to wipe that place
off the map. He's going to wipe it out. And
that angel grabbed hold of Lot and said, you've got to get out
of here. I can't destroy this place. You're here. One righteous
man here. And the whole city's going to
be spared you. You get out. And when Lot lingered, Lord be
merciful. That angel grabbed hold of him
and took him out. Set him outside of the city.
He can't leave Lot in Sodom. And God can't leave his people
in Babylon. He's going to bring them out.
He's going to call them out. And when He calls, they're coming.
Because He's going to give them a heart. A heart of faith. A
heart that believes Him. The Lord came to Abraham one
day. You know, it's hard for us to
imagine how they lived in that day. Abraham lived in his father's
house in a large compound. You know, his father was a wealthy
man. He owned all this stuff, all these towns. Well defended
place, you know. And the Lord came to Abraham
and said, Get out. Go to a place I'll tell you.
Get out from this place of idolatry. Leave your family. Leave everything
you love in this flesh except your wife. Get out. Abraham got
out. He went. Not knowing where he
was going. Why would he do that? God gave
him a heart of faith. God gave him a heart of obedience.
God couldn't leave him there. He took him out and made of him
a great nation. God's the one. who's going to
call his people. He's going to call them to Christ.
And he's going to give them the opposite of everything he gives
people in false religion. Christ gives salvation to his
people that is an absolute certainty. Not destruction, but salvation
that's a certainty. Christ gives his people a salvation
that's fully deserved. He earned it for his people.
He gives it to them free. They'll never lose it. God teaches
his people the doctrine, singularly, the doctrine of Christ. All we
need to know is Christ. You know him, you have eternal
life. And Christ makes his people clean
by washing them in his blood. He makes them holy, a holiness,
a righteousness, a cleansing. They can never lose. They can't
dirty it up. God's elect are given union with Christ. so that
they have everything that Christ has, so that they are everything
that he is. And the salvation of those people
is sure. God is just. I love God's justice
because if God punished Christ for my sins, he'll never punish
me for them. That salvation is sure because
Christ paid the debt. Christ made his people holy and
God's justice demands their eternal life. We're going to struggle for a
while on this earth. We're going to go through some
battles. We're going to go through some dark nights. We're going to go
through some nights that are full of weeping. I'll tell you how
it's going to end for God's people. Don't worry with Christ. He lived again. All right. Lord
bless you.