Let's take our Bibles now and
turn with me to Revelation chapter 18. These studies are difficult to
just come into if you haven't heard all the other lessons that
lead up to this, and it's kind of that way in all the epistles. They were written as letters,
which is what an epistle is, And they build from the beginning
to the end. And if you just go to the end
or go to the middle and take something out, a lot of times
somebody who hasn't been in the study are just lost. They just
don't know what you're talking about. Anyway, the bulk of the
lesson this morning in chapter 18 is going to be on this subject,
A Voice from Heaven. Now let's read through these
first five verses. Revelation chapter 18 beginning
with verse 1. 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 is fallen. is fallen and has become the habitation
of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every
unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication and the kings of
the earth have committed fornication with her And the merchants of
the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 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. For her sins
have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Now let's begin in verse 1 with
this voice. First of all, we're told there
was a mighty angel, minister. That's what angels are, ministers
of God. Sent forth to minister to those
who shall be heirs of salvation. That's what he tells us in Hebrews
chapter 1. And this was a mighty angel.
declaring the fall and defeat of Babylon, the great whore,
the city of Babylon, which has always stood for false religion.
And he declares it as a thing already accomplished. He states
it, and then he states it again. He said, Babylon the great is
fallen. Assuming that the people are
going to be in shock because of the greatness of false religion,
he says it again, is falling. Now, he could be here talking
about a ministering spirit, a heavenly angel, coming to announce the
judgment of God, and many of the old writers say that that's
exactly what this is talking about. But I lean to the possibility
of this being a preacher whose message has always declared the
fall of Babylon. But you say this angel came down
from heaven, and this angel had great power, and this angel lightened
the earth with his glory. Well, let me see if I can show
you in the scriptures how this can be said of every gospel preacher
who's ever preached. and brought a message from God.
First of all, God calls and sends His preachers and He calls them
angels. He does that at the very beginning
of this book. He calls them angels. The angel
of the church at Ephesus and the angel of the church at Smyrna
and so on. He calls them angels. But let's look at this. First
of all, let's look at His coming down from heaven. Every God-called preacher's sin
of God. That's the first thing that this
unbelieving world denies. They say that there's a group
of people here who profess to be believers, and they send young
people to school, to seminaries, and so on, and they graduate,
and they get a degree, and then the church sends them out. That's
exactly why they wouldn't listen to the Apostle Paul, because
he didn't come up through their ranks. He didn't wait on the
Jewish leaders to send him. Christ sent him. He sent him. For every God called
preacher, how shall you hear without a preacher? But that's
not the end of it. He said, how shall he preach
except he be sent? If God don't send him, then he
has no purpose. You know, when Paul described
Israel and trying to establish their own righteousness, how
did he describe them? He said, they're going about.
And that's what religion does. It just goes about. It's busy. If you've ever been around any
of their churches or been in any of their churches, you know
what I'm talking about. They're busy. They're just going around
and around and around. Everybody's busy. They act like
they have a goal, but there's no goal. They act like they have
a purpose, but there's no purpose. Being ignorant of the righteousness
of God and going about to establish their own righteousness They
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Now here's what it says in Ephesians 4, 11. It says that the ascended
Christ gave to the church. Who did this? The ascended Christ. He's up here now. He's at the
right hand of the Father. He was resurrected the third
day. He ascended up into glory after showing himself literally
hundreds and hundreds of people. And after about 30 days, he ascended
up into glory, and he's in heaven now. Who is he that ascended up except
him that descended first? That's what he tells us there
in Ephesians 4. But in verse 11, he tells us that this ascended
Christ gave to the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor
teachers. Who gave them? He did. He did. And then secondly, this angel
had great power. Well, how do you relate that
to a man? The gospel he preaches. Let me see if I can illustrate
this in a way that it might have some impact on you. He said the
gospel. which we preach. Paul said, I'm
ready to preach the gospel to them that are at Rome, to the
dominating power of all nations. They were world conquerors. They were the ones in power.
They were the ones exalted. They were the ones who said what
you could do and what you couldn't do. And he said, I'm ready to
preach it unto them, for this gospel that I preach, he said,
is the power of God unto salvation. I tell you, when that finally
goes home to a preacher, it's so humiliating. It's so humbling
to him. It brings him down. He understands
that God works through him. Well, can you explain that? No,
I can't. I can't. No man has seen God
at any time. I'll tell you how you know, by
the results. That's how you know. You know
by the effects of it. And I know it by the Word of
God. Well, what kind of power does he have? Power, Paul said,
that's mighty through God. Is this angel mighty? He's mighty
through God. He ain't mighty of himself. He's
mighty through God, and he's mighty to the pulling down of
strongholds. Now, some of you come out of
religion, and when you first come out of religion, you thought
you could go back and buttonhole your buddy back there, your friends,
or your mama, or somebody else, and you could convince them of
what God had convinced you of. But it didn't work. It didn't
work. I don't care how many scriptures
you quoted. I don't care how many points that you had. I don't care how hard you can
hammer them home. It's like water off a duck's back, wasn't it? But God sends a preacher and
his weapons become mighty through God. This gospel becomes mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds, to the casting
down of imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God. It brings him into obedience. Boy, that's doing something,
isn't it, for a natural man. Bring him into obedience to his
Lord. to bring man's thoughts to the
obedience of Christ. And there's no other means of
salvation. No other means. And what about this one? What
about this? It says the earth was lightened with his glory. I tell you, this is something
I learned through the experience of grace. This world abides in
darkness. That's all they know, darkness.
All they know is darkness. Our Lord began His ministry,
and this is how the Holy Spirit described it. Them that sat in
darkness saw great light. And that's what happens every
time God sends a preacher to one of His elect. They were sitting
in darkness, and God sent them light. And I tell you, if you ever get
any light from God, it's great light. It's all great light,
isn't it? Ain't no little light. It's great
light. He said this to his disciples.
He said, ye are the light of the world. Who is? They are. They are. You're a city set on
a hill that cannot be hid. You're lit. And the light which we have is
not our own light, it's the light of the glorious gospel of Christ. And Paul said, if our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them who are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded their minds, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. What we have
obtained through the preaching of the gospel. Here's the next
thing he tells you. He talks about his glory. He
talks about his glory. What we have obtained through
the preaching of the gospel is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that what he said? God
has from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. Now listen, to the obtaining
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory that God's
church and God's preachers set before the world is the glory
of God in Christ. It's not our glory, but it is
our glory. It's given to us. We're heirs.
Join heirs with him. It's his glory. And we have obtained
it through faith. So when God's messenger is a
sin of God, the earth is lightened with their glory, which is the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, here's the second
thing he tells us about this ministering angel. He tells us
about his message. The message of God's preacher
always has a two-fold purpose. The first purpose is to warn
this unbelieving world of the judgment to come. A man's under
the condemnation of God right now, but there is a final judgment. There's a judgment coming in
which this whole unbelieving world is going to stand before
Christ, stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and be judged
according to their deeds. And then the second purpose of
this messenger's message is he's there as a heavenly light to
call out God's elect. This is the means of God's grace
to call out his people. So in Revelation 18.2, the angel
begins to warn the people of the earth, and he cried mightily
with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is falling.
It's falling. That man's sin of God is not
going to push his foot around when he starts talking about
religion. He's going to tell you what religion
is, and it's an abomination before God. It's a danger to you. It's a
danger to your soul. I know people wanna fill up the
church and fill up the pews, and so they get up here and they
start talking nice, or they either don't talk about it at all, or
when they do talk about it, they begin to compromise. Begin to
compromise. But here, he said, he cried,
it's falling. It's falling. And it's, listen to this. It's
fallen and has become the habitation of devils. And the hold of every foul spirit,
that is the stronghold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every
unclean and hateful bird. It's a cage for buzzards. That's
what he's telling you, for buzzards. It's the house of devils and
every foul spirit. Now I won't be just as plain
as I can here. Worldly religion symbolized here
by this city Babylon. It stands for all the religions
of this world who are opposed to the gospel of God's sovereign
grace and his eternal purpose of grace in his son. That's who
I'm talking about. I don't care if they wear the
name Baptist, Methodist, Nazarene, Catholic, whatever it is. Doesn't
make any difference. about that name on the door,
I'm talking about their attitude toward the gospel of God's sovereign
grace. Antichrist is nothing more than
being anti-Christ. That's what it is. It's believing in and promoting
and practicing and teaching that which is contrary to Christ. To preach Christ as a failure,
in any sense of the word. To preach Christ as a failure
is anti-Christ. He can't fail. He's God. He's God. To preach His work
as insufficient in any sense of the word is anti-Christ. He's all-sufficient. You are complete in Him. That's
what the Word of God says. To limit his power as the God-man
mediator by making him subject to the will of man is anti-Christ. Did you know that's what free
will is? And that's why grace preachers cry out against it
so hard. Free will denies these things. It limits his power as the God-man
mediator. Taking that which God has given
to him and putting it into the hands of men. to take from him the power of
his appointments in any way is Antichrist. He's the high priest. I don't need a high priest. I
don't need a pope. He's the vicar. And therefore all free will works
religion and universalism and legalism and ceremonialism, they're
all Antichrist. Babylon is nothing more than
the religion of this world. The religions of this world are
known by a host of names. I named just a few a little while
ago. But their essential tenets, what
do I mean by tenets? Their doctrine, their basic beliefs,
their foundation are all the same. I remember a man making this
statement years ago. He said there's only two religions
in the world. works and grace. And I wondered
what he meant at the time because I'd already been in and out of
three or four churches. And that's what he's talking
about. The basis of these things are all the same. They're all
the same. They all believe in free will. They all believe that
your destiny is in your hands and on and on it goes. And the
message of every God called preacher is to warn men of the danger
of these things and the wrath of God upon false religion, and
he warns even the believers because if you're going to be partaker
of her sins, you're going to be partaker of her plagues. Because she's fallen under the
wrath and judgment of God. And then secondly, she's become
the habitation of devils. Satan is at the heart of all
false religion. In Isaiah chapter 14, you can
read it at your leisure this afternoon, but it implies that
Satan knew something of God's eternal purpose of grace, knew something about the God-man, and violently opposed it. And
because he opposed it, he inspired and caused a third of the heavenly
hosts to side with him in a rebellion against God, attempting to overthrow
God's throne, to frustrate God's purpose, and to keep him from
fulfilling his eternal covenant of grace. You can read that in
Isaiah 14, 24 through 27. And to this day, that old serpent
has never ceased to oppose the purpose of God. He never has
and he never will. And in his pursuit of this rebellion,
he found a suitable dwelling place in Babylon. You see what
he's saying here? She has become the dwelling place
of devils. Where do they dwell? In false
religion. Satan thrives in false religion. He thrives there. He found a
home there. It's become the habitation of
devils and the hold, and I believe that word means stronghold, of
every foul spirit. In the scriptures, God often
makes the spirits of devils. He personifies them into whatever
disease he was about to heal. In fact, one man, he didn't say
for him to be healed. He said, thy sins be forgiven
thee. But there was a deaf and dumb spirit that I talked to
you about a few weeks back. A deaf and dumb spirit. Well,
this man was deaf and he was dumb, but the Lord said it was
the spirit of devils that caused this deafness and dumbness. Now, I'm not saying that everybody
that has a disease today is filled with some kind of foul spirit.
I'm just trying to show you what these things symbolized back
then and to show you how Satan thrives in those things. This
deaf and dumb spirit or spirit that causes deafness and dumbness
in a person in a very similar way. He talked about those very
things and then he talks about the same thing when he talks
about our sins. You remember when Peter opposed
what the Lord said, he turned around and looked at Peter and
he said, get thee behind me, Satan. He didn't tell Peter to
get behind him. He said, get thee behind me,
Satan. He knew what caused Peter to say those things. He said, you're an offense unto
me, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of men. And then he tells us that Babylon
is a cage for every unclean and hateful bird. You know, he talks about, over in
Isaiah, I can't give you a chapter and verse, but he talks about
snares that he puts in the word of God for these foul birds,
these old buzzards. He puts snares in here and they
get hung in them. They get hung up in them. Well,
Babylon is a cage for every unclean and foul bird. Well, the first
thing I see here about that is that false religion is a cage.
It's a cage. If you're in false religion,
you're bound. You're in captivity. You're in
a cage. It's a place of confinement and
a place of captivity. That strong man arm keepeth his
palace and his goods are at peace. And it's a place designed, it's
a cage designed for hateful creatures and unclean creatures. It's a
cage for spiritual buzzards. You know what a buzzard does?
I ran in four or five of them coming up here this morning.
I slowed up and they flew off. But they feed on the dead. That's what they do. That's what
these spiritual buzzards do too. Preacher, you're telling us that
religion is dangerous? That's exactly what I'm telling
you. It's dangerous. Revelation 18.3. How dangerous
is it? All nations, are you listening? This is the Word of God. This
is not something I thought of. All nations have drunk of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the kings of the earth, all
the leaders of the nations, have committed fornication with her
and even the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through
the abundance of her delicacies. A while back I was going to buy
my wife something, some earrings or some token. my affection for
her, and we were walking down past the case in the jewelry
department, and do you know that 90% of what was in that jewelry
was a cross or something religious? Almost everything in there. That's what he's saying right
here. These merchants have waxed rich from those things. Babylon the Great, that great
religious system, inspired and organized and led by Satan himself,
is here pictured as being patronized by the whole world. And as a
city of worldwide influence and wealth, religion's popular. It's popular. Men love it. They support it.
They defend it. They practice it. All of the
most famous and well-respected religious leaders of our day
are servants of the great whore. That's just so. They've done everything but make
Billy Graham an angel. Billy Graham didn't preach the
gospel. His message was as anti-Christ as it can be. But the world honors
him, respects him, All of the most famous and well-respected
religious leaders of our day. They're nothing more than servants
of the great whore. And here's what I want you to
see. The religion of Babylon so thoroughly controls the minds
of men that it controls the political, economic, academic, and philosophical
powers of this world. Every one of them. Influenced
by Babylon. The whole world, under the deception
of Satan, cherishes free will, man-centered religion. It loves
it. But make no mistake about it,
she's doomed. And her fall is declared as if
it had already happened. Babylon is falling. Is falling,
he said. And then thirdly, John hears
another voice from heaven saying to all who can hear his voice,
come out of Come out of her. We're not told to stay in religion
and try to convert her. We're told to come out of her.
We're not told to stay in her and try to get along with her.
We're told to come out of her. One man said to me years ago,
he knew that I first heard the gospel, I was going to this Church
called an enterprise Baptist and and I was I was going there
and all he knew that that's where I was going and then he talked
to me after And we were talking about this very thing and he
said well the Lord saved you in religion I Said whoa wait
a minute the Lord didn't save me in religion. He saved me out
of it That's the first thing I heard was that voice from heaven
through that ministering angel who told me to come out of her.
Come out of her. And I knew that message was from
God. Come out of her, my people, that
you be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her
plagues. What is this voice from heaven? He said, I heard another voice,
another voice. Well, the angel who was speaking
in verses 1 through 3 is still speaking, but something wonderful
took place. Another voice comes, and this voice is in harmony
with the first angel. Our Lord said to the 70, he that
heareth you, heareth me. He heareth me. And oh, what a
work of grace takes place when God's elect are given an effectual
hearing. You sit and you're listening
to me. I was listening to a man. His
name was Henry Mahan. I was listening to him, listening
to him. But all of a sudden, I heard
another voice. I still heard his, but I heard another voice
speaking through him. Isn't that your experience? You
hear from God. All of a sudden it's not just
a man talking to you. It's God talking to you through
a man. Paul tells them over in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1 that he knew their election of God because his gospel
came not in word only, but it came in power and it came in
the Holy Ghost. And when God speaks to His people,
this is how He speaks. He speaks through a man and through
the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. Now look over in
1 Thessalonians chapter 2, this is one I've quoted that first
chapter to you many times, but here in the second chapter of
1 Thessalonians in verse 13, Paul said, For this cause also
thank we God without ceasing. Because when you receive the
word of God, which you heard of us, now watch this, you received
it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of
God, which affectionately, which also affectionately worketh in
you that believe. Our Lord said, blessed are your
eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Rarely I
say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired
to see those things which you see and hear those things which
you hear, and have not. It's not something I can explain
to men. This is something you experience
by the grace of God. But you'll know when God speaks. Everything that a man teaches,
another man can take away. But when God teaches man, you
can't take it away. You can't take it away. It's
there forever.