Deuteronomy chapter 23, and let's
just look at one verse tonight. That way I won't keep you too
awfully long. Deuteronomy chapter 23 and verse 17. There shall be no whore of the
daughters of Israel, nor sodomite of the sons of Israel. There
shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of
the sons of Israel." Now this is speaking here of Israel. These
were instructions to Israel. That is very important to remember.
And He was not even talking to the world. He was talking to
Israel, His people. And it is important to know that
because we are going to be as confused as we can be if we do
not know who the Scripture is talking to. This was His people. They had evidence that they were
His people. They were the children of Abraham,
God's friend, to whom the promises were made, the promises of a
new country that God had given them. And He called them out
of Egypt. He redeemed them down there with
the blood of the Lamb. Remember that? And they put the
blood over the lintels of the door and on the side post and
the death angel came and passed by them. They were a redeemed
people, opened up the Red Sea and brought them through, brought
them through the desert, and here they were standing on the
northern part of that desert ready to enter the land of promise.
And these instructions are written to them. It's very important
to remember that. And they were to remember that
because first and foremost, because they were of Israel, they were
to keep themselves separated. from all the nations of the world.
They couldn't help what the world around them were doing. They
couldn't help what the ungodly nations were doing. They just
couldn't help that. And they weren't to worry themselves
so much about that. But what they were to be concerned
about was don't let the world into the nation of Israel. The
world is going to have its whores. The world is going to have its
sodomites. but not in Israel. See what he's saying there? Not
in Israel. Israel is not to have their whores.
Israel is not to have their sodomites, no matter what the world does,
because Israel was the people of God. They had the Word of
God. They had the worship of God,
the service of God, and therefore they were different than the
world. He was writing to them. I remember when David's son and
David's half-daughter, Amnon, forced his half-sister and raped
her. And this is one of the things
that she said. This ought not to be done in Israel. That's
the plea against him. It's done in heathen nations.
But she said not in Israel. Not in Israel. So that's who
the Lord was speaking to here. It was Israel. And the same thing
today is true most of the Bible. I guess we could say the whole
of it, but most of the Bible was written for the church, spiritual
Israel. That's who the church is, spiritual
Israel. The doctrine of Christ, what the church is to believe,
what the church is to practice, it's written to the church. And
you know, if we go to the epistles, especially the epistles of Paul
and so much of the Bible, If we go there and apply that teaching
and those principles to a lost world, you talk about confused. The New Testament for the most
part is to the church, not the world. And the church can't help
what's going on around her, can she? My goodness, look at the
false doctrine, look at the lies, look at the evil practices, look
what's going on in the world. And the church can't help that.
But listen, the church can help what it lets in it. The church
is not to give itself over to that and the church is not to
let these things out. What's the matter, babe? Something's going on. Give
me just a minute. Be right back. My wife has got to leave. There's
some problems in the family. If it ain't one thing, it's another.
And I can't help what's going on with my family. Can't help
it, can you? But it's not coming in here.
Not coming in here. You know, if you're going to
act like fools, you're going to stay out there and do it.
You ain't going to do it in here. You ain't going to do it in the church.
And that's where we take the stand. That is where the Lord
told us to take a stand, not in Israel, not in the church. There are two things the Lord
reproved the churches of Asia for. One was this, for letting
heathen practices and heathen doctrines into the church. He
wrote to the church of Pergamos and he wrote to the church of
Thyatira and this is two of the things he reproved them for.
They allowed the doctrine and practice of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. They allowed that doctrine to
come into their midst and the practice, whatever the practice
was of the Nicolaitans and Balaam, they allowed it to come into
them. And the church at Thyatira allowed that woman Jezebel to
teach her false doctrine and her practices. They allowed them
and he rebuked them for that. Some get upset with us sometimes
because we sort of turn the light on the professing church. And
they say, you're getting too critical. And I don't want to
be critical. But sometimes the light needs
to be shined on the professing church. Because what's going
on in the professing church? What's being received in it?
What's it teaching? What's it practicing? Sometimes
it needs the light shined on it, don't it? Because the church
and the world are two distinct entities. One professes to be
of God and she should be of God. She believes the gospel the world
knows nothing about and doesn't believe. And she has different
practices. And the world is distinct from
the church. And the church should never let
the world in with its evil practices and its evil doctrine. And the
Lord rebuked the church for that. Secondly, he reproved the church
for this, especially the church at Ephesus. While the church
at Ephesus was guarding against false doctrine and false practices,
here is what he commended them for. You cannot bear them which
are evil. You know what the world is doing.
It is perverted. It is practicing its evil deeds.
And he said you cannot bear that and you have kept them out. And
those who called themselves apostles, you found them to be liars, and
you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans." Boy, they were tough, I'm telling
you, they were tough. They said, you guys are not coming in here
with your evil doctrine. You're not coming in here, you
were anti-Christ teaching. You're just not going to do it.
They kept them out. But here's something else the
Lord Jesus reproved them for. While they were watching, not
let this end, He said, you've left your first love in your
heart. So boy, here's what the church,
here's what spiritual Israel has to do. While she's guarding
those that are without, not to let it in, she has to keep her
own heart diligently lest she err in her own heart. It's easy, it's easy to get this
attitude of condemning everything and everybody that we think is
wrong and may be wrong. but we have to be careful while
we're doing that to keep our own hearts with all diligence. Two things that go together in
the Scripture, you often find these, especially in the Psalms,
and it has to do with these very two things. Keeping that without,
that's wrong, and then keeping my own heart with all diligence.
Listen to how David says it in Psalms 119, How sweet are thy
words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey in the honeycomb.
Now, we've eaten some honey, haven't we? And boy, that honey
in the honeycomb, I'm telling you, I just can't fill up on
it. I just keep eating it. Honey, and He said, that's the
way Your Word is to my taste. It's sweeter than honey to the
honeycomb. And the very next word, He says
this, Therefore do I hate every false way. See those two things? Thy Word is sweet to me, and
therefore I hate every false way. He said this in verse 127
of that chapter, ìI love thy commandments above gold, yea,
above fine gold, therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all
things to be right, and therefore I hate every false way.î These
two things, and boy if we as a church can keep this Word in
our hearts, the Word of Christ in our hearts, and it's sweet
to us. If we love Him, we love His ways, and keep these falsehoods
out, keep the whoredoms out and the sodomites out, the evil way
out, we'll be doing well if we can do that. But I'm telling
you, that's a full-time job. It's a full-time job. There may
be whores and sodomites among the heathen, but the nation of
Israel must not allow it. And there's all kinds of perversion
and falsehoods around us everywhere. But the church is to not let
these things end. Now these two types of people here that he
was talking about, he identifies them here as whores and sodomites. And there's different kinds of
whores and sodomites in the scriptures, three or four different places
where they're mentioned. I want us to look at them this
evening because it's got some lessons here for us. Different
ways they're referred to and both of them, whores and sodomites,
both groups were to be put to death. Whores, that was what
our commentaries called common whores and common sodomites. A harlot, we all know what a
harlot is, don't we? We know what a whore is. It's
someone who sells their bodies, or someone who gives their bodies
away in a sexual way. You see it out on the streets. They may not allow it in our
country in most places, but you see it, and it happens in private
all the time. Look what he said. We studied
this back over in chapter 22, in verse 21. The horror wasn't to be allowed
in the nation of Israel. Here's where he's talking about
this woman who pretended to be a virgin. She married this fellow,
but she wasn't. In verse 21 of chapter 22, Then
they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house,
and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, that she
die, because she hath wrought folly in Israel to play the whore
in her father's house. So shalt thou put evil away from
among you. So a whore wasn't allowed to
live. in the nation of Israel. They were stoned to death. Now,
I'll be honest with you, brothers and sisters. I've said this before.
I'm glad this has changed. The church today has no authority,
absolute no authority, to physically punish anybody. And I'm glad
for it, aren't you? Those fellows over there in the
east now that's taken the adulterers out and the whores and stoned
them to death, I'm glad it's not that way here. And I hope
it's never that way here. We legislate against wickedness
the best we can in a nation. But the church has no authority
to physically abuse and correct anybody. You just don't have
that authority. Homosexualities. These Sodomites,
these Sodomites got their name from Sodom. And what was going
on in Sodom were homosexuality, men with men. That was going
on down in Sodom. And an Israelite man, if he was
caught being a homosexuality, they were to stone him. Listen
to what he said in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13. If a man
also lie with mankind as he lies with womankind, both of them
have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death,
their blood shall be upon them. Sodomites, homosexuality was
not allowed in the nation of Israel. They stoned them to death
or put them to death. You'll find that in Leviticus
chapter 20 and verse 13. And these practices in the New
Testament are not allowed in the church. They're in the church. They're forbidden. Listen to
I Corinthians 6 and 9, a very familiar passage. Know you not
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven,
Be not deceived, neither fornicators, fornicators in the Old Testament
was referred to as harlotry, whoredom, idolaters, adulterers,
effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, nor drunkards,
nor covetousness, has any part in the kingdom of God our Christ. They were forbidden. They had
to be born again. Harlots are saved. Homosexuals
are saved by the grace of God in Christ. But they are new creatures. They come out of that lifestyle.
They are in Christ new creatures. And Romans chapter 1 and verse
27, listen to what he says about homosexuals. Likewise also the
men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their
lust one to another, men with men working that which is shameful,
unseemly. and receiving in themselves that
penalty, that recompense of their error which was due them, which
was met. So whores and sodomites, we don't
stone them to death today. I've got no problem if our country
can find some way to make a law against it. I've got no problem
with that. It's not to come in the church.
And isn't it strange how common, especially sodomy, is entering
the church? You know, there's whole congregations
now in some places that are ordaining homosexuals for the ministry.
Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing how we can fall
so far so fast? And if you say anything about
it, they call you a bigot, a prejudiced, all these names. Well, God says
something about it, doesn't He? And Israel would not receive
these people among them, but they killed them. Now in our
text, let's go to something else. In our text, this word HOR and
SODOMITE, it means literally a sacred devotee. A sacred devotee and it has to
do with a practice that heathen religion had among them. where
they devoted whores and sodomites to their deities. They literally
had religions where they devoted to their religion and they used
them in their worship. Whores and these sodomites. I was reading John Gill on this
and he was quoting, he must have been a historian, his name was
Strabo and this is the quote that he gave. He said the temple
of Venus which was at Corinth was so rich that more than a
thousand of these sacred harlots were kept who men and women had
devoted to that goddess. Ain't that amazing? In that one
temple over a thousand harlots and sodomites had been given
to that temple. And they came there and their
worship consisted of all kinds of sexual perversion. You can read about it. I ain't
going to bring that to you. The last couple of weeks I've had
to get into this rotten stuff anyways. I ain't going to bring
here and read that to you. But I want you to turn over to
2 Kings chapter 23. Look at this. 2 Kings chapter
23. And you see one of the reasons
that the Lord was giving Israel these instructions and these
warnings, not to fall into these things.
Keep yourself pure. Keep that evil out! Keep yourself
separate from this world and separate to the pure worship
of God. If you are in II Kings chapter
23 and look in verse 4, this is the revival that took
place under young Josiah who was just eight years old when
he began to reign. And if you want to see a sad,
sad state of affairs, read about Josiah's reign, the revival that
he had. And they brought the book of
the law to him. He read it and he was so convicted.
The Lord converted him and saved him. And the Lord sent this revival.
But you talk about a mess he had to clean up. And look here.
Look here about these sacred sodomites that was in the house
of the Lord. Look in verse 4. 2 Kings 23,
4, And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests
of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring
forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were
made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven.
And he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and
carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. And he put down, pulled
down the idolatrous whom the kings of Judah had ordained to
burn incense in the high places in the city of Judah, and in
the places round about Jerusalem, them also that burn incense unto
Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and
to all the hosts of heaven. And look, it was from the house
of the Lord. "...brought it without Jerusalem unto the book of Kedron,
and burned it at the book of Kedron, and stomped it small
to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the
children of the people." Now, isn't that amazing how they brought
all these idols right into the temple? Worshipped idols. They had horses that they dedicated
to the sun. every star that they could see
with their naked eye, they had idols dedicated to it and put
it in the temple. And look what else, they had
built a lean-to onto the temple and look who dwelt in the temple
in verse 7. And He broke down the houses
of the sodomites, these dedicated sodomites that were by or connected
to, joined hard to the house of the Lord where the women wove
hangings for the grove. These sacred whores and sacred
sodomites that had dedicated themselves to that sexual perversion,
now where do you find them? Hooked on to the house of the
Lord. You think man isn't depraved? Boy, man is depraved, ain't he?
God tell him? God brought the children of Israel
out, warned them, instructed them there. The next generation
come, they were so faithful, and boy, before you know it,
before you know it, they let out. And in come all of this
junk right into the temple of the Lord. Well, we can't be too
careful, can we? Can't be too careful. There's
another kind of whoredom, not only this general whoredom or
physical whoredom, literal whoredom, but there is that which the Bible
calls spiritual whoredom. It sometimes refers to it as
adultery, spiritual adultery, and it simply means turning,
turning from the true worship of God, turning from the right
way, turning to the false way, to the worship of idols. Sometimes
the children of Israel would do this, and the Lord always
said to this. Here is the way the Lord identified. When they
turned from Him, And they turned back to their idols and all these
ungodly things. He said, You played the harlot.
You have a whore's forehead and you can't even blush. They got
so hard-hearted that they could turn to these things, leave the
true worship of God, and when they were confronted about it,
they couldn't even blush. Couldn't even blush. Look here
in another place while we're there. Look on over in Jeremiah.
On over to your right. Look in Jeremiah chapter 3. Look in verse 6, Jeremiah chapter
3 verse 6. Spiritual whoredom, not physical. It's not done physically, but
it's done spiritually. Jeremiah chapter 3 and look in
verse 6. And the Lord said unto me, In
the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding
Israel hath done? She has gone up into every high
mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the
harlot. See that? What was under these
green trees? Her idols. She had left the worship
of the true God in spirit and in truth, and she went up to
these idols. And He said, That's whoredom.
That's what it is to be a harlot. In verse 7, And I said, After
she had done all these things, turned thou unto me, but she
returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah
saw it. And I saw when for all the causes
were by backsliding Israel committed adultery, and I had put her away
and given her a bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah
feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came
to pass through the lightness of her whoredom that she defiled
the land and committed adultery with stones and with stocks."
So to leave the true worship of God and to go off in some
false way and falsehood, that is spiritual whoredom. It is
spiritual adultery. And he says over in verse 20,
look what he says there, "...surely as a wife treacherously departeth
from her husband, So have ye dealt treacherously with me,
O house of Israel, saith the Lord." Spiritual whoredom. Now, in the New Testament, we
come to spiritual Babylon. That's the Antichrist of the
New Testament. And she's called the great whore
and the mother of whores. That's the ultimate in whoredom.
I want you to turn over there and spend the rest of the few
minutes just looking at her. Look over in Revelation Chapter
17. Revelation Chapter 17. And look in verse 1. Let's see
a few things about this whore. In verse 1, she's called the
great whore. And there came one of the seven angels, which had
the seven vows, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither,
I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore, which setteth
upon many waters, and with whom the kings of the earth have committed
fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk
with the wine of her fornication. He carried me away in the Spirit
into the wilderness, and I saw a woman set upon a scarlet-colored
beast, full of the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations
and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery. Babylon, Babylon the Great, the
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. Now, let's see
some things about this woman. Who is Babylon? Who is Babylon? I think the definition of her
name tells us a lot. The first time we read of Babylon,
Babel, B-A-B-E-L all the way over in Genesis chapter 10 and
verse 11. And the first time we ever find
her identified it means confusion. Babel is confusion. And you remember
how it got its name? They built the tower in obedience
to God who told them to scatter and replenish the earth and the
Lord confused their language. They were speaking all kinds
of different languages. So that is where it got its name,
Babel, confusion. But Babylon, when it's used as
a whole, means tyranny and oppression. Now Babylon would never identify
herself as a tyrant, confused, and oppressive, but that's the
name God gave her. That's who she is. She's a tyrant,
she's oppressive, and she is confusion. Now who is this? Well, let me give you three.
three different groups that this could fit in there. First of
all, almost all of our Puritan forefathers says this was Catholicism. If you read anywhere around 1500
on up until this day, most commentaries will say this is Catholicism.
One of the reasons they say it was Catholicism is because they
knew what Catholicism was. Catholicism has killed more Christians
than communism and our Puritans had to put up with them. They
killed many Puritans, tormented them, oppressed them. Could this
be Catholicism? Well, I think that is part of
it. Look at their anti-Christ doctrines. It is full of anti-Christian
doctrines. What is the Mass? Do you know
what their Mass is? That's where they take the wafer.
They don't give the wine anymore. They quit the wine. But they
always say when the priest blessed the wafer and the wine that it
turned into the literal body of Jesus Christ. And that He
suffered as well in the Mass as He did upon the cross. Now
isn't that amazing? He who suffered one time for
sin will never suffer again. And yet they put Him to death
every time they have the Mass. What about being a mediator?
You know what they say about Mary being a mediator? She's
a co-mediator with Christ. I've got a Catholicism dictionary
at home, so I know what I'm talking about. I've read their own book.
And they said Christ is the mediator between man and God, but Mary
is the mediator between man and Christ. We have to have a mediator
between us and Christ, and that's Mary. Holy Mary, the Mother of
God, what? Pray for us sinners. That's Antichristism. Antichrist. All the commandments,
all the traditions that they have forced upon this world,
I think Catholicism could very easily be called the mother of
whores. She's the abomination. She's
Babylon the Great. I think she very easily could
be called that. But I don't think we can exclude all other Antichrist
religions and just give her the honor of being the only one.
What about Mormonism that says Jesus Christ is a great
man, but He's not God? What about Jehovah Witness that
say the same thing? What about the Worldwide Church
of God? You know something about that. What about that? They're
anti-Christ too, aren't they? They have all their corrupt doctrines.
And you can go as far as to say all of those denominations and
these cults and occults or whoever they are that deny justification
by faith in Jesus Christ alone, that's anti-Christ. And they're
all around us, aren't they? I heard at Camelot at Church
of Christ, just the other day and he told why he left the Baptist
Church. And he said, I left the Baptist Church because they say
that you're justified by faith in Christ alone when James says
we're justified by works. Paul was talking about being
justified before God by faith in Christ. James was talking
about us being justified before man. God sees the heart. You're justified by faith in
Christ before Him. I have to see your works. You're
justified before Me, but what I see you do. But boy, when you
get those two messed up, you're in trouble. And if we say we're
justified by works before God, then that's anti-Christ. Paul
fought against that as hard as anything, didn't he? And he called
it another gospel and says they're cursed. You know what it is?
It's whoredom. It's whoredom. But thirdly, And I believe this
and some others do too. This Babylon, it is the whole
world. It is the whole world that has
fallen from God. The whole world that has gone
in its own way, turned its own way. God made man upright, but
He sought out many inventions. And what is that? What did He
say when you left the true God and went in your own way? That
was ordained. And the Bible says plainly that all of us were in
on that. We all walked according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air. Now who's that? That's Satan,
isn't it? And every one of us followed him. He influenced us. And we love to have it so because
we fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And this whole world is a whore
because this whole world has left the worship of God in Adam
and we have all gone our own way. Look at the names given this
whore. In verse 5, it is called Babylon
the Great. He is always the great. Babylon,
the real Babylon, the literal Babylon, that was a great city,
a humongous city that Nebuchadnezzar ruled over. Rome was a great
city, the greatest city in the world at that time they tell
us. In verse 18, look at this in chapter 17, And the woman
which thou sawest is that great city which reigned over the kings,
the great city, probably because of the multitude that is in this
city. Probably because of the glamour
and the activities that's going on. Look in chapter 18 in verse
9 and 10 what's said about it. And the kings of the earth have
committed fornication and live delicately with her, shall bewail
her and lament her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
standing afar off for the fear of her torment said, Alas, alas,
that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour
is her judgment come. She's called a mighty city. I
just read to you there that she ruled over the kings of the earth. That's a mighty city. She calls
herself a queen. I said a queen. I shall never
be a widow, she said. She's mighty. She's mighty. But you know something? Her being
a great city, her being a mighty city, doesn't change one thing
about her. She's still a whore. She's still
a whore. She's glamorous. John marveled
at her when he saw her. All her seeming beauty, all of
her jewelry, all of her bright lights, but she's still a whore. And that's all she'll ever be
is a whore, the great whore. Another name, look here in verse
5 of chapter 17, look at this what she's called. She's called
a mystery. Upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery. I was reading, I think it was
Gill again. I read him a lot because he's
a good historian. And he was telling about the
first few popes had on their little mitres, their little hats,
they had Mystery. They wrote Mystery. And some
of the Protestants started saying, that's what the Bible says you
folks are. You're a mystery Bible. And they got scared and took
it off. Julius III took it off. And they say it's still to be
found in some of the warehouses of Catholicism. That they had
so many of them made up, they're still laying there. He had mystery. But they won't wear them anymore. Mystery. They're a mystery. The Church, it has the doctrine
of the mystery of the Incarnation, doesn't it? Great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.
That's our mystery. The mystery of the incarnation
of the Son of God. You know what her mysteries are?
The mystery of iniquity. Paul said, The mystery of iniquity
doeth already work. It was in his day. What is the
mystery of iniquity? Here's the mystery of iniquity.
This world, Babylon, this world is full of lies. It's full of
deceit. It's full of falsehoods. But
it don't know it because this sin and the devil and its own
heart has deceived it. Here the world is standing on
the brink of eternity. There's a Savior preached to
it. There's forgiveness of sins. There's life eternal preached
to it. Does the world believe it? Does the world care? Ain't that a mystery? Out in
eternity, those in hell will look back and say, Why in the
world did we come here? Why didn't we listen? Why, why,
why? And you know what will be the
answer? The mystery of iniquity. That's the mystery of iniquity. The deceitfulness of sin. Mystery. Look in verse 5 in another name.
This is amazing. She's called the mother Harlots,
the mother of whores and abominations of the earth. She is not only
a harlot herself, but she is the mother of harlots. Take Catholicism
again for example. It started out there in Rome.
And you know something? When it started, it was a whore. And it spread out. I bet you
in the last What, 1700 years? There is not a nation that this
woman has not sent to and implanted her doctrines and her practices
in that nation, in those cities, in those towns, in those communities,
and probably so many families, almost all families, has been
touched by this vulgar Catholicism. I don't know if there's a place
that you could go in this world that she's not there. But everywhere you find her,
all her daughters are little whores just like their mother. A fellow told me one time, he
said, You know, Bruce, there is some good things about Catholicism.
Brothers and sisters, there's not. There's not one good thing
about Catholicism. There's not one good thing about
anti-Antichrist religion. And boy, it's getting close to
the church. Greg just gave me a little pamphlet out there,
Decisional Regeneration. That's dangerous, isn't it? make
my decision, and I'm burned again. I was listening to radio this
week, and a fellow had another boy on the phone, and he was
praying the sinner's prayer. And because he prayed that prayer,
he's now regenerated. Ain't that dangerous? Prayer
regeneration, decisional regeneration. Everywhere this false anti-Christian
doctrine goes, it implants that whoredom against God. It's dangerous. There's nothing good about false
religion. Nothing good. There's no good in it or any
other Antichrist religion. Any doctrine or practice or worship
or gospel that is conceived and brought forth by a fallen world
is no more than the spiritual offspring of man-whore." Now
that's pretty blunt, but that's it. That's it. A false religion
cannot beget an incorruptible creature. It's impossible. The
true worship of God, the true gospel of God is from the heart
of God and the lips of God, and it's revealed in a crucified
Savior. And everything apart from that
is whoredom. It is for them. In the book of Revelation chapter
21, look there just for a second. There is another great city.
Thank God there is another great city. And she has a mother too. This
city that is above, Paul said she is the mother of us all.
And she is free. The new Jerusalem that is above
is the mother of us all, all who are born again, all who are
believers. And look here in Revelation 21.
And look in verse 9. And there came
to me one of the seven angels, which had the seven bowels full
of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come
hither, I will show thee the bride, The Lamb's Wife. And He carried me away in the
Spirit to a great and high mountain. That's heaven, a high mountain.
And He showed me that great city. What is that? That's holy Jerusalem,
descended out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And her light was like unto a
stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. There is a great city, and that's
the church. And she's born from above. And
you know something? She's holy. She's holy. Like Him who called her and redeemed
her and created her anew. And look back over now right
quickly at chapter 18. And look in verse 4 and 5. Here's what
we're told to do in verse 4 and 5. Here's what the wife of Christ,
here's what the true virgin is said to do. And I heard another
voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye
be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues. For her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. In other words,
come out of this world. That's what he's saying. Come
out of this world! Come out of our sins! This world
is nothing but a harlot! Sodomites! Come out of it! Come out of it! Well, in spite
of all the interruptions tonight, I hope that was a good lesson
for us, good instructions and good warning.