Now today in our study of the book of Revelation we come to chapter eighteen. Now we could divide this chapter into four sections. The first three verses we have a cry of condemnation. Verses four through eight there is a call for separation. Verses nine through nineteen a complaint of lamentation. verses through twenty-four, a cause for exaltation. Let me read now the first eight verses of the chapter. Revelation chapter eighteen, commencing to read 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 is fallen, is fallen. And has become the habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of our fornication, The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, that you receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works. In the cup which she has filled, filled to her double. How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously. so much torment and sorrow give her. For she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord who judges her. We shall pause there in our reading. I'm sure the Lord will bless to us the reading of his word. Let us pray. Our Father, again we turn to thee. We think of the solemn issues that have been revealed in thy wonderful word. And we do believe that the day will come when thou shalt judge the world, when wicked men will be judged for all their wicked ways. But oh, we pray in the meantime, while it is still thy day of grace, When the gospel is still being preached, thou art giving time for men and women to repent, that surely some of them will repent and turn to thee the living God, and exercise faith in thy Son, the Lord Jesus. Bless us today during this broadcast. For the Lord Jesus' sake, we ask it. Amen. Now then... It seems that in this chapter the context indicates that Babylon is viewed in its political and economic character rather than the religious aspect. That is something we must always keep in mind because when we were dealing with chapter seventeen it was obvious that there Our thoughts were directed to the great harlot who appeared to represent the religious side of Babylon. I threw your minds back to the Old Testament in the last study. I do the same again. Let me remind you that when the men went out to build the Tower of Babel, they went out, first of all, saying they were going to build a city. That was the first thought. But with the city there was to be something else. Not only a city, but they had to have something of a religious nature. Now it's that religious thing that is carried on down through the ages. But it is very, very interesting to find what they said. The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. They came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shiner. They dwelt there and they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick. Burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime, had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city. You see, the city had to come first. And a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, or that is, may represent the heavens. Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Now the whole thing is this, then. When they went out to build, it was a city they were going to build. And in the center of the city, they would have the religious tower, the religious gathering center. Now when you come to the book of the Revelation, these two things are dealt with here under the judgment of God. First of all, we saw how there was cooperation between the two. that that wicked harlot who had dressed herself up and had the golden cup in her hand, she was able to ride the back of the beast, that which represented the political power. But then there came the time when the political power threw the religious power off and took full control. Now that fits in with what we read in the book of the Revelation. along with what we read in Matthew twenty four and also back in the book of Daniel for at a certain time during the end period this great political and religious rulers these two together will set up as it were an image of the beast now watch this very carefully That's the time when idolatry is introduced as a world religion. But the fact of the matter is, that will take place after that great harlot has been thrown off. And when the second beast of Revelation chapter thirteen comes into prominence, it's he who shall make the image of the beast and cause the people to bow down to the image worship the image, worship the beast, and worship the dragon who gave him his power. But then in chapter seventeen of Revelation we saw the great harlot being thrown off. But that which is of the political power, that which will control the economics of that day, that is what is destroyed when we come here into chapter eighteen. So here we're dealing now, as it were, with the political and the economic character of the revived Roman Empire, rather than the religious aspect of Rome. The religious thing is destroyed in chapter seventeen. The political and economic thing comes crashing down and is destroyed in chapter eighteen. Now notice in the opening three verses there is a cry of condemnation. In verse one you're introduced to an angel and after these things I take it, that's after the things recorded in chapter seventeen as I have indicated, after these things I saw another angel. Here is one then of the same character, an angel, a servant of God, coming down from heaven, that is, out of heaven. So he's not a fallen angel, he's one being sent down as a servant, and he has great authority. Now notice then the angel and the place from whence he comes is heaven. It's heaven now coming down to us and God in his own way intervening in the affairs of earth. He sends one of his servants, an angel. Notice the authority or the power he possessed. It says having great power or great authority. You know, sometimes men get into the seat of power or the seat of authority. And the way they act, they would almost think that they were there for all time. Men seem to forget that even at our best, our time on earth is very short. Three score years and ten. Perhaps by reason of strength we go four score. What then? You see, our lives at the best are just a few fleeting years. and men are usually a good age before they come into the place of power. And so, at his best, a man can only serve his generation, then he passes on. Yet some men act as if they had all power. They speak as if there was no greater power than themselves. But here, they've got to learn right here in Revelation that God can intervene at any time. God could send not only one angel, oh God could send ten thousand angels, he could send legions of angels to overthrow all the armies of earth. But here in chapter eighteen it's one angel, another angel came down from heaven having great power. a delegated power given to him from heaven. Notice his appearance and presence on earth. Having great power on the earth was lightened with his glory. When he comes, those who will be earth dwellers at that time will be in no doubt whatsoever of his presence. He'll come. And the light that will radiate from his presence will be like the glory of heaven. The earth was lightened with his glory. But then he's here to make an announcement. And it's when you come to verse two, the announcement is heard from the angel. And he cried mightily. That is, he cried with a mighty voice. He cried mightily with a strong voice. And so he has an announcement to make to the earth. You know, from time and time again, God has sent his men to proclaim his message. Way back in the Old Testament, God raised up his prophets. When he raised up Moses and Moses went in before Pharaoh, he spoke the message of the Lord, let my people go. Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? He wouldn't listen to the message of the Lord spoken through Moses. Then there were times when God sent his prophets to declare his message to the nation of Israel and they wouldn't listen to the prophets. They despised them. put some of them to death. Men have despised the message of God. But when it comes to Revelation chapter eighteen, God is sending an angel here, not a man, but an angel. And the angel is able to cry with a great voice or a strong voice. And the announcement he's making is this. that Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen. And it's become the habitation of demons. Here's the announcement made by the angel. It's the abandonment of fallen Babylon. Now we saw already the declaration that Babylon had fallen. Some of the details were given in chapter seventeen. Again I emphasize to you that in chapter seventeen it's the fall of the religious system in Babylon. And the religious system was overthrown by the political system. And no doubt the head or leader of the political system thought that all power now was within his grasp. He was ready to declare war even against God. ready to challenge God, and God just sends down an angel, and the angel proclaims, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Whether the reputation of the words is fallen means that the religious system is fallen, then the political system is fallen, or whether it simply means that he's emphasizing the fact that here is the fall of Babylon. whether or not you and I have got to face this my friend that just as the tower of Babel was brought to smash when God said let us go down and see what this is that man is trying to do man was trying to build for himself a great empire he was trying to build that great city with all its administration he was trying to build that great tower that would represent the heavens And even if God sent another flood, they would run up into their tower and be safe. Oh, my friend, God just came down and blew on it. And the whole thing came to ruins. Yet man has never learned his lesson. Why, when the day came when Nebuchadnezzar, The great king, the ruler of the great Babylonish empire, stuttered around like a peacock in all his pride. And he said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built? And in a moment his mind was taken from him. And he went down as it were in all fours and began to eat grass like a nox. He lost his reason because he did not give God the glory. And here when we come to the book of the Revelation, here again we realize a system will develop where there will be a dictator at the head. He'll overthrow that which pertains to religion. He'll set up his own form of idolatry and make people bow down to his image and worship the image and worship him and worship the dragon who gave him his power. He will do all this in defiance of God, and God sends down an angel to make the proclamation, and the announcement is heard, Babylon is fallen. God again will bring to naught all the boasted advancements and all the boasted pride of mankind. Man is doomed to failure. At least that's the way that the Bible sets it before us. And I am old-fashioned enough to believe that God knows what he's telling us. There is the abandonment of fallen Babylon. Because right here it says, it has become the habitation of demons and the hold of every foul spirit. And a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. You will remember from other parts of the scriptures. we read concerning the birds of the air coming down and snatching away the good seed. And in the interpretation thereof, we were told that these birds represented demons or evil spirits. Here again Babylon will become the hold of every evil spirit. But notice the associates of wicked Babylon. All nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. The merchants of the earth are wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies. There has been a lot of business going on according to this verse, and other rulers in other parts of the world are trying to do the foreign trade. They all want to have a trade agreement with Babylon. because we have already learned that Babylon will be rich, rich in many ways with regards to the world's goods. And so the other nations will be glad to do business with them. There'll be an awful lot of interchange and all this foreign trade will be going on. Ah, they will be her associates. But remember, you cannot associate with people in one way without taking responsibility for the things that are wrong. And so being in association with her, then her guilt will have to be laid on the shoulders of all those who have supported her. But now in the light of that, we come to verses four through eight. 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 plague. Here is a call for separation. Now remember this, God has always called his people to separation. This is a principle that runs right through the Bible. When God was going to bless Abraham, he called Abraham to leave out of the caldeas. For Abraham then was living in the midst of idolatry, living in the midst of idolatrous people. And when the God of glory broke into the life of Abraham, it was a call to separation. Abraham was to come out. He was to leave his country, leave his kindred. He was to leave his father's home. And Abraham, first of all, will have to be obedient to the call of God if the blessing of God is to be his portion. It's very interesting when God said he was to do that. Then he says, I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. But Abraham, first of all, had to be obedient to the call. Again, there was a man called Lot who was related to Abraham. And one day he found himself as a citizen. Perhaps he was a mayor. It would seem he was. of the city of Sodom. And the city of Sodom was so corrupt. And yet he was a man who was vexing his righteous soul day by day with the filthy manner of life of Sodom. And God was about to overthrow Sodom. He was going to destroy it. But before God would destroy the city of Sodom, he called upon Lot and he sent two angels down there to bring Lot out of the city. and Lot had to leave that city in order to be saved. In plain words, if he had remained in Sodom, he would have perished with Sodom. He would have taken all the judgment that came upon Sodom, but God warned him, and Lot had to obey the call of God and come out, or he would have been destroyed with Sodom. When Moses went to Pharaoh down in Egypt, He wasn't going to leave God's people in Egypt to worship. That's what Pharaoh wanted them to do. Moses said, No, they must go at least to free day's journey into the wilderness and must take them out. Moses had to leave the land of Egypt by way of the Red Sea. God delivered them. And only after they were delivered from Egypt, only after they had come out of Egypt, were they able to build a tabernacle and worship God according to God's orders? Oh, there must be then obedience to the call, and that obedience must be implicit with all believers at all time. You see, come out of her, my people. This is imperative for all true believers. It will be in that day that those who want to worship the true God Those who are waiting for their Messiah to come will have to separate themselves from the evils of wicked Babylon. It was so in the Old Testament. It will be so again, and it is so at the present time. Obedience to this call is an intelligent act. Not only is it imperative that we must come out, It is implicit. We must obey that call simply, implicitly, with all believers. There is obedience to this call as an intelligent act. It displays a desire to please God. It also manifests a true faith in God's word, and it shows a desire to avoid sin and its consequences. if you can see the powers developing now that are going to prepare the way for Babylon in a coming day. My friend, if you profess to be a believer now, you should be prepared to take your stand outside of everything that is corrupt. God is still saying to us, come out from amongst them and be ye separate. After all, a lot of people have never learned this. And God is saying, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Thy will receive you, will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God, Almighty.