Feb 20
24
OUR LORD HERE COMMANDS US TO SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM BABYLON, THE GREAT WHORE.
Again, I stress the fact that Babylon is not a literal city. And it certainly is not a literal woman. Babylon is all false religion in this world. It is the mother of all idolatry and abominable doctrine of the earth. Babylon is the religion of antichrist in every age. Babylon is called by many names, but the most appropriate is found in Mt. 24.
1. Our Lord describes Babylon as a dead carcass around which the vultures of hell swarm – (Matt. 24:23-28).
It is the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” That is a suitable description for the religion of this world. True it has a form of godliness; signs, wonders, miracles and emotionalism. But it denies the very power of God. It is such a deceiving form of religion that, were it possible, the very elect of God would be deceived by it. But God’s elect are not deceived.
a. Babylon proclaims “Jesus” – But it is another Jesus. The Jesus of Babylon is a poor, frustrated, defeated Jesus. He tries to redeem. But his blood is shed in vain for many. He prays for everyone, loves everyone, and wants to save everyone. But his prayers, his love and his desires are frustrated by the will of man and the works of satan.
b. Babylon offers men and women a god – But is a useless god, little more than a good-luck charm. He has a purpose. But he cannot carry it out, because men won’t let him. He has a will. But it is subject to the great “free-will” of man. He is gracious. But his grace is nothing but a helpless, frustrated desire to save men and women, who will not let poor god save them.
c. Babylon preaches much about the spirit – But it is another spirit, not the Spirit of Christ. The spirit of Babylon has signs and wonders, speaks in tongues, heals hangnails, and most especially bank accounts. This spirit stirs men and women to great heights of emotionalism, and causes them to greatly glory in themselves.
The spirit of Babylon causes men to hate the sins of others. The Spirit of Christ causes men to hate their own sin.
The Spirit of Babylon causes men to do good works by which to make themselves righteous. The Spirit of Christ causes helpless sinners to seek the righteousness of Christ.
The spirit of Babylon causes people to stand up and shout. The Spirit of Christ causes sinners to fall in the dust of repentance and mourn over sin.
The spirit of Babylon tries his best to
get sinners to come to Jesus. The Spirit of Christ effectually draws sinners to
their Savior.
d. Babylon preaches a gospel – But it is another gospel.
The gospel of Babylon is a man-centered, free-will, good works gospel that is
full of fables. (II Tim. 4:4).
(1.) God loves everybody and wants
everybody to be saved.
(2.) Christ died for everybody, prays for everybody and
gives everybody a chance to be saved.
(3.) The Holy Spirit calls everybody, strives with
everybody and tries to save everybody.
e. Babylon is the religion of man – According to Babylon, everything ultimately depends upon man. It is my intention to be perfectly clear. Any religion that proclaims salvation conditioned upon the will of the sinner, something a sinner does, or does not do, is Babylonian, anti-God, anti-Christ, and damning to the souls of men. No one ever has been saved in Babylon. No one can be saved in Babylon. Babylon is damned. And all who cling to Babylon shall be damned with her
Don Fortner
Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats
An evil resides in the professed camp of the Lord so gross in its imprudence that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate evil for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a more clever thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out as the Puritans did, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.
My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. If it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.’ That is clear enough. So it would have been if He has added, ‘and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel’ No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to Him. Then again, ‘He gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers, for the work of the ministry.’ Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll.
Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What was the attitude of the Church to the world? ‘Ye are the salt,’ not sugar candy—something the world will spit out, not swallow. Short and sharp was the utterance, ‘Let the dead bury their dead.’ He was in awful earnestness!
Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission, He would have been more popular when they went back, because of the searching nature of His teaching. I do not hear Him say, ‘Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow!’ Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them. In vain will the Epistles be searched to find any trace of the gospel amusement. Their message is, ‘Come out, keep out, keep clean out!’ Anything approaching fooling is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon. After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the Church had a prayer meeting, but they did not pray, ‘Lord grant Thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are.’ If they ceased not for preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging entertainments. Scattered by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They ‘turned the world upside down.’ That is the difference! Lord, clear the Church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her and bring us back to apostolic methods. Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to affect the end desired. It works havoc among young converts. Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the Church met them halfway, speak and testify. Let the heavy-laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment has been God’s link in the chain of their conversion, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today’s ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.
Charles H. Spurgeon
“YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM”- Todd Nibert
There is nothing about me that feels complete. I always feel there is something lacking in my faith, love, repentance, sincerity or anything else. But God’s Word tells me I am complete in Him. Not I will be complete or I am in the process of being made complete, but I am, right now, complete, lacking nothing, completely filled. However complete the Christ is, that is how complete I am (I John 4:17). “As He is, so are we in this world.” We have this on the authority of God’s Word. We may not feel complete, but we are complete.
The subtlety of Satan is such that there are those in our day who so vehemently stress and emphasize Christ’s imputed righteousness as the sinner’s only ground of justification before God, that they fail to preach CHRIST HIMSELF who is our righteousness, CHRIST, “who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Consequently, they may be leading men and women to trust in a system of theology, rather than in CHRIST, who is the sum and substance of all theology.
It is not opinions that man needs: it is TRUTH. It is not theology; it is God. It is not religion: it is Christ. It is not literature and science; but the knowledge of the free love of God in the gift of His only-begotten Son. ~Horatius Bonar
The plan today is to make the church as much like the world as possible, so that unregenerate people will not feel uncomfortable and will be attracted to its ministry! Turn the church into a theater; worship into a musical display; ministers into actors and clowns to amuse and entertain; sermons into political, patriotic, or philosophical essays; and the living God into a good buddy whose attributes are adjustable to any culture or creed. This will attract the flesh and successfully quench the Spirit. ~Scott Richardson
Human religion speaks of Providence as an interruption of the natural course of things, when in fact, Providence is the natural course of everything. Everything is Providential. ~John Chapman
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We worship that gloriously unique God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Mary. He is our Sacrifice. He is the very sum and substance of our theology, that divine truth we know and love. What we call “Calvinism” or “The Doctrines of Grace” are embodied in Him. One may be familiar with those doctrines and not know Him, but one cannot know Him and have a lasting problem with those doctrines, because … they emanate from Him, being of the very essence of His glorious Person and Work. True faith (the gift of God wrought through His Word, Ephesians 2:810; Romans 10:17) cannot conceive of Him as being anything less than absolutely sovereign, nor of His work, for and in the sinner, as being anything other than absolutely free and totally effectual. Thus, praise His Name! He is a real and sure hope for real, helpless, “dead dog” sinners!
Jesus Christ, in the totality of His glorious person and His efficacious work,
is the sum and substance of all that we hold dearest,
and of all that we are and have in our relationship with the Father.
MAURICE MONTGOMERY
This wily devil!
What a foe to one’s peace is one’s own spirit! What shall I call it?
It is often an infernal spirit. Why? Because it bears the mark of
Satan upon it. The pride of our spirit, the presumption of our
spirit, the hypocrisy of our spirit, the intense selfishness of our
spirit, are often hidden from us. This wily devil, SELF, can wear
such masks and assume such forms! This serpent, SELF, can so
creep and crawl, can so twist and turn, and can disguise itself
under such false appearances.—that it is often hidden from
ourselves.
Who is the greatest enemy we have to fear? We all have our
enemies. But who is our greatest enemy? He whom you carry in
your own bosom.—your daily, hourly, and unmovable companion,
who entwines himself in nearly every thought of your heart.—who
sometimes puffs up with pride, sometimes inflames with lust,
sometimes inflates with presumption, and sometimes works under
pretended humility and fleshly holiness. God is determined to
stain the pride of human glory. He will never let SELF, (which is
but another word for the creature,) wear the crown of victory. It
must be crucified, denied, and mortified!
Christians are not only to take heed
that they weep moderately for worldly afflictions, but they are also to take
care of, that they are not EXCESSIVE in their sorrows for their sins and
corruptions…
Sorrowing for sin is excessive, when it lays down DISCOURAGEMENTS
on the soul TO COME INTO CHRIST for pardon and remission. When a man will so
grieve for sin that he dares NOT venture to LOOK UP to Jesus Christ for mercy,
and to LAY HOLD ON A PROMISE for his comfort; when a sinner does this, then he
mourns excessively. If the children of Israel in the wilderness, when they were
stung with fiery serpents, had not the boldness to look up to the brazen
serpent, they could not have been healed and recovered. So when sorrow for sin
makes us that we cannot look up to Christ for pardon, then it is excessive.
Sorrow and tears for sin are never right until they are like floods of water to
drive us to Christ…
You that count sin your greatest burden, that every mole
hill of sin is like a mountain on you, take heed that you do not be overwhelmed
with sorrow, that you cannot see comfort at all in Christ, and in the promises
of salvation through him; but you look to the Lord Jesus Christ and see that
there is more in Christ to save you than there is in yourselves to condemn you.
Though there is an abundance of corruption in you, yet there is a FULLNESS OF
SATISFACTION in Christ, “He is able to save to the uttermost all that shall
come unto God by him,” (Hebrews 7:25).
– CHRISTOPHER LOVE (1618-1651)
EXPOSING GOD TO BE GOD. Speaking of the doctrine of election, the apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 9, verse 11 about two twin boys that had not yet been born. Having not yet been born, neither of the boys had done any good or evil. This is to show us, teach us and reveal to us that salvation is not all by a work that we do. God determined one of these two boys to be saved before they had any opportunity in and of themselves to do anything good or evil. Neither child had done anything good to recommend himself, and neither child had committed any evil to hinder God’s choosing of them. One was simply saved by the purpose of God according to election? So, what is the purpose of God according to election? We know this much, it is “Not of works, but of Him (of God) that calleth.” It is God’s purpose to have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and compassion on whom He will have compassion, proving that it has nothing to do with what the chosen sinner does. (Romans 9:15) The original word used for “purpose” in this verse actually means “to set forth, or to expose.” The purpose of God according to election stands true and it “set’s forth and exposes” God to be God. We could just as correctly read what Paul said this way. “That the setting forth and exposing of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him that calleth.” The truth about election (God’s choosing of a people) is that it exposes God to be the Sovereign One who saves. Election reveals God to be the One who makes one sinner to differ from another. (1 Corinthians 4:7) No, we are not saved by election! We are saved in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. But election does set forth, expose and reveal the kind of God that saves. Election actually exposes the only God that saves, and that is a Sovereign One. DLEdemsen