Come out of her, my People! Part 9
Today's mini-sermon is the last of a 9-part series that has been appearing
in the past 8 Saturday, Sunday and Thursday editions of the Answers2Prayer
newsletters.
As we look ahead at VERY uncertain times, the Holy Spirit continually brings
certain scriptural passages to my attention--passages that I KNOW are for
such times as these, and that I KNOW I am to share with each of you. One
such passage is found in Rev.:
“Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my
people” (Rev. 18:4).
In the past 8 mini-sermons, we learned that we need to come out of Babylon.
We've seen that Babylon represents a church, and we've learned that to keep
ourselves pure so that we don't commit "spiritual adultery" with "Babylon",
we cannot put anything above God's Word. Finally, we discovered a few
characteristics of the "Babylonian" church. These include "lukewarm"ness,
legalism, confusion, lack of trust, self-centeredness, and the condition of
having forgotten that Jesus is our best friend.
Now I would like to propose that the "Babylon" message has something to do
with Jesus' second coming! Did you ever stop to wonder just why it is
that Jesus hasn't come back yet? Actually, the answer to this is quite
simple, for Jesus gave it to us Himself: "This gospel of the kingdom will
be preached to all the world, and then shall the end come." (Matt.
24:14)
Why hasn't Jesus come back? The gospel hasn't yet reached the whole world!
But Lord, why hasn't the gospel reached the entire world? Why aren't our
churches full?
Could it be that the army isn't yet ready? Could it be that, like the
warriors of Gideon's day, we are still too focused on our own selfish
ambitions? Are we still afraid of what is to come? Do we still lack faith in
God to lead and protect us? Do we belong to the 31,700 men in Gideon's army
who aren't ready to fight for the Lord? Are we too focused on our churches?
Are we too legalistic? Too lukewarm? Too unwilling to act as God's vessels
and let Him do the work through us?
COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE!
Come out of her so that you don't suffer the same consequences as Babylon!
Keep yourselves pure before the Lord!-Go to Him for truth-not your
churches!
Come and re-establish the communication with Jesus that is lost in
Babylon!
Come out of your legalism and follow me!
Come unto Me and I will give you rest!
Come to know Jesus as your personal Best Friend!
Come out of your self-centered lives and make your friendship with Jesus
and your commitments to Jesus' assignments number ONE in your lives!
Accept My bread of life! Accept My robe of righteousness! Allow Me to
provide for you as a loving husband should!
Stop trusting in yourselves or in your churches! Trust in Me instead!
Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the Lord!
Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so
that you will not receive any of her plagues!
The walls of Babylon will fall!
COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE!
BABYLON IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN, THAT GREAT CITY, BECAUSE SHE MADE ALL NATIONS DRINK OF THE WINE OF THE WRATH OF HER FORNICATION . . . FALLEN! FALLEN IS BABYLON THE GREAT . . .
Dear Lord, Help each of us to search your hearts for a moment. Open our eyes
that we may see if there is any need to "Come out of her" -- to accept Jesus
as our best Friend, to harbor a relationship with Him above all else, to
accept His gospel truth and do away with legalism, to stop looking at the
church for answers and direction, but instead, to look to Jesus! Lord,
I pray that each person reading this sermon today will Long to "Come
out of her", and will make a solemn commitment with You today to:
COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE!
Love in Christ,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets (
www.sermonillustrator.org/minisermons/ ), Answers2Prayer Ministries,
www.Answers2Prayer.org ,