Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues,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.And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues:
3 sermons cite this verse
… Now look at the appeal for believers to leave Babylon beginning in verse 4. I heard another voice from heaven, and most likely this is the voice of God himself saying, come out of her my people so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues. Angels don't have people they can commend to do certain things. So this is God saying, I want my people who are living in Babylon to come out of Babylon, not participate in our sins and receive my judgment. Now, who is he talking about? Well, remember, although all Christians will be raptured prior to the beginning of tribulation, there will be people who will be saved during the tribulation. They will pay a great price to be saved. Many will be martyred. They will be persecuted, but there will be believers living in Babylon and under this system. And what he's saying is, I want you to come out of Babylon. Now he's not talking about geographically leaving Babylon. The command throughout scripture is we are to be in the world without being of the world. God's will for you and me is not to go live in some monastery or hunker down in a bunker someplace and wait for the end to come. God doesn't want us out of the world. We're to influence this world. We're to be in the world without adopting the values of the world. That's what he's saying here. Come out from her. Don't participate in her …
… Look at 18 verse four, John will tell you. Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. Now, remember real quick, there's two ways to read Revelation. You can read it firstly as prophecies about a time coming in the future, an actual seven-year period in the future where an actual antichrist and an actual false prophet reign. There will be a time during that seven-year period when God literally says to his people, get out of Babylon. I'm about to destroy it. And those of us who are still around at that point will flee the premises. But I've told you, that's a valid way to read this. There's another important way to read Revelation and that is to read it as descriptions of forces that are already at work in the world now. Because while there is an Antichrist coming one day, the spirit of Antichrist is already here, John tells us. …
… They're praying for divine vengeance to requite those who took their lives. In the eighteenth chapter of Revelation, verse 4, I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, My people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues. So her sins, talking about essentially the whole earth during the tribulation, her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquity. And then comes the cry, pay her back, even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds in the cup which she has mixed, mixed twice as much for her, to the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree, give her torment and mourning." Verse 8 adds, "'For this reason one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she'll be burned up with fire, for the Lord God who judges her is strong.'" Again, praise to God for His judgment. Only when we understand judgment, only when we understand being cursed, having damnation pronounced on you, can we understand Galatians chapter 3. …