This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day two together of our look through Revelation chapter 18. Yesterday we
began to look at God's perspective on this world system. You might call it
selfishness, you might call it pride.

We began to look at God's perspective on Babylon. And first we saw the voice of
condemnation. God says Babylon will fall, it's not going to last.

So why would I invest my life in that which is not going to last? There is a
second voice that we hear from God in verses four to eight. And that is the
voice of separation.

Let me read for you beginning with verses four and five. Then I heard another
voice from heaven. Remember these are four voices.

Then I heard another voice from heaven say, "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.
For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. " God's
perspective here is that we are to come out, we are to be separated from
Babylon.

Come out from her, my people. Now back in Jeremiah 51, remember that is the
parallel, the physical parallel to what's happening here. The fall of the
physical Babylon, these exact same words are spoken.

Jeremiah 51 verse 45, "Come out of her, my people, run for your lives. Run from
the fierce anger of the Lord. " God's going to physically destroy a city called
Babylon.

And so the warning is to God's people, get out. That city is going to be
destroyed because of its sin. You need to get away, run away from that place,
because it's not going to last.

In that case, that city was going to fall. And because of it, God's people were
to separate themselves physically from that city. Isn't it wise to separate
ourselves from everything in this world that we know is going to fall apart one
day?

That's God's word to us here. Why wouldn't we do that? Just as you'd escape a
city that you knew was going to be destroyed, you want to escape from the
things, go away from the things that you know aren't going to last.

Why wouldn't we let go of those things? Why do we hang on? Why do we not get
separated?

This is a perspective. Be separated from that which is not going to last that
helps you and I to live godly lives. It's a perspective that I need to help me
to live the godly life that God is challenging me to live.

Separate yourself from this world, from its values, from its passions. And
there's a warning behind that separation, that call, that voice. Separate
yourself or you're going to share in the sins of this world system and you're
going to experience the plagues of this world system.

There is a great warning here. Watch out for the roads that this system of
selfishness and pride can easily take you down. Now as a believer in Christ,
you're not going to lose your relationship with God.

But as a believer in Christ, you can lose your peace, you can lose your hope,
you can lose your impact. You can lose so much of the reward that God wants to
give into your life, both in this world and in the next. Separate yourself from
this world.

Now this is one of the great calls of God for God's people. It's also one of the
great confusions I believe today as I watch you and I as God's people trying to
live this out. So let's get practical about this.

What does this mean? Separate yourself from this world. Does this mean I should
never watch a TV show because it's like of this world or go to a movie that
maybe I should only go to church?

That's what I do seven days a week, 24/7. Come out from her, my people. You need
to understand, to understand God's perspective on this, that there's two
extremes with this.

This idea of come out from her. And we don't want either of the extremes. One
extreme is to get away from her entirely, escape from her.

There are groups of people who believe that the way to separate yourself from
this world is to go live on a mountain somewhere or separate yourself in some
way that you're not in contact with anything that would be so-called worldly.
These people used to be called monks. They go live on a mountain somewhere and
they would be more godly, everybody thought, because they lived on a mountain
and they weren't in touch with this world.

The problem was they didn't bring the light of Christ to this world. They didn't
bring the light of hope to this world. Jesus said be in the world but not of the
world.

He didn't say separate yourself entirely from the world because he wanted us to
bring the light to the world. Now today in America we have a group called the
Amish who have decided that their way of being holy is to separate themselves
from the electronics, from some of the machines, from some of the entertainments
of this world. And they feel like if we do that, then that's the way to be holy.

The idea is I can't be connected to this world in any way. It's not just the
monks. It's not just the Amish.

A lot of believers do that. We build a sort of a Christian subculture. And so we
say I'm going to separate myself from the world.

I can only watch Christian TV. I can only listen to Christian radio. And if I'm
in doubt of whether it's Christian or not, I put a fish symbol on it and then it
becomes Christian.

Now it's okay for me to do or okay for me to be a part of. But then inevitably
what happens is it all sinks into a sort of a Christian subculture and we're not
influencing the world anymore. Does this sound right?

Does this sound like what God means when he says come out from her, that somehow
we should build a Christian subculture that's never in contact with the world,
that's never influencing the world for Christ? That's not right. We all know
that.

That's one extreme. But then some people go to the other extreme. The other
extreme is to look just like her, to look just like this world, saved but not
living any kind of a different life, saying you know what, I want people to know
that I can have fun as a Christian.

And so you just live just like the world. We want people to know that we have
freedom in Christ and because of our freedom in Christ we can go to the same
movies that the world goes to. We can eat the same places the world wants to
eat.

We can drink the same things that the world wants to drink. But then in the end
we're just the same. One of the best pictures of this in the Old Testament is a
guy by the name of Lot.

A lot of you know this story. He lived in a place called Sodom and Gomorrah, a
very evil place. He was a believer in God living there and he wanted to blend
in.

Here's the interesting thing about Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot. Lot who was the
sole believer, he and his family in that city. The interesting thing is
everybody in that city knew that he was a believer.

All the unbelievers knew that he was a believer in God. Everybody in that city
knew that he should be living a different life but he was trying to blend in, to
act as if that wasn't true. As a believer in Christ, in your office you're
trying to act like you're not a believer so that you can fit in.

Everybody knows that you're the light of Christ. You can't hide that. You cannot
hide the presence of Christ in your life.

There's something about Jesus coming into your life that changes you. So if you
say I'm just going to blend in, I'll just tell the same jokes, I'll do the same
things and maybe that somehow will let them know that it's okay to be a
Christian. Why would they want that?

There's no difference. And the truth is they know you're a believer and they
feel uncomfortable with the fact that you're not acting out the heart and the
passion that's in your life. Now I'm not saying that as a believer you need to
snub everybody in your office but I'm saying as a believer live out who you are
and if somebody wants to snub you for that, that is their problem, not your
problem.

So there's these two extremes. One is I try to escape entirely from this world.
I try to lose all connection with this world.

The other is I try to look just like this world. So what's the answer? How do we
do this?

How do we live in Babylon and yet also come out from her? We all need some help
on this one. How do I live in the world as Jesus said but not be of the world?

The best way I know to do it is to picture that Jesus Christ is right there with
you every step of your life. The way to be in this world and not of this world
is to recognize that Jesus came into the world so that he could be part of your
world. Let me say that again.

The way to be in this world and not of this world is to recognize that Jesus
Christ came into this world so that he could be part of your world. And when you
realize he's part of everything that I do, that gives a new sensitivity to the
things about you. And when you realize Jesus is going with you in everything
that you do, it causes you to choose what is right and what is wrong.

You think knowing that Jesus is with you everywhere you go might change where
you go? Of course, you're not going to say, "Hey, Jesus, let's go out and get
drunk with my friends. " You'd never do that.

Jesus is right there with you. You think it might change what you do? You think
you're going to say, "Hey, Jesus, let's sit down here.

Could you help me cheat on my taxes? I know you're sitting right here beside me.
Could you help me figure this out?

" You're not going to do that. Now, if you ask Jesus about taxes, he'd tell you
to go look in the fish's mouth. That's what he did with his disciples.

So he has an answer for that one anyway. The questions of life become a lot
clearer when you realize Jesus is there with you. And it's not just the
negatives, what you let go of.

It's also what you go toward. Jesus is here with me. I see someone is hurting.

I want to go right on by because I'm busy. Jesus Christ, what do you think? And
all of a sudden you realize, "I need to stop.

I need to talk to that person. " What seems so important to me isn't nearly so
important when I see that person through Jesus' eyes. The best way that I know
to live out this truth of coming out from her is to recognize that Jesus Christ
is with us in Babylon and he helps us to live as his followers in this world as
he heads us towards heaven, heads us towards eternity.

That's how you come out from that way of thinking, that way of being. That's how
you be, as Jesus said, in the world but not of the world. Let's take a moment to
ask this incredible, that this incredible power and grace that God wants to give
for us to live this way would be a part of our lives today.

Our Father, we want to live out the life that Jesus is giving us. We don't want
to look just like the world around us. We want to be light in this world.

We're not perfect, any of us, but we're believers in you and we're followers of
you and we pray that as we seek to follow you, we would be able to bring light
to somebody today. Not our light, but your light. Let it shine like a city on a
hill so that people can see.

Lord, help us to resist these two extremes. One of never wanting to talk to
somebody who's not a believer, just only talking to the Christians in my office
or school, and the other of talking just like everybody else talks. There's no
difference in my life.

And instead, help us to live out this life of following you, of knowing you're
right there with us every step of the way. It's not a life of guilt, it's a life
of joy. It's not a life of Jesus, you told us, it's not a life of burden.

It's a life of realizing you're there to take our burdens. Let us live that way
today, we pray, Jesus, in your name, amen. Join us tomorrow, we're going to take
a closer look at this voice of separation.