Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
When saints talk about the Savior, sinners want to separate, and so must saints separate from sinners and negative believers when they want to live and talk up their sinning. II Cor.6:14-17.
We noted in our last lesson that the saints who are saved during the tribulation period will face economic hardships beyond imagination. The temptation to partake of commercial Babylon and its easy way to temporary satisfaction will entice everyone for the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation period. Many will think the Antichrist is the answer to all of the world’s woes. The church / state relationship will obviously look like the church cares when no one else does. This is how the Roman Emperor Constantine became so loved. He simply converted the political Roman Empire into the Roman Church / State Empire. This empire has never fully died and it will be revived during the Antichrist's short reign.
Human good will do as it always does and that is to counterfeit the righteousness of God. But in the last 3 1/2 years of this period once the Antichrist takes over the apostate church he will demand everyone who comes under his control to wear the mark of the beast in order to eat, or else they will have to scrounge for themselves.
v. 4
Here we see another voice come from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues.” The verb come out, is an [ Aorist Active Imperative from exerchoma]. Here we have a command for the tribulation saints to immediately separate themselves from this wicked system. This system is filled with violence, sex, murder, debauchery, stealing and every vile imagination. Do you remember Lot who settled in Sodom and Gomorrah. He was apparently a believer, but he lived in the midst of sin city. He let the culture of his day rub off on him so much so that he was willing to turn his own daughters over to the vile men of his city as a trade off to protect God’s angel servants, Gen.19. As you know these angels didn’t need Lot’s help.
Notice that the judgment of God upon believers will fall upon them as well if they choose to join in with the lost [be not partakers- be not fellowshippers, sun/koinoneo] with the lost. After all if saints want to fellowship with the works of darkness why should they be spared the same earthly judgment as the lost. If a believer commits the sins of the lost and gets the diseases of the lost he cannot just say, “God forgive me” and the disease will go away. We all must accept the responsibility for our actions. Never forget, “God is responsible for the fact of freedom, but man is responsible for the acts of his freedom.” Christian Apologetics - Geisler
During the tribulation period some tribulation saints will not be protected from God’s wrath if they choose to receive the mark of the beast. They will inherit heaven after death, but in disgrace. So a warning is given to the saints to separate themselves from the sins of commercial Babylonism. We need to heed that warning ourselves. Whenever our eyes are bigger than our bank accounts and we spend money that is not ours, we can easily bankrupt our future and enslave ourselves till our death. When we think we have to keep up the Joneses we had better ask the Joneses what it cost them to live the way they live. The saint needs to learn self control. During the tribulation period temptations for believers will be at an all time high. Remember the old sin nature will be at work in the lives of the tribulation saints. If you partake of the sins you will also partake of the judgment.
v. 5 The sins and lives of those sinners have collected into a gigantic mass. The verb havereached comes from the Greek word [ kolla ] for which we get our word glue.
God cannot forget what has not been judged. In position, God’s Son Jesus Christ has paid in his sacrifice, the payment for all sin, but in practice men are still held accountable for their sins. God is not mocked for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, Gal.6:7.
Commercial Babylon has ransacked homes, communities, and even nations with its sins. The god of materialism has made fools and murderers and slaves of billions of people through time.
God in heaven has not forgotten. Before Christ’s kingdom is established this evil will be crushed. Gangs and mafia thugs have roamed the streets extorting money for drugs and sex and power for many years. Corporations have ripped the hearts right out of honest workers all in the name of the “bottom line.” Mortgage brokers have extended loans to families that they will never be able to repay knowing that down the road in just a few short years the banks and lenders will get those homes back with money to pocket. Families are forced to move out and seek shelter elsewhere. Vile men know the wants of folks and the covetousness in those folk’s hearts steers them wrong every time.
v.6 This corrupt system will be rewarded with interest. With what sorrow she has brought to countless souls God will pay her and her merchants back with interest.
During the tribulation period this evil system will hunt down and slay the saints of God. Please remember though the harlot church is turned on by the Antichrist, she is still culpable for her part in bringing misery to millions. Think of all those folks who have paid and will continue to pay indulgences to supposedly relieve the suffering of their deceased relatives. Think of all the amassed treasure and fortunes of those who have given it up in hopes of saving themselves or some loved ones souls only because they were told this was their only chance.
v.7-8
In one day God will dispatch his holy angels to reign terror on this wicked city. Those who swallowed up the goods of its subjects and lived lavishly on them will pay. This religious queen will have courted and politicked herself into governments where she has wielded her power to gain religious servitude among the masses and where she has wielded the sword upon those opposed to her. God’s children have suffered and she has to pay. Her payday is coming.
The great treasure trove she has amassed and all the power she has had over kingdoms will fall in one day.
This religious harlot with all her wealth and power will arrogantly say she will see no sorrow. She does not believe her sins will come home to roost. She does not believe she will reap what she has sown, but God will not be mocked. She believes her power and her wealth are untouchable, but she is so wrong. God can intervene in the lives of men and nations at any time. He may be silent now, but he is not asleep. God’s justice never sleeps. He has known all things since before the beginning of time, and when his time of wrath is ready to be poured out nothing will stop it. This is as much a part of the righteousness of God as his perfect love. Many people want a God they can manipulate. Unfortunately many folks including uninformed and misinformed believers serve God in ignorance. Their ignorance isolates them from reality.