“Leaving: What Following Christ Requires” Leaving Babylon, Revelation 18:1-8

Well coincidentally enough, in light of all that has happened around here this week, I found this interesting medical report about Hyper Tension or high blood pressure. We know today that hypertension can lead to serious complications. It increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and death. We call it today the silent killer, because we know how serious it can be.

In the past, though, medical professionals, doctors, didn't always know this or if they did know it, they didn’t recognize this to be true. In fact, some doctors felt quite the opposite and even argued that hypertension was some made-up disorder that didn't need to be treated at all.

In 1931, Dr. John Hay, Professor of Medicine at Liverpool University, wrote that "there is some truth in the saying that the greatest danger to a man with a high blood pressure lies in its discovery, because then some fool is certain to try and reduce it"

Tragic results happened because of ignorance like this and other doctors who had the same feelings. For example, I found this case study of a man named Frank. Frank was diagnosed with hypertension in 1937 at the age of fifty-four. His blood pressure was 162/98 and he was considered by docs at the time to be "mild hypertension." He wasn’t given any treatment.

By 1940, his blood pressure was running 180/88. In 1941, his pressure had risen to 188/105.

He was told by docs that maybe if he would cut back on smoking and relax a bit from his work that his condition might improve. But it didn’t.

By 1944, Frank’s blood pressure was running even higher, and he suffered a series of small strokes.

This was followed by some common symptoms of heart failure, so his doctors placed him on a low-salt diet with hydrotherapy and he did see some improvement in his health.

Unfortunately though by February 1945, Frank’s blood pressure was 260/145, and on April 12, 1945, he was complaining of a severe headache with his blood pressure measuring at 300/190.

He lost consciousness and he died later that day at the age of sixty-three.

True story… Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States. I tell you that because unrecognized, undocumented, untreated problems like high blood pressure and chest pains, and stroke can have devastating effects on your heart. AND it’s even worse when the professionals who are supposed to identify and treat the problem deny that it even exists.

Last week, Gus began this new series, called “Leaving: What following Jesus requires of us.” And if you remember, he talked about how the Israelite people were finally leaving Egypt… after 430 years! And even though life in Egypt was a hard life, a life of slavery to the Egyptians, there was still some comfort there because it was all that they had known.

It was their reality. And even though for them following God’s plan for them meant freedom, as soon as they faced some discomfort, some fear, they wanted to retreat back into the “days in Egypt where they sat around pots of meat!” but noone’s talking about the fact that they were getting their backs whipped to make bricks faster and they were being beaten to build Pharoah’s palaces faster?

So, In order for us to properly follow Jesus where he wants to lead us, we have to leave a life of fear and live in to a life of Faith in Jesus Christ.

We have to LEAVE EGYPT

And as Gus reminded us last week, that’s not always going to be easy. We’ll be asked to make some real sacrifices as we walk along that journey with Him.

And so today as we pick up there, I want to show you that following Jesus also requires us to LEAVE BABYLON.

In our passage that Caleb read for us a few minutes ago, the apostle John writes down these words, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.” Verse 2

“Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;” Verse 4

“For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.” Verse 8

Now remember… the book of Revelation is John’s writing of a vision that had been shown to him after he had been banished for preaching and teaching about Jesus still later into his older years.

His original audience were the Christians who were gathering in the churches in Asia Minor, which you may remember that the Lord addressed throughout the the book of Revleation.

Obviously in his day there were lots of other gods and idols that people all around the Christians were worshipping. They also had a tyrant Roman Emperor, Domitian, who claimed himself to be a god too!

In this revelation that John writes about, Babylon is a mythological female figure. She has seduced and tempted so many to fall. She was actually by many by her full title “Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and Abominations of the World”.

Most importantly for the John’s audience, the Christians who would be reading and listening to the book being read… Babylon the Great was a metaphor for the very sinful, very paganistic, Roman Empire that they were living under.

So in reality for the Christians of that day and very importantly for us STILL TODAY, John is saying Babylon will fall!

This sinful, pagan way of life that the Christians saw clearly in the Roman Empire and the sinful, pagan way of life that we still clearly see all around us today… Babylon… WILL FALL.

And John is giving us this warning that we NEED TO LEAVE, if we’re going to follow Jesus we need to LEAVE BABYLON right now. GET OUT!!!

And it’s not going to be easy… see, our lives, mine and yours both. Have gotten so acclimated to this world that we live in and that we work in and that we play in… we’ve gotten so used to living here that many times our lives… and lives of the nonbelievers we know… non followers of Jesus… sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference!

And what I believe the Lord is saying to us here this morning is that we need to LEAVE NOW! We need to get out!

Following Jesus REQUIRES us to LEAVE our lives of sin and begin living in to… a life of salvation through Jesus.

I love how Matthew begins his gospel by talking about the birth of Jesus and how the Magi had come and then Herod put out the order for all baby boys to be killed, then an angel appears to Joseph while they’re hiding from the king all the way down in Egypt and he tells Joseph, “get up and take the child and his mother and go back to the land of Israel.”

So Joseph and Mary and Jesus move to Nazareth. And then Matthew tells us, “IN THOSE DAYS John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 3:1, 2 John the Baptist says the kingdom of Heaven is at hand… so repent.

Jesus would use this same word after He spent His time in the desert, and then He began His ministry and the scripture tells us that

“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17

The apostle Peter used the same exact word as He began preaching and teaching on the day of Pentecost. After he preached this powerful message in Jerusalem and the audience the scripture tells us was cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other disciples, “What must we do?”

And Peter’s response was the same, “Repent! And be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you’ll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Repent! Leave! Get Out!

Some Bible translations might read “Turn!” or “Return!”

The actual translation of this word in the Greek is the word metanaeo.

Which literally means “To turn around…”

And we ALL need to do it! There’s not any of us that this doesn’t apply to.

Paul tells the church in Rome that “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

You know like I do, Repentance doesn’t seem to be a very popular topic in today’s culture. It doesn’t seem to be a popular topic in today’s church. We want to ATTRACT visitors, we want to bring in new people but the message is clear… We need to REPENT!

In fact the opposite of repentance is what most people seem to promote.

More often, I think, it seems we would rather justify ourselves, or many of us would rather compare ourselves and compare our sins to other people’s sins. It doesn’t seem as bad that way.

I feel like people today want to parade for their right to hate, or march for their right to live immorally, or to normalize or compare our sin.

Repentance in our world today is hard because the things people used to hide in shame they now openly profess and live out.

I read of a study that one psychologist did to try and understand why some people lie, cheat, and steal. So this man and his team went to college campuses and they offered to pay the students in this study for every math puzzle they could solve in five minutes.

At the end of the five minutes, the students were asked to grade their own papers and shred them in the back of the room. The students then stood in line and were paid for every right answer they had.

Well what the students didn't know is that the shredder didn't actually shred their papers so the researchers could check their answers to see if they were telling the truth. The results of the study showed that, on average, students reported solving six problems, when in fact they had only solved only four.

Over the course of their research, 30,000 students were tested, the results showed that out of all of those students, there were only 12 "big cheaters," compared to 18,000 "small cheaters."

The big cheaters, when they were paid, stole a total of $150, while the small cheaters stole around $36,000 - just one or two dollars at a time.

They team did this same research all over the world—in the United States, Western Europe, Turkey, Israel, China, and several other countries—and the results were always roughly the same.

This psychologist concluded that most dishonesty happens among ordinary people who think of themselves as BASICALLY honest people. But when it was all added together, all of the "little" dishonesty had made a huge impact.

You see, most of the problems that we face as humans… they’re not rooted in the lives of murderers and psychopaths - life's big cheaters.

Most of the problems that we face are rooted in the lives of typical, ordinary people who find ways to justify or rationalize their own bad behavior. I believe sometimes want to think of ourselves as honest people but we want to enjoy the benefits of dishonesty.

So WHATEVER it is, ALL fall short of the Glory of God.

And in our shortcomings, we SHOW our true colors by our actions.

We become those things.

I heard someone say we become just like the things that we worship.

Some people worship power, we worship money, we worship influence and fame.

Some people and maybe even some of us here today we still worship actual idols. We worship things made out of gold, or silver, or wood or even plastic.

Think about that sentence for a minute, We become just like the thing or the things that we worship.

And this is where we see the problem… but this is also where we see THE SOLUTION!

Because what we worship… The things that we pour our hearts and our souls into. They may show themselves outwardly, but it’s actually an internal issue… it’s a matter of the heart!

And you know that that’s the definition of Sin, right? ANYthing that takes the place of our relationship with Jesus. ANYTHING that we place before Him in higher honor. ANYTHING that separates us from God.

And so if it’s the love of this world, if it’s issues of anger or hatred or dishonesty. If it’s a relationship that you’re in that’s outside of the will of God. Alcoholism and pornography. If it’s pride or the pursuit of money or fame.

And you know the things the you struggle with. You know the things that you come here every Sunday asking Him forgiveness for! You KNOW the things that you put before Him. You know the things that you WORSHIP.

Everyone in this room, Everyone here today in this building, we all have our own struggles. And YOU KNOW THE THINGS that you need to come to grips with and flush out of your lives and LEAVE BEHIND.

Every Friday morning, we’ve been studying together as a staff from a lesson series called, Radical.

In one of the lessons, David Platt, says that instead of us trying to twist God’s Word to fit our lives to try to justify or to try to release ourselves from the guilt of our sin.

I love this picture that George Burden shared late this week. And it fit in so good with this message that I just had to share it. This picture says, “The Gospel is meant to change the sinner, not for the sinner to change the Gospel to suit their sin!”

We need to quit trying to twist the Gospel to fit our lives! And INSTEAD, we need to begin to twist our lives to fit the truth of God’s Word IN our lives.

But, you know, if we choose to walk out of here each week feeling justified that we did our due diligence by coming to church and singing the songs and raising our hands, and you do all this, but there’s no change, you’ve already proved externally what you really believe about Jesus internally.

If our lives don’t reflect the character of Christ, there’s a deeper problem at hand. And once again, it’s a matter of the heart!

But if we would come to Him. God changes our hearts and we begin to care about what He cares about and the RESULT of that… the overflow of that is that we begin to obey Him we begin to follow Him we begin to WORSHIP… HIM! REPENTANCE!

I told you before, it’s the problem and it’s the solution! Because we BECOME like the thing, or the person, that we WORSHIP.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther is known to have written the famous work that he called the "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," you may or may not have heard of that before but it is a world renowned writing. More people would be familiar with its more commonly known name, “the 95 Theses” and he posted them on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg Germany.

For those of you who don’t know Martin Luther was the professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg and his purpose in this document was to begin an academic debate about indulgences.

Indulgences is the name of the practice of doing good works or offering money in order to remove punishment for sin.

Luther was disturbed by how that hard decision encouraged people to want to pay for forgiveness. Others wanted to “work it off” by doing good works to balance things out rather than to give up their sin and repent. the very first of the 95 theses, disagreed with that whole mindset. Thesis number one, Luther wrote… "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when he said 'Repent,' He willed (he wanted) that the whole life of believers should be (a life) of repentance."

I know there’s a lot of hard workers in here… but No matter HOW HARD you work. You can’t work enough to cover for your sins. And no matter how much money you have. You could never give enough to pay the penalty for your sins.

A change of heart. A turn around. REPENTANCE is really the only feasible solution. As long as we deny that, we keep ourselves separated from God. Because as long as we deny it, it’s not only a sin issue… it’s a heart issue.

After King David had been confronted by Nathan the prophet and realized the true spiritual damage of his relationship with Bathsheba, he would write these words. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” Psalm 51:1

And later in that same Psalm he wrote “Create in me a clean heart, Oh, God and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

David’s repentance was a turning point in his relationship with God. And even though he still struggled through his life because of that sin and generations of his own children still struggled because of that sin. But in the end God himself called David a man after His own heart.

But it’s hard! Laving Babylon is hard! Leaving the ways of this world and Leaving my own sinful nature is hard!

If I repent I’ll have to admit that I’m a hypocrite and a moral failure. Yes. Yes you will! But aren't we all?

But you have to do it… WE have to do it. Or else we’ll go down in flames with Babylon when it falls… or else you’ll die trying to cover it up.

Because unrecognized, undocumented, untreated problems like addiction and dishonesty and pride and hatred can have devastating effects on your heart.

I don’t know if you have seen this report that NBC news released this week but it’s an incredible story of Ken Parker, who was a Grand Dragon in the Ku Klux Klan since 2012. He was with hundreds of other white nationalists at a Unite the Right rally a year ago in Charlottesville, Virginia. He said that he knew that when they went in there, it was going to turn into a racially heated situation. And it wasn’t going to work out for either side.

That day just a few hours before the violent clash that led to the death of Heather Heyer, he met an African American filmmaker who was documenting the rally for a documentary she was working on.

Because of her kindness that day and because of a chance encounter he had months later at his apartment complex with a man named William McKinnon III, he began a relationship with William AS WELL AS the church that McKinnon pastors… this past April 17th, Ken Parker shared his testimony about how he had become a Nazi because the KKK wasn’t hateful enough for him… but now because of the love he saw in some key people the Lord had put in his path, he know is taking laser treatments to remove his tattoos that express that hatred and wants to say sorry to all those that he has spread hate and discontent among. He wants to apologize.”

Just a few weeks ago, on July 21st Ken Parker put on a different kind of robe and he waded down into the Atlantic Ocean with his NOW pastor, William McKinnon and gave his life to Jesus in Christian baptism.

Parker said, “I was into it so much… it was my life, for six years. I never thought I would get out.” But to anyone who will listen he says, “You can definitely get out of this movement. You need to GET OUT. You’re throwing your life away.”

Leaving a life of sin is hard. Repentance is hard! It may be the most difficult thing you’ve ever done. But you definitely don’t have to do it alone.

No amount of Good Work will ever be enough to cover our sins… No amount of money would ever be enough to pay enough to cover my sins.

But that's EXACTLY why Jesus came, to save the world from itself and to save us from ourselves.

The apostle Paul wrote, 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I love how the amplified Bible translates this verse “But where sin increased and abounded, grace has surpassed it and increased the more and SUPERabounded.

You see, it’s ONLY because of God’s Grace… It’s ONLY because of God's love for us that repentance is even option for us! We shouldn't even have the opportunity to do this, but because of Jesus we do.

And in repentance we don’t have to look back any more… when we repent it gives us the freedom to look forward and to see the promises God has for us.

And you know, When you get that, that’s when you realize that Jesus' words are not words of condemnation, but words of invitation into a new life.

Jesus is telling us You cannot have life unless you leave your life of sin and live in to a life of salvation through Him.

“I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the light, and no one comes to the Father except through me."