The video shown during the sermon was described as a production created by the church. The speaker prayed for the congregation and mentioned that some people may choose to stay behind and seek the Lord in the sanctuary. The speaker then discussed the book of Revelation, explaining that the first three chapters serve as an introduction to the overwhelming scenes depicted in the rest of the book. Chapter 18 was highlighted as describing life as it is currently known, particularly in the United States, focusing on pleasure, entertainment, and sensuality.

The theme of the conference this year is come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Now if we were fully in the light, I guess we wouldn't need that invitation, would we? But the reality is there is a very dark world that we must live within, a darkened culture. C.S. Lewis called Earth the silent planet, but I prefer to think of it as the dark planet. And the reason I say that is because of the billions of planets out there. To our knowledge, it's the only one that lives under a divine curse. It's the only one that is infested with devils. It's the only one that has experienced sin in all of its evil branches. It's the dark planet because it lies in the power of the evil one, the prince of darkness. And even more disconcerting is the fact that it's only going to continue to grow darker in the days ahead. That is the reality that you and I must face for the remainder of our lives. Now, Pastor Jeff and Pastor Dave will be bringing lighthearted messages later about, you know, you can count on Pastor Dave. He'll ridicule me when I'm not here, of course. They get to speak about walking in the light, a nice positive subject. But for my part, I really did, seriously, I felt like I needed to focus on this aspect of darkness because you can't walk in the light if you're still attached to darkness. We must deal with the darkness that's in our lives. I'm going to be sharing out of Revelation 18, if you want to open up there. The title of my message is, Out of the Darkness of Babylon. And I felt like this was what the Lord laid on my heart to share about. I want to just go ahead and read these verses, the first five verses. For all the nations, in other words, the people who dwell on this earth, whose hearts have been given over to what this temporal life offers. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality. Now, I think you understand that anytime we're talking about spiritual immorality, we're talking about being away from God and so on. And the kings of the earth, in other words, those who lead other people, have committed acts of immorality with her. And the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. 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. For her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. All right, now before I get into the message, I want to just give a quick overview of the book of Revelation. The first three chapters are introductory in nature, and they're basically preparing the reader for what is going to be expressed and the overwhelming scenes that will be depicted in the rest of the book. And then in chapters four and five, we are offered a sight into the courts of heaven where God is telling his son that he can now move forward with his purpose to subjugate all the kingdoms of earth under his feet. And then chapters six through sixteen describe that subjugation. And we see it happening through the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. The whole purpose of what is going on with all these plagues that are being unleashed upon earth is that God is finally bringing to a close the day of man. And he is ushering in the day of Jesus Christ and bringing all of the kingdoms of this earth into subjection to the authority of God. Praise the Lord. That's what's going on. Now, I want to refer to a verse real quick here. Chapter 16, verse 16 and 17. And they gathered them together, meaning the armies of the world, the leaders, the kings of the world. They gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is done. It is complete. It is finished. Now flip over a couple of chapters to 19 and look at verse 19. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. Alright, there again is another reference to Armageddon. Here's what I want to say. Chapter 17, verse 1 up to chapter 19, verse 10 is like a huge parenthesis. Okay, it's like a segment taken out of the chronological order of what John has been revealed to what's coming upon this earth. It's the section is put in there by the Lord in his wisdom to show some things. Alright, and that's what I want to talk about here this morning. There's a chronological order of events. It's all leading up to Armageddon. To Jesus Christ taking over this earth for himself and for his kingdom and for his people. But then there's this parenthesis, mostly chapter 17 and 18, that describes something else. And that something else is Babylon. The kingdom of Babylon. Or as the Bible often calls it, the world, cosmos. It is the spiritual system that offers life without God and without his authority. You could write that down as a definition if you wish. It's a spiritual system that offers life without God and without his authority. That's Babylon, that's cosmos, that's the world. Now the book of Revelation describes three distinct aspects of Babylon. I know this is kind of teaching for this sort of a conference, but I'll get into some preaching here in a minute. Just hold on. I want to just set the stage here. I want to just share some things. These are awesome truths. The book of Revelation in these chapters describes three different aspects of Babylon. The first few verses in chapter 17 and other parts of the New Testament describe religious Babylon. The great harlot, the apostate church, the counterfeit bride, whatever you want to call it. That's what is being touched on in that section of chapter 17. Chapters 13 and the rest of chapter 17 describes political Babylon. The government of the Antichrist, which is usurping God's authority on earth. And chapter 18 describes commercial Babylon, which provides all the forms of pleasure and entertainment, possessions and so on that cater to man's flesh. Are you getting a picture of it? Let me put it to you this way. Before man came to earth, or actually before the devil came to earth, earth is just another planet, right? It's just another planet in the universe. And it had man on it. But something was infused into this planet. It's a spirit. A Babylonian spirit. Let me kind of relate it to something a little closer to home. Think of how your fallen nature has affected your inner life. Think of how sin has left a taint on what goes on inside you. For instance, you have an imagination. But your imagination has been corrupted and darkened by sin, hasn't it? You have the powers of perception. But those powers of perception have been tainted by sin, haven't they? So you see things through a lens of the self-life. And it taints how you see life. How you see people. How you see everything going on around you. You have the faculty of reason. Where you can think about things and make decisions and so on. But that also has been corrupted. And so the decisions we make have been affected by our sinful fallen nature. Okay, in the same way that sin has affected the way we operate, so has the spirit of Babylon affected what was a neutral planet. Are you with me now? Let me say it again in a different way. Commercial Babylon is Satan's dark version of what we should be living for. Political Babylon is Satan's dark version of who should be running our lives. And religious Babylon is Satan's dark version of Christianity and our relationship with God. All right, now let's get back to the theme. It's a wonderful, marvelous invitation that these guys will share on later. Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. But what I want to tell you is, as you walk in the light of the Lord in the days ahead, you are going to find yourself increasingly at odds with the spirit of this world. Which is growing darker and darker. And I don't mean it to sound so negative. It's only negative if your heart is wedded to this world. Because God is going to do something so marvelous in the days ahead that it's going to make people's ears tingle. We are coming into a time of tremendous spiritual victory as believers. That's where we're headed. But there is going to be a definite separation within the church. And we have to decide which way are we going to go. We have to decide that. We can't continue. We can't keep putting off the decision to make a clean break from Babylon and give ourselves over to this kingdom of light wholeheartedly. We need to distance ourselves from this dark planet. This world system. All right, now let's look at those three aspects of Babylon. And maybe we can flesh it out a little bit more here. I'm going to put it in the form of three sort of kind of commandments or whatever. We must disentangle ourselves from this world's pleasure system. We must. Something has to happen for us. Now I'm starting with this aspect of Babylon because this is the main hook the enemy uses to draw us into his dark kingdom. This is what the enemy has used in the past to keep us entrapped in his system. Chapter 18, the whole chapter, if you really get into studying it, you will find that this whole chapter is describing life as we know it right now, especially in the United States. It is a life that centers on pleasure and entertainment, et cetera. I think maybe the theme verse, you know, most chapters in the Bible have one verse that kind of stands out as the one that kind of sums up the meaning of the chapter. And I think verse 3 would do that pretty well. Let's go over that real quick again. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. Look at the last phrase here, the wealth of her sensuality. I want to just share that in a few other translations. The Amplified says excessive luxury and wantonness. The Living Bible calls it luxurious living. The Good News Bible says her unrestrained lust. But look at how these two translations say it. The Net Bible says the power of her sensual behavior. And the Basic Bible in English says the power of her evil ways. And actually those two are the most accurate. Because that word that the NAS uses, wealth, is not really the right word. Because the Greek term is dunamis, power. The power of the Holy Spirit is the dunamis of the Holy Spirit. It's the same word. It's power. What's being referred to here is the power that sensuality has over people's lives. And it is very powerful. It's powerful. And its influences are powerful in your life and in my life. It can't help but to be. Even for those who have really separated themselves from the world. And I think that Kathy and I, we really try to live a separated, consecrated life unto the Lord. And have for 25, 30 years, whatever, 25 years. And I feel it. I feel it constantly tugging at me. It affects me. It affects my walk with God. I did a message here at the conference a number of years ago called God's Man in Babylon. And I basically was talking about Daniel being brought into the kingdom of Babylon as a young man. And also the other three with him, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And also all the other Jewish young people that were part of that whole thing. And my message, you know, was all about how it was affecting them. How the king of Babylon set up that whole system to where these young people were being groomed to come up through the ranks of the Babylonian palace life. And part of what Nebuchadnezzar did was to get them addicted to the king's table and all his luxurious living. Why? Because he knew if he could get them addicted to his kind of life, his carnal, earthy living, he knew if he could get them addicted to that, that he had them. All their convictions for the life they had back in Jerusalem, which represented their connection to Jehovah, all their convictions would just kind of dwindle away. Because as they became increasingly more addicted to the palace life, they lost their resolve to live a consecrated life. These four kept it, but all the others were washed away. They gave over. Another verse that's very telling in this chapter is verse 14. I'll touch on real quick. This is a lament. In fact, much of what's being expressed in chapter 18 is people lamenting the loss, the fall of Babylon. In other words, the Babylonian system that they have loved, they have given their lives to, by this point they've taken the mark of the beast for that system, that earth life. And they're watching it crumble right before their eyes. So this is part of, this is just a verse taken out of context, but I'm telling you the context. It is a lament going on a sorrowful dirge about what we are losing. Verse 14, the fruit you long for has gone from you. And all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you. And men will no longer find them. Where's your heart, dear ones? Where's your heart? This word long for is the word epithumia. It's usually translated as lust. And it's not confined to sexual lust. That's only one form of sinful longing. Let me give you another instance where John used it in his epistle. A verse that you know very well. For all that is in the world, all that is in Babylon, the epithumia of the flesh and the epithumia of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away. Same word. Babylon is coming down. And also it's epithumia. But the one who does the will of God lives forever. Now let me read verse 14 again in a couple of paraphrases. I like paraphrases because they often bring out a richer sense about what's being expressed by the writer. This is the living Bible. All the fancy things you loved so much are gone, they cry. The dainty luxuries and splendor that you prized so much will never be yours again. They are gone forever. Another translation says it this way. Everything you've lived for, gone. All delicate and delectable luxury, lost. Not a scrap, not a thread to be found. Dear ones, what we're talking about here are the loves of your heart. What are the things that are most important to you? If someone was to follow you around and could maybe even read your mind in your daily life, just your regular life out there, working, doing life and so on, what would they see that is the most important things to you? I mean, I know you go to church on Sunday morning, but what would they see the rest of the week? What would they see? What would your heart tell them? That is really the issue. It's not a list of rules. I'm not here to lay some new list of rules on you. You can't do this, you can't do that. You gotta do this. No, that's not it. It is your heart. It's the core of your being. Who owns it? Where is the treasure of your heart? These are things we have to grapple with. And, you know, I'm not here to beat up on you or tell you you're doing badly or something like that. I'm only trying to put you in a position to force you to take a look at your life. And you gotta fight that through on your own with the Lord. These are things that we have to make decisions about. I'm telling you, we're running out of time to continue to put these things off. Alright, my second point is that we must repent of self-will. We must submit ourselves to God. We cannot continue on with the smorgasbord Christianity of I'll obey that rule and I'll obey that one. You know, a few nice little outward things that we do so we're, you know, fit in with the Christian evangelical culture we've created in this country. No. This is a heart issue. This is a submission issue of your heart. Are you really submitted? Are you really submitted? This is a huge issue when we're talking about the end times. Paul called the Antichrist the lawless one and he called him the man of lawlessness. And he spoke in that same context. He spoke of the mystery of lawlessness. And Jesus, when he was referring to the apostasy, said that lawlessness would play a big part in that atmosphere of the end times in the church. Now, I know you can look at our culture and questioning authority has become the norm in America. It's become the way we do life, ever really since the 60s, maybe before, I don't know. But definitely since the 60s there was a huge step downward in just basic understanding of, you know, authorities in our lives. But this word lawlessness really mostly refers to God's authority. Does he have the authority to tell us how to live our lives or not? You know, again, this is something we have to grapple with and we have to struggle through and make decisions for ourselves. Am I going to plan out my life on what I want? Who I want to be married to? What I'm going to do? And just kind of ask for God's blessing on it? Or am I going to get on my face before God and not get up until I know God's will for my life? That's the difference between what we're talking about here. Look at 17 verse 13. Again, I want to bring you back to what's being expressed here. This is kind of in the middle of this whole political thing, the Antichrist, what's going on, where things are going. And again, I'm just cutting in the middle of the context, is describing the Antichrist government at the end with these ten kings. And it says, verse 13, they have one purpose. Don't ever forget that. They have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the Lamb. That is a direct reference back to Psalm 2, which Psalm 2 is a powerful prophecy issued long before John had this revelation. Let me read a couple of verses out of there. Verse 2, the kings of the earth form a united front. The rulers collaborate against the Lord and His anointed king. They say, let's tear off the shackles they've put on us. Let's free ourselves from their ropes. Again, I want to read that last phrase in a few translations. Good News says, let us throw off their control. The New Living Translation, let us free ourselves from slavery to God. The Holman, let us free ourselves from their restraints. And the Knox says it this way, let us rid ourselves of the toils. Now we see this attitude in our culture, don't we? People do not want God telling them how they should live their lives. And it's becoming increasingly more blatant as the years go by. It's getting worse and worse. I'm assuming you see that. But what about in the church? You know, in a dark hour like this, you would think that now the church would become increasingly more sold out to the Lord, right? Isn't that what we would expect? With time getting close to the return of Christ? I mean, you would think that now would be the time that people would be pressed into the Lord more than ever, completely surrendered in every aspect of their life. But no, it's not that way overall. We have entire denominations teaching people they don't have to obey God because God's grace covers them no matter what they do. We have seeker-sensitive preachers doing their utmost to make everyone feel comfortable in their church no matter how they live their lives. We have the emergent church movement saying we should be free of the restraints of the Word of God, that we shouldn't be confined in our belief system to what the Bible says. We even have evangelical leaders openly calling for the acceptance of homosexuality. These are the things you're going to see more and more. That is the apostate church. It's forming, gelling right now before your eyes. We have to decide, are we going to be a part of it? You know, what's going on inside me in regards to submission to the Lord? Where is all this going? It's going right into Armageddon, isn't it? That's where that attitude is taking people, right into Armageddon. All right, the third admonition I guess I would want to leave you with is that we must renounce Satan's version of Christianity. And that's really what we're talking about. The church of the apostasy is mentioned throughout the New Testament and the type of it is in the Old Testament. You know, the backslidden Jewish nation is a type of what we can see happening even in our midst. Look at 17.1. It's really the first six verses that are describing it from the context of Babylon. I'm not going to read all that, but I'm going to read the first verse. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. I'm not even going to explain it, but I do want to show you something. Flip over to chapter 21, verse 9. Look at the wording here. It's almost identical to what I just read to you. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls, and it's just that little added phrase here, full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will show you, not the harlot, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. That is no accident. The Lord is showing us that there are two brides. There is the true bride of Christ without spot or wrinkle who loved the Lord. Those who love the Lord and follow the Lamb wherever He goes. That's the true bride of Christ. But there's another bride as well. It's a counterfeit. It's a harlot. In other words, these people, and it goes on and shows how intermixed they are with this world system, the beast, and all of it. These people profess Christ with their mouth, but their hearts are given over to this world. That is the apostasy. That's the apostasy. And the great deception of our day is that you can live your life for what this world offers. You can give your heart over to this world. The reality of your daily life can be all about all the different things. Sports and television shows and Internet and getting possessions and doing this and doing that. Just American life. You can give yourself over to that. And because you go to church on Sunday, you've got a place in heaven. That's a lie. That's a lie. And you're not going to hear this kind of preaching much out there. I'm telling you. What radio preacher is going to preach like this and say these things? Talk about shutting down your ministry. You guys like to be abused. That's why you come here every year. I wonder what Pastor Steve will beat up on us about this year. Bring it. I've been trying so hard to just temper myself. But I mean if that's really what you guys desire. No, I'm only kidding. I really, you know, I'm preaching to the choir largely here. I know that many of you are living consecrated lives with the Lord. And there are many in here who aren't. And there are many who are somewhere in between. Now, here's another verse that we all know very well, but I'm going to read it anyway for the context of it. This, again, is in one of those passages of Scripture in the New Testament that are describing the apostate church. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled. Wanting it. Desiring. Please tickle my ears. Please give me a gospel that will fit into my lust-filled lifestyle. That's the preacher I want. Larry, control your wife, would you, brother? I think that was you. It wasn't? I'm so sorry. Control her anyway. Okay, let me get back to this. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own epithumia. Dear ones, that is what we're seeing happening around us. Now, there's a second deception. The first is what I already shared with you, but there's a second one that goes along with it, really. It is that I'll do the right thing when the time comes. When the time comes, I'll do the right thing. There is no way I will ever take the mark of the beast. I mean, I've read every book in Tim LaHaye's series. There's no way I would do it. Dear ones, you don't understand, maybe, the power, the overwhelming power of the deception that's coming. It's only here moderately now. It is going to grow stronger and more powerful in the days ahead. Jesus said that even the elect might be misled. To procrastinate doing the right thing when the Lord is calling is extremely dangerous. We just have this tendency to approach everything with our outward actions. The mark of the beast, well, that's something you do. You have to go and put your hand out or whatever. There's no way I would do that. Dear ones, you don't understand, maybe, some of you don't understand that it's an inward process that happens. Every time you say no to Jesus, every time you say yes to the world, you are taking the mark of the beast. You are preparing yourself to take the mark. It'll only be one more little step down a pathway that you've given yourself over to for years. And you think that miraculously you've come right up to the edge? For years you've lived this way. You've given your heart to the devil. And do you really believe, dear ones, that all of a sudden at the last moment you'll just suddenly decide to do the right thing? If you believe that way, you're already deceived. You know I'm not mad at you, right? There's no group in the world I love more than this group. That's why I yell at you so much. I know, as I said, I know that many of you really have been making hard choices in your life. There are some very godly, consecrated people that I could pick out of this crowd, and I won't do it. There are people in here who I look up to, who are mentors, or at least, at the very least, people that I have a tremendous respect for, the way they live their lives, their level of consecration, and so on. And there are those of you who are not doing well spiritually, and you come here hoping that something will happen for you. And God wants it to. He does. He loves you. He's calling you to Himself. That's what this is about. It's a call to Him. It's not a list of do's and don'ts. It's a call to the Lord. But there is the practical realities of the way we live our lives. Those decisions that we make on a daily basis affect our life with the Lord, affect our ability to connect with Him in a meaningful way. Some of you need to cancel your subscription to your satellite system, or your table. I've never had either, so I don't know anything about it, really. But I know this. It's intoxicating. You know, the truth is, if you want to hear the truth about Steve Gallagher, the truth is I wish I could have satellite. Because if I could, I would like to watch some shows on History Channel. I like History Channel. But I can't trust myself, and I know it. I know. I've proven myself. There have been times in hotel rooms, I'm just going to watch one show, and it's some show about the Civil War or something. And then the next hour, wow, it's a show about World War II. Man, I've just got to see that show. And then pretty soon you know you're flipping through the channels. It's pulling you in. It's trying to possess your soul. Some of you, there's guys in here, I just know because this is Pure Life Ministries, some of you men have a quiet, secret addiction to pornography going on, and you're not even telling your wives about it. You better come clean. Your days are numbered. You better come clean. And once you come clean, you need to make a concrete commitment to put your computer in a family common area or something, or a password on it, or get rid of the Internet altogether because that would probably be the best thing any of us could do. We're talking about eternity, dear ones. Apostasy means something. It means people who profess Christ who fell away and were washed away in the tidal wave of deception that's coming our way. And there will be people sitting here right now and I know that you're going to toy with it. You're going to toy with it, and you're going to destroy your soul forever, and forever is a very long time. It's a horrible price, but you think, in your self-confidence, you think you're different, you think you have the strength to withstand it. If Steve Gallagher can stand before you and say, I don't have the strength, I don't trust myself. I'm not trying to claim to be anybody, but I'm just telling you, I do not trust myself. I will not put myself in a position to where my soul is on the line. That's a cliff I don't want anything to do with. And I live my life that way, and I have for a long time. You know, yesterday in the half day of prayer at Pure Life, a phrase, two phrases came to me about certain people in here. You've made alliances with the enemy, and I'm going to say it in a different way. It's the same thing, though. You have made commitments to sensuality. You have made commitments that I want this in my life. I want this in my life. That is an untouchable in my life. God, if you want me, you're going to have to find a way to get around that, because I am not giving it up. It's an alliance with the enemy. You've made a commitment in your heart. You've never said it, but it's there. You have made a commitment, a consecration. You have set yourself apart to have this thing. God is speaking very clearly to you today. Again, I know it's not for everyone. Those who are walking with the Lord, living it out, you know the battles you've already fought through to get where you're at. I'm pleading with you, dear ones. I am pleading. I don't know how to say it any differently. I just don't know how to say it. What's at stake? I can't help it. God has made it so vivid, real to me what's happening right now. And people I love and care about very much, people in this room right now, I am in great fear for their souls. I don't know how to play the game and stand up here like a Polish speaker. All I know is that souls are at stake. And the devil is not playing games. This isn't a big board game or something. I'm going to pray for you, and then we're going to play a video we just produced. And you can consider yourself dismissed. As Tom mentioned, this will be a sanctuary to seek the Lord for those who wish to stay behind and seek the Lord. Let me just pray for you. Dear Lord, I just lift up this body of people who have come here at great sacrifice and expense, in varying degrees of love with you or love with the world or some nauseating gray area, lukewarm area between. Dear God, I just pray that you will please, during the sessions and the different messages ahead and during this video or any part of this conference that you wish, Lord, you know every heart, every single person here has been the focus of a tremendous heavenly operation to win their hearts. You know what works and what doesn't work. And I just pray, Lord, that during this conference, during one of the messages, during the altar call tonight or whatever, Lord, that you will grip hearts that are straying away from you and are in deep danger, that you will win them to yourself finally once and for all, Lord. Please accomplish that in this year's conference, Lord. Please win souls for Christ's kingdom. Please snatch souls out of the hand, the grip of the enemy. Please pull people, even if they have to go kicking and screaming like Lot had to be drug out of Sodom. Please pull them across the line, Lord. Ruin their lives, whatever needs to happen to gain their hearts for yourself. I pray. I pray for your blessing, Lord, on all the different sessions today and tomorrow morning. Let the hand of Almighty God rest upon this group of people here, winning souls for your Son. And I thank you for it, my dear Lord. Amen.