Washed From Her Filth Part II

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. Revelation 14:14-16.

Part II
by Brother Emerson A.Wilson

Flee Spiritual Fornication
In Revelation 17:4, he talks about the filthiness of the daughters of Zion. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. What is in her hand? Before Babylon fell, she had the cup of salvation in her hand. The early reformers were offering men the cup of salvation, but because she fell, she is now handing out the cup of the filthiness of her fornication.

What is she really wanting you to do? Join that organization, join that church. When you join it, according to the Bible, you commit spiritual fornication. When you are truly born again by one Spirit, you are baptized into one body, and you are a member of the Body of Christ, the Church of the Living God.

This false church is spoken of in Revelation 17 as a woman on a beast, with harlot daughters. Every Protestant organization came out of Roman Catholicism and built an image back to her. That is spoken of in the Revelation as a woman and her daughters, and every one of them are harlots. A harlot is a woman who engages in illicit sex. Even so, my friends, false religion is allowing man, so to speak, to have a relationship with Christ through a cheaper method, but it is a deception. There is no truth in it.

The Bible calls it an unclean, filthy thing. The Bible says to come out from among her and not touch her. Saints, you have no business being in touch with these organizations. Take a square stand, come out and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing. Man today says it is all beautiful and wonderful; God says it is rotten and corrupt, it stinks, it is unclean and filthy. It is not good for your spirituality. He says, "Come out of her, my people."

First Corinthians 6:15-18 says to us, Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication... So the filth, my friends, is spoken of as fornication.

Revelation 18:1-4 pictures the same thing: And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen... Let me pause here just a moment and say this: "Babylon" is Protestantism. God's people were NEVER in Catholicism. There never was enough truth taught in it for a man to get saved by. It is in Babylon that people were saved and joined harlot bodies. Roman Catholicism never fell, because she was always ON THE BOTTOM. It is only truth that exalts a nation, and she never had any truth. The Bible was closed while Rome ruled the world.

The Babylon that is fallen is Protestantism. Why is she fallen? Every reformer who came forth, came with truth and zeal to reach a lost and dying world. The cup they reached to the world was a cup of salvation, but she is fallen. Today, she is not as much interested in salvation as she is in building her organization and getting you to join her church.

Now, let us continue with the scriptures: ...and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 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.

Come Out Of Her
All through the letters to the churches, it says, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." First, the Spirit of judgment will tell you Babylon's true condition. Man, according to his own thinking, would think that religion was at an all-time high, and I will go along with the fact that there is more religion in the world today than ever before. While there is more religion in the world, spirituality is at an all-time low. We have more corruption, not just out in the world, but right in religion, than ever before. One might contend, "Oh, I don't think she is a cage of hateful birds." Just try to lay this truth on some of them. Brothers and Sisters, they can be docile and sweet, but when you can lay some of this truth on them, you will see that they are, indeed, hateful birds. You may think they are nightingales until you put some truth on them. Truth discerns our spirit, and when it is put on hot enough, it will get us to show our spirit. We will not be able to hide it. The Bible says that Babylon is a cage, not full of sweet, singing canaries, but of hateful, unclean, filthy birds. Many of those birds are right in the pulpits, drinking just as the drunkards do, running around with women just as the adulterers out in the world do. False religion is full of it.

Brothers and Sisters, it's God Eternal Word, the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning, that makes us the Church of God. Babylon is fallen, and I always turn that around: anything that is fallen is Babylon. If any church movement has fallen from the standard they once stood for, they are just as much Babylon as Catholicism, Protestantism, or anything else. If we fall, we are Babylon--we are adding to the confusion.

I am not talking about people. No, we are trying to help people when we tell them the truth. Little do people know, who are dabbling around in the many organizations of men, that in the sight of God, they are playing with a filthy thing. Take a born-again person, let him join that, and watch him go down. You have never seen one grow in Babylon yet. When they try to grow, the first thing you know, they are brought to a place where they have to come out of it or compromise with it. So the filth of the daughters of Zion will be washed with the Spirit of judgment and burning.

Let's consider Revelation 18:4. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins... God's people are in some of those places. God has sent a ministry to pour out the Spirit of judgment, telling Babylon's true condition. Then follows the Spirit of burning. Thank God, the very Holy Spirit speaks to the heart and says, "Come out of her, my people." For what reason? If you stay there, you are going to be a partaker of her sins. You may be clean, but if you stay there, they are going to get you to bow down to that image: you are going to be a partaker of her sins in one way or another.

Friends, as soon as the devil gets you to be a partaker of her sins, it will be no time until you are on the bottom spiritually. So there is only one thing to do: come out of her! I repeat, the Spirit of judgment will show you the wrong, and the Spirit of burning will warm your heart to move to that which is right.

The Blood Of The Saints
Again, let us read Isaiah 4:4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. What kind of blood needs to be purged? Revelation 18:24 tells us: And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. Where? In Babylon, the Babylon that God says to come out of.

Oh, she will tell you that she is pure and clean. Roman Catholicism would like to cover the fact that they killed millions. They say that the Pagan Roman Empire killed them. Well, the Roman Empire did a lot of the killing, but the church gave the orders!

Protestantism will tell you, "Why, Protestantism never killed anybody." Well, the Bible says that when God looks in her, He sees the blood of the saints, the blood of prophets and preachers, killed by the hundreds, on her hands.

Revelation 17:6 says, And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs... What a thing to think about! Friends, she got so carried away, like a man would who is a drunkard, that she thrived and found pleasure in the blood of the saints and the martyrs. She loved to see it flow. Now that's the kind of organization you are lined up with.

Someone might contend, "Well, Brother Wilson, we have not done any of those things. We have none of that blood." Well, let's come down a little closer. First Corinthians 11:27 tells us, Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

You are worthy when you have already partaken of the real body of Christ and been cleansed from sin. Then you are ready to take that bread which is a symbol of the communion that you have through the Spirit with Christ. If you are still living in sin, never having partaken of the body of Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ never having purged you, you are partaking of it unworthily. You then become guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord as much as the Jews who hung Him on the cross.

Around some religious organizations, it goes on every Sunday. Because they are falsely taught, they think when they partake of that piece of bread, they are getting strength and that it is their communion with Christ. They want it every Sunday--they don't know they can have communion EVERY DAY.

If they would look closely in the New Testament, they would find that our communion with God is through the Word and the Spirit. You can have it as many times a day as you want; if you want to stay up all night, you can have communion all night. You don't have to have any preacher or deacon break the bread: God will break it for you.

False religion, week after week, is teaching people that even though they are living in sin, they can still have communion with Christ. The Bible, on the other hand, tells us that as long as sin is in your life, you cannot have any communion with God in any manner. Sin SEPARATES FROM GOD. They are partaking unworthily and are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Crucifying The Lord Afresh
We have studied how Protestantism killed the Word and the Spirit. Their dead bodies lay in the street three and one-half days--350 years. From 1530 to 1880, the Word and the Spirit lay dead in the street. How did Protestantism kill them? Just the same way you can kill the effect of the Word, by adding to it or taking away from it. It has no power to carry out what God said when you add to it or take away from it. You kill the Spirit when you grieve Him and refuse to let Him be the vicar of your life, or to be the vicar of our assembly and direct us as He wants to.

So, the Word and the Spirit were killed there and lay dead for 350 years in the streets of that city (Babylon). Revelation 11:8 says, And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually [we are dealing with the spirit of the thing] is called Sodom [because of the lewdness and ungodliness that goes on under the cloak, or guise, of religion] and Egypt [because Egypt is where the Lord's people were taken in bondage and could not be free to worship the Lord as they wanted to], where also our Lord was crucified.

Brothers and Sisters, He is crucified afresh day by day in Babylon. How do you crucify Him afresh? When you profess an experience with Christ, then go right out and dabble in the same sin you were in, you crucify Him afresh to yourself. You put Him to open shame and tell the world by your life that there is no power in Him, that He cannot deliver from sin.

Babylon, day by day, is putting the Lord to open shame when she cries out: "Nobody can live free from sin. There is no power in the blood to deliver you from sin. Everybody sins!" They are putting our Lord to open shame. I am trying to get you to see why the Lord calls this a filthy, corrupt thing. The Lord's presence is just not everywhere that people say He is. We are in a day and time when people are saying, "Lord, Lord, He is here, He is there, He is everywhere." There must be some conditions met, however, before the Lord moves in our midst.

A Canopy of Love and Protection
Once more, let us read Isaiah 4:2-5.

In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

Friends, the picture is this: when we are honest and ready to clean up, get rid of the filth, cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, the Lord will create the cloud and the fire. That cloud and that fire are symbols of the divine presence and guidance of God. Exodus 16:10 says, ...behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. Not only will the Lord's presence be here and His glory felt, but there will also be divine guidance and help.

Isaiah 4:5 concludes, ...for upon all the glory shall be a defence. I like the Hebrew translation of that. It says, "...over all the glory shall be a canopy for a defence of divine love and protection." In other words, God will not only set the cloud there, but there will also be a canopy put over us of divine protection which will help us keep the glory. When we are ready to get the glory and pay the price to have the glory, God will put a canopy over us and protect us so that we can keep the glory.

Friends, when The Church gets to that place, there are going to be people crying out to Him Who sits on the clouds, "Put in the sickle. O Lord, reap the harvest, help us to win others." The Bible says that He will put in the sickle, and when He puts in the sickle, the earth is reaped. There is nobody too hard for Him to handle, no heart too hard for Him to crack, and nobody too far off for Him to reach.

Oh, so much depends on you and me cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit to the place that God can set His approval on us. We can worry ourselves to death and have all-night prayer meetings, yet see very little moving of God. But friends, if we will clean up and measure up to the place that God can set the cloud in our midst and put in the sickle, there will be reaping going on. When He put in the sickle, the Bible said the earth was reaped. He is still able to do it.

I know that Peter did not know much about preaching when he got up on Pentecost, but when Jesus put the sickle in, I suppose Peter was just about as surprised as anyone else when three thousand "went to the altar". He had a job on his hands--three thousand to be baptized, and if that wasn't enough, the next day five thousand more got saved. The Lord put the sickle in. Even though the disciples were ignorant men, people were convinced that they had been with Jesus. My friends, the message to us today is that there is a greater effectiveness which can be manifested right in our day and time. God wants to set the cloud over us.

New Testament Unity
In the Old Testament, there was one cloud and one pillar of fire over one camp, but in this lesson, there are many pillars, one over every one of her assemblies. Wherever Zion is assembling, and has a people who have the filth cleaned up, God will set a cloud at every one. The same thing is true with the candlestick. In the Old Testament, there was just one candlestick. In the Revelation, there are seven candlesticks with Jesus standing in the middle of them all, a greater picture of unity.

Which is the greater picture of unity? Three million people all in one camp with one pillar, or two thousand different congregations of the church with a pillar at every one of them? There is unity in a much greater sense than the Old Testament ever had.

Man today in his blindness thinks he has to get people all on one hillside, all in one building, all at one geographical location to have unity. No, the greatest picture of unity is when we can be scattered clear around the world, but every one of us being so sold out to God and so cleaned up that the cloud can sit on every one of our assemblies. That is the unity that Jesus prayed for.

Oh friends, whatever it costs, it is worth it. Let's get our eyes on the cloud. No matter what it costs, let's have the cloud sitting on the assembly. I will guarantee that with it will come a burden from every heart for Jesus to put in the sickle and reap the earth that so badly needs to be reaped. Why? Because there is a destruction coming. Just over the brink of this hill, there is destruction coming; the earth will be destroyed and the fullness thereof. Men and women without an experience with God will be cast into a lost, everlasting eternity to be tormented forever.

Oh how the earth needs to be reaped. The only thing that will reap them is the sickle, and there is only One Who can handle the sickle. He is sitting on the cloud. We cannot get Him with the sickle until we get the cloud, and when we get the cloud, He will be sitting on it. He will be there, ready to reap, ready to move.

Are You His Friend?
Many of us today, no doubt, have been out of sectarian organizations for a long time, but have we truly cleansed ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit? James, the fourth chapter, says that if you are a friend of the world, in God's sight you are adulterers and adulteresses. You are committing adultery against God when you try to serve God and still be a friend of the world. He is not talking about being a friend to people in the world. He is talking about the world, singularly.

Someone might question you, "How can you be a friend of the world?" Well, think about how you are a friend to Jesus. In John 15:14, Jesus said, Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Now, how do you become a friend of the world? When you start doing what the world suggests, expects or demands of you. If you sit under the influence of truth, the good old-fashioned truth, it will clean you up. It will take the marks, the look of the world out and off of you. It will remove the lipstick off your lips, the rouge off your cheeks, the eyeshadow and eyeliner off your eyes, the earrings out of your ears, the many rings off your fingers, and it will cause you to start dressing modestly from your head to your feet.

The world, however, is ever suggesting to just do this or just do that: "Well, there's no harm in it," you will be told. It's a lie--there IS harm in it. We are to be a peculiar people, my friends. When you start being a friend of the world and start doing what the world wants you to do, Jesus says you are committing spiritual adultery against Him. You are flirting with His rival. Friendship with the world and the things of the world are enmity against God (James 4:4).

My friends, religion and all other levels are accepting the world's standards. The enemy would like to take the cloud away from us, Church, if he possibly could. He just wants us to fall to a nominal level. He wants us to lose that divine quality.

The only way to keep that from happening is for us to be sure that we stay clean. When the Lord shows us something filthy, let's lay it aside! If something is not good for your daily holy living, lay it down! If it hinders your commonion with God, lay it aside. Why? Even though no one can say it is sinful, yet it can become a tool of the devil and put some filth on you so that God cannot look on you as pure.

So everyone is blessed in Zion: ...he that is left in Zion...shall be called holy...When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. Isaiah 4:3,4.