Page 14 - The Road from Babylon to Zion

The majority of the saints have been taught to judge things according to sight. If they
observe a man casting out a demon they judge such a one to be righteous and holy
and pleasing to God. If they see a person performing an authentic miracle they
conclude that this person certainly bears the stamp of God’s approval. If they see a
person operating a charity to care for the poor, they will also assume that it must
certainly be of God. Yet Yahshua said that “many” would come to Him in the day of
judgment and proclaim that they did such things in His name, but He will deny even
knowing them.

This is a large part of the trouble of coming out of Babylon: Babylon looks good on
the outside. This is the same struggle that those who followed Messiah faced when
He said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees,
you can in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Pharisees looked good. They
prayed. They fasted. They tithed of all their substance. They meticulously kept the
Law... Yet, they were relying on their own works to gain approval before a holy God.

Yahshua told the story of the Pharisee who stood proudly in the Temple and looked
with disdain at the tax collector who was on his face before God. The Pharisee
pompously prayed, “I thank you God that I am not like this sinner.” Yet Yahshua said
the sinner went home JUSTIFIED while the Pharisee found no regard before God.
The sinner threw himself on the mercy of God, offering no works, making no
bargains, pledging no promises, trusting wholly to the character of God to deliver
him. He simply asked for mercy and he believed God would be merciful.

The paradox today is that it is often the most righteous looking people who are the
chief citizens of Babylon for they are working hard to find approval before God. They
are striving laboriously to appear righteous. Many a minister has spent his entire life
working to find the approval of God and of men, and he has yoked the people who
follow him to the same burden of works. They may accomplish many remarkable
things, but before God it is all striving and dead works for they are not born out of
faith in the completed work of Christ. As the Galatians who began in faith and then
tried to continue in works, such ones have become severed from Christ and He has
become altogether worthless to them.

Looking at a church externally, how can you tell which ones are of Babylon and
which are of Zion? They may both be performing the same activities, but one body
is striving to be judged as righteous, while the other is resting in the knowledge that
in Christ, Yahshua the Messiah, they are already righteous. One is seeking to
overcome the flesh, the world and the Devil by imitating the works of Christ, the
other realizes that Christ has already overcome all and they are in Christ and He is
in them. One body is expending their very life to be approved before God, and the
other proclaims that they have died and their life has been hidden with God in Christ
Jesus, Yahshua the Messiah.