Babylon

Revelation 17 and 18 REV 17 REV 18
"Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." This is a saying much to be remembered. It teaches us that we are not to make ourselves the judges of what sanctification or holiness is. God's Word is to determine this, because holiness is that character or mind which is formed by God's Word or truth.
We are apt to think that our own moral sense of things is the rule of holiness. But the Word of God claims to be such a rule: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." John 17:17. An act may be unholy, though done with a good conscience, because "the truth" and not the conscience is the rule of holiness.
If that rule were applied to many a thing which the moral sense or the religious sense of man approves, how it would change its character! And the Lord cannot change His standard of holiness, though He may be infinitely gracious to the shortcomings of His saints.