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He's the good shepherd.

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 [Rev. 18:4].

"And I heard another voice out of heaven, saying, Come forth out of her, my people, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

This verse reveals that God’s people are going to be in the world to the very end (it is not speaking of the church which has already been removed before the Great Tribulation began), but God will have His people on earth during the Tribulation. The question has always been: Will they be able to make it through? That is, will they remain faithful to Christ? Yes, they do make it through. Remember that God started with 144,000, and the number that will make it through the Tribulation is 144,000. This is like the parable the Lord Jesus told about the shepherd who started out with one hundred sheep and one of them got away. But he didn’t end up with ninety-nine; he ended up with one hundred, because he went out and got that little sheep that was lost.

The One who is speaking in this verse is none other than the Son of God, and He is calling His people out of Babylon before the judgment comes. It is a physical separation with a corollary in the experience of Lot in Sodom. As Lot was warned to get out of Sodom to escape the deluge of fire (see Gen. 19), so these people of God are warned. God’s Word tells us, “When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God; he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them” (Deut. 4:30–31).

Such was also God’s warning to Israel in Jeremiah 51:5–6, 45 and in Isaiah 48:20. The warning is twofold: (1) They are to have no fellowship with the sins of Babylon and (2) they are to flee before judgment falls.

I think this has a pertinent application for us today. It should be a warning to us, not that God will fail to save His own from this hour, but that He wants us to be separate, not indulging the old nature, but walking by the Spirit. If we will not deal with sin in our own lives here and now by confessing and forsaking it, He will deal with it. Either He will judge sin now, or it will meet us at the judgment seat of Christ. God gives us the opportunity of judging our sin today: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:31–32).

How can we judge our own sin? First John 1:9 has the answer: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” To “confess” means to say the same thing that God says about it. It means to take God’s viewpoint and say, “God, I agree with You. What I did was sin.” It is so easy to make excuses for our own sin. We say that ours is not really sin—of course, if our neighbors do it, it is sin. But until you and I are willing to call our sin sin, we haven’t confessed it at all. If we refuse to judge ourselves, we will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ. The sins of some folk will not be settled until they stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I hope to get all of my accounts straightened out down here. Just because God may not take us to the woodshed immediately does not mean that He is letting us get by without punishment. He doesn’t spank the Devil’s children, but if you are His child, judgment will come to you." McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 5:1037-1038

Response to comment [from a Christian]: "1 John 1:9 does not apply to the Body of Christ..."

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [1 John 1:9].

"“If we confess our sins.” Here is another one of our “ifs.” We have seen several of them: “If we say that we have fellowship” (v. 6); “If we walk in the light” (v. 7); and “If we say that we have no sin” (v. 8). Now here is the right method for bringing together a sinful man and a holy God: confession of sins.

What does it mean to confess our sins? The word confess is from the Greek verb homologeō, meaning “to say the same thing.” Logeō means “to say” and homo means “the same.” You are to say the same thing that God says. When God in His Word says that the thing you did is sin, you are to get over on God’s side and look at it. And you are to say, “You are right, Lord, I say the same thing that You say. It is sin.” That is what it means to confess your sins. That, my friend, is one of the greatest needs in the church. This is God’s way for a Christian to deal with sin in his own life.

The other day I talked to a man who got into deep trouble. He divorced his wife—he found out that she had been unfaithful. He lost his home and lost his job. He was a very discouraged man. He said to me, “I want to serve God, and I have failed. I am a total failure.” I very frankly said to him, “Don’t cry on my shoulder. Go and tell God about it. He wants you to come to Him. Tell Him you have failed. Tell Him you have been wrong. Tell Him that you want to say the same thing about your sin that He says about it. Seek His help. He is your Father. You are in the family. You have lost your fellowship with Him, but you can have your fellowship restored. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins.”

After we confess our sins, what does God do? He cleanses us. In the parable, the Prodigal Son came home from the far country smelling like a pigpen. You don’t think the father would have put a new robe on that ragged, dirty boy, smelling like that, do you? No, he gave him a good bath. The Roman world majored in cleanliness, and I am confident that the boy was bathed before that new robe was put on him. The next week he didn’t say, “Dad, I think I will be going to the far country and end up in the pigpen again.” Not that boy.

When you have confessed your sin, it means that you have turned from that sin. It means that you have said the same thing which God has said. Sin is a terrible thing. God hates it and now you hate it. But confession restores you to your Father."

McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 5:764

"...[A]nd it says that we are to judge ourselves as 1 Cor 11:31 -32 recommends we do..."

We would do well to correct ourselves before God has to take us to the woodshed.

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [1 Cor. 11:31–32].

"This is talking about believers. We can judge ourselves when we are wrong. If we don’t, He will judge us. When we are judged of the Lord, we are chastened so that we shall not be condemned with the world. He is going to judge the world in the future. Therefore He has to deal with His own now." McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 5:56

"Sin will take you farther than you ever expected to go; it will keep you longer than you ever intended to stay, and it will cost you more than you ever expected to pay." ~ Deeper Still Event Series

Why the 144,000 had to be sealed?