Good morning. How are you all doing today? Awesome. Awesome. We always like to start
every Sunday. If you're joining us here for the first time in our sanctuary or
if you're joining us online for the first time, we want to say welcome to all
of you. We're so glad you're here to worship with us here at Hosanna. I am
Pastor Nathan and this morning we are going to be looking at Revelation
chapter 17 or at least the first part specifically at the one world religious
system that will be present upon the earth during the tribulation period. It
may surprise some of you to hear that there is coming in the future a great
worldwide spiritual revival but not the revival you might be thinking of. See
when I make that statement I'm not referring to a Christian revival which
is of course we're praying for. We want to see Jesus just sweep the earth again
and save lives but in the end times there is going to be a coming worldwide
religious revival that exalts man. That exalts man in his ways and
minimizes God. It'll be the culmination of a trend that we see in the world
today, a trend that has existed for a while and it's a trend called humanism.
Humanism is a word that refers to the exaltation of humanity, lifting up
mankind's values, mankind's capacities, mankind's worth above everything
including God. Humanism exalts humanity above God. Humanity makes itself God and
humanism is what this is all about. It's expressed in thoughts that we hear today
like my truth, expressed in thoughts like my expression, my way, my desire, what I
want, my values. It's the idea that all of those things are number one, the greatest
and only priority of life and therefore God's truth and God's expression, God's
ways, God's desires, God's values and so it's God's truth and God's expressions,
everything that he is and he wants, his ways and desires, it's the idea that all
that is God must conform to my will, must conform to my way and if God's ways
won't conform to my ways well then I will just create a faith that does. I will
create a God of my own to worship that will. This trend unfortunately will
continue and reach its fullest expression during the tribulation period.
And so Revelation 17 and 18 detail the fall of a very specific thing, a place,
an idea, an attitude called Babylon. The fall of Babylon has already been declared
in Revelation in chapter 14 verse 8 and chapter 16 verse 19 but what we're going
to see here is the fall of this thing called Babylon. Chronologically as we've
been studying through Revelation we have reached the end of the tribulation period,
that's what we saw in chapter 16. We came to the very end of the tribulation period
as we saw the final judgment of the seventh bowl being poured out upon the
earth. We saw during that seventh bowl where God said it is done and so the
actual chronology of Revelation is going to pick back up in chapter 19 as we get
to the second coming of Jesus Christ. But here in chapter 17 and 18 we have
another one of these parentheticals. There have been times throughout the
study of Revelation as we're studying through the chronology and then there's
a couple chapters where we say okay let's take a step back for a moment and
look at something that's been happening in the chronology in more detail. And
that's what 17 and 18 do here in Revelation. They let us take a step back
to look at something in greater detail rather than looking at the judgment as
an overall chronology of what God is doing. We're going to be taking a closer
look at what's being judged, specifically what's being judged and that is the
kingdom of the Antichrist referred to collectively as Babylon. And so chapter
17 specifically is going to deal with what's called religious Babylon, the
one-world religious system. And then chapter 18 when we get there it's going
to be dealing with political Babylon, the governmental system, the economic system
that is existent on the earth during the tribulation period. But these chapters
together both detail the development and the destruction of both of these things.
And so this morning we're going to deal with the first part of religious Babylon
but before we get into all of that we're going to spend some time in worship. You
know we just want to praise God and keep praising God. As we've been studying
through Revelation and dealing with a lot of the grossness of what's to come,
you know we don't have to work very hard to just look around our world today and
we see some really terrible things taking place. There's wars taking place
that we're praying for, there's people dying, there's wickedness abounding,
there's things like trafficking and organ harvesting that are just rampant
around the world. And Lord come quickly, Lord come quickly. And we know that his
judgment will indeed fall upon the earth at one time in the future but we're not
there yet. And so as we study these things I pray that we would continue to
be encouraged that God is sovereign and in control. His will, his plan, his
purposes will be done even when we don't understand them. But in the process of
that we could trust him. We could trust him with our lives, we could trust him
with everything. And we know that his will is going to come to pass. In the
meantime we want to be people that are about preaching the gospel and seeing
people come to come to know him, come to be saved before his judgment falls upon
this earth. But with that we're going to worship him and praise him for a moment.
Join me in prayer as we get started. Father we love you. We're so grateful God
for who you are and what you've done. Lord we know that we live in a world that
is increasingly, I won't even say secular Lord, because God there is a movement
upon the earth right now where people are becoming spiritual again, spiritual in a
fresh new way. But Lord all of this spirituality is all about saying you,
Jesus Christ, are not God. That you are not the way, the truth, and the life. That
you are not the hope and the salvation. But that it's in other things, it's in
man's ideas and man's expressions and man's ways Lord. And God we know it's
just a part of what's to come as we get closer to the end times. Lord we want to
take a moment before we study your word this morning to just focus on who you
are. To think about your glory and to praise your holy name for it. Because God
you are God Almighty. You are worthy of all praise. We love you. We thank you. And
it is in your name Jesus Christ we pray this morning. Amen. We are in Revelation
chapter 17 looking at the fall of Babylon through these two chapters. We're
gonna be looking at the first six verses today. I was trying to get through the
whole chapter in one shot and then when I was on verse 5 on page 6 of my notes I
realized that was not gonna happen. So we're gonna be breaking this into a part
1 and part 2. This week we're gonna be looking at the actual vision that John
gets about this vision of Babylon. And then next week we'll be dealing with the
interpretation of that vision that the angel gives to John. And so Babylon, this
this name, this this thing called Babylon, it is a name that is used to refer to
several different things throughout Scripture both physical and metaphorical.
Obviously Babylon was an actual literal city. We know that. Babylon was the name
of an actual literal empire in history. It's also used to refer to a type of
system or a type of mentality or a type of world system. And we know through our
study of Revelation that in the future I believe there is going to be a rebuilt
literal city of Babylon. I believe that Babylon also refers to this one world
global government that will be in place during the tribulation period. And I
believe it also refers to the system, the socio-economical system that's gonna
exist that the Antichrist is gonna put into place as he enforces a mark and
controls the economy and all that type of stuff. But the concept of Babylon
scripturally, it's much greater than just a city. It's much greater than even the
kingdom of the Antichrist. The concept of Babylon scripturally is a
concept that is associated with idolatry, blasphemy, rebellion, and persecution and
oppression of God's people. The idea of Babylon is inclusive of everything that
stands against God. So when you think of the term Babylon, it's inclusive of the
idea of everything that stands against God or everything that is presented as
instead of God, which is the definition of humanism. Babylon scripturally is the
symbol of human civilization with all its pomp and circumstance in its own
organized opposition to God. It's the sum total of pagan culture, the social,
intellectual, commercial, political, and religious culture that stands against
God. Babylon is the essence of evil and pagan opposition to Jesus Christ
specifically as Lord and Savior of the world. Babylon is a symbol for the
collective rebellion against God in all forms and every form. And Babylon is
really the universal or the worldwide system of unbelief and idolatry and
apostasy that opposes the people of God and persecutes the people of God. Now
Babylon has a variety of features and expressions throughout Scripture, but the
two most prominent expressions of Babylon as a concept and an ideology is
its religious expression and its political embodiment. As I said, Revelation
17 is a picture of the religious embodiment of Babylon and it is
presented to us in this vision as a notorious prostitute riding a scarlet
beast, which is then the political embodiment of Babylon. And we'll talk
through these as we go through these chapters. So Revelation chapter 17
specifically details the rise and fall of religious Babylon, okay? And when I say
religious Babylon, I'm referring to the one world religious system that we
will see during the tribulation period upon the earth. Now religious Babylon is
simply another example of Satan's attempt to counterfeit everything God
does. We've seen that numerous times throughout Revelation already as Satan
has tried to counterfeit the Trinity, where we have the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit and the Godhead and the Holy Trinity and Satan has tried to
create his own counterfeit version, presenting himself in the place of the
Father and the Antichrist in the place of Christ and the false prophet in the
place of the Holy Spirit who points back. We've seen his counterfeit worship as
he's getting the whole world to gather together worshiping him as God. We've
even seen counterfeit miracles that have been exercised by the enemy and then of
course throughout the history of man we have seen false religion after false
religion after false religion presented as mockeries of what is the true faith
about worship of the true God and his son Jesus Christ. Now some of you may be
familiar with a quote made by Karl Marx years ago, it's a pretty famous quote and
it says, religion is the opiate of the masses. This is what Karl Marx presented
and he said that because in his own studies he discovered that mankind is
incurably drawn or driven to worship something, somehow, in some way. Now I
would amend his statement to say false religion is the opiate of the masses
because there is a truth that when it comes to mankind and humanity if man
will not bow down and worship the one true holy God Almighty that has presented
himself to mankind then they will end up devising their own method, their own
system, their own God and they will worship at the altar of that false
religion. So the system we're about to read about here it's an ecumenical
combination of everything the world will buy into. It's a melting pot, an
amalgamation of religious ideas and religious philosophies and religious
practices that all have a common thread in them. The common thread is that they
all reject the true God but they exalt man's false ideas about God in all its
blasphemous forms. This religious system is called here in chapter 17 Babylon the
Great represented as a prostitute and so as we study through these first six
verses we're gonna see what that means, why she's represented as a prostitute.
We're also gonna see where the roots of this system are and the scope of
influence that this system is gonna have upon the earth and the next time when we
get together and continue the study we're gonna look at the fall of this
system which I believe takes place right at the midpoint of tribulation because
this worldwide religious system is replaced at the midpoint of tribulation
with a direct and enforced worship of none other than Satan himself where
there is a forced worship of the beast enforced by the false prophet and the
image of the beast and so we're gonna see the fall of this precursor religious
system if you will its ultimate ruin and destruction when Jesus Christ returns
and so we're gonna be jumping around the chapter a little bit here so please
buckle up and hang on but read with me in Revelation chapter 17 verse 1. It
says then one of the seven angels who had the seven balls came and spoke with
me come I will show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute who is seated
on many waters the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her and
those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality so
we know that it's John the Apostle who has been given this vision he is the one
that is seeing all of these things we have been studying and writing it down
and as John has just seen what was the the end of the chronology of the seven
year tribulation period as he saw the seventh bowl of wrath finally poured out
upon the earth the angel now says hey now now come I want to show you
something else in more detail I want to take a look if you will at really what
is the final end in the judgment of this system called Babylon so he's being
called by this angel to take a look at what is being judged we saw the
judgment itself but now what is being judged in a broad sense and what he is
looking at here is described for us as a notorious prostitute a woman who is
described as a notorious prostitute as we will see shortly who represents a
false religious system that is on the earth during the end times now this
false religious system is called a prostitute three different times and one
time is called the mother of prostitutes and so you can imagine that as God is
describing this or John is describing what God is showing him it's not
presented in a very flattering way you might think what's the idea with
prostitute right some of you may be familiar that in more traditional
translations this woman here was called the whore of Babylon right we understand
what that word prostitute means at least we should understand what that word
prostitute means on one hand it refers to a woman or a person who exchanges sex
for money right they've been called hookers they've been called all kinds of
different words over throughout history but this word here in the Greek also
means to devote to corrupt or unworthy purposes so you might have someone who
has a skill and and they prostitute their skill to corrupt purposes right
they're prostituting their ability but it's an interesting word choice and and
all that because there is a big push today I don't know if any of you are
aware have you seen it but there's a big push in the world today to take the
negative connotations out of the word prostitute to to turn that word into
something positive right there's even a big push where people that are engaged
in this world say no no don't don't don't say I'm a prostitute say I'm a
sex worker right because they want to normalize the the the perversion of what
is done within these these the concepts of prostitution and so there's this big
push in the world to de-stigmatize this idea of what a prostitute is but
biblically the word here carries its full connotation and its full meaning
now biblically prostitution always symbolizes idolatry it symbolizes false
worship okay so when you see the idea of prostitution in the Bible it's usually
connected to the idea of someone devoting their affections demoting
their devoting their worship to anything but God so when someone is giving their
their all right they're giving the deepest parts of themselves they're
giving the most intimate parts of themselves in worship when they're doing
when they're giving that to anything but God it's looked at as prostitution in
the Bible so whenever God's people turned from him they were labeled as
being in prostitution or committing prostitution when any group of people
worships anything other than God it's pictured in scripture as prostitution or
a more traditional word harlotry now there's many scriptures to back this up
but I just want to share a couple notable ones with you in Jeremiah
chapter 3 verse 6 it says this in the days of King Josiah the Lord asked me
have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done she has ascended every high hill and
gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there now some of the
details of what was taking place during those times is that there would be these
groves of trees up on hills and what they would do is they would go up into
these groves and they would engage in false worship they would carve statues
out of the tree trunks they would carve statues out of stones and they would
set up these kind of like worship areas up in the hills now just a few verses
later in Jeremiah 3 9 it says she speaking of Israel defiled the land and
committed adultery with stones and trees so what you see there in Jeremiah 3 6
and Jeremiah 3 9 is that being unfaithful is connected to the idea of
prostitution and prostitution is connected to the idea of adultery and we
understand what those terms are now it's not referring to any type of weird
twisted physical intimacy with trees and rocks all right that's not what it's
referring to here the idea is the spiritual intimacy that Israel was
engaging in it's speaking of commitment and devotion and adoration and love
really all that worship is being given to anything else but the one who deserves
it being given to anything else but God our creator and so that's the idea of
the unfaithfulness being connected to prostitution being connected then all
the way to adultery it's like cheating on God when we give our adoration and
our worship to anything but him Hosea was a whole book I don't know if you've
ever read Hosea it's a whole book devoted to the concept the metaphor of
an unfaithful wife one who would play the harlot it says and and this book is
a prophecy given to the nation of Israel as God is is desperately trying to draw
his people Israel back to himself he's like look come back home come back into
the relationship come back to me where where we are safe and where you are safe
come back in devotion bring your worship back to me we see in this book that
Israel is is presented as going out over and over again to go worship other gods
and the metaphor there is as an unfaithful wife who is prostituting
herself although that she is supposed to be in relationship with her husband she
goes out sleeping with other people and so the idea there is this spiritual
intimacy and so here in Revelation we see this this religious system presented
as a notorious prostitute and that word notorious is interesting because it
means exceedingly great or surprising in its magnitude and so again this religious
system personified as a woman here surprisingly great in her
unfaithfulness super cheater dirty girl whatever term you want to use right just
foul in her unfaithfulness and so this notorious prostitute she represents a
system that will be upon the earth a religious system that will be upon the
earth during that time that claims to be spiritual that claims to be connected to
God that claims to have the secrets of what real religion is all about but like
a prostitute is actually unfaithful to the true God the true creator and it
tells us here in these verses that her sin is sexual immorality again this is
metaphorical sexual immorality is also the word fornication in other
translations again it's the picture of giving away the most intimate thing the
old most intimate part of you to someone who doesn't deserve it to someone who it
doesn't belong to it's this idea like fornication we understand that
fornication is the idea of engaging in sexual intimacy outside of marriage
right biblically we understand that the intimacy of sexual contact is between a
husband and a wife that is where that is reserved for it's not supposed to be
engaged in outside of the covenant of marriage and so fornication connects or
biblically fornication is strongly connected to idolatry and worship of
false gods James even did this in the New Testament he connected the idea of
adultery to spiritual and faithfulness to God in James chapter 4 verse 4 what
does he say here you adulterous people don't you know that friendship with the
world is hostility towards God so friendship with the world connected to
being adulterous he said so whoever wants to be a friend of the world
becomes the enemy of God in other words you can't have an affair with the world
is what James is getting out there you can't turn from God run out on Jesus and
put other things as the focus the object of your commitment and your affections
in your worship and so this woman here in Revelation 17 represents a whole
world worship system that does exactly that we will devote our attention and
our adoration and our worship to everything but God everything but God
and she is judged for it so where does this system come from though where does
this idea come from what is the Bible telling us about it if we jump to verse
5 in chapter 17 we see as John is seeing this woman it says on her forehead was
written a name a mystery Babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of
the detestable things of the earth so on her forehead was written a name it was
common in ancient times especially during the first century that in all of
the false temples that would have sex and all of that is a part of their
religious expression they would have temple prostitutes and the temple
prostitutes would typically wear these headbands that had their name on them and
so he's seeing the same type of thing here as this prostitute has a name
written on her forehead but it says a mystery there's a mystery here that is
referring to now some people look at that word and they go the mystery what
it's referring to is is the idea that there is something that is known unknown
to us known to God that will be revealed in the future right that's how some
people read this word but the Greek word has a little bit of a of a more specific
deep idea to it what the word literally means is secret things of God or the
private counsel of God it's the idea here that the word mystery is this is
what God really thinks of this thing that's the idea of this word mystery so
the name of this woman as John is seeing this vision written on her forehead is
as God sees her as God knows her to be it's his perspective his understanding
of who or what this system is and so when we ask the question how does God
see mankind's humanistic attempts at worship well let's look at it he calls
our first Babylon the great now as I mentioned earlier this isn't to be
confused with a literal physical city of Babylon that existed in Iraq at the time
that city is being rebuilt incidentally and and as a city yeah Babylon holds a
very significant place in Scripture when it comes to cities named in Scripture
Babylon is mentioned 287 times throughout all of Scripture the only
city that is mentioned by name more than Babylon is Jerusalem so it's a prominent
place here but in the Jewish mind according to the Jewish mind Babylon as
a city as an empire again this is where the Jews were held in captivity right
Babylon as an idea represented all the evil and embodiment of cruelty it
represented everything that stood against God it represented lasting and
perpetual sin carnality lust and greed and so anytime you have a group of
people you have a city an empire an ideology that is characterized by false
religions about presenting religious adoration to anything other than God it's
a Babylon that make sense all right cool and and the reason Babylon is
representative of all these things is because the roots of Babylon and so
we're gonna take a little history journey here back to Genesis chapter 10
in Genesis chapter 10 we are introduced to a character on the stage of history
named Nimrod the hunter he was a very fierce and great leader he was a fourth
generation from Noah his grandfather was ham who is the wicked son of Noah this
is Nimrod's genealogy here so after the flood happened God told Noah and his
sons and he told the people go scatter fill the earth right multiply across the
earth and so as you read through Genesis 10 or through the early parts of Genesis
you'll see that the people after the flood waters receded it says they
migrated east and they found this this valley called the land of Shinar and it
was there in the land of Shinar that the people started going hmm maybe we don't
want to do what God is telling us to do because although God told the people
scatter throughout the whole earth what we find is that some got to this valley
of Shinar and they didn't scatter instead they clung together and they
started forming tribes and clans and in groups and then when we get to Genesis
chapter 11 verse 4 we find this it says and they said come let us build
ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky let us build ourselves a
city a political social act socioeconomic center and a tower with its
top in the sky a religious system let's make a name for ourselves otherwise we
will be scattered throughout the earth and so what we see there in Genesis 11
is God said scatter and these people said nah we're gonna do our own thing
you said scatter Lord but instead of scattering we're gonna build a political
system a city and we're gonna build a religious system this tower that's gonna
reach to the sky and we're gonna do our own thing and so this city that is
founded here was the city founded on rebellion against God now there's
nothing wrong with building cities right but look at their philosophy let's build
ourselves a city let's make a name for ourselves so the idea of these people
back in Genesis in the early times of Genesis has said let's live our life
without God we don't need him we can govern ourselves we don't like worship
as he tells us who we're gonna create our own worship system and so this is
the first city built on humanism this is the first city that was built to exalt
man's values and man's wants above God and so they built this city and like I
said they were also a religious system and we get that because it says let's
build a tower with its top in the sky that word sky there literally means the
heavens the word in the real the original language means where God lives
so the idea here and that tower of course we know it as the Tower of Babel
right that's that famous story we see that the people here recognize their
need for spiritual connection to the divine but they sought to fulfill it on
their own terms they recognize their need to be connected to their creator
but they said we're gonna get there according to our plan our way our will
and Nimrod led this group led this cult led this false counterfeit faith that
was opposed to God now the roots of all of this reason I share all this is
archaeology and stuff archaeology have found a lot of ancient documents back to
this time and they have found documents that prove that Nimrod existed but what
they've also found out is that this man Nimrod who led this cult cult that said
we're gonna create a system that that doesn't have God involved and we're
gonna create our own system he had a wife named Samaramis and his wife bore
a son named Tammuz now according to legend his wife Tammuz said that I got
pregnant not by being with my husband but a sunbeam shown from the sky and the
sunbeam shone on my belly and boom pregnant and then when she gave birth to
this son he was considered the savior of the world because of his divine origins
well as her son Tammuz grew up in his teenage years I believe it was he was
gored by a wild boar playing outside one day and he died well gosh that's really
gonna damage the my son's God thing right he's he's dead and so Tammuz to
perpetrate the ruse here told a story that for 40 days she wept and grieved
over her dead son for 40 days and at the end of 40 days her dead son rose from
the dead sound familiar some people look at this and they go this is the origins
of lent the 40 days before Easter where we grieve leading up to the resurrection
right now there are people that look at this stuff and go oh look these legends
existed all the way back in the past and that's you know just Christianity
co-opted all of these things I believe Satan is intelligent and I
believe Satan knew from what God told him in the garden that there will be a
descendant of the seed of Adam and Eve come to crush your head and so all the
way back in the beginning here in Genesis I believe Satan was already
propagating a false counterfeit version of what would come to be true upon the
earth and so he set up his own version of a virgin born Savior of the world
who died and rose again now back in the Babylonian times because again where the
Tower of Babel was this city that grew up there was called Babylon and the
worship of Cimaramus and Tammuz grew there and then eventually people did
scatter from there because you remember the story of Tower in Babel right God
was like well they're gonna build a tower to the earth these people got a
problem boom changed everybody's language no duolingo at that time
everybody's like I can't understand what you're saying I don't understand your
language I don't understand mine and so people naturally went peace out and they
scattered so God scattered the people by confusing the languages of the world but
as they scattered this worship of Cimaramus and Tammuz went with them and
so after the Tower of Babel situation after the city of Babylon there as
people scattered the worship of this woman and her son went with them she
became known as the Queen of Heaven and we see that actually referenced in
Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 18 where it says the sons gather wood the fathers
light the fire and the women need dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven so
this Babylonian worship permeated out through the cultures and we know it
permeated out through the cultures because historians and archaeologists
have tracked that that as the people scattered this worship of this mother
and this son just simply changed names when people got to Nineveh
Cimaramus became Ishtar who had a son named Tammuz in the Phoenician cultures
Cimaramus became Ashtoreth who had a son named Baal we read a lot about that in
the Old Testament in Egypt Cimaramus became Isis who had a son named Osiris
by the time we get to the Greek cultures Cimaramus was now Aphrodite with her son
Eris by the time we get to the Roman cultures Cimaramus had become Venus with
her son Cupid now we do know that by the time the Roman Empire collapsed all of
this false Roman worship collapsed with it and we don't see you know this type
of worship today necessarily but remember during the tribulation period as
this new one world government is put back together a lot of people refer to
it as a revived Roman Empire and so we see these roots going all the way back
that John is seeing a future religious system that is called a notorious
prostitute mothering false religious systems whose roots lie all the way back
in Babel all the way back in ancient Babylon and the false instead of God
worship that started way back then we don't want God's way we're gonna create
different system that suits our needs and we're gonna see that this idea that
has been inside mankind the whole time is gonna finally fully blossom during
the tribulation period now he calls her there not just Babylon the great but he
calls her the mother of prostitutes that idea there is that this Babylonian false
system of worship is really the basis of all false religions you know this
alternative to God concept this instead of Jesus mindset has spawned every false
religion that exists in the world the whole idea is that it's not the truth
it's this counterfeit version and that's the basis of every false religion they
all have the same basic premise anything but Jesus anything but God's truth their
premise is we will get to heaven we will get to heaven but not through Jesus not
through God not through his truth found in his word we will get there through
our own ways and during the tribulation period all of these false religious that
come back home to mama prostitute and they're all gonna gather together and
coexist under this huge umbrella that will accommodate everything that
everyone has ever wanted will accommodate every concept except
biblical Jesus except to genuine Christianity and yes this will even
include those that are on the earth today that insist they are true
Christians but when you analyze their theology you find out very quickly that
there are perverted apostate false form of Christianity and so back to verse 1
we're gonna see the scope of this system so if we go back to verse 1 it tells us
that this notorious prostitute is seated on many waters all right four times in
Revelation chapter 17 this prostitute is described as sitting okay she's sitting
on many waters we're gonna see that she is sitting upon the scarlet beast the
the idea of sitting here in this word speaks of enthronement it speaks of
rulership it speaks of influence if you will later on when we get to Revelation
chapter 18 Babylon is personified there still and it says she says I sit as a
queen right so it's this idea of influence and power and so when it says
that this notorious prostitute is seated on many waters we don't have to really
struggle with interpreting this because later on in Revelation 17 verse 15 the
angel actually interprets this for us this is what the angel says the waters
you saw where the prostitute was seated are peoples multitudes nations and
languages now you should know that that phrase we've seen it a few times in
Revelation already every time we see this phrase peoples multitudes nations
and languages it's a broad way to just refer to all the peoples of the earth all
of the nations of the earth and so when it says that she is seated on many
waters it's referring to the global cross-culture influence of this false
religious system that's gonna happen during the end times why is that
important because the idea is that she is gonna be her this false religious
system is gonna include religions from every culture and you think well how is
this cultures religion gonna get along with this cultures religion I don't know
exactly but it's gonna happen how is how is Islam gonna get along with Buddhism
and how they're gonna get along with Hinduism and Taoism and Confucianism
and in Mormonism and and all how are they all you they're gonna get together
somehow they're going to unify in some way and that's what it means by her
being seated she has influence over the peoples of the earth and this idea is
all the peoples and their faith systems so regardless of geopolitical boundaries
regardless of cultural distinctions they are brought together now there's also
some alliance or some influence over the beast for a time because what we're
gonna read here in a moment the angel you know starts out here and says John
look come I'm gonna I'm gonna show you the judgment of this notorious
prostitute and and again we'll deal with that next time and so John is carried
into the wilderness verse 3 it says he has carried carried away in the spirit
into the wilderness to then see the actual full description of this
prostitute riding the beast now the idea of wilderness there that's a callback to
Revelation chapter 12 if you remember there it tells us that God took his
people represented as the woman right took her from from Satan's destructive
plans took her out into the wilderness to protect her and so John being carried
by the spirit into the wilderness here could be a excuse me a reference to John
being taken to a place of safety specifically out of the reach the allure
the attraction of this notorious prostitute so that he could see the
vision he's about to see more accurately he could see the vision accurately enough
so he could testify truthfully to the character of this false religious system
it's just a picture of how attractive it's gonna be of how it's gonna make
sense to most people that of course wow why didn't we ever think about that of
course the Jews and the Muslims could both coexist on the Temple Mount duh why
didn't we ever think of that right it's gonna be a system that is just so
attractive to people and I think John is specifically pulled to a place where
he's like okay I want you to look at it without being influenced by it that's
just an interpretation of mine but verse 3 it goes on to describe for us what John
saw and he says I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with
blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns so now we see the woman
sitting on the scarlet beast you're like well is she sitting on the many waters
or is she sitting on the scarlet beast right which is it well if you remember
from Revelation 13 the description here of this beast is almost verbatim it's
almost exactly the same and so we're going to discuss more about the beast
when we get to the interpretation that the angel gives but in Revelation 13 the
beast we know is symbolic I believe the beast is symbolic of two things the
Antichrist individually and also symbolic of the one world government
system that he leads they're both referred to as the beast so this beast
here I believe is referring to the political system that the Antichrist will
be leading and the idea that this beast is scarlet is just connecting it to the
great fiery red dragon so it's under the control of Satan and so on and so forth
but again remember the idea of this woman being seated is the idea of
enthronement or rulership or influence so what does that tell us one that this
global government system which is put together and led by the Antichrist
initially at the beginning point the first three and a half years of the
tribulation system initially supports this false religious system props up
this global religious system is somehow helping it attain its influence and
power and then the religious system itself then has influence over the
peoples of the earth so that's the idea that she's sitting on the many waters
and she's sitting on this beast but the idea of her sitting on the beast could
also indicate that she is exerting some type of control over the world government
system that she has some type of influence on it at least initially kind
of like a rider on a horse right the rider on the horse kind of controls the
amount it could indicate that initially specifically during the first three and
a half years of the tribulation period that the world is primarily looking to
this false religious system for help and hope rather than the Antichrist and his
governmental system now the Antichrist is involved in propping it up and stuff
but there's this picture here that as the heavens and the earth start falling
apart during tribulation and we looked at that in the seals right we looked at
that in the trumpets as everything is just just just falling apart worldwide
people's hearts it tells us in Revelation are failing them that they're
being overcome with fear and hopelessness during the first half of the
tribulation period and and and what happens is that people are gonna get
spiritual which is a fairly common thing on the earth you guys ever notice that
you know when things get really bad people start showing up to church more
when things get really really really bad people start getting a little more
spiritual and they start grasping for things right when things get to that
point where they're like oh I can't explain or understand what's going on
they start to entertain the idea of the supernatural I think that's what's gonna
happen during tribulation period as things are falling apart people are
gonna get really spiritual and that's that worldwide revival I was talking
about in the beginning and so they might have by this point or at least begun to
lose hope and their trust in politics that's already happening on earth today
especially in our country we're divided like we've never been before right
one half of the aisle goes we have to vote and the other half goes why it's
rigged and the other half you know and it's like and we just people are losing
hope in the political process for a long time people not just in our country and
multiple countries are like who cares who you vote for they're all corrupt
right you have these types of ideas that are permeating our culture and please
don't misunderstand me I believe that we have a civic duty to be involved I
believe we should vote I believe we should be a part of that that's my
opinion all right but but I believe that's an accurate call for the
Christian but I'm not here to get into that topic right now but the idea is
that during this time people have lost hope they've lost their trust in the
political system to fix the errors of the world they've lost hope in the
economic system right we're experiencing that right now I just I'm just baffled
that week by week the not a recession keeps getting worse as a not a recession
and it's like how much worse is it gonna get before people go okay we're in a
recession right you know do interest rates have to get to like 85% before
someone goes hey there's a problem right again another soapbox I don't have time
to get on to okay but as people lose their trust and their hope in politics
and economics they're gonna turn back to religion in mass but the problem is is
which one this religion hates this religion hates this religion which one
do we turn to and suddenly there's gonna be a way to unify all of them
there's gonna be a way to unify all the religions make them work to together
there's gonna be a way to give it all meaning beyond what's right in front of
him but it's gonna give meaning in a way that still ultimately is according to
man's own desires and man's own values and man's own pursuits and the
Antichrist is going to go along with this at first and he's gonna prop this
up now at the midpoint we're gonna see next week as we deal with the fall of
this system we're gonna see that when we get to the midpoint of tribulation he
stops supporting this know all the face are true and says no no no worship me
I'm God but this one world religion is gonna be propped up supporting the idea
that of course all religions lead to God except Jesus so this religious system
it's gonna have incredible influence over the entire world for a time that's
what we see by her sitting on many waters right verse 2 it tells us that
the kings of the earth it's referring to governmental leadership and those who
live on the earth it tells us commit sexual immorality with her it tells us
they get drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality we know that that sexual
immorality that fornication is idolatry false worship and so we see the idea
here is that the everybody from the leaders of governments all the way down
are gonna be intoxicated with what this one world religious system brings and
they over indulge in it that's the idea of drunkenness so verse 4 what did John
see specifically and we'll go through these pretty quick the woman was dressed
in purple and scarlet adorned with gold jewels and pearls she had a golden cup
in her hand filled with everything detestable and with the impurities of
her prostitution the idea of gold or purple and scarlet these are colors of
splendor colors of magnificence and power in ancient times to to get a purple
colored cloth or a scarlet colored cloth both of those were very expensive
colors so it was very expensive fabrics to get the gold and the jewels and the
pearls these are these are items of luxury and in items of opulence and so
again this is where we get the idea that this religious system is going to be
very attractive very appealing it's gonna have great power and influence
over people and in this system is likely gonna promise by appearance if you will
that yeah you know you you tow the line with this one world religion you'll get
everything you've ever wanted in my head it sounds much like the prosperity
gospel of today look at me look at my expensive watch I don't have an expensive
watch by the way but you know look you look at my look at my nolex right look
at my look at my expensive suit or whatever right and you have these people
even in today's world they're like look if you have the faith I have by giving
me all your money you'll have what I have and it's it's false it's a false
gospel right this whole religious system is gonna be like that like wow I could
have what what it promises me to have if I just do what it says and worship the
way it tells me to and again it's this idea of this self-exalting religion
because this everything everybody's ever wanted well God defines it right here
what's in the cup everything detestable with the impurities of her
prostitution that's how God sees self-exalting religion it's detestable
it's impure and so one of the things that will unify the world unify all
these faiths and people under this it's persecution of those who profess Jesus
Christ look at verse 6 then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of
the Saints and with the blood of the witnesses to Jesus and when I saw her I
was greatly astonished and so this woman this false religious system not only
persecutes believers but revels in it she's drunk with the blood of the Saints
same word this system over indulges in the persecution of those who profess
Jesus and that phrase there the blood of the Saints and the blood of the
witnesses to Jesus the idea of that is is the persecution is more than just
harassment it's gonna go far beyond oh no you can't bake a cake nope you can't
have a flower shop it's gonna go far beyond you can't work here it's gonna
go far beyond you know we're gonna fire you it's gonna go so far to the point
where it's actual harm being done to people where people are getting hurt
killed we all read about martyrs during the tribulation period we read about
people losing their head over their belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior and
so her alliance with with the beast her writing the beast and her alliance with
the world in leading the populations it's ultimately an alliance against God's
people which we've seen through Revelation over and over right Satan's
goal I hate God I hate his people I want to destroy them I don't care if they're
Jews or Gentiles I want them all dead that's really what this is all about now
we see precursors or the precondition of this in the world today at least I do we
see it in in abortion right and again I don't mean to condemn anybody if you've
had an abortion and and you've said God I repent of that you're forgiven okay
know that please know that but the concept of abortion in our world today
is that if a life is inconvenient just kill it just get rid of it right we see
that in abuses that take place in senior care facilities today this life is
meaningless this life is a hindrance and so it people will be an ego where does
where does this kind of thinking stop where does this kind of thinking stop
well like I said I believe it's a societal preconditioning to get people
to accept and normalize that any life that is deemed unwanted any life that
is deemed unproductive or uncooperative with the masses any life that is in the
way with what we want to do should be removed any life and with that mindset
when the world is under the sway of this notorious prostitute when the world is
under the sway of the beast those who are hindrances to the self-exalting
freedoms that mankind wants to have those fundamental believers that are
always preaching about Jesus the worldwide mindset is going to be can we
just remove them can we just kill them and we see that the people are going to
be excited about that because we saw that when the two witnesses were
murdered in Jerusalem at the midpoint of tribulation their bodies were left to
rot on the streets and the entire world celebrated the world from the top down
is just gonna be glad to overindulge in that kind of persecution and so I think
that is why John is greatly astonished here right he is greatly astonished I
mean at the gleeful brutality in the name of religion in the name of
connecting to God it's gonna be this this this horrible brutality based upon
false truths about false gods but even more so than that I mean John has already
seen from chapter 13 John already was introduced to the beast he saw that the
time is coming where the entire world is gonna worship the beast and worship the
Antichrist but now he's he's seeing something that that that that that is
before that worship something that leads up to that open satanic worship of the
Antichrist he sees this woman sitting on top of the beast controlling it
directing it influencing it intoxicating the world with the detestable things of
the earth and they're clearly detestable and yet mankind thinks it's good and
right and moral and proper and spiritual and they think it's gonna lead to our
exaltation and how wrong they are how wrong they will be and how sad will be
their fall next week we're gonna look at the angels interpretation of this vision
and get into some more details about the beast and what it all means the angel
goes on to describe to John more about this notorious prostitute and the
scarlet beast that she was writing and we're gonna see how this one world
religion really prepares the way for what Satan has been after all along a
world that worships him and him alone a world that will worship him in direct
intentional overt opposition to God Almighty and his son Jesus Christ you
know knowing the truth it's paramount to ours resisting the
deceptions that the world brings there's so many people deceived in our world
today there are so many people in pursuit of religion pursuit of some
connection to the divine there they're caught up in all kinds of false things
and I think sometimes we as the church can do too comfortable for that well you
believe what you want to believe I'll believe what I want to believe and
that's not the call of the church the call of the church is to lovingly kindly
boldly and confidently go shine a light on falsehood there's so many books
throughout the New Testament that deal directly with hey here's how to identify
false teaching here's how to respond to false teachers right we're called to know
the truth and there is much out there that appears truthful enough that it
sways the masses and we shouldn't be surprised by that Satan has been at work
since all the way back in Babylon he has been at work to set up counterfeits to
deceive to destroy to ruin lives and the many false religions in the world today
they all point to the same thing they all point to the same thing they say
Jesus is not God Almighty they say that he is not God in the flesh they say that
he is not the Savior of the world but we who know him we know the truth we've
experienced a change that people cannot explain and knowing the truth means that
we should live the truth and we should be people who share that truth that
truth Jesus Christ who said I am the way the truth in the life that's what we're
called to be about that we would be part of rescuing those that are trapped in
the humanistic ideas of religious Babylon I believe the roots of this
exists today I believe it's going to continue to grow and flourish to the end
times we have the truth we have the hope let's be people who share that now that
we would save those from the judgment to come but that we would be a people of
such reputation that even when God would take us from this earth prior to point
out his wrath upon the earth the reputation of the people at our church
and every church worldwide would be such that people would go maybe they were
right about Jesus maybe I should turn to him maybe I should give my life to him
because nothing else seems to be working right he is the truth he is the hope
amen let's pray father we love you God we thank you Lord it's been said there's
nothing new under the Sun your servant said that in your own word God mankind
is seeking and has always been seeking that which would bring glory sadly Lord
so many are seeking that which will bring glory to themselves and not that
was we're being glory to their Creator Lord we know the time is coming where
you're gonna judge that Lord it's within the spirit of man due to the fall and
due to sin for us to say we don't need God to live like the people under Nimrod
and say you know what we're gonna create our own system we're gonna govern
ourselves we're gonna create our own faith in our own religion and yet Lord
we know that that is all self-exalting and leads nowhere except to judgment
God we pray for the world we live in today God we pray your spirit would go
forth and change hearts change minds we pray for those that are trapped into the
false religions and false ideas things that have their root and religious
Babylon God we pray you'd give us opportunity to share with them to hand
them a track to tell them about Jesus to converse with them in a loving way God
that they would come to know the truth but at the same time Lord we know yet
there are so many in this world that are gonna reject you to the very end that
are led and guided and influenced by Satan that are gonna continue to do
horrible things and we trust you in all of that Lord we trust your timing let us
individually Lord be people that proclaim your name loud and clear that
those who are trapped in falsehoods would recognize truth it would recognize
that they're trapped in something that is a counterfeit of what is true and that
Lord they would just come to know you we pray for our outreaches as a church Lord
especially this season there's so many trapped in darkness Lord they need the
light help us introduce them to that light God we want them to be saved use
us use our church and when the time comes Lord where you take our church out
of this world you take your people your your your believers God the church of
Jesus Christ out of this world that the reputation that is left behind would be
a reputation of people who knew truth lived truth shared truth and that those
who would be left behind would come to know truth through that witness and
through that testimony God we love you we thank you it's in Jesus name we pray
amen let's worship guys