All right, good morning.
Good morning.
How are you guys doing today?
Awesome.
Well, we always like to start out, and I've already met a couple today, but if this is
your first time visiting us here at Hosanna Christian Fellowship, whether you're here
in our room or if you're joining us online, welcome.
We're so glad you're here to worship with us today.
I am Pastor Nathan, and before we get into our intro, I do want to take just a quick
moment to say thank you to all of the men and women here in our church and around the
world that have served in the armed forces.
Yeah.
My dad was a veteran, served in the Vietnam War, and I've always had great respect for
those that serve.
I myself had wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force, and then God was like, no, I got other
plans for you.
And I was like, all right, Lord.
So, but thank you so much.
We greatly honor those of you that have served, that are serving, and have put your life on
the line to defend our country and our freedoms.
And so we say thank you, we honor you, and I just want to pray for you right now before
we get started.
So if everybody, if you'll join me in prayer, Father, we pray, God, for the veterans here
in our room and online and just all over, Lord.
We pray for them that you would bless them, God.
We are so grateful that you put a call on their heart to serve in our military, God,
to defend the freedoms that we hold dear here in America, God.
And we pray, Lord, that you would bless them and their families, God.
We pray for those that may still be dealing with some of the difficulties of their service,
God, that you would bring healing and hope and wholeness.
But God, we pray, Lord, that you would just bless their lives abundantly, that they would
know you, they would know your presence, and they would know the blessing, God, of who
you are in their lives.
May they truly understand how much we love them and thank them for their service, Lord,
in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, this morning we are continuing our study of Revelation chapter 17, looking
at Babylon, but Babylon in the perspective of its representation as the one world religion.
Now last time we went, we looked at the first six verses of Revelation chapter 17 here at
the vision that was given to John.
And today we're going to be looking at the interpretation of that vision as the angel
interprets what John saw.
If you remember at the end of chapter 16, which was the conclusion of the seventh bowl
of wrath, that brought us to the chronological conclusion of the seven-year tribulation period,
that seventh bowl being the final judgment of God on earth at the end of tribulation.
And I mentioned then that the actual chronology of the story we'll pick back up in chapter
19, and so we'll pick the story back up there.
But Revelation 17 and 18 are a pause in the action, as John has done a couple times already
in Revelation, to look back on what we just went through and to take a look at something
in more detail.
Ultimately, what we're looking at in chapter 17 and 18 is what is being judged through
the close of tribulation.
And that is namely Babylon the Great.
Babylon the Great, which represents the entirety of the kingdom of the Antichrist, which is
expressed in the end times in a one-world government, a one-world socioeconomic system
that stands against God and against His people.
But Babylon the Great also represents this one-world religious system that itself represents
man's humanistic attempt at elevating itself, its own values, its own priorities above and
instead of God.
And so Babylon, this concept, this idea of Babylon represents everything that stands
in opposition to Jesus Christ, everything that stands against Him, every thought, every
philosophy, every practice, everything that would stand against Jesus, both religious
and political.
Now, in Revelation 17, what we've been seeing is the religious embodiment of this idea of
Babylon as seen by John the Apostle and characterized as a notorious prostitute.
This notorious prostitute characterizing a system of false religion, false worship, unfaithfulness
to the true God.
And as we looked at that in our last study, we saw the representation pointing out the
spiritual immorality, the idea of adultery and fornication committed against God in false
worship, against the one true creator, God Almighty, who is the only one worthy of worship
and our everything.
And so this system we've been studying is pictured as being in control of and having
influence over all peoples, cultures, and religions of the world.
As we saw in our previous study, this system is initially supported, this one world religious
system is initially supported and elevated by and even has influence over the Antichrist
and the government he leads.
This system in the early days of the tribulation period manages to bring all the people of
the world together and by people it's specifically contextually pointing out all the different
faiths and religions and expressions of spirituality somehow brings them together, uniting them
in the rejection of Jesus Christ and the persecution of those who believe in him.
In this reality it says astonished John the Apostle in its blatant hypocritical brutality.
Well today what we're going to be looking at is the angel as I said showing John what
this vision means, showing him the interpretation of what John saw, providing him and us with
some clarity as to how this all comes to be in the ultimate judgment of this one world
religious system, how it all comes to be, what it all leads to, and really how the man-centered
self-exalting expression of religion and power ultimately destroys itself.
And that is the picture of being fully defeated and judged by the true Lord of Lords and the
true King of Kings.
So that's what we're going to be looking at today but as we do is we're going to first
be celebrating God in worship and praising him.
We're also celebrating today at the end of our service of baptism we have a number of
people getting baptized today and you know baptism being a public expression of faith
requires a public to express that faith too and you all get to be the public today to
celebrate with our brothers and sisters making that expression.
But let's pray and we'll get into our time of worship.
Father we love you so much.
God we're so thankful for who you are.
We're so thankful for what you've done and we're so thankful for what you're going to
do.
Lord we know as we've been looking at Revelation God that really bad times are coming upon
the earth.
Lord that you will one day and hopefully soon Lord judge all the false religion and false
faith that man has propped up.
All of the false gods that that man has lifted up whether it was under the inspiration of
Satan himself or due to his own fallen nature Lord.
Even the worship of himself Lord man has tried to to find this this spiritual expression
in everything but worshipping you the one true God.
And Lord we know that today we are in a in a time of patience Lord where you were just
patiently waiting for those that are going to be saved before you take your church out
of this world to get saved.
But Lord we're looking at today God what you're going to do in the end to finally and fully
deal with false worship idolatry.
And so God encourage us Lord encourage us as you have been to be people who are aware
of what's coming that we would be people who warn those today about the judgment to come.
To share with them the hope that is found in Jesus Christ the one true God who came
to this earth lived a perfect life and died on the cross for the sins of all mankind.
That we would share Lord that through faith in what you did we can be restored our fellowship
can be restored with you our creator.
And God we pray for those getting baptized today Lord what a blessing.
And they be may they be greatly blessed today as they as they make this public profession
Lord proclaiming that they have eschewed all false religions and now believe in the one
and true Almighty God.
Lord we're so grateful we want to praise you now in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
I want to open up with looking at Revelation 17 chapter 17 verse 1 again just as a context
where we're at it told us there then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came
and spoke with me said come I will show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute who
is seated on many waters.
And so that told us right in the very beginning of Revelation 17 that what John was witnessing
what what the angel was about to show him was very specifically the judgment of what
we know is this notorious prostitute that represents the false religious system and
then kind of in a in a broader scope false religion in general.
God is judging that and we know that God is going to judge that one day and really it's
just you know since the very beginning of time with man the very beginning of man's
existence the sin of man has been believing the lie that they don't need God or his ways
that that that is the original problem.
The idea that from the very beginning man has thought you know we can have wisdom on
our own and we could have knowledge of good and evil and we can be like God without God
or specifically without his ways that was the temptation in the garden all the way back
in the beginning and has been man's problem ever since.
As we follow the chronology through the Bible we see almost right away Cain tried to approach
God on his own terms and we read that God rejected his his offering because it was on
Cain's own terms and not on God's own terms.
Well that made Cain so angry that he went he killed his brother Abel specifically because
Abel's offering was accepted by God because Abel brought an offering on God's terms but
Cain was so upset about that he murdered his brother.
And then we touched on last week a little bit that after the flood a man named Nimrod
the hunter led a rebellion against God again attempting to be spiritual or attempting to
lead man in being spiritual on man's own terms instead of God's terms and that's what we've
seen throughout history over and over again.
Man has been deceived duped used by Satan to create false religion after false religion
over and over and over in an attempt to satisfy what the Bible really teaches is man's innate
desire to worship something somehow some way and Satan's desire to do everything he can
to be worshiped instead of God.
And then what I also believe is that Satan's desire is just to cause pain and hurt to God
Almighty in any way he can.
So from the beginning until now Satan has largely been temporarily satisfied with man
worshiping anything but God.
Right?
Worship Allah worship Buddha worship Krishna worship one of the thousand gods of Hinduism
worship anything but the one true God and Satan has been okay with that but in the end
times we've been studying in Revelation that the time is going to come where Satan eventually
is going to step out of the shadows and step into the spotlight and he's going to crush
all of that through his puppet the Antichrist and then demand to be worshiped alone as God.
Where he's going to step onto the scene and demand I am God worship me and he's going
to do that through the Antichrist.
But regardless this anything but God mentality this we don't need God in his ways mentality
is going to be judged and ruined and dealt with finally once and for all.
This is what we're seeing in Revelation chapter 17 and 18.
Now again the first six verses of Revelation 17 John was allowed to see what is really
a picture of the seductive alluring tempting character of false worship in all of its detestable
and impure glory.
And in verse six it told us that John was astonished by what he saw specifically he
was astonished amazed at what false worship leads mankind to do in its brutal violent
stand against the one true God and his people.
And so we pick it up in verse seven of Revelation 17 then the angel said to me why are you astonished
I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with the seven heads and
the ten horns that carries her.
So this beast is referring to the beast that the woman is sitting on we read that earlier
in Revelation 17 that this woman is sitting on a beast specifically verse three it said
John says I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names
and had seven heads and ten horns and so the beast here in verse seven where he says I'm
going to explain to you the mystery of the woman and the beast it's that beast.
Now this was also in reference to the beast that was introduced to us in chapter 13 of
the book of Revelation because it's almost the exact same description we read there back
in chapter 13 but the focus you might catch on to as we go through this the focus of the
interpretation of this vision is still primarily on the beast even though we're talking about
this notorious prostitute.
So although this notorious prostitute is sitting on the beast it says and that word sitting
is indicating some type of influence or control over the beast is still the dynamic factor
in the whole story the beast is still the main actor if you will and so as we're going
to see this beast which I believe represents both the Antichrist as an individual and it
represents the one world government that he leads the system of government that he leads
is ultimately using the notorious prostitute using this system of false worship as a mere
tool to accomplish its own ends and its own means and really if we look down through history
we've seen tyrants have always used religion as a means to gain their own influence and
control tyrants have always used religion when it suits their aims and it's really
no different here at the end of time.
So much that this angel says here in this interpretation connects this beast to the
beast of Revelation 13 we're going to deal specifically with the seven heads and the
ten horns in a moment but we're going to move on to verse eight first it says the beast
that you saw was and is not and is about to come up from the abyss and go to destruction
those who live on the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from
the foundation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast that was and is not
and is to come.
So twice there it gives us this weird phrase about the beast right the beast that was and
is not and is about to come and specifically it opens up they're about to come up from
the abyss and go to destruction.
Now this is a call back to a very specific identifier of the antichrist that we learned
in earlier chapters if you remember in Revelation chapter 13 it says that this beast came up
from the sea and it had seven heads and ten horns and we read there that one of those
heads was fatally wounded but then that fatal wound was healed some way and if you remember
in chapter 13 that phrase fatal wound in the original language means a life terminating
injury.
So this antichrist and this government he leads but specifically they're talking about
this one world leader contextually is going to experience some type of life terminating
injury but in chapter 13 it says but that fatal wound was healed and the beast came
back to life right.
Now we talked a lot about that back then and I don't have time to go through it again but
that moment is likely some type of miracle miraculous healing that is performed by Satan
and possibly allowed by God and we see that in second Thessalonians chapter two where
God allows Satan to perform certain signs and miracles and this resurrection this counterfeit
resurrection of the antichrist is brought on really because of mankind's persistent
desire to believe the lies that Satan is peddling and so just like God hardened Pharaoh's heart
God allows the people who insist on believing the lie to see more of the lie and then thus
be further led into that false belief but again it's not God forcing them or leading
them into it it's their choice they want to believe the lie and so it tells us here that
this beast it says he was alive then he is not because he died and then he comes again
specifically now resurrected through some miraculous sign that that Satan performs and
now fully empowered it directly by Satan and the result then in chapter 13 we read that
the whole world would be astonished wowed he came back to life right people have been
telling us Jesus came back to life for 2,000 years but I don't see no Jesus but right here
in front of us is this worldwide charismatic leader and he died and he came back and they're
just wowed by that and then it results in it tells us there of them following the beast
and worshiping the dragon and worshiping the beast and we see that in Revelation 13 8 where
it says all those who live on the earth will worship it and this is referring to the beast
that was and is not and is to come and it says there in Revelation 13 8 everyone whose
name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb
who was slaughtered very similar language and I believe describing the same event the
same moment as we're looking at here in Revelation 17 8 right so verse 9 of Revelation 17 it
then says this calls for a mind that has wisdom this phrase is much like the parallel phrase
we also read in Revelation 13 if you remember in that chapter as we were talking about the
mark of the beast and John was describing to us what this mark of the beast is he describes
it in somewhat cryptic language and it says they're a very similar thing that that let
the mind that has wisdom understand what this means and there I mentioned that the idea
of having wisdom then really I think and I believe is pointing to the idea of that that
the people living during the time of tribulation are going to understand what the mark of the
beast is we can speculate we could go it's a tattoo it's a subdermal this it's a it's
a chip you know we could speculate but we don't know for sure but the people living
during that time it's going to be clear as day to them they're going to understand what
that mark is they're going to understand how to determine it and so when it's talking about
here that this beast that was and is not and how how people are going to be astonished
by that right because John was astonished and the angel said why are you astonished
this beast is going to die and come back to life and people are going to be wowed by the
miracle and so likely during this time the reason people are going to be astonished and
the reason some people are not going to be astonished because some are going to believe
in Jesus during this time and others are going to persist persist in believing the lie and
so therefore the mind that has wisdom is the one that's going to be able to go wait a second
this is not true this is false this is counterfeit so moving on in verse 9 the angel says the
seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated they are also seven kings
well thanks for clearing that up angel right the seven heads are seven mountains and they're
also kings so so what does he mean here and specifically you'll notice the seven heads
are seven mountains on which the woman is seated and it's referring to that notorious
prostitute from earlier in the chapter so it's both the seven heads symbolize or a representative
of both seven mountains that the woman is sitting on and seven kings now when it comes
to seven mountains there are some people who read this section and they are very quick
to associate this beast and the seven heads and therefore its influence and we're talking
about one world religion they're very quick to associate it to Rome because the city of
Rome was historically called the city of seven hills right and so some get really excited
and they say you know there's a clear connection because Rome represented the excess of political
corruption and political power and false worship and persecution of believers right you go
back in history and Rome as a city and then as a city representing the empire reflected
all of that represented all of that and then so then many go on to make a connection between
Babylonian paganism and Roman Catholicism because in Roman Catholicism there's a worship
of Mary and and so some people go ah the Catholic Church is going to be the head of the one
world religion at the end of all things specifically back in the late 90s people got all excited
because Pope John Paul II had a lot of tendencies towards unified ecumenical interreligious
cooperation and people are like oh he's going to lead the one world religion and then on
top of that when you look at the prophecies in the book of Daniel about this government
during the end times a lot of people refer to it as the revived Roman Empire because
of the vision in Daniel chapter 2 with the statue and the feet and we're going to get
to that in a little bit and then on top of that Rome was the last world empire world
controlling empire that led with a philosophy of we have a God for everybody but not Jesus
now there's a couple objections to that one Rome was built on hills not mountains and
the word here when it says the seven heads or seven mountains in the original language
is a word that very specifically means mountain not hill okay and then on top of that Pope
John Paul II passed in 2005 so he's not the head of one world anything at this point and
the woman represents the one world religion not the beast so those are a few objections
to that interpretation but then on top of that in Daniel chapter 2 verse 35 when we
have this vision of the statue it tells us that at the end of the vision a stone flies
from heaven strikes the foot of the statue destroys it all and then that stone becomes
a mountain very specific Hebrew word mountain and we know that in that vision it tells us
that mountain represents a kingdom it represents specifically the kingdom of God that is to
come after the end of things at tribulation so the word mountain can biblically represent
kingdoms in governments in general and so since the seven heads both represent mountains
and kings right the seven heads it's better to see them as representing kingdoms and the
seven leaders that lead those kingdoms okay so the woman is seen however sitting on all
seven of these kingdoms what is that a picture of well since we know the woman is representative
of this false religion that has its roots back in Babylonian false worship and stuff
the idea is that this woman has had influence the influence of false worship has permeated
every single major world influencing kingdom throughout history and will do so again during
the tribulation period so verse 10 he says five have fallen one is and the other has
not yet come this further reinforce reinforces the interpretation of the mountains being
kingdoms and the seven kings being leaders of those kingdoms because what we read here
is a description of history five have fallen one is and one is yet to come so remember
John is receiving this vision at the end of the first century during that time the world
controlling empire was the Roman Empire led by the Emperor and so prior to John's day
prior to the influence of the Roman Empire there had been a five major worldwide empires
historically that that effectively controlled the known world of their time okay those five
empires started with the Egyptian dynasties and then you had the Assyrian Empire then
the Babylonian Empire then the Medo-Persian Empire then the Greek Empire five and these
five kingdoms and the leaders of those five kingdoms by John's time receiving this vision
had already fallen then he says one is the sixth of course one is the then living Roman
Empire Emperor leading the Roman Empire that empire is so five had fallen one is and again
that empire had had huge control John had been exiled to Patmos by the Roman government
but then he says the other has not yet come this is the seventh king the seventh kingdom
or mountain and in John's time this seventh kingdom had not yet come Rome was the one
that is but the seventh had not yet come and it hasn't come in our day either because if
we look through history since the Roman Empire there has not been one single world controlling
an empire like Egypt or Syria or Babylon or there hasn't been after the Roman Empire fell
the whole world started dividing up into localized governments there hasn't been an empire like
these previous ones since but Daniel speaks of the seventh kingdom and the seventh king
and we get the idea that this is called the revived Roman Empire led by the beast led
by the Antichrist during the tribulation period just as a quick recap this comes from Daniel
chapter 2 if you remember in Daniel chapter 2 Daniel was in Babylon with his people they
were captives there the king of Babylon at the time was a man named Nebuchadnezzar and
he had a dream a really strange dream and in this dream it was a statue that had a head
of gold and it had a chest and arms of silver its abdomen and its thighs were bronze its
legs were iron and its feet were made of iron and clay and in that dream he saw that this
stone came out of heaven and it struck the feet it struck the base of that statue and
the whole thing just collapsed and then that stone became a mountain as we talked about
representing a kingdom that comes after all of this so Nebuchadnezzar called Daniel after
all his guys failed miserably to interpret the dream and said Daniel can you tell me
what this dream means and Daniel is like yeah bro he didn't say bro but that's modern language
he said I'll tell you what you saw what you saw was the kingdoms of the earth in succession
from the present time all the way through the end of time and so you Nebuchadnezzar
you're the king of Babylon the head of gold but after Babylon falls another empire will
rise led by another king and then that was the chest of silver and so on and so forth
but all of that will go in succession until we get to these legs of iron which represented
historically the Roman Empire the empire that was as John is receiving this vision and then
after that empire falls subsequent to that will be an empire of iron and clay with ten
toes right now in Daniel's vision that empire that comes after the legs of iron after the
iron strength of the Roman Empire that seventh kingdom is going to be a mix of iron and clay
so it's going to be Roman like it's going to be Romanesque but different and that's
why people refer to it as a revived Roman Empire but the ten toes in that particular
vision we learn elsewhere in Daniel represent ten smaller kingdoms and governments that
will work together in like a coalition if you will during the end times to form one
larger worldwide government but made up of these ten individual kingdoms and that larger
government will control the world of its time something we haven't yet seen since the fall
of Rome to our present day so it's still yet future but then as we see in that vision in
Daniel 2 the whole thing is ultimately destroyed by this stone that comes from heaven and then
becomes a mountain representing God's kingdom now you might go wait a second that's only
five kingdoms in the statue there's seven heads on the beast how do we reconcile that
well remember Daniel's vision was from his present time the Babylonian kingdom through
the end of time behind him the Assyrian Empire had already happened number six and the Egyptian
Empire had already come and gone number seven so the conclusion of Daniel's vision here
is although the first Roman Empire fell it's going to resume in some way in the future
as a seventh kingdom you guys tracking with me here awesome all right verse 10 then it
says when he comes remember mountains and kings represent kingdoms and leaders he must
remain for only a little while so now we're looking at the king of the seventh kingdom
representing the whole government he leads and so when he comes is referring to the Antichrist
the seventh king the beast and the seventh empire the seventh government or the seventh
mountain that he leads that the woman then sits on and has influence over because remember
it said the woman is sitting on the seven heads or the seven mountains now look in verse
11 that's going to be clarified in verse 12 we'll get there so the beast that was and
is not is itself an eighth king but it belongs to the seven and is going to destruction you
can understand why people get a headache trying to study revelation okay the Antichrist as
the seventh king over the seventh kingdom has reign over that government so it's a coalition
of coal coalition of ten governments but the Antichrist is leading it if you will he's
kind of the the CEO of it and he has reign over that for the first three and a half years
of tribulation he has rulership over that seventh kingdom but then it says the seventh
is itself an eighth king but it belongs to the seven a very strange phrase okay so let
me try and break this down for you the Antichrist is one of the seven kings leading one of the
seven kingdoms okay so in the beginning of the tribulation period right around there
there's this ten governments this ten region this ten nation governmental entity that that
forms together and then this one man kind of rises to the top to lead the whole thing
but it's still led almost in a like we're all peers yeah he's the CEO but we all work
together right and it's this government that then brings alleged peace to the world and
that's the whole ten toes of Daniel and all this stuff but the beast that was and is not
meaning the beast that will suffer a fatal wound at the midpoint of the tribulation period
the beast who was and is not and will come again right he will die and he will be resurrected
somehow and when he dies as the seventh king his seventh kingdom his allegedly peaceful
government the government that he leads that one world government will effectively cease
but not like the previous governments or the previous entities instead that seventh kingdom
and the seventh king will change it'll come back it'll resurge into something radically
different something far more malevolent something far more outwardly evil and wicked as we've
seen in our previous studies of revelation because at that midpoint as the Antichrist
is killed and then this miracle brings him back to life everybody goes wow he's God not
Buddha he's God not Allah he's God not fill in the blank and then he goes yes I am and
I demand you worship me and as we're gonna see in subsequent verses here then these ten
nations that are part of this one world government they give all their power to him they step
aside they say you're in complete absolute control bro and that's when all hell literally
breaks loose so the seventh king the beast the Antichrist will itself become an eighth
king so he's the seventh king during the first three and a half years he dies he's resurrected
he then becomes effectively an eighth king during the last three and a half years of
tribulation but it's during that last three and a half years where he becomes an absolute
tyrant empowered directly by Satan himself during what is known as the great tribulation
period and that's as I said when things get bad that's when the mark of beast comes on
the scene that's when the image of the beast is created that's where you say you worship
the image or you will be killed that's when the persecution against the Jewish people
and all who would believe in Jesus Christ gets really out of control and really bad
verse 12 the ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom but they
will receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour so here we get to the interpretation
of the ten horns they are ten kings in line with Daniel's prophecies the ten toes and
other places in Daniel but they don't exist during John's time they have not yet received
a kingdom they don't exist during John's time while he was receiving this vision but they
will exist during the tribulation period and then it says they will receive authority as
kings with the beast this is this coalition right for one hour now people go what does
one hour mean well it means a very short period of time in the original language okay it's
not necessarily saying 60 minutes some do interpret it that way but when I looked up
the original word in the Greek it's simply a word that refers to a very short period
of time we've all done that right I'll call you back in five minutes do we mean five minutes
or do we mean I'm gonna call you back pretty shortly right so we get the idea there verse
13 speaking of these ten horns and these ten kings these have one purpose and they will
give their power and authority to the beast so the purpose of these ten nations that are
part of this coalition is ultimately not to rule as equals with the Antichrist which is
how it works during the first three and a half years of tribulation but ultimately their
purpose is to throw all of their authority and all their power all their rulership everything
they have as leaders of these these nations or areas or however you want to look at that
they throw it all behind the beast that word power means controlling influence means strength
it means force and then authority means their domain or sphere of influence so the idea
is that they have certain areas of the earth that they're leading and they're in control
over and yeah they assent to the Antichrist is kind of the CEO over everything but they
have authority well they give all that up at the midpoint they give it all to the beast
so everything that they have governance and control over is given and yielded handed over
to the beast who then will exercise sole complete dominance globally and that is exactly what
we see after the midpoint of tribulation and we've looked at in previous studies where
we get the enforced worship of the beast where we get the enforced worship with death as
a penalty where the mark comes onto the scene that's saying I have allegiance to the beast
and you can't buy and sell without it and you can't work without it and it gets real
real bad and this is all what ramps up to a very full overt intentional public effect
and this effect is simply the outward overt public persecution of the Jews and all believers
in Jesus Christ look at verse 14 these speaking of the ten nations and the beast will make
war against the lamb but the lamb will conquer them because he is Lord of lords and King
of kings those with him are called chosen and faithful so what we've been looking at
is kind of like a rapid overview of the progression of history all the way through the end time
scenario right through all the persecution all the oppression all the way up to the outright
slaughter of those who believe in Jesus bringing us all the way up to the battle of Armageddon
ultimately to the return of Jesus Christ who returns with his people and the defeat of
the Antichrist who is the final earthly King representing Satan himself ultimately defeated
by the Lord of lords and the King of kings now before we move on you might say well what
about the notorious prostitute right so I thought this chapter was about right we've
been talking about the beast what about this one world religious system that is initially
propped up and supported right we see her sitting on the beast that means it's supporting
her it's propping her up what about this one world religious system that is that is supported
and endorsed by the Antichrist and what about the one world government and all that how
does that all what happens to her well look at verse 15 he also said to me the waters
you saw where the prostitute was seated are people's multitudes nations and languages
and that's basically speaking about the influence she has over the world the ten horns you saw
on the beast will hate the prostitute they will hate the effect religion has on people
they will hate the fact that it's like oh everybody you can you can worship however
you want we all get along in a big spiritual hug they're gonna hate that and they will
make her desolate and naked devour her flesh and burn her up with fire for God has put
it into their hearts to carry out this plan by having one purpose and to give their kingdom
to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled so what we see is Babylon embodied as the
religious system of the end times will have significant influence over the people of the
earth for a time remember we just saw her she's been seated and had that influence over
all the major world affecting empires going all the way back through history right false
worship pagan religion has had influence over all of the governments of history during the
tribulation all the different religions that have sprung up over time will somehow be united
I'm not sure but they will be united brought under one banner and the governing authorities
of the earth at that time including the beast initially support her initially endorse it
they support her efforts to bring peace amongst the warring religions right even the antichrist
himself it tells us in Daniel that he ratifies a peace treaty with Israel he somehow manages
to get the the Jews and the in the Arabs in Israel to to to be at peace to work together
which allows the Jewish temple to be rebuilt on the mount right next to I believe the Dome
of the Rock so it's like you guys can both worship here stop blowing each other up just
get along right it all works out the antichrist is a part of that and what a wonderful picture
of what mankind wants religion to be right can't we all just get along we can all come
to God our own way and we're gonna see that during the end times but incidentally this
method of taking control isn't new if you study histories you see regimes come into
an area what they'll commonly do is make friends with all the religious leaders they'll
endorse the religious leaders they'll even raise up those religious leaders into positions
of authority until those religions become so entrenched into the culture and then the
government starts restricting the religious freedoms of those religious groups it happened
with Hitler it happened in the Soviet block it's gonna happen through the end but then
this wonderful peacemaking inclusive tolerant leader the antichrist will be killed somehow
miraculously come back to life and astonishing the world and the world will then be forced
to abandon all of their individual iterations of faith because it'll be no you must worship
the beast and nothing else many will do so easily and I see that because you'll notice
the woman sits on the seven mountains but not the eighth she sat on the seven mountains
not the eighth this one world religion has no place in the final three and a half years
of tribulation because it's worship of Satan and Satan alone so the government's hated
her it says you know we look at all this stuff that's happening and we go what happens to
the notorious prostitute what happens to religious Babylon what happens to this one world religious
system during the end times well the government's hated her all along and so at the end point
at the midpoint as the antichrist is killed and comes back to life and commits the abomination
of desolation in the Jewish temple it says all those ten kings will give all their power
and authority to the antichrist to the beast and thus they will all war against all the
religions they will make her desolate and naked devour her flesh and burn her up with
fire and thus we see that the false religious system of the world will be struck down it'll
be destroyed and replaced with a worldwide enforced worship of the beast now it tells
us there that this all happens according to God's will it all happens to God according
to God's purposes it's been predicted by God's prophets right we've been studying a lot of
that through the Old Testament and what does that tell us is that false religions all of
them false worship it's all going to be judged by God himself at the end times as he lets
the beast and this woman fight and lets the beast devour her destroy her it says every
false religion every man centric antichrist philosophy every humanistic effort to connect
to the divine without submitting without yielding to the one true creator of the universe Jesus
Christ every single one are ultimately precursors for and point to worship of the one who hates
God with everything he is they all point to worship of Satan they all point to him who
is the ultimate expression of the worship of self in the place of the worship of God
Almighty and so it ends here on verse 18 and the woman you saw is the great city that has
royal power over the kings of the earth you go is she a noratars prostitute is she a city
right all these pictures and images they kind of weave in and out of each other and back
and forth but in John's day there was no doubt which city on the earth had royal power of
the kings of the earth it was Rome right Rome was the political power the economic religious
center of the world at that time and so when you see this phrase royal power it simply
means great power great influence or great control but as we've talked about Babylon
the concept of Babylon refers to many things it refers to an actual city it refers to an
actual empire in the past it refers to an ideology and an attitude it refers to everything
that is against God and as a concept and an ideology in a world-spanning system of thinking
and belief Babylon this woman has always been the great city that had royal power over the
kings of the earth because we saw it in Egypt we saw it in Assyria we saw it in Babylon
we saw it in the Medo-Persian Empire we saw it in the Greek Empire we saw it in the Roman
Empire the question for us today is does it have royal power over you that's the question
am I a citizen of the world or am I a citizen of heaven do I live like it do I behave like
it you know Rome may have been the personification of Babylon in its time the personification
of a world system and rebellion against God in John's day but today idolatry is just as
strong it's a little bit more dispersed it's a little bit more subtle right we don't necessarily
have a society where we have temples in every city to the multiple multiple different gods
and in in in idolatry today it's closed in secular terms it's not necessarily enshrined
in statues or temples per se but you don't have to drive very far through any city to
see the many places of worship that worship gods that aren't Jesus Christ and then we
see that idolatry is clothed also in money and power and reputation and personal feelings
and priorities and self and the attitude the attitudes that stand against God some might
say the Babylon of today goes by a much different name it's called woke ism my feelings my needs
priority above God I don't care what God says I will live how I want I don't care what God
commands me to do I'll go to a church that allows me to live however I want to so I could
say I'm a Christian but live in disobedience to the Almighty Jesus is the only way the
only truth the only life nobody comes to the father but through him and he is the only
thing that sets us free from the disease of self so today we're gonna celebrate with some
members of our Christian family that are professing that they have been set free and saved by
Jesus Christ that they're making a public declaration that they've been redeemed from
the sin of self and what they're doing is making a public profession of the truth that
Jesus Christ has changed their life and they're doing that through the act of baptism here
and so real quick baptism is a public profession of faith here at Hosanna we baptize kids as
long as those minors those children can express an understanding of salvation and why they're
getting baptized you know we do baby dedications we don't baptize babies but we do dedications
as parents want to dedicate them to God and so we have some minors getting baptized today
and we'll do that as long as they can acknowledge this is why I'm getting baptized I understand
who Jesus is I understand that I put my faith in him and then of course adults right we're
gonna ask you the same thing but the idea is that there's this public profession of
what God has already done in your heart so this is how it's gonna work today for those
of you getting baptized today okay those of you that signed up and if you didn't sign
up we got stuff for you too but in a moment I'm gonna ask you to come forward okay I'm
gonna ask you to get up out of your seats and come forward and you're gonna come down
the aisle and you're gonna go out the side of the sanctuary right here up the stairs
to the back where you can get changed for the baptism okay if you bought brought clothes
to change into we have changing booths back there for privacy as well as cubbies to hold
your personal items and we have staff back there that is watching everything so nothing
gets stolen but when you're changed I want you to come back out front and line up against
the wall right this white wall right here just line up right there for your baptism
now myself I'm gonna go get changed as well me and pastor Rick will be inside the baptismal
and we will call you into the baptismal one at a time we will have one of our elders on
the outside here to make sure you get over the stairs and stuff okay and then we will
baptize you after you are baptized you'll just exit the baptismal we'll hand you a towel
so you can dry off and wrap yourself with and then just proceed to the back into the
changing booth where you can change back into your clothes and then come back outside and
continue to worship with us as we're completing the baptisms now during the entire baptism
team our worship team will be on stage leading us here in worship and so I encourage all
of you just praise God as we celebrate the profession of faith that our brothers and
sisters are making now as I said if you didn't sign up for the baptism today but God has
put it on your heart I'm saved and I've never made that public profession of faith come
forward to get baptized we have shorts you can change into we have shirts you can change
into we have towels for you we got you covered now for friends and family of those getting
baptized we encourage you to come up to the front if you want to take pictures or take
video of any of this we are live streaming this because we do have family and friends
that aren't here that want to watch their loved ones get baptized so if you're like
kind of like in the middle of the building here please stay seated okay or come up here
if you want to stand up and worship all right but we're just asking you not to block the
camera so family and friends could see and witness their loved ones getting baptized
and then after everybody getting baptized is baptized our worship leaders will close
out the service for prayer and then we'll have a final song of worship and so I am very
blessed to do this with you guys to be a part of this and so right now if you signed up
to get baptized if you didn't sign up to get baptized please stand up please stand up and
come on forward see our worship team is going ahead of you just in case you're nervous so
come forward with your stuff if you're getting baptized you're going to follow them out the
side and go into the changing booths and we will be ready back there to help you get ready
for the baptism and while our worship team is getting on stage let's pray and let's worship
and I know it's late guys I tried to get through it as fast as I could if you have to leave
you have to leave that's okay but I encourage you guys to stay as long as you can to celebrate
with us amen let's pray father oh god the future is difficult to look at but Lord we
know that as we've been studying this revelation of Jesus Christ it's teaching us about you
and who you are and Lord specifically through our last few studies we have been learning
how you feel about idolatry how you feel about false worship how how you feel about those
things that draw our attention our heart away from you and God it's not a pretty picture
Lord we know that today you are patient as we see false religions all around us and we
see the religion of self and really what is becoming the religion of woke ism permeating
our cultures and God we know you're going to judge it but you're being patient now that
people will get saved and so Lord we pray God that people would come to know you to
see the truth of Jesus Christ in the midst of all of the falsehood that's out there I
pray God you use us as your people to lead those that don't know you to the truth that
God we would be ready when you come for the church but God we're so excited to celebrate
today with our brothers and sisters getting baptized Lord because they have come to know
you they are saved and God that is awesome we want to praise you for that now we want
to worship you for how just glorious you are so God thank you for this time thank you for
this study thank you for these in our family we get to celebrate with today we love you
so much it's in Jesus name we pray amen let's worship guys.