Lord, have I got not what I receive? Oh be my glory I'm only a sinner
saved by grace once I was foolish and sin ruled my heart causing
my footsteps forgot to part Jesus help me This is my I'm Oh. This is my story, may God be
the glory! I'm only a sinner, saved by grace! A blessed man whose heart overflows,
loving his Savior to tell what he knows! me. me. This is my story. May God be
the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 463, All That Thrills My Soul is Jesus.
If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the revelation of
the Lord Jesus Christ, chapter 17. Revelation 17, and there came
one of the seven angels, which had seven vows, and he talked
with me, saying, come hither, and I will show thee the judgment
of the great whore that sits upon many waters. The kings of
the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth
have been drunk with the wine of their fornication. So he carried
me away in his spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman
sit upon a scarlet-covered beast. full of names of blasphemy, having
seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple
and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations
and filthiness of the fornication. And upon her forehead was the
name written, Lucifer, Babylon, the Great, the Mother of Colors
and Abominations of the Earth. And I saw the woman, drunken
with the blood of saints, with the blood of martyrs of Jesus,
and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. The angel
said unto me, Where didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the
mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her,
which hath seven heads, and ten horns. And the beast that thou
sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend into the bottomless pit,
and go into perdition. They that dwell on earth shall
wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world. When they behold the beast, it
was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath
wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings. Five
are fallen. One is. The other is not yet
come. When he cometh, he must continue
a short space. And the beast that was and is,
even as he is the eighth and of the seven, and goeth into
perdition, The ten horns, which thou sawest, and the ten kings,
which receiveth no kingdom as yet, will receive power as kings
one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall
give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make
war with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them, for he is
the Lord of lords and king of kings, and they that are with
him are called and chosen and faithful. And he said unto me,
The waters, which thou sawest, where the horse sitteth, our
peoples, and multitudes of nations and tongues, and the ten horns
which thou sawest upon the beasts, and these shall hate the whore,
and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh,
and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts
to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the
beasts, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the moment
which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth. over the
kings of the earth. Now, Father in heaven, we praise
you and thank you for your word, which is a lamp unto our feet
and a light unto our path. We thank you for the truth that
is set forth. We are thankful that we can see
the beginning of all things, and we can also see the end.
We praise you, Father, that though the church of the living God,
to the world insignificant, a remnant according to the election of
grace, a very small remnant, it shall overcome by the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that great religion which
circumvents the earth, that religion of the will of man and the power
of man and the interest of man will be destroyed. And the children of God will
rest in utter joy and peace for eternity, beholding the face
of the Lamb slain at the foundation of the world. We are thankful,
Father, that we can read these things, though sometimes the
language is confounding. We know that it speaks of the
victory and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ over all that is
false. Help us, Lord, to see the truth,
for therein we are able to understand what is false. Help us to believe. Help our unbelief. We are so
frail. Our flesh is such a powerful
force on all of us. Help us, Lord, to see and to
be thankful that as weak and as frail as we are, our salvation
was never in our hands, nor is our end. We are thankful that
you control all of these things. Even as this passage has said,
these awful things that occur were according to your will because
you put it in men's hearts to do so. We don't begin to understand
that or comprehend it. But we know full well that nothing
occurs on this earth or in this universe that is not according
to your will, according to your purpose, and according to your
plan. We bow to your sovereignty this hour in thanksgiving. Help us now, Lord, to remember
you, and to praise you, and to worship you. We pray for those
who are sick, going through trials and tribulations. Thou knowest
every case. We ask, Lord, you to be a comfort
and a strength to them. and it be according to your will
to heal them and bring them back to a good measure in life. Help
us now, Lord, we pray, to see Christ. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Hymn number 463, All That
Thrills My Soul is Jesus. my soul is It's more than life to me. There is no denial, John, in
my place before I sleep. Love, my Christ, and firmly believe,
I'll raise your army on me brave. Thirsting higher than the heaven
Deeper than what He may see All that fills my soul is Jesus He
is more than life to me And the prairie's darkened paths
shine in my place before I see. What a wonderful redemption! Never can a mortal know how my My soul is Jesus, He is more
than I can be. And the prayer is not in vows,
but in my thirst before I sleep. I hear, every word You hear I
say All is sweetly wonderful I hear, even for an ordinary
day All that fills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me Ever there is hope to bow down In
my church the Lord I see I love you so, flowing river,
With the rain soon I will see. And forever and forever, Rage
and storm and I'll keep. All that fills my soul is He is more than life to me And
in the fairest work it bows not In my blissing Lord I sing Let us pray. Father in heaven,
we come in the name of Jesus Christ, the just and glorious
Lord, who is indeed the fairest among 10,000, the chiefest among
10,000, the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star,
the rose of Sharon, our rock and our defense. We thank you,
Father, that he is our savior, for he cannot fail, and of his
kingdom there is no end. Help us, Lord, to worship you
in this manner which you have ordained, as we render to you
that which you have supplied to us, in order that the gospel
might be preached here and in other places. We thank you, Father,
for such an opportunity. We thank you that you would use
poor vessels like us to further the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's
a privilege, and we thank you, and we praise your holy name. So, of the Lord Jesus Christ, chapter
17. This begins what will culminate
the next three chapters of Revelation in the destruction of Babylon,
the great whore. Babylon is what the world religion,
what it is. It's the world commerce, it's
the global economy, the global religion, the global monetary
value. It has to do with seduction,
sexuality, riches, wealth, which govern the minds of men by nature. And that's how she reigns. It's
not just an anomaly. It is the world religion. And
we're seeing a big proportion of it going on today. the heart is false religion and this is the story of how
the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes again to gather his people
to himself will destroy her and why she should be destroyed as
vast and as great and as powerful as false religion is it is doomed
it will soon go off the scene. No matter how lively and vast
and enticing it is to the flesh, its days are numbered. Its right
to rule in the realm of sin has already been removed from the
elect. According to Romans chapter 5
and verse 21, sin did reign. Sin did reign. Verse 24, over
the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. that as sin hath reigned, ruled,
dominated you unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. When the law
was in question, when Paul dealt with the law specifically and
heartily in Romans and in Galatians and in Colossians He said in
chapter 16 in verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over
you. It won't bother you, it won't
entice you, it won't bring you down sometimes. But it has no
right to rule you. It's right has been removed.
Sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under the
law, you are under grace. This chapter in Revelation and
that which follows is an account of the harlot's final physical
and true removal from the earth. Now there are many religions,
folks who practice the notion of inclusion and say that people
should not put down others' religions. But if you study the scriptures,
you will find that God always defined the enemy. He named them
for what they were and summarily destroyed them. In fact, an integral
part of the salvation of your soul and my soul is that first
our enemy be destroyed. He who holds us captive must
be removed and put out of business or else we'll not be saved, we'll
still be held captive. Our Lord in His ministry though
he is painted today as a namby-pamby sweet little fella who would
do no harm. Our Lord in his ministry on this
earth gave no quarter to false religion. He called the best
of the best in religion vipers, children of hell, sons of Satan,
painted people. Every word that the gospel
is preached, it is a whetted sword for the destruction of
the enemy. It is a saber of life unto life
and a saber of death unto death. This is the gospel. It is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. This chapter defines the
one who exemplifies all that is false. It's like the angel took all that is false
and succinctly put it into this one character called Babylon,
the great whore or the mother of horrors. Now, there's no doubt
that the description of her given applies to the Church of Rome.
If you read any commentary, they will tell you that that's what
it's about. But we do err greatly to minimize her influence to
only the papacy. She is indicative of the religion
of man, the religion that man was born with, the religion of
the fall. Her religion is about man, centers
on man, defines man and deifies man and begins with man and ends
with man. This is her religion. God is
not in all her thoughts. Her doctrine is the free will
of man, the merit of man, the superiority of man to God. And there are but two religions
on the earth, just two, the religion of man in the religion of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Just two. This Babylon is the
religion of man and the elements relate to Babylon. That's why
it's called Babylon. Where Nimrod and his cohort sought
to reach heaven by means of man's power and man's ability by being
a giant tower in Babylon. These rebels were confounded
and confused and turned against one another when God confused
their languages. And they scattered throughout
the earth and they took their religion with them wherever they
went. Nearly every ancient religion
or ancient civilization that has been discovered to date has
been found to have erected some type of ziggurat tower or pyramid
tower that served as a center of worship. Still going on. Great Babylon is not a reconstruction
of the city of Babel. She is a symbolic representation
of all that opposes God. She's called a whore because
of her wiles and her ability to seduce men. When Solomon wrote
to his son in Proverbs chapter 7, he wrote about it. Beware of the heart. Proverbs chapter 7 and verse
6, for at the window of my house I looked through my casement
and beheld among the simple ones I discerned among the youth a
young man void of understanding. Passing through the street near
her corner and he went the way to her house. In the twilight
of the evening in the black of the dark night and behold there
met him a woman with the attire of a harlot. and subtle heart. She is loud and stubborn, her
feet abide not in her house. She is without mouth in the streets,
and lieth in wait on every corner. So she caught him and kissed
him, and with an impudent face said to him, I have peace offerings. What are peace offerings? Peace
offerings are offerings of thanksgiving for salvation. That's what peace
offerings are. I have peace offerings to this
day, and this day have I paid my vows. I'm a good woman. I'm
a Christian woman. I remember Emma Watkins said
that about my dog. She was a good Christian dog,
that's why she wasn't pregnant. We had her spayed. diligently to seek thy face."
This old letter, this one was, and I found thee. I remember many years ago when
I was preaching several times at Rosemont Baptist Church, there
came up this idea, this religious idea of I found him, or I found
it. nationwide thing, and I saw what
it was. It was just an Armenian Sikh
free will thing, and I opposed it. And the pastor opposed me
for opposing, but I opposed it anyway. They didn't do it. I'm
glad. I came forth to meet thee, diligently
to seek thee. this religion with carved works
with fine linen of Egypt. Egypt had fine linen. It was
transparent, although translucent. You could see through it. It
was flimsy, but it was beautiful. Her linen, linen is a picture
of righteousness. Her righteousness is easily torn
and seen. You can see through it. I have
perfumed my bed with myrrh and aloes and cinnamon. These are
the elements used in the anointing oil. Come let us take our fill
of love until the morning. You hear that? She's talking
about love. She's talking about the kind
of love people talk about today. It's love. The heart wants what
it wants. Talking about love. You love somebody, just love
them. They're talking about sex. What they're talking about? They're
talking about having sex with people. Come let us fill our
love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with
love. For the good man is not at home,
he's gone on a long journey. Christ is not here, he's away.
Taking a bag of money with him and will come home at the day
appointed with a much fairer speech. But she caused him to
yield. The flattering of her lips, she
forced him and goeth after her straightway. As an ox goeth to
the slaughter, as a fool unto the correction of the stocks,
till a dart strike through his liver, as a bird hasteth to the
snare, and knoweth not that it is for her his life. Hearken
unto me now, therefore, you children, and attend the words of my mouth.
Let not thine heart decline to her ways. Go not astray in her
paths, for she has cast down many wounded. Yea, many strong
men have been slain by her, her house, harlot in Proverbs and it's a
picture of this harlot described here in Revelation 17. It says she has a cup in her
hand, this harlot, and it is the elixir of inebriating self-righteousness
and the anesthetic of free will. Her cup is golden and appeals
to the nature of filthy lucre. She's called the harlot because
that is a symbol of rebellion against God. Over in Ezekiel
chapter 16, Verse 28 through 38 says this, thou hast
played the whore also with the Assyrians. Now he's accusing
the Jews of playing the whore with the Assyrians because thou
was unsatiable. Yet thou has played the harlot
with them and yet couldest not be satisfied. Thou hast moreover
multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan and the Chaldeans,
and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. How weak is thine heart,
saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things the work
of an imperious horsewoman, in that thou buildest thine eminent
place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in
every street, and hast not been as an harlot And then thou scorneth hire,
but as a wife that commiteth adultery, which taketh strangers
instead of her husband. And give the gifts to all whores,
and give us thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hire us then.
to come unto thee in every way, and the contrary is in thee from
other woman in thy whoredoms. Whereas none followeth thee to
commit whoredoms, and in that thou givest a great reward, no
reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary. Wherefore,
O heart, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God,
because thy filthiness was poured out, thy nakedness discovered
through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, With all the idols of
thy abominations, and the blood of thy children which thou givest
unto them, behold, I will therefore gather all thy lovers, with whom
thou hast taken pleasure, all of them that thou hast loved,
with all men that thou hast hated, and I will gather them round
about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, Her place is in the wilderness,
it says in verse 3 of chapter 17 of Revelation. Her place is
in the wilderness. What does that mean? The world
is her oyster. She's the embodiment of all that
is false. Her cardinal doctrine is a teaching that man's salvation
depends upon himself, upon him. It's determined by himself. She
envelops many denominations and religious names, but she's just
one thing. She is great Babylon, the mother of harlots. The great
whore, her followers may hate each other until they are given
an opportunity to unite together against Christ. And they do hate
each other. But they unite against the Lord
Jesus Christ, just like Herod and Pontius Pilate did. They
hated each other, but they became friends when they wanted to crucify
the Lord Jesus Christ. She's described as riding upon
a scarlet beast full of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
People go to town on these type of things, but it's explained
here. The beast is like the one in chapter 13, which Satan rides
and reveals that she's transported and gets her encouragement and
empowerment from the devil himself. The seven heads are seven kingdoms
of the world that protect, finance, and advance the harlot's cause.
That's what it says in verses 9 and 10. The fact that the number
7 is used suggests that the rebellion is complete. Fill up your iniquities,
the Lord said to the Pharisees. Fill it up. Fill it up. This
assures us that the enemy of Christ is the world. You're in
the world, but you're not of the world. I pray not for the
world. I pray for them that thou hast given me, the Lord said.
They exist now and have since the days of Noah united in the
gospel age. Ten horns of kings and rulers,
legislators, magistrates, emperors, and presidents. That's found
in verses 12 through 14. They're not great powers. It
says they rule for a short time. An hour, it said. How will this
end? What will become of this great
woman? John was astonished at her appearance. That's what he
says. In verse 6, I saw the woman drunken with the blood of saints
and with the blood of martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her,
I wondered with great admiration. That's a weak interpretation
of what that really means. John actually said, according
to the original language, I was astonished with great terror. It scared me to death to look
at this woman. He's comforted with the knowledge
that she will be destroyed by the will of God and finally will
be seen as the pawn of God's sovereignty. Circumstance and things that
go on around us can give us problems. And we know this, God is the
God of circumstance. He rules circumstance. Listen
to what he says concerning the death of this woman. He says
in verse 16, it says, and the ten horns which thou sawest upon
the beast, they shall hate the whore. In the end, that's what
they'll do, they'll hate the whore and she'll make her desolate
and naked and she'll eat her flesh and burn with fire. Sooner
or later, they're gonna turn on themselves. Why? Because God, verse 17, because
God has put in their hearts to fulfill His will and to agree
and give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God
be fulfilled. What has He done? He's in control
of all this. He got in the hearts of those
kings and those magistrates. and caused them to want to be
part of this great religion so he could destroy it. So he
could destroy it. God does as he pleases in heaven
and earth and all of these places. Rest assured that the great whore
with all her hellish ways and enticements will have no influence
over the church of God. The Lord said his elect will
not Christ and that Christ. He said,
but the elect will not be deceived. This is great comfort to me,
because I see the influence of false teaching throughout the
world, throughout religion, throughout what is called Christianity.
It's getting weird, getting really weird out there under the umbrella
of Christianity. And here is my peace, my knowledge,
that the chief of God, those whom he has chosen from eternity,
those for whom Christ died and paid their sin dead and made
them righteous and holy and accepted before God. They will never be
deceived. They might stumble, they will.
They will fall. They will tremble. They will
fear. But they will not be deceived because they know the truth.
As our Lord confounded the tongues of those that babble and turned
them against one another, He will overthrow this great religion
She will serve His purpose on earth, and being a vessel feeded
to destruction, she will go the way of all the flesh, which is
eternal damnation. Remember as we consider the fall
of this great religion, four things. First, our Lord is sovereign. He controls all things, whatever
takes place on this earth. is by divine appointment, by
decree, by decree. God doesn't allow anything to
happen. He calls it to happen. He's the
first cause of all things, and we spend most of our life cursing
second causes. Secondly, popularity is not an
indication of the truth of God. She's going to be popular. She's
going to be the going thing. If you follow Christ, you are
swimming against the tide. You are swimming against the
current of religion if you follow Christ. You will always be in
the minority, and you will always be opposed on every side by those
who hate the truth. Thirdly, no matter the weight
and power and seeming insurmountability of the opposition, if you are
Christ, you will absolutely succeed, be victorious. and you'll always
be secure. You are kept by the grace of
God. Kept by the grace of God. All
things, this thing, this great whole, this harlot religion,
which circumvents the earth. Kings, magistrates, presidents,
senators, congressmen, all of them serve him. exactly as they're
supposed to. A lot of them we won't agree
with, but they're doing exactly what they're designed to do.
All things, we know, all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He did foreknow, He did predestine that it be to
be moreover whom he did predestinate.
It may also call by his gospel. It may also justify by the blood
of Jesus Christ and the grace of God. It may also glorify as
he made them in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should
we say these things? God before us? We can't be against
him. We can't be. The religion of
this world is empty vain and vile. It has nothing to offer
or to give to the believer. It has a lot to give to the world,
but to the believer it has nothing. One day there will be nothing
in the hearts of the followers of Babylon but hatred for her
and for anybody else and everybody else. Have you ever seen the
day in which and then she'll wax cold and
then she'll wax worse and worse. Everybody's angry. Angry and
bitter. Full of hatred. And have seemingly
no sense of any consequence of their actions. That's how it is. Why? Because that's how God would
have it be. Imagine the congregation in hell. as they spend eternity
with the man or the woman who stood in the pulpit and lied
to them with every breath. But you can be thankful. You're
a child of God. God, by His grace, has called
you and has made you called, according to this passage, faithful
and chosen. That's how this ends. Verse 17, And God hath put in
their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and to give the
kingdom to the beast, until the words be fulfilled in the Lord.
And the woman of which thou sawest is a great city, which reigns
over the kings of the earth. And he talks about those who
are called, and faithful, and chosen, who will not follow her. Be aware that everything comes
down the pike under the name of Jesus Christ. has to do with the power of plan
and the power of false teaching.