Verse 1 of chapter 17 there came
one of the seven angels which had the seven vials or bowls
as what that is and Talked with me saying unto me come here.
I Will show you unto you the judgment of the great whore That
sitteth upon many waters now Babylon This is referring to
Babylon this chapter Babylon is the opposite of New Jerusalem
New Jerusalem is the city of the redeemed is all of God's
people represented in this single city as a city of people called
New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation and all of God's redeemed
ones are pictured as being this city of citizens and the citizens
of King Jesus. And so false religion also, all
of the godless, all the reprobate wretches upon whom were poured
all of God's wrath from these bowls, are pictured as a city
also called Babylon the Great. Unless you think their judgment
is too harsh, you saw the horror in the previous chapter of God's
wrath being poured out upon them from these bowls. Unless you'd
be shocked at that, at the swift and terrible destruction that
God wrought upon them. We're given a little close-up
here in this chapter of who this is. And notice a small, maybe,
but important consideration, I believe. The messenger here
is not pouring out a vial or a bowl here. He said, come here. And I'll tell you about this
one who we just saw judged by God. He doesn't pour out a vow
here. This is not the gospel, the good
news being poured out of Christ and him crucified. We don't preach
false religion. And I don't mean by that clearly
that we, just that we're not part of false
religion. That goes without saying. as
believers, I'm saying we don't preach it. We don't spend our
time exposing false religion in the way that some do. We don't
spend our time in the pulpit detailing what is wrong with
all the error that's in this world. That's all we would have
time to do if we began on that course. We don't preach against
sin in the way that religion does. Not the same way now. We
preach Christ. We preach Christ crucified, what
he did on Calvary for his sheep, the cause of rejoicing and worship
by his sheep that we saw in chapter 16 or 15, and the pouring out
of God's wrath upon those who hate him that we saw in chapter
16. And what exposes the error and
condemns the evil is the preaching of Christ. But exposing it is
not the preaching of Christ. Does that make sense? It's the
old illustration that's so clear. If you want to find out how crooked
something is, lay something straight down. Don't take the crooked
thing and talk about its angles and how it diverts, you know,
it's got all this angular and this is that and sticking off.
No, just lay the truth down next to error. That's how you expose
it. We don't have to preach about
all the error. Don't preach what's wrong. preach
Christ, and that will expose everything that's not Christ. And we see that here, and that
this is not a vial being poured out, but it is teaching by this
messenger. Now we might as well say it and
get it over with, because it's a word that we're not gonna be
able to avoid if we're gonna learn from this passage of scripture. Babylon the Great, pictured as
a person and a city, and she's a whore. That's what the scripture
plainly says. It's a word that we shrink from
because of the shame associated with it. But that's just as plain
as it can be in the scripture. False religion is a spiritual
whore. So everything that you think
of when you think of that word, False religion is, in a spiritual
sense, and we have to talk about that. Essentially, a whore is
someone who degrades and defiles herself and everyone she entices,
and she does it for money. That's pretty simple, isn't it? That's pretty simple. False religion
is pretty simple. The love of money, our Lord said,
the love of money is the root of all evil. And false religion
is eaten up with the love of money. It's big business is all
it is. You can't build a religious empire
by telling the truth. And so they don't tell the truth
because that's their goal is to build a religious empire.
They think by that they're doing good in the world. because religion
is so full of gold and silver and all of the trappings, the
big buildings and the cathedrals. It's an empire. And that's what
they're all about. So they lie in order to build
their empire. In doing so, they murder the
souls of men and women and children. That's why I can't tell you enough
to steer clear of it in every imaginable way that you can steer
clear of it. She enriches herself at the eternal
expense of those who are drawn in by her. Ahura presents herself
as beautiful, but it's a cheap surface beauty. The bright red
lipstick and the skimpy clothes, just as false religion. On the
outside, it's the gold and the stained glass and the promise
of God's favor. But just underneath, just underneath
it is all manner of horror. The sexual abuse of children,
extortion by threats of hell and promises of heaven. The Lord
said they're full of extortion. You know what that word means?
Robbery. They're robbers, they steal God's glory, and not in
reality, but that's what they're trying to do. They're trying
to take the glory to themselves, and they steal from men everything
they can. The very souls of men, as well
as money. In Matthew 23, 25, our Lord said
they're full of extortion. Underneath, underneath, just
under the surface of it, is the self-righteousness and pride
that God hates so much. You can see it in their regal
manner, you know, in which they carry themselves. Like there's
some kind of authorities or royalty. People are drawn in by the exterior
beauty of this whore. But having been drawn in, they're
defiled and disgraced and made shameful. Proverbs 7 describes throughout
that chapter the whole process of a whore seducing her target
and the result of that. But instead of reading that whole
chapter, these three verses tell most of the tale. Listen to them
carefully. This is the spiritual picture that we're to have in
mind here. in our passage of scripture tonight,
Proverbs 7.21, with her much fair speech, it talks about how
she dresses and stuff too in the chapter and how she presents
herself, but with her much fair speech, she caused him to yield. With the flattering of her lips,
she forced him. He goeth after her straightway
as an ox goeth to the slaughter. or as a fool to the correction
of the stocks, till a dart struck through his liver, as a bird
hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
You see, this spiritual fornication has eternal consequence. And notice in our text that she
sits on many waters. I will show unto thee the judgment
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters." We know what
that is from several scriptures we've looked at. But look at
verse 15 in our text, in Revelation 17, look at verse 15. He saith
unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth,
are peoples. We've seen that in other places,
haven't we? When it's talking about waters, we know what that
is. Peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. She sits on the waters, which
here represents the whole world, everybody. It's talking about,
because of our wicked nature, this whore has a place to sit,
a place of repose and support. She's supported by her seat of
operations is the evil nature of man who loves to hear what
she says. And they love to defile themselves
with her. Look at this religious horrible
world that we live in. All of the falsehoods that amount
and all of the lies that they tell you, you can look up all
the different isms, you know, that make up false religion,
but it all boils down to the fact that man himself can do
what's necessary to please God and gain favor with God. That's
what it boils down to. And that's exactly what people
want to hear. It's music to the ears of the world. They flatter
the flesh, and the flesh loves that. They worship the flesh. They worship man's free will.
Even God can't violate man's free will. Imagine that. Even God. Man's free will is
so high and mighty and so precious that even God can't cross it.
Even God can't have a problem with it. Even God can't, what's
the word I'm looking for? Can't interfere with it. That's
odometry. That's what that is. That's rank
odometry. And so that's what all a false
religion amounts to. By nature, the whole world is
her throne. Of course, the exceptions to
that are God's elect. There are God's exceptions in
this world. To God's elect, Christ is the
one thing needful. We don't need anything else.
We don't, by his grace, have the love of money. We appreciate money and what
it does and thank God for taking care of us by that means. But
the love of money, the pursuit of money, our Lord teaches us
against that. And he gives us the grace, the
ability to go and sell all we have. Of course, that's mostly
in a spiritual sense to abandon every hope, everything that promotes
us And would support it would seem to support us and promote
our position with God spiritually we abandon that And that's a picture of that
money and this world's love for it But the believer he sells all
that he has to purchase that one pearl that one pearl of great
price And that's the grace of God.
All of the things that false religion has to offer holds no
attraction for Christ's true church. You know, they promise
righteousness if you'll do, do, do, do, do. That didn't mean
anything to us. Christ is our righteousness.
They promise God's favor if you'll do enough good. That didn't mean
anything to me. My goodness is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Perfect. Spotless. And so none of the things that
religion talks about, the free will of man, by God's grace,
we bowed our will to him long ago. He bowed it for us, didn't
he? He bowed us and we bowed. We don't have a free will and
we know it. We don't want one. We want his will to be done. and us to bow to Him, to follow
Him, to conform to Him, to obey Him. As wretched sinners that don't
know the Lord, we certainly don't have a free will. And as believers,
as perfectly righteous in the sight of God, we don't have a
free will. Why would we want one? That's
an affront to God Almighty. All that false religion provided.
The Apostle Paul, that's exactly what he renounced in Philippians
chapter three. Everything that false religion
provided him, he renounced it. His religious heritage, his good
standing in the false church, He said, I got no use for any
of that. His works of the law and his self-righteous confidence,
all that he counted as gain before he knew Christ, he now counted
loss for Christ's sake. He declared that all things are
loss. Furthermore, everything is loss.
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I've suffered the loss of everything else, and do count
them but done that I may win Christ. It was not Paul's sins
that he renounced. I want to always emphasize that.
He didn't renounce his sins, not in the sense that people
think of sin. It was his righteousness he renounced
as sin. It wasn't his wantonness and
his profligacy that he came to despise for Christ's sake. It
was his religion. It was his citizenry in Babylon
that sickened him when he met the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's by the grace of God
Almighty. Verse two in our text, with whom
the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication,
kings and inhabitants. Kings mentioned because they
are or at least ought to be held to a higher standard than anybody
else. You ought to be able to look
up to the king and see him as an example to follow. Kings should
avoid even the appearance of evil and should strive even more
than an average citizen to avoid any semblance of wrongdoing or
corruption. But the kings of the earth, they seem more corrupt than anybody
else. It's not that they are more corrupt,
they're equally evil. Everybody's equally evil, but
as kings, they have better opportunity. to indulge their evil nature.
So they're mentioned especially here. But everyone, the kings
and all the inhabitants of the earth, by nature now they flock
to this harlot. She's good at what she does.
She knows how to get you drunk. She knows how to get you drunk
on her abilities and Her enticements. Have you ever looked at some
of the things that false religion believes? Talking here about the, having
been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. You ever
look at that false religion, somebody may be particular or
just the religion itself. Here's somebody preaching anti-Christ
freewill religion. And do you ever just think to
yourself, what in the world are they talking about? Having read
the Bible, For yourself, you say, what are they talking about?
What are they doing? What is that they're doing? Well,
have you ever looked at a drunk person and listened to them and
said, what are they talking about? What in the world, what are they
doing? Same thing, they're just drunk
in a different way. It's exactly the same thing.
A drunk person is many, many, many, many times more likely
to make terrible, life-destroying mistakes than a sober person. And the whore knows that. She
knows that. So she intoxicates with her beauty
and with her enticing, provocative words. But you know what they
are? They're not what you might think.
You know what her enticing provocative words are? God loves you. God
loves you. God wants to save you. He wants to prosper you in this
world. He don't want to see you poor.
He wants to prosper you. Come, come and join with us. And she'll hug you in the parking
lot. She sees you coming from a mile away. Christ died for you. God loves
all of his children. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself
for you. He died for everybody. You just
need to walk the aisle and start paying your dues and everything
will be fine. That's what it amounts to. Heaven is assured by living the
Christian life. Living the Christian life, that's
what it is. And of course, living the Christian life means supporting
their ministry. It's a simple exchange. Think
about what a harlot does. It's a simple exchange of everything
you want, everything your flesh wants in a spiritual sense here. By nature, everything you want
for money, for gain. Assurance of heaven when you
die for money. Membership with them for money,
flattery of the flesh for money. That's what they're getting for
their money now. It's exactly what they're getting. They're
getting bragged on. Good standing in the Christian
community. For what? Money. Getting called on to do really
easy things. It's not really a job. They get called on and given
some kind of a title to do really easy things. And they get that
in exchange for their money. And don't take this one lightly.
Don't underestimate that one. People love to be involved in
their churches and they love to talk about it. I see it all
the time. I'm very involved in my church This and that, if you
can give some clothing. It always starts with that. I'm
very involved in my church. And they get that privilege in
exchange for money. Affirmation in your self-righteousness
for money. These are the things for which
multitudes have made religion one of the most lucrative rackets
in the world The when of her fornication the
fornication itself is what intoxicates and and is addictive to human
nature. Notice that. The act itself,
the connection there is the wine. It is what intoxicates the flesh. In other words, and think about
what the fornication is. The adultery from the simplicity
that's in Christ. That's what they love. intoxicates them It causes them
not even to be able to think straight because they're so stricken
with it You think about this turn with me to 2nd Corinthians
11 It is that Defiling of themselves
with anything and anybody other than Christ. That's what excites
them You look at it now 2nd Corinthians 11 to This is the opposite of
it A lot of times you can see what something is by looking
at what it's not. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
11, two, for I am jealous over you, Paul said to the church
at Corinth with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one
husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,
but I fear because of some things that were going on. He said,
I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety. So your minds should be corrupted
from what? And look at the picture now,
a spouse to Christ, but what's Paul afraid of? That there'll
be spiritual fornication, that there'll be a looking elsewhere. that there'll be enticement away
from your husband. That's the picture. So what is
it that your mind should be corrupted from what? The simplicity that
is in Christ. the wine of her fornication.
To be removed from the all-inclusiveness of Christ is to commit spiritual
adultery and fornication. Sinners hate Christ so much that
anything but Him excites them. It's exciting to them. That's
the spiritual problem now. Anything but him is how they
fulfill the needs of their flesh. Verse three. So he carried me
away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a
scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven
heads and 10 horns. The scarlet colored beast, as
we know from chapter 13, is Satan himself. And so that's a main
part of the teaching of this verse. False religion is supported
and seated in the sinful nature of man. We saw that, the waters
that she sits upon. That's us by nature. That's all
of mankind by nature. But she is also supported in
her throne is with Satan himself. Her seat of operations is satanic. How important this is, because
people think that, well, false religion, they don't have everything
right, but they say a lot of good things. It's satanic. How can I say that strong enough? It's one of the hardest things
to get to convince people. I don't often use specific illustrations,
but, well, I won't really. I'll just say somebody that's
very, very, very, very close to me. I know they knew better. I know
they did. And yet false religion is so
enticing and so seducing and so innocent
looking on the outside. So strong is the intoxication
of it that clearly knowing and being able to state the difference
between truth and error, they still steeped themselves in error
and enjoyed it, had fellowship in it year after year after year
after year until they died. Is there any hope for them? I
don't see how. I really don't. I don't know. I just don't
see how. And it's heartbreaking. False religion. Don't look at
the outside of the cup. Look on the inside. Free will. Man's will. Man has the final say. Do you
see how demonic that is? What man does is what determines
whether somebody is saved or lost. Do you see how utterly
satanic that is? Most never will. Even when they know up here,
they still won't get it. in their heart. Not without a miracle of God's
grace, they're not gonna get it. I've witnessed it many, many
times in my life. So the scarlet colored beast
here is Satan himself. It's not just that we have different
methods, a little different of opinion on some things, but we're
all heading the same way. We're not heading the same way.
No, we worship different gods. I told the lady that right down
here one time that came to our church and wanted to cooperate
with us in some charitable effort, if you will. She was Methodist, and I said,
you worship a different god than we do. We have nothing to do
with each other. And she was utterly shocked by
that, but it's just the truth. That we worship different gods. And theirs is no god. It's an
idol of the imagination. The god of false religion is
Satan. They call him Jesus, they call
him God. Satan is called the god of this
world. Did you know that in the scriptures?
The god of this world. And that's because it is a religious,
self-righteous, anti-Christ world. God loves everybody is a satanic
lie. It gives sinners false hope instead
of pointing them to Christ. God's love is in Christ. God's
love is only in Christ. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It destroys the very character of God Almighty. It's the doctrine
of those who are drunk and can't think straight. You cannot think
straight if you believe that, you haven't read the Bible. Or
you have and you're drunk, you can't think right. Christ died
for everybody is a satanic lie that only a mind numbingly drunk
person would be able to believe. There were literally people burning
in hell on the very day that our Savior made his own soul
an offering for our sin. And still they insist that he
died for everybody. You gotta be some kind of drunk
to believe that. What are you saying about the
efficacy of Christ's precious blood when you say he died for
everybody and people were in hell the day? that he died. It's a hellish lie. The Lord
reveals later in the chapter here now about the
heads and the horns that we have in this verse, so we'll wait
till later to look at that particularly. Now it says full of the names
of blasphemy. Oh boy, what they call gospel,
God calls blasphemy. What men call wonderful works,
God calls iniquity. What they call gospel, God calls
blasphemy. Verse four, and 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 her fornication. Those who
have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb, what are they
arrayed in? What color are they wearing?
It ain't purple, it ain't scarlet. We are accepted in the beloved
because we wear the holiness, the righteousness, the perfection,
the spotless, of Christ himself This whore wears purple and scarlet
purple because she has ascended to a place of royalty in this
world This world worships her They have raised her high Many
people don't do anything. You know, that would that would
be against the church what they call the church So she wears the purple But scarlet
instead of white, like God's saints. What is scarlet? Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be made white as snow. Not hers, but ours by God's grace
is elect. Though your sins be as scarlet,
she wears her sins and calls it righteousness. Just like God's preachers had
bowls that they poured out the gospel from, this whore has a
cup. Hers is gold. In the previous
chapter, he just called them bowls. Paul said, we have the
treasure of the gospel in earthen vessels that the excellency might
be of God and not us. But with her now, with the great
whore, her cup is fancy and rich and impressive, but the contents
are horrible. The contents are deadly. Look
at verse five. And upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth. Mystery Babylon. Now the gospel
is called a mystery, and we know why. Because the natural man
receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, because they're
foolishness to him, and because they're spiritually discerned.
It's mysterious. You're not gonna know the truth
of the gospel. It can't be seen or understood without God revealing
it to sinners. No man knoweth the father but
the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. The
mystery of false religion is just the opposite. Error of it
can't be seen, though obvious, though obvious. God loves everybody
is an obvious lie, but it can't be seen by those who are deceived
by it. And listen, just like God reveals
the gospel to a sinner, it's God that also gives sinners strong
delusion that they should believe a lie. The one is His grace and the
other His justice. Both mysteries for different
reasons. The truth is mysterious to a
sinner and God reveals it. Error is obvious and God hides
it. He causes them to love it and
embrace it. The mystery of the gospel is
revealed because God is gracious to sinners. The error of false
religion is hidden because God is just, and he renders to many
exactly what they deserve. They did not like to retain God
in their knowledge, and so God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. She's called the mother of harlots
because though false religion is birthed from Satan and from
the wicked hearts of men, she is a daughter too. But in turn, she gives birth
to all of the evil that is in the hearts of men in the sense
that it's propagated throughout the world in the form of lies,
deception, and antichrist doctrine. Notice that the abominations
of the earth are not what men would call that. If you went
around and asked 100 people, what are the abominations of
the earth? You'd get all kinds of answers
about horrible things in the world, war and things like that. The abominations of the earth
are not born of the dives, the seedy, haunts of nasty flesh,
the earthly whorehouses, or what men call devil worship. That's
not where it comes from. The abomination of the earth
are born from places called churches. You see that in the text here?
False religion. Beautiful, so enticing false
religion. And even people that know better
are deceived by. How can you be deceived and know
better? I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen. Don't look for Satan. I'll say
it to you again. Don't look for him in thefts
and murders and adulteries and things like that. Look for him
in pulpits. These other things are just symptoms
of the problem, I'm telling you. That's not where Satan does his
work. Satan just cruises through that, and that's just the nature
of man. Without the grace of God, without
God restraining us, that's just our nature taking its course.
No, as horrible as those things are, they're just collateral
damage. When Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, you think about
this for a minute. when Satan, and I don't know
that we have that anywhere else in scripture. Maybe you can correct
me on that. I haven't studied that, but I'm
pretty sure we have one example of Satan himself actually entering
into a man. And he didn't go on a spree of
adultery, fornication, thievery, and murder. He didn't go around
killing people. He didn't go around doing what people call
sin. You know what he did? He betrayed
the son of God. That's what false religion is
doing. That's where Satan does his work. Where a lot of your friends go
to church, that's where Satan is. That's the reality of it. Satan entered into him in spite
of all the light that he had. Imagine walking with God's son
and hearing him preach. In spite of all of the light
that he had, his heart was yet full of darkness and it manifested
itself in hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's sin. That's what Satan
does. Not all the other stuff that
people might imagine. Your sin will manifest itself
in the same way. It'll manifest itself in what
think ye of Christ, and nothing else matters. Nothing else matters. Are you saying, Chris, it doesn't
matter if you just go do all these horrible things? No, I'm
not saying that. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you can
be assured of two things. If you sit here tonight loving
the Lord Jesus Christ, if you love him, and that's a question
he asks us all directly, doesn't he? Simon, do you love me? We have to answer that question
in our hearts. Do you love me? If you do, he loved you first. And his love
is the cause. of your love for him. If he didn't
love you, you would never have loved him. He gets all the glory. And secondly,
everything else, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, everything
else will fall into place, everything. It's gonna fall into place. The law has never restrained
people from sinning, not really. Religion will say, oh, I can't
do that, I can't do that, because that's because of the law. But
them not doing that is sin, because they reject Christ. They look
into the law and not Christ. The law never stopped anybody
from sinning, not one time. But the love of Christ will. The love of Christ constraineth
us. And again, he gets all the glory. Your love for him will inform
all of your decisions, your behavior, the way you think, what's important
to you, your priorities, your attitude, your love for Christ. Doesn't
mean you're not a sinner anymore. But it does mean that everything's
new now. Everything's new. It does mean
that you are saved unto good works, which God hath before
ordained, that you should walk in them. And that hatred for Christ and
his people that we talked about, It's what we see in the next
verse. Look at verse six and we'll look at it more closely
next time because we're out of time now, but look at verse six
and we'll just close by looking at it really. And I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with
great admiration. And that word admiration is not
how we use that. It doesn't mean he admired her
in the sense that he thought well of her. We'll look at that
next time. But our Lord said, the servant
is not greater than his master. If they hated me, they'll hate
you. And that's what we see there in verse six. And thank God that
we don't hate him. our nature, if left to ourselves,
we would. By his grace, we can say with
Simon, Lord, you know all things. I love you. I love you. Let's pray.