If you turn with me and your
Bibles to Revelation, Revelation chapter 17, Revelation chapter 17, and the title of the message
this morning is, The Bride, The Whore, and The Beast. The Bride, That's you. Believer in Christ, that's you.
The bride. The whore. That is the false
church. The false church. All false,
free will, works religion, imitators of the bride. And the beast. All the governments
and worldly things that support false religion. So, let's begin
this by going and seeing where we've come from. Now, we've seen
in chapter 15 and 16 the angels who are commanded of God to pour
out the seven vows, the seven vows full of the wrath of God.
These angels are those who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, those
who receive and those who receive it are safe. That's why we take
place in chapter 15, if you see that, in verse 2, and he saw
that there was a sea mingled with glass and with fire, and
them that had gotten the victory over the beast, over his name,
and over the mark, and over the number of his name, stand on
the sea of glass, having the harps of God. This is the believer. This is you. You are safe from
the wrath of God. You stand on it because Christ
has forever satisfied the justice of God on your behalf. And these, these having seen
that the tabernacle is now open, we have come to God by a new
and living way. That tabernacle was opened in
verse 5, and after I looked, and behold, the temple of the
tabernacle, the testimony in heaven was opened. This is the
door of the gospel of Jesus Christ by which we enter in, by which
we come to faith and salvation in Christ. But listen, all who
refuse, all who will not believe and hear the warnings of God's
trumpet, but refuse to believe, you should heed this warning,
the Spirit of God shall not always strive with you. The Spirit of
God shall not always strive with man, for soon God will remove
His presence, His Word, and hope of salvation. from these who
reject Christ, and this is what is the pouring out of the vials
upon those who refuse." Now, it manifests itself. These pouring
out of the vials manifest itself at death. It manifests itself
at death. No matter the means of a man's
death, the vial of God's reprobation is even poured out before their
death. Consider this, that Judas was
the son of perdition. This man, the vile, was already
poured out before he hung himself. But hanging himself was an evident
token that the vile of God's wrath was poured out on him.
Why? He did not repent. He died in his sins. This is
the evident token of a man who has received the wrath of God,
the vile of his wrath, poured out. But these vials, they're
not meant for believers. This is the comforting news for
us. These vials of God's wrath shall
never pour out because God's people will never be reprobate. God's people will never have
the mark of the beast, but rather we have the mark of our Father
in our foreheads. but by this vision we are able
to see the absolute depravity then in chapter sixteen we see
the absolute depravity of those upon whom these vials are poured
out look at verse eight and nine and the fourth angel poured out
his vial upon the sun and the power was given to him to scorch
men with fire men were scorched with great heat and listen what
they did and blasphemed the name of god which had power over the
plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory." Look at verse
21, "...and there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every
stone the weight of a talent..." I believe that's about a hundred
pounds. The weight of a stone of a hundred
pounds falling out of heaven. And what did men do? These men
blasphemed God because of the plague of the hell, for the plague
therefore was exceeding great. So by this we learn this. No amount of judgment, no amount
of pain and suffering and agony will ever cause sinners to repent. No amount of judgment. Jesus said, except you repent,
There was a tower that fell on some men in the Lord's day. And
they said, hey, what about these men? They must have been great
sinners. He says, no, they weren't the greatest of sinners, but
they died in their sins and except you repent, you shall likewise
perish. Repentance and faith in Christ
is necessary. You must repent. You must believe. But repentance is not something
man can do by nature. This is the lesson of the vision.
Repentance must be given. Given. Repentance and faith in Christ
are no mere act of man's will, but they are gifts of God effectually
wrought by the power of God based on the merits of Christ. So if
you have repentance, if you have faith in Christ, recognize this. It is a gift of God's grace. It is the product of God's power
working in you both to will and do of His good pleasure. You
repent because God gave it to you. So who maketh you to differ
from another? What hast thou that thou has
not received? So we don't go around looking upon these men
with pride or arrogance. We look upon them in pity and
humility, recognizing that we were no different from them.
Except God in grace came and gave us repentance. And this is why we preach the
gospel. Paul says, therefore we preach the gospel. Acts 5.
The gospel of God's grace and meekness instructing those, listen,
who oppose themselves. Isn't that what you see about
the lost? Don't they just oppose themselves? They will not repent. They will
not forsake their merits, their lusts, their passions, the world,
the pleasures. They oppose themselves. If you
are not a believer in Christ, you are opposing yourself. Nobody else is opposing you.
You are. If you die in your sins, it is
not God that opposes you, but you. You oppose you. The way
is open. Why would you not come? Christ
has done it all. Why would you not come? Because
you love your sin rather than God. That's what it is. And so
if you die in your sin, it will be all your fault. You oppose
yourself. Therefore, I preach to you because
I oppose myself. I once opposed myself. Someone
came and preached the gospel to me. And by the grace of God,
I was able to repent and come to Christ. Behold Christ. Repent and believe on Him. We trust not in your power to
repent. You know, I don't trust any man's
power to repent. You have no power to repent.
Tell you you don't have it. I don't trust that you're gonna
cause yourself to repent I tell you to repent, but I trust that
God may give you repentance My hope is that God would give you
repentance and Acknowledging of the truth that you may recover
yourself from the snare of the devil Who are taken captive at
here by him at his will? But you will not repent You who
will not repent? I want you to know this, to every
man that will not repent, their doom is just as sure as the saint's
glory. Just as sure, believer, as you
shall reach heaven's doors and enter in safely. Just as sure. That's sure, isn't it? because
christ has already finished the work he's accomplished our salvation
our salvation is sure but i tell you it is just as sure the doom
of all who will not repent that's a sure thing that's a sure thing
there's no if about this so now then looking in the next
chapter we see john of being approached by one of these angels
a preacher of the gospel And the message of the angel is the
promised destruction of all false religion. That's the summation
of his message here. The promise of all destruction
of all false religion, which is pictured by this great whore. This great whore. Let's read
this together. And there came one of the seven
angels, which had seven vials. And he talked with me, saying,
Come up hither. And I will show unto thee the
judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, 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. So he carried me away in the
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,
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.
And upon her forehead a name was written, Mystery. Great mystery, Babylon the Great,
the mother of harlots, the abomination of the earth. And I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered
with great admiration. Now, as we saw in the vows of
judgment poured out upon those who received the mark of the
beast, so now the Lord is showing us the destruction of their religion. the destruction, those who receive
the mark of the beast, listen, they are following this whore. That's what he's telling us.
These who have the mark, they are the ones that support this
false religion. All false religion in scripture
is pictured by a harlot. A harlot. This great whore of
Babylon. the lord by the word of his ministers
seems to set before us a comparison then a comparison and that's
why i want you to see this i want you to compare the two women
that have been set before you now first of all there is a woman
mentioned in revelation twelve and then there's this woman who
is the great harlot and i want to see the difference between
these two i want you to compare them so as to know which one
you belong okay so look at chapter twelve look at chapter twelve
and by way of comparison that's what i want to see is comparing
and contrasting these two women now this woman in chapter twelve
is the bride of christ this is the church And he saw a wonder
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet,
and upon her a crown of twelve stars. And she being with child,
travailed in birth and pain to be delivered. And then you see
the woman is in verse 5, and she brought forth a man-child
who shall rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child
was caught up to God and to His throne. This woman here is none
other than the church. This child that she bears is
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ,
who was chosen to rule the nations, and He, to whom the dragon waited
to destroy, God has highly exalted, and by His death won the victory
and cast out the serpent. That's the story of chapter 12.
The woman. Bearing the child which is Christ.
And so now, in anger, seeing that he is cast out, not able
then to accuse the brethren anymore before God. Because Christ has
won the victory, Satan cannot accuse us before God. Yet, he
is not destroyed, but cast down, where? To the earth. To the earth. And what is he doing here? What
is he doing here? look at this in chapter twelve
and verse chapter twelve and verse uh...
thirteen and the dragon so i was cast out from the earth and he
persecuted the wall which brought forth the man child that's his
purpose even today to persecute the church have you ever been
heat hindered from worship your family, your friends, and
the whole week could be great. You don't have any problem, but
when it comes time to worship, or read, or study, or pray, how
many times do people come in? You think it's coincidence? I
tell you it's not. The whole aim of the beast, of
the serpent, of the dragon, is to persecute the church, to separate
you from your Lord. to interrupt your communion with
God. That is his sole purpose. He is enraged against you. And every time he whispers your
ear, you're not good enough. Who is that? Is that Christ telling
you you're not good enough? You know it's not. You know it's
the enemy. And that enemy truly appeals
to our nature. This enemy has come down to oppress
the church. And notice that this woman, she
is given to dwell in a certain place in the wilderness. Verse
6, And this woman fled to the wilderness, where she hath a
place prepared of God, that they should feed her 1,203 score days. You remember what
that was? That's the whole dispensation of grace. We've already covered
that. That's a representative number of the whole dispensation. You know where we are right now,
church? You're in the wilderness. Isn't this a barren place? Isn't
this a barren place? We're in a wilderness. But in
this wilderness, God has prepared a place. Has He not? Look at
this place. To what? To feed you. To feed you with the truth concerning
Christ. To comfort you in the midst of
the wilderness. You see, this is the church.
This is the true church of God. But see the whore. The whore
in opposition to the bride. She is not persecuted by the
dragon, but rather lifted up by the beast. You notice that?
Go back to your text. It says in... Let me find my
text here. Hold on. And he said he saw a great whore
on many waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed
fornication. All the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he
carried me away in the spirit in the wilderness. Notice where
she's at. She's in the same place you are
in the world. In the world. And I saw the woman
sit upon a scarlet-covered beast." You see, she's not carried about
by the Spirit of God, she's carried about by the beast. She's supported
by the many waters. And this tells us something true
about the false church. It's not small, but very large. The false church
is very large and sits upon many waters. And in verse 15 of chapter
17, we know what those waters are. The angel tells us, the
minister tells us, he said, the waters thou sawest where the
whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. She is not the subject of She's
not small, but rather the false church is large. And she is not
subject to one husband as the bride is. The bride is subject
to Christ and Christ alone. But what's the difference between
a bride and a harlot? A harlot is not subject to any
man. She has many husbands. She has many lovers. Even so,
I tell you, the false church has many gods. Many gods. If we are the bride of Christ,
we know this, we have adoration for one husband, one Lord. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. But with the whore, she commits
fornication, notice, with the kings of the earth, have committed
fornication the inhabitants of the earth. Her lovers are the whole earth. that has been unfaithful to God. These followers of false religion
are said to be drunken with her wine. Just as wine gives men a false
sense of power, pleasure, security, as it comes to men to ignore
the cares of their trouble. Isn't that what wine does? When
you have excess of wine, they don't care. It's just, woo, everything's
well. So does false religion delude
the minds of men to think they are accepted with God by their
works? They are drunk to think that
man has power to make the blood of Christ effectual by their
own free will. The whore dwells in the wilderness. She dwells in the wilderness,
but I tell you she is different from the church in that she makes
this wilderness her home. See, can you not tell in the
false church there's not much difference between the world
and the church? They're mingled together. They're one and the
same. They're trying to bring the world into the church. Why? Because that's comfortable to
them. That's where they want to be.
That's where they want to dwell. That's why they're always talking
about how to live, how to do, legalism, how to walk, how to
obey the law, do this, do this, do this. Why? They're trying
to make their home here. They're trying to make themselves
acceptable. But I tell you, they're drunk.
They're drunk. They don't have any sense, spiritually
speaking. They live in this world, they
love this world, but believers, we're not, we're in this world,
but we are not of this world. We're strangers. We're just passing
through. We're just passing through. That's
all we are, strangers and pilgrims in this land. The whore delights
and longs to settle in the world, and just like the world, which
is desolate and empty, so is all false religion." All false
religion, wherever false religion goes, wherever it resides, wherever
it replaces the truth of the gospel for the lie of works and
free will religion, it is desolate and empty. It's desolate. False religion never can deliver
on its promises. It promises peace with God through
works. It promises redemption through
Christ and free will. It cannot deliver and it leaves
the soul more desolate than before. Isn't that what the Lord said
to those Jews? He said, you span all the globe to make up one
proselyte, and when you've made him, you've made him two-fold
more a child of hell. That's what religion does. And so wherever this religion
goes, it is in the wilderness, and it is the wilderness. But
notice the bride. The bride, I want you to notice
her dress. What is she dressed in? Look
back in chapter 12. It says she is clothed with the
sun, and the moon under her feet, and her crown on her head is
a crown of twelve stars. Notice all this is heavenly things. She's not crowned with anything
earthly. She's not robed with anything
earthly. She is robed in the Son, which
is a picture of the righteousness of Christ. Believer, you are
robed in the righteousness of Christ. You are dressed in His
perfect righteousness. But notice the whore. In verse
4, the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked
with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a cup in her
hand full of abominations. You notice that everything she's
dressed with is earthly. Earthly. These colors of purple and scarlet
are colors of earthly kings, what earthly kings wear. They
are colors of earthly royalty, earthly power, earthly appeal. They're appealing to man. Gold
and silver is appealing to man. These are the dress of false
religion to try to cover their nakedness with their own works
of their own hands. My friends, behold, there are
only two religions in the world, and I would not have you be confused.
There are two women here pictured, the bride and the whore. Even
so, there are only two religions in all the world. Salvation by
free grace, and salvation by works. Salvation by free grace is the
true religion of God. It is the religion of this book. It is the religion that actually
saves sinners. And the other, free will, false
religion, is a gospel from the very pits of hell. Satan is its
author, and the whore is its distributor. The bride of Christ, His church,
is saved by free grace, by the salvation, by the blood and righteousness
of Christ alone. And we trust the full measure
of our acceptance with God based solely on His work. That is the
true religion. But see, the whore is not without
religion. She's not without religion. She's
not without a God, but her God is the God of free will, works,
religion. Her salvation comes by the choice
of man, by the works of man, and her God is the beast that
she sits upon. Believer, let us not be deceived
by her outward beauty. And I'm telling you it is outwardly
attractive. And if you say it's not, you're
deceiving yourself. You should recognize that it
is. You should recognize that it
is. It is attractive to the flesh. It is appealing to the flesh.
But I'll tell you this, only the simple, only the lost go
in. only the law school go to proverbs
chapter seven i want you see this in in the picture that the
man of wisdom paints in the proverbs proverbs chapter course keeping
this harlan in mind that this is a spiritual warning here proverbs chapter
seven look at verse This is a man speaking to his
son. Isn't that what you are, believer?
Son? You are his son. This is wisdom speaking to you.
That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger
which flattereth with her words. Isn't that what false religion
does? Oh, man. You are so good. God loves you. God loves you. You're just so
good. They flatter you with their words. For at the window of my
house I looked through my chestnut, and behold, among the simple
ones I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding
passing through the street near her corner. And he went the way
to her house. in the twilight in the evening
in the black in the dark night and behold there met him a woman
with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart she is loud and
stubborn her feet abide not in her house now she is without
now in the streets and lieth in wait in every corner so she
called him and kissed him And with an impotent face said unto
him, I have peace offerings with me. This day I have paid my vows. Therefore came I forth to meet
thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee."
Notice the deception. She wasn't looking for this particular
man, but she tells him she was. You know what? I was just looking
for you. I wasn't looking for anybody else. Look for anybody
that'll come. They'll look for anybody. They'll
take anyone. I have decked my bed with coverings and tapestry
and carved works and fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my
bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of
love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with
loves, for the good man is not home. He is gone on a long journey. He hath taken the bag of money
with him. He will come home at the day appointed. With her much
fair speech, she caused him to yield. With the flattering of
her lips, she forced him. He goeth down after her straightway
as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction
of the stocks, till the darts strike through his liver. As
a bird hasteneth to the snare, and knoweth not, it is for his
life. This is false religion. False
religion lurks in the dark. They're deceptive in their practices. How about this? We're having a party. Won't you
invite some friends and we'll have get-togethers and we'll
just have a good old time. And what do they do? They get
people together deceptively under this and then they try to slip
in their message in the darkness. They're not open. Why? Because their work is in the
darkness. Ours is in the light. We preach the gospel in season,
out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering
and authority. Why? Because we have the Word
of God. It's not to be hid in a bushel. It's to be set on a
candlestick, and the light is to go out throughout the world.
We're not trying to deceive men. JD, when I told you to come to
Christ and you came to Christ, what did I tell you? You'll have
suffering. I'm not trying to deceive you.
I'm not trying to deceive you. To come to Christ is suffering
in this life. It's not health, wealth, and
prosperity. That's a deception of the whore. We don't have any
of that here. Hers is in the darkness and everyone
who follows them follows after her to death and won't even know
it until when he wakes up in hell it's too late you see false
religion you know why here it's called look at this in verse
five you know why it's called uh... mystery babylon the great
because it's it doesn't come from the city of babylon but
rather the first organized really false religion when they built
the tower of babel that's where babylon came from the tower of
babel what is babel me confusion so what is a false church say
when they can well just a mystery it's just a mystery week nobody
can figure that out nobody can understand We'll just let that
alone. How many times have you heard
this? We just all need to get along.
We don't need to have any differences here. We just need to get along. See, Babylon is confusing. This
man Nimrod who brought together that false religion in Babel,
his name actually means mighty hunter or rather rebellious panther. That's what it means. And he built that tower to heaven
not to reach God and be accepted, but rather to destroy God, to
take him off his throne. That's the purpose of the Tower
of Babel, that they may reach God and be God. Isn't that what
false religion is? That you should earn your way
to God by works, build your way by your own merits? Even so, the whore of Babylon,
a rebellious hunter seeking the simple-minded sinner to murder,
she displays her works, her sacrifices, her offerings, her power, her
gold, her silver, as evidence that she's the true church. She
seeks to seduce men to the bed to commit a fornication, She
denies the sovereignty of God and rejects salvation by Christ
alone. She's like the rebellious priest
that added those perfumes to the incense of God's worship. Behold her name is confusion. Confusion. The true gospel is
not confusing, it's plain. It's plain. Simple. Here it is,
before the foundation of the world, God chose a people he
would save. In a covenant of mercy, sovereign mercy, he loved
them and gave them to Christ. Christ came willingly as the
Scripture had foretold. Christ came willingly and offered
Himself a sacrifice for their sin. He redeemed them by His
blood. He died and rose again the third
day, exalted to the throne. The Spirit of God is now moving
in the world to call out those elect through the preaching of
this gospel. And everyone that believes are
kept by the power of God into salvation until the end. That's a gospel. Anything confusing
about that? Now, you may not like it, but
is there anything confusing about it? No. Salvation is of the Lord. Anything
confusing about that? What about my... No. Not even. Nothing. You get nothing to do
with this. You have nothing to do with it.
Is that simple enough? It's plain. What does the whore say? Well,
you just need to do more. What have you done? I've done
that. Well, you just need to do more. When is enough enough? When have
you obeyed the law enough? You can't. This is why they keep
coming back and coming back to the whore. Committing fornication
after fornication with her. Enough is never enough. And these
people, my friend, are drunk with her wine. I'm telling you,
they're in a drunken stupor. They are so simple-minded that
they will follow her to death. I tell you, but the only difference,
the only difference between us and them is the grace of God.
The grace of God. All who had committed We all, in our conversation in
time past, in the lust of the flesh, fulfilled the lust of
the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others. But God, there's a difference,
who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead and sins hath quickened us, together
with Christ by grace you are saved. Nothing confusing about
that. Nothing at all. Therefore, we
preach to sinners, even because God chose to save some of Adam's
race. Remember, we are all taken from
the same lump. And God has chosen to make vessels
of mercy fit for His kingdom. He promises peace, prosperity,
and happiness to all who are in Christ. Not as the world promises. He doesn't promise you physical
peace, physical prosperity, physical health. What he promises you
is eternal life. Spiritual life. Spiritual joy. Spiritual peace. All spiritual
blessings. What does the Whore promise?
All earthly blessings. Listen, if your church is promising
you earthly blessings, it is the Whore. I'm not promising
any earthly blessings. God gives them. We rejoice in
them. We're thankful for them if we
have health and if we have anything. It's all of God. It's a gift
of God. But that's not promised to us, is it? What is promised
to us is eternal life, and that shall never be taken from us. And see this, that the whole
heart of the beast and the woman is to make war with the lamb
look at this in verse fourteen and these shall make war with
the lamb isn't this the case even now
i know at this time we live in a very peaceful time as far as
uh... anti-christian government this
government is is truly against christ but it's not to the point
where we're being martyred for the faith that's coming Make
no mistake, that's coming. Before the end comes, there will
rise a kingdom that will persecute the church just as Rome, just
as Babylon did, just as Assyria did. There is another kingdom
coming. I don't know much about that.
I just know it's coming. The scripture plainly reveals
that in these heads and kings, but I don't want to go into that.
I don't have time. But I want you to know this. We're at war. Believer never compromise with
the whore. Never compromise with her. I know your friends and your
family are in the whore. Many of them. We are never to
compromise with them. Not once. They make war against the lamb. But we have this promise. The
Lamb shall overcome them. Didn't that happen to Babylon?
Didn't that happen to Assyria? Didn't that happen to Rome? It
will happen with every anti-Christian government and all false religions. He will eventually destroy them
all. But notice who are with the Lord.
he is lord of lords and king of kings and they that are with
him are called chosen this is a description of the bride given
in these three words there are you called i don't know if i'm called do you
believe on christ alone this is the evidence this is it do
you love the bread do you love the gospel You're called. You're called. Why am I called? You were chosen. God chose you. In mercy He chose
you. In love He chose you. The immutable
God chose you. And purpose to save you. And
notice this, they are faithful even to the end. Why? There is no salvation outside
of Christ and I have no plans to go anywhere else. I like right where I'm at. Safe. Why, my lamb is going to
win. And they all, no matter how big
they are, will lose. The bride, those who believe
in Christ, are robed with His righteousness, covered with His
glory, and shall be forever safe, even in the wilderness. The whore covered with self-righteousness,
free will, works religion. Deception, mystery, confusion
is her game. To allure the simple in. But
it is our mission as God's people to call His people out from the
whore. And you know what? They'll come.
They'll come, just like you came. Why? We were called, we were
chosen, and we'll be faithful, so will they. I pray God give
us wisdom to understand this.