Revelation chapter 17, I have
good news. This great harlot shall be overcome. The Lord of glory shall overcome
all false religion, and his blood and righteousness shall be to
the praise and the honor made by his saints throughout eternity. We will delight in his free and
sovereign grace throughout eternity. We will see whether in these
eyes or in the end's eyes, we'll see the absolute, total, complete
victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over all his enemies. He won that victory at the cross,
and he will openly display that now and at the end. He continues to openly display
that. Every time a lost sheep is found,
he is openly displaying his victory. Every time someone is born again,
he is openly displaying his victory at the cross, and the Saints
rejoice in that victory every time. We rejoice in God's people
being saved. Well, in this passage of scripture,
it shares with us, and I'd just like to read down through verse
eight of this 17th chapter and look at some of the things that
God has promised his people in this and a few other verses in
this same chapter. We're gonna jump ahead a little
bit and come back and deal with that later. But it tells us in
verse one that one of the seven angels, one of the seven angels,
one of the seven pastors that we've just read about, which
means, this is a complete number of all God's preachers, and I've
said this in the past, and I'll say it again, no place is without
a pastor that God intended for them to have a pastor. No place
is without a pastor. There is not one extra, nor is
there one too few. Every place he intends his word
to be preached. Today, there is someone there. God will raise him up. And I've
said this about our friend down in Central Point. There's only
one reason in all the world that God would raise up one preacher
there. There's some sheep. Duane and
I were talking, it may be in 10 years that we'll see the results
of that. It may not be today, and it may
not be tomorrow. There's a small gathering there,
but it will happen. God will bring those sheep there
that he intends to save. this one of the seven angels,
which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me,
come hither. I will show unto thee the judgment
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. And last time
we noticed that this Babylon, as it's called down in verse
five, Mystery Babylon the Great, Babylon is the religion of man. The religion which teaches salvation
by works and man's hands and the power of man's will. That's
Mystery Babylon. Now, not necessarily a specific
group. We'll never say that. We don't
want to say that. It has been said enough. But
we can see the first time in all the world that this was expressed. And that was just outside the
Garden of Eden when Cain brought, he didn't bring, I read this,
the sacrifice of Cain. It was not a sacrifice. Bringing
vegetables is not a sacrifice. That's not a sacrifice. A sacrifice
is what Abel brought. Someone lost their life. That's
a sacrifice. This is just, he brought the
zucchini. That's not a sacrifice. My goodness. He should have brought them all.
I'm teasing, I like zucchini. You folks have been dear to me,
and you've taught me how to love it. About this big around. But,
he brought, it wasn't a sacrifice. He did not bring a sacrifice.
It was not a sacrifice for him to do that. Those plants were
going to bring more, but it was a sacrifice for that lamb. It
died. It was a substitute. It was a
picture of Christ, our substitute. And that's why Abel brought that. He knew that he needed a substitute. Cain never realized that. Abel
realized he was a sinner. Cain never realized that. Abel
realized he needed help from God. Cain never realized that. Abel realized he needed the blood
and righteousness of a perfect Lamb of God. Cain never realized
that. It was not in his realization. But all those things are what
Abel realized. And it says here that this one
sat on many waters. And we find in verse 15 that
that's speaking about the waters which thou sawest where the horse
sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. Everywhere
there are people. This great woman has been sitting. Man's religion. I saw a film
the other day about Easter Island down there, discovered on Easter
Sunday. That's why they call it that,
with those great, monstrous, carved-out heads. That's no different
than going down to Mecca. Just no different. The world
is filled with religious relics. They're uncovering them in Thailand
right now. They've been covered up for centuries,
and now they're opening them back up. Go to Mexico. Go all over the world. There
are religious relics all over the world that testify to the
fact that this woman has a theology, and that theology is man-centered,
man-oriented, man-created. Their own blood and their own
righteousness, that is what is necessary. Their own works. And
every person is born into this religion and everyone that is
ever saved needs to be saved out of it. And that's what we're
going to find, that this happens. It's a victory. God's going to
win a victory over this, over the religion of this great whore.
Verse two, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication
and the inhabitants of the earth have been made to drink of the
wine of her fornication. Oftentimes in the Old Testament,
we find that Israel was accused of this very thing. This fornication,
spiritual fornication, choosing Baal over God. Choosing Moloch
over God. Choosing this over God. Choosing
the gods of the peoples that they overcame there in Canaan
land. They went after that. And then
God even had Moses make a brazen serpent. And what did they do
with that? They worshiped it. This is just common all over
the world. And they are drunk with the wine
of the fornication that choosing religion over God, and that's
the best we can do in our natural state. So he carried me away
in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a
scarlet-colored beast, full of the names of blasphemy, having
seven heads and ten horns. Oh, that's the names of blasphemy. Reverend. There's one right up
there at the top. The name of blasphemy, holy and
reverent is his name. I like. They call Peter, Peter,
and Paul, Paul, just call me Norm. The names of blasphemy, all kinds
of names of God associated. I go down, right downtown here,
and there's a plaque that said there's a man's name who is the
Potentate. Right here in town, he's the
Potentate. Now they got the chief potentate
and the head potentate. And they're, depending on the
class, whether it's the state or the district or the city,
different potentates. But he is the blessed and only
potentate. So we have the names of blasphemy
all around us. They're just all taking the name
of God and applying it to a man or to a system. Verse five, and upon her forehead
was written, her name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the
mother of harlots, and the abomination of the earth. And I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of
martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered
with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, wherefore
didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery
of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath
the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was
and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and
go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder." Now notice this qualifying remark. Those that
shall wonder whose names were not written in the Book of Life
from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that
was and is and is not and yet is. Now I don't know everything
I read here about all that's in here, but I know this. Those
whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will
follow this beast, will follow this religion, will follow it
to the end. And they will not be altered
or changed. The church is encouraged and
comforted by the realization that this great harlot will be
brought down to destruction. The church is encouraged by the
mere fact, by the fact that God Almighty, by His Son, shall overcome
and overpower and bring down to total destruction this harlot. Man's religion will not be something
we will deal with in eternity. It will be removed. We will not deal with it. We
will not think about it. It will not be a problem. We
may be faced with it on every side in our life today. Our friends
may assault us on every side with what they believe about
God and about the Bible. But that will not be an issue
in glory. We may have these assaults. But that will not be an issue
in glory. It will not be thought of, it
will not be brought up. This total religion of man that
was shared outside the Garden of Eden and made into a religious
organization at the Tower of Babel, this will be totally done
away with by the will of God. Even she is under the dominion
of our great God and Savior. Today, man's religion is a servant
of Almighty God. God's servant. He has allowed
it. He has permitted it. He has purposed
it. And we'll see in a few moments
some verses of scripture that share with us. And it will be
made to serve his purpose. Verses 16 and 17 it says, And
the ten horns which thou saw'st upon the beast, 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. Talk about victory. God is even
going to use these things, religion, to fulfill His everlasting purpose. What's it say there? God hath
put in their heart to fulfill his will and to agree and to
give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall
be fulfilled. The church is encouraged to know
that everything that God has created, everything that God
has permitted, has fallen out because of God. And even this,
this great harlot, has been allowed to flourish to grow, to be around
us, to be everywhere, and God has purposed it, and He is in
control of it. As it says there, God hath put
in their hearts to fulfill His will. Now, I have yet to find
someone that has been born again that hasn't been in some kind
of religion. We're just naturally born into
it. It's just around us. Now, it may not be a recognized
religion, and it may not even be in the books. You may not
open the phone book and find that religion that we were in,
but we had some idea about what is going to happen when we leave
this earth. And the most common statement
about it is, if my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, then I'll
be okay. That's the most common. And good
deeds have a big, have a grand part in man's religion. And then
we find, by God's grace, He shares with us by His grace. It is not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He has saved us. He has snatched us out of the
pit. He has brought us out of the
religion. He has taken us from the harlot.
He has removed us from the control. He has demonstrated in everyone
that has ever been saved. He had victory at the cross.
He is victorious over all enemies, and this enemy is in his sovereign
control. Then we find that the great harlot
will have no influence on God's elect. I just found that very
interesting. Now we're snatched out of it,
but after we're saved, This harlot has no influence
on us. Now, it may be influence on people
around us, but no influence on us. Notice there in verse 8,
verse 8 says, the beast that thou sawest was and is not and
shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. And
they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were
not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.
When they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. And then in verse 14, it shares
this. 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. This great harlot, this great
man's religion, In all of its glory, there's three statements
that man's religion asks, three questions. How big, how many,
and how large? Guarantee it. Go somewhere, someone's
going to ask you, how big's your church? Well, I like what Brother
Mahan said. It's about 50 by 50. No one gets the joke on that,
though. I've used it before. They just can't understand. 50
by 50. People measure success by numbers. Religion measures
success by numbers. How many? How large? How big? That's the questions
that religion will ask. And you know what? When they
find out, they say, you must not have much because we're bigger. The world is pretty big, isn't
it? And it's only a handful out of the world that know the grace
of God. And it's not because of them,
but it's because of grace. That's the only reason. Turn
with me, if you would, over to the book of Romans, chapter 13.
Romans 13. The great harlot will have no
influence on the church of God's elect. Though all the world follow
man's religion, the elect of God cannot be deceived and cannot
be destroyed. They cannot. He's promised it. Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter
13. Excuse me. Revelation chapter
13. Revelation chapter 13 and verse
8. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This
is the criteria. Who will worship the beast? All
whose names are not written. Who shall follow the great harlot?
All whose names are not written. What will happen to those whose
names are written? Though, if it were possible,
That's what the scripture says. If it were possible, they would
deceive the very elect. And we'll look at that verse
in just a moment. But back up with me to Romans 11. Romans
11. Romans 11 and verse 29. If it were possible. Now all
those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life, the
harlot has no power over. Now the hundreds of thousands
have been slain. But their eternal, everlasting
destiny has not been altered by the great harlot. They may
take, and Jesus talked about this, fear him not who can take
your life. Fear him who can take your life
and soul. Don't fear Him who can take your
life. That's just a manner in which God has appointed to present
His people before His throne. It's a door that we go through,
and many have that way. They've entered into glory that
way. All right, Romans chapter 11, verse 29. The Apostle Paul was led by the
Holy Spirit and said, for the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. God will not back up on his word.
God is not an Indian giver. God will not quit on his word. Even though we sin, he will not
give up on his people. All those that are written down
in the Lamb's Book of Life that Jesus Christ knew who he was
dying for. He is not going to repent about
what he has done for them. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. And the church says, Hallelujah!
What would he do to God's people if he could repent from saving
them? My goodness, we all know There we go. We're ushered off. We can't keep it. Thank God he
did keep it. He is keeping it. He will forever
keep it. And so the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. Babylon will prove to have been
the servant of God. to perform his
will in the earth. This Babylon is God's servant. Turn with me, if you would, over
to 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19. It is a victory. Whatever we
read about how terrible Babylon is, how it has gone, how far
it has gone, how ingrained it is, how it is ingrained in the
hearts and minds of people just born, it will lead them All along
the path, they'll find some place to fit in with their religion. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, we'd be stuck there. He's the one that changes our
mind. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 1 Corinthians chapter 11,
we find the Apostle Paul again, led by the Holy Spirit, to write
these things to the church at Corinth. 1119 for there must
be also heresies among you What's that word means divisions there
must be? heresies among you But even in
that God is in control of it. He is in control of everything
About this great harlot. He has her just like he has the
devil on a chain and it's a short lease it is they are God's dog,
servant. It says, they're going on, that
they which are approved may be made manifest among you. Those
who are approved shall be made, they shall be identified. Speaking
to Brother Wayne down there, he's had some friends leave him.
He says, Norm, you were right. those who were religious friends,
those who you used to visit with. If all you want to talk about
is Christ, then you're going to lose some friends. If you
want to talk about religion, you've got a host of people.
But if you want to visit about Christ, and Christ's redemption,
and Christ's blood, and Christ's righteousness, and Christ's peace,
and Christ's joy, and Christ's salvation, then you're going
to lose some friends, because they don't want to talk about
those things. They want to talk about their
religion and how efficient they are, the job that they have in
their religion. The job. Here we find There must
be heresies. And in 2 Thessalonians chapter
two, 2 Thessalonians chapter two, again, Paul was used to
write this. There was a lot of people that
had heard some words and they were on August 5th, 2010, the world's coming
to an end. Maybe I should say August 3rd,
2010. Didn't happen. And some of the
saints, they were caught off guard. Oh my goodness, we had
hoped. We had hoped. We had hoped. Didn't happen. Now what do we do? And Paul's
writing to a group of people that seem to have fallen into
that trap. Someone announced it didn't happen. Now, he says
here, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 1, Now I beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is
is such a core to our faith. The coming of Christ the second
time. It is the death of Christ. It
is the burial of Christ. It is the resurrection of Christ.
It is Christ coming the second time. They are such a core. They are such a part. They are
what God gives to his saints to anticipate with great glory
and joy. by our gathering together unto
him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled neither
by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the
day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any
means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first, and that the man of sin be revealed, the son of
perdition. Now this falling away, I had a preacher one time say
that meant that there had to be an escape of people from the
earth to heaven. This word means to apostatize. It doesn't mean to leave the
earth. How people will use the Bible to prove their point. Erroneous. This means to apostatize. There's
a falling away first. It's happened in every generation.
My goodness. In our generation, it has happened. A church that we had become somewhat
familiar with has turned their backs on the sovereign grace
of God and accepted you must be educated into the kingdom
of heaven. There's a falling away. Now as
a result of that, three or four other churches were started.
We don't know the complete outcome of all of this, but there is
continuously a falling away, and there is a continuous revelation. revealing of God's grace to God's
people, wherever they're found. Let no man deceive you by any
means, that that day will not come, except there come a falling
away first. Verse four, who opposes and exalted
himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God. Well, we've got a lot of statements
about this as some special person. Paul says, know you not that
you are the temple of God, The worst thing that we have to deal
with in our life is our own will. We have exalted it in our religious
life to the highest position. It has become a god. And if you
speak out against man's free will, you have desecrated the
god of this world. Brother Wayne was sharing with
me, he was listening to a message on tape. Now he heard about this
guy, he just had to listen. He said, I listened to about
a minute and had to shut him off. His opening prayer, God, would
you have liberty with your word today? Oh, that we as men might
allow you to do it. Would you have liberty with your
word? May we as men allow you to do it. Now that's double speak.
My goodness. Let's just leave it alone. May
you have liberty with your word. May we get to see it. Because
he is going to have liberty with his word. What's the Bible say?
His word will not return unto him void, but it will accomplish
that where into it was sent. We can't stop his word. People have tried and it just
sprung up somewhere else. Goes on to tell us here, and
now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in
his time, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only
he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the
way. And then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy
with the brightness of his coming, even him who's coming after the
working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they
receive not the truth of the love of the truth that they might
be saved. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they shall believe a lie. that
they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief in the truth." How victorious God is! What does he say? I have, God
has chosen you into salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. God's people cannot be removed
from this blessed position that God has established them in.
Even the great harlot can't do it. The harlot, the great. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether
by word or by epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us an everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Going down through there, man,
catastrophe, catastrophe, catastrophe. And then, don't worry about it,
folks. He has called you. He has chosen
you. He's not going to let loose of
you. This is going to come. It has come. It is coming. There's
always going to be those who have a lie about God. They are
servants of God. Heresy must come. It's going
to just establish those who are and those who are not. It's going
to show us the grain. It's going to leave the chaff.
It's just going to do that. Who loves God's word and reads
every bit of it? Well, that's a good point. Will
you read Ephesians 1? No, never read it. Well, time
to read it. Just some tests, just some tests. Four things for the comfort of
our soul. And it's brought out here in
Revelation is brought out here in second Thessalonians and it's
brought out in Zephaniah and Nahum. The Lord God is sovereign
over all things. Even the great harlot. He's sovereign over all things.
Comfort for the church. You mean this that's going on?
You're over it? And the answer from heaven is
yes. I raised it up that I might show
my glory. What did he tell Pharaoh? For
this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my
power in you. The greatest fingers of that
great harlot holding on to the worst of sinners, God has been
victorious over. Saul of Tarsus said that about
himself. God pried the great harlot's
fingers off of his soul. Popularity is no indication of
the will of God or the truth of God. Never has been, never
will be. I don't know how many people
I've said, would you go to a church where there were 12 people and
the pastor of that church was hunted and hunted until they
killed him? Well, of course not. Then you
wouldn't have been in Jesus's group, would you? 12 people. And the pastor is maligned, lied
about, hunted, and killed. God's elect are secure at all
times. Comfort to God's people. Even with the great harlot around,
with its great illusions, great miracles. It's what the Bible
says, it had lots of miracles. I don't know what that says.
I have an idea, and I won't bring it tonight. Lord willing, I'll
bring it next week, what that means. But a lot of signs and
wonders captivating. And the Lord pries the fingers
of that off the souls of His people. God's elect are secure. Romans 8, 28 through 39. The religion of the world will
prove to be and has proved to be to God's people empty. That's
one thing. God's people that have been saved,
they just cannot go back. It is so empty and dry and frustrating
and loathsome. It is loathsome. It becomes loathsome. How it could be captivating.
We wonder. And yet we were captivated by
the great harlot for so long. And Lord come along by his free
and sovereign grace and quickens his people and brings them out
of it. And they say, oh, that's so loathsome. I think the prodigal
son. For a while, Connie enjoyed corn
cobs. It appears to be that he ate
corn cobs with the pigs. And then it says, he came to
himself and says, what am I doing? This is loathsome. This is terrible. The food I'm
eating is terrible. Well, that's why God's people
can't go back. Now, if they go back, if they go back. They never were
to begin with. Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew 24. The victory that God has for
his people. Matthew 24. This is around in
the days of Cain. This is around in the days of
Isaiah and Ezekiel. around in the days of Malachi
and Micah, around in the days of Matthew and Mark and Luke,
Paul, the centuries between Paul and today. This has all been
around. It's still. It may be dressed
different, but it's still the same. It may sound different. The vocalization may be different,
but still they cannot say that secret word, grace. Grace, all of grace, sovereign
grace, free grace. There's always some works that
look at here. Matthew chapter 24 and verse 24, it says, for
there shall arise false Christs. Now my translation has that capitalized. False Christs, messiahs, false
messiahs. Now it's not just Reverend Moon.
It's people who have a lie on God, false messiahs, promises,
making promises they cannot keep with words they don't understand.
The worst doctrine in the world is once saved, always saved if
you're an Armenian. That's the worst doctrine in
the world. It's no wonder that there's some
of them said, well, we're gonna have to think about that a little
longer, and we're not sure about that. They're at least honest
about it. If you can will yourself into it, you can will yourself
out of it. It depends on who saves you. All right, there shall
arise false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show
great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible, they
shall deceive the very elect. God's elect are secure at all
times. One other verse, it has almost
the same, but there's a different word in it, and that's over in
Mark 13, Mark 13. Good news. When God saves his
people, he will present them spotless. When God saves his
people, they will be with him. Mark 13, verse 22, it says here, For false Christs and false prophets
shall arise and show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were
possible, even the elect. Now they're able, the non-elect. They're able, those whose names
are not written in the book of life. And we can find ourselves
in there if it hadn't been for God, we would have been there.
We would have been caught up in it. We would have agreed with
it. The difference is God's grace,
God's purpose, God's salvation in Christ. That's the difference,
and that's the only difference. So if it were possible, it's
so enticing that if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect,
but it's not possible. It's not up to our intellect
to keep us. That's what he's saying. It's not up to our smarts
to stay straight. It's not up to our power. It's
up to his power. With us, it would be impossible.
All right? So this great harlot, under God's
control, purposed by God, from the foundation of the world,
to do what she's doing, Heresies must come. It's going to just
expose the good, reveal the bad. If they were of us, they would
have continued with us. They've just demonstrated that
they're not of us. It doesn't mean that they're
just attending here. It means they're with God. That's
what it's talking about. So there's a difference. The
wheat falls to the ground. The chaff is carried off by the
same wind. Great harlot. And as we look
at this, we're gonna move on in that chapter. We'll see what
God's purpose for it is. It is going to be judged. Great
harlot, gonna be judged. Man's religion will be judged.
Condemnation will fall on those without Christ. Promotion will
be given to those who are in the body of Christ. We'll stop
there tonight and we'll pick this up.