But in the next three chapters,
17, 18, 19, we see a very good picture individually of the destruction
of all of God's enemies. That's what we're preparing to
see there. We're going to see a destruction
of Satan, the dragon, the powers of the world, the false prophets,
false spirituality, false religion, the two beasts, and the city
of Babylon, and those who bear the mark of the beast. And so
this 17 prepares us to see just how bad things are. So that when
we see the judgment of God, though we've already seen the evil and
things of that nature, we are probably forgotten just how bad
things have gotten. So this chapter is something
for the Lord to allow us to look at and go, wow, things have really
gotten bad. Bring your judgment. Bring your
judgment. It's time to show judgment on
all of this. If you think about Babylon, in
Genesis chapter 11, a lot of times people say, well, Babylon
is a real place. Well, it's not. It used to be, but it's not.
It's not a place that's going to be resurrected. We're not
talking about specific times and dates and peoples and things,
as we've already learned through the reading of this letter. But
what we are looking at is that a reference to Babylon, or Babel,
as we know it in Genesis chapter 11, is a place where men did
what? They built a tower into the heavens so that they could
make a name for themselves. And that's exactly the condition
of humanity. When we all get together, we
want to glorify ourselves. We want to make much of ourselves.
We want to do things so that people will notice us. And you
look at the architecture of the world that we live in. You see
the Eiffel Tower and you see the Washington Monument. You
see all these tall things. Everybody likes to make a spectacle
of what we can do and what we can build and grow in the sense
of as humanity. Man has always desired to be
grand, full of knowledge, full of power, full of ability to
show the grand vision of everything that we can claim for ourselves
so that we can have self-glory. And Babylon, then, throughout
all of Scripture has become synonymous for fallen humanity. And fallen
humanity have always hated God. I had a conversation today with
a couple of people in relation to how atheists are so passionate
about refuting the validity of the New Testament. And it's interesting
because they argue that they are reasonable, and they argue
that they debate or they come to the table with rational and
logical thought and argument. But yet they're so passionate
that it turns to anger. when they cannot get people to
see, or even worse, that we dare see something so stupid and ridiculous
as believing in a book that was written by men, to believe in
a God that's invisible, to believe in some God that became a human
being and died and was raised from the dead. And I find it
very, very funny, and I say funny not as in a hilarious way, a
comedic way, but as in an odd way, that these same people who
claim to be wise, as Scripture says, have become fools. Let
us not become fools by claiming to be wise. And I see such a
hatred of Christianity, and more so I see such a hatred for the
true church of Jesus Christ in this world that I've never realized
before just how bad that it is. And as you start to look, if
you stop listening to the peripheral and you just start listening
to God's Word, and you glance back out, you go, wow, it's really
bad. It's really bad against the church
of Jesus Christ. It's not bad when there's a war
on Christmas. It's not bad that they want to
take prayer out of schools. It's not bad that, you know,
like Jesse and I were talking earlier tonight, that our country
is not as godly as it used to be. It's not bad that people
hate in God we trust. It's not bad. What's bad is that
people hate God's sovereignty and people hate God's righteousness
and people hate those whom God has declared righteous to such
a place that in most parts of the world, as a Christian, you
have signed and sealed your death warrant. You've signed and sealed
it. Our country is so free. free in thinking, free in actions,
free in liberties, free to do all sorts of things that I believe
that we have lost sight collectively of what God's judgment looks
like. I believe we've lost sight collectively
of what just the small portion of the menacing attributes of
evil do in the world, because as a large whole, Americans all
agree that evil is good. As a large whole, the things
that are awful and debauch and spiritually bankrupt are acceptable
in our communities, acceptable in our societies, and sadly,
acceptable amongst most of those who claim the name of Christ.
Paul would say to the Ephesians church to not have these things
even be named among us and also that we should not give, give,
what is it? What's the word I'm looking for?
Approval to those who do. But yet there is a large movement,
beloved. There's a large movement that
say we need to be, we need to be embracing other thoughts,
we need to be embracing other doctrines, we need to be embracing
other truths, we need to be embracing of other people who don't think
like us. We need to consider the fact that everybody is a
human being and they have feelings and we don't need to hurt their
feelings by saying that what they believe is a little untrue
or a little off. Friends, this is a lie of the
enemy from the very beginning, who's been lying from the very
beginning. And there is nothing that's going to stop it except
the judgment of God, or the grace of God, if he allows the gospel
to be heard. So Babylon is synonymous for
fallen humanity, and they always hate God. They always hate God. And John, John's apocalypse here
in verse nine. Let me go there first. As we
get started, it says, this calls for a mind with wisdom. You see
that? This calls for a mind with wisdom.
In 1318, John said the same thing. We've got to be wise. We've got
to understand. You've got to have understanding. What does
it mean that we need wisdom? In other words, we need to pay
attention and listen to what is written so that we can immediately
understand exactly what John's talking about. That's what it
means. This is not that there's some mystery here that we have
to decipher. It's not something that's trying to be hidden from
us that we've got to go dig the clues out of everything else.
It's something that if we read it, it requires wisdom. What's
the opposite of wisdom? Ignorance. And ignorance is something
judicially that comes to the world through the blindness of
God's judgment. God cannot allow unbelievers
to understand the Word. God cannot allow unbelievers
to understand the Gospel. God cannot allow unbelievers
to see. Except when He does, guess what?
They're no longer unbelievers. We who once were unbelievers
are not unbelievers because God gave us the eyes and the ears
to see and hear and believe. God has gifted us faith. He hasn't
made us believe, but He's allowed us to believe. He's given us
His grace so that we might become one with Him, because it is what
He desires for us. It's what He desires for His
people. But friends, there's a whole large population of the
world, from Adam to the end, who are going to be reprobate,
who are going to be unbelieving, and they are what the Scriptures
would call Babylon. And John is telling us here that
we need to have wisdom to understand it. Let's look right into it. The first five verses, chapter
17 verse 1 says, then one of the seven angels, remember we
talked about the seven angels who were dumping the bowls of
God's wrath onto the earth. Then one of the seven angels
who had the seven bowls came and said to me, come, I will
show the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many
waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual
immorality and with the wine of those whose sexual immorality
the dwellers on earth have become drunk. And he carried me away
in the spirit into a wilderness, or a desert. And I saw a woman
sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names,
and it had seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed
in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls,
holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and
the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead
was written the name of a mystery, Babylon the Great, mother of
prostitutes and mother of earth's abominations. So right here,
we begin to see something. We see this prostitute or this
whore, harlot. And what she's doing is she is
seducing her people. She's seducing the people of
the world. She is seducing those who do
not belong to God. Just as, um, Goodness, just a second, lost
my train of thought. Oh, what I wanted to say before that is
that God's judgment, as we've seen already, has come in several
different pictures. We've seen several different
instances of how judgment would look. And judgment has been poured
out on those who are not believing. In the same way, those who are
not believing are those who have actually been seduced by this
harlot. who have been seduced by the
world, who have been seduced by Babylon. And if you want to
look at that chapter 17 through 19 in some way relative to the
Hebrew writing of the Old Testament, think about this. In Genesis
1, we see the overarching picture of creation. And in Genesis chapter
2, we see a drawing in or a microscopic picture of the creation of humanity. So in the same way, the pictures
we've seen of judgment have been sort of holistic and broad, and
now we're going to look at the condition of humanity, and the
judgment of humanity, and the judgment of the earth, and the
judgment of the Antichrist, and the judgment of the beast, and
the judgment of the dragon, and all these things together, and
it encompasses the whole of the earth. And so as we see this,
let it not be the first time we've seen it, because the seduction
of the world has already been written by John in his first
epistle. Matter of fact, it's already been written in the narrative
of his gospel. And in this gospel, we see Jesus
continually dealing with people who are unable to overcome the
seduction of man-centered glory, even the religious people of
His day. They wanted glory. They wanted what the world had
for them, insofar as they would not confess that they really
knew in the depths of their soul that Jesus was Messiah. They
understood it as truth, but they would not trade the glory that
comes from man for the one that comes from God. Nothing's depicted
that ever clearer than the dialogue or the discourse with the rich
young ruler that we see in the gospel accounts. And this rich
young ruler who followed the law, who loved to worship, who
followed the precepts of Judaism, and who did everything that he
could to do well and had made a name for himself and had great
wealth, he comes to Jesus and bows down before him and calls
him good teacher. The rebuke that Jesus gives is
that no one is good but God. And he says, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, you must be holy
as I am holy. He does that in a preset and
a preview of the simple expression of the law of Moses. You must
honor your father. You must love the Lord. You must
do all these things. You must do all. I have followed the law
perfectly since my youth. And Jesus says, there's one more
thing that you must do. Take all that you have and give
it to the poor. And then follow me and you will have treasure
in heaven. And then follow me, follow me. And the comparison
of the glorious things that this man owned, the glorious things
that he could do, the glorious ability that he had on this earth
as a pious man. In comparison to the following
of the one that stood before him, in his mind there was no
contrast. There was not a way he would
do it. So the scripture says that he bowed his head and walked
away dejected because he had much wealth. It was not something
he was willing to do, for he could not see the light of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So, in this same way,
those who love the world are an enemy with God. Matter of
fact, Paul would write those very words that the love of the
world, I mean, John, the love of the world is enmity with God.
Paul would recapitulate that type of thinking when he would
say that the natural mind is hostile. It cannot submit to
God's ways. It does not submit to God's ways.
It does not love God. Love of the world, it means that
we're enemies with God. Loving the world's ways means
that we're an enemy of God. We hate him. We hate God when
we love the world. In the same way, the unions of
this world, the alliances of this world, the networks of this
world are always double-blind. They engage looking for happiness
through gain. They engage looking for happiness
through prosperity. They engage looking for happiness
through commerce or success. I mean, even people who have
a widget farm and they make toenail clippers, if they're millionaires
and people know it, they're somebody. It doesn't matter what we do
in our communities, in our culture. If we are esteemed by others,
we're somebody in our own mind. We're somebody in the eyes of
someone else. Just like celebrities and stars
and athletes and things of that nature where people are paying
billions of dollars to just gawk and look and just be in awe of
mere human beings. Like a piece of art, which I
have a grand appreciation and affection for art. Oh, how it
would be awesome to like own a Picasso or, no, maybe not him,
maybe a Rembrandt. That would be better. But heavens
to Betsy, what a horrible night's sleep I would gain if I learned
that I'd spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a pastel oil painting
while my brothers and sisters were starving to death someplace. while infants were not being
adopted, while even dogs were being abused. I mean, even people
without the Lord love puppies. How awful would it be? Why in
the world do we do these things? Because we love the glory that
comes from men. We'd rather have a free... We'd rather have something... Actually, we'd rather pay more
money for something worthless than to have something worth
something for free if it means we get glory out of it. That's
why people pay so much money for stupid things. I remember
a specific brand of shoes. When I was growing up, there
was a rule. You always got two pairs of shoes each time you
got shoes. And you got two pairs of shoes. You got a pair of shoes
to play in and a pair of shoes for church or to go someplace
else. Because we always wore shoes
out. And Walmart was the place we bought our shoes. Because
when I was a child, Walmart carried very good things, very quality
things. And Adidas used to be in Walmart,
and so did New Balance. And New Balance were like the
cheap man-nurseman shoes. And I didn't want them, but my
grandmother, being frugal and was tired of trying to get me
to keep my shoes tied, bought me two pairs of New Balance shoes
for $20, and they were Velcro. And I wore the soles off those
things. Years later, as an adult, I'm seeing this new balance and
I thought, I remember those shoes, I'm going to go buy me a pair
of those shoes and I go into a shoe warehouse only to find
$90 on the price tag of the same piece of junk. Why? Because someone popular decided
they would wear this type of shoe in their athletic events
and then they won some gold medals and then all of a sudden now,
new balance, the trash that's not worth anything is now worth
a lot and everybody wants it. And the irony behind that is
that the company decided to move their headquarters not from the
United...from the United States to Bangladesh where now they
could pay someone three cents to build the shoe rather than
three dollars. It's just a very...and it's probably inaccurate in my
assessment of how that came about. But the point is, is that we
like glory. We like glory. I mean, if we
look around and women, you're easy to pick on because there's
always some kind of new accessory that you can have a party and
buy a bunch of. There's always something going on where there's
Vera Bradley or Tupperware or whatever. What's wrong with the
Rubbermaid at Fred's? Why do we have to have the Tupperware?
You see what I mean? Now I can understand the flapperware
that's down at the bottom of the rack with the bags of cereal
at Winn-Dixie that you seal it up and the bottom falls out.
I know you can't put food in that, but why do you want to
spend $40 on a set of glasses instead of $4 on a set of glasses?
Because it's esteemed. Men, why do we do what we do? What do we buy? I don't know.
What do we buy? Nothing. Food. I'm not into that cheap
place. I mean, you know, what is it? Harley Davidson's. Yeah, who
wants a Yamaha bike? They do musical instruments.
You know, that kind of stuff. I mean, that's the thing about
women and men. Women may buy a lot of different
things, but when men buy, boy, it bankrupts us. And it's just,
you know, we've got this problem. John says, Do not love the world
of the things of the world for the things of the world, the
lust of the eyes, the pride of life and the pride of possessions
are not from God, but are from the world. And the things of
the world are passing away. And those that love the world,
the love of God is not in them. These are the people who we call
or who the scripture calls Babylon. And John now has been carried
to this wilderness, and he sees a depiction of who Babylon is. He sees a picture of what the
world really looks like. And he sees a picture of a woman
dressed in royal robes, holding a bloody cup, sitting on the
back of a beast of scarlet, with seven heads and ten horns, with
blasphemous names. And that's the picture that God
is showing John of what the world looks like. The people of the
world, that's what they look like. See, we like to think that
people are just in a state of, oh, poor people, they're sinners
and they just need some help. People don't need help. People
need salvation. We don't need assistance. We
don't need behavior modification. Beloved, if we are wanting to
see people come to help, they need to understand the sickness
and the evilness and the wickedness of their sin. There is no good
news if we do not understand the depravity of the human condition.
the rebellion. See, we've, we've relegated sin
to be just a problem. Oh, you know, I've all got, we've
all got problems. Someone said to me recently in the conversation
about discipline, church discipline, well, you know, we've all got
problems. No, we're all wicked. That's what you should be saying.
We're all sinners. And we who have been saved by
grace are justified before God as a judicial decree before the
world began. And God established his righteousness
and the giving of Christ to satisfy our judgment. Romans 3 21. And
so if we're if we're really going to be honest with the world,
we need to tell the world what they look like. You who are not
in Christ are like a whore on the back of a beast, drinking
the blood of God's people. That's the picture. Now see,
when you say it like that, no wonder the next text goes, and
John marveled. Is it really that bad? Is it
really? Is that who we are without Christ?
Now see, if you'll understand the contrast in a minute, it'll
blow your mind. Because over in chapter 20, we're going to
see a picture, actually it might be in, let's see here, we're
getting close. Yes, over in chapter 19, we're
going to see a picture of a bride being served at a banquet. And
over here we're looking at a picture of a bloody whore riding on a
beast. Those are the two peoples of
the world. Sheep and the goats. This type of engagement with
the reality of what sin looks like, being in love with the
world, those who are engaged are looking for happiness of
some kind of gain, but they'll never find it. And ultimately,
as Jesus says, they've lost their soul and their lives by trying
to seek out their own lives. This type of thinking proposes
that intimacy can be had without commitment. and that unity can
be had without covenant. What do you mean by that? Remember
when we talked about how the religions of the world, even
so-called Christianity, is like a beast to be worshipped, a false
prophet? Well, friends, a lot of people
play with the church in such a way that they don't want to
be committed to the church. They want to come, eat, and leave.
And they don't want to be accountable to the church. And they don't
want to be involved in the church. They don't want anything to do
with it. And what they're trying to do is to find their way to
happiness without commitment. It's not possible. Beloved, we
are not able, this world rather, is not able to find joy without
commitment. Christ is committed in the covenant
with His people. In like manner, we then are also
committed to each other. And when things get hard in life,
God's people are supernaturally equipped to come to each other's
aid and to encourage one another and to embrace one another. Sometimes
it makes us angry. Get out of my house! Get out
of my life! I've said those things before.
Don't bother me with this again. It's none of your business. But
it is our business because we love each other. How dare we
would say, like most of the world would say, God, get out of my
business. Don't bother me with my sin.
Let me be. I'm only hurting me. Well, we'll
see that that's not true. In this very text right here,
when we live against the will of God, when we live as an unbeliever,
we are not just hurting us, but we give birth to continual people
who hate God. This is the world. Oftentimes
our lifestyle is evidenced by a lot of churchgoing and a false
Christianity, not just a debauched, wicked and sinful life. The world
is not the bride of Christ. They are dirty, unclean and worthless,
while the bride is pure and holy and beautiful. And according
to what we see in Peter's writing, kept by God for the day of celebration. In 17.3 here, as he's been carried
to this wilderness, he sees this. He's looking at this woman and
we see some pictures here of what she looks like and where
she's sitting. And there's a lot of imagery
here, and maybe we'll get to it, but the crux of the text
we'll continue to focus on. And John is carried to this desert
wilderness. He sees this beast with seven heads and with ten
horns. And the beast and this woman,
their location is not about a specific place. We're not supposed to
look at the water and think, okay, this is the Middle East
right next to the... Remember we've learned that water is talking
about two things, the overarching expanse and reach and also the
ability to make money, commerce and travel. So when we see this,
this location is not specific, but rather the immense and broad
reach of her wickedness and her evil. The fact that she is able
to entice the world. See verse 15 right there? Look
at verse 15. The waters that you saw where
the prostitute is seated are the peoples and multitudes and
nations and languages. See, so God explains what it
is. So all these people who have all this idea, oh, this is this
country and this is this country. And this means that God said,
this is what it means. Why don't we try to change what
God says? The picture of the fact that the world of wickedness
is not just an isolated people. It's not ISIS he's talking about
here. It's not communist societies. It's Americans. In Georgians,
in Californians, in Canadians, in Mexicans, in Brazilians, in
Asians. That covers a lot. Aussies. And everybody, everybody
of every nation, of every tongue, of every tribe has been enticed
and peoples of every nations, just like God will save some
out of every nation. So much more will perish out
of every nation for they love the world and not the Lord. These waters reveal a ghastly
end of what the reach actually is. It's people. Later in this
chapter, the commerce of the world is described in the clothes
of this harlot. Her dress reveals the luxury
of her gain, what it's done for her, what the world gains by
living in sin and promoting wickedness and living for greed. Her dress
shows that she has been enticed by filthy lucre and it has been
prosperous for her. In our day, no matter the cause
behind it, greed is still greed. Think about it for a moment.
How many good, benevolent philanthropists exist in the world today? None. But yet the world esteems them
as good. The world says, oh, look at the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Look at how many orphans they
feed, or how many women they help, or how many people they
help do this, or do that, or do the other. And people applaud
them. It's self-glory. It's not good
at all. They're feeding the flesh of
people who are going to die in their sins and be judged by God
worthy of damnation. It's all about greed. It's never
not about greed in this world. Oh, we're going to create 10,000
jobs so you can make tens of millions of dollars. I've never
heard a man say, I want to take a profit. Well, I have, but you
don't know. And neither does anybody else. Even the church sometimes is
deceived about what is righteous and holy and good. And we think,
well, that's a Christian company. How can a company be Christian?
What is a company but yet a machine for profit? Can those who own
that company be Christian? Yes. Can those who own that company
do well and honor God and their business practices? Absolutely.
But the company's not Christian. The company doesn't exist. The
company's just a piece of paper filed with the Secretary of State. The people. So whether we're
making plants, or farming chickens, or defending someone in a court
of law, We're growing tomatoes in our backyard. If we do it
for greed, we love the world. But it's not an indictment upon
wealth because God has wealth. He owns it all. And if it weren't
for people who worked hard and provided wealth for themselves,
then who would take care of the church? Who would take care of
the people who are in need? Who would take care of bums like
your pastor who can't do anything? How would it work? I remember
somebody asked me that when I was in California. Well, what do
you do for a living? And I looked at him, and I was
feeling rather coy, actually a little droll, and I said, you
know what? I don't do anything. And he said,
what? I said, I sit around all day
and read, write, and other people pay my bills. And he laughed,
and I said, I'm not joking. You know, he said, what do you
do? I said, I'm a pastor. He said, oh man, that ain't funny. I said, but that's the reality
of it. If I had to go to work every day, I wouldn't be teaching
this to you. You wouldn't be teaching it.
God has people who are wealthy, and God has people who are poor.
In koinonia and fellowship, we have all things in common, as
everyone has a need. And beloved, I'm thankful that God has done
what he's done. So don't take an indictment here
and we all go out and sell everything and live in the sticks and eat
locusts. I mean, God may call you to do
that. But what I'm talking about here, what John is showing us
here, is that the world as a whole, even poor people, are greedy.
You see that? Rich people aren't always greedy,
sometimes the poor are greedy. Sometimes the poor are entitled.
They want what they want, not what they need. But all in between,
rich and poor, they shall suffer the wrath of God's justice if
they do not come to faith in Jesus Christ. This woman, no
matter how royal she may appear, is a whore. No matter how powerful
she may be, she is a nothing. She is not the bride of Jesus
who is dressed in purity. She is a harlot. Those who are
not sealed is who she represents. Those who cannot stand in judgment
is who she stands for. Following after the world is
death, and everything in the world is passing away, as will
those who remain of it. The illusions here of the Old
Testament pictures are vast. I could show you things in Isaiah
and Jeremiah and Daniel and other places, and I could show you
how this language matches that Semitic style or that Jewish
style of writing in the prophets of the Old Testament. I could
show you that. But I don't believe that the Bible here is teaching
us that these things are exactly the same as those. I think here
the point for these Christians are to see that there is a world
that is deserving of justice. Look at verse 5. And on her forehead was written
a name of Mystery. And her name wasn't Mystery,
so if your Bible says that, move a colon after that. It's not
Mystery Babylon the Great, or The Mystery. It's written a name
of Mystery. And those three names are Babylon
the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes, and the Mother of Earth's Abominations. I mean, look at that for a second.
We've already seen the language of the writing of the name of
God on the hand and the forehead of those who are his and the
name of the beast on the hand or the forehead hand and forehead,
it's like trying to do this, of those who belong to the beast,
those who are not in Christ, the way we think, what we love,
our affections, our mind, our forehead, the things we do, the
stuff that we put time to, the works of our hands. That's the
hand. We're known by the name of our
father, for we exude the father's works, just like Jesus would
tell us in the gospels that I came to do not my will, but the will
of the one who sent me. And this Babylonian harlot, Babylon
the Great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations,
she is the one who gives birth to many. And those who she gives
birth to are reprobates, those who hate God continually. Beloved, there is something amazing
to think about here. is that the world continues to
breed itself into sin. It's all about that. Physically. Since Adam and Eve fell, every
human being that's been born of man is guilty. But God in His kindness has snatched
us out of that guilt. Declared us innocent when we
really are guilty. No matter how much justification
is declared from the throne of God, we are still guilty. But our sins have been taken. It doesn't mean that we're innocent. We've just been declared innocent.
You see, we once were like this. We once were dead in our sins. We once were. And we won't get
into the Reformed discussion of God's decrees. The Scripture
teaches it this way. We once were alienated and hostile
in mind and deed from God, but God has saved us in Christ. God has saved us through Christ.
God has saved us with Christ. So in this, the picture of this
earth continually replicating itself is not really speaking
of actual birth, is it? Something to think about. But
what the scripture is trying to show us here is that the world
continues to entice the world. I mean, what does Jesus say in
John 3? This is the judgment. The light has come into the world,
but people love the darkness rather than the light because,
what's that because? Their what? Their works are evil. And they do not come to the light
lest their works be exposed. If I'm sneaking in your house
and in your yard and you've got a motion light out there and
it comes on, I'm running. If you don't and I can get up
to your window and crack it open, you don't see me. Such is the
way of the world. They want to stay in darkness
because they feel like they're covered. Adam and Eve covered
their bodies because they felt shame from their nakedness. They
hid from God in the garden because they didn't want to face Him
because they knew their works were evil. And friends, listen,
they loved it. They loved it. Eve did not begrudgingly with
terror, take that fruit and give it to Adam. And Adam did not
go, Oh, we're fishing to die. Oh my God, don't make me bite
this. He willfully and joyfully and enjoyably took and ate of
the fruit. And then their eyes were open.
Their eyes were open and they saw that they were naked and
they hid from God. Beloved, the prostitute of this
world, this world's waste. And listen, we're not talking
about the earth. We're talking about the people
who live in it. The people who live in this world love to bring
people into the darkness because there's nothing worse than at
least not only hiding in the darkness. So you can do that,
which you love to do, which is evil. But having someone else
with you makes it all the better. I've never heard of any burglar
that didn't want somebody driving the getaway car. You don't hardly
ever see a gang of one. A gang of one is a dummy. But oh man, come on. Where are
you going? Come on. There's a friend of
mine that's in jail right now for a long time because he did
that. Okay, where are you going? I'm
just going to go see somebody. And he went and saw somebody with
this guy, he beat him up, burglarized him, kicked in his front door,
beat him up, burglarized him, and now they're both in prison. Knew better. Corruption loves company. And
friends, more people are out there enticing people to sin
and to fall away than there are people out there preaching the
gospel. I mean, Jesus said it, didn't He? What did He say? Hey,
y'all stay home, man, there's too many workers." No, he didn't
say that. He says, the harvest is plentiful,
but the workers are few. How many times this week have
we shared our faith? Online, or through text, or on
a conversation, or one-on-one, or in passing. And that's not
to bring guilt. There's no condemnation for us
who are in Christ, beloved. When we learn, we grow and then
we go. See, that's the beauty of it. But the world is perpetually
evil. The mother of prostitutes, more
people just like her, teaching and training others in the way
of death, while they say, peace, peace. Remember the woman in
chapter 12 who gave birth to the church? This is the alternate
expression of those who give birth to the wicked. The whore
hates the church. Evangelism is hated. Christianity
is hated. Conservatism is hated. Think
about it. Conservatism. But those things
are not hated near as much as the church is hated. So she persecutes
the church. The world goes after the church
with a passion of hate. You know, some people say, well,
I just don't see that much hate against me. Because we live in
a place where that much hate is not tolerated yet. But it's
still there. I mean, how many lawsuits are
there going to be now for florists and bakers? Do you think these
people that are going there who happen to be in a so-called gay
relationship, a so-called gay marriage, So whatever this thing
is, do you think these people are like going to the only baker
in town or the only florist in town, to the big shops, to the
most prestigious? No, they're trying to find the
Christians so they can go in there and persecute them. And
you know what it means? That Christians may not be able
to do business in America. They don't have the mark of their
father, the devil, they can't do business in the market. See
what that sounds like? It's starting to make sense.
Cannot buy and sell. Oh, you're a pastor of a Christian
church? You're not a Unitarian? No, you're not buying my food. You're not getting your cow meat,
you're not getting your beef from me. Just like that. What do you think it was like
for the Jewish people in the first century that were kicked
out of the synagogue? They could not buy and sell. Their families could not have
them in their homes for fear of, after Saul, death. People
hate the church. Laws are continually being made
that actually bring reproach upon our very way of government
that God has established to have religious liberty. And everybody's
tolerant of religion. But few people are tolerant of
truth. And sadly, all of us, because
we bear the name Christ, have been coupled into all the weirdos
who think that Christianity is their nationalism. Or that Christianity
is their conservatism. Or that Christianity is evangelicalism. Of which we are none of. Though
we might happen to be American Christian evangelicals. We're
not in those camps. It's not what it's about. So
after they weed through all of them, guess who's left? The church. Guess who's left? The church. In verse six, what does it say?
Think about this. And I saw the woman drunk with
the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I marveled greatly. Who is this woman? What is she doing? How does she
have the blood of my brothers in her mouth? You see that? I mean, think of the cannibalistic
picture here of this royal woman with great power riding on a
beast on the seas and on the mountains. You see the picture?
And if you're going to draw a dragon and a powerful knight riding
on the back of that dragon, well knights usually slay the dragons,
but let's put it the other way around. You've got a knight or a superhero riding
the back of a dragon. Are you going to put him in a
kiddie pool in the picture? Is he going to be sitting on
top of a carousel? I mean that's just funny, you know. Look at
that dragon. Is he going to have clown shoes
on? No, he's going to be standing on a mountain. He's going to
be standing in a place of authority. He's going to be standing in
a place of rule. And the world rules in its own mind. The devil
rules in his own mind. As a matter of fact, he's been
given authority to rule the earth. The power of the prince of the
air. And the woman, this earth, the
devil, the false prophet, the beasts, all of them, the world
that hates God, loves to see the church bleed. And it gives
them joy. It gives them pleasure. You've
never, I don't know if any of you have ever been on the campus
of UC Berkeley sharing the gospel, but I have. And we used to do
it about every three weeks. And it wasn't, we didn't open
air preach. Some of those brothers did, you know. It's bad, but
it's tough. But for me, I just like to walk
around, get into groups, just start talking, sharing the gospel,
sharing the gospel. And it's amazing the ridicule. How you
doing? Hey, my name's James. Oh, cool.
What are y'all up to? What are y'all talking about?
Oh, y'all in philosophy class? And for ten minutes you talk, and
all of a sudden you say, hey, I want to tell you something.
And you start talking about Jesus Christ, and they look at you
like you have just grown a carrot out of your nose. And they hate you. Not everybody,
but there are groups when they hate and it's bad, and they mock
you, and they spit at you, and they laugh at you, and then all
of a sudden people hear it, and they come around. What is it?
He's a Christian. He believes in a stupid Bible,
and a stupid God, and the stupid stuff, and they mock you. And
if they could, they'd punch me out. It gives them joy to hurt us. That's what it looks like. That's
what this looks like. This woman is drunk off the blood of the
saints. She's enjoyed herself. She's
partied in pleasure watching the church suffer. The world
looks at us that way, beloved. We are not friends with the world.
And we never will be. And you want to see what Jesus
does, what the gospel does, and this Unitarian mindset, this
stupid, foolish, I'm sorry, it's really stupid and it's really
foolish, but this mindset that we've got to have this just asinine
unity of just all getting along with our differences. That's
good, but when you mock the God of heaven, those differences
don't get along with Him. So we're not unified. But the
church is. And the church suffers well.
Why do you marvel? Don't marvel. Isn't that funny?
I don't think John looked at the angel and said, man, I'm
marveling. I think the angel could just tell. And the angel rebukes John in
verse 7. He says, why do you marvel? I'll tell you the mystery
of this woman. I'll explain her to you and I'll
tell you the mystery of the beast with the seven heads and the
ten horns that carry her. I'll tell you all about her. The beast
you saw was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless
pit and then go to destruction or and go to destruction. And
the dwellers on the earth whose names have not been written in
the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see
the beast because it was and is not and is to come. This calls
for a mind with wisdom, don't you think? The seven heads are
seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are seven
kings. five of whom have fallen, one
is, that's six, and the other has not yet come, seven. And when he does come, he must
remain only for a little while. You see, that's figurative language
there. That's very convoluted language. But this wisdom that's
called for, friends, what pops into your mind, church? When
you hear that the one who right here is, the other has not yet
come, the one who, what is it, was and is not and is about to
rise, what comes to mind? Huh? World empires. What specifically comes to mind
in contrast to that? That language. You ever thought
about it? Say it. Exactly. He was and is and is
to come. And here's the language of Scripture.
Jesus Himself, even in this, I am the one who is, was, and
is, and is to come, the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the
end. Here in this now is a picture of the world, the picture of
the world's kingdoms, just like you said, the picture of the
beast, the picture of Satan, and all the unbelievers acting
like there's something. Except now we see the language
of Scripture saying that they were and are not. and are about
to rise to destruction, because it was and it is not and it is
to come." What is it saying? That's saying that Satan is something,
but he's not. That's saying that Satan has
some power, but he doesn't. That's saying that the world
has some kind of a battle going on against God, but it's not.
It's a mockery. And this angel said, don't worry
about this. This one who is not is about to be and is going to
rise to destruction. It's the counter of the one who
is, was and is and is to come. He is doomed. Everywhere we see
the world is a mockery of God. Listen to that. This mindset
that God, all people are God's children is wrong. It's wrong. All people are God's creation?
Right. There's a providential care that
God gives to all creatures? Correct. But there's not a divine
affection where God calls the people who reject Him and hate
Him His children. I don't care what I didn't say.
Because there was a time some of us may have hated God. But God saved us out of that.
And we know the gospel says that we were his children all along.
Because that's who he's going to save, his children. He's going
to save his church, his people. Satan is doomed. His whole purpose
in existence is to steal away God's glory in any way that he
can. So Satan would love to parody
every time we think about the things that God is, Satan would
love to parody that. If God rules, then the world
ruling itself is just a smack in the face of God. If God is
sovereign, then man's sovereignty over his own salvation, I want
you to hear that, is just a smack in the face of God. Because I
want us to understand that this depiction of this harlot on this
beast, as wicked and vile as it looks, includes those who
are Christianly, as I said last week. includes many who sit prayerfully,
not upon the presence of us as grace truth, but it would we
would be fools to consider that an impossibility. There could
be some of us who are just lost. Let the Lord be gracious and
give life to those who are lost. It's not only obvious wickedness,
but it's unbelief and self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. These
things are illustrated in this picture here. Those who have
not been written in the book of life before the foundations
of the world will marvel at the beast. Isn't that amazing? What does it mean to marvel?
We marvel at our world. I remember years ago, a young
architect was sitting under my preaching in his early 20s, mid-20s. And I was talking about judgment,
and talking about the destruction of the world, and talking about
Babylon in the context, and I said something to the nature that
everything that we create is temporal. And a week or two later, when
I was meeting with this young brother, he said, man, you mess
me up with that. This is 15 years ago. I said,
why do you say that? He said, I'm an architect. I
live to build things that last. He said, everything I do, I spend
all my days just designing things that will catch the eye of people
and go, wow, and it will stand there forever. And it just like
my life, a paradigm just, just completely changed in my thinking
when you said that. I believe it, but I've never
thought of it. See, we oftentimes, misapply
what this is dealing with. Friends, our homes, our luxuries, our investments,
our legacies that are not gospel are gone. They're gone. There's nothing there. These
aren't anything. Grace Truth Church will not exist
forever, but we as the bride of Christ will. So why do we work so hard to
build the ministries of the world rather than the ministry of Christ?
Why do we work so hard to build our mediocre empires and call
them great and say that they're Christ-like when we're really
supposed to be making much of Him? May the Lord take our heads
on a platter Like John the Baptist, before we become so heady and
narcissistic to think that what we do for Christ is worthy of
eternal picturing. These ten horns are said to be
kings. These heads. Five have fallen. One is and
the other has not yet come. What does that tell us? The numbers
aren't as important except that seven is a number. of completion, of perfection,
of righteousness even. But seven in the context of a
beast means that it's all of the evil, not just part of it,
that all of the kingdoms. And for the readers of this,
they may have understood, well, this kingdom has fallen and this
kingdom has fallen. And we're sitting under this
just this diabolical leader. Oh, man, what's going to happen
to him? He's going to fall, too. And what about one that comes
after him? Well, he's going to fall, too. You see, they could
put names to this. We could put names to this. And
a thousand years from now, if the Lord tarries, they can put
names to this. And 10,000 years from then, if the Lord tarries,
then they can put names to this. But we're not supposed to go
in and look and, I mean, very dear brothers of mine put names
to this. And I think if I were to stop
and start a history lesson of the possibilities of the probabilities
of who these kings and kingdoms were and how they would name
and who led them, it would derail the very meaning of the text
we're reading, wouldn't it not? Would it not? I mean, how glorious
is the picture? How horrifying is the reality
of the debauchery of the world? And how magnificent is the grace
of God and the mercy of God upon His people? Now let's talk about,
uh, let's talk about, uh, whatever his name is. I didn't want to
say. Oh, so we come from the sublime
to the ridiculous and we begin to blabber on about historical
possibilities. Do they make good conversation?
Yes. But what is the scripture supposed to give us today? So
I think it's always fitting the way we do this. I mean, it would
take me years and years and years to exposit all this. That's why
the reading of Revelation is an incredible, incredible thing. These five have fallen. More
will come, but they too will fall. For verse 11 is the beast
that was and is not and is an excuse me. It is an eighth, but
it belongs to the seven and it goes to destruction. It says
in the 10 horns that you saw are 10 kings who have not yet
received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings
for one hour together with the beast. You think that the Bible
is being literal? They're going to coronate them. And after the
coronation, they fall. These are of one mind and they hand
over their power and authority to the beasts. The picture here.
Is that the reign of evil and the reign of the world and the
reign of Satan, the reign of wickedness has an end, and though
we may see the end of one piece, we may see the end of a terrible
ruler. We may see the end of the destruction of a terrible
kingdom. Let's just talk about it in our well in our lifetimes,
but in our generations, World War Two and the Nazi empire. I mean, people would read this
and go, oh, this is this is Adolf Hitler. He's done. He's done. Well, yeah, it could apply. But
that's the point. It wasn't specifically talking
about anything specific for us, but it applies for us. You see,
there's an application there that we can say, wow, oh, no,
there comes another ruler. But never to fear, because that
ruler to shuffle and one day there shall be a completion of
it all. There shall be the seventh and final. What's that? Completion. God will take him down. And then
there's an eighth. Seven plus one is perfection
plus. And that eighth we know is Satan. That eighth we know, no matter
how much the devil tries, he has failed. He has failed and
he will not succeed for even the kingdoms. What does Paul
teach in Colossae? He teaches those Christians that
everything was created by Christ and through Christ and for Christ,
whether kingdoms or dominions, principles or powers. In Romans
8, the very last of that, it teaches us that nothing can separate
us from the love of God, principalities or powers, height, depth, nothing. Life, death, nothing in all of
creation can separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus, our Lord. This thing, whatever it may be in
our lifetime, these beasts, the work of the devil, the wickedness
of the world, the church will not disappear from the face of
this earth. We will persevere and the gospel
will go out and the people of God will come in. I'm going to
stop there because we've run out of time. But starting in
for next week, I want to talk about these ten horns and look
at verses 14 through 18. And if I can do that quickly,
maybe we can do some Q&A. Or maybe we'll just do Q&A and
I'll do that the following week. Anyway. Okay, I'll finish it next week.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But with that, I hate to stop
mid-thing, but I'm looking at that. I've got that many more
notes. We'll just stop there. Yeah,
that's right, it's good stuff. Let's pray. Father, we love You.
We thank You for just the time we've had here tonight, Lord,
for this hour has gone by very quickly. And I praise You, Lord,
that You've helped me stay focused on that which the text has said.
And Father, I pray for understanding for all of us, for not just us
adults, but the children as well. Lord, that we might have good
and profitable conversations as we leave this place. And most
importantly, that we would rejoice knowing that the war that is
made against you is no war, that the battle, though it may ensue,
is no battle because you are God and nothing stops you. You've
saved us and you hold us by your grace and for your purpose to
glorify us before you through the son, Jesus, who took our
sin. And it's in his name we pray.
Amen.