Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Revelation chapter 17. Lord willing, I want to finish
this chapter up. Revelation 17, we'll be looking
at verses 13 through 18. And I want to remind you again
that these visions that John is seeing here are not concerning certain things
that happen in time or certain nations or certain governments
what he's talking about here is what's going on during the
whole of the gospel age and then he's talking about also in this
chapter what's going to happen at the end of that age we have for the past several
weeks been looking at the judgment of God upon the beast and upon
the great whore which rides upon her back. These two beasts were
described back in Revelation chapter 13. One rose up out of
the sea and one from the land. The one of the sea represents
all the people of the earth. That's back in Revelation 17,
15 he tells us that. And then the one of the earth
has to do with kings and kingdoms and worldly government. That's
Revelation 13 too. And then as we come to chapter
17, we're looking at one single beast. We're not looking at two
beasts any longer. We're looking at one beast. And this beast carrying a harlot
upon his back. And her name is inclusive of
both the kingdoms which are described as Babylon, and as the whore
antichrist religion, which represents all these things. So both beasts
here are represented in one beast. And that's kind of how it is,
isn't it? All the people of the earth, all the governments of
the earth, these all contribute to the harlot. So the people of the world and
their leaders are all acting together, and the picture here
shows them carrying the harlot of false religion. Why would
they do such a thing? Why would governments and people
carry this harlot? Because she can give them what their evil hearts desire. That's why. That's why she has
favor with them, Revelation 17, 13. These have one mind and shall
give their power and strength unto the beasts. Now governments,
all governments over time, they all tend to arrange in their
laws and in their government an overindulgent indulgence of
pleasures, vices, promises of wealth and material gains. And
they do this so that they can keep their seats of power. That's
why they do it. No king, no prince or president
is so loved as that man who gives prosperity to his people. Or freedom which grants them
a lawful right to practice the lust of their flesh. Well, you
say that's really reaching out there, is it? What about in our own country?
Freedom to practice same-sex marriage. They're proud of that. Our government's proud of that. Freedom to kill unborn children. That's laws in our country. Freedom to drive around in their
vehicles in some places with open containers of alcohol. That's
just nuts. And in some places, polygamy. In others, legal prostitution. And the list goes on and on and
on. Government and people are in one mind, and they're revealed
here as being upon one beast, or being one beast. And this
beast is scarlet in color and carrying on her back the great
whore of religion. Have you got that picture? Can
you see that picture? Do you understand what it is
I'm saying? You may not believe it, but can you at least understand
it? Now let's look at verse 16, Revelation 17, 16. and the ten horns which thou
sawest upon the beast, we know what those are, those are kings,
leaders, these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate
and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Wow, what a change in attitude. What a change in attitude. They
were caring her. They were loving her. They were in union with her.
What happened? What a change in attitude. Those
who once carried the whore now hate her guts. What happens to those who give
in to the harlot? He tells us over in the book
of Proverbs. Solomon said, And he said this, by the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost, they go as an ox to the slaughter. And they go as a fool to the
correction of stocks. And again, he said, God's Word
is a light to keep them from the evil woman. For by means
of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread.
He loses everything. They've got nothing left. And
some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. What this verse is talking about
in Revelation 17, 16 are governments and people bearing the judgment
of their association with this great whore. That's what this
is talking about. Judgment has come. Judgment has
come. And those who harden their hearts
to the word of God and the warnings of His ambassadors, God will
also harden as He did Pharaoh, so that when judgment comes,
it's too late. It's too late. What about the flood of Noah?
Men hardened their hearts to Noah. They thought he was a crazy
old man. Have you heard what that old
man preaching down there flooded? It's never even rained. He's
talking about it raining for 40 days and 40 nights. We don't
even know what rain is. Ain't even a word in our language
for rain. Crazy old man, he's crazy. What
he's talking about everybody don't get on the ark, gonna be
destroyed. Nobody from the beginning of
time ever preached any such a thing. Crazy old Noah until the rain
came. Then it's too late. Too late. Don't you know that that crowd
of people who listened to those false prophets who just lambasted
old Noah and turned to people to listen to them, don't you
know in that day they despised those false prophets? They despise
false religion. Or what about the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah? What about that? What about the
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD? Millions of people destroyed.
And what about the destruction of millions of individuals whose
judgment balls upon them without any way
back to you escape if we neglect so great salvation you're not
going to stay you're not going to get the angels didn't escape
sodom and gomorrah didn't escape the world didn't escape you're
not going to stay there's only one way out that's christ but this is this is talking about
unbelievers in the day when it's too late Esau repented, but it was too
late. And it wasn't a true repentance.
He just saw he got caught. And that's the sorrow of this
world. Judas Iscariot drank of the golden cup of the harlot.
He drank of it. Oh, he relished his 30 pieces
of silver, and then he relished his traitorly friendship with
the priest. Oh, how he thought, boy, I'm
somebody now. I'm somebody. I'm with the end
crowd now until it's too late. When judgment came, he took those
30 pieces of silver and threw it down at the feet of the priest,
and then he went out and hung himself. All association with the harlot
is going to end badly. It's going to end badly. I'm
telling you, I warned my children. I warned your children. I warned
you. All association with this harlot is going to end badly.
And there's going to be an inward hatred for her. And it's going
to come upon all those and pass upon all those who follow after
her. You know, I get the idea. I had
a brother who just wanted no part of religion. I don't know
what turned him so sharply against religion, but he despised it. And he used to say to me, because
he knew I was getting ready to tell him something, he'd just
cut me off, and this is what he'd say to me, I'll have plenty
of good friends in hell. No, you won't. You won't have
any friends. You won't have any friends. There's
no fellowship there. There's no blessing there. There's
no goodness there. I'm trying to remember the verse
that Paul used to describe men. But anyway, in that verse, he
said at one time, this is where you were hating one another. Hating one another. That's what
he'll be. Revelation 17, 17, now watch
this. For God hath put it in their
hearts to fulfill His will and to agree and to give their kingdom
unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And
that's how it's gonna be. That's how it's gonna be. Oh,
how attractive Sodom must have been to Lot. He'd spent his life with his
uncle, under his uncle's wing. His uncle this and his uncle
that, and poor old Lot, nobody even knew his name. He was the
nephew of a great man. And all of a sudden there began
to be some words, some sharp words, between the herdsmen and
Abraham said, well, maybe it's better we just split up. You
go your way, I'll go mine. And he said, now you choose what
you want. Oh, he said, I want that well-watered
plain. That's where I'm going. How sweet
Sodom and Gomorrah must have looked to him. Every advantage
in the world down there, prosperity, water, food, Good cooks, good
schools, all the potential in the world down there in Sodom.
But there wasn't no gospel down in Sodom. The gospel's up on
the mountain. But he went down there anyway. And in the end, he came out of
that city being scorched by the very fire which destroyed it. And now see, he's living in a
cave. And his two ignorant daughters
getting him drunk and lying with him to reproduce what God had
just destroyed. That's why they hate the harlot.
Now I'm telling you, any association you have with religion, I know
they look sympathetic and you think, well, they're doing a
few good things and you just want... You better not. You better know. A man who's experienced the judgment
of God upon his religious association with the harlot hates her with
a passion. But until that judgment comes,
they'll fulfill the will of God in their perdition and they'll
give their kingdom unto the beast. Now you can bring that down on
an individual level too. He gives his submission to the
beast. He gives himself to the beast.
All right, Revelation 17, 18. And the woman which thou sawest
is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Now, this verse here is just a summation of everything I've
been teaching over the last two or three weeks. So I don't see
any point in going on and on and on with it. But this is that
great city, that city which represents all false religion. and its effects
upon men, Sodom and Babylon, that great city which reigneth
over the kings of the earth. Now, Brother Don, in his book
on Revelation, summed this chapter up with four things. And I thought
these four things might be good for you to hear. And this should
be what the believer takes away from all these lessons throughout
this chapter. First of all, that the Lord our
God is absolutely, 100% sovereign over all things. Over everything that is. You
know, men like to say, well, yeah, yeah, we give him power
over it. No, you don't. No, you don't.
He's Lord of the dead and the living. And David said he proved that.
He proved that in the beginning when he created the world. He
spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
Who do you know has power to do that? He's sovereign. He made everything you see out
of nothing. He had nothing to work with,
just his will. But that's sufficient. He's absolutely sovereign over
all things, and he's in complete control at all times and over
all things. There was no time in Egypt, none,
when Pharaoh or his army did anything contrary to the will
of God. You know, when it was all said
and done, that the Lord told Moses, he said, even for this
same purpose have I raised him up, show my power, in him. And in Romans chapter 9, when
Paul is going to have something to say and nail it down with
the Old Testament scriptures about God's sovereignty, that's
what he went back and chose, what God said about Pharaoh.
And each time the Lord gave Moses the words to speak to Pharaoh,
He also told him what Pharaoh would do and how he would react. And even so, it is It's the same
with individuals and with kingdoms. Those who will not heed his warnings
or bow to his redemptive will will do his will concerning their
own destruction. He'll give them up, it says in
1 Thessalonians. No, I'm not quoting the right
verse. Second Thessalonians chapter 2, it said, he'll give them over
to believe a lie and be damned for believing it. In Romans chapter
9 verse 21, Paul said, if not the potter power over the clay,
the same lump to make one vessel under honor and another under
dishonor, what if God willing to show his wrath and to make
his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction? Their end shall secure a purpose,
as shall their lives and the lives that they live. God will
endure them as he did the Egyptians for his elect's sake, and then
he'll destroy them. In the meantime, God's elect,
they'll eat the food that the world produces. God uses them
to feed you. You go down to the grocery store
and buy just about anything you want. Well, who raises them? Is God's elect raising that food?
No. No, this world is. While they think they're making
fortunes with all their businesses and markets and all that, they're
just serving God's elect is what they're doing. Esau was a rich
man. He was a rich man. But he served
Jacob, didn't he? God's elect will eat the food
they raise, and they'll sit in the chairs that they manufacture,
and they'll ride in the cars that they make, and they'll wear
the clothes that this world sews. Our God is sovereign over all
things and is in complete control at all times and in all things. The second thing that God's children
should take away from these verses is that popular opinion is no
indication of the will of God. These two beasts represent the
whole world. And what's the first thing that
comes to your friends' minds when you begin to tell them,
when I ask you, well, where do you go to church? Well, I go
to church over there. Well, what do y'all preach? Well, we preach
the sovereign God, the God of election, the God of predestination. god of particular redemption
and election the god who saveth whom he will or what do your friends say about
that i don't know anybody else that believes that these two beasts represent the
whole world and here's john the apostle and i want you to hear
what he had to say in first john chapter five verse nineteen He
said, and we know that we are of God, now listen, and the whole
world lieth in wickedness. Do you believe that? That's what
God said. This is no indication of the
will of God or of the truth of God. The vast majority of this
world will always be contrary to the truth, always will. He
said, if you were of the world, this is what our Lord said to
his disciples. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But you're not of the world.
I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hateth you. The whole world, every unregenerate
man and woman, contribute in some way to carry and promote
the harlot. And don't you ever think that
because the multitude believe something and do something that
they're right and in harmony with the redemptive purpose of
God. They're as far from it as you
can get. And I'll tell you this, the gospel
never comes by popular opinion or through the overwhelming majority.
All through these verses, the enemies of grace are set before
us in a universal agreement. It's set forth in the universal
agreement of individuals and of nations and of the religion
of this world, all of them in harmony with one another. The
church and the church alone is the pillar and ground of the
truth. And through his local churches and evangelists and
pastor teachers, his gospels carried into all the world. And then thirdly, here's the
third thing I want you to take away from these studies that
we've had, is that those who have ears to hear, is that no
matter how overwhelming the odds, no matter how universal their
doctrine, no matter how evil their intentions, God's elect
are secure at all times. They're secure at all times. Daniel was as secure in that
lion's den as he was when he sat at his desk with the job
that the king gave him. He was just as secure in the
lion's den. The three Hebrew children were
just as secure inside that very furnace as they were before they
went in. I don't know what people think
about this, but God's grace is not a powerless passion that
God expresses toward men. That's not the grace of God.
They call the grace of God being gracious. It's not a passion. It's not a feeling that God has. But it's a reigning principle
that cannot fail, the grace of God. As sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. It's a reigning principle. We say, I don't understand that.
Well, let me see if I can explain it to you. The thing that makes
God God is his character. It's his attributes. God is omnipotent. That means he's all-powerful.
But God is not just omnipotent. He's also all-wise, all-knowing. all seeing. He's just, but he's
merciful and he's gracious. And so when we talk about the
grace of God, we don't pull grace out from God and this is sitting
out here all by itself. No, that grace comes with omnipotence. Now that makes it sovereign grace. You see what I'm saying? Now it's sovereign love, hell's
sovereign love. It's almighty love, it's almighty
grace. Each one of these attributes
have all the attributes of God working behind them. You see
what I'm saying? And that's why they can't fail. God is immutable, so now it's
immutable grace. It's unchangeable grace. God told Moses, he said, I appeared
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty.
But by my name, Jehovah, was I not known to them. What's Jehovah
mean? That has to do with God our Savior,
Jehovah. And then he attacked some 14
different things concerning the character of God to that name
Jehovah. I'll give you just a couple.
Jehovah Sid Canoe, the Lord, our righteousness. Jehovah Helion, The Lord, most
high. Jehovah, shalom, the Lord, our
peace, and on and on the list go. You see what I'm saying? You don't, it's pulling at, God
is love. Yes, he is. But it's a just love,
because he's also just. And it's a righteous love, because
he's also righteous. And God's not gonna love anybody
to the expense of his righteousness. Everybody God loves has satisfied
all these other attributes. Every attribute of God works
in harmony with his grace so that his grace is sovereign grace,
unchangeable, righteous, merciful, and kind, all wise and sufficient
grace. So God's saints are secure at
all times, being kept by the power of His grace. And then
the fourth thing I hope you'll take away from these lessons
is that the religion of this world will prove in the end to
be empty, frustrating, and loathsome to all who have participated
in it and promoted it and practiced it. We're told that religion
cries, peace, peace, where there is no peace. So you're going
to come out before God thinking, well, I've made my peace with
God. You did, but he didn't make his
peace with you. You made a covenant with death,
and with hell, you're at agreement. But that overflowing scourge
is going to carry that away. Religion helps you to build a
cistern, but it's a broken cistern. It can hold no water. They provide a refuge. but it
can't withstand the overflowing skirt. In the end, be it your
end or the end of time, there'd be nothing but hatred and animosity
for that kind of religion. Men and women who have rebelled
in religion and wickedness and worldly riches, they expect to
find friends and friendship and fellowship in hell, but they
won't find any. all they're going to find is
animosity and hatred for that religion that they gave themselves
to. Now the Lord willing, we'll begin
a new chapter next week, but this chapter is still along these
same lines of God's judgment of the evil woman and how that she deceived them
by pretense and by her appearance. And I hope before I'm finished
with this book, you'll see this world for what it is, and religion
for what it is, and stay away from it. Get as far away from
it as you can. And don't be sucked into it.
And I hope, too, that you'll see what a great and glorious
salvation it is that calls us out of this darkness into his
marvelous light and saves them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him. Thank you.