Alright, let's take our Bibles
now and turn to Revelation chapter 17. You've found your place. I'd
like for you to follow me as we read through these first five
verses. And then I'll go back and make
some comments on the verses. Revelation 17 verse 1. And there came one of the seven
angels, which had the seven vows, 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, with whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the
spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sit upon a
scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven
heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet color. and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations
and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman, drunken
with the blood of saints and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered
with great admiration." Now, almost every writer that I read
said that that's one of those unfortunate words used in interpretation,
which sometimes I know it has a meaning, and probably a good
meaning, but it doesn't really carry the heart of it. What he's
saying here is he wondered with great astonishment. He was astonished
at what he saw. Now the first thing I want to
call your attention to is that this vision is about the judgment,
the judgment of God upon the great whore. And I won't say
this as clear as I know how and hope this image is burned into
your hearts so that every time that you're confronted with it,
this vision will come up into your mind. The great whore is a picture
of false religion. Whenever you see someone who
denies the gospel of God's grace, preaches something other than
the sovereign grace of God in Christ. You see somebody who
talks about God but not according as he reveals himself in the
scriptures and in his son, that's false religion. And people who
promote him and follow him and go and listen to him, that's
false religion. That's the great whore. It's
the spirit of antichrist. It's the great whore. and she's
under the judgment of God. She parades around professing
herself to be a righteous woman. That's how she appeared. Paul
describes her in Romans 10.3 as being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish her own righteousness and has
not submitted herself under the righteousness of God for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. person said well I'm a believer
but they're going about trying to establish their own righteousness.
You're not a believer. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. Everyone that
believes. He didn't leave anybody out,
did he? There's some things to know that
identifies you as a believer. There's some things that God
gives to a believer that he gives to no one else. And those marks identify him
as a child of God. And one of them is this. He understands
what the righteousness of God is because he's had that righteousness
imputed to him. And a knowledge given him of
that righteousness. and who wrought it out, and why,
and what it's for. And then he tells us this about
this great whore, what she calls worship, God the Holy Spirit
calls fornication. Now, I won't let that sink in. Are they down there dancing this
morning in a pretense? Or dancing being deceived? And
singing, when the roll called up yonder, I'll be there. I'll fly away. They're singing
all these songs. But what they're calling worship,
God calls fornication. Now just let that sink in. When they built the groves high
in the mountains and planted gardens and built monuments and
an altar there, and they went up to worship God. God said they
went up to fornicate, not to worship. That's what he said,
and told them not to do it. Solomon, he said to his children,
he said, make wisdom thy sister. He said, you get close with wisdom. Make wisdom thy sister, that
she might keep thee from the strange woman. That's the great
hope. And what men and women in the
world call worship, prayer, and praise, God calls fornication.
And this woman John was made to see is the mother of harlots. This is where they come from.
This is where they learn to do what they do. She's the mother
of harlots because she is the embodiment of all idolatry and
false worship and false doctrine in the world. And then he tells us that she
sitteth upon many waters. What on earth does that mean?
Well, he tells us what it means. Look down at verse 15. John said,
and he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and
tongues. That's where she sits. Where
does she sit? All over the world. She sits
in the nation. She sits in the multitudes. That's
where she works. And that's where subtlety is
exercised. And then thirdly, he shows us
something about her power. Verse 2. With whom the kings
of the earth have committed fornication. This spiritual whore, this great
whore of religion. She draws even the kings of the
earth into her chambers. And the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So that
her influence and power entered into every part of the world
from the highest, the kings, the princes. Our Lord said this. He said, These things were hidden
even from the princes of this world, for if they knew, if they
knew, even the princes of this world, if they knew, they would
not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Even the kings and princes
of this world have been drawn into her chambers. How does she lure them into her
house? Well, she makes them drunk in
a special wine. the wine of her fornication.
He said, she's made them drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Well, what in the world is that? Well, if you want to, you can
turn with me over to Proverbs chapter 7, and he gives us a
very clear picture of what that wine is. I'm not going to quote
these verses, but I'm going to tell you what they're talking
about. She begins in Proverbs 7, 7 by finding a young man void
of understanding. Ignorant. He doesn't know any
better. He doesn't know when he goes
into her house, he's going in there to worship. He's going
in there to turn over a new leaf. He's going in there to serve
God because that's what his daddy told him to do. He's ignorant. Well, who's that talking about?
Listen to me. There's none that understandeth,
huh? As every person in this world. None that understandeth. Here's a young man, he's bored
of understanding. That describes every natural
man and woman in this world. Secondly, she caught him in the
black and dark of night. Isn't that where we walk? Huh? Darkness. And he said, if that
light that be in thee be darkness, then how great is that darkness.
Darkness. She revealed herself, being subtle
of heart in the attire of a harlot. She makes herself attractive
to the base character of fallen men. That's what she does. She never, never gets in harmony
with the word of God or the spirit of God or the spirit of worship.
Everything that this spiritual whore does is to zero in on the
character and the lusts of fallen men. That's exactly the pride
of man. She zeroes right in on that.
But she never, never talks about the glory of God, the character
of God. That's not in her vocabulary.
That's not how she dresses. She wears the attire of a harlot,
and she's subtle of heart. Proverbs 7, verse 11, she's loud. She wouldn't take no for an answer.
Not going to let you get out that door. If she has to sing
59 verses of Just As I Am, you ain't going out that door till
you make a professional face. She's loud. She's loud. You can't tell her anything.
You talk to a man who's just sunken in religion. You try to
talk to him, you can't get three words out. He's right back. She's
loud. Verse 13, and she caught him. She caught him. What'd she do
with him? She kissed him. Verse 14. She made a pretense
of religion to him. She said, I've got peace offerings.
I've got just what you need. I know you're troubled. I know
your life's upside down. I know things are troubling you.
I know you've got a bad marriage. I know this and I know that.
But I got peace offerings. I can help you through it. I
can guide you. I got peace offerings. And then
listen to this. I paid my vows. Who paid them? She said she did. She did. I'm going to tell you
something. People know the Lord. They don't
talk about paying anything. They talk about receiving the
gift of God's grace. They don't have anything to pay
with. And then she takes him by the
arm and slowly walks into her room and shows him her bed. And what a bed it was. Decorated
with carved works tapestries and fine linen. And she perfumed her bed with
the finest spices. What's the bed? What's he talking
about here? Her bed. I think he's talking
about these churches up and down the land. That's the bedroom. That's where they go to commit
their spiritual fornication. Aren't they amazing? You go in there and they got
scents burning, incense burning, and they got, oh, it smells good. And you go in there and there's
tapestries and there's statues and there's flags and there's
no end to the visual aids inside that building. Brother Mahan
said this one time to me. Boy, it really went home. He
said, the less you have inside, the more you need outside. If
you don't have anything inside, then you need everything outside.
You need the statues and the flags and all of those things.
But if you know Christ inside, He's Christ our banner. We don't
need a flag flying on a flagpole. He's our banner. You see what
I'm saying? We don't need these statues.
We don't need these forms. And then verse, she pretends
to love him in verse 18. She pretends to love him. You
ever been around anybody religious that didn't act like that? They
just so full of love it's sicky. I remember we was all sittin'
around a table in a restaurant one time, and this fella, Henry
knew, had come down to hear him preach, but he was religious
as he could be. And Henry, I know I invited him,
he wanted him to eat. And he wasn't gonna let us eat
without prayin' in this restaurant. And when he got ready to pray,
he wanted everybody to hold hands. And he reached over and grabbed
Henry's hand, and Henry threw his hand down. He said, I don't
hold hands with men. what he told him. But she pretends, she's got a
pretense of love. And in verse 21, with her much
fair speech she caused him to yield, and with the flattering
of her lips she forced him. This is the wine of the harlot.
First she gets you drunk on her wine, then she lures you into
her room, and then she takes you. gently forces you. That's religion. All right, here's
the next thing I want you to see. Revelation 17, verse three. So he, that is the minister,
carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. I'm gonna
tell you something about the spirit of God. If I don't get
back to my notes, that's gonna be just fine. I'm gonna tell
you something about the spirit of God. When the Spirit of God
is given to a man, the first place he takes that man is into
the wilderness. He lets you discover that your
heart is nothing but a wilderness. There's nothing out there. Apart
from the grace of God, just like Israel in that wilderness, there'd
be no water unless God caused the rock to spring forth and
shed that water. The smitten rock. There's not
going to be any food unless God rains it down from heaven. The
wilderness ain't where you go to hunt rabbits. There's nothing
out there but serpents and scorpions and everything out there will
stick you, stab you, or bite you. That's not the place where
you go for food, but that's where the Spirit of God takes you.
He takes you there first to show you what's in your heart. Nothing. That's what's in there. It's
nothing but a big black hole. And people get so despondent
and they get so depressed and all of these things in religion
because they're looking in there for that spark of goodness that
that preacher told them was in there and it's not in there. The Spirit of God took John out
to the wilderness. And I'm going to tell you something
else. Wherever this whore builds her house, it becomes a wilderness. It becomes a wilderness. Ain't
nothing there. And you can write this down.
Wherever false religion gains popularity and acceptance, a
moral decline and corruption is going to follow. Just write
it down. Her cup is always the same. The
old harlot has just one cup. And it's always filled with the
same head-spinning wine of free will and self-righteous works
religion. That's what's in it. And people
crave it. And she says, here, get a drink.
And I get a drink. Give me another one. We want
more. She thrives in the wilderness.
The more barren it is, the better she likes it. All right, Revelation
17, 3. And I saw a woman sit upon a
scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven
heads and ten horns. Has God in the Holy Spirit ever
carried you out into the wilderness? And when you look inside that
wilderness of the heart, that you saw that false religion,
huh? Boy, I tell you, I'll never forget
the first time he opened my heart to see what my religion that
I was raised in was. All that, all those fond memories
of coming down the aisle and making professions of faith and
people bragging on you and all that stuff, fornication. I go back and look, and John
said, here it is. There's nothing out there but
the whore. That's where she lives. That's where she sits. And she's arrayed in purple and
scarlet color, and she's decked with gold and precious stones,
verse 4. and pearls having a golden cup
in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.
The Church of Christ is never depicted in this way. They've
always dressed in white robes and fine linen and standing before
the throne. That's how he describes his people. Everybody else describes it just
the way this great whore is. Having no righteousness imputed
to her, the old harlot must choose her own wardrobe. How many times
have I heard preachers in the past, I'm talking about it back
in religion, back in false religion, I've heard them talk, choose
you this day whom you'll serve. We had one old man that wore
that out. And I wondered from the first
time I heard him say it, I wondered if he ever went back and read
the verse to see what it says. You know what the verse says? He said, if God be God, is he? If God be God, that is, The God
who reveals himself in Holy Scripture, if this is your God, then serve
him. But if not, if your God is not
the God of Scripture, if your God is not sovereign and holy
and righteous and just, if this is not your God, then choose
you this day whom you'll serve. You can pick whichever one you
want. You can be a Pentecostal, Nazarene,
Baptist, it don't matter. You can go follow Father Divine,
it's all the same thing. It's all false religion, so if
this God is not your God, then you choose this day whom you'll
serve. Now if God is your God, he's your God because he chose
you. Is that right? And she held in her hand this
golden cup. Oh, it was a beautiful cup. It
was. It was a beautiful cup. It was
an expensive cup. It was pure gold. No doubt it
was personalized in whatever was tooled upon it. It was a
personal cup she had. Won't you make Jesus your personal
Savior? It's a personal cup. But no matter how pure the cup
was or how expensive or how precious, all it held was abominations
and filthiness and fornication. That's what was in it. People look at the cup and never
think about what's in it. They just drink it. Well, it
has to be something great to be in a cup like that. No. No. No, it don't. The fact is, you
know where he puts his treasures? In clay pots. not golden cups,
clay pots. When Christ come into this world,
Isaiah said there's no beauty in him that we should desire
in him. God took all his glory and put it in a clay pot. You
ever think about that? Put it in a clay pot. When he
saves a man and calls that man to preach, you know what he does
with all this multitude of heavenly treasure? Puts it in a clay pot.
You know why he does it? that he might get all the glory.
Huh? She didn't have a clay pot, she
had a golden cup. She had a golden cup. I watched folks up in Washington,
D.C. as they ooed and aahed over the
National Cathedral and not one among them knew what was inside
or what went on inside that building. Revelation 17, 5. And upon her
forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. The harlot has
a name. You know what her name is? Mystery. Mystery. What's that mean? Well, in 2 Thessalonians 2, speaking
of the spirit of Antichrist in particular, Paul said, for the
mystery of iniquity doth already work. Mystery Babylon is already
working. He's already working. So what
is this mystery of iniquity? The mystery of iniquity is the
cause of it. Did you know that's a mystery
to men? If you've ever witnessed to a man, you know it's a mystery
to him. He don't understand what you're saying. You mean God cursed
me and Adam? That's exactly what I mean. Well,
I don't believe that. I ain't never heard that before. That's because it's a mystery.
It's a mystery. The mystery of iniquity is the
cause of it. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. Sin is the result of the fall
of Adam, and as a whole forest can have its beginning in a single
acorn, so sin has its beginning in your father Adam. It was passed
to you. Secondly, the mystery of iniquity
is in the nature of it. Why thought sin is what you did?
Well, it is. But why did you do it? Because
sin dwelleth in you. That's why. Paul said the Gentiles, all they
had was conscience and creation. Now that's enough. God's going
to judge you according to the light you have, not the light
you don't have. And they had the light of conscience
and creation, and it left them without excuse before the judgment
of God. But the Jews, they had great
advantage. They had the prophets. They had
all of these things. And some even saw Christ come
into the world and witnessed the miracles that He did. And then Paul said, well, is
there a difference? No, not in any wise. He said in Romans chapter three,
there are no difference because we have before proved that both
Jew and Gentile are all under sin. Now, if you have a nature
of sin, and you not being born again of God, that nature of
sin dictates everything you do, even your religion. That's right. That's a mystery, isn't it? You
got any unsaved relatives that know that? No, they don't know
that. Why? I'm clean as a houndstooth.
I quit all that stuff. I joined the church. It's the nature of it. Paul accurately
describes Adam's fallen children in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3,
tells us that we're dead in trespasses and sins and had the sentence
of death in us so that we walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit who now worketh in the children of disobedience. So
then, we were by nature children of wrath, even as others. By
nature. That's a mystery to men. They
don't understand that. I'm born, I come forth from the
womb, speaking lies. They don't understand that. That's
a mystery. The mystery of iniquity is the
nature of it. And then thirdly, the mystery
of iniquity is how Satan works in fallen men to practice sin
and promote sin in the practice of false religion. That's a mystery. You mean those folks down there
at the First Baptist Church are committing some kind of spiritual
fornication? You mean they're in there practicing
sin and they're preaching? That's exactly what I mean. And I'm gonna tell you something,
the only way you can tell them the truth is to tell them the
truth. You can't sneak a little medicine in the milk, you have
to tell them. Same way somebody told you. The Lord brought this accusation
against one of the most religious, seminary trained, clean living
people in the world, the Pharisees. And here's what he told them.
He said, ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your
father you will do. We love God. He said, if you
love God, you love me. I proceeded forth and came from
God. You don't love God, you love
your God. Sin of religion is the bottom
of the barrel. Why? Because it sins with the
Bible in your hand. That's why. Sin's wearing the robe of a priest. And because it disregards the
purpose of God, the Son of God, His accomplished redemption and
His imputed righteousness, totally ignores it. Because it deceives
men and women by a pretense of godliness, They have a form of
godliness, Paul said, but denying the power thereof. And the great
whore proudly displays her name, Mystery Babylon the Great. And lastly, the mystery of iniquity
is practiced in the works of deceived religionists. They do
what they do to be seen of men. They never do what they do for
the glory of God, never. They do what they do to establish
a righteousness of their own, and they do what they do to be
accepted of God. There's some folks at judgment
our Lord talked about, and he said, here they are. God has
pronounced them guilty. God has rejected all their works. And here they are, and they're
going like this before God. Wait a minute. We preached in
your name. We did many wonderful works in
your name. He said, depart from me ye workers
of iniquity. Huh? They did good works, Russell. They preached in his name. They
thought. What did they actually do? Workers
of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you. She's the mother of harlots and
the abominations of the earth. We'll take this up from here
next week. Thank you.