SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and it's my joy and privilege to be leading us through Revelation chapter 17 today.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to turn there in your Bibles or swipe there on your devices, uh that will be helpful and you'll be able to navigate this.
SPEAKER_00: This is an amazing chapter.
SPEAKER_00: It's action-packed, it's image overflowing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some of it's pretty graphic.
SPEAKER_00: So, parents, uh just a heads up there.
SPEAKER_00: And um it ultimately leads us to an amazing hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So, one of the reasons we call our study of Revelation the Hope of Glory, because it gives us a clearer vision of God's truth, a greater faith in his power, and a more confident assurance of God's love for us.
SPEAKER_00: And uh here at the Village Chapel, uh, as most of you know, we are seeking to cultivate such a deep and satisfying relationship in God that we nurture confidence in Christ, we stir up hope in Christ, and we rest more fully in the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So whether you're happy, sad, whether you're wealthy or poor, um, whether you're healthy or not, um, whether you're confused or confident or just deluded about the whole political thing.
SPEAKER_00: All of what's going on in our world, notwithstanding, we've come to the book of Revelation because it takes us up higher to the 60,000-foot view, the eternal perspective, if you will, to be able to see things differently and to not feel like we're owned uh or obsessed with what's going on right here in this little snapshot of human history.
SPEAKER_00: All of those categories can sometimes be important, uh, but they take a back seat in our hearts and minds uh as we seek to cultivate an unshakable confidence in Christ and to delight in him so that he just fills us with his inexhaustible joy.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he is better than anything else life can offer us, and he is better than anything death can take away from us.
SPEAKER_00: So, in short, Revelation is telling us that Jesus and Jesus alone is our hope in life and in death.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 17 today.
SPEAKER_00: Chapters 17, 18, and 19 form kind of a little bit of a triptych, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Um, they take a look at the final judgment against the world system.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be characterized or portrayed in a couple of different ways.
SPEAKER_00: So you need to, you know, track with me here.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's helpful to have your Bible open in front of you as you study.
SPEAKER_00: And uh the world system simply means in New Testament uh terminology, it just means the way the world thinks and acts apart from God, as if God doesn't exist or as if God does exist but doesn't matter, which is worse.
SPEAKER_00: Um we've gone through the seven cycles of uh uh the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and we've gone through the seven bowls of God's wrath, uh, bowls, cups, vials, goblets.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's called several different things in different English translations.
SPEAKER_00: But the idea is that his wrath was poured out, and we now are taking a uh a closer look at what happened in between the sixth and seventh bowl as it was poured out.
SPEAKER_00: And this will be a more uh focused description of the uh the final destruction of the great Babylon and and uh uh that concentration of effort and uh against God and and uh resources set against God and affections turned away from God.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh this is like I said, this is an amazing chapter.
SPEAKER_00: The last six chapters of Revelation, I'll throw this up on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the last six chapters break down to two themes: the final destruction of the world system, which has set itself against uh Jesus, against God and his Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so that we'll we'll see that in 17, 18, and 19, and last half of 19 and on through to the end.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we'll also see the final destiny of those who have given themselves to the worship of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So without any further ado, join me in chapter 17 of Revelation, which could be subtitled if you wanted to, The Tale of Two Cities, but I think maybe that title's already taken.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but this kind of is.
SPEAKER_00: See if you can identify the two cities as we go.
SPEAKER_00: And as we, by the way, as we read along too, this chapter overflows with these signs.
SPEAKER_00: Uh remember, the signs and symbols are not the point.
SPEAKER_00: Um they exist to point to the point.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we read about the signs and the symbols and that sort of thing, uh, please understand.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna focus, get so focused on that that we that we can't, you know, actually see what their main point is.
SPEAKER_00: Well, anyway, verse one, chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I'll show you the judgment of the great harlot or prostitute who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.
SPEAKER_00: And so you already have a collection of things happening here and metaphors.
SPEAKER_00: And uh uh you have uh you have this great prostitute, this great harlot who will be compared and contrasted in in chapter 21 with the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible so often uh teaches us some of its best lessons by way of contrast.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did that a lot himself and uh uh parables that he used, for instance, where parable is almost like laying one side along, one thing alongside another to make a point.
SPEAKER_00: And uh here we have uh this angel, uh the one with the one of the seven bulls, coming and saying to John the apostle, hey, hey, come with me, come with me.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I I don't know about you, but I'd be, if I knew that that's who was coming toward me, I'd be a little bit nervous, a little bit afraid.
SPEAKER_00: But he has been, uh John has been so uh a part of this whole thing now for so long that his mind is already blown, his eyes are already popping out of his head, his heart has been thumping so long that he is uh filled with wonder and responding in worship.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the point of the book is.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's not meant to make us worry about the future, it's not a prophetic puzzle, jigsaw puzzle for you to figure out.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a, as we've said, it's not a numerical code, the burdens on you to figure out.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not the case.
SPEAKER_00: This book is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so the idea is that we would get a greater, clearer vision of who he is and uh and the wonders of his love toward us.
SPEAKER_00: So here, the angel takes John and says, Come along with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you something about the judgment that's gonna come against all of those who have fought against God and resisted God.
SPEAKER_00: He carried me away in the spirit, verse three says, into a wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's this woman.
SPEAKER_00: She's she's she's sitting on this uh uh scarlet beast.
SPEAKER_00: We've already met one of those in chapter 12, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was the the the uh uh the the beast who was really also later in that chapter called the Satan, the great dragon.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here she is, this uh great harlot, great prostitute, um riding on this uh this horrible-looking creature with seven heads and ten horns.
SPEAKER_00: And the woman, in contrast, was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality.
SPEAKER_00: And it just shows us uh we see this in apocalyptic literature, and uh, this is you know, revelation is this combination of apocalyptic, prophetic, and and uh epistolary literature.
SPEAKER_00: So you got a letter that's got prophecy in it, and it's also got unveiling or or unfolding of things we could never possibly know on our own.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's what revelation means.
SPEAKER_00: And and what we see here is that she's mimicking in her clothing, and uh we'll see this all of the forces of evil attempting to mimic what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, she's mimicking by wearing the kind of garments and adorning herself in the kind of way that uh the priests in God's temple would have adorned themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and yet she wants to have everything her own way, and you'll see just how vicious and horrible she is.
SPEAKER_00: The beast is just covered in blasphemous names.
SPEAKER_00: He's got seven heads, ten horns, and and uh this is just horrible.
SPEAKER_00: Well, on her forehead, we get a little more detail, verse five, there's a name written.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've seen this before, too, that that some people are marked by the mark of the beast, some people are marked with the name of the lamb and the name of his father.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this sense in which this metaphor is is one of ownership and possession and belonging to.
SPEAKER_00: And so she has written on her forehead Babylon the Great, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon, the ancient city of Babylon, the ancient kingdom of Babylon, will be mentioned six times, I think, in the book of Revelation, but over 200 times throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And it really stands for something, it symbolizes the um the city of this world, if you will, and its inhabitants.
SPEAKER_00: And they they they bear the mark of the beast, they belong to the beast, and uh almost with you know, almost proudly so, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Well, she wears Babylon the Great.
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of like she's got her, you know, her favorite sports team uh bandana on there.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, it says on there, and the and of the abominations of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so everything unholy, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's what she's proud about.
SPEAKER_00: That's what she's bragging about wearing here on her forehead, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Um John goes on in verse six, and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.
SPEAKER_00: And I like it when he stops every now and then to tell us uh what his response is to what he's seeing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's stopping now.
SPEAKER_00: This is so hideous and so grotesque, what he's seeing.
SPEAKER_00: It's so evil, it's so dark that he stops.
SPEAKER_00: It shuts him down, and he's quietly wondering.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember the only thing I've ever experienced in my own life that was close to that is coming out of the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem for the first time, and the second time, and the third time, and the fourth time, and the fifth time.
SPEAKER_00: And every single time, just shut down and silent, heartbroken, wondering how could we get it so wrong?
SPEAKER_00: We meaning humanity.
SPEAKER_00: How could we have such a capacity for depravity like that and for darkness?
SPEAKER_00: And here, this great harlot on this red dragon, um, proudly talking about what owns her, and having drank or drunk, however you want to say, the blood of the saints and of the followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you just have to think for a minute about how John saw that and how he could tell she was drunk, he could tell she had drank some of this.
SPEAKER_00: It must have just been coming out of her mouth, she must have regurgitated some of whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And in her own drunken stupor, even though she's got all these jewels and all this adorned garments and riding on this hideous-looking monstrous beast, he can tell what she's all about.
SPEAKER_00: It's so obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it shuts him down because he is drawn to the place of wonder.
SPEAKER_00: How could it get this dark?
SPEAKER_00: How could it possibly get that bad?
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes in our own day and time, you've probably thought to yourself, this world has gone nuts.
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe how dark it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe how we're so caught up in human trafficking.
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe how we um think we can buy and sell and trade a human person.
SPEAKER_00: How can we, how have we gotten that dark?
SPEAKER_00: How is it the Holocaust could happen?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that we um could demean and diminish each other so much just based on the color of our skin?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that we uh so reject uh any any kind of civility toward one another during the day and time in which we're the season that we're in right now in our own country?
SPEAKER_00: Um how can we be so arrogant?
SPEAKER_00: Arrogance is not attractive on anybody.
SPEAKER_00: And yet sometimes I feel like we're just wearing it like a headband because we go online and we post our treatment and we're just all so self-righteous, and we all think we can slam dunk a very complex situation with a very simple sort of retort.
SPEAKER_00: God forgive us for allowing that kind of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to stop down and wonder about it once in a while, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That would be great.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the angel responds to John in his moment of wondering, and the angel asks a question.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you wonder?
SPEAKER_00: So that you know, I've said this before, but all of the questions asked by Jesus, by God the Father, by the Holy Spirit, by the agents from heaven, they're all rhetorical.
SPEAKER_00: They're all meant to make us think.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I wanted to stop and talk about why he wondered.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I wonder why I don't wonder a little bit more about my capacity for depravity, my penchant for self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you wonder?
SPEAKER_00: The angel says to John, I'll tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.
SPEAKER_00: So the angel is is saying, senses that John's just sitting there, just dumbfounded and in silence, wondering about.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you what's going on here, John, is what the angel basically says.
SPEAKER_00: And then the angel goes on like this the beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so there's another mimicking of the actions of God, like the great harlot who wearing the priestly uh, you know, adornments and garments.
SPEAKER_00: Here, here's the here's this beast that thinks that it's it was, is not, and is about to come up.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of like Jesus when you say he was walking the planet, then when he crucified and buried, he he was not any longer.
SPEAKER_00: And then whoop, he got back up.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, look at that, he's resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, though, the angel says that this beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss again, is going to go to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So while it may be mimicking and parodying, you know, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, um, its fate, its doom is set.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's fate is sealed.
SPEAKER_00: And the angels telling John that those who dwell on the earth will wonder, um, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that he was and is not, and will come.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they're going to be fooled by his being here, not being here, and then coming back from the abyss, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Even though ultimately his fate is sealed, there will be people that he will sway, this beast will sway with his mimicking or his parody of what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Here is the man, here's the mind, rather, which has wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And that's, I love that.
SPEAKER_00: That's always makes me want to sit up straight.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm uh excited.
SPEAKER_00: Our men's retreat is is uh going to be from the book of James, which tells us so clearly that if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men generously.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so we'll we'll take a look at what it means to uh to seek and uh and be hungry for the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the mind which has wisdom, the angel says to John, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
SPEAKER_00: And they are seven kings.
SPEAKER_00: Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: When he comes, he must remain a little while.
SPEAKER_00: So, man, this is like a flurry of metaphors and wait a minute, I thought you said that was this.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, you know, and you find yourself kind of going, Hold on, hold on, that's going too fast.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's like a little, you know, tornado on your patio, and all the leaves are getting caught up on it.
SPEAKER_00: You you just can't really pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so here's here's what it is: seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
SPEAKER_00: They are seven kings, five have fallen.
SPEAKER_00: One is, the other has not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: When he comes, he must remain a little while.
SPEAKER_00: And the beast which was, verse 11, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And then the angels just remind him John again uh his fate is sealed.
SPEAKER_00: It's over.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And the ten horns, which you saw, are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So we got we got seven heads, and and we got we got a beast with seven heads and ten horns.
SPEAKER_00: Um we we got a beast that was, is not, and is gonna be, but then is doomed to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Um the ten horns, which is our ten kings.
SPEAKER_00: And so we got we got horns, we got heads, we got we got kings, we got you know, beasts, and we got this this great harlot.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a lot of images.
SPEAKER_00: It's a flurry of them, right?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12: the ten horns, which is our ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: So evidently these are folks that are in waiting or or entities that are in waiting, and they're not yet sort of risen to the same level of authority.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they've not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.
SPEAKER_00: Again, just reminding us that in all of this, these uh these serpents are like a lizard on a leash.
SPEAKER_00: They they are they the these these devils are always on a leash.
SPEAKER_00: And God's the one who says, yeah, sets the boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: One hour.
SPEAKER_00: You got one hour, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So verse 13 kind of wraps up what's happening with all of those swirling metaphors and images, right?
SPEAKER_00: These have one purpose.
SPEAKER_00: All right, one.
SPEAKER_00: And they give their power and authority to the beast.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: So, this beast, who many commentators would say is the same entity as the Antichrist, this beast is going to receive their power and authority.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they're giving over to the beast, their power and authority, that they are acknowledging this beast as their Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They're this is essentially worshiping the Antichrist, worshiping the beast.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, look at that with me, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: These will wage war against the lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's um he's been called the Lion of Judah, the root of David, the Lamb who was slain.
SPEAKER_00: And it is that unique combination of all of those things that qualifies him to be our savior.
SPEAKER_00: He's the Lion of Judah who is always victorious, and his purposes are always victorious.
SPEAKER_00: His purposes are always accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: He's the root of David, he became one of us.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And he's the Lamb who was slain, slain for us, the ultimate Lamb of God, slain for us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh wow.
SPEAKER_00: To pay the price for our sins, so the wrath of God might be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: And he's also standing before the throne of God here.
SPEAKER_00: So he's alive again.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's the lamb who was slain.
SPEAKER_00: But who's alive again and who is gonna reign forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: So this um group, this collection of antichrists, if you will, and little sort of junior antichrists, wage war against the lamb and the lamb will overcome them.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just think about that for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: You don't think of lambs or sheep or you know, sort of fragile, uh uh vulnerable lambs.
SPEAKER_00: You would think typically you would think that way.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't think warrior, you know, lamb.
SPEAKER_00: I think earlier, a long time ago, I said like Rambo.
SPEAKER_00: This would be Lambo.
SPEAKER_00: This would be like, you know, you don't think of a sheep as going to war, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't think of a lamb as going to war, and yet here is the God of the Bible that just constantly does things that blow our mind and uh does things in ways that we would never have imagined.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is encouragement to you and to me, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because so often we would have done it differently, and yet God does it his own way, and God brings glory to himself and to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we worship, we end up worshiping the Lamb, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So here in contrast, those third in verse 13, all of those people had one purpose.
SPEAKER_00: They were following the Antichrist and the beasts, and they were worshiping, giving their power and authority over to the beast.
SPEAKER_00: And when all of the hosts that are set against God, all of those evil entities come in, verse 14, battle against the Lamb, the Lamb overcomes them because he's Lord of lords and King of kings.
SPEAKER_00: And those who are with him are the called and the chosen and the faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have those be the things that mark my resume, my spiritual resume.
SPEAKER_00: The called, the chosen, the faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Most of that is stuff that God does.
SPEAKER_00: Let me set your mind at ease.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a concurrence for me there.
SPEAKER_00: There's a bit that I'm called to.
SPEAKER_00: To be faithful to him, to love him, to worship him.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike, you know, this great harlot, the image of which conjures up the idea of sort of a commercial transactional relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike that, with the lamb and with the way this whole book ends, you see, we are the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And rather than paying money, making some kind of transaction happen, right?
SPEAKER_00: We love the groom.
SPEAKER_00: And uh the groom has given himself for us, and we just respond out of love, not out of being going through some transaction.
SPEAKER_00: This is just a powerful thing, but those who are with him with the Lamb are called and chosen and faithful.
SPEAKER_00: May that be said of all of us, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, this is still again the um angel speaking to John, the waters which you saw where the harlots where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
SPEAKER_00: And so even the water here is pointing to something other than itself.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's like this water, this vast sea of humanity, peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.
SPEAKER_00: And sadly, they've all been swayed to worship the beast, the Antichrist, to turn away from the gift of life and love that are on offer from the Lamb, and to turn toward the self-destructive, heinous, ugly, gory, hideous, self-obsessed kinds of creatures that are following the Antichrist and marked by the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: The ten horns which you saw and the beast.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the angel again speaking to John.
SPEAKER_00: These will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, I thought they were on the same side.
SPEAKER_00: They were.
SPEAKER_00: But there will be no friends in hell.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people jokingly say that sometimes they'll say, Oh, I guess I'm going to hell then, because all that's good, because all my friends will be there.
SPEAKER_00: There won't be any friends in hell.
SPEAKER_00: No one will be friends in hell.
SPEAKER_00: It will simply be one after another trying to assert themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Pride having its full reign, um, selfishness unleashed in its most vicious wickedness, completely untethered.
SPEAKER_00: Um, wow.
SPEAKER_00: And so they turn on her and they make her desolate, and they strip her of those robes that she was so proud of, thinking as she tried to mimic the priests, and they eat her flesh, they cannibalize.
SPEAKER_00: This is how horrid horrid this is, and they burn her with fire, just horrible.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, verse 17, for God, see, in the middle of all of the darkness, you see, God always at some point breaks through.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and that's why I love this book.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I love the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's so forward-looking.
SPEAKER_00: See, because at the end of everything, we kind of know what happens, those of us who've read ahead.
SPEAKER_00: See, God breaks through.
SPEAKER_00: For God has put it in their hearts to execute this purpose by having a common purpose, by giving their kingdom to the beast, get this, until the words of God should be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what's being said here is that even the darkest of actions and even the darkest of forces, the most evil of force, the most hideous of all, all of that is still on a leash because God is sovereign and his purposes will be accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: And so the promise of God is it speaks right into the darkness of our world in the most unbelievable, unbearable kind of circumstances described here in Revelation chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: And if God can speak into that and make the promise that his purposes will be accomplished, he can certainly do that right now.
SPEAKER_00: Into my heart, into your heart, into this world, into the chaos of our culture, into our intellectually confused and morally bankrupt culture.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, God can make that kind of promise.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's one last thing the angel says in verse 18 the woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so, again, the angel clarifying for John, fulfilling his promise to John, that he would tell John exactly what this all is about, that great city, Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And um, she is the great city.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we have is all of our metaphors lining up here.
SPEAKER_00: And again, if you're trying to be literal with each one of these and say, oh, you know, the the harlot is this, and the Babylon is that city, and this city, and that city, and this era, and that period of time, and all this sort of, you start to really have a management problem.
SPEAKER_00: And it won't be consistent.
SPEAKER_00: What you have to do is see what is the big picture that God's trying to convey to us here.
SPEAKER_00: So here we have, let me put up on the screen, two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, while Jerusalem isn't mentioned here, we we have the idea and we'll get there eventually.
SPEAKER_00: But this is these are the two cities that are being compared.
SPEAKER_00: This the city of God, uh as uh as it would be called, and was called so often the city of God, the city of God's people, Jerusalem, and the city of the beast, basically, Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you have two personages, you have the the prostitute of chapter 17 and this getting ready to find out about the bride of chapter 21, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: You have two foci of worship.
SPEAKER_00: That is, you you have described all of these people, these nations, these people groups, these multitudes, these tribes and tongues, and some of them are swayed by the deception or the intimidation, uh, or the uh what they think is an opportunity for them to get something out of uh the beast or out of this harlot, uh, and the and the kind of life that she represents and the kind of life that Babylon represents, you see.
SPEAKER_00: And so it leads us to at least ask ourselves the question which city do I live in?
SPEAKER_00: Which city do I want to live in?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And am I interested in being a part of sort of the continuing uh commercialization and profiteering, the prostitution, if you will, of the way the world acts and thinks apart from God?
SPEAKER_00: Or do I want to take a turn from all of that that is ultimately self-destructive and worship love the groom as the bride, part of the bride who loves the groom, who loves God and loves Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Two different directions to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Which one will you choose?
SPEAKER_00: Which one do I choose?
SPEAKER_00: Um, there are two contrasting destinies that we continue to see as we read through our scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Babylon gets its name and much more uh its character, if you will, from the ancient stereotypical city called Babel.
SPEAKER_00: And it was famous for this line, Genesis 11:4.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Come, this is the Bab the people in the in the city of uh Babel that was uh established by a man named Nimrod so many, so many, you know, years and years and decades and decades, hundreds of centuries ago.
SPEAKER_00: Um, come, let us build for ourselves three things: a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise, we'll be scattered abroad over the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, in their lust for autonomy, in their lust for celebrity, and their lust for um sort of uh power and and and self-sufficiency, right?
SPEAKER_00: They build this tower.
SPEAKER_00: And God, looking down from heaven, says and decides to come down and and scatter their language.
SPEAKER_00: And so babble it means confusion, and that's what happens, and they end up uh not being able to communicate, not being able to do business, not being able to continue to build all the way up into the heavens, and uh and God does not want them to be to think of themselves as self-sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we aren't.
SPEAKER_00: We were never intended to bear the burdens of being self-sufficient, and there's so many ways that plays itself out, even in our own day and time.
SPEAKER_00: We were never intended to bear the burden of sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: We were never intended to self-deify.
SPEAKER_00: We were never intended to take away from God that which God wants to give to us, if we'll just receive it from Him, see?
SPEAKER_00: And yet we want to take the reins and we want to take control and we want to, we want to create our own identity, our own, we want to draw our own power.
SPEAKER_00: And uh that's where we get it so wrong, to our own uh peril, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: And in contrast to those people from Babel, Babylon, you have the people of God who I love verse 14, called, chosen, faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you got to be humbled when you realize you're called and chosen, though.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's not about dancing around, prancing around, thinking that I got something going on, and that's why God called me and chose.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He, while I was still a sinner, Christ Jesus died for me.
SPEAKER_00: Same with you.
SPEAKER_00: So the response, the proper response, is to be faithful to him, uh, to love him.
SPEAKER_00: All right, what are all of these images?
SPEAKER_00: Is there any hope for figuring any of this out?
SPEAKER_00: Throw this up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: What who are the seven heads, mountains, kings of verses nine through ten?
SPEAKER_00: What who are the ten horns kings of verse 12?
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you would like me to be able to answer that.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you have read books where some people think they know the answers to those questions.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I'm just gonna tell you that we cannot be certain.
SPEAKER_00: This much is clear.
SPEAKER_00: They side with the beast, and so the end of their evil deeds draws near.
SPEAKER_00: And they the end of their misdirected worship, which led them to lives of evil, and to spend their resources and to direct their affections in the wrong, wrong way, um, and to become ultimately self-destructive.
SPEAKER_00: All of that has got to go.
SPEAKER_00: It's evil, and God has set an expiration date on evil, as Tommy reminded us last week and Scotty so many weeks before.
SPEAKER_00: What should it mean for us in our own day and time?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think we need to beware of turning away from the sacred treasure of true worship of God to that self-centered transactional approach to worship via false religion, which I think is what this beast and this woman, this prostitute, they all sort of represent Babylon, all sort of represent that idea of sort of a false religion.
SPEAKER_00: Beware of degrading spiritual intimacy into some kind of immorality physically.
SPEAKER_00: Beware our vulnerabilities towards self-destructive idolatry and self-destructive immorality.
SPEAKER_00: What should have been a sacred treasure got reduced in the image of this person is portrayed as this prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: What should have been a sacred treasure was reduced to it to a sexual transaction.
SPEAKER_00: And these images, I think, um are meant to be shocking.
SPEAKER_00: They're meant to awaken us as we read through a book like this and to present to us uh the core question, which uh I'll put this up on the screen for you too.
SPEAKER_00: The core question, I think, that we would want to deal with here in verse seven or chapter 17 is who do you worship?
SPEAKER_00: You know who or what do you what have you put at the center, see?
SPEAKER_00: Is it the anti-Christ way of life?
SPEAKER_00: Asserting the self, pleasing the self, obsessed with the self.
SPEAKER_00: You're just turning in on yourself, see, and it will be an unsavory meal.
SPEAKER_00: Um or um do we turn to the Lamb who invites us uh to dwell with him forever, who will provide for us, the one who by rights of creation we belong to, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Eugene Peterson in Reverse Thunder says Moses' task back in the Old Testament was to lead his people and worship.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh's sin was that he prevented them.
SPEAKER_00: The judgment plagues are visited over this issue and this issue alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's all the way back in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: You can go read it yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen to what Peterson says it's wise here.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest evil that people of faith face from outside is the obstruction of worship.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest evil that they face from inside is the subversion of worship.
SPEAKER_00: That's when we get our eyes off of Jesus and onto anything that isn't God and think that it's more important somehow than God.
SPEAKER_00: It might be money, it might be sex, it might be power, it might be social uh significance, might be politics, could be anything, anything that we raise to a higher level in our own hearts and minds than God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: That we, like we read here in verse 13, that we give power and authority to, you know, that we give that away.
SPEAKER_00: We see that's that's where it all is.
SPEAKER_00: It should be the Lamb who is slain, who has risen again, and who will reign forever and evermore, who gave his life for me and for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of savior and redeemer you really want, right?
SPEAKER_00: The greatest evil that people of faith face from outside is the obstruction of worship.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest evil they face from inside is the subversion of worship.
SPEAKER_00: The outside issue.
SPEAKER_00: There are people in this world right now that their opportunity to worship God is completely obstructed.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us here in this country have experienced just a little tiny taste of that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go through the you know, the pandemic, and churches are sort of prevented from meeting and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: But it's nothing like what folks in other times or in other countries, not here in the West, uh, have suffered through.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's horrible in some countries.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and people are put to death simply because they want to worship God.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest evil that we face from inside, though, is the subversion of worship.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we have most to fear.
SPEAKER_00: This is what St.
SPEAKER_00: John gives continuous attention to, and it is on this evil that the judgments are visited.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to hurry.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, alliances of evil are inherently self-destructive, but even the darkest forces of evil will ultimately serve the purposes of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I know uh so many of us in the rearview mirror, we can see how God worked in our life in some dark moment or some undesirable moment.
SPEAKER_00: And we can look back.
SPEAKER_00: And if I were to ask you to send me, and I hope you will, an email that just an email of testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Um, uh, let somebody hear from you about one of those times God amazed you with his wisdom or in his ways not being your ways, and it blew your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And this whole book, that's what this is about, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: He often works in surprising ways, and that's when the glory goes to him.
SPEAKER_00: See, I love what John Newton said.
SPEAKER_00: God often takes a course for accomplishing his purposes directly, contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe.
SPEAKER_00: He brings a death upon our feelings, our wishes, our prospects, when he's about to give us the desire of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's you that you're gonna want to download that and post that on your screensaver or or somewhere on a something around your house.
SPEAKER_00: But that's really true.
SPEAKER_00: I've saved that quote for years.
SPEAKER_00: I've used it many times.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've seen it before, but it reminds me that God doesn't always behave the way I want him to.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes when I can't figure him out, I just need to wait a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Just keep seeking him, just keep praying to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he sometimes opens up my eyes to be able to see.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, all outcomes ultimately belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: All that we see here as hideous and gory will soon be contrasted with the beauty and the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we call this study the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: As believers, we have turned our lives over to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The burden to control outcomes is no longer on us, whether it's personal, social, vocational, political, whatever, all those outcomes belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, our rest in his love.
SPEAKER_00: I'll close with this quote from our brother Scotty Smith.
SPEAKER_00: We have a sure hope because of what Jesus accomplished in the past upon the cross as the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have a living hope because of the present occupied throne of God in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, our hope comes from him who is and who was and who is to come.