I've been asked to read the passage to save the pastor's voice, so our reading tonight of God's word is from Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17 beginning at verse 1. Let us give our attention to God's word. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, come I will show you 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 whose sexual immorality the dwellers on the earth have become drunk. And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 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 a name of mystery, Babylon, the great mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. But the angel said to me, why do you marvel? I tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with the seven heads and the ten horns that carries her. The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on 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. The seven heads are the seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen. One is, the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth. But it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with the beast. These are of one mind and hand over their power and authority to the beast. They will make war on the lamb, and the lamb will conquer them, for he is the Lord of lords and king of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. And the angel said to me, the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. And the ten horns that you saw, and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose of being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth. So far the reading of God's word. Thank you, Dr. Gunn. Revelation has been incredibly helpful in showing us so far how strong the enemies of the church and of the Lord Jesus Christ are. It is giving us a very helpful and clear picture of that so that we will take seriously the spiritual warfare that we are called to engage and to fight in. The church hasn't always taken this as seriously as it should, nor understood it. And that is why the book of Revelation is incredibly helpful for us. I hope so far it has helped you to see and understand the nature of your struggle. And when something like Ephesians says, take up the armor of God, why do you have to take up the armor of God? You need to know what you're up against. And Revelation has been helping us with that tremendously because there has always been the great problem of falling prey to the seduction of the world. Seduction of the world. What we need to see then is exactly what we're up against and why things are so confused, especially in light of the times in which we live. Because I know that, at least especially talking to the older generation, that many of you express how fast things have changed. What Revelation chapter 17 is doing is giving us a history. Another way to title this would be A Short History of Babylon. It is giving us a history of Satan's greatest tool to overcome the people of the Lord. Remember chapter 12. This is Satan's great purpose in the earth. He's angry. He's been cast down. He's defeated. And as the dragon, he wants to devour the offspring of the woman. That's you. He has tools that he's using. He has things that he's very successful in using. So this is a section of exposure, but it's not just a section of exposure. It's also a section meant, in the midst of that, you notice the victory of the Lamb again and it's helping us see how the great tools that Satan is using are quickly defeated and quickly overcome by the Lamb. And that will help you tonight, I believe, to help understand in your day why the kingdom of darkness that we are in and living in the midst of, this kingdom of darkness is in such confusion right now. Did you feel that? Do you feel like things are in just such mass confusion? this helps us with that this helps explain that that's why chapter 16 was so important too in the pouring out of the bowl so revelation 17 is a short history of babylon we haven't really unpacked in the book yet what that means babylon we haven't spent much time reflecting it just kind of shows up quickly early on in the book especially in chapter 13 it's mentioned but but there's nothing that gives us a lot of indication as exactly what he's talking about. It's been referenced a few times, but here now, we have an entire chapter on its rise and its fall. The rise and fall of Babylon. And he's giving us a very helpful picture of exactly what we're facing. And the effect should be then to have us take it all the more seriously and understand how real the challenges are and the power of Babylon that is being thrown at us. With that in mind, I want to jump right into this tonight here that we have this description of Babylon, we have her purpose, and then her judgment. Those are the three things that we can look at in light of Revelation 17, the description of Babylon, her purpose, and the judgment. We enter in this last section now. we begin this last section, the seventh cycle of Revelation. And the best way to understand it is to set it side by side, juxtaposition to another series of visions in the fourth cycle that helped us to understand the other woman who was described. Notice here how this one begins. I want you particularly to look at verse 3. We'll come back to verse 1 and 2, but look at verse 3 for a minute so he carried me away into the wilderness and i saw a woman well that's not unfamiliar to us is it by now there was another woman shown to us in the wilderness in chapter 12 that's what he had described in chapter 12 now a great sign appeared in the heaven a woman clothed with the sun the woman gave birth to the remember the male child who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron. We looked at that. She symbolically represented the people of God, the bride of Christ. She was beautiful. She's radiant. She's light-bearing. She's pure. She's glorious. This is how the Lord in the Scriptures, it's a remarkable thing that sometimes makes us uncomfortable, but the Lord describes us this way. This is His description of His bride, the church, The people belonging to heaven, who indeed are the bride of Christ, who are, Ephesians 5, without spot and without wrinkle, you know. Well, all of a sudden now, in chapter 17, we're introduced to another woman. She is meant to be set in stark contrast to the woman of chapter 12. In chapter 12, the woman there also represented the heavenly city, didn't she? The heavenly Jerusalem. But here the woman stands for the earthly city, Babylon. It's using comparisons and helping us to understand this. Everything that is said of this woman is opposite of what was said of the woman in chapter 12. The people of the woman in chapter 12 were later described in 14 as redeemed in the earth who are virgins. Who are not defiled with women. Well, what's described here? the exact opposite then one of the angels verse one who had the seven bowls came and talked with me saying come up here and i will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters 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 whose sexual immorality the dwellers on the earth have become drunk the tie here is really important in the last section the angel was described as taking these bowls of judgment the final expressions of judgment in the earth before the second coming and he's pouring them out and this particular angel remember in the fifth and the sixth was describing a judgment on the kingdom of darkness that he plunged the the dragon's kingdom the beast kingdom uh into darkness this angel comes in chapter 17 now and starts speaking to john to show the link it's an important link let me show you exactly what i am pouring these bowls out on you need to understand it you need to understand when it when the kingdom was mentioned in the fifth and sixth bowls of the last chapter if the whole thing was plunged into darkness just what was he pouring the bowl on that that that helps us here to understand chapter 17 well he describes her he describes her let me show you something let me show you something inspired by the spirit first century christians um our first century writers were not embarrassed about these realities they make us uncomfortable but this is exactly what the holy spirit inspired because he knows exactly what we are he knows exactly what we do all the problems that we face the problem of the human heart and he's capturing it in its ugliest form he describes her she has on purple, scarlet. Describing this woman is described by him in seductive dress. Seductive dress. She's covered in gold. She's wearing precious stones and pearls. You'll notice here the language is strong. She's sitting on the beast. You can see in her hands if you look a beautiful cup a beautiful cup full of her abominations and the filthiness of her fornications what graphic language is being used to describe what revelation 17 calls her as the whore the prostitute when john was first shown her the first thing it said of her was that the kings of the earth commit fornication with her and that they are made drunk with the wine of her fornication on her forehead is a great name mystery babble on the great the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth when i saw her says john i saw her drunk drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Can you get imagery of a more disgusting woman than this? That's what you should feel. This is absolutely disgusting. It's meant to make us recoil. It's meant to make us feel the most filthy woman you could possibly imagine out on the corner the thing is john says i couldn't take my eyes off her is there something that's that's really profound about this she's stunning she's beautiful she has great power great power that's the description that's the description what the angel now does is begin to describe her her purpose by looking at her history along with her connection to the beast their history together so that we understand this we understand exactly what this is we understand exactly what he's describing so verse 7 says it let me explain to you the mystery of this woman and the beast who carries her remember the whole purpose of this is to describe their judgment to describe the the judgment that is coming and the boars bowls poured out last time in the last chapter now why they are falling down and what they are falling down on what the whole thing looks like john had said now as he begins to describe the beast uh john showed me says john uh i was shown a scarlet read red in color beast now this is not unfamiliar to us either the beast has already been introduced back in chapter 13 i remember john was given an interpretive framework we were given an interpretive way to look at revelation that really helped us to understand revelation that was probably for me the most important chapter to understand what's going on in the world and the unholy trinity remember that he gave us an interpretive framework for looking at satan's opposition in the world and remember he showed you the unholy trinity a false trinity uh the dragon representing a false kind of god the father figure and the beast the first beast representing an antichrist and um uh the first beast being an antichrist representing a false christ-like figure and the third beast or the second beast excuse me was the voice of the first beast he did the the lying signs and the lying wonders he was a counterfeit holy spirit now all of that of course was set in contrast to what revelation has shown us up front remember right when we began the book grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come see the framework's been working to help us and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from jesus the faithful witness so you have the holy trinity referenced but in the midst of these contrasting these these uh the the true trinity and the unholy trinity another figure was introduced and that was the woman the woman in chapter 12 being radiant and beautiful without spot well now we have this other figure introduced who is in direct connection with the beast it is the counterfeit of the true woman now think about this for a minute it's really important i saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that's the beast of 13 that's the antichrist that's the false christ figure the beast had seven heads and ten horns this woman not not looking at the heavenly woman this woman in contrast was a prostitute a great whore now if these two women stand for two cities jerusalem above the mother of us all and now babylon below what do we have here do you see what he's showing you remember we looked at the beast the beast was the symbol of all antichrist activity in the earth all the antichrist activity throughout history in the work of the beast and in these last days his particular purpose is to use authority structures remember we looked at where's the greatest expression of authority he was given a throne where's the greatest expression of authority shown and the beast uses governments to accomplish that doesn't he you're going to see where all this goes in a minute, I hope. We looked at the beast. The primary way we looked at the beast was in his throne, trying to take the throne from Jesus and demand all worship. I said in a previous sermon, the beast, the primary way that he accomplishes that, the primary way he wants to accomplish that is through what? Persecution. He wants to destroy. He is inspiring fear into everyone in the kingdom of darkness. We have this fear with governing authorities. Think about it. There's a sort of a fear that is in all of us. In what way does a fear come out? Well, when election time rolls around, you're very interested. If we get the wrong kind of person in there, we are very concerned of what they could do to us. we are very concerned of how things could turn and persecution could begin look at the history of it look at john the baptist with herod this has been a long history of persecution from authority structures that have gone way outside their design and the kingdom of darkness in this beastly form has tried to destroy god's people you know that it motivates fear is there the beast's greatest expression of that authority comes in government so the beast represents the world we looked at in its antichrist system seeking to persecute the woman but here's what this is showing you here's what i'm trying to get to a conclusion for you that's not the only thing he's using he not only wants all your loyalties to bow down and trust the government and value the system of the world but notice this there's a much more crafty way that he is trying to seduce people and win the loyalty of hearts we say how so john says i saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast this woman is doing everything she can to seduce drawing people away from the throne of christ she is a city she is a city i think uh it's it's also fair to say that if the pure woman is the bride of christ the church this is the beast counterfeit church this is the beast counterfeit church and you notice how this system works together the if the beautiful woman the pure woman of chapter 12 is the bride of christ what is this you have the counterfeit of the beast which seduces um to give all allegiance to the beast um to give the beast worship and that's why the imagery is so strong here what do we think of when we think of a prostitute well we think of we think of seduction that's what that's that's on the mind of of john as he's as he's seeing this image here the most powerful form of it being sexual and that's what he uses to make these symbols make sense to us this is what john said in first john that the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one what is the greatest way that the beast holds people captive and keeps them under his sway. Babylon. Babylon. The lure of Babylon. So you see the two assaults here, don't you? If he decides not to force it with persecution, which he's done in history, he uses every other kind of seduction under the sun to accomplish the same purpose and drag people in. Those are the two ways that are being described. One pastor said, the symbol indicates that which allures, tempts, seduces, and draws people away from God. Look at the city of the world. Look at the world in its form of hatred. Look at all the things it uses. it's music, it's culture, it's industry. Everything that it can do to lay hold of us and draw us into it. Notice how she's described. In her hand is a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. What's in that cup? What's in that cup? Well, what absorbs us and captures the heart? What pulls us away from Christ? it's in that cup the beast has filled that cup with everything he possibly can to pull us away and using sexual imagery don't you think the first thing we should say in our day is pornography then that cup it's in that cup how many under its grip how many of even believers true believers struggle with this struggle with the lure and the power of this seduction you got to be realistic um we're done being over pious and not talking about this stuff in our day it's killing the whole culture around you i hugh hefner just died this week i've seen that man in that purple robe for many years it's been an image in front of me he brought an entire sexual revolution to this country ross um daltette i hope i pronounced his name right i think that's how you pronounce it in the New York Times this week, had a very interesting piece. Hefner's success as a businessman showed the rotten side of capitalism, the side that exploits appetites for money, that feeds leech-like on our vices, that dissolves family and religion while promising that consumption will fill the void they leave behind. You stand back for a minute. How could a man, think about this for a minute now in light of Revelation 17, how could a man who was totally abusive to women in the worst form, how could a man who is a true misogynist, sexually exploiting women on the worst way receive the kind of accolades and praise in a culture that supposedly condemns misogyny? Can you explain that to me? It's because it's all the same system of the beast. It all runs together. It's serving the purpose of the beast. Why don't we have an uproar by feminists against Playboy Mansion? It's all together. It's all one. It's in the cup together. It's like a good wine. The more you drink, the more you get drunk and you take it all in. Doesn't really matter what it is at that point. Unless it's the law of God, then they hate it. Then they hate it. You see it? Of course you see this. The beast is bent on destroying us and he uses Antichrist persecution to do it and government, but his greatest tool is Babylon. That is his greatest means of seduction. Contrary to the means of grace that God gives His city, His people. Here are the many means of seduction that pull you away. Oh, it's powerful. As a matter of fact, you can't fight it. You cannot fight it. These seductions will handle you and take you. John described Babylon's lure by saying it's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, And the pride of life. Wouldn't that just characterize it? I think you have a great illustration all the way back in the Old Testament with Achan. I've always had a heart for Achan. You know? That guy looks at a Babylonian garment. It was just plunder. It was a Babylonian garment. Did you know that? And when finally he was caught, he confesses the sin. And he says, I admit it. I looked at that Babylonian garment. I lusted after it. And I took it. I'm no different than that. God was using him as a big illustration, right? Of the lure and the power of Babylon in your hearts. It takes the shattering power of Jesus to set you free. To forgive you, to cleanse you from all the filthiness of this. And then to change your desires to love Him. To replace those desires with holy desires, which is what He has to do in our hearts. That you might then value the things of His kingdom. But this lure holds the world. And what Revelation 17 is doing is saying, you need to understand that. You need to understand this. This is giving you the symbols to understand it. this is what the dragon has done he has joined with the beast a counterfeit kingdom with counterfeit promises and a counterfeit city all after your hearts that's what this is and and this city since it's serving the beast it's using these things with the goal of destroying that's why she is captured as drunk with the blood of the saints in other words she has she's martyred the people of God this way, by turning the world against the church this way, by her moral stances. Remember? When the church has moral stances and the cup of abominations is all accepted in the culture, there's the clash. There's where she comes and kills. There's where she strikes a dagger right into the heart. Read Proverbs 5 and 7 to your children. Read it to them about the seductress. Who didn't know when he went into her that an arrow would strike his liver and he'd die. That's what that is. So, what is the mystery? Babylon the great. If the Lord has opened your eyes, you see this. That's the mystery. You see this if the Lord's opened your eyes. You see the history. You see it now. This is the blessing of Revelation, of reading the book, the blessing that you get. What does he say in v. 7-12? He says, This beast you saw was and is not and will a sin. He's false. He's not he who is and who was at the beginning that we looked at. He has always been working in history to take people down this way with the lure of Babylon. This is your history lesson. Babylon's always existed. Babylon's always been here it's come and it's gone and it's come up real strong at times particularly it was really strong at the moment this was written for there was Rome and wow does he use Rome to make this point the beast has seven heads his power has always been shown in the world the number of perfection but you'll notice he says the seven heads and seven mountains are seven mountains on which the woman sits that's how Rome was it had those seven hills right there they knew exactly what he was talking about what sat on those seven mountains rome was a political beast serving the beast in its worst form as it was persecuting but it's great attraction its most powerful way that it won the inhabitants of the empire was through Babylon oh it had so much that nation that empire had so much all political powers are symbolized here that stand in opposition to Jesus and the powerful leaders of these kingdoms he's saying all work in tandem and work together with Babylon at different times at different places they rise up stronger, but they're all working together to accomplish the same thing. That's the point of this. These kings are said to have committed fornication with the woman. You see that? They're involved just as much. They're just as corrupt. In other words, these kings use the woman themselves to fill themselves and indulge themselves, and they use the woman to have the inhabitants worship them. That's the beast. That's the beast. He's after, Satan's after your worship. He'll use political powers to force you or the lust of Babylon to conquer you. And then he'll rip it right away. Now here's where the word of encouragement comes tonight. It's verse 14, isn't it? They made war with the wrong one, didn't they? They made war with the wrong one. Verse 14. They will make war on the Lamb. Big mistake. And the Lamb will conquer them. All of them. For He is a Lord of lords and King of kings. And those with Him, this is you, are called, are called, chosen, faithful. What a wonderful verse in the midst of all this, isn't it? That all throughout history you notice there's been one kingdom that cannot be shaken. There's been one king that cannot be toppled. And all these kingdoms have come and gone and the Lord has been the one to take them all down. That's why Rome is not here. How could that empire ever fall? All of them come and go. They will come, they will go. The Lamb overcomes them all when they get in this worst beastly form. All throughout history there has been the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords and you've studied this in Scripture from Babel of old where they had that spirit and they erected it to Egypt. To Egypt where there was the Antichrist Pharaoh and all of his false prophets and the lure of Egypt. You can study the lure of Egypt. That's Babylon. And Rome. And lo and behold, the United States fits into this too. It's all of the same system. It's still Babylon. It belongs to Babylon. It's no Savior. All of them have come and gone. All of them. You can study their monuments and history. One day, if the Lord keeps this world, they will be studying ours. They will be studying ours. None of them stands because there's only one eternal king and an eternal kingdom who is Lord over all, whose kingdom shall have no end, and you are called, chosen, and faithful, and belong to him. Isn't that wonderful? I want to close tonight with this last section that I think probably struck me the most this week in working on it. Bowls of 16 are being poured out on Babylon. What did he do in the last section? The angel poured out a bowl on Babylon and threw the kingdom into what? Confusion. Confusion. What has John shown us? The angel pouring these bowls Now is the one speaking. And what has he done? Thrown the kingdom of the beast into darkness. He's thrown it in confusion. And yet, when the kingdom of darkness operates to try to destroy us and the church is witness, this is what you can expect. This is the Lord's promise to you that he's defending you and keeping you, as we say. And how does he do it? He throws the kingdom into confusion. I know we pray for peace and we pray for a right way that government functions. And we should. But behind it, in terms of the kingdom of darkness and light, we have to see what he's saying here. Doesn't this help you with what's happening today right now? Look at verse 15. The waters which you saw, in verse 15, where the prostitute is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. And the ten horns that you saw, now listen to this, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. What? They're going to hate Babylon. The beast is going to hate Babylon. They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire for, this is the bowl, God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. That is such an important verse. Here's what he just said. The beast and his kingdom will turn on Babylon. The beast and his persecuting power will at times hate the harlot and turn on her. What does that look like? What is that? He's going to take away her lure. He's going to unleash. The Lord and His purposes will unleash the ugliness of the beast so that everyone sees this system for what it is. This is what we now are able to see now that Hugh Hefner's died in the wake of the disaster of what he did. Rome was not interested in filling bellies. In its worst form, it was interested in destroying, bent on destruction. It will take away candy from the baby at its worst moment what do i mean the angel is saying that he has thrown the kingdom of the beast into confusion fulfilling jesus's words that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand does that help you well you can take this for what you will i don't want to read too much into providence but i saw the strangest thing happen in babylon this week that i've ever seen the strangest thing the greatest idol of this land was just split in half dagon fell what idol is that maybe it'll get up again i don't know the nfl do you know what it's called in society? You can look it up. The indestructible NFL. That idol has been in the cup of the woman for a long time, seducing people away from God's house for years. That idol has been pulling people away from God's worship for decades. How confused was Babylon this week? How divided was Babylon this week? Why? Why do I say that? Well, look at what happened. with just one blow, the political powers turned on it. That's the strangest thing I've ever seen. It's odd. The most bizarre turn of events, and what's left? People realizing all of a sudden that these idols really aren't all that satisfying and powerful. This thing could be shattered in a minute. No matter where you stand on the issues, that's not the point. Look how fragile that idol is. Look what could happen by one statement by a political leader to an idol. That's Babylon. Idols in the cup can be poured out real quickly. And that should make us all evaluate priorities. I said this week, it's remarkable how some Christians are offended and ready to boycott the NFL over loyalty to our flag, and yet for decades have disregarded their own offense toward God in showing more loyalty to Sunday sports than to his day of worship. Right? And how many people said to me, you know, Pastor, you're right. This is our priorities. Priorities are wrong. Well, it's important to always recognize that, isn't it? Priorities. So you see this all unfold before you tonight? What's the first thing Satan said in the garden to Eve? Did God say? Did God say? What did he do? Look, Eve, you will not die when you eat. What will happen? Your eyes will be opened. Huh. And so here's the verse. Listen to it. And it happened when she saw that the tree was good for food, lust of the flesh. That it was pleasant to the eyes, lust of the eyes. And desirable to make one wise, pride of life. That's where John's working from. Those are the categories of Babylon. She took of its fruit and ate. She took of it. That's what the devil used. And their eyes were now run right opened and they ran right into Babylon. And little did they know at that point that Satan was done with fruit. Satan was ready to kill them. Jesus came in contrast to set you free. Jesus came as a wonderful Savior. And He says to you, don't believe the lie. Don't believe the lie of Babylon. Don't believe what this all is. That there is a sin that leads to death. Don't believe in these things. But look how wonderful your Father is. Your heavenly Father who loves you. He's going to provide for you. Who wants your best. Who's instructing you to keep you on the right path. Look at how much He loved you in giving you His Son so that you enter a kingdom that can't be shaken of righteousness and justice and peace. And look at the Holy Spirit whom He's given you and sealed you who constantly is committed to finishing the project and gives you means of grace and stead. Real power, means of grace instead in the gospel and the sacraments. Think about that. He's taking it all down. The harlots burned with fire by our own master. And soon we're going to consider the fall of the beast as we continue. So I think of that wonderful phrase that we sing. O worship the king, all glorious above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. our shield and defender, the ancient of days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word tonight and for giving us perspective on what's happening in the world and things that we can hold on to, symbols so that we can see more clearly which is Your intention. But it's for those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear by Your Spirit. We're all very weak. We all can say here tonight that we have been tempted and seduced by Babylon and we still easily run into her. But You have taken away, Lord, and convicted us to not love the world or the things in the world, but to love You. And so help us this week to fight to when we are tempted to sin, to see it as a cup being held out to us by a prostitute and to say no thanks, no thanks. We worship the true King and we love Him. We can't do it except by Your power. So give us the strength to put to death by Your Spirit the deeds of the body and live. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.