{"id":19003,"date":"2019-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-054-the-beautiful-side-of-evil\/"},"modified":"2019-10-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-06T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-054-the-beautiful-side-of-evil","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-054-the-beautiful-side-of-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 054 – The Beautiful Side of Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19003","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 054 - The Beautiful Side of Evil","sermon_date":"20191006","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7124,"sermon_slides":7119,"sermon_mp3":7123,"sermon_id":"106191157252739","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"17:1-6a","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Beautiful Side of Evil\n\nRevelation 17:1-6a\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 54\n\nHappy October to everybody, can you believe that?\u00a0 \u00a0Wow!\u00a0 \u00a0Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter 17, as time allows it we\u2019re going to try to look at verses 1-6 today as we continue on in our verse by verse teaching through the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Beautiful Side of Evil.\u00a0 That title is not a title that\u2019s original with me, it was a book that helped me quite a bit as a young Christian, a book written by Johanna Michaelson, dealing with the occult and the cults and things of that nature.\u00a0 And that title has always sort of captivated me, attracted me, \u201cThe Beautiful Side of Evil.\u201d\n\nEvil has an attractive side to it.\u00a0 If it didn\u2019t we wouldn\u2019t be drawn to it.\u00a0 It\u2019s Halloween and every-body is going to be putting their costumes on their kids and all these kinds of things, and some kids are going to dress up like Satan (I don\u2019t know why they would want to do that but they do that) and they walk around with horns and a mask and a pitchfork and a cape.\u00a0 The problem is I can\u2019t find that in the Bible.\u00a0 Satan comes, as we\u2019re going to see this morning, as an angel of light.\n\nWe\u00a0 have been continuing through the Book of Revelation, sort of in that section of the book where the bowl judgments have been poured out upon the earth and as that seventh bowl judgment is poured out upon the earth a lot of things are happening, including the destruction of a particular city called the city of Babylon.\n\nAnd just to sort of prepare us for the sermons that we\u2019re not embarking on concerning Babylon.\u00a0 We did probably about a two week background on Babylon so if you haven\u2019t had a chance to hear those I would encourage you to go back into our sermon archives and watch or listen to them because it\u2019ll give you background on the things that are coming here in the Book of Revelation.\n\nBut with that background in mind we\u2019re now ready to move back into it verse by verse teaching of the Book of Revelation today beginning with chapter 17.\u00a0 Chapter 17 is one of the most interesting and at the same time one of the most misinterpreted chapters,\u00a0 I believe, in the entire Bible.\n\nHere is just a two part outline.\u00a0 Number one, we have The Vision that John receives Concerning Babylon, verses 1-6.\u00a0 That\u2019s the part of it that if we\u2019re fortunate we\u2019ll get through today.\u00a0 And then the second part of it is The Interpretation of the vision.\u00a0 It starts at the end of verse 6 and goes all the way to verse 18.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me that God doesn\u2019t just give us data for the sake of data; He gives us an interpretation so we\u2019re not left to our sanctified imagination trying to figure out what these vision, or this particular vision actually means.\n\nSo let\u2019s begin there, verses 1-6, and here\u2019s sort of a small outline that we\u2019re going to try to work through this morning.\u00a0 Number one, you will notice Babylon\u2019s introduction.\u00a0 Notice chapter 17 and verse 1.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThen one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, \u201cCome here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting how Babylon here is introduced, it\u2019s introduced by one of the angels having the seven bowls.\u00a0 I would understand it this way: the very angel that God dispensed from heaven to pull out the final bowl judgment resulting in the destruction of Babylon now says to John in this vision, as John is seeing these things in the first century on the Island of Patmos, \u201ccome here and let me show you some further information about Babylon that you just saw destroyed by Me in bowl number seven.\u00a0 Bowl number seven no doubt destroyed Babylon, chapter 16 and verse 19 says that.\u00a0 \u201cBabylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.\u201d\u00a0 The angel that brought this wrath now says to John in the description and in sort of a pause, let me give you more information on Babylon that you just saw destroyed in the vision.\n\nThat\u2019s why this chapter, chapter 17:1, is intimately linked to what\u00a0 precedes it.\u00a0 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, \u201cCome here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 This now becomes our fifth and final non-chronological parenthetical insertion into the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 The Book of Revelation is very confusing to people because no one ever takes the time to explain to folks that the chronology of the vision is basically the same, it moves chronologically.\u00a0 But there are pivotal times in the Book where the chronology stops, the chronology pauses to give more information concerning what has just happened.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve just entered into that kind of section.\n\nBabylon has fallen, the seventh bowl judgment has been poured out, but before we get information about the next chronological events, which would be the return of Christ to the earth, we get a pause in the action, chapters 17 and 18, as we get more information about Babylon.\u00a0 The Book of Revelation has done this four times already and this is our final time where the Book of Revelation will do this.\n\nSo we move away from her introduction (Babylon) to her judgment.\u00a0 And you see that there at the end of chapter 17, verse 1, saying, \u201cThen one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, \u201cCome here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.\u201d\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll notice here that Babylon is called a harlot; she is a harlot, that\u2019s what she is symbolized as.\u00a0 Her name, as we will see, verse 5, is \u201cBabylon, the Great,\u201d and when you drop down to verse 18 we will see, we have seen and we will continue to see that Babylon actually is a city.\u00a0 So this harlot is the city of Babylon in the last days that reigns over the kings of the earth.\n\nSo it\u2019s very important to keep in mind that every time you see a reference to a woman or a harlot, the woman is mentioned to be understood figuratively because here identity is given there in verse 18, she\u2019s an actual city, a city named Babylon.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice her judgment; you\u2019ll notice what it says of her here, that she \u201csits on many waters.\u201d\u00a0 That imagery should remind\u00a0 you of Jeremiah chapter 51 and verse 13.\u00a0 Jeremiah had a prophecy about the fall of Babylon, he saw the same thing in Jeremiah 51:13, he says of Babylon, \u201cO you who dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, Your end has come, the measure of your end.\u201d\n\nIn fact, just a little bit of Bible trivia, the very last or latest or most recent Psalm in the Psalter, Psalm 137, is your latest Psalm, or most recent Psalm and it was written by the nation of Israel as they went into the Babylonian captivity under Babylon and this is what Psalm 137:1 says\u201d By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.\u201d\u00a0 That particular generation had seen the destruction of the temple, the destruction of the majesty of the Solomonic temple, everything that they had known had been destroyed, they had been ripped out of their land and taken 70 miles to the east into what today we call modern day Iraq, the city of Babylon, and all they could do is just sit down and weep.\u00a0 They just couldn\u2019t believe what had happened.\u00a0 No other reaction would be appropriate other than just to sob.\u00a0 And sometimes things like that happen in our lives where things happen, the carpet is ripped out from under us or somebody else, or there\u2019s a mistreatment or there\u2019s a health problem.\n\nAnd really, you know, when God puts us into those situations to minister to people I don\u2019t know if He\u2019s really telling us to give that person an answer.\u00a0 Job\u2019s counselors had all the answers but all they needed to do was really come alongside Job and just weep with him.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what the nation of Israel did, they just started weeping.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice the imagery here, they did it \u201cBy the waters of Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 Now \u201cthe waters\u201d we\u2019re going to find a description of or a definition of in verse 15, the waters that the woman is seated on represent all the nations of the earth that are intoxicated by Babylon\u2019s influence.\n\nAnd so we know that this harlot is going to be\u00a0 judged because it says it right here, \u201cI will show you the judgment of the great harlot,\u201d we know that she has been judged in the seventh bowl; what we don\u2019t understand yet and where the angel is helping John with the details is exactly how Babylon is going to fall.\u00a0 See, what we have thus far, just some generic statements about Babylon\u2019s destruction but what are the specifics?\u00a0 What are the mechanics?\u00a0 How is it all going to come to pass?\u00a0 And that is the great shock or the great mystery of this chapter.\u00a0 And this is what the angel is explaining to John that it\u2019s actually going to be God who is going to put His purpose to destroy Babylon into the heart of the beast or the Antichrist and that\u2019s what will bring her demise.\u00a0 More on that later as we continue on through the chapter.\n\nBut we\u2019ve seen her introduction; we\u2019ve seen her judgment, and notice here, letter C, her immorality.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 2, \u201cwith whom the kings of the earth committed acts of<\/em> immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.\u201d This entity, Babylon, apparently has had a universal effect on the entire world.\u00a0 I personally find it to be a very good description of the Tower of Babel, built there in the land of Shinar, at one time the earth had one language and when God founded that language everybody took a little bit of that harlot Babylonian system into their own culture.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Babylon, as we\u2019re going to see when we get to verse 5, is called \u201cthe mother of harlotry.\u201d\n\nBut you notice here that the immorality of Babylon and the immorality of the kings of the earth influenced by Babylon is referred to here as drunkenness, immorality, that\u2019s her impact.\u00a0 And when you study the Bible and\u00a0 you study immorality many times false doctrine is analogized to immorality.\u00a0 After all, we are the bride of Christ, are we not?\u00a0 And when we, as God\u2019s people, leave the teachings of Scripture and we embrace other deities or other gods or other teachings God looks at us as having committed an act of immorality.\n\nJames 4:4 says, \u201cYou adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? \u00a0Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0How does God look at me as a member of His bride when\u00a0 I became intoxicated with the things of\u00a0 the world?\u00a0 God looks at me as if I have just committed an act of immorality because I am the representative as part of the bride; He is the groom.\u00a0 And as these nations come under the sway of Babylon they\u2019re portrayed here as being in a state of intoxication, a state of drunkenness.\u00a0 And we know, do we not, all about intoxication and drunkenness; when someone is drunk they\u2019re not using their logical, rational faculties; they\u2019re under the sway of some other substance, some foreign substance.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what false doctrine is analogized to.\u00a0 You know, there are people all over this world that are marching to the tune of false doctrine. false teaching regardless of the source.\u00a0 And the Bible looks at them as actually in an inebriated drunken state, they can\u2019t think straight because they\u2019re under the influence of something.\n\nThis concept of being intoxicated by the nations fits exactly with what the prophet Jeremiah predicted concerning Babylon.\u00a0 He says in Jeremiah 51:7, \u201cBabylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, intoxicating all the earth.\u00a0 The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are going mad.\u201d\u00a0 The nations are going insane in this inebriated state because they\u2019re not under the influence of God, they\u2019re under the influence of the Babylonian system.\u00a0 And that is why the judgment of Babylon is long overdue.\u00a0 God has let this concept of Babylon go on so long and its intoxicated so many people, not obscure people, the kings of the earth, and now here judgment awaits.\u00a0 And now her judgment has come in the seventh bowl.\u00a0 The mystery is exactly how God is going to pull this off.\n\nWe move away from her introduction, her judgment, her immorality and look at the influence of Babylon.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, chapter 17 and verse 3.\u00a0 \u201cHe carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness,\u201d I hope if you\u2019re an under liner you underline that word \u201cwilderness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cand I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.\u201d\u00a0 Now many, many people will tell you that the city of Babylon represented here in the east is really not in the east, it\u2019s another circle in the west and it\u2019s Rome.\u00a0 Babylon equals Rome!\u00a0 So the woman is Rome.\u00a0 And then you say to them, \u201cwell, who\u2019s the beast?\u201d\u00a0 Well, the beast is Rome.\u00a0 Okay, so Rome destroys Rome, that doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense, does it.\n\nThe woman on the beast is not Rome in the west, it\u2019s Babylon in the east.\u00a0\u00a0 You say well how do you know that?\u00a0 Because it says Babylon, it doesn\u2019t say Rome.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that it says come here into the wilderness, he carried me away in the wilderness.\u00a0 Now let me ask you a question?\u00a0 Is Rome in a wilderness?\u00a0 Is Rome in a desert?\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019ve been to Rome, it\u2019s a beautiful city, but there\u2019s no wilderness, there\u2019s no desert there at all.\u00a0 Well, is Babylon in the east in the wilderness?\u00a0 Yes it is.\u00a0 Isaiah 21:9 says this of Babylon:\u00a0 \u201cFallen, fallen is Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 And Isaiah 21:1 of Babylon says this: \u201cThe oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As windstorms in the Negev sweep on, It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying end.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that according to Isaiah 21:9 and verse 1 that \u201cthe wilderness\u201d does not describe Rome; the wilder\u00ad-ness describes Babylon.\n\nMy friend, Mark Hitchcock, in his very good book that I recommend to you, called \u201cThe Second Coming of Babylon, <\/em>makes this statement about the wilderness in Revelation 17:3.\u00a0 \u201cAnd he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw\u201d this vision, John sees, \u201cI saw a woman sitting on \u00a0a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.\n\nOne of the things I want us to understand is as you go through Revelation chapter 17, this is where most people go astray, they don\u2019t recognize the fact that there\u2019s two images here.\u00a0 This is not a chapter about the beast, it\u2019s not a chapter about the harlotrous woman named Babylon.\u00a0 It\u2019s a chapter about a woman rides the beast.\u00a0 The woman is image one, the beast is image two.\u00a0 Babylon, the city Babylon, is riding on the beast.\u00a0 \u00a0You say well who is the beast?\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you asked.\u00a0 The woman, or Babylon, is riding on the beast.\u00a0 Who\u2019s the beast?\u00a0 The beast is the anti-christ and his allies.\u00a0 The beast has seven heads and ten horns.\n\nNow, the seven heads later on in the chapter are going to be given a definition or a description.\u00a0 The ten horns later on in the chapter are going to be given a definition and a description.\u00a0 Be patient with the Bible, let the Bible interpret itself.\u00a0 Those interpretations of the heads and the horns are coming; for now it suffices to say that this beast that she is riding upon is the antichrist and his allies; the antichrist and his kingdom.\u00a0 And this issue of supremacy that the woman is asserting over the beast is an explanation as to why the beast is going to turn on her later on in the chapter, chapter 7, verses 16-17. \u00a0[Revelation 7:16-17, \u201cThey will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; [17]\u00a0<\/sup>for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.\u201d]\n\nI mean, why does God put it in the heart of the beast to destroy Babylon?\u00a0 It has to do with the prideful way in which the woman is riding the beast.\u00a0 Some way, somehow the ancient city of Babylon seems to get an upper hand even over the antichrist himself.\u00a0 And one of the things you have to understand about the antichrist, Daniel 11:36-37, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, is he desires to be worshipped ABOVE all that is called God.\n\n[Daniel 11:36-37, \u201cThen the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done. [37] \u00a0<\/sup>He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other<\/em> god; for he will magnify himself above them<\/em> all.\u00a0 2 Thessalonians 2:4, \u201cwho opposes and exalts himself above [<\/sup>a<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.\u201d]\n\nThis, by the way, is one of the reasons why I have a very difficult time with the Islamic identification of the antichrist.\u00a0 Islam is in ascendancy and people think well, the antichrist must be Muslim.\u00a0 I don\u2019t doubt the fact that Islam has a dominant role to play in the end times.\u00a0 I did write a book on this whole subject called THE MIDDLE EAST MELTDOWN<\/em>.\u00a0 [THE MIDDLE EAST MELTDOWN: The Coming Islamic Invasion of Israel by Dr. Andy Woods]\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested come talk to me and I can get you a copy of that.\n\nBut that\u2019s not to say that the antichrist must be Muslim for the simple reason that how could a Muslim desire to be worshipped above all that is called God?\u00a0 I know of no Muslim anywhere that would put himself above Allah, and yet that\u2019s what this beast wants to do.\u00a0 And he doesn\u2019t want rivals, he doesn\u2019t want competition, and he doesn\u2019t even want it coming from his own city, Babylon itself, that begins to influence the beast.\n\nAnd we move into verse 4, the appearance of the woman.\u00a0 Now get the beast out of your mind for just a moment, we\u2019re now talking specifically about the woman.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to get a lot more treatment on the beast later but forget the beast for now; we\u2019ll save the beast for last.\u00a0 How\u2019s that?\u00a0 And let\u2019s focus specifically on this woman.\u00a0 And I want you to see her appearance.\u00a0 This is why I\u2019ve entitled this sermon, The Beautiful Side of Evil.\u00a0 Notice how Babylon is portrayed here, as this harlot.\u00a0 The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet 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.\u201d\n\nThe first thing to understand about this woman is she\u2019s seductive, like you would expect with a harlot or a prostitute.\u00a0 Why would someone be enticed by a harlot or a prostitute?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s some\u00adthing in us, our fallen nature, that would attract us to such a person.\u00a0 She knows how to promote and market her wares, so to speak.\u00a0 And consequently prostitution, as you well know, has become the oldest profession and there\u2019s a reason for its popularity.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason for internet pornography.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason for online hookups and all of these things that go on, these entities, these women are appealing, they are attractive, they are seductive.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how this woman appears, the beautiful side of evil.\n\nYou see, all that glitters is not necessarily gold.\u00a0 There\u2019s an awful lot in the Bible about the foolishness of people that run into the arms of a prostitute.\u00a0 Read the Book of Proverbs some time.\u00a0 It talks about this over and over again.\u00a0 Proverbs 7:18-23 says this, the prostitute is speaking, \u201cCome, let us drink our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with caresses, [17] For my husband is not at home, he has gone away on a long journey; [20] and he has taken a bag of money with him.\u00a0 At the full moon he will come home.\u00a0 [21] With her many \u00a0persuasions she entices him; with her flattering lips she seduces him. [22] \u00a0<\/sup>Suddenly he follows her\u201d watch this, \u201cAs an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in<\/em> fetters to the discipline of a fool, [23] Until an arrow pierces through his liver; as a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know that it will cost him<\/em> his life.\u201d\n\nNow isn\u2019t that interesting the way Satan promotes sin?\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t promote it as sin; he promotes it as excitement, allurement, and what he\u2019s not telling us is the long term consequences associated with that sin.\u00a0 A man, according to the Book of Proverbs who follows a prostitute is like one going off to his own slaughter, like an animal about to be slaughtered.\u00a0 [27] \u00a0<\/sup>Her house is the way to Sheol,\ndescending to the chambers of death.\u201d\n\nProverbs 7:6-7 says, \u201cFor at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,\u00a0 [7] \u00a0<\/sup>And I saw among the naive, and<\/em> discerned among the youths a young man lacking in sense,\u201d\u00a0 That is the sitting duck for the prostitute, someone that really hasn\u2019t had enough life experience to understand the consequences of sin; someone who looks past the advertisement of sin and sees it simply as something to indulge himself with.\u00a0 What a fool he is, the Bible says.\u00a0 Satan is so incredibly good at getting our minds fixated on the short term pleasures associated with sin that we can almost give no thought whatsoever to the long term consequences. \u00a0It goes back to the Garden of Eden, \u201cWhen the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eye, and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate.\u201d\u00a0 Genesis 3:6.\u00a0 She completely forgot about the consequences that God articulated in the prior chapter concerning death.\u00a0 This is the beautiful side of evil.\n\nMatthew 23:27 says, \u201cWoe to you, scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites!\u00a0 For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside\u201d just like this harlot, \u201cwhich on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men\u2019s bones and all uncleanness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Paul, 2 Corinthians 11:14, \u201cNo wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.\u201d\n\nI\u2019m here to tell you something folks\u2026 sin is fun!\u00a0 Sin is enjoyable and you heard it from me and you heard it from this pulpit.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the other part of the equation\u2014the pleasure of sin is very short-lived.\u00a0 The long term consequences hang around a lot longer!\u00a0 Hebrews 11:25, of Moses, it says, \u201cChoosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, there is pleasure in sin but it\u2019s very momentary; it\u2019s very passing.\u00a0 The unwanted pregnancy, the venereal diseases, the guilt, the destroyed relationship, they have a tendency to stick around a lot longer than that one night stand.\u00a0 And this is how Babylon is seducing the nations metaphorically.\u00a0 Her doctrine is so appealing that the nations are under her [can't understand word].\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice here that she is adorned in purple and gold.\u00a0 Those are the same colors that we have in chapter 18 verse 16; that\u2019s one of the many reasons why I think chapter 18 and chapter 17 are talking about the same city.\u00a0 Chapter 18 is the more commercial side of the city; chapter 17 is the more religious side of the same city.\n\nNow most of you are Bible readers and commentators will see purple and gold and they\u2019ll go right to Roman Catholicism.\u00a0 Look at the robes of the priests, purple and gold and may I just say to you I wouldn\u2019t look in that direction to figure out what the purple and gold mean; I would study the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 Daniel is the basement, Revelation is the ceiling.\u00a0 And what did the last King of Neo Babylonia do for Daniel, a man named Belteshazzar, when he interpreted, Daniel did, the hand\u00adwriting on the wall?\u00a0 He was given \u201ca necklace of gold around his neck;\u201d there\u2019s the gold, Daniel 5:7.\u00a0 Any man who reads this inscription and explains its interpretation shall be clothed with purple,\u201d Daniel 5:7, \u201cand a necklace of gold around his neck,\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 5:7, \u201cThe king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, \u201cAny man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple and have<\/em> a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as third ruler<\/em> in the kingdom.\u201d]\n\nYou\u2019ll see the same thing in Daniel 5:16, Daniel 5:29.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:16, \u201cBut I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now if you are able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear<\/em> a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler<\/em> in the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 5:29, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>Then Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put<\/em> a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now<\/em> had authority as the third ruler<\/em> in the kingdom.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that if we just let the Bible say what it wants to say and we connect the right images together we know exactly who this city is.\u00a0 It\u2019s the identical city that Nebuchadnezzar, at one time, presided over, ancient Babylon in modern day Iraq.\u00a0 Did you notice that this woman is holding a golden cup in her hand?\u00a0 Where does that imagery to back to?\u00a0 It goes back to the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 51 and verse 7; in fact I read this verse a little earlier.\u00a0 Jeremiah, concerning the destruction of Babylon, says, \u201cBabylon has been a golden cup\u201d isn\u2019t that what she\u2019s holding here, \u201cin the hand of the Lord, intoxicating all the earth.\u00a0 The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are going mad.\u201d\n\nThe very cup itself that she\u2019s holding you can find its source in Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy.\u00a0 And you say well wait a minute pastor, didn\u2019t we study the Book of Daniel not too long ago, and you\u2019d be right on that.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t Nebuchadnezzar take the vessels, including cups, with him as he brought the nation of Israel into captivity?\u00a0 And didn\u2019t his descendant, Belshazzar, begin to drink intoxicating beverages out of those very vessels of God from the temple?\u00a0 And isn\u2019t that what brought the handwriting on the wall and the judgment of God in Daniel 5, all precipitated by a cup containing inebriating beverages in Babylon. See how the imagery of Daniel fills in the imagery of the Book of Revelation?\u00a0 Daniel is the basement, the Book of Revelation is the ceiling.\n\nAnd your average Christian today doesn\u2019t connect these dots; they wander all over the place, all over the Bible trying to make sense out of this.\u00a0 But if you understand that Daniel and Revelation go together and you understand where the golden cup imagery comes from you can see exactly who this woman is, she is the city of Babylon.\n\nSo we\u2019ve looked at her introduction, judgment, immorality, influence, appearance, but what about her title?\u00a0 What exactly is on the prostitute\u2019s forehead.\u00a0 Look, if you will, at Revelation 17 and notice, if you will, verse 5, it tells you exactly what\u2019s inscribed on her forehead.\u00a0 \u201cand on her forehead a name was<\/em> written, a mystery, \u201cBABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 notice, if\n\nNotice what\u2019s on her forehead; it\u2019s \u201cBABYLON THE GREAT.\u201d\u00a0 You say \u201cBABYLON THE GREAT,\u201d I\u2019ve read that somewhere before.\u00a0 And you\u2019re right; it\u2019s in Daniel 4:30, it\u2019s the boast of Nebuchadnezzar when he looked over his empire, Babylon\u00a0 He said in Daniel 4:30 \u201cIs this not Babylon the great, which I myself have created by my own hand?\u201d\u00a0 What empire is he talking about?\u00a0 Rome?\u00a0 Rome didn\u2019t exist yet.\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about the ancient city of Babylon.\n\nNow here\u2019s what\u2019s very interesting, as you go through the Bible the name Babylon is used 300 times in the Bible. Guess what it means every single time?\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean Rome! It doesn\u2019t mean Jerusalem!\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean New\u00a0 York City!\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean Washington D. C.!\u00a0 It means Babylon!\u00a0 So since John, at the end of the Bible is summing up why would I all of a sudden, out of the clear blue switch the meaning around, take out my white out and say well, it really doesn\u2019t mean Babylon, I\u2019m going to scratch that out, I\u2019m going to give it the name Rome or some other city.\n\nIs it not true as we have gone through the Book of Revelation that there have been many geographical references to geography.\u00a0 Have we not made the point that all of these places of geography are literal?\u00a0 Every single one of them !\u00a0 So why would the geographical reference not be understood literally?\u00a0 Now as I mentioned I think in the last sermon on this people say well wait a minute, pastor, it doesn\u2019t say Babylon the Great, it says Mystery Babylon.\u00a0 In their minds they think it means mystical Babylon, symbolic Babylon, metaphorical Babylon, and so they think that gives them a right to change the meaning of the word Babylon.\n\nJohn Walvoord, one of the greats of the great, says this in his interpretation of chapter 17 verse 5.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThe city here according to verse 5 is a mystery, not a literal city.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve given you this quote by S. S. Bruce, and he says, \u201cThis title was written on her forehead: Mystery: \u2018mystery\u2019 indicates that the name she bears \u2026 is not to be understood literally, but allegorically:\u201d watch this now, this guy could be on the United States Supreme Court he\u2019s so skilled at changing the meaning of words.\u00a0 \u201cBabylon the Great is read, but \u2018Rome\u2019 is meant.\u00a0 Cf. verses 9, 19).\u201d\u00a0 Babylon the Great is read but Rome is meant. Get the whiteout, cross it out, every time you see the word \u201cBabylon\u201d I want you to rewrite in there the word Rome; that\u2019s how he is believing.\u00a0 In fact, this is the mindset of most scholars concerning this city, Babylon.\u00a0 And they think they can do this because it doesn\u2019t just say \u201cBabylon the Great,\u201d it says \u201cMystery Babylon the Great.\u201d\n\nAnd here\u2019s the confusion; you\u2019ll notice that in the KJV, (I think last time I said KGB and people thought I was talking about Russia) you\u2019ll notice that in the KJB and the NIV the word \u201cMYSTERY\u201d is in capital letters.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 In fact, if you\u2019re following along with me this morning, or this afternoon now, in your NIV study Bible you might be NIV positive for all I know, and you\u2019re reading along,\u00a0 you\u2019re going to say look, it says \u201cMystery Babylon,\u201d Mystery is capitalized.\u00a0 And after all, we\u2019ve got the King James only movement and they think the King James Version was the version the Apostle Paul used so they think it was divinely inspired, not understanding that it\u2019s a good translation but it\u2019s a human translation.\u00a0 Like any translation it can have errors in it.\u00a0 But they\u2019ll say it says Mystery Babylon.\u00a0 Now look at the bottom of the screen.\n\nLook at the NASB, \u201c\u2026 and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery<\/u> \u2018BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIOSN OF THE EARTH.\u201d\u00a0 See how \u201cmystery is not in capital letters?\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s obviously no basis for clarity in this, in the body of Christ, if our Bible translations are all saying different things.\u00a0 One group says\u00a0 it means mystical, mystery Babylon.\u00a0 Walvoord and Bruce.\u00a0 Another group, like myself, says no, it doesn\u2019t say mystery Babylon, it says \u201cBABYLON THE GREAT\u201d who happens to be a mystery.\u00a0 That view argues for literal Babylon.\u00a0 So who\u2019s right here?\u00a0 I mean is the KJB or the NIV right, or is the NASB right?\u00a0 So come on pastor, you get paid the big bucks, you tell us what\u2019s going on here.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nI believe that in this particular case the NASB is correct.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because the title of the city is given five other times in these chapters.\u00a0 Revelation 14:8, Revelation 16:19, Revelation 17:5, Revelation 18:2, Revelation 18:10 and Revelation 18:21 and every other time this city is referred to in these chapters and in the Book of Revelation she is never called MYSTERY BABYLON.\u00a0 She\u2019s always called BABYLON THE GREAT.\n\n.Well then, what does the word \u201cMystery\u201d mean?\u00a0 Why is it even included.\u00a0 What is a mystery?\u00a0 A mystery is a new truth.\u00a0 A mystery is something veiled now unveiled.\u00a0 That\u2019s how Paul uses the word mystery in his writings like in Colossians 1:26, that is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations but now has been manifested so his saints.\u00a0 What is the mystery here?\u00a0 Here\u2019s the mystery\u2014you have in the Bible two strands of prophetic truth developing; they\u2019re developing from Genesis to Revelation.\u00a0 You have the coming forth of the Antichrist in his one-world system, a ten nation confederacy, but then you have other passages, like Isaiah 13 and 14, Jeremiah 50 and 51, Zechariah 5, 5-11, which all tell that Babylon is destined to play some sort of prophetic role in the end times.\n\nSo you\u2019ve got two trains on the same train track that are about ready to collide with each other.\u00a0 How does this tension get resolved?\u00a0 The answer is chapter 17, the woman rides the beast.\u00a0 The woman, or Babylon, gets supremacy in some sense over the beast, the beast and his allies aren\u2019t going to like that and they are going to turn violently on Babylon and burn her flesh with fire because God has put it in the hearts of the beast and his allies to do this and that\u2019s how Babylon is destroyed.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery.\n\nWhat are we told prior to this?\u00a0 Babylon will fall in the seventh bowl judgment.\u00a0 We\u2019re not told how!\u00a0 How it falls is the mystery; it\u2019s a new truth.\u00a0 It\u2019s never before been unveiled.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got two images here, a woman rides the beast; two strands of prophetic thought in direct conflict with each other and how the whole thing comes to an end is described in chapter 17.\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t have chapter 17 in your Bible you would have no way of understanding how these two prophetic strands of thought\u00a0 are resolved.\u00a0 That\u2019s why John, when he sees this, verse 6, is astonished.\u00a0 \u00a0He wonders greatly when he sees this because he says to himself aha, this is how the whole conflict is resolved.\u00a0 More on that later.\u00a0 \u00a0Arthur Pink who I think has it completely correct on this, and I don\u2019t agree with everything Arthur Pink says, but on this he\u2019s dead right.\u00a0 He says, \u2018We believe that the English translators have misled many people by printing (on their own authority) the word \u2018mystery\u2019 in large capital letters,\u201d that\u2019s why we\u2019re all confused on this, we\u2019ve got Bible verses saying different things, \u201cthus making it appear that this is a part of the woman\u2019s name.\u00a0 This we are assured is a mistake.\u201d\n\nThe King James Version has got a lot of great translation in it but not here; it\u2019s misled many, many people here. That mystery is connected with the woman herself and not with her name which is clear from verse 7 where the angel says unto John, verse 7 which we haven\u2019t gotten to yet, \u201cI will tell you the mystery of the woman and\u201d AND of the beast that carries her, [which has the seven heads and the ten horns.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery, the mystery is my goodness, Babylon seems to be getting the upper hands on the antichrist, how are these two strands of prophetic thought going to be resolved?\u00a0\u00a0 The mystery is not just the woman, the mystery is the woman riding the beast and how this tension gets fixed.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery.\u00a0 That\u2019s the new truth.\u00a0 And that is why there is so much misunderstanding on this.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that she is not just called \u201cBABYLON THE GREAT,\u201d watch this now, she is called \u201cTHE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.\u201d\u00a0 Now, \u201cMOTHER\u201d is your source; she is this woman, the city of Babylon, the source of all harlotry that has ever come in terms of false doctrine, on planet earth.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot like saying in John 8:44, it\u2019s a superlative, where Jesus in John 8:44 calls Satan \u201cthe\u201d definite article, \u201cfather of all lies.\u201d [John 8:44, \u201cYou are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.\u201d]\n\nSatan is not just a liar, he\u2019s the ultimate liar; he\u2019s the zenith liar, he is the quintessential liar.\u00a0 And that is what is being said here of this woman.\u00a0 She is not just exporting harlotry upon the earth, she\u2019s the source of all of it, all of it comes back to her!\u00a0\u00a0 All of it is sourced in her.\u00a0 Now question?\u00a0 What city would qualify for that?\u00a0 Would Rome qualify?\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 Rome came into existence long after harlotry was exported everywhere.\u00a0 Rome if anything is a daughter harlot, she\u2019s not the mother harlot.\u00a0 Would Jerusalem qualify?\u00a0 No, Jerusalem came into existence long after this harlotry was spread all over Europe.\u00a0 Jerusalem is not the mother of all harlotry; she absorbed it tragically and she became a daughter.\n\nFolks, there\u2019s only one city that could ever qualify as being THE mother of all harlotry and that\u2019s the city of Babylon for the very simple reason that at Babylon, at the Tower of Babel, in the land of Shinar, there was only one language.\u00a0 So the sin that was taking place there, that we have defined as The Mother Child System, which we got into in previous sermons, was taken from there and it went into the whole world.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s how you look at the Tower of Babel. It had a global effect, just like taking a rock and tossing a rock into a placid pond and the wake reverberates outward in all directions.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened at the Tower of Babel, because when God changed the language to languages everybody took a little bit of that system with them into their own culture and ethnicity.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why you could find The Mother Child System scattered all over the world.\n\nWhen it says here she is \u201cthe mother of all harlots\u201d there is only one nation or one city I should say that would qualify, the city of Babylon.\u00a0 Clarence Larking says this:\u00a0 The Tower of Babel was the origin of the nations but the nations weren\u2019t scattered abroad over the earth until Satan had implanted in them the virus of a doctrine that has been the source of every false religion the world has ever known.\u201d\n\nLet\u2019s finish here with her persecution.\u00a0 Verse 6, watch this now: \u201cAnd I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 Notice here that the woman is \u201cdrunk with the blood of the saints\u201d and not with the church.\u00a0 Did you notice that?\u00a0 The Book of Revelation uses the word \u201cchurch\u201d nineteen times in chapters and then when John has the futuristic vision the church, or the name ekklesia<\/em> disappears.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the church that\u2019s being persecuted here, it\u2019s the saints.\n\nWhy would that transition be made?\u00a0 Because the church, via the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, is in heaven while all of these things are happening.\u00a0 We\u2019ve talked in depth about that.\u00a0 Folks, I\u2019m not promising an easy life as a Christian; I\u2019m not saying everything in your life is going to go your way and work out.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying your life won\u2019t be filled with problems and difficulties and setbacks and even persecution itself.\u00a0\u00a0 But I\u2019ll tell you something, you are totally exempt as a blood bought saint from the wrath of God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what these judgments represent because they are precipitated by the Lamb in heaven opening the seven sealed scroll.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice this woman is drunk with the blood of the saints.\u00a0 Now isn\u2019t that interesting because back in verse 2 she was making everyone else drunk.\u00a0 Well, the reason she was making everyone else drunk is she was drunk herself.\u00a0 2 Timothy 3:13 says, \u201cBut evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u201d\u00a0 Why are people out there deceiving others?\u00a0 Because they\u2019re deceived themselves.\u00a0 Why is this woman causing everyone to fall into an inebriated state?\u00a0 Because she\u2019s inebriated herself.\u00a0 She\u2019s under the influence of false doctrine herself and as the saying goes, \u201churt people hurt people.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDeceived people deceive people.\u201d\n\nSo drunkenness, she causes but she, according to verse 6, is in a state of drunkenness herself and it\u2019s describing here the slaughter\u2026 the slaughter of Christians or believers living on the earth at the time.\u00a0 Now that again should que up in your mind Babylon, because that\u2019s how Babylon is described in Jeremiah\u2019s prophecies.\u00a0 Jeremiah chapter 51 and verse 49, Jeremiah says, \u201cBabylon must fall because of Israel\u2019s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 This shouldn\u2019t be any real guesswork on our part if you know Jeremiah\u2019s prophecies.\u00a0 She\u2019s a persecutor, that\u2019s how Jeremiah, in the Old Testament describes her.\n\nIt\u2019s also interesting that over in Revelation 18:24, the same city, this is brought out again.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd in her was found the blood\u201d that\u2019s what she\u2019s drunk with, the blood of the saints.\u00a0 \u201cAnd in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.\u201d She is a persecutor.\u00a0 Is it not a little interesting that if I\u2019m right on this and this city is going to be built in modern day Iraq, a Muslim country, a Muslim influenced city, it starts to make sense why this particular city is drunk with the blood of the saints.\n\nIs it not true that wherever Islam goes it persecutes God\u2019s people. That\u2019s even happening today, is it not!\u00a0 I mean, on the eve of the rapture, it\u2019s almost like we\u2019re living back in medieval times where we\u2019re seeing modern day crucifixions in those parts of the world.\u00a0 We\u2019re seeing Christians lit on fire and put into cages.\u00a0 We\u2019re seeing Christians put into cages and lowered into bodies of water whereby they\u2019re drowning.\u00a0 I mean, this is what\u2019s happening on the news; this is what\u2019s happening all around us.\u00a0 And it makes completely logical sense to me that if this city arises in an Islamic controlled country that this description of the woman being drunk with the blood of the saints would make sense.\u00a0 I just kind of submit that to you for your consideration.\n\nSo what does John do?\u00a0 He wonders, he doesn\u2019t just wonder, he wonders greatly what all of this means.\u00a0 And we will see next week where the angel says don\u2019t wonder any more, I\u2019m going to tell you exactly what all of this means and we\u2019re going to see next Lord\u2019s day that the Bible is its own interpreter.\n\nAnd so a lot of information is enough for a Sunday morning; a lot of you are saying as visitors what kind of church is this?\u00a0 [Laughter].\u00a0 Where is the three points and a poem?\u00a0 Well, as we like to say here at Sugar Land Bible Church our middle name is \u201cBible,\u201d and you\u2019re students of the Bible, we let the Bible speak where it wants to speak.\u00a0 And not only are we students of the Bible but we are proclaimers of the gospel.\u00a0 The gospel we know from the Bible; the gospel means good news.\u00a0 We talked about blood this morning in communion and also in our passage, but the blood of Jesus Christ is so essential because it washes away all sin.\u00a0 The blood has already been shed.\u00a0 The sin debt of the world has been taken care of and consequently the whole world today is savable.\u00a0 Every single human being, man, woman, child, on planet earth as I speak is savable but not saved until they receive what Jesus has done.\n\nThat\u2019s the only condition.\u00a0 You can\u2019t work your way unto God, but you have to receive the gift He\u2019s given you, a gift is of no value to you if it\u2019s un-received.\u00a0 But how do you receive a gift from God.\u00a0 It\u2019s always by faith, for the Bible says, \u201cwithout faith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0 Faith means trust, it means reliance on, it means dependency in,\u00a0 you\u2019re not believing that, you\u2019re believing in something.\u00a0 You\u2019re believing in something greater than yourself to reconcile you back to God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the only way to be reconciled back to God, by believing in the One whom He has sent.\u00a0 So our invitation, and it\u2019s not something you have to raise a\u00a0 hand to do, walk an aisle to do, join a church to do, give money to do, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where the Lord places\u00a0 you under conviction, and we know that the Spirit does that, John 16:7-11 says that.\u00a0 He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.\u00a0 And so no doubt people within the sound of my voice are under that conviction, because that\u2019s what the Holy Spirit does.\u00a0 And our exhortation to you is to respond to that convicting ministry by trusting in Christ and Christ alone.\u00a0 It\u2019s something you can do right now even as I\u2019m speaking, within the quietness of your own thoughts and heart and mind.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of privacy between\u00a0 you and the Lord, where you trust in His provision for your salvation and the safe keeping of your soul.\u00a0 We exhort you to do that.\u00a0 And if it\u2019s something that you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this chapter and the things that it reveals to us about the future but even more important than that we\u2019re grateful for the fact that we are secure in You and our future is secure, not because of ourselves but because of what You\u2019ve done for us.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t