Episode Transcript
Revelation chapter 17 verses 15 through 18 And the reason I'm teaching through Revelation this morning is because normally I'm expounding in the book of Daniel on Sunday mornings, but we have some people who faithfully attend on Sunday mornings. who do not have internet.
They're not either internet savvy, perhaps they're older people.
And I do not want them coming back. next Sunday morning and having missed that block of teaching because our verse by verse exposition is very important to us at Central Baptist Church.
We want people to be able to uh Enjoy the study of God's word line upon line and be able to understand all of the verses and the particular books of the Bible that we teach.
Alright?
So we'll be here in Revelation 17.
The reason I chose to teach out of Revelation this morning is because the book of Daniel is also a prophetic book.
It's an Old Testament prophecy, but it is married up in the book of the Revelation.
So I wanted to have the same genre of teaching in Scripture for you this morning also edify you and enhance our study in the book of Daniel as well.
Let's go ahead and begin By reading Revelation 17, and I want to read verses 1 through 18.
Revelation 17 Verses one through eighteen Again, vials and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast. full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet And decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon.
Now I'm going to pause right there and remind you that this is where the prophecies marry up from the Old and New Testaments.
Because in the book of Daniel, we have been studying the empire of Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar ruled between five and six hundred years before the coming of Christ. and how Nebuchadnezzar fell in his kingdom and end up having to go out into a field and eat grass like an ox for a period of seven time periods, the Bible says.
And so this is Mystery Babylon that we're reading about here, and that's the whore, the harlot here in the book of Revelation.
So as we're studying in the book of Daniel about Babylon there, it is a picture of the uh harlotry and the uh the politics. that is to come, the polity that is to come at the end of time.
Mystery Babylon, or that spiritual Babylon that we learned about in the book of Daniel, the great the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.
And I saw the woman, that is the whore now, drunken with the blood of the saints And with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration Now that doesn't mean he admired her in the sense that he he uh liked her.
That's how we would use that admiration today.
But the wonder and admiration here is something that just totally took him back.
We have a woman, we have a political empire that is drunk with the blood of the saints, that is attacking believers. and persecuting the church of God.
Verse seven.
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel?
I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her.
Which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
So now we see, and this is all getting context for the verses that we'll be studying this morning.
This is all leading up to that And we see that this this whore is being carried by or is riding upon A beast, that's very important.
The beast is what's giving her her mobility.
The beast is what's giving her her stability.
This harlot, this Political empire is founded upon a beast.
Okay?
Now it says here The beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns, verse eight.
The beast that thou sawst was and is not. and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition.
And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was And is not, and yet is.
That is a false, a counterfeit gospel.
That's a false death Burial and resurrection by this beast.
Verse 9.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom.
The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
And there are seven kings.
Five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come.
And when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
Okay?
Verse 11.
And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth. and is of the seven and goeth into perdition, or that is, into destruction uh from the Lord, absolute uh uh denial of God, and absolute revolt against the kingdom of heaven.
Verse 12, and the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet but receive power as kings one hour or during this particular occasion with the beast.
Verse thirteen These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
That is, they will be unified in their purpose and yield their allegiance to the beast.
Verse 14, these shall make war with the lamb.
Very important So so far in Revelation, what we have is a whore, a beast, and a lamb.
A whore, a beast, And a lamb.
These shall make war with a lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them.
Praise God.
For he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are peoples. and multitudes and nations and tongues and the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, for God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree and give their kingdom unto the beast. until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
And the woman which thou sawest is that which listen now, great city.
So the whore is a city We have a city.
We have a beast.
We have a lamb.
The woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth Over the kings of the earth.
Now, with that said, we're going to start our exposition of the text this morning All right, look here now in verse 15.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest where the horseth are people and multitudes and nations and tongues.
So here's what we have to understand is what the many waters are that the whore sits upon.
And this is not the first time that we read about this in the book of the Revelation.
We read about it in the uh uh earlier uh in the book whenever you study uh in if you look in chapter seventeen Look with me now in verse 1.
And there came one of the angels which had the seven vials and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon Many waters.
So this great whore, which is a city, which rules over the kings of the earth sits upon many waters.
Now remember, Babylon was also a city that ruled upon the kings over the kings of the earth It was one king, Nebuchadnezzar, ruling over many kings.
It was a world empire.
But it says that the horse sits upon many waters, and these many waters are said to be peoples. nations, multitudes, it says here, and tongues or languages.
And I believe the best way to understand that analogy for those of us who live in the United States. is to remember the song America the Beautiful, which references God blessing our nation how?
From C to shining sea.
Being the great nation that we are, we're made up of fifty straight states, and that they stretch across this continent And they reach from one sea to another.
But a vast global empire would actually set upon many seas. or bodies of water.
So I believe this is referring to a large geographical boundary and and ethnic scope that this great harlot, that this great city, this great political empire is going to rule over in the end of times.
But the big takeaway here is that the Great Whore is a network.
It's an organized system of people and nations.
The past couple of weeks.
We have seen some incredible footage on the news, have we not?
Incredible unrest.
And uh what we're going to be seeing in the end of times is a union, a union, a unification of political uh uh uh n uh political structures.
They're going to be coming together and there's going to be a theopolitical union of people in the end of times.
In my studies, I've come across several references to these theopolitical unions in the Bible, and they also was referred to as harlots And we've already seen that the harlot here in the Revelation is called Mystery Babylon, but Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian kings in the Old Testament, was also referred to as a harlot, with language very similar to what we're looking at here in the book of Revelation, chapter 17.
Nahum, chapter 3, if you're taking notes.
Nahum chapter 3, verses 4 and 5.
God said Nineveh would be destroyed, quote, because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot the mistress of witchcrafts that selleth nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts God said, Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face.
And I will show the nations thy nakedness and the kingdoms thy shame.
Now notice how the Bible says Nineveh sold the nations.
To her whoredoms.
Nineveh and Babylon were both political giants in their days.
World empires, political giants.
And being superpowers over the world, they trafficked. with the kings of the earth, importing and exporting all kinds of earthly goods and pleasures of this world and the sensual filth of their wicked religions, their belief system, their mindsets.
If you haven't noticed, when you look at the news, there is a a permeation of wickedness in the news. where people uh all around the world, we may describe them as the left, uh, but people all around the world have a upside-down view of reality.
And they push the perversions of this world.
And they are unified in their voice and holiness.
And God said he was going to discover Nineveh's skirts upon her face and show her the n her nakedness to the nations.
If you could think. of uh this being a skirt and on a woman and it being brought up to her face, that's God's way of saying, I'm going to show her nakedness to the nations.
In other words, I'm going to put her to great shame.
Before the nations.
Now, I want you to compare what God said he would do with the harlot Nineveh with what God said he would do to the harlot in the book of Revelation in verse 16.
All right, Revelation, where you're at here, go look now to verse 16.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked.
You see how what's going to happen in the book of the Revelation in the end is already described for us before in the Old Testament with Nineveh, with Babylon, with uh Rome, and with Greece and other nations, other world empires God has already shown how they are going to fall.
In the previous verses, the Bible says these ten horns will give their power not to the whore but to the beast.
That eighth king, the Bible says, will have a counterfeit, death, and resurrection.
And part of giving their power to the beast Will naturally include rescinding their power from the whore.
There's going to be a great political upheaval And they will destroy the harlot city.
They will destroy that political structure that will exist in the future, which will sit upon many waters. and include many people groups and they're going to give their allegiance to the beast.
A new political figure The destruction of this harlot city by these kings in the end times.
Again, it was foreshadowed by the destruction of ancient Babylon, which was the harlot in the book of Daniel.
Who John has already said is a picture of this end-time harlot.
Now, I want you to listen to this amazing prophecy which Jeremiah gave of this end-time event. using the near destruction of Babylon at that time as a prophetical pattern of the end time destruction of the final great harlot in the last days Brother Richard, why are we going through all of these prophecies?
Because what happened centuries ago will happen in the very near future.
Mark it down.
When you're looking here at the news and you're seeing the political turmoil, it is just the the the the signaling to us. that a political upheaval is on its way, the world and the powers are going to be shaken in preparation for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and set up a kingdom that will never be shaken.
Jeremiah chapter 51, verses 12 through 13.
Listen to what God says.
Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon.
Make the watch strong.
Set up the watchman.
Prepare the ambushes, for the Lord hath both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon.
O thou that dwellest upon many waters.
You see that?
There's that many waters again.
What we see in Daniel And in Jeremiah, what we see with the fall of the world empires in the past is a guarantee token.
Of what we will see when this world in the future, shortly, will begin to unify the nations together Will begin to persecute the church together, will have a unified thought of ungodliness hatred for the church, which we already see, do we not?
And it's going to look to the believers at the time.
It's going to look like they are going to be overpowered.
They are going to be martyred.
The great whore will be drunk with the blood of the saints.
But as Babylon fell, as Nineveh fell, as Greece fell, as Assyria fell, as Rome fell, you can take it to the bank So the great political empire in the future and its campaign against the people of God will also fail.
Praise the Lord.
Babylon and Nineveh were imperial cities, which typified the Tshor.
And since these harlot cities stretch from sea to sea, then we need to understand that these ten kings in the book of Revelation are going to be revolting against the established global theopolitical union at the end of time and ultimately give their allegiance to the Eighth King Who will have the counterfeit death and resurrection?
And I believe we could understand this as that end-time event that moves the powers that be to turn from their patriotism.
Of the whore to their deification of the beast.
Unbeknownst to these ten kings, however When they destroyed the city of the whore and give their allegiance to the beast, it will only be because God has put that in their hearts.
Now, these kings will not love God.
They will not be trying to follow the will of God, but they will unknowingly be fulfilling God's will, just as the Jews unknowingly fulfilled the will of God when they put Jesus on the cross.
And the Romans did as well, but to fulfill God's purpose to redeem mankind.
Now look with me now in verse 17.
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and to give their allegiance unto the beast.
Until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Mark it down.
It doesn't matter what the nations do, it doesn't matter what treaties or alignments they make.
It doesn't matter how strong and purpose they are in their heart to accomplish their will on this earth.
It doesn't matter how powerful a king Or ruler will become in this earth.
God's words that are written in his Bible shall be fulfilled, every last one of them Now, remembering how the capital imperial cities of Nineveh and Babylon for Shadow the Great Horde, let's take a closer look now. at who the angel says the great whore in Revelation is.
Verse 18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
The great whore is the great city.
Which reigns over the kings of the earth.
It's not one particular religion.
It is not one particular person.
It is a political Empire that's going to have world rule.
If you'll notice with the liberals, they're always wanting to have a global government.
They're wanting to unify and reach back in the book of Genesis.
It's nothing new The government, though, that can only exist legitimately on this earth is the government of God's dear Son, the kingdom of heaven.
Remember what Jesus taught us to pray?
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
So any other kingdom outside the kingdom of God operating here on earth is an illegitimate kingdom An illegitimate power.
So the great whore is a great city that rules over the kings of the earth, and the term city here is very important I told you a few verses back that Nineveh and Babylon trafficked in their goods.
They had this great trade agreement And also they trafficked in the pleasures of this wicked world.
Babylon was typical of all the great cities. of this world that was ever built that founded themselves upon the lust of their fallen flesh.
Israel.
That was supposed to have been, in the Old Testament, that was supposed to have been a uh uh a typical city of the kingdom of God.
That was supposed to have been the uh the um example, the great example of how a city or a a kingdom of men Should be operating under the authority of God on earth.
The sad part is that didn't happen as it was supposed to.
Man has failed under every leadership but it will not fail in its leadership of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
He's going to come and set up that true Model city of God, a city that has a godly foundation.
And that's why the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 10, that the true people of God, the true believers.
Hebrews 11 10 quote looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.
So there's always been great cities With great power over the world in the Bible.
Every one of them have operated in rebellion against God, including the city of Jerusalem Which is why they're in such turmoil today.
Every one of them will fail.
And that's why the people of God, those of us who have placed our faith, In Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection for us, we are not looking, we do not have our hope in President Trump.
In the United States of America, in acquiring Greenland, I don't care how much we expand our territory, we can't even take care of Minnesota, folks.
The only hope is to have our foundation, to have a city whose foundation is the Lord God.
Whose builder and maker is God.
So throughout the history of this cursed, godless world, there have been those of us who follow the Lamb Looking for the capital city of the kingdom of heaven to come, which is going to actually sit upon many waters.
It's going to stretch from sea to shining sea, but it's not going to have its origin nor its merchandise.
Rooted in earthly things.
It's going to come from heaven above.
It's going to be founded on the things of God.
And I cannot wait for that city to come.
I am tired Of the turmoil, I'm tired of the wickedness, I'm tired of the foulness, I'm tired of the perversion, the abortion, I'm tired of the wars And I can't wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to come.
So this morning, here's what I want you to see as we begin to close.
This is the whole point of the book of the Revelation.
The whole point of us studying the Old Testament book of Daniel on Sunday morning, which will be, God willing, next week.
Here in the Revelation, in these verses, here's what we've seen.
We've seen a harlot city that now is.
We see a holy city that soon shall be.
These make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome them.
Praise God, a harlot city that now is.
That explains the vileness, the wickedness, the turmoil, the foolishness that we see in this world.
We are living in a harlot city that now is.
Praise God, but we're waiting on a holy city that soon shall be.
Now here's the thing.
To help you understand the book of Revelation, the harlot city was riding on a beast.
So the harlot city has a beast, but the holy city has a lamb.
Oh, isn't that good, folks?
The harlot city, it includes diverse people.
Who will follow the beast.
The holy city also includes diverse people because Jesus has redeemed people From every tribe, every tongue, every nation, the holy city includes people who don't follow the beast, but they follow the lamb.
And that pretty much sums up how this world is in this present day.
We have people who are following the beast and people who are following the lamb.
But it's going to be much more defined in the end times.
It's going to be much more bold in the end times.
It's going to be much more obvious in the end times.
The rebellion is going to be in the face of God in the end times.
The Bible says, speaking of Nimrod, who was the first one to try to establish a world uh uh uh city uh in with a false religion against God.
That was Nimrod, and that's why they built the Tower of Babel.
The Bible says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord It was in your face.
It's going to get bold.
It's going to get wicked.
It's going to get bad as we get closer to Jesus.
And most importantly, we see that the beast will destroy the harlot city.
Why now why is that so important?
That the beast is going destroy the the the the the the harlot is going to go from riding the beast to being destroyed by it.
The beast will destroy the city to whom it once belonged.
Why?
Because the thief comes not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
People, you cannot put your hope and trust in any type of government solution.
Any type of government program, any type of security that the government promises you, a government that will ultimately fail, it will ultimately fail you.
Governments have come and gone in this world.
But when Jesus comes again, the Bible says he will rule forever and forever.
The beast will destroy the harlot city.
Listen now.
But the Lamb will deliver the holy city.
Though you cannot help but put your hope on the Lamb, not on the beast.
Man, I tell you what, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
Jesus, the Lamb, is going to deliver his city.
Those of us who are waiting on our king to come, he's going to deliver us.
Those who in the future will be putting their hope on the beast, on that political entity at the end of time.
He'll destroy them.
And that's why it's so important to belong to the city of God, whose king, the Lamb, is Jesus Christ.
Like most harlots.
The harlot city will appear attractive to the people of this world, those who have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The government at that time will be a city that has much to offer The godless people who have their citizenship with her.
She will make people feel safe.
She'll make people feel wanted.
She's going to be an all-inclusive government.
You have whatever you believe, accept you as you are, all included.
Come and join me, and you're going to feel safe You're going to feel secure.
You're going to have your needs provided by the government.
It's going to be a great government.
We're going to take care of you.
We'll give you all the promises of this worldly pleasure, security, and satisfaction, things that people naturally long for.
And it's going to seem to the world that the Babylon of Revelation will be the best thing that's ever come to this world.
Nations. will sign on to her union.
Prosperity will seem in sight for all.
For a time it will appear that they have that prosperity as they're attacking the people of God.
They're going to see us as the great enemy that stands in their way.
But because their city will be founded on sinking sand of this world and not on the rock of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Which is the only thing that stands time, that political union will ultimately be destroyed And in the last day, that's exactly what he will do.
The devil will not be satisfied until this world falls down and worships him.
He's already tried to make our king fall down and worship him.
He tried to make the lamb fall down and worship him.
He offered Jesus Babylon.
He offered Jesus all the cities of the world.
Of this world, if Jesus would only fall down and worship him, remember that when he took him up in that exceeding high mountain in the Gospels, But Jesus wouldn't do it because Jesus knew he was going to come back under the authority of God and rule this world.
Means of revelation.
They're going to give their power to that beast and they're going to fall because of it.
They're gonna make a big mistake.
In our world again, it's restless right now.
It's in turmoil right now.
It is upside down.
The political powers that be and their citizens are very, very restless.
They're tired of war.
They're tired of the threats of war.
They're tired of the political right and especially the religious right.
That they feel is encroaching upon their desire to spread their filthiness across the world.
They want safety and prosperity, nevertheless, and this can only be done through unity.
But you better be careful who you unify with.
Safety and prosperity can't come from man Being unified to each other.
Safety and prosperity can't come from us being unified to the devil It can only come by the world being unified, reunited to the God who created it.
That's the only way.
This world belongs to Jesus And all the prophetic books of the Bible, both Old and New Testament, tell us that Jesus is coming to take this world back.
He created it.
He's the one that said, Let there be light.
He's the one that said, Let the waters divide from the waters.
He's the one that said, Let the waters be divided from the dry land.
He's the one who said, Let us make man in our image.
And it is man that has revolted against him, and through the gospel, it is Jesus who is delivered back to God who created us.
The question is, as we close this morning, are you a citizen of God's kingdom?
Are you a citizen of the city whose lamb is the king Because he's coming back.
Listen, to enter the United States, you must come through a designated point of entry.
If not, you'll be removed.
We see that on the news all the time, don't we?
And rightfully so, it's against the law Jesus also has a designated point of entry to enter into his kingdom.
And anyone trying to enter in any other way is going to be cast out.
There's only one way to come.
There's only one designated point of entry.
Jesus said in Matthew 7, 14.
He said, be called straight, and that means constricted, narrow, very tight, straight. is the gate, that's the point of entry.
And narrow is the way.
That's the road that brings you to the point of entry.
Uh uh when I went into Mexico a while back, uh I'm driving down a particular road and you can see the international boundary line as you're coming. uh to it on that particular road.
Not all roads led to that boundary line, but this particular road did And it was only one road that led to that boundary line in that particular location.
There is only one road that leads to the point of entry into the kingdom of God.
It is straight, it is narrow, it has limited uh uh uh means of of uh getting into that kingdom it limits it narrows the way into the citizenship of heaven he says Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Again, there's only one way, there's only one entry point into the kingdom of God, and it's to the cross of Jesus Christ.
That's the only way.
You can try to come any other way.
You can try to come like Cain did through your own religion You can try to come through Buddhism, you can try to come through Islam, you can try to come through Hinduism, you can try to come anyway But the only way that God has given us to enter into his kingdom is Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, I am the way.
The truth and the life, no man comes into the Father.
That is, mankind cannot be reunited back to God but by me I'll leave you with a gospel message that you can go to if you're taking notes.
If you haven't ever read it before, it's a gospel message that I wrote It'll start you at the beginning of creation.
And in about 30 minutes time, you can read this little book online.
In about 30 minutes time, little book I wrote It'll take you from the beginning of creation all the way to the second coming of Christ.
It will make the Old and New Testaments make sense to you.
And this can be read at noimesaved. com forward slash gospel.
That's K-N-O-W I-m S-A-V-E-D. com forward slash gospel.
Or you can go to Amazon and read my book, Knowing I'm Saved.
Thank you for tuning in.
God bless you.
Praise the Lord for our kingdom that's on its way.
Lord willing, I'll see you back in church next Sunday morning.
If you can't tell, I sure had a good time.
I love God's word, and I can't wait for God's son to come.
Praise the Lord.
Amen.
