Death At The Hands Of Her Lovers

Take your Bibles this morning and let's turn to Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17. You follow as I read this chapter. 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 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 will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and 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 mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. There are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen. One is, the other has not yet come.

And when he does come, 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. They are of one mind and they 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 Lord of lords and king of kings and those with him are called chosen and faithful city that has dominion over the kings of the earth. Let's pray. Father, exalt your name this day and put before us the victory of Jesus, the triumph of the Lamb, so that we will take warning and have hope. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. according to the book of revelation we live in a beautiful but alluring place it's called babylon we experience great prosperity a comfortable life and entertainment galore and this place has a tendency to seduce us into loving this world and abandoning our lord jesus we've been told to beware of the beast for he will lead us away from christ by the intimidation of persecution, but we have also been warned against the prostitute, Babylon, who can seduce us into adultery with the world.

These are the two great enemies that the book of Revelation presents to us. The one which demands our allegiance that only belongs to God, the beast, and the prostitute, the one who will seduce us away from our allegiance to Christ. But God has promised that he will judge both. And here we see that he will judge Babylon. And so he wants to warn his people who are exiles in Babylon.

As he says in chapter 18, come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. For her sins are heaped high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. And so God reveals to us in chapter 17 through 19 the end of Babylon, a vision of her coming judgment for the purpose, I believe, that we come out from her, that we are done with her, and that we have hope that this will not continue forever, that we will be delivered from her seductions.

Now up to this point in chapter 17 we have seen this alluring woman seated on many waters and on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns She is dangerous in her attractiveness. This economic and social system possesses great ability to draw us away from the Lord Jesus Christ. And let's make no mistake about it. We are living in Babylon and we are being seduced away from Jesus, not by being intimidated by threats, but getting comfortable with a lifestyle that will lead us away from Jesus because he demands much from us and we get way too comfortable. of all the things in this book this is the one that scares me the most because i know my own heart and how easy it is to be drawn away she is attractive that's what this book always shows her this prostitute who draws us away by her beauty he says we've seen so far in this chapter that she sits on a scarlet beast this economic system that gives us such comfort is closely associated with the powers of the state of the government and we saw that the political powers of this day in this chapter in this chapter we've seen that the political powers of this day will one day of this age will one day coalesce into a coalition that will bring universal persecution against the people of God.

They will go to war against the Lamb and his people. But we also saw that this period of persecution is only for a short time. It says, but for an hour, a short time. And then the Lamb, who is King of kings and Lord of Lords will show up to crush that coalition. Now, we're looking at verses 15 through 18. Now the angel, one of these bowl angels, the one who's interpreting this vision for us, focuses our attention now on this woman sitting on the many waters.

And he tells you exactly how God judges this prostitute. And in the explanation he introduces a plot twist that none of us I would say expected What he tells us here is something that we haven expected in this story But remember, he tells you this in order to warn you to flee from this seducer. So let's look at these verses together. First of all, take warning in Babylon's power. verse 15 let's understand the symbolism of sitting on many waters the waters here is a reference to jeremiah chapter 51 as most of revelation is there's a lot of it that that has its roots in the old testament this comes from jeremiah chapter 51 i want you to turn there with me and we'll just pick up a little bit of this oracle of doom against the original babylon that that great city that wiped out the Jewish nation 500 years before Jesus came.

We see this oracle from the prophet Jeremiah aimed against this Babylon. We'll pick it up in chapter 51, verse 11. The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it. for that is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance for his temple. Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon. Make the watch strong.

Set up watchmen. Prepare the ambushes. For the Lord has both planned and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. O you, note, O you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the thread of your life is cut. Here is Babylon on many waters. In this judgment passage against this original Babylon, the waters are the Euphrates River and all the canals and channels that surround the city.

These waters helped Babylon to flourish economically and was also a means of protection, a means of security against attack. Now the angel tells us here in verse 15 that the waters here, in this vision as he sees Babylon seated on many waters, the waters here represent the peoples, multitudes, languages, and nations. Now we've seen this terminology before in the book.

We've seen it in chapter 5. We've seen it in chapter 7. We've seen it in a few other places. It's used about the whole world, all of humanity. whom the lamb ransoms his people. OK, there are some out of all the multitudes, the languages, the nations and the multitudes and the peoples that are going to be ransomed for the lamb. That represents that phraseology represents humanity.

The multitudes of humanity are the basis for this latter day Babylon's economic trade and economic security. Just like the waters of Babylon in the ancient world were the cause of much of her economic prosperity and protection. So the same is true with this latter day Babylon, except the peoples upon which she sits are the cause for the flourishing of the economic system.

But notice Babylon sits on humanity. That also represents, as we've seen in this book, sovereignty, ruling over. Babylon controls humanity, is sovereign over humanity, through the heart-stealing seduction of her promises of prosperity. She controls by the heart-stealing seduction of her promises of prosperity. And so here's Babylon, powerful, ruling over the multitudes of the peoples of the world through its promises of opulence and good stuff and comfort and everything else. you notice as well in verse 18 jump over to verse 18 that babylon doesn't just control the mass of humanity but controls the kings of the earth babylon this this economic behemoth this producer of comfort also dominates the kings of the earth now the original here has heard this The first seven churches to whom this is written, and the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth, they would naturally think of Rome.

They would think of Rome immediately. This is the great city that is producing such prosperity and comfort and riches and everything else that comes with it. That's what they would think, but that isn't what Babylon is limited to. That was the incarnation of Babylon in their day. There have been many incarnations of Babylon over the history of the world It the picture of an economic system often supported by political and military might dominating the world And I will say it plainly there is a Babylon today and let's face it, it is our country.

We dominate the world with our economic system, and our economic system is what it is a lot because of our military might and our political swing in the world. We're the only superpower left. Now, we're not the only Babylon. I'm telling you, folks, if there is any group of people who are open to the seduction of Babylon, it is Americans. It is people in this country.

We are in mortal danger. And we have to understand that. You see, her promises not only control the masses of humanity, but also the kings, the leaders, the presidents, the prime ministers of this world. You know, as I was meditating on this passage, I find it interesting that just about every leader's hold on power in the world today hinges, his hold on power hinges on how prosperous are the people over whom he rules.

You ever thought about that? How many leaders do you know that will stand up and say, look, this country is headed in the wrong direction? Okay, here's a campaign. Here's a campaign for you. Our country is headed in the wrong direction. And the way I want to take it, it's going to cause great economic hardship.

But it's the thing to cause. There's going to be the collapse of probably many businesses. But it's the right thing to do, and we're going to do it. How's that for a campaign? Now, honestly now, think about this. Would that person get elected in our country?

Almost everyone who runs for president runs on what platform? My economic policy is better than the other guys, isn't it? it's all about how much you can get it's all about how much stuff you can accumulate it's about how much comfort you can have no one gains power by promising hardship it occurred to me that power flows from and so he says here that this Babylon has control over the kings of earth dominates them as well Don ask me who you should vote for I'll tell you, but don't ask, okay? No, I won't tell you.

I will not tell you. But I want you to see something here. Get an understanding of what the book of Revelation is saying. Any economic system that promises comfort and security and stuff has a tremendous ability to lead you away from Jesus. I had a week of teaching a geography class at Cedarville University. Now, I'll just give you the short story.

My friend Rick, you all know Pastor Rick. Rick also happens to be an adjunct professor who teaches geography at Cedarville. He's been doing it for the last four or five years. He just teaches one geography class. He was going to be gone this week. He asked if I would teach.

And I said, sure, what do you want me to do? He said, just do stuff on Romania and Azerbaijan. Okay, fine. What struck me, I said this to the class this last week. There are some in Romania who pine for the old days. You know, in the old days, they lived under the intimidation of the beast, a government that demanded almost godlike allegiance.

Okay? You know what they're living under now? Babylon. And the people under the beast are losing people under the harlot. You know why? You know why?

It's a lot easier to be seduced. It's a lot more difficult to fight the seducer than that enemy that we know for sure. This is the picture of a powerfully attractive economic system dominating the world with promises of comfort and opulence. So take warning at her great, powerfully seductive abilities. But he goes on to say, take warning in Babylon's destruction.

Take warning in Babylon's destruction. He introduces a surprising, unexpected twist in the plot of Babylon's story. What do we see? Look back at verses 12 through 14. Let's look back. We noted this already.

We've worked our way through this chapter. Here's what we've seen already. And the ten horns that you saw I in verse 12 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 they 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 Lord of lords and king of kings.

And those with them are called chosen and faithful. We saw that the beast with which Babylon is allied will seek to destroy the people of God at the end of the age. There will be this universal persecution of the people of God. By the way, let me just say something. You know, if you're familiar with all, and some of us are really familiar with all the prophetic stuff that comes out.

Every five years it changes. It used to be Saddam Hussein and Iraq was the Antichrist. Well, now that's changed. So now everybody's writing the books that say, this is what's going to happen. Let me tell you something. And everybody goes, no, it's not that.

It's this. No, no, no. It's not that. It's not the way it's going to happen. It's going to happen this way. We will know.

Personal persecution breaks out. We're all going to know it. There's not going to be any more speculation about the future. We will know it. Okay? And that's what's going to happen.

We saw that's what the ten horns ganging up on God's people is all about. We already know that. But here's the twist in the plot. that the ten-horned coalition will turn on the harlot before they attempt to destroy the Lamb and his people. That's what this passage is telling us. That before they march to the final place of their destruction in their attempt to destroy the people of God, what they will do first is to destroy the harlot.

Now that's not what I was expecting. I'm sure that's not what you were expecting. but that's what's going to happen. Now the whole scene is sketched according to the template of apostate Jerusalem from the Old Testament. Now if you listened, I think it was Paul who read the Old Testament today, right? Good. It's hard to hear through the door.

I heard Paul read and he read from Ezekiel 23 and you saw how God describes the destruction of Jerusalem and he uses almost the same terminology here about the destruction of Babylon, the economic system. He talks about stripping naked, stripping naked, exposing to shame, devouring like a beast, tearing her from limb to limb, and... burning her up with fire like a city going up in flames. That's what he used to describe what happens to Jerusalem.

He uses that same terminology here. God destroys and judges by the lovers you pursue. And so what happens here is Babylon is going to be judged by her lovers. Babylon, the great alluring, powerfully seductive economic system, will meet death at the hands of her lovers. Her lovers are going to turn against her and destroy her. In other words, the political and military side of the equation is going to turn against the heart of the economic side and destroy it.

That's what's going to happen first. Before we get to the end where they're coming after the people of God, they're going to destroy the economy. Somehow, this comfort machine is going to be destroyed. That's what he says here. He says that these horns, the incarnation of the beast, are going to turn on the prostitute. The multitudes over which Babylon rules will be turned against her by the politicals as a prelude to the war against the Lamb.

Now, we've seen it symbolized already before. Turn back to chapter 16. Here's a symbol of that very same thing. Verse 12. chapter 16 verse 12 the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river euphrates and it was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east there it symbolized a different way the euphrates the people upon which babylon sits will be dried up she will lose them and then the kings will march and destroy her you see that not only it's a little different picture there there the symbol is the water, the people becoming disloyal, its support disappearing, drying up so that the kings can conquer.

Here he puts it in a different way. They're going to march in and they're going to destroy this economic system. When the dragon's worldwide web of wickedness starts to unravel, the harlot's going to be the first casualty. And so the destruction, here's the plot twist, The destruction of the economic system by the political and military system precedes the beast judgment by the lamb Having destroyed Babylon the ten horns the totality of the nations march off to war against the Lamb and his people only to be destroyed by the Lamb Now, why would the whole world system destroy itself by battling against itself?

That's the question I have. Why would this whole world system destroy itself by battling against itself? Why would it destroy its own economic foundation? Well, only inspiration from God can account for such a foolish and short-sighted act. And that's exactly what the Apostle John tells us. Verse 17, for God has put it into their hearts.

There's no other reason for it. God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over the royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. God puts it in their mind. Somehow, providentially, God gets the job done. And so now should you take warning in Babylon's power and you should take warning in Babylon's judgment.

You should take hope in God's sovereignty with the destruction of the economic system. God fulfills his word. The destruction of wickedness begins with the system turning in on itself. The infatuation with this harlot is going to end. now for some reason the people along with their anti-christian governments the beast will come to see what fools they've been you know what this is like playing out on a on a international scale this truth the pleasures of sin never satisfy only it's played out on an international scale all comfort and opulence will one day cease to be what the people of this world want and they will turn on the system.

Now, here's the question, and I asked myself this question and you're asking it too. What is that going to look like? How does that happen? I tell you what I bet if I came up with a storyline that involved the UN and something out and how it all turned on the economic system and wrote a series of novels about it I would be rich It's interesting to me that you always get rich on the things that the Bible says the least about and we say the most about.

All right? I don't know how it's going to happen. I don't know. The Bible does not. This vision does not give us the details. You know what I was thinking?

Could the riots in Greece and the banking crisis in Spain and the elections in France, in which France is going to take another course of action, could that be a part of what's happening here? And I would say, sure it could. It's possible that we're seeing the beginning of it. It's entirely possible that we're not. It's possible that we're seeing the beginning of it, and it's going to all come to fruition 30 years from now.

But it's possible that we're not. But I know what? If I wrote a book about it, I bet I could make a lot of money from Christians. We ought to just say, God, that's what you say. I believe it. You're sovereign.

Somehow you're going to turn wickedness on itself, and that's going to be the beginning of the last judgment. And when they're done turning on the economic system, they're coming after us, and they're going to be wiped out. That's all we know. That's all we go with. Let's be happy with that. remember, God wants us to have hope, not be a bunch of eggheads who can tell everybody else how the world's going to end.

It's all about hope. And you can take comfort in the fact that no matter what evil you see, now listen carefully, you can take comfort in the fact that no matter what evil you see stalking across this world, the Father sovereignly directs its course. Not even evil is beyond the sovereign decree of God. That's exactly what this text is saying. It says that God puts it in their heart to be of one mind so that they with the beast turn on the economic system.

It is God working. Even the evil events of this world move toward God accomplishing his ends. All events both righteous and evil are moving history toward the victory of the Lamb Which by the way we see beginning in chapter 19 However now I want you to listen carefully However, there is no comfort in merely saying God is sovereign. Does that shock you?

Let me tell you a story. Recently, last week, I went down to West Liberty. One of the guys I know down there, his name is Bill. Bill and his family. I know Bill because you remember during the troubles at that church when some of us were involved in helping them put things together. I got to know Bill.

Bill is one of their new young elders. Bill lost his 8-year-old son two weeks ago. No one knows exactly what happened. He just came in from swimming, passed out, and never woke up and died. No one knows what happened. So I went down to see Bill and said a few words.

We hugged and talked a little bit. And as I was leaving, I passed another friend from West Liberty. And we chatted for a minute. And here's what he said to me. Well, you know what? No one can change God's decree.

That is very true, but that's not comforting. That is not comforting. because what that does is says when that's all you assert, when that's the only thing you say God is sovereign, then you've described a God who plays with men, women, and children as if they're pawns on a chessboard. Is that God? No. So here's what I want to say to you. We must assert that it's God, our heavenly father, who directs all events.

It is not some distant God who's sovereign. It is my father who is sovereign. Do you understand the difference? There's a whole lot of difference in saying to someone, your father loves you and he brought this hardship into your life because of that love and there's comfort here because here's what I see God uses his sovereignty not only for his glory he uses his sovereignty for his glory but he uses his sovereignty also accomplished is the good and the final rest of his people.

God's sovereignty is moving in the direction of our deliverance, which ends up as his glory. Our good is always connected to his glory. There's no way around that. God has connected his glory with our good in such a way that the two cannot ever be separated. When God is glorified, it's always good for us. You see?

And he moves all the events of history for the purpose of what? Of delivering his people from this present evil age. And so what John, in his vision, and his angel interprets it, he's trying to tell us, or not trying, he is telling us, he's telling us here that all this is happening by the sovereign purpose of God, which eventuates in the victory of the Lamb.

You know what? All of these events fulfill the sovereign purpose of the Lamb's cross. Do you remember the passage we looked at last week? Say, wait a minute, Pastor, I don't remember what you preached from week to week. Okay, I don't either sometimes, but let's just try to recall. We were in Colossians 2, do you remember? and we went to chapter 2 verse 15 where we read he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him Or as the enemy has it at the cross he triumphs over the forces of evil He disarms them and puts them to open shame when he died on the cross.

Do you know what that means? I want you to think about this. That means when that coalition shows up to do battle against the Lamb on the final day of the battle, they're showing up without any weapons. Isn't that amazing? I was thinking about that this morning. He says he disarmed them at the cross.

So when they show up at the end of history for that great battle, when they show up, hey, they're not going to have any weapons. Isn't that phenomenal? That's why it says when they gather against the people of God, then the Lamb is going to destroy them. Because they're unarmed. They can't touch the Lamb. He's disarmed them.

Same thing, John 12, 31. You remember John 12. Jesus is headed towards the cross, and He's talking to these people, and He's talking about the cross, and He says, Now is the judgment of the world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. At the moment when Jesus died, Satan was cast out. He no longer has rule over the people of God.

And so when he shows up with his forces at the end of history he won have any His rule over everybody else is done It over This fulfills the sovereign purpose of the Lamb cross Jesus died to reconcile us to God, but he also died to disarm all the forces of darkness. And so when he returns, he will fulfill the purpose of his death. Well, we do not have a detailed map.

You can't, after this sermon, you can't go to Google Maps and say, give me a map of the end time. All right? You can't do that. God doesn't allow us to do that. And I don't know why he doesn't allow us to do that. The only thing he's told us is this.

When it starts to come unraveling, the economic system is the first to go. Then comes the persecution. And then comes final victory. Now that's all I'm going to tell you. But I'm telling you that much. So first of all, you will take warning.

Do not be trapped in the comforts of Babylon. This idolatrous, comfort-seeking, entertainment-crazed culture. because looking ahead you see what's going to happen to it it'll be destroyed and that destruction is the judgment of god be warned to live in babylon means to experience the comfort of Babylon but it also means to experience the judgment of God But take hope Take hope in the fact that your father is determined to accomplish his purposes for his people and he will fully accomplish the purpose of the lamb's cross when he comes father thank you for your word lord sometimes we wish that you had told us more and then we have to confess that as sin because what you said is enough. Our prayer, Father, is that we would be a people of hope.

Lord, help us to leave here not being those who fear, but those who hope. Those who believe that our Father who loves us is moving all events of history towards the final victory of the Lamb and the final installment of our salvation. the deliverance from all evil. Lord, as we look to the future, help us to be then people of hope. Thank you for your word this morning.

Thank you that it warns us and encourages us. Grant that we would be that people this week. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.