Revelation 17 The System of Evil

You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week,

Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.

Let's listen in. Welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. And I just want to thank you for taking time out of your busy week, and particularly a beautiful summer day, to gather together as God's people.

I recognize that there's all kinds of things that could have been calling your name this morning. And I'm glad that you chose to come together as God's people.

And not that you are the most spiritual, but I think we're showing something about ourselves by being here, and that is just simply that we recognize our need for God, and we recognize our need for each other.

And so, thank you for taking that time. Like normal, we're going to be digging into the pages of Scripture to see what

God desires to communicate with each of us this morning. And I want to point out to you something that I, you know, it's something that I think about regularly and routinely, is what is the purpose of Scripture?

Why do we dig in? Why do I recommend that you read it each day, or that you go to it as the fountains of living water, as you turn to it to know?

And a lot of people, or what do you turn to it to know? You know, why open God's Word? Why do we open it together, read it in this gathering, and then talk about it?

And I think there's an acronym that I've heard people use before, and it's kind of cutesy and fun. I don't know if any of you have ever heard of it,

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Raise your hand if you've heard that before. Bible kind of makes an acronym.

It's kind of cutesy and stuff. But the problem with that acronym is that it makes the Bible out to be a behavioral manual.

About just kind of like, oh, I'll turn to it and I'll know how to act. I'll turn to it and I'll know what to act like, or I'll turn to it and know what to do.

But the Bible is more than a collection of history and poetry that has some truth in it, or just a nice nugget to put on a calendar, or just some kind of quip to put on a coffee mug.

But the Bible claims to be a message to us about the very self -disclosure, self -disclosure of God, to show us who he is.

What he desired to communicate to you and I about his nature, about how he rolls, about the things that he values and the things that he loves.

Our creator shows us himself in the pages of the word of God. So do you open it to know him, or do you open it to just do, you know, well, what am

I supposed to do in this situation, or what am I supposed to do in that situation? Is that the sum total of it? Or do we approach it with a perspective of who is

God? That's life -changing. That'll transform the way you live your life when you come to know

God and who he is and how he rolls and the things that he values. That's where life transformation begins to happen.

So we read it to know him and to adopt his perspective on the world around us. We read it even to understand ourselves, how we fit into his great big plan, but it's still all about him.

And this morning, our text in the book of Revelation could be pretty confusing when we first sit down and read it. We're going to be in Revelation 17, give you a little heads up so you can kind of start turning there if you want to while you're listening to me introduce it.

But Revelation 17 is what we're going to read and discuss. And if you just were to sit down and read it,

I'm convinced that the majority of us would be confused and kind of move on, maybe look up a couple of words or maybe try to figure a couple of things out, but it takes quite a bit of study to get down to the bottom of what these things that we see in the text are symbolic of.

It offers a lot of details in this text that are difficult for us to interpret. Yeah, I've had to work hard at it this week.

It talks about things both past and future that require some discernment. And even right smack dab in the middle of this text,

John says, as revealed by the Holy Spirit, that these things call for wisdom.

He basically tells you and I, he says, when you come to chapter 17, you're going to need your thinking caps on to figure some of this stuff out.

So, like, I'm going to ask all of us to put our thinking caps on this morning as we dig through this text and as we work our way through it and walk verse by verse through it to really figure out what we're looking at.

In our text, we're going to get a shallow introduction to the world system that opposes the

Almighty. Not comprehensive, but certainly a deeper look into what the world system out there is really like and the world system that really seeks to entice and grab our own hearts.

How many of you would recognize that maybe at least once or twice this week, you were enticed to do something that you knew wasn't going to be beneficial or helpful to you or others around you?

Okay, five of us, really? Man, you guys are riding above it. That is awesome. I'm glad you're here, so you're rubbing off on me.

But no, I think all of us, at some point this week, we're enticed, we're drawn in, where there's some kind of temptation put in front of us that we knew would result in either harm to others or harm to ourselves, something that would not be beneficial or even just something that's clearly opposed to God.

There is this world system. There is a way of thinking. There is a pattern, not just the one -off sins.

Because I think a lot of times we can think about our temptation, our problem, our particular issues, and we should, but how often do we contemplate and consider that there's an entire system of human thought that is fairly consistent?

You know, we're looking at the Olympics. How many of you watched a little Olympic coverage? And we're seeing different cultures and nations come together to play sports on the same rules, the same playing field.

Basketball is played the same on the court, no matter which team you're a part of, right?

And there's a commonality of rules surrounding these sports. And yet, we didn't get together and discuss the commonality of lying.

We didn't have to come to a conclusion about how to lie. But that's a consistency that there...

Did you know that in Japan, people lie? They tell untruths. Nobody had to teach them how to do that.

They know how to do that, and we know how to do that here in America. And in China, and in South Africa, and all around the world, people know how to lie.

There's a system of rebellion against God that is consistent worldwide, and this is going to be giving us an image, a picture of what that is all about.

Well it comes in a really strange symbol to us. We get a strange vision of a prostitute riding a hideous beast.

She is described, and we'll talk about that. The beast is described, we'll talk about that.

But I believe that God is giving all of us an image of the evil system that is one day finally going to be done away with.

It's going to be done away with by Christ in the end. By the end of next week, we will see the complete and utter decimation of the world system we're introduced to this week.

One that's not too foreign to us. As we meet this woman riding on this beast, she becomes familiar, and we're like,

I think I've met her before. I think I know who she is. No, not by name. Somebody's laughing.

Not by name, but you're going to recognize her. God could easily summarize this chapter by just saying something simple, but he chooses not to.

He gives us more detail. He could just say, sin will be judged. That's a fairly good summary to a lot of the book of Revelation, right?

We're kind of like, well why didn't he just simplify? But when we use the word sin, when you contemplate and consider what is the problem with the world today?

What is the problem with you? What is the problem with those around you? What is the problem globally? I think we could summarize it.

How many of you would say it's fair to summarize that with one word, sin? Would you agree with me on that?

Sin is a pretty apt summary word for the problems that are around us. But how many of you recognize that sin covers a lot of nuanced details?

Like embezzlement. Like sexual immorality. Like lying, as I mentioned earlier.

There's a lot of things that are involved in sin that it wouldn't be quite sufficient for us to just say, well sin will be judged and that's it.

When we use the word sin, we can easily miss the point that there's a deeper system at work in the world. It's a system of enticement.

A system of seduction, temptation, false religion, pride, deception, materialism, violence, and there's so many other nuances that define the problems that we face as people in a broken and fallen world.

And problems that we're a part of. We have both been victims as well as perpetrators of sin.

So as we take in the image of the woman on the beast, know that she stands for all that is opposed to God and his kingdom in Christ.

She stands for all that is in opposition to God. She stands for all that humans do to attempt to assert their self -dependence and their self -reliance and we're gonna talk about that throughout the text, but it's important to have that in your mind as we read this text up front.

All that it means for us to be self -reliant apart from God. And as we read, let's be careful to consider our own lives in light of the image of this woman and this beast.

So if you're not already there, some of you just got here, Revelation chapter 17, you can turn over there, navigate over there in your app or whatever you use to access the

Bible. If you don't have a Bible in your lap, again, I'm gonna be reading this, I would love for you to just be able to follow along, so please raise your hand,

Mark and Mike have Bibles back here. Relieve them of the load that they're carrying there. If you don't have a

Bible on your lap, just raise your hand. We want everybody to be able to follow along throughout this service this morning in the word of God.

Recast, Revelation chapter 17 is what God desires for you and I to hear this morning.

It's what he desires for us to understand, to wrestle with, and so let's dig in. Revelation 17, 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 the 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 the earth's abominations. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

And 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 a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen.

One is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come, he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth, but it also belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.

And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with the beast.

These are of one mind, and 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 and chosen and faithful.

And the angel said to me, the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages, and the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute.

They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.

And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, when we read a text like that, our minds can just kind of be wandering, and there's a lot of mystery to it, and it could even be maybe some of our conviction that we're coming from difficult, strange weeks.

There's been difficulty, there's been frustration, there's been bad news, for some there's been really good news, and we could read a text like this and just kind of wonder what does that have to do with us?

But Father, it is your word, it is powerful, it reveals something of you, and also equally reveals something of this world that is broken and needs to be restored back to you.

But Father, this one thing remains true, and that is that all of the kingdoms of power, all of the world's systems that are out there that are in opposition to you, and even this evil, wicked, ultimate power that's gonna be opposed to you in the end is not ultimate.

You are the only ultimate. All power comes from you. There are not two sources of power, there is one.

And it will all be finished by you, because of what your son has done. Redemption is ours, only in the blood of Jesus.

And so Father, even in the darkness, even as we talk about darkness, even as we talk about the world's system today, and we walk through and explain who this woman is, and who this beast is, and all the details and nuances of that,

Father, I pray that you would help us in our hearts to rejoice in you, because of the salvation we have through Jesus.

And in that, may we rejoice and raise our voices, that we are not among those condemned, we are not among those judged, not because we're awesome, not because we figured it out, not because we're brightest, smartest, best, most behaved, but strictly because Jesus died for us.

We believe that, and we've thrown our hearts wholeheartedly on that hope, and that hope alone. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Big thanks. I don't take for granted what Dave does, I just am very thankful for the gifts that God has given to him, and just, you know, if something that he does blesses you, don't take for granted that he understands that or knows that, and so feel free at any time, if anything that he plays or does, or any of his service blesses you, let him know that.

So I'm gonna encourage him to, along the way, encourage you to get comfortable, and remember that at any time during the message, you can get up, get more coffee, juice, or donuts, you're not gonna distract me, and so, also if you need to get up and stretch in the back,

I recognize that these seats down here on the floor can get pretty uncomfortable, and so if you need to get up and stretch out, but really our focus is to keep our attention on the word of God here for the next half an hour or so, so let's do everything that we can to do that, and particularly keeping our

Bibles open in Revelation 17 is gonna help you to see that the flow of this text, walking through it, is basically what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna be referencing verses here and there, and so just having that open and being able to see that what I'm saying is coming from God's word is vital, and it certainly makes me feel great seeing you look down at your

Bible from time to time, even if you're just texting and I don't know it, so, don't do that, guys.

To start off and just kind of remember where we're coming from, I know that not everybody's been here during this series, but we wrapped up Revelation 17, 16 last week, now on to 17 a couple weeks, we're gonna pick up 18, but John, in chapter 16, recognized the angel in this vision here from that previous revelation of the seven bowls of God's wrath that we talked about last week, so this is an angel that John said, it was one of those that poured out those seven bowls in a previous dream or vision that God had given to him, but this angel is gonna take

John to show him another level of judgment, he watched the seven bowls get poured out on the earth and the end drawn near, but then now this is a different vision, it's a separate vision, same angel, separate vision, and he's gonna reveal the judgment of a single woman, an individual, and of course she's gonna be a symbol for something, just like you might have come to expect in the book of Revelation, we kind of expect symbols, we expect things to not be quite what they are at face value, and in verse one, she is identified as the, that's the designation, the great prostitute who sits on many waters.

Now the many waters are identified for us later in the text, so I might as well tell you what they are now if you didn't catch it when we read it before, in verse 15, it's actually declared that the many waters are multitudes, people's multitudes, nations and languages, this woman has many multitudes under her sway, she sits upon the waters of the nations of the peoples, and she has a truly global following as we progress through this text, we're gonna see just what a big picture this woman really is.

I think the easiest way to work our way through the text would be to identify and describe the woman as the primary focus, to understand who she is and what is said of her is gonna be fundamental, and to identify her requires that we jump ahead real quick to verse five, where we're given her title, so that's kind of, when somebody gives a title to someone, that helps you to understand who they are to some degree, right, like if they're a teacher, if they're an engineer, if they're a pastor, you know something about them right away, and so if you're given a title, well then, that helps.

And her name is designated to be a mysterious name, now when you hear the word mysterious, you know, are you thinking it's a mystery, we need to get out our magnifying glasses and observe the word, or do we need to enlist the help of Sherlock Holmes to figure out this mystery, it's a little bit of a different way of using that word in Greek, it can be translated mystery, it could even be translated figurative, her name is, ultimately

I think the Greek is getting at, her name is figurative, it's gonna require some discernment for you to understand what her name means, what the significance of her name really is, it's not like a mystery to sleuth, it's just kind of like, it's not at face value what you take it to be, she is not literally

Babylon, she is not literally the mother of all prostitutes, she is not literally the mother of every, of earth's abomination, but she bears these titles as a symbol for these things, so we know that she is somehow related to all of those things that are designated of her, now to understand,

I think fundamentally, what I really wanna mine down deep into is the title Babylon, she's titled Babylon, this woman represents

Babylon, so we should go back to where we first see the mention of Babylon in the text of scripture, and that's way back in Genesis chapter 11, now some of you might not recognize that, and it doesn't use the word

Babylon, it's the title Babel, and how many of you have ever read the story of the Tower of Babel, you understand that from Sunday school class, or from, maybe you've heard it before, maybe it's new to you, and that's okay too, but if you go back to Genesis chapter 11, humanity rejected

God's way, and sought to make a name for themselves in their own united strength,

God told them to disperse across the globe in that story in chapter 11, and so they settled in the same place and began to build, he said spread out, go and spread out across the face of the earth, so what's their first act, gather together, build a city for their strength, and make a great name for themselves, now ask yourself this, if all the peoples after Noah's ark landed, and no one in his family got out, and then they proceeded to roll, and God said go ahead and spread out, there weren't many people on the planet at this time, it wasn't just gigantic and huge, so who were they trying to make a name for themselves to, you ever ask yourself that, who were they trying to make a name,

God, who are they rejecting, by disobeying God, and by building their city, and building their tower, and exercising their power and their strength together, that's what we're getting at here, now if you were raised in a church that had a

Sunday school program, you might have received a little bit of a false notion about Babel at the beginning, something to the effect of they were building a tower for what reason, to get to God, right, like somehow this notion,

I don't, I think we take them for fools, if they thought that they were gonna get to the moon with a tower, or if they thought that they were gonna get to the heavens, or even heaven itself with a tower, that's not what the text says, you can read it, and I put it up on the screen for you, in Genesis 11, four through six, this is what they're indicted for, this is the indictment against Babel, verse four, then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, very visible, very powerful, very mighty, but here's the point, let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth, what, didn't

God say he wanted you dispersed over the whole earth, and now what are you saying, let's do something for ourselves, let's be united in our strength, humanity, let's do this, let's show

God what we're made of, let's show him what we can do if we just, if we would just put our minds to it, if we would just unite, man,

I mean, that's a cry that you might even hear today, man, if we could get past our petty squabbles, imagine what humanity could do, imagine what we'd be able to accomplish if we could set aside our differences, set aside our religions, set aside all of these problems, and just unite, man, what could we do to this world, what could we accomplish,

I don't know, I think I have an idea of what we would accomplish, it might not be very pretty,

Babel, the founding of ancient Babylon was the first recorded systematic attempt for humanity to unite, and not just unite, but unite against the creator, to unite against the creator, that's what this woman is named, she's named after that system, she's named after that concept of the unity of humanity in opposition to God is her name, not a good title to bear, would you agree with me on that, not something that you want people to say of you, he said spread out, they chose to stay together, he said his name is to be exalted, so they sought, set out with the sole purpose to create a name for themselves, now,

I want to point out Babylon is a real entity, but here in chapter 17, it's a metaphor, and a symbol for fallen human religious systems and systems of thought that seek to set themselves up and make a name for themselves, and there's a seductive aspect to this, human religious systems and systems of thought that seduce and seek to unite humanity in opposition to God, so this woman represents

Babel, or later Babylon, and that means she is the human system of mankind doing things in its own way, in its own terms, in opposition to the almighty, in opposition to the creator, and so now that we've identified her as that system of thought that pervades humanity, that seeks to oppose him and seeks to unite against him, let's see how the text describes humanity and rebellion against God point by point, we're going to see and walk through what are some of the characteristics of the system in opposition to God, and just to clarify,

I want to make sure that you understand when I'm talking about systems, I'm talking about sinful systems, systems like materialism, consumerism, hedonism, and any false religion that leads people away from Jesus Christ, and greed, pride, nationalism, a sinful nationalism that would say my country is the only thing and would, you know, go to the nth degree for it, think about all those systems,

I mean I'm sure you could come up with some yourself, and false religions, the prostitute is a system that is inherently religious, you realize that, a lot of us think that it's inherently atheistic, the world system would be inherently atheistic, but one of the fundamental things that it means to be a human is to worship, did you recognize that?

It's one of the fundamental things in our course, so it's an issue of worshipping something, and it's fundamentally religious in that it is opposed to the true and living

God by faith, by faith in something, by primarily faith in humanity, and so here are ten observations about false religions and systems of the world in terms of this woman, and the first thing that we identify in verse one, pretty pretty crass, pretty direct, she is for sale, she's for sale, the woman is called a prostitute all throughout this text, the religious systems of this world, the world systems in opposition to God are for sale, she is for sale to anyone who's in the market for a good time, this analogy to a prostitute cuts two different ways, it shows that she has both a seductive allure and an ever -present economic interest married together, that's what composes the world system to some degree,

I think this first point betrays two fundamental issues in humanity's rebellion against God, we want unfettered entertainment, and money is always an issue, we want unfettered entertainment and money is always an issue, we want wealth to get the good life, we want to make a name for ourselves so that others will serve us and get us nice things or at least treat us well, we want comfort, we're always ready for some fun, the world system is for sale and if you have a little cash or a little credit you can get in on the action, it's part of the world system isn't it, do you recognize it in our culture, do you recognize it in your own heart, do you recognize the enticement that is there for entertainment and money, and I would suggest to you that those two drive each other significantly in our culture, do you see it, the marriage of those two, and the irony is probably everybody in the room struggles on one side of that spectrum, either you're a workaholic or you're an entertainment -aholic, everybody here is somewhere on that spectrum, and some of us are working hard to try to balance those two and get the best of both worlds, you know, and that's still not what it's about is it, still missing the point, it's not like, a lot of people will tell you truth is always balancing things, well sometimes the whole bar, the whole spectrum is sin, right, it's not always, the truth isn't always found in the balance, sometimes it's found by jumping off of that spectrum onto something else, she is for sale, that's number one, number two, she has a global following, in verse one again, she is seated on many waters,

I already kind of mentioned that, her resting place is the entire world, all nations and peoples have been seduced by her, now hear me carefully,

I would not suggest that every person is currently seduced by her, some have broken free of her clutches through the power of the

Lamb of God, and so, very similarly to the Lamb of God who has a following from all tribes, languages, peoples, and nations, so too does the great prostitute have her following from all tribes, tongues, languages, peoples, and nations, the power and sway of the human system against God is global, and I mentioned how you can see that in reality, you can see that we have, we're not, it's not like we're inventing new sins, the sins that are committed in America are the same sins that are committed in China are the same sins, now we've got our own localized flavors and flares and things like that, but when it really comes down to it, human sin looks like human sin, the system is global and widespread in its corruption, and the third thing, she has dulled the senses of the people, you see the word drunk even applied here in verse 2, we see in verse 2 that the kings of the earth have been seduced by her and they are regular clients, the specific sins of sexual immorality are used here as the indictment in verse 2, but I find it quite likely that John here and God in revealing this is just kind of going with the analogy of her as a prostitute, but I find it likely that she peddles much more than just this, verse 2 is using the analogy of a prostitute, but I hope you can see like I can that this text is more than just about prostitution, it's more than just, well, you know, if you've never, if you've never struggled with prostitution or soliciting prostitution, then you're okay, that's kind of more than that, the peoples of the world are desensitized by the systems that they live under, if we're not careful,

I think what we're getting at here by the dulling of the senses, by the drunkenness with her immorality, all of us are at risk, if we're not careful, we will live out our days drunk with the promises of pride, drunk with the promises of materialism, drunk with the promises of sexual freedom, drunk with the promises of all manner of idolatries that the evil one would desire to foist over on us, and even especially here, drunk with the

American dream, drunk with the American dream, I think everybody in this room can define that, right, we hold something to be of utmost value in our founding documents of our country, the pursuit of happiness,

I don't think at the hill called

Skull, Jesus, that value resonated with Christ, now he did say for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, he knew what was coming, but I'm telling you what, the cross was not a happy place, he endured suffering for you and I, well,

I understand the difference though, I mean it's done unconstitutional here, you know, I get the concept of the pursuit, the freedom, how many of you value the freedom to be able to pursue the things, even if it means that the things that you can pursue are

Christ and his suffering, you have the freedom to do that, right, isn't that a beautiful thing, so I'm not disparaging that, but the point is,

I believe that we swim in a culture drunk with this woman's immorality, I increasingly and I am sure that many of you can relate to this, feel like I'm swimming upstream and the current is getting stronger, any of you relate to that, you feel to some degree like that, and I would suggest to you that we still have a battle daily to stick with the kingdom of his son, where the values, think about these values in our culture, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control, do you sense any war with the world at large against those things in you, do you sense the temptation to pull away from those things, do you sense the frenetic craziness that fights against patience, or the have it now mentality that wars against gentleness, or the live for yourself that wars against self -control, serve yourself first that wars against love, or just the byproduct of sin that makes us miserable and fights against joy, you can see the things in our culture that war against that set of kingdom values that we are to live by, and if we're not careful, our senses will be dulled, if we give ourselves so much over to this world, we have to be cautious about these things, the woman is, this prostitute is calling, she's calling and calling, the pull against these things are strong, the fourth thing is she's been bought by many rulers, she seems to have a pretty mutual relationship with political powers, she gets something from them and they get something from her, and I want to make sure you don't get lost in the analogy, you might be thinking, well isn't she the political powers, and you could easily start to get things confused, well she rides on those things, she is a system of thinking, a way of uniting, a concept that humanity can grab a hold of and kind of live together with, and it's this opposition to God, where she is a friend of many political governments and institutions, real institutions, real governments, many political rulers have adopted her way of thinking about the world around us, any political power that sees itself independent from God, any political power that will not glorify him is buying into the great prostitute, is moving away from God and towards self, and that leads to number five, which is really the longest of the points, and that is that she rides on evil doomed political powers, now in verse three we see that mentioned, she's riding this beast, but the beast is described in detail in verses seven through fourteen, she is not synonymous with political power, but she finds good friends in it, the beast she rides is a symbol for Rome, pure and simple, it's abundantly clear that this beast that she rides on is

Rome, the seven heads of the beast are symbols of both seven hills and seven kings, or seven rulers, the text tells us later,

Rome was a city founded on seven hills and anybody hearing this description in John's day would have gone loctite, no question about who we're talking about here, we're talking about Rome, the city who was established on and built upon seven hills.

The seven kings are mentioned, five have fallen, one is currently the emperor in John's day and the one after John's day was short -lived, and then there was one yet, an eighth one that was yet coming, that will be surrounded by a coalition of ten other world leaders, the ten horns that are mentioned for a brief time in verses nine through fourteen, and these are all basically indicating that a world power like Rome will indeed ascend to power in the end times, that will be the eighth king so to speak, there's an eighth king coming, there's an eighth ruler, like unto

Rome, like unto Babylon, like unto the power of Babel, and will indeed rule in the end, and that's what all of this is getting at, that's where you get the past,

Babel, Babylon, Rome, why are we talking about Rome? Because a group like Rome, an institution like Rome will indeed be there in the end, and this world power will find its best friend in that, so this opposition to God that has been flowing from the failure of humanity in the garden all the way through to Babel, to the ultimate rebellion, build a city against him, completely oppose him, try to prove to him what we can do, is all gonna end up leading to this battle that we saw at the end of our last bowl last week, where the peoples of the world were finally united together in one final violent conflict against the

Lamb of God, that's where all of this is driving, so that's, so you're kind of looking at this going, I don't really understand how to make heads or tails of this, it's all about the flow of history, that's what we're looking at here, why would we be talking about Rome?

Because Rome is one manifestation, one example of the type of thing that's going to be here in the end, and so she rides on doomed evil political powers, and in verse 14

I mention doomed because in verse 14 we get a simple but profound statement, the final kingdom of political power that is opposed to God will be defeated, why?

Because Jesus Christ is Lord over all lords, king over all kings,

Jesus is over all, and at the end of verse 15 you can wave at yourself on the way by, go ahead and wave, because you're mentioned in the text, so you're kind of like passing yourself in the text of scripture, and it's kind of cool sometimes when you see yourself there,

I just want to point it out, because there you are coming with your Lord, you're coming with King Jesus at victory here in this text, if Jesus is indeed your king and you've pledged your life to him and asked him to save you, then you will be numbered among those who in this text are titled called, chosen, and faithful, that's who you are, that's what this text, that's what you are being called to trust and believe about you today, if you are indeed in with King Jesus, you are called, chosen, and faithful, beautiful things, glorious things that are said of you and I if you are indeed in Christ, a real quick notice at how our titles here in the text point to gratitude to God for our salvation, we are the called, who called you?

Who called you? God's the one who.

Said hey, Dan, hey

Dab, it's a beautiful thing, we are the chosen, who chose you?

Chosen? You mean like that time, you mean like when I was a kid and I was the last one chosen on the kickball team, like that kind of chosen?

Or I wasn't chosen because they were already an even number and they were like, you're out bro, you sit this one out, because nobody wants you.

How many of you like the idea of being chosen, like when you put it in that perspective, how many of you liked being chosen for the kickball game?

Did you like that? Those of you who, yeah, I know who you are, the people who are chosen, people, chosen, gloriously chosen by God.

My goodness folks, I know that some of you right now are wrestling in your minds with the idea of the word chosen.

Can I just humbly and honestly encourage you to get past that, because it's there for your encouragement, not for your discouragement to go, what about those who weren't chosen?

Oh no, here we go. That's not what it said, it said chosen.

God picked you, you're on his team now. And this last thing, we're called faithful.

You might not feel like it. You might not feel like it this week. This might have been a rough week, let's be honest.

Some of you are sitting here and you're going, faithful is not the word I'd use for the last 24 hours.

Text calls you faithful. Now I think that's a title that we ought to live into, we ought to lean into, we ought to work into, working out our salvation with fear and trembling.

At the end of the day, I believe that it's God who holds our faithfulness in his hands, I pray that God keeps me until that day.

It's a biblical prayer, that God would keep us, hold us fast. I mean faithful, that's a beautiful title.

And even our faithfulness is wrapped up in God's grace. This has been a longer point, but the text gets fairly detailed describing those political systems that the worldly system finds friendly to its cause.

We've all either been ignoring the news, or we've seen the way that sinful, rebellious humanity affects politics.

Have you seen that? Anybody? Seen a little bit of sinfulness in politics? Two are basically married together, aren't they?

Human dependence in opposition to God finds friends in all types of political systems. Not just those that we don't like, but even in democracy.

The sixth thing about this woman, she is wealthy and regal in her bearing, look at verse four. She's described as just having all this glitz and glamour.

Humanism, by the way, is all about comfort and pleasure, isn't it? If the highest thing is humanity, if really what we're here for is to worship self and to improve self and to unite together under great causes and be super awesome as humanity, then our ease and comfort will be ultimate.

Now this woman, she's glittering with gold and dressed in purple of royalty and the scarlet of a wealthy prostitute.

She has gems and pearls for jewelry. The effusive nature of the Greek words here are just that she just doesn't know what to do with all her bling.

She's just bedecked and bedazzled. What does the way of the world have to offer us?

You might say, I'm not into all that glitz and glamour. I'm satisfied with my ranch home in a mediocre subdivision.

You might not be a bling kind of person. I truly believe that to a person in this room, speaking to every one of you, we know what it means to be tempted by greed.

Every single one of us. We know what it feels like to be discontent. We know what it feels like to hunger for more, to be tempted to think, if I just had, fill in your blank.

If I just had that, then I'd be living the life. If I just had that winning lottery ticket, if I just had that house, if I just had that wife, if I just had that kid, if I just had this, whatever it might be, you fill in the blank for you, but you've experienced that temptation,

I know you have. Where does that common human experience come from? This world system.

In the garden, we had everything we wanted, but after sin entered the world, scarcity, greed, and the worship of stuff began.

When we give in to that temptation to think that way, or even worse, we live that way, we are giving up the contentment of eternal life in exchange for the fleeting pleasures of this present world.

And the last time I checked, eternal joy is better than temporary happiness. The seventh thing, the woman masks evil with blessing.

Look at it in verse four. The world and the systems of this world offer poison and filth in a golden cup.

Beautiful, sparkling, dazzling golden cup filled with filth and stuff you wouldn't even want to smell, let alone drink.

Filled with the impurities and sexual immorality. But the fact of the matter is, please don't be one of those people who lies about sin.

Who lies and says it doesn't appeal to you. I got no struggles, I got no temptations, I've got no troubles.

I think you're lying if you say that. Because the fact of the matter is, it looks good on the outside. On the outside, it's pristine.

It promises that it's gonna taste good and that it's gonna be fabulous and life is gonna go so great if you just imbibe.

But once devoured, once eaten, sin rots away our souls.

And it corrupts and it traps and it entangles. It poisons our hearts and minds.

The sinful world system of humanity entices with beauty. With promises of good things.

And then it pulls back the curtain to reveal the ugliness of death and destruction that it will bring to each one of us if we let it.

Sin is a golden cup filled with poison and death. In verse six, the eighth thing we see here about this woman, she is drunk on the blood of the saints.

The world system cannot abide by the kingdom of God. Certainly for a time, and I think we've lived in a time, a deceptive time, the world has been happy to allow the kingdom of God to exist alongside of their worldly system.

It's served some end to them and so it's been okay. But I believe that time is running out.

Already around the world, religious systems are killing the people of God. They have down through the ages. But here in America, belief in the word of God is driving a wedge deep into the moral fabric of our culture.

I can imagine a time coming in my lifetime. I'm not trying to fear monger. And I could very well be wrong.

I'm not a prophet. But I can imagine a time coming in my lifetime where I could get into trouble for preaching what the word of God says, for standing on this.

I can imagine that. Can you imagine a time like that? I hope it tarries. I hope we've got some time.

And I hope that we, as a church, adopt the principles of making hay while the sun is shining. How many of you know we've experienced a significant period of time where we've been blessed with opportunities to share the gospel?

I hope we take advantage of that. We know, in the end, the world will be drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus Christ.

And down through history, the church that honors Christ has consistently been the object of anger and animosity of the great prostitute.

I would suggest to you that only the church that promises, rather, only the church that compromises with the prostitute can assure its safety.

How can a church, how could I, as a pastor, assure your safety? I encourage you to compromise. I can help you be safe from this world system.

Just compromise. But Recast Church cannot assure you safety.

Recast Church will never assure you safety in this fallen, broken world system. Because we will stand on the word of God.

And I will continue to preach and teach, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, the entire weight of God's word by conviction.

The ninth thing, she identifies, she's identified as a great city that rules over all, in verse 18.

She has her fingers in the business of all cultures. I believe that she has often had a headquarters.

I don't believe that it's remained consistent. Rome seems to have been her seat for a while, and in the future, another kingdom will be her base of operations.

Babylon was her base in history as well. And I wouldn't suggest that our goal is to find out who is, or where is, the location of the base of Babylon in the world system today.

Instead, I would suggest that this woman has influenced anywhere you see high -handed opposition to God, anywhere you see the humanism that reflects

Babel making a name for itself. The fallen world will not have a ruler, any ruler, who doesn't struggle to follow this woman.

There is nobody who is in power that hasn't had this woman come and knock at their door. She is particularly seductive to those in power.

With power in a fallen world comes a quite natural enticement to independence, wealth, and making a name for yourself.

Consider simply that our two most prominent presidential candidates have made great names for themselves. Would you agree with me on that?

Oh, it sounded a little political there, but how many of you recognized the name Hillary Rodham Clinton before she ran for president?

How many of you recognized the name Donald Trump before he ran for president? All of us, right?

I mean, you knew those names. They'd already made a great name for themselves, and it's part and parcel of this process that they would tell us how awesome they are.

Isn't that what our political process is about? Isn't that what presidential elections are about? Them just telling us how awesome they are and how they're the solution and how they're going to solve everything?

Pride, arrogance, wealth, a regal bearing, or some mixture of those. Consider the things that this betrays that we value in a culture by the leaders that we put forward.

I think we recognize that that's an indictment on us to some degree. And a brief aside,

I want to share with everybody that I have some serious political opinions. Raise your hand if you would say,

I have, you speaking, I have some serious political opinions. Okay, a lot of us, all right.

And I don't believe that it's necessary, that it's required of me to keep them to myself.

I choose to. Now you go, well, Don, aren't you legally bound by this being a 501c3, you know, nonprofit organization, blah blah blah.

No, not really. My opinions I could share. But I intentionally choose to avoid discussing politics here in this pulpit because I don't believe that this is a place for my opinions.

And even more so, I'm terrified at the thought of standing before my Lord and Savior and giving an account for the teaching that I, that I give.

Having just shared my opinions and, and made it appear as though you can't be a vital part of this church and disagree with me politically.

I hope there are people here who disagree with me. I hope we're not just becoming one great big homogenous group who thinks the same, believes the same, votes the same, does the same.

I hope that you feel free to disagree with where I'm at. There is one thing that I do want to say about this entire political process.

It's really been bothering me and then I'm gonna move on. I'm gonna say it pretty strong. Cut it out with the fear.

Stop running around like chickens with your head cut off, like the world is falling, like Chicken Little shouting and screaming on Facebook, the end is near and it's all over.

Is Jesus still on the throne? When did our trust as Christians land in Washington DC?

When has your trust ever been in the president? And on Facebook, I'm telling you what, it's driving me nuts.

I'm about to just shut it off. Not primarily because Christians and my friends and even some of you are commenting, but because of the fear that's being espoused out there.

As if this is our hope. Is that our hope? My hope sits at the right hand of God on high.

His name is Jesus Christ. He is my king. He is my hope.

Come what may, so you should be the most calm, even -keeled person that you know if your trust is in Jesus.

Especially when it comes to politics. Because guess what? You know your trust isn't there.

You know that whatever comes of this, God is still on his throne.

Whether it's your candidate or not. Now I know that that can come across pretty harsh because some of you are feeling genuine anxiety.

You got a decision to make. And I would encourage everybody in this room who is legally aged, vote.

So you're going, well wait a minute. Yeah, vote. And if you want to, if you want to sit down and talk about politics,

I will sit down and talk with you. I'll even get the coffee. I'll buy you a coffee and I'll sit and talk with you. Especially if you're feeling anxiety over it.

If you're saying, Don, you know what? You're up there shouting big at me and saying, Don't be anxious, but I feel anxious.

So, well let's talk through that and let's work through that. Let's get to a place of peace about this.

Matter of fact, I'm gonna be leaving on vacation this afternoon. I won't be back until next Saturday, but this would be a great week to call the office, set up a meeting with Haley if you want to talk.

If you really are feeling anxious, you want to just hash this out. Or you just want somebody to vent to? You want somebody to just share your opinions or your thoughts with?

Great. And again, I don't, I'm not gonna be shy one -on -one from sharing what

I feel or think about it. And let's wrap this up with the tenth thing real quick. The great prostitute will ultimately be rejected by the political power in the end.

We're seeing an internal war. They have got what they needed from her seductions and now they are done with her.

We kind of go, Wait a minute, are they gonna forsake humanism? Is that what we're getting at? Well, let's just say that this woman represents, and the title prostitute is just kind of the undercurrent, the seductive nature of the world system.

But in the end there will, by the end, by the time that the world system and the political leaders are done with this woman, they won't need her seduction anymore.

They will overtly call the peoples of the world to oppose God to his face and they'll say, Let's get the army together and let's go to Armageddon.

Let's get this done. Let's destroy once and for all the Lamb of God. In no more need for the woman because she's seductive.

She's kind of under the undercurrent. She's the the principles of the world and it'll be just overt and direct.

There are two ways of this world. One is the harlot. She will offer you power, wealth, and pleasure and all you will get is addiction, passing fame, and final wrath.

The other way is the bride of Christ, his church. She is submissive, meek, and powerful in her humility.

She always defers and deflects to her Lord. So why would you choose to take the route of submission when everything in our sinful nature cries out for autonomy and self -determination?

If we're honest, we want to make a name for ourselves. But we are called, chosen, and by God's grace we will be the faithful because Jesus has purchased us with his blood.

So as we come to communion this morning, take the cup of juice and the cracker to remember the blood and body of Christ that was given for us.

He could have kept the pleasures of heaven but instead he came down to the dust for us.

He who never needed to feel pain or separation from the Father came and became sin for us.

He who could have shouted and had all the kingdoms of the world bow to him chose the way of humility, simplicity, and suffering.

And why? Because of his great love for you and me. And so as we go out from this week, take communion if Jesus is your

Lord and be sure to look at the world through the lens of this text. Moment by moment and day by day we are being enticed to take sides.

Will you choose the harlot whose destiny is to destruction or will you choose the bride of Christ whose destiny is to eternal glory?

Let's pray. Father, your text often leaves us with a choice.

We are given an image here of a world system that we're all well familiar with.

The materialism, false religion, the temptations to lie and to cheat and to even unite in our sin against you.

Sexual immorality. Father, so many levels of sin that would entice us and draw us into our destruction.

Father, I pray that you would give us eyes to see it for what it really is. Father, those that are caught in the throes of the battle, even battling with fear over this election process or battling with sin in their lives or battling with just running in the wrong crowds or joking about the wrong things or watching the wrong things.

Father, there's just so many levels to this. Father, I pray that you would help us to see that there's filth in the cup we drink from.

Father, only you can change that. So that's what we remember when we come to communion this morning,

Father, that we reflect and remember the blood of Jesus that has bought us, his body broken for us on that tree, and there on the cross he set us free.

So may we go and celebrate freedom from the prostitute, freedom from the world system, and may we lead others to freedom along the way.