In the sermon titled 'Mother of Harlots, Creator of Culture Is Exposed,' the speaker, Scott Brown, delves into Revelation 17, exploring the symbolic representation of the harlot and the beast. The harlot, adorned in wealth and blasphemy, symbolizes the corrupting influence of worldly culture, drawing people away from God. The sermon highlights the contrast between the harlot and the bride of Christ, emphasizing the church's role as Christ's beloved. The harlot represents spiritual fornication and apostasy, enticing individuals away from God with false promises of prosperity and freedom. The speaker warns of the cultural influences that infiltrate lives, urging believers to remain discerning and separate from worldly allurements. The sermon concludes with an appeal to turn away from the harlot's deception and embrace the purity of Christ's love, reflecting on the ultimate destruction of Babylon and the triumph of the Lamb.

Please open your Bibles to Revelation 17. I'm going to read the whole chapter. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey, word of God Revelation 17 verse 1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, come I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So she carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup of abominations, the filthiness and the filthiness of her fornication.

And on her forehead a name was written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. But the angel said to me, why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

The beast that you saw was and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is. Here is the mind of wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings, five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come.

And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. The 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them.

For he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are called, chosen, and faithful. Then he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast these will hate the harlot make her desolate and naked eat her flesh and burn her with fire For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is that great city Which reigns over the kings of the earth? Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord we ask you for understanding of these pictures, that you would use them to draw us away from Babylon and draw us toward your son, to remove any harlotry in my heart and in all of our hearts and to be purified as a bride ready. Amen. Please be seated. Amen. Please be seated.

This chapter and the chapter that follows describe the conspiracies of the devil. And the images that you see here are dark. They compose the dark underbelly of the works of the devil in the world as a result of the rejection of God. And they're telling us what really is. And I want you to see through this passage the startling terms that are used to describe what really is about this harlot.

Fornication, drunkenness, blasphemy, wealth, abominations, drunk with the blood of the saints. These are very graphic and dramatic terms. And yet at the same time, I think if you look at the entire context of what we have ahead of us in these chapters to the end, There's a contrast between a bride, a wife, and a harlot. And in fact, when you get to chapter 27 and 21 and 22, there are seven references to the bride. Beautiful descriptions.

The church is the bride of Christ in Ephesians five. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. The church is Christ's bride and Christ is the husband of the bride, the church. And so you have this contrast between a bride, a beloved wife, and a harlot. So that's what you find here.

And we're in this section focusing in on the harlot. And so as we look at the harlot of the beast, keep thinking about Christ's bride. There's a contrast in all of these. You know Christ's bride beholds the Lord Jesus Christ, the face of Christ, and that's what we are here to do today. But the subject is very clear.

Look at it in verse one. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and talked with me, saying to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. So this section is about the context of the judgment against the harlot. And this passage is designed as is everything in Revelation designed to help us understand the world. This passage gives you a window into the finger of Satan in the world, his work.

And the angel is revealing to John what's been going on in the world since the fall, which is why Augustine wrote his book, The City of God, which traces the two cities to the fall, the city of God and the city of man. And I think what's very helpful to us in this passage, and it's something we have to deal with every day. How do we deal with the challenges of the culture that are upon us? We live in the midst of a culture, and that culture has various values, And those values work their way into our thinking. And we live in a very challenging cultural context today.

The advertisements, the movies, the entertainments, the social media, the instant communications, the emails, the texts, the Instagrams, the TikToks, the Facebooks, the computers, the smartphones, the iPads. Here's what they deliver. They actually deliver the culture of the harlot. But they also deliver other things as well. They deliver many of the beauties of the Lord.

And so we live in a challenging time. We have to be very discerning about culture and its effect. I'm really here to ask all of us, I've been asking myself this over and over again this week, how has the culture, you know, infiltrated my life and how I run my life and my schedule. It was Aristotle, many years ago, who asked the question, does the fish know he's wet? And he was talking about culture.

Do you know how wet you are? But I think a passage like this can help us to see any areas of moisture, any wetness of the world upon us. But does the fish know he's wet? Do you know that you're wet? Do I know that I'm wet?

Well, I think we would all have to say, oh Lord, deliver me from the things of this culture that have worked their way into my soul. Now, the moral forces of our culture are very powerful. The Lord said in Isaiah, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. When we read that we're reading about the great problem that we have from the harlot around us. Augustine said it like this he said right is right even if no one is doing it and wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it and this is the great challenge of the Christian to live in a perverse generation to be holy.

To be holy means to be separate from the world. Is this your greatest desire? I pray that it is In chapter 17 and 18 we find this interpretation of the of history and culture And the and the exposure of the work of Satan And what you find here is this wealthy, influential, beautiful, powerful woman is there before us, but she's drunk and she's deceptive and she's finally thrown down even by her own friends. And remember, remember that this is a picture, it points to reality. And remember the first three verses in Revelation, they tell you how to interpret this book.

It's a book of symbols. So this is pictorial theology. These are pictures and what John does Throughout this is he through the angel revealing to him. He shows different angles of various pictures of your life in my life and in the world and in politics. And it's as if a camera is shifting from one angle, but the same thing is happening here in another angle.

And so you have the judgments of the seals and then the trumpets and then the bulls. All of these are from different angles of history. Now in these chapters, 17 and 18, we come to what many believe is the sixth vision. There are seven visions. The final vision is the victory of Jesus Christ in the new heavens and the new earth.

Some say that that last vision begins here in chapter 17. Quite likely it does. That would make four visions instead of seven either way. You can see the basic outline of Revelation. But the chapters that are before us, Chapter 17, is a depiction of the judgment and the destruction of Babylon.

These chapters belong together and they they're really describing the seventh bowl in the fall of Babylon. It looks to me that chapter 17 speaks to the moral focus of the harlot, and chapter 18 is the destruction of Babylon and all of the things that the harlot has done. The two chapters are definitely together. So you have the moral focus of the harlot, and then perhaps the economic and political focus of Babylon and her tyrannical leaders. And then they are destroyed.

So we're entering into a new cycle of visions in the Book of Revelation that speak to the legacy of the downfall of Babylon. So I think that it's right to see both a moral and a political expression of Satan's work in the world, the moral expression in the harlot, the political and economic in the beast and Babylon. So this is the moral and the political influence on culture. So let's enter into the text. We're gonna first look at verses one through six.

And here the harlot's character is revealed. This is the first thing that is revealed to John. What does she look like? What is she like? How do you know what she's doing?

Verses one and two. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me saying to me, come I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. The first thing that I want us to notice is that Satan doesn't operate alone. He comes at us with various angles, various personalities, And his work here is characterized by a beast, or a false prophet, or a harlot, or a city. And the woman here is the focus, but she's also a city.

When you get to chapter 18, the woman is actually a city. It's a whole worldview. And notice that, you know, there's a woman here. There are various women in Revelation. You have Jezebel in chapter 2, verse 20.

In chapter 12, verse 1, we saw the woman with child, and the devil wants to devour the child the child in that imagery is the church and then you have the harlot here in 17 And then we get to verse 19 and 20 and 21, you have the bride. So there are these various women. It's very much like the Bible. Like in Proverbs, there are two figurative women. There's the foolish woman who tears down her house and there's the wise woman who she her whole life is focused on building up her house and Revelation shows these contrasting women.

These are the contrasting kingdoms. These are the two choices. This is light and darkness. These are sheep and goats. This is the way the world is.

And so there are these contrasting kingdoms that are depicted by women. And then notice also this word judgment in verse one. This is the purpose of the angels message is to show the judgment of Babylon. And I think this is very helpful language. This is a judicial term.

This is a judicial term where evidence is brought. There are specific charges that are brought against the harlot in this passage. You'll see them. We're going to go through them one by one, but there is condemning evidence brought against the harlot. And the words that describe the evidence are fornication, drunkenness, blasphemy, opulence, abominations, drunk with the blood of the saints.

There's overwhelming evidence to condemn the harlot, this woman. Overwhelming evidence to condemn the work of the harlot. And you can see it, you can see the evidence. It doesn't take a rocket judge to figure out how to condemn the kind of behavior that's here Exhibit a broken marriages exhibit B suicide exhibit C loneliness exhibit D mental illness add murder slander violence riots add theft, add mass murder, add unloved wives, add adultery, add abandonment, add children living in broken homes. Some want to use you, some want to abuse you.

And this is the fallen world. It's very interesting, you know, you see the condemning evidence of this harlot all over the place. For example, in 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, 80% of black children lived in two-parent homes. The harlot's been on the move, and today, 80% of children growing up in black homes don't have two parents.

This is the work of the harlot. I read last week that over 40% of pastors wanted to quit in 2021. We live in a society of dishonor toward parents, of parents neglecting their children. Children not taught role distinctions, children who were never taught that God forgives sinners. These people are all over the place and growing up all your life and not hearing, I will never leave you or forsake you.

Growing up never hearing that the truth will make you free. Growing up, never hearing that in his presence is fullness of joy, at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. Never knowing how to live, never knowing how to be married, never knowing how to have children, never knowing how to work. So the evidence is brought. This is a judicial declaration and charges are brought against the harlot.

She's coming to be judged. And then notice also she sits on many waters. This is in verse one. She's called the great harlot who sits on many waters. Now, remember these are pictures.

Does this mean that, are you picturing your mind a woman who's sitting on water and not sinking? She's the unsinkable harlot? Is that what this picture is? Skip down to verse 15 because in verse 15 we're told how to interpret the picture. Then he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.

So the waters are people. So the harlot is dominating people, multitudes, nations. It's reciprocal. She's going after them and they're going after her. And the waters are the diversity of mankind, the nations, the tongues.

So in Revelation 17, the water isn't water, it's people. And she sits on many waters. The people of the world support her and she propels them. She harms them and they still keep coming back for more. It's the people who support her and she sits on them.

Now, of course, this is a picture of judgment. She's being described now. But What we need to recognize from this is that God will destroy any culture, any nation, any individual, any governing authority that is dedicated to the glory of man. The whole history of the world shows this. God brings down one ungodly nation after another and puts them into oblivion and they're gone.

And it will keep happening. Any lawless individual, any lawless nation will find themselves in a hard time. And notice that there's the wine of the wrath of her fornication. This is another description. Remember, evidence is being brought here.

The charges are being leveled against the harlot. And now you have the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Both spiritual and physical fornication brings wrath down upon your personality, upon your relationships, upon your body, upon your emotions. And her fornication brought wrath. Now, what is fornication?

Fornication here is used as a metaphor to describe looking anywhere else but to God for your life. It's apostasy. It's turning your eyes in the wrong direction. That's spiritual fornication. Now I think it should strike us hard that he would use the word fornication for the person who's looking elsewhere other than to the Lord Jesus.

If you're not a believer, you're a fornicator. You're a spiritual fornicator. You're having relations with a harlot. You can say, I don't believe, I'm not really a believer. It might be more accurate to say, I'm a fornicator.

I'm fornicating against the God that made me, that created me, that made me for his glory. I'm a fornicator. God is not my father. The church is not my mother. The word of God is not my guide, and I'm okay with it.

I'm just not ready to believe. No, you're a fornicator before the God of heaven. The spiritual adultery. Now, the Old Testament is full of this kind of language of spiritual adultery and we don't have time to go back and trace this doctrine of spiritual adultery that's particularly spoken of in the Old Testament, it's carried on right here in this passage. And she has favor with the political rulers, the people of the world, and quote, you see this language, and the inhabitants of the earth.

The inhabitants of the earth will be swept up in her ideology and in her lifestyle, in her drunkenness. She's drunk. The world is drunk. That's what he's saying here. You know, wine here is a symbol of what she uses to entice.

It's a methodology. The wine is the methodology of the seduction. It's perhaps not just the methodology, it's the effect of the seduction. The wine is. You should always be careful with wine.

The Bible has much to say about wine. We have a book out in the back that tries to give a sense of it. But what does it mean to be drunk? That's a whole other question. And this from various medical websites.

The effect of being drunk. Because this is the imagery. I think we would let our minds muse upon the imagery that's here of drunkenness. What does it really mean? From various medical websites, slow and poor judgment, slurred speech, lack of coordination, vision problems, drowsiness, loss of balance, more talkative, more confident, shorter attention span, Detachment from reality, higher self-confidence, less anxiety, seizures, dehydration, vomiting, coma, death.

That's what the medical websites say about drunkenness. This is the same kind of thing that you experience with the harlot. Drowsiness, loss of vision, lack of coordination, slurred speech, you say the silliest things contrary to God. So the harlot is very self-driven, she's driven by her drunkenness and in God's kingdom though the people people are submissive, They humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. They listen to God.

The children submit to their parents, and they're humble people, but the harlot is the opposite of that. She's doing her thing. Now notice in verses three and four she's carried into the wilderness. Verse three, so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast. She was on the waters, now she's on a scarlet beast.

So do you see the change of the imagery? Which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. So she's in league with the beast, but she goes, John sees her first in the wilderness. There are many ways to look at this.

I tend to think that God is showing John the desolation of the harlot in a land of desolation. To see her as she really is. Because she makes everything a desert in your life. A dwelling place of demons, a prison for every unclean and hateful bird. That's 18 verse two.

In verse 16, he makes her desolate. And he uses the root word for wilderness, desolate and wilderness. They are translated the same. They come from a similar root. And so, and remember earlier, you know, the woman with child was in the wilderness, and the devil wanted to devour her child.

It's the place of desolation and devouring of the church, I think, that she was protected. The woman with child was protected. The beast failed to devour the child, the church. But the woman is riding on the beast and she is in a place where desolation is up ahead because the beast will kill her and make her desolate. So you have this picture of worldly beauty.

She's absolutely beautiful. Did you notice the way she's dressed? Beauty allures. Sex sells. Everybody knows that.

And some of the most beautiful women are evil. Sometimes men get tricked by beauty and they marry an evil woman who is so beautiful to look at for a while. And that's what it's like with this harlot. For a while, she's beautiful. And then she poisons you.

She's prosperity. She promises prosperity. She is worldly, and she promises you worldly beauty. And it's very... And she's very prosperous.

She's received profit in earthly terms. Look at the way she's dressed. She's just stunningly dressed. Arrayed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations. It's interesting, the bride is also dressed like that.

The bride of Christ is also dressed like that. But she's a counterfeit. In this passage, you find a counterfeit. The devil is always giving the counterfeit. And all through here, these are counterfeit.

It's counterfeit treasure, counterfeit pearls, counterfeit wealth, counterfeit beauty. And there's blasphemies, look at verse three. And she's sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy Not only is she dripping with wealth but the one she's riding on has names of blasphemy. You know, it says that she's dressed in scarlet and purple, and scarlet and purple were the attires of the wealthy. When you wore scarlet, you were wearing money.

It was the color of royalty and wealth and beauty and everybody knew it. Scarlet was made from mollusks. The scarlet dye was made from mollusks. Only the super wealthy could get a hold of scarlet dye. It took 250, 000 mollusks to make one ounce of this dye.

And it cost more than what most people earned in a year. It was like the price of gold. And the Roman emperors wore it and forbade their citizens on pain of death from wearing it. Even the popes, the popes of Rome wore the scarlet for the same reason. Because it depicted wealth and beauty and opulence.

It puts you in a complete other class. The children of the very wealthy were described as being born with purple. So it's a picture of wealth and but there was a name written on her head. You know the Saints of God have written on their heads holiness to the Lord not this one and on her forehead a name was written mystery Babylon the great the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth now so now we come to Babylon we come to this other term we've already encountered Babylon Babylon was mentioned in chapter 14 and 16 and now we encounter it in chapter 17 and we will also again in chapter 18. Definition of Babylon, how do you define Babylon?

Well, first of all, this is a name. So the name represents the person. And the name represents the abominations of the earth. Babylon in the Bible is any entity or city or political movement or intellectual institution or corporate policy or false religion or godless sensual entertaining world. It represents that, anything in opposition to God.

Babylon represents anything in opposition to God. And it's synonymous with Sodom and Egypt and Rome in the Bible. And so it points to any city or any people in opposition to God. You could add China and Germany and the United States and Israel and New Zealand to the list who operate under the power of Babylon who fulfill its ethics. We get our name from Babylon from the Tower of Babel.

And Babel, of course, was associated with confusion. At the Tower of Babel they said, we will make a name for ourselves. The modern version of this is the version of you can be whatever you want to be. It's the version of modern sexuality, modern psychology, modern feminism, modern talk shows. You can do whatever you want to do you can be whatever you want to be you can be any gender you want to be whatever you want to be a sodomite, a transvestite, don't listen to your stupid parents Don't listen to those harsh religious legalists.

But Babylon is all about making a name for yourself. But the Christian is different. The Christian says, Lord, I want to be whatever you want me to be. I want to be conformed to your image. I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.

That's what the Christian says. Now, it's a mystery. Did you notice that? Mystery. A mystery is the thing behind the thing.

That's what a mystery is. What's behind the harlot? What's really clear? Blasphemy. And this is the mystery.

The mystery is that Babylon blasphemes God. Babylon hates the things of God, hates the Word of God, the Law of God, all the ways of God. Blasphemes God. Blasphemy is saying that God is not good. God's ways are not good.

That's blasphemy. And it's very interesting. This term is used in other places. You have mystery Babylon, but you also have the mystery of godliness, which is Christ. And you also have the mystery of marriage in Ephesians chapter five.

The mystery of marriage, what marriage is all about, always was designed to be about, was about Christ's love for the church. That mystery wasn't revealed until Ephesians five 22 to 33. So you have mystery Babylon, you have the mystery of godliness, you have the mystery of the church. 1st Timothy 3.16 speaks of the mystery of godliness. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

Here's what's behind godliness. Here's the mystery, here's what sits behind it. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the word, in the world, received up in glory. So Jesus is the mystery of godliness. Jesus is where godliness comes from.

His incarnation, his life, his death, and his resurrection, his being seated at the right hand of God. This is the mystery of godliness. This is where godliness comes from. Well, the woman is, And Babylon is the poster child for harlotry. And to blaspheme God is to misrepresent or dishonor God, to misrepresent his character by your life, to misrepresent his acts by your acts, to misrepresent his words by your words, or his attributes by our attributes.

When you despise the law of God, you're blaspheming God. And you know, what's so striking here is here this city, this woman is offering satisfaction, but you're only left empty. This woman is offering sexual freedom that puts you into bondage. This woman is offering you wealth that will be taken away. This woman is offering you inclusion, which gets you killed at the end by your own friends.

This woman is offering you freedom from God. And that's what you get. The comforts of God, the grace of God, the laws of God are all deprived from you. It's a net loss. Now, you say she's the mother of abominations.

Just hang on that for a second. You who are mothers, we have many mothers here. Mother of abominations. I can't think of many things more tragic than motherhood as being a motherhood of abominations. Motherhood is the most blessed thing.

And Satan turns it into poison. He turns motherhood into abominations. Motherhood into abominations. You know, the pathway for all who follow in the pathway of the harlot is the pathway to death. This is very very clear in the book of Proverbs.

In Proverbs 2 18 and 19 we learn her paths lead to death for her house leads down to death and her paths to the dead. None who go to her return nor do they regain the paths of life. In Proverbs chapter 5, just a couple of chapters ahead, and verses 3 through 8, this dark underbelly again is revealed of the harlot. For the lips of the immoral woman drip honey, Proverbs 5.3, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death. Her steps lay hold of hell. Any who are tampering with pornography should hear these words heavy on your ears. Her feet go down to death. Lest you ponder her path of life, her ways are unstable, you do not know them.

Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth Remove your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house In Proverbs chapter 7 two chapters down in verses 25 to 27. She throws you away, she throws you down. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths, for she has cast down many wounded. And all who were slain by her were strong men.

Her house is the way to hell descending to the chambers of death. And then two chapters later in Proverbs 9, Solomon continues, he understood this. Proverbs 9, 16 through 18. Whoever is simple or rather stupid, let him turn in here. As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell.

You know, you can imagine as a pastor, you know, who has been contemplating these things all week long to come into a church with just a tremendous sobriety. And how do you encourage the people of God with such heavy things that are laying down here? Now, interestingly enough, John was amazed. Verse six, I saw the woman, John, John saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

He's looking at this beautiful, wealthy, powerful, high and massively popular woman. Billions of likes on social media. And he's marveling with amazement. He's amazed. And later on, the same word is used for those who have the mark of the beast.

They're also amazed at this woman. But what does it mean? It's likely that when John saw the woman, so beautiful, so wealthy, so powerful, so compelling, that he too was amazed. And was likely, slightly drawn in. I don't think you could have been completely drawn in.

But when you see a beautiful and powerful and popular thing, you're drawn in. And you want it. You want part of it. Every man is like that, women are like that as well. You see an alluring woman and what do you do?

There's something there you think it's for you And no one is exempt from the temptations of Babylon and the woman. None of us are. None of us should act like we are exempt from these temptations that are there. But she's drunk and She's intoxicated by the blood of the saints, by the martyrs, and it's by the martyrs. Who's a martyr?

A martyr is a person who has testified. A martyr testifies to the grace of God. Those are the ones she's devoured. The ones who testify to the goodness and the grace of God, those are the ones she's devoured. The ones who testify to the goodness and the grace of God, those are the ones she kills.

She turns them into martyrs. And she's promising to make all your dreams come true and give you everything your flesh longs for and to promise you the happiness and the satisfaction and the pleasure that your heart longs for, but it all falls apart. How frustrating it will be for those who are lured by her. This is actually described in the next chapter in 1814. The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you.

All the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all." Isaiah talked about this. He said, it's like you get in bed and the bed's too short and the covers are so short, you can't sleep. It just doesn't work. It works for a moment. And then it takes you where you don't want to go.

And then you find the explanation of the pictures. What does it all mean? Verses 7 through 14. The mystery is told here in these verses. But the angel said to me, why do you marvel?

I will tell you the mystery of the woman. So now the mystery of the woman is revealed and of the beast which carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. And notice this is again an imitation, a knockoff of Jesus, verse eight, Who was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And I think all of this should just cause us to ask, in whatever ways have I become drunk with this woman? And everybody can get tipsy by this woman.

Maybe you're tipsy. Maybe all of us are tipsy, a little bit tipsy from this woman. Count the cost of walking with Babylon. Count the cost of the soul lost, count the cost of the years lost, count the cost of the betrayals and the things that this woman has brought, count the cost of the tears shed because of this woman. You know, I'm so thankful God says he keeps your tears in a bottle.

The tears that you even shed for your own sins. He keeps in a bottle. And then you see this beast and all on verse 8, and all who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. They continue to marvel at her beauty, the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life. This kind of thing happens in different ways.

With believers getting a little bit tipsy from the harlot, you know, something happened and the word of God wasn't as appealing as it used to be. And the fellowship of God's people was not really to be desired. It wasn't prioritized. You'd rather be elsewhere. And the people of God are not that important.

And it just happens over time. But her beauty, her beauty lures you away. The people who take the church lightly, the people who drop out of the church, they've either gotten tipsy or drunk on the wine of her fornication. And then there's a description of the beast here, verse 9 through 14. Here is the mind which has wisdom, the seven heads of the seven mountains on which the woman sits.

There are also seven kings, five have fallen, and one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. What does that mean? I'm not sure. I'm just genuinely not sure exactly what that means.

God knows what it means. Is it the city of Rome or the Roman Empire or the seven hills, the seven hills of Rome? Is it just about Rome? I'm not confident it's that. The number seven is very clearly a figurative number of a number of the fullness of something You know there there were a lot more than seven Roman emperors a hundred and over a hundred of them I don't know which ones these are.

If they're literal Roman emperors, I think that they are the emperors that are like the emperors in Babylon. And You have the complete rule of Babylon. And then you have the eighth. I don't know what that means. I heard somebody say, well you have seven, which is the number of completeness.

The eighth is worse than all that. I don't know. But what we do know is that they're coming to an end. You can hang your hat on that one right there. The kingdoms will fall and there apparently will be one final king, one final rulership, but only for a short time.

We'll have the lifespan of a fruit fly and then he'll be gone. Regarding Rome, it was the historian Tacitus who said, "'Rome is where all the horrible and shameful things in the world congregate and find a home. Seneca called Rome a filthy sewer. So whatever these tin horns and things like that are, I think they're figurative. You know, everyone was very excited, you know, in the 1970s when the European Union had nine nations and all the dispensational interpreters of Revelation said, this is the 10 kings, this is the 10, it's here.

One more, one more world ruler in the European Union. And then Greece was added to make 10 and everybody got so excited and then Spain and then Portugal and then now they're 27. So it wasn't the European Union for sure. I think it's figurative. They embody Satan's attack in the world.

They represent the kings of history. And their authority is for one hour. His authority is for one hour. In verse 13, the people of the world are of one mind. Look at this.

They are of one mind and they give their power and authority to the beast This is a world that thinks the same except the church doesn't think that way There are these dominating opinions and These ideological fads these these fashionable ideas the the spirit and the mood the zeitgeist the the spirit of the age The the way that the majority think, that's what you have here. And they make war with Christ, verse 14. They will make war with the lamb and the lamb will overcome them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings. And those who are with him are called chosen and faithful. And then one of the most remarkable things in this passage, I've been thinking about this for months, about how the beast comes and kills the harlot.

This is astounding. Verses 15 through 17, And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot. Wait, I thought they were in league. Make her desolate, naked, and eat her flesh and burn her with fire. And then in verse 17 we learn why this happened because God put it in their hearts to fulfill his purpose to be of one mind and give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God were fulfilled.

And the woman whom you saw is that great city. Oh, the woman is a city who reigns over the kings of the earth. What a turn of events. The Antichrist turns on his harlot and destroys her. However, that shouldn't be surprising to us if we thought about it for a while.

The devil has a normal path. The devil is a destroyer. He's the father of lies. He lies to his own harlot. He lies to the followers of the harlot.

He subjugates them. He defiles them. Here's what I'm trying to say. There is no love in Satan. There is no love in the harlot.

There is no love in Babylon. All of her baubles, all of her wealth, all of her outward appearances, there's no love in them. The antichrist kills his own. That's what the devil does. He hates everyone.

You know, I've heard people say, I can't wait to get to hell because all my friends will be there. No. All your friends will hate you and you will hate all your friends. All you'll find there is betrayal and hatred. And you will hate everyone in hell and they will hate you.

Because that's the nature of the beast. There is no love in the beast. Okay, let's make some quick applications here. Note just the dangerous allurements of wealth and beauty. The allurement of the harlot is real, and we're all vulnerable to it.

The message of the harlot is deceptive. She always gives you half truth. She takes what God has made, like the blessings of sexual intimacy, and he perverts it. He only takes the good things that God has, the good, beautiful things that you enjoy every day, and he perverts them. But enjoy them as in the Lord, but not in her way.

The morality of the harlot will destroy you. The debtor there, The effect of the harlot is drunkenness. It'll make you drunk and lose a sense of space and reality. And the end of the harlot is desolation and nakedness and being devoured and getting burned with fire. And while the woman is a beauty, she's just copying elements of the beauty of the Lord.

And then she deprives it of all of its love and all of its truth and all of its purity. That's the ministry of the harlot. And so you have this picture of a harlot in contrast with a picture of a bride. The bride is the church. The harlot and her followers is the world.

That's the imagery that we have here. The Lord Jesus Christ is gathering a bride whom he loves. He gave his life for the church. He wants a wife. He wants a wife to love.

That's what husbands are supposed to do, to picture Christ in the church. He wants to love you. He wants to love you by his laws. He wants to love you by the things that he's taught you. He wants to love you by his spirit.

He wants to love you in his church by the members of the church who build up one another. The true bride sees the beautiful face of Jesus Christ. A lamb, not a dragon, not a harlot. I was taken this morning by the words of the song, Emmanuel's Land. The bride eyes, not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face.

I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hand, the Lamb in all his glory, in, of, Emmanuel's land." Now the solution to all this is given in the next chapter. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, lest you receive her plagues. So there you have it, A very startling and sobering picture of a harlot. And in the backdrop, an understanding of a bride, a wife who's loved.

And that's what I lay before us all today. And I do pray that you know the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I pray that all of us would be continually weaned from the harlotry of the harlot. We are being weaned from it. We still have the harlotry.

We're dealing with it. This is called sanctification. But God is so kind to begin to work out the poison your whole life long and he'll carry you to the end. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we thank you for these words to startle us.

We must have needed it. And so here we are before this even terrifying passage. But Lord, we know that you are good. We know that you are not like a harlot at all. And we pray that you would come and do your work within us to cleanse us and to make us into your image.

Amen.