Revelation 17

Good morning! Our scripture reading this morning will be from Revelation chapter 17. If you have a copy of scripture you could turn there with me. Otherwise, it’ll be on the screens up here if you prefer. Revelation chapter 17.

Revelation 17:1-14

1 “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,

2 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.”

3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.

4 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.

5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”

6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

When I saw her, I marveled greatly.

7 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.

8 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.

9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;

10 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.

11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.

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

13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.

14 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.”

May God bless the reading of his word.

Thank you, Chris. If you haven’t done so already… and by the way, good morning, Saylorville! —you can find Revelation 17. We’ll be looking at other scripture, as well. We’re talking about the love that God hates this morning.

If you can imagine everything you have, everything you own, your savings, your retirement, your gold, your silver, your crypto, everything suddenly taken away, then what? On 9/11, and I’m talking about the day of 9/11, when the Twin Towers came down, the Pentagon was attacked, there was great fear in our country and really around the world. In this church, folks came off the street, afraid and desperate asking, “What is God doing? Is this the end of the world?” They were crying… came into this very room, crying, praying, and promising! But it was all very short lived. I don’t think we saw any of them back in this church. Listen to what Isaiah says, in Isaiah 24.

Isaiah 24:1-3

1 “Behold, the LORD will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.

3 The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the LORD has spoken this word.”

That’s what is to come. In the end, catastrophic events will be taking place all, virtually all, around the world and even in the stellar places. And people will be frantic! They’ll be in a panic! And they will be looking for something, someone to save them… just not from their sins.

The religious Babylon is described in Revelation 17. You just heard it read. The economic Babylon is described in chapter 18. Both are called Babylon. Now, Babylon comes from the word “babel,” which means “confusion.” Literally, the Hebrew word means “gate of God.” It would actually become a barred gate, a gate that would shut people out from God. The word “babel,” we have come to know as meaning “confusion.” But it was an actual city in Bible times, built by Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah. And that’s in Genesis 10. It would become a kingdom under a much better known Nebuchadnezzar, and that was back in Daniel’s day. And speaking of Daniel, we’ll come back to him, because Daniel shows us how to live in Babylon.

Now many believe that the Babylon of Revelation 17 and 18 is a literal city in the future, but I don’t think so, and let me tell you why. — Because the Scripture says it is not a literal city in the future. So if you want proof, it’s Isaiah chapter 13. We’ll put it up there beginning in verse 19 where Isaiah the prophet says,

Isaiah 13:19-22

19 “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.”

20 It will never be inhabited (You hear the word “never“?) or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

21 But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there wild goats will dance.

22 Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged.”

That’s why I don’t think the Babylon here is literal. It’s figurative. And by the way, Jeremiah the prophet doubles and triples down on the promise that Babylon no longer will be inhabited. You can read that for yourself another time in chapter 51 of Jeremiah. Now, some think that the Babylon in this passage is Rome, the city of Rome, and perhaps it’s symbolic of the Roman Catholic church. That’s actually what I believed at one time.

And in fact, in September of 1982, at 11:30 at night, I called my brother up, got him out of a dead sleep. He had just begun pastoring, and my opening question was, “Mike! Do you believe the Catholic Church is the harlot of Revelation 17?” How’d you like to be woken up from asleep with that question? Instead, he just led me to Jesus… a very nice thing to do! That very night I came to Christ!

So what is the “Babylon” mentioned repeatedly in these chapters? Well, given its history and its former wealth… remember, Nebuchadnezzar over the city of Babylon, it was one of the seven… the Hanging Gardens were considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But it was constantly known for its rebellion and its idolatry. And so Babylon became symbolic of the system that rebels against God, seduces people, and replaces God in this world.

I was just with a friend of mine recently, who is an expert in Egyptian antiquities and history and languages and the Semitic languages, and we had been talking about the Gospel — He’s not a Christian — and he said to me, “Pat”, quote, “I find likenesses to Christianity in all of the other religions.” And I looked at him and I said, “That’s true, and there’s a reason for that, — because the one behind those systems knows that he’s got to snuggle up as close to Christianity as he can.” And so in these pagan religions, you have death, you have resurrections, you have, you have children born to some of the women that they worship like Tammuz. And this is all… we’re told by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, that ‘Satan is a masquerader. And we shouldn’t be surprised when his ministers masquerade themselves as ministers of righteousness.’ Have you ever read that?

[2 Corinthians 11:14-15

14 “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”]

So Satan is a counterfeiter. The Antichrist… remember, we talked about that prefix, called it a few weeks ago, means “instead of,” “or against,” but “instead of.” He’s constantly trying to mock and mimic the things of God. And that’s why so many of us are seduced by the system.

Do you remember in Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel? That represents the first corporate, cooperative effort in resisting God as a community. And let me just take you there for a moment and prove it to you. You can look at it. It’s up on the board. This is what they said when they were getting ready to build the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 11:4

“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves (that’s a community) a city (that’s a municipality) and a tower with its top in the heavens (that’s idolatry) and let us make a name for ourselves (that’s pride) lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (that’s disobedience)

… because in Genesis 8, that’s exactly what God told Noah to do when he came out of the ark; multiply, move out, fill the earth. Remember that?

[Revelation 8:17, “Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”]

Instead, they congregated. Here’s the point. Babylon represents the love that God hates. What did John tell us?

‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that’s in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. They’re not of the Father, they’re of the world. And the world is passing away, (Revelation 17, 18, 19, 20) and all of its lusts. But the one who does the will of the Father, he lives forever.’ Amen?

[1 John 2:15-17 (ESV)

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”]

If the world… if the… and by the word… when you see the word “world” in John’s writing, that’s the Greek word “cosmos.” We get our word “cosmetic.” Cosmetics cover things. They cover blemishes. That’s what the world is. The world is a godless… the cosmos is a godless mindset. And if the cosmos is a godless mindset, then Babylon is the godless system that drives it. And we know who drives the system, right? In case you didn’t know, here’s how John concludes his epistle when he says,

1 John 5:19b, “… and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.“

Have you ever read that?

So Revelation 17 and 18 is sort of a pause in the time continuum in the book of Revelation. We said this book is not linear. This is another one of those close-ups of what’s, in this case, it’s the close-up of the system, the religious and the economic system, all coming under one realm, one name… Babylon.

And so in 17, there’s the collapse of the false religions. In 18, the world’s economic system comes down. And if you look at verse 6 in chapter 17, here’s how John describes it.

Revelation 17:6, “And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled (mega; I marveled) greatly.”

It’s a very descriptive Greek phrase. It means that he is shocked! It means that he is horrified by the vision that he got!

On October 7, 2023, over 2,900 radical Islamic terrorists crossed the wall of Gaza and went on a killing spree that was nothing short of horrific! — So diabolical, so barbaric that Israel has had to videotape this and only show the most selective audiences what was done during those hours when 1200 Jews met their death and 251 were kidnapped. It’s horrifying what they did! And you are left wondering, ‘how can man do this to man?’ That is what John was seeing! He was seeing something so horrific, he could hardly take it! That’s still to come!

Now there’s a ton of symbolism in this section of scripture, and I refuse to get nailed down on the exact meaning of all the symbolism. Some way we can get. The beast is the Antichrist, the Woman, the prostitute, where she’s the Mother of Harlots, not just a mother of a harlot, her prostitutes… plural. Whatever this religious system is, it’s over all the bad religious systems! The waters, that’s referring to the world itself, the scarlet refers to sin, the gold, precious stones, that’s the wealth we’ll come back to in a few moments. The seven heads, mountains or hills in verse 9, many believe that’s Rome. I once believe that. It may be. I don’t know. The ten horns, those are the rulers who align themselves with the Antichrist. It’s a lot of fascinating terminology, variously interpreted. But there is something really intriguing. Go down to verse 9 where John says,

Revelation 17:9-10

9 “This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;

10 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.“

Well, that explains it perfectly. These are apparently world empires. There are six of them. There are six empires that have actually ruled the entire world. There’s Egypt, there’s Assyria, there’s Babylon, there’s Medo-Persia, there’s Greece, and there’s Rome. So when the next one, the seventh, comes up it looks like a revived Rome. Now some look at this and, ‘Oh, that’s the Antichrist. Remember? — because he gets killed and he can’t…’

Listen. Let me give you a word of caution. At some point, prophecy has to be fulfilled in time. And it’s why we’re constantly looking for real-time fulfillments, aren’t we? — like President Trump’s near assassinations. (He Gasps) Hold your horses just a little bit. He didn’t die! He didn’t come back to life. Don’t be naive! And even Jesus, himself, in the Olivet Discourse,

warned us, he warned us strongly that in the last days, many will come, they’ll claim to be the Christ, people will say, ‘There he is!’ He says, ‘Don’t listen to him! Don’t be naive! Don’t get seduced!’

[Matthew 24:23-24

23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.

24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”]

The religious system is coming down, and so is the commercial system from chapter 18. Look at… chapter 18. We’ll put it up there. Verse one,

Revelation 18:1-5

1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.

2 And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. (Sounds a lot like what Isaiah was saying, right?)

3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;

5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

So unlike the rebels at the Tower of Babel who were piling up bricks, these people were piling up sins. Scan down to verse nine.

Revelation 18:9-14

9 And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.

10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,

12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,

13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.

14 “The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!”

Now while some think that Babylon is an actual city, I think I proved you it can’t be! I think it’s a system. I think it’s a system, and this is where you ought to lean in. It’s a system, the very system we all live in, breathe in, eat in, buy in, sell in, swim in, and some of you are drowning in right now! When I read and study Revelation 18, I… see… us! I see us! I see the good old USA, the wealthiest country on earth. Now don’t be quoting me. ‘Well, Pastor says Revelation, that’s what …’ Stop! It’s all over the world. This is a worldwide thing, but this is us! Any way you slice it… we all live in Babylon.

So while living in Babylon, what are you gonna do about it? There’s a love that God hates. We saw that in 1 John 2:15-17, quoted it earlier, that followers of Jesus must resist. Resist that love, and dare to be a Daniel. Remember that old hymn? Dare to be a Daniel. I say that because Daniel is the companion book to Revelation because of all the prophecies in Daniel. It’s almost replete with prophecies from chapter 2 on. But Daniel himself as an individual is a great example of how to live in Babylon, because he literally did. You remember what they tried to do to him as well as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and all of them? Remember, they took the creme de la creme when Babylon sacked the kingdom of Judah and brought them in 586 BC to Babylon, they, through subjugation and assimilation, tried to change them, just like the system you’re living in is trying to do to you. How did they do it? Well, they changed their location, they changed their family, they changed their names, they even gave them pagan names of pagan gods. And they changed their diet. That’s where Daniel, drew the line, not because he was a health nut. He wasn’t a health nut, okay? — but because they were dedicated… the foods that they were trying to give them, these meats were offered to idols and he wasn’t about to give himself to idols. And so as a very young teenager, the Bible tells us in Daniel chapter 1 and verse 8, that ‘Daniel purposed in his heart.” Where did he purpose? In his what? In his heart because that is you! The heart is you!

[Daniel 1:8, “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.”]

Whatever you do with true Christ-like motivation is going to come from your heart! So Daniel purposed in his heart not, not, not to defile himself with the portion of the King’s delicacies. That should be our life verse as we live in Babylon. Daniel was… you read Daniel… he was dedicated, he was holy, and he was ready. He was ready, whether to present himself, whether he was a young Daniel or an older Daniel. He was ready to step up to the plate. And that’s why… remember in [Daniel] chapter 4 when Nebuchadnezzar calls him up, because he’s already experienced… he’s already been mesmerized by this guy who can tell dreams. He hails Daniel as the one, ‘Hey Daniel, I know the spirit of the gods lives in you.’ Have you ever read that? Now, he didn’t get it right, but he knew there was something about Daniel himself, and so he calls him in. And Daniel becomes… he becomes third in charge of all of the Babylonian kingdom! And this is why the writer of Proverbs says that in Proverbs 16 and verse 7, it tells us that ‘when we, when our ways please God, living in Babylon, even our enemies will be at peace with us.’ Have you ever at that?

[Proverbs 16:7, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”]

They can’t help it! And this isn’t people who harangue constantly against the darkness and everything. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be against evil. We should be. It’s those who live the Daniel-like life in the Babylonian culture that we live in. They stand out and the unbelievers take note. So, dare to be a Daniel living in Babylon.

Secondly, forsake the world’s ways of thinking and living. And we’re told that flat out in verse 4 of chapter 18 where he says,

Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;”

I’ve been involved in several construction projects as a pastor, but the very first one was in the first, the only other church I’ve pastored. I was a young man and the construction was going and I was in my office in the building that would get pretty much swallowed up by the new building. And all the construction workers were right outside of my office and they had their boom boxes just cranked with the most awful music you could ever listen to, probably some that you’re listening to now, but it was really bad! And so I had a choice and it was just literally coming through the window. And I could leave, I could come out of this, I could just go, or I could play my own music! So I had my own, you know, box turned it on, cranked up that Christian music, baby! Do you think it overcame the other music? No, I just heard them both. It was a complete frustration!

And that’s the way some of you are living right now! Some of you want the life Jesus offers, but you can’t help yourself. You’re so entrenched into this culture and its ways that rather than proclaiming Christ to the lost that are around you, you either clam up or worse, you affirm them! — becoming more like them and less like Jesus. What’s the word that we’re told here? Come out! Come out! We still have to reach this culture. We don’t have to be this culture!

Thirdly, look at your wealth for what it is… necessary in time, not eternity. And you saw that just in the reading, but just look at a slice of it. Look at verse 17, just the first part of it.

Revelation 18:17a, “For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”

And by the way, in the midst… I read it already, but you may have missed it. I put some emphasis in the reading, but I wanna bring it back to you because no commentator, none jumped on this verse. But I will! In the midst of the coming economic collapse, John captures the why in the wail. He captures the why all of these individuals, entrepreneurs, rich people, the wealthy of the world, watching everything come down, go down in flames, go up and smoke, use whatever you want to, you know, analogy you want to use. They wail! It tells us a couple times that they’re wailing! John gives us the why. It’s in verse 14. Look at it.

“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you.” That’s the reason why they’re wailing. “The fruit for which your soul longed.”

[Revelation 18:14, “The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!”]

That word “longed” is a powerful… it’s the Greek word “epithumia.” It’s a very strong word. It means “to long for that which is forbidden.“

Friends, you’re living in Babylon. And now that you know what’s going to happen to Babylon, what are you going to do about it? Here’s how Peter puts it in his apocalyptic book.

2 Peter 3:11, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness…?“

That’s a good question! I like how J Baldwin put it.

“God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, the fire next time.” J Baldwin

And the fire’s coming. Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Have you been called by God? Chosen? And are you faithful to Him?

When I was a… again, in the first church that I pastored, the church was very poor. We didn’t hardly have any extra money to spend and we wanted to have a youth program because we were seeing… people were getting saved, and getting baptized like we’re seeing this morning. And we couldn’t even afford Awana. — But we found this cheesy program online. Well, no, online didn’t exist back then. So somehow we found it. Cost me 25 bucks. Cost the church 25 dollars for a children’s program. It was cheap and it was cheesy, but it was biblical, and they had a great theme verse… right out of this text. And here it is.

Revelation 17:14b, “… for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

Are you? Are you even with Him? Those who are with Him are called chosen and faithful. Are you willing to dare to be a Daniel in the culture in which you live? Just because you know about Him doesn’t mean you know Him.

And so just the other day I met with a group of guys I meet with regularly, and they brought in a friend. I didn’t know the friend. They did, and he’d been around Christianity like so many of you for a lot of his life, but he didn’t know Jesus. And when we, one by one, these guys who have come to Jesus during these meetings, they all played the role of evangelist. They started speaking to Him. He didn’t stand a chance! He bowed his heart, and now He’s with Jesus… called, chosen, and God willing, faithful. Are you?

You’re living in Babylon. What are you going to do about it?

Our Father in heaven, You have called us to come out, come out from among them and be separate, not touch the unclean thing. Lord we have to live in this culture! We swim in this culture! We breathe this culture! We can’t help but have this culture affect us. I know it affects me. But, oh God, save us from it! Make us useful in it! Raise up mighty Daniel men and women, boys and girls, to whom the culture and those who live within it would say, ‘Whatever he’s got…’ ‘Whatever she’s got… I want it!’ — Because it’s all coming down, Lord. We’ll last forever if we do your will. Make us your faithful ones, O Lord of lords and King of kings… called, chosen and faithful.

For those of you that are here and watching online, you’ve never repented of your sin and you’ve never received the King of kings, the Lord Jesus, as the one who died and rose again for you, you want to be with him like the young man who with me the other day joined Jesus by faith? Trust Him today, and we’ll give you the glory. And until that day say, ‘Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!’ We pray in your name. Amen. Let’s stand. [Music]