BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - Revelation 17:1-18

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. How are they gonna fight the lamb? They're gonna fight his people. Who any members of the body of Christ here? This is persecution. We're gonna win if you can't take the tension, run to the end of the book and you'll see we win. But here's a promise. Here's a revelation of Jesus right here in verse 14 of Revelation 17. [00:25:32] (31 seconds)  #LambOvercomes

God's judgment involves them making war with them, with him, his people, I believe, and he will overcome them through us because he is lord, capital l, of lords, little l, and king, capital k, of kings, little kings. So the 10 kings have to bow down to him and admit he is lord when the time comes. And we who are with him are called. Anybody been called? Chosen? Anybody chosen? That's God's part. He's called you. He's chosen you. What's our part? Faithful. [00:26:03] (35 seconds)  #CalledChosenFaithful

So he's keeping peoples from having their name in the book of life. Who would who can say distraction? Distraction. Putting their faith in something other than the gospel, the grace of Christ. So we gotta be aware of what we're looking at. What are you beholding? Because what we behold has an impact on what we become. Here's the mind, verse nine. Here's the mind which has wisdom. This is the angel talking. The seven heads on this beast are seven mountains on which the woman sits. [00:21:15] (42 seconds)  #BeholdingMatters

He was stunned. He was astounded. He was amazed. Very beautiful, very seductive, very persuasive. Who knows we live in a persuasive world? People are embracing and drinking all sorts of Kool Aid because they don't wanna be canceled. What is that? The seductions of the world at work. So John is amazed. I know you can be amazed by storms and deathly afraid of them as well. Maybe he wasn't lusting, but he was amazed. And the angel intervenes says, why do you marvel? [00:16:49] (38 seconds)  #SeductionsOfTheWorld

and Babylon was used as a metaphor in the Bible for wicked cities, wicked communities, wicked cultures. So you had Nineveh. Nineveh was a kind of a Babylon. Tyre inside of Phoenicia, that was a kind of Babylon. Even Egypt is called Babylon, and even Jerusalem has been called Babylon. New York City has been called Babylon. Washington DC has been called Babylon. Austin has been called Babylon. It's a metaphor common in the world of our culture. Here's a one that points to the old Babylon, Jeremiah fifty one seven. Babylon has been a cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth drunken of her wine. Therefore, the nations are mad. So there's parallels made with ancient Babylon with this woman. [00:14:21] (54 seconds)  #BabylonAsMetaphor

So I don't want this to be a sermonette for the Christianettes who want some meat today. So this woman seduces the kings of the earth, and the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk with a wine of her idolatry or unfaithfulness. So some theologians say this is false religions. True religion is to visit the widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. That's true religion. Who wants true religion? Give me that old time religion. But false religion is what this woman is pointing to, believed by many theologians. So we'll see. [00:10:50] (39 seconds)  #TrueReligionIsService

The beast is then brought up in verse three. He carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman, same woman, sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and 10 horns. The description of this beast is a whole lot like the beast that came up out of the water in the first part of Revelation chapter 13. And that beast, I believe, points to the governments or the systems of the world. So this is a seduction or a connecting false religions possibly with the governments of the world. [00:11:30] (38 seconds)  #BeastAndEmpire

It continues verse five, and on her forehead, a name was written. Now apparently, in those days, hookers had their name on their forehead, not tattooed necessarily, but they would wear their name. And so when you'd show up at a place of ill repute, you would ask for someone by their name. So this the name of this woman is Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. This is something God hates. This is mankind at his or her worst. [00:12:46] (38 seconds)  #MysteryBabylonGreat