Exposits Revelation 17:1-6, identifying the "great harlot" as a corrupt, consolidated religious system that imitates the true church and controls political power. The passage reveals this system's character as a harlot, its spiritual fornication with the kings of the earth leading to their irresponsibility, and its control over the scarlet beast representing political power. The core lesson emphasizes that outward attractiveness, symbolized by the golden cup, hides abominable contents, leading to spiritual corruption and idolatry. The sermon concludes by noting the system's name, "Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots," and its historical roots in Genesis, highlighting its cruelty as seen in its intoxication with the blood of saints.
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Again, as we continue with our expositions of the book of the Revelation, we are ever so conscious of the solemnity of these truths, as they relate to the days in which we live. Before we read some of these solemn things from Revelation chapter seventeen, let us bow for a moment of prayer. Heavenly Father, We are ever so conscious that as we handle this book we call the Bible, that it is the inspired revelation from thyself, and we are simply mere mortals.
But, oh, we thank thee for the Holy Spirit, whose prerogative it is to take of the things of Christ. and reveal them unto us, to help us to understand these things. So we pray thy blessing to rest upon every listener today, and grant that as these words are read and the message spoken, that every heart will be blessed. We ask it in the Savior's name. Amen. Now if you have your Bible handy, Kindly open it to the book of the Revelation chapter seventeen.
Of course, if you happen to be in the position right now that you don't have your Bible or otherwise not able to look at it, just lend your ear and listen to the word of the Lord. Let this word reach your heart and be planted in your heart like a living seed. that may in due time bring forth fruit to God's glory. I am reading now from the book of the Revelation chapter seventeen, verse one. And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great harlot, that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. Then I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.
I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. We'll pause there in our reading. Trust that God will bless to us the reading. of his word. Now let me say that this chapter is dealing with the great harlot and the scarlet beast. Again it is an explanatory passage. I have explained already what I mean by these explanatory passages.
Now Babylon has already been announced as fallen in chapter fourteen and verse eight. Here is what we read there. And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen is fallen. That great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And then again, under the judgment that came with the seventh vile, As recorded in chapter sixteen and verse nineteen we read, And the great city was divided into three parts.
The cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. But now when we come to chapter seventeen, we are taught the mystery of the great harlot. But let me remind you again that when you read in the New Testament about a mystery, it is not something mysterious. It simply means it was something that previously was hidden, but is now fully made known.
So here we have something said here about the mystery of that great harlot, Babylon the Great, in association with the scarlet-colored beast. Now in the first six verses we have the exposure of this corrupt system that is called the great harlot. Then from verse seventeen to the end of the chapter, there is the explanation of the scarlet beast. That's why then you understand that this whole chapter comes in the section that is explanatory.
After reading chapters seventeen and eighteen, we should be in no doubt whatever as to what is meant by the great harlot. Now, first of all, then, coming to these six verses, there is the exposure of a corrupt system, and the first thing mentioned has to do with her character, because verse one declares, there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, come hither. I will show unto thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters.
Notice now her character, a great harlot, not simply a harlot. That would have been bad enough, but a great harlot. Actually, she's called later on the mother of harlot. Now here is a vast, consolidated religious system of evil. And this religious evil system is controlled by Satan. And this great religious organization is in imitation of the true bride, the church.
At this point, Let me throw back on what we said in a previous study. There are four women folks brought before us in the book of the Revelation, and each one is representative. We mentioned that there was Jezebel. We'll read of Jezebel a way back in the chapters that deal with the history of the church. that woman Jezebel. And then when we came to Revelation chapter twelve, we read of the woman that brought forth the man-child.
Here in this chapter we read of this great harlot, sitting upon many waters. When we come to chapter nineteen, will read about the church being set forth as a bride, the bride of the bridegroom, the bride of the lamb. Now you'll find that Jezebel stands over in contrast to the woman that brought forth the man child. We have already referred to that in previous studies. But let me impress it upon all our hearts again.
Jezebel represented a corrupt, heathen system of religion, a religion that corrupted the nation of Israel. And when the ten tribes divided from the two tribes, the ten tribes took to the north under the leadership of Jeroboam. That was their first move on the downward track. And very soon they were worshiping Baal. And Jezebel was the leader of that corrupt system that was introduced into the nation of Israel and violated the very commandments that God had given to them, that they would have no other God beside him.
They began to worship the idols. And Jezebel was the leader. Now, when you come to this woman set before us here as the great harlot, she stands over in contrast to the bride. The bride will be seen in all her spotless purity, dressed in robes of white, prepared for the lamb, for the bridegroom. But here is an imitation of the true thing. This is a corrupt imitation.
She's called the harlot. The harlot, you know, is one who indulges in sin and in immorality and smacks her lips, wipes her lips and says, I've done nothing wrong. She's an imitation of the real thing. Now I want you to notice the angel says, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment. of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters. So in character she set before us here as a harlot, an imitation of the true bride.
Verse two tells us something of her corruption, committing fornication. Now the fornication mentioned here is no doubt of a spiritual nature. and in biblical language is the same as idolatry. Now that should be kept in mind. Verse two says, With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. Now get the thought, get the truth. The very people who have been in the position of leadership, those who were responsible for giving leadership to their people, Those who ought to have been leading, those who were under the charge, the kings of the earth, the rulers of the earth, have violated divine principles and they have committed fornication.
And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of our fornication. Now, when a person is made drunk, That person becomes irresponsible. That person loses control of his or her own spirit. They're not guided by clean, pure thinking. Of course not. They are under the influence of that which they have partaken of. And you find a man who is drunk with wine. He's unstable in all his ways. He staggers from one side to the other and is not aware of what direction he is traveling.
They're corrupt. That is what has happened here in a spiritual sense. The very rulers of the world have formed an alliance with this immoral, wicked, corrupt, and it's a consolidated religious evil system. Oh, we have a great crying out today about the separation between church and state. Listen, my friend. While there may be a separation between church and state, in that sense, there should be no separation between God and the state.
Men who take the leading place in any country should act in the fear of God. And if leaders are guided by the dictates of God in high heaven, then they will give correct leadership to the people under their charge. But the unfortunate thing is this, that what is true as set before us in verse two of Revelation seventeen is true in the world today and will become intensely true as the years pass. Now note it. Again I repeat, while people are crying out about the separation between church and state, they do not cry out for the separation between religion and state.
And you find these leaders are making an alliance with corrupt religious leaders. In fact, they're making an alliance with a corrupt, idolatrous, For that is what this woman represents. And here we find that they are committing spiritual fornication with this corrupt system set before us as a great harlot. Now, verse three tells us something more. We read something here of her control. She is sitting upon the beast. The picture here is that of an empire carrying the apostate religious profession and the religious power controlling the empire, combining the two together.
Whether the rulers are prepared to admit this or not, the fact is the Bible says that this is what will come to pass. For not only has the kings here, the kings of verse two entered into an agreement with the great harlot, but verse three says, So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names, of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Now notice John here is carried in spirit now into the wilderness. Do you recall when we were dealing with chapter four that I mentioned then that the message to John was this, come up Heather. John went up then into heaven and he saw things taking place in heaven. Now here he's carried in spirit into the wilderness and he's going to see something else. He is witnessing now something taking place on us.
And what he sees is a beast. And it is a scarlet colored beast. And that beast has a lot of names. Names of blasphemy. Now remember, blasphemy is speaking against God. Now we pointed out in chapter thirteen where we examined the two beasts, that these beasts represented, first of all, two men. That will be clearer when we come to later chapters. There's the beast and the false prophet, two men. But nevertheless they represent systems.
And the beast, who is a political leader, represents the great political system of which he is the head. Here now we have a scarlet colored beast, the head of a great system. And the character of the beast will be the character of that political system that he represents or rules over. He has a lot of names, names of blasphemy. He's got seven heads. There's the perfection of human intelligence, ten horns, that which represents the completion of human power.
However, you'll notice that he is carrying the scarlet, colored beast that is. He is carrying this woman who is the harlot. For he says, I saw a woman sit upon the scarlet. color beast now in plain words if she is riding the beast she's in control she is controlling the beast look my friend you can argue you can talk you can cry aloud about the separation of church and state but after the true church has been raptured from this scene and taken to be with the Lord it's obvious that this old world is heading for a time when a corrupt form of religion will take control of the political power and she, the great harlot, that corrupt religious system, will be in control of the political power.
Now, in seeking to understand this, notice again her capital resources. She's not poor. She is greatly enriched, according to verse four. She has supplies of purple, scarlet, with gold, precious stones, and pearls. Isn't that remarkable? For verse four says, And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, setting herself off as being someone great. She's decked with gold. precious stones and pearls.
She's rich. She's enriched with the world's goods. You don't need to go far to know who today is enriched with the world's goods. But I want to draw your attention now to her hands. She's holding something in her hand. And here's what it is. Having a golden cup in her hand. That cup is full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Now notice very carefully now this golden cup. This cup looks very attractive as she holds it in her hand.
Why? Because it's a golden cup. Very attractive. Gold is always attractive, isn't it? And gold has become increasingly attractive at the present time. Its value has increased. And oh, how much people would like to own the gold. They're trying to collect it. They're trying to possess it. Here is a woman who has a golden cup. But it's the contents of the cup that really count. It's not the appearance of it. It looks very attractive. But oh, the contents. They are abominable.
full of abominations and filthiness. You see, my friend, it's not always what is attractive to the eye that really counts. It's what that cup holds. It may attract men and women, but when they have partaken of its contents, and a cup usually is that from which you drink, you know, and so if they're going to drink from the cup that's in their hand, They're going to drink of all her filthiness. They're going to be partakers, as it were, of her filthiness and of her fornication. They're entering into a communion or a fellowship with all her idolatry and all her immorality.
But now verse five tells us something now of her compound name. Look what it says in verse five. Upon her forehead, was a name written. Now watch her name. Mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. Now when you come to a statement like this, you've got to stop, because if we're told of name, we'll be able to understand some things about her. First of all, mystery. Something previously concealed, now revealed. Babylon the Great, that is, a fully developed religious corruption, the mother of harlots, the producer of every evil system.
I tell you, my friend, if you want to learn something about Babylon and its origin, you've got to go back to the Old Testament. You've got to go back to the Book of Genesis, and you'll discover there how Babylon came into existence. Then you'll discover this, that it was condemned by God. But here we find it fully developed. It's a religious system that is absolutely corrupt, and it has produced every other evil system. Notice in closing, verse six, her cruelties. I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
When I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. Now that's as far as we're able to go with this chapter today. We're going to continue with this chapter, God willing, in our next lesson.