Participants:
Series Code: ICJ
Program Code: ICJ190019A
|
00:01 Being in an illicit affair may seem very exciting
00:04 until you wake up and find you've been seduced. 00:30 If there's anything that Jesus values 00:33 more than anything else, 00:34 its loyalty, and trust, and faith. 00:37 He's such a wonderful Savior. 00:38 We're talking about this incomparable Jesus. 00:40 And He's really right in the middle 00:42 of the Book of Revelation. 00:44 And we are talking about His church, 00:46 and He wants to see from His church loyalty. 00:49 But we're also seeing seduction and unfaithfulness. 00:53 So we want to go down 00:54 to the Book of Revelation Chapter 17. 00:57 And we're going to see this other woman 00:59 now come into focus, she's called Babylon. 01:03 Revelation Chapter 17, I'm reading from verses 1-2. 01:06 "Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls 01:10 came and talked to me, saying, 01:12 'Come, and I will show you the judgment 01:15 of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 01:19 with whom the kings of the earth 01:21 have committed fornication, 01:23 and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk 01:26 by the wine of her fornication.'" 01:28 There's this great principle in Scripture called repeat 01:30 and enlarge particularly 01:32 in the great prophetic prophecies. 01:34 And, of course, in our last session, 01:36 we talked about the seven last plagues, 01:38 and particularly the six plague. 01:40 And so the tie to the plagues here is very clear 01:43 because one of the angels who had one of the bowls 01:46 of the plagues, comes and talks to John, 01:49 and now begins to show him, 01:51 I repeat and enlarge in a picture 01:55 of this woman called Babylon. 01:58 Now, it's going to show her judgment 02:00 because she's committed fornication 02:02 with the kings and the rulers of the earth 02:05 and the inhabitants of the earth 02:07 are charmed with her, 02:09 and they've been made drunk by the wine of her fornication 02:14 with these rulers and elders, 02:16 not elders, but rulers and kings of the earth. 02:19 Why are they drunk? Why do they get drunk? 02:22 Because they say, this look great. 02:24 That we're going to get a lot of benefits. 02:26 I mean, this relationship between Babylon 02:29 and the leadership of the world. 02:31 I mean, we're all going to be, this is gonna be great, 02:34 and they're gonna be pretty upset 02:36 with anybody that gets in their way 02:38 or doesn't go along with them. 02:39 And this is, of course, the mark of the beast 02:41 is gonna come into all of this. 02:42 People are going to see a grand, 02:44 marvelous opportunity, 02:46 and it's gonna be very attractive, 02:48 and very seductive. 02:52 But God is going to judge her. 02:53 It looks like she's gonna have it totally, 02:55 she says in another place, I'll sit as a queen. 02:58 I'll never see sorrow, I'm not going to be a widow. 03:01 But the Bible says that God judges her. 03:03 This isn't a fight that God's people have to do, 03:06 they just have to trust the Lord. 03:08 It is the Lord that brings down this powerful, evil, 03:13 seductive Babylon. 03:16 Now we want to ask the question, 03:18 who is this Babylon? 03:20 Caroline J. 03:22 Simon in her article in Psychology Today, 03:27 and the article is entitled, "Don't be Seduced." 03:31 And she says this, and it's very interesting 03:33 how it really describes what the Bible talks about, 03:36 and this symbolic Babylon, who is going to be a reality, 03:41 is becoming a reality. 03:43 She says, "Don't be seduced, 03:45 seductions, meaning it is no accident 03:47 that the route of seduce is to separate 03:51 or lead away." 03:53 And she goes on to say, 03:55 "Those who are seduced are led away 03:58 from the value central 04:00 to their own sense of integrity." 04:01 And that's exactly what happens to the world. 04:03 Babylon seduces the world 04:06 not to trust God's Ten Commandments, 04:10 but to trust her own version of it. 04:13 So God's Church, the integrity and the safety of God's Church 04:18 is to trust God's law, and Babylon seduces the world 04:23 and leads them away from their own integrity. 04:28 It's an amazing. 04:29 She goes on to say, "Seduction may look romantic, 04:32 but it's all about self-centered power." 04:37 Telling you if you look down 04:38 through the apostasy of Christianity, 04:41 wherever you turn, it's going to be about power. 04:44 You know, the Church of God is to be humble, 04:47 the Church of God is to be peaceable, 04:49 the Church of God is to minister, 04:51 the Church of God is not here for worldly power 04:54 and wealth and to show, 04:56 "Hey, we can just change things through the political." 04:58 No, the church is here to change people's hearts. 05:02 That's what Jesus did. 05:04 He didn't try to take over the political reigns 05:06 of government either in the Jews or the Romans. 05:08 He could have, He had the power to do it, 05:10 but He didn't. 05:11 But what He did do was He changed people's hearts, 05:15 He's changed my heart. 05:16 I hope He's changed your heart. 05:18 Hope you've let Him change your heart. 05:20 He will if you let Him. 05:22 And let's go on, it says, "But the insidious..." 05:24 She goes on to say, 05:26 "The insidious, corrosiveness of seduction is heightened 05:31 by the seductress' defense." 05:34 And the defense was, after all, it was consensual. 05:38 The Bible says that Babylon actually 05:41 deceives the kings of the earth. 05:46 In other words, she gets them involved 05:50 and then she can back off and say, 05:52 "Well, it was consensual." 05:53 Well, it was. 05:55 It is, and it will be, 05:57 but God holds the false church, 06:01 the apostate church responsible for the seduction. 06:06 Well, let's go on to Revelation 17:2 06:10 so he carried me away 06:12 in the spirit in the wilderness. 06:15 Now we've been there before. 06:16 I mean, in the wilderness, 06:18 if you go back to Revelation 12:13, 06:20 you'll find that God's Church is in the wilderness, 06:24 she's being chased by the great red dragon. 06:28 And so this wilderness is a place 06:30 that's been a protection. 06:31 We've also talked about the United States of America 06:34 being that great wilderness where the earth open herself 06:39 and swallowed up the flood 06:41 and gave the woman a protection or the church protection. 06:45 The Christian church, of course, 06:46 has been persecuted first by pagan Rome 06:50 and then of course, by papal Rome. 06:53 It was great... 06:54 The great red dragon was pagan Rome 06:57 that was persecuting the church. 06:59 And after the church has been given these wings 07:02 and flies into the wilderness, 07:04 there is at least some portion of that church, 07:08 that faithful church that goes astray. 07:11 It goes into apostasy 07:14 and this is where this Babylon shows up. 07:17 Now the kings of the earth, notice her beauty, 07:19 but she doesn't belong to them. 07:22 The church belongs to Jesus. 07:27 But, you know, part of the church, 07:30 part of this woman, if you please, 07:32 in a symbolic sense, 07:33 she gets tired of being persecuted. 07:36 She gets tired of living in the wilderness, 07:38 and the kings of the earth, those great men 07:41 who rule the world, they have civilization, 07:45 they have wealth, they have pleasure, 07:49 and they have comfort. 07:51 So the attraction between the two become mutual. 07:55 She commits adultery on Jesus. 07:58 That in the process of coming adultery, 08:00 she becomes very, very popular with the world 08:05 and with the leadership of the world. 08:07 But the faithful church continues to run, 08:10 the faithful church continues to be persecuted by her sister, 08:13 her unfaithful sister if you please. 08:17 In the end of time, this unfaithful church 08:21 becomes once again the ruler of the world, 08:24 but in a different form, in a different form. 08:28 And that's what the Bible keeps showing us 08:30 in the Book of Revelation. 08:32 It's a same thing, but it keeps changing form. 08:36 So we're gonna go now to Revelation 17:3, 08:40 "And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast 08:44 which was full of names of blasphemy, 08:47 having seven heads and ten horns." 08:51 So she's sitting now, we see the seven headed, 08:55 ten horn beast again for the third time. 08:59 This seven headed ten horned beast, 09:02 first of all shows up as the great red dragon, 09:06 that's pagan Rome. 09:08 It shows up again, as the leopard beast, 09:12 that's papal Rome, and now it shows up 09:16 as the scarlet colored beast, 09:18 that's Babylon. 09:20 Now, Babylon is going to be kind of the same, 09:24 but yet different. 09:26 Remember, Revelation Chapter 13 said that this leopard, 09:30 when this leopard beast came on, 09:32 that there's beasts from the earth came up, 09:34 and he formed an image and gave life to this image 09:37 of the beast, 09:38 that image to the beast 09:40 is the same as Babylon, 09:45 as the same as this scarlet colored beast 09:48 that you find in Revelation Chapter 17. 09:51 So what you really have is that even though 09:56 you have the changes, the colors change, 09:59 this last beast, this image to the beast 10:01 is made up of papal Rome, and Protestantism, 10:05 they come together, and they form an image 10:09 to the old Dark Age beast, they form a new look. 10:14 So Babylon, the image to the beast, 10:17 the scarlet colored beast, it's all the same thing. 10:19 It's the final phase, 10:23 the final phase of apostasy. 10:26 And unfortunately, this great Protestant nation 10:28 that I love and you love. 10:30 This nation right now is in the process, 10:34 Protestant America 10:35 in the process of forming this alliance, 10:39 that's going to be Babylon. 10:42 So both pagan Rome and papal Rome 10:48 were known as Babylon. 10:50 And this last phase is also known as Babylon. 10:55 So this new phase, this new image, 10:57 this new woman, she's dressed. 11:00 I mean, she's attractive, and she's powerfully seductive, 11:05 and the world just seemed to be mesmerized by her 11:09 and her influence on the kings 11:12 and the leadership of the world. 11:15 Notice though, the contrast between her 11:17 and the woman of Revelation 12. 11:19 Revelation 17:4 says, 11:22 "The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, 11:25 and adorned with gold 11:26 and precious stones and pearls." 11:29 She's going to get your attention. 11:31 She's going to have that Snapple crack and pop, 11:33 so to speak. 11:35 And the world looks at her and said, "Whoa! 11:37 Wow! Isn't she something?" 11:40 Now remember, this, of course, is in symbolic form. 11:44 But it goes on to say, "Yes, she's beautiful. 11:47 She's seductive. 11:49 You may feel attracted to her, 11:51 but she has in her hand a golden cup." 11:53 Well, gold is a wonderful thing. 11:55 But it's what it's filled with is the problem. 11:57 It's filled with abominations 11:59 and the filthiness of her fornication, 12:01 her fornication with the kings of the earth. 12:03 And it brings about great trouble 12:05 for the planet, great trouble. 12:07 Revelation 12:1 shows her sister, 12:10 her faithful sister is being clothed 12:13 with the stars of heaven, 12:15 the moon and the sun on her head. 12:17 So she's a beautiful, pure woman. 12:22 So this pure woman dressed in the garments of heaven 12:25 is in a pure relationship with the Lord Jesus. 12:28 And she, of course, brings on the Messiah 12:32 that's comes through her symbolically, of course. 12:36 But this fornicating woman, this Babylon, 12:40 this fornicating woman, adulterous woman, 12:43 she gives birth also, but she gives birth 12:45 to harlot daughters, who bring great trouble 12:49 and sorrow for planet earth. 12:54 So one brings hope, and healing, and blessing, 12:58 and salvation, and the other brings 13:01 a false hope that ends in chaos 13:04 and destruction for the planet. 13:07 So Revelation 17:5 says, 13:10 "And on her forehead was a name 13:11 written MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, 13:15 THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS 13:18 AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." 13:22 Mysterious. 13:23 She has daughters. This is an alliance. 13:26 Mysterious, because it's amazing 13:28 that people fall for this. 13:30 It's amazing that people are so blind, 13:33 but that's what seduction does. 13:36 Seduction blinds people to the real reason 13:39 why they're being seduced. 13:41 They think they're being loved. 13:43 But in reality, 13:45 they're being led to the slaughter. 13:48 Seduction is a terrible thing. |
Revised 2019-08-27