Revelation Chapters 14-19
So here in chapters 14-19 things jump around quite a bit so instead of going in order of chapter
I’m going to lead you through the storyline, and I will pick out some passages here and there to capture the main points.
Here we have two characters to focus on, two ladies, one called Babylon, the other is the Bride of Christ.
1st Lady Babylon, in ch. 17 we see a description of a woman, a new character on the scene, but really an old character.
17 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. 2 With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.” 3 Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. 5 The name written on her forehead was a mystery: babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. 6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.
The idea of Babylon goes all the way back to Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel
The whole idea behind the Tower of Babel was that people wanted to defy God, “Make a Name for themselves"
The idea of Babel is this economic, political and very religious system that is essentially man-made attempt to replace God.
But ultimately demonic, and it is man’s attempt to reach heaven, create or even be their own god
It is directly opposed to the God of the Bible, Man reaching up v God reaching down
It is that old song, “You came from heaven to earth to show us the way”
Well, we often don’t want that, we want to go from earth to heaven and show God our way.
Here we see in Lady Babylon, and evil powers, led by the Dragon, Satan,
They develop a one world political, social, economic, religious system will reshape the world and give them global power
Within that there’s going to be this other agency the religious component of the beastly design
And this is described as the great harlot or the prostitute, Babylon.
The lady here we see, riding the Dragon, and it appears at first that she’s in control.
She is a part of the Beast in partnership with the Beast maybe even control of many nations
Says she rules over these nations, but it’s only a ploy, the Antichrist, and his minion rulers of nations
They pay homage to the harlot, but eventually they turn on the harlot and cast her aside in ruin ch 17.
Note how we think we are in control when living in sin, then we find out we are not.
So what is the Harlot-Babylon? Well at first read, it seems like it’s talking about sexual immorality
While that certainly could be part of it the idea is that this is a false religious system.
Compare Babylon to the Bride of Christ, which is the Church made by Jesus, redeemed by Jesus
But this Lady Babylon is the Bride of Satan made by Satan
By the way, Jesus treats his Bride in this way, he lays down his life for his Bride, Satan kills his.
The Bible describes idolatry or false religion or worshiping other gods as spiritual adultery
It involves all sorts of other things like corporate, political, social, economic, sexual greed and immorality
These are pervasive and intertwined with Babylon, but at its core, Babylon is man-made religion.
It is mankind thinking they are in control but really the Beast is, Satan.
So what will this look like in the end times and even now, as we approach the end times?
What do you have when you take Christ out of Christianity?
You have a religious system that’s bound to be drawn to the desires and inclinations of mankind
Just like every other system, Beast takes over.
In the end times the Rapture will happen, Christians will be taken from the earth
Those who actually believe in Jesus and profess his name will be in heaven
But there will still be the institution of the church left on earth
There will be many people who are religious, but do not have actual trusting faith in Jesus
So you combine that with a world looking for answers a world that’s craving spirituality
Because we were designed for that and the antichrist and a beast who are looking to manipulate people
Knowing that people are religious, “mother of adulterous” - all the spiritual falsities out there combined
They’ll give them something to worship. They will give them a form, they’ll fill the void
And this will be with this prostitute, this harlot this false form of religion.
It’s probably going to look in someways like Christianity
But in other ways, it is going to be the complete antithesis or opposite of Christianity
And we see this in our world today. This is not something only for the future
Though it will ramp up big time then, but even now what we see this more and more as scripture says:
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
What we see today more and more is that people not always abandoning religion
Instead they want to change it into a religious system that agrees with them.
It is consumer-based and self-centered.
People will abandon the Bible and its clear teachings for various reasons
And try to find a church or religious system that resembles it, but agrees with their opinions.
The more “difficult parts”, those are softened, or interpreted to be irrelevant
There is pressure to affirm certain lifestyle choices usually revolving around sexuality, gender, or salvation in Jesus.
My response is that what we want to do is love all people
AND affirm and align our beliefs and convictions with what is the clear teaching of scripture
Many people don’t like that answer, and some think I am being exclusive, phobic, or old fashioned.
But just because someone I do love, believes different than me, doesn’t mean I quit loving them
And it also doesn’t mean I change what I believe.
God put clear boundaries in His Word for our good and protection and we thrive most when we follow.
If I warn you about crossing a boundary, it’s out of deep conviction and love.
Why wouldn’t that be what we seek to affirm?
We have to ask ourselves and really the crux of the situation is how much do we really want truth?
If someone could clearly show us in scripture we are wrong would we trust God and follow that truth?
Do we want truth or do we just want to hear what we want to hear?
Do we just want people to agree with what we think is right?
Or are we willing to follow truth even if it leads us away from our initial desires or inclinations
Because you see the difference between the Bride of Christ and the Bride of Satan is subtle but huge
Babylon says God is wrong, the Bible is wrong your interpretation is wrong, but it doesn’t say I am wrong
The Bride of Christ says God I come to you in repentance, I fall short, I know I am wrong
I need you to show me the way, the truth, the life
And that seems very counterintuitive to us
And we might even say well that’s not very psychologically healthy all that I am wrong stuff
Some might think it might dent our self esteem.
Let me push back a little bit. While, I’m not advocating for guilt and shame over people
Is it psychologically healthy for us to make things revolve around us and tend to bend things to our liking
I’m saying trust God, trust His book. It’s proven to be true.
These passages talk about Babylon and how she leads the world astray
They drink the wine of her adulteries and they are drunk on it
You see the reality of God, and trustworthiness of scripture is so evident
Remember God is not keeping the truth a secret from people nor asking for blind faith
But the enemy dulls our senses
Chapter 14 John has vision of Angels flying over declaring the gospel and warning all the earth
Old Testament prophecies about Jesus 300-450. Jesus fulfills them all in one earthly lifetime
The odds of one person in a 30 year period fulfilling these predictions made by various authors from various parts of the world, some made 100’s of years apart and all many 100’s of years before Jesus’ birth is astronomical
Now some these are more vague
But there are plenty that very specific like being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, birth place. hometown
Odds of just 8 of those being fulfilled in one life is anywhere from 10 to the 17th power conservatively
Lottery, take the approximate population of earth, 7 billion plus 3 billion to make the math easier, to get to this number I just mentioned you need over 10 million planet earths filled with 10 billion people each, and everyone gets one ticket for the lottery, and out of that many people you win. Just for 8 prophecies, imagine for hundreds
That is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000
Professors at Westmont College, took 10 to the 17th power in silver dollars, for example. Lay them over the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Mark one of them and stir the whole mass of them thoroughly. Blindfold someone and have them find the one marked silver dollar. That is the odds of one man fulfilling just 8 prophecies.
48 prophecies would be 10 to the 157th power
For 300 it is almost incalculable
Biblical prophecy shows the reliability of the truth of Jesus, the fine tuning of the universe shows that undoubtably there is a Indigent Designer of the universe, it’s fact that natural life could not exist based merely on random evolution, the power of the intelligent mind of humans, our awareness, consciousness align with what scripture says. Ingrained morality, points to a benevolent and good Creator. SO many things point to the truth of God.
But even though the truth is there, we want what we want, we want Babel, we want Babylon
This system we see will not just lead people to have incorrect doctrine though that’s important.
It will lead to this world system that not only promotes this idolatrous notion of faith
But armed with political, economic and social power will intensely persecute anybody who disagrees
It says that she’s filled with her cup with the blood of the Saints and so if you disagree
Then you’re gonna be penalized you are going to be persecuted, lose promotion, job, excluded, jailed
You might even be put to death.
God will bring justice, wrath upon the Beast, Antichrist, False Prophet, Babylon and all who follow them.
The smoke rising in chapter 14:9-11
9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
14:10 they will be tormented, the realization that they have rejected God for eternity is torment
Existence without God will be a terrible place, we start to get a glimpse of eternal wrath or hell
We will spend some specific time on heaven and hell at the end of this series.
Here it gives the idea of the saved survivors before their condemned perpetrators in court
As the perpetrators are finally sentence. Divine justice on a grand scale .
14:13 Those who follow Jesus, those who face persecution in this life, will find peace, rest and healing.
Verse 17 All the evil efforts of the dragon, demons, and mankind that follow evil, will spring back on them
As wrath poured out, like wine trampled in the winepress, it has been ripening, now the crushing comes
Evil forces and an unrepentant world will reap what it has sown.
In the end, God’s wrath is coming for Babylon, Chapters 15-16
God’s wrath is going to be poured out as we see 7 Bowls of God’s wrath that it says specifically
God will repay her for what she has done poured back upon her, a double portion.
So will the beast in the false prophet and the dragon receive their due penalty,
The strategy of the Enemy will grow exponentially in the end times, but it is here even now
And there is a stark warning for us in scripture to be patient to be faithful to be sober.
Keep yourself from being intoxicated by the beast by false promises by false faith.
Because not only do I think you will miss your best life if you do that
But the wrath of God clearly is shown to be on display against such things, unequivocally
And we see here that these Bowls of God’s wrath are poured out on the proponents of this sort of living
The crazy thing is that even in Satan’s 15 minutes of fame it only solidifies those who choose Christ
We see in chapter 14 two great harvests. The first one is a harvest of souls coming to faith in Jesus.
Even now, and through the end times we’re going to see the greatest move of God the world’s ever seen
And there’s also another harvest that comes and that’s the harvest of the wrath of God
We see a picture of a great end times battle the 7th and last plague or bowl of wrath
In a place called Armageddon, Chapter 16, the seventh bowl, where an ultimate battle line is drawn
Where the Dragon and his Beast line up for battle against Jesus and His Bride, his followers with him
Before next weekend when we get to the conclusion of this battle
We have an opportunity to search our hearts, and make sure that we’re on the right side of that line.
What about right now?
Where is your heart at when it comes to your core conviction
How you’re going to move forward in your life and your relationship with God?
Is your approach to God going to be you trying to justify what you want because you know better
Or is it going be you trusting in God and his scripture for your life
It might not seem like a big deal, but it is the biggest deal that there could ever be in your life and eternity
You can’t earn your way to heaven, just being a certain type of person doesn’t get you in
It is our acceptance of the gift of salvation provided by Jesus, faith.
Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
But what we can do is we can compromise and make our faith all about us
So much that we truly end up replacing Jesus centered faith with self centered faith
And that it a dangerous place to be.