Revelation 17:1-18

Book of Revelation, Chapter 17, I want to read the 18 verses of this chapter, and there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven veils, and talked with me, saying unto me, come hither, I will show thee the judgment of the great whore, that sitteth upon many waters, and with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the water, wine of her fornication. 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. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a gold cup in her hand. full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, 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, and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carryeth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawst was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. They that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life and the foundation of the world. When they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings. Five are fallen. One is, and the other is not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and go if he. into perdition. The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as of yet, as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength under the beast. These shall make war with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them. Where he is the Lord of Lords, king of kings. they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. And he saith unto me the waters which thou saw us where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beasts shall make, shall hate the whore, shall make her desolate and naked, shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God hath put her. in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and to give their kingdom under the beast till the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawst is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. God bless to us his sacred and holy word this morning. Having looked in our introduction to the book at the contemporary setting of the book, and by contemporary setting I mean that it has reference to John’s Day, things which must shortly come to pass. The time is at hand. Having looked at the theme of the book, which we talked about from chapter 1 and verse 7 about the judgment that God is going to bring upon the nation of Israel in particular, we began to look at the three great characters that are of the book for if we understand the three characters of the book, then we have a good idea of most of the substance of the book. And then we will begin looking at the book, verse by more chapter by chapter, I should say. We have talked about the beast in chapter 13. And we have talked about it being the Roman Empire with Caesar as the head, if you would, of the beast at the time. We talked about the second beast, the one that comes out of the sea, which is also called the false prophet. We said that this refers to the Caesar cult, which promotes the worship of Caesar and his image throughout the Roman Empire. Now we come to the third great character of the book, and that is Babylon the Great. And we need to consider the identification. Now, there’s some problem of identification. If you read the various commentators on this particular book, you’ll have about six main views on what Babylon represents. Some say it represents organized religious. in general. Some say that it refers to the Roman Catholic Church. Some refer it to the World Council of Churches. Another refers it to the one world world religion in the last days. Some refer it to ancient Rome. Some refer it to earthly Jerusalem of John’s Day. In some way, if you read these various commentators, they make a case for one of these particular views. Now, obviously, they all cannot be right. So you need a way to eliminate some of them so that we can set them aside and say, well, this can’t possibly be the solution to this. So we can narrow the field. Now, thankfully, thankfully, God has performed. provided many clues as to the identification of Babylon the Great, the harlot. And if we follow those clues, we will come to, I think, a good conclusion. We can make this judgment. Let me put it this one. Suppose the police are looking for a robbery subject. And knowing his age and his race, and his name is approximate height and weight, his hair color, his eyes color, and what he’s wearing certainly would help us. If you knew those things, you could narrow the field and say, oh, this is the type of person we’re looking for. Now suppose the police are looking for a 35-year-old white male over six feet tall with red hair and brown eyes. And he’s wearing a black leather jacket in blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a pirate’s baseball hat. Now, if the police found the white male who was five inches, a five feet five inches tall, with red hair and brown eyes, and 61 years old, is he the suspect? But he does match some of the characteristic, but he’s not the subject, is he? He doesn’t match them all. Suppose he’s also wearing a black leather jacket and blue jeans, but he has tennis shoes on. Is that going to, is that? going to cut it? No. It might have a few more characteristics, but he’s got ten of shoes instead of cowboy boots. Unless a suspect matches all the characteristics, we know it’s not the right person. And the same is true with Babylon, the great the harlot here. Now, given the contemporary nature of the book, that it has respect to John’s time in his generation, and the fact of the beast represents the Roman Empire personified by Nero, who is presently reigning as the Caesar. He’s the fifth king, by the way, that’s mentioned in this chapter when I read that there was seven kings. Excuse me, he’s the six king. Five were fallen. One is. He’s the sixth king. You can eliminate a lot of views. Babylon can’t be the World Council of Churches, can’t be the Roman Catholic Church, cannot be the Roman Catholic Church, one world religion. Babylon must exist during the days of the six king, the Roman emperor Miro. Actually, there are only two possible choices here, I think. You have ancient Rome of John’s Day, and you have Jerusalem of John’s Day. It’ll be my intention to prove that Babylon here is Jerusalem. of John’s Day. Now notice carefully, the harlot rides on the beast. She’s going to use the beast for her purposes, but therefore she must be separate from the beast. The horns come up out of the beast, right? The heads are part of the beast. The woman is not part of the beast. She rides to beast. So we must see it are separate, and this gives us another indication. that it’s not Rome that is being spoken of here. Hopefully you’ll see how well Jerusalem matches all the criteria with regard to Babylon the Great. Now the first thing I suggest to you is the phrase here, the great city. In verse 5, you’ll notice it’s called Babylon the Great, and then in verse 18, it is called the Great. city. The woman which thou sawest is this great city. If you go through the book of Revelation, look at chapter 14 and verse 8, if you would, there followed another angel saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city. And then if you look at chapter 16 and verse 19, and the great city was divided in the three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God. Look at chapter 18 and verse 10, stand afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, alas, alas, that great city, Babylon, that mighty city. Verse 16. Alas, alas, alas, that great city. that was clothed in fine linen and purple, scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. This is a lament over the fall of Babylon. So repeatedly throughout this book, Babylon here is called the Great City. What have I told you that John has already told us in chapter 11? who this great city is. If we were paying attention to what he has said, if we connect it with what he says later, it becomes obvious. Look at chapter 11 with me in verse 8. If you remember this city that’s being spoken of, if you look at the first part of this chapter, it talks about the temple. And a portion of this temple being trampled down of the Gentiles. so forth. But you’ll notice in verse 8 that the two witnesses after they are put to death, they’ll lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. If we want to give them a symbolic title, where also our Lord was crucified. Now, what does that tell you? Where was Christ crucified? that is classified as the great city. So when we go through the book here and we come across the great city, and I went through every reference in the book of Revelation to the great city, there’s only one other mention of a great city, and it’s only one time. It’s the new Jerusalem after the destruction here. We have the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven, and it’s called a great city. But we have to get all the way in the chapter 21 before that’s met. But all along here, Babylon the great city, and the New Jerusalem would never be called Babylon. Babylon is an evil, an apostate city. Evil and wicked. So indisputably, if we look at 118, I think it’s clear. John is saying and indicating to us, I’m talking about Jerusalem when I use this term Babylon. Jerusalem was great because it had a special relationship with God. God’s temple was in its midst. Twice, Jeremiah calls Jerusalem great, the great city. In Lamentations, chapter 1 and verse 1, when he bemoans the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, he says this, how doth the city sit solitary that was full of people? How is she become as a widow? She that was great among the nations. And princess among the provinces, how has she become tributary? And in chapter 22 of Jeremiah, verse 8, and many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, wherefore hath the Lord done this under this great city? Josephus, who is the Jewish historian, describing the fall of Jerusalem to the hands of the Roman army, says this. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were innovations, rebellion. A city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all, mankind. And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation? Remember, the best interpreter of Scripture, is Scripture itself. So when you go to 118 of Revelation and it says the Great City indicates to us that it’s Jerusalem, then we should take that the heart when we read about the Great City later on in this book. the great city. Now the second thing, as far as a characteristic, is that she is called the Great Whore, and the mother of harlots here. In verse one and in verse five, we see this mention. In the Old Testament, Jehovah frequently, calls Israel a harlotlet. because Israel is unfaithful to the Lord and seeks out other gods, seeks out religious and political alliances with other nations, instead of depending upon the Lord God. Let’s look at a couple of passages with regard to this. Isaiah and chapter 1 in verse 21. God in condemning the God in condemning the God, the Israelites and even all their supposedly worship that is going on, as he talks about earlier in this chapter and why you bring in these sacrifices to my court when your heart isn’t right with me and so forth. He says, how is the faithful city become a harlot? It was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. The great city here of the city. Jerusalem is called a harlot because of their apostasy. Look at Jeremiah, Chapter 2, if you would. I don’t want to wear you with this, but I want to see how often this comes up because it’s important, I think, to see that this is repeatedly a title given to the Jews and Jerusalem. Jeremiah 2, beginning with verse 20. For of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bans. Thou saidest, I will not transgress, when upon every high hill and upon every green tree thou wanderest, claying the harlot. Yet I have planted a noble vine, wholly a right sea. How then art thou turned into a degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? For though thou wast thou turned into a degenerate plant of strange vine unto me. thee with nitri. And take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, said the Lord. How canst thy say I am not polluted? I have not gone after Bala. See thy way in the valley. Know what thou hast done. Thou art a swift dromedary, traversing her ways. A wild ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure. In her occasion. who turn it, who can turn away. All that seek her will not weary themselves in her mouth, in her month, they shall find her. Then chapter three, if you would, in the first three verses. They say if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man’s, shall he return under her again? Shall not belong? that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Lift up thine eyes under the high places and see where thou hast not been lain with. In the ways that, in the ways hast thou sat for them as the Arabian in the wilderness. And hast thou polluted the land with thy hordoms and thy hordoms and the, wickedness. Therefore the showers have been with Hulton, and there hath been no latter rain, and thou hast a whore’st forehead, and thou refusest to be ashamed. Look at chapter 16 of Ezekiel, if you would. Let’s pick up another of the prophets here. Chapter 16. The whole chapter could be studied in regard to this. but I don’t have the time, and you don’t have it this morning, but you can do this on your own. Let me start with verses 14 and 15 of Ezekiel 16. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I have put upon thee, said the Lord God. But thou didst trust in thine beauty, and playest the harlot because of thy renown, and pour’st out thy fornication. on everyone that passeth by his it was. First is pick up with verse 20, if you would. Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me. These thou hast sacrificed unto them to be devired. In this of thy hoardings a small matter, is this of thy hoardings a small matter? that thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them. And in all thine abominations and thy hoardings, thou hast not remember the days of thy youth when thou wast naked and bare and was polluted in thy blood. Verse 25, if you would. Thou hast built high places at every head of the way. Thou hast made thy beauty to be abhorred. Thou hast opened thy way to everyone that passed by and multitude thy whore multiplied thy hordoms. And then 28 to 30. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians because thou wast unsaidable. Yea, thou hast played the harlot with them. And yet couldest not be satisfied. Thou hast, moreover, multiply thy fornication in the land of Canaan under Caldea, and yet thou hast not satisfied therewith. Thou wast not satisfied therewith. They’re 35. Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord. And on and on we could go. We could look at Joseo 1-2, and you have a very similar kind of thing. So throughout the prophets in particular, you see Israel and, as we saw as we saw an in Isaiah chapter 1, Jerusalem itself called a harlot or a whore. Now it’s important to note, no other cities in scripture all card harlots or whores with the exception of two in addition to Jerusalem, and that is Tyre and Ninevehrae. Or the only other two cities that are mentioned. in Isaiah chapter 23, verses 15 to 17, and Nahum chapter 3 and verse 4. Now what is important to note here is that the kingdom of Tyre, in the times of David and Solomon, made a covenant with the Jewish kings, showed an interest in the things of the building of the temple and so forth. And therefore, because of that, they had some time. type of interest in the true God, but they turned away from it and therefore could be classified as apostate. God condemns them in the book of Amos, the city of Tyre, chapter 1, verse 9. You remembered not the brotherly covenant, the covenant you had with Israel. Nineveh, you recall, was converted under the preaching of Jonah. Jesus said that the men of Nineve would rise up and judge his generation because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and a greater prophet than Jonah was now here in Jesus. And his Jesus’ generation didn’t repent. But what happened to Nineve? They repented under Jonah, but they became apostate. So under Nahom, The judgment actually ends up coming upon them if you compare those two books. So in scripture, if a nation or a city is called a harlot, it’s because they had a relationship with Jehovah, which became abandoned. And because of that, they were unfaithful. Therefore, Rome can’t be this harlot because it wouldn’t make sense. not only is Jerusalem called a harlot, it’s called the mother of harlots. Now that’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? Who could be the original harlot? There’s only one that could be. And that’s Jerusalem. What relationship did God have with Rome was a heathen city? None. How could Rome be a mother and give birth to other harlots? Could. But Jerusalem, as we see in this chapter, had great spiritual influence in all the different nations. And her apostasy led others to apostasy. Josea portrays Israel as a mother who gives birth to children. And you recall the names of the children, because they were cast off by the Lord in chapter 1, verses 6 through 9. lo, Ruhama, no mercy, that’s the daughter, and loami, not my people, that’s the son. And she is condemned for her hoardums and for playing the harlot in Josea 2 through 5. Now here in Ezekiel, I hope you didn’t change your pages yet, you’ll notice here that Ezekiel in verses 1 to 3 of chapter 16, is speaking specifically about Jerusalem. Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, son of man, caused Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, thus saith the Lord God, unto Jerusalem. So the message here is to Jerusalem in particular. We studied already several passages where she plaites the harlot and called the whore and so forth, like we saw in verse 35. But she has daughters, according to this chapter. Notice verse 48 of Ezekiel 16. As I live, say,eth the Lord God, Sodom thy sister, has not done she nor her daughters, as thou has done, thou and thy daughters. In verse 55, when thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and Samari and her daughter shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughter shall return to their fore. former estate, then thou and thy daughter shall return to your former estate. Here we have the idea of the towns and villages around Jerusalem. Other cities of the kingdom of Judah were made harlots also because of Jerusalem’s apostasy. And we might say the greater influence that we see Jerusalem having in the new town. Testament, after they’ve been scattered by the Babylonian captivity, and they ended up putting various synagogues in all different cities across the Roman Empire, because Jerusalem is apostate, these synagogues are apostate, and therefore we have all this influence throughout the Roman world. And so she is indeed the mother of many harlots, because of this. So she’s the great whore and the mother of harlots. Now, any questions about Jerusalem being the great city, or Jerusalem being the great whore or the harlot, as mentioned in scripture? Any questions that we need to cover, is that clear enough that I can go on to another characteristic? Okay? The third characteristic here, and we’ll, man, the time’s gone already. Let’s see if we can do this quickly. She’s drunken with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus. Chapter 17, verse 6. Chapter 18, verses 20 and 24 of the book of Revelation. Let me read verse 20 of chapter 18 of Revelation. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, any holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. And then verse 24, and in her was found the blood of the prophets and the saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth, or we might say the land here. So Babylon is responsible for all that were slain upon the land, including prophets, apostles, and saints. Now, the Roman Empire, under Nero, persecuted the saints, and certainly Rome was known for its Colosseum and the slaughter of many of the Christians. Yet Rome has only recently begun persecuting the church. Throughout the Gospels in the Book of Acts, it is Jerusalem. That’s the main persecutor of the saints. Rome was never guilty of killing any prophets of the Old Testament, like Jerusalem certainly was, let alone all of them. Jesus said it cannot be that a prophet perish out of the city of Jerusalem in the book of Luke, Chapter 13, verse 33. Jewish religious leadership was often responsible for using the authority of the Romans to kill the apostles and the people of God in the New Testament. Jesus said this. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee. Look with me at Luke, chapter 11, verse 47. Here’s what Jesus said. I’m going to read through verse 51. Woe unto you, for ye build the sepulagos of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly, you bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchers. Therefore also said the wisdom of God. I will send them prophets and apostles, some of them they shall slay and persecute. That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be part of this generation. From the blood of Abel, under the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the earth. the temple, verily, I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. So Jesus clearly indicates that the ultimate blame for all the righteous blood shed upon the earth of the land here, rests upon the shoulders of Jerusalem. If you read Matthew 23, he tells us very clearly that, you know, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you know, Jerusalem, you’re the one that slays the prophets. Now, as we talked about before, unless you’re ready and willing to resurrect apostles today and put this in the future, you’re going to have to put this contemporary with John’s Day. If you have to, you know, otherwise you have to resurrect apostles. And if Babylon isn’t on the scene yet, or if Babylon is not being portrayed as it is in the book of Revelation at this point, if it’s still future, then you’re going to have a problem. You’ve got to resurrect apostles to fit the text. So Babylon can’t be a future end-time city, at which the people of God and John’s day were ignorant. It doesn’t fit. Well, I have to stop. I cannot go any further this morning. So we still have more characteristics. But here are three. I leave before you. Indicating to us that Babylon the Great is indeed apostate Jerusalem. Any questions before we were going to be. Russell, would you close this?