You have a Bible with you, please take it in turn to the book of Revelation chapter 17, Revelation chapter 17. If you are new with us at Covenant Presbyterian Church, it's typically our practice to preach through books of the Bible, and we have been working our way through this wonderful, albeit challenging portion of God's word, the book of Revelation. And this morning we are going to be looking at the entire chapter, but I want to begin by reading just one verse, verse 14 of Revelation chapter 17. If you would like to follow along, but you don't happen to have a Bible, I would encourage you to have a Bible, of course with you every week. If you don't happen to have one with you today, there should be one in the seat back in front of you. Please feel free to take that and to turn to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation chapter 17. And if you don't happen to own a Bible, but you'd like to own a Bible, just take that one home with you. So Revelation chapter 17, verse 14, I would ask you to please stand as I read this portion of God's unerring and authoritative and life-giving word. This is the word of God. They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them for he is Lord of Lords in King of Kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Now, Lord, we ask for your help. You've placed before us the morning Lord, a portion of your word that is difficult for us to get our minds around. And so, Lord, will you help us to do that? Will you make us teachable today and humble as we approach this word of yours? And will you buy your spirit, apply it to us? We ask, in Jesus name. Amen. You may have a seat. The 17th chapter of Revelation is not easy. In fact, in a book that's filled with challenging portions, none are more so challenging than the 17th chapter of Revelation. Now, you've already noticed the big scary sermon guide this morning. And if you were to ask me, pastor, what's the best way for me to listen to the sermon today? If you were to ask me that, here's how I would answer. I would say, take your sermon guide and put it aside. And have your Bible open on your lap. Well, Todd, I can do both. That's my counsel is put it aside. It's there for you to go back to later. That's what it's there for. I include a lot of details in that sermon guide that I'm not going to cover in the sermon. And so, if you try to follow along with me, we're going to hear you rustling pages all morning. And we're not going to like that. That's going to distract us. More importantly, you won't hear the sermon if you're doing that. Remember that, a sermon is not a Sunday school lesson. A sermon is the proclamation of God's Word. It's a plea to trust in Him, to believe His promises and to obey His commands. And I don't want you to miss that today. Now, we're going to do something different this morning. As you've already picked up on, I'm not going to read the in chapter. All at once. Instead, we're going to take it section by section zooming in on certain verses and details as we go along and we'll end up Lord willing at the central point when we get near the end. And just as a reminder, nothing I'm saying here in commentary or application of revelation chapter 17 is new or novel. I haven't come up with some here to for unknown approach or interpretation of revelation chapter 17. But however we deal with the various interpretive challenges of this chapter, the central point of it all remains stunningly clear. The Lamb conquers. The Lamb wins. And so let's begin. Look there, beginning in verse 1. And let's, let's look at the first six verses of Revelation 17. Again, this is God's Word. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters. With whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality and with the wine of those who sexual immorality, the dwellers on earth have become drunk. And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and it had seven heads in ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery. Babylon the great mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. Now the angel who had the seventh bowl, the angel comes to John and tells him that he's going to show him the destruction of Babylon. Now Babylon at this point had already been destroyed. In fact, the prophet Isaiah had said that Babylon was going to be destroyed and would never be raised again. And that has remained true to this very day and it will remain true. But Babylon stands for something more than just an ancient city in modern day Iraq. Babylon came to be symbolic of the people, to the people, of all of the wicked kingdoms in the world. And so the angel says, I'm going to show you the destruction of Babylon. I'm going to show you the destruction of these kingdoms that are arrayed against God and against his people. And John has already been shown the destruction of Babylon. Back in chapters 14 and 16, he has twice before already seen the destruction of Babylon. But remember that we've said how important recapitulation is in the book of Revelation. Remember what recapitulation means, it means to recap, to repeat it, to look at it once again, sometimes from a different vantage point. And so now for a third time, John has shown the same thing, the destruction of Babylon. But this time in greater detail. Babylon, the angel says, is quoted on many waters. Indicates her dominion over, verse 15, is we'll see, over peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. So her being seated on many waters is symbolic of her worldwide influence. And once again, we see this portrayal of idolatry and how it's portrayed as sexual immorality in adultery. The kings and the kingdoms of the world come and commit adultery as it were with Babylon. That is, that they join in her idolatry. And then verse 3, John has taken to the wilderness, which is a place of protection. And from that wilderness vantage point, he sees Babylon, the great Babylon, the prostitute, writing upon a scarlet beast. Now this beast we're told is full of blasphemous names, and it has seven heads and ten horns. Now I think that this is clearly the first beast which John saw or describes in chapter 13 that he sees arising out of the sea. And remember that first beast, the beast from the sea, the very beast that's described here was symbolic of the corruption of human kingdoms. The corruption of human governments. Notice in verse 4, the beauty, the opulence of the prostitutes outward appearance. She's covered with fine jewels and fine garments, purple and scarlet. She has a golden cup in her hand, what she promises to the nations is wealth and power and status. Things that people in the world pursue with feverish intensity every day. She promises to give them this. But like the wicked queen from Snow White, you remember her. Her beauty is illusory because inside of her is nothing but sin and filth and blasphemy. Remember Satan is a counterfitter. He offers the world parodies of God, false gods, false Christs. He offers the world parodies of the good life. He says the blessed life is this when in reality it is something very different. But there is verse 5. Now the prostitute is to find more fully as its name is revealed. And the name contains a mystery we're told. Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and the Earth's abominations. Here the prostitute is revealed as Babylon. This symbolic designation for all of the world's wicked, godless, Christ-persecuting kings and kingdoms. The name Babylon the Great, that echoes all the way back from Daniel chapter 4, where the title is used to illustrate the arrogance of King Nebuchadnezzar as he mocked God and exalted himself before God. And God struck him down and humbled him and made him like a beast so that you had Nebuchadnezzar. The one's great and mighty prideful king bounding around on all fours, and munching grass out of his yard. Babylon was also the title used for Rome in 1 Peter chapter 5. The apostle calls Rome Babylon. And certainly John's original readers would have immediately thought of Rome in reading these words in hearing these words. They would have thought, that's Rome. And they were right. They were right. They would not have been wrong in coming to that conclusion. Look how else that she is described Babylon or this great prostitute. She's the mother of the earth's abominations. Now as a mother, Babylon the Great reproduces her wickedness in others. Both Babylon and Rome had destroyed Jerusalem. They had both abominated the temple. Babylon under Antiochus the 4th of Piffinese in 168 BC. And Rome under Titus Vespation in 87. And so John's readers would have thought both of those wicked kingdoms have destroyed Jerusalem. For John's readers, just a couple of decades before Jerusalem had been sacked. And Titus had desecrated, abominated the temple just as Antiochus had back in 168. One commentator observes this quote. The woman represents fallen human culture. In all the apparent glory of its achievement and the true repudence of its arrogance. In John's day, seven-hilled Rome was her contemporary expression. But long before Rome arose, and after Rome fell, the harlot Babylon was given illegitimate birth to daughters like herself, seductive in appearance and repulsive in reality. So again, John's first readers, in thinking of Rome they were right, but it's more than Rome. This woman as it were, Babylon was riding along long before Rome was ever an empire. And she continues to long after Rome is just a tourist attraction. And so it should not be surprising to us then, verse 6, that Babylon, the prostitute, is quote, drunk with the blood of the saints, the martyrs of Jesus. The followers of Jesus, the church refused to buy into her wickedness and her schemes. They refused to call Caesar the Lord. They won't submit their allegiance to Babylon. Therefore she delights in their destruction. It's a terrifying picture to be drunk on the blood of the saints, but you think about it. As we've said before, the 20th century offered up more Christian martyrs than the previous 19th centuries combined. And the violence against Christians continues, whether it's Nigeria or India or Pakistan or China, the violence, the persecution against Christians continues. The blood of the followers of Jesus continues to be spilled, and those who are loyal to Babylon continue to indulge in and drink as it were, the blood of the Christian martyrs. Back in chapter 6 we see the martyrs saints gathered under the altar, crying out to the Lord for ultimate final vindication, and that prayer will be answered. Now look at that final little clause in verse 6. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. Now John marvels at what he sees literally, we can render the clause there. I marveled a great marvel. And I think John's experience at this point was probably a mixture of fear and confusion. John is not marveling in a positive sense. He looks upon the great prostitute riding upon this fearsome beast and he marvels in fear. What is the church going to do to stand up to that? What hope does the church have with our preaching and our Lord's supper and our baptismal waters? And our proclamation of a foolish message that the world hates? What hope do we have against a power? That great, that enticing, that malicious. I marveled. I wondered in fear and confusion and fright at what I saw. And then verse 7, look at verse 7. But the angel said to me, why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. In other words, the angel here is comforting John. He's saying, why are you so frightened? I'm going to tell you what happens to that. Don't be amazed by her. Don't panic. And Christian, can we just adopt, can we just agree that we're not going to panic when we see what a mess the world is? Grieved yes. Praying yes. Panic. No. Don't be running around. What are we going to do? Well, what has the church always done? Listen, if we panic, because we lose a few political contests around here, what do you think we're going to do when we really are persecuted? Don't be amazed by her. Don't panic. We have the Lord on our side. Now, look at verse 8. The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. The dwellers of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel. That's same word. This time they're going to marvel. We'll marvel to see the beast because it was and is not and is to come. Now, what is going on? Now, does that terminology was and is not and is to come? Does that sound familiar? It sounds almost like it's a slight twisting of something doesn't it? That's exactly what's going on. The first angel explains the beast which he describes as was and is not and is about to rise from the abyss or from the bottomless pit. And once again, we see the beast as a counterfitter of the true God. Who is the true God? Revelation chapter 4 verse 1, who was and who is and who is to come. The beast is also a wicked parody of the sun. Revelation 1-18, the sun, the living one who died and who is alive forevermore. The beast is about to rise from the abyss. We've seen this already earlier in Revelation. There's been a restraint placed upon him. He's acting out wickedly but there's been some restraint. But that restraint is about to be lifted and the full force of the beast's malice is going to be seen and felt on earth. And yet we see here that he is rising unto his own destruction. And here we see the radical contrast between the beast's rising and the rising of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead and is alive forevermore. He rose unto eternal victory. The beast will rise to his own destruction. And tragically as we read here, the beast will be joined in his destruction by all of those who chose loyalty to the world. Loyalty to the kingdoms. Loyalty to the values and the morality of the world and its kingdoms. The beast will be joined by those. Those whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life. And they will marvel that the beast is destroyed. So enamored were they with its power. So enthralled were they and committed to this kingdom, to its power, to its wealth, to its status that they will marvel that it falls. In the fifth century, St. Augustin had to deal with the same thing among Christians in the Roman Empire. Even though at one time centuries before they had been persecuted, the Roman Empire had become Christianized. Only to them fall to the hands of barbarians. And his Rome was being sacked by the Visigoths. Augustin, from his position as Bishop in Carthage, he began to write his great work. One of the greatest literary works of the Western tradition, the city of God. And one of his goals in that work was to show Christians not to panic or lose heart that this city, this kingdom that they called the Eternal Kingdom was falling in collapsing. Augustin helped to teach them that their commitment to the city of man had led them to forsake the city of God. That the city of God is eternal. The city of man is not. And we need to be conscious of that same reality. So they marvel. They marvel that this once great kingdom has now fallen. Let's read verses 9 through 11. Let's begin in verse 9. And the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and whale over her when they see the smoke of her burning. They'll be utterly astonished and scandalized that the kingdom that they had built their lives into is now collapsed. Verse 11, I'm sorry, verse 10. They will stand far off in fear of her torment and say, Alas, Alas, you great city. I'm reading the wrong chapter. And you know what? Not one of you told me. That's why I don't trust you. We'll see now you know where we're going next week. Come on people, wow. So verse 10. Okay, well, verse 9. This calls for a mind with wisdom. Yes, wisdom is needed. Also keeping track in your Bible, very important aspects, particularly when you're the preacher. So this calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. Now notice what the angel is doing here for Johnny's beginning to interpret this thing that he's been told. But even the interpretation is masked in mystery, isn't it? This calls for a mind of wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They're also, okay, if that's not enough, there's something else also. There are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen. One is the other has not yet come. And when he comes, when he does come, he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth. But it belongs to the seven and it goes to destruction. Well, you know, we need an interpretation for the interpretation. So what's going on here, okay? Turns out the seven heads are also seven mountains. And the prostitute is seated on those seven mountains. Again, indicating her worldwide influence. And not only that, verse 10, the seven heads, Symbolic for the seven mountains, are also symbolic for seven kings. So keep in mind, the symbolic use of numbers, first of all, in the book of Revelation, seven being a very important number. And also keep in mind that this sort of flexibility we're seeing here. Well, you know, the seven heads are also seven mountains. And by the way, the seven heads which are also seven mountains are also seven kings. That sort of flexibility is very common in prophetic apocalyptic writings, even here in the Bible. Because in prophetic imagery, for instance here, mountains are often associated with power. Through Jeremiah, God called Babylon, in Jeremiah 51, quote, a destroying mountain, mountains meant power. Rome was known as the city on the seven hills or the seven mountains. And so John's original readers are certainly thinking about Rome, and they would have been right to do so, but it's not only Rome. What's being revealed to John here goes well beyond just for century Rome, as theologian Douglas Kelly is noted, quote, it also speaks about the things that will happen long after Rome has been reduced to rubble and lost its world empire. He goes on, quote, I think what it is referring to is all anti-Christian anti-God governments between the fall of Rome and the coming of Christ in final glory. And I think he's right. Again, verse 10, five of these kings have already fallen. That means, among other things, that the beasts and fluids, as strong as it seems at certain times, is temporary. These kingdoms will all fall. But there's something else here in the language of verse 10. We're told that this final mountain, this final king, this final personification of the beasts power, quote, must remain only a little while. Must remain only a little while. Now, that must is God's must. God limits the beast. His time is strictly limited. God bounds the beasts power, and his influence just, according to his own perfect sovereign will. That means the beast cannot do a thing. That is not granted to him ultimately by the sovereign God. And then there's that strange little detail in verse 11. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth. But it belongs or is of the seven and it goes to destruction. Now, I think the eighth head here, the eighth mountain, the eighth king, is symbolic for the beasts ability to keep coming back. To keep reinventing itself. Just when you think he's about done, Rome finally fell, Babylon finally fell. He comes up with another manifestation of evil, another evil kingdom, another evil ruler, another wicked government. But we're told as resilient as the beast seems, what happens, verse 11, it goes down to destruction. One commentator observes this quote, though the dragon has been decisively defeated by the blood of the lamb, and therefore has only a short time. Nevertheless, the church must be prepared to endure further suffering. This last battle is pictured in the future coming of the beast out of the abyss as an eighth king who belongs to the seven as the climactic expression of their arrogance towards God and hostility towards his people. This eighth head, this eighth king, comes up as the last dying gas bevel against the lamb who conquers. The beast's time in the sun is drawing to an end. The lamb is ready to lower his septer. Now look there, verse 12, chapter 17, by the way, verse 12. And let's go through the first clause of verse 14. And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with the beast. These are of one mind and they hand over their power in authority to the beast. They will make war on the lamb. Again, we see the flexibility of biblical prophetic imagery as ten kings are now depicted as ten horns. Horns like mountains were common symbols of power. And it was popular among a lot of prophecy teachers in the 1970s and 1980s to say that these ten horns were the ten nations of the European common market. And it wasn't. And then much later, it was the European Union. But that's more than ten and Brexit messed that up. So again, we need to avoid these sorts of speculations. We don't interpret revelation by the newspaper. We interpret scripture with scripture. And there is a principle here that's applicable in every era. The central point here is that their reign is depicted as a span lasting only an hour. That is common symbolic speech for meaning a bounded time. It has a fixed ending. Verse 13, these wicked kings and kingdoms derived their power and their malice from the beast. Whenever you see kingdoms acting wickedly, whenever you see governments, blaspheming God and persecuting the church, you are seeing them derive all of this from the beast. That's why we say rightly that the persecution of Christians and the blaspheming of God is demonic. And so what do they do? They've abdicated their authority to the beast. So what do they do? They will make war on the lamb. Now that since they cannot touch Jesus, what does war on the lamb look like? It looks like war on the church, the persecution of Christians. And while the vantage point is changed in various ways throughout John's vision, the story remains the same. The followers of Jesus must persevere under trials and persecutions. The wicked forces once restrained will near the end of the age, be released and the dragon in his servants will unleash their fury against the church. But then something remarkable happens. Look now at verse 15 again. And the angel said to me, the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated, all of the nations, all of the kingdoms of the world, the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. And the tin horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They were once pals. They will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to do it. That's remarkable. In a dramatic reversal of fortune, these tin horns, the beast, these kingdoms who are wicked, these ungodly earthly governments which were once so loyal to the prostitute because she promised them wealth and status and power. They will turn on her and they will end up hating the very one from whom they gain so much motivation. And this is going to happen not out of repentance on their part. They're not turning to Jesus, but they will do this out of jealousy and envy and greed. Evil always ends up turning in on itself. As smart as Satan is, he's a fool. He's a fool. And this is where it gets truly amazing. Again, verse 17, it is the Lord himself who, in his sovereign power over all things, will turn the hearts of these wicked forces against the prostitute to whom they were once so loyal. Even the wicked end up doing the Lord's bidding. Isn't that exactly what happened on the cross? When Jesus was crucified for our sins, from one perspective that was Satan doing his very worst. And yet, he was doing the Lord's bidding. And the malice which he acted upon the Lord on the cross, ended up being the very thing that would seal his own destruction. See verse 18, in the end, the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth will be plundered. We'll be put to ruin by the very ones it once intoxicated with its immorality and pride and lust. Satan's kingdom will be divided against itself and it will collapse. It's like in the Old Testament with Gideon's 300 men, they sounded their trumpets at the Lord's command and the Lord caused the Midianites who greatly outnumbered Gideon's men. The Lord caused confusion among the Midianites. They turned upon one another and ended up destroying each other. This is exactly what the Lord will do to the kingdoms of this world. Christian, don't ever build your life upon any allegiance, or any alliance with the beast or Babylon. Don't hit your wagons to its offers of status or comfort or wealth or power. Do not form alliances with those who hate Christ. Be free of any compromising and tanglements with the spirit of the age. When we do this, we inevitably compromise the gospel. We compromise our witness, we impair our souls. And here again, we have to zero in on the heart of the passage, which is verse 14. Have you ever been watching a movie? Maybe it's an intense drama or a thriller or something where you've gotten emotionally invested in the characters. And the good guy is in peril and you're wondering, is this going to end well? Because I don't have the emotional bandwidth at this point to keep on watching this if the bad guy wins. I watched Old Yeller. And I watched where the red fern grows once. Never again. But anyway, maybe you're watching one of these movies, one of these really tense movies that you're invested in and someone who has seen it is with you and you ask them, is this going to end well? Because I'm just going to go get popcorn. If this is not going to end well, and they say, no, just hang on. It's worth it. Old Yeller gets better. Okay, whatever. That doesn't happen. But they're able to say, listen, believe me, the tension will be worth it once you see how it ends. It's worth it, trust me. And when we look at the world, when we look upon our own lives, we may ask, is this going to end well? Am I watching a tragedy? Or am I watching a triumph? They will make war on the Lamb, and he will conquer them. For he is the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. This is the center of the passage right here. Whatever we make of some of the interpretive particulars, this much remains abundantly clear. The Lamb conquers. The Lamb wins. Satan and his allies will crash down in total defeat, because who is the Lamb? He is the Lord of Lords in the King of Kings. There are no contenders for the throne. It's not even close. Even those who sought to destroy the Lamb, and his church will only end up doing the Lord's sovereign bidding to bring about their own demise. Notice how the church is swept up into the Lamb's victory, because with him is his church, his people. And do you see how we're described? The called, the chosen, the faithful. But a great name for the Church of Jesus Christ. For you, Christian, called and chosen and faithful. Whatever else you are, that's what you are, by God's grace. You are the called and the chosen and the faithful. The beast's efforts to destroy the church are going to meet with other failure. And when we consider this world and Christian, when you consider your life, you don't have to wonder whether it's going to turn out all right. You don't have to wonder, is this worth it? It is. There are losses along the way. There are grief so deep that in the moment we wonder, how can this be resolved in a way that can be construed as triumph? But the triumph will come. Because it's already been written. It's already been fixed. There are no rewrites to this story. And maybe we think, if I could just see what John saw. If an angel or the Lord would come to me visibly and show me the ending in full color detail, if I could get that, then I would be okay. But the Lord loves to exercise and strengthen this muscle in our soul called faith. There's something particularly glorifying to the Lord and blessed for us when our faith is being perfected. What did Jesus say? Blessed are you because you've seen blessed are those who believe and yet do not see. There's something particularly blessed in a faith that is deepening and strengthening. Even Jesus' closest followers, his disciples had to end up trusting him in his physical absence. But what did Jesus say to them when he departed? I will be with you to the very end. Christian Jesus is with you and I know it's not easy. But isn't it true that the longer you know him, the more you learn to trust him isn't that true? There's they morning I was going through it, you know, crisis here, crisis there, weighty losses, heart breaks, you know, other people's heart breaks and my own, all mixed together and this fear began to settle in on me. And I was supposed to be writing a sermon about hills and heads and mountains and monsters. And I couldn't focus because, you know, this weight of sadness had fallen on me. It was beginning to get overwhelmed. And so I stopped what I was doing. I went into another room. I began to pray. I began to work through a Psalm. I opened up a collection of prayers from the early church began to pray some of those. And I don't want to paint a rosy picture for you because this is all hard one. But a piece began to settle over me and it was connected in part to this very weird passage. Because of what we're told here right at the center. And I began to repeat this to myself, I'm not living out a tragedy here. We are written into the triumph of the Lamb. God's chosen people who he has called to himself will remain faithful throughout the storm of persecution and be brought all the way home to that everlasting city, the great bride of the Lamb. And you see one of the best things about the book of Revelation is that you can always read ahead to the ending whenever you need to. Listen to this from chapter 21. And I saw the Holy City. New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride, a dorn for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. Thanks be to God. That's pray. Lord, thank you that we know the ending, that the story has been written and that the triumph has already been won. Lord, when we catch ourselves panicking, when we catch ourselves worrying and filled with anxieties, Lord, would you calm us with this truth? Would you help us to marvel not at the beast? But to marvel at you? And this we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen. Let's stand together.