Revelation 17 // The Beast

hi you guys this is the evening Bible study Sunday evening Bible study for Calvary Chapel in Tri Cities and if you're just tuning in for the first time my name is Steve whinnery and I am the pastor at Calvary Chapel here I'm the I'm the senior pastor we've been going through the book of Revelation and just an awesome study having a great time and we are in Revelation chapter 17 this evening and we're going to finish it up chapter 17 of the book of Revelation we've been talking about Babylon chapter 17 and chapter 18 are the two last chapters of the book of revelation concerning the Tribulation Period that take place right before the second coming of Christ and so we've been going through and talking about that one of the things that you have in Revelation chapter 17 is that there's some language in here that is highly it's it's been interpreted interpreted in many different ways and so it can be a difficult passage for people and I hopefully am going to lend some clarity to this whole thing as we go through it and hopefully you'll agree that that's the case okay Revelation chapter 17 let's pray before we get started and that's let's get into it father thank you for your word to us thank you for the book of Revelation where we've been going through it and it's just been so appropriate for the times that we're in it's just amazing specifically with a situation that we're in with lockdowns and situations where we've literally given up our rights to assemble and many people are turning away from cash and that kind of thing because of the present crisis with with the virus that's going around just amazing how the world can turn upside down and that many of the things that the Bible speaks about can come into common practice so quickly and so unexpectedly where we know that we're not in the tribulation period yet but we are seeing precursors of this one of the things that you said was that there was going to be wars and rumors of wars and pestilences in various places and who would have thought that a pestilence would bring the world to basically a stop fathers were going through this passage in the book of Revelation I just pray that you'd be speaking to our hearts that you give me real wisdom that you give me real clarity as I'm teaching through it and that you just work in us as we look at these things and we ask this in Jesus name Amen you know what I said well that we're in Revelation chapter 17 I would like to take you back to the Book of Daniel real quick and look at a couple of passages to familiarize you with them so that would what we're talking about in Revelation chapter 17 becomes a little bit more clear if you turn back to Daniel chapter 2 Daniel chapter 2 now I'm not gonna read the whole chapter but Daniel is in a situation where he has to interpret a dream and the dream was given to a king of Babylon called Nebuchadnezzar and because the wise men and the soothsayers and the called Ian's and the astrologers couldn't interpret it never can either decided that he was going to put these people to death and Daniel happened to be somebody that was in the class of the wise men he was a Jewish captive who was taken captive during one of the first deportations of Judah to Babylon and he was a young man he's probably about 1718 years old at the time of the writing of this and when he hears that the that the wise men are going to be put to death he asks his guard to put this off until he can pray and then he gets three of his friends Hananiah Mishael and Azariah he gets three of his friends to pray with him and God gives him the not only the interpretation of the dream but he gives him the dream itself because Nebuchadnezzar refused to tell the wise men what the dream was in fact couldn't remember it and he expected these guys they're always talking about how wise they are he expected the wise guys to know what he was talking about and they obviously couldn't but God can and so Daniel in the second half of this chapter he interprets the dream verse 27 it says Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said the secret which the King has demanded the wise men the astrologers the magicians and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets that he's made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these as for you O king thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be he's thinking about what's going to happen to his kingdom after he dies specifically but as for me the secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living but for our sakes who make known the interpretation of the King and that you may know the thoughts of your heart you O king were watching and behold a great image that's literally the word for an idol this great image whose splendor was excellent stood before you and its form was awesome the images head was of fine gold its chest and arms of silver its belly and thighs of bronze its legs of iron its feet partly of iron and partly of clay you watched while a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces and so you have this image this statue that's standing there and all of a sudden a large stone comes into the picture hits the image at the bottom in its legs and it crushes it and becomes later on it says it becomes a great mountain it says verse 35 then the iron the clay the bronze the silver and the gold were crushed together it became like chaff from the summer threshing floors the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth this is the dream now we will tell you the interpretation of it before the king Oh king are a king of kings for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom power strength and glory and wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all you are this head of gold but after you shall arise another Kingdom inferior to yours then another a third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over all the earth and the fourth Kingdom shall be as strong as iron in as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything and like iron the crushes that Kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potters clay and partly of iron the kingdom shall be divided yet the strength of the iron shall be in it just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay and as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay they will mingle with the seed of men but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay and in the days of these kings and so he's talking about the Taos there's ten of them in the days of these Kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever and as much as you saw the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broken pieces the iron the bronze the clay the silver and the gold the great God has made known to the king what will take what will come to pass after this the dream is certain and its interpretation interpretation is sure now we know that the kingdom that came after nebuchadnezzar his kingdom his kingdom was babylon by the way in the passage god lets that lets daniel know that nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold it's not his son or his his grandson it's him that is the head of gold his grandson ends up causing the kingdom to go into captivity to the Medes and the Persians so Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold and his kingdom is the head of gold and so when you look at these things you have a king and a kingdom and so it's a kingdom and a notable King and so the notable king of Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar next Kingdom is Persia and it was the Medes and the Persians specifically Cyrus the meed was the notable king that took over the Babylonian Empire didn't destroy Babylon made Babylon one of its governing provinces but took over the city of Babylon specifically and so you have the Greeks coming after the Persians and the notable king of the Greeks that took over was Alexander the Great and then after the Greeks came the Romans and then the final Kingdom is going to be a kingdom that comes out of the Roman Empire and so that's something that we see later on in the Book of Daniel being spoken about um turn over to chapter oh let's do chapter 8 chapter 8 now you know what I don't want to do chapter 8 I want to do chapter 7 it says in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head well exhantus bed then he wrote down the dream telling the main facts I saw in my vision by night behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea talking about the Mediterranean and four great beasts came up from the sea each different from the other the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it suddenly another beast a second like a bear it was raised up on one side had three ribs in its mouth mouth between its teeth and they said thus to it arise devour much flesh after this I looked and there was another like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird and the Beast also had four heads and Dominion was given to it after this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast dreadful and terrible exceedingly strong it huge iron teeth that was devouring breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet it was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns I was considering the horns and there was another horn a little one coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots and they're in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words this is the same scenario with a different vision that was given in Daniel chapter 2 and so he's going to give the interpretation of the four beasts if you look in verse 15 it says I Daniel was grieved in my spirit within my body and the visions of my head troubled me I came near to one of those who stood by and asked him the truth of all this so he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things those great beasts which are four are four kings which arise out of the earth but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever and ever even forever and ever then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast which was different from all the others exceedingly dreadful with its iron teeth with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze which devoured broken pieces and trampled the residue with its feet and the ten horns that were on its head before and the other horn which came up before which three fell namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words whose appearance was greater than his fellows I was watching and the same horn was making war against the Saints prevailing against them until the Ancient of Days came and a judgment was made in favor of the Saints of the Most High and thus he said verse 23 the fourth beast shall be a fourth Kingdom on earth which shall be different from all other kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth trample it and break it in pieces the ten horns are ten Kings who shall arise from this Kingdom and another shall rise after them he shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings he shall speak pompous words against the Most High shall persecute the Saints of the Most High and shall intend to change times and laws and the Saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time we've talked about that earlier in the book of Revelation that's three and a half years but the court shall be seated and they shall take away his Dominion to consume and destroy it forever then the kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people the Saints of the Most High his kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all on and all dominions shall serve and obey Him this is the end of the account as for me Daniel my thoughts greatly troubled me and my countenance changed but I kept the matter in my heart so again it's a it's the same scenario and so the first Kingdom is Babylon and Babylon has always been pictured as a lion with wings as a matter of fact that's something that they had in the gates of Babylon a lion with Nebuchadnezzar's head on it with wings on its back the second kingdom the kingdom that took out Babylon was the Medes and the Persians once again it's the Persian Empire has three ribs in its mouth and those are the three notable kingdoms that it overtook and so Babylon and Assyria and Lydia possibly Egypt could be one of those in any in any case the Persians took over next and then after that comes a leopard leopards are known for being fast and it has four wings and that leopard was the kingdom of Greece and the notable king would be Alexander the Great he conquered the known world before he was 33 years old guys before he was 33 years old and it was a Swift conquest and he ended up dying in the city of Babylon the story goes that he got drunk and he ended up spending the night in a gutter on the side of the road and I woke up the next day got sick and he dies his son had died before him so he had no heir so the kingdom was given to four kings actually four generals in his army and so two of them took over what we would call Greece and the other two took over what we would call Syria and Babylon that area and the other one took over Egypt and and so again you have that in any case it talks about the fact that after this kingdom comes another Kingdom and this one's different from the others and it breaks things in pieces and crushes and destroys and and that whole thing and this this beast that comes along they're all rising up out of the water again and in the book of Revelation the waters are peoples and tongues and Kindred's and Nations and so they're all rising up out of the water but this one has ten horns on its head and in this passage it talks about the fact that one a small horn rises up and when it comes up among them three of the first horns are plucked out by the roots and this one grows in their place and it says in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words well that's the Antichrist and so in the end times the Bible teaches that there is going to be a ten nation Confederacy that's going to come out of the Roman Empire which conquered the Grecian Empire that comes out of the grown Roman Empire this ten nation Confederacy is going to obviously have ten rulers and this is where the Antichrist is going to rise up from and when he rises up three of those rulers are taken out of the way apparently there's some kind of dissonance in the kingdom and so the Antichrist takes these guys out of the way and that again is what you see in the Book of Daniel so having done all this with the Book of Daniel let's go back over to the Book of Revelation in revelation 17 let me just real quick have you look at the first couple of verses it says then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls verse one came and talked with me saying to me come I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication so it carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns and so there again you have the the ten horns and that's what we're talking about at the end of the book of or excuse me at the at the end of this chapter on Babylon if you look in verse seven it says the angel said to me why did you Marvel I'll tell you the mystery of the woman and of the Beast that carries her which has the seven heads and the ten horns the Beast that you saw was and is not will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition and those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the Beast that was and is not and yet is and so when you're again when you're talking about the Beast this is something that comes straight out of the Book of Daniel and so what are those beasts represent in the Book of Daniel and what they represent is kingdoms they represent kingdoms and so this is a beast that was and is not and yet is and the part of the Marvel of this whole thing is that the Beast that was and is not has come to come to be again and that most likely is talking about that ten nation Confederacy you have the old Roman Empire which never really was conquered the old Roman Empire basically decayed from within and so we have the last vestiges of the Roman Empire taken out in the 1500s when the Turks took Byzantium in any case when you look at modern times we have a revival of this whole thing going on probably right now over in Europe and it's the European Union and one of the things you need to watch with these guys is that there is going to be a 10 nation Confederacy it looks like that comes out of that group of people and there's a reason I'm leaving out the Middle East there's a reason I'm reason I'm leaving out northern Africa because those those places are mentioned in other places in the Bible as being separate from this ten nation Confederacy I believe it comes out of Europe basically and so one of the wild things that we have in modern times is the fact that Europe has gotten together at all you know when the Roman Empire fell you have all these nations that had a chance to bring the Roman Empire back together so he had France actually it was Gaul under Charlemagne it's what was France they had a chance then later on Germany in fact Germany tried to reunite Europe and they even called themselves the Holy Roman Empire later on you have Spain who tries to exercise hegemony over the rest of Europe and then you have France who tries again under Napoleon you have Great Britain and Great Britain never really tried to get Europe together but they had an empire that basically circled the world and each one of these groups of people that were involved in the old Roman Empire has had an opportunity to try to bring back what was again the Roman Empire and each one of them failed up until modern times and it's been in modern times since the 1990s that you have this situation that's going on over in Europe with a European Union and this is something that most likely is going to end up being a fulfillment of this these guys are going to be the ten horns the ten horns and it goes on and says here's the mind which has wisdom the seven heads and he's going to describe the seven heads so seven heads on this on this animal and so it says seven-headed beast with ten horns on the heads and the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits there are also seven kings five a fallen one is the other is not yet come and when he comes he must continue a short time now this is one of those passages that people have interpreted in various ways and many times people will take this and try to apply it to the Roman Empire because Rome was the city on seven hills and so they go well the you know you have seven mountains and so Rome has seven hills that it stands on so it must be talking about Rome and they try to make this whole thing about the Roman Empire and or they try to make it about the Roman Catholic the problem with that is that it's not hills in the passage it's mountainous and do you remember in Daniel chapter 2 what happened with that rock that was cut without hands it's cut without hands it hits the the feet of the idol with a head of gold and so on and he crushes it not only the feet but he crushes the legs he crushes the torso he crushes the arms he crushes the head it crushes the head and it grows up to be a mountain that fills the whole earth and the passage clearly says this is the kingdom of God and so in the Bible kingdoms are compared to mountains and so this is one of those passages that is speaking about that it lets you know that there are seven mountains that would be kingdoms and then if you look in verse 10 there all are also seven kings so a king for a kingdom basically and so it goes on to talk about the fight the fact that five have fallen it says in verse ten five have fallen one is and the other is not yet come and when he comes you must continue a short time okay so five have fallen one is and so when you're looking at the book of Revelation it was written at the end of the first century and it was written by John the Apostle because Jesus gave him a number of revelations of who he was and so John is writing this down so if we're talking about kingdoms here what is the key excuse me the kingdom that's in power at the time that John wrote the book of Revelation and you know your history it's it's the Roman Empire and so five have fallen one is the one that is is the Roman Empire and so what are the five that are followed well all you got to do is go backwards and we've already talked about this you know forward-looking situation but before Rome let's do this five have fallen one is okay so the one that is is the sixth Kingdom okay so this is wrong and so before Rome came what and it was Greece and before Greece came Persia for Persia came Babylon well what came before Babylon and again you guys all of this you can find in the Bible you know the kingdom that came before Babylon it was Assyria the Babylonians rose up against the Assyrian Empire and took it over and the Kingdom that was the notable Kingdom before you Syria Assyria was Egypt so goes Egypt Assyria Babylon Persia Greece then wrong five have fallen all these kingdoms have been incorporated into the Roman Empire they've all fallen and one is and that's the kingdom or the Empire of Rome that you have in the in the passage it says and the other one has not yet come so there is another Kingdom that's coming that wasn't in existence at the time of the Roman Empire and we know from Biblical prophecy that the kingdom that's going to be coming is that ten nation Confederacy that comes out of the Roman Empire let's keep going it says the and when he comes he must continue a short time the Beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth okay so here we here we have it we have the the five kingdoms that have fallen we've already listed them we have the Roman Empire and then we have after the Roman Empire you have this Kingdom that's going to continue for a short period of time and then the eighth one is going to be the Beast that the woman rise on rides on and so what is that talking about it goes on and says verse 12 or verse 11 it says the Beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth and is of the seven and is going to Perdition the ten horns which you saw are ten Kings who have not received know who have received no Kingdom as yet but they receive authority for one hour as Kings with the Beast these are of one mind and they will give their power and authority to the Beast so the seventh that has not yet come is that ten nation Confederacy that will continue for a short time and then the Antichrist rises up and you remember back at Daniel he rises up amongst those ten Kings three of them fall fall because of his rise the horns are plucked out by the roots and he rises up that becomes the eighth Kingdom and that's the beast and his empire that's the Antichrist and his empire and this is what the woman is writing in that passage is that clear as mud and again what's cool about that is that I want to make things up I don't have to go into history and try to you know make things up and try to manipulate things these are all things that are found clearly taught in Scripture you can follow the different kingdoms the different Gentile kingdoms that are in control in Scripture from Egypt to Assyria to Babylon to Persia to Greece to Rome and it's all in the Bible and that's the that's the reason that I believe that this is the correct interpretation of this passage and again when we're looking at Europe we need to be watching for that 10 nation Confederacy that's going to rise up because that is where the Antichrist is going to end up coming from the ten horns again in Daniel to crown the beast in verse 13 it says look at this these are of one mind and they will give their power and authority to the Beast so when this ten nation Confederacy rises up there are guys going to be guys who are over that who are in who are in rulership in each one of those nations and they are going to give their power and authority to the Beast they're the ones who crown him world Emperor they're the ones who crown him king of the eighth Kingdom which is again the beast in his and his empire they are also 10 Kings that fight with Christ look at look at verse 14 these will make war with the lamb and the lamb will overcome them for his Lord of lords and King of Kings and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful and so it's this 10 nation Confederacy that the Beast comes out of that ends up being basically his base you know we talk about a political base this is his base his political base and these 10 nations come with the Antichrist to fight fight against Jesus at the Battle of Armageddon it's a and it's at the Battle of Armageddon that these ten nations are crushed remember the ten toes they are crushed by the stone cut out with hands and Jesus is that stone he's our rock he's our he's a rock of salvation and he's coming and he's going to crush this kingdom and so it says they'll make war with the lamb against again just verse 14 the lamb will overcome them for he's Lord of Lord lords and King of Kings and those who are with him those who are with him and we talked earlier on about the fact that Oh actually that was in another study but one of the things that the Bible teaches is that when Jesus comes back at the second coming we'll see this when we get to chapter 19 he comes back with his church it specifically says that the wife of the Lamb is married to Jesus in heaven and so if you don't know where the church is in the book of Revelation you can find the church in Revelation chapter 19 the church the whole church in Revelation chapter 19 in heaven with Jesus at the marriage Feast of the Lamb and then we come back with him to the earth and so we have a description of us coming back with him those who are with him are called that's what happens with us Jesus calls us into a relationship with him we're chosen the reason that we're called is because he chose us from the foundation of the earth and were faithful we're called the faithful ones he endures to the end shall be saved is what Jesus said and so we were found to be faithful then he said to me verse 15 the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are people's multitudes nations and tongues and so the harlot is sitting on this beast and they're standing on many waters and that's the waters of the peoples of the earth the Gentile kingdoms of the earth and the ten horns which you saw on the Beast these will hate the harlot and make her desolate and naked eat her flesh and burn her with fire and so the two things actually there's three things that it says that these ten Kings do number one they crown the Antichrist his king over them all number two it says that they fight with Jesus at the second coming with all his Saints and then number three it talks about the fact that they hate the harlot and they destroy her they make her desolate they make her naked they eat her flesh and burn her with fire and so what you have in that situation is they allow the harlot to ride on her on their back for a while this last days Kingdom allows the harlot to exist for a period of time but then after that period of time they turn on the harlot and they destroy it so what you're talking about we've been talking about a one-world religion in Revelation chapter 17 that after the rapture of the church there's going to be churches that continue as usual not only are there going to be churches but they're going to be other religions that obviously are not Christian and they're going to continue as usual and all of these are going to be incorporated into this last days one-world religion that is going to be promoted and used by the ten nations that bring about the Antichrist they're going to be promoted and used by the Antichrist and that takes place for three and a half years but at the end of three and a half years what happens is the Antichrist shows his true colors and he is somebody who has been satanic Lee well he's he's been inhabited by Satan himself the Bible says he is taken over by Satan and he wants worship and he wants the worship all to himself so we read in Revelation chapter 13 again speaking about this same beast has aspects of the of the Grecian emporia of the of the Persian Empire aspects of the Babylonian Empire and I can't remember yeah it has aspects of the Grecian Empire too and then teeth and claws and and that whole thing and it rises up and when it rises up you have this situation with the Antichrist coming along and he demands worship as God the Bible teaches in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 that when he arises one of the things that's going to happen is he's going to go into the rebuilt temple and he's going to sit down in the Holy of Holies and he's going to proclaim thee to be God and he's gonna demand worship he's gonna have a sidekick who is called the the false prophet who promotes him and this false prophet is going to demand that the whole world worships the Beast worships the Anti Christ himself and that part of that worship is taking a mark on themselves on their heads on their foreheads or on their hands and that mark is going to be taken during an act of worship where they where they claim that the Antichrist is God he's going to be worshipped as God well obviously if the Antichrist comes along on the scenes and decides that he is going to be the focus of everyone's worship then there's no need for this one-world religion in whatever form it morphs into and so all religion has been transformed by this conglomeration this union of all these different different types of religion into one and that one is pointed towards one thing and one thing only and it is the worship of the Beast and so these kings destroy the woman in doing this whole thing it says verse 17 for God has put into their put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose to be of one mind and to give their Kingdom to the Beast until the words of God are fulfilled and the woman who you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth and we talked about before that Babylon is the seat of all false religion Babylon is the seat of paganism its Babylonian custom that got passed down to the to the Egyptians to the Assyrians later on to the later kingdom of Babylon to the Persians to the Romans and in modern times Babylonian false worship will be passed out to the whole earth and so that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth is most likely speaking about Babylon and the paganism that comes from Babylon that great city spiritually that rules over the kingdoms of the earth and so you have this situation where you have these political entities these 10 Kings who use religion to further their power to further their dominance and to further the agenda of the Antichrist politicians use religion all the time to further their agendas you know when you when you look at a politician and you see him mouthing the Bible it's something to pay attention to when you see them carrying a Bible around when you see them going to church it's something to pay attention to because sometimes they're the real deal sometimes they're actually believers and they're there in the political arena to serve Jesus Christ and to serve the people of the United States of America or whatever country that they're in but other times other doing is mouthing words so that the Christians will vote for them and what they're using what they're doing is using the Christian Church using the Bride of Christ to further their agenda and it's always irritating when you have somebody who is a politician who absolutely lives in ways that are Antichrist they're against Jesus and then quotes scripture I love that when that happens I want to throw things at my TV in fact I got a brick that somebody gave me it's made out of foam so I can throw it out my and when I see a politician that that loves the whole idea of butchering babies and promotes this stuff and then starts quoting from Scripture all I want to do is throw my brick at her and you could probably tell who I'm thinking about when I said her in any case you have a situation right now where politicians use the church to try to promote their agenda and it's going to continue to be the same case but it's not going to be the church it's gonna be the harlot the false church the false religion the false worship of a false god that they're going to be promoting but then in the end they kill it one of the things that's wild about people who have these kinds of mindsets who's who has their home as this world this earth is all that they that they love it's all that they glom onto it's all that they believe is something that is real they don't believe in an afterlife they'll they'll do anything to anyone in the end when they've abandoned all the Christianity when they abandon the Bible they'll do anything to anyone they'll say one thing in front of their face we'll say another thing behind their back and in the end if they need to cut them down if they need to take them out if they need to destroy them if they need to make them naked and rip them apart they'll do exactly that politics makes strange bedfellows when you when you want to move on your agenda it's hard to hold on to integrity and it's the case in this situation too and so again you have the destruction of the woman finally it talks you know we were talking about the woman being a picture of spiritual adultery spiritual adultery and in spiritual adultery it's the idea of you turn your focus away from the relationship that you have well let's just do regular adultery you're married to somebody you've made vows to them you said that you loved them he said that you would honor them you said that you would obey them you said that they would be the love of your life for the rest of your life and then somebody else comes in between them and you and you go after that's someone else you become somebody who is unfaithful to your spouse that's what adultery is spiritual adultery is exactly the same kind of thing when you gave your life to Jesus Christ what you did was you promised your life to him you promised that you were gonna follow him you promised that he was gonna be Lord of your life you promised that he was going to be Lord and no other you were not gonna put anybody in front of him but over time what happens is people start replacing Jesus with other things it's a really scary thing in Christians life when they stop talking about Jesus and they start talking about Christ when when the the when they stop talking about Jesus when they stop mentioning the name of Jesus and they start talking about God they start making it more general the names that they that they use for the Lord they make it something that's more formal and you know informality what you what you've done when you're formal with somebody what you've done is you've taken a step back from them you don't have a personal relationship where you're on for example a first-name basis like Jesus and so that can happen in a situation where you don't know somebody will and you're giving them honor but if you have a situation where you did know somebody well and you've stepped back and you start giving formal titles to them it's because there's distance between you and them and that many times happens with Christians they start out being all in love with Jesus being all in love with the Lord sometimes they're praying to the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit I just pray that you would come here and you know all of a sudden you know as time goes on what happens is they start getting more and more distance from the Lord and they don't want to give up Christianity they don't want to give up the the name itself but they don't have that tight relationship with the Lord anymore and so what they do is they they start speaking in terms that are third-person and if there comes a distance between them and Jesus himself in fact they don't want to mention the name Jesus anymore and again that's a scary thing because it leads to other things and pretty soon you're replacing Jesus with Christianity you're replacing Jesus with the Bible you're replacing Jesus with all with all the stuff that we do and Jesus isn't in the picture anymore remember the church at Laodicea the Bible says that Jesus was standing at the door and he's knocking and he wants to come in you know what he what door he was knocking on it was the door to the church it was the door to the church he's outside of his own church and these people are saying that they're rich and they're wealthy and they're healthy and they have need of nothing and Jesus says you're poor you're blind and you're naked and you don't know it and you need to let me in I'm on the outside is Jesus tight with you are you tight with him is he on the inside or is he on the outside and he's not on the outside because he wants to be he's on the outside because he's been forced out he's been forced out by the fact that other things have been put in his place and so that's how spiritual adultery starts and then at some point when you get far enough of down that track then many times people will turn away from the Lord altogether and so we've seen some of that in our culture they're being really famous worship leaders who have decided that they aren't following Jesus anymore as they think that the whole Christianity thing has unanswerable problems no it doesn't no it doesn't what's happened is they've distance distance themselves from Jesus they've distanced themselves from the Lord Himself they don't have that personal relationship with them if they ever had it in the first place they don't have that personal relationship with them anymore and to their credit they don't want to fake it and I think that that's just fine don't fake it but don't blame it on Jesus that's your problem that's not his problem you know I back slid for about nine months I gave my life to Jesus spent a hard three years trying to walk with the Lord and then I got tired of it and the reason I got tired of it was because it was such a such a joke I was not doing the things that God called me to and I felt guilty about the fact that I wasn't and I got tired of playing the game and I wasn't even playing a game I was just doing my best and failing miserably and so I just got to the point where I went you know I'm not gonna do this anymore I'm not gonna drag Jesus's name through this anymore I'm not doing this and so I just left and I went back into the world and you know that passage in second Peter where it says like a dog returns to its vomit and like a full return or like a pig returns to the mire so a fool returns to his folly that's exactly the situation that happened with me and what I got in the end was worse than what I was before I came to know Jesus but all during that time I never once blamed Jesus for this stuff for the for the for the choices that I was making in my life never once blamed Jesus for the fact that I was back slidden that I was fallen I never once said that Christianity was wasn't true because I knew for a fact that it was true and that I just didn't measure up you know I I think that if you're in a situation where you've walked away from the Lord you need to have that kind of mindset I was scared the whole time that I was back slidden and the reason that I was scared was because I thought that Jesus might come and I would be left behind and that is exactly the case if Jesus had come at that time that's exactly what would have happened to me according to what Jesus himself said I would have been left behind and what I needed to do was get my head straight and get my heart right with the Lord and that's what ended up happening in the end I ended up in a situation where I decided that my life was ridiculous and it was going nowhere and that I needed Jesus and it came back to him and I said Lord I can't do this on my own you need to do something with me I'm not a good heathen I'm not a good Christian I'm not a good anything you if you want me you're gonna have to change my life and when I prayed that prayer it's a second real prayer that I prayed first one was when I first got saved second one was that one both of them I was broken and in the second one I was broken to the point where I was just uh I was just despondent because nothing was working and when I prayed that prayer all of a sudden Christ comes in I get a thirst for the Word of God and he began changing my life he began changing my life instead of at me asking him to help me change my life he began changing my life and it's gone on from that point never looked back never looked back you guys and so you may be in a situation where you've been committing spiritual adultery or you've been replacing Jesus with something else where you don't talk about Jesus anymore you talk about religion you talk about doctrine but you don't talk about Jesus when you when you do address Jesus you use formal terms and the reason is because you're not on a you're not on a close personal level with them anymore you're not on speaking terms with the Lord any more and you know it and at the very least what's cool about that is you know it that's why you're using formal terms well how would you like to get right back to where it was before Jesus said Behold I'm knocking on the door and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I'll come into it come into him and sup with him and he with me it's the idea of having fellowship between you and the Lord that's what he wants with you he doesn't want to be any on the outside of your life he doesn't want to be on the outside of your heart he wants to be inside and he's knocking at the door of your heart what are you gonna do are you gonna just sit there and listen to the knock you know what you know if I just sat here and did this and kept doing it and did it for from the next five minutes please Steve don't do that but I did it for the next five minutes you would drown it out you ever been in a grocery store where a kid is in a cart and they and the kid is screaming its head off and it's mom is just walking down the aisle and just you do the shopping and not even noticing yeah you know meanwhile everybody else in the in the grocery store their ears are bleeding they have their hands over their heads and and they're running away and the reason that she can do that is because she's tuned the child out and many people are in a situation where they've heard Jesus knocking and their heart has been tender towards him at one point or another but it becomes calloused over time and you tune him out you're not listening anymore is that your situation is that you and there's no reason that you should stay there there's no reason that you should be like that Christ wants to come back into your life he wants to have control of your life he wants to be the one that gives you spiritual life he wants to be the one that fulfills you and stop with the religion Jesus never called you to be religious he called you into relationship with him he wants you he doesn't want your Bible reading he doesn't want your church attendance he doesn't want your offering he doesn't want all of that stuff what he wants is you and there's nothing wrong with Bible reading and there's everything right with church attendance and there's everything right with giving an offering when it's an act of worship towards the God that you're absolutely in love with that's when it's right and that's that's the only thing that's right about it and so if you are in that situation where you've walked away from Christ on one level or another where you're committing spiritual adultery you realize that you have things that you've placed in front of the Lord and it could be drinking you're a Christian and you're a drunk it could be smoking dope you're a Christian and you're a pothead or it could be sex you're a Christian and you're sleeping around you've taken things and you've allowed them to get in between you and Jesus and you weren't danger of losing your walk with God you need to do something about that you need to turn you need to come back you need to go to the door you need to open it up you need to ask Christ to come inside I'm gonna give you a chance to do exactly that I'm going to pray with you this is going to be a prayer asking Christ control of your life and if you would like to pray that prayer why don't you why don't you just do that with me right now jesus said that if you'll receive him this is in John chapter 1 verse 11 that if you'll receive him you become a child of God these are this is for those of you who don't know Christ in the first place you become a child of God when you receive him into your life the way that you receive him is by calling on his name all those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved it says in Romans chapter 10 and so you call him the Lord on the name of the Lord by going to him in prayer and giving him control of your life and for you Christians that have walked away you just maybe maybe you were just going through and you somebody sent you the link to this study and you're in a situation that's exactly what I described before Jesus is standing at the door of your heart - and he's knocking do you want a man or not or are you just gonna leave him outside and so again the way that you asked me in is by prayer coming to the Lord confessing your sin asking him to forgive you and asking him to take control of your life so let's pray a prayer that does exactly that pray this with me where Jesus I come before you and I know that I'm a sinner and that I've sinned against you I'm sorry please forgive me I want to be your child I want my name to be written in your book of life please make me your follower not just somebody who talks about you but somebody who actually follows you I thank you that you love me that you died for me and then you rose from the dead now thank you that you're coming back for me please fill me with your Holy Spirit and give me your power Lord because I can't do this on my own I give my whole life to you now in Jesus name Amen if you prayed that prayer we want to give you a Bible and Bible study and actually you know what if you prayed that prayer I haven't been doing this but if you prayed that prayer why don't you why don't you let us know in the comments section either on Facebook or on YouTube or wherever you're seeing this let us know in the comment comments section and by the way get in touch with us because we would love to give you a Bible and Bible study and I mean gif we're not going to ask you you know for for money or that kind of thing we want to give these things to you and we want to encourage you in your walk with Christ if you were giving this link by somebody you need to let them know what you just did you need to let them know that you committed your life to to Jesus and actually that person that gave you the link may be able to help you out and we in your walk with God the Bible talks about discipleship and being being taught in the ways of the Lord and so you can do that through Bible studies like what you're listening to but even cooler is one-on-one interaction with somebody who's an older believer who's walked the path before you and who can help you out it's a really cool thing and so we'd love to hear from you and so let us know if you if you gave your life to Jesus or you gave your life back to Jesus Peschel if you gave your life back did you yeah not especially but you know what I mean I want to know if you gave your life back to the Lord so that's it that's all we got for tonight god bless you guys and actually let me pray for our nation father we just lift our nation up to you and Lord it's looking like we're over the hump as far as the co vid crisis goes the the whole Chinese virus thing goes and Lord we want to pray again for anybody who's going through this sickness pray that your hand would be on them and that you would heal them Lord give us give our government officials real wisdom on when to shut down the shutdown so that we can all get back to work and all we all get back to fellowship in churches and and that kind of thing Lord we want you to bless our nation Lord we know that's only going to happen if our nation follows you so both those things lord help us to be a nation that follows you and because that Lord we pray for your blessing upon us and we ask this all in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 2,754

Rating: 4.816092 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: 2ykzlq1VJ64

Length: 55min 38sec (3338 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020