Introduction

Revelation 17:1-18 ESV  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,  (2)  with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”  (3)  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 and ten horns.  (4)  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.  (5)  And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”  (6)  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.  (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.  (8)  The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.  (9)  This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;  (10)  they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.  (11)  As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.  (12)  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.  (13)  These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.  (14)  They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”  (15)  And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.  (16)  And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire,  (17)  for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.  (18)  And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”

• So if you remember in chapter 16 we went over the final seven outpourings of God’s wrath… the seven bowls of judgment God poured out.
  • Now we are going to spend a few chapters talking about some of the finer details about the seventh bowl of God’s wrath.
  • If you remember, when talking about the seventh bowl at the end of Chapter 16 it says this…

Revelation 16:19 ESV  The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.

• So, that’s how chapter 16 ends, now chapter 17 and 18 are going to talk about this great city and this Babylon the great, who or what they are, their relationship with the beast and false prophet, and how their destruction should come about.
  • You probably gathered that as you followed along with chapter 17 just now.
• Now, for the first half of my sermon I am going to spend it teaching you who Babylon the Great is, and for the second half of my sermon I am going to explain why that is important for you, the born again Christian living in eastern Iowa in 2022.
• So let’s get into it…

•  Today’s sermon is titled “The Seduction of False churches”.

• Now let’s get into the first point… this is our teaching point this morning…

Point One – Babylon the Great (the great Prostitute) is the Apostate Roman Catholic Church

• Now you will notice on the back of your bulletins that I left a blank space on this point.

• That is because what I am going to say may come off as offensive… and I did not want to offend anyone before they at least had a chance to worship and praise God this morning.
  • There is a time and place to get offended… and apparently that place is here and that time is right now…
    • I am kidding of course, I don’t want you to get offended by this… but if you are, I hope to prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that what I am about to say is the truth… and if I can prove that to you then you will be able to apply the warnings and instructions of point two into your life this morning.
• So, get your pen’s out, here is the answer… Babylon the Great (the great Prostitute) is the apostate Roman Catholic church.

Revelation 17:1 ESV  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,

Revelation 17:2 ESV  with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”

Revelation 17:3 ESV  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 and ten horns.

Daniel 7:24-25 ESV  As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings.  (25)  He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

Revelation 17:4 ESV  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.

Revelation 17:6 ESV  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.

“History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Vol. 2″ documents “That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind will be questioned by no Protestant who has a complete knowledge of history.”

Historians estimate that during the Dark Ages and the Inquisition, the Roman Catholic Church killed over 50 million people whom they deemed as heretics, most of which were Christians who dared to own a Bible (which the Church forbid) or proclaimed the Gospel of Christ.

At one event, remembered as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, an estimated 100,000 Huguenots (Protestant Christians in France) were slaughtered.

In Spain alone the number of condemned exceeded three million, with about 300,000 burned at the stake during the length of the Spanish Inquisition. (Source: Page 259 of an updated version of “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs”; 2001; Publisher: Bridge-Logos.)

• So yeah, I would say it is appropriate to say that the Roman Catholic Church is drunk on the blood of the Martyrs…
  • They even killed Jan Hus, whom this church building is named after!
• “But pastor let me stop you right there… aren’t Muslims also a major persecuted of the Christians church… don’t they kill tons of Christians?”
  • “They certainly do, but Muslims are not marked by purple, scarlet, and gold”.
• “But passsstor! The Catholics murdered Christians 1000s of years ago, they don’t do that today!”
  • Oh yes they do! When Amanda and I did missions in East Timor 9 years ago the Catholics had fully evangelized the nation. There were big beautiful shrines and churches and statues of saints all over the nation. In fact I would say that the only nice buildings in the nation seemed to be Catholic churches.
    • And in that country you could be any religion you wanted, the catholics allow you to be buddhist, or muslim, or even practice voodoo and withcraft… but you are not allowed to be protostant.
    • In fact, we were warned that you can be killed for even speaking the name of Jesus.
      • Pray to Marry! Sure! Pray to the Saints also! BUT DO NOT SPEAK THE NAME OF JESUS!
      • People in that nation are killed, chopped to death with machetes, because they are Christians… but not Catholic.
      • Christian churches burnt down, because they are not catholic. This happens all over the world, we just don’t hear about it because it is the third world it happens in and our media doesn’t seem to care about those people…

Revelation 17:18 ESV  And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”

• What is unique about the Roman Catholic Church is that they have a city, based in Rome which is where Revelation says this woman “The great prostitute” sits, they have a city in Rome that is entirely and completely 100% Roman Catholic, it is the Vatican.
  • So it is odd that this Great Prostitute, which from our understanding of Revelation 17 and 18 is clearly some kind of religious system, is also called a city… well that makes sense if we are talking about the Roman Catholic Church because the Vatican City State is synonymous with Roman Catholicism…

Revelation 17:5 ESV  And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”

• Now, the name Babylon the great is a reference that this prostitute is enemy number 1 to God, because Babylon is biblically a symbol of God’s enemy and the oppression of his people.
  • So there is this new Babylon, this new enemy, this great enemy, and it is mysterious that they would be called Babylon the great when the proclaim Christ… but we know from Revelation chapter 3 and 16 that God would rather you be against Him then to be lukewarm… faking it, pretending.
  • Thus the apostate catholic church, and apostate Christians in general (more on that in a moment) are enemy number 1 to God.
  • Further… this is not the first time in Scripture we see the name Babylon used this way…

1 Peter 5:13 ESV  She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.

• Peter is here writing his final greetings in his letter… and he says the church in Babylon greets you…
  • Except Peter wasn’t in Babylon when he wrote this…
  • He was in Rome! Peter here calls Rome, Babylon!
• Now not just that, it says she is the mother of prostitutes and the earths abominations.
  • Did you know that Islam was created by the Catholic church… you can go read the testimony of Aberto Rivera, a Jesuit priest who converted to Christianity, he explains in detail how the Catholic church created Islam as a way to try to manipulate Arabs.
    • He wrote a book called “The Prophet” published by Chick Publications that lays this all out.
    • This former priest who shared all these details… guess how he died… he was poisoned… and we don’t know by who but I have a good guess.
  • So the Catholic church created Islam…
    • But out of the catholic church came other abominations and prostitutes as well.
      • Abominations like the Apostate Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals, and non-denominationalists.  
      • Yes every church that has fallen away, including churches just like this one… our roots are ultimately in the Catholic Church.
• So here is what I want to do, back at the top of your notes where you wrote in “The Apostate Roman Catholic Church” I want you to cross out the words “Roman Catholic”.

• Because truly this applies to all of the Apostate church.
  • And this morning I don’t want to start a conspiracy theory about how the Catholic Church is out to get you.
  • The Roman Catholic Church is not out to get you…
    • SATAN is out to get you.
    • And the Roman Catholic Church is a tool that He uses.
    • But he also uses non-denominational Charismatic churches.
    • And he uses Baptist churches.
    • And Methodists churches…
    • And any and every flavor of church out there that he can get his filthy little devil hands on!
  • Now again, I am not saying all Methodists or Baptists or Non-denominational Charismatic churches are bad…
    • WE ARE A NON-DENOMINATIONAL CHARISMATIC CHURCH!
    • But what I am saying is that there are apostate churches of every flavor.
• The main offender is the Roman Catholic Church, and that is what these verses are about… but there are plenty of her children, prostitutes and abominations, running about masquerading as Christians.
• And that brings us to our application this morning… The Seduction is aimed at YOU!

Point Two – The Seduction is Aimed at YOU

Revelation 17:1-2 ESV  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,  (2)  with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”

• Let me also add a verse from Chapter 18

Revelation 18:4 ESV  Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;

• So from this verse in chapter 18 we know there are in fact some of God’s Christians in the Apostate Roman Catholic church, and in other Apostate Churches as well… because God call’s them out.
  • Why does He call His people out? “Lest you take part in her sins and share in her plagues”.
• That means that there is seduction aimed at Christians, born again believers, from the Great Prostitute… that means that you are a target of that Seduction.
• And I want you to be aware!
  • In two weeks we are going to watch enemies within the church, that is going to highlight some of the major apostate Churches and preachers, many of whom you will know well and be surprised to hear the blasphemy that comes out of their mouth.
• But today I want to just issue you this warning…
  • Because I want you to be aware. I want you to say no to the seduction. I don’t want you to be cursed by the righteous hand of God… I want you to be blessed!

Hebrews 10:36 ESV  For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

• Listen, God’s blessings, God’s promises come when you do the will of God. When you persevere, when you don’t give up… when you honor God always, and obey Him.
  • And the Apostate Church is trying to stop you from persevering… it is trying to pull you away.
• Guys the Catholic Church used to be Holy, it’s always had its problems, sure… but it used to be that if you were a Christians you were a Catholic… it had everything it needed to be successful and to evangelize the world… but it fell away.
  • Jan Hus tried to bring it back into Biblical truth and they killed him.
  • Martin Luther tried to bring it back into Biblical truth, he never wanted to start a new church, he loved the Catholic church… but saw all these issues and tried to bring it back into Biblical truth and they tried to kill him to.
    • But if it can happen to the Roman Catholics, it can happen to us.
• If it can happen to the Methodists it can happen to us.
  • And it happens quick, church! Pastor Matt went to a Methodist University that loved God and raised up God fearing leaders.
  • I went to the same University 10 years later and they had completely abandoned the Bible and taught nothing but lies and sexual immorality.
    • In just 10 years, Seattle Pacific University went from “You must attend chapel every week, you are not allowed to be in the dorm buildings of the opposite sex, you must live a godly lifestyle”
    • To “Chapel is optional, go into whoever’s dorm you want… Have sex with whoever you want… boys with girls, boys with boys… whatever! God loves you, it’s not a sin… no matter what the Bible says.
    • The president of that university, while I was there, stood up infront of reporters and the whole school and said “The Bible never says homosexuality is a sin”.
• If it happened to the Methodists, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians… it can happen to us.
• And it’s already happening to the non-denominational Charismatics…
  • This mega pastor falling into sexual scandal.
  • The head pastor of probably the largest non-denominational church in the world defending homosexuality publicly and calling those who quote scripture “the kind of Christian the world doesn’t need”.
  • The pastor of probably the second largest charismatic church said “The love of God contradicts the word of God”.
    • No, God’s love and God’s Word are not are war, God doesn’t contradict himself.
• And it’s not just big churches either… there are churches in this very city where the pastor is out cheating on his wife on Saturday then preaching on Sunday…
  • And these pastors are celebrated as being “so loving”.
  • You know who is not celebrating that pastor as being so loving? His wife who is at home crying on the couch.
• “But that is so judgmental pastor”
  • Yeah, maybe… but at least my wife as a faithful husband!
• But we shouldn’t judge other Christians!
  • We shouldn’t? Yes we should!
  • It is a lie from the apostate church that we should not judge other Christians.
  • We should NOT judge those who are not Christians, our job is not to Judge them but to lead them to repentance… but it is our Job to judge those inside the church, that’s what Scripture says…

1 Corinthians 5:12 ESV  For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

• Listen you need to judge your pastor. You need to judge me.
  • And anyone else you let speak into your life… any other Christian leader or influencer, you need to judge them!
• Because if they are a part of the Great Prostitute, if they are a part of Babylon the Great then you need to GET OUT!
  • If you don’t you are going to end up in sin and suffering from the wrath of God…

Revelation 18:4 ESV  Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;

• You need to judge your church and leaders…
  • And I am not talking about petty stuff…
    • Like I got a bible reference wrong, or forgot to call you back…
    • But big stuff…
  • Like if I cheat on my wife… do everything you can to remove me from the pastorate… and if you can’t, then leave… and warn everyone else to leave to.
  • If I cheat on my wife it is not “loving” to allow me to continue to run this church…
    • It might seem nice to me…
    • But it’s not very nice to my wife
    • It’s not very nice to my children
    • It’s not very nice to the people I am supposed to be pastoring.
  • Man if I cheat on my wife then please! TAR AND FEATHER ME AND RUN ME OUT OF TOWN!

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 ESV  For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?  (13)  God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

• And yes there is grace, there is ton’s of grace… but for those who lead churches, who teach the word of God… we are held to a higher standard.

James 3:1 ESV  Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

• PLEASE, use sound judgment, ask for discernment, when it comes to who is speaking the Word of God, or twisting the Word of God, into your life.
  • Please don’t just give grace over major issues, grace abounds yes, but the people behind pulpits, when they are so wicked as to teach what the Bible says is false, or so wicked that they sleep with people who are not their wives, or so wicked that they promote sexual sin and chastise those who preach truth…
  • Such leaders can find grace, but they have disqualified themselves from the ministry, at least for a time, and they need to find grace while submitting to other pastors and not while preaching the word.
• Please judge those, with kind but righteous judgment, who claim to be pastors, apostles, teachers, bishops, or prophets… least you find yourself seduced by their lies… least you find yourself in an apostate church or ministry.

Conclusion

• Now I want to conclude by saying this… this is a dangerous sword to wield.
  • There is not a heretic under every rock.
  • There is not an apostate around every corner.
    • This sermon is not meant to encourage you to take up pitchforks and torches and go and try to burn down apostate ministries.
    • This sermon is meant as a warning…
    • It is meant to encourage you to be on guard.
    • To encourage you to ask “Who have I let speak into my life, are the living up to Biblical standards? Are they preaching against sin? Are they pointing people to the cross? Are the preaching the full gospel?”
• And it is a warning to us as a church, that we too can become Apostate, and quickly, if we abandon the Bible, if we don’t open our Bible, read it, and do what it says.
• Now with all of that said, let me speak some hope, let me speak some love, let me speak some life to close this thing out…
• And the best way I can do that is to preach the Gospel…
• Gospel Call