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I’m going to invite you to Revelation chapter 17 is where we’re going to be together today in Revelation chapter 17, as we are to the point in Revelation where we’re we’re we’re getting close to the transition from all the all the scary things to all the happy things. Okay. That’s that’s we’re we’re in the middle of that now. Okay? We’re that transition is going to take place, and you’re going to see the culmination of all things in Jesus, which is wonderful. But here we’re reminded in Revelation chapter 17 of a, of a very important idea for all of us in terms of our relationship with the Lord, knowing we walk in a broken world, and that is, it’s good for our hearts to stop and be reminded that everything God created is good. But we have this tendency of taking the good things that God created them, and we make idols out of them themselves. And we forget that the good things that God has made were intended to point us back to him, and we make the things of this earth as the ultimate purpose rather than God Himself, and in so doing, it leads to a life of brokenness. Because what we ultimately do is we take the good things God created. We make them as idols, as if they are the, the, the end rather than a means to the end. And we worship and serve creature rather than our creator, and in doing so, in creating idols of the things of this world, we look to those things to give us worth, value and meaning.
And what we ultimately find in that is they never truly satisfy because you were made for more. And if we’re not careful, the the world introduces those things to us as if they’re in and of themselves, as if more more wealth, more money, more popularity, more beauty, whatever will make you find the value for which you were intended. But what we discover is all those things fade and pass away, but you’re left trying to figure out then what gives you ultimate worth? What gives you ultimate meaning? Value as a human being and so looking to those things leads us to this, this path of brokenness in a place of emptiness. In fact, I mean, you could go through celebrities in our own culture and see time and time again people talking about reaching the pinnacle of what they thought would satisfy them, only to find out they were empty. In fact, there’s a writer by the name of Jack Higgins who wrote a famous book called The Eagle Has Landed, and they asked him in his later years, they said, what’s something you wish someone had taught you in your earlier years that you didn’t want to find out later in life, or you wish you hadn’t waited till later in life to discover? And he said, like this.
I wish someone told me early on that when I got to the top of the mountain, there was nothing there. And it carries that idea of those, those pursuits in life that he thinks will satisfy, ultimately to discover that he was made for something different. And if we’re not careful as Christians, as followers of Jesus, we can take the idea of the world and substitute it for our own faith and not even realize that we’re doing it and so deceive ourselves. And what I mean by that is, you know, there are a lot of different things that can bring us to a place of worship. And, you know, you being here this morning, I’m very thankful that you’re here. So I’m so glad that you’re here. Sometimes, though, the thing that drives us to come to a gathering of worship is not ultimately what should matter. I need to be careful with that. But let me. Let me explain. Sometimes we recognize that there’s some brokenness in our life and we want it to be fixed. We want it to be different. And so not knowing what else to do, we’ll turn to the Lord, which is a wonderful thing, right? But but we’ll kind of treat it like this, that the greater thing that I want is, is the problem that I’m thinking about. And once, once the Lord shows me how to solve that problem, I’ll kind of forsake the Lord, because what I’m more interested in is just fixing things for my own comfort, rather than seeing God as the prize himself.
And so. So let me just say, if you come in and you’re thinking today like, man, I’ve got some problems in my marriage or, or this relationship or at work or financial or whatever, whatever you might be struggling with, and you’re seeking the Lord in that. That’s wonderful. I think that’s great. But I don’t want us to miss the fact that the prize isn’t getting that solved. The prize has got himself, and it’s not until we’re willing to surrender to him in that that we’re we truly are able to put things into perspective of how God leads us through it. And so Revelation chapter seven is teaching us that lesson today, that the world wants to offer you a message of false hope by making idols out of things God never intended, because he alone is the great prize of life. And when we’re willing to surrender to him, we discover that. But it’s it’s not until we see the deception of the message of the world that we can we can move away from this in order to to find God as that true prize. And so Revelation chapter seven, three steps to Navigate a World of false hope. Let me give you point number one. Number one is this. Recognize deception and pursue godly understanding that we would just recognize the deception and then pursue godly understanding.
Really, what we’re giving ourselves to do is, is give ourselves permission to think biblically to to to look at truth, to understand what what God has for us and, and the willingness to to pursue that right and to to know what God desires for our life. In Revelation chapter seven, verse one, it starts off like this 17 one the then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, this. So this is John writing. He’s saying, one of the angels came and said to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who was seated on many waters. Verse two, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers of the earth have have become drunk. Sometimes I get to the end of Bible verses and I’m like, wow, that’s in the Bible, right? That’s definitely that’s definitely these two verses right here we are talking about this great prostitute and sexual immorality and, and the people of the earth drunk upon it. And, and how do you extrapolate spiritual meaning from this? Right. This is this is what we get to navigate today. But but looking at this, this passage, I want you to see the first thing that John is given the opportunity on, and that is the invitation to follow after the Lord.
John, come. And the world system is is deceptive. In fact, when you read Revelation of reminded us there’s these these two kingdoms that are presented. There is this false worldly Babylonian kingdom that will that will ultimately lead to your demise if you pursue it and has an expiration date. But then there’s God’s kingdom that endures forever. And this presentation of Revelation is to help us recognize that in Jesus you have victory and is asking the question, what do you follow and what do you want to belong to? And so there’s this invitation for John to, to to come and join the Lord and in discovering this path. But but just as John is saying, this angel has asked this of him or gave him, give him this, this call in his life. And so it is with all of us. The application can be made that God has given you this invitation. And are you willing to go? If if what you believe isn’t true, and if what you are pursuing isn’t going to bring the fulfillment for which you were designed, do you want to know? I mean, do you want to follow after the the path that the Lord has created you to pursue him on? And so John is starting with this, that God has given him this, this invitation to, to participate in this. And then and then in verse two, he’s reminding us as while he’s been invited, you know, the rest of the world might be following something entirely different.
It’s saying in verse two, the kings of the earth have pursued this. Everybody’s doing this, John. But is this really what you want? Come and see. I want you to understand where this deception lies. The thought that people have bought into, where they’re finding their worth, and the things of this world, rather than the things of God that they’re seeing. God has the prize. Come, come, John, and see this deception. And so then he goes on, and in verse three, he takes this deeper look into this vision that the angels invited him on. And it says, 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, and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, 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, of Earth’s abominations. That’s not a good tattoo to get, in case you’re wondering. And then verse six, and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. You know, I’ve tried to encourage us in this. In fact, I mentioned this at the very first lesson we did in Revelation together when we started this book, that there is a way to interpret Revelation that is important, right? And there’s there is an actual just literal approach to Revelation, or there’s a literary approach to Revelation.
Right. And there are some people that when they try to read Revelation, they try to take everything literal and of which if you happen to ever go outside and see the great whore of Babylon floating on the back of a dragon, you know that the time is near. Okay. So so there is the there is the literal sense that you could take this. And and if you do see this, that’s If you need a panic button ever in your life, push it in. Okay, but but then there’s the literary sense to recognize Revelation as apocalyptic. And apocalyptic literature is not a genre that we’re familiar with today. That’s not something where you’re like, let’s go to Barnes and Noble and pick up the most recent apocalyptic book, right? That’s just not the typical genre of literature you see people purchasing. So. So when it comes to reading this literature, it’s important to remember that what John is doing is taking images throughout Scripture, this Jewish Hebrew pool of imagery on on what these what these ideas represent to help us understand what what the enemy desires to do in our life through this thought of of deception.
And he paints it through this picture of women. Now, I want you to know women. I do not agree that this is a great picture of just ladies in general. Okay? This is not saying every woman is like this. That would be terrible, right? In fact, when you read, when you read throughout the Bible, you’ll find that women are often pictured, for example in Proverbs chapter seven. There’s the Lady of Folly, where if you read the Book of Proverbs, it’s it’s a teacher teaching a young man on how to live wisely in this world. And in chapter seven, he talks about a woman of folly. And he says, if you pursue this woman that’s trying to lure you, it will lead to your destruction. Revelation chapter seven starting or excuse me, Proverbs chapter seven, starting in verse six, starts to tell about the woman of folly. But then when you look in Proverbs chapter eight, it declares about the Lady of Wisdom and how important it is to seek after this woman of wisdom. And it’s this imagery. Again, it’s not a literal woman, but this this imagery of of what we pursue with our heart and how how important it is what you, your, your, your direction determines your destination and what your heart is ultimately longing for. Will will determine the kind of person you become. And so what does your heart long for and what are you buying into? And so, more than just men or women seeing us as genders specifically, if you if you take this passage and just extrapolate meaning for all of us.
I think what he’s saying in this, this passage is that men, God has made us as incredible people to reflect his glory in this world. But when our hearts aren’t given over to him, what it ultimately produces is destruction. It leads to our demise and the destruction of those around us. And this is what we’re seeing with the idea of this, this lady being presented here. She’s riding on the back of the of this beast is is what it ultimately produces. You’ll, you’ll you’ll notice that when it describes her in verse four, the way that she is arrayed and brought into the systems of this world, it describes her in purple and scarlet, which is symbols of of wealth. During this, this first century, anyone that would wear this was often seen as royalty. And more than that, she has this, this gold and jewelry, which is which is given the admiration of the world. People are looking at this and then they see this incredible cop. But then when you look at the cop, you see it’s this, this cop of utter abomination. How how she’s been given over and over again to this, this system that’s bringing about destruction. So on the outside, the appearance looks magnificent and people would marvel.
But when you look at the contents of the cup, you you see the abomination that exists there. And so this woman, she, she is presenting this message, these, these images that are given to her, is this really this seductive message? She is a a woman teaching a belief, a theology, ultimately really a religion that if you give yourself to this, then you can be happy. So look what I have. Don’t you want this? And they’re alluring through this, this temptation, she’s propagating the system of belief. You should just embrace this and then you’ll be satisfied. And so in this, this system of belief, she also has power, and that power that’s pushing it forward is demonstrated through this beast. It goes on to describes what this beast represents in verse. Verse nine. Second half of verse nine all the way to verse 13. But you see, this beast has seven heads and and ten horns, and it’s representing this, this idea of political power. And so you’re seeing not only this lure of temptation and this false message of hope, this religious idea that’s contrary to the Lord, a system of idolatry. But you’re also seeing it forced into the culture through this, this means of power and influence. And so there’s this invitation to participate. But then you see on this woman in verse five, this, this thought that’s written across her head, Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes of of the earth’s abomination.
And and this idea of Babylon is important to understand, because in the Old Testament, Babylon was an actual people group that conquered Israel and brought them into slavery. But Babylon became more than just a specific people group. Babylon came to represent the the dominant forces on the earth that were destroying God’s people and luring others into temptation. In fact, if you were to read the book or the letter that Peter wrote, Peter would often refer to Rome as Babylon. And in fact, it became common to refer to the world power of that day with the idea of being Babylon. Because if you were to directly write against that world power of the day, it could lead to your demise, your destruction. And so for Peter to talk about Rome, rather than mention Rome specifically, he would mention the idea of Babylon as a representation of Rome. But this, this thought of Babylon became more than just a specific people group. It came to personify this world system, that there is a way that the world thinks. And if you join in that it leads to your destruction. And you see the hardness of the people’s hearts here in verse six that there they’re given over to the system so much and have bought into the belief that their happiness can be found here, that anyone that might say something contrary to that message, they see as an enemy and desire to destroy them.
Now, this can happen literally in our lives. We can pursue things this way to the destruction of others, where we we think to ourselves, you know, you’re keeping me from my happiness. And so therefore, to get what I want, I got, I have to remove you. And some people will do it to the extreme of literally taking someone else’s life. But as people, anytime we pursue the false idols of this world, we’re always diminishing the the beauty of other human beings. We start to buy into the lie that I need this in order to make me happy, and I can use you in order to get what I want, because this is what will satisfy me. And so we make an idol out of things to serve ourselves to the harm of others. And John is helping the people to to recognize what this abomination is ultimately leading to. So, number one, if we’re going to follow the Lord from this system of false hope, we’ve got to be willing to recognize deception. Are you willing to go on this journey? Come with me. God says, are you willing for God to open your eyes to see the beauty of who he is, rather than the broken things of this world that will not fulfill? And so the point number two, in so doing, we would acknowledge our weaknesses or acknowledge your weakness. The thought related that the encouraging thought related to that then, is to stay rooted in biblical community.
We want to recognize our deception. We want to acknowledge your weakness. And by really learning to stay rooted in biblical community. You see John being encouraged in this way. It’s it’s one thing to know the truth. But God calls us more to know it. He wants us to walk in it. To walk in him. Because the Bible says in John 14 six, he is the way, the truth, and the life. So it’s more than just this intellectual exercise of knowing Scripture this morning, but saying, God, how can my mind and my heart really align? How can I truly begin to embrace what I’ve understood in giving this my life to you? And. And in verse six, John says this when I saw her, I marveled greatly. 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. 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 the earth, whose name 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. We’ll talk about the the was and is not and is to come in just a moment.
But I but I want you to see where John is in the story. I mean, for John, it’s being revealed to him who this woman is and what she wants to produce and who this beast is and what this beast wants to produce. And even knowing that John is still tempted by this woman. I mean, that’s the idea here in verse six. Do you think of who John is? He’s the one who, at the Last Supper leaned back onto Jesus. He’s the one that’s referred to as as really Jesus’s favorite in the Gospels, the beloved. That’s the way John wrote about himself in his in the Gospel of John. And yet even John is being tempted here. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. And it’s the angel in this story who steps in this messenger who steps in and questions John in that moment, and it just reminds me of how important community is for all of us, because all of us have this, this place of temptation that the enemy can use to lure into our lives. But we need godly community around us to encourage us to continue to pursue the Lord. And as isolated individuals, it’s easy to get wayward and discouraged and lose our focus on Christ. But in community it becomes important. This is why it’s so significant in community to just stand up and identify who you are in Jesus and say this like my heart, I want to belong to Christ.
I want to live for him. And and the idea of that as, as God’s people is this, this thought of repentance in Scripture where we turn from the way of the world and we say this, I want to follow Jesus. I want to make my life about following Christ, to surround ourselves with people who care enough about us to speak into our life if we start to lose sight, the way it works in our life is we become masters at justification through compromise. Where in our lives we’ll we’ll have a temptation. And before you know it, that temptation, temptation itself isn’t wrong. We’re tempted all day long. You turn on the TV every five seconds, you’ll see a commercial. And that’s just temptation. Temptation itself isn’t bad. But then suddenly temptation can grab Ahold of us and it becomes this want. And this want suddenly goes from a want to a need where you think, I have to have this in order to be happy. And then when you have this want, you start to justify the things you do. Well, I you know, I know what God says, but man, but in this one situation and it’s an exception because, well, God knows and we can kind of justify where we are. And, and before long we start following a different path because we’re pursuing a different Lord of our life, which ultimately really is our self because we’ve established an idol.
I mean, the way it works is like this. If you if you think about the idea of the prostitute. And the kings of the earth giving themselves over to him, if we just started with that. When when God created you, he made you. He made you holistically for the purpose of completely surrendering to him in every aspect that you are as a human being, right? Body. Soul. Mind. Spirit. Given over to the Lord to to honor him with your life. And but we have this tendency sometimes of breaking off those different components and surrendering to something else. So if we just started with the body, you know, my body is a temple of the Lord that belongs to him. But sometimes we can justify any behavior that we do with that. We can say things like, well, you know, my body belongs to the Lord, but I’m, I’m lonely. And so therefore God knows I’m lonely because I’m lonely. I have needs and so, well, it’s okay if I just do a little look at a little pornography. And so we can we can justify those behaviors or. Or maybe we could say things like, well, you know, God brought us together and we really care about each other and we’re going to get married one day, so we’ll just act like it now. But God created your bodies for him. And if you want to live the kind of life that God wants to bless, then then all of our life needs to be surrendered to him.
Or maybe if if I didn’t didn’t just talk about physically, maybe we talk about emotionally, relationally. If God calls me to be gracious and patient with others. But then there’s that time where someone does something that I don’t like and, well, they need to learn not to double cross me. And so in so doing, I feel that I’m completely justified to to react because of the way they acted, because they excuse my behavior. And so therefore I can do whatever I want because don’t you know what they did. And so we have this way of, of justifying what we do, where we’re tempted. And it becomes a need. That need becomes a want and and that want gets us to justify the way we behave, the things that we do, as if it excuses the fact that my my life is created for the Lord. Now, now, let me just step back from this for a minute, because I know sometimes when we start thinking about areas of our life that are given over to the beast rather than to God, we can start to feel a certain way because we recognize I have messed up and I have not done what the Lord would desire of me in the steps that I have taken are not pleasing to him.
And truthfully, God hasn’t been my prize. Something else has. And so what do we do? And what we do in that moment becomes important. Because what we don’t want to happen is for me to kind of end that message right there for us and us to get up in guilt and shame and just walk out. Sometimes we have this tendency where we know we’ve messed up, or we will do one of two things. We will. We will respond in pride, or we will respond in despair. Despair in a lot of ways, oftentimes will play itself out in fear. So we’ll often we’ll respond in one of two ways. We’ll respond in pride or we’ll respond in fear. And the idea of responding in pride is to say this I know I’ve messed up, and so I want to prove God different. You know, I’m going to try harder. I’m going to do better. And so we try to build ourselves up and we start to buy into that. Like, I can do it. I can impress God, I can show God. And so when I’ve messed up, we just try to to outperform ourselves from the situation that we may have created. The other is we can fear. One of the ways that fear can play out is, you know, maybe in following Jesus, maybe people around you have put pressure on you because, well, you’ve shown interest in pursuing Jesus.
And maybe you’re here this morning and you think, you know, friends and family aren’t happy that you’re here today. And so they’ve put pressure on you that you’re here, but they don’t really want you to be here. And so then you’re left with a question, what am I going to trust? Am I going to trust that Jesus is enough to meet me in the situation I’m in, or I’m going to? Am I going to follow after fear? Am I going to listen to what they say? I’m going to let them dictate it. I mean, anytime we’re we’re wrestling with the idea of fear. What we’re wrestling with is the sufficiency of Christ in our life. And can I tell you, anytime we’re wrestling with pride, we’re wrestling with the sufficiency of Christ in our life. It’s it’s the same issue. It’s just different sides of the coin. And at the center of of either side of that coin is me. Because the focus on both of those things is me. When I’m despairing, when I’m walking in fear, I’m doubting the sufficiency of God, and I’m looking at myself to be sufficient and I’m feeling like I’m lacking. Can God really love me? Can God really forgive me? Can God really be enough of me? That is a whole lot of you. Same thing with pride. I’ve messed up. I’ve done something wrong. I’ve made a stupid mistake. But don’t worry. I’m going to impress you now and again.
That’s a whole lot of me. Can I can I tell you the biblical antidote of all of that is to die to self? I mean, that’s what the apostle Paul told us in Galatians chapter two, verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, it’s not I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And the life that I live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. It’s the identity of the believer that the antidote to the enemy is not try harder. It’s not despair. It’s not walk in fear. It’s surrender yourself to the greatness of a God that can stop looking at you and start looking at him? It’s humility and trust. That’s the answer. And in fact, in Proverbs, the Bible tells us I’m going to find it in here in my notes. Proverbs chapter 29, verse 25, the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. And what it’s communicating to us is, is Jesus is enough. But until we see him as that ultimate prize, we’ll never discover the freedom that we were intended to to find in Christ. We’ll read about stories of the beast, and if we’re not lured by it in pride to make idols, we’ll walk in it in fear, because we’re worried about what other people will think. And in either case, the answer is to look beyond yourself at the greatness of who God is and to realize as people, we all have weakness.
That’s point number two. I should probably get back to that. We all have weakness, right? And so I need godly community to continue to remind me of the significance of Jesus so that I can put things into perspective, because the things that God made in this world are certainly good, but they’re not an end of themselves. They’re intended to point to a greater hope, the giver of all good things. And so recognize deception, right? Acknowledge your your weakness. And it says here in this, this verse, verse eight, it told us, it told us this phrase twice, but at the very end of this verse, because it was and is not and is to come, and it carries this idea. I think there’s a couple of things happening here. One is in the first century there was a leader named Nero. He was emperor. He was a persecutor of Christians. He was a terrible individual to he was a terrible individual in general. Killed his own mom at one point. But he he he was also terrible, especially to Christians persecuting them. And he there was a moment in history he died. He. And when he died, there came this legend out of Nero, his story that people began to say, well, maybe he didn’t die, and maybe he’s actually going to come back, or maybe he’s going to be resurrected and returned.
There was this legend that developed over Nero, and people were worried that that he was going to return. But even if Nero himself didn’t return, the people knew that one like Nero would. And so for us, there’s this understanding of, look, just because you think you’ve mastered something in your life doesn’t mean that temptation won’t return. That we are susceptible as people to always be lured by this dragon and woman who rides it. What she represents. And so community becomes essential for us and all of that. So that point number three, we can do this, choose wisdom and live for what lasts. Choose wisdom and live for what lasts. You know, in a spiritual sense when you get to the top of the mountain, I really want there to be something there for all of us. But it’s certainly not going to be the things of this world. And the things that will count for eternity are the things that belong to the Lord. That’s one of the most beautiful things I think about doing ministry here in Utah. And we get to build the first freeze. Well, we didn’t build it from scratch. We got to have the first freestanding church in, in in Lehi from a biblical Bible teaching church and biblical Christianity. I think what an important place to be. What an important opportunity to to be a part of this and, and and to participate in a way that we get to leave a legacy that endures us.
And that’s incredible. Lives can be transformed for eternity long after we’re gone. If God’s people would just remain faithful and and for us, it’s it’s this idea of choosing wisdom. And and John says it like this. This calls for a mind with wisdom. The idea of wisdom for us, we got to understand, ultimately comes from the Lord. Jesus himself is the wisdom that we seek. And in fact, in in first Corinthians chapter one, verse 30, it says, Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So he’s saying, look, if you want to find wisdom, look to Jesus, because he’s your righteousness, your sanctification, your redemption. He’s he’s what puts you in the place of righteousness before God on the right path, being set apart for the Lord, being redeemed from the brokenness of life. It’s Christ alone. Who is that place of wisdom for all of us? He is that that prize. And so John is reminding this. This calls for a mind of wisdom, knowing that there’s deception in this world. And wisdom is more than just simply knowing what’s true, but learning how to appropriately live it out in a broken world. James one five says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives it to us liberally. You know, I think what’s important to understand with James one five is some people have a misunderstanding of what James is saying.
Some people think that when you read James one five, James is telling the Christians, if you don’t know what’s true, pray and ask God what’s true. The problem with that is James never uses the word truth. He says wisdom. If any of you lack wisdom. If you read the book of James, you find out that Christians in that story are being persecuted. And and they’re not arguing over what’s true. They already know what’s true. What they’re asking is, God, how do we take the truth you’ve given us and learn how to apply it in the life around us, because things right now seem hard. And so they’re saying, if you lack wisdom, ask God. Seek God. God’s desire is to impart his wisdom to you so that you can learn to honor him in anything that you’re doing in life. And this is what we’re reminded of in Revelation chapter 17, verse verse nine. This, this calls for a mind of, of wisdom, not just truth, but but, but truth being lived out. Proverbs 910 says it like this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It’s not being afraid of God, but really having this true reverence of who God is, understanding the weight of his glory, his worth, his value over and above anything else. Matthew seven verse 24.
Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who builds his house on the rocks. He goes on and explains to us in verse 9 to 13, we’re not going to have time to read this, but but the images that he talks about, what they all represent, so that in verse 14 he goes on and says this, they will make war on the lamb, and look at this, 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. He’s reminding us that even when things get hard, don’t forget who has the ultimate victory. Don’t lose sight from where true wisdom comes. In fact, this isn’t on your screen. But if you were to read further in Revelation verse 15, he goes on and says, and the angel said to me, the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated are peoples and multitudes, and nations and languages. 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 her flesh and burn her up with fire. And verse 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.
Let me just say these last couple of verses here. Verse 16 and 17 is saying this. Verse 16 is saying, as this beast has built this system and people have given themselves over to it, eventually they all turn on themselves. They turn on one another and devour one another. Because the way that system is set up is just self-made pleasure. And when you realize the things you’ve been pursuing for your own glory aren’t satisfied, you. You turn and blame others. Everyone’s just living in their emotion and and they’re pointing the finger at each other as to who’s to blame. And they just destroy each other. That’s that’s the demise of that world system. Living for your self-made glory and making idols out of things in this world God never intended. But then it reminds you in verse 17, For God has put into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast. What it’s reminding us of here, in the end, is the sovereignty of God in all things that he is in control, even when the world may not feel like it, that he is in control, and he will use his authority to produce the end that he desires. So that when we come to a moment where we might be fearful and think about trusting in that fear, we turn to the one who is the true wisdom, who will bring about the desired ending that he he seeks to accomplish.
As we’ll see here at the end of Revelation, when we get to it. But learning to praise God is the source for all of us. And if I close with this idea, this this is an image of the great philosopher Socrates. And there’s a story of Socrates, where a young man came to him once and said, Socrates, I want you to teach me your wisdom. And immediately, without responding, Socrates started to walk out of the city, and the young man began to follow him. And Socrates went to the countryside, and off to the side of the to the, the seashore, and this young man continued to follow him without saying a word and without stopping. Socrates just continued into the water, and finally, when he got about waist deep, he finally stopped, and he turned back to the young man who was still with him and said, now what do you want? And the young man said, I want wisdom, give me wisdom. And so Socrates grabbed the young man, and he just threw him underwater, and he held him under for about 15 seconds. And finally he let the young man up and he said, okay, what do you want? And the young man said, I want wisdom. And Socrates grabs the young man again, and he throws him under the water, and he holds him there for about 30s and he lets him back up and he says, tell me again, what is it you want? And the young man says, give me wisdom, Socrates, I want wisdom.
And finally Socrates took him, and he threw him under the water, and he held him under the water for over a minute. So that young man started to panic. And and finally Socrates let him up and he said, okay, what do you want? And the young man said, air, I just need air. And Socrates looked at him and said, when you long for wisdom, the way you long for that air. You’ll find the wisdom you seek. And guys, can I tell you in a in a more biblical sense, when you see Jesus as that true prize, you’ll discover the path, the life that you need in him. The things of this world are good, but they are never intended to take the place of God, but rather to be viewed in light of the greatness of who he is. And it’s not until we’re willing to pull back the blinders of our own eyes and deception, to acknowledge our weakness and giving over to those things, and truly seek the wisdom that is only from the Lord that we’re able to discover it. But when we’re willing, we get to walk in the newness of life.