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The Path of Destruction
Revelation 17:7-18
November 22, 2020
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
The sermon starts around 20:20 in the audio file.
Or, Love to Hate and Raised to Fall
Series: Just Conquer Part 46
Introduction
It has been observed that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and getting the same result, but expecting a different one. Because of sin, there are more insane people than polite people want to acknowledge. To be insane means to be in a state of mind which prevents normal perception and behavior. Our English word comes from insanus, which is the idea of not being sanus, so not healthy. While we know that man’s depravity means he is spiritually dead and incapable of seeing the truth on his own, one of the symptoms is a mental sickness that believes in the dark. It’s “normal” only in the sense that he’s not by himself in his perceptions of reality.
The last days will be marked by a society of unrestrained delusion. There will be great, global agreement on impossible things, at least until the hour when agreement self-destructs. This is the insane part, because the agreement was on destruction, so it was only a matter of time before it imploded. A society cannot survive if it is built on idolizing a liar and living in deception. Only those who can’t be insane won’t be, and the only ones who can’t are called by the Spirit and chosen by the Father and faithful to the Lamb.
The burden of Revelation 17 is to show the path of destruction, to show what has been determined for those who deceive and are deceived. They love to hate, their “love” turns to hate, and it is insane to think that it was ever going to turn out differently. They have a mind for war, a shared mind set for destruction, and those who are raised up in such an irrational system are destined to fall.
As believers, we are not just being given information about the future world insanity and the sorts of persecution that believers will face, we are being given a different mindset, we are being given a share in the conquering King, and we are being given confidence in God’s Word. All of His words will be fulfilled, and it can’t be any other way. It is the definition of insanity to deny His sovereignty, let alone to make war against the Lamb.
We have been considering John’s visions of the Great Tribulation for a number of chapters. What we have seen unveiled with the apostle are not things that have happened yet, they are not things that are currently on stage either. That said, we are not luny to think that they are immanent. We are not mentally unfit, or unhinged because we think they could happen at any moment, because John himself wrote that they would happen soon, as did many other NT writers. When we see insanity in our own day, we are seeing the same path of destruction. Our heightened awareness of the two paths, one of conquering and the other of being conquered, only helps us be faithful.
Revelation 17 began with a vision of a “great prostitute,” who represents a system of spheres which seduce men with the promise of prosperity and pleasure. The woman works with the beast, the Antichrist, until he turns on her, which anyone who knows anything about beasts could have told her would happen.
John introduced the prostitute and identified some of her behavior in verses 1-6, and in verses 7-18 he is given an angelic interpretation of what it all means. Five times we’ll read “that you saw” (verses 8, 12, 15, 16, 18) as the angel provides divine commentary.
Raised to Fall (verses 7-14)
John’s response to the vision begins halfway through our verse 6: “When I saw her, I marveled greatly.” We might compare this to the first time Digory saw Queen Jadis, or what Ahab thought about Jezebel: Wow, and Yikes! There was an overwhelming sense of pomp (she “was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with [...]
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By Trinity Evangel ChurchRevelation 17:7-18
November 22, 2020
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
The sermon starts around 20:20 in the audio file.
Or, Love to Hate and Raised to Fall
Series: Just Conquer Part 46
Introduction
It has been observed that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and getting the same result, but expecting a different one. Because of sin, there are more insane people than polite people want to acknowledge. To be insane means to be in a state of mind which prevents normal perception and behavior. Our English word comes from insanus, which is the idea of not being sanus, so not healthy. While we know that man’s depravity means he is spiritually dead and incapable of seeing the truth on his own, one of the symptoms is a mental sickness that believes in the dark. It’s “normal” only in the sense that he’s not by himself in his perceptions of reality.
The last days will be marked by a society of unrestrained delusion. There will be great, global agreement on impossible things, at least until the hour when agreement self-destructs. This is the insane part, because the agreement was on destruction, so it was only a matter of time before it imploded. A society cannot survive if it is built on idolizing a liar and living in deception. Only those who can’t be insane won’t be, and the only ones who can’t are called by the Spirit and chosen by the Father and faithful to the Lamb.
The burden of Revelation 17 is to show the path of destruction, to show what has been determined for those who deceive and are deceived. They love to hate, their “love” turns to hate, and it is insane to think that it was ever going to turn out differently. They have a mind for war, a shared mind set for destruction, and those who are raised up in such an irrational system are destined to fall.
As believers, we are not just being given information about the future world insanity and the sorts of persecution that believers will face, we are being given a different mindset, we are being given a share in the conquering King, and we are being given confidence in God’s Word. All of His words will be fulfilled, and it can’t be any other way. It is the definition of insanity to deny His sovereignty, let alone to make war against the Lamb.
We have been considering John’s visions of the Great Tribulation for a number of chapters. What we have seen unveiled with the apostle are not things that have happened yet, they are not things that are currently on stage either. That said, we are not luny to think that they are immanent. We are not mentally unfit, or unhinged because we think they could happen at any moment, because John himself wrote that they would happen soon, as did many other NT writers. When we see insanity in our own day, we are seeing the same path of destruction. Our heightened awareness of the two paths, one of conquering and the other of being conquered, only helps us be faithful.
Revelation 17 began with a vision of a “great prostitute,” who represents a system of spheres which seduce men with the promise of prosperity and pleasure. The woman works with the beast, the Antichrist, until he turns on her, which anyone who knows anything about beasts could have told her would happen.
John introduced the prostitute and identified some of her behavior in verses 1-6, and in verses 7-18 he is given an angelic interpretation of what it all means. Five times we’ll read “that you saw” (verses 8, 12, 15, 16, 18) as the angel provides divine commentary.
Raised to Fall (verses 7-14)
John’s response to the vision begins halfway through our verse 6: “When I saw her, I marveled greatly.” We might compare this to the first time Digory saw Queen Jadis, or what Ahab thought about Jezebel: Wow, and Yikes! There was an overwhelming sense of pomp (she “was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with [...]