His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt speaks of a one-world religion that will surface in the last days.

Matt VanderVen: There's going to be a disappearance of a spiritual movement, but it's going to lack spiritual authority, morality, and more importantly, Jesus Christ as the headship. Friends, can't you already see the actors in the world religions being aligned for this great falling away already? Humanism is very attractive.

You think about people that come to church, many people, I know this isn't you, it's the church down the street somewhere, but you think about people that come to church and we want to worship our way, right? You ever had that situation where you're like, well, I think it's better for me to do this, and meanwhile, you find out that all of a sudden when you're reading your scripture one day you're like, oh, that's not in the Bible. Why didn't I know that? Well, because I'm not at a church that teaches the Bible.

Guest (Male): If I was to ask you to call out by name all the different religions of the world, I'm sure it'd be hard-pressed to think of even a fraction of them. That's because there are thousands. But as we'll learn today on His Perfect Love, Christianity stands apart from all the rest. And actually, there will be an end to false religion.

That's predicted in Revelation 17, and that's where we're headed on His Perfect Love. Here is Pastor Matt VanderVen to tell us about the Mystery Babylon, a false religion that will dominate the world at that time.

Matt VanderVen: We move from Chapter 16 and we left on to this point of where we were coming into Babylon. I covered verse one in Chapter 17 last week in a little bit more detail, but Chapters 17 and 18 in Revelation are a deep dive into Babylon. What ultimately will be the one-world spiritual idolatry. We call it sometimes in vernacular a one-world religion. Babylon, the Mystery Babylon, the one-world religion. We use that term, but really God throughout the whole scriptures, Old Testament, New Testament, even the Book of Isaiah where we've been midweek, it's the idea of more of spiritual idolatry if He was to use those terms.

And that's what we're going to continue to read about here because He's describing the spiritual fornication that would tie back to what we understand in the prophets of old with Isaiah, Jeremiah, some of the major and the minor prophets. So I'd like to just read through this here this morning. I'll pray and then we'll go line by line and verse by verse.

Then one of the seven angels, this is Chapter 17, verse 1 in Revelation. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me saying, "Come, and 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." Now I'll explain that, I know that can be a little bit confusing in that kind of vernacular.

So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast who was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.

I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. But the angel said to me, "Why do you marvel? I will 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, and will ascend out of a 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.

"Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. Then the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.

"These are of one mind, they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful." Then he said to me, "The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

"For God has 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 whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth."

Going back to verse one here, very clearly it says, "Then one of the seven angels," and this is right after a very severe judgment. Do you remember that? The hailstones that were going to fall that were going to range somewhere between 75 and 120 pounds. That's one talent. I mean, that's unlike anything we've ever seen. I mean, that's effectively like a dog falling out from the sky. We've heard the idiom "it's raining cats and dogs." None of us has actually seen it rain literal cats and dogs, or the weight of something that's 70 to 120 pounds fall on somebody.

This is going to be so catastrophic, people, human beings, in such fear. But yet they will not humble. Instead, what they do is they begin to blaspheme God, mock Jesus, because of a wicked hard heart. And so it's through this last bowl judgment that's poured out that now God said, it is complete. Ginomaí, the Greek word for scripture. Ginomaí, it is complete, just like He said teleō or tetelestai when He was at Calvary for the remission of sin. It is complete. Sins past, present, and future forgiven, separated as far as the east is from the west.

He now uses ginomaí to communicate to us the judgment, the final judgment has been levied and poured out and the last of it is to be given and to destroy all wickedness from this earth. And that what will come from this point is a thousand-year Millennial Reign that will come very shortly right after as we're reading.

So he says that then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls come and talk with me, came to John. So John's focus is now on this angel and he's coming to him and he's looking at him. And he says, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters." Maybe we're reading that for the first time, maybe there's some confusion here, but this woman really pictures a false religion that's going to dominate the world in the tribulation period.

Many people like to identify the great harlot with the Roman Catholic Church or a denomination, but I don't believe anywhere in scripture do we see—I'm not saying it can't be through one individual denomination—but I don't read anywhere in the scriptures, and I encourage you to be Bereans as we read, there's not one particular place that says it's one denomination, one movement, one people group. No, it's an idea here that this false religion is not limited to any one church.

That's really important because I think in the last days that we're living, people are already gearing towards looking to a certain group, a certain denomination, oh, we're the remnant, they're not. We have no idea. Only God can judge the hearts here. We need to be careful of that. But I know as taught throughout human history, many even going back early in the church would say, oh, it's the Roman Church, it's the Roman Catholic Church. It may be. It truly may be. But we just don't know. It doesn't say the Roman Catholicos.

Catholicos is the Greek word for Catholic. Catholicos lowercase was the first word that we see for the universal church. It was actually the first non-denominational church. When they put Roman and capitalized it, now you're talking about this entity. Look at verse two with me. So he's describing this woman, the pictures of false religions going to dominate the world. So he says, "I'm going to show you the judgment of the harlot that rides on the many waters. I'm going to show you the judgment that's coming to an apostate world religion that in one way is going to unite the whole world in compromise."

Which means, let me just say it plainly for you. Acts Chapter 2, verse 42 said what the church was to do. What every single church was to do, and it was defined by the apostles who were the founders through Jesus Christ that laid the foundation for the church. They were to be in the apostles' doctrine. Paul actually warns, Pastor Paul in Galatians, "Don't go towards a false doctrine or," we would use the term today more accurately in the Greek, "an alternate doctrine."

What does that mean if you're standing or sitting here this morning? He's talking about staying directly in the scriptures and not adding anything to the scriptures or taking anything away from the scriptures. And just so we don't get callous or say that can't happen, I mean, we're biblically minded here, we go line by line, book by book in this church, that could never happen. It happened in the church of Galatia after Paul pastored that church. Granted, not a very long time, but nonetheless, it happened just 40 years or so, some suggest even sooner, 30 to 35 years after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven.

He says, "How so soon?" or "How quickly are you willing?" As a matter of fact, just take your finger here, turn to the Book of Galatians. Look at Galatians Chapter 1, please. Look at verse six with me here this morning. If you get to Corinthians, you've gone too far. Galatians Chapter 1, look at verse six. Paul, when he's speaking to one of the first churches he had planted, Galatia, as we know is one of the first churches Paul planted. He comes to these men and the pastors, the people he had basically elders, overseers, pastors, and the flock.

And he says, "Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia." So that means not just a single church, but all the church plants that even had come out of that church. "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

Then verse six, this is really what I want to draw your attention to this morning. "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him." Who's him? Jesus. "Who called you in the grace of Christ, to a," and please underline it in your Bible, "different gospel." That's like saying an alternate gospel. How quickly, what was he really saying in context? Let's be clear. He's talking to the Judaizers, those that were bringing legalism, those that would follow behind Pastor Paul and say, "Hey, you know what, Paul? You're wrong. They need to be circumcised, they need to keep the Jewish law, they need to do all of these things."

And Paul was clearly preaching a gospel that Christ had given him and saying, "Not so." And we know even in Acts Chapter 15 and 16, they'd already gone to the Jerusalem Council. The Holy Spirit spoke and everybody's out, this is great. Let's not eat anything given, no sexual immorality, nothing eaten that was blood and the whole thing. And he says, "These things seem good to us." The other things, these ceremonial practices and laws, that's not for you. That's not for you, born-again believer. You're not under the law.

Why would you not take the grace of Christ? It wasn't the law that could save you. It wasn't your behavior that could save you. Why so soon would you turn and go back to the thing that couldn't save you like the law and ceremonial practice, religion? Why wouldn't you keep in the grace of Christ which is the gospel that we were given, a gift that we could never earn or work to earn? The gift that was given to us through Jesus Christ. It's called salvation. And everybody is invited, everyone, regardless of what you're struggling with right now, regardless of your sin, regardless of what you've been through.

There's not a sin you've committed that Jesus Christ's love and His work on Calvary is not bigger than the sin you could have ever committed in your life, and I could even say plural, sins. When there's a turning of heart, that metanoia, that repentance, that turning away, that's what we're talking of. And so he says don't fall for this other doctrine, this doctrine of moving away from Christ, but going into something that you work and you feel like you feel better because it's got more of you in it. But because it has more of you in it, it also has less of Jesus Christ and His fingerprints and His aroma.

That's heavy. That's heavy, that well-meaning Christians that love Jesus can actually find themselves deceived and off onto a trail of rituals, traditions, and all of these other man-made things that we think in some ways draw us closer. Look what happened right in the first and second century, asceticism. Some of you know, maybe you've gone to seminary or church history. You know what asceticism is. They threw themselves in fires. Some people punctured and literally tried to replicate pain and suffering that Jesus had because they thought somehow it drew them closer to Jesus.

What are we doing? No. You can turn back to Revelation. So this great deception that's coming, He's making it clear. He says, "Why?" He says, "Look, this doesn't need to be." And as a matter of fact, avoid it because there's judgment that's coming to the worldwide religion. Not the relationship with Jesus, but the worldwide religion. "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on the many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication," talking about spiritual fornication here, "and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication."

Intoxicated by power, we've known that world religions have used power, have they not? We've seen it. You can go back through church history. You can look at men and that's why really, I was just talking with somebody yesterday and I said, "You know, really, I am so ready for Jesus' theocracy." I don't want a joining of church and state. So many people say, "Oh, that would be awesome if we had church and state." Really? Study history. Look what happens when man is given that kind of ultimate power of church and state, thinking that he's standing in the place of Jesus Christ.

There's even some Catholic tradition and teaching that says the Pope does that. That's not biblical. He's a fallible man. Only Jesus is infallible. And to trust somebody with that power, what are they going to do but corrupt? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But Jesus Christ, He is without sin. He is righteous. He is the head of the church. He's the pastor, chief priest of the church. When Jesus comes and establishes that thousand-year Millennial Reign, you can be certain because we're going to come back with Him, Revelation 19, after the wedding feast of the Lamb.

We're going to come back with Him. You can be certain He is going to reign with a rod of iron. Don't mistake that. He's a conquering king. There will not be wickedness tolerated on the earth at that point. But He will also come and He will bring a righteous judgment without being a respecter of persons. The thing that you and I have always wanted our whole life, really, when we think about it, even when we were little kids and we didn't understand how to articulate it. We used to say, "That's not fair." And somebody told us, "Well, do you really want fair? What is fair?"

How about truth? I just want truth and righteousness. How many of you think truth is in high demand today? He is going to come with truth, righteousness, the fullness of love, and there will be no more wickedness. We're going to see a thousand years of what it looks like not to have a corrupt individual leading or a corrupt government. What is that going to be like on the earth, all around the world for a thousand years? Because the enemy will be suppressed until another final battle and then ultimately in Lake of Fire and then we'll spend rest of eternity like that. Amen. New heavens and new earth.

So it's very clear here, He says that there's kings of the earth that committed this fornication and inhabitants of the earth that were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So clearly we're supposed to understand and see here that the inhabitants of the earth, those that were living, I'm talking about presidents, leaders, dictators, you want to name it, throughout the different nations and their governance structures, they're made drunk. Religious Babylon intoxicate kings, peoples.

Faith is only as good as whom you place your faith in. False teaching and religious systems are empty and void. There's really room for only one spiritual relationship, and the Bible teaches that needs to be with Jesus Christ. Why are they made drunk? With this wine of her fornication. The idea of fornication has such a strong association throughout the Bible in our Old Testament with that spiritual idolatry. The idea here is that the alliance with the beast, the Antichrist, the alliance with the false prophet, what I call the unholy trinity.

The alliance with the dragon, Satan, who is the one that gives the Antichrist his power. And then certainly the false prophet who allows the miracles and things to be done. False miracles in that regard, they're miracles, but they're not inspired by God. They're inspired by an unholy trinity. Satan's a copycat. It impairs judgment. It creates a great delusion, a great delusion. And since this is pretty much well accepted in religious systems, it's likely to appear as attractive and spiritual, though not necessarily moral.

And that's just something to think about, what it's going to be like. I know if you're a born-again believer, you're not going to be here. You're going to be looking down from the mezzanines. But to think about what it's going to be like, that it's going to seem so spiritual to these people that are on the earth that think they're actually walking and going towards a deeper relationship. I think so many of the cults even in our days, maybe that's how we can understand it. I think of things of the Jehovah's Witness or the Mormons or some of these where they appear to be, Satan appears as angel light and that there's these good things that come from these cults.

Until you just talk to somebody who's gone through one of them, and we've had several people in this fellowship that have come out all the way from Philly, come out of those cults, started reading their Bibles for the first time. The abuse, the spiritual abuse that is happened, the brokenness, the lording over the Nicolaitans, the things that have happened. And they come in and pastor, they want to talk with me. We sit down and I literally just start sobbing and crying with them. I don't know what else to do.

I cry with them because these things should never happen. You can't go somewhere, you can't get a blood transfusion, you can't do this, you can't do that. All these things that are not in your scripture, that the Bible doesn't say a single thing about. But I had one young lady, "I was not allowed to go if I wanted to go to the grocery store, I wanted, I had to pick up the phone and call the pastor and ask." I said, "Where is that?"

There's only two things of spiritual authority we see throughout scripture. One is the pastor of the home. That's your husband, ladies, if you're married, or Jesus Christ if you're not. That's the pastor of the home. And the pastor of the church doesn't have the ability to go in the home and oversee that. He is not called to do that. He's called to pastor the church and be the spiritual guider and lay down his life for the bride, draw you into deeper relationship through the understanding of scripture, but never to come into your home and say, "I like chocolate mashed potatoes, you don't, so why are we having this for dinner tonight?"

I mean, you laugh, that happens today. And just think about again in human history all of the evils and wickedness that's been done in the name of Jesus Christ. Now we've got to go that on the other side because there's a lot of that that's happened. And then we have the other side.