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In this chapter, a pretty famous chapter in Revelation 17, we see the Great Whore, as the Bible calls her. And of course there's a lot of symbolism here, but he describes this woman, and I want to show you something interesting that you may not have noticed, or maybe you have. But there's a comparison and a contrast in the Bible here between this Great Whore that's described in chapter 17 and the Bride of Christ, which is described in chapters 19 and 21. Let me show you what I mean. Look at the very beginning of the chapter of 17, it says, And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. Now turn to chapter 21, that's in chapter 17, verse 1, we saw that wording. Watch the exact same wording almost over in chapter 21. It says in verse 9 of chapter 21, And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, full of the seven last plates. That's exactly what it said in Revelation 17, right? It was one of the angels that had the seven vials. And talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. So it's almost identical wording. In chapter 17, one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, talked with them, saying, Come hither, I'll show you the great whore. In chapter 21, same group of angels, one of them, comes and says, Come hither, I'll show thee the lamb's wife, the bride. Okay, go back to chapter 17, we're going to turn between the two and see a few things here. In chapter 17, it says in verse 3, So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Now look at chapter 21, it says in verse 10, He carried me away in the spirit, exact wording, to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Now look, nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental. Obviously, God is trying to show us here a comparison, or rather a contrast, Showing us the difference here between the great whore described in Revelation 17 and the bride of Christ, the lamb's wife, described in Revelation 19 and 21. Let me show you what I'm talking about first of all. Point number one is that these two women here, and obviously there's a lot of symbolism and figurativeness here, These two women here represent two groups of people, okay? Let's look at chapter 21 first to see who is represented by this bride of Christ, the lamb's wife. Jump down, if you would, to verse number 24, okay? Let's read it all just to get the right foundation of the message today. We're going to start in verse 9, And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. So what is he going to show him when he says he's going to show him the bride? When he said, I'm going to show you the lamb's wife. He takes him to a high mountain where he sees the city, the holy Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, okay? Now, and if you look at chapter 21 verse 2, go back to verse 2 for a second. It says, And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride. Do you see that? Adorned for her husband. Let's pick up where we left off. He said in verse 10, he saw the holy city coming down. Verse 11, Having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and at a wall great and high, and at twelve gates. So we're talking about this new Jerusalem, this heavenly city coming down from heaven out of the earth. He said there were twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Let me ask you something. Is this only a New Testament city? Only? Is this New Testament saints only? Only the church age. Because part of the makeup of this city is the names of the children of the twelve tribes of Israel are basically written on the gates of this thing. This is not representative of just the New Testament, and we're going to disprove that in a moment. This whole idea of the bride of Christ being the church. A lot of people say, the church is the bride of Christ. Who's ever heard the church is the bride of Christ? Almost every hand goes up, and yet did you know that is not taught anywhere in the Bible? Show me that in the Bible. And by the way, that should be words that are in your vocabulary. Show me in the Bible. That should be our motto. That should be our mantra. Because you know what? The bride of Christ is only mentioned in Revelation by the time you get to chapter 19. That's the first mention of the bride. It's mentioned in chapter 19, it's mentioned in chapter 21, and that's it. Now there are other places in the New Testament where God figuratively likens our relationship with Christ to the relationship between a man and his wife. There are other places that talk about like where John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the bridegroom. Jesus referred to himself as the bridegroom. But nowhere will you find anywhere that says the church is the bride of Christ. You can't find it. Here we see the bride. It's this heavenly city coming down. And it's got names of the children of Israel on it. Old Testament people. Let's keep reading. It says on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. So there's some New Testament reference there. We've got the twelve tribes representing the Old Testament. We've got the twelve apostles representing the New Testament. Let's keep reading and we'll see who is the bride of Christ, who makes up the bride of Christ. We go on and read and it says in verse number, where did I leave off? Verse number 15. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gate thereof and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed. Twelve thousand furlongs, the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. That's fifteen hundred miles. Okay, so it's a really big city, okay? And so it says here twelve thousand furlongs, the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, one hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, and he begins to list all the stones. I'm going to skip that for the sake of time. But it says in verse 21, and the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And watch verse 24, and the nations of them which are what? The nations. Unless you're reading an ESV, the extremely stupid version, it cuts that out. But hey, the King James Bible here says, hey, the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. Now were people saved in the Old Testament? Absolutely. Were people saved in the New Testament? We're all going to be at that heavenly city if we're saved. So who is this referring to? Who is the bride? It's this group of the saved, right, that are coming down in this city, and I'll prove that from chapter 19 also. It says, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it, and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day. For there shall be no night there, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And watch this, there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. So there's no sin allowed, but thank God our sins have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, our names are in the book of life. If we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, we're saved, and so we'll be there. Go back to chapter 19. Back in chapter 19 of Revelation, we'll go back to an earlier mention about the marriage and the bride and so forth. Because we know that chapter 21 is taking place after the millennium. You know, after the millennial reign of Christ in chapter 20, we see all things new, new heaven, new earth, and that's where that city comes down and resides there, and we saw the streets of gold, the pearly gates, all the things listed. But look in chapter 19, verse number 6, it says, And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come. And his wife hath made herself ready, and to her, to who? His wife, right? And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Right, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. Let me tell you what are not the true sayings of God. Almost every church I've ever been to will try to say, Well, the church is the bride of Christ, and so forth. Look, we already showed in chapter 21 that everyone who's saved is part of the bride of Christ. Old Testament or New Testament even made reference to at least 12 Old Testament saints there. But not only that, not only is it Old and New Testament, but let me ask you something. Is the church the bride of Christ right now when the marriage hasn't happened yet for many years to come? Because look, if you get this chronology here in chapter 19, this is where Jesus is just coming back on a white horse, and he's just beginning to rule and reign. The millennial reign of Christ, Christ's kingdom has not started yet. Okay, first you had the tribulation and the persecution and the antichrist. Then you had the rapture. Then you have God pouring out all his wrath. Well, after the seventh trumpet has been blown, after the seventh vial of God's wrath has been poured out, all that's over with, they say right here, Hey, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. A little bit earlier on when we read about the trumpets, it said, Hey, when the seventh trumpet was blown, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. This is the beginning of Christ's reign. This is where he says, Hey, hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And this is just right where he's just coming on the horse with all the saints clothed in white linen. Those saints are the bride of Christ. And he said the marriage of the lamb is come. That means that it's happening right now. If I said, wow, the day of John's birthday is come, your day is come. Does that mean that he came a long time ago? No, it's saying that he's come right now. Okay, so is it true what the dispensationalists and pre-trib believers teach where they say, Oh, this is what happens. First, at any moment, Jesus come back at any moment. Then he'll catch up the church, his bride, and then there will be a seven year marriage supper of the lamb. Is that what the Bible teaches, a seven year marriage supper of the lamb? Seven years will be the marriage supper of the lamb. Who's heard that before? Again, you know, it's garbage. The marriage supper of the lamb takes place after all that seven years is over, at the very end. He said, now the marriage has come. Now she's made herself ready. She's in white linen, clean and white, the fine linen, the righteousness of the saints. This is where the marriage supper of the lamb is, according to the Bible. And you'll never find it mentioned before chapter 19 in this book. And so that proves that it wasn't at some previous time. And not only that, but the judgment seat of Christ is about to happen too. Because it says in Revelation 11, Hey, the time has come to reward your servants small and great. That's after the seventh trumpet is blown. And so we got to get all this false doctrine out. The marriage supper, the judgment seat of Christ, both take place after the seven years is over, at the beginning of the millennial reign of Christ, according to the Bible. And these are the true sayings of God. And if you believe that the marriage supper is taking place before chapter 19, it just shows you just getting your doctrine from man and not from the Bible. Because you can't show it to me in the Bible. I can show you right in the Bible where it says that the marriage supper is at this time, when Jesus is coming back with the saints on white horses, that white linen represents the righteousness of saints. And so now that we've dealt with that, do we understand who this group of people is, the bride of Christ, who is it? The sage, those who are believers. Now remember, we're comparing and contrasting the great whore of Revelation 17 with the bride of Revelation 19 and 21. Well, it represents two groups of people. Go back to Revelation 17. The group that the bride represents is those who are saved. Old Testament, New Testament, doesn't matter. Just mankind who's been saved is that bride. Well, the group that's represented by the great whore is false religion. Going all the way back to the time of the Old Testament, until now, false religion is represented by the whore. Let's see that in chapter 17. He said, I'll show the great whore. Okay, and look at verse 4. It says, And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore doth thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. And we already read it earlier, so I'm not going to read the whole thing for sake of time. But jump down, if you would, to verse number 9. Here's a little hint of who we're talking about. Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. Let's jump down to verse 18. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. So we have the bride of Christ representing the group of people that are what? The saints, believers of all generations, the saints. Then we have this other group representing false religion. Babylon is what it's called. Mystery Babylon. The group that has persecuted God's people, been drunken with the blood of the saints, the one that's all decked in gold and silver press stones. And let me tell you something. The reason it's called Babylon is because this goes back to the Tower of Babel. That's where it really started. You could even say it started before that. But really that's the place where we really see it take shape in the Bible. Now, a lot of people have preached, including myself, that this is talking about the Roman Catholic Church. And the Roman Catholic Church is definitely included in this. Because when he talks about the city that's setting upon seven hills, that's Rome. Even when I was in public school, I just had a secular textbook. The chapter on Rome was called Rome, the City on Seven Hills. And Rome is, of course, the hub and the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. And that is what this is talking about. Because we see so many things here. Drunken with the blood of the saints and with the martyrs of Jesus. Of course, the Catholic Church executed literally millions of people throughout the Inquisition, throughout the Dark Ages. When they ruled over Europe, there were all kinds of people being put to death for their faith. And a lot of people in school today, a lot of children in school today are not even learning about this anymore. It's like it didn't exist or something that they killed like 50 million people. And, you know, if you study the history, it'll send chills. I mean, where do you think the rack came from and all these torture implements? It came from the Roman Catholic Church's reign of terror and the 200-year-long Spanish Inquisition, where they were executing people, many of them who were saved, many were Baptists. Others were just people like William Tyndale, Johan Gutenberg, just trying to translate the Bible. I mean, the guy who's working on inventing the printing press gets burned at the stake by the Catholics because they wanted to keep people in darkness. They put all kinds of people to death. The Roman Catholic Church has truly been drunken with the blood of the saints and with the martyrs of Jesus. They truly are decked with gold and silver and precious stones and pearls. They truly do have the most ornate and fancy palaces and all the gold. They truly are robed in the scarlet and purple colors and they are full of names of blasphemy. Like how about calling the priest's father, calling the pope the father? When the Bible says they're called, no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father, which is heaven, the blasphemy of saying that the pope is the holy father and the priest is the father and that they can forgive sin. Hey, no one can forgive sin but God only. And so we see here all the similarities, but it even goes back further than the Catholic Church because the Catholic Church is nothing new. The Catholic Church was just a refurbishing of the devil's false religion going all the way back to Babylon, which is all the way back before that, to Babel. Babel became Babylon. And go back to Genesis 10, let's go see where that came from. So in Revelation 17 we saw a city that reigned over the kings of the earth. The Roman Catholic Church, based in Rome on the city of seven hills, filled with blasphemy, decked with all these gold and scarlet and purple and fine attire and so forth. Look if you would at Genesis 10, let's go back and understand this Babylon, this mystery Babylon. Because I agree one hundred percent, amen, that Revelation 17 is talking about the Catholic Church. Amen. But I think what some people miss is that they might think it's only talking about the Catholic Church. It's really talking about a whole system. It's talking about a mystery Babylon religion that goes way back to the Tower of Babel and manifests itself in the Catholic Church, but is manifesting itself today in other forms that we need to be able to identify, not just the Catholic Church itself. Because you see the Catholic Church there, Babylon is referred to the mother of harlots. So there's the great whore, but she's the mother of harlots. She has all these other little harlots that have sprung off from her. Let me show you what I'm talking about. In Genesis 10 here, or Genesis 11 rather, we see the Tower of Babel. It says in verse 1, And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one and they have all one language. Now today's mind would say, Oh, that sounds great. Yeah, the people's one, they have one language. It's all united. But this is not God's plan. God divided in chapter 10 into different nations. And so he said here, Hey, they're all one and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down. And they're confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth. And they left off to build the city, therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth. And from thence did the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Now what I want to show you here about the Tower of Babel is a couple of things. Number one, they had all joined together when they were supposed to be in separate nations and they built one city. Okay. Number two, they're trying to build a tower to reach unto heaven. Now, can you build a tower physically that's going to get you to heaven, like where God lives? No. And you say, Well, that's stupid. That's silly. You know, they think they're going to build a tower to heaven. But you know what? It's no more stupid than you thinking that you're going to work your way to heaven. And that's what a lot of people today think. A lot of religions think that they're working their way to heaven. You know, like their good deeds and their good works are somehow going to earn them the right to get to heaven. And you know what? You'd be better off trying to build a physical tower to get there, or a spaceship or whatever, you know, than to try to get there on your own good works, because your good works are not going to get you to heaven. So the symbolism here is, number one, they had a one-world government. Right? They're all joined together in this city. Nimrod began to be a mighty man in the earth, and they're all joined together at the Tower of Babel. They're building a city. That's their government. And then they're building this tower to reach to heaven. It's false religion. Now, what are the two things that are paramount with this false religion? Number one, it's a universal religion. Do you see that? It's the whole world all joined together in one religion. Number two, they're trying to work their own way to heaven, or build their own way to heaven, or get to heaven through works. That is the Catholic Church. The word Catholic, look it up in the dictionary, the word Catholic means universal. That's what it means. That's why it's called the Catholic Church, because they believe in having one church for the whole world, and that's why they call it the Catholic Church. It means universal. Well, not only that, but they believe in working their way to heaven, doing works, earning their way to heaven. These two things are this Babylon religion. All the way back in Genesis 10, we see it throughout the Old Testament in all different forms. And then today, and really since 313 A.D., if you want to put a date on it, we see the Roman Catholic Church exhibit these two things, universalist religion and works salvation religion. And we see it as it comes to us today, but today there are other denominations and religions out there who believe the same thing as the Catholics in these two areas. They believe in the universal invisible church. Your typical neo-evangelical megachurch is going to believe in the universal church. We're all part of the body of Christ. We're all part of the church. No, the church is the congregation. And no, we are not congregated with every believer. One day we will be when we get to heaven, but today there's not one church. There are churches. And it's funny, I was out knocking on doors and I'm knocking on the door of a Catholic and this Catholic said, well, you believe there's more than one church. You know, there's only one church, one true church, the Roman Catholic Church. You believe in all these different churches. There's only one. And I said, okay, well, how do you explain the fact that the word churches is used in the Bible about 84 times? You know, I'm not sure if that's the exact number. It was like 84, 92, somewhere around there. I said, so why did the Bible say churches like 82 times or something? What does that mean? Oh, well, you know, there's only one. Then why is the book of Galatians written to the churches of Galatia if there's only one? You know what I mean? And in fact, I believe that the word churches is used more than the word church in the Bible because there's not just one church. I mean, there are all kinds of churches. And so this idea of one universal church is what the Catholics believe. Well, then the Protestants come along. Martin Luther comes along and says, well, we don't believe in a visible universal church. We believe in an invisible universal, you know. So, but do you notice they both have the same thing in common? They think it's a universal church instead of a local physical church where you come in and sit down and you're with a group of people. That's what a church is. Not a universal church. So go back to Revelation 17 now that we've seen that. So we can see this manifested in a lot of the Protestant religions. We can see this manifested in a lot of your new evangelicals that teach works. And let's face it, the average Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran whose door we knock, there's some angle where they're trying to tie in works with the salvation, right? You were brought up, what, Presbyterian the other day? You know, he didn't hear that it's just all faith and it's all belief. You know, they're tying in works. They're tying in, you know, if you don't do the works, you weren't really chosen or whatever and you've got to have faith plus works or you've got to repent of your sins and whatever. You know, every Presbyterian I've talked to, that's the way Brother Dave was brought up until he got saved as an adult. You know, we've got people in our church who used to be Lutheran. We've got people who used to be Presbyterian. We've had people from all these different denominations, they'll tell you that that's what's taught at these places, works. Basically, this is what it means to be a Protestant, Catholic light. That's all it is, Catholic light, that's all. So, we see that the whore, the harlot, represents a different group, false religion. It represents the Catholic Church or other churches that are spin-offs of the Catholic Church. It represents false religion. The bride of Christ represents those who are truly saved. Now, are we the bride today? Well, not till the wedding, right? I mean, think about it. When would you say the bride is the bride? A month before she's married? No. Would you call that your wife? If you're going to get married in a month, would you say, this is my wife? No. On the wedding day, she's the wife, right? When the marriage has come and no sooner. So, when the marriage of the lamb is come because his wife has made herself ready, that's the day that the church, if you want to call it that, really is just a congregation. It's not really the church because it's, I mean, I guess it's a church in the sense that it's a congregation, okay, but it's a group, you know? All these saved people, okay, at that time will become the bride of Christ, the nations of them which are saved. Okay. So, as we're comparing and contrasting the great whore with the bride of Christ, we see, number one, they represent two groups of people. One represents the saved and one represents those who think they're saved, the false religions of this world who are trying to work their way to heaven with their false religion. But number two, I want you to notice the difference in the clothing of these two different women that we see. When we see the bride of Christ, what is she wearing? Look at Revelation 19. Let's see how the bride of Christ is attired and dressed. It says in verse number seven, Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. And let's see what that is. It says, For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. So, the bride of Christ here is adorned in righteousness. Righteous actions, righteous deeds, okay? The righteousness of saints, that's her clothing. It's represented by fine linen, clean and white. This is why women today, when they get married, wear a white wedding dress. This is what it's pointing to here. It's a picture of the bride of Christ being clothed in pure white linen, which represents righteousness, godliness, purity, goodness, okay? How is the whore arrayed in chapter 17? It says in verse four, The woman was arrayed, this is Revelation 17, 4, The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Turn, if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter number 2. So we see here that one of them is wearing this white dress, because basically it's a woman here representing everything that's right and a woman here representing everything that's wrong. We've got the bride of Christ and we've got the great whore. The bride of Christ represents the saved, the great whore represents the unsaved. The bride of Christ here is wearing flashy clothing? No. I mean, is there any gold or silver precious stones involved here with the actual clothing? No, it's just white, pure linen, which is just represented by the righteousness of saints. Good works, okay? On this side we've got all the gold and silver and pearls and scarlet and purple. You know, nothing wrong with scarlet and purple, they're just fancy colors, right? They're just expensive, nice, fancy colors. And so we see in 1 Timothy the same contrast here talking about women's clothing in general. Paul is preaching about the way women should be dressed. He says in verse 9, In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array. Doesn't that sound pretty much the way that that whore was dressed? And then he says, But which becometh women professing godliness with good works, right? Just like the bride was clothed in the righteousness of saints. Same thing. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3, you'll see the same thing again. To the right in your Bible toward Revelation, look at 1 Peter chapter number 3, and we'll see the same contrast here talking about the way that women should be dressed. It says, Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation, coupled with fear. Verse 3, Let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. So look, what does the world glorify? First of all, the world is going to glorify false religion that will send you to hell. They'll tell you that, Oh, the Catholic Church is wonderful, and the Protestants are wonderful, and all the Joel Osteen's wonderful, and they love Billy Graham and they think he's wonderful. And then they're going to tell you about the real Christians, those who are really safe, that they're mean-spirited, they're a hate group, they're giving everybody a license to sin, and they're teaching easy believism, and they'll call you anything, any bad thing, like they called Jesus, like they called the apostles, before they killed them all. So it's everything that's not glorified by the world. Over here we have the false religion that's glorified by the world. Oh, look at the beautiful steeples, and look at the beautiful windows, and oh, look at the beautiful dress that the Pope is wearing, and his fancy shoes with bells on his toes. And they're going to glorify everything that's wrong here. Well, you know what the world is going to do here, too? When it comes to the clothing of the bride versus the clothing of the whore, they're going to glorify the whore's appearance and the whore's styles in the whore's clothing. Think about it. You've been to weddings before. What was the bride dressed? You know, she dressed in pure white. Was she wearing all kinds of, you know, was she wearing a miniskirt? Was she dressed like a hoochie mama, you know? But that's the way that women today are told to dress. And that's the clothing that's glorified. Everything that's a short skirt, everything that's flashy, that's flamboyant, all the fancy makeup. And, you know, some of the makeup today, I'm sorry, I've got to park it right here for a second. It's unbelievable to me. Some of it, you know, I don't even know what to say. You know, you see these women's faces on advertising? It looks like an insect's face. It doesn't even look human. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? I mean, I looked at this, I saw this advertisement for makeup, and the woman had made herself look like an insect, or she looked like a, if you zoomed in on a grasshopper's face or something. Because they just, they do this weird shadow of the eyes to make their eyes look real big, you know, or like this weird thing coming off the sides, and their whole face is just taped with just like pure foundation. See, there's no skin visible. You know, and then just all this weird makeup, and the real dark black eye makeup, you know what I'm talking about, just the real thick dark lines and the shading, and it's just, it's weird. You know, it doesn't look human. You want to know what, you know, a human being looks the way that women look before they put on makeup, you know, where you can see just a normal skin tone, mouth, nose, eyes, eyes that are the normal size. You know, not this raccoon face. Okay, maybe it's not a grasshopper, okay. It's a zoom in on a raccoon's face. Now, my son wears a coonskin cap, you know, I'm all right with that, but, you know, I don't want my daughters to make their face look like the face of a raccoon or something. You know, and so, but that's that, the flashier the better as far as the world's concerned. You look at the world's fashion shows, and it's bizarre. You know, who's ever seen these fashion shows, where they come down a runway and everything? It's always some weird thing that they're trying to promote. It's not really how people would dress in public. It's just this really weird, ultra flashy, just gold, just to an extreme. That's what the world glorifies and promotes. You know why? Because there's nothing on the inside, that's why. There's nothing inside that airhead. There's nothing inside the heart of that, of that just facade. You know what I mean? And today, women need to understand that what God thinks is of great price is not the fancy clothing. It's not the fancy clothing from the mall. It's not the fancy makeup and makeover. It's not the jewelry and the gold and silver press. God said it's what's on the inside, the hidden man of the heart. He said that is what's valuable. And today, women are not looked upon for the value of what's inside. It's just all about the outside. You know, and that's the difference here between the bride and the whore here. The bride represents goodness on the inside, good works, a meek and quiet spirit, righteousness, godliness, faith. You can't see love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance. They can't be seen with the human eye because they're on the inside. And so today, women don't have any value on the inside. They don't have joy, they don't have love, they don't have peace. And so they have to just paint everything on the outside and just deck the outside with gold, silver, precious stones, gold. God says, hey, if you're a Christian, you don't need that. Your righteousness should shine through. Even if you're just clothed in the most plain garment. I mean, what could be more plain than the color white? You know, white. You know, what could be more plain and simple than to just wear white? And you know what that represents? It's not about the clothing, it's not about the outside. That white, that purity just represents the good works, the righteousness, the life. And today, women need to be more concerned about what's on the inside than what's on the outside. And yet today, ladies will wake up in the morning and spend an hour in front of that mirror. But how much time do they spend in front of this mirror right here? The Bible says God's Word is like a mirror, according to James chapter 1. And yet they'll spend hour upon hour in front of that mirror. And I would challenge you, ladies, to make sure that you're spending the same amount of time in front of this mirror as you spend in front of that vanity mirror. You know, it's called a vanity for a reason. The vanity, because it's empty and worthless to stare into the thing. I can go days on end without looking in the mirror. And I know I'm a man, you know, and you probably knew that from looking at me. But you know, I'm a man, thank God, and I'm not a woman. You know, I guess women need to look in the mirror sometimes, but you know what? This is the mirror they really ought to be looking in. What if everyone, stop and think about this, what if every woman in America took their makeup time tomorrow and just spent it in the Bible? And then did that every day? Can you imagine what a different place we'd be living in? Can you imagine the godliness and righteousness and intelligence and depth it would create in their soul and in their heart of who they are? And yet they're just so busy decorating the outside that they neglect the inside. And that's what everything that this false facade, this phony whore in Revelation 17 represents. And everything that's represented by the bride of Christ is what's real and genuine and on the inside and the truth and godliness and righteous actions. I mean, think about it, it'd be like if I were building a house and I just, man, I made the outside great, I mean, just kept decking it out, brickwork, just fancy murals on the outside and the best roof and everything goes, and the landscaping's great and the driveway and the lighting and just deck it out. And then on the inside it's just a dirt floor. Pipes exposed, exposed conduit, holes in the ceiling, unfinished floor. You know what? Anyone who lived in that house would say, you know what, I wish that the outside looked like the inside. If I could switch it, I'd have the inside decked out, because that's where you're going to spend the time, that's what really matters. And by the way, guys, when you're choosing a future wife, you better know that you're getting what's right on the inside. Don't just look at the outside of that fancy car, you better pop the hood on that thing and see what's really on the inside. You know what I'm saying? Because, you know, oh, a great, nice car, and then you open the hood and the engine's missing. You know what I mean? You know, you look into your girlfriend's ear and just see out the other side, you know? It doesn't matter how good she looks, guys, you know? I love what Brother Sosi said. Chris Sosi, you know, he's probably going to get mad that I'm bringing this up again, because he probably got in trouble the first time, but I love his quote. He was imparting some of his wisdom to a younger man. He said, getting married is like chewing a piece of gum. He said, it's like a piece of chewing gum. He said, when you first put the gum in your mouth, you know, you taste all that flavor and all the juice, but he said, you know what? He said, as you chew that gum, right, you know, you don't taste all that same flavor, but he said, you better be willing to chew that gum for a long time. He said, you're going to be chewing that gum for decades. You better make sure you like that gum. And, you know, you're not going to taste all the little flavor bursts, necessarily, but you know what? Hey, I've been chewing that gum for over ten years. I think it's great, because there's something of value to who my wife is. Because, see, look, yes, my wife is beautiful. Yes, she's extremely beautiful, but listen to me. When you get something new, when you get a new car, it's all about the way that car looks, and you think, oh, man, this car looks great. It might have leather seats. It might have a little P after the model number, you know, for power for the day. You know, you might have a fancy house, a mansion, but you know what? Eventually, you know what you're really going to care about that car? The gas mileage. Does it get you from point A to point B? Is it reliable? Is it easy to change the oil? Is it easy to change the brake pads? And you know what? It might not be as fancy as when you first bought it. It's the functionality that really matters to you. And you know, it's the same way with marriage. When my wife first married me, it was just all because I was a good-looking guy. You know, now I'm just kidding. That's not true. But now she's glad that I go to work and pay the bills and that I provide and that I'm faithful to her. Isn't that the stuff that matters the most? I mean, if I had to choose, and it's easy for me to say because I have both, if I had to choose between a beautiful wife and a wife that fit the criteria of Proverbs 31, you know, what would I be wise enough to choose? You know, if looks are a bonus, you know, if your wife or your husband goes, that's just a bonus, but that's not the meat and potatoes of what's going to make you chew that gum for the rest of your life. Okay, so the bottom line is here, we need to not be sucked in by the world's philosophy, which just emphasizes all the glamour, all the outside. Same thing with religion. You know, do you think people join our church because of the fancy building that we're in? And you know, the same people who say, oh, your church is in a strip mall. So what? Those are the same people that couldn't handle this kind of preaching anyway, so nuts to them. It's the same people who say, oh, you know, your church is in a strip mall. They're the same people who complained when our church was in a house where we first started. And it's funny, when we switched from the house to the strip mall, a bunch of people showed up who hadn't been in a while. Oh, wow, you're in a building. They still didn't like the preaching because it's not about the building. And you know, I've been to some churches that have a palace of a building, but you know what's interesting about that? When you first walk in, you're impressed. Wow, this is so nice. But you know, after a few weeks, it's just a building. I mean, when you first walk in that back door, it's impressive. Whoa, wow. But after you've been there for a couple of weeks, it will just be a building and you'll start thinking about what is this preaching like? Is this the preaching I want to hear? You know, I'd rather be in a building. And you know, we got all kinds of fancy artwork and everything. I mean, just look at this. But if we were in if we were just in an ugly, dirty where I'd rather be in the ugliest, dirtiest warehouse sitting on a metal folding chair or sitting Indian style in the dirt listening to real preaching, then some boring phony facade in some fancy, you know, dolled out building. It's what's on the inside that counts. Guess what? It's the same thing with your marriage. Guess what? It's the same thing as a human being. You know, and we men, hopefully we're not even worrying about our parents anyway trying to be all these pretty boys like we see today. But that's why I'm mainly preaching to the ladies. That's why God is mainly preaching to the ladies about not worrying more about the outside. You know, you're spending all this money on all this jewelry and clothing. You know, you can polish it up all you want. But you know what? What's the value of what's inside? You can make that car look great. You can cover that car with chrome and paint it up. But you know, if that car doesn't run, if that car is a gas guzzler, you know, I don't want to drive it. You know, I'd rather drive my Hyundai Sonata that's in the parking lot that is tied together with zip ties in the front. Yes, that's my car with the zip ties holding it together. You know, the crack is in the windshield. The left back window does not roll down. The visor has been ripped off in the front. But you know what? That car gets 29 miles to the gallon. It's got 170,000 miles on it and has never had a problem. Just basic, all I've done is just basic maintenance. Just changed the oil change, the brake pads like once or something, you know, twice, actually twice. Just changed them a second time. You know, that's a great car. And I, you know, it may not look all fancy, but you know what? That's a valuable, nice car that does the job. You know, and this message has been brought to you in part by a Hyundai Sonata. And so that's why I had to put that in there for our sponsor. No, I'm just kidding. Not make God's house a house of merchandise. But anyway, let's hurry up and finish here. So we see a pretty big difference, right, between the great whore and the bride. The bride is everything that's real. The whore is everything that's a facade, both religiously and physically. And so ladies, I'll challenge you. Work on the inside. Read your Bible every morning. Skip the makeup and do the Bible makeover. But not only that, we just see a huge difference in the lifestyle that's presented by these two, okay? Look at the lifestyle in Revelation 17 that's promoted. Revelation chapter 17, and let's look at verse number 4 where it talked about being decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. Look at the latter part of the verse. Having a golden cup in her hand full of abomination and filthiness of her fornication. And then it says in verse 6, and I saw the woman what? Drunken. With the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. We see the obvious parallel. I mean, even if I just give you the two words, whore and bride, what's the colossal difference? You know, one of them is married and one of them is not. One of them, I mean, hey, they're both basically participating in the same action in the bedroom. But the difference is that one of them is godly and righteous and married. And the Bible says this, marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled. But whoremongers, notice the first five letters of that word, whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. He said within marriage it's undefiled, it's pure, it's a blessing. The act of the bedroom there that the wife is taking part of, the bride. But when it comes to the whore, it's the same act except it's vital. The Bible calls it filthy here because she has a golden cup and a hand full of the filthiness of her fornication. The unsanitary, dirty, filthy lifestyle of those who are going to bed with one person after another outside of marriage. That's what he's describing here, a huge difference in the lifestyle. And we as Christians ought to live a life that is represented by the bride here. We ought to live a godly, clean, righteous life. We ought to have the righteousness of saints as the Bible said. Are we perfect? No. Are we sinners? Yes. But we ought to strive to live for the standard of God's word, not the world's standard of being a whore. And today, being a whore in America is just normal. You know, maybe you're not a prostitute on the street, but basically the lifestyle of a whore. Just sleeping around, just fornicating, and that's what the Bible says about fornicating. He says it's a filthy lifestyle. And you know, God help us today if the teens that are listening to me right now under the sound of my voice would grow up today and become either a whore monger or a whore. Would to God they would be able to stand one day on the wedding altar and be pure, like that pure and white linen that's supposed to be represented in that wedding garment, that's supposed to be represented in that bridal dress, that's supposed to be represented there, that there's purity there, that there's righteousness there, there's godliness there. And we ought to strive to preach and to teach our young people to be pure and to be godly and clean when they go to that wedding altar, that they can go there pure. Now many have already made the mistakes, many adults I'm preaching to. You know, unfortunately even some teens today have already made mistakes like this. But you know what? You need to decide, young people I'm talking to that have not yet made these mistakes, young person today, to keep yourself pure. You know what? Go ahead, follow the crowd. Be like everybody. Is that what you want to be? Like everybody else? Just out there, dirty, filthy? Someday you'll regret that lifestyle. And the pressures are there, teens. Kids that are listening to me that are going to get to that age at some point, the pressures are out there at school, the pressures are there among friends, and there's going to be temptation there to get you to lose your purity, to lose your cleanness here. And God is showing us here a picture of what it is to be clean and pure on your wedding day. And that's what you ought to strive to be, and you'll thank God for that the rest of your life when you get married pure. And if you get married and you're defiled, you'll regret that for the rest of your life. You'll regret the fornication. I guarantee you that if you were to talk to the people in this room, and I don't suggest you do this because we ought to just forget the things that are behind and reach forth unto those things that are before. If you were to talk to the people in this room who committed all the fornication, you know what they'll tell you? I wish I hadn't. I'll regret it. They wouldn't say, yeah, I'm glad that I got to show my wild oats. Yeah, it was worth it. Yeah, I'm glad I got to do all that. No, they won't. They'll tell you it was a waste. I wish I would have been pure. What I enjoy with my wife is so much better. I wouldn't want to go back to that guilty lifestyle. And today, if they'd be honest with you, anybody would tell you that that is not the way to be happy and blessed in life. And so young people today ought to be smart enough to realize that and not make those mistakes. Learn from the mistakes of others and grow up and be pure with your life and be the bride today, not be a whore. Grow up and be that pure bride one day physically on this earth and get married and be clean and godly. And look, if you've messed up in the past, we'll be pure from here on out. But you know what? You can't erase the past, can you? Even those today who are doing what's right, even if they can forget the past like they should and be forgiven, be forgiven, you know what? There's still scars there, though. You know, there's still consequences there. It's not as we preach so much on the grace of God that we forget to remind young people, hey, there's consequences that will never be the same. And so you ought to keep yourself pure, children and young people. Keep yourself pure. It's important. And so God's showing us a colossal difference. You know, I had more parts to my sermon. You can go in and study this now that you see the basic gist here. You can study Revelation 17, put it side by side with 19 and 20 or 19 and 21, rather. You'll see all kinds of parallels here. God's trying to show us the colossal difference between two things, right and wrong. Right religion, wrong religion. Right clothing, wrong clothing. Right lifestyle, wrong lifestyle. Wrong physical conduct, right physical conduct, wrong physical conduct. He's showing us the difference. And so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, please just help us all to study to show ourselves approved, dear God. You've given us this great teaching in Revelation. Help us to learn from it. And God, help us to strive toward godliness, righteousness and purity. Help us to worry about what's on the inside, not the outside. Help us to worry about whether our church is godly and righteous, not what kind of a building we have. Help us to get our priorities right, dear God, and we thank you for everything you've given us. And also please just bless the food that we're about to partake of. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, let's sing one quick song and then we'll go ahead...