We're in Revelations chapter 17. Let me pray for us and then we'll jump in. Father we come before you asking for your guidance, asking for your Holy Spirit to continue to lead and guide us. I pray that you would soften our hearts, that your word would mold our thoughts, our affections, that you would stir in us a hungering and thirsting for righteousness that can only be satisfied in Christ and Christ alone.

Lord, you know how we wrestle, you know how we are easily distracted, you know the longings in our hearts. We pray Father God that you would direct us to you, that even as we continue to study the book of Revelation, some of it Lord remains a mystery to us, but it is clear Lord God that you are sovereign and you are completely in control.

And I pray Father that through the study that you would move us more than just to satisfy our curiosity, but that a glimpse of Christ and his glory Lord would constantly point us to you. So we pray for your blessing over this time, in Jesus name we pray, amen.

So if you've, hopefully you've had some time to look at the text, chapter 17 and maybe even 18 before you came, but chapter 17 and 18 is probably one of the more difficult passages to interpret. And not that the other parts have been easy, but if you've taken any time to look at it, you know about the seven horns and then the ten, you know, seven kings, seven hills, the ten horns and then you have the beast and then you have the riding of the beast and then you have the waters and you have all this stuff.

And so it requires a little bit more time to dig into. And again, everything that we studied up to this point, remember we talked about there's four different ways to approach the interpretation of book of Revelation. So depending on which commentary you read, you'll have a completely different application, completely different understanding.

And I already kind of shared with you, you know, our approach to this. But again, so there are some things that we want to take some time to look and chapter 17, 18 really is meant to be together. I think I shared that last week. So I'm going to jump into it and it may cause us to ask some questions.

Again, we're not going to go in too deep, but hopefully you'll have a better understanding of it after we go through it. So if you look at the picture, it's a lady riding on a beast with seven heads, but it's a dark picture so you might not be able to see it.

Okay. Oops. Alright. So the beginning, chapter 17 and 18, it is not a description of God's judgment as the previous chapters. So the three different judgments that we've seen, we had the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, and then we had the final bowl judgments. All three of them were descriptions of how judgment was going to come upon the world at the end times.

Chapter 17 and 18 is not a description of his judgment, but why? What has brought the judgment? So it's a description of the rebellion of mankind, the work of the beast, specific descriptions of how at the end, how they're going to be united and to go against the lamb.

And as a result of that, how they're going to be conquered. So it's more of a description, chapter 17 and 18, of why the judgment is coming than the specifics of what we've been looking at up to this point. So again, it's what is being judged. And these chapters describe satanic kingdom in the last days.

So we talked about it before, how the application of this is not necessarily all chronological. There are certain parts of what is mentioned here is not talking just about the end times. It's talking about the satanic kingdom in totality, the world in rebellion in totality. So there are parts of it where we're talking about just the very end, when Christ comes, the ultimate, the battle of Armageddon.

It's a description of that, but all the events that lead up to that is not necessarily just about the end times. So just keep that in mind, that what we're reading here is not just talking about the very end, but the totality of satanic kingdom. So we want to jump into two parts.

One is the identity of the great prostitute that is introduced to us in the very beginning. And then the second part of it is the explanation of that that we see in verse six and on. So it's going to be two major parts. So who is this lady and what is she doing?

And then the explanation of that at the end. Now, where else do we see a woman and the relationship with the beast? Anybody remember? Chapter 13, right? Chapter 13, we saw again a woman and the woman has a child and the beast goes after the woman and the child.

Remember that scene? Is this woman that woman? Clearly it is not the same woman, right? Why is that the same? I'm just trying to see if you read it or not. It's clearly not the same because the woman of chapter 13, who do we say, who do we think she is?

Most likely Israel and her child is obviously Jesus. So here, she clearly is not Israel. So even though it's a woman and she has an intimate relationship with the beast, but it is not the same woman of Revelation chapter 13. So who is she then? In verse 18, she's described as, or she's called the Babylon the great, mother of the prostitutes and earth abominations.

So clearly that's not Israel. In verse 5, we've already studied in chapter 14, the meaning of Babylon. The Babylon is used to symbolize a fallen world in rebellion against God. So we see, we saw that in Revelation 14, 8. And then again, if there was any doubt in verse 18, it describes again, the city of Babylon.

So obviously we know that the specific city of Babylon existed in history, but oftentimes when the Bible uses the term Babylon, it is referring to the whole world in rebellion against God, right? So here it's talking about the fallen world. But if you remember when we were studying chapter 14, remember the different distinction between the Assyrians attack and the Babylonians, right?

What were the Assyrians known for? Remember when we were studying the book of Isaiah, Assyria was going to conquer by how? Intimidation and by force, right? They were known to be violent and very cruel. So if you remember the book of Isaiah, it describes the Assyrians and how they're going to violently overthrow them and they're going to again, cause a great harm, physical harm toward the nation of Israel.

And then the Babylonians come in and then the Babylonians conquering of Israel, perversion of Israel, how are they going to do it? Through beauty and temptation. And that's exactly what the Babylonians were known for, right? The Babylonians were not known for brutality. They were also a mighty nation that conquered many other nations.

But after they conquer them, they wanted to be Babylonians, right? It's kind of like, kind of like, again, they're exact opposite. You have one coming by intimidation and fear. The other one's coming and conquering by assimilation, by temptation. And that's exactly how this woman is described. Her primary corruption and immorality isn't through intimidation.

It's through sexual temptation. And that term, sexual immorality, is mentioned three or four separate times. And then when we get to chapter 18, if you've read ahead, the whole theme of Babylon repeatedly over and over again is sexual immorality. And we'll see that more clearly in chapter 18, right?

So the reason why she is called a harlot or a whore is because her sin is not of intimidation and fear, but is of sexual immorality, right? So the temptation or the people who are going to go after and basically side with her are people who are doing it voluntarily.

They're not doing it by fear. They're voluntarily coming and surrendering themselves in allegiance to this prostitute, okay? Again, that's why the term Babylon, she is the queen of Babylon. It states that she is seated on waters. The significance of that is that in the ancient cities, most ancient cities of any significance, they were usually near sources of water, either ocean, river, or lake, or spring.

Why do you think that would be? Right? I mean, it's pretty common sense, right? If it's agricultural, if their primary source of income and sustenance and wealth is agricultural, you would need to be near a body of water, or you have to somehow be able to access the body of water.

So most ancient cities, usually the more significant ones who had wealth typically were near a body of water. And the Babylon was no exception. They were located near the river Euphrates, which was known to be in that area the greatest source of water. And the Babylon is located right near it, right?

So she's described, when she sits on top of many waters, what do you think that signifies? So if a city is located near a body of water, you assume that they naturally had wealth, right? The agriculture, their livestock, basically they had food, sustenance that was able to be sustained by that water.

So if she is sitting on top of many waters, what does that signify about her? Wealthy, powerful. So it's to signify the greatness of who she is, right? Greatness and then when it says she's sitting above many waters, what does that mean? Possibly over not just one, but many other cities, right?

Hence, we talk about how she has seven kings, ten horns, right? Referring to many other nations, many other authorities. So she's sitting over many waters. So again, to refer to the significance of who she is. I put the passage in the wrong place here, but I'll get back to this later.

And so just to summarize, to sit upon many waters signifies the power and wealth of her influence over many nations. So all of this is a description of this Queen of Babylon, right? Queen of Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and earth abomination. This is not some insignificant figure.

She's going to have worldwide influence and her primary influence isn't by force, isn't by power, but it's through temptation, sexual immorality. Sexual immorality isn't necessarily just in reference to sex though, even though that's a huge part of it. But sexual immorality is in reference to corruption of what's good, right?

So again, oftentimes the temptation of the world is generally described as sexual immorality. Things that tempt us and lure us away from God. Whatever lusts that is not God-ordained, oftentimes it's just simply described as sexual immorality. So that's a description of who she is. She rides the scarlet beast.

This signifies that her power and influence is helped by the beast. So she clearly is not the beast. She is also described as being arrayed in purple and scarlet as well. So what is the significance of the color purple? Royalty, right? Anybody remember why? Why was the color purple equated with royalty?

There's a significant figure in the New Testament in the book of Acts that there was this lady who was known to be a seller of purple garments. Remember her name? Lydia, right? Lydia was known for selling purple, specific purple garments, not just garments. So purple garments were in particular, it's kind of like saying she was known for selling Gucci bags or something really expensive, right?

That's about the most expensive thing I know. What's more expensive than Gucci? All right, let's stick with Gucci, all right? So basically she's known for selling like very expensive stuff because that purple dye was very rare. So anything purple was extremely expensive. So the fact that she was known to be a seller of purple material meant that she probably was a very wealthy lady, that she was somehow able to get that.

So anytime you see in the Bible where the color purple comes out, it's in reference to royalty, right? So she's described as having, the beast is described as a scarlet, right? Scarlet beast. And she's also described as having scarlet, right? Or sorry, the purple. Okay, I got that mixed up.

So purple is associated with royalty and the color scarlet is often associated with immorality and sin in the Bible, right? So when you put those two things combined, what does that signify? That she is wealthy, right? She's powerful and she's immoral, okay? Those two things are together. She is powerful.

So up to this point, a description of her is very powerful, right? Very immoral. What was the other thing I missed? And royal, okay? So she has authority. So these two colors combined signifies immoral and sinful rule of the beast and the harlot. So again, remember we talked about how her rebellion and the beast are two separate.

And we're going to see why later, right? Even though the beast is helping her because she's riding the beast and somehow the beast is in control of her, using her, or helping her, but later on we're going to see, clearly see that they're not exactly the same. So Satan himself in Revelation chapter 12, 3 is described as having seven heads and ten horns.

So here when it's talking about the beast, this is probably in reference to Satan. So Satan himself is assisting her to do what she's doing. So even up to this point, we're not exactly sure who she is, right? And in fact, to be honest, it is, ultimately it is a mystery, but we'll get to that in a minute.

She's also described as being drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of martyrs of Jesus. So as she is tempting the world toward her, at the same time she's going after the saints. And she's going to be responsible for great persecution against the Christians. Now her identity, again, this is a guess, but some believe that her rule will be through false religion, that this is all a description of false religion because of the use of the word mystery to describe her.

Where else is the word mystery used in the Bible? Referring to the gospel. So if you remember that we've been studying satanic activity and Satan has been trying to mimic the Holy Spirit, right? So remember some of the things that Satan was doing to mimic God and his activity?

Do you remember? Remember you had even the Trinity? You had Satan, the Antichrist, and then the false prophet. And if you look at the description of the false prophet, it kind of mimics the Holy Spirit. If you look at the description of the Antichrist, and he's exactly what that is, he's this Antichrist.

So whatever Christ does, he mimics. So what does the Antichrist do that is mimicking Christ? Something very significant. I think it was mentioned in chapter 14. Huh? Okay, glorifies the beast, I mean, Satan, right? He brings attention. So he draws people to himself and then points to Satan. But how does he do that?

Who said that? Right. So that was a big thing. Remember he said he seemed to have a mortal womb. It doesn't say that he had a mortal womb. He said he appeared to have a mortal womb. And then what happens to him? And he comes back to life. And as a result of that, people what?

Marvel. They marvel at him. They follow him and they worship him. So what is that mimicking? Christ's death and resurrection. So the Antichrist is mimicking Christ and his activity. And as a result of that, he gets the glory. When he gets the glory, he points to Satan and empowers Satan.

So we've seen Satanic activity as mimicking the things of God to draw people away. So the very things that we worship God for, Satan is mimicking to draw people away from God and then to give glory to Satan. So some people believe that this is maybe in reference to false religion, partially because twice it mentions mystery.

And we know that the gospel of Jesus Christ clearly is referred to as the mystery of God that is being revealed. And we also see that her kingdom is very distinct with Satan. So even though they're holding hands, they work together for a short period it says. The beast and the harlot and whatever she has authority over, they hold hands for a short period.

And why is she holding hands with the beast? Or why is the beast helping her and her helping the beast? To attack the Lamb of God. To have basically to have a confrontation with the Lamb of God. So clearly, even though Satan's activity is clear, what they're doing seems to be against even though they're working together, they're separate.

And then the angel comes in chapter 6 through 18 to explain what it is that John was seeing. The beast is described as was and is not and is about to rise. What do you think that's in reference to? Was, is, and will be. What does that sound like?

The great I am, right? We're actually going to study that this Sunday, Romans 11, 36. All things are from him, through him, and to him. To God be the glory. He is the alpha and omega. He was and is and will be. So Satan is described as was and is not and is about to rise.

And so again, you kind of see how Satan's title and what he's doing, he's all trying to mimic God. Like, what's the number of God? 777. What's the number of the beast? 666. And everything is just mimicking God. Just that poorer version. A more perverted version. So if you really think about a rebellion against God, and all that we have, it's what God has given but perverted.

What is sexual immorality? It's not, immorality is not the sex itself. It's sex outside of what God has ordained. It's imitation of what God has ordained outside of God's boundaries, right? It's a perversion of what God has given. What's the temptation with money? Is the issue with money itself?

No, it's a love of money. But in its core, the problem is not the item itself. It's a perversion of it. That's the temptation. So Satanic work, and again, I've heard this since when I was young, I said the greatest temptation of mankind is not between good and bad.

When we identify something to be bad, it's still temptation, but the greatest battle is not between good and bad. It's good and what's best. And that's the distinction between the world and pursuit of God, right? How much of our affections for Christ is squashed, not because of perversion, even though that is also the case, but usually good things, right?

Remember when Jesus calls his disciples to come, the ones that say, "Oh, I can't go because I've got to bury my parents," or, "I've got to do this and that." And so the temptation typically is not between good and bad. It's between what we perceive to be good versus what's best, right?

Look at Adam and Eve. What is their temptation? They wanted to eat, right? They wanted to be wise. So what seemed good in their eyes was perversion of what God intended, right? So it wasn't like if you just put it on paper and looked at it, it's like, "Well, what was so bad about eating fruit?

What was so bad about wanting to be wise?" It was a perversion of what God intended. So look at satanic activity. Satanic activity is trying to mimic God. So we don't get deceived if Satan comes in his, you know, like what we see on television, like, "I'm Satan," with fangs and pitchfork and with red garment, and you can clearly identify that's Satan.

So no one would be tempted to go there, right? Usually it's by scheming, by mimicking, by pretending, right, to draw you away from what is best. So that's how Satan's activity is described for us. So even his very title, "He was and is not and is about to rise," sounds like the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So everything he's doing is to deceive the world to think that, "Could that be Christ? Could that be the Messiah?" Again, so this is most likely a reference to the false death and resurrection of the second beast in Revelation 13. And those whose names was not written in the book of life will marvel at the beast because of this false resurrection, as also stated in Revelation 13.

So again, we see the same thing being mimicked in chapter 13, right? So this may be in reference to what he is doing, pretending to perform this spectacular miracle and, as I mentioned earlier, that they're not coming to him by force, right? They're naturally drawn to him because of what he is doing.

The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. These are the nations that the woman rules through which will eventually be usurped by the beast. So that's the part that I mentioned earlier in verse 11. It says, "As a beast that was and is not and it is, an eighth, but it belongs to the seven and it goes to destruction." So again, that's a very confusing verse, but one of the commentators said that that may be in reference to his death and resurrection, right?

That possibly he pretends to die and everybody marvels and then he comes back and that's why he is able to usurp the seven, right? He gained so much attention and love and awe and marvel of the world that he's able to usurp or overtake the seven. And he becomes, he basically, the power is concentrated in him, okay?

And then as a result of that, he uses that power to usurp, okay? Verse 10, starting from verse 9, "This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. There are also seven kings, five of whom had fallen. One is and the other has not yet come.

And when he does come, he must remain only a little while." So this is a part where it may be a description of what has already happened, okay? So of the seven kings, five of them have fallen. One is, the other has not yet come. Anybody have any idea?

Again, this is just an educated guess what that may be in reference to. Out of the seven, five have already fallen. So think about the time that John may be writing this, which kingdoms have already fallen? You had the Egypt, Assyria, the Babylonians, Persians, and Greek, right? So you had five kingdoms that have fallen.

So which is? Five have already fallen and one is. During the time that this is being written, the Romans existed. And then he says the final kingdom that's going to challenge God has not come yet, okay? So some may say, well, maybe the United States, maybe England. Probably not, right?

It hasn't come yet. Some have, maybe you've read, I actually have a whole book in my office that argues that the final kingdom is the Roman Catholic Church and the woman is in description of Catholic Church. And why do you think it's the Catholic Church? Because worship of Mary.

I mean, I don't necessarily believe that, but I have the book if you are interested in reading it. But again, this is just one of the theories. But whatever it is, the last kingdom has not come yet and it's still to be future. The other one that has not yet come is Antichrist and final world empire.

So it hasn't come yet. Can I move? I think chapter 18 will be a little bit easier than chapter 17, a little bit, right? But chapter 17, I think of all the chapters, I think chapter 17 may be a little bit more difficult than the others. The 10 horns are kings who will receive temporary power.

It says one hour, but I don't think it's literally one hour. It's just a describing how it's going to be very short. And what was the whole purpose of them giving that authority? For a short period, they're giving that authority and that authority was for the purpose of giving allegiance to Satan, the beast.

And he's going to basically consolidate the power. And what's the first thing he's going to do? Challenge the lamb. So he raises up the kingdom. He allows these kingdoms to come to power. And so he's using false religion, basically. Remember, I think I talked about that before. I think the world unification, if we follow that interpretation, the world unification is not going to be united because of economy or politics, but because of religion.

And so Satan is behind that, allowing that to happen, and he's going to consolidate this authority and power. And so when Antichrist first comes, he hides himself as a political figure. And then he performs this fake miracle where he seems to die and then comes back to life and he gains all.

And people begin to come to him and give him the authority. And then all of a sudden he becomes this religious figure. And then he gathers all of that authority to himself. And then what does he do with that power? He goes after the lamb. He challenges the lamb, right?

Which I believe that's where the persecution is going to be the most intense for Christians. So up to this point, it seems like that's what it's describing. And just in practical application, if you think about the world events today, and again, I don't like saying like, "Look at this, look at chapter this, and look at what's going on." But for the longest time, ever since I've started studying the book of Revelation, it just makes sense to me that, again, the Antichrist is described as coming as an angel of light.

Angel of light meaning that he's going to sell himself as a God figure. And because he's challenging the church, he's challenging Christ, that I don't think he's going to come as a Muslim. I don't think he's going to come as a different religion. Because angel of light is going to be something that's going to mimic the truth, which is Christ, right?

So this is my guess, and I've mentioned this before, that if you consider all the things that are happening today, that there is this natural hatred toward anything extreme because of the Islamic state and because of the beheading. And so there's this distaste and hatred toward anything extreme. So if you've been watching the news and the current affairs for the last maybe 10 years, there's a subtle linking between the extreme Islamic, what they're doing, with Christian extremism, right?

And because they've been making that link, they can say harsh things about Christians, saying that Christians shouldn't be in the government, Christians shouldn't have a bakery, Christians shouldn't do this, and there's been threats about shutting down churches, and this extreme language that would have been unheard of 15, 20 years ago.

But because of the Islamic extremism and because of this subtle linking of Muslim extremism and Christian extremism, that you can almost get away with specific persecution toward anything extreme. So what's happening is, right now, there's a movement toward everything coming toward the middle. So again, if you've been following current affairs, there's a mass movement for liberal Christians, liberal Muslims, liberal Catholics to come together and hold hands.

So they're having services together, right? So I don't know if you guys remember when the previous Pope, Pope John, when he passed away, they had this mass worldwide celebration or burial for him, and they had Muslim clerics, they had Buddhist monks, and all these different people. And then Billy Graham happened to run the service, and there was a heavy criticism toward Billy Graham because he participated in this.

But there's been a mass movement, even prior to what's been going on, there's been a mass movement toward everybody coming to the middle, because they don't want to see this extremism, right, in any community. So now, you know, more and more, there's always been a movement toward that, but especially in the last 10 years, right?

And the stronger that movement becomes, anybody who's against it, anybody who won't join it, well, remember what he's talking about, the mark of the beast? If you don't get the mark, what's the consequence, immediately? Do you remember? Economic, right? Remember that? Anyone who does not get the mark of the beast is going to have economic problems, right?

And so if there, it seems like to me that at the end, there's going to be a religious unification and maybe the people who are going to move against this are the, are you going to lead this movement, are the liberal Christians, which is exactly what's happening right now, right?

The liberal Christians, the Unitarians are coming together and gathering everybody together, and then if you listen to people of influence, at least on television, they're all part of this movement, right? Oprah. Listen to anybody on television who says they're Christian and is widely accepted on television. Hear their views carefully, whether they're news anchors, whether they're TV hosts.

If you are an evangelical Christian, you get shunned, right? You're a homophobe, you know, whatever you say, your core doctrines are considered hate speech, so, but they love liberal Christians who reject the inerrancy, who accept all faith, right? All roads lead to God. And so that's the movement that we see, and it seems like to me the Antichrist is going to basically move these things in so that it will happen, and eventually he's going to come out of this as the head of this, and then when he is revealed, finally, when he is revealed as the Antichrist, that's when he's going to like directly challenge, right?

Instead of just bringing people to himself, once he gains the power, he's going to use that power to directly challenge God, right? And that's what we see. And it says, "The ten horns and the beast will eventually despise the prostitute, and they will devour and destroy her as God had put into their heart to do," because ultimately, Satan's desire is not to rule her, right?

Satan is only using the false religion to gain notoriety for himself. Ultimately his desire is not just to have a lesser portion. He wants to ultimately challenge God, right? But all of this, at the end of it, it says it's God-ordained. Satan and his minions are going to challenge her and overthrow her, and he's going to step into power, and he says, "God has allowed all of this.

He put it in their heart to do this," because in the end, God's going to use all of that. Remember, I said a such strong delusion is going to come at the end that even the elect, if it was possible, that they would be deceived. That's how strong the delusion is going to be.

He's going to allow Satan to have that kind of power at the very end. And so anyone who's nominal, anyone who doesn't have genuine faith, anyone who's been kind of putting one foot in and one foot out, he said, "The illusion is going to be so strong that today our biggest problem is it's hard for us to identify who is and is not of genuine faith," right?

In fact, we have to be very careful that we don't judge. But at the end, he says we don't have to judge because the delusion is going to divide the people as it is, right? And so that's how chapter 17 ends, and then chapter 18 is going to take us into the fall of Babylon and the specifics of how Babylon is going to fall, okay?

Let me go over the questions before. Why do you think false religion, both outside of Christianity and inside Christianity, is such a powerful force in the world? Now we know, you know, if you're sitting here, obviously, 99% of you, if not all of you, we know how to identify false religion, right?

I mean, they're not Christian. They don't worship Christ. They don't have the same gospel. And we know how to identify false religion in Christianity if they're liberal. They reject inerrancy. They don't believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so we know that there's liberalism there. But false religion isn't simply identified by wrong doctrine, right?

Bible talks about that, that you can have the right doctrine and still have demonic faith. So false religion isn't just not having right doctrine. You can have the right doctrine and have false religion, correct? Because the Bible tells us that, right? You can be at church. You can have the right doctrines.

You can have the right Bible. You can go to the right church and be committed to false religion if the God that you worship is a God that you created in your own mind, right? Again, maybe not doctrinally, but you've never fully surrendered your life to Christ, right? You call me Lord, Lord, but your heart is far from me.

So we have the right confession, but wrong heart and wrong life. So false religion is not just an issue of wrong doctrine. False religion can also be very much part of the church that has right doctrine, right? So why do you think that false religion is so powerful and so deceiving?

That's the first question. Number two, Satan's rule and sexual morality seem to go hand in hand. Why do you think sexual sin is such a powerful force against the things of Christ? What role does God-ordained sex have in God's sovereign plan in creation? Now I can tell you as a pastor, if I sit down and talk to most pastors that have been in ministry for a while, especially the ones working with a younger group, but it's not limited to the younger group.

This is a problem no matter how old you are, that we say, "What is the biggest struggle in the church that distracts people from really giving their life to Christ?" Pornography right now is such a big problem, right? In fact, just today I was reading an article where in Canada they were trying to do a survey of the mindset and the heart condition and the thinking of somebody in their late teens and early 20s who was exposed to pornography, who are on a regular exposure to pornography versus somebody who has not been at all, right?

And they were trying to do a study in comparison and at the end they ended up giving up. Do you know why? Because they couldn't find any subject who wasn't exposed. That's how rampant it is, right? You would think that maybe they went to church and asked some Christians, born-again Christians, or maybe gathered some pastors together.

Maybe they could have been the subject, but they ended up not being able to do the studies because they couldn't find any subjects. That's how rampant it is. And so if it's that rampant, what kind of effect does that have in the spiritual condition of the church, right? We can talk about discipleship, discipline, prayer, having right doctrine, but if the undercurrent of the church, there is sexual sin being practiced regularly and we're constantly giving ourselves to that, how does that affect the way we listen to the Word of God?

How does that affect our prayer life? How does that affect our evangelism? I mean, it completely wrecks it, right? And so sexual sin, in the end, is a perversion of what God had created, and it is one of the strongholds, not one of the, it is the stronghold that is mentioned over and over in Scripture.

So again, what role does God-ordained sex have in God's sovereign plan in creation, right? So my prayer is that tonight, and I know this is a sensitive subject and it is intense, and this is both for men and women, that you're able to be honest with one another and to, you know, I think it's important for us to recognize that we all struggle with this, because you can't confess and be forgiven for a sin that you're unwilling to confess, right?

But if we recognize that this is, we don't want to normalize the sin, and then it's like, "Oh, we all struggle with it," you know what I mean? And then it just becomes okay. And we don't want to create that kind of environment either. But neither do we want to create an environment where we just pretend that that's not what we're struggling with, right?

So if we're going to wrestle with it together, if we're going to keep each other accountable, the first thing that we need to do is to be honest, right? Yes, this has been hindering my prayer life. This has been hindering my desire to evangelize. It's hindering my Bible study.

It's hindering my fellowship. It's hindering my marriage, right? And be honest with it and be open with one another, right? So you can take some time to pray. Third, what is the one temptation that Satan can put forth in your life that you would have a difficult time resisting?

And this is a hypothetical. What is one thing in your life you have a difficult time giving lordship over to God currently? So one is hypothetical, the other is reality. So if we can take some time to, again, to confess and take some time to pray over these things.

If Satanic work primarily is not forcing us but tempting us and drawing us away, right? Then we're just naturally drawn to these things. So Satan is a master of that. He was angel of light before he fell, meaning he's beautiful. He's attractive. He's not ugly. He doesn't have fangs, right?

So his temptation, he knows exactly what's going to tempt us. And it's part of the reason why the church is so important for us, right? As a community that we're able to share and openly share with one another so that we can fight these things together. So again, all of these things are things that I'm hoping that you guys would take some time to be honest and open with one another.

And it's not just to say, "Oh, I'm open," right? If we do that, then we start normalizing. It's like, "Oh, everybody struggles." So I don't feel as bad because I thought I was the only one, but we all struggle with it. And then all of a sudden, you just normalize sin.

And again, that's not the goal at all. Hopefully that will lead to the second part of it is learn to hate that sin because of the effects of it and then to fight together. So let me pray for us and then I'll give you guys time to discuss with your group.

Heavenly Father, we confess our weakness. We confess, Father God, that we don't think enough about the spiritual battle that you've warned us about, Father, that it is not against flesh and blood, that it's not simply by our hard work or being smart or being organized or even simply accountability.

We know, Father, that this is a spiritual battle and Satan is constantly working to devour your children. Help us, Lord God, to remain sober. I pray that you would strengthen this church, Lord God, and that we would not allow Satan to have a grip on our lives, Lord, because of our sins.

Help us to confess it, to be forgiven, to be washed by the blood of Christ, that Satan would not be able to scheme, Lord God, to shame us in front of you. And so we pray, Father, that all of these things that we are studying, that even though we may not fully understand the details, we know, Father God, how Satan works and you reminded us, Lord God, to stay sober.

So I pray for your grace. I pray for your Holy Spirit. I pray that in our weakness that Christ may be shown to be powerful. So we ask for vulnerability. We ask for your grace. We ask, Lord God, for community, true community, Lord God, and just asking, Father, for you to empower your church through your forgiveness.

So again, we entrust this time to you. In Jesus' name we pray.