The Revelation 17:3| Episode # 1136

February 23, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 17:3

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

We are in. We are in Revelation chapter 17.

Revelation chapter 17.

And it is.

Remember we talked about,

and I went into great detail last week about the Babylonian cult religion,

the religion that really was born in what was known as Babel before it was Babylonia.

And Babel was founded by Nimrod, who is the grandson of. Of Noah.

And so we went through some really detailed about how that,

that religious order which, which has a focus on the female deity.

And we talked about her and, and her child and,

and the issues that. And how that that religion has spread all over the world and is in.

And is. Is worked its way through a lot,

in fact, most cultures of the world and is an issue. And so I kind of dealt with that last week. And so I'm not going to get into that in a whole lot of detail this week because if you, if you didn't get it, you can.

Well, you've only got a month too, but you can go to Facebook and listen to it.

Otherwise it'll be coming out soon on the, on the podcast. I don't even know if y' all know this or not, but we,

we have been doing this since about a year and a half after we started during.

I started the Bible study through the Book of Psalms,

and not long after we got through the Book of Psalms and started into Genesis, Kathleen began to take those Bible studies and cut them up and make them into a podcast.

And so.

And the podcast is really for our grandchildren, but we're going to let y' all listen to them too, if you want to. Okay. And so it's Hope Alive by Chad Harrison.

That's all you gotta do is Google that Hope Alive podcast by Chad Harrison and you'll find it on all the. Any site you listen to podcast on. And so if, if you miss that one in a month, you can always, maybe in six months, Kathleen will be.

Be through The Revelation. I think we're in the Revelation right now, aren't, baby? All right. And so I need to get done with this so she can move on to two more books before.

Before we get through the book of Joshua. So we are. It says here that he. He. He. He talked about verse two. He says, with whom the kings of the earth come, and I'll show you this judgment.

This great Harlot who.

Verse 2 says,

with whom the kings of the earth commit fornication,

and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Now, he's going to describe what he sees as far as this woman. And remember,

I do need to cover this because in Scripture, I try to make sure that y' all get all the pictures. And generally speaking,

y' all have gotten to where y' all really know. When you're reading through the Bible, you know what things stand for.

Things are. Are always a picture of.

And women are very important in Scripture.

And generally speaking, there are three types of women in scripture. There are three types. And when I say that,

it's not just like any group of females. None are the same. But the three types are very important.

The first type is an older, wise woman,

and she's usually a picture of Israel,

and she's a picture of the Old Testament, meaning she's virtuous,

she's a teacher, she's a nurturer. And generally speaking, when you come across an older woman in scripture,

you can pretty much all the time attribute to that woman being a picture of God's preparation and plan for his work to be done in the New Testament by the Old Testament, okay?

And then the second one is a young, virtuous woman, and she usually is a picture of the church, okay? Just like the older woman's picture of the Old Testament, the young, virtuous woman is usually a picture of the church.

Now, unvirtuous woman in any regard is generally a picture of false religion. So if you think about it,

that's pretty.

Those things have parallels that run with them. You know, you've got Old Testament, which would be the Jewish faith.

You've got New Testament, which would be Christianity.

And then you've got a unvirtuous woman, which would be paganism, okay? And the pagan faith. And you go, well,

Jews aren't Christians, so they're kind of with the pagan. No, they're not. No, they're not. And God's got a plan for them. And it's quite clearly spelled out in scripture that he's Got a plan for them.

And so they're not.

And they remember that the gift and call of God are irrevocable,

okay? So if God has gifted you or God has called you,

God has. Has done something as far as you're concerned, then it doesn't get revoked.

It's irrevocable, okay? And revocation means I take it away.

Well, God says it's irrevocable, which means it can't be taken away. So if God's done something in your life or called you to something in life or is working towards something in your life,

and he's let that be known to you, then it's not revoked,

okay? It's not revoked. And you can't do anything to lose it. Okay? All right? You can't do anything for that to go away. Now you can do things. Cause it to not be.

Be brought about in its fullness in your life, quite obviously, but that doesn't mean that it goes away. That just means you're not operating in it, okay? And there's a lot of people that have gifts and callings and things that they're doing that they're not.

That they're not called to do. I. If you're a believer, if you're. If you're born again, if you have a relationship with Jesus Christ and. And that is born,

you're hearing the word of God or hearing the call of God and turning toward him in repentance and being converted,

and the Holy Spirit beginning to work in your life. If that's going on, then you're born again and you can't be unborn again, okay? You can't be unborn again.

So if you can't be unborn again,

then the promises that God has made to the Jewish people can't be undone,

okay? And I believe that, and I think that is very logical and very scriptural,

okay? And when I say logical, God is a God of order.

God made everything good, which means he made everything right.

And when God does something,

he does not do it wrongly. He does it rightly. And so he didn't mess up with Israel. And then he had to start over and bring Jesus in, you know, the backup pitcher, bring him in to fix the problem.

That's not what happened. Israel is a forerunner of Christ and a preparation for Christ. That's why Jesus said, I made the way I created the way I created the Old Testament.

I'm the one who defined that. And then he says, I'm the door that goes in the way,

okay? So I'm the one who defines how you get into the sheep pen. And then he says, I'm the door to the sheep pen. Then he says, and we're on this right now in John 10.

Then he says, I'm the shepherd to the sheep.

So I don't know if you notice it, but he's doing everything. He's doing it all. He's handling the whole business, okay? And so when we're dealing with this, we need to see those pictures.

Obviously, the woman that is being dealt with here is a woman of. Of. Of bad report. She's a woman of ill reputation,

as.

As it were, that would have been said 50 or 60 years ago. Okay. All right. It says,

so me.

And. And notice this is the. The. The passage started out in 171 where he is speaking to one of the angels that poured out the seven bowls of God's wrath.

And then we get to verse three, and it says,

so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness.

All right?

So.

And you go, well, does that have a lot of meaning? Well, you know, I want you to. I want to. I want you to log it in your brain, okay?

It's one of those things.

It may not mean anything to you today, but I want you to remember this story. Because when. Stuff like that, when the Bible says something that's kind of a little bit.

What, what. You know, when you read it, you go, what happened there? Now, if that's the case, then I want you to log it in your mind, because God will recall it when.

When you're studying throughout the rest of scripture, and he'll tie it off for you and you'll be able to see it. But what he's saying is that I first heard from God,

okay?

And he says, I was caught up to heaven,

okay?

And I stood in front of Jesus, and he says,

we're talking about chapter one.

He sees Jesus and he sees the Father on the throne, and he sees the 4 and 20 elders, and we see all those. That. That is going on, okay?

Then he gets a. He gets a vision of these seven churches,

okay?

And the church ages. By the way, you probably. That's probably already out on. On. On. On the podcast, if you want to go back and review that. Seven churches. It's the seven church ages.

Then the Bible said he heard a voice from heaven saying, come up.

And what was he saying come up to? Well, he wasn't saying come up to John because John was already there,

okay? So it had to be saying, come up to whatever he was talking about before and what was he talking about?

The churches?

Okay. Now I heard somebody say, ask me,

I don't know if they asked me the question or they, they came to me and,

and said that they were struggling with somebody. Somebody said that the idea of the Rapture was an idea that was first really widely presented two or three hundred years ago.

So it wasn't one of the original doctrines or teachings of the church.

Now the truth is that may be the case.

That could very well be the case that it wasn't a widely understood idea from Scripture.

That being said, I've already told you, it's not a hill to down. I already told you, you can be a pre trib, I trib or post trib. I don't know, you can be post trib and do it really well.

But you can be pre trib and you can be mid trib or I trib. You can be either one and be fine. Okay?

So we know already that that's not a hill to die on. And we're not going to get all fired up about it. And it's not something, it's not a fundamental of the faith.

But also you need to understand that God is revealing a lot of things to us,

okay? And that doesn't mean that his words change. That means he's fulfilling his word. And by the way, he needs to do that because that is his signature on Scripture.

Right?

He says this is going to happen and it doesn't happen tomorrow. Sometimes it doesn't happen for 7, 800,000, 2,000 years.

Right?

And then it happens.

Well, if that's the case,

then there are going to be things, especially as far as the end times are concerned, there are going to be things that we now can see that we couldn't see back then.

Okay?

When you study some of the Old Testament prophets that talk about Rosh, and we're going to deal with that too in a little bit that talk about what is what we call modern day Russia,

okay,

Which is actively a part of, of the, of the prophecies of the Old Testament and the New Testament. I want you to hear me.

When any of those books were written, Russia did not exist.

Okay?

And, and most of y' all don't even know who Russia is.

Can anybody tell me where what city Russia was founded in?

I thought that was in Ukraine.

It is,

it is. Okay,

so the Russian nation was founded by. Does anybody know who they were?

They were the Rus.

Vikings.

They were a family of Vikings that came down from Sweden, Finland, Norway,

and they captured all the way down and they set themselves up as kings.

Okay? How many of y' all knew that,

huh?

He knew it. Brit knew it. I knew it. Most of y' all didn't know that. Okay? I want you to know that. I want you to understand this. Nobody who wrote the New Testament knew it either.

You know why? Because it hadn't happened.

Okay? It hadn't happened. It was. It hadn't gone on. But I can tell you this,

that not only are the roosts mentioned in scripture,

but their gods are mentioned in scripture. Gog and Magog,

okay? They're mentioned in scripture. And let me tell you something. The interesting part about that is if you want to see. If you want to see some statues of Gog and Magog, you know where you go,

huh?

You go to the British Parliament.

You know, when they stand up with the green benches and they yell at each other. Y' all know what I'm talking about?

All right? Well, the person that's presiding over that sits in the chair. In the presiding chair.

There are two gargoyles that are up above him. And most time you can't see them. But if they pan out all the way, you can see them. There are two gargoyles up there, okay?

Those gargoyles were given to them by way back four or 500 years ago that were given to them by the king of Russia.

And their names are Gog and Magog.

Do you know that that's in scripture? Okay, I want you to hear me.

The Russian,

the Russians or the Rus did not know about Gog and Magog when that was written in the Bible.

Now,

I want you to listen to me. They also didn't know about Gog and Magog until they made up Gog and Magog. And they got those from pagan religion.

Understanding that is really, really important.

And so when we get to this passage,

John is up in heaven,

and it says that he was carried away by the spirit,

okay,

which is a supernatural work of God where he was physically removed from heaven.

And actually now he's been watching all these things take place in heaven, and he's seeing the results they've had on Earth.

Now, God has said, okay, I'm going to remove you from heaven and I'm going to bring you down to the earth, and I'm going to see. I'm going to let you see what is actually going on here in the end, the very end of the book.

And we're not far from the end of the book.

And so he carries him away in the spirit.

Just a little homework For y'. All. Did that happen to anybody else in scripture? Okay,

you can look that up if you want to down the road. I don't do it tonight. Don't be trying to find it tonight. So you can be the teacher's pet.

All right? He says so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness,

and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast.

Huh?

Now, he's going to describe this woman and remember the description that he's going to make of this woman. I've already explained to you.

Pagan,

ancient pagan religion, okay? I did that last week.

This woman, he's going to describe her.

And I want to use the description not only to give you some symbolism, so I can kind of review a little bit of symbolism, but I also want you want, you want you to be able to kind of get an idea of what you're dealing with.

Because not only does that paganism, that ancient paganism, not only is it a part of all the cultures of the earth,

okay,

but you deal with it. And some of the issues that are going to be mentioned as far as this woman is concerned or this false religion is concerned,

Just like the virtuous woman is Christ,

the older woman who's virtuous is Jews. This woman, she's a harlot,

which means she causes people to worship her rather than the worship the one true God.

I want you to see some of the things that go on with her because I believe it'll be helpful for you. I believe it'll be really, really helpful for you.

In fact,

just one more side note before we get into it, somebody even here in this room last week came up and there was a podcast about a guy who was talking about a lot of the mega churches and a lot of the issues that were going on with megachurch.

It's a really good podcast because the guy he was talking to is kind of a brand new Christian. And this guy kind of grew up with that, and he's dealing with a lot of the major issues of the church.

And as I listened to the podcast,

I realized that the guy who was talking about all those things, that he was dead on the money,

on his prognosis,

meaning he was great at figuring out what was wrong.

Are you with me?

He was not so good at figuring out how to fix it.

Okay?

He's not a good doctor because, you know, he did not.

He did not come up with a great cure for the ailment. Okay? But I want you to get this because you need to see some of the issues that this woman has.

And guard yourself from those things,

okay?

Because I'm going to tell you that that paganism is so rampant in the world that we struggle with it,

okay? It's still trying to get into everything,

and we're talking about everything,

okay?

That's why she's called the Great Harlot. Okay?

So as we're reading, it says, so I was carried away in the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a beast. Always remember, the beast is always a picture of either a fallen angel, a demon.

We know in scripture there are two beasts. One that comes out of the sea and one comes out of the land. The one that comes out of the sea is what we call the political Antichrist.

He is the Antichrist that everybody talks about. And the beast out of the land,

who is most likely a Jewish leader, a Jewish. Some kind of Jewish religious leader,

because the beast out of the sea is a gentile. The beat, remember, sea is gentile,

land is Jews. Jews live in the promise land. Okay? All right.

So. So, so we know that these two beasts are what we call the Antichrist. Now we need to see if this beast is the Antichrist or if this beast is like the dragon that's mentioned before, okay?

Which we know is the devil. Okay? All right.

So it says,

I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beach beast, which was full of names of blasphemy. Okay? Now we know it's bad.

All right? We know it's bad. And, and, and I want you to hear me.

It is blast that we're going to use two ideas, and you got to get this to understand it,

okay? We're dealing with two ideas, and you got to get this to understand it, all right?

One of the command, one of the big ten. You know what I'm talking about? The big ten Commandments, okay? One of the Ten Commandments says that you're not to take the Lord, your God's name in vain.

Are you with me?

Now,

I'm going to tell you that if that means that you can't say gosh darn it and that's the bad thing,

Then that doesn't seem like as big a problem as maybe worshiping other idols or murdering somebody or lying or cheating or stealing.

If that's the extent of what that means,

then that can't be right.

Okay?

What that means is, is that we take the. In the New Testament, the word is onoma. We get. Actually, it's O, N, O, M A if you take the A and put it for the O,

okay? And you and you remove the first O. We get name from. We actually get the word name from this Greek word onoma,

okay?

And it means an expression of the fullness of whatever is being described.

Does that make sense?

It's an expression of the fullness of whatever's being described.

So a name in Scripture is an expression of whatever that is in its fullness.

Well, the name of God or a name of God, because remember, God has lots and lots of names.

A name of God is an expression of the fullness of that character trait that God is giving you.

All right? That's why Jesus has more than one name.

Okay? His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.

His formal name is. All right? That means he is. He is sovereign God.

Jesus means he who saves.

And he is the Christo, meaning he is the Messiah.

All right? He's the Christ.

Now, I want you to hear me.

Those names are in the Old Testament,

and they have different words that are associated with them.

Right?

Lord in the Old Testament is Jehovah.

Okay?

Jesus in the Old Testament is. Is.

Don't hurt your feelings. I don't use this because we. We. We do. We English size it. That's the best way for me to describe it. We. We make it into our own language.

It's Jesus in the New Testament is Joshua in the Old Testament.

Except it ain't Joshua.

It's. Yeah, no, it's not. Yeshua. You got to put in a.

All right. You gotta throw a in there. Okay? It's.

It's Yahshua.

Okay. All right. So it's actually Yahshua.

And you say God bless you after that. Right? All right,

Now I'm saying that, and I'm making fun of it. I'm not making fun of the name of Jesus.

What I'm explaining to you is, is you are verbally expressing something.

How you say something may be wrong.

In fact, in Alabama, we just come up with words for culture of coming up with our own words.

Okay? I come up with words during sermons.

All right,

so. So we. We know how to do that. But remember, it's not the J, E, S, U, S or the J what matters. It's what does that mean?

Does that make sense to you?

The word means something.

All right, Now, I want you to notice in the culture that we live in,

Satan tries to take words and reuse them wrongly.

You need to hear that.

What does that mean? Well, he meant that you can't just change the word. What the word means. It means something.

And just because you change what it means, doesn't change what it means actually to me.

Okay? Words mean things well, Joshua or Jesus or Yahshua.

What he says is if I take the Lord's the fullness of his character nature is described by this name,

and I use it in an empty or vain or wrong way.

More importantly, if I attribute to that to Jesus something that's clearly out of line with his name,

then I am taking his name in vain or better described,

I am blaspheming.

As you go today I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep.

You, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.