The Revelation 18:7 Reviewed | Episode # 1151

March 16, 2026

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

The Revelation 18:7 Reviewed

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.

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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 and the situation.

This chapter deals with her downfall. Now, if you think about it, you know, if 1 10th or a little bit less than 1 10th, 8 or 9% of the book of the Revelation is about this situation, that's pretty important. I mean, that's really important. I would say to you that in contrast, if you think about it, the church age that is dealt with at the very start of the book of the Revelation, chapters two and three, you've got two chapters that deal with the church age, and then you have two chapters that deal with this. The Bible calls her the harlot who is on the beast or who has been carried by the beast. And the beast is Satan. And the one who takes her down is the beast out of the sea, which is what we call the Antichrist. And remember, there's really two beasts and there's two Antichrists. There's one that comes out of the sea who is the political leader, and then there's one that comes out of the land, and he is what we call the false prophet, okay? And so when you have, you know, you'll have people talk about the Antichrist and things like that. You know, you get to where they. You're listening to them and you realize they've been listening to somebody selling a book, you know, because they don't know that. They don't know. They don't know the book. They don't know the book of the Revelation. And it's important that you know the book, okay? If you're going to have a. If you're going to have a religious discussion, you probably need to know what you're talking about. Am I right? And I'm just saying that to you because so many times, so many times you get into a discussion with somebody and the devil will drag you down a trail, okay? You start talking to somebody about Jesus and they start talking about some Gospel that was written by somebody you don't, You've never even heard of in the Bible, okay? That's a methodology by which Satan uses to distract you, okay? You know, the Gospel of Mary or the Gospel of whoever. You're sitting there thinking, is there another gospel? Well, no, it was written in the 1500s, okay? It's not, it's not another gospel, it's not a contemporary of the gospels, it's not another gospel. But you don't know that, am I right? And so you're being drug away from what you were actually there to talk about. One of the things we've talked about, and I want to re. Say it again, is these two chapters, and the chapters that are around this are ripe for the giant rabbit holes that you can jump down, right? And especially when you're dealing with this woman, this one world. And remember, when I say a woman in Scripture there are three prototypes or types for women. You have the young virtuous woman, which is a picture of the chur. You have the older virtuous woman, usually a grandmother, who is a picture of Israel and the Old Testament. And then you have the woman that's not virtuous, okay? And that's a picture of false religion, all right? And we're going to deal with that because you need to understand, when it talks about harlotry, as far as this is concerned, what it's talking about is she entices the people of the world to worship her rather than worship God, to worship that religion. You go, what is that religion? Well, it's paganism. And you say, well, I don't know what paganism is. Well, paganism was born on the plains of Shinar. And it is the idea that you worship gods, multiple gods, gods who in some way have control over some aspect of the universe that we live in. And so if you think about it, there's a lot of religions that do that. And then the aspects of that paganism have been inculcated in our societies, in our world. And so then you'll get into people talking about, you know, the. And by the way, I want you to hear me. There is a cabal in the world that is being run by well placed beings who control the whole world. Okay, now you go, I knew it. I knew it was the Rothschilds, ain't it? It's the Rothschilds. Well, I mean, I don't know. I don't know if it's a Rothschild, but I do know this. It's Lucifer, okay? And he is in control of the planet. And he's been in control of the planet for a long time, and his plans and his methodologies are at work. And listen, if you're going to go down one of those rabbit holes, you need to realize that what you're going to find out is probably only 10% of what's actually happening. The other 90% is not true, and the 90% is not true. If you actually knew what it was, you think, well, it's worse than I thought. Okay, so don't. My point is that if you spend your whole life chasing after those things, what are you ultimately doing? Look, even if I'm not engaged in.

This.

But I spend my whole life worried about it, am I not in some ways glorifying it and engaging it? Are you with me? Look, Satan's called the prince of the power of the air for a reason. He was handed authority over the earth by Adam in the garden. Now, Jesus in scripture takes it back, and the book of the Revelation is about the taking of that authority back and the taking of that control back and the judgment that comes from it. But that does mean that Satan's in charge of a lot of stuff. And I hear people say, man, it has never been worse than it is today. What? Did Satan get worse? All right, if Satan's the embodiment of evil, can you get worse than the embodiment of evil? No. If he's been in charge the whole time, he's been in charge the whole time. I'm going to tell you, it's just as bad today as it was the day after Adam gave him control. Just as bad, he's just got his tentacles in more people because there's more human beings. All right? So understanding, that's really important when we're studying this, because I oftentimes feel like, you know, I get into these things. And even my understanding what I believe it might be, if you plot me down a hundred years from now, I'd probably think something else. Because it is an elusive target that can only be taken down by a God who knows all things. Did y' all hear what I'm saying? It's an elusive target that can only be taken down by the God who knows all things. You don't. And you don't have the power, and you can't take it down. Okay? You can take what you've been given authority over and you can have power over that and control that. Beyond that, you cannot. Okay, When God gave the children of Israel the promised land, did he give them China? No, he didn't. Did they have authority over China? No, because God hadn't given them China. What about the United States? What about America, North America and South America? No, but, but, but now, preacher, didn't they have boats? I've heard that they had boats that came over here. Well, they might have, but he didn't give it to them. That's not the land he spelled out for them to have. So when we get to this, I think it's important that you understand it. We got through verse six last week, but I always want to start with the verses before it, before we dig into it, because we always want to contextualize whatever we're reading with the text around us. That is the primary method for studying Scripture. Okay? Do not take a passage out, a passage of scripture by itself and come up with some novel idea of what it means, okay? Read it in its context. And what does that mean? Read it in view of the verses around it, the chapters around it, the book that's around it, and then us. Ultimately allow the Bible to. To be. To be the. The filter that you filter that around. Otherwise, you're going to do some pretty crazy stuff. Okay, all right? And I can give you some verses that's got some pretty crazy stuff, okay? If you just took them by themselves. But once you add the context to it, you go, oh, well, that makes. That's. That. That doesn't say that, right? Like. And lo, I'm with you always, right? That doesn't mean you can't fly, all right? It's not what that means. My dad thought that was. But that's not what it means. It says, for her sins, and it's talking about this. This. The harlot that rides the beast have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. All right, now listen to me. That means that she is a worldwide problem. It's not a. It's not a minor local issue. Okay? How many times have I have. Especially in the night, for some reason, the 1970s and 80s, the revelation was like. It's like Christians refound the Revelation, okay? And so they would go these plagues that you find in the book of the Revelation, and then they try to find some event that happened. Okay? Uh, I'm not picking on Brett, but Brett loves the Revelation. And one time he. You know, one of the things that's gotta happen at the end times is that the great river, River Euphrates is gonna dry up so that the armies from the east can come and cross the great river Euphrates. Okay, all right. Now, I want you to hear me. It dries up some. What do you mean, Pastor? Well, there have been times when the River Euphrates has dried up in the last 2,000 years, okay? So if you see a picture that the Euphrates river has dried up, that doesn't mean Jesus is coming back tomorrow. It would be one of the times that it could be, but it ain't for sure. I don't know if y' all know it or not, but the Great Lake Martin dried up about 10, 15 years ago. You could walk. There's some parts of the lake you could walk in that hadn't been walked in in 50 years. How many of y' all remember that? How many of y' all were here for that you could go look for. For. For all kinds of stuff. Most of it you didn't want. But you could walk all out in the lake and look for arrowheads, okay, at the bottom of the lake that weren't that. That you're not. You're probably not in our lifetime ever going to be able to do that again. I can remember a slough where my grandmother or my Aunt Ruth had her. You know, that slough is full all the time. But you could take. You could walk all the way across the slough. Wasn't any big deal. And then you could walk 500 yards out into the lake. All right? Well, that didn't mean Jesus was coming back. Okay? All right. Droughts happen. They've happened in the Bible and they'll happen again. My point is, don't look for. Don't look for these little singular things. This stuff that God's going to do here, her sin has, has, has, has, has been taken. Big stuff. It's about God stuff, okay? And that's why it's important that we read it and know it and study it. That's why God says there's a special blessing you get from studying it. Because it's God's stuff. It's not little stuff, right? He says, render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay double to her works in the cup, which she has mixed. Mixed double to her. All right? Now, that's called. I want you to hear me. And we've talked about this many times. It's become one of my themes because it works really good with chill, with teenagers. And I. I have to have them up in front of me dealing with this word, repay her double what she's done. Okay? So whatever. Whatever this is and whatever form it takes, at the end of time, it's going to be. There's going to be a consequence for it. All right? Now remember, we always think of. I did this with the Southern Prep for one of their breakfasts here in the last couple of months, in the last month or so. And every time we were talking about consequences and I was talking about how that there are negative consequences, but there are also just as much positive consequences. Because the Bible teaches a principle that's found throughout Scripture, in all the different genres of scripture. The history of the prophets, the poetry, the Gospels, the. The epistles, the. The Old, the New Testament prophets, this principles throughout it. And it's basically this, is this. I'm going to quote a passage to you, but it's not necessarily spelled out this way throughout Scripture, but the idea, the principle exists. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Which means, don't lie to yourself. You can't play with God, okay? That which a man sows, so shall he also reap, okay? Which means that which you do, you're going to reap the product of that, okay? And that is a physical aspect, a law of God's universe, okay? There is going to be. And we, because we are. We are under the yoke of sin, we always see it as negative. But the positive is just as much and just as important, right? The positive is just as much and just as important. That which I sow, if I sow love, I reap love, okay? And I, and by the way, I reap in abundance when I sow, when I sow, when I sow life, I reap life in abundance, okay? If I, If I, If I go work in a field, God returns back to me more than what I had, okay? And so the, the, the idea of consequences is really important that way. But the consequence of sin, the wages of sin, is death, okay? And so ultimately that has consequence too. Now, what does that mean? Well, that means that. That. That whatever has consequence in the world is consequential. It matters. Does that make sense? If a bear eats another bear's cubs, is there consequence for that bear doing that? Maybe, maybe not. If, if the largest grizzly bear in the woods eats a couple of cubs because he wants to eat them, what's the consequence for it? Nothing. You know why? Because he's not consequential. He has no eternality to him. He's here today, gone tomorrow. He's not consequential. All right? If you do something similar to that in the world, does it have consequence? Absolutely, it does. Why? Because you're consequential. Because you matter, right? That's the way it goes. You matter. So what you do matters, okay? What happens in the animal kingdom ultimately doesn't matter. It's, it's. It's the, the battle of the fittest. It is, it is. It is. It is. Live and die, right? The world's under the curse of sin. The consequence of that is that it's under the curse of sin. Make sense? But what you do matters. And what you do that is evil will. You will reap that return. God says here for this, he's going to give her a double portion of what she deserves, okay? Which means if you're involved in that, it's going to be worse than just reaping what you've sown. You're going to get a double portion of that, okay? That's a very important thing. You go, well, is it the same way? No, it's not the same way. You don't get a double portion. Did you know that? If you do something, that's kingdom stuff, it's not what Jesus said. He said, he said you could get up to a hundred times the return. Am I right? If you sow into the kingdom, he said you could get. You could get five, ten, a hundred times the return. Okay? So sowing life has more consequence than sowing death, right? Life has more consequence than death. So if I live consequentially. So I've gone from consequences to being consequential. If I live consequentially, then it matters, right? And it has great benefit. Great benefit for the world. All right? So, so he says, here, remit. Render her just as she rendered to you and repay her double according to her works in the cups which she has mixed, mix double for her. Okay? That's pretty rough. He says, he says in the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously. Now, I want you to think about this so many times. We, we try to make this a small thing. This is a country, right? Or it's a system. Is. It is. Is. I'm. I'm reading this to you and remember, it's being written about this. That's been going on for two millennia. Okay? Is this really a country? Herself and lived luxuriously in the same measure, give her torment and sorrow. Now, if I took a little part of that passage out, well, let's just find the times when people have lived the most luxuriously or the people who lived the most luxuriously, and that's who it is. I would say to you, that's just taking out A little portion. Not even a whole verse, but a little portion of a verse. And trying to assign some agenda that I might have. Right. Well, that can't be it, because this is something that is an ongoing time that is going on throughout time and history in the same measure, give her torment and sorrow. For she says in her heart, I sit as queen and am no widow and will not see sorrow. Okay, now you go. What is that talking about? What she's saying is I am in control. I don't have a king. I am the queen, and I will not suffer sorrow for this. That sounds a whole lot. Who, who says that? Yeah, but I mean, I mean, not, that's not a, that's not a person. That's, that's not, that's a, that's a, that's an idea. It's a mindset. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's a lie that has been going throughout time and space. It's a seductive one, but it's a lie. She says, I, I, I'm, I'm in charge of myself. I'm no widow. I've not lost anything, and I will not see sorrow. By the way, if you think that's Mary for Catholicism, Mary was a widow. Just letting you know. Okay. So many times people, I've heard people interpret this to be the Catholic Church. Okay. Just letting you know. I've heard people interpret this to be the Catholic Church. Well, if you're going to do that, then you'd have to have the Queen of Heaven be Mary. Right. Okay. And she would have to say that I'm no widow here. And that's not true. Mary was a widow, wasn't she? Yeah. Joseph died. All right, so she's definitely a widow. All right. So when you're thinking about this, notice, if I, if I, if I, if I'll take the whole passage. If you're going to, if you're going to sign it to something, if you're going to say, I know exactly what this is, then when I, when I go through figuring out who it is, I've got to go to chapter 17 and chapter 18. I've got to write down. Right. And if there's any attribute that the scripture gives to this that doesn't fit who or what or how I say it is, than what, what, what's true. I'm wrong. Right? Now, I dare you to go through chapter 17 and 18 and write down all the attributes of this woman, this false religion, and then ascribe it to a group or a person or a place or a thing. I dare you to do it. Because I can promise you, if you bring it to me, we can go down the attributes and I can show you how it's not that, okay? Can't be Mary. Can't be the Catholic Church just letting you know, it can't be Mary. She's a widow. Out. Yeah. And she did see sorrow. She saw her son hung on a tree. Can't be her. Boom. Out. Makes sense, right? All right. As you go through it and it delivers you from something, and I'm trying to really tell you true. I'm trying to inoculate you from people who would come and just tell you stuff, that this is what it is and get you all fired up about it and running down some rabbit hole, Okay? I ain't got a problem hunting rabbits, but remember, they all run in holes, okay? And if you run in after them, it's not your hole, it's their hole, okay? It's their rabbit hole, not your rabbit hole. Make sense. 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.