The Revelation 18:10-11 Reviewed | Episode # 1155

March 20, 2026

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

The Revelation 18:10-11 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.

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 the time. But it is important that when we're reading God's Word that we do contextualize God's Word in its context. And I make a bunch of jokes about it, but they're not. They're not really jokes in the sense of a lot of people will take one or two verses and put them together and come up with a idea from Scripture. And oftentimes those ideas are out of line with the rest of Scripture. So we want to contextualize Scripture within the passage it's in. We want to contextualize verses of Scripture in the books they're written. And then we also want to contextualize Scripture in the whole weight and light of Scripture. So when you're studying one passage or we're studying one verse, if you have a thought that would be out of line with some other passage of Scripture, then the issue is not Scripture is in conflict with itself. The issue is your understanding of Scripture is in conflict with. And that's really, really tough. And especially being raised, being taught a certain thing, whatever that thing might be, and then all of a sudden you read a passage of Scripture, and whatever the teaching was, it just doesn't fit with what you're reading. What I would challenge you to do is I would challenge you not to get upset about the revelation God's given you that maybe whatever you grew up learning is wrong, but that maybe God's trying to show you something that is new and different, and maybe it is wrong. And, you know, maybe that has effectuated your life in such a way that has been hurtful to you and not helpful. And. And just because Memo said it don't mean it's always so. Although I'm back in Meemaw most of the time. Okay? But that doesn't mean that she's always right. And Papa or Papa or bop bop is not always right, okay? And they're not. They've not always been right, although they're hilarious most of the time, okay? And so I would. I would challenge you that way. So when we're going to go through this, and this is very. But we're going to go through this because we really don't have a need to know exactly what it is, okay? When I say that it's not going to affect us. This is something that's going to happen at the very end. It's not something that is going to take place here. We already know that Satan is going to try to do what he's always wanted to do, and that is to bring about the worship of himself as God's worshiped. And so he sets up a system and an order that. That is just like God. And you'd go, well, why don't he come up with something new? And the reason, don't worry about that baby cry. The reason he doesn't come up with anything new is because he is not, and this is important, he is not creative, okay? He is not endowed with the ability to be a creator, okay? And mainly that is from the idea that he is not made in the image of God. He is not a being that was created in the likeness or image of God. Now he carries characteristics and he was made for the purpose of revealing an aspect of God, okay? And before he fell, he was made to reveal the glory of God. The Bible teaches us that he's, you know, he was a radiant being. He is an angel of light. And so during worship he would have been that which was looked at and worshiped. All right? He also now glorifies an aspect of God. He glorifies God's judgment against that which is not him, not God. So he is a glorification of God. That way he reveals that God is well, that God is in judgment and has wrath against that which brings about death, which is that which is not him. And so we understand that, all right? But human beings are creative because we have. We are image bearers of God. We bear God's image and likeness, okay? And we were made to be as he is, okay? Now that doesn't make us God, okay? Although Jesus does quote the Old Testament, are they not like little gods? And what he means by that is that we bear the likeness of him. We're made a tripart being. We have a will, we have an intellect, we have. We have a consciousness. We have passions and desires. We have a spirit, which means we have the ability to hold the power and the eternality of God. And then we have a physical presence, which Jesus is a physical presence of God. So we're made in his image and likeness. And understanding that we're made in his image and likeness is very, very important. It's highly important because that allows us to begin to see that Satan doesn't come up with new things, he just manipulates them. Even with Jesus in the wilderness, he didn't come up with new passages of Scripture. He took the old passage, manipulated it a little bit, and sold it as, as his version of it. Right? And we have a lot of that going on too. Right? We have a whole lot of books out there that sell themselves as. As scripture, which they're not, okay? Books from other religions and books that claim to be books of scripture. And, and, and, and there's important to understand that, okay? There's a reason why we have the canon. We do. And there's a reason why other, you know, Christian. Christian groups do add a few books and, and don't add a few books. Mainly history books. The books at the end of the Old Testament, Maccabees. Okay? But, but some of these other books out there are either Gnostic gospels, meaning they were written intentionally to mislead you into Gnosticism, and they were written centuries after Jesus wrote them, or they're books that I believe were written by Satan himself and those who were with him to lead you astray. Okay? And you go, well, how do we know that they are? Well, some of them are very misleading in their writing as to when they were actually written. Some of them are misleading in their authorship, meaning that they. They portray themselves to be a book written by Mary. But Mary's been dead for 300 years. The gospel of Mary, okay, it was not written when she was alive. There's a, there's a. There's a book that professes to be an Old Testament book, but its author. Is not that author. He purports to be the great grandfather of Noah, but then he says things in the book that indicate things that happened after Noah. Well, if you were the great grandfather of Noah, you died in a flood, okay? Or if you were the great grandfather of Noah and you were taken up, then you didn't have time to write about the flood after you'd been taken up. And I'm just telling you that that's why they're not canon. And New Testament canon is very specific. Okay? I don't know why I'm telling you this, but it needs to be told. New Testament canon is very specific. It has to be written within. Within the generation of Christ's life. It has to be written by someone who knew Christ or was a. Or was a disciple or follower of a disciple of Christ, okay? It has to be theologically in line with the rest of Scripture, okay? It has to meet the criteria of inerrancy, meaning there's nothing in it that is errant or out of place. And that's how they chose the New Testament canon. So Matthew's written by the disciple Matthew. Mark's written by John. Mark, who went on the first missionary journey with the Apostle Paul. He left Paul because things got rough. He came back to Jerusalem. He got. He got picked up by Peter, who tried to pick him up and get him back on the right path. And his gospel is the Gospel of Peter. Luke was the Apostle Paul's doctor. Okay? And you go, what about the Apostle Paul? Well, the Apostle Paul knew Jesus. He'd heard the teachings of Jesus. He rejected Jesus. In my opinion, he's the rich, young ruler. But he doesn't even have to be that, okay? He doesn't even have to be that. He was there. He was there during the life of Christ, and he knew Christ's teachings intimately, okay? And he met Christ, period, on the Damascus road, All right? So we know that he had an encounter with Christ. And then you've got John, who is an apostle. Peter writes books in the New Testament. He's an apostle, okay? And so you have these books, and they're canon for a reason, okay? And so when we're reading them, and I say this to be so that you can get it and you can start thinking through these things, okay? There are things that tie scripture together. And as you read scripture and as you begin to ingest God's word over and over and over again, they tie off to each other. So if you've ever been in a room with a group of people who've really read and studied the Bible a whole lot and maybe even taught the Bible a whole lot, as they start talking about scripture, you will hear them run. They'll run through what I call rivers of teaching out of the Bible. You just see them moving because as I'm talking to you, my spirit's communing with you. You know the Word, I know the Word. As we're talking through it, we're. We're navigating the river. Sometimes we're going down a part of the river you hadn't been down. Sometimes we're going down a part of the river I hadn't gone down. And we began to see things. That's how, that's how when you're, when you're in a Bible study with a group of people that are like that, it just starts flowing heavily because their, their, their, their minds are, are tying off to parts of scripture all over the place. They'll go in the Old Testament, New Testament prophecies, and they'll do all that kind of stuff. So understanding that's very important. It says here that in verse nine, the kings of the earth who commit committed fornication, remember, that's worship of this false religion. That's what fornication is here. All right? And lived luxuriously with her. This is that religion that is being destroyed by Satan according to the will of God. Okay? And why is this old, old paganism being destroyed? Well, you got to destroy the old paganism to get to the new Satan worship, which is exactly what Satan wants to happen. All right? It says, will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning. Now why people would say, I don't understand why they get all caught up in that. I don't know. I don't know why somebody would say something like that. Because, you know, people who can't get out of, of their old ways, they, they can't leave them. And, and the sad thing is, as a pastor, I've, I've dealt with that a whole, whole lot. You've got this person who is hungry, who is desirous to know God's word, and they are in a place where they. There is no knowing of God and there's no life, there's no purpose. They're just showing up and going through the motions of Christianity, okay? And they, and they have no power. And the Bible says that there will be those who have a form of godliness but deny its power. Okay? Why? Because they've gotten used to it. They enjoy it. They can't divorce themselves from it. They can't get away from it. That's why the Jewish people will not allow. If you're a religious Jew who is fundamentally involved in your teaching, you're not allowed to read Isaiah 53 until you're 40 years old, okay? And there's a reason for that. Because if you read Isaiah 53 and you're spiritually knowledgeable at all, it's pretty obvious who that is. Now, if you do it at 20, you're just a little rebellious kid and you going to go off and maybe become a Christian. If you do it at 30, you might lose your wife. If you do it at 40. You might lose your family and your job. Notice how you can be in it long enough to where you never ever really get that. You never ever really get to where you're. You're doing what you need to be doing. You're not. You're not growing in it. Does that make sense? Let me tell you, they'll run from you, too, eventually. Because. Because they have a form of godliness and they deny its power. Well, this is a form of godliness, but it's not godly, okay? It is a religious system that is being undermined and destroyed. Standing at a distance for fear of her torment. Meaning they're fearful to get involved in what's going to happen. They're fearful to get involved in what's going to happen. Y' all following me? They want to be a part of it, but they don't want to be in the middle of it. That's called spiritual cowardice, okay? It's called spiritual cowardice. All right? Alas, alas, the great city Babylon, that mighty city. For in one hour your judgment has come, meaning it gets cut off just like that. Gets cut off just like that. And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her. Okay? Now we understand that, that that means it's an economic system, too. It's a religious system. It's an economic system. Now, you know, if you're going to go down the rabbit hole of, you know, the. The builder burgers and all that kind of stuff, this would tend to indicate. And I said that last week. I want to say it again to you, okay? There is a one world government that's doing a whole bunch of junk out there, all right? And what you know about it is probably about 2% of it. And the things that you think you know about it probably ain't true. And the things that you don't know about it, probably worse than you think, okay? All right? And don't you hear me? If you're going on a fishing expedition or going out on a boogeyman hunt or if you're going to be like our great president Abraham Lincoln, who was a vampire killer. Did y' all know that? Man, that's jumping the train. You know what I'm talking about? That was jumping. I thought when that movie came out, Abraham Lincoln, vampire killer. Did y' all remember that? Y' all remember that movie coming out? I thought that was Fonzie. Jumping, jumping the. The. The sharks. I thought. I thought that's just nuts. And then come to find out there really is some rabbit hole out there that believed that there's vampire hunters throughout history and Abraham Lincoln was one of them. And I go, really? Really? Who knows? He might have been. I don't know. I don't think they're vampires, but you know what I'm talking about. I don't, I don't. I don't know how that works out, but like I said, those, those rabbit holes, they can be kind of crazy. And just because they're crazy doesn't mean they're not true. But just because they're crazy, just because they're crazy don't mean you, you need to go out there and hunt vampires too, okay? I mean. I mean, that's not what we're called to do, all right? So if you think you're going to overthrow the one world government, whatever that is, however that manifests itself, you're not. Jesus is all right? We got somebody who's good at doing it, and you ain't him, okay? So in many ways it's okay to know stuff, but don't think you're going to overcome it because you're not. All right? Because he says he is. So if you're going to try to get some glory from Jesus, you're not going to. All right? He says, and the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore. So this, this religion is based off of sales, based off of making money, all right? And, and that's an important aspect of it. 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.