DECEMBER 26 "THE MOTHER OF ALL WHORES"

 God gives a high & lofty position in this story, in Revelations, to "the woman". We know that the woman is a personification, not a literal person, but it is still interesting that God chooses a woman for this personification. "the mother of all prostitutes and obscenities in the world".  Jesus (God) built his movement on the backs of men. We do not know any of the names of the wives of the apostles or even if they are married (except Peter). Men are given quite a lofty position, it is the names of the 12 Apostles that are written on the Walls of the New Jerusalem. We go on to read about this powerful woman that rides the beast. "In her hand she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality".  As strong as "man" is, the Achilles Heal of every normal, red blooded man, is "women".  She has taken down the mightiest of the mighty. And we are not simply speaking about non-Christian men either; if only that was the case. "I could see that she was drunk-drunk with the blood of God's holy people". David was "a man after God's own heart" but yet he fell to the seduction of the powerful spirit that the woman who rides the beast, embraces and carries with her. How could a man who loves Jesus, serves his church patiently be involved in something as vile as pornography? How could he sit there and watch such immorality and obscenities and yet show up to church on Sunday and proclaim his love for Jesus? But yet this happens in thousands of church across the continent, every Sunday. We are apt to think they are hypocrites, they really are apostates, not true Christians. While we know there are hypocrites in every church, we cannot say that every man that is seduced by this woman was or is, a hypocrite. We know for sure they are the fallen, we know for sure they have become part of her plunder, but can we say they were never really saved,....I think not. There is nothing more powerful on earth, than the woman who rides the beast. The power she has to sway the times, to influence culture and defeat it's citizens is beyond any power recognized to man. We are not being ruled by Presidents and Kings, our culture is being ruled and influenced by the woman that God gives great prominence too in our text. Our society has been taken hostage by her and we don't know how to get free or worse, we don't want to get free. Like the leech in proverbs, we cry "more and more give me more". Proverbs warns us about the fool who wakes up each day and walks right in to the seduction of her traps and makes his bed in hell, with her. She rules and she reigns and she is the main character in our text today and John who has seen much and heard much, our text writes, "I stared at her in complete amazement". We can only stand in awe, in amazement in the power of beauty and seduction that she holds. It is a fearful and dreadful thing for men and the man that is not wise, the man that does not fear her, will be ruined by her. His family, his career and his destiny will be ruined by her. In Proverbs we are warned of her "Don’t let your hearts stray away toward her. Don’t wander down her wayward path. For she has been the ruin of many;  many men have been her victims. Her house is the road to the grave. Her bedroom is the den of death." With all the warning we have been given, with all the graves that she has filled, we still wander down her path and there are few that return. Why is she given so much prominence in our reading today? Because she deserves every ounce of it and more, she is more powerful than the brawn of any man, she is the woman that rides the beast, the Queen of all immorality and obscenities, she is!