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I want to read to you from Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11, beginning in verse 8. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as a foreigner, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.

For he was looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead, at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they Desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning, recognizing that there are cities of men, and there is the city that is built by you.

Father, we are caught up in this worldly system. Father, that is where we live and dwell. But we know that there is a better world coming, one that isn't built upon the arrogance of man and the rebellion of man, but one that is built upon your wisdom, according to your knowledge, and according to your graciousness and justice and mercy, and all that personified in our great King Jesus Christ.

And Father, we have heard his voice to come out of this worldly system and to walk in newness of life according to the pattern of our great Lord and Savior. So, Father, we bow our hearts before you this morning, thanking you for calling us out of this world of darkness into your marvelous light.

Help us, Father, to more and more each day be heavenly-minded and be about the things among our time here on earth that pleases you. So, Father, we want to worship you this morning with all of our hearts. So, come, Father, be glorified in our midst. Send your Spirit to give us money.

Minds and hearts and voices to think, echo, and sing your praise. In Christ's name, Amen. Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17. We'll be looking at the first six verses this morning. Revelation chapter 17, beginning in verse 1. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.

And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality.

And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the saints of the saints. Blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.

And the angel said to me, Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. Well, again, good morning. Welcome to the fall of Babylon the Great, the great harlot and the beast she rides upon.

You know, lots going on in this book as we study through the book of Revelation. From one perspective of the book of Revelation, it's about the rise and fall of Earth's final empire. That's really what the book of Revelation is about, the rise and fall of this Babylon the Great.

In fact, when you think about this, I'll just give you, bring you back to speed. It's been a couple weeks since we've been here, since we've been in Revelation, and so maybe it's fitting to take a little bit of a step back and look at where we've been and look at what this book is about before jumping into what becomes in many ways some of the most difficult or controversial passages in the book of Revelation.

Be good to step back and get a broad sweep of where things, where we stand in the book. Remember, the book of Revelation is about the opening of seven seals. We've been there, looked at the six seals, and then when the seventh seal is opened, seven trumpets come forth and are blown.

And when the seventh trumpet is blown, seven bowls are then poured out. So you have really the outline of the whole book around these seals, trumpets, and bowls. Now in 6:1, chapter 6, verse 1, we open the first seal. And in Revelation 16, 21, where we just, the verse we just completed last time, the bowl is finally poured out.

And so from chapter 6 all the way through chapter 16, they're about the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls. But if you back up a couple of chapters before, before chapter 6, you have chapter 4 and 5, which give us this picture of this throne room and the worship in the throne room, and really it's about the presentation of the Lamb who is worthy to open the seals.

So even chapter 4 and chapter 5 serve as an introductory into these seven seals, the scroll with seven seals. And then just shortly after, chapter 17, 18, and 19 go back and tell us a little more about the seventh bowl. They go into detail a little more of what takes place in the The final bowl, judgment.

And so, really, from chapter 4 all the way through chapter 17, 18, and 19, you really have the contents of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls. That's really the bulk of it. And it's about the rise and fall of Babylon the Great. If you look at, if you remember, going back to chapter 6 and 6:1, there's first a white horse that comes on the scene.

I named that horse Dominion, but it's the rise. It speaks of the rise of this final Babylon the Great, an antichrist thinking mindset that then comes to power and comes to reign over the earth. And it's not surprising that in the wake of such, you have bloodshed, worldwide war, you have a worldwide famine, and then subsequent to that, you have a widespread death.

And that's the red horse, the black horse, and the green horse. And then when you come to the fifth seal, we understand that many of these deaths are associated with the saints. There are saints crying out underneath the altar, Lord, how long are you going to let this evil empire go on doing the things that it's doing?

And so you get that cry, the martyrs, and they are told to wait until the final number of martyrs comes. Come in. And so then you have the then in the sixth seal, you have the changes in the heavenlies that signal the great day of the Lord. And the people on earth get it.

The kings and rulers and all stratums of society understand that the great day of God's wrath has come and the wrath of the Lamb. They seek to take shelter in the caves and the rocks and even cry out that they would fall on them for the great fear and dread of the day of the Lord.

So then the seventh seal is opened and you have the seven trumpets emerge, which really outline for us the day of the Lord. This empire comes to power, they commit horrific atrocities, and then God brings the day of the Lord. That long-anticipated day of the Lord spoken of throughout the scripture comes upon, revealed in seven trumpets.

When they get to the seventh trumpet, then you get the bowl judgments that come out. The seven bowl judgments which come out at the very end of this period, which bring about complete devastation upon Babylon the Great. So that's really largely what the book of Revelation is about, the rise of this evil empire and the putting down of it, its final Destruction.

And that's where we've been. And so then what happens as we go into chapter 17, 18, and 19, we deal more specifically with the fall of Babylon the Great. Babylon the Great, like any superpower, has elements of it. It has a religious component. It has an economic component.

It has a military. And all of these in chapters 17, 18, and 19 are going to be depicted on how it comes down, how God judges them. And so, even as we look around our world today and we see conflict, we're horrified by some of the news and by what we see happening in Israel and what we see happening around the world.

And it seems like the whole world seems to have to take sides in this Israeli and Palestinian conflict. But ultimately, we know where all this goes. We know where this all ends up. And we know that the ultimate solution is not going to be found in man, but in God, and specifically the coming of his Christ.

And then we are going to see peace, not only in the Middle East, but peace globally, because he who is king of kings and lord of lords will step in and deal with the fundamental problem, and that is man's self-worth. Worship, man's self-exaltation, and building the world or building the cities according to man instead of the cities, instead of cities built of God.

And it is specifically this that Abraham was called to come out of. He came out of his city, seeking a city whose foundations are built by God. But Revelation gives us this picture of this final city, this final effort of humanity to build his utopia. It also gives us its fundamental flaws and its subsequent judgment.

But as we're thinking about this for a moment, in this kingdom, this last great empire is really what we'd call a superpower or the next superpower. It will be the only superpower. But just like with any superpower, there are three major components. A superpower has a military, a great military.

Second, a superpower has an economy, a great economy. And third, a superpower has an ideology or a A religious component that shares and ties and brings cohesion to the whole people. And so you think about the United States after World War II. It really emerged, some would, many would say, as the only superpower, largely.

There was, in fact, the USA demonstrated a commitment. They had an internal cohesion, a philosophy, really a religious component built upon this idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. And around this idea, of course, that comes out of a biblical worldview, out of this, even if there was a broad spectrum in the religious, the Christianity in the United States, there was this core.

And around that core, you build a nation, and then that nation begins to defend those principles. And you have, by the time World War II comes around, you have the United States emerging with one of the strongest, not the strongest, militaries in the world, and then subsequently one of the strongest economies in the world, and an internal cohesion that just made it a unique and powerful nation.

In fact, we can debate all day long what other superpowers are. But one of the things that historically has kept China from being designated as a superpower, or at least until this generation, my generation, is that they had a strong military, but their economy, not so strong, and their ability to hold it together and impact world, influence the world, has been lacking.

That has probably changed. And so today, many would classify China as a great superpower, or one of the great. Same with Russia. Russia had a great military, but was lacking in some others, certainly after the breakup of the Soviet Union. But all that, regardless of how these play out, these superpowers, what the current status of superpowers today are, this Babylon the Great that is coming, this last world empire, is going to have to have all of these components.

It's going to have to have a strong military, a strong economy, and an ideology that can rally and bring a cohesion throughout its whole. That's going to be true about Satan's empire. That's also what's going to happen in its downfall. Each of these will have to be brought.

Down. Chapter 17 depicts the fall of this internal religious cohesion, judgment upon the harlot, the religious component. Chapter 18 depicts the fall of its economic dominance and strength. So there's going to be a fall in Babylon the Great's economic structure. And then, of course, chapter 19 depicts the fall of its military power and political influence as Christ returns and destroys its final resistance at this Armageddon.

And so when you're looking at, as we enter into chapter 17, 18, and 19, we are looking at what is being judged. We are, chapter 16 has already given us the seventh bold judgment, shows us, we've seen already the grapes of wrath being poured out, being trampled in chapter 14, and then depicted again in chapter 16 with the hailstones coming at the final judgment, stomping out the worldwide resistance that has come against Jerusalem and in the land of Israel.

All of that comes. But what is specifically being looked at is what is Being judged. What is God judging? And so today, what I want to do is just provide a brief introduction and an overview of these coming chapters so that you'll start getting an appreciation for how God is sovereign over the events that we see in the rise of this global hostility and the putting down of this global hostile.

It's God who is sovereign over all these events, and that'll be evident as we go through. But also, this will help us be able to put into perspective some of the things that we're seeing happening in our world today. They all lead somewhere. All the events that we're seeing in the Middle East, they are going to ultimately culminate in the events that we describe in these chapters.

I don't know how long, but we can see that there's not going to be this peace brokered by man because there's something far more significant and spiritual about the conflict. There is a final expression, and this is just one element of it. And our chapters describe the end of this.

Final empire that has risen to power. So let's just begin looking at chapter 17. First, I want you to look at the purpose for this vision, this vision of the harlot and the beast. The harlot and the beast. Look at verse 17.1. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.

So one angel comes out, one of the seven. Maybe it was the angel who poured out the seventh bowl. Can't be for sure, but it would be appropriate. He just poured out the seventh bowl and came and says, Let me tell you, let me show you the judgment of the great harlot.

The vision, he makes it clear, is about a harlot and her judgment. Come here, I will show you the judgment. The word for judgment involves the idea of decision. Let me show you the case against. It's a legal term. Let me show you the case against the lawsuit, the decree, the decision, the final judgment upon this harlot.

I'll come back to that in just a moment. But it's clearly about a harlot. Now, the word, so let's first kind of take into our minds just this metaphor that's being. Used of this harlot. What does this harlot refer to? And let's just go into the imagery of a harlot for a moment.

The word for the harlot is the word we get porn from. It's a word for fornication. Let me show you the porn. If it was Latin, you might say the porna and porno, guy, girl, porno, or Filipina. Or Filipino, we learned that Spanish and the language in the Philippines are very much alike.

And if you want to understand Spanish, you probably understand a lot of words being said. But here is more on that tonight. Come back. We'll share some of our time at the Philippines. But, and a good, great time it was. But here he is referring to this fornicator, this harlot.

And if you think about what a harlot does, a harlot, a prostitute, it speaks of one who makes a living out of sexual immorality. This is one who sells sexual favors. That's the idea. She is one who mocks the marriage covenant, and she seduces men who are married to adulterate, and she seduces unmarried men to fornicate.

There's a little bit of a Difference in the term. Those who adulterate have a commitment, have already made a commitment, and should have a monogamous relationship. And so those who enter into union with her adulterate because they have a prior relationship, a committed. Those who fornicate don't have, it's still sexual immorality.

Fornication is the broader term. Come back to that in just a moment as well. But a harlot defects from the true way. That's what she does. And she entices others to do the same. And what she will do is prey upon a person's fleshly weaknesses, and then she gets paid for such services.

That's the metaphor. That's the image of a harlot. And so we get in this verse, we get an emphasis not just upon her adultery, but more upon her fornication. You see, a fornicator, as I just mentioned, doesn't have a prior marriage commitment. She knows no fidelity, but she is a player, a user.

And she seduces someone who may have a commitment into adultery. And this terminology. Prostitution, fornication, adultery is, in the Old Testament, always equivocal, or often parallels religious apostasy. The prophets called Nineveh, Tyre, and Babylon harlots. Even Jerusalem was a spiritual adulterer. She had a prior commitment. She was to be faithful to her God, but by her interacting with the gods of the lands, she became an adulteress.

And so there is an emphasis here upon this person who is a fornicator. She has many lovers, has no commitment to anyone but herself. And so, because of this, I think it's important to just recognize that off the bat, she cannot be simply apostate Israel, or it would be more exclusively referred to as an adulterer, or the apostate church.

This isn't exclusively the apostate church. Apostate church should be married, so that Israel and the church should have a married relationship. To the God of Scripture. Those who go apostate from that would be adulterers. But the language here is more broad than that. I don't think it excludes that by any means.

I don't think this excludes apostate Israel or apostate church. But the term here is broader. This harlot has a much broader clientele, as the next verse is going to make very clear. But notice also, she is someone who sits on many waters, many waters. And we're not left wondering what the waters represent because look at verse 15.

We get an interpretation of it. I'm sorry, verse 18. I'm sorry, where was I? Where am I? Hold on a second. Oh, it's 1715. Yeah, I was right to begin with. And he said to me, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

So she sits in a place of influence. Literally, the word sitting upon enthroned. She is sitting upon these peoples, these multitudes, nations, tongues. She is in a prominent seat of authority, a prominent seat of influence, and even control. So, in the context of Revelation, Revelation 17, this harlot is a religious prostitute.

She is the spirit that entices people from revealed truth. She is that emblem of false religion. She is strongly anti-God, strongly antichrist, and she preys upon the antichrist sentiments in every false religion, and she is able to bring that together. She will be tolerant of everything except for that which obeys the God revealed in Scripture.

She's going to be tolerant of everything except for the Christ revealed in scripture. This is this one. Well, more about her. But look at, oh, and by the way, this woman's been around the block a few times. She's been around the block throughout history. She will be that religious cohesion that gives rise to Babylon the Great.

This isn't hard to imagine. We see it all the time. We understand where this is going. It will just ultimately culminate in this final empire. But let's look for a moment at some of her clients. Verse 2: with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality.

And those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. This is pretty graphic information, pretty graphic language. These are with her, we've got this prostitute, this harlot with whom the kings of the earth literally had intercourse with. The kings of the earth consort with, and they became intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.

Kings. Kings are rulers of people. People in positions, people in authority. But it's not just the kings, notice also, and those who dwell on the earth. Kings and those who they rule over engage in her immoral industry. They solicit her services and they become drunk. She intoxicates society from top to bottom under the influence of her wine.

What is her wine? It is the spirit of suppressing the truth. The spirit of suppressing the truth. That spirit which gives license and excuse and justification. For immoral activities. That spirit that rages against God. This is who she is and what she unleashes, what she promotes. And so you can see this.

Do you suppress the truth? Do you find excuse for immoral activities? Do you create a theological justification for doing that which God forbids? Do you rage against God? Do you rage against His Word? Do you rage against those who raise the standard revealed in God's word? Then you are under her influence.

You see, you know what a king is supposed to do? You know what a government is supposed to do? It's supposed to do what is right and to uphold justice. And all of them are, by the way. And God holds them all accountable. Listen to the words of Deuteronomy 10:17.

For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and he shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.

There's no partiality with him, he cares for the vulnerable. This is God. Listen to what Deuteronomy 16:19 says. Says, you shall not distort justice, you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe. For a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

Justice and only justice you shall pursue, that you may live and possess the land in which the Lord your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 19:10 says, Innocent blood is not to be shed on the land. You see, you get just a broad brush of what God expects from a government: no partiality to care for the vulnerable, justice, only justice, across the whole board, and not to allow innocent blood to be shed.

But many kings will enter into alliance with this woman. And alliance with her justifies the exact opposite. They want something she gives. She, as religion, holds sway over peoples. She wants power, wealth, and opulence. They want loyal support from her people. They enter into private commerce with her.

She gets what she wants, riches and power. They get what they want, a religion that supports their agenda. And so they form this most unholy alliance. By the way, there are different levels of crime, aren't there? Think of crime, there's the crime that just happens on an individual scale.

There's crime that happens on an organized level. Think about that. Crime like gang crime or professional, even organized crime. We understand the mafia kind of crime. But then there's another category, religious crimes. Those who actually use theological points and positions to subdue people. But then there is another category.

We could put these together: that religiously organized crime. Religiously organized crime that works in conjunction with corrupt civil authorities. And that is the metaphor of this harlot and her kingly clientele. Religious, organized religion working in conjunction with corrupt civil authorities. That's the woman and her kings, her clientele.

But look back again at verse 1. Recognize that this is, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot. I will show you this. Lawsuit, this case. I'll show you why this bowl was poured out on her and destroyed her to such a degree. And so that's the purpose of the vision that's going to come in chapter 7.

I wanted to show you this decision. I want to explain more. I want you to understand. You see, and notice the focal point is on what God is judging and why he's going to pour out such wrath on her. And God has a case against her, and he's going to destroy her, but he wants his people to understand why.

He wants his people, number one, to come out of her, not be part of this worldly system, but also to understand the rightness of his judgment. It's right that he puts an end to her. And so chapter 17 is going to be this image, give us this depiction of the judgment against her.

We'll come to that next time more fully. But second, I want to look at the vision itself. Let's look at the vision itself. Verse 3. And he carried me away into the spirit, in the spirit, into a wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.

So she is described by what she is sitting upon. She is in the wilderness, a place of abandonment, a dry place, desolation. Certainly would be a fitting for the area outside of geographic Babylon. But also just, it's a place of the abandoned. She carries me away to this wilderness, to this dry place.

And he sees this woman sitting on a beast. Sitting on a scarlet beast. In addition to sitting upon many waters, she's sitting upon this beast. Probably there's no disconnect here. Sitting upon the beast, maybe sitting upon the shore, near the shore, she is one who has a place of influence over the peoples, the waters, but also over this beast.

She is in a place of control, influence. And it's unquestionably this very same beast that comes out in chapter 13. Let me read to you, verse 1. And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and on his heads blasphemous names.

It's the very same beast described here, same terminology. It adds the description of scarlet, the color, speaks of luxury, speaks of sin, which, by the way, is going to be in. In strong contrast to the bride of the lamb, you're going to have these two women juxtaposed in these chapters.

Two women. But notice she's sitting. The beast is a secular leader, government, civil authority, and she is a religious influence that's over the secular leader. So she is dependent upon this beast and to some degree dominant over, but also the beast is dependent upon her. So there's this codependent relationship between the two.

She is, the beast is full of blasphemous names. The whole body seems to be covered, whereas just in chapter 13, it just seemed to be the heads. But this depiction is that of a secular leader, the beast, and the government that aggressively profanes, despises, and defies God. Full of blasphemous names.

Full of it. All over. And it's an active. He's writing, this beast has written all over them all these brazen, slanderous blasphemies against God. And the religious establishment depicted in the harlot has no problems with such a close union. She gets what she wants. In fact, she justifies what the government is doing to the masses.

Seven heads, ten horns. We'll talk more about that as it's going to be described. Preliminarily, I would say this. I think there are seven empires in world history: ten horns, the final kingly realms and kings of this last empire who are clearly contemporaneous with the beast and with the harlot.

But he's going to spell that out more next week. So she's described by what she is sitting upon. It's the first thing. But notice she's also described by what motivates her. Look at verse 4. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality.

You see, her clothing speaks of luxury, elegance, adornment. She is adorned with gold, precious stones, all kinds of gems, pearls. They speak of extreme riches, so she's very wealthy. Over-the-top finery. This is what you would expect of a high-end temple prostitute. This is how she's decked or dressed, clothed.

And she decorates herself to attract fleshly minds. And if you think about this apostate religion, what is typical of apostate religion that loves to intercourse with governing authorities? You get the church-state, you look at some of the greatest cathedrals and look at the greatest wealth it's amassed in these joint works of state and sanctioned religion.

It makes her way. You know, you don't see a lot of wealth in these little independent Baptist churches, certainly not on a global scene. But you do with some of these relationship between church and state, and cathedral, and masses, and religion and state, not just church and state, but just the wealth in Roman Catholicism is beyond ability to really calculate.

Same with Orthodoxy, but the same is true of other religions and their relationships with state authorities or governing authorities. Notice what she has in her hand. She has a gold cup, also signifying royalty. But when you look a little closer to it, its contents speak of great corruption.

And it speaks of the depth of her depravity and that which really excites her, what excites her, and what she influences others with. She glories in the things that God hates and has developed a whole system of religion to justify getting it. And she fills others with her spirit of immorality, the abominations, everything that is foul and detestable to God, unclean, impure.

She's after riches, esteem, control, power, and she sells her abominations to get them, to give the authorities what they want. So she's described by what motivates her or what inspires her. She also is described here in verse 5 by what she promotes. And look at verse 5. And on her forehead, a name was written, a mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.

What she promotes is described. Described by three labels. First of all, look at her name, Babylon the Great. Babylon the Great. Probably like the temple prostitutes in Roman days would have a headband with the name written upon it. And so this is her. She has written in a very outfront, brazen way, Babylon the Great.

So it takes our mind back to Babylon. Babylon the original. You see, the character of the final center of human civilization is going to be very much like the first center of human civilization. You remember, let's take our minds back for a little bit back to ancient Babylon.

Who founded it? If you know your Bible, Nimrod. Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah through Ham. His name means rebel. But as after the Noahic flood, God tells people, Go out, be fruitful, multiply, populate the earth, go, spread out, repopulate the earth. But Nimrod, so Nimrod is the founder of Babylon.

We know that because that's the very first thing he found in Genesis 10, verse 8. He says, Now Cush became the father of Nimrod. He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. And therefore it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord, the beginning of his kingdom was Babel in the land of Shinar.

That was when humanity first started to organize after the flood. This is the first record of an organized civilization after the flood. Babylon. They come to the plain of Shinar. In fact, let me read to you Genesis 11, beginning in chapter 1 and verse 1. Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words, and it came about as they journeyed east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

They said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.

That was the first city. That was Nimrod's Babylon. Several characteristics just from the verses I read. First of all, it's clear that this city was built by man. This is not a city built by God. It's a city built by man, by Nimrod. And its characteristic is that it.

Is built by man and it exalts man. Let us make a name for ourself. And it also defied God. This is the first human civilization. This is Babylon post-flood. And it begins by exalting man. This is what a city built by man looks like. Exalts man, defies God.

We will make a name for ourselves. And so you can imagine what had to happen in order for Nimrod's Babylon to take shape. First, he had to convince people to go against God's command to spread out. Perhaps his thinking went something like this. If we do what God says, we lose our identity.

It's no longer about us. It's about God. We will just be serving him. What good is that? We need to live for our own benefit. We don't need to live for his. That's the fountainhead of an organization against God. And that's the religious disposition. That's the thinking. And so such a system of thinking was established that elevated the religion of man over the religion that God reveals.

And such thinking, such Way of life, such religion gave rise to every pagan religion that has ever existed and every abomination that has ever occurred. When man exalts himself above God, everything evil comes in its wake. That was Nimrod's Babylon. Notice the second thing, description. She is called the mother of harlots.

Not only is she Babylon the Great, she is the mother of harlots. Mother of harlots. This is the one who gave rise to all others, all other false religions, all other prostitutes, all others that have built cities and societies that oppose the true God. That's who she is.

She gave rise to the others. We'll get into this a little more next week, but this is why I know many of the reformers felt like the Roman church is this. Well, I don't think it's excluding the Roman church, but the Roman church is a daughter of this, not the mother of all harlots.

And so there's a much more expansive umbrella here in this term. Mother, she is the one who gave rise to the other false religions of earth. It's interesting from fairly reliable sources in history, Nimrod's wife was called Semiramis, and she became the first high priestess of idolatry. You think about it, what's going on, building this tower.

You've got his wife, the priestess, and she became the fountainhead of all evil systems. In fact, they're going to have a child named Tammuz. Maybe then you start getting into a little more of the mythology, less reliable sources, but more mythology of Babylon. But you get the pagan legends that Semiramis was miraculously conceived herself.

She has a son named Tammuz, who was killed, and was raised from the dead after she fasted for 40 days. Sound like Lent? She was also known in other religions or in other parts of the world as Astoroth, Isis, Aphrodite, Venus, and Ishtar. Sound familiar? That's the whole area.

That's the whole region. Tammuz, her son, was also known as Baal or Cyrus, Eros, Cupid. It was to Ishtar, or the queen of heaven, that the rebellious exiles in Egypt started turning back, the Jews. Also, in Ezekiel, he writes about this abomination that many of the women there in Jerusalem are weeping for Tammuz, part of this weeping, hoping to bring him back to life.

You get this mother-child cult that just spreads all over. Today, you can still see many ziggurats around the world. In fact, you have God coming down to this first civilization, Nimrod's Babylon. He disperses it. But then the close cousin to the Tower of Babel, close cousin to that, or the pyramids of Egypt, same thing going up.

In fact, you see, all around the globe, you see ziggurats, South America, places of worship, all taking their religion with them. As God scatters, breaks up their language, you still have. In fact, there's still. Today, in modern Iran, Ziggurat of Nimrod was built for Marduk and Ishtar. There are many of these ziggurats all around the land of Shinar, of Iraq and Iran today.

The point is, she is the one who gave rise to all other false religions. Whether it's apostate Christianity, whether it's Islam, whether it's the cults, this rebel spirit that disregards God's revealed truth and creates religions that serve man's interests. That's the fountainhead of it all. Notice the last thing that's said about her.

She is the mother not only of harlots, but the conjunction makes it clear that she's also the mother of all the abominations of the earth. You see, it's when man elevates himself, when he comes up with a religion made by man, guess what it's going to do? It's going to serve man.

It's going to be man's exercise of control, just like Nimrod's over the populace. And it's going to be something created by man for man. And so, out of this defection comes all the abominations of the earth. Of this defection comes all the evils that have plagued fallen. This is the fundamental problem.

You raising your throne above God's. That's the fundamental problem with humanity. And we're told to come out of that system. Finally, look at verse 6. She's described by what she opposes. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

And when I saw her, I wondered greatly. Notice who she opposes. She opposes the saints. Why? They don't take part in her ways, they don't buy her goods. Just like the beast who hates the saints, she hates the saints. And this is what the beast and the harlot have in common and why they can get along in a codependent relationship, at least until the end of chapter 17.

And they break up rather viciously. You see, the last great empire of earth will be an ecumenical confederation of those who hate Christ. But notice she also opposes the witnesses of Jesus. They're one and the same. The saints don't participate in her ways. The witnesses of Jesus denounce her ways.

Ways and testify to the true God. Notice John's amazement at the end of verse 6. When I saw her, I wondered greatly. I marveled. I was put into a state of astonishment. This woman, magnificently dressed, splendorously adorned, despicably immoral, frightfully hateful, vicious, ruthless, and brutal. And when John sees it, literally he says, I was amazed with great amazement.

I'll say verse 7 for next time, but I'll say this about verse 7. The angel is going to promise to tell him what it's all about. Verse 7, and the angel said to me, Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

He says, I'm going to tell you. I'm going to explain what you just saw. And so some basic questions come out. Who is this woman? What does she depict? What does this beast represent? Why does the beast carry her? What is the significance of the seven heads? What is the significance of the ten horns?

Why does the beast turn against the woman and destroy her? Well, you'll have to come back next week for the answer. Because that's where he's going with all of this. But I do want to close going back to a verse I read earlier in the service, Hebrews 11, 13.

This is the world that Abraham came out of, or the Chaldeans, Babylonia. I just remind you of what God calls of us today. Verse 13 of Hebrews 11 says, This, all these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. See, Abraham left that city, that building of man. And we are called to do the same thing. We're called to leave this worldly system. And even while we are here, we are to not live as citizens of this worldly system, but we are to live as citizens of the coming kingdom, a place where truth.

And righteousness reigns. A place where there is forgiveness, righteousness, goodness, kindness, mercy that permeates the whole. Where God is exalted, not where man is exalted. We're called to leave every vestige and abandon everything within us that would seek to exalt ourselves. We will find ourselves building whatever it is, like Nimrod, building that which cannot last.

But good news: God calls us all and welcomes all today, here into this world. He calls you through the preaching of his word and through the fellowship that we're having here to come out of this world and worldly system and to step into the glorious kingdom and realm where his Son has dominion.

We see it now by faith. All will see it in the future by sight. Because as Babylon the Great comes to power, it will surely go to destruction because the King of kings and the Lord of Lords will give sight to all that has been prophesied. He will return.

And good wins. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth. Truth. We thank you that you have given us this book, this revelation that shows us the rise of the culmination of all of humanity's efforts to make a final stand against you and just how flimsy it is and how unable it is even to stand within itself.

And Father, we thank you for this revelation. So as we look around us, we know where things ultimately culminate. We know where fallen man is going to go and why. And Father, we are not alarmed when we see things around our world that show us the heart of man because we've already been taught about it.

So, Father, help us to not be dismayed, but to continue doing what you've called us to do, continue to do what the church, what you've called the church to do and what you've called us as individuals to do. Father, help us to come out of this worldly system in mind, heart, and spirit in every way, Father, and help us to be your ambassadors, your light on this world as you, whatever days you give us, Father, we thank you for your goodness.

In Jesus' name, amen.