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Well, good morning and welcome to Emmanuel Baptist Church. I'm going to share a few more announcements. Number one, regarding the men's night, if you can come, if somebody wants to come and help put it on, please come about an hour early. I'll have plenty things I need help with.

And those who want to help, stay an hour late. I have plenty of things to do. So second, I do invite you back tonight for our evening service. One of the things that is happening next week is Route 66. We're going to be going through Isaiah, the book of Isaiah.

And so the seminary, Shepherd Seminary, welcomes, gives everybody an opportunity, a free opportunity to come and sit in a week of Route 66. I would say in the Old Testament, two of the most critical books to understand, Deuteronomy and Isaiah. And so 6 o'clock to 7:30 this morning Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you're welcome to join us at the BSM.

I'll be leading the first three days of that study. But everybody is welcome to sit in and come back tonight because tonight I want to whet your appetite a little bit about what Isaiah is about and also looking at world events that are happening all around us, how it fits in.

And how it speaks to even our times today, and will give you a framework for what you see happening in the Middle East. So, I encourage you to come back to that. And I want to also say thank you to those of you who helped put on the memorial service.

It was a wonderful time of coming together, if you could call it that, a wonderful time of mourning deeply, but also looking to Christ for hope and joy and peace. And so we thank you for all the work that went in, and it was a blessed time. One final announcement that I want to make deals with what's happening in Jerusalem and the city, the nation of Israel, right now.

I have some friends over there in Israel. We have a sister church, a friend church that we're friends with, Jerusalem Assembly. The pastor there is Menno Kalisher. He was the son of Zvi, who, if you've read Zvi's book, you know a little bit about Menno, or what Zvi faced and the church there.

People have questioning how best to support and help what's The nation and what's happening in the Middle East right now. And I'd say the best way to help is to give directly to the church. The church and they are there for the sake of the glory of Christ on both sides of the conflict.

We have there are churches on both sides in the Gaza Strip. There is also some churches in real Bible-believing churches in Jerusalem. And I think the best way to give is to direct gift to the churches that are there in Jerusalem who are upholding the name of Christ and exalting His name in both Jerusalem and to the neighboring countries.

There is an envelope that is back in the foyer that you can donate, put money in, put it in the offering box. We'll be doing this the next couple of weeks, and then we're going to send that offering to the church directly there, the Jerusalem Assembly. You can look them up online, Minnow Kalashir.

And so with that, I want to ask you to stay. And read. I'll read from Psalm 138. Psalm 138. I will give you thanks with all my heart. I will sing praises to you before the gods. I will bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your loving kindness and your truth.

For you have magnified your word according to all your name. On the day I called, you answered me. You made me bold with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth will give thanks to you, O Lord, when they have heard the words of your mouth.

And they will sing the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is exalted, yet he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand will save me.

The Lord will accomplish what concerns me. Your loving kindness, O Lord, is everlasting. Do not forsake the works of your hands. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, indeed, we come before you. For you to give you thanks. For you are God above all gods. There is no other. And because of that, we can sing praise to you in the midst of a perverse, crooked generation.

And we can sing and declare your excellencies among the gods and the gods of the land who we know are nothing. You regard them as nothing because indeed they are of nothing. We will bow down to you. We will give thanks to your name. We will give thanks to your Son Jesus Christ, who walked among us.

You incarnated yourself, and we beheld your glory. And so, Father, it is because of that we will rejoice. And it is because of that we can have boldness of soul as we go, as we testify, as we face the issues of life. Father, whatever they may be, Father, we know that you will be exalted.

And all the kings of the earth, when your judgment has been made, and when all have heard, they will bow down, they will sing, they will see the glories of your wisdom, and your judgment, and your purpose for earth. And all will bow. And they will sing praises.

Father, we want to, we bow today. Sing your praises today because we know who you are. You surround us, you protect us, your loving kindness is everlasting, and we have been recipients of that. And because of that, we come in your love this morning, gathered. And Father, you have made a way that we can come into your presence, Father, by the sacrifice that you have made.

So we come confessing our sins, knowing that you have lifted them up from us. You have covered our transgressions. You have declared us righteous in your sight because of the gift of your Son. And it's in his name we pray, we celebrate, and rejoice. Amen. Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 17.

We'll be looking at verses 15 through 18 today. Revelation chapter 17, verses 15 through 18. And Lord willing, we will make it through them. Revelation chapter 17, verse 15. And he said to me, The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

And the ten horns which you saw and the beasts, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh. And will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beasts until the words of God will be fulfilled.

The woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. You ever wonder where false religion ends up? These words that we just read tell us what happens to false religion. What will be the end of the great religions on planet Earth?

Which one prevails? What will be the end of Rabbinic Judaism, Islam, in both its conservative and moderate forms? What will happen to apostate Christianity? What will happen to the Eastern religions? What will happen to the in-between of all of those, the ecumenical mixes of all of these world religions coming together?

What is going to be the end? What religion out of all of these is going to prevail prior to the coming of the Lord? Which one's going to outdo the other? All others. Well, there's an answer in our text this morning. But maybe even a more personal question to ask is: where does a world independent of God end up?

And maybe more specifically, where does a life independent of God end up? Where does your life or my life, if we choose to live without God, where does it ultimately end up? All of these questions are answered in our text this morning. You know, we've been looking at the fall of Babylon the Great.

And one aspect in chapter 17 involves the religious aspect of it. Chapter 18 is going to give us a little more insight into its economic aspect. We'll look at that in the weeks ahead. But just to give you a quick summary of Revelation, you've seen this before, and I'll keep showing it to you until it really gets ingrained into your mind.

What is Revelation about? It's about the rise and fall of the great apostate city, Babylon the Great, and the institution of the New Jerusalem. It's a book about two cities, Babylon the Great and the New Jerusalem. This first seven seals speak about the rise of this great empire.

And one, the beast who will take charge. That's what that white horse symbolizes: the rise of an evil empire and the worldwide dictator known as Antichrist. And then the seven judgments, the seven trumpet judgments depict the day of the Lord, expressly stated. This is the day of the Lord, God's judgment upon this kingdom that has come to power.

And then there are seven bowls that really finalize the destruction that come at the very end of the trumpets. And so you have the rise and the fall of Babylon the Great. And that's really the bulk of what Revelation is about. And then as you're coming into chapter 17 and 18, you get this judgment, the seventh bowl judgment, there's more elaboration on it, gives you more specifics, details of it.

And we began looking at chapter 17. You remember, and look at chapter 17, verse 1. Remember, I just want to call to mind a few things about this vision. We're looking at the vision of this harlot and the beast, and really. If you look carefully, you will see the glory of God radiating through.

It's a chapter about judgment, and as you're going through it, it says some scary things. But then, as you start looking a little more closely, the glory of God just breaks through profoundly. And we began looking at this in Revelation chapter 17:1, remember what this chapter is about.

17:1 says, 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 upon many waters. So, the purpose of this chapter is to show you what will happen to this harlot.

That's the judgment. The angel says, I will show you what is going to happen to her. And then, beginning in verse 3 to 6, he gives the vision. Here's the vision of the harlot and the beast. Let me read those just to bring it back to your mind.

Verse 3. 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 blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.

So John sees this vision, and he is put into a state of amazement and wonderment. And then the angel says, Well, don't wonder. 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.

So the angel promises, I'm going to explain this to you. And so, chapter 17, he just goes through and he explains. He's going to explain what he saw. And so the first element we began looking at this last week was the glory of God that's seen in this vision.

The glory of God. And first, we see the glory of God seen in the glory of God's Lamb. The glory of God's Lamb. Notice we see that in verses 8 through 14. Notice that the glory of God's Lamb is seen in what he overcomes. Who does he overcome?

Well, he overcomes the beast. He overcomes the beast. In verse 8, this is the beast that's going to come up and go into destruction. This is going to be the final matured expression of human civilization allied against God. It will be the final expression. It will involve philosophy allied against God, religion, law, surveillance, police force, economics, control of commerce, all that, and a final civilized government allied against God.

God's Lamb is going to overcome them. Notice in verses 9 and 10, it's clear he overcomes the beast with its seven horns. I mean, seven heads. Seven heads are the seven mountains and seven kings, referring to organized governments, kingly leaders. It's much like a physical mountain that appears above the plain.

You have these peoples, civilizations that have risen above the rest in history. It's clear also from the text that one of them is. The sixth head is clearly Rome. That's of John's day. John is there, and in verse 10, they are seven kings. Five have fallen. One is, and the other has not yet come.

The one that is, is John's Rome. Of John's day. And the five ancient empires, any student of history understands this. The five ancient empires that immediately preceded Rome, Greece, Persia, Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, and before all these, Nimrod's Babylonia. And these kingdoms have had significant moments in their histories associated with opposing God.

You remember Pharaoh. You remember Sennacherib, the Assyrian, that came, was going to wiped out all the ten northern tribes and almost took out Jerusalem, except for an angel who came out and slew his troops. You remember Nebuchadnezzar and Epiphanes. You remember many of the Roman emperors. And the mother of harlots, Nimrod's Babylon, is the one who gave rise to all these.

This mindset of establishing a civilization without God as the head. Man setting up his own kingdom to make a name for himself. Nimrod's Babylon was the first civilization that we come across in Scripture that disregarded God and his word and sought to make a name for themselves. And her daughters.

Her daughters are all of those who likewise want to build a life independent of God. What about you today? Are you one of Babylon the Great's offspring? Do you want to live a life independent of God? Or do you give heed to God's Word and build your life, your family, and everything around and influence society and church around the Word of God?

Or do you build it separate from Him? The seventh kingdom is still to come. And it's also an eighth kingdom, as verse 11 says. Notice that the seventh is also the eighth. That there's going to be such a marked difference in the tenures of office and this leadership that he's going to be described by two different, characteristically different terms in office.

And so the glory of God's Lamb is seen in that he overcomes the beast. He overcomes the beast with its seven heads, but he also overcomes the beast with its ten horns. Look at verse 12. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received the kingdom, but they will receive.

Authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. So it's very clear that the ten horns are contemporary with the seventh head, and they will come to power in the future for a brief time and for a single purpose to give their power and authority to the beast.

The one head of this gross amalgamation of civilizations allied against God. But then you see, verse 14: These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings. The Lamb will come. The Lamb will come personally and directly, and He will overcome them.

These gods are not gods. One is coming who will put down humanity in its most glorified and strongest allied opposition to God. He will come because he is King of kings and Lord of lords. To what city do you belong? Babylon the Great. Metaphorically, or the New Jerusalem.

But the glory of God's Lamb is also seen in those who are with him. Look back at verse 14. And those who are with him are the called and the chosen and the faithful. That's who they are. There is a category of people who love him, who love the good, who love what's right.

And because of that, they love him. They are believing. They are preferring him above all the kings of the earth and all the pressures. They trust him. They are exhibiting fidelity and faithfulness to him. So, as we were working through chapter 17, that's all been review. The glory of God in this vision is seen in the glory of God's Lamb.

But next, in our text this morning, it's clear that God's glory is also seen in his judgment. The glory of God seen in his judgment. God is going to judge the harlot, and he shows us how. And it is truly a work of wisdom. It is a work of justice.

And it is a work to marvel how he does it. And that's what he's going to show us. So that's what I want you to see this morning. I want you to see the glory of God put on display here and how he judges apostate religion. I want you to see his glory so that you will glorify him now as we wait.

So, first of all, we're going to look at God's glory, God's judgment, and it's going to be seen in who he judges. Seen in who he judges. This is the one to be judged. Look at verse 15. And he said to me, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

You see, the one who's going to be judged, this harlot who sits upon the waters, and he's explaining, the angel's explaining it, the waters which you saw, let me explain where the harlot sits, peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. She connects with the masses. She is in a position of global esteem.

She connects with the masses on a corporate level, institutional level, but also on a very personal level. She's the one who gets wealthy by selling people the justification to do their evil deeds. She is the one who gives license. She is that religious and philosophical basis that allows the masses to follow their corrupt heart instead of God's revealed will.

At the foundation of this entity is a religious and philosophical basis. Let people do what they want and come up with a whole lot of different ways and justifications, a lot of different religions, a lot of different ways to allow people to follow their corrupt hearts. And that's really what idolatry is.

You make an image of what you want to serve, and then you bow down and serve it. But this is what she's peddling. She provides that basis for corrupt man to follow the corruptness and desires of his heart. And, but it's not just that, she also justifies the spilling of the blood of those who do not participate in what she treasures.

Look at verse 4. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones, having in her hand a gold cup full of a bomb. Abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. Verse 6, and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

She loves three things. It's very clear. This harlot, this system. She loves luxury. She loves immoral abominations. That's what she peddles. And she loves killing the saints and the witnesses of Jesus. This is the true king, the one the dragon is after, the one who made a failed attempt trying to unseat him in heaven, and he was cast out, and now he takes his last emotional, pathetic stand upon earth.

But as we are looking at these things, we have to ask ourselves and caution ourselves: how do you justify doing that which God forbids? Think about this on a personal level. When God tells you to do something and you know very clearly what is right and you routinely and habitually do what God forbids, what's going on?

There is a justification for it. And it amounts to a false religion. It amounts to, in one shape or form, Saying, no, God, I'm going to pursue what I want to do at this time. That's the spirit of the age. That's the spirit that departs from God's revealed truth, and from it flow all forms of false religion.

Just a whole lot of different expressions, but they come back to one basic. And it will come up with all forms of ecumenical compromises. What is the result of your false religion? If you're going to listen to the spirit of the age and elevate yourself, what happens to your life if it just runs its course?

What happens to a life built upon a system opposed to God? Well, the scripture is very clear. You're going to reap what you sow. And how? What does that look like? Galatians 6:7 says, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will reap.

How does God bring this about? How is he going to judge the spirit of the age? How is he going to judge your false religion? Well, by one day, as we see in our text, by handing them over. This is what he's going to do. Hand them over to the granddaddy of evil spirits.

We all cannot be God. And that's going to be painfully aware, made plain in our text. So the glory of God's judgment is seen in who he judges. The harlot, the one that's full of abomination, the one who is filled with luxury, immoral abominations, and killing violence. But the glory of God's judgment is also seen in the instrument he uses to judge her.

Look at the instrument he uses to judge this harlot. Verse 16, and the ten horns which you saw and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. Shocking. She's riding this beast.

There is a relationship between this woman and this beast. And now, here we come to verse 16. And all of a sudden we see these ten kings allied with the beast, and they're going to destroy her. Listen to how. I mean, four future verbs. He tells you what's going to happen to her.

First of all, they are going to hate her. That is, they are going to hate, despise, detest, abhor, reject her. They're going to come to hate her. In fact, early on in the chapter, it's like it says the woman was sitting upon a beast, and the angel says, I will tell you the mystery of the beast that carries her.

That's the idea of putting up with her. And there gets to be a point when the beast is tired of the one, the harlot, writing. They will hate her. They will abhor her. That's the first thing. Second, they will make her desolate and naked. Look at verse 16.

They will make her desolate. The word there is they will depopulate her. They will bring her to ruin. They will devastate her. That's the idea. Number three, they will eat her flesh. They will eat her flesh. They will devour her flesh. And four, they will burn her up in fire.

Whatever's left. They will hate her. They will strip her. They will consume her. They will burn what is left. Isn't this a picture of what happens to a prostitute after her use is done? This is how her lovers will treat her once they're through with her. The lovers who made her rich, they will hate, strip, consume, and burn what is left.

What is all that saying? They're going to dismantle her worship services, practices. They're going to depopulate her worship. They're going to turn the masses against her. They will confiscate all of her wealth. I mean, this is going to be a system of great. You look around the wealth that there is in religious circles across the ages.

There's a tremendous amount of wealth and property stored up. They will destroy her ideologies. They will use her resources to worship the beast. Perhaps they'll even put his image up in many of these places. But the point is, they will use her and then they will discard her.

The beast is going to use false religion to help him gain control of the world, and once he gets it, he's going to discard the system. It's like those evil regimes who use democracy to get into power and then they destroy the latter. That's the same image. Here, only different.

They will use her and then they will discard her when they're done. And they will replace her with a worldwide worship of the beast. See, up until this point, this government has been unified by what they're against. This is anti-Christ government. It's about a bunch of people gathered together not for what they're for, but for what they're against.

This is why you see some absolute bizarre connections in our world today. What does the LGBTQ community have anything in common with Islam? Look at it, nothing except a greater hatred for biblical truth. And so they will ally in their hatred. I mean, you look at some of the demonstrations going on around our world today, and you're going, you're seeing flags, and you're like, you guys don't comport, you guys don't comport, you guys don't agree, except with what you hate.

Well, that's going to come to an end. That's going to build the coalition. That's going to build this ecumenical idealism that comes against Christ. We can be unified by the greater enemy, but there's going to come a time when this beast, the one who wants to be worshiped, The one who has said in his heart, I will sit upon the Mount of Assembly, I will be worshiped.

This one, when he takes power, he's going to at some point say, Okay, we've been united by what we are against. Now we're going to be united for what we're for. And by the way, what we're for is me. And that's how he's going to elevate himself and demand worship.

This is the beast energized by Satan, and Satan wants exclusive worship. And that's why Daniel speaks about this one who will come and exalt himself over every God. Listen to what Daniel 11:37 says. Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every God and will speak monstrous things against the God of God, and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.

What's going to happen? The political structure will crush the religious structure and institute one final structure, an emperor kind of worship. That's the religion that's going to prevail. Worshiping the beast. And we already see this pattern in history. We see this in many of the Gentile kings. This is nothing new.

Nebuchadnezzar, you remember Babylon? You worship this image, or you all go into the fiery furnace? That's an exalting position. You remember Persia, Daniel in the light? You can only pray. You cannot pray to the gods. You must pray in the direction of the emperor. Greece, you remember Antiochus, Rome, and the many forms of emperor worship.

You see, there never has really been a love relationship between church and state, even as we've seen it played out in many scenarios. And in Revelation chapter 17, this church and state use those terms. It's more of a codependent relationship. They need each other. You remember King Henry the VIII?

He didn't like the Pope. Why? Because the Pope wouldn't let him have a divorce. Good for the Pope. So what do you do? Well, he got rid of the Catholic Church. The Communist Party didn't like religion, so guess what? Let's get rid of all religion. Elevate The party, elevate the state.

The same is going to be true of the beast. The instrument that God is going to use is going to be the political element, component of this Babylon the Great, and that's going to be the end of these false systems, because there's only room for one God. But the glory of God's judgment is seen not only in who He judges, and is seen not only in the instrument He uses, but is seen in His sovereignty through the purpose, through the whole thing.

Look at how He judges her. Look at His sovereignty in verse 17. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled. Interesting, God's mind and the ten kings' mind come together on one thing.

You know why? Because it's God who puts it in their heart. In their war against God, they are doing God's bidding. It's striking. Proverbs 21:1 says, The king's heart is a stream of water. In the hand of the Lord, he turns it wherever he will. And this will be true of the beast and of the ten kings.

God is sovereign. Even then, God's sovereignty is on display. He uses Satan to judge Satan's kingdom. It's incredible. It's God's purpose that the political ambitions of the Antichrist will clash with and be the means to judge and condemn the false religions. At some point, it's like, okay, I'm going to get rid of all you clerics.

I want to get rid of all you guys who aren't just totally in love with me. I want to get rid of every system except the one to worship, the beast. That's the end of apostate Christianity. He gives them over. It's the end of Islam, Hinduism. It's all going to culminate in a form of emperor worship where Satan incarnate is worshiped.

Oh, there may be an ecumenical deal. There may still be churches and all that stuff, but there may be an image. There may be some sort of tribute from all of these systems, recognizing. The beast as the ultimate one to be worshipped. But this is an interesting thing.

He's telling us something about not just the future, he's telling us something about human government. There's a reason why Satan's kingdom is doomed. The very nature of evil is self at the top. That's what evil is: it's a love of self above everyone else. It shows up in our relationships.

It's when you exalt yourself above your neighbor as the one to be pleased. When you exalt yourself above God as the one to be pleased, that is putting yourself at the top. And guess what? There's a lot better people who are getting, who are going to make it to the top than you.

And there is one ultimate spirit, the king, the granddaddy of self-love himself, Satan himself. You see, we all can't be at the top. The very nature of evil is self at the top. And this is why his kingdom cannot stand, at least in any meaningful way. You see, the foundation of human civilization that's going to endure cannot.

Be built upon this principle of everybody doing what is right in his own eyes. There's conflict that results in violence. Where do we get Hamas from? You see, Satan's house must be divided because the spirit of self is the very fundamental aspect at the foundation of Satan's kingdom.

And eventually, there's collision. And so the woman who leads the world astray then gets humbled by another element, the beast who wants to be worshipped more. You see, Satan wants to be in control and he wants to be worshipped. And he's going to use false worship as a mean to gain control over people, but in the end, there's only room for one at the top.

Just like a prostitute, being used and then discarded by the ones who use her. So will those who follow false religion. So will you, if you elevate yourself as the one to be pleased instead of God. Then he goes on. Look in verse 18. He had. Identifies the woman, the woman who you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.

It tells you who she is. She is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. The great harlot, so far in Revelation 17, she sits on many waters, which we know are peoples, languages, tongues, masses. She sits on the scarlet beast. She sits on the seven heads.

And we know that she's contemporary with the ten horns and the kings. And she is a city. When you put it all together, she is the city, Babylon the Great, which has the greatest influence over the religions of the world at the time of the beast. That's who she is.

And a big question comes out. To what city does she refer? That's the question. And be on the lookout. We're going to do another study in the evening called Speculations on Revelation. Speculations on Revelation. Just pay attention. That'll be coming. We'll look more into that. But here's the big answer or short answer.

I don't know. I don't know where the city will arise or be at the time of these events. But let me just go through a few steps here. Process of elimination. There are those who see this as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is Babylon the Great. The problem with this, it doesn't comport with verse 18.

A great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. That has never been true of Jerusalem. Someone who reigns over the kings of the earth. Then there are those who, and I'll go more in this in our speculations. I want to, we'll spend more time in this.

I just got a few minutes. I just want to hit some high points, but we'll go into these more in depth. America. Have you ever heard? It's America. It's us. We're the beast. Or we're Babylon the Great. Again, just looking at this verse alone, there's a lot of others.

We really don't reign over the kings of the earth. Ask China if we reign over them. Ask Russia if we reign over them. Ask Afghanistan who reigns. Now, we, yeah, we're a mighty nation and have been, but we've never been an empire. Empire. Not like in the sense we see in the Bible.

We have been a nation, but we've never reigned. We do not reign over the kings of the earth. We've exerted some influence over many, but we've never reigned over all the kings of the earth. We're not. Then there are those who think it's Rome, and that's a much better option, but it doesn't totally satisfy.

If you're reading this in light of John's time, you might be inclined to think that this is imperial Rome and emperor worship, which was in place at the time of this writing under Domitian. That, yeah, you could see, okay, emperor worship. There are those during the Reformation that saw the harlot was religious Rome.

But that's, again, only Western because that's really more of a Western interpretation. It's hardly that the harlot, that Rome had all that influence in the East. But Rome fails in the same way the others do. It doesn't really reign over all the earth, but it also could be thought that it did.

But John makes it very clear, it's the sixth head. Her revelation makes it clear it's the sixth head, the seventh. Is to come, who is also an eight. So, if I am speculating, we'll go more in this. If I were to speculate based upon the text alone and not trying to read my times into the text, I would suggest the following.

I think the text speaks of a Middle Eastern city in the vicinity of Nimrod's Babylonia. In other words, I believe Babylon may very well be Babylon. A city that will rise as both a religious center and an economic center. I think this whole thing may end very well where it started, right there at the Tower of Babel, or in close proximity.

That's where Satan first set up an empire to make a name for himself, the very first one we read. Good reason to think that it may end there. One final: bring the nations back together, get over the language barrier, come back together, and let's get on with our program.

A case. You know, 100 years ago, people thought it was impossible for Israel to be back in the land. It is not out of the question that Israel's ancient nemesis, Babylon, Could be rebuilt bigger and meaner than ever before. In fact, it would be a perfect region to muster Middle Eastern ecumenical antagonism against Israel, push them from the river into the sea.

But because the word mystery is used in verse 5, my hermeneutic allows for a non-literal meaning, but it doesn't necessitate one. But this much I am convinced of, and I'm going to give some time to speculations on Revelation. And I want to give time to, if you have any questions about Revelation so far, write them down.

I mean, the goal of getting through this study is to understand where we've been and to understand Revelation, to understand what we can, and to not just get through it. And so if you have any thoughts, any questions, any speculations yourself, write them down. I'll address them as best I can.

But this much I am convinced of. I think the text is plain that Antichrist's capital headquarters will be a religious city where all major religions, including apostate and liberal Christianity, Islam, and others, will be greatly influenced. And perhaps even be represented. It will also be a major economic center, as Revelation 18 indicates.

It's a city that I believe will blossom in the future. It's not something that we can point to at the moment. But keep in mind that the purpose of this vision is to show John the judgment of the harlot. John, or the angel, spent most of his time describing this beast, the one that's going to judge her.

And I think as we close the book on chapter 17, for the time being, it's important to see this shocking, unexpected turn of events. The beast turns upon the woman. All false religion is not ultimately about its devotees. The woman uses false religion to gather the nations, to set them at odds, to build a community, a civilization, to set them at odds with God, to become rich in the process.

But then there's going to become a time when she is discouraged. That's where rebellion to God leads. God is going to judge the harlot, and he's going to judge the satanic harlot by using the satanic beast. But here's the point of it all. As we think about our time today, Satan doesn't love us.

Your rebellion is going to lead you to being handed over, and you're going to find out you're not the ultimate God. You will be used, plundered, and destroyed by the devil who leads you. And that's why, over and over, the exhortation that we come across in Revelation is to come out of her.

Come out of her. Be a citizen of the new Jerusalem that is coming. This is the city that Abraham sought. He came out of Babylonia to the land, to the place where God was going to show him. There never has been room for two gods. God's judgment is right.

God's judgment is good. And it demonstrates God's glory. Psalm 138, verse 4. I read it earlier. All the kings of the earth will give thanks to you, O Lord, when they have heard the words of your mouth, and they will sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.

Yes, one day, all kings, when they hear this judgment, when they see those who are in ruling capacity that God raises up, are going to give thanks because of the glory of God's judgment. Because of the glory of God's Lamb, and because of the glory of God's judgment.

God's going to judge every false religion, including yours, including mine, and every facet of it. And He's going to put His glory on display, and He puts His glory on display right now, so that you and I will glorify Him now. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we bow our hearts before You, we truly want to bow our hearts before You.

Forgive us, where we have set out to build a city after our own name, to build a life after our own dictates, instead of paying attention to your wise counsel, Your holy commands, Your clear instruction. Father, you are the one who loves people. And you know, we all need a standard above ourselves.

That spirit is hostile to one another. That spirit is hostile to you. Civilization cannot exist on such a premise. We need you. And we need our hearts bowed to you. Father, forgive us where we have gone our own way. Forgive us. Help us to walk in your way.

Help us not to build a babel, but to come under the glorious control of the new Jerusalem that is yet to come. In Jesus' name, amen.