Can we open in our Bibles today to Revelation chapter 17? And I'm going to read the whole chapter, first of all, by the grace of God, to try to cover the chapter. So we begin from verse 1, Revelation chapter 17 and verse 1. And there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither. I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness.

And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And a woman was arrayed in purple, and scarlet colored, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman, drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Yeshua. And when I saw her, I wondered with great wonder. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel?

I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go to perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the beginning of the world. When they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, and these are seven kings. Five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come.

And when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eight, and is of the seventh, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and king of kings. And they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me: And he saith unto me: The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the word of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." I'll stop here with verse 18 at the end of chapter 17. And I must say, beloved brothers and sisters, as we read such a chapter here, chapter 17, one really needs the Lord's wisdom and the Lord's grace to know how to understand the 17th chapter of the book of the Revelation.

And it is really important for us, as we read Revelation chapter 17, to read it along with Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 7, Revelation chapter 13, along with Matthew chapter 24, and 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. And actually, along with Isaiah chapter 34, and chapter 63. I mean, I just put before you how important for us to see the connection between the Tanakh, the Old Testament, and what God had given to his people Israel in the past, and what we have here in the Brit HaChadasha, in the book of the Revelation. And there is a connection between all what I have mentioned, the chapters and the books that I have mentioned in Revelation chapter 17.

But if you remember, when we have concluded in our last ministry meeting, chapter 16, you remember that at the end of chapter 16, we saw that the seven bowls of the wrath of God upon this world have been poured. In fact, Revelation chapter 16 is the conclusion of the tribulation period. When we have ended at the end of chapter 16, it says in verse 17, And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done. It is done. In other words, the tribulation period is over, God's judgment upon the earth has been concluded, and in a sense, you can jump over chapter 16 into chapter 20, and the millennial age can begin.

But by the wisdom of God, we get additional information in chapter 17, 18, and 19 of the book of the Revelation. In fact, there is what you call in Scripture the law of reoccurrence, in which we get additional information of some of events that occurred during the tribulation, that we already heard about them, but we get additional details. This law of reoccurrence that we see in the Scripture is found many times in the Bible. In fact, if you remember, in the book of Genesis, we get the creation, that God have created the universe, and then He created Adam and Eve. But then we get, in the second chapter, additional information and details that God gives us over the same history that He already gave us previously.

That's what we have here. Now, in chapter 17, 18, and 19, God gives us additional information of some of the things that have happened during the tribulation, to bring it to the climax, to the end of the tribulation. So, in chapter 17 and chapter 18, there is what is known to be as the judgment of Babylon. In chapter 17, we have the judgment of religious Babylon. And in chapter 18, we have what is called to be the political Babylon, which God will judge. We're going to read that later on when we're going to get to chapter 18. So, when we say religious Babylon, we say the religious system that have been all along in this world, from the creation of Adam and Eve, all the way until the time when the Messiah is going to reign.

You will notice that God has a case against religious systems. God has a case against the religious Babylon. The word Babylon comes from the Hebrew word Bavell. We're going to read that in a few more minutes. which simply means confusion. It's lebalbel, it's to confound, confusion, that which is not come from God, that which is satanic and demonic and humanistic. Babylon represents that which is not from God. Every time God presented the truth, Satan always came along and presented a counterfeit. So, throughout the ages, beginning from the Garden of Eden, all the way to the end of the Tribulation, there is what you call a religious system that is a counterfeit system.

It's not reality. It's not the truth of God. It's that which is a counterfeit, a lie, false. And here we see that God is going to ultimately deal with religious Babylon. So, for a moment, I just want us to go back to the verses we read in Genesis chapter 10 and chapter 11. And I want you to see that already there, So, for a moment, there, beloved brothers and sisters, a descendant of one of the children of Noah, he was called a man by the name of Nimrod. The meaning of the word Nimrod in Hebrew is we will rebel. And this is exactly what we see throughout the history of man, that man is rebelling against the purposes and the plans of God.

And you can see that in chapter 10, first of all, that one of the sons of Noah, his name was Ham. In verse 6, Ham had children. One of them was Cush, in verse 8. And Cush begat Nimrod. Now, there is no coincidence here that the meaning of the word Nimrod means rebellion. We will rebel. In fact, I used to have a friend when I was in the military in Israel. His name was Nimrod. It was a Hebrew name. But the meaning of the name is we will rebel. The human heart is constantly in rebellion against God. The human heart is rejecting what God has said before man.

It is not only throughout the history of Israel, but it is also throughout the history of the church age, where there is constantly a counterfeit religion that had been instituted, if you will, by Satan, and accepted by men, and men rebelled against God. And look what it says here. Nimrod built himself a kingdom. Look, it says in verse 10. And the beginning of his, this is Nimrod's kingdom, was Babel. He had a kingdom, and he named that kingdom Babel. Babel means confusion, rebellion, to confound and to confuse. And you see that it says that it was in the land of Shin'ar. This is in Genesis chapter 10 and verse 10.

We also read in chapter 11, and we get an additional information about the kingdom of Nimrod by the name of Babel. And we even get additional information. Notice what it says in verse 1 of Genesis chapter 11. And the whole earth was one language and one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found in a plane, in a land of Shin'ar. And by the way, Shin'ar is a present-day Iraq area where we have the area of the Euphrates, is where Saddam Hussein wanted to rebuild Babylon. And so we read here that in the land of Shin'ar, they said one to another, let us make brick and burtham throughout.

And they had brick for stone and slime that had a mortar. And then look what it says in verse 4. You know, when Noah came out of the ark, God said to him, But Noah, a descendant of Noah, a man by the name of Nimrod, he says, No, I'm going to make a kingdom for myself. I'm going to make a city for myself. We're going to make a name for ourselves and set God aside. This is, by the way, what's going on throughout the ages. Even in the present day, man by nature set God aside and institute his own religious system. And so, what the Lord did?

The Lord says, listen, I'm not going to allow you to make a name for yourself, to build a big tower, to get that city for yourself and a kingdom for yourself. I'm in charge. But Nimrod and the human race at that time and throughout the ages are continuing to rebel against God. So, the Lord came down, it says in verse 5, and to see the tower and that city. And we find out that eventually, he says in verse 7, Let us go down and there confound their languages, that they may not understand one another's speech. So, the Lord scattered them abroad. From thence, from the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city.

You see, apparently there was a city. And look, we find out the name of this city again. Therefore, the name of it, the name of this city, was called Babel. It is so interesting because the only time in the English scripture that the word Babel is mentioned is in Genesis 10 and verse 10 and Genesis 11 and verse 9. All other time, the name is Babylon. It is in English, but in the Hebrew, every time you say Babylon, you say Babel. It's the same city. It's the same area. The same meaning. And the meaning simply means confusion. Confounding. Lebalbel, to confound. And so, beloved brothers and sisters, I read these verses because God has a case against Babel.

The religious system that has evolved and developed over the years, and in every generation it takes another form. And in the present day dispensation, we have a true church, the true body of Messiah, but we also have a counterfeit church, a false church, which the people that belong to it are really unsaved individuals who really not belong to the church of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. And here we are coming now to Revelation chapter 17, and let us just elaborate a little bit and see what the scripture teaches us here in this chapter. Actually, the chapter divided into three sections, verses 1 and 2 is the invitation by the angel of John to come and see.

Then, verses 3 to 6, John describes to us what he has seen in that vision. And then, verses 7 to the end of the chapter, to verse 18, John receives the explanation of what the angel has shown unto him. That's how the chapter is divided. First of all, verse 1 and 2, we find out that John is invited by an angel to see the upcoming judgment of that whore, of that prostitute. We'll talk in a moment who is that prostitute. But look what it says. It says in verse 1, And there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials. And he talked with me, and he said unto me, Come hither, and I will show unto thee the judgment of the great prostitute, or the great whore, that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Now, the interesting thing is that oftentimes in the Bible, the same way in which we relate to, and God had given to us, the physical relationship between a husband and wife. A physical relationship which God had given us, a sexual relationship between husband and wife, which is proper. And when something such as this has been done outside of marriage, it has been called by God as an abomination. It is the same thing with the spiritual relationship of the people of God. God gave us true religion, if you will, true faith in Him. And any other religion, if you will, that is introduced by men, is called a prostitution, spiritual prostitution.

So what we really have here is that there is a judgment that is going to come upon this whore. We're going to read about her in a moment. Who is she? And it said that she sits upon many waters. You see, the Bible interprets itself. If you go to verse 15, you know who are these waters. What are these waters? Look, verse 15. He saith unto me, The waters which thou sowest, where the who sitteth, are people, multitudes, nations, and tongues. The angel is saying to John, John, you come, I want to show you what is going to happen to the counterfeit church, if you will, to the false religion, what's going to happen to her in the coming days.

And I want you to see that this prostitute, or this who, sits upon many nations. In other words, it is a false church that is mingling with all the nations of the world. It is a human church, if you will. It is religion without reality. It is a system that is mixed with all the nations. And you bring me a little bit of what you feel like, and I bring you a little bit of what I feel like. And they are going to bring a little bit of what they think about. And we are going to make a one world religion, religious system. Many nations, many peoples, many tongues, many languages.

First thing we find out in that verse, that she sits, notice, it says that she, the whore, sitting upon many waters. In other words, it's mingling with every nations and peoples and tongues and languages. But not only that, it says in verse 2, it says, come and I show you, that this same woman, she is the one who is responsible to make the peoples around drink. Look at it, it says in verse 2, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. In other words, this religious false church is going to make the world influence have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

In other words, it will be a false church teaching things that are not Bible, not from God. And she will have an influence upon many nations. And we know, even today, in the present day dispensation in which we live in, we can see that there are many who call themselves Christians. Belong to the Messiah, belong to God, but their doctrinal teachings are totally violating what God says in the scripture. I'll give an example. Some reject the divine nature of the Messiah, Yeshua, but they call themselves Messiah followers or Christians. Others reject the triunity, but they call themselves Christians. And so on. Others worship Mary, but they are Christians.

And others worship angels and saints, but they are Christians. Christians, they call themselves. And so what's happening, beloved brothers and sisters, when we are looking at a time in the middle of the tribulation or in the tribulation time, that there will be the true church, as we have already learned, is not here. We have already learned at the end of chapter 3, Revelation 2 and 3, that the true body of Messiah will be taken out of here. But what will be remaining behind is the false church, which the Bible does not call church, but called a whore, a prostitute. And so what we see that here, two things that she was doing.

Number one, she was sitting involved with all the nations of this world. Secondly, she made them drunk. When you are drinking wine, you are being saturated with alcohol. And she made them, in a sense, saturated, as it says here, with the wine, not the regular wine, but the wine of her fornication, spiritual adultery. A mixture of a little bit of truth and a lot of false. And so, in verse 1 and 2, there is the invitation. So, what John does, he had been taken, as it says, now notice, in verse 3 to verse 6, John gives us a description of what he saw as he was carried by the Spirit of God.

And look at this, beloved brothers and sisters. Because, by the way, when you think about those days of the tribulation period, and the religious system that God abhors, that God despises, where men are rejecting the ways of God, it is a scary time when you look at this, and how God will judge all human religion that is not that which he has introduced. And so, we find out now, John now describing, what does he see? He see, first of all, in verse 3, John saw the woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast. Look at that. So, he carried me away in the Spirit, into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Now, you know what we find out? That this religious system, or this woman, this false church, is riding, notice that it says here, he is there, he is sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast. Now, who is that beast? That beast is the very same beast that we read of him in Revelation chapter 13, the beast that came out of the sea. This is what we have learned, and we called him the Antichrist, or the counterfeit Messiah. How do we know it is the first beast of Revelation chapter 13? Because it says, in verse 3 at the end, it says, having seven heads and ten horns. Now, page back to chapter 13 for a moment, and look at what verse 1 is saying.

In verse 1 of Revelation chapter 13, it says, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having again seven heads and ten horns. You see, this is the first beast of Revelation chapter 13. And apparently, the woman, the false church, that remained here for the tribulation period, is, we find here that she is sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast. In other words, the scarlet-colored speaks about his glory, if you will, and his apparel, and his greatness, the one who will rise in the tribulation there, who will seek to take the place of the Messiah. And here we find that there is, in the beginning of the tribulation, there is a collaboration between the false Messiah and the false church.

She sits upon the scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, and ten horns. Now we can go and start to elaborate what is the seven heads and the ten horns. I'm going to talk about it in a moment. But the point is that we learn that John saw in verse 3 that he sees that there is a collaboration, a relationship between the false church and the false Messiah. the whore, the prostitute, the whore, the prostitute, and the first beast that had, as it says here, seven heads and ten horns. That seven heads and ten horns have been taken already from the book of Daniel, chapter 7.

I'm not going to go there right now, but if you will read Daniel chapter 7 and verses 7 and 8, you will notice that in the dream that Daniel had seen, when God had given him that dream concerning the future kingdom that is going to come, Daniel saw four beasts. And every beast represented a kingdom, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and ultimately the Roman Empire. But he also noticed that the fourth beast had ten horns and it speaks to us of a future kingdom that is going to revive kingdoms of the Roman Empire, the world kingdom that is going to happen in a future day. And the ten horns represent the ten kings which will begin at the tribulation period.

And after that, we know what's going to happen, that the beast, the eleven horns, he will ultimately destroy three of them and will take a place, will seek to become the one who is going to rule alone over this universe. So, that's what John is seeing, that this woman is collaborating with the beast. agreeing with him, working together along with him. And in a sense, it's become the church and the state together. Of course, the real church is not here because we have already said that the rapture of the church has happened before the beginning of the tribulation, but the false church is mingling with this beast and riding and sitting with him.

Look what it says now in verse 4. John not only saw, that the woman sit upon the scarlet colored beast, but he also saw that the woman was arrayed and decked in purple and gold. You see, in verse 4, and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color. You see, she was wealthy and she was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and she was decked with gold and precious stones and pearls having a golden cup in her hands full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication. You see, that woman, this false church, is decked with gold, she's arrayed with scarlet and purple colors and she has a cup, as it says, a golden cup of gold and that she is representing the abomination of the filthiness of her fornication.

She was having, as we would say, spiritual fornication with the beast and the world system, mingling with everything, allowing all sorts of religious system to develop and allowing this to be carrying on. In fact, she was leading it in the beginning of the tribulation. And so we find out that John saw that, look what it says here in verse 5 about this woman. Now we find out what is the name. And who is this woman? Look what it says in verse 5. He saw upon the woman's forehead a name that is written. And look what it says. And upon the forehead was a name. Mystery Babylon. The mother of harlot and the abomination of the earth.

In other words, the woman had a sign on her forehead and that represented who she really was. You see, she was not only a harlot, but she was the mother of harlots. Plural. She was not only herself, in a sense, a prostitute, but she was the mother of prostitution. You see, and the Bible give her a name and the Bible call her Mystery Babylon. in Hebrew, Mystery Babel. Exactly what happened in Genesis chapter 10, Genesis chapter 11, where this false religion is really confusion. It's not the mind of God. And the name is called Mystery Babel. You notice that it used the word in her forehead? You remember in chapter 7, we find about 144,000 that their name sealed in their foreheads.

Then later on, we find out that the people who rejected the Messiah and took the number of the name of the beast, they also had on their forehead. it was the truth is being presented before everyone. And upon her forehead, as it says, was a name called Mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. Now, brothers and sisters, you know, sometime when we hear today about the need of let's get together, let's have ecumenical movement, you see, all the religions gather together and we all have one common ground, we all have one common God, we all pray together and we meet together and we worship God together, well, it's not found in the Scripture.

The Scripture calls the body of Messiah to separate ourselves from that which is not of God. And therefore, this ecumenical movement of all religions gather together and all agree with each other and all worship the same God, it is false, it's not of God. And that's what's going to happen here that the Lord is showing to us of what's happening here, some of events that He gives us additional details that happen in the Tribulation. In fact, chapter 17, it takes us back to the first three and a half years of the Tribulation where the beginning was with the agreement of the false church, with the counterfeit Messiah and in a sense everything began nicely together.

They are continuing together. The beast is arrayed with certain clothes, the woman is arrayed with purple and scarlet and gold and everything seems to be fine. But when God looked from above, He called that mystery Bavil, confusion. I will judge this. That's why John was told by the angel, come hither, he said to him, and I will show you the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. In verse 6, John saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints. Now, look at this, brothers and sisters, listen to that. What we find out, that the one that is really persecuted the saints during the tribulation was the religious Babylon.

The false church persecuted the true believers of the tribulation period. Look, it says in verse 6, and I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Yeshua. And when I saw her, I wondered with great wonder. John is saying, look, I saw her drunken with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs. You notice oftentimes that false religion persecutes the true believers. If you will, with assumption that they are doing this for God. You remember already early in the book of Acts, the first Hebrew believers were persecuted by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. This is exactly what happened in the first century.

And it is the same thing that happened later on. The true believers during this present-day dispensation are being persecuted by the false church, by a system of men which reject the truth of God and often persecuted the saints of God. Now if you just turn back for a moment, I want you to read with me in chapter 6 for a moment of Revelation where we have already studied. But in chapter 6 when the seals were opened, look what we read in the fifth seal where it says in verse 9, And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they have held.

Now we find out from Revelation chapter 17 who are the ones that caused those saints to be slain for the word of God and for the testimony of Yeshua. Who are the ones who did it? It's actually the false church, the whore, the prostitute, the false religion that claimed to believe in God, claimed to believe in Yeshua, but in reality they didn't. They were lost, they were not saved. They remain here for the tribulation period. And you know it had been said many times that when the true church is going to be taken out of here, the following Saturday or Sunday, many seats are going to be still filled in so-called church buildings with people who only filled up the pews but never had a relationship with Yeshua the Messiah.

You know what Yeshua said in Matthew chapter 7, he says, many will send to me in those days, have not I have done this in your name and have prophesied in your name. And Yeshua will say to them, I never knew you. And what we learn here, the Bible shows that there will be those who are claimed to be part of the church but actually never were part of the church of Yeshua, the Messiah. And they are called, this false religion, called a mystery Babylon. So John in Revelation chapter 17 and verse 6, he said, I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Yeshua and when I saw her, I was amazed.

The word here in the King James says, I wondered with great admiration. It's not that he admired her, the word should be, I was wondering with great wonder and amazement. When he looked and he sees false religion allowed to remain behind, mingling with the world's system, following the counterfeit Messiah and have an agreement with him and starting the tribulation if you will in hand in hand, false church with the state continuing together. And that's how the tribulation will start with the false church remain behind. So now after the invitation in verses 1 and 2 and the description of what John saw in verses 3 to 6, we have in verses 7 to 18, John receive an explanation of what he has seen from the angel.

And this is kind of not easy always to understand that, but with the help of the Lord we can grasp some of what we have here in this chapter. First of all in verse 7, the angel is saying to John that he will tell him what he has been seen. Look at verse 7, he says, And the angel said unto me, Why do you marvel? Why are you wondering? 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. John, why are you wondering? I'm going to explain to you about the woman, about the beast.

The woman is the false church called Mystery Babel, and the beast is the counterfeit messiah that had the seven heads and ten horns. And so notice now, in verse 8, we find out that the beast is none else but the antichrist or the counterfeit messiah. The beast which you saw, John, he was and is not, is about to ascend to the bottomless pit and to go to perdition and the day that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose name were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. He says, you know, that beast, he's talking about that beast, he says, listen, that beast is headed up to the bottomless pit.

That beast is headed up to perdition. He's the one that all the earth was wandering after him. That's the one. That's what he's saying to John. He says, he's the one and the people that was wandering after him are the people whose name were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the earth. And he says, this is the one at the end of verse 8, the beast that was and is not and yet is. Now, you remember, again, I would like you to turn back to chapter 13 for a moment, and you remember what the first beast, what happened to the first beast?

Because the first beast is the counterfeit Messiah, he's sick to take the place of the Messiah, what happened with him, he had this death and resurrection experience. We've talked about it in chapter 13. Look, I'm reading in chapter 13, in verse 2, and the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority, then we read in verse 3, and I saw one of his head as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast.

See, John was told now by the angel, you see, that beast that you saw now, John, that beast is the same one that came out of the sea, that the whole world was wandering and following after him, and being so impressed by him, this counterfeit Messiah, he is the one that had that wound, and he died, and in a sense, he rose again, and as we studied Revelation chapter 13, we understood from that, that he gave an appearance as he is like the Messiah, and just the same like Yeshua was died, and he buried, and he rose again, something very similar happened to the first beast of Revelation chapter 13, he was, and he's not,

and yet is, in other words, there was a death, a burial, and resurrection, at least the appearance of that, that's the beast, John was told by this angel, and then in verse 9 and 10, he explaining to him about the seven heads that he had, again, these verses are not easy to explain, it says in verse 9, and here is the mind which has wisdom, the seven heads are seven mountains, often time in the scripture when you speak of mountains he speaks of kingdoms, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is sitting, and there are seven kings, so those seven heads are seven kingdoms which are ruling by seven kings, now I

know that some believe that these seven mountains that he's speaking here in verse 9 at the end, seven mountains with the woman sitting, some suggest that the city of Rome is situated upon seven hills, and because the city of Rome is situated upon the seven hills, they believe that the woman here that sits upon the seven hills of the city of Rome is none else but the Roman Catholic Church, which today have their country right within the city, or their city within the Vatican, within the city of Rome, that is one suggestion, but personally I'm just telling you my own personal understanding is that he's not so much speaking about the seven hills city of

Rome because the city that he's speaking about here in this chapter is the city of Babel, of Babylon, but the thought here is that this woman is sitting on those seven mountains and those seven mountains are, as it says in the beginning of verse 10, these are seven kings.

in other words, there are kings that in the beginning of the tribulation that the false church was mingling with, they started with ten kings, then three of them were killed by the antichrist and seven remained. And therefore the woman, the prostitute, the false church was continuing now with those kings during the tribulation period. So, the woman is sitting upon these seven mountains and these are seven kings. And then he continues in verse 10, he says, five are fallen. And again, some suggest that he takes us right from the beginning of the kingdom. He takes us first of all, and I made a note for myself, the five Egypt and Assyria and Babylon and Persia and ultimately Greece.

And then he continues in verse 10 and he says, one is, and the one that is was at that time was even the time when John have seen that vision, he was cast into the island of Patmos by the Roman Empire. So, the Roman Empire was the one who was in charge. And one that is yet to come that take us to the future when out of the Roman Empire will rise that one kingdom, the kingdom of the Antichrist. So, this is one way to look at this. It's not easy to understand verses 9 and 10. So, in verses 9 and 10 we have the explanation of the seven heads.

These are seven kingdoms who will run one after another and will culminate with the kingdom that the beast, the Antichrist, will seek to have for himself. Now, we continue now in verse 11. It makes things a little bit even more uneasy for us where it says, And the beast that was and is not, he is the eight and also of the seven and he goeth unto perdition. So, what we find out that he is not only the seventh but he is also the eight. Now, how do you explain that? Now, one of them has to do with the heads and the other one has to do with the horns.

Both the beast where we saw that he has the seven heads and the ten horns, both of them represent simply kings. And it began with ten and then went down to seven plus one, the eight, and ultimately remain with the Antichrist himself who is going to desire to be the final ruler here of this universe. Now, this is not easy to explain. Beloved brothers and sisters, and I just want to confess this, that it's not easy to understand verses 9, 10, and verse 11 as well. Well, let's move on so we can at least get this chapter before us. In verses 12 to 14, we have the ten horns. It shows us that there are ten kings who will help the beast to make war against the land.

Look, verse 12, the ten horns which thou saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them, for he is lord of lords and king of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. Apparently, in the beginning of the tribulation where there will be ten horns representing ten kings, if you remember, we often have been talking about the revived Roman empire. And the revived Roman empire, as we see it in the image of Daniel chapter 2, he has ten toes.

the ten toes represent the revived Roman empire, but it's going to go beyond Europe. It's going to be beyond, it's going to be a worldwide empire with ten kings, which the beginning they will allow the counterfeit messiah, they're going to go along with him, and they're going to fight against the people of God. They're going to fight against the lamb, as it says here in verse 14, they will make war with the lamb. They will fight, ultimately, the lamb and the people of the Lord, the people of God, but we read in verse 14 that the lamb will overcome them for he is lord of lords and king of kings, and they that are with him are called the chosen and the faithful.

So apparently it takes us all the way to the end where they will fight against the Lord Jesus the Messiah, and he will defeat them ultimately, and those that are the ones that are with him are chosen and called and faithful, as we read in verse 14. Well, just to conclude that chapter, in the next verses, we have just final remarks here. In verses 15 to 18, we see the woman, the kings of the earth, and the will of God. Look how sad the Bible shows us about the false church. It says, And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sowest, where the who is sitting, are people and multitude, and nations and tongues.

You see, the woman was sitting and mingling with the nations of the world. And then it says in verse 16, the ten horns which thou saw, those the ten kings, upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. You know what's going to happen at the end, brothers and sisters, at the end of the tribulation period, the false church will end up to be destroyed by the very beast and the kings that she was mingling herself with. In fact, what's going to happen is that she, this whore, this false church, at the end, will end up to be consumed by the very people that she was mingling with, by the very kings of the world, by the antichrist himself.

Ultimately, they, as it says in verse 16, they shall hate the whore, they shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. You know, at the end, even the false religion or false church will not be appreciated by this world at all. The world ultimately, and their kings, will consume the false church and ultimately destroy her. As it says here, we leave her desolate and naked, shall eat her flesh, and will burn her with fire. You see, the true church, is loved by God. The false church is going to be judged by God. The true church is being now hated by the king of the universe.

But the false church, in the beginning, is going to be loved by the kings of this world, but ultimately, their love is going to turn into hatred, and ultimately, they're going to destroy this false church that is called here the prostitute, the whore, in chapter 17, this mystery Babylon. Then, finally, brothers and sisters, in verse 17, ultimately, God's will will be accomplished. We learn here from this verse that everything that has happened is planned by God and allowed by God. God is going to get his way. God is going to judge men who reject him. God is going to discipline the false church. It's verse 17, he says, and God put in their hearts to fulfill his will.

See, God can place in hearts of men to fulfill the will that he has, whether it is the will of blessings or whether it is the will of judgment. Here, we find out that God placed in the hearts of those kings in the tribulation period and also the antichrist to fulfill his will. What would be his will? It says, and to agree to give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. God's will is going to be accomplished one way or another, and he is going to accomplish it even through those who are called to be his enemies. God's will is going to be accomplished.

And finally, in the last verse, verse 18, the woman which you saw, the angel says to John, this is that great city which reigneth over the kings of this earth. And you see, now he is telling us what is that city's name. We know that the city's name is called the city of Babylon. And so what we find out in chapter 17, that out of the city of Babylon, there will be not only a political rule over this world, but there will also be a religious rule over this world. So the Antichrist will use the religious system also to control the political system. And so what we find here, that the woman which you saw is that great city.

And we find in chapter 18, we will see that the city of Babylon will ultimately is going to be judged by God because God has a case against Babylon. Now I'm going to conclude with reading one verse in Psalm 137. Psalm 137 is a psalm that being sung by the Jewish people when they were by the rivers of Babylon when God had taken Israel in judgment in the time of their rebellion. And when they were called to sing their song, they didn't sing their song, they said how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? They were in Babylon, they were in Babel. And then look what they said.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy. All of a sudden these Jewish people who were there in captivity in Babylon, they changed their mind and they were thinking about the city of God, the city of Jerusalem. But then look what they said in the next two verses, verses 8 and 9. O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that takes and dashes thy little ones against the stones.

I see what they have learned here something when they were praying that prayer. They will actually learn this truth that God has a case against Babylon. God will judge religious and political Babylon. And that's why they said, oh, daughter of Babylon, who are going to be destroyed, happy shall be he that reward us, you and your descendants. What does he mean by that? What I mean is that when Babylon will ultimately be destroyed, this religious system, and later on the political system, and the city of Babylon, ultimately God will have his rightful place among his people. And that's why the psalmist could say, oh, daughter of Babylon, who are yet to be destroyed.

And God is ultimately going to destroy both the religious Babylon, and as we Lord willing, in the next ministry meeting, we're going to talk about the political Babylon that he will also will have to destroy by the end of the tribulation period.