Book of Revelation - Ch. 17, Vs. 1-5 (01/06/2019)

Last week, we went part of the way through Revelation chapter 16, and we're going to pick up where we left off and get ready to go into Revelation 17, but we'll take some side detours along the way.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit to guide us in our study and in our understanding of your

Holy Word. Thank you for giving us your Holy Word, and thank you for giving us your Son to bear the price, the penalty, for our sins.

Bless us and keep us and go through the rest of the day. Keep us close to you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

I'm going to look at a couple of verses that we've already covered.

One in Revelation 11 verse 15, and the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our

Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

Then we went on to chapter 12, about a couple of weeks later, and found this verse, and there was war in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels and prevailed not, neither was their place found anymore in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world.

He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then we skip down a little bit to Revelation 12 verse 12, where it says, therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them, woe unto the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

So what's happened is, the seventh trumpet is sounded, and the great tribulation has begun.

So, as we worked our way through chapters from 12, 13, and 14, and 15, we looked at the details of the great tribulation, and we saw several things.

We saw the emergence of the two beasts. We saw their empowerment by Satan.

We saw the sealing of the 144 ,000 witnesses. We saw

Satan's imitation of that sealing. And one of the things we're going to discover is, that as we go through and look at all of this, everything that Satan does is an imitation of something that Christ has already done.

But it is like a contrasting imitation. It's based on, but it's the exact opposite of.

His imitation was the mark of the beast, and the mark of the beast was applied to the non -elect.

In order to take part in the economy, you had to take the mark of the beast.

And as the seven vile judgments played out, we saw the irony of those who chose to receive the mark of the beast.

They chose to receive it in order to take part in the economy, to take part in things going on in the government, to not be harassed, to not be persecuted, to not be killed.

So they took the mark of the beast to avoid the punishment promised to those who refused it.

And what happened to them? They bore the brunt of the great tribulation. Remember the sores?

Who got the sores? The people that had the mark of the beast. Who were stung by the scorpions?

The people that bore the mark of the beast. And now we've approached the very end of the tribulation.

The seventh and the final vile has been poured out. That was done in Revelation 6, 16 rather, 16 verse 7.

And the seventh angel poured out his vile into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying, it is done.

We talked about that last week, and we talked about why it was that the vile was poured into the air.

It's poured into the air because that's where the prince of the power of the air exists.

And when it said it is done, it reminded us of what Christ said on the throne when he said it is finished.

But there's a crucial difference between it is done, spoken by the angel, and it is finished, spoken of by the

Lord on the cross. When the Lord on the cross said it is finished, what he said was the price to be paid for your sins have been paid, and I paid them.

When the angel said it is done, what he's saying is everything that must be done before Christ judges the unrepentant.

Keep in mind that although Christ will pay the sins of the elect, the unrepentant will pay for his sins himself.

Then we went to verse 18, and there were voices and thunders and lightnings.

And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great.

Now you can look at that, and as you see what's happening, you can see that the Lord is preparing for the millennial kingdom, and the earthquake is part of that preparation.

And the great city, and we identified that great city as Jerusalem. The great city was divided by the earthquake into three parts.

Not for punishment, but as improvement. One of the improvements was now flowing through the city of Jerusalem is a live river running with free, clear, clean water, making it suitable to serve as the focal point and the capital of the millennial kingdom.

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fail.

The fate of the other cities is entirely different. They're not divided and undergo an urban renewal.

They are destroyed. And then it says, and great

Babylon came into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

And we commented last week, I believe, or if we didn't, we didn't get here, I'm not sure. Babylon came in for a special condemnation.

Why do you think Babylon gets all of the attention that it's going to get? I'm sorry?

It's destroyed, but there's a lot of other cities were destroyed too. And it just mentioned them. It said the cities of the nations fail.

But great Babylon came into remembrance from the Lord, before the Lord, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

They get a special condemnation, more so than any other city. Well, we'll deal with that more when we get to chapter 17 and 18, because that's what 17 and 18 are all about.

17 and 18 are about Babylon. We'll get to that in a few minutes.

And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. This powerful earthquake will radically alter all the earth's topology, preparing it for the coming millennial kingdom.

It will make it possible for people to walk from what is now the United States to Jerusalem if they wish.

It'll just take a while. And out of, and there fell upon men a great hill out of heaven.

Every stone weighing about the weight of a talent. Now depending upon whether you're talking about gold or silver, the talents are different weights, but the basic understood amount is about 67 pounds.

So each hell stone weighed about 67 pounds. And men blasphemed

God because of the plague of the hell, for the plague thereof was exceedingly great.

God has given them one last chance to repent, but they don't repent. What do they do instead?

They blaspheme God. So what we have remaining is the return of Christ, the conclusion of the battle of Armageddon, the judgment of the unrepentant sinners, and the establishment of the millennial kingdom.

And then we will go into the millennial kingdom. That's all that remains. The return of Christ comes in chapter 19.

In time it comes right after chapter 16 verse 21.

You have the hell stones falling, men blaspheming God, and then next will be chapter 19.

But John doesn't go there. John, under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit, inserts chapters 17 and 18 into the time flow, into the chronological flow of Revelation, which will pick up again, as I said, in Revelation 19.

We're going to peek ahead, but not talk about it for about four or five weeks, to Revelation 19, 11.

But that was what would come right after 16, 21, in time.

Not in the scripture, but in time, Revelation 19, 11.

And I want you to think about who this guy is as we go through. And I saw heavens opened, and behold, a white horse.

And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness doth he judge and make war.

Now who would this be? That would be Jesus Christ.

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. Why many crowns?

Why not just one? I'm sorry?

They're going to cast the crowns down before him, but that's going to happen later. Right now he's wearing many crowns.

He is the ruler of what kingdom? Is he the ruler of Jerusalem?

Absolutely. He's the ruler of every kingdom. That's the very first passage we read today, that he was ruler over many, over all the kingdoms.

He is the ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. So the crowns represent that he is ruler of everything.

There is nothing that he doesn't rule now. And on his head were many crowns.

And he had a name written that no man knew but himself.

Now I'm going to be candid with you. This has confused me and still does confuse me.

We talked about this last night, and Diane made a suggestion.

And hopefully she's going to be able to be coming back to church within a couple of weeks.

She's going to get her, I'm afraid to say, final eye surgery

Wednesday, because we fought final for the last 12. But hopefully it's going to be done and she'll begin attending.

So we talked about this last night, and she said, well, maybe it has to do with the fact that most of the people that see this man on the white horse are not the elect.

Most of them are non -elect. And if it had said that, I would have been a lot happier.

But that doesn't mean that I have to be happy. There are things that I cannot understand that no man knew but himself.

But then he's going to go on and tell us who it is, if you keep reading. And he was clothed with a vexture dripped in blood.

That's from the battle. And his name is called the Word of God.

Now, how else does John describe Jesus and where?

Is it 1 John or is it the Gospel of John? In the beginning was the

Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And he's talking about Jesus.

So I think that's Jesus. In fact, it's capitalized, but not an all -cap.

I don't know what that means, but that's Jesus. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon the white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

Would you imagine going to war wearing a white linen garment?

Wouldn't you want to put on some sort of work clothes, some sort of fighting clothes? Would you grab a gun?

But you know what? They weren't going to fight. They were only going to observe.

And out of his mouth, this is Christ, goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he should rule them with a rod of iron.

How many of the nations? All of them. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Then I skip down to verse 20. And the beast was taken, that's

Antichrist, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image.

These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Is that where Satan is? No. Satan is bound, or will soon be bound, in a pit for a thousand years.

Not these guys. These guys go straight into the lake of burning fire. And the remnant that were slain with the sword of him that sat on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

So all of the ones that revolted against Christ prior to the millennial kingdom have now been killed.

There are no non -believers left alive. Everybody that's left alive is elect, is a believer.

Now, chapter 19 is for later, and we'll do chapter 19 in detail, and it'll take us a week or so to get through it.

But we're going to go and look at 17 and 18, but not today.

17 and 18 digress. Not to look at God's specific judgment, but at what is being judged.

I said that I heard noises banging on the wall, and I saw

Ron and his wife coming in, and so I'm going to hesitate here until they get all the way in.

Well, maybe I won't. He probably went back outside. I'll let him catch up when he catches up.

I'm just happy to see them or hear them. Chapter 17 and 18 do not look at God's specific judgments, but at what is being judged.

These two chapters go back beyond the beginning of the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation is the last three and a half years of Daniel's seven years.

In fact, these two chapters take us all the way back to Genesis to describe the world system inspired by Satan.

Before recording its destruction in the seventh vial judgment. And so that's what we're going to do.

We're going to go back and look at the world system inspired by Satan, the wicked world system, before it's going to be destroyed when the final vial is poured out.

So, what goes on in the intervening two and a half chapters details this one aspect of the

Tribulation period. The Satan -inspired world system.

Both the religious system, which will be the target of Chapter 17, and the commercial system, the target of Chapter 18.

Symbolized by Babylon, or what is sometimes called Mystery Babylon.

Okay. In 1853, Alexander Hislop, a

Scottish Presbyterian clergyman, wrote a pamphlet in which he introduced the notion of two

Babylons. One, the original Babylon, Babel. And the second,

Rome, and the Roman Catholic Church. I'm going to suggest today that there might be five.

In fact, I may suggest later that there might be seven. But I'm not totally convinced of the seven, and I have not enough scriptural evidence for that.

In fact, we have a dearth of scriptural evidence for Rome being the seat of Satan.

The other ones that I will mention, there is scriptural notations that will tell us that yes, this is where Satan lived.

This is where Satan's seat is. But it doesn't say that for Rome. But the problem is, the evolution of Rome as the seat of Satan happened after 300

A .D. So the scripture was complete. So anything we get from that would have to be inferred from prophecies.

So here we go. Five, probably, maybe even as many as seven. Seven would be so neat.

Because seven is like the number of completion. And you kind of fight for seven.

But that makes us sometimes do things that we ought not do. We maybe ought to let the scripture speak for itself.

And I'm going to say that again, just in case we didn't hear it before. There is a verse,

Acts 17 and 11, that you need to always refer to when you are dealing with controversial

Christian topics. It says those in Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness and studied the scripture daily to see if such things were so.

So it's the responsibility of the hearer to study and see if what is being said is so.

And if what is being said is not so, it's the responsibility of the hearer to inform the speaker that that's not so.

But do it in a gentle manner. We all respond better to honey than to vinegar.

Men were inspired by Satan to try to create their own way to heaven. We're going to look at five cities that represent this motif.

The five Babylons. They will be Babel, Pergamos, Rome, Babylon again, and Jerusalem.

Those we have scriptural notations for. Oh, I could have waited a minute and read

Acts 17 and 11. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.

Therefore, many of them believed. Number one, the first Babel, Satan's seat, the place where Satan dwelleth.

Go to Genesis 9 verse 18.

And then we're going to fly fast through Genesis until we get to what we need.

This is the part that people always skip. You get here and it starts talking about people and names.

And you say, I'm not interested in that. I'm going to go on. And so you miss some stuff. And the sons of Noah that went forth from the ark were

Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Ham is the father of Canaan. And then go to chapter 10 verse 6.

And the sons of Ham, Cush, Mizran, Put, and Canaan.

Now look at 10 verse 8. And Cush beget

Nimrod. And he began to be a mighty one on the earth.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the

Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Akedah, and Calani, in the land of Shinar.

So Babylon was founded by Nimrod. Nimrod was described as a mighty hunter.

But the question I would ask you is, the hunter of what? As you study

Nimrod and Babel, you'll find that he was the hunter of men.

And when it says before the Lord, it's kind of like what you say if you're playing basketball and you go in for a slam dunk,

Dave. And you dunk it right over the guy that's trying to defend you. And you say, in your face.

That's the, I can't remember,

I can't think of what to say. That's kind of the gist of what it is that is said before the

Lord, in the face of the Lord, in defiance of the Lord. In short,

Nimrod was an enslaver of men. Now that's what gave him the ability to do what he decides to do next.

You know what that is? Build a tower. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

So they could communicate with each other. And I think it's even more than we are. Everybody in here speaks a form of English.

Now I know that I speak a North Carolinian version. And Brother Raj speaks a more elegant version.

David speaks Texan, which I can understand better than people from New England.

We kind of have a language that we can kind of understand, but we can't convey what we are thinking.

It's hard to convey exactly what you're thinking, even when you've got the same words. But I think this language that they had was even better.

I think they could convey what they were meaning and convey it accurately without any loss in translation because there was no other way.

And this was, after all, the language of God. So the whole earth was of one language and one speech.

And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they dwelt there.

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick and burn it, and burn them thoroughly.

And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven.

And let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. That was their plan.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one. And they have all one language.

And this they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us go down there and confound their language, lest make them not be able to understand one another, that they may not understand each other's speech.

And I think it's more than just a different language. I think it's the inability to understand what the other person is saying.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city.

Therefore the name of it is called Babel, because the Lord did there confound their language of all the earth, and from thence did the

Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Now, that describes

Babel. That describes the Babylonian, it doesn't describe the Babylonian, but it introduces the

Babylonian religious system. And what was that? Man's attempt to reach

God, maybe even to become God, by his own devices.

We're talking about Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. Now, that's all of the scriptural notation about Nimrod, except he will occur one later time in dealing with an event later on, which we will get to, but it doesn't impact this particular verse.

There's another word that also is mentioned in the text, a name,

Tammuz. Now, here is the tradition of the Babylonians concerning Tammuz.

Now, Tammuz is mentioned in the Bible, but here's the Babylonian tradition concerning him.

He was the son, they think, of Nimrod. He was identified as Tammuz by the

Babylonians, but as Ascalapus by the Pergameneans. The same person that is described as Tammuz by the

Babylonians is Ascalapus by the Pergameneans, if that's the way you would say that.

And by the way, have you ever heard of a device called a scapel? That comes from the name

Aescapulus. So it's kind of a medical kind of a thing.

The power behind the Babylonian religious system was Satan. Satan is often represented in the scripture as a what?

What the first time you... In the Garden of Eden, how was he described? As a serpent.

Well, the emblem of Ascapulus is a serpent. By the way, that emblem has been picked up by the medical profession.

There are two of them, and I think they picked the wrong one. They picked up the god of commerce rather than the god of healing.

They picked up the one with two snakes on a staff and the one they should have selected was one snake on a stick with an eye above it.

But I think the pharmacist kept that one.

Anyhow, so what it was was Satan worship.

Now Tammuz, or Ascapulus depending on how you call him, was presumed to have been born supernaturally.

This is what they said. They said he was a supernatural product of Nimrod and Semiramis. He's associated with the sun god.

He dies at the winter solstice, which just occurred a couple of weeks ago, either

December the 22nd or December the 23rd, the shortest day of the year. And he is resurrected, they say, as the days get longer.

They celebrate this event by burning a yule log and replacing the yule log with a trim tree the next morning.

I don't know whether to tell you this or not. Well, what

I've told you so far is bad enough, but what I'm going to tell you now is going to be worse. In Babylon, the yule log was not a stick of wood.

The yule log was an infant. So they burned an infant to celebrate and then replaced it with a tree the next day.

Celibate priest, the crucifix, purgatory, infallibility, the yule log, the

Christmas tree, mistletoe. All of those trace their roots back to Babylon through Pergamos and later to Rome.

And we picked it up from the Roman Catholic Church. It's just a thin veneer over the

Babylonian system. And we'll talk about that Babylonian system and what happens to it, and how

God judges that in Revelation 17. Oh, and I just put this in to give you a scriptural notation.

Ezekiel 8, 13. You don't need to go there. I'll just read it. And he said unto me,

Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the

Lord's house, which was toward the north. And behold, there sat a woman weeping for Tammuz.

Then he said to me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

So, now we get to the second

Babylon. Pergamos, the seat of Satan, the place where Satan dwelleth.

Go ahead and look at Revelation 2, verse 12. 2, verse 12.

And to the church of Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges,

I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.

And thou holdest fast to my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein

Antipas was my fateful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth.

So what happened is, when Cyrus conquered Babylon, the Babylonian religious sect founded a new center at Pergamos.

And the king of Pergamos became the Pontifex Maximum, the high priest of that pagan system.

So not only was he king of Pergamos, but he was also the high priest of that kingdom.

At the time John wrote the book of Revelation, Aescapolis was worshipped as the god of the city of Pergamos.

Now remember, this Aescapolis is also Tammuz. First as the god of healing, later evolving into Aescapolis the savior.

So he went from being a god of healing to being the savior. God the savior.

Although it was not a seat of imperial or judicial authority, Pergamos became the center of the official religion of emperor worship.

Augustus inaugurated emperor worship in order to give a bond of commonality to the empire.

It was a big widespread empire, and if they could focus the attention on Caesar, on the ruler, the emperor, then he thought it would bring the empire together.

The first temple for this cult was erected in Pergamos in 27 B .C.

Under Vesputian and his successors, it became a test of one's faith if one would or would not offer incense to the statue of the emperor.

How many of you have heard the name Polycarp? Polycarp was a martyr.

Was that in Foxe's book of martyrs, David, where you got that? Or did you just know? Polycarp?

He is a disciple of John. He was the next pastor after John, and he was a martyr.

Do you know what his crime was? Refusing to offer incense to the emperor.

They said, if you'll just offer some incense, we'll let you go. And he said, no.

Now, we're getting ready to go to the next step. In 312

A .D., over 300 years later, Constantine, you've heard of him, set out to defeat the forces of Maxinius, his rival for supreme power in the empire.

His father had prospered when he prayed to the god of the Christians, and Constantine decided to do the same thing.

It's said on the next night, on the next day, he saw a shining cross in the sky with an inscription above it that read,

If I said that right, I'll tell you what it means. In this sign, thou shalt conquer.

Well, we know what happened. He defeated Maxinius at the Milvaine Bridge and immediately declared his conversion to Christianity.

And not only that, he made all of his army convert to Christianity as well. He made all of the worshippers, all the temple worshippers, convert as well.

He assumed headship of the church. He repealed the persecution edicts of Diocletian, which was way back, and advanced

Christians to high offices in the state. So the era of persecution of the church by the government was over.

And the imperial church had begun. Now, as time goes on, remember this is in the

Roman Empire now we're talking about. As time goes on, the church begins to marry with the world.

In fact, one of the churches was described as the church that was married to the world.

The marriage of the church to the world, in it, heathenism was Christianized.

Pagan temples became Christian churches. Heathen festivals were converted to Christian ones.

Pagan priests left the office of priest of the old, escapolis, and began to be priest of the church.

The change was mostly in name. By 1590,

Gregory the Great had assumed papacy, and the day of the emperor of Rome doubling as the head of the church was over.

And now we could go on to Brother David may say

Brussels, but I'm not sure about that. That's an inside story.

But wherever they are at this time, whether it's still in Rome or not, the seat of Satan moves again.

Where? Back to the land of Shinar. Back to Iraq.

Look at Zechariah chapter 5, verse 1. The first part

I'm going to read rather quickly, and then we'll spend a little more time on the last part of this. And we're running out of time, so we'll see how far we get.

Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold, a flying roll.

And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll, and the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof is ten cubits.

That's a foot and a half. So it's 15 feet by 30 feet. Kind of a large flying carpet.

Then he said to me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the earth. For everyone that stilleth shall be cut off as on this side of it, and everyone that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.

And I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name.

And it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof.

That is the curse that's on the land that does not obey God's laws, or on the person that doesn't obey

God's laws. Then the angel that talked with me went forth and said unto me, Lift up thine eyes, and see what it is that goeth forth.

And I said, What is it? And he said, It's an ephah that goeth forth.

He said, Moreover, this is the resemblance through all the earth. And behold, there was lifted up a talon of lead, and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.

And he said, This is wickedness. Now, this, what he's talking about is the wicked religious system.

This wicked religious system is personified as a woman held captive inside a basket with a lead lid.

It is a counterfeit version of God's authentic wisdom.

Now, you all know that God's wisdom is often personified also as a woman.

If you read through Proverbs, you'll find at least ten or so references to wisdom.

And every one of them, not every one of them, almost all of them, if you read far enough, you will see wisdom described as a woman.

I'm going to give you two. Proverbs 1, verse 20.

Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the streets.

She crieth in the chief places of concourse, in the openings of the gate.

In the city she uttereth her words. So wisdom is personified as a woman.

Now, I'm going to go to Proverbs 3. I'm going to read most of Proverbs 3, starting with verse 13.

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof of fine gold.

She is more precious than rubies. Who? Wisdom.

She is more precious than rubies. And in all things thou canst desire are not to be compared with her.

Nothing can compare to her. The length of the days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor.

Her ways are the ways of pleasantness, and her paths are peace. She is the tree of life to them that lay hold of her, and happy is everyone that retaineth her.

The Lord by his wisdom founded the earth, and by understanding he hath established heavens.

By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, let them not depart from thine eyes.

Keep sound wisdom and discretion, so shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.

Then thou shalt walk in the way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.

When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou shalt liest down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it comes. For the

Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. Withhold not good from them to whom it's due.

When it is in the power of thine hand to do, do it. Say not to thy neighbor,

Go and come again. Tomorrow I will give when thou hast it by thee.

Don't postpone paying your debts. Defies not evil against thy neighbor, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.

Strive not with a man without cause, if he hath done thee no harm. Envy not the oppressor.

Choose none of his ways. For the fraud is the abomination to the Lord, but his secret is with the righteous.

Verse 33. The curse of the

Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the just.

Surely he scorneth the scorners, but giveth grace unto the lowly.

The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

The promotion is like the highest point. The wise, their highest point will be to inherit his glory.

The fool, the non -wise, his highest point will be shame.

Verse 8 says, And this is wickedness, and he cast it into the midst of the ephah, and he cast the weight of the lead upon the mouth thereof.

Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold, there came two women, and wind was in their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork.

And they lifted up the ephah between the earth and heaven. Then I said to the angel that talked to me,

Whither do they bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To build it a house in the land of Shinar.

And it should be established, and set there upon her own base. It's my guess that the

Antichrist will begin his rule in Babylon. And then move to Jerusalem.

We have scriptural evidence for both of those. So maybe there are five

Babylons. Now just one more thing, and I'm going to get done, I believe, almost in time. Mystery Babylon, the mother of all false religions, and all abominations of the earth.

Anything bad can be expressed as this

Mystery Babylon. This religious system, humanity's standards and values deprived apart from God, personified as a target,

I'm sorry, personified as a woman held captive inside a basket under a lead lid, is the target of Chapter 17.

That's what Chapter 17 is all about. Now, the wicked commercial system, central to the final world system, is the target of Chapter 18.

So we're going to look at the religious system, we're going to look at the commercial system in 17 and 18, but obviously we will do that next week.

I rushed, and I gave you no time, and we're out of time. If you've got a question,

I will entertain it. Or if you've got a comment, I will certainly accept it, and I will talk with you if you wish.

But we are imposing on Brother David's time. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity that we have to come together to worship and to study your

Holy Word. Thank you for the Holy Spirit to guide us, to understand the messages that you have for us.

Protect us and keep us and go through Brother David in his sermon today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.