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So, we are going to be talking about Babylon tonight. This is what I would call mystery, Babylon the Great. This is something that is kind of a mystery and this chapter is actually giving us a lot of revealing on this Babylon the Great. A lot of you have probably seen the film Babylon USA where we talk about who Babylon is. This sermon is not necessarily getting into that aspect of it. It's more so if we got into chapter 18 on when Babylon is destroyed, which is what this is kind of getting into, kind of telling you who Babylon is. This sermon is more so who is this mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. Who is this? What's this talking about? I want to start off first with Revelation 16, it comes before 17, and why are we even bringing up this Babylon? What's going on with it? Why are we talking about who Babylon is and who is this woman, who is this beast? In Revelation 16 verse 19 it says, And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. If you look a few verses up there, you will see that that's when the seventh vial is poured out. When is Babylon going to be judged? At the very end. When we talk about that seventh from and seventh vial are happening, and we talked about that with the wrath, that when that happens is when this judgment is going to happen. You'll say, well, that's at the very end of the wrath, well it happens in one hour. Babylon is literally destroyed in one hour. Chapter 18 really gets into the destruction of Babylon, and you can really go look at that and then couple that with the physical Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, the Babylon that was destroyed back then with Jeremiah 51, and see those parallels of that destruction. But I want to just talk about really who is this Babylon? What's this talking about? This woman that's sitting on a scarlet colored beast with seven heads and ten horns. So I kind of want to get into that. The Bible at the end here really kind of tells us who it is, who's the woman. At the very end there in verse 18 it says, and the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. So who's the woman? The woman represents the city that is reigning over the kings of the earth. So we're talking about a city that's reigning over kings, reigning over nations, reigning over kingdoms. In verse 15 it says, remember there's many, there's waters it talks about that sitteth upon many waters. There's a great whore that sitteth upon many waters it talks about. On verse 15 it says, and he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. So the Bible is giving us these pictures of this whore, this woman sitting on a scarlet colored beast, this beast that has seven heads, ten horns, and it sits upon many waters. So it's telling you what all this represents. The woman's a city, the city's sitting on many waters, nations, and what's interesting about this is that what I really want to get into is who is this? Where is it located? Stuff like that. First I want to get into this beast. I think if you understand the beast you understand this woman that's sitting upon it. So notice she's sitting on a scarlet colored beast with seven heads and ten horns. Does that come to mind any other thing that's mentioned in Revelation that has seven heads and ten horns? We've already seen that. If we go to Revelation chapter 12 in verse 3, the Bible reads, And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads. And so in verse 9 there it tells us who that dragon is. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. So we see that the red dragon, the scarlet colored beast with seven heads and ten horns is who? The devil. Notice on its heads there are seven crowns upon those seven heads. Now go to Revelation 13. Keep that in mind. In this passage it says there are seven crowns on those seven heads, but it has ten horns, right? In chapter 13 it says, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns. And upon his heads the name of blasphemy, and the beast which I saw was like unto 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 seed and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. So we see that there's seven crowns on the heads and then there's ten crowns on the horns. So they're all representing kings. And so what's interesting about this is that this dragon is coming up out of the sea. Now there's a passage, have you ever heard of Leviathan in the Bible? Leviathan, go to Psalm 74, Psalm 74. Leviathan I believe is a picture of Christ, like it's an animal, I believe it's an actual beast of the earth, you know, this serpent of the sea the Bible calls it. But look in Psalm 74, I want you to see this. And notice the dragon's in the sea, and Leviathan's in the sea. This dragon's coming up out of the sea, it's talking about this beast coming up out of the sea that has seven heads and ten horns. Psalm 74 and verse 12, the Bible reads, For God is my king of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength, thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters, thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Notice there's one Leviathan and there's multiple heads. So you know, there could be a case, this could be a case that Leviathan actually has multiple heads, like the actual beast that's in the sea, this serpent, this sea serpent, okay? And it's a dreadful beast that's talked about throughout the Bible, that there's no angle that can take this thing and it's something to be feared, it breathes fire. And so go to Job and go to the other places in Isaiah, we won't go there for the sake of time but if you want to look up Leviathan and who he is. But he is the king of the children of pride, the Bible says in Job, if I'm quoting that correctly and I should have probably wrote that down, but who is Satan? He has children, the children of Eliel, what's their biggest moniker of their status, pride. You think of the gay pride movements and all this stuff. But what I want to talk about is these heads and what do they represent, okay? And what do the ten horns represent? So Babylon, I believe, is, because we think of Babylon, you know, this isn't the Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar was in, okay? This is end times, this is something that's not even happened yet, so we're not talking about Babylon back in the day. This Babylon that's being destroyed is going to be a future kingdom or a kingdom that's with us today. And so what I believe is that Babylon throughout history has changed locations. Notice that the woman is sitting on many waters which is tongues and peoples and nations and throughout time that that location has moved, okay? And so I want to specifically tell you what the heads represent, like as far as kingdoms go through the line. And in verse seven, so you're in Revelation 17, in verse seven he's explaining this beast. It says, 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 ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition, and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names 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. Now this is clearly talking about, remember in Revelation 13 where one of the heads of the beast is wounded with a deadly wound, and remember they're wondering after that beast. He says who can make war with the beast? Well it's giving us a little more information here that he actually dies and goes to hell, to the bottomless pit, and he's going to raise out of the bottomless pit. So remember we talked about this on how this is a picture of Christ, and we've got the false Christ, the anti-Christ, and so he's going to, that's what's going to make people wonder. You know, if you survived the gunshot to the head, that's not going to make people wonder as much as if you were completely dead and now you're back alive. And so that's what that's talking about. Notice verse 9, so it's kind of giving us, it says this is the mind of wisdom, he's giving us information here. It says, and here is the mind which hath wisdom, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, and there are seven kings. So I believe, now if you look at this and the fact as we go on here it says 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 eighth and is of the seven and goeth into perdition. So notice that five are fallen. Now notice he's writing to John. Now in John's day, what was the world empire? Rome. No one would doubt that because the Romans had control of Judea at that time when Jesus was crucified with Pontius Pilate, Rome was that superpower, that was the kingdom of all the earth at that time, so what's the one is? That's Rome. So five are fallen, that means now we can account for six of these, five are in the past and one is, meaning we know which one that would be, Rome, and then you have the other is not yet come, so that's the future one we're looking for, and so what are these seven heads? So I'm just going to give you a quick, this is what I believe they are. I believe they are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, Roman, and then you have the final kingdom, so number one would be Egypt, number two would be Assyria, number three would be Babylon, the actual physical Babylon, like with Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar and them, and then you have Medo-Persian, because remember those two were together, but the Persians ended up kind of taking over that, Greece, Roman, so Greece is the fifth, the Roman is the sixth, that's the one that is, so the five that are fallen is Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persian, and Grecian, and then we still have one to come, that's the seventh one, and he says that the beast is the eighth, but he's of the seven, now why is that? Because he dies, so he was one of the seven, meaning that he's going to be in the seventh kingdom, but he's going to die and come back to life, so that's why I say he's the eighth, but he's of the seventh, so you may say, how do you know? How do you know that all these, okay I can get Rome, because it says the one that is, and that's in John's day, but what about all these other ones before it, how do you know that? Well one interesting thing that we see, and this is just a little interesting note as far as understanding that just because they were the king of a certain nation and that was like world power, they still called it Babylon, and Ezra chapter five, Ezra chapter five verse 13 it says, but in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Babylon, the same king Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God, now who was Cyrus? And what was he the king over? Cyrus was the Persian, remember? So Cyrus the Persian was the one that made the decree, remember after the Babylonian, who did Babylon fall to? Cyrus. Cyrus came in and took over after the Medes, after Darius, and so he was not of the Chaldeans, but he was the king of Babylon the Bible says, and I don't believe that's a typo, I don't believe that's something at all, they should have put Persia, they should have put the Persian empire, I believe that it's there for a reason, Nehemiah says the same thing about Artaxerxes, say that three times fast, but Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 6 it says, but in all this time was not I at Jerusalem, for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king. Ezra is when the temple is going to be built, Nehemiah is when the wall in Jerusalem is going to be rebuilt, and both these kings are Persian kings. So it's interesting that we're dealing with Persian kings, but it says that they're kings of Babylon. And all I want you to see with that is that Babylon has moved seats, and that spirit of Babylon, so to speak, has been from the Tower of Babel. What was significant about the Tower of Babel, if you go to Genesis chapter 11, that's what you'll see, is that the Tower of Babel, what did you have? One world government, one world religion, one language, everything was all together, and God didn't want it to be that way, and ever since then, remember he confounded the languages and everybody went to the four winds of the earth, and to separate nations, but I believe that it's going to come full circle to when you have the end times to where you're going to have that one that's coming back together. And from the Tower of Babel, what was the next superpower that you read about? Egypt. Because you go through the genealogies of, you know, down to Abraham, and what's Abraham doing? He's going into Egypt, and all this stuff. Now there's a way that I kind of prove that, or I talk about that, but I first want to show you in Daniel, we'll go to Daniel chapter 2. And this is kind of a little thing, we were talking about, Brother Jeff and I were talking about this, but in 1 Peter it talks about the church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salute you, and so does Marcus my son. It talks about a church in Babylon. Now if you understand Jeremiah 51, Babylon is never to be inhabited again, that physical nation of Babylon. So I'm not saying that that's Rome, but unless they just named another place Babylon, it was just kind of randomly in there, that there was this other place called Babylon that they had a church at. But my guess is that he's saluting the church that's in Rome, and they're calling it Babylon. And so, remember, one of the heads is the one that is, so Rome was definitely one of those heads in Revelation 17. So let me get there myself, I didn't write this down because it was going to be too much on my paper. But Daniel chapter 2, this is the story about the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw, the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, where he saw this image. And so I kind of want to talk about this a little bit, because this really shows us from Rome when you go back three steps, the third kingdom, the fourth kingdom, and the fifth kingdom, that this really shows us this progression, and you can fill in these blanks, okay? You can kind of move backwards and move forwards to see where we're at as far as these kingdoms. So in verse 36, in verse 36, this is the dream. So he's telling them what this, and we will tell you the interpretation there of before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the god of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, strength and glory, and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. So he's telling them, hey, Nebuchadnezzar, you're a king of kings, you know, you're this head of gold, this kingdom. Then in verse 39, it says, and after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom abreast, which shall bear rule over all the earth. Notice all these kingdoms are bearing rule over all the earth. That's what they have in common, okay? These heads aren't just kingdoms, just random kingdoms. They're kingdoms that have rule over all the earth, over kings. So this city is a city that reigns over the kings of the earth, okay? So all these kingdoms are those. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all things shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. So notice, once you get to the ten kings, these ten toes which are the ten horns, this is the end time's kingdom, the ten kings that are coming together. Notice they're all mingled together, so you can see how after Rome you have a lot of kingdoms that are kind of dispersed all over the place, and they're partly strong, but then they're still weak in areas. But at the end, these ten kings, these ten kingdoms, I believe, will come together and give power unto the beast and to this great city, Babylon, to where it's going to be like a Babylon, like Nebuchadnezzar, where he ruled over all the earth. And so you can definitely see how America fits into that mold of being a kingdom that would rule over all the earth. But I just want you to see this progression that Babylon, then there's going to be a kingdom after him, and then a kingdom after him, and then the fourth kingdom, which would be like the Roman Empire. And Daniel chapter 7, so I don't want to go too deep into this, but when you look at Daniel chapter 7, what you'll see is there's four beasts coming out of the sea. And so in verse 2 there, so Daniel 7 verse 2, Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heavens strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. So it sounds similar to Revelation chapter 13 where we have the beast coming up out of the sea, and notice that the first beast is a lion, the second beast is a bear, the third beast is a leopard, and the fourth beast is diverse from the rest and has ten horns. So we see that the first beast is clearly Babylonian. I don't have time to get into all the aspects of these beasts. When I did the conference I went into great detail on this, and maybe we'll do a whole sermon on this eventually, but the first beast is clearly Babylon, it's talking about the wings being plucked and giving a heart like a man, it's talking about Nebuchadnezzar clearly. The second beast is the bear that raises itself up on one side, it's talking about the meat of Persians and how the Persians are stronger than the Medes, and then you have the leopard represents the Grecian empire because when the first king dies, four other kings come up out of them and they're spread to the four winds of the earth, so you have the four heads of the leopard and then you have the four wings of the leopard. So we see that we have Babylon, Medo-Persian, and Greece in a progression, and then you have that fourth kingdom, and that fourth kingdom is diverse, but notice it's not saying that that kingdom, okay, that's the antichrist, it's saying what comes out of that kingdom is the antichrist, that little horn that comes out of that beast. That beast is its own kingdom, right, but then you have these ten horns that are on the beast, and out of one of those ten horns comes the antichrist, okay. So Rome, remember, is no longer a world kingdom, but it's got its offspring, you know, it's got its kingdoms that are spread out throughout the world, and these ten kings eventually, like the United Nations, like the League of Nations, United Nations, and eventually you'll have the one world government or the new world order or whatever they're going to call it, where you're going to have all these kings come together and have this final kingdom that seventh kingdom where you have, so it doesn't call this fourth kingdom, this diverse beast, it doesn't call it the last kingdom, because the last kingdom will be when those ten kings give power to the beast and you have that final kingdom, so that's why Rome is the sixth but not the seventh, okay, and so you may say, well, how do you know, okay, I can see Babylon, Medo-Persian, the Greece, and then the Rome all falling in line, because if you study history there, it makes perfect sense, right, when you just look through the Bible on the progression, you can see that in Daniel how that happens, Babylon, they're taken out by the Medes and Persians, then it talks about how the Grecian embers are going to take out the Persians, that's all in Daniel, you can just see that progression of kingdoms there, and then we know just from history with Jesus who was the kingdom, who was the ones ruling over everybody, Rome, right, and so we can see that easily, that progression there, but what about the first two, what about, you know, there's two other kingdoms that come before that, right, because five are fallen, we're talking about three that were before the ones that, before the Roman Empire, right, so we have those down, but what about one and two, so I believe, I've already said I believe there are Egypt and Assyria, but how do you prove that, you know, and here's the thing, this isn't like important, this isn't like something that's really drastically important to understand who Babylon is, but I think it's interesting to know, to think about who those kingdoms are down the line that Babylon was basically the seat, it was like this woman sitting upon Egypt, then she's sitting upon Assyria, then she's sitting upon Babylon, then she's sitting upon, you know, the Medes and the Persians, and so it's interesting, think about it, especially when you're reading the Bible, because all these kingdoms are in the Bible, you know, except for the one that's to come, you know, but we do see stuff about it, and so, but what I, what's interesting is I think you can kind of, you can see these kingdoms because in the Old Testament, remember the beast that had seven heads and ten horns, who does that represent? The dragon, Satan, okay, remember the woman is the city that sits upon the dragon that has these heads, these kingdoms and stuff like that, but go to Isaiah chapter 14, and if you were to look at, okay, what's the Old Testament, where is Satan in the Old Testament, what's the best, best passage to show about Satan, and you'd probably say Isaiah 14, because that's where it talks about him falling from heaven, but what you got to understand is how does, how does the Bible tell us about it, it doesn't just say, hey, let's talk about Satan here for a little bit, let me tell you about how he fell from heaven, no, that's not how it goes, because it's talking about a king in Babylon, actually. So go to Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 4. So we know Babylon, obviously, is one of the heads, okay, that's no brainer, it's Babylon, that's what the name is even, physically and spiritually when Babylon was reigning, but Isaiah 14 and verse 4, notice what it says, thou shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, how hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased, so what's he doing, he's making a proverb about this king, so what he's about to say, he's not talking about the king specifically or physically, but he's basically saying, I'm making this proverb, it's almost like a parable, right, a parable about this king, and he's going to use Lucifer, he's going to use Satan to represent him, does that make sense? So the next thing that he, as you go down, and we're not going to read all of it for the sake of time, but in verse 12 is a famous passage, so this is a proverb about the king of Babylon, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations, thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high, yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Now this is a famous passage dealing with Lucifer falling from heaven, this is Satan falling from heaven, and so, and obviously this is going to happen, remember Satan's going to be cast out of heaven, the dragon is going to be cast out of heaven, and he's going to draw a third part of the stars, and then he's going to be cast into the bombast pit for a thousand years, and then he's going to be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity, but notice it's talking about a parable of the king of Babylon, okay, what's interesting is if you go to Ezekiel, but go to Isaiah 23 while you're there for a second, but in Ezekiel there's two passages that, there's another famous passage, if you're talking about Isaiah 14, the other famous passage about Satan is Ezekiel 28, and it's interesting of who, who that's, you know, basically a parable, it's a parable of another king, okay, and what I'm trying to get at is if the Bible gives a parable about a king and he's relating him to Satan, then to me it makes sense that they're one of those heads, it's one of those heads of Satan, okay, one of those seven heads of the Babylonian kingdom, and what's interesting is that they are world powers, okay, but I want you to see something about Assyria first, and so, in verse 20, so Isaiah 23 verse 13, it says, behold the land of the Chaldeans, this people was not till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness, they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof, and he brought it to ruin. Notice what it says in verse 20, or chapter 23 verse 17, and it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre and shall, and she shall turn to her higher and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. Notice, Tyre, and I believe it was in Assyria, and Tyre is, you can say Tyris, which we'll see in Ezekiel 28, and so, notice it's committing fornication with all the kings of the earth, isn't that what it said about the great horror of Babylon, the great horror that we're seeing there, and so I want to give this a segue that the Assyrians, they're the ones that even established the Chaldeans, so the Assyrians were before the Babylonian empire, and if you remember, who was taken out by the Assyrians? The northern kingdom of Israel, and remember, they were trying to take out Jerusalem in Hezekiah's day, but remember, God, you know, helped him, and the Assyrians didn't beat them, but then, who took out, who took out Jerusalem? Babylon. So we had the Assyrians who was that world power trying to take over everybody, God helped Jerusalem help that lower kingdom to not be taken out by the Assyrians, but they got taken out by the Babylonians. But go to Ezekiel chapter 28, Ezekiel chapter 28, and so I wanted to prove to you, first of all, that Tyre is dealing with Assyria, okay? And so, Tyrus, Tyre, remember Tyre and Zidon, it talks about, they're just north, you know, Assyria was north of Jerusalem, and that's why they came to the northern kingdom first. They took out the northern kingdom first, they were the army from the north that was going to come take them out, and they took out Israel, and then they were coming after Jerusalem, they were coming after Judah, but remember, God helped them, so they didn't get taken out by the Assyrians. The Assyrians are the ones that basically intermingled with the Israelites, and that's how Samaria became like this mingled people, so to speak, because of the Assyrians. So Ezekiel chapter 28, in verse 11, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. So now instead of a proverb, it's a lamentation. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Now, did this king, was he in the garden of Eden? Okay? That wouldn't make any sense. Remember, this is a lamentation, this is like a proverb or parable that's supposed to be likened unto him, okay? Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold, and workmanship of thy tabrets, and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. Well, we know that we're not talking about the king of Tyrus, right? The cherub. Okay, the anointed cherub that covereth. I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee. So this is clearly a parable. This is a parable of Satan, of the anointed cherub. It's giving more information of who Satan is. Remember, he was perfect in all his ways until iniquity was found in him. And so we see, you know, you see with Isaiah 14 how this was a proverb for the king of Babylon, but then this is a lamentation for the king of Tyrus, which is associated to Assyria. And so it's interesting because the dragon, who's the dragon? Satan. Leviathan is in his heads, right? And so these heads represent kingdoms of the dragon, okay? The kingdoms of Satan, so to speak, which are these Babylon's, you know? And Babylon, it's not that there's plural Babylon's in one time, it's just that Babylon is moving from place to place, okay? You know, one kingdom gets taken out and moves its headquarters over here. That's why it's upon many waters and many nations. So you may say, okay, well there's Assyria, what about Egypt? We'll go to chapter 31. Chapter 31. I know we're reading a lot here, but I want you to see the whole context here and just kind of see who these kingdoms are. So when you're dealing with that beast that has seven heads and ten horns, what you've got to understand is those seven heads are kingdoms from time past till now. Does that make sense? These are kingdoms that are, like this kingdom was there, then it's gone, now this one's started. Does that make sense? And then they keep going down the line, whereas the ten kings are all at one time. Those aren't progressive kingdoms, okay? Those kings are going to be there at one time, they're all going to be together at the same period of time, and then they're going to give their power to the beast, okay? So five are fallen, one is, and one is yet to come in John's day. And so those five kings were already gone. Those five kingdoms were already gone. And we're just kind of talking about who those kingdoms were, but Ezekiel 31, start there in verse 1, if I can get through reading all this. So Ezekiel chapter 31 verse 1, it says, And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt. So who are we talking to? The king of Egypt, and to his multitude, whom art thou like in thy greatness? Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature, and his top was among the thick bows. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high, with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. This sounds very familiar to what they said about Nebuchadnezzar, right? Thus, in verse seven, thus was he fair in his greatness in the length of his branches, for his root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him. The fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches, nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height, I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the Mighty One of the heathen. He shall surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness. This is another parable of Satan if you think about the garden of God and the garden of Eden and all the trees envied him and all this stuff. So it's very similar to Ezekiel 28 dealing with that lamentation to Tyrus and the fact that he was beautiful, he was great in the garden of God, but then he was driven out because of his wickedness. Remember, iniquity was found in him. But instead of dealing with the king of Tyrus, we're dealing with the king of Egypt. I believe that's a cool way of seeing how do you know which one is the kingdom that Satan was like? Because the dragon gives the power to these kingdoms. When we deal with that final kingdom, who gives the power unto the beast? The dragon, the devil. This is also another strong key to the fact that God does not give authority to every authority figure or dictator or president that's out there. Is he giving power to the beast? That's Satan. So the devil is giving power to the Antichrist, not God. Now God allows it. God allows a lot of things to happen, but that doesn't mean that he's the one pulling the strings. He's not the one that's in charge of what's going on there. And to say so is that when you get into that Calvinistic God that's basically picking and choosing who goes to hell, he's forcing people to sin, he's in control of people that are doing wicked things in the world, and that's just not true. So we see the heads. We can see just by reading the Bible. Now you can see that. You can see that progression when you're in Genesis. You're dealing with Egypt. And all the way through Moses you're dealing with Egypt. And then as you get into Solomon and you get into basically when that kingdom's split and now you have these two kingdoms, what's the superpower that's threatening them? Assyria. Then you have when Judah, what's the superpower that threatens them and takes them out? Babylon. Then you see in Daniel it's very clear the progression of the kingdoms because that's what it's talking about throughout the book is how you have Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, then you have Greece, and then you have this other kingdom that's going to come later, which we know from history is Rome. So you can see those seven kingdoms. Five are fallen, one is, and one is yet to come. Now we're in the state where five or six are fallen and we're waiting for that kingdom to be basically put together. We're in the midst of those ten kings that are like Mairi Clay. So I just think it's interesting to know who this person is. And so when we say that Babylon USA, what we're saying is that basically that spirit of Babylon is moved upon another nation, meaning that there's a nation that's going to be given power over all the kings of the earth. That's the key. It's a nation that has power over all the kings of the earth. This city, the great whore, has power over all the kings of the earth. So the ten horns, as we were talking about, go back to Revelation 17. Revelation 17. So hopefully you thought that was interesting, that we went into all those little parables and lamentations to kind of see that. The leviathan has more than one head and the leviathan is a picture of Satan. But I just thought it was interesting that every time Satan is used as a parable to a king, it's a king of one of these great nations. And that's what's going on in the end times with this dragon that has seven heads and ten horns. But in verse 12 of Revelation 17, we get into those ten horns a little bit. So in verse 12 there, it says, in 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. So this is very clear that these are all together at one time to give power unto the Antichrist, this beast, this final beast, this final kingdom. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. So these kings, I believe, would represent kingdoms. And a lot of times in the Bible when you see kings and you see kingdoms, they're used interchangeably. So you think of David the king and his kingdom. So if you said when you're talking about King David, you're talking about his whole realm. And so you can see this definitely happening with the League of Nations, with the United Nations and how they would all come together and vote to give power to one man, so to speak. But these kings are definitely talked about in Daniel because in Daniel you see the ten toes. And it says in the days of these kings, that's when God's going to set up his kingdom. So we know that those ten kings are going to be there at the very end. They're the ones that are at the very end of end times. So we're not talking about something that happened already. We're talking about something that still hasn't happened because God hasn't set up his kingdom yet. So in the days of those kings, which is the ten toes, the ten horns that are mentioned with that fourth beast. And so in verse 16 we see what happens to Babylon. So remember we read in chapter 16, we just got done with the vials. So we had the seven trumpet sounds, the seven vials poured out. And so the kingdoms of the world have become the kings of our Lord and of Christ. It is done. And it says that Babylon is coming to remembrance. And notice what it says here in verse 16. It says in 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. So now we have these kings going against the whore. So notice that he gives his power unto the beast and he's using this nation and all its power to take over the whole world. But then these kings, the kings that gave that power to that beast and to that nation, they're going to turn on him. And so it says, notice, you may say, well I thought it was God judging them. I thought it was God pouring out his wrath on them. Notice what it says in verse 17. For God hath put it in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree and to give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. So it's God that's putting it in their hearts to do this. He's basically getting them to do this. So he's basically having them do his dirty work, so to speak, as far as like doing the destruction. So Revelation chapter 18, and we're not going to get into all this, but Revelation chapter 18 verse 10, it says, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, alas, alas, that great city, Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come. One hour is all it takes to destroy this whole city, this whole kingdom that was ruling over all the nations of the earth. And if you think about this, especially in our day, you can see this being possible with the nuclear warheads that are out there. And if you study, I don't know, maybe we'll do a sermon on it next week as far as the destruction of Babylon, going really into detail about Jeremiah 51. There's a lot of detail in Jeremiah that kind of discusses what exactly is going on, but it talks about these arrows that will never miss their mark. And you think of missiles, you think of like all the technology and all the warfare and all that stuff that we have today, that at the push of a button, you could probably just annihilate a whole nation with no, I mean, just think about the nuclear warhead power, the atom bombs that we had back in the 1940s and then think about how much knowledge has increased since then as far as what could happen. I mean, I forget how many times over they said that the world could be destroyed with how many nuclear weapons we have, but it's very possible. In an hour, that's how you can think about how in the world can that happen in an hour. Well, in our day and age, you can see that happening very quickly in an hour if all those nations just decided to just turn on them. And you got to think about that, that it's probably coming without warning. They're just like all of a sudden, let's kill it. And you think about what's a whore. We're not going to get graphic, but a whore is someone that you use and abuse and you discard. And so this nation is a whore. This nation is used for its power and for its resources and then it's discarded. They eat their flesh and burn them with fire. And so this nation is just getting used and abused to do the bidding of the Antichrist and these ten kings. And eventually they turn on them. And of course the whore, what's interesting is that it talks about how it shed the blood of saints and so it's getting its just reward for everything that it did. And so, but this is something, what you got to understand about the Bible is that it's not just talking about that nation that's at the end times. We're talking about God fulfilling His wrath upon what's been going on throughout all history. That's why this Babylon represents all of that. It's representing all these nations that have gone and killed prophets and saints and all this and it's finally getting thrown down at the very end. And so it represents, what that nation represents is from all time past. And so these people that are in this nation, I believe this nation, if you think about a spiritual aspect of it, you have the children of Belial. You have the children of the devil that is this whore. You think about the great whore Babylon. What's the opposite of a whore? A bride. In Revelation 19 what do we have? The bride of Christ, which is all the saints that are made clean and white in His blood. And so what are those? The children of God. What do you see parallel throughout the Bible all the time? You see the children of the devil and the children of God. The two extremes. And we see this whore and then we see the bride, that city, New Jerusalem. And so this whore gets used and abused. I believe this nation, especially in the end times, is going to be filled with a bunch of reprobates, a bunch of haters of God. And so you can see the spiritual aspect of what's going on here. And a lot of people do associate this woman that's sitting upon seven mountains and upon many waters as like the Catholic church. Because what you've got to understand is that this is being written when Rome was the nation. One is. So you can definitely see the interpretation of sitting on seven mountains because Rome is the city that sits upon seven hills. So you can definitely see where he's coming from with that, even kind of almost a dual aspect there. Because you have the seven mountains that would represent seven kingdoms throughout the period from Babel after the flood until now. But then you can also see the fact that she's sitting on seven mountains because at that time Babylon was literally sitting on seven mountains. And so you can definitely see that. You can see how the Catholic church, the Roman Catholic church comes out of that. You can see the whore, the mother of harlots that all these Protestant churches have come out of. I more so see the reprobate aspect of it. Because what you've got to understand is that these churches and especially the Catholic church, they're spawned from Satan. They're spawned from reprobates. They're spawned from the children of the devil. And they're the ones that are basically making these false religions and all this stuff that's basically the whores of religion. So you can definitely get into those aspects. I just really wanted to show basically the city itself, the nation itself. And so when you get into chapter eighteen that's what's being destroyed is a physical people, a physical nation of people that's being destroyed. And so I just wanted to show these seven heads, ten horns. What's that talking about? So when you see this dragon with seven heads, ten horns, maybe it'll maybe be a little more clear to you as far as okay, these seven heads represent seven kingdoms throughout time. The seven horns are representing these ten kings, or the ten horns are going to represent these ten kings that are going to be in the end, that are collectively there at the end. And so I know it's kind of deep, get into some stuff, but I thought the Leviathan thing was cool, you know, the heads of Leviathan. And you have this dragon that's representing Satan that has seven heads and ten horns. And so it's amazing how deep the Bible is and I'm sure there's stuff I'm missing. One of the things, just to kind of link Assyria in there, if you read Nahum, when you get a chance, with this in mind, when you see the destruction of Nineveh, which Nineveh is the capital city of Assyria, when you see the destruction of Nineveh, look at how similar that sounds to the destruction of Babylon. And so you'll see, and maybe we'll get into that next week because I think next week we'll go into chapter eighteen where we get into the destruction and we'll see Jeremiah and then we'll see how that really shows how Nineveh is really, really a good parallel to that, to kind of show you also that that was one of the kingdoms before Babylon and stuff. So let's end with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you today and Lord, thank you for everybody that came out and Lord, just pray that you be with us as we go home. We thank you for the souls that were saved and Lord, we thank you for your word and just how everything lines up together, everything fits, there's no contradictions in just how deep your word is. And Lord, just pray that you'd be with us throughout this week and help us to bring glory to your name and Lord, we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.