End-time Babylon

To open the sermon today, I want to read a psalm. But you'll turn with me to Psalm 137.

Not a psalm that we quote very often in services.

Psalm 137, in verse 1. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows and the... Sideth. For there those who carried us the way captive, asked of us a song. Those who plundered us, requested mercy, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the eternal song in the foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. If I don't remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I don't exalt Jerusalem above my chief floor. Remember, eternal, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, who said, Raise it, raise it to its very foundation. O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you, as you have served us. Happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones, against the lot.

Not a very happy song. Not a very happy song at all. A few verses in there, some people would cringe at just by reading those verses. Maybe have some questions about what they mean. But here's a song of a people who have been cast out of their country. They find themselves in a foreign land and they're in angst over what they're doing. They've lost their bearings. They don't know what to do. They've been in Jerusalem all their lives. Now they find themselves cast out. They're captives in another country. They find themselves in a foreign land that they just can't relate to it at all. There's just no oneness. There's no unity or harmony. When they find themselves, they're just totally disparate in the land they find themselves in.

Babylon is a wicked land, we will see. Jerusalem, even though it had its times where it was a stray, still was God's city. And we know God loves Jerusalem. He doesn't so much love Babylon. Of course, he loves the people in it and everyone in it. There's a lesson for us in this song. You know the people of Jerusalem who found themselves sitting by those waters of Babylon longing for the days that they could go back to Jerusalem. Maybe they were wishing they had listened to the prophet Jeremiah as he warned them all those years, turned back to God, and that if they didn't, they would find themselves in this very situation. They find themselves, even when they're being asked by their captors, sing a song of Zion, with all the murk and all the happiness that's gone out of their lives. Maybe those people who were asking for plenty. Go ahead, sing one of your songs now, Judah. Tell us and show us what you can do, what is so happy to be about. Captors can be pretty cruel sometimes. Trying to rub it in, that they get there. But they won't even play their hearts. They don't even want to hang up their instruments like, that part of their life is over. Now they're going to win. The God of promise is to deduce when the temple was destroyed that they would go back and it would be rebuilt.

All they could do now is wait. They could remember Jerusalem. And maybe when we lose some things, we appreciate it even more. The people of Judah, as they fought back on Jerusalem, said, I'm not going to forget it. I'm not going to forget what we had there. I'm not going to forget what God had done. I'm not going to forget what our pastors have done to us. I trust that God will take vengeance on us.

That was one of the things that kept them from boring until the time that they could go back. Because they believed they could go back. And as we read that psalm, it may unsettle us a little bit. They think us about our lives. What lies ahead of us between now and the time of Jesus Christ's return? Because as we're here just over a week away from the peace of Trumpets, you know the world as the time lays up that Jesus Christ's return is in the state of turmoil. The state of chaos, the state of confusion, the state of war, a miserable time that lies ahead of us. So as we look toward that day and we talk about some of the things that lead up to that day, it can be kind of unsettling, if you will, or remind us of what God has in store for us. But here in the psalm, we find two cities that are prominent in the Bible. Most named city in the Bible is Jerusalem, as you might imagine. Jerusalem has great promise. It symbolizes God, it symbolizes peace, even though so much of his history has been anything but peace. It symbolizes God's wealth. The first temple was there, and God's wealth in that temple. Jesus Christ, when he was on earth, he accepted it, because in that temple. When he returns to earth, he will return to Jerusalem. The temple in the millennium will be built in Jerusalem, and all nations will flow to death. It's the city of hope, it's the city of peace, it's the city that God even tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. It's the one in pictures.

God will bring down from the heavens, from heaven, a new Jerusalem. And God will dwell with men forever and ever in that city. Let's go over to Zechariah 8.

Zechariah 8. We get a picture of what Jerusalem will be like in the millennium when Jesus Christ is on earth. Far different from the picture that we have of Jerusalem today and so much of its current history. But in Zechariah 8 and verses 1-5, we find God talking about Jerusalem and what it will be like. He says in verse 8, Zechariah's writing, he says, The Word of the Eternal came to be saying, I am zealous for Zion with great zeal, with great fervor I am zealous for her. I will return to Zion. It tends well in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of Hosts, the Holy Mountain. Verse 4, Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age. The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. It's kind of a beautiful picture, isn't it, of what a city should be like. I don't think you'd probably see that in Jerusalem so much today. You don't see that so much in Orlando today, do you? Or Jacksonville or any other of the cities of America. So to see a peaceful setting where people would be comfortable being outside, boys and girls playing in the streets again, and not parents just worried about who's going to come by in action that they would never see them again. That's why they live in a world that's even so far different than anything you and I grew up in, where there were, at least in some areas, boys and girls still playing in the streets and people feeling safe in their neighborhood. But increasingly we find that disappearing from us. As we watch the news and as we see things going on, we will increasingly feel unsafe, even in our own neighborhoods, or at least we'll have a question mark in our head about what we could be facing when we go outside, go shopping, go any of the places that we will. But for Jerusalem, for Jerusalem, the picture is all those things, the future is bright. On the other hand, we have Babylon. It's the second most named city in the Bible, and it has a totally different fate. Babylon is not a city that you and I want to be part of, or an environment that you and I want to be part of. It doesn't have a good reputation in the Bible from beginning or to the end. Let's go to Revelation. Revelation 18.

Revelation 18.

And here before Christ's return, when God is talking about the Babylon of the end time, it isn't necessarily a city by the name of Babylon, but a system, a society, a government, a religion that goes by that name that dominates the earth at that time. We find in verse 1, chapter 18, After these things, John writes, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority. And the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and has become the dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.

Not a place you want to visit, is it? Kind of makes you just feel a little eerie and uneasy just reading those words, that that's what that society and that's what the Babylon of the end time is like. A place for every demon, a place for every foul spirit, a place for wickedness, as we'll see in a moment. Who would want to be there? Who would want to be there at the end of the age, in this society? And yet, it's coming.

You know, someone sent me a link to a video on magicians, you know, a few weeks back. And I'm not one for magicians, I never found them interesting. I think of magicians, they think of card tricks and, you know, pulling a rabbit out of a hat and whatever. But this video was very interesting, because they didn't have any card tricks, and they didn't have any, you know, rabbits out of hats. They had some things that simply couldn't be explained by anything physical. They had some of the miracles, and I'm going to say, you say miracle because it's, I won't say miracle of God.

Some of the things that went on on that, that they documented, the person who did the documentary, you know, wasn't a member of the church, but he knew exactly what he was seeing. And as he examined and as he taped and as he saw what was going on, he said, these are just things that cannot be explained by any way. It's not camera tricks, it's not tricks of what's going on.

It is simply something that cannot be explained in physical terms. You know, one of them is fixing my mind, that they had people around there that, you know, they had a man standing there and a rope, and it actually went right through his body. And they showed, it just went right through his body. And as they examined that, it was just like, that can't be explained in any other way. There was another one that, you'd have to wonder who even thinks of these things, but they had a man there who had a banana in one hand and a watermelon sitting on the desk.

Now, what he said he was going to do after he said a few words was, the banana would find, and the watermelon was uncut. The banana would find itself in the watermelon, the watermelon would find, the banana would become a watermelon. And when they did it, that's exactly what happened. They peeled the banana and it was watermelon. And right in the middle of that watermelon, when they cut it in half, was there.

No way to explain it. They said, was that there were demons at work. And he went on and on. It was just along, it was several parts. And I had to take notice of that. And when I took notice of that and what was going on, I thought, this is kind of what Revelation 18.2 reminds me of.

And so, in our entertainment, he also went on to show and interview some of the people that were doing these tricks. They're not household names, tricks, I shouldn't say. But these acts, that they would actually engage demons. That they would talk to higher powers, to give them the power to do those things.

And people were flocking to see this and amazed by it. Well, of course, we're amazed by it. But as I watched it, I found myself just feeling uneasy. Like I was even in my house in front of my computer, not feeling like this is something I should even be watching.

But it made me realize what kind of world we live in. And that there are demons at work. The world wants to say there aren't demons. Satan would love us to believe there isn't a Satan, a devil, or anyone like that. But they are alive and they are at work. And recently we had a sermon out on music, where some of those influences are there as well. And some of that was in this video as well, the influences from that. So we live in a society that's becoming more and more that way. And between now and the time of the return of Jesus Christ, it will become more that way.

It should also remind you that people can do things like that that simply can't be explained any other way. Of the false prophet at the end of the age who does such wonders that the Bible says even the elect may be deceived by him because of what he does. Satan has power. The demons have power as God allows them to use it. Now we move closer and closer to a time where Revelation 18.2 will be just part of our life. A life that is increasingly apart from God. A life that is increasingly controlled by spirits other than the spirit of God. Let's go back to Zechariah. Zechariah 5.

Zechariah 5. In verse 5, there's an interesting set of verses here. Zechariah receives a prophecy from God and we'll read through it. It speaks about this end time Babylon. You remember that Zechariah was a prophet after Israel was taken into captivity after Judah was taken into captivity. Verse 5. Zechariah 5. The angels who talked with me came out and said to me, Look to your eyes now and see what this is that goes forth. So I asked, well, what is it? And he said, it's a basket that's going forth. And he also said, this is their resemblance throughout the earth. Well, the original Hebrew is Ephah, which is his form of measurement, but it's clear that it's a container that they are looking at here. Verse 7. Here's a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket. And then he said, this is wickedness. And he thrust her down into the basket, through the lead cover over its mouth. You get the picture. Here's a woman in a basket, push her down, cover her up. And I raised my eyes, Zechariah says, and I looked, and there were two women coming with the wind in their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork. And they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. So I said to the angels who talked with me, where are they carrying the basket? And he said to me, to build a house for it in the land of Shinar. When it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base. Well, you know what prominent city was in Shinar, right? Babylon. Babylon. Carry this basket. There's a woman in it. At some time in the future, the lid will be taken off. Wickedness will be planted there in Shinar. So we have a picture. We have a picture of Babylon that isn't so pretty. To the world, it's going to be appealing. The world will say it's amazing. The world will wonder after this society, this government, this religion, this civilization that erupts suddenly out of the sea, as it tells us in Revelation 13. Talked about as a beast power, and they will be mesmerized by something that is portrayed in the Scriptures, and to us should be so ugly that we would never want to be part of it. That it makes us cringe to even think about being close to it. But it is a time, it is a time that is coming.

It's not just the government. It's not the society. There's a religion that goes with it that is different than anything that we've seen or we've seen in the world in our lives around us. Let's go back to Revelation 17. And we see that this system is tied to a religion on earth. That's different than the religious that we have today.

Although we begin to see, as we look around us, the seeds of this type behavior, if you will, the buds on the trees, as Jesus Christ would say. In Revelation 17, verse 3, this is John recording his vision. He says, So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman, and you remember what a woman is. A woman typically symbolizes the church. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Seven heads of blasphemy, or full of names of blasphemy. The name of Jesus Christ may say this and that and whatever, but it teaches something different than what God teaches. Something different than what the Bible says. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And yet the world will look to her as the authority on religious things. When God clearly says, it's the exact opposite. And on her forehead a name was written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth. He names it exactly what it is. And you remember where that Babylon Great Harlot of the Earth began, right? You remember back in 17, we've read in 2 Kings 17. Now, let's go ahead and put your finger there in Revelation 17. Let's go back to 2 Kings 17. And this certainly isn't the first place that a religion pops up that's different than God. A religion that is not 100% based on error but has a little bit of truth mixed into it. And so that becomes a mystery how you mix truth with error, good with evil. Remember in 2 Kings 17, Assyria has conquered Israel. They've taken the Israelites out. They've moved them up. They've moved their people in from all these various cities. They run into all these problems because they determine the God of the land, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They're not pleased having these foreigners dwell in the land. So they bring some of the Israelites back, teach us the ways of your God. They do. The people begin obeying some of the laws of the land and God retreats. Let's look at verse 32. So they feared the Eternal. That is, they obeyed Him in some...

...who He named Israel. It's a mixture. We'll kind of do what your God says because it works, but we're going to hold on to what we have. So you have a mixture of religion. You have a mixture of good and evil. That's carried down to us today. We have all sorts of churches all over the world that use the name of Jesus Christ. That say they teach from the Bible, but what they teach from the Bible is totally different than what the Bible says.

Totally different from what the Bible says. And so that isn't the first place that occurred, but to this day, and as we get to the end time, the religions of this world, or the religion of the world, will become a strange religion. Different than what we have today. Pretty totalitarian. A pretty cruel government, or a pretty cruel religion, that doesn't really have natural affection for man. We go back to Revelation 17. We see that this church at the end time, it's called the filthiness of a filthy church in God's eyes.

In verse 6 it says, I saw this woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Where we, our lives could be at risk because of what we believe. And it's hard to imagine a church that would say, if you won't do what I say, well, even death isn't good enough, I'll torture you, I'll torment you, but death is what you deserve.

We know what happened in history. History is full of the accounts of what churches have done to each other in the name of God. But you and I haven't seen that today until recently, but not in the name of the God of the Bible, but in the name of another God, as Isis has marched across the Middle East and Syria and Iraq there.

They try to enforce their religion on people, and it's a harbinger of what will come, but on a greater scale, with the church that's named here in Revelation. You know, John, when he sees all this and he watches what's going on, he says, when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. I marveled. How could this be? You know, he would be thinking. And I remember the first time I read about Isis and what they were doing and the type of things they were doing as they marched through Iraq the first time. I marveled with amazement.

How could this be? Is this day and age? People could do that without thinking, without having any feeling for another human being, and they do that in the name of religion. It's a tough thing to think about. But between now and the time that the 300 years have used this Christ, this is the world that will be. It goes through a transformation.

The things we think things are not good now. Watch it grow. Watch it grow and see what does it develop here, what God says. And so you can see why he uses such strong language when he talks about Babylon and why he hates Babylon and everything that it represents. Well, that's the religion of Babylon. Let's go back to Genesis 11.

And just rehearse for a few minutes a few minutes about the city of Babylon, of the Old Testament, because in Genesis we find the roots of this attitude and these people that make up Babylon. In the Old Testament, so many stories, and I know our young people as they go to Sabbath school, will be able to recount this story for us.

It's a fascinating story of the Tower of Babel. And the Tower of Babel is just one of those human stories that you shake your head and you think, how could that be? You know, I mean, here you had Noah and his family who survived through the flood. And then the grandson of Noah, Nimrod, is on earth. And he's a mighty man, the Bible says. People look to him, he's a mighty hunter.

He's an arrogant guy. He wants people to follow him. And he's got an idea. He's got an idea. As he thinks about God and as he thinks about the flood, we're going to build this tower. And we're going to build a tower so high that even God himself couldn't flood this earth. Again. He thinks that he can flood us out and kill all of mankind. We'll build this tower. Even God won't be able to do it.

Now, that's kind of arrogant thinking, isn't it? I mean, that's arrogance to the height, to think that you could do something that even God couldn't undo. But that was what Nimrod did. And he got the people together, and that's what they began to do here in chapter 11. In verse 3, well, let's look at verse 2.

So you can see the land of Shinar here that we talked about here in Zechariah 5. It came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found the plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.

They had bricks for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, Let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the earth. You know what? We're going to build this tower. We're going to defy God. We're not going to be scattered when we do this. Well, God comes down and looks at the tower. He sees the hearts of what man is doing. He sees the attitudes that are there.

There are attitudes that are repugnant to him, as he sees the rebellion, and he sees the defiance of what mankind is doing. God came down to the city, the tower which the sons of men had built. And he said, Indeed, the people are one, and they have one language. And this is what they begin to do, and now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let's go down and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

They were building the tower to defy God. They were developing the tower so they wouldn't be scattered abroad. God confused their language. They were scattered abroad. And so, Babel, in the Hebrew, sounds like the word B-A-L-A-L, is commonly said that Babel means confusion.

Babel means confusion. They have a city named Confusion. That alone should tell us that it's not a city of God, right? Because in 1 Corinthians 14, it tells us God is not the author of confusion. Man is the author of confusion. Where there's discontent, discord, people living outside of harmony, it's the human nature in people. It's not God's spirit that causes confusion. It spans human nature that causes confusion.

Man's nature that causes division. Man's nature that will resist God and fight against Him. God's nature yields to Him and binds us together under Him as He leads us. But this was the founding of Babel that later became Babylon. Nimrod. And Nimrod's legacy and his attitude lived on in Babylon.

It was curtailed for a little bit of time. But Babylon became the first world-ruling empire, as you will recall. Nebuchadnezzar was the king. You remember the dream that Daniel had, or that Nebuchadnezzar had that Daniel interpreted. And he said of the four world-ruling kingdoms, Nebuchadnezzar, you're this head of gold.

You're this head of gold, but after you three more kingdoms will arise on the earth. And as we remember Daniel's interpretation, he said that each of those kingdoms would become more and more fierce. More and more cruel. So when we got down to the fourth kingdom, a daughter of Babylon, if you will, a descendant of those tribes, or those kingdoms, it would be more cruel than all the rest.

It was a terrible beast, something like no one had ever seen before. Something that was scary to even think about. Let's fast forward over to 2 Kings 24 this time. 2 Kings 24, by the time we get to 2 Kings 24, Israel has lost its territory. God had given them the promised land. They had rejected God from the beginning and never had a king that turned them back to God. And so the Assyrians came in and conquered Israel. For 40 years, Jeremiah witnessed and prophesied to the kingdom of Judah, turned back to God.

Don't forget him. They didn't. And sure enough, Babylon came in and conquered them. 2 Kings 24 and verse 10. All the leaders... 2 Kings... oh, I mean the wrong book, sorry about that. 2 Kings 24. At that time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. So they had this history of conflict between Jerusalem and Babylon.

That is longstanding. And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came against the city as his servants were besieging it. And if we drop down to the first thing, it says, of course, he conquered them, and it says, Nebuchadnezzar carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Eternal and the treasures of the King's house.

And he cut in pieces all the articles of gold, which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said. He carried into captivity all Jerusalem, all the captains and all the mighty men of Valor, ten thousand captains, all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. They found themselves in exile, sitting by the waters of Babylon, despondent, realizing what they had left behind, realizing, perhaps, what they hadn't done, and now wishing they had an opportunity to go back.

And looking forward to going back, because God had told them that they would be able to go back, over in 2 Kings 25, verse 8. In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. In verse 9, he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house, all the houses of Jerusalem.

That is, all the houses of the great. He burned with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around. Then Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, carried away captive, the rest of the people who remained in the city, and the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon with the rest of the multitude. He completed the task. He had a victory over the city of God. He had a victory over the people of God.

He probably felt pretty good about that. Babylon conquers Jerusalem. But it would be just a temporary victory. It wasn't going to be anything that would last forever. It was going to be something that would soon pass.

In Nebuchadnezzar, well, let's turn first to Daniel 4. Daniel 4. Nebuchadnezzar was a very proud man. One of the marks of a government not of God is that the leader is a very arrogant and a very proud man. He sees himself as a god, if you will. Nimrod certainly saw himself that way. Nebuchadnezzar certainly saw himself that way. As we come into Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar has been running around telling people really how great he is and how this kingdom has been built up under him and all the wonders that he has done. God is listening to this and he realizes he's the one who put Nebuchadnezzar into today's day. He knows what he's doing and how he develops us. But he has a dream, and the dream troubles him. Nebuchadnezzar has a few dreams that trouble him. In verse 20, Daniel interprets that dream for him.

In verse 20 of Daniel 4, Daniel, speaking, he says, That just enveloped the world. People looked to it. It fed the people. It was a beautiful, beautiful tree, a beautiful, physically beautiful place. All these things, O king, it's you. It's you who have grown and become strong. For your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens and your dominion to the end of the earth. And inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, Chopt down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump that ruts in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beast of the field till seven times pass over him. This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord, the king. King Nebuchadnezzar, you are going to live as a beast for seven years. God will humble you until you know that it's the God of heaven who's given you all the things that you have. Now, that is exactly what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. God humbles those who are proud, but in this verse we see the tree that's grown, the tree that covered the whole earth, and it was a beautiful tree. People flocked to it. And God said, chop that tree down, chop that tree down, but leave it stump and roots in the earth, bound with the bands of iron and bronze and the tender grass of the field.

Chop it down. Destroy it. But leave the roots there. It won't be a tree for a while.

Probably all of us at some point in time have had to have a tree or wanted a tree chopped down in our backyard or whatever. And when you chop it down and you... or have it chopped down, and you leave the stump there, what happens after a few years? It begins growing back again, right? It's kind of one of those irritating things. You think, I got this taken care of, and then all of a sudden the next spring you see something come out of it, and then another year or two you've got this little tree growing again that you wanted to get rid of. Because when stumps aren't removed, they remain alive, and they grow back again. Now, in one sense, this prophecy is talking about Nebuchadnezzar, that he would again have the kingdom, and indeed he did. But it's also prophetic, because Babylon, while it was destroyed, while it was conquered by the Medes, the root was still there. The stump was still there, bound by iron, and when that could be removed, it would grow back again. And indeed, Babylon and the attitudes of it would grow back again into the society that we see in Revelation 18.

Not a good society. Not a good civilization. Not a good city. Not a good government. Not a good religion associated with it. But full of every foul spirit. Full of every demon. Led, as the Bible tells us, by Satan. Back in Isaiah, Isaiah 13. This prophet also has something to say about Babylon. Isaiah 13 and verse 19. He talks about this city, Babylon. Verse 19, The glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You know how God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah? He burned it with fire. There was like nothing left when he was done with it. It was just gone. That's not the way it was with Babylon. When the Medes came in and the Medes conquered Babylon, they actually used Babylon as their capital city. It was a beautiful place. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. We're still there. The Greeks still populated Babylon. If you go to Iraq today, you can still see the remnants of Babylon. People still go there. Not many tourists, I would hope, are going to Iraq these days, but you can go to Babylon. It's not at all a great city. Sodom Hussein tried to resurrect it. He was never able to get it off of the ground. But it's still there. But the Babylon city isn't the Babylon that Revelation 18 is talking about. Let's go on to verse 19. It will never be inhabited. And it isn't today as it was when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It won't be settled from generation to generation, nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, nor will the shepherds make their sheepholes there. But while these to the desert will lie there, their houses will be full of owls, ostriches will dwell there, while goats will caper there. The Aenas will howl in their citadels and jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.

Something for the future. If we go forward a few chapters in Isaiah at Ziah 21 and verse 9. We read this verse a few weeks ago when we were talking about the watchman. Verse 9, the watchman says, Here comes the chariot of men with a pair of horsemen, and the answer to said Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the carved images of her gods has broken to the ground. Oh Babylon, physical Babylon fell. Spiritual Babylon is yet to fall. The Babylon of Revelation is yet to fall. The Babylon of Revelation that has all the hallmarks of a Gentile kingdom has yet to fall. A tyrannical ruler who cares nothing for what you and I or any of mankind feels, who wants his way and only his way, and if you don't bow down to him, your life means nothing to him. A man who sees himself as God, and as it says in Daniel, a man who will fashion his own gods because he sees himself as that. I'll create the religion. I'll create what we follow. I'll create the law of the land. Forget God. Forget the Bible. Worship thee. A system that's against God, that's against the people of God, that wants them put to death because there's only one way, and that's his way. Very narcissistic type government, if you will, but a very arrogant type of government, and a very cruel system. Very cruel system. Not a knife system at all. Not a politically correct system at all, but a very cruel system. A very cruel society. More cruel, the Bible says, than anything that has been on the earth before it. And that lies ahead of us. But it wasn't just Isaiah who said these words. Jeremiah talks about Babylon in the latter days as well. We go back to chapter 50 of Jeremiah. He spent his 40 years talking to Judah about physical Babylon that was going to come and conquer them. But when we get into the last chapters of Jeremiah, we see him talking about things that weren't fulfilled in the time that Babylon conquered Judah. Just read a few verses here. Let's look at chapter 50, verse 29. Chapter 50, verse 29.

He punished you, O most naughty one, says the Lord God of hosts, for your day has come, the time that I will punish you. The most proud shall stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up. I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all around him. A time when God punishes Babylon for all it has been and all it will be at that time. Over in verse 39. Kind of repeating what we had read in Isaiah. 19. The wild desert beast shall dwell there, speaking of Babylon, with the jackals. The ostracers shall dwell in it. It will be inhabited no more forever, nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. It has got over through Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, so no one will reside there, nor son of man's well in it.

Yet to come. Chapter 51, verse 6. A warning, a warning to the people. Flee! Flee from the midst of Babylon, and everyone save his life. Don't be cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance. When is the time of God's vengeance? This is the time of the Lord's vengeance. He shall recompense her. Babylon was a golden cup in the eternal sand that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine. Therefore, the nations are deranged. They listened to her. They listened to her stories. They listened to her regulations. They paid attention to her. They're not even thinking clearly anymore. The same thing that happens to us, if we start listening to wrong things that aren't the truth of God, we become deranged. We don't think clearly. It's what's happened to the world. They don't pay attention to the Bible. They may say, many of them the Bible is our foundation, the Bible is not their foundation. And we see a world, as it says, will happen in Romans 1, that goes farther and farther away from God, and becomes more and more deranged in their thinking. Seeking things and doing things that you, that God says, even defy the imagination. And we see that in the world around us today. When we see some of the things that make the news and some of the regulations what people are arguing over, five years ago we would not have even thought it was possible to live in a country where we worry about the things that we worry about today or in this country. When we drink the wrong drink and out of the wrong cup, we become deranged. And that's what happens to the people of the world. First A, Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. Suddenly, we'll see that here in a little bit as well. Drop down to verse 41 of chapter 51. O how Shishak is taken! O how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become desolate among the nations! The sea has come up over Babylon. She is covered with a multitude of its waves. Her cities are a desolation, a dry land in a wilderness, a land where no one's well, through which no son of man passes. I will punish Bel the God of Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed, and the nation shall not stream to him anymore. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. And then the warning again. My people, go out of the midst of her. Let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord. When does the fierce anger of the Lord occur?

At a time that we'll be talking about here as we head toward the Feast of Trumpets. And finally, let's read the last few verses here of Jeremiah 51. Beginning in verse 16. Jeremiah wrote in the book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. Jeremiah said to Saraiya, when you arrive in Babylon and see it and read all these words, then you shall say, O Eternal, you who have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it. Neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever. Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. And say, Thus Babylon shall think and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they will be weary, thus are the words of Jeremiah. This time, when Babylon is destroyed, no daughters will come out of her, no succeeding kingdoms that are even worse than her. Everything about her will end at some point. She has no future like Jerusalem, and what it symbolizes has the future. Babylon will be history. Babylon will be gone. The stump will be torn out of the ground, not to grow again.

At some time in the future.

Now, as you read some of those words, you probably thought of Revelation. We'll go to Revelation now, but let's first start in Revelation 14. And look at a few verses there.

Because this time is coming.

The tree is growing again. You can begin to see the buds in the world around us, and you begin to see the hallmarks of Gentile kingdoms beginning. We have rumors of totalitarianism and despots who are beginning to show up on the earth again. We have cruelty in religion. We have arrogance that's beginning to show itself in a way that we haven't seen in a while on the earth. We can begin to see those things developing, and they will continue to grow until we're in the state that we see, that we've been talking about in Revelation. But as we come into Chapter 14 of Revelation, we see the Bible talking about the 144,000 in verse 1. And they had a name written on their foreheads. In verse 3 it says, these 144,000 sang as it were a new song before the throne. Verse 4, these are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. They are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb, and in their mouth was found no deceit. For they are with fault, without fault, before the throne of God.

They weren't listening. They weren't drinking out of the wrong cup. They weren't listening to the wrong things. They weren't deranged. They knew the truth of God, and they piloted it.

As we read down through verse 14, we see the mark of the beast. Now what that will mean on the earth as the ruler of the world at that time, the whole world marvels at, tries to force everyone to do things his way.

Verse 8, another angel followed. Now verse 7, a very notable verse, tells us, fear God, and give glory to Him. Another angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, fell once physically, it will fall again spiritually, once and for all. That great city, because she has made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication. A third angel followed, saying, with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast in his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which has poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Speaking of God's people, the first fruits here in chapter 14, as we come down to verse 12, we find the people that find themselves in an untenable situation. Like the Jews of the Old Testament, who found themselves in captivity, sitting by the waters of Babylon, tormenting, weeping over what was, but still having the hope. I'll remember Jerusalem. I won't let myself forget Jerusalem. And we would be saying, we won't forget God, we won't forget what He promises to do. Verse 12, here's the patience of the saints who are living during that time. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Those who keep looking forward and don't look at the world around them and don't count whatever pain, whatever threats come against them, even against their life, that would take them away from God. They have the patience to trust in God. They have the patience and the trust and reliance on His promises that He will come, and all through all of this, Jesus Christ will return. They may not feel like singing. They may not feel like playing the harp. But they'll remember God. And verse 13, kind of a harrowing verse in the right sense of the word, says, I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

A tough time. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.

And so we find a civilization and a system known as Babylon that is extant on the earth at that time. A cruel, totalitarian government. A beast, as the Bible describes it, with a little beast sitting and topping it on top of it and writing it. A governmental system, a commercial system, a marketplace system, an economic system, a military system, and a religious system, writing the whole government. And these will dominate. Underscore the word dominate. So I don't think we understand fully what to be dominated is. That will dominate the earth at that time. Now the world comes to a point that Revelation 18, verses 1 and 2, are exactly what that society and that system looks like. And that society will disappear. It's the time of God's vengeance. It's the time for Him to come down and exact His retribution on the people of earth. But before the governmental and military and economic system, we have the religious system that we read about in chapter 17. We can go back to Revelation 17. By the history of Babylon the Great, the mother of Harlot, and of the abominations of the earth. I teach the antithesis, or maybe even a mixture of good and evil, but not the pure truth of God. Now we find in this system there isn't peace, there isn't unity. There's this beast that rides another beast, or a woman that rides the beast. You'd think they would be of one accord. They're not. Because in a government that's not of God there is no peace, there is no unity. There's consistent conflict. Verse 15, Revelation 17, talks about the conflict that will occur even between these powers. He said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits, the church we're talking about, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. They're over a whole bunch of people. Then he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits, and the ten horns which you saw on the beast. These will hate the harlot. Ah, these ten kings who gave their power and authority to the beast? They hate that beast. They hate that church. They hate what it's doing. These will hate the harlot. They will make her desolate. And they could eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

Wow! That's their own! That's the woman that was riding the beast. They turn on her! And at man's hand, that church is destroyed, burned with fire. They hate her.

Part of the beast is destroyed, never to be risen again, or never to rise again. But we still have the governmental system, the military system, and the economic system. When we come to Chapter 18, one's been put away, and it's ended, but the other happens. One by the hands of its own friends, if you will, but by the hands of man. But then God gets involved with a system called Babylon.

I didn't finish verse 18. Some people, you know, there's speculation. Where is Babylon? Some people say Babylon itself in Iraq will be rebuilt, and that's the system. It's not going to happen in Iraq. Some people even say America is Babylon. It's not America. It tells us in verse 18, this thing, and then, of course, in Revelation 13, where it tells where the beast power rises out of, out of the great sea. But in 18 it says, the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.

What great city reigns over the kings of the earth? I don't even have to say it, because if you watch the news and you see the way people bow down to one religion who reigns over the kings of the earth, you know where that beast power is. We get into chapter 18. After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And we read verse 2, it talks about, this is a hateful and ridiculous and evil, a wicked society that is here. Verse 5, for her sins have reached to heaven. And if you look in your margins, it says, reach the real or a more correct translation of that Greek word, would, her sins have heaped up to heaven. It kind of draws you back to the Tower of Babel, where they were laying brick after brick after brick on top of one another, trying to reach to heaven. But here in this case, her sins have been heaped on one and another and another, and they have reached to heaven. And God has remembered her iniquities, rendered to her just as she rendered to you, repay her double according to her works, in the cup which she mixed, mixed double for her. Verse 8, therefore, the plagues will come in one day on this system, death and mourning and famine. She will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. It'll be as the cities of Sidamis, Sodom, and Gomorrah. Strong is God who will judge this city and who will burn and end this society and this system for once and for all. Who will not only cut it down, but take the stump out that it will never rise again. Because what will rise and what will remain forever and ever is the government of God. And Jesus Christ is the kingdom that He establishes forever and ever and ever. Verse 9, the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her, will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning. Standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, in one hour your judgment has come. Quickly, suddenly, before the return of Jesus Christ, no more.

And the merchants wail about what has happened. What's happened to this great city? What happened to this society that made us rich? All these things that we were used to. Because you just disappeared in one hour.

Burned with fire by God. And out from here, you know, they go out and it says the armies of the world gather in a place called Armageddon to fight against God.

Mankind doesn't get sometimes the message that God gives them in the morning, even when it simply can't be denied. Down in verse 21.

Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, threw it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence the great city Babylon will be thrown down, and shall not be found any more. The sound of harpists, musicians, lutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you any more. No craftsmen of any kind shall be found in you any more, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you any more. No light of a lamp, no voice of a bright moon and bride, bright moon and bride, for your merchants were the great men of the earth. For by your sorcery all the nations were deceived, and its legacy in it was found the blood of the nations, an evil society, a wicked society against God. A time, a domination, a way that we haven't seen, but a way that's coming on a people who have the hallmarks of a Gentile kingdom, a kingdom apart from God. The arrogance, the mixing of truth and error, and a cruelty that we have yet to define.

Chapter 19. After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God, for true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot, who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He has avenge on her the blood of His servants shed by her. How the people who endure through that time, the people of God who have the patience of God, who keep His commandments, who never forget God, and even when it may seem very dark, maybe in their heart they can still sing to their God. They live in a society that is totally at odds with their values and totally foreign to them in every sense of the way, but they still have God with them. They may sit by the waters of Babylon, but they will remember God. They will remember His calling. They will remember and take stock in His promises, and they won't fall.

I'm going to conclude there, and we'll conclude the sermon without closing in.