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If you will, turn with me in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 51 and I'm going to be reading

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from verse 1 through verse 17 of the book of Jeremiah.

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On December 28th, 1906, there was an earthquake in Messina, Italy.

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A lot of people died, 84,000 to be exact.

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But what is not so well known about that is that before that earthquake, laws were passed

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which were basically anti-Christian, blasphemous I guess you could say.

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And in one of the local newspapers, they recorded about a story in which God needed to prove

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himself by bringing an earthquake about.

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That was at Christmas.

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Within a few days after that, there was an earthquake.

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People see that as the judgment of God and maybe it is.

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But what we want to talk about this morning is the judgment of God.

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Now it is not a popular topic, but it is there in the Bible from the beginning of it to the

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end.

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And as we come to the end of our journey through the book of Jeremiah, we see God's judgment

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on a group of people that God used to punish his own people, Babylonians.

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Babylon was going down.

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Even though it had been an instrument of God for his purposes.

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Let's see what Jeremiah the prophet tells us about the end of Babylon.

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This is what the Lord says.

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See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Lebed, come

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on.

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I will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land.

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They will expose her on every side in the day of her disaster.

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Let not the archer strain his bow nor let him put on his armor.

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Do not spare her young men.

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Completely destroy her army.

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They will fall down slain and Babylon, fatally wounded in her streets for Israel and Judah

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have not been forsaken by their God, the Lord almighty, though their land is full of guilt

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before the Holy One of Israel.

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Flee from Babylon.

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Run for your lives.

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Do not be destroyed because of her sins.

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It is a time of the Lord's vengeance.

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He will repay her what she deserves.

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Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord's hand.

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She made the whole earth drunk.

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The nations drank her wine.

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Therefore they have now gone mad.

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Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.

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Wail over her.

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Get bomb for her pain.

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As she can be healed, we would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed.

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Let us leave her and each go to our own land for her judgment reaches to the skies.

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It rises as high as the heavens.

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The Lord has vindicated us.

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Come let us tell Zion what the Lord our God has done.

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Open the arrows, take up the shields.

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The Lord has stirred up the king of the Medes because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.

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The Lord will take vengeance for his temple.

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Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon.

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Reinforce the guard, station the watchman, prepare an ambush.

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The Lord will carry out his purpose, his decree against the people of Babylon.

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You who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end is come.

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The time for you to be destroyed.

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The Lord Almighty has sworn by himself, I will surely fill you with troops as with a

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swarm of locusts.

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They will shout and triumph over you.

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He made the earth by his power.

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He founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

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And when he thunders the waters and heavens roar, he makes clouds rise from the ends of

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the earth.

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He sends the lightning with the rain and brings out the wind with his storehouses.

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Everyone is senseless and without knowledge, every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.

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The image he makes are a fraud.

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They have no breath in them.

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Let's pray.

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Ask God to bless the reading of his holy and inerrant word.

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Our Heavenly Father, help us to see your kingship and your justice this morning.

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May we not think of you as a grandfatherly type who can do nothing.

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But may we see with you that justice will roll and does roll.

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Hear the prayers of your people who await you.

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Amen.

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History.

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Why do we study history?

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I have students tell me, I don't like history.

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I don't want to study history.

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After all, that stuff occurred in the past.

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We don't need to hear about that anymore.

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And I always feel like saying, when I hear that, the reason you're saying that is because

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of history.

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That is how you were brought up and that is part of the American environment where we

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downplay history for what is present.

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But you can't escape history.

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All of us are either victimized by it or we have profited from the past in some way.

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And if you read the Bible, a good deal of it has to deal with history, the history of

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God's people and what took place to Israel, to the church.

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And you want to know how God acts?

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You look at what he did in the history of Israel with the disciples and with the early

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church.

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It shows us a God who is active and does not shrink away from this world.

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What he's done in the past, he will also do again because his character does not change.

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And one of the ways that he acts is through judgment.

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And we don't like to hear that.

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We don't want to hear about a God who is active in this world.

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What the modern world wants is to push your faith to the private sectors of your life.

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It is something that you do at home by no means make it public at all.

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Your religion should be no more than your prayer life and precious thoughts to help

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you make it through the day.

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Do not bring God into the public affairs of life.

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But if God is a sovereign ruler and if God is controlling history, then it's hard to

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escape the fact, even though we may not know all the details that he is involved and that

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the whole point of history ends with the new heavens and the new earth and Jesus's return.

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This is what the God of the Bible is like.

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A great king who brings nations up and also brings them down.

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Who lets kings and rulers arise, but he also brings them down because all of the world

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is in his hands, he is the sovereign king of this universe.

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And today I want to look at one of the final passages in the book of Jeremiah where we

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see clearly his hand in what took place in the past, the judgment of God against a nation

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that he had used.

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He's an instrument in his hands, it was doing his will, but yet that same nation is going

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to be punished by him.

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And it's going to show us this morning that if he did it once, he will do it again.

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Babylon down.

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It's full of bad news and it's also full of good news for God's being.

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And when I look at this passage, one of the first thoughts that ought to come to your mind

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as well as my mind is, why is this passage here?

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What is it teaching us?

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It's teaching us about the judgment of God.

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That is the overall picture of what you see here, judgment.

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Now you've got to understand here, what is the question that people had in their minds

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back in Jeremiah's day?

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You know the story if you've been here Sunday after Sunday, Israel sinned.

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And it wasn't just little picadillos of sins, it was great sins.

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They were to be the representative of God to the world, but they looked no different

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than any other pagan nation.

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They were worshiping idols.

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There was cult prostitution.

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There were idols being made.

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Never mind that God said, you are to be holy as I am holy.

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Never mind any of that.

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They sinned and God responded to their sins because they broke his covenant.

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He sent Babylon, the superpower of its day to punish God's people.

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Now was Babylon holy?

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No.

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Was Babylon orthodox?

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No.

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Did Babylon follow Yahweh?

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No.

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They were just as bad as any other nation, even though they were God's instrument of judgment.

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So the question comes up in God's people mind is, well God, you punished us for our sin.

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What about those Babylonians?

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What are you going to do with them?

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Look at what they did to our people.

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Look at what they did to our temple.

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God, won't you do something about this?

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And God says, don't worry.

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Yes I will.

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You see it in verses four and following where God's word says, they will fall down slain

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in Babylon, fatally wounded in her streaks.

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Look at verse eight.

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Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken well over.

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Get bombed for her pain.

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Perhaps she can be healed, but it later goes on and says, she can't be healed.

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Time's going down.

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God's justice and judgment will be upon her.

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The punisher will be punished.

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The rod of God's judgment will be judged by the righteousness of God.

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And while God may use sinful people to bring about his will, it does not mean that they

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will escape his justice.

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In the end, they will be punished.

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Now on a very personal level, there may be a drunk driver who runs into you and it may

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be part of God's disciplining of you.

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That drunk driver may have harmed you, but that drunk driver will also be judged by God.

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The tyrannical vicious boss which you work for may be an instrument of God's justice

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and judgment.

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But don't think he's going to get off scot-free.

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He will have to face God.

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The unfair teacher who doesn't like a certain student grades that student down may be an

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instrument of God's discipline, but that unfair teacher will also have to face the justice

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of God for what they have done.

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But let's not just think of our own personal lives.

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Let's think big picture as well.

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God brings nations and empires into existence, but he also brings them down.

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Greece at one time was a great empire.

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Did it last forever?

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No.

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The Roman Empire, great empire.

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Did it last forever?

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No.

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It was brought down.

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And you go into World War I, there were three great empires, the Ottoman Empire, the German

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Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they were all brought down by God ultimately.

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None lasted.

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None were holy.

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None were righteous.

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No nation, no empire, including our own, can withstand the justice of God.

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So this morning what you've got to keep in mind, brothers and sisters in Christ, no government,

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no power will ever ultimately get away with their sinfulness, for the powers in this world

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are nothing compared with the power of God.

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One time I went to a museum of modern German history.

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And in this museum they had the speech of John F. Kennedy, the I.M. Berliner speech,

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guess which speech they didn't have?

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Reagan's speech.

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Remember it?

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Mr. Gorbachev teared down this wall.

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And what happened shortly after that?

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The Communist Empire of Russia fell apart.

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Partly due to the United States, partly due to the internal rot and corruption in Russia.

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Today maybe we need to hear Mr. Putin, your empire's going down sooner or later.

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Mr. Xi, your empire's going down sooner or later by the sovereignty of God.

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You may persecute Christians, you may harm the innocent, but you cannot stand against

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the righteousness and holiness of God.

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And sometimes as Christians we get so caught up in our own little spiritual world, we forget

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the big picture, the cosmic picture, the picture of history.

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The big picture is those empires will suffer the wrath of God for their sins.

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And look at what verse 6 says for those who want to take comfort in those evil empires,

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what does it say?

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Flee, get out, get away, do not get caught up into their systems.

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As God's wrath is coming upon them.

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So why is this passage here?

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It's detaches us about the judgment of God, and it's not pleasant, but it's also detaches

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us about the vindication of God.

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And you may be saying, well, the vindication of who?

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God's people, Israel.

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Over and over again in this passage it talks about God as the one who vindicates.

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God's people had been punished, but it was the end of their story.

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Oh no, God does not give up on them.

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And I want you to think what the Babylonians did to Israel.

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They destroyed the temple.

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They mocked God's people.

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They probably said, oh, you thought your God was so great.

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Guess he hadn't seen anything like the Babylonian gods.

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Think God was happy with that?

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No.

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He wasn't happy with that.

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He wasn't happy at all.

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And if you look at verse 24, what does it say?

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Therefore, before your eyes, I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylon for the

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wrongs they have done to Zion, he clears the Lord.

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In verse 35, he says something similar where he says, may the violence done to our flesh

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beyond Babylon say the inhabitants of Zion, may our blood beyond those who live in Babylonia

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says Jerusalem.

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God was not happy with Babylon even though he was, God was using Babylon.

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The discipline had to happen.

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But that doesn't mean you make fun of God or his people when you do that.

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And how will he do that?

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How will he bring this vindication?

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Another superpower is going to come along.

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This time the Persians, and they are going to bring Babylon down.

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And the reason God is doing it is to vindicate his people and say, my people are right.

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They are my people.

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And they are still my treasured possession.

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And in verse 10, everyone look at it together.

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What does it say?

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The Lord has vindicated us.

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Come let us tell it in Zion what the Lord our God has done.

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In other words, all those promises that God made are still true even though they have

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been exiled and even though the Babylonians have come.

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It is the vindication that's going to take place.

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And you know, we've got to think about this when the end of the biblical story and the

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end of all human history comes about.

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The passage in Jeremiah is also in the book of Revelation in chapter 18 where it once

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again talks about Babylon.

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Now you're thinking to yourself, but Babylon didn't exist at that time.

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You're right.

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It didn't exist in the New Testament time.

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So what's it referring to then?

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Now partially Rome, but also partially any world power or system which sets itself up

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against the people of God.

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And listen to what Revelation chapter 18 says.

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After this, I saw another angel coming down from heaven.

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He had great authority and the earth was illuminated by a splendor and with a mighty

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shout he said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great for she has become a dwelling for

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demons and a haunt of every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for

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every unclean and detestable animal.

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For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries.

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The kings of the earth committed adultery with her and the merchants of the earth grew

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rich from her excessive luxuries.

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Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her my people so that you will

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not share in her sin so that you will not receive any of her plagues.

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Her sins are piled up to heaven and the Lord has remembered her crime.

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Give back to her as she is given.

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Pay her back double for what she has done.

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Pour down a double portion from her own cup.

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Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself.

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In her heart she boasts I sit enthroned as queen.

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I am not a widow.

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I will never mourn.

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And what do we find out happens in the book of Revelation after that?

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They go down.

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All those worldly powers from the beginning of history to the end that have set them up

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to oppose God's people fall.

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And the next thing we have after the fall of Babylon in the book of Revelation is the

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wedding supper of the Lamb where God's people are vindicated.

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And I want you to think of world history.

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States have come and nations have gone but the people of God even though we are weak

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and helpless we are still here and we will continue to be here.

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I know if you are a fan of the South you probably don't like the battle hymn of the Republic.

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But when I listen to those lines and I think of them they reflect something that is very

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biblical.

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Remember what the words say, my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

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He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.

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He has loosened the faithful lightning of his terrible swift sword.

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His truth is marching on.

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Do you hear it?

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Do you hear what I hear?

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Do you hear the soldiers coming into the battle camp?

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Do you hear the angelic hosts gathering under the banner of our God?

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You see the troops gathering together preparing for that final battle?

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Oh I can hear it.

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Because it's coming.

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Oh it is coming.

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And if you are one of those evil dictators, power brokers in this world who have set yourself

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up against God and His people who persecute the Lord's chosen ones, beware.

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Beware.

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The battle is about to begin.

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And when we think of the judgment of God, the vindication of God's people, let's also

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remember His promise.

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He's not giving up on His people.

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Not at all.

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You may be the weak.

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You may have no political power.

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You may have very little.

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But what does it say in verse 5, for Israel and Judah have not been forsaken and you are

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not forsaken as God's worldwide people, that's His promise.

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The gospel will not stop.

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The kingdom will grow.

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And His promise is when the Lord armies roll, you will be protected and you will be set

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up with that everlasting kingdom that never fades away.

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One time, I believe it was when I was working at the YMCA in Jackson, Mississippi, there

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was an elderly African-American janitor who always had his Bible and a concordance.

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And I think someone asked him one time about the book of Revelation.

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What's the purpose of it?

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His response?

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It's about the victory of Jesus.

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It's not just the book of Revelation.

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It is also the story of the whole Bible.

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God wins through His judgment, His vindication, and His promises to His people.

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This is not a passage which may make our hearts go pitter-patter, but it is something just

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as great, the control of this world and the purposes of history.

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Let's pray.

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Our Heavenly Father, we come before you now, asking that you show us that you are the king

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of this world.

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And even though your people may be frightened, scared of all that is happening in this world,

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with all of the anti-Christian sentiment that is being spewed out, we may even be scared

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of another war.

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Help us to realize the great day of Jesus' second coming is just around the corner.

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And He's coming again to judge the quick and the dead.

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So help us instead of to have fear to look forward to that great day where we will be

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with you, Jesus, forever at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

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Hear our prayer now.

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Amen.