You know, there are certain names, places, and nations that are quickly recognizable
to the student of the Bible.
And of course, one of the great thrills is that which some of you have had, and that
is to visit the lands of the Bible where that narrative took place, where that history came
to pass and to see firsthand many of these places whose names we've heard since childhood.
Regarding some of them, little is known.
Not much remains regarding some of the places.
But other places are well documented, not only in biblical history, but in secular history
as well.
And Babylon is an example of the latter.
To grasp the place of Babylon in the history of the world, it might be helpful to envision
four mountains with valleys in between them.
Because it seems to me that there are four peaks, shall we say, when the history of Babylon
comes before us in a magnificent way, in a way that should strike our attention, in a
way that would cause us to stand back and say, that is important.
The history of Babylon has been a continuous one in many respects, but there are four peaks,
so to speak, when that history needs to be examined for us to understand what the Bible
says regarding the place of Babylon in the history of the world.
It might be best to say upfront that Babylon refers to a literal place, to a city, also
to an empire.
But Babylon also in the Bible has symbolic or allegorical meaning as well.
For Babylon has represented in the Bible rebellion and defiance against God.
Babylon stands throughout the Old Testament in opposition to God and to his chosen people.
It is a godless human system as well as a place and a city.
And that will be more clear as we come to the end of our time tonight.
But as we think about the four peaks of Babylon's history, I think it's best to begin with
Genesis chapter 10, so I invite you to turn there with me.
In Genesis chapter 10, we have recorded for us the descendants of the sons of Noah.
And beginning in verse 6, it is the descendants of his son Ham.
One of his sons was named Cush, and in verse 8 it says, now Cush became the father of Nimrod.
He became a mighty one on the earth.
He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.
Therefore it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and also Erech and Achad and Akalna in the
land of Shinar.
And so we come across the name of one Nimrod, who is the great-grandson of Noah.
It says here that this one was mighty on the earth.
This is the same word that is used back in chapter 6 and verse 4, where it says, the
Nephilim were on the earth in those days, that is the days before the flood, and also afterward,
when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them.
Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
This is not an easy Hebrew word to dissect, and yet it seems to imply much more than just
physical might or prowess.
When it calls Nimrod a mighty one on the earth, it's not saying that he rivals Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It has a whole lot more meaning than that, because the implication here in the might
and the power of this man was that he was mighty and powerful in wickedness, in iniquity.
That certainly is the context in Genesis chapter 6, among those people called the Nephilim,
who were upon the earth in those days, as it speaks of the might of those people, their
renown, it's talking about their fame, their notorious reputation for wickedness.
The same thought seems to be true regarding Nimrod.
When it calls him a mighty hunter, another understanding of that phrase can be a mighty
rebel or a wicked rebel before the Lord.
We see regarding Nimrod that he founded a place that was called Babel, and it was in
the land of Shinar, which is the Mesopotamian area.
If your Bible has maps in the back of it, you may want to look there as we're talking
and find a map that deals with the ancient world.
Normally, that is included in the maps that are in the back of the Bible, and you will
find there perhaps all of these cities that are listed in verse 10.
Some of them are listed in my own Bible map, but the city of Babel is the one that has
come to be known as Babylon later on.
We find the origin of the city of Babel, this permanent settlement in the land of Shinar,
was Nimrod, Nimrod who was a mighty rebel against the Lord.
He represents a revival, it seems, of that pre-flood spirit of humanism.
Now remember, after the flood, there was only Noah and his wife, Mrs. Noah, and their three
sons and their three wives, and so Nimrod was born after the flood.
He seems to represent the pre-flood spirit of humanism, the autonomy of man, the rebellion
of man against God, and he founded Babel with that kind of a spirit, the spirit of human
independence from God.
Now in chapter 11, we find out more regarding this place.
It says, the whole earth used the same language and the same words, and it came about as they
journeyed east, that is the people, as they immigrated toward the east, they found a plain
in the land of Shinar and settled there, and they said to one another, come let us make
bricks and burn them thoroughly, and they used brick for stone and they used tar for
mortar and they said, come let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into
heaven and let us make for ourselves a name lest we be scattered abroad over the face
of the whole earth.
Now I think it's fair to say that that was, in fact, God's plan, that humankind should
scatter over the face of the earth and replenish the earth with the human population, that
the earth should be filled and subdued in that sense.
But we see here the spirit in man not wanting to scatter, but rather to remain together.
And so these people mentioned here begin to build a city and a tower.
And it says, the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had
built and the Lord said, behold they are one people and they all have the same language
and this is what they began to do and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible
for them, come let us go down.
And there confused their language that they may not understand one another's speech.
And so it's obvious that the tower that was being built was to be a rallying point.
It was to be the focal point for that civilization and it was to represent man in his independence
from God.
And God clearly saw that, that's the way God evaluated it.
And in order to cause that to cease, God came down it says and he gave them different languages,
he scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building
the city therefore its name was called Babel.
Because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth.
Now in the Akkadian language where Babel originates the word means gate of God.
And so that seems to be the name that the people had for it, that here was the gate
of God and yet as the city was named Babel there was a double meaning to it and in the
Hebrew very similar word Babel means to confuse, it comes from that verb and that's where Moses
says that the name really finds its origin and that there God confused the languages
of men and God scattered man over the whole earth in order to bring to an end that rebellion
that Babel represented.
Well from secular history we learned that in time this area of Shinar or Mesopotamia
was developed by a people that were known as Sumerians, not Samaritans they were much
later but Sumerians, S-U-M-E-R-I-A-S, Sumerians.
The Sumerians precise origin is unknown and what examples we have of their written language
seems difficult to relate to any other language that we know but their culture archaeologists
feel resembles that which was a part of the earliest civilization found in India and so
what we have here in the Sumerians are peoples whose roots go all the way back probably to
the text that we're reading about in the word of God.
For several hundred years the Sumerians were dominated by a people to the north of them
who were called Akkadians.
Now Akkadians are related to that other city that Nimrod founded Akkad, A-K-K-A-D and those
descendants who lived in that area dominated the Sumerians for a period of time.
Later on they were dominated by another group of people who were called the Guti people,
G-U-T-I, who were very fierce and barbarian.
But it was about 2100 B.C., about 4000 years ago, that the Sumerians rebelled and established
a nation of their own, a Sumerian nation.
Now I mention that because they had a capital city that they developed that was called Ur,
U-R and it was from that city Ur of the Chaldees as it is called in the Bible, this capital
city of the Sumerians that Abraham or Abram was called out from God just about this time,
2100 B.C.
He was called to go out of the land of Ur, the land of his fathers, into the land that
God would show him and his journey led him to Heron and then on eventually to the other
end of the Fertile Crescent in Palestine.
So we have a connection there with biblical history that it was from the Sumerian peoples
and from the city of Ur that Abram was called out of God and there we have the plan of redemption
beginning to be fulfilled as God calls out his servant.
Well that's the first mountain peak so to speak, the origin of the city.
We come now after a couple of hundred years at least to another time when Babylon was
developed even more and it was what is called a city state.
In other words it was not a large empire but it was a city that controlled the area immediately
around it and so it was called a city state.
And it was in the second millennium B.C. that that area was conquered by a people called
the Amorites who are mentioned in the Old Testament of course and the city of Babylon
was restored and enlarged by the Amorites as their own capital city.
It was not long after that that the first dynasty of Babylon as it is called was formed.
This is sometimes called Old Babylonia and its first king was a man by the name of Sumu
Abim.
He was the first ruler and he began ruling in about 1894 B.C.
Now I mention that because it was about that time that Joseph was down in Egypt and was
gaining power under Pharaoh and as you know was used to preserve his father Jacob and
his brethren in the time of famine.
And so about the time that Babylon arose for its second time of power, Old Babylonia it's
called, about the time that its first king came to his greatness in Bible history we
have Joseph down in Egypt so that kind of helps you relate that chronologically.
Now returning to Babylon, the most famous ruler in Old Babylonia in secular history
was a man by the name of Hemerabai.
He was the sixth king actually in Old Babylonia and reigned from 1792 to 1750 B.C.
He was a man of many interests.
He had a lot of culture about him.
He was a military leader, quite a politician, a refined statesman.
And he is best known for what is called the Code of Hemerabai.
If you've had any courses in world history or perhaps even in law you've heard of the
Code of Hemerabai.
This code was discovered in this century in 1901.
It was actually discovered in another city than Babylon but in that other city they found
an object called a stele which is an upright stone on which had been engraved some things
and originally this stone had been over in Babylon before it had been moved.
And Hemerabai had caused this engraving to be on the stone and what it was on the stone
was an outlining of the rights of individuals.
This was a brand new concept in Hemerabai's time.
He outlined there furthermore the law of retaliation which became a very important thing, the lex
talionis.
And he described in his code varying penalties according to the social class of the person.
I don't want to belabor that point except to say that old Babylonia was best known for
this man and for what is called the Code of Hemerabai.
Now about this same time that he lived and put together this code and wrote it upon that
stele, that piece of stone, the Jews were already in slavery down in Egypt.
Joseph had died and the new Pharaoh rose who knew not Joseph and the descendants of Joseph
and his brethren were in slavery and they would be yet for about another 300 years before
the Exodus.
Well long before the Exodus, Babylon was captured by a people called the Hittites.
That was in 1595 BC.
Now I mention the Hittites in particular because for a long time only the Bible recorded the
Hittite nation.
There was no record of them in secular history at all and liberal quote scholars mocked the
Bible saying that here was an example of biblical inaccuracy, the non-historical nature of the
Bible for it mentioned a very powerful people called the Hittites that didn't even exist
in the ancient world.
However much to the chagrin of those people who believed that eventually the archaeologists
dug far enough and at the right places to find out that there was a Hittite nation after
all and that in fact it reigned just at the time that the Bible says it did and it was
just as powerful as the Bible says it was.
And the Hittites conquered Babylon about 1595 BC.
Later however it was overthrown by a group called the Cassites who were barbarians.
They had no interest in culture at all.
The only contribution that can be found from the Cassites is that they introduced the horse
into the Tigris Euphrates Valley.
Before that the horse was not known there.
But because these were such a barbarian people Babylon went downhill and it lost most of
its splendor and its power.
And so that ended that second mountain peak of Babylonian history.
The people of Babylonia failed and ended because of the Hittites and then the Cassites who
overthrew the people.
Now let me just mention as an aside at this point that at this same time about 500 miles
up the Tigris River if you look on your map in the back of the Bible you will find a small
kingdom perhaps mentioned, the kingdom of Asher.
The people who lived in that little kingdom came to be known later as the Assyrians.
And I mention them because as they rose to power over the centuries they had a part in
beginning the third stage of Babylonian history, the third peak of history which is called
Neo-Babylonia.
And here we come beyond Babylonia a city state to an empire that ruled a vast territory.
And we also move several hundred years.
We've just talked about 1595 BC.
We're going to skip about 700 years now and come to the eighth century BC.
And now the Assyrians who we just mentioned have risen to power and they took an interest
in Babylonia.
They did so because their king, Shalmaneser III, was asked to come to Babylon to help
settle a political rivalry.
However once getting interested in it, being the kind of a power they were, they didn't
lose interest in Babylon.
Later on one Meradock Baladin proclaimed Babylon independent from Syria and tried to throw off
these interested Assyrians.
He did this in 722-721 BC.
That by the way is the same year that the Assyrians went down to Samaria to the northern
kingdom called Israel and captured it.
Remember this morning we mentioned that after the death of Solomon the people of Israel
divided into two nations, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.
And the two were at times friendly and most of the time were hostile toward one another
though they were of the same parentage, the same heritage.
The northern kingdom, Samaria it was called at times with this capital city called Samaria,
was always a wicked nation, not one good king in all of their years.
And now God brings them into judgment.
He ends that northern kingdom of Israel, Samaria, in 722 when the Assyrians come down and take
them away.
Babylon was able to sustain its independence from Syria for a period of time, about ten
years before its next king who was called Sargon II of Assyria regained control.
Now earlier I mentioned Meradock Baladin and some of these names may get confusing to you
but bear with me.
Meradock Baladin who had been this king of Babylon who tried to throw off the Assyrians
initially and now was overthrown again by the Assyrians, they did not kill him but rather
they allowed him to live and he took advantage of that and after a few years he was able
to bring together enough people to again make a bid for power in about 703 BC.
Now I mention that because again that ties into biblical history and I'd like you to
turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 20 where he is mentioned.
He wants to come to power again but in order to really throw out the Assyrians he needed
some help.
And so he went to Hezekiah who was the king of Judah and asked Hezekiah to join him in
an alliance to fight off the Assyrians.
Well it says in verse 12 of 2 Kings 20, at that time Meradock Baladin, a son of Baladin,
king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah for he had heard that Hezekiah
had been sick.
Now this was not just a get well card, understand that he was doing this in order to try to
bribe him to get involved in this alliance.
And Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold,
the spices, the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in the
treasuries.
There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
Oh what a foolish man Hezekiah was.
These Babylonians came down bringing this offering, bringing the get well wishes, bringing
the invitation, Hezekiah join us against the Assyrians and he took advantage to brag a
little bit.
He wanted to show off the riches of his realm and so he took these people from Babylonia
on a little tour of his kingdom and of all of his riches.
Isaiah knew that that was a mistake and so in verse 14 Isaiah the prophet came to king
Hezekiah and said to him, what did these men say and from where did they come to you?
And Hezekiah said they came from a far country from Babylon and he said what have they seen
in your house?
And so Hezekiah said everything and Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord,
behold the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have
laid up in store to this day shall be carried to Babylon.
Nothing shall be left says the Lord and some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom
you shall beget shall be taken away and they shall become officials in the palace of the
king of Babylon.
And so Isaiah warned Hezekiah about what had happened.
He says you have blown it, your majesty, because some day these people are going to come back
and they're going to want to clean out all the treasures that you've showed them and
some of your own descendants are going to be carried away to Babylon as captives.
Well Hezekiah did not go along with the deal.
He backed out of the alliance, nonetheless, back over in Babylon now, Meradok Baladin
made his play for power and Sennacherib who was of Assyria countered against him and foiled
his plan and years after that following several intrigues, Sennacherib finally went to Babylon
and sacked it and declared it to be abandoned for 70 years.
He said no one is to live in this place.
He was fed up with the intrigues in Babylon against the rule of his country, the Assyrians.
However it wasn't long after that that Sennacherib died.
By the way you will recognize the name Sennacherib from the Bible.
After he had died his son came to power, Esar Haddon was his name, and as soon as he came
to power he rescinded the decree his father had made about Babylon, went back to the city
there and rebuilt it, reestablished it, and yet it remained dominated by Assyria until
626 B.C.
Now if you've been listening the last few weeks you know that 626 B.C. is an important
year because that was the year that there was a Chaldean governor by the name of Nabal
Pulasar who rose up and managed to throw out the Assyrians once and for all.
In fact he conquered the Assyrians, he did them in, and this man Nabal Pulasar was invited
to become the king of Babylon which he did become.
He was a mighty man of war but he died in 605 B.C.
Now again if you've been listening the last few weeks you'll recognize that year because
that was the year that his son became king in his place.
His son's name was Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar as we have studied became the greatest king during this third period of
Babylon's history, this third mountain peak.
And as you know he attacked Jerusalem once in 605 B.C. and just like Isaiah had warned
Hezekiah he cleaned out the temple, he took away captives including Daniel, he came back
in 597 took more treasure, he took out some more captives including Ezekiel, and finally
when he had had enough of the rebellion of the Judeans he came back once more in 586
he besieged the city and destroyed it.
And the people of Israel or Judah were taken away to Babylon and thus to continue their
70 years that we looked at this morning, 70 years of captivity to the Babylonians.
Now as we saw a couple of weeks ago Babylon eventually fell.
Nebuchadnezzar was a great king, the most powerful king of his day but he died in 562
B.C. and after him as we have seen there were several kings and finally Belshazzar was on
the throne, he was killed and the nation was overthrown by the Medes and the Persians in
539.
And so the Medes and the Persians took over and under their rule the city of Babylon languished
because they were involved in wars all over the place and in fact you can probably see
in one of your maps how extensive their kingdom was all the way it reached all the way over
to the edge of Europe all the way over to India, vast empire the Medes and the Persians
tried to maintain but it was very expensive for them to do that and they could not keep
up all of these cities and one of the cities that languished was the city of Babylon and
so it began its decline.
It was several hundred years later in 331 B.C. that the city had another visitor, this
one from the west, one who came speedily from the west like a goat charging his way, you
remember his name?
Daniel had prophesied that he would come and that he would bring the extension of the Greek
Empire, his name is Alexander the Great and on October the 1st 331 B.C. Alexander entered
into the city of Babylon to the joy of the people who were very tired of the Medes who
hated them and he conquered the city and then he was named the King of Babylon.
Alexander was not the kind of man to stay around and enjoy his spoils, as you know he
had a real zest for power, he had a taste for conquering nations and so he went on beyond
Babylon conquering the land of the Medes and the Persians all the way over to the Indus
River, the border of India and then he turned around and he came back and nine years later
came back to the city of Babylon.
It seems as though he intended to make Babylon if not the major city of his empire at least
one of the major cities and Alexander put together some fabulous plans for renovating
the city of Babylon.
Keep in mind that Babylon has always represented man's rebellion against God, it's always
been the focal point of man's autonomy against God and that certainly was Alexander's attitude.
So he wanted to resurrect this city of Babylon that Nimrod had begun centuries before, make
it a great city again, but he only got started on his plans because not long after he had
begun his renovation, Alexander died in the city of Babylon on June the 13th 323 BC and
after that the city of Babylon declined quickly, one of his generals Seleucus became responsible
for that area but he built his capital in another location, forgot the city of Babylon
and it just went downhill.
Although the city was inhabited until 100 AD, about the time that John the Apostle died,
it was inhabited at least by a priestly cast of people, the city never had its power back
and it certainly declined in that third period.
Now we have a mention of Babylon in the New Testament in kind of an interesting context,
I'd like you to turn to 1 Peter chapter 5.
Peter is writing to the Jews of the dispersion, Jewish believers of the dispersion, those
who had become Christians and who for their faith had suffered and been dispersed throughout
the Roman Empire and he says in verse 13 chapter 5, she who is in Babylon chosen together with
you sends you greetings and so does my son Mark, by Mark he means John Mark, undoubtedly
not his physical son but his spiritual son in the faith, but that interesting word she
who is in Babylon chosen together with you sends you greetings.
This may be understood that Peter himself was in that literal city of Babylon over in
the land of Shinar which is just a fraction of what it used to be in its glory, it still
had a small population and that there were some Jews who had been dispersed who were
there who were believers and Peter was visiting them and sent greetings to those who were
receiving the letter.
However, the better understanding I think is that Peter was using the word Babylon here
as sort of a code word.
In other words, Babylon here doesn't represent that city of Babylon but it was a code word,
a symbolic name that Peter was using for Rome because tradition does tell us that Peter
spent a number of years in Rome that he may even have been executed there at Rome and
that he's probably here saying these Christians who are in Babylon i.e. Rome send you greetings
and it may be for some security reasons that he decided to call it Babylon rather than
Rome.
But remember, Babylon is not only a literal city but in the Bible it's symbolic of
human rebellion against God and the Roman Empire, the capital city being Rome, was in
rebellion against God and was persecuting believers and so that may be why he called
it Babylon.
Now we want to come to the fourth mountain peak as we bring this message to a close and
we find this in the book of Revelation, 1st and chapter 14.
Again the symbolic use of the name is the best understanding as we come here.
The Bible indicates that in the last days there will yet be another Babylon.
There are some who argue that the literal city of Babylon will be rebuilt and there
have been those who have suggested the rebuilding of the city of Babylon.
But here in the book of Revelation it seems best to understand it not as that literal
city of Babylon but as a name for perhaps another city but certainly a system that is
anti-God, a system that is both religious and commercial that is opposed to God.
In chapter 14 of Revelation in verse 8 it says, And another angel, a second one, followed
saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of
the wine of the passion of her immorality.
Well now these angels are speaking of something that had not yet happened as the book of Revelation
falls out chronologically but which was sure to happen and so they're speaking ahead of
an event to encourage the saints who are suffering.
Babylon is going to fall is the point.
Then again in chapter 16 in verse 19 it says, And the great city was split in three parts
and the cities of the nations fell and Babylon the great was remembered before God.
Now believe me that's not a good sign for Babylon because it says it was remembered
before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.
And so now the time has come for the judgment to fall upon this end time Babylon.
Babylon is described for us in chapters 17 and 18 and obviously we don't have time to
look at this in its detail.
However we do find that this future Babylon that John foresees in the book of Revelation
fulfills it represents the consummation of Nimrod's dream.
It is a civilization, a system of humanity and very likely a capital city of that system
that is organized in its defiance against God.
I believe as I interpret the book of Revelation in a historical grammatical sense that is
in a literal sense that this city of Babylon is related to the revived Roman Empire which
will be under the leadership of Antichrist the end time emperor of the Roman Empire.
And in chapter 17 we have described to us the religious system that is associated with
this future Babylon.
It is described here symbolically as a woman in verse 4 who was clothed in purple and scarlet
and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.
And so you see here a very regally dressed woman.
There's royalty that appears to be involved here, a lot of adornment, riches, but having
in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality.
And so the exterior is very ornate.
There is gold and silver and all these precious things but the inside, the essence of what
this system is all about is immorality and abominations.
And upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, quote, Babylon the great, the mother
of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.
Now that is the name given to this woman who is symbolic.
And as you look at the chapter this represents a religious system.
It is an occultic, a demonic amalgamation of many religions at the core of which is apostate
Christendom.
In other words we are told that Christianity, Christendom in its broadest sense is going
to grow more and more corrupt and apostate in the last days.
But it will join forces with every unclean thing you can imagine.
Every kind of religion will all be brought under this umbrella that is represented here
by the name Babylon the great.
It is apostate religion which is in defiance against God.
It will be led by one called in the book of Revelation the false prophet.
And this very powerful religious leader will lead the masses of anti-Christ empire in worship
of this individual.
He will direct the attention and the adoration of the masses to this very powerful Christ-like
figure who will come on the scene initially as a man of peace, of great charismatic ability,
a great leader, a marvelous politician only later to reveal his true, iniquitous, wicked
character.
He is a man of lies, a man of murder.
But he doesn't come on that way at first.
And as he comes on with this appearance of Messiah, the modern day Christ, the Christ
for the new age, if you please, the false prophet will rise up and say here he is and
here are miracles that prove that this is the Christ spirit who has come back to the
earth.
Behold what he can do.
And with his miracles that Paul calls lying wonders performed by the power of Satan, he
will deceive many who have rejected the truth of the gospel and who are therefore turned
to believe the lie about this man.
And they will fall into the power, the hypnotic power of this one and will be a part of this
religious system here that is a part of Babylon in the end time.
Now it mentions here a further description of the beast that this woman rides upon.
Let me just point out in verse 9 that it says the seven heads of this beast are seven mountains
on which the woman sits and they are seven kings.
And he goes on to mention some more about these kings.
Now it may well be that in addition to representing people, the seven mountains represent seven
hills or mountains upon which this capital city, the headquarters of this apostate church,
where this church will reign, where it will rule.
And this has for centuries been identified with Rome, the city of Rome.
I would not be surprised to eventually see a movement away from Brussels as being the
capital of the United States of Europe, a dream by the way that goes all the way back
through Napoleon and back through history, but a movement to see that capital shifted
from Brussels to the city of Rome.
Now the harlotry that is mentioned here in connection with this religious system indicates
her unfaithfulness to the true God.
It says that she is drunk from the blood of the saints.
In other words, she will be deeply involved in persecuting true Christians and she will
be allied, this religious system, with Antichrist for the first three and a half years of his
reign.
The beast will carry her along and use this religious system to help bring together his
power.
However, after three and a half years, the beast will turn on the religious system and
do it in.
And his real character will come out.
Now in chapter 18, as I move ahead here and close, we see another aspect of this renewed
Babylon, this fourth mountain peak of Babylon's history described.
It is the political commercial system.
It is that aspect of this future empire that will be controlled by the beast, by the Antichrist.
He will dominate most of the world.
He will control world commerce.
He will by his economic power put tremendous pressure upon the saints of God so that they
cannot buy or sell because they refuse the mark of identification with the beast.
Ultimately, this whole system, which will possibly be headquartered in Rome, this whole
system, Antichrist's thing, his power base, will collapse.
And we see here the peoples of the earth mourning and crying out, whoa, whoa, as they look upon
this city in its destruction and this system as it collapses under the judgment of God.
There will be tremendous mourning because everything that these worldlings have lived
for, all that they've dreamed about, all of their hopes will collapse with the passing
away of the future Babylon.
And we see that anguish described here in this chapter.
However, we also see in the last part of the chapter quite a contrast.
And that is that as this future Babylon collapses and the empire of Antichrist is judged, the
saints in heaven will begin rejoicing and shouting their praise to God.
Verse 21 says, thus will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence and will
not be found any longer.
And heaven rejoices as the followers of Antichrist weep over the destruction of this system.
And so we have four peaks of Babylonian history throughout human history.
Four times when Babylon has come to the front and then sunk back, a time yet to come, a
time at the end, a time that very well may be fulfilled in the generation of the people
alive on the earth today.
Now you say, well that's all very interesting.
How does that apply to us?
Well, I suppose there are several things we might say, but let me encourage you tonight
with this thought.
That is the sovereignty of God in human history.
Whether you look on the local or the state scene or you look on the international scene,
it is encouraging to remember that God is still in control.
That there is nothing that is beyond God's oversight.
Man can rebel against God, he can maneuver, he can defy God within certain boundaries,
but he can't go beyond that.
And inevitably the current of history is in the direction that God wants it to go.
Now I mention that because there is a temptation I think for Christians to become discouraged
with what we see in the world today.
Whether you look in our state scene and you see important moral issues that can't get
through our state legislature, talking about the value of life, a very basic moral quality
that has been a part of the Judeo-Christian heritage in this civilization, and that cannot
be guaranteed by our legislature.
You have a great movement against the rights of life.
Or you talk about even the direction of our government and its policies in the world today.
We might be discouraged and we think, well, where is God in all of this?
Remember God is in control.
And I shared this with Wendell Brown before the service tonight as we were praying together.
I believe that God is allowing the cup of iniquity in the United States to be filled
up.
And I believe that we're going to lose more battles than we're going to win.
I do not mean to be pessimistic.
I mean to be realistic.
I believe the whole shift is now away from where it's been over the last 10 or 15 years
and the power is moving quickly in the other direction.
And that God is allowing that so that the cup of iniquity in the United States can be
filled to the brim and God will be righteous when he brings about judgment upon this nation.
There can be no question in anybody's mind that this nation deserves and will deserve
what God will allow to come to pass over the next few years.
For our nation is going to collapse, folks.
It is going to collapse.
It must.
That doesn't mean that we ought to throw up our hands and just give up.
No, not at all.
We have a commission.
We're to proclaim the gospel.
We're to be salt and light in our world.
But our nation, the United States of America, is but another Gentile world power.
And in the end, all of the Gentile nations must come under the judgment of God and will.
And so our nation is headed for judgment.
And as the shift takes place and as iniquity begins to abound more and more and the love
of many begins to wax cold and when there's not even the natural affection of parents
for their own children, whether they be born children or unborn children, and all of the
indications of iniquity that are described in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and in 1 Timothy chapter
4, all of those things are coming in the last days.
As all of that develops and God allows it to develop, he's simply in the end going to
prove his righteousness in bringing judgment even upon this nation.
And we might say, oh, but there are way too many Christians here for God to allow that
to happen.
Hey, there was a remnant in Judah, too, when Nebuchadnezzar took that nation.
But the nation was sent into judgment because as a people, they turned to idolatry and immorality.
And though there is a remnant of true believers in our nation, God is not going to spare our
nation because of the remnant.
I'm convinced of that.
Eventually, this nation, too, will go into judgment.
And so what kind of people ought we to be in this day?
And how ought we to be preparing ourselves for what is coming?
God is the God of history and ultimately God is going to win.
Somebody has said, I can't be a pessimist because I know the last chapter of the book.
We know in the end how things are ultimately going to turn out.
We need to be preparing ourselves for what is coming and rejoice that ultimately, hallelujah,
the Lord our God omnipotent reigns.
And though there may be defeats and there may be suffering ahead, ultimately God is
on the throne.
And he has set his king upon his holy hill of Zion.
And that king must reign and will reign one day over a kingdom of righteousness and justice
and truth upon the earth.
Let's pray.
Lord I pray that our hearts might be stimulated with these thoughts, that we will be sobered,
that we will be challenged to be godly people, a people of the book, a people of prayer,
a people set apart and different in this age as the world, as we have known it, begins
to come to its assigned culmination.
We bless you that you are the God of history and that ultimately human rebellion represented
in our study tonight by Babylon and human defiance against your kingship must fail.
And we pray as our Lord Jesus taught us to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.
Sanctify us and may we be encouraged by knowing that we belong to the king, that we're on
the side of victory in the end, and that we have a job to do to be faithful to Jesus Christ.
And may we be about our Lord's business.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you for your patience tonight as we have looked through the study of the word
of God you're dismissed.