Allen, Jim: The Character Of Babylon Gen 10_1 ~ Richmond

May I give all tonight a warm welcome. We are very glad to see you. Thank you for coming. We trust in the will of God you'll come back. The meetings continue each night at seven thirty and on Lord's Day afternoon at three thirty. We are continuing our study, eh, in connection with certain of the movements of God in our Old Testament, and then taking it into the New Testament. Tonight, the subject is the character of Babylon. Tomorrow night, we'll take up the subject to covenants with Israel, and then we'll follow that up with the calling of the church, so on. So we- we'd be glad to see you in nights to follow, if the Lord be not come. Now, would you turn back, please, to the book of Genesis? And tonight, with our subject, the character of Babylon, I'm going to ask you to read several scriptures. Chapter ten, please, of Genesis. Chapter ten. Now, will you notice, please, in verse one of chapter ten? that this first statement is the fourth repetition of the expression, now these are the generations, and that expression, in its eleven times recurrence in Genesis, divides the book into twelve sections. Now, in this verse, now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, and that will take you back into the previous section where we had the flood, and we spoke of that last night. You'll notice that this section will end at the tenth verse of chapter eleven. These are the generations of Shem. So we are reading tonight from this little section that deals with the sons of Noah. Now, verse two, The sons of Jebus. Verse 6, the sons of Ham, Cush, Mizrim, Foot, and Canaan, and the sons of Cush. Verse eight. and Cush begat Nimrod, and he began. The occurrence of that particular verb, began, is significant in Genesis, and this is the fourth time it has occurred up to this. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erekh and Echad and Kelna, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land, and the next word in the original text is Asher, and the word Asher should be translated, uh, out of that land, having been made strong, he went forth and builded Nineveh and the city of Rehoboth and Ca- uh, and Calah. Would you notice, please, verse twenty five? And unto Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Pele, for in his days was the earth divided. Now, in our English translation, the word divided occurs three times in this chapter. It occurs in verse five: by these were the isles of the Gentiles divided. It occurs in verse thirty two, the last verse, by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. Those are both the same word, and it generally means spread out or spread over. Now, in verse twenty five you have the word divided again. Unto Heber, Heber were born two sons. The name of one was Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided. This is a totally different word, a quite a distinct word, and you get the meaning of the word possibly in its occurrence in the book of Job, chapter thirty eight and verse twenty five. It says, it says there, uh, who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of water? The word basically means surveyed, mapped out, surveyed. That's interesting in the connection. Now look at chapter eleven. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, the word is really eastwards, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt or settled there. They said one to another, go to, let us make brick, burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, go to, here's resolution number two, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top unto heaven. You notice the words may reach are in italics. They've been supplied as a, as a translator help, whose top unto heaven, and let us make us a name. Uh, contrast that with chapter twelve. God told Abram, I will make thy name. But they say, let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. The Lord said, behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do. Now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, here's the resolution of heaven, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build a city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Now I want to turn you, please, to a verse or two in Jeremiah. Jeremiah, please, and a verse in chapter fifty, fifty one, chapter fifty one of Jeremiah. Verse number six. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, deliver every man his soul. Be not cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance. He will render unto her a recompense. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth drunken. The nations have drunken of her wine. Therefore are the na- the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed. Look, please, at the end of this chapter, verse sixty one. Jeremiah said to Sariah, well, when thou comest to Babylon and shalt see and shall read all these words, then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither shall man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever. And it shall be when thou hast made an end of reading this book, thou shalt bind a stone to it, cast it into the midst of Euphrates. Thou shalt say, thus shall Babylon sink and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her, and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. A verse or two, please, in Daniel. Book of Daniel, and chapter four and verse twenty eight. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake and said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, uh, by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? A final reading in the book of the Revelation. Revelation, please, in chapter seventeen And verse number one. Three. He carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was a red and purple and scarlet color, bedecked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. Verse sixteen: And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, to agree and give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. And after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. It has become the habitation of devils, demons, and the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Now, God will bless the public reading of his precious word. Character of Babylon. Across the page of Holy Scripture, right from Genesis to Revelation, there move a name, the name Babylon. That name represents and reflects, uh, the whole antagonism to and antipathy for the people of God and the purposes of God. And that name is a name that touches upon this particular matter. I have read for you tonight three references to Babylon. The Babylon we see in Genesis is Babylon in its origin, the foundation of Babylon. We'll have a look at that. Then the one that I read of in Jeremiah and in Daniel. There you have Babylon in its history. There it's flourishing, and we'll have a word about that. Then I'll take you over to the book of the Revelation, where we shall look at Babylon, not in its origin only, not in its history, but Babylon in its destiny. And we shall look not at its founding, not at its flourishing, but have a look at its fall. You'll recognize as I move through this that indeed it focuses upon a particular spot, a spot near the Euphrates River, a literal spot on Earth that's identified by this name, and not only a place, but associated with it on each occasion of our reading, there is a person, there is a Nimrod in its founding, there's a Nebuchadnezzar in its flourishing, and there is another dark sinister figure that's depicted in the book of the Revelation as the beast with seven heads and ten horns, and without proving it at the moment, that's the final ruler of Earth, and his home, his place, his throne, his city is the city of Babylon. So you can see there will be a picture that runs right through scripture from Genesis to the Revelation, and Babylon, a literal place on earth, becomes the focus for the purpose of Satan in antagonism to the whole purpose of God in the person of his Christ. You can see a theme that runs throughout. Now let's have a look, please, first at the Genesis picture. Let's see the origin of Babylon, and let's see its founding. And that brings us to a man who comes onto the picture, and that man is called Nimrod. He's the great grandson of Noah, down through Ham and through Cush and then Nimrod. And here's a man who is identified, and he's identified in strange terms in scripture. He's identified as a warrior. He's identified as a hunter. He's identified as a ruler of the first mighty kingdom that claimed men upon earth. This is Nimrod. He is, in fact, the very e- epitome of rebellion against the person of deity and against the purposes of deity, and he is a man who heads up this first rebellion. Notice, please, in chapter ten, it says he began to be a mighty man, a mighty one in the earth. Here is that mighty, uh, warrior. Then it says he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Now, that expression before the Lord is a Hebrew expression that should be rendered against the Lord. He's the one who is raising a hand against the Lord himself. He's a warrior, he's a hunter, but the hunting's not of beasts, the hunting is of men. And this occurs, of course, within about a hundred years or so of the flood, and he is this mighty man, warrior, hunter, and then you have mention of his kingdom. He established his king- kingdom in Babel. The word Babel, in its etymology, means gate of God. You can see there would be a significance there. Here's a man who establishes his kingdom, then he grows strong, and he incorporates other kingdoms, having become strong, he went and builded Nineveh, so that in that area between the rivers, there is this going es- being established a mighty kingdom beginning in the land of Shinar on the river bank of the Euphrates, and it's a kingdom that's burgeoning out and bringing men under the control of one man. This is the person of whom I spoke, and he has his capital city in this place called Babel, the gate of God. This is the picture that emerges as you look at Genesis chapter ten and you see a picture of the rebel. What is not mentioned in this chapter is a very significant piece of history, and it's this. This man had a very clever wife. She was called Semirama, which means universal name, and she was the one who empowered him and enabled him and helped him. That's not mentioned in the Genesis record. It's again a matter of history. But she has a s- more sinister significance even than that, because you see Nimrod died suddenly, was cut down suddenly and killed in a boar hunt. Now it seemed the whole kingdom would collapse, but Semiramis moves into the gap, his wife, and she is carrying his child, a child that would be born after the death of Nimrod. And when he was born, she proclaimed him to be the promised seed of the woman. She proclaimed him to be the one that God had promised away back in Eden at the beginning of history, and she says, this is the son that you are expecting. She called him Tammuz. Ah, that looked well, and that enabled her to set up a religious center in Babel, and with the result that that religion spread over the whole of the area. She set it up in mystery form because rebellion would not have been encouraged even in these days, just within a century or so of the flood. It had to be covered with all kinds of mystery initiatory rites. So she set up a priestcraft, and she hid behind certain practices that looked all right on the surface, certain presentations that had to be made, and she got people to worship this child. And the picture of mother and child comes right from Babylon, Semiramis and her son Tammuz, as she carried in her arms, and then disaster, for Thomas died. Thomas was killed, and of course, there was weeping for Thomas, and your book of Ezekiel in chapter eight focuses upon that. And how long did they weep for, weep for Thomas? They wept for forty days, the do- days of Lent coming up to Easter, they wept for Tammuz. Tammuz was died, had died. And then she proclaimed that in the spring, Tammuz came back in a renewed form, in a different form. This is the Tammuz that was to be worshipped, the one who was the seed, the one whom she proclaimed had sacrificed himself for the good of others, and then arises in mighty power, in resurrection power. What was all of this? It was a travesty. It was a deception. It was a des- a satanic deception that men just embraced because it was propagated by the one behind the mightiest empire at this particular time. And this mystery cult, this mystery religion spread, uh, with after the Babel Tower episode, it spread right over the world. That's why you get mother and child pictures in all the religions of the world. In Egypt, you get it Isis and Horus. In Rome, you get it Venice and Cupid. In, in Greek priests, you get it, uh, in connection with Epaphrodites, and so on. You get the picture all over the world, and it all belonged to Babylon, with a priestcraft, with presentation of continual sacrifice, with a, a sprinkling as an initiatory rite. I could go on, but this is the religion that was established in Babylon just at this particular time. So you can see how the kingdom developed. But just let me step back a little, because you come into chapter eleven and you're given another focus, not only upon a person, not only upon a place, but upon a purpose, and that purpose was totally antithetic to the purposes of God. After the flood, God had spoken of replenishing the earth, and thus the nations were to be encouraged to spread over and spread out right over the earth that had just come through that awful devastation of which we spoke last night. That's why I drew attention to the word divided, spread over in verse five, the last verse of chapter ten, so that you might see God's purpose as the nations spread all out to occupy the earth and to fill it and to replenish it and make it fruitful again. But now there's a one in Babylon. I'm going back just a little before the death of Nimrod. There he is, and what's he going to do? He's going to bind the people together in one unit. He's going to make a union so that they can all contribute and cooperate and form a community that will be against the purposes of God, to interfere with the plan of God. That's why, when they come to the land of Shinar, they come to that great plain, and they see the possibility, see that brick that can be made, and see the, uh, the purpose, the the plan that's in the mind of Nimrod, why they are determined that they're going to build a city and a tower. The city, of course, is commercial and community, and the tower is a testimony to something. And you say, what is it a testimony to? Well, we are told whose top may be to the heavens, and the verb is omitted, as various suggestions have been made as to what that top was. Some think that the tower was built to keep everyone in sight of it. I think that's a very naive kind of idea. I think these were, uh, these were cleverer people than that, just to maintain that unity. It's clear that this kind of building that's known in Babylonia, the ziggurat, was a step pyramid kind of building, and as the steps roll right up to the top, there was a sacred enclosure on the top where it was believed or preached that deity came down and dwelt there. But rather more than that, the possibly the best suggestion about the top was this, whose top may be a representation of the heavens. What does that mean? It means that around the top of that tower would be the twelve signs of the zodiac, the path and the constellations through which the sun and moon move, and thus the signs of the zodiac put round that top of the tower. I mentioned on a previous night that I believe that God, from Genesis chapter one, ah had put in the star a revelation of his purpose, that beginning with Virgo, the virgin, runs through all the unfolding revelation until you come to Leo the lion that spoke of Christ the Redeemer even before there was a fall upon earth. God had a Redeemer in mind, and there was a revelation in this stuff, but I believe Satan was taking it now, and Satan was corrupting it, contaminating it, bringing it under his control, with the result that the Tower of Babel, whose top may be a representation of the heavens. And when God came down to see, he acknowledged, nothing will be restrained unto them. The oneness of this people, the oneness of their purpose, they're touching power I will not allow them to touch. They're touching that which is forbidden. Thus God determined in the council of deity, he determined to bring judgment upon that tower, judgment upon that people, and he did it in a very significant way because he touched the very bonds of their unity, their union. They had just one language, and they were able to communicate, and thus this becomes a binding union, and the people were cooperating in a purpose that was rebellious against God. So what did he do? He didn't, didn't touch their thinking processes. He touched the phonology. He touched the way the sounds came out. With the result that, as they were building, suddenly they discovered they couldn't communicate any longer. They couldn't communicate anymore. That link was broken, and they begin to break up into different communities, into different language groups. And here, right at the start of history after the flood, you're getting one of the mightiest forces that has driven men apart on earth, driven them to every corner of the earth. You can see how the very judgment of God was meant even to fulfill his original purpose, and yet it was through judgment that the people were scattered. They had these different languages. It's interesting to note, after all the philological studies, after all the language experts have had their say, most now are coming to recognize that there must have been one language to start with, one language to begin with, that from that, then there was the branching out into all the multitudinous languages that cons- that cover this earth. But you see, God told him. God has explained it to him, just exactly what he was doing in Babel, a place there, under a person there, with a purpose there, and then the penalty, the punishment there, and God did actually scatter the people through that, and the tower is left as a monument to judgment, and the whole city, the community is scattered now. God has acted in judgment. Some people turn the page of history and point to Pentecost and say that's the reversal. It's not the reversal of of Babel, Lee. God was overriding that judgment, and at Pentecost he gave the power to speak in those various languages, but that didn't make the one language. That's not the reversal of Babel. God was making sure the proclamation would go out in every language. What will be the reversal of Babel? The reversal of Babel will be in the millennial kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the prophecy of Zechariah nine— of Zephaniah, uh, five and nine will be completely fulfilled. Then will I turn to the people a pure language. Uh, then will I turn to a people a pure language, that everyone may call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent. That will be when the judgment of Babel is reversed, when God touches mankind again in a very mark- remarkable way. But at Babel, it is a judgment. Notice the play. Notice the person. Notice the punishment. God came in, and Babel became Beval. What's Beval mean? Beval means to Babel. Babel means confusion. And this was confusion now. And that name, that stamp has remained upon Babylon right from Genesis chapter ten and chapter eleven. Babylon speaks of confusion. That's its origin. There's its founding. That's where it all started, away back at that ancient date, on a literal spot on Earth. That's the picture. Turn the page of history. Come to the time of Jeremiah. It's bringing you, I'm pointing onward to the time of Daniel in the seventh and sixth century BC. There's Daniel in Babylon because another king has arisen. Another person has come to the fore. Who's this? This is the person of Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon had risen before this under the great king Hammurabi, the great lawgiver, but it had fallen. But now it's under the new, the Neo-Babylonian Empire, under Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is looking out on those great building. This is not this great Babylon that I have built. Do you see the builder, please? Nimrod was a builder. Nebuchadnezzar was a builder. And here's that great city of Babylon that I have built. And it's in that very city that the people of God are shut up. Nebuchadnezzar had come up to Jerusalem in six hundred and BC. He had flung his armies around the city. He'd carried away the people, Daniel amongst them, and carried them to back to Babel. Nebuchadnezzar had come back in five eight BC, and this time, angry, he had flattened the city. He had beaten it into the ground so there was no city left. Five eight six marks the final stage of the place where God's name was. People are carried away. The place is devastated. And down in Babylon, there's a man on his knee, an old man of eighty four, and he's crying to God in the year five hundred and thirty BC. He's crying to God, lifting up the prophecy of Jeremiah. He says, oh God, you said Jerusalem would only be destroyed for seventy years. Count now from six zero six, count seventy years down, and you get five three six. This is five three eight, Daniel is praying, two years to go. Lord, what about the people? What about the place? What about the purpose of God? It's all been carried away to Babylon. It's all lost. Babylon has triumphed. This great city of opposition to God and his people and his purposes, why it's triumphed. It's at the very peak of its power. What are we going to do? What can we do? It's at that point that God gives Daniel a revelation. He gives him a vision. He says, Daniel, chapter nine, you know this. I'll deal with it another night, uh, possibly tomorrow night. He says, Daniel, I'm going to tell you, thy people, that's Israel, said this place, thy place, Jerusalem, here's my purpose. I'm going to give you a period of four hundred and ninety years, and when that four hundred and ninety years are finished, my king is going to reign in Jerusalem. His feet are going to be there. There he will occupy the holy place. That holy place will have been anointed. All the problems of sin and transgression and iniquity will have been dealt with. My king will rule in righteousness. He will be there. That's Daniel's prophecy of the four hundred and ninety years, called the seventy-week prophecy. Seventy weeks, seventy seven, four hundred and ninety. Daniel would naturally say, when does it begin? From the going forth of the commandment to restore, rebuild Jerusalem. And without going into detail tonight, I'll give you the date. We'll come at it tomorrow night. The first of Nisan, four hundred and forty BC, second chapter of Nehemiah, it's in your Bible. The only decree that refers to the city of Jerusalem, it's to be rebuilt. And Nehemiah gets the charge for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. That's the commencement of the seventy-week prophecy. Then there's going to be seven weeks, then sixty-two weeks, total of sixty-nine weeks. Multiply sixty-nine by seven, four eighty-three years. Multiply it by three hundred and sixty days for the prophetic year, one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and eighty days. Begin your countdown. That's until Messiah the Prince. You counting down those years. Where do you come to? The Tenth day of Nisan, thirty AD. So what happened? That's the Sunday morning Christ moved into Jerusalem, and the people put on the back of the ass, and the prophecy of Zechariah was fulfilled, behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on the back of an ass, the foal of an ass. Christ has come. Messiah the Prince, benachred to a day. Last day he appears, Sunday morning, tenth of Nissan. Then says Daniel, then Daniel is told, after the sixty ninth week shall Messiah be cut off. Not in the sixty ninth, but after the sixty ninth, but not in the seventieth. It hasn't started yet. In that period, Messiah cut off. And on the fourteenth of December, there stands a cross outside Jerusalem. They've rejected, they've repudiated his claims, they've refused the Christ, and he dies on a cross. The prophetic clock stops. The place, the people, the purpose of God with regard to Israel, the clock has stopped. There's one week to go, but there's going to be a period in between. We're glad of that period. That's the period begins with Pentecost, ends with the rapture. That's the period of grace, the preaching of the gospel. That's the period when souls like you and I have got saved. Are you saved tonight, soul? There's no good to be dealing with these matters if you're not saved, if you haven't come to Christ at that moment in your experience, when burdened with guilt and grief and shame, to Jesus' cross you trembling came. Pardon found and peace with God through Jesus' rich atoning blood. And you say, that's the sixty ninth week. Ah, the gap, we're in it. Ah, but wait, there's seventieth week yet to come. And that will be when there's a great covenant signed on Earth between a man from the West and a man in Israel, and the prophetic clock starts again. But by that time, Pentecost passed, the rapture passed, the church is home, every redeemed one of our called away. Then the prophetic clock can start. Then God's focus is upon a place and a people and a purpose to be fulfilled. Seven years from that day, the day of the signing. You work it out eighty four months, two five two zero days, exact to the day as he was the first time. The Lord will come. His feet stand on the Mount of Olives, behind him the armies of heaven, angelic hosts. He's come to claim his kingdom and his crown. But Babylon, ah, Babylon has got to be dealt with yet. That's my subject tonight. I'm coming back now to the flourishing of Babel. See it under Nebuchadnezzar. There's the person, and it's still the same city, please. Still the same site. There it is, Babylon in all its glory. But Jeremiah takes up the story of Babylon. You look at Isaiah thirteen and fourteen at your leisure. Read them tonight if you have time. Read Ze- Ze- uh J- Jeremiah fifty and fifty one. Uh, read Ezekiel two twenty six to twenty eight. and they all focus on Babylon. Now, Jeremiah, just to take one or two prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah said, that great city of Babylon, that great city that flourished under Nebuchadnezzar when Israel were under his control and Jerusalem was non-existent upon earth. Why? Jeremiah said, that city is going to be totally destroyed. It'll be destroyed by fire. It'll be left like Sodom and Gomorrah. It'll be destroyed suddenly, and he said, graphically, look, it'll be like this. Take that writing that I've given you, the end of chapter fifty one of Jeremiah, wrap it around a stone, fling the stone into the Euphrates. Babylon will come down just like that. That's simple, isn't it? But the problem is this, that's, that's not been fulfilled yet. I challenge you to show tonight from history that Babylon has ever been de- destroyed by fire, that Babylon has ever been left totally desolate, that Babylon ever fell like a stone flung into the Euphrates River. I submit an honest reading of those prophecies shows that Babylon has not fallen like that. We're left with a problem, brethren. Either we spiritualize away the truth of the statement, or we simply acknowledge it has not yet had its fulfillment. You say, but didn't Babylon fall that night in five three nine, uh, BC, when the hosts of Media Persia, they were surrounding the city, and the priests of Babylon betrayed the city, and they left the gates, the copper gates of the across the river Euphrates unlocked, and in the middle of the night, the forces of the Medes came up the river, the dried river bed. They diverted the river and invaded. In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. But the point is, there was only a handful killed. A lot of people in Babylon didn't even know it had been captured. That's not usual in a, an ancient site like that. Why, it was just the leaders were put to death, and the very city of Babylon became a key city in the Medo-Persian Empire. The same thing happened when Alexander the Great, that mighty general, moved across from Macedonia and took his Macedonian hillbillies right across from Europe into Asia, and in eight years brought the world to its feet. He conquered Babylon, but we would say, you recog- you recognize the anachronism, uh, we would say he captured it without a shot being fired. He took it, they surrendered to him, and he made it his capital. He lived there after he came back from India, and he died there, plunged into the rivers of Babylon after an a- an orgiastic feast one night, caught pneumonia and died. That was Alexander the Great. Died at the age of thirty three and a half. The same age as my savior on yonder cross. That was the world's man, Alexander the Great, and he died in Babylon. Babylon became a great city in the Roman Empire. So what I'm saying is this. You trace the history of Babylon, and Babylon was never burnt, never was left utterly desolate, never was completely destroyed suddenly and dramatically as from on high. It just faded and faded and faded. In the time of our Lord, there was quite a Jewish community, so much so that five hundred years later, that's where the Babylonian Talmud came from. So big was the Jewish community in Babylon. Later years it faded still, but it still existed, and not only that, the bricks from it, as Isaiah said they would never be, the bricks from it were used in rebuilding. All I'm saying is that there's no record of such judgment coming upon. So Babylon in history, it's flourishing. Yes, it did flourish under various great men in the world's estimation, but it just faded and left the scene of history, as it were, for the, for the time being. What I'm going to suggest to you now tonight is this, not only the origin of Babylon, its founding, not only the history of Babylon and its flourishing, but the destiny of Babylon and its fall, because I'm going to suggest to you that Babylon is due for its final fall. That's why I've taken you over to the Revelation, to show you that this book of Revelation that summarizes the purposes of God and shows the program of God that's centered in the person of Christ, that that program and that purpose involves a final dealing with Babylon. I went over the background of this on Lord's Day morning, Bible class, so I'm not going to go right through the revelation again in the few minutes that are left, but I'm going to focus on this. One of the final, the two final pictures of Babylon are in chapter seventeen and chapter eighteen. In chapter seventeen, the, the, the Babylon is seen as a woman, as seen as a harlot. She's dressed as a harlot. She's acting as a harlot. She's behaving as a harlot. And what is a harlot? A harlot is one who sells the precious thing that she possesses for profit, for possession, for power. That happens in the physical realm, but this, of course, is in the spiritual realm. And what is endemic in Babylon is this, the selling of divine revelation. It was so in Genesis. It was so in the prophet. It will be so in the future. This is the harlot character, I submit, as seen in the tower, way back in Genesis, a testimony, but it's a false testimony. It's a harlot that's riding the beast, and the beast, I've already suggested, is the final world ruler. ten Ten horn horns and and seven seven heads. head, and he is the one on whose back she sit. You say, but does that mean that she controls him? No. It means that he supports her. He is underneath her, and he is supporting her. And but you say, Babylon, where do you get Babylon into it? I don't get it. The Spirit of God by through John puts it there, through Christ. What's that? On her fallen. Babylon the Great. I think mis- I don't think mystery is part of the title. Mystery is the spiritual identification. There's something here that needs divine illumination. Mystery. Babylon the Great, mother of harlots, the abominations of the earth. You say, what does that mean? It's clearly a symbolic representation in a harlot of a religious system. Oh, you say, yes, that's good. I, I see that. That's what Semirama set up. That's what she, uh, she preached in connection with the seed, his slaying, and his rising, and all the priesthood and practices and preaching associated with that. The salvation was to be found in her and Dre. I can see that. But wait a moment. You say that's all gone. No, it isn't gone. It's just in another form. If I were to ask you tonight, where would you find the worship of mother and child? Where would you find the practice of the sacrifice of the man? Where would you find priesthood, priestcraft? In the Tamsar, in all the practices they're in, the sprinkling, children, the system. I- I wouldn't have to test you very far until you would say, oh, I recognize those things. Those belong to Roman Catholicism. Yes, they do. And I want you to see tonight that in Roman Catholicism, you have the final manifestation of religious Babylon. It's all there. You say, but tell me, how did that get from Ro- from Babylon to Rome? It's very simple. The night that the Medo-Persians captured Babylon, the traitorous priests fled the city. They went to Pergamos. That's why the Lord addresses the church of Pergamos as where Satan's throne is, where Satan dwelleth. For Satan moved with Babylon, religious Babylon, to Pergamos. You say, but then that doesn't get me any further. Wait a moment. When King Attalus III died in one hundred and forty BC, he bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, and the priests moved to the Etruscan plain outside Rome, and they took that religion with them. And from that point, they moved into Roman life. And after the preaching of the gospel, the establishment of testimonies throughout the world, gradually, step by step, all that belonged to Babylon, for one reason or another, was infiltrated into what became Roman Catholicism. Take, for example, the, the ring that the Pope wears tonight. On that ring is pontifex Maximus, the great Britain. And you say, doesn't that speak of Peter's ring and so on? Nonsense. That ring is the ring that Julius Caesar wore before Christ came. Where did Julius Caesar get it? He was the high priest of the Babylonian religion established on the Etruscan plain, and he was passed, passed on to him was the ring, Pontifex Maximus. That's where the ring came from. Look at the Pope. Where does those, that, uh, that headdress come from? That's the headdress, uh, that is connected with, with, with Dagon, the fish god. It's the tale, tale of Dagon, the fish god. Nothing to do with Peter at all. I could go on tonight. Where are the, what about the keys that the Pope wears at his girdle? Aren't those the, that the Lord gave to Peter? No, those are the keys of Janus, the opener of the year, and they came through Babylon. Step by step, the practices, the priestcraft, the principles all belong to a Babylon that was in the past. Now they're enshrined in Roman Catholicism. Don't you feel sorry for poor Roman Catholic? I hope you do. I hope you pray for them, that they might get the illumination of the gospel and be brought to Christ, because of what we have focused upon in Revelation chapter seventeen is this. There comes a moment, and this is in the midpoint of the tribulation period, a moment when the ruler that supported the harlot turns upon her, decides for pragmatic, political, personal reasons that he's had enough of her pretension and pride, profession. Very likely he wants her possession, and with the aid of the ten kings, in the middle of the seventieth week of which I've spoken, he turns upon that Roman Catholic Catholic sister, and he smashes her, tears her apart, denudes her, devours her, destroys her, and flames from the Vatican, including every chapel across Earth, and every convent, and every monastery, and every school, is to be utterly and completely destroyed by the word of the man he trusted. He's had enough. Babylon, mystery Babylon, is destroyed. The midpoint of the week. Ah, but you say Babylon wasn't only a tower. Babylon was a city. That's chapter eighteen. And I'm submitting to you that the judgments of chapter seventeen and chapter eighteen are distinct. Not only is there a time sequence between the chapters after these things, but you'll notice that the agents of destruction are different. Chapter seventeen, it's the beast and the king. In chapter eighteen, it's God himself destroys Babylon. The timing is different. It's clear that that judgment in chapter seventeen must be at the three and a half year period in the week, in the tribulation. And chapter eighteen is at the very end of the week, because the very next thing is the hallelujah chorus of heaven, and then the opening of heaven, and Christ is coming back to earth this time with his saints and with his army. So the destruction is of a city. But you say, I'm a wee bit doubtful about that, because is there a city there tonight? In that ancient site? I submit that there is. Already exist. I had my plane ticket booked to go there when the Gulf War bo- broke out. I was going to take some photographs to convince some unbelievers that there was a city. Yes, the Gate of Ishtar is there, Palace of Nebuchadnezzar is there. Nebuchadnezzar came back and had a look, you just know the rooms and all the rest of it. And th- there's the processional way. It's all built, it's all there. Japan has gra- has granted the money. It- it's on hold now, but they promoted the money, uh, to rebuild this city. What would be the purpose? A bit of a tourist attraction at the moment, but there'll be other purposes. It's perfectly clear that Revelation envisages a Babylon as the seat of the last world ruler, and very likely, that might not be too big, but it will be a commercial center, computerized likely to the last detail, and under the control of the beast. And what is there at the moment could very readily be destroyed even by a stray bomb. That won't make much difference. If the word of God indicates, as I believe it does, that the ancient prophecies have to be fulfilled. The ancient prophecies are going to be fulfilled. That city will be re-emerging from the desert sands. If there's anyone here tonight on saved, the very fact of such a city being in existence even at this point is telling me we must be very close to the end of the dispensation of grace. I wouldn't sleep tonight. I'd want to get the matter settled of my soul's salvation. But here's a city to be destroyed. How is it destroyed? God destroys it. That will, will come in the seventh, uh, bowl, Luke chapter sixteen, as the world rocks under the earthquakes and the great cities of earth fall. Great Babylon came up in remembrance before God. Whether out of the destruction, out of the destruction of the earthquakes, or a special act of heaven, it's not stated what the result is, collapse, a smashing, a burning. As John sees it, he says a stone. He's noticed Jeremiah's reference, a stone picked up and smashed into the sea. That's Babylon. It'll be finished forever. All the entertainment and all the social life and all the commercial life and all the cultural life is gone, gone no more, no more, no more at all. And I submit to you, in the millennial age of fruitfulness and blessing, there's going to be one spot on earth, and the smoke will still rise. Nobody will move there, nobody will go there. That's the hole, the prison, the cave of evil agencies that have troubled man down the years, and that very site will become the site where they're incarcerated. Look at J- at Revelation chapter eighteen and see exactly what God says. That's Babylon. That's the Babylon that started way back under Nimrod, that flourished under Nebuchadnezzar, that under the last world ruler will come up again, and the judgment will fall, and the final notes will be notes of doom. Why, the monarchs will mourn, the, the, the, the merchants will mourn, the mariners will mourn. What had been a great commercial and travel center for the world is now no more. And as they mourn, then John says, I saw heaven open and Christ in the, the ruler on the white horse, him that sat on him. This is the one coming forth. He's king of kings and Lord of lords. Babylon moves across the pages of scripture, then moves off them forever, as the Savior comes to claim his own. May God bless us with the word. Let us pray. Father, we thank thee for thy word.