of Revelation chapter eighteen we want to continue our study on the great subject of Babylon when we sang that last stanza of the last hymn Lord we wait for thine appearing the coming of the Lord is always to me a sweet subject an intriguing subject and a subject that gives real comfort to the heart the coming of our Lord from heaven. He is coming again. In such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. And to realize this is to purify our heart in anticipation of his presence. For the scripture says, Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. The subject of prophecy intrigues many. And there are certain radio preachers who speak only basically on the subject of prophecy. And this is a subject that is exceedingly intriguing. But to understand it in the meaning of the whole of Scripture should cause us not to have big heads over what we know about Bible prophecies would have tender hearts. When Daniel understood prophecy in Daniel chapter nine that what Jeremiah had written concerning the captivity of Judah, he prayed. And when he prayed, he confessed sin in anticipation of what the Lord was going to do. The difference between Daniel and our age when we think we understand a little something about prophecy we talk about it a lot and we publish a chart that's usually what we do but beloved it should lead us to holiness of life and in Revelation chapter eighteen the last time two weeks at all when we were on this subject we read chapter seventeen and I'm only going to read the first seven verses of chapter eighteen. 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, and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every false spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. And for all nations are drunk of the wine, of the wrath of her fornication. On studying this today, that expression intrigued me. You don't think of wrath or fornication, do you? You don't think of that at all. Fornication is illicit sexual activity. And here it speaks of men who have rulers, who have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And by the way, this is a third time at least that that expression is made. You find it in chapter fourteen in verse eight, you find it in chapter seventeen, and now here again in chapter eighteen, the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And when we think of wickedness, returning to the land of Shinar as you have in Zechariah chapter five in that vision that God gave to Zechariah of wickedness returning to the land of Shinar being established on its own base the base was there and it's going to return to that place and there it's going to be established And finally, it's going to be overthrown, as you have here in the words, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. And the reason for the fall is all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And verse three says, in the middle of the verse, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works, in the cup which she hath filled to her double. how much she has glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her. For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. But verse eight says, Therefore shall the plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord. who judges her. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his words. I've read particularly from chapter eighteen tonight because we read chapter seventeen the last time we were together. And we dwelt in an excursion through the scriptures to get the foundation so that we understand the interpretive keys that the angel gives in chapter seventeen to that which is given in the chapter. And there are four interpretive keys in chapter seventeen. And there are very important. Notice in verse seven of chapter seventeen, the angel said unto me that he's unto John, why did you marvel? Now this is an important verse. Why did you marvel? For John when he saw a woman who was sitting on the scarlet colored beast And the scarlet-colored beast, which had seven heads and ten horns, is none other than the Antichrist, the world ruler of the tribulation period. The one who is going to have control over the whole earth economically. Now, what I tried to point out the last time was when a woman sits or anyone sits on a beast, they are in control. of the beast I remember about eighteen years ago I had gospel meetings in the city of Sanford and I was there on the Lord's Day I think it was Easter Sunday and I had a new suit on and we had dinner on a farm and after dinner the farmer got out his spirited horse and he really had a spirited horse And of course, he was riding that horse around there and putting the horse to its paces. And Jim Redling, who is now with the Lord, he said, let Phil ride him. I had a new suit off. You know what I did, don't you? I climbed on the horse. And what they were expecting, what Jim was expecting, he never told me this till afterwards, he was expecting the horse to throw me off. Because he had thrown Bobby Rice off over from Greensboro. I rode that horse, I put him through his paces. He liked to go, and so did I. But I was in control of the animal. Bobby wasn't. You see. But after I rode the horse, I said, Okay, Jim, now it's your turn. But he wouldn't get near to getting on that animal. But the thought is, the one who rides is in control. And here in Revelation the angel explains the mystery to John concerning mystery Babylon, who is seen here as a harlot. As he explains this, he is showing that it is Babylon, that great city that reigneth over the kings of the earth. If you read in the last verse of chapter seventeen, and also in chapter fourteen in verse eight, this city is going to be in control of the Antichrist. He's going to be under her control. Now, there's a reason for this. And I stand in amazement when I look at what's going on in the region of Old Babylon tonight. In spite of all the ships that have been hit in the Persian Gulf, they still keep going in there for oil. And the money of the world is flowing into that area of old Babylon. It just keeps flowing in. And it's an amazing thing in the section of chapter eighteen that we didn't read because of time. In that section, when Babylon is destroyed, one of the groups that mourns the destruction of Babylon are the sailors and the shipbuilders. It's an amazing thing. But I want to give you very quickly tonight the four interpretive keys of chapter seventeen. And if we don't take the interpretation, the angel says to him, Why did you marvel? When we see somebody who rises economically and gets a lot of money, we usually marvel at them and all this other business. And John marveled at the woman. because of all that she has. And make no mistake about it. There are multitudes of people from the Persian Gulf nations who are studying in America in our universities. The number of Iranians who are here studying is in the thousands. And the reason they are here is because of all the money that the universities make because of the tuition that these students pay to the universities. It's an amazing thing. And how much the Arab sheikhs own of America is another thing and how much they own of London and other areas of the world. The Antichrist is going to be under the thumb of the woman who rides a beast. The angel says to John, why did you marvel? I'll tell you the mystery. Now a mystery in Scripture is a revelation of that which had been unknown heretofore. It's that simple. Nothing mysterious about it. Something that was unknown heretofore. The first interpretive key is this. Number one, Babylon is first and foremost a literal city that will dominate the world. For the last verse of chapter seventeen is very clear. It says, And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. One of the things that we have to be careful of is that ever since the days of Martin Luther and the Puritans, whenever they wrote on Babylon or Revelation seventeen, they always called Babylon, Rome, and the Pope. They label the Pope as Mystery Babylon and the harlot of Revelation seventeen. Now I believe that the interpretation of the angel is a bit more accurate for its scripture. The woman is a great city that reigneth over the kings of the earth. Chapter fourteen verse eight says that Babylon is a city. The first time it's mentioned in this regard. The second interpretive key in chapter seventeen is this. Babylon is characterized as a harlot that prostitutes her moral values for material luxury. She prostitutes moral values for material luxury. And we saw that especially in chapter eighteen. where she says I sit a queen and am no widow and I'll never need a thing. I won't eat anything. I have it made. I have it made. And in the very next verse we read, Therefore shall her plagues come in one day. God is going to judge Babylon and he's going to judge Babylon with a swift destruction. The third interpretive key that we have is this. The entire city is viewed as a mystery in that her future position and relationship to the Antichrist and ultimate destruction had not been known before John's vision. In other words, that word mystery simply means that that which had been heretofore unknown is now revealed by the vision that was given to John. And the fourth interpretive key is this. This city will obtain control over seven nations, the Antichrist growing empire and eventually the entire earth. When the Antichrist comes on the scene, according to Revelation chapter seven, He's going to arise out of a ten nation empire in Western Europe, known as the Revived Roman Empire. And the Antichrist is going to pluck up three kings. He's going to rule over three of the kings or the nations that are there. And that's why you have the ten heads or the ten horns, the ten kings, and then the seven hills. or mountains on which the woman sitteth. Now, I want to do one thing very quickly. I want to identify the term mountain from Scripture. When the Bible speaks of a mountain, as it does of these seven mountains, it is speaking of a kingdom, a kingdom. And I want you to turn to the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter two and verse two, to get our bearings. Isaiah chapter two, And verse two. Where we read, and it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house, here is speaking of the millennial kingdom of Christ. And speaking of this millennial kingdom, is a great mountain. The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. So here we have a picture of a mountain as a nation. Now turn over to the prophecy of Daniel, chapter two. And we want to notice again. in Daniel two and verse forty-four. Verse forty-four of Daniel two. And in the days of these kings, he's speaking of those ten kings of Western Europe. that make up the revived Roman Empire. In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. So you'll notice it becomes a great mountain that shall stand forever. This stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands, it becomes a great nation. Israel, during the millennial reigns, is going to be exalted above the mountains, above the other nations. As you read in the book of Deuteronomy, it's going to be the head nation of the world and not the tail. That's what God told them when He brought them into the land of Israel, the land of Canaan. He said to them, If you obey my voice and hearken to me, you're going to be the head of the nations and not the tail. But if you disobey my voice, you're going to be the tail and not the head. And ever since Israel went into captivity, into Babylonian captivity, Israel has never been the head of the nation. It has been the tail. And Israel as a nation has been scattered among the peoples of the world. But when our Lord returns in power and great glory, He's going to establish His kingdom with Israel. For the land promise that God made to Abraham is going to be fulfilled in spite of what the amillennialists say. It's going to be fulfilled because in Romans chapter four where God deals with justification by faith and what He's ours now as those who have been justified by the same way Abraham was justified in that passage he also speaks. of Abraham being the heir of the world and the land promise that God gave to Israel is binding. So we're looking forward to that day when God fulfills His word. So you see in verse thirty-five of Daniel chapter two and in verse forty-four we have a nation being spoken of as a mountain. Now when we come to study Babylon, we find that this city, Babylon, that's going to be a prosperous and a glorious city to be marveled at in the area of the Euphrates River somewhere, in that land of Iran and Iraq, that city You see, will have control over seven nations, the Antichrist growing empire, and eventually the entire earth. Until God judges her. Now in order to identify the city, you have to examine two chapters in the Old Testament. So I'm going to ask you to keep your finger here. at Revelation seventeen and eighteen keep one finger there and with the other hand turn back to Jeremiah chapter fifty and fifty one the prophecy of Jeremiah and what I want you to do is we're going to go from one place to another we want to look at the parallels between Jeremiah fifty and fifty one and Revelation chapter seventeen and eighteen. Now you're going to find that these parallels from these chapters fall into three categories. We won't have time to get through the one of them, but they fall into three. And first of all we want to deal with the city and its description. The city is described prophetically by Jeremiah. Notice chapter fifty one verse seven. Jeremiah, verse seven. Notice it says, 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 the nations are mad. That's an interesting verse, isn't it? Now flip over to chapter seventeen, verses three and four, where we read. So he carried me away in the spirit. 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 arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Interesting, isn't it? Babylon in Revelation seventeen and again in chapter eighteen by the way and verse six in these two verses and in Jeremiah fifty one verse seven a golden cup she is compared to a golden cup but the second thing that describes the city is that of dwelling on many waters notice Jeremiah fifty one thirteen it says this With your fingers there you can just flip from one place to another. O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine envies come, and the measure of thy covetousness. Now Revelation chapter seventeen verse one. Come hither the end of the verse. I will show unto thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters. But notice, not only is she Babylon compared to a golden cup, not only dwelling on many waters, but involved with nations. Notice again chapter fifty-one in verse seven, the end of the verse. The nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are mad. They have drunken of her wine. Now when you chapter seventeen in verse two we read with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with wine of her fornication so we notice Babylon is involved with the nations now the fourth way in which the city is described it is named the same named the same chapter fifty Verse one, Jeremiah chapter fifty in verse one, the word that the Lord spake against Babylon against the land of the Chaldeans. In other words, he's speaking of a particular city in a particular place. Wickedness according to Zechariah five is going to be established on its own base in the land of Shinar. And the land of Shinar was the area of the Chaldeans, old Babylon. So here we read the word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. Revelation chapter seventeen verse five, we read Babylon the Great, mystery Babylon the Great. Chapter eighteen and verse ten, we read these words. they're going to stand afar off for the fear of her torment saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come. Now, one thing we have to be careful of in the study of prophecy, there are two more sections that we want to study between the fifty-first and fiftieth chapters of Jeremiah and Revelation seventeen and eighteen, but it will have to wait. But there is one area that we need to be very careful of, and that is that we don't set dates. I'm amazed when I see things happening in the world. I do believe that coming events cast their shadows. Just how long we have to work. I don't know. The Lord has said, Work while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work. One of the things that bothers me in the day in which I happen to live is a verse that our Lord used that I could never understand as a boy. It's in Matthew twenty-four what I understand today. It says, Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. I couldn't understand that. For years that bothered me. You'd think that when iniquity abound, love for Christ would increase. And you and I are living in an age of abounding iniquity. And the love for Christ for Christ. on the part of the people of God is growing cold. And it amazes me. I stand amazed at the word of God. And beloved, all I can say is the language of Paul, and he ends the great resurrection, chapter first, Corinthians fifteen. He says, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And that's all we can do. That's all we can do is be steadfast ourselves and remain unmovable when it comes to spiritual things. For Noah, had he been movable, he would have drowned. But he remained unmovable in his fixed purpose to honor God and God honored him. Let's pray together. And now we pray to our God and Father that I will take the word. And it's exciting as we study it. Oh, help us to grasp it, to take it in and to realize that you do have an eternal purpose and that your purpose can never be thwarted. Even in regards to prophecies for you will put it in the hearts of men to fulfill your will for that's what revelations seventeen seventeen says and therefore we rest with firm faith in him