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Meg there. It's this woman you gave me, Lord. Luckily, my choice Bali was the women, right? We all know better than that. Well, well, you see now you're yawning already. I hadn't got to the boring part yet.
Will you pray for us? Yes.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thankfully come before you this morning to study your word, Lord. Thank you for preserving it for us, Lord, for giving us the option to come up here and be taught and to receive.
Lord, I ask that you would just be with Brother Mike as he opens your word, Lord. Give him wisdom and clarity. He has opened these passages to us. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
All right, open your Bible up to Revelation 17. We will read 17 and 18. Beginning of verse one says in one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me saying come here and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.
And he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and 10 horns. And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls and having in her hand a golden cup full of the abominations of the unclean things of her immorality and on her head was written the name a 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 the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.
And then I saw her and I wondered greatly and the angel said to me, why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and the beast that carries her that which has the seven heads and the 10 horns and the beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction and those who dwell on the earth whose name has not been written in a book of life for the foundation of the world will wonder when they see the beast that he has, I'm sorry, that he was and is not and will come.
Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are the seven mountains on which the woman sits and there are seven kings. Five have fallen. One is the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he will remain for a little while and the beast which was and is not is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven and he goes into destruction.
The 10 horns which you saw are the 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom but have received authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast.
These will wage war against the lamb and the lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and king of kings and those who are with him are the called and the chosen and the faithful. And he said to me, the waters which you saw were the harlot sits our peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues and the 10 horns which you saw and the beast.
These will hate the harlot will make her desolate naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put within their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled.
And the woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. And after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority and the earth illuminated with his glory.
And he cried out with a mighty voice saying, fallen, fallen is battle on the great. She has become a dwelling place and demons and a prison for every unclean spirit and a prison of every unclean, hateful bird for all the nations have drunk the wine of the passions of her immorality and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people so that you will not participate in her sins and receive her plagues or her sins have piled up as high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities pay her back even as she has paid and give back to her double according to her needs in the cup which she has mixed mixed twice as much for her to the degree that she glorified herself and live sensuously and to the same degree give her torment and mourning for she has said in her heart, I sit as a queen and I'm not a widow and I will never see mourning.
And for this reason, in one day, her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire for her for the Lord God who judges her as strong and the kings of the earth who committed acts of immorality live sensuously with her.
They will weep and they will lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning standing from a distance and cause the fear of her torment saying, whoa, whoa, to the great city Babylon, the strong city for one hour, your judgment has come.
And the merchants of the earth will weep, they will mourn over her because no one buys their cargos anymore, cargos of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls, fine linen, purple and silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep and cargos of horses and chariots and slaves and even human lives.
This fruit of have you longed for has gone from you and all these things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them. The merchants of these things who became rich from her will stand at a distance because of her fear of her torment weeping and mourning saying, whoa, whoa, the great city.
She who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste and every shipmaster and every passenger and every sailor and as many as make their living by the sea stood at a distance and were crying out when they saw the smoke of her burning saying what city is like the great city and they threw dust on their heads and they're crying out weeping and mourning saying whoa, whoa, the great city in which all who had ships at the sea became rich by her well for in one hour she has been laid waste rejoice over her oh heaven and you saints and apostles and prophets because God has pronounced judgment for you against her then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and he threw it into the sea saying so it will be Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence and will not be found any longer.
And the sound of the harpist and the musicians and the flute players and the trumpeters will no longer be heard with you any longer and no craftsman or any craft will be found in you any longer. And the sound of the mill will not be heard from you any longer and the light of the lamp will not shine in you any longer and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride will no longer be heard in you any longer from your merchants were the great men of the earth and because of the nations were deceived by your sorcery and in her was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints and all who have been slain on the earth.
Heavy stuff. Book of Revelation started here. There's been contrast through the whole book. You've had a faithful and the unfaithful. You've had a compromised and we're going to use for the opposite of compromised vacillators and I don't even know how to spell vacillate.
So let's say why I say use vacillators because you had those that even at the beginning of the book you remember you had those that Hey Trinity, you weren't here last week and I was going to use you as an object last time.
So the end of the book you had in some of those churches you had some that were faithful. He gives him a gives him a very good admonition of what they were doing good encouraging but he says but wait a minute.
Not only did you do this but you also you didn't put away those who followed the teachings of Jezebel. We all remember that earlier in the book you had two churches that got total encouragement no condemnation but the other five churches got condemnation and some of those got no at no encouragement.
So you had those that compromise that you had the compromise and vacillators but then you had also you had let's see you had also in the book you have the mark the beast and the seal of God. You have the followers lamb followers and you have the beast.
And now you have the tale of two cities. You'll have the whore and the bride and those two cities. Well here I'll do it this way. Old Jerusalem, New Jerusalem. This is made up of apostates. This will be made up of the elect of God.
You get the end of the book. What's coming down from heaven. It says the holy city is coming down made ready for its groom like a bride member in the Old Testament. God made a covenant with old Jerusalem ancient Jerusalem.
He made it look we spent what two weeks or three weeks with a theology of boredom and we didn't go through every passage because we'd still be here. But we went through at least major sections and I think the major two sections that make my position with more merit than Babylon being wrong or anything else is you go back to how it's rooted in the Old Testament but as he feels 16 and 23 and remember those two stories Ezekiel 16 he specifically said hey you were when you were born you were thrown out.
You were nobody even cut your umbilical cord. There was no one there to care for you. There was no one there to wash you and wipe your skin with salt and to God says I come along and I took care of you.
I made you beautiful and then he goes on to say and you grew breast and you grew hair and you became mine and I and I married you. And what did she do? She became an unfaithful whore. Then we also use dealing with this.
So you had Ezekiel 16 and 23. Ezekiel 23. Remember that parable? A whole lot and a whole lot. And he says these are the two women. I called it if I ever got a chance to preach that passage it would be sister wives because he says look I'm married to two of you.
I married a whole of a whole and a whole of a one was Samaria and one was Jerusalem and both of you have turned out to be harlots. He says your sister Samaria did it first. I destroyed her hauled her away.
You should have learned from her problems and what did you do? You became worse than she did and even Jeremiah says that. He says look you should have learned from your sister. Look what God did to your sister and you were unwilling to repent.
Now God will do worse to you and ultimately in 70 AD old Jerusalem is forever divorced from God forever. You know I was asked the question well why did God if Jesus come and the new covenant has come why did God destroy her the way that he did in the Old Testament?
It's because just because the new covenant comes doesn't mean that they weren't still under the subjection of the the penalties for one rejecting everything that the Old Testament pointed to. Remember once Jesus comes and they reject him and say hey we won't have him rule over us.
We won't have this man. Even Caiaphas said that it's meaning for one man to die then for the whole nation perish. We won't have this man rule over us and then you continue on that week. Well we talked about it multiple times.
He said they said what will I have you do? Pilate says what will I have you do with your king? Remember what he said? We have no king. Yeah I mean that should make your gut just turn. We've got no king but Caesar and in an application sense they then hand their authority and everything they want to the beast and they crucify their messiah.
So this is where we're at in the book. I mean we've obviously we'll still see parts of this and but we are at the tale of two cities and those two cities one's a whore and one's a bride and God will not have two wives again.
He will kill the whore before he marries his bride. We will deal with the marriage supper of the lamb coming shortly. We will deal with what takes place before the marriage you know because the marriage if the marriage takes place at the end of the book and we see the marriage supper of the lamb then what is the marriage supper of the lamb?
When does that take place? Most of us probably have heard preachers say oh well that takes place during the seven years of tribulation when the church has been raptured up. Wrong. We are right now in the marriage supper of the lamb.
You take Jesus's and I don't want to get all into it but it's so good Jesus's parable where he says hey the father made a feast the king made a feast for his son and he said you went out there and we told him to come in and come in and they would not come.
He said so you know what I did? I said then don't you go out there and you compel all the ones from the highways and the byways to come in. I prepared a feast and a wedding feast for my son. They didn't want it.
You go get everybody married. One guy comes in. He's in the wrong clothes. Hey what are you doing here? You ain't got the right clothes on. Get out. And then you go on to the other parable dealing with the same thing.
It says what do you do to those that did not come to the wedding feast that God had prepared for them? He said you go What's it good? You go out there and you burn them wretched wretched. You burn their city.
What happened? That's exactly what happens. Exactly what happens. So finally after five weeks or however long this man we're going to walk through chapter 17. Yes sir. So when you're saying that he got rid of that bride and all and sent the AD to that.
That's not a bride. Well That's a whore. And we have to use that. It's specific. Okay good. But did that end that covenant then? What? The covenant with the Jewish people. When Jesus came and he was the fulfillment of all that the types and shadows had pointed to when Jesus came.
That covenant was inaugurated with the new and everlasting covenant. But that did not mean that they had not already been condemned under the old covenant. Because what did Jesus say tonight the week that he was crucified?
On chapter 23 of Matthew when he goes through those seven eight woes however you want to say them. I say there's seven but there's seven woes there where he rebukes him. You you brood of vipers. You go out there and you try to make a proselyte of one man and then make him more a son of hell than yourself.
He says and because you have done this you shed the blood of the prophets the the blood of the the the apostles therefore your house is left desolate. And then he goes out he says on the all the discourse because they have done these things what's he gonna do?
He's gonna destroy it. Yeah it didn't mean at that point they were done. It was over. Now that was God very gracious for 30 to 40 years to continue to let the the temple stay on the temple mount. Certainly could God have just said he could have but we do know this in those 30 to 40 years however you see that what was going on on the temple mount and the temple complex.
Paul was there evangelizing. Peter and John were there evangelizing. Hey can you imagine we don't have every indication of what went place. I can't imagine every year when those people came for Passover.
I just can't imagine the apostles walking up next to the guy and saying hey buddy you don't have to do that anymore. Christ has come. The true lamb has come. Hey you don't have to go and let that watch that guy go in there and stand out here and let him go in there and do the the funny clothes the holy the the day of atonement.
All that's over. We don't have to do that anymore. Christ has come. To me it's unimaginable that those guys weren't doing that. Well we know Paul did. I mean they had to surf the guy out of there at one point because he was proclaiming.
They had to crowd surf him out of there because he was proclaiming the gospel and they thought he had brought gentiles in. So I just can't imagine that being the case but we know this. There was times where they were proclaiming the gospel.
We have indication to scripture where they use that as a place of evangelize. One that's where the Jews congregated and where did the gospel go first? To the Jew first then to the gentile. Yeah to the Jew first.
Good. Good. Been divorced. She's been divorced. Even at this point before 70 AD she was divorced. I'm done with you. I'm done with you. And even Paul eventually says I'm done with you too because you remember when they kept beating on him and says hey you don't want to hear what did Paul do?
He says all right I'm no longer gonna come to you guys. I'm gonna go and he basically walks next door shakes the dust off his feet and starts proclaiming the gospel to the gentiles. So chapter 17 verse 1.
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me saying come here and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. All right so now we got the seven one of the seven angels.
I want to know which one. It's like okay there was seven of them they were pouring out all these judgments and it doesn't tell us which one but I go man which one was it? Which one? Well I mean I don't know for sure but if you back up in 16 you see where it says here that in 16 verse 19.
I think it's 19. Yeah 16 19. The great city split into this would have been the last this was the seventh angel. He says in the great city was split into three parts the cities of the nations fell and here it is Babylon the great was remembered before it.
Hey when it says that Babylon the great city was remembered. Does anybody remember what I said remember now? When it says that God remembered all through scripture it means God's going to act. Just like when you see when you go back to when God drowned the whole earth after 150 days.
It says that God remembered Noah. Come on now. Do you think that somehow God was like hey you know I've been drowning the whole earth for 150 days and forgot about Noah? No he actually what says he remembered Noah it means he was fixing to act and what did he do after 150 days with Noah?
He blew over a wind dried up the whole earth set up the the ark up on top of Mount Ararat and his and what happened his family came out you had basically a new Adam per se. I use that in quotations because he gets the same thing that Adam and Eve got go be fruitful multiply and have dominion.
Hey you one of those things is interesting in that passage when it comes down he says that and the the animals will be terror of you. Animals will be terror of Noah and his family. So when it says that God remembered it means God's fixing to act happens all through scripture and I do believe right here that was a parenthetical statement.
Okay some men disagree with me not concerned with that. I mean they're up to their own interpretation I'm up to mine because this whole thing's been dealing with uh it's placed in the middle of the seventh bowl which I believe is the end of the world.
Okay the end of all things but he does the same thing back in chapter 14 when he said the first time we heard of Babylon back in chapter 14 verse 8 it says in another angel a second one thought him saying fallen fallen is Babylon the great the one who has made the nations the drink of the wine of the immorality of it.
So once again we've already seen God through the revelation through John that he's going to at some point deal with the destruction of Babylon and if you go back to 14 it almost it well not almost it sounds like as if it's already done right fallen fallen is Babylon the great done.
Here the same thing it says here that the in chapter 16 verse 19 and it says that Babylon the great was remembered and here it is to give that is something that means I'm about to or he's fixing to this is basically in the future to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.
So I believe it is the seventh angel don't know for sure but this is the one that spoke it originally about the fall of Babylon and it is the seventh angel in my opinion that says hey come up here and I will show you the great judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.
One if he's talking about Babylon and she's the great harlot it's no brainer at this point I believe that Babylon is code name for Jerusalem. Anybody know why I believe that because earlier in the book we've already had Jerusalem called two other things what were they Egypt and Sodom.
So if God can call old Jerusalem if you go back to chapter I think it's 13 it says he says the great city Sodom and Egypt and you go well maybe it's just talking about Sodom and Egypt no no no and it tells you where our Lord was crucified.
So we know he's talking about Jerusalem and it calls it the great city. Here how many times did we read in 17 and 18 did you hear the great city? At least four okay at least four times so the great city I believe is Jerusalem and it is being referenced to Babylon for its idolatry.
So once like you were saying a minute ago Christ comes did it nullify the the the Old Testament covenant it inaugurated the new but it didn't do away with the penalties that had already been pronounced on them okay and what did they continue to do after the disciples and the apostles continually told them you don't need to do these sacrifices anymore.
Let's just take for instance Stephen not you I don't want you stoned to death. Stephen in Acts chapter seven or six six six Stephen stands before the Sanhedrin and he gives basically a history lesson and if go back and read that sermon that he gives the Sanhedrin and he basically tells them you stiff neck you sons of Belial blah blah blah he just goes off on them and you get to the end and he basically says yeah Jesus is going to be the one to come and but this is paraphrase Jesus gonna be the one to come and destroy this place.
Why? Because he was telling them that every sacrifice that they were doing was now an abomination to God. Look before every type and shadow of every of every sacrifice pointed to Christ every one of them every festival every wave offering everything pointed to Christ.
Once Christ comes and they continually do that knowing that the true revelation that the Old Testament had prophesied had come now everything that they did was now a willful act of idolatry willful act of idolatry and if not if let me back that up since the greatest commandment is to love the Lord God with all your heart or your mind or your strength what would be the greatest sin against God?
Idolatry idolatry and what does God do to idolaters? He executes them. Would they do hey in Deuteronomy it even said if a man takes you off into idolatry him or his family and they want to follow after the star to do all the other things what does he say you do to them?
You take them outside the camp you stone them and you burn them. That's what he's going to do to Old Testament old Jerusalem. Well it's just.
Interesting to your point that even after Jesus pronounces the all the discourses uh judgments they continue to heap up judgments on their head because time and time again they're killing the saints they're.
I mean it's just as if their cup wasn't already full their cup just continues. It's going to.
Overflow. And if you read here he goes I want you to fill it up twice as much as y 'all did y 'all catch that when we were reading like wait a minute. Doesn't that seem like injustice. If you're going to fill it up twice but they were compounding their sin.
Look you sin against God you got a person that's unrepentant and they listen. You had the coin and you're dropping that coin into the bank of wrath. That that coin compounds interest daily until if you don't repent one day God's going to pour it out on your head.
Hey and God was very patient with Israel. I mean just think how patient he was before he hauled him off into captivity at least 490 years because that's the time frame it tells us that he uses but actually really longer than that.
You don't think he's been very patient with them. Now think about time they come back into the land in 539 36 depending on how you understand when they got back with the rubble. We'll just take this. We know when the temple was finished built with the rubble.
What was in 516 BC. So 516 to 70 AD. You tell me God wasn't very patient with the the apostate nation of Israel. Very. And he shouldn't have been just like he shouldn't be patient with you and I. But God is patient.
He's long suffering and he is not willing that any would perish. But that all would come to repentance. Look there's his people need to hear the word. If they did not hear the word the hell will they repent.
They can't. So what did God do. He sent his apostles and prophets to go out and to do that he says now come up here and I will show you the great judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. Now question is if you're doing exegetically let's just make an observation.
Uh did Jerusalem sit on many waters. The answer is no. They didn't. Matter of fact the water that they did the water supply that Jerusalem got was primarily through the acts of Hezekiah. He was a very smart man knowing that there would be sieges around Jerusalem over the years.
And what he did is he dug tunnels and got basically got aquifers to bring fresh water into the city. And that's why in 701 BC when Sennacherib surrounded that great where God kills 185 000 Assyrians that night how were they able to succumb that sea just because they couldn't cut the water supply off because of Hezekiah's brains to get water to continue to come into the city.
Well what does it mean. They were sitting on many waters. The only thing I can tell you is it's making a correlation to Babylon. If you go back to uh Jeremiah chapter 50 and 51 remember there's two chapters given to the fall of Babylon in Jeremiah it was it was Babylon was the city that sat on many waters.
So he's making the correlation of look just as Babylon set on any words and came to judgment so is Jerusalem. Hey Babylon set on many waters because um Babylon set on two rivers that came in and it was the Euphrates and the Tigris.
And it was basically set where they two come in. It's like one come like this and one like this and Babylon sat right here. Hey what was the significance of it being on a city being on a river or a water waterway it was.
What's that port. Yeah economic. Yeah economic. Um powerhouse. Yeah economic powerhouse. Now don't get me wrong. Did did did the nation of Israel sit on the Mediterranean. Well of course. But Jerusalem didn't.
Hey and as we read through these man it's great you got Babylon. Uh you have uh descriptions of Babylon. You have uh descriptions of Tyre and description of Edom. Hey and if you know anything about these two Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 talk about one talks about the fall of Babylon the destruction of Babylon.
And then Tyre talks about is talked about in Ezekiel 28 as one that will be destroyed and then Edom. This would be in Isaiah 34. It's almost like a collage. If you read everything that we were reading it's a collage of all these these cities that were powerhouses that fall.
Remember go back and read Ezekiel 28 of uh Tyre and it talks about him being beauty and all of these things. And you go. Well man that he's really he's really talking himself up. Yeah you know when he talked himself up the first time in chapter 27 of Ezekiel and he talks about how beautiful he was.
He made his own thing. And I'm all my basically I'm a I made myself. Uh what happened to the Babylon king. That said he did it all on his own. Uh-huh. He grew feathers on his back. And then his grandson we did this on Wednesday night.
And what does his grandson do. That idiot did the same thing. And God says you know what. Through the prophet Daniel he says I did to your granddad these things. And you didn't listen. You've got you have actual evidence that you could see when a man would not humble himself and see that it was me that raises up kings and drops kingdoms.
You didn't listen. But you know what I'm gonna do for you Belshazzar. I'm not gonna make you eat grass. I'm gonna kill you tonight. And that's exactly what he did that night. Babylon. They came in Cyrus the Great Darius the Mede come in killed him in one night.
Now Babylon empire never rose to any type of power again. But the city of Babylon continued. Just to let you know city of Babylon didn't fall and was destroyed and tumbled over. You had the Persian empire used it for another economic political place.
Because you had the the Persian empire already had Parasopolis and Susa as two different capitals depending on what time of year it was. They wanted one for the winter and one for the summer so the king could stay comfortable.
Okay. Well they still used the city of Babylon because of its architectural design was still a great place. And if you know anything about Alexander the Great which I do believe part of his downfall was Babylon and the love for Persian people not to be a racist.
But it was. That's what. That's his that was his fault. Persian women were pretty. And when he went to Babylon you know he set up another basically another capital in Babylon for his empire. And where did anybody know where Alexander the Great died in Babylon.
In Babylon. So the city remained because it was such a good but it never be the the power of the empire never rose again. So if you want to read uh Ezekiel 14 Ezekiel 27 28 27 28 and Isaiah 34 you're going to see the collage that is is described in the same way.
What's that. Are you. Oh I thought you were gonna ask a question. Yeah you'll see that they're described in the fall in the same way. Don't. Uh the destruction of Tyre came the first time on the mainland it was I think it's an Ezekiel 29 it is prophesied and the mainland is thrown down.
Nebuchadnezzar sieged it for 13 years. It finally fell the mainland. But you know Tyre I wish I had a bigger map. Tyre had a little. It's not up here. I don't think it's not uh there's a Tyre has a there's a uh an island off the coast.
And later it finally fell and that fullness of that um that prophecy where you if you'll read it it'll say hey you're the place will be made of rocks and they'll dry and skin fish and all that. You know that's kind of weird.
Well that's exactly what happened. Alexander the Great took the rubble of the city built a causeway all the way out to the actual island laid waste to it and just left it. You're like well why didn't he.
He just because they said it was incongruity like no I'll do it I'll do it. He did it and said okay I conquered it like 332 bc or something. So he did it on his next challenge. Yeah. And then he then Jerusalem was next Jerusalem was next.
And he got to Jerusalem and he got there and they shut the gates on him. And he's like oh no you don't shut the gates on me. And the guy runs out with the prophet Daniel. Hey God talked about you. You know y 'all know that.
That's what happened with that with Alexander the Great. That's why he didn't destroy the city of Jerusalem. Yeah one of the they were all on white roads. They run out. Hey dude God talked about you through the prophet right here.
He's like oh okay. Well I'm gonna let y 'all stay. I'll go on to Egypt and conquer it. And that's what he did. He went to Alexandria. So so when it says here the judgment of the harlot that sits on many waters is the it is a reference back to Babylon and its description in Jeremiah.
And it goes on to say in verse 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality. And those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. You know what we got time we got seven minutes.
Turn over to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 50. I think it is let me see. Uh Jeremiah chapter 50. I'm gonna read. Um I'm gonna start in verse 6 I do want you to. If you remember anything that we've read parts of what we've read in 17 and 18 you're going to hear echoes of it here.
Even the ones where it says come out from among you. It says come out come out of Babylon. You're going to hear that same thing here. Um except it says flee from the midst here it is verse 6 flee from the midst of Babylon.
And each of you will save his life. Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the lord's time of vengeance. He is going to render recompense to her. Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the lord intoxicating all the earth.
Hey how many times did we read in 17 and 18. You're. Are you looking at my rights place.
You said six but you started at eight did I.
I think okay I started in 50. Verse 6 flee from Babylon. Is that right. 51 oh my goodness I'm an idiot okay. 51 I'm sorry I'm sorry okay I'm sorry 51 forgive me. Mike's reading from another Bible. Kill him all right sorry all right.
Now we all in the right place.
All right at least you know we was paying attention. Yeah well.
I noticed that when I looked up and once I got to the middle part of six I saw everybody's face go. I like oh all right all right. Let's see if this sounds better to y 'all flee from the midst of Babylon.
And each of you save his own life do not be destroyed in her punishment we good. Okay all right. And this is the lord's time of vengeance. He is going to render recompense to her. You hear the echoes.
It's basically in the saying the same thing but just in different words. And in the revelation. And then listen to this. In verse 7 Babylon has become a golden cup in the hand of the lord. Intoxicating earth.
The nations have drunk of her wine. Therefore the nations are going mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken. Wail over her. Bring balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed. Was Babylon ever healed.
No Babylon never rises again. Now ultimately the city is uh over the course of years it's pummeled and all that. And there is at time I need some people believe that uh Peter. And think it's first Peter chapter five where he says.
I I I encourage you saints from Babylon. Okay. Some people believe that Peter was talking about Rome. There could be don't know. Okay. But he really could have been in Babylon because at the time of which Peter wrote there was a small group of of uh settlers in Babylon.
Um even today the old style of the city is not inhabited. It's nothing but jackals and dump. Okay. But if you go outside those cities what they still call Babylon today there is a little bit of settling outside.
So but it does fall. And it's never a again. It's never healed. In verse nine it says. And we applied healing to Babylon. But she was not healed. Forsake her and let us each go down to his own country.
For her judgment has reached to heaven and the towers up to the very skies the Lord has brought about vindication. Come and let us recount in Zion the work of the Lord God. So here it is. We're seeing what God says about the nation of Babylon.
It intoxicated the nations around it. But I want you to go down and look at. In verse 12 it says. Lift up a signal against the walls of Babylon. Post a strong guard station. Sentries place men on an ambush.
For the Lord has both purposed and performed what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. Oh you who dwell here it is. Here's that quotation. Oh those who dwell on many waters abundant in treasure.
Your end has come and the measure of your end. The Lord of hosts has sworn it by himself. Surely I will fill you with a population like locusts and they will cry out with shouts of victory over you. What he is saying about.
Look this is Babylon fell here. This is speaking of Babylon falling. When you get into the new testament when Jerusalem falls look it's not inhabited for thousands of years afterward at least a thousand.
This in a couple minutes. Yeah in 70 a .d when it falls. Okay it is it is come in. They pummel everything they burn everything in the city. It is almost almost to the t. The same thing they did with Nebuchadnezzar when he came in.
Um they rape and pillage haul off slaves. The whole thing with titus. But what does happen is in with hadrian. And hadrian is the emperor in 132 to 137 or 138. Hadrian there was some jews that wanted to go back and remember the city is has been unsettled at this point for that long.
From 70 to 131 132 when they decide hey we want to go back and settle man by the name of mark okaba. He goes and says hey we're going to set up a little city. But then he starts a revolt against rome.
Hadrian says i ain't gonna have it. We're not going to go through this again. We're not going to let this build for a while like the nonsense did with my predecessors. He goes in he pummels whatever's there for the city.
He burns whatever he can burn scorches the land and then salts all of the land so that it can't be in what happens when you salt land. Nothing grows. What's that. Nothing. That's right. And it was done that way for a thousand years uninhabited.
Now you had probably bedouins and some of those other people to try. But no. No. Uh economic city. Just as jerusalem falls in 70 a .d and never rises to uh the power quote that it had then. Is there a city over there today.
Yeah. But does it represent the same thing it did in the old testament before it was pummeled. No. Just because there's a city there doesn't mean that it meant the same thing matter of fact they wanted to go.
That city is no man. Look i could really go off right now. That is a secular city. I don't care what. I don't care what holy places you have. Look man when you have a place that lets abortion on demand for whatever reason the state pays for the city of tel aviv.
They got the fag flag all over every huge high rise. Now you tell me that that is a religious city. It's a secular city that has embraced the culture. And now they do deserve the judgment of god. Just like just like the united states does.
Okay. Just like united states does so is there a city over there today. Yeah. But it never represented what it was supposed to represent at the time in which it was built which was to be a light into the gentiles.
And it will fall. And when it falls it'll hey it's gonna fall again. I mean what. Every city will at some point fall and they will bow their knee to the king of kings and lord of lords. At some point every nation will bow.
And it's going to happen. So even though there's a city over there today claims to be historically religious and we're all worshiping the same god. Whether it be all of the eastern orthodox or the catholic or the christian.
Because you know the city's broken up into four quadrants. Nonsense. I will even go so far as even to say the part that claims to be christian. Buddy they're not really christian when you really pin them down.
They just want to be eclectic and everybody get along. And that would come along with the the world ecumenical council let's just be like these guys. Let's just everybody get along. We got to go. Uh burt.
Will you close us out. We ask you now to prepare our hearts as we go for our intended worship today.