Babylon

2 Corinthians 6 and we'll read it verse 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. Perhaps I should have read verse 16 as well and what agreement had the temple of God with idols for ye that is the assembly are the temple of the living God as God had said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people and then the call to come out from among them.

Now let's go back to the book of Genesis please chapter 10. Genesis chapter 10. Genesis 10 we read in verse 1. Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth and unto them were sons born notice after the flood so there's the time stamp now come down to verse 8 and Cush begat Nimrod he began to be a mighty hunter in the earth he was a mighty hunter before the Lord or against the Lord wherefore it is said even as Nimrod the mighty hunter against the Lord and the beginning of his kingdom notice was Babel or Babylon and Eric and Akkad and Kalneh in the land of Shinar out of that land went forth Asher and builded Nineveh and the city Rehoboth and Calah.

Now chapter 11 verse 1 and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there and they said one to another go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly and they had brick for stone and slime or bitumen pitch asphalt and slime they had for mortar and they said go to let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach on to heaven may reach is supplied whose top to heaven Darby renders it and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth so notice there was that desire for consolidation and unification and the Lord came down to see the city in the tower which the children of men built it and the Lord said behold the people is one and they have one language and this they begin to do and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do go to let us go down and they're confused their language confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech I come to Daniel the book of Daniel in chapter 3 please and the chapter that deals with Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue verse 4 Daniel 3 verse 4 then a hurled cried aloud to you it is commanded O people nations and languages they were all together that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet flutes harp sackbut psaltery dulcimer and all kinds of music he fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up and so on now come over to the book of Revelation please chapter 14 Revelation chapter 14 Revelation 14 verse number 8 and there followed another angel saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great city because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication now that verse number eight is further expanded when you come to chapter 17 and you have the destruction of Babylon let's come to chapter 17 then verse well verse 3 for sake of time so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast full of the 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 the filthiness of her fornication and upon her forehead was a name written mystery and the name is Babylon the great the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth and so on come down the chapter to verse 16 and the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast shall hate the whore now the ten horns just for explanation is that ten-part kingdom global kingdom that will come to upon the earth following the rapture and exists through to the midpoint of the tribulation period it's in ten parts and then at the midpoint the beast takes over and he's the he's the whole show so the ten horns which I sawest upon the beast these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire that's the midpoint of the tribulation for God had put it in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their kingdom on to the beast he takes over at that point until there's still time to go until the words of God shall be fulfilled now go to chapter 16 and verse 19 and the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give on to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath time stamp here for the destruction of Babylon is the end of the tribulation and this is fulfilled or further expanded in chapter 18 chapter 18 is presenting Babylon as a consolidated commercial system that will be destroyed at the end of the tribulation period now finally come to chapter 21 chapter 21 verse 9 and there came on to me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying come hither and I will show thee the bride the Lamb's wife he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God having the glory of God and so on the Lord will bless to us the further reading from his word our brother has mentioned already the thought of God's judgment upon the systems of this world and specifically I want to take up briefly it's a huge subject but as brief as we can the subject of Babylon want to think about its origin the origin of Babylon some of its ongoing features characteristics and then finally how that when it's judged it goes into oblivion the end of the system God deals with it God judges it the oblivion of Babylon in Genesis chapter 10 we have a time stamp it's after the flood and there arises this man Nimrod and he's the one that builds Babylon we get that in chapter 11 now speaking of time let me let me just clarify by the time you come to the end of chapter 11 in the book of Genesis historically you are about halfway between creation and the coming of the Lord Jesus that's remarkable from chapter 12 taking up the story of Abraham from chapter 12 through to the end of the book the Old Testament the book of Malachi is about 1,600 years but 1,600 years so actually the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis is covering a time that's greater than chapter 12 through to the end of the book of Malachi but it's in chapter 10 that we read about this man Nimrod and we read that he began to be a mighty one in the earth the thought being he is the first conqueror he establishes a kingdom by conquest so he's the original originator of of conquest if you will he was a mighty hunter before the Lord or rather against the Lord it was done in defiance against God he arose and he built a city the city of Babylon really a kingdom of cities some of the names are given there and eventually that extended to the building of Nineveh so here's a man who starts in play starts a system responsible for starting a system that results in Babylon and results in Nineveh the capital of Assyria that's interesting isn't it because later as we go through the Old Testament we find that Israel the northern kingdom is carried away captive to Assyria and Judah and Benjamin in the southern kingdom they're carried away eventually under Nebuchadnezzar to the land of Babylon so it all traces right back to this man Nimrod now it's interesting that's cities in Scripture speak of rebellion remember it was Cain that invented it the building of a city God had said to Cain a fugitive and a vagabond will be upon the earth a fugitive and a vagabond a man of no fixed abode but he says no I won't I'll build me a city and so the building of the city by Cain was actually an act of defiance against God now in the scriptures God is one city in mind and Abraham looked for it a city whose builder and maker is God the heavenly city if you will but man has invented his own cities coming to chapter 11 of of Genesis the building of Babylon they say let us build a city and a tower whose top is to the heavens whose top is to the heavens not just merely the fact that it's getting up there close to the sky but rather the idea is implicit here that they were doing it in honor of the heavens whose top is to the heavens in honor of the heavens and notice what they were doing they said we will build this tower out of brick we'll take brick instead of stone and we'll use slime as it says in the King James the thought of bitumen instead of mortar so even the way in that which this which this tower was going to be built was in a sense counterfeit it was made of counterfeit materials brick instead of stone and slime instead of mortar they were going to build a tower you see God had judged the society in Noah's day the Antediluvians God had judged them with the flood of water I covered the whole earth so here is man now after the flood and they're going to build them a tower which is going to be held together with bitumen a waterproof material you see so there seems to be in their in their head the idea well God isn't going to take us again we'll make sure that we'll get up high and we'll make sure the water doesn't take the tower away we'll build it out of a waterproof material so it was done in defiance against God in defiance against God a little more on this man Nimrod for a moment from history now this is from history Nimrod's wife apparently was called Semiramis Semiramis and she bore a son his name was Tammuz Tammuz the son was actually born after Nimrod's death apparently it was killed out while hunting and the son was then born and Semiramis claimed that Tammuz his birth was miraculous and not only was his birth miraculous but this boy that had been born Tammuz he was born to defeat death born to defeat death there's a lot a lot of detail in the ancient myths and so on but just picking up on some of these these points with Semiramis and Tammuz you have the beginning of the mother-child cult the mother-child cult so whether you go to Egypt you will you will find there was Isis and Horus in Greece there was Aphrodite and Eros in Italy there was Venus and Cupid and in many of the ancient heathen cultures they had this same idea of a mother and a child and of course Christendom a large part of it has been dominated by the idea of the Madonna and her child Tammuz himself was killed and later it was claimed that he came back to life and there would be a time of mourning for his death but then that would be followed by a feast now at this point ancient history coincides with the Bible because you read about Tammuz in the book of Ezekiel chapter 8 and verse 14 Ezekiel saw the women in Jerusalem in the temple and they were mourning for Tammuz mourning for Tammuz well that was the heathen practice of worshipping this this guy who was given a god status they were mourning incidentally that's where Christendom gets the idea of Lent from the 40-day period of mourning and then that period of mourning was followed by the feast Ishtar Ishtar and that's where Christendom gets the idea of Easter from mourning followed by a feast another thing connected with this guy Tammuz was well his name Tammuz the Greek letter tau is derived from that and that's our capital T the shape of a capital T and that's where the thought of the cross is traced to so Christendom again borrows the thought of the cross not from Christianity but way back in ancient times to this man Tammuz he features in the ancient mythology of Greece they change his name to Adonai and then later on in the pantheon of the Roman gods as Bacchus so all of that just to bring this to our minds that through all of this Satan was bringing in a counterfeit a mother with a child that was born in a miraculous way who would die but who seemingly would be raised from the dead who would be the object of worship who would be mourned and then feasted and so on and all of that Satan's counterfeit so that all of pagan religion can be traced back to Babylon every false religion and cult owes its origin to Satan's counterfeit the confusion that was brought in after the flood instead of worshiping the true God these other ideas came into men's minds and was developed in all the ancient religions and right down to the present day all done in defiance against the knowledge of the true God now there's ancient Babylon in its origin let's come to the book of Daniel where we read in chapter 3 that Nebuchadnezzar sent out his agents and they gathered all the nations they gathered the peoples and and all the languages and they were all there together on the plain of Dura all all welcome all welcome they had all come together to worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had set up now the Hebrew children were corralled into that as well but you remember that they wouldn't bow they would retain their distinctiveness before God and the result of that was they got thrown into the fiery furnace now let's notice what's going on here we will see in Babylon today features of Babylon are still to be seen today in the call for united worship everyone's welcome everybody can come together and we'll all worship together as long as you do not retain any kind of doctrinal distinctiveness check your doctrine at the door and then you'll be welcome to come worship with us on Sunday or whenever don't worry about doctrine Babylon has always sought to destroy the distinctiveness of God's people now you'll see that in chapter 1 of Daniel where they changed their names and they changed their clothes and they changed their food they wanted to change their food and so on Babylon has always had it in mind it's always been designed to to change the distinctiveness of God's people interesting that music was employed there in Daniel 3 to accomplish this when you hear the sound of the cornet the flute the harp the sack bolt the salt ray the dulcimer and all kinds of music all kinds of music fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the King has set up is it going too far to say that Christendom has adopted the same method well you don't have Christian rock concerts in the gospel hall so tell you what we'll put them on in the churches and you're all welcome to come we'll have a night of worship sisters don't bother about your head coverings leave that at home you're all welcome provided you do not retain your assembly distinctiveness come and worship and I want to know what are you worshiping all the applause and praise that goes on seems like it's the artists that are on the stage with the lights on them and the smoke around them and all that kind of thing it's it's those guys that are being worshiped kind of like the deification of man Wow back to the plane of Dura back to Daniel 3 the golden image well Daniel had told Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2 thou art that head of gold he wasn't content to be the head of gold he wanted to be the whole show so he built himself a big statue all of gold deification of man and of course all of that has a future aspect as well but coming into the prophets we would find a reference to Babylon and the Chaldeans in the book of Habakkuk and chapter 1 and the interesting thing to me there in Habakkuk chapter 1 as you come down toward the end of that chapter in verses 14 to 16 you find the Babylonians and they're engaged in worship what is it they're worshiping in Habakkuk chapter 1 verses 14 and 16 they are worshiping their own success the way in which they have conquered the nations the way in which they have dominated the whole thing they're worshiping their own success they are sacrificing and burning incense to their own success you have the Lord's response in chapter 2 of Habakkuk and though the Babylonians will plunder and spoil the nations yet God makes it clear that they themselves are going to be plundered and spoiled and though they exalt themselves though they exalt themselves yet ultimately it will be the Lord who will be exalted and of course that has a future view as well doesn't it right through to the book of Revelation where we've been reading though men will set themselves up yet ultimately ultimately it's the Lord that will be exalted Babylon will be destroyed 17 and 18 chapter 19 the King of Kings the Lord of Lords he is exalted and he has given his rightful place so that is the that's the pattern actually for the whole of the time of the Gentiles now there's another phrase the time of the Gentiles you remember began with Nebuchadnezzar the time of the Gentiles continues as a time period right through until the end of the tribulation and the kingdom of the beast is destroyed so we're still living in that time frame we are still in that time period the times of the Gentiles and this feature marks this this this time that men will exalt themselves that men will worship their own success in their eyes success now that's Babylon does it affect the world religiously today for sure it does does it not the mega churches huge places multi-million-dollar industries connected with them and these these these preachers that that service this kind of idea running around in their own private jets and multi-million-dollar homes here and there and everywhere else and oh how they are exalted how they are successful in their own eyes what does the Lord think of it the Lord says this wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate retain your distinctiveness an assembly testimony that is true to his name where would you get a description of that you would get that in connection with the church at Philadelphia wouldn't you thou hast a little strength thou hast kept my word thou hast not denied my name during this time period of the times of the Gentiles testimony for God by definition is small in character thou hast a little strength is faithful to God thou has kept my word and exalts his name thou has not denied my name come out from among them and be separate when we come to the book of Revelation we have the destruction of Babylon in a twofold way you have the religious system destroyed chapter 17 and you have the commercial consolidated commercial system destroyed chapter 18 we read in chapter 14 there followed another angel saying Babylon has fallen has fallen that great city because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication that is fulfilled in chapter 17 notice she has affected all nations false religion Satan's counterfeit has affected all nations but God is going to judge it that will take place as we suggested there at the midpoint of the tribulation when the ten kings that immediately give their power to the beast at that point they destroy their the instrument to destroy the religious system at that midpoint in the tribulation you remember that the the Antichrist which I take to be the first beats beast of Revelation 13 we call him the Antichrist he's the political man but he sets himself up in the temple of God in Jerusalem showing himself that he is God the deification of man reaches its high watermark at that point in time likely indwelt by Satan himself who has been cast out of heaven so that the whole world wonders after the beast whose deadly wound was healed evidently a kind of a pseudo resurrection has taken place perhaps it was an assassin a nation attempt but all of a sudden there he is back again and the whole world wonders after the beast who can make war with a beast man exalting himself man being worshipped by all nations the high watermark of Babylon and God will destroy it right through to the end of that tribulation period the commercial consolidated financial systems of earth seem to remain until at the end of that seven-year period it too is destroyed now one more thing you notice the name that is given in chapter 17 it's a mystery that is there is truth that is hidden in this name Babylon the great the mother of harlots the abominations of the earth Babylon the great as we trace the idea of Babylon back through the Bible to its origins we see Satan's counterfeit we see how God looks upon this thing in total contrast to what we read in chapter 21 regarding the true church here Babylon is seen as a whore as a harlot fool of corruption defilement spiritual immorality contrast that with the lamb's wife you have the vile woman in chapter 17 you have the virtuous woman if you will in chapter 21 give the whore in 17 you have the bride and her purity in chapter set in chapter 21 the lamb's wife you have a woman in God God II apparel in chapter 17 but you have in chapter 21 the city having the glory of God having the glory of God and so you have the false religious system chapter 17 but you have the church which is his body of which we form a part every true believer which is given expression to in local assembly testimony during this period of time during this dispensation as distinct for God and the call to us as we think of the religious world around is come out from among them and be separate be distinctive for God and bear testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ until he comes until he is given his rightful place in that coming day the Lord bless