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Now, here's Stephen with today's message on wisdom for the heart. Satan has longed for and worked toward manipulating the hearts of the unbelieving world powers to ultimately come back to one voice. one global nation. Defiance to God began with planet Earth's first. city, Babylon, in the cradle of civilization.
Earth's final defiance against God will once again emanate from Babylon in the battle of Armageddon that will sweep it away. The cradle of civilization will become a graveyard. Most of you have heard the phrase, the cradle of civilization. Your middle school teacher might have described it in your social studies class or geography class. as the Tigris-Euphrates river valley where civilization began.
Geographical points of reference for the Garden of Eden. Provided in Genesis chapter 2 indicate the garden's location in this river valley with the Tigris and Euphrates flowing past this beautiful sanctuary where Adam and Eve. tended the garden and the animals and walked with God. But because of the sin of Adam and Eve, In Genesis 3, they were expelled from the garden. The human race began and flourished beyond that as well as every sin imaginable, including murder.
Eventually, humanity reached such perverted and blasphemous conditions that God judged the world by sending a universal flood, literally wiping the human race along with the animal kingdom off the face of the earth.
However, God and His grace had first provided mankind with an invitation of mercy and grace. They were invited to come to the ark, as Noah preached, for 120 years. warning them of the judgment to come. But according to Genesis chapter 6, when it came, not one person outside the family of Noah. responded.
and the cradle of civilization. became and beyond around the world a mass grave. Noah and all who would come through him were commanded to go out and and enjoy the earth, populate it. Worship God and obey Him. Genesis 9, of course.
following the the promise of Genesis 3 that The one we know as Christ would soon Come. Noah's great-grandson rebelled. And instead, called all of the people to gather together in that river valley and defy God. And so they gathered and built the first city after the flood, a city of rebellion against God and its first Caesar. was Nimrod.
They also built, as we learned, their Tower of Babel dedicated to the stars, moon, and sun, the zodiac, which was originated, created by the Babylonians. And they held the fact that certain signs in the sky and the movements of stars literally held people captive to some higher power, and the only way you could find your destiny would be to follow the signs. They had rejected the Creator and they had begun worshiping creation. All the way back to the great-grandson Uh days of Noah. Genesis 11 reveals how God judged the human race again.
This time by confusing their one language and separating them into a thousand plus different dialects, and they couldn't understand each other, and they literally scattered around the world. But Babylon was never completely abandoned. It grew in size and significance century after century until a king named Nebuchadnezzar would build it into its grandest state ever. Herodotus described the city, all 60 miles of it, surrounded by a brick wall 87 feet thick, 100 feet high.
So strong was it that 250 towers stretched from the top of the wall upward, as if to tell any invading army, don't even think about it. The Euphrates River ran through the city diagonally. The banks of the river, as it ran through the city, were beautifully walled with steps leading down to the water's edge. The hanging gardens created by Nebuchadnezzar, built by his engineers to help pacify his homesick wife, were quite the thing. Terraced patios with exotic plants and flowers, tended by gardeners and laborers 24 hours a day.
These gardens would become one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Babylon was laid out with 25 main avenues that traveled through it in straight lines. The streets were 150 feet wide. At the ends of each avenue would be gates. as they ended from one side of the city to the other.
Gates that Herodotus said were overlaid with brass, that as they were opened and closed in the setting and rising of the sun, they shone like leaves on fire. It was an awe-inspiring. Sight. One of those gates was named the Ishtar Gate, named in honor of Ishtar, their chief goddess, the queen of heaven, with her virgin-born son. That very gate, by the way, has been excavated.
Now is in the museum in Berlin. I've seen pictures of it. I've stood by some of the processionway in the museum with my wife in Vienna. And just stunning blue stone. with gold leaf Dragons and lions.
painted on it. Nebuchadnezzar's own inscription. was excavated. And he had written that these gates and this city was built, and I quote his transl the translation of his inscription, so that man might stand in awe. And through those gates, perhaps even the Ishtar gate.
would come a young teenager entering the city of Babylon. named Daniel. And he would eventually prophesy That Babylon would fall to the Medes and Persians in chapter two of his book, that would come true. Babylon would fall, according to Daniel chapter five, and history records for us outside of Scripture that Darius defeated Babylon. And from that point forward, Babylon limped along for a while.
But then came another claimant. to world power by the name of Alexander the Great. When he arrived in Babylon, he decided that he would stay there and rebuild its glory and make it his capital city. And so he dismantled Nebuchadnezzar's centuries-old palace and planned to rebuild it to its original glory, but he died. before he could hardly begin.
It again sort of went out of sight until another world leader stepped onto the scene by the name of Napoleon, who made plans to rebuild Babylon as he raced to conquer the Western world. I have read that in the French Department of War in Paris, there are records of surveys and maps of Babylon made at Napoleon's command. He'd intended to rebuild the ancient city. In fact, he'd intended to call it New Babylon. making it his capital and the governmental and commercial center of the Western world.
He too failed. Again, Babylon slipped off the radar of world attention. and turned to dust. But now there was for the last hundred years or so another reason. For this city to capture the attention and imagination and certainly the desire of mankind.
In a word, Oil. Iraq sits on one of the world's largest known crude oil reserves.
Well, of course, problems have plagued. that region. namely in the form over the last few decades of a tyrant Who had visions of rebuilding Babylon and owning the world? He even declared himself to be the next Nebuchadnezzar. You know him by the name Saddam Hussein.
He would spend millions of dollars rebuilding the palace of Nebuchadnezzar on the same plot of ground where the original palace had stood. You can go online and look at the pictures. Mark Hitchcock, in his book entitled The Second Coming of Babylon. Provided in that book, The Religious Motivation Behind Saddam, and the religious motivation, the religious side of news rarely makes it into ABC, NBC, and even Fox News. Salaam Not only wanted to destroy the Jews, which he certainly did because he hated them.
But Iran as well. Why? He hated Iranians as much as Jews simply because Iranians are the descendants of the Persians who had originally defeated his forefather, and he wanted revenge. He had taken on as a personal quest The right to renew the honor. Of his forefathers by conquering Persia, now modern-day Iran, along with.
The Jews. And Saddam's desire to get rid of Iranians and Jews certainly had obstacles in his quest also to rebuild Babylon. One of them, of course, was money. It would cost millions and millions of dollars. In fact, we now know that it was his need for money that he invaded Kuwait.
He wanted to monopolize at least 10% of the world's oil reserves so that he could what? This is what we have, the missing pieces are, so he could rebuild and fund the rebuilding of New Babylon. But he failed. like all the others before him. And he failed his subjects too.
He was only one more applicant for world ruler. He was only one more hopeful king. of Babylon.
Now the question would come to mind, why would Satan the enemy of God and God's people Even conceive of the idea and even believe it possible that somebody will come along one day and rebuild Babylon. Because he has most certainly read the record of Scripture. That's why. Since Genesis chapter 11. and the overthrowing of Nimrod.
and the scattering of the people. Satan has longed for and worked toward manipulating the hearts of the unbelieving world powers to ultimately come back to one voice. One people. one global nation. The empire that will one day rise from the rubble will indeed rule over a one-world religion and a one-world government, and it will again build a tower, so to speak, that defies Creator.
God. fits the biblical record of history and prophecy perfectly.
So unlike many supposed ministers and pseudo-scholars of the Bible and authors, Satan evidently believes the Bible. Defiance to God began with planet Earth's first. City, Babylon, in the cradle of civilization. Earth's final defiance against God will once again emanate from Babylon in the Battle of Armageddon that will sweep it away into rubble once again. Finally, as millions die in defiance to God, people will flock back.
The cradle of civilization will become A graveyard. John gives us the details. I'm at Revelation. Chapter eighteen And verse 1. After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven.
Having great authority. The earth was illumined with his glory, and he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling place of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion 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. Babylon once The city of dreams.
It's now the city of nightmares.
Now is this literal Babylon Could this be a code? Name for New York. or Paris Or Berlin. Or Rome.
Well, if we answer that question by starting with the Old Testament, We discover that whenever the word Babylon appeared, Every time it showed up. It referred to literal Babylon, that city. which is now located in modern Iraq. Whenever Revelation uses the name of a city, it's to be taken, face value, unless there's something in the text that would indicate otherwise, which happens at times. In fact, going back into Revelation chapter 11, John refers to Jerusalem as Sodom and Egypt.
He uses it metaphorically. But he prefaced that by writing the city which is mystically called Sodom.
So the readers given clear clues that he's using the term. figuratively.
Furthermore, the city Of Babylon, the literal city. on the Euphrates fits the criteria. For this city described in Revelation 17. and eighteen. And we've learned already that Babylon, the word Babylon, represents a city.
And a religious system. We've seen in chapter 17 the collapse of Babylon, who's called the mother of harlotry, the religious system that's the fountainhead of the poison of all false religion. We've seen it collapse. And now, in verse 2, we're told that the city... No longer is the word mystery attached, which was found in chapter 17.
Now the city. is announced to have fallen in judgment as the tribulation comes to a close. John hears another voice. Look at verse 4. I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people.
So that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues, for her sins have piled up as high as heaven. And God has remembered. Her iniquities. As we've already seen, those that have accepted Christ after the rapture, and there will be millions of believers still living of every tribe, tongue, nation, people group. They're given unique and sometimes special warnings.
Here's another one: Trouble's coming to Babylon. Those of you that live in it, you might want to move. Her judgment will be justified. Because Babylon is refused justification by God through the gospel of Christ. I want you to notice a word that appears several times in this chapter.
Her judgments, verse 7, will be delivered to the degree that she glorified herself and lived. Sensuously. In other words, Babylon creates her own new class. of perversion. and opulence.
The entire city will be a a literal playground For the rich and famous, and there will be no boundaries to their sinful. behavior and their pride and their arrogance. Will be unbounded as well. Notice what might be easy to miss back in verse 7. For she, that's Babylon, For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen, and I am not a widow, and I will never see mourning.
That's a quote from Isaiah 47 that speaks of the near-end disaster of Babylon and speaks certainly of the long view of prophecy and this ultimate fulfillment. She says, I'm a queen. In other words, I will never be deposed again. This is my eternal throne. Who would imagine the greatest empire, which is the hub of all world commerce and world trade and world power, ever?
Suffer any kind of collapse. I mean, if Babylon says, I will never be defeated again, who would ever deny it? And yet, judgment falls, and the world will watch as Babylon. burns to the ground as Christ returns.
Now most of this chapter is the lamenting over all that is lost commercially. But there are three categories of people that are crying over the fall of Babylon. The first category we could simply call the monarchs. Of the earth. Verses 9 and 10, they lament the fall, they're weeping.
Why, they've lost their power. They've lost their connection. They've lost their sovereignty. The second category are the merchants. Verse 11, John tells us they're weeping and mourning over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore.
They've lost their wealth. They've lost their occupation. Their career is gone. They're destitute now. The third category are the mariners.
Look down at verse 17. For one hour, such great wealth has been laid waste. And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like the great city? And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city. Listen, they're all weeping.
Why? Because they've rebelled against God, who has now moved in judgment? No, they're weeping because they've lost all their stuff.
So here you have monarchs, merchants. Mariners representing literally every class, every occupation in society.
Some are now standing in their executive suites halfway around the world watching perhaps on satellite television Babylon burned, and they're bursting into tears. Not often do you see a man weeping in public and hear all of humanity is bursting into weeping and wailing. Why? Because they're out of fellowship with God, the Almighty Sovereign No. They just aren't getting their way.
and the city of man. has fallen. See this here. Revelation chapter 18 is Pearl Harbor. It is the stock market crash through western eyes.
It is the Great Depression. It is the bubonic plague. It is the Holocaust. Rolled up. into one hour.
The fall of Babylon is predicted in verses 1 to 8. The fall of Babylon is lamented. in verses 9 to 20. Finally, the fall of Babylon is completed. In the last paragraph, an illustration will be used by an angel to talk of its utter collapse.
Verse 21: Then a strong angel took up a stone, like a great millstone, and threw it into the sea, saying, So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence and will not be found any longer.
Now, the next few verses reveal the complete and utter loss. Music ceases. Verse 22, and the sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer. All music is silenced. No more parties.
No more revelry. No more singing. Work. Ceases. Careers end.
John writes further, verse 22: And no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer. Domestic life. ceases Look further, and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer. Every ancient home ground its own grain with a handheld millstone. The only thing I can think of that's comparable is my little coffee bean grinder I have in the kitchen up in one of the cupboards, and I'll pour some beans in there and push the button.
Fortunately, I'm not having to do this. I don't think I'd make much coffee. I just plug it in, and it grinds it. Every home. in John's day had a little hand mill.
where they grind. What's happening? There's no one preparing food. Because there's no one home. Verse 23, the lamps.
are all gone out. The great city. His gates were like leaves on fire. is now a darkened place. A gloomy place.
uninhabited except for the picture here of demons. swirling about bewailing their defeat and carrion birds swooping in. to pick at the remain. Marriages cease. John writes As if to reinforce that there's no hope in ever rebuilding Babylon, verse 23: For the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer.
So, music, work, marriage, domestic life, commerce, career. Politic, power, everything imaginable, like a candle is snuffed out. And the city of man in its final gasp of defiance. coming back full circle after centuries. of that which represents rebellion.
is now. Over. And maybe you're wondering, are we any closer to that period of time? And of course, preceding that, the rapture of the church. Surely there's no interest in rebuilding Babylon now.
Oh. There will always be someone. It's interesting if you read just read. Public information now today, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Now that Saddam is gone, is pumping millions of dollars into Babylon. and several other historical sites in Iraq. With the help of private donors, I've read the United Nations is hoping to turn Babylon into a thriving center of tourism and commerce. Our own government, you may have heard recently, pledged nearly $1 million of tax money to help rebuild the city of Babylon in Iraq. I was invited.
to join a conference called with Joel Rosenberg. Joel is The author of a number of best-selling uh books that Kind of sift through the news accounts of the Middle East and looks at it through the lens of prophetic scripture. And I joined about 20, 25 other pastors and Christian leaders. On the phone as Joel talked about current events.
Now somebody had given me Rosenberg's recent bestseller, Epicenter. published by Tyndale. I hadn't read it. I haven't read anything by him. After he talked for some time, he asked if we had any questions, and after a few did, I wanted to ask him this question, and I had a chance to do it.
I asked him if he believed in a future war between Jerusalem and a literal Babylon. In light of our study, I knew I'd be having today, just a few days later. And he said, absolutely. In fact, I wrote an entire chapter in my book on that. I was obviously the only person on the phone that hadn't read his book.
And I well he was kind to me, he just kept going. And he said this, and I wrote it down so I could quote him. Everything's moving toward that end. I believe the ultimate showdown will be between Jerusalem and Babylon. I hadn't read his book.
But I have read this one. And I couldn't agree more. There is a final battle between the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God. There is a final duel, so to speak, between the Antichrist, the king of a rebuilt Babylon. and Jesus Christ the king who returns to Jerusalem.
And listen. I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. the king of Jerusalem Wins. He wins. In fact, he's already won and he's already spelled out the defeat.
Still yet future. And the next chapter. Chapter 19. And as the tribulation ends, What struck me, in light of what Rosenberg had written, what struck me is after he wins, the very next thing that happens is that the saints are singing. The very first word in their hymn is the word, and I'm already wanting you to preach it.
I'm sorry, it's late. is the word Hallelujah. I have to check it again, but I believe it's the first time it appears in the book of Revelation. Hallelujah. That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International.
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