I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to the Old Testament book of Daniel, as we really embark upon our verse by verse study, having had an introduction, the last time we were together. Daniel chapter one. And I've entitled my discourse to you "The Evil of Babylon, Past, Present, and Future." This morning we will look at the first two verses. So follow along as I read. "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god."

As we approach our study of this amazing book, we want to maintain the big picture of God's redemptive plan for the ages, one that God has ordained in eternity past to bring glory to himself. And this is the key, frankly, to understanding scripture, especially Bible prophecy. I want you to remember, dear friends, that there exists two opposing kingdoms in the universe, there is the kingdom of God and there is the kingdom of Satan. We see this all through Scripture. The kingdom of God is the primary theme of Scripture. It is the center of gravity around which all other themes providentially orbit, in order to bring glory to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. There are essentially three aspects to the kingdom of God that you must keep in mind. There is a universal kingdom, there is a mediatorial kingdom and there is a spiritual kingdom. God's universal kingdom can be defined as God's eternal, sovereign rule over everything that exists, everything that he created. In David's great song of majesty and love in Psalm 145, verse 13, we read, "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion, endures throughout all generations."

But Scripture affirms another aspect of God's universal kingdom. And that is a mediatorial kingdom, that can be defined as God's sovereign rule over the earth, through divinely chosen human representatives, who speak on his behalf, and represent the people before him. And here God exercises his absolute authority, and his invisible rule in the spiritual kingdom on earth through the agency of divinely chosen men.

And then finally, in addition to the universal and the mediatorial aspect of the kingdom of God, Scripture reveals a spiritual kingdom that can be defined as an invisible kingdom that exists in the hearts of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the king. This aspect of the kingdom, by the way, came after Israel rejected her Messiah. And while the kingdom of God can have spiritual requirements and characteristics, as we would see in Romans 14:17, for example, this does not rule out the land and the physical prosperity promises that are also included in the Abrahamic, the Davidic and the new covenants, as we read in Jeremiah 31, through 33, Ezekiel 36 through 37, as well as Deuteronomy 30 in the first 10 verses. During the 40 days between Jesus resurrection and ascension, he spoke according to Acts one three of "the things concerning the kingdom of God;" a reference there to that spiritual kingdom, the sphere of salvation where God reigns within the hearts of believers. Those who have experienced the new covenant blessings have a new heart of the indwelling Spirit, who as Paul said in Second Corinthians three six,"gives life." And aren't you thankful that he has given us life, eternal life? The New Testament epistles reveal how entrance into the spiritual kingdom comes through the message of the gospel and is granted to all believers in this church age.

Now, in opposition to the kingdom of God, is the kingdom of Satan. He has opposed the kingdom purposes of God since the very first sin in the cosmos, that he himself committed. And since his temptation of Adam and Eve to sin against God in the Garden, Satan, along with his demonic horde, has conducted a guerrilla warfare campaign to deceive and enslave men and women in his kingdom of darkness. And the world today exists in that kingdom of darkness and mankind's only hope is through the redeeming grace of God. Paul reminds us in Colossians, one beginning in verse 13, "For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." And in Acts 26, verse 18, we see that caused us to turn from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan to God. What a marvelous testimony of God's grace.

Now the anti-God world system that God allows Satan to temporary control, consists of human beings who are willing subjects to his rule, those who have rejected the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Moreover, Satan's rule is mediated in his kingdom, by what Paul said in Ephesians, 6:12, "rulers...world forces of this darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." You may recall last week we looked at some of the evidence of this in Daniel chapter 10, verses 12 through 13. In verse 20, you remember where the angel Gabriel said to Daniel that the prince of the kingdom of Persia, had battled him for 21 days until Michael, one of the chief princes came to help him. He said, For I had been left there with the kings of Persia. And then in verse 20, the angel Gabriel describes another demon, who was assigned to influence the rulers of Greece. In that passage, he says, "and now I must return to fight with the Prince of Persia. And when I have gone forth, indeed, the prince of Greece will come." Dear friends, all of the nations of the world today, including the United States of America are being controlled by demonic forces that influence their leaders. We know according to Scripture, John 12:31, that Satan is the ruler of this world, and he will remain so until the Lord Himself casts him out. First John 5:"19 says that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." And according to Ephesians, two, two, "he is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." And Paul tells us in Second Corinthians 11, that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. History is also replete with examples of human beings who wittingly, as well as unwittingly, do his bidding. Together they rebel against the Most High God and for this reason, God even cursed his own creation. Remember, we read of this in Romans eight beginning of verse 20. He says, "For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, that because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." And as we will see, Satan, attempted to establish his earthly kingdom in the land of Shinar at the Tower of Babel in the days of Nimrod, according to Genesis 11. The original city of Babylon was therefore, the breeding ground for all of the false religions that would eventually cover the earth.

We will also see that there is great significance in the fact that Babylon conquered Judah. And I want to prepare you for this so that you can understand the whole flow of what the text tells us. The wicked influence that that satanic culture had on God's covenant people, has been in effect down through the centuries. It has had, therefore, a profound spiritual, as well as eschatological, effect on them and an impact on the entire world. And this is all part of God's providential maneuvering to accomplish His plan. History is "his story", the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming King; he is the Almighty sovereign. Remember in Isaiah 46:10, "He is the one who declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.'" And you will recall that even Nebuchadnezzar confessed that Yahweh is the God who according to chapter four and verse 35, of Daniel, "does according to His will, in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of Earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, 'What have you done?'" Indeed, our God, the One True God, is in absolute sovereign control over all of His creation, and He is the one "who works all things after the counsel of his will," Ephesians 1:11. And what comfort this is in times of trouble. I know even this week, there were several scenarios that came up in my life and my heart just breaks as I see people that I know doing things and believing things that are just such an abomination to God, watching our country just being engulfed by a tsunami of ungodliness and all of this leftist lunacy, that's absolutely destroying our country. And watching the militant LGBTQ mafia force their wickedness on all of us, it causes me to feel like Lot. Remember in Second Peter two and verse seven, we read that Lot was "oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men," referring to the homosexuals in Sodom, "(for by what he saw and heard that righteous man while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds)." And dear friends, the heart of every Christian should be tormented by the rampant immorality and idolatry and wickedness that we see in our country and is now even being promoted by woke apostate churches. It grieves my heart. But we can rejoice knowing that no matter what the circumstance, no matter how bad it gets, no matter how hopeless the condition, or how unfair our plight, God is ultimately, in absolute control of all things. And his purposes, will not be thwarted by man nor by Devil.

Now, with this reminder of the cosmic warfare between these two opposing kingdoms and kings, let's begin to see how this conflict plays out. As we look at Daniel, I've given you a real simple outline. It's just two concepts we want to see, first of all the reason for God's judgment on Judah, and secondly, the prophetic significance and symbolism of Babylon. Now, first, if you'll bear with me with something technical, but I know it'll come up if I don't. Very important, we must address an apparent contradiction that critics like to use to discredit the book of Daniel as a reliable historical document in verse one, we read, "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah." Now, there appears here to be a chronological discrepancy, because Jeremiah dates this in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, not the third year. You read that in Jeremiah 46 two, also in chapter 25 in verse one. Of course the critics say "ah, see there, there's a big problem, your Bible is not reliable." Well, this is easily resolved, in that these two men were using two different calendar systems. Daniel used his native Jewish system where the kings of Judah officially would begin their reign on the first day of the seventh month, that would be Tishri or the month of October, and that would be considered the beginning of a new year for the Jewish people. And this would have been important and appropriate for Daniel to do because his goal was to encourage his exiled countrymen that they would eventually be able to return to their homeland. But Jeremiah used the Babylonian calendar system where Nissan, or April, began the new year rather than Tishri or October. The kings of Assyria and of Babylon commenced their reigns in the spring, not the fall, and this would have been appropriate for Jeremiah, because God commissioned him to prepare apostate Judeans for exile to Babylon. So given these two distinct systems of chronology, all of the events that occurred between the spring and fall would therefore be considered one year off. And so what would appear to be a discrediting discrepancy, is in fact, another remarkable proof of the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture. I might also add, if the book of Daniel was a forgery, as some of the liberal critics would have us believe, if he was some guy who wanted to convince the Jews of his day that his book had been written 400 years earlier, you would think he would have been much more cautious right? Not to contradict the canonical book of Jeremiah, which was written before Daniel. Well, I'm chasing rabbits here, but so much for the critical view of theological liberals on this point.

So again, back to the text, "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah." Judah now comprised of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. And, really, we need to stop here for a moment because I want to give you some fascinating history. Jehoiakim was the eldest son of his father the good and godly King Josiah. But what's interesting is at Josiah's death, Jehoiakim's younger brother, Jehoahaz was crowned king of Judah in 609 BC. Evidently for some reason, that we don't know, the people of Judah did not want Jehoiakim to reign over them. However, because Pharaoh Necho had recently defeated Josiah and the Judean army at Megiddo, Necho decided to dethrone Jehoahaz, who had only been ruling for three months and put Eliakim in his place. Eliakim, was really his name his but Necho changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Jehoiakim, now, proved to be just an ungodly fool who ruled from 609 to 598 BC. We know because of history, because of Scripture, that he was a very covetous man, he taxed the people to death, he made them build a magnificent palace for him and refused to pay them. He sent men to Egypt to bring back God's faithful prophet Uriah so that he could execute him. You read about that in Jeremiah 26 and Jeremiah 36. We know that he had one of the scribes read Jeremiah's prophecy, his inspired warnings, and every few verses, he would take a knife and cut it out and throw it in the fire until the whole thing was burned up. So that's the type of guy he was. He ruled for 11 years, and the last three years he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar who retaliated with another attack on Jerusalem in 597 BCE. And Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 22:19, that, "He would be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and cast out beyond the Gates of Jerusalem." No wonder he wanted to cut up the prophecy right? He didn't like that. And we know that that he was indeed killed in Babylon's second siege and his corpse was left to rot on the ground like a dead donkey and the scavengers ate his flesh. Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, that's the rest of the story, right? So now you know who we're dealing with. By the way, prior to the fall of Babylon in 586, Judah had 19 kings that ruled over them, eight of them were good and 11 of them were bad.

So, with that background, look at the second part of the first verse, "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it." So this brings me to our first point that I want us to investigate. You must understand the reason for God's judgment on Judah. We could go to many passages, but I want to take you to Isaiah chapter one. Isaiah helps us understand the depths of their wickedness there in verse four, he says, "Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evil doers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him." If you go to Isaiah five, you will read seven woes that God pronounced against them. He cursed them because of their greedy materialism their drunken dissipation, they would have parties with musical accompaniment, it would be their version of a drunken rock band, Spring Break type of a thing. This was what was going on with those people. They redefined morality. You will recall in verse 20, of Isaiah five, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness." My goodness, we could give 100 examples of that today, here in our country right now. They were cursed because of their haughty humanism, their corrupt leadership; their moral apostasy was profound. And in Isaiah 24, one through six, we read how they had forsaken the law, and ignored God's covenant. But God also solemnly warned his people through the prophet Jeremiah, as well, to repent of their idolatry, lest he judge them, but they refused. Moreover, according to Jeremiah 34, verses 12 through 22, we see how they neglected the Sabbath day, and the sabbatical year. Therefore, God sent them into captivity for 70 years, to reclaim the Sabbath that they had violated and give the land a rest. Folks, I hope you get the idea that God is serious about obedience, right? He's serious about obeying his law, his righteous standard.

And I also want to remind you of his Law, which can be understood as in terms of, frankly, the whole Old Testament scriptures. The law had three divisions. First, there was the moral law that regulated how Israel was to love the Lord their God with all their heart, and their neighbors as themselves, all of which was based upon the 10 commandments. But second, there was the judicial law that regulated Israel's theocracy as a nation. And then there was the ceremonial law that regulated Israel's worship. And we know that ultimately, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled each division of the law. That's why he said in Matthew, chapter five, verse 17, "'Do not think that I came to abolish the Law, or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.'" And he did that in various ways. We won't have time to get into right now. But dear friends, we should never forget that while the judicial and the ceremonial laws were fulfilled in Christ and are now obsolete, the moral law is still being fulfilled in the church, in the redeemed because we are united to Christ through faith. And when we violate the Word of God, God will chasten us. And when unbelievers violate the Word of God, God will judge them eternally so, lest they repent, and place their faith in Christ as their only hope of salvation. Now, sadly, most in ancient Judah, grievously violated God's law.

So again, back to the text, "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it." As we look at the historical evidence, even in Scripture, there is no evidence of any fighting. Babylon was such an overwhelming force; it would have been suicidal for Jerusalem to in any way resist. And we read here that, "The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand." This is such a great statement. We find such hope here, the Lord, Adonai, the Lord God, the owner, ruler, the supreme master, the mighty sovereign. He's the one that "gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand." In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, you did not do this, God did. Nebuchadnezzar was merely God's ape, although he didn't know it. This was the sovereign will of the Lord God, which, by the way, is the theme of Daniel. Folks, I want you to remember this. Rulers can only do what God allows them to do. They can never exceed the limits of divine providence, the boundaries of his decreed will.

So again, "The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand." It goes on to say, "along with some of the vessels of the house of God," referring to the sacred vessels of Solomon's temple. Imagine that, Solomon's temple, "and he brought them to the land of Shinar," which is an Old Testament reference to Babylonia that stretched across the lower, lower Mesopotamia. And it says that, he brought them to, "the house of his god and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god." Now, this is most likely a reference to the Temple of Marduk, in Babylon, the capital of Babylon, which is on the Euphrates River. It's about 50 miles south of modern Baghdad, if you want to get a frame of reference. There were around 50 temples for different deities that existed in that day. But the Temple of Marduk was the most prominent temple located in the most sacred area. One scholar by the name of Woods says quote, "In this area, entered by the magnificent Ishtar Gate, was also a great ziggurat, a sacred tower crowned with a small shrine. The splendid Marduk Temple boasted numerous chapels to deities other than Marduk. But his was the principal one richly decorated with cedar wood paneling, gold, alabaster, and semi-precious stones." So you get an idea of what's going on here. It's also interesting to note that Nebuchadnezzar named his son, Amel Marduk, or could be translated "Evil-Merodach." How'd you like to name your son that? By the way, Nebuchadnezzar was named after another Babylonian deity by the name of Nebo. Now Marduk was sometimes referred to as "Bel", which means "lord." He was the fertility god, and all of their worship involves sexual orgies, things that I wouldn't want to even discuss in public. It also included human sacrifice, throwing babies into the fire, they would bury some of their young ones in the foundations of their homes, in public buildings. They had male and female prostitution; it was just completely vile.

Now for Nebuchadnezzar to come to Judah, and to take these items from the temple, to pillage the Temple of Yahweh, and place the booty in his temple, was a way of symbolizing the superiority of Marduk over YAWEH. It's fascinating that approximately 130 years before what I'm about to tell you actually happened, the prophet Isaiah exposed just how dead those idols in Babylon really were. When he predicted that Babylon would be defeated by Cyrus the Mede, which happened in 539 BCE, and how the middle Persians would come in and take their items and carry the Babylonian deities away in oxcarts. We read this in Isaiah 46 verses one and two. Let me read this to you. He says, "Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, a load for the very for the weary beast. They stooped over, they have bowed down together; they could not rescue the burden but have themselves gone into captivity." So, now we have a bit of an understanding of the reason behind God's judgment and what happened.

And secondly, we want to look at the prophetic significance and symbolism of Babylon. I want you to understand that over 100 years before Judah's fall, Isaiah predicted that this would happen. We read about this in Isaiah 39, beginning in verse six, "Behold," he says, "the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your father's have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon, nothing will be left says the Lord. And some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon." Now, it's fair to ask the question, why Babylon? Why the land of Shinar? And again, I would submit to you that it's because the land of Shinar was the first place where Satan tried to establish his own earthly kingdom through his servant Nimrod at the Tower of Babel. Let me give you some Old Testament history. 1656 years after God created Adam, he judged man with a worldwide flood. And all except eight people who, according to the Scriptures, found favor in the eyes of the Lord, referring to Noah, his wife, three sons, and wives, all of them, everybody else was destroyed. And according to Genesis 10, eight through 10, one of the descendants of Ham was a character named Nimrod who tried to build, quote, "a kingdom called Babel Shinar." We read that in Genesis 10:10. By the way that would have been in modern day Iraq, the same region probably of the Garden of Eden, the land of Mesopotamia. And according to Genesis 11, and one, we read that, "the whole earth used the same language and same words." Interesting thought. They all spoke the same language as Noah. And then verse two, we read that they journeyed east to the land of Shinar, and they settled there. So keep this in mind. Now, some 100 years after the flood, Satan now tries to get his foothold on the earth through Nimrod, who was Noah's great grandson, who, as you will see is a foreshadow of the coming Antichrist. We learn more about their motivation in chapter 11, and verse four of Genesis and, "They said, 'Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.'" And we know that they built this tower, a ziggurat, called the Tower of Babel; a tower that was erected ultimately, to facilitate idolatry. And history reveals that on the top of that tower, and many like them, was the sign of the zodiac where priests would chart the stars to somehow predict the future. By the way, it should be no surprise that we still have that satanic practice with us to this day, another ploy to distract man from worshipping the one true God who alone, not only predicts the future, but causes the future, to conform with his sovereign will.

Well, God was displeased with their rebellion and their idolatry, as you will recall, knowing that it was ultimately from Satan. So according to verse seven, here's what God says, "'Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel. Because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth." So now the people are confused. And each people group begins to coalesce around their respective languages, and they all begin to move to find a region that would support them. And naturally, they took with them all of their idolatries all of their wickedness, much of which historians have discovered was what we would call ancient mother son fertility, cult worship. A combination of myth and legend in history, points to a woman by the name of Semiramis, who was believed to be the wife of Nimrod and if you read some of the story, she was impregnated by some sunbeam that came in through a window. She had this child named Tammuz, he was eventually killed, but came back to life. Basically, what you see is a counterfeit version of Mary and Jesus and so forth.

Well, regardless of the veracity of those names, as many as 180 shrines dedicated to the goddess Ishtar, had been documented in ancient Babylon. Now, the idolatrous mother-son fertility cult worship can be seen virtually in every pagan religious system around the world and Greece. She became Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Demeter and Gaya. In Rome she was Venus, Diana, Minerva and Terra. In India, she was the goddess Devaki with a son infant Krishna, Isi and infant Iswara. In Egypt, it was the goddess Isis and son Horus. In Asia they were known is Cybele and Deoius. The Scandinavians called her Disa she's always pictured with a child. Ancient Germans worshipped the Virgin Hertha with the child and in her arms and on and on it goes. And even Israel was later rebuked for worshipping, quote, The Queen of Heaven, the goddess Ishtar, we read about that, in Jeremiah 44, as well as worshipping her son Tammuz in Ezekiel eight and verse 14, which included idol worship that involves just the lowest and most abominable forms of immorality, idolatrous practices, that, unfortunately, God's covenant people refused to give up and so God judged them severely. By the way, as a footnote, it should be no surprise that the name Queen of Heaven or Mother of God is still being used by Roman Catholics today.

So, out of the Tower of Babel came all of the complex of pagan religions; they were spawned there, everything from Islam, to Hinduism, Shamanism to Buddhism. They were all birth there at the Tower of Babel in the land of Shinar. And this helps us understand what John has to say, in Revelation 17, in verse five, where he describes a coming mystery, "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and of the abominations of the earth." Now, I might add that this is not a reference to the historical geographical city of Babylon, but rather to a future religious amalgam that will exist, that will be led by the false prophet that's described in Revelation 13:11 through 18, he will be a counterfeit Holy Spirit, remember, there will be a counterfeit trinity one day of Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. So the false prophet will be a counterfeit Holy Spirit who will seek to exalt the Antichrist, and somehow reinforces efforts to thwart the purposes of God during the time of the tribulation, just prior to our Lord's return.

And as we read the prophetic literature we see that under the aegis of the false prophet and an ecclesiastical ecumenical one world counterfeit religion, will serve the Antichrist, and this religion will seduce the nations like a harlot seduces the fool. And we read in Scripture that the term "fornication" which refers to having sex outside of marriage, as well as harlotry, or prostitution; those terms are often used in Scripture to illustrate spiritual prostitution. In Revelation 14 and verse eight, we read, "she who has made all the nation's drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality." And indeed, we see that one day the nation's will become so intoxicated with her idolatrous pleasures that they will seek to destroy anyone that serves the one true God. Dr. Larson says quote, "Counterfeiting the Holy Spirit's faithful testimony and witness to Christ, the false prophet points unceasingly to the beast, performs mighty wonders and successfully imprints the mark of the beast, (666), the number of man. humanism with a vengeance." And then he goes on to say, "He will imprint that on the deceived," quote, "The inhabitants of the earth, without which they can neither buy nor sell, Revelation 13:16 and following." You know, given what we are witnessing in the world today, all of these things are not only plausible, they are inevitable. Larson goes on to say, "This Christ-less, wordless, but bloodless, and powerless, religious sham, will sweep the vulnerable inhabitants of the earth off their feet. And the greatest hoax of all history, as Jesus described it in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 10, 'At that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.'" Larson goes on to say, "But God is never without a testimony. And even in this dark time, Israel will be his witness. Though sorely persecuted, martyred and hated," quote, "by all nations because of Christ, Israel will preach the gospel of the kingdom. Again, according to Matthew 24 and verse 14, preach the gospel of the kingdom 'in the whole world as a testimony to all nations.' And then Jesus says, 'the end will come.'"

So, the satanic idolatry that originated from Babel, from the original Babylon and the land of Shinar, will eventually culminate in an orgy of rebellion and hatred of the one true God, just prior to our Lord's return. Mystery, "a mystery" John says, "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the earth." Folks, history will come full circle. All of these false religious systems will have a family reunion, you might say, they're all going to come home to mama, they will be rolled into one world religion, designed to worship the beast, the Antichrist. And this one religion is personified as a harlot, and indeed, the world is being prepared for that great Babylonish horror, even today, one that will promise to bring all of the world's religions together, coexist, you see it all the time, right? You're gonna bring it all together under under a monolithic banner of ecumenism, a demonic system that will eventually lead to the sole worship of the beast himself. I must add that in Revelation 18 there is a description of a commercial Babylon that will collaborate with religious Babylon, we see that there's also going to be not just a one world religion, but a one world economy. In fact, the prophet Zechariah describes this as well in chapter five, verses five through 11. There he had, you might recall a vision of a woman in a basket, and according to verse eight, she was called wickedness and there we have a personification of religious and ecclesiastical apostasy that will also manifest itself in wanton materialism and secularism, Zechariah five verses 10 and 11. We read, "I said to the angel, who was speaking with me, 'Where are they taking the ephah?' this basket that this woman is in, "Then he said to me, 'To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.'" If we had time we could look into that text and all of the passages around it and see that a day is coming when the system of organized godlessness that has dominated the world since the time of Nimrod will be will be transported by demonic powers to the land of Shinar and there it's going to be placed on a pedestal, we believe probably in a temple as an idol to be worshipped in the final Babylon, the final world system of the Antichrist. But it will be destroyed and forever removed from the earth when the Lord returns.

I want to comfort you with these words in Revelation chapter 18, beginning in verse one. "After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority and 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.' 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; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.'" Then dropping down to verse 21, we read that, "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, and the sound of harps and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer, and the sound of a mill will not be heard you any longer; and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.'" Merrill Unger says, quote, "Not until this evil system is removed from Palestine, will it become," quote, "The Holy Land. And not until it's rooted out of the whole earth in its entirety, will God's kingdom come and God's will be done in earth as it is in heaven."

Folks, my point with all of this is to make sure you understand that the original Babylonian captivity of Judah described in Daniel, and in other passages in the Old Testament, was not some kind of a random event without any purpose. But rather it points to, and it symbolizes, an entire worldwide political, economic and religious kingdom of antichrist, for which the world today is being prepared. We simply cannot, and we must not, read these passages in isolation, but see how they fit into the whole counsel of God revealed in Scripture.

Now, in closing this morning, I know many of you have already asked, "Where does the United States fit in to all of these things prophetically?" And I will deal with this more at length at another time. But the answer is nowhere specifically, okay? It may be part of the revived Roman Empire that will be ruled by the Antichrist. If it survives the removal of the church at the time of the rapture, it's going to be profoundly weakened. And certainly already we see serious cracks in the foundations of our country. The wrath of divine abandonment is having its effect on our country. Dear friends, the glory days of the United States of America, are quickly disappearing in the rearview mirror. Well, to be sure, America, to whatever degree it exists when the Lord returns, is going to join with all of the rest of the nations of the world. It too will fall under the spell of mystery Babylon, and under the power of the rule of the Antichrist and his false prophet. And like all nations, it too will come against Israel. We're already seeing that movement. And like all the nations, it will be destroyed.

Let me close by reading Zechariah's prophecy in Zechariah 12, beginning in verse three, "'It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lifted will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.'" And as I said, like all nations, it will be defeated. All these nations will be defeated, including the United States. And a remnant of Israel will come to repentant faith in the Messiah, that the one that they have so long rejected. And we read of this again, back to Zechariah 12, beginning in verse eight. "'In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them. And in that day, I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.'" There's the fate of the United States, and all of the nations. He goes on to say, '"I will pour out on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.'" Dear Christian, be encouraged our God reigns. And one day, the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, as the prophet has promised. But dear friends, if you're here today, and you do not know Christ, my word to you is, be warned. But also be encouraged because there is a way of escape if you place your faith in Christ. But if you don't, you will perish in your sins. And you will pay for your sins in the torment of solitary confinement where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And you will be in torment forever and ever, and ever. That's why the gospel is such good news, Amen? The Gospel provides a way for our sins to be forgiven, and for us to enjoy the imputed righteousness of Christ, who gave his life for all who would believe on him. So I challenge you, if you don't know Christ, today is the day that you need to do business with God. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the eternal truths of your word. And even though we don't know all of the particulars, we see the grand themes in the grand direction, the trajectory of your plan of redemption, of your plan to bring glory to the king and establish your kingdom. We thank you therefore, for the hope that we find through your inspired, infallible Word. But Lord, we also thank you for your indwelling Spirit that causes our hearts to leap with joy, knowing what awaits us all because of your grace. Lord, give us an ardent zeal for evangelism, to share the good news of the gospel with others that they too might be saved, that they too might enjoy the hope that is ours in Christ. And finally, Lord, I must say please, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly. For it's in your name that I pray, Amen.