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Jeremiah chapter 50 is continuing the section in the book of Jeremiah where God is bringing His wrath and punishment upon these various geographies. We've been going through the judgments against the Philistines, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, but in chapters 50 and 51, two quite lengthy chapters, God's judgment is directed toward Babylon itself. Now Babylon has been an important part of the book of Jeremiah because throughout the book of Jeremiah, God has been telling Jeremiah to prophesy that Babylon would come and destroy the nation of Judah and take them captive and so they've been the villain of the whole book and the one whom the children of Israel should have been afraid of and that God was going to send to punish them. And in Jeremiah 50 and 51, God is talking about the judgment that's going to be brought upon Babylon itself. So all throughout Jeremiah, Jeremiah is preaching about the fact that Babylon is going to be conquering Israel and all these other geographies. He's going to conquer the Philistines, Babylon's going to conquer Egypt, conquer the whole region. But if you remember, it was prophesied that after 70 years, God would bring the Jews back to the promised land, they'd come back to Judah, they'd rebuild the temple, they'd rebuild the wall. Well at that time, God is going to judge Babylon. So Babylon's going to reign for the next 70 years, but after that 70 year captivity of the Jews is over, God's going to bring judgment upon Babylon itself. So the immediate context of this passage, Jeremiah 50 and 51, is God bringing judgment upon Babylon. This already happened, this is before Christ, when God would judge Babylon at the end of that 70 year captivity. But what's very interesting about this passage though, is that there is a future judgment of Babylon that's talked about in the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 18 specifically talks about Babylon being a place that's going to be destroyed. This is in the end times. This is after the seven trumpets and the seven vials of God's wrath, then great Babylon comes up in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine and the fierceness of his wrath. So there's a future judgment of Babylon coming according to Revelation 18, and Revelation 18 quotes from Jeremiah 50 and 51. So that makes this passage more interesting than just being a historical event about Babylon being judged before the time of Christ, because some of these prophecies are actually looking forward to a future judgment of Babylon. You say, how do we know that? Well, because if we look at Jeremiah 50 and 51, some of the things in here have been literally fulfilled. If we study other parts of the Bible, or if we were to look in a history book, we can see how these things were literally fulfilled. But there are a lot of things in this passage that didn't happen back then that are part of the future judgment of Babylon that's described in Revelation 18. Now, when we look at Revelation 18 and it's talking about Babylon being destroyed or that great city Babylon, we have to understand that this is not referring to the literal city of Babylon. You say, well, how do you know that? Because the literal city of Babylon no longer exists. There is no city of Babylon today. That Babylon that is described in the Old Testament was wiped out. It's gone. It's no longer there. In fact, in the early 20th century, the ruins of Babylon were first discovered. Until then, if you would have gone to the place where Babylon used to be and where it was made, that was a world empire, that was the most powerful nation in the world, if you went to that place about 100 years ago, all you would see is just dirt. You wouldn't see anything. You wouldn't see any buildings. You wouldn't see any walls. In fact, there would be no indication that Babylon had ever even been there. But archeologists in the early 20th century, they went there and they said, well, this is historically where Babylon should be. And they started digging and then they found the ruins and they began to excavate. And a lot of excavation has taken place over the last 100 years. And if you remember, Saddam Hussein, when he was ruling in Iraq, he wanted to rebuild the city of Babylon. And so he actually started work on that and was rebuilding a city there, but it never came to pass because of the fact that we had the Gulf War and he was shut down. So he never accomplished the rebuilding of that city. That city doesn't exist. And if you look at the Babylon that's described in Revelation 18, this isn't a city that's going to be built tomorrow, and this is a huge, massive place that is so important that the Bible says that when Babylon's destroyed in Revelation 18, the merchants of the entire earth will weep and mourn over her because no man buyeth their merchandise anymore. So that's a pretty major economic power if its destruction means doom for all of the sailors and all the merchants and all them that trade by sea to say, well, nobody's going to buy our merchandise anymore. And it talks about in Revelation 18, the great riches and wealth of Babylon. What a great city it is and how they lived in such lavish luxury and how they had so much power and how they were just brought to nothing in one hour. So you say, well, Pastor Anderson, what are we talking about in Revelation 18? If we're not talking about the literal city of Babylon, what are we talking about? A lot of times in the Bible, God will use one place's name as an indication of a different place if they are similar or related. For example, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in Genesis 19 as an example of God's wrath on that sin of homosexuality, right, on the sin of sodomy. So God destroyed them and wiped them out. And so throughout the whole rest of the Bible, he will often compare other places that go into wickedness and debauchery. He will call them Sodom. In fact, in Isaiah chapter 1, God says to the Jews, he says, listen, you rulers of Sodom, he calls them Sodom. He doesn't just say that they're like Sodom, but he actually just calls them Sodom. You're Sodom. And other places in the Bible, he calls different nations Sodom if they're acting like Sodom. Well, obviously this place in Revelation 18 that's being destroyed is a place that's like Babylon. It's not the literal city of Babylon, but it is a Babylon. It's a future Babylon-type place. So what are the attributes of Babylon? Well first of all, what we have to understand is that Babylon itself was not the first place that was like Babylon. There's a series of empires that the Bible talks about, and Babylon is one of the empires in that series, sort of the quintessential most powerful or greatest empire in that series of empires. What am I talking about? Well, in Daniel chapter 2, if you'd flip over there, we'll get into Jeremiah 50, but I just want to give the introduction here so we can understand what we're looking at. Go to Daniel chapter 2. There's a great vision that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has in Daniel chapter 2, and it is interpreted by Daniel the prophet. And it says, for example, in verse number 31, thou, O king, sawest, Daniel 2, 31, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces. Jump down, if you would, to the interpretation of the vision. It says in verse number 37, thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory. For wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath thee given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all, thou art this head of gold. So this image has a head of gold, and then silver, brass, iron, and then the feet are a mingling of iron and clay. So in the interpretation, he says unto King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, he says, you are the head of gold, because you are the greatest king in the world. You're ruling over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have that power. Verse 39 says, and after thee shall rise another kingdom inferior to thee. Not as good, not as powerful. So Babylon is sort of the greatest, the pinnacle of this series. It says then there'll be another kingdom that's inferior to thee, sort of like silver is inferior to gold, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth, and the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron. Now who these four kingdoms are is no mystery. I don't have time to show you in the Bible, but there's really no intelligent debate. It's basically Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, Greece, and the Roman Empire. That's accepted by virtually everyone. Those are the four kingdoms that would rule over the world in succession. And then in the midst of that fourth kingdom, which is the Roman Empire, Jesus Christ came to this earth, right? He's that stone that came and just crushed that idol, that giant idol of gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay. Jesus Christ came in the midst of that fourth kingdom, and he instituted a kingdom that will never be destroyed. So Jesus Christ at his first coming did that spiritually, but at his second coming, he will actually do that physically and literally when he sets up his kingdom on this earth, where he rules the entire earth with a rod of iron in the second coming of Jesus Christ. So at the first coming, the Romans were in power. They were that iron kingdom that crushed and break in pieces everywhere they went. Jesus Christ was born during the Roman Empire. So we see that these four different empires, they're all one because they're all connected. It's not four separate images. It's one continuous chain of succession here, one unbroken image of those four. But this has an end times interpretation as well. So there's the primary application for back then, which was Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, and then Christ came and set up his spiritual kingdom, which is in our hearts. There's an end times application because in the book of Revelation, it talks about how there will be 10 kings. And those 10 kings are the same as the 10 toes here, the 10 horns on the beast. And so there's basically a resurgence of this same kingdom, this same spirit of Babylon or this Babylonian empire. There's going to be a new Babylon or a new Roman empire in the end times at the time of the second coming of Christ, just as there was a great empire in power the first time that he came. Now, if you would go back to Jeremiah chapter number 50. Actually keep your finger in Jeremiah 50. Let's go to Revelation 17 quickly because I want to show you one more thing in Revelation 17 before we go forward here. Revelation 17 has an interesting statement. When Christ came, the Bible talks about that great stone that crushed that image of idolatry. And then it said that that stone then grew and became a great mountain. And what did that great mountain represent? Christ's kingdom. So throughout the Bible, kingdoms are sometimes symbolized by a mountain. Christ's millennial kingdom in Daniel chapter 2 is a mountain. Also in Jeremiah 51, Babylon is referred to as the destroying mountain. So Babylon itself is called a mountain. Well, look what the Bible says in Revelation 17, 9. We don't have time to go super deep into this. But it says in Revelation 17, 9, here is the mind which hath wisdom, the seven heads. Talking about the seven heads on that beast with 10 horns. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. So these are seven kingdoms. It says next there are seven kings. Seven kings for seven kingdoms. Watch this. Five are fallen. Five of the kings are fallen. One is and the other is not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue a short space. Now stop and think about this, okay? And I want you to pay close attention here. This isn't really that complicated, but you gotta pay attention. There are seven kingdoms, right? And John here in Revelation is seeing this vision and it's being told him that five of them are fallen. So five of them are in the past. One is, meaning there's one in existence right now. And then there's one that is yet to come. Well, John is living during the Roman Empire, okay? So that means that he's in the sixth kingdom, right? Because five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come. You say, wait a minute, Pastor. I thought Rome was the fourth. But here's what you have to understand. In the book of Daniel, we're starting with Babylon because that's when Daniel's living, in the time of Babylon. And so the prophecy to Nebuchadnezzar is about the future, not the past. So he starts with Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. But there were two kingdoms before Babylon that were just like Babylon. If you study the Old Testament, these two kingdoms are like unto Babylon and they're Egypt and Assyria. So what you have is this succession, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. So from John's perspective, five are fallen. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece. One is the Roman Empire and the other is not yet come. So there's going to be a future kingdom, not the Roman Empire, but a seventh kingdom that's following in these same footsteps. That seventh kingdom is the Babylon of the end times. You say, well, why doesn't God just tell us who it is? Because God does not name the names of nations that don't exist yet, because then what would happen is it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. He's not gonna name. That would be strange. Even in the Old Testament, it doesn't give us the name of Jesus. It tells us everything about what Jesus is gonna be, but it doesn't give us his name, right? It tells us his attributes. Well, God's not gonna give this name either. He's gonna give the attributes. He's gonna call it Babylon because it's like Babylon, this final world empire. But then beyond that seventh world empire, it says that there's going to be the eighth, okay? The eighth king. And it says the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, but watch this, and is of the seven. So the eighth king is one of the seven kings. How does that work? Well, because the seventh king of this world empire, okay, this ruler is going to die, right? And he's going to be brought back to life and the whole world's gonna marvel and wonder and so forth. So basically that's how the eighth king is of the seven. Does everybody understand? He, because he was and he is not and yet is, he dies, he comes back and so forth. And again, that's going pretty deep into Bible prophecy there. But the reason I bring that up is so that you can see that Babylon is not just a unique historical phenomenon, but that rather there have been other Babylon's before and after. There was Egypt, there was Assyria, you know, and just because Babylon no longer exists, there could still be a Babylon, just like in John's day, even though Babylon had no power, there was the Roman empire that was the Babylon of his day. So that's what I'm trying to get across to you tonight with showing you that scripture. So go back to Jeremiah 50, and let's talk about some of the attributes of Babylon. Well, first of all, Babylon was a nation that had power over the whole earth. They were great military power, a great conquering nation, an empire. These were world empires that ruled over great areas of land and ruled over kings. Nebuchadnezzar was called a king of kings. He was ruling over other kings and so forth. But not only was Babylon a great world military power, Babylon also had certain attributes to its religion. There's a distinct religion associated with Babylon, whether we're looking at Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, these all have a very similar religion. And that religion centers primarily on idolatry. And when I say idolatry, I mean that in the most literal sense, I'm talking about specific graven images, molten images. Now, the word idolatry can be used just if you worship anything other than God. If you worship a false god, even if you worship money, that could be idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. But I'm talking about a distinct type of religion that practices a literal idolatry, literal carved images, graven images, molten images. Let me show you how much this comes up in Jeremiah 15, 51. It's greatly emphasized. Let's start in verse number one of chapter 50. The word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet declare you among the nations and publish and set up a standard, publish and conceal not. Say Babylon is taken. Bell is confounded. Merodach is broken in pieces. Her idols are confounded. Watch this, her images are broken in pieces. So notice the idols here are defined as literal images. Go if you would to verse number 38 of Jeremiah 50. The Bible says a drought is upon her waters and they shall be dried up for it is the land of graven images and they are mad upon their idols. So these are people who are just a little bit into idolatry. I mean, it is the land of graven images and they're crazy about their idols. They're mad upon their idols. Then if you would jump down to chapter 51 verse 17. 51, 17 says every man is brutish by his knowledge. Every founder is confounded. The founder is one who works with metal. Every founder is confounded by the graven image for his molten image is falsehood and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, the work of errors. In the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like them. So he's contrasting Israel's religion, worshiping the God of Jacob with pagan idolatry of molten and carved images. Look if you would to Jeremiah 51 verse 47. Therefore behold the days come that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon and her whole land shall be confounded and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. Look at verse number 52. Wherefore behold the days come saith the Lord that I will do judgment upon her graven images and through all her land the wounded shall groan. That's a lot of mentions just for two chapters. To bring up over and over again, graven images and make such a big deal about that. It's pretty important to the study of Babylon that that's the earmark of this religion is it's a religion of graven images idolatry. Now if we look at Babylon, Rome, Greece, what we know about these places, we know that they worshiped idols and paganism was their religion and the type of idols that they worshiped were all kinds of statues of men and women and also half man, half beast or half woman, half beast but they had all these creatures and images that they're worshiping. And in fact, you'll notice that the same gods that were worshiped in Babylon were also worshiped in Greece and Rome and the rest of them. That's why all of the Greek gods, you could point to the Roman God that's pretty much the same God. You could say, okay, over here you've got Poseidon, the Greek God of the sea and then over here you've got the Roman God Neptune and he's sort of the counterpart or you've got Jupiter over here and Zeus over here and you've got... And you could sit there and pair them up and see the equivalent of each of these gods where basically the Romans are just adopting the Greek gods and just giving them Roman names. And they, the Greeks took them from the Babylonians and they just changed the names. Idolatry, paganism, this is the religion of Babylon. This is what we're talking about here. So over and over again, it's brought up again and again. Now you say, okay, well, who is the modern day Babylon? Now, a lot of people will come up with various theories about this and dispute this in various ways and different people have their views. Some people would say, well, it's Islam, I've heard that because you know, Babylon's in Iraq and they're Muslim. But see, just because Babylon's physically located in Iraq, Islam is not Babylon, why? Because Islam does not have the attributes of Babylon. Islam is not like the Greek or Roman empire. Islam is not like the Babylonian empire. Islam does not worship graven images or molten images. They abhor idols actually. Now people will try to dispute with me on this and say that, oh, that's not true, they have their idols. But this is because people, they get their pet religion that they don't like and they got a hammer in their hand and everything starts looking like a nail and they just wanna pin everything on that religion. So you'll run into people who just, all the evil in this world is all Islam. So just everything points to Islam, everything goes back to that, everything returns to that. But here's the thing about that, okay? Yeah, okay, do they all bow down to a giant cube? Yes, they do. But is that giant cube a graven image or a molten image? No, it is not an image of man, it's not an image of beast, but people who are just obsessed with being against Islam, they're just gonna attribute every sin unto Islam. Now look, Islam has enough problems. Islam is wicked enough and perverted enough and enough of an abomination without us accusing them of something that isn't true. They do not believe in graven images or molten images. If I went to a Hindu home, I'm gonna see graven and molten images everywhere I look. If I go to a Roman Catholic home, I'm gonna see graven images, molten images. If I go to any pagan home, I'm gonna see that. But if I go to a Muslim home, I'm not gonna see idolatry throughout the house in the sense of graven and molten images. Sure, worshiping anything other than God's an idol, I get that, then you could just say every religion is guilty of that except Christianity, true Bible-believing Christianity. But the point is that that's a different religion. Islam is different. Okay, other people would say, ah, it's the Jews. And people who are against the Jews, which I'm against the Jews, amen, I mean, they don't believe in Christ. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be in Atherma, Maranatha. Amen. You know, they don't have the son, they don't have the father. But here's the thing about that. Some people, they go overboard because they just, they get against the Jews and then everything's the Jews. I mean, anything you tell somebody, oh, that's the Jews, Jews are behind that, Jews are behind that. And they think the Jews are behind everything. And right now, there's people listening to this sermon on the internet, they're like, but they really are behind everything. You have to understand that the devil, he works in various ways. The devil doesn't just have one way that he attacks the Lord and his work, he attacks through all the false religions. The devil is just as much behind Buddhism and Hinduism. You say, I mean, did the Jews invent Buddhism? No, they didn't. Oh, the Jews are behind all the evil in this world. Really, did the Jews invent Buddhism? In 500 BC in India? Is that, well, it was the Jews. No, it wasn't. Are the Jews behind Hinduism? I mean, what about in the days before the Jews even existed? Was there evil in this world? Yeah, there was evil in this world. And it had another source, okay? At the Tower of Babel, there was evil. The Jews had nothing to do with that. Jews hadn't even been close to on the scene at that point. So to sit there, oh, it all goes back to the Jews. Look, people get overboard on their one pet issue. We need to have equal opportunity, false religion bashing, and not just sit there and just pin it all, pin every tail on that one donkey. There are plenty of donkeys that Satan is using. And so don't pin every tail on that one donkey, all right? The Jews have their own false religion. They have their own role to play in the end times. The Muslims are gonna play a role in the end times, obviously, they make up a huge portion of this world. But neither of those groups are Babylon, why? Because the Muslims aren't ruling the world today. The Muslims are not in power. They don't rule the world. They have their neck of the woods and whatever. But you know what? They're never gonna rule this world. I believe that they're gonna be destroyed. I believe that there's probably gonna be a World War III eventually where the Muslims are gonna be wiped out. Because the West is just more powerful than the Muslims ever thought of being, period. The United States has way more power and all of our allies and everything like that. And I'm not saying that to be proud because I'm not proud of that at all. I'm just stating as a fact that the West could pretty much wipe out the Muslim world whenever they want because those people don't have the kind of power and armament and technology and intelligence that we have. There, I said it, we're more powerful than them. They're just kind of a boogeyman to keep us scared and kind of keep us in a perpetual state of warfare. Okay, that's what I believe. But we don't see them in power today. We don't see them ruling. The one that we see with a worldwide military empire, if we're talking about 2017 right now, the one that has a world empire is the United States of America. That's the one who has a world empire. We are the only, and in fact, we could go around and ask all kinds of experts of liberal or conservative persuasion, Christian or atheist, and they'll all tell you the same thing. There's only one superpower in the world. It's called the United States of America. It's called the New World Order. One nation has that power. It used to be the Soviet Union and the US. Now it's just the US that's the military superpower. We have our bases in 153 of the 200 nations of this world. We have them garrisoned off. We have our troops all over the world. We've got our nuclear submarines. We've got our aircraft carriers. We spend more on the military than the next several countries all combined. I mean, we have a massive military might. We have a worldwide empire. In fact, there's a global government that's already in place that's in an embryonic stage called the United Nations. The United Nations is a worldwide government, a worldwide empire, and where is it based? In the United States. Who funds it? The United States. It's in New York City. We have the power. We control it. And we do their bidding. They do our bidding. In fact, it's starting to mesh with just our government to the point where we don't even declare war anymore. The United Nations declares war and our country goes to war, okay? So we see that the United States has this great empire. And you say, well, what does the United States have to do with idolatry? What does the United States have to do with the graven images that you're pointing out in this passage? Well, what's interesting is that if you actually go to our nation's capital, it's a land of graven images. It's made. In fact, even the symbol of our nation is a graven image because the Statue of Liberty is a graven image by anybody's definition. It is a carved image of man or beast or whatever that God said not to do. Now you say, well, it's a woman, but here's the thing. It's a man that's dressed up as a woman. I'm not kidding. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. See, Lady Liberty is actually patterned after the Greek God Prometheus, which is the one, you know, and again, it's the same Babylonian, Greek, Roman gods, all the same. That God right there is the light bearer or Lucifer even, the one who brings the light, who is the one who supposedly among the gods brought down knowledge, right? How like, sort of like the knowledge of good and evil, perhaps like, hey, eat of that tree and you'll be like gods. He, Prometheus was the one who did that. And that is a replica of Prometheus. Okay, so you can see a connection here between ancient Babylon, ancient Rome and the United States, but you don't have to stop looking there at the giant Prometheus statue that is the symbol of our nation. If you go to our nation's capital, there's nothing Christian about it. You can say, all right, we're a Christian nation. Now America has been a Christian nation in the sense that the people have been Christian. The majority of people in America even today claim the name of Jesus Christ as their savior, but our leaders have never been Christian. Even from the founding of our nation, the leadership was worshiping pagan false gods and they were not Christian. You see, they were Freemasons, many of them. And Freemasonry is a continuation of this exact Babylonian Roman pagan type of idolatry. Let me just give you some examples from our nation's capital. What do we have as the Washington monument, this giant monument, but a giant obelisk. And that giant obelisk is an exact replica of an obelisk from ancient Egypt, 1600 BC. That obelisk was brought into our nation's founding. I mean, why does our money have a pyramid on it? It doesn't have a cross on it. It doesn't say thank the Lord Jesus Christ for everything that we have. It has a pyramid. It has all these pagan symbols. And you walk around our nation's capital, you don't see a bunch of Bible verses. You don't see Moses coming down from the mouth with 10 commandments. You don't see the 12 apostles and Christ. No, supposedly it's a Christian nation, but why is it that when you go to the capital, you know what you see? A bunch of false gods, obelisks, pagan monuments, Greek gods. For example, the Washington monument, that great obelisk, look at the word itself, obelisk. Notice it has the word bell in it, obelisk. Look down at your Bible in Jeremiah chapter 50, and it says, declare ye among the nations and publish and set up a standard, publish and conceal not, say Babylon is taken, bell is confounded. You see, bell was their false god. And that's also the same as bale or Beelzebub, it's the devil, but bell is taken. And in fact, many people believe that the word obelisk actually comes from the word bell, that it means bell's shaft, okay? That that's what it even refers to, obelisk. And we know that obelisks were big in Babylon, they were big in ancient Egypt, they were big in Greece and Rome. In fact, there are more obelisks today that have survived from the Roman empire than from even ancient Egypt. And today we see also all kinds of Roman Catholic places. Roman Catholic, putting up their obelisks. But you know what's even more bizarre, is that churches today, Baptist churches, independent fundamental Baptist churches, put an obelisk on top of their building. And what do they call it? A steeple, a steeple. Is that in the Bible? No, it's a pagan obelisk on top of your building. And you say, pastor, are you still meeting in a strip mall? Hey, at least I don't have bell's shaft up on the top of the roof. At least I don't have an obelisk up there. At least I'm not padded after ancient Egypt and the Washington monument. I don't need that thing up there. And people have said, hey, are you against the sea? I said, if I ever, this is back when I entertained the idea of possibly getting a church building someday. I've already decided we're renting until Jesus comes, amen? We're just gonna keep renting a bigger building. Eventually we'll just rent out an empty grocery store, an empty Walmart. But we're gonna keep renting giant buildings. We're not gonna build some palace or high steeple, few people, stained glass situation. Look, if I was a pastor and I had a church, the first thing I'd do is tear down that obelisk, tear down that pagan obelisk, tear down that high place, burn down that grove, break down that altar, quit being a pagan. That didn't come from the Bible. It came from Egypt and Babylon and Rome, that pagan obelisk. Now look, I'm not saying that the church that has it is wicked, but they just don't know any better. It shouldn't be there. Well, but everybody else is doing it. And it makes us look cool as a church if people think we're a real church. You know what? Hey, people know this is a real church. I don't care if we were meeting in a tent or under a tree, they'd know this was a real church. Nobody doubts that. But the Washington Monument, the giant obelisk in the middle of our nation's capital. What about the fact that right outside of the Library of Congress is a statue of the Greek God Poseidon? You know, no mention of Christ or Moses or Abraham, but all kinds of idolatry and Masonic symbols. What about the fact that if you look at a map of Washington DC, it's a Satan symbol, an upside down star, a pentagram. The first time I heard that, you know what I did? I went on Google Earth. Cause I don't just believe everything I hear. I went on Google Earth. I didn't even look at a map. I looked at Google Earth and just zoomed in with a satellite image on that. And I said, there it is. I mean, you'd have to be blind not to see it. I was thinking like, okay, how am I going to find it? And there was just, it's right there. You can't miss it. You, it's just, it's just crystal clear. And where do you see that upside down star on the Freemason temples? And it's a fact that many of the so-called founding fathers were Freemasons. That's why they're putting up obelisks. That's why they patterned the whole Washington DC in a Roman style. All the buildings are Roman styled architecture. All of the statements that are engraved in stone are in Latin, which is the language of the Roman empire. Our motto, a pluribus unum is in Latin. What does it mean? Out of many, one. Out of many nations, one nation. Out of many religions, one religion. Out of many different financial systems and monies, one currency. It's the new world order. That's what that slogan is, a pluribus unum. All the mottos are in Latin. All of the architecture is Roman. Everything is patterned after ancient pagan religion. So you don't have to look far to see the connection between the modern Babylon, which I believe is the United States of America, that as far as an empire is concerned, and the ancient Babylon, because there's that abundance of idolatry. In fact, the only Confederate that has a statue in Washington DC is Albert Pike, the founder of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the United States. Great big monument to Albert Pike, that molten image of that founder of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the United States. And none of the other Confederates are there. So, you know, you can see as you tour Washington DC, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, it's idolatry. Say, well, you need to get a little more patriotic. Well, it isn't right to make a graven image unto man. To stand at the feet of a gigantic Lincoln or a gigantic Jefferson. And not only that, when you walk into the Jefferson Memorial, you know what it says? This temple, those are the first words. This temple, and then it begins to tell you about the temple because it's patterned after an ancient pagan temple. So you may look at the United States and say, well, you know, we're not a land necessarily of idolatry, or we're not pagans. We're not worshiping all these false gods. But in reality, it's there in our government. It's there in our leadership. Maybe the people aren't, but the leadership is certainly worshiping pagan false gods, worshiping Satan. They go to the Bohemian Grove and everywhere else and worship the devil. And they're part of not only Freemasonry, but even stranger secret societies like Skull and Bones or other, you know, the Trilateral Commission. They're part of all kinds of secret occultic organizations. They literally worship the devil. I mean, you say, Obama's Muslim. They worship the devil, friend. He's not even, he's not a Muslim or a Christian. He worships Satan. They're Satanist pagans, all of them. And you know, they'll worship any god. You bring them a Hindu god, they'll bow down to it. You know, they'll pray to Christ if it'll get them elected. Right? They'll be Baptist or Catholic or Mormon or whatever you want them to be, Muslim, whatever. And so that's where you see the connection. Now let's go through some of the stuff in Jeremiah chapter 50 itself with that foundation. But we see here that the idols are gonna be confounded and broken in pieces. The Bible says in verse three, for out of the north, there cometh up a nation against her which shall make her land desolate and none shall dwell therein. They shall remove, they shall depart both man and beast. This is another tie-in with Revelation 18 where he talks about that after Babylon is destroyed, it will never be inhabited again. It shall never be inhabited. That's emphasized here and in Revelation 18. That's why nobody even lives there today in the old Babylon. Nobody lives there. Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild it. He was stopped from rebuilding it. It's God's desire that no one would live there that this prophecy might be fulfilled. Nobody lives there today. It's just an empty ruin that's partially built from Saddam Hussein if you look at pictures of it. Okay, but the end time Babylon will be vacant, perpetually, no one will ever dwell there. This is another reason why it can't be Jerusalem or the Jews because of the fact that Jerusalem is gonna be where Jesus Christ rules and reigns from. So it's not gonna be desolate and without inhabitants. But it says they shall remove, they shall depart both man and beast. In those days and in that time, verse four, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come. They and the children of Judah together going and weeping, they shall go and seek the Lord their God. So notice, when Babylon's destroyed, that's when the Jews are gonna seek the Lord their God. This is what I talked about earlier, how it's at the time of the 70 year captivity of the Jews being over, that's when Babylon gets destroyed. So at the same time Babylon's getting wiped out, the Jews get right with God and they go back to the promised land, Ezra, Nehemiah, you know the story. Verse number five, they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying, come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Don't miss this, this is really interesting. The first destruction of Babylon, right? At the time Babylon's destroyed, the same time God's people are coming back into the promised land, right? And inheriting their land once again. Okay, when the second Babylon is destroyed in Revelation 18, the end times Babylon, that's when we're gonna return with Christ and Christ's kingdom is gonna be established. We're gonna inherit the promised land at that time. We're gonna inherit the whole earth though. We get a bigger deal because we're Christians and we're, you know, so we actually inherit the entire earth. Whereas in the Old Testament, it was more that geography where God was working, the meek are gonna inherit the entire earth. Christ will rule in Jerusalem and the 12 apostles will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel and we will rule with him throughout the world. But isn't that interesting how first Babylon's destruction was a time when God's people inherited the land. The kingdom was given back to them. Same thing when Babylon's destroyed in the future. It's interesting. Verse number six, my people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. Shepherds is synonymous with the word pastors. Shepherds or pastors have caused them to go astray. They've turned them away on the mountains. They've gone from mountain to hill. They've forgotten their resting place. All that found them have devoured them. And their adversary said, we offend not because they've sinned against the Lord. You know, it's open season on them. The habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers. Remove out of the midst of Babylon and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans and be as the he goes before the flock. So he's saying, hey, children of Judah, come out of Babylon. You're gonna come back and you're gonna inherit the promised land. 70 years of captivity is over. Verse nine, for lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon, an assembly of great nations from the north country. We know that to be the Medes and the Persians. And they shall set themselves in array against her. From then she shall be taken. Their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man. None shall return in vain. Now, I believe that this, in reference to the original destruction of Babylon, is an exaggeration that every single arrow is gonna hit its target. That would be an exaggeration, I'm sure. I don't think there's ever been a battle, literally, where every arrow would hit its target. But if this is a reference to the end times Babylon or a foreshadowing of Revelation 18, in Revelation 18, it talks about Babylon, whatever is symbolized by that Babylon, being wiped out in one hour with a destroying wind and being burned with great fire. Well, if you think about this, today the equivalent of an arrow, because obviously the Bible's not gonna use words like missiles, but think about how a heat-seeking missile or a missile that's painted onto a certain target using GPS, can you see how today every single arrow could hit its target? If we're talking about missiles being fired upon Babylon, nuclear warheads, you can easily see how every single arrow is gonna hit the target. That's more realistic than to think that in an Old Testament battle that took place. Look at verse number 10. And Chaldea shall be a spoil. All that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord, because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because you're grown fat as the heifer at grass and bellow as bowls. Your mother, yo mama, no, I'm just kidding, your mother shall be sore confounded. She that bear you shall be ashamed. Behold, the hindermost of the nation shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert, because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited. Again, same as Revelation 18. But it shall be wholly desolate. Everyone that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hiss at her plagues. We see the same thing in Revelation. Put yourselves in a ray against Babylon round or out. All ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord. Shout against her roundabout. She hath given her hand. Her foundations are fallen. Her walls are thrown down. For it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance upon her as she hath done, do unto her. That's also quoted in Revelation 18. Reward her even as she rewarded you. And in the cup which she had filled to her, double. Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handled the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the oppressing sword, they shall turn everyone to his people and they shall flee everyone to his own land. Now we talk about Israel. That was about Babylon. Israel is a scattered sheep. The lions have driven them away. First, the king of Assyria hath devoured him. And last, this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon hath broken his bones. Notice how Babylon is seen as being the successor of Assyria. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I've punished the king of Assyria. And I will bring Israel again to his habitation. He's coming back to the promised land. And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead in those days. And in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I'll pardon them whom I reserve. So again, they're gonna come back. They're gonna be forgiven. They're gonna be blessed while Babylon's being completely desolate. Go up against the land of Merathim, even against it and against the inhabitants of Pecod. Waste and utterly destroy them, saith the Lord, and do according to all that I've commanded thee. A sound of battles in the land and of great destruction. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken? So it's saying Babylon used to be the hammer of the whole earth. Now they're being wiped out. How has Babylon become a desolation among the nations? I've laid a snare for thee and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou was not aware. Thou art found and also caught because thou has striven against the Lord. The Lord has opened his armory and brought forth the weapons of his indignation. For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans. Come against her from the utmost border. Open her storehouses, cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly. Let nothing of her be left. Slay all her bullocks, even kill the animals. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe unto them, for their day has come, the time of their visitation. Let's skip down for sake of time. Some of these are the same type of ideas being repeated. Jump down if you would to verse number 33. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together, and all them that took captives held them fast. They refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong. The Lord of hosts is his name. He shall thoroughly plead their cause that he may give rest to the land and disquiet the habitants of Babylon. So he's on Israel's side, but he's against Babylon because this is back when Israel were the good guys. They were the chosen of God and worshiping the Lord and so forth. A sword is upon the Chaldeans saith the Lord and upon the inhabitants of Babylon and upon her princes and upon her wise men. A sword is upon the liars and they shall dote. A sword is upon her mighty men and they shall be dismayed. And again and again, it goes on about destroying Babylon. We already talked about verse 38 with the idolatry. Verse 41 just reiterates a nation from the North, a company of nations. Verses 39 and 40 reiterated that it's gonna be completely desolate, completely uninhabited. Some of this repeats some of the same ideas. Jump down if you look at verse 43, the king of Babylon has heard the report of them and his hands waxed feeble. Anguish took hold of him and pangs as of a woman in travail. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan under the habitation of the strong, but I will make them suddenly run away from her. And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? For who is like me and who will appoint me the time? And who is that shepherd that will stand before me? Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord that he hath taken against Babylon and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out. Surely he will make their habitation desolate with them. At the noise of the taking of Babylon, the earth is moved and the cry is heard among the nations. And this idea continues on through the next chapter, which we'll go over next week. Another long chapter, 64 verses next week in Jeremiah 51. But we see here that Babylon is a great military power. They've been thought of as unbeatable, unstoppable, the greatest power in the earth, but God is able to destroy them. And he's prophesying this destruction long before it actually happens. Because remember Jeremiah the prophet is around during the beginning of the captivity. He's preaching at the beginning of the 70 years. So he's preaching about something that's gonna happen about 70 years later. So this preaching at the time might've been hard for people to believe, to think that how can Babylon be wiped out? No one can stop them. They're the most powerful military. They're the most powerful nation. But let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And the United States of America has that pride that Babylon had. They have that same wealth and riches that Babylon had. We live in luxury compared to the rest of the world, especially our leaders. And so just as it describes in Revelation 18, being decked and gold and precious stones and pearls and costly array and all the pride that says, oh, I am, I sit a queen Babylon says, I sit a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow. But her judgment is gonna come in one hour. The United States has the same attitude, puffed up, arrogant, great graven images onto man, onto pagan followers of Freemasonry and all of the people who we glorify and give glory for our nation when God should receive all glory. You say, what's wrong with making a statue of a great leader? Because it takes away Christ's glory. It's exalting man too highly. Look, it's great to have heroes. It's great to follow men of God or follow ladies that are great examples and role models. And we should follow them as they follow Christ. And we could be thankful and grateful to people who have done us well, but should we build them a molten image? Should we build them a graven image? That is over the top. And people today in the United States, their patriotism is over the top. It's not biblical. It's part of a campaign to brainwash everyone that the U.S. can do no wrong. Why? So that we'll just go along with whatever war, we'll go along with whatever program. And look, I'm not up here to be anti-America. I'm here to have no regard for the nations of this earth, but rather to regard the kingdom of God and to be a Christian and to glory only in Christ. Let him that glory with glory in the Lord. I'm only gonna worship the Lord. Now I'm not gonna build him a graven image because he told me not to. So I'm not gonna build a graven image or a molten image unto Christ or unto the apostles or unto Moses. But you know what? Those are people that are far greater than these secular leaders that are lifted up and idolized. And they do have molten images and graven images in their honor. We should have no molten images or graven images, but especially not of a bunch of pagans and a bunch of people that are not worthy of any kind of worship or adoration whatsoever. Let's just focus on the kingdom of God. Don't get too wrapped up in politics and in America and in getting all hyped up for the next war and the next conquest and all the, why don't you get in the Bible a little bit? Just turn off the TV for a while, turn off the radio, put away the world politics and things like the geopolitics and all that stuff. Get in the Bible. Why don't you go win some souls to Christ? I'd rather win somebody to Christ and save a soul from hell than to go shoot some enemy of America. You know what I'm saying? Instead of going and shooting a bunch of Muslims and putting a bunch of notches in my gun, why don't you just let some unsaved heathen do that? Why don't we focus on winning Muslims to Christ? Why don't we find the Muslims that are living here in Phoenix and the Hindus and the Roman Catholics and the Buddhists and everybody else? Why don't we just win them to the Lord? Has God called us to live by the sword in the New Testament? This sword is the sword we're supposed to be living by. We're supposed to be fighting the Lord's battle. The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So, quit getting sucked into the world's battles and getting all hyped up to go fight the battles that Trump has for us or that Obama had for us or that Bush had for us. Instead of getting all hyped up about those battles, why don't we get in a spiritual fight? Instead of going and enlisting down at the National Guard or the Marine Corps or the US Army or the Navy or the Air Force, instead of going down there and enlisting, why don't you enlist in the Lord's Army as a good soldier of Jesus Christ? You might not get a GI Bill or anything like that. You might not get the paycheck or anything, but you'll get the eternal paycheck. So, don't be carnal. Don't be focused on the things of this world. The things that are seen are temporal. The things that are not seen are eternal. We are living in the New Testament and the big battle is for souls. It's to evangelize the world, not to conquer the world. It's to plant a church, not a military base. And you know what? Throughout history, the British Empire and even the United States Empire has even sometimes said, don't evangelize because it's all about conquest for them. I mean, the British Empire, when they ruled India, they refused to let a Baptist missionary, William Carey, preach the gospel and they're arresting him and telling him he can't do it. He had to go in the part of India that was ruled by Denmark to be able to preach the gospel because the British were telling him, don't preach to the Hindus, don't give them the gospel because we don't wanna mess up our business, the East India Tea Company because the love of money is the root of all evil, that's why. And even today, US soldiers are told, hey, don't hand out New Testaments, don't go into these villages and preach the gospel, don't do soul winning, we don't wanna mess with their culture, we don't wanna destabilize the region with salvation. We just wanna bomb them into the Stone Age and we wanna grow the opium and guard the poppy fields and make money for the military industrial complex and keep the drugs coming in and keep the weapons shipping out and we're gonna do our empire thing. Don't you dare bring the Bible and the New Testament and try to evangelize in these countries. We're just here to kill them all and let God sort them out. That's the motto. That's the T-shirt, that's the bumper sticker. Kill them all and let God sort it out. How about we just go out and preach the gospel to all of them and then let God sort it out. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your kingdom, Lord, which is greater than our kingdom, greater than the kingdom of the United States or the empire of the United States, the United Nations and the New World Order, Lord. Thank you for giving us a real battle to fight where we don't have to kill anyone and we don't have to get violent, Lord. We can actually be peaceful and preach the gospel to every creature, Lord. There are plenty of unsaved people to fight these worldly battles, Lord. Help us to focus on fighting the spiritual battle. Get in the real fight, which is a spiritual fight. It's not of flesh and blood and help everyone here to realize that, Lord. And thank you so much for the coming day when Babylon and the wickedness of Babylon and that system will be destroyed and that we will rule and reign with you. What a day that will be. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.