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The last chapter of the book of Nahum, and really it's kind of chapter number seven in the story of Nineveh. You know, the Bible has seven chapters dedicated to the city of Nineveh, which is the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. And, you know, I've gone through the four chapters through the book of Jonah, and now we're up to the third chapter, the last chapter here, in the book of Nahum. So just that reminder that, you know, this prophecy is directed to that Gentile city, Nineveh, which of course, you know, received the mercy of God, and many were saved, and the Lord delayed His judgment upon that city through the preaching of Jonah, but now it's too late for Nineveh. Now it's finally time for its destruction to fall. Now let's have a look at verse number one. Name three, verse number one. Woe to the bloody city. And that's the title of the sermon tonight, brethren. Woe to the bloody city. Nineveh being that bloody city. And the Bible uses the word bloody often, you know, it's talking about being a murderous city, okay? There's a lot of murder taking place in this capital city, continued by saying it is all full of lies and robbery, the prey departeth not, so there's deception, there's robbery taking place. You say, well, you know, what does this have to do with us? Well, you know, we live in, again, here in Blessed Hope Baptist Church, we live in the biggest city in Australia. And, you know, there's murders taking place, there's lies and robbery taking place. I mean, just on the flight here, I was just going through some news, and, you know, I live in this, you guys know I live on the Sunshine Coast, which is a regional town, but then, like, even more regional to the Sunshine Coast is where I live, is Malaney, which is part of the Sunshine Coast, but it's a very quiet place. You know, it's not a lot of, it's not a lot of, it's not a large population. And even then I was reading about how this one man was murdered by his housemate in Malaney just the past few days. I'm thinking, man, you know, we do live in such a murderous place. You can get away from the big cities and, you know, get to the smaller towns and there's still wickedness taking place. And, you know, so as we go through this story, you know, yes, we're looking at history. You say, well, what does Nineveh have to do with me today? Well, don't forget we live in a very wicked city, a bloody city. And not only that, we see that God's judgment is falling upon the Syrian Empire, which is the great empire of the day. All right? Now, we know that God's wrath and God's judgment is coming to this world. You know, I don't know exactly when, I can't tell you. But I believe we can take a lot of parallels from the destruction of Nineveh and also look at the end time events because there is a great power in those end times, which is known as Babylon or Mystery Babylon. And, you know, right now, when it comes to the time of Nahum here, Nineveh is that great power. Babylon itself, as in a physical, literal Babylon, has not risen to the great power that it will become soon. But God will use the Medes and the Babylonians to destroy Nineveh and eventually that would become the Babylon Empire that would be that next great empire. And throughout history there's been great empire after great empire after great empire. So if you ask me, Pastor Kevin, what is this end times Babylon, this Mystery Babylon? To be honest with you, I don't know. I mean, that is one of the most common questions that I also get as a pastor. What do you believe Mystery Babylon is? I can't tell you, all right? I mean, if you look at what the great power of the earth is today, what is it? America. America. It's the United States. Today, but is it going to be America in 50 years time? Is it going to be America in 100 years time? When is the Lord coming back? When does God's wrath fall? We don't know. We don't know what great power will be. We don't know if there'll be, you know, some, you know, we know that the end times is going to be a great world war that takes place. And, you know, any time after a great world war, there are new boundaries, there are new powers, there are new confederates. We don't know exactly what the world will look like when we get to those end time events, okay? Anyway, we can take some parallel lessons as we look through this chapter and think about what's going to take place at the end times. We don't know if that's going to be in our lifetime or, who knows, 100 years from now, 500 years from now. We truly don't know, okay? But there are some lessons that we can take out of this. Let's keep going there. Verse number two. The noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of the wheels and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariot. So another whip would be the horse riders that are whipping their horses. The rattling of the wheels would be the chariots that are coming through for the Medes and Babylon that are going to destroy the city of Nineveh. Verse number three. The horsemen lifted up both the bright sword and the glittering spear. And there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcasses. And there is none end of their corpses. They stumble upon their corpses. Okay, so I mean, Nineveh, the military might of Nineveh just been completely wiped out by the horsemen, by the chariots, the sword, the spears, the corpses just fall upon each other. Nineveh's destroyed. This is the prophecy that's come upon Nahum. It's finished. It's all over for Nineveh. Okay? Verse number four. God gives us another reason, not only because it's a bloody city full of lies and adultery, God gives us another reason why it's time for Nineveh to be judged. Verse number four. Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the world favored harlot. Now the word harlot is the word prostitute. Okay? God is saying, Nineveh, you're like this world favored prostitute. You're like the world's favorite prostitute of all the nations. Okay? Look at this. The mistress of witchcrafts. So what else did we learn there? That out of Nineveh comes forth witchcraft, sorceries, all these kinds of things that selleth nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts. Okay? Now, this should start to ring bells about the end times with the book of Revelation, Mystery of Babylon. Now before we get into that, you know, when we look at the fact that this is a city known for its witchcraft, of course we're talking about occult practices. Okay? Now I'm going to quickly read to you from Leviticus chapter 20 verse 27. I'll just read one verse to you quickly. It says, A man also, or woman, that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them with stones, their blood shall be upon them. You know, there is a fantasy, there is an element of films and television shows that really highlight wizardry and magic and sorceries and witchcrafts. You know, it's very popular, you know, on our television screens, movie screens. You know, as God's people, you know, we need to be careful about what we allow us to be entertained with. Okay? You know, these things are coming from Hollywood, coming from I guess today's Babylon as it were. Okay? And it's no different to what was happening. You know, out of Nineveh, they were bringing forth, they were advertising, promoting the witchcrafts and the sorceries to other nations. Okay? You know, people were not seeking the God of Israel, but rather they'd be looking for these people that have, as the Bible terms, familiar spirits. Familiar spirits? What's a familiar spirit? Now, one thing that you need to understand about, you know, magic and occult practice... I'm not talking about magic tricks, where you go watch someone's shows and they do illusions and they call it magic. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people that are actually worshipping false gods, worshipping devils. The Bible says these people have a familiar spirit about them. What's that word, familiar? Familiar is kind of the word family. You know, it's something that is very close to them. You know, some of these people have, and you know, the term that gets thrown around that I've heard anyway in modern days is the spirit guide. Is that right? Spirit guides? People say, oh yeah, I've got a spirit guide. You know, these are people that are in touch with the spiritual realm. You know, these people are worshipping the devil and there are fallen beings, fallen angels that are giving these people some level of insights, some level of understanding of the spiritual realm and this is coming from the city of Nineveh. And it's been spread throughout other nations and God says that this city is like a world-favored harlot. Okay, so in a sense, spiritual harlotry, okay? They're sinning against the Lord. Once again, this is a city in the time of Jonah that had turned to God. They turned from their wickedness and God preserved the city. Now we go some hundred years later on and this city has been so corrupted, full of witchcraft and the hoardings that has been promoted throughout the whole world. Now I want you to keep your finger there in Nahum please and go to Revelation 17. Let's go to Revelation 17. Now let's start looking at the parallels with end times Babylon, okay? The parallels with this end times power. Revelation chapter 17 and verse number 1. Revelation 17 and verse number 1. Now again, I want to be careful with my words because COVID, the whole COVID situation really opened my eyes that I just wasn't expecting our believers to respond in a certain way. And you know, we might look at Nineveh and say, well, you know, yeah, we need to destroy Nineveh. Yeah, come on. Alright. But there was a time that God used Nineveh to judge the wicked nation, the northern kingdom of Israel. God used Nineveh to take them into captivity. But now it's time for Nineveh to be destroyed by the hands of the Medes and the Babylonians. And God will allow Babylon to rise in power for his purposes. And then Babylon gets taken down for their wickedness. And this cycle continues and continues and continues. And what I've said a fortnight ago is we've got to be careful and understand even though we see wickedness in our governments, wickedness in world powers, it might very well be that God is using them right now to pass judgment on wicked people. So that's just something you have to understand, alright? And the easiest way to detach yourself from that desire to rebel is to remind yourself that this is not your world. Our world is heavenly. We're ambassadors. We're sojourners. We're passing through. I care for people. I care for souls. But I don't care for powers. At the end of the day, what they are are to be used by God for his purposes. And God allows them and then they get carried away with their powers. And they become excessively wicked. And they overstep their authority. And they get into sinful practices like witchcraft. And then God's got to say, well now it's time for you to be taken down. This is a cycle. Just get used to it. This is a cycle. You're not going to fix this world, okay? I want you to remember this. The only one that's going to fix this world is Jesus. Amen. Thousand year rule with Christ, okay? It's going to be the best that it's ever been. Just remember that, brethren. Remember that, okay? Even if you start to consider, are we close to the end times? Is this mystery Babylon right here now? Is the Lord coming back in any moment now? I'm getting ready. Just calm down. Calm down. Because I want to take some lessons out of this chapter that we can apply to situations. Again, the whole COVID situation, there were certain believers that thought, we're in the end times, Pastor. This is surely just around the corner now. But we've got to be calm. We've got to be called, calm and collected. These cycles happen all the time throughout history. One power becomes a new power, the new normal. There's always a new normal. When a new power takes over, it's a new normal. Another power takes over, it's a new normal. It's a new world order. It's a new world order. It's a new world order. It doesn't mean that the next new world order is the antichrist kingdom, okay? We need to be patient. We know we've got these teachings in the Bible. So we can just be calm, be at peace, and know that God is in full control over what's taking place. Revelation 17, verse number 1. So we're looking at end times Babylon here. We're looking at parallels with Nineveh. Verse number 1, it says, And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, and I will show unto thee the judgment of the great hall that siteth upon many waters. So what do we see? Nineveh's been called that world favored hall, and now end times Babylon has been referred to as that great hall that sits upon many waters. Look at verse number 2. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. The next thing that I want you to look there in Revelation 17 is the fact that not only is she a whore, but she's called to the nations to become drunk. We're going to see this parallel as well in Nineveh. Drop down to verse number 5 there, Revelation 1, verse 5. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. Drop down to verse number 15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest with a hall siteth are peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues. So you can see at the end times there's going to be a great hall that sits upon many waters. Her influence is upon all peoples, many nations, many tongues. It's a world power in these last days. Drop down to verse number 18 now. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Listen, we can't stop this. This is prophesied in the Bible. But the next thing I want you to say, the next power, whatever the next power is, or what the current power system is today, may not necessarily be this Mystery Babylon. We see time and time again through history that there are changes in powers. And we see change and we see new normals and people start using the new word order as a catchphrase. Don't panic. Now it's all going to happen. The tribulation's around the corner. Because when you start to lose focus on God's word and what he's taught us, you're going to take actions that are kind of weird. It's like, do we have to hide ourselves in the middle of nowhere? I'm going to de-register myself. I'm going to make sure I'm not known on any social media platforms. I'm going to hide myself. I'm going to get divorced because I don't want any records that I'm married. I don't want people to know about my family. And I'm going to go and hide out. I'm going to build a bunker and we're going to store as much goods as we can because we're going to survive these end times. Listen, you think I'm exaggerating. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not exaggerating. Christians have done this over the years. They get so afraid. Oh, man, World War II! Oh, man, Y2K! Oh, man, Israel has become a nation in 1948. It's around the corner! People start panicking. I mean, it happens. And every time I just look at how foolish. We're still here. We're like, nothing's changed. I mean, things change in the world. But what I'm talking about, what they're kind of thinking is around the corner. And I'm careful about these things because I have seen end times prophecy has a way of making people look stupid. People that don't know God's word very well. Or they're running off emotions. And they're not grounded in God's truth. Anyway, I don't want to speak too much ahead of my notes, but I wanted to just show you the parallel there. Stay in Revelation 17. We are going to come back to Revelation. But go back to Nahum 3, please, in verse 5. Nahum 3, verse 5. So God is using this illustration of Nineveh as a harlot, as a prostitute. God says, look, your nakedness is going to be revealed. Your skirts are going to be lifted up, as it were. Now, there's a few things that we learned from this passage and that I want to take out of here. And I'm also going to read to you from Isaiah 47, verse 1, which kind of has something similar. This time in Isaiah 47, God is judging Babylon. But some very similar words are said about Babylon as he says about Nineveh. In Isaiah 47, verse 1, it says, Come down and sit in the dust. O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground. There is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. For thou shalt know what be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grindmule. Uncover thy locks, make bare the leg. Uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man. One thing we learn, once again, that when God judges Babylon, as it were, another whore, God is going to reveal her nakedness, the shame of that city, the shame of that nation. Now, of course, God is using these cities as an illustration, using a prostitute as an illustration of what these cities are. But we learn an interesting thought there about how the harlots dressed in the times of the Bible. Because first we notice that they're wearing skirts. As far as ladies go, one thing that you learn in the Bible, that there are differences with the attire of a man and there's a difference between with the attire of a woman. And any kind of cross-dressing, God sees as an abomination. But we're talking about harlots here. We're talking about someone who is of a lower class, as it were. Definitely looked at on a lower value compared to other human beings. And what we saw, at least when God was speaking about Babylon, about its nakedness, God said, Uncover the thigh, and then in verse number three, Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. And I want to touch upon this every now and again because I do believe as Christians we ought to have standards in our dress. And it's been winter, ladies, you've usually been covered up a bit more in winter. I live on the Sunshine Coast, it's a tourist destination, a lot of beaches, a lot of immodesty. One thing that we learned, even a harlot is wearing a skirt that is long enough to be lifted up to her face. And I want you to think about how long that would be. If a skirt roughly starts at the thigh, what about a harlot here? A harlot who's trying to show off. What about some lady who's trying to dress modestly and being careful about what she portrays? What about a harlot? God is saying, look, I'm going to uncover your nakedness. Your thighs are going to be bare. One thing we see there is that when it comes to thighs, God considers that nakedness. Ladies, if you've got a skirt, make sure it's covering your thighs. Make sure you're not wearing some miniskirt or something like that. God would look at that and that would be uncovering your nakedness. You know what, even today I have to say men don't uncover your thighs. Because men are like, what about me, what if I'm playing AFL? And I've got the really short shorts and the tight shorts. Look, your thighs are your nakedness. That's something that as Christians we should be covering. But the harlot's skirt, when it was flipped over, would cover her face. If that was down, that would be covering her thigh. Even the harlot was covering her thigh unless her skirt was being lifted up. And we're talking about the attire of a harlot here. What about how women would have dressed that were not of this persuasion? Obviously they were concerned about how much they showed. And I'm just saying that, again, we have some ladies in our church. Please be mindful about how you dress. Please don't take the standards of Sydney and Australia and this world and think, well, I'll just dress modestly to the standards of this world. No, you dress yourself, you cover your nakedness. You help your brothers not to look upon you in the wrong way. Please be mindful. Even the harlot wore a skirt that was long enough to cover her face if it was lifted up. And even the harlot then was not wearing some tight skirt that was showing her whole body. It could be lifted up. If you try to lift up some of these ladies' skirts these days that are so tight, you wouldn't be able to do that. You wouldn't be able to lift it up to cover their face. What I'm trying to say is even the harlot had loose skirts long enough to cover their thighs. So just something to be mindful about. Let's keep going there in verse number 6. Nahum 3, verse number 6. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile and will set thee as a gazing stock. And it shall come to pass that all that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say, Nineveh is laid waste. Who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? So God is saying, look, you're going to be exposed as a harlot. Everyone's going to look upon you. All manner of filth will be thrown upon you. You might be saying like a harlot that's been exposed. People are taking who knows dirt and rotting fruit and throwing that at her. God is saying from a figurative perspective, that's what people are going to think of Nineveh. She's the world favored harlot now because she's in power, but soon she's going to be destroyed and everyone's going to basically despise her. And that's actually the true feelings that these people have toward the city of Nineveh. It's just that Nineveh has risen in so much power at this time that people are world favored. If you've got power and wealth and authority, people tend to look past the wickedness and the filth and try to be your friend, but once you're exposed and you're destroyed, people are going to flee away from you and hate that city. And again, God says at the end of verse number seven, whence shall I seek comforters for thee? There'll be no one to comfort Nineveh. There'll be no one there to help Nineveh, even though in the past she was that world favored harlot. Verse number eight. Are thou better than Populus? No. Now what is Populus? No. Populus is like population. No is a city. Are you better than No? Now you say, what is No? No is a city. I'll quickly read to you from Jeremiah 46, 25. The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith, Behold, I will punish the multitude of No and Pharaoh and Egypt with their gods and their kings, even Pharaoh and all them that trust in him. So we learn that No was a city. In fact, it was one of the major cities of Egypt back in those days. So God is saying, are you better than the city, Egyptian city No? It keeps going there. That was situated among the rivers that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea and her wall was from the sea. Why is God bringing it out of this city? Well, when Assyria rose in power, they overtook and destroyed the city of No. And of course this was a sign of their victory. And now God is saying, do you think you're better than No? In other words, you're going to be destroyed like No. You think you're great in power because you've overcome that city? Well now it's your turn to be destroyed. You're not better than No. Look at verse number nine. Ethiopia and Egypt, so we know that No is the city of Egypt, Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, that's No's strength. They were allies to No. And it was infinite. Putz and Lebem were thy helpers. Putz or Putz is Libya and Lebem is North Africa. So No had a confederation, had allies that should have protected her when Assyria came. It says that it was infinite. There was enough strength to protect No. But No, God allowed Assyria to rise in power. God uses Assyria to judge this city. And now God says, it's your turn. No should not have been defeated by you. You had so much aid or so much helpers, but you still overcame No. God is saying about Nineveh now, you think you're undefeatable, but you're going to be destroyed just like No. Verse number ten. Yet was she carried away, and she went into captivity. That's the citizens or the populace of No. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets. So you see when Assyria came and destroyed No, they killed the little children of that city. Dashed them in pieces. And they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. So the men of great authority, there was a casting lot of lots. They were taken into slavery. Or other great men were bound in chains. They were taken into captivity. In order to control a people, in order to destroy a people, what we learn here when it comes to warfare is that you've got to either wipe out the men, kill all the men, or basically chain them and humiliate them. You've got to wipe out the men if you want to destroy a city, destroy a nation. And what do we see in the last ten years or so? Feminism. Rising in power. The destruction of men is really what it is. Trying to destroy what manhood is. Toxic masculinity. We've got to destroy this. It's the same playbook from the very beginning. You destroy the men, or you bound them, you chain them and humiliate them. And then what's going to happen? Then that place, that city, has lost its influence and it's ripe for the taking. It's ripe to be destroyed. This is what's happening today. It's to control a people. It's to control a nation. Look at verse 11. Thou also shall be drunken. We saw that with Mystery Babylon. The fact that she had this cup of wine that would drunken the nations. Thou also shall be drunken. Thou shall be hid. Thou also shall seek strength because of the enemy. If you can keep your finger there, go back to Revelation 17. Go back to Revelation 17, verse number 2. Revelation 17, verse number 2. The Bible says, With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. Again, with Mystery Babylon. And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. And again, what is drunkenness? Drunken, obviously, consumes alcohol, they lose sobriety, they kill brain cells. And drunkards do stupid things. Drunkards can't think straight. Drunkards get behind the wheel of the car thinking they can drive and they cause all kinds of damages. And kill innocent people just by the stupidity of drunkenness. Drunkness leads to adultery and fornication and all manner of sin. Drunkness would have you vomiting in some vile public toilet. Drunkness just destroys people's ability to reason and to use good logic. And it causes you to stumble and hurt yourself and make grave mistakes. When I look at this world and I look at the laws that get passed. And I look at how people are trying to create unlimited genders. You see that question on the media, on YouTube, whatever. What is a woman? And people can't explain what a woman is. What is a woman? They can't tell you. Well, anyone that identifies as a woman is a woman. That's not what a woman is. You say, wow, are they stupid? They're drunk. They're drunk. What is going on? Are people willing to... You know, women fall pregnant and are willing to abort their babies. You say, that's ridiculous. I mean, murder is wrong. Murdering a little baby and baby in a mother's womb. You say, why? Because the people are drunk. They can't think straight. And I feel we're in this process where there's a great power. Let's say the United States, if you want to call it that. There's a greater power behind the scenes pulling its strings. That promotes homosexuality. That promotes these wicked Hollywood movies. The pornography industry. Drunkenness. And all this nonsense. And the nations get drunk. They don't even know what a man or woman is. You say, why? It doesn't blow your mind. Sometimes the decisions that are made by our governments and our lawmakers. You say, why? They can't think straight. The only thing that's going to bring sobriety back to our land is God's word. The preaching of God's word. Alright? I've had to understand this. Because I'm like, I don't get it. Are people just so stupid? They're drunk with this wine of this power. But again, these are cycles. Cycles that we're just going through. Time and time and time again. Back to Nahum 3 verse 12. All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees. With the first ripe figs. If they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. So Nineveh's wickedness is basically ripe for judgement. Even the strongholds. Like a ripened fig. You shake the tree and the figs start to fall. You open your mouth. The Medes and the Babylonians, they're ready to just consume Nineveh. It's ripe for judgement. You say, man, when is our world power going to be judged? When it's ripe for judgement. When God says it's ripe, it's time for you to be destroyed, then God will step in. He will remove that power, bring in a new power, a new normal. And then it's all going to happen all over again. A cycle's going to happen all over again. And again and again, until we get to the end times. The end times Babylon is the last of these world powers that we see through history. Verse number 13. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women. The gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies. The fire shall devour thy bars. So the fact that it says that in the midst of the women, the people are women, it's because the men have been wiped out. They've gone to war. They've fallen as corpses. They've been taken to captivity, chained up. They've been sold into slavery. All that's left is the women. And this happens many times where a conquering army will take all the women for themselves. And then it also mentions the fact that the, you know, the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies. The fire shall devour thy bars. So again, we've already seen how Nineveh's going to be destroyed by fire. So again, that repetition of the fire destroying the walls and the gates of the city. Verse number 14. Draw thee waters for the siege. What we're reading now is basically, again, the sarcasm, the sarcastic, you know, coming from the prophet, because he's basically telling Nineveh, all right, get ready for the battle once again. Draw thee waters for the siege. So make sure you have enough water in your city so you can, you know, get ready for that siege. Fortify thy strongholds. Make yourself stronger. Get the military ready. Go into clay and tread the mortar. Make strong the bricklin. So fortify your walls, you know. But you say, well, what for? They're going to be destroyed, of course. It's that sarcasm again. They know God's going to destroy you. Get ready. You've been so wicked. You know, if this is how you want it to be, then you better get ready for the battle, but you're going to be wiped out anyway. Verse number 15. There shall the fire devour thee. The sword shall cut thee off. It shall eat thee up like the cankerworm. Make thyself many as the cankerworm. Make thyself many as the locusts. All right. What I want you to do basically is now go back to Revelation 17. Go back to Revelation chapter 17 and verse number 12, please. Because what we saw there, once again, is the fire. There shall the fire devour thee. Revelation chapter 17, verse number 12, please. Revelation chapter 17, verse number 12. Now, the next thing that I want to explain to this church, and I realize that a lot of Christians don't understand this. When a lot of Christians think of end times Babylon, they think of that as the kingdom of the antichrist. All right. Now, that is not actually true. All right. It's not actually true. And again, it's this idea that let's rise up against Babylon, thinking that, you know, you're somehow going to stop the antichrist. The antichrist is another power that rises up against Babylon. Okay. You see this in Revelation 17. All right. And that's why I like, you know, don't be so quick to remove the wicked powers that be right now because you don't know how much more wicked the next power is going to be. All right. So, and again, we should not have our hearts on this earth. Okay. Just understand this is a system that goes around and around and around and around. Okay. It happens over and over again. Revelation 17, verse 12. Now, what we saw early in Revelation 17, I went through several verses just to show you some descriptions of Babylon. Okay. This end-time power. But now I want to show you the power of the antichrist. In Revelation 17, verse 12, it says, And the ten horns, which thou sawest, are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet. Let's stop there. These ten kings have no kingdom yet. But Babylon exists. End-time Babylon exists. You see, these ten kings are not part of the same power structure as end-time Babylon. Okay. Look at this. But receive power as kings, when? One hour with the beast. The beast is the antichrist. So really, their authority and power comes with the antichrist. Okay. Verse number 13. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. Okay. So these ten kings, they get their kingdoms, they get their power, and they hand it over to the antichrist. All right. Drop down to verse number 16. And the ten horns, which thou sawest upon the beast. So the ten horns are the ten kings, and the beast is the antichrist. And the ten horns, which thou sawest upon the beast. Look at this. These shall hate the whore. They hate Babylon. Okay. They hate Mystery Babylon. And shall make her desolate and naked. Well, that sounds familiar. All right. Remember the whore of Nineveh being, its nakedness being shown? They shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Right. Nineveh was destroyed by fire as well. Okay. By the Medes and the Babylonians. Okay. End times Babylon is also going to be destroyed by fire. But who's the one that's going to destroy her with fire? The ten kings and the antichrist. Okay. So basically, end times Babylon is a whore. The antichrist will use her like a whore, but then he's going to rise in power and destroy the former powers, and then there will be another new world order. Okay. Under the power and the influence of the antichrist. Okay. And again, you know, this, you know, so let's rebel, let's fight, let's get ready to fight the antichrist. It's going to happen. He's going to get this power, and he's going to destroy the current power in those end time events. Okay. So don't, listen, if it's us that go through these end times. Okay. Not every Christian believes, you know, that Christians are going to go for the end times. But listen, if it's us, listen, that's a good time for you not to be political. Okay. Because you might like one power, okay, over the other power, but they're all wicked. Mystery Babylon is wicked. Okay. Then the power that destroys that wicked power, you might like, oh yeah, well that's the antichrist power. The antichrist are the ones, so man, it's getting worse. Yes. Listen, it's going to get worse before Christ returns. Okay. It's going to get worse and worse and worse. Yes. Please, don't think you can fix this world. Yes. Okay. Or at least politically you're not going to fix it. Yes. Okay. It's not. You know, our mindset ought to be on eternity, souls, the kingdom of God, putting God first. Okay, then trying to fix this earth. You know, you're going to drive yourself crazy trying to fix this earth. You're going to be frustrated when you see, you know, some improvement some years, and then things getting worse. It's like, yeah, we can have one step forward, but then it's like two steps back. It's like there are times that we can celebrate. We see good things. You know, we saw abortion was Roe versus Wade overturned in the United States. That's like one step forward, but then it's like the world's still going down the toilet. It's like two steps back, you know. And so we just, you know, just understand cycles. Okay. There are cycles that take place until the end times. Back to Nahum 3 verse 16. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. The canker worms spoileth and fleeth away. So thy merchants, the merchants of Nineveh promoted above the stars of heaven. Like, so it's obviously a city of commerce and shopping. And I'm starting to see this again in this generation, this world power. You know, not only do we have great big shops, like huge shopping centers, not only are people so, you know, advertising bombarded with purchasing things and the desire to have covetousness, all these kinds of things, but now it's like online shopping. Just like a few clicks you can just have something and it's delivered to your door. It's like, you know, commerce just multiplies and the merchants get richer and richer and richer. Okay. And so this is what's happening in this nation. Okay. They're elevating their merchants. It's all about money. It's all about wealth. It's all about, you know, selling your merchandise. And again, what does this just remind me of? The parallel back in Revelation. Go to Revelation chapter 18, please. Revelation chapter 18 and verse number 23. Revelation chapter 18 and verse number 23. And again, we're still on the topic of end times Babylon here in Revelation 18 and 23. It says, And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee, for thy merchants were the great men of the earth. There it is. For by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. Now, when I think about this, the deception of the sorcery where all nations were deceived, again, follows this thought that the merchants were the great men of the earth. Okay. Again, what is this sort of saying? You know, the pushed advertisements. You know, there's a lot of research that has gone into how to market products, how to sell things to you. In many sense, it's almost like sorcery trying to convince people to buy, buy, buy and have more, more, more, and possessions, riches, riches and possessions, riches and possessions. And that's what people are driven and desire. It's almost like they're overwhelmed by the sorcery coming from these merchants. Again, when it comes to end times Babylon, we see it all happening again. You know, have you ever kind of just, you bought things and then you wonder, why did I buy that? I didn't really need it. You've been tricked by the merchants of this earth. Okay. By the market, the advertising. Don't think you're too strong for it. I'll never be tricked. No, you will. I guarantee you've purchased things that you just go, I don't know why. It would have been just better if I saved that money and used it to something more profitable than purchasing this nonsense. Okay. Back to our name, chapter three, verse number 17. Name, chapter three, verse 17. Thy crown are as the locust. So you can see canker worm and locust been brought up many times here. Again, the fact that, you know, the locust and these worms, they eat up, you know, the prosperity of the city. Okay. Thy crown, so the crown here are your, the royalty, the royal families. The crown are the locusts, are as locusts. And thy captains, so your captains are your military leaders. Nineveh's military leaders. And thy captains are as great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun arises, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. Now, you think when Nineveh's been overtaken, you'd think it'd be the kings and the military leaders that are standing strongest against them. No, no, the prophecy is they've run away. Like locusts and grasshoppers. Like, you know, they camped out, but then it's like, where have they gone? The sun has risen, but where are they? They've disappeared, you know. And again, what do we see in the leadership of the city? They only care for themselves. They don't care for the people that God has put under them, which is why you get to verse number 18. It says thy shepherds slumber. Your shepherds have fallen asleep. And again, when you think of shepherds, you think of sheep, but no. What we're looking at verse number 18 are shepherds of people. So again, authority leaders, okay. And don't forget the word shepherd is the word pastor that we use today, alright. Myself as a pastor, I'm a shepherd, alright. There's a danger of a slumbering shepherd. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria. Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust. Thy people is scattered, see it's not sheep here. Thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. We learn about the responsibility of a shepherd. It's together. It's together. You know, what is a church? A church is an assembly, a gathering of God's people. You know, not only is my responsibility to feed you God's word, but my responsibility is also to gather, to have a place that we know that like-minded believers can come together for fellowship and worship. But when a pastor slumbers, what does he do? He causes the people to be scattered, to flee, to be afraid, okay. Obviously that's a sleeping pastor, a sleeping shepherd. And none of those problems are that their leaders had gone to sleep. Their leaders only cared about themselves, which is why they fled, alright. They did not care for the people put under them. And, you know, I really, I've had a lot of experience in leadership. I've had a lot of experience as a supervisor, assistant manager, manager positions, you know, business management. I've had a lot of people under me. And I found that the most success, the greatest blessing in being a leader is when you care for those under you, okay. I mean, it really helped me to be a pastor, to understand that you've got to be sacrificial. You can't be selfish, okay, because people need leaders. There is a need for leaders, alright. And, you know, there have been times that people have said to me, you know, I'd like to be a pastor one day and, you know, I'm glad I'm not going to discourage if your heart is to be a pastor. But at the same time, there have been people that kind of said that and then they realized how much they have to give of themselves. Well, you know, it's not just about me and meeting the qualifications, but it's the responsibility of having people under me, you know, and then understanding that your role is to gather, to keep people together, alright, not to scatter. A slumbering shepherd, a bad shepherd, a bad pastor who is selfish will cause his people to scatter, okay. So, you know, hold me to account, right. If I'm performing badly as a pastor, you know, my goal is for you guys to be together, to have a church, okay, a place of fellowship and worship, to enjoy, you know, each other's company, a place that we can come and worship our Lord God. Verse number 19, there is no healing for thy bruise. Thy wound is grievous. So, Nineveh, you know what, yep, you've got a bruise, you're not going to be healed. This is it. It's all over for you, okay. All that hear the brutes of thee shall clap the hands over thee. So, the brutes, I had to look this up, I had no idea what it was. You guys know what it is? Cry? Sort of. Something like a cry. It's basically a rumor, news, that gets, you know, said. You know, that's, yeah, you're right, it's kind of like a cry, but it has to be with a cry that is communicating something, okay. So, basically, all that hear the brutes of thee, it's going to be that hear the news and the rumors of your destruction that you've been taken over. Look, shall clap the hands over thee. They'll be like, woo-hoo, Nineveh's destroyed. For upon whom have not thy wickedness passed continually? Because you've been so wicked. You know, everyone's just, woo-hoo, yes, Nineveh's been destroyed. Yes, don't bother me. One day he's going to be destroyed. But let's go back to Revelation 19. Go to Revelation 19, please. Speaking about Babylon. We know that the Antichrist is going to destroy Babylon. He's going to light it on fire, okay. He hates the hall. And then, when Babylon is destroyed, when it is burnt down, we go to Revelation 19, verse number 1. I want you to look at this. Revelation 19, verse number 1. Once Babylon is destroyed, and after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. All right, I mean, look, the celebrations, right? Verse number 2. For true and righteous are his judgments. Look at this. For he have judged the great hall. So hold on, you say, well, that was the Antichrist. It was the Antichrist that destroyed the great hall. Yeah, but God used the Antichrist. Amen. God used that wicked power to destroy the previous wicked power. Do you see how useless it is to try to fight against the powers that be? Even if the Antichrist gets in power, oh, we've got to stand up against him, God's actually going to use him to wipe out Mystery Babylon. And then when Christ comes back at the end of the seven years, he's going to wipe out the Antichrist and his power base. All right. Verse number 2 again. For true and righteous are his judgments. And he have judged the great hall, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and have avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again, they said, Alleluia, and her smoke rose up forever and ever. The celebration in heaven when that wicked power gets destroyed. It's amazing, hey? But it's the Antichrist that did it. And this is what I'm trying to... I really want, you know, at least... Blessed are the church and new life. I really want us to understand and not get carried away, okay, with powers and being worried and concerned. Look, God is using them, okay, to judge the wickedness of the former power. And then God will judge them, okay? Be patient. You don't have to fight against these powers. Let God use them the way he's going to use them. And when you see a wicked power be destroyed, that's cause for celebration. That God's judgment has fallen upon that power, okay? But you leave it, leave it in God's hands. God knows what he's doing, okay? God knows what he's doing. All right, let's conclude. Please go back to the book of Jonah. Just two books back from Nahum. We started with Jonah with this sort of series of Nineveh. Let's go back to Jonah 3, verse number 2. Jonah 3, verse number 2. Once Jonah got back on track with God, after he was swallowed by the whale, he did end up going to Nineveh to preach. And it says in Jonah 3, verse number 2, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city of days' journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Forty days? Jonah's going, preaching, In forty days, the city's going to be destroyed by God, because it's such a great, wicked city. All right, now was it destroyed in forty days? No. It wasn't. We're going about a hundred years into the future, and then it gets destroyed. All right, in the time of Nahum, okay? Now, what do we learn here? What do we learn here? I feel like, as we read in Nineveh, when I look at 2022, I look at Australia, I look at Sydney, I look at other nations, okay? I feel like, name chapter 3, verse 19, There is no healing for thy bruise, for thy wound is grievous. I just feel like, you know what? It's all going to be destroyed, sometimes. And then people are like, We must be so close, Christ could be coming back really anytime soon now. I mean, the world has become so bad. What do we learn? We learn that we could get it to a point where we think, in forty days, this place is going to be destroyed. In forty days. I mean, it's literally just around the corner, and God's done with them. But what we learn in this story with Jonah and Nahum is that we should not give up. We should not think, All right, it's coming, that's it. It's all over. Because that's when you lose sobriety. That's when you lose control. And I see Christians make silly mistakes and think they've got to hide. And they've got to, You know, I'm not going to have any kids because what if my kids grew up in the tribulation period and I don't want them to go through that? And they start making these crazy decisions that do not come from God's Word. It's just their fears and their emotions. They're overwhelmed. They don't know what to do. What do we do? We need to be like Jonah. All right, maybe in forty days, God. God's given that message. It's going to destroy Nineveh. It's so wicked. So we go out and we preach God's Word. Brethren, all we can do is try to make people right with God. Preach the gospel. See people saved. And you don't know if Sidney is on the verge of destruction and by the work and ministry of our church whether we change direction for a good 80, 90, 100 years. You don't know. Okay? One thing we do know is that God's destruction, God's wrath is going to come at some point. Okay? But let's not be like Jonah that once he preached, remember, he set up a little tent and watched, all right God, destroy this place. All right? Let's not give up. Let's not give up on Sidney. Let's not give up on Fairfield where this church is based. We just keep serving God. We continue doing the work. We come to church. We keep preaching. We live godly. We try to be a blessing to our brethren. Yes, even brethren may not be part of this church. If they're our saved brothers and sisters, let's be an encouragement to them. Let's motivate them. Let's tell them that we love them. All right? We've got a big work to do. I don't be fighting amongst Christians when there's a wicked world that's, you know, I've got to battle against this flesh. I've got to battle against this world. I've got to battle against the devil. I don't want to be battling against Christians. We need to be supporting each other, you know, blessing each other. God can use us is what I'm trying to say. All right? Even if you think, man, Sidney, 40 days, that's all we've got left. So let's just set up tent and watch. You get busy for the Lord. You get busy preaching the gospel. Don't give up. Okay? Nothing changes. And let's say we are that generation that goes into the end times. Let's say we are that generation. Brethren, we don't know really, okay, until the Antichrist rises in power, claims to be God, to be worshiped. Okay? Listen, at the end of the day, you know, someone has said to me once, well, so what's the special instruction? You know, this was came from a pastor actually. You know, what kind of special instructions do we have if we do go through the tribulation? What if we are these end time saints? And what are the instructions? You know, surely, you know, it can't be asked because God did not leave us any instructions. And the answer is the instruction is the same. You go to church. You read your Bible. You win souls. There's no change. In fact, can you turn one more passage with me? Go to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 25. We'll end on this one. Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 25. Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 25. The Bible says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the matter of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Yeah, if you believe we're getting closer to the end times, what do you do? Just be in church more. It's not like you need to go and hide and delete all your social media accounts and make sure you have enough food and, you know, what do they call them? Preppers? Go buy your military hardware and set up mines around your house. No, you just go to church more. You just serve God more. You just read more Bible. You just do more soul winning. You just do more of what you're currently doing in your Christian life. That's it, brethren. Don't get overwhelmed in politics and earthly ambitions or the desire to see destruction. Listen, if God's not destroyed Sydney yet, if he's not destroyed this earth yet, there are still souls to be saved. There is still work to be done for the Lord till he comes back. Alright, brethren, let's go to a word of prayer.