Now I want you to turn back to
Daniel chapter 2. I've spent two messages talking
about Nebuchadnezzar's dream and how God in his sovereign
mercy and providence gifted Daniel to be able to know and interpret
that dream that Nebuchadnezzar had while Daniel and the children
of Israel were in captivity and to this heathen, idolatrous king,
and this evil empire. And what I want us to do, I want
us to go back and look at some of these issues in Daniel, but
I've also, I have two, really I have two passages of scripture
that I want to deal with. Here in Daniel chapter two, but
also over in Revelation chapter 18. I'm actually gonna deal with
some scripture in Revelation 17, and revelation eighteen so
if you want to kind of mark your bible there will be going over
there pretty soon and and maybe going back and forth just a little
bit on these issues but daniels prophecy especially there's three
especially three prophecies in the book of daniel that form
the backbone of biblical prophecy and i believe in understanding
or quite a bit of an understanding of of a lot of the book of revelation
And I believe that it's very, very important that we understand
a couple of things. Number one, is that all Scripture,
including Daniel, including Revelation, Genesis 2 Revelation, that this
Scripture, this God-breathed, verbally inspired Word of God,
is a revelation of Jesus Christ. and Him crucified and buried
and risen again." This is what this book... He is what this
book is about. It's not just history, as one
man said, it's His story. The story of Christ. Christ said
it in John chapter 5 and verse 39. He said to the Pharisees,
you do search the Scriptures. Mainly they had the Law and the
Prophets and the Psalms. And he says, for in them you
think you have eternal life. They are they which testify of
me. If you don't see Christ in the
scripture, you've missed it. That's the bottom line. You've
missed it. And that's not just talking about
Daniel or the book of Revelation, it's talking about all of it.
So that's number one. This is the book of the gospel. the good news of how God saves
sinners by His sovereign grace through and by and in the Lord
Jesus Christ, based upon His finished work, not by the efforts
or the will or works of man, but by the will and works of
God in His Son, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, God and
man in one person. And He's identified in His person,
the glory of His person, that He is God, the second person
of the Trinity, truly divine in every way and every attribute
of his character, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit in
every attribute of deity. He's not a lesser God. He's not
some kind of a sub-God. He is God. He's the great I Am. It's who He is. It's how He identified Himself.
And He is man. in every way, every bit man,
every bit human. Just as human as I am and you
are, except one vast, vital, necessary difference. He had
no sin. He was not born in sin. When
we read in the book of Daniel about the stone here in verse
34, Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands. That's
talking about Christ. That's Christ. He is the rock
of our salvation. That stone is symbolic. This
is not a literal stone cut out of a literal mountain here. This
is symbolic, you see. How do you know what these symbols
mean? You stay within the scripture. You see, I didn't read a headline
in the newspaper to find out what this stone was. I didn't
see this on the evening news. You don't interpret scripture
by reading the headlines and watching the evening news. And
you certainly don't listen to the opinions of men. You listen
to what God says. The first time that the Lord
Jesus Christ, as the promised Messiah, is referred to under
the symbol of a stone is in Genesis chapter 49, when Jacob is blessing
his sons and he comes to Joseph. And he talks about Joseph. Joseph,
who's very similar to Daniel, he was sold into slavery under
a heathen king, and God in his providence and power brought
Joseph to prominence in the court of the heathen king. And Joseph
was a type of Christ. He was a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is our Joseph, you might
say. Joseph was put there, he's told
his brothers, even though they meant it for evil, he said, I
was put here by God to save much people alive. He said that in
Genesis chapter 50. Well, Christ was put here amongst
men as a man without sin to save much people alive, his people. He shall save his people from
their sins. And when Jacob was blessing Joseph,
he talked about Joseph being the stone, the rock of Israel. He's a type of Christ. Christ
is the stone of spiritual Israel. He's the rock of the church.
He said, upon this rock I will build my church. And he wasn't
talking about Peter, he was talking about himself. So he's God's
man. And that's who this stone is,
cut without hands. He wasn't made by human effort
with human hands. He didn't come by man. He was
born of the Spirit, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary
by the Spirit of God without the aid of man. He's the seed
of woman. So that's symbolic here. That's
Christ. And it speaks of the kingdom
of Christ, which is the only kingdom that stands forever and
ever. Every other kingdom will fall.
Now, we're talking about Babylon. And I've entitled this message,
Babylon the Great is Fallen. That's really what Nebuchadnezzar's
dream is all about. The fact that all the kingdoms
of men under the headship of Babylon and I'll show you what
that means in just a moment, that they're gonna fall. But
when you read passages like this, understand this, that Babylon
is not only a real place in history, it was. It was a real physical
empire with a real physical king named Nebuchadnezzar, and then
there was another king, and history. It was an evil, idolatrous empire
But it's also a symbol in the Bible. Babylon is symbolic. And that's what I want us to
see tonight. Babylon is a symbol. What does Babylon symbolize? Well, it symbolizes the confusion
and the despair, the futility and the emptiness of man's life
and religion without God, without Christ. without truth, without
grace. You know where the name Babylon
come from. It has its roots in the name Babel, the Tower of
Babel. The Tower of Babel, that word
that literally means gate to God, but has come to be known
as confusion. That's what we say Babel means.
Somebody's babbling all the time, they're just babbling on and
on, they're not making sense. But really what Babel represents
is sinful man, rebellious man's first collective effort of rebellion
against God. To build a place that would get
them to God, get them to heaven, make them righteous. That's what
it was all about. And that's where God brought
confusion of languages. That's man's confusion in religion. That's what Babel's all about.
That's what Babylon is all about. It's a symbol of the efforts
of man to save himself. All these empires that he mentions
here in verse 31, when he talks about the great image. These
four empires. These empires represent man's
proud, self-righteous, self-willed efforts to save himself, to make
himself better, to work his way to heaven, to utopia, to paradise,
to some kind of perfection. Every, listen, every tyrant,
every dictator who's ever set out to conquer the world, they
always had a religious reason, a religious motive, and they
always thought that they had the best way, the better way,
to make man better. That's what it was all about.
They didn't care about God, didn't think about, or the true and
living God, let's say. They didn't care about the true
God, the living God. They had their idols. They worshiped
those idols that were likened to themselves. But that's what
Babylon symbolizes. Man's efforts to make himself
righteous and acceptable, to get to God, to get to heaven
on his own. Nebuchadnezzar's dream shows
a great statue under which Babylon identifies the whole. Look at
it in verse 31. He says, Thou, O King, sawest... This is what
Daniel's revealing. Remember, the king put his own
little advisors to the test and they failed. And then his decree
went out that he would kill them all. Well, Daniel went to the
Lord and begged mercy from the Lord. And it says in verse 31,
Thou, O King, sawest, and behold a great image, this great image,
whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee. He says, 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. And then
was the iron, the clay, the brass, and the silver, and the gold
broken to pieces together, Now here you have the kingdoms of
the world, these empires symbolized under the headship of Babylon,
which identifies the whole. Under that headship of this heathen,
idolatrous empire, standing in opposition to the true and living
God and His Christ, standing in opposition to His gospel,
God's way of salvation, which is by His grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ, Again, not by the will and the efforts and the
works of man, but by the will and the work of God. Standing
in opposition to his church, that kingdom that stands forever,
he says they're broken to pieces together. Notice it says together.
And what that's talking about is not a unity of time. These
empires didn't fall at the same time, but they all fall together.
That means a unity of purpose, a unity of foundation, and anything
that binds them together is going to be destroyed and they're going
to fall apart. That's what it's saying. And he says in verse
35, they become like the chaff of the summer threshing floors,
and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them.
There's no place in God's glorious universe for man's empires. No place to be found. No place
was found for them, and the stone that smote the image became a
great mountain and filled the whole earth. That stone started
out small. Remember how Isaiah 53 describes
Christ like a tender plant? Think about his humble beginnings.
He started out as a babe in a manger. And the world was against him
then, King Herod against him. Tried to have him killed by killing
all the firstborn of Israel. You remember how he grew up as
a tender plant, despised and rejected of men? And then he
started out with just a few. He went around and he got his
disciples. And out of that, it began to
explode all over the world after his death, after his resurrection,
and became out to the Gentiles. So, this stone that smote the
image became a great mountain. That's a picture, that's a symbol. of Christ, the author and finisher
of our faith, Christ, the builder of the church. He has a people
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation all over this
world. And all through these centuries,
in these last days, He's been bringing His people to Himself
through the preaching of the gospel. That's what we read over
here in Revelation chapter 14 in the opening of our service
tonight. that he went in the midst of
heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that
gospel that reveals the person and finished work of christ that
gospel that reveals how god can be just and justify sinners. That gospel that is the revelation,
as Paul wrote in Revelation, in Romans chapter 1 and verse
17, the revelation of the righteousness of God, the entire merit of the
obedience and death unto Christ, who was made sin as the sins
of his people were charged, accounted to him, so that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. That everlasting gospel. which
reveals the only way a sinner can stand before a holy God and
be forgiven, washed in the blood of Christ, be accepted and justified,
standing clothed in the righteousness of Christ imputed. It's the only
way. That's the everlasting gospel.
And this angel's going to preach unto them that dwell on the earth
to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. And you notice what came right
after that in Revelation 14. What does it say there? Babylon
is fallen. Is fallen. You see that? Babylon. Everything that stands in opposition
to Christ and His truth and His church is fallen. Every government,
every philosophy, and every religion. That's what that means, verse
8 of Revelation 14. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. And I'll show you more about
that in just a moment. But look back at Daniel 2 again. Daniel chapter 2. Now, all of
this, you know, this is an amazing act of God's providence. Look
at verse 36 of Daniel 2 again. Daniel says, this is the dream
and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. And
here's what he says in verse 37. Thou, O king, art a king
of kings. And that is that at this time
Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful king on earth. That's what he
means by that. For the God of heaven hath given
thee a kingdom. God gave you this kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar. All the power and strength and
glory was given you by God. Now, what did Nebuchadnezzar
do? Well, he turned it into idolatry. He didn't seek the Lord, the
true and living God. He didn't pay homage to God. He didn't fear God. He turned
it into idolatry. This was God's divine decree.
It's not by Nebuchadnezzar's power and wisdom. You see, Nebuchadnezzar
is not God-man, only Christ is God-man. It's all of the true
and living God. And then he says in verse 38,
and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beast of the
field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand,
and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head
of gold. Now he says this statue, this
image that Nebuchadnezzar saw was the image of a man with a
head, the head made of gold, And then the shoulders and the
arms divided were made of silver. It says in verse 39, and after
thee shall arise another kingdom in fear. See, these parts represent
kingdoms, Nebuchadnezzar of the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. These
represent the dreams of world rulers, of empires under one
head, self-governing now, self-willed, independent from God, It's like
humanism. You know what humanism is? That's
where the universe centers around humans and not about God. You know, it's like modern religion.
Even that which comes in the name of Christianity, it's not
about God and worshiping God. It's all about you. It's all
about me. You know what? People go looking for a church.
They're looking for some place they fit in. Well, I've got news
for you. It's not about you fitting in
anywhere. I'll tell you who fits in here.
Sinners who need mercy. Sinners who need the grace of
God. That's who fits in. And the problem is most people
don't think they need that, you know, maybe a little bit of it.
Certainly not as much as that old so-and-so over there. But
you see, that's what it's all about. Where can I be fulfilled?
It's not about fulfilling you. This is about worshiping God.
This is about lifting up Christ. It's not about your goodness,
your talents, or your righteousness. It's about Christ and His righteousness
alone and what He gives freely out of His goodness to His people.
You see, this statue here, this image here, represents really
the thoughts and the philosophies of the whole world in Adam, fallen.
Man wants to bring everything under his own control and make
everything about himself. And he'll do it for a little
while, and he'll be happy for a little while. But here's what
Daniel's telling Nebuchadnezzar in his dream. He said, O king,
it's not going to last. Now you know Daniel's message
was different from the message of Nebuchadnezzar's false preaching
advisors. Remember what they said? The
first thing they said is, O king, live forever. Empty words of
man. Daniel didn't say, oh, king,
live forever. He said, it's not going to last.
It's not going to live forever. It's coming down. God's working
all things towards the establishment of his kingdom, his kingdom,
his stone kingdom, his kingdom of Christ. So he says, you are
the head of gold. Look at it. And then he says
in verse 39, and after these shall rise another kingdom inferior
to thee. That's the silver that represents
the Medes and the Persian. It was inferior because it wasn't
as strong as the Babylonians and not as valuable because it
was divided, the Medes and the Persian. It was a divided kingdom.
And then he says, and then another third kingdom of brass, that's
the Greek and the Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great. We know this from scripture now.
Now again, even though certain details weren't revealed specifically
to Daniel at that time, other than that Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon
was the head of gold, Daniel didn't find out later that the
silver, the second kingdom, was the Medes and the Persians, and
that the other was the Greek and the Macedonian. But these
things are revealed here in this book. That's the key. So we found out some things that
Daniel didn't know in his lifetime, because God revealed them in
his word, not in the headlines, not on the newscast, not through
some prophecy seminar. But he did it in his word, you
see. And so that was a kingdom under Alexander the Great. Again,
it was inferior because it was divided east and west. And then
look at verse 40, he says, "...and the fourth kingdom shall be strong
as iron." That's Rome. That was the empire when our
Lord came into this world during His incarnation. It's represented
by iron because of the strength of it and the weight of it. He
says, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things,
it was a powerful empire, a very brutal empire. And as iron that
breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise, and where
is thou sawest the feet and toes part of potter's clay? iron mixed
with clay and part of iron and the kingdom shall be divided
and it was Rome was divided but there shall be in it of the strength
of the iron for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
clay verse 42 toes of the feet were part of iron part of clay
so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken and
whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay they shall mingle
themselves with the seed of men I believe that's really significant
there. What I believe that's talking about, and you know,
actually in the original language, it's a very hard phrase to translate. Mingle themselves with the seed
of men, it says. But they shall not cleave one
to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. They're not
gonna stay united. Because man by himself, he can't stay united.
He's got to divide. And that's, he's got to promote
himself. But here's the culmination of
the dream of an empire as an earthly paradise apart from God.
And what he's saying there is that they mix with the seed of
men. They try to get their power from
men and not from God. Not from the seed of woman who
is Christ. You see, look at verse 44. And
in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom
which shall never be destroyed. You know where this kingdom derives
its power from? Not from the seed of men, but
from Christ, the seed of woman, who is all-powerful. He told
his disciples, I have all power given unto me in heaven and in
earth. Now you go preach the gospel. He has a people out there. You go preach. I'm gonna find
my sheep, and I'm gonna bring them in. I have that power. He's
able to deliver to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by Him. I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that He is
able to not only to save me, but to keep that which I've committed
unto Him. And he says, And the kingdom
shall not be left to other people. This is not going to be a kingdom
that's overthrown by other people. But it shall break in pieces
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Babylon's
going to fall. but this kingdom shall stand
forever." What you have here is a picture of world history,
world culture, world religion, four kingdoms. You know, four
in the Bible is the symbol of the earth, north, south, east,
west. These are kingdoms of the earth.
But you see, salvation, forgiveness of sin, righteousness, eternal
life, immortality and glory, cannot come from the earth. They can't come from the earth.
It must come from God. It must come from heaven. Man
cannot reach high enough to attain it or maintain it, and he can't
dig low enough to attain it or maintain it. It must be sent
from heaven. And that's why the Bible tells
us, in the fullness of the time, God sent forth his own son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law. The fall of these kingdoms are connected with the coming
of the Messiah and the establishment of his kingdom. It's prophetic.
You see, Babylon, the literal empire of Babylon, and all these
other kingdoms will fall literally. But it's also prophetic. The
ultimate and final fall of spiritual Babylon will come at the second
coming of Christ. Now, with that in mind, turn
to Revelation 17. This Babylon is symbolic. And listen to the
words of Scripture. Verse 1 of Revelation 17. It says, and there came one of
the seven angels, the messengers of Christ, revealing these things
to John on the Isle of Patmos, which had the seven vows, these
are seven vows of judgment, seven bowls of judgment, or wrath,
and he talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will
show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth
upon many waters. Now who is this great whore?
It's not a literal woman here, not a literal harlot as far as
what we would think. And then what are these many
waters? Well anytime you see the term many waters, it's talking
about the world, it's talking about the nations of the world.
And it says in verse two, with whom the kings of the earth have
committed fornication. What kind of fornication? It's
talking about spiritual fornication. He's talking about a person who
is disloyal and unfaithful to his creator, an idolater. And he says, "...and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
They bought into her lie." What is her lie? Well, it's anything
that opposes God's way of salvation and righteousness and life and
glory in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's any government,
any economy, any philosophy, or any religion that is different
or in opposition to or tries to rival God's way of government,
God's economy, God's philosophy, God's religion of salvation by
free grace in Christ. That's what it is. Anything that
denies or opposes the person, the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We had a knock on our door. Was
it yesterday or the day before? And I always kind of look out
and see who it is before I open it. But Debbie, she just opens
it. She'll let anybody in. I'm just teasing. But anyway,
she opened the door and a lady was standing there and handed
her a little pamphlet. And you know who was on that pamphlet?
They had a drawing, a color drawing of Nebuchadnezzar's image. with
the head of gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, the chest
and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron, and the feet and
toes of iron and clay. And they had on the top that
the head of gold was the Babylonian Empire. They were right. That's
what the scripture says here. And the shoulders and the arms,
the Medo-Persian Empire. That's correct. And they had
the chest and the thighs as the the uh... uh... greek and macedonian
empire now that's correct and then they went down to the to
the legs and that was wrong then when they got to the feet you
know who they said that was that was america and britain and i thought well there's nothing
in the scripture that says that those feet are america and britain
but here's the point if america and britain Europe and Asian
or the North Pole Drink of the wine of Babylon's fornication
That's okay. That's exactly right Because
they're all under the headship of Babylon Medo-Persian Empire
was different from the Babylonian Empire but in spirit of And in
their lies and in their idolatry, they were the same. They were
all against Christ. The Greek and Macedonian empire
was different from the other, but in spirit, they were the
same as Babylon. Rome was different, but in spirit
it was the same. And it doesn't matter what country
it is, or what nation, what government, what religion it is, if they
buy into Babylon's system of religion, or philosophy, or government,
which is opposed to God and His Christ, His truth, His gospel,
His church, it's all Babylon. It's all the great whore. That's
what's being taught here. Look at verse 3 of Revelation
17. Incidentally, that kind of reminded
me of how sad it is, how deceptive Satan is. Because part of Babylon's
line of fortification, that's her doctrine. You do understand
that, don't you? That's her doctrine. That's her
false doctrine. See, false doctrine warps the mind, just like alcohol
warps the mind, warps the vision, and warps the hearing, and the
speech, and the walk. You see? Well, false doctrine,
listen, self-willed, self-righteous, warps religion, warps the mind,
and the walk, and the eyes. That's spiritual deadness. That's
what happened when we fell in Adam. And I got to thinking about
one of the The glasses of wine that Babylon serves up to her
followers, this great whore, is the wine of denying the person
of Christ. Who he is? Who is he? He's God-man. Well, the woman
that handed you that pamphlet, you know what she was? She was
Jehovah's Witness. They denied the deity of Christ. You know
what that is? That's Babylon. That's exactly
right. It's not just being too hard,
it's being truthful. You do not deny the Lord Jesus
Christ and get away with it. But look here in verse 3, it
says, So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness,
and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast. Now I'm not going to go
into all these symbols, but that beast is generally thought to
be the ungodly governments of the world. And Babylon is in
cahoots with all the ungodly governments of the world. And
you can see that in the Roman church and the papacy and all
that, how they combined. You know, that's Babylon 2. Because
it's works religion, it's free will religion, it's not the religion
of Christ and His righteousness and His blood. And it says, "...sit
upon the scarlet-colored beast." Now that scarlet-colored beast
is inspired by Satan. And it says, "...full of names
of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." We'll get to
that later on in Daniel. And he says, "...and the woman
was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and
precious stones and pearls." See, everything that's appealing
to the eye. everything it's she appears beautiful say but she's
deadly having a golden cup in her handful of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication and upon her forehead was was
a name-written mystery Babylon the great the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth there's what Babylon is mystery
Babylon because nobody's going to recognize her for what she
is until God reveals it And she's disguised by Satan. It's like
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 when he said in verse 3, And
Satan's goal there is to keep sinners from seeing the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Keep sinners from seeing their
utter depravity and sinfulness and need of a righteousness they
cannot produce, their need of Christ. Well, look over at chapter
18, look at verse 1. He says, And after these things
I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power,
and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily
with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen,
is fallen. That's an emphasis. That's what
that is. In other words, she's not just
stumped her toe. Babylon the Great is down for
the count. Is fallen, is fallen. That's
what Daniel saw in that dream in chapter 2. He saw literal
Babylon falling. But it was prophetic, and that
spiritual Babylon is on its way out, too. Christ is coming again. He's going to make this world... He's going to burn this world
up, make it new, and we're going to inhabit a world of righteousness
from a righteous king. And Babylon the Great has fallen,
has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every
foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." These
are all symbols of sin and depravity, symbols of false doctrine. And
he says, "...for all nations have drunk of the wine of the
wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed
fornication with her, the governments, the merchants of the earth are
waxed or grown rich through the abundance of her delicacy." You
see, Babylon is a big business, isn't it? False religion is a
big business, folks. There's money to be made in false
religion in a lot of different ways. And that's what he's talking
about. Verse four, and I heard another
voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, that you
be not partakers, that's fellowshippers of her sins, and that you receive
not of her plagues. Now we know by nature none of
us are gonna come out of that. It takes the grace of God to
bring a sinner out of Babylon. Just like it took the power of
God to bring the Hebrews out of Egypt. That's right. It takes
the grace of God. It took the power of God to later
on in Daniel's, at the end of Daniel's lifetime, to bring Judah
out of Babylon and back into their own country. It takes the
grace of God to bring a sinner. out of his idolatry, self-love,
self-will, and bring him to submit to Christ and his righteousness
alone as the only ground of salvation. Verse five, for her sins have
reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities. What
does that remind you of about God's people? He says he doesn't
remember our iniquities. David said, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God said their sins
and their iniquities I will remember no more. What does that mean?
It means he will not charge us with sin. But now Babylon, he's
going to charge her with sin and her followers. Their sins
reach to heaven. God's not only aware of them,
but their sins are charged to them. They're responsible for
them and they'll pay the penalty of them, which is eternal death
and damnation. But my friend, those who are
in Christ, those who are founded upon that stone cut out of the
mountains without hands, that rock, Christ Jesus, we won't
have to stand before God. and be held accountable for our
sins. And the reason is, is not because
we have a willy-nilly attitude towards sin. It's because we
know and recognize by God's word and testimony in the everlasting
gospel that Christ went under the wrath of God, having our
sins charged to Him, and He drank damnation dry. He paid the debt
in full. He satisfied law and justice. He brought in everlasting righteousness
that's imputed to us. And therefore God will not hold
them against us. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Babylon is falling. And the reason
Babylon fell and is falling and going to fall is because it's
built upon sand. It depends upon the seed of men. But there is a kingdom that stands
forever and ever and ever. And all the kingdoms of men built
upon lies, built upon sin, built upon idolatry, built upon pride,
and even that which is built upon good intentions will fall
to the one king and his kingdom of righteousness, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And one last thing I want to
leave you with tonight. Now, I want you to think about
it. Nebuchadnezzar died, another king come along, then another
one died, and the kingdom was finished. These kingdoms of men,
Babylon, they're finished when men die. But you know the kingdom
that stands forever is accomplished by the death of the king. Isn't that something? This kingdom
is established upon his death, his substitutionary death for
his people, for our sins. And out of that death comes everlasting
life. and it'll never fall. It will
stand forever and ever. And amen.