The Struggle of Two Cities

Babylon (Babel) vs. Jerusalem

Revelation 21:10-11 tells us of the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven having the glory of God. Here we’ve got it. The God of glory appeared to Abraham and now he sought the city, which in the end, will possess the glory of God. I think in seeing this city, within the vision of the God of glory, Abraham understood the purpose, the eternal purpose of God.

You know, I’ve said it before, but I will say it again. One of the great themes of the Bible is two cities, the tale of two cities. One is Babel, the other is Jerusalem. In Hebrew בָּבֶל Babel, is the term used in the Hebrew Bible and in the Hebrew translation of the New Testament for Babylon. Babylon is the Greek word for Babel. That gives an amazing continuity because look at it, think for a moment. Genesis 11, you have the whole story of Babel, Genesis 12, you have the God of glory appearing to our father Abraham, and in that moment, he became a pilgrim, a sojourner in the land that he was to inherit and a seeker after Jerusalem.

In other words, from Genesis 11 and 12, you have in Genesis 11, the beginning of Babylon, and you run right the way through the whole of your Bible, the 66 books, until you come to Revelation 17,18 and the first part of 19, and that is the end of Babel, the end of Babylon. And from Genesis 12, running right the way through the whole of your Bible, you have Jerusalem.

Of course, it was a physical city, Jerusalem. God chose it, and nobody else would have chosen it. It is one of the most extraordinary things when you reflect upon this matter, that God chose a city which didn’t have a proper water supply. The water supply was outside of the city walls at the time of David. It was Hezekiah that brought it within the walls, but even that was precarious. Can you imagine anyone taking a city as a capital city that hadn’t got a proper secure water supply to keep the people in time of war, in time of siege? It is amazing.

Jerusalem has no harbour, it has no great canals, it has no great navigable rivers, it is not on any great crossroads. Oh, the only reason why Jerusalem has become a household word for the world is because God chose her. And God said again and again, “You shall not offer your offerings everywhere where you choose, but in the place where I will cause my name to dwell.”

Jerusalem — The Place Where I Will Cause My Name to Dwell

Now that is a most extraordinary phase, “With the place where I will cause my name to dwell.” Think about it. People who read their Bibles often, they don’t think about this. Have you ever heard of a city where someone’s name is caused to dwell? What in the world does it mean? In the word of God, names have meaning. Abraham — exalted father, אַבְרָהָם, Abraham, father of a multitude, the father of all who believe. יַעֲקֹב — twister, יִשְׂרָאֵל — prince with God. יוֹסֵף Joseph — addition, multiplication, expansion. יִצְחָק — laughter, laughter. It’s amazing, these names. Moses מֹשֶׁה — drawn out, he certainly was drawn out. He should have been eaten by a crocodile.

But he was drawn out, by no one less than Pharaoh’s daughter. It is amazing. And his ministry was to draw out a people from Egypt. Everywhere you look, names mean something, names express the character, the personality, and in a sense, the prophetic destiny of that person. Now, when God says, You shall not offer your sacrifices or your offerings, anywhere where you choose, but in the place where I will cause my name to dwell, what he meant was this: this city is to be the expression of my character. It is to represent my heart and my mind, it is to represent truth. It is to represent the reign of God. It is to represent the kingdom of God. It is to represent the Messiah of God. It is to represent the salvation of God.

Jerusalem Remains

Therefore, Jerusalem will never disappear in spite of her sin, in spite of her prostitution, in spite of her disobedience. Babylon has gone, Thebes has gone, Ramses has gone all, these great cities of antiquity, Shushan, Nineveh, name it, they’ve all gone, but not Jerusalem. Jerusalem has survived them all. Why? It says in the Book of Revelation, Sodom, where our Lord was crucified. That’s how the book of Revelation describes the Jerusalem down here.

But the fact that it has never disappeared is because it represents the mind of God, whereas Babel — that name by the way, we don’t know how it ever got chosen because it means confusion in Hebrew — and that is the perfect epitaph of fallen man’s ingenuity and genius. Confusion. League of Nations, United Nations, disunited everything. I mean, it’s crazy, really, confusion. Every time they are trying to bring heaven to earth and earth to heaven and to unite heaven, a great golden age of prosperity and all the rest of it, brotherhood and equality and what happens? It becomes a prison. Marxism became a prison. Nazism became a prisoner, Maoism became a prison. Great philosophy, great ideals, but it’s confusion.

Why? Because it has no foundations. It is not built on eternal foundations. It is not the God of glory, it is not that city, which in the end will possess the glory of God. Now, I don’t know whether what I’m saying, because I can hardly see you from here, I could be speaking into thin air and nobody there. But if I look at my Bible, the beginning of the Bible and the end of the Bible, Genesis 1-3 and Revelation 20-21, I have the most extraordinary correspondence. In the beginning, there is a garden. At the end, there is a city. At the beginning there is the tree of life and the end that is the tree of life. At the beginning there’s a river of life, at the end, there is a river of life. It is amazing.

Jerusalem — The Symbol of an Eternal City

There are trees in the beginning, a tree of life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which the Adam and Eve were told not to touch. At the end you have those trees, bearing leaves for the healing of the nation. It is amazing. And the most extraordinary thing of all, it’s as if this Bible that God has given us is all to do with a city. That’s what Abraham saw, he saw that the whole history of this world is basically explained by the City of God, the New Jerusalem, the one when this earthly Jerusalem disappears, she will not disappear until she disappears into the glory of that new Jerusalem, the eternal Jerusalem. Till then, she is here as a symbol of God himself.

The Bible is a Love Story

I wish this could be more clear. But you know, when you come to that city, at the end of the Bible, you find the most amazing thing. In the first three chapters, you have the marriage of Adam and Eve. And in the last few chapters, you have the marriage of the Lamb and the wife of the Lamb. That goes to the heart of the Bible. Open it, roughly at the heart, and what have you got? You have the Song of Songs, a story of a love relationship between God and the redeemed.

He will not let them go, even when they become lukewarm and tepid, and when they become self-satisfied and settled down, as it were, he will not let them go. He goes through until stage by stage he’s brought that beautiful bride that he so loved to the place where she says, “I am my Beloved’s.” To begin with it was “My Beloved is mine.” I’ve seen that a number of times. “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” If you didn’t hear, that that was deliberate. I am his. Then after a little bit of dealing she said, “I am his”. She put it a different way. I am my Beloved’s, and he is mine. Okay. But there are a few more dealings and then she says, “I’m his.” And here is the amazing thing. For the first time she thinks about others. “What about my little sister?” she said, she’s not got mature, she hasn’t developed. What can we do for her?

This is the Bible. Do you really believe that Abraham actually saw something like this, before some of these things were even written? I believe it is entirely possible for a human being to understand the purpose of God, if the Holy Spirit is present. He may not have indwelt, but he still ministered. Or think again, has it ever occurred to you that when the Lord Jesus began his messianic ministry, the first miracle was in a wedding? John makes so much of this. This was his first miracle, it began in a wedding where he turned water into wine.

“This One Was Born There”

Well throughout history, as far as the Bible is concerned, there are only two cities, and all human beings belong to one or the other. You either belong to Babylon, or you belong to Jerusalem. And that’s why the 87th Psalm says, When the Lord writes up the peoples he says, “This one was born there,” even though their original birth was in Babylon, or in Philistia, or Tyre or other places. Now they’re born again, they’re registered in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, which is above, which is the mother of us all. But it is more than that.

This purpose of God is to not only redeem human beings, but to bring them into such a relationship with himself that they grow to maturity, where they will be able to reign with Him. That city at the end of the Bible with which this amazing revelation of the heart and mind of God in these 66 books ends, is of a capital city and a wife. Two extraordinary, extraordinarily different ideas. A city, a capital city, the centre of administration, the centre of a civil service, the centre where the policies of a kingdom, of an empire are dictated and ordered, commanded, and a wife, the most intimate relationship known to mankind, husband and wife.

If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him. Isn’t it interesting that that wonderful church of Ephesus, the Lord was prepared to take away the lampstand out of its place for one single reason: they had left their first love. So when you come to the city of God, it is a matter of first love. It is a matter of being in love with the Lord. You shall love the Lord your God, with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your mind.

And Jesus said the second is like to it. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Such is the City of God, reigning with Him and in love with him. As I’ve often said, the Lord is not interested in an eternal civil service, a bureaucracy that knows exactly what should be done, and knows how to do it, and do it with a minimum of fuss and the greatest of efficiency (not always true of bureaucracy.) But that will never satisfy the Lord. He will only be satisfied with a companionship that has sprung out of devotion and love. That is the meaning and significance of this city.

Babylon’s Last Empire

Well, you can see how tremendous this whole subject is, and I wish really, one could spend even longer on it, but you can see straight away that the God of glory, spoilt Abraham for anything less than the city which has the foundations. That is the heavenly vision. The Ephesian letter of the Apostle Paul says in chapter 5, that the Lord Jesus loved the church and gave himself up for it, that He might present it to himself a glorious church, a church of glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

So, if we at least get something here, that is, I think, tremendous, we begin to understand something about Abraham. We are now in the process, if I may say this, and then move on to the last point I want to make. We are now in the process of a tremendous attempt of Satan to regain the whole world. It is the final attempt to Babylonise the whole world. You have globalisation, it is just Babel. You have now more and more the whole world is becoming a global village.

We speak almost one language. Unbelievable. It is incredible what is happening. And happening so fast that you can almost be overtaken by it and not wake up to what is happening. We are coming to the chapters in Revelation 13-19. It’s always been the same. If you look at Daniel’s prophecy, you will see that those four great empires came out of a typhoon driven sea, storm tossed. Out of it came one after another, after another, after another. When you look at it in Revelation 13, we’re not told that the sea is typhoon driven, but it’s the same sea and out of it comes a homogenising of all four empires. It is the final great empire, the final great Antichrist world.

It is Satan’s last great attempt to take the world. Satan is incredible. I must be careful what I say, but Satan is an incredible person. Because in one sense, he studies the Bible. He comes to prayer meetings. He listens sometimes, if he thinks they’re important enough, in conferences. He takes in all the things that God has shown us by His Spirit, and still he believes that he can win. That is incredible to me. He’s been beaten every time he’s ever attempted to frustrate the purpose of God, the Lord has turned the tables and defeated him. And out of it has come tremendous blessing and salvation. Why does he go on? Unless he’s eaten up with pride and believes that he can still frustrate the purpose of God and the coming of the King, the Lord Jesus.

Shaking

Well, I’d say this is tremendous. Why do you think the Lord is shaking everything? This shaking began, in my estimation, with the First World War, and then was carried on in the Second World War, and has grown ever since. And now we have come to the place where everything is being shaken. Turmoil over the whole world. It doesn’t matter where you turn, there is turmoil. You have Chavez in South America. You have Ahmadinejad in Iran. It doesn’t matter where you turn. You have Putin in Russia. You’ve got amazing things happening everywhere you look.

What is it that’s happening? And then you have Islamic terror. Islam has an agenda to take the whole world. It will fail, by the grace of God. Why? Because Antichrist is not that type of person, he’s not like Nero or Hitler or Mao or Stalin. This Antichrist, if I may say it without upsetting anyone, is more Clinton-esque. Affable, affable, forgivable, attractive, even when he sins. That’s the final figure that will come.

Dear friends, is it any wonder God is shaking everything? Do you know why he’s shaking it? Basically, to shake anybody who can be shaken out of what is transient and temporal into what is eternal and forever. The wonderful prophecy of Joel speaks about the very final stage of this age and says “And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Thank God for shaking. Because what it will do is will shake businesses into pieces, shake families into pieces, shake all kinds of religious routine into pieces and bring people to the place where they seek and search for that which is unshakable. Wherefore receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God.

I say it is tremendous. And some people are very afraid of the shaking. I’m not, I know who’s shaking. You know the Lord, and he’s doing the shaking. I’m not the least bit afraid. Let him go on shaking. I want to see the whole thing come to a quick end. And enough of it, all this turmoil, this misrepresentation. I mean, the sooner it all ends, the better, with the coming of the Lord. I’m not afraid of the shaking, I imagine many of you are not either. Thank God, if the Lord wants to shake out of us, what is shakable, let him do it. We shall only praise him in the end that he brought us to the place where what could be shaken was shaken out of us and we came to focus on what is unshakable.

God’s Promise to Abraham

Now, dear friends, I said there’s one other thing I want to say and it’s quite important. It is that Abraham, when the God of glory appeared to him, he saw the city which has the foundation. He understood the whole purpose of God was centered, in one sense, in that coming city, in one sense. But far more important, and this is my last point, he saw the whole purpose of God centred in the Lord Jesus. In John chapter 8 and verse 56. It says very simply, Jesus the words of our Lord Jesus, “Abraham saw my day and rejoiced.” He saw and rejoiced.

What did Abraham see? Isn’t that amazing? That nearly 2000 years before the Lord Jesus appeared on this earth, Abraham had seen his day, and had rejoiced! It is not some kind of dim sort of apparition that appeared to him. And he wondered, “Well, I wonder what that’s all about”. But he rejoiced, he saw that the whole purpose of God was centered, focused on the Lord Jesus, on the Messiah. He would bring salvation. He would bring the gospel, good news. He would build the church. He would save Israel. I say, it is amazing.

Listen to the words of the Lord when he appeared to Abraham. “And I will make a great nation of you and I will bless you, and be a blessing. And those that bless you, I will bless. And those” in Hebrew, “that disesteem you, I will curse. And in you, in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” In that extraordinary revelation of the God of glory, and the words of the Lord, you had the whole history of mankind, from Abraham, to this day. A great nation, yes.

I don’t fear to say it, that he was speaking about Israel. It says in the book of Numbers chapter 23 and verse 9, that this people shall dwell alone, and shall not be counted with the nations. In other words, there is a uniqueness to this nation that came out of the vow of Abraham that has lasted all the way through history to this day.

Could you believe that all these years, nearly 4000 years later, the whole world is in turmoil over a little portion of territory, not bigger than the state of New Jersey? Think of that. As small as Hungary in Europe or Portugal in Europe, like the North Island of New Zealand, the size of Tasmania in Australia. Could you believe the whole world 4000 years later, is in turmoil over this little state? That means they have outlasted everything to this day. I call that a great nation. It reveals not the ingenuity of the Jewish people, or the intelligence of the Jewish people (that they have) but it doesn’t reveal that.

God’s Faithfulness to His Promise

What it reveals is the absolute faithfulness of God. He says in His word, very clearly, “As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as touching the election,” the predestinating will and purpose of God, “they are beloved, for the patriarchs sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Let it sink in. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. That explains why Israel is today in existence, recreated. That explains [why] every attempt to exterminate them has failed. It explains the amazing thing that is happening in Israel, where Israelis are coming to know the Lord Jesus. Only just a little trickle, but it is the beginning of a tremendous work of the Holy Spirit, which will be the completion of the history of redemption.

Dear child of God this is, I say we could spend a lot of time on this subject, but I’m not going to. All I’m going to say is this. The misrepresentation of Israel, the growing hatred of Israel, the growing anti-semitism now seen in anti-Israelism means simply that Satan knows that his end is near. He has always understood that once the salvation of the house of Israel comes near, his time is over. So he will raise up people like Ahmadinejad and others who vow to exterminate her. Some people believe that there will never be another Holocaust. They think that the Nazi Holocaust was the last ever. I don’t. Do you mean to tell me Satan’s dead? He’s not dead. And because he’s not dead, he will do it again. And that is the seriousness of the situation in the Middle East.

Why Do The Nations Rage?

At the same time, this misrepresentation by the media, the world media, which has basically put Israel in such a terrible light that many people think, like they did in Nazi Germany, it might be just as well if they are exterminated. But they will not be exterminated. Did you read those words in Psalm 2? Where it says, “Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession?” These are the words of the Father to the Son, concerning the Lord Jesus. The Jewish people, he says, “I have set my King up on my holy hill of Zion.” But did you notice also about why did the nations meditate a vain thing? Why are they in uproar? Why do the rulers and the kings say let us throw away these bonds, these fetters? Exactly what is happening now.

This whole great movement to throw overboard the law of God, what God has said about abortion, what God has said about gay rights, what God has said about euthanasia, about anything else, throw it overboard, we don’t want it. It doesn’t belong to modern culture. I read those words in Romans for one reason. You have the mystery of the church and you have the mystery of Israel.

All Israel Shall Be Saved

And this great apostle, through whom has come so much revelation, concerning the body of our Lord Jesus, the church, is also the one who said, “I would not brothers have you ignorant of this mystery, [the mystery of Israel] lest you be wise in your own conceits that a hardening in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness, the full number of the Gentiles be come in,” not meaning til the last Gentile is saved, but meaning that when this great work of the Gospel has brought in men and women of every tongue, and kindred, and race, then God will turn back to the Jewish people, the natural branch, and will melt the hardening and give back vision and salvation.

And so it says, “And so all Israel” not meaning just Jews, physically, but all Israel means all those saved by the grace of God, Gentile and Jew, and so all Israel, the elect people of God, saved to sin no more. And then comes this wonderful word. Listen to it. “As it is written, there shall come out of Zion a deliverer, he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sin.” Now this is amazing. Where does he quote it? It is quite extraordinary. Because the Hebrew in Isaiah 59:19, the last verse of Isaiah 59 says, very clear, “and a Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those who turn from ungodliness in Jacob.” Exactly what happened. The Lord Jesus came to Zion, and he saved those who turned from ungodliness in Jacob. He actually did it. It’s wonderful.

The Salvation of Israel Goes to the Ends of the Earth

That was the early church. It was absolutely wonderful. But now we have this variation. I believe it’s the Spirit of God, as it is written, the deliverer shall come out of Zion and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. I believe we are so near to this day, oh, dear child of God, listen to this, it’s simply amazing. Is there any wonder that the world is in turmoil? Is it any wonder that this tremendous force, anti-semitic force is developing everywhere? Surely, it is not flesh and blood, it has to do with Satan, and the powers of evil and darkness. But listen to this, “In your seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed.” That is to do with the whole great gospel work in the whole world. It says in Galatians 3:8 that the gospel was preached to Abraham over this verse, “and in thy seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

I don’t know how many Jews ever thought that in the end it would go to the ends of the earth. And there would be those who would come into the salvation of God, and the fullness of God, and the purpose of God, the kingdom of God, through the Lord Jesus. I say this is tremendous. Where are we? We are not in the beginning. We are at the end. Things are moving now so fast, we hardly can keep up with them.

Turning Point

But dear child of God, in the light of all of this, you and I need to allow the Lord to deal with us. If our vision has grown dim, if somehow or other, we have been compromised, in our understanding, we need the Spirit of God to touch us. Just as Abraham was at a great turning point in divine history, we are at another turning point. The completion of the work of the gospel and the salvation of the house of Israel.

Can you imagine the joy in heaven when that is completed? But many children of God are asleep. They just have absolutely no idea. The Antichrist is coming. That’s why I said what I said about America last night. I don’t think America is going to escape this. The Antichrist is coming. I would to God that this would be the place of safety and refuge. I don’t think so. Satan desires this nation more than he desires many others. And when he moves in, he will seek to destroy every vestige he can of Biblical faith and understanding.

The Lord is Coming

But dear child of God, there is a rapture, also. It could come anytime. The Antichrist hasn’t yet appeared. In my understanding of the Scripture, we have to go a little way into this time when he does appear. But praise God, there is a rapture. And thirdly, the Lord Jesus is coming, and when he comes, the war is over.

Dear child of God, you and I have a tremendous privilege. We’ve been called with a high calling. We have been granted, as our birthright, revelation. As the Lord Jesus said to Peter, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven.” And so it has to be with you and me. If you have lost your vision, why don’t you get on your knees and tell the Lord, “I believe I had been blinded.” Why don’t you ask the Lord to touch your heart and the eyes of your heart, so that you could see more clearly than ever you saw this God of glory. May he give us not to be disobedient.

Narrator:

May you be one who yields to the Lord that his Spirit may work in you an eternal weight of glory. May you know the deep deep love of Jesus.