All right, turn in your Bibles, the book of Genesis chapter 14.
And we’re going to start talking about the tale of two cities as it’s outlined in the Bible. These are the biggest cities in all of the scripture and all of the Bible centers around these two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. I’m going to read to you from Genesis 14 starting with verse 17.
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlamar and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Shava, which is the king’s dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God. Genesis 14, 18 gives you the introduction to the city of Jerusalem.
Salem is in fact Jerusalem. Jerusalem is known as the city of God. Babylon is known as the city of man.
We’ve talked a lot about, or so far this we’ve done discussed, but not in great detail. The tower of Babel was constructed by Nimrod, we know as a type of the Antichrist. And that tower of Babel was located in Babylon.
We find Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek, who was from the city of Salem or Jerusalem. Now watch this. This was a literal city.
It’s also a figurative city. And in that lies the discrepancy or the division of interpretation in man. Jerusalem is a literal city.
It’s also a figurative city. If you don’t make the distinction between the literal city and the figurative city, you’ll lose interpretation of Scripture. When you get into Revelation 17 and 18, the city of Babylon becomes spiritual as well as literal.
Jerusalem is spiritual as well as literal. And the book of Revelation says, I, John, saw the holy city coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I’ve got one throne wrote here and kingdom rule over it.
Okay. We’re going to delve into the symbolism of the cities and a little bit of the spiritual application of the cities, how it relates to man before we look at the literal references to the cities. All right.
And here’s how we’re going to break this down. Babylon would become a type of the flesh. Every description of Babylon can be applied to the flesh.
Jerusalem is a type of the spirit. Here where we’ve got kingdom rule and one throne, for the sake of what we’re discussing tonight, is a type of man’s soul. We read Genesis 14, 18.
I want you to turn to Romans chapter seven. And here’s why this is significant. We’re introduced to Babylon in the book of Genesis.
We did for you the numbers, the number chart, the blocks of 490 years, four different blocks. One of the most significant blocks is when Israel was taken captive by Babylon. They were carried into Babylon.
They were there for 70 years. From that time, the prophetic clock stopped when Israel went into captivity. When King Artaxerxes gave the decree to go back and rebuild the cities, the prophetic clock started again.
It stopped at the rejection of the Lord Jesus. We’re down to the last seven years. I’ve told you this before, that we’re not here for those seven years.
Therefore, for all of us, time has run out. Those are literal references to the key role that the city of Babylon plays in scripture, but they’re not done yet. During the times of the Gentiles, the city of Babylon will be restored again during the seven year tribulation period.
When you get to Revelation 17 and 18, you have Babylon split into two factions. You have commercial Babylon and you have spiritual Babylon. That’s important.
Commercial Babylon is the literal city that will be formed again, and I believe, will be the economic power of the times during the tribulation period. I think that in the city, the literal city of Babylon during the time of tribulation is where the computations will be kept for the mark of the beast, where man will not be able to buy or sell without that mark. The center of commerce will be the literal city of Babylon.
Along with that, figurative or spiritual Babylon will also play out, and you see how it’s formed by the false prophet and the beast in the tribulation period. I’m throwing that stuff out there at you, but for the sake of the study tonight, the city of Babylon has been instrumental in man’s flesh nature ever since it was formed in the heart and mind of Satan himself. Flesh nature comes as a result of sin, but can be characterized by the city of Babylon.
Every description that you read in the Word of God concerning Babylon, you’ll find it etched across the nature of our flesh. Every description that you find of the heavenly Jerusalem or even literal Jerusalem in which Jesus will one day rule from, you’ll find in your spirit, and it’ll typify the life of the spirit. In Romans 7 and 8, and we’re studying Romans 8 at the Grace Place on Wednesday nights, but to get a full bearing of Romans 8, you have to understand Romans 7, which gives you the struggle of man, and what is this struggle? The struggle is between flesh and spirit.
If any man walks after the flesh, he will not mind the things of the spirit. If any man walks after the spirit, he will not mind the things of the spirit, for to be carnally minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life and peace.
The struggle has always been for all of us between flesh man and spirit man. Now, we’re just going to go off the cuff on some things about this. But watch this.
How can we identify the flesh? First, we could identify the flesh as a rejection of the Word of God. Can I tell you that’s the sum total of all of our problems right there. Our flesh man does not want to come under subjection to the Word of God.
In every sin that you name and every tendency that you name that’s counter to the Holy Spirit or the fruit of the Spirit, it all comes as a result of us rejecting the authority of the Word of God. In today’s society, that’s why there is such a strategic battle that’s being raged against the Word of God. In universities, in schools, by those in the world of academia, they are all challenging the authority of the Word of God.
That seems to be at the forefront of the battle we face. In your spirit, man, there is a willingness of mind and heart to the Word of God. That reigns supreme in your spirit, man.
The book of Acts even talks about how we receive the Word of God with openness of mind and a willing heart. Now, what does it mean to receive the Word of God with openness of mind? It means that you’re coming to the Word of God losing your own opinion, losing your own presumptions, and you’re ready to hear the truth from God’s Word. And that seed in your mind will make it to your heart and will produce faith.
And that will manifest out of your flesh. So here’s the warfare. It’s always from the flesh to the Spirit, all through the Scriptures.
We find Paul’s writings. That’s the battle between flesh and spirit. What’s the target? The target is control or rule over man’s soul where his mind, will, and emotion reside.
I want to remind you of something here. In order to be in subjection to real kingdom rule, you have to understand there’s only one throne in your heart. Did y’all hear what I just said? There is only one throne in your heart.
All right, so we’re going to talk a little bit about kingdom rule before we read Romans 7. Are y’all at Romans 7? I’m going to give you just this one thing about the kingdom, and I’m doing this because this has been a discussion that me and Haley’s been having for how long? A long time. Long time we’ve been talking about this, okay? It’s the differences between the kingdom. And we’ve talked about this even here.
There is a difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. Y’all familiar with that, right? There’s a distinction to be made between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. And here’s the way we’re going to describe this.
And I’m doing this for the sake of our understanding because tonight I would like for all of us to be able to win the battle over our flesh. How many of you would like that? Paul said, be not drunk with wine where it is excess, but be what? Filled with the spirit. All right, so watch this.
If we have a mandate to be spirit filled, that is spirit controlled, spirit consumed, then the flesh man’s got to die. I’m crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.
And the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the son of God. Don’t live it by my faith. I live it by his faith.
Y’all didn’t hear that. Did you hear that? It’s the faith of Christ that I can reckon myself as dead. It’s the faith of Christ that is activated when the Holy Spirit controls my life.
So I need to conquer anything that is a rejection of the word, which by the way, produces doubt. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by, somebody say it. Romans 10, 17.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. So faith is going to reside in the spirit man. It’s not even going to reside in the intellectual man.
Faith doesn’t come by reading. Faith comes by hearing. Did you hear that? The Bible doesn’t say faith comes by reading and reading by the word of God.
It says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. He that have ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying. So you can hear my words all day long, they’re going to mean nothing.
But if the Holy Spirit anoints these words and you hear in your spirit, that’ll produce faith. Anything else will produce doubt. You with me? So in the city of Babylon, you have a bunch of doubters that live there.
Here’s something else that comes by rejection of the word of God, chaos and confusion. Over here in the spirit man resides order. Paul told the church of Colossus, he said, I joy beholding your order.
It’s amazing what this word order means in the word of God. It means fixed like an army. It’s the order of a military unit.
When Paul says, I joy beholding your order, he was telling that church, you are arrayed like an army ready for battle. That can only happen in the spirit man. It cannot happen in the flesh man.
Y’all following me so far? By the way, let me just say this. How many of you know that you’re headed for heaven? And how many of you know that the capital city of your new dwelling place is the new Jerusalem? You got that? All right. So that means you’re a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem are people of faith, not doubt. They’re people of order, not chaos and confusion. Over here in Babylon, it even stands for rebellion.
But over here in Jerusalem, you live in submission. So every type and anti-type goes back and forth on Babylon and Jerusalem. You with me so far? So when you’re reading the word of God and you’re finding Jerusalem, you can ascribe these kind of traits to it.
Now I’m going to throw you a curve ball. You ready? Jerusalem was destroyed and laid desolate many times in the word. Do you know why? Because there was a mixture between the two cities.
That mixture had devastating consequences. It caused Jerusalem to lie waste, caused Babylon to rise up. Where did this mixture come from? It’s when people stopped submitting.
It’s when people stopped adhering to order. It’s when people stopped walking after the principles of faith and they found themselves in doubt and confusion and rebellion. As a result of that, there was a mixture that took place and it formed an apostate or lukewarm people.
And God said, I’ll spew you out of my mouth. Watch, listen. You cannot mix flesh and spirit.
If you do, what is affected is your mind, your will, and your emotion. So from the mind, you have thought. From the will, you have action.
From the emotion, you have feelings. If you’re living your life based on your opinion, you will constantly find yourself in the flesh. If you act, if all of your actions is justified by an authority that’s not scripture, you’re living as a citizen of Babylon.
If your feelings are anything other than what the fruit of the spirit describes, it means you’re acting like a city of Babylon the whole time. You can be a born again, saved child of God, a citizen of Jerusalem, but you’re living as though you’re in Babylon. How many of you heard what I’m saying so far? So now let’s read Romans 7. Romans 7. Paul gives definition to this struggle of flesh and spirit.
You got me so far? Everybody got me so far? I need to say one more thing. This is important. Everybody look up here at me.
The target of Satan is your soul. He wants to live on the throne of your heart. The target of the Holy Spirit is your soul.
He wants to live on the throne of your heart. Are y’all listening to me? So watch this. Listen to me.
The only way that Satan can lay hold of your soul is through your flesh. The only way the Holy Spirit can live on the throne of your heart is through your spirit man. You with me so far? When Adam and Eve sinned, God told them in the garden, in the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in that day you’ll what? Die.
You’ll surely die. What was he talking about? Talking about spirit man was going to die. Therefore, their spirit was alive before sin.
Their spirit man died when sin came in. Now let me give you a picture here. I’m giving you a bigger picture of the totality of the word in a figurative way in terms of these cities before we look at it in a literal sense.
But you need to hear this. Listen to me. Here’s what it means.
It means sin kills. And what does it kill? It kills what’s in your spirit. Therefore, Satan knows the only way to rob you of your faith, of your order, of your submission is for you to taste of sin.
Now, let me, we haven’t read the text yet, I know, but this is something that you’ve had before, but I give it to you again. There is a government to the flesh, and y’all know what it is. It’s the senses, the government of the flesh.
What we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste, what we feel, or how we touch. This is the government of the flesh. So this is how Satan tempts you.
He tempts you through the eye gate, through the ear gate, even with fragrance. I don’t know if anybody’s ever been, can I tell you, there are certain odors you’ll smell that will bring back memories. Anybody ever faced that? A memory of something.
And why would Satan tap into your memories? Well, here’s why. Because there are certain emotions attached to those memories. If he can get you to feel what you felt before, then he can drag you into a situation through the government of the flesh where you’ll start doubting, you’ll end up in confusion and rebellion, and on the one throne of your heart will reign even Satan himself.
There’s only one throne. Are you with me? The throne is your soul. What you think, what you do, how you feel.
What’s this? There is a government to the spirit. The government of the spirit is real simple. It’s the word of God.
Again, this is conversations me and Haley’s been having for some time. And listen, I am convinced of some things. My opinion is not worth anything to most people and I totally get it.
But can I tell you, I’m going to tell you a truth, and it’s not going to feel good to you. This is not a feel good truth. I’m going to tell you a truth, and this is not an excitable truth to you.
But I’m going to tell you a truth. These are the last of the last days. Jesus is fixing to come.
The world’s grown darker. We’ve been in a falling away period for some time now. We’ve also been in a recovery period for some time now.
You can trace this back. You can go back from the reformation. Okay, Martin Luther.
When Martin Luther wrote his 95 thesis, here’s the basic thrust of what he recovered. And the just shall live by faith. That’s what he recovered.
That’s a glorious truth, by the way. Everybody say amen to that. Now, let me tell you something that has become misleading.
Martin Luther didn’t come up with that idea. It wasn’t an original thought to Martin Luther. See, Paul the Apostle wrote about the just shall live by faith a long time before Martin Luther.
Martin Luther just started the recovery process of a truth that had been lost. Are you with me? From the 1500s and the point of the reformation, we entered into a state of recovery of truth that’s led up all the way to early 1900s, where truth was in a steady process of being recovered. Martin Luther didn’t recover any truth concerning eschatology.
He only recovered the truth the just shall live by faith. So everybody says, well, I don’t know if you’ve heard this or not, but there is a big move on denying the rapture of the church. And one of the big things that they’ll say is, well, that teaching ain’t but a couple hundred years old.
Started with John Darby. No, it didn’t. It started with the Apostle Paul.
It actually started with Jesus. Y’all with me? Did Jesus not say, I’m going away, but I’ll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. So it started with Jesus, all right? But now they’re saying, well, that truth’s only a couple hundred years old.
Why would they say that? Because you see, truth had been lost through the dark ages. And Martin Luther comes along in 1500s and says, hey, the just shall live by faith. The priesthood of the believer.
Don’t have to go to a priest and confess your sins. We can confess our sins straight to Jesus and find forgiveness. That’s a glorious truth.
And then in a steady process of recovering the truth, you finally had the recovery of eschatology or the recovery of end times where they start saying, what’s this? I just read the word where Jesus is coming back. Are y’all with me so far? So we’ve been in a steady flow of recovering the truth. But watch this now.
The way the Holy Spirit operates is through the government of the word of God. And because of that, in this hour, in this day, the warfare is not about you having a flat tire in your car. The warfare is not about your washing machine tore up.
The warfare is not even about these bodies.
