Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 5 – 8

• I know the same is in store for folks that are dead set determined to serve self.  “I sit as queen, I sit as king,” in other words God is not upon the throne of their hearts and that always manifests, is made known, is evident by their strife, envy, division, cruelty, self service all opposite of what the Lord God Almighty upon the throne delivers…peace, power, joy, gentleness and love…I know the same is coming…in one hour, it will seem almost sudden, death…as marriages end, as children are sacrificed to mammon and they end up lost themselves just as mom and dad are…and then great mourning and want…oh how that is not God’s will for you…or anyone.
• And notice, again who is this woman?  You know, we know, we’ve studied it together, this is the great harlot introduced to us earlier in Revelation…the very essence of evil, the spirit of self seeking…turn over to Zechariah Chapter 5…wickedness and where are they taking her?  Shinar or Mesopotamia and what is the capital of Mesopotamia?  Babylon…
• And just one more thing here before we move on.  She says there at the end of verse seven, “I’m queen man, and am no widow…”  In the Greek John hears her say, “I am no chera.”  Chera, a derivation of the word charis or grace…”I have no need for grace…” in other words.  I’m good man, not interested…don’t need to receive it, don’t need to give it.  And so yes she is wickedness but who is she also?  Religion!  And now we put it together.
• The same spirit behind self seeking is behind religion man…and the only cure?  Humility!  Receive God’s grace!  Free’s you from wickedness man, why?  Because it’s the same thing!  The emperor just has new clothes man!  Someone put makeup and a dress on the hog man and put her up on eHarmony and some of y’all are datin’.  Dump her!  Get with God’s grace man.  Humility, repentence, freedom, Jesus!!!
• Yes you’ll have some Godly sorrow…over who we are but man if we’re honest how do we not??  2 Corinthians 7:10, a wonderful verse, an essential verse, a verse that is wasted on this new age no repentence cheap gospel!  2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”  And notice what wickedness says…”no” to sorrow! 
• But here’s the secret man.  It’s either sorrow now, humility now, salvation now…or sorrow later and death.  Because it Revelation 21:4, after the new heaven and the new earth, all things made new, that John hears another voice from heaven, and the message, “there shall be no more sorrow.”  So check this out…folks living for themselves, not submitting to God, why?  Most of them just as this woman in Revelation 18, just so that they won’t see sorrow.
• I mean think about it.  Why does the drunkard drink?  Why does the drugger drug?  Why do the wicked argue for their way and fight for the right to paaaaaaarrrrrty!?  To avoid sorrow.  To have pleasure, right?  Of course that’s right!  But the truth is, the reality and fact is that sorrow is only taken away  by God as He wipes away every tear man…as He chips death and sorrow and selfish tears out of our personality…and so the very thing that wickedness even promises, is a lie man.
• She says “I won’t see sorrow,” and that is the promise of the passing pleasure of sin…but at its core its pathetic…because it indeed brings sorrow but that sorrow as 2 Corinthians tells us and Revelation 21 shows us, does not deliver man…it destroys.  You want to be unlocked from sorrow, get after God man…put the bottle down, quit lighting up, back off from the bickering and serve, speak no evil any longer against him, against her, and accept the calling God has placed on your life to serve them…and yes it will stink!  Sorrow man.  For real sorrow but God promises you, and He cannot lie, that sorrow will produce Godliness and that Godliness will produce salvation in the situation.

Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 9 – 13

• See that sorrow?  “I need no grace and I won’t see sorrow.”  Next verse, she’s burning!!!
• And check this out, weeping and lamenting (or passionately expressing grief), standing afar off full of fear and why?  Why so upset?  They weep for themselves!  Did you see that in verse 11?  No one wants their junk anymore…notice how none of the items listed are necessities?  They’re all luxuries…junk.  Such is the fate of one living for themself.  Eventually, no one’s going to want to deal with their junk anymore and they will weep…not in humility or repentance…but for themselves.  Loss upon loss…

Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 14 – 20

• The voice from heaven ceases and the centrality of the message…you wasted your time folks.  It’s all burning now.  All the trinkets.  All the tokens.  All the totality of the legal tender, what’s it all worth now?  All of the false gods, fallen.  All of the worshippers of the great harlot…weeping but notice the reaction of heaven…great rejoicing!  
• The Bible says that Godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6) and that if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have (2 Cor 8)…and in one collaborative voice the world says we’ll get to that…the intention is almost always there…to just love your wife, to just appreciate your husband, to invest in your kids, to serve others and to calm down…but the self centered sensation of “there’s still time” blinds us to just how far we’re drifting.
• You ever wake up at 1 AM and go get some water or go check the lock on the front door…and it just seems like you could just stay up?  Like you’re not dragging but rather you’re very awake and you think, “well I have more time,” and then you go back to bed and wake up at your normal time, you know when you have to wake up and what do you say?  “Nooooooo!  Just.  So.  Tired!”  Why?   Because you know you’re out of time…and it just weighs on you.  The reality of work, of school, of chores…of what you need to do man…sets in and all of the sudden the energy of “more time” that you had at 1 AM is gone…
• It’s the same spiritually.  When we feel like we have more time…we go back to sleep man but the reality of the realm of the spirit is that there is never more time!  This second counts.  This breath impacts eternity.  It either builds Babylon in your brain or heaven in your heart man…but so many just wanna peddle their junk and they’ll clean up later…man later never comes…the whole idea of later is continual delay!  And what’s in store for them is weeping, lamenting, standing afar off and full of fear because later is the mantra, dissatisfaction is the fuel and all along the flesh has promised pleasure…leading folks directly into violent loss!

Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 21 – 24

• Anymore, anymore, anymore…six times the mighty angel says your junk will not continue anymore…six, the number of man…the number of imperfection…the number representing the one who looks to self for sufficiency…but it wasn’t always that way…six is also the number of days in which God created and He looked upon His creation and indeed it was very good. 
• And this world is out of time.  God is on the very brink of restoring the goodness of the number man…destroying the spiritual great harlot once and for all, destroying the physical great harlot once and for all and ultimately restoring creation to the splendor of the sixth day…