Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 1 – 3

· This is the condition of the world at the final moment before the return of the Lord. In a spiritual reality, this is the hidden condition of the world today. We live not only in a fallen world, a world infected and infested with not only sin, but in a world that glorifies what destroys people! So, what is not right in the eyes of the Lord is mainstream. And listen, if it’s not right in the eyes of the Lord, then ultimately it brings destruction, ultimately it fails!

· So, the earth is described in the spirit, by an angel, as the dwelling place of demons. When Satan and a third of the angels were cast out of the presence of God, they were never sent to hell. Satan actually will never see hell as it exists today. He will end up in the Lake of Fire…, and ever since he and his angels were cast out of heaven, they’ve been here, dwelling on earth. Revelation 12:9, “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

· So, the angel continues, “This earth has become a prison for every foul spirit.” The demonic doesn’t like it here and they don’t like you here. It’s not a place of pleasure for them. They see it as a prison. Stuck here, confined here, with an assurance of their own doom. Earth is death row for demons! They go about their business which is to corrupt and dismantle and damage and turn what God created as good and beautiful into waste. The war waged in heaven continues on earth. The nullification of the Most High is their mission on earth!

· The folks that become their prize, those that don’t seek to walk with the Lord become (in a way) part of the damage. As the angel cries out here, “A cage for every unclean and hated bird!” Which is a reference to lost souls. A cage, confinement, imprisonment, along with the demonic, for the unclean, those that are still in their sin, without the forgiveness of God upon them through the blood of Jesus Christ, and so they become hateful. That’s the word here. Hated is one way to translate this Greek word but its also translated hateful. Full of hate…

· This is the condition of the world at the very last day, fully revealed, because this is the condition of the world in the unseen, and really also in the seen, today.

Revelation Chapter 18 Verse 4

· I love this. What is God’s will for my life? Right here. What does God want me to do? This. Don’t get caught up, caged, into the trappings of this life such that you drift and depart from the Lord. Come out of her MY PEOPLE. This is a call to us. A herald for our ears, not their ears at the end of the Great Tribulation. We’ve already been told several times that all people left on the earth in the end have taken the mark, cannot be saved, and are not of the Lord. So, this must be for you and for me!

· Come out from sharing in the sin of submitting to the authority of the world’s system. The “come out” is literally go forth, break free, watch out for entanglement! Are we to work and to save and to accumulate wealth and lead in absolutely everything we do!? Absolutely! But the minute it becomes only about us, our own pride, ourselves, and not about serving and walking with the Lord, you are caged. And you’re sharing in the sin, and you will be plagued! Now, what you have, HAS YOU!

· God’s word promises incredible blessings of strength and success and substance in this life as we follow Him. I’m not talking about word faith or name it and claim it bull jive! I’m talking about trusting in the One who wrote the code and trusting in that you are handling your business like He would handle business. Success is inevitable. And that success, even that success, the enemy wants to make that a reason why God is blasphemed and the people of God are damaged and even destroyed. So be IN the world, and for your own self, for the sake of having a life that brings glory to God and souls to salvation, don’t be OF the world!

· Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Revelation Chapter 18 Verse 5

· A call back to the tower of Babel. She, this world system that began there, has piled up her sins, built them so high, that they reach to the heavens. And this is the name we make for ourselves when we don’t live for the name of the Most High!

· For the saved, those that have accepted Jesus Christ, this is a wonderful reminder. When you come to know God through the saving grace of Jesus Christ, your sins are not only forgiven but they are forgotten!

· Hebrews 8:11-12, “None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 6 - 8

· Repay her double… We read in Exodus 22:4, speaking of someone who has stolen, “If the theft is certainly found alive in his hand, whether it is an ox or donkey or sheep, he shall restore double.” It’s an interesting parallel because this world system and the chasing after that which ultimately is temporary and not primary quite literally, steals from us.

· Notice the heart of this system, “I sit as queen, and am no widow…” In the Greek, the word for widow is, “chera.” Chera, a derivation of the word charis or grace…, “I am no grace…” Not interested…don’t need to receive it, don’t need to give it… Self-made, self-sustained, self-sufficient and self-focused. Grace not only not received or given but grace rejected. Who needs it!

· Her attitude is that she won’t see sorrow. Let me let you in on something. Sorrow is an essential element of human maturity. Sorrow builds resilience and strength. Gains perspective. Fosters empathy and compassion. It sparks creativity and motivation. Sorrow develops virtues like patience and humility. Sorrow has a purifying effect and ultimately increases one’s personal power. I get it, no one asks for it and no one enjoys it in the moment or season of suffering. But to stand against it as a plague is to love convenience and leads to an entirely shallow and superficial character.

· 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted…” James 1:2-4 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

· 2 Peter 1:5-7, “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.” Faith is only required in the moment where you have to trust God over the call of the flesh, the call of convenience. “Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brother kindness, and to brother kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

· It’s the aged truth that most of us have heard, “Hard times create strong people. Strong people create good times. Good times create weak people. And, weak people create hard times.”

· The worldly heart combats sorrow, suffering, and inconvenience at all costs. Go to the gym and spend your entire time lifting the lightest weight you can find and will you get stronger? But this is the goal of so many in their lives! She says “I won’t see sorrow,” and that is the promise of the passing pleasure of sin…but at its core it’s a pathetic lie…because it indeed brings sorrow but that sorrow as 2 Corinthians shows us, does not deliver…it destroys.

· You want to be unlocked from sorrow, get after God. Stop fighting moments where you are put second and embrace them unto the glory of God! Back off from the bickering and serve! Speak no evil any longer against him, against her, against him and accept the calling God has placed on your life to serve them. Yes, it will stink! Sorrow! 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.

· Psalm 30:5b, “Weeping may endue for a night, but joy comes in the morning” The promise of God. The other side of that coin, “Joy demanded in the night, weeping endures in the morning.” The deceitfulness of sin! The darkness of sin. The rock bottom of the fall!