I would invite you, brethren, to take out your copy of the Scriptures and turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 18. As you can see, we're getting real close to the end, taking some larger chunks, particularly tonight. I'm going to look at chapter 18. I'm just going to read the first eight verses. These are pretty big verses themselves, but I'll try to encompass the whole chapter overall, but chapter 18. After these sayings, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. And the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, unless you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached the heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and pay her double according to her works in the cup which she has mixed, mixed double for her. and the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, and the same measure give her torment and sorrow, for she says in her heart, I sit as queen and am no widow and will not see sorrow. Therefore, her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her." The word of the Lord, brethren. Let us pray. Our God, again, we look to you for more grace, for more help in this particular part of our worship as we hear your word and seek to expose it to our hearts that the Spirit would make it effectual, that we would be able to listen to it spiritually. And Lord, that we would be changed, that we would become more fearful of worldliness, we would become more desirous to be like Christ, that we would find more joy and more satisfaction in spiritual things than the things of this world. Oh, Father, rid us of all of our idolatries, our inward pagan thoughts, Father, as we so often and so frequently go astray. Help us, Lord, to be prepared to hear from you this night, in Jesus' name. Amen. Imagine with me for a moment, brethren, that you're on a small ship on a cold and April night in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on the year of 1912. And your ship, though it'd be small, is also very uncomfortable. The food is awful, the beds are hard as rocks, and there's very little to do on the cabin, and the heat doesn't work well in your cabin. It's just a miserable evening. But then you come across another massive ship. that looks like unlike anything you've ever seen in your entire life. It's that great ship that you heard about in the newspapers. It's the Titanic. And you remembered hearing all about the wonderful luxurious features that this ship has. It has some of the finest food in the world. It has some of the most comfortable beds ever made. It has warm cabins, and it is filled with opportunities to be entertained with some of the greatest entertainers in the world. And as your old ship is passing by, somebody on the deck of the Titanic calls out to you. It's a man yelling to you that there's room for you to come on board. It's even free. He invites you to come and to enjoy all of the wonderful amenities that the ship has to offer. You can escape your cold cabin and the awful food and the boring ship that you've been on for days. There's just one little catch, however. The guy says, oh, but by the way, we've hit an iceberg, and the ship will be on the ocean floor in a matter of hours. Now, if you take the man up on his offer, there can only be two possible reasons. One, you're either crazy and or suicidal, or number two, your desire to enjoy the wonderful amenities of that ship are just too alluring to pass up. even if you're only going to enjoy them, but for a little while. And indeed, this is the attitude of much of the people of our world. Let us go and live up because this is the only life you get. Go out and enjoy it. You sow your wild oats and you do all that you can do. You go and enjoy all that the world has to offer. All the while, it's a sinking ship. Brother, my illustration portrays what indeed millions and millions of people do every day all around the world. Inwardly, they are not satisfied with the lot they have in life. And so the world calls out, come on in and enjoy what we have to offer. And again, all the while, it is the Titanic. It is a sinking ship. And this, my brethren, is essentially the message of our chapter this evening. And it is a message that our Lord wanted the church of Asia Minor to understand. It is the message that he wants you and I to understand as Christians in here tonight. Throughout history, the church has either had to endure persecution from the world or to endure the temptations of the world. One of those two things, if you're a child of God or something that you're having to deal with. It's the same message the world screams at us today. Abandon your God and come follow our gods or else we will make you suffer. And this pressure, as we know, comes even in our homes at times, it can come in our homes, in our workplaces, and in all public spheres of life. There's a guy I just read the other day, I think he's running for some political office in North Carolina or something, and he steps up and he says, makes some comment about transgenderism being filthy, I think is the word he used, it's filthy. And man, they have been attacking him, and he says, I don't care, I'm going to stand what I said, it's true. If you don't believe me, he says, come and I'll explain it to you. But this is where we are. This is the life in which we are called to live in as Christians. The world is much like Potiphar's wife. She wants us to sin with her, and when, like Joseph, we refuse, she will turn on us and make us pay for rejecting her. Remember, this is what happened to the Christians in Asia Minor when we studied back in chapter 2 and 3. They had those trade guilds there, and you couldn't work unless you join in their idol worship. And if you joined in God's eyes, you were essentially jumping on board the Titanic. Because while the world offers a thousand sinful pleasures, they will always end up perishing along with the soul in hell when they jump on that ship. Listen to me carefully. When those Christians in Asia Minor were suffering, for their faithfulness in Christ, and when they were being enticed, as it were, to follow the ways of the sinful world in which they lived, the thing that God wanted them to believe in order to help them to persevere was that this world in which they lived had brushed up against the iceberg of his holy law. It is going down. It has gotten a curse. It's gotten a gash, if you will. And it will appear, and it does appear as though the world now is floating above the water, but the water is filling in the bow of the ship, even as I speak, and it will soon reach a breaking point, causing the world to perish. That is the promise. Pastor Timothy talked about when God says it, it's going to happen, and we look at that positively this morning concerning our salvation in Christ. It is just the same with his promise to judge the world. It is going to happen. Only those who cling to Christ by faith will survive. Brethren, if you and I believe this world is just like the Titanic, that it has already hit the iceberg, why would we jump on board for a few passing moments of worldly pleasure? The only reason is one of two things. You either really don't believe God is going to judge the world, or you don't care either way because you want what the world has. You want what it has. You see other people have it. You see what everybody else has on the internet, especially those of you who are on a lot of social media. I hear this thing now that Congress is talking about what some of the social media things are doing to young kids today because they're all depressed because they get online, they see all that these other kids have, and they want to be like these kids and go out and do what those kids do. And then when they shut the computers off and realize what the real world is, they're always unhappy. You and I, brethren, are really either like Moses or we're like Cain. Two good examples. If you're like Moses, well, Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoying the pleasure of passing pleasures of sin, Hebrews 11. He stayed on the small ship, as it were. Although it came with a lot of discomfort, it landed him safely upon the shores of glory. But Cain, on the other hand, sold his birthright for one morsel of food. That is, he wanted to taste the luxuries of the Titanic, even though it meant losing everything. That's how blind he was. Brethren, these are the things that we learn from this chapter, and my prayer is that God will open up our eyes to see that we would have to be either suicidal or crazy to follow the ways of the world rather than anchoring our trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And as I've already stated, brethren, if you're going to cut yourself off from worldliness as a Christian, even as a Christian, you must fill it up with spiritual things. You must seek God, the means of grace. We come to you in our oversight and ask you, you know, where you've been reading, and how's your prayer life, and have you read any other good books lately, and all this kind of... Why do we do that? Because the world and the devil are after you, and unless you fill it up with the things of God, you will find the other thing. And you all know it. We're all living testimonies of it in here tonight, to some degree or another, unfortunately. So, brethren, you can see here, we have a large chapter. We're not going to deal with every verse. We're going to give sort of an overview of its content, and primary reason is because the second half of the chapter, of which I have not yet read, essentially is saying the same thing. And also, we are in the midst of the sixth cycle, and so we've already, in one way or another, preached on worldliness in the other five cycles. But with that, here are the major things, I believe, that need to be pointed out tonight in the chapter, okay? Number one, here we go. And very simple, we've already talked about it, already said it, that is, the world has been judged. The world has been judged. Verse 1 and 2, again, this angel comes down out of heaven, some say it possibly could be Christ, we're not sure. But he cries out, verse 2, mightily with a loud voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen, and for emphasis and for certainty, it's repeated, is fallen. and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and cage for every unclean and hated bird." As most of you know, Babylon is symbolic of the world. In the Old Testament, Babylon was a great city. It was filled with luxury, power, and all kinds of ways to indulge the flesh. Until the day God sent in Persian king Cyrus the Great and Babylon was no more. There came a tipping point, as it were, for God with Babylon and said that was it. And God raised up the king, another pagan king, as it were, to come in and to destroy old Babylon. And so Babylon became a type of the entire fallen world which lives in open rebellion against God and against his holy commandments. In a sense, brethren, verse 2 is like a prophecy. The world has not seen its final judgment yet, but it's as good as it's already happened. This is why the angel is proclaiming it this way. He is telling us Babylon is fallen, is fallen. The iceberg, it's already hit. There's nobody coming down welding on a patch of steel on the side down in the water. It's a sinking ship. God has cursed this fallen world, and it will not grow more and more godly because according to our Lord Jesus, even in the prophecies of the end in Matthew 24, He says lawlessness will abound. The hearts of many will grow cold. And this is all patterned off of what happened to earthly Babylon in the Old Testament. Often, a lot of the judgments we read about, and particularly the major prophets, Babylon is condemned, and it's a type, it's a small, it's like a beginning of showing what God's going to do at the end with the earthly Babylon of the world, as it were. So in Isaiah, for instance, in Isaiah 13, God prophesied of her judgment and her destruction, and He says this, Isaiah 13.22, the hyenas will howl in their citadels, this is speaking of Babylon, and jackals in their pleasant places. Brethren, this is what sin does to a city when it's judged by God for her iniquity. In the 1960s, some of you might know this, some of you probably don't. I have to read it because I was born in 67, so I wouldn't have known about it, but it's in the history books. The city of Detroit in the 60s was a beautiful and great city in America. It was filled with potential for prosperity and goodness. But as she grew, so did her sins. The city became filled with greed and all kinds of sinful pleasures. And today, many areas of that city is uninhabitable. There was a local newscast back in May. I looked this up on the internet. It can be used for good things. Just as early as back in May, the local newscast there did a story. The story was covering how coyotes have began to infiltrate the city. In places where once where there were bustling stores and houses and jobs and all of this, it's uninhabitable, the coyotes are taking over. People are scared. These are not pleasant animals. Where there was once clean streets and thriving businesses, it's now become a desolation. It's only a small little taste of what's coming. Again, God is judging the world now, but there will be a final judgment. And we can see that in all the cities across America today, can't we? How beautiful is San Francisco? I had the privilege of going to Seattle a couple of years ago twice, and it's a wonderful city. But now, many of the places are filled with homelessness, and then they literally have feces, and fickle matter on the streets, and drugs, and all kinds of wickedness going on. God is judging these cities. And they, too, have their rats and infestations. You might say, brethren, the jackals are living in what was once the pleasant places. God's Word is proven over and over again. When we see it living, right in going, pulling, being fulfilled right out in front of us. Now, here are two more things concerning the fact that the world is judged. Number one is this. The sins of the nations are indeed building up to a climax. You see that in verse 5. Her sins have reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. Although God is even now, as I said, pouring out His temporal judgments upon the world, one day the sins of this world will have piled up to the heavens, as it were. And just like in the days of Noah, there was a cutting-off point. Just like in the days of Lot, like in the days of earthly Babylon, God will come down in judgment because of the sin of this world, the sins of this world. once it reaches temping point. And we don't know when it's going to be, brethren, but you don't have to be a prophet to see that the cup of world's iniquity is filling up really fast. I keep pointing it out and you know it. Just the things that have happened in the last couple of decades. There are things that 20 years ago, pastors, even though they preached like these kinds of things, they would have never thought there would be a day. when this kind of vile, wicked, in-your-face God kind of wickedness is now praised in the public place. You will be tortured and treated like scum if you preach against transgenderism, and it's a foul, filthy thing indeed. But this is where we're going. But there's one more matter about the fact of this world's judgment, and that is the finality of it all. And this is what you see in verses 21, if you go toward the end of the chapter. Listen to these words, 21 to 23, then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea. Again, it's sort of the same thing coming out of verse 1 there. And thus, with violence, the great city of Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore." Notice that word, anymore, verse 22. The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeteers shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore. And the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore. And the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived." Brethren, the Lord wants us to see that there is coming a day when God will end the ways of this present world. It will not always continue on as we see it, even though that's what the world's thinking. This is exactly what they thought in Noah's day, wasn't it? He's not going to do anything. And then they didn't realize that when the rains came down, it was too late. It's going to be the same way in the end when the fires come and it will be too late because it will be final, brethren. The wicked leaders of this world will be no more. The lost man or the lost woman living for sin, living for self will be no more. You can do it now. Perhaps some of you are, but in that day, you won't. But before we think about our next point, brethren, here's the question I want all of us to ask ourselves tonight. Ask yourself this question. Do we live really in such a way that we know this world is judged? Do we really believe this world is like the Titanic? I mean, if you were on the Titanic that night, let me ask you, what would you be thinking? Well, this is what we're on. Do we desire to jump on board to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin? Brethren, when we follow the ways of Babylon, when we go and we put our roots deep down into the city of Babylon, as it were, and to try to live our best life now, it only means we really don't believe God's going to judge the world. And many Christians, unfortunately, live just like the world. They think they've got time to sow wild oats. They think they've got time to enjoy the blessing pleasures of sin. Oh, I'll repent again. I'll repent one day. Oh, you will. No man repents unless God grants it to him. God is calling us, brethren, to not put our hope in the things of this world because Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. Number two. Something else we need to see in this chapter is that the world is blinded by this judgment. If you're here tonight and you're not a Christian, you're blinded even while I'm telling you about it. Now, maybe God will use what I have to say to open your heart, but you're blinded by this, and you're blinded for two reasons, and the world is blinded for two reasons. Number one, because of the intoxication with wealth and sinful pleasure. You see it in verse 3, don't you? For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. I got to thinking about it this afternoon. I had to add a little to my notes. You know, 100 years ago, most of the nations upon this globe were impoverished nations, for the most part. Now, many of these same nations, the people that live in them, live wealthier than most of the kings of old. Five years ago, Forbes published an article. Here's just the title of it. The average American today, this is five years ago, the average American today is 90 times richer, 90 times richer than the average historical human being. Wow. Get ready. I get excited thinking about it sometimes. You know, I know that when I was a dispensationalist, we had rapture practice, you know? We talked about it. We're going to go, we're going to go. Let's come on, Lord. I'm still ready. I still believe he's coming back. I just don't believe he's coming back in the way the dispensationalists teach, but he's coming back. And as I see it, I think perhaps some of you see it, brethren, it's getting wicked out there. Again, we've said it many times, apart from an awakening, It's not going to get better. It just continues to grow more and more corrupt. And this is the thing, brethren, that the world has just gotten richer and more wealthier, and lifespan is gone, and people live more comfortable. They're having a good time for the most part. They never gave God thanks on their way up the ladder. That's why it's still such an iniquity. The world does not consider that there is a God to whom one day they will have to give an account because they're too busy trying to get the extra dollar, trying to experience the next new worldly pleasure, trying to get the next big thing. I'm working, and I know this. Some of us before we were converted know this. We want to get the boat. We want to get this thing. We want to get...and there's nothing wrong. It's not sinful to own a boat. But as you and I know tonight as Christians, the boat has them. They're consumed with it, particularly when the best day for them to ride on it is the Lord's Day, right? Brethren, it's right and it's good to work to provide for your family. And I want to say this too, there is no sin in making and having great wealth. It isn't, as long as great wealth doesn't have you. And as the New Testament teaches that you use it, helping others and aiding others and for the kingdom and for God's glory. But for so many people in this world, more money is what they live for, or at least something that money can get for them. Why else would you want the lottery ticket? So many are striving for this, are striving to have that next fun-filled experience because the world offers many of them. And every one of us as Christians struggle with it, at least I do. Maybe you all have arrived at a level of sanctification I haven't got to yet, but I want me a truck. But that's okay. I'm going to be just fine without a truck. Maybe I'll still get the truck someday, but it's okay. I trust the Lord doesn't... I trust that the truck doesn't have me, as it were. But we see it, don't we, brethren? The ultimate goal for most Americans is to retire wealthy and live happily ever after. But this world does not end in a fairy tale. There is no happily ever after in this fallen world. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. It just doesn't work that way. And you can retire and use your retirement for the glory of God, I understand that. But we know the way the world thinks about retirement. It's not the way the Christian does. At least it shouldn't be. Lost people don't live thinking about having to die and stand before holy God. They just don't go there. For them, all they have to do to go to heaven is die. You know that when you go to a funeral of an unsaved person. Now, they're with so-and-so. So everything to them is about this present temporal world. It consumes it. It's all that they want to talk about. But then there's another thing that blinds the world from seeing this world is judged by God, and it's her pride. You see it in verse 7. She says, in her heart, I sit as a queen and am no widow and will not see sorrow. What pride is this? These are the world leaders of our globe right now. They're not thinking about standing before God. They're too busy trying to be their own God. They're trying to be the God of themselves. They want to rule. Every one of these nations, probably even our own, But certainly, of other nations, whether it be the leader of China or Russia or North, they would love to be able to rule the whole world with an iron fist. It's a messianic complex because that's what the devil does. And so the world and its leaders, they go around, God would never judge me. The people are like that as well. We know this, don't we, brother? God would never judge me. I sit as queen and king. We hear this language in America, I'm the captain of my own ship, I'm the master of my own destiny. Oh, that's carnal. It's against who God is, why he created us. The lost do not believe they're accountable to God for their sins, therefore, they do not fear the judgment for their sins. There's no way God would judge me, I'm just not that bad. I mean, look at these other people over here. Look how bad all these prisons are filled with these wicked people. Now, they'll go to hell, but not me. And this is the way the world thinks. Because your average lost man already thinks he's too good to be judged. And the Bible even tells them that. They don't see it, but I can quote it for them. Here it says, Proverbs 16.2, all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes. But the Lord weighs the spirit." Proverbs 14, 12, there is a way that seems right to a man, but what? End is a way of death. The world is blinded by God's judgment upon the world because she is chasing her temporal gods of pleasure and of power, all because she's filled with pride and self-righteousness. This is the state of the world now and will become in a greater way at the end of the judgment. So you know the passage, I've alluded to it already, but Peter says this, 2 Peter 3.3, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. And thus, the lost world will fulfill the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 8.11. I forget what year in my Christian life that I remember coming across this verse and I thought, This is why the people keep on sinning. It says, Solomon says, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Let's keep pushing homosexuality. Let's keep pushing transgender. Let's keep pushing the killing of babies. Let's keep pushing for women to be in the military and the army and drafted and all this other stuff, because why? God's not going to do anything to us. I mean, look, we Americans passed the law of homosexuality, what, five, six, seven, eight years ago. God hasn't done anything? Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully set, and then to do evil. Because God didn't do anything, now they think they can keep pushing even faster and harder, and that's what they're doing. And so we've learned, brethren, that this world is judged and the world is blinded from seeing this judgment. But now, thirdly, we need to see that the world will have its day of mourning. It will, brethren. And the Christian needs to understand this, and you as a Christian need to see this because it is to keep us... as I'll show you in a moment, is to keep us persevering. So look at verse 9, for instance. The kings of the earth who committed fornication to live luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning. Jump to verse 11. And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her for no one buys their merchandise anymore. Verse 15, the merchants of these things who become rich by her will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing. I've used the illustration again before, brethren, but it is again Luke 16. The rich man is a type of the unsaved world. The unsaved world, brethren, as it lives for the day, lives for the pleasures, lives for the wealth that the world can offer it. And so the rich man did, he just lived it up. But Lazarus is a type of the suffering church. The world did nothing for the suffering church. But then the day came when they both died. And this is what it says, Abraham said to him, and as he was in hell, Luke 16.25, son, remember that in your lifetime you received good things. Likewise, Lazarus, evil things, but now he is comforted, you're tormented. It's often been said in one form or another, here's the form that I put it in, for the lost man, this world is as close to heaven as they will ever get. But for the child of God, this world is as close to hell as you'll ever get. Brethren, it really cuts to the quick. It's cut and dry. To live for Christ in this world is to live and to have eternal bliss coming in the future. We mourn now, they will mourn later. Live for yourself in the world, live for yourself, you're living for the future of eternal damnation. This is what Jesus taught, brethren. He who seeks to save his life will lose it. But he who loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it." Mark 8.35. That's one of the most, I think, solemn words ever came out of the list of our precious Savior. I don't know how he could be any clearer than this. Brethren, we cannot serve two masters. Where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. And if our hearts become entangled in the things of this world, you will not be able to bear the saving fruit of the gospel. In our Lord's parable, Matthew 13.22, he who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, listen, and the cares of this world. And the deceitfulness of riches choked the word, and he becomes unfruitful." He wasn't a Christian. Now, brethren, the world laughs. Now the world rejoices. But her day of mourning is coming, brethren. This is what Jesus taught in Luke 6. You know these words, listen to them. Blessed, which means happy. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. But then he goes on in verse 24. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now. for you shall mourn and weep." Every soul that has or will ever live will have its day of mourning, every one of us. We either mourn now in this life over our sins and trust Christ and follow Christ and live for Christ, or we will mourn in the final judgment and that mourning will be for all eternity. It never stops. Whatever the weeping and wailing and hell is, it's going to be even worse than what one would experience on this earth before they leave. The mourning for the Christian only endures for a night, and joy comes in the M-O-R-N-I-N-G, mourning, and it lasts forever. But the joy of a lost man only endures for a day, and then weeping comes at the end forever. It's that simple, isn't it, brother? It really is. So in a sense, brethren, everything we have seen thus far was a warning to the unsaved, perhaps some of you in here already still. But for my final point, there's something here for God's people to see as well, particularly to us. And here's the first point to the church, to you, from the chapter. Number one, the professing Christian, and I use my language particularly there, the professing Christian is to be warned about getting entangled in the worldliness. You see it in verse 4, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, again, brethren, this is God speaking directly to you from heaven. This is not just a preacher reading words off of a Bible page, this is God speaking