Revelation chapter number 9, tonight, Revelation chapter number 9, and we sang a lot of feel-good songs tonight, because this is not a feel-good message here, okay? We're going to see the first woe, I don't know whether we'll get any farther than the first woe tonight. I'm glad that we're not going to be in this time that we're talking about. I'm glad that we'll be out of here, but it's just sad to think that there are going to be folks who possibly we know, some that maybe you work with, some maybe that are friends, some that are maybe family, that are going to be left behind to go through this awful time that we're talking about. In chapter 8, we saw the seventh seal being opened and how it introduces the trumpet judgments of God. And thus far, we've seen four trumpets that have been sounded, and the last three trumpets are actually three woes. They contain three woes. The word woe in the scriptures refers to some great calamity. And you could get really no greater calamity than what we're looking at tonight. Usually a judgment from God, and of course we know that that's what this time is. This situation will be desperate indeed for those who are not believers, those who don't know Christ. The tribulation period that we see and have begun to take a look at unmasks human character at its worst. and also demonstrates the true character of Satan. We're going to see that tonight. In our modern day, while Satan is somewhat restricted, I believe that he is restricted with the indwelling influence of the Holy Spirit that we have. He is restricted in what he does. Yes, we fight against him, but I'm glad that the Lord is the one that restricts him. We can still clearly see, though, the great conflict that is raging between the forces of God and the forces of Satan. Paul referred to that in Ephesians 6, 12. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. All of that is talking about that raging spiritual warfare. Now in the Great Tribulation, and especially in the time of the fifth trumpet that we're going to look at tonight, the full character of Satan will be mostly unrestrained and therefore starkly manifested. Let's see, how far are we going to read now? I'll read here for a little bit and we'll come back and take a look at the verses that we read. I don't know how far I'm going to try to get tonight. Verse number one, and the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth. And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as of the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree." And that's kind of unusual for locusts, because these are not your ordinary locusts. That's what locusts feed on, is the things that they're going to be commanded not to hurt those things. But only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads, and to them it was given that they should not kill them, but they should be tormented five months, and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle, and on their heads were, as it were, crowns of gold, crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. And their power was to hurt men five months And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue his name is Apollyon. Now one woe is past, and behold there come two woes more. We're doing good, I think, if we can get that far tonight. But it's a very, very difficult thing that we see going on here. And, you know, John is doing the best he can to describe to us the things that he sees. And, you know, he's using descriptive language of what he knew to try to give us an ability to see what he sees and hear what he hears. And I know it seems strange, but, you know, what he was looking at was into the future. What he was looking at is even more advanced than our age. Can you imagine someone from the Jesus days looking forward to our day and trying to describe some of the things that they see? I mean, that's what we're talking about here. And of course, the Lord is the one who gives him, the Holy Spirit gives him the words to choose to paint these pictures of what we see. First thing we see in verse number one, we see the star from heaven. It says there, And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth. And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. The star that has fallen from heaven is a personality. That's why it calls him a him there. It's not an actual star. Remember we said a star can indicate, when you're talking about heavenly bodies, this really includes any heavenly body, like meteorites or asteroids. Those such things are included in stars in the Scripture. But a star here has fallen from heaven, and we see it's a personality. The word star can also be used in a literal or figurative sense, as also is the case with the word fall. Now the context here suggests that both of these are used in a figurative sense, and note that this is in the perfect tense, which signifies this is a completed action. In reality, the star had fallen from heaven, actually long ago, but still had access to heaven. And he has also been given the key to the bottomless pit, which is the pit of the abyss. Is this Satan? Well, some folks seem to think it is. It's quite possible that it is. Look at Isaiah chapter number 14 with me. I'm not going to tell you for sure that that's who it is because it doesn't say that it is, but we're going to look at some language of things related to Satan that kind of gives us indication that it could possibly be him, and we'll see his behavior also as well. Isaiah 14, verse number 12, and most biblical scholars agree that this is speaking about Satan. It says in verse number 12, How art thou fallen from heaven? O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation and the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, and I will be like the Most High." I've got all of those I wills circled in my scripture. You'll find five of them there, and we know that It's a matter of pride. Pride was what Satan's downfall was. He wanted to be like God. And verse 15 says, Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners? So we see some of the language there, similar about his fall. Christ told his disciples in Luke 10 and verse 18, he said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Christ saw Satan fall from heaven. And we know that Satan does have limited access to God's presence. Where do we find that in Scripture, you remember? We find it in the book of Job, number one. Satan came to God and really was accusing Job of just being a paid lover. The only reason He loves you, God, is because you're so good to Him. You take away that goodness, and He'll curse you. That's what He'll do. Job chapter 1, in Job chapter 2, you will find Satan having access to heaven. Also, we see it also in Revelation chapter 12, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him." Now, we're not to chapter 12 yet, but what I'm just doing is I'm showing you these things to let you know that if it's not Satan, Satan is cast out too, okay? But the term bottomless pit is only found in this book, in the book of Revelation. Care to guess how many times it's found? Seven. Seven times. And there's some similar terms that are found in the New Testament a number of times. When our Lord, if you remember when our Lord was in the country of the Gadarenes, remember how he met a man who had a legion of demons? Remember that story? inside of him. And those demons begged Jesus not to put them, not to be put into the deep. They didn't want to go into the deep. Instead, they wanted to be put into the swine. Now, Luke 8.31 is where you'll find that. They besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. Now, the deep is from the same word found in Revelation 9.1. It's the word for the bottomless pit that means depthless or abyss, the abyss. Dr. Doddridge says, the abyss is the prison in which many of the fallen angels are detained and to which some who may, like these, have been permitted for a while to arrange at large or sometimes by divine justice and power remanded. Now, scripture indicates that there are two kinds of demons. There are those that are free and indwelling people or animals. Unfortunately, I've had the opportunity to come across a few folks that were possessed with demons or lived nearby them, and it's not a pretty sight to see. We see that There are those who are confined in chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. Jude 1 verse number 6 says, And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. And 2 Peter 2, in verse number 4, also mentions this. It says, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. And that word hell there is translated from the word Tartarus, which is the deepest abyss of Hades, or rather the pit of the abyss. Now, we notice the suffering that goes on in verses number 2 through verse number 10 that we read there. The pit or shaft of the bottomless pit is opened up. There in verse number 2, he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. Evidently, there is somewhere on the earth, the Lord knows where it's at, an opening leading to a shaft that goes from the surface of the earth down to Hades, down into the mid parts of the earth. And when this shaft is opened, John says that smoke fills the air And the sun and the air are darkened. I don't know about you, but I don't like that. I don't like smoke. You know, when somebody starts burning stuff around here and it starts billowing, I don't like the way it looks and I don't like the way it smells. Well, it's going to be big time here because it's going to fill the air. Unusual, demonic-filled, locust-like creatures come out of the shaft that are under God's restrictions." He said, well, you know, that just seems kind of far-fetched, preacher. Well, I know that Hollywood comes up with these ideas. I think what the Lord is going to do, people come up with all kinds of horrors they imagine themselves. And he's going to make some unbelievable things that are going to be real. And these are going to be unbelievable, and when you read the thing, it's like, really? Is that going to take place? Yeah, it's going to take place. You know how I know? Because I've seen God's Word, okay? That's all I need to know. Do I know everything about what he's explaining here? No, I can't tell you that I do. But I can tell you, I'm glad I'm not going to be here. And I hope that you're not going to be here either. I hope that you know the Lord as your Savior, and you're going to be saved from this time. Well, why are we bothering studying this? Well, it ought to make us have a greater desire to get the gospel out to those that we love, especially. Amen? The things that we are looking here, I don't know of anybody that I'd want to see go through this. Now, I hope you don't either. But we see that these unusual, demonic-filled, locust-like creatures come out of this shaft and they are under God's restrictions. God limits what they can do. They are told not to hurt the grass or trees. a locust, you know, you would think a locust is going to come out. So it's not a regular locust, all right? It's a locust-like creature, and they are to torment with their painful scorpion-like stings those individuals who have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And it sounds like a true horror film, but this is not a film, this is a reality. It's what it is. And I'm told that the sting of a scorpion, I thank God I've never been stung by a scorpion, it sets the nervous system on fire. I don't know. But it's said to be very painful, and some stings can cause a person to go into actual convulsions. These creatures are to inflict pain and suffering. Think about it, for five months this is going to go on on the earth. Five months, that's a long time. The pain inflicted by these creatures will be so intense that men will want to die because they're so miserable and are suffering so intensely and men will suffer from these stains but not enough to die. In terror, men will seek to die because of these demonic invaders that can fly like locusts, run like horses, and sting like scorpions. But death is going to evade them. The appearance of these locust creatures is terrifying enough, and we see John use the words like and as to try to describe these creatures the best way that he could, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Their shape was like horses prepared for battle, is what he says there. The verse number seven, and the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle. It's interesting to note that in Italy, locusts are actually called cavalita, which is little horses. Little horses, yeah, I didn't know that. In Germany, they're called hupferd, which means hay horse. That's what locusts are called. So, the shape is like horses prepared for battle. Their heads had golden crown-like objects on them. Crowns like gold is what it says there in verse 7. The latter part says they had faces at the face of men. So, they're going to have some familiarity with them, face of men. And the hair of women, indication is their hair is going to be long. there in verse number eight, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. Now, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to have anything that had the teeth of lions coming after me. But this is going to be going after some folks during this time that we're looking at. They had breastplates. I'm sure that this speaks to the invincibility. Something that has a breastplate of iron, you're not going to be able to penetrate that iron. Breastplates of iron. And the wings sounded like chariots and horses in battle. Now, all I know of chariots and horses in battle is from what I have seen on TV, right, or seen in a movie or something like along that line. But back during this time, folks knew, you know, they had seen such things as chariots and horses in battle. It makes quite a racket, doesn't it? And that's what their wings sound like. and tails like scorpions. An awesome description, an awesome description. But I want us to pay attention to verse number 11 and 12. And here we see the satanic leader of these creatures. It says in verse number 11, and they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue his name is Apollyon. Now, the satanic king of the bottomless pit here, I believe this demon is Satan himself, or if not, it's one of his top leaders. Abaddon means a destroying angel. Well, how do we know Satan? He's a destroying angel, isn't he? He is a fallen angel, and he is out to destroy, and we'll talk about that here in just a minute. Apollyon means destroyer. We know Satan is a destroyer. But you would expect that those that are under Satan would be of his nature, so we can't say for sure, but such is the nature of Satan and his followers. Satan is out to destroy what God has done, and let me tell you, he is out to destroy your life if you let him. Amen? We need to be on guard. You know the devil wants to destroy this church? He does. He'd love to close the doors. He'd love to just shut her down. He wants to destroy your pastor. He does. I have to be on guard. I'm not going to get into specific things that happen sometimes, but I'm glad the Lord gives me discernment to know what is coming from Him and what's not coming from Him. He wants to destroy our nation. You know why He doesn't like our nation? Because we've sent missionaries all over the world. He'd love for all of that to quit. for the gospel to not be able to be preached across the entire world. He wants to destroy our families. He's out to get our marriages. He's out to get our children. And he wants to destroy us as well. He wants our souls, but praise God, He can't get those who are saved. Amen? I'm so glad of that. He wants our lives though, you know, and the Lord wants you to live for Him. You should live for the Lord, not live for the devil. Amen? If you're saved by God's grace. He wants our testimonies. If he can't get your soul, he's out to get your testimony. 1 Peter 5, 8 and 9 gives us a warning to be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. " And we see verse number 12 here. And it says, one woe is past. About five months long, this one is taking place. One woe is past, but there come two woes more hereafter. We're going to go a little bit further. We'll get verses 13 through 15 here. And we see the soldiers of death, verse 13, and the sixth angel sounded. And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to slay the third part of men." When the sixth angel sounds here, he's instructed to loose these four angels that are bound, and he should loose them there in the Euphrates River. These wicked angels have been prepared for the exact day, hour, month, and year to be unleashed on the earth in order to destroy one-third of the population, one-third. This means that about half of the world's population is destroyed by the time this trumpet gets sounded, after it sounds. One-fourth, we saw one-fourth of the population is destroyed in Revelation chapter number 6 and verse number 8. And that leaves 75% of the original population after the rapture. And if we take off another one-third, or 33% of what is left, that leaves slightly more than 50%. So if we take into account others that have died in the meantime, over half the world's population will be gone at this point. And with the present population, that would probably be over four billion people who perished by this point. Sad, sad to say, but the judgment here depicted That of slaying the third part of men is one of the most devastating mentions anywhere in the book of Revelation prior to the second coming. Never since Noah has such a substantial portion of the earth's population come under God's righteous judgment. It's going to be so bad. That's why the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24 in verse 22, "...and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Now, we know the Euphrates River is found in the Middle East, which is today, that is the most volatile area of real estate. You talk about the whole Middle East, a little Israel right there in the middle, and everybody against Israel. These angels lead a huge, demonic, controlled army uh... it's mentioned there uh... two hundred million calvary is going to go into battle on horse-like creatures that have heads like a lion and have mouths that spew forth fire, smoke, and brimstone uh... look at uh... look at verse number sixteen it says and the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire and of jasminth and brimstone, and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone By these three was the third part of men killed by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails. For their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt." So we see here, it's interesting to note that this area, there's a large section of people found in Red China. I'm not saying it's Red China that's going to march across that Euphrates River, but very well could be. They have the largest known militia in the world. Will this be the army? We can't say for sure. Some have interpreted the descriptions of John's understanding of a scene in which modern warfare is underway, and he's just trying to tell you what he's seeing. He's not really understanding maybe everything they just watching here. But what we, I'll just tell you what we do know. We do know that one-third of the population at that time will be killed. And what we do know is that there can be no peace until the Prince of Peace rules. There's not going to be any peace until Jesus sits on the throne of Jerusalem, and he's going to come back at the end of the tribulation period at the Battle of Armageddon. He's going to win that battle, and he will usher in a thousand years of peace there on the earth, a literal 1,000 years. Let's go ahead and finish this up here. And then we'll come back next time and take a look at the last woe. But we see here in verse number 28 and 21, we see the stubborn sinners. Stubborn sinners. It says, And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, Notice this, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can hear, nor see, nor walk. Neither repented they of their murderers, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. Stubborn sinners. As bad as things are on the earth, men in their stubbornness and rebellion will not repent. And such is the case when people get hard-hearted. We're seeing the hardening of people even in our day. Amen? I mean, can you not tell that people are getting more hard? They just are. Six major sins we see will permeate the tribulation period. Of course, there's going to be occultism, devil worship. Luke 19 verse 31 says that folks are not to regard those that have familiar spirits and seek after wizards to be defiled by them. And the Lord said, I am the Lord your God. No doubt there's going to be that going on as well. Idolatry is mentioned here. Idolatry deceives men. The most prevalent idolatry in the world today is the worship of Mary and images of the saints by the Catholic Church. We know that to be the case. Murder. When the gospel's influence is unknown or weak, life is cheap. Life is cheap. Violent murders will be common in the tribulation. It will be survival of the fittest and no doubt survival of the meanest. Sorcery. In the Old Testament, this was associated with witchcraft and the last five occurrences in the New Testament deal with drug addiction, actually. In the Greek word that's translated as sorcery, It means enchantment with drugs or to get high on drugs. Drunkenness and drug addiction will be widespread as men seek some kind of relief from their sufferings. We see that even in our day. people in pain who abuse pain meds and abuse drugs and alcohol just to try to get relief from the sufferings. And no doubt the increase in the amount of sufferings is going to increase the amount of drunkenness and drug addiction during the tribulation period. Fornication is mentioned there in verse 21. And that's sexual perversion in all of its forms is going to be prevalent. Theft is mentioned. Lawlessness, we know, will abound as men and women try to survive. No doubt they're going to have to steal just to try to get by, right? Just to eat. They'll probably have to steal to get it. Listen, the world's not getting any better. In fact, it's getting worse. As bad as things are, men still refuse to repent. And what the Bible says they're doing is they're saving up wrath for themselves. In Romans chapter number two, look at Romans chapter number two. We'll have you look at two places here and then we will be dismissed. Romans chapter number two. And of course, the Apostle Paul is writing and showing how that mankind is full of sin. And he's leading up in Romans chapter number one and Romans chapter number two. He's leading up to the third chapter where he says that there's none righteous. No, not one. Whether you're talking Jew or whether you're talking Gentile, none are righteous. They're all under sin. and therefore they're all lost and they're in need of a Savior. And he is here in chapter 2, he is talking mostly to the Jew. The Jew, in his mind, he looked at what Paul wrote in Romans chapter 1 and how it was described the downward spiral of the Gentile nations into the things, the perversions that you see even in our day. But he got on to them, and in Romans chapter number two, and look at verse number one, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things. The Jews in their mind were judging the Gentiles on these things, but they were exempting themselves. And he says there in verse number two, "...but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" Or despises thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Now notice verse 5 and 6 is what we want to get to here. He says, but after thy hardness, they hardened their heart. after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds." And then in Romans chapter 9, it talks about here how that we all are In Romans 9, verse number 22, look at Romans 9, 22. It's back at the verse number 21. Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel in the honor and another unto dishonor. What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? " You know, God has had long suffering against sinful mankind, and he continues to have. And as he has that long suffering, many men have proved themselves to be worthy of judgment because they refuse to repent. refuse to repent. They harden the heart against a God who has given them time to repent, provides salvation through Jesus Christ. He's given them everything they need. They need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved, yet they refuse to believe. They refuse to believe. A lot of them don't even think that they're wrong doing what they do. They think living in their sins is okay. They have hardened themselves against the things of God and hardened themselves against the gospel of God. And it's going to be that much worse even in the tribulation period that we're looking at. We've seen two woes. There's another woe to come. And Lord willing, we'll take a look at that next time. But let me just encourage you to be busy about getting the gospel out. Be busy about telling folks to avoid the day of wrath that is going to be coming soon to this world. Amen. Let's pray.