Locusts are various species of short-horned grasshoppers. I know when I was a little kid I used to find a whole bunch of grasshoppers and I'd use them to go fishing. I didn't realize that there's so many, that there's so many different varieties. But locusts are short-horned grasshoppers that are about two inches in length. They fly in swarms. Every day they can eat their own body weight in food. The largest locust plague recorded in U.S. history was known as Albert's Swarm in 1875. I don't know if anybody's ever heard that. You can get online and look it up. He was named Albert Swarm after the physician and amateur meteorologist, Albert Child, who actually is the one who did all the calculations on that. He calculated this swarm of Rocky Mountain locusts to be 1800 miles long, 110 miles wide, and a half mile high or deep. Imagine the whole state of California flying through the air. This was 198,000 square miles of locusts. The swarm was estimated to consist of 12.5 trillion locusts that flew from the Rockies eastward to the central United States, moving at 15 miles an hour and that blocked out the sun for five full days. Whenever they landed, they were two to three inches deep on the ground. Imagine walking through them. They devoured every speck of vegetation in their path. This created a severe famine where many people, as well as animals, died of hunger because they ate all the crops, they ate everything. Now as large as this locust swarm was, it is nothing compared to the worldwide swarm that we're gonna be looking at this morning. The last time in Revelation chapter eight verses seven through 12, we saw the first four trumpet judgments that will leave the earth and its ecology a devastated mess. Afterwards, a flying angel, or I'm sorry, a flying eagle, not an angel, an eagle that was going through the mid-heaven in verse 13 was proclaiming the remaining three trumpet judgments, which are called the three woes. Woe, woe, woe is what he was proclaiming. And that means these judgments will be far worse than what we have seen previously. We now come to the fifth trumpet judgment, or the first woe, the first woe in Revelation chapter nine. So as I've been studying this passage this week, I see that in Revelation chapter nine verses one through 12, there are three aspects of this fifth trumpet judgment which I believe show all those who reject Jesus Christ will experience severe demonic torment in this judgment. All those alive during the tribulation time at this time will experience what we're gonna be looking at this morning. The first aspect is this. An angel releases demons from prison. An angel releases demons from prison. Look what John says in verse one. Then the fifth angel sounded. Then I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth and the key of the pit of the abyss was given to him. As the fifth angel blows his trumpet, John sees yet another fallen star. Unlike the other stars that we've already seen, in chapter six and eight, which were pieces of celestial bodies, whether they be asteroids or comets, meteorites, that we've already looked at, that have fallen from the sky. This star is an intelligent being. Notice at the end there it says that this key was given to him. to him, it's an intelligent being. Now some see this as Satan, but since the word fallen can mean descended from heaven to earth, not just cast down from, he is descended from heaven, having been dispatched on a mission from God, I believe it's best to identify him as a holy angel, a holy angel. And notice again in verse one that the key of the pit of the abyss was given to him. We've already seen this in earlier passages, but the phrase was given is a divine passive here in the Greek. which means that this is God himself who has given to this holy angel the key as well as God's authority to unlock the pit or the shaft of the abyss. Now, seven times in Revelation, the word abyss, is used. It only occurs nine times in the New Testament, but seven of the nine is of these biblical uses of abyss occur in Revelation. The word abyss means without depth or bottomless. That's why many translations interpret this the bottomless pit when we're talking about the abyss. Now some say the abyss is symbolic of the accumulated power of evil in the world. Again, this becomes symbolic. And so it means the accumulated power of evil in all the world. Others say it's synonymous with hell. However, the abyss is better seen as an underground chamber or cavern connected to the earth's surface by a pit or a shaft whose opening has some kind of secured lid on it that therefore this angel has the key to. This underground chamber is a maximum security prison, if you will. where the most wicked, the most vile, the most perverted demons are incarcerated. And since it is the place of the severest torment and isolation, it is feared by all demons. Some have even pleaded with Jesus, for example, in Luke chapter eight, verse 31, that Jesus would not send them there to the abyss. Instead, in that situation, send us into the pigs. They're terrified of the abyss. Although all demons are evil, some are so vile that they have been bound in the abyss until they are cast into the eternal lake of fire. They're no longer allowed to go free. God At some point, since he created them in Genesis, bound them in the abyss. We read in 2 Peter chapter two, verse four, for if God did not spare angels who sinned, but cast them into the pit. The word pit there is Tartarus. Again, another reference to the abyss. and delivered them to chains of darkness, being kept for judgment. Now this group of angels who have sinned in terrible, terrible ways includes those who cohabitated with women to corrupt the human race and make it, to try to make it unredeemable. back in Genesis chapter six verses one through four. Jude six tells us about them. And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, he, God, has kept in eternal bounds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. So, Again, the abyss is like a maximum security prison where these vile angels are. But obviously, other demons have been incarcerated there since the events of Genesis 6. And notice what happens. Notice what happens when this holy angel uses the key that God had given him to open the lid to the abyss. John says in verse two, and he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Now this is actual smoke. It's not a figurative representation of satanic deceptions and error as some suggest. This is literal, actual smoke that came out. Smoke is often associated with God's judgment in Revelation. But since what John sees in this fifth trumpet judgment was unlike anything he had ever seen before. As we've said earlier in Revelation, John uses a lot of comparative terms to try to describe the indescribable. He's trying to put words to something he has no idea what it is. Therefore, in verse two, verse five, And as we will see, especially in verses seven through 10, he uses the comparative word like 10 times to describe, to try to describe what he has seen. Here in verse two he says, the huge amount of smoke that is coming out of the open pit was like the smoke of a great furnace. Again, this furnace is referring to a large smelting furnace used in John's day for purifying metal. The volumes of smoke is so great that John states the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. But what is most terrifying is what John sees next. Look at what he says in verse three. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. Emerging from the smoke are swarming locusts. The incredible destructive power of locust swarms is seen throughout the Old Testament as a form of God's judgment. Numerous places you see where God used these locust swarms to bring about judgment for sin. Such as the eighth plague in Egypt when locusts covered the entire land. The plague of locusts described by the prophet Joel in Joel chapters one and two, which foreshadows the coming destruction of the future day of the Lord. And many other places, Deuteronomy 28, 2 Chronicles 7, Psalm 105, Amos 4-9, Nahum chapter three, verse 15. Again, references to where God used locusts However, the locusts in the fifth trumpet judgment here are not ordinary locusts. The two inch, we don't know what size they were. We're not told. But these are not ordinary locusts. Some symbolize them to represent a human army with modern weaponry. Again, once you get into start symbolizing these things, you can kind of make it say almost anything you want it to say. Some say it's radiation poisoned and mutated creatures coming from some form of atomic bomb that mutated them. Others say that this is merely symbolic of God's superhuman judgment against the consciences of men. I'm not sure what that means. Taking this literally, which we do in this study, These are demons released from their imprisonment in the pit of the abyss that assume locust-like form. Now, this is not unusual. Remember, Jesus cast demons into the herd of what? Pigs. And we will see in Revelation 16, 13 that three demons appear as frogs. So this isn't some whacked out thing. These are real demons that take a locust-like form that are coming out of the prison house of the abyss because God had given this angel the key to open the door. This is part of God's judgment. Therefore, like a creepy horror movie, John sees an invasion of demon locusts. Now, whereas ordinary locusts do eat vegetation, and that's the main issue of an ordinary locust. You get a big swarm, they just eat everything. They devastate everything. These demonic locusts don't do that. And whereas ordinary locusts don't come from the abyss, they don't torment people, they don't have a leader, these demonic locusts do. Also, the fact that three times in this passage, in verse three, in verse five, and in verse 10, their power to inflict pain is compared to that of scorpions, which indicates that, again, they are not ordinary locusts. Look at the end of verse three. And power was given them as the scorpions of the earth have power. Again, the phrase was given is a divine passive, meaning God himself has given them these demonic locusts, scorpion-like power. And we see this in the second aspect of this fifth trumpet judgment, which is this. God's wrath is limited to unbelievers. God's wrath is limited to unbelievers. Look what John says in verses four and five. And they, these demonic locusts, were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. These demonic locusts were told, And again, the assumption is by God that they had three limitations. They're restricted, they're limited in three ways. Before we look at them, let me just say that we must never forget that God is sovereignly in control over all the forces of evil. He's in total control of the universe. He was in total control of the election. He's in control of our lives. He's in control of our nation and the world. He oversees everything of the forces of evil and they can do only what he allows them to do. They can go only as far as he allows them to go. So we don't need to get overwhelmed by the demons and Satan. Obviously they're more powerful than us, but not God himself. Now notice that their first limitation in verse four is they cannot destroy any vegetation. God tells them not to hurt the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree. And since ordinary locusts destroy that very thing, they destroy all vegetation. This is another proof that these are demonic locusts. Demons in a locust-like form. Now the reference to the grass of the earth here shows that some time has passed since the first trumpet judgment, which we saw back in chapter eight, verse seven, where all the grass, all the green grass was burned up, where God was destroying much of the ecology of the earth. Again, some time has passed. Now the grass has regrown, but God tells them not to touch it, not to touch it. Their second limitation in verses four and five is they cannot torment, or they can torment only unbelievers. They can't torment anybody else, just unbelievers. They can't torment believers, only unbelievers. Look what it says, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months. Let's stop there. These demonic locusts cannot hurt, they cannot torment everyone. Only unbelievers, only those who have rejected Jesus Christ. Those without the seal of God on their foreheads. Believers will be preserved just as God sheltered Israel from the effects of the Egyptian plagues. All the 10 plagues that were poured out upon the Egyptians, Israel didn't experience any of them. And God promises to shelter believers here. John MacArthur states, and I quote, those who have the seal of God include not only the 144,000 Jewish evangelists that we saw back in chapter seven, but also the rest of the redeemed. This seal marks them as personally belonging to God and as such protected from the forces of hell, end quote. You know, how ironic that only those in rebellion against God are tormented by these demon locusts who themselves are in rebellion against God. This is literally a taste of hell on earth from those who they will spend forever with. in eternal hell. Henry Moore said it best, and I quote, God allows them to experience a little direct fellowship with their future co-inhabitants in the lake of fire, end quote. The third limitation in verse five, is they cannot kill any unbeliever. They cannot destroy any vegetation, they can torment only unbelievers, and now they cannot kill any of those unbelievers. Verse five goes on to say, and they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months. The demonic locust cannot kill any unbeliever, but only torment them. And as we will see, their torment was so bad they wanted to die. The word torment, which further explains to hurt men in verse four, literally means torture. Torture. And carries the idea of punishment. And notice the duration of this torture, literally, is five months. Five months, which is the normal life cycle of ordinary locusts. Usually from May to September. Even though these are not ordinary locusts, again, they have five months to do this. And notice what this torment entails. in the last part of verse five. And their torment was like, again, John's searching for words. He's trying to describe what is indescribable. It was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. When I lived in Alabama for about four years, They'd had little bitty scorpions. They didn't have big ones, I never saw a big one, but they had these little bitty ones. You know, I don't know about you, but I think scorpions are one of the most wicked looking creatures on earth. They have eight legs, the front two being a pair of grasping pinchers like a crab. and a hooked tail tipped with a viminous stinger on it. I mean, they just look gruesome as they walk around and that tail is bent. They're looking for somebody to pop. The literal agonizing pain inflicted by these demonic locusts with scorpion-like tails that sting is compared by John to the intense pain of a scorpion sting. Now, I've never been stung by a scorpion, and I'm thankful. But what I've been told, it's like the excruciating pain of hitting your finger very directly with a hammer. And I have done that. So severe is the torment that unbelievers worldwide will constantly experience that John says in verse six, look what he says. And in those days, again, those days being those five months, men will seek death and will never find it. They will long to die and death flees from them. For five long months, these tormented unbelievers will find no relief. There will be no escape from the agony inflicted by these demonic locusts. No escape from divine judgment. Now you would think that their pain would drive them, would drive them to repent of their sins, to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. And hopefully some do. But instead, John says, men will seek death and will never find it. They will long to die and death flees from them. They would rather die than turn to God. This shows the hardness of man's heart, the foolishness that believes physical death can save anyone from eternal, from the eternal wrath of God. But all people's attempts to end their misery and suicide, and that's what it's talking about here. When they seek death, they're trying to kill themselves. When they long to die, they're doing something to kill themselves to get out of this torment of pain. But all people's attempts to end their misery and suicide, whether by gunshot, or poison, drowning, jumping off a high bridge or a building or any other means will be unsuccessful. No matter what they do, they can't kill themselves. They can't die. It's like the weird movies that we see on TV today, some of the sci-fi ones where a person dies and then boop, they wake up the next morning and same thing. Just they keep doing the same thing over and over every day, they just die a different way and then they're back. During this time, God will not allow people to experience the death that they so desperately desire. And you know, even if God did, he won't at that time, but even if he did, the relief from pain promised by suicide is only an illusion. It's only an illusion for an unbeliever. Where for a believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's why even though we grieve Stan's passing, we don't grieve as those who have no hope. We know where he is and he's more alive than ever before because of his faith in Jesus Christ. But an unbeliever may think that they can end it all and then be at rest. I'm out of the pain, I can be at rest. But in reality, to die without Christ is like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. That brings us to the third aspect of the fifth trumpet judgment, which is this. I call it the locusts are terrifying when described. The locusts are terrifying when described. In his attempt to describe these indescribable demon or demonic locusts, John gives nine characteristics of them in verses seven through 11. First, he says in verse seven, and the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. like war horses pulling at the reins, pawing at the ground in their eagerness to charge into the battle. These demonic locusts are ready to inflict pain on unbelievers worldwide. This is not just some little local place. These are locust swarms that are worldwide that are tormenting men and women and every unbeliever around the world. and they can't wait to do it. Second, verse seven, and on their heads appear to be crowns like gold. The word crowns here refers to a victor's crown that we've seen earlier in Revelation. Their gold-colored crowns point to their unstoppable success in tormenting unbelievers for five months. Third in verse seven, and their faces were like the faces of men. Now that's spooky. Again, we don't know. He's trying to describe. But the commentators I've studied say this speaks of their intelligence. And that the demonic locusts are rational, crafty, shrewd beings, not ordinary locusts. They can outwit human beings and no strategy apart from the grace of God can succeed against them. Fourth, in verse eight, and they had hair like the hair of women. They have literal hair, not merely those two long antennas that grasshoppers have. They got hair. It's like they're hippie locusts. This only adds to their gruesomeness. It emphasizes their seductiveness to lure people to their doom. 5th and verse 8, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. That's scary. Although ordinary locusts do have teeth, The powerful lion-like teeth of these demonic locusts speak of their fierceness that contribute to the torment that they will bring upon people. Sixth, in verse nine, and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron. Now, unlike ordinary locusts, they have no soft spot where they can be attacked. I know when I was fishing, I'd get those grasshoppers and I knew exactly where to put the hook through them to hold it. Again, very soft, but it was up against something hard, so it wouldn't just pull out. These have no soft spot. They're protective breastplates that are like iron. Speak of their invulnerability, their invincibility to any effort of people to resist or to destroy them. Then seventh in verse nine, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots and many horses rushing to battle. Joel compares the deafening roar of locust wings to the loud hoofbeats of horses that are galloping swiftly into the battle and the loud noise that was coming from the chariot wheels that were rattling and clanging. The sound of Uncountable demonic locust wings as they swarm around the world to torment unbelievers is unnerving. Eighth in verse 10, and they have tails like scorpions and stings, and in their tail is the power to hurt men for five months. Again, we see the demonic locusts have God-given power to hurt, to torment unbelievers with something like the sting of a scorpion that lasts five months. Then ninth, verse 11, they have as king over them, The angel of the abyss, his name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek he has the name Apollyon. Again, unlike ordinary locusts that have no leader. Proverbs 30 verse 27 says locusts don't. They just naturally get in line and they don't have a leader, even though they're very organized. These do. and they obey the orders of their king who is called the angel of the abyss. Robert Thomas states, and I quote, another idea has been that he, talking about this angel of the abyss, is Satan. But the fact that Satan is the prince of demons does not necessarily make him king over the demons confined in the abyss. His domain, Satan's domain, is in the heavenly places, not the lower parts of the earth. Nowhere does Satan have a connection with the abyss until being cast into it later in chapter 20, verses one through three, where again, he is bound and then cast into the abyss or the bottomless pit. Therefore, I believe it's best to see this angel of the abyss as a high-ranking demon or fallen angel in Satan's hierarchy, who is in charge of these demonic locusts. John says his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and his name in Greek is Apollyon. Both names carry the same designation. One who destroys. One who destroys. It's very appropriate for the leader of this army of demonic locusts that rises from the abyss to bring destructive torment worldwide upon all unbelieving Jews as well as Gentiles. And that's why both names are given. You know, what a terrifying description of these instruments of divine judgment. Eventually, God will return the demonic locus and their leader to the abyss. But he will only do so until later he casts all the demons and ultimately Satan himself into the lake of fire, as we see in Revelation 20. But as terrifying as this fifth trumpet judgment is, it is only the first of the three woes. It's only the first. God through John then concludes by warning unbelievers that his wrath is not yet finished. Look at verse 12. The first woe is past. Behold, two woes are still coming after these things. After these things of the fifth trumpet judgment, the first woe, there's only a momentary sigh of relief. For with the word behold, and we've seen this numerous times already in Revelation, the word behold, John is saying listen up, pay careful attention to the startling truth that is about to be announced. And look what he announces, two woes are still coming. And these two woes are the sixth and the seventh trumpet judgments. And as we've already said, within the seventh trumpet judgment consists all of the bold judgments that flow out. And since all of these judgments are far worse than the ones that preceded them. And are even more terrifying, the horror is not yet over. You know, when I got through studying this, I thought, what possible lesson can we learn from this terrifying? passage about wicked looking demonic locusts being released from prison in the abyss to torment unbelievers worldwide for five months. What can we learn from this? I believe what we can learn that is practical for us today is that our God is believers. Our God is a merciful God. He is holy and just. And because of that, he must punish sin. He is perfect. There is no sin in him. And he must punish sin because of who he is. But he's not only holy and just, he's also a very loving and merciful God who does not want to punish us. And in this passage that is horrifying, God could have destroyed these unbelievers instantly. But instead, he mercifully gives them a taste for five months He gives them a taste of what awaits them in the lake of fire to motivate them to repent of their sins and to believe in Jesus Christ to escape his wrath. Also during this time, God is, as we've already seen, God has also mercifully provided the gospel of Christ to be preached by the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and other tribulation saints, as well as two witnesses that we will see later. So that these unbelievers can also be saved and be sealed by God. These five months will be for many unbelievers the last opportunity to repent and to believe before they either die or are permanently hardened in their unbelief, which we will see next time in chapter nine. And how sad to go through all of this and God still graciously and mercifully giving them opportunity to repent and to believe and then to reject it. Let me ask you this morning, have you repented of your sin and believed in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? If not, 2 Corinthians Chapter six and verse two says, behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. God's wrath is coming. But it's not here yet. And he mercifully still has his arms open, calling people to himself. Please don't wait until it's too late. For those of us who have trusted in Christ, because our God is a merciful God, we are called to be like him. He calls us to be like him. The whole purpose, the whole agenda of God is to make us like Christ. And to do this, even this terrifying passage should motivate us more to mercifully share the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ that we have, the hope that we have with all those who right now have no hope and are without God in the world.