Well, we are in chapters 8 and 9, specifically 9 of Revelation, if you are not there already. We're in the time of the Tribulation the Bible talks about. For some, the tribulation is a non-literal event. It's just that time of existence after the coming and death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. From that point forward, or somewhere in there we entered into a time of tribulation and it has its ebbs and flows. As you know, I teach otherwise. I teach that it is an actual event. It is something that we are looking to the future. We are not given its time, so we ought not to try to figure out when. We should never be date setters. But what we have up to this point is this escalation in the wrath of God. God is putting, if you will, the screws to creation. It's an ever-increasing level of misery. It's an ever-increasing level of judgment. And all of this is coming upon the world. And what I mean by that is specifically upon those who have rejected and are not following Jesus Christ. I'm very thankful that we're in this book. I continue to be alarmed at the way the church as a whole, especially in America, is pursuing this pathway of humoring and amusement and pleasure and activities and events to such a degree that it's embarrassing. I've talked in the past of churches that they've had what are they, pretend the pro wrestlers. They've got them out there and they're slamming around on the mat and this is their way of doing outreach. I watched a very humorous video of a guy who brought his, he was a senior pastor of a major church and he brought his Harley Davidson down the main aisle and drove it up onto the stage, but he's not a very good motorcyclist so he goosed a little bit and wrecked it right there on the stage. I thought that's That's classic. I've watched Smoke and Mirrors. I have watched giraffes walking down aisles. I have watched hippopotamuses walking down aisles in huge, huge pageants. They have everything and anything from, you know, dunk the pastor on Sunday morning in the tank, to rock climbing walls, to you name it. There are people who have chosen their church for the specific purpose that it has the most comfortable seating. Churches more and more are contemplating the idea of having the stadium seating like you get at Tinseltown or the Renaissance. And of course, you've got to have your cup holder, but they're reclining. Now, I'm not here to say I wouldn't like that. I would not mind if I was sitting in a place and I found out that chairs recline back. I also know that most people would fall asleep. And so I'm not certain that's a good idea. I know of churches that are making it clear to you, look, we don't want to make our time on Sunday to be a burden. We promise that we'll have you in and out in 45 minutes or less. That's it. Just get you in, get you out. You can have done it. Their idea of community groups are game nights and nothing but game nights. And in all of this, there is this one stark reminder that is not present, and that is that they serve a holy God. And as a result of that, you have a vagueness to their testimony. When you ask them to say what it is they believe, what do they hold, what is it that is dear? So many people, it's heartbreaking, just can't tell you what they believe. They are not able to make a clear declaration of the gospel, even though the scripture commands us to be ready to give an answer for that hope that lies within us. If you cannot Quickly and easily remember the basics of the gospel. You have to ask yourself. Do I have the gospel? It's not to say it's not Necessarily true in a person's life. But how do you have the gospel if you cannot? Simply give that gospel the the idea of who is Christ and what did Christ do in his death? And what did Christ do in his resurrection? Not just say he died and rose But what did he do for what purpose are those things done? I? When you are in that situation and then you come to a book like Revelation and you start to read what's going on, it can really shatter you because it is so ruthless and relentless and it beats down on you. And that's where we're at. We're in a time and a portion of the book that is just painful to read, especially if you have people who are dear to you. and they do not know Christ, and they have openly rejected Christ, and if this was to begin tomorrow, you know the course of the events that's going to take place. I think it's designed to encourage us, especially Christians who have been horribly persecuted, so not like us, But I have met many brothers and sisters in the world in my travels who have been horribly persecuted, who have been horribly mistreated because they love Jesus Christ and how they have patiently endured that with tears in their eyes, having lost loved ones, but nonetheless they've endured. And these words become words of comfort because God truly will deal with those who were their persecutors. He will bring vengeance upon them. But it also is something to remind us of the person of God, His sovereignty. And we're going to try to touch on that throughout this chapter. Chapter 9 is a hard one to preach through, at least for me. I'm not even certain how it will preach. I've read through my sermon several times. Sometimes it looks more like a commentary. Sometimes it looks more like a sermon. I don't know. I'll try to make this something more than just a dispensing of information. You could pray along those lines. What we've been doing in chapters 8 and 9 are looking at these trumpet judgments. These seven angels were given seven trumpets, and these trumpets, each one signifying a specific judgment that God would do. And last week we saw four of them come out in rapid succession. We're now going to look in chapter 9 at two more of those trumpets. The last trumpet will not be sounded until chapter 11, verse 15. And so in between 9 and 11, 15, there's another one of those interludes, those pauses, just like chapter 7, where some information is going to be given. In fact, we're coming, in chapter 11, to one of the two most debated, controversial passages in all of Revelation. So if you can, try not to miss two weeks from now when Lord willing we'll be in chapter 11 and looking at that chapter that deals with some challenges. I don't think they're difficult that much, but they're hotly debated. So we left off at the end of chapter 11, verse 13, and we had an eagle flying in the midheaven, saying with a loud voice, and then it said, woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth because of the last remaining blast of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. I can point it out to you that the word woe has no good, there's nothing good in woe. You'll never find a silver lining, you'll never find something pleasant or good or fun. When you hear God or an emissary of God stating woe, it is bad, it is you about to be undone. And he is saying this in light of the fact that there are three more trumpets. So each woe is connected to each trumpet blast, and he knows what is to come. Now if you remember in chapter 8, when they broke the seventh seal, where then that was going to open up and unleash these trumpets, all of heaven, which is a very noisy place, became very quiet. It was as if there's this collective holding of breath of anticipation of what is to come, the seriousness of it, how horrible it is. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but that this is a terrible, horrible, frightening reality that is about to come. So now we have these final three being sounded. And again, what we'll look at are two of them. The first one I'll spend a lot of time on because of, again, some debates. The second one less so, but in all of this, what I hope to show you is the seriousness of sin and also the sovereignty of God. Listen as I read chapter 9. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth, and the key of the bottomless pit, or the abyss, was given to him. And he opened the bottomless pit, 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. And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And they were told that they should not 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. And in those days, men will seek death and will not find it. And they will long to die, and death flees from them. And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads, as it were, crowns like gold. And their faces were like the faces of men. And they had hair like the hair of women. And their teeth were like the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses rushing to battle. And they have tails like scorpions and stings. And in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. I want you to notice in there the frequent use of the word like. and they have as king over them the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. The first woe is past. Behold, two woes are still coming after these things. And the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released so they might kill a third of mankind. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million. And I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw in the vision, the horses and those who sat on them, the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and brimstone. And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm. And the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the work of their hands so as to not worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts. May the Lord bless His word. As I said, we're going to look at these two trumpets. The last one will be seen in chapter 11 if you are reading ahead. So we're going to just jump straight into a description of what's going on. I want to tear it apart. Again, the first trumpet has a lot of issues with it that people debate over. So I'm going to spend some time here trying to let you be aware of what they are. I do this, again, because I know you have study Bibles. I know you have favorite preachers that you listen to. I know that you go on the internet and you check. up on some of the things. I want you to be aware there are these various views and then just simply give you the one that I think is best. First of all, we have in chapter 9 a star. from heaven which had fallen. And so what we immediately do is the vision shifts at the sounding of the trumpet to the star. Now the question is who or what is this star and how you viewed in chapter 8 verse 10 the star there will probably affect you here just on consistency's sake. A great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch. It fell on a third of the rivers. This is verse 10 of 8. And on the springs of the waters, the name of the star is called Wormwood. And a third of the waters became Wormwood, or bitter. So that was a great star that fell, and it fell from heaven. And so the idea is, what is the understanding of that? And I gave you several options that people use. Some saw that person as a great leader. Another one sees it as an angel and another one something like a meteor. And I said last week that these last two are probably the best to choose from. I actually tend to go with the angel. Catch me on a day and I might say it could be a meteor, but I tend to go with the angel. And the reason for that is twofold. There's a serious typo on point B in my sermon notes. You should scratch out the word not. This, a spiritual being or angel is probably my best answer simply because a meteor would affect merely, well, it's just a bad sentence. It would be localized. This meteor or this star as it comes to heaven, it affects all this water in various places. It's not just in one spot where the damage is done. And so for that purpose, I believe that it's instead some kind of an angelic being that literally is affecting the fresh water and going around and doing this until its job is done. completed. Along with that, when we talk about stars, the Bible actually describes the angels as being stars. One simple one that I got quoted here in my notes is out of Job 38, If I remember the context, it's describing the time of creation. And I want you to notice the parallel structure here. The first line and the second line are just simply saying the same thing. So when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, And there it's describing as they saw creation unfold. And that, by the way, is a side point that it gives us a sense of when the angelic beings were made. Because we know they're creatures, and they're not mentioned in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. So people say, well, where were they made? Well, we know that as creation was being unfolded, they were rejoicing and singing. And so the idea is that they were likely created very, very early on in that whole time of creation. But when you have the term sons of God in the Old Testament that always every time refers to angelic beings and so these morning stars are also the sons of God and the sons of God are just simply Angels and so that's another reason why I think that in chapter 8 verse 10. It's probably best simply to see it as an angel and Now, going back to chapter 9 verse 1, you see the star from heaven which has fallen to the earth, and how are you going to interpret it? Well, again, there are so many different ways people approach Revelation that it becomes frustrating. I remember one man that I was a friend with, as he was studying Revelation on his own, he decided he was going to figure some things out. If you went over to his house, he really got into it. And he had piles and piles and piles of books all over his house that he was reading. He had all kinds of charts from every different view. He had put a butcher paper on the walls. and he was just taking notes. I mean, it filled up his whole house. And the reason for that is it's rather complex and far-reaching. It's not just a nice, simple, linear thing. You end up dealing with Old Testament prophecy. It gets into all sorts of theology. You certainly have to deal with the relationship of God to Israel and the church and how does all of that work. And so it becomes this very complex process. And with that, some people approach Revelation and it's called the idealist view. Some of you may recall that. The idealist view is simply that revelation is not written to any specific time. It is applicatory to any time that you live in. So if we lived in the hundreds or we lived in the 1400s or we live now, we can find meaning because it was never designed to reveal anything specific. And so as a result, what the idealist view would simply say is this is just any great leader over the century. It doesn't really matter, go back, go forward, it doesn't matter, this would represent like Stalin, this would represent Hitler, this would represent whoever you wish. In fact, one of the most popular ones was Muhammad. And this was because in the days of Muhammad, he had this ability to gather these large armies and then go conquering and defeating what was called Christianity. It wasn't, it was a false form of Christianity, but that's what he did and he did war with and he was greatly feared and his armies were feared. And so, because they lived in that time, they looked at it and said, I bet you that's speaking of Muhammad. I think one thing that we can learn about the star that helps us is that at the end of verse 9, it says, the key of the bottomless pit was given not to it, but to him. And so we have this masculine form, and we see then that this star is not just a star, it's not a meteor, it's not something like that, but it possesses personhood. Another point, if you want, keep your finger there and just look back in chapter 20, verse 10. are at 20, verse 1. And here we have it overtly saying an angel. I saw an angel coming down from heaven. And notice the similarities, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And so this makes that attractive. And many people will, and I have done this on occasion, will say that this angel was likely the same angel in chapter 20 coming down. And he's, in chapter 20, going to bind Satan. I don't think it's correct, though. And then there are a lot of people who see this as referring to Satan. And the reason for that is twofold. Go over to Luke chapter 10 verse 18, if you can do it quickly. If not, just listen. Luke chapter 10 verse 18, here we see Jesus Well, the people are rejoicing in verse 17. The 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he, Jesus, said to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. And so there we have this the statement of the fall of Satan. In fact, you're going to see it again later in Revelation itself. And so that gives us this idea. See, he was like a star and he fell from heaven. We have an angel. He's fallen from heaven to the earth and so that must be it. The problem with that, though, is that everywhere else in the book of Revelation, Satan is actually called Satan. I mean, there's no fear of describing him. There's no vagary, no symbolic language that you have to kind of back your way into saying, this is probably Satan. It just simply says Satan over and over and over again. It seems strange that now, all of a sudden, in this key moment, it's going to become just this star from heaven, and it's very vague in that sense. to passing of a statement to see it as somebody as powerful and key as Satan. So where do I land in all of this? And by this time maybe you don't care, but you get to hear it now. I think it's a reference to a fallen angel, a demon. I don't think it's Satan. But I do think that it is a fallen angel, a demon. Notice again how it's written in verse 1. I saw a star from heaven, so we know where its abode was at one time. It was from heaven. That's where it had once belonged. Then notice, which had fallen to the earth, not descending. In chapter 20, with that one angel that we looked at that came down from heaven with the key to the pit, it says he's descending, he's coming down. This one has fallen to the earth. So he was from heaven, but something else is also true of him. He's now of the earth. He's fallen to the earth. And the construction of that is such that it's describing a moment, a point in time in the past, and its effects are still going on at that point. So it's not that he fell at that moment. It's not like the trumpet sounded and that's when he fell. but that he once in some time past had been in heaven and he had fallen to the earth, and that was where he was at now, and he is the one being given the key. By the way, this idea of this fallen, it speaks of one of ruination, of collapse. When you fall, in this sense of the word, it's not that you just had a bad day. If you were the President of the United States and you fell, it would not just be a bad reputation, it would be that you would become utterly destitute. When a king fell from power, he didn't just stop being maybe the king, but he became a slave. and he would usually become a slave to the very king that had conquered him. In fact, in the days of the Bible, it was not uncommon for the way you punish a king that had been vanquished is that you would cut off his thumbs and big toes so he couldn't walk and fight, he couldn't war anymore, and then you would make him kneel at your throne and he would become your footstool. And so every time you sat at your throne, he would get down on his knees and bend over and you would rest your feet upon him. And so it's this constant reminder that you have been vanquished, you have fallen. So this angel falling, it's not just going down, it's that he has utterly fallen. But in verse 10, you have something that some people would say, well, this means that's got to be Satan. Notice they have a name. They have a king over them, these creatures coming out of the pit. And if this angel is the king, and it's possible, but it's not proven, and we don't know for a fact that this king coming, that is over the The angel of the abyss. We don't know if it's specifically this one, though it likely is. His name is Abaddon or Apollyon. And those two words are often assumed to be of Satan. The problem with it is it's not clear at all from the scripture at all. It's just assumed, and so I think it would be best not to presume that. Every other time in Revelation, John always uses the title of Satan. What I think this is is simply a sub-leader, kind of like an archangel but for demons, whatever you call that, archdemon. And God is now using him for his own purposes, and that is to bring about this judgment. Now again, we see then the key being given to them. All of this is found in verse 1. When you see the key, it's going to be speaking of authority. It speaks of power over. It also shows you a critical point of truth that's often forgotten, though. Even in a church like Missio, where we teach this and preach it, we forget it in ways that we don't always understand and appreciate. And that is that when we talk about the key, we're talking about authority and sovereignty. This key was not his to own. It was not his to take up. It was something that he had to have given to him. And it was God who would have been the one giving him this key, granting him this ability to unleash these hordes of creatures. These things that we are going to be seeing, that we've already read about, we're going to see again, these things are beyond even our ability to grasp in the sense of their horror. So the ability to unleash these hordes upon the earth to do their evil was not his to do. It was God's. Now, why do I bring up his sovereignty? Because I think that we forget that that sovereignty exists in every aspect of our lives. This right, this authority, this power was granted to him at God's appointed time to accomplish God's appointed purposes. So when you read these things, you're not seeing just the evil of Satan. You're not seeing the evil of the demonic world as they pour out their hatred upon mankind. What you see is the holy justice of God dealing with those who are rejecters of Him. I also think it's worth remembering that in chapter 1, Jesus was described as having the keys of both hell and death. That it is he who grants the ability and possesses the power over those two things. So in a sense, I think it would be right when we say God gave him the key, but I think it would be even more precise to say it's Jesus who is giving this fearsome creature the authority to unleash this unspeakable horror upon mankind. If you were like me and you grew up in a church, maybe you grew up in a church where Wednesday night they would have a service and then afterward the youth would get together and they'd call it the afterglow. I had never understood that, but the afterglow is the working of the spirit and now you're down there and you're doing and being cool like teenagers like to think about. In the church where I went to, we had to go down these stairs, and there was the picture, it's a famous picture of Jesus sitting among children and lambs. And he's so gentle, he's got well-coiffed hair, and he's got product in his beard, and I don't think he would know what a callus looked like. I mean, he's just pretty and so gentle and kind. And this is so often the picture that we give even to our children about the person of our Lord, that this is what he is. He is this kind, gentle one. He would never hurt a soul. He's more Gandhi-like than he is Christ-like. And I think that it's important as we go through the book of Revelation that you begin to grasp that He is more, much more. He is as gentle as a lamb, but He is also the Lion of Judah. He is the One who is a suffering servant, but He is also now the reigning King. And it says in Colossians chapter 3 that when He is revealed in His glory, we too will be revealed in our glory. And so much of Revelation is wrapped up in those few words, where we think of Him and His glory was concealed. If you remember John 17, He said to His Father in Heaven, because He's about ready to go to the cross, He says, Restore to me the glory which I once had with you. He was looking forward to that time in which He would take up the fullness of that glory rather than this glory that's hidden. And when the apostles who were allowed to go on the mountain with him were able to see him, remember the transfiguration, said that he shone like an exceedingly great whiteness. And the reaction of Peter was that he was shaking with terror. It was a horrible thing, a frightening moment for him to see Jesus as he really was, not this weak one. but in a small, tiny sense, the glory of God. And then when he resurrected and he ascended into heaven, he took upon himself the fullness of that glory. And that's what you're seeing. You're seeing him now fully exercise the fullness of who he is, and he doesn't play around. The fact that God is patient does not mean that his patience does not end. I say that to some of you because you perhaps are betting on his patience. You're planning on His patience. I've grown up again in the church, and I have heard people over and over again say, I will get serious about God, just not now. And it is just a presumption, the presumption that you have tomorrow. We only just, what, a week or two ago lost a young lady who was alive. at 11 o'clock at night down on Sheridan, and it was later her body was found. For her, was the presumption that she had tomorrow? Yes. Was the presumption that she would be murdered? No. But she's dead. I say that not with callousness. I say that with the harsh reality of what it is. I was listening to my old city back in LA. I was listening to the police scanner just for old times sake last night. And in a span of about 15 minutes, you had the assault with a deadly weapon, a murder, a person not breathing, a baby not breathing, and a serious car accident with multiple injury. And that was all in a span of about 10 minutes. I told you I've seen dead people, my fair share of dead people, and none of them ever wrote on their calendar, today I die. It was go to the grocery store, do this, mom's birthday, et cetera, et cetera. It's just this lack of awareness that they live under the sovereign hand of God. And it is Jesus who holds the power of life and death. It is Jesus who holds the power over the abyss. And he grants it when he grants it. And when he will, believe me, you and no other creature in the world will have the authority or power to close that pit. Now, if you want to spiritualize the pit and make it something not actually real in any significant way, you can do so. But for myself, I look at this and I say, this is what will happen and this is what's coming. Let's consider this bottomless pit. Your translation also probably says abyss, either way. It's not hell, first of all. I want you to know that. This is not hell, but it contains creatures. And I believe that the creatures are to be demonic. They might be something else. If so, we don't have any discussion of this in the rest of the scripture. In chapter 20 verses 1 through 3, we know that it can function like a prison, because that's where Satan is going to be bound for a thousand years. So we know that it's a place that imprisons them. And in chapter 9, I just want to take you how many times it's mentioned in here. In verse 11, they have a king over them, the angel of the abyss, so there's authority. in this pit, and those beings or creatures who are in the pit have somebody who rules over them. In chapter 11 verse 7, And when they had finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and overcome them and kill them. And so here we see that the beast, and we'll talk about who and what the beast is when it's time, he's going to come from that abyss. So he's being held for a purpose. In chapter 17, verse 8, the beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss, and go to destruction, meaning literally to hell, a lake of fire. And so again, he's describing this beast who was and is going to come back up. And then in chapter 20, he has some good words but hotly debated. In verse 1, I saw an angel coming down from having the key of the abyss, a great chain in his hand, and then he grabs ahold of Satan, binds him, and says in verse 3, threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he could not deceive the nations any longer. So you have this idea of this abyss this this bottomless pit and it is a place of imprisonment It's a place to store if you will if that I hope that sounds acceptable these creatures for their time Now you add to that you have another interesting passage in Luke Luke chapter 8 Verse 31 Jesus is coming and he finds this demoniac, this person who has these demons. I'll start in verse 29. For he had been commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for it had seized him many times, and he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard. And yet he would burst his feathers and be driven by the demon into the desert. And Jesus asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion. for many demons had entered him. And then notice what they're doing. They know who they're dealing with. They're dealing with the Lord of heaven and earth. And they were entreating Him, Him being Jesus, not to command them to depart into the abyss. So this gives us also the indication that the abyss is not a fun place. It's not where demons go to play. It's not Las Vegas. It is a place that they don't want to be. They want to be free. to do whatever it is that they like to do, such as torment this poor man, but they don't want to go to the abyss. And who is it that has the authority to send them into the abyss? It's Jesus himself. Now, keep your finger on Revelation, and there's a couple of other interesting passages that oftentimes people read, and they wonder about. They're like, what is that, and what do we do with that? I'm rapidly to the point where I've got to get my Bible redone. The pages are falling out. Hang on here. In a tiny little book of Jude, in verse 6, We'll start with verse 5, though. Now, I desire to remind you, though, you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. So He's dealing with, look, just because He saved you doesn't mean that that means all of you were truly saved in the fullest sense, just like the Israelites who did not believe Him. They were physically saved out of Egypt, but they died in unbelief. And then he talks about angels. He says, this includes angels. And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode or place, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. So here you have these demons who did not keep their proper place, these fallen angels. They were supposed to keep in a certain realm. They broke that. And he says, now they are kept in bonds. Then in 2 Peter, another one of those strange passages that often are just ignored or passed over. 2 Peter 2.4, for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment. And so again we have this casting into these pits of judgment, and he's dealing with this with angels. And so in a basic sense of the doctrine of demons, what you have are two types. You have demons that are free, free to continue to do what they do. Others that are bound and that's what we're dealing with is likely these angelic beasts or beings who are bound So verses 3 through 6 and we have these locusts that he that the pit is open and you see the noxiousness of it It's it's it's like this huge furnace You know the smoke's pouring out and out of it come these locusts and and they have power like scorpions So what's going on? You can try to make these be real locusts, but I don't know how, because there's no way that you've ever seen a locust that looks like this. Notice that they certainly don't act like normal ones. They do not attack the vegetation. Their purpose and their power is to attack humanity. I want you to notice in verse 3, did they possess the power in themselves, yes or no? No, it was given to them. So again, we see that sovereignty of God. They come roiling up out of this pit and they're just rushing forth. And as they're rushing forth, they're also being granted a power, the power to harm, the power to hurt and cause pain. Who are they going to attack? They're going to attack mankind, those without the seal that we had talked about with 144,000. Again, that goes back into the image of Exodus where the angel of death passed over and all those who had the seal over their doorway, they lived and the others died. Now, if this is still descriptive of what they look like, if he is attempting with human language to describe what he's looking at, frankly, what he's looking at is nothing less than absolutely terrifying. It could be purely symbolic. I struggle with that. I struggle because at that point when you're going to say it's symbolic, then you need to deal with every single piece of the description and explain what each one of those things are symbolizing. And that becomes an exercise of futility. But there are aspects that might indicate symbolism. In verses 7, it says they had the appearance like horses prepared for battle. Their heads were like crowns, which may speak of authority. Their faces were like the faces of men, which might speak of intelligence, et cetera. But then you have to explain, well, why do they have hair like women? What does that speak of? And on and on. And I find that when you start to try to explain the symbolism, You can't. And so what happens is you immediately say it's symbolic and then you get out of the details and you just kind of speak very broadly, which is a cheap escape. If it's symbolic, then tell me what the symbols mean. And if you don't know what they mean, then you can't tell me that it's symbolic unless it's overtly stating it's symbolic. Whatever you have, you have these creatures and they're incredibly frightening. they're given power to harm but not kill in verse 3 and again I come back to my point that I'm trying to drive through this whole sermon and that is that they don't possess the power in themselves what you have is God limiting and defining for them the ability to do their work This is very reminiscent of Job, where Satan comes before God in the book of Job, and he has to report to God. People don't understand that, that he's still under the authority of God. It's not like yin and yang. It's not like an Eastern mysticism, where there's equal forces of good and evil, and they're kind of going back and forth. There's only one force, and it's God, the sovereign one. Satan comes before him, and he is given the permission by God to harm the life of Job. His life meaning his children, his riches, all of that. Later, he's given permission by God to hurt Job physically, but not kill him. And he cannot go any further than what God has said he will do. Beloved, that sounds hard on one level, but on the other level, I find a lot of peace with that. I mean, I'm not any suffering saint. I'm not anybody awesome. I don't have really awesome stories of this or that, but there have been a few places in my life. I think about when I came back from Serbia. And I was feeling so, so badly, and I just wanted to go home and crawl into bed, but I was so sick. And then just something came over me, and I said to my Becca, who had picked me up, I think you should take me to a hospital. I really do. And I hate hospitals. They always stick needles in you. And so it's like, I don't want to go, but I don't feel, I really feel bad. Well, the next thing I know, they're coming in, and they told me, your kidneys have shut down. And I'm like, what? I'm not here to brag or anything else. One, I was incredibly calm. Two, I said this to myself, I said, I did not know that's what you had for me. Huh. And what I was meaning was to God, I did not know that is what you had ordained for me. And then I began to think, well, then what and how must I function if I'm not going to have kidneys anymore? Obviously, I recovered. But if I'm not going to have kidneys and I'm going to have to have dialysis, my life is going to be very short. I won't be able to travel. What will I do? I won't be able to maybe preach anymore. And so I began to just run through, what is it then that God would have me to do? Here's my point. I wasn't thrilled about the news that my kidneys were done. But I was okay with it, if that can make sense. I was okay with it. Because I was able to understand that it's still under the hand of a sovereign God, is it not? Is it not God's right to touch you as He wishes? Is it not God's right to say, I will afflict you to this point, but not any further? And to another man or woman, I will afflict you to this point, but even further. And to others, I will not afflict you hardly at all. It's His right. It's His purposes, and it's okay. And that's what's going on here, is this hordes of these legions of demonic forces coming out. And God's saying, this is what you are allowed to do, but you cannot, you cannot do other things such as kill. This again is important to notice in chapter 9, that these destroyers are coming to harm mankind. The demons are not the friend of man. They are the enemies of man. They are no friend to sinner. Satan is no friend to sinner. He lies to us, constantly telling us, if you ignore God, there's a more pleasant way, a more pleasurable way. You can get what you want. You can enjoy the things that you want. And God is simply saying no. Every time he unleashes the limitations or relaxes, if you will, the limitations of the demonic realm, they always afflict mankind. They despise everything. They are haters of life. That is their way and their will. So they're no friend to sinner. There's only one friend to sinner and that is Jesus. Again, it shows how God is sovereign in all ways, will even use evil, and we'll look at that briefly in a moment, that He even uses evil and He does it in a righteous and good manner. The impact of the locusts is described in 7 through 12. Again, there's just a simple time of horror. It's a bit frustrating, as I had to study for this. It's describing these beings and what they're doing, and in verse 10 it says they have tails like scorpions and stings, and their tails add the power to hurt men for five months. I remember growing up in the 70s, and there's this guy named Hal Lindsey, and he was really big on Bible prophecy. He wrote a book on the late great planet Earth, and it's not a good book, not worth reading. But he thought that what this was describing was a Huey helicopter, and the sting on the back was the gun, and it was able to release nerve agents, and they were finding all kinds of ideas. I think that it'd be foolish to try to describe that. I mean, at that point, then you got Huey helicopters sitting in the abyss. Why can't we just let it be what it seems to be describing? But at the same time, in verse 10, it talks about their ability to hurt men for five months. And what happens is I find that in so many of the commentators that I read, their desire to try to create symbolism and to diminish how specific some of this is, ends up taking away the true horror of what we read. Man is being sorely assaulted for a period of five months. Very specific time frame, isn't it? Not six, not any general thing, five months. And how various people will treat this number is almost humorous, except frustrating. Because of the assumption it's all symbolic, and therefore should be understood in a non-literal way, there are all sorts of explanations given of why John writes down five months. Why did he do that? So one key commentator today, his name is Beal, says, well, it doesn't really mean five months. He says that. It doesn't mean five months. And then you keep reading and reading, and he never tells you what it means. In other words, he just ignores it. It's, yeah, he says five months. It doesn't mean that. I'm not going to tell you why, because I don't know why. Other guys, like Beasley Murray, he says, well, no, five months means a long time. And in my mind, my mind goes poof. It's like, well, when are you going to decide what means a long time? So far, 1,000 years means a long time. 144,000 means a lot of people. I mean, they got about four or five different ways in Revelation. They keep just saying it's a long time. Why can't it be five months? But then you have others who agree with Beasley Murray as to the meaning and the plan of God, that there is more symbolism here than actual events. And he says, no, five months means a short time. And then you have a guy named Lenski, who simply says, well, it's figurative, and it doesn't mean time. What does it mean that if it means five months doesn't mean five months and it's figurative, but it doesn't mean time What does it mean and he doesn't give the answer and this is a frustration that you get you'll have preachers who preach really? Well, I listened to a couple sermons this last week on this passage in there excellent preachers but when I walked away I did not know any better the text and They weren't pointing the text out and showing it. They were just simply brushing aside so much of what is said. I want you to notice, though, the response. During this horrible time of affliction, it says in verse 6, In those days men will seek death and will not find it, and they will long to die, and death will flee from them. Notice no repentance. Again, it's a description of the heart of man, that they're being afflicted by things that are of sheer horror. And I don't think that you can say this is just the general work of demons across the centuries and millennia since Christ went to heaven. Because many people are not afflicted by these demons. Many people live their lives today in a very nice life, a very pleasant life. Their life is not longing for death. This is a time of sheer horror and these people are wanting nothing of God. They hate God for this. And so what do they do? They look for death. And here's what's fascinating, it flees from them. It's an active sense too. It's not that they can't find death, but literally death is fleeing from them. They can't find it. They can't get to it. They can't find what they think would be relief. They are literally being tormented. Get your head around that again. They're being tormented. What do we learn from it? Well, several things, but the key one for me to teach you is that even death is under the sovereign control of God. Even death. Just as these demons are. So that when you are facing the uncertainty of your life, and you don't know what's coming, and you don't know how it's all going to work out, and you're scared, and you're worried, the one thing you can say is, my life is in the hands of God, and He will bring me home when He's ready to bring me home, and He won't let me come home until it's time. I remember speaking to a woman who was angry with God. Angry. She was on morphine drip. She was in pain. She wanted to die. She wouldn't die. I'm holding her hand. I'm talking to her. And she said, why won't God bring me home? And I said, I do not know. She says, I am so irritated with him. And I says, is it possible, I won't say the name because some of you will remember her, I said, is it possible that God is still interested in teaching you? And is it possible that God is showing you right now that even now he is in control? Is it possible? She's like, well, maybe. I said, well, since you're not dying yet, why don't you think about it? And then we prayed. And she died about a week or so later. But it was a frustration. Why can't I die? And it's like because your life is in the hands of the Lord. But we also see again that God is sovereign and He uses things. This probably would have been better if I had put it a little bit earlier in the sermon. But in Judges 9, just listen to this passage. In Judges 9, verse 23, It says, then God, doesn't say aloud, but then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. And the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech. You may not know who the men of Shechem or Abimelech are, but one thing you know is God, an evil spirit, and it is here God sending actively an evil spirit to create problems. Here's another passage that we, or passages that we tend to skip over in 1 Samuel 16, verse 14. Now the spirit of the Lord, of Yahweh, departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. And Saul's servants then said to him, Behold, now an evil spirit from God. So even they recognized it. terrorizing you let our Lord now content command your servants who are before you let them seek a man who is skillful player on the harp and that shall come about when the evil spirit from God is upon you that he shall play and that was David who was they found in verse 23 and whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul David would take the harp and play it You have this, and we could go to many others. It is not God saying, well, I have nothing to do with these demons and demonic activity, and I don't know what to do with them. They're constantly thwarting me and fighting me. No, they're not. They're under His sovereign control. And so he sends them up, he gives this angel, this probably fallen angel, the power to open the abyss, he allows the demonic horde to come forth, he then says, this is what you will do, this is how far you can go, this is what you can accomplish, and I send you. So when you look at this and you see the evil and the horror and whatnot, understand ultimately this is at the hands of God as he is accomplishing his good purposes. From there, in these last few minutes, we'll see the sixth trumpet. The first woe is past verse 12. The two woes are still coming after these things. So if you thought that was bad, the second woe is here, and it's a great. It describes these four bound angels. Again, we have this imprisonment idea. They're probably, again, fallen angels. Nowhere else in the Bible have we ever seen elect or true or good angels bound. But what again is this thought that I think is frightening is that they have been bound up for thousands of years and all the while they're waiting for release to accomplish their purpose. And just think about the hatred building. They're like vicious animals just straining at the least to be finally let go to do what they yearn to do. But they have been limited. But notice, the angels who had been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year. So this is not just a generalized terrorizing, but a specific time. They were prepared for that. They were ordained that this is what they will do. They're released and it just simply says they kill a third of the mankind. It describes that they're being bound in the Euphrates. You can look at it two different ways. The first is it's literal. Why not? Why can't God bind a spiritual creature in a specific place? The other way is to look at it as referencing judgment. You can see my passage in Jeremiah 51, and it was used to describe the coming judgment of God, and that's possible as well. I just want you to get your head around the fact that a third of humanity is killed. And it describes this huge, huge army. The armies of the horsemen was 200 million. Now again, back in the 70s with late great planet Earth, it was popular to see that that was China. And today their army is, their military might is actually 244 million at last count. So they certainly could do that. But I really think just in the description that follows, as well as what we have above, that what we have again is just angelic, fallen, demonic creatures who are being set loose and they're under the command of these four and they are doing their great evil. I think it's just better. There's not a lot that we can say about this. It just simply describes, again, these plagues coming about with the fire, the smoke, the brimstone, and it's just this destructive, horrifying time. So picture, first of all, they're crying out, kill me, kill me, let me die, and they're trying to die, and for five months, mankind is being... Stymied by God and prevented he they will not die and you can almost see the the sadness in this because they're they want that they want death and then God says you want death and now he unleashes the next trumpet and they get death and It's death in the most horrible ways And you say, well, that's wrong. No, if that's wrong, then what happens to him afterwards is even more wrong. And it's not. It's God's righteous judgment. On the other end of death is God's righteous judgment for all eternity. And we'll see it in chapter 20 of the Lake of Fire. What I want us to close with is just verses 20 and 21. Because here again we see the heart of mankind. Verse 6 says that they didn't want to repent, instead they wanted to die. And it says, and the rest of mankind, these are people like you and I, we're stepping over bodies. We're looking at just sheer destruction. Everything we thought that was sound and good and right and safe and proper is being taken away and shattered. It becomes a joke. And the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands. Notice how he puts it on them. It's their work. It's their handiwork. Over and over again, you have the Bible calling mankind to repent, to turn from sin. I have done this for 20 years, calling people in this room and in relationships, repent, to turn. That's all it means. Ezekiel it says therefore says the house say to the house of Israel Thus says the Lord God repent turn away from your idols turn your faces away from all your abominations It's the call of the people of God who had now become not his people to come back in Matthew 3 verse 2 right away the opening words of the Gospels were to repent because the kingdom of God or heaven is at hand and When he sent out the people to begin to preach, their message was to go out and say, repent. Everywhere, man should repent. When Peter finishes his sermon to the Jewish people on the day of Pentecost, many of them are terrorized because they realize that they're guilty of having put Jesus on the cross and he died, and that he was God's man, he was the one promised. But the bad part is that he didn't stay dead, he rose again, and he was now their enemy because they were his murderers, and they were terrified. They said, what must we do to be saved? How can we be delivered? What must be accomplished on our path? And the answer was to repent. He says, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the one whom you've rejected embrace. We're going to have baptism, Lord willing, next week. And the ones who are going to be there, all they're all declaring is that they believe and trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ in his death and his resurrection. They're identifying themselves from that day forward with Jesus Christ, and that's what's happening here. Paul looks at the powerful leaders in Athens, Greece, and says, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. And so this is very much what we're reading about. He is calling. Beloved, I'm asking you, have you repented? Do you know that? I'm not saying do penance. I'm not saying do some new work or try to get your life more serious. I'm saying, have you turned from the things that you think or what's going to bring you to salvation? And are you resting only in the finished and perfect work of Jesus Christ? Is it only Christ, that His death on the cross is your hope of forgiveness? Is His resurrection your only hope for life? Or are you hoping that you're helping Him by doing good things, by acting a certain way, thinking a certain way? What happens here in this passage is so sad. They're being destroyed in every way, shape, or form, and they will not repent. How many times have you said, Kim and I have talked about this, and I'm sure we'll talk about it more, simply because she and I are human like you, but how many of you have said this, that somebody has been afflicted by some great sickness? Let's say they find out they've got cancer, and you're like, well, maybe God will use this to get their attention. Have you ever said that, something like that? You understand that's really bad theology, right? God doesn't need to use anything to get their attention. We'll say it a lot, but the reality is there's only one power to save, and that's the gospel. These people are suffering in ways that you cannot even grasp and they're seeing it in a supernatural way with demonic hordes and they won't repent. They'll still go after what their heart is dead to and wants and yearns for and loves. What will save them, the only thing that will save them is the gospel. And what you're seeing is God saying, I will not save you. I will not save you. You are seeing again that God is sovereign even in salvation. It is God who saves. When you have man left to himself, all he will do is go to hell clinging to his gods. And in the midst of such time and horror, they will not flee. They just show them for what they are. This is one of the most powerful passages and sad passages on the state of humanity without the mercy of God. And so we leave here with this reality. Six trumpets have blown. and there's one more to go.