in God's house this morning. I hope and pray everyone is doing well. And as Brother Howe said, we want to thank every one of you for all of your wonderful hospitality and taking care of the Levitt family this past week and the fellowship call. Thank you for all the food and thank you for all of your comforting that you've been giving to Brother Robert and all of his family, so we just want to thank you for that and continue to remember him and lift him up in your prayers and all of his family as well. We're going to, we had the, a lot of people didn't know it, but we had permission from the family. They recorded that, they recorded that service on DVD and folks will be getting a copy of it here soon to send to Lenore's sister. because she was unable to be there and that was the sole purpose of it. And I think we recorded the Greystock service as well. So you be much in prayer for those ones as well this morning. Take your Bibles to Revelation chapter 9. Revelation chapter 9 this morning. And I say I've been looking forward to getting back up and preaching the revelation this morning. dot that's been so good uh... this past week i'm thinking about uh... instead of all this scripture of only one cover verses one through twelve but i usually have you stand in a uh... read it but i'm one of the covered as i go this morning and uh... don't mean nothing uh... different by that but i just want to do that this morning to fill it do it that way and uh... really looking forward to what god want to do in the coming days at our church amen as well Let's uh this morning as we get ready to go into revelation. I want to have a word of prayer and You just remember the many needs within our church here this morning I thank you so much if you have done so much this past week as brother Howell saying a lot of folks that are sick and afflicted a lot of things that are going on and We just need to lift them up Praise our Lord this morning father. We want to thank you because we can't do anything without you this morning Lord, you're the one that holds our hands and gives us the direction that we need, and you put the light on our path that we step every day. Father, thank you for waking us up today. You give us another wonderful time. Lord, you've already turned the lights on in here as we heard the wonderful singing that we lifted up voices to your wonderful, wonderful presence this morning. Father, now God, I pray, God, that you'll just get us out of the way. And Lord, as we preach this morning, Father, Lord, it'll not be us that's preaching, but you. And Lord, Father, not our opinion, not our message, but your message this morning. Lord, may we do this to build up your body of Christ. Lord, in areas where we're all weak, and Father, may it strengthen us, and Lord, may it just be applied to every need of our life this morning. Lord, thank you, Father. We don't want to get a whooping, but Lord, when we do, sometimes it's because we need it or because there's something that's in our future that'll make us stronger in the areas of our life that have grown weak. And Father, I pray God this morning, Lord, as I listen for my part as well of the message and apply it, that you'll just, Lord, just hone in to each and every one area, Father, and speak to their heart this morning. Bless those that are lost, that are out of the will of God. Lord, bless those, Father, Lord, that are just struggling in their Christian walk this morning. That, God, that this morning they'll get back on that wagon. They'll get back in that full commitment of fellowship with you as you talk to them. And, Lord, speak to their heart of what is needed and lacking in this service for their life. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. I thank God this morning, I want to talk to you about when hell comes to your house. I thank God we're looking at Revelation and we're looking at some times that are... I just gotta... Y'all don't see some of the folks up here like I do. I get to see everybody. And if I see an expression, I try to look over this way and say, well, I saw that. I have a good time up here preaching a lot of times. I see y'all's expressions sometimes and they're just hilarious. But I'll tell you, this is a message about tribulation times. And as we're doing a series on understanding the book of Revelation, this is a horrible time. But I got to wondering, Lord, what can I preach about that really applies to us today? Because this is futuristic. And I got to looking at this and I thought, you know, as we were looking in the past, we were dealing with the seven trumpets of judgment that were coming through. And in chapter 8, we saw and we read about the seventh seal and the seven angels. And there was one of those that was separate from those seven angels that had a scepter. And here, as he had that golden incense that was going forth that was different, he began to fill it with the fire from the altar. And all of a sudden, those seals began to take place of every one of those trumpets coming forth of judgments. And we'd heard a lot of those in chapter 8, but we'd only got to the fourth angel out of those seven, just kind of reiterating a little bit. to bring you back up to speed. In the ninth chapter, we're starting out with the fifth angel that is going to be sounding out. And I'm going to read each one of these as we go, all the way to verse 12 in just a few minutes. But I thank God, here we're looking at the earth's environment. It's really been shattered. Mankind is really going through a wrenching, awful time. And if you heard me preaching about this series, understanding the book of Revelation, we're reminded of the blessings from reading this book back in the beginning chapter. But I thank God chapter 8 closed with an angel as he was flying. The very last sentence or verse of chapter 8, there were some woes that were taking place. that were the inhabitants upon the earth. And it's almost as if each time there's a woe that is going to take place in the coming chapters, there's a judgment that will come forth. And as we look at this this morning, we begin to see some of the things that are going to take place in Chapter 9. There's going to be a problem of happening. I mean, the plagues that are going to be unleashed by the sounding of these last three trumpets. These are going to go into a couple of chapters. We're not going to even cover all of these next before it begins to get done with this, before we go into the next series of judgment of violence. Amen. And I thank God. Why does the Lord really give us these graphic... This is my question, and I'm just going to say it out loud because this is probably your question. You know, you're preaching about all these graphic descriptions of what the world will face. during the tribulation, and how is that going to benefit us today? And that's exactly what I really prayed and asked God to give me a message that would preach to our current status today, because this is futuristic. And I thank God we realize today that either our soul, when we leave here, it either goes to heaven or it goes to hell immediately following that time. And you know, because of our sin, we all deserve hell, but our souls will automatically go where we've had that prepared place. If it's heaven, if we've asked Jesus Christ to be the keeper of our soul, I thank God, then that soul will immediately ask upon the bodies to be present with the Lord, and the Bible teaches that. And I thank God, as we look at this, that it's either one or the other that you go, either heaven or either hell. And I thank God we've got to believe that Christ died for our sins and that He rose from the dead three days later, and we've got to ask Christ into our lives, receiving Him by faith. And I say that and remind you because there is so much today of people that say, well, I believe in God and I'm a good person. And today's society wants to water it down. the team, so to speak. They want to water down the message of the Word of God. And there's only this way that the Bible teaches that we can come by it by the way of the cross, amen. I don't care what religion or religiosity that's out there today, amen. If we fail to do this, we refuse to place our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we turn some other way, then we're going to end up in this crowd of the tribulation. That's what my point is of all of this, amen. So we can benefit from being able to go out and to share this with people today. And I thank God some of the reasons for this in Revelation chapter 9, during the tribulation, this is a time that is going to be hell on earth. I mean, hell is going to come to every home of every resident that is left during the tribulation. That's where I get my title from. And I thank God, why do we want to write about this suffering? Why did John, why did the Holy Spirit give the anointing to write about this tragedy and this suffering? Well, number one, it's mentioned so that the church, ourselves, will know what we've been saved from. Amen. We know that we can escape all of this disaster of judgment that is coming after Revelation 4 when it begins. Man, we're up and away. We're out of here, amen. I thank God. As it goes on, we see a glimpse of the future warnings. to people that have not trusted Christ. And so it is a reminder to everyone today that have never ever asked Jesus Christ, trusted Him, and faith as their Savior. This is a reminder to them that they haven't got on board yet, that they need to make a move before it's too late. And remember my preaching here. You know, preachers don't want to preach this, but we've got to preach the truth. They don't like to preach about the tribulation because then you're telling people how you can actually wait You can, but you're going to be in some dire trouble during the tribulation. Yes, you can get saved during the tribulation, but it's going to cost you your life. And the third thing is, it's given to every one of us so that we know the truth, that we might be motivated to share the gospel with someone today. I don't want to wait around and think that somebody that's beside me, man I've got folks that are drinkers all around me and all those and you do too, all types of different bad habits, we all got bad habits. But I thank God every day that I try and try. to break down those walls of petition to where we can share the gospel even more so. And here is this fifth trumpet of judgment. I'd like to share the awful realities that are really presented in these verses to remind us that we need to be busy. We need to be serving the Lord and Savior. We need to be soul winning. We need to be outreaching, amen. Remember, if I'm preaching, it ain't my personal message, it's the Lord's this morning. So, I tell you, if I say something that offends you, I myself don't personally mean to do it, but it's God trying to get your attention. I thank God that it's easy to tickle ears, amen. I could be a comical. I tell you, I could probably be a laughter in certain things, but I thank God when it's God's message. Boy, you listen to what it is, and I promise you, I've asked God that He would give me the message that we need to hear today. Because we're living in a day when the subject of hell is just viewed as skepticism. People today really don't even believe there is a real hell. Now let me tell you what my belief of what I think the real hell today, not in the futuristic term, has come to every home. This is, I'm going to tell you what I really believe it is. There's a lot of areas that this goes into. My personal is I ask God to give me, Lord, and I'm preaching to the church today. What is it that is really disrupting everything around in our homes today? And it was one word that come to my mind. And I was thinking about a story that I heard, to illustrate it real quickly. And I was seeing around all kinds of people, some that are educated, some that are simple minded. And I read a story about this man that had this PhD. He was a brilliant man. But, you know, he didn't have any connoisseurs. He was going down the road and he had a flat tire. And as he got there, he started taking that tire off. And all of a sudden, he was on a kind of a hill and there was a drain there. And when he took his lug nuts off, all of them ran into that drain. He was fighting mad. He was fussing. And all of a sudden, he looked over there and there was a sanitarium close by. And the guy was out walking in the yard in the fence there. This guy comes up over him and he says, And he was mad. He said, I don't know what I'm going to do. You know, I'm a brilliant man. And then this guy come up over there from that sanitarium. He said, oh, man, I see you've got a problem there. Yeah, man, I sure do. I don't know what I'm going to do. He said, well, you know, I've got a solution for you. He said, you know, you look at that. I see all your lugs done went off into the drain there. But why don't you just take one of them lugs off each one of them tires And put it on that one tire, and it'll get you to where you need to go to fix that tire and to get those lugs back on. He said, man, that's brilliant, man. He said, wow. He said, man, why didn't I think of that? He said, ain't you in the sanitarium over here? And he said, yeah, I sure am. He said, I might be crazy, but I ain't stupid. You know, I thank God that we can learn. And what I get from that story is there's all kinds of people that we're around. There's a lot of people that you're around every day in church, in the world, but there is something from somebody that we can get something from. And my point is this, is that when we come together, the greatest thing that the devil is bringing into all of our homes is disunity. Disunity. Because unity is something that when you talk about it, it is not something of a sense that you're talking about where we want to do everything, you know, by this click and that. It's about we've got a unity of one purpose. We're all trying to accomplish the same thing. You take a football team out there today, and man, every one of them, there's a quarterback, and there's a linebacker, and there's different positions, but every one of them got one purpose in mind, and that is to get to the goal, amen. They want to get to that goal and to score, amen. And I thank God it's the same way in the house of God. It's the same in the marriage. It's the same in the family. It's the same in the church. That when we get together, you can imagine a marching band, and man, they're out there marching. And man, one of them can't even get in step, amen. Man, all of a sudden it causes the other ones that are in step to want to get out of step. When you're singing sometimes, it don't matter if you've got deep baritones, you've got all the different voices, amen, that are up there singing. It doesn't matter if they've got different voices and they're singing together in a unity, amen. It may not be on the exact note and the same thing. It's different things. But when one is out completely, amen, then you've got one that's making it hard on the others, amen. And that's exactly what the devil works in on. That's how he brings it and defeats us today. Because if you don't have unity, then you've got disunity. And that's exactly what he did. all the way back in the beginning of time because the devil was smart enough that he figured out the way that he could defeat our families today is he knows that God cannot be a part of disunity. He can't be there. He cannot function. God cannot show up when there's disunity. So he does it in our marriages. He wants to break down the love and the relationship in your marriage from husband and wife. He wants to break it down in your teenager relationship with moms and dads today. That's where hell comes into our homes today. The devil's done figured out how to bring disunity into our homes today. And to disrupt the harmony of unity of the one purpose, that we all have in mind. Whether to raise, as a mom and dad, all them kids and to get them into school and to get them educated, your purpose in mind. And to feed them, your purpose in mind. Even as a church, we've got a purpose in mind that we're going to reach everybody in Cartersville, Georgia. Amen. Well, I thank God as we were out with the community, it was a good opportunity to meet other people that we normally don't. We're here at church. But when we're out at the graveyard and over at the funeral home, we'd be able to run into other preacher brothers and others that are there. Man, a lot of them were telling me that they were really enjoying our ministry here at the church, amen, that they were tuning us in. I heard it so many times. Sometimes I tell Brother Darrell, I don't know if they're watching and paying attention, but it's a blessing. Listen to the choir sing, and they're singing to Cartersville, Georgia, amen. I thank God there's nothing greater than that, that we're out there for one purpose in mind, amen. And that is together as the body of Christ under the head, that we're unified with that in mind, and we're going forth to tell everybody about Jesus on our jobs, amen. Boy, I thank God that's exactly how it is. There's some folks out there today, they don't believe there's a hell. And there's ten things about hell that are so real. It's a literal place because even the word for hell itself, Luke 16 verses 9 through 31, it was used 11 of 12 times in the word Gehenna, which means hell. Jesus used those himself. Well, I'll tell you, if he didn't talk about hell, there wouldn't have been a hell if he hadn't talked about it in Mark 4. But he talked about it that many times. It's a literal place, amen, in the Scripture, amen. Jesus talked about it. Now, thank God, it was divided into four parts of hells in the Bible. Number one, there was what's known as the abyss or the bottomless pit that we've been known to see the terminology in Revelation. Amen. Revelation 9. tells us this, amen. Revelation 20, verses 1-3, we'll see it later on in this terminology, amen. That it's in this terminology. Here, we'll see it in Tartarus, another word that's used in the New Testament. In 2 Peter, chapter 2, verse 4, amen. In Genesis, in the Old Book. Genesis chapter 6 verses 1 through 4, amen. In the book of Jude, verses 6 and 7, amen. It's used in the terminology of number 3 of the Pagans, amen. The Greek New Testament as well, it talks about it 11 times in Luke 16. Gehenna is the fourth terminology that is used, amen. And I thank God a little bit further down as we look and we'll begin to see some more illustrations of this terminology. Hell is a place of memory. We read about the rich man in Luke 16, and he was aware of his surroundings. He was aware immediately of who he was, where he was. His identity remained to him. And the man, he said, man, I need to get word to my own brothers. He said, I need to let them know about this awful place. Boy, hell was a place where their memories were still with them. It was a place of torment and agony, amen, because he asked the rich man, he said in Luke 16, he said, man, would you be able to help me take care of this agony. He said this pain, He said it was a place of torment that He described. Hell was a place that was unquenchable, amen. He said I'm in agony in this flame, amen. I thank God, He began to say of all the things it was gnashing of teeth Scripture talks about it, amen. I thank God it's a place of separation as well for ever and ever. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9, and hell is a place that is Despicable misery and sorrow and frustration, amen. And I thank God Matthew 13, 42 tells us that. It's a place of a raging thirst where you're just thirsty all the time. Man, I tell you, a place that is unquenchable. And man, I tell you, I think horrible how it is in a place like this. It's somewhere we don't even want to go, amen. We don't want to be there at all, man. We want to make sure that we get on back there and hit the water fountain before we get out of here, amen, because we're thirsty. We want to quench that thirst, amen. Hell is that place that they're going to spend eternity besides heaven as well. It is a place that either you go to perdition or you go to paradise in the Scriptures. The rich man went to Hades, amen. Lazarus went to heaven, amen. And there are no third choices that are available for anybody, no options today. And the tenth thing is hell is a place from where no one ever escapes, amen. You cannot escape it. There ain't no good behavior program. There ain't no graduation program that, man, I'm stepping up out of hell and I'm ready to go to heaven. When you make that choice, and when our families do, they're there and it is an eternal destiny. And the reason I'm reminding you, amen, because you're saved, is I want to impress upon you the much needed, a goal, the one purpose in mind that as we're in unity of the body of Christ, when we want to reach out and we want to minister to everyone that is around us, amen. I thank God the first thing that we see here about when hell comes to our house is we begin to see a horrible, horrible personality here. We begin to see something that's terrible. And the things that it's showing us here, it begins to see, he says in verse 1, the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star. Now, this is different than over in verse 8. Verse 8, it was talking about a star that fell that was a comet. Amen? We were reading it over in chapter 8, and I thank God it was talking about a star that fell over there a few verses down. That was different than this star. This star is something of a personality. It goes on, it says, I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. Now when that fifth angel sounds his trumpet, we're introduced to a horrible personality. It's a personality, a description of the devil himself in this particular one. It's a famous personality because here it says this star is referring referring to the passage, amen, not of, as I said, of verse 10 and 11, I think it was, of Revelation chapter 8, that was a comet star that was falling. This one is a literal person, amen. And I thank God that it's been known in heaven, it was thrown out of heaven, amen, and his name was Lucifer according to Isaiah 14, 12, amen. I thank God Lucifer means brilliant star. And I thank God here was that light bearer, that shining one. I tell you that we're introduced Yeah, Lucifer, the famous personality that he is, amen. And he was that fallen personality as well because it was a star that fell, amen. Something that took place in the past. still present results today. In other words, in a sense, that fallen, dealing with a fallen personality, amen. I thank God that old Lucifer highly exalted himself because of pride. He was that beautiful archangel in heaven that had fallen so long ago, amen. And I thank God he wanted to be God according to Isaiah and Ezekiel, amen, because pride was found. in him, amen. And he accused the brethren, amen, during that time, Job said. I thank God of all this. Here, the thing that brought Satan down is the same thing that causes mankind his worst problems, and that is crying today. God says if you'll humble yourself under his mighty hand that he'll lift you up, amen, in 1 Peter 5, 6. And I thank God as we see this, it was a fearsome personality, amen, because he goes on that he was given the key of the bottomless pit, amen. And I thank God as we see this, this famous fallen figure, amen, here he's been given authority for a short time because here the power of the host of these demonic spirits in prison, in hell, are down here and Satan has a temporary key. And I like to say it like that because he has not always had that in his possession. Amen. I think God, it's a temporary time for him to have this key to open up these demonic spirits that will flood out and come forth from this fifth trumpet being blown, amen. And I thank God it's a real personality of Satan himself. It ain't a myth, amen. And I thank God as we look, Satan ain't never been to hell. Listen to what I'm saying. He ain't never been to hell yet, but he's going there one of these days in Revelation 20.10. When he goes, he's going to go as a victim, not as a ruler, amen. And he hates the that one day he'll have to go there, amen. He knows his future, but he fights it, and he does everything that he can to disrupt the children of God. I'm going to tell you something about this. I believe it's in the book of Zechariah. You read it later on, and you know the 144,000 Jews are preaching. Boy, during this time, I'll tell you how many Jews will be around during this time. You say, how do you know that? Well, Zechariah told us how many Jews will be around during the tribulation. He said this in Zechariah 13, he says this, as if he was a husband or a prophet to the nation of Israel. He said, One shall say unto him, What are these woundings in thy hand? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. He says, Awake, O sword! against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, might the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones." He's talking about the nation of Israel here, the Jewish people. And he says, and it shall come to pass that in all the lands, saith the Lord, two parts, listen, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third part, the third shall be left therein, and I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. And they shall call on my name, and I will hear them, and I will say, It is my people. And they shall say, The Lord is my God." He's talking about the Jewish people in that sense of the tribulation, amen. Well, I thank God of all the things that had happened, terrible, there's a horrible personality in verse 1, and there's a horrible place described in verse 2, because He opened up that bottomless pit, And there arose that smoke that began to come out from that pit, a horrible place. It was a deep place that it talked about. The word bottomless means that it's an abyss of a word. It refers to a deep chasm. The word bottomless means like a well that is down there. It made me think when Brother Bob and I were down at the Dead Sea. They say that is one of the lowest points on the face of the earth. A lot of them say that down there, around there, there's some places that you can just fall down and keep on going, amen, around in that area there. And when we was out in the Dead Sea swimming, There was a scary thing about that. When there was a place out there, I realized that there was a marker out there that that lifeguard wouldn't let nobody get but so far. I don't know if they had a bell that rung or they had a whistle that they blowed, but I thought, I kept looking, I said, I don't even want to go out to that boundary point. Can you imagine? That's exactly sometimes the place of hell, amen. Sometimes in our lives, we got a boundary point in our lives that we don't need to go past. But somehow or another, we get past that place of where we should go in our Christian walk sometimes, amen. Boy, I tell you, when I was out there floating and you didn't even have to worry about grounding, amen, all the middles in that water, I was just out there. But I always kept an eye looking to see, man, that I didn't float up past that boundary point, amen. I was watching for that, amen. There was a deep place, amen, in that area, amen. It was a dark place that they were describing that. It said it was darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit, in verse 2, amen, that had obliterated the light of the sun in this location. Hell was that place like that. It's a place of fire. It's a real place, amen. I thank God that anybody that goes there, it was created for the devil and his angels. It wasn't a place. Hey, if you go there, you see yourself there because God didn't create it for mankind. And I thank God as we look at this and begin to see all of this thing, it was a very disturbing place that was there, amen, that He's talking about in verse 2. In verses 3 through 12, I cover all of those to the end in this point right here because here this was a horrible plague that was coming forth, amen. And I'm going to read each one as I go into each one. The abyss that has been opened up by this demonic plague that spews out onto the earth during this time, amen, that we're talking about, amen. If this were leased out by Satan with this key, the temporary key that he has, you imagine every door in the prisons across this nation being unlocked. It's the same sense, amen. Every killer, every rapist, every Every criminally insane person just unlocked the doors. It's worse than that came to ever imagine in the face of the United States today, amen. Boy, can you imagine what's coming forth from all the demonic spirits, amen. They're described as locusts, amen, but they're not really insects, amen. The description comes from the greatness of their numbers, amen. And I thank God that of all the things that we look at, we see some of the things that it deals with. It looks at the power that these things possess. In verses 3 and 4, it tells us this. It says, And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and under them was given power as the scorpion. of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, nor neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads." These demons that were described as locusts, I mean, God, they didn't care for no vegetation like insects do. They were out just to get the men, amen, and the women of that time, amen. Those that didn't have the seal of God like that 144,000. That's why I read to you how many Jews that will be remaining during that time, amen, in that time frame of what I read a while ago, amen. They are only going to try to be miserable in the lives of human life, amen. A power to sting like a scorpion, amen. These demonic beings that are coming out of hell, amen, with a power to cause great pain unto all these people that are the target. and not vegetation, amen. We see the pain that they produce in verses 5 and 6, amen, because it says, And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months, almost like an insect, like a locust lived to about that time frame, amen. And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion. And when He striketh a man, in verse 6, and in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. Boy, I thank God. Can you imagine the time frame that these things will be tormented? They can't even die. They'll want to kill themselves. Man, can you imagine somebody jumping off a cliff, taking a gun, and killing themselves, amen, and they don't even kill them. They're going to have to deal with that five months of pain and torment, Going through that. Ain't no potions, no pills, no poultry that will work on this sting that will be taking place during this five long months that's taking place, amen. Boy, I tell you, of all the things that we see here, a lot of people say, man, do you really believe that literally? Yes, I do. That's exactly what God's Word says, amen. And I take it literally that that's what it means. It goes on in verses 7 through 11, and it gives us a painted picture as I break each one of them down for you, amen. Because here we see that in verse 6 again, it says, In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. I thank God as we begin to describe what John saw, the description in his painting, the picture of these. Verse 7 says this, And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses. prepared unto battle, and on their heads was it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. So they were horses that were prepared to battle, amen, that were assembled as these mighty war horses that were coming up out of this pit. And it also says in verse 7 that they had golden crowns that were on their head, amen, as they were conquerors of those during that time, amen. I tell you, these demons that were reigning on the face of the earth. And they had faces like men, it told us in verse 7 as well. Not like insects, but they had faces of men. They spoke with intelligence, in other words, as a human face and expression. Amen. And I thank God it revealed the emotions that were buried beneath the surface of these ones being intelligent. Amen. It goes on to verse 8, and it says, And they had hair as the hair of women. And their teeth were as sharp as the teeth of lions, amen. Hair like a woman, amen. Teeth like a lion, amen. Boy, I thank God there's nothing worse than the bacteria infection that's in a lion, amen. You ever get bit by a cat? A cat's about the same as what they got some infection in their mouth. It'll mess a dog up, amen, when they get bit by that cat, amen. But I thank God it goes on and it begins to tell us furthermore in verse 9, And they had breastplates as it were, breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, Many horses run into battle. Boy, he's talking about the breastplates of iron. They were insensitive to the sufferings of the humans, amen, as these demons began to take out pain, dished upon pain, a tormenting, amen, that you had wings that sounded like chariots, it said, amen. And that goes on to imply the swiftness, that they're able to surround and to capture about like a mouse. And a cat, amen. You ever saw a cat play with a mouse? Man, he'd get over there and let that old mouse think he's going to get away. Man, all of a sudden, he'll run through there and smack him. Bang, bang, bang. He's got him banged up again, amen. He'll let him go a little further. Bang, bang, bang. He's just torturing that poor little mouse, amen. But that's what they do, amen. I thank God. Here we see more of that. It says here that they had the sting that was in their tails in verse 10. They had tails like under scorpions and there's stings in their tails. and their cowl was to hurt men five months." It's repeating itself again. Five months of inflicting pain, so objective of these men that were flying in this particular description, amen. And it goes on and it says in verse 11, they had a king over him. You know, locusts, they don't have any one. They won't be under a ruleship of just one. They do it together in a unity, amen. It says, and they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon. Now, I'll tell you, as they were organized, they were united upon humanity during that tribulation period. Well, here these were Satan's leaders, amen. It says, of the Greek, of Abaddon, which means destruction, and Apollyon, which means the destroyer. Here they were unified for the same cause of being able. And he painted this picture of all of these things that were taking place. He told us of all the horrible things of the personality in verse 1. He told us about the horrible thing that was taking place in the plagues as well. It was a horrible place in verse 2, and it was a demonic place that was happening, but it was a place of plagues that was coming forth in verses 3, all the way to verse 12, amen. Jesus warns all of us about the coming persecution. And He warns His disciples back in Matthew chapter 10 at verse 28. He says, don't fear those that can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. And He says, rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body. Amen. I thank God if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you've received Christ as your personal Savior. You don't need to be afraid of any of these demons that we're talking about here. Boy, I tell you, they've been defeated a long time ago. But sometimes we give them power in our lives that we shouldn't give them. Amen. We let disunity come into our family and rule and reign. Man, sometimes we ought to be parents when we're not being parents to our kids sometimes. Sometimes we ought to be doing some things that we're letting be disunified, amen, that God set up the standard in our home and in our houses today, amen. Boy, don't let the devil get you over the... the wool of thinking that you don't have power. He's a powerful foe, amen. He is a powerful adversary, amen. Yes, don't dismiss that. But I don't want you to think that you're powerless against Him. Because that's why Jesus went to Calvary. And His heads are bowed and eyes are closed, this boy, amen. I want to share with you and I want to challenge you that John's vision, back further, he said that the Lamb in Revelation 5-6, he said the Lamb as though it had been slain. And when he said that, he was saying it overcame death, it overcame hell, it overcame the grave. I thank God that he was telling us that Satan had already been defeated. Amen. I thank God that every day when we get up, no matter what begins to happen, whatever things that are up against your family, whatever has happened in your marriage, what's going on with your financial crisis, amen? Boy, what's going on in the country? You know, today, our country and the United States is more disunified during this time of election because some are for this one and some are for that one, amen? And I don't get into politics behind the pulpit, but boy, is there a disunity across this nation of what needs to be done. Boy, the devil's playing havoc on that. He's playing it in races today because people are different races. The devil gets involved in that. He got in there between two brothers in the beginning of the book of Genesis and brought this harmony and this unity in there, amen. But I thank God as we're together as one, amen, the Bible doesn't teach that we go to heaven because we're good. We go to heaven because we believe in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I hope and pray that you will let people know, amen, what it means to be born again by the blood of the Lamb, amen. I think what the Bible says in John 1, 12, as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become the children of God. And that's who we are today. We're unified. We've got one purpose this morning. And if Sister Sheila starts playing on the piano, I tell you, I thank God, I want to remind you of who you are and your purpose that we've been unified this morning together, amen. He says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me, amen. Well, I thank God everybody may have a way that they think they need to go, but it is only by the way of Calvary that they can go this morning. Seriously, as I challenge you, church, this morning, there may be someone here that's lost this morning. I don't know. There may be someone here that's out of the will of God. But I want to talk to that lost person first this morning. Listen, this morning, I've been preaching this morning. I didn't just preach to hear my voice. I wanted to challenge you to don't let that devil get in your family and disrupt the unity and the love of Christ that's supposed to be there. Oh, I tell you, we keep him away from our body of Christ here. And as we do our duties, in this church. Every one of us has something that's very important. God has something for you to do. And whether it's being that faithful attendant, that supporter, and that prayer warrior, God will speak to your heart. And this morning, I want you to pray that. That God will give you that direction in your life and what he wants you to do here at People's Valley Baptist Church. More so than ever. I want to talk again to that lost person. The Lord loves you. That's why you went to chapel. This morning, would you just consider asking Jesus Christ to come into your heart and life? Would you ask Him? You know, there's a lot of categories out there today, but lost people is one that needs a personal identity. They are identifying with the world right now. They get along with all the folks that are out in the world. But man, when you get into God's hands, you have an identity and a character. that brings you into the fold. I tell you, there's a way out, and there's a way that we're able to keep hell out of our homes. And that is by being able to be under the blood of Jesus Christ and go forth with that power in mind. Senator Friend, you don't know what I'm talking about this morning, but if you'd ask Jesus Christ to come in your heart and life this morning, ask Him. You've got to believe in the cross that He went through. This morning, there's no other way. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. God commended His love towards us. Why would we, as sinners, try to die for us? But I tell you, He said, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Right now, you can pray and you can ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart and life. How about it this morning? You don't want to wait for the tribulation and go through all of these horrible things that the Bible says is literally coming. Literally, hell was coming to every house. But I'm going to tell you something today. It has its way and form of coming to our houses today in this time frame, but we're able to overcome it by the blood of the Lamb, Revelation 5. I want to remind you that, church. Don't let the devil disunify your family. Don't let him get in and become a part in the marching band of your army and your family. And keep in mind, Lord, may you lift up the mighty hand of Jesus in your prayer life. May you stay strong in the Word of God, reading in your attendance of fellowship. Amen. Lord, I ask you this morning, Father, there may be a lost person here. I want to challenge them, Lord, before I go any further, Lord, that they would just pray that sinner's prayer from their own heart. Not from a head knowledge, but from a heart knowledge. Lord, they can respond by getting up and coming down. or they can respond by lifting that hand and saying, that's me, I just asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and life and put that hand right back down after they do it. Meaning with their heart that Jesus just became the soul keeper of their soul. How about it this morning, sinner friend, would you? Would you make that commitment to the Lord? Would you come on board into the family of God and ask Him to save your soul? You gotta believe in what He did at Calvary. You gotta believe that He went to cross And he suffered. But three days later, he'd come up out of that grave. He defeated death, hell, and the grave. And, man, he went. And now he's sitting at the right hand of the Father as we speak. Would you recognize that this morning, Senator Friends? Say, that's me. I just asked Jesus Christ to forgive me of my sins. I believe in his death, burial, and resurrection. I ask him to come into my heart and life. Would you this morning? Oh, I tell you, God wants you to get on board this morning. Would you? Father, I want to thank you for the message. Lord, I ask you to bless each and every one what their needs are this morning as a church family. Lord, I know the devil, Lord. He's an old deceiver. Lord, I ask you to help build us up and strengthen us in our families, in our marriages. Lord, I pray, God, that we'll be so strong and unified that no disunity will come in among us. Lord, we'll be marching to your orders, Lord, in the same cadence. one by one with one purpose in mind, reaching the unreachable. Doesn't matter who they are, where they come from, what their education background is, but Lord, if they're in Carterville, that's our mission field. Lord, we want to reach everybody that we can reach before this terrible time comes. And I pray, God, that you'll give us the means and the power right here at People's Valley Baptist Church. In Jesus' mighty name, amen.